Quote of the Week

"I recollected that her eye excelled in brightness, that of any other animal, and that she has no eye-lids—She may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance.—She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage.—As if anxious to prevent all pretensions of quarreling with her, the weapons with which nature has furnished her, she conceals in the roof of her mouth, so that, to those who are unacquainted with her, she appears to be a most defenseless animal; and even when those weapons are shewn and extended for her defense, they appear weak and contemptible; but their wounds however small, are decisive and fatal:—Conscious of this, she never wounds till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her.—Was I wrong, Sir, in thinking this a strong picture of the temper and conduct of America?"

--American Guesser, AKA Benjamin Franklin; Suggesting that the rattlesnack was a good symbol for the American spirit

What’s Wrong with This Country?!

The United States used to be a beacon of hope for those around the world.  We used to be a refuge for those in other lands facing hardships because we were a free society and were based on a very solid, clear-cut set of principles.  I mean country after country has modeled their own government after ours.  Now with the introduction of lawyers and politicians those principles are thrown out for each one’s subversive agenda.  And the problem is that We, the American people, don’t know enough and/or don’t care enough to call the Powers-That-Be on it when they try to do something that’s obviously morally or legally wrong!  Let me give you a few examples that I’ve seen.

A few years back I was in a Political Studies online class.  Before the class even started, there was an open discussion between another student and myself about the roles of government.  My statement was, “I’m sick of judges with an agenda out there making laws as they want.  That’s Congresses’ job to make laws, it judges’ to interpret them.”  At this point the teacher jumped in and posted something to the effect of, “I’m so glad you’re in this class Chris, I think you’ll learn a lot” thus implying I was in the wrong!  Now, I’m not a (third-rate) “professor” at a (crap) (online) “university”, but I’m fairly certain that I learned, IN MIDDLE SCHOOL, the way that government was “supposed” to work.

I recently came upon a story about a publishing company that has begun to include a disclaimer on the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.  The disclaimer stated:

“This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today.  Parents might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work."

I’m sorry, what?!  While this is likely a blanket statement put on all historical works, what moron decided that it was appropriate to apply this to our founding documents?  Though reading the first line, I can’t say I totally disagree.  If it were written today then I guarantee that today’s values would be different.  Maybe what parents should discuss with their children is how screwed up today’s “values” are and that we need to get right and go back to the views written in this “classic work”?

Finally, while there may be the occasional loon out there with misguided beliefs, our elected officials know and always follow the letter of the law, right.  I mean for instance, the President of the United States wouldn’t just be out there say, declaring war on another country without Congressional approval, passing illegal health care laws requiring someone to pay an illegal fine for not buying into a potentially disastrous system, or openly search for ways to circumvent written laws and procedures, would he?

“The Obama administration has been holding behind-the-scenes talks to determine whether the Department of Homeland Security can unilaterally grant legal status on a mass basis to illegal immigrants, a former Bush administration official who spoke with at least three people involved in those talks told FoxNews.com.”

“"The administration at the very minimum is studying legal ways to legalize people without having to go through any congressional debate about it," the source said, calling the senators' claim credible.”

Awesome. 

My belief is that a large part of this stems from a total lack of understanding or the desire to understand and know our history.  Americans are very much in the here and now, getting their new iPhone 6G and keeping up with what Dumb and Dumber are doing on whatever trash is passing as television these days.  I get teased about my love of the History Channel (not that it’s any better.  Ancient Aliens?  Ice Road Truckers.  Really?!) but as a student of history, I can see where we’ve been, who we’ve had to fight against and have a very good idea of where we are likely headed.  I have a quote myself that I’d like to share.

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

I think I heard that on The Hills or OC or something.  My question is simply this; Is it “necessary” once again?

The Verdict

The family is back (YAY!) and so I thought it would be fair to do an assessment of how I spent my “man time” while they were gone.  Let me first preface my review by saying that took all of last week off.  The two weeks prior were very stressful so I wanted the vacation plus I took the opportunity to use that time to get some extra work done around the house.

As I mentioned previously I had downloaded the WoW free trial to play while everyone was gone.  I also had a piled list of “to dos”, some of which have been haunting me for a year now.  I admit that I was a little afraid in the back of my mind that I would get engrossed in playing games and general slacking off that I wouldn’t get anything done.  However, here is my list of “accomplishments”, both productive and not, for my week:

·         Tarred and patched potential holes in the roof, preventing leaks

·         After we had the flood last year and put tile in, the floor was too high for the door to our laundry room preventing its use.  Cut ½ off the bottom and hung it.

·         Hung and powered oven hood that’s been sitting in the garage for a year

·         Bought, cut, and installed backsplash

·         Installed utensil rack above stove

·         Installed carpet terminator at the point where it meets the tile (also a year over due)

·         Did all of the laundry in the house, folded it and put it in its appropriate location

·         Washed all of the dishes and maintained the cleanliness

·         Bought, cooked and ate seafood

·         Grilled ribs for the first time

·         Bought shelving unit for the garage, bought air tight tubs of varying sizes, put all of the various bulk goods sitting in bags throughout the house into the tubs, labeled them accordingly and stacked them neatly and easily accessible on the shelves

·         Cleared, consolidated and reorganized spice shelf and pantry.  Labeled pantry

·         Watched 5 or 6 “Laser Movies” (aka Man movies) that Holly would never watch with me

·         Made level 27 with my character on WoW

·         Watched the entire first season of Spartacus (NOT family friendly btw)

·         Mowed the yard and began to weed-eat before the rains came

·         Ensured the gardens at home and abroad were properly maintained

·         Printed off and entered some of my better photos into a gallery at church

Now granted all of this was done as a single person so my normal responsibilities as a husband and father didn’t “interfere”-so to speak.  Over all I’m quite please with what I was able to accomplish and I really enjoyed the time to unwind from work.  I’m thinking that Holly is so impressed by the work I did that she’ll make the trip a yearly occurrence, not likely though.

Inglorious

This is funny in part because of the subject and also because I just watched Inglorious Bastards last night.  Can you catch the mistakes before the Nazi does? VIDEO HERE

Meaningless, Meaningless, Everything is Meaningless

Some time ago my wife relayed on her blog a revelation I had. I love video game, always have (that’s not the revelation). Since I played Ernie’s Magic game on my dad’s Commodore 286 I’ve loved them. I grew up on Nintendo, moved to Nintendo 64 (Goldeneye is still the best game ever!), then to Playstation and finally settled into computer games. I’m pretty picky about what I play but if I find something I like I will play it forever! I play Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion fairly regularly (5 years old) and I still spin up Starcraft every once in a while (over a decade old). The real Lifesuck is the MMORPG. For those not hip to the lingo, a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game is like a regular game just on a global scale. It’s a huge world where you interact with game characters as well as real live people who are also playing the game. I call it a Lifesuck because that’s exactly what it has the potential to be. For the average person who gets into it (usually guys) it will consume your every waking hour, either playing or thinking about playing, and several of your sleeping ones too (I really have had dreams about playing World of Warcraft (WoW)). I have spent DAYS of my life (not all at once though) playing these types of games, very often ignoring my duties as a husband and home owner. There are stories of people letting their children starve because they played too much and at least one person died while playing.


So my revelation. I realized why games are so popular to people like me. Beyond the simple fact that it lets weaklings and geeks be heroes on a grand scale, I think there’s more to it. I think it fills the void that would normally be filled by actual accomplishment, i.e. satisfaction from our work. Ecclesiastes 2:24 says, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God”. We are supposed produce, accomplish, or complete something however today most jobs are just a mundane passing of time in order to get that check. Really, how much satisfaction can a receptionist get from her daily work of answering phones? Or take my job. Everyday I fix the same problem, or similar one, move the same furniture and fill out the same report, and tomorrow I’ll do it all again. It’s really hard to feel fulfilled by that kind of repetition. So games give you little micro rewards, the next level, next good piece of armor/weapon, a little something to brag about to other unfulfilled people playing along side you. But at the end of the day, what’s the point? You haven’t achieved anything. Your house is still a mess, you’re health is worse off, and your wife is probably mad at you. It’s a series of 1’s and 0’s that don’t care if you’re there or not and if the power goes off at the wrong time all of your “work” is lost to cyberspace for ever. I realized this after the first season of gardening. I got a real since of satisfaction and accomplishment out of my hard work and sweat and at the end of the day I had food on the table to show for it.

So that being said, I still play games though I’ve gotten much better at managing my time and learning the skill of disconnecting myself from them when needed. I prefer to play games that are pausable so that I can get up at a moments notice. I’ve gotten away from the Lifesuck of the MMO, in part because of the reasons mentioned but also because of the added monthly cost for most. That was until I read THIS article in the Simple Dollar (I’ll wait for you to read it). The SD is a financial blog about a guy who was completely upside down in his finances and now turned his life around, makes a living doing what he loves and helps others along the way. He pointed out that if you view gaming as a hobby (which is what it should be) that you partake in for an hour or so a day, it’s relatively inexpensive and fairly relaxing. I hadn’t taken this view point into consideration. If I look at it as my hobby, some guys fish, some guys golf, I slaughter Orcish hordes, then it’s no different. The problem is the time management and getting addicted, which I can do easily I’ve discovered. So as I’m typing this I’m also downloading WoW. But like The SD says, if I play for an hour a day, I’m only paying a few cents, I have a chance to unwind, I can socialize a little, and, if I do it right, I can get my “fix” and disconnect and move on with my life. That’ll just have to be key, if I can pull myself away easily. I know I had difficulty when I played before but that too was in part to my real life friends (vs. the online ones) playing alongside me so there was a bit more peer pressure as well as camaraderie whilst playing that I won’t have this time. Plus, it’ll give me something to pass the time and keep me out of trouble while I’m deployed. I don’t know, I’m thinking of playing next week when Holly and the kids are in New Mexico (in addition to doing some house work too of course). We’ll see. If I realize that it’s just a hobby, it’s not going to give me any lasting satisfaction, there are more important things to do, and not neglect my family I should be alright.