I'm having a great week home from work. If you're curious, I've posted my Christmas photos to my facebook page.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Merry Christmas!
I'm having a great week home from work. If you're curious, I've posted my Christmas photos to my facebook page.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
It's a man's job
Hey there!
Before I get to this post, I wanted to say that I started a post about a week ago. The post was going to be about how busy I was and list all the things that had been keeping me busy. However, I soon found myself too busy to finish the post, and at this point I don't see much point in posting about why I was so busy a week ago.
Anyway, the thing they kept me busy this weekend was digging out from the first big snowstorm of the season ( Admittedly, there was also a snow blower involved, but there are a lot of places where you need to use a shovel, especially if you are as anal as me about making sure your driveway, sidewalk, steps, and area in front of the driveway and mailbox ( The city snowplows always seem to block your driveway by pushing huge amounts of snow from the street in front of your house ) are 100% clear of all of even the tiniest bit of snow and ice. Also, my snow blower is not self-propelled or anything ( so there is a lot of pushing involved ), and it is not powerful enough to throw snow from the middle of my double-wide driveway to the snow banks on either side of the driveway, so I've got to go over lots of areas more than once . Plus, to get a head start on all the snow ( The storm started slowly at about noon on Saturday, got heavier as the day went on, and continued until dawn on Sunday ), I did a lot of work at about midnight before I went to bed and did a lot of it by hand so I wouldn't piss of the neighbors too much. ). As I was doing all this work, I got to thinking about what still passes as "a man's job" these days.
Modern western society has certainly come a long way in the last 50 years when it comes to how couples share the responsibilities for domestic chores. While it's true that most women still wind up doing most of the domestic chores, ...
( Full disclosure: I'm a bit more of a Felix Unger than my wife ( if you don't know who Felix Unger and Oscar Madison are, check this link for The Odd Couple ), so I'm pretty much the only person who ever cleans the bathrooms or does any kind of floor-cleaning or vacuuming. I also do most of the dish washing and I love caring for my kids ( Well, I didn't love the changing poopy diapers part, but I did this as much as my wife did. We had rule that whoever first smelt the poop had to clean it. Of course this system relied on the honor system quite a bit, but I can report that I never shirked my responsibility after detecting the poopy odor. ). However, I HATE shopping of any kind, and I'm pretty useless in the kitchen, so Ruth basically does all the grocery shopping and has cooked thousands of more meals than me over the last 13.5 years )
... there are certain jobs that are still reserved for men. mostly because most men don't want to give them up. I think shoveling snow is a good example of this. I guess it would be easier to have our wives chip in with the snow shoveling, but most men would feel a bit emasculated to have their wives help them with hard physical labor. I can't tell you how many pieces of furniture I've moved by myself while telling my wife to "stand back - I don't want you to get hurt". Perhaps this is silly, immature and sexist, but that's the way it is - at least for me. Sometime a man just wants to feel like his "manliness" is useful. I dunno - my nearly 40-year-old bones certainly are sore today, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Oh, I don't tell me "Why don't you just hire some teenage kid to do the work?". You don't want me to get started about how middle-aged guys feel about being usurped by younger guys when it comes to physical labor.
Rich
Before I get to this post, I wanted to say that I started a post about a week ago. The post was going to be about how busy I was and list all the things that had been keeping me busy. However, I soon found myself too busy to finish the post, and at this point I don't see much point in posting about why I was so busy a week ago.
Anyway, the thing they kept me busy this weekend was digging out from the first big snowstorm of the season ( Admittedly, there was also a snow blower involved, but there are a lot of places where you need to use a shovel, especially if you are as anal as me about making sure your driveway, sidewalk, steps, and area in front of the driveway and mailbox ( The city snowplows always seem to block your driveway by pushing huge amounts of snow from the street in front of your house ) are 100% clear of all of even the tiniest bit of snow and ice. Also, my snow blower is not self-propelled or anything ( so there is a lot of pushing involved ), and it is not powerful enough to throw snow from the middle of my double-wide driveway to the snow banks on either side of the driveway, so I've got to go over lots of areas more than once . Plus, to get a head start on all the snow ( The storm started slowly at about noon on Saturday, got heavier as the day went on, and continued until dawn on Sunday ), I did a lot of work at about midnight before I went to bed and did a lot of it by hand so I wouldn't piss of the neighbors too much. ). As I was doing all this work, I got to thinking about what still passes as "a man's job" these days.
Modern western society has certainly come a long way in the last 50 years when it comes to how couples share the responsibilities for domestic chores. While it's true that most women still wind up doing most of the domestic chores, ...
( Full disclosure: I'm a bit more of a Felix Unger than my wife ( if you don't know who Felix Unger and Oscar Madison are, check this link for The Odd Couple ), so I'm pretty much the only person who ever cleans the bathrooms or does any kind of floor-cleaning or vacuuming. I also do most of the dish washing and I love caring for my kids ( Well, I didn't love the changing poopy diapers part, but I did this as much as my wife did. We had rule that whoever first smelt the poop had to clean it. Of course this system relied on the honor system quite a bit, but I can report that I never shirked my responsibility after detecting the poopy odor. ). However, I HATE shopping of any kind, and I'm pretty useless in the kitchen, so Ruth basically does all the grocery shopping and has cooked thousands of more meals than me over the last 13.5 years )
... there are certain jobs that are still reserved for men. mostly because most men don't want to give them up. I think shoveling snow is a good example of this. I guess it would be easier to have our wives chip in with the snow shoveling, but most men would feel a bit emasculated to have their wives help them with hard physical labor. I can't tell you how many pieces of furniture I've moved by myself while telling my wife to "stand back - I don't want you to get hurt". Perhaps this is silly, immature and sexist, but that's the way it is - at least for me. Sometime a man just wants to feel like his "manliness" is useful. I dunno - my nearly 40-year-old bones certainly are sore today, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Oh, I don't tell me "Why don't you just hire some teenage kid to do the work?". You don't want me to get started about how middle-aged guys feel about being usurped by younger guys when it comes to physical labor.
Rich
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Back To School
Well, it's been a trying week ( see this post if you don't know what I'm talking about ), but after much effort and help from some great people, we finally managed to get Peter back into full-day pre-school. Well, it's not exactly full day - he's going to school from 9:00 to 2:30 each instead of 9:00 - 3:30, but it's a lot better than 9:00 - 11:30. Now we won't have to worry about finding a new daycare center for Peter ( Ruth works until 1 PM each day ), and he'll get the type of specialized instruction he needs all day.
Technically, Peter is only in class for the first half of the day, and he is been designated as a temporary "visitor" to the class in the afternoon. Basically, the teachers at Peter's school found a loophole for us to get around the Superintendent's rules. Things are going to need to be re-evaluated in January, but the teacher's seem committed to doing everything they can to help us out. Kim also gave a bunch of great advice on Friday and offered to meet with the teachers/administrator's at Peter's school if we needed more help pleading our case.
So, perhaps Peter getting kicked out of his daycare center will turn out to be a blessing. He'll definitely get better instruction in school than he would have in daycare.
Anyway, I decided to include another nice happy photo of Peter in this post. The photo above really shows the two sides of Peter. He really likes the piano and he's already shown a talent for making up little simple little melodies on his own :) . However, the marks on the walk behind him are the result of Peter using a magic marker on the wall the previous day. :0
Friday, November 27, 2009
Expelled!
I've included the two photos above just as a reminder of what a sweet little boy my youngest son Peter can be. Peter's behavior has cause us a lot a grief lately, so I just wanted to post some photos that would make me think about all the joy he brings me. I especially like his smile in the Batman photo above. He was so happy that day. I really can't emphasize enough that NOTHING make a parent happier than seeing his/her child smile. When I think back on all the fun I've had in my life prior to having kids, I can honestly say that none of that fun compares to the feeling that I get watching my kids having fun. Nothing I accomplished in my life before having kids gave me anywhere near the feeling of accomplishment I get when I make my boys giggle. My kids bring me so much joy, and I've needed to keep think of that joy to get through the last few days.
On Monday morning Ruth called me at work. She was sobbing into to phone. She called me to let me know that Peter had been kicked of of his daycare center for bad behavior. She wasn't really crying because he was kicked out ( Peter getting kicked out of daycare certainly doesn't qualify as a tragedy. It's been inconvenient for us, because we've had to scramble to find new daycare options, but there is certainly much worse news you can get about your child. ) - she was crying because of what his recent behavior might imply about his development and future.
As you may already know from this post and this post, Peter can be a real handful at times. He's not really good at taking "no" for an answer. Actually, he gets insanely angry when you tell him no, and he'll physically fight you off if you try to get him to do something that he doesn't want to do. He is EXTREMELY strong-willed. He is more strong-willed than anyone I've ever met in my life. I keep telling myself that his strong will is going to serve him well in life someday, but that doesn't make things easier now.
I think his speech-delay is still a big part of the problem. His speaking has improved by leaps and bounds lately, but I still don't think he grasps the concept of cause and effect. You can scold him and punish him over and over again when he acts out inappropriately, but I don't think he has any comprehension of what he is being punished for. If you ask him why he is being punished, he won't be able to tell you ( even if you told him why 5 seconds earlier ), and he'll go right back to the inappropriate behavior at the next opportunity.
Actually, "opportunity" is the wrong word. It makes it sound like he's always looking for the opportunity to behave badly, and that really isn't the case. Most of the time, he wants to be good, and acts like a little angel. Few kids are bigger mama's boys than Peter. We put him in his own bed each night, but he still winds up being right next to Ruth in bed almost every morning. He's really attached to his Mom, and I don't think that any Mama's boy with a loving Mom could turn out that bad. The Paul Simon song below kind of sums up my feeling about that ...
Peter doesn't want to be bad, but he tends to react to conflict badly. I can't tell you how many times he's hit his brother Michael for inappropriate reasons. Once again, I think the speech delay has a lot to do with it, and recent events have made things worse in that regard. During the previous school year ( September 2008 to June 2009 ), Peter was getting full-day pre-school instruction for kids with special needs like Autism and speech delay. He made tremendous progress over that year. I really don't think we could have gotten him to accept potty training without the extensive help we got from the school.
This September, he started again in the full day pre-school classes ( He went to daycare at our local YMCA over the Summer. He had gone there prior to September of 2008, and all the caregivers there knew him well, so he was pretty happy there. ). However, in late September we were told that Peter needed to be re-evaluated because the school thought he had made good progress and didn't really qualify for one of the classes he was taking ( He's always had two different teachers in school, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Actually, in the first few months at school ( starting in September 2008 ), he actually only went to pre-school for a half-day session in the morning ( then a bus would take him to YMCA daycare in the afternoon ). His morning teacher decided that he wasn't making enough progress, and the school decided to enroll him in an afternoon class as well. He didn't really start making great progress until he started to go to class all day ). We protested when were told Peter no longer qualified for his afternoon class, but as we found out later, there really wasn't much we could do. The public school system in our town had gotten a new Superintendent in September, and apparently that superintendent was trying to make budget cuts anywhere he could ( Considering the MASSIVE property taxes we pay to support the public school system in our town, it REALLY pisses me off that this new Superintendent is trying to nickle-and-dime us. ). This bozo decided to save money by skimping on the special needs kids. He decided that kids in Peter's situation were not going to be allowed to be in more than one program at a time ( The before lunch and after lunch classes are each considered to be a separate program ). So, I think Peter's recent problems really started when he was denied full-day pre-school classes in the public school system.
So, it was back to the YMCA daycare for Peter in early October ( Pre-school classes at the public school in the morning, and YMCA daycare in the afternoon ). We didn't really expect too many problems ( Peter has always loved the YMCA ), but a few weeks after he got back to the YMCA, we started to get reports that Peter was acting up really badly.
We got reports that he had hit other kids.
We got reports that he had hit his CAREGIVERS.
We got reports that he had BIT his caregivers.
( He didn't bite his caregivers in anger in an attempt to hurt them. He was giving them gentle little nibbles to get their attention ( Peter craves attention, especially from people he likes. ), Still - biting of any kind is very much inappropriate. )
So, while we were upset with the news we got on Monday, the writing had been on the wall for a few weeks. We've spent the last few weeks trying hard to correct his behavior, but he's actually been pretty good at home lately, and when we punished him at home for stuff he did at daycare, you could tell that he wasn't coming close to making the cause-and-effect relationship between the behavior at school and the punishment at home. It was also clear that the "punishment" he received at the YMCA wasn't helping much. Apparently, they would isolate him from the rest of the class when he acted up and send him to the office of the Director of daycare. The Director used to be one of Peter's caregivers. Peter REALLY likes her, so sending an attention-craving kid to the Director's office every time he acted up was probably just re-enforcing the bad behavior. Anyway, I'm sure the Director didn't really have time for Peter's frequent visits, and after enough hitting and biting ( especially hinting of other kids ), I guess she really had no choice to expel him.
So, that's where we are. The YMCA has given us a grace period of a few days, but we've got to decide on a new daycare center REAL soon. I'm sure we can get him into another daycare center, but Ruth and I are really worried that workers at any daycare center won't be able to handle Peter if he keeps acting up like this. We are really worried that he won't be getting the instruction he needs to get ready for Kindergarten next September.
The good news is that a lot of people REALLY love Peter and have offered to help. We are actually meeting with a very special person's in Peter's life tomorrow afternoon at our home. From the time he turned 2 up until he turned 3, Peter got speech therapy twice a week at home from speech/autism therapist named Kim. Kim also worked with Michael for a year when he was two years old, and she was eager to take on Peter's case when it was discovered that Peter would need speech therapy. Kim has really been a godsend to our family. We were really starting to lose hope with Michael until she started to figure out how to get Michael to come out of his shell. We invite her to all the birthday parties for the boys and she's really like a member of the family now. It will really be great to see her tomorrow, and hopefully she'll have some good ideas regarding Peter's situation.
Peter and Kim in a therapy session, March 2008:
Rich
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The bane of my existence
As I noted in this post, I hate picking up all the "spikey balls" that fall from sugargum trees in my backyard each Winter. I just thought I'd give you an idea of how bad it gets. Please click on the pictures below to see them in maximum detail. The leaves have pretty much all fallen off the trees by now, so every little thing you see hanging from the trees is a "spikey ball". Eventually, I'm going to have to pick every one of those things up. I've got 5 trees like this in my backyard, as well as 5 more from another yard that have a significant amount of branches hanging over my yard.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
And so it's come to this ...
I have an appointment with an orthopedic doctor on December 9th. Yeah, things aint going too well with the foot/ankle ( See this post if you don't know what I'm talking about ).
A week ago ( on Nov. 11th ), I felt more than the usual pain in the ankle when I started to run on the treadmill. I probably should have stopped right then and there. I really probably should have. But ... but I was getting SO close. So close to running at the same speeds I was running 18 months ago before I injured my knee. I was so close to getting back my personal best time for my regular 2-mile run before I turned 40. All it would have taken was about two more months of intense training. Just two more months. I could do that that. Sure, my ankle hurt a little more each day and I was limping around a lot the morning after each run, but I was almost there. I could make it. Just two more more months. I would rest the ankle for a while after that, but I still had two months to go. So, I gritted my teeth, finished my 2 mile run, and didn't give it second thought ...
Until the next morning ...
CRAP
My ankle looked pretty f*cking big on the morning of Nov. 12th. I could walk on it and all, but pretty f*cking big. Even then, I was still holding out a little hope. I only run twice a week anyway ( 2 intense runs a week - my knees get really spongey if I run more than that ), and my next scheduled run was set for Sunday, November 15th. I was still planning to run again until the morning of the 15th, but my ankle was still really swollen on the 15th, so finally some common sense kicked in. Sure, it might give me great feeling of accomplishment to get back to my personal best running times before I turned 40, but would it really be worth the risk of potentially spending the rest of my life with a limp ( or God forbid, a CANE! ). So yeah, common sense kicked in. It was time to hang up my running shoes for a while and finally call a Doc.
Oh well, no personal bests by the time I reach 40. I guess if the Docs can fix what is wrong and I heal up okay, I could still try to reach my personal best at 41. Heck, that would be more impressive anyway. Of course, I might be told I need to give up running altogether - but I'm going to think positive for now.
Aging REALLY REALLY blows!
Rich
A week ago ( on Nov. 11th ), I felt more than the usual pain in the ankle when I started to run on the treadmill. I probably should have stopped right then and there. I really probably should have. But ... but I was getting SO close. So close to running at the same speeds I was running 18 months ago before I injured my knee. I was so close to getting back my personal best time for my regular 2-mile run before I turned 40. All it would have taken was about two more months of intense training. Just two more months. I could do that that. Sure, my ankle hurt a little more each day and I was limping around a lot the morning after each run, but I was almost there. I could make it. Just two more more months. I would rest the ankle for a while after that, but I still had two months to go. So, I gritted my teeth, finished my 2 mile run, and didn't give it second thought ...
Until the next morning ...
CRAP
My ankle looked pretty f*cking big on the morning of Nov. 12th. I could walk on it and all, but pretty f*cking big. Even then, I was still holding out a little hope. I only run twice a week anyway ( 2 intense runs a week - my knees get really spongey if I run more than that ), and my next scheduled run was set for Sunday, November 15th. I was still planning to run again until the morning of the 15th, but my ankle was still really swollen on the 15th, so finally some common sense kicked in. Sure, it might give me great feeling of accomplishment to get back to my personal best running times before I turned 40, but would it really be worth the risk of potentially spending the rest of my life with a limp ( or God forbid, a CANE! ). So yeah, common sense kicked in. It was time to hang up my running shoes for a while and finally call a Doc.
Oh well, no personal bests by the time I reach 40. I guess if the Docs can fix what is wrong and I heal up okay, I could still try to reach my personal best at 41. Heck, that would be more impressive anyway. Of course, I might be told I need to give up running altogether - but I'm going to think positive for now.
Aging REALLY REALLY blows!
Rich
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Alphabet List
I got the idea for this post from Shweta, who got it from Jackie, who named her post "I Like This Thing Rachel Copied From Sami..". So, I'm not really sure who came up with this idea ( though, I guess if I'm going to give props to anyone, it should be Sami ( whoever she is ) ), but it seemed like it would be fun, so here goes ...
A-age: 39
B-bed size: king
C-chore you hate: I have a rather large backyard with a good number of trees. This is nice ( and quite beautiful in the fall - see this post ), but the trees happen to be sugargum trees. These trees drop MANY MANY thousand spikey balls ( about an inch in diameter on average - see photo below ) each winter, and I've got to pick them up put them in bags each spring. This really breaks my back every year. The basic tool I've been using to gather these things is a rake, but they don't respond that well to rakes. Because of the spikes they tend to stick to the ground, so I often need to rake over the same spot about ten times before I even get have of these spikey little balls to move. I often need to get down on my hands and knees to pick them up. As much as I hate this chore, I really have no choice. The spikes on these things can be rather sharp, and it seems like these things never rot ( When they have been there a few years, the spikes wear away a bit. You would think that would be a good thing, but having your yard full of really old sugargum balls is like having a yard full of marbles. It's really not safe to walk on those things. ). Worse yet, I need to stick them in brown paper bags that are 4 feet high and have an opening that is only about 1 foot square ( The county requires that you put them in these bags, or else they won't collect them ). Once I manage to get a bunch of these spikey balls in a pile, it's a real pain in the ass to transfer to contents of the file into to tiny openings on these bags ( especially when the wind is blowing ). I swear - I love trees, but if it was legal to cut these trees down, I'd be outside with a chainsaw in about an hour ( and the only reason it would take an hour is that I would have to go out and buy the chainsaw first ).
Hey, I just found this website when searching for the image above on Google. I'm seriously considering buying one of these things.
D-don't eat: I wouldn't want to eat whale, dolphin, or one of the great apes, but aside from that, I'll willing to put pretty much anything into my mouth. Not that I'd want to eat just anything on a regular basis - I do try to eat rather healthy. I'm still progressing towards being 99% vegetarian ( I don't have any moral problem with meat, but I think eating lots of meat is really bad for the planet, so I'm trying to reduce my meat consumption each year. I've gotten to the point where more than 70% of my lunches are vegetarian, and I plan to increase that percentage each year. ), and when I do it meat, it's usually something relatively healthy like chicken or fish. Still, I make exceptions, because I really have 3 modes of eating:
Everyday eating mode: This mode is for the meals I have on a regular basis, like the meals I have at home or the lunches I eat at work. I don't want to get into any bad eating habits ( For example, as much as I might love super greasy deep fried foods and rich desserts, eating that stuff every day would certainly lead me to an early grave. ), so I trying to keep the vast majority of really unhealthy foods out of my regular eating rotation.
Going out to eat with my family mode: I don't go out to eat every day, so when I do I like to expand my horizons a bit. These "out to eat" meals are where I eat most of my burgers and fries. Still, I don't always eat that kind of stuff when I'm out to eat. Last Saturday I was out to eat with Ruth and the kids ( at a place that had plenty of fried and greasy choices ), and I had a meal that consisted of crab cakes and broccoli.
Vacation mode: If I was on vacation 365 days a year ....
1) I'd weigh about 400 pounds.
2) The world's supply of sugar would be in danger.
3) The milk producing cows of the work would be bone dry ( CHEESE, ICE CREAM, PUDDING, ICE CREAM FLOATING IN A BOWL OF PUDDING COVERED IN CHEESE!!!! MMMMMMMMMM!!!!!! ).
4) I would cause so much global warming from my meat eating that we'd all be about 10 feet under water.
Yes, anything goes when I'm on vacation. F*ck it! I'm on vacation!
E-essential start-your-day item: I'm not emotionally attached to any of these things, but I certainly would start a day without soap, toothpaste and mouthwash. Oh, and if this question was supposed to be about coffee ...
1) I've been caffeine-free since 1998.
2) I'm wide awake within milliseconds after my alarm goes off.
F-favorite board game: Depends on the crowd. I've probably spent more time playing Strat-o-matic baseball than any other game, but that's really only an option if you are in a group of male baseball nerds. I've always thought that Trivial Pursuit was a fun co-ed game. You can really learn a lot about a couple by how they resolves disputes when they are on the same Trivial Pursuit team.
G-gold or silver: Not sure how to answer this question. I'm not a bling guy. The only piece of gold or silver I have ever worn ( or every will wear ) is my wedding ring. I'm going to have to go with gold, because is is worth way-more per once than silver ( Also, it's a damn good conductor! ).
H-height: 6 Feet, 1 inch.
I-instruments you've played: I can't really play any musical instrument. Yes I did play "the recorder" in school, because they kind of force you to do that, and I have enjoyed making up little melodies on keyboards/pianos from time to time, but both my attempts to learn how to play a musical instrument in a formal way ( guitar / piano ) ending with me quitting before I learned too much. It would have never worked. I have a good ear for music and all, but I have ZERO dexterity/flexibility in my fingers. I've never been able to to move my pinky finger at all with also moving my ring finger. Hell, I can't even touch type. All the fine blogging you've ever see on this site has been done using the hunt-and-peck method
J-job title: Software Developer
K-kids: Michael is 6 and Peter is 4.
L-living arrangements: House in Edison, New Jersey.
M-mom's name: My Mom passed away in 1996. Her name was June.
N-nicknames: Never had a nickname.
O-overnight hospital stay, other than birth: I was hospitalized for a bad asthma attack when I was four years old. I wrote about this experience at the beginning of this post.
P-pet peeve: I'm a pretty affable and agreeable fellow. There really isn't lot that makes me angry on any kind of consistent basis. It's not that I never get peeved about anything - it's just that I don't get peeved about anything consistently enough that I would call in a "pet peeve". There are a few things I could mention ( and I think I might have already answered one of these "pet peeve" type questions in another one of these multiple question blog posts ), but I'm in a good mood right now and I don't want to spoil it by dwelling on the negative.
Q-famous movie quote: "Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try" - Yoda, from "The Empire Srikes Back".
R-rightie or leftie: Right-handed.
S-sibling(s): My brother Craig is 3.5 years younger than me.
T-time you wake up: 6:07 AM on work days. On weekends, I'll try to sleep past 8 AM, but my kids usually wake me up before then. Before I had kids, I used to sleep until at least 11 AM each weekend. Kids really change you.
U-underwear: This may be TMI, but I wear briefs. I'd give these reason why I go for briefs over boxer, but that would be REALLY TMI.
V-vegetable favorite: I eats LOTS of Chinese food, and my favorite vegetable with Chinese food is broccoli. However, broccoli can actually be quite boring if you find yourself eating it all by itself. My favorite vegetable as a stand-alone food would be corn-on-the-cob.
W-ways you run late: I don't do late. I'm the kinda guy who gets to places an hour early all the time because I build in a one-hour train-delay ( or a one hour traffic jam ) to my estimate of long it will take to get somewhere. Of course, 2 little kids can occasionally ruin your best laid-out plans. I'm still rarely late, but if I am, the answer to "way you run late" would be "kids".
X-x-rays you've had: Aside from the dental ones? Well, I'll save this story for another time ( Heck, I might have already told this story - I really don't remember ), but I was once in a cast for two months due to a basketball injury, and X-rays of my left foot were involved.
Y-yummy food you make: I'm no chef, but I can make a mean omelet when I want to.
Z-zoo favorite: I've always liked the monkeys, but the sea-lions are always really cool too.
A-age: 39
B-bed size: king
C-chore you hate: I have a rather large backyard with a good number of trees. This is nice ( and quite beautiful in the fall - see this post ), but the trees happen to be sugargum trees. These trees drop MANY MANY thousand spikey balls ( about an inch in diameter on average - see photo below ) each winter, and I've got to pick them up put them in bags each spring. This really breaks my back every year. The basic tool I've been using to gather these things is a rake, but they don't respond that well to rakes. Because of the spikes they tend to stick to the ground, so I often need to rake over the same spot about ten times before I even get have of these spikey little balls to move. I often need to get down on my hands and knees to pick them up. As much as I hate this chore, I really have no choice. The spikes on these things can be rather sharp, and it seems like these things never rot ( When they have been there a few years, the spikes wear away a bit. You would think that would be a good thing, but having your yard full of really old sugargum balls is like having a yard full of marbles. It's really not safe to walk on those things. ). Worse yet, I need to stick them in brown paper bags that are 4 feet high and have an opening that is only about 1 foot square ( The county requires that you put them in these bags, or else they won't collect them ). Once I manage to get a bunch of these spikey balls in a pile, it's a real pain in the ass to transfer to contents of the file into to tiny openings on these bags ( especially when the wind is blowing ). I swear - I love trees, but if it was legal to cut these trees down, I'd be outside with a chainsaw in about an hour ( and the only reason it would take an hour is that I would have to go out and buy the chainsaw first ).
Hey, I just found this website when searching for the image above on Google. I'm seriously considering buying one of these things.
D-don't eat: I wouldn't want to eat whale, dolphin, or one of the great apes, but aside from that, I'll willing to put pretty much anything into my mouth. Not that I'd want to eat just anything on a regular basis - I do try to eat rather healthy. I'm still progressing towards being 99% vegetarian ( I don't have any moral problem with meat, but I think eating lots of meat is really bad for the planet, so I'm trying to reduce my meat consumption each year. I've gotten to the point where more than 70% of my lunches are vegetarian, and I plan to increase that percentage each year. ), and when I do it meat, it's usually something relatively healthy like chicken or fish. Still, I make exceptions, because I really have 3 modes of eating:
Everyday eating mode: This mode is for the meals I have on a regular basis, like the meals I have at home or the lunches I eat at work. I don't want to get into any bad eating habits ( For example, as much as I might love super greasy deep fried foods and rich desserts, eating that stuff every day would certainly lead me to an early grave. ), so I trying to keep the vast majority of really unhealthy foods out of my regular eating rotation.
Going out to eat with my family mode: I don't go out to eat every day, so when I do I like to expand my horizons a bit. These "out to eat" meals are where I eat most of my burgers and fries. Still, I don't always eat that kind of stuff when I'm out to eat. Last Saturday I was out to eat with Ruth and the kids ( at a place that had plenty of fried and greasy choices ), and I had a meal that consisted of crab cakes and broccoli.
Vacation mode: If I was on vacation 365 days a year ....
1) I'd weigh about 400 pounds.
2) The world's supply of sugar would be in danger.
3) The milk producing cows of the work would be bone dry ( CHEESE, ICE CREAM, PUDDING, ICE CREAM FLOATING IN A BOWL OF PUDDING COVERED IN CHEESE!!!! MMMMMMMMMM!!!!!! ).
4) I would cause so much global warming from my meat eating that we'd all be about 10 feet under water.
Yes, anything goes when I'm on vacation. F*ck it! I'm on vacation!
E-essential start-your-day item: I'm not emotionally attached to any of these things, but I certainly would start a day without soap, toothpaste and mouthwash. Oh, and if this question was supposed to be about coffee ...
1) I've been caffeine-free since 1998.
2) I'm wide awake within milliseconds after my alarm goes off.
F-favorite board game: Depends on the crowd. I've probably spent more time playing Strat-o-matic baseball than any other game, but that's really only an option if you are in a group of male baseball nerds. I've always thought that Trivial Pursuit was a fun co-ed game. You can really learn a lot about a couple by how they resolves disputes when they are on the same Trivial Pursuit team.
G-gold or silver: Not sure how to answer this question. I'm not a bling guy. The only piece of gold or silver I have ever worn ( or every will wear ) is my wedding ring. I'm going to have to go with gold, because is is worth way-more per once than silver ( Also, it's a damn good conductor! ).
H-height: 6 Feet, 1 inch.
I-instruments you've played: I can't really play any musical instrument. Yes I did play "the recorder" in school, because they kind of force you to do that, and I have enjoyed making up little melodies on keyboards/pianos from time to time, but both my attempts to learn how to play a musical instrument in a formal way ( guitar / piano ) ending with me quitting before I learned too much. It would have never worked. I have a good ear for music and all, but I have ZERO dexterity/flexibility in my fingers. I've never been able to to move my pinky finger at all with also moving my ring finger. Hell, I can't even touch type. All the fine blogging you've ever see on this site has been done using the hunt-and-peck method
J-job title: Software Developer
K-kids: Michael is 6 and Peter is 4.
L-living arrangements: House in Edison, New Jersey.
M-mom's name: My Mom passed away in 1996. Her name was June.
N-nicknames: Never had a nickname.
O-overnight hospital stay, other than birth: I was hospitalized for a bad asthma attack when I was four years old. I wrote about this experience at the beginning of this post.
P-pet peeve: I'm a pretty affable and agreeable fellow. There really isn't lot that makes me angry on any kind of consistent basis. It's not that I never get peeved about anything - it's just that I don't get peeved about anything consistently enough that I would call in a "pet peeve". There are a few things I could mention ( and I think I might have already answered one of these "pet peeve" type questions in another one of these multiple question blog posts ), but I'm in a good mood right now and I don't want to spoil it by dwelling on the negative.
Q-famous movie quote: "Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try" - Yoda, from "The Empire Srikes Back".
R-rightie or leftie: Right-handed.
S-sibling(s): My brother Craig is 3.5 years younger than me.
T-time you wake up: 6:07 AM on work days. On weekends, I'll try to sleep past 8 AM, but my kids usually wake me up before then. Before I had kids, I used to sleep until at least 11 AM each weekend. Kids really change you.
U-underwear: This may be TMI, but I wear briefs. I'd give these reason why I go for briefs over boxer, but that would be REALLY TMI.
V-vegetable favorite: I eats LOTS of Chinese food, and my favorite vegetable with Chinese food is broccoli. However, broccoli can actually be quite boring if you find yourself eating it all by itself. My favorite vegetable as a stand-alone food would be corn-on-the-cob.
W-ways you run late: I don't do late. I'm the kinda guy who gets to places an hour early all the time because I build in a one-hour train-delay ( or a one hour traffic jam ) to my estimate of long it will take to get somewhere. Of course, 2 little kids can occasionally ruin your best laid-out plans. I'm still rarely late, but if I am, the answer to "way you run late" would be "kids".
X-x-rays you've had: Aside from the dental ones? Well, I'll save this story for another time ( Heck, I might have already told this story - I really don't remember ), but I was once in a cast for two months due to a basketball injury, and X-rays of my left foot were involved.
Y-yummy food you make: I'm no chef, but I can make a mean omelet when I want to.
Z-zoo favorite: I've always liked the monkeys, but the sea-lions are always really cool too.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Old Body
My left foot is killing me today.
Not that I'm surprised by that - it's something that I'm starting to get used to. My foot's been that way for about 4 or 5 months now. When it first started, it felt like a twisted ankle, but I couldn't actually remember twisting my ankle. Anyway, it didn't really bother me too much. Back in my teen years, when I was playing pickup basketball just about every day, I used to sprain my ankles rather frequently. I've dealt with severely sprained ankles in the past, and this just felt like a minor strain. The ankle pain I was feeling was the kind of thing that would usually go away in just a day or two.
But it didn't go away. It hasn't gone away. In fact, it seems like it's getting progressively worse over time. Not a lot worse - it's not like I'm in severe pain or anything - but it has started to get annoying.
As I said before, I don't really remember a single event that led to the pain. The pain just came out of nowhere one day, and it has just kinda lingered since then. With that in mind, it has occurred to me that this is some kind of repetitive stress injury. In other words, I'm getting old.
( Actually, I'm not even sure if "repetitive stress" is the right term. I think "repetitive stress" usually means something like Carpel Tunnel Syndrome. What I'm talking about is an injury you get from overuse, like Tennis Elbow, or knee injuries from running too much. I'm too tired to look up the proper term for that right now, so I'm just going to use the term "repetitive stress" in this post. )
I probably have some kind of slightly torn tendon/ligament , or some kind of small stress fracture in one of the bones in my foot ( The pain seems to be concentrated on the left side of my left foot, where the top of the foot meets the ankle ). Ruth ( my wife, who in case you forgot, is a doctor ) initially thought it was a stress fracture, but we are now both leaning towards the theory that it is a ligament/tendon thing. The pain is actually worst when I first wake up in the morning, or when I've been sitting for a long time without moving. The first step each morning was starting to get REALLY painful until Ruth told me to try moving my left foot/ankle around for about 15 seconds each morning before taking my fist step. This seems to cut down on the pain A LOT, so Ruth thinks it's probably some kind of tendon/ligament issue. She says the tendon/ligament probably contracts at night when I'm sleeping and becomes less flexible. This lack of flexibility leads to micro-tears in the tendon/ligament when I take those first steps, and probably does more damage to whatever happens to be damaged.
So yeah, I've got low flexibility in the foot, and probably some kind of tears in the tendons/ligaments related to the lack of flexibility. It would probably take an MRI to be absolutely sure ( and I doubt any doctor would recommend an expensive MRI for minor pain - and frankly I would feel like a real wuss if I demanded an MRI because of some minor ankle pain ), but the bottom line is ... I'M OLD.
But as I said, the pain's not that bad. Once I get the foot/ankle all warmed up, I don't really notice any pain at. In fact, I can run long distances on my treadmill without feeling pain. Yes, I can run to my heart's content - and that's probably at the root of the problem.
( Lots of running ) + OLD = Repetitive Stress Injury
Repetitive Stress Injury + Running = Worse Injury
However, it hard for me to stop running, because I believe ...
Body - Running = Out of Shape Body
Life + Running = Longer Life
Lungs + Asthma = Weak Lungs
Weak Lungs + Running = Strong Lungs
Weak Lungs + Swine Flu = Death
You get the idea. As a person born with asthma, having a strong lungs and a strong cardio-vascular system is very important to me. Running is a great way to keep my heart/lungs in tip-top shape. I really don't want to stop running, but it's becoming clear that all the running I'm doing is starting to contribute to my joints breaking down.
It's not just my ankle. I've had issues with my knees for as long as I can remember. Even in high school, they would occasionally swell up on me. It's not that I really get knee pain, but if I do too much running my knees get all spongey. I'm pretty sure "spongey" isn't a word, but what I mean is that if I run too frequently, my knees feel like they are made out a sponge-type material rather than something solid. It doesn't really hurt, but it can be rather disconcerting - you kinda feel like your knee might give way any second. Well, I'm probably overtstating things, it's not really that bad ( yet ) but I've always worried about how my knees would hold up as I got progressively older.
We'll about 17 months ago or so, my left knee almost did give out on the treadmill. Actually, it didn't come close to giving out, but it did start to feel rather funny. I probably should have stopped running immediately, but I stupidly tied to "suck it up", and ran at full speed for about 10 more minutes. As soon as I got off the treadmill, I knew I had made a mistake. My knee just wasn't working right, and I realized that I was going to have to quit my running routine for a while. About 2 months past before I decided to to try running again. My knee still didn't feel quite right by then, so I started running significantly slower than I had before, vowing to eventually work my way back to my pre-injury speed. I'm almost all the way back to peak form ( I'm hoping to match my personal best time for 2 miles by the time I turn 40 on January 15th ), and my knee feels reasonably fine ( though who knows how it will respond when I start running at full speed again ), but now I've got this issue with my ankle. About 6 weeks ago, I took 3 weeks off from running to see if my ankle would heal, but if anything, it felt worse after those 3 weeks. So eventually I said "Screw it! I'm just going to deal with the pain and start running again. January 15th is right around the corner, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to meet my fitness goal!".
The point of all this blabbering of mine is to try and express how conflicted I feel. I've figured out by now that running is both very good for me ( My heart, lungs, general fitness, etc. ) and very bad for me ( my OLD joints ), and I'm not sure where I should go from here. I know there are non-impact ways to get good cardio-vsacular workouts, but I don't really enjoy doing the non-impact stuff, and if I don't enjoy doing something, I'm not going to be motivated enough to do it. I really can't see myself quiting running anytime soon. If that means my joints break down, so be it, but I really can't see myself quiting now.
What I worry about is that I'll someday be a 70-year old man who has the heart and lungs of a 30-year old, but has the joints of a 100-year old. That would be rather ironic. There I would be limping around all the time after a life of working out hard, while some 70-year old dude who spent his life eating chips while watching TV would be able to walk around without a problem.
Things are kinda like that for me now, to a certain extent. Thanks to my intense workouts, I can do athletics things that most guys pushing 40 couldn't dream of doing. However, I'll occassionaly walk around with a slight limp, and my knees tend to make cracking noises whenever I move them. However, if I need to ( for example if I'm several locks from the train station and my train is going to leave in a few minutes ), I can break into a sprint that would put most 20-year-olds to shame. However, after that, I'll go right back to being an almost 40-year-old limping guy.
Yeah, so all this exercise make me feel both young and OLD. Actually more OLD. Each ache and pain reminds me of my mortality. I'll probably never lose the desire to work out hard, but ultimately, my body WILL betray me. Eventually, my joints WILL break down. Still, I'd rather go out fighting than slowly let my body go soft while eating chips and watching TV. I'm just going to keep on running and enjoy the ride for as log as I can.
Rich
Not that I'm surprised by that - it's something that I'm starting to get used to. My foot's been that way for about 4 or 5 months now. When it first started, it felt like a twisted ankle, but I couldn't actually remember twisting my ankle. Anyway, it didn't really bother me too much. Back in my teen years, when I was playing pickup basketball just about every day, I used to sprain my ankles rather frequently. I've dealt with severely sprained ankles in the past, and this just felt like a minor strain. The ankle pain I was feeling was the kind of thing that would usually go away in just a day or two.
But it didn't go away. It hasn't gone away. In fact, it seems like it's getting progressively worse over time. Not a lot worse - it's not like I'm in severe pain or anything - but it has started to get annoying.
As I said before, I don't really remember a single event that led to the pain. The pain just came out of nowhere one day, and it has just kinda lingered since then. With that in mind, it has occurred to me that this is some kind of repetitive stress injury. In other words, I'm getting old.
( Actually, I'm not even sure if "repetitive stress" is the right term. I think "repetitive stress" usually means something like Carpel Tunnel Syndrome. What I'm talking about is an injury you get from overuse, like Tennis Elbow, or knee injuries from running too much. I'm too tired to look up the proper term for that right now, so I'm just going to use the term "repetitive stress" in this post. )
I probably have some kind of slightly torn tendon/ligament , or some kind of small stress fracture in one of the bones in my foot ( The pain seems to be concentrated on the left side of my left foot, where the top of the foot meets the ankle ). Ruth ( my wife, who in case you forgot, is a doctor ) initially thought it was a stress fracture, but we are now both leaning towards the theory that it is a ligament/tendon thing. The pain is actually worst when I first wake up in the morning, or when I've been sitting for a long time without moving. The first step each morning was starting to get REALLY painful until Ruth told me to try moving my left foot/ankle around for about 15 seconds each morning before taking my fist step. This seems to cut down on the pain A LOT, so Ruth thinks it's probably some kind of tendon/ligament issue. She says the tendon/ligament probably contracts at night when I'm sleeping and becomes less flexible. This lack of flexibility leads to micro-tears in the tendon/ligament when I take those first steps, and probably does more damage to whatever happens to be damaged.
So yeah, I've got low flexibility in the foot, and probably some kind of tears in the tendons/ligaments related to the lack of flexibility. It would probably take an MRI to be absolutely sure ( and I doubt any doctor would recommend an expensive MRI for minor pain - and frankly I would feel like a real wuss if I demanded an MRI because of some minor ankle pain ), but the bottom line is ... I'M OLD.
But as I said, the pain's not that bad. Once I get the foot/ankle all warmed up, I don't really notice any pain at. In fact, I can run long distances on my treadmill without feeling pain. Yes, I can run to my heart's content - and that's probably at the root of the problem.
( Lots of running ) + OLD = Repetitive Stress Injury
Repetitive Stress Injury + Running = Worse Injury
However, it hard for me to stop running, because I believe ...
Body - Running = Out of Shape Body
Life + Running = Longer Life
Lungs + Asthma = Weak Lungs
Weak Lungs + Running = Strong Lungs
Weak Lungs + Swine Flu = Death
You get the idea. As a person born with asthma, having a strong lungs and a strong cardio-vascular system is very important to me. Running is a great way to keep my heart/lungs in tip-top shape. I really don't want to stop running, but it's becoming clear that all the running I'm doing is starting to contribute to my joints breaking down.
It's not just my ankle. I've had issues with my knees for as long as I can remember. Even in high school, they would occasionally swell up on me. It's not that I really get knee pain, but if I do too much running my knees get all spongey. I'm pretty sure "spongey" isn't a word, but what I mean is that if I run too frequently, my knees feel like they are made out a sponge-type material rather than something solid. It doesn't really hurt, but it can be rather disconcerting - you kinda feel like your knee might give way any second. Well, I'm probably overtstating things, it's not really that bad ( yet ) but I've always worried about how my knees would hold up as I got progressively older.
We'll about 17 months ago or so, my left knee almost did give out on the treadmill. Actually, it didn't come close to giving out, but it did start to feel rather funny. I probably should have stopped running immediately, but I stupidly tied to "suck it up", and ran at full speed for about 10 more minutes. As soon as I got off the treadmill, I knew I had made a mistake. My knee just wasn't working right, and I realized that I was going to have to quit my running routine for a while. About 2 months past before I decided to to try running again. My knee still didn't feel quite right by then, so I started running significantly slower than I had before, vowing to eventually work my way back to my pre-injury speed. I'm almost all the way back to peak form ( I'm hoping to match my personal best time for 2 miles by the time I turn 40 on January 15th ), and my knee feels reasonably fine ( though who knows how it will respond when I start running at full speed again ), but now I've got this issue with my ankle. About 6 weeks ago, I took 3 weeks off from running to see if my ankle would heal, but if anything, it felt worse after those 3 weeks. So eventually I said "Screw it! I'm just going to deal with the pain and start running again. January 15th is right around the corner, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to meet my fitness goal!".
The point of all this blabbering of mine is to try and express how conflicted I feel. I've figured out by now that running is both very good for me ( My heart, lungs, general fitness, etc. ) and very bad for me ( my OLD joints ), and I'm not sure where I should go from here. I know there are non-impact ways to get good cardio-vsacular workouts, but I don't really enjoy doing the non-impact stuff, and if I don't enjoy doing something, I'm not going to be motivated enough to do it. I really can't see myself quiting running anytime soon. If that means my joints break down, so be it, but I really can't see myself quiting now.
What I worry about is that I'll someday be a 70-year old man who has the heart and lungs of a 30-year old, but has the joints of a 100-year old. That would be rather ironic. There I would be limping around all the time after a life of working out hard, while some 70-year old dude who spent his life eating chips while watching TV would be able to walk around without a problem.
Things are kinda like that for me now, to a certain extent. Thanks to my intense workouts, I can do athletics things that most guys pushing 40 couldn't dream of doing. However, I'll occassionaly walk around with a slight limp, and my knees tend to make cracking noises whenever I move them. However, if I need to ( for example if I'm several locks from the train station and my train is going to leave in a few minutes ), I can break into a sprint that would put most 20-year-olds to shame. However, after that, I'll go right back to being an almost 40-year-old limping guy.
Yeah, so all this exercise make me feel both young and OLD. Actually more OLD. Each ache and pain reminds me of my mortality. I'll probably never lose the desire to work out hard, but ultimately, my body WILL betray me. Eventually, my joints WILL break down. Still, I'd rather go out fighting than slowly let my body go soft while eating chips and watching TV. I'm just going to keep on running and enjoy the ride for as log as I can.
Rich
Monday, November 2, 2009
Election Day self-promotion
Tomorrow ( November 3rd ) is Election Day in the USA, so I'll be getting up at about 5:30 AM tomorrow so I can be one of the first people to vote ( The polls open at 6:00, and I've got to get back to my house with the minivan by about 6:24 in order to get to catch the 6:40 train to work. I walk to the train station each day and leave the minivan at home with Ruth and the kids. If the polling place was on the way to work, I'd just walk the the polling place and then to work, but the polling place is in the opposite direction from the train station. The only way I can vote in the morning and still make it to the train station on time is if I avoid all lines by being one of the first people to vote ( Actually, last year I made it back to the house by 6:17 AM after voting, so I guess I do have a little time to spare, but for all I know there could be a 10 minute line at the polling place if I get there at 6:05 rather than at 5:55 ). I need to vote in the mornings because the polls close at 8 PM. I get home 6:45 PM on my best days ( if I catch the 5:54 train home and there is no train delay ) and usually not much after 7 PM on most days ( I seem to be getting the 6:11 train home a lot these days ), but if there are a lot of issues at work, I could easily get home past 8 PM. I'm very big on making sure I do my civic duty, so I always try to vote early on Election Day. Every vote really matters this year. There are no national elections in the USA in odd-numbered years ( Except for an occasion special election when somebody vacates his/her office before his/her term is over. There is one congressional election like that this year, but it's in upstate New York ), but the Governor's seat in New Jersey is up for grabs this year, and it's supposed to be a really close race.
Anyway, considering that voting is the theme of the day, I figured I'd post the clip of my "Vote" Madonna parody below. Most of you have probably already seen it, but a little self-promotion never hurt. ;)
Anyway, considering that voting is the theme of the day, I figured I'd post the clip of my "Vote" Madonna parody below. Most of you have probably already seen it, but a little self-promotion never hurt. ;)
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Funerals
There was a death in my family this week.
Before you start offering your condolences, consider the following:
1) The deceased ( my Great Aunt Elsie - younger sister of my maternal grandmother ) would have been 92 in about a month.
2) She's been going progressively senile* over the last few years. She spent the last 9 months or so in a nursing home, and frankly, she could barely recognize anyone anymore.
3) With number 2 above in mind, I though it was actually a blessing that she passed away.
( * - I'm not even sure if "senile" is a PC term anymore, but it just seems more to the point to say "senile" than to say something like "suffering from Alzheimer's disease". I don't think it's disrespectful or demeaning to say "senile". Senility is what it is, and there is no need to sugar coat it. Heck, considering that I've always looked and felt young for my age in a physical sense, it's probably inevitable that my mind will give out before my body does. If and when that happens, I hope my grandkids can just say "Gramps has gone senile", without feeling the need to get all clinical about it. )
Also, I've gotten pretty philosophical about death over the years. I accepted a long time ago that I'll probably see most of my significantly older relatives die during my lifetime. My maternal grandmother passed away in 1980, my paternal grandmother passed away in 1983, my maternal grandfather passed away in 1990, my paternal grandfather passed away in 1993, and my mother passed away in 1996. So, by the time I was 26, I only had one living direct ancestor ( my Dad ).
So death really doesn't bother my much. I love my old relatives and all, but I've already accepted that a day will come when they will not be around.
Death is natural. Regardless of our religious beliefs ( or lack thereof ) and belief in an afterlife ( or lack thereof ), I think we all need to accept that nobody lives forever on this Earth. Everyone passes from this Earth, and we need to be ready to accept that.
So, with that in mind, I hope I don't seem really insensitive to you when I tell you that when I got the news that my Aunt Elsie passed away on Thursday night, my only response was "Well, it's for the best". It really was for the best. Two of my Aunts from my Mom's generation and my Aunt Elsie's younger brother and sister ( all of whom live in the same retirement community ( the community my Aunt Elsie lived in before sent was put in the nursing home ) ) had been spending a lot of time visiting the nursing home. I think they all felt kinda guilty for putting Aunt Elsie in the nursing home, even though it probably was the best thing to do at that point in Aunt Elsie's life. Considering my Aunt Elsie's advancing senility, I doubt that either she or her relatives were getting much out of the nursing home visits. The visits were just making everyone feel guilty and sad. I think it is for the best that she finally passed on.
Anwway, my Aunt Elsie's funeral is on Monday and her wake is on Sunday ( I'm writing this before going to bed on Saturday night - it's actually 12:19 AM on Sunday as a type this ). Working is too crazy right now for me to even think about taking Monday off on short notice.
OK, that last sentence is a lie. Work is crazy right now, but if I had to take time off to do something I considered really important ( like something for my wife and kids ), I wouldn't hesitate taking a day off. In truth, my busy work schedule is just a convenient excuse for me to skip the funeral.
It's not that I get sad at funerals ( I didn't even shed a tear at my Mom's funeral ) - it's just that I don't believe in funerals. I don't believe in them at all. I honestly think they are a waste of time. If it was socially acceptable at all, I would never go to another funeral for my entire life ( including my own - I've decided to specify in my will that my body should be donated to science when I die. That way, my remains will be put to use for a noble cause ( training medical students ) and my kids won't have to deal with funeral arrangements or waste their valuable time by visiting my buried rotting corpse someday. ).
Yeah, I know, while anyone with half a brain will tell you that funerals really don't benefit the deceased ( If there's no afterlife, the deceased won't know and won't care about what is going on at a funeral, and if there is an afterlife, no just God is going to the let the quality of a funeral determine how a soul will spend his/her afterlife. Yeah, I know some religions ( including mine ) require a certain kind of funeral, but if you really think your God cares about this kind of stuff, then you must think your God is petty bastard. No just God is going to keep somebody out of heaven because that person didn't have the proper funeral ), most people will tell you that funerals exist to comfort the close relatives of the deceased.
REALLY?
I was only peripherally involved in my Mom's funeral arrangements, and let me tell you, I didn't find any comfort in it. Arranging a funeral is a real pain in the ass. Perhaps I'm wrong about this, but I think the last thing most people want to do after a loved one dies is a bunch of arrangements that keep acutely reminding you that your loved one certainly is dead, and that you are responsible for what happens with your loved one's body.
Yeah, everbody greets you at the wake and funeral and says stuff like "I'm sorry for your loss" of "He/She was such a wonderful person", but what would we expect them to say? They are certainly not going to say something like "Good riddance, I'm glad that bastard is dead!". I really feel like everybody is just going through the motions at a funeral. I'm not saying that people are being insincere - most people really are sorry for your loss, and most people really do think the person who died was a wonderful person. It's just that everything that is said, sincere or not, seems to be part of an elaborate routine that is the same at every single funeral. I don't need my friends to tell me that they are sorry for my loss. I know my friends are sorry for my loss. If my friends were not sorry for my loss, these people would not be my friends.
I dunno, I'm just not a funeral person. I hope people don't think I'm some kind of insensitive bastard, but I just don't see that point. Sure, some people do need a lot of consoling when a person they love dies - but I think all the consoling could be done without are the pomp and circumstance of a wake and funeral. I actually think a funeral can get in the way of the consoling. I person needs to be consoled after a loved one dies, I think the most effectively way to do that would be to have everyone gather to talk about deceased in an informal way, and I think that should only be done when the relatives of the deceased are ready to talk. Perhaps some people who lose a loved one will want to wait weeks or months before talking about the deceased. Perhaps some people won't want to talk about the deceased at all. People deal with grief in different ways. I think it's wrong that society forces many of use to spend an afternoon in a room with our loved one's corpse just a day or so after our loved one dies. Not everybody finds that particularly comforting.
So yeah, no funeral for me on Monday, and I'm not really happy about having to go to the wake tomorrow. Sure, I'll go, but it's an hour-and-a-half drive each way, and I was really looking forward to spending a relaxing Sunday afternoon with kids this weekend. Work is really wearing me out and I really needed that mental break ( and physical break - I think I'm coming down with a cold ).
Yeah, I'm definitely donating my body to science - I don't want to put anyone else through this crap.
Rich
Before you start offering your condolences, consider the following:
1) The deceased ( my Great Aunt Elsie - younger sister of my maternal grandmother ) would have been 92 in about a month.
2) She's been going progressively senile* over the last few years. She spent the last 9 months or so in a nursing home, and frankly, she could barely recognize anyone anymore.
3) With number 2 above in mind, I though it was actually a blessing that she passed away.
( * - I'm not even sure if "senile" is a PC term anymore, but it just seems more to the point to say "senile" than to say something like "suffering from Alzheimer's disease". I don't think it's disrespectful or demeaning to say "senile". Senility is what it is, and there is no need to sugar coat it. Heck, considering that I've always looked and felt young for my age in a physical sense, it's probably inevitable that my mind will give out before my body does. If and when that happens, I hope my grandkids can just say "Gramps has gone senile", without feeling the need to get all clinical about it. )
Also, I've gotten pretty philosophical about death over the years. I accepted a long time ago that I'll probably see most of my significantly older relatives die during my lifetime. My maternal grandmother passed away in 1980, my paternal grandmother passed away in 1983, my maternal grandfather passed away in 1990, my paternal grandfather passed away in 1993, and my mother passed away in 1996. So, by the time I was 26, I only had one living direct ancestor ( my Dad ).
So death really doesn't bother my much. I love my old relatives and all, but I've already accepted that a day will come when they will not be around.
Death is natural. Regardless of our religious beliefs ( or lack thereof ) and belief in an afterlife ( or lack thereof ), I think we all need to accept that nobody lives forever on this Earth. Everyone passes from this Earth, and we need to be ready to accept that.
So, with that in mind, I hope I don't seem really insensitive to you when I tell you that when I got the news that my Aunt Elsie passed away on Thursday night, my only response was "Well, it's for the best". It really was for the best. Two of my Aunts from my Mom's generation and my Aunt Elsie's younger brother and sister ( all of whom live in the same retirement community ( the community my Aunt Elsie lived in before sent was put in the nursing home ) ) had been spending a lot of time visiting the nursing home. I think they all felt kinda guilty for putting Aunt Elsie in the nursing home, even though it probably was the best thing to do at that point in Aunt Elsie's life. Considering my Aunt Elsie's advancing senility, I doubt that either she or her relatives were getting much out of the nursing home visits. The visits were just making everyone feel guilty and sad. I think it is for the best that she finally passed on.
Anwway, my Aunt Elsie's funeral is on Monday and her wake is on Sunday ( I'm writing this before going to bed on Saturday night - it's actually 12:19 AM on Sunday as a type this ). Working is too crazy right now for me to even think about taking Monday off on short notice.
OK, that last sentence is a lie. Work is crazy right now, but if I had to take time off to do something I considered really important ( like something for my wife and kids ), I wouldn't hesitate taking a day off. In truth, my busy work schedule is just a convenient excuse for me to skip the funeral.
It's not that I get sad at funerals ( I didn't even shed a tear at my Mom's funeral ) - it's just that I don't believe in funerals. I don't believe in them at all. I honestly think they are a waste of time. If it was socially acceptable at all, I would never go to another funeral for my entire life ( including my own - I've decided to specify in my will that my body should be donated to science when I die. That way, my remains will be put to use for a noble cause ( training medical students ) and my kids won't have to deal with funeral arrangements or waste their valuable time by visiting my buried rotting corpse someday. ).
Yeah, I know, while anyone with half a brain will tell you that funerals really don't benefit the deceased ( If there's no afterlife, the deceased won't know and won't care about what is going on at a funeral, and if there is an afterlife, no just God is going to the let the quality of a funeral determine how a soul will spend his/her afterlife. Yeah, I know some religions ( including mine ) require a certain kind of funeral, but if you really think your God cares about this kind of stuff, then you must think your God is petty bastard. No just God is going to keep somebody out of heaven because that person didn't have the proper funeral ), most people will tell you that funerals exist to comfort the close relatives of the deceased.
REALLY?
I was only peripherally involved in my Mom's funeral arrangements, and let me tell you, I didn't find any comfort in it. Arranging a funeral is a real pain in the ass. Perhaps I'm wrong about this, but I think the last thing most people want to do after a loved one dies is a bunch of arrangements that keep acutely reminding you that your loved one certainly is dead, and that you are responsible for what happens with your loved one's body.
Yeah, everbody greets you at the wake and funeral and says stuff like "I'm sorry for your loss" of "He/She was such a wonderful person", but what would we expect them to say? They are certainly not going to say something like "Good riddance, I'm glad that bastard is dead!". I really feel like everybody is just going through the motions at a funeral. I'm not saying that people are being insincere - most people really are sorry for your loss, and most people really do think the person who died was a wonderful person. It's just that everything that is said, sincere or not, seems to be part of an elaborate routine that is the same at every single funeral. I don't need my friends to tell me that they are sorry for my loss. I know my friends are sorry for my loss. If my friends were not sorry for my loss, these people would not be my friends.
I dunno, I'm just not a funeral person. I hope people don't think I'm some kind of insensitive bastard, but I just don't see that point. Sure, some people do need a lot of consoling when a person they love dies - but I think all the consoling could be done without are the pomp and circumstance of a wake and funeral. I actually think a funeral can get in the way of the consoling. I person needs to be consoled after a loved one dies, I think the most effectively way to do that would be to have everyone gather to talk about deceased in an informal way, and I think that should only be done when the relatives of the deceased are ready to talk. Perhaps some people who lose a loved one will want to wait weeks or months before talking about the deceased. Perhaps some people won't want to talk about the deceased at all. People deal with grief in different ways. I think it's wrong that society forces many of use to spend an afternoon in a room with our loved one's corpse just a day or so after our loved one dies. Not everybody finds that particularly comforting.
So yeah, no funeral for me on Monday, and I'm not really happy about having to go to the wake tomorrow. Sure, I'll go, but it's an hour-and-a-half drive each way, and I was really looking forward to spending a relaxing Sunday afternoon with kids this weekend. Work is really wearing me out and I really needed that mental break ( and physical break - I think I'm coming down with a cold ).
Yeah, I'm definitely donating my body to science - I don't want to put anyone else through this crap.
Rich
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Old Books
The photo above shows a bunch of my old college textbooks I found lying around when I was in the process of organizing the storage room of my basement ( The work to finish our basement was completed about a month ago. The vast majority of the basement is completely empty now ( with nice floors, walls, ceilings, lights, etc. ) and most of the stuff that used to be strewn about the entire basement is now jammed into a single storage room that takes up about 25% of the basement. The storage room is so full that you can barely move inside it. The only way we'll ever be able to find anything in there is by taking an inventory of everything in the storage room and getting rid of anything that we really don't need ). I've come to the conclusion that the time has finally come to get rid of these old textbooks.
I've been holding on to all of them for the last 20 years of so. I always kinda figured they'd be good to have it I ever needed to brush up on my Math/Science/Engineering. Sure, I could have sold back most of them to the campus bookstore when I graduated ( and I did do that with some of my books ), but considering that the store would have only given me about $10 dollars a book for books I spent $50 to $60 each on ( which at the time, seemed like A LOT of money - especially considering inflation over the last 20 years and the fact that I was a poor college student at the time ), I figured it made sense to hold on to them. Sure, I was going into a field ( software development ) which didn't really require me to use my Engineering education, but I figured I'd hold on to the books just in case the the software development thing didn't work out.
Well, more than 16 years have passed since then, and I'm still working as a software developer. There are certainly times when I hate my job, but I really couldn't see myself doing any other kind of work for the rest of my life ( Well, unless I had the guts to take a big pay cut, but I'm not going to risk that anytime soon with two little kids and a big mortgage ). I'm probably never going to need to brush up on the information in those books ever again, and even it I did, a musty old book isn't the source I would use. As I looked over all these old books a few weeks ago, it suddenly occurred to me that they've invented this thing called The Internet, and I hear that you can use this Internet thing to look up just about anything. If I really wanted to brush up on my Vector Mechanics, Thermodynamics, or Laplace Transformations, I could use this new-fangled Google thing, and I'd be good to go.
So, I've decided that the books have got to go. They're just taking up space, and they could do the world a lot more good if they were available for somebody to read in a public library. So, I've decided that I'll be making a trip to my local public library soon. I've now got the books in a box in my garage, and as soon as I find some spare time on a Saturday, I'll be taking a trip to the library.
Still, I must admit that I'm really not in a rush to do this. As much as it makes sense to get rid of the books, I think I still have a little bit of sentimental attachment to most of them. There are a lot of memories in those books, and part of me wants to hold on to them so Michael and Peter can use them someday. However, as heartwarming as the idea of passing my books down to my kids might be, I'm sure they won't want to look at some musty old books when they'll probably be able to look at every book in the world using some Kindle-type device.
Still, I'm already shown two of my books ( Calculus and Robotics ) to Michael, and the books still sit in a box in my ultra-crowded garage.
Well, I guess we'll see what happens, but if this is the end for my old books, I just wanted to given them a proper send-off in this blog post.
Well, I'll be signing off now. I wanted to write more this month, but things have been really busy both at home and at work. Hopefully, I'll blog a lot more in November.
Rich
Saturday, October 3, 2009
What America Means to Me
This post is a response to this post by Pax, particularly this passage:
"Sitting there in that class, awkwardly shifting in my chair made me realize how uncomfortable I am in myself as an American. This attitude is nothing new, but I sadly have no Patriotism to this country. I'm not sure if I've ever known what it means to be an American-- because I'm not sure there is really such a thing. In most countries, there's not as much ethnic diversity as in the US-- whereas the US is a wonderful mix of mutts. We don't really have a place to belong and the label of American more satisfies location rather than mindset-- and for some reason whenever I say this I offend lots of people."
Well, I'm not offended by the passage above, but I do disagree. Well, I do agree that the US is "a wonderful mix if mutts", but I think that America *is* about a mindset. America was founded on a mindset. People came to the New World to find freedoms they couldn't find in their mother countries. People came to America to get a fresh start. In the Old World, you were often bound by your social class, but in America, a man could go as far as his imagination and effort could take him. I know it's a bit of a cliche now, but America has always truly been the Land of Opportunity.
Of course the world has evolved, and the USA is no longer as unique as it has once been. In addition to the world changing, the USA has also changed a lot over the last 233 years. A lot people think it hasn't changed for the better. A lot people will tell you "This country aint what it used to be.". I actually agree that this country "aint what it used to be", but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. In fact I think we are a far better country than we were 233 ( or 133 or 33 ) years ago, and I think out best days are ahead of us.
Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not one of these jingoistic fellows who thinks that the USA can do no wrong. Unlike some people, I don't think patriotism and dissent are mutually exclusive. On the contrary, I don't think one can be truly patriotic without dissent. Patriotism without dissent is almost by definition jingoism. True patriots should want their country to be strong and successful, and there are few things that can cause any organization to fail more spectacularly than overabundance of yes-men.
I couldn't help but think of this yes-man brand of "patriotism" as I watched an interview with a father who said he objected to the speech President Obama was going to give ( and subsequently did give, but not before parents pressured school boards into making sure kids were given the option to not watch the speech ) to the nation's school children. The father said that he didn't want his son to watch the speech because he believed Obama was going to highlight America's problems. He said he believed that the USA was the greatest country in the world, and he didn't want his son to be told anything different. If I could have spoken to this guy ( and to be honest, I was screaming at the father in the TV screen like a lunatic as I watched the interview ), I would have told him the following:
"I agree with you that the USA is the greatest country in the world, but I'm a bit disappointed that you apparently have no desire to keep it that way. Apparently you think the USA should just rest on its laurels. Apparently, you think the USA should do nothing to improve itself. How can we possibly continue to be the greatest country on earth unless we strive to be the best? A true patriot should always want the USA to get better, and we can't get better unless we admit our faults and work to correct them. If history shows us anything, it's that complacency is the enemy of success."
Of course, this guy probably would have replied with something like ...
"Screw you, Commie! USA! USA! USA!"
So yeah, there are a lot of problem with this country and I'm not afraid to acknowledge them. We still have big problems with racism, sexism, and homophobia, our health care system sucks, our national debt is huge, our politicians are largely beholden to corporate interests, many people are apathetic about the state of the country, and lately it seems that least apathetic people are also the most ignorant people. I'd list more problems, but if I did, this blog post would go on forever.
Still, I'd rather live in this country than any other. I'm still proud to be an American because I still believe in America's ideals. I still feel we can live up to those ideals. America isn't as great as it could be and it's quite possible that we've been surpassed by other nations in many different ways. However, I firmly believe that there is no country that has a much potential as the USA, and I still have confidence that we will eventually live up to that potential. We have potential that no other country has, because even 233 years after its founding, the USA is still unique. It's unique in a way that can be be summed up by these iconic words at the base of the Statue of Liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor, You huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless tempest-tossed, to me: I will lift my lamp beside the golden door.
As some long-time readers might remember, this is the second time I've quoted the passage above in a blog post. Sorry for being repetitive, but I couldn't resist quoting Emma Lazarus' words again, because I think they really sum up what America means to me. If had to pick one word to epitomize the past, present, and future greatness of the USA, I would pick "immigration". Immigration is really what makes American unique. Sure, other countries have immigration, but very few countries were built on a foundation of immigration. As Pax put it, the USA is a "wonderful mix of mutts". We have a tremendously heterogeneous population. Most other countries in the world have homogeneous populations. If you go to Japan, you'll find that most people are ethnically Japanese. If you go to Germany, you'll find that most people are ethnically German. In countries like Germany and Japan, it's still unlikely that an immigrant will ever be considered to be a "real German" or a "real Japanese person". In the USA, you don't have to be from a specific ethnic background to be considered an America. Sure there are still a lot a people in the USA who think "real American"="white American", but the USA did just elect the son of an African immigrant to the highest office in the land ( see this post for my thoughts about that ) . In the USA *anyone* can make it to the top, and this gives us an advantage over most other nations in the world. Immigration gives the USA a far deeper talent pool than any other nation in the world. In Germany and Japan, all the most important jobs are held by the best German people available, or the best Japanese people available. In the USA, the most important jobs will ideally ( admittedly, the USA has not lived up to all of it's ideals perfectly ) be held by the best people, regardless of their ethnic background. ( Hmm, I hope it doesn't see like I'm picking on Germany and Japan. Those were just the first two countries with homogeneous populations that popped into my head. However, I can't help but think that the heterogeneous nature of the USA's population is one of the reason's why the USA prevailed over Germany and Japan in World War II ( admittedly, with a lot of help from the UK and Russia, which certainly have much more homogeneous populations than the USA ). After all, if Germany hadn't driven out so many brilliant non-Aryan scientists, Germany would have certainly developed the Atomic bomb before the USA ).
Admittedly, there are still a lot of people in the USA who believe in racial purity ( and whites are not the only people guilty of this ), but those people are living in the past, and people like my bi-racial sons are the future. If you look at the demographics trends, you'll see that the USA will probably not be a primarily white nation by 2050. I believe this is a very good thing, because the USA should not be about race. A truly multiracial USA can be a model for the rest of the world. As I noted in the video below, I really feel that the best long-term way to combat racism is to become to become such a multiracial society, that the distinctions between races start to fade away:
Another thing that gives the USA great potential is the natural entrepreneurial spirit of American culture. Sure, some people might call it simple greed ( and there's certainly far too much of that ), and perhaps there are not as many Horatio Alger stories in the USA as there had once been, but there are still plenty of success stories in the USA that are uniquely American. For example how many other countries could produce a Bill Gates? Now, I'm not a huge fan of Bill Gates ( I'm writing this post on my Mac ), but the circumstances of his success might make one exclaim "Only in America!".
Bill Gates was a brilliant young man. He scored 1590 out of 1600 the SAT ( Note: This is a standardized test that pretty much all college-bound high school student take in the USA. ) and was accepted into Harvard University. After about a year at Harvard, he decided to drop out and start his own software company. According to his Wikipedia page ( which cites Gates autobiography ), "He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after seeing how much Gates wanted to start a company.".
How many other nations on earth does something like this happen? In most nations, if you were accepted to ( arguably ) the most prestigious university in the country, you would never think of dropping out, and you would almost certainly not get the blessing of your parents. Let's face it, dropping out of Harvard to start your own company is a huge risk, but Americans have a mindset that often leads to that kind of risk-taking ( BTW, Steve Jobs was also a college drop-out. ).
Of course such risk taking is not always a good thing. Personally, I've never had the guts to take those kinds of risks in life, and more often that not, that kind of risk taking ends in disaster. For every Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, there are thousands of people who wished they never dropped out of college. However, there's something I love about that. There's something I love about a culture that lends itself to both spectacular successes and spectacular failures. Take the US education system for example. Every year statics are released about the math and science proficiency of school children around the world, and every year, the USA performs terribly compared to the rest of the world. However, take look at this link. That link is a list of all the Nobel prize winners by country. As you can see, the USA has had far more Nobel prize winners than any other nation. Of course, the USA has a rather large population, but even if you take the population differences into account ( see this link ), the USA still does a lot better than lots of countries in which school children vastly out-perform US school children. How does one account for that? How does one account for that fact that the USA is apparently full of ignorant school children but brilliant scientists? Well, I think it has something to do with the American mindset. Countries with highly performing school children tend to have societies that place a high value on education. These societies also tend to value conformity. For better or worse, the USA isn't like that at all. I'm not saying it's good thing that the lots of folks in the USA don't value education, but I think it is a good thing that there is probably a lot less societal pressure to perform well academically in USA than in a lot of other nations. The USA may have a lower percentage of high-performing school kids than other nations, but because of the lack of societal pressure to perform well academically, I think that high performing students in the USA are probably ( in general ) a little more self-motivated than high performing students in other nations. For better or worse, there's a lot of academic freedom at each level of the US education system. Kids are given the freedom to make choices, even if they are the wrong ones. Of course, most students do make the wrong choices, which is why we are a largely ignorant nation full of people who don't believe in evolution and think that the sun revolves around the earth. Of course that same system also produces good number of self-motivated people that make the right choices. These are the types of people who win Noble prizes or change the world in other ways ( Gates, Jobs, Edison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, etc. ).
Of course, I'm not even sure if the "American Way" is the best way in education or anything else. I'm not really trying to put any other nation down. All I'm saying is that the "American Way" is certainly unique, and I certainly love it. That's why I think America really is a about a mindset. For better of worse, I think there is an America way of thinking. It's not like we have a hive mind or anything, but I think that there are certain attitudes that most Americans share. While an Ivy League educated northeast liberal like myself may not have a lot in common with some guy from South Carolina who goes to anti-Obama rallies, I think we are probably both strivers, both believe in freedom of choice, both have an entrepreneurial spirit, both love our country passionately, and both want to do what we can to make our nation better. That's all part of the American mindset that I think most of us share.
So, I guess, the bottom is that I love my country, but I love what it has the potential to become even more. I hope that in 100 years, the USA is a completely multi-racial society were everybody kinda looks vaguely like Tiger Woods ( OK, perhaps that's a bad example because Tiger isn't exactly Mr. Handsome, but you get the idea ). I hope we live up to Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream that we can be a nation where people "will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character". I hope we can be a nation that continues to lead the world in innovation and ambition.
Actually, truth be told, I wish those kind of things for the whole world, but unfortunately, most countries don't have the societal structure to pull this off. In lots of countries, half of the people ( the women ) are treated like second class citizens. In lots of countries, you can't rise to the top unless you practice a certain religion, have a certain color skin, or were born into a certain social class. The USA certainly hasn't eliminated problems like sexism, racism, or religious discrimination, but I see the potential in the USA to rise above these hurdles. There's so much potential in the USA, and I think the USA has a responsibility to live up to its potential. I know it sounds corny, but if the USA can truly live up to its potential, the USA can be a beacon of hope for the rest of the world.
OK, well it's getting late, and I should probably finish this post. However, considering the patriotic mood this post has put me in, I've decided to finish it with the link below:
"Sitting there in that class, awkwardly shifting in my chair made me realize how uncomfortable I am in myself as an American. This attitude is nothing new, but I sadly have no Patriotism to this country. I'm not sure if I've ever known what it means to be an American-- because I'm not sure there is really such a thing. In most countries, there's not as much ethnic diversity as in the US-- whereas the US is a wonderful mix of mutts. We don't really have a place to belong and the label of American more satisfies location rather than mindset-- and for some reason whenever I say this I offend lots of people."
Well, I'm not offended by the passage above, but I do disagree. Well, I do agree that the US is "a wonderful mix if mutts", but I think that America *is* about a mindset. America was founded on a mindset. People came to the New World to find freedoms they couldn't find in their mother countries. People came to America to get a fresh start. In the Old World, you were often bound by your social class, but in America, a man could go as far as his imagination and effort could take him. I know it's a bit of a cliche now, but America has always truly been the Land of Opportunity.
Of course the world has evolved, and the USA is no longer as unique as it has once been. In addition to the world changing, the USA has also changed a lot over the last 233 years. A lot people think it hasn't changed for the better. A lot people will tell you "This country aint what it used to be.". I actually agree that this country "aint what it used to be", but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. In fact I think we are a far better country than we were 233 ( or 133 or 33 ) years ago, and I think out best days are ahead of us.
Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not one of these jingoistic fellows who thinks that the USA can do no wrong. Unlike some people, I don't think patriotism and dissent are mutually exclusive. On the contrary, I don't think one can be truly patriotic without dissent. Patriotism without dissent is almost by definition jingoism. True patriots should want their country to be strong and successful, and there are few things that can cause any organization to fail more spectacularly than overabundance of yes-men.
I couldn't help but think of this yes-man brand of "patriotism" as I watched an interview with a father who said he objected to the speech President Obama was going to give ( and subsequently did give, but not before parents pressured school boards into making sure kids were given the option to not watch the speech ) to the nation's school children. The father said that he didn't want his son to watch the speech because he believed Obama was going to highlight America's problems. He said he believed that the USA was the greatest country in the world, and he didn't want his son to be told anything different. If I could have spoken to this guy ( and to be honest, I was screaming at the father in the TV screen like a lunatic as I watched the interview ), I would have told him the following:
"I agree with you that the USA is the greatest country in the world, but I'm a bit disappointed that you apparently have no desire to keep it that way. Apparently you think the USA should just rest on its laurels. Apparently, you think the USA should do nothing to improve itself. How can we possibly continue to be the greatest country on earth unless we strive to be the best? A true patriot should always want the USA to get better, and we can't get better unless we admit our faults and work to correct them. If history shows us anything, it's that complacency is the enemy of success."
Of course, this guy probably would have replied with something like ...
"Screw you, Commie! USA! USA! USA!"
So yeah, there are a lot of problem with this country and I'm not afraid to acknowledge them. We still have big problems with racism, sexism, and homophobia, our health care system sucks, our national debt is huge, our politicians are largely beholden to corporate interests, many people are apathetic about the state of the country, and lately it seems that least apathetic people are also the most ignorant people. I'd list more problems, but if I did, this blog post would go on forever.
Still, I'd rather live in this country than any other. I'm still proud to be an American because I still believe in America's ideals. I still feel we can live up to those ideals. America isn't as great as it could be and it's quite possible that we've been surpassed by other nations in many different ways. However, I firmly believe that there is no country that has a much potential as the USA, and I still have confidence that we will eventually live up to that potential. We have potential that no other country has, because even 233 years after its founding, the USA is still unique. It's unique in a way that can be be summed up by these iconic words at the base of the Statue of Liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor, You huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless tempest-tossed, to me: I will lift my lamp beside the golden door.
As some long-time readers might remember, this is the second time I've quoted the passage above in a blog post. Sorry for being repetitive, but I couldn't resist quoting Emma Lazarus' words again, because I think they really sum up what America means to me. If had to pick one word to epitomize the past, present, and future greatness of the USA, I would pick "immigration". Immigration is really what makes American unique. Sure, other countries have immigration, but very few countries were built on a foundation of immigration. As Pax put it, the USA is a "wonderful mix of mutts". We have a tremendously heterogeneous population. Most other countries in the world have homogeneous populations. If you go to Japan, you'll find that most people are ethnically Japanese. If you go to Germany, you'll find that most people are ethnically German. In countries like Germany and Japan, it's still unlikely that an immigrant will ever be considered to be a "real German" or a "real Japanese person". In the USA, you don't have to be from a specific ethnic background to be considered an America. Sure there are still a lot a people in the USA who think "real American"="white American", but the USA did just elect the son of an African immigrant to the highest office in the land ( see this post for my thoughts about that ) . In the USA *anyone* can make it to the top, and this gives us an advantage over most other nations in the world. Immigration gives the USA a far deeper talent pool than any other nation in the world. In Germany and Japan, all the most important jobs are held by the best German people available, or the best Japanese people available. In the USA, the most important jobs will ideally ( admittedly, the USA has not lived up to all of it's ideals perfectly ) be held by the best people, regardless of their ethnic background. ( Hmm, I hope it doesn't see like I'm picking on Germany and Japan. Those were just the first two countries with homogeneous populations that popped into my head. However, I can't help but think that the heterogeneous nature of the USA's population is one of the reason's why the USA prevailed over Germany and Japan in World War II ( admittedly, with a lot of help from the UK and Russia, which certainly have much more homogeneous populations than the USA ). After all, if Germany hadn't driven out so many brilliant non-Aryan scientists, Germany would have certainly developed the Atomic bomb before the USA ).
Admittedly, there are still a lot of people in the USA who believe in racial purity ( and whites are not the only people guilty of this ), but those people are living in the past, and people like my bi-racial sons are the future. If you look at the demographics trends, you'll see that the USA will probably not be a primarily white nation by 2050. I believe this is a very good thing, because the USA should not be about race. A truly multiracial USA can be a model for the rest of the world. As I noted in the video below, I really feel that the best long-term way to combat racism is to become to become such a multiracial society, that the distinctions between races start to fade away:
Another thing that gives the USA great potential is the natural entrepreneurial spirit of American culture. Sure, some people might call it simple greed ( and there's certainly far too much of that ), and perhaps there are not as many Horatio Alger stories in the USA as there had once been, but there are still plenty of success stories in the USA that are uniquely American. For example how many other countries could produce a Bill Gates? Now, I'm not a huge fan of Bill Gates ( I'm writing this post on my Mac ), but the circumstances of his success might make one exclaim "Only in America!".
Bill Gates was a brilliant young man. He scored 1590 out of 1600 the SAT ( Note: This is a standardized test that pretty much all college-bound high school student take in the USA. ) and was accepted into Harvard University. After about a year at Harvard, he decided to drop out and start his own software company. According to his Wikipedia page ( which cites Gates autobiography ), "He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after seeing how much Gates wanted to start a company.".
How many other nations on earth does something like this happen? In most nations, if you were accepted to ( arguably ) the most prestigious university in the country, you would never think of dropping out, and you would almost certainly not get the blessing of your parents. Let's face it, dropping out of Harvard to start your own company is a huge risk, but Americans have a mindset that often leads to that kind of risk-taking ( BTW, Steve Jobs was also a college drop-out. ).
Of course such risk taking is not always a good thing. Personally, I've never had the guts to take those kinds of risks in life, and more often that not, that kind of risk taking ends in disaster. For every Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, there are thousands of people who wished they never dropped out of college. However, there's something I love about that. There's something I love about a culture that lends itself to both spectacular successes and spectacular failures. Take the US education system for example. Every year statics are released about the math and science proficiency of school children around the world, and every year, the USA performs terribly compared to the rest of the world. However, take look at this link. That link is a list of all the Nobel prize winners by country. As you can see, the USA has had far more Nobel prize winners than any other nation. Of course, the USA has a rather large population, but even if you take the population differences into account ( see this link ), the USA still does a lot better than lots of countries in which school children vastly out-perform US school children. How does one account for that? How does one account for that fact that the USA is apparently full of ignorant school children but brilliant scientists? Well, I think it has something to do with the American mindset. Countries with highly performing school children tend to have societies that place a high value on education. These societies also tend to value conformity. For better or worse, the USA isn't like that at all. I'm not saying it's good thing that the lots of folks in the USA don't value education, but I think it is a good thing that there is probably a lot less societal pressure to perform well academically in USA than in a lot of other nations. The USA may have a lower percentage of high-performing school kids than other nations, but because of the lack of societal pressure to perform well academically, I think that high performing students in the USA are probably ( in general ) a little more self-motivated than high performing students in other nations. For better or worse, there's a lot of academic freedom at each level of the US education system. Kids are given the freedom to make choices, even if they are the wrong ones. Of course, most students do make the wrong choices, which is why we are a largely ignorant nation full of people who don't believe in evolution and think that the sun revolves around the earth. Of course that same system also produces good number of self-motivated people that make the right choices. These are the types of people who win Noble prizes or change the world in other ways ( Gates, Jobs, Edison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, etc. ).
Of course, I'm not even sure if the "American Way" is the best way in education or anything else. I'm not really trying to put any other nation down. All I'm saying is that the "American Way" is certainly unique, and I certainly love it. That's why I think America really is a about a mindset. For better of worse, I think there is an America way of thinking. It's not like we have a hive mind or anything, but I think that there are certain attitudes that most Americans share. While an Ivy League educated northeast liberal like myself may not have a lot in common with some guy from South Carolina who goes to anti-Obama rallies, I think we are probably both strivers, both believe in freedom of choice, both have an entrepreneurial spirit, both love our country passionately, and both want to do what we can to make our nation better. That's all part of the American mindset that I think most of us share.
So, I guess, the bottom is that I love my country, but I love what it has the potential to become even more. I hope that in 100 years, the USA is a completely multi-racial society were everybody kinda looks vaguely like Tiger Woods ( OK, perhaps that's a bad example because Tiger isn't exactly Mr. Handsome, but you get the idea ). I hope we live up to Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream that we can be a nation where people "will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character". I hope we can be a nation that continues to lead the world in innovation and ambition.
Actually, truth be told, I wish those kind of things for the whole world, but unfortunately, most countries don't have the societal structure to pull this off. In lots of countries, half of the people ( the women ) are treated like second class citizens. In lots of countries, you can't rise to the top unless you practice a certain religion, have a certain color skin, or were born into a certain social class. The USA certainly hasn't eliminated problems like sexism, racism, or religious discrimination, but I see the potential in the USA to rise above these hurdles. There's so much potential in the USA, and I think the USA has a responsibility to live up to its potential. I know it sounds corny, but if the USA can truly live up to its potential, the USA can be a beacon of hope for the rest of the world.
OK, well it's getting late, and I should probably finish this post. However, considering the patriotic mood this post has put me in, I've decided to finish it with the link below:
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Death Panels and Stupid People
First, a quick programming note. A few weeks ago I told Pax that one of my upcoming blog posts would be a response to one of his posts. I just wanted to let him know that I haven't forgotten about that, but haven't had the time to write a substantial blog post lately. All I've had time for lately are quick little link-laden and photo-laden blog posts like this one.
OK, on to the business of this post. About 2o minutes ago, I came across the video below. Before watching it considering the following ( If you are in the USA you probably know this stuff already, but if you're not in the USA you may not ):
There is a big debate taking place in the USA about health care reform. President Obama and the Democrats want the federal government to be more involved in health care ( like almost every other industrialized nation in the world ). Republicans are doing everything they can to stand in the way of meaningful health care reform, mostly because they get huge campaign contributions from private health insurance companies ( These companies have a 30% profit margin. Democrats want to provide people with a "Public Option" to private health care. This would presumably force private health insurance companies to compete with the public health care system, which means health care premiums would go down and health care companies would no longer be making a 30% profit. Health care companies have been spending a lot of money to keep this from happening. ). This is not to say there aren't legitimate fiscal arguments to be made against government-run health care, but Republicans have not even attempted to make legitimate arguments. Instead, they have used scare tactics, most notably the "Death Panel" scare tactic. Republicans are basically claiming that government run health care will lead to seniors citizens being denied life-saving medical treatments in order to save money. They are essentially telling people, "If you let the Democrats pass their health care bill, Obama's going to kill Grandma.". For example, Sarah Palin posted the following on her facebook page:
"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
Keeping all that in mind, watch the following video:
I think it should be clear to anyone with half a brain that this video is very well-done satire. The video is clearly pro-Democrat, pro-Obama, and is completely in favor of meaningful health care reform which includes a public option. However, when you look at the comments on the video, you'll see that a lot of people didn't get that this video is satirical. A lot of folks thought this video was against Obama's health care plan. I was kinda amused and disturbed by this. One astute commenter summed up my feelings pretty well:
Yes, shimarlie1, a lot of Republicans are THAT dumb.
Rich
OK, on to the business of this post. About 2o minutes ago, I came across the video below. Before watching it considering the following ( If you are in the USA you probably know this stuff already, but if you're not in the USA you may not ):
There is a big debate taking place in the USA about health care reform. President Obama and the Democrats want the federal government to be more involved in health care ( like almost every other industrialized nation in the world ). Republicans are doing everything they can to stand in the way of meaningful health care reform, mostly because they get huge campaign contributions from private health insurance companies ( These companies have a 30% profit margin. Democrats want to provide people with a "Public Option" to private health care. This would presumably force private health insurance companies to compete with the public health care system, which means health care premiums would go down and health care companies would no longer be making a 30% profit. Health care companies have been spending a lot of money to keep this from happening. ). This is not to say there aren't legitimate fiscal arguments to be made against government-run health care, but Republicans have not even attempted to make legitimate arguments. Instead, they have used scare tactics, most notably the "Death Panel" scare tactic. Republicans are basically claiming that government run health care will lead to seniors citizens being denied life-saving medical treatments in order to save money. They are essentially telling people, "If you let the Democrats pass their health care bill, Obama's going to kill Grandma.". For example, Sarah Palin posted the following on her facebook page:
"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
Keeping all that in mind, watch the following video:
I think it should be clear to anyone with half a brain that this video is very well-done satire. The video is clearly pro-Democrat, pro-Obama, and is completely in favor of meaningful health care reform which includes a public option. However, when you look at the comments on the video, you'll see that a lot of people didn't get that this video is satirical. A lot of folks thought this video was against Obama's health care plan. I was kinda amused and disturbed by this. One astute commenter summed up my feelings pretty well:
Yes, shimarlie1, a lot of Republicans are THAT dumb.
Rich
Monday, September 21, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Michael the future scientist
A few few hours ago, I was looking for my 5 year-old son Michael, and found him watching the video below:
About 5 minutes later he came downstairs and started talking excitedly ( and accurately ) about isotopes.
Sorry to be bragging about my kid again, but I'm just blown away, even though I see this kind of stuff pretty much every day.
I should probably emphasize that he's pretty much 100% self-motivated when he it comes to this stuff. We encourage him and occasionally introduce new topics to him when he asks us questions ( He'd been asking a lot questions about how computers work lately, so now he understands that a computer is basically a set of on/off switches, and he knows how to convert binary numbers to hexadecimal numbers ), but he does most of his leaning via independent study on YouTube. ). I've told him what scientists are are, so now he tells us he wants to grow up to be a scientist. He says he wants to build a rocket ship someday called the "Michael 5".
Hopefully, I'll get to ride on it someday. :)
Rich
About 5 minutes later he came downstairs and started talking excitedly ( and accurately ) about isotopes.
Sorry to be bragging about my kid again, but I'm just blown away, even though I see this kind of stuff pretty much every day.
I should probably emphasize that he's pretty much 100% self-motivated when he it comes to this stuff. We encourage him and occasionally introduce new topics to him when he asks us questions ( He'd been asking a lot questions about how computers work lately, so now he understands that a computer is basically a set of on/off switches, and he knows how to convert binary numbers to hexadecimal numbers ), but he does most of his leaning via independent study on YouTube. ). I've told him what scientists are are, so now he tells us he wants to grow up to be a scientist. He says he wants to build a rocket ship someday called the "Michael 5".
Hopefully, I'll get to ride on it someday. :)
Rich
Monday, September 14, 2009
53 Inch Penis
OK, now that I've got your attention, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite bloggers. His name is Nate Silver, a name that may already be somewhat familiar to you if you followed the 2008 US presidential election, or if you just occasionally glanced at the blog links I have on the right side of my blog page. My page has had a link to Nate's blog ( fivethirtyeight.com ) for quite a while now, and I've been following Nate's work for even longer than that. As I confessed in one of my previous posts, I'm big-time baseball stats geek, and Nate has been a god to baseball stat geeks ever since he invented something called PECOTA ( WARNING - the link to the left is SUPER geeky! ).
In 2008, Nate gained a bit more mainstream fame when he started the political blog fivethirtyeight.com. 538 stands for the total number of electoral votes in a US presidential election, and the 538 blog was initially dedicated to predicting the results of the 2008 presidential election. Nate wound up predicting the presidential election winner correctly in 49 or the 50 states, was only a few votes off in predicting Obama's and McCain's electoral vote totals, and predicted Obama's and McCain's shares of the popular vote within 0.1 %.
He did this by using the same sort of statistical methods that made him a god to baseball geeks. He looked at almost every poll taken by almost every pollster, and used sophisticated statistical and probabilistic models to predict the most likely election outcomes in each state.
After the election was over, he decided to keep the blog going. The blog analyzes the political issues of the day using statistical tools. While that may seem a bit boring, it works because Nate also happens to be a fine writer ( He's written for a few baseball books. ). This brings us back to the title of this blog post. Check out this post from Nate, or more specifically, the few paragraphs below:
( Just some background before you start reading the excerpt from Nate's post below. The blog post was talking about crowd size estimates. On Sept 12th, the far-right held a protest against Obama in Washington. The initial estimates said about 70,000 people attended, but right-wing bloggers were soon claiming that 2 million people attended the protest. )
------------- Text below from fivethirtyeight.com ------------------------------------------------
But yesterday, someone told a real whopper. ABC News, citing the DC fire department, reported that between 60,000 and 70,000 people had attended the tea party rally at the Capitol. By the time this figure reached Michelle Malkin, however, it had been blown up to 2,000,000. There is a big difference, obviously, between 70,000 and 2,000,000. That's not a twofold or threefold exaggeration -- it's roughly a thirtyfold exaggeration.
The way this false estimate came into being is relatively simple: Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, lied, claiming that ABC News had reported numbers of between 1.0 and 1.5 million when they never did anything of the sort. A few tweets later, the numbers had been exaggerated still further to 2 million. Kibbe wasn't "in error", as Malkin gently puts it. He lied. He did the equivalent of telling people that his penis is 53 inches long.
---------------- Text above frofivethiryeight.com ------------------------------------------------
I've read a lot of political blogs in my day, but I've never read one that evoked the image of a 53 inch penis. Ya gotta love Nate Silver.
OK, maybe you don't need to love him, but I certainly do. We're talkin' big time man crush here. Considering how much I love politics and statistical analysis, the 538 site almost gets me horny. It really gets me wondering ...
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you already know how I feel about smart girls with glasses. You also might remember how I swoon for politically astute liberal women like Amanda Terkel.
Well, Nate Silver is a politically astute extremely intelligent liberal guy with glasses. I kinda wonder how I'd be reacting to Nate right now if I were a woman. It's kinda hard to say, but I've got a feeling that my blog would have a lot of posts like these.
Rich
P.S. OK, that was a rather random post, but don't worry, I'll have another up soon. I really have no choice to write another post soon. I like to pull up my blog page while I'm eating lunch at work ( because it had links to all my favorite blogs ), but if I pull up a blog page with the words "53 Inch Penis" at the top, I've got a feeling that Human Resources might want to have a chat with me soon.
P.P.S. I just realized that this is my 100th post. I can't believe I've already written than many.
In 2008, Nate gained a bit more mainstream fame when he started the political blog fivethirtyeight.com. 538 stands for the total number of electoral votes in a US presidential election, and the 538 blog was initially dedicated to predicting the results of the 2008 presidential election. Nate wound up predicting the presidential election winner correctly in 49 or the 50 states, was only a few votes off in predicting Obama's and McCain's electoral vote totals, and predicted Obama's and McCain's shares of the popular vote within 0.1 %.
He did this by using the same sort of statistical methods that made him a god to baseball geeks. He looked at almost every poll taken by almost every pollster, and used sophisticated statistical and probabilistic models to predict the most likely election outcomes in each state.
After the election was over, he decided to keep the blog going. The blog analyzes the political issues of the day using statistical tools. While that may seem a bit boring, it works because Nate also happens to be a fine writer ( He's written for a few baseball books. ). This brings us back to the title of this blog post. Check out this post from Nate, or more specifically, the few paragraphs below:
( Just some background before you start reading the excerpt from Nate's post below. The blog post was talking about crowd size estimates. On Sept 12th, the far-right held a protest against Obama in Washington. The initial estimates said about 70,000 people attended, but right-wing bloggers were soon claiming that 2 million people attended the protest. )
------------- Text below from fivethirtyeight.com ------------------------------------------------
But yesterday, someone told a real whopper. ABC News, citing the DC fire department, reported that between 60,000 and 70,000 people had attended the tea party rally at the Capitol. By the time this figure reached Michelle Malkin, however, it had been blown up to 2,000,000. There is a big difference, obviously, between 70,000 and 2,000,000. That's not a twofold or threefold exaggeration -- it's roughly a thirtyfold exaggeration.
The way this false estimate came into being is relatively simple: Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, lied, claiming that ABC News had reported numbers of between 1.0 and 1.5 million when they never did anything of the sort. A few tweets later, the numbers had been exaggerated still further to 2 million. Kibbe wasn't "in error", as Malkin gently puts it. He lied. He did the equivalent of telling people that his penis is 53 inches long.
---------------- Text above frofivethiryeight.com ------------------------------------------------
I've read a lot of political blogs in my day, but I've never read one that evoked the image of a 53 inch penis. Ya gotta love Nate Silver.
OK, maybe you don't need to love him, but I certainly do. We're talkin' big time man crush here. Considering how much I love politics and statistical analysis, the 538 site almost gets me horny. It really gets me wondering ...
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you already know how I feel about smart girls with glasses. You also might remember how I swoon for politically astute liberal women like Amanda Terkel.
Well, Nate Silver is a politically astute extremely intelligent liberal guy with glasses. I kinda wonder how I'd be reacting to Nate right now if I were a woman. It's kinda hard to say, but I've got a feeling that my blog would have a lot of posts like these.
Rich
P.S. OK, that was a rather random post, but don't worry, I'll have another up soon. I really have no choice to write another post soon. I like to pull up my blog page while I'm eating lunch at work ( because it had links to all my favorite blogs ), but if I pull up a blog page with the words "53 Inch Penis" at the top, I've got a feeling that Human Resources might want to have a chat with me soon.
P.P.S. I just realized that this is my 100th post. I can't believe I've already written than many.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Edison Rocks!
As those of you who have looked at my YouTube profile may know, I live in Edison, New Jersey. Actually, September 29th will mark the 6th anniversary of when we moved into our house ( Michael was born on October 15th of the same year, so we were cutting it rather close. ).
Well, a few days ago, I came across this article. Apparently, Edison has been ranked as one of the top ten places to grow up in the United States. Of course, just because "U.S. News and World Report" says something, doesn't make it gospel, but it's nice to know that Edison was ranked that high. Choosing a place to buy a home can be a very stressful experience. You are always worried about making the right choice, especially for your kids. I've always felt that we made a good choice for our kids, and it's nice to have some validation of that.
BTW, as nice as Edison is, not everything is sunny and bright. I just came across the following comments attached to the article:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, a few days ago, I came across this article. Apparently, Edison has been ranked as one of the top ten places to grow up in the United States. Of course, just because "U.S. News and World Report" says something, doesn't make it gospel, but it's nice to know that Edison was ranked that high. Choosing a place to buy a home can be a very stressful experience. You are always worried about making the right choice, especially for your kids. I've always felt that we made a good choice for our kids, and it's nice to have some validation of that.
BTW, as nice as Edison is, not everything is sunny and bright. I just came across the following comments attached to the article:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Edison
When you are traveling around to write stories or visiting as a tourist, you don't get the real feeling of living in certain cities or towns. What used to be nice areas in Edison are now overcrowded and dumpy because of the multitude of Asian Indians who moved there. Also, I read stories about San Jose that include many Latino gangs and crime. The United States is not what it used to be.
For Kathleen
This comment is for Kathleen---Edison is a great town. The Asians (Indians, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese) are one of the main reasons they made it to the top 10 list. The academic ratings of the school is that much better cause of them. If you havent noticed, most of America is full of minority groups, that's what makes America--the FOREIGNERs. The only natives to the US are the Native American Indians. It said to see close minded, ignorant people like yourself.
edison
agree with kathleen about edison.
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Nobody sane could believe, even in jest, that Obama is suggesting 'Death Panels'
Someone please set me straight here..I don't want to believe Reps are THAT dumb.