7896

We have become a disposable society. We rarely repurpose, we want shiny and new. I see this all around me in my city. In Phoenix, we don't have old buildings. Once a place has run it's course, we tear it down and build something new. Look at our technology. We trade in cell phones once, if not multiple times a year. We buy new tvs and computers every other year or so. We keep cars for a few years and trade them in. We our losing our sense of history. Look, I get that things need repairs, or even remodels, but that doesn't mean we need to completely destroy something and replace it every time it needs fixing. Being somewhat of a gear head, I'll use cars as an example here. Shiny, new, techno filled cars are great, but the most beautiful cars are ones that have a history (and are still used, sorry, not a trailer queen fan). What the older cars lack in technology, they make up for in character. I think buildings are the same way too. New is nice, but everything new is identical to what the neighbor has. We are buying ourselves into autonomy. I can't help but think of the song Little Boxes (yes, the theme song from Weeds). They are all made out of ticky tacky and they all look the same. Moreso, I think we box our relationships into the same line of thought. Divorce is rampant because we lack the ability to repair and salvage. Just because something is broken doesn't mean it can't be fixed. Take some time this weekend to appreciate things for how they once were, reimagine them, repair them, rebuild them, repurpose them, reinvent them, but don't give up on them.

7968

The past few days I've been driving my wife's car to work and I put in a cd I had left in there that I had made for my daughter.  I didn't burn an mp3 disc for whatever reason, I just made a regular cd but I was able to put Neighborhoods and Dogs Eating Dogs by Blink 182 on it.  Under normal circumstances I would bounce around the radio, flip cds, play from my phone via bluetooth, etc, but for some reason I have found myself listening to the mash up of these to albums over and over.  The more I listen to them, the more I like them.  The songs just seem to resonate with me where I am in life.  It has been a while since I found an entire album (or in this case an LP and EP) that hit that mark.  In fact, I think the last time might have been Blink's Dude Ranch (for the record Dammit is probably my all time favorite song).  It's hard to explain, but I just connect with the music so well right now.  Now I know we all have different genres we prefer, different bands,etc., but I really wish I could convey how connected I feel to these albums.  Not only that, I wish everyone had an album they connected to as much as I connect to these.  I think music is such an essential part of life, for enjoyment, reflection, redemption....I think if I had one gift to bestow upon the world, it would be a connection between themselves and music, whatever their preference, not necessarily mine.  I'm pretty confident that these two albums will go along with me for the rest of my life, not necessarily because they will always have the same connection with me, but because I will know that at one point I was so connected to them.  If I could implore the people of the world to do one thing, it would be to get yourself a great set of headphones, and tune everything out but the music.  Listen to the different layers, feel the beat, hear the words...once you make a true connection it's an emotional experience.  If you have never had a moment like that, my condolences, if you have, then you know exactly what I'm trying to convey in this blog post.  I'm gonna run and put the headphones back on, hopefully you get a chance to as well.

Just for shits and giggles I'm going to post the lyrics and a copy of the song that really has me hooked right now.

"Pretty Little Girl"
(feat. Yelawolf)

Nineteen, your eyes are glowing to my beating heart
Oh, it seems like it is fine as my hand is moving up your arm
And you never really know where it goes up until it starts
I got my eye on you
What you gonna do

Day dream near a stream with the linear bites
Oh, I listen to the song on repeat from the other night
And I can't picture you but I sure got the feeling right
What a crazy world
Pretty little girl

And we wake from the night in a bed with a bruise
And we're laughing out loud over the craziest news
And you reached for my hand I was scared in your room
We fell on the floor and we started to move
And your hands were like birds as they flew from the coop
Up my back they would climb just as I came unglued

She said
If you break my heart then I'll change your mind
And I will do it again
If you play the part then I will play mine
And I will do it again
If we miss the mark if we hold on tight
We'll be there to try it again

Nineteen as we roll across the bedroom floor
Your eyes they cannot lie as you're dreaming of our future home
And the kids are growing up as you and I we are growing old
What a crazy world
Pretty little girl

In the rain with the drink from the back of the bar
I would raise up my voice, you would raise it up more
We'd forget that our lives being apart it is hard
We'd thought we were close but it still feels far
Can we learn to get by if we learn to have scars
If we learn to forgive and accept who we are

You said
If you break my heart then I'll change your mind
And I will do it again
If you play the part then I will play mine
And I will do it again
If we miss the mark if we hold on tight
We'll be here to do it again

[Yelawolf:]
Wait a minute hold up a second
Don't leave me here with this feeling
Like I'm the one full of regret
Like I never did good for us both
Like you never did pull out that weapon
And stick that knife in my back
Was I supposed to accept it
When your words are like
More than just sticks and stones
Kinda like a bullet
A hollow tip that lodged in my bones
And I can't just swallow it
My pride is more than all that I own
So I gotta give it away
And some of the times I'm all the way wrong
But can't you see past me and see my fucked up home
That made me the meanest, the devil is just singing along
To the song I write til I'm alone at night
And I hang up the phone and bite my tongue
Cause I know that me and you is just only right
But one one one one

It's a cry from the past we have been through a lot
Every year has been great and a few have been tough
And your kids they will reach for the stars up above
We'll sit and relax as we're cheering them on
The ropes to the light from the crib to the grave
We started alone in the end we're okay

You said
If you break my heart then I'll change your mind
And I will do it again
If you play the part then I will play mine
And I will do it again
If we miss the mark if we hold on tight
We'll be here to try it again

7992

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I want my legacy in life to be.  I think it’s important that we all leave a lasting impression, maybe not to the entire world as some have done, but to at least one person or a small group of people.  I don’t know that is the purpose of life, but I think we owe it to our future generations to leave something behind that they can either learn from or be inspired by.  I know the actions I have displayed during my brief time on the ride of life have not been what I would like my legacy to be, so it weighs on my conscious that I leave some positive to the world before I go.  I’m pretty sold on the fact that I will never invent or discover a life altering tangible item, so I think my legacy lies in inspiring. My first inclination would be that I would inspire my children to do something, not Earth changing, but something good for at least one person in the world altruistically. A lot of people do things quid pro quo, and while I agree that our brief time on this rock is our most valuable commodity and we should be compensated for it in some manner, sometimes we have to trade in that reward for the betterment of others.  It’s like our own butterfly effect.  We can do one nice thing for one person without expecting anything in return, and that could have a positive affect on myriad other people.  It gets paid forward. That in turn becomes our legacy, whether it is recognized or not, we have given a part of ourselves so that somebody else has a chance, a hope, a reason.  All too often, it seems we focus on people capitalizing on our good deeds.  I let that person in line in front of me and they won the lottery, it should have been mine.  Don’t think in those terms.  Think about how your generosities lead to easing the financial burden of somebody else.  Be inspired by the fact you bettered somebody’s life, not that you were cheated out of a better one for yourself.  Spin the positive and be inspired.

8064

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like you are just spinning your wheels and not going anywhere? I'm totally have a days today. By the time all the bills are accounted for and the checking account is empty, it just feels like there is no hope for growth or change. It feels like a rut. The Monday through Friday routine is the same and then there is no funds left to do anything on the weekend. I have to remind myself sometimes at least I have my family, and I am working on writing. I do have that going for me. I'm not expecting that to lead anywhere, especially right now that I am unmotivated to continue the story I'm working on, but I do entertain the thought of publishing and making a little coin off of it one day to hopefully open up my life opportunities. I don't know, I could just be worn out from the week at work and letting negative thoughts creep into my head because I'm too tired to fight them off. Normally I escape by playing my guitar or bass, and even sometimes I play a video game or two. Those options have been shelved for the past few months due to this lingering hand injury I suffered during a brutal head butt from the cranium of my 4 year old who was being pissy about being woken up. I digress. I think I'm gonna go find something on Netflix to distract me for a while and hopefully re-energize my desire to write. Here is hoping you all have a fabulous weekend full of great music, football, and maybe even a boob or two...just in case I don't make it back to blog until Monday.

8088

I do apologize about skipping a day.  To be honest, it had less to do with lack of time and more to do with nothing to say.  I’ve been feeling a little uninspired the past few days, granted yesterday was a busy work day and that took a little out of me.  By the time the end of the day rolled around I was mentally shot.  I sometimes wonder how many more things would get done if people didn’t have demands upon them.  Throughout history it seems the great artists and thinkers weren’t tied down to a day job.  Artists have received endowments so that they could create and not be worried about the day to day.  The same can be said for some scientists too.  I suppose on the flip side of that though they were under great pressure to live up to expectations.  Perhaps that’s why the great artists always seem to be a little mad, or predisposed to addictions.  That being said, I wonder how many true innovators are really out there.  I’ll use music as an example.  It seems like every 10 years or so there is an artist/artists that arrive and completely innovate.  The 50’s had Elvis, the 60’s the Beatles, the 70’s pretty much sucked (as far as innovation), the 80’s had Michael Jackson, the 90’s spawned Nirvana, while 00’s had Eminem.  It seems like there is a revolution of sorts every so often then a gluttony of copy cats until the next innovator arrives.  Perhaps we are prone more to emulate than innovate.  Anyway, I’m going to keep this one short since it’s mostly a filler piece anyway.  Hopefully inspiration will hit me and I will get back to writing tonight as well

8136

I was perusing Facebook on my lunch hour today and ran across a photo a friend of mine had taken of a high school weight room he was subbing at.  The facility was great; it looked like an LA Fitness but with the schools color scheme and logo.  His caption was “the difference between east side and west side is evident” referring to the affluence of the east side of the Phoenix area as opposed to the lower economic status of the west side.  I made a comment on it, but I think it is relevant enough to expand for today’s post.  Basically I said, it starts at home, and I think we can apply this thought to everything.  In the case of the school’s gym, I said it starts at home because schools get money based upon taxes.  The amount the schools get is based upon property taxes.  Property taxes are based upon the value of the homes in the area.  The value of the homes is based upon what the home owners put into their home.  Now I know we can’t all afford to upgrade everything to top of the line, but by simply taking some pride in our homes and doing the necessities to keep them well maintained and in proper functioning order, we can keep the property values from dropping.  I know I’m painting a picture with a very wide brush here, but think about it.  If we each do our own part, starting with where we live, it benefits the community as a whole.  If we keep up on our homes, we increase the property value, but one home alone doesn’t do it. You have to rely on your neighbors to do the same.  Suddenly, a neighborhood is desirable and thus the property values increase.  When the property values increase, the taxes on the homes increase and more money is sent to schools.  Schools can provide more to the students and the students in turn have more opportunities for growth and can maybe find something they enjoy learning about and can turn that into a career.  When you like what you are doing, you work harder at it and get better, and can then earn more money.  That in turn, allows you to buy a better home, or invest in a lower priced one, but you have more disposable income to fix it up, thus increasing the property value, and the cyclical process continues. Now we have desirable communities with better educated students and greater opportunities.  Businesses will want to be where the people are, thus increasing job opportunities.  Infrastructure will be improved due to demand, and increased tax revenue due to higher taxes based upon higher property values and higher incomes.  The cycle continues and spreads.  See, the point I’m making is everything starts at home.  This is a small example but can be applied on a global scale.  The thing we as citizens have to start doing is taking accountability for our situations, then start helping others.  The pride, wealth, and satisfaction then trickle upwards and outwards.  Now, if I can figure this out, how come much more educated and powerful people (cough, Washington, cough) can’t figure this out?  Why are we wasting billions of dollars over seas and on ludicrous pork projects when the answer is so simple?  My guess is because Washington knows that the more we can depend on ourselves, the less we need the government and all their special kickbacks will disappear. The people will no longer be sheep, and government control will vanish.  So see kids, maybe mom was onto something when she wanted you to keep your room clean

8160

I’m beginning to realize that my goal of blogging every day is a far more monumental task than I had originally anticipated.  There is more that goes into than just typing a few sentences and submitting it for the world to read.  Not much more, but more nonetheless.  That made me start to think whether or not we realize how much is truly involved in the tasks we take on.  Take just driving somewhere for example.  You might have to go 10 miles.  The average person would probably think that 10 minutes is plenty of time to get there (my wife does this all the time).  People negate to take into consideration that that is under optimal conditions, which are never met in the real world.  If you have to be somewhere in 10 minutes, you have to take into consideration the time it takes to leave the house and get in the car, then you have to navigate the streets, which are never wide open, then you have to park, and finally enter your location.  Assuming there are no serious delays, you still never travel at optimum speed given acceleration, deceleration, etc.  Broad example I know, but what I’m saying is people don’t tend to consider the variables when committing to a task.  There is always more to a task, than just doing the task.  There is preparation and follow-up involved, pretty much no matter the task.  The thing that really bugs me is when somebody agrees to take on a task, but neglects to prepare and ends up late.  I think it is disrespectful to others, and their time, to make them wait because you didn’t plan properly.  I guess what I’m getting at is we need to be more mindful of the things we agree to do and more respectful of the time we take to do them as time is one commodity that you can never get back, be it yours or somebody else’s.  There will always be certain situations where you can throw out the clock, but make sure you are only throwing away your time and not somebody else’s

8208

Today I have been less than productive. So far I've managed to sleep until around 9, then in the two hours or so that I've been up I've managed to check my social networks, eat a breakfast of Greek yogurt, Mandarin oranges, and flax seed, and watch some sports on TV. Saturdays in the fall are made for college football. That being said, I found myself switching back and forth between the Nebraska/UCLA game and Chelsea/Everton Barclays Premier League soccer. Football was winning, but I'm finding myself getting more into soccer. I'm making an effort to become more global, and soccer is the biggest sport in the world. It was, however, something in the Nebraska/UCLA game that gave me thought for this post. As I was sitting there watching UCLA get ready to kick off after a field goal, you could hear Nonpoint's version of In The Air Tonight playing through the stadium loudspeakers. For whatever reason, that in turn made me think of my nephew, who is a freshman at Central Michigan, and a tweet he sent out the other day that said "college is 100000000 times better than high school." That made me think back for a microsecond before this thought flashed into my head: we spend far too much time comparing our current situations to the past. To carry that further we spend far too much time trying to replicate the past and not carrying on with our future. My wife for example constantly says "remember how I looked back when x? I'm gonna be that person again, that's my goal" and I think to myself, no matter how hard we try, we will never be the same person we where back then. Not a decade ago, not a year ago, not a moth, week, or even a day ago. Life affects us to that no matter what we do, we cannot replicate the past,even the most minute, microscopical change will never make us EXACTLY the way we were, so why do we spend so much time reflecting on it? I get the occasional walk down memory lane. I understand looking through photo books, and reminiscing, but the every day want that I see people have for the past seems like such wasted time and energy. If we put as much effort into thinking of our futures as we did our pasts, we as a society could be infinitely better, or at least further along. So as you all enjoy the rest of your Saturday, when you think back, don't do so with want, do so using what you've learned to better manage your future. As for me, I'm going to try and write some more. The positive feedback I got when I mentioned I was doing some writing really inspired me and as such I've almost doubled my word count. Unfortunately sometimes being a father/husband gets in the way and daily life interrupts the process. Please not, the key word there was try, as football is really calling my name.

8256

I have a theory that work only really gets done on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Monday, you are blah and hung over from the weekend; there is no possible way to be productive.  Wednesday is mid-week and you need a break.  Friday you are ready for a weekend and can’t possibly do work.  That leaves just Tuesday and Thursday to get work done.  Today is the exception to the rule for me.  I have been really good the past few months about only drinking one coffee/energy drink a day.  I usually have one in the morning when I get to work then water the rest of the day.  Today though, I had to crack and get a Monster at lunch.  Now, I’ve also been really good about which Monsters I drink.  I stick to the Zero Ultra Monster. For me, it’s more about taste than anything, although the Zero Ultras have no calories, no sugar, and only 2 carbs per can.  I think the walk downstairs to the little store probably did more to wake me up than the Monster itself, but hey, whatever works right?  Now, there really is no moral to that story at all.  I had something I was going to write about today but completely forgot what it was.  I guess that’s the point, unpredictability.   Just because you plan on something going one way, you have to have a backup plan in case things go off course. In this instance, I forgot to think of multiple topics to comment on and therefore was left with nothing but fodder about an energy drink.  In the long run though, I’m hoping that blogging on the fly helps me develop my writing skills.  One of the things I seriously want to do is write a novel.  I’ve got bits and pieces in my mind, and I’ve actually started laying the foundation of the book I want to write.  It isn’t much yet, I think I have about 4,800 words written, most of which is just character development and scene setting.  That means I’m at just about 10% of where I need to be for a full-fledged novel.  Hopefully I can continue to work on it and if all goes right I’ll have the initial rough draft done around the same time this experiment ends, if not before depending on how much time I can devote to it.  Only getting an hour here, half hour there doesn’t lead to much actual productivity since I end up re-reading what I have written to get me back in the frame of mind to continue where I left off.   I’m really hoping the further in I get, the faster the plot develops and I can really get a lot more done.  I try to draw aspects of my life and what’s around me to put into the story I’m telling, so don’t be surprised if something you read sounds like something I may have gotten from one of you. 

8232

I just had the most surreal experience of my life. I just left work, turned right out onto Thomas Road heading east and stopped at the light at Central Avenue. Traffic was still busy but there was a break so I was able to swing out to the left hand lane as to avoid cars turning right at the light. At this point I was probably eight cars back from the intersection, but with east/west traffic at a stop for the red light I had a clear view towards the northwest corner of the intersection. Given I was stopped, I was fiddling with the radio, tuning in to hear sports talk. Once I had the station tuned and volume at an acceptable level to hear the on-goings, I looked up to check the light and see if it had turned yet. Just at this moment I saw a body flying hood level through the air about a foot in front of the windshield of what appeared to be a Prius. The body continued to elevate in an arc until it disappeared from sight due to the cars in front of me. It took me a moment to realize what I had seen. I just saw a pedestrian get hit by a moving car. Hard. I was in shock. I couldn't move for a second. People started running from the bus stop towards the impact site. Cars began to move and block traffic and a crowd formed around where I assumed the body stopped, which was a good distance south of the intersection. Keep in mind the pedestrian was crossing westward in the north crosswalk. The body had to have flown at least 3/4 of the way through the intersection which is 6 lanes wide, three each direction with no turn lanes at this particular spot. Assuming that the average car lane is 9 feet, the body had to have been air born for at least 40' and then judging from the crowd slid down the road at least another 40 feet. It was hard to see because of the stopped cars and crowds of people. I numbly proceeded onward as a) I only caught a glimpse of what happened, b) I couldn't have made it over with the number of people already there, and c)the shock of seeing what had just happened clouded my thought process. The last thing I remember was seeing his backpack still in the crosswalk as I drove on. I'm still having trouble processing this. It keeps replaying in my mind over and over and I keep hoping that this person will be ok but based on what I saw I can't imagine this doesn't turn into a fatality. I probably won't be ok until my family is all home safe tonight. People, keep you loved ones close and safe. Look out for each other because obviously people aren't paying attention.

8280

Rainy days and Mondays….yeah I know, sounds like a horrible 70’s song.  But Mondays do suck.  Rainy days, I actually like, but for whatever reason when you combine the two the whole vibe around you seems to change.  There is a definitely a noticeably different vibe in my office today which I can only attribute to today being a rainy Monday.  I have to admit, I feel a little down too.  It could be because I see no end in sight as to getting my car fixed, at least from a financial standpoint.  Couple that with what I can assume will be an astronomical hospital bill from my daughter’s accident Friday and well, feeling a little blue today seems justifiable.  Not looking for a pity party, but stating facts.  It isn’t going to end me nor do I sense an extreme case of despair, just another rainy Monday.
The plus side, and ultimate distraction for me, is that the 2013 NFL season kicked off this weekend.  Opening weekend is by far my favorite weekend of the year.  Every football fan is filled with hope and every team is at an even keel.  Unfortunately for some (cough Jacksonville fans, cough) this is the best it will get all year.  For others, it’s the beginning of a magical ride that will culminate in a Superbowl victory in February.  To everyone else, it’s a fantastic roller coaster of ups and downs, celebrations and cursing, congratulations and second guessing.  It’s also a time for everyone to wait and see how the Dallas Cowboys crap the bed this December.  The other great thing about football season kicking off is it’s a reminder that fall is nearly upon us. 
Fall might be my favorite season. Football aside, we start the string of pumpkin flavored everything and as such I had my first pumpkin iced coffee of the year from Dunkin Donuts this weekend along with a pumpkin donut.  Fall is also great because we start the shutdown of our year.  Holidays quickly approach and we begin to reminisce on the long road we have traveled and reflect on the hope that the New Year will bring.  The days begin to shorten and the weather cools (except for us here in Arizona, we have a few more months of summer). Traditionally we celebrate the harvest of the hard work of spring and summer, we feast, we fight, we reconcile, we carry on…we prepare to put to bed another trip around the Sun and ready for the next go round. 
So while the rain and Monday combine as a little downer, yanging that yin is the bliss that is another season of football and another fall to reflect upon the year that has passed

8328

My apologies for not posting yesterday, but I was a little busy. Most of the day was taken up with fallout from the short week, then around

I received a call from my daughter's dive coach that she had been injured at practice and was being taken by ambulance to the hospital. Needless to say, attending to my daughter was far higher on my list of things to do than a blog post. That being said, I'm almost concerned at my lack of concern for my daughter. Let me clarify that before you rush to judgement. What I mean is while I was concerned for her well being, I never once became distraught at the idea of her injuries being life altering. Even when I got to the hospital and she was laying there on a backboard with a neck brace on, did I allow myself to think of this as anything more than an over cautious approach to dealing with her. In retrospect I wonder if I should have been more concerned. I never tend to think of medical issues as ever being serious. Got a cut, bandage it up and it will heal. Broke something, put it in a cast and let it mend. Maybe this is just typical male thought. My wife was, not a complete mess, but close. She tends to think of worst case scenario. Is that just typical woman thought? I don't think it is, because growing up I never got that sense from my mom. I've been to the hospital numerous times with pneumonia in my life and never once was there a sense of urgency or that it was more than an inconvenience. I remember one time after I had moved out I got pneumonia and had called her for a ride to the hospital only to be dropped off. She didn't even come inside. Maybe it was because this had become such commonplace that we knew what was going to happen. Maybe there is just a sense of calm built into me from her, but I never once had a worst case scenario run through my head at the hospital. This is one I'd really like some feedback on from the readers. Are men just more calm when it comes to medical issues than women? Is that why guys tend to never go to the doctor whereas women seem like the walking versions of WebMD where everything leads to cancer? I'm using broad generalizations here, I know so don't read to far into the sexism. Maybe the divide isn't men and women, but do people tend to fall into the two extremes like that? I would like to know if that's just the way it is or if this is something I need to reflect more on so I can become a better parent and person.

8376

I’m taking the crux of today’s post from some comments made on Facebook.  Basically I stated I think the implosion of our country as we know it will stem from the arrogance of our leaders, and while the delivery method may be a foreign source, the root cause of the problem is from within.  What I mean by that is that we make our own enemies by interfering in the affairs of others.  We overstep our bounds, albeit more than likely for altruistic reasons, but we assume we know better than others how others should live. It’s almost an evangelical approach to life.  Just like Christians going on “missions” to convert indigenous heathens into the fold of God, we push “western lifestyle” and values on other parts of the world.  Now, I for one love the comforts that living in an industrialized society provide. I’m a techno geek admittedly.  The advancements that are coming every day in technology and medicine are remarkable.  However, to paraphrase Dr. Malcolm in Jurassic Park, we are “so preoccupied with whether or not (we) could that (we) never stop to think if (we) should.”  We have seen throughout history that conservation isn’t always the best recourse.  Look at the efforts in place to save certain species, which have led to overpopulation, which in turn leads to a lack of food, and because of the righteous efforts to save we have created misery among all.  People tend to forget that humans are just animals on this planet along with all the others.  Sure, we are the dominant species, but we are animals none the less.  We are arrogant in the face of nature.  We think we know better, but really what place do we have to dictate the grand plan nature has for us?  I know it’s easy to say when we are removed from the situation, sitting comfortably in our climate controlled abodes, with pretty much our every whim available at our fingertips, while the death and disease are far removed from our everyday lives, but you have to think there is some truth to it.  We have no problem letting our neighbors live their lives inside their houses, but we can’t let our distant neighbors in other countries live out their own lives.  It’s almost as if we are hypocritical by nature.  It probably all boils down to power, the most corrosive substance on the planet.  As long as we wield power, we have a feeling of superiority.  As long as we feel superior, we have no problem telling people how to be and what to do for their own good.  It trickles down too.  Leaders make laws for the population, parents make rules for their kids, older siblings tell their younger siblings what to do.  It’s natural, but it doesn’t make it right.  We will never progress as a species until no one person wields power over another.  Nature wiped out the dominant species before, and it looks like we are on the road to doing her a solid and taking ourselves out.  I hope I’m wrong.  I hope humans carry on, but I think it is going to take a major house cleaning in order for that to happen.  It is going to take far more suffering that we are willing to admit.  We are going to have to destroy ourselves in order to be reborn.  As much as it’s a great time to be alive it’s also a sad time.  Yin-Yang. Until next time

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I posted a question on both Facebook and Google+ earlier in regards to which is a more noble feat, serving ones country or being in your children's lives. One of the conclusions I came to is that circumstances will vary, and the choice is extremely personal. Now I will never begrudge somebody for having a different opinion on this subject than I do, but for me, being in my kids' lives is a must. Given my views on foreign policy I could never justify leaving my children for anything unless there was a clear and imminent threat to them. I know what it is like to have a father that was not always there and I could never leave my children. When I made the choice to become a parent, I took on the obligation of being there for my children no matter what. Children are only children for such a little amount of time. I couldn't imagine not being there when they need their daddy. As it is with my older child, I missed so much because I was not in a relationship with her mother after she was born. I do my best to make up for that, but nothing can replace those once in a life time moments, like first steps or first words. You can try to capture those moments on video or in pictures, but nothing replaces being there for them and I owe my children to be there to experience life with them. Again, no disrespect to the men and women in the military, I commend and thank you for all you do, but if you've made the choice to be a parent, then you need to be in your child's life as much as possible. Now (and this is where politics start to come into play), the argument can be made that protecting your country from the dangers in the world is protecting your children, and thus justification can be made for entering the military. However, I strongly believe that if we worried more about ourselves and less about policing the world those dangers wouldn't be so severe. Our arrogance as a country is what brings on the hatred from our enemies. If we maintained a strict policy of not interfering with the ongoings in other countries unless explicitly asked to do so, the threat to our way of life would be dramatically less.
So basically what I'm saying is if you mind your own business, and everybody else minded their own business we could all do right. Life has become far too complicated and we all need to take a step back because we've complicated it ourselves. To the parents, and I mean parents, not sperm or egg donors, or half timers, but to the full time parents, you are the heroes. I'll get off my soapbox now and prepare for the flack.

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+ Mike Sullivan was kind enough to mention me in a thread on Google + today. It was an interesting thread about vloging. I myself prefer to blog as it allows me to not only choose my words more carefully, but it also saves all of you from having to look at my face while I echo the musings running through my mind. You are welcome by the way. One of the themes though was history. Better yet, making yourself a part of history. The gist was by vlogging you were able to leave a record of yourself for future generations to discover. Basically, anything you put on the internet will remain forever (EMP usage notwithstanding), and I think that anybody, be it bloggers, vloggers, or any user of social media is in essence leaving a record of themselves for people to find. I think it's great. I love that we can basically record ourselves for posterity. I've recently felt the urge to search my roots and have spent many hours working on a family tree so that I can get a better grasp of who I am by looking at those that came before me. I wish there were more records of people to be found. I know not everyone has an interesting story, but everyone has a story, and just like books, or movies, it's up to the audience to decide how willing they are to invest themselves into following the story. I encourage all of you to blog, or vlog, or maintain a diary. You don't have to make it public, but it's a great way for future generations to look into their past and see where they came from, and who knows, you may be more entertaining than you think, but nobody will know unless you try.  A word of advice though, just reposting shit from Pinterest doesn't express who you are and is quite annoying. Please, don't be that person.

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Good Sunday morning everyone. I hope you are all enjoying your extended weekend thus far. I woke up surprisingly early for myself today and with everyone in the house still asleep I decided to jump on the computer and read about the world's goings ons. I also received a phone call from my father-in-law wanting some help with his TV. It seems that it had gone out and he is far from tech savvy so I agreed. He is always there to help us out and since his wife is bed-ridden I had no qualms about going to his place to help out. Turns out it was just in need of the power button being pushed on the TV. Simple enough fix, although this is all irrelevant to my post. The point is, I took the surface streets to his house instead of hoping on the freeway. I'm not sure what drove me to this decision, but I'm glad I did. It had been several months since I had taken the surface streets in this particular direction and I can't believe how many changes there were. New buildings had been erected, old one's had been torn down. The point is, change is constant and in the blink of an eye our surroundings can change without us even noticing. We get so wrapped up in what our direct objective is that we neglect to notice things that don't affect us directly until we look up and notice everything has changed. That is the part I hate most about living in a big city. Our environment evolves so much that we don't take time to realize or appreciate it. I never had that problem as a kid living in a small town. It's one of the things I miss most. It may seem boring at times, but you notice when things change. Even small, inconsequential things. Next time you are out and about, take a different route, slow down and pay attention. You might be surprised what you see.