Thanks to Uncle Tim you win a prize.

In every person there is a trait that totally pisses off their families. Like the people who don’t pick their phone to answer it, they just let the answering machine take care of the rest. The weird thing is I’m related to one of those people. My Uncle Tim and Aunt Vicky have this wonderful habit of not answering their phone, even to their own family. Their always busy with something whether it be work or sporting events for my cousin Tyler. I can at least understand that; but on the other hand they don’t answer their phone when their at home too. I know that sounds stupid, but that the way they are and it annoys the hell out of my mom when we visit them in Pennsylvania. Speaking of sporting events my uncle dose not bother to invite us to see one of my cousin baseball games every time we visit. Hey, the south does have baseball, it still the same. It’s not a snobby quite sport like chess, golf or polo. Just because we live in the south doesn't mean we can still act like every sport fan.

You may ask why this no “relative left behind” crap with your Uncle Tim? Well, it all has to do with the fact that my mom is the only girl in the family and because of that we are nothing but dust in the wind. It’s not just my Uncle Tim but the rest of the 4 Uncles. For example just before we left to go home from visiting Pennsylvania we were not able to see Uncle Tim, Aunt Vicky and cousin Tyler. For they left on their vacation, but to our surprise their vacation was to the beaches of Eastern North Carolina, not to far from our home. And did not know about it, till it was during a sibling phone conference that it was mention. Your probably wondering "why didn't they tell you before or during their vacation". Well in the words of retarded Uncle Tim "our friends were there".

While I was writing the first paragraph I thought up of an idea that will teach Uncle Tim a lesson in not picking up his phone and neglecting to include mom and me in the viewing of Tyler games. Not to mention forgetting to tell us that they were in our neck of the woods and putting their friends over their family.

Originally I was going to give away my Uncle Ted address to teach him about not inviting us to visit him in Connecticut. But stated in the update of my first blog post my mom read the note and now has hidden the address book from me. (She thought I was going to send the note to him.)

Good think I found out where she hid it. Now I can do what I wanted to do in my first post, but decided to change it a little. This time I going to give you Uncle Tim phone number and let you do the talking for me. On second though lets make this a contest, record what you said on the answering machine and not only will it be feature on the blog. You can also win a $25 iTunes gift card to the most creative voice mail you have sent. You can impersonate a celebrity, play a fun song over the phone or whatever you think is funny for me to pick. You can do the following topic as your voice mail:

Tell Uncle Tim the importance of not putting his friends over his family (without mentioning me)

Tell him the importance of picking up the phone and not letting the answering machine do it for him(without mentioning me)

Tell him also the importance of respecting his only sibling of the opposite sex and her family (without mentioning me) Bonus credit for anybody who can reword the song "Cats in the Cradle".

Warning: automatic disqualification to anybody who makes threats, sexual references against them and racial remarks (even though their white). And no swearing!

You may be wondering if for some legal reason I have to take the number down. If it gets him to respect me and mom like taking us to see Tyler play ball or hang out with us for more then an hour, then I will make it a point to do so.

The deadline for submissions is August 1 through August 31. The winner will be named on August 6 and if you are the winner please email me or I'll email you. Please email submissions at CoolMinded@gmx.com The recordings I find the funniest will be featured on the blog and win $25 iTunes gift card.

Uncle Tim

(717) 438-0663

Diggnation challenge: can you handle it?

At the end of my last post I challenge the readers of this blog that if they form their own Alliance for Better Gas and document it on video for one week. Then feature one of the videos on the blog. Now that sound like a fair deal for some people who are into this viral video stuff. But one day I though up something big that I think may shake this blog to the core. I am officially challenging my favorite podcast “Diggnation” to try and form an Alliance and document it on their show. It’s not only a challenge but an experiment to see if these Internet hot shots have what it takes to save gas and their dignity in this time of high gas prices.

If you live in an Internet cave or heard about the show but didn’t bother to watch on your iPod or computer here’s a history lesson. Diggnation is a podcast dedicated to covering popular stories from the user submitted news site Digg.com. With the comical cursing style of Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, along with their invisible sidekicks David Prager, and Hippie Glen. I started watching these guys ever since got my iPod for Christmas. It’s a nice show, but not the kind of show grandma would want to see. Or should I say hear, since there is a lot of cursing and may cause old people to die of a stroke and or a heart attack. They live in California, so this experiment is perfect for them. Since the price of gas is more then the rest of America. So that said do Kevin and Alex have what it take to save money on gas. I don’t know, you never know if they try or fail, whatever you choose.

On the other hand if they like they can make this challenge more of a competition between the two host. And make it six weeks then originally plan for the time in the video experiment. That way better results can be made. And same thing goes to everyone else who is interested. Also if they don't except this challenge then they will be forever label as a sissy. (and I plan on using that label in at gay way too)

Next post will be off the topic of gas, but is entertaining if you to read it.

The Alliance for Better Gas

The gas prices these days are sucking at a fast pace, and as usual there is always going to be strange advice on how to better fuel your car. Some good, some bad and some down right ugly will mess up your car if you try. I on the other hand, try not to focus on the chemical way of getting cheap gas, but the logical business way of doing it. So I though up of a better way to maintain cheap gas in a world of expensive gas. It’s called “The Alliance for Better Gas” which is a group of people who form a partnership to save money and their sanity at the same time. All you have to do is follow these set of rules or guidelines (if you want to be politically correct with that) when you are forming your own Alliance.

• Your Alliance should consist of no more than 30 people. The members can be family, friends and co-workers, but no total strangers. You need a trust system with your members and not people who will take advantage of you and the gas that is so deeply needed.
  
  
• The Alliance must carpool to work ONLY, not for fun things, doctors’ visits or stupid scenic driving. There should be a different driver every week; the driver must be responsible for paying that week gas.
  
  
• The Alliance must collect money from the other members about $10 every week. Buy a couple gallons of gas, to be stored in one gallon gas containers. These gas containers will be kept by the “Keeper of the Gas” who is the one that store the gas in the containers. That person will sell the gas to a member of the Alliance for a lot less then what you would pay for at a gas station ($1 a gallon). The money from the sale of the stored gas will go towards buying new gas to be stored for Alliance members to buy for less and when they really need it.
  
  
• In the event of a member misusing the gas containers, like reselling the gas at a higher price to outsiders. The other Alliance members must vote whether to deny that person access to the gas containers or kick them out of the Alliance for misuse of the gas containers for personal profit.
  
  

Warning: Please store gas containers in a cool air condition room and do not place them in any place that can generate heat like stoves, heaters and water vales.

You or some control thinking person may think that this sound like post – revaluation Russia. But it's not, I model this idea after the format of a warehouse club store. Where people pay a fee in order to buy in bulk and for less, for example Alliance members pay $10 a week to buy gas that can be stored for future purchase for less. If you and your friends, family and co-workers feel like starting you own Alliance then document your efforts for one week on camera. Then email it to me and your video may be featured on the blog, just in case it works for you and the others.

CoolMinded@gmx.com