by Shane Holden on August 28, 2012
Brief redlight conversation with a fellow Ron Paul supporter, who like me, had a large decal on his back glass.
- Him: Your decal is a lot nicer than mine.
- Me: Haha. We got screwed though, huh?
- Him: Ehh, well, it’s bigger than the Presidency. It’s a movement.
Truth.
by Shane Holden on February 7, 2012
I know politics at work is supposed to be a no-no, but I’ve really enjoyed educating everyone at my work about how the system really works and what freedom and liberty really are.
- Co-worker: If Ron Paul doesn’t get the nomination, who would you suggest I vote for then?
- Me: Well, honestly, if he doesn’t get the nomination, and you don’t write his name in, it doesn’t matter who you vote for.
- Co-worker: Really though, there’s got to be a next best?
- Me: Nope. All of the other candidates are the exact same. Out of all them, just pick the one that has the prettier face to you, and vote for him.
by Shane Holden on February 6, 2012
Really, all it takes is a random short conversation sometimes from a complete stranger to make me smile. This is one from today at lunch at Long John Silver’s.
- Lady at LJS: Can I ask y’all something?
- Chase & I: Sure thing.
- Lady at LJS: Are y’all twins?
- Chase & I: Yes ma’am.
- Lady at LJS: Which one is the bad one?
- Chase & I: Hmm..we’re both pretty good.
- Lady at LJS: Good. That’s nice to hear.
- Chase & I: Thank you.
- Lady at LJS: Y’all have a blessed day.
by Shane Holden on January 6, 2012
There’s a temporary all-way stop near the end of our street now, that’s turned into a really good place for those guys that walk up to every car with a bucket asking for money for who knows what kind of “charity.”
Today’s stop went something like this:
- Chase: Sorry, don’t have any cash.
- Man taking up money: In the name of Jesus! In the name of Jesus!
- Chase: Sorry man, I don’t have any cash.
- Man taking up money: Now that’s supposed to work! I’ll be prayin’ for you two!
Really? That’s supposed to work using Jesus to get people to give you money? That’s wrong if you ask me.
by Shane Holden on December 12, 2011
Not sure what’s up with today, but it sure has brought out some very unthoughtful, angry, and down right despicable people.
Drive to work
On our way to work this morning, we pull out of our street and proceed up to an All-Way stop, where there will soon be a red light when the construction is finished. There was a guy on a Harley behind us, they’re crazy enough to ride year-round, and pulling through the stop, he does what they all do, ride your butt. As we approached the next stop light, he cuts through the median to get into the turn lane that is further down the road, and cut us off. There’s not many times that I feel that it’s appropriate to lay on the horn, but this was one of them. Annoyed by the horn, he starts kicking his left foot trying to land on the kick-stand so that he can get off his bike. Now mind you, this is one of your typical Harley guys, which by no means intimidate me whatsoever. I’m not sure why, but when you get a Harley, you instantly become a bad-a, or at least that’s what the majority of the riders believe. They’re usually big, hairy, foul-mouthed, etc., but I’ll still stand my ground with them instead of cower. He walks back, is shorter than me, and in the goofiest voice ever, we have the following short conversation.
Continue Reading..
by Shane Holden on December 11, 2011
- Grandma to Dad: What’s wrong with the boys—why are they so quiet?
- Dad to Grandma: Nothing Momma, they’re always quiet.
It’s true—I’m an observer, a listener, a thinker.
by Shane Holden on November 1, 2011
- Co-worker: How long have y’all been here now?
- Me: Going on 10 years. Too long, haha.
- Co-worker: That’s not so bad. It shows you have some stability.
by Shane Holden on October 13, 2011
I’ve been an eBay user for well over 10 years now and have never ran into someone trying to rip me off until recently. Two times in the past 2 months, with the most recent being below and taking place last night.
- Seller: Hi, it’s showing that u paid me, but you have a hold on the funds. I need the funds available to me so I can ship. Please release the hold so I can ship. Thanks
- Me: I’m not sure about a hold that you are referring to. I logged into my Paypal account and it shows no hold or anything. It just shows the payment to you as Completed. Is it showing that in eBay or PayPal? If you need to wait a few days for that to go away, I’m perfectly okay with that. I’ve never seen anything like it, and even though I do need the card asap, do what you need to do
- Seller: It is showing it in eBay. It showed the payment complete but it also has a negative transaction amount from you as if ur holding the payment. We can wait a day or 2 to see if it comes through. Or if there is a way you can cancel the payment and do it again maybe it will go right through. My only problem is I do all my Internet through my iPhone so I can’t print a shipping label from paypal. So that’s why I need the money to clear before I ship. Sorry for the inconvenience.
- Me: I made the payment with a CC, so there shouldn’t be a hold at all. But like I said, if you need to hold it, no problem man.
- Seller: Ok I talked to eBay support, and they said your account is holding the money till you leave me positive feed back. They also said there is no way for either of us to cancel the payment to bypass the hold. So that leaves us with 2 options we can leave each other positive feed back to release the fund and I’ll over night the card to you as soon as it’s released. Or I’m sorry to say but I’ll have to cancel the whole thing cause there is no way I can ship without the funds… Sorry let me know what u want to do.
- Me: Actually, let’s just cancel the whole thing. If you’ll refund my money through Paypal, I’ll pick one up from someone else. I’ve never heard of a hold, never had a hold placed, and especially eBay, eBay doesn’t have anything to do with payment, just Paypal.
- Seller: Yeah that’s fine I can cancel. But I can’t refund I don’t have access to it. Let me figure out how to do this. Oh and by the way I was on the phone with eBay support I don’t have a message. But as soon as I can find out how to cancel this and untie your money I will. Sorry for any inconvenience.
- Me: I’ve put in a claim with Paypal so that they can send my money back. I guess what I can do is just escalate it since you can’t really do anything with it, and they can get it done much faster. Thanks
- Seller: Well obviously you knew what you were doing, the hold was lifted and you took ur money back so thanks for waisting my time! Screw this whole eBay thing I’ll never be on here again!
Continue Reading..
by Shane Holden on June 29, 2011
This is the gist of a quick redlight conversation with the car next to us on the way home from work today:
- Man: Hey, is Rosie your Mom?
- Me: Yep, sure is.
- Lady: Is Bill your Dad?
- Me: Yep.
- Man: We used to work with your Mom.
- Me: Oh really? That’s awesome!
- Man: Tell her we said hi!
- Me: Oh..um..well she passed away back in November.
- Man: Oh I am soo sorry! We didn’t hear about it. I’m soo sorry.
You know, that never gets any easier—breaking it to someone that is just so full of excitement after not seeing her in years that they want you to tell her hi for them, and seeing how it hits them. It really knocks the wind out of my sails to have to be the one to tell them too. The sweet part of it being bittersweet is knowing how well liked my Mom was by anyone that ever had the pleasure of meeting her.
by Shane Holden on June 13, 2011
I’m a little behind on writing about our trip to DC. My motivation lately can be found near the nonexistant level, even with trying as much as I can to do better on things. Even writing, something that I think ultimately helps me, comes with such put-off that it takes me much longer than I ever want or anticipate to type something out, or in some cases, respond to emails.
I’ll start off with the short version, which was a text conversation with one of my friends.
- Friend: So how was your whole trip?
- Me: It was good, nice to get away, although very lonely. I want to go back again sometime though and see the rest
- Friend: Why lonely?
- Me: I dunno, hard to explain, but was. The ride up was emotional to begin with, leaving Dad alone and going the same route we went with Mom last summer, sounds wussy but that sort of thing gets to me lately.
- Friend: That makes sense. It isn’t a wussy thing at all. Family should always be one of the things you care about most.
Continue Reading..
When you’re at that point, when you feel it’s all pointless… It’s not. The trick is to just keep doing it, that’s how you succeed in the end. It’s the secret to life, do anything often enough, and for long enough, and you get good at it. So keep on. Keep writing. Keep painting. Keep singing. Keep dancing. Keep fighting. Keep. On.
— Unknown
