Confessions Of A Writeaholic

Since we both enjoy trying new things, yesterday Paul and I went to a taping of The Steve Wilkos Show, in Stamford, Connecticut. While the entire day was free (free bus ride to/from the show, free tickets, etc), it did come with a price. That price was having to deal with a bunch of really annoying and/or stupid, inconsiderate people.

When we got to 33rd street in Manhattan, which is where the bus picked everyone up, we made our way to the line of people already waiting to board the bus, and immediately encountered strange people. These people could best be described as “Steve Wilkos groupies,” because within 30 seconds of us determining we were in the right place, we were asked if we’d like to purchase several black and white photos of Steve Wilkos. Needless to say, we declined the offer without even finding out how much they were trying to charge for these pictures.

Once we boarded the bus we ended up sitting right behind the people trying to sell the Steve Wilkos pictures and they tried, once again, to get us to buy some. Once again, we declined. Luckily for us, shortly thereafter, the picture pushers chose to ride on the other bus that was taking audience members to The Steve Wilkos Show.

Breathing a sigh of relief that these annoying people were out of our hair for another couple of hours, our relief was short lived when we began our trip to Stamford and another passenger decided to listen to his music…loud enough so that the rest of us had no choice but to hear it too, whether we wanted to or not. Not a word was said to the inconsiderate guy, so he continued to listen to his music at top volume most of the way there.

We finally arrived at the studio and were taken in and seated according to the audience coordinator. Here we stumbled upon the third group of VIPs (very irritating people) we encountered who were not pleased that they weren’t being allowed to sit in the very middle of the audience, assuring they would be on camera whenever the audience was being filmed. Once they were finally coralled into seats (and no, they didn’t get the ones they wanted) the show began.

Before taping of the show actually began Steve Wilkos conducted a brief Q&A with the audience. Unfortunately, most people who asked questions asked either really stupid questions or questions Steve Wilkos didn’t have the answers to. At one point he called on someone in the audience to ask their question and the idiot actually asked Steve Wilkos if he was Jerry Springer’s son (Steve Wilkos was one of the security people on Jerry Springer for years before he got his own show.) Another person, when called on to ask their question, simply shouted out “get the hell off my stage!” While they were trying to imitate Steve Wilkos, and i guess flatter him, they wasted perfectly good time someone else could have been using to ask a legitimate question. Another audience member asked if he could throw one of the chairs on the set, resulting in the guy actually breaking the chair and causing the crew to have to retreive a new one before the show could begin.

After the first taping, there was a break for lunch to be followed by a second taping. Lunch was simply a bunch of mini subs/sandwiches and water. As we were eating, Paul and I saw a woman in the corner of the room take a sandwich off the table and promptly shove it in her purse. Just shows you how charming people can be when they want to be.

Following the lunch break, we were all taken back in and seated for the second taping. Apparently the crew was running behind and as a result, there was time to kill before the next taping would begin. So to keep the audience amused, they picked 3 people from the audience to come up on stage and compete in a dance competition. The winner was determined by the audience’s clapping and cheering, and the winner was entitled to choose 3 Steve Wilkos freebies (t-shirts, hats, etc.) One of the girls who didn’t win was overheard asking if she could have a freebie anyway (this is also the same woman who, earlier, had complained because she wanted to sit in the exact middle of the audience and wasn’t permitted to.) Needless to say, she was told no.

Once again, Steve Wilkos held a Q&A with the audience and at one point, someone’s question was simply “can i get a hug from you steve?” The original answer was no because if you hug one person everyone else will expect it too, and there isn’t time for that. However, he did give in and give the woman a hug. And that’s where the problems started. Little Miss Demanding (the woman who insisted on sitting in the middle of the audience and wanted a prize even though she didn’t win one) decided she wanted an autograph. Well, once again, if you do it for one person, you have to do it for everyone, and that would take forever. However, once again, they gave in and she was told yes she could have an autograph. At that point this twit decided she was going to get autographs for half the audience too. She was taking things from people that they wanted Steve to autograph, and Steve was given all these items. This would not get them the results they were looking for.

They were finally able to start taping the second show and afterwards, Steve Wilkos thanked the audience for coming, and everyone started to get up to leave. At that point Little Miss Demanding was screaming for her autograph. She and everyone else were told that he would have to autograph the items and mail them back to their owners. This was met with a huge outcry from Little Miss Demanding, among others. As Paul and I were filing out of the studio Paul overhead Little Miss Demanding arguing with the staff and the staff having to tell her to get off the stage. Needless to say, I’m pretty sure no one left with an autograph.

It’s astounding how rude and low class people can be these days. Paul and I would have loved to have gotten an autograph from Steve Wilkos, but we, unlike others, accepted the fact that that was not going to happen. The lengths that people will go to to get what they want is absolutely disgusting.

Paul and I had a great time at the show and we’d love to go back next season for another taping. I just hope we don’t encounter such strange people next time.

There are a lot of celebrity gossip websites out there. Let’s face it, our society loves to read up on the latest juicy celeb gossip. However, one gossip site to avoid is thestarceleb.com. The owner (and only writer for the site) writes articles like she’s a teenage girl talking to her BFF on the phone. Read one too many of her articles and you’ll feel like your right back in high school. The articles are poorly written and contain few details on the subject matter at hand. Considering the owner is based in L.A. she is remarkably slow when it comes to reporting breaking celebrity news. The key to drawing in readers is to cover an event or happening as soon as it happens, not hours or even days later. Anyone looking for the latest celeb gossip should check a site that gets updated quickly (People.com, for example) rather than wasting time going to this one.

Most gossip sites have endless people that comment on the juicy bits of gossip. On thestarceleb it tends to be the same commenters over and over again, which is to say that the owner’s friends are about the only ones that bother to read and leave comments on her site. This is the biggest indication that the general public does not read this site or have any desire to.

Any website run by professionals will have articles written by more than one writer, therefore allowing more than one voice to be expressed. They also do not take an article directly from another source and post it on their site. Yet that is exactly what you will find on thestarceleb.com. You won’t find anything on this site that you can’t find anywhere else on the Internet, and chances are, the quality of writing would be better anywhere else on the Internet.

The website owner herself raises suspicion over the fact that within the last year she has gone by exactly 5 different names. Not too many people are going to give credibility to someone who would change their name that frequently. The bottom line is, thestarceleb.com is not a website to be taken seriously, and is certainly not a valuable source of information. Anyone looking for a good celebrity gossip website would be very wise to look elsewhere. Thestarceleb.com is not worth the time it takes to read.

Julie Wein

American Idol has had many winners in all its years on air. Many talented singers have been discovered on American Idol. But no one can top the sex appeal and sheer raw talent of Kelly Clarkson. A winner from the very beginning, Kelly Clarkson has recorded amazing songs and sold highly succesful albums. She also has that girl next door quality, something that is quite lacking in Hollywood today.

Watch an interview with Kelly Clarkson and you’ll see that when it comes right down to it, she’s no different than the rest of us. Not even a hint of an ego on this girl, she is one of the most down to earth people in Hollywood today. Many more celebrities could take a cue from Kelly because she is one classy lady.

Kelly Clarkson’s voice and stage presence is flawless. She’s a pleasure to watch. Not many singers of today can match her beauty and grace.

In addition to everything else, Kelly has recorded many powerful songs that are inspirational to women everywhere. She’s a good influence on today’s woman and an excellent role model for young girls to look up to. One of the most awe inspiring songs Kelly Clarkson has ever recorded is “Breakaway.” This song should be the anthem for every women who has ever been dumped by a man. Kelly is strong enough to stand her ground and be her own person, and this really comes through in her songs. Breakaway can easily give a woman the strength she needs to hold her head up high and move on with her life after suffering heartbreak.

Another amazing Kelly Clarkson song is “Since You Been Gone.” Once again, this is a very inspirational song as well as a song women everywhere can draw strength and courage from. It allows you to let down your hair, let down your guard, and be the best woman you can be. It shows that no woman needs a man to make it in this world, and that is an invaluable lesson we could all learn.

Being the first winner of American Idol, Kelly set the bar pretty high for anyone following in her footsteps. She is truly the epitome of a succesful woman and a succesful singer. Her career and success should be an inspiration to everyone. Not many other American Idol winners have topped the success of Kelly Clarkson.

Julie Wein

A second child isn’t any less special because they are the second one to come along. If the first child deserves a baby shower, the second one does too. Many people will say that having a baby shower for a second baby is greedy and selfish. However that is not always true. Sure you will find people who just take advantage of being pregnant again to get freebies, but you will also find that many people want to celebrate a second child the same as the first.

Say, for example, a woman’s first child is a girl and when she gets pregnant with her second child she finds out it’s a boy. If this is the case, the new baby cannot use hand-me-downs from big sis. In this case it makes perfect sense to have a baby shower for the second baby. Another example is if one has a 10-year-old child and is pregnant with a new baby. Maybe some of the things from the first child can be handed down, but not everything. Toys and clothes do not have an endless lifespan, these things do wear out. And many parents want new items for the second child, which is hard to classify as being selfish.

A baby shower is a celebration of a new life. Why should that celebration not take place simply because a woman has already had a child? Baby showers are about welcoming the new baby into the world and making sure he or she has the things they need in order to thrive and grow. For most people, it’s not simply a gimme grab, as some people seem to think. A baby shower is also a time for the women in the mothers life to come together and bond over God’s greatest gift, a new human being. It’s just as much a bonding experience for the mom as it is a party for the baby.

Many women will throw a baby shower for their sister, cousin, roommate, lifelong friend, etc. Baby showers can be all about showing the mother how much the new baby will be loved and cherished by the people in his or her life.

With all the unpleasant events that go on in today’s world, for many women it’s relaxing and comforting to be able to organize a celebration. It spreads good will and makes people feel loved and cared for. And isn’t that ultimately what we’re all looking for?

Julie Wein

There is nothing more valuable to a child than their education. This lays the ground work for how successful one will be in life and how much they will prosper in adulthood. That being said, teaching is serious business. It needs to be done only by people who have studied and trained to become a teacher. A growing trend in today’s society is to home-school our children, and the fact is, anyone can choose to keep their child home and teach them. However, not just anyone is qualified to.

The most brilliant minds in the universe cannot always teach children. It takes a certain personality and a passion for knowledge and education in general. Therefore, the average joe keeping his kids home to teach them may be doing them more harm than good. Think about it, if just anyone could teach, why would people go to college and study teaching in order to get the degree needed to become a certified teacher? Why not just sit at home and declare themselves a teacher?

Children need to be in an environment where they can grow and thrive. They need to develop people skills and “street smarts.” Getting an education is more than simply completing assignments and taking tests. However, anyone that home schools their children is running the risk that those kids won’t acquire the skills they need to become succesful adults in today’s world. Any child can interact with their own parents, but they also need to learn how to interact with classmates, teachers, and other school staff members. They need to learn to respect people, even people they only have casual contact with. How are they supposed to do this if they are missing out on the experience of actually attending school with their peers?

While some parents may have a legitimate reason for keeping their kids home to school them, in general kids want and need to be exposed to the outside world. Attending school will allow them to meet all kinds of different people with all kinds of different personalities, which will make them stronger adults. Today’s world is tough and people need to prepare their kids to make it on their own in the real world some day. Keeping kids isolated at home could be a detriment to them. We all need the educuation one can only achieve by getting out and living life the best way they know how.

Julie Wein

For years I boycotted Valentine’s Day. To me it was just another day on the calendar, except on this day I was surrounded by happy, loving couples, and it pissed me off. More often than not I spent Valentine’s day alone…but not anymore.

Today is just as exciting for me as my first Valentine’s Day with Paul was…because for the first time in my life I’m celebrating Valentine’s Day as a married woman. If you had asked me 10, even 5 years ago, I would have told you that was never going to happen for me. Yet here I am, about to celebrate Valentine’s Day with my husband.

We’re going out to a romantic dinner tonight at the same hotel we got married at. This will be the first time we’ve been back since the wedding, and I can’t wait to see what it feels like to step into that hotel with Paul, now that we’re husband and wife. I can’t think of anything more romantic than celebrating our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple in the same place where we became husband and wife.

Happy Valentine’s Day baby! Here’s to a lifetime of Valentine’s Days!

Who could have known
That finding you would only take me
All my life.
-Billy Joel, All My Life

The economy is in the toilet and people are now more desperate than ever for a job (or a second job.) So what do many “employers” do? They entice people with job offers that aren’t real. And in today’s world that is just cruel.

As I’ve been in the habit of doing lately, I was surfing craigslist the other day and came across an ad for a Client Services position. Thinking it sounded like a good deal, I emailed them my resume and eagerly awaited a response. When I got that response a few days later, I had to give it a second look, but I did pretty quickly determine that it was nothing more than a scam.

The first clue that something was off was that the person who emailed me about the position said it had just been filled, but he had another one I might be interested in. I asked him to let me know the location of the job. When I got an email response from him it contained everything but the very thing I had asked for. He did include a link to the company’s website ( the company in question is an alleged dental office.)

The second clue that this was all just a scam is that when i went to the website for this dental office, I saw nothing that would leave me to believe it is an official website of an actual dentistry practice. There was not so much as a copyright date, webmaster’s name, phone number, address, or anything else to indicate the site was legit.

This site, which looks like a 12 year old designed it, has links that don’t work. You are invited to call the dental office yet when you click on the link that would presumably give you a phone number, all you get is a form to fill out with your name, phone number, and whatever comments/questions you may have. So how does this enable anyone to call this dentist’s office directly? The answer is, it doesn’t. This is one of many indications that the site and dental practice in question is a fraud.

The website also contains a list of “common questions” some of which are the stupidest questions I have ever seen, such as:
Do I have to floss everyday?
Does Dr. XXXX accept dental insurance?
How do I know when it’s time to come in for a checkup?

The site also includes what claim to be “Patient Testimonials.” There are a few red flags in these testimonials, such as the fact that a last name is never ever used. Not once. Not too many people write a letter to someone they only know in a professional capacity and go by their first name only. Second of all, many of the testimonials are not even grammatically correct. I can guarantee you if this was a legitimate site those testimonials would have been proofread for proper spelling and grammar. A real dentist would never let something appear on his website that sounds like an elementary school student wrote it.

Someone out there clearly went to a lot of trouble to design this fake website for this fake dental practice. You would think that someone would have the sense to put their skills to good use instead of using them to scam people.

As if that isn’t enough, I also received an email in my inbox the other day telling me that “they” had received my email and resume but weren’t able to open my resume, so could I please resend it. Now I know this is a scam because when I do email my resume to a potential employer I always include it in the body of the email. I NEVER send it as an attachment unless I am specifically told to do so. Why they thought I’d be dumb enough to fall for that I will never know.

I may not have fallen for this latest job scam, but many innocent, desperate people out there have fallen for them, and many of them lose money in the deal, money they obviously can’t afford to lose or they wouldn’t be so desperate for a job in the first place.

I recently read an article on CNN.com about a single mom who fell for a “work at home” job scam and is now out $200 because of it. The article said that a group that investigates work at home job opportunities found that only 1 in 54 work at home jobs are actually legitimate. That is one sad statistic if you ask me.

Anyone cruel enough to try and scam someone with a fake job offer needs to be unemployed and desperate for a job themselves.

After all, what goes around comes around.

Julie Wein

In this day and age, people create hoaxes as a way to gain attention and achieve that elusive “15 minutes of fame” everyone wants. With the state of reality TV in today’s society, there was a recent case in the news about a couple that created the hoax that their young son was trapped in a hot air balloon. They later admitted the reason they did this was to land a reality show deal. This is the biggest indication we have that reality TV, as we know it, is spiraling out of control. It is the reason people have been creating hoaxes lately.

Another recent event in the news was a couple that crashed a formal dinner party at the White House. Once again, the couple was hoping to get a reality show deal out of it. They will not succeed in doing so any more than the couple behind what is known as the “ballon boy hoax” will. Yet people will try anything these days to land themselves some unwarranted and undeserved fame.

As if these two examples aren’t bad enough, we also have the case of a custody dispute that one party is hoping will help lead to a reality show deal. The custody dispute in question is between former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, and Levi Johnston, the father of Bristol’s baby. Johnston has gone so far as to get an agent and admit to the public that he is hoping all the hoopla surrounding the custody battle will land him his own reality show. This is how low we have sunk to as a society; we have people using their own kids to try and score fame and fortune for themselves.

The simplest answer as to why people create hoaxes is that they can. They can and they do because it gets them the attention they are craving and simply don’t know how else to get. Many people will create a hoax so they can play the victim, such as in the “balloon boy” case. People are looking for sympathy from others, even if it is undeserved sympathy.

The recent influx of hoaxes is a good indication that the days of reality TV need to either end, or change drastically. People need to understand that creating a hoax just to get attention and sympathy is a vain attempt to gain the kind of fame no one should want. Hoaxes were not meant to make people famous and hopefully someday people will realize that.

Julie Wein

I recently attended what I thought was going to be a normal job interview, only to get there and find out it was a group interview for one of those marketing positions no one ever wants to do. You know, the ones where they give you all the supplies you’ll need and try to make you think you’re going to become a “superstar” salesman. It astounds me that these companies keep pulling this nonsense and think people are actually going to fall for it. I, for one, don’t want any part of a job where you only get paid when you make a sale. And I can’t imagine anyone else would either, especially in this economy.

Personally, I couldn’t run a scam like this because I’d feel terrible for tricking people into thinking they’ll become rich when they won’t. But then again, I have a conscience and a sense of right and wrong. Apparently the companies that do this don’t.

Now the fact that I went to this interview only to find out it wasn’t even a legitimate job opportunity is bad enough. But it could have been so much worse. What if I had a child and I had hired a babysitter to stay with them while I went to what I thought was a legitimate job interview? What if I was so unhappy with my current job I took an unpaid day off to go to this interview, hoping it would lead to something good? What if I was so desperate for this job that I drove an hour to get to the interview, only to find out the whole thing was a scam? But of course these companies don’t think of this, nor do they care anyway.

In today’s economy you have a lot of people searching for jobs, and a lot of people taking the kinds of jobs they wouldn’t normally take, but are taking now because they are so desperate to keep a roof over their heads. That being said, please don’t advertise a “job fair” only for me to go there and find one idiot sitting at a table, all alone and looking like he just wants to kill himself. That is not a job fair. That is a waste of my time.

And I’ve got better things to waste my time on.

Julie Wein

…to describe how much a recent happening is pissing me off.

I am an unusual creature. I am one of the few (if not the ONLY) woman in this world who does NOT appreciate being mistaken for being much younger than I am. This is stemming, most recently, from the fact that people keep asking my husband if I am his daughter!!!!! It’s happened more times than I can count lately and it makes me absolutely furious!

I’m not sure if this happens because the majority of people out there are retards or what, but I am sick and tired of it. Yes I know I don’t look my age; believe me, I realize that. But to take one look at me and assume I am my husband’s DAUGHTER makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. First of all, my husband is only six years older than me. Second of all, neither of us really looks our age. But that is NO excuse for people to be rude and I am getting increasingly fed up with this phenomenom. I don’t have a lot of patience with people to begin with, and this surely doesn’t help.

Now I know, women are “supposed” to take it as a compliment when someone thinks they’re much younger than they actually are. But there are times when it can be really inconvenient to look significantly younger than you actually are. For example, we went to Atlantic City on our honeymoon and I can’t tell you how many times I had to whip out my ID to prove to casino employees that I was old enough to be in there. It got to the point where if I was asked for ID one more time I was going to leave the casino altogether. As if that isn’t bad enough, on our second trip to Altantic City I went to buy cigarettes in the casino (that keep in mind, you have to be 21 to enter) and got carded. Now obviously if I got into the casino in the first place I’m more than old enough to buy cigarettes. So just shup up and sell them to me already.

What astounds me the most is that I’m starting to see a gray hair or two on my head….yet I still get carded often. I guess I have to go totally gray before people will realize I’m not as young as they’re stupid enough to think.

Julie Wein