Year 2, Day 251 (Fire The D.J.'s And You Stop The Spin)

Pretty recently, a man whom I know through social media (though we haven't yet met in real life) and I engaged in a pretty good conversation, which actually sparked this post. I won't reveal his real name, so let's call him "Mike" (that's seems a common enough name). Mike and I were discussing what's going on in the Middle East, more specifically between Israel and Iran. He views Israel's Prime Minister Netenyahu as being "war hungry" toward Iran. I feel differently. Here's a few differences between the two: PM Netenyahu has never called for the destruction of Iran, Ahmedinijad has called for Israel's destruction... on many occasions... in many different forums (to include the U.N. General Assembly, right in NYC); Netenyahu was never involved in taking American hostages, Ahmedinijad has (remember 1978-79?); Israel has nuclear weapons, Iran wants nuclear weapons (they key difference here is Israel has them for possible use in a defensive measure, whereas Iran has already made it known they want nuclear weapons to destroy Israel. But you know it wouldn't stop there, Iran would further use the weapons against other "infidel" nations... which definitely would mean the U.S.

Mike and I agree that we need to pull our troops out of the Middle East. I also think that our Government needs to stop meddling in the affairs of the Middle East especially since NOBODY in Washington has any clue about the culture NOR the mindset... and I will stress - they have NO CLUE!

During our diatribe, Mike had mentioned Bush never finding the WMD's. Let's look back in history briefly. First, then-President G.W. Bush, in the days & weeks following 9/11, was responding to the intelligence reports he was given by then-Director George Tenet. Tenet had been appointed the deputy DCI (Director of Central Intelligence) in 1996. At the end of 1997, the then-DCI, John Deutch abruptly resigned, making Tenet the acting DCI. Shortly after that, he was unanimously appointed, after then-National Security Advisor to Clinton, Anthony Lake, was blocked for confirmation, then withdrew his nomination for the position.

As you can see, there were a lot leech-lines to this cesspool known as "politics". Much like there were leech-lines with the WMD debacle. When Bush went to the U.N. to get the green light to send troops (which I don't think he should have asked the U.N., but rather told them what we were going to do... we were attacked!) into Iraq, there had already been dirty money being made due to the "Oil For Food" scandal. It's possible that some of that dirty money made its way into the pockets of certain U.N. Diplomats. It had already been discovered that Germany and France had business dealings with Iraq, under Hussein (another point of irony: it was also Germany and France who's opposing vote blocked the U.S. from sending troops weeks earlier). I'll put it this way: U.N. "sources" (probably directly tied to Germany and France) get in touch with Iraqi officials with the message (to put in non-Diplomat terms), "Something's getting ready to go down and we're are trying to hold off the dogs... whatever you have - make it disappear!" It sounds kooky, but when you consider that, on multiple occasions, when U.N. Inspectors were searching facilities in Iraq (stemming from the post-Desert Storm U.N. resolution treaty/agreement), it was almost laughable that they were denied access and run off by either Iraqi troops, government officials, or both.

Getting back to Israel... to put it in a nutshell: if our Government can't even protect our own people, then have no right to tell Israel not to defend theirs. Ahmedinijad is not only a danger to Israel, he is a danger to the world. Remember, we didn't realize how dangerous Adolf Hitler was until the world found out he had murdered millions before anything was done.

By the way, thanks you, "Mike" for the discussion. Did I miss anything?

Year 2, Day 142 (Scott Schultz, In Real Life)

Today turned out quite well, despite the drizzling rain... not that there's anything wrong with the rain... this is the Seattle area, after all. The customer that Dillard and I are delivering to (scheduled for tomorrow) unloaded us this morning. This customer I've always enjoyed dealing with... always. The fact that we were unloaded first thing this morning was a plus, because that leaves the rest of the day free.
As I mentioned yesterday, I made plans to meet up with Scott Schultz. Scott and I first interacted with each other via Twitter, then later on became friends on Facebook. As of today, we finally met face-to-face.




We met up for lunch at a nice little place called Pallino Pastaria. I ordered the Pesto Genovese with Penne, which was very delicious.




We spoke about a variety of things, mainly getting to know each other; family, children, careers, etc. It was a very enjoyable time, I'm glad we finally were able to put real personalities behind the various tweets and random Facebook postings. We'll keep in touch, Scott... may you and your family be blessed!
- Posted by me

Year 2, Day 141 (Another Trip Done)

As of right now, Dillard and I are sitting in Woodinville, WA, where we will be unloading on Wednesday morning before heading up to Burnaby, BC to finish this trip out. When we arrived we headed out to venture around Woodinville for a little bit. I was hoping I would have been able to shoot into Seattle for an hour or two and drink a coffee with Terri Nakamura, but that, unfortunately, didn't happen. Since Dillard and I were running low on our hours, I wanted to make sure we made it here before we ran out. Terri is someone I initially met through Twitter, then we "friended" on Facebook. We met in person last year, and I hope I can meet up with her again sometime in the near future.

Tomorrow, however, I will be able to meet another person I've become acquainted with, via Twitter; Scott Schultz... but more on that tomorrow.

Dillard and I, as I mentioned earlier, went venturing around. He popped into a Taco Bell to get something to eat. As for myself, I went in search of something different. In the plaza behind Taco Bell, there were several restaurants of varying cultural cuisines. At first I was going to try the Thai restaurant, until I saw Pho Hao... a Vietnamese restaurant. I have had food from many different cultures, and many different cuisines... but not Vietnamese. I had to give it a shot. So I ordered one of the soups (don't ask what the name of it is, I don't remember) and was absolutely delighted!




It was light, yet filling. I will absolutely make another visit in the future.

- Posted by me

Year 2, Day 107 (Going In A Different Direction, I Hope I Don't Get Lost)

Since I lapsed in doing so yesterday, I would like to extend a very heartfelt "Thank You!" to the guest bloggers whom filled in for me last week. In case you missed any of them, they were (in order of appearance) RebbeSoul, Blanca Raygoza, Chrisinda Lukens, Lauri Rottmayer, Julie Mollins, Natali Heuss, and Ernmander. I am very grateful that each of these fellow bloggers (and in Ernmander's case, vlogger) stepped in and helped out.

This is further proof of the good that can come of social media, in all its various forms, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or InstaGram. Without these platforms, I would not have interacted with each of these people. Driving a truck I do meet a lot of people, but there is a certain level of class and panache that comes with the people you meet through social media, those who have the finesse (not to mention the technological "know-how" of maneuvering through such forums) and the respectable etiquette that were once confined to the ballrooms and gatherings of "high society". Granted there are still the - shall I say - "street rats" that manage to get into the fray, but that's what makes social media social. It is up to the individual to determine what can (or should) be said... and when. If it's deemed to be "inappropriate", there are those out there that will make it known to the offender, even without discrediting their own reputation. This is called "class" and "tact". The best definition of "tact" is one that my best friend, C.J., and I often refer to (and use on occasion):

"Tact is being able to tell someone to 'go to hell' in such a way that they look forward to the trip."

Year 2, Day 102 (Guest Blogger: Lauri Rottmayer)

Awww, why'd you have to go and do that?

While I am a rule follower in my daily life, when it comes to twitter I don't follow too many rules.

When I first started tweeting, there were rules such as only tweet seven times day, don't tweet photos of your breakfast (lunch, dinner, etc), and there was the whole Follow Friday thing.


I love to tweet. And some days, I tweet a lot more than I do on others but I never feel like I'm tweeting too much. If you think I tweet too much, you should probably follow some more people so you don't think that anymore.

That's a lotta tweets!

When I tweet photos of my food guess what happens? They are the most viewed photos of any that I tweet. This is ALWAYS the case. It turns out, people really do care what I eat or at least they are interested in seeing photos of it.

Back in my early twitter days, my friend

@PatrickAllmond

, posted a blog about the whole Follow Friday meme. It was really a great post that, sadly, he has taken down and can't find because I'd love to share it with you. It was the post that made me rarely ever participate in #FF or #FollowFriday.


Mostly, I was afraid of missing someone and hurting their feelings by not mentioning them on #FF. But Patrick's blog post gave me something rational to direct people to when I needed an explanation.


Now people probably just think I'm loopy. And they're probably right.


I think people are kind of getting away from doing the #FF thing with just lists of twitter handles and are gravitating more towards #FF mentions such as this one:

This kind of #FF could actually be helpful to a new person on twitter for their very first Friday and wondering who to follow. I wonder how many people who start twitter on a Friday and just see tweet after tweet after tweet full of nothing but twitter handles quit the day they start?

Anyway, my point is that since twitter is all about establishing relationship, I don't follow all those rules. I just go with the flow. 

However, I do have one twitter rule. And it is hard and fast and if you break this rule I will unfollow you. 

I love new followers. I love the chance to get to know and interact with a new friend. But if I follow you and you direct message me to Like your facebook page, our relationship will be cut short. As in immediately.

I am sad about that. I think, "awwww why'd you have to go and do that?" But unfollow you I will.

As I go through my days on twitter, I see people openly asking to join them on facebook. This doesn't bother me. But the immediate auto-reply direct message just does me in.

So....I really want to get to know you on twitter. Please don't ask me to like your facebook page in a direct message. :-)

Lauri is the trophy wife of David Rottmayer. She enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her best friend (David). They live with "Boo Boo the Wonder Dog" in Oklahoma. Lauri and David have recently become grandparents to their amazing glambaby, Aniston. They met while serving in the United State Marine Corps and will soon be celebrating their 33rd Anniversary. Lauri can also be found on Twitter, her blog, and her website.