3M Challenge

“I get half a million just to show up at parties. My life is, like, really,  really fun.”~ Paris Hilton

There is a bus stop in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada where the maker of this particular kind of security glass has offered anyone who can break the glass is more than welcome to take the money.

3M is so confident that this challenge became a part of their ad campaign for the security glass that they were making.

I just found out about this today. I don’t know how long this has been there in Vancouver.  Nor do I know for sure if it still stands today. If you want to find out for yourself, its at the corner of Broughton and Pender Streets.

Some say that inside the glass case is three million dollars, thus taking the amount from 3M.

Others aren’t so sure, but their eyes sparkle in wonder when they come across this tantalizing deal.

Are you ready for the buzzkill? OR the “fine print” as I call it??

There is a security guard there watching over it. And there are rules to this endeavor should anyone wish to attempt to breaking the glass and walked off with the stash.

Here are some of the rules that I found on the Internet while searching to see if this was or was not a joke.

While there is a security guard standing nearby. If you wish to attempt to break the glass, you can only use your feet. You cannot punch it, you cannot throw anything at it, you cannot ram it. You may only use your feet to try and break the glass.

Security cameras have already caught a few people attempting this. I am sure that you can find them by doing a search online.

All that money, seems like millions.

Not exactly. The pile of papers inside is exactly that: paper. It is lined across the top with $500 in real currency and the rest is fake.

So you’re going to basically risk breaking your feet for only $500 in Canadian currency.

And if what I read from yet another web article is true, if you are able to break the glass….. congratulations. You have proven to 3M that they need to re-think their strategy in making this security glass.

But remember that security  guard that I spoke of? Yep. He’s going to be there to STOP you from reaching inside and removing any of the real money.

All in all, its a lesson in futility. The only thing  that it proves is whether or not 3M was successful in making a security glass that cannot be broken. There’s no real money waiting for you in this adventure whatsoever. Only jail time.

 

Reuniting Friends in Friendswood

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”~ Unknown

As I left for Houston over the past several days, I was able to stay with friends in a place called Friendswood.

My gracious hosts, Keith & Sharon, I had known since I was a small child. The last time I had seen them, I was only nine years of age.

But last November when I went to play sledge hockey in the Houston area, they did come up to see me play. It was so long ago that it was truly something of a wonder in my mind that I would actually ever see them again.

And so when they found out that I was wanting to come back in January for the next SIX MINUTE CENTURY show, they had agreed to play host.

So much time had gone by that the last time that I saw them, I only recall them having one child. Now they have five. The youngest being a teenager. Now that’s a long time and I just aged myself.

It was a great time, needless to say. I think that I met all of their children at least once. I actually had an opportunity to arrive on the bus a few hours earlier than previously scheduled but poor Sharon, she was not ready for that kind of thing. I believed that she was kind of in a panic to make sure that the house was cleaned and ready and all of that.

I told her that she was making a mountain out of a mole hill. I even bet her $10 that things would ultimately be okay and that I would have them all laughing their butts off. It didn’t take but midnight that very first day that they were all cracking up. She lost the bet.

It kinda got a little ugly as there were two buses going in the same direction and they just couldn’t figure out which bus I was going to get on, even though my ticket said which one I needed to board.

Once that was decided, then they couldn’t get the doors open to operate the wheelchair lift on the bus. They tried and tried and tried, and even called a few people to figure out what in the world was going on. I figured that it was going to make us late. Yet I found it funny. Grown adults trying to beat up a bus in frustration because they could not get a door open.

Once I got to Friendswood, we all were just fine. Quite busy doing things and different activities to be honest. That following day I spent with Keith taking in the sights. Luckily for me, he works with NASA at the Johnson Space Center. I got to see things that people normally wouldn’t get to see. But I will talk about that more in a future post.

$10 mints left on my pillow

And I did make Sharon pay that bet though. What was so funny was that she was preparing the bed that I was going to sleep on while I was there, and she left the $10 on the pillow, like a hotel chain would leave a mint. HILARIOUS!

I KNEW that I should’ve made it $100. But I think that Keith would have had some objection to that.

So the whole thing about the “mints on the pillow” was a joke throughout my entire visit.

I would find that the bedroom that I was sleeping in, had a television which was hooked up to the cable in the house. Television in HD, baby!! I don’t have that in my home. Neither do I have cable, so I did what I could to take advantage of it all, without trying to seem like I was being anti-social. I watched as much cable as I could and enjoyed cable channels that I didn’t even know existed. I did worry about whether or not they felt that I was being anti-social though.

Keith, Sharon, and myself traded a lot of stories about our past when it was connected. We filled in a few gaps in all of those years with highlights of our lives. And even some of the lower points that we all went through.

Memories galore.

I cannot complain though. They took me into their home willingly and were very welcoming. How can anyone go wrong with that?!? It was awesome to be with them and play sort of “catch up”, as it were.

I am very grateful for their hospitality, even if they were concerned about my comfort. But hell, I was just fine.

I was so busy doing things with the family, or even if it was just Keith and I. It was a GREAT time.

But as always, it had to come to an end. They brought me back to the bus station and I didn’t want to drag out any scene of uncomfortable farewells. I knew that I had cried my eyes out last August while riding on the bus because I just didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to leave this time either. But I wanted to fight the impending tears, avoid the scene.

So as I checked in to the bus terminal, some random man was apprehended and brought into a side office for questioning. I have no idea what the problem was, and evidently from his screaming pleas- he didn’t know either.

I moved on, trying to mind my own business.

Then I got to the security checkpoint. There was this big burly, muscled man with tattoos on both arms.

He asked if I was checking any baggage and I told him that I was not. Then he asked to see my luggage.

Now what I am going to mention here is that I had a bag on the back of my wheelchair. He FAILED to notice it and never checked it.

Anyways, as he was going through my luggage he asked the standard questions:

Do you have anything in there that is going to stick or poke me?

Clearly, no.

And then he asked something that nobody could’ve predicted:

You don’t have any weapons, guns, knives, explosives, inflatable bitches, grenades, or bombs?

What the …???

I told him, “No sir!”. And then he gave me back my luggage and wished me a bon voyage.

When I got away from him far enough– I lost it. I just couldn’t hold it in any longer than I did. I will never forget that for as long as I live.

And when I finally was through the checkpoint, I stepped outside and I noticed that the very same man that was apprehended earlier was back out on the streets. Within seconds, he was screaming and cussing at someone else and just making a total dork of himself. Hmm, and he wonders why they pulled him in??

I was boarded fairly early. And we also arrived about 15-20 minutes ahead of schedule.

But one thing always seems to happen to me whenever I take these trips to Houston. Its that my CD player always seem to have dead batteries before I even leave the official city limits of Houston. It is ridiculous. I think that I am going to have to buy a bunch of batteries and just use them specifically for trips to Houston.

I can’t wait to go back again. And depending on where I am, I might connect with Keith & Sharon again. If I can do it, then I will. They have always been awesome people. They still are. And I thank them profusely for having me stay with them.

Internet Security

“Never think you’ve seen the last of anything.”~ Eudora Welty.

Well, let’s face it. We should probably add this phrase to the list of oxymorons. Is there such thing as Internet security?

In some cases yes, there is. But most cases, no there is not.

Probably the number one thing we overlook as far as having our security online is the infinite ways of mass communication. Sharing sites, social networking sites. Even though you are told that you are secured- you really are not.

I am not referring to some high-tech illegal hacking ring somewhere thousands of miles away. I am talking about right here at home, the neighboring state, even in the other room.

Confused yet?

The information that we pour out into the Internet via e-mails, message boards, social networking sites, and other ways of mass communication drops that curtain of security and allows others to come into our lives. Even though we are not embarking on a journey to pass out our credit card information, we are sharing with others the OTHER kinds of information that sometimes we feel is safe.

After all, you would never had known I was wearing underwear with holes in it, if I had not told you so. Right? And no, I am not going to turn on any camera and prove it either! (Freaking perverts.)

These social networking sites are the worst. This is my main point. It allows us to say whatever we want to say, knowing that others are going to see it and read it. On a few rare occurences, they do strike back at us.

Photographs being uploaded of us soooooooo drunk the weekend before that now we are embarrassed that it ever happened. Or even some random rant that we scream at the top of our lungs about something, only to find out that we were wrong in the first place. Its out there and its there for forever.

The best thing for us to do is to not say anything. That is, if you are looking for absolute total security. But then again if that is the case, what are you doing on the Internet??

Some people WANT to be seen and heard because they have something to say. And I will say, that’s a good thing. Even I can come up with a gem of a statement a time or two, sprinkled here and there.

Those who have something to share, usually do. Its those who say things just for the sake of being seen. Those are the people who end up getting burned because they opened up their flood gates and allowed all of this information that was personal about them to become known and exposed.

And of course even for those who have decent commentary and important issues to talk about, their words get twisted because of the lack of sincerity that is taken when read. Including the absence of vocal inflection. We cannot tell just how serious a person is about something because we cannot HEAR whether they are shouting from the mountain tops or just casually speaking up.

It happened to me as of recently. One comment that was “heard around the world” and back again to the point where I had heard being said to me. Unfortunately when it was repeated back to me, the person who told me did not realize it was I who had started that comment.

Always think twice when using the Internet for communication. Don’t be so shy to edit yourself, and for crying out loud… proofread yourself!!!! Nothing says “boring” more than a message that is filled with errors. And seriously though, if you are unsure about something that you have written then don’t send it. If you have any uncertainty about whether or not you should be talking about it then chances are you probably shouldn’t be.