Does Not Make Me Smile

NOW he's frustrated with Congress?

He didn't have a problem with them when he and all of his cronies passed his healthcare legislation.

President Obama Says He Is 'Frustrated' With Congress and here is the link:

http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-says-he-is-frustrated-with-congress-in-email-to-campaign-supporters-2011-8

Instead of forcing the healthcare issue down our throats like they did, which most likely voters oppose

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/health_care_law

I wonder what our economy would look like today had he and those same cronies spent all of their energy on job creation when he first took office.

Oh yea, just for grins here is President Obama's current approval rating:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

Now Mr. Obama is going to start his reelection rhetoric which is going to consist of CONGRESS SUCKS. Yea, WE KNOW THAT. Congress is partisan polarized against any idea/suggestion when that idea/suggestion comes from the other party. But THAT is Congress Mr. President. What have YOU done for us?

Well, Mr. President, you gave us Obamacare and the economy still sucks. You tried to convince America for a year on Obamacare but most of the country thought it was a bad idea and you essentially told us that you didn't care what the public wanted. What have you done for us Mr. President? You, YOURSELF, have contributed to the polarizing attitude in Washington AND in Congress. So Mr. President you say that YOU'RE FRUSTRATED?

Mr. President, AMERICA is frustrated because of politicians like yourself AND politicians on both sides of the aisle who ONLY look out for what is "good" for their own party.

I consider myself to be conservative on a lot of things but can see value when a good idea presents itself, but neither Republicans NOR Democrats NOR Tea Party NOR Green Party NOR any other party has a monopoly on great ideas.

Mr. President, YOU'RE FRUSTRATED?

Give me a break, you're not getting my pity. Will there ever be a time in our country, in MY country, The United States Of America where we can actually be UNITED in great ideas? Well hell, I don't know. When all I've seen for many years is partisan politics as usual, I'm afraid to say that I'll probably never see it in my life time.

Freakin' Huge

I was driving by a shopping strip the other day and saw this freakin' huge basketball, it was a promo for a local sports bar to come watch the March Madness games going on this month. This large inflatable thing made me smile. Why? I guess because I loved stuff like that when I was a kid, but the real reason that it made me smile was because it started my mind racing about what other kinds of inflatable things people could use to promote their businesses.

I suspect that some of you may have seen local tire stores with a huge inflatable gorilla holding a tire to promote their business, I always thought that a huge inflatable tire would work just as well. So perhaps the gorilla was just a way to get little kids attention so that they could point out the gorilla for the parents to see too. That's actually a smart idea.

But what of other businesses? I suppose a dentist could have a large inflatable tooth or a shoe store could have a big pair of Air Jordans, but for other types of businesses this advertising gimmick might be something which could backfire on them. For instance, would you really want to see a large inflatable eyeball in front of your optometrists' office? Okay bad example, that would look (no pun intended) pretty cool. But seriously, if you had to go see a proctologist, would you want to see a large inflatable behind staring at you?

Smile until you face hurts!

20,000 Bouncy Balls Dropped From A Helicopter

20,000 bouncy balls dropped from a helicopter - for science | The Salt Lake Tribune

Oh man, you gotta love this stuff. If ever anything would make my geeky little heart, err, face smile, it's a story such as this. Some college science geeks put together this little demonstration to show some blah, blah, blah science stuff which doesn't matter. It was just cool to watch. And despite it being a world record of the dropping of such bouncy balls in that quantity, Guinness World Records people didn't even respond. Jerks! Just kidding Guinness, I love ya.

This brings me to a couple of fun things, atleast for me they were fun as a kid. Do you remember the Superball? That thing was amazing! This story made me think about that bouncy ball and how crazy bouncy it was. Of course it also reminded me of being scolded by my Mom for bouncing that sucker all over the house. But then when shooed outside, my brothers, friends and I would see how high we could get the Superball to bounce. I suspect that we could've even matched the altitude of our bounce to the altitude of the helicopter which dropped these 20,000 bouncy balls.

The next part the story reminded me of the new editions of the Guinness Book of World Records which I would get every year as a teenager. I loved looking up the odd sort of things and how fast someone could run or how tall some dude was. And as teenagers go, atleast me, I would peer into my future as the Guinness Book of World Record holders and see my name as the person who hopped the longest on a pogo-stick while I was practicing it in gym class. But, alas, I hold no such record as James Roumeiotis currently holds that record at more than 19 hours. The Jerk!

;-D

Smile until your face hurts!

Playing Dead

Working Stiffs: Playing Dead on TV Can Keep a Career on Life Support - WSJ.com

My father was watching an old rerun of the Hart to Hart TV series from the early 80's and commented that playing a dead body in such a show must be a terrible gig. Actually, he didn't say gig because he is 72, so I'm paraphrasing obviously. I then thought about this article that I'd read and started smiling as I told him about it. When you think about all of the cop drama shows and big explosion type movies which come out every year, you can plan on seeing lots of dead bodies and actors have to play a lot of them. Now you don't have to have Christopher Lambert's natural ability to be dead while actually repeating dialog because you won't be repeating dialog, but you do have to have the ability to shush and lie still. Keep in mind however, that some of these shows might have some humor injected into them so it will greatly benefit you to NOT laugh until the director says cut.

Don't get me wrong, being dead is not normally a subject to smile about but I'm talking about playing dead. Dabbing on some fake red blood can net you some green in the form of $100 a day or more. And who said you can't take it with you?

Smile until your face hurts!

Those Crazy Kids

Can you picture this? A father walking with his daughter on a weekday morning. The little girl, who I would say was between 2 to 3 years old, had on a nice dress and black shoes. The father was dressed in shorts, t-shirt and tennis shoes. The girl was holding his hand with her right hand and as they walked her left hand was on her hip. As they walked along, the girl's left arm would swing really far to the front and then to the back, alternating with each step. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Can't you almost see this little girl watching her mother when she is at home, looking up to the lady she respects and wanting to copy the proper way of walking? Yes it was cute and it made me smile.

I look back over my lifetime and think of all of the interesting things my nephews and nieces have said and they also make me smile. And to think that we were that little and cute once ourselves. Do you look back on fond memories of saying to people "Me and my Dad are dumb," as I used to say when I was unaware of what the meaning was? Or smile when thinking about when you used to fall asleep with a glass of milk in your hand which eventually spilled? Yea, that was  me too.

So, as you go about your day today or the rest of this week/year, keep an eye on those crazy kids because they just might give you something to smile about.

Smile until your face hurts!

Welcome to That Makes Me Smile

You know the people you see everyday who always seem to be smiling? You know who I'm talking about. It's your favorite boss, the waitress who served you Buffalo wings, or even your favorite friend. Aside from their making you wonder what they are thinking behind that smile, doesn't it make you smile too? I know that it does for me. Well, at least when I'm not in one of those go to hell moods which occasionally rears its ugly head. When someone smiles at you it can brighten your day and give a good feeling.

For those who question, "You had a smiling boss?" Yes I did and she was wonderful. Now don't get me wrong, it's not that these folks don't have bad days because everyone day, but they are the ones who don't seem to let the day to day struggles bother them as much. And that is what this blog is all about, the things that make us smile. Or at least, the things That Make Me Smile. And as most people are similar in some respects my hope is that you will find something which will do the same for you.

So what is it which makes me smile today? The first thing which I thought of was a cat. Now normally I am not a cat person and as far as that goes, I would much rather see a cat chased by a dog. But the reason I say a cat is because of a little smart phone app I created with the Google App Inventor for Android. I love my Android phone so when I found that I could create my own app for it I thought it was a great idea. In the first tutorial the program walks you through creating a simple little app and it only took about 10 or 15 minutes to do it. The app, silly enough, was one which has the picture of a cat and when you tap it there is a meow sound. After putting it all together I downloaded it to my Android phone, a Motorola DROID for the curious, started it up and meow it went. THAT made me laugh and smile.

The question that I wonder about though is what is it which makes the smiley people smile all the time? That's what we are here to discover.

Smile until your face hurts!