WE WILL LIVE FOR YOU!

Dear Girls,

Life is confusing.  Let there be no doubt in your mind that in your life you will encounter many difficult decisions, many hard lessons and many tuff choices.  But rest assured that you don't go alone.  For One has gone before you and He choose your mother and I to be here for you every second of your life.  In good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. 

See girls, you are to young now to understand what I am saying.  You are too young to understand a lot of things.  But your mom and I will not let you down.  We will be here to make decisions for you.  We will be here to pray for you and to guide you.  We will not give up.  We will not give in.

We will not give in to what society decides to accept.  We will not give in to exhaustion.  We will not give in peer pressure.  We will not even give in to you.  We love you that much.  Even when it causes us pain and sadness.

We don't have all the answers.  There is quite a lot that we are learning ourselves.  But we are adults enough to realize that and ask those that have come before us for help.  We do know what you are going through now as we have gone through it our selves.

We also know that a lot of what you hear in mainstream society is wrong.  Many parents these days expect their children to make very important life decisions that they are incapable of making.  Decisions about, gender, sexuality, body modification, medical care, religion and schooling.  Your mother and I do not expect you to make such life altering decisions and would never place that kind of burden and stress on you as a child.  We will shoulder that weight and teach you as you grow. 

While you are a child we desire nothing more than for you to enjoy your childhood.  For we know that we have been chosen to shape and mold the future. We vow to lead by example.  If necessary we will give our lives for you.  But please hear this... THIS is much more important!

No matter the cost.

WE WILL LIVE FOR YOU!

Here's a tip…Don't eat yellow snow!

Is there an over abundance of people ready and willing to accept tips these days.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I am a pretty gracious tipper when you earn it.   I spent more then 3 years in the food service industry as a waiter and bar tender so I know what tips mean and how hard some work to earn them.  But let’s jump to what started this thought in the first place.

 

The other day I was at Starbucks, which I rarely go to, and I noticed a tip jar.  The tips of course are for the barista.  This got me thinking.  Do we tip a barista?  If so how much and why? I just paid seven dollars for a medium coffee, wasn’t the making of that seven-dollar coffee included?  Then while I stood there and waited I thought about all the other tip jars I’ve been seeing lately. 

 

When you really think about it, 

Do it …

Go ahead and think of all the places you go that accept tips. 

 

OK good. 

What did you come up with?  Probably the same thing that I did.  Who are we supposed to tip these days and why?  I see tip jars at the ice cream parlor, the car wash guys, even at one of my local Panda Expresses.  They had a tip jar at the end.  I mean really?  What am I tipping you for, scooping out the orange chicken with speed and accuracy!  I think the tip jar at 7-11 is really what put me over the edge.  HA!  You stood there and took my money so let me tip you. 

 

Here’s the flip side to the tipping debate.   The poor pizza guy!  Next time you order pizza take a look at your bill.  Did you know that the pizza place charges you for delivery, usually between 2.50-3.50.  They are very specific about that charge not going to the driver.  If it’s not going to the driver where is it going???  I delivered pizza for about 6 months and they did give us a very small reimbursement.  But not all companies do that.  So basically I’m being charged an extra few bucks just for the convenience of delivery. But wait a minute…the pizza business is kind of a delivery business!!! ISN'T IT? 

Maybe everybody deserves an extra few bucks for doing the same thing they have been doing for the last 20 years? Maybe we should all just carry around tip jars and hope for the best!

Yeah, that’s right, A REAL BOW

So last week was Halloween.  I pulled up to a local middle school to drop of my wife and we were sitting there saying good bye for the day I see a young man, dressed as some kind of hunter, carrying.... wait for it...a real compound bow.  Now I didn't see any arrows, which is good.  But he was in fact carrying a bow.  BUT it was part of his costume!! So that makes it ok. 

So lets talk about a few things here.  I mean really mom and dad.  A Bow or weapon of any kind regardless of it having a projectile with it and regardless of day.  This is the same era when children...yes CHILDREN...are getting suspended and expelled for biting their pop tart into a toy gun and wearing shirts that have weapons on them.  And you thought it was ok to let your kid out of the house with a BOW!! 

Now I want to qualify my thoughts on this.  I am not an anti-gun or weapon person by any means.  Guns and weapons don't kill people, people kill people and I personally think we have gone a little to far with this whole crazy gun control deal.  Some schools around the country have even requested that uniformed police officers not bring their guns when they drop their kids off to school I mean really.  A UNIFORMED POLICE OFFICER!!!  Let me tell you, I was a little boy once and I am a grown little boy now and I can remember many games of cops and robbers.  We just used our fingers, which they can't take away.   I believe in education not stupification.  (I'm pretty sure I invented that word but it works really well I think) A lot of kids in the mid west learn about guns when they are nine and ten years old.  They know how to handle them and they know how to respect them and what they are used for.  EDUCATION! 

Now back to the issue at hand.  So when did parents stop paying attention to their children?  I know we've talked about this in the past but Halloween seems to really bring a lot of issue to light here.  The same people who are complaining and whining about gender stereotyping, and violence are letting their kids leave the house in outfits that are scandalous if your a girl, and down right indecent these days.  And some of the costumes I've seen the guys in aren't much better. 

Everybody seems to think it's ok because it's Halloween.  But let me ask you this, if it's just because it's Halloween, why are your children choosing to go out half naked in the first place. Why do they want to be a psycho killer even if it's just for play?  Where does that thought process start? 

Since we brought it up let's talk about the way the young ladies are dressing these days.  What happened here?  Are the mom's trying to re-live their youth? Do the parents just not care about what messages their sending out? Or maybe it's that they just don't care about their daughters. Yep, I said it.  The outfits I see some young ladies in these days are "lacking" to say the least.  So let me spell it out for you.  Ladies, you don't want the attention you're getting by wearing tight revealing clothing.  Nothing good can come from it, and if you're a parent of a young lady.  Do her a favor and TEACH HER what a real man is and what real men look for in a woman.  Teach her how much she is worth and that that worth doesn't come from her looks or her body.  The adults need to be setting the standard and building our children’s confidence and self esteem from within!

I would never tell a parent how to parent their child.  That is really up to them.  What I will tell you is what the outcome of your decisions is going to be.  That really isn't hard to figure out.  It's in the news every day.  But for some reason people are missing it.  So start paying attention and start parenting! 

To Those Who Serve ver 1.0

I find that the news these days is pretty boring and quite depressing for the most part.  We don't actually have subscription TV in our house so I'm fortunate enough to not have to watch the news or the latest commercials.  And most newspapers are full or propaganda so we don't get much of that here either.  My Dad stopped by this morning and asked about it and it got me thinking.  So I mentioned my twitter feed.  To keep up with what's going on in the world I use twitter.  It's usually quicker and I can get many points of view instantaneously with little effort.  However, as mentioned earlier very rarely does it seem that the "news" is positive. I found that reflected in my blog. So today were going to dedicate a simple message to those who serve. 

I have a big heart for a lot of people.  And today I'm not leaving anybody out, but I do want to specifically say thank you to some a few groups of people.

I've always thought a lot about "blue collar workers" in our country. Construction!  They have taken a little bit of a beating in the past.  At least in pop media and even conversation.  But when's the last time you drove by a construction site and paid a little attention to what was going on.  Really watched what these men and women were putting themselves through every day for not much pay and no thanks.  This particular group of people sweat and bleed for a living...literally...and they will pay for it the rest of their lives with sore joints and bad backs.  Their skin is leather like from the son and callused.   So here's to those that build!  Without them we would all be sitting in the dirt. 

How often to secretaries get overlooked.  The people that have to put up with the people in charge.  Often working countless hours, on the phone and computer all day.  Then on the other end of their job they get to deal with US...THE PUBLIC!  The very rarely receive any grace for a job in which they often have very little control and yet are the front line of defense to the public today.  They have to make schedules work, meetings happen and all while on the phone and dealing with two or three other people while standing in the office.  They make most of the things in life that we take advantage of just a little smoother and happier for us.  So here's to the secretaries! 

The last group of today is very special to me.  I am a big fan of veterans.  But I have a special place in my heart for Vietnam Veterans!  Every veteran of foreign wars is an amazing person.  But today I want to say a special thanks to those who gave their lives in Vietnam.  And by gave their lives I don't just mean died.  You will learn if you get to know me that I believe every person who has served in the military gave their lives.    Whether for 1 min or for eternity.  These people fought and served in an unforgiving land.  During a time when for the first time in history they received little support from back home.   In my humble opinion these are truly unique warriors and have served us in a way that we will never understand.  So next time you see a Vietnam Vet say thank you.  So here's to you Vietnam Vet's!

It's nice to have some positive thoughts every once in a while.  If you have stories about some of the individuals above, comment bellow.  Or if you want to say thanks to a group of people who should get recognized more often now is great time.  This is only version 1.0, so doing worry!  I love to give credit where credit is often missed!

Ironic Discrimination

Is it possible that anti-discrimination laws have actually become the biggest and most strict form of discrimination?  When did the individual become greater then the whole?  The most heated anti-discrimination issue of the day is same sex marriage.  This has been going on for years.  But at what cost I wonder.  I recently learned that here in CA this same sex marriage and anti-discrimination  battle took on a whole new realm.  The government here decided basically that we can no longer discriminate against sexual preference.  You can read up on SB 1172 and CA Congresswomen Jackie Speier. The articles written will do a much better job highlighting the issues with this bill.  In and of itself the heart of the law isn't the problem.  The problem is in what this congresswoman decided to defend.  Pedophilia (yes you read that right) was brought to light.  And the law was written so vaguely that pedophiles could now possibly make a case that this was their sexual orientation and they could no longer be "discriminated against".

Scary what not thinking things through will get you!  As far as I know, as of right now this law is still blocked and up for review this month. However the people that passed it are not only fighting it they are looking to bring it to a federal level.  So who really is being discriminated against? 

There are a few more problems with this particular sexual orientation fight that I’ve never heard anyone bring up.  The biggest scariest one (to me anyway) is this, while everybody was celebrating the victory of the laws that have been passed...or un-passed, nobody (on either side) as it were, stopped for moment to really think. What just happened here?  We got what we wanted, or how did this happen…but how about hmmm.??? (finger on cleft of chin) We voted as a state.  The people decided what they wanted. And a few select people said, nah. We don't really care what you want; we're going to do what we want. Regardless of your stance on the issue doesn’t this seem like a problem?  Am I the only person that is scared by this?  Not only did they take away our choices and our decisions, but they dictated to us how it would be and then we celebrated them for it.  That thought is kind of scary to me.  What else might they just decided for me in the future since now they know there won't really be a problem.

There has also been a long time issue of discrimination in the workplace.  What ever happened to whoever was able to complete the job at hand the best got the right to be paid to do that job. I don’t really care what race, gender sexual orientation, age, size shape or language you speak.  Are you the best for this position? Now I know what you might be thinking, and I do know the heart of the law.  But did it work?

So here's my thought.  It seems like maybe we went from a few people being unhappy and discriminated against to discriminating against everybody in some way.  Is this progress? And should we call this movement “anti-discrimination” or would maybe you have a better title?

What are your thoughts?