My name is Baxter...

Nobody Cares Kid

I went to a seminar last night on how to start a small business in Michigan. I saw the information on Linkedin.com and I was really interested. I told a few of my friends and two of us attended. Well, after about 4 minutes of being there, I realized this was a networking group of displaced or unemployed people. Oops! It was a really odd feeling knowing that everyone thought that everyone there was unemployed. I kinda felt guilty for having a job. Weird.

The eye opening part of the night was how many people who had great jobs...jobs they had for as long as I've been alive! Naturally, many of the displaced workers were from the automotive industry. One guy said he went down to some service after he was laid off. They asked him, "Sir, what is your dream job?" He replied, "That was my dream job. There were only about 5 of us in the entire world." That comment touched my heart. It made me feel very fortunate to have a job. A job that I actually like! These were (mostly) degreed professionals. And they were let go from a job that they'd never be able to return to.

I'm on the phones a lot at my job. Inside sales for the most part. Sometimes you don't feel like being on the phone. Sometimes you don't feel like calling anyone. Sometimes you don't feel like being told no or sent to voicemail. I'm sure at your job you have similar feelings some days... My advice would be to thank God that you have a way to pay your bills and keep that smile on your face!

I Want To Be A Rock Star! Part 2

Buzz of the Day



Discipline. That is my arch-nemesis. I have too many things going on to not be disciplined and organized. I have so much going on in my brain sometimes (OK, all the time), that I am easily distracted. These great ideas pop in and out so quickly, I have to write things down to keep track.

Consistency is something that I have much respect for. That is my aim. I respect it because I know how hard it is for me to achieve it. My manager said that my personality is that of a
C-Level executive. I have the great ideas and everyone else is suppose to carry them out. The problem is: If I don't show that I can carry these great ideas out, I won't be advancing to
C-Level anytime soon. I'll keep you posted.

Ridiculousness of the Day

I'm from a little place called Royal Oak Township. It is nothing like Royal Oak; It is basically on 8 mile across from Detroit, and sandwiched between Ferndale and Oak Park. Royal Oak Township or "The Township" as we like to call it, has always been a place much closer to Detroit than Ferndale. You have your typical characters; crackheads, athletes, and drug dealers. You could get beat up, but normally you didn't have to worry about being shot.

Well, those days have changed. A 17 year old boy was shot and killed last weekend. Although I didn't know him, he was a friend of my 20 year old nephew. The boys were gambling. From the gambling, a fight developed. So there were people who left and came back in cars. Shooting at whomever was there.

What happened to fighting, winning or losing, and call it all square at that point? OK. Sometimes you may even want a rematch if you lost the fight. That's cool. But these guns. There's no coming back from that. I really do think it's a shame. Times have changed. And more often than not, they change for the worse.

I Want to be a Rock Star! Part 1

Buzz of the Day


The funny thing about this blog is: My mentality is very different than before I started blogging. I think that I'm a creative writer. Sometimes. One of the things that I haven't done much of lately is writing poetry. I thought that this site would give me an opportunity to share my poetry with the world. Problem is...I haven't felt the urge to write poetry since I've been blogging.

I am definitely a people person, but I am very private also. I don't want people all in my business, but I'm also protecting many people by keeping certain things to myself. This blog has allowed me to open up much more than I would to most people. For a long time, I didn't have an outlet like this so I wrote poetry. I'm confused because I don't know if the urge will return. I know that I am loving this site and I want to do more (creatively) for those that follow Baxter's Buzz.

These days, I can't even pick up a book if it is fiction. My wife loves fictional stories. That allows her to get away from reality. My getaway is sports. As a teen, I'd go and shoot hoops by myself when I had things on my mind. These days, I follow all of my Detroit sports (not as much hockey though), and that allows my mind to take a break. I still love to read. I just read self help books and magazines now. I'd rather read a recipe book than read a fictional book these days. The recipes can be applied to real life. I don't want to hear about some made up story. Give me an autobiography to read.

I think I've been worried about real life a lot lately.

Those of us who've just gotten married in the last 12-18 months have had a tough time. Marriage is hard enough, but the economy has turn up the heat on everything else. I have a new job, a new wife, baby talk, and a sales job in this terrible financial state that we're in. All of this stuff swirling around in my head can wear you down. I know I'm strong mentally. I can block most things out and do what I need to do, but sometimes it is tougher to do.

I am going to focus on taking a few steps back and enjoy myself a little more. I told you guys a while ago that I was going to share of fear of mine with you...I am afraid of failure.

Many of the people that I knew growing up were not "successful" in my eyes. People told me how smart I was and all this stuff, but it has taken me a long time to channel my energies on the correct goal and get that "tunnel vision" that people always speak of. I get it in spurts. But not long enough spurts! I am improving, but still struggling with this at my old age of 28.

Can I Get a Second to Breathe? Part 2

Buzz of the Day

On July 4, we went to an early movie. 'Public Enemies' was a very good movie. The only complaint that I have is there was too much shooting. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind bad guys shooting at good guys etc. But trust me, they went overboard.

Well, my family didn't get together on the Fourth and my wife's mom was out of town. We found ourselves with no plans for the holiday. I would have been okay with it, but I didn't think my wife would. I called one of my friends because they hadn't made plans either. We ended up over my friends house. He and his fiance'. It was a very low key day and I was totally okay with it. Sometimes you run around so much when you have days off that you don't get a chance to rest and recharge your batteries.

I was very satisfied with the day. I was very satisfied with the entire weekend. For some reason, I've been very aware of all of me and my wife's "firsts". Our first Christmas and Thanksgiving. All of the other first also. I understand (or I get lucky sometimes) those things that are important to my wife and I do my best to give her something to remember.

It wasn't a whole lot of excitement, but it was just right for us. And that's what I'm realizing. My wife doesn't always want to do something "super duper fun", she just wants to do something. The problem we have is that many times I want to do nothing...To be continued

Can I Get a Second to Breathe? Part 1

Buzz of the Day

Oh boy. The week has begun people! Ready or not. I wanted to share some of my thoughts from the Fourth of July Weekend:

That movie 'Public Enemies' was really good. I read a review that talked about Johnny Depp's charisma and how it stood out in the movie. They were right. I am a very tough critic when it comes to movies, so if I give it my stamp, that means something (or at least I think so).

This was me and my wife's first July as a married couple. And although I would have been totally content with staying at home (I was tired and worn down), I knew that she wouldn't. So I woke up early, as I normally do, but my wife was still asleep. I looked at some movie times online and thought that maybe we could get a matinee price because the showtime was 12:45pm. No discount...$15 bucks for 2 tickets! So then we went to buy popcorn and pop (I almost said 'soda' because I didn't want to follow popcorn with pop, but I have never said soda in my life). There was a number on the register, but the cashier and walked away to grab the popcorn. $11.50 was on the register. My wife said, "Well that $11.50 must have been from the last people." Nope...that was our bill. So $15 bucks for the tickets and $12 bucks for the food. Johnny Depp had a lot to prove to me.

I will get to the second part of my holiday tomorrow.

Tragedy

Buzz of the Day

We have tragic things that happen everyday. There are wars going on, crimes being committed, and people dying everyday. I want to speak a little about Michael Jackson.

I saw a friend of mine this weekend and he seemed really interested in how I felt about Michael Jackson passing away. I was on my way to one of my meetings that day and a friend of mine called with the bad news. It was crazy to hear that. I immediately called my wife and that was about it. I was almost at my meeting so I didn't have a whole bunch of time to think about it.

The next morning I was listening to the radio and people were sharing their opinions. Normally in the morning I go back and forth between WJLB (Hip Hop and R&B, although I normally turn it off when the music starts) and The Ticket (Sportstalk radio, but not from 6-10am). So The Ticket has 3 white people that DJ. 2 guys and a woman. WJLB has (depending on the day) 3-5 black people that DJ. 2-3 guys and 2 women. I'm always very interested to hear what each station has to say, especially if they're talking about the same topic. The demographics of the listeners are very different and I love hearing those differences.

Let me tell you this: Black folks are very protective of black people. We sometimes defend people that shouldn't be defended. It's like we can talk about our people, but you can't. The reason that you can't is because we don't know if there is a hint of or a whole bunch or racism. And even if it's a black person who's criticizing, black people will get just as defensive.

I try not to be that way, but sometimes I get very protective also. We don't have many black heroes/role models and we don't want them to be knocked down.

Which leads me to my point: Michael Jackson was a hero to many of us. Black and White. But when he got into trouble and was being talked about by everyone, black people embraced him and supported him. It was almost as if everyone else had chewed him up and spit him out and he ended back up on our front porch. And we took him in! White folks talked about his nose. Blacks folks talked about it too. White folks talked about the allegations. Black folks talked about it too. But when it seemed like the entire world was against him, the black community gravitated towards him, patted him on the head and told him things would be okay.

He destroyed barriers like he was in a video game. He represented the American Dream. Making it out of the hood and becoming a big star. He just happened to become the biggest star ever. He was one of our heroes! And right or wrong, many black people were not going to let you talk about Michael right after he died. It wouldn't be right!

It's still tough being black. Period. Is it as tough as before? No. But it's still tough. We are still dealing with all types of inferiority complexes. And if we brag too much sometimes, that could be the reason. If we buy the biggest car or the biggest piece of jewelry, that could be the reason.

We want so bad sometimes...to let you know that we're okay, but we are not. Michael made us feel like we were okay. That we could dream big and those dreams just may come true. He was selling out stadiums...and he looked liked us. And even when he stopped looking like us, we remembered him as that big nose kid from Indiana with the afro. And we felt like he still represented us. He had some flaws and I'll never defend what someone has done in their personal life when I don't know them personally, but we all have some problems. Have we had as many problems as Michael? Probably not. But when he died, many fans black and white were not going to stand around and let people bad mouth him. That wasn't the time for it. Those that considered Michael a hero, wouldn't stand for it.

That's all I have to say about that. RIP Mike...

Halftime Adjustments

Buzz of the Day

Hello again. It's just me, trying to share my thoughts with you all.

Happy holidays and a big shout out to the veterans and current soldiers who've made and continue to make our independence possible. I'm pretty excited to get my week started. I have had time to regroup and get my thoughts together. I have some new things that I'm going to try out in regards to work. I feel like I mention it all the time...getting back to basics is so important.

I had a meeting with my boss last week and although I wasn't looking forward to it, the meeting was exactly what I needed. It gave me some things to think about and with the long weekend, I've been able to brainstorm.

The other thing that is exciting is my rent: I've paid rent for the last time for this 2 bedroom. We are downsizing later in the month and that will save us a nice amount of money. Combined that with cancelling cable and downgrading my phone plan, we're going to save some cash. This should be the first month that we'll actually see some savings.

So my wife financed her eyeglasses last year (before we were married), and we've been late on the payments lately. So this company (I think it's GE Financial) calls every-stinking-day. So finally I answered the phone and said, "Hey, we don't have any money. We're just like everyone else. Do you have any options that would help us out?" He said, "Mr. Hall, I actually do." They gave us a lower payment and interest rate for 9 months.

I guess my reason for telling you is: Try it. We don't owe much at all for this particular bill, but try it on those bills that are really kicking your butt each month. It can't hurt to try.