Vices???

I thought I would think a little about people and their vices. We all have them and if you deny it you are kidding yourself. (That in of itself is a vice) I always like when I think about simple things, which my little brain has a tendency in doing, to look at a word’s basic definition. Here is my outdated dictionary’s definition…actually it has several:

1 (a)An evil action or habit (b)evil conduct (c) I like this definition; prostitution 2 a trivial fault or failing.

Curious how prostitution falls under the evil action or habit (Habit???Really?????) And not under a trivial fault or failing. Seems to me it would be as trivial a fault as a habit! I guess I should not focus on that one definition as I think the author, whoever the author for Webster’s Dictionary might be, was almost making an editorial comment. The author could have said booze or smoking or a very large group of other vices.

Do you wonder who actually invented the first dictionary? I guess the Bible could fall under that in some ways as it definitely defined many things although with each passing generation man tends to enjoy redefining behavior as a way, I think, of rationalizing. What kind of person has dictionary author on their resume? Do they sit around in committees trying to think up new words or make up new words so they can write a new book? Seems like a pretty tedious way to make a living. Personally I prefer massacring the existing words and sort of literally burning them beyond recognition.

Seems I have strayed from my original thought, what a surprise, so I will revisit it for a moment. We all have vices. I’m not here to air any dirty laundry….I do believe my list of vices could be considered average to below average. Writing is a sort of vice for me but I would consider it a good vice….not the evil habit but more the trivial fault. As I re-read that definition I come to the realization that a good vice is an oxymoron. According to the Webster geeks a vice can only be evil or trivial. (or prostitution)

I guess in a matter of speaking many of us have vices to replace what we really should be doing. (Or to forget what we really should be doing) Many people drink for that very reason. The fact is you can drink yourself into believing you have no worries but eventually you wake up realizing everything is as it was with the exception that you are hung over and more broke than you were. So vices are in the very simplest terms I think crutches. You can put lipstick on a pig but at the end of the day it’s still a pig.

Don’t have answers and I make no judgments here. Vices are what they are. You either learn to live with them if they don’t destroy you or you change. I try to fix what I can about myself and let the chips fall after that point. If this little post made you think a bit than you are obviously intellectually far superior to your other human friends…so rejoice in your superiority but try not to do it with a vice.

Really Important Questions....(NOT)

So I have some questions about some of the oddities of life. I might just as well dive in so here goes…

Did you ever notice that a coffee mug and I don’t mean one of those prissy little pinkies in the air cups is about two cups of what your average coffee maker says? Is this some evil conspiracy to make everyone drink less coffee? It seems a little counter-productive if you make coffee makers. One additional thought….if you make coffee makers I guess that makes you a coffee maker maker…..hmmm

Why are pill bottles usually about 4 to 5 times larger than the contents? It would seem drug manufacturers could cut their costs (and ours!) if they would look at that!

I wonder about these new phenomena of post-it notes. I thought this was quite an ingenious invention but why are they now making them so small that it takes a magnifying glass if you actually want to write a note? They now make a computer post-it note…..what’s that all about….how many post-it notes does one have to write now that they must put them around virtually now???

I marvel at this issue….you know the issue of the incredibly difficult task of opening a CD. The companies seem to be adverse to improving their packaging so now another company says ok….we’ll make a new gizmo (technical term there) that with four swipes can disarm this packaging. American ingenuity abounds….or was it Chinese?

Here’s a puzzler to me; why are there about 50,000 varieties of batteries made? I understand that different voltages are required for different types of electronics but look at the watch battery kiosk sometime….they are all pretty much the same voltage and come in 50,000 sizes. (Perhaps a slight exaggeration) What’s that all about?

I wonder just how many wall calendars are made in or should I say for this country. They have entire stores in our wonderful malls devoted to calendars. I would bet they make enough of these often hideous calendars to put on every wall in every room in this country and even perhaps the world! I say our first green initiative would be to stop making so many calendars.

Here is something most people won’t care about which is exactly the kind of thing I enjoy bringing up….just how many types of weather radar are required to determine it’s going to rain outside and how do they still get it wrong??? Our local stations seem to have many different types with snappy names like Doppler Interactive Radar….why in the world would I care to interact with weather radar that gets it wrong anyway? My knee does a better job at the weather forecast!

More to come but I thought I would ask some of these things where most normal thinking people would not dare venture.

My Little World

So it’s Saturday morning and I have work to do. Those two terms just don’t seem well suited together so I may have to remove one and we all know we can’t control the day of the week.

I look around my heavily cluttered office and have so many things I could write about. On the wall I have an almost complete Jim Beam train that my Dad gave to me some time ago complete with the shelf he built with it. One of the cars still is untapped and being as I have no affinity for Jim Beam it may stay that way. It is obviously aged longer than Jim Beam is typically aged so I’m not certain what that means to the contents.

I have picture frames sprayed across the room with Dad, sons, daughters, wife, sister, grandchildren, a painting of Lyon Mountain, an obscure painting of a lighthouse scene, a golf course, and a beautiful scene from a place called Lake Junaluska in North Carolina. Seems like an interesting, if not always connected, plethora of topics.

I have a phone, an adding machine to count my millions and a tissue box when the realization I don’t have millions or even a calculable fraction of millions. I have an indiscernible group of books, CDs, movies of different formats, manuals, bibles, software. (You name it…it’s probably here although I might not know it) I have one of those weird gifts….a ceramic piggy bank with the words “Green Fees” on the side. It is most definitely empty which is yet another commentary on my golfing future. I have two printers…that’s right two. (To be fair one is a scanner/fax machine as well so I had a reason for printer two)

Let’s see what else I have…..a number of flashlights…some functional…some not so much. I have so many pens and pencils that I do believe I am very close to qualifying for the hoarder classification. My bet is 50% of these pens are dried up. I have a USB turntable for converting my albums into CDs. That project seems to have stalled out for some reason. BY the way, albums to you newborns are circular vinyl disks similar to a CD but oh maybe 3 times larger with grooves that contain music and other various audio compulsions of the good old days. There is still a rich sound that comes from vinyl that CDs will never capture.

I have a real antique in this office of mine….a phone book. To you newborns that was a rather cumbersome manual that served well as a doorstop, kindling and at one time was used to actually look up someone’s phone number. I hear now that they recycle whatever they get and make shingles from them.

I have a shredder. This was a device that really came into prevalence during the Nixon administration when covering one’s tracks became important….should have shredded those tapes as well.

Last on my list I will discuss is an exercise bike. It is very useful in hanging clothes on and leaning stuff against it that I have no real place for. It is a little difficult to dust so I avoid that task. I could go on with this inventory but since you are all asleep by this time it would only be for my entertainment. As a famous blogger once said….”Have a fine day”

Do You Hold The Answers?

So the question is still on the table. I realize that many have made up their minds one way or another but you really need to look at the facts that have been gathered before you can reach a conclusion and as I see it the conclusion is we don’t have enough facts. Our meager existence is really the major problem at determining the answer to this question. We can do all the surmising and theories but we don’t have enough long term evidence to answer the question. Long term is the operative phrase. I’m here to tell you that Bird Berdan (if he were still doing the weather for Channel 5) in upstate NY can not tell you unequivocally that this exists. All of the weathermen and women in the world can give you theories and many already have but they are just theories. All of Hollywood’s smartest celebrities (is that an oxymoron?) have also weighed in on this issue. All of CNN and MSNBC and FOX news have also distributed their theories on this issue. Let’s not forget the activist singers that are so well versed in this issue as well.

The question you may ask, if you’re still reading, is this; Does global warming exist? The really curious thing about this is that scientists on a global spectrum differ about it. Some say we are actually experiencing global cooling while some say we are doomed to the ozone dissolving up and our existence as humans will be snuffed out. Now ask a scientist and you will get completely different opinions. How can that be? Is our data not the same across the board? Perhaps it’s because the data is such an infinitesimal example of our Earth’s existence that we have no real way of knowing about the heating and cooling cycles of the ball we live on.

I will tell you that from my experience on this subject that the green referendum and movement that is surfacing seems to me to be more about making a profit on people’s fears than on actually doing something for our , what some people think, fragile environment. I’m sorry but CFL’s are a waste of money and technology. What will we do with the massive amounts of mercury that will be building from these bulbs going into our landfills? Mercury is one of the most toxic elements on Earth to humans and yet this goes totally unchecked. I am looking forward to initiating the first class action lawsuit when this reality comes to fruition and mark my words, if the ozone doesn’t disappear and we don’t fry up like apple fritters this will happen.

You may have figured out what side of the fence I’m on with this issue. You would know because I am really not lobbying for the green movement. The other opinion I hold is that we are so insignificant to our Earth that it makes no real difference if we use corn to power our cars or hydrocarbons; what will be will be. The other thing that helps me with my feelings about this issue is I know in my heart I am only a temporary resident of this ball we live on. I know there are bigger and better things awaiting me and they don’t include forks made from potatoes.

Now I am not advocating that we are irresponsible tenants of this planet. What I am saying is we can be responsible about keeping things as clean as possible and not leaving behind a worse planet than we were handed and we can do it without all the hype and fear mongering that this green movement spews forth. We simply need to temper these initiatives with common sense and forward thinking and be aware that many of these green products will indeed hold unintended consequences if they are not fully researched before they are mandated upon us all!

2011.....Here goes

So here we are; made it to a new year. 2010 was certainly full of drama and surprises as well as some mourning in my case. Let’s look a few of the events in 2010 that were to many significant.

With me, personally, I had a major upheaval in my life losing my Dad. This will be the first complete year that he is not with me at least in a physical sense. I won’t say the holidays were smooth sailing. Although I had many moments of joy, laughter and thanksgiving I also had to deal with some raw emotions of loss. I know my future must be dominated with thanks for all I have been blessed with and that will be one of my goals.

This year saw my daughter have a career bump in the road. While it was somewhat challenging, she emerged from it by not only turning things around but by gaining a new appreciation for what is important and she is now in a really good place. Personally and I could not be more proud of her.

My beautiful lady, Linda, has passed the three year milestone of being cancer-free and we are all so blessed for that. My life is truly complete with that lady next to me and my prayer is God continues to bless us both with good health.

My Priest celebrated his 25th year of ordination and I was blessed to not only be his Senior Warden for the event but I was also privileged to be a part of his flock for a majority of those years. He truly is a man of and about God and has made a distinct and permanent impact on my life as well as many others.

I have had the good grace to re-connect with many family and friends alike through Facebook. The internet, with all its warts and problems, has made the world a smaller and more connected place.

The political face of our country is changing to the joy of many (myself included) and to the chagrin of some. Only time will tell if it’s only a cosmetic change or an actual change for the betterment of most. The cynics think it won’t change. The optimists such as me think it will improve. We’ll see I suppose.

So here we go…....2011 whether we are ready or not is here. It will now be our task to either try to change what we can, keep steady what is good and as the saying goes have the wisdom to know the difference. I seem to be more constantly reminded that getting old is not for wimps. I pray that whatever this year holds for all of us, we overcome the challenges and receive immense joy from the victories!