Questions & Answers

5 Steps For Taking Your Product To Market!

Admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:24:12 GMT

Getting your product on the market requires exceptional product knowledge, creativity, imagination, persistence and energy. Here are five steps that can be implemented with low, or no cost. Now, in some cases, your "product" may be you! Are you a professional speaker? Success coach? Entertainer? ... Take these steps and get your product on the market in record time.

1. Create a Marketing Plan

An excellent marketing plan is essential and serves as the blueprint for your business success. Begin by confirming that there is in fact ... a market for your product. Many overlook this and end up making one of the most expensive mistakes of their lives. If there is a market for your product, get the most recent market synopsis for your business. Do your research online and at your local library or bookstore. There is a plethora of information and literature available to help you succeed. Speak to individuals who operate businesses like yours.

Next, do your homework. Write down your specific goals, objectives, and desired outcome for your business. After you've done this, you're ready to create your marketing plan. Be sure to include your:

- Product description
- Target market
- Customer demographics
- Price
- Competition
- Promotion
- Advertising
- Profit percentage
- Product Guarantee
- Product/liability Insurance
- Budget

2. Set a Launch Date

What is the exact date your product goes on a shelf, in a rack, in front of an audience, or online? Write it down. Your launch date not only gives you something to aim at, it helps keep you accountable. Your Launch Date is considered your debut, or grand opening. It is the day your customers line up throughout cyberspace -- or around the block -- to be the first in line to buy your product.

The launch date is typically set far enough ahead for a full-steam ahead marketing effort. Setting a launch date six months in advance is the minimum I would suggest for a strong marketing campaign. Anything less would compromise your efforts and results. Six or more months out increases the likelihood for great previews, reviews, blurbs and other publicity mediums. And be sure to arrange radio phone interviews and personal appearances with radio and television stations.

3. Work With a Business Coach or Small Group

Everyone can benefit from the guidance and support while putting their product on market. A business coach or a business support group can help you reach your destination. You can't help but benefit from the shared experience and knowledge of others. These resources can also help you hold yourself accountable for reaching your daily goals and objectives. The primary goals include helping you grow -- and stay -- in business. You can meet once a week, once a month, or even once a quarter. It's up to you.

4. Take Action Every Day

This tactic requires discipline and is one you cannot afford to overlook. You must do something everyday which moves you closer to putting your product on the market. Be sure you are advertising and utilizing both online and offline resources to do so. Go out and network and establish business relationships in your community. Join your chamber of commerce. Approach your niche market everyday with the intent to advance. Be creative, daring and tenacious. Pick up the phone and tell the people about you and how your product can change their lives for the better.

5. Sell, Sell, Sell!

Sell, sell, sell. But not without a specific strategy. Depending on your product and respective marketing plan, you may want to focus selling to individuals first, then small businesses. As you reach your goals, you are more than likely to open up to retail or wholesale. Business-to-business selling is fundamental in the success of many products. Todd Mogren, a successful Internet Marketer says, "We began selling to individuals. Lots of our growth today is coming from businesses, including IBM, UCLA and Ford."

Illustrate the low cost and benefits of your product. Break down the price to its smallest increment and make the benefit clear. For example,"Enjoy delicious, high quality, coffee delivered to your home for less than 80 cents a day." Get the picture? If your product is a mail order item, factor in the appropriate expenses so when you package and ship it, you're not taking away from your profit. Your local post office can recommend the best mailing options.

Visit www.pcmacs.com We have excellent packaging plans! To your success!

We truly appreciate your visit to our site

Admin — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:52:45 GMT

We truly appreciate your visit to our site and we look forward to working with you to develop your corporate or small business presence.

We also value your comments. Does the site look appropriate? Is it easy to use? How can it be better? What questions do you have concerning our services?

This blog is here to post things that otherwise would not have a place. More of an outlet really.
If you have something you would like to post - send it to us at support@pcmacs.com
or post it to this message here.

Again, we appreciate your business and thank you for your time. http://www.pcmacs.com
Tony

“Buy a piece of Crap car like I did at 44 Auto Mart in Bardstown!"

Admin — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:54:09 GMT

My Olds Bravada was paid for. It was bought and completely paid for in the early part of 2002. It had its problems don’t get me wrong. There were no monthly payments and that was wonderful. But it had seen its better days. In early 2007 it was in pretty bad shape, but with a little work, I thought it could last another couple of years or so. It needed a tune up – done. It needed a new muffler system – done. It needed new window motors – done. It needed a new fuel injector - $400.00 – done. It needed new tires - $350.00 – whoa – done. Everything done – drove it home – and the friggin’ transmission went out!

It was time for a new vehicle. Past time really and I had to find one fast.

So I went to 44 Auto Mart.

It was early March and the weather was wonderful – too bad the Global Warming people weren’t happy about it. It was way too cold and wet for them to rally the troops! But that is another story…….
Anyway, it was early March – I went to 44 Auto Mart – I needed a vehicle.

This was the deal – I wanted a car with no money down for no more than $200 per month period.
I told them that I wanted a good vehicle as I already had a piece of crap at home in the driveway and I didn’t want to buy another one. They sold me a piece of crap!

Long story short, as we all have better things to do than just read a lot of fluff – I had already signed my name on the dotted line and agreed to a price consistent with a payment of $258.00 per month (which actually came out to be $168.20 (+) $110.28 – funny how it adds up differently after you sign the initial paperwork huh? But needless to say – the car broke down on me 5 times the first 4 days I drove it so it spent the 1st month in their fix it shop. The air-conditioning quit working but they said they fixed that. Well, at least the first part of the month they couldn’t find a problem with the fuel pump and then it broke down on me again twice the next day I took it back, and then they finally fixed it. Of course I got to drive 4 other vehicles the 1st month of their choosing – but I will give them a thumbs up for my not having to walk the 45 mile trip I make every day to work!

I won’t even go into the fact that the finance company they had initially set me up with was not aware that I had bought the car thru them so I had to fix that myself - and the insurance company they thru at me apparently charged me $100 just for signing up with them! Woo Hoo! Can you feel the sarcasm in my words? I don’t care that they dropped $600.00 off the total price for my inconvenience – my stress and time was far more important than that measly amount. I don’t even care that they paid the $300 to fix the car when it was broken – as it should have been working when they sold me the damn thing in the first place! Good thing I waited to write this down long after the fact so that I do not appear to be as mad, huh?

Ok, here is where it is now.
I bought this damn thing the 1st week of March and drove it maybe one week that whole month. I still had to pay the car payment that month didn’t I? Well, in April I had to put brand new front and rear brakes, rotors and drums on it. In May I had to get all new tires – the front 2 were dry rotted and the back 2 had rubber separating from the tire itself! In July – well in July guess what? The damn air went out – followed by the fan motor! Unfortunately – due to the lack of not being a freakin’ multi millionaire – I lacked the funds to fix that. And it’s hot out there man! It’s now freakin’ August for crying out loud!

So I thought I would write this blog and send them the link.
And I thought I would get that bright “buy this car” stuff and write on my car things like “this car broke down 5 times the month I bought it! Follow me to 44 Auto Mart!” and “I bought this from 44 Auto Mart and it’s a piece of Crap!” and oh yea “Buy a piece of Crap car like I did at 44 Auto Mart in Bardstown!"

I wonder if telling the truth in a Sarcastic way can be deemed “liable”. Guess I need to contact a lawyer.

Stay tuned……oh and I just found out. A new Blower motor is gonna cost me $200.00. Woo Hoo!

Microsoft Technical Support vs. The Psychic Friends Network

Admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 08:22:01 GMT

Microsoft Technical Support vs. The Psychic Friends Network
by michael ellard and d posted by tenzwarth [27.May.2001 rev:b editor:nope!]
Microsoft Technical Support
vs.
The Psychic Friends Network
by Michael Patrick Ellard and Daniel Albert Wright
In the course of a recent Microsoft Access programming project, we had three difficult technical problems where we decided to call a support hotline for advice. This article compares the two support numbers we tried - Microsoft Technical Support and the Psychic Friends Network. As a result of this research, we have come to the following conclusions:
• Microsoft Technical Support and the Psychic Friends Network are about equal in their ability to provide technical assistance for Microsoft products over the phone;
• The Psychic Friends Network has a distinct edge over Microsoft in the areas of courtesy, response time, and cost of support; but
• Microsoft has a generally better refund policy if they fail to solve your problem. In the paragraphs that follow, we will detail the support calls we made and the responses we received from each pport provider. We will follow this with a discussion of the features provided by each support provider so that readers can do their own rankings of the two services.
Our research began when we called Microsoft regarding a bug that we had detected when executing queries which pulled data from a Sybase Server into Microsoft Access. If we used the same Access database to query two databases on the same server, we found that all of the queries aimed at the second database that we queried were sent to the first database that we had queried. This problem existed no matter which database we queried first. Dan called Microsoft's Technical Solutions Line, gave them $55, and was connected with an official Microsoft Access technical support person. As Dan began to explain the problem, the support person interrupted him, and told him that since it was clear that it was not just a problem with Access but with the two programs together, Microsoft would not try to help us. They did, however, have a consultant referral service with which he would be glad to connect us. Dan then asked if we could have our $55 refunded, since Microsoft was not going to try to answer to our question. The tech support person responded by forwarding Dan to the person in charge of giving refunds. The person officially in charge of giving refunds took Dan's credit card info again, after which Dan asked about the referral service. It was too late, however - the refund folks could not reconnect Dan with the tech support guy he'd been talking with, nor could he put Dan in touch with the referral service hotline. End of Call One.
Our second call came when Dan was creating some line graphs in Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access actually uses a program called Microsoft Graph to create its graphs, and this program has a "feature" that makes the automatic axis scale always start the scale at zero. If all of your data are between 9,800 and 10,000 and you get a scale of 0 to 10,000, your data will appear as a flat line at the top of your graph-not a very interesting chart. Since Dan was writing visual basic code to create the graphs, he wanted to be able to use visual basic code to change the graph scaling, but he could not find anything in the help files that would tell him how to do this. After working with Microsoft Graph for a while, Dan concluded that it probably didn't have the capability that he needed, but he decided to call Microsoft just to make sure. Dan described his problem to the technical support person, whom we'll call Microsoft Bob. Microsoft Bob said he'd never gotten a call about Microsoft Graph before. He then left Dan on hold while he went to ask another support person how to use Microsoft Graph. Microsoft Bob came back with the suggestion that Dan use the online help. Dan, however, had already used the online help, and didn't feel that this was an appropriate answer for a $55 support call. Microsoft Bob didn't give up, though. He consulted the help files and learned to change the graph scale by hand and then began looking for a way to do this via code. After Microsoft Bob had spent about an hour on the phone with Dan learning how to use Microsoft Graph, Dan asked for a refund since he had no more time to spend on the problem. Microsoft Bob refused the refund, however. He said he wouldn't give up, and told Dan that he would call back the next week.
Microsoft Bob did call back the following week to admit failure. He could not help us. However, he couldn't give us a refund either. Microsoft Bob's supervisor confirmed Microsoft Bob's position. While Microsoft Technical Support hadn't solved our problem, they felt that a refund was inappropriate since Microsoft Technical Support had spent a lot of time not solving our problem. Dan persisted, however, explaining that if Microsoft Bob actually knew the program, he would have been able to give Dan a response much sooner. The supervisor made no guarantees, but he instructed Dan to check his credit card bill at the end of the month. The supervisor explained that if Dan saw that the charge was still there at the end of the month,then he would know that he hadn't gotten a refund. End of Call Two.
Our third call to Microsoft involved using the standard file save dialog from within Microsoft Access to get a file name and directory string from a user in order to save an exported file. The documentation didn't make it clear how to do this using Visual Basic code within Microsoft Access, and Dan decided to call Microsoft to ask if and how a programmer could do this. The technical support person he reached told him he was asking about a pretty heavy programming task. He cheerily informed Dan that he'd called the wrong number and advised Dan to call help for Visual Basic, not Access ($195 instead of $ 55). This technical support person was extraordinarily helpful in getting Dan his refund. End of Call Three.
Stymied by our responses from Microsoft, we decided to try another service provider, the Psychic Friends Network. There are several noticeable differences between Microsoft and the Psychic Friends Network. Microsoft charges a flat rate per "solution," which is a single problem and can be handled in multiple phone calls. As described above, Microsoft may or may not issue a refund of their fee if they fail to provide a solution for your problem. The Psychic Friends Network charges a per minute fee. They do not offer a refund if they cannot solve your problem. However, unlike Microsoft, they will not charge you extra if they provide more than one solution per call.
We decided to test the Psychic Friends Network by asking them the same questions that we had asked Microsoft Technical Support. We called them and were quickly connected with Ray, who was very courteous and helpful. Like Microsoft Bob, Ray quickly informed us that he wasn't fully up to date on the programs that we were working with, but he was willing to help us anyway. We started off with our first problem: making a connection from Microsoft Access to two different Sybase Servers. Ray worked hard on this problem for us. He sensed that there was a problem with something connecting, that something wasn't being fulfilled either in a sexual, spiritual or emotional way. Ray also identified that there was some sort of physical failure going on that was causing the problem." Do you mean that there's some sort of bug?" we asked. Ray denied that he knew about any sort of bug in the software. "Are you sure there's not a bug?" we asked. Ray insisted that he did not know of any bug in the software, although he left open the possibility that there could be some bug in the software that he did not know about.
All in all, Ray did not do much to distinguish himself from Microsoft Technical Support. He wasn't able to solve our problem for us, and he wasn't able to confirm or deny that a bug in Microsoft Access was causing the problem. We then asked Ray our question about using Visual Basic to set the axes of a chart. Ray thought hard about this one. Once again he had the sense that something just wasn't connecting, that there was some sort of physical failure that was causing our problem. "Could it be that it's your computer that's the problem?" he asked. "Is this something that happens just on your computer, or have you had the same problem when you've tried to do the same thing on other computers?" We assured Ray that we had the same problem on other computers, then asked again, "This physical failure that you're talking about, do you mean that there's some sort of bug?" Once again he assured us that there wasn't a bug, but that he didn't know how to solve our problem. "I sense there's some sort of sickness here, and you're just going to have to sweat it out. If you'd like, you can call back tomorrow. We have a couple of guys here, Steve and Paul, and they 're much better with computer stuff than I am." To conclude our research, we asked Ray about our problem with the standard file dialog box." It's the same thing as the last one," he told us. "There's some sort of sickness here, and you're just going to have to sweat it out. There is a solution, though, and you're just going to have to work at it until you get it."
Conclusions
In terms of technical expertise, we found that a Microsoft technician using Knowledge Base was about as helpful as a Psychic Friends reader using Tarot Cards. All in all, however, the Psychic Friends Net work proved to be a much friendlier organization than Microsoft Technical Support. While neither group was actually able to answer any of our technical questions, the Psychic Friends Network was much faster than Microsoft and much more courteous. Which organization is more affordable is open to question. If Microsoft does refund all three "solutions" fees, then they will be the far more affordable solution provider, having charged us no money for having given us no assistance. However, if Microsoft does not refund the fees for our call regarding Microsoft Graph, then they will have charged us more than 120% of what the Psychic Friends charged, but without providing the same fast and courteous service that Psychic Friends provided.
Microsoft Tech Support 1-(800) 939-5700
The Psychic Friends Network 1-(900) 407-6611

Blood Covenant - A short novel in progress

Admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:09:46 GMT

Blood Covenant


“Not Everyone Survives the Breaking of the Glass”

T.H.N.J.T.

“You hear about it all the time. You read about it in the
newspaper every morning and watch it happening right
in front of you on the television news at night. Some guy
goes crazy and kills his estranged wife in a fit of rage and
then turns the gun on himself. What was that word they
used to describe his wife? Estranged? Oh, that means they
were separated or rather she was separated. The guy probably
never had a choice in the matter. She probably started
shacking up with some guy right there in the marital bedroom.
Then she contacted a lawyer, drew up bogus charges of abuse
and took custody of the kids, the house, the car and the GODDAMN
FAMILY DOG! OH NOW HE IS THE BAD GUY!
Sorry, I didn’t mean to lose my cool there. After all, violence
is not the answer. It is perfectly legal to take away a husband’s home,
family, personal possessions and social standing in the community.
It is perfectly legal to kill a man’s spirit and reason for living.
Heaven forbid he should ever fight back!



Epitaph

Her body came awake with a sudden jolt! As if lightening had struck her in sleep! Eyes wide open, heart beat pounding as she looked into the blackness that floated about her room.
             The blade had cut her smooth and swiftly. She dared not move. Half in and out of dreams she dared not move. Was the thunderous sound that brought her to conscienceness gunfire? Or was it the sound of her own screams? Her eyes moved slowly to where her lover lay motionless beside her. The light from the street danced through her window and cast blatant shadows upon her walls.
           “I told you I’d get you, Bitch!” said a shaky half-familiar voice. “I told you I’d get you!”
             The sharp pain from the knife that sliced her ever so delicately at the base of her neck caused blood to trickle down upon her skin. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t move; her lover lying dead just inches from where she lay.
            “For all you have done to me,” he said. “For all you have done to my family, our family, to our son! You low life worthless no good piece of shit whore! Don’t you know how much I loved you?” And he raised the knife above her. “Go to hell!”
             And the knife came down deep and solid.
             Again and again he wielded his tool. Her screams muffled only by the sounds of his blows! Over and over he stabbed her, until his clothes were saturated and his anger sated! And her screams became his screams!! Her death became his.
            And he laid himself down between them, his wife and her lover.
            And he rolled in their blood.



Dedication

This novel is dedicated to all those who have helped me in my times
of crisis. To my sister and her family and all the friends I didn’t even
realize that I had. To my Parents, without whom I would have only
been able to write these lines behind prison walls. But especially to
my son. For if it were not for him, I would not be alive.

Book One

Foundations of Stone

Chapter One


Wind Songs

It was a beautiful bright and sunny day. The air was brisk and alive with the scent of honeysuckle and fields. The wind played among the leaves while the waters of the lake sparkled like diamonds beneath the golden sun. Mark was three years old this summer. His mom and dad had brought him home a baby sister from the doctor’s office last winter, and he loved her, very much. He had saved all his pennies the previous summer and had given them to his mom because he knew that baby sisters were expensive. And today, with the weather being warm enough, he finally got to show Jenny the back yard. The most wonderful place in all the “outside”.
              “Come on Jenny,” he said. “let’s play!” Mark loved to run and play. He had a dog that would lick his face every time he would come near her. He had his cowboy hat, his boots, his cap gun and holster, he had it all. Jenny didn’t understand the games her brother liked to play. She was just learning to walk. But she laughed at him as he ran around on the grass and pretended to shoot the sky.
              Laurie, Mark and Jenny’s mom looked on with much happiness, and a smile came to her face. These two were her pride and joy. She had married her childhood sweetheart when she had turned eighteen. She and her husband Rueben had both come from large families. And raising kids just came naturally to them, since they had always had younger brothers and sisters running around as they were growing up. They had a lot of love and adoration for each other, and an equal amount of love for both of their children.
              Mark and Jenny played all afternoon. Jenny still in diapers pushed her baby buggy around the yard, through the grass and dandelions that puffed up into the air and tickled her nose. “This is fun, ain’t it Jenny?” said her brother. Their mom just smiled. God had been good to her and had blessed her home with much happiness.

Book Two

Glass Houses

Chapter One

It was about 4:30 A.M. on the morning on February 22nd, 1998. It was a cold Indiana Sunday morning. Mark lay on the couch in the living room drifting in and out of sleep, waiting for Nikki to come home. She had left a while ago, sometime around dusk and was supposed to have already been home by now. He was worried about her but he knew that her mother had accompanied her to the Dance Hall. And he knew that if they had run into trouble that someone would’ve called him. He only wondered why she had gone with her mother instead of with him, since this was the first weekend that they had had to be together in a long time. Several hours ago when he and Nikki had kissed in the kitchen, he felt the passions ignite in him again as only she could do; she made him feel young again. With Nikki it was always like the first time. They had actually held hands in public while walking in the Mall that very same afternoon, which was something that they hadn’t done in what seemed like an eternity. Mark loved Nikki with his whole heart, and he hoped that their love for one another would once again be as it once was: filled with excitement and passion and closeness.
              It had been hard on Nikki and Mark knew that, with the move and the change of environment. Mark had taken her over one hundred and fifty miles away from where they had built their lives together. Away from her family, away from her friends, away from the place that had become her hometown. She had moved from town to town all of her life, and had never really known the feeling of being a member of a community and having a place in it. Here in this new and much larger town she felt that she had no one. Of course she had her husband and her children. But there was sadness in her heart, that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t comfort. The move had been hard on everyone. But it was a decision that they had made together; although it seemed to have been made somewhat in haste. But it was a decision made as husband and wife none the less. It was a move that benefited the entire family both financially and emotionally, and that was Mark’s main goal. With his new job, Mark could be the sole provider of the family income and Nikki could stay home and be with Jason their three-year-old son, while he was still young enough to stay home, before he would have to go to school. But this was not what Nikki wanted, not really. She had agreed to the move for reasons Mark was unaware of. She had told all of her friends that she did not want to move, that Mark was making her go. And that he had forced her to give up her job and all she had known because he wanted to advance his career. Mark didn’t know this side of his wife. He didn’t know the kind of person she truly was. How badly she would belittle his abilities behind his back. She then had cried and begged for a job after just two weeks of being in their new home. She said that she had had to work all of her life, that she needed the interaction and the feeling of self-reliance. Mark loved her, so he conceded. And now she had found new friends among her co-workers, most specifically with a young boy with the same first name as their son.
             It was warm in the room with the Television turned down low. The flashing and changing lights from the set keeping the otherwise total darkness at bay. Jason was asleep in the master bedroom, and Kayla, Nikki’s thirteen-year-old daughter from a previous marriage and Mark’s stepdaughter, was asleep in her room just across the hall. There was little comfort however from the icy rain that beat down upon the windows outside
             Mark knew that Nikki would be returning soon. After all, she had taken her mother with her. What kind of trouble could she possibly get into? But he was worried just the same. Nikki had been sober now for over four years. She had proven to Mark that she wasn’t an alcoholic. But since last weekend when she had gone out with the gang from work, and had come in very obviously drunk, he couldn’t help but have doubts as to what she was doing tonight.
             The lights from the car flickered and cast reflections upon the walls and ceiling of the living room. And the sounds from the engine could be heard as the car pulled into the driveway. A single door slam and the sound of a key turning in the door lock preceded his mother-in-law entering through the kitchen door.
             Mary, Nikki’s mother immediately walked through the living room and down the hall only glancing at Mark lying on the sofa briefly and went into Kayla’s room. “Kayla. Kayla.” she said. “Wake up. Your mother’s outside in the car and she wants you to go with her.” Kayla woke up and quickly dressed and stumbled half asleep across the living room, looking at Mark questionably. She walked into the kitchen and out the door to where her mother was waiting in the car. Mark who was half asleep himself and unknowing of what was happening, sat upright on the sofa and asked, “What’s going on?” Mary didn’t know how to answer. Just then Kayla returned to the kitchen and grabbed three or four cold beers from out of the refrigerator and went back outside to the car. Mary stood there in the kitchen changing the balance of her weight from one leg to the other in kind of a nervous stance. “I’ll tell you in a minute”, she said.
             Mark stretched and yawned and tried to come to full conscienceness, he was not completely alert to the events he was seeing, even though inside he was shaking. “Where’s Nikki?” he asked Mary. “She’s outside in the car”, she said. “She’s drunk.” Mark quickly came to his feet, the blanket he had had wrapped around him fell to the floor. He grabbed his jeans that were lying in a heap on the carpet and slipped them on. With no shoes and shirt unbuttoned hanging loosely out of his pants, he ran out the door, across the icy cold concrete of the car-port floor. He grabbed the door handle of the car and tried to open it but she had locked it. “Stop Nikki! Nikki stop!” he yelled. Nikki didn’t say a word or even look at him. Mark hit the car hood with his fist as she put the car in reverse. He chased her down the driveway, into the street as she sped down the road and out of sight. “Where are you going? Come back!” he screamed.
           “Goddamnit!” said Mark as he watched as his wife and stepdaughter leave. The rocks cut into the bottoms of his feet as he stood there in the road. “What in the hell is going on!” he screamed. “Goddamn, what the hell is going on now?” The cold came to him then. His breath turning to mist as he spoke. He turned and went back into the house and stood there looking at his mother-in-law. “What the hell is wrong!?” he said. “Would you please tell me what is happening?” Mary was glassy eyed. He could tell she had been drinking, too. She had atleast had one drink tonight. “Sit down” she said. “Sit down and I’ll tell you what’s going on.”
           “I don’t want to sit down, just tell me, right now what’s going on with Nikki!” said Mark. “What has happened? Where is she going?”
           “I’ll tell you when you sit down son.” Mary said. “Now come over here, I don’t want to tell you this while you’re standing up.” Mark walked over to where Mary was sitting, and he sat down beside her. His heart was pounding. He knew what she was going to say, but he had to hear it anyway. The color drained from his face, as he heard her words. She wanted to hold him and make it all go away. Mark was like a son to her. More of a son than she had ever known. And she knew that what she had to say was going to destroy his world.
            Jason had awakened, crying and had stumbled down the hall, hanging half on and half off the couch, his toes tangled up in the blanket that he had brought with him from the bedroom. He cuddled his granny and hugged her tightly.
            “She’s running around on you.” she said looking into the vacant eyes of her son-in-law. “She’s lost her mind! I don’t have any respect for her anymore.” she said. “She’s running around on you Mark. My own daughter and I can’t stand her anymore!” And she clasped her hands together and got up from the sofa and walked around the room. “I’m telling you the truth, son.” Mary said to the man who sat so quiet now, barely breathing. “I wouldn’t lie to you about something like this!”
            “Who was she with?” Mark asked. “Jason.” She replied.
              It wasn’t the words she spoke or the truth that hit him all at once. He was in a state of shock, he barely even heard her as it was. It was the rush of visions from over the course of the last six and a half years that flooded his mind in an instant. Everything hit him at one time. The yelling, the tantrums, the screaming for no apparent reason whatsoever. It was the tenderness, the birth of their son, the passion in their lovemaking; it was his life, their life together that hit him square in the face and knocked him cold. Time ceased to exist. His life was over. What was he going to do now? What would he do? What could he do? It was as if Mark was no longer in control of himself and his body simply reacted to the situation at hand. Without a word he got up off of the couch, went into the kitchen, grabbed some garbage bags from out of the counter drawers and walked down the hallway into his bedroom.
             “What are you going to do son?” asked Mary. “I’m getting the Hell out of here!” Mark exclaimed. “And I’m packing up all my shit!” Mary sat in the living room and held the baby. He didn’t understand what Daddy was doing and he cried. Mary was crying too.
                Mark looked up at the shelf in the closet. He knew his gun was there, wrapped in a sock lying in his desk drawer that he hadn’t had time as of yet to reconstruct. He reached up and retrieved the .25caliber semi automatic handgun and loaded it. He walked back down the hall and into the kitchen and placed the gun on the table. “Watch for her to pull up into the driveway.” He told Mary. “Tell me if you see her.” And then he bolted the door, and walked back down the hall. “If she shows up with that boy, I’ll kill them both!” he said.
              What bothered Mark the most was that he didn’t know if he would do it or not. If Nikki were here she would take custody of his son; no father in the world would be able to get custody away from the mother. And no other man was gonna raise his child! He knew a lot about her past and the boy. Atleast that’s what Nikki had called him that last time they had had a conversation about him. “I don’t want to wear too tight of clothes to work.” She said. “It might make that little boy’s dick hard!” Would he shoot her to keep her from taking his son? Should he call the police? Would they simply ask him to leave his house and his kids and allow her to have it all because she was a woman? He was more afraid that he wouldn’t shoot her to save his son. His life with her, or his son’s life without him, what would he choose? Choices had already been made. He only prayed that she would not return until after he and his son were gone.
             It was now 4:42 A.M.

Chapter Two
The Long Night

In a long black leather trench coat, motorcycle boots, and with hair down past his shoulders Mark stood in the crowd watching the show. He was a rough, good-looking young man in his early twenties. He could have had his choice of any woman there at the gathering, but he didn’t know it He hadn’t really come to see the band play tonight anyway. He was here to see her. The year was 1991. It was the night of All Hallows Eve.

Letter to Bank of America

Admin — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 19:26:48 GMT

Thomas H. Nalley
Bardstown, KY. 40004
September 27th, 2002

Karen Jones
Recruiter
Bank of America Mortgage
101 E. Main Street, Suite 400
Louisville, KY. 40232

Dear Karen,

Thank you for the interest you and your company have shown me in regards to the customer service position. Regretfully I must ask you to withdraw my name from among the candidates.

Although I found yourself and the human resources facilities to be quite adequate, I was unimpressed by your supervisory hiring staff. I found them to be very unprofessional. And I do not feel that they set an appropriate example of what it takes to become a member of management. However, if you pride your staff in discussing their careers with their previous employers (Providian), or encourage them to talk about up and coming football games during interviews with prospective employees, then these two were really on the ball!

I have interviewed with several other companies, and have accepted a position in the area with more potential. I thank you for your time and wish you lots of blessings in your future.

Thomas Nalley
(Tony)

***************
This letter is alot funnier if you know that - it was written after I had received a declination letter from Bank of America just before I wrote this - and it got their people in trouble because their HR department called me. It was great!

BellSouth Resignation Letter

Admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 08:03:23 GMT

February 28, 2003

BellSouth Administration:

                 Since my youth I have pursued a constant progressive career path that included BellSouth Communications as a final objective. I vigorously attained high levels of achievement in order to enhance my abilities and prove my aptitude in this field. I cannot tell you how proud it made me to become a member of your organization.

                 In the four months I have been employed in your business office I have been witness to a great many things. Having previously held the title of “Best of the Best” with Sprint Communications and partaking in the award ceremonies that followed, the small and seemingly insignificant awards presented in your forum, to your staff, appall me. I have never seen a company so seemingly focused upon a sales driven agenda; literally beat the confidence and moral out of their sales force. A sales team should be excited to sale and achieve and be awarded and applauded by their management team. BellSouth Small Business seems to be seeking automated puppets that hand out pre-scripted dialogue to their customers while micro-managing their sales force into oblivion.

                I have seen employees with nearly 30 years seniority terminated because of newly formed rules and poorly applied leadership skills. If I am seeing this with only four months employment, how can I envision my tenure at BellSouth?

                I am not going to use the excuse that your ordering systems are so fundamentally inept that it causes a sales focused person to loose sight of the objective. Nor am I going to imply that your mis-trust of your people in the use of listening devises and other gathering tools interfere with an honest person’s ability to achieve. What I am going to say is that this is the most poorly executed set of circumstances and rules placed upon a sales organization that I have ever had the misfortune to have been apart of.

                I will be forwarding a copy of this letter to several departments and accept termination of employment with your company.

Tony Nalley

Sincere Appreciation

Admin — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 19:27:17 GMT

May 7, 2002

To the Editor:
I would like to express my most sincere appreciation to the hiring managers and human resources personnel of the many respectable companies located in Bardstown and Nelson County. I am and have been a citizen of this community for most of my thirty-five years. I am also a single father; a taxpayer and a registered voter who proudly has chosen to raise his son in this beautiful and historical city. It has often been a dream of mine that I not only live and breathe here in this little corner of the world but also that I would work here and make a living for my family. I want to thank you for not giving me the opportunity to do that.
I want to thank you for the countless hours I have spent on work related paperwork and testing, and yet never having been offered a job. I want to thank you for requesting resumes and yet still requiring an application to be filled out. Thank you for hiring your friends and family over the more qualified applicant. Thanks for making myself and I am sure many others, feel humble and at your mercy. For without your blatant disregard of my personal abilities, I would most certainly have lowered myself to the seven or eight dollar an hour earning potential that this community has to offer. For did I not see a help wanted add recently in the local paper requiring a degree in Biology and offering the handsome sum of seven dollars per hour? Thank you for not giving me such a job.
I would like to thank the local and state government officials, who ask for my support at election time. I would like to thank them for not answering my letters requesting their support in return. With such compassion for your constituents you will most assuredly be remembered at the next election. Also, I would like to thank the wonderful businesses and manufacturing facilities that use temporary services to fill employment positions. If it weren’t for companies such as these I would never have known how a rabbit might feel having being teased with a carrot.
Though I may miss out the many exciting opportunities here; super sizing combo meals; bussing tables and washing dishes I have chosen to accept an opportunity elsewhere. I hope this causes no hard feelings and again I appreciate your kindness.
Sincerely,
Tony Nalley

My Own Point of View

Admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 07:58:09 GMT

My Own Point Of View

Inevitably, you will find that most things we cling to rely mainly upon our own point of view. An interesting line taken from a movie nearly two decades ago, yet as true today in wisdom as any line I personally have ever heard. What is truth? And from what point of view are we seeing it? And how serious are we willing to dwell into the subject?
On a light hearted side I suppose I could say that one truth is that McDonalds will almost assuredly have a broken chocolate shake machine every time I go through the drive-thru. At least that is how my son sees it. And why is that? And am I only seeing this from his point of view?

On a slightly different note, I was reading an article in the Kentucky Standard just the other day about the Stephen Foster Musical. The article mentioned that there has been a steady loss in ticket sales over the past few years and had no clear answers as to why this phenomenon was occurring. One truth that I have become increasingly aware of is our “politically correcting” of virtually any and all history that might offend someone. The Stephen Foster Drama had been a success to my knowledge for many years until the very soul of the story was ripped from the stage. What remains in essence is a show without meaning, without character and apparently without ticket sales. Is this not the truth, or merely truth from my own point of view?

On a much more serious side I find that we stand at a pivotal point in American history where the very fabric of this nation is being stretched and torn. Was the United States of America founded by a Christian people? Did they not ordain and establish One Nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all? Yet we take God out of our schools and wonder why our education falters. We take the Ten Commandments out of our public offices and Government facilities and wonder why there is no justice. If we take God out of the very heart of our country, will she not fall? Can you not see this from your own point of view?

I am a devout believer in God. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. I am loyal to this country, my family and my home. And I believe that sometimes it becomes necessary to express oneself even if the reasons why…rely mainly upon my own point of view.

Tony Nalley