Is college really necessary?

            Why do we push college on our kids?  I think this is a valid question.  First let me clarify why I ask it.  I recently came across a statistic that said that nearly 60% of college graduates were working in fields unrelated to their degree.  That made me wonder why they had to have a degree in the first place.  The more I looked into it, the more I began to realize that we have been scammed.
            I am not saying there aren't jobs that require a degree, a doctor or an architect are two that come to mind quickly.  I would hate to go into surgery and have my doctor show me his high school diploma and say, "let's get cuttin'."  It just isn't happening.  I also don't think I would want to walk into a high rise designed by a guy whose credentials include, "I lived in one once," and no degree.  But for a lot of the other jobs out there, you just have to wonder.  Then there is the trusting the university thing.  I find it increasingly difficult to trust a university that tells me that in order to get an engineering degree I need to take 4 hours of elective courses.  Let me point out that these are 4 credit hours of courses that in no way aid you in your field of study.  It should also be noted that most elective courses taken are 1 credit hour each and cost close to $500 these days.  In other words, the university wants you to add $2000 of useless credits to your degree for unspecified reasons.  What if your mechanic told you that you had to rechrome your wheels in order to complete your oil change?  I think we would all end up going to a different mechanic.  So why do we let a university do the same thing?  Because we want the name of the university on our diploma because it sounds impressive.
              Let me clear the air here.  I do not have a college degree, nor will I ever have one.  I spent 20 years in the military getting experience in my field.  If that means that someone beats me out of a job based solely on the basis of a degree, so be it. 
              We have been feeding the lie of college to our kids for so long; we have begun to believe it ourselves.  We send them off to college and tell them to follow their dreams.  They do that and get their degrees only to find that there is no job for those degrees in the field they love.  Why?  Because no one bothered to also tell them that a degree in photography is only worth something if your father happens to own a publishing company and you are at the top of your field.  Congratulations, you just spent $100k on a piece of paper to hang on your wall so you can look at it on your way to you minimum wage job.  Yet, having a degree is a must today.  We need to start teaching our high school students what the job market is really like.  Or what jobs require a specific degree and what jobs prefer experience.  Instead we tell them go to college.
               It used to be that a degree is what made a candidate stand out.  It used to be just getting into college was a big deal.  These days, if you have a pulse and an ability to fill out forms (most colleges will have someone help you with that), you can get into a college somewhere.  Here, fill out this form for financial aid, this form for grants, this form for you student loans, this form for waivers for your grades, and this form to choose your classes.  Congratulations, you are now going to college.  Sure there are a few colleges that are still selective in who they allow to attend, but they are in the minority.  Most colleges just look at filling all their classes to make sure that they can pay their bills. 
              Let me restate that I understand there are some fields that a degree is a must and I wholly support those degrees, but when a job lists "degree or experience" or just degree as a need without any clarifiers, it makes you wonder just what the degree is needed for.  I would think that if any degree is good enough because it shows dedication, that working for 2 years while involved in sports and graduating with decent grades from high school would be enough as well.  Then again, what do I know, I never went to college.
           Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Take a stand

       As I listen to the news, I am made aware of an interesting duality in our society.  As multiple riots rage throughout the Islamic world as a result of a video insulting the Islamic prophet Mohammed, the world jumps forward to point out that the is not representative of all Muslims.  I agree that this is not representative of all Muslims and that is not what this post is about.  What it is about is the idea that hundreds of riots large and small do not represent a majority, yet individual protests do.  That's right, I am talking about how a small group of "Christians" seem to be the accepted representation of all Christianity, yet if we apply the same standards of representation to other religions or sections of society we are bigoted at best, racist and intolerant at worst.
             Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating categorizing anyone based on a sample of any size.  I believe each person is an individual and is accountable only for his/her own actions as it pertains to the group they are a part of.  What I am saying is that, if we apply the standards equally, Westboro Baptist does not represent all Baptists, a few select Catholic priests do not represent all clergy, and a small group of rioters do not represent the entire Muslim world.
            I think a friend of mine put it best when he said, just because I stand for my beliefs, doesn't make me an idiot, fool, or intolerant.  In today's society, to take a stand is to be intolerant and to continually shift your morals and beliefs to adhere with the ever changing tides of society is considered progressive.  Another way to look at this is an analogy to ships.  A destination is reached by trimming sails, adjusting the rudder, and continually checking your course.  If you simply go where the wind takes you, you may very well find yourself somewhere you don't want to be, a hostile land at best or sunk by the rocks.  This is what today's society tells you is best, to go where the wind blows you. 
             I want you to notice one thing in the previous statement.  I mentioned three things in regard to reaching a destination, trimming the sails, adjusting the rudder, and checking your course.  All three of those things require effort, knowledge, and practice.  In other words, if you aren't willing to put the effort into where you want to be, you will never get there.  The weirdest thing is that everyone seems to ignore this.  One other thing that needs to be noted is the practice part.  If you don't continually practice navigating and trimming your sails, you tend to lose some of the skill you gained.  Think of it like reaching the top of any skilled profession, if you stop practicing, your skills will wane.  A professional pianist once admitted to an interviewer that he practiced more now that he had reached the top of his profession than at any other time in his career.  Why?  Because he wanted to stay at the top and he knew that the only way to do so, was continual work.  The same is true of any profession.
            So why are we so lazy about our lives?  Why are we willing to put so little effort into where our lives are headed?  Why do we continually decide to take the easiest route even though we know that it leads us nowhere at best?  I can't understand it and I find it unnerving that so many people are willing to go there.
           I am going to leave you with a challenge.  Look deep within yourself and find one thing that you think is worth standing for.  It could be a belief in the constitution, a moral stance on nudity, a belief in God, or simply the belief that your diet is the right one.  Just pick one thing.  Now, ask yourself if you are willing to stand for that one thing no matter what is thrown at you.  If all your friends and family take the opposite stance, are you going to waiver or continue to stand for your belief?  Are willing to maintain that regardless of societal change?  The final part of this is do you apply your morals and standards equally across the board?  Think about it.  To stand for nothing is to allow everything.  We all have to make a stand somewhere on something.  Whatever we allow will eventually come into our homes.  It may not be this generation, but someday it will come in.
                Thank you for reading and, as always, thanks for reading.

Why I hate Politics.

           The one thing I hate about elections is the never ending rhetoric.  The thing that is different this year than from 4 years ago is the profuse use of face book in the campaign.  This means I see a ton of posts attacking each party.  What it comes down to is the fact that there is no real positive message from any candidate.  I have heard a few statements on what they intend to do in office, but usually it is over run by negatives on either side.  It has become of a game of who is less evil instead of who is better and it makes me sad.
         The question is, if a law were passed that required a week of positive messages only during each campaign, would we hear anything from either candidate?  It seems that they have taken the old adage of "if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything," and turned it around to say, "If you don't have anything good to say about someone, put it on air."  It is a sad state of affairs.  What really makes it suck is that it has become what people expect.  If we got a politician that was honest (yes, I know, honest politician is an oxymoron), I think people wouldn't vote for him on the grounds that he was too different.
       Speaking of honest politicians, growing up, I actually knew one.  He was our local state representative.  The story goes that he was first elected without campaigning because the people in his district knew him and felt he would do right by them.  He was a farmer and was one of the people.  Between sessions he actually returned to his farm and worked, politics was something he did as an extra duty and he claimed his profession as farmer.  You actually had to point out that he was a representative because he looked at it as a side gig.  The funny thing is, he never campaigned but he was re-elected year after year.  One year he even had an opponent.  The funny thing was the opponent got 5 votes, his, his wife’s, his campaign manager, his campaign manager’s wife, and the incumbent.  The sitting representative said he voted for his opponent because he didn't really want the job but would continue to do it as long as the people wanted him to and he was competent to do it.  He finally resigned at 82 or so and it was a loss.
       I used to say I was a republican and would never agree with a democrat.  I have sense come to realize that that mind set is exactly what is wrong in government.  The largest problem we have in our government is that we have become polarized with very few exceptions.  Either you are a republican or a democrat; if you claim to be independent you are labeled as indecisive.  What further complicates this is that if you have convictions and stand by them no matter what, you are a radical and a hatemonger; if you go with the current trends, you are pandering; and if you compromise you are a traitor to your party or an indecisive fool.  We have decided it is better to give negative labels to people rather than look at what their decisions are based on.  I would rather vote for a man that follows his convictions and votes against his party than for a man that follows the party line no matter what.  I would rather vote for a man that compromises to get things done over a man that refuses to listen to the opposing party because they are the opposing party.  We as a people have allowed this to happen and we as a people have directed it.  It is no coincidence that the very people we complain about hold the power to limit what we can do about it.  The saddest part is that the independents have very little influence.  They are such a minority that the only influence they have is when the parties are deadlocked and even that is rare.
            The one thing that makes this worse is that the politicians start looking at the next election almost as soon as they are elected.  Instead of looking at what this country needs, they are looking at what will make them look good for the next election.  The only regular exceptions are a second term president or a senator that has decided to retire.  It is a rare politician these days that repeatedly does what is best for the country over what his party wants. 
               Am I to critical of all this?  Maybe, but then again, if I weren't wouldn't I be like most of us who just take what the media gives us as truth and move on.  Sure, most of what the media says is true, but then a half truth is still true even if it isn't the whole story.  The media takes some flak, but most of it is directed at the "extreme" media.  Those sources that make no secret of their political leanings and jump on anything that helps their party affiliation are targeted most harshly allowing the more subtle sources to be taken at face value. 
               The most interesting part is that, with a little research, you can find the truth and it usually isn't what you are led to believe.  Both sides use statistics and numbers that, while true, only tell a part of the story at best or are downright misleading.  Take the "discretionary spending" argument used to cut the DOD budget.  In budget speak, discretionary means anything not specified by amount to be spent.  In other words, if the amount to be spent is estimated, it is discretionary.  Since caring for personnel (medical, logistical, pay, etc.) is estimated it is discretionary.  This means the department uses its discretion to ensure the people are paid and cared for properly.  So is it right to say that the DOD has a large discretionary budget?  Yes it is very true.  But then, by the budgetary definition of discretionary, teachers, policemen, firefighters, roads, electrical power, and the air traffic controllers are all discretionary as well. 
            The problem isn't what it means; it is how it is used.  The politicians use it knowing that most people will read it as the department has a choice on whether they spend it or not and thus can just cut it.  To most people, discretionary means that part of the budget spent on extras.  Discretionary means to them the excess after bills are paid, not the portion used to pay bills that are in flux.  If we used discretionary the way the government uses discretionary, our electrical, gas, water, grocery, and clothing would be a discretionary part of our budget.  I don't know about you, but I think I would be in a little bit of trouble if I just stopped using or paying for all of that. 
          I guess what I am saying is that we as Americans have to stop looking at the surface of what we are told by the media and politicians.  It is our responsibility to dig deeper and find the truth in what is being said and discover where it is we really fall on the issues.  What is said may be true, but that doesn't mean it is the truth of the matter.  A twisted truth may still be true, but it becomes a lie when it is interpreted wrongly.  Take the time to look into the truth.
        Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

A plea for help. Not that kind, I just need topics.

            Why is it that I really don't have much to say beyond the usual rants.  I could go off on how people misuse various resources to prove points.  I could spout my opinion on any number of current events.  I could pull up statistics to support my arguments just as you could to support your side.  The fact is, I don't feel like starting arguments or becoming angry over things that I have no control of.  This makes me realize just how tough it is to write articles day in and day out.  New ideas are hard to come by and old ideas get repetitive.  What is a writer to do?
             I've thought about writing a nonsense post, but that gets old quickly (and I've done it a few to many times for it to be funny anymore).  I thought about posting another answer, but those are more for my sons and there are only a few that have any relevance outside my family. 
              I guess what I am trying to say is that I am running out of ideas and am looking to you, my readers, to throw me a bone.  What do you want to read about?  What interests do you have?  I really don't mind looking things up.  It doesn't bother me at all.  I have all day.  My job allows me to do whatever as long as I am available to do inspections when required.  This means I have 8 hours (give or take 15 minutes or so) to do research and write articles.  As my boss said, we get paid for what we know, not what we do.  Sure there are times when we get busy, but they are spurious and we usually have a few days between them. 
             All that being said, I look forward to your input.  Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

People are not like cheese: We don't necessarily get better with age.

           After yesterday's rant, I feel the need to slow it down a bit.  I believe that the only thing that comes to mind to do today is to insert another of my answers for my sons.  Today, I think I will include the answer to the following question:

What is the worst part about getting older?

Simply put, the way the body starts to betray you.  First there is the pain.  It I’m not talking about pain from more frequent injuries.  No, I am talking about pain from the stuff you do every day.  You find that your body has decided that you no longer need full use of various parts and thus it should remind you of that by making them hurt at random.  It is true that as you age you tend to be able to do less and less.  Things that you could do easily yesterday (standing up quickly for instance) are harder to do today.  Your knees start to ache just from walking to the bathroom in the morning.  Your back hurts as you sit up to turn off that alarm.  Sometimes, just stretching can make you hurt.  And that’s not including hurting yourself by trying to do something you were able to do just a few years ago.  Take playing football for example.  I used to be able to throw the ball without pain (not very well, but at least it didn’t hurt), now, after two tosses, my shoulder hurts and I think hand offs are a better option.  Add to that that running for any distance is out of the question.  Knees, ankles, hips, and back all get in on that action.  Exercise for any extended period of time and your entire body reminds you that it is an unusual practice for days afterward.  I suppose if you exercise regularly and eat right the pain is less, but where is the fun in that. 

The secondly the body gives up on staying trim.  When I was younger I could eat anything I wanted all day and not gain a pound.  Then I hit 24 and my body decided I needed to start storing food for the winter.  Now I have to watch what I eat if I don’t want a waist size equivalent to my age.  Now I have a gut, a requirement to be under a certain weight, and a hankering for chocolate and fried foods (yes, a deep fried chocolate bar sounds great right about now).  The weirdest part of all this is that, when I was younger, I used to eat fairly healthy and moderately.  Now that I am older and have to watch what I eat, I mainly want to eat junk food and candy, and I want to do it all the time.  In other words, the body says, “if you eat this I’ll make you fat,” and then turns around and yells, “EAT IT, EAT IT ALL!!!” 

The final thing the body does to you is mess with your sleeping habits.  By this I mean it refuses to allow you to sleep properly.  You may be able to get up regularly at the same time every morning before your alarm clock goes off.  Then, the night the power goes out and your alarm clock fail to go off, your body decides you need to sleep for an extra four hours.  Never mind that on the weekend when you can sleep in your body wakes you up 5 minutes before your alarm normally goes off.  Then when you go to bed, you start reading and can’t seem to finish a sentence.  You turn of the light and stare at the ceiling for an hour until your body finally decides that you’re serious.  The body lies about how tired you are all the time too.  You could be falling asleep on the couch and unable to keep your eyes open, but the moment you lay down in bed, you are wide awake.  Then when you finally do fall asleep, you wake up 3 hours later for no reason, and then every hour on the hour you wake up again.  The next night, as soon as your head hits the pillow, you pass out and are barely able to wake up for your alarm clock. 

                Yup, the worst part about growing older is how your body begins to betray you.

                Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Affirmative Action: Legalized discrimination.

            Sorry it's been a while since my last post.  For some reason the computer wouldn't let me compose these past couple of days.  Anyway, here is something that caught my attention and I feel needs to be said.
           Recently, a case went befoer the supreme court on affirmative action.  The case involved a student trying to get into a university in Texas.  If you haven't heard of it you can look it up as I don't feel the need to rehash it.  This post is on my thoughts on affirmative action.  I feel that affirmative action, by its very nature, is discriminatory.  If you give someone preference based on the race or gender and it is considered discrimination, yet this is exactly what affirmative action does.  Based on the fact that you are a part of a minority, you are given "special consideration."  I don't understand the logic of using discriminatory actions to "ensure equality" by forcing quotas.  We have a system that is very sensitive to discriminatory issues.  In fact, if you are a minority and want to get a bunch of money, bring a lawsuit against any company for discrimination and see how fast it gets settled.  It doesn't matter how legitimate it is, even the hint of discrimination will open their checkbooks.  Yet, we still feel it is necessary to pass laws and make rules that give special considerations to minorities.
            So how do you make the process fair?  You may ask.  Simple, you remove any hint of a persons race, gender, etc. from the application process.  You take a look at their qualifications and choose the best based on that.  When it comes time for the interview, trust your interviewer to be fair and choose the best candidate.  If you suspect discrimination after that, then sue and be prepared to pay.  As I said, I can't think of any major company out there that doesn't fear a discrimination lawsuit.  Just the hint of impropriety is enough to get people fired.
            As is so often pointed out to me, this is the 21st century, the practices of 50 years ago are past.  It is time to move on and start allowing people to earn jobs based on merit, not whether or not they belong to a minority.  I am sure there are people out there that will decry me as being insensitive to the minority plight.  That couldn't be further from the truth.  I believe that race and gender have nothing to do with ability and skill.  They are completely seperate.  I don't think I could take a job that I knew I got because of my race or gender.  Yet, it happens all the time.  And not because the hired person is white, but because they are a minority and that is apparantly an OK form of discrimination.
               So ask yourself this, if discrimination is wrong, how is affirmative action legal?  In summary, it isn't.  Affirmative Action is discrimination.  Affirmative Action promotes racism by saying that a minority couldn't compete without preferential treatment.  I say it is time to do away with affirmative action and embrace a new concept of equal treatment for all, regardless of race or gender.  Then again, isn't that what the Civil rights movement of the 60s was after in the first place?
             Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Faith: The strength Challenge.

           I've been doing a bit of thinking lately and I came to a realization that has me a tad bummed.  Turns out I have doubts.  This is not normally a bad thing, I am human after all, it is what we do with those doubts that has me interested.  I am, of course, referring to my faith.  Don't get me wrong, the doubts I am having are not the crippling, stop you in your tracks doubts.  Just the minor ones that, left unchecked, can grow to big ones. 
             The doubts I am talking about specifically are the doubts that tell me to do something, "just in case God doesn't."  These are the doubts that bug me the most.  Do I truly trust in God's strength when I take action on my own, or is that part of God's solution?  The fact is, God wants us to do for ourselves as much as we can while trusting in him to give us the strength to do so.  God only acts directly when action beyond our abilities is required.  Even that requires a strong faith.  As I read the Bible, I find examples of strong faith that astound me.  Faith that has no room in it for doubts.  Faith I want.  Think about it.  When you pray to God for something, healing, financial aid, spiritual strength, etc, do you pray with the confidence that God will grant your request as he sees fit, or are you just praying to "cover your bases?"
              The reason I am thinking on this is because we have a lady at our church who has the faith that God will grant her requests as he sees fit and has such conviction of it, that, once she has prayed about something, has the peace to move on, no matter the difficulty of doing so.  Where I would pray and then wonder if what I am doing is from God or of myself, she moves with the conviction that God is acting through her.  Many would call her crazy, but they also called the apostles crazy.  I envy her faith and try to emulate it.
            The strange thing is, faith is not a natural thing.  We all naturally want to doubt anything that we didn't make, do, or say.  Believing in something outside of ourselves and allowing our belief in it to direct us is unnatural.  It is something we have to work at.  It is something we have to use daily. 
              Faith is a muscle that needs exercise to grow or even stay the same.  If you shelve your faith, it will shrivel and atrophy.  The funny thing is, God gives us the tools we need to exercise that faith everyday.  From annoying little clashes with family and coworkers to bad drivers on the road.  There are hundreds of little instances where we can place our faith in God and gain his strength.
              All that being said, I am taking up a challenge to strengthen my faith.  I want to invite you to join me in it.  I am going to do this challenge for 30 days and then assess how it went.  Here is the challenge.  Seek out 10 events that occur everyday that you can ask for God's strength in dealing with.  I know it sounds hard, but think about God's standards of dealing with your fellow humans.  I know I need God's strength to love my neighbor when he cuts me off on the highway.  I know I need God's strength to keep from yelling at my sons when they tell me no.  I know I need God's strength to turn the other cheek when someone treats me unfairly.  I am willing to bet, there are more than 10 events everyday.  If not, either you aren't looking, you live in utter isolation, or God has blessed your life beyond anything I can think of.  So how about it?  Are you going to join me?
             Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Voting part II: Where do we go from here

           After reading yesterday's post again, I realized I have no clue what is important to you, my readers, in a candidate.  So, I will allow you to direct my research as much as is possible.  Currently I plan on researching the candidates stance on the military (pay, size, direction), how they voted in the past (along party lines or for the country), and current promises.  If you want to see me research something beyond this, let me know either in person, or in the comments (I prefer the comments as it gives me a written record and the comments are open to all).
            Now to today's post.  I was going to write about military pay and how it is less than it should be, but I decided against it since I know most of the people who read this, either support the military, served in the military, or just couldn't care less otherwise.  With that in mind I decided to delete all I had written (and it was a lot) and go with a follow up to yesterday.  As I said above, I am looking for input as to what to research.  I would also like to add, who to research.  Obviously, I will be researching the presidential candidates and the candidates and issues for my area (Bremerton, Kitsap county, Washington State), but beyond that, I really am not sure what it is you might be interested in.  There are 9 Months until the election, so now is the time to start looking.  If my research takes less than a month, then I will post it when I am done, otherwise, I will only spend a month researching.
            Remember, it may be your right to vote, but if you waste it by voting for who ever is prettiest, you may not get much more than a pretty face. 
            Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

An answer for a post.

            I have been agonizing over what to write on today and have had no luck in coming up with a subject.  The fact is that I am a slightly out of it today.  The sad thing is, I really don't know why.  I slept decently last night and am fairly alert, but I just can't seem to concentrate.  I guess that is why I am not doing to well today on this.  That being said, I will simply paste in an excerpt from the answers to my sons.
           These answers are in response to the book "Questions for My Father" by Vincent Staniforth.  My boys have been choosing questions they want answers to and I have been writing those answers.  The questions vary widely so I have chosen to share the answer to What happened on your favorite holiday?  Please read below

I guess the first thing I have to answer here is, what is my favorite holiday?  The answer to that would be thanksgiving.    This leads us to ask, why?  This is what I think this question is really asking.  What happened on your favorite holiday to make it your favorite holiday?  I can’t name a single event, more like a series of events.

In order for you to fully understand my answer, I am going to have to give you a bit of background.  The first thing you need to know is that, while I grew up in Iowa, my mother was from Wyoming.  Add to that, the fact that my mother’s side was from all over, but mainly Nebraska.  The first meant that my mom didn’t get to see her mom all that often and the second meant that she got to see her cousins even less.  My dad, on the other hand, had nearly all of his relatives within a radius of about 75 miles.  This meant that we saw my dad’s side of the family quite often and spent every Sunday at my Grandma’s house.

Sure, my mom’s family had a reunion every other year and so we got to see our relatives then, but what did we do in between?  This is where Thanksgiving comes in.  In the years that we didn’t have a family reunion, we spent Thanksgiving week with my mom’s mom.  We got to see our aunts and uncles and spend a holiday with grandma.  Grandma Skinner was a very good cook and we always ate well.  But it was the fact that we got to see her and our cousins that made it worth it.

That is really only part of the answer.  What about the years we didn’t go and see Grandma Skinner?  We went to see Grandma Ibbotson.  We would get together with dad’s sister and our cousin and have a Thanksgiving meal that I envy to this day.  My cousin and I would end up fighting over the last piece of lemon meringue pie.  We would decorate Grandma’s house for Christmas.  Then I would watch football with grandpa and we would nibble on pies and snacks and turkey and nearly everything the rest of the day.  My dad and Uncle Larry would end up snoring in the living room driving everyone to the dining room or kitchen.  Sometimes I would go out and play football with the neighbors.  In all, I have really fond memories of it all. 

While Christmas is always fun with the gifts and of course getting together with my cousins at Grandma’s house, Thanksgiving was the holiday I most looked forward to.  I knew I was going to get to spend it with at least one of my grandmothers.  But if I had to choose a single Thanksgiving to remember it would be the Thanksgiving the year after my mom died.  I was only 14 at the time and my Grandpa had died that spring.  In all it had been a rough year.  To make it worse, it was also the year for us to go and see Grandma Skinner.  Normally I looked forward to that trip.  Between losing mom and Grandpa Ibbotson, I really wasn’t in much of a celebrating mood.  I was also old enough to realize that Grandma really didn’t need to have her son somewhere else for Thanksgiving that year.  I was prepared for the worst as I expected dad to tell us that we weren’t going to Wyoming that year.  Instead, dad invited Grandma Ibbotson to join us.  So we all went to Wyoming for Thanksgiving.  Instead of having one grandma cooking Thanksgiving dinner, we had two.  They got along so well, that we ended up doing it again 2 years later and Grandma Ibbotson got adopted by my mom’s family and was permanently invited to their family reunion.  And the best part of that Thanksgiving?  I got a lemon meringue pie all to myself. 

So, when I think of Thanksgiving, I think of family coming together in good times and in bad and making things better.  I think of good food and better friendships.  I think of laughter and joy in dark times and sighs of stuffed contentment in lean times.  It is said that Christmas brings out the best in everyone, but Thanksgiving brings out the strongest desire for family and, to me, family is one of the most important things in the world.

What event led to Thanksgiving being my favorite holiday?  The gathering of my family.  Thanksgiving wasn’t about the turkey and the food, but about a sharing of time and cares with family.  That is what Thanksgiving is.  That is what is supposed to happen on thanksgiving.

Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day

Pianos, practice, and regret.

          Good news, I slept well last night..er...today.  Man, being on graves really messes with your language and how you refer to the past.  Anyway, while I was at work...last night, I wrote some more on my story.  You can see the link to the page on the right, it's the only one there.  "The Cleric's Path" is its name, by the way.  Now on to the meat of the post.
          I have a confession to make.  I started typing this post and actually had a large amount written.  It started off as a legitimate complaint I had and turned into a rant on welfare.  I won't mention anything else on it, because you deserve better.  Instead I think I will take a break while I clear my mind and come up with a better topic.
       OK, Got it.  While surfing the net, I found an incredible set of videos.  They are on YouTube.  They are made by a group called "The Piano Guys."  I just spent 3 hours enthralled by them.  As you probably guessed, there is piano playing involved.  The thing that makes it really great (other than the fact that the piano is player is really awesome) is the fact that they don't just play known music, they put their own twist to it and make it better.  Oh, and the second member of the group plays the cello, and makes it cool.  Definitely worth checking out.
         That was just an intro, you see, it got me to thinking.  I used to take piano lessons.  I quit when I was a teenager and was going through that period where I couldn't believe I wasn't the center of the universe.  The fact is I wanted to write music and felt that I knew enough to do it on my own and that I didn't need to practice stuff other people wrote.  So, now I can slowly plunk out tunes and read a little bit of music and have one song I made up that I play over and over and over (just ask the wife).  So that leads me to the "thought provoking" question of the day.  What is the one thing (you can have more if you really want to, like I could stop you) that you regret quitting or giving up?  We all have something we either did as a kid or were made to learn that we quit as soon as we were able.  A secondary question might be, what did we start that we wish we hadn't, but I won't go there.
           That's all for today.  Thank you for reading and have a great day.