John Bolduan - On the personal side.

Lake Vostok drilling could be significant.

2012-02-09T11:13:00.000-06:00

There's been a lot of excitement in the science community about the Russians drilling down to Lake Vostok, a body of water that's been under the Antarctic ice for millions of years. It's been funny, they've been drilling this for the last 14 years, but why didn't they get to it sooner? What they hope to find are life forms that we haven't seen yet. That is exciting, but they also say that it might be a totally sterile environment with high levels of oxygen in the lake. In any case, how does a lake get covered up by miles of ice and still be called a lake? Experts are saying that some of it is heated up through geothermal activity which would explain why it would stay liquid, but not why it would stay sterile. I think it's going to be one of the most fascinating stories at the beginning of the 21st-century from a scientific perspective. To have something that's been sealed up for so long should tell us a lot about the environment back then, that is if we don't screw it up. The Russians are pretty good at drilling deep holes and there are stories of other holes they've drilled with almost mystical frightening results. I won't go into that but I will say that it takes a lot of persistence to make it happen. And after thinking about this for some time, what else are they going to do in Antarctica? Shouldn't men be drilling holes when there's nothing else to do? Yes! It's not unlike little boys doing digging projects on those long hot summer days. It's just something that men and boys do, they dig. I hope American scientists down there also get a look at what's going on. I would like to see what they think about it as well. I also read that they're going to be sending down a camera to take a look around which should reveal more than they know right now. I would guess the contamination would be the big issue. Can we really insert ourselves into an environment that has not been disturbed for so long without tainting the results? I hope so.

The Superbowl halftime show is always really bad.

2012-02-07T16:27:00.000-06:00

I don't know if you watched the Super Bowl or not, but I caught half of it and even the halftime show. Because the Minnesota Vikings have no chance of ever making the Super Bowl again, it doesn't hold a lot of interest. I would love to see them make it, but it seems to be something that's not meant to be. So I went over to the neighbor's house and they had hors d'oeuvres that everybody contributed to, which was very good. We watched some of the football game and I really had a hard time paying any attention to it. It really gets boring when you get to the halftime show, because it's always so bad. There's almost no way to make it interesting regardless of what musical act you have going. Maybe it's better for the people that are there, but it sure doesn't come off very well on TV. This year it was Madonna as you probably know. This could not have gone worse. Once again, it's her whole act which is herself, singing about herself, gyrating about herself and in general annoying everyone with herself. One song in the act was so stupid, I felt embarrassed for her. I think there is a time when you need to stop doing things in aerobic entertainment, and that usually occurs somewhere over the age of 40. This is especially true if you're a musical act from the last century. The old songs are dated and bringing in new acts to pump it up don't really work. They should just get rid of the Super Bowl halftime show. Instead they should try something else more traditional like a marching band. That's what most people expect for a football game of any kind, all that brass and drums in some wonderful band uniforms. That's what we need to get back to, the game as it was, the game we remember growing up. I think if we ditched all the hype and everything associated with the culture of today it would be a better football experience. Why does it have to be so over-the-top? I know I'm a semi-old fogey, but there are some things that can't be improved upon, apple pie, hot dogs and of course regular football. I even think they should change the name of the Super Bowl to the NFL championship because then it has some meaning. Any time you use the word "super" these days, it's almost certain that it will be anything but super. As it was, the game ended up being close but I didn't see the end of it. I went home and relaxed and released myself from the cultural onslaught that is Superbowl Sunday. The halftime show made me want to puke and could someone please tell Madonna to go sit on her cash, be happy and stop performing?

Not ready to give up the night.

2012-02-05T10:48:00.001-06:00

It was last Friday night and our high school boys were having a basketball game. I was invited by some friends to come and watch, so I decided that it would be a good way to get out of the house. Just the night before, we had seen our girls lose in a close match-up. That game was probably more important to us personally because our daughters play on the team. It's fun to watch the kids play, relation or not, one of the best sports ever invented. Basketball is a complete sport unlike any other requiring agility, conditioning, control and split-second decision making. Nothing could be more fun to watch with the fast pace of the game, much faster than when we were in high school. Frankly, we could not have competed with any of these teams, so different is the game today. It was a rowdy Friday night and I think people were quite ready to let the work and school week go in a blaze of glory. The atmosphere was almost electric as our boys got behind at the beginning but fought back to a convincing win. After the win, I noticed the team all huddled together mid-court and the team captain giving a talk. He was looking around at everyone, pointing his finger in the air as he gestured wisdom to all his teammates. I wondered what he was saying and would give anything to know what it was. With the whole gym bathed in victory, it seemed like we all felt just a little bit better about ourselves and what we were all about. It's hard to describe. It was the glory of winning that we all shared in. People stood around and talked for almost an hour after the game, kids, players, adults, no one wanted to go home. No one was ready to give up the night, going back to ordinary life when they left the gym. Why would they? But sadly, all good things must come to an end and slowly people left the facility into the cold winter darkness. I walked across the grass to where my car was parked and felt the crunch of frosty grass beneath my feet. A few kids from the losing team ahead of me were laughing and daring to utter some profanity that their parents don't know they use. It was then I understood that I left a better place and now was leaving to go back to regular life. The glow was gone, the glory was fading fast and I would have to wait for another night to see it again. Good job boys! You did much more than win a basketball game.

What is a normal life?

2012-02-02T13:58:00.000-06:00

Every once in a while you'll catch people asking the question, is that normal? It's always a good question in life and one where there seems to be no correct answer. We go through life thinking that there is something called normal, but the truth is there is nothing normal about anything that we are or do. People are like snowflakes, no two of them are ever alike. It's the same way with nearly everything that's on this planet. There is nothing that is exactly like, even identical twins are very different. The genetic information may be the same, but there's so much more to it than that, something even mystical. In a world full of raging diversity, it seems like most people want to find things that are generally normal. This leads to frustration and all kinds of misinformation as to what life is really about. Life was never meant to be homogenous, it would have been boring real fast. There would be no surprises, pleasant or unpleasant making life interesting. Of course, there are certain tendencies in human nature that tend to lump us in one big glob of uniformity. It's that kind of view that always gets us into trouble, saying that this is the way everybody should be. It's just not going to be that way and the more we embrace the special gifts that each person has, the more enjoyable life will become. It's even wrong to call yourself average, because there are no average people. My father-in-law has said this for many years, what is average? And for him I believe it's really just a statistic that people use to measure other people by. For me, I don't like the terms normal or average, it says nothing about a person's special place in the world, nothing about what they are. If one can look beyond the fallacy of normal people, we would find a world that is rich with experience that we could not have produced by ourselves. It's like a mosaic. It's something full of color and variety that is hard to explain with mere words. What is normal you ask? Normal living is that there is nothing normal, ordinary or average in this life.

Enjoying one of the mildest winters ever.

2012-01-31T16:41:00.000-06:00

If you lived in Minnesota, you would get used to really frigid, cold weather. That means that anything above 30° is considered balmy in the winter months. Well, we're having that kind of winter. It has to be one of the mildest winters I've ever seen, but I don't think it's because of global warming, we're just in a warm cycle. January is often filled with days of -20 to -30°, but that hasn't happened this year. Take today for instance, were hitting 40° which is a full 60° higher than what we potentially could have suffered. I refuse to complain about this in any fashion. It makes the whole winter seem like an extended autumn. I suppose this is how it feels to live in the southern United States during winter. After seeing how easy it is to live in this kind of weather, I often wonder why I stay here. It would be easy to get outside all the time if the temperature was like this every day. This is so rare that it's hard to even understand that we're living the good life without the extreme cold. This is what other people experience in warmer places, not us here in Minnesota. We're used to a harder existence and reveling in that fact. It's something that we all take pride in, sort of, the ability to stand up against the worst that winter can throw at us. I would guess that most of us feel a sense of guilt as well, or a sense of unmerited favor when it comes to the weather this year. We shouldn't be so blessed and have it so easy, but here it is. Now that I've said this, we're probably going to get hit with mountains of snow and cold. I guess there will be nobody to blame but me now as I sealed our fate with these words about a beautiful, mild winter in Minnesota.

Images that come from a genuine love of nature.

2012-01-26T11:43:00.004-06:00

People often talk about what they find online, something new or unusual, and that seems to get the most press. That may be so, but there are so many people out there making good contributions to life that never really get noticed. This is one instance I found online that was definitely an uplifting experience. The gentleman's name is Cam Stone and he does some photography, I don't know if it's a hobby or profession, but it certainly is well done. You can see that he has an eye for photographic composition and an understanding of natural beauty. He also has some videos online, just a few about a bike trip he took, which also has a very genuine quality to it. When you see things like this, you realize there is so much more to the wider world. There are people, everyday people that you may never notice who have a story to tell. And when that story shared with the rest of us, it can be a splendid surprise. I was so impressed by what I saw in this video that I felt I needed to share it with the rest of you. Evidently Mr. Stone lives somewhere in Minnesota and has a love for where he came from which is along the North Shore of Lake Superior. If you like it, leave a comment. I hope it leaves the same positive impression on you that it did on me.

My utter ignorance of Ambergris.

2012-01-22T21:06:00.005-06:00

Businessweek just had a nice little article on Ambergris. All the times I heard the term, I never understood that it comes as a waste product of Sperm whales. I have never read Moby Dick which evidently mentions it, so I thought it was some kind of mined mineral. Wrong again. Here's that article which gives a fair background on the substance and how valuable it still is.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/ambergris-treasure-of-the-deep-01122012.html

Also in Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris

When times are hard, ask for a new sports stadium!

2012-01-19T15:45:00.017-06:00

Midway Stadium in St. Paul

You would think in hard economic times that sports teams would be satisfied with what they had as far as a stadium goes. But it's not so, there's been more and more talk in our area for having new stadiums built with taxpayer assistance. First it was the Minnesota Twins baseball stadium, Target Field, which garnered all the attention and was built just before there was all this economic meltdown. But once it was built, all the other sports teams now believe they are entitled to a new stadium whether they are or not. I'm not sure why the public has to fund this kind of venture, when the sports teams are obviously very profitable. But that doesn't bother me as much as the poor timing in which teams will ask for massive amounts of capital. When unemployment is very high and people are unsure about our economic future, there are team owners that have no shame in asking for opulent stadiums to house their teams. The Minnesota Vikings are actively seeking a new stadium or else they are threatening to move as their lease is up at the Metrodome. It looks like all the politicians have become frightened that this could happen and so they are working diligently to get a plan on the board and ready to go. I think it's a foregone conclusion that they'll get their stadium this time around, even though the team is really bad at this time. That's another point I can't stress enough. It's not so much that they would ask for a new stadium, but they ask when they couldn't be any worse than they are. How much easier it would be to sell the idea of a new venue if they simply put together a winning record of some kind? This year, they had one of the worst records in franchise history. All this being said about the Vikings, I think they need to stay here in Minnesota. It's a positive image for our community to have an NFL team even if I don't pay much attention to them. But what really blows me away is that the local semi-pro baseball team, the St. Paul Saints, are now asking for a new stadium as well. There's a stadium near the fairgrounds in St. Paul that's been around for about 30 years, it's Midway Stadium. It's plenty good for these clowns to have their baseball game that nobody pays any attention to. It's an entertainment team, not anything that would be called serious baseball. Sorry if that hurts some people's feelings, but it's the truth. It's a great form of entertainment and I like going to the games, they are a lot of fun, but that's all it is. So why should we shell out big money for another stadium for some marginal program like that? I suppose everybody will start asking for a stadium of some kind if they think the government is making deals with every team in town. The Minnesota gophers recently got a new stadium and I would guess that even the Minnesota Timberwolves will be asking for new one as well. This all smells, especially when government tells us they have no more money. There are more important things we should spend our money on and sports teams should be sensitive to the needs of the community by just staying put for a while and being satisfied until the economy improves. It would show strength of character to live within your means, instead of holding an entire community hostage to get public funding. Once again, when a lot of people are struggling it seems very odd to be asking for large amounts of public money for some form of entertainment. There's something about it this that just doesn't seem right to me.

10 screens of nothing.

2012-01-14T22:15:00.004-06:00

I often go to a local health club and they have a lot of what you would find at any club, the weight machines, the treadmills, the pool and about 10 television screens. Those screens are placed in the treadmill area where one might want to alleviate boredom at all costs. Each screen has a different channel and they never change them. You can tune in on your FM radio to hear the channel as you watch. There's nothing interesting or new here and that's the problem. The channels they show are national news, celebrity gossip, music videos and local news. What gets to me is that I can't stand any of it. I go work out in the early morning because I'm a morning person, it's what I like. But what you see on these screens is nothing but disaster, death, crime, gossip, useless weather, shamwow and endless sports. All of this is a downer as you're working out. Why do everything to get in shape physically, when mentally you're being destroyed by all the bad news going on in the world? So what I do is put on my headphones and listen to something uplifting like music, a lecture or a sermon from church. The screens are hard to avoid so I even shut my eyes sometimes. I'm not saying that I don't keep up on the news of the world, I do. But what I don't do is fill my head with mental garbage trying to get the day off to a good start. I suppose that most people do the same thing, just tune it out and get the day going physically and mentally in the right direction. It would be a good idea for them to change the channel with something that builds up people rather than get them thinking that the world is hopeless. There certainly are alternatives, I just wonder why no one there has ever thought of it. It's an uncomfortable feeling getting going in the morning with something positive only to have lots of negative images blasted at you. I wish they would just turn some of the treadmills in the opposite direction so the TV screens would be out of view. That might create another problem though, looking straight in the face of your chubby neighbor Eduardo and seeing how far each of you have to go to getting in shape. Considering this option, maybe the television screens really aren't so bad.

North Korea.

2012-01-12T21:15:00.003-06:00

I'm guessing that many of us here in the United States don't pay much attention to North Korea unless there is some saber-rattling going on in the Far East. But it is a place that should be observed for the way a culture can go when there is no freedom. The people of North Korea live in a prison nation, where everyone is an inmate except a few at the top of government. I've watched some interesting documentaries on Netflix and it's sadly fascinating to see how people live there. I could not imagine a worse situation for anyone to live in, and sometimes I wonder if they even know it. Because of strict control, only the government's point of view is ever shown over state-run media. In free nations all over the world, we wonder how this can be, this strict control over a population, but there it is! More than any other nation, they are the masters of dictatorial control, enslaving a population for the benefit of a few. The fire of God-given human rights must still burn in the hearts of most of the people there, but there is no outlet for escaping it seems, except death. I don't know if you saw the video on certain North Koreans mourning the death of their dear leader. The crying and wailing is bizarre. I wonder what they would say if they had the freedom to voice their true opinion? I'm sure we all know.

Meeting an old friend and marking time.

2012-01-07T12:56:00.002-06:00

It's been hard to get back to writing this new year. I seem to be thinking about the general direction of life more than the years themselves. Actually, the concept of years doesn't seem to do justice to what we call living. Why do we mark time by the earth circling the sun? Why do we care at all what year it really is? The years themselves mean nothing, reality is only a procession of now moments strung together as we remember them. As a way of identifying a place in time, the years, months, weeks, days and hours are important, but they don't describe life very well, only it's progression. So sometimes life stands still, or seems to and picks up where it left off. Here's a case in point. I had lunch a couple of weeks ago with a friend I had not seen for 23 or 24 years. We both worked with each other when I was in college, so the friendship goes back quite a bit. The Internet helped in getting us back together, and we met to review how life was going and all the news associated with that. It was nice to hear all that had happened in her life, all that was important, and all that could be to come. I shared about my family and where we've been as well. And you know what they say when you haven't seen an old friend in a long time, it was as if no time has transpired. I think the truth is that time becomes irrelevant when you know people, so really no time has passed. There is simply picking up where you left off, talking about things as if the conversation was just tabled for a while. My friend is an artist and lives a life of some adventure these days, more than I have, so I respect her way of finding her true calling. All those years ago, she was a different person, perhaps a little unsure, but today I see nothing but someone who lives life on purpose, on her terms. Good for you Deeba! I intend to stay in contact from time to time, as it is so much easier to do so. As for time, it's nothing really, only a marker from one event to the next. Friends are always friends regardless of time or circumstance. The personal quality of relationships don't change, but are simply refreshed by catching up and then moving on into life once again.

Have a Merry Christmas.

2011-12-23T15:01:00.000-06:00

My simple wish for you is that have a Merry Christmas, one that includes family and friends!

The spinning fly at our office.

2011-12-22T12:41:00.008-06:00

I've never seen a fly get stuck in a spin like this, but I did a little bit of research and there have been others posting this kind of video. This was in the bathroom at our office, so that technically makes this a work video of some sort. Enjoy.

Think like a surgeon when using gas station bathrooms.

2011-12-18T14:14:00.001-06:00

Whenever I get the feeling that life is too tame, lacking a certain amount of adventure, all I have to do is go to the local gas station to get that fix satisfied. It's always been that way where desperate people use toilet facilities they would never consider otherwise, so there's your adventure. When I was a teenager, I worked at gas stations and cleaned many disgusting bathroom accidents, some you would not believe. I'm not phobic about germs or anything, but we all have our limits to what we just cannot handle. So for me it's a bit of nostalgia seeing the oddly familiar public restroom situation, something rude that never changes. Across this great country of ours, tucked in out-of-the-way gas stations are some of the dirtiest, filthiest, disease-filled spaces known to man. And there's a right way and a wrong way to approach this cesspool of bacterial growth and I try to obey this everywhere I go. I just wonder if other people feel the same way and go to such extreme measures not to be tainted by the bathroom. When confronting the moment of entry, it's important to make a visual assessment of the situation. Does the door of the restroom look clean? This will tell you almost everything, if it's dirty, you can bet the inside is even dirtier. It's at that point that you need to make a decision to either hold it for later, or venture in at your own risk. If you decide to go in, try not to grab any door knobs, instead go in like a surgeon with hands raised waiting for rubber gloves right after scrubbing. Don't be bothered if anyone looks at you funny, just tell them you have a medical condition where your hands must he held high 95% of the time, which you do in this case, it's called self-preservation. From here on out, you should have no hand contact with the interior of this room. If you're lucky, your toilet will have a self-flushing sensor which will relieve you of having to touch anything around the toilet, and if you don't, you must use your foot whenever possible. Once again, if you're lucky, the sink will have a faucet with on/off sensors so you won't have to touch anything there either. If you do have to turn something on and off, make sure you do it with an elbow, like surgeons do. The last hurdle you must cross is either the air dryer or some kind of paper towel. Either of these can blow your whole sterile adventure and it depends if you have to touch some kind of button or not. If they're automatic, you're lucky and sensors have saved the day again. If you do have to touch some kind of button, then you might as well have wrapped yourself around the toilet bowl like a guy vomiting last night's bender. As a last measure of sterility, try to exit the bathroom by pushing the door open with your shoulder, once again, avoiding door knob contact if possible. So to recap, you must take a surgeon's mentality that you are not going to touch anything, other than yourself, to get your business done. Doing this should statistically increase your lifespan while making your experience bearable in some of the dirtiest spaces in America, the gas station bathroom.

You need to know why SOPA is a bad idea.

2011-12-17T16:27:00.002-06:00

Here's a video that talks about SOPA legislation that's being debated in Congress, and why it's a bad idea on so many levels.

Old problems demand old solutions.

2011-12-13T13:55:00.000-06:00

Almost every political season drives me nuts because it's a rehash of what's been said in the previous election cycle. I get tired of talking about elections because what they are is two diametrically opposed sides fighting for an idealistic principle which probably doesn't exist. Then there's a whole bunch of us in the middle who don't fight ideologically tooth and nail, but instead go and make a statement at the voting booth. Politicians don't have any new answers because there are no new problems. They are the same problems we've had for several thousand years, everything from poverty, death, war, disease, lust for power, greed and much more. But there are old-time solutions that still work the same as they did hundreds of years ago because human nature hasn't changed at all in that time. If we want to get the economy moving again, we need to be smarter about the decisions we make. You can't buy things with money you don't have, it's as simple as that. Living within our means has always been the answer, but it's not the answer anybody has wanted recently. That includes politicians in Washington and nearly every special interest group that's ever existed. It's almost as if everyone else should make a sacrifice except for us. This is ridiculous. Were all in the same boat and if we want to get our economy on track we need to do the things that we used to do. We need to save money, personally, governmentally and corporately. We need to work hard, harder than anybody else in the world at what we do. We need to loan money responsibly. There's nothing that difficult about what it takes to turn in the economy around, what's difficult is the will and discipline to get it done. I believe that's the spirit of America, and that more than anything else needs to be awakened throughout this election we have coming up. Do we believe we are able to work hard and to do what's right? We'll see.

Families are the same all over.

2011-12-12T15:25:00.002-06:00

Last Friday night was our neighborhood Christmas party, and it was a good time, and a chance for people to get reacquainted. It was all that and more as funny gifts were exchanged along with a lot of laughter too. It's nice to belong to a neighborhood, one where people truly care about each other. It's not like everyone that lives there is a part of our party, but they are certainly welcome and we do invite people to come in and play a part. One of the highlights of the evening for me was getting into a conversation about family history with one of our couple friends. They had recently discovered ancestry.com and had done a fair amount of research about the background that they had. I think they were amazed at how much they did find, but I'm sure they have a lot more to go. It was a sense of understanding what their family past was all about, much the way I discovered it through my family research. I encouraged them to continue on to find out more, because there's always something more to know about the people that are responsible for us being here. But like anything that you discover, you might find things you don't like. The truth about families is that they are not always what they seem, or at least not what they seem to the outside world. There is pain and sadness in everybody's family, there is no escaping this, even if somebody seems like they have it perfect and all together. If you are able to dig a little bit more, you would find some hurt and some hard times. But what I think they found as well as myself is that even though people have hard times or tragedy, the strength that they found to go on was also there. It made it possible for us to be here even talking about it, showing proof that good things can come from tragic circumstances. It could be anything from death, substance abuse, unforgiveness or many of the other things that plague families. While my friends were explaining some things about their family, there were also some tears. But those tears can be a good thing, they can help us feel what happened in the past even though there's nothing we can do about it now. If nothing else, it's instructive to help us live our lives not making the same mistakes over and over again. It looks like my friends have found some good things to take hold of and I encourage them to go on with it. There's nothing more rewarding than understanding where you came from and the kind of people who make up that history. My friends (aka no-name grillers) who shared this with me are a couple of the nicest people you would want to meet, truly real with no pretense, so I wish them the best at whatever they find throughout their family tree.

Dehumanizing concepts to keep us consuming.

2011-11-30T20:33:00.006-06:00

It's a great time of the year with Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations going on, but there's one thing I don't like. I'm repulsed by the term Black Friday to kick off a retail frenzy of activity, and somehow associating it with Christmas. It should be called something else. I know that the term is used because it represents how retailers hope to propel themselves into the black economically speaking. But the media gets into the act too and rings a figurative bell making sure we all salivate like Pavlov's dog on queue. I don't like to be treated like some kind of needy animal that is only there to make retailers feel better about themselves. I refuse to take part in any of it, regardless of how good the deals are. I want to be treated like a person, not like some kind of consuming robot. The word itself only paints a picture of darkness and by the way some people act during this time, it indeed brings out the darker side of what should be a cheery, bright season. I don't know what it should be called, I'm open for any ideas. But even if the name changed, it wouldn't change how it negates what the season is truly about. The only term I hate more than Black Friday would be Cyber Monday, that stinks too. I don't even like Cyber Monday as a concept and I own an online business! It was simply a marketing creation to get us all to buy more and think about consuming. Be like me and reject these made-up concepts meant to control us and get back to God, family and love during this holiday season.

Where do we go when the dream dies?

2011-11-26T10:25:00.004-06:00

We were out with friends last night for happy hour. The talk was brisk and any number of conversational topics were covered. It was everything from kids, to work, or simply what new place was fun to visit. It's technically happy hour at one of the local watering holes, but I don't drink, so I go there for the appetizers and friendship. You can get a really good deal on some comfort food, but it only counts if the food is actually good, and last night, it wasn't. All that aside, there was some question as to where each one of us went to college, somehow relating it to what we do today. We always seem to look back on those days in school as formative and directly related to what we're doing now. That's not always the case. I mentioned my degree and the direction I was going at the time. As it was, my life took a different direction and went to a completely different place than I ever thought it would go. It always makes me feel a little uncomfortable, and could be for all of us when we don't end up in a place that we planned for. It's just a hard pill to swallow sometimes. But I shouldn't look at it that way, as there is more to an education than simply planning a direction. I wonder if other people feel this way? Where do you go when the dream dies? Sometimes, we go to a place that's even better than we could have imagined. Usually, where we go in life reflects who we are, a true extension of our personality and gifts. Maybe that's the best thing to take away when the big plans of life don't work out exactly as you thought they should. We are made for so much more than a formal education could ever provide for us. It's a springboard to discovering something about yourself you didn't know. But even then, there are times when it seems a little frustrating when you're reminded of a great failure early in life. I'm recall it every time the topic comes up. People may even look at me a little funny, like what I'm doing now doesn't match up at all with what I had intended. Many times in our lives, what we see as a wrong decision or some tragedy, ends up being that which brings out the best in us. It's at times like those that we discover what were really made of, what we were really meant to do which goes beyond the scope of a vocation or an interest. Life is so much more than that, even when dreams of youth fade away. In all my wanderings the most important thing I found out for myself is that I am a good husband, father and a creative individual, which are probably my best traits and what I was meant to be. Maybe that's all there is, especially when I feel like life went in a completely different direction. It's important that we all look beyond that which is temporal to get a bigger picture of what we're really all about.

Awed by the known universe.

2011-11-22T13:23:00.002-06:00

Simple educational videos like these from Khan Academy numb my mind all over again with the expanse of space. It's always hard to imagine such a place as the universe when it is explained like this.

Better Days Ahead - Pat Metheny Group 1989.

2011-11-20T18:35:00.002-06:00

I love the Pat Metheny Group, especially Pat's guitar playing. This is one of may favorite live videos of the group from way back in 1989. The song "Better Days Ahead" is a real happy tune and great not only because of technical skill, but a general breezy feel that it brings. They make it look so easy, but that's the mark of great band. Like a lot of fans, I think I prefer this era of the band's progression more than any other. Check out PatMetheny.com for more about the artist.

The donut breeze.

2011-11-10T20:47:00.002-06:00

It's a feel-good thing, you betcha.

One of the things I like about working at our office in St. Paul Park is what I call the donut breeze. It occurs every time when the wind blows from the south and west bringing with it the fragrance of fresh donuts. There's a production facility called SuperMom's, a part of a convenience store chain here that makes the sugary-good stuff for all their local gas stations. There's really nothing like it, you can almost taste it because the aroma is so strong. It's a good thing because an oil refinery is right there too and if it wasn't for the donut breeze we would have to settle for oily industrial smells. There are days when the smell of donuts lasts all day long on Broadway Avenue making it seem like another world where no one does anything but make donuts. It really is pleasant and because that smell has such a positive mental lift, the whole town seems to be more peaceful and agreeable. I would guess that the crime rate even drops during the the gentle blowing from west to east. It would be nice to have a donut breeze for every community, what a wonderful world it would be!

Golden days.

2011-11-06T10:43:00.009-06:00

I always say this every year, but this time of seasonal change is most pronounced here in the upper Midwest. Almost all green has left the landscape except for the grass which will probably stay that way until the snow flies. It's this change that brings out the golden color of fading vegetation and some leaves that have turned a solid brown. The vibrant reds and yellows of autumn have passed us now even though the season is a long way from being over. That's the thing about Fall, it sadly passes quickly so that we would barely notice it if we weren't paying close attention. I'm reminded of days long past, hunting with my father at this time of year. The various gold colors bring back those memories as if they were yesterday, a way to feel his presence even though we are separated by many years now after his passing. It's in seasonal times like these that I miss him more than ever. He taught me to appreciate nature although he never really said it in any sentimental way, he just liked getting away from town, away from people to experience the natural world. Without knowing it, I was given a gift. Now that he's gone, I open that gift of a regular basis, rediscovering the past, the future and the truth. Although I don't always see what I want in life, I do see truth, which is some consolation. That's why I enjoy these golden days of Autumn where life slows down just enough for a glance at nature's transition.

Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show and the modern world.

2011-10-24T15:45:00.005-05:00

Every once in a while I'm drawn away from the daily activities of today's world and I take time to think about other times, especially the late 1800's. It was a time when life was closer to the land, closer to what human beings understood as living for hundreds of years. It was sometime in the early 20th century when the modern world we live in came into existence, and the older world passed away. Cars, electricity and lighting, flight, communication, industry and medicine began to be what we see today, changing the way everyone would live from then on. The fascination for me is that period of time when none of that was in existence, or at least very little of it. That would have been the time of about 1880. Our world would be shocking to those who lived back then, because for them life wasn't really that much different from 200 years earlier, so why would the future be so different? But it is vastly different as any fool could see. They would see things that could not be believed, we live at a time that is like no other, all within the span of a short 100 years or so. Because I have an interest in the West, I was doing a little research about Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show which was touring in the late 1800's and the early 1900's. It was a picture of the old west, the place that Bill Cody grew up and made a name for himself. It was also that critical time of near turning into what we know as the modern world, the 20th and 21st century. Buffalo Bill led an extraordinary life, not only a showman, but also as the last of the great western scouts. As Americans, the old West has a romantic appeal for many of us, the rugged individualism, the exploration and the sense of a land untouched. What must it have been like? None of us living today can really ever understand the world of Buffalo Bill, it was so far removed from us. But it's interesting how he became a showman, developing a mass audience for all that Western genre, which he is most responsible for. He was one of those figures that could have been some of the first to transition from an older life to something we call modern. In looking into his Wild West Show, I was curious about the dates for the show and did he ever bring the show to my area? Well, little did I know that he had played over 1400 dates over a 15 year period, and several of them right in my St. Paul backyard. I had no idea that his famous show had so many stops in Minnesota as well as many other States. This was quite an undertaking for him, but I guess he just followed the trail of success wherever it might take him. Not only was he active in helping develop the West in real life, but he also interpreted it to mass audiences in the early 1900's through his shows. It's too bad that there isn't a complete film of the show itself, it would be something to see from a historical perspective, how the actual members of history portrayed themselves. There are a few film clips here and there, but nothing of a complete showing, it probably just wasn't possible. It was a time of great change although few people probably saw it that way, they simply lived their lives. But a great turning was underway just as Buffalo Bill was telling us all about the passing of the old West and the reality of a culture that passed as well.

So what do you do for a living?

2011-10-16T09:05:00.001-05:00

I don't think there's ever been a dinner party or gathering where the question of what we do for a living comes up. It's almost a reflex the way we ask this as some sort of conversation starter. It is a way to get to know somebody more in a short time, and maybe that's what it's for, a sort of shorthand for identifying people. It's polite I suppose, but it's rarely adequate for describing anything about us. If you're like me, what you do for work is not who you are as a person. In fact, it has little to do with who we are when you look at the big picture. I often say to people, I am not my career, I am not my job, it's not who I am. To identify who we are as people by the work we do would be shallow, regardless of how important the work really is. So why does the question come up all the time at functions where we meet new people? Well, you're probably not going to walk up to a person you've never met and ask, who are you? They'll probably just blurt out their name. If you probe deeper than that as to who you are in life, they'll probably see you as some kind of weird nutjob. That's none of our business on a casual meeting. I just wish there was some other way we could identify ourselves that had nothing to do with the work we do. There must be some word phrasing, some question, and then it hit me. When are most people truly themselves? It's in their offtime, it's when they're doing a hobby, an activity they like or something else they do just for the sake of enjoyment. It's in activities like these that we see something of who they truly might be and get a better idea of what kind of person they are. From now on, when I meet new people I'm not going to be lazy and ask the old what do you do for work question. Instead, I'm going to ask what they do for recreation or fun, or even better, what new interests they have. Not only would they open up more and make a true connection, but it would help to understand who they really are as a person. I'm going to do this more, even in professional situations, because deep down, every one wants to be known for who they are, not what they do to survive.