The Modern Amish

Nowhere actually.  Just living the busy life.  Keeping up with my wife and kids(who are all very busy), changing jobs, maintaining my sports blog, etc.  Just lots of stuff.  I’m sure you all understand.  So let me summarize the last four months for you with some lessons I’ve learned.  Random observations perhaps.  But it should be a nice map of my journeys.  Enjoy.

• After being in charge of a fireworks stand for a couple of weeks this summer I can tell you that morons and fireworks are a bad combination.  Unless you’re viewing from a safe distance.  Then they’re hilarious!
• If your child loves being in marching band, they need to join a drum corp.  It will change their life.  And while you’re at it.  Go catch a show sometime.  Meet some of the kids involved.  See the dedication they have, the hard work they put in, the discipline they show, the passion they feel for what they’re doing.  These are the kind of people we want holding our future.  Band geeks?  Oh no.  Band gods.
• Speaking of marching band, spending a Saturday hanging out with band kids & parents, taking in some fine marching bands, & enjoying life in general is a great way to spend your time.
• I love sports.  Need proof?  I run a sports blog covering all high school sports in my area.  And I like it.  But when schools are putting a million, or millions, of dollars into sports facilities when roofs are leaky, teachers aren’t getting raises, there isn’t enough classroom space, etc.  We need to take some action.  It’s bad enough that professional & college sports have been turned into commercial ventures.  Now we have to do the same to our high school teams?  Don’t get me wrong.  Some schools are going about this the right way, but some are definitely not.
• Against my will and better judgment, the presidential election drew my interest for a short while.  A very short while.  Maybe a week.  Just long enough to see that this election is more of the same shinola that both parties have been shoveling for years.  If you honestly think that either of these candidates will enact any real ‘change’ when elected, you are delusional.  As long as the Democrats & Republicans remain the only real political forces in the US, nothing will ever change.  The rich will get richer, the poor poorer, and the middle class will continue to disappear.  Legislation that appears to be written by deranged, rabid, drugged warthogs will be passed.  And our elected officials won’t give a frogs finger about the people of this country.  Lining their pocketbooks will be occupying too much of their time.
• $700,000,000,000 to help save the economy all destined for people who have screwed up their companies?  Brilliant!  I heard someone say that for that amount of money, the government could give every American taxpayer $225,000.  Now that, my friends, would take care of the economy.
• Anyone else sick of Brett Favre?  I thought so.
• I remember times when reality lived up to the hype, but has anything ever surpassed the hype like Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker?  He was terrifying.  Maybe the most pure evil character ever.  Tell me you didn’t cringe every time he pulled that knife out to tell how he got the scars.  Simply awesome.
• A recent study of late-night television showed that six times as many jokes are being made about John McCain and Sarah Palin as about Barak Obama and Joe Biden.  Republicans sited the study as proof of the liberal media plot against Republican candidates.  Democrats responded by saying the study was a fabrication of a fascist, extremist, conservative propaganda group.  While the majority of Americans expressed sentiments that amounted to “We’re not surprised, but who cares?”.
• Cool Hand Luke has eaten his last egg, Fast Eddie has shot his last game, and Butch has fired his last round.  Thanks for everything Paul Newman.  You made one mean salad dressing.
• For someone who has ditched watching commercial television and sticks to DVDs of his own selection, Netflix is awesome.  Not only home delivery of DVDs, but streaming of movies to my TV.  Perfect.  Now they just need more titles.
• And finally, yesterday on a local sports talk show, I heard a Red Sox fan complain about the Tampa Bay Rays ‘bandwagon’ fans.  In related news, Donald Trump decried Gordo Gekko as being greedy, Lindsey Lohan criticized Brittany Spears for acting like a tramp, and the pot held a press conference to call the kettle black.