Heart-Warming Story

So I lost all my thug today when I was at Starbucks. For all of you not in-the-know or old folk not hip to the slang, losing all your thug means you were softened by something for a moment, emotional.

So this guy was in line ahead of me, and the barista was telling the guy's daughter that she was pretty. The little girl was 7, maybe 8. The girl's "father", ended up telling the following story [paraphrased].

The girl's biological father was diagnosed with cancer, and proposed to the girl's biological mother because he wanted to be married and have a child before he passed away. He ended up dying after the marriage and before the birth of his child.

*sidebar* Thug was already gone at that point.

The mother gave birth to a healthy daughter, but died in labor.

*sidebar* Any remaining thug was absent at this point.

So this guy (her uncle, the mother's brother) took the little one in when both sets of grandparents suggested giving her up for adoption. This guy was 19 at the time, and stepped up to the plate when nobody else would.

*sidebar* Thug nonexistent.

So while I was listening to this story and wiping something from my eyes (damn Starbucks' indoor air quality) he proceeded to tell the barista that he was single, had a few girlfriends but nothing worked out. I was interrupted and asked to place my order. So I did that and was waiting for drinks and heard the girl say, "Thank you, Daddy" when he handed her drink to her.

*sidebar* Did I ever really have thug at this point?

So before he and his niece/daughter left, I made it a point to wish him a Happy Mother's Day; odd how God might put something so humbling in front of you, especially on a day when it means a little extra.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers and single-fathers out there! Even you gay men who have adopted and raise a child or children.

Sir Alex Ferguson Retires From Manchester United

As a fan of English football, Sir Alex is someone who I admire greatly. He has contributed to the game significantly and it is a shame, for his team and for the sport, that he is retiring. He definitely deserves to after the many years he has dedicated to Manchester United and I am extremely pleased that he is leaving on a high as I think his legacy deserves that. Not many managers can boast a career quite like Sir Alex's! Whoever steps up to the plate definitely has very big boots to fill. I hope that this person continues to make United into a team worthy of playing and that the departure of their longstanding manager doesn't hinder them significantly, as it'd be a shame to see what Sir Alex has built over many years disintegrate. As a Chelsea fan I hope that United continue to bring it on the pitch, and make Sir Alex proud, but also that the new manager isn't overshadowed by this enormous legacy.

To Sir Alex, thank you for your contribution to English Football and for the players you scouted and helped develop who play(ed) for our national team, you will, without a doubt, be missed.

Student Punished, Charged With a Felony - Yahoo!

David "Cole" Withrow was a senior ready to graduate with honors from Princeton High School in Johnston, N.C. He is an Eagle Scout, did his senior class project on gun safety and was even looking forward to college in the fall.

This is why when he realized he forgot his shotgun in the back of his truck after going skeet shooting over the weekend, he debated between driving back home and being counted as tardy and calling his mom from school to collect the gun.

Deciding to call his mother from the school's front office to come get the gun...

Student Punished, Charged With a Felony After He ‘Tried to Do the Right Thing’ When He Forgot His Shotgun Was in His Truck - Yahoo! News


_____________

I do not understand how a kid who did a project about gun safety forgot he had his gun in his truck, but I'm also upset with the fact that he was honest about it and tried to handle it in a respectable way and still got expelled and charged with a felony.

The article goes on to explain that an administrator at his school also brought a gun onto school grounds, and the Sheriff's Office said that an administrator caught with a gun on school grounds can only be charged with a misdemeanor, but it's a felony for a student. I don't know about you, but that's very disturbing to me........

Psychopathic Traits Seen in Children’s Brains - Yahoo!

Children with severe behavioral problems have a suppressed response to others' pain, according to new brain-scan research.

Researchers examined brain scans of kids with conduct disorder, which is marked by aggression, cruelty to others and anti-social behavior. Some kids with conduct disorder also display what psychologists call "callous-unemotional traits," which means they lack guilt and empathy.

The patterns seen in these children's brains may reveal a vulnerability to psychopathy in adulthood, researchers report today (May 2) in the journal Current Biology. Psychopaths are manipulative and...

Psychopathic Traits Seen in Children’s Brains - Yahoo! News

Windows Live Messenger Officially Converted to Skype

Messenger has moved to Skype

Messenger was retired in April 2013 and is no longer available or supported on most Mac and Windows operating systems. *

You can continue to make audio and video calls with your contacts on Skype and Facebook and send IMs for free—your contacts will come with you when you update to Skype and sign in with your Microsoft account.

Find out more about Skype

For information about moving from Messenger to Skype, visit the About Skype page.
To learn about instant messaging with Skype on your Windows desktop, visit the Skype instant messaging page.
To find out how to call your contacts with Skype on your Windows desktop, visit the Skype–to–Skype calling page.

______________________________

I am disappointed by this. Microsoft has abandoned millions of customers worldwide in favor of their newly acquired toy, Skype. They flaunt it as a merger but the merging process is reported widespread to be faulty and does not transition your contact. They also have not yet adopted a single feature from Windows Live Messenger.

Even worse, the entire purpose of people using WLM for all of these years is that they've been able to avoid the tedious lack-of-features presented on AIM, but they've avoided Skype because Skype is pretty much just a video-calling messenger. That's all good and fine, but I don't want to look at/speak to every single person I engage, and the actual instant messaging interface is horrible.

There is nothing used to decipher who is actually chatting besides the name above the first message in a group from that person. There is also a limited amount of window space where you can actually read what the person is saying.

For video calling, it is horrible because it further limits how much you can see text-wise if you're in the mood to see a loved one but not able to make a lot of noise. Not to mention, if you mute your mic and the other person mutes theirs, all you see is this massive microphone image in the middle of the screen with a red cross over it.

I used WLM because it was truly a superior messaging product to rivals AIM and Yahoo!. Google+/Talk are both decent but don't offer anything in the way of what WLM offered. I am refusing to upgrade/"merge" to Skype, and may just have to find another client completely. WLM has tried to fix what isn't broken, and what was actually preferred worldwide over every other instant messaging client for very good reasons.