The Blog Less Traveled

This is my second article in the “Good News” series. I just ran across a website called Ode Magazine. It offers both a print and online version of their magazine. An excerpt of their “About” page states:

Ode is a print and online publication about positive news, about the people and ideas that are changing our world for the better. For the first nine years of its existence, Ode was published in Dutch. But in the summer of 2004 … it launched the English-language edition of the magazine. Ode now appears ten times a year in both English and Dutch, with a worldwide circulation of more than 100,000. In print and online, Ode’s aim is to bring a new reality into view, to explore opportunities for positive change in our daily lives and our daily minds.

There is a link on their website called “Good News” that lists articles from various media outlets that they consider positive or good in some aspect or form. My only criticism after perusing the list, and the magazine itself, is that it seems overly reliant on the liberal-leaning media. The majority of stories are from NPR, MSN, Slate, Huffington Post, New York Times, The Guardian, etc. I think they could use a little more balance in this regard. You can see some of the liberal agenda and ideology working its way through some of the articles. There seems be be a good dose of climate change and tree-hugging articles in the current listing. The articles aren’t really geared at presenting a good news story of a personal nature. It’s more slanted at themes and issues that affect us all. However, I’ll try to keep an open mind and not be too judgmental at this point. It might prove educational and enlightening for me. See folks, I’m even trying to follow my own advice that I wrote in an earlier article last week.

To go to the magazine’s home page, click here.

To go to their “Good News” section, click here.

My blog has a birthday! It was one year old yesterday, March 28th. Woot woot. Since I host my blog on my own domain that I control, I have access to various statistics about the site. The graphic on the left shows the top 25 countries that have visited my blog this past month. I went from about 700 visits/month during my first full month online to about 2400 visits/month for the current month. A very small fish swimming in the big Internet pond. Blogging serves as a useful diversion for me when I get the urge to write about something. However, I don’t expect the New York Times to be knocking on my door any time soon with an offer!

What some people may not realize is just how pervasive blogging has become. Every Tom, Dick and Harry, myself included, is doing it. There are millions of blogs on just about every subject imaginable, and then some. What I found most interesting was discovering that other websites and blogs had links on their sites to my various postings that I’ve written over the past year. There is a technology out there called web robots, or bots for short. Bots are sophisticated software applications that can scour the Internet at tremendous speeds and gather and catalog all the information available on a website. This is the technology that Google and other search engines use to provide you with the ability to find things on the Internet. In my case, companies or individuals are using their own bots to find sites that have certain keywords that they want to catalog and list on their sites. For example, they might be interested in articles that have the word “religion” in them. If their bot finds this keyword, their site will generate a link to that article. They might also extract the first few sentences of the article and include it in their posting. For those of you in the technology business, this is no great revelation. However, it might be interesting to the non-techy type that is reading this blog.

Well, I guess I’ll go now and bake a cake and stick a little candle in it. No, not really. Those that know me know that I wouldn’t have the foggiest idea of how to bake one. I’ll just sing myself the birthday song. Happy birthday to my blog, happy birthday to my blog, happy birthday…

Back in July of 2008 I had written an article about tattoos. It discussed why I had a change of heart on my perception of people who got tattooed. I think I’d like to expand on that idea a little bit more.

Over the years, I’ve formed many opinions on a variety of subjects. Whether it relates to politics, religion, relationships, etc., I have a definite view on what I think is the correct conclusion to draw based on the facts presented. In all honesty, I would have to categorize myself as a bit judgmental. As you get older, I think you have a wealth of experience to draw on. Some might call that wisdom. But that “wisdom” can sometimes be misleading or at least give you a false sense of righteousness. I’m not saying that basing conclusions on past experiences is faulty. On the contrary, experiences, good and bad, are valid barometers on which to base conclusions. However, I think as we get older, we tend to think we’ve seen and heard it all. Our opinions tend to get cast in stone and there’s little anyone can say or do that will change it. Basically, our preconceived notions cause us to rush to judgment. I can honestly say that I’ve been guilty of this on occasion so I’m definitely not throwing any stones from my glass house. I’ve been critical of people and some of the choices they’ve made. On further reflection, some of my opinions may have been too harsh. Just because you have experiences to draw from doesn’t mean they’re enough to form the correct opinion or make the right judgment. You might not have as complete of a picture for the given situation as you think. Sometimes there’s a lot more information that you’re not privy to or maybe the other person is not willing to share that information with you at the moment.

So there you have it. I think I need to do a little more reflecting on occasion or at least make a more earnest attempt to see the other person’s viewpoint. I need to listen more. Some things just aren’t as cut-and-dried as you think they are.

Women, learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If it’s up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

Birthdays, Valentines, and Anniversaries are not considered by us to be opportunities to see if we can find the perfect present… again!

Sometimes we are not thinking about you. Live with it.

Don’t cut your hair. Ever. Long hair is always more attractive than short hair. One of the big reasons guys fear getting married is that married women always cut their hair, and by then you’re stuck with them.

Ask for what you want. Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

We don’t remember dates . . .Period!

Most guys own three pairs of shoes – tops. What makes you think we’d be any good at choosing which pair, out of thirty, would look good with your dress?

Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.

Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

If you won’t dress like the Victoria’s Secret girls, don’t expect us to act like soap opera guys.

If you think you’re fat, you probably are. Don’t ask us. We’ve been tricked before!

If something we said could be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know how to do it best, just do it yourself.

Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

If we ask what is wrong and you say “nothing,” we will act like nothing’s wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

All men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

In previous postings, I think I’ve harped on the fact that the news media, in general, seems bound and determined to get as much bad and sensational news on the air as possible. There’s no attempt to provide any semblance of balance in this regard. It permeates television, newspapers, the Internet, etc. This negative bias really grates on me. I want to read about or view some of the good things happening in this country and around the world. And there is a lot of good out there and it’s not all that hard to find.

What I’m going to do is start a new category called “Good News”. It’s going to feature a story about someone who’s doing something good out there. No parameters other than that. It can be an individual, a group, an organization or a company.

My first good news article is about a man named Jorge Munoz. I found an article about him on both the New York Times and the CNN websites. He’s just an ordinary guy but he’s doing extraordinary things. He’s a bus driver in New York but he spends most of his time cooking and delivering meals to the homeless. From what I read, he does this every night, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The links below will take you to the appropriate websites. If you want to read a heart-warming story about the human spirit, these two articles are definitely worth a look.

For the CNN article, click here.

For the New York Times article, click here.

This is my 100th posting. Woo hoo! I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. When I started this blog, I had no idea of how long I would end up doing it. As my “About” page details, and my first posting mentions, I had no agenda in mind nor a particular subject area to discuss. It wouldn’t have surprised me nor bothered me if this ended in one month or one year. I just thought I’d give it a whirl and see what happened. Some months I wrote every other day and some months it was once a week. It all depended on my mood at the time and whether I had something I wanted to say. There are now twelve categories of subject matter. I don’t know if that will expand in the future or not.

So, getting back to the topic at hand, why do I blog? I think my primary motivation, at least in the beginning, was to peel off a little bit of my self-induced shell. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a fairly introverted kind of guy. I’m definitely not the life of the party. There won’t be throngs of people gathering around my end of the room to hear about all of my adventures or listen to my captivating stories. As a matter of fact, shortly after I started blogging, one of my former co-workers told me that she learned more about me after the first few weeks of blogging than she had in the couple of years that we worked together. Heck, I actually thought I was being pretty open at the time. In reality though, few people get past the first layer with me. Not that I’m an overly complicated guy or anything like that. Just the opposite. I’d say I’ve got two shells. A lot of people may get through the first layer, but few, if any, get past the second. If you do, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what makes me tick.

So there you have it. If you’ve been reading most of my blog, you should have a little better picture of who I am and what my opinions and beliefs are. They’re not set in stone although there are certain core values that are not subject to negotiation. I do think there are things that this old dog can still learn. I’ve actually changed my opinion in certain areas in the short time that I’ve been blogging. I’m sure there will be others. Stay tuned…

The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls chronicling her childhood and early adult life. To say she had a very hard and unusual upbringing would be an understatement, to say the least. As I read it, there were times when it was almost too incredible to believe. I did wonder if there was any embellishment on the author’s part to spice up the book. In the end, I have to believe that wasn’t the case because you would think her siblings or mother could easily dispute the veracity of the content. Some of the events in her childhood bordered on the bizarre. Some were downright awful, some were humorous and some were, in my humble opinion, child abuse/neglect. Her parents definitely had some issues. It made me laugh, it made me sad and it made me appreciate the relatively easy childhood I had. Considering all she went through, it’s an amazing journey and a clear example of what the human spirit can endure. Her writing style is engaging and she has weaved her story in a way that, for the most part, is very nonjudgmental when you consider the circumstances and events she endured.

This is definitely not a guy book. It could certainly fall under the category of a “babe book”, assuming that term carries the same connotation as “chick flick”. I’m still not quite sure what to make of it. In the end, you hope it’s the human spirit conquering and overcoming life’s sometimes cruel and tragic events. I would definitely recommend it, especially to my “lady” friends.

Why the strange title for this blog posting? Today I went for my weekly run. Normally I do about 10-13 miles. Today I ran 15.6 miles. For you metric-challenged folks, 25K = 15.53 miles. There is an annual racing event in the Grand Rapids area called the River Bank Run. Old Kent Bank initially sponsored it but when they were bought out it became the Fifth Third River Bank Run. It is held on the second Saturday in May and starts and finishes in downtown Grand Rapids with the course at times running along the Grand River. There are 5K, 10K and 25K races. The 25K run is billed as the largest in the country.

I’ve never run in a competitive race but thought I’d go ahead and do the official distance for the 25K event. Hence the “virtual” title for this posting. I didn’t run the actual route because it takes you through busy sections of town that would normally be cordoned off during the actual race. I have a GPS watch that accurately tracks my mileage so I ran the distance in my local area. Today’s temperature at the start of my run was 16°. Probably a little chilly for most folks, but I enjoy running at any temperature. It was a great run with plenty of sunshine and the wind was pretty light for most of it. According to my GPS watch, I burned 2153 calories. I guess I can pig out today and not feel guilty! For an old man (I turned 59 three days ago), my body seems to tolerate most things pretty well. For most runners, my pre-run routine is probably pretty strange. I eat a bowl of raisin bran about an hour before I run and that’s it. I don’t hydrate before the run and I don’t hydrate at all during the run. My warm-up is about 30 seconds max and consists of squatting at the knees 4-5 times and bending around my waist for about 10 seconds. That’s it. Like I said, pretty strange.

Anyway, it was a great day and the runner’s high from the endorphin release always feels good.

Three engineers and three accountants are traveling by train to a conference. At the station, the three accountants each buy tickets and watch as the three engineers buy only a single ticket. “How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?” asks an accountant. “Watch and you’ll see,” answers an engineer.

They all board the train. The accountants take their respective seats but all three engineers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them. Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, “Ticket, please.” The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on. The accountants saw this and agreed it was quite a clever idea.

After the conference is over, the accountants decide to copy the engineers on the return trip and save some money (being clever with money, and all). When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the engineers don’t buy a ticket at all. “How are you going to travel without a ticket?” says one perplexed accountant. “Watch and you’ll see,” answers an engineer.

When they board the train, the three accountants cram into a restroom and the three engineers cram into another one nearby. The train departs. Shortly afterward, one of the engineers leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the accountants are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, “Ticket, please.”

Well, I’m missing my little girl. I know, she’s not so little anymore. She’s all grown up and her mom and dad are very proud of her. Do you ever hear music or see something on TV that brings up special memories? There’s an AT&T wireless commercial that’s been playing on TV quite a bit lately that jogs my memory of my early days with my daughter. It’s about a little girl who secretly puts her favorite little stuffed animal monkey in her dad’s briefcase before he leaves on a business trip. He finds the monkey and takes several pictures and sends them back to the family on his cell phone. What I love about this commercial are the expressions on the little girl’s face. It’s just shear happiness and love. The very last one where she hugs her dad when he returns home from his trip is precious. That folks, is pure and unconditional love. If you’re a dad with a daughter, that picture ought to bring up a special memory or two. There are few times in life when you get that kind of feeling. If you still have a little girl in your home, cherish those moments. They pass too quickly.

The picture above is my best shot at trying to freeze that last picture from the video, but it’s a little fuzzy.

You can see the 30 second commercial on YouTube by clicking here.