War on Lack of Responsibility

When I grew up things were different than they are now. Our parents were responsible for how their children acted. If their children did things that were not right they faced the consequences of the law. Back then if your child got out of line you could send them out to the local tree to get a switch that would then be used on their bottoms to remind them of the responsibility of their actions. Sometimes the search for the switch that was going to be used on their bottoms was much more traumatic and lesson learning, than the switching they were going to get.

Though I rarely ever remember being spanked as a child. (when I did I knew it was deserved) just a belt hanging over the door handle of my mother and father’s bedroom door was a firm reminder of what “could” happen if I decided to break the rules and forgot that I was responsible for my behaviors.

Working with the public in customer service I work on accounts of dozens of people every day that do not want accept the responsibility for their actions on uses for their phones.. . It is the same in all companies that deal with the public.

People call in everyday having used services that they did not pay for in their plans and get angry with our company because they are charged for using the services at a higher rate.. It doesn’t matter that it is in the contract they signed when they got their phones. “Who reads those?”, is what I hear every time it is mentioned. The sales people that sell them the phones are paid on commission.. So they were offered the money saving features and the people turn them down.. Or just didn’t listen and use the features anyway.

They hand the phone over to a child or teenager and don’t tell them what they can do and not do with their phones and then expect our company to flip the bill for their misuse of the service or for their children’s choice to disobey what their parents.. Many feel we should continue giving them free phones anytime they want them. Or let them out of their contracts for free because they no longer agree with what was in the contract they signed. “Who has time to read those things” So we cater to the less then responsible people and then people wonder whose fault it is when the prices of services go up.. The company still has to make a profit despite paying for all those people who feel it is the companies responsibility to pay for their irresponsible behaviors.

Another look at responsibility is a story I read lately in a military news letter. Three boys from one family that joined the military all went AWOL during basic training while on  Christmas holiday leave.. One that was caught, while breaking a law, said he didn’t like being yelled at by the Drill Sergeant to pick up garbage he left on a seat. He said they didn’t know they would have to learn to use guns and might have to go to war. One met a girl over the holiday and couldn’t bare to leave her. So he changed his mind about doing his duty that he signed on to do. Forsaking his pledge his honor and contract for a weekend romance. What a prize that girl has. Please.. They all went AWOL at the same time and yet claim they didn’t know the other 2 brothers were doing the same thing. Imagine that.

They claimed the recruiter lied and told them they would most likely not have to go to war. And they didn’t know they would have to use guns. They were going to be mechanics. They were shocked when their Drill Sergeant told them they would be going to Iraq. So it is the recruiters fault they signed on the dotted line and took an oath to serve our country. It is the recruiters fault these boys suddenly forgot all the war movies they watched over the years, their GI Joes and military playstation games that all show that soldiers that are in the military and fight in wars.

I have to wonder who they think they are fooling with their wimpy attitudes and lack of responsibility.. Not to mention their lies.

I would love to take a survey of boys and or girls of any age; say 5 and above. Ask them what a GI Joe is, what does he do, and what does he come with (as accessories).

These boys who went AWOL feel it was fully okay to just walk out on their oaths their contracts, and their country saying they didn’t realize what they were getting into and take no responsibility for their actions. Why should they not be held to their contracts in some way.. They don’t want to go to war fine let them serve the rest of their contract filling pot holes, picking up garbage on post or cleaning toilets or some other nice safe job with a reduction in pay due to their irresponsible choices. There used to be punishment for going AWOL hard labor.. Not any more… Looks like they will get a slap on the hand. Then again why make them famous with some anti war group making them rich as spokes people for a un-win-able cause..

I have to wonder how early this lack of responsibility starts these days. Is it the lack of a mother staying home to care for their children?. Is it the one parent households? Is it the school system that puts the picked on kids in counseling while the bullies continue to walk around picking on them? Or does it come from the lack of switches and unused reminder belts hanging over the door knobs?

What happened to taking responsibility for ones own actions. Are there no ethics in society anymore.

Whose Responsibility is it? Everyone who sits back and watches it happen without at least trying to make a difference.. The silent majority just let it happen and then ask why.

Myspace, Fad or Here To Say

I have been a website designer/owner for a long time. Being so, I have to try and keep up with the trends; seeing where they are going, what is a fad and what trends seem to be working. At first I thought the “MySpace” thing was another “GeoCities” from back in the days when the internet was young..

I was a bit skeptical about trying it out and seeing what it was all about. I had heard about some of the security risks that were popping up and getting discussed in various newsletters and on programs on TV. It peaked my curiosity.. What is this “MySpace” excitement all about?

For those of you reading this on my “MySpace” blog, obviously you have already discovered this interesting way of hooking up with old friends, and meeting new ones.. For those of you reading this from my website, I have to admit there are good and bad with everything. Not to mention addictions that come in lots of forms..

I have played with Myspace for a couple weeks now.. Finding an old friend here and there. Finding some friends I already had and didn’t know participated. I found alot of people signed up started a page and never use them for anything but adding people and possibly emailing back and forth. True blogging seems to be only a small part of the whole thing.. (I thought blogging was what Myspace was all about).

I found that most people seemed to have many many friends added to their Myspace. I have to wonder how many were really friends and how many people just left their accounts to accept anyone who comes along and wants to add themselves. Maybe they didn’t do anything with the settings at all.

I guess that is where the security risks start coming into play.. When you don’t monitor who joins as a friend a real friend might investigate a few of your friends and find out they are really in strange or bad places, bordering porn, exploits bugs, bad scripts, or other unscrupulous things that are unexpected..

Surfing thru one of my real life friends pages I found strippers, musicians that I had never heard of, sado masochists. All kinds of women scantily clad saying provocative things.. Did I really know my real life friend as well as I thought I did?. Or were they just not paying attention or just collecting people to see how many “myfriends” they could collect.

I actually wondered if I wanted to add my real life friend as a myspace friend to my page at all. Would people surfing past my site reflect who I am by “friends” of those I associate with?

While surfing around I also found some really pretty graphics in some comments that seemed really much to un-necessarily large. Many had pages with pictures you could comment on. And there was lots of loud obnoxious music with auto starts that hurt my ears.

In another friends space I found a girl I know is a 13 year old who had set up an page saying she was 26. (Danger! Danger! Will Robinson)

When I first set up my account I had accidentally left myself set as single without realizing it. I am very happily married. The first time I checked back to my new account, I had dozens of messages from different men allegedly from all over the world.. Telling me how interesting my Myspace page was and how they wanted to meet me. Calling me Pretty Girl and various eye catching phrases.

After reading a couple of them, out of curiosity, it was obvious that most of them did not have realistic pictures of themselves, they could only speak broken English and had not even read www.myspace/1dreamersreality at all. Where did all these losers come from? REPORT AS SPAM! DELETE!! BLOCK!! DELETE!! BLOCK!! over and over till they were all gone..But still in the trash for at least 10 days.. Please… Just make them go away… Sheesh, that was a job.

I fixed the part in the settings that said I was single to married and added a few changes to my settings. Thank goodness that hasn’t happened again.. Wonder if that happened to that sweet 13/26 year old and if she knew what was happening.

After continuing to play with it a while I found some useful functions like the calendar with notifications. I think this is a great feature for those of us that can’t remember birthdays until we have to admit we procrastinated too long once again and missed it. You could share your calendar and the events or choose to keep it private or do both.

After going to the forum I was able to find ways to personalize myspace to make it look a bit more like me and not just a boring page.. I think there could be a way for them to make it a bit easier to find this sort of info.. Then again I guess those who could not find it probably wouldn’t know what to do with the info anyway. There was quite a bit of trial and error there.

I found some of the settings and tricks mentioned in the forum only worked with IE and not with FireFox (which is really gaining in popularity). I wanted to add my own personal music to my page instead of picking something from the music area of myspace. While my html tweak can be seen and heard in IE, I can’t see or hear it while browsing with Firefox.. Sorry, I still don’t plan on using IE to do my browsing. Shame it will mean some Myspace areas won’t look or work right.. Shame Shame on Myspace’s original designers.

I will be tweaking and changing things around on my page for a while till I get just the right mix of content, that is to my liking. I am sure I will find more interesting things I have not experimented with.

I do find the bulletin board a bit annoying as some people seem to monopolize it with out you being able to be rid of the junk they add to it. or to keep them as a friend and disallow them from posting to it. It is possible I have missed that tweak somewhere.. Tweaking is all trial and error.

Though I was a skeptic of MySpace. I have found it is a fun experience.. Will I continue to like it or will it fall by the wayside after the newness wears off?. I really am not too sure yet. In most cases I like what I see. But in others I see a definite room for improvement.

As with most website communities, Myspace has something for everyone..
But not everything is for everybody.

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