What do you need from me?

Howdy. From time to time, I'm going to ask what you need from me. This blog is not a one way street of me wanting comments, followers, fame and fortune, etc, I want to see if I can help you all, too.

When I post questions like this, I get a few, "I want a million dollars," "A better job," "A nicer husband/boyfriend," etc. I want to help (If I can), but I'm not a magician or a millionaire.

Seriously, if you need me to promote something, teach or explain how to do something about blogging, find a site that may help your productivity, etc. I'll tell you if I can't help you, but I at least want to try.

I have always known that we all know cool things, but we will never learn more, unless we help each other and share with each other.

Okay, that sounds lofty, but suffice it to say that behind the text and pictures of this blog, is a person that actually cares about the people who follow it and wants to see what I can do to help.

Bottom line, I care.

Yes, I get busy and I don't know it all, but let's see what happens with this.

So, what do you need from me? You can post it here, or email me at: jeff.roney@gmail.com

Shoutbacks

Hey there, I wanted to take a quick second and recognize some cool blog peeps that have given me some shout out love.

First, Donna Hole gave me a shoutout on her blog:

"Jeff Roney is a seriously cool cat; an old gangsta who frequently forgets to take his vitamins before leaving the house in the mornings. The shame of it! “My name is Jeff. I'm a married guy, living in Orange County, CA. I'm a software trainer by day, and a Social Media content creator by night (Kinda like Twilight, but I don't sparkle). I blog, write stories, try to make money at it all, and help people traverse the Social Media waters. Thanks for stopping by, following and telling your friends about it.” For those interested in pod casts, he has two other blogs dedicated to that media here and here."

Thanks, Donna. Her blog can be found here

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The Drama Mama gave me some shoutout love, too:


"Look up. Do you see? I have 140 followers, and my FIRST MALE FOLLOWER.  And I checked out his blog too. Do you know, he is funny? And not in that its-a-man-thing-women-wouldn't-understand kinda way either. Maybe he is funny in general since he is a man, and well, men are just funny creatures to start with. Either way, I'm glad he found me because I'm going to enjoy his perspective. A woman can never have enough of that. He even sums up the entire male species in his blog title: Men Are Dumb."

Thanks, Drama Mama. Her blog can be found here

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Mrs. Addison quoted a portion of one of my Heart of the Matter posts on Practicing Empathy on a post she did on marriage:

"But I think that is a major difference between men and women - men want to fix the problem and move on, or just move on. And I think women are more prone to dwell on things and to want to know the ins and outs of the problem.

Jeff at Men are Dumb, and I Should Know said it well:

Relationships are tough. It was that way since the beginning of time, and the same is still true now. One of the reasons is that we are all different.

When we hear someone telling us something difficult they are going through, we usually think, "Well, I would do this, and things would be fine," but we aren't the other person.

It happens a lot with disagreements, too. We think to ourselves, "I would never do that to someone else." True, you wouldn't but they might.

Practice empathy. Do your best to set aside the instant platitude, listen and be empathetic.

The world is full of people going through difficult times, and if you take some times to start to practice empathy, you could have the opportunity to release the pain of one person, and that could have a positive ripple effect.

That's just an excerpt of his post (click the link above to go read the full thing) but he is right!"

Thanks, Mrs. Addision. Here blog can be found here


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I wanted to say that I am humbled by the response to this blog. I say it over and over, but I mean it. I am blown away by the comments, responses and follower feedback. I'm so sorry that I haven't mentioned these here til now, but I'm making good on it right now. I also have some links and awards I need to post, too. I promise, I will.

Thanks so much for everything you all bring to this blog. You folks rock, and I treasure all of you. Now, I ask one thing from you...

Please stop by and visit these great blogs, give them some follow and comment love, and be sure to them Jeff from Men are Dumb sent you.

Thank you.

The Difference between Men and Women - Breaking Up

Breaking Up

Breaking up is never fun (Especially divorce, which is not fun times infinity). Whether you're the Break-er or the Break-ee. Being involved in a Break-up just sucks, but Women and Men treat the situation very differently.

Women in my opinion, are more plan oriented. I'm sure the Tower of Pisa would never be leaning, if a group of women had planned its construction.

It is interesting to note that woman discuss a "getting together" with a guy, and the "breaking up" with a guy as a communal experience with other ladies.

Women discuss each other's relationships like the stock market; good things (This rarely happens, btw) - the guy's stock goes up, bad things (This is the usual) - the guy's stock goes down. If his stock goes down low enough, the United Nations of her friends are called together to discuss "what to do".

The gathering takes places anywhere;

Someone's house,
a Bistro (Women loooove Bistros), or because its 2010
an online variation of the above.

Let's recreate it shall we? Hanna is the female that has called the meeting...

(You will now read the conversations from that meeting)

Hanna "The meeting to discuss the Breakup of Ryan, the jerk I've dated for 10 wasted months..."

Charity, a religious friend responds "Amen"

Hanna "... thank you Charity. You'd better pray for him. He's gonna need it. Anyway, the meeting will now begin. Roll call; My sister?"

"Here"

Hanna "My best friend"

"Who's that?" Asked five females at the same time.

Hanna "Right. My bad. (uncomfortable pause) You're all my best friends"

"Really? That's not what you said in Cancun." One responded.

"Uh Huh. I'm not even in your top ten Facebook." Another responded

"She's right. We could go home and watch Glee on DVR," Still another, responded

Hanna "Well, you more than watched Ryan, when I was in the Dallas for business"

"Touche. My Bad"

"My Bad, too"

"Me, too"

Hanna "Best friends, huh? Awesome. Okay, let's get into in it. Ryan was spotted at Disneyland with Inga, the Swedish lingerie model. Who took that picture?"

"Natalie did"

Hanna "Why isn't Natalie here?"

"She had to work at Macho Taco tonight"

Hanna "Somebody call her and get her on speaker,"

"I'm on it. Dialing. Hey Nat, we're planning Hanna's break up with Ryan. I'm putting you on speaker"

Hanna "Nat?"

"Hey Hanna honey"

Hanna "Do you have the picture of Ryan and Inga together?"

"Yup"

Hanna "Post it to your Facebook page, so we all can see it"

"Will do. :typing: Posted"

Hanna "Okay, everybody take a look. Let's all take a vote. Does everyone agree that this is in fact Ryan and Inga? Hands up for yes"

"I love that dress she's wearing"

Hanna "Hey, we're voting."

"Sorry"

Hanna "Okay, that's everyone but you in the back. You're my Starbuck's barista girl, right?"

"Yes, that's me"

Hanna "Uh, something wrong with your arm?"

"I don't have a good cell signal in here. Sorry."

Hanna "Get a better service plan and raise your hand, okay?"

"Sorry"

Hanna "So, it's unanimous. That is Ryan and Inga in the picture. Now Natalie, are you still on the phone?"

"Do you want papas fritas with that?"

Hanna "No"

"What about Super Flan?"

Hanna "No. Listen Nat honey, take a break. We need you, right now"

"The drive up window is real busy right now"

Hanna "Don't care."

"I'll see what I can do. Oh, hi Ryan!"

Hanna "What did you say?"

"Uh, I said 'they're fryin'"

Hanna "That's not what you said"

"Uh, it's really hard to hear you right now. Lots of static. That shirt looks looks great on you, Ryan. Who am I talking to? Telemarketer."

Hanna "Okay, well it seems that my friends have had more fun with my "boyfriend" than me. Great. Anyway, let's move on, shall we? I'll meet him at Corner Bakery on Friday at 7:00 PM. Who will be there ahead of time to broadcast the whole thing on Ustream?"

"Me"

Hanna "Great. We'll get pass cards with the internet address on it to all the sports teams. We need some groups on a few overpasses with signs of the address on it, too. You gotta wear bathing suits, you know the drill. I want the whole school to watch Ryan go down in flames, live."

A group chimed in "We got it covered"

Hanna "One more thing. Hack his Twitter and Facebook, and start posting some crazy stuff. Okay, the date will start at 7:00 PM sharp with us eating something. At 7:15, I'll do the "Where is this relationship going?" speech. He'll make some lame comment, and I'll start getting loud and creating a scene. That's the cue to email him the photo of him and Inga. I'll hear the vibrate ring when it comes in on his phone, then I'll grab his phone and do the, "What is this?!?" speech. We have dirt on Inga, right?"

"Yep. Lots of pictures of her with braces, bad hair styles and her in an awful Halloween costume for church. One text about putting the pictures on the school website, and she was in with us. I'll text her to be waiting outside the restaurant"

Hanna "Great. When I throw the salt shaker down, that's the cue to send Inga in. I'll freak out really bad, and start my "Am I interrupting your little Swedish fling?" speech. At that point, I need the Ustream person to come up real close, and we got him. He'll probably cry and beg to keep me, which will be great for all his sports team peeps to watch. He'll end up being a towel boy for the next 2 years. So, that's it. Pretty straight forward. After that, we head out for coffee."

"Hey, this is bad."

Hanna "What?"

"I got a Direct Message of a Tweet that a friend of Ryan's followed us, and is here now."

Hanna "That's okay. Use the find local Twitter users tab to find him, and see if he has his location finder on. Who's dating a security guy here?"

"That would be me."

Hanna "You sure date alot of..."

"Don't even start. How can I help you?"

Hanna, "Ok, Have him..."

"Wait, Ryan's spy just ran in the bathroom!"

Hanna "Perfect. No window, and he'll never fit in the air conditioning vent. We just wait him out. Get us some coffees, it'll be a long night."

"I got the spy's name. Matt Simpson. His Mom posted a youtube video of him singing, "I'm a little teacup," when he was 5."

Hanna "Excellent. He won't talk now, or if he does, he'll be trying to get dates at the Ren Faire for the next 5 years. Sigh. Still, Ryan is in month 2 of P90X."

"Hanna!!!"

Hanna "I'm so kidding"

...and scene.

Men are just the opposite when they break up with someone. Men stay off the Social Networking grid for a 24 hours, then hide at an undisclosed location, text the breakup message to the unsuspecting (most times) female, destroys the cellphone, and then hides in an Amish community for the rest of his life. It turns out he misspelled the message when he sent it to her ("I think we should sew other people").

Let's say it together people, "Men are Dumb!" Thanks for reading, following and telling your friends about the blog.

Heart of the Matter - Count Your Blessings

Count your blessings.

So much of the time we focus on what's wrong with things; The world, our life, our situation and our self. I'd like you to try something. Set aside a period of time that you can focus (I know many of you are busy with kids, jobs or life, but try), take out a pen and paper, and start to write down your blessings. Please do this away from the computer.

Start with something basic. Maybe, "I woke up this morning," or "My wonderful kids," etc. As you continue to write down your blessings, start to think about decisions you made one way, that if you made another could have had devastating results. Maybe a person you *could* have married, but didn't. Sometimes blessings aren't what you have, but where you are in life. We all could be far worse.

As you continue to list out blessings, start to think of people that are a blessing to you. Life is not a solitary journey. People are put in our path for a reason. Some people come along for difficult times in our life to get us through. Even though those people may not be around now, they were sent to us for a time and a purpose. Never forget good friends and those who were friends for a season.

As you look over your list, notice things that last. Money goes away, health may fail, people may fail you, but notice blessings that are lasting. Those you can build the rest of your life upon. Now that you've made your list, put in in a place you can refer to it when you need to. Add to it, if you think to as time goes on.

Now picture in your mind someone making a list of blessings for them. Would you be on someone's (hopefully more than one person's) list? You don't need to ask anyone if it would be the case, but think about it. We don't live forever. We have a short time on this earth, and the time we have is the time we need to use. You have captured your blessings on a list, but remember the greatest blessing in life is to be a blessing to others.

Have a great day.

Happy Mother's Day

 

First of all, I want to take a minute to wish all the Mom's a Happy Mother's Day. Thanks you for visiting, following, commenting and supporting this blog. Thank you so much. If you are a first time visitor, welcome to you, too.

Today, I want to feature my first Guest Blogger, and spotlight the greatest Mom of all, mine. Meet Karla.

Even with the struggles of life, raising two (Me, and my sister, Devon) not so easy (at times) kids, she faces life with faith, strength and determination and is always there for us kids. I've learned alot from Mom, and I hope I've helped her along the way, too. I've asked her to think of some "Mom" stories, and I would share them here. 

Take it away, Mom. :)

When Jeff was about 18 months old you really didn't like to take naps. I think he thought he might miss something. So...I went into put Jeff to bed in his crib only to find he had taken the screws out of two corners of the mattress. The mattress was hanging down. No way a nap was happening that afternoon.

Jeff was 2 and I was talking on the phone. I smelled smoke and ran into the kitchen only to find you by the toaster, fire blazing upward. He had put a napkin in the toaster, and tried to toast it. There was quite a blaze, I had to scrub down the kitchen before his Dad got home.

Jeff was probably 3 when this happened. He had graduated into a twin bed. When he took a nap, so did I. I woke up and he had crawled up on my bed and you were hugging me saying, "I love you, feet baby". He couldn't say his "S's" yet, but he was working on it. That's what I always said to you when I put him to bed. This memory is one of the most precious to me.

My daughter Devon, was a preemie born at 7 months and weighed only 3 lbs 6 oz. at birth. She was about 1 yr. when I couldn't find her anywhere. There was a large "Huggies" box in the living room that I had emptied and she crawled into it and pulled the top

back over her. I had no clue she was in there until she popped out. She laughed, I was just very relieved to find her.

Thanks Mom. I love you. Happy Mother's Day. :)

I know there are times that Mom's wish they could stop time and keep precious moments just as they are, but time marches on. Things change, and people grow up, but let's and create a time capsule of Great Mom Moments here. I'd like you to leave a quick story about you as a Mom, or about your Mom. It can be fun, heart warming or both, but let's take a minute and share. Thanks.