Have you ever watched a game on TV (of any contact sport) and wanted to just hop through the screen onto the field and beat down someone on the opposing team because of either a useless call or someone just playing dirty? Well…someone actually turned that bad thought into reality.

Cory Petero, 36, of Riverbank, turned himself in to Stockton police Saturday night following what witnesses described as a late hit that turned into a brawl, with parents and children from both teams fighting on the field.

You can find the entire article on AOL Sports News

I’m normally a confrontational person and yes, I have my moments of rage where I’ll throw up and hit someone, this is just how I am. I will never bring myself to this point unless someone has completely crossed the line. But, no matter who it is, I would never lay my hands on a child in a manor of causing severe harm. Especially if it’s based on something as stupid as a football mishap. Sure, there have been kids that I’ve looked at and wondered why their parents never cracked them on the ass, but to intentionally go out of my way to bruise a child’s stomach and jaw is beyond absurd.

Based on reports, there were no major injuries suffered by anyone. But…am I wrong for thinking that this 36 year-old man should be beaten senseless? Am I wrong to think that someone should just sneak up on this guy and beat the living hell out of him? I truly believe that the only reason the injuries were minor was based entirely on the fact that this child was wearing a good 20lbs of football equipment when it happened. How much damage could this guy have done if it were a soccer game and the only ‘protection’ this child was wearing was a jockstrap/cup?

There are plenty of other ways to get rid of rage, even if it’s based on a child playing dirty. I’ve seen dedicated coaches before but this man truly crossed the line the minute he laid his hands on this boy. I’m sure I would feel differently if they were closer to the same age but there is a good 23 year age difference between these parties, that instantly brings up a red-flag for me. Whether the child was covered in protective gear or not, it still doesn’t make a difference.

I’d personally shoot the bastard for this, but that’s because of my own pent up rage. I know too many people who were abused by parents either sexually or just being smacked around in general and if I had a bullet for each one of them, I’d use it. This guy would definitely be included. Part of me wonders if he could do this to someone elses child, what has he done to his own son for doing something wrong?

So my question to you is this:

If you were witness to this, what would YOU do?

I’ve noticed a trend with fellow webmasters that I’m just not too crazy about. With the rise of blogs on the ‘net, it’s almost inevitable that someone will find you and ask you to design a theme for them. This is just fine and dandy because all money is good money.

The problem I have is with those who get paid and don’t actually do any work. I surfed through a few portfolios today the running theme between them all was the fact that they were all based on the SAME theme. The only thing that was changed was the header image. Now, normally I wouldn’t really notice but I found this to be a little absurd. One girl was basically charging $50 for WordPress themes that were all using the same code. The only changes were in the header images and CSS coloring. I went through her ‘theme preview’ and saw that all coding was the same.

If she was charging $50 for amazing images, then of course I would understand. But she’s not…it’s like she’s surfing through Getty images, and cropping the watermark out and then slapping it onto the template. If someone wants a simple theme – fine go for it – but when you’re paying $50 for something, you’d expect that person to spend more than FIVE MINUTES working on your theme, wouldn’t you?

I work on the ‘net, it’s my main income right now. I make it a point for every single client to start from scratch. Yes, as far as the WordPress files go for index.php and comments.php I take the ‘classic’ theme and edit it to match the particular theme I’m working on. However, the outcome of each theme looks different 99.9% of the time. I’m not taking the same two-three column layout, strapping a header image into it and then edit style.css – that isn’t WORK, that’s called screwing over a customer. The idea is to make the customer HAPPY this way they are a RETURN CUSTOMER. If you screw the customer over, there’s the chance that they just won’t come back a second time. If they do, then abuse it because they’re idiots and don’t know any better anyway.

I just can’t understand how anyone could recycle a layout (probably the same code they use on their OWN blog) and edit a few things then turn around and sell it for $50-$100. I find it to be completely absurd.

Maybe it’s because I’ve run my own business for so long…or maybe it’s because I have respect for my clients. Who knows? I just don’t quite understand how people could do such things. I’m aware of the fact that 50% of the internet is brain-dead, but good lord taking them for granted is just horribly bad business etiquette.

So, answer me this – Do you think it is acceptable to charge $50-$100 for something you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve put five minutes of work into?

Comment your little hearts out, I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢d really like to know what someone else thinks.