Ever hear of H.L. Mencken? I didn't think so. Mencken was a news paper reporter back in the 1920s who was known for his sharp tongue. Two of my favorite quotes are below"
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable." " The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." I think those quotes speak for themselves. Remember, Mencken wrote in the 20's, 30's and 40's. Even so, he nailed today's politics perfectly. Some things never change! Could you imagine a main stream reporter writing like that now? Nowadays, people get their panties in a bunch if someone even slightly disagrees with them. In fact, I think its comical when people cringe when someone says something that is even a little bit off color. A couple of times I have been asked if I thought something I said offended anyone. I always respond no, and then ask loudly if anyone around me was offended by what I had just said. No one has ever said they were. We have free speech in this country people. I may not like everything you have to say, but I really don't care if you say it. Mencken felt strongly about free speech too. His thought on it is below: "My belief in free speech is so profound that I am seldom tempted to deny it to the other fellow. Nor do I make any effort to differentiate between the other fellow right and that other fellow wrong, for I am convinced that free speech is worth nothing unless it includes a full franchise to be foolish and even...malicious" Was Mencken perfect? Of course not. He had his silly ideas and beliefs as well. What I have to admire, however, is that he wrote daily for nearly fifty years! Imagine having the ability to write something interesting every day...for fifty years. Wow! I would have to think that some of that stuff just wasn't worth reading. Even so, people read it, because they were never sure when something he wrote would be pure gold. A lot of what this man wrote was great so it was well worth reading his bad I would think. Anyway, I have prattled on enough for one day. Who knows, maybe Mencken was thinking about an article similar to this one when he wrote the quote below. "The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal." Nuf Said!
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Saturday was Ashleigh and Daddy day. We went to the movies. We had popcorn and cotton
candy. We saw Cinderella. I liked it very much. Ashleigh and Daddy day was a lot of fun! Ashleigh My sister inspired this post. Today, she will be blogging about Ashleigh and Daddy day... while the post likely won't be out until after my post, I know she is writing about that because she is setting it up behind me as I write this. Saturday, her and dad went out for a Ashleigh and Daddy day and on Friday, it was Dad and I's day. We went to see Insurgent, which by the way was very good... and we had a good time.
While the movie was nice, it's more the one-on-one time I get to spend with Dad. While I sit with him all day in the office, we don't talk too much as we are both working. These talks in the car go un-interrupted by other family members, distractions, and too much noise- since we're the only ones in the car, we can talk about literally anything together and it's nice. I know some friends who carry on about never being able to tell their parents anything... and it bothers me since I have such a strong relationship with Dad. I feel like I could talk to him about anything and be fine. It's upsetting that my friends aren't close to their parents. I think that part of the problem is not spending enough time with them... if you don't spend time with your parents, you don't get to know them and you don't gain their trust as easy OR bond with them. You HAVE to take the time to be close to your parents... I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have Dad to talk to, I really don't. It minimizes conflict between us, and if I want to do something I can feel comfortable asking to do it, not have to sneak like so many of my friends do. Yes, when it comes to online time I might go on my Facebook every now and again... but that's it. Anything else I can be completely honest about and it's fine. What I'm trying to say with this post, I guess, is that it's important to spend time with your family. They're the ones who will ALWAYS be there for you... no matter what. If you let your relationship with your family go... you won't be happy. Spend time with your parents, spend time with your siblings, and enjoy yourself. Taking a day once every few months to just talk to your parents is a good thing and helps a LOT... but by "taking a day" I mean complete, one-on-one, undivided attention. No other people. My Dad took me out one day, and the next day my sister... so one was tagging alongside the other. It works well for us, and it can work well for you too. Maddie I like unicorns . Unicorns are cute. They remind me of horses. I have a stuffed unicorn. Her
name is Purple. Ashleigh Thinking of an old David Bowie song with my title...just in case you want to hum it! Anyway, one thing I have noticed that took me a while to learn is that no matter how fast we move, change is slow. Examples? you might ask. Well to start, my wife's descent into death was a slow-motion train wreck. She was arrested for drunk driving when she first got pregnant with Ashleigh. While our lives saw an immediate impact, it took nearly another four years before she drank herself to death. My life went from bad to worse and it was nearly six years before my life really started to turn back around. Will it ever get back to pre-crisis normal? I don't know. I don't think so.
It's ok, too, that it won't go back to pre-crisis normal. My experiences have changed me and my new normal won't be worse than the pre-crisis normal...just different. I was thinking about my future last night and I realized that I will likely be in my mid to upper sixties before my youngest daughter is out of college. What will I do then? Hopefully, be a great grandfather for my daughters' children. I meant a "great" grandfather by the way...not great grandfather. The transition from father to grandfather will be interesting. I will always, for the rest of my days be a father. A grandfather, I think, will just be an extension of being a father. It will be fun to watch my daughters raise their children. What things will they do differently than me? What things will be the same? I tried to take all of the positive things from when I was growing up and continue them. Meanwhile, I tried to discard the things that bothered me when I was a kid. Even so, I sometimes see those things creep into my actions on occasion. Change is slow...and sometimes generational. As for my personal life? Changes outside of my family are glacial. Karate has moved to only two times a week, which is dull. I am slowly cleaning out the basement to get my own dojo back into workout shape. I am looking forward to practicing down there with both of my daughters. Otherwise, I just don't go out enough to see any changes in my personal situation. At the moment, I am content with the slow change happening around me. Over the weekend, I decided to run an experiment. I asked each of my friends to write something down on a piece of paper, take a picture of it and send it to me. The point of my exercise was to see if my assumption- that homeschooled kids have worse writing than public-schooled kids; was correct. After seeing a lot of different handwriting, I found that I was correct- my homeschooled friends had FAR worse hand-writing than my friends who go to public school.
I think I know the reason, too. In school, you HAVE to write, and write intelligibly. You have to do this regularly, so over time, your handwriting improves. Being homeschooled for most kids means doing a majority of your homework online and through the computer... where neat handwriting is not taught or required. I still write a bit, because when I do most of my poetry writing it is at night, before bed when I don't have access to a computer. While my handwriting is still messy, it's a bit better than some of the writing I saw... I'm convinced that some of my friends don't write at all, because to be completely honest... I could barely read what they wrote. When it comes down to it, I think that by the time I grow up and have kids... this generation won't be writing at all. By the time my kids are my age now, I doubt anyone will KNOW how to write anymore. Technology is changing the world... and not necessarily for the better. Everyone should at least KNOW how to write... even if it isn't the neatest. In the end... my 5 year old sister has neater and easier to read handwriting than me and all of my home-schooled friends. That should tie up this post pretty well... So, until tomorrow, Maddie Before anyone gets ready to call me a democrat or a republican I'd like to state it plainly that I am neither! I think the government should stay out of our lives. I also think that those who think they are making a difference by voting for either a democrat or a republican are only fooling themselves. Democrats and Republicans are two sides of the same coin!
So how would I make it better? I'd start by getting rid of the corruption. The first out would be the Federal Reserve. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to have our money supply run by a corporation run by the banks was either crazy or crooked. My bet would be the latter! So step one is get rid of the Fed and bring back a currency that is backed by an asset that is hard to increase rapidly. In the past, people used gold and silver because it had to be mined and was easily divisible. Step two would be only allow foreign transactions with currencies that are similarly backed. The Unites States has the largest economy on the planet. Countries will want to trade with us. Thus, they will create an asset backed currency to trade with us. The third step is to simplify the tax code and to create a legal limit to the amount that the government can take from a person or corporation. I think a constitutional amendment that limits the take of all governments on our citizens to no more than 10% of income, would do wonders to turn the country around. Instead of social security we could legislate that each person would have to put away a certain percentage of his income each year for their retirement. Everybody would be responsible for investing their own money. By doing this, we would be taking government right out of the equation. For corporate taxes, I would make it so that only foreign sales could be taxed and I would levy a 25% tax on all imports. While this may sound extreme, It actually makes perfect sense. To avoid taxes, companies would open factories in the U.S. to sell products in our markets. While they could still manufacture things overseas, they will quickly find that they would be undercut by local manufacturers. We have the largest single market in the world. It's about time we use that strength to build an economy with full employment. The final steps that I think are necessary are to simplify laws so that people understand them and can obey them. Right now, there are so many laws on the books, and so many of them are so complex that most people don't even know when they are breaking one. The best thing to do here is to simplify the laws we have and take asinine ones off the books. Once this is done, we need to lower government employment to a level where less than 1% of the U.S. population is working for the government. Government should not be a career. Limit the amount of time that people can work for the government and you will limit the power of one group of people over another. Hopefully, this will be my one and only political rant. I am so tired of looking at Facebook and seeing people spouting for new ways for the government to redistribute other people's money. If you think the military needs to be paid more, then donate. If you think abortions should be free, then donate! Don't try and get everyone to pay for programs that favor one group over another! I think my thoughts above will benefit everyone without directly hurting anyone. The new jobs that my plan would create would be perfect for ex-government workers to move into. Work in the real world! I woke up today and when I got downstairs, I realized a horrible truth... IT WAS SNOWING. AGAIN. I can't believe it. This REALLY annoys me... why can't the snow just melt already!? It had been melting for the rest of this week, and actually was in the 40-50's for every day up until today. Nothing is more disappointing than thinking Spring is ACTUALLY on the way and then waking up to heavy snowfall... NOTHING. And don't be confused when I say heavy snowfall. I'm not one of those people who sees a patch of blacktop and starts dancing with joy because of Spring and then calls even flurries "heavy snow"... no, the heavy snow I'm talk about are the large, fast-falling flakes that are actively collecting on the once-melted rooftop just outside of my window. I'm just sitting at my small desk, writing my blog posts and doing homework and watching the snow fall. While I don't want there to be anymore snow, I also don't mind watching it fall... it's pretty, just drifting down from the sky in different patterns. It's amazing, looking at all the snowflakes and knowing that each one is unique in it's own way- just like human beings. Even identical twins are unique- their personalities AND their thumbprints are both different. Okay, I think I've dragged this post on long enough... just my thoughts on the weather. I kinda rambled at the end there... do forgive me XD Maddie Today's post is about happiness and where we find it. I was talking with Maddie this morning about happiness and where we find it. I find it in small doses every day in the little things that are going on around me. We spoke about how some people never seem to be happy where they are, but instead want to travel to find their next bout of happiness. I have never understood this line of reasoning. If you are not happy where you are...then move!
I traveled a bit when I was younger, and what I always found was that my expectations were never met by the reality. In other words, I always expected place that I traveled to be wonderful...that I would enjoy myself thoroughly and have a grand adventure. The reality was that I would live just another day in a place that didn't live up to my expectations. To make matters worse, I usually had to suffer through a full day of inconvenience to get there. The day would start by getting up early so I could wait at an airport for "security" to grope me and make me take off my shoes. Next, I would have to sit in a cramped seat for a few hours while the plane whisked me off to wherever I was going. The airports always seem to be either extremely busy, or very empty, depending on whether or not I was taking the red eye flight. After arriving, I found that most places just didn't live up to my expectations. In fact, only two places actually met my expectations: Chicago, which I expected to be a big city, and Detroit, which I expected to be a dump. Chicago has a great transportation system, so moving around the city was surprisingly easy. That's not a reason to visit the place, though, and I don't think anyone's joy factor is going to go up by going there. Both Cincinnati and Cleveland were cleaner than I expected, but again, not a reason to visit either. Before going to Cleveland, I used to think of that river that caught fire because it was so polluted. They've cleaned it up since the 70's, though, and I somehow think that the crying Indian from the commercial about how pollution was ruining America might crack a smile if he took a look at that river now. Anyway, I am rambling. Travel doesn't make me happy. I'd rather explore my own neighborhood since there are lots of places I haven't seen in my own back yard. One of you smarty pants may say, well if you hate to travel, how did you end up in New Hampshire? That is well away from where you grew up! That's true. To be honest, we started looking at New Hampshire as a place to live due to its lower tax rates. There is no personal income taxes in New Hampshire, versus 7% in New Jersey, and I felt that was a great incentive to move. Secondly, it is less crowded up here and there is great beauty all around. All said, I thought I could be happy here, so I moved. I am happy. And that brings us back full circle. If you are not happy where you are at...don't go on vacation. Move! Happiness should not be one week a year when you go to the Bahamas. It should be a little slice of heaven every day. If you have gone somewhere and you think you will be happy there, then move. If you want it, you can do it! Instead, so many people will say I can't. I have my job or my family is here, blah, blah, blah. Well, if you are unhappy and all of that is already where you live, then maybe you either need to move or you need to redefine happy. Nuf said. This blog was started as a school project for my sister and I earlier this year. Since my Dad believes that the best way to teach is through leading by example, he blogs daily with us and we have turned the blog into a fun family journal of sorts. In general, we write about whatever is on our mind- this is a creative writing drill, so coming up with something to write about and then writing out a good, structured blog post ABOUT whatever you're writing about (a minimum of 25 lines of writing for Dad and I) is something that is usually fun to do.
Problems arise when one of us gets busy or when one of us has nothing to write about... because this blog has one unspoken rule. When we started the blog, just to make sure everything kept on track, we made an agreement (Dad and I anyway... Ashleigh is too young right now) that if Dad put out a blog post after 4:00 PM, he would owe me $2. If I was late in putting out a blog post, I would owe Dad a 2 page paper. Now, granted, most times we have our blog posts out early in the morning and this is avoided... but on occasion, one of us will forget and put out a late post and have to pay up. As a blogger myself... I think the hardest part about blogging is keeping up with your blog. You have to have the willpower and determination to keep writing every day, or every week or however the schedule is on your blog... and you have to be consistent. It's not always easy to find something to write about- but I find that the best inspiration can be found in the stupidest of things. Heck, I got the idea to write this post from looking at the cover of a book titles 'Really Writing!' and decided to tell a bit about blogging! Find inspiration in small things, find a site that is easy to use for blogging, and write away... Blogging is a great way to express yourself and most times, relieve stress. By all means try it. I recommend using Blogger, Weebly or Tumblr to set up a blog. They are all very easy to use and all of them can be edited using HTML and JavaScript (a very basic and easy computer language to learn). Best of luck to you- and if you DO start a blog, leave me a link in the comments! I'd love to check it out. Maddie This post is a follow up to my Dad's previous 2 posts. I'd like to talk about the time we're given on Earth, and how we spend it... starting with my daily routine.
I start my day at 6:15 AM when I am woken up by Dad to do my homework. I go downstairs, and make myself a simple yet enjoyable breakfast of 3-4 sausage links and a glass of water. On occasion I'll also eat a slice of cheese, but most days I am too lazy/tired and since I'm hypoglycemic, I need to eat as soon as I get up so I don't pass out. I eat my breakfast in front of the laptop in the kitchen where I can check my social media and also put out a poem on Think a Thought. I like getting one, if not two of my posts done before going to the office so that I can get my Ruby coding out of the way quickly and then take my shower before my Grandma and sister get up (since they use the water right away consistently for about 2 hours after they're up). My shower usually takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes, and I then have about another 20 minutes given to me to do with what I will. I don't change right away, so I use this time to sit in the library and drink another glass of water OR I just go back to the office and continue working. After I have finished my math, I usually get up again and go get dressed. I am given about 30 minutes for this, when it actually only takes me about 15-20 minutes tops. However, I do like to take my time and get my makeup on correctly, so the extra 10 minutes is helpful. By the time I'm done getting dressed, it's lunchtime and I do a quick 5 minute check of Facebook while I eat my lunch (usually a plate with meat rollups along with fresh fruit of some kind). After lunch, I usually play a game of Spider Solitaire and then start listening to my Probability and Statistics course. I take notes, and then write my paper on whatever I happened to learn during the lecture. This usually takes me 30 minutes at most. I finish up my schoolwork at about 2:30 by adding 3 poems in to my Mom's poetry book that Dad and I have been making to commemorate her. After I'm done with my homework, I still have another 1-1 1/2 hours left to wait until my friends get back from school. I fill in this time by playing xBox or going outside with my dog... depending on the weather. If it's cold and windy outside, or rainy and dreary... I'd rather stay inside and play Thief for a bit, immersing myself into a semi-modern world where the shadows are my friend. If it's pleasant out... I'd rather be outside, letting the breeze play with my hair carelessly as I scatter food about on the blacktop for Lucky to chase after and find. These are the small pleasures of life.. watching small things that make you happy. I take pleasure in the fresh smell of burning wood that often drifts up our driveway during the winter... in watching my dog bounce around in excitement in the snow... in being with my family at dinner and hearing what everyone has to share. There are even smaller things- for example, right now I smell our dinner cooking in the kitchen... lightly tickling my nose just enough to make my stomach growl. While the hunger sucks, the smell is pleasing and trading jokes back and forth with my Dad while we wait for dinner is nice. Later, I plan on texting my friends (when all my work is done... I got a late start today) and possibly playing Street Fighter with my Dad and sister. Then, I will finish my day by my nightly routine of making popcorn for the family and playing the Sims 4 until midnight... which is when I go to my room, read for about 30 minutes - 1 hour and then fall asleep. Enjoy the little things... life is truly too short to waste time on large and unimportant crap that we too often do. I'd rather spend my life happy and laughing than arguing and bickering every day over senseless things, like who left one stray glass in the sink or whether or not my sheet is on the right side or not. Maddie There is something to be said about rising with the sun. It is easier to do than you think. Everyday, I get up before the sun rises. It's just a habit.
I find I get more done either late at night or in the early morning than I do during the rest of the day. No one calls before 8:00 in the morning, so I have two hours to work with no distractions. Well, emails are a distraction, but only if you let them be one. Other than that, there is no one awake to break my focus...except for Maddie, of course, who I have just started to wake up early so that she can get her school work done. Maddie has been up since 6:20. Her "schedule" is different than mine. She gets up and the first thing she does is eat breakfast and write a Thinkathought... her daily blog. Next, she wants to take a shower, or she will stay silent so that I forget about her and she can talk to her friends via the internet before their school day starts. She likely won't get a bit of school work started until at least 8:00 today. Usually I will tell her to get in here and work, but today I let her have it her way. I am not in the mood to yell for her and I have a lot to do. The final reason to rise before the sun is twofold. First, I enjoy the stillness that seems to occur right before everyone gets up. When I was a kid, I liked the emptiness of the streets in the morning around Varick Street when I was walking into work. The Village is usually a bustling place, but every morning, I could walk across the a-lot-less-busy street to get an egg sandwich in peace. It's funny what you remember and what sticks with you. Nowadays, the stillness is just outside my window. I like to look out my window in the morning and stare into my woods. The snow is melting now, but it is still fairly deep. A deer stands hidden about fifty feet back in the brush nibbling at a bush. She thinks she is well hidden, but I can see her. I know Spring is coming when the deer come back to the mountain. Once the first snow falls, we don't see a deer again until the Spring. I like to think the woods are mysterious, dark and deep, but I walk in the woods in my backyard and they are nothing of the sort. Just a bunch of trees where deer hide. Even so, they are my woods...and I can dream! Well, the sun is shining through the trees now, and it is time to end this post. The sun has been up for over an hour...and so have I. There is a time, though, every morning when the sun gets high enough to shine brightly through the trees so that shadows dance on the snow in front of my window. That time is now. Take a moment and enjoy the beauty. I know I do! One thing I have found myself saying a lot lately that I really hate is "Just a minute". I hate it because I am usually saying it to the people who matter most in my life. "Daddy can you play with me?" Just a minute Ashleigh, Daddy is working. "Dad can you check out this website with me, I think it's really funny!" Just a minute Maddie, I need to finish this column. "Wayne can you fix my phone?" In a moment Mom, I have two lines to go on this report!
What the hell is wrong with me? These people matter more to me than any report I can write or spreadsheet I can produce...and yet I put them off to put some letters or digits on a screen. I don't think I am alone in this either. I think we do this to each other all the time. Not just in my house, but throughout the world. Sure, it may seem that I have to say that a little more often...because I have the luxury of working from home. But what about you people who go off every day to a regular job? You don't get to say it face to face. Instead, your absence says it for you. I get to interact with my daughters numerous times throughout the day...and I feel blessed. Some of you just get to see them when you get home. How do you feel when you see them? Blessed? I hope so. I think the people that it has to be worst for are the people who return home and have no one. No need to rush to get home when there is nobody there. I think I am beginning to understand cat ladies! Do yourself a favor, find somebody you love today and give them a minute of your time. Block out worrying about anything else during that minute. Just try to make them smile. In the end, I bet you'll be the one smiling! I like chickens because they are cute. I like the noises they make. Chickens lay eggs.
Sometimes we eat chicken for dinner. My dad likes eggs for breakfast. Thank you chickens! Ashleigh
neverending roll of virtual toilet paper, BoredButton has A LOT you can do.
My most recent and favorite find through the site, however, is Silk. Silk is an interactive web program that lets you make really cool and customizable graphic art with just your mouse. It's very fun and a great way to kill time. I like it because not only does it let me express myself with the easy-to-control waves of color, but it is also soothing and relaxing. Online art is VERY expressive and can also be used as stress relief and to get rid of headaches (so long as you don't mind the color). The colors are relatively soft in Silk, so it shouldn't cause any headaches. Silk is also available for the iPad. While I don't know how it compares to the computer Check it out: http://weavesilk.com/ Maddie I like Maggie. Maggie is one of my stuffed animals. Each night I bring her upstairs to sleep with me. Maggie is my favorite toy.
Ashleigh There is an old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words.", but I am not so certain that the saying was ever true. While it is true that a picture can be used to send a poignant message, the message itself may be false. The internet is filled with pictures that have been cropped or manipulated to pull on our heart strings, while the full photograph may show something that is repugnant or even the exact opposite of what is being portrayed. Personally, I would rather read a well-reasoned argument, than just look at a picture and assume I know what is really being portrayed. Here is a good personal example. The picture on the left shows the pictures that hang just above my desk. Many people on seeing that picture will make certain assumptions about me that are likely false...all because of a picture of pictures that are shown with no context. So what are the assumptions that someone may make about me that would be false? I'll list some of them below:
If you made any of those assumptions, you would be wrong on all counts. To start, I haven't willingly watched a professional baseball game since the 1990's. When I did watch baseball, I usually rooted for the Mets and Yankees...not the Indians. Although I know who the man in the photo is, I never met him or watched him play. In fact, he died in 2010. I also do not collect autographs, although I do have a number of them from when I was a kid. The only thing I actively collect is a paycheck. Finally, Bob Feller is not actually one of my heroes.
So you may be wondering why I have those pictures on my wall and how did I come to have them in the first place. Well. I'll tell you. I have them on my wall because I think they look better there than collecting dust on the floor near the side of my recliner...which is where they were just prior to me hanging them up. I had received them as a gift from my late wife, who did enjoy collecting autographs and who thought I might like them (and I do!). I like them because of the thoughtfulness of the gift she gave me! Back in 2004 or 2005 (I don't remember exactly), Sharon and I had a discussion where she asked me why I no longer liked baseball. I told her then that I felt silly rooting for what was in fact a business. Free agency has changed baseball so much so that players no longer seemed to have team loyalty, but instead only wanted to go where they could make the most money. While this has always been true to some extent, it seemed much worse nowadays. I told her about Bob Feller and how he retired after 18 years in Cleveland rather than going to another team to extend his career another year or two. I also told her how he took 4 years off at the height of his career to go fight in World War II and how that likely kept him from being a 300-game winner. I then rambled off a number of other players that I respected because of either their accomplishments or team spirit. That Christmas, I received a number of autographed pictures as a present. The others include: Pete Rose, Nolan Ryan, Rick Barry and Muhammad Ali. The Bob Feller autographs were the largest, and had never made it up onto my wall since moving to New Hampshire. The pictures are up on my wall now not only because it gets them off the ground, but because they remind me of my wife and what a sweet, loving soul she had. I miss her very much, and when I look at the pictures they remind me of her in a way that a photo of her never could. Is a picture worth a thousand words? Yes, sometimes...but not usually for the reasons that you might expect. This article is only 725 words by the way, so I guess the picture I used isn't really worth a thousand words! |
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