John Fritsch's Blog

It's not just the "Millennials"

2018-09-24T22:50:00.002-04:00

I'm having a hard deal dealing with society lately - or at least with the group of people I find myself in the company of. I see too many people being controlled by their cell phones and more specifically social media.

I'm not going to be able to make the point any where as close to as succinct as Simon Sinek does in the following video so please, watch the video and while you're watching, think about how much of what he says, you're guilty of. Make the world a better place and listen to what he says. Share the video with your friends on Facebook and Instagram and whatever other time suck you have set up to alert you via your phone.

If you yourself aren't guilty of what he talks about, I'm sure you know someone who is so do your civic duty and share the video

2016-12-17T16:05:00.001-05:00

Just got back from seeing this amazing movie for the first, of which will hopefully, be several times. I am going to find it difficult to describe just how good this movie was. I've been describing the overall thought of this as Titanic - we all know what happens at the end without having seen the movie. In this case, instead of an unsinkable ship sinking, we will watch as the plans to the Death Star are stolen. Well in a way similar to how I was wowed by Titanic, I was wowed by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

I just got done reading a couple reviews to see if other people out there are holding this movie in the same high esteem I am - and wow are the reviews mixed. My thought is you either have people that are true Star Wars fans - and loved this one-off, or you have some millennial who doesn't really "get" the whole Star Wars story and thinks Ep. VII was a good installment.

The reviews that made me think to throw out my own opinion, essentially had good things to say only about the humor of K-2SO. Rolling Stone and The Chicago Tribune specifically, both completely missed the mark on their reviews. Gives me horrible flashbacks to Jar Jar - oh God. See the movie - see if you think that was really the first and only thing you'd mention if someone asked you about it. K-2SO added to the movie in ways his predecessors C-3PO and R2-D2 added to their movies. And that's it - added. He didn't distract me with forced jokes and quips. The main story was the prevailing theme throughout and it was ....just amazing!

As I said, for all true Star Wars fans, it was a story we already knew at a high level. But Garreth Edwards and his crew did an impressive job of taking the basic story and filling in the gaps fantastically. After the letdown of Ep. VII, I was relived to know that it is actually possible to continue telling the story I loved so much as a kid. There was no need to force a strong female lead or African American character on the audience.. All the characters were there to tell the Star Wars story - not to make a name for themselves and their acting (in)ability.

I hate spoiler reviews and it's so new that I don't want to accidentally ruin anything for anyone. Wait...who am I kidding...no one actually reads this blog. In any case, should you happen upon this post, and you're someone who truly "gets" Star Wars, GO SEE IT. You will not be disappointed....PERIOD!

The Force be with you....always.

A message inspired by Sylvester Stallone - Keep Moving Forward

2016-11-08T08:37:00.001-05:00

Today is Election Day. An especially historic day to say the least. Keeping my comments above the line, after today we will either see the first female president in the 200+ year history of the country, or we will have thumbed our noses to the establishment. Get out and vote.....and make America great again!

Fall Fest 2016 Zipline Action

2016-10-02T15:05:00.001-04:00

Had to do it.

2016-09-30T14:20:00.001-04:00

I think what irritates me more than any of the actual substance (or lack thereof) in the first Presidential debate of 2016, is the way a moderator can be so blatantly in favor of one of the two participants. I decided to write down my thoughts on the subject....my kids would tease me for using the word "write" when I'm typing them on my computer. Anyway, let's get to the first irritation. I take the following citations from http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/19-wtf-moments-from-the-first-presidential-debate-w442029. I am not advocating this site - just landed there from a Google search.

On the contents [of] Trump’s tax returns

Clinton: "You've got to ask yourself, why won't he release his tax returns? And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he's not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he's not as charitable as he claims to be.Third, we don't know all of his business dealings, but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to Wall Street and foreign banks. Or maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax."
Trump: "That makes me smart."
Clinton: "So if he's paid zero, that means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health. And I think probably he's not all that enthusiastic about having the rest of our country see what the real reasons are, because it must be something really important, even terrible, that he's trying to hide.”

Addressing her points one by one...

1> Who knows. I can't speculate how rich he is or isn't.

2> I don't care frankly. The underlying message I hear from this one is - because he's rich he should be giving a lot to charity. I mean after all, isn't that what the Dems always push for? Raise the taxes on the rich - they should pay their fair share? What exactly is their fair share? A percent is a percent. To me that's fair share.

Assume for a minute we live in a small community on a deserted island and our most valuable natural resource is coconuts. We use them for food, clothing, hydration, suntan lotion, trading with neighboring islands, all sorts of things. There are actually plenty of coconuts to go around .... the only problem is that the coconut trees are all on the far side of the island - about 2 miles away. So several times a week, a bunch of our fellow island dwellers make the arduous trip to the other side of the island to gather coconuts. Each trip yields only about 4 or 5 coconuts per person. They sell some of their harvest to the other islanders and thus our economy is formed.

After a few years of this, one particularly smart guy had an idea - rather than make this difficult trip time and time again, only bringing back a few coconuts at a time, he decides to start planting some of the coconuts he gathers. A few years go by and his idea has blossomed into a nice little coconut farm in his corner of the island and he's producing far more coconuts than any one person can bring back from the other side of the island. Recognizing the struggle faced by his community to keep up with the demand for coconuts, he sells off a portion of his harvest, at a reasonable cost. Even after selling some of what he doesn't use, he still finds himself with an ever increasing inventory of coconuts so he decides he can afford to give a few to people who are too sick or too old to gather their own.

He is applauded by many of his neighbors. They admire his innovative thought process and they too begin to plant coconuts on their patch of the island. Unfortunately, some inhabitants get discouraged and cry foul - "it's not fair - why should those people have more coconuts than me! They should have to share with me.....that's the fair thing to do!"

And behold - the seeds of democracy are sewn on this hypothetical island. Can you guess which people will be Democrats and which will be Republicans? Hillary, and her party, would rather play Robin Hood and simply give to people than inspire people to come up with ideas and work for themselves which, as on the island, leads to a better society as a whole.

OLYMPIC GLORY (Manny Mendes) Performs at the Allentown Fair - 9/2/2016

2016-09-06T15:13:00.001-04:00

My previous video was flagged for a copyright violation due to a certain background song that was played during the show. The video has been trimmed to not contain the song. All you missed was the diver, Manny Mendes, climbing up the ladder.

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS FIREWORKS GRAND FINALE as seen from Coronado Springs -...

2016-09-03T13:49:00.001-04:00

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS FIREWORKS as seen from Coronado Springs - 8/23/2016

2016-09-03T13:34:00.001-04:00

SEVEN DWARFS MINE TRAIN - "You Lied to Me!" - 8/18/2016 Magic Kingdom Or...

2016-09-03T12:37:00.001-04:00

Hockey Fights MS - Bethlehem, PA 2016 - Sunbury's Finest Game 1 victory.

2016-08-13T02:34:00.001-04:00

Got off to a good start with a 3-1 victory. This is the insurance goal we scored late in the 3rd period.

Hockey Fights MS - Bethlehem 2016

2016-08-13T00:44:00.000-04:00

Tonight I played my first game with Sunbury's Finest...a team from....Sunbury, PA. So far they seem like a good group of guys. We won 3-1 over The Orange Team. Extra fun for me because JT and Dylan came along to watch. I got lost in my thoughts when I first looked over and saw them sitting on the bleachers. I remember when they would be standing there yelling "Hi Daddy! Hi Daddy!". That was probably a good 6-7 years ago. Now they're all grown up - mostly - and it just made me glad to see them there. Thanks guys, it means more to me than you know right now.

And thanks Diane for taking some videos that I can shamelessly plug. You can check them out here

Musikfest 2016

2016-08-12T07:53:00.001-04:00

Not sure if anyone is even reading this blog anymore (or if anyone EVER read it) but I'm on a YouTube kick lately so I wanted to share out my newest playlist containing some videos from our trip to Musikfest this past Monday night. We decided to stop and watch one of the street performances, "Her Majesty's Secret Circus". Without further ado ......

2011-10-04T00:34:00.000-04:00

I received an email from my dad tonight and felt I needed to post it here. Ironically, tonight while I was coming home I decided to drive through the old neighborhood where I gre up. One of the sights is always Granny's house. Well, these days it's where Granny's house used to be -- they've since torn her house down and replaced it with a newer larger one but the lot and the memories are still there. So the contents of the email I received from my dad was a letter I wrote to my grandmother "Granny" for her 75th birthday which was in Jan 1999. I miss you Granny -

My fondest memory of my Grandmother

When I was first told about this idea of writing down my fondest memory of you I thought it would be easy. No big deal…just jot something down, right. But when I stopped to think about it there are so many special memories I have it was hard to pick just one. There are the obvious ones like going food shopping together or "Christmas Eve at Granny's" but probably what I remember most about you is simply spending time with you at your house be it on a sick day, a snow day or just in the afternoon until my mom came to pick me and Tina up. I think back now about how great those days were and only now can I really appreciate them for what they were. When I think about it I'm surprised I didn't go insane from boredom. All there was to do was color in the coloring books that were stashed under the coffee table and watch tv….that is if it wasn't wash day. Oh, and I can't forget about the daily trips to Geiger's for milk, bread and Raleigh's Plain. Sometimes I would actually do homework…other times I'd sort through my hockey cards. I think it was one of these days that I came up with my hockey pool that you always graciously participated in even though I think you really had no interest in it. Remember the one where you picked a number from a cup and that number had to match the total score in the Flyers game? I remember you always let me watch tv most of the day until Sally Jesse Raphael came on. Then it was your turn to watch tv for a couple hours until Little House on the Prairie came on. I remember you making Macaroni & Cheese for lunch just about anytime I wanted. Plus if we were lucky enough to stay for supper you always had something great to eat…always with a slice of butter bread, of course! There are so many memories I have of you Granny that I could go on for pages and pages. If you get anything out of this letter let it be that you know how much I love having you as a grandmother and that I hope to make many more memories with you in the years to come.

2011-09-27T20:26:00.000-04:00

Which is worse?

Much to do is being made of a comment Wayne Simmonds made about Sean Avery during last nights Flyers / Rangers preseason battle. I don't say allegedly as many news sites are almost required to say - he made the comment - I have no doubts. If there is any doubt in your mind - play this video

Simmonds

For some strange reason, not much press is being given to this little tid-bit that happened seconds before.....

Avery

So I ask you - seriously - which is worse? Calling someone a name (remember sticks and stones growing up?) or threatening to kill someone?

And don't tell me Avery didn't really mean to kill Giroux. That would imply you were able to read Avery's twisted thoughts and say that he meant he was just going to beat him up or something like that...right? Well, I just so happen to have that same clairvoyant ability and I was reading Simmonds' mind at the very time he uttered those nasty horrific words that everyone is so shocked about. He wasn't saying anything about Avery's sexuality (as if there is any doubt) and how dare you have such terrible thoughts anyway...what's wrong with you for thinking that? Naturally when he called him a faggot he was referring to this -

Faggot

Someone who goes by the name Freudian put it best when he posted a comment on a message board that read "I'm sure some gays will be offended by being compared to Avery, but I think most don't care."

And there you have it. Case closed.....let's play hockey.

EDIT: Just as I was about to publish this post - I received an alert on my phone indicating that Simmonds would not be punished by the league. Thank God.....there seems to be some common sense left in this world afterall.

2011-09-26T11:29:00.000-04:00

20 - 17 - 18 >= 20

Carter scored last night … on a rebound … during a two-man advantage. Yawn. I also noticed he changed his number from 17 to 7 and is apparently once again suffering from a "bruised" foot. Naturally it occurred in the offensive zone - off a shot from his own player - Nash. Also worthy or mentioning, he's a -14 in his 5 years of post-season action with Philly. Time to finally put this guy down and put us all out of our misery.

As for Richards -

"Off-season acquisitions Mike Richards and Simon Gagne played with captain Dustin Brown on the second line and the three were a combined minus-6. "

In return, the Flyers acquired Voracek, Simmonds and Schenn and indirectly Bryzgalov. All three have been having decent starts to camp with Simmonds probably being the most impressive.

I was going to say something about Jody Shelley but I already wasted enough time just thinking about him. Last but not least - Jagr. Very strange to see him in the Orange and Black but a goal and an assist in his first game with the Flyers? Not a bad start at all.....not bad at all.

It's very early but at least so far the post-trade scales seem to be tipped in favor of the Flyers. So much hype is being made of the fact that 40-some percent of the Flyers goals were either traded away of lost to free agency with a good share of that going along with 17 and 18. I contend that when the other 18 guys on the ice are given an opportunity to handle the puck more - the goals will come - maybe even more than before.

Flyers / Rangers tonight 7pm. The lineup will be pretty close to what we'll see opening night. Don't miss it.

2011-09-12T20:07:00.000-04:00

Tonight I was tidying up some of the images I have saved on my pc and stumbled upon something pretty amazing. The guys (ladies too, I just HATE the word folks) have done it again. I found this picture

that I had taken back on June 24, 2009. I remember it clearly - this giant thing came out of nowhere and landed on my shoulder. My dad was there and he bravely flicked the thing off me and onto the picnic table. The monster was a good 3-4 inches long. Neither of us had seen one before so we were both fascinated. I tried a few times to look for it's name via the web but came up empty.....until tonight that is. I pointed my browser to http://images.google.com and before I even had a chance to type anything in I noticed a message:

"New! Now you can use an image to start your Google search."

Really? Ok....I'll give it a try. I drag the picture from my Windows Explorer window onto the Google Images search page - wait a couple seconds while it uploads and ...... awwww. It found a lot of black and grey pictures but not of my bug. Not even of any bugs....mostly rocks. But there's still hope - in the search box at the top I'm instructed to

"describe image here"

so I do just that - I type in "bug false eye"

And BAM - I now know that my shoulder was attacked by a pretty large EYED CLICK BEETLE.

Thank you Google.

2011-08-22T23:17:00.000-04:00

Aug 12-14, 2011 was the 6th annual Hockey Fights MS tournament held in Bethlehem, PA. I played for the "Free Agents" team - a rag tag bunch of guys (and two girls) thrown together for the sake of playing hockey, raising some money for MS research and just having fun. For the first time, I was on the winning side! That's right, we won our division. I played defense for all four games...not sure if that helped us along our journey or if we won despite that fact but I had a good time. Not as fun as VT but fun nonetheless. Details of this and previous tournaments can be found at Hockey Fights MS website.

This first set of pictures is from the championship game against the Black Holes:

Time to shake hands

Holding "The Cup"

Group shot

More shots from earlier in the tournament

2011-08-12T18:01:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago we decided (the kids were begging) to take a rafting/tubing trip down the Lehigh. We drove up to Treichler's bridge and floated down to just a little north of the power lines that cross the river from the Northampton sub-station....I think it's called Seigfreid? Anyway, the kids had a great time, Christl was cold and we ended up walking back to the car in the dark because....no surprises really....it took longer than we expected.

The kids got a little excited when this happened.....

2011-07-27T01:10:00.000-04:00

Christl's mom found this guy walking on the side of the road directly across from their house. We grabbed it and took it over to the pond and as soon as it saw the water it immediately wanted to get in. We'll have to keep an eye on the fish - if they start disappearing - time for the turtle to leave.

2011-07-27T01:02:00.000-04:00

Another very fun and exciting trip to Vermont to play in the 4th Annual Hockey Fights MS Hockey Tournament. We came close to winning the championship in our division of 8 teams. Fell just short - we had been ahead 2-1 for most of the game until the other team (Designated Drinkers) scored two late goals to win the trophy. There's always next year.

2011-04-01T22:28:00.003-04:00

From JT's Essay - "My Dad"

JT surprised me with this paper tonight. His assignment at school was to write an essay about someone who has changed his life. Needless to say - it made my week.

2011-04-01T22:23:00.001-04:00

This little clip was taken at the "Unangst Fall Fest" on October 9, 2010. I can't remember the name of the instrument you hear - all I remember is my uncle Gary calls it a 'dizzaradoo'.

2011-03-18T00:26:00.000-04:00

I was perusing my old posts and saw my Thanksgiving turkey from 2009 so I decided I'd dig up a pick of the one from 2010. The big joke was that it had been in the sun too long wearing a string bikini. Everyone raved about the flavor....as I remember I did the least to it that time. I also think is was a Giant brand rather than the standard Butterball.

2011-03-16T18:09:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile. I haven't been on here in a little over a year which is about the same amount of time I've been working at PPL. So much has happened since my last post....I'll start with the job situation. My stint at Schuylkill Medical Center lasted a little less than two months. I really enjoyed the job and the people. The only real drawback was that it took me about 1hr and 10mins to commute each way. But I was doing ok with it because I enjoyed getting up each day, getting in the car, stopping for a coffee (to enjoy on the long journey) and heading to a job I liked (and a place I was appreciated).

But one early spring day I received a phone call from someone from ComputerAid asking if I was still interested in a position I had last discussed shortly before Christmas. I had gotten the impression that there was a position open at that time but it had been filled by a contractor already working inside PPL but for another contracting firm. I had put it out of my mind and figured it just wasn't meant to be and accepted the offer at Schuylkill. But now the offer was thrown back at me.....I could cut my commute down to 1/3 what it was and I could opt to be paid hourly and be eligible for OT pay.

I truly struggled with the decision because I was really starting to feel like I was part of the little group out the in Pottsville. There were many challenges ahead of me - I was the "interface guy" there. No one really had any experience with supporting interface engines - it was all hosted and "supported" by the vendor. I say "supported" because one of the issues they were dealing with was a vendor who didn't seem to fully understand the impact of having one or more critical interfaces unavailable. I sensed a tremendous opportunity for growth for both my career and the hospital as well.

I waited about two days before laying the news on my boss, the CIO. Karen - if you even stumble upon this - know that I am sincere when I say that I struggled and felt horrible that I was leaving you guys after such a short time.

But just as I believed that "things happen for a reason" when I was hired in Pottsville - I thought the same had to apply in the case of PPL.

So I've worked there since sometime around mid-April of 2010. I have met many nice people and generally enjoy the work I do. I'm back to UNIX admin after a few years of focusing on interface development at Lehigh Valley Hospital. But what makes it interesting for me is the technologies at PPL that I only dreamed about at LVH. New servers attached to SAN storage....linux servers - both physical and virtuals....DR procedures that actually work.....lots of good stuff.

So I guess I'll wrap it up for this post. Not because that's all that happened in a year but because I'm getting tired of typing and if I'M tired I can only imagine if anyone is reading this, how he/she feels.!

2010-02-14T23:14:00.000-05:00

This is the last night of being unemployed. Tomorrow I start my new job at Schuylkill Health. I've got a lot of emotions running around inside me. I've got a meeting with a vendor first thing - 8am tomorrow. It's definitely going to be hectic for awhile while I acclimate to the new environment -- the people, the applications, the "culture".

I have to say I'm looking forward to just getting through my first day.