The Mind of Miller

The U.S. House and it's silly punishments

2010-12-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

Representative Charles B. Rangel was censured by The House because of some unethical conduct. He was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee which is heavily involved in writing tax law. His unethical behavior included things like, attending conferences in the Caribbean payed for by corporations, not paying taxes on $75,000 of income from rental properties, not paying mortgage interest for 10 years, and using his office for fundraising activities for the Charlie P. Rangel Center for Public Service including seeking donations from companies that had business before his ways and means committee. In total there were 11 charges he was found guilty on.

From the way he speaks in defense of himself it sounds like he thinks this is all an overreaction and nothing should happen to him, and that his service in the military should count for something. It is clear that he committed these crimes and should be punished for them.

So here's the houses punishment. A censure. A censure is a very serious punishment and is rarely used. It entails his charges being read by the speaker of the house in front of the entire house of representatives (Though from what I've heard she only read one charge). Can you believe the severity! Can you believe people are debating the death penalty and all the while something as horrific as censure is going on!

This is a joke. They could easily remove this guy from office and even put him in prison (I believe Wesley Snipes just got put in prison for not paying taxes). Instead the house basically decided not to do anything. He even got standing applause after he gave his defense.

Miller's Justice - Throw him out of office and put him in prison for 2 years. Throw anyone who applauded him out of office. Revoke voting rights from the people in New York that re-elected him despite the charges until they have taken some basic courses on ethics and how to do some research before casting a vote.

I'm telling you where to shop

2010-11-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a few businesses you can feel good about purchasing from. If you don't need what they sell it may at least brighten your day to know what they do. Enjoy!

Verymeri.com - T-Shirts that are designed by kids. You can buy these for your kids, and 3% of the sale price goes to the kid that designed it and another 3% goes to a charity of that kid's choice.

M&E Painting - This painting company is in Colorado so it may not be practical for you to use them, but at least we aware of them. They were supposed to paint an old woman's house but she had to cancel the job because her husband died. The returned her deposit and felt bad for her. So they then decided to paint her house for free, to the suprise of the owners all of their employees were willing to donate their time to do the job. Now they seek out people in need of a free paint job and try to do more free jobs each year. Here's a link to the story in Entrepreneur Magazine.

HivesforLives - At ages 10 and 12 these two girls started a business harvesting their own honey and selling it to raise money for cancer research. When their grandfather died of throat cancer they wanted to do something significant to help find a cure, 6 years later they find their honey being sold in a wide variety of retail outlets including Whole Foods. Check out their website for more of their story or if you would like to buy honey, lip balm or candles.

As I find more cool businesses I'll be sure to post about them.

Post Election Commentary

2010-11-04T22:03:00.000-07:00

So Elections were Tuesday and I've put together some of my takes on what went on. Some of these thoughts are related to issues that came up in the elections and some are on the candidates and results. You're welcome to comment with your own thoughts, I'd love to hear your analysis.

Where were the issues? Instead of Meg being called a whore and employing an illegal immigrant, why not clear plans on things like water distribution, job creation, budgeting problems, prison expenses, businesses and residents leaving our state, the state deficit?

Campaign Spending! Outrageous! Here's my suggestion. Limit candidates to 1 debate televised and put on the Internet, a website, and a one page summary of why they are a good choice distributed in the sample ballot.

Boo Barbara Boxer! I was really hoping Boxer would lose. If I were running Fiorina's campaign I would have played over and over again the video of her insisting that a general refer to her as "Senator" because she worked really hard to get there. Attention Barbara! You are a democrat from California, did it really take that much work to win? I'd say at the least she didn't work any harder than the man she was addressing.

Fiorina oversaw layoffs at HP! Is it really that difficult to understand the difference between a Senator's responsibilities and those of a CEO at a public company. She has to produce profit or the company goes under, sometimes layoffs are a part of that.

Education - Why all the comparisons to other countries? Isn't the core concern more along the lines of "We want our kids to finish school and be well-equipped to enter the work force or go to college to continue learning" rather than "We want our kids to have better test scores than the kids in Japan."

President Obama - On Wednesday morning the President made a statement and answered some questions. At one point he basically said that moving forward the two parties will need to work together to give Americans what they want. Rational people probably already determined this back when the two party system was established.

Republicans - The party leadership has already come out and essentially said they want to make sure the President is not re-elected. How is that conducive to making progress and helping out our country? Even if that is your aim, what is the value in telling the whole country? Why polarize when now is a chance to start working together.

In closing I hope you all voted even if there weren't great options for you. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the elections, you're welcome to comment on the propositions as well.

Bias Detection

2010-10-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

When I was in school I remember tests frequently having a reading comprehension component. I always liked this section because I was pretty good at it. I think when practicing reading comprehension skills there should also be some element of developing a skill for bias detection. This occurred to me as I'm now hearing and seeing campaign ads everywhere. Campaign ads make their bias obvious by saying who they are in favor of and who they don't like. I would say that most information we receive has a bias and often times it is not as clear as a campaign ad. For example in school we are taught that certain sources are acceptable for research and paper writing purposes but the reasons for their credibility aren't always clear. They may use legitimate facts in their stories but without examining their bias can we really use the information responsibly? Even in a news story that would claim to just be relating the facts of what happened can communicate a very subtle bias by the use of a couple adjectives.

Obviously we can't eliminate bias, and we shouldn't. But I think students should be learning how to detect it. When they read or hear things they should be equipped with an evaluation process that encourages them to ask questions like: Who is putting out this information and why are they doing it? Is there potentially more facts or another side to this story that isn't being given? and why is that? Is the source known for feeling a certain way about things? Is some specific action being encouraged? if so what would be the result of that action?

How wary are you of bias in the information you receive? I know I have certain sources of info that I trust more than others but I think due diligence is still important before we let some one guide our beliefs or actions.

Kids these days

2010-09-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

See how this concept strikes you. When people who are say 40+ were growing up they probably had a lot more statements like this than younger people: "wouldn't it be cool if..." or "somebody should make..." or "It's too bad there isn't an easier way to..." or "...that's impossible" or "...that could never happen"

I know, I know you've all said that and a lot of you are under 40, but let me finish my point. People in my generation or younger have a much different perspective. We have developed and progressed to such an extent to where things that were only imaginable 20 years ago are very possible today. What I mean is this, when a 15 year thinks of something that would be cool, it isn't a matter of possibility it is more a matter of how do you do it and who knows how.

It may not be clear what I am trying to communicate so I apologize if that's the case. I have just been astonished lately at the things our society is able to produce. Web advancements, health care tools, communications capabilities..etc. It's all very impressive and while we may think things like "oh kids these days don't like to sit down and read a good book." We have to admit that kids are capable of some pretty sophisticated stuff.

I'm sure we all maintain this thought in the back of our mind that things must cap out at some point. Amazingly enough we don't show any signs of slowing in the creation of new things. It wasn't long ago that there was no Digital, Online, Hybrid, Mobile Devices...

Just because I can't imagine what is coming next doesn't mean some one else hasn't.

No more great Americans

2010-08-23T22:16:00.000-07:00

When we look at our nation's history we remember certain individuals as being great men. Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin...etc.

I don't think we'll ever remember anyone else with the same pride or fondness. I think our current treatment of leaders or prominant people is to find the negative about them. Regardless of what they accomplish or do for our country or the world, we seem to be eager to find something that will tear them down.

It's too bad that we can't seem to accept people's mistakes or shortcomings and still be thrilled with their accomplishments.

A big question is what's the impact of this? Does it discourage people from pursuing greatness?

Sensitivity Training

2010-07-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or are we steadily becoming more and more hypersensitive about more and more things? When I was growing up in the 80's and 90's it didn't seem like every little thing that happened offended everyone, or if it did they didn't inform the world that they were offended. What happened to having thick skin, or letting things roll off, or any other expression that means don't take offense at things, just let them go. If people want to be hypersensitive and get bent out of shape about everything I guess that's fine. My problem is that now people have come to expect some sort of recompense whenever they feel wronged. If some one says something mean, they don't want an apology,they want their moment in the spotlight to publicly bash that person and then they want a payout.

My big issue with this hypersensitivity epidemic is that I think we've lost a true sense of what we should be sensitive about. There are things I'm sure we could all agree on that require our sensitivity. Here's a couple of examples - discussions of child abuse with people that have been abused, movie or video game selection when hanging out with friends who have seen combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, listening to a girl relate a story about how she was raped. These things require us to be sensitive to the people around us, and most of us probably are. But when people become hypersensitive I think the lines between truly sensitive topics and people's personal preferences become blurred.

This post is inspired by the Muslim community center being built 2 blocks from ground zero in New York City. The debate is raging with some people saying Muslims should have just as much right to build there as anyone else, and some saying it is a provocation meant to celebrate the September 11th murders.

It may be that the people building this place truly just want to have a nice community center for everyone to enjoy, and they absolutely have a right to build it wherever they want. My question, is building it right there being sensitive to the people who lost family and friends in the attacks? Couldn't it be built in another part of the city and serve the same purpose?

What are you afraid of?

2010-06-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

At Bible study the other day we were discussing fear. The discussion stayed with me over the past week or so and I've been thinking a lot about what I am afraid of. Then I started thinking about how much fear limits us in our lives. We hold back from a lot of things out of fear; granted that is good in some cases because our fear pushes us toward caution to protect ourselves. But sometimes that fear robs us of experiences that we would enjoy or would prompt growth in us.

A lot of this occurred to me on Tuesday when I was helping my friend (the onion farmer) move his trucks up to where the farm is. These are pretty big trucks, of a size that I have never driven. These trucks are also manual transmission which I know how to drive but I've only done so in small cars and it has been probably 6 years since I've done it. So I was reluctant to help because it didn't sound fun and actually sounded like potential for me to smash his truck or another vehicle on the road. But he needed help so I went out there to do it. We took two trips, and the whole first trip I was pretty worried. I was gripping the steering wheel tightly, I was afraid to turn on the radio and I was paranoid about stopping and going at stop lights and signs. I was praying extensively that I wouldn't kill anyone or damage any vehicles.

I and the 2 onion trucks I transported survived the ordeal. Now not to say that this was some amazing experience or anything. But I did overcome my fear and drive a big truck and was able to help out a friend. All the while the fear I was feeling was telling me to "find a way out of it, remain cautious and don't do anything you're not comfortable with".

Have you missed opportunities because you were afraid? Does fear inhibit you on a regular basis in your day to day life? Have you overcome fear to do something really awesome?

New News

2010-06-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

I'm ready for a new news source. Yesterday I heard a radio news snippet that there were some deaths in Afghanistan. So I looked up the AP story and was very disappointed.

What if we had a news company that was committed to reporting events to us through a lens of love and respect. Instead of reporting "just the facts" and numbers, instead of slipping in judgements and condemnations of people, instead of putting spins or pushing agendas, instead of pretty much everything that is characteristic of our current news sources; this company would love the people it is reporting about and to.

Can you imagine this news company? I hope you can. Think about it, and tell me what it would be like.

Here's one thing I know would happen with this news company. When reporting on recent deaths in the war it wouldn't be just a statistic to be compared with how many deaths we've had in days past and it wouldn't be used as a chance to point out the deaths that occurred a while back because a helicopter crashed while not engaged with the enemy. It wouldn't comment on how long the war has gone on and how many troops the president has sent. This news company would acknowledge the sacrifice that was made by the ones that died. It would tell us who they were, why they were serving and what they had accomplished. It would encourage us to appreciate their lives and to let our hearts break with those of their family members and friends. We would see anguish in the face of the news anchor that has to relate this story and it wouldn't be crammed in between sports scores and weather reports.

What would this news company be like? Remember, they report in a spirit of love and respect for those they report about and to.

More Creativity

2010-05-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple creative people and what they did:

Matt Moman works in the plastic flower business. At a trade show he saw a bunch of lemons and limes that looked very real. A few days later he is sipping a beer and an idea hits him so he went for it. He used the fake limes to create a bottle opener with a magnet inside so it sticks to the fridge. Once the product is ready to go he then pitches it to Grupo Modelo (the company behind Corona beer) and they loved it. This cool little bottle opener is now going to make millions for him and the beer company, all from a simple idea that he decided to go for.

Mary Zeiff was a 1st grade teacher. She was frustrated by all the negative T-shirts she would see her students wearing ("Spoiled Brat" or "I'm with stupid"). She was sure these were not the kind of things happy kids are thinking. So she created her own shirts. She asked her students what they would put on a shirt and they came up with things like "First grade rocks!" and "I love mommy!". Well the shirts have taken off and the concept has grown. Through her website kids can submit their shirt designs and customers vote on their favorites. Winners get their shirt added to the inventory and they get 3% of the profits from the shirt, another 3% then goes to a charity of the designer's choice. Very cool idea and what an awesome thing for young kids to participate in. You can check out the website here.

I got these two stories from Entrepreneur magazine.

Have you heard anything creative lately?

More Creative

2010-05-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

I think we stifle our creativity. We develop routines, avoid change, and try our best to never mess up or look stupid. The result is lackluster. Then we wonder why we don't get amazing results at work or feel energized by our free time.

The other aspect of this is that I believe we discourage each other's creativity. When people throw out ideas we critique them rather than encourage. One of the things I've read about an idea is that no one is likely to feel its great when they first hear it because it's not their idea. Yet the immediate negative feedback we get is often enough for us not to follow through or to become secretive about our creativity.

All this rambling is to say that I think we need to be creative. We should regularly brainstorm by ourselves and with others to see what we can come up with. We should practice giving some one fair consideration when they have an idea, or even make it a point to encourage and support even if we think its stupid. Think of all the things that started out as a crazy idea that some one was willing to pursue even though people around him/her thought it was stupid. Who knows what you're capable of?

Homework: Come up with something creative, share it with others and no matter what they say you have to respond with "I'm doing it, and I'll let you know how it goes."

Have fun!

Last thought: Try to figure out when you are the most creative, time of day, where, what beverage you need to be drinking...etc.

What happened to creative?

2010-04-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you were creative?

Creative in your job, your free time, your relationships, your daydreams?

When you are creative how creative are you?

Is there anything that discourages you from creativity? Why? and do you discourage others from being creative?

What do you and the people around you think of creative people?

I have some thoughts on these questions but I'm gonna wait a couple days before I post them. I wanna hear what you have to say first.

Why Announce it?

2010-04-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

So Ricky Martin has announced to the world that he is gay. The big question for me is why the announcement? Why is it important for everyone to know that? The only reason I can come up with is he needed a career boost. So far it seems to have been effective, over the last week I think I have heard "Livin la vida loca" on the radio 5 times.

The even bigger question is why do gay or lesbian people feel the need to make a dramatic announcement about their sexuality. I'm not saying they all do but there seems to be a segment that really needs to tell people.

Do you guys have any thoughts on this? Should those of us that are straight start putting stickers on our cars that say so? Or when a straight celebrity wins an award should they declare in their acceptance speech that they are heterosexual?

How a bill becomes a law

2010-03-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Do you guys remember watching the video in like junior high that explains how a bill becomes a law? It layed out the process pretty clearly and made it sound pretty simple. I think it may be time for a new video. The new video may need to include something about there being two political parties that dislike each other and try to kill each other's bills on a regular basis.

With the passage of the healthcare bill I can't help but think our process for making laws isn't working quite how it should. I would argue that the average person doesn't know much about the healthcare bill and yet it has already been voted on and passed. If the job of our congresspeople and senators is to represent us with their votes it seems like they should have an understanding about how we feel about the bill before they cast their vote. But if most of us don't know what is in the bill then how can we form an opinion and pass that along to our representatives so they can vote accordingly.

Here's my issue. Who's responsibility is it to make sure the public is well-informed about what our government is doing. Is it on us to research on our own and then send our opinions to our representatives? Should our representatives be taking steps to make sure we know what they will be voting on and ask us for our input? Should some one from the whitehouse be making efforts to explain everything? Should TV and other media outlets do more extensive coverage that gives all the information about a bill?

What do you think? Also, do you feel like you know what is in the bill that just passed? (yes or no, you don't have to explain the bill)

Give Walmart a break

2010-03-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

I read a story on Yahoo! yesterday about Walmart that I think is a little ridiculous. In a Walmart store some one got on the annoucement system and told all black people to leave the store. Of course this has to become a huge deal that will probably scar Walmart's name for a long time in the future.

Here's my beef. Aren't we getting way too sensitive? Couldn't everyone in the store have just gone about their business and ignored this comment. Maybe they could have chuckled and thought "what an idiot" and then continued with their shopping. Instead we have people demanding that Walmart take severe action and people threatening to never shop at Walmart again. This has been stretched to even say that maybe Walmart is a racist company. I'm not even sure its possible for a global company like Walmart to be racist.

What do you think? Am I not sensitive to the impact of an incident like this? Or is it being overreacted to?

Which is the most outrageous

2010-03-10T08:17:00.000-08:00

Make your pick.

1. Our government is about to pass a bill to extend unemployment benefits as well as a couple other programs to help people out in the tough times we're going through. I've seen varying amounts but it looks like the cost of the bill will be around $130 billion. They have found ways to cover a portion of the cost (around $30 billion) so the other $100 billion or so will just get tacked onto our national debt. Will we ever stop spending money we don't have?

2. I heard on the radio yesterday that they US Postal Service has 15,000 employees that they don't need. Due to union contracts they are not allowed to fire these employees so they are forced to keep paying them. They have to cut costs some how, so they are looking into stoppage of mail delivery on Saturdays. Why have we ever let unions have so much power?

3. A chef is making cheese using his wife's breast milk and serving it in his restaurant. People have been visiting the restaurant and calling the chef, eager to try this "human cheese". Would you like your's sliced on a sandwich or a nice chunk of it to chomp on?

They Fired all the Teachers!

2010-02-24T19:29:00.000-08:00

I heard a story on the radio today and decided to look it up online for some more details. Here's the scoop according to ABCNews:

The school board has decided to fire all 74 teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island. Here's some stats on the school:

- about 800 students

- only 48% graduate in 4 years

- 96% are eligible for free or reduced-fee lunches

- 65% Hispanic, 14% Black, 13% White

- 25% receive English as a second language instruction

- Secondary teacher's in Rhode Island are paid on average $60,000, the national average is $50,000

The school is considered chronically underperforming by the state and the superintendent had a choice among four federally guided models to choose for the high school in an effort to improve. The choice was one that would lengthen the school day by 25 minutes, require teachers to receive additional training during the summer, eat lunch with the students once a week, provide more tutoring to students, and submit to more rigorous evaluations. The plan would pay the teacher's $30/hr for the extra time. The teacher's wanted to be paid $90/hr for the extra time so they rejected the proposal. The superintendent then recommended a "turnaround" model which means firing all the teachers and restricting the school to hiring back no more than 50% of the ones fired.

So what do you think? Is this the right course of action given the circumstances? Do you have an alternative solution that might be helpful?

Here's a few comments from teachers at the school that I heard on the news report, I've included my responses to these people in green. I don't mean to be too insensitive but I feel the need to write responses. You are welcome to respond if you want to.

"I've been at Central Falls for 28 years and I have done nothing to deserve to be fired, I give my heart, my soul to my job" - Consistently not producing the results that are demanded is a reason people get fired all the time. If you truly are giving your heart and soul to the job and you still aren't getting good results then you are not a good fit in that job.

"I'm heartbroken, I would do anything for this school system, I've done everything I can" - You would not do anything for the school because you rejected the plan to put in a little bit more time to try and improve.

"I'm disheartened, I feel like after 20 years I can see some progress beginning to be made and I'm sad that we're not gonna be around to follow that through, to push that forward." - 20 years! 20 years and you are just starting to see some progress. I'm sorry but no one gets a period of 20 years to turn around job performance.

Speaking strictly about this situation I think it is reasonable to fire the teachers. Obviously they are considered responsible for the school's graduation rate and it is not at an acceptable level. If you don't perform at the expected level you get fired, that seems in accordance with most workplaces. They were offered a different solution and said no, so I think the superintendent doesn't really have another choice. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have offered to pay them for the extra time, I thought the extra $30/hr was a generous offer.

I'm curious if this will re-ignite the tough questions that surround our education system. Like, should we have stricter evaluations of our teachers, and if so how do we do it? Should we make the extra efforts to educate students that don't speak English? Should we keep pouring effort into kids that aren't willing to try in school? Should schools be privatized or remain public but be managed by charter school type companies? Should teacher's go through more rigorous training to prepare them for the challenges they are going to face? Do we need longer school days?

The list goes on and on. It seems like it is easier to just ignore these questions and keep trying with things as they are. But I'm not sure that's the best thing for us to do.

Sorry for the lengthy post, hopefully it wasn't too dull. Feel free to comment, I'm curious about your thoughts on this stuff.

Vocabulary I Should Know

2010-02-15T19:35:00.000-08:00

Anytime I hear or read a word that I feel like I should know I make it a point to look it up. Sometimes these words are common knowledge and I feel stupid for not knowing them and sometimes they are uncommon words that I've never heard before. In some cases I will hear a word and am familiar enough to know what the person means and I could even use the word myself but I couldn't give a true definition for it.

So without further delay, here are some words I have looked up in the last week or so. If you know these words already then good for you. If you haven't then maybe you can try to use them in the next few days.

Dogmatic - Root word dogma - 1. A doctrine or a corpus of doctrines relating to matters such as morality and faith, set forth in an authoritative manner by a church.
2. An authoritative principle, belief, or statement of ideas or opinion, especially one considered to be absolutely true.
3. A principle or belief or a group of them

Psychosis - 1. a mental disorder characterized by symptoms, such as delusions or hallucinations, that indicate impaired contact with reality.
2. any severe form of mental disorder, as schizophrenia or paranoia.

Anorexia (I saw this one in a medical dictionary and it occured to me I had never thought of it independent of anorexia nervosa) - 1. loss of appetite and inability to eat.

Allay - 1. to put (fear, doubt, suspicion, anger, etc.) to rest; calm; quiet.
2. to lessen or relieve; mitigate; alleviate: to allay pain.

Dissemble - 1. to give a false or misleading appearance to; conceal the truth or real nature of: to dissemble one's incompetence in business.
2. to put on the appearance of; feign: to dissemble innocence.
3. Obsolete. to let pass unnoticed; ignore.

Somewhat common words but I couldn't have defined them for you. Hopefully one or two of them are new to you, I'll be sure to give you more as I hear or read them in the future.

Cool Little Shop

2010-02-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

On Sunday Amy, Brittany, Tim and I went out to LA for an exciting little adventure. We went to Galco's Soda Pop Stop (http://www.sodapopstop.com/). It is a pretty awesome store. This guy has over 500 types of soda and none of it is coke and pepsi products. He gets stuff from all over the world and it is all in glass bottles which apparently maintains its flavor and carbonation better than plastic bottles. The guy who runs the store is pretty cool. Here's a link to where I found out about the guy, its a cool little video, http://videos.komando.com/2009/10/11/amazing-soda-shop/

I Included some pictures up above of some of the sodas we bought, but here's a list.

Double Cola

Bubble Up

Rat Bastard Root Beer

Leninade

Mr. Cucumber "The Original Cucumber Soda"

Route 66 Orange Soda

Izze Sparkling Clementine

Virgil's Black Cherry Cream Soda

Dr. Pepper - The Original Flavor

Moxie

Jack Black's Blue Cream Soda

Kickapoo Joy Juice

Sioux City Sarsaparilla

Sweet Blossom "The Original Rose Petals Soda"

Chocolate Soda

This was a pretty cool little shop and I recommend it to anyone who happens to be out in LA. You'll certainly find a soda you like and if you don't, you'll at least have fun searching for one. They also have like 400 varieties of beer and a bunch of old fashioned candy brands.

Legislative parenting

2010-01-25T19:36:00.000-08:00

I heard on the radio the other day that they are working on a system that would make the texting function on phones not work while driving in a car. This is motivated by trying to keep young people from texting while driving. We see things like this more and more in our society. We are making a law to go after the symptom of a bigger problem rather than address that problem itself. I would say the big problem here is that young people don't care that they are putting themselves and others at serious risk. If asked why people shouldn't text while driving they could probably tell you that it is dangerous but I think it is difficult for them to personalize that danger. Whether this mentality is due to poor parenting or just the nature of being young I can't really say. But I will say this, if we have deemed talking on the cell phone or texting while driving to be too dangerous to allow then we could very easily put a stop to it. Just make the penalty a confiscation of the phone and a revocation of the license for a year or five and a $10,000 fine. If you ran the risk of not being able to drive for 1 to 5 years there is absolutely no way you would decide its worth it to text while driving. For those that did think it was worth it they would hopefully get caught and we could get those morons off the road, and the fines would generate a little revenue for the state.

Does this sound reasonable? If you decide it is too drastic please tell me why otherwise I might assume you enjoy texting while driving or something.

Cheers!

2010-01-18T20:33:00.000-08:00

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away...

Enjoy this link and prepare yourself to be uplifted by arguably the best TV theme song ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJKtS25F3L0

Forgive my absence from blogging. My plan is to get back into it.

2 quick things

2009-07-31T08:52:00.000-07:00

I heard a guy on the radio the other day equate the Democrats and the Republicans to Coke and Pepsi. I'm not sure what his point was with that comparison but I'll use it and push it a little bit further.

The democrats and the republicans are like Coke and Pepsi, but what we need is significantly more Dr. Pepper.

Take from that what you will.

Secondly, So Some cop busts a hot shot professor for breaking into a house only to find out it is the guys house. The guy claims its because he's black. Obama calls the police stupid for doing it. Now all three of them are having a beer together at the White House? How many arrests or police interventions occur on any given night in the U.S.? Maybe a few hundred thousand? I must have missed Obama's comments on all the other ones. If I was a cop I'd make a call to the white house to find out when it is my turn to have a beer with the president.

I really don't picture Obama drinking Budweiser either but I guess its possible. It's also possible that this is all being turned into some sort of ridiculouse PR stunt. One thing is for sure, it has definitely taken the media's attention away from the real issues the president should be working on. Who knows though, maybe a beer with the guys will help clear his head.

Resistance to change

2009-06-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

I have heard a hundred times how hard it is for people to change. The reasoning usually runs along the lines of how we get set in our ways and there are a lot of risks and unknowns that come with change so its easier to stay the same.

I'd like to look at our resistance to change from a different angle. I think we make it very difficult for each other to change. Let me give you an example. Let's say Ace is adamant that no beverage will every be as tasty and satisfying as yum yum orange. Gary is Ace's friend and coworker and while he is not as fanatical about a beverage as Ace he is quite certain that sippy sippy grapey grapey is much better than yum yum orange. The two have lunch everyday and Gary insists that Ace it being stupid and stubborn because he won't even try sippy sippy grapey grapey. He assures Ace that he'll love it but Ace always refuses because he knows his yum yum orange is the best. This argument goes on day after day for 10 years. Then one day while at a Get the foods quickly store Ace decides to try a sippy sippy grapey grapey. He is stunned by how good it is. Now Ace is in a jam.

If you're ace to do go tell Gary and the rest of your family and friends that you like sippy sippy grapey grapey and that yum yum orange is not the best and you'd like to branch out in the world of beverages? Or do you keep it a secret, continue to drink yum yum orange when around others and privately enjoy some occassional sippy sippy grapey grapey?

My point is this. The pressures we put on each other and the ever lurking, pride flaring, phrases like "I told you so" that we are so quick to throw out play a big role in our resistance to change. We are afraid of dealing with the reactions to, or the things that will likely come with the change we are going to make.

Can you relate to this? What would you really do if you were Ace (besides change your name)?

Universal Healthcare

2009-06-11T19:31:00.001-07:00

I don't know all the details but my basic understanding is that the government wants every person in our country to have healthcare coverage. Rather than try to fix the current system they are trying to setup a system where all healthcare is run through the government. So basically a MediCare program that encompasses everyone. Like I said I don't know a lot of the details yet but here's a few thoughts on the subject:

Healthcare is a business, and the government really hasn't shown they know how to run any kind of business let alone something as massive and complicated as healthcare for everyone in America.

The people who currently don't have healthcare probably don't have it because they can't pay for it. Since the goal is to provide healthcare for everyone who will pay for it?

It seems like employers would no longer have an option to offer health plans to their employees and often times these type of plans are better than the cheapy options.

What would the impact be on pharmaceutical companies? If the government controls all health insurance then the pharma companies would be forced to offer their drugs at whatever the government offers to pay. Some may say that big pharma charges too much as it is and that may be true, but big pharma is also the ones coming up with our cures and treatments, what happens if they aren't pulling in enough to continue current levels of research and development?

Chime in on what you think about universal healthcare. If you know more about it than me you're welcome to give me more info.

14,000 things to be happy about

2009-05-27T20:59:00.001-07:00

I saw in an article the other day that there is a book called 14,000 things to be happy about. So I searched Amazon and sure enough there it was. The author is Barbara Ann Kipfer. She is also the author of The 1325 Buddhist ways to be happy, 1,400 things for kids to be happy about, and 4,000 questions for getting to know anyone.

Here's my thoughts. Thinking of things to be happy about, great. Making a list and spending some time focusing on them, great. Sharing those things with your friends and family and finding out what makes them happy, great. Writing them in a book and charging people money to read them, lame.

I applaud Ms. Kipfer because she has found a way to make money for herself and she probably feels like her books are uplifting and help people out. However, if I ran a book store I would never carry this book or any of the other three titles I mentioned. I bet any of you reading this blog could write any of these books and have them finished in a week or two. If I was an author I would probably be very frustrated that books like this would make it on the shelf next to mine.

What do you think? Would you be interested in reading these books or do you think you could write them yourself? Am I being to hard on her? Any other ridiculous books out there that you've seen?

No Privacy

2009-04-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

I was reading an author's blog the other day and he was referencing a world without any privacy to make a point. It got me thinking that people value privacy to different degrees. Some people keep as much private as the possibly can. Things like pay, what they spend their money on, their past, what's in their closet, what people see them doing, their naked body, their feelings about things...etc. I all areas of our life we all determine how much we keep private and if something we want to remain private gets out then we would be pretty upset about it.

After considering what type of stuff you like to keep private now think about a world with no privacy. This is probably not possible because some stuff you could keep privately in your head but bare with me on this. Imagine everyone knows how much you get paid, how you spend all of your time, what you have purchased and what you paid for those purchases, what you eat, how long you sleep, how well you brush your teeth, your routine in the shower, what you watch on TV, what you look at on the Internet, what is said in your conversations, what you read... etc. The list could go on forever.

In thinking about this no privacy concept I think it could be very liberating. I think a lot of stress comes from keeping things private and if it was all out there on the table you could let go of a lot of feelings and emotions like pride, shame, fear, envy and so on. Everyone would be completely exposed and we would see everyone's shortcomings or oddities as well as things that would probably impress us. It could also enhance all those feelings and emotions because they would not longer be held back by our not knowing certain things.

Not sure if this makes sense but here's the task for you to consider. Think about various areas in your life and where you draw the line when it comes to what is public and what is private. Feel free to explain why certain things are private but I would challenge you to not use the reason "because it is no one else's business". That may be true but I think maybe that isn't the true reason, it is just the easiest one for us to give.

What people are capable of

2009-04-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

In Genesis 11 we are given an account of the people of Earth deciding to build a city with a tower that reaches toward heaven. God then has a very interesting reaction.

He says "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

The implication here is that if all people are united, no matter what the purpose, we could accomplish it. Nothing would be impossible for us. Things like peace, the end of any starvation, curing cancer and stopping genocide are all possible if everyone wanted them.

The impossible task seems to be getting everyone in the world to come together behind a common cause. The world is so riddled with division that it seems near impossible to get even small groups united behind a cause.

I forget the guy's name but I was reading about him the other day and he believed that the growing population was destroying our advancement and keeping us from ever reaching our highest social and economic goals. A lot of people disagree with that believing instead that more people equates to more mind power and labor that can contribute.

What do you think? Could the world ever overcome its many differences in order to pursue a common goal? Is the constantly growing population hurting mankind or helping it? Take a few minutes to read the account of the tower of Babel, it is in Genesis in the first part of chapter 11 and see how it strikes you.

Wienerschnitzel

2009-03-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Amy and I rounded up our co-workers and headed off to Wienerschnitzel for lunch. This was a bid adventure because neither of us had every been to one before. I have always thought the whole premise of a fast food place focused on hot dogs to be a bit silly even though I love hotdogs. So here's my report on the wienerschnitzel experience.

I was surprised but there was actually a line to the door so apparently there are a lot more people going there than I originally thought. The guy who took my order seemed pretty friendly. I'd say the wait time to get my food was about average for a fast food place. The menu was good because there is some variety but not like a hundred options like some places. I went with the 2 corn dogs, fries and a drink meal. The corn dogs were pretty average and not that big, the fries were average, the drink was great because they have Dr. Pepper there and a lot of fast food places don't. The price was ok, but I kind of had it in my head that hot dog based meals should be cheaper than a burger meal. We were able to find adequate seating for our group so that was nice. The drive from work was further than expected but we all got in, got our food, ate, socialized and made it back to work in time so it worked out well. One thing that I think could use some work is the pictures of the food. It all looks pretty fake and not very appetizing, the resaurant's whole look seems very stuck in the 70's or something. I guess that is maybe part of their brand but I'm not sure I like it.

Couple facts from their website: It was started by a 23 year old in 1961 with a single hot dog stand. Now has 340 locations in ten states. They sell over 120 million hotdogs a year. Their site has a page called "Wiener World" which is kind of funny, also they say on the site "Love wieners? Join the club!", I laughed at that.

Have you been to wienerschnitzel? How do you like it? Are there any common places you haven't been to? Let me know, maybe this posting will inspire you to try out somewhere new.

Lastly, What is interesting is that if I thought about the places Ihad never been to before I moved to Riverside for college the list would have been very long. My home town had a Foster's Freeze, that was the only fast food place. A couple town's over I think there was an A&W.

Punishing your kids

2009-03-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Alright who can think of some creative ways to punish kids when they act up?

Here's a couple I have in mind:

- Make your sons or daughters share a twin size bed.
- Keep those super spicy peppers on hand and make them eat one if they are acting up.
- If they won't share a particular toy, sell it.
- Make your sons put on a ballet performance for the family.
- Mow the lawn using scissors
- When they get into a fight, make them participate in a prolonged hug with each other, something like 10 to 15 minutes of constant hugging would be good.
- Make them go Christmas caroling in Halloween costumes regardless of the time of year.
- Give your daughters a boy's haircut, like a crew cut, bowl cut or a mullet.

Let's see what you've got. Keep it humane, no cutting off fingers or anything but I'm sure you have some that you've always wanted to use on your kids, or you plan to use when you have kids.

The Salaries we pay

2009-02-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

I was listening to talk radio the other day and something was brought to my attention that outraged me so I'll share it with you and see if it fires you up.

They were using a specific police officer, I'll call him Steve, to shed light on the craziness of the pension system that a lot of public employees are entitled to.

Steve worked for 20 years as a police officer and retired when he was 45. At the time of retirement he was making $90,000 a year. He then went on to work as a small town chief of police or something to continue earning income.

Now I'm fine with paying Steve the $90,000 a year. I think that's a fair salary. My problem is with the pension that Steve is entitled to. After "retiring" (since he went on to work another job it isn't completely accurate to call it retiring in my opinion), Steve's pension paid him $65,000 a year for the rest of his life. To fully grasp the amount of money being paid out here let's say Steve lives to be 85 years old. So from his retirement at age 45 until his death at 85 he will be paid $2,600,000.

So guys like this get to retire 20 years earlier than people working in the private sector, and they are guaranteed a sizeable income for life. All of this is on the taxpayer dollar. The bigger problem is that when Steve retires some one has to be hired to take his place and that person is going to get the same deal so now we are paying the new guys salary plus Steve's pension.

In my opinion this is absolutely insane that for some reason we think public employees need to be this taken care of. Big companies used to have pension plans for their employees, then they realized it was going to bankrupt them and they had to stop doing it.

Is there any legitimate reason to keep a system like this going? Public employees get better pay, better benefits, more holidays and more vacation than the private sector and have much higher levels of job stability. It seems like we are trying to bankrupt our local, state, and federal treasuries for this craziness.

Or maybe I'm crazy and am missing something here, feel free to weigh in.

Crazy tag games and what not

2009-02-02T08:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, so Bekah Reed is apparently into all these crazy online games that have some how found their way out of the Myspace world and onto people's blogs. I've been told that I have been "tagged" and that I have to post the 4th picture from the 4th folder in my pictures on my computer. Amy has been begging me to actually do it so here is the picture. I am desperately hoping this doesn't make me some sort of "teenie bopper" for participating. This is from our holloween party this past year, it is Holli and Tim in their cactus costumes.

The predictable life vs. a life of variety

2009-01-05T17:26:00.000-08:00

I was reading one of R.A Salvatore's books the other day and in a sort of journal entry one of his characters brings up an interesting observation about the lives we lead. This is probably not the case for everyone but it is something to consider when you look at your own life's ambitions. People live their lives trying to avoid changes or get through them quickly and move past them. They want to reach a point of routine and predictability in their lives so that they can feel comfortable and settled. Once this comfort is achieved Salvatore points out that people often find that their life is boring. Now obviously there are tons of factors that can play into this to make it hard to set this as a law of human nature or anything. Some people will certainly maintain a life of variety and always make new things happen in their life, while others will be perfectly content with the predictable life they have worked towards. It just got me thinking that maybe we spend a lot of time working towards things that we might not really even like. I guess that's all the more reason to try and be sure of what you want, though how to do that I can't be certain.

On a related note. I think some of us secretly like interruptions to our plans. When things like car trouble, jury duty, holidays, vacations, getting sick etc. come up we often put off other things that we intend to do or that we know we should do. I wouldn't say that its from laziness that we secretly enjoy the opportunity to put those things off longer, I would attribute it more to being unsure of what will come of those things. To clarify those things would be stuff like, getting a job or a new job, getting more involved at church, serving the community, pursuing relationships with friends and family, dating, exercising, studying, whatever. This thought just occurred to me so don't put too much stock in it, but I would encourage you to give it some though. Do you think you hope to attain a life that is set in routine and comfortable or will you always want new things to be happening and curve balls to come your way. Also, do you feel like a small part of you appreciates things that interrupt new undertakings because they serve as a sort of excuse that is out of your hands?

Catch up

2008-12-04T13:08:00.001-08:00

The last 2 months or so have been pretty busy and have included things like, a Halloween party, buying a house, moving into our house, going to Las Vegas and San Diego, Thanksgiving in Yosemite, friends having a baby, sister in law having a baby, the approach of Christmas, and upcoming trips to Northern California (3 between Amy and I).

I've been told by various people that I should post pictures on my blog and give updates as to what is going on in my life. I am a little reluctant to do that because that seems to be what everyone uses their blog for and that wasn't my original purpose for starting this blog. I suppose it won't hurt to every once in a while post a picture or something but don't expect it too often.

Here's a picture of the house we bought, so far we are really happy with it, but living in your own house definitely takes some getting used to.

Here's a shot of us in Yosemite, you can see half-dome far in the distance and I believe that is El Capitan off to the left.

Here's a waterfall.

Here's us at the top of it.
(apparently people don't say 1,2,3 anymore before pictures.)

This waterfall had like 3 progressive falls, then a big drop down the cliff face into a gorge. The hike to get to this one was about 9 miles round trip so it wore me out but the top was cool.

Don't tell people how to vote!

2008-11-03T17:24:00.000-08:00

I got a call the other day from some one that is trying to get Bill Hedrick elected to office to replace Ken Calvert as the congressman from my district. The lady told me she would like to tell me about Bill Hedrick and proceeded to tell me that Ken Calvert has been voted one of the 20 most corrupt politicians. Then she asked me if I would like her to mail me some information about Bill Hedrick. On a daily basis I also receive mail and doorhangers telling me how to vote on the different propositions. To me it seems like millions of dollars are wasted every year on trying to get people to vote a certain way. I feel like when people vote they are supposed to base their decision on their personal beliefs, morals, preferences, and how the decision will affect them and their family. I'm guessing their must be evidence to show that all this advertising is effective otherwise it probably wouldn't continue year after year. What is embarrassing is the thought that people are voting based on what they see in these advertisements. When groups like the teacher's union, the prison guards of California or the LA Police Department are paying money and saying you should vote a certain way they are not doing it because they think that is what is best for you, they are doing it because it is what they believe is best for them. If everyone would block out all the outside influences and decide on their own then we would get decisions based on what the majority of voters actually think. As it is our decisions are overly influenced by whoever pays the most money and badgers people the most. If some one can't read a proposition and decide if it will be good for them or bad for them then they should just not vote rather than mindlessly giving their vote to some one else.

Voting is tomorrow and I plan to participate, but I think the next person who tries to tell me how I should vote is liable to get an earfull on how my decision process and what I ultimately do vote is none of their business.

Politicians not doing their jobs

2008-10-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

The other day I decided to take a look at the two candidates' voting records and I was surprised to find that they frequently don't show up to vote when congress has a decision to make. In the current congress McCain has been absent around 60% of the time and Obama has been absent about 50% of the time. I really can't understand how this is tolerated. How many people can not show up to work over half the time they are supposed to and keep their job? These two politicians were chosen by the people of their states to represent them in decisions made by the government. If they don't show up to vote then those people are not getting fair representation. I decided to see if this was common so I looked up my two congresswomen from California, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein who have been absent 5.6% and 2.7% or the time respectively. When I've mentioned this to some of my friends I've been told that they've been out campaigning so that is why they have missed votes. I don't think that is justification. That is basically saying that if a career opportunity comes up they can neglect their current job in order to pursue it. The big question here would be, do they still get paid for being a congressman while they are campaigning? And if they lose the election do they simply return to finish their term as congressman? Either way I am surprised candidates never get called to account for this, I think it can be a testiment to their work ethic and a certain degree of not realizing or valuing the significance of their job in our goverment.

On a somewhat similar note, I am tired of feeling like when I go to vote I have to pick the lesser of two poor options. Maybe one of these days the two party system will start to break down and we can get some outsiders in to bring a different vibe and a different experience base into our countries leadership. I would be very quick to vote for some big business leaders to change things up a bit (i.e Jack Welch, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett).

How do you feel about politicians not doing their jobs? Any ideas on a better way to find candidates?

My Survivor Strategy

2008-09-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

I was watching the premiere of Survivor and it seemed like the same things started happening that happen on every other season of that show. Some people butt heads right away. Some people are quiet and go unnoticed. Some people immediately form alliances. Some people who you think will be horrible competitors do well, and others who look strong or competent for the challenges are really losers. Every time I watch this show I can't help but think about my strategy.

If ever on the show Survivor I think I would approach it as follows. I would encourage the team to have open sharing time around the fire each day to discuss what's been going on and how the team is doing. I would encourage people to share with the group who they would like to vote off and why so that the team could discuss it and have a decision before we show up to tribal council so there are no surprises and we have some team unity with everyone on the same page. I realize this could potentially create conflicts but I figure it is better if we work those conflicts out publicly rather than with secret meetings down by the lake. If these conflicts errupt beyond control I am confident that I could keep myself in a position to serve as a sort of moderator of the discussion or a mediator to help resolve the conflicts. My challenge would be to keep myself from getting wrapped up in the arguments. Through this strategy any secret alliances that were going on would likely come out, the team would know how we all stand with each other, and we could more easily move on and focus on the next competition after some one gets eliminated. I would also bank heavily on my ability to dominate in the challenges. From the challenges I've seen on the show I don't think I would every be in the position of the person who doesn't contribute or holds the team back.

That's just my idea for strategy. I like the challenges in Survivor but the whole sleeping in the wilderness thing wouldn't be my favorite experience so its not necessarily at the top of my list of reality shows I'd like to compete on.

What's your strategy? And what do you think my chances would be if I used mine?

Jury Duty

2008-08-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

Well I just finished my first experience with being on a jury last Friday and it was a very interesting experience.

I wanted to get out of it but the defense attorney didn't feel the need to ask me if I wanted to be on the jury so I had no chance to say "no thanks" (he asked other people this question and they all answered "yes").

Some people gave answers that indicated they obviously wanted out of jury duty. Like one guy, who said "the defendent looks like he probably has an evil side". But I couldn't bring myself to lie or misrepresent who I am, and apparently I am desireable as a juror.

Once the trial started it was really interesting as well as intense and I felt compelled to give my full attention to every detail. The charges were: a criminal threat to kill or cause great bodily injury, threatening a police officer or public official, growing marijuana, using an electronic device to send messages with the intent to harrass or annoy. Those aren't the exact works but a summary of the charges. I found myself anticipating the points the lawyers were going to make with their questioning as well as critiquing their tactics. It was really interesting but also very stressful given the significance of my job as a member of the jury. It really wasn't fair to make light of anything and not give the case my full consideration. So I took it very seriously and wracked my brain to make sure I was making the right decisions when I gave my vote for the verdicts. Some of the jurors seemed to have their minds made up completely as soon as we entered deliberations, some were on the fence, and some seemed to be willing to just go along with the group. I was on the fence and found myself annoyed by the other two groups.

Ultimately we found him guilt of charges 3 and 4, not guilty of charge 2, and we were split on the first charge so it was a mistrial on that one.

Afterward we got to talk to the attorneys more casually about the case and it was interesting to hear their true views and what they thought of the case. They were also interested to hear about our deliberations and what points or evidence we had the most discussion about.

All in all it was an experience I'm glad I had but I just wish the court was more efficient with their time. We started each day at 9:30 though we usually let in 10-45 minutes late every day. We would take a 15 minute break around 10:30. Lunch was from 12:00 to 1:30. We would have another break at about 2:30 and we were always done by 4, usually earlier. Lots of time was wasted in my opinion.

oh yeah, and lastly, the defendent's name is "I am the Beast", how's that for interesting.

Making wise decisions

2008-07-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

Do you ever find yourself revisiting decisions you've made in the past and wondering if it was the right decision? I usually don't just because by the time I actually decide something I am usually thoroughly convinced it was the right decision to make. Though occassionally I find myself pondering how different my life would be had I done a few things differently.

In high school when it came time to apply for colleges I hadn't really put much thought into where I would go. I always wanted to go to college but I never took the time to do research and figure out a good place for me to go. A lot of people I knew were going to be attending Sonoma state, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and San Diego State, but I didn't want to just follow the crowd to college. I had heard of Cal Baptist because my dad went there, I basically chose it because I knew I would get accepted and I figured I could walk on to their soccer and tennis teams. If I decided to go somewhere else I'm certain my life would be a lot different and probably a lot worse than it is now. I can't imagine not having the friendships I made at CBU and the learning/experiences that came while I was a student there. After a year at CBU I decided to quit playing soccer. It was a gut wrenching decision and to this day I still have doubts as to whether or not it was the right choice. I guess I could say that it didn't make much difference, that pretty much everything in my life would be about the same, but its hard for me to say that soccer was that inconsequential. I don't know if its because playing sports is frivolous and I don't want to give credit to the notion that all the years I spent practicing and playing was a waste. I'd be quicker to say that soccer became part of my identity and to give it up was like giving up a part of who I was.

Anyway, I'm sure you've all made decisions that you can look back on and question whether or not it was the right choice. I think what I take from this is how important it is to make the right decisions. I don't want to encourage some sort of "analysis paralysis", a term I use to describe those that can't seem to make a decision at all because all time is spent debating and considering information. As a Christian I would say my best course of action is to align my decisions with what God would like me to do. This isn't easy because the Bible doesn't always seem clear to me and prayer can be just as challenging, but I believe that if approached in earnest and with an openness to answer that I might not have considered or might not like, God will give me wisdom. This is a reliable to me because I believe that God loves me and knows everything I am capable of and how best to make my life worthwhile. For those that don't believe that I suppose the Bible and prayer aren't the best resource for good decision making and they have to rely on themselves.

Just something to think about.

I'm sick of celebrities

2008-06-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

It will never cease to amaze me that people are so interested in the lives of celebrities. These people have nothing to do with us and yet our society is consumed with following their every move. On Yahoo right now the top news story listed is that Uma Thurman got engaged. How is that news? I understand that the definition of news is really just information about a recent event, but I feel like people have come to understand news to be information that should be important to them and has impact on their life. I guess it is news for all those guys out there that were planning on proposing to Uma but for the rest of us, is that really "need to know" information. Also on the Yahoo page I noticed that today's top 4 searches are Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, and Madonna. Amazingly more people are interested in those celebs, than are interested in things that would seem to me to be more important like finding a job, choosing a presidential candidate to vote for, getting out of debt, or what happens when we die.

Some of you may be thinking that I am just jealous because these people are rich and famous and get everyone's attention. Those of you that know me well can probably imagine what I would be like in their shoes. Do you really see me tolerating people following me around taking pictures of me, let alone enjoying it?

If you enjoy reading about celebrities, fine. You have every right to do so and there is plenty of material for you to read. But let me finish by saying this. Actors are pretenders. They pretend to be things like doctors, lawyers, teachers, coaches, astronauts, soldiers etc. By pretending to be a real person they have become more important to our society than what our troops are doing in Iraq. It just sounds pretty ridiculous to me.

The Finer Things

2008-06-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

As my school quarter winds down and I complete all my projects and tests I always start to feel much more relaxed. So I've decided to revisit a post from a while back in which I just listed things I really enjoy. With the stress of school relieved I am going to take advantage of this brief time period in which I can be a positive thinker before the misery of Summer in Riverside consumes me.

Some things I really enjoy:

An ice cold Dr. Pepper straight from the can or soda fountain makes pretty much every situation better.

The feeling of handing in a paper or project knowing it is going to get an A.

The realization that I just learned something, or thinking back on an experience and realizing that I am now more knowledgeable and wiser because of that experience.

Being part of a play in a soccer game that goes perfectly; a series of passes precisely made, the right movement by those not in possession of the ball, completed by a shot that is placed just right leaving the goalie with no chance at making a save.

Similarly in the heat of competition realizing that unless a change is made the competition will be loss. Then finding the intensity and the drive to make that change and turn the tide of the game.

Playing Rockband - I know I have no musical talent, I can't sing well at all, and I am not really even that good at the video game. But while I'm playing I get a small taste of my dreams of being a rockstar.

Playing baseball - Running down a fly ball where the only chance of making the catch is to slide for it. Making the catch is great but getting there and having a real chance at making the play is what I enjoy. Also, making a quick scoop on a fast grounder, or having to leap to snag a line drive out of the air.

These simple joys need to be a part of everyones life. They may not happen everyday but I think they need to be experienced on a regular basis. As you think about the simple things you enjoy also think about how often those things occur. It may be that it is not as often as you would like, I suggest you remedy that.

Friendship

2008-05-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

I have been reading a book my Dad gave me a while back called "The Speed of Trust". This book talks a little bit about John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and their friendship. When John Adams became the 2nd president Jefferson, being of the opposite political party and receiving the 2nd highest number of votes, was made vice president. The two had grown close while creating the declaration of independence and basically helping establish our country. When they took office Adams expected that he would have Jefferson's full support as he ran the country, but that was not the case. Jefferson wanted to be president and their friendship was greatly strained by the constant butting of heads. Years later Adams was encouraged to extend an "olive branch" to renew the friendship. When he did so Jefferson responded positively and the friendship was renewed. Interestingly enough the two both died 14 years later on the same day, the 4th of July none the less and the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I can't help but think God has a hand on situations like that. Anyway, what really made me think was a quote from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson. It is as follows, "While I breathe, I shall be your friend".

To me this quote says that no matter what may occur, as long as I'm alive I will consider you my friend. That is an expression of a powerful bond and it made me consider some of my friendships. I would say I have a handful of friends that I feel that way about. That no matter what were to happen I would still consider them a friend. Having said that I also remember past friends with whom I felt very close and may have said the same thing but now I am not close with them at all.

These words are moving and the bond that they reveal is definitely something to be strived for. But I would say the quote is also a statement of a commitment. How committed are we to our friends? Are we so committed that we can look past a friends mistakes or shortcommings? Are we so committed that when a friend hurts us, offends us, or casts us aside we are able to forgive and continue to pursue the friendship. If so, is this something we communicate to our friends? I value my friends very much and try to be good to them but I don't know that I have ever told them straight out how much I value them. My name "Jonathan" comes from the Bible and in the Bible Jonathan is best known for his friendship with David. I feel like the quote John Adams made about Thomas Jefferson is one that Jonathan probably would have said to David. I've never been one to say your name and what it means or where it comes from should play any sort of guiding role in your life. But in this particular circumstance I think it gives good insight into the level of friendships God likes to see among his people.

Just some stuff to think about. Enjoy!

Bumper Stickers

2008-04-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

I've decided I don't really care for bumper stickers or any sort of sticker people put in their windows or frames that go around license plates. Mainly because I feel like they are usually one of 3 things: some sort of advertisement, some statement that makes a jab at some one else or a group of people, or some lame shot at humor. On occasion you will see that random bumper sticker that is kind of funny but those ones don't ever seem to be mass distributed. The ones that are all over the place are usually the crappy ones.

Over the next few days pay attention to what you see on cars and let us know if you see any good ones. You can also point out some of the bad ones too.

Here's some of the typical ones I see that I'm tired of, if you have one of these don't take it too personally that I don't like one of your car decorations.

Anything related to the Skin Industries brand - these are the window stickers that outline girl devils and what not.

NOTW - the not of this world window stickers can be very ellaborate but I think it's kind of an odd message to give everyone driving behind you. Most people probably don't know what it means.

Any "I'd rather be..." license plate frames. Quite frankly I don't really care and it is usually stuff I could guess anyway considering most people would rather be doing anything than driving around town.

Political stickers - I don't need to know who people voted for 12 years ago, "Clinton/Gore" is really no longer a valid sticker.

Social Issue statements - When you put these on your car, are you really doing that much to improve the issue? Do people really make an effort to save the dolphins because it said to on your car. Or do I have the power to legalize marijuana and I was just waiting for your bumper to tell me to do it?

Bands - what's funny about a lot of these is if you read it and you've never heard of the band, chances are you don't realize its a band name you are reading.

Honda Sticker - When you're driving a Honda Civic it doesn't seem necessary to put a big sticker in the window that says "Honda"

Calvin - I'm almost curious with this one of what all people can portray calvin doing, and where is Hobbes in these illustrations?

This list is getting long so here's all the rest: Honor Student/Student of the month, Any sort of ribbon sticker that tells people to do something like support our troops, pencil sketches of your family members with their names on them, old harvest crusade stickers, in memory of window decals.

I hope I don't anger any of you too much with these!!

My parents spanked me

2008-04-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

At work today we some how got into a brief discussion on disciplining kids. In this discussion I was basically told that it is no longer acceptable to spank your kids. My question is, when did things change? When I was a kid I was actually a pretty good kid and didn't get in too much trouble, but when I did I was usually spanked by my parents. A spanking was usually done on a spur of the moment basis, like I just talked back or said something I shouldn't or hit my sister or something and my parents would say "Hey! Get over here!" then they would spank me on my butt once or twice and say "you are not allowed to talk like that" or "don't talk back to your mother that way". It wasn't so much that these spankings hurt, especially as I got older, but they sent a firm message that what I was doing would not be tolerated by my parents. In instances where my parents found out about something I did in the past, maybe a few days ago my punishment would be "something like go to your room and we'll talk about this later" then when they would come speak to me they would explain their dissappointment in my actions and explain or re-explain that it is not acceptable behavior. I think ultimately both the spank and the firm talking to served as a wake up call to me, to let me know that doing what I did was wrong and should not be done again. The spank was often a little more abrupt but I think the shock of it, that shock of my parents suddenly turning on me because of my behavior sent a strong and clear message.

Now I know some people prefer to use a time out system or something that rewards the good and ignores the bad or whatever and I am fine with that. I really don't care how other people choose to discipline their kids, I think its completely up to them. What I don't like is how people have suddenly decided that it is some sort of crime to spank your kids and if there is any sign of it you should be reported to the authorities. Sure no kid should be excessively beaten and if for some reason they are warranting a spanking on a regular basis then things are out of hand. But my parents spanked me simply to keep me on the straight and narrow and I believe it worked very well. Therefore I plan to spank my kids if and when I have some if they behave in a way that I feel warrants it.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this. How did your parents discipline you? was it affective? why or why not? how do you plan to discipline your kids and if its different from how your parents did it why?

Quote Me...

2008-04-02T16:34:00.001-07:00

I like to read business books and usually they include a lot of quotes from famous historical people and big business people. A lot of times the quotes are really like a common sense statement that isn't really much of a quote. Sometimes I'll read a quote and I can't help but think "man, I wish I came up with that". Here are some quotes I really like and wish I could take credit for them.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge... " - Albert Einstein

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do."
-Confucius

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names." - John F. Kennedy

"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." - John F. Kennedy

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" - Patrick Henry

"They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom!" - William Wallace

These are just a couple quotes I like, and I think it would be cool if I had said them. Do you have any particular quotes that maybe inspire you or are important to you for any reason? Please feel free to share them. Also, is there anything you frequently say or have said that you think people should quote you on? Let me know and I'll see if I can find a way to use your quote and I'll give you credit for it.

Here's one of mine, (hopefully it hasn't been said before)
"Don't treat some one how you want to be treated, treat them how he/she wants to be treated"
or maybe this one:
"Tolerating poor customer service as a customer is an encouragement for that service to continue poorly."

Have fun with this, I'm sure you all have some great stuff to say.

Honesty

2008-03-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

I like to think of myself as an honest man. I am pretty good about making sure I do the things I say I'm going to do. If I don't want to do something I don't typically feel like I have to make up an excuse. When people ask my opinion (or when I just give it whether people want it or not, which is often the case with me) I try to be very honest, not sugar coating, fudging a little or imbellishing. However, there are instances in which even I feel like it would be much easier to just lie than to deal with the truth. Now I know there are certain situations in which probably all the populous would say that it is better to lie. For example, lets say a close friend of your's recently underwent Chemotherapy and most, or all of their hair fell out. If they asked, "Do I look bad or ridiculous?" All of us would probably say "no, its not bad at all." This in most cases would be a lie, but given the situation is there really any value to telling some one who is dealing with a potentially terminal disease that they don't look good? Ok so this is an extreme in which we can all lie and I am confident that God isn't going to be angry at us in that situation. However, I think it can be easy to take this liberty in other situations that really don't warrant it. I'm not saying we should go out and be brutal with people telling them "yes you do look fat, and its not because of that article of clothing its because you are fat" or "no you can't be on my intramural sports team because you really aren't good at this particular sport and you'll hold back the team". What I'm saying is our lack of honesty puts us on a path of lying. If we were honest with people from the get go I believe we would find ourselves in fewer situations where we have to decide between taking the easy/comfortable way out by lying or face the ackwardness and potential scuffle that could come with the truth. Think about the instances recently where you have either told a little lie or considered it and back track to see if there was a time in the past where you chose the lie that probably brought you to the point of having to decide again.

Here's an example: 6 months ago person A and person B are hanging out and person A says "I've been gaining weight and it sucks, none of my clothes are fitting like they used to. Do I look fat?" Person B could say "well if you think you're gaining weight then you probably are, what can we do to reverse that?" But chances are the response would be a little bit of a lie, something like "no I don't think you look fat, lets go shopping and we'll get you some new clothes"
So then 3 months later they are at a restaurant and person A says "what should I get, the double cheeseburger with unlimited french fries, or the chicken salad with light dressing" now, if person B lied 3 months ago and said "no you don't look fat" then they are in a bit of a jam now and will likely lie again to a degree by saying "get whatever sounds good to you" But, if person B had been truthful in the first situation they could then say "hey you're trying to keep your weight down remember, go for the chicken salad since its healthier and just as tastey, and we'll go for a jog later to take care of the dressing."

This example may be overly simple but I think you get what I mean. Consider whether or not you tell these kind of little lies and imagine your life without them, would it be good or bad?

What have you always wanted to do?

2008-03-03T17:01:00.000-08:00

Alright folks now is your chance to tell the whole world (or at least those that read this blog) all the things you have always wanted to do, even if they are things that you are pretty sure you never will do. Regardless of whether or not they will happen or not, I think it is fun to imagine, so to get your creative juices flowing I'll list some of mine and who knows, perhaps you'll be inspired to make some of things on your list come to be.

1. I'd like to be the star of some big epic action movie like Gladiator or 300. Though I am well aware that I don't really have the look or the voice for a role like that so maybe I would be content with being a close friend of the main character who does something really tough or heroic.

2. I would like to compete in the olympics, play in the NFL, and play in the U.S Open (Tennis, not golf), and compete in an Ironman competition.

3. I would like to be a politician, if not president then at least Governor of California.

4. I would like to be an author of fantasy novels

5. Bill Gates gives somewhere around 45-55% of his wealth away, I would like to be the one to decide where that money goes. (No, I would not just pocket it for myself, I have it in me to be a great philanthropist)

6. I would like to be on American Gladiators, Survivor and the Amazing Race.

7. I would like to go back to the 16/1700's and spend some time as a sailor.

8. After I'm dead I would be very pleased to know that books were written about me and that I had some positive impact on humanity outside just my family and friends.

9. I would like to race in the Iditarod (that's the dog sledding race in Alaska)

10. I would like to try shooting a real life sniper rifle to see if my video game skills transfer over.

11. I would like to have the 1984 movie Red Dawn really happen and lead the resistance against the invading Russians.

Alright so now you know some of my most far fetched fantasies. Let's hear what you can come up with. Maybe, just maybe I have the power to make it happen for you, we'll see!

Listening to God

2008-02-27T15:43:00.000-08:00

Amy and I have been praying a lot recently because we have some big decisions to make in our lives and I have found that I have a hard time listening to answers from God. I often pray for his guidance and then I find myself trying to take action based on what I think is best. So I have been trying to pray and then spend some quiet time just listening or at least making myself ready to listen if he decides to answer audibly or inaudibly right then. This is really hard for me to do, I am very impatient and I have a very active imagination so it is really difficult for me to sit there and not have my mind wander. I think I also stress myself out looking for answers in places and people. I will start over interpretting events or things people say in an effort to find an answer from God about what I'm dealing with. It's a frustrating situation because the things we are praying out really will have a strong bearing on the rest of our lives. I really do want God to lead us in what pursuits we should undertake but I have a hard time giving up control and just letting him do his thing. So I'm trying to practice being patient and I am trying to have faith that I will know beyond any doubt when God is speaking me and showing us the way he would like us to go.

For those of you that pray do you find that you have a hard time receiving God's answers? Sometimes I think I might pray and not expect an answer at all, like I'm doing it just to try and be courteous to God but ultimately I am going to decide on my own anyway. I'm trying to break this habit. I have this belief that if I really can let God direct my life and use me in a way that best suits me then those deep desires of mine that are often hard to verbalize would come to be. I think I would feel comfortable, confident, joyful, and proud. We'll see if I can ever get there.

Help with a name

2008-02-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

Amy and I might be getting a personal training business going that we would ultimately like to grow into our own gym. If we were to do this we would need to have a business name. If you guys have any ideas I'd love to hear them. Think along the lines of anything pertaining to health, wellness, fitness, exercise, feeling good and healthy...etc. I have some ideas but let me know what you think, don't worry I won't give you any negative feedback so feel free to try and be creative and original.

Thanks in advance for all your great ideas.

Tipping at Restaurants

2008-02-04T16:53:00.000-08:00

Tipping waiters and waitresses (henceforth referred to as waiters, not because I'm sexist but because it's a shorter word and easier to type) at restaurants has been the subject of many debates that I have had. Ultimately I believe that tipping is a personal decision. Every individual should decide what they are comfortable with when it comes to tipping. Furthermore I don't think anyone should force their tipping practices onto others, nor should the think poorly of some one or openly ridicule some one for how they choose to tip. This being said I will proceed to tell you my thoughts behind tipping but I promise I will not make any effort to compell you to follow my practices (unless I do so subliminally in which case you will have no choice but to do things the way I do and you won't even know that I am compelling you to do so).

I aknowledge that waiters are not well paid by the restaurants they work at and that much of their money comes from tips. Many people like to give big tips based on this fact, but I don't. Waiting tables doesn't require any skills beyond be able to talk to people, write, and carry food. The first two are learned by pretty much everyone in the United States and the last one can be done by pretty much anyone who practices for a little bit. So waiters don't get paid a lot for a reason, the fact that tips are commonly given to them is a great bonus that most other jobs don't offer. I also don't sympathize with the low pay because they know what they will be paid when they take the job, it's not like they are forced into beint a waiter.

I am perfectly willing to tip if I feel like some one deserves it but I am a big stickler for customer service so I have high standards for what warrants a tip. I really try to refrain from basing my tip on the amount I spent on the food simply because just because an item is more expensive doesn't mean the waiter had to work any harder so why would they get a bigger tip. Whether I order the salmon or just a little side salad the waiter does the same amount of work. Along this same vein I have no idea who came up with 15%, people have come to feel obligated to tip that much for some reason.

I like to base tips on performance. Is the waiter friendly and respectful, do they know about the food they are serving, are they quick with getting drinks and to they get me refills regularly or do I have to ask for one, Can they answer my questions and if I have a question are the able to answer it. These are fairly easy things for a waiter to do and I would consider them the basics of their job and yet very frequently I am dissappointed with the service I receive.

I close with this, if you want to tip some one a large amount feel free to do so and feel proud that you did something very nice for the waiter. If you don't think a waiter deserves a tip and you don't want to leave one, don't, and feel proud that you are making a statement that in order to get your money the service industry has to perform at a level that is acceptable to you. I reiterate that tipping is a personal choice and no one should be made to feel guilty however they choose to do it, and no one should be pushed to tip like some one else does.

We can ease up on ourselves.

2008-01-28T15:40:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks at church have been very good sermons. Our pastors have really challenged us to do some self evaluation and to make action plans in order to follow through on some positive changes. I really like this but the last couple of days I have beginning to feel like it is easy to become very self centered in our spiritual lives. I think we can easily get caught up reading the Bible, listening to sermons, and praying all for the sake of making improvements in our lives. Don't get me wrong I think we can all improve and further our relationship with Christ. But self improvement should not be the only reason we indulge in these things. Recently I have been reading the book of Hosea and it is really interesting to consider God's perspective. In Hosea he is pretty angry with his people and their persistence in worshiping other gods and breaking his commands. He puts Hosea in a position to care for children that are not his but that his wife had as a result of her prostitution. What an awful situation for Hosea to be in and yet that situation is representative of the way God was feeling about his people at that time.

I know that we should look for areas of our life that might not be pleasing to God and we should remedy them, and that through scripture and prayer we can identify those areas. But if that is the only level of interaction we have with God and the only aspect of our faith that we practice then I can't help but think we will be dooming ourselves to a life full of failure and depression. I think there is significant value in taking time to pray and study the word in an effort to get to know God better like we would if we were trying to get to know a friend. Similarly I think we should be taking the time to marvel at what God has done in this world as we read it in scripture and as we experience it in the world around us. That is where we can truly find joy and the encouragement that I think we need to live as followers of Christ in a world that has a lot of evil running around.

Hope everyone had a great month of January. Mine was really busy, but it felt like I got a lot done. We'll see how February goes.

New Direction for the Blog

2008-01-14T17:29:00.000-08:00

I've decided to take my blog in a new direction. I will still include posts similar to what I have posted in the past but I intend to do more than just that. This blog is going to serve as a sort of journal of what I am studying, learning, praying about, interesting topics covered at church or Bible Study.

I encourage you to check back regularly to see what I'm posting. I invite your responses to my posts both agreeing and disagreeing and maybe just more insight that you might have to offer. Feel free to post what you are studying or learning as well as ask questions. You can also give me suggestions on what you would like me to post about.

I intend to post at least once a week but maybe more as things occur to me.

I hope you enjoy the things I write, and I apologize in advance if I offend anyone but I don't plan to.

New Poll!

2007-12-05T17:30:00.001-08:00

It relates to the last two posts I made on education.

Salespeople

2007-11-14T17:36:00.001-08:00

This post is fueled by a salesman who over the past two weeks called me at least 5 times. I finally called this guy back today and rather than tell him off about how obnoxious he is I politely just told him that we wouldn't be interested in the near future in using his services but that I will keep him in mind if we change our mind. Reflecting on this situation I am angry for two reasons. First, why in the world does this guy think that calling me practically every day is going to make me happy and want to buy things from him? Salespeople across pretty much all industries are not well liked simply because all they seem to do is badger us until we buy from them. It seems like it used to just be car salesmen and people that go door to door were the ones that everyone hated but we could tolerate it because we really didn't buy cars that often and we could always just not answer the door. But now the problem has become much more wide spread; cell phone people, newspaper, cable tv, telephone service, checkout clerks at most retail outlets, auto repair people, fast food people... etc. Everyone wants to sell us more!!!! Having been a salesman I know why this is the case. Salespeople make money on sales, the quicker they make sales the quicker they make money. Their training frequently becomes the more people you try to sell to the more sales you'll make. They care nothing about each individual person that they interact with, and they care nothing for whether or not the product or service being sold is even useful to the customer. All of their focus is on whether or not they make a sale. Try walking into a sales environment and tell the first person who approaches you that you are absolutely not going to buy anything that day and see what happens. (When I am picking my car up from the service drive at the dealership I like to walk through all the new cars to see how many salesguys will approach me just so I can tell them I'm not here to buy and see their disgusted reaction, one guy was in the middle of a cell phone conversation while he asked me if I needed any help, he wouldn't even get off the phone!).

Now, the reason salespeople are like this is the second reason I am angry about my situation I mentioned. Rather than tell the salesman that I am very annoyed by his approach and that I really don't appreciate being called repeatedly by a person I don't know and that I am so dissappointed in his attempt to get me as a customer I have no intention of ever using him or his company, I simply said I'm not interested. I gave him no feedback to use for how he sells to people except that maybe he needs to be more aggressive to get me to buy! We as consumers need to dictate how the sales process should work. The only reason salespeople treat us the way they do is because it is effective. If we didn't tolerate it they would have no choice but to start treating us better. Here is my advice to the world (though it may not go beyond my small handful of readers) In any sales situation in which you are going to buy something, go into it with the resolve that you are going to be treated with respect and friendliness, you will not be sold anything you don't need, you will not pay for any extras beyond what you intended to purchase, you will not be made to feel guilty or pressured to make a decision on the spot, you will not pay a price you are not completely comfortable with, and any salesperson who makes any of these things happen will not be getting your business and neither will the store that salesperson works for. This will be tough and uncomfortable but if we don't start now this sales situation may never change for hundreds of years!! Think of your children, grandchildren and their children and the sales experiences they will have, save them from the agony I beg you!

New Poll

2007-11-07T17:33:00.001-08:00

Check out the new poll at the bottom of the page!

Investing in Relationships

2007-11-07T17:19:00.000-08:00

Amy and I were at our church's "Marriage Getaway" this past weekend down in Irvine. We had a really good time hanging out and meeting new people, but beyond that the things that were talked about by our pastor throughout the weekend were really valuable so I'd like to pass some of it along.

Matt (our pastor) was talking about how we need to basically be more involved with our spouse and by doing so we can increase our intimacy and inloveness. He talked about how common it is for a husband and wife to have interests and hobbies that are their own and they really don't share with their spouse usually because the spouse isn't interested. He urged us to think differently about the things our spouse likes. We should acknowledge that there is obviously something about those things that makes our spouse enjoy them, which means there is something worth liking about it. Our love for our spouse should motivate us to give more consideration to those things and by doing so it is likely that we too will find something we like about it. All this is to say that the more we write off our spouses hobbies or interests as only for them, the more we are creating distance in the marriage.

I feel like even if I am pretty certain that I won't really like something Amy likes, I should still be open to trying it simply because she likes it. This can be anything... Food, activities, people, movies or shows, music. The more we can share the closer we will be.

To a little bit lesser degree I think this lesson can be applied to friendships, for those that are looking to build stronger, closer friendships, this might be a good approach.

Just something to think about if you haven't before.

The Universe, Space exploration and the Earth

2007-10-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

A few guys that I get together with on Sundays and I have decided to go through the book "The Purpose Driven Life" together. While I was reading one of the chapters it occurred to me that in our galaxy we are essentially reaching the conclusion that Earth is the only planet that has life on it. What is interesting to me is that God created our galaxy and only put people on one planet and yet this planet is not the center/focal point of the solar system, nor is it the biggest planet it is simply the one that God decided to make inhabitable. I couldn't help but think this was an intentional move to help drive home the point that each of us individually are not the center of the universe. God created us to be in this universe and has a purpose for us beyond our selfish pursuits. This led me to start thinking a little bit about space travel and exploration. I'm willing to bet it costs billions of dollars everytime we want to send a shuttle with some people on it into space. I understand that people are intrigued by space because it is so big and so unknown and people have a adventuresome spirit. However, I guess I don't really understand what they hope to accomplish with these space flights. They haven't come remotely close to finding another planet that could have people live on it. They really have only found out a little bit about the other planets in our solar system and yet people are probably aspiring to leave our galaxy and see what else there is. Everyone is entitle to their own interests and pursuits, but the fact that our Government is paying our money for this to happen is pretty frustrating to me. Basically space exploration has done nothing for the good of our country. We beat Russia to the moon but I've yet to see the trophy or the cash prize that we got for that accomplishment, oh wait, like all other space flights we probably got nothing for it. Given that we live in a country that deals with issues like poverty, healthcare problems, social security nightmares, war with other parts of the world, corporate corruption, crime and all the other problems we can't figure out a solution for, should we really be pumping billions of dollars into the hobby of a handful of scientists? I am pretty sure that NASA works on other things besides exploring space, they probably have a hand in rocket based weaponry of some sort. If they are contributing in other areas then by all means, fund those other areas. But space travel doesn't seem to have much to offer society as a whole therefore I believe our government should leave it to the private sector to pursue as they so desire.
Besides if we learned everything about space, the whole science fiction genre of movies and books would probably dwindle because their room for implanting there creativity into the gap of the unkown would be eliminated. On that note and in closing, in the 1998 hit movie Armageddon did anyone else find it interesting that a meteor the size of Texas was coming at the Earth, and they were able to blast it into two nicely cut pieces with a nuke simply by digging down 800 feet? The distance East to West of Texas is 773 Miles, and North to South its 801 miles. I really don't think 800 feet of drilling would do the trick but the drama and special effects of the movie helped us ignore the physics of the situation. Credit for this observation goes to my physics and chemistry teacher Preston Q. Boomer (aka P.Q. Le Boom, aka Boom).

Commercials

2007-09-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

Television commercials are by far one of the most expensive ways for a company to advertise. That being the case it is suprising to me how many company's put out horrible commercials. Here's some examples:

Car commercials show a car driving on an excessively windy road and have some silly tag line to imply that driving that car will some how free you from the restriction of the roads you drive on everyday. Or they show a truck pulling an airplane on a balance beam over a canyon or something ridiculous like that. The only car commercial I can say I like are the VW ones, the ones where they show a car accident were pretty attention grabbing, but they also had a series of humorous ones that ran before those that I enjoyed.

Cell phone commercials are either really horrible or pretty good. They have some funny ones out but there are so many of them that as soon as I realize its a cell phone commercial I tend to tune it out.

Trade schools and various "career colleges" have some of the absolute worse commercials ever, and they are basically lying to people. They will show a girl that is a medical assistant and have her say that she loves her job and she is working her way up. I'm curious as to what a medical assistant works her way up to. It's not like she can just all of a sudden get promoted to a nurse or something.

Financial services, credit cards, and banks advertise frequently but there is always that feeling that they aren't telling you all the details and that if you do business with them you would end up getting screwed somehow. Despite this preconceived feeling they pretty much always advertise the same way.

I primarily like commercials that are funny. So now that its football season I love the coors light beer commercials where they dub some football/coors fans into press conferences with NFL coaches. I also like the Xaiser Permanente commercials because they creatively promote health and wellness. One of my all time favorites is the nextel commercial where they three guys are in an office dancing to the song "push it" by Salt n Pepa and they other guy comes in all frantic only to find out that Nextel has enabled these guys to take care of all their logistics easily, thus they can cue the music again and resume dancing.

I'm sure you all see plenty of commercials, let me know what ones you like and don't like, if you have an idea for a commercial feel free to post that here as well, I promise I won't steal your idea.

Mechanics

2007-09-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

I can't stand having car trouble and yet it never fails that every couple of months I have it. I thought by buying a newer car I could escape this bad luck with cars but that was not the case. My extensive car troubles have given me the opportunity to be a customer of a lot of different repair shops because I really haven't found one worth returning to for future repairs. Now I know everyone hates mechanic shops because they overcharge, they try to fix things that you didn't ask for, they make you feel guilty because your car has problems, they make you feel like an idiot because you don't know everything there is to know about cars (this one is funny considering the number of times they don't know what's wrong with a car, and the number of times they fix something and yet the original problem still remains), They charge outrageous amounts for labor (the hourly fees probably rival some physicians), their shops are dirty, the workers are dirty, they take forever, and they seem to think telling us the part didn't come in is an adequate excuse for a simple repair taking a week when we know full well that parts can be delivered within 24 hrs just like anything else in the world.

My question is simply why? why are mechanic shops this way? Is it impossible to operate them differently? are all mechanics and mechanic shop managers the exact same so that no matter what the shops they work in will always perform in this manner?

Now I must give you my solution. What follows is a potential business that I believe would be a gold mine for whoever pursues it. I don't particularly want to be in this business so I am ok with you guys stealing my idea, good luck to you if you do.

Open a mechanic shop that has adequate parking, with actual parking spaces, not just open space where cars are smashed whereever they will fit. Have a very visible sign that says your name and that you do "all kinds of repairs on all kinds of cars", none of this foreign only or domestic only junk. Have a clean lobby with plenty of clean and comfortable seating. Have a clean cut person working the front counter that takes all the customer info and is able to accurately quote a wait time to have the vehicle diagnosed. Offer customers a beverage while they wait. When telling the customer the diagnosis explain thoroughly what is wrong, what likely caused it, what will be done to fix it, how much it will cost and how long it will take. Give the customer to option to watch the work being done on their vehicle, and have the mechanics explain to them what they are doing while they work. Ask the customer if they would like to be told other potential problems with their car or other things that the mechanic can do regarding maintenance. If the customer says no, then leave them alone. If they say yes, simply suggest one or two things, don't overwhelm them with $5000 worth of work. Also, if their repairs happen to be and outrageous amount, like over $2000 offer a payment plan, like bill them for half of they amount. Warranty your work, a lot of mechanics do but they don't point it out to the customer, make sure the customer knows to bring the vehicle back if there are any issues, and call the customer after a week or two to make sure the car is running properly. This is the basic format to what I think could be a great business. Customer service has been almost completely lost in the auto repair industry, whoever sets out to bring it back is likely to make millions.

If you have any great mechanic experiences please feel free to share, if you have any horror stories share those as well, I'm sure you'll find plenty of sympathy.

Book Stores

2007-08-22T17:54:00.000-07:00

For those of you that don't know I really enjoy book stores. It is one of the very few places I actually enjoy just browsing around with no intent to buy anything. I would like to buy more books if I could be they can get expensive, so I am usually content just seeing what's available. What's weird is I probably would have no interest in like 90% of the books in the store considering I don't really care for mysteries, young people books, romance novels, school type literature, self help books, and most non-fiction and magazines. However, I have come to just really enjoy the environment. I guess the fact that it is a place that exists based on reading and people's enjoyment of reading is refreshing to me. I have to say I enjoy TV and Movies but reading seems like such a healthier form of entertainment. TV and movies are so short and rushed to have a plot and a resolution. Books have more of a luxury, they can be drawn out sometimes even taking 3 or even 15 books to complete a story. The creativity and flow of story telling doesn't have to be cut short like it is in movies and TV because it doesn't have to cater to short attention spans. All this to say I really like book stores and if I ever have the extra couple million dollars lying around I would love to open my own bookstore.

I prefer to read fantasy novels but I am open to other genres I just don't go exploring them unless some one talks me into it. I hope everyone reading this likes to read but I know full well that there are a lot of people that just don't enjoy it. I'm convinced that they don't enjoy it because they just haven't found the right book yet. To those that don't read, if you're open to it I'd love to help you find the right kind of book for you, and I'm pretty certain you won't regret it. To those that do read feel free to comment why you like it and what you like to read.

New Poll

2007-08-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

Hey guys be sure to vote on the new poll and feel free to comment why you chose your answer.

A more positive note

2007-08-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

So I seemed to have struck a chord with things that are a bit obnoxious in the last post. This time I've decided to go for something a little more positive. I'd like to talk about some things that I really enjoy. Not the obvious things, but the smaller things that can really make my day.

I really like soda that comes from a soda fountain, it tastes the best and I really like it when a place has Dr.pepper on tap. On a similar note I like it when a waitress or waiter brings me a refill right before my glass is empty, and when they just bring me one without asking if I want one.

I love the show Seinfield, and I don't think any other sitcom will capture comedy on that level. The Office is really funny but its different, Seinfield is a true gem.

I like when I'm playing basketball and I'm able to shoot a three pointer without thinking about it and it goes in perfectly. It doesn't happen that often but it is encouraging to know that my body can do it, and there's always the chance that I can get better and do it more frequently.

I like it when I am remembered places. Whether its the Doctor's offices I visit for work, or some where else that I frequent regularly. It is a good fealing to be remembered fondly and greeted warmly when you enter a place.

I like seeing people from High School. Even though there are some I don't really like and don't necessarily want to be close friends with, there is something about a brief re-living of the past that is enjoyable.

I like being able to provide a good music playlist for people when they come and hang out at my apartment. I like to try and anticipate songs they will like or songs that they will remember from back in the day. It may not always be noticed or appreciated but I like doing it regardless, because I always appreciate it.

These are just a few of the simpler things that I like. I would encourage you to think about some of the things that may not seem that significant but are enjoyable to you in your life. Please post them in your comments if you have the time, I look forward to reading them.

Check out the new poll as well and post your response. The last one was interesting, I am shocked that people actually selected that they would fall into the bottom of an outhouse and stay there, I really don't think I can think of anything more disgusting than that but i'll try.

Polls

2007-07-24T16:06:00.001-07:00

Remember to give your answer to the poll at the bottom of the page.

Courtesy Corner

2007-07-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

The lack of common courtesy that I witness and experience on a daily basis is astounding. I think its safe to say that the majority of the general public has a complete lack of othersmindedness (this probably isn't really a word but you know what I mean by it). Allow me to choose the simple topic of courtesy out and about on the roadways. When driving on the freeway it is not necessary to be in the far left lane if you are driving the same speed as the cars in the middle or the right lane. My understanding is that the left lane is for faster traffic, if you are going the same speed as the car next to you, you are not faster traffic and therefore should not be in the left lane. I've heard it said that if you are going the speed limit or even slightly over it which is common practice, you should not feel compelled to move out of the way of vehicles that want to go faster than you. My response to this is that basically this argument breaks down to something like "I should be able to drive as fast as i'm comfortable with and if other people don't like it they can go around me" and yet by having that attitude and driving that way you are making a case against that argument because you won't allow others to adopt the same practice. They would like to drive as fast as they are comfortable with and are being prevented by your stubbornness. It's just rude, I say if some one wants to drive faster than you, let them go by, changing lanes to get out of their path is really not that big of a deal.
Next, I would like to target semi-trucks, dump trucks, junky vehicles that can't go fast, and people who for some strange reason are afraid to get remotely close to the speed limit. We are all taught that the right lane is for slower traffic, but I am going to make a revolutionary statement here and say that slow people should drive in the middle lane. Here's why. Traffic is primarily caused by people merging on and off of the freeway therefore anything that potentially slows down the merging process is going to cause traffic. In Riverside particularly a lot of the onramp's don't give you much time to merge onto the 91 freeway. This being the case a large truck or something that is going 50-60mph rather than 65-80 can seriously get in the way when attempting to merge. If these slow moving vehicles had any sort of dexterity that would enable them to move quickly to accomodate cars merging in then things would be fine, but they of course don't. Therefore, if these vehicles were in the middle lane they would be completely out of the way of the cars that are getting on and off the freeway. If you happen to be responsible for a slow moving vehicle I recommend you try using the middle lane, also try speeding it up a little bit, just try it. I promise you won't die and hey, you may even like it, you may even get to where you are going on time!
Lastly I would like to point out a lack of courtesy in pedestrians. I understand full well the purpose of crosswalks but it seems to be that pedestrians using them seem to lose their understanding of why the intersection at which they are crossing has a crosswalk to begin with. Allow me to remind them, the crosswalk is needed because at that particular place a lot of cars want to go in all directions thus it is necessary to stop them in order for any pedestrians to get across the street. That's fine and dandy but when a pedestrian presses the button, waits a little bit, then steps off the curb when told to walk they seem to instantaneously develop a mentality that is telling them the whole world has just been paused so that they can perform an extraordinary show of walking across the street. Due to most people's desire to have their 15 minutes of fame, they really don't want to squander this spotlight they've been given, thus they draw out this time as long as possible. What they fail to realize is that some cars are allowed to go as soon as the pedestrians are out of the way which means, as the performance of walking is going on, others must sit waiting with whatever patience they can muster. Let me wrap it up with this, if you use a walker to get around or are blind by all means take the full time all the way up until the hand becomes solid red to cross the street. Everyone else, haul your butt across there at the double quick because we all have somewhere we need to be and a performance of you walking across the street is not worth the admission to the show. Remember people, we live in California, this is a fast paced place and it's never gonna change, if you can hack it, I hear there are cheap houses in South Dakota.

He's Back and has some new plans!

2007-07-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone, sorry for the delay between posts. I am now committing myself to blogging regularly so I should post on here at least once a week if not more from now on.

So here's my new plan. For a long long time I've considered the possibility of writing my own book. I really enjoy reading, especially books that fall into the fantasy genre. The reason I like to read these types of books is because they level of imagination and creativity that goes into them really impresses me. Not only that but I tend to be very imaginative so I get really sucked into the stories and the characters of these books. That being said I think my creative juices flow regularly enough that I could come up with a pretty good story line of my own. Since I am off school until september I've decided to get a notebook and spend a little bit of time each day brainstorming ideas for my book. I'm in no hurry to get this done but I think if I can turn out a decent book or series of books whether it gets published or not I would be very proud of myself for the accomplishment. Who knows I could turn out to be an amazing author, we'll see!

Back Again

2007-06-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

So things have been hectic because I'm finishing up this quarter at school. Not much has been going on besides work, school, hanging out with friends, playing soccer and basketball, playing halo and warcraft... pretty much everything I usually do.

One thing that is new though is an effort I am making to increase my patience levels. It may sound odd but in Bible study we've been talking about the fruit of the spirit and patience is part of that. I could probably use work on most of them but I've identified this one as one of the biggest issues for me. I have a tendency to let my impatience drive me to unacceptable levels of anger and frustration. Whether its playing sports, going to school, work, or driving on the roads I tend to get impatience with myself and others fairly easily. So at first I thought I should avoid the things that push my patience but then it occurred to me that I have an inner issue and avoiding things that draw it out does not repair that issue. So my intent is to acknowledge the things that typically push me over the edge and prepare myself to handle those situations. This means doing things like praying before certain activities, asking my friends to keep an eye on me, and when I do lose my patience I need to be aware of it and make ammends when necessary.

Not only do I think this will help me to live a life more like Christ, I think it will help me in other areas like being more joyful and showing more kindness to people. This doesn't mean that I need everyone to get on my back all the time but I would invite you guys to help me with prayer and keeping me accountable.

You might all want to take some time and read what the fruit of the spirit is and see if there are some aspects that you should work on. It definitely feels good to take a proactive approach to being more Christlike and I am sure it makes God happy as well.

See ya!

Small Town Kid

2007-05-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

I was at a conference on Monday put on by Harvard Business school, and the Tech Coast Angels (an investment company that as invested like 100 million dollars in new business startups). Some of the content was really interesting and I got to watch a business pitch competition where potential businesses pitch their plans to the investors in an effort to get money.
At times during this conference I really felt out of my element, not so much that I didn't belong, but moreso that I didn't want to be involved with the people there and the type of business they were all in. Ultimately these people are looking to start or fund businesses that are going to operate on a national level and generally the criteria is that within 5 years the business will be reporting like 25 million dollars in revenue. Basically I felt like I really couldn't envision myself pitching my business ideas to these people and operating a business on that scale.
I started thinking about why and I basically concluded that I am a small town person. I grew up in Boulder Creek California and lived there for 18 years. Boulder Creek has maybe 5,000 people living there but you'd never see half of them because their houses are hidden off in the forest. There is one main road that runs through town and there is not a single stoplight there (we had one once but everyone complained so they took it down). There's one elementary school, no high school, the only fast food place is an old old Foster's Freeze. The grocery store is a little place called Johnny's Super. All this to say that I am from a tiny town that is surrounded by other tiny town's, outside the tiny city of Santa Cruz. When I moved to Riverside I felt like I was moving to a huge city, but when I tell people that they all seem to think I'm a little bit crazy, (LA and San Diego are big cities, Riverside is apparently a small city by comparison).
All this to say it is really quite reasonable that I would be used to a small town feel which doesn't breed thoughts of doing business all over the country and even around the world.
This would explain my firm set beliefs in customer service and personalized service in business. I come from a place where you know people that live in your town and where small service oriented businesses are all there is. While being rooted in this may effect my ability to be wealthy I would rather be in a business I enjoy and am proud of than in one that gets me 5 million dollars in private funding from the Tech Coast Angels.

I'm not sure if all this makes sense, I was kind of rambling but hopefully a point about me was conveyed.

I forgot the Jesus Part

2007-05-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

Ok so here's the part about Jesus and customer service. Jesus's life was based on doing something out of love for people. He had no other motive than a love for us to come to earth and die on the cross. Similarly the way he treated people was rooted in a love for them. Even in dealing with people he probably got frustrated with like the pharisees (angry customers) he didn't lash out and kill them all, he was firm and truthful with them and sometimes he had to tell it how it was, but he loved them all the time. So I like to think that if Jesus were running a business he would treat all of his customers with love regardless of how much money they were spending or if they were spending any money at all. He said that the second greatest command is to love our neighbor as our self. If that were the basis for customer service things would be significantly different. Doing business with people would be a chance to not only supply them with products and services they need or want, but it would also be an opportunity to show them that you care about them how Jesus wants you to. Unfortunately this is basically a Christian principle so it is hard to expect it of a non-christian business world. But I am still convinced that serving customers out of love is the absolute best way to run a business.

Hope everyone's doing well, I'll probably have another post up by the end of the week, I've had something on my mind that I'd like to share with everyone.

Customer Service Follow up

2007-04-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

Amy touched on what I had in mind in her comment to the first post. Basically I think that customer service is rooted in the wrong pursuits. People need to be treated well because they are cared about, not because they can potentially spend more money. Lets use an example: Lets say I am going to Verizon because I want a new cell phone (this was my situation about a week ago). If the customer service there were based on the employees wanting me to have the phone and service plan that is going to work best for my needs, at a price I'm comfortable with my experience would go something like this: I walk in and am greeted by a sales rep whom I tell I need a new phone and I need to sign a new contract to continue my service. At this point the rep could ask if I want anything particular in a phone, does it need certain capabilities, in what ways do I use a phone, and do I have a price range in mind. Based on what I tell him/her I would then be shown a few options with the features I had asked for and within my price range, he/she would then tell me to take a few minutes to play around with each phone and see if they seem right for me. When I was ready I could then make my selection and buy it, or I could ask to be shown some more options. Once I had made a decision the rep could then ask me if I would like to make any changes to my plan before I sign a new contract or am I happy with how it is. Being content with it I could sign for another 2 years, get the new phone activated, pay, and leave happy with the experience.
Customer service at Verizon however, is rooted in the fact that if you are too rude the customer won't buy anything so you have to be nice in order to make money off the people that walk in the store. When I went in I told the rep my needs and he looked up how much of a credit I had toward a phone, then proceeded to walk me over to the most popular and most expensive phones that would be a good upgrade from what I was using. He pointed out the features such as being able to download and play music from my phone, the easy text message capabilities, Internet exploring and what not. At this point I told him I don't need to listen to music on my phone and that I don't text message or intend to use the phone for the Internet. This is where he looked at me like I was an idiot, as if to say "who in their right mind wouldn't use all these cool capabilities, everyone should be texting and playing music on their phones, this guy must be like 30 years older than he looks or something." Then he walked me over to basically the "old" phones and said I might be looking for one of these, rather than show me any features or try to sell me on these phones he said tell me if you have questions and walked away. So I started looking at all the phones he didn't show me to compare capabilities and prices and he asked my 3 times if I had any questions. I finally picked one and then he tried to sell me on adding text messaging to my phone plan after I had just told him I don't use texting. Finally I got my plan signed and got out of the store, and my feelings were ones of "did I get the right phone" "did he screw up my plan at all" "am I going to see a big bill or something", rather than feeling good about the transaction.
All of this to say, I don't think businesses can expect to provide good customer service unless it is based on them caring about the people they are servicing. Profits will likely come as a result of that service, but those profits cannot be the motivator or truly good customer service will not be what is delivered.
I would encourage you to think about the service you receive and take mental notes on why you think it is the way it is. I believe the overall level of service in our country can improve, I just don't think its going to.

Jesus and Customer Service

2007-04-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

I think Jesus is a big fan of customer service. I frequently take note of horrible customer service at places where I choose to spend my money, it is sort a habit of mine, and I think that Jesus would be equally dissappointed with today's general level of customer service. I think the problem is rooted in the primary motivator for being in business. The places I most frequently spend my money are, grocery stores, restaurants, golf courses, video rental stores, and a bunch of other places I guess but those are all I can think of right now. Anyway, these businesses pretty much all exist to make money. Therefore, their only reason to even consider offering good service is that it might make them more money. I would say that it has been determined that money is not the best motivator, though it often seems like it, I really think there are about 5 or 6 other things that motivate people more than money but thats a different topic. My point here is that because people think the only thing they stand to gain from good customer service is money they aren't that motivated to give it their best shot. I intend to follow this post up with more of my thoughts on customer service but based on what I've said so far I'd be interested to see if you have any thoughts or responses. Ultimately in order for great customer service, or even good customer service to exist in an establishment there needs to be a better motivator than the money that it can generate. I'll get more into the Jesus aspect of this train of thought in my next post.

One more thing on politics

2007-04-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

It is interesting to me that anyone can just pick to be a candidate for a political office. Then we are given the list of people who want to hold that position and we have to pick one. In most other areas of life people are put in leadership positions because the people around them want to follow them, not because they were the best of the 3 options available. For example in large companies people don't campaign to be CEO or CFO, the board of directors finds the person they think will be best at the job and offers it to them. Similarly on sports teams a team captain is generally chosen by the team and the person chosen will either be one of the best players, or a guy with other qualities that the team values in some one who is supposed to lead them. Yet for some reason our political system is more like a talent show, anyone can sign up and whoever gets the biggest applause wins and gets to have a hand in ruling the most powerful country in the world. I'm not sure where we got off track, but my understanding of the first presidency is George Washington was asked to serve as president because everyone felt he would be the best man for the job, not because he did the most commercials. Let me know what you think, is our system effective for putting the best person in office, or are the greatest presidents and other political officials never being elected because no one ever asked them to serve?

Back to Politics

2007-04-10T15:18:00.000-07:00

When Amy and I were up visiting my parents for Easter we saw a little press conference for republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Amy kind of liked the guy because he seemed nice and friendly. Don't worry, I warned her that it is all an act and that the entire press conference was probably scripted out. Anyway, when Amy's parents picked us up from the airport we were talking about the candidate and they told us that he was a Mormon. It made me start to think if I would factor a person's religious beliefs into whether or not I wanted them as president. The whole separation of church and state would tend to imply that it shouldn't matter. However, I feel that one's religious beliefs are, or at least should be a part of everything they do and all the decisions they make. I would probably prefer that my president be of the same religious background as me but that is not always going to happen, so now I am trying to decide if I would rather have some one who flat out is not religious, or some one who is of another religion like a Muslim or a Jewish person. Its hard to say, I'd be interested to hear all your thoughts on this so feel free to post at will. I'm leaning towards any religious person would be better than no religion at all simply because most religions push for similar value systems that I agree with, but what if it was some crazy religion and all of a sudden our coins said "In the sun god we trust"? Let me know your thoughts.

I'm Back

2007-03-24T00:52:00.000-07:00

Ok so I haven't posted for a while, but I was pretty bogged down with school stuff. I finished the winter quarter so now I get a short break before I start up again. One of the things that has bothered me in my classes is that I feel like there is no room to disagree with my professors. Sometimes I think they are flat out wrong, or they are expressing one of their personal viewpoints that I don't agree with. My problem is that I don't think it is safe for me to say anything.

Example: my professor for Organizational Theory and Behavior doesn't seem to like big companies like Walmart or McDonald's because of some of the problems they can cause people, Like put people out of business, force people out of jobs etc. I acknowledge that stuff happens but I am not totally soured on big corporations, I just think some slight management changes are needed. But in the class it felt like we had to listen to 2 hours of coporation bashing each night. What is weird is that it is a management class yet it is basically discouraging us from trying to work for a big corporation. So my gut instinct is to speak up when I don't agree, but I felt like saying anything would be opposing him in a way that he would take it personally.

I'm open to thoughts on this situation. While I realize that a professor can't always disconnect to a point where their personal beliefs don't bleed into the course content, however I have frequently gotten the distinct impression that if I confront them too much it will affect my grade in the class, and some of these professors I have to have more than once.

What happened to my friends?

2007-03-06T18:53:00.000-08:00

I was thinking today about the guys I grew up hanging out with. When I was in elementary and Jr. High school I spent most of my free time outside in the neighborhood hanging out with the other guys that lived on my street. There was myself and 7 other guys that basically hung out everyday after school. Our crazy variety of activities included the following: football, baseball, ball tag, gastopo (not sure how that's spelled but it implies the german people who arrested jewish people), anything you could possibly do with bikes, playing war in the forest, building forts, video games, computer games, board games, role playing games, shooting bee bee guns, trying to make money however we could, trading baseball cards, plum wars, water wars, making rope swings, river running, wrestling, fighting, joking together, pondering life's mysteries, cutting each others hair, going to movies, paintball, padded sword fighting, sleeping over, camping outside, disc races (you'll have to ask me for an explanation), playing sardines, hiking and most importantly getting in trouble at each others houses. I'm sure we did other things too but those memories have unfortunately faded. What is interesting is that of those 7 guys I really only have contact with one of them now. Two of them I have a general idea of what they are up to but the rest of them I have absolutely no clue where they are or what they're doing. What's weird is that there was never any sort of falling out, and no one really moved away. In high school some guys just stopped coming around to hang out, the group dwindled to 3 of us with an occassional 4th and once I finally left for college I really only talked to one of the guys.

I take solace in the fact that I have developed some new friendships that I really enjoy and intend to do everything in my power to maintain regardless of things like distance between us. But it is really interesting how sometimes we will just let things that were such a huge part of our life fade without ever noticing until they are long gone.

People are getting crazier!

2007-03-05T15:39:00.000-08:00

Here are a few things I've noticed recently that would demonstrate the craziness of people in our world.

Al Gore got an academy award for pointing out that there is a problem in the world, way to go Mr. Brilliant, problems are a dime a dozen, its solutions that we should give awards for.

I have recently been watching morning shows while I eat my breakfast and I'd say a good 90% of the "news" is about what celebrities are doing. Why is it important if Brittany Spears shaves her head? Amazingly this is considered pertinant information that needs to be given a 7 minute segment on the show, while things like the medical care our troops are receiving, or the state of our economy and the stock market get like 30 second snippets or less. It seems like if people wanted to know about the personal lives of other people they would be interested in people like their brain surgeon or maybe their accountant, they do a lot more for us than any celebrity ever has.

I recently read a case study for school detailing how PETA (people against unethical treatment of animals) was going after KFC for how chickens are treated before they are killed. While I don't think that animals should be kept in torturous conditions I think PETA is a ridiculous organization. Their ultimate goal is to eliminate the meat industry because they feel that animals do not exist for us to eat, wear or be entertained by. Anyone who thinks the USA would stop eating meat is absolutely crazy. Furthermore I think they know their aims are crazy because they don't require their members to be vegans, if they did they would probably see their membership of 750,000 drop to something like 5,000.

More to come on the craziness of people.

Politics in the USA

2007-03-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

As far as I know the next presidential election is still a good year and three fourths away and yet it seems the time to start campaigning is now. It is always interesting to me that politicians can now stop doing their job and start trying to make people like them again. Barack O'Bama recently had a speaking event in Los Angeles to try and rummage up support for himself in the Democratic primary race. I believe he's a senator presently but not for the state of California, so it seems like his constituants should be a bit frustrated that he is not working for and representing them right now.

My other frustration with politics is this: O'Bama, along with most other politicians I've ever heard speak take on this crowd pleaser act of saying only things that sound good. Like "Our schools need to be improved, our public education systems is a mess and we can't cripple our children like this." or maybe "Our healthcare system is out of control, quality care is not readily available to all citizens, prescription costs are through the roof, and 35% of our citizens do not have adequate coverage" (I made this stuff up but it sounds like maybe I could pass as a politician.) So the natural response would be "hey O'bama, thanks for telling us how crappy our country is but what are you going to do to fix it? and if you say you're going to look it over, get all the information and come up with a plan then point me to some one with a plan so I can vote for him/her." However, that is not the response that comes. Instead people applaud and cheer and put bumper stickers on their car because for some reason they aren't able to remember the last time they heard a politician speak and say the exact same things. Its absolutely ridiculous!!!!!

Everytime I think about possibly getting into politics I have to stop and remind myself that I would never make it because I don't have it in me to tell people exactly what makes them feel warm and fuzzy all the time. Honesty and action seem to have very little place in our political system, but we only have ourselves to blame, we're the ones that elect these dorks.

Posting Comments on my Blog

2007-03-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, if you post a comment on my blog I would appreciate it if you would type your name at the end so I know who it is that's talking to me.

Thanks.

It has begun

2007-02-27T19:42:00.000-08:00

The time is finally here when Jonathan Miller has seen fit to begin posting his revolutionary thoughts on the web. What could he possibly have to share with the world you're wondering. The answer to that is probably nothing. However, the fact that my mind is constantly churning out ideas, opinions, arguments and witty remarks leads me to believe that one of these days it just might produce something that everyone should know. So in an effort not to miss that if it ever happens I will take up the trendy practice of blogging.

That being said please enjoy reading what I have to say, I'll try to keep it as entertaining as possible and I'll try to post often so check back frequently. I would also be thrilled to have your feedback whether it is praising me or arguing with me it is all welcome, however I must warn you that I enjoy arguing and am not known for backing down when challenged, so if you disagree with me I recommend that you be very convincing or well prepared for a battle.