Muses and Ramblings

2011-12-07T18:53:00.000-05:00

It happens to all of us. We get caught up in the fast pace of life, then next thing you know you're out of time and you haven't had anything to eat all day. So what we end up doing? If you're like me you're tempted to eat a mountain of whatever you see in front of you the next time you open the fridge. Doing that only leads to regrets later and creates havoc with any healthy eating plan. As you know, its always better to eat many meals a day (5 or 6) of a few hundred calories each, rather than 3 big meals (more on this later). Keeping that in mind, take time to snack during the day, but do it wisely. So here are some tips to stay on track.

1. A banana or other fruit is an easy snack and fruit travels well. It doesn't require refrigeration so its a great thing to pack away in a bag or back pack. One banana is about 90-105 calories and is a good source of potassium and vitamin B6.

2. Peanut butter or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is another snack that travels well. You'll want to have it on GOOD bread so avoid white bread and stick with whole wheat or whole grain bread. Also, be mindful of the type of peanut butter you use. Many kinds found in stores contain added sugar so you'll want to avoid that. Good peanut butter contains one thing - peanuts - that's it (and maybe some salt). As far the jelly or jam, again avoid anything with added sugar or corn syrups. Its simply not necessary.

3. Yogurt is a great snack. Again, avoid the kinds that contain added sugars. Also, just because a yogurt has "active cultures" in it, doesn't mean its good for you. Check the label the next time you go shopping and pick the one with the fewest artificial ingredients.

4. Popcorn is a good snack, especially if its air popped. High in fiber to promote gastrointestinal health, popcorn contains antioxidants, substances that protect body cells from damage that can lead to disease. Popcorn by itself is very good for you, its what goes on it that turns it into junk. Avoid the kind you make in the microwave. (If you want some good, pre-popped popcorn, check out our line of Kernel Seasons Popcorn in our popcorn section.)

The point is, healthy snacking doesn't have to be a daunting task, it just takes a bit of planning. Eat often, eat healthy!

-Steve

Mobile blogging

2011-11-13T11:36:00.001-05:00

I've officially become a mobile blogger - new android app.

Return of the Blog

2011-07-06T09:05:00.002-04:00

Ok, we've all had time to play on Facebook for a while... anyone besides me getting bored yet?

Don't get me wrong, FB is a nice medium for sharing pictures and getting a quick snapshot of what's going on with your friends, but its just not the medium for writing serious content on any subject. But that's ok because it wasn't intended for that. Facebook does a great job at what it was designed to do.

That said, I have decided to return to a more regular blogging schedule. I'm still planning on logging on to my FB account occasionally, posting pictures and interacting with my 100+ friends, but in addition to that I'm going to be going back to good 'ol blogging and perhaps even starting some new blogs focusing on specific content.

Courts overturning votes?

2010-01-11T12:55:00.004-05:00

In November 2008, California voters banned gay marriage in that state. Proponents of gay marriage didn't like the way the vote turned out and have asked the Supreme Court to overturn the vote. My question is this. What gives any court the right to overturn a vote? If a court can overturn a vote, does voting mean anything? This is supposed to be a government "by the people", not by the courts. There's a lot that the article didn't say, so maybe this is all very democratic in some way, but it doesn't look like it.

-Steve

Hot Air

2010-01-11T09:31:00.004-05:00

I didn't think this was possible but apparently it is and Toastmaster has done it. They've made a hot air popcorn popper that really does a bad job.

My wife and I have taken to making pop corn the "old fashion" way - with a hot air popper. The reason for this is a chemical called diacetyl. This chemical is what gives microwave popcorn its buttery flavor. It was discovered several years ago that this chemical causes health issues. Variations of diacetyl are still used today and exposure to it can cause something called bronchiolitis obliterans - basically, small airways in the lungs get destroyed beyond repair.

Anyway, I digress...

So we bought a simple hot air popcorn popper and began to make popcorn. Reminiscing about how much fun it was to smell and watch a hot air popper work, we gathered around it.

It wasn't too long after that that we found ourselves diving for cover because the device was not so much popping the corn as it was getting the kernels super hot and spewing them all over the kitchen. When it seemed like the bombardment was over we emerged to discover that the bowl we used to collect the popcorn contained about a cup of actual popped corn. The remainder was scattered around the kitchen still unpopped.

Disappointed, but still wanting popcorn, we tried it again. Not surprisingly we got the same results.

Now, it might be possible that Toastmaster does indeed have a fine popcorn popper someplace in its inventory, but this model (6203) isn't it.

So, we are again in the market for a hot air popcorn popper.

-Steve

[Added Feb 29, 2009]

Apparently some microwave pop corn may be getting safer. Check out this article.

http://www.naturalnews.com/022513_popcorn_diacetyl_microwave.html

Doing Hard Things

2009-12-26T17:16:00.004-05:00

I have two new warrior women in my life - my wife and my eldest daughter both of whom earned their black belts in June 2009. My wife's black belt is in an MMA belt (Muai Thay kickboxing, Krav Maga self defense with a little American boxing thrown in). My daughter's junior black belt is in Kempo Karate.

I am very, very proud of both of these ladies because to accomplish what they did took time, focus and a lot of effort. It meant pushing through physical limits and, more challengingly, through mental limits - doubts and fears - to stretch themselves to reach new goals.

To earn their black belts both ladies had to pass 3 tests ranging anywhere from 3 to 6 hours long. Failing at any point means forfeiting the chance to earn the black belt this time and requiring they try again at the next cycle. This is not an insurmountable issue, but it certainly would be a disappointment.

Martial arts is a lifestyle, not just an activity. Seeing it that way make a big difference. Being a martial artist involves, (among other things) realizing that you can do more than you think you can while at the same time maintaining humility. It meshes with our family philosophy quite nicely.

My wife pushed herself past any physical limit I have ever seen her hit before . As a result, her all around confidence is up. Here's the most impressive part - ready - she's still working out. That's right. While some might stop and say "well I've done it, that's over" she is continuing to improve.

My daughter's confidence is up also. One day she was at the kitchen table trying to do something but failing at it. (I don't recall what it was but that doesn't matter.) I said to her "I'll do it for you, I know that's hard." Her reply was "Daddy, I can do hard things you know." It was at that point that I realized all the training about perseverance was starting to take hold.

On her third test she sprained her ankle with about 10 minutes to go in the test. This was during the sparing phase of the test so there was no way she could avoid using her ankle. Had she chosen to give up at this point she would have lost her chance to earn her belt. She continued to spar with tears in her eyes and I could see she was determined not to let the pain stop her.

My 11 year old son earned his black belt in Dec 2009. He too had to push through things that he thought would be "too hard". He did his 1 mile run in temperatures in the low 20s. This was the hardest part of the test for him because he hates running in the cold. He was the smallest (though not the youngest) person in his class and I'm very proud of him.

I'm going on and on about this not only because of what they did but also because of what they continue to do.

What we have all learned from this is that it doesn't end. There's always something new to learn or something old to improve. No one who's been through this considers themselves "on top". Just the opposite really. It really is a humbling experience. You learn very quickly just how much you don't know. Keep in mind that a black belt really just means the student has mastered the basics. The instructors have awarded the black belt and the student has been deemed "trainable".

I just finished reading a book called "Do Hard Things". Although its a book aimed at teens, adults can certainly learn something from it too. Doing hard things isn't limited to doing only physically challenging things. Any time you are doing something outside your comfort zone you are doing a "hard thing". It may be uncomfortable, but that's the only way we grow.

Protecting Children

2009-04-23T15:31:00.003-04:00

On Oct 28, 2007 , GE asked a question about how to protect children. This was asked as a comment to a previous post. I gave my opinion in a response comment. Someone later suggested that I make my response a separate post, so I'm duplicating it here.

*********

I can't constantly be protecting my kids - its just not possible. Therefore, I have to teach them to protect themselves. Physical protection is the easiest to learn, so we start there. Other ways to teach kids to protect themselves are to teach them that what goes into their minds effects them whether they realize it or not. This is very important to understand. Everything they read, watch, listen to, and the people they interact with all effect them. Therefore we must monitor what goes in. Likewise, they are effecting other people. Second we must give them a firm foundation in the truth. To parents who don't believe that absolute truth exist, this task will be impossible because they will quickly realize they have no "real truth" to teach. To those who believe that there are absolutes (social absolutes, moral, civic, relational, etc) this task is easier.

Once kids know what the truths are (also known as teaching right and wrong) they can quickly spot when something falls outside this area.

Now, kids like frameworks and they actually look for life to fit within the framework their parents (teachers) describe. As soon as the kids are old enough to see things not "fitting in" they will start to ask a lot of "why" questions. This is where a great opportunity comes to discuss the situation with the child and to help them decide how (and if) that situation fits into the truth framework they've been taught all those years earlier.

In addition, kids need to have self confidence and the confidence to fail. These are learned skills. Some of it comes from watching their parents have self confidence as well as watching how their parents react when they "fail" in some way. Do the parents own up to the mistake or blame others (or blame a situation)? Kids need to encounter situations where they can fail safely so they can turn to their parents for help and guidance. They also need to have situations where they can press themselves beyond their limits and learn that they can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

With this "training" (mental and physical), as the kids get older and experience more and more of the world and with mom and dad around them less and less, they will have the means to identify situations that will harm them and the means protect themselves from those situations. The means of protecting my be to leave the situation, avoid a potential problem... it varies, but being able to identify a bad situation is essential to getting out of it safely or avoiding it all together.

Is it a perfect system - no. Also, there is one wildcard that I didn't mention. The ability to choose. All people have the ability to know what is "right" and still choose "wrong". However, I have it on good authority that people who are trained early will generally follow that training as they get older.

Miss California and Gay Marriage

2009-04-21T21:28:00.003-04:00

We live in a country that hates people who hold the opinion that gay marriage is wrong. Let's just face it, that's the way it is. The media treats such people unfairly, Hollywood treats these people unfairly and most Americans are learning (mainly from what they see in the media) that its ok to treat these people unfairly.

As a case in point, consider the recent situation with the first runner up (Miss California, Carrie Perjean) of the 2009 Miss U.S.A. pageant. She is getting slammed for simply stating her opinion about gay marriage. The girl didn't say she hated homosexuals she just said that she didn't like the idea of gay marriage. She was very careful to say that she was only giving her opinion and was not intending to offend anyone. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with stating an opinion?

Immediately, people who were once supporters of Carrie Prejean began to distance themselves from her and started coming out with statements about how they were disappointed in her response. Some people even said that her opinion did not represent the views of the people of California. However, these people seem to be forgetting that most of California's residents agree with Miss Prejean. During the past election California residents voted to overturn the state law allowing gay marriage. Doesn't this say something?

Let's face it folks, anyone who even voices a whisper in opposition to gay marriage is immediately marked by the media (and most liberals) as a cruel, hateful person. That's just not right.

Regardless of what one's opinion is, everyone should be able to give their opinion on a subject and NOT have to worry about being called names or discriminated against simply for voicing their opinion.

Personally, I think gay marriage is a bad idea. Don't hate me for it, discuss the topic! Talk about it and let others talk about it. State your case for or against it. This is not just a topic for politicians to discuss, its for everyone to discuss.

-Steve

Social Networking

2009-04-20T10:55:00.002-04:00

Ok, so a few people have been getting on my case about it having been a little too long since I've blogged. I have to admit, they're right.

So to my devoted readers (both of you) I dedicate this blog about social networking.

It has always amazed me that there is such a dichotomy between how many ways we have to communicate and how little communication people actually do. The craze of social networking just adds to this. There's Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, a few "cafes" and probably some others. Other than time sinks, do these really accomplish anything? Do these things really keep us in contact more? Let's take twitter for example. Twitter is designed for people who like to communicate on the go. Its all text message based. You can subscribe to a person's twitter entries and then any entry they make is automatically sent to you. This is fine until you realize that its real easy to blog without thinking (why not, most people speak without thinking all the time) and what usually happens is you end up saying something you wish you hadn't. Sounds like I'd get myself into a lot of trouble with this one.

Facebook allows someone to look at (or look for) other peoples postings. Its a great way to contact people you have lost track of and I think this is exactly the reason that this (and anything that's like it) will survive. I think that people like to anonymously look in on their friends. This way you can "keep in contact" with out really any contact.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't really have anything against all the social networking sites. Rather what I'm seeing is that they are filling a need (or trying to fill a need) in people's desire to relate to one another. In some ways they are filling a legitimate need - the need to stay in touch in a busy, affluent society. For the most part, I think the level of social networking currently going on is still in the "fad" stage. I expect it will eventually level off. Hopefully, in the process people will realize the need for actual, in person interactions and structure their lives so its less busy and more relational.

-Steve

Bo?

2009-04-15T23:17:00.004-04:00

I'm standing here in front of the TV watching the Obama's dog, Bo, arrive at the White House. This is sad. Not that the Obamas want a dog, I have no problem with the president and his family enjoying a pet. As a parent I totally understand the importance of parents enjoying time doing family things. The president and his family are certainly entitled to enjoy themselves.

The sad part is the the news media (CNN at least) is actually devoting more that a few minutes of time to the "event" of the dog arriving at the White House. They even interviewed a dog expert about the situation. That this makes more than 30-60 seconds of news is what's sad.

Find some real news guys! A short clip about the fact that they have a pet and maybe a few shots of the kids playing would suffice.

-Steve

More than kicking

2009-04-15T23:17:00.003-04:00

Martial arts has a become more than just a passing hobby for my family and me. Just under a year ago I earned my first degree black belt in MMA. As I've mentioned before the more I learn about the art, the more I also learn how much I don't know.

As I watch my wife and daughter train for their black belts, I notice how much they have both grown over the years. Not just grown in skills, but also character. We often use the characteristics of a black belt (modesty, courtesy, integrity, self-control, perseverance, indomitable spirit) as character lessons for our kids.

What makes me confident that doing this is a wise thing is the way I see many of our school's instructors and upper belts behave. From the chances I've had to interact with them in a non-martial arts setting, I have noticed that they really walk what they talk. Sure, we all stumble now and then, but how we react when we stumble makes all the difference. Do we blame others or take responsibility? Do we give up and wallow in defeat or press on? I know a lot of people who seem to look for reasons to give up. Why? Because something is too hard? There are times in life when it is reasonable to see that a particular path is not fruitful and to choose another, but I think that sometimes we jump to this conclusion too soon.

Martial arts is more than just kicking, punching and conditioning - a lot more. It about attitude. Its about perseverance. Its about continuing to press on when you feel too worn down to press on. And most importantly its about living these characteristics out in real life, not just on the dojo floor.

Recently I had the chance to watch some upper belts go through some testing to earn their next belt. These folks were 2nd degrees and higher. As I watched them, I felt more and more like I knew less and less. Each one was faster, stronger, and more skilled than I. Some were older but some were younger. I know most of them personally. More impressive to me than their skill was their attitude. I know that none of them relies on there skill or title to get their identity or significance in life. I know that each one is fully aware of how much they don't know. When I was a white belt I didn't understand that, but I do now.

In some non-physical area of my life I have taken a real beating. Still, I stuck with it. There's a saying that a black belt is nothing more than a white belt who never gave up. I believe it, and I believe its true in all areas of life.

-Steve

The Great Divide

2009-03-24T22:14:00.002-04:00

I just watched President Obama's second press conference. That man sure can speak well, but I'm not sure he says anything.

I'd like to think that the reason he seemed to sidestep some questions and not answer them directly is because the questions (mainly about the economy and the federal budget) are truly hard questions and as is often true, hard questions don't always have direct answers.

What I got out of it was this. What the president said was so vague that it can be taken different ways by different listeners.

Now, that's not too surprising to anyone who follows politics. Tonight however, I saw something more interesting, but it wasn't during the press conference. What I discovered concerns me a bit. After the press conference I watched the various news analysis shows to see what they had to say. I've determined that there is more fighting going on between "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" and "The O'Reily Factor" than is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Keith and the folks he had on seem the hate anything related to former Pres. Bush and the Iraq war, even going so far as to continue to call it a failure despite the fact that violence in Iraq is the lowest its ever been and that the Iraqi government is getting more stable and able to handle itself as each day passes.

Bill O'Reily, in similar fashion, could find nothing good to say about President Obama's conference and kept commenting on how boring it was. Come on Bill, its a press conference, what did you expect, excitement?

What I'm concerned about is that the actions of Olbermann and O'Reily will have a bigger effect on this country than anything any President does. Let's just pretend that Olbermann represents the left and O'Reily the right. From previous observations we can summarize each side as so: The left believes in entitlement, increased government control in all areas of society, and moral relativism. The right believes in less control of people's loves by government, individual responsibility and values based on Judeo-Christian belief.

Now, here's the dangerous part. As the left and the right continue to fight they will only succeed is splitting people who hold particular views into deeper factions. If America is going to get stronger we have to agree to disagree. Eventually America will have to decide which position it wants to be governed by - both can't coexist indefinitely.

Let's face it, its not the economy that will divide this country and its not foreign wars, rather its competing philosophical views. The divide exists. O'Riely and Olbermann are just two of the many icons of this philosophical divide.

-Steve

A Day in Boston

2008-08-20T22:22:00.004-04:00

My eldest daughter, Sarah, and I spent a day in Boston recently. I had promised her a year ago that we could spend a day together doing anything she wanted - but we had to postpone that adventure until recently. So, here we are on the commuter rail heading in to Beantown.

Going to Boston was her choice. We could have gone to Providence, the mall, the movies, etc. We didn't have a more specific target than "Boston" until a couple of days before. We're heading for the U.S.S. Constitution.

9:15a
We've rumbling into Sharon on the trek into Boston. The train is pretty empty.

9:45a
We get off at Back Bay and hunt for a map so I can get oriented. We decide to start walking toward the North End. If we get tired of walking we would jump on the orange line the rest of the way. Sarah remembered that the Freedom Trail went all the to the Constitution so we followed the Freedon Trail from Boston Common to the U.S.S Constitution. We ended up walking the entire way. We stopped at a few places along the way - some historic (King's Church, Feneuil Hall) and some not too historic (Dunkin' Donuts). We reached the U.S.S. Constitution about 11:30a.

12:00p
The tour of the U.S.S. Constitution begins. We had to pass through something similar to airport security in order to get onto the ship. This might be because this ship is still a commissioned warship in the U.S. Navy. Maybe its just considered a potential terrorist target because of its significance in history. I'm not sure. Anyway, the tour started at 12:00p. We got a tour of 3 decks and both learned a lot.

12:30p
Lunch. We ate at the shipyard galley - a small snack bar type place in the navy yard. We had a cheese burger and steak & cheese. After that we hit the gift shop.

1:45p
We left the gift shop and headed back. Since we were both kind of tired from the long morning walk we opted to take the Orange line back. We got to Back Bay more than an hour before the next train was scheduled to leave. Hmmmm... what to do. We decided to go get something to eat and go for a short walk. We make it back with less than thirty minutes to wait.

4:00p
We're on the train heading home. It should take just under an hour to get there. We're both tired but we both had a good time today. Sarah's favorite part of the day was actually being on the U.S.S Constitution. My favorite part was watching her have a good time.

Summer 2008 and the IFL

2008-08-07T21:30:00.015-04:00

It's been a looooong while since I blogged, I know. Hey, I've been busy. The 2 or 3 people that actually read this blog have tactfully told me "either blog more often, or stop taking up room in cyber space". So, here I go...

This past June I earned my black belt in mixed martial arts. It's a mix of Muay Thai kick boxing and Krav Maga. Check out America's Best Defense for more info.

Now, you're not going to see me in the IFL anytime soon, but I did learn a few things in the process of training for my tests.

At this point I feel compelled to mention just what the term "black belt" means because there's a bit of misunderstanding about this. Earning a black belt means only that one has mastered the basics. That's it. It doesn't me you know everything - far from it. So, it took me 3 years to get just the basics down. I mention this so you know that I'm not claiming that I'm the next Karate Kid or Jackie Chan. Ok, moving on...

Now, as I said I have learned a few things. One of the things I learned is that 15-year-olds can move really fast. Part of the test required that all black belt candidates show some degree of competence in sparing. So, to prepare for that I started training with some of the folks at the school in an effort to improve my sparing skills. Most of the folks I trained with were younger than me. They were ALL great to train with and though I often learned how much I don't know, no one EVER made me feel inferior in any way. Still, we all knew that during the training they were moving much slower than they would if they were really sparing. So, although I did my best, I generally got hit a lot. But I learned a lot too.

There were about 15 adults training with me. We each had to pass 3 tests (given in Apr, May and the final in June). In Feb we started something called Bootcamp. This is an additional class we are required to attend where the instructors help you clean up your skills in preparation for the tests. These were both emotionally and physically challenging classes. Some folks give up in bootcamp - and I think that's the point. You have to really want this. The training was at least as much mental as it was physical. So, from Oct to June I forced my body to do thing that most people would think are physically impossible (or at least, not normal). Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed this...well, most of it.

I won't go into the details now but I can say this was the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life. I am so glad I did it!

Here are some of the take aways:

1. Age is as much a mental attitude as a physical reality.

2. Attitude has A LOT to do with whether or not you will succeed. This is not just true in physical training, but in life in general.

3. Anyone at almost any age can get info better physical (and mental) shape if they want to.

4. There is a LOT I don't know - both about martial arts and about life in general.

5. You can do a LOT more than you think you can. You can push more when you think you are exhausted and you can give more when you think you are empty.

6. The chief factor that stops people from achieving goals is fear.

7. What you eat effects you both physically and mentally. If you're going to train hard and push yourself to new levels you need to feed your body right and the average American diet just doesn't cut it.

8. Martial is not something you do, its something you live - its a lifestyle of perseverance, modesty, courtesy, respect (for self and others), self control and integrity. Although one part of the focus is on improving oneself, there is just as strong a focus on helping and encouraging others.

So, this is what I have been preparing for for the past 3 years and what my life was really focusing on for the first half of 2008. I'm very much committed to maintaining what I've accomplished as well as bringing what I've learned from my martial arts training into other areas of life. There are always new goals to set and achieve. There are always new things to be learned. Bring it on!

-Steve

Media Coverage Patterns

2008-01-18T08:19:00.001-05:00

Have you noticed that Iraq hasn't made the headlines recently? Its not just because of election coverage that this is the case. Any ideas why?

For those of you who said "because there's no bad news to report" you are correct. As I mentioned in previous posts, you can easily judge the situation in Iraq by how much attention the media gives to it. A lot of attention means things are going badly, little attention means things are going well. The reason for this is because the liberal news networks just can't report anything that paints the U.S. in a positive light. Sad, but true.

Now there have been several articles on the major news web site that did talk about how the troop surge seems to have worked. I have to give credit for that.

As for election coverage, watch and you will notice the same news networks paint the conservative (especially Christian conservative) as "fanatics" and liberal candidates as "cool". Amazing.

Are you noticing a trend? A pattern perhaps? Anyone or anything that give the impression that the U.S. Government isn't this terrible monster or that there may actually be "right" and "wrong" gets ridiculed in the media. Anyone or anything that gives the opposite impression gets hailed as a great (or at least "in touch" with reality). How sad.

So, keep watchful eye out and see if these patterns don't hold true.

-Steve

Come in Star Command, do you copy?

2007-12-11T06:56:00.001-05:00

You know how some day's events catch you completely off guard? Well, this weekend was a series of such events.

Saturday started off as I like my Saturday's to start off. I worked out for about and hour and a half. It's a great way to start a day in my opinion. The rest of the day was planned out. I had some tasks to run and some shopping to do. Now, I really should have known better than to think any day is actually "planned". In the end, it all worked out well and I re-learned a few things.

I knew that my car needed repairs. It was getting loud so I feared something exhaust related was going to give. It also had a leak in one of the tires and needed a coolant flush. After workout I was planning on heading over to the service place and getting that done.

I dropped the car off and explained what I needed done. This particular place didn't do tires and that was fine so I told them to take care of the other items.

After about an hour they called me. The person of the other end of the phone asked if I wanted the good news or the bad news first. I generally take the bad news first figuring if its not that bad then I only have good news to look forward to.

It seems that the radiator was about to give out completely. The plastic was so brittle that just taking the cap off resulted in more of the radiator coming off than was intended. The good news is that the exhaust system was fine - no signs of holes or anything loose. Three hundred dollars later I had a working radiator again - or so I thought.

I got the car home and, being a guy and guys being curious about mechanical things, I opened the hood to see my new radiator. The radiator was indeed new but so was the coolant which was leaking out of the bottom hose. A quick call to the service center resulted in an answer of "it should stop soon". It didn't.

By this time it was 3pm and I still needed to get my tire repaired. We were supposed to attend a family party at my sister's house at 4pm. Now, my wife Maria is an amazing woman and I am truly blessed by the fact that she is still married to a dolt like me. Noticing that I was somewhat annoyed by the fact that the radiator repair went badly compounded by the fact that I did not get the tire fixed, she volunteered to take the kids to the party while I headed off to handle the tire situation. We set off on our separate adventures.

At least the guys at the tire place didn't charge me for the "repair". When I got the car back from them (about 40 minutes after I pulled in) the tire looked fine - nicely inflated - and I was thinking quite highly of the highly trained personnel who transformed my once leaking tire back into a working piece of automotive excellence. I was now able to join my family at the party. The evening at my sister's place went fine until it was time to leave. I was a bit sad that I had to ride back home in a separate car from the rest of my family, but this was to change soon enough. When we got to the cars after the party the tire on my car was totally flat. They folks at the tire place had managed to take a slow leak and turn it into a fast one - good work guys. I left my car at my sister's house that night but at least I got to ride home with my family.

After church the next morning I returned to my sister's house to again try to get my car into working order. Mind you, 24 hours ago I had a car with only a slowly leaking tire and in need of a coolant flush. Now I have a car sitting on a totally flat tire and leaking coolant all over my sister's driveway. It cost me $300 to get to this point. Still, I was confident that I was not going to get upset about all this - its just part of life and one's true character is seen in times of adversity. So, I put the spare tire (which I discovered was a bit under inflated) on the car and headed out to get the tire fixed.

I was rather surprised that the car was still running cool at this point. In spite of the leak, I hadn't noticed any problems. I was wondering if this was going to last.

On the way to the tire place (NOT the place that broke my nice slow leaking tire, a different place), I decided that I would get new tires. I wasn't going to pass inspection in the spring with the tires I had and since this seems to be turning into car repair weekend - why not. By the way, did I mention it was also Christmas shopping season.

Traffic was unusually light on the way to the mall - a welcomed surprise from what I was expecting. The folks at this service center seemed very organized and knew what they were doing. The only issue was that they were backed up and it would take about an hour before they could get to my car and then another hour to affect repairs. No matter, I had some Christmas shopping to do anyway.

I enjoyed my time at the mall. I did manage to get some shopping done and I met Adid. (I think that was her name.) She tried to sell me sea salt to use on my skin. She tried to get me to buy it for my wife. She even washed my hands and polished a nail to show me how well it worked. At the end of all this I had to decline her offer. My hands did smell nice and clean though.

Finally my car was ready. The tires looked nice. I was satisfied with the job they did and I headed home. Unfortunately, I never made it that far. Remember that radiator problem... well, it caught up with me. The car's engine temperature was climbing fast.

Now, it just so happened that the trip home brought me past the place that did the radiator work for me. I decided to bring the car there for them to re-fix it. After all they are a good place (they've worked on my car before and have been very helpful in the past) and I really wanted this to have a happy ending. It was Sunday night after 5pm and dark so I decided to leave the car in their lot all night so they'd have it in the morning. I called my wife to come and pick me up. As I'm standing in this parking lot waiting for my wife to arrive, a man approached me. Turns out his name was Richard and he was leaving his car there too. After a short conversation I discovered that he needed help pushing his truck into the lot - it stalled and he couldn't get it started. I agreed to help him. We both soon discovered that even the smallest incline makes it really difficult to push and steer a stalled 1983 pickup.

Fortunately it was at that moment that our rescue arrived - my wife. She steered the truck while Richard and I pushed it into a parking spot.

Richard was very grateful for our help. We wished him Merry Christmas and parted ways but not before Richard came running back insisting that I take $3 for helping him. I didn't want to and if I made any mistakes this weekend it was taking it but he was SO adamant about it that it seemed like I would have a bigger problem if I didn't take it.

My wife and I drove off to continue the task she set out on - dropping off dinner to some friends of ours who recently had a baby. We visited with them briefly. It turns out they were getting rid of something we needed - a rack for holding DVDs and VHS tapes. So we left the food, took the rack and headed home.

When we got home the kids asked how things went. I started to tell them about my day. Now, being a dad of many small children I can't JUST tell them about the day. I have to embellish the adventure (as well as add sound effects). So, my day involved slaying dragons, running into engine trouble with my spaceship and being forced to make an emergency landing at a repair port. I then had to call my first officer (aka my wife) at Star Command for backup so we could continue our mission of delivering much needed supplies to a remote village in the Pegasus galaxy. I think they bought it. Well, at least they liked hearing about it.

So, now its after dinner and the day's activities have finally come to and end. The family is gathered in the living room watching a video. I'm going over the day's events in my head chuckling over most of it. Suddenly the phone rings. A neighbor calls asking if someone can come over to watch the kids while she takes one of them to the ER because he's having problems breathing. (He has asthma.) I hang up the phone and relayed the message to my family. My oldest daughter baby sits for this family once a week. She had just gotten into pajamas but was soon up in her room changing back into cloths. My wife put her coat on and headed over to the neighbors until my daughter had a chance to get there . The younger kids and I remained home watching the video. In a few minutes my daughter went to the neighbors to take over the babysitting post and my wife returned home.

When the video ended the kids who were still up went to bed while my wife and I finished some online Christmas shopping. Eventually my daughter came home and we learned that everything was going to be fine.

This was a busy weekend. All in all, it was a good weekend. Richard got his car pushed into the parking lot, the kid who had trouble breathing will be fine, and my car is working again (it was fixed on Monday). I didn't even have to go pick it up - the service station drove it back to my house for me (how's that for service.)

A Train Ride with a 4 year old

2007-10-26T17:38:00.000-04:00

Have you ever taken a train ride with a 4 year old? I did unexpectedly this morning and it got me thinking.

It started off like most other mornings. I get on the train (commuter rail, actually) at one of the first stops so the train is mostly empty. At the next stop a mom and her 4 year old daughter get on. At the time I was reading my mail and didn't think much about them even though they were sitting right next to me. I couldn't help but hear the girl talk to her mom (neither could the rest of the people in the car, and the mom knew this). It was obvious both had taken the train before. In the course of the ride, though I never learned their names, I learned that this mom had 2 children. The older child was 21.

Now, kids aren't like adults when it comes to train rides. Kids like to have fun and this little girl was no exception. At first she was acting kind of shy but after a while she started talking. It took some time and showing her pictures of my kids helped break her out of her shyness. Before long the 3 of use were having a nice conversation. It was one of the more talkative rides I've had in a long time. This got me wondering, why do kids like to talk to people they don't know while adults don't? On any given work day, with the train full of adults you can hear a pin drop. Are adults just afraid to talk to other adults? Afraid if interrupting someone? What's the scoop? Now you might be saying "That's because adults know the dangers of talking to strangers". My response to that is this: We, the adults, are the ones CREATING the dangers. We make the world the safe or dangerous place it is by what we do. If there are dangers (and I believe there are) we have caused them and we attempt to protect our kids by teaching them not to talk to other people. "Don't talk to strangers" we tell them. Sometimes we even teach them not to make eye contact. How sad.

The truth is the we make the world what it is - be that a safe place or a dangerous place - its all a result of our actions, our inactions and even our thoughts.

I'm not going to teach my kids "not to talk to strangers". I believe this just teaches kids to be afraid of people and those kids grow up into adults who are afraid. I will teach them how to stay safe and I will also teach my children how to talk to people. I refuse to teach my children, either directly or indirectly, to be afraid.

-Steve

Teen Killed In Boston - Again

2007-10-18T08:37:00.001-04:00

"Our babies are afraid"

That was the most recent title of an all too common newspaper article describing the latest kid to get shot in the Boston area.

Last week (early October) a 13 year old Dorchester boy was killed. He was shot while walking home from a friend's house. It was about 8pm. Not far from that spot - not far in distance or time - a 19 year old was shot in the leg at the same location of a drive-by triple shooting in February 2007. What's going on?

Some say the 13 year old victim was just "in the wrong place at the wrong time." The family disagrees with this and so do I. The kids was just walking home. He wasn't a gang member, he wasn't doing anything wrong. As far as anyone knows he didn't do anything that would cause anyone to want to harm him. The excuse of just "being in the wrong place" is just a cop out for people who don't want to admit what the real problem is.

More and more we read about Columbine-like shootings (or plannings). Its getting to be so common it doesn't even make headline news anymore. But what should we expect from a society that teaches that truth is relative and all that matters are ones "rights". No one raises their kids to be the "bad guys" but unless we are consciously raising them to be the good guys, there is only one alternative.

In a few days the news about this unfortunate kid and his family will fade from everyone's memory. The problem won't go away but the memory of the specific incident will.

In the mean time politicians and the "experts" will all talk about social programs designed to help, but no program can help. The problem is a problem in people's hearts - not knowing right from wrong - and no one will dare talk about that for fear of "offending" someone. We need to teach kids to honor and protect each other. We need to show them BY EXAMPLE, not to waste time following fantasies or the current "fun" thing to do. Instead, whatever is good, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is true, concentrate on these things.

Kids learn from adults. Adults are the role models. The problem is the adults don't even know what "good" behavior is. Its not enough to teach kids to say "please" & "thank you". People think if they teach their kid to be polite then they have raised "good kids". This is a lie. You've simply raised kids who will say "please" before they shoot you and "thank you" afterwards.

As long as this society continues to believe that God is dead and Elvis is alive, kids will be getting shot in Boston and everyplace else. People will continue to ask "what's going wrong" yet the answer is obvious.

Let's face it folks, standing up for the truth is not for cowards.

-Steve

Why Johnny can't read or add

2007-09-27T08:57:00.000-04:00

"Connecticut's fourth-graders remain among the nation's best readers, but children in several other states are catching up". That's how the article started.

The article is titled "Again, Good Test Scores" and ran in The Hartford Currant on Sept 26, 2007. The article talks about how "good" the test scores of fourth and eighth graders are. But the actual stats tell a very different story than the title would lead one to believe.

Did you know that 37 percent of Connecticut eight-graders meet or exceed the established reading proficiency standard? I didn't know that. You might be inclined to think (in keeping with the title of the article) Hey, 37 percent! That's pretty good. But think about it... this implies that 63 percent don't meet the standard. As a nation we are doing worse since, according to the article, only 29 percent of eight-graders nationally meet the standard.

Now, my first question is why is the article titled "good" test scores? These scores tell me that, as nation, we are failing to teach our students basic reading skills. Does this bother anyone else, or is it just me?

But wait, it gets better. In math 31 percent of eight-graders nationally met or exceed the required math proficiency. Now, for those of you not in that 31 percent, you've probably realized that this means that 69 percent don't meet the standard.

So here's another question for the education establishment - are these children allowed to move on to the next grade level? If so, why?

Those of you who are into trends and relating how a trend in one area causes other trends to occur... you folks can have a field day relating how these scores will effect social and economic trends... I'm not going there. But make no mistake about it, there are ramifications to all this. My point is just to highlight that the stats show what a bad job we are doing educating our children.

Ok, back on track now....

Once I got over the shock of these numbers I continued to read the article. To top it all off, the article says that "Across the nation, student achievement in both math and reading continue to rise...." To rise? You mean it was worse than this?

One thing that might save this mess from being as bad as it sounds is to understand just what the "proficiency standard" mentioned in the article really is. This term isn't defined anyplace. Maybe this standard isn't reasonable. Maybe we're asking too much from these kids. Hmmmm... somehow, I doubt that's the problem.

-Steve

The Philosophical Divide

2007-09-12T08:51:00.002-04:00

Disclaimer: This post contains what some would call "liberal bashing". I think "bashing" is a harsh word and while I do not think I am bashing, but rather only stating facts, I certainly do express my opinion that certain liberal groups are doing more complaining than is reasonable.

It was lunchtime (or there abouts) and I did what I usually do around lunchtime. I pointed my web browser towards a news site and started to glance at the headlines. At the time (it was early Aug, I believe) I'd noticed an obvious lack of news on most sites - that is, lack in the sense that no one was screaming, critizing, complaining or otherwise getting just plain nasty regarding how the war in Iraq is going. I have noticed over the years that when the news lacks any headlines about Iraq, it generally means that things are going pretty well for the coalition.

That day I read an article about how the troop surge was actually having a positive effect. Even some critics of the surge began to concede that it was having a positive effect. It was nice to see the politicians almost agreeing. Now, I should have stopped reading there. But alas, I continued scanning the sites and I came across an article on the Fox News site describing how the Democrats were tying to find a way to spin this positive news into something that made the president look bad. Don't the Democrats have anything useful to do? I mean really. When the country has a success the country should rejoice. But no, 'twas not to be.

The article starts off with these two paragraphs:

"WASHINGTON — Congressional Democratic leaders are aggressively strategizing a new offensive against the Bush administration's management of the Iraq war as more and more anti-war lawmakers publicly acknowledge successes ahead of a key White House progress report.

"Aware of the trouble Iraqi progress could mean for Democrats at home — House Whip James Clyburn recently said if the surge were successful, it would be "a real problem for us" — a revised set of talking points is being worked up by Democrats that declares the escalation of troops in Iraq has not been successful despite White House claims otherwise."

Now I'm not going to try and argue the point that everything is going to be just peachy in Iraq from now on. That's actually not my point at all. The point I'm trying to make is that some elected officials are more concerned with showing that the U.S. has failed than they are with proposing useful solutions. Other than "pull out of Iraq now" what plans have the democrats proposed that will actually protect the U.S.? But, I can see I may start to digress here so let me get back to my point.

My point is the what divides the two major parties are not political views, or even economic or social views. Rather what divides the parties is philosophy. How do you see America, as an evil state or a good one? As a state that spreads hope or despair? As an enemy or a friend? As a force standing against evil, or as an evil force?

How you view your country, your self, your friends, the world around you, etc will determine how you understand and interpret the events around you.

Lost in Space and Global Warming

2007-08-21T17:07:00.001-04:00

Recently my wife and I rented the old TV series "Lost In Space". We both have a love for science fiction and our kids had never seen this series so we figured it would make for some good family viewing. We all settled back and watched the Robinson family head off into space on the Jupiter 2 spaceship, intent on starting a colony yet blissfully unaware of the real adventure which was ahead of them.

Do you remember what the main reason was for wanting to start the colony? Overpopulation. The entire reason for their mission was to blaze a trail to another planet (in the Andromeda galaxy according to the storyline) for other families to follow and thus ease the overpopulation problem on earth.

Do you remember the overpopulation problem? It was a big deal in the 1960's and 1970's - making headlines and causing people to scream "The human race is in trouble. We have to do something before its too late." Sound familiar?

For those of you playing along at home, this may sound a lot like the current global warming problem we face. As a matter of fact, the two have several very important factors in common. Both make great news stories (disaster is always good for news outlets), both give politicians something to hold press conferences about and both are terribly overblown.

That's right, I dared to challenge the establishment and actually say it. Here, I'll say it again. The global warming problem is really being blown out of proportion. Now don't just take my word for it, there are a lot of reasonable people who are questioning the models being used as well as the conclusions being drawn from these models. In fact a "shift" away from sensationalist wording in articles about this topic is already starting to take place in some publications. Why? Because a closer look at the data is causing people to take a much more careful look at this problem. Recently it was realized that the warmest year on record was not 1998 but rather 1934. The director of NASA said in an interview that he didn't think the data presented so far concerning global warming was cause for alarm. (He later regretted saying this in public, but hasn't changed his view as far as I know.) Do a web search on the topic and check it out for yourself. Pay attention to the few articles that do make it to the news which talk about how global warming may not be as big a deal as people thought (you'll be seeing more of these kinds of articles and then the entire global warming topic will just cease being news.)

If you pay attention you can see the shift away from sensationalism already starting to take place. I'll venture to make some predictions about additional shifts we will see which indicate the situation is not as dire as some would have us believe.

1. The term "global warming" will be phased out in favor of the less sensationalistic term "global climate change". We know the planet's climate will fluxuate over time, this is nothing new.

2. People who make a big issue about the evils of global warming will fail to lead by example. They will not replace their SUV's with more efficient cars nor will they invest in any technologies in their personal life which reduces how much fossile fuel they consume. (They will contribute to organizations which promote these idea, but personal change is out of the question.)

3. The concept of reducing the emissions of gases thought to contribute to global warming will be replaced by the concept of "not contributing" to the emission of said gases.

Now, is the planet's temperature rising? Quite possibly. As I said before, the possibility that a global (or even local) climate shift is occuring in real. But what does that really mean? A level headed, honest approach is needed with a review of ALL the data. It certainly doesn't mean we should jump on the band wagon with Al Gore and start writing books about all the disasters that could happen. Let's leave that to the science fiction writers.

-Steve

A Beginning

2007-08-16T17:05:00.001-04:00

Ok, I started this blog a while ago and since then have been wondering what to actually blog about. To get some ideas I decided to scan some other blogs. I discovered that, although everyone is entitled to an opinion, some (ok, many) blogs are just filled with useless, time-wasting information. Its great to talk about kids, family, your favorite hobby and stuff like that. Some of this is really interesting and important, but some topics are just a waste of cyber space in my opinion. I mean does anyone really care what so-and-so's cat ate last night or what color someone's underware is? Let's get real here.

So, I decided that as I venture into the blogging world I'm going to try to stick to difficult and thought provoking topics - like world event, the meaning of life, the meaning of world events in life, you get the idea. Now I have nothing against anyone who blogs about other things. I'll probably ramble on about something the kids did from time to time, but that's just not what I'm going to concentarte on. Now this may not sound all too interesting to some people. Perhaps you're thinging that I'm requiring too much thinking on the part of anyone who ventures into cyberspace to read what I write. In that case this is not the blog for you and you'll want to go find that blog site that discussed the cat I mentioned earlier. For the rest of you, if you've got the time to read blogs why not stop back here every now and then.

-Steve