It is finally here. Politico's nationwide woke up wide eyed and charged with adrenaline, like the proverbial kid on Christmas morning, but instead of visions of sugar plums, they nestled into their beds tonight with visions of pie charts, red state vs. blue state maps, and state by state analysis of electoral college votes. Just like every other year, this presidential election is being touted as a crucial turning point in the history of our nation, and penultimate moment when the people will decide if our nation rises to eternal glory or fades into the annals of history. Of course the truth presents something far more complex than a simple "black or white" dichotomy. Yes, this is an election between two leaders with vastly different social and economic views, but in reality many of the issues facing our economy and many Americans have little to do with the commander in chief. Do not get me wrong, billions of dollars of debt and a needlessly complicated tax code have had a tremendous impact on our economic health, but it is time to sit down and take a hard look at the 600lb gorilla who has been casually lounging in the corner of the room - we buy a plethora of s#@t that we simply do not need.
In many families gone are the day when, brace yourselves, two kids would actually share the same bedroom. The sheer unmitigated horror, expecting brothers or sisters to share a bedroom. Now a family of three feels they need a 5 bedroom house - after all you must have the home office (even if you never actually work at home) and the guest room (for the people who never actually visit). The 40 inch television goes in the bedroom and we buy a $4,000 entertainment system that gets paid over the course of 1 or 2 years. Is it okay to purchase these thing if you can comfortably afford it, but the truth is most people cannot. People have convinced themselves that when their candidate of choice comes to power that all of their woes will magically disappear as the president waves their magic pen and signs bills that will alleviate all of their self-created financial distress.
Are there really steps that government can take to help improve the job market? Yes...but it will not be the magic bullet many expect it to be. Far too many eager young graduates are fighting for jobs in industries that are already flooded. This will work itself out as more and more baby boomers begin to retire from those industries. Another group of struggling graduates are those who have had training in very narrow industries - crime scene technician is one of those fields that has become very popular on college campuses. Working in CSI has a certain sexy appeal, and lets face it, crime is not something that is going to stop happening anytime soon. But, I have a feeling that if you looked into the sheer number of students enrolled in these programs they probably far outnumber the actual positions that are available in those fields. Of course there are those skilled professionals who lost their jobs and have to take a pay cut in order to get a new job, but some of those in this category simply refuse to scale down their lifestyle until they can get a job at the salary they desire. As with the financial issues, nothing the president or congress does will magically solve all of these job problems, especially the self-created ones.
There is no question that our government (local, state, and federal) play a major role in our lives and the well-being of our nation. Who takes the reins of power does matter, but let us not forget that the most important aspect of our country is that much of your destiny is in your own hands. There is a reason that people who voted for Bush in '04 turned around and voted for Obama in '08 and are now going back and voting for Romney. These people have a "pie in the sky" view of the presidency and they have convinced themselves that for a president to be successful, at no point during the four year term should there be any mistakes. They fully expect that the individual they have graced with their vote will make all of the issues in their life magically disappear. If you live your life expecting perfection from elected officials, or anyone for that matter, you will always be disappointed.
Go out and vote in every election. It is a crucial part of our democracy. Before blaming the government for everything, ask yourself on a daily basis - what can I do to improve my situation.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
I know you are but what am I: Avoiding conflict and stupidity in the world of online posting
The other day my wife found a great online post called "10 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity". The pictures showed everything from a man risking his own life to rescue kittens from a raging flood to a letter that a Muslim man sent to his non-Muslim neighbors inviting them to celebrate the end of Ramadan with a traditional feast at his home. Later that night while riding high on a wave of good feelings about the state of mankind, I descended into the bowels of mass media world - the comments section of CNN news articles. I know what many would say, "But isn't that the beauty of the Internet? Everyone can share their ideas and have healthy debates." While that is an important aspect of our democracy and does occasionally happen on a comments board, many of the comment boards, especially on the news media pages, have become a breeding ground for ideological bashing; narrow minded, and even hateful, rhetoric (from both left and right); and inane, barely coherent ramblings from decidedly uninformed individuals.
On several occasions I have contemplated wading into the murky abyss and trying to provide a reasonable, and thoughtful response in the midst of the turmoil. I always balked when attempting to do so because in sifting though the pile of bad comments, I have found some very well-written and insightful commentaries as well. The problem is that the replies to the insightful commentary are either childish attacks that are the equivalent of a child telling another child "you're a stupid head", or completely hollow political rhetoric. Of course this same principal applies on television and the Internet. The sad truth of our society is that the most outrageous and incendiary comments tend to make the news and garner the most partisan responses.
Let's face it, whatever side you support in politics, it is easier to attack the baseless, empty arguments made by political extremist, rather than gathering evidence and responding to organized, thoughtful arguments. I find that comments on news stories fall into several categories:
Baseless rhetoric - These are usually short comment along the lines of, "liberals are Godless commies who want to murder babies and destroy capitalism" or "conservatives are all racist who only want poor people to suffer". The comment usually only vaguely relates to the article and clearly misses the nuances of the issue at hand.
I am angry and want the world to know - These are the posts that are both frightening and good for a laugh. It is frightening that one person could drag up this much anger over a news article or another person's anonymous comment, but I challenge anyone to read one of these angry posts and not immediately have a caricature of the poster pop up in their head. Whether it is the the angry, overweight, conservative retiree pounding away on their lap top and muttering about how crazy liberals are making a mess of everything; or the liberal, "wanna be hippie" college student, who is living in their parent's basement, both pictures are of someone who has all the answers and is impossible to reason with because they just cannot accept the they could ever be wrong.
Point? We don't need no stinkn' point! - Why make an organized, rational and evidence based argument, when you can just go from one topic to the next without ever proving a single statement. And just to top it off they throw out a bunch of wildly unsubstantiated and clearly overly exaggerated pseudo-facts These seem to be a sort of catch-all cathartic act for the poster - who uses the post to talk about everything that has been bothering them. They utilize a chain of logic that simply does not work.
Huh!? - These are the posts that leave you scratching your head and mumbling to yourself incoherently, while rereading the post looking for the missing piece of the puzzle. There is no rhyme or reason to the comment. My favorite example of this is an article I read on CNN.com. This article was about a truly horrific and senseless crime where a mother murdered her children and then killed herself. Most of the posts offered condolences and touched on the shock of such a brutal and senseless crime being committed by the very person who was supposed to dedicate her life to protecting them. But one poster decided to take a shot at who he thought was to blame for the tragedy. Did he blame the woman who committed the crime, child protective services, or local law enforcement? No, this is what he posted, "Welcome to Obama's do what you want America". I think this comment's absurdity speaks for itself.
So, does that mean the the vast majority of us who are rational and do not use the cloak of anonymity provided by the Internet to spew out vile thoughts, should just concede the comment boards to the dregs of the online world? Absolutely not, in fact, the more rational and though provoking comments and discussion that take on these boards, and the more people who "flag"or ignore the outlandish comments, the better the climate of the boards will be.
Here are a few rules, or suggestions if you will, that will help you better navigate the comment boards. These are some of the same suggestions I give to my high school students in hopes of making them thoughtful, open-minded online citizens:
1. Take a deep breath - If you see something that you feel absolutely merits your comment, slow down, take a minute, and think about what you want say. Plan it out in your head first and then make sure that it is clear and to the point when you type it out. This will help to make sure that what you are posting is coherent and does not make you look like a rambling fool. And please, please, please, check your grammar and spelling - nothing "steals the thunder" from an argument faster than atrocious writing and easily corrected mistakes.
2. "Elementary. My Dear Watson"* - Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle's literary creation, Sherlock Holmes, uses logic and evidence to solve baffling cases, which is what any arguments you make should do. Make a point and prove it with evidence.
*Though Sherlock Holmes is often credited with this statement, it appears nowhere in the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was first used in a made for television version of one of Doyle's stories.
3. Absolutely not - Do not speak in absolutes, in other words, do not use phrases that assume that all people of one group are exactly to same (especially when those groups may contain hundreds, or even, tens of thousands of individuals). These statements make you look and sound narrow minded and like a cranky old man. You know what they say when you assume.
4. 3, 2, 1...1, 2, 3...what the heck is bothering me - Do not post angry, especially if you are directly commenting on someone else. You can respect another persons point of view and still point out the fallacies in their thoughts. Healthy debate, and even some frustration, are fine, but giving way to hate filled, angry rhetoric and attacks simply negates any positive ideas you may have.
5. Silence is Golden - This brings to mind another saying I once heard from my superintendent, "Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it." You do not have to be a psychologist to know that people who anonymously post outlandish and incendiary comments are like little kids who purposely knock their bowl of cereal on the floor - they are just looking for attention. For example, if you are sitting in a restaurant with a group of people and a gorilla walks in, destroys the table next, to you, and plops down to eat a banana, there is no need for you to turn to everyone and say, "Look! There's a gorilla eating a banana!". The same applies for incendiary comments posted online - let their stupidity speak for itself and stay out of the mud.
To those who dare to venture into the "wild west" environment of online comment boards, good luck and keep those suggestion in mind. Just because you have a level of anonymity online, there is no need to insult your own intelligence or treat the people on the other side of the screen names as if they do not have feelings. Like any tool, the Internet is only useful depending on how each users employs it.
Let's face it, whatever side you support in politics, it is easier to attack the baseless, empty arguments made by political extremist, rather than gathering evidence and responding to organized, thoughtful arguments. I find that comments on news stories fall into several categories:
Baseless rhetoric - These are usually short comment along the lines of, "liberals are Godless commies who want to murder babies and destroy capitalism" or "conservatives are all racist who only want poor people to suffer". The comment usually only vaguely relates to the article and clearly misses the nuances of the issue at hand.
I am angry and want the world to know - These are the posts that are both frightening and good for a laugh. It is frightening that one person could drag up this much anger over a news article or another person's anonymous comment, but I challenge anyone to read one of these angry posts and not immediately have a caricature of the poster pop up in their head. Whether it is the the angry, overweight, conservative retiree pounding away on their lap top and muttering about how crazy liberals are making a mess of everything; or the liberal, "wanna be hippie" college student, who is living in their parent's basement, both pictures are of someone who has all the answers and is impossible to reason with because they just cannot accept the they could ever be wrong.
Point? We don't need no stinkn' point! - Why make an organized, rational and evidence based argument, when you can just go from one topic to the next without ever proving a single statement. And just to top it off they throw out a bunch of wildly unsubstantiated and clearly overly exaggerated pseudo-facts These seem to be a sort of catch-all cathartic act for the poster - who uses the post to talk about everything that has been bothering them. They utilize a chain of logic that simply does not work.
Huh!? - These are the posts that leave you scratching your head and mumbling to yourself incoherently, while rereading the post looking for the missing piece of the puzzle. There is no rhyme or reason to the comment. My favorite example of this is an article I read on CNN.com. This article was about a truly horrific and senseless crime where a mother murdered her children and then killed herself. Most of the posts offered condolences and touched on the shock of such a brutal and senseless crime being committed by the very person who was supposed to dedicate her life to protecting them. But one poster decided to take a shot at who he thought was to blame for the tragedy. Did he blame the woman who committed the crime, child protective services, or local law enforcement? No, this is what he posted, "Welcome to Obama's do what you want America". I think this comment's absurdity speaks for itself.
So, does that mean the the vast majority of us who are rational and do not use the cloak of anonymity provided by the Internet to spew out vile thoughts, should just concede the comment boards to the dregs of the online world? Absolutely not, in fact, the more rational and though provoking comments and discussion that take on these boards, and the more people who "flag"or ignore the outlandish comments, the better the climate of the boards will be.
Here are a few rules, or suggestions if you will, that will help you better navigate the comment boards. These are some of the same suggestions I give to my high school students in hopes of making them thoughtful, open-minded online citizens:
1. Take a deep breath - If you see something that you feel absolutely merits your comment, slow down, take a minute, and think about what you want say. Plan it out in your head first and then make sure that it is clear and to the point when you type it out. This will help to make sure that what you are posting is coherent and does not make you look like a rambling fool. And please, please, please, check your grammar and spelling - nothing "steals the thunder" from an argument faster than atrocious writing and easily corrected mistakes.
2. "Elementary. My Dear Watson"* - Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle's literary creation, Sherlock Holmes, uses logic and evidence to solve baffling cases, which is what any arguments you make should do. Make a point and prove it with evidence.
*Though Sherlock Holmes is often credited with this statement, it appears nowhere in the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was first used in a made for television version of one of Doyle's stories.
3. Absolutely not - Do not speak in absolutes, in other words, do not use phrases that assume that all people of one group are exactly to same (especially when those groups may contain hundreds, or even, tens of thousands of individuals). These statements make you look and sound narrow minded and like a cranky old man. You know what they say when you assume.
4. 3, 2, 1...1, 2, 3...what the heck is bothering me - Do not post angry, especially if you are directly commenting on someone else. You can respect another persons point of view and still point out the fallacies in their thoughts. Healthy debate, and even some frustration, are fine, but giving way to hate filled, angry rhetoric and attacks simply negates any positive ideas you may have.
5. Silence is Golden - This brings to mind another saying I once heard from my superintendent, "Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it." You do not have to be a psychologist to know that people who anonymously post outlandish and incendiary comments are like little kids who purposely knock their bowl of cereal on the floor - they are just looking for attention. For example, if you are sitting in a restaurant with a group of people and a gorilla walks in, destroys the table next, to you, and plops down to eat a banana, there is no need for you to turn to everyone and say, "Look! There's a gorilla eating a banana!". The same applies for incendiary comments posted online - let their stupidity speak for itself and stay out of the mud.
To those who dare to venture into the "wild west" environment of online comment boards, good luck and keep those suggestion in mind. Just because you have a level of anonymity online, there is no need to insult your own intelligence or treat the people on the other side of the screen names as if they do not have feelings. Like any tool, the Internet is only useful depending on how each users employs it.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Rapture, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies, Oh My!
I am sure that all of you out there were breathing a huge sigh of relief on Sunday, May 22nd (SIGH!!!), given that the world once again narrowly avoided yet another doomsday. If you were not basking in a new second chance at existence you were probably nursing the mother of all pre-apocalypse party hangovers. I mean sure, every ounce of common sense and every expert said the chance of Harold Camping being right were nil, but why would I trust a bunch of hyper-educated, elitist hippies, when I have the word of a simple man of God, who happened to take in $18 million in donations since his announcement. Please, why continue to live everyday as it is my last when I can lock myself away and spend months/years worrying about some arbitrary date based on questionable interpretations of ancient texts.
Now back to reality. Everyone had their fair share of fun with the latest Doomsday prophecy. Without a doubt most of us were ambivalent about the day, but the day itself and the creator of the prediction served as the perfect straight men for a host of witty Facebook and Twitter posts. My fellow coaches and I had a good five minutes of witty banter as we were waiting to load up the bus for our County Open track meet. Most of us were disappointed, we figured Rapture would be a good for at lest an extra few days off. Of course, true to the American capitalism-at-all-costs spirit, many establishments and individuals capitalized on Rapture furor. Between people going to bars to attend Rapture themed events, people selling everything they owned in preparation of the End of Days, and the millions donated to Camping's radio station, never has the quote from 16th century British poet Thomas Tusser rang more true - "A fool and his money are soon parted"*.
(*This is a modern English translation of the original quote)
All the laughs and witty repertoire aside, this incident brings up a growing trend in modern America; complete blind adherence to the most absurd theories regardless of the gargantuan mountains of evidence to the contrary. I have had students in my class that constantly talk about the Illuminati, the their involvement in everything from faking the moon landing, to 9/11, to murdering Tupac Shakur. Of course when I ask about their evidence the response is always the same, "some website". Since research is a focus of my classes I want them to look logically at their sources, so the questions begin: "Who created the site?" "What ideology do they subscribe to?" "What sources do they site?". Needless to say I have yet to meet the student who is able to locate the answer to any of these questions. I completely understand and accept this from teenagers, especially with the sheer mountains of information they have just at their fingertips. They are still learning how to sort the "garbage" from the "gold" online. The real issue is when adults, especially the so-called educated ones, buy into irrational ideas with little or no evidence for support.
The reason this phenomena is occurring far too often is twofold:
1) The Internet and easy access to computers has made it easy for the most mentally disturbed and most gullible denizens of our planet to connect. Like Hershey perfected the marriage of chocolate and peanut butter in that wonderful morsel known as the Reese's Cup, the Internet has brought forth the greatest union of our day, "crazy and gullible". Oh how con men worldwide have rejoiced at their great fortune.
2) There is an anti-intellectual fever sweeping the country. After all if I insist that dinosaurs did not exist, how dare some snot-nosed fancy talking intellectual, whom spent over a decade studying everything they can about palaeontology in order to devote the majority of their life to it, tell me that they have so called "evidence" (i.e. hundreds of thousands of fossils) that proves me wrong.
Combine these two phenomena and you have thousands of stubborn, easily frightened individuals willing to throw in their time and money in order to combat the serious issues facing us in contemporary society, you know, like stopping the evil free masons from controlling our government or discovering what secret island the Illuminati are using to hide Elvis, Biggie Smalls, Tupac, and Michael Jackson.
Many ask, "What harm are they doing?" "Who cares what the views of a few weirdos are?", but here is the real question, "What good could they be doing with their time, energy and money?" Instead of printing thousands of pamphlets and spending absurd amounts of money on billboards, imagine what else Harold Camping could have done with the nearly $75 million dollars he has raised since his last epic fail at predicting Armageddon (in 1994). How many malnourished children could have been given a months worth of food? How many college dreams could he have made come true for financially struggling students? How many inner city rec centers could have been refurbished and fully stocked with everything they need to help the children in their community? Imagine what the people of Joplin, Missouri could do with an additional $18 million dollars right now.
If I have taken anything away from the numerous "end of the world" scares that I have endured in my life, it is this - there are enough real threats to mankind, climate change, natural disasters, over population, dwindling resources, etc.. We do not need to make up imaginary threats - but the Mayan calendar ends on December 21st, 2012, and they predicted the end of the world (just like every other ancient religion or culture), so it must mean that the world will end on that exact date.
The message is simple be thankful for the physical and mental gifts you have and use the time you have on this world to make it a little better. I started Sunday morning at 4:45 am with a 13 mile run (as I prepare for the Marine Corp Marathon) and then spent the afternoon with friends from work kayaking in the NJ Pine Barrens. I then spent the evening in the company of my two favorite ladies, my wife Lisa and our always entertaing cat, Chloe. I always remind myself while doing these activities how lucky I am and remember to just enjoy those moment. There was a moment on the kayak trip where our group was spread out and nobody was really talking much; I remember looking and listening to the serene surrounding and realizing how many people go through life so focused on the unknowable and uncontrollable, only to miss out on moments like this.
Instead of spending every minute worrying about when our world is going to end, and even looking forward to it, and which nefarious secret organization is planning world domination (some of these groups have apparently been working toward that goal for over 200 years - making them the most patient and worst organized arch villians in the history of the world), try making the world you live in a better place and enjoying the little corner of the world that you are lucky enough to call your own.
Now back to reality. Everyone had their fair share of fun with the latest Doomsday prophecy. Without a doubt most of us were ambivalent about the day, but the day itself and the creator of the prediction served as the perfect straight men for a host of witty Facebook and Twitter posts. My fellow coaches and I had a good five minutes of witty banter as we were waiting to load up the bus for our County Open track meet. Most of us were disappointed, we figured Rapture would be a good for at lest an extra few days off. Of course, true to the American capitalism-at-all-costs spirit, many establishments and individuals capitalized on Rapture furor. Between people going to bars to attend Rapture themed events, people selling everything they owned in preparation of the End of Days, and the millions donated to Camping's radio station, never has the quote from 16th century British poet Thomas Tusser rang more true - "A fool and his money are soon parted"*.
(*This is a modern English translation of the original quote)
All the laughs and witty repertoire aside, this incident brings up a growing trend in modern America; complete blind adherence to the most absurd theories regardless of the gargantuan mountains of evidence to the contrary. I have had students in my class that constantly talk about the Illuminati, the their involvement in everything from faking the moon landing, to 9/11, to murdering Tupac Shakur. Of course when I ask about their evidence the response is always the same, "some website". Since research is a focus of my classes I want them to look logically at their sources, so the questions begin: "Who created the site?" "What ideology do they subscribe to?" "What sources do they site?". Needless to say I have yet to meet the student who is able to locate the answer to any of these questions. I completely understand and accept this from teenagers, especially with the sheer mountains of information they have just at their fingertips. They are still learning how to sort the "garbage" from the "gold" online. The real issue is when adults, especially the so-called educated ones, buy into irrational ideas with little or no evidence for support.
The reason this phenomena is occurring far too often is twofold:
1) The Internet and easy access to computers has made it easy for the most mentally disturbed and most gullible denizens of our planet to connect. Like Hershey perfected the marriage of chocolate and peanut butter in that wonderful morsel known as the Reese's Cup, the Internet has brought forth the greatest union of our day, "crazy and gullible". Oh how con men worldwide have rejoiced at their great fortune.
2) There is an anti-intellectual fever sweeping the country. After all if I insist that dinosaurs did not exist, how dare some snot-nosed fancy talking intellectual, whom spent over a decade studying everything they can about palaeontology in order to devote the majority of their life to it, tell me that they have so called "evidence" (i.e. hundreds of thousands of fossils) that proves me wrong.
Combine these two phenomena and you have thousands of stubborn, easily frightened individuals willing to throw in their time and money in order to combat the serious issues facing us in contemporary society, you know, like stopping the evil free masons from controlling our government or discovering what secret island the Illuminati are using to hide Elvis, Biggie Smalls, Tupac, and Michael Jackson.
Many ask, "What harm are they doing?" "Who cares what the views of a few weirdos are?", but here is the real question, "What good could they be doing with their time, energy and money?" Instead of printing thousands of pamphlets and spending absurd amounts of money on billboards, imagine what else Harold Camping could have done with the nearly $75 million dollars he has raised since his last epic fail at predicting Armageddon (in 1994). How many malnourished children could have been given a months worth of food? How many college dreams could he have made come true for financially struggling students? How many inner city rec centers could have been refurbished and fully stocked with everything they need to help the children in their community? Imagine what the people of Joplin, Missouri could do with an additional $18 million dollars right now.
If I have taken anything away from the numerous "end of the world" scares that I have endured in my life, it is this - there are enough real threats to mankind, climate change, natural disasters, over population, dwindling resources, etc.. We do not need to make up imaginary threats - but the Mayan calendar ends on December 21st, 2012, and they predicted the end of the world (just like every other ancient religion or culture), so it must mean that the world will end on that exact date.
The message is simple be thankful for the physical and mental gifts you have and use the time you have on this world to make it a little better. I started Sunday morning at 4:45 am with a 13 mile run (as I prepare for the Marine Corp Marathon) and then spent the afternoon with friends from work kayaking in the NJ Pine Barrens. I then spent the evening in the company of my two favorite ladies, my wife Lisa and our always entertaing cat, Chloe. I always remind myself while doing these activities how lucky I am and remember to just enjoy those moment. There was a moment on the kayak trip where our group was spread out and nobody was really talking much; I remember looking and listening to the serene surrounding and realizing how many people go through life so focused on the unknowable and uncontrollable, only to miss out on moments like this.
Instead of spending every minute worrying about when our world is going to end, and even looking forward to it, and which nefarious secret organization is planning world domination (some of these groups have apparently been working toward that goal for over 200 years - making them the most patient and worst organized arch villians in the history of the world), try making the world you live in a better place and enjoying the little corner of the world that you are lucky enough to call your own.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
My First Post and the Answer to the Most Asked Question - Who is this annoying guy?
So, I can hear the questions now - Why write a blog? - and I say, why not. There are so many overly political, angry, and just plain foolish blogs out there. I figure this is a way for me to do a little "spring cleaning" in my overactive brain. I am a runner and a cyclist, therefore I often find myself on lengthy, solo runs and rides. During these activities, I find myself thinking about anything and everything from mundane issues (What restaurant are we going to go to this weekend? or What shirt and tie combo should I wear to work tomorrow?) to issues of great depth and/or importance (Why are we here? or How do I feel current health care reform attempts?).
For those who do not know me I will give you a brief tour; for those that do, my condolences. I am currently a high school Language Arts Teacher, a devoted husband, a cross country and track coach, a fan of many different outdoor activities (especially running, biking, and hiking), and I recently have entered the world of beer snobbery (yes, one of those guys).
I tend to try and look at things logically and rationally, and as my wife will gladly tell you, the things that I have the lowest patience threshold for are usually the most inane and seemingly pointless, hence using the blog to vent. I will try to use a healthy dose of humor and self-deprecation (after all if you cannot laugh at yourself now and then you have no right to laugh at others) into everything I post. Some people take everything too seriously and try to make everything fit into their political/social ideologies, while never regarding the thoughts/feelings of others. For lack of a more eloquent choice of wording, this way a doing things is just not cool. Having opinions and open discourse is fine, if not necessary in a democracy, but every issue does not have to be looked at as 'life or death' or 'right or wrong'.
I plan on posting my first real blog in the coming days and hope you enjoy. Please leave your comments, I would love to hear what you think. I am a 'big boy' and I can take criticism as well as I can dish it out, but please, if you disagree with me there is no need to be juvenile. I will delete any openly hostile comments or those that contain profanity. Remember this blog is not just for adults, and the goal is for me to find a positive and humorous way to share my thoughts/incoherent ramblings. If you don't like what I have to say, click the 'back' button.
Okay, now that the formalities are out of the way, stay tuned for my next installment, which will hopefully be out in a few days.
(Please note: No children, small furry animals, or computer geeks were harmed in the creation of this blog.)
For those who do not know me I will give you a brief tour; for those that do, my condolences. I am currently a high school Language Arts Teacher, a devoted husband, a cross country and track coach, a fan of many different outdoor activities (especially running, biking, and hiking), and I recently have entered the world of beer snobbery (yes, one of those guys).
I tend to try and look at things logically and rationally, and as my wife will gladly tell you, the things that I have the lowest patience threshold for are usually the most inane and seemingly pointless, hence using the blog to vent. I will try to use a healthy dose of humor and self-deprecation (after all if you cannot laugh at yourself now and then you have no right to laugh at others) into everything I post. Some people take everything too seriously and try to make everything fit into their political/social ideologies, while never regarding the thoughts/feelings of others. For lack of a more eloquent choice of wording, this way a doing things is just not cool. Having opinions and open discourse is fine, if not necessary in a democracy, but every issue does not have to be looked at as 'life or death' or 'right or wrong'.
I plan on posting my first real blog in the coming days and hope you enjoy. Please leave your comments, I would love to hear what you think. I am a 'big boy' and I can take criticism as well as I can dish it out, but please, if you disagree with me there is no need to be juvenile. I will delete any openly hostile comments or those that contain profanity. Remember this blog is not just for adults, and the goal is for me to find a positive and humorous way to share my thoughts/incoherent ramblings. If you don't like what I have to say, click the 'back' button.
Okay, now that the formalities are out of the way, stay tuned for my next installment, which will hopefully be out in a few days.
(Please note: No children, small furry animals, or computer geeks were harmed in the creation of this blog.)
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