Showing posts with label pay it forward. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pay it forward. Show all posts

The Ugly and the Good...

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Friday, April 10, 2009 22 Of Your Sparks

OH, the iTunes Shuffle yesterday? ZIGGY Marley, Grateful Dead, David Gilmour and Paula Cole....just sayin'


The main subject of this post was going to be the story below. Then I heard about the tragic death of a young man who played for the Anaheim Angels of Los Angels.

The story of Nick Adenhart appears to be another death that could have been avoided if people would just not get into their cars after drinking, and, if all of the early reports are accurate, the need for our justice system to get some b**ls when it comes to those who endanger others with their selfish, moronic actions...

From the espn.com site:
Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others were killed by a suspected drunk driver Thursday, a shocking end to the life of a rookie who had overcome major elbow surgery to realize his big league dreams.

The accident in neighboring Fullerton occurred hours after the 22-year-old pitcher made his season debut with his father in the stands, throwing six scoreless innings against the Oakland Athletics. The Angels ultimately lost the game, 6-4.(READ THE REST HERE)

According to other news sources, (the person)* responsible "will be booked on “felony hit and run, felony DUI, vehicular manslaughter and possibly murder,” according to authorities.

(the person)* was reportedly drinking and driving with a suspended license due to a prior DUI, when he fled the scene. He was quickly arrested after the tragic incident.

Our sympathies go out to Nick's family, friends, teammates and fans...


The next story is one you need to bookmark. Why you ask? I heard you whisper over there SONGBIRD of "Desert Ice" fame...Well, since she asked, I will tell y'all...

Because more professional teams need to follow the lead of Songbird's 'home' team (see how I wrapped that all up in a nice little ribbon!), the ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS who understand that times are tough for most of their fans, but for others, it is the darkest of dark days. Even in those dark days, they remain loyal to their team...well, this is from Mr. Rick Reilly on espn.com

Here's a scoop for you. The Diamondbacks are flagrantly violating MLB rules. They're a pro team, and yet they're giving out full-ride scholarships. Been doing it for two years now!

Not to their players. To their fans.

It's an idea D-backs CEO Derrick Hall came up with at one game when a season ticket-holder who'd lost everything, even her car, introduced herself. She told him a fan in her section had bought her two season tickets for the rest of the year, even picked her up every game and took her home. And Hall thought, Why don't we do this for our fans? So he asked fans to send in "applications" for scholarships. Soon, his e-mail in-box was swamped.
(READ THE REST HERE)

A perfect example of PAYING IT FORWARD...


Have a most wonderful weekend and remember, if you see the opportunity...

PAY IT FORWARD...and make the world a better place!

*MY EDIT - WHY GIVE THE PERSON ANY PUBLICITY


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Happy Friday - Peace Lives!

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Friday, November 07, 2008 15 Of Your Sparks

We are taking a few more days to explore the bloggosphere and see all the incredible PEACE GLOBES that were designed.

Our globe and post are just below this.


PLEASE JOIN US BEGINNING MONDAY-

We will be making Monday's
TUNEAGE TUTELAGE - NEW MUSIC MONDAY
HERE ON THE COUCH!

We will feature two new artists each week and also bring you all the info on what is happening in the world of music!

I have a stack of about 12 new CDs to review already and a new music DVD which we will also be reviewing on Monday.

And remember kiddies...whenever I have a CD or DVD one of you could become the proud owner of same.

Have a most excellent weekend and remember...

BLOGBLAST FOR PEACE is only one day...

BRINGING PEACE TO THE WORLD is an everyday task for each and every one of us...

Do your part each day. A random act of kindness will bring two and so on and so on...

PAY IT FORWARD and the world will be a much better place!

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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Monday, November 13, 2006 22 Of Your Sparks

"FOOL ME AGAIN"
"OOPS...I DID IT AGAIN"
"TELL ME WHY"
"SEE ME SEE YOU"
Well on this Tuesday, we will do some bookkeeping and then introduce you to the people who sit on THE COUCH...
"FOOL ME AGAIN"
Starting right off with an acknowledgement that the photo we posted of the jets forming USA in the sky. Well that is Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX.

The building they are flying over is called the Taj Mahal.

It is very impressive...

BUT, it is a fake!

After posting, THE COUCH kept looking at it and wondering and last evening, Brother Rich of FAVORITE OFFICE TIME WASTERS confirmed it.

He is the best at tracking down whether something is true or false using the website snopes.com.

If you have never been to snopes it is the tops in proving or debunking urban legends. If you get that email telling you that Bill Gates is going to give you a dollar for every email you send...off to snopes.com and you can check it out.

Was that picture you received showing you an incredible feat real?...off to snopes.com and you can check it out - JEEZE you would think THE COUCH would have done it!

You can see their explanation of the photo HERE.

THE COUCH hates it when that happens!

Sorry Julie!
"OOPS...I DID IT AGAIN"
One of our links under the THURSDAY THIRTEENER'S contacted us yesterday and informed us that THE COUCH performed a sexual reassignment surgery on them.

SWEET LITTLE KITTY is not John, a male, from Germany, but Sonny, a female, from Germany.

Sonny, in our haste to get all our new friends listed, we, ah...sorta made a mistake... oops!

The error has been corrected!
"TELL ME WHY"
TOPCHAMP, who writes "Bad Jokes And Oven Chips" another of our THURSDAY THIRTEENERS, asked about one of our sign-offs. "Find An Opportunity To Pay It Forward."

TC, it is based on the idea that if someone does a kindness to you, instead of returning the kindness to that person, you Pay It Forward to another person, thus keeping the kindness moving through humanity.

There was a movie with Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment. The movie is from a book written by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

There was also a Pay It Forward Foundation which Ms. Hyde began to bring the idea to schools, but at this time, the website seems to no longer exist, nor does her personal website.

You can read more about Ms. Hyde HERE.

You can also read THE COUCH's posting where this sign-off came from HERE.
"SEE ME SEE YOU"
THE COUCH added a new visitor counter last week, which is much better then the one we originally began with (and which is still there- though THE COUCH can't tell you why - we hate to throw things away!)

We are talking about the one from Blogcontrol.com, which shows how many unique visitors have sat on THE COUCH since we hooked it up on Thurday, November 9th.

The cool thing aboout this counter, is it gives you all sorts of stats about the visitors to THE COUCH.

Last evening, we went investigating to see what we could find about all of you wonderful people.

All of these statistics are basically from Friday on...Here is who YOU spend time with on THE COUCH:

We have had a total of 168 unique guests
These 168 have hit the page 377 times
Friday we had 40
Saturday we had 37 a decrease of 8% (Many know THE COUCH rests on the weekend, though we announced a special Veteran's Day posting)
Sunday we had 27 - a 27% decrease (see note above)
Monday we zoomed to 51 an 89% increase.

Times our visitors sit: (an average since Friday)- Central Time
12am - 1.8%
1am - 1.2%
3am - 0%
 4am - 2.4%
5am - 1.8%
6am - 3.0%
7am - 5.4%
8am - 6.0%
9am - 7.2%
10am - 1.8%
11am - 2.4%
12pm - 5.4%
1pm - 9.6%
2pm - 7.2%
3pm - 6.6%
4pm - 9.0%
5pm - 6.0%
6pm - 4.8%
7pm - 5.4%
8pm - 4.8%
9pm - 3.0%
10pm - 1.8%
11pm - 3.0%
Interesting spread throughout the day, but THE COUCH wants to know - where the heck is everyone at 3;00am!?! hehehe

The top 5 referarals (how y'all get here):
73 from a bookmark
17 from Google search (more on this later)
11 from THE COUCH's profile on Blogger. (Guess it is my cute face that draws them close!)
8 from Brother Rich's Favorite Office Timewasters (Thanks Bro!)
8 from the blog of our friend at Peggy As She Is (Thanks Peggy!)

Our last 10 visitors also included folks who found THE COUCH at TopChamps blog and Twyla's blog - "Lost In The Battle."

Now this is where it gets fun...People doing web searchs have found THE COUCH by searching for these top 10 keywords: (this is not a joke folks - try it out yourselves)
3 - bondsbigleather couch (well that makes sense)
1 - ABB Ask the Couch (#1 on Google search)
1 - Lenny Dykstra and lectures on steroid use (# 4 on a Google Search)
1 - home made leather oil for couch, how to care for leather couch (#8 on a Google Search)
1 - scratch in leather couch (#37 on a Yahoo search)
1 - reupholstering couch, what kind of leather to buy (#4 in a Google search)
1 - big leather couch (#31 on a yahoo search - #31!?!? get with it Yahoo!)
1 - "Barium studies' + "airline security" (#17 on a Google search)
1 - jenisa washington, cancer (#2 on a Google search)

Some of these come up because there are the same words, but not the same phrases, but it really amused us that people have actually searched for things, gotten results and were curious enough to come here.

We have also been visited because people search for:
Greg Allman, The Thrill is Gone (#8 on a Google search) This is a funny one to us, since we did that posting of videos and happened to have an Allman Brothers and a B.B. King one...what are the odds!!

108 of you are from the USA
11 are from Canada
4 from Germany
2 from the Philippines
1 from Sweden
1 from Belgium
The map shows many more countries, but those visitors are prior to Friday and it does not appear they have returned yet - boo hoo! lol

131 use Windows XP
17 use Macintosh (wooo!)
15 use Windows 2000
4 use Windows 98
Time for some upgrades here folks.

103 use MS Internet Explorer 6
36 use Firefox
14 use Netscape Navigator 7.x
9 use Internet Explorer 7
3 use Firefox 1.0
2 use Opera 9.x
Time for some upgrades there also.

THE COUCH wants you to know that Firefox is a much more stable, more secure browser then IE... check it out HERE.

We will relook at this in a month or so, and note the differences.
THE COUCH loves all the company... now everyone say hello to your neighbors on THE COUCH...

St. J - P.B.U.A.Q.B.


Thanks for sitting on THE COUCH, hope you enjoyed your stay.

Remember .. Nets For Malaria - UNFoundation.org/malaria - find the big SI's Nothing But Net logo ... Or call 202.887.9040. Every cent goes to buying nets to place over the beds of children in Africa to stomp out Malaria. PLEASE HELP.

Keep that spark of insanity kids...It helps keep you an individual.

SONG TITLE INDEX: Source asap.com
FOOL ME AGAIN: Composers: Bert Bacharach & Carole Sager
OOPS...I DID IT AGAIN: Composers: Martin Karl Sandberg & Rami Yacoub
TELL ME WHY: Composers: Daniel Martin Agee & Robert Jason Wright
SEE YOU SEE ME: Composer Jason Lees


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Pay It Forward

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Wednesday, August 30, 2006 9 Of Your Sparks

Welcome To THE COUCH...Sit on Down and Get Comfy...

Yesterday was a fun time on THE COUCH - I hope you all enjoyed it also.

Still not going to tell if it was fiction or non-fiction...That is for you to decide...

 Fourth rainy day in a row here and it doesn't look like it will get better anytime soon with Ernesto heading up the east coast.

 Was reminded in an email from one of the Soul Patrol group (THANKS TRAV!), that this weekend is the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. There are so many important causes out there, and it is so hard to support them all.

My mom used to be heavily involved with the Cerebral Palsy Telethon when we were young and I remember working one or two, all night long, in my teens. What a rush to feel you are helping someone out. That you are making a difference.

 I was involved with our local Catholic Charity organization a few years back, but once I went back to work in New York, I found it tough to continue.

 I have been lax the past few years...Well with charitable organizations at least. My time has been spent working with the Little League mostly, running the concession as most of you know. Sure we are a pretty well-off community, but without the concession money we bring in, so many of the improvements we have been able to do would not have been possible. And we do take all of our old equipment and donate it to Little Leagues less fortunate then us.

 Combine that with the fact that we are at the one year anniversary of Katrina causing the death and destruction down south and you can't help but get introspective.

We sent some money to the Red Cross then and hoped it got to it's intended recipients and not to some bottomless hole of administrative costs.

 I was still not working full time, or I would have taken some paid vacation leave and joined a local group who went down. Sure, you can say "But you were out of work, you should have gone" and maybe that is true, but I was freelancing - bringing in whatever I could to keep us going at that time.

 I guess you can find an excuse whenever you need one but you also need to take the excuses and just shove them aside and go out and help. I am hopeful that I can once again find that in my heart to push the "woe is me" attitude aside and try and find a way to make a difference in someone else's life.

There was a movie a few years ago called "PAY IT FORWARD" and the theme of it was, if you do something for another, do not ask for something in return...Ask them to do something for someone else...In essence to "PAY IT FORWARD." Since that time I have tried to do that in small ways...

When the East Coast was hit with that huge black-out a few years ago, I was in New York.

There was no way off the Manhattan without walking or waiting for hours for a ferry or another option...One I tried. I went to the Lincoln Tunnel and approached a car with two women in it.

I knocked on the window and asked if they would just drive me through the tunnel to New Jersey. I took my license and handed it to the woman in the passenger seat, "Here, you can hold this if you want." They said yes (and gave back my license) and we drove through. When we got to the other side, they said they were going down the NJ Turnpike a short way. Knowing there was a rest area a few miles down, I asked if they could drop me off there.

When they did I offered money, but they would not accept.

I went into the restaurant and got a brown paper bag and wrote "EXIT 8A" on it. That was the exit closest to my home. I was standing by the gas pumps and within 5 minutes an older couple pulled up and said "Jump In."

They were on their way to Pennsylvania to their cottage there since they had no electricity in their house in North Jersey, and it was reported there was power at their other home.

They took me all the way to my exit and from there my wife picked me up.

I swore that day I would "PAY IT FORWARD."

Have I?

Well in small ways I hope I have.

I stopped once and helped someone change a flat tire on the NJ Turnpike. I have carried numerous large suitcases up and down subway and train station stairs for ladies who I saw struggling (you do get some odd looks when you reach out and say "Here let me help" though). Maybe these are things I should do anyway, but in a number of occasions I was running late to an appointment and during another time in my life I might not have.

Is that enough?

I am not sure...But I do look for ways to assist when I can...

This is also in the front of my mind because of something that happened to us this past weekend.

 My wife got a call from the woman that does her manicures. Of course she had not gone in a long time as it was just not possible. Well, Lana called and said, "Come in...It is on me and I want to see you." So, she did.

 When she got home she called me outside. It seems Lana is friends with a woman that works in a food distribution center and she also collects food for those who need it due to financial circumstances.

 Well, in the trunk of our car was all this canned food (vegetables and fruits) and bags of legumes (big word for all kinds of beans), and boxes of cereal. Our pantry had been bare for some time. It isn't any longer. It really hit home that there are people out there who are doing so much more then me and that I can do so much more for others.

 The food we received that we could not use, was dropped off at our local church which collects for the local food bank. I hope someone else can be helped using the things we could not.

 So, I am going to make an effort to reach out more to "PAY IT FORWARD" and remind you all that, no matter how dark it seems...It is always darker for others. There are people out there that have it so much worse then me and I have thrown pity parties and should be ashamed.

 That said...If you have the financial ability...Call this weekend and donate $5 or $10 to the MDA.

 Find a local shelter and go in and volunteer...Send the $20 to Nets For Malaria as I remind you each and every day at the end of these COUCH discussions...

 I guess the bottom line is that even when it is sunny out, there are those who only have gloom following and it is our responsibility to ensure that even a few rays of "sunshine" fall down on them.

After this time on THE COUCH, you will also notice another "sign-off" line at the end of our COUCH time...


Thanks for sitting on THE COUCH, hope you enjoyed your stay.

FIND AN OPPORTUNITY TO PAY IT FORWARD!

Remember .. Nets For Malaria - UNFoundation.org/malaria - find the big SI's Nothing But Net logo ... Or call 202.887.9040. Every cent goes to buying nets to place over the beds of children in Africa to stomp out Malaria. PLEASE HELP.

Keep that spark of insanity kids...It helps keep you an individual.

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Music On The Couch