on the radio, in the paper

I heard a DJ on the radio this morning talk about how he thought taking some classes in high school was useless because he had no interest in them and learned nothing useful.  His example was Chemistry.  After a commercial break he talked about he doesn't like stupid people like the ones he read about that had a fire and tried opening the windows to let smoke out which fed the fire oxygen.  Of course, the fire didn't go out and they ruined a lot of stuff.  What a minute, isn't that something you learn in Chemistry?!?!?!?!?!?

The paper talked about how MN education is falling behind the world in the sciences especially and how we should want to hire local people at 3M, Medtronic, and other science based businesses in MN.
With people on the radio talking about how useless science is, how are we supposed to give our children the right mindset about learning and help us with this problem?
The problem isn't education, the problem is people's attitude toward education.

If I ever have children, they will know growing up how important having an education is and how it is intelligent people that make the world go around, not professional athletes.  They may make money but they aren't helping the country in so many other ways that are crucial to the well being of the US and the world as a whole.

Real Friends?/Facebook "friends"

I am so thankful for real friends.  People who want you there even when you are not at your best.  I have some great friends who are always looking out for me.  I know in high school you make friends but most of those you don't keep if you go on to college.  Simply put, you go your separate ways and find your own lives.  And I know  you make friends in college and many more of those will last longer because you are in fields of work and careers that stay similar.  But they too will drift as they find jobs in different parts of the world and most will find a spouse and have kids and that leads to different phases of life depending on when you have them and what they are into.  But the friends you regularly work with and spend time with after college are the ones that you will be with the most and therefore if you can find good friends in that area of your life things go well.  (I think they are also more mature and that helps too that you don't have that young person's drama to deal with)
I have taken a long look lately at my "friends" and seen some things that I don't always like.  I have some very dear friends and then I know people that it seems they aren't my friend except when it suits them.  I am a friend of convenience rather than a friend of life through thick and thin.  I am not sure I like this.
As you go through life you need to know who you can trust and depend on and those people should be your friends.  If you can't trust and depend on them to be there for you then are they really a close friend?  That is really a question I can't answer because I think it isn't just a yes or a no but many different grey areas built in.
I think that it may be different for everybody but I know where I need it to be for myself.
I, who feel many times my close friends are few and far between, want to be a friend to my friends and if they aren't going to be be a friend to me I should make sure I know that.  Because if you can't trust someone to be there for you when you need it you aren't sure when they are ever there for you.  And when trust isn't there you don't want to have to depend on them and be let down in your greatest hour of need.
I hope my friends know they can count on me to be there as much as I can for them no matter what.  I want to be able to help them not because they may repay me but because that is what friends are for.  When they get into real trouble they can always call me.  Or they can call me to just to say what's up or I am bored or I am lonely.  I am there for them.

Facebook has become something I am starting to get annoyed with when it comes to friends.  All these people want to friend you and then they request it and you accept it and then..................nothing.  Why in the world did you friend that person if you have no reason to?  Do you want to look at your friend list and say look I have 8 billion friends?  Do you need to have someone on there so you can keep tabs on them?  Do you add those people you want to actually talk to or just is it a contest?  If we have no reason to keep being friends on facebook should I really keep you on as a friend?  If you really want me to be your friend on there wouldn't you like to say hi sometime?
I can understand some friendships.  I have softball players on there myself and contacting them for tournaments is what I do.  When I don't need to talk to them for softball we don't talk that often because we don't have that much else in common.  It isn't that they are bad people but we just have different walks of life. That is an understanding and that is fine.  But I have people that have sent me a friend request and then I never hear from them for any reason.  And if I comment on their wall or send them a message they don't return my messages anyways.  So why are we friends on facebook?  If you don't call, you don't email, and now you don't facebook is there a reason we need to see what each other are doing?  Do you really even go on my facebook page?  Am I just there so you can brag about your numbers?  Am I there so you can petition me for the latest game that you need to invite friends to get points for?  Why? Why? Why?

I have some friends that I talk to here and there and we don't keep contact a lot but we do enough that we know where each other are.  That is fine.  I don't mind that we are like that; we both often follow the same thread of logic about our lives and we happily communicate when we can or have a reason to.  Those people I know and trust for that very reason.  Others I am not so sure.

So are we friends?  Are we really?  Why are we?  Do you have me on facebook and if so why?
Just thinks me thoughts.

Music Snob?

I think I am turning into quite a music snob.  Or maybe it isn't so much the genre/style as the execution of said music.
I have been listening to a lot of different types of music lately and when I listen to heavy metal music especially I am noticing the sloppiness of the music.  The drumming isn't tight; the guitar work is abysmal, and the vocalists can't stay with the instruments to save their lives.
Now, I am not saying that all heavy metal is like this.  But the stuff I have been listening to the last couple days has been.
I also got my hands on Guitar Hero 3, which is a fun game that gives me something new to do in the evening when I have 10 minutes to burn.  (the first 2 minutes is just getting through the long intro and it drives me nuts)
I enjoy the game but I have been going through the bonus songs more than the career songs.  The simple fact is that while I enjoy the career songs; I don't know the bonus songs nearly as well and it gives a new challenge and also an opportunity to experience new music.
I find the songs on the bonus side poorly written and in many ways 2nd rate music.  There are songs that I wonder if the people were on drugs or alcohol when they made them, there are songs that I think the people writing them intentionally made them different so they could say they are different, and I think there are songs that can't keep a beat to save their lives.  It really does drive me crazy in many ways.
Maybe it is just my experience with music; but I really am disappointed with quite a bit of the music out there in these ways.

On a connected yet different subject, I have been listening to Hot 96.7 on the radio lately some because it is one of the few non-country stations I can get in Sleepy Eye.  While I enjoy country music to a degree I am not a fanatic about it like the rest of my family.  i will listen to it in moderation and spend the rest of my time trying to find a station that has a plethora of Earth Wind and Fire and Chicago.
It seems to me there are a bunch of "new" songs out there that are simply old songs that are good and they have been redone in a different tempo or with a different backbeat to them.  I find it sad that people can't make really new music in this way but have to rely on those before them.  Please make something totally original instead of just using what has been done over and over again already.

Perhaps I am just turning into a music snob; I guess that is what happens when you go to college for music.

the cliff and the void

            It is getting late; I should be going soon.  Yet I cannot pull myself away.  I am on the threshold once again and I have to decide if I will jump into the void or stay safe on the cliff.  It isn’t like this cliff is made of unstable material.  My life has been built on this cliff in many ways and there is a foundation that can equate success if I continue to firm up the foundation.  Yet the void lingers.  I have not forgotten that void; there is something about the darkness that beckons to us all.  I stare into the darkness and it is cold, yet in that coldness is a familiarity that is welcome.  It is okay if I don’t always feel warm.  Sometimes the cold is what I want.

            The cliff became smaller for a while.  Or perhaps it is that I just forgot how far down it went.  If you look at the other side you start to see flat land and you forget that there is a steep drop.  I often sit and look at that safe side; confident that I am secure in my comfortable bed and my well lit rooms.  I don’t bother to look out the back; I know what is out there and I don’t want to risk what I have gained.

            Yet there are times like tonight that I am drawn to the cliff once again.  I ponder the jump and the dark.  I long to see if the void is a deep as it always was and if I can get lost in it once again.  There is a power to it that you don’t find on the safe side.  The free fall that gives you a queer sense of purpose.  You forget that there is sleep to be had and food to be consumed and an adult life to be had.  You see the thrill ride and the night time and when you are a creature of the night you never get scared.  Unless you look back to the safe side again……

            

Who or what do you follow?

I just read Joshua 24:15.  It says that you should choose who your family is going to worship whether it be the gods of your ancestors or not but for Joshua; he is going to follow the Lord.  I realize that I have paraphrased that quite a bit but you get the idea of the passage.
For those of you who follow this blog you obviously know that I am a Christian and I follow the Lord as well.  But it this passage got me thinking today.
I follow the Lord, you may choose not to.  You may follow Buddha, or Mohammed, or Ganesh, or someone else.  But do you have a god or God?  Do you follow the teachings and the ideals of a person?  Do you try and live a good life according to those laws?
I think that for a long time everyone would have said "of course".
But is that changing?
Perhaps the reason why there are so many problems right now is that people aren't following a higher power anymore but just themselves.
If you just do what is best for you; how good is the world going to be?  6 billion people out there only thinking of themselves and not each other.  That will make the world a better place alright!
While I haven't studied the major religions extensively I have noticed that they all pretty much want you to act in a healthy and generous way toward your fellow human beings.
But if you think you are the center of the universe and you are the one that matters the most then you aren't going to take the extra time to think of your neighbor if it doesn't coincide with what you want to have happen to yourself at any given moment.
An easier way to say that is that people who only think of themselves don't care who they step on or squash as long as they get their way.
If we all would work on loving and helping our neighbor a little more and thinking of what is the best for everyone and not just ourselves (and everyone did that) then just think of what the world could be like......
That could be a place that we would all want to live and live well in.

On the Way to Church

I woke up early this morning to go to church.  It was rather foggy out.
I traveled highway 14 as I usually do and I was watching the sun come up as I drove.  I had Scott Krippayne on the cd player (if you don't know who he is, christian rock) and I was just cruising along thinking about the bible study I was going to and the fact that I was becoming an official member of Centenary UMC today.
As I drove through the fog the sun was shining like a beacon guiding me along through the fog.  It was such a nice moment because it is like a metaphor for when we all travel through life in what sometimes feels like a fog.  Through the hard to see area shines a light that can guide us through and bring us warmth and comfort.  It was a nice feeling.

spelling does count!

I know I am not a great speller.  But I am a decent one usually.  Sometimes I have to write things out to see if they look right or wrong.  And no matter what I make sure the words are correct after I have finished a sentence.

What in the world has happened to the spelling in the world?  I don't know when it started but bad spelling is driving me nuts!

I have no proof but part of me wonders if part of the problem is the tendency for people to abbreviate words.
LOL, TTYL, FYI, and others have become so common place in our society that nobody bothers to spell words anymore.  Other things like "U 2" instead of "you too" also are like this.
(to, too, and two are one of the ones that drive me nuts because it seems like more and more kids don't know the difference between them!)

No matter what the cause, bad spelling drives me crazy.  Do people not realize how dumb you sound when you cannot spell correctly?  Is it just me that is bothered by this?

I shudder to think of what business owners and managers have to go through when they look at applications.

Is the world really getting dumber or is it just becoming so lazy that it doesn't care about things like this?