A friend of mine since way back in high school recently went to drug rehab. He had been struggling with his addictions for quite some time and finally decided to throw in the towel and receive some help. For years he denied he even had a problem. It took losing everything for him to finally open his eyes and see what he’s been doing to himself, his friends and his family.

It may be cliched I know but reading is in fact fundamental. I always say that when a person reads, they polish up on their vocabulary and widen their word base. When I give a gift to a child, I always give a gift of a book. That way, they will not only be educated on certain things that they read, but their speech will also be eloquent in conversation with others.

You’ve seen the baby obesity stories on the Maury Povich Show. We all have, but I never thought I’d see one in the flesh until I saw my new neighbor’s kid. The child is all of eight months and she’s heavier and fatter than my two-year-old is. What are they feeding her and why are they allowing this baby to get so fat? And then I look at her mom and then her grand-mom and I see a long history of obesity of their weight. It’s good to feed your kids what they may want sometimes, but in moderation and only what their little stomachs can handle. The parent and grandparent can eat to their hearts content and gain weight if they want to, but please leave the baby out of your food binges.

I have a problem with “boys” who call themselves men and who have no problem with forsaking their own “seeds” to go live with women who’ve got their own kids. Whatever happen to the old adage “charity begins at home?” Why, I’d be disgusted if a man were to pursue me and neglect his kids to come live with me and mine. It is unfair and the sad reality is that the other woman does think that anything is wrong with this. After all, she’s getting the financial and physical help that she seeks. Why complain? How can a man not want to stick around and raise his kids the right way, to teach them morals, be there at their graduation ceremony and share their growth experience with them? How can this man neglect all those key moments for spending time with his step kids are totally beyond me. Although not acceptable but if the man’s kids are all grown, it may not be so bad. But it is a problem when his own kids are babies compared to the ones he has left the home to raise. This is a new level of irresponsibility and disrespect because if a man cannot have compassion for his own seed, his step kids won’t be that far behind. Just some food for thought.

We all know that the ratio for one woman to a man is very slim, especially with half the men either married, in jail or gay. But that does not give women the right to act all desperate for the first man that come their way. Summertime is the season for “hooking up” with someone and my girlfriend has already hooked up with a man that I don‘t think is right for her.

He sleeps around with other women and she is aware of it, but maybe she is so blinded by love or just prefers to have someone to call her man whether he’s with her exclusively or not. My girl is working overtime to keep this man, and has even bought him clothing and gives him money of which he spends on other women. Pity, women are so quick on blaming men when they eventually get their heart broken, but my view on this is that women are their own worst enemy. Money could afford us a lot of luxuries in life, but love isn’t one of them.

Preparing your resume in anticipation for a job isn’t an easy task. There are so many one month jobs that you are likely to forget to list and not to mention in chronological order. I’ve sent out a lot of resumes to various companies within the last month and I am appalled that no one responded. Clearly I’m employable but maybe I don’t possess the “it” factor that they are looking for. What pisses me off even more is that applicants should at least get the memo from these employers that the position is filled. Would that be so hard for them to do? With so many automated responses programs being sold, it would be nice to receive a letter that let’s us know that we should not get our hopes up too high because someone else go the job. Some courtesy would be nice Mr. Employer.

Since losing my full-time job, money is extremely tight for me. I needed to get some legal help and decided to call one of the lawyers in my city that came highly recommended by one of my girls. We talked for a while on the phone, I told him about my financial situation in hopes that he would do the case pro bono. The lawyer invited me to his office and said that I should bring my necessary documents along. He took a look at those documents and I got a little more in-depth on the nature of my case. Would you believe the man had the nerve to tell me to get $4,000 so that he could assist me? I was like “but I told you I was broke from the jump off, why did you bring me here?” He then asked if I attend church to which I answered occasionally. Then he suggested that I go begging my church and its pastor for the money to pay so that I could pay him to take my case. This man not only wasted my time but my cab fare also. I was out his office so fast, and never to be heard from again.

With the world being as corrupt and evil as it is, it’s always good to pay homage to the good that you encounter along the way. I had returned to New York’s La Guardia airport after my travel recently, and my cousin who was supposed to come pick me up was a no show. I was upset to say the least while talking to the airline clerk about what had happened to me, this Puerto Rican guy walked up to me. Apparently he had heard my conversation because he offered to drive me to CT with him and his buddy.

Anxious to get home, I went along with him and his friend. We drove for two hours to CT and he later told me that he and his friends were lawyers. They were so good to me that they even stopped off along the way to buy me dinner before taking me directly to my front door. I tell people about this and they say that I’m crazy for traveling with two strangers. That may be true and I won’t recommend it to anyone to do, but in my situation, I guess God really protects children and fools.