Becki Newton

Christina Applegate

Get A Job

When I first moved to this town - I had planned on being a country squire who would sit on the front porch and drink lemonade and living off the rent I collected from my properties.
Okay, I don't really have a front porch. The image just seemed nice when I'd imagine it.

But being retired at 33 gets old really fast.
I had to go do something.
Volunteer work got depressing - I got tired of seeing a bunch white people helping a bunch of Black people who used these services as another level of dependency.

I had to actually work to make some money.
But after being out of work for a few years with no references - I was stuck.
I could run clubs or construction sites - but here, nobody knew or believed me.

My first construction job was gained from driving by a house being built in my neighborhood and seeing the lack of progress.
I had helped the owner's parents earlier when they were having problems making a repair to their home.
When the owner's mother told them that I could do construction - "No, he's just a California pretty boy" was their response. "Look how soft his hands are" was another common response from neighbors.

But one day I happened to have my tools in my truck from making repairs to some of my rentals.
I stopped and said,"You need help".
"No thank you", they said.
I told them that I wasn't asking them if they needed help, but that I was telling them that they needed help.
After a few hours of making corrections (The old California earthquake codes are similar to the new Texas hurricane building codes), I went home.
That night, the owners and the mother came to my home to pay me and to ask whether I could finish building their home.
I had only stopped to help them make some corrections at no cost to them.
But they wanted to pay me a pretty nice sum to finish building a three bedroom 5,000 square foot home.
After I finished building the home, I couldn't keep up with the offers for employment I'd received.

It gets hot and humid here during the summer months.
I didn't feel like sweating all day.
So, I decided that I would do a little bar work to enable me to sleep late and to keep cool.
But no one would hire me.

I came across a struggling club that was looking for a bartender.
But all of my references were out of state.
I told the owners that I would work two weeks for free and that if they liked my work, they could hire me.
At the least, it would be two free weeks worth of labor - it was a win-win for the club.
After the first day, I was hired.
After two months - I was part owner.
After six month - I was a full partner.

After this stint, I had created a service of setting up and opening bars.
I can pick and choose with whom and for how long I wish to work.
So, what's the point?
To be creative in proving your worth in a tough economic or social environment.

Pink Slip

I'm done.
My last hope has fallen.
The last family that I mentor on making the leap from the 'hood to the middle class has just seen their primary bread winner receive her pink slip.

This woman has only a high school education and has worked for the same refinery for the past thirty years.
She just bought a new home in a middle class neighborhood two years ago.
She had never NOT lived in the ghetto - in spite of having a $130k a year job in the second cheapest market in which to live in America.

I convinced her to keep her old home and to rent it out for a price that would cover her mortgage payments, insurance, taxes and maintenance.
I convinced her to stop eating out at restaurants twenty meals a week.
I convinced her to consolidate her credit card debts.
I convinced her to sell her time-share. (Well... really, to just stop making payments.)
I convinced her to buy the best quality products she could afford and to take care of them.
I convinced her to only buy the clothes, furnishings and products she really wanted or needed(and not just because she liked how they looked).
I convinced her that it didn't matter how much she made if she never had anything to show for it.
I convinced her that just because she had the money to buy something - that didn't mean that she could afford it.

All this came to an end today.
Her three grown children are so dependant on her that they will be of little help to her in keeping her home.
Two of her grown children have been fired from their jobs in the last month for not producing at work.
Her grown children treat her new home like it is a resort that offers free; maid service, cook, laundry service and free financial grants in aid.
She caused her family to fail because she demanded little of her children - and getting what she demanded (little) in return.

Now she plans on walking away from her nice, but not extravagant, home.
Now she plans on going back to her old ghetto home.
Now her grown children are nowhere to be found.

36,000 A Year

Before you rush out and buy this spiffy bio-gear,

Remember - pandemics and plagues are nothing new.

What does seem to be more prevalent are the multi-derived (and not known to exist in nature) strains of these diseases.

It seems as though the followers of Joseph Mengele have found a new population on which to test their ideas.

But according to the CDC - the most common causes of death in America in any given year (about 2,448,017) will be;

- Heart Disease - 652,091

- Cancer - 559,312

- Stroke - 143,579

- Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases - 130,933

- Accidents - 117,809

- Diabetes - 75,119

- Influenza/Pneumonia - 63,001

(36,000 from Flu alone and with 220,000 hospitalized)

Yep, that's right.

Thirty-six thousand people die from the flu every year.

Most of the other deaths could be eliminated by diet, exercise and abstaining from tobacco products.

How much of this new panic is much ado about nothing?

Shakira

The perfect little black bikini... but at $120 can it really make you look like Bar Refaeli?

She claims she's spent her life searching for the 'perfect little black bikini' - and finally found it in this number from Hurley.

But anyone hoping that parting with their $120 will help them look like swimwear model Bar Refaeli is surely going to disappointed.

For although the black two-piece certainly flatters Miss Refaeli's figure, it is her curves which make the shots so eye-catching.

The catwalk beauty, who is dating Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio, shows off the skimpy swimwear in a new ad campaign for US surfwear firm, Hurley.

Source : Dailymail.co.uk

Amanda Peet

Carmen Electra