An orphan goes to church and asks someone, anyone to adopt him

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Davion always longed for a family. His caseworker took him to picnics, put his portrait in the Heart Gallery, an organization devoted to helping foster kids find permanent homes. But he had thrown chairs, blown his grades, pushed people away.

When he learned his birth mother was dead, everything changed. He had to let go of the hope that she would come get him. Abandon his anger. Now he didn’t have anyone else to blame.

”He decided he wanted to control his behavior and show everyone who he could be,” Going said.

So someone would want him.

”I’ll take anyone,” Davion said. “Old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple. I don’t care. And I would be really appreciative. The best I could be.”

All summer, he worked on swallowing his rage, dropping his defenses. He lost 40 pounds. So far in 10th grade, he has earned A’s — except in geometry.

”He’s come a long way,” said Floyd Watkins, program manager at Davion’s group home. “He’s starting to put himself out there, which is hard when you’ve been rejected so many times.”

Davion decided he couldn’t wait for someone to find him. In three years, he’ll be on his own.

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Bag of Randomness

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  • The gas pump is my enemy or is just a lot smarter than I am.  First off, I always feel like the gas pump handle is a petri dish full of Ebola, herpes, bird flu, and West Nile.  Second, no matter what I do, the auto shut off always kicks in when the tank is still very empty.  I’ve tried taking it out and putting it back in and even when I squeeze the handle myself for the entire fill, the auto shut off kicks in multiple times.  I’ve tried using that locking mechanism where I can just walk away and let it fill, but once again that auto shut off rears its ugly head.
  • My dad got me into the habit of filling up when there is a quarter tank left.  He said if I let it go any lower then I’m setting myself up for a habit of testing the limits of running on empty and getting stranded.
  • I have no sympathy for people who run out of gas but have the means necessary to purchase gas.
  • Here’s an interesting event going on in my city – Adopt, name and release a Texas brown tarantula spiderling at twilight
  • Salsa outsells ketchup, tortillas outsells burger and hot dog buns; sales of tortilla chips trump potato chips
  • Pope to Auction Harley Davidson Motorcycle to Benefit Homeless
  • House Stenographer Dianne Reidy who stole the mic the other day claims she repeatedly awakened by the Holy Spirit and urged to deliver a message on the House floor.
  • A man with the name Sam Houston is running for the Texas AG spot.
  • Barry the Wise County Blogging Lawyer describe Ted Cruz as smart, articulate, entertaining and crazy.  That’s almost perfect, I’d just add Canadian.
  • Stop the pink insanity – Oregon will wear pink helmets this week against Washington State
  • Jerry Jones said the Jay Ratliff extension wasn’t the worst mistake he’s made.  If we are talking about football, I’d say giving two number one picks for Joey Galloway was his worst mistake, or perhaps letting his ego get the best of him and firing Jimmy Johnson.
  • A marketplace for investors to buy and sell interests in professional athletes
  • I don’t see the Nolan Ryan retirement/resignation from the Texas Rangers as a big deal because everyone saw it coming and most credit Jon Daniels for the team’s success.  People around here put him on a pedestal, but I only thought he came and stayed in the area for the money and the organization sucked up to him, hence the statue and street name.  He was a famous name that sold tickets and just played here for five years.
  • Football will still be played a hundred years from now but not as we know it, it will be modified rugby.  It’s the padding, especially the helmet, that encourages the violent hits and life threatening injuries.  When you take away or modify the helmet where players aren’t willing to launch their bodies head first, life threatening injuries will decrease.  I heard Aikman say that decades ago and thought he was nuts, he was just ahead of his time.
  • Buzzfeed is making a big deal out of senate candidate Steve Lonegan brushing his wife’s hand off his shoulder when she attempted to comfort him.
  • DealWell – Find where you can get a free flu shot.
  • I saw an interview in which Sarah Michelle Geller said that Robin Williams sang an Aladdin song in character as the Genie to her son.  Lucky kid.
  • ‘Parks and Rec’ had two Microsoft subliminal ads tied into the show.  Windows 8 was on the office monitors and the audience had to read a tweet from a close up of a Windows phone screen.
  • If there’s a temporary new person at work and that person is followed by a camera, it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out you’re on an episode of ‘Undercover Boss’.  That show is so silly.  A few workers get debt paid off, get to go to college tuition free, or go on a vacation just because they happen to work with a sympathetic undercover boss while others in the same company are SOL and have to put up with a few minor policy changes.
  • I miss George Zimmer telling me he’s going to guarantee that I’m gong to like the way I look.
  • Today back in 1999 was my first day at Fidelity Investments, my first job out of college.
Posted in Personal | 6 Comments

Per TIME, Texas is the future of Amercia

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They say the Lone Star State has four seasons: drought, flood, blizzard and twister. This summer 97% of the state was in a persistent drought; in 2011 the Dallas-Fort Worth area experienced 40 straight days in July and August of temperatures of 100° or higher. The state’s social services are thin. Welfare benefits are skimpy. Roughly a quarter of residents have no health insurance. Many of its schools are less than stellar. Property-crime rates are high. Rates of murder and other violent crimes are hardly sterling either. So why are more Americans moving to Texas than to any other state? Texas is America’s fastest-growing large state, with three of the top five fastest-growing cities in the country: Austin, Dallas and Houston. In 2012 alone, total migration to Texas from the other 49 states in the Union was 106,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Since 2000, 1 million more people have moved to Texas from other states than have left.

To a lot of Americans, Texas feels like the future. And I would argue that more than any other state, Texas looks like the future as well — offering us a glimpse of what’s to come for the country at large in the decades ahead. America is experiencing ever greater economic inequality and the thinning of its middle class; Texas is already one of our most unequal states. America’s safety net is fraying under the weight of ballooning Social Security and Medicare costs; Texas’ safety net was built frayed. Americans are seeking out a cheaper cost of living and a less regulated climate in which to do business; Texas has that in spades. And did we mention there’s no state income tax?

There’s a bumper sticker sometimes seen around the state that proclaims, I WASN’T BORN IN TEXAS, BUT I GOT HERE AS FAST AS I COULD. As the U.S. heads toward Texas, literally and metaphorically, it’s worth understanding why we’re headed there — both to see the pitfalls ahead and to catch a glimpse of the opportunities that await us if we make the journey in an intelligent fashion.

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