Mugged the Mugger

So many of you have already seen this story by now. It's an older one, but still an amazing one.

People focus so much on the "Victim" in the story who is really a hero.

But I want to focus on the Mugger.

Who knows his story, or how he got there.

But you better believe he has some skeletons and that its taken a lot to push him to holding up people with a knife. Not only does it take a criminal bent, but the benefit-risk ratio obviously says that he doesn't have a lot to lose if he does lose . . . and gets caught.

But read the story. See how easily this kid melted when he was treated how he "Shouldn't" have been by his victim?

This says a lot. Whenever someone wrongs us, its natural to want to wrong them back. When someone insults us, we insult them back. When someone hits us, we hit them back. When someone mistreats us, we mistreat them. And the worst part is, is that these reactions are socially acceptable, even for Christians.

We're all about Justice. And nothing about Mercy.

I speak in absolutes, when I don't mean absolutes.

But all I can hear is people doing whatever they can to have justice against those who hurt them.

Or my dad telling me when I was growing up in Grade School, "If anyone ever hits you, you beat the snot out of them and don't worry about getting in trouble".

Or someone who is mad at someone and says something hurtful so that person then, to save face, says something hurtful back even if it isn't relevant.

Or the news telling me about someone who bombed someone and so someone bombed them even though someone didn't think this was right and now a lot of someones are upset, but even more someones are dead and no one really sees its not solving anything.

Yeah, all hear is about stuff like that and very little of things like in the story.

Vengeance seems to be our worlds therapy.

But I want this.

Because-

you see, vengeance is my therapy as well. Proof Right Here.

You see, publicly sharing stories of customers in a way to make them look inept is a great way to strike back at them in a "Christian" way (that being, treat them somewhat nice to their face, but not mean it in my heart). If "vengeance" may seem an overstatement, knowing my heart, I can assure you its not.

I confess.

I want to love ESPECIALLY those who don't deserve it. Because thats what the guy in the story did. Thats what Jesus did.

Imparted love, not required it.

Fred Phelps, The One And Only.

So this might be interesting.

So the Phelps say they actually LOVE people (Forgive me for not linking the video about this, youtube isn't working for me at the moment).

After all, their signs say "God Hates Fags/soldiers/etc" and Never that THEY hate these people.

However, they preach Hate and do all these horrible horrible things that we discuss with each other, BECAUSE they love.

Now stick with me, I'm not claiming what they do is right, just very interesting.

They do and say all these horrible things because they believe that its how God is and because of their true, intense love for people, it is their duty to warn them of impeding damnation. Most Christians are incredibly lukewarm to them because we fail to preach the gravity of sin and the truth of Gods judgement.

Now here is why its so interesting. I don't think their method or theology is right. However, I feel they have an interesting point. If we as Christians believe in the Bible and if we Christians are to Love our neighbors, how could we NOT be broken by all the sin around us? About all the lost souls? Where is our urgency? I know this empathy seems to be a cliche epiphonay to people a lot, but methods and theology aside, could it be that we actually have something to learn from Westboro Baptist church? In the midst of all the stuff that we can condemn them for, could they have a lesson for us? About love? I think maybe so. Not in the "Lets go to their Sunday school" way but in the "Hey look at what they're doing, they're totally jacking it up, but look at what they're trying to do" way.

Yes, the kind of love that unplugs the Ipod from our ears and allows us to hear the pain of the world, that summons us away from our computers to bring the chain-breaking words of life to people. At the cost of our image. At the cost of our comfort zones. At the cost of good favor. At the cost of ourselves.

I strongly encourage you to follow this link and read the FAQ. Its interesting. And, while no matter how many disclaimers one can put in a post SOMEONE always misunderstands, I must say again, I in no way condone what the Westboro Baptist church does.

Alltel Car Charger

3 sisters enter the store. I'm going to guess the ages were around 12, 17, 24. Then the following occured . . .

Oldest Sister: We need a phone charger.

Me: Ok, what phone do you need it for?

Oldest Sister: I have no idea.

Me: Do you have it with you?

Oldest Sister: No, its for my brothers phone.

Me (nicely, not sarcastic like it might sound): Well then I have no idea either.

Youngest Sister: Well do you know which one it might be?

Me: Um . . . we have about 30 different kinds of chargers in store and hundreds more we could order . . . so no, I have no idea.

Oldest Sister (Completely serious): Which one do you think it would be?

Me: You want me to guess?

Oldest Sister: Well, uh, maybe.

Me: I have no idea, do you know the brand of the phone, the color, or anything about it?

Middle Sister: It's a flip phone.

Me: Well so is about every phone we carry.

Oldest Sister: Its blue.

Youngest Sister: Do you have it?

Me: I still have no idea.

Bringing a box full of Dummy phones out of the back

Me: Does it look like any of these?

Them: No.

Middle Sister: Would another store have it?

Me: Well WE might have it, but there isn't much I can do without knowing what phone it is.

Middle Sister: Yeah, but would another store have it? Maybe they would know which one it is.

Me: Uh, well, I'm pretty positive no one is going to know what it is.

Middle Sister: Well someone else might.

Me (Tired of being nice): Look, we've had about 100 different kinds of phones in the last couple of years, about 50 of them fit the description you gave me. Of those 50, there are about 45 different chargers. So no, unless you can give me or someone else more information then you already have, then there is no way someone is going to know what phone charger you need.

Youngest Sister: It takes the same charger as my phone!

Me: Ok, well what kind of phone do you have, do you have it with you?

Youngest Sister: No, I don't have it. I dunno . . . it's a black phone.

At this point I let out a little laugh of disbelief

Me: Well, once again, if you can't give me more information . . .

Oldest Sister: OH! It has a little screen you hold sideways!

Me: Huh? You hold the whole phone sideways you mean?

Oldest Sister: No, you just hold the screen sideways.

Me: I have no idea what that means.

Oldest Sister: Hm.

So for 5 ackward minutes, they are sorting through the phone chargers looking for it. Then they stop and just stand there. I finally break the silence by saying . . .

Me: So . . . . I don't know what to tell you, you'll have to find out what phone it is and come back.

Middle Sister: It's a Samsung Hue

Me (in disbelief): What!?

Middle Sister: It's the Samsung Hue.

Me: Well, why didn't you tell me that?

Middle Sister: I dunno, I think I just remembered.

Me: You think you just rememb . . . That phone is red by the way.

Middle Sister: Well his is the blue one.

Me: There was never a blue one, it was always red. Are you sure thats the phone?

Middle Sister: No.

Me: Ok . . . well, we're back where we started, so . . .

Older Sister: Well, can we just buy the hue charger?

Me: Sorry, we don't have that one in stock right now.

Oldest Sister: Can you give us one close to it?

Not wanting to explain the obvious fact that a charger "Close" to the one you need isn't going to work I simply just said . . .

Me: No, its a pretty unique one.

Oldest Sister: Oh, ok.

Them: Well thanks, ok, bye!

I can dish it out, but I can't take it.

I watched Sweeney Todd again tonight. I think its an amazing movie actually. I don't care much for the Gore or anything, unfortunately thats what sticks in everyones mind. I love the songs. The visuals. And of course, the one, the only, Johnny Depp.

Also, I find this incredibly interesting.

I just want to Love. But I'm not sure I even know what that means.

I have had a lot of thoughts lately. More on that to come I suppose. Or maybe it will just stay in my mind. We'll see.

My dad has the Live DVD of Bruce Springsteen in Dublin. It is one of the coolest things I've seen. Here is one of my favorite songs, sorry for the poor quality . . .

This is too good.

The more I live life, the more I become an animal person. I fear that if I continue the progress I've been making, then I'll be one of those shut-ins that has like 34 cats, 13 dogs, 18 birds, a dozen gerbils and perhaps, finally, a Tibetan Fox.

Anyway, below is an example of why I love animals more and more.


PS- Me and my old roommate, Tom, were watching CNN last night. They had a special about shark fin soup. Now I've heard about the horrible process, but its nothing compared to actually seeing people, pull up a shark long enough to saw of its fins and then dump its bloody stump back into the ocean. I Recommend never watching such a process . . . however, I'm still posting a video of it.

Greek Riots

You see the boy below?


He was 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos and he was murdered by the greek police during an altercation on December 6th.


And people like the guy below weren't too happy about it.


Not just this guy, but a bunch of people weren't happy about it.


I mean a BUNCH of people.


And then people began getting all crazy.


I mean REAL crazy.


And they began burning things.


Not just things, but police officers.


Not just police officers, BUT EVEN CHRISTMAS.


Others just wanted some peace, man.


But you can't just burn Christmas and get away with it!


So they had to run from tear gas.


Finally, things were getting under control.


Except for this guy, he was still on fire.


There was a big mess to clean up.


There was healing to be done.


Not for this guy, he's still full steam ahead.


Oh God, where is the peace?



"The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thank you Boston.com

And Always, a big thanks to Wikipedia.

Passports, arguments and $115

Today I had an appointment to get my passport down at the post office. The passport lady was named Marlo, and while she was a little rough around the edges, she was super nice . . . unless you annoy her:

during our processing, Marlo gets a phone call and puts it on intercom.

Lady on the intercom: Marlo, there is someone on line one to make an appointment with you today.

Marlo (Very patronizing): YOU make the appointment, I'm with someone, quit bothering me with something that you could have done in the time it took you to annoy ME with it.

Apparently this was enough to make the lady on the other end blow a fuze.

LOTI: Marlo, Don't you ever, ev . ., uh, (Shrieking) DO YOUR JOB MARLO, MAKE THE APPOINTMENT AND DON'T YOU EVER (Breath) EVER (Breath) EVVVEEERRRR TALK TO ME LIKE THAT AGAIN ON THE INTERCOM. (Hangs up)

I laughed at the irony of the lady absolutely losing it and yelling at Marlo over the intercom to never talk to HER like that over the intercom.

Marlo (To me): Hehe . . . she annoys me.

Me: Apparently not as much as you annoy her.

We both laugh.

3 minutes later, the lady on the intercom is now the lady in the room. She looks, acts and smells the exact opposite of Marlo.

LITR (So angry that shes trembling, literally trembling): HERE Marlo. Marlo, don't you DARE ever speak to me like that again, I mean don't you EVER speak to me like that again, and do your job.

Marlo (Passively while filling out my paper work): Well, today is my last day working here, so I probably won't do my job, but I WILL talk to you like that again if you call me about something so stupid.

LITR slams the door as she leaves.

5 minutes later, LITR returns.

Marlo: Don't schedule me any more appointments today.

LITR (Attempting to insult Marlo): GOOD! I was going to cancel them all anyway!

Marlo (extremely patronizing): PERFECT! Thanks!

Me: hahahaha

LITR then looks at me as if noticing me in the room for the first time and then turns and storms out.

----------------------

So all in all, my passport was a lot more than I thought - $115 - but I will budget at least $50 of that as entertainment.

This Confessional Corner thing.

So my roommate Luke appears to have spent the better part of the day writing this post; his confession about his sweet tooth, specifically sugar cookies with icing. And whadya know, two plates of sugar cookies appear on our doorstep a few hours later addressed to Luke.

Apparently blogging is like rubbing a magic lamp. Unfortunately Luke made the mistake of only wishing for one thing - me, I'm going for all three.

Confessional Corner thing #1 that I would like to appear on my doorstep:

Yes, I already have an older model, but you can touch this one. Like on the screen. And it responds with tuneage. Awesomeness.

Confessional Corner thing #2 that I would like to appear on my doorstep:

Perhaps you saw this animal on another post of mine. Ever since I first saw one, I've been thinking of how to make one my own. Apparently I don't have to anymore, all I need to do is rub the blogging lamp and the blogger genie delivers me one.

Confessional Corner thing #3 that I would like to appear on my doorstep (and everyones):

Anyone that has 3 wishes has to use their last one for a selfless reason, or else their third one backfires and makes them worse off than they were before. Therefore, I am wishing for World Peace.

NOW BRING ALL THIS TO MY DOORSTEP NOW BLOGGER GENIE!

Alltel again

What a day. I wish I was there to witness this story, but alas, I wasn't, this was in our Junction City store.

Some guy who was looking at a Blackberry the other day decided to steal it when my co-worker wasn't looking. When this happens we immediately call customer service and have them freeze the serial number, this way they phone is unable to be activated. Either way, we're out of a $580 phone . . .

. . . unless the person who stole it then brings it back in to the same store and to the same person two days later to try to have us activate it on their account.

Seriously?

Seriously?

He's now in jail after a call to the popo. I don't understand people.

10:24am Alltel

I don't know if people enjoy reading these, but at least I will one day when I look back through old blogs.

--------------------------------------

So, in the first 24 minutes of work, me and my manager Katie ran into 2 characters right off the bat.

Customer 1: My phone works, but my screen went out.

I take the phone, take out the battery, put it back in and the screen comes on. I then begin to pull up his account to find out his options for a phone that doesn't work properly.

Customer: How did you get the screen back on?

Me: I just took out the battery and put it back in.

Customer (angrily AT me): I DID THAT 3 TIMES ALREADY AND IT DOESN'T FIX IT, IT JUST GOES BACK OUT!

Me: Whoa whoa, all I did was get the screen to come back on, I didn't say it was permanently fixed.

The customer then begins staring at me with a half-grin, which I come to find out afterwards that he'll be doing most of the time.

Me: Ok, your options are to upgrade the phone with a contract or do an insurance claim which is $50.

Customer continues staring at me with the half-grin

Me (Ackwardly): So . . .

Customer still continues to stare

Me (feeling uncomfortable): . . . What did you want to do?

Customer: No.

Me: No?

Customer: I don't want to do either of those. What other options are there?

At this point, there are no other good options, so I begin reccomending 3 other rediculous options just to get him to quit staring. However, this only increased the staring.

Customer: If I do an insurance claim, I need it by Thursday, 8:00am sharp.

Me: Well, they send it through the mail and there is no way it will get here by Thurs . . .

Customer (Interrupting me): But I NEED it by Thursday.

Me: Well thats not going to work then.

Customer: Maybe I'll just go visit my buddies at US Cellular.

Immediately back to creepy stare mode.

Me: Ok.

Customer: Yeah, I'll see what THEY can do for me.

Me: Ok, but if you switch service now, you'll have a $200 cancellation fee because you're still under contract.

Customer (Angry again): So I'm screwed with all my options with Alltel.

Me: No, you're the one that is choosing the options that will screw you, you don't want to do the options that are best. The options you want to do (Cancelling service while under contract) are screwing Alltel, so they have a fee for that. I've offered you what options are best, I can't help it if you don't want to do them and choose ones that are a lot worse, thats your choice.

Customer stares at me for probably about 30 seconds without saying a word.

Customer: Why can't you help me?

Me (Seeing this is going to go in circles): You won't let me.

Stare Mode.

Customer: You know, I come to local dealers like y'all because I like to.

Me: (Not sure what to say) Thanks?

Customer: But you're not helping me.

Me: Well I am, but I'm just not sure what you want me to do beyond the 5 options I gave you. I'm not going to just give you a phone for free because you broke yours, which is what you seem to want me to do.

Stare Mode.

Customer: Ok, well I'll see what the other store can do for me (leaves)

------------------------------------------

This next lady came in about 2 minutes after the above guy. She pulled up in a brand new red Cadillac with a liscence plate that said "Pamperd". She got out of the car and had a giant fur coat on, high heels, and long curly blonde hair. A walking cliche. She acted exactly like you're probably picturing her. My manager Katie got the luxury of helping her.

Pamperd: Uh, like my bluetooth isn't connecting to me phone. I've tried it several times, and like, it just won't work.

Katie takes it and connects it in about 30 seconds.

Pamperd: Wow, how did you do that!?!

Katie explains and shows the process.

Pamperd: But thats what I did.

Katie: Well, I don't know what to tell ya.

Pamperd: But I did what you just said, how did YOU do it?

Katie: Huh? I did it how I just showed you.

Pamperd: But I did that.

Katie: Well, thats How i did it.

Pamperd: Huh, well hey, it like, won't work in my car either, would you like come do it out th . . . Oh nevermind, tee hee.

Katie: I'm not allowed in your car as an employee.

Pamperd: Well thats ok! You could just stand outside it (Mind you, I just looked at the weather, and with a 32mph wind, its 12 degrees right now).

Katie: Uh no, I'm not gonna do that.

Pamperd: Oh please? It would be helpful!

Katie: No, I just showed you how to do it, it works the same way.

Pamperd: But it like works for you, it doesn't, like, work for me.

Katie: No.

Pamperd: Ok, tee hee.

Pamperd then goes out to her car and proceeds to sit in it for about 20 minutes. We can only assume that she never figured it out.

At this point, we had only been opened 24 minutes. Boy I hope this continues for the rest of the day, it is by far the most entertaining thing to have happen at work.

Victory is sweet, even deep in the cheap seats

So I'm going to ------------------->

in March.

That or I'm losing a lot of money.

I've had a lot I want to blog about lately and plenty of time to do it.

I spent about 2 hours entering all my poems into my computer the other night, but only made it about 1/4 of the way through . . . I have a lot more than I realized, scribbled on random, loose pages. They add up.

The ones I entered were from late high school and freshman year of college. During this time in life I was going through depression, it's what got me writing poetry.

Naturally the poems are not about puppies, rainbows or puppies riding rainbows.

I found myself, after reading and typing them, going to bed under the same cloud of depression that I wrote about . . . the same depression I haven't felt in 3 years.

It was gone by morning, and is still gone.

Art seems to have a spirit.

I mean that.

When you do art, you create a spirit.

Or, perhaps, abandon part of yours into it.

It truly is more than sensory, it is spiritual.

I poured my depression into my poems and that spirit came back for a visit the other night.

This was profound for me.

Art is spiritual.

Who would have thought that was true.

This. This is not normal.

For any of you who know anything about food chains, the circle of life, or lizards, know that this is not right.



My lizard, Joseppi, seems to be confused as to why this should be an issue. Why allowing your food to sit on your face is not common.

But hey, I'm not complaining, those things are 50 cents a dozen, so the fewer he eats the better.