The Road to Recovery

Here is a chart that the Obama administration recently released. The chart basically backs up Obama's point that he inherited the economic mess and that he has taken steps to correct the problem.

Here is a link to the image and a description on the Obama website. Obviously, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has worked to a certain extent. It was not the only factor in the recovery, just as Bush was not the only factor in the initial mess.

I still don't believe that the Obama administration has done enough. Banks are not making the loans that the administration had hoped for. Jobs have been created, but they are mostly construction and other blue collar jobs. Education spending is still being cut in California and I don't see that trend reversing before the end of the next school year.

Inflation is inevitable in 2010. What this means to the general public is that if people still have trouble finding jobs, then the economy will be worse off. That could be a major disaster!

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P90X

I started a new exercise routine on Monday night. I bought the P90X program a few months ago, but just have not been able to start it. I have been lazy. I started running again a few weeks ago, figuring that I need to exercise more again. Last week some people at work started talking about someone else who started the program.

I am motivated to continue with the program, but the first night was really tough. I took all my measurements, starting photos and previewed the first DVD, back and chest. It really did not look that tough and the people on the video were not doing very many reps of the push-ups and pull-ups. I thought is was going to be challenging, but that I could complete it.

I was very wrong. I could not keep up with the number of reps they were doing. I had to use their approved cheating methods for most of the exercises and I was still not able to do them all. It is much tougher than it looked and it almost took a full hour.

At the end of the back and chest exercises I moved on to fifteen minutes of abdominal work with the Ab Ripper X. They do twenty-five reps of all of the exercises and I could not finish any of them. I had to take breaks, which they allow, in the middle of each one. Some I really struggled with because I have never attempted anything like them before.

During the workout, they encourage you to record your number of reps and wight that was used. I did this on paper then transferred all of the numbers into a spreadsheet when I was done. I really need to keep records so I can track my progress.

I mixed some Lemon-lime Accelerade with water after my workout as a recovery drink. It was tough to drink because it was a little grainy, but I got through it. I was very tight the next day, but was not sore at all. I think the Accelerade really helped me in this respect, so it was well worth the money.

I will keep writing about my progress with this exercise program throughout the 90 days.

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...Four Days Later

Wow! It has been four days since I wrote anything. It feels like I am coming back from vacation, but I am not. I have just been a little busier than normal and my blogging has suffered.

QTRHT had a party on Friday night at our house. I was madly ripping out dead flowers and planting new tulips, calla lilies and some other shrubs. I also planted some bulbs that we bought from Costco in both the front and back yards. The plantings in the front yard turned out great. I am struggling with finding flowers that will survive in the front yard because it is very shady.

Saturday was really the first weekend day we have not had anything to do in a long time. We just relaxed and watched some movies. You just need to recharge from time to time and Saturday was a great day for that.

Some friends invited us out to brunch for Valentine's Day and we took them up on the offer. We ended up going to a little, very little, restaurant in a town near us. The restaurant was named Monet's. It is one of the best restaurants I have been to in some time. The food was fantastic and the atmosphere was fabulous. As we sat there we made plans to go back this weekend for dinner.

Monet's only seats about twenty-two people. The decor is French and is very well done. They try to only use local ingredients and feature wines from Central California. They also have a beer selection that features some that I have never seen before. The owner, waitress and chef were all very friendly and provided good service. The chef, Fred, is French and does a great job preparing the food. I don't say this often, but I can't wait to go back for dinner.

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Inefficiency

My wife and I were driving by our local community college the other day and saw a monstrosity of building going up right next to the road. This was the back side of the campus near the track. I have watched the progress of this building for months now and have been interested, but have never really thought about just how large of a building it was.

It has some yellow underlayment on it now and the color really makes it stand out and gives you a sense of the size of the building. It is huge! It will be used for some sort of sports activities. I don't quite remember the exact use. At this point it is an eyesore.

From the moment they broke ground on the building I questioned its need. The college is cutting classes and enrollment, but it is building this new facility for sports. How does that make sense?

The argument I always get is that it is a grant or there is a specific budget for buildings of this type. Those arguments just make me mad. Why do you cut back on education, but still fund sports? How does that make any sense at all. You are in the process of eliminating classes and students, but you are building a large, new facility for sports. This is just ludicrous.

Here is my argument to the asinine budget argument. Suppose you have a personal budget that includes $200 for food and $200 for clothing and $100 for entertainment. Your income remains the same, but you add twins to your family. Do you keep your budget the same? Or what if your family stays the same, but your income drops by 10%. Do you keep your budget the same? Of course not. Rational human beings change things on the fly as necessary. Why can't the government do the same thing?

It is just very frustrating to see education spending is getting cut while we are still spending money on buildings like this one. Education spending is getting cut, but we are still resurfacing roads. Education spending is getting cut, but we are still fighting two wars. Education spending is getting cut, but we are still bailing out banks and car manufacturers. I think we need to get our priorities straight in this country and start taking care of our people. We can't abandon our children and our future to rescue people and companies who make foolish decisions that affect all of our lives.

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Is a 4-Hour Workweek Realistic

I am currently reading The 4-Hour Workweek and I have to say that so far I am finding the book interesting. But, I don't know if it is realistic. Tim Ferriss is an entrepreneur who no longer needs to work a forty hour week to guarantee his income. He has automated his income by starting a company that he does not need to be involved with on a daily basis, which frees him up to lead the life he wants to lead.

I am a full-time employee, not an owner or a telecommuter. I am in the office every day. I cannot just work for an hour a day and leave. I am also in a position where several people rely on me to make decisions on a daily basis. How can I possibly apply all of the teachings in this book to my situation? At this point I cannot.

I have to admit that I am just over one hundred pages into the book and I have already read about some things I can start using. For instance, Tim suggests that you only check email, voicemail and return calls twice a day. I really could start doing this without too many problems. I just need to train people to accept this. I guess at this point I am being to helpful to people and need to make them a little more independent.

I can see how making this one change could really make me a lot more productive. It would allow me to focus on the more important items for the day without interruption. That alone would increase the quality of my work. The problem is that most people in my company do not have two or three really important tasks to complete every day. Instead, we spend our days putting out fires and accomplishing a few important tasks every week. I have seen for some time that this needs to change, so maybe this book will get me started.

He also recommends that you get rid of the busy work. I currently have a lot of busy work, as do most of my coworkers. This is work that I could very easily pass off to someone else. The only problem is that I work for a small company and we do not have the money in our budget for me to hire someone to do these things. The people who are already working for my company do not have the time to take on additional tasks, so I am left to do them. Maybe if I work with them to get rid of their busy work I can pass mine on to them.

As I am reading the book, I notice that my boss is accidentally doing a lot of the things that Tim suggests. He has not read the book, but he has embraced many of the practices and incorporated them into his work life. He is really pretty hands off on most aspects of the company. The only problem is that he is very reactive rather than being proactive. This means that he is hands off until something goes wrong, then he has to get involved in a hurry. He does not have the systems in place to automate the work like Tim suggests. I just don't think he has the mind for that.

At this moment a four hour workweek is not realistic for me. I hope to be able to achieve this within the next five years. I would like to go back to school and start another career in that time. I have always thought that I want to start my own business, so maybe this book will encourage me to get up and do that.

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Annoyances

I was listening to a podcast earlier today at work. One of the topics that was discussed was what mispronounced words annoy you. The word that started the whole topic was mayonnaise. It was being mispronounced by hosts as mannaise so someone called in to complain.

Here are some of the other words that were mentioned:

1. February - mispronounced Febuary
2. specific - mispronounced pacific
3. across - mispronounced acrost
4. for all intents and purposes - mispronounced for all intensive purposes
5. ask - mispronounced axe
6. kindergarten - mispronounced kindygarden or kindergarden
7. Valentine's day - mispronounced Valentime's day
8. moot point - mispronounced mute point
9. frustrated - mispronounced fustrated

There are so many of these that I can't list them all here. I would bet that there is even a regional and cultural influence on some words that could appear on this list. I know that some of these bug me, so it was funny to hear them discuss them. My particular pet peeve is pronouncing the word comfortable as comftrable. I even have Meg saying that one correctly.

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A Day of Lows...and Highs

Saturday was a day of extremes for my wife and I. We started the day with her shopping for food with a good friend of ours for a post funeral gathering. As I mentioned on Thursday of last week, our good friend's father past away recently. His funeral was on Saturday.

It was a rainy day. I was thinking that would be a fitting type of day for my funeral when that day comes. I guess it is weird for me to be thinking about my own feneral, but I could not help myself.

The funeral was interesting since it was the first one I have attended where there has not been a body. His dad was cremated per his wishes. Our friend is an only child and his parents divorced when he was young. His dad never remarried. All of this added up to an intimate funeral.

There was a slideshow of photos and then people spoke about his father. Our friend was the last one to speak and he was very emotional. His relationship with his dad had suffered a lot over the years, but they were just in the process of trying to rebuild their relationship when his dad died.

We went back to their house after the funeral. They had some food and drinks. I felt really bad for our friend. His mom lives out of state, so now he only has his wife and daughter. His wife's father has told him that he will never be without a dad, so that has made him feel pretty good.

We had to leave their house early to get to my mom's sixty-fifth birthday party. I guess I didn't eat before because I knew there was going to be a lot of food at my parent's house. It turned out to be a pretty good gathering of about thirty to thirty-five people. After a long emotional day it was great to end the day on a positive note.

After dinner, my sister stood up and spoke about my mom. It was a pretty good speach, but it left me itching to say something of my own. I waited patiently for the right moment. After everyone, including my dad, spoke, it was my mom's turn. She thanked everyone and mentioned something about her favorite child. When she was done, I seized my opportunity. I started off by telling everyone that I was the favorite she was referring to.

I talked about how fair she has always been. She has been fair when dealing with my step-daughter and has welcomed her into our family from day one. She has always done her best to treat her like her other grand daughters. I really appreciate this as I know how hard it can be to accept a new person into a family and to try to treat them all equally. It really takes a special person to do this.

I made a joke or two about what my sister had said earlier in the evening and then ended it. We sang to her and then had cake and ice cream. It was a great evening for her and she had a lot of fun. She has waited to be "old" for a long time.

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Life, Death and Emotion

The father of a good friend of mine died last week. It really hit him pretty hard even though he did not have a great relationship with him. He was actually in the process of rebuilding that relationship when it happened.

When something like this happens to someone you know, it really makes you think about your own life and the relationships you have. You realize that you don't want someone close to you to die while you have a bad relationship with them. My problem is that I don't have a good relationship with too many people.

I don't know what it is about myself, but I just don't need people and relationships like most people. As I say that though, I have to think about what would happen to me if I had no relationships at all. I don't know if I could survive the way I am now. People are hard coded for relationships.

The Limbic System is the center of emotions. It supports many functions including emotion, behavior, long term memory, and the sense of smell. I joked to my wife yesterday morning that I think my Limbic System is broken. I think she would agree with me.

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National Signing Day

Today was national signing day for high school football players. It is the day that they can formally sign with the college of their choice. It is a day that I usually look forward to and start following as soon as I get to work. I usually keep an internet window open as I work and get updates from time to time.

Today was different. I did not even get a chance to browse the internet until about 10:00. By that time, a lot of letter of intents(LOI) had already been faxed into the college athletic departments. I only had the chance to get updates about three or four times throughout the day. I was just too busy at work.

I was looking forward to today because it was the first time USC alumni were going to be able to judge the new coaching staff. Lane Kiffin and company did not have very much time to try to rescue the Pete Carroll recruiting class and add to it with their own players. I was worried that they were going to lose a big chunk of the recruiting class.

I was pleasantly surprised with the job they did. They hauled in a couple of players who were not verbally committed to USC and virtually kept the entire class in tact. A few players slipped away, but that was expected with a coaching change. If I had to give them a grade on the class, I would go with a solid A.

They had a lot of excuses for not keeping the class complete. Nobody could blame them if it happened. The timing of the coaching change was just not ideal for them. They did not rest and did not accept any of the excuses and did a great job. I can't wait to see what they are able to do with spring practice.

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The Start of My New Hobby

We received the catalog for the services offered by our city parks and recreation department in the mail over the weekend. I browsed it and noticed an acrylic painting class at the senior citizen center. I am intrigued, but I was thinking that it might be awkward to be the youngest person in the class. I am not the most social person as it is, so if there was nobody in the class near my age it would not be much fun.

I am a very fast learner, so it is very easy for me to get bored in a classroom setting. I have painted in the past and I think I remember enough that may allow me to be at the top of the class as far as pure painting skills are concerned. I may not be the student with the best art skill, but I should be close to having the greatest technique.

I used to draw all of the time when I was growing up. I drew in class when I was bored. I drew at home when I had some down time. Remember, I grew up before computers and at about the time home video games just started to be introduced. I did not have many indoor distractions other than TV and I just did not watch very much. If I wasn't drawing, I was usually on my bike somewhere around town. I am not saying that I was great at drawing, but I could hold my own.

I haven't drawn much in years. Every once in a while, Cheeseball or Chachi will ask me to draw something for them. It is very awkward to start again, but I usually end up with something that is passable for the object i am drawing. I think this will translate to painting well. The only thing holding me back is that I often question my decision making when it comes to color. I rarely colored my drawings and I have very little experience with color choices. Most of the time my color choices in the graphic design work I do can be considered very boring. I really need to work on that.

I don't know yet if I will take the acrylic painting class or not. I need to make a decision so that I can enroll in time if that is what I decide. It is just a two-hour class one day a week, so it would not be that big of a time commitment.

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What I Am Reading

I just finished reading the book Superfreakonomics. I read the original, Freakonomics, in 2008 and was really looking forward to the follow-up. I really enjoyed this book. Much like Malcolm Gladwell, the authors of these books find really interesting problems to apply microeconomics to.

Freakonomics featured research done on drug dealers in Chicago. In Superfreakonomics they discuss research done by the same economist on prostitution in Chicago. If I would have known that economics would be so interesting, I might have majored it econ rather than business.

I ordered several books from Amazon.com before I finished Superfreakonomics so I would stay on schedule for reading twelve books this year. As it happened, I waited too long to order them. It took six days for the books to arrive, which meant I went two days without reading. I really wanted to get ahead of schedule, but I guess I will just have to keep trying.

I am currently reading The 4-Hour Workweek written by Timothy Ferriss. This book was recommended to me by a former coworker who is now doing engineering consulting. I ran into him at our last trade show in Las Vegas. He told me that he was working three days a week and that was too much. He really embraced the ideas in this book and recommended it to me several times.

Since that time, I have done some research on Tim Ferriss and have read his blog and watched some of his videos. He seems to be an interesting person. He has some different ideas on life and success. He speaks multiple languages. He seems to be a bit self-absorbed, but that may be why he has been successful.

So far, the book is not very easy to read. It is not written like a traditional book, but more like a book you order from an infomercial that is supposed to teach you how to get rich. This is a bit of a turnoff to me as it seems like a method to get rich rather than a useful book. I am not going to stop reading it, so I have to keep an open mind.

I would love to lead the life he talks about in his book. In his ideal life, you are not tied to a particular place. You are free to move about the world freely, using technology to keep your link to your career. He says that it is best to take mini retirements along the way rather than wait until you are old enough to retire. I agree with him in that I would love to experience things now, while I am still fully functional rather than wait until I am retired. This book aligns perfectly with my current lack of satisfaction with my career.

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Carne Asada and Rice

I love Spanish Rice! I also love a Portuguese twist on Spanish Rice that one of our friends makes that is spicy. I decided to make my own last night. I started with QTRHT's recipe. I added some chili powder and a splash of tapatio sauce. That made some great Spanish Rice with a kick. It was fantastic if I must say so myself.

I also made some carne asada on the grill. I was trying to figure out what to season it with. I did not marinade it, so I needed something better than just salt and pepper. I started looking through the refrigerator and the pantry and pulled out some stuff. Here is what I ended up with for my mojo sauce:

I think it was flank steak.
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 jalapeno pepper, coarsely chopped with the seeds
onion powder
orange juice
the juice of 1 lime
Bud Light Lime beer

I put the meat on the grill and added salt and pepper. I grilled it for a while on indirect heat and then flipped them over. I added salt and pepper to this side. I then put the mojo sauce on each piece of meat and continued grilling on indirect heat.

I was so excited to try this meat and rice. I just could not wait for it to be ready. QTRHT heated up some tortillas on the stove as I cut the meat into long slices and we sat down to eat. I put some slices into a tortilla. Added some rice and cheese. My first bite tasted fabulous. I was very happy with the way the rice and carne asada turned out. I usually do not get very excited about food, but the spiciness of this food just really hit the spot.

The girls both scraped the jalapeno off the meat and they both really liked it a lot. Meg kept asking for more which is very rare. She does not eat very much meat. I think we were all very satisfied with this meal.

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Biggest Misperception

I read an interview with Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com in The New York Times. The article was about how to find employees that fit in with your company culture. Tony was asked for some specific questions he asks interviewees.

At the end of the article, the writer asked, "If you could ask only one or two questions to get a sense of a person, what would they be?" His first question was, "If you had to name something, what would you say is the biggest misperception that people have of you?"

This really made me think. I have been thinking about this question for at least a day. If I had to choose one, I think it would be that I think that I am better than people. I have always thought that people think that I am "stuck up" or that I think I am better than them. While this is true to a certain extent. The real truth is that I am an introvert.

As an introvert, I just don't need to talk to people as much as most people. I prefer to stand back and observe and listen to what people are saying. I like to learn, so I have always been the type of person that listens much more than I talk.

The second question that Tony would ask is, "What’s the difference between misperception and perception?" I assume that Tony is asking for the literal difference. A misperception is something that is misunderstood. For instance, people may misperceive me as being a person who thinks that I am better than other people. In reality I am not completely that type of person, but it is accurate to a certain extent.

This is one of the pieces of my personality that I need to work on. I need to be open to different types of people. I judge people too much, which limits my exposure to certain types of people. By limiting myself in this way, I am not able to learn things from this segment of the population. I am really doing myself a disservice.

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Loss and Emotion

People react differently to loss. Some people take it really hard. Others push it down deep inside of them and hide it so they don't have to deal with it. I tend to fall into the later category.

As I think back to the times when I have experienced loss in my life, I don't remember much. Luckily, I have not had to experience loss in my life very often. I don't remember how I dealt with the losses. I think I just try to go on with my life. I think about the people all the time, but I haven't let the losses tear me apart.

I often question if I just don't care enough. Am I less of a person because I don't cry as much as I should? Is there something wrong with me? Am I just too selfish so when I lose someone around me I don't care?

I don't think that is the case. I think I care about people as much as the next person. I just deal with my emotions differently than a lot of other people. I think that I am a well adjusted person.

I sometimes wish that I dealt with my emotions like most people. I feel like I am not very normal.

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Priorities

We all make choices in our lives. Most of us make selfish choices when we are young. I would hope that we become better at making choices as we get older and mature. It doesn't always work out that way though.

There are people who never grow up. They never get any better at making choices. They never try to get over their selfishness. These people are not good parents. They are the type of parents that choose to go to Las Vegas instead of paying for things for their kids. They are the parents who don't pay child support so they can buy motorcycles or video games or whatever they want.

These people are also the type of people who make their kids feel bad for wanting things. The things that are important to them are not the things that are important to their children, so they make their children feel guilty for wanting them. They make their children feel bad for them. They tell their kids that they don't have money or that they can't pay their house payment, then they go off and play golf with their friends.

This just doesn't make sense in my world. I try to do everything I can for my children and family. I don't spoil them and give them everything they want, but I do what I can for them within reason. I teach them the important lessons of life. I teach them the value of things. I teach them the difference between wants and needs. I do what I can to make sure they don't end up being the type of selfish, immature people that I dispise.

I know for a fact that people do not change unless they want to change. So, if you expect your spouse or parent to change you are out of luck.

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Expectations

Expectations are all around us. I have expectations of what other people should do or how they should fee. I have expectations about how I should be treated by other people. I have expectations about how my food should taste. I have expectations about how much my pay check should be. We all have expectations. Maybe that is why we all get dissappointed so often.

When you go into a situation with an expectation, chances are you will be dissappointed. Especially if you have not communicated that expectation to the other people involved. How do you expect people to meet your expectations if they do not know what those expectations are. It is not uncommon for two people to have two different expectations of a situation. That is where a disconnect happens.

Someone at work today asked me if I had problems in my first year of marriage. I told them that everyone has problems in their marriage. I also told them that most of those problems are due to unrealistic expectations and lack of communciation. I think the two go hand-in-hand.

Communciation is the most important thing in any relationship, whether it be a work relationship or with your spouse. Without effective communication, your relationship will fail.

Expectations are difinitely second most important on my list. I think if we can stop projecting our expectations onto others we will be much more satisfied. Our work and personal relationships will be much more rewarding and we will be happier as a society.

The problem is that it is very difficult to stop having expectations for people. I try really had to remove expectations, but it is hard to do it all of the time. It is something that you can never stop working on.

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Writer's Block?

I am really struggling to write on this blog 5 times per week. My two posts this week have been horrible experiences for me. I also think they are just plain bad posts, but I am committed to writing at least 5 times per week so you are stuck with them. I have been thinking a lot about what the problem is for me this week and I cannot come up with an answer.

I have considered writer's block, but I am not a professional writer and that is one of the criteria for having the condition. Here is the definition from wikipedia: Writer's block is a condition, associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task in hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked" writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers.

This sounds about like what I am experiencing, but I keep forcing myself to write. For this reason, I don't think I am experiencing writer's block. I think I am just bored. Nothing really exciting is happening in my life right now. I am just going through the motions.

We are in a holding pattern with our foster/adoptive child. I just got an email last night that said they still need some items from us. This was after them telling me everything was in about a week and a half ago, so this was not welcome news. I now have to scramble to get the other items completed. It seems to be delay after delay. It is such a let down from all of the excitement we were experiencing at the end of last year.

I am also really affected by the negative emotions that my teenage daughter is going through. It seems like she is never happy and that upsets me. I am frustrated that she feels this way and I don't understand it. She has more than most people, yet she is not as happy as I think she should be. I need to stop having expectations for her feelings and just let her experience them on her own, but it it had. She projects her feelings on everyone around her.

I can't blame her though. The problem really exists within me. I need to shake things up a bit and get some excitement back in my life so I have something to write about. I need to experience something new. Maybe the answer is to just start running again to train for a 5K. That kept me motivated on a goal.

I guess it could also be all of the rainy days that we have been experiencing lately. The fourth of six storms should arrive today. I really like the rain and I know we need it, so I never thought it would get me down. Maybe it has though. Oh well, that just means I need to try harder.

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Anger

Anger is a strange thing. Some people can control it and other just cannot no matter what they do. I believe it is something that you can learn to control, but I just don't know for sure. It seems like a lot of people who have anger issues are also very stubborn people. I don't know if the two always go hand-in-hand or not, but it sure seems that way.

What causes anger problems in people? I don't know why I am able to control my anger, for the most part. I don't know why other people are simply unable to control theirs. Maybe you can control it if you want to. I just don't know. I personally believe that I can control all of my emotions pretty well. I don't think it is something that was learned, but rather something I was born with.

I generally have a lack of emotion. Maybe that is why I am able to keep mine under control. My observation is that a lot of people who are unable to control their anger are very emotional people. Is the control of emotions a personality trait? If so, what personality types are able to control their emotions and what types are just completely unable? This post brought up many more questions than it answered, so I will have to revisit it at a later time.

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If You Dig Deep Enough, You May Just Find What You Are Looking For

I am sure that most people have head the term that you can make data say whatever you want it to say. When given the same data, two different people use that data to support totally opposite conclusions. All you have to do is leave out the data that does not support your idea and solely focus on the data that does. I think this applies to life in general.

This applies to every subject you have a discussion, or argument about. You can make valid arguements for both sides. It is usually the person who is better at the arguing who ends up winning the discussion. It is really hard to go into something without bias. That bias can end up skewing your results, thus making your findings questionable.

The same thing goes for history. You can look back at a person like Rosa Parks who I wrote about last week. If you really want to find something wrong with her story, then you can. If you really want to believe something about her story, they you will be easily convinced. That doesn't mean that it is the truth. It just means that you believe it to be true.

What brought this to my mind was the look of Google today. When I first opened the page this morning I noticed that they had updated their logo for the special occasion of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. At first I did not even know what it was representing. I wondered why it was in black and white. I hovered my mouse over the logo and saw that it was for MLK Jr.'s birthday. My first thought after learning its purpose was, "why is it in black and white?"

If you wanted to dig into this or look for a deeper, hidden meaning you could. You could associate the black and white to Martin Luther King, Jr. being black. You might even be able to accuse Google of being racist or some other nonsense. Maybe it is just in black and white because of the era he lived in. Who knows what influenced their design, but I do not think it is racism.

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What Not to Buy in 2010

I came across an interesting article on Yahoo Finance today. It is titled "10 Things Not to Buy in 2010." Here is the list:

1. DVDs I think it is still safe to buy DVDs, especially Blu-ray. Internet downloads of movies just take too long and if you are looking for a high definition movie it will take even longer.

2. Home Telephone Service This one is a toss-up for me. I don't want to have a home phone, but I don't want salesmen bothering me on my cell phone. I have Google Voice, but have not really used it to its full potential. I actually have not even given out my phone number. It is a nice service because you select which of your phones you want to ring when someone calls the number. I will have to experiment with it in 2010 to see if I can eliminate my home phone.
3. External Hard Drives I strongly disagree with this one. There is still a place for an external hard drive. The online backup services are much more expensive and you are putting your cherished photos and music collection in someone Else's hands.

4. Smartphone Also-Rans Other than the Blackberry and iPhone, none of the other smartphones have really caught on. The Blackberry is still the business phone of choice. The iPhone walks the line between hipsters and wannabe hipsters. I personally really like my iPhone, but it does have limitations and annoyances.

5. Compact Digital Cameras I made the switch several years ago and have not looked back. I think there is still a use for a compact digital camera. The size is ideal and the ease of use is what many people like. A digital SLR is more expensive and is more complicated.

6. Newspaper Subscriptions Newspapers have been dead for several years now. They need to change their business model if they are going to remain viable businesses. Our society wants news now, not in in 12 hours.

7. CDs Song downloads are fast and the quality is good. There is no reason to buy a CD in a store or online when you can get it almost immediately from iTunes.

8. New College Textbooks With ebook readers catching on and Apples tablet about to be released, there is no longer a need for printed textbooks. The transition will take some time, but I see it happening soon. Printed books are bad for the environment and are too expensive. They stretch our education budgets thin.

9. Gas-Guzzling Cars These went out with the 70s. I love my Prius and while I am not looking forward to the projected gas prices in 2010, I am also not afraid of them. My car has enough power, cargo capacity and gets great gas mileage as well. I don't think there should be any new cars sold that don't get at least 30 miles per gallon and have a hybrid drivetrain. We have the technology, we just need the car makers to embrace it.

10. Energy-Inefficient Homes and Appliances Again, we have the technology we just have to use it. Appliances have come a long way. Home building technology has as well, it is just very expensive still. Appliance prices benefit from economies of scale. Home building technology does to a certain extent as well, but prices just aren't falling fast enough for most types of items. A lot of people just don't want to pay the extra money for energy efficient items other than windows, doors and insulation.

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Was Rosa Parks' Protest Staged

QTRHT and I were in the kitchen cooking dinner tonight and she was talking about her day at school. Out of nowhere she told me that some of the teachers at her school told her that Rosa Parks' protest on the city bus was staged by the NAACP. One teacher said that her husband told her that and even showed her the proof. Another teacher agreed that she was not the first to refuse to give up her seat to a white passenger.

I told QTRHT that I knew that Rosa Parks was not the first to refuse to give up her seat, but that I had never heard that her protest was staged by the NAACP. I told her I would have to do some research. She knew that I would and told me that was why she told me.

I did some research and have not found anything to support the idea that her protest was staged. Here is a summary of what I did find.

Rosa Parks was a seamstress and also worked as a volunteer secretary at the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. She worked directly with kids as an advisor to the NAACP Youth Council. On March 2, 1955 Claudette Colvin, a 15-year old girl was arrested for not giving up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger. Colvin was a member of the NAACP Youth Council. Rosa Parks began raising money for her defense. Colvin was not the first to refuse to give up her seat, but the NAACP was looking for someone to be the face of their fight and her timing was right.

Soon after Colvin was arrested, she began a relationship with a married man and became pregnant. E.D. Nixon, the president of the Montgomery NAACP, decided that Colvin would not be the right person to be the face of the civil rights battle. He later explained that he had to be sure that he had somebody he could win with, and Colvin was not that person. Her pregnancy and relationship with a much older, married man would give the opposition reason to argue.

In 1943 Rosa entered a bus through the front door and sat down. The bus driver told her to exit the bus and enter again through the back door. She started to exit the bus and dropped her purse. She sat down in a seat for a white passenger momentarily to pick up her purse. The bus driver was angry and as soon as she got off the bus he sped away, leaving her standing in the rain.

On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks was on a bus in downtown Montgomery. She sat in the "colored" section. She noticed that the bus driver was the same one who had left her in the rain in 1943. The white passenger seats on the bus filled up and a few more white passengers got on the bus. The driver, James Blake, walked back to the "colored" section and moved the sign marking the section back behind the row of seats Rosa and three other black passengers were sitting in. He told them to get out of their seats. The three other passengers complied, but Rosa moved to the window seat instead of moving back to the new "colored" section. The police were called and she was arrested.

E.D. Nixon now had the face of the fight. Rosa Parks was a morally clean, reliable person that did not have anything in her background that would taint her story. The NAACP had to pick its battles and Rosa Parks was deemed to be worthy of the fight.

None of my research supports the ideas that were expressed to QTRHT today at school. I don't know why anyone would want to portray Parks' protest as a staged event. It seems like they are trying to taint her actions and legacy. The way we treated black people at this time was wrong. I don't fault the NAACP for waiting for the right person to come along before taking up their fight. That is just smart.

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A Whirlwind Weekend Comes to an End

Wow! After the Seattle Seahawks fired their coach on Friday, rumors started to spread that Pete Carroll had accepted a deal to be their new coach. I took everything with a grain of salt since the media and Internet posters are all trying to break news. Their was no word from Pete or USC. The NFL has the Rooney Rule that requires all teams to interview minority candidates for jobs and at that point it appeared that rule had not been satisfied.

The one minority candidate they had targeted told them he would not waste his time to interview if a deal was in place. The Seahawks convinced him to interview on Saturday morning. On Sunday, Pete called the group who enforces the Rooney Rule and told them that he had not done anything to be out of compliance with the rule.

Monday morning it was officially announced that Pete was leaving USC. It was later made official that Pete had accepted the job with the Seattle Seahawks. I was glued to the Internet all day Monday. There were rumors about who would be the next coach at USC. There were rumors about who had been offered the job and who had turned it down. It appeared that the front runner, Jack Del Rio might make a decision on Today.

After meeting with the Jacksonville Jaguars owner earlier today, Jack told the media that he was staying put. Another mini meltdown happened on all of the USC message boards. Who was next in line? Nobody knew. I certainly didn't know.

At about 6:15 today an announcement came out of left field. Lane Kiffin was named the new head coach of the USC Trojans. Lane was a backup quarterback at Fresno State. After a few coaching stops he was hired by Pete Carroll at USC. He started as a wide receivers coach and quickly worked his way to offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator.

Kiffin was hired as the Oakland Raiders head coach in 2007 and fired by Al Davis in 2008. Two months later he was hired by the University of Tennessee as their head football coach. He started making waves in the SEC immediately. He was calling out other coaches and just generally being mouthy. He also had some recruiting and player issues while head coach at Tennessee. He had assembled a pretty good coaching staff with his dad, Monte Kiffin, ad defensive coordinator and Ed Orgeron as recruiting coordinator, associate head coach and defensive line coach.

Kiffin is bringing both his dad and Ed Orgeron with him to USC. Ed coached at USC and was the recruiting coordinator prior to being hired as the head coach at the University of Mississippi. Kiffin was Ed's replacement as the USC recruiting coordinator. It is great to see coach Orgeron coming back to USC. He has a fiery personality and is a great recruiter.

The rumor is that USC is in negotiations to hire Norm Chow back as the offensive coordinator. That would go a long way for recruiting. He was a great quarterback coach while at USC. He has struggled in his more recent stops, but maybe he can bring that magic back with him. We will have to wait and see.

I don't know how I feel about Lane yet. I will have to wait to see how the team does before I pass judgement. I guess I am excited about change right now. Fight On!

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How Young is Too Young

Meg's friend came over on Saturday and slept over at our house. She is a very energetic girl, just like Meg. Her parents are divorced and mother lives in another state, so she lives with her dad. She is a handful and her and Meg are a little out of control when they are together, but they have a lot of fun.

She was at our house for a few hours when she started frantically running through the house saying that she lost her phone. I was surprised and asked her what phone she was talking about. She told me she lost her cell phone. I assumed her dad had given her his, but she told me it was hers. I was in total shock. She is in third grade! For what does a third grader need a cell phone?

I started thinking about why she would need a cell phone at that age. I am assuming she is eight years old. She can't drive and is too young to be walking anywhere by her self. As far as I know she rides the bus to school and back home again. She is not involved in any sports or other extra-curricular activities like dance or gymnastics. Why then does she need a phone?

She told Meg that it is because she rides the bus home. I don't understand that at all. A parent should know exactly what time their elementary school child needs to be at school and what time they get out of school. They should know what time the bus picks the kids up at their stop and what time they are dropped off after school. I cannot see why that would be a good reason for a third grader to have a cell phone.

After a lot of thought, I told my wife and mother-in-law that the only reason for a child that age to have a cell phone is if the parents are just not good parents. I believe this 100%. One of the ways that we have ensured that our girls are growing up with the right values and are making good decisions is knowing where they are at all times. I think that giving a kid a cell phone gives you a reason to not stay for their soccer practice or to not be there waiting to pick them up after practice if you don't stay. It gives you the potential to check out of your kids life more often.

Some parents may argue that it gives you more access to your child because you can text or call them at all times. My argument to that is that I am with my child at almost all times, or they are with a friend or family. Why then would I need to text or call them? I just don't understand this. Beside the fact that you are then spending at least $10 a month on the phone plan without any texting plan. That could cost another $5-$20. That is just an unnecessary expense in my opinion.

I guess this post ties in well with my earlier post about the difference between wants and needs. A cell phone is definitely a want, not a need and is therefore unnecessary.

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The End is in Sight

We received word from our social worker at FamiliesFirst on Thursday that we are done with everything except our home study. It will still take a few weeks before they can take care of that because they have a back log.

Our social worker will be presenting us as adoptive parents at a Tulare County adoption meeting this week. I guess this is the first step in finding us a child to adopt. We are all very excited.

When we told Meg she asked us if the child gets to select us. I had to explain to her that it is a decision that involves many people including the child and our family. She understood the process a little better at that point. We all just hope that we can find a child sooner rather than later.

Who wouldn't want to be a part of this family?

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Education Reform?

Earlier this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that the state needed to change policies that spend more money on prisons than on the state’s education systems. On Thursday he signed a major school-reform package. The plan calls for California's lowest-performing schools to be targeted for a sweeping overhaul and it enables the state to try to get piece of $4.35 billion in federal Race to the Top funds.

I agree that our school system needs to be reformed and I do not know enough about this plan yet to make a decision on it. our schools need more funding. I truly believe that funding is necessary for education improvement. We can't be so quick to cut school funding the minute we get into a difficult budget situation. I believe that we should establish a set budget per student and that amount should never be decreased.

California's education spending per student is about 14% less than the national average. As a matter of fact, California ranks 44th out of the 5o states and Washington DC. On K-12 achievement, California ranks 39th and again falls below the national average. I think we can see that there is a positive correlation between education spending and student achievement. The two top performing states, Massachusettes and Maryland spend at least 10% more than the national average per student on education.

We have a long way to go in California to get our school system back where it belongs. I have a real problem with the state taking over schools that are not meeting the state mandated performance levels. The reason I am against the state taking over schools is that they automatically reduce the curriculum, eliminating science and history education to focus on language and mathematics. In my opinion, this is just a band aid that will help the schools get back to the mandated level over time. If you focus more time on language and math, it naturally follows that your scores in those subjects will eventually improve. The problem is that these students will be behind in science and history when they enter middle school.

The plan also enables parents to hold their schools accountable, demand change and may even allow them to move their child to another school. I do have a problem with this part of the plan. The schools that perform the best in an area do so because the parents are more involved in their children's lives. They are more involved in their children's education. Allowing a parent to move their child to another school can have sweeping ramifications.

First. The higher performing schools could experience increased class sizes and maybe even over crowding. This would lead to less individual attention from the teacher which would lead to lower performance.

Secondly. Some of the children who move to these schools might not have the level or parent involvement in their lives that the other students do. This may make them fall behind which would then drop test scores for that school.

Thirdly. If all of the children whose parents have even a little bit of involvement in their lives leave the lower performing schools then what will their student populations looks like? The students who are left there would have virtually no parent involvement in their education. This would lead to a lower performing school. This would create an even larger gap between the high performing and low performing schools.

It is proven that children who receive more individual attention from their teachers and parents perform better in school. They have better test scores and are more well rounded students.

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The Difference Between Wants and Needs

I was having a discussion with some coworkers today. It was about crime and punishment for the most part. We discussed marijuana and prostitution in particular. We were talking about laws and the punishment for breaking a law. We were in agreement for the most part, until another manager walked into the room.

He moved the conversation from marijuana to guns. He started babbling about taxing guns and ammunition and was equating them to cars or some nonsense. For the most part, he is a pretty level-headed person but he is a very old school, country, conservative person. I stopped him and asked him why he needed a gun. He said that it makes him feel safe. I asked him how he used his guns. He said to shoot things and animals.

I explained to him that my belief is that the vast majority of people who have guns do not need guns. If you are using your guns for hunting animals that you and your family eat, then you need guns. If you are using them to shoot things, then you don't need them. You want them. There is a big difference here and I think many people get very confused. A need is something that you must have in order to survive, like food, water, clothing and shelter. A want is something that you can live without, but still desire. For most people guns are not necessary, they just want to have them.

The problem with people in this country is that we think that we have a right to do whatever we want. There are generally some limits, but if we can afford to buy something we feel like it is our right to own it. The problem is that you have a right to things that are necessary. You don't have a right to something just because you want it. That is just plain ridiculous. The people who believe this way are never happy with the decisions our government make. They often contradict themselves because they are emotional people for the most part.

It is a fact that in countries with stricter gun control laws there are fewer crimes committed with guns. In this country we are still too arrogant to learn from other countries. We insist that our way is the best way. We are very slow to change our ways. I just wish that people would open their minds and think about the larger picture before making a decision based their own private views.

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Personal Goals for 2010

I don't like to make resolutions, as I blogged about previously, but I have been thinking about a few goals that I would like to achieve in 2010.

1. Read 1 Book a Month. I have really tried to read more books to improve myself and I have a really long wishlist of books at Amazon.com. Here is a link to My Reading List. I am currently reading "SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance" which Tina bought me for Christmas.

I am not a very fast reader and I don't remember what I read very well, so reading has always been a challenge for me. It is hard to stay motivated to read a book if you cannot remember what you read yesterday. I have been better about this and still need more improvement.

2. Run in 2 5K Races. Last year I ran in my second 5K race. The Visalia Emergency Aid Race Against Hunger on the morning of Thanksgiving day. Meg ran with me, but she says that she will not run in another race. I am fine with running on my own. Meg and I finished that race in 27:48 and I think we could have easily cut another minute off of that time. I think the cold weather and standing around so long before the race affected her.

I would like to run at least one race out of the area and maybe the Race Against Hunger again. I would also like to run a 5K in a time of about 25 minutes. It would be pretty cool to run a race on Catalina Island or somewhere else that we could also take a little vacation after the race. If I accomplish my goal this year, I would like to run in a 10K race next year.

3. Volunteer. As I stated in a previous post, volunteering on Christmas Eve at the Visalia Rescue Mission was a great experience. I came away thinking that I need to volunteer more. I really need to accomplish this goal in 2010.

4. Change a Child's Life Tina, the girls and I went to watch The Blind Side last night. I was not really that excited to see the movie, but I came away from it feeling great about going throught the process to become a foster/adoptive parent. The movie shows the power that someone can have in a child's life and it really touched all of us. Meg has wanted to see the movie since she first heard about it. It wasn't the best movie that I have seen, but it really fit in with what we are going through in our own lives at the moment.

As far as the foster parent process, we just have one item left to be completed. We are waiting for a social worker to schedule our home study and interview. After that is completed, we are ready to accept a foster child into our family.

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Cell Phone Networks

I was talking to a few coworkers yesterday about cell phone network quality. I told them that I just want to know who has the better network. We know that either AT&T or Verizon is lying on their commercials and this is a disservice to consumers. How can we make an educated decision if we are not getting the truth?

We brainstormed for a bit and someone threw out the idea that there should be a company that offers a phone that switches to the strongest carrier in the area. This is a great idea. I don't know how exactly the financials would work in this deal and how much a plan would have to cost. Maybe this is something that an upstart like Google could accomplish in their war with the iPhone. What better way to kill the iPhone than offer something that Apple cannot offer, the absolute best coverage available.

I don't know if something like this is even possible since each cell phone provider has their own network. I don't know if they would even allow something like this to happen. It is a great idea, but this is something for someone else to figure out.

My idea was that there should just be one cell phone network in the United States. All of the carriers could jointly own the network including maintenance and upgrade costs. The network would have to be substantial to handle all of the cell phone and media traffic. It would need to be on the leading edge technologically. That is what we should have anyway. The networks in other parts of the world are much better than ours.

A nice result of one cell phone network is that there would not need to be as many towers as we have now. If each carrier is installing their own towers there is overlap in areas that does not need to be there. There is environmental clutter that can be avoided. This would be the best all around solution for consumers, but if the cell phone carriers will not go for it I hope someone does come up with a phone that will automatically switch to the strongest network in the area.

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New Year's Day

Earlier last week I told Tina that we should go out for the evening with some friends. To have a nice night of dinner and drinks with Chris and Christina. She called them and they were in. On New Year's Day Tina and them had a few conversations and we agreed to go to a local restaurant named Jack & Charlie's.

The restaurant is located in the basement of the historic Tulare County Jail building. The sign out front is inside an old red British phone booth. The restaurant is decorated in an art deco style that is very original in Visalia. When we walked in, there were a couple people at the bar and a couple, who we knew, sitting at a table. This was a surprise to us.

After looking at the menu and trying to decide what drinks to order, I noticed "beer in a bag" on the menu. I decided to order an Olympia beer in a bag. When the drinks were brought to our table I was handed a brown paper bag with an Olympia beer in a can. That was very original. I had not had an Olympia beer before and was pleasantly surprised.

We decided to order a cheese plate and marinated olives as an appetizer. I ordered the Buccatinni with Meatballs for dinner. The olives were good, but I have not had many olives that were not good. The cheese plate was sparse and it almost looked like they were trying too hard.

When dinner arrived, everything looked great. I had never had Buccatinni before, so I was excited to try it. It was very good. It was spicy and had great flavor. The portion was small for the price. Everyone was very satisfied with their meals. They do a really good job with their menu.

As I think back on the evening, I realize that I was feeling uneasy from the minute we sat down. I felt uncomfortable and out of place. Not because I have never been to a nice restaurant before, because I have been to many much nicer than this one. I felt bad that we were going to pay too much money for a dinner that was not worth the expense. The food was great, but is any food worth paying an exorbitant amount for? I don't think so.

Throughout dinner I just kept thinking about what could be done with the money we were spending. I thought about people that do not have food to eat. I thought about where we could be eating for much less money instead. I felt guilty the entire time we were there. I guess that I have undergone a major change. I care about other people more than I ever have before. I guess the curse of this caring is that I will feel guilty whenever I do anything that can be considered a splurge. This is a new feeling that I will have to learn to live with or do something about.

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We Made it to the Snow!

We finally made it to the snow yesterday! Tina and I called around on Wednesday to find some snow chains. We found them and ended up paying more than we wanted to for them, but we had to do it. I could not imagine trying to make it to the snow again. Meg's dissappointment would be unbearable.

I woke up early and made some chorizo, egg and potato burritos. I wrapped them up for the trip. One the way out, we stopped to get some donuts since Meg doesn't seem to like the chorizo very much. When we got to the gate to Sequoia National Park, there were two long lines of cars. Of course, our line moved the slowest. When we got to the Ranger, I asked her if we needed chains. She told me that we did not. Just my luck. After paying too much for chains, we didn't even need them.

Tina and the girls had a snow ball fight when we first arrived at Lodgepole. They had a lot of fun while I was taking some photos of them and the surroundings. Then they started making the snow man you see in the photo above. While all this was going on, Homie Gnomie had wondered out of the car and was playing in the snow himself. I found him making a snow angel. This was his first trip to the snow and he really enjoyed it.

He got in a little over his head, not knowing that he would sink in the snow. I had to pull him out and get him back to the car. Once we were there, Tina gave him some hot chocolate to warm his little body back up. We were all having a lot of fun in the snow and decided to try to go down by the river where we camped this past summer.

We drove into the camp ground and found a little trail. The girls started down first as Tina realized that they were very close to the river. We warned them to stay on the foot prints that were already in the snow. At one point, we were all standing in the snow over the river.

We all had a lot of fun. And it seems we now know how to control Meg's car sickness. That should make our mountain trips a lot more enjoyable for her. When we got home I asked Meg if she wanted to go to the snow again. She was a little hesitant. We bought the annual pass, so we can go as often as we like.

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New Year, New Resolutions?

I don't normally make new year's resolutions. For about the past three years I have vowed to improve my life, both mentally and physically. I believe that I have done an OK job of accomplishing these two items. I have started to read books regularly and I exercise at least five days per week. I still need to work harder.

I began thinking this week about whether I would make a resolution or vow for 2010. I don't know if I will or not. I have read some other blog posts that have intrigued me. One mentioned that your resolutions should be smaller and more focused. For instance, I will drive to the gym every day at 5:00. The reasoning here is that if you drive to the gym, you will most likely go inside and work out. A drive is much easier to get motivated for than a workout.

Another blog post recalled his plan for the decade that ends tonight. He suggests that maybe ten years is too long a a period to plan for and that we should plan for seven years. His big question is, "Seven years from now, what will you have to show for what you're doing right now?" If your answer to this question is not what you expected, you should create a new plan that will help you achieve the results you are looking for. Or at the very least be a more fun way to waste seven years.

I think that I would like to be a better person next year. A person who does things for other people. I am working on that with getting involved with Families First as a foster/adoptive parent. This will help the child(ren) that we bring into our home as well as our own family. Beyond that, I want to volunteer for some charities. I have considered Habitat for Humanity for many years, so maybe 2010 will be the year I finally get involved.

I also want to get into better shape. I have worked hard for the past few years in getting healthier, but I need to work even harder for the next twelve months. I had no issues that were flagged during my physical, but I want to feel healthier and that will take more exercise and better eating habits.

My seven year plan is still a little fuzzy at this point. I know that I want to change careers in the next five years. I would like to have a career that involved helping people. I need to feel like my job is doing something positive to help society in general. I can't justify working in the Marketing field any longer. My only problem is that I don't want to sacrifice my quality of life. This is the real reason that my seven or ten year plan is still fuzzy.

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Homie Gnomie Vacation Video 2009

Our gnome had a great vacation in Hawaii. I really wish we had all been able to go. Enjoy the video.

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Sequoia National Park, Take 1

I had good intentions. I wanted to take the family to the snow today. I have been many times over the years and to several different places. I have never been required to install snow chains before, so I did not think much about it. On the way, I decided to stop by Tina's parent's house and borrow her Dad's snow chains. It was a good thing I did.

When we got to the gate of the park, the ranger asked me if we had snow chains. I told her we did and she said that was a good thing. They were requiring them eleven miles inside the park. As I drove away, I turned to Tina and told her that we would not make it to the snow before being required to install the chains. I was right.

At the required location I pulled over and took out the chains. I struggled with them for a while and finally realized that they were too small for Tina's car. We decided to drive on until we were absolutely required to have them on. We did not get much further. I felt bad for Meg because she had been looking forward to going to the snow for a few days. She actually started to cry. I told her we would come back on Sunday. That helped a little, but she was very disappointed.

We drove back down to Hospital rock and hiked all of the trails there. We all actually ended up having a really good time, as you can see from the photos.

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Gnome Sweet Gnome

Our gnome, Homie Gnomie as the kidnappers named him, is home again. Meg found him hiding in a nativity seen in Dinuba on Christmas day. It was later revealed that Tim and Sharon were in cahoots on the kidnapping. Luckily, our gnome was unharmed in the ordeal. He actually got a vacation out of the kidnapping. Tim took him to Hawaii with him and his two friends on vacation. He stayed at Sharon's house and had some fun on the beach. We were given the vacation photo collage, which I am having trouble uploading but here is one of the photos.
We all had a lot of fun with this kidnapping. On our drive home, Tina mentioned that we should continue the adventure and take our gnome with us whenever we go on trips. I agreed. Meg does not want to put him back outside yet, even though she said that he watches over our home.

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It's Christmas!

It is Christmas morning. We sort of had a white Christmas this year because it froze last night. The grass and plants in the back yard are all white with frost. It would be really great if it snowed one year.

Christmas is a time for giving and I did my part yesterday afternoon. I volunteered at the Visalia Rescue Mission. I thought that I would be serving meals, but I ended up taking care of a few tables. I went and ordered the plates of food for my guests and made sure that they had a drink, utensils and a hot plate of food.

I was very surprised at the whole thing. For one, I thought the people would be lining up and getting their food themselves. That was not the case. The volunteers did everything for the guests. The other thing that surprised me was who exactly was getting the meals. I expected it to be a lot of really rough looking homeless people, but it wasn't. It was just a bunch of "normal" people who are just down on their luck for one reason or another.

Tina and Meg volunteered with me. Tina saw several families from her school. Most said hello to her and a few even gave her a hug. I don't know what exactly I expected to feel after volunteering, but I didn't feel as good as I thought I would. It made me feel like I was not doing enough. In the car on the ride home, Tina and I discussed what else we could do to help people more often. I don't think it is out of the question that we volunteer once or twice a month. It would be a great example for our children.

Meg is still not up yet, so we are waiting on her and Chachi so we can begin our Christmas day. It should be a great one!

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Christmas Eve is Upon Us

Are you feeling the Christmas spirit yet? It has been a little slow to come around in our house, but I think it is finally here. We have been very busy this year and we have let some things slip a little bit. Not on purpose, but just because we have been so busy.

The whole foster care/adoption process has really overwhelmed us both physically and emotionally. We have had classes to take, paperwork to complete and a lot of thinking and talking to do. It is a little disappointing that we will not be able to have a child before Christmas, but we will take one whenever they come to us. We just can't wait to share our first Christmas with a new child.

We opened gifts at Tina's parents house last night. The kids all got really excited. It was great watching there enthusiasm and patience. They are all growing up and exhibiting a lot of self control and patience.

Today I am going to the Visalia Rescue Mission to help serve lunch for the homeless. I am really looking forward to this. Tina and Meg are coming along to help. I think it is going to be a very positive experience for us all, especially Meg. Everyone needs to have a slight readjustment of priorities this time of year and this should do the trick. I want Meg to grow up appreciating all of the things that we have and understanding that not everyone is as lucky as we are.

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The Gnome Tome

So...we still do not have our gnome back yet. I am hoping that we will get him back before Christmas, but you never know. We all miss him very much.

As a matter of fact, we miss him so much that Tina actually bought some new pajamas with gnomes on them. Meg and I were shopping with her when we found them. We all got excited about them, so Tina bought them. I would not say that we are trying to replace our gnome, but we just felt, and still feel a little empty.

If our gnome kidnappers don't return our gnome this weekend, I will need to find a replacement. I just can't deel with all the sadness in our home any longer. We are all on edge. The kids have been really grumpy for about the last month or so. I didn't put two and two together until today. The grumpiness is caused by the feeling of loss in all of us. Please return our gnome so that our household can be normal again.

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AP Athlete of the Year?

Jimmie Johnson was named the AP athlete of the year. In order to be an athlete, you must participate in a sport. Auto racing is not a sport. It is a race. It is a past time. It may even require sportsmanship, but it is not a sport.

An athlete is someone who uses their physical abilities in an athletic pursuit. In my opinion, the majority of the effort has to be exerted by the "athlete." in the case of auto racing, the majority of the work is done by a machine. I am not saying that driving a race car does not require skill or endurance, but skill and endurance does not mean you are an athlete.

Poker players have both skill and endurance and are not athletes. Chess players need to have skill and some endurance, but they are not athletes. And even construction workers need to have some skill and endurance, but they are not necessarily athletes. So why are auto racers considered athletes?

I don't have the answer to that question. I just don't agree that they are athletes.

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'Tis the Season for Tamales

I love this time of year for one major reason...tamales. I cannot get enough of them. Tamales are probably my favorite Mexican food.

This year, The Queen and Chachi are making them with The Queen's mom. They are making some pork, some cheese and jalapeño and maybe even some beef. I personally prefer the cheese and jalapeño and the beef. I had a few of the first batch today for lunch and they were great.

If we end up with enough, I may share. There just aren't any guarantees though.

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All I Want For Christmas Is...

I wouldn't say that it is all I want for Christmas, but I would like to get our gnome back. He has been missing for quite some time. I have not heard from him lately and I fear something bad has happened to him. Maybe he is bound and gagged by his kidnappers?

Christmas is a special time of the year and we can't imagine not sharing it with our garden gnome. I look for him every day when I leave the house and then again when I return home at the end of a long day. His being gone leaves and empty place in our hearts.

If you have seen our gnome, please reply to this post so we know he is OK. We just can't imagine losing him forever.

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The Holiday Season

I am not much of a fan of the holidays. I think Christmas is so commercialized that it really does not matter much to me. I do get joy in seeing the look on my kid's faces as they open their gifts. I got this from my dad.

Growing up, and even today, my dad loved Christmas. I can remember him sitting next to our tree with a cup of coffee passing out gifts to my siblings and me. He loved to pass out the gifts and watch us open them. He loved to see the looks on our faces as we opened them. The only thing he loved more was disguising our gifts and confusing us.

I never remember my dad putting our correct names on our gifts. one year I might have been Charlie. Another year I could have been Sharon or even circle. He always kept us guessing. The story is that he started doing that because my mom was very impatient. She could not wait to open her gifts under the tree and sometimes opened them before Christmas morning and then wrapped them back up.

The other thing my dad did was disguise our gifts. He might have wrapped a shirt to look like a baseball bat. Or wrapped a football to look like a dinosaur. You never knew what you were opening would turn out to be. He continues to do this today. He disguises the gifts for my kids and my nieces as random, funky shapes or animals. He loves to see their reactions and guesses as to what they are opening.

He makes it fun for all of us. We are always wondering how he will out do himself this Christmas. I haven't inherited his playfullness in this respect because I just don't have the patience with gift wrapping. Maybe I should start.

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Morals

I had an interesting conversation at work the other day. It seems lately that a lot of our conversations head in the direction of the greater good. Whether it be the environment, how to treat people or even just general business practices.

Anyway, the other day one of my coworkers was talking about investing. He buys stocks and often celebrates when the market is down because that is an opportunity to buy. I made a comment about him not caring about other people's investments. I brought up a conversation that was had with another coworker when gas prices spiked to their highest levels last year. He owns stock in an oil company. When he heard someone complain about gas prices he remarked that they should buy stock in an oil company so they would benefit from the higher gas prices.

After hearing this story, my coworker said that I would be happy too if I owned stock in an oil company. I told him that I would not own stock in an oil company because I do not believe in their business practices. He was somewhat shocked and kept prodding me. I continued to tell him that I don't like the way the oil companies do business. I don't like the fact that they made record profits while gas prices peaked. I told him that I thought they were immoral.

His reaction surprised me. He asked me why they were immoral. He said, "they are not selling pornography or anything like that." This really surprised me. In his mind there is nothing immoral about shady business practices. In his mind companies cannot do anything wrong unless they are selling pornography. He links pornography with morals...and that is all. I feel sorry for him because he is caught up in the corporate mentality that all that matters is profits.

Profits at the expense of people. Profits at the expense of the environment. Profits at the expense of our future. How has this idea developed in our country? How do we continue to ignore society in our quest for more money? I don't know, but I am trying to do my part to open some people's eyes to what really matters...the greater good.

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Foster Parenting Class Part 2

As I stated yesterday, this two-day class was very informative. I learned a lot and found myself very interested in the information. I even mentioned to Tina that I would not mind becoming a social worker. The only problem is that it requires a master's degree and they pay is not good at all.

The passion for the subject matter that Maria showed really helped me to accept the information. She made me want to learn more about the behavior problems and their causes. I think that this is the first time that I have shown any interest in this subject. I may even look into it some more.

The most troubling part of the training is that now I am able to see the behaviour that is caused by abuse. I am able to see it in the behavior of kids I have come in contact with. As I think back, I have no problem accepting the figure that 80% of children in foster care have been abused. I told Tina that a lot of the behavior problems she tells me about from her school stem from abuse of some kind. She already knew this, but it was a revelation for me.

I never thought about why a child acted the way they did or why some children were slow learners. I wouldn't say that I never cared, I just don't think that I was educated enough to even think about why it was happening. Now I know differently. I don't think I will be able to watch a kid throw a tantrum in a store the same way again. I will always be analyzing the behavior and trying to determine what the cause is. I now understand why Dr. Drew is able to come to a conclussion so fast with the callers on Loveline.

This was a great experience for me.

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Foster Parenting Class Part 1

My wife and I had to attend a foster parenting class over the weekend. It was a 2-day class that I was not looking forward to. I think Tina felt the same way.

We arrived early on Saturday while the instructor was still setting things up. We chatted with her some and I ended up helping her set up her computer for the presentation. She was not able to get the presentation to be projected. It was a simple fix.

One other couple arrived a few minutes after the class was supposed to start. There were four couples that were supposed to be taking the class and only us and the one other couple showed up. My dread for the class was mounting. Maria began the class and she really opened my mind.

I have never taken any child psychology or early childhood development classes, so all of this was new to me. I started out very skeptical. I have heard many of these things before from Tina and her mom and dad. I have really never bought into the ideas much. This was different. Maria did a really good job of describing the reasons why the behaviors happen and what causes them. She was very passionate about the subject and it really helped.

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The Colors of Mexico

When you visit another country, you realize how boring we are in the United States. Even a poor country such as Mexico has a lot more color than we have back home. I have not visited other parts of Latin America, buy from what I have seen they are just like Mexico in this regard.

I spent a lot of time on the road today travelling from Mexico City to Puebla on business. I had a lot of time to observe my surroundings. On the road to Puebla there we passed hundreds, if not thousands, of people walking or riding biks on the pilgrimage for the festivities of Our Lady of Guadalupe. My friend from Mexico City told me that as many as 5 million people from all over Mexico make the pilgrimage for the festivities that take place December 12. He said that some of the pilgrims actually walk much of the distance on their knees and arrive at the Basílica of Guadalupe with blood dripping. Are these people crazy or are they just devout Catholics?

Read more about the festivities of Our Lady of Guadalupe here.

The other thing I noticed, which I have seen on all my visits to Mexico, are the colors. There are colorful signs painted on buildings, colorful cars and trucks, people wearing colorful clothing and colorful houses. These things are not just colorful, but they are pairings of colors that you just don't see very often in the United States. It makes for very interesting sights to see.

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Is Facebook a Waste of Time?

I joined the Facebook party late. I thought maybe it had a place. People were communicating with one another. It was bringing long lost friends back together.

I am beginning to think it is a waste of time. It has gotten all sappy and become a forum of self-congratulation. I feared this would be the case, which is why I put it off as long as I did.

My "friends" are busy playing games and sending hearts to eachother. That is, inbetween bragging with their status updates. Is it just my network, or is this happening all over Facebook?

I haven't given up yet, but I do login a lot less often now. Will people begin to migrate to a new platform as they moved to Facebook from myspace? I am waiting to see what it becomes.

- Posted from my iPhone

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Mexico City Here I Come...Again.

I am off to Mexico City again tomorrow. This will be my third trip to Mexico City this year. This trip, like the other two, is for business. The only difference is that this time it is just a quick trip for a meeting.

I will arrive in Mexico City late tomorrow night. Stay at a hotel connected to the airport for 2 nights and then fly home on Thursday, getting back home after midnight. A whirlwind trip for an early morning meeting on Wednesday. I would love to have more time in the city, but unfortunately I will not get it on this trip.

I really hated Mexico City after my first visit. I stayed at a hotel in an industrial area and spent all day in a trade show. All I saw of the city was that almost every space was covered in graffiti. I did not have any free time to go anywhere.

On my second trip, I found the city much more interesting. I stayed in a better part of the city. I could walk around the area and explore the restaurants, shops and Chapultapec Park. I drove by the famous golden angel and got to see much more of the city on this trip. I even made it downtown to Templo Mayor and got a tour of the city. I was really impressed.

I am sorry I will not have any time on this trip. I just can't wait to get back when I will have some free time to explore more of the city.

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Where Is Our Gnome?

It has been a while since we have heard from our gnome. We have really missed him. I hope he will be home before Christmas. I really feel like the longer he is missing the less the chance that he is returned.

Meg accused Uncle Tim of taking him on Thanksgiving. He was unusually quiet and had a fishy reaction. Is he the kidnapper? At this point, we just don't know for sure. It could be him or could just be some other random person.

Gnome...we miss you. Come home. Come home. Gnome...we miss you. Come home. Come home.

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Great Time of Year

I look forward to this time of year for a few reasons. My favorite reason is that we get to see elementary school Christmas programs. Chachi had a memorable one that we still refer to every year. The hand gestures that went with the songs were perfect and really made the performance emotional.

Cheeseball has not have any that have stood out as much, but I still enjoy them every year. We will suffer in the cold tonight, because Cheeseball's school holds all of its performances outside in their quad. In addition, we have to be there very early because there is always a great parent turn out.

Cheeseball has been practicing at home recently. She has been singing non-stop. She knows the songs, so I just hope she opens up some and really has some fun with it. I am excited for tonight!

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What is My Perfect Career?

I have always wanted to be in a creative field. I thought I wanted to be an advertising executive or an architect. I still find architecture very interesting. I just realized that perhaps I am not creative enough to be a good architect. As for an advertising executive, I reasoned that I am not creative enough to be the person who comes up with the ideas, but I am a good editor of bad ideas. I still believe this, but advertising does not really interest me anymore. I guess ten to fifteen years of sales and marketing experience have shown me the bad side of the industry.

I think I can create, but I just do not come up with many great, original concepts. I can take someone else's concept and expand on it and make it perfect though. So given these truths, what is my perfect job? Maybe a civil engineer? Maybe a pharmacist? Maybe something I haven't even considered up to this point.

I find people interesting. Not to talk to, but to observe. I like to find out what makes them tick. What motivates them. I have considered being a psychologist in a prison. I would love to find out why someone committed their crime(s), how they got caught and if they truly feel like they are reformed.

So, what is my perfect career? I don't really have any hobbies that I could turn into a rewarding job. I don't have any interests that could become my career. So how do I find out what I should be doing?

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I Am An Introvert!

It is official. I am an introvert. I can hear everyone who knows me saying, "duh" right about now. I have always known that I have been shy and like to keep to myself. I have even had conversations with my wife about me potentially being able to live all alone somewhere. She cannot understand this, but I really don't need people as much as she does. Don't get me wrong, I love my wife and kids. I get a lot of joy watching my kids do things like play sports and sing in school performances. I even find myself enjoying watching them do things like enjoying a good book or laughing at a funny tv show.

I think that I can be an introvert and enjoy certain people. I have always been interested in people, but mostly from afar. I am a bit of a voyeur. I like to people watch. I like to think about what is going through people's minds. I even like to criticize the way they do things and question their reasoning. People amaze me, but I don't want to talk to them a lot of the time.

So now that I know that I am an introvert, have I missed my calling? Is there a certain job that I could really be successful at and enjoy much more than any other? I am starting a journey to find out if there is such a career. I have some ideas that will get me started. I will see where it goes from there.

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