Yes, I'm back, its been a while, maybe two years. It actually took me quite a bit of wrangling in the internets to get my account back, but alas the blooger is now back in the hands of its rightful owner.
I guess I'll start with a little piece on what I've been up to since my last post. Man, quite a lot actually. I'll give you the readers digest version:
I spent one more winter in Tahoe living it up, working at Alpine Meadow for one last season. That last winter I lived in a house with my buddy Jeff (read about Jeff above in my Heros post) and some new folks courtesy of craigslist, Elyse and Steve. Throughout the season we had many a guest resisdents, mainly Neil (300!!), Heidi, Jordan, Stephan, and Heather.
It was a great January, we moved into the house on January 3rd and on the 4th it started dumping, and dumping, it snowed the entire month of January. There was many a Munchkins run done during that month. Which was especially awesome for me because while I have always been fine with riding deep pow, I finally got good enough to traverse through the tight trees at high speed on skier tracks (which is the way to exit Munchkins). Yeah, that is kind of like the cross that snowboarders have to bear at Alpine Meadows, a total skiers mountain. Alpine really separates the snowboarding men from the boys, because you are always riding with skiers and they are always traversing to get the fresh, and you either have to learn quick, or you get left behind. Many a dedicated snowboarder has landed at Alpine Meadows and came away from it a skier.
Most of the rest of the season was fairly tame and not too many dumps so I spent the rest of the season working three jobs trying to stay afloat,
By February my charm had landed on Elyse and we started hanging out quite a bit. I take it she found my snowboarding lessons quite enchanting and the rest was history. We started dating and lasted through the winter. I knew I was going back to grad school at University of Colorado in the fall so we dicided to have as much fun as we could over the summer until then.
Elyse and I travelled cross country in the newly acquired 2001 Ford Escort (a total dream of a car with 19K miles on it courtesy of Nana Schaffer who can no longer drive and has no need for the car). It was a great trip, driving and camping and hanging out. We even got caught in a quick snow storm on I-70 just west of Golden, CO. It was probably the most memorable moment of the trip :)
We next spent a few weeks in Santa Barbara California hanging out with Elyse's family and witnessing a heat wave and the Gap Fire of 2008, right up in the hills of SB. I even decided to take my road bike up into the hills a few times to get ready for Ironman Lake Placid in July. After hanging in SB for a few weeks we decided to go to Guatemala and Belize for a few weeks before I went back to school. It was a cool trip, but unfortunately we hit Guatemala right as the rainy season began, and after getting wet wet wet we headed for Belize and the Caribbean Island of Key Caulker, a true tropical paradise. After all the best way to train for an Ironman is to go to a third world country and lounge around!!
To be continued because frankly, it's been a while since I've posted and I need to warm up to it :)
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Bowling for...fear tactics!
Ok, so I just watched Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine. I had been putting it off for many years because, well to be honest, I don’t trust anyone anymore to give me unbiased information that isn’t riddled in propaganda. That being said, I’m making a commitment to being better informed this year. Maybe that is my New Year’s Resolution, to allow myself an open mind and to try to be more informed, so that I can make more educated choices about the way that I live and the ideals that I have.
I’ll start off by saying that I am pro firearms. In fact that is one of the major stances that I take in the American political realm. However, don’t put me in a box. I am not pro ‘violence’, I am not pro ‘killing’, I am not pro “any old schmuck should be able to buy a firearm at the drop of a hat’. I am also pro firearm education. According to this film almost twelve thousand people in the US are killed by firearm related murders. That is way too many by any measure. So I’ll say one more thing before I talk about the film, I am a big fan of firearm education. We have sex ed in middle school, and high school. Does sex ed really make teenagers act more responsibly? I don’t know, my guess would be probably not, but maybe a little. Here is what I do know. People exposed to ‘taboo’ things early in life tend to respect, even fear them much more than those of us raised in little bubbles not allowed to experience anything because it might be harmful. Alcohol for instance, if alcohol were allowed from a younger age, it would be a normal everyday thing, people would be used to it, and not go crazy upon turning 21 or 19 or 18 depending where you live. I also believe that those folk who grow up with firearms in the house and as a part of life will have a much more profound respect for firearms and what they can do. Sex ed doesn’t really work, so lets get rid of it and try firearm ed. After all, the leaders of ‘family values’ ie the religious right tell us we’re not allowed to have sex before marriage, so why teach us about it? But we are allowed to purchase a firearm when we turn 18 same as a lottery ticket. You think we should start teaching kids about firearm safety instead? I do.
Most of the people I have heard raving about this film are people that I would say are a little further left on the political spectrum than I am. They all talk about how this movie proves that guns are the problem. That we should outlaw guns. But I watched this movie from a different perspective. You see I didn’t think Michael was telling us that guns are the issue. Sure there are a few extreme people in the film who are supposed to show what a gun nut is like. The interview with the militia in Michigan for one, but also the interview with Charlton Heston (which by the way, was kind of a low blow if you ask me because even though Charles acted like an insensitive prick, I think that he was also caught off guard by the questions, not that I think that is an excuse to be a prick). However, the militia men that were interviewed were like they said ‘normal people’, just like you and me. We have a right to join a militia, we have a right to bare arms, we have a right to protect the right granted to us by the constitution of this country. Fact of the matter is, I didn’t think the militia men interviewed sounded nuts at all, in fact I thought that they were spot on. We don’t live in a utopian society were we can all carry around flowers and expect everyone to be nice to us. In fact, animals alive today, by evolutionary definition, have done anything and everything it takes to stay alive, to do what’s best for ‘me’. Taking away the guns isn’t going to stop people from metaphorically killing each other to better themselves, people will always do what is in their best interest at any given time to make the lives of themselves and their family easier, better, longer, etc, and anyone thinking that this is ever going to change is not only absurdly naive, but also really a genetic anomaly for the altruistic gene has been carefully selected against over time in order to save ones hide to pass on ones genes to the next generation. Anyone willing to sacrifice oneself for the good of altruism is the same one who doesn’t get to pass on that altruistic gene to ones offspring. But I’m getting way off topic here.
My point is that the interviews that Moore put in the documentary do little to sway my opinion of gun laws and regulations and more to show that with any group of people there are extremists and that people need to exercise personal responsibility. That means the parents, the children, the media, the government, and that means society all need to exercise personal responsibility. Do I blame the gun for the killing of a six year old girl in a Michigan school? Do I blame the gun for the mass murder of high school children in Littleton Colorado? No, and no. I blame a lot of things and a lot of people, but I don’t blame the gun. You can blame the parents for not being there on any number of levels, lack of parenting, lack of relationship with their children, lack of a safe home environment, both emotionally and physically (after all, where are they getting these guns?). If your child (who is a minor) can access a firearm and ammunition in your house, you live in an unsafe house, period. I can also blame the government or more specifically the education system for not educating students about firearm safety, and respect for firearms (heck, if its a gov't given right, you would think they might educate people about it). I can also blame society as a whole for making kids think that they are different, outcasts and freaks and will be for life because they don’t conform to the norm. You know the norm? The kids on the OC, or Dawson’s Creek, the kids from Seventh Heaven and Sex in the City. Yeah, that norm. Pretty pathetic, huh?
We'll i gotta get home, where i have no internet connection, kind of the reason for my lack of posts. Anyway, its time for you and me and everyone to start to think about issues outside of our comfortable little box. Our Freedoms are being stealthily taken away from us, and we are to naive, busy, or indifferent to care. Time to start caring.
I’ll start off by saying that I am pro firearms. In fact that is one of the major stances that I take in the American political realm. However, don’t put me in a box. I am not pro ‘violence’, I am not pro ‘killing’, I am not pro “any old schmuck should be able to buy a firearm at the drop of a hat’. I am also pro firearm education. According to this film almost twelve thousand people in the US are killed by firearm related murders. That is way too many by any measure. So I’ll say one more thing before I talk about the film, I am a big fan of firearm education. We have sex ed in middle school, and high school. Does sex ed really make teenagers act more responsibly? I don’t know, my guess would be probably not, but maybe a little. Here is what I do know. People exposed to ‘taboo’ things early in life tend to respect, even fear them much more than those of us raised in little bubbles not allowed to experience anything because it might be harmful. Alcohol for instance, if alcohol were allowed from a younger age, it would be a normal everyday thing, people would be used to it, and not go crazy upon turning 21 or 19 or 18 depending where you live. I also believe that those folk who grow up with firearms in the house and as a part of life will have a much more profound respect for firearms and what they can do. Sex ed doesn’t really work, so lets get rid of it and try firearm ed. After all, the leaders of ‘family values’ ie the religious right tell us we’re not allowed to have sex before marriage, so why teach us about it? But we are allowed to purchase a firearm when we turn 18 same as a lottery ticket. You think we should start teaching kids about firearm safety instead? I do.
Most of the people I have heard raving about this film are people that I would say are a little further left on the political spectrum than I am. They all talk about how this movie proves that guns are the problem. That we should outlaw guns. But I watched this movie from a different perspective. You see I didn’t think Michael was telling us that guns are the issue. Sure there are a few extreme people in the film who are supposed to show what a gun nut is like. The interview with the militia in Michigan for one, but also the interview with Charlton Heston (which by the way, was kind of a low blow if you ask me because even though Charles acted like an insensitive prick, I think that he was also caught off guard by the questions, not that I think that is an excuse to be a prick). However, the militia men that were interviewed were like they said ‘normal people’, just like you and me. We have a right to join a militia, we have a right to bare arms, we have a right to protect the right granted to us by the constitution of this country. Fact of the matter is, I didn’t think the militia men interviewed sounded nuts at all, in fact I thought that they were spot on. We don’t live in a utopian society were we can all carry around flowers and expect everyone to be nice to us. In fact, animals alive today, by evolutionary definition, have done anything and everything it takes to stay alive, to do what’s best for ‘me’. Taking away the guns isn’t going to stop people from metaphorically killing each other to better themselves, people will always do what is in their best interest at any given time to make the lives of themselves and their family easier, better, longer, etc, and anyone thinking that this is ever going to change is not only absurdly naive, but also really a genetic anomaly for the altruistic gene has been carefully selected against over time in order to save ones hide to pass on ones genes to the next generation. Anyone willing to sacrifice oneself for the good of altruism is the same one who doesn’t get to pass on that altruistic gene to ones offspring. But I’m getting way off topic here.
My point is that the interviews that Moore put in the documentary do little to sway my opinion of gun laws and regulations and more to show that with any group of people there are extremists and that people need to exercise personal responsibility. That means the parents, the children, the media, the government, and that means society all need to exercise personal responsibility. Do I blame the gun for the killing of a six year old girl in a Michigan school? Do I blame the gun for the mass murder of high school children in Littleton Colorado? No, and no. I blame a lot of things and a lot of people, but I don’t blame the gun. You can blame the parents for not being there on any number of levels, lack of parenting, lack of relationship with their children, lack of a safe home environment, both emotionally and physically (after all, where are they getting these guns?). If your child (who is a minor) can access a firearm and ammunition in your house, you live in an unsafe house, period. I can also blame the government or more specifically the education system for not educating students about firearm safety, and respect for firearms (heck, if its a gov't given right, you would think they might educate people about it). I can also blame society as a whole for making kids think that they are different, outcasts and freaks and will be for life because they don’t conform to the norm. You know the norm? The kids on the OC, or Dawson’s Creek, the kids from Seventh Heaven and Sex in the City. Yeah, that norm. Pretty pathetic, huh?
We'll i gotta get home, where i have no internet connection, kind of the reason for my lack of posts. Anyway, its time for you and me and everyone to start to think about issues outside of our comfortable little box. Our Freedoms are being stealthily taken away from us, and we are to naive, busy, or indifferent to care. Time to start caring.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Unbelievable, i slack for just a little while and its over a month since my last post. Well in my defense, nothing too exciting happened for a few weeks, and then i started traveling and haven't had a chance to post. Here goes.
I left Tahoe driving eastward to Louisville, CO (Boulder suburb, sort of) it is amazing how long it takes to drive across a couple of states out here. Googles told me that when he drove it it took him about 16 hours. Well, usually i drive faster than Googles, but when you are going that kind of distance you have to factor in gas and meal stops, Googles somhowe manages to push through without either of these, i hope to someday learn his secret.
Anyway, i arrived in Louisville late on sunday (two sundays ago). Spent the day on monday enjoying the 75 degree sunny day that i was blessed with. I took out my bike and road around Louisville and ate lunch in 'Downtown' Louisville. I me tup with Kelly after she got off work for a ride around Boulder, and it was fun. Fun beause most people struggle when they do activities in Boulder while being out of shape due to the lack of O2 in the air, lucky for me I live at elevation as well, and felt prety darn good riding at 5400 ft. That night i made it out to Boulder to hook up with Dobish and Iesha, whom both used to be coworkers of mine at EMS in Connecticut.
I had an early flight out of Denver to Philly where i would spend a week with my family for thanksgiving, oh and attend my 10 year Reunion. I was that guy who left for college and then never talk to anyone again. Acutally one of my buddies is now in a pretty successful band that plays all along the mid-atlantic coast, and they were playing at a local bar in West Chester wednesday so i decided to go. They were great you can see them here. I saw a lot of folks that i hadn't seen in a while and had a great time.
Now that leads to having to get up early on thanksgiving and play coed flag football with a bunch of guys i went to high school with. It was great to see everyone and we spend as much time bullshitting as we did playing. It was amazing, i didn't think we could even play sports that mellow, we were all super competitive in high school. The teams were made and of course my old soccer buddy Wyeth was on the other team, and we used to always cover each other when we played football in high school, so it seemed natural that we would cover each other. The fact is, no one else on the field could have covered either of us, but we always covered each other pretty well. Well, the only difference now was that he has been playing soccer at a high level since the last time i saw him, he played college ball, and then for a bunch of mens teams over the year, i on the other hand haven't sprinted in about, oh 10 years. Thats ok though, i was able to sprint as much as i needed to and i think living at altitude helped my recover my breath faster than everyone else, thank god :) Lets just say i did my duty for my team, but i was sore for about 4 days afterwards.
So then there was thanksgiving meal, and my brother and sister and law came over with my sister in laws parents, and my nephew matthew, also joining us was both of my grandmothers. That made for 10 people and a good Turkey dinner.
To be continued...
I left Tahoe driving eastward to Louisville, CO (Boulder suburb, sort of) it is amazing how long it takes to drive across a couple of states out here. Googles told me that when he drove it it took him about 16 hours. Well, usually i drive faster than Googles, but when you are going that kind of distance you have to factor in gas and meal stops, Googles somhowe manages to push through without either of these, i hope to someday learn his secret.
Anyway, i arrived in Louisville late on sunday (two sundays ago). Spent the day on monday enjoying the 75 degree sunny day that i was blessed with. I took out my bike and road around Louisville and ate lunch in 'Downtown' Louisville. I me tup with Kelly after she got off work for a ride around Boulder, and it was fun. Fun beause most people struggle when they do activities in Boulder while being out of shape due to the lack of O2 in the air, lucky for me I live at elevation as well, and felt prety darn good riding at 5400 ft. That night i made it out to Boulder to hook up with Dobish and Iesha, whom both used to be coworkers of mine at EMS in Connecticut.
I had an early flight out of Denver to Philly where i would spend a week with my family for thanksgiving, oh and attend my 10 year Reunion. I was that guy who left for college and then never talk to anyone again. Acutally one of my buddies is now in a pretty successful band that plays all along the mid-atlantic coast, and they were playing at a local bar in West Chester wednesday so i decided to go. They were great you can see them here. I saw a lot of folks that i hadn't seen in a while and had a great time.
Now that leads to having to get up early on thanksgiving and play coed flag football with a bunch of guys i went to high school with. It was great to see everyone and we spend as much time bullshitting as we did playing. It was amazing, i didn't think we could even play sports that mellow, we were all super competitive in high school. The teams were made and of course my old soccer buddy Wyeth was on the other team, and we used to always cover each other when we played football in high school, so it seemed natural that we would cover each other. The fact is, no one else on the field could have covered either of us, but we always covered each other pretty well. Well, the only difference now was that he has been playing soccer at a high level since the last time i saw him, he played college ball, and then for a bunch of mens teams over the year, i on the other hand haven't sprinted in about, oh 10 years. Thats ok though, i was able to sprint as much as i needed to and i think living at altitude helped my recover my breath faster than everyone else, thank god :) Lets just say i did my duty for my team, but i was sore for about 4 days afterwards.
So then there was thanksgiving meal, and my brother and sister and law came over with my sister in laws parents, and my nephew matthew, also joining us was both of my grandmothers. That made for 10 people and a good Turkey dinner.
To be continued...
Thursday, October 25, 2007
The Views
Sometimes when you live in a place so amazing like I do you find yourself just driving or riding around and seeing a view like this:
Moon Hanging over Donner Lake
Moon Hanging over Donner Lake
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
East Coast, Revisited
Ok, so I’m currently in the Reno Airport, I know its technically called the Reno/Tahoe Airport, but to be quite frank, the airport is in Reno. Everyone knows Reno is a shithole second to really only Las Vegas. So to sum up, Nevada pretty much has the two biggest shithole excuses for cities. The being said, it is my theory that the citizens of Reno decided to name the airport Reno/Tahoe in order to make it sound majestic. Yes, Tahoe is beautiful, but its also 35 miles away. You live in a shithole of a city, don’t drag Tahoe into it.
But I’m really sitting here because I love the airport in Reno, and sometimes I like to hang out here and write for my blog. No, not really. I’m waiting for my shuttle back to Tahoe.
I flew into Philly last week and spent a day there before heading to New Jersey to see an old Tahoe housemate from two winters ago. Joey has taken it upon himself to buy a dilapidated house in what I would call the NYC suburbs and knock down the whole thing (sparing two walls for taxes, or something legal like that) and then build another one, a better one where it once stood. Pretty big project if you ask me, I was a little overwhelmed seeing the whole thing framed and thinking about all the work that has to come before the house is ready to sell.
After that I made my way up to Hartford to pick up Kelly who had flown in to attend the Shaggy/Michelle wedding, which was also the reason I was making my presence felt on the east coast. We promptly made our way to Niantic to stop and see my favorite canine, Ms. Pana Georgian. Pana my all time favorite dog. By breed a Brittney, which means she is a bread hunting dog. She is agile and aware in the woods, always on the lookout to protect her owner and chase anything that moves. But don’t think of Brittney’s as your typical dumb hunter dog. Oh no, Brittney’s are some of the smarter dogs out there, the Brittney breed is also well know for its showmanship, and the Brittney breed has more Hunting and Show Champions than any other breeds combined. The common denominator with Brittney’s is if you run them, they won’t destroy your house.
Now I live with currently live with a small midsized dog named Bella, she is a mix, but has some black lab in her. She is thin and cute and is just a ton of fun to play with. But she’s not the brightest dog around.
Now when I see Pana, after not seeing her for months she looked huge, her strong torso and powerful legs surprised me, and the was so excited to see me that she bulled me over and made me trip backwards over a step.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have painted a perfect picture of Brittney’s, but Pana in particular is one of the most stubborn dogs I have ever encountered. You put her on a lease and you will have a sore arm before too long. It doesn’t matter if you have one of those metal choker collars or not, she deosn’t care. You see, Brittney’s are not made to be on a lease. Nor are they made to wear stupid little booties, or sweaters, or anything else that would make them more of a fashion statement than a wonderful creature. But that being said, she is stubborn, but I always justify it by saying that she is stubborn enough to do what she wants, but smart enough to not get into too much trouble doing it.
Oh, Pana does have a mom and a dad, Luke and Isabelle, two of my good friends who were away for the weekend at a mountain bike race, so they let Kelly and I crash in their crib. So I took care of Pana for the weekend.
But enough about my secret canine crush, I had a wedding to go to. Shaggy and Michelle are my family, or as close to family as an Armenian guy and a Chinese girl could be to an American white boy.
They decided to have the wedding at their house in Old Lyme. They had a nice huge tent set up and did it up nice. The ceremony was led by Shaggy’s Armenian priest from Trumble, CT, and he did a great job. The ceremony was nice and Michelle looked amazing in a Chinese dress with gold designs ( I don’t even know the name for this style of garment, but think Meryen from Big Trouble in Little China).
The ceremony ended just in time for a little rain storm that lasted about 5 minutes and then the rest of the night was drinking and dancing in the tent, or at least that is what the rest of the night was for me. I think some of the people there were eating dinner and cake, but I was drinking and dancing. Did I mention I was drinking?
It was good to see a lot of old friends from Connecticut and meet some of the people whom I had heard so much about over the last few years.
It was interesting meeting people and rather than saying, “Wow, you flew in from California”, they were saying “You’re the guy that everyone was in shock that you actually wore a suit”. Yes, very nice to meet you too. For the record, I DO HAVE SOME CLASS!!
And by the way, having class has nothing to do with the suit you wear or the gloss on your shoes, but the strength in your character, but I digress.
Ok, I’m gonna go get some Gatorade because I have a splitting headache, and I’m thinking its from dehydration.
But I’m really sitting here because I love the airport in Reno, and sometimes I like to hang out here and write for my blog. No, not really. I’m waiting for my shuttle back to Tahoe.
I flew into Philly last week and spent a day there before heading to New Jersey to see an old Tahoe housemate from two winters ago. Joey has taken it upon himself to buy a dilapidated house in what I would call the NYC suburbs and knock down the whole thing (sparing two walls for taxes, or something legal like that) and then build another one, a better one where it once stood. Pretty big project if you ask me, I was a little overwhelmed seeing the whole thing framed and thinking about all the work that has to come before the house is ready to sell.
After that I made my way up to Hartford to pick up Kelly who had flown in to attend the Shaggy/Michelle wedding, which was also the reason I was making my presence felt on the east coast. We promptly made our way to Niantic to stop and see my favorite canine, Ms. Pana Georgian. Pana my all time favorite dog. By breed a Brittney, which means she is a bread hunting dog. She is agile and aware in the woods, always on the lookout to protect her owner and chase anything that moves. But don’t think of Brittney’s as your typical dumb hunter dog. Oh no, Brittney’s are some of the smarter dogs out there, the Brittney breed is also well know for its showmanship, and the Brittney breed has more Hunting and Show Champions than any other breeds combined. The common denominator with Brittney’s is if you run them, they won’t destroy your house.
Now I live with currently live with a small midsized dog named Bella, she is a mix, but has some black lab in her. She is thin and cute and is just a ton of fun to play with. But she’s not the brightest dog around.
Now when I see Pana, after not seeing her for months she looked huge, her strong torso and powerful legs surprised me, and the was so excited to see me that she bulled me over and made me trip backwards over a step.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have painted a perfect picture of Brittney’s, but Pana in particular is one of the most stubborn dogs I have ever encountered. You put her on a lease and you will have a sore arm before too long. It doesn’t matter if you have one of those metal choker collars or not, she deosn’t care. You see, Brittney’s are not made to be on a lease. Nor are they made to wear stupid little booties, or sweaters, or anything else that would make them more of a fashion statement than a wonderful creature. But that being said, she is stubborn, but I always justify it by saying that she is stubborn enough to do what she wants, but smart enough to not get into too much trouble doing it.
Oh, Pana does have a mom and a dad, Luke and Isabelle, two of my good friends who were away for the weekend at a mountain bike race, so they let Kelly and I crash in their crib. So I took care of Pana for the weekend.
But enough about my secret canine crush, I had a wedding to go to. Shaggy and Michelle are my family, or as close to family as an Armenian guy and a Chinese girl could be to an American white boy.
They decided to have the wedding at their house in Old Lyme. They had a nice huge tent set up and did it up nice. The ceremony was led by Shaggy’s Armenian priest from Trumble, CT, and he did a great job. The ceremony was nice and Michelle looked amazing in a Chinese dress with gold designs ( I don’t even know the name for this style of garment, but think Meryen from Big Trouble in Little China).
The ceremony ended just in time for a little rain storm that lasted about 5 minutes and then the rest of the night was drinking and dancing in the tent, or at least that is what the rest of the night was for me. I think some of the people there were eating dinner and cake, but I was drinking and dancing. Did I mention I was drinking?
It was good to see a lot of old friends from Connecticut and meet some of the people whom I had heard so much about over the last few years.
It was interesting meeting people and rather than saying, “Wow, you flew in from California”, they were saying “You’re the guy that everyone was in shock that you actually wore a suit”. Yes, very nice to meet you too. For the record, I DO HAVE SOME CLASS!!
And by the way, having class has nothing to do with the suit you wear or the gloss on your shoes, but the strength in your character, but I digress.
Ok, I’m gonna go get some Gatorade because I have a splitting headache, and I’m thinking its from dehydration.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Who is your Hero?
Moving right along from that idiotic rant the other day i pose you a question...
Who is your Hero?
You want me to define hero? No, you define hero for yourself.
You see, we all have people who we look up to, people we strive to be like, people we love spending time with, people who make us smile, and support us, and believe in us.
One thing that impresses me about certain people is their ability to be steady. You see, because steady would be the last word on earth that anyone would use to describe me.
People have often asked me who my heros are. My answer has always been 'my friends', i am very selective and they are all heros in their own way.
But today I'm gonna talk about one of these people in particular. His name is Jeff. He has been through a lot over the last two years. In fact, he has been through more pain and fear, and shock and uncertainty than anyone should ever have to go through in an entire lifetime. He has also shown more strength and courage and optimism then most people show in a lifetime.
One word I would use to describe my friend - no, my hero - he is steady. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some time with Jeff during the first week of his journey. He was very quiet, he was just hit with a ton of bricks right square in the face, steady.
You know what I would have done? Me neither, but most likely it would have been along the lines of screaming at the top of my lungs, eating until my stomach exploded, and drinking myself into a stooper for about 6 months. Unsteady.
Jeff then preceded upon his journey, and was always positive everytime I talked to him. People would ask me how he was doing. I would always say, "He sounds great and he is in good spirits." I didn't know if that is what he wanted me to believe, or if that was what was really happening. That is what I wanted to be happening, but the reality of it is that I knew deep down that it was a cover. He was in a living hell. But he wouldn't let me see it. Steady.
Me? I would have been acting like a 12 year old girl who just saw her secret crush kiss the popular girl. That is right, I would have been pissing and moaning and feeling sorry for myself. I would never have been able to hold it together. Unsteady.
Jeff decided that while the treatments he was receiving were no doubt his best option at the time, he was having a hard time sitting back and waiting for them to work. He decided that a little research on his part could lead him to make lifestyle changes that could have a positive impact on his health. Taking action. Steady, no doubt.
Anyway, before I make you buy the novel and read the book, I just want to say that you don't know what is going to happen, but that in order to handle life's ups and downs sometimes you just need to be steady. Rock-steady. You never know, you might even end up being someones hero.
Read Jeff's blog here:
http://jeffhartnett.blogspot.com/
Leave him comments, email him. I promise he will read them, right after his nap :)
Who is your Hero?
You want me to define hero? No, you define hero for yourself.
You see, we all have people who we look up to, people we strive to be like, people we love spending time with, people who make us smile, and support us, and believe in us.
One thing that impresses me about certain people is their ability to be steady. You see, because steady would be the last word on earth that anyone would use to describe me.
People have often asked me who my heros are. My answer has always been 'my friends', i am very selective and they are all heros in their own way.
But today I'm gonna talk about one of these people in particular. His name is Jeff. He has been through a lot over the last two years. In fact, he has been through more pain and fear, and shock and uncertainty than anyone should ever have to go through in an entire lifetime. He has also shown more strength and courage and optimism then most people show in a lifetime.
One word I would use to describe my friend - no, my hero - he is steady. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some time with Jeff during the first week of his journey. He was very quiet, he was just hit with a ton of bricks right square in the face, steady.
You know what I would have done? Me neither, but most likely it would have been along the lines of screaming at the top of my lungs, eating until my stomach exploded, and drinking myself into a stooper for about 6 months. Unsteady.
Jeff then preceded upon his journey, and was always positive everytime I talked to him. People would ask me how he was doing. I would always say, "He sounds great and he is in good spirits." I didn't know if that is what he wanted me to believe, or if that was what was really happening. That is what I wanted to be happening, but the reality of it is that I knew deep down that it was a cover. He was in a living hell. But he wouldn't let me see it. Steady.
Me? I would have been acting like a 12 year old girl who just saw her secret crush kiss the popular girl. That is right, I would have been pissing and moaning and feeling sorry for myself. I would never have been able to hold it together. Unsteady.
Jeff decided that while the treatments he was receiving were no doubt his best option at the time, he was having a hard time sitting back and waiting for them to work. He decided that a little research on his part could lead him to make lifestyle changes that could have a positive impact on his health. Taking action. Steady, no doubt.
Anyway, before I make you buy the novel and read the book, I just want to say that you don't know what is going to happen, but that in order to handle life's ups and downs sometimes you just need to be steady. Rock-steady. You never know, you might even end up being someones hero.
Read Jeff's blog here:
http://jeffhartnett.blogspot.com/
Leave him comments, email him. I promise he will read them, right after his nap :)
Monday, October 15, 2007
"What" doesn't make you happy?
So here's the thing, people tell you all the time, love to say it, think its the greatest fucking thing to talk about. "Money doesn't make you happy". I'm so sick of hearing this. Well let me tell you a little something about anyone and I mean ANYONE who fucking says this, THEY HAVE NEVER NOT HAD MONEY.
I hear it all the time, "You're so lucky, I wish i were you, i've got all these paychecks weighing me down".
Go fuck yourself.
Let me give you my little piece of advise. Next time someone tells you that "Money doesn't make you happy" drop this piece of knowledge on them "Try not having some for one fucking day and let me know how goddamn happy you are."
Here's what it is like...
Waking up everyday stressed out to the max about how you are going to pay your rent. Busting your hump at multiple crappy jobs to make sure you got food. Forgetting how to have fun because you are so delirious over your bank statement. IT SUCKS!
So money may not be the key to happiness, i agree, but there is a certain level of financial stability below which life is certainly not happy.
What is that you say? Money doesn't make me happy?
Fuck off!
I hear it all the time, "You're so lucky, I wish i were you, i've got all these paychecks weighing me down".
Go fuck yourself.
Let me give you my little piece of advise. Next time someone tells you that "Money doesn't make you happy" drop this piece of knowledge on them "Try not having some for one fucking day and let me know how goddamn happy you are."
Here's what it is like...
Waking up everyday stressed out to the max about how you are going to pay your rent. Busting your hump at multiple crappy jobs to make sure you got food. Forgetting how to have fun because you are so delirious over your bank statement. IT SUCKS!
So money may not be the key to happiness, i agree, but there is a certain level of financial stability below which life is certainly not happy.
What is that you say? Money doesn't make me happy?
Fuck off!
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