<-- Matt

Found this sticky-note in the office today.

Not sure what message the artist is trying to get across.

Unless the arrow is supposed to be an actual arrow.... (gulp)

[Sarcasm Warning] This dude needs our help...

Received this email today. I've highlighted my favorite parts...some of which I will now be using as part of my every day speech. Enjoy, and don't laugh so hard that it takes off your life.

My name is Mr Larry Eze.

I am 75yrs old of age, I stay in New York city USA. i am a good Merchant, i have several Industrial company and good share in various Banks in the world. I spend all my life on investment and corporate business. All the way i lost my Wife and two beautiful kids in fatal accident that occur in November 5th 2008. i am a very greedy man with all cost i dont know much and care about people, since when i have an experience of my lovely ones i felt weak.i found it difficult to sleep and give rest.

Later in the year 2006 February i was sent a letter of medical check up, as my personal doctor testify that i have a lung cancer, which can easily take off my life soon. i found it uneasy to survive myself, because a lot of investment cannot be run and manage by me again.i quickly call up a pastor/prophet to give me positive thinking on this solution, as my adviser.He minister to me to share my property ,wealth, to Motherless baby/orphanage homes/people that need money for survivor both student that needs money/business woman and man for their investment for future rising.

So therefore i am writing this letter to people who are really need help from me both student in college, to contact me urgently so that i can make available preparation on that.especially women of the day, who are divorced by their husband, why they cannot survive the mist of feeding their self.

Please contact me to stop weeping, probably let me know what you really need the money for, and if you can still help me to distribute money to nearest orphanages homes near your town. Now that i am so much with GOD, am now born again.May the lord bless you, as you reach me.send me a reply to this email [redacted].

Thanks and God Bless.
Mr Larry Eze.

An apology to the 2009 Blue Devils

Dear 2009 Blue Devils drum corps:

I wanted to thank you for allowing me to attend your rehearsal tonight at American Fork High School in American Fork, Utah. I am an avid fan and listen to past BD recordings daily.

I want to express my complete embarrassment and apologize for the behavior of the crowd that amassed as you rehearsed. I've never been included in a more rude group of people. They were loud, critical, and inconsiderate. I believe that many of them were actually using you as babysitters. I saw 10 or 20 small children running around banging on bleachers and screaming as they slid down railings while their parents poked away at their iphones or gabbed loudly with their friends. Send them a bill.

I was mortified when more than once, your staff was unable to communicate with corps members or other staff members due to the ridiculous sound level coming from the stands.

I want to assure you that we're not all like this. Sadly, many people from the particular part of the particular valley in which you were rehearsing believe they "know better" when it comes to all things marching. They don't.

I hope you were able to get some work done, despite the pearl casting.

Good luck tomorrow night. We're looking forward to the performance.

Matt







Shame on you, American Fork. Show some respect, and stay home next time.

Happiness

Thank you, 2009 Vanguard. I heard warmup performed live in Portland on Friday and cried.

This was recorded in Walnut Grove, CA on 6/20/2009. Thank you to r0nej00. Vangaurd has a chance this year. This is why I love summer the most.

::Server Outage Notice::

Dear User:

Please pardon the unavailability for the next few days or week.

The servermn is being relocated to enable further awesome and to help maintain the level of rad you have come to expect.

If you have any suggestions to help us reduce the excess suck from this web area, please leave a comment (properly punctuated of course.)

This outage applies to all TheMdg services including: this website-log, mp3 player, drum corps files, photos etc.

Thank you,
-management

May Challenge 9: "Totally Huge Guy"

May Challenge 9

"Totally Huge Guy"

May Challenge 8: Spontaneous

May Challenge 8

"Spontaneous"

May Challenge 7: "Cold one"

Today's Challenge Entry

"Cold One"

May Challenge 6: "Sick"

Todays challenge Entry:

"Sick"

May Challenge 5: "Passionate about my hobby"

Todays challenge Entry:

"Passionate about my hobby"

May Challenge 4 - "Looking for Help"

Todays challenge Entry:

"Looking for help"

May Challenge 3 - "Why my neighbors do not like renters."

This is in response to a challenge by our dear Niece who is a gifted photographer, I'm taking/posting as many photos as I can in May. Here is Todays:

"Why my neighbors do not like renters."

May Challenge 2 - "Just to see..."

This is in response to a challenge by our dear Niece who is a gifted photographer, I'm taking/posting as many photos as I can in May. Here is Todays:

"Just to see..."

May Challenge 1 - "Treasures of an 8-year-old"

This is in response to a challenge by our dear Niece who is a gifted photographer, I'm taking/posting as many photos as I can in May. Here is Todays:

"Treasures of an 8-year-old"

Thank you Miss California...

Thank you Miss California. I'm sure everyone has read about her statement, but I liked it and agree with her and wanted to give it a bit more exposure. I blocked out the name of her "judge." I think that even talking about these people by name to complain about them helps their cause. I'm sure the media will be relentless in tearing her personal life and associations down over the next few months.


I wanted to comment on one statement from the article that opposes Miss Prejean. We should always leave our politics and religion out of the things we stand for. As we all know, Americans are neither religious nor political. When stating our values and beliefs, we should only recite things that every single person in the US wants to hear. I suggest using the back of a cereal box as study material for this. I think we can all agree that Cheerios do indeed have 12% of your daily fiber. (the crowd goes wild.)

How to Quit classmates.com

I've tried to unsubscribe from their "Someone signed your guestbook, and for $40/month (or whatever it is) you can find out who" emails 10's of times, but it never seems to take.

They don't make finding this link easy, but today I found out how to remove your membership from classmates.com. I doubt the emails will stop, but it's a step in the right direction.

• Log in to your classmates.com account.
• Go to this URl: http://www.classmates.com/cmo/user/remove/;jsessionid=T5LWEOHHKE3MGCQKWZSSRUQ?_requestid=592513
• Click a few confirmations and you're out.
• Then just setup a rule to junk all their email. (I mean, if you don't want their email.)

Who needs classmates.com when facebook is just as dumb, and costs nothing.

Re: A comment about your latest Earth-friendly email ad...

A reply from ING direct:

Matthew,

We appreciate your feedback! Your suggestion will be forwarded to the appropriate area for review. As always, we will continue to keep Customers informed of news through statements, emails, Bright Spots and the ING DIRECT web site. Stay tuned and remember, Save Your Money.

Regards,
Lesly Watts
Ombudsman

---------------------

A reply from ZAGG (invisishield) to a similar letter.

Matt,
Wow, I really appreciate your email and your passion. I can see where you are coming from and frankly didn't see our perspective as anti-God whatsoever. I actually agree with your religious perspective and we're just trying to do our part to make this great planet a cleaner and better place to live...for many generations.

Thanks for the feedback and know we looked at this as an opportunity to let our customers know that we also care. And we do try to do our part.

I'm not extreme and we can't change the whole world, but we can change our circle of influence.

Thanks again for your patronage and I hope we can give you offers of conveneience and innovation that will continue to make you happy you chose
ZAGG!

Best to you Matt.

Robert

A comment about your latest Earth-friendly email ad...

Dear ING Direct:

I'm a happy customer of more than 5 years.  I received your latest
email marketing piece with the subject "Do you part with Electric
Orange."  I wanted to register my dislike for the exploitation and
overuse of the word "Green" in connection with the idea of "Saving the
Earth."

In the past few years, seeing "Green" on anything simply means "We
want your business but now our customers are secondary to our
environmental image" as companies cache in the made-up frenzy about
the environment.  I'm sad that ING Direct has joined in and is now
aiming this propaganda at it's own clients.

It's arrogant for us to believe we can save the Earth or for that
matter, that the Earth needs saving!  Believing such a thing only
denies the power of God and the fact that He created the earth for a
specific purpose (for us!) and is still running things.  He knows what
the Earth needs and He knows what we need.  The ridiculous and
not-as-popular-as-people-think belief that the Earth is ours to save
suggests that we as a human race are as powerful as God, and that we
can make decisions that effect the planet and it's future.  What do
the "top US Scientists" call it now?  Geoengineering.   Laughable.

Don't get me wrong...I don't want trash in my neighborhood and I'm all
for putting litter in it's place.  But I won't be bullied into
thinking that subscribing to the printed newspaper (gasp...the "P"
word), driving my fossil fuel burning car to the store, running my
air-conditioner in the summer, or sending a written letter makes me an
"eco-criminal."

Please reconsider your stance on the false yet politically correct
idea that your company can or needs to do anything to "Save" the
Earth.  I'd be much more interested in the new services you've
advertised if they were offered in the name of convienience.  How
refreshing it would be to be sold a service because it's good for the
customer, instead of less-bad for the Environment.

Sincerely,
Matt Graham

copied to:
marketing@ingdirect.com
mediarelations@ingdirect.com
ombudsman@ingdirect.com
weblog post at themdg.org

Dear Gov. Hunstman: Working4Utah is lame.

Dear Governer Hunstman:

I'm writing you to express my opinion about your Working4Utah initiative. In a word, it's lame. Totally lame complete.

I know you thought you were saving the planet by turning off lights and air conditioners and coffee makers for one day of the week. Turns out that you not only turned off the lights, you turned off the whole State of Utah! Thanks to our complete dependence on our competent state employees (the last three words are the only ones in this letter that aren't laced with bitterness and sarcasm. I think our employees are great!), we can only function for a little more than half the week. Open for 4 days (unless there is a federal holiday of which there are many), and closed for 3. What with our abundance of national parks and out-doorsy things to do in Utah...we should really be a part-time-state anyway. Beehive State...pfft.

I know one of the main reasons to close Utah on Fridays was to save howevermanymillions of dollars and maybe it is. But guess what...it's losing us money. I can chalk up a couple thousand to this "program" by myself this year. I bet if we add it all up, you're in the red for this one.

The problem is...we can't do important things now for half of the week, and sometimes it's impossible to plan ahead. Want to get a city inspection, or get a permit signed, or get your water turned on? Please wait 4 days. Need a drivers license? Need to setup your Corporation. Need to attend traffic school? Please wait 4 days.

I bet it was hard to fit so many buzzwords on your logo without mentioning the people you work for. Yoohoo...remember us? Citizens of Utah? We're your customers, not a nusiance.

In closing...I'm unhappy that you're jumping on the earth-is-more-important-than-the-people-living-on-it bandwagon. Please either open the State again on Fridays, or at least open the office doors so we can come and process our own paperwork, and wait in our own lines while your off recovering from your tough 4-day work week.

Sincerely,
SickOfIt

Blogger says I can post from a text message. I am trying it out. Is there anything Google can't do?