Simple Randomness

Crazy Vacations Make for Fun Vacations

Ok, with summer approaching I’m getting the feeling that I need to go on vacation! So I was thinking this morning about different vacations that I’ve been on that have been a little more wild.

I still think that one of the crazier vacations I’ve been on was a band tour in high school to San Francisco. Think about it, a bunch of high school band kids crammed on a bus driving from Utah to San Francisco. It was interesting to say the least! Once we got there we found plenty of things to do in San Francisco like going to the Hard Rock Cafe, visiting Alcatraz, and playing card games with like 20+ people in on the same game. Crazy stuff…and honestly looking back I think I would much rather visited San Francisco with a different group of people!

My wife had a crazy trip to Boston once. But this was to see her friend get married. They still found plenty of things to do in Boston, but the sad thing about that trip for her was that a bunch of her CDs got stolen! Not cool, but despite all that she still wants to take me back there sometime because she liked it so much.

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Mother’s Day Coming Up…

So Mother’s Day is this coming Sunday, and I still have no idea what I’m going to get my wife, my mom, or my mother-in-law! I’m really bad at coming up with ideas for this sort of thing, and I’m always afraid that I’m going to just do something lame.

In fact, I remember one year as a kid when I totally forgot to get my Mom something. So the moment arrived and I reached in my pocket and gave her a string. It has been a running joke in my family for years that I gave my Mom a string rather than a real gift…

So this year I need to come up with some better ideas. It looks like 1800Flowers.com has some really good ideas, and I know that my wife and Mom like flowers, so maybe I’ll just do one of their gifts. If you’re in the same bind as me, check them out. You might get some good ideas!

Has anyone else noticed that Mother’s Day is always a much bigger deal that Father’s Day?

A Great Idea From Jesse Ventura

This morning coming into work I heard the local radio guys talking to Jesse Ventura.  You know, the guy who was a pro wrestler and then also the Governor of Minnesota.  I didn’t know this, but he was a mayor before that too.  Quite the impressive guy when you look at it.

Well, he had a really good idea that I think we should put into effect.  What he said is that when he was mayor, he took a 4 year break and got back into the private sector before he ran for governor.  That way he really knew what was going on in the private sector as a governor.  He says that one of the problems with our government these days is that we have career politicians.  People who have been in politics their whole lives and then are supposed to tell us that are actually in the private sector what would be best for us.

I think it’s a great idea!  In fact, right now I want to nominate Jesse Ventura for a Nobel Prize because of that great thought!  I mean think about it, we get these guys in office that haven’t been in the private sector trying to make laws that are supposed to be for our own good, but they have no clue!

Anyway, that’s my political rant for the day.  Thanks Mr. Ventura for the great thought!

Has the American Dream Changed?

First of all I should probably admit that when it comes to political stuff I lean more to the conservative side than to anything else.  So just yesterday I was driving home from work and was listening to Glenn Beck on the radio and I heard something that really got me thinking.  He was playing a clip from John McCain on David Letterman the other night where McCain was talking about the idea that a lot of people are about to lose their homes.  He was suggesting over and over that they were losing the American Dream.

WHAT?!

I have to fully agree with Beck on this one, but since when was owning a home the American Dream?  You mean to say that all of this ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ stuff comes down to owning a house?  I don’t think so!

When I think of the American Dream, I think of being able to do my own thing and make a living if I want to.  It means that I have the right and privilege to start my own business and either make it or fail.  It means that I have the freedom to try to do what I want to do to provide for my family.   Not just own a house!

It’s really sad to me that the American Dream has been degraded to this.  In the movie Far and Away the American Dream was to own some land.  But not to put a house on it!  It was to own some land that you could call your own and then do what you wanted to with it!

To stay on the political topic, I also think it’s sad that so many believe that the American Dream means entitlement.  Like as an American I am entitled to get all this free stuff from the government or some junk like that.  I don’t want that!  I just want the freedom to be able to make it on my own, not get handouts.

So anyway, I think I’ll rarely get political on this blog, but what I heard yesterday really got me thinking.  Please believe that the American Dream is more than having a house!

I’m Setting Some Basic Exercise Goals

I used to go to the gym a couple of times a week and really enjoyed it.  But since having a new baby and my wife getting her gallbladder out I haven’t really had a lot of time to get the exercise that I’d like to.

But I’m not giving up my goal of building a better body!

So, I’ve decided to take on a new challenge.  I’m back on my no candy goal (I wrote about that previously, but didn’t make the 3 months )  and I’m going to start doing at least some sort of exercise every day.  Yesterday I did 60 pushups during the day, today I’m going to do 60 situps throughout the day.  I also picked up a set of elastic bands that I can use to do some exercises as well.  And maybe to mix things up I’ll do some yoga here and there.

Health is very important to me, and honestly I’ve been trying to do better at exercising for a couple of years now.  Well, this is the year!

By the way, if any of you buy bodybuilding supplements like creatine and whey, you should check out the site SupplementPricing.com.  They do price comparisons on a lot of supplements so you get the best deal.  Just a side note!

Taking out Garfield….Funnier!

Ok, I mentioned in a post a long time ago that I firmly believe the Sunday Funnies aren’t as funny as they used to be (here’s the original post: The Sunday Funnies Aren’t So Funny Anymore. Well, what if you took one of the worst comics ever and took out the main character?

A friend of mine sent me a link to a site where they take Garfield out of the Garfield comics, and it’s actually pretty funny! It makes Jon look like he’s just insane, which makes sense. Here are a few that I thought were pretty good:

There are a bunch more that are pretty good, but check it out. Here’s the site: Garfield Minus Garfield

I Never Want to Have Surgery

I mentioned last week that my wife was going to have her gallbladder out. This week I’ve been helping her to recover from the surgery and while helping her I’ve come to the conclusion that I never want to have surgery.

In fact, I never want to have to stay in the hospital for anything if I can help it. Now, I’m not saying that if I needed to I wouldn’t go to the hospital. But I plan on staying healthy! To this day I’ve never broken a bone, and really the only reason I have ever gone to the hospital for myself was to have an MRI done on my knee.

Some may say that if you’ve never broken a bone, you’ve never had any real fun. I would have to disagree! Maybe I’ve just been lucky not to have any major injuries. Here are a few example of times I’ve been very lucky:

• Stretched out and almost tore my ACL playing soccer
• Fell off a platform and almost got impaled on a 2 foot wooden stake (just barely missed it)
• Ran into another waverunner with my waverunner on the lake
• Fel into a small snow ravine on a snow mobile (about 5 feet deep is all)
• Numerous wipe outs on water skis and alpine skis
• Hit several curbs driving in the snow
• and more

So I think I’m still having fun. I just don’t like seeing my wife go through this, so I hope that our roles are never switched.

Optional Body Parts?

Do you ever wonder why we even have certain things in our body?  Namely things like tonsils, appendix, and gallbladder that you can do without just fine.  I think it is very interesting that we even have these things!

This week my wife found out that she has to have her gallbladder removed.  She has been having some problems with it ever since our last kid was born a month ago.  So they did some tests on it and decided that it needed to go.

I guess my big question is that if we don’t really need some of these things, why don’t we just take them out once you turn 6 or something?  Ok, I know I know, the healthcare costs and all that.  But wouldn’t it be cheaper to just do it then rather than wait until your appendix explodes and almost kills you?

Ok, if you can’t tell I’m mainly just kidding with this.  But you have to admit that it is interesting that we can take things out and still function just fine.  I guess it goes to show that the human body is one amazing thing!

My Thoughts on Open Source vs. Proprietary Programs

Yesterday I got into a discussion with a friend of mine about open source programs vs. proprietary programs. Now granted, my experience with open source programs is rather limited. The main programs that I’ve used are FireFox, GIMP, Nvu, OpenOffice, and I guess you might count WordPress.

So here’s my thought: there are some great open source programs out there. If you consider WP to be one of these, I would say its the best blogging software out there. FireFox is awesome, need I say more? OpenOffice is great, too. But some of the other programs I’m not as impressed with. For example, GIMP and Nvu. They are fine in their own right, but I would have to say that the proprietary programs kick their rears (if you know what I mean). DreamWeaver blows Nvu out of the water in my opinion, and I would much rather use FireWorks, PhotoShop, or Illustrator over GIMP.

Now remember, my experience is limited, but I think that in most situations a proprietary program is going to be better. And really I think the main reason for that is capitalism. If you run a software company, you are going to do your best to make sure that you develop a product that meets the needs of your customers. You have a financial interest in making the best product you possibly can. I just don’t see the same level of financial motivation behind an open source program.

It just seems to me that if you need a more advanced program like photo or graphic editing, you’re probably better to go with a proprietary program.  You can do just fine with the open source versions, but I think they’re harder to use.  Again, this is just my experience with them.

Of course, this could very easily start a very heated debate with all of the Linux vs. Windows people out there. But again, this has been my experience. Any thoughts?

A Random Thought About Being Mute

So for the last couple of days I’ve had a really sore throat and have basically lost my voice.  I can still talk, but if I talk very loudly it just starts to hurt.  This reminds me when I had laryngitis a few years ago and really couldn’t talk louder than a whisper for about a week!  My, wasn’t that fun….

This got me to thinking yesterday.  And being very random like I am, I was thinking about different basic body functions (seeing, hearing, speaking, etc.) and I decided that if I had to choose to give one up, I think I would choose the ability to speak.  I really would have a hard time if I was deaf or blind.  Sure I’d get used to it as people do, but if I had a choice I think I would choose to be mute.

Then I started thinking about how these days with the internet and technology and stuff, you could really still do a whole lot of stuff without being able to talk.  There are still so many ways to communicate.  Like this blog for example.  For all you know, I could be a mute deaf paraplegic and no one would even know it.  The internet really is the great equalizer in that sense.

Now, I really hope that I never do become mute or have any other problems of that nature.  But there’s my random thought for the day.  And by the way, that picture is not me…