It was a very normal day.  The sky was sunny and the air was calm as the work day was just getting underway.  This peaceful calm day would turn tragic within minutes. I was sitting in a cubical in lower Manhattan emailing a client when I heard a strange sound. My office building was a few blocks north of the Twin Towers. All of us in the office heard a loud noise and our lives changed in an instance.

I quickly went to a window to see the North Tower of the World Trade Center in flames. A few minutes later a co-worker ran into the building screaming “I just missed getting hit by falling debris, its crazy outside”. He described how it looked like a war zone in front of the World Trade Center. People were jumping, pieces of the building were falling.  Ambulances, police and firefighters were rushing to the scene all while people were getting out of subways cars to start their work day.

My eyes were glued to the Trade Center through the window in my office as I watched the North Tower burning.

As I was watching in shock, I heard a muffled noise that was getting louder, and their it was.  A second plane was flying in the sky tracking right towards the World Trade Center…and then it crashed right into it.  That was horrifying.  Now I was nervous our building would be the next target. Very soon after the second hit I was evacuated from my building.  There were about twenty of us watching outside our building in disbelief as two of the tallest building in the world were burning in flames. Some of us were panic stricken, some were crying, and I was watching in disbelief thinking how could this happen in our city. This is not supposed to happen to us. This happens on CNN, not in our F’in homeland.

People were now consoling each other and trying to figure out how they were going to leave the city as we were watching two buildings burn in downtown Manhattan. Then, we all heard a deep rumbling noise. A few seconds later, in the midst of a sunny day with 2 buildings burning a few blocks away from us, a whistling wind started blowing at us followed by an enormous smoke plum that was spitting up pieces of debris and a thick gray ashe in our direction. That’s when people started running to avoid getting hit by a building that was violently melting to the ground.

I started walking from lower Manhattan to Greenwich Village which was only a few blocks away. I stopped in a local café around 10:30 to listen to the News to see if their was information on who was behind these senseless strikes on the Towers.  The café was packed with people wondering what the fuck was going on. I usually don’t drink during the day, but I made an exception and ordered a beer as I sat listening to the news.

I tried calling my fiancé but my cell phone didn’t connect my call. The phone at the café had the same problem. After my second beer I figured I should try to leave downtown and go to Grand Central station to catch a train home.  Since the subway trains were not running, I needed to walk forty blocks uptown to Grand Central Station to catch a commuter train to Westchester.

The city was eerily quiet on my walk as many people like myself were just walking slowly towards Grand Central like mindless zombies.

Their were cabs pulled over to the side every few blocks with their doors wide open and radio blasting so people could hear what was happening at the towers. One cab had a large crowd around it listening to Howard Stern describing the scene that I was literally now looking back on. When I finally made it to Grand Central there was no train service. Strangers were asking me where I lived to see if I wanted to share a cab ride out of the city. I waited it out and when service was re-establish in the early afternoon I was on the first train leaving Manhattan toward Westchester. As the train left the city I could see the burning towers out the side of the train.

I felt like I was watching a World War II movie showing prisoners shuttled on trains in Nazi Germany.

This day will always bring me pain and great anger when I think about it. This isn’t supposed to happen where I live.  Not in our country. Not in New York City.  Not with our great intelligence and military superiority. But it did, and I will never forget this.

In case you are wondering about the picture of that telephone, it was During the cleanup of the World Trade Center destruction crews found a battered payphone several blocks away. The phone was traced to its location in the 107th floor Observation Deck-3 of the World Trade Center Building Two.  Joining the collections of the AT&T Archives and History Center in late 2001, the phone serves as a tangible and poignant reminder of that dark day in our nation’s history.   Next week, the phone will move from the AT&T Archives and History Center to spend three years in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City.

Have you forgotten?

Many people like to judge their mentors, bosses, world leaders, and favorite athletes by how they face adversity.

The average person in a relationship usually has to deal with adversity on a daily basis. The perfect relationship could change on dime once adversity gets injected into the equation.  Suddenly your perfect man or women who you loved when you dated, had a f’in blissful engagement with and an insane honeymoon is not the person you fell in love with.

Maybe money is tight.  Maybe you realize your significant other has very annoying habits that drive you crazy.  You now start questioning each other on what your spending money on, why you don’t look to get a better job, and then you start questioning each other’s feelings about each other as your relationship starts to quickly erode.

In America you basically have the same odds at staying married as picking out a dirty penny from your pocket, flipping it in the air, and guessing if it will land on heads or tails.  This is the scary reality you live in.

The flip side of this scary story is that half the people out there are pretty good at overcoming adversity and these are the folk I like to learn from.  Sir Richard Branson, the founder of everything Virgin, as in Virgin Airlines/Hotels/Mobile/Books/etc just lost his home on the Island of Necker to a devastating fire caused by a direct lightning hit during a severe tropical storm with winds up to 90 mph.  Thankfully, all of his guest and his 90 year old mum were safely evacuated from his home without injury.

Most people may be taken back a little by losing their home even if they have the money to deal with it, but not Branson.  In a few days since his disaster he has a rebuilding plan in the works and has even taken the time to share a story about adversity that has clearly shaped the type of person he is.  His story I have re-posted below has given me a new perspective on persevering and I hope it makes an impact in how you deal with the different forms of adversity in your life- enjoy.

History repeating itself

What happened on Necker this week reminded me of what happened to Thomas Edison when his huge West Orange New Jersey laboratory complex caught fire and burned to the ground. This was Edison’s reaction as told by his son at the time:

“One December evening the cry of ‘Fire!’ echoed through the (Thomas Edison’s) plant. Spontaneous combustion had broken out in the film room and within moments all the packing compounds, film and other flammable goods had gone up with a whoosh…

When I couldn’t find Father, I became concerned. Was he safe? With all his assets going up in smoke, would his spirit be broken? He was 67, no age to begin anew. Then I saw him in the plant yard, running toward me.

Later on he explained, ‘You can always make capital out of disaster. We’ve just cleared out a bunch of old rubbish! We’ll build bigger and better on these ruins.’ With that he rolled up his coat for a pillow, curled up on a table and immediately fell asleep.”

At least he didn’t have to contend with any cactus bushes!

Image by bk1bennet on Flickr

The above post can be found on Richard’s blog at http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/history-repeating-itself

I will be featured again on The Balancing Act today which is a fun informative morning show which airs on the Lifetime Network that is predominately watched by women- so I thought it would be fitting to highlight some interesting findings about women on Facebook.

In a survey done by a relatively new player in the social coupon groupon space, a company called Eversave came across interesting feelings women have towards their friend’s social behavior on Facebook.

Remarkably, a whopping 85 percent of women say they have been annoyed by their friends on Facebook. I know I can have somewhat hateful thoughts at times of some people outside my inner circle of friendom, but 85% sounds awful high for a survey of 400 random women of a coupon site.  Maybe this survey group was filled with an extraordinary amount of nasty mean spirited people that were very hungry at the time of the survey.  Or maybe it was a statistical error.

Well, if we can all assume this survey represents all of Facebook women users hungry or not, here are some other stats about the three social behaviors on Facebook that just piss women off.  Please use this information wisely.

1. Complaining all the time—63 percent
2. Sharing unsolicited political views—42 percent
3. Bragging about seemingly perfect lives—32 percent

Now, even though women have many friends with negative social behaviors to overcome while on Facebook, statistically speaking about 110 ½ each, they as a group are overwhelming in-love with Facebook for the sites built-in stalking and yentaish features.

• Seeing friends’ photos and videos—91 percent like
• Searching and reconnect with long lost friends—76 percent like

Now if you are a guy that is reading this posting and are wondering what you is in it for me besides gaining the insight of three things women hate, w ell here’s a site about women on Facebook you may enjoy.  Click here.

Scots Guard  Cameron Reilly, yes, he is a Buckingham Palace guard that protects the Royal family has been suspended from his wedding duties because he broke the knucklehead rule on Facebook.  The Knucklehead rules is a simple rule that clearly states “don’t be a knucklehead”.  Someone should send this poor soul a copy of Facebook Rules.

Kate Middleton has great teeth for a Brit

Cameron Reilly was so pissed at the greeting he received by the soon to be Queen in waiting, Kate Middleton, he called her a posh bitch on his Facebook page.  What a rookie mistake.  Cameron then proceeded to follow up this little mistake up by making some ethnic and racist remarks about other happenings in London.  He was obviously in the zone and thought he was on some sort of creative roll.

I wish ‘ol Reilly well at his next job.

Fully story at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/25/cameron-reilly-scots-guar_n_853229.html

If you like this post tell a friends or by a book or join my cause page http://www.causes.com/causes/500747 .

Remember when leaders could openly make derogatory remarks about Gay people, Jews, and people of other ethnic or racial background. This was common place in Germany in the nineteen forties as well as other nations across the world.

Today in America we aren’t used to our public employees, private enterprise employees, or our leaders in either sector being able make disparaging references to someones sexual orientation and or religious faith in the work place or online to other co-workers with out some consequence.

Apparently the state of Illinoisdidn’t get the F’in memo about this issue. Maybe it was lost in their postal system that is notorious know for losing mail on a discriminating basis.  I bring this issue up since one of there own, Schuyler County Sheriff Don Scheiferdecker made a derogatory comment about a picture of a boy on-line calling him ”little fag Jew boy.”

You would think their may be some repercussions or reprimands from the Schulyer County he employs this Sheriff and by default condones his words and actions.  Not even a disingenuous statement was released on behave of this morally lacking public employee.  Just a lame pitiful excuse was made by the Sheriff explaining he didn’t think anyone would see his joking comments he posted on the worlds largest social media site, Facebook. (would you want this guy trying to solve an investigation for you?)

This genius of a sheriff said he was joking around and basically thought he wad having a private conversation on his Facebook wall.  Funny how the recipient of his joke had enough wherewithal not to respond. 

Before you make a snap judgement, it gets more interesting.  This virtual Einstein had recently proudly displayed Adolf Hitler as ”What Historical Person Are You”.  This is a Facebook app which will post on your page which historical figure your most represent.  (0 for 2 Donnie boy)

So is Sheriff Don Scheiferdecker a regular little prankster having fun on-line or is he a Jew hating Homophobe paid to fairly protect all people in his county?  What do you think?

The full story can be read at: http://crimecrawlers.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/sheriff-schieferdecker-apologizes-to-little-fag-jew-boys/

So you were having a kick ass day. Your finishing all your work responsibilities ahead of time and you may even be able to sneak out of the office a little early and all of a sudden it happens to you. You see a new “Friend” request waiting for you and you can hardly wait to see who it is. You click on the button and you see who it is….it’s my fre@kin boss! What happened to Facebook etiquette?

Would you be friends with your Boss?

This can be a very, very weird and socially awkward situation that you are now facing. Are you going to tell your boss the truth about how you feel about him or her? Are you going to accept their request like a good employee even if you can’t stand being in the same room as this person? What are you going to do???

If you ever find yourself in this sticky ass situation and aren’t sure what to do have no fear. I have put together a list of questions/reason to tell your boss why you can’t accept his or her request:

ANY CHARACTER HERE
1. Can I delegate some of my work responsibilities to make room for our Facebook friendship during work hours?
2. Can I put some of my other assignments on the back burner while I work on developing our friendship?
3. I already have too many Facebook friends and I will have little time to put into fostering a mutually beneficial relationship.
4. Am I the only person that can successfully complete this assignment?
5. I absolutely lack the skills necessary to be a competent Facebook friend to someone in your position.

If none of these ideas work you may be forced to break out your sudden innate knowledge of the corporate HR handbook that you had to sign when you joined the company and remind your boss that any type of boss worker relationship is highly discouraged unless it is directly related to your job responsibilities which you are being compensated for.

If you like this list or have any response you have used on your boss let me know!

You ever read a supermarket tabloid and feel pretty good about yourself when they show shots of some stars without their makeup and they suddenly don’t look so starish any longer? Ahh, their is a god.

Danielle Hitting on Dave

Well, I was just interviewed by Danielle Knox for a segment about my book that will be airing on April 13th.  (See picture above) Danielle is one of the hosts of a  Lifetime TV show called The Balancing Act.  She is a wonderful person that looks better in person then on the TV.  Not sure what her secret is, but maybe it has something to do with the Whipped Body Butter Cream she uses in the morning.  I’m not sure if that’s her secret, but that is one of the more interesting natural products her company sells at www.playprettybeauty.com.

So check me fumble a bit during the interview with Danielle on April 13th on the Balancing Act and if Facebook has changed your life or brought you a memorable experience let me know about it here.

BTW…It’s March Madness season and one of its greatest figures in tournament history who is no longer with us is coach Jim Valvano.  I was on a radio show with Alan Handelman who told me some great stories how coach V used to come to the radio station Alan was working on in NC with his dog to do his regular radio show.  His time spent with coach V were some of Alan’s favorite times he has ever experienced in life.   So in the spirit of Coach V, you can help out by becoming an member of my cause page.  If you didn’t know, the V Foundation is one of the top run cancer research organizations anywhere.  They truly help save lives.

Imagine the world without Facebook.  Many oppressed people with no human rights for most or all of their lives would have no hope in seeing their fortunes change.  Not even a glimmer.  But Facebook does exist and there is now a ray of hope that many oppressive and cruel regimes in the world will change, and therefore we are close to seeing positive change in many people’s lives for the very first time.

Opressed People Unite

Old and young people alike are literally glued to their monitors, Blackberries, and Facebook accounts waiting for the event to unfold and to see how this change may affect their life and other oppressed people of the world.

This potential change Facebook is facilitating will be no more apparent than on Monday, February 28, when the students of Briarcliff high school have organized a peaceful sit-in to protests changes to their class schedule that they were not in favor of.  These changes came with overwhelming disapproval of the students and caused a Board meeting to last to 12AM when the pending changes were agued to the deaf ears of a mean and oppressive Board of Trustees.

Have you ever been to a school board meeting until 12AM?  This is not what people do for shits and giggles.   Before Facebook it would have taken tons of phone calls and emails with little concurrence among dissatisfied students, parents and interested others which eventually would end in utter frustration in no meaningful action being taken.  This would lead to mind boggling frustration and a feeling of helplessness towards what you now perceive as a totally incompetent and disconnect School Board that is supposed to represent your position on these types of issues.

Now, within days there was quick and efficient  organization through Facebook with 309 attendees confirmed from over 530 invitees all over a school  holiday week.  I can’t wait to see what Monday brings to the oppressed students of this affluent Westchester, NY School better known for high achievement from its student body and less known for organized protests against its administration.  It just shows you how one company can affect so many people so quickly.  

If you enjoyed this posting, please show it by buying a book or calendar, or pledging money to my favorite cause, the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

I can already taste the chocolate and smell the flowers I will be getting the wife for Valentine’s day.  It will definitely be my favorite chocolate and her favorite flowers, but do you really care?  Valentines dais literally one of the two most hate filled negative thought provoking days of the entire year.

Hallmark and the Vermont Teddy Bear Company would like you to think Valentine’s Day is sorta like St.Patties day for sober couples, but it’s not even close.  So if you just want to puke at the site of men lining up in-front of some flower stand at the local super market to show their significant other how much they mean to them, your not alone in how you are feeling. 

The painful reality is many people are either single and looking for love or they are in a relationship where the flames of hot romantic love have simmered down to a dull casual relationship based upon convenience or security rather then love and affection.  Either way , I hope everyone has a great Monday, February 14th.