The "New" Women in dating...

With the technology influx in the past couple decades, you have seen new vocabulary for new technologies such as software, blackberry, text message me, and the list could go on and on.

I think just as technology has advanced, so have the dynamic of girls and boys.
The topic I would like to address today is the word "Smother"

It seems to me about 10 years ago that smothering someone was an act punishable by life in prison, It was generally used in a murdering capacity whereas one would watch an Alfred Hitchcock movie, take a pillow to the signifacant other's face in bed and stop them from breathing.

Nowadays, I am certain this term is still viable, but it is now used by females now for giving them TOO MUCH ATTENTION. Is this possible?
10 years ago, that was impossible. You simply couldn't give enough attention to a female. You just couldn't...
They were happy when you gave them attention at all, especially a look over at during the middle of Coach's Corner or on NFL Sunday. That was a special moment of understanding.
So in my experience of dating since I was separated, I have found out little things like the following:
1) Over texting
2 Calling too much to say hi
3) Taking or offering to pay for trips
4) Wanting to spend too much time too fast
5) Avoiding "the talk" (whether we are being exclusive with each other, yeah, THAT talk)

All of these things seem to be a relationship death sentence. But like I said, 10 years ago and you couldn't over do any of these things with your new flame. In fact, you would've gotten the greatest and highest marks for caring!!

But I realize that I am old. And now since I've some out of relationship hibernation (marriage) that women have changed. They all have careers and are so independant, or want to be. It's like the roles reversed, and now a woman is USING me!! lol
Not wanting to move too fast, Give me my space, you are smothering me. Yada Yada Yada
What it breaks down to me, is this...
If you truly have a connection and an attraction, you can do no wrong. If you are missing part of that, you are one step away from being downsized in the relationship game of life. If you think you are walking on eggshells with your mate, you should pack up now and save everyone the trouble. Seems to me, that the person should never have to tell you that they need space.
Either you shouldn't be that far in the first place, or you aren't right for each other at this moment in time.
But it would've been so nice to know this "no smothering" rule with women a couple years ago....

Feel free to leave your thoughts, guys and girls;)

The Southern California Lifestyle

I have a few shows that I really hate.

Yes, I know that hate is a strong word, but it's really fitting here. If you know me fairly well, you will know that I am not a big Jon and Kate Plus 8 fan, mainly because Kate makes my skin crawl. But, this is not one of the shows that I take exception with.

The shows that I cannot understand why people watch are the following:

1) The Hills

There are soooooo many reasons why this show should not be on the air, but what really bothers me is that young suburbanites watch this thinking how glamourous these socialites lives are. -When in fact, they are really just simpletons with a privileged upbringing by wealthy parents who have spoiled them rotten.
I mean, everyone who has money like that looks great on a screen with editors and the like, but these kids seem to find a way to really prove that they are miserable human beings that have no character. And worse, everyone tuning in on their unimportant and pretentious lives covets what they seem to have.
And what they don't have is a life. -How ironic.

2) Millionaire Matchmaker

First of all, Patty needs to check to see if she has a cock between her legs. I mean, how masculine can a woman be? She claims to be a 3rd generation match-maker with a "gift" of helping people find love. Like most people in California, she is money-hungry, and has an ego that most professional athletes couldn't compete with.
It would be different if she were using her "god-given abilities" to help out people who really deserve to find love, but all she does is go for the highest bidder with the least amount of baggage, to find that special someone who will find it in her heart to love her multi-millionaire.

How altrusistic of her.

It makes me sick to see her round up a dozen or so women who are looking to sell themselves out in love in a trade off for marrying wealth, then partner that woman up with a guy who can't get laid despite being a millionaire.

Sounds like a million dollar idea to me...

3) Million Dollar Property

It truly makes me wonder when dorks like these 3 high end real estate agents make as much money as they do. The principles are Madison, Josh and Chad. Although the first 2 make the show worthy of showing how clueless Californian socialites are, Chad has really gone out of his way to prove it to you.
If all gay men have known that they were gay from a very young age, Chad must've been that young boy who just never listened to his inner voice that screamed "you like cock"
Now, I know that I have bad hair, but this kid makes me look like Vidal Sassoon is my personal hairstylist. He doesn't have a hair-do, he has a hair-DON'T!! I can't wait to see his 15 minutes of fame go down faster than George Michael in a public bathroom...

4) The Real Housewives of...

It could be Atlanta, or New Jersey, but I'm gonna stick with the Southern Cal bashing theme here and go with Orange County.

What makes me cringe with my mouth dropped in awe is that these women feel entitled to these lavish lifestyles. What's worse, is that their kids have grown up with that spoiled upbringing as well!

Perfect, that's exactly what we need in this world.-More spoiled-rotten pyschologically screwed up kids with every advantage in the world handed to them, yet not being able to appreciate how fortunate they are.

I think that the entire theme of this show is the main reason of what is holding the USA from ever over-coming its socio-economical problems. Their housewife Gretchen, single-handedly puts the woman's movement back 50 years in her bid to become a human barbie doll who finds her Prince Charming (Jeff, who is 24 years older than her and looks about 70 years older than her.) and spoils his arm-candy girl with a lavish lifestyle before he dies of old age at the end of last season. Jeff leaves this world after being divorced 5 times and leaving Gretchen as a girlfriend and not a wife. I guess it goes to show you that you can still learn from your lessons before you die.

So that pretty much wraps up my synopsis of the Southern Cal programs that disgust me.

Someone once told me that dating in Southern California is like being a cinder in hell.

That may not be true, but I bet the heat is the same...

The Food Network

Everyone has seen the Crocodile Hunter, right?

He was the passionate outdoorsman from Down Under, that had that REALLY annoying way of explaining things that 99% of the world didn't care about. Man, even hearing his voice in my head gets me annoyed!! He was distinctive in his tone and demeanor, and even if you didn't understand the English language, you would get his passion. Previous outdoorsmen before him like David Suzuki, Jacques Cousteau, and others had a much calmer way of conveying their peaceful message to their audience; but not the Crocodile Hunter. He was different from his predeceasors. And call him annoying, but he was very popular before his untimely death.

Enter the newly popular food network stars.

After following such boring acts such as Julia Childs and other run-of-the mill food personalities, they take the Crocodile Hunter's passionately annoying approach to selling their sizzle. Now whether their audience is a stay at home mom or a food enthusiast, the normal format for a food show, was just showing the way to cook the dish, and there was never much personality to it.

With the advent of the food network and their new generation of Stars, I think the network is looking to cash in on annoying TV personalities in the mould of the "Crocodile Hunter a la Cuisine."

Now I get the point that food can be tasty, and there are a lot of people out there that are passionate about food. But to me, food is a necessity, not an art. I get really annoyed when people duplicate Meg Ryan's orgasm scene on "When Harry Met Sally" because they really like a bite of food.

Get over it.

Yes, I'm sure that it is really good, but you are most likely paying for it, so it SHOULD be good. Anytime you go out to a restaurant and order something and have to pay a 300% mark-up on the food, plus the tax and tip for the priviledge of having someone serve you, you should have an experience similar to intense sex. But it doesn't always work out that way does it? And that's where I have to hear all the bullshit about how horrible it was to your pallet. Poor you. I can assure you that there are bigger disappointments in life to bitch about rather than how bad your service and meal were.

My question is, are you full? Sure, the taste wasn't to your expectations, but if you are full and not hungry, isn't that the point of eating? I just really hate when you go to a fancy restaurant and you spend 200 bucks for a small portion of an entree that my dog wouldn't even be happy about. It seems that the more money you spend on a dinner, the less you seem to get. That's really not fair is it? Sure, it looks good and the presentation and environment of the restaurant is exquisite, but in the end, if I have to go to McDonalds on the way home after this dinner to buy a $5 combo because Im still hungry, I'm gonna be pissed.

Now, I'm not completely oblivious about how good food is to the morale of people. In the navy, seamen will tell you that food really does make the difference. There is nothing worse than having a really long shift and a bad day, only to sit in front of a tasteless, bland meal. In fact, the navies of the modern day nations have actually employed and trained chefs and cooks to make sure that the meals served on board are top notch and great care has gone into their menus.

In my own life, I can relate. I remember walking to school and freezing my ass off getting there. Getting beat up and teased on the playground and then listening to Charlie Brown's teacher wonk-wonk-wonk at me while the minutes seem like hours before lunch time. Finally lunch arrives just before my 8 year old body got my first grey hair, and I go to my lunch box and my lunch turns out to be a dry peanut butter sandwich with an apple.

This is called the "Lunch Bag Letdown" (I know that some women are more familiar with the term in association to bringing home a man who has drank too much whisky, but this is the PG-13 term...)

It really does make the day better when you have a good lunch or dinner, but it to me, it's not worth the moans and groans in its absence.

Getting back to my point...

I'm tired of seeing people being pretentious about food. I'm tired of seeing it at restaurants, or resorts, or being around someone who constantly complains about it. Food is meant to fill your little belly up and then give you energy and strength. If it happens to give you some sort of endorphan release, good for you. If you are missing that in your sexual life and need to get it from food, I would suggest that you see a specialist about your condition. If you feel the need to be "that guy" who has an accomplished pallet, and share your opinions, talk to some person who shares your Crocodile-Hunter food passion.

These people who sell food as sex on the food network are just plain annoying to me. As annoying as the Crocodile Hunter was talking about what was obviously his passion, is what these people are duplicating in their passion. So I get that it sells, and it's good for TV, but it's just annoying to see something like food as old as life itself being exploited into something that is just so basic and uninteresting.

-Just like the people who seem to want to watch it.

The Notebook

"I am just an ordinary man. I am no one special, just a common man with common thoughts. I've lead a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me, and my name will soon be forgotten.
But, in one respect, I've succeeded as gloriously as anyone who ever lived. - I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and for me, that has always been enough..."

Any movie that starts off like this has my undivided attention. It's been 2 years since I first watched it and it still ruins me everytime I see it.
There was a time when I was watching this because there was a missing void in my life and I replaced it by watching a bit of it everyday with the hope that this story brings. And it isn't hope that it brings to everyone. You could be on the losing end of this story and be the other guy that loses hope. But this story is just so beautifully written, and after all, it's about love...

The best love is the kind that weakens the soul. That makes us reach for more.
-That plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds.
This hurt is so intense that it can be confused with pleasure. Almost like you feel that pain, but it feels good, because it feels good even missing that person.

There's times when you feel so hurt that you are lost. Your balance is gone, and you start concentarting on the wrong things. Sometimes you know, but you just don't care.
But no matter what, you feel lost. No words really hit home. At a time like that, I heard this...
"I know you feel lost right now. But don't worry, nothing is ever lost nor can be lost.
The body, sluggish, aged, cold; the embers left from earlier fires shall duly flame again..."
This brought me so much comfort when I needed it.
Then you think about the person who wounded you and think how desolate that you are, never thinking about the many people that you've inflicted the same hurt on in your own way. -Sobering to be the victim and the purportrator all at the same time.

I love this last quote, an seeing that it is the end of summer, I thought it only too fitting...

"Summer romances end for all kinds of reasons. But when all is said and done, they have one thing in common.
They are shooting stars--A spectacular moment of light from the Heavens; a fleeting glimpse of eternity.
And in a flash, they are gone..."

His and Her Beds

I think that the 18 Century Monarchs had it right.

Visiting Versailles just outside of Paris I took a tour of the grounds and the palace itself. There were many absolutely beautiful priceless items of course lovingly preserved for hundreds of years for future benefit for us to enjoy.

Its kind of weird to think that only in this latter half of the century have we had the usual living conditions that we are so used to these days that we can't imagine life without. Things like bathrooms with flushing toilets, showers, electricity, gas heating and furnaces. In many ways, we live better than royalty of an age gone by.

But in one way they still have us beat...

Separate bedrooms. When I saw that Kings and Queens had separate beds I thought it was odd. Why would a married couple not sleep together in a matrimonial bed?

Because they were bloody SMART, that's why!!

As I started to think that every married couple sleeps in the same bed, I figured the whole world has been wired wrong.

Let's not confuse bedroom activities with sleep. After activities are over, we have the obligitory cuddle, followed by the tuck and roll. Its like being in a football huddle. "And Break on 3...1, 2, 3....BREAK!" (Lets be honest, some of us have mastered this art...) A-HEM!!

So why have someone snoring, tossing and turning, talking in their sleep, bad breath breathing on you, waking you up in the morning one hour shy eye of my last hour of REM sleep next to you, when they COULD be sleeping in their own bed waking up restful from a great night's sleep, ready to take on the world and be better rested for further bedroom activities?

THERE IS NO REASON!! We should have his and her beds. I'm advocating it right now. In fact, ever since I've suggested it, I've been sleeping on the couch, so I guess I've already implemented it in my own life sort of unvolunteerily...
Not the way I wanted to start it off, but I guess the end I was seeking.

His and Her beds...coming soon to a venue near you. (If you are lucky)

Driving without a cell phone headset

I am driving behind a Mercedes Benz and I have my cruise control set so I'm keeping speed. I see that this Benz is light on the pedal, then heavy on it. In and out of his lane and it looks like he is a drunk driver. A number of reasons ingnite, and my spidey-sense kicks in to pass this loser. Curiosity alone makes me just leer at him as I pass on the left.

Just as I thought...cellphone. He's driving with a cell phone and no headset. Worse, this is a Benz Kompressor, so I know that it's a manual stick shift transmission.

I shake my head in disgust and let him know it...What a fucking loser!!

If you have enough money to buy a useless pretentious car like a low end Kompressor just so you can say that you drive a Benz, you should be able to afford a 25 dollar head set so that you can drive hands free. In fact, nowadays they sell cell phones with headsets included. And as well they should. I think there should be a law that a cell phone cannot be sold unless it is accompanied by a headset.

And the worse thing is, I shouldn't have to try and sell this. This shit should sell itself. Why would you want to drive with a cell phone and no headset?! It's just annoying and I can't understand why you would want to.-it's just too practical and easy.

What is worse, is that there are people out there that are simply bad drivers and they need all the help in the world just to keep the car in between the white lines. Without the aid of a headset, some people just don't have the motor skills and co-ordination to do both. And that's a fact. If there was a road test for people to get their licence all over again, I would think that most would fail. If they administered that test with you having to talk on a cell phone, how do you think they would do?

FAIL, that's how they would do.

So do yourself a favour, and the other people that have to be on the road with you. Buy a headset for your cell phone. It may save your life, and take back a terrible moment that could've been avoided.

The Will Smith movie "Seven Pounds" illustrates what can happen when you text and drive, or simply use your cell phone while you are doing it.

Think about it, it just makes sense. I just don't understand why people haven't found out that there is an easier way...

"The Game" nobody wants to play. -But we all play it...

We all play it... Some are better at it than others. In fact, some excel at it while others play it poorly.

They don't teach this game at school, but it is learned on the schoolyard. It starts there and over the periods of lunch and breaks. It gets practiced and you can slowly see the talent level improve through to high school and you get expert levels at Uni/College.

Sometimes the game is unspoken, and sometimes it is spoken with venom. But make no mistake, it is a communication intensive game that will give you extreme highs and lows. And the funny part is that nobody is exempt. Even the expert game players slip up and get taken down, and usually it is by a "weaker" opponent which makes it even more ironic.

The funny part about this is that we are just not realitic. We lament everytime somebody gives us the boot, and feel sorry for ourselves, yet we never think objectively how many times we have administered the same exact hurt on some other person who was endeared to us. We just pretend that this person isn't there and move on with as little effort and time to them as possible and try to not think about them and their hurt because it will make us feel guilty.

But when we get it back...oh God... Our cell phones kick into overdrive, we call everyone from our best friend to anyone who will listen to our pathetic drivel and hit them with the sappiest version of what just happened and how we were victimized.

We are pathetic...

Somewhere up there, God is laughing at us and our moment of weakness and saying, "hang in there, you are learning. Thats what the end goal is".
At the end of the race, we are battle scarred and tougher versions of the formerly naive person we were in our youth. Thus the phrase, "beaten down by life"

The trick of this game is to take the good with the bad. Not taking it personally is a start, but easier said than done. It is a life long battle to perfect this on better levels.

But the point is, don't let this stop you from finding happiness.It is out there in every form. One roadblock/bad experience is guaranteed to find, you so expect it and it will hurt less. It wont stop hurting because we are human, but it will hurt less...

So at the end of my long winded short, I would like to apologize to anyone out there that feels that I have done them wrong in a dating senario, or played a game on them. I'm making no excuses, because they are weak arguments at best. But if I spent time with you, it was because I wanted to be there. Unfortunately, things change in life and priorities shift. And once the time to move on is there, know that if you shared time with someone, it was always a moment in time that helped you learn, and that should be embraced more than the time of hurt that lasts afterwards....

Once there was a way to get back home...

Once there was a way to get back home...

Once there was a way to get back home and get back to that safe place as a kid. Whether you were cold from playing outside in the winter season, lost and found your way back, travelling, away at camp, there was always a way to get home.

And then somewhere along the way; after college for me, that road disappeared. The map I had in my head that would always faithfully get me back to my safe spot was simply gone. -I grew up.

I created a new spot that wasn't the safe spot I was used to. I convinced myself that it was just as good as my old spot because I wanted to be a new person and re-invent myself. My old place was for kids, and I was a grown up now ready to conquor the world.

And when I didn't conquor the world, and I had been beaten in aspects of life that I thought I was bullet proofed for, I still searched for that safe spot that was now committed to memory. -It was the third star to the right and straight on until morning. Problem is, I couldn't take that route because I stopped believing. I knew where it was, but just couldn't get back there because adults were not allowed. The world didn't want to accept kids at heart in the business world. They wanted hardened adults who stopped believing and bought into the money makes everything better club.

And I bought into it. In fact, I don't know anyone who didn't.

Now, that safe spot has been transpormed into a house with a 54" inch TV, an SUV, and because I am not completely soul-less, a dog whom I adore. I have convinced myself that this is home, but it compares very poorly to my family house when my parents were still together, in my bunk bed with my brother below me and my father tucking us in by telling us a story and my mother kissing me goodnight.

I hope my daughter never loses that map on how to get back home, and carries that balance with her for her entire life. I hope I never tell her to "grow up" as a parent. I hope that she learns that just because somebody is serious, that they don't have to buy into what they are peddling and buy it. I hope that she can laugh at life during bad times to enjoy the good ones.

If people tell me to grow up, I would just think to myself, "Have you no soul? What happened to you; the REAL you? The kid who knew how to have fun?" I feel bad for this person. Their map is a fairy tale that they stopped believing in, and forgot they were ever there. Less important things have been sold for them to worry about, and they have bought into it.

Maybe the reason the tale of Peter Pan is so loved, is because we can all relate to it, and we relive it through the eyes of our kids.

Well, I'm going to get back to that road and if I see you on it, we can talk about fun times, which is a lot more fun than what the rest of the world is going to do.

Fields of Gold

It's one of my most beloved songs....

I'm not a fan of Sting, or his music, but this song will calme-toi me everytime I hear it.

I could be in the worst mood, and this song will hit my heart strings everytime and rescue me from dispair. I hear it and immediately I see castles and an early roman-celtic Britain in open lush fields like you see in the movie Braveheart. Its like a river of thought that flows gently and serenely in my mind that takes me back to my younger days.

I remember being in Europe in the summer of '98 and I was on a train bound for Rome and it broke down in the middle of a gorgeous field in July. It was hot, so we all got out of the car and I sat with my journal in my lap on that sunny day and looked at that beautiful field and this song played on my walkman. I wrote about it and if I could paint, I could tell you everything that was in that picture. I carry it with me to this day.

But perhaps the most picturesque view I see is the one that described this song. I was on the Olympic Ski Jump in Lillehammer, Norway and it overlooked the small town where the Olympics were years before. At the bottom of the Ski Jump was a massive yellow field which truly was a field of Gold. The sun danced on that field all day on that August afternoon and I took many pictures to capture it. Behind it lay the town of Lillehammer and a beautiful mountain range with a aqua blue river running through it. Looking back, I was sad that I never had someone to share this moment with. But now it seems like a moment that was best appreciated as a time in which I was happy to be me, all alone.

A couple of lines in this song that move me...

"many years have passed since those summer days among the fields of barley"

As I have aged 10 years since those days, I feel that those were the happiest, most carefree days of my life. And I will always live as a 26 year old.

"Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth"

I think that this visual has me seeing that first passionate kiss between a couple that invokes such excitement that the body takes over and breathes new life into her lungs as their lips meet. The anticipation creates this energy and if you have ever yearned to kiss someone so badly, this is the feeling you will feel.
Intoxicating.

"You'll remember me when the west wind moves, upon the fields of barley. You can tell the sun in his jealous sky when we walked in fields of Gold"

Powerfully intense.

I could say that these were my dying, and last words to those who loved me...

The People in Your Life

A weekend has come and gone and again today is Monday. And although this happens every 7 days over and over, this weekend has taught me something more than the average weekend that passes by and gets you back to the grind...

If I look at my life, there are elements that are regrettable, lamented, and questioned. But after this weekend, I realized that the one thing in life that I am thankful for is the time I've spent with those who have truely been good friends and will continue to add to my life.

All the success and tangables in life cannot ever account for that. So here we are at 37, and reflecting back that things are not where you thought they would be and ignoring the obvious that you are missed/loved/appreciated to others who know you.

Well, as another summer comes to a close and I realize that I never know how many more summers I have left in my life, I realize that thankfulness and not bitterness, are the things in life that create energy in life and not take it.

A friend once told me, that because life is short, you need 3 things:

1) A good bed.
You spend a third of your life sleeping and a good bed will keep you healthy and well rested.

2) A good pair of shoes.
You spend 16 hours of day on your feet and they are your life. Treat them well.

3) The company you keep.
Surrounding yourself to those who add to your life and those you can enjoy company with adds to the quality of a person you become.

The rest in life will follow as you add to life. Positive imputs in, are impossible to get negative imputs back. So I've realized that I am very rich in friends and family in my life, and the relationships I've been priviledged enough to be a part of.

Whether I am that little curly-haired kid growing up as the rambunctious kid I was, or the quirky the kid I've become, I love the people in my life.

And if you are someone I've spent time with either past or present, you have made me the person I have become and I love you for that....

Controlling yourself in a bad situation

One of the things that I think that has quickly become my biggest pet peeve is when I see people's inability to adapt to a stressful situation. You truly DO see what people are made up of, and what type of character they have in stressful situations by the way they handle themselves and the situation in front of them. I truly believe that anybody can be a nice person and remain composed when things are nice and easy, but it takes real character to be in a horrible situation and still be a good person. And that is rare... It shouldn't be, but it really is. -That is the true test of good character.

Everybody has an ability to adapt. Change is something that you can always count on and come to expect. So to me, it's almost laughable that most people are surprised when it comes. Expect change and the inevitable, and then it won't sting so much when you are faced with it. It's a lot easier to react to something when you can see it coming, than when you get blindsided, no doubt...I'll grant you that, but if you come to expect that anything can happen, you won't be as caught off guard.

The alternative of that is to resist change and lament the days gone by when you yearned for better times and things were just peachy. You can complain at the "new" state of affairs, and spend a lot of energy trying to fight off the inevitable by writing to your local politician and voicing your opinion. You can combine forces with others who feel the same way as you do and try and beat the system, but sooner or later, you will run into a roadblock and you will be out of shit tickets in the outhouse of life.

As I had said earlier, I hate the reaction you see when people are in their uncomfortable state. Either someone has wronged them, or they feel that they have been given the short end of the stick. People are primarily inclined to seeking out their own way and when they don't get it as they see fit, there is war. Very few people understand that comprimise is a fact of life and that you haven't been wronged if you have to do it.

But as I have said, people are inherently selfish. It seems that the more wealth that has been created in society, these people don't think that the regular rules apply to them. I agree that all men are created equal, but it certainly would be naive to think that all men die equal to each other. And those who have the gold make the rules and write the history books. And it seems like these are the people that I have a beef with...

But I find it hilarious whenever I see a person not able to control their emotions because I used to be one of them. I was a very competitive and intense kid growing up. -You might even have called me a spaz. But the one thing that I have learned over the years is that bad things happen to good people. And the thing is, I have infinitely more respect to those who take it in stride and remain composed, than those who fail to remain composed and look stupid in the process. Even if they win, they lose.

And a wise man told me, you can lose the war, but never lose the lesson...

Things that give me goosebumps...

1) The music at the end of the movie, "The Natural"

2) The scene in Field of Dreams when Kevin Costner asks his dad if he wants to play catch

3) The love theme from "Legends of the Fall"

4) Seeing Mickey Mantle in his Yankee pinstripes taking a knee in the on deck circle, and seeing his monument in Centre Field at Yankee Stadium during a day game

5) The last scene from the series finale of The Wonder Years

6) Looking at the ceiling of the Sisteen Chapel in the Vatican

7) The Canadian Flag waving in the wind

8) My backyard hockey rink on a brisk cold night under the floodlights

9) The Five for Fighting songs "The Riddle" and "100 Years"

10) The face of a proud parent

11) Love

12) Juno Beach in Normandy and the Canadian Cemetaries in Beny Sur Mer, France

13) Terry Fox

14) Hockey Night in Canada

15) A good campfire surrounded by my friends under the stars

16) Seeing old friends you haven't seen in a long time

17) Having my parents tell me they are proud of me

18) The words "I love you" when directed at you

19) The surreal feeling of front row tickets at a rock concert of your favourite band, or meeting them

20) Shaking hands with your boyhood idol as a man

Feel free to add to this list...

Do you have a Jewish Nose?

I was just watching a Dr. Phil (forgive me, I know he's horrible) episode on ethnic cosmetic surgery and I thought I would write a note about this to see how far off I am from those who comment back.

Anytime I write something, people are going to take it the wrong way. I find it amazing how human perception varies so much when people reading the EXACT SAME article will come away with 2 totally different views of what they think the article is saying.

In this episode, an Italian man with a large nose was getting a nose job in order to "look less Italian" as he put it. Nobody will disagree that the Roman Nose on Italians can be quite identifyable. Yet, touching on noses of other races can cause quite a stir.

For Example....If you take African men and women... Now you can eyeball Africans and see a few distinct differences between WEST Africans and EAST Africans.
People from Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Cote D"Ivoire, Liberia differ greatly in the size of person, width of their faces, and noses and lips from East Africans, say from Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and those countries. East Africans do not possess the large prominent nose, lips that is characterized as a "Black Nose"

Kenyans are known for producing elite marathon runners and their body types are a charactization that cannot be confused with a heavier set frame from West Africa. Yet anytime you say something like this, it sparks a debate about stereotype, generalization and racial comparisons.

Eastern Europeans such as Hungary, Czech, Slovakia, and even Germans have a prominent high cheekbone look and if you were to make this generalization, would it produce the same debate as if someone who had blonde hair and blue eyes coming from Scandinavia might?

If you were to say that Jews had a prominent nose that identified them as being Jewish the same way as the Italian with the roman nose on Dr. Phil today did, would that be a racial thing to say? (I'm asking my Jewish friends to help me out on this one)

Why are people so picky on what gives or identifies you on your ethnic make up? I am from Irish heritage on both sides of my parents. People ask me all the time if I have Irish in me. Do I get all bent out of shape?I have blue eyes, small features (nose, ears, lips),and I have fair skin and a tinge of red in my hair.
I don't get all upset if somebody looks at me and says "which way to Dublin?"

So why do people get all bent out of shape when their eyes, noses, cheekbones, height, weight all get factored into what their ethnic background is?! Is it wrong to say that you look West African, Jewish, Asian, or Hispanic?

Here's a newsflash for you... We all are muts. There has been so much cross inter racial breeding that we all are muts. Don't take it the wrong way.

But don't tell me that I'm wrong for noticing what everyone else tries to not mention. I just find it irritating that we are all trying to be so politically correct by calling deaf people Hearing Imparied, when deaf people themselves prefer the term "deaf" to HI.
Learning Impaired, Vertically challenged (short people like me) and the rest of the BS terms that have been created.

AS for me, I'm going to call a spade a spade, and not apologize that its black...

Cute Shoes

Cute Shoes... or Hoes with an "s" as I always say....

The understanding will never reach me. Women are fancinated by them. Men appreciate a girl with nice footwear, that's a given. Better a bad dress and great shoes, than a great dress and BAD shoes.

So far we are all on the same page right?

Now the diversion starts...

Shoes are a practical thing. Although esthetically pleasurable to the eye, they form a function of one thing. COMFORT. They are an "A" to "B" means of transportation.
Unless you are Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley or Ace Frehley singing and dancing on stage, your heels should not exceed the comfort level of more than 2 inches.

Just the view of cramming your toes in a position like that and basically walking around on your top toes is just asking for trouble. And this especially applies to you bustier women than have problems not tipping over as it is already.

Now comes the choice of these cute shoes. The rule of thumb is that the cuter the shoe, the less shelf life you have in terms of hours of occupancy. A regular run of the mill pair of cute shoes will have a shelf night of no more than 3 hours before the inevitable bitching of how much your feet are killing you begins.
So with REALLY cute shoes, you are looking at about an hour and a half before the bitching process sets in.

This makes for a really shitty conversation of why we now have to leave the party, and why we get bitched slapped for rolling our eyes in the truck on the way home as to not feeling bad for your hurting feet. Its not like you were the first Greek that ran 26 miles from Marathon to Athens in a pair of leather soled sandels to save the country from advancing troops. You chose to be stupid because cute shoes have appeal.

And the funny thing is... that we get to do it all over again in 6 more days because it will happen again.

Its like Groundhog Day.

So excuse me if when you walk in from shopping and I don't want to see the new "cutest pair of shoes ever".

I'm going back to my Crocs. They are my new best friend. Well, only because Sarah McLachlan wont return my calls....

Crocs baby, crocs.....

Why are Spanish speaking countries poor and corrupt?

I want to be blunt, and I would like some answers...

Frankly, I would like to be given the reasons why every Spanish speaking country in the world is a poor nation that qualifies as a 3rd world country? Besides Spain, every other country is 3rd world. Is that a co-incidence, or are these countries founders and the infrastructure so historically corrupt that they can never be 1st world?

Certainly, it can't be because the Spanish speaking populace can't create wealth? I won't buy that one.

Consider... Every country from Mexico down south to the tip of Argentina which includes 16 spanish speaking countries, excluding Carribbean Island Nations like Cuba and Dominican Republic. Every single one qualifies as a poverty stricken country, most if not all, with corrupt Governments and Police Forces at the helm.
These poor citizens exist in a class system that has no middle ground. You are either extremely wealthy or exceedingly poor.

All these countries which were at first colonized by the Spanish during their global expansion 400 years ago, have received their own independance and have been free to govern themselves for over a 100 years now. Yet none have been able to feed or protect their citizens from this impoverished lifecycle, or give them the basic freedoms that we enjoy and take for granted. Spain itself is a little better than these countries being situated in Europe, but it is still a poverty striken country, especially by European standards.

Why is this? Is it just a co-incidence, or is there an underlying reason why Spanish speaking countries cannot support their people? Certainly, they are placed in beautiful tourist thriving countries and all have some sort of export that is needed in the world. It can't be said that ALL these countries have no education system, and free thinking youth to become the new generation business leaders to move their country out of a 400 year drought, can it?

So I would like to know why EVERY single spanish speaking country is filled with corrupt govenment, dirty cops, drug lords, slum shanty towns, extreme poverty for 95% of its population, and why nobody I know has ever even bothered to bring it up?

Please let me know your thoughts and theories....and please be candid.

The Cure for Cancer

When I was a young boy, my father took me into the bank to meet his bank manager. We shook hands after he had introduced me and then we sat down. After my father was finished with his business, he turned to me and asked me, "Well, Chuckie, how much should we give to Terry today?" Of course, we were talking about Terry Fox and his Marathon of Hope to find a cure for cancer.
"Well, Terry wanted every Canadian to donate a dollar and that would raise 26 million dollars for cancer research. So I guess we should give 2 dollars" I said.

My dad turned to me and said, "Well, we'll give him 10 dollars to make up for some people that can’t afford to give some"

I didn't really understand why my dad did this. But, as a young man, my father lost his mother to cancer and he saw how it decimated not only her body, but worse, her spirit. We watched this another 3 times through the course of my life as each one of my grandparents lost their respective battles with this terrible disease. Cancer seems to run in my family genes, and to watch a loved one succumb to it is something I truly wouldn't wish on anyone.

Well Terry Fox, the brave young man that he was, lost his battle with cancer almost 30 years ago. And every year, there is the annual Terry Fox run to help find the cure for cancer. To date, they say that Terry Fox's name has raised more than 500 Million dollars for cancer research. That's a half BILLION Dollars!! And that's just from Terry Fox. That's not including Breast Cancer or the other many types of cancer out there and certainly not including the government grants and other monies raised.

So that raises an issue to contend with. With all of this money raised, you can't tell me that we are nowhere nearer a cure to Cancer than when Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope run almost 30 years ago.

Now, I'm quite sure that there are many difficulties in finding this cure, but I can tell you something that doesn't sit well with me. We can put a man on the moon several times and bring him back safely but we can't cure a disease like cancer.

Now, to put a man on the moon required inventing countless products that previously didn't exist. It was "the" triumph achievement of what the Human Spirit could accomplish when he put his mind to it. So why can't we do the same with Cancer, Aids, or any other horrible disease?

I'll tell you why.

Because there's no money in finding a cure for Cancer. -Only in TREATING cancer.

They are no closer to finding a cure for Cancer, because they aren't trying to cure it!!

They are simply trying to treat it because it is a TRILLION Dollar worldwide business. So why would you try to cure something that carries that kind of weight in money? Sure, you can find better ways to diagnose it, and get it earlier in the process, and hopefully that will save you time where previous generations lost that battle early on. But no cure.

Sorry.

Does this surprise you? It shouldn't...You've grown up knowing at least one person be killed off by cancer. Doesn't it alarm you that other areas in our lifestyles have gotten so much easier and better, and yet the world of Cancer hasn't? Sure, it LOOKS better from what it did 30 years ago, but then again, what doesn't? They have to make it look like they are carrying on the good fight.

But what if the public demanded to know where all of this research money was being allocated and what they were doing to fight and cure cancer? My guess is, you wouldn't get very far.

But what if we took it one more step and called for answers and nobody would raise more money for cancer research unless we got it? Well then, now you've got something!! Take away the fund raising until there are suitable answers and accountability is forthcoming.

But this will never happen.

The world of money rules ever more, and cancer is BIG business. And it's always pretty funny how big business seems to overcome all the odds to STAY in business.

I'm just glad that Terry Fox isn't alive right now to see that all of his hard work may have saved lives that previously would've been lost, but that the cure still isn't out there because they aren't looking for one.

The 9/11 Conspiracy

I like history. A lot.

The thing that most people who don't like history don't understand, is that history is much more than people and places and times. You can actually see a lot from the history that you learn. As the saying goes, "Success leaves clues". And so does History.

Now, with the anniversary of 9/11 coming up on Friday, I thought I could throw out my 2 cents about the subject this week, but I have avoided actually talking about it on the actual anniversary of the event out of respect for those fallen souls.

Now, because the sensitivity of the issue where so many people lost their lives, and families of people who lost loved ones, I would like to start off by saying, that I am truly sorry for your loss. This was a day that was unlike any other in our lives. There are very few days where something this surreal happens where you remember where you were on the day, but this was certainly the biggest of my generation.

What most people will tell you about 9/11 conspiracies are times and actions that will arise and peak your interest towards the events of the day. They will go into specific details of how, and what happened that eventually lead to the collapse of the Twin Towers. There is even a 3rd tower that collapsed about 6 hours later across from the World Trade Center that most people don't know about. This is a direct ingredient of one of the conspiracy theories. There are people that will tell you that there were charges laid in each of the 3 World Trade Centers and that the planes who crashed into the towers didn't or couldn't have caused the collapses.

There are the smoking gun theories about the Pentagon. There was never a plane crashing into it. There are no surveillance footage to prove that a plane crashed into it. Which is quite odd because it is after all, the most secure building in the United States, next to the White House. Yep, no footage, no pictures and no evidence. So anything could've actually hit it. But let's just assume that after seeing the carnage, that something definately did. So I don't really care what hit it, I just know it was damaged.

The plane that went down near Pittsburgh, well, a lot more was known about that than the really important one that hit the Pentagon. Nobody seems to know much about that, for some reason which is very odd. And seemingly, nobody asked questions and nobody seemed to make a big deal about it. They just behaved like good little lemmings following each other to their own demise. And in many ways, that's the way it is...

What is really unimportant in all of these facts, and what most people all seem to be missing is that this is all smoke and mirrors and misdirection to what the big mystery is about 9/11. And that is, it is the newest way to deceive the world and force America into a new Vietnam.

Before I get into that, keep in mind that this History thing is going to come back into this note once in a while. To brush you up, Vietnam was the tiny skirmish in Southeast Asia that consumed the American War Machine for over a decade in the 60's and 70's.
And as we all know, war is big business. Lots of jobs, technology and money made on war. Besides, the war lords spent all this money on their new toys, and it's kind of neat to get out and take them for a spin, right? So in effect, Vietnam was never a war that was intended to be won. It was just a war to be kept fighting for a long time.

It's kind of funny that JFK was committed to keeping America OUT of this war, and after nearly averting a nuclear stand off with the Soviets in Cuba, it was fair and safe to say that war had no place in his presidential agenda. And funny how that ended up working out for his cause; and the cause of his Administration when LBJ took over upon his death and took the country immediately to war in Vietnam. It's also funny to think that LBJ did not seek another election, and stood by as the Rebublican Richard Nixon fully committed the nation to that war. A war that could not be won, because there is no enemy. Does anyone see where the similarities are here?

Now walk into the first few months of George W. Bush's presidency in 2001. He is the son of former President George HW Bush, a US Navy pilot, CIA man, Vice President previous to being the President. George HW Bush is the son of Nazi sympathizer and bank man for Nazi funds, Prescott Bush. Yep, A lot of dirty laundry in that family. Like heaps of it. But let me not defray from where I was going...

George HW Bush lead the first Gulf War during his presidency. To be honest, he wasn't expecting to lose the re-election and it really thwarted his plan to conquor the world one oil field at a time in Iraq. By losing the re-election, it set up Clinton to waste the efforts that he has thrown into the mix to save his country from the Oil Fields that were almost in the grasp for Bush and his oil thirsty empire.

So it was no surprise, that his son George Jr. was able to carry Florida, his younger brother's state to carry the presidency into the hands of the Bush's once again. But unlike his father, there was no blind luck of Iraq invading Kuwait and allow the US Armed Forces to come to the rescue this time. Damn, that would've been really nice. There was no loss of American life that time around. How unconvenient for the families of the victims of 9/11, because now there had to be a launching pad for the Bush's to start an illegal war in 2 countries chasing a guy that they would never catch. Hmmmmmmmm, does this sound close to another Vietnam?

The thing about this, is that most people think George W Bush is stupid. And although he may not be a great orator, or know much about geography and history, he does know a really good strategy on how to keep his Empire alive. But I'll get back to that...

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the USA became the world's only superpower. And militarily, there is no nation that could compete with its might. But history has proven every time, that no empire no matter how mighty, has stood the test of time. And although nobody could hit the USA in terms of might, there is a way where you could bring it to its knees.

Oil.

The USA is the world's largest consumer of oil. I think the stat is 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the comsumption comes from the good ol' U.S of A.

That's quite a stat.

So if you wanted to bring that military to its knees, you could starve it of oil and it couldn't move. Is any of this ringing a bell?

So with a reason to move into Iraq and kill its leader and take over his country and its vast oil resources by basically re-colonizing it and setting up a government that will serve the US, it seems that should do it. And if that doesn't give you the entire picture, you can throw in the Saudi Arabian Royal family who are like family to the Bush's and you can pretty much control almost the entire Middle East Oil.

There is also a small country that nobody really pays that much attention to until lately, because nobody realized how much oil reserves that they control. Hugo Chavez is in deep shit with the Americans because he happens to be the leader of the South American country of Venezuela and they are the top 3 of the world's leaders in oil production. Now, isn't it funny how the States are mad at Chavez for not playing nicely in the oil sandbox with others?!

Anyway the point is, that this illegal war was created all by 9/11 and allowed the United States to wage war in Afghanistan to look for a man who they would never find, and then romp through Iraq to invade a country in order to prevent them from building "weapons of mass destruction", which they knew weren't there.

But nobody questions that, because they are all still looking at the still smoldering Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in nearby Pittsburgh rather than realizing this:

That David Copperfield couldn't have produced a better illusion to mistify a nation of people and brainwash them into believing that they were victims of Terror.

But I don't buy it. And you should look into it as well.

And when you do, really look back into history for all the clues. Because they are all there to see.

As the saying goes, "You can fool some of the people some of the time, and you can fool most of the people most of the time. But you can't fool all of the people ALL of the time."

Don't let yourself be a statistic in one of these sayings.

The JFK Assassination Conspiracy

The year is 2029.

A school child opens his American History book and looks up "JFK Assassination" These files have just been released by the American government this year. For about 3quarters of a century, one of the biggest lies that the American people have been told, and even worse, they have BELIEVED is that Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on Novemeber 22, 1963 from the Texas Book Depository.

Only now, in the year 2029, can we finally know the truth.

And the truth is that we were told a massive lie and the complex cover-up went through many levels in the American government. Was JFK killed by his own countrymen for a reason that we have never known? The answer is "Yes"

For the most part, I do not believe in co-incidences anymore. If I see an isolated incident occur, I am forgiving and open-minded. If I see 2 things happen because of this, I am attentive and beginning to be leary. If I see a FEW things, well, let's just say it's going to take a lot more to convince me than co-incidences and logic.

This case just reeks of all of those to the high heavens.

Adolf Hitler once said that if you tell a big enough lie enough times, people will believe it, and certainly in this case, this seems to be true.

There are just too many instances in this cover up to believe that there wasn't a conspiracy. The fact that the Warren Commission sold the American people "The Magic Bullet Theory" is laughable.
In fact, it is so unbelieveably horrific to think that the American people would actually believe this theory that the rest of the findings in the Warren Report would be completely useless. But guess what? They not only didn't question it, they bought it and swallowed it.

Over the period of the investigation, routine security breeches like, say, the President's HEAD going "missing" and never recovered occured. And still nobody questioned it. The findings of the Warren Report was such a lie that immediately after it was released, the U.S. government sealed the classified documents until the year 2029. Keep in mind, this is 1963 that this occured in. Today is 2009. If these files were sealed TODAY, 20 years would seem to be almost a life sentence from now. Now tack on an additional 46 years to that to hide this truth.
In the end, every single person who could've been held accountable for this lie, will have been dead for about 20 years by the time the truth is revealed.

How convenient that is.

That, in itself smells of something fishy.

What does it say to every single citizen of the USA that not only were they lied to about what happened on that fateful day in Dallas half a lifetime ago, but that the truth will be withheld from them until the remaining people who were alive then are long dead?

And yet these citizens are OK with this?!

What do you have to do to get some answers when your Commander-in-Chief is assassinated and there are no answers? Would you rather have a lie told to you, or not be told anything at all?

Well, in this case, both are true.

The alternative is, that the truth is something so horrific, that it would be catastrophic if it got out. And because of this, you are not able to ever know the truth, no matter what the cost. It will be hidden as long as possible, and to tell you the truth, I doubt if the year 2029 will arrive and anything will change. A conspiracy that runs this deep is destined to be buried for all pf time.

And in the end, people accept this, so this is the way it is; which I find completely unacceptable.

But in the end, my opinion and those of hundreds of millions of other people won't matter.

So, in this case, we simply sit on our hands and be the nice little Prolitarians that we arem and simply accept it as we say "Doubleplusgood"...

The Week of American Conspiracy Theories

I thought that with the season of summer coming to an inevitable end, and with Fall creeping upon us, I would start a theme for this week in my blogs.

As TV starts with it's premiers for the upcoming seasons, American and NCAA Football seasons starting, I thought I would start a new season for my blog.
So this week, I will tackle a different conspiracy theory that has eluded proof and created controversy. These topics are hot issues with people; They have been around for a few years and many decades, but still stir it up when talked about.

I don't have the proof that would obviously prove these topics, but I will offer my stance on the issue. In many cases, I think that there is much, much more than all the evidence in each case offers. But for the most part, I don't think there will ever be a true story, just a way to pick a side and stimulate debate.

I sometimes get disallusioned that there are so many cover-ups, and that the citizens of their own countries get lied to as much as we do. For the most part, I honestly think that I would rather not know the crap that goes on everyday in politics and with celebrities so that I will think that my world is never out of control. So, in my case, I would think that I choose ignorance rather than being subjected to the real truth of things such as Assassinations, the causes of war, genoside, and other complexities that create such calamaties that require such cover-ups.

So this each day this week, I will profile a different conspiracy theory that has been a great cause of debate and will continue to do so many years after we are all gone from this earth.

I hope you can join in and comment with your own opinions and theories.

When I loved Baseball

I remember a time when kids used to flock to open fields, parking lots, vacant lots or anything that could resemble a baseball diamond and throw their gloves into a pile and play pick 'em.

It was in the schoolyard before the snow came, and as soon as it melted. Weekends were always played outside with a friendly neighbourhood game of pick up. You would pick a baseball player to be and maybe you even had your own jersey with his name and number on the back.

School would write me off during Oct. and my dad would get a call from the principal's office if there was a pennant or world series day game. My old man would answer the rotary phone with me laying beside him on the floor in front of the tv watching the game and tell my teacher I had a bad cough.
He would then hang up the phone and not even look at me. "Cough" he would say... I coughed, then he would say, "now, its not a lie" without ever taking his eye of the TV set.

He did this because his dad did it for him. We had a long line of hookey playing to be proud of in this family.

But I think that tradition ended right there...

Somewhere after the early 90's strike, I fell out of love with America's pastime. I mean, I grew up with some greats, after they had followed guys like Mickey Mantle, Mr. October, Ted Williams and the list goes on....

My baseball was earless batting helmets, day games, uniforms that were short to the knee and tight to the ass and legs and were always filthy. Stirrups that were long and thin, cleats that needed to be beaten with a bat in the batters box everytime you called for time. The smell of tobacco near a bugout from all the players chewing chaw with big cheekfulls of it...

The Big Red Machine, the hated Pittsburgh Pirates, George Brett charging an ump out of the dugout, the New York Yankees firing Billy Martin 7 times, All-Star games where you knew every name because they were the greatest year in and year out. Ballcaps with curves so round that they were almost illegal. You were NOBODY if you wore the cap any other way than it should be worn. Forwards, NOT sideways, or canted, maybe backwards if you were representing a rallycap at the end of a game to get behind your team.

Now, there is no such thing as stirrups, pants are so long that they tuck them into their $1,000 customized monogramed cleats. No curves on hats, wearing them off centre with gangbanger bandannas underneath instead, and making millions of dollars for a game they once loved. Now they just see the ballfield as the office in order to pay for their 3 wives and child support and grab the fame while they can before they live life after baseball.

Steroids have ruined the image of the sport and quite honestly, I don't think anyone even cares anymore. I know more people who would much rather watch soccer than baseball these days and that could NEVER have been said before.

So, I've realized that baseball will never mean baseball anymore. It used to be a treat to go to the ballfield with some corn, peanuts and some cokes and bask in the sun while chanting "hey batter, batter, batter" for 9 glorious innings.
The smell of the grass in the ballpark has been replaced with artificial turf, and corporate thugs who don't care anymore. They have ripped a piece of that little boy's heart out and replaced it with business.

And then they wonder why kids grow up so fast these days....

Note to Self...

Dear Chuck,

This is Chuck. I just want to tell you that I think you're pretty ‘effing cool. You've come a long way in the 37 years of our life, but I just wanted to tell you that I think you are the shizzle.

Remember when we were talking when you passed that mirror store the other day and I was telling you what great looking blue eyes you have? I really meant that. Its true that our body hasn't been in the greatest shape lately, but I’m not really worried about that. It will always come when we are ready to look sweet again. The good news is that you still have a great ass that we could bounce quarters off of, and that will never change. Kudos to us for that...

And I must say, that I really like what you have been doing to our hair. I don't know why you were so insistent on straightening your gorgeous naturally curly hair, but I like it that we've gone back to letting it" be who we is"...

This writing a novel idea/thing that we've picked up is absolutely brilliant. It's about time that we got off our ass and decided to write down some of the stupidity we've done in our life, and shared it with the world that the small price of a hardcover book will bring. We may not be a great accomplished writer right now, but damn if we won't look great doing it.

Also, our daughter is about to start realizing that her dad is just about the coolest cat in the game. That's worth a lot. She is a real darling and it's safe to say that she got her good looks from her mother, and that we had very little to do with that. -But that's ok. We can still take credit for her down the road...

In closing, I just wanted to tell you what a great guy you are and how much I admire you. It’s been a while since we've had a little pep-talk and I just wanted to take a moment out of our busy day to say I think you're aces kid. You really got it going on.

I probably have forgotten something, but hell, I'll keep ya in the loop as I will never be far away.

Hope to see you in a mirror sometime soon.

Love,

Chuck

Sharing Time with Me

I could be writing to anyone right now. I could be writing to myself, a person I admire, or a person I am mourning.
I know that we have all loved someone with all of our being and we have all lost someone that we have loved with all of our being. So I'm going to leave this up to you, so that you can read this and think of that person that it reminds you of best.

The human memory is absolutely amazing. I think that if you remember something, it is locked in your brain for as long as you want it to remain there. Case in point...I went to a High School reunion. I haven’t seen some of these people in years. I was talking to this guy and I didn’t know him so I asked him what is your name?
He says "Jason Miles".

Hmmmm, Name rings a bell.

I look at his face. Clearly, he has been an adult more than 20 years now, but my memory still sees him dressed as a Funker in funker clothes with red hair spiked to one side on his bmx bike in 1985. It took me 4 seconds to look into his adult face and say, "yep I see it now". It was almost like looking at one of those 3d pictures in the 90's…You can’t see it at first and then, pow. There it is…
The point is, my memory had encapsulated him from the last time I saw him. He could've died, and he would never have aged a day...

As I look at people I have loved, lost, and still have, I am thankful for a memory where I can still hear their voices, see their smiles, laugh at the crazy shit they've done, and remember all the living of life I have shared with them. Each in their own different way or moment. I have given as they have given, a bit of their soul and we shared time. No matter how small, brief, or long; if my memory can recall it, it was special.

There are a lot of things I don't remember, and when someone reminds me, its like a gift that is so unique, its worth its weight in gold. -A timepiece that was dug up and given back to me. Like a buried treasure.

As November 11th comes closer, I tend to get a bit more sentimental. I am truly thankful for all that another year has brought me. I remain ever constant about the price of freedom that I am fortunate to have been born into; that generations of people before me paid for my entry fee.
A real gift.

With that freedom, we live our lives as we want. I have travelled and I met a lot of people. A lot of those people touched my life, and continue to touch it daily and will do so for the remainder of my days. I remember these things and I life my life a little better everyday because of it.

So thank you for the time you’ve spent with me, whomever you are.

But if you think about it hard enough, you know that I’m talking to you....