Mar 042014
 

…and my new hero is an 18 year old high school dropout.

His name is Jhaqueil Reagan and he lives close to Indianapolis, Indiana.  He may be a dropout, but we need more kids like him…LOTS more.

Jhaqueil is a dropout because he quit school a couple of years ago so he could take care of his brothers and sisters after his mom’s death.  Right there I got past the fact that he dropped out.  As far as I can see, that wasn’t dropping out, it was prioritizing and making the right decision.

From what I read, his leaving school didn’t mean leaving his education behind as he finished his secondary education before he would have graduated in the first place, getting his GED.  Second prioritization choice, second good decision.

Ya know, though…a dropout with a GED who has younger siblings to care for also has their stomaches to feed…and that takes money, which means getting a job.  Now, I may be wrong, but a dropout teenager might just find it hard to find work.  He might decide to take advantage of our wonderful nanny – state giveaways and suck off the state, the taxpayer’s money tit.  After all, everyone knows when the job market is tough the thing to do is suck off of someone else…you know, like the 20 – somethings, perpetual students that move back into their parent’s basements and go play in the streets at Occupy Wall Street style protests, all planned out on the iPads their mommy’s

English: Photos of Occupy Wall Street on Day 2...

and daddy’s bought them.

So this kid Jhaqueil can go suck the government’s welfare tit, right?

Um…no.

Jhaqueil heard about a job opening at a Dairy Queen across town.  10 miles across town.  And it was snowing and icy and windy and CLOD…but what the hell…Indianapolis has municipal bus service, right?

Not for Jhaqueil, at least not until he gets a job.  He cannot afford bus fare, so do you know what he does?

He walks.  He needed a job, he heard about a job, so he went to try to get the job.  Its simple, really.

The freezing weather didn’t matter,  Nor did the ice and snow or the wind.  Jhaqueil had good, simple, linear thinking:

Need a job>>hear about a job>>go apply for the job = Get the job.  That simple, and anything between the first and last of that  equation is simply an obstacle to be overcome.

But he did not get the job, demonstrating an obvious lack of management’s good judgement at the Dairy Queen.

That’s OK though…Jhaqueil got a job.  He had stopped at another restaurant along the way to ask directions, and the owner had asked why he was out in the bitter weather, walking.  Jhaqueil explained about the job and his lack of bus fare…then kept walking.  Art Bouvier, the owner of Papa Roux Cajun Cooking, the place he stopped for directions, saw him later when he went out on an errand, still walking.  He picked him up to take him the last mile, and got his name and phone number before the kid got out of the car.

Art Bouvier’s judgement is better thanthat of the Dairy Queen’s management.  He recognizes character when he sees it.  He can see beyond the school dropout, beyond a poor kid who doesn’t have bus fare instead of walking 10 miles in a blizzard, who simply sees something that needs doing and does it and apparently doesn’t have “I can’t” in his vocabulary.

Art Bouvier knows a good employee when he sees one, even one who hasn’t asked him for a job.  He called the kid that night and asked him how the job search went.  When he found out the Dairy Queen hadn’t hired him, hadn’t hired a kid willing to walk 10 miles through a blizzard to apply, he hired him right then.

Good catch, Art.

Now I have a new hero…two9, actually.  A kid who just does what has to be done, and Art bouvier, one Coon Ass I’d like to meet.  Indianapolis ain’t that far…I just may eat some Cajun food soon…surely they serve red beans and rice with a couple of links of boudin.

PS:  I don’t normally do this, but this is an exception.  After finishing the article I called Papa Roux’s.  Great folks and, I’d bet my last nickle, great Coon Ass (Cajun to you uneducated folks…LOL) food, too.  If you are ever in or around the east side of AIndianapolis, grab a bite to eat there.  Call ’em for exact directions at 317.603.9861.  Tell ’em Bob sent ya.

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Bob@HayleStorm Interactive

Bob comes to us with a skeptical attitude and a full cup of Cantankerousness. He also writes about homesteading and yurts over at JuicyMaters.com and rants about politics at Common-Sense-Conversation.com Most of the time, though, you'll find him at HayleStorm.net, cranking out great websites for clients OR writing tutorials teaching them to build their own sites.

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Dec 082013
 
The Campaign Against Political Correctness logo

Image via Wikipedia

You never have to look far to find stupidity in government, and public schools make themselves SUCH an easy target.  You might call the public education industry a target rich environment for folks looking for poor performance among government agencies.

School discipline is an especially easy target when you want to ridicule a government agency, their administrators generally using “zero tolerance” as an excuse to check their good judgement (if they had any to begin with) at the door.

Here are two fine examples of what “zero tolerance” can do…and in the second case we get a two-fer…zero tolerance combined with political correctness.

You DO know what political correctness is, don’t you? It’s trying to pick up a turd by the clean end.

So…learn all about suspending children for normal bodily functions and innocuous comments.

Your tax dollars at work.  Enjoy!

[powerpress]

Bob@HayleStorm Interactive

Bob comes to us with a skeptical attitude and a full cup of Cantankerousness. He also writes about homesteading and yurts over at JuicyMaters.com and rants about politics at Common-Sense-Conversation.com Most of the time, though, you'll find him at HayleStorm.net, cranking out great websites for clients OR writing tutorials teaching them to build their own sites.

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Sep 212013
 

Our government becomes more and more tyrannical, more and more resembling a tinhorn South American third world dictatorship and looking less and less like the democratic republic our founders bled…and died…for.

How long do we wait? When do we say “enough is enough”?

Our founders said it was not only our right, but our duty to resist tyranny. Do Americans still have the fortitude to fight for our country…regardless of whether the enemy of the republic is foreign…or domestic?

Origins of gun restrictions in America…watch the first 30 seconds at least:

Nationalizing our elections

Will we repeat mistakes in history? Roosevelt’s concentration camps.

Baltimore police shoot a man for holding a gun in his own yard.

Illegal SWAT raid, with no probable cause, for having hydroponic gardening equipment.

Watch the first 30 seconds to see the origins of gun control.

Bob@HayleStorm Interactive

Bob comes to us with a skeptical attitude and a full cup of Cantankerousness. He also writes about homesteading and yurts over at JuicyMaters.com and rants about politics at Common-Sense-Conversation.com Most of the time, though, you'll find him at HayleStorm.net, cranking out great websites for clients OR writing tutorials teaching them to build their own sites.

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Aug 112013
 

If you ever get that non-specific “pissed off” feeling you can’t find a specific source for about the way the United States is run, maybe this is why:

[powerpress]

 

"The Price", a painting by Tom Lea, a WWII war correspondant

"The Price", a painting by Tom Lea, a WWII war correspondant

 

“I fell flat on my face just as I heard the whishhh of a mortar I knew was too close. A red flash stabbed at my eyeballs. About fifteen yards away, on the upper edge of the beach, it smashed down four men from our boat. One figure seemed to fly to pieces. With terrible clarity I saw the head and one leg sail into the air.

I got up… ran a few steps, and fell into a small hole as another mortar burst threw dirt on me. Lying there in terror looking longingly up the slope for better cover, I saw a wounded man near me, staggering in the direction of the LVTs (Landing Vehicle – Tracked). His face was half bloody pulp and the mangled shreds of what was left of an arm hung down like a stick, as he bent over in his stumbling, shock-crazy walk. The half of his face that was still human had the most terrifying look of abject patience I have ever seen. He fell behind me, in a red puddle on the white sand.”

You knew you were pissed off.  Now, maybe, you know why.

Bob@HayleStorm Interactive

Bob comes to us with a skeptical attitude and a full cup of Cantankerousness. He also writes about homesteading and yurts over at JuicyMaters.com and rants about politics at Common-Sense-Conversation.com Most of the time, though, you'll find him at HayleStorm.net, cranking out great websites for clients OR writing tutorials teaching them to build their own sites.

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Jul 202013
 

OK folks…I’ll admit it.  Today I’m taking the easy way out on this week’s post of mine.  If Ralph could do that little Twitter tweet style post the other day then I can be brief as well.  This post will  be a substantial improvement over Ralph’s though, in two ways:

  • First, while brief, it will follow Google’s rules about a post’s length.  You see, Google, in its wisdom, has decided that if you don’t write at least 300 words on whatever topic you are writing about, what you wrote has no value.  None.  Nada.Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc... Zip.  Zero.  Zilch.  You will notice I am working hard to meet Google’s totally arbitrary standard by finding unnecessary, extraneous, unneeded words just to hit that magic 300 word mark.  If there is anything I don’t want Continue reading »

Bob@HayleStorm Interactive

Bob comes to us with a skeptical attitude and a full cup of Cantankerousness. He also writes about homesteading and yurts over at JuicyMaters.com and rants about politics at Common-Sense-Conversation.com Most of the time, though, you'll find him at HayleStorm.net, cranking out great websites for clients OR writing tutorials teaching them to build their own sites.

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