loudbuzz sounding off

Here is their restaurant menu.

Here is their 2006 Hooter’s pageant Winner, Michelle Nunes:

Seen at

http://anustory.wordyblog.com/

I helped her get this website, when she was having trouble getting through to blogger from India…

September 9th, 2006

sitting on my window sill

I am sitting alone here on my window sill
as i look out i see the trees swaying in the garden outside my house
I go back in time and remember that i used to sit in this very place
and dream about the man of my dreams a knight
those were the times not too long…just three years ago
when my parents were the world for me
though my mom would beat me and verbally abuse me sometimes
and my dad never interfered in all of this
yet i loved my parents and my parents and my sister were my world
and i was waiting with bated breath for that knight
who would appear in my life
and treat me like a princess

Today in just three years my whole life has changed
Can just three years change your life?
I fell in love with a knight
I see glimpses of him when there is light in the moon light
The knight taught me about horses and lights and life
And since then i have never remained the same again
During one such lessons i lost my kidneys
I am still searching for them around the pebbles and ripples
I also lost the connection i had with my parents and relatives
And my knight in shining armour dissapeared in the night
He went on his journey and i am on my own again

I am sitting again at the same window sill
Wondering what i will be thinking three years hence
I have lost connection with all and sundry in this three years
The only connection i am working on is with Me
I dont know whether i will ever find myself again
Not that i found myself ever before
Maybe i do , maybe i don’t
I will keep looking out for me

September 9th, 2006

first poem

If you want to be a star
You must climb to the sky
Even if the steps seem invisible.

Last Friday was my birthday.
My son had a hockey tournament in Detroit last Friday. The tournament actually lasted the entire weekend. So we stayed at a hotel in Farmington Hills.

I had my son, aged 12, and his cousin, aged 13, with me on this trip; since my son’s cousin never stays at hotels anywhere, and my son would have someone his age to play video games with, since we were not staying with his team.  The plan was to watch my son play his hockey game, and then go someplace to eat afterwards…a family restaurant…so I thought, since it is my birthday:  “How about Hooters?”

Unfortunately, my son got checked so hard in that game, that he hit his head against the boards, even though he still played the rest of the game. But when he came off, he was scared…crying…panicking… saying that he couldn’t remember anything that just happened. So, I decided I needed to take him to the hospital, to see if they can tell me if he had just had a concussion.

There were only three people ahead of us in the emergency waiting room, but - of course - it took nearly three hours to see a doctor. In the meantime, I had the work pager, and I got a couple of calls and handled them. Then, we saw the doctor.  And the doctor ordered a catscan.  And a few minutes later, they said everything looked normal. Whew!!!

The next day, my son played in two games…he played well, but his team didn’t. We went from the rink, and drove to Novi.  Now, I had neglected to write the address down! And so, we could not find it. Actually, later, we found out that we had driven right past it! We settled for Applebees; and, after that, I treated them to Cold Stone Creamery!

The next day, my son had one more game, and then we had to go back to the hotel and checkout. Before we checked out, I wrote down the address of Hooters. It was still on our way home. So I told the boys that we were going to try this one more time…and they were enthusiastic, of course!  We stepped out of the car, and you should have seen the looks on their faces!  I had to laugh. I told them, “Hey, there is nothing wrong with Hooters…they have great food…and I love the chicken wings.” Then, I told them, “Just relax…don’t look or act like this is your ‘initiation into manhood’ or anything like that! Remember, that this is just a nice family restaurant; with colorful uniforms, that’s all!”

I have to thank a professor from Michigan State University for this… I won’t say how many years ago!!!  But all of this comes from Eugene E. Jennings, Ph.D’s class that I took.

Stress is not an emotional state.

There are four basic and four secondary emotional states though,
of which one is necessary to be under, in order to experience stress.

Four Basic Emotional States:

a.  Fear - an emotional arousal to a perceived threat
b.  Anxiety - an emotional arousal to a non-perceived threat
c.  Guilt - emotional arousal due to violation of one’s norms or standards
d.  Shame - emotional arousal due to violation of external standards

The difference between fear and anxiety:

Fear perceives an immediate threat…
like walking somewhere in the dark and someone steps out of the shadows
with a knife.

Anxiety is like being told, before walking down the street, that three people have been robbed at knifepoint on that street in the last week.  It is a potential threat, not a real or actual one.

Four Secondary Emotional States:

a   Boredom - stimuli deprivation
b.  Frustration - the prevention of the attainment of a desired end.
c.  Pressure - being forced to work under unreasonable time constraints, or self-imposed time restrictions
d.  Challenge - a feeling that one must exert all their effort in order to meet the demands of a situation

While one of these emotional states is necessary to experience stress,
they are not a sufficient cause for stress alone.

I may, indeed, have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform a given task… this is called competence.

But I also need something in addition to competence in order to not feel stress:  I need confidence!!!

There are two kinds of confidence:

Secondary Self-confidence - this is competence in one’s competencies.

My oldest son plays hockey…and when things get stressful on the ice…and the pressure is mounting…He told me that he doesn’t think about the future, or what and howhe will have to do something right now…he looks at the past instead, when he dealt with something just like the current situation he is in, and thinks about how he became successful then.

Primary Self-Confidence - confidence in one’s ability to meet the requirements of any situation.  It is the attitude that says I am able to handle whatever life may throw my way, that somehow I will come through all situations and survive.  No matter what the circumstances, I cannot be devastated becasue I will live through the situation and be all right.  THIS IS THE X FACTOR! (says Eugene E. Jennings)

Stress is loss of confidence plus one of eight emotional states.

“Remember, being needy isn’t the same as being weak; it’s a way to gain more expertise or have a burden you can’t handle shared by somebody else, which helps your company to conserve resources and build skills, so that in the end you emerge much stronger.”

This quote was from the book:  “How to Negotiate Like a Child: Unleash the Little Monster Within to Get Everything You Want,” page 108, written by Bill Adler, Jr.