Okay, off the top of my head, here are the things that have me completely hacked off and ready to move to Canada:
1. Michelle Bachman, in the Tea Party response, blamed the jump in unemployment on Obama. Good lord, is she kidding? The surge in unemployment is due to Bush, Clinton, Paulson, Geithner and predominantly Republican Congresses doing all they could to make sure Wall Street could steal all they could carry. Our unemployment rate isn't Obama's fault. It's mostly Republicans' fault.
2. The Republicans have got to stop trying to repeal Obamacare. Seriously. Yes, Barack Obama was a complete and total moron to spend the first year of his presidency to produce such an idiotic and worthless bill. It accomplishes next to nothing. It does nothing whatsoever, to address the real problem with health care in the United States: unrestrained costs that are completely out of line with what the rest of the world pays. HOWEVER, it accomplishes NEXT TO nothing, but it didn't accomplish nothing. There are a few good things in there.
The fight to repeal it would be nearly as stupid as the fight to pass such a watered down, corrupted bill in the first place.
At this point, the damage is done. Obama fiddled with health care while America burned, but it's done. Obama is right: fix it, amend it, make it better. It was a stupid thing for him to do, and it's part of the reason he lost the House of Representatives. He took his lumps, let's all move on.
Yes, parts of it need to be repealed, like... oh... the mandates that the administration is currently exempting all the unions from. Typical Washington games: rules are rules, unless you're Wall Street or a union.
Unless the Republicans are going to address costs, then whatever they have to say on the issue is completely worthless.
The Republicans havevery few good ideas on health care. The biggest problem with Obamacare was that he wasn't big-government, enough. It was that he wasn't far enough to the left.
We need a single payer system so we can negotiate prices that are the same as the rest of the world pays. Until that happens, health care providers and pharma are going to do exactly what Wall Street is doing: stealing all they can until the country collapses.
3. Obama was all full of praise for the brothers in Michigan who got government money and started making solar panels. Oh, come on. We're supposed to celebrate that another formerly free-market company realized that the best way to make money is to stop pulling the wagon and jump into it, instead? That the formula for success is to get money from the government? That's not reinvention. If anything, that's EXACTLY what's wrong with America right now.
4. We have 1 in 6, or more likely 1 in 5 Americans who can't find good jobs right now. We have farging problems. These idiots are all together giving standing ovations to a barely competent president while real Americans are sufferring. Glad you think the state of the union is strong, Mr. President, but I am sort of curious what planet you live on.
5. Why in the world is everybody chosing NOW to try and cut spending? Honestly people, this is not the time. Of all the things to have bipartisan agreement on, this is downright nuts.
6. Pretty obvious that when Wall Street needs help, the federal government will mobilize any amount of money, with no conditions and give it to them as fast as possible so they won't have to suffer. However, when it comes to rescuing main street? Hey, it happens when it happens. No urgency at all.
If we put 1/10th the resources into rescuing Main Street that we did with Wall Street, it'd be a whole different picture, now.
Heck, if we did 1/10th as much for Main Street as we're doing for Wall Street RIGHT NOW, it'd be a whole 'nother ball game. Imagine if ordinary Americans were able to borrow money at 0.1% interest. Imagine if ordinary Americans were allowed to be completely insolvent, yet still operate businesses? Imagine if ordinary Americans could lend money to the federal government for more interest than they were paying the fed, and imagine if ordinary Americans made money just for handling the transaction?
We should replace, "e pluribus unum" with "everything for wall street, no matter the cost... the rest can eat cake."
I'm sad to say that I've reached a point where I'm completely disgusted with the United States of America. I'll raise my son here, but after that, if I could move to Canada, I would.
I will continue to serve in the Navy for a little while longer, but if things don't improve, and I doubt they will, I won't be putting my ass on the line for a country that exists solely for the benefit of a bunch of Wall Street bankers. I'm not going to sacrifice my life for a bunch of guys who don't even think they should have to sacrifice a bonus for a problem they, themselves created.
We are so screwed. They're actually destroying our country.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Douchebag neighbors, Bad weather and Good business...
I really don't like a few of my neighbors on the cul-de-sac. I've moved less than a block from my original home, but the cul-de-sac folks are really a breed apart.
One of my neighbors is a total douche. Comes over to complain whenever any little thing irritates him.
I figured we just needed to get to know each other. So, I saw his wife and him in the yard one day and after talking a little bit, asked if they'd like to see the inside of the house. (They had been asking about it and I was explaining that it was being remodelled.)
One of the rooms, we had just taken out some wrought-iron crap. The wife took one peek and said, "Oh, you can give me those. I'll use them in my garden."
That really rubbed me the wrong way. Like, "I don't know you very well, but listen while I tell you how you're going to give me stuff." If my other interactions with them had been more positive, it probably wouldn't have bothered me, but when your total interactions with a person either involve them bitching about something or asking for something that pretty much puts them on the douchebag list, IMHO.
I was chopping up some wood and he came over asking, "mind if I see what you're doing?" I felt like saying, "Well... yeah, I do. I don't think you need to see what I'm doing, and besides, I know that the only reason you're coming over here is to either bitch about something or ask for something, and neither of those are things I want to deal with."
So, he kept poking and prodding about the wood. Was I going to burn it all? I finally got the hint and said, "you're welcome to some of this wood if you want to burn it." His face brightened, until I added, "... all you have to do is come over here and split it yourself."
Dude is a total douche. The less I deal with him the better.
Today, I was snow-blowing my driveway and noticed a different neighbor standing across the street looking at me. After another pass, he hadn't moved. So, I stopped and asked, "do you need to speak with me?"
He said, "Generally, we don't blow snow into the street after the plow trucks come. You should get one of these (points to some idiotic extra-wide snow shovel he's using.)"
Now, first, I do blow snow into the street, but if it's obvious that it's enough that it won't melt right away, I then go into the street and blow it back into my yard. I've done it before. I just hadn't gotten that far.
So, I said, "I usually clean off the street when I'm done" and went back to what I was doing. I'm not sure what he was expecting. It's sort of hard to clear the driveway without blowing at least a little snow into the street. I guess he figured I should clear the street before I blew snow onto it, or something.
Or maybe, just maybe, some people are just absolute douchebags who never learned that when you act like a total cock, it tends not to endear you to people.
In any event, I'm here until my son graduates from High School. Then, if everything works out, I'm going to live out my days on enough land that I won't ever see my neighbors.
Sometimes, they're awesome. In fact, most neighbors are. Sometimes, though, they can be a real pain in the ass.
The bad weather has come and for the first time in a long time, the business is really busy. If this keeps up, I'm rich again. However, I'll never take things for granted in this industry again. I'll also continue working on a solid Plan B, so that I won't be left high and dry if things go sour in this line of work.
Other than that, life is good. Logan is playing rec basketball and baseball workouts have begun. I'm doing well and starting to enjoy my house. I might put down a couple hundred bucks worth of carpet to last me until I can afford hardwood for the whole place, though.
One of my neighbors is a total douche. Comes over to complain whenever any little thing irritates him.
I figured we just needed to get to know each other. So, I saw his wife and him in the yard one day and after talking a little bit, asked if they'd like to see the inside of the house. (They had been asking about it and I was explaining that it was being remodelled.)
One of the rooms, we had just taken out some wrought-iron crap. The wife took one peek and said, "Oh, you can give me those. I'll use them in my garden."
That really rubbed me the wrong way. Like, "I don't know you very well, but listen while I tell you how you're going to give me stuff." If my other interactions with them had been more positive, it probably wouldn't have bothered me, but when your total interactions with a person either involve them bitching about something or asking for something that pretty much puts them on the douchebag list, IMHO.
I was chopping up some wood and he came over asking, "mind if I see what you're doing?" I felt like saying, "Well... yeah, I do. I don't think you need to see what I'm doing, and besides, I know that the only reason you're coming over here is to either bitch about something or ask for something, and neither of those are things I want to deal with."
So, he kept poking and prodding about the wood. Was I going to burn it all? I finally got the hint and said, "you're welcome to some of this wood if you want to burn it." His face brightened, until I added, "... all you have to do is come over here and split it yourself."
Dude is a total douche. The less I deal with him the better.
Today, I was snow-blowing my driveway and noticed a different neighbor standing across the street looking at me. After another pass, he hadn't moved. So, I stopped and asked, "do you need to speak with me?"
He said, "Generally, we don't blow snow into the street after the plow trucks come. You should get one of these (points to some idiotic extra-wide snow shovel he's using.)"
Now, first, I do blow snow into the street, but if it's obvious that it's enough that it won't melt right away, I then go into the street and blow it back into my yard. I've done it before. I just hadn't gotten that far.
So, I said, "I usually clean off the street when I'm done" and went back to what I was doing. I'm not sure what he was expecting. It's sort of hard to clear the driveway without blowing at least a little snow into the street. I guess he figured I should clear the street before I blew snow onto it, or something.
Or maybe, just maybe, some people are just absolute douchebags who never learned that when you act like a total cock, it tends not to endear you to people.
In any event, I'm here until my son graduates from High School. Then, if everything works out, I'm going to live out my days on enough land that I won't ever see my neighbors.
Sometimes, they're awesome. In fact, most neighbors are. Sometimes, though, they can be a real pain in the ass.
The bad weather has come and for the first time in a long time, the business is really busy. If this keeps up, I'm rich again. However, I'll never take things for granted in this industry again. I'll also continue working on a solid Plan B, so that I won't be left high and dry if things go sour in this line of work.
Other than that, life is good. Logan is playing rec basketball and baseball workouts have begun. I'm doing well and starting to enjoy my house. I might put down a couple hundred bucks worth of carpet to last me until I can afford hardwood for the whole place, though.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Of Tiger Moms and Baseball
The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is making quite a stir these days. For those who haven't heard of it, the book is a memoir that defends what the author describes as a "Chinese" way of raising kids.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html
Basically, kids are expected to be high achievers, and that a parent is justified in using methods that others might consider extreme in order to achieve that goal. For instance, 4 hours of piano practice, without a bathroom or meal break, is one of the anectdotes in the book.
The author has been the subject of considerably hostility. Apparently, some folks have even threatened her with violence of some sort or another.
I'm loathe to claim much knowledge in the area of parenting. Yet, I find myself disagreeing with this woman's stance. The hypocrasy of this does not escape me: I chastise a woman for claiming a superior method of parenting, at the same time, believing that some of her methods are inferior.
Let me start with my biggest problem with her book: it works from the premise that her method produced superior kids.
There are a few nits to pick with this. Number one is that her kids are still teenagers. It's a bit premature to roll out the "mission accomplished" banner. In fact, what we know of development of the brain suggests that parts of it are still developing well into the mid 20s. So, it's going to be some years before we know whether this method worked or not.
Second, sorry, but this is a Harvard Law educated woman who teaches at Yale Law School. Her husband is similarly brilliant. I'm one of the folks who believes that genetics has a lot to do with a person's achievement in life. She won the genetic lottery and by extension, so did her daughters.
If they had been raised by a longshoreman, they'd still be brilliant.
The basic question comes down to this, though: what is the goal of parenting?
That's a question folks can only answer for themselves.
As some of you know, I have mixed feelings about travel baseball and the issues it raises are similar to the discussion this book raises.
I still remember Logan's first day of tee-ball practice. I was helping coach some of the kids, and I heard somebody say, "Jim, come over here, Logan just got hit in the face with the ball."
Luckily, tee ball is played with a softer baseball. I sat Logan on my knee and he regained his composure. I asked if he wanted to keep playing and he didn't even hesitate. He ran back to join the other kids.
A few minutes later, "Jim, Logan got hit in the face with the ball again."
I can't tell you exactly what I was thinking at the moment, but I think it was something along the lines of, "Oh f***ity f***ing f***."
Went over and sat him on my knee, he regained his composure and again, went right back out to play.
After that practice, I hated myself. I hated myself for not preparing him. I don't know how in the world Logan was the lucky kid who got hit in the face not once, but twice, but it happened.
So, I immediately bought a tennis balls and some wiffle balls and started to teach him how to catch a ball with a baseball glove.
I worked with him a little bit, but his biggest improvement came when he would practice by himself at night. He would take a wiffle ball and throw it against the front door and field it with his glove. A wiffle ball gives you no feedback in the glove, so it's 100% hand-eye practice. I liken it to trying to catch a flying BB with tweezers.
Hours every night he practiced. I never had to push him towards it, encourage him to do it or even mention it to him. He just loved doing it.
Fast forward to the modern day and Logan has made our city's premier travel baseball team.
I'm lukewarm to the idea of travel baseball. Logan's mom brought up to me last year that Logan might not want to play travel this year. I told her, flat-out, I didn't care if Logan played rec league ball, or if he never touched a baseball glove again for the rest of his life. My only line in the sand was that he had to finish out the season because we had made a committment to the team.
Is baseball important? Well, yeah, I think it is. I probably think it's more important than a lot of things in life.
However, I also know that there are dads who are pushing their kids into travel baseball because they think their kid is going to play in the major leagues someday.
There are fewer than 1,000 players in major league baseball. They are recruited from all over the world. Not every country plays baseball, but seriously, we're probably talking a third or a quarter of the world's population has access to baseball.
I would LOVE it if Logan played MLB someday. However, I'm putting a little more effort into making sure he has a strong plan B.
Other dads are pushing their boys into travel baseball because they think it's the only way the kid will ever make their high school team.
To that, I say, "so what?" If they don't make their high school baseball team, they can still live fulfilling lives as productive members of society.
Should I be pushing him in baseball? I don't think so. I think that childhood is a time when he should be exploring a lot of different activities and options. He may not like baseball. Maybe he'll run track and cross country in High School. Maybe, heaven forbid, he won't play sports at all.
If he excels in baseball in High School and beyond, it'll be because he pushes himself. It'll be because he's one of those kids who practices even when they don't have to.
Logan can play travel baseball as long as he loves doing it. When it turns into a chore, he will have the option of doing something else. He's 9 years old and that's too young to have a job.
Amy Chua (the Tiger Mother) is proud of her daughters for having achieved excellence in piano and violin. The girls should be proud of their accomplishments.
On the other hand, I'd have to ask, "So what?" Why is it important to excel at piano and violin? Are they going to be professional musicians? If not, then seriously, what was all that work for? If it was because the girls loved it, that's one thing.
If it's because they had to, and had no choice, and their hours of piano practice kept them from enjoying a lot of the typical activities that form the warm memories of childhood, then sorry, I disagree with making them do it.
This is not to say that I'm pro-sports and anti-music. Far from it. I'm actually one of the least athletic people you'll ever meet.
I'm teaching my son basketball right now and frankly, I know a lot about the game. My son asked why I know so much about it, despite not-playing in High School, and I told him bluntly, "Because I wasn't very talented, I had to learn everything I could about how the game is played".
It didn't matter much. I never once made a middle school basketball team, and played only a couple of years of CYO. Sometimes, sorry, genetics trumps a love of the game, even when you're a 5'11" 7th grader.
I also happen to love music. I taught myself to play guitar starting at age 16, and studied applied classical guitar in college. I also taught guitar for 3 years.
In my personal story, I would have been a kid who practiced 4 hours a day. My family simply couldn't afford instruments or music lessons. I asked for them starting in about the 2nd grade and kept up the asking until about the 4th, at which point it became obvious that it just wasn't going to happen.
When I was old enough to buy my own guitar, I did, and practiced constantly. I did this from the time I was 16 until about the time I left college in Texas at age 25.
You can't make up for lost time on something like this. I would clearly have been a much better musician if I had the resources to start earlier.
So, is that an argument for the Tiger Mom? No, it isn't. What if I didn't want to play the violin? What if I were like my son and wasn't musically inclined, but athletically inclined?
The Tiger Mom might have worked out in my case, probably. I would have loved to have learned how to play the piano. But the fact that she was oblivious to listening to her kids means that it probably wouldn't have worked out for most kids, most of the time.
Ultimately, popular music is not made with violins, and to an increasing degree, not with guitars, either. Classical music is something that appeals to a lot of people if it's in the background, like Muzak. Beyond that, it doesn't impact the lives of most people.
So, is music unimportant? Is baseball unimportant? They're both very important each in their own way. Which one should you push your kid into? Neither, but you should facilitate their ability to pursue the one they'll love. And you can't find out which one they love if you're shoving other activities down their throats.
Getting back to basketball, Logan recently tried out for the city's premier basketball team and didn't make the cut. It was a flashback to the first day of tee-ball practice. He didn't succeed because I hadn't prepared him. I only heard about the tryouts the week or so before. Had I been able to put Logan through a few workouts, he may have made the squad.
Am I worried? Is he doomed? Will the players on the team outpace him? Will he never make his High School team? The reality of this is that he probably has the physical skills to make his High School team. If he makes it, it will be because he worked hard at it, for years, and not because he was forced to. I can haul him to the warehouse to shoot hoops once or twice a week, but the kids who make the HS team will be the ones who are practicing a few hours, multiple times a week, all Summer long.
He'll make it if he has the love. If he doesn't, he won't. And either way is fine with me. I'll help him, but I won't stand over him and force him. He's got to want it for himself.
Ultimately, we all want to raise well-adjusted, competent, contributing members of society. We're all going to go about it each in our own way. No method works for raising all kids.
My boy is a people pleaser. He doesn't rebel. He's not mischievous. Me? I was all that. You don't raise a boy like my boy the way you have to raise somebody like I was.
Kids are individuals, and there is something inside there. There's a human being with likes and dislikes. In my opinion, a successful parent is one who allows the child room to explore and grow, and to become a person they want to be, not just a person they have to be.
I don't agree with trying to force a kid into our image of what they should be. Whether that's a piano-playing science-fair winning high achiever, or a kid who throws a 90 mph fastball.
There are hard limits, of course. We want our children to be moral. We want our children to do SOMETHING with their lives. However, micromanaging their lives into a very, very, very narrow set of experiences is not something I believe in doing.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html
Basically, kids are expected to be high achievers, and that a parent is justified in using methods that others might consider extreme in order to achieve that goal. For instance, 4 hours of piano practice, without a bathroom or meal break, is one of the anectdotes in the book.
The author has been the subject of considerably hostility. Apparently, some folks have even threatened her with violence of some sort or another.
I'm loathe to claim much knowledge in the area of parenting. Yet, I find myself disagreeing with this woman's stance. The hypocrasy of this does not escape me: I chastise a woman for claiming a superior method of parenting, at the same time, believing that some of her methods are inferior.
Let me start with my biggest problem with her book: it works from the premise that her method produced superior kids.
There are a few nits to pick with this. Number one is that her kids are still teenagers. It's a bit premature to roll out the "mission accomplished" banner. In fact, what we know of development of the brain suggests that parts of it are still developing well into the mid 20s. So, it's going to be some years before we know whether this method worked or not.
Second, sorry, but this is a Harvard Law educated woman who teaches at Yale Law School. Her husband is similarly brilliant. I'm one of the folks who believes that genetics has a lot to do with a person's achievement in life. She won the genetic lottery and by extension, so did her daughters.
If they had been raised by a longshoreman, they'd still be brilliant.
The basic question comes down to this, though: what is the goal of parenting?
That's a question folks can only answer for themselves.
As some of you know, I have mixed feelings about travel baseball and the issues it raises are similar to the discussion this book raises.
I still remember Logan's first day of tee-ball practice. I was helping coach some of the kids, and I heard somebody say, "Jim, come over here, Logan just got hit in the face with the ball."
Luckily, tee ball is played with a softer baseball. I sat Logan on my knee and he regained his composure. I asked if he wanted to keep playing and he didn't even hesitate. He ran back to join the other kids.
A few minutes later, "Jim, Logan got hit in the face with the ball again."
I can't tell you exactly what I was thinking at the moment, but I think it was something along the lines of, "Oh f***ity f***ing f***."
Went over and sat him on my knee, he regained his composure and again, went right back out to play.
After that practice, I hated myself. I hated myself for not preparing him. I don't know how in the world Logan was the lucky kid who got hit in the face not once, but twice, but it happened.
So, I immediately bought a tennis balls and some wiffle balls and started to teach him how to catch a ball with a baseball glove.
I worked with him a little bit, but his biggest improvement came when he would practice by himself at night. He would take a wiffle ball and throw it against the front door and field it with his glove. A wiffle ball gives you no feedback in the glove, so it's 100% hand-eye practice. I liken it to trying to catch a flying BB with tweezers.
Hours every night he practiced. I never had to push him towards it, encourage him to do it or even mention it to him. He just loved doing it.
Fast forward to the modern day and Logan has made our city's premier travel baseball team.
I'm lukewarm to the idea of travel baseball. Logan's mom brought up to me last year that Logan might not want to play travel this year. I told her, flat-out, I didn't care if Logan played rec league ball, or if he never touched a baseball glove again for the rest of his life. My only line in the sand was that he had to finish out the season because we had made a committment to the team.
Is baseball important? Well, yeah, I think it is. I probably think it's more important than a lot of things in life.
However, I also know that there are dads who are pushing their kids into travel baseball because they think their kid is going to play in the major leagues someday.
There are fewer than 1,000 players in major league baseball. They are recruited from all over the world. Not every country plays baseball, but seriously, we're probably talking a third or a quarter of the world's population has access to baseball.
I would LOVE it if Logan played MLB someday. However, I'm putting a little more effort into making sure he has a strong plan B.
Other dads are pushing their boys into travel baseball because they think it's the only way the kid will ever make their high school team.
To that, I say, "so what?" If they don't make their high school baseball team, they can still live fulfilling lives as productive members of society.
Should I be pushing him in baseball? I don't think so. I think that childhood is a time when he should be exploring a lot of different activities and options. He may not like baseball. Maybe he'll run track and cross country in High School. Maybe, heaven forbid, he won't play sports at all.
If he excels in baseball in High School and beyond, it'll be because he pushes himself. It'll be because he's one of those kids who practices even when they don't have to.
Logan can play travel baseball as long as he loves doing it. When it turns into a chore, he will have the option of doing something else. He's 9 years old and that's too young to have a job.
Amy Chua (the Tiger Mother) is proud of her daughters for having achieved excellence in piano and violin. The girls should be proud of their accomplishments.
On the other hand, I'd have to ask, "So what?" Why is it important to excel at piano and violin? Are they going to be professional musicians? If not, then seriously, what was all that work for? If it was because the girls loved it, that's one thing.
If it's because they had to, and had no choice, and their hours of piano practice kept them from enjoying a lot of the typical activities that form the warm memories of childhood, then sorry, I disagree with making them do it.
This is not to say that I'm pro-sports and anti-music. Far from it. I'm actually one of the least athletic people you'll ever meet.
I'm teaching my son basketball right now and frankly, I know a lot about the game. My son asked why I know so much about it, despite not-playing in High School, and I told him bluntly, "Because I wasn't very talented, I had to learn everything I could about how the game is played".
It didn't matter much. I never once made a middle school basketball team, and played only a couple of years of CYO. Sometimes, sorry, genetics trumps a love of the game, even when you're a 5'11" 7th grader.
I also happen to love music. I taught myself to play guitar starting at age 16, and studied applied classical guitar in college. I also taught guitar for 3 years.
In my personal story, I would have been a kid who practiced 4 hours a day. My family simply couldn't afford instruments or music lessons. I asked for them starting in about the 2nd grade and kept up the asking until about the 4th, at which point it became obvious that it just wasn't going to happen.
When I was old enough to buy my own guitar, I did, and practiced constantly. I did this from the time I was 16 until about the time I left college in Texas at age 25.
You can't make up for lost time on something like this. I would clearly have been a much better musician if I had the resources to start earlier.
So, is that an argument for the Tiger Mom? No, it isn't. What if I didn't want to play the violin? What if I were like my son and wasn't musically inclined, but athletically inclined?
The Tiger Mom might have worked out in my case, probably. I would have loved to have learned how to play the piano. But the fact that she was oblivious to listening to her kids means that it probably wouldn't have worked out for most kids, most of the time.
Ultimately, popular music is not made with violins, and to an increasing degree, not with guitars, either. Classical music is something that appeals to a lot of people if it's in the background, like Muzak. Beyond that, it doesn't impact the lives of most people.
So, is music unimportant? Is baseball unimportant? They're both very important each in their own way. Which one should you push your kid into? Neither, but you should facilitate their ability to pursue the one they'll love. And you can't find out which one they love if you're shoving other activities down their throats.
Getting back to basketball, Logan recently tried out for the city's premier basketball team and didn't make the cut. It was a flashback to the first day of tee-ball practice. He didn't succeed because I hadn't prepared him. I only heard about the tryouts the week or so before. Had I been able to put Logan through a few workouts, he may have made the squad.
Am I worried? Is he doomed? Will the players on the team outpace him? Will he never make his High School team? The reality of this is that he probably has the physical skills to make his High School team. If he makes it, it will be because he worked hard at it, for years, and not because he was forced to. I can haul him to the warehouse to shoot hoops once or twice a week, but the kids who make the HS team will be the ones who are practicing a few hours, multiple times a week, all Summer long.
He'll make it if he has the love. If he doesn't, he won't. And either way is fine with me. I'll help him, but I won't stand over him and force him. He's got to want it for himself.
Ultimately, we all want to raise well-adjusted, competent, contributing members of society. We're all going to go about it each in our own way. No method works for raising all kids.
My boy is a people pleaser. He doesn't rebel. He's not mischievous. Me? I was all that. You don't raise a boy like my boy the way you have to raise somebody like I was.
Kids are individuals, and there is something inside there. There's a human being with likes and dislikes. In my opinion, a successful parent is one who allows the child room to explore and grow, and to become a person they want to be, not just a person they have to be.
I don't agree with trying to force a kid into our image of what they should be. Whether that's a piano-playing science-fair winning high achiever, or a kid who throws a 90 mph fastball.
There are hard limits, of course. We want our children to be moral. We want our children to do SOMETHING with their lives. However, micromanaging their lives into a very, very, very narrow set of experiences is not something I believe in doing.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
The crisis and crossroads blog post...
2011 has begun and so far, it's kicked off exactly as I had hoped. We're swamped with work at the biz. It's mostly general contracting stuff that's keeping us busy. That's not ideal, but we can make money doing the GC stuff. Much better than the days when we weren't turning a profit. Not sure how long this will last, but this is a business where you are at the mercy of the weather.
There's no reason to believe that we aren't profitable again, though.
Not too long and I will be taking the LSAT. Yeah, after all these years, and at my age, I'm contemplating returning to school. Part of it was taking Arabic last fall. It was a real motivator. I won't say that it reminded me that school is fun, because I don't think it is. However, it reminded me that if you stay on top of your studies, you're going to do just fine.
Even if my business does well, I want to diversify my income streams and this is a good way to do it. Law is a profession people can practice well into old age.
Of course, this presumes I'm accepted into a law school, which is pretty far from a foregone conclusion. All I can do is submit my application and take it as it goes.
I had a bit of a crisis of motivation regarding my Navy service for the past few weeks. The travel was wearing me out. Also, the cost of the travel, since it comes out of my own pocket, is a bummer. Granted, I knew that coming in, but the reality of it was heavier than I might have anticipated.
Plus, well... it's starting to feel a lot more like work and a lot less like fun.
I was turning in my paperwork to get my $2,000 bonus for taking Arabic, and had to make a choice. If I submitted the paperwork, I also needed to commit to another 2 years in the reserves.
I'm also disgusted by the state of things in the country right now. Maybe it's always been this corrupt, but as folks know, I feel that the Wall Street bailouts really laid bare just how fairness and equality are only buzzwords we throw around when the monied interests aren't busy robbing us blind.
Am I really willing to die for a country whose number one priority is to make sure that rich people get richer? Seriously, what sort of simpleton sacrifices his life for a country that exists only for the benefit of the wealthy, and where the wealthy are not even willing to sacrifice their quarterly bonuses?
I think this is a crisis of faith. Military service, I have always felt, is a calling much like the clergy. I agree with Dubya when he says that if a person has never had a crisis of faith, that that means the person simply hasn't thought about their faith very much.
Sometimes faith means being unable to reconcile certain things, and simply believing that, on the whole, the good done outweighs any bad. Maybe that's where I am with serving the United States.
I am okay with hitching up for another two years. That's not that long of a time. I've completed 3 years already and it went by in the blink of an eye. I only have 2 more trips to Texas this fiscal year. Once those are done, I will be halfway through my tour with the contracting unit in Fort Worth.
I still stand a chance at mobilization, though clearly the mobilizations are becoming less and less frequent. Once I get my contracting certification, I will be fair game, but a lot can happen. I won't have my certification until next fiscal year. By then, Obama has promised we'll be out of Iraq. All I can do is wait and see.
The future prospects for my reserve career don't look good, though. It's a lot of guys competing for very few billets. For promotion, if I don't mobilize, I'll be behind everybody who did. The odds of me having to fly around at my own expense if I stay in the reserves is pretty good once I get to O-5, and even O-4. (I will be an O-3 in less than a year.)
Still, that's a ways off. I am thinking I'll do a couple more years. I'd like to leave the service as at least an O-3, if I leave. By then, with any luck, the wars will be pretty much completely wound down. They just won't need as many of us.
I joined the military because there were two wars going on and the manpower demands were really hurting the folks who were serving.
Once the wars are over, I will probably beat my sword back into a plowshare and focus on trying to make enough money to put my son through college and put myself through retirement.
In the mean time, life is good. Need more of the same for a while. 2010 was a brutal year in a lot of ways. I hope to be able to return to what life was like in 2008 and 2009. Things were pretty darned perfect back then.
There's no reason to believe that we aren't profitable again, though.
Not too long and I will be taking the LSAT. Yeah, after all these years, and at my age, I'm contemplating returning to school. Part of it was taking Arabic last fall. It was a real motivator. I won't say that it reminded me that school is fun, because I don't think it is. However, it reminded me that if you stay on top of your studies, you're going to do just fine.
Even if my business does well, I want to diversify my income streams and this is a good way to do it. Law is a profession people can practice well into old age.
Of course, this presumes I'm accepted into a law school, which is pretty far from a foregone conclusion. All I can do is submit my application and take it as it goes.
I had a bit of a crisis of motivation regarding my Navy service for the past few weeks. The travel was wearing me out. Also, the cost of the travel, since it comes out of my own pocket, is a bummer. Granted, I knew that coming in, but the reality of it was heavier than I might have anticipated.
Plus, well... it's starting to feel a lot more like work and a lot less like fun.
I was turning in my paperwork to get my $2,000 bonus for taking Arabic, and had to make a choice. If I submitted the paperwork, I also needed to commit to another 2 years in the reserves.
I'm also disgusted by the state of things in the country right now. Maybe it's always been this corrupt, but as folks know, I feel that the Wall Street bailouts really laid bare just how fairness and equality are only buzzwords we throw around when the monied interests aren't busy robbing us blind.
Am I really willing to die for a country whose number one priority is to make sure that rich people get richer? Seriously, what sort of simpleton sacrifices his life for a country that exists only for the benefit of the wealthy, and where the wealthy are not even willing to sacrifice their quarterly bonuses?
I think this is a crisis of faith. Military service, I have always felt, is a calling much like the clergy. I agree with Dubya when he says that if a person has never had a crisis of faith, that that means the person simply hasn't thought about their faith very much.
Sometimes faith means being unable to reconcile certain things, and simply believing that, on the whole, the good done outweighs any bad. Maybe that's where I am with serving the United States.
I am okay with hitching up for another two years. That's not that long of a time. I've completed 3 years already and it went by in the blink of an eye. I only have 2 more trips to Texas this fiscal year. Once those are done, I will be halfway through my tour with the contracting unit in Fort Worth.
I still stand a chance at mobilization, though clearly the mobilizations are becoming less and less frequent. Once I get my contracting certification, I will be fair game, but a lot can happen. I won't have my certification until next fiscal year. By then, Obama has promised we'll be out of Iraq. All I can do is wait and see.
The future prospects for my reserve career don't look good, though. It's a lot of guys competing for very few billets. For promotion, if I don't mobilize, I'll be behind everybody who did. The odds of me having to fly around at my own expense if I stay in the reserves is pretty good once I get to O-5, and even O-4. (I will be an O-3 in less than a year.)
Still, that's a ways off. I am thinking I'll do a couple more years. I'd like to leave the service as at least an O-3, if I leave. By then, with any luck, the wars will be pretty much completely wound down. They just won't need as many of us.
I joined the military because there were two wars going on and the manpower demands were really hurting the folks who were serving.
Once the wars are over, I will probably beat my sword back into a plowshare and focus on trying to make enough money to put my son through college and put myself through retirement.
In the mean time, life is good. Need more of the same for a while. 2010 was a brutal year in a lot of ways. I hope to be able to return to what life was like in 2008 and 2009. Things were pretty darned perfect back then.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)