Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Times Are Hard But You're Alive

Today there are all sorts of problems. The recession is putting people into a state of panic. Jobs are being lost. Homes are being foreclosed. People are losing their life savings. Times are hard, very hard.

As the TV news and every other media outlet find a way to communicate every other 10 seconds or so that the economy is horrible, we should take a deep breath and realize that we are alive. We have breath in our lungs for another day no matter how bad a time we are going through. There a many that have passed to the other side that would love just to breath again. They Cherish the memories of there families and wish that they could see them, hug them, and say that last word to them. But, their time is no more. They will never get to look at their loved one in the eye as they smile at them joyously. They can't laugh at thier family members corny jokes. They are gone.

The dead have found that there are no bills that truly matter. The dead don't worry about losing their jobs. The dead don't care about foreclosure. They could care less about the economy. They just wish that they were with their families, alive.

I know, if you are in one of the situations mentioned above, you are think that I have a lot of nerve. You're thinking that I must not be in that situation. You think that I am in a home and have plenty of food and necessities. You would be correct in that assumption. But, I know that I could be one of the millions that are losing their jobs. I know that I could be forced out into the streets. I know that I could be in the same situation that millions are by the time I wake up in the morning. But, guess what. I will still thank God above for being able to breath. For being able to see my family members and close friends.

In bad times we all deal with all sorts of problems and ups and downs. We lose jobs. We lose homes. We sometimes go to bed without a meal. But most of us wake up in the morning. We see the sun shine. We see our families breath, smile, laugh. We may be doing all of these things in a Salvation Army parking lot. But, we are together and alive and that is worth a million homes. That's worth more than any job. That's worth more than anything in the world.

Times are hard. But, you're alive.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Rational Thoughts: A Response To A Conversation I Had On Hiphop/Rap Music

Rational Thoughts: A Response To A Conversation I Had On Hiphop/Rap Music http://www.consciencemusic1.com/

Your Money Or Your Life

Is this a weird subject? Maybe not if you really think about it. This question will be asked of yourselves very often after you read this post.

How many times have you been in a situation with a boss where your boss has subliminally asked you to do something that was not ethical like working through your lunch or break? Or, to work overtime for some kind of strange "extra regular pay" instead of overtime pay? When you think about it, you are asked to choose every single day, your money or your life.

When you go to work, some of you are asked to do things that you do not agree with but are made to do. You are told to remember that you are on "probation". You manager reminds you that your evaluation is coming up and that only "team players" get their step increases. Supervisors are trained to, what I call, "softly force" employees to go against their sence of ethics. They dangle the proverbial carrot in front of the noses of their employees; "money."

Your money is your life. And in this economy it is terrifying to even think about losing a job. It is a reality that employers bank on when they want to put pressure on their employees. They make it very clear that you can be replaced very easily. They make sure you know that if you want your life, you will do what your boss says, no matter what. This is what is going on from sea to shinning sea.

I am not saying that the employees should have authority over the employer. What I am saying is that in the United States employees are slowly losing their humanity. Employees are working harder than ever. But, it seems, employers want the employee to work harder still. Also, we are working for low or stagnant wages. We are tired. We are stressed beyond belief.

It is a shame that there are so many people in our country that are coming to work having to deal with situations where their bosses use raises and evaluations against their employees. Raises and evaluations should be used to help shape the employees conduct in the work place. It should not be held hostage in order for the employers ill gotten "PAID SLAVERY"!

My question was, your money or your life? But isn't our money our lives. With out money we can't really have a comfortable life. It is hard to survive without money. But' as we work longer harder hours, how much life can we really hope to have. With stress and exhaustion comes sleep deprivation and health complications such as heart problems.

No one should have to make the choice of money over life. Stand up America! It is time to go back to a fair days work for a fair days pay. It is time to make sure that all employers know that we will use all of our resources to make sure that employers do not use evaluations and raises to put pressure on employees in order to make the employee work through lunches and breaks in order to make the employers' bottom line and profits increase. Let us all stand up and make a loud noise to let employers know that we no longer want to have to ask collectively; your money or your life?


Peace to my people.

What Are You Waiting For?

So many people are always saying that one day I will do this. Some day I'll do that. But for some reason they never seem to get started doing what they say they want to do? Don't be one of these people.

There is no right time. There is only right now. Don't wait untill next Monday to get started. Get started now. Don't wait for more money. Do it now! Don't be one of those people that just live their lives spinning wheels. Get up and do it now.

You have every thing you need to be successful in what ever you want to do. If you want to be a writer, and you have the talent, start typing. If you want to be a singer, and you have the talent to do so, start singing, recording, and performing. If you want to start your own janitorial business and you have the know how and enough money to pay for your business licence and insurance start working out of your house. Go out to businesses and sell your experince. Close some contracts

Even if you just start by making plans to get to where you want to go, start planning. Make sure that you do something to work toward your goals every day. This is the key. You only get ahead by moving forward. No one moves ahead by staying still. You have to tell your mind that you can do what ever you dream. It will listen to you because that is what the human mind does. It follows orders from its owner. It does what you tell it to as long as what you tell it is told in a truthful way. Believe in you and tell you what to do.

The only way to achieve any thing in life is to get up and do it. It's very simple. Don't wait. Get up and do what you do. Go out into the world and DO WHAT YOU DO! RIGHT NOW! TODAY!


Peace to my people

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Get Off Your Butt And Do Life

In the last couple of weeks I have been working with a professional AMA race team, "Ruess Racing". During the race at Fontana Speedway, now called "Auto Club Speedway", I was watching all of the teams working hard to get their bike and their racers ready to compete. Some were well know racers. Others were private operations on shoe string budgets. The later would be my team.

One of our racers, Terry Heard, barely qualified for both formula extreme and the 600 super sport races. The other racer, Jay Ruess, did not qualify at all. But, what was important was not the fact that one barely made it, and the other did not make it at all. What was important was much deeper than that.

The true joy and importance of the whole weekend was the fact that so many teams, factory or private, were living their dreams. These people were not the type of people that sat around waiting for dreams to come true. They were out there on that track making their dreams happen.

When Jay didn't qualify, I made sure that I gave him space to deal with the fact that he did not make it. But, when the time was right, I let him know that even though he did not win a race that day, he won in life that day. He went out and competed with the best in the AMA. He got on that track and did his best. He has done what road racing fans all over the world wish they could do. He went out on an AMA professional road course and did his thing. And all of this he did after being off of his bike for a year due to race related injury.

Terry Heard, Jays' team mate, blew his engine on the last lap of the 600 super sport race. But, that didn't stop him from taking his Kawasaki ZX10 out on the track where he had, I believe, the best start of his career, finishing 16th. Sure it was not first place. But with the budget that we work with, that's pretty damn good. He lived his dream and won the day in life.

These people, my team, often look to me for over all management of the team. I'm the keeper of good spirits. I'm the guy that tries to keep every one believing in themselves. I am the one that is not shame when it comes to begging and borrowing and snatching the media. But, what they don't know is they are inspiring me. They, through their hard work and drive, push me and drives me to be a dream accomplisher.

Our whole team, Dave, Oscar, Mike, Lisa, Danny are great people. They are a true team that uses all of their resources to come together and work very hard to reach their goals and dreams. It is this energy that I have become addicted to. The vibe of people that are living their dreams is something that should be injected into the souls of every human being on earth. If this were the case, we would all be happier on the planet.

So, what is important in life? The important thing to remember is not to just dream about what you want to do. Live your dreams. There are no excuses in life. You either do, or you don't do. That's it. I would rather you go out there and do what you dream. Live your passions. Fallow your dreams and accomplish each and every one of them. I believe in you. Now all you have to do is believe in yourself. Go out there and accomplish your dreams.



Peace to my people

I'm out


P.S. I would like to thank our "Ruess Racing" sponsors: http://www.spacovers.com/ , http://www.usababy.com/ Zorbas Burgers Riverside California, John Burr Cycles Fontana California , and all of our friends and family that support the team.
A special thanks goes to The AMA Stalker for all of her help with Photography.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Change Your Mind Change Your Life

How many times have you heard someone say, if I could go back in time I would be this or that? Everyone has heard this said at least 10 times in their lives. It is a silly thought when you think about it. There is no going back. And, if there was a reset button in life, what would be the use in living.

What should truly be concentrated upon is the here and now and the future. Where are you in life right now? What are your plans for the next 5 minuets, not the next five years. These are the questions that one should ask himself, or herself.

Time travel is just a fantasy presently. There is no magic ship that will take you back to 1975, Bridget, when you graduated from high school. You can't go back to the day before you dropped out of Junior College Michell, back during the civil rights movement. You are here. You are now.

What one needs to do is Change the Mind in order to Change ones Life. Instead of pipe dreaming about what could have been, start using your brain, training you brain to make a new reality for yourself. Use your brain to make things happen in your life.

Our brains are capable of unbelievable achievements. Just look around yourself. The home you are in right now was a thought in a persons mind. Your favorite coffee spot where they charge you $5.oo for a cup of joe, excuse me, premium beans, was a thought in ones brain. The car, train, or bus that you ride to work in was a thought in ones brain. These thoughts and innovations made a change in the world. What makes those peoples thoughts any different than your thoughts? I'll tell you. They put their thoughts into action.

Change your mind from I can't, maybe, some day, into I will, no doubt, and today and watch how fast you begin to achieve what ever it is that you want to achieve. Tell yourself that I can do it, I will do it, nothing will stop me, and watch your life change.

Life is all about conditioning. Repeated stimuli molds the soul either positively or negatively. If you tell yourself that it is going to be hard sometimes but I will make my dreams come true and you make the effort to do so, there is a high probability that you will achieve. But on the other hand, if you feed yourself dread and self doubt, there is almost nothing that will stop you from not achieving. Doom and dread are the killers of achievement.

Change your mind from thinking that everything has to happen for you right now. Most good things in life take time. There are no over night successes. Real progress takes time. It takes planning. Change you mind to think in steps, and don't take any short cuts.

Change your mind into a machine that believes in itself no matter what anybody says. Make that machine force you to set objectives that turn into goals that turn into achievements. This is the key. Make the change that will change your life.

There are really no excuses in life. No one believes people that have an excuse for everything. You have to take control of you. You have to take control of your future. No one else is going to do it for you. You have to change you. There is no going back. There is only experience you gain from the past. There is no reset button. Life is now! Life is not yesterday!

We all know that there are tremendous strains in our day to day. There are economic situations that seem to overwhelm us. Money is tight. Bills are stacking up. Less time relaxing. More time worrying. Stop Letting This Get In Your Way Of A Good Life. Change your way of thinking. Teach yourself that you will make it no matter if you have to live out of your car, in a park, next to a dumpster. As long as you have wind in your lungs, you have a chance to turn your life around. There are going to be bad times. But, how you handle those bad times makes the difference of being admitted into a mad house, or making a plan to put you into a brand new house better than the one you lost. It will be done. You can do it.

If you are healthy, and breathing you have no excuses. As a matter of fact, if you are alive and have a reasonable thinking capacity, you have no excuses in life. There are people that have stage 4 cancer that are making it day to day with a smile on their faces because they have decided to use every ounce of energy to live a good life to the end. There are people who are dying of Aids that have changed their minds into fighting to live out each day to the best of their ability. There are people coming home from the war with arms and legs missing. But, they are changing and adapting to their disabilities and are thriving because they decided that they want to live a good life. Their brains are a machine of change and possibilities. There are homeless people who are using their creative abilities to start businesses raising money in creative, legal, ways. So tell me. What's you excuse?

You have everything you need locked inside your head. It is said that we only use 10% of our brains. Imagine if we used 1% more every day. Imagine the possibilities.

It is as easy as this. Change Your Mind. Change Your Life!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Stand Up America! (Don't Accept The Hot Dog)

I just had a discussion with a couple of friends about the current economic crisis in the United States. Michelle gave a speech about how so many people complain about their job situation and how it is revolting to hear them. I said that the reason we are in such a horrible trouble is because Americans have ,for so many years, not been paying attention to what was going on right under our noses. We have been stupid citizens that did not do our civic duty. We did not pay attention to the game that was afoot.


The reason that we are in trouble is lack of care. We did not care about our jobs because we had one. We did not care about what was being done to a fellow employee because it was not happening to us. We didn’t care if the next man or woman was in need because we were not in need. We did not care how the gas prices were rising because we had a little extra change in our pockets . But, that has all changed.


Now, due to the gas and housing crisis, and the war that is killing the youth of America, we are all in the same boat. Now most Americans are trying to decide how to spend our money. Should we buy gas or food? We are asking ourselves questions that have not been asked since the Great Depression.; where will I live “when” the bank takes my home? These Are serious questions.

While I understand Michelle’s’ position, I do not agree with it. People should complain about having a raise instead of hotdogs at the union hall. People should still complain to their union rep when they are not getting what they are entitled to by their agreed upon M. O.U. . This is part of the problem in the country right now.


We know that people are losing not just their jobs. They are losing every thing. But, ask yourself is this a part of the plan to keep Americans off balance and terrified that we will lose every thing we own in order to have us work harder longer hours for less money? Is it the plan to put so much pressure and stress on working Americans to cause us to just go along with the program and say nothing when we are mistreated and under paid? Isn’t it a plan to keep our young over seas fighting a war that we will never win because there are filthy rich men and women that are making un-heard of amounts of money off of the blood of our children while their children are safe at home?


We are in the situation that we are because we were to busy thinking of right now and not the future. We are in this situation because we saw it coming but we were to lazy or scared to stand up and say something or do something about the situation in the early stages. We were living it up in a false world being manipulated by the powers that be. Now we are being toyed with like a cat with a mouse in it’s claws. We are being played like a two stringed violin, all wrong.


Now! Why should you care? Because you are in the cross hairs. You may be next if you do not stand up and fight for what’s right. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should not just be a phrase that we hear during an election year. It should be, as it was supposed to be, the plan. You should care because teachers in California, the trainers of the future, are being thrown out into the streets . You should care about these teachers because if you think crime is bad now, wait until a whole generation of ignorant children turn to crime to survive. YOU SHOULD CARE! .


AMERICA COMPLAIN! Kick , scream, and demand a better life! Don’t accept the hot dog. Demand change. Care about the future. Stand up and fight for what is right no matter what. Make this government work for you. Make your local and federal government understand that we are their boss, not the other way around. Stop being lazy and scared. Stand up and fight! Stand up and fight! Stand up and fight for your life America! Don't accept the hot dog!