Life Lessons for Kids

Heard a story last night from the entrepreneur Richard Bronson of Virgin fortune and fame.

He traces the beginning of all of his success back to an incident that happened when he was six years old. He was on a trip to his grandma’s house with his mother and she stopped six blocks away and pulled over. She told him to get out of the car and that his task was to find his grandma house by himself. She wasn’t doing it in a mean way she was doing it in a liberating way of allowing him the chance to figure out the solution to the problem on his own. He had to find his own path. I don’t know why I love that story so much or if I would ever have the balls to do it but what a great lesson.

Another Lesson I just love is from Rocketstar

“No toys in the car or brought into restaurants because kids need to learn how to occupy themselves without toys as a vital skill in life.” I love it. I watch this commercial where this swarmy kind in a Toyota Highlander pulls alongside other kids who are stuck in cars with singing parent or other events and he turns away from his headrest mounted video games to give a look of utter disgust to the less fortunate kids.

I wonder where that swarmy little attention deficit kid will be in twenty years. I wonder if he will have any friends or non-superficial relationships. I wonder why this is a swarmy little bastard is an ideal that we try to live up to.

I wonder what the world will look like when we look up from our little devices 20 years from now and see all these swarmy people incapable of finding their own way or entertaining themselves.

Tinkerbell

I wonder if we all have a little tinker bell in us. A part of us that dies without applause? Maybe that is what is meant by the walking dead? People who haven’t done anything applause worthy in a while just kind fade away. Goal for the week do something applause worthy.

Tinkerbell is an interesting concept kind of a self serving cheap trick to involve a character in your play for children that needs applause it will die but I remember seeing it as a child and clapping my ass off. I also understand the value of it as an adult, there is power in feeling needed in feeling useful in getting appreciated or recognized for being needed and useful, that when it is missing causes a piece of you to die.

The Forbidden Books #76875

My whole life have been told that capitalism is right and communism is evil. I have generally agreed with this despite never really understanding what Communism is. Well on a rainy day in Minneapolis I picked up a copy of the Communist Manifesto and sat down and read it.

I want to say that I agree with the premise that people rise to power and then create rules that keep them and their offspring in power at the expense of others. I take a personal stand that people should rise to power and wealth under their own influence and ability. That the drive to be better and have more is a good thing.

I think where this takes a wrong turn in communism is that it starts to restrict this drive for the individual instead of dealing with the real problem. It outlaws personal property...which I am against.

I think there are two fundamental things with this that agree with and that I think would make our society better as a whole.

School should be affordable so that everybody has a chance to develop potential

The inheritance tax is a good thing in stead of outlawing personal property let the people who create the wealth enjoy t and then tax it when it is passed on to others who didn't create it.

This would help prevent a class of wealthy people who are in power through no means of their own while still allowing a person to enjoy the fruits of their labor.


I also wonder how many people might rethink the topic if they read the book....if you read t closely there is a huge parable that could be made about Walmart putting all of the little merchants out of business and where that might lead us.

Well that said I am still not a communist but I am glad that I read the book.

Thoughts on other people’s funerals and a clash of ideals.

Recently I had the unfortunate experience of having to go to someone’s funeral.
Funerals are a pretty solemn experience and often very religious. As a staunch atheist sometimes there can arise some conflicting emotions about whether to participate in the pageantry and I have found it helpful to look to look at it this way.
1.)A funeral is for someone else not you.
2.)Honor that persons last wishes even if you don’t fully agree.
3.)A room full of people suffering a terrible loss is a horrible place to become an activist.
4.)Be respectful of the process, being an example of respect and tolerance can have much greater impacts in the future.
5.)Church music is awful.

Randoms

Excuse me but I might drink a little more then I should tonight…..
I know there is no substance to this song at all but I love it.

Somewhere between looking down at my growing waste line I started to realize that smoking pot is the 0 calorie alternative to drinking and might be worth a go.

There is nothing better than sitting outside reading in the summer.

Sitting at the bar during the middle of the day is a pretty close second…especially if said bar is serving Italian fries and chicken wings on special.

I am pretty easy to please and amuse I think it is one of my finer points.

Receiving Line Reinvented – New App Idea

Although I inevitably will end up doing this I wonder if the traditional receiving line could not be done a little better.

Combine elements of the DMV with the Wedding Party.

As people arrive at a wedding they would pull a number. There would be a sign that would flash now meeting with . This would have several advantages…

1.) Your guests could check out the bar have some appetizers ect instead of waiting in a big ass line.
2.) You could meet with everybody who wanted to meet with you…if they didn’t they don’t have to take a number.
3.) You could devote a little more time to people since you could control the pace.
4.) If you needed to go pee you could build in breaks.

The reason this would work for everybody is unlike the DMV there is other stuff to do at a wedding than wait.

To take this a step further you could design an app that could integrate with FourSquare, Facebook, Arrived etc when you check in at an Event it would assign you a number in the queue, give you an approximate wait time and then page you or text you when it was almost your turn to meet with the Bride and Groom. It could then expose the Wall, Tweets, Guestbooks etc of the couple and allow for comments etc…

Just an idea cause waiting in line for 45 minutes to shake hands and say congratulations sucks for everybody.

Can-am Roadster

I don't know how many people have seen the commercials for this trike bike but the companies tag line is...

Of all the thinks you've ridden, it is most like none of them.

What I find amusing about the commercials is when they say, "of all the things you've ridden" they pan to a close up of the guys wife. I don't know why I think that is so funny.

Weiner

So what? Are we this prude? If the guy like to post pictures of himself on SNS so what? 15 years from now every candidate you field will have similar pictures and no one will bat an eye.

SNS (Social Networking Sites)

Things that it took me a long time to learn…

1.)Good decisions really do build on one another, but it sometimes takes a lot of bad decisions to know what the good ones actually are.
2.)Growing up feels good, responsibility feels good…but so does relinquishing it at times
3.)Don’t put things off for later. If something has to be done do it. You will feel better about yourself and the world.
4.)The beautiful thing about relationship is you can choice which ones you keep.

Minnesota – Nation Compromise

Hey douche bags at all capitals enough with the bi-partisan bull shit…If American wanted only a single one sided view of an issue we would go back to kings and dictators. While the two party system is far from perfect one thing it should be for is reaching compromise in the middle. Compromise heals the nation instead of divides it. It insures all constituents are represented even if they didn’t vote for you.

I have a feeling lots of people are going to get swept out of office in 2012.

Some probably with a angry mob chasing after them with torches.

You what happens when you play chicken? You either crash or you lose the keys and your license…

How can you be a poor republican?

I think Poor Republics are an interesting combination. No actually it is fascinating. They use the illusion of righteousness or good to rally a base of superstitious voters with promises that are very un-Christ like for the serving of a small percent of them. Would Jesus help the poor, the sick, the tired? Would he want us to live in a world where we take care of those who cannot take care of themselves? I don’t even believe in God but I believe in that ideal. I must have missed the chapters in seminary where God said abortion was evil, contraceptives are bad and everything should be privatized.

The problem with any of the good books is that you can use them to justify anything. I guess that is why evil people have been using them for justification and control for over 2000 years….if it isn’t broke don’t fix it.

That is until people start to realize they have been taken advantage of …