I would sometimes have to hit the Home button two or three times before it would register. A friend told me that he thought that the issue may not be the home button, but the iPhone software itself. He explained that since he upgraded to the iPhone 3.0 OS that he had experienced some lag and slowness and had also noticed that when he hits the Home button that it may take an extra second to respond.

I performed my own trials to test this possibility and found that the phone didn’t respond at all. I also later updated to 3.1 which fixes most of the lagging issues, but it didn’t resolve my problem.

I decided to head over to the Apple Store to let them have a look. As usual, the place was a complete zoo with people falling all over themselves in there. I find it weird that the store is always so full of people since I never actually see anyone buying anything.

I headed over to the tech support line to talk to a “mac genius” (are they really that full of themselves to come up with that title?). There are lots of people on line and nobody in sight tending to any of them. I finally see a woman in an apple tshirt over by a table with a computer on it. I walk over and briefly explain the problem with my iPhone. She looks at me with pity in her eyes and explains that “there are no more reservations available to see a mac genius today” then then motioned to the computer on the table and told me to book a reservation for another day.

I was a bit annoyed at this. These are the same people that claim that their products are a million times more reliable than pc’s. If that’s the case then why are there more people with problems than mac geniuses available on any given day?

I went through the motions on the reservation system only to find out that the next appointment I could get was several days later during the week. I gave up and left.  Several weeks passed as I was very busy. I finally decided to go back and give it another try at the Apple store.

I went online to apple’s website to book an appointment (I learned I needed to do this at the first experience). While going through the motions I hit the page that has you put in your serial number to check your warranty status. Unfortunately this is where I discovered that in the last two weeks my warranty on my iPhone had expired (You can check your warranty here: https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do ). I book my appointment.

Needless to say I was stunned and pissed. While I was on my way to the store, I was running several scenarios through my head on how this would work out. Most of them ended with me being escorted out of the store screaming bloody murder because they wanted to charge me hundreds of dollars to fix my iPhone which they should have fixed free under warranty two weeks earlier.

So I arrive at the Apple store and it is the mad house that it has always been with people everywhere. I head over to the tech support line and wait my turn for a “mac genius”. After a short wait, one of the mac genius ladies comes over and asks me what the deal is with my iPhone. I explain it to her and watch as she dutifully hit’s the button, launches and app, hits the button, opens my contacts, hits the button and on and on. She finally looks at me and agrees that there is a problem.

She then says “ok, I’m going to take this in the back and try to change the screen as the home button is one piece with the screen. In the event that doesn’t work, I’m going to replace your iPhone. Is your iPhone backed up in case of that?” I said yes it is, carry on!

At this point, I’m hopeful that this will be a free repair but I’m also waiting for her to come back telling me that she just ran my serial number and I’m out of warranty.

After about 15 minutes the mac genius came back out and said, “here it is… working much better than before!”. She then pulled out a piece of paper and said initial here and here and sign here and here. I glanced all around the page quickly making sure that I’m not agreeing to pay $300 to fix my $200 phone and lo and behold there was a dollar amount listed in the sum of $0.00. I was very happy and gleefully signed.

I don’t know if she just made a mistake by not charging me when she should have (it’s easy to imagine she was in a hurry due to the crowds of people waiting) or if Apple’s customer service is just that good.

Either way I have to say that I am thoroughly impressed with the outcome and that I didn’t have to beg or plead or scream. Kudos to Apple for not making me put up a fight for being 2 weeks out of warranty.

My iPhone is working like a champ and I am a happy camper. Go Apple!

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Normally if I was on a computer I would just hit the Prt Scr button and paste it into an email.

Well, lo and behold, the iPhone doesn’t come with an instruction manual and there are many things it doesn’t do that it should, but there IS a way to take screen shots.

When you’re on the screen you want to take a picture of, just press the round main button and the power button (top right) at the same time and let go of them together.

The screen will quickly flash white and the iPhone will make a camera sound. Now go into the “Photos” app and look in “Camera Roll” There you’ll see the screenshot. From there you can forward it by email, or hook up your sync cable and copy it to your computer.

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• - My Tap Defense strategy is pretty simple. Use Arrow Towers with no upgrades as much as possible early in the game. Do not spend gold on more expensive towers like canons and water in the early levels.
• - One Cannon Tower costs about the same as two Arrow Towers. For about the first half of the game, having more arrow towers is just as effective and in many cases more effective than having only a few Cannon or more expensive towers.
• - Do not build more towers than you realistically think you’ll need to beat the level. It’s very easy to want to throw in an extra tower for good measure, but every gold piece you can save in the early Tap Defense levels
• - Upgrade your interest rate! It may be more fun to research new towers, but they won’t help you beat the game if you can’t afford to upgrade them later. I use all of my Halos except the last two on level 43 to upgrade interest.
• - Don’t spend a lot of gold building fancy towers just trying to beat the bosses. You won’t lose much by letting a Devil or Hellbat get through, but you will completely mess up your chances of beating the game if you spend ¾ of your money trying to build expensive towers to stop them. The bosses are usually two to three times more powerful than the creatures in the levels before and immediately after them. Save your gold!
• - Place your towers strategically. Anywhere there is a corner on the path or a U shaped turn, should be the first place you put your towers. Those should also be the places that get upgraded towers later in the game as they can shoot at the enemy for the longest amount of time.

Below are screenshots and brief descriptions of each level as I went through a game to show you how to beat it. It’s not a perfect game on my part, but I just wanted a quick and dirty demonstration to show you general tower placement and strategy for beating the game.

Level 1 – Tap Defense for iPhone

For level one, you can usually beat the Gremlins with only two Arrow Towers.

Level 2 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Add a third tower to beat the locusts. Occasionally a fourth tower may be needed

Level 3 – Tap Defense for iPhone

The Succubi are slow but quite tough. You will need at least 5 Arrow Towers to beat them.

Level 4 – Tap Defense for iPhone

The Cerberus are fast and tough. I used 7 Arrow Towers to beat level four.
 

Level 5 – Tap Defense for iPhone

To beat the Demons on level five, I add two more Arrow Towers for a total of nine.
 

Level 6 – Tap Defense for iPhone

I went with 11 Arrow towers on level six.
 

Level 7 – Tap Defense for iPhone

I stuck with 11 Arrow Towers to beat the Hellbat on level seven.

 Level 8 – Tap Defense for iPhone

You will probably need 11 or 12 Arrow Towers to beat the Gremlins on Level 8
 

Level 9 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Fourteen Arrow Towers beat the Locusts on level nine.

 Level 10 – Tap Defense for iPhone

The Succubi are a bit faster on level ten. 16 Arrow Towers did the job.

Level 11 – Tap Defense for iPhone

The Cerberus are fast and tough. 19 Arrow Towers were used on level eleven.

Level 12 – Tap Defense for iPhone

I stuck with the 19 Arrow Towers to beat the Demons on level twelve.

 Level 13 – Tap Defense for iPhone

I added three towers on level 13 to take out the Firecats. They are very fast.

Level 14 – Tap Defense for iPhone

I didn’t bother adding any towers to beat the devil as I’d have to spend a lot more gold on enough towers to beat him than I’d get. Better to save the gold and get more interest after the level.

Level 15 – Tap Defense for iPhone

I added two more Arrow Towers for a total of 24 to take out the Gremlins on level 15.
 

Level 16 – Tap Defense for iPhone

You shouldn’t need to add more towers to beat the Locusts on level 16.

Level 17 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Add in another two Arrow Towers near the start of the path to take out the Succubi on level 17.

Level 18 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Add one extra tower to take out the Cerberus on level 18.
 

Level 19 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Several more towers will make short work of the Demons on level 19

Level 20 – Tap Defense for iPhone

This is the breaking point. On level 20, I add four to five cannon towers and three water towers. The Firecats are just too fast at this point to only use arrow towers.
 

Level 21 – Tap Defense for iPhone

If you want a shot at beating the Devil, you’ll have to upgrade some of the cannon and water towers on level 21.
 

Level 22 – Tap Defense for iPhone

You can get by level 22 without upgrading or adding towers if you already did it in the previous level to beat the Devil.

Level 23 – Tap Defense for iPhone

You’ll have to upgrade more of your cannon towers to beat Cerberus on level 23.

Level 24 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Continue upgrading your cannon towers to power level 2 for the Firecats and Succubi on level 24.

Level 25 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Upgrade your existing towers as needed on level 25 to defeat the Cerberus and Demons.
 

Level 26 – Tap Defense for iPhone

You can probably cruise through level 26 without upgrading or adding anything.

Level 27 – Tap Defense for iPhone

You can get by level 27 without upgrading anything as well.

Level 28 – Tap Defense for iPhone

If you want to beat the Devil and Hellbat, you’ll need to upgrade someof your cannons to power level 3.

Level 29 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Time to upgrade some of your water towers to power level 3

Level 30 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Upgrade a couple of more cannon towers to power level 3 to beat the Locusts on level 30.

Level 31 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Upgrade the rest of your cannon towers and water towers. Also, add two more water towers above the path near the cannons to beatch the Succubi. On level 31

Level 32 – Tap Defense for iPhone

You’ll need all of your cannon towers upgraded to stop the Cerberus on level 32
. 

Level 33 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Add two more cannon towers and upgrade them as well as the remaining water towers to power level 3 to beat the Demons on level 33.
 

Level 34 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Sell four arrow towers around  your cannon and water towers and replace them with upgraded cannon and water towers to beat level 34.
 

Level 35 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Stick with what you’ve got and you can stop the Devils on level 35.
 

Level 36 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Upgrade two of your cannon towers to level 4 power level and you will have no problem with the Devil and Gremlins on level 36.
 

Level 37 – Tap Defense for iPhone

No need to upgrade, you can take out the Locusts on level 37 with what you’ve got.

 

Level 38 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Just another map.. Do nothing and cruise through level 38.
 

Level 39 – Tap Defense for iPhone

If you want to obliterate the baddies, sell all the arrow towers behind the water towers and replace them with cannon towers. Don’t upgrade them yet! Save that gold for after level interest on level 39.

Level 40 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Upgrade those new cannon towers and add a couple more to beat level 40.

Level 41 – Tap Defense for iPhone

You should have what you need to kill the Firecats and Devil in level 41.

Level 42 – Tap Defense for iPhone

You already have what you need to wipe out the Hellbats and Devil on level 42.
 

Level 43 – Tap Defense for iPhone

Last level! The evil Politicians (aren’t they all???) are trying to escape from hell. Use a halo to research Storm towers then use the two you get at the start of the level to upgrade your interest one last time. Set up two to three storm towers near the start of the path and you’ve got this level BEAT! Pause the game before the last Politician is killed and sell off half of your towers or more to collect interest on them at the end of the level.

VICTORY IS MINE!

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I can honestly say that I have been able to achieve everything I ever truly wanted to. That’s not to say that I don’t have regrets or things that I wish I had done that I didn’t. But I know that the only reason that I didn’t is because I wasn’t ready to commit the necessary time, dedication, energy and get over my fears.I believe that there are two primary reasons that people don’t accomplish what they want to in life and often don’t even try: Fear and Laziness. That’s it in a nutshell.

Now, please don’t interpret this as the rantings of an arrogant, pompous ass. I am quite aware that I am not perfect. I am just realistic about life.

To give you a bit of background on my life, I came from a “broken home”. The term itself sounds like a ready made excuse for all the failings of my life. I grew up with my mother and sister in a less than perfect childhood. We never had enough money to pay all the bills. We moved often, I was never able to have enduring relationships and as a result, found myself by default, an outsider. Never quite fitting in, but always trying.

This had the beneficial side effect of making me very self reliant as I had no family to coddle me nor sources of easy money or help. I learned that if I wanted to get things and get places (literally and figuratively), I had to find a way to do it myself.

My First Real Job

Probably one of the best things that ever happened to me was deciding that I wanted to make money. When I was very young, I’d mow the neighbor’s lawns for some extra money. Later I worked handing out flyers and other “kid” jobs. When my family moved to the suburbs, I got a high school job at McDonald’s. This is the greatest experience I could have ever gotten and taught me an immense amount of life skills and experience.

Working there forced me to get comfortable dealing with people. This is a HUGE skill to have in life and NOT just for people working in retail or sales positions! I was not only forced for the first time in my life into the very awkward position of starting a job not knowing anything about anything, but I also had to work with a wide range of people with very different personalities and age groups. The cherry on top was having to deal with customers in a very demanding and face paced environment.

It’s funny. Most people go into a fast food joint and just see a “kid” behind the counter and assume that they aren’t that bright or that they don’t know much. I can tell you that many of these people are developing the skills to become the executives and entrepreneurs of the future that your kids will work for.

My family was living in the suburbs and we didn’t have a car. Now there were buses and taxis and you could ride a commuter train into the city to work, but suburban life is far easier with a car. My mother didn’t have the money or interest in having a car as she simply rode the train to work and took taxis and buses locally. The problem for me was that I was going to high school and working in a nearby town. My friend’s parents had cars and would drive us around, but I always hit that awkward moment when the topic would come up as to why my mother didn’t drive me home when it was late, etc…

I also didn’t have many of the things that the “other” kids had. I wasn’t necessarily desirous of these things because I was materialistic. I wanted these things more so that I didn’t have to live with those awkward moments when friends or their families would ask why I didn’t have them. One example was when my backpack would finally wear out and one of the straps broke off. I would keep using it until the other strap finally broke. Then, I would have to do some serious hunting and scrounging to find something to carry my  books in.

I decided a job was the greatest idea ever. Right off the bat, I was faced with a challenge. None of the local businesses hired kids under the age of 16 due to labor laws. I was 14. I really wanted to get a job. The idea that I could work all the hours available to me and make money drove me. So now I needed to find out how to get the job. I went into the store and asked how to get started getting a job there. I was handed an application. I took it home and filled it out, reading it top to bottom. The application said I would need to provide a working card from my school stating I was 16 and entitled to work.

Social Engineering

Social Engineering is the modern term used to describe techniques used to get people to agree with you and sometimes to get them to do things they either don’t want to or shouldn’t. You get them to like you or sympathize with your cause and they ultimately do you a favor or just “help you out”. Sometimes it’s inadvertent on their part. You just ask enough questions while being nice enough not to annoy them until you find out that there IS and exception to the rule or some other loophole they can use to your benefit. Often this works impeccably with customer service. If they say no, you just keep calling back and speaking with someone different until you find someone that says yes. This will almost always work with large companies. The key here is being extremely nice and extremely polite. Beg for help.

I went to school the next day and suffice it to say that with some social engineering (people hacking) I walked out with an official letter that stated I was legal. I headed back over to the store and became employed.

The key to life, I had discovered was not saying “That can’t be done!” but instead saying “HOW can that be done?”.

This lesson has proven amazingly simple yet immensely powerful in the rest of my life since then.

Getting Promoted

After working at McDonald’s for about a year and a half I decided that I wanted to be an assistant manager. By that time, I knew every function of the store and had memorized pretty much all of the operating procedures for all the equipment and jobs.

I became friendly with one of the assistant managers that was on his way up through the ranks and had a very good reputation in the company. I pretty much glued myself to his hip. He gave me an awesome piece of advice: “The best way to get promoted is to start doing the job that you want”. That made amazing sense to me. When a position for promotion opens and they are considering who would be the best person to be promoted, it’s natural that they would pick someone that is already doing the job well. I would stay and work off the clock when my shift ended and help him out in exchange for him teaching me what was involved with running the store. I ended up making the same arrangement with the other assistant managers. They welcomed the deal since they would get an extra set of hands to do their busy work and I would get experience and a good reputation among the managers. I probably worked just as many hours for free as I did on the clock. It worked. Within six months I was promoted to assistant manager.

The real kicker here is that while they thought I was eighteen years old (the minimum age to become an assistant manager) I was actually sixteen years old. That kills me now looking back. I was running a $2 Million dollar a year store on my own at sixteen years old (and doing a damn good job). I prided myself on doing things as close to perfect as possible.

Getting Hired

When you are trying to land that new job you need to see yourself from the interviewers point of view. If you were interview someone, what would you want? Someone friendly, outgoing, easy to get along with, professional, and looking sharp.

BE THAT PERSON!

Think about it, in most cases, the fact that the interviewer doesn’t know you can work to your advantage. This is a clean slate for you. Show them who you can be at your best and stick to it! Even if you had a less than stellar reputation at your last job, that doesn’t matter anymore. They only know what you show them!

Now make sure you cover the basics. Dress appropriately. Make sure your clothes and yourself are clean and look sharp. BE ON TIME! By all means, if you are running late, you may even consider making up an excuse about an emergency you have to tend to and reschedule for another day. If you don’t know these things already, I can’t help you. Basic courtesy and manners goes a long way. You will piss off the interviewer before they even know what you look like by being late.

That out of the way, just try to be yourself, but your absolute best. If you died and were at the gates trying to convince Heaven how good and dignified you are to get in, that’s exactly how you should be on a job interview. As long as the interviewer thinks you are in the ball park as far as skills go, you can sell yourself by having a great personality.

Lastly, don’t put outright lies on your resume. You will get caught and you will lose your chance. It’s ok to fudge some numbers or make things and little better than they were, but blatant lies will screw you, don’t do it.

It’s ok to not know the answer to something. One thing I’ve learned from being on both sides of the interview table is the best way to answer a question you don’t know is by saying “I don’t know, but I can find out!” No one expects you to be perfect, but you will get huge respect by not only admitting it, but following up with a can-do attitude that you are willing to learn.

Get The Girl (or Guy)

There was a girl that I was hugely attracted to in High School. She was a year older than I and in my opinion, perfect in every way. I would go out of my way to say hi to her and even had a bit of a friendship with her. She was exceedingly nice, very beautiful and a pleasure to be around. When I first met her, she had a boyfriend. I thought he was substantially below her standards, but of course, never had the nerve to say anything to that effect to her. I was content just spending what time I could with her chatting between classes or after school.

She eventually broke up with her boyfriend and there were at least a dozen times afterwards that I got within an inch of asking her out but chickened out. All of my insecurities would come raging into my head. “I don’t have a car, how would I take her out? I don’t look as good as that other guy that’s chasing her. She’s way out of my league. If she liked me, she’d show it more.” On and on this crap would beat through my head until I convinced myself I was crazy for even thinking of asking her out.

She eventually got a new boyfriend. Of course, I didn’t think he was good enough for her, but what right did I have to judge when I was too chicken to even approach her on the subject, right?

Fast forward a year or two. I was at a party with some mutual friends. She was there. We all got a bit drunk and started playing “Truth or Dare”. This went around the room a few times and the dares were getting quite risky. It came the girl’s turn and she asked me: Truth or Dare? I thought quickly… I blurted out “Truth!” before I noticed the knowing grin on her face.

She asked the mother of all questions: Who in the room have you wanted to ask out but never did? My God! I’m dying! I turned so red so fast, I was hoping I’d fall unconscious and wake in a hospital, thereby escaping the question.

Unfortunately, I retained my consciousness and just stared in horrified embarrassment. Several awkward moments passed until she finally said, “Well?”. Realizing there was no out, I looked at the floor and said, “You”. I wanted the carpet to come alive and swallow me whole.

She then proceeded to shock the ever loving hell out of me and teach me a life lesson I will never forget.

She said, “Why didn’t you ever ask me?”. I replied, “Would it have mattered? Would you have actually gone out with me?”. She simply replied “Yes”.

My head spun and I was in shock. That was NOT the answer I expected. I was blown away and now embarrassed for a totally different reason. Now I was the idiot that could have gotten the girl but didn’t because I didn’t have the balls to ask. AND it was now totally confirmed in front of a room full of witnesses. It felt wonderful and horrible all at the same time.

No, I didn’t get the girl after that either. She was dating someone else and so was I. But that is EXACTLY the point of this story! Don’t EVER let something  you truly want pass you by without at least trying! If you try you may fail, but you may also succeed – regardless of what you think may happen. If you never try, you will never succeed, I guaran-damn-tee you that!

I have many more experiences that I will share in future posts, but the moral I am trying to convey here is that anyone can do anything they want to if they get past the lazy excuses and the fear. I’d bet that as you are reading this, you can think of several things in your life that you’d like to do and that you knowyou can do, but aren’t. Reach deep down in your soul and ask yourself in the most honest of terms: Are you not pursuing your dreams because it would be too much work? How about because you’re afraid you might fail? Maybe because others might see you struggle and you’d be embarrassed?

If You Knew How Little Others Thought About What You Do, You’d Do More

Read the sentence above again and think about it. Think about people in your life. You’ve seen people around you try something and fail. Did you sit around for the rest of the day thinking how foolish they were? More likely you felt some compassion for them for a few minutes then wondered what you’d eat for lunch.

Even if it was someone you despised, you may have evilly enjoyed their failure for several minutes longer… THEN you wondered what was for lunch.

My point is simple. All the fears you have about what others may  think of you if you did the things you wanted to but stumbled are far overblown. People tend to be very self centered (you spend all day worrying about your issues, not other’s issues, don’t you??) and generally do not spend much time analyzing what YOU do.

The flip side of this equation is that the more you face your fears and TRY, the more you are likely to succeed! The confidence you gain from those successes will embolden you to try more and more things until you are practically unstoppable!

Think about those motivational types you see on the infomercials at 3am telling you how great they are and how they can help you get there. The only real success they have truly had was being able to get over their fears and laziness and DO things. They’ve done enough things and had enough successes (and failures too) that they are now confident to share their failings with you.

It’s easy to tell people how bad you were when you can end it with how great you ARE!

Do something every day that scares you. Before long you will find it is harder and harder to find things that do.

Please let me know if I have made you think… Leave a comment below!

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Well, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll change it so in two clicks you can power off your computer.

First off, you’ll notice that the power button currently is brown and when you hover your mouse over it, it tells you that it will put your PC to sleep.

Now, let’s change it:

Click Start and then click in the Search/Run box. Now type POWER OPTIONS like in the picture below and hit ENTER:

The following screen will come up:

Click the “Change Plan Settings” link under the power plan that you have selected.

The following screen will come up. Now click the third option down “Change Advanced Power Settings”

 This is the last screen.

Click the + next to “Power buttons and lid”. Now click the + next to “Start menu power button”. Now click the word “Sleep” or “Hibernate” and it will turn into a dropdown list like below. Click on “Shutdown” then click ‘OK’ at the bottom of the window.

You can confirm that the change worked by hovering your mouse over the Start menu power button. It will now be red in color and will say that it closes all programs and turns off your computer!

 Please leave a comment below! Did this work for you? Have any questions?

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The degree ceremony itself went well. It was very similar to the Entered Apprentice ceremony but was overall much shorter.

Having gotten to take a look at the proficiency work we’ll need in order to pass to the third degree of Master Mason, It is also very similar to the Entered Apprentice work. Probably about 40% of it is almost identical wording, so memorizing it should go much faster, especially now that I know how to read the cipher on my own.

Ultimately, there was no proficiency testing – open or otherwise and everyone was passed without question. There seems to have developed an ego contest between the Worshipful Master and my Masonic mentor, to the point that the W.M. has declared that we will no longer be holding study groups outside of the lodge.

From this point forward, we are to study on our own and if we need help or want to do anything as a group, we can get together at a table in the coalation room after the meetings twice per month.

I have concerns that this won’t work out well considering that most of the other Fellow Craft that just got passed with me, rarely come to meetings in the first place and several of them can barely read the cipher book.

At this point, I’ve decided to stop worrying about the quality of the men that they are passing next to me as there isn’t anything I can do about it anyway. Once I am passed to the degree of Master Mason and have an equal voice in the lodge, I will do all I can to work with new brothers and make them as proficient as possible so that they fully understand and appreciate what the degrees are trying to teach.

I am fortunate in that I have two “older brothers” that I am close with, that have helped me along the way. I very much enjoy seeing them at lodge meetings and as a result, I try harder to get to meetings even when presented with some adversity. These brothers have also helped me with my proficiency and have made it much more interesting than just memorizing words. They have given me some bits of history and explained why some things are done the way that they are.

I understand that people are only going to participate as much as they want to, but I feel that if new brothers are given a good start and are immersed in the work, they will stay stronger members. An example that comes to mind is when a newer brother misses a meeting, someone should make sure they get a call from someone in the lodge to ask if everything is alright and let them know they were missed.

An act as simple as a phone call let’s the new brother know that he is a part of a fraternity, it is noticed when he is not present and that he is cared for. You may also find out that his reason for missing the meeting is something that can be addressed. Maybe his car broke down and it will take a while to be repaired. Well, if it isn’t too much trouble, someone can pick that brother up on the way to to the meeting. This sets the precedent in the newer member’s mind that we help and take care of one another.

If I join a group where I don’t know many people at all, I will naturally be uneasy for the first several meetings until I become comfortable with everyone there and build my own rapport with them. During this time, it is very easy for a new brother to miss meetings and not participate. If that man has an “older brother” looking after him and encouraging him, he is in a much better position to thrive.

Of course, there will always be the men that join Freemasonry and for whatever reason, drop off and don’t attend meetings. There isn’t much that can be done about them, but I believe that the majority of brothers that stray could be encouraged to come back with some simple friendly contact.

Starting a brother’s Masonic journey with a strong and enriching experience will also likely keep some of those brothers from straying in the first place.

This is my sixth post on Freemasonry.

Click here for the full index of my Freemasonry posts

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Both she and my wife are upset as she’s had this ring for over 40 years. My wife has always loved the ring and was supposed to inherit it.

So of course, the first question is: where is the last place you saw it? Luckily, the day before the yard work was Thanksgiving and we had taken pictures. We pulled up the pictures on the computer and sure enough, her mom was wearing the ring Thursday night. Well at least that means that we know when she last had it and that it is likely that it could have been lost in the yard.

Next, we panic as I took several garbage bags from the yardwork to the curb just that morning and if the ring was in there, it is definitely gone. I go out in the back yard and happily notice that there are several bags of leaves in the side yard that I hadn’t seen that morning.

Now, we’ll need to go through all the leaves in the bags that are there. That will probably require some heavy sifting so as to avoid missing it. What if it’s not in the bags? I hit good old Amazon this morning and plugged “Metal Detector” into the search box. I thought it was a long shot and I’d probably end up with a few crap products from third party vendors. Suprisingly, there were several models and most were sold by amazon.

It’s around this time that I realize I’m going to look like one of the wacky guys on the beach hunting for lost quarters – LOL.

I briefly chug through the reviews and settle on a $100 model: the Bounty Hunter Tracker IV metal detector. It’s got good reviews and is a decent price. According to the reviews, I should be able to figure it out without too much trouble and several people said they did find lost rings in their yards. Now all I have to do is hope that the ring is actually in the yard and that I can find it. Hopefully she didn’t drop it in the car or something.

The detector should be here tomorrow (I got the overnight shipping for $4 with my amazon prime membership) and I will be starting the hunt. I’ll leave an update with my progress.

**Update: Unfortunately we were not able to find the ring, but I don’t think it’s related to the metal detector. The thing DID work. I found change and various other metal items in the yard. Now my mother-in-law thinks she may have lost it elsewhere. Either way, at least we now have the piece of mind that it isn’t in the yard and I don’t have to worry every time I mow the lawn that I’m stomping it into the grass.

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My wife and I got married when I was 25 and she was 30. We had been dating and engaged for about three years already. We were in no hurry to have kids as we were both gleefully working our hearts out and figured we had all the time in the world. Add to that the fact that I was still very much in the single guy mindset that getting a girl pregnant is the worst thing that can happen in life (death is a close second). Getting married does not change this mind set AT ALL! It actually take several years before the thought of pregnancy and kids sinks in and you can start thinking about it as a positive thing.

You must remember that men are trained from their teenage years that the rules of the game are simple: if you can get laid, you win. If you get laid BUT get the girl pregnant, you lose. Game over!

After we were married for about a year, my wife started kicking around the idea of having kids. It took more than a bit of convincing to get me to agree with this idea. Ultimately, we compromised. We agreed that she’d stop taking “the pill” and we’d stop using any other protection. “When it happens, it happens” became our mantra.

I was content when month after month she still was not pregnant, figuring that I had been given a little more time to enjoy being young and married. Unfortunately, the months kept on going with not even a hint of a pregnant wife.

My wife went to the OB/GYN for a checkup after a year of trying and mentioned to her that we’d been unsuccessful. The doctor did a bunch of checks and tests and told her that she didn’t see anything obviously wrong, but recommended that we go see a fertility specialist just to get checked out but that there was still nothing to worry about.

So she books an appointment with the clinic she was referred to by her OB/GYN – “Reproductive Specialists of New York”. She was given a consultation with the founder, Dr. Gabriel San Roman.

She came back home from the appointment feeling positive. Dr. San Roman had assured her that we were both yound and healthy and he felt that, barring some negative tests, we’d have no problems having a child. The next step, he told her, was that we’d both need to go in and have a full battery of tests done to find the problem.

THE WALK OF SHAME

Testing day comes. We head to the clinic first thing in the morning. I’m expecting the normal stuff that goes into physicals. I am about to be suprised…

First off, I fill out a several page questionaire on my medical history. Next they send me off to the blood room where they take tube after tube of blood. I’m watching all of my blood getting packaged up and start to envision a secret cloning lab somewhere making an army of me’s – hahaha…

Now the fun starts. Just when I thought I was done, a surly looking older woman comes over to me and introduces herself as a nurse. She tells me that we’re off to “produce a sample”. I’m suddenly struck with a vision of being on “The Apprentice” and tasked with creating a sample product to be sold that night on the home shopping channel. Oh, but the truth was much more brutal than “The Donald” could ever be. I was led through a hallway right and left and right again until I was thoroughly lost. Surly nurse lady is not up for small talk and literally says nothing the entire time. We make our way to a door on the left that is slightly ajar, with a big sign on it that reads “DO NOT ENTER OR KNOCK WHEN DOOR IS CLOSED!”. Eyebrows up, I know this can’t be good. Surly nurse lady leads me into the room I will forever remember as the “Ejaculatorium”. Inside, it is a surprisingly large room based on the intended use. The lighting is quite dim and might be almost romantic if it wasn’t in the middle of a doctor’s office. Surly nurse lady gives me the grand tour. To the right of the door is a sink with a full list of instructions. Of course she decides that I may not be able to read and proceeds to go over the instructions in painstaking detail: Wash your hands thoroughly with soap water.

“Wash your penis thoroughly with soap and water from the base of the shaft to the tip. Take an alcohol swab and wipe the head of your penis thoroughly”

(right about this point I’m ready to freak out laughing harder than I ever have before OR watch blood flow right through the skin of my face because I’m blushing so hard). Now, remove the sample cup from the sterile plastic packaging and unscrew the lid. (Let me tell you, that cup is huge! I was hoping beyond hope she didn’t say “please fill this”) Now that we got penis prep instructions out of the way, we continue the tour. Inside the room is a stall with a toilet with one of those hospital type curtain divider things for privacy. She says I can use that if I prefer (What???). To the left of the odd toilet setup is a table with a TV and a VCR on top with a collection of VHS movies next to it. I’m now half interested to see what the professional clinical movies are like and I wonder to myself if they’ll be cheesy or not. To the left of the TV table is a full sized leather couch. It instantly dawns on me why the couch is leather (easy cleanup) blarff!!!. To the left of that is a (leather) La-Z-Boy recliner.

 

 

 

 

 Surly nurse lady tells me how to operate the VCR (ya know, cuz these are so new I may have never seen one before) and points to their selection of tapes. She then tells me that when I’m finished, I must bring the ‘sample’ I’ve ‘produced’ down the hall to the lab door, where I will leave it for processing. Then she says very sternly “Make sure you leave the door OPEN when you leave! Open!”. I give her a “Roger, that” and try to look as ready as I can so she’ll leave me to my shame. She’s standing there like there’s more to say and I’m now fully expecting her to give me a lecture on how to masturbate, since she’s explained every other facet of this operation in such excruciating detail. Well apparently that’s the one thing she decided I probably knew how to do already and left.

I decide to at least git ‘er going so I wander over to the video tape collection to the what we have. I see two things that suprise me. One is a sign that reads “All movies are inventoried before and after each use. Any missing movies will be billed to your account”. Ohhhhh Kay… The next thing I notice is that these movies are not the innocent clinical type that I expected. This are hard core porn movies with titles that explain that in brutal detail. And not your regular porn either! There are ones with lots and lots of participants and several other “niche” varieties.

At this point I’m starting to considering making a run for the exit, but I quickly resign myself to the fact that this is going to happen one way or another.

Fast forward

After producing my sample, I wash up and button up and make my way to the door. I open it hoping beyond hope that there’s no one outside to see me leaving the scene of the crime. Well my hopes were dashed when I realized that there is a woman in an office directly across the hall from me. Her desk is facing the door I’m trying to sneak out of. She looks up at me and then quickly away. My face turns beet red. My eyes drop to the floor and I turn down the hallway and head for the lab to make my delivery.

I arrive at the drop off door for the lab and luck is with me. It’s a dutch door (the top can open separately from the bottom creating a counter) and no one is there. I’m spared further humiliation. I leave the cup on the little counter and make haste back toward the waiting room. I almost make it there when surly nurse pops out from a doorway and catches me!

Her: “Did you leave the specimen with the lab tech?”

Me: ”uh, yeah, on the counter”.

Her: “Did you give it to a person or not???”

Me: “Uh, no there was no one there”Her: “You can’t do that!!! It MUST be given to the lab tech directly!” 

What is an IUI??

Now that both my wife and I have been tested for just about everything and come back normal, we are officially diagnosed with “Unexplained Infertility”, which basically means they have no idea why she hasn’t gotten pregnant.

So my wife heads off to the doctor to have a “what next?” appointment. I have to work so she goes alone. They suggest we do an “IUI” which is short for Intra Uterine Insemination”. This is basically when you take some home tests and/or an Ovulation monitor and wait till your wife is ovulating. Once the tests say she is, you produce a “sample”, the docs office processes the sample stripping out everything except the sperm. Now they put it in a thin straw, put the straw through the vagina and inject the sperm directly into the uterous which will hopefully have an egg on the way.

My wife agrees and they give her a prescription for Chlomid. This drug is supposed to help you ovulate and can make you produce two or three eggs, which should help your odds of getting pregnant.

So wifey starts her drugs. We get an Ovulation Monitor and a bunch of ovulation tests (which work just like home pregnancy tests – pee on a stick) and we’re off to the races. She watches her monitor religiously and when the little symbols say she’s about to ovulate, she calls the doc and asks what next. They said we should come in the next day for the IUI. My wife tells them that I will be at work so it’ll need to be either before or after. The nurse replies “oh he doesn’t have to come in, you can just get the sample at home and then bring it straight here”. WHAT WHAT WHAT THE HELL????? I went through the most embarrassing, forced sexual experience in my life and didn’t have to??? No, says the pleasant nurse on the phone. We can get a sterile cup from the drug store, I can fill it and give it to my wife. They suggest she puts the cup between her breasts on the way up to keep it close to body temperature. As long as she can get there within an hour, it’ll be fine.

Attention men and women that love them: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WHACK IT IN THE DOCTORS OFFICE! Save yourself the trauma and embarrassment! Do it at home and maintain what little dignity you can in this process!

So we go fetch a cup from the drug store the night before, I set my clock and wake up early to do my deed. My wife and I try to time it so that she takes delivery just before she’s going to leave so that we are well within the time limit. It works out, she dutifully drops the cup between her breasts and heads off to the doctor while I head off to work.

When my wife arrives, she drops off the cup. They tell her to come back in two hours for the procedure. She heads over to Starbucks, has a coffee and kills the time then heads back to the docs. The procedure was done within about 10 minutes. They brought her in the room, brought in my “washed” sample. Showed it to her with a name label on it to double check it’s the right guy’s stuff (a bit disturbing as you know this process was created because they’ve made mistakes before). Once she confirmed it, they popped the straw in and fired the boys into the uterous. They told her to relax and hang out for a few minutes, then she was free to go back to work or whatever she wanted to do.

We waited and waited for the results. When we finally did the home pregnancy test, it was dissapointing. Negative.

That was the beginning of our journey into “Unexplained Infertility”.

Suffice it to say that “Reproductive Specialists of New York” and Dr. San Roman was a total body shop and a waste of time. They just kept upping our doseage of chlomid and doing IUI’s forever. Eventually we got suspicious that they were milking us for insurance money. After substancial research by my wife, we moved over to North Shore University Hospital where we did finally get pregnant and are currently expecting a baby girl.

I will write detailed posts about the rest of our experiences with Reproductive Specialists of New York and our eventual move to North Shore University Hospital.

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I am happy to report that my Masonic classmates and I have gotten together several times since my last post for group studies.

The good news is that everyone is farther along now than they were. The bad news is that it became screamingly obvious that only two of us had been studying at all. My friend that I worried was off to a slow start actually ended up looking like one of the stronger members at our first full study group.

Happily by our second study meet all but two Entered Apprentices showed great improvement.

I have adopted the role of Freemason student mentor as I seem to be the most advanced student in the group.

At our first study meet, I paired off with another student who had obviously put little to no study time in on his own. We ran through the full Q and A as well as the obligation three times. I found that he would repeatedly get hung up on the same word or phrases every time. I suggested that he make small short hand notes or reminders in the cipher to aid his memory. He always agreed with me but never did it. I hoped for the best and assumed that he’d seen enough to study on his own.

My hopes were dashed when we got together at the second study meet and practiced in a circle with the group. It became obvious that he had not even thought about his studies since the previous week. I actually think he was worse than the first week.

I will always be more than happy to work with any of my Masonic brethren to help them along but not when they won’t even apply a minimal amount of effort to learning it themselves. The rest of the group has come along gloriously with one other exception. Our trainer has told me that he thinks all but the two mentioned are almost ready to advance.

SPEAKING OF ADVANCING

I was bummed yet again when I received our latest communication announcing the next meetings and agendas. There was mention of an open proficiency test slated for the next meeting but no sign of a degree ceremony. I asked my mentor If he knew what the deal was as the WM had implied we’d have an advancement this month. My mentor informed me that the officers had held a rehearsal for the 2nd degree ceremony. It had apparently gone so poorly that the Worshipful Master postponed the degree night another month. Arrrrgh!

Now please don’t get the wrong impression of me. I am generally a patient man. The problem here lies in the fact that I have been studying for almost four months for this degree and have been told by master masons that I know the work better than most of them. The issue that I have is that between the students not studying and now apparently the officers not studying I will take about 9 months to complete the three degrees when most of the other brothers took under four and didn’t study as hard.

Now of course I am keeping this all to myself as this blog is more my diary that I express my thoughts to.

My mentor told me off the record that the WM had been convinced not to hold an open proficiency test at the next meeting despite it being stated in the agenda. This will benefit some of the weaker members in the group but my mentor said the two that haven’t applied themselves at all will be left back for a future class when they’re ready.

After speaking to my mentor about the website, he suggested that I go ahead and get started on it as it will benefit the lodge. He said the we’d go and speak with the “other” webmaster together and gently explain our actions.

Hopefully that goes over smoothly as i have a lot more ideas and suggestions for the lodge that I’d like to present once I am raised to the third degree.

I have gotten the framework of the website up and have also gotten a proper domain name. Right now it’s light on content but I’m sure that will be fixed in good time.

This is my fifth post on Freemasonry.

Click here for the full index of my Freemasonry posts

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This was my first real meeting since joining and taking the first degree.

I was quite suprised to see that of seven of us that took the first degree, only three of us were present.

I’m already witnessing the personalities of the lodge and am getting an idea about which ones clash.

Over the Summer I heard that the last “class” that went through the degrees were not required to demonstrate their proficiency in the lodge.

Apparently, the members that were instructing the candidates had both been Past Masters. They were asked how the candidates were doing by the Worshipful Master. They replied that the candidates were doing great and were ready to move on. The WM then said Great! Let’s bring them in and test them out. Well this did not go over well with the past masters (now trainers). They felt that their statement that the candidates were ready should suffice and that their integrity was being questioned. They laid down an ultimatum that if the candidates were tested that they would quit training new members and would leave the new member investigative committee. The Worshipful Master thought it over and decided that he could live with that and honored the word of the trainers. That class was not tested in front of the lodge.

Now I’m not mentioning this for the sake of gossip or criticism. I personally don’t care one way or the other as I will be prepared whether or not I’m asked to show what I’ve learned. For me, the whole point of becoming a Mason is to improve myself and cheating would not benefit me.

The reason that I mention this story is because I know one of the other candidates in my class well and I know he hasn’t studied at all with the exception of two times that we got together with the trainers.

You see, he heard the same story I did and it seems he’s expecting to get a free pass. That pisses me off. I have doubts about his reasons for joining as it seems that he’s a member of at least a dozen different groups and organizations and I worry that this will just be one more “club” for him.

It’s pretty clear that he doesn’t think of the Brotherhood as I do. He showed up for the meeting wearing clothes that were beyond casual. I made a friendly comment about it to him and he replied that he had a jacket (pointing to his dirty windbreaker) while chuckling. He was an active member of the Elks for many years and won’t stop talking about it in the lodge. I feel it’s disrespectful to the Brothers and the lodge to carry on that way. I could give you several examples of this type of behavior and thinking but I won’t.

I know as a Mason I should work to see the good in him, but as a Mason I think I’ll resent him if I bust my butt with my degree work and he skates. Not to be malicious but I really don’t think that people that aren’t willing to put in the effort should be passed.

As much as he’s lazy, he will do at least the bare minimum to pass. I’m OK with that. If he passes as he is now, in my opinion, I can’t respect him as a Mason.

The interesting part of this is that we just installed a new Master for the coming year who is very keen on Masonic education. I am hopeful that this may make my whole tirade above a moot point. What I do worry about for the sake of peace in the lodge is whether he and the Brothers doing the training are going to have a major clash if they feel that we shouldn’t be tested in front of the lodge like the last group and the WM feels strongly that we should.

I honestly feel that at this point it should be a requirement for us to be tested since of the three Entered Aprentices at the meeting, I was the only one that was almost ready to be tested. The guy I mentioned above has studied twice for an hour and the third guy hadn’t studied at all. Maybe the other four have been studying, but they didn’t even show up for the meeting so I think it’s doubtful.

I’m also concerned that if the WM sees that all the others in the group are far from ready that we’ll all get held back for study. I can’t see them holding a degree ceremony just for me.

I understand that there are people out there that are “Joiners” and will join as many groups as possible but I don’t understand that mentality if you aren’t even going to fulfill the basic requirements.

Embarrassment alone would prevent me from showing up completely unprepared and clueless.

The Old vs. the New

After the meeting we enjoyed a meal in the collation room. While there I was chatting with the Secretary of the lodge about putting up a proper website for the lodge. It’s good publicity for anything you want to put on it and it also gives you the ability to set up a mailing list. Considering that we are in the electronic age, I think it only makes sense to begin emailing the communications out in addition to snail mail.

The Secretary informed me that one of the senior members had put up a website. When I asked for the address he couldn’t remember it. I asked if he could send email from it and he said no. This didn’t make much sense to me. When I got home I did a quick search and found nothing. I ended up having to CSI search and finally tracked it down. It is an ugly thing. It is hosted on one of the free sites that put ads all over it and make the address a mile long.

Worse still, it looks like someone tinkered on it for a couple of hours then gave up and never bothered to go back. It even has pages displayed the say “type your text for the page here” (obviously a template). The site also looks like it hasn’t been updated in a good two years or more. Suffice it to say that it’s useless and ugly. The dillemma now is whether he would be offended and pissed at me if I put up a proper site with a real web domain and all that’s needed to represent the lodge well.

I really don’t want to come off as the young buck that walks in and wants to toss out all the old timers’ work and replace it with “newer and better”, but I do think that people are prone to doing things the same way reglardless of whether or not it’s the best way. It takes new blood to come in with new suggestions and new spirit.

I mentioned my concern to the Secretary. He didn’t seem concerned about it and suggested I speak with the other member about it. My concern there is that if he thinks that the site he put up is just wonderful, would I have to respect that and drop the issue despite the site being impossible to find and pretty embarrassing to look at.

I hope that as you read this it doesn’t sound like I’m just nagging and complaining. I do enjoy the Craft very much and have had overall very good experiences. I think my biggest problem is that I care about the lodge and only want the best for it, whether it be the best efforts from new members or a great image on the internet.

In the mean time, I have arranged a study session with two of the other apprentices this weekend with one of the trainers and will try to encourage them to get caught up in hopes of at least a partial group of us can move on.

This is my fourth post on Freemasonry. Click here to view my fifth.

Click here for the full index of my Freemasonry posts

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