A Walk in the Park

We are quickly approaching the annual "Relay for Life," the fund-raising, awareness-raising event for cancer survivors, their friends and families, and the care-givers who make their lives better.For those who have never experienced one of these, please take time this year to seek one out and contribute.

   

They really do it right in our town. We meet at the High School track, and gather into teams. Each team has its own spot in the field, and many teams sell everything from food to trinkets to raffle tickets. Last year, they raffled off a high-powered carbon fiber rifle. Very expensive.

    

They begin by having all cancer survivors walk once around the track, then they are joined by family, care-givers, etc., until everyone is on the track. This all takes place in complete silence. Then, for the remainder of the night. each team must keep at least one person on the track. Some participants walk ALL NIGHT, putting in several miles worth of effort.

 

All proceeds from the night go to cancer research. Last year, our little town raised over $26,000.00 by itself. It is a very touching experience. Here is a photo from last year that I found particularly moving. I can't wait to see what they do this year.
     

   

Again, even if your life has not been touched by cancer in some way (though few of us can say that anymore), join in a walk this year, and make a difference.

My Own Na'vi Avatar

 

Ok, It doesn't look ALOT like me, but it was kinda fun to make my own Avatar. You can go to:

http://www.avatarizeyourself.com/

and you, too can make a Na'vi Avatar!

Oh My Hair!

So my choir took State again this year (2nd time in 16 years). As per my ongoing bet with them I received a new do! The whole process takes me about an hour, but we sure get some fun out of it!

Now the only problem is that I can feel the heat coming off EVERY LIGHTBULB within 10 feet! Weird, huh? You'd think my head would be cold, but NOPE! I can live without the hair, but I mourn greatly the loss of the 'stache!

--Giggles

Just a few seconds....

I kept this short because I didn't know how long a video my phone could send to my email address. I'm still not very good, and I am trying to learn cyclical breathing, but I love playing this didj!

Next didjeridoo needs help....

So here is video of my latest Didjeridoo. I will post a few seconds of me playing it after this. What you need to understand is that this was made from PVC. My question is: Does it need more decoration?

    

I was thinking of putting the Chinese symbol for "Giggles" near the top. What do you think?

Educating the Future

There has been much talk lately about the educational system in our state and in our country. Politicians want to cut funding to save money; teachers want to increase funding to benefit the students. Legislatures have kept teacher salaries at a zero-increase level for several years now. State and federal boards have increased graduation requirements to ensure that our students are prepared to face a globally competitive arena. None of this is doing any good. And I’ll tell you why.

Our country is suffering from a famine. This is not a famine where rain refuses to fall or where agricultural crops suffer. It is a famine of morality and discipline. Our entertainment industry (in the name of overcoming “stodgy” out-dated beliefs) is in the process of “liberating” our kids. Unfortunately, what they are liberating them from is a system of morals that until now has kept our society safe.

Is it any wonder teen pregnancy is on the rise? Teens are taught that if they haven’t had sex by the time they leave high school, there must be something wrong with them. More adolescents are experimenting with sex, and are doing it at younger ages than ever before. And age boundaries that used to be taboo are now nonexistent. And to top it off, with current trends and limitless technology, students have opened up new avenues of sexual behavior. “Sexting” is only one of the newest forms of child pornography and abuse.

Teenage girls and boys are being bombarded with images of models that are as impossible to compete with as they are to ignore. What they don’t understand is that there is no way they could ever look like those models, since owing to more technology, even the models don’t look like the photos. And the result is a nation of confused youth who are attacking their own bodies with anorexia, plastic surgery, tattoos, piercings, mutilation, and other hosts of means with the intent of making them look more like the inhuman icons they see in advertisements.

We also have a world culture where smoking is accepted as not only normal, but desirable in some cases. Smoking kills more people annually than most illegal means combined, yet we do nothing to stem the tide. And what does this “teach” our kids? It teaches that as long as a buck can be made from something, then it doesn’t matter. Is it any wonder so many of them turn to drugs? Or other crimes?

So what do we need? Do we need more graduation requirements? Do we need to study more math and science in school? After all, don’t the Asian countries have wonderful math and science students? It makes sense. If we want to compete, what we need is to teach more of what makes students from other countries better. I don’t believe that is the answer.

What we need to teach is not more math, science, literature, or even arts. What we need to teach is self-discipline and moral values. What we need to do is quit blaming education and start focusing on the home. Do you know why so many kids fail at math or science in school? It isn’t because the teachers are doing a bad job, it’s because the parents are. Too many parents today are indulgent, permissive, and lacking in their own self-discipline. It would only be reasonable to infer that their kids will be lazy, undisciplined, and unprepared to learn.

When parents start truly taking a part in their child’s education, amazing things happen. Teachers have fewer discipline problems with their classes, grades improve, and better learning occurs. When both mom and dad are present and aware and alert to what is going on in their kids’ lives, many of the other problems just go away.

But we are living in a society where parental obligations are not being met. In some instances, selfishness leads to divorce. In others, low moral standards lead to teen pregnancy and a single parent family. In other cases, perhaps dad works too much. Perhaps mom has to work too much. Perhaps neither parent cares about what is happening. If we can’t straighten up our homes, our country will never be right.

And sexual preference groups are not helping the matter. They are treating choice as birthright. Simply because someone chooses a particular life-style does not give them a free pass for entitlement. This will only lead to more and more entitlement issues, where nobody is held accountable for choice anymore, and everyone will claim they were simply “born that way.” It’s time to start accepting responsibility.

Another thing wrong with our kids today is the fact that they have so few positive role models in any arena. Many athletes act as though they are above the law, as do movie celebrities. Icons in every area of entertainment are living lives of depravity, ensuring that our youth will be more depraved in efforts to be more like their “heroes.”

And most unfortunate is that so many of these negative role models are some of our nation’s leaders. How can our youth be expected to improve their lives or the future of the world when even the people making the laws and deciding their future are endangering that future by their immoral choices? Is it any wonder students cheat, steal, and lie? If the most powerful people in the country do not accept responsibility how can our children be taught anything?

So what is the answer? How do we go about changing the way things are in a way that will truly prepare our younger generations for a global society? We have to stop trying to make the change happen only for them, and work on our own issues first. Don’t add more classes to the already long list of things children ignore. Don’t pile on more pressure to be better while sending the message that being better isn’t what is best.

Let’s make the real changes that are necessary. Parent need to get involved with their kids. Politicians need to pay attention to the actual needs of our country. Our culture needs to stop poisoning our youth in all the diverse ways available. Stop pornography. Stop tobacco sales. Stop pressuring the youth into being something they shouldn’t be and are too young to understand. Stop wasting tax money. Stop putting the blames where the most good is being done—in the classroom—and start truly educating our youth. Their future depends on it. As does ours.

My Didj

G'day Mate!

I haven't had much spare time lately, but what little I have been able to capture has been spent making this didjeridoo. I won't put the directions on this post, but you can do a search and find them, or if you like, I could add some on a later post. Here is a pic of my finished didj, even though details are sketchy. I will try to also put on a video capture of the whole thing.

Oh the Things I Ate!

Those following me on FB know this about me, as do most of my family, but I thought I would at least put a post on here to keep up with my schedule.  

   

Last Thursday,after eating breakfast (just cold cereal) I started feeling nauseous. I felt bad the rest of the day and only had chocolate milk for both lunch and dinner. The next day I had the same for breakfast, but got go-gurt and juice for lunch (actually worked quite nicely). Friday night saw me eating pizza and cheese-sticks--and regretting it!

    

Enter Saturday. We had to go north for a Softball Tourney for our Youngest Daughter. They did fairly well, but more importantly, not only did I have breakfast again, but I also ate lunch. My stomach was not happy about working harder that quickly, but I was doing alright.

   

After returning home, we left shortly later to go south for an Improv performance. Very funny, but before we stopped at the town in between and ate at our favorite Mexican Restaurant. Not wanting to push my digestive system too far, I thought sea-food would be a good way to go. WRONG!

     

Crab Enchiladas sounded good at the time, but did NOT taste as good as I had hoped. I believe that is because the Crab had gone BAD! Either that, or my flu turned back around to wipe me out again! Inklings, if you're reading this, don't order the crab enchiladas there! Normally, this place is great.

   

Anyway, I spent all last night and all of today either in bed or on the porcelain (or kneeling in front of it). Sorry to get so graphic there! I'll spare you any other details, except that I actually pulled a muscle this morning on one of my visits. I'll leave you to your imagination on that one.

 
I just hope that tomorrow will see me eating solid food again. If not, Go-gurt, Here I come!

THIS cradle WON'T Rock!

My sister, Inklings, posted a story on her blog about strange noises at night. It reminded me of one of our favorite stories of our Oldest Son. 

  

I was awakened one morning, quite early by my wife after she had gotten out of bed to check on the kids. She was quite worried, because she could not find our oldest. We checked the apartment, and found no sign of him. The most confusing aspect of all this was the fact that the front door was still locked, as were all the windows. We had no idea how he could have managed this great escape.

   

Realizing that there was no way he could have gotten out while still leaving the dead-bolt locked, we renewed our search of the apartment in earnest. One place we thought he may have gone was the bathtub, but alas, this too was vacant. As we turned to leave the bathroom, a thought occurred to us. Opening the door to the linen closet, we found our son asleep on the blankets at the bottom of the closet. 

    

He woke during the night, went to the bathroom, and just climbed in the closet and shut the door! We never had that happen again, but we have realized ever since then that he can just about sleep anywhere!