Fuck Cancer

It's been a while since I've posted to my blog...but I'm sitting down to write this morning because of the topic of cancer and a new resource that I stumbled across that people should be aware of, and use.  And I stress the word "use".

"90% of cancers are curable if caught in stage one".  I did not know that.  There's also a lot more that I didn't know about cancer on the website called "Fuck Cancer" located at this link of http://www.letsfcancer.com.  Excuse their language, but it does get attention, right?  :)

I think it's a pretty safe statement to say that almost everyone knows someone who's been affected by cancer.  The sheer number of varieties of cancer make that somewhat inevitable.  Father, mother, sister, brother, friend....  It doesn't matter who it affects, once it happens it opens up a lot of questions and dialog that many people don't think about in the normal course of life.

The mission of the Fuck Cancer website is to change that.  Go there.  Read about it.  Their goal is to have a blunt and open dialog about cancer to discuss the kinds of things that you won't read about on pure medical websites like WebMD.  It offers the information from many different perspectives:  education, prevention, emotional, patient, caregiver, community.  Great stuff!

One of the things that I've learned within the past ten years or so that really struck me even before I saw this website is that the chances of getting many types of cancer can be significantly reduced by lifestyle changes.

This is entirely within every person's ability to do.  All it takes to get started on this path of prevention is willpower and the desire to live a long and healthy life.  This is not to say that you won't some day get whacked out of left field with a terrible form of cancer anyway, but there are many obvious things that you can do to improve your odds...right now....like exercising more, cutting out smoking, cutting down on drinking, reducing stress, etc.  But there's also much more than that....

How about knocking the constant influx of crappy food out of your life?  Have you ever read the ingredients to something as simple as the croutons that you shake on your salad?  Yikes!  Have you heard all of the news about genetically modified seeds and crops and how horrible they are for you (go to www.mercola.com and search for news on "Monsanto" to read about that gem of a topic)?  Have you switched to organic milk so that you're not feeding your family unnecessary antibiotics and growth hormones every day?  Soda?  Please....it's nothing else other than chemicals and acids.  How about your laundry detergent....which over the years has been filled with many wacky new "more effective" cleaning chemicals.  Guess what....that stuff stays in your clothes if it's not rinsed out well and then it touches and absorbs into your skin all day when you wear those clothes.  The list goes on and on....

Do you think these things don't affect your health?  If so, you're kidding yourself.  The human body and immune system certainly weren't designed to be pounded all day, every day, with chemicals that you can't even pronounce the names of.  55% of all Americans are allergic to at least one thing.  Does that sound strange to you?  It does to me....and I totally believe that all this crap that gets piled into us over decades has broken down the ability of the body to cope with many simple allergens.

I firmly believe in "everything in moderation" for success in many areas of life in general, but what happens over time is that all of the things above sneak into your life and guess what.....you're no longer living a life of moderation, instead you're living a life that has chemicals in it at every turn.  Some people don't care about this, but a lot of people do.  Leading a more sensible life with less garbage in it doesn't turn you into a right-wing chemical hater.  It's just common sense to be aware and take better care of yourself....

But I digress off the main topic a bit....

The Fuck Cancer website is a valuable resource that offers up its information from a variety of angles that anybody can latch on to in order to satisfy their needs.  Even if you don't know someone with cancer, check out the 'Get Educated' section so that you can learn how to monitor yourself and take simple preventative measures to lead a healthier life.

Rising: Looking forward from 9/11

Above is a time-lapse video showing the construction of the Freedom Tower.  It's definitely worth a few minutes to watch how far the building and site have come.  Very cool!

For the 9/11 anniversary, my daughter is doing something in school where they pick a person to interview about 9/11 and ask some questions about what you were doing that day, the emotions you felt, how you feel about it all these years later, etc.  I had my experiences from that day that I originally wrote about in a blog post at this link back in 2010.

She wasn't born yet when 9/11 occurred and something struck me about the fact that she's learning the history of an event that I lived right through....that we all lived right through.  Thinking about 9/11 as a history class topic just strikes me as strange for some reason.  I don't think about it has "history" yet, it's still all so new.

I had to pause when she asked me some of the questions, specifically one where she asked how I felt about it twelve years later.  I didn't really know how to answer that.  Not much has changed.  I'm still shocked, angry, sad, and left wishing that people could find a way to get past differences large and small.  I see and hear people every day getting stuck on things that are so trivial in the bigger scope of life that it really makes me wonder what we're all doing sometimes.

But anyway....

I saw a show on the Discovery Channel last night called "Rising:  The Rebuilding of Ground Zero".  It was very well done and I recommend trying to catch a repeat of it if you can.  It walks through the building of the Freedom Tower, the Fountain Memorial and the Museum that all currently sit on the Ground Zero site. All components of the site are due to be completed in early 2014.

It's impossible to watch this show with a dry eye, especially when they interview the plumbing foreman responsible for all the piping and pumps that will move the water up, over and into the Fountain Memorial.  His mother died in 9/11 and he very much feels that he's building the fountain for her since he never got to say goodbye.  Very touching....the raw emotion is palpable.  I can't even comprehend it.

But the show did not dwell on the feelings of sadness so much as it painted an optimistic picture of looking forward, and of transforming that space into a beautiful memorial park where everyone can go to sit, learn, absorb, and take a deep breath to think about the enormity of it all.  And dare I say that maybe people will also think about themselves a bit as well, to reflect on what's important to them in life and how we can all make things a little bit better if we try.  Although it will be emotional going there for sure, I can't wait to see it.  It will be stunning, in a good way.

So on this 9/11 anniversary, I'm not filled with all of the negative images from that day.  Instead, I'm filled with the positive and forward looking images from that show that I saw last night....and the comments of the family members who were interviewed that were crushed by loss and are looking to the rebuilt site and memorial as a way to not only reflect and remember, but to very much move forward in a positive way as well.

Out of darkness sometimes comes a light.....and maybe the rebuilt site and memorial are just the light that we all need.

Journaling with Day One

A while back, I wrote a blog entry discussing why I started writing a personal journal and reviewed the iOS and Mac app that I use called 'Day One' that help me do it effectively.  That article is located here on my blog:

http://jtophoto.blogspot.com/2012/11/review-day-one-journal-app-for-ios-and.html

Today, I ran across a great set of articles of a similar nature written by a guy named Tulio Jarocki, but his articles go into much more detail than mine and really touch on some of the great reasons for journaling and why 'Day One' is so effective as a tool to do it.

If you're even remotely considering journaling but aren't quite sure how to get started or even what really might interest you to write about, give this set of articles a read.  There are so many good reasons to journal, and I can almost guarantee that when you sit down to read it years from now that it will provide a great and interesting glimpse into your personal history.

The five articles by Tulio are linked to from this page on the 'Day One' website:

http://dayoneapp.com/2013/05/journaling-with-day-one-series/ 

Happy journaling!

No matter what, keep your creativity alive!

I've received emails from all over the world about this blog (which shows me that people are actually finding and reading it, which is cool), so I try to put material up here that can be of value to people who happen to to come across it.  I would like to relay a short story to you...

I'm not complaining or looking for sympathy, but I had a hellish year in 2012.  I'm glad to see it gone!  Work was a total physical and mental overload, I had some health challenges, things were constantly going wrong with the house that had to be fixed, big money was pouring out the door on unexpected expenses, I started several large home projects (none of which I could finish because of lack of time), etc.

I'm sure you've all been there...and maybe I can pass along this experience to somehow give people who occasionally have to deal with sustained crappy circumstances like this a way to pull yourself out of it.

Honestly, if it wasn't for my wife and kids and the enjoyment I get out of our family life, I think I would have jumped off the roof of my house last year because I was going nuts!  :)

And something else happened along the way in 2012 that was worse.  I just felt generally "off" much of the year, and I'm not normally like that at all.  Looking back on it, I lost a bit of myself along the way in all this chaos and I didn't even realize it until things calmed down a bit and I was able to take a breather to think.

Today it dawned on me why I felt "off".  During all of the chaos around me, I gave up everything in my life that had anything to do with creativity.  I gave up reading, writing, photography, music....everything.  The creative spark was totally gone.  Since I'm a creative person in general, this was a big loss that I didn't even realize was occurring until it was already long done.

So how to snap out of it?

First, realize that even though constant ongoing problems might be inconvenient, expensive, and time consuming, it's not the end of the world.  Shit happens.  And then more shit happens. And then more.  And your job is killing you.  And the house has problems.  But hopefully it eventually comes to an end and things settle down.  Eventually there's a window of opportunity during all of the bad news and that's the time to find a way to deal with it and pull yourself up from the mess.  Look for that window of opportunity to clear your head.

My Carvin LB70 bass, out of its case for playing again!

Second, don't give up on yourself.  Last year, during this one month in particular, I felt like I was going to have a nervous breakdown if one more thing went wrong.  And guess what.  The "one more thing" did happen that same week...and it inconvenienced the family and cost $2,500 to repair right in the middle of the Christmas holiday season.  Did I have that nervous breakdown?  No.  In fact, it was just the opposite.  It was the slap in the face that I needed to pull myself up and solve some of these things that had mounted up on me.

Third and most importantly, don't lose yourself.  I lost myself last year by giving up my creative hobbies and activities.  Find something that you enjoy and make the time to do it.  It doesn't matter what it is, just make time for yourself.  Notice that I didn't say "find the time" because you won't find it during trying circumstances.  You have to "make" the time by sacrificing something else (maybe those hours of TV watching?!).

My new Mitchell MD100SCE, ready for learning!

Now I'm back on track!  I made a commitment to myself this year not to let this happen again and to ensure I've got time carved out for myself.  To start with, I'm doing something I've wanted to do for years:  I bought an acoustic guitar and I'm teaching myself to play!  I made the time to do it by cutting out a few TV shows each day which now clears the way for me to practice and enjoy the sounds of my new hobby.

I'm also practicing bass again, getting back into my photography, reading, planning to use my Mac computer and GarageBand to record some rudimentary songs, etc.  And of course, enjoying the family time!  All of this has done wonders for my outlook....and I vowed not to lose myself again by giving up the things that I like and my creative outlets when times get tough.

I don't profess to be an expert on this stuff, but I hope this article helps someone/anyone who happens to stumble across it on the web.  Pull yourself up and get out there to enjoy life!

GE F7 error on oven

I haven't written on my blog in a long time.  This has been a horribly busy year at work and everything else in life has been bounced around because of that so writing became a low priority.

But today I was motivated to write this quick post that I hope people are able to find using Google and use it to help them solve this miserable F7 error code with the GE Profile JTP56WA3WW (or JTP56WOA3WW) double wall oven.

We've had our oven for 11 years and for the most part everything has worked fine.  The one nagging problem that we've had intermittently over the years is that it occasionally starts beeping with the F7 error code on the display and this error basically shuts down the control panel and causes the temperature settings, timer, and clock to go crazy.

This seems to be a fairly well known issue with this oven (Google the model number and "F7 error" and you'll see) and I've tried many different internet remedies over the years that only temporarily fix the problem, and then it comes back again a few months later.  Then I stumbled onto the link below and it permanently solved the problem.

It seems that the oven control panel builds up a short circuit over time because of the way that the control panel ribbon cables attach to the circuit board passing through the metal control panel frame.  When the panel short circuits, the F7 error is displayed and the oven goes crazy.

The solution is described in the PDF located at this link on Appliance Blog (with text and photos):

http://www.applianceblog.com/manuals/Dreaded_F7_Problem.pdf

What's described in the PDF takes only minutes to do and permanently solved the GE F7 error on my oven.  Never again will you be awoken by your oven going crazy and beeping in the middle of the night.

Gobble This Up!

I saw this just now and I had to put it up here.  I cracked up laughing when I saw this Thanksgiving cheese ball recipe. This little guy looks so cool, I don't think I could eat it!

Just a note to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  If you're traveling over the holidays, I wish you safe journeys!

Gobble This Up: Thanksgiving Cheese Ball
http://blog.cookingchanneltv.com/2011/11/23/gobble-this-up-thanksgiving-cheese-ball-recipe/

An important CNN article to read: "Have they gone nuts in Washington?"

I have a pretty optimistic viewpoint in general.  Not many things get me down and you won't see me filling this blog with post after post of complaints because that's not what I'm about.  But today I'm downright depressed, and I'll tell you why.

I keep up to date on the current happenings with the debt crisis because it will have a profound impact on my family's life for probably a decade or more to come.  As I've watched this crisis unfold over the period of the past few months, I absolutely cannot believe the level of stupidity that exists in our government today.  Almost every major politician is a complete moron. Listen to them speak.  Morons.  Listen to their points and counterpoints as they argue with each other.  Morons.

Most people will say, "Isn't that the way it's always been"?  My answer would be no.  There's something more going on here.  The sheer recklessness with which these people are operating is beyond comprehension.  I don't proclaim to be "Mr. Politics" or anything like that, but what's happening here is something that I (and many other people) have never seen before.

To read what I'm talking about, read this editorial piece from David Gergen on CNN.com today:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/21/opinion/gergen-reckless-congress/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

David hits the nail right on the head with this statement:  "It's difficult to remember a Congress that has put the nation at so much at risk in the service of ideology and to hold onto office. Partisans on both sides are grievously failing the country".

The principle of compromise for the common good that this country has always operated under is completely gone these days.  

You can look at this from any viewpoint and it's a disaster.  The reputation and well being of our country is faltering.  The finances of millions of Americans are in ruins.  People who were counting on retiring in a few years now have to scrap their plans and find a new way to get by.  People (including me) saving for college for their kids have seen those savings accounts decimated which will alter the types of schools that my kids can attend in the future.  Unemployment is soaring.  Companies are faltering.  This is an absolute disgrace.

And President Obama, a man that millions of people (including me) thought would be able to bring this country and its politics together when he was elected, has completely and utterly failed as a leader.  I certainly don't expect Obama to fix the economy on his own, but I do expect him to be a leader...which he has not been.

Like him or hate him, Donald Trump said something that's very true today.  He said that if President Obama was so worried about the Supercommittee succeeding, then he would have chaired the committee himself to guide it through these troubled times.  I couldn't agree more!  But instead, Obama was completely hands off and let the committee go down in flames.

So, yes, this depresses the shit out of me because there's no light at the end of the tunnel.  All of the Republican candidates running for President are idiots.  If Obama wins again, the deadlock will be even worse because Republican resentment toward him will be out of control.

So who the hell can we vote for?  I have no answer to that question......and what I'm afraid of is that nobody else does either, and that we're in for some real, long, hard times.
 

An update on the Cape Wind project

In my previous post at this link on the topic of the wind farm project off Cape Cod called "Cape Wind", I railed against the people opposing this project because it represents such a milestone for major U.S. alternative energy projects and it will be a real shame to see it defeated.

The people opposing this project are short sighted and naive, it's as simple as that.

But what makes matters worse is the fact that the government compounds the stupidity of the project's opposition by slowing the project's progress to a crawl.  This sentence caught my eye in the article:  "The FAA has reviewed Cape Wind for eight years...".  Seriously?  Does the Federal Aviation Administration need to take eight full years to review flight patterns over this proposed wind farm site?  Eight years?!

Here's a link to an article in USA Today with more information about the status of the project:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/story/2011-10-28/cape-wind-aviation-ruling/50977156/1

At this rate, alternative energy in the U.S. will catch on when we're all gone and the animals roam the earth freely once again.  The U.S. government is one of the biggest obstacles that exists to alternative energy, and any politician who says otherwise is a liar.  Did you know that the U.S. government still subsidizes the oil companies?  Exxon/Mobil made $50 billion last quarter alone.  Why do they need to be subsidized?!  Seems like they're doing just fine to me without anyone's help...

The U.S. government needs to step in and for once make a difference in a positive way.  These alternative energy projects should be given an express path to approval.  They save energy and create jobs.  The government should mandate that all new construction obtains some percentage of its energy supply from solar panel installations.  Etc, etc, etc.  The government has the power to do all of this, but they do none of it.

As long as projects like Cape Wind continue to receive this type of intense opposition, alternative energy in the U.S. will remain nothing but a joke and we'll continue to rely on oil for the bulk of our energy.  The government needs to stand up for what's right and the opposition to these projects needs to clear out......for the good of the country and the environment.
 

The whole world is watching and the power of social media is in your hands

It has slowly gained momentum over the past 2-3 years.  In 2011, it absolutely exploded.  Everywhere you look social media is impacting people on a daily basis.

Finally, the "little guy" has a voice.  Anyone can speak out about anything, any time, and get local or global attention on their cause if their message is supported by others and spread using social media tools.  Most importantly, social media is being used to expose and correct government, social, and corporate injustices around the world.  This is perhaps one of its most compelling uses.  As I said, it gives the little guy a voice.

If you watch the news (and your favorite social media sites), there are countless examples of global change going on at all levels right now that would have been impossible without social media.

Governments in Egypt and Libya have been toppled.  Syria is probably soon to follow.  All because the world connected through social media and saw the cause of the citizens of these countries, and it fueled the fire that was already burning.  Ruthless dictators must go, and social media gives the citizens their chance to make it happen.

The Occupy Wall Street movements have brought unprecedented exposure to corporate greed, and social media spread the protests globally and they've caught on in other countries as well.  It has shed light on global corporate greed in a way that's never been done before....from a grassroots level.

Let's look at things from an individualistic consumer viewpoint, and how we interact with some of the companies that we do business with and how social media has changed the playing surface...

Netflix, in one of the greatest corporate blunders in recent memory, went to change its entire business model in ways that completely angered and alienated its subscribers.  Netflix clearly has no understanding of its customer base or what they want.  What did people do?  They hit Twitter, Facebook, blogs, news outlets, etc, with a massive social media campaign that literally pounded Netflix into submission and forced them to reverse direction on their business model.  Individual people.......affecting the business model of a major corporation in only a matter of weeks.   Netflix was ruthlessly punished by the very customers that pay for its services.  People canceled their subscriptions by the tens of thousands to voice their opinion to Netflix.  Great!

Or, how about bank debit card fees.  Certain banks announced recently that they would soon be charging monthly fees to use their debit cards.  Social media to the rescue!  After just a few weeks of very public outcry and rage, the banks backed down and reversed decision on their new fees.  Score another win for social media.

Social media tools will force people, corporations, and governments to begin to act in a more socially conscious way whether they like it or not.  All of these institutions are being stung by citizen and consumer backlash through social media, and don't think for one second that they're not worried about it.  They are.  It will change things, and it already is.

Use social media to your advantage.  If you feel wronged by a local company, politician, major corporation, etc, hit the social media tools and let people know.  Spearhead a movement to force change for the common good.  Right the wrong.

And on the other hand, if you have a positive experience let your friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc, know about that too.  Point them to the people and companies that do responsible business.  Reward the good, and punish the bad.

The whole world is watching.  Let's use social media and work together to make it a better place to be.  The potential for everyone to do this....now....is here.
 

Good old innovation at work

You want to see something cool?  Check out the video above about what these people who run JP Aerospace did for a fraction of the cost of what the major aerospace companies are spending to do basically the same thing.  Their JP Aerospace blog is located at this link.  Look at the photos in their blog post from October 24th.  Fantastic stuff!

I really like to see these types of stories.  People thinking of out-of-the-box ways to get amazing things done that big, bloated, hierarchical companies can't achieve with ten times the resources.

Way to go JP Aerospace!  I hope these experiments lead to great things down the road!
 

Apples and Autumn

"Apple Orchard"

Nothing says "autumn" to me more than the smell of an apple pie baking in the house, a slight chill in the air outside, the first fire of the season in the fireplace, and the colors beginning to change in the leaves.  All of those things are happening at about this time, so the autumn season has begun!

The photo here was taken on a recent apple picking trip that we took with some of our extended family to a farm near our house.  We hit the picking season just right because the trees were filled with apples that were perfectly ready to be dropped into pies, cobblers, and other good desserts.

I gave this photo a selective color treatment because the background was very green and intense and was distracting from the apples in the foreground....so I got to thinking of just trying a few ways to highlight the bin of apples in the foreground and this is what I came up with that worked out nicely.  It also seems to make the photo a little more timeless for some reason, which black and white often seems to do.  A little drop-shadow around the edges completed it.

Another approach to this photo to emphasize the bin in the foreground would have been to partially desaturate all of the colors in the photo except for the apple bin, which is a technique very often used in commercial photography to isolate the main subject in a color photo.

Anyway....I digress.  One other food thought before I leave.  Apple cider donuts!  I can't even tell you how delicious they were at the farm where we picked these apples.  They were the best that I've ever had.  Piping hot straight out of the cooker with a little sugar on them and into our mouths.  I couldn't stop eating them!  Just that one smell alone says "autumn" to me.  I'm halfway thinking of driving back down there just to get some more!

I hope you enjoy whatever activities you're doing to ring in the autumn season.  It won't be long until the first below-freezing nights are in the forecast!  :-)
 

Oktoberfest 2011

Me enjoying a beer in Wurzburg, Germany

UPDATED 9/20/11:  Here is a link to a short photo essay at Time.com regarding the history of how Oktoberfest came to be.

It's not going to be long now before the cold starts to arrive, then comes Indian Summer, and then all of a sudden you'll notice that you need a light jacket before you go outside.

For the past few days near where I live in New York, there's been an early autumn snap of cold in the air.  The heat on the first floor of our house went on both mornings of this past weekend.

On one hand it was soothing because I like the smell in the house caused by the heat when it comes on for the first time in the autumn as I sit drinking my morning coffee.  But on the other hand, it gives me an anxiety attack because it reminds me that fall and winter are coming, and I still have a ton of outdoor house chores to do before winter!!!  But forget that for now....This post is about Oktoberfest!

I work for a German company, and I've had the opportunity to travel to Germany several times on business over the recent years.  In addition to seeing my friends and colleagues over there, I get to eat some really good food and drink a lot of excellent beer!

Although I've never been to Europe at this time of year when the giant Oktoberfest celebrations are going on (especially in Munich), perhaps one day things will coincide and I'll get to experience one of these memorable festivals.  My wife has been to one, and she said it's quite the scene to see!  But since I'm not in Germany, going to an Oktoberfest in my area is the next best thing.

Enjoying a Warsteiner on my way home...somewhere over London.

Now is the season for these festivals, and some of them are great family events.  In addition to....beer....they have delicious food, many craft vendors, and German and Bavarian music.  Hunter Mountain, Bear Mountain, West Point, and Belleayre Mountain in New York all have festivals, although the one at Hunter Mountain needs more German beer!  I don't think that Budweiser and Bud Light really belong in multiple taps on the Oktoberfest beer wagons!  I plan to check out Bear Mountain or Belleayre this year for a change of pace.

The nice thing about these festivals is that they act as a milestone in the change of seasons.  Shortly after enjoying them, the autumn colors start to arrive in the trees, the first delivery of wood for the season is dumped by the delivery guy on the driveway (which I then have to stack!), and the fireplace is lit up for the first time as we settle into autumn....

Warm sunlight, an open door, and a menu I couldn't read...but the beer was good!

I encourage everyone to get out and enjoy an Oktoberfest celebration and the beginning of the change of seasons near you.  It's a fun family activity to see the crafts, eat the food, experience some different types of music, and of course for the adults.....drink good beer!

If you know of good celebrations in the Northeast U.S., post them as a comment to this post so that Google will pick them up and others can find them as well.

9/11 - Ten years gone by....

As I wrote in my blog post at this link last year, I dedicate this post this year with my best wishes to everyone, everywhere, who was affected by 9/11.

I can only hope that the people in this world can eventually find a way, somehow, to work toward a coexistence that's peaceful enough so that an event of this type never occurs again.  

Through photography, in the last year or so I've developed what I would describe as a significant interest in "the world".  I read a lot of photography and travel books, magazines, and blogs.  Through this material and the photographs within, something was sparked in my brain to want to learn more about all of the different countries and people in the world, and what makes them what they are.

As I read through these books and look at the photos, I'm learning much about the world and its people and why things are the way they are.  How thousands of years of history have shaped the people and countries on this planet.  I don't agree with a lot of things that many people in this world do, but at least now I'm beginning to understand it better.

Perhaps if we all took a little more time to study the world and the people around us, we might begin to reach an understanding of each other that would some day lead to something closer to the peaceful coexistence that I mentioned above.  I can only hope...

This year my kids began asking more sophisticated questions about 9/11.  They want to understand what it's all about, why it happened, and why so many people died on that one day.  It also helps them to understand things like why they hear "Afghanistan" and "Iraq" on the news every night...

My wife and I do the best we can to answer their questions in a way that they can understand that doesn't scare them, and we've let them watch some of the 9/11 television specials this year.  I think they're at an age where it's important for them to learn these things.  Without letting it become overbearing on them, I think it's OK now for them to learn on a more complex level that there are good people and bad people in the world, and sometimes the bad people do some really terrible things.

As I write this on the eve of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, I'm very sad.  I sit and stare at the 9/11 specials on TV.  Just absorbing them.  And after ten years, there's some part of me that still finds the whole thing quite difficult to comprehend.  But I maintain my hope that I wrote about above that some day, somehow, the world will become a better place to be.  The future generations deserve better than this....

Now that the 9/11 Memorial in New York City is open and almost complete, I will go there with my wife and kids some day soon to see the park, the memorial fountains, and the new One World Trade Center building.  I'm sure it will be a very emotional visit.

And from this day forward, I will no longer call that area "Ground Zero" anymore.  It deserves better than that.  I will call it what it used to be called.  The World Trade Center.
 

Why do we accept such pathetic mediocrity in our politicians?

In one of their songs, the band Gov't Mule has the following lyrics:

"We're at a place in history where the bar is at an all time low

We've applauded mediocrity till there is no lower we can go".

Those lyrics are so true these days.  Every time I watch the news and see the moronic things our politicians are doing, I'm stunned at how stupid, clueless, and totally disconnected most of them are.  It does indeed seem like the bar is at an all time low.  I don't know where these people come from.  Not to mention that they still haven't learned not to send half naked photos of themselves on Twitter, but that's a whole other story...

I don't have to speak at length about the debt debate that took place within the last month.  It was so disheartening to see that our elected officials can't put aside partisanship and posturing long enough to do something right for our country for the long term.  Instead they took us to the brink and made a bad economic situation even worse.  They should all be voted out of office in the next elections, but they probably won't be because by then we'll probably have settled into the "life goes on" mode that we normally fall back into once the fury of political unrest dies down. That's how these people stay in office.

So let's get to one specific person who epitomizes mediocrity and the bar being at an all time low:  Michele Bachmann.

About a month ago, Bachmann made some completely idiotic public statements about same-sex marriage and the gay/lesbian lifestyle.  She basically said that the gay lifestyle deserves no recognition and some other ridiculous things that were even worse.  You can find her comments just by searching her name and the word 'gay' in Google.  Then the press dug up some undercover recordings that profess to show that a clinic that she and her husband run attempts to "cure" people of the gay lifestyle.  What?  I heard the recordings, and they were quite bizarre and creepy to say the least.  I'm sure you can find them by using Google.

What the hell?  How does a person running for President of the United States get off making comments like this, especially in these technological times where they know everything that they say and do will end up going around the world on social networks almost instantly?

I'm not going to say in print what I think she is.  As I was watching this on TV, I just sat there stunned and it left me thinking of the lyrics above from the Gov't Mule song.

So, what happens next.  The Iowa State Fair, where they were conducting a straw pole of the GOP candidates to see who the front runners are.  Guess who won.  Michele Bachmann.

She was subsequently taken to task in every interview that I saw with her, and she tried to back-peddle and explain her way out of her comments.....which only made her look 100 times worse.

I'm telling you....I just don't understand this.  Why does the U.S. public tolerate, and actually further endorse people like this?  She should be stripped of her current office, run out of town, and never be elected to any public office ever again.  People should not forget the things that she said, or the misguided things that other politicians say either.  These are the people who WE are choosing to represent US.  I certainly don't want her representing me.  She's a complete embarrassment.  

I absolutely cringe at the thought of Michele Bachmann being President of the United States.  This country should be able to do so much better than her.  If she ever makes it to the 2012 Presidential election, please don't vote for her.
 

Happy July 4th - Independence Day

Happy July 4th! 

I was out with the family this weekend and saw this flag on top of the Walkway Over The Hudson.  I was feeling patriotic so I snapped this shot of it in the wind from far away and added an inner glow to the edge of the frame for a unique look.

Wherever you are and whatever you're doing on this U.S. Independence Day, I hope you're enjoying your barbecues, cold beer, fireworks, and good music with family and friends.

Add a thought of hope that we can work together to get this great country of ours out of the wars that we're in overseas so that our military can come home and we can focus on getting the U.S. back on track to enjoy peace and prosperity once again.  We need to stop spending so much money overseas on wars that we can't win and instead start taking care of ourselves for a change....
   

This is why we should have let GM fail

This article is the epitome of why the U.S. government should have let GM fail.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/07/news/companies/gm_gas_tax_hike/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2

Dan Akerson is a clueless moron, as are the American auto industry executives in general.  I can’t even imagine that an executive would come up with this idea, let alone back it with his company’s name in tow. 

One thing is for sure....You would never hear the executives of Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, or Kia making this type of idiotic embarrassing recommendation.  They found a way to clobber the U.S. auto makers at their own game decades ago, and still do.  They don't need to mess with gas prices to succeed.  I can only imagine them laughing when they saw this headline.....

I resent the fact that I would need to pay higher gas prices to make up for the mistakes of the stupid GM executives that have been in place over the decades.  I also resent the fact that my tax dollars went to helping with the GM bailout in the first place, which will eventually fail...it's only a matter of time.  Historically, auto company bailouts have not worked here or in other countries.

This has nothing to do with the U.S. auto workers.  I whole-heartedly support the American auto workers and what they do, I just don't support the stupid companies they work for.

Do you want to rescue the American auto industry and save the auto workers' jobs at the same time?  Do it this way:

1. Let GM fail.
2. Provide labor and financial incentives for the Japanese and Korean manufacturers to come over to the U.S. (more than they already are).
3. Lease them our auto factories so that we can keep American jobs here.
4. Have the U.S. auto workers building high quality efficient foreign cars that don't need artificially inflated gas prices to survive.
5. Everyone ends up happy.

The American auto industry executives are completely clueless.  Utterly and completely clueless.  This is why I will always have foreign cars parked in my driveway.  Period.
 

Is sugar toxic? Check out these two articles...

When it comes to health, I believe in the old adage of "everything in moderation".  Eating, drinking, alcohol, exercise, sleep, etc.

This approach seems to have done me fairly well throughout the years because I'm in pretty good shape for 44 years old, but I need a little more aggressive exercise so I've recently added biking back to my exercise routine since the weather warmed up and my back injuries from past years are healed.  I also recently got tennis rackets for my wife and I, and the kids already like tennis, so that will be another family activity to burn some calories and tone up.

Back to my point.....

The one area where my diet falters is sugar.  Now more than ever, sugar in its various dubious forms (e.g., high fructose corn syrup) is so pervasive in our foods (especially processed foods) that it's almost impossible to get away from it.  Make no mistake about the fact that this huge increase in sugar over the past 10-15 years can be tied directly to an increase in diabetes.  My line of work at my current employer puts me in the know about that....trust me.  The facts are pretty clear.

I'm making an effort to cut back on my sugar intake whenever I can, and I'm helping my family do the same.  It's not easy.  You really have to think about what you're putting in your mouth.  I'm not going totally right-wing and trying to eliminate all sugar from my diet.....that's not reasonable.  All I'm trying to do is cut back where it's easy and common-sensical to do it.

The thing that really motivated me to cut back on sugar are these two articles.  The first one is an article that also contains a long video about the problems caused by excessive sugar in your diet and the science related to it.  The second is a good article from the New York Times.

1. Mercola.com - Eliminate This ONE Ingredient and Watch Your Health Soar
   
2. New York Times - Is Sugar Toxic?

Once you read these two articles I guarantee that you'll give sugar a second thought.  Again, I'm not saying to go right-wing on this like Dr. Mercola sometimes suggests that people do.  I'm simply suggesting that you think about it and maybe make some adjustments in  your diet that will do you some good in the long run.
 

iPhone - The ultimate lifestyle convergence device

Now there's a mouthful of a title for a blog post!  But I really believe it's true.  The iPhone is the ultimate convergence device for improving your lifestyle, your efficiency, your work....just about everything!  It's part phone, part computer, part personal assistant, part organizer, etc.

Let me say up front that much of what I'm writing here probably also applies to the Android platform and its related smartphones and apps, but the iPhone is what I have experience with so I'm writing about that specifically here.

I got my iPhone a few weeks ago.  My wife had one for almost a year before that so I had ancillary experience in using hers and saw the huge potential of the device.  The problem is that I was too cheap to buy one for myself!  Let's face it....these things are expensive.  Not so much the phone itself, but the monthly data plans and cell service!  Add it all up over the course of a year and it's a whopper of an extra expense to take on.

So.....the expense kept me fretting about getting one for quite a while until I just couldn't take it anymore.  There are so many times when I've been out and about doing something and it occurred to me that having an iPhone would not only come in handy, but it would also enhance the enjoyment of my life.  I finally broke down and got one.  Not once since then have I thought about the expense of owning and using it.  It's that great.  Once you have it, the expense of it fades into the distance and you forget about it.

Maybe a statement like "enhance the enjoyment of my life" sounds extreme, but to people who own and use.......and I mean really use......an iPhone, you know what I mean.  Not only do I use it for the common every day things like sending/receiving email, calling people, calendars, etc, but the world of the App Store has let me load up the phone with about 25 apps that have organized and improved my life, let me enjoy my hobbies more, let me get around easier, and many other things....including some gaming as well!

Most of the apps were free.  The most I paid for any one app was $10 for a specialized photography app that I purchased to make planning my photography outings easier.  But all together I probably didn't spend more than $30 on apps for my iPhone.

Now the iPhone never leaves my side.  I find myself reaching for it when I would have ordinarily gotten up to go to the computer in another room to do something.  News, Facebook, sports, weather, email, Flickr, Twitter, internet, casual photography, reading my RSS feeds, managing my To-Do lists, listening to music, checking prices while I'm out shopping, checking what the latest bird is in our back yard feeder, mapping my bike rides with the GPS, etc.  I do it all on the iPhone.

I read a great quote the other day in an article about smartphones.  The author of the article was trying to pin down a generic definition of what a smartphone is.  He said, “A smartphone is a device whose uses go well beyond calls and messaging. In fact, I would define it as a phone you use at least half the time for something other than calling and messaging”. 

I completely agree with that statement.  In fact, I almost never use my iPhone as.......a phone.  

Yes, the screen is relatively small when comparing it to a computer, but I don't sit there staring at it for hours at a time like I do with a computer screen.  It's a bit here and a bit there throughout the day, and that's what I mean when I say "convergence device".  You find yourself using it for so many different things at so many times during the day that it becomes a part of the way you function.

If you're debating whether or not to get an iPhone, don't waste your time.  Just get it.  Don't wait on the iPhone 5 because you never know when it's going to come out and you'll miss enjoying the iPhone every day until then.  Just go get the iPhone 4 and start enjoying it today.

As part of this blog going forward, I've created an iPhone category on the left side and will be posting about the iPhone, great apps that I find, and other topics in the future.  In fact, I like the iPhone so much that I also purchased an iPad 2 and will be blogging about that as well.  I hope you find the articles interesting...
 

dontflushyourdrugs.net

With the steadily increasing use of pharmaceuticals over the past 10-15 years, one has to wonder what people are doing with all of their expired or unused medication. 

Back in the day, people were told to simply throw them out in the garbage.  But then everyone wised up and realized that young unknowing kids could go into the garbage pail and grab a whole bunch of medicine that could kill them, so people starting flushing their old medications down the toilet or pouring it down the sink instead.

In fact, when I first saw this link the other day I asked about ten people who I know:  "What do you do with your old medicines when you're ready to throw them out"?  Every single person who I asked said, "I flush them down the toilet".  Every one of them.  Wow!  Now you can see the magnitude of the problem we're creating here.

All of this drug-flushing got us into the mess that's detailed at this link:  dontflushyourdrugs.net

It makes complete sense that this has now contaminated our waterways and it's affecting fish and wildlife, as well as aquatic life.  It doesn't take much imagination to realize that this could also very easily affect humans (and almost certainly already does) because all of these waterways lead to watershed areas, sources of residential wells, recreation water areas, springs, etc. 

If all this junk could feminize a male fish and make it produce eggs, I don't even want to know what it could do to a human!

The web site above outlines how to properly dispose of unused pharmaceuticals.  Please take a few minutes to give it a read and follow the directions the next time you have a batch of pills to throw out. 

If everyone helped, we could cut the course of this completely human-made problem that's affecting everything around us...........including humans!

Thanks!
 

Don't forget the atmosphere photos!

A secret team photo from behind, but someone peeked...

Spring has......sprung!  And with spring comes......spring sports!

Now is the season when we run around town heading from soccer to baseball to softball, all the while snapping photos of our young ones as they learn their sports and have their fun.  But as we do this, don't forget one thing:  Take some photos of something other than the game!

Unique view of the first base action under the lights...

Like what, you ask?  Atmosphere photos...

Sports are about a lot more than the action happening out on the field.  They're about the people that come to see the game, the equipment, the weather, etc.  So many things!

Try taking some photos that tell something about what's going on at the games without showing the actual action of the game.  Or perhaps they show the action of the game framed in a unique way, like this photo taken from the dugout of the action at first base during my son's first night game ever.

Take some photos that show the teams and their spirit, the excitement, the camaraderie, the anxiety that comes from a close game, the pep talks from the coach, etc.

All of these things are part of the game, and when you think about creating a holistic memory of these times, I would argue that these types of photos are just as important as the action of the game itself.

So grab your arsenal of lenses, position yourself in unusual locations with unusual views, and create some great atmosphere photos to bring home some memories other than the hits, slides, and tags.  Don't forget to crank up the ISO to ensure hand holdable shutter speeds if you're shooting games that are occurring at night.

I've added a few more samples of what I'm talking about below.  Enjoy!

Pep talk before the big game...

First night game ever, on a field of green under shining lights...

 

Some day my daughter will say, "I remember that pink helmet Daddy"!

The emotion in the dugout near the end of the game: "Please get a hit"!