Now my grandfather was proud of his time in the Navy during World War 2, and certain holidays like the 4^th were always a blast for him but I was too young to get why he loved them. All of it came together when my brother Greg enlisted in the Marines.

Now Greg was a problem child who I always butted heads with, but after he signed those papers, it seemed like a light went off in his head. He changed from snot-nosed punk into an upstanding member of the military. It was a noticeable change for everyone in our family, but the person who was the proudest was my grandfather.

One Fourth of July, while my brother was in Iraq, I went to my grandparents’ house for some food and fireworks. It was then that my grandfather explained to me why the day was so important to him and all of the members of the military – it was the day that they defended. As a soldier the country came first and was something that they were in charge of keeping safe.

From that day on the holiday, along with Veterans’ and Memorial Days, has taken on a new meaning to me. I look back on the years that my family did not have my brother around and the fear that my mother had every night that he was in combat. I remember wondering what he was going through, but realizing that with the job Greg had, that he might not be coming home. It was scary and I cannot begin to comprehend the feeling of the possibility.

So heading into the holiday weekend, I urge you to say thank you to someone who served our country to help protect the freedoms we often take for granted.  Also remember that it is easy to protest the war and place blame on a President or congress. It is a hell of a lot easier than sitting in a far off land away from your family and friends – fighting for those same protesters’ freedom.  With that, enjoy the weekend.

This post is part of the #whywecelebrate initiative started by Heather Whaling as a way to reflect on why we celebrate July 4^th every year. Sure it is to toast our independence, but we often forget who helps keep us free, the military. To learn more about the project, or to get involved, click here to read the full press release – the more stories the better, so feel free to share. If you don’t have a place to, share use the email in the release, or shoot me your story and I’ll be glad to offer some space over the weekend.

Image – Flickr – <wikd>

How are you giving back?

Now James is on the customer service team and I am sure that he works on some kind of commission based scale, so I was pleasantly surprised when he did not try to sell me during my hour-plus conversation with him. Instead he offered free workarounds to a $150 fee to help rid of the site issues that I was having in the process he probably gave up some commission, but gave a great customer experience. A fair trade-off if you ask me.

So again, thank you James, you made a bad situation decent and did the decent thing of not tricking me into thinking I needed to pay an extra $150. Here’s to hoping you get a raise or promotion.

GoDaddy, I forgive you for the bad Super Bowl commercials this year.

As a flack, I am clicking countless links surrounding the company and also do some policing of policies, so my computer has had its share of issues, but nothing major. I am still trying to figure out if it was one of these links or the Twitter phishing issue that compromised the site, but needless to say it was a pain in the ass to get fixed. I also apologize if you had any issues with any bugs or Spyware pop-ups from visiting my site. I hope that your tools caught them and no harm came to you.

The hacker also compromised the RSS and email feed so if you were subscribed in the past, please click here for the new RSS or sign into the email above.

Thanks.

Jeff

Keep it smiling and help out a good cause here.

Click here if you can’t view the video.

It has been a few months since I read a book that was a.) fiction and b.) non work  career development driven. Many folks told me I simply needed to have fun and really relax. So I figured, hey what the hell, but couldn’t figure a book that I should pick up.

That was until walked into our building’s laundry room and looked at a book that was sitting on the free pile. It was Mitch Albom’s The Five People you Meet in Heaven. I have wanted to read this book for a while now, but never got around to it, so this gave me an excuse to check it out. Granted the book is pure fiction, but I took away an important thing from it that I am going to try to implement in my life both personally and professionally – stopping to enjoy the little things. One of my biggest problems is that I don’t enjoy the everyday successes and dwell to much on the losses.  So you could call it a belated new year’s resolution courtesy of Mitch Albom.

Image - UberReview.com

As my brother noted in his best man speech for me, I was not the nicest of kids growing up. In his exact words, I was an angry and mean person.  Okay, I may have bullied my brothers a bit. I was also known to make fun of folks now and then, but that was part of growing up back then. You messed with people and if you pushed too hard or said something really dumb, you got popped in the mouth. You can ask the kids that used to bully my younger brothers what happened when they messed with one of us. Bless my mom for having four boys.

Those were much simpler times, no real internet (unless you count dial up as internet). Kids were brought up without much coddling. For the most part, if you were picking on folks it didn’t go over board. In today’s society there are numerous more outlets for kids to taunt each other.  Some of the taunting is in jest, but others not so much. With all of the advancements that we have in technology, some really rotten things have happened.

I’ll often joke that social media is a lot like high school, a lot of cliques and fiefdoms. People talk about social media overload because they are on 24/7 and don’t want to accept friendships with people they hated in high school. Granted, adults can zone out the folks that we don’t like, but for the younger generation it’s not that easy. Their high school life mixes with their online lives, which breeds what you can call the “mean girl” syndrome or cyber bullying.  It’s really just one large chat room where the picked on don’t stand a chance.

If you are questioning where I am going with this rant, let’s rewind to my morning drive into work yesterday. The topic of discussion on talk radio was of Phoebe Prince, a 15-year old girl who committed suicide after falling victim to bullying of both the in-the-flesh and of the cyber varieties. The whole subject makes me sick.  Kids are brought up nowadays as young adults, but the internet is faceless and there aren’t many consequences for bullying. Think about it.  There is no human connection with taunting someone online so kids often don’t realize when they’ve gone too far.

Unfortunately, Phoebe Prince’s suicide isn’t an isolated incident and there are numerous stories online.   The thing that makes it scarier, according to the Boston Herald’s article, was that the law is not currently designed to prevent or remedy cyber bullying.  “The laws when they were made didn’t anticipate the cyberworld,” said Plymouth DA Timothy Cruz. “Certainly there should be something as pertains to cyberbullying.”

So with that statement, it is up to parents to take an active role in protecting their kids, especially online. I do not have kids but have given the following suggestions to my mother when helping out with my 15-year old sister.

Teach the online right and wrong – Now you do it in real life so why not extend it to your children’s virtual lives? If you are active in the social real, you should share that knowledge with your kids. The biggest lesson is that nothing you post ever goes away. Plus, in a public forum everyone can see it. Sure you might thing Suzie Q smells bad, but should you broadcast it to hundreds of people online? Ask them how they would feel if they read that they smelled like a two-day old tuna sandwich.

Be involved – It may sound old fashioned, but getting involved with your children goes a long way. Think about how you grew up. If your parents caught you acting up, chances are you would get smacked in the ass or grounded. Now I am not advocating violence, but become a friend of your kid and follow them on Twitter. It might be a little big brotherish, but it goes along the lines of what you should be posting on social sites. Kids should thing what would my folks think about me posting this? With the new TV’s integrating Facebook and Twitter, you could do a monthly family check up on these pages. Make fun of each others’ pages and say what’s working and what isn’t.

Networks don’t have to be all-inclusive – Many of us are ardent supporters of the thought process that follower counts really don’t matter. So why not keep it that way online. Only invite people in who you know.  That cute boy professing his love for you from a field trip… Well if you don’t remember meeting him, he doesn’t exist. It’s probably Sally down the road or creepy Mr. Wendle who had to let your parents know he moved into the neighborhood.

Privacy is nice – Just because everyone has the chance to own a soapbox and air their dirty laundry, doesn’t mean they should. There are also things that should be kept private. Both of which are important for kids to understand. Much like the right v. wrong example, there should be a common decency as well as knowing what should/shouldn’t be said.

While cyber bullying was the main reason for this rant, it is truly important to mentor the younger generation on how they should handle themselves online. After all there are no second chances when it comes to first impressions.

What do you think? Are there extra steps that parents can take that I missed?

I made the video to throw something out there. The card was originally won answering a question that Jeff Cutler had posed one afternoon broadcasting live from the company’s Natick location. Since the company is ready to offer cards to drive patrons to their store in return for publicity, I wondered if they (or any other company *cough McDonalds* *cough Dunkin Donuts*) would be interested in offering the same cards for a socially responsible cause.

From the PR side, the companies could also leverage it in terms of good press while also benefiting from the humanitarian work as well. Sorry the flack inside creeps out every now and then.

Massachusetts is cold in the winter (as are many other areas) and there are a lot of homeless and down on their luck folks out there. Why not offer them a warm meal and a place to warm their bones? Think about it a $5 gift card would assure a meal whereas money can be used for booze and drugs.

It might be something to consider next time you have a food gift certificate lying around.

What do you think? Am I crazy or would this be a decent move for some companies?