Tag: cnn

Does This Renew or Destroy Your Faith In Humanity?

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

homeless man gets boots

I was so touched when I read about the story of a police officer in New York City giving this homeless man socks and a $75 pair of Sketchers boots.  According to police officer Lawrence DePrimo, a two-year veteran of the NYPD, “he had blisters about the size of my hands.”  He felt sorry for the guy so he did a good deed and he paid with it out of his own pocket.  Bravo!

See, I was homeless when I was a teenager and when I was in my early 20’s, so any time I see anyone giving so generously to a homeless person who never asked for anything, it gives me hope.  However, this homeless man, now identified as Jeffrey Hillman had allegedly “sold” or “gave away” his new shoes, according to an article that I read.  Whether he did that or not didn’t diminish the good deed that Lawrence DePrimo did.  I still have faith in humanity.

I am just now finding out that Jeffrey Hillman isn’t homeless.  According to CNN…

“Jeffrey Hillman, who served in the military, is eligible for support through the federal Housing and Urban Development’s Veterans Affairs Support Housing program, Diamond said.

“Thanks to that program, Jeffrey Hillman has a Bronx apartment that has been paid for outright, Diamond said, emphasizing there was no need for the man to “panhandle on the streets to pay rent.” Diamond would not give any details about Jeffrey Hillman’s use of the apartment.”

The thing is, even knowing this “homeless guy” has an apartment, it doesn’t diminish the good deed done by Lawrence DePrimo who had no idea that the man he was helping didn’t need help.  We shouldn’t all lose our faith in humanity just because this homeless guy turned out to be faking being homeless because maybe he gets enough money to pay his rent, but what about his food?  Look at him, he’s skin and bones.  Perhaps he really doesn’t have shoes, I mean, according to the officer, he had blisters about the size of his hands on the bottoms of his feet, so maybe he doesn’t get enough money to get by.

I am not defending him, I’m just saying don’t throw your hands up in the air and say this whole thing was a fraud because the cop was still doing a good deed, and no matter what the outcome is, it was still a good will story and we needed some good news after hurricane Sandy.  Don’t give up on believing in humanity just because the guy who was surprised with a gift wasn’t really homeless.  The cop didn’t know that and he didn’t give him the boots for a publicity stunt, and the homeless man wasn’t expecting to receive any gifts that day.  According to the article on Huffington Post, “He smiled from ear to ear,” DePrimo said. “It was like you gave him a million dollars.”

What I’m really saying is, don’t be so skeptical about everyone because there are still some good people out there in the world doing good deeds.  They say “one apple spoils the barrel” but that doesn’t mean you should give up on everything else from here on out.  I still say that cop deserves a medal for his good deed and I thank him for his service and his gift.

Tsunami and 8.9 Quake in Japan

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

Japan had an earthquake yesterday that measured 8.9 on the scale which they haven’t had that big in 100 years. Following their earthquake was a Tsunami which ravaged them. The news channels showed video footage of people in offices and homes during the earthquake and showed the tsunami washing over their farm lands and washing out roads and people waving from the 2nd story of a building which I can only assume is their home.

I was seeing people tweeting about it but me being the news hater that I am, I refused to turn CNN on. But then I finally did and I was glued to the TV until 2am. I had to get to sleep because there really wasn’t much I could do by watching.

I woke up at 5am and turned the news back on but I couldn’t stay awake, I kept falling asleep but I was more half asleep so I was still listening. They said that Hawaii was hit but gave no footage. Finally at 11am I turned the news off because I was just so sick to my stomach about the whole thing.

They said that there was a city in California that was hit but basically the only thing that was damaged was a bunch of boats. They can replace that easily.

So pray for Japan, they’re gonna need it. If you want to donate some money to help Japan you can read this USA Today article here.

Image Source Reuters

Todays Agenda

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I’ve already gone out on the bike trail this morning at 4:30am and returned before 6:30am doing 20 miles.  Since I had 2 flat tires in 2 days on the front tire I’ve been leery every time I start riding after stopping at like a stop light or a stop sign because it just feels like I have a flat tire.  Then I get off the bike to check and it’s still hard from all the air pressure inside of it.

I’m still exhausted from all that work I did yesterday at the rental house next door.  I still have to do the bathroom, the bath tub, sink and toilet, the floor is already mopped.  Then I have to rake up all the leaves and dog poop that the last tenants were nice enough to leave me to clean up.  I think 3 large piles that he raked up but never actually shoveled up and thrown out.  What a nice guy right?  So now I gotta do his dirty work.  That’s it!  No more pets allowed.

Michael Jackson’s memorial service at the Staples center will be broadcast live from 9am to 1pm on almost every channel today and Darrin wants me to record it for him from CNN.  He wanted me to record it from E! but I was going through the guide on the cable but E! doesn’t show it being live until tonight so there’s something wrong there lol.  They say 10am PST but it shows the Michael Jackson True Hollywood Story being played over and over.  I think CNN will do just fine.

So at about 6pm tonight is the new show Warehouse 13 on SyFy channel.  Yes I said 6pm.  I have SyFy HD which is eastern time zone so I get to watch it as the east coast does.

My day is pretty much set already.  UGH!  I have to go fold laundry before I go next door lol.

Cell Phone Popcorn

On By Michel McDonaldIn HumorLeave a comment

I was just sent this video that shows these people with cell phones sitting in a circle on a table with about 5 or 6 pieces of pre-popped popcorn and they each call their perspective cell phones and all of a sudden these pieces of corn just start popping.  Then they show another group doing it then another group doing it all getting the same results, popcorn.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pXg0TifZpQ

However, I went to YouTube so I can get the video so I can embed it in here much easier than just putting in a link and I found this one instead.  It’s from a radio show called “The Regular Guys” on 100.5 FM in Atlanta, Georgia.  They try the same thing but get no results.  I don’t know if it’s because one of the cell phones was vibrating away from the corn or not but the corn did not pop thus debunking this myth.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC4eeB2M7hk

There is a spoof video of these guys trying it with a steak.  Check it out it’s so funny.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=przkFZJSkOc

I went to Snopes.com to get the whole truth about this and it’s false.  The snopes page that I actually went to was about cooking an egg with a cell phone but towards the bottom of the page they showed these videos about popcorn.  They show a CNN news story where they talk to the guy who created these videos for a blue tooth company who basically made this up to sell his product and these stunts are all for a commercial.  Not meant to scare people but meant as a joke and to sell their product.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOZZ6dJiIgo

Update 2011-02-09: Apparently it seems that 2 out of 4 of the videos in this post have become private.  I’m assuming because the people who put the first video up knew that it was fake so they made it private because they were probably getting negative messages.  The last video at the bottom (above this update) is private and I don’t know why.  I do know that this was a hilarious stunt and it should be back up for all to enjoy.

XP Antivirus 2008

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer, Scams, Tech1 Comment

I was looking at a website and it said that I needed to download active-x or something to view a video and we had to go to the grocery store real quick. When we came home I noticed Norton Anti-virus was going nuts saying it was blocking a virus and I saw this program running called Antivirus XP 2008 on my screen saying I had all these viruses on my computer and wanted me to click something to get rid of them. I knew something was wrong because I didn’t install that program and for some reason it wouldn’t allow me to uninstall it through the control panel. I used the laptop to search for it on Yahoos search engine and found this:

http://www.xp-vista.com/spyware-removal/xp-antivirus-2008-removal-instructions-xp-antivirus-2008

Please, take a look at the pictures and memorize them so if this happens to you then you will be able to arm yourself. You don’t have to bookmark this site or keep the email if you don’t have this issue but just remember to search for it through a search engine so you can be able to get rid of it. I was able to get rid of it but I had to follow the instructions on this website. I hope for your sake you don’t get this but in case you do make sure you get rid of it right away. Oh, one of the things you will notice is that your screen will be blue or maroon, your wallpaper will be gone. That is a good indication that you have problems.

Update: After I went through all the steps to remove this thing I went to lay down on my bed to watch TV and I noticed that it went to the Windows Login screen so I got up and clicked my name and went to see the screen saver settings, I right clicked the desktop and clicked Properties and there are 2 tabs missing.  Desktop and Screen saver.  They are gone!  I don’t know how to get it back.  If I have to reformat my hard drive I’m gonna be pissed.

Another update: I get these email supposedly from CNN.  They are usually 1 line emails with a link and I clicked it to see the video for a news story and it said that I needed the active x thing and that is what happened.  I was trying to see a news story.  I am not going to click any of those emails ever again and just assume it’s a link to a virus.  My Norton is still finding virus’s left over from that and deleting them.  So, if you get emails from CNN make damn sure they are really from CNN and not a fake website.  Just go directly to CNN.com instead just to be safe.