Da' Bears, Da' Saints, Ditka

Got my sanity back after the slog through yesterday. Whoo hoo! Felt so bad because in Elder's Quorum I was fighting back the sleep and as a fellow teacher I know how it is when the group seems lost in space, it was good lesson on the dichotomy of service... doh!
Opened up the mailbox and found myself and nice little surprise, a new ATM card! What's nice about this one is that Wells Fargo has an offer that you can design your own bank card (and by design you can upload a photo) and they'll plaster it on for free which is my kind of price so I figured i'd take them up on their offer. Put a nice little picture of me and Brynn from a Timbers game last summer, good for the next three years. I guess this will make up somewhat karmically for all the crap we had to endure this past Friday when we went to deposit some financial aid goodies before our journey to Costco. Brynn had an issue in that when they added her info to the account (she had previously banked with Wells Fargo before we got married) they pulled up her maiden name and slapped it onto the account. What was such a hassle was that we had to bring in our marriage certificate from the county in order to prove the legitimacy of her claim (never mind in order to change her license she had to bring that plus her new social security... etc) to just change her name. That is when a ten minute trip into the bank became a full blown rodeo as the person helping her kept ignoring our pleas to leave and she tried to sell us everything but the kitchen sink, oh wait, she did (bringing the mortgage broker to speak with us about buying a house after we had mentioned that was a long term goal of ours). It was by far the worst experience i've ever had at a bank and reinforces my habit of depositing through the ATM. When I go to bank i'd like to think I am savvy enough to look up the right people for help when I need it but otherwise take my money, use it to lend to others, and ensure that the next time I swipe my card the money is in the account. I wish we could go back to MAPS.

Interesting reads and flaccid television

It's one of my ambitions to butcher my own meat, at least once in my life. I want to run the whole gauntlet of meats; beef, pork, chicken, and venison (I stick to land animals because I have no taste for fish). The whole reason I want to do this is to understand where my meat comes from and up to this point I didn't know how to describe this desire. Part of the allure of this article is that I helps me to better form this line of thinking and perhaps peg a name for it, "Ethical butchering". In part this stems from my dad choosing not to eat meat (really he's a pescatarian) and the poring over the reasons why. Heck it also wouldn't hurt when things hit the fan and we're hunting down beasts for food, then I will know how to cut an nice t-bone. Check out the Ethical Butchers blog.


http://wweek.com/editorial/3552/13275/

One of the most important priorities I see in America is education. Bar none, the resources that we have in a person's mind is limitless and using education can help tap that marvelous resource. We have long seen minds go to waste due a lack of opportunity and this article inspired me to desire change. It's one of those things that in the scheme of things will require a lot of investment up front but will pay dividends for years to come.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf/2009/11/greg_goodman_wants_hope_schola.html

What's up with Heroes? Brynn and I caught up with it all through our love of watching shows on Netflix but now I almost wished I hadn't. Spoiler alert, no one (important) ever dies! And the show drags on... and the plot is convoluted (and mind you I understand that going into it but I chose to ignore it because "Look! There are people with superpowers on tv!") Oh, did I mention no one ever dies? And Zachary Quinto you're so full of yourself. Just answer me why won't anyone die?

The bubble

Brynn is sick, all I say is boooooooooooooo! It's our first real sick day and she had to call in which made her feel bad because she's not practically dying. I totally understand the desire to work but then again I am the stickler for trying to get others healthy. Always the double standard that i've lived by, hacking and sputtering around doing whatever needs to be done but it's pains me when others are ill because of the helplessness that it brings to me, not being able to fix the problem a feeling of impotence creeps through my system. Darn germs.
The bubble burst today as a guy talked to me on the bus, headphones and all. We boarded the bus and apparently i've ridden with him before because I was informed of a pretty extensive medical history including the stress that sitting down for prolonged periods of time puts upon your bladder. Go figure.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

I just don't like politics, talking heads, or politicos. I don't like CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or whatever other political channels dominate the airwaves today. Politics for a long time has made me sick to my stomach because I often see a disregard for the well being of Americans when important decisions are compromised by some representative who feels pressured by their constituency back home.
I have my own values, informed by my experiences, my goals, and my views. I may share one or two of them with my neighbor here in the city or with a rural cotton farmer in Oklahoma. But they are my own values. Belonging neither to the Democrat, Republican, or any other party that espouses to represent what the people want.
When I vote for the President of the United States, I go to the polls (in a manner of speaking, yay vote by mail!) with the desire to select the person best suited for the job of representing me to the world. Someone who can spear head initiatives that will allow me to pursue to the best of my abilities "The American Dream". They may serve one or two terms but in the end they will be successful by the measure of whether or not they left America better than they found it.
The reason I write this is because on the internet there is no shortage of vitriol to read. Now I won't go into my feelings about him but one thing that is bugging me is a incident (if it can be called that) in Japan where Obama choose to bow to the Emperor of Japan. My personal feelings are that you can never show enough respect to others. Previously representatives of our government have chosen not to bow but rather offer a handshake but the way I see it is that when you go into someone's home you abide by their rules. An example of this is the shoe policy. Some people have you take off your shoes when you come into their homes. Others let you choose. It's not a horrible thing to show respect and follow the custom of the household. You are not demonstrating weakness by choosing to do so. But what bugs me the most is that this is even an issue. A waste of time. Look even i'm posting on it. Anyway... grumble, grumble, grumble. Politics, who needs them?