I really thought some­one was hav­ing a go at me when I heard they were mak­ing a Smurf movie. Maybe its just me, but I hated the car­toon when I was a kid. When­ever my younger brother would watch it on Sat­ur­day morn­ings, I would root for Gargamel.

Any­way, just so you don’t think I am “hav­ing a go” with you… May I present, from the bow­els of the Inter­net… The one… The only… Smurf Teaser Trailer:

The offi­cial web­site of the train wreck that will be the Smurf Movie can be found at www.smurfhappens.com.

Oh Smurf Me!!! There’s NO way I’m going to see this Smurfin’ movie!

Not that I am really sur­prised but David Pogue over at the New York Times learned that Ver­i­zon has imple­mented a new pol­icy for its cus­tomer ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Under this new pol­icy employ­ees will be sanc­tioned if they sug­gest that cus­tomers block ser­vices like SMS and data to avoid inci­den­tal costs. I know that my brother blocks SMS because he was rack­ing up a bill for SMS mes­sages he did not want to receive. Now Cus­tomer Ser­vice reps are told to direct peo­ple to buy plans for data and SMS to avoid such costs.

On top of that cus­tomer ser­vice agents are told to avoid cred­it­ing charges unless the cus­tomer first asks for such a credit and even when they do they are only sup­posed to issue an ini­tial credit. Not the best cus­tomer sevice move but its worth­while to know as a Ver­i­zon cus­tomer that you need to request the cred­its and know that you must request these ser­vices be blocked since they will not sug­gest it to you. I you have a friend, fam­ily mem­ber, or sig­nif­i­cant other who is get­ting hit with these unwanted charges on Ver­i­zon make sure to let them know that they must ask for cred­its and have the abil­ity to block such services.

(Via BerryReview.com.)

I just wanted to take the oppor­tu­nity to say Happy Father’s Day to my Dad… Dean Wat­son. If it weren’t for the love and sup­port of my father through­out my life, I cer­tainly would not be where I am today. He and my mother, Brenda Wat­son, always encour­aged my cre­ativ­ity when I was a child. Now that I am grown and can see what dark­ness is out there in this crazy world, I real­ize how lucky I am to have such won­der­fully pre­cious child­hood memories.

When I was in my rebel­lious teens, my Father would con­stantly be there to pull me out of some sort of trou­ble or another. But more impor­tantly, later in life as I went through one of the dark­est times in my life (my divorce), he was there for me whole heart­edly. He gave me much needed emo­tional sup­port and a help­ing hand as I needed it.

Basi­cally, I don’t know where I’d be with­out my dad. Now that I am a sin­gle father and rais­ing my child on my own, I try to live up to the role my father played in my life. If I can be half the father for my son that my dad was to me, I will feel blessed. So Happy Father’s Day, Dad! And always know that I appre­ci­ate the things you do!

Visit My Dad’s Web­site: AncientFootsteps.com

Kim­berly Ann Wat­son (of 323B Mossie Smith Road in Easley, SC) was arrested on June 5, 2010 for Boat­ing Under the Influ­ence. Ms. Wat­son pled guilty to the charges on June 18, 2010.

Fif­teen peo­ple have died on South Car­olina water­ways this year com­pared with 11 in all of 2009, accord­ing to the state Depart­ment of Nat­ural Resources, which will offer cour­tesy boat safety inspec­tions and have offi­cers on patrol over the hol­i­day weekend.

DNR encour­ages all boaters to use a des­ig­nated dri­ver. On the water, the effects of alco­hol or drugs are mag­ni­fied by the ele­ments of sun, wind and wave action. Alco­hol impairs coör­di­na­tion of arm and leg move­ments, slows response to emer­gency sit­u­a­tions and makes it dif­fi­cult for boat oper­a­tors to scan the horizon.

In South Car­olina, any per­son involved in an acci­dent that causes a death or seri­ous injury faces an implied con­sent alco­hol test, and con­vic­tion car­ries penal­ties up to 25 years impris­on­ment and a $25,000 fine.