Thoughts, opinions and little discoveries

The Republican Primaries

2012-01-30T08:48:00.000-05:00

The Republican Primaries have made it to the state of Florida and what is there to show for it? I have noticed through the ads on tv that there are only 2 candidates running and I think that is because of money. Florida is a big money state when it comes to advertising.Very expensive and if a person doesn't have money they may lose unless a grassroots effort produces a miracle.

I have noticed that within the media coverage of these primaries I hear nothing of Ron Paul. I had heard that he was not even in the state of Florida. Rick Santorum, last thing I heard was his daughter in the hospital. The media doesn't do anything with them and in my view the media has chopped this race down to two candidates and they are having a field day with negative ads by the two candidates. Is this media bias at play here, we are being recruited to focus on only two candidates instead of hearing from the rest of the field-that is left?

I have heard more con with Newt Gingrich than pro about his personality. Newt says he can out debate Obama yet is that we need as a president? I think we need something who is going to make decisions for this country and put the country on the right path. Yet I am keenly aware that many Americans are gullible. If a speaker to slick a speech up and make himself sound good and intelligent he wins. Obama did this for presidency. I think this is why Newt is proclaiming himself as the one to beat Obama. Mitt Romney, doesn't have that capability? Yet would he be a better president that Newt?

Newt has some baggage as well. I have learned that he supposedly has alot of character flaws from his former work buddies in Congress. Then he has the multiple marriages case going on as well as supposedly wanting an open relationship with his former wife. Yet Mitt Romney has stayed married to his wife for a number of years. I don't know how many but he doesn't have scandel in his life. Oh, I hear people knocking him because of how he made his money but , in my opinion, because he is rich people do not like him. People don't like anybody that is rich because it seems to say that they are hoarding money or used sneaky practices in order to obtain money. I heard Mitt say that he made the majority of his money in investments. .This tells me that he worked smarter not harder. Funny, the slogan 'work hard and you can get rich' is always pushed for those who want to make alot of money. That isn't true at all. It is how smart you in earning that money. It isn't in how hard you work at all but shhhhh don't tell some people that. That can be offensive.

In the end, who do we vote for? I will be voting in a little more than 24 hours from now. My votes come down to 1 of 2 people. It will be basically a protest vote or it will be a vote going to a leading candidate. On what premise do I vote? Debating style? Smarts? Who has the best chance to win? It really leaves the mind spinning and the media outlets really don't add any help in the mix. I may be just closing my eyes and picking someone. Isn't that a shame? Yet, in other countries I don't think we have these problems. Voting is taken serious and the media isn't out for prestige in it. They are out to produce information. Where is our information to make informed decisions and not stuff based on emotions. Help?

JW

State of the Union address and social media

2012-01-25T07:02:00.000-05:00

I have to say that I watched the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. I also did something that I never did before as well along with it, I tracked twitter along side. I ended up watching it more than listening to the State of the Union address.

What I found interesting is that the President appears to be a very polarizing figure. In my personal feed I found a number of people praising Obama for everything he said. One particular poster, who is a major feminist, appeared to almost wet herself in the process. I use 'wet' in jest simply because I found that she was tweeting many quotes from Obama as well as retweeting others tweets like a mad girl. I sent her a few tweets myself but they probably landed in the trash can since she appeared to busy listening and tweeting.

I went to the hashtag #SOTU to see what was going on there. I noticed the same thing. I noticed that many of the progressives/liberals were pro speech and I found a number of conservatives who used what Obama said to quote what the 'real truth' was. Yet one thing I found through it all was that those who were feminist, as a result of what they tweeted, were passionately behind Barak and I could see where their 'bias' was in their tweets accordingly. Now, earlier, I said they 'wet' themselves. I use that phrase because it is a turn for a lady who is getting horny and this particularly girl who I follow on my twitter account, as well as other feminists I saw were passionately pushing Obama's message. They pushed it more than others I saw who agreed with him. They pushed it more than conservatives pushed their anti speech of Obama.

Now, while I applaud their passion but I have to wonder if this bias has blinded them to the truth? Has their liberal beliefs caused them to say 'AMEN' to Obama's speech? I found that the NBC talking heads mentioned that liberals were all over this speech like an like a person in heat yet conservatives said it was nothing new but a polished speech.

For my own self, I don't know a great deal about politics and I won't pretend to jump into the mix and say where Obama is wrong or where he is right or the middle ground. I do know that some of what I heard he seemed to miss it a bit. He mentioned taking our dependence off of middle eastern oil and yet he axed the Canadian pipeline. He also said America was respected around the world. I thought, we used to be but that is waning fast. I don't know if we can say that anymore.

JW

Java Programming and using Eclipse

2012-01-21T11:50:00.000-05:00

I have begun a class on IT programming concepts. In order to do this I had to download a program called Netbeans or Eclipse. I decided to do Eclipse since the Professor knows more about it if I have questions. My route to downloading it didn't take the same route as the professor told me yet I got the same result. I found that suspicious.

So far I am finding the coding part of Java not too bad, I hope this is a good sign? Yet what I do find annoying and irritating is navigating through Eclipse. I find sometimes that my Java program is not found and other times it is found. Why? I wish I knew. What makes matters worse in within a week we must submit 3 lab assignments in a winzip file. I have never done this. I am instructed how the file should be labeled and yet when I was able to do this, as so I thought it was to be done, no where do I see the label as it should be. I.E. my folders should read title.Java with title being the title of each code. Hmm. mine says LAB1 and then when I got into it I have 3 zip files there with each code yet the code is in notepad. I know this can't be write but I cannot get help from the professor except that if it isn't in .Java form that it isn't acceptable. I emailed the TA for help-am still waiting.

So, what do I do. I think I really need to go to the college and ask someone to demonstrate to me how to pull out a winzip file from Eclipse and send it in a file form in the way my professor wants. What is really scary is that I may begin to understanding how coding works but navigating Eclipse may be my downfall in the class. I just hope it doesn' t cause me to drop the class as a result. That would be a tragedy for me!!!!

I have looked into youtube videos on Eclipse and no where does it show me how to put the folders in email form. Only how to set it up and to navigate through parts of it. Well, that is fine to a point but I have assignments to be turned in and I need to learn how to do such a thing. BTW, this is an online class.

jw

The learning curve of Critical thinking

2012-01-20T13:09:00.000-05:00

How many of us practice critical thinking? I have been actively working on my critical thinking. For the longest time I don't think I ever cared or really thought about thinking critically. To think critically a person ends up breaking down news items to understand the world around us and even to believe certain things about ourselves, our nation, our world and so on.

In my surfing of the net I usually am looking through various discussion boards and blogs looking for conversations. The ones that I am finding that are requiring ALOT of critical thinking are those dealing with religious issues and social issues. The reason why is because there is so much written about both spheres of ideology and pushing through the maze of books and literature and what people are saying can be so overwhelming. Then one has to deal with the emotions involved in them all and it gets quite intense at moments in time. Yet, how criticial is it to have critical thinking? I think it is very important for the more a person practices it the more a person begins to understand what they think is true and can support their stance on why it is true.

I have been going to college for the last several years and I am finding that through it some of the class are beginning to sharpen my skills in critical thinking. Sometimes I find myself being scared because some things I thought were true turn out to not be true. Some ideas I find to be a certain way actually are a slightly different way which causes me to wonder why I thought a certain way.

Sometimes it boggles my mind with the information out there on all sorts of topics and how to keep it clear and sane for my own self. How to use it to back up what I believe to be true and listen to the other side of the story.

What steps have you taken to think critical in this world? How have you rightly divided articles and news items you have read to break it down to the idea that you know what you believe to be true and can back it all up to others.

JW

Giving yourself to others

2012-01-19T10:05:00.000-05:00

Recently I was struck by someone on my Facebook page and what they are about to do. She is doing something with the peace corps and will be going to Houston to teach. I don't know the details of this and what is involved in it but it caught my interest. I have seen this girl be a big sister to a little girl locally as well and talk about it on Facebook. She is in college and maybe it is the college spirit that has her doing this?

This made me think-there are lots of opportunities for most people to volunteer themselves to various tasks to help others less fortunate. I don't refer to doing this running marathons that support breast cancers and such. I refer to volunteering in which you are doing something hands on and giving of yourself to another person who is in need.

I have to confess that I have not done this because I have been too selfish with my time doing my own thing. Yet, I wonder, if I began to do this what would I do and how could I make someone else's life just that much better? Most times it doesn't take much to brighten someones day. Usually the less a person has the more grateful they are for everything they do have. The more a person has the less greatful they are for the things they have and even for the things others give to them. Do you ever notice that about yourself?

JW

The busy college life

2012-01-15T20:20:00.000-05:00

I wonder, will this post turn into a boring post? Let's see, another college semester has begun and I have 2 classes for the 2nd semester in a row. 2 very different classes. One is intro to communications while the other is IT Programming concepts. Initially it seems that the communications class might be easier than the computer class but I do bet it gives me a run for my money.

I can see already that I have to learn ALOT of computer terminology that I am not used to but I think that is a good thing. I am going to get to know a part of the computer that I want to know. I will be doing alot of reading between these 2 courses so does this mean my blog will be affected? I hope not.

I do wonder if anyone cares though or if I am just writing for my own benefit. Maybe it doesn't matter? Maybe I just write for my own benefit and if anyone passes by and picks up a gem as a result then my hats off to you.

JW

Foreign movie -"Not one less"

2012-01-10T16:47:00.000-05:00

Have you ever watched a foreign movie? Most of the time they are the movies that are only screen through movie festivals and people vote on how well they liked the show. My wife and I watch these foreign movies at home and they give a unique experience against what we normally watch at the theaters. Several reasons for this, many of them do not have the Hollywood pizzazz in them. They are down to earth and rough around the edges with scene changes. Some of them also are in other languages with English subtitles so it is a challenge to keep up with it but a person can learn alot from them.

We recently watch the movie 'Not one Less' which takes place in a remote area of China. Between Bejing and Mongolia. The people in the movie are the natives, no actors were used. The movie is about a 13 year old girl who goes to a village to as a substitute teacher for a month while the teacher goes to a town for a special event. I don't remember what it was exactly. The movie shows her time at this small school with kids barely younger than she is. Eventually one of the boys goes missing and is sent to the big city by his mom to look for work. He is about 8 years old? The teacher is so concerned that she used the principles of math in money to teach the kids how much it would cost for bus fare for one individual and two individuals to travel to this town where the boy was sent. With the help of the students she went to this town and looked for the boy. It reminded me of Jesus and the parable of the lost sheep. If you watch this movie you will understand what I mean by her determination.

This movie has a storyline but it also gives a small glimpse into another land, another language and how others do live. One thing the little boy said towards the end of the movie that was jaw dropping, he was asked by a reporter what was his biggest memory of the city. He thought for a moment and said he was hungry and he had to beg for food.

JW

between fundamentalist christians and the fallen

2012-01-05T15:52:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been on a journey and began to critique certain things in that journey and found 2 roads leading in different directions and wondered how are you supposed to react to such a thing?

This is partly my encounter since September of 2011. It began as I heard a story of Vyckie Garrison who was part of a movement called Quiverful which is about 'christian' families having mulititudes of kids. They use a scripture out of the book of Psalms to justify the movement. I had never heard of this movement until this podcast and after learning of it it really angered me because in my view it sets up christian families for a radically fall away from God. It sets up a utopian that everything will be ok if   they following certain things according to what they believe God has commanded and this isn't necessarily true.

I took my thoughts on this and began to engage discussions with christians on online discussion boards.   Some said the movement was out in left field while others supported it whole heartedly and used scripture to defend it. Sometimes I think a person can use scripture to prove a point even if it is devoid of reality for a given situation.  Essentially it means taking scripture out of context in order to prove a reality.

In my venture with this as well as some other things that have really concerned me I have found my road crossing paths with people who used to be christians and have taken hold of athiesm.   These people grew up in quiverful families or they were actual pastors of independent fundamental churches. The one thing I have not noticed from these specific people is animonsity unless a christian begins to preach at or to them. Something happened in their lives that cause them to fall and crash out of the church. With quiverful it seems it is the unhealthy demands of having many kids coupled with abusive spouses and in many cases unhappy kids all because it is believe God wants families to live such lives. Doesn't seem to back up reality. In the other cases I am still pursuing because I believe that if God is true He truly weeps for those who have walked away from Him as a result of happenings within the church. I want to find out what happened to these folks to cause them to walk away.

JW

Family squabble

2012-01-04T16:02:00.000-05:00

I am sure everyone has had a family squabble. Some get out of hand while others cool off fairly quickly. I am finding myself in a squabble and I am not sure if I really should apologize or not. Tell me what you think.

I sent my cousin a little story of something I had planned to do but never got to do it in a certain period of time. Essentially, on the evening that my wife and I celebrated our anniversary I decided to do something in the bathroom that I thought would be funny. My cousins daughter, she is 15, has a habit of taking pictures of herself in the mirror with her hand on her hip and posting them on FB. She often flares her hip out while she does this. I am thinking it is a teenage girl thing.

On our way out of a restaurant I decided to see if I could mimick this and take a picture of myself in the bathroom of this place because it was a first class bathroom. I tried to figure out how to curve myself and by the time I thought I was ready I heard the door open. There were 2 doors in this bathroom. The first one was a small hallway and then the 2nd to the main part (where I was). I stopped and went out. I figured, I will wait until he leaves but as soon as he left 2 more came in and out so I didn't do it.

Unfortunately I told this story to my cousins through a facebook message thinking it was just a funny thing. Unfortunately she got mad at me and said her daughter is just going through a phase and she is a good mom. She also asked if that is all I had to say to my cousin. Hmm, I wondered, is she pms ing? Is she just in a bad mood or was it a bad move on my part to share this with her. I choose the latter one. She also lost her son back in August to a car accident so it is possible that these emotions are also hitting me.

Should I apologize to her? I actually did an apology yet I am not sorry I tried to do the picture because I still think it is funny.

What do you think I should do?

JW

A story for the supersitituous

2011-12-30T16:06:00.000-05:00

I am sure you have seen the stories of Jesus in a donut or Jesus in a tire and so forth. I even saw recently a guy who made a toaster which can imprint an image of Jesus on bread. So much of this stuff becomes superstituous, instead of people praying for themselves to listen to God in their heart they want to use these 'signs' as a voice from God.

This morning while I was going I had a strange occurance happen to me. Now. for those who may be Very supersitituous this will probably FREAK you out so if you get freaked out easily then go to my next post otherwise you won't be able to sleep at night. Or, you could use your 'valueable' time to pray for me.

At 4:15am as I near my job something fell from my rearview mirror. Guess what it was? A smal crucifix. I have one tied to a small string and it seems the string decided to break and dropped the crucifix. I felt the string and saw it was broke. It may have been eroded. I have one other item that hangs from that mirror but it is made of plastic. It is a picture of my wife and I from the Piano bar called 'Howl at the Moon' in Orlando. I wondered at first why had happened and then when I saw the string it made sense yet this is 4:15am. I have the heater on in the car because it is cool outside. 46 degrees. I wonder why that string decided to break at that time? Motion the motion of the car cause the charm to cut into the string? Who really knows, Well, if I want to it back on the mirror I will have to get another string.

What do you think about that whole situation?
JW

The girl with the dragon tattoo

2011-12-28T08:53:00.000-05:00

I went to see this Movie Tuesday evening. My wife seemed to really want to see it. Neither of us have read the book and I really wondered why this story was so intriguing? I figured maybe it is the mystery behind the title?

I don't know if I will give it away alot of the movie so if you want to see it and have not seen it you may not want to read my post about it.

I usually don't care for 'professional' reviews on movies because I find them lacking in some area yet I read one review just to see what was being said about this movie. During the movie I remember a certain quote about the movie being tedious for the first hour. Yes, I found it was a bit tedious. The build up dragged a bit for me. The story flowed back and forth between the main character of the magazine? And the girl with the dragon tatto until they eventually meet in person. Once that happens then it is really good though sometimes hard to understand what exactly each one of them are doing while working in unison.

There is a couple of scenes of sexual violence in it and one extreme case involving the girl complete with screaming. There is also a case of near torture toward the last 30 minutes as well. Not for kids and maybe not for teenagers as a result otherwise you would want to discuss those scenes with them to find out what they thought. I think those scenes are delicate situations.

I liked the character of the girl because she is goth yet portrayed as very smart. The movie shows her to be very tech savvy, I mean hacker savvy yet the storyline only assumes it by the information she finds. The movie shows her on the computer but the screens and the type becomes so fast that you figure that she really isn't typing what we are seeing. Way too fast and even the screens change seemingly 3-4times in a second, does that really happen in the real world? The girl plays a small part in a lesbian relationship and is partly blackmailed from a government worker but she gets her revenge. She is a very good and passion driven investigator in the movie. If she is interested in a story all she needs is a few details and she is gone to work on it. SELF MOTIVATING!! The end of the movie is a bit sad. It reminds of me the end of the movie "The bridges of Madison County". If you don't know what I refer to then watch that movie. Both scenes are similiar and will cause the average female to scream at her tv screen. My wife did....

Since I have seen the movie I am wondering how the book reads. We all know the movie versions of a book are usually different from the book itself. Sometimes for the good but also sometimes to spice it up a bit so it appeals more on the screen. I have learned that there is a series of books to this title. I wonder if I should read them?

The movie is 2hrs 35 minutes and it does get a bit long. Our showing was at 5:30pm and it finished shortly after 8pm which seemed like it took the entire evening.

One last thing I took out of this movie and I think it is an important issue. The girl is trapped in her own world of being on her own since the age of 12 and living as a foster child. As a result she becomes an introvert and gravitates towards goth yet the story portrays her as motivated for investigation if she likes a certain story and does get paid for it. I wonder, how many kids are there in foster care who could display the same kind of passion yet are held down because of the foster care system or corruption government officials taking advantage of them? I am only thinking out loud with that last sentence. It should make everyone pause and ask about the potential of those kids who appear as throwaway kids in their appearance yet could be so much smarter than the average person on the streets but they don't show it because society has its own preconcieved ideas.

JW

writing aspect vs the math aspect

2011-12-23T15:29:00.000-05:00

Academia is currently on siesta for Christmas break. While I have this downtime I am in a quandry as to what to do for classes. I have registered for two classes which eventually go in different directions as far as my major presupposes.

Class one is introduction to Communications. My major is interedisciplinary studies with psyhology and communications as my areas of study.

Class two is IT Programming concepts. This is a rabit trail for me as I thought about using IT as a minor.

My problem is that math subject have not been my strongpoint but writing seems to be more of my strongpoint. Thus the blog I have created in which to write things on my heart.

I chose IT intially to learn more about computers and this programming class is one suggested by an advisor that if I liked it I would probably like the whole field. Yet I find myself asking myself, is this going to help me in my future? For my own personal job they seek those who have some kind of knowledge in business, accounting as well as computer science stuff. Not much at all when it comes to the interdisciplinary studies aspect of life yet I feel more drawn to it because it brings along history and public forums and even a shade of journalism. Yet, I don't know that a person can make a living in this general field.

There is the other aspect that says if a person is really good in math then chances are they won't be good at writing and vice versa. I find myself to be very decent in writing and the longer I do it the better I get so long as I don't get lazy. Math has never been a strong point for me as I never related to how to use it in the real world. With computers I would think I could see how this would relate to the real world yet how much math is really needed to understand computers? I really don't know.

My dilemma is I don't like throwing money away and find myself failing an IT programming concepts class yet on the other hand is there the chance that something clicks in me to further pursue this?

If you have been in similiar situation share what your decisions were and what your outcome came to be.

JW

Our Anniversary vacation

2011-12-21T13:52:00.000-05:00

Every year on or around my wedding annivesary, my wife and I try to get out of town and go somewhere to do something for it. This year were intended to go to Savannah, GA but as a result of her bulging disc in her lower back giving her problems we were advised to keep our vacation closer to home. 2 hour drive tops was the advice. We looked at Boca Raton but found the motels/resorts they had were on the intercostal waterway. Suddenly my wife found Siesta Key in Sarasota. This is where we traveled to. Took about 75-90 minutes to get there from the house.

We stayed at the Captiva beach resort. It was a little different from what I am used to staying. I am used to being in motels which only takes a minute to walk to the beach. This resort sat in a small stretch of road along with a few other resorts all privately owned. The road was shaped as 'V' coming off the main road. Our resort 'motel' had strange parking. It was only one way in with angled parking. The longer the vehicle the more trouble a person would have getting out. The good thing is that traffic is very light in this area so the chances of backing up and a car coming is near null even though there are many people staying in the area.

I noticed that during our 2 night stay is that you will hear no traffic at all. Nor roaring engines, no sirens flying by, no motorcycles, not even just a passing car. JUST QUIET for vehicle noise. Voices of people will compensate for that. Our resort motel was shaped as an 'L' and we were in the bend. During our stay there were only 2 groups. My wife and I and another couple who stayed next to us. Noise seemed to pass through the walls easily if you are outside but not necessarily room to room.

The beach was a good 100yard walk from where we stayed. The advertising on the resorts there say the beach is only seconds from them but that isn't true at all. I supposed it is a selling point which is why I hate the idea of marketing because in marketing a person/company learning to become professional liars in order to sell an item/product.

Our first day there we took a sunset cruise at the Marina in Sarasota. El Barge is the name of the boat- I think. We drove to the edge of the Gulf of Mexico until sunset hit and then the boat drove around the neighborhoods to see the light. I ended up getting a headache during the last half of the trip. I am wondering if this had to do with the noise of the boat. We sat in the back of the boat where the propellars were running loud. I took 3 aleve and once off the boat I was feeling good. After this trip we went to Siesta Key Village to a place called Gilligans bar and restuarant. Ironically there is a Gilligan's eatery in Manila as well but I highly doubt they are of the same chain.

The next day we went to the sunrise cafe which is a slightly hippy joint but they had good food. My wife heard about it so we went. After this we went to the beach for 3 hours. Sand was much softer than Clearwater Beach or even Daytona. It was also cool to the touch. The water was about 65 degrees. Now, 65 degrees in the air is comfortable but when you put that to water it feels as if your feet will turn blue. When we finished our business there I found later that I turned into a lobster.

After showering we decided to go to St. Armands circle to see what was there. It is a round about with eateries and departments stores surrounding the area. We could see it was a big hangout and for Christmas it adds to the accent of the area. We came across a Santa Claus in a motorcycle complete with sidecare. He had 4 little white dogs with red bows in their hair made to look like elves. He would stop periodically and people would AWWEEEEEE and take pictures. My wife wanted me to take a picture so I did.
We found ourselves eating at a place called 'Tango'. I found the atmosphere to be better than the food but that is my own opinion. Santa Clause and his wife were actually outside Tango eating a dinner and holding conversations with people walking by taking pictures of all the dogs.

One other thing, on the way to St. Armand's circle there is a statue of a sailor kissing a nurse. The one that was made famous from New York City when troops came home. This statue is a big one. I would say about 2 stories tall. I happened to come up with a read light and took a picture of it.

Finally our vacation came to an end and I seriously looked like a lobster. Complete with white around my eyes where my sunglasses had been on me. The ladies at the front desk encouraged me to take an aloe plant to put on me. The bad thing about that is it smelled and I couldn't tell if I had bad body odor of if it was the plant. YUCK!! I had a bottle of organic aloe at home so I put several coats on me. I can only hope I don't peel very bad.

Sarasota is a secret gem of Florida, in my opinion. The whole time we were there I only saw 2 cop cars but not police bodies. The area was very clean and it seems like it would be a great place to live. I feel like I have gotten attached to it. Who knows, in the next 5 years, after my wife graduates college we could end up moving towards that area.

JW.

Encounter with a Government worker

2011-12-16T17:01:00.000-05:00

Today I had an encounter with a lady who works for the USDA. She deals with orange juice. Intially the conversation was 'civil' but then I quickly found what type of person she was and the atmosphere got tense.   If I were not at work I would have confront her more on a few issues but I could not do such a thing.

The convesation began about government and the president. She made a number of remarks about faxing a document to her boss so she can get paid before Congress/President decide to drag their feet in passing the payroll bill for government employees. Gosh, I don't remember the right word for that but I hope you understand what I mean?   She then got on the subject of Obama and mentioned him not being born in U.S.A. I told her he was born in the USA but didn't spend his entire life here. She quickly raised her voice higher to tell me HE WAS NOT BORN HERE.   I sensed some racism here because it goes along with the groups that will not believe Obama's birth certificate from Hawaii. Hey, I don't like Obama myself but I am not jumping on that bandwagon, it is a stupid agenda.   Those same people would be the ones who call 'Coast to Coast AM'. The callers on that show are scary looney in my opinion.

She also mentioned that when Obama was elected that officials sent buses to the projects so that Obama would get elected. I don't know if that is a racist statement to make. It sounds like it could be but I see it more as a gerimanding type of thing. The type in which political groups want to restructure a representatives district in order to get him more votes. That is all this was because most likely those who live in lower income areas probably don't think their vote counts but if they see someone 'cares enough' to take them to vote and who to vote for and possibly with incentives-would you take the offer? I found that when this lady talked about this, although she talked loud, her voice went even louder.

She also talked about the corruption of Government workings, Maybe similiar to that of corporate workings. The type in which if you are a lady and you have the 'ambition' you can 'sleep' your way up the ladder and people will not care. In fact, she says she was encouraged to do such a thing in order to get ahead. She says she has an integrity to keep. Well, at least she has someting respectable going for he.   She also told me that she has been with the USDA for 18 years and has never been promoted. She also told me that everyone she is trained has been promoted above her.   Now, being that I have taken a women's course it caused me to wonder, the people she has trained-how many of them were men vs women? If they were men this could be why they were promoted over here because men are preferred? If she trained a segment of women, did this women sleep around with higher ups to get promoted? Remember, according to this lady this is what she is seeing in the government workplace.

Lastly she appeared to be very southern. She had a bit of the accent but she carried on as a lady who talked too much, too loud and wanted to get into everyone's 'business'. She stated that the reason she was there was most likely her office wanted her out of the office. She sounded like a southern gossip who would be cooking in the kitchen all the while talking smack about other people with runon sentences that even the cats would run through the windows to escape the verbal assault to their ears.

I found it funny early on but after a few minutes I wanted to poke my eyes out!

JW

My musings of the web today

2011-12-14T19:32:00.000-05:00

Just some most of you you ride the internet looking for interesting things to read or do or buy and so forth. In my ride of the internet I came across a couple of unique things for my own personal life. I think one of them deserves a little attention especially if any person likes to write.

First item I found was my preliminary schedule for the Spring semester. I have signed up for IT programming ( I want to see if I can do this kind of computer field) as well as introduction to commuications. I found that both of these class are online class which means an extra $50 per credit hour which equals $300 more. My goodness can I CRY???? To add to this adventure, my wife is working on her master's degree and she is taking 2 classes, both online. How can 2 people in the same house take 4 classes online with the computer? I will either have to go to the college and use their computers in the library OR buy a laptop, which my wife suggested I might have to do. hmmmm, that is another animal to deal with.

I also found a link to to a writer who wrote down some of the things he has learned on how to write good. He wrote down 23 items. What I find frightening is I took college composition 1 and 2 and literature and some of these items I couldn't tell you what they are. i.e, infinitives-anyone know what they are off of the top of your head? Yeah, me either. Other items are not using one word sentences, contractions are not necessary, oh and don't split and infintive
If you want to see the complete list below is the link
http://writersrelief.tumblr.com/post/14235809219

I found this from a twitter feed. I have a fondness for writing, a reason why I have a blog and some day I would like to write a book about something.

JW

Bullying

2011-12-08T12:15:00.000-05:00

This youtube video has been making its rounds in society. I was introduced to it through a person who follows my blogs and I in turn follow hers as well. I left a remark on her blog as well. http://dmyers004.blogspot.com/

I see this week that Lady Gaga went to the White House on the issue of bullying:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57337549-503544/lady-gaga-to-white-house-to-talk-bullying/

Yet her trip there left me asking this question. How does this really help people who are bullied? Ok, it might raise some kind of awareness but that awareness really doesn't do much in the local school. Even in foundations for combating bullying, does that really combat bullying?    The problem with bullying is a similiar problem as rape. The victim keeps quite and unless a parent can spot certain signs of the trauma it will go unnoticed.

I was bullied while in school but not to the point which I know many are these days. I was a shy guy. My voice was weak when talking so I was always asked to speak up. To me I felt as if I were talking normal. If I spoke up louder I felt as if I were yelling and I hate it. I got teased for it and I even got teased for me name and the bathroom.
In 7th grade I was harrassed by a single individual.   He would call me all kinds of names in front of people in class. I remember one class he said behind me and would stick stick pens and pencils into my neck. He would push my chair around even to the point where I was pushed into the walk aisle. What did the teacher do? NOTHING. It was as if the teacher didn't see it but it was so physical   that if you didn't see it it was because you were not looking, never mind the noise.

Here is how this ended for me.... About a week before the school year was over our class was in the library. I came outside getting ready for the bell to ring to walk to the buses. This kid came out as well and started mouthing off to me. Instead of sitting there and taking it my body reacted with a fist punch to his mouth. He has braces on . He cupped his mouth and went screaming to the bus stopped shouting 'I AM GOING TO SUE YOU' His mouth was bloodied. That one punch, for whatever reason, seem to release all the angery I had inside me.   I was worried about his words after that and wondered if anything would become of them. Yet, throughout   high school I never had a class with him and I did see him in the hall way. He never looked at me or acknowleged me but I did smile at him. I remember his name and I believe most people being bullied remember the abusers names.

While in the end it is commendable that foundations are being set up to help against bullying it really starts at home and then with friends. Knowing the signs of a teenager being bullied is where it begins. In school, it is always the hardest because teens are trying to find themselves and how they fit in society and their peers. It can set them up for a future fall if not careful.   For me, I was able to raise up out of my shyness-it happened to me as a result of becoming a christian. Somehow God seemed to gently put in me this boldness thing within me so that I accept me for who I am regardless of what others thought of me. I eventually saw my personality change as a result and I became someone new. I was 20 years old.

These days there have been instances for me of bullying in the workplace and it usually comes from people who think they are better than I am. I counteract this by throwing their words back at them. If it gets a bit personal then I talk to the supervisor about it and tell them this person isn't work me getting fired for throwing a punch. So many times if a person is bigger than you or perceive that they can dominate you, personatily wise, this is how I see bullying getting its roots. For teenage victims, it is hard to understand that and so they are bullied. It is up to parents and outsiders to see the trouble and counter act it.   Does a foundation help in that?

JW

Feminist project Part 3

2011-12-05T10:51:00.000-05:00

I was able to finish my feminist research paper. I still hate the word- it sounds so militaristic. It turned out to be near 5 pages. I titled it 'Feminism and Fundamentalism'. To my surprise my professor gave me a 99 on the paper. He does not give 100 for anything. He said my paper was one of the best he has read. I assume he is speaking about the entire class? I really don't know. There was nothing in the paper that needed to be corrected and he stated that the paper was very tightly written. Well, It took me 4 rough drafts to get this thing remotely right. The paper was a soapbox thing. I gave nods to both feminists and fundamentalists but I also gave disagreements with both of them. I think both of good things to say but I also think both parties fail in certain areas in getting their point across. I liken it to Anne Coulter. She has good information to put forth but her delivery in putting it forth really lacks tact.

I now gear up for my final exam in the women's studies class. Since this class I have been paying more attention to those who classify themselves as feminist. I look for common themes in their words and why they arrived to where they are? There are many stereotypes associated with feminists- a couple of them are that they are man hating and that some are men haters which are true for a small segment of them. I think the one idea that society needs to understand about those who are feminists is the history of women and what they were not allowed to do in the past vs what they are allowed to do now. If you begin to understand this you will begin to understand why feminists voices are being heard more in the public arena whether you disagree with them or not. I find it fascinating personally.

JW

technology and the social aspect

2011-11-16T09:44:00.000-05:00

Recently Me and a group of 4 ladies stayed after class in order to work on a research paper due to be turned in at the end of the semester. We found it very hard to meet after class because of conflicting schedules. Our class was over within 45 minutes as the assignment was take home.

One of the ladies had a laptop so we used it to put out assignment together. I should not that there are 2 sections in the paper that we must put together as a team and must be in our paper exactly as a team but in the end they are individual assignments.    We spent about 2 hours doing this assignment. During the course of putting it together I noticed something that just made me laugh. Everyone, except for me, had cell phone with internet. I have a cell phone but I don't use it for internet. Texting and phone calling only. I found that we would put out thoughts together for 10 minutes or so and suddenly, except for me and the typer, the others went immediately to their phones to look at facebook, twitter and whatever else the 20 something crowds does online. This happened about every 10-15 minutes. I wondered if technology is becoming a release to students, similiar to how sports can be a supposed released to males in general? A release in the sense that too much thinking can drive a person crazy?

I have noticed even in the classroom that many people, only 4 guys in the class of 35 total, you make the call, lol- that most of the students have their phones and are on it looking at 'stuff'. I presume it is a social networking site becuase I really doubt that unless they are potentially doing other homework that they are reading anything remotely constructive?

Fastforward to today- I made a trip to the post office to pick up a package. I spent 10 minutes in a short line because of only one person at the front desk so I decided to people watch. I notice one lady in front of me and 2 guys behind me. All of them pulled out their cell phones and proceeded to play with them. No phone calls were made though. Only playing. It reminded me, is the technology we now have in cell phones become the new videos games applied for adults? Are using them so we don't have to socialize with others around us? Stay in our own little world? And we wonder why we don't know our neighbor or are oblvious to what is going on our around our world?

I for one do not do that stuff on my cell phone when out in public because to me it takes away from my humanity as a person. Humans are social creatures and as a result we should be engaging with others around us, shouldn't we? If humanity doesn't so such a thing then what does that produce? I think it produces an uncaring individual(s)   in time.

The next time you begin using your phone for whatever you use it for other then phone calls examine yourself and ask, where are you when you do it and why are you doing it in the context of where you happen to be at the time? Are you doing it to fill a void somewhere? Maybe you don't want to talk to anybody? Maybe you are bored and rather than engage in conversation you   want to kill it by playing on your phone? Such as teenager playing video games all day long. Essentially I think it becomes the same thing.

JW

A Feminst project part 2

2011-11-11T09:38:00.000-05:00

I am in my final 2 weeks of putting together a research paper for my women's studies class. My problem is getting material together for it to make sense. My subject is 'Feminism and christian fundamentalism' and the paper needs to be a soapbox argument. My professor says to take the subject and write about what ticks you off on it.    Yesterday I  went to the college library to work on the computer even though I have one at home. I only did it   in case I have trouble navigating the databases for information.

When I was all done yesterday I ended up with near 3 pages of information single spaced yet I felt I was missing more than just something and it was just babble of what I wrote. I asked my wife to read it and see what she thought. She said it was ok but I haven't made an argument with anything. Hmm, that didn't bode well with me at all so I really felt as if I need to start over again and just jot down a few ideas on this subject that I have a problem with.

Essentially for me I have a problem with both sides : feminism and christian fundamentalism.
Feminism says they want equality but I   really think they strive for superiority in order to acheive this. Call it a   revenge type of thing against the male species of built up anger.

christian fundamentalism becomes a bit too literal in their teaching. If you read   what they support they don't either teach it correctly or they skew things to the male advantage. An overkill example is the wife submitting to the husbands. Husbands have used this verse to abuse wives at times while using the verse to hold them in bondage.   Never wanting to acknowledge that the husband is supposed to love his wife. When that happens the submission will happen naturally even though the word submission becomes negative in this liberalized culture- at least in my opinion.

Yet for my own person how do I reconcile the fact that the bible is said to liberate women and bring them to equality yet there are certain roles for men and certain roles for women yet christians who abide in fundamentals seem to keep women in bondage if you listen to the feminist argument? Or is it only a perceived bondage. One of those arguments is women staying home to raise the kids-women need to be liberated from such things. What kind of kids do kids becomes as a result?

This here is my dilemma on the issue. It seems that maybe the bible is correct or is not correct or maybe that fundamental christians are only living out the parts that they like in order for their own lusts of heart. This actually could be the case. Should I role with this thought for my paper? Or that Feminism want rights but in reality they want men under their feet and not with them side by side in the workplace and in life.

Lastly, in telling my professor about my ideas he explained to me that I could be writing about 'roles, rules, and power'. I thought, hmm that is interesting and thought provoking BUT where do I start with that?   Maybe I should take a quote from George Jenkins when he said 'The hardest part is starting, the rest is easy' when it came to establishing his business- He has passed away but his company employs 140,000 people.

JW

Put your religion into action

2011-11-06T16:51:00.000-05:00

The church I attend has been going through a serious of preaching christian actions out in the community. You might call it random acts of kindness. Things such as paying someones bill at an eatery, paying the toll for someone. Just giving of yourself to someone without them knowing it or knowing very little about it.

The Pastor of the Saturday night service, his wife, said she had a hard time on it because when she tried to do these acts they never worked for her. She either forgot to do it or she was in line to bless someone and any someone never showed up.

The whole thing got me thinking as I listened to the pastor. I have seen christians who like to wear 'christian' shirts to advertise their faith. Maybe someone aspect of their faith. The shirt acts as a billboard yet I have wondered if they actually talk to anyone about Jesus? Do they go the extra mile to do a random act of kindness when they put on their 'Christian' shirts? Should those things inspire christians to get out of themselves and do more for their fellow man?

What do you suppose would happen if christians, who wore christian clothing, on those days they performed random acts of kindness. Do you think the billboard that they wear might speak to those who don't really believe in God? Do you think some would take notice?

Just something to thinkg about

JW

A Feminist project

2011-11-04T16:18:00.000-04:00

I have about a month left of my women's studies class. This class is taught by a 37 year old guy who claims to be a feminist himself. He is very raw in his teaching and there is hardly anything that is taboo.

A project we have to do is to write a 5 page paper on a feminist topic or something about feminism. He initially said it would be an argument paper but then he said to think of it as a soapbox paper. What makes you mad? Talk about it. We have our textbook to use a resource, we also have the book 'The Handmaid's Tale' as well. That is a novel we had to read. I think it will tick you off when you read it.

I chose to do one about Feminism and religion and maybe specifically fundamentalism. I was told that I will not be able to use the bible in the paper to say statements such as 'because the bible says so'. Instead I to be as a third party person by say 'This group believes the bible says......' if I choose to use the bible to establish something. If I don't use the bible then there are no worries about it.

I plan to do an argument on both sides of the issue as I think feminist have certain issues that are harmful to their philosophy but I also think that fundamentalists do thing that harm women with who they are. How I will pull this writing off is going to be a challenge. I want to talk a bit about how many feminists, who become religious or spiritual tend to go after female deities. To me it is a sign of really the worship of themselves and how great 'femininity' is. It has nothing to do with spirituality at all. I also want to deal with fundamentalists and their instance of 'wives obey your husbands' without the rest of it being said. Also their ploy of saying what a woman should dress like and still call herself a christian. These are just some thoughts going through my mind.

Do you have any ideas of which I could write about?
Share some with me......
JW

Quiverfull

2011-10-28T09:47:00.000-04:00

I recently came across an ideology that I think is a bit dangerous to Christendom.   I was introduced to this by Vyckie Garrison who was entrenched in this and eventually got because she saw the harm it was causing to her family. It is called Quiverfull take from Psalms 127. She was interview on NPR radio program called 'The Story' and what she told was a bit shocking to my ears especially as someone who has accept Jesus as his personal Saviour. I have never heard of this 'movement' , if you will, until her story. below is the link. I think it is 30 minutes long?

http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_1130_Vyckie_Garrison.mp3/view

I have taken this ideology to a forum to find out what some christians might know of it. I am finding out that while many have never heard of it there are some women who are agreeing with it. This has set up conversation for a question and answer time and what is really Glorifying to God when it comes to family. Is it having as many kids as possible? This is part of what Quiverfull seems to advocate.

A certain lady on a certain christian forum said she did a study on the women in the Old Testament to examine what women had X number of kids. She said it was across the board. Some had alot and some had only a few which leads one to ask is Quiverfull really legitimate as far as saying   it is a good thing for families?

Here are two links. One is for a Quiverfull site and the other is for those who are out of Quiverfull and talk about how it ruined them. I liken it to those who were christians and suddenly, because of some trauma or abuse they   fell away and have become atheists or agnostic because what they practiced was so skewed and distorted.

http://quiverfull.com/

http://nolongerquivering.com/

JW

Phantom of the Opera - Nightwish

2011-10-27T15:05:00.000-04:00

I wanted to post this video of the band Nightwish singing 'Phantom of the Opera'. I think it was a better job than the original singer. This may not be the music genre that most like but I like this genre of music.
See what you think.
JW

What is meant by Famous?

2011-10-14T09:51:00.000-04:00

Have you ever thought about what is meant by being famous? Usually you think of something who seemingly the whole world knows because of a movie or maybe some tragedy. Maybe it is a sporting event but it usually stems from something high profile just as leaders in government.

Here in America CBS, NBC and ABC are in positions that when they do the morning news in New York City they are able to have people on tv and they are usually holding up signs for some cause or just to say hello. Have you ever noticed when the news is going on and these people are viewable that the tv cameras cause them to go crazy? They know a segment of the population is watch so in their mind they are becoming 'FAMOUUUUUUUUS'. Really?

I think average people become famous through tv and media in general when something has happened to them that touches a nerve in the community. Whether it is a tragedy or some kind or a story with a positive spotlight and then that knowledge will be limited in the number or people who even remember it.

I really get a kick out of people who want to say they were famous because they were interviewed on tv for a moment or placed in the paper for an article. In reality those moments are remember by those who know them personally. Otherwise people don't remember you for anything unless you are dressed in something that is out the mainstream.

When I ocassionally see the networks doing their thing and people going crazy because the cameras are on them I ponder, are these people so starstruck to thing that they are now famous because this happened? I seriously doubt, aside of family and close friends who have seen this that anyone will ever remember anything about a furiously waving hand and a body jumping up and down for attention for the camera. Isn't it amazing what human nature does for a camera? One moment a person is human the next their are a crazy person.

Do you agree?
JW

Planned Parenthood-VOX

2011-10-12T16:24:00.003-04:00

WARNING: This article is sensitive in nature. If you are easily offended you should skip this article and go to something else. It is more for mature adults who take issues seriously.

VOX is Greek to mean voices. There is a local chapter of Planned Parenthood called VOX at the university I attend. They held a little workshop called 'safe sex with Kathy'. I was somewhat intrigued so I decided to check this out.

Now , on the outset I have heard alot of things about Planned Parenthood. How they supposedly teach people to use condoms for safe sex and help girls get abortions among some issues. I have only read this   but never exposed myself into a PP meeting/rally and this was my intention.
I got in there and there were 14 student. 10 girls and 4 guys. 3 of us were 40+. The girls were typical college girls. The speaker says she does the sexuality part of PP and was there to talk about condoms.
Her first demonstration- she asked everyone to come and pick up a paper that had an instruction on it. There were 12 in all and they all told you how a condom is used. We were to figure out what part our paper played in it.   I felt a bit weird in doing this and there were some pictures taken. I happened to be 3rd to the end. It was definately very mature content.

Oh, I need to mentioned that just before this whole thing got underway I was given a condom to take home. Yes, tossed right at me. I had never used a condom in my life. I have never slept around in my life as a result before I was married so this condom thing was WIERD !!! Now you may think I am weird in this but am I really? I supposed I practiced abstinence, intentially as well as unintentionally. Yet, at least I didn't and don't have to worry about having an unknown baby out there or having an sexual diseases as a result. Personally, I like that brand of safe sex.

The speaker demonstrated something I found that was profound. People lube condoms. She asked 2 people to blow up 2 condoms as a balloon and then did. Then one of them use water based oil on one ballon and oil based lotion on the other. Within 15 seconds the oil base blew up the condom. She says that this is the reason why condoms break because oil based lotion is used. Probably the biggest teaching I took out of that whole thing.

She also demonstrated a female condom, which is wider then a male condom.
I also noticed throughout that there were sexual overtones being made such as 'Bj' by one of the guys when a girl was blowing up the condom.    I later told my wife that it almost felt like they were sublimally practically for an orgy.

The speaker also mentioned a halloween party coming up in Sarasota that costs $75 but it is supposed to be a BIG thing. I don't know the exactly purpose but I can bet condoms will be flowing. Why else would PP hold a big halloween party for a fee?

Finally, everyone entered a drawing to win a few things. I didn't win anything but they handed out condom stuff and even a few PP bags. They asked me if I would like to join VOX. Well, the name is intriguing but if I joined that thing I would be making a stance for abstinance. I don't know that I could continuously adovocate promoting and throwing condoms at people.   I found the meeting amusing and incredible seeing what PP seems to do with sexuality. I do wonder if PP promotes any kind of abstinence. I am of the opinion that PP thinks that young people are going to have sex anyway to here are some condoms and we will teach you how to use them?   Really? I would think if a young person was educated better on sexuality they might be smart enough to keep themselves a little better sexually because the act itself isn't just an act. It leads to deeper issues on the inside of every individual in terms of spirit, soul. emotions and love. Just my opinion on the matter.

JW