The Blog Less Traveled

A couple of days ago there was a little note attached to our mailbox flag by the curb of our driveway. I figured it was the typical advertisement flyer you get for lawn service, maid service or some other commercial enterprise. Instead, it was a note from some high school girl who was trying to raise funds for a trip to Spain with her Spanish class this summer. She asked for any empty soda cans we could spare and to leave them on the porch on Saturday morning and she would come by to pick them up. Well, we figured it wouldn’t kill us to give her some of our empties – we drink way too much soda at our house so there are plenty of cans to choose from. We put the bag out Saturday morning and I then went for a little run – 14 glorious degrees out there people! It was a beautiful crisp morning and I had one of my fastest times in about a year. Ah, but I digress. Anyway, when I returned I found the above little card taped to our door window. What a thoughtful young lady. We certainly didn’t do it with any expectation of thanks. Now I’m glad that we took a few minutes of our time to help the young girl out.

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that make you think there’s still hope in this world. Lately, though, the only stories you see on TV or the Internet are depressing and sad. There is a lot of good out there, but the people who control the media seem hell bent on only giving you the bad stuff. The world needs a lot more random acts of kindness. It’s really not that hard – for us it was a couple of empty soda cans. How about you?

Assuming that you’ve read my blog before, you can tell that I’ve updated the look and feel of the blog. I went with a little cleaner and simpler design. I liked the old look, but for some people the gray text on a black background was a little hard on the eyes.

I do like the newer title display. It has a nice little graphic on the left edge showing the month/day the article was posted. The category name is below the title (“Miscellaneous” for this particular article) and is a hot link to that category, and the link to add a comment is now along the right edge of the title.

Additionally, there is a new “Tag Cloud” section in the right sidebar, a sample of which is shown below. It lists all the tags I used to categorize the articles I wrote. You can tell by the size of the word how often that particular tag was used. The tags themselves are hot links and will display all the articles associated with that particular tag.

Finally, you can collapse any of the sidebar lists by clicking on the little triangle on the right edge. Also, you can rearrange the lists by left-clicking and dragging the individual lists.

Anyway, I hope you like the new look. I tested the website on Windows using IE6 and IE7 and on Mac OS X using Safari and Firefox. If you have any suggestions or comments, they’re always welcome.

One night, the Potato family sat down to dinner. Mother Potato and her three daughters. Midway through the meal, the eldest daughter spoke up. “Mother Potato?” she said. “I have an announcement to make.”

“And what might that be?” said Mother, seeing the obvious excitement in her eldest daughter’s eyes.

“Well,” replied the daughter, with a proud but sheepish grin, “I’m getting married!”

The other daughters squealed with surprise as Mother Potato exclaimed, “Married! That’s wonderful! And who are you marrying, Eldest daughter?”

“I’m marrying a Russet!” “A Russet!” replied Mother Potato with pride. “Oh, a Russet is a fine tater, a fine tater indeed!”

As the family shared in the eldest daughter’s joy, the middle daughter spoke up. “Mother, I too, have an announcement.”

“And what might that be?” asked Mother Potato.

Not knowing quite how to begin, the middle daughter paused, then said with conviction, “I, too, am getting married!”

“You, too!” Mother Potato said with joy. “That’s wonderful! Twice the good news in one evening! And who are you marrying, Middle Daughter?”

“I’m marrying an Idaho,” beamed the middle daughter.

“An Idaho!” said Mother Potato with joy. “Oh, an Idaho is a fine tater, a fine tater indeed!”

Once again, the room came alive with laughter and excited plans for the future, when the youngest Potato daughter interrupted. “Mother? Mother Potato?

Umm, I, too, have an announcement to make.”

“Yes?” said Mother Potato with great anticipation.

“Well,” began the youngest Potato daughter with the same sheepish grin as her eldest sister before her, “I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to you, but I am getting married, as well!”

“Really?” said Mother Potato with sincere excitement. “All of my lovely daughters married! What wonderful news! And who, pray tell, are you marrying, Youngest Daughter?”

“I’m marrying Dan Rather!”

“Dan Rather?!”

Mother Potato scowled suddenly. “But he’s just a common tater!”

I’m a hard rocker at heart, but I do enjoy almost any style of music. Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of instrumental and mellow music. At the risk of being shot by my hard rocker friends, I’ve been listening to Enya, Danny Wright, Yanni and Nobuo Uematsu. For sure though, no Barry Manilow – Ha Ha!! Anyway, I was poking around on YouTube the other day and came across another musician whose music I thoroughly enjoy. His name is Yiruma and he’s a South Korean pianist and composer. There’s not a lot about him that I can find on the Internet. From what I can tell, he’s currently serving in the Korean Navy. Military service is mandatory for all male Koreans. He has several albums on iTunes. I found one album of his that was pretty funny called “Puppy Dung”. I think it’s a soundtrack for some animation video.

Below are my three favorite songs, thus far. The links will take you to the YouTube versions of the songs. If you’re familiar with Yanni’s song, “In The Mirror”, Yiruma’s song, “River Flows In You”, is somewhat similar but the tempo is not quite as fast. A very pretty melody – good fireplace music.

River Flows In You (my favorite)

Kiss The Rain

May Be

For Yiruma’s Wikipedia entry, click here.

Who is Beaners? Hopefully, I won’t be embarrassing her too much, but that is my daughter’s nickname that only I really use when we talk together. I don’t remember exactly when I started using it, but I think it morphed from how Alana pronounced her name when she was only 2-3 years old – Lanie Beanie. I imagine there are many dads that have a special name they use when talking to their daughter.

Anyway, the other day I was scanning pictures into my computer from some of our old photo albums and came across some pictures of my daughter that I hadn’t seen in years. It brought up lots of good memories and times from years past. Sometimes she was a little stinker, but when she looked at me with those big blue eyes of hers, she could melt you in a heartbeat. I remember when we first lived in Monterey, CA and almost every Saturday morning we would jump in the Z3, put the top down, pop in a tape with Ozzie Osborne’s song, “I Just Want You” and sing it as loud as we could to each other. We’d stop at a little Mom & Pop grocery store, get a roast beef sub and soda and head to the ocean. I’ll never forget those days as long as I live. I look back at all the years as she was growing up and it’s hard to remember any times when she ever really disappointed us. You hear so many stories of kids rebelling and causing all sorts of problems in their teenage years, but it never really happened to us. Was she perfect – heck no. There were learning experiences for both of us. As parents of an only child, we made a few mistakes and learned a few things along the way. All in all though, there are few things we would have done differently. She’s 24 now, finishing up her second year of medical school. To say that her dad is very proud of her would be a big understatement. But as proud as I am of her accomplishments thus far, I’m proudest of what a kind, sweet and thoughtful young lady she’s turned out to be. What else could a dad ask for? I wouldn’t trade my Beaners for anything this world could ever offer. Love you, Beaners!!!

Below are some pictures that I scanned in recently. There’s one where she was about 2 years old and wearing my flight jacket. The one with the little boy is from when she was the flower girl for my sister-in-law’s wedding. The one with me smiling and holding her was when I had just returned from Spain after a short deployment.

So, why did I write this posting, other than to tell my girl how much I love her and how proud of her that I am? Maybe you have someone, either a loved one, a friend or acquaintance that you’ve been meaning to tell how much he or she means to you. Don’t miss an opportunity because you sometimes don’t get a second chance. Just do it!

Once upon a time, on a farm in Virginia, there was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered quite a few grains of wheat.

She called all of her Democrat neighbors together and said, ‘If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?’

‘Not I,’ said the cow.
‘Not I,’ said the duck.
‘Not I,’ said the pig.
‘Not I,’ said the goose.

‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.

‘Who will help me reap my wheat?’ asked the little red hen.
‘Not I,’ said the duck.
‘Out of my classification,’ said the pig.
‘I’d lose my seniority,’ said the cow.
‘I’d lose my unemployment compensation,’ said the goose.

‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen, and so she did.
At last it came time to bake the bread.
‘Who will help me bake the bread?’ asked the little red hen.

‘That would be overtime for me,’ said the cow.
‘I’d lose my welfare benefits,’ said the duck.
‘I’m a dropout and never learned how,’ said the pig.
‘If I’m to be the only helper, that’s discrimination,’ said the goose.

‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen. She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see.
They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share.
But the little red hen said, ‘No, I shall eat all five loaves.’

‘Excess profits!’ cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
‘Capitalist leech!’ screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)
‘I demand equal rights!’ yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)

And they all painted ‘Unfair!’ picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.

Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, ‘You must not be so greedy.’
‘But I earned the bread,’ said the little red hen.

‘Exactly,’ said Barack the farmer. ‘That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.’

And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, ‘I am grateful, for now I truly understand.’

But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the ‘party’ and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled. ‘Fairness’ had been established.

Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared…so long as there was free bread that ‘the rich’ were paying for.

Fresh from my shower, I stand in front of the mirror complaining to my
husband that my breasts are too small.

Instead of characteristically telling me it’s not so, he
uncharacteristically comes up with a suggestion.

‘If you want your breasts to grow, then every day take a piece of toilet
paper and rub it between them for a few seconds’.

Willing to try anything, I fetch a piece of toilet paper and stand in
front of the mirror, rubbing it between my breasts. ‘How long will this
take?’ I asked.

‘They will grow larger over a period of years,’ my husband replies.

I stopped. ‘Do you really think rubbing a piece of toilet paper between my
breasts every day will make my breasts larger over the years?’

Without missing a beat he says, ‘Worked for your butt, didn’t it?’

Sorry, folks. I couldn’t resist. It just seemed too appropriate for all of Obama’s recent cabinet picks. I hear the new stimulus package has some money in it to help them out.

I was moseying around on the iTunes store the other day and came across a musician called Nobuo Uematsu. He’s a Japanese video game composer and he’s best known for creating the musical scores for most of the Final Fantasy video games. He has some very interesting music and some of his work has been performed by some major symphony orchestras. Although I wouldn’t be too inclined to purchase the entire soundtrack album for one of these video games, there are some very nice piano and woodwind pieces worth listening to. He reminds me a lot of Danny Wright if you’re into piano solos. Below are three of my favorite songs from his collection. The links will take you to YouTube versions of the songs.

For more information on Nobuo Uematsu, click here.

1. Tifa’s Theme from Final Fantasy VII (my personal favorite)

2. To Zanarkand from Final Fantasy X

3. Aerith’s Theme from Final Fantasy VII

These are times when I truly don’t understand God’s ways. I’ll be going to a funeral this Thursday. Last Sunday my brother-in-law’s brother was electrocuted in a freak accident while working on a neon sign he was building. Just like that, and without warning, he’s no longer here. I never knew the brother very well. I met him briefly once or twice at a family gathering. He was only 39 years old. He leaves behind a wife and two small children. It just doesn’t seem right to have a life end that way. He was in the prime of his life with so many years to look forward to. He never got a last chance to say goodbye to his wife, children and loved ones. I can only imagine the feeling of sorrow that I’d have if I never got a chance to say the things that need to be said to a loved one. I know it’s not a fun thing to watch as a loved one with a terminal illness slowly dies before your eyes. However, it does at least give you the opportunity to say your goodbyes. You won’t have the feeling of regret at losing the chance to say the important things.

Sometimes, it seems like the wrong people in the world are dying. I can think of people close to me, as well as nationally known people, who died way before their time. Good people who were doing good and noble things with their lives. It’s probably mean, but I can think of many people living today whose lives I’d like to see traded with them. It’s a good thing that I’m not God because I’d do it in a heartbeat.

I don’t really expect anyone to be able to give me a satisfactory explanation for all of this. It’s one of life’s mysteries that will never be answered. I’m also not expecting God to pop up and give me a solo appearance and explain it either. It just doesn’t seem fair.