Screwed By Blogger

Monday night everything was fine. I could post on my blogs and life was good. Tuesday after work, I discovered that the not so fine folks at Blogger had migrated all my blogs to what they call ‘new blogger’, supposedly a better form of blogger that offers new features. Well, I tried to log into blogger using my blogger username and password - nothing. Tried logging into new blogger with my google account name and password - again nothing. I was redirected to the blogger help site. What kind of help did I get? Canned how to articles that did nothing but lead me around in circles. Then I clicked on every option available to try to contact an actual employee of blogger, but it took me over an hour to find a form to complete to submit to them. And it wasn’t a ‘report a problem’ form. I went to the google help group and found that many, many others were suffering from the same problem I had. Did google employees help us? One employee posted the same canned answer that we found at blogger help. And he said ‘if this doesn’t work then contact us directly at (insert website). This kind of thing may be best solved on an individual basis.” Well, when you click on that website link, it takes you back to the page where I clicked everything I could to try to find a ‘help me’ form to fill out. After all this, I posted my own comment on the google help group website detailing every step I had taken. I wrote everything down and did it three or four times so I know what I tried and what I didn’t. To date no google tech support person has responded to anyone on that forum that has the same problem I did. Finally, some other blogger supplied the answer and it involved tinkering with the address of a link that blogger supplies us when we ask to retrieve our passwords. Basically, that link that we got when we asked to retrieve our passwords was reading our usernames as Case Sensitive, but when Blogger tried to find our accounts, it was not reading our usernames as Case Sensitive so it wouldn’t recognize us. That is a programming problem that blogger and google tech support are just too lazy to fix. So, instead, they let their customers flounder in frustration.

Bottom line: Blogger/Google Tech support is not serving the customers. They would rather spend their time making money in corporate mergers and stock options, lying to investors by saying that Google is a good company that provides valuable goods and services to the public when in actuality they ignore the customers and do not service their products to the satisfaction of the end users. Or, they are goofing off in a lax workplace in which productivity is not emphasized, but playing with toys is. Word to investors - if the tech support won’t help the people the company serves, then the company doesn’t care about you either. Sell your stock and invest your money in money market accounts or IRAs or Certificates of Deposit. You’d be better off.

New Reality Show for Mr. T

"I Pity the Fool!"

Pop culture icon Mr. T is back in action to put the “T” in TV Land when the network debuts the new six-part reality series entitled "I Pity The Fool" in October 2006.

This new TV Land Original Production is a Dr. Phil-meets-Tony-Robbins type reality show in which Mr. T stars in the unlikely role of social scientist, dispensing his own advice — in classic T style.

Born Lawrence Tureaud on May 21, 1952 in the tough, south side of Chicago, Illinois, he was one of twelve children raised by his single mother in a three bedroom apartment. He realized early on that he had both the mental and physical strength to persevere through the tough times, and to this day he says he “lived in the ghetto but the ghetto doesn't live in me.”

Lawrence received scholarships to attend various universities after his high school graduation but decided that serving his country was his calling. After a stint as a military policeman in the Army, he was able to realize his lifelong dream of being a professional athlete. He tried out for the Green Bay Packers but saw his dreams dashed when he suffered a debilitating knee injury, ending any hopes for a professional football career.

It was after serving in the Army that he made a metamorphosis and transformed his entire persona – inside and out. He changed his name officially from his given name to Mr. T and also changed his look. While reading an issue of National Geographic, he spotted an unusual hairstyle called the African Mandinka and adopted it as his signature cut. Mr. T used his Army military experience and his commanding presence to begin a career as a bodyguard, protecting some of the biggest names in boxing, from Muhammad Ali to Leon Spinks.

In his spare time, he worked as a doorman at Dingbats in Chicago, where it was reported that he obtained his signature gold chains from the “disorderly” people he encountered. At the time it was estimated that the gold chains were worth more than $300,000.

It was in 1982 that Mr. T's long and illustrious career began. Academy Award winning director/actor Sylvester Stallone spotted Mr. T while he was participating in “The World's Toughest Bouncer” contest which aired on NBC's The Games People Play. Stallone cast him in Rocky III as Clubber Lang, a role that originally had a few lines, but after working with T, the role was greatly expanded. It was from that role that he was chosen to star as Sgt. Bosco “B.A.” Baracus in the highly successful TV series, The ATeam, which ran on NBC from 1983-87. I Pity The Fool is not Mr. T's first foray into giving advice.

He made a motivational video in 1984 entitled Be Somebody or Be Somebody's Fool in which he gave helpful advice to children — teaching them about their roots and how to control their anger. Later he jumped into the entertainment arena, literally, when he partnered with Hulk Hogan for Wrestlemania I and II. Since then, he has served as a referee for several matches over the past 10 years.

In 1995, he was diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoma but today, over ten years later, is healthy, strong and cancer-free. After last year's Hurricane Katrina disaster, Mr. T. was so deeply touched by the plight of the displaced Mississippi and New Orleans natives that he took his signature chains off for good – a sign of solidarity with these humble and proud victims. In addition, he donated a considerable amount of clothing and money to charities that benefited the Katrina victims.
From our content partners WXIA in Atlanta

George Peppard

From Beyond the Grave.....

I'd like to see the tribute show.

Mr. T is working for the National Weather Service now. This is cute.

Mr. T

Here's a news story about Mr. T. Check it out.

CNN Showbiz Tonight

Mr. T and Stephen J. Cannell were on this show tonight. Cannell talked about the movie and says it's in a development phase and a first draft of the script has been written. He also talks about his latest book, Cold Hit. Mr. T was eloquent as always and is still doing charitable acts and such.

What Has Dwight Schultz Been Doing

He's been doing voice work for video games.