Progress Report

Well, I thought I'd make a quick post, just because it's been so long since my last one. There has been no progress so far since my last post to filling slots in the team.

However, I have done a lot of thinking over strategies and what not. One big question I am having at this point, is this: With a ten man team, who is going to play in what positions? And how many positions do we duplicate.

At this point, I think the best route for us is to practice and train using the Special Ops positions found on their web site.

HAMMER - Super heavy gunner
BROAD SWORD - Heavy mobile gunner
SABER - Medium rifleman
DAGGER - Light rifleman ( recon )
SNIPER - well a sniper is a sniper = )
COMMANDER - leader

You have six positions here, and all but the Commander can be duplicated. What I need to figure out is how many of each position should we have, and where on the field do we place them? I guess once we get a real team together, and start practicing, everyone can start to get a feel for which position(s) suite them best, and we can also discuss as a team how and where and what we want to do. I already have some ideas about some fundmentals we should maybe look at.

For example: We need organized offense and defense. We should have guys on the team that specialize in defending, and guys that specialize in assault. One thing I'd really like to set up is plays. Yep, plays just like a football or basektball team. You could have pre arranged plays that are designed for certain situations, and during the game a commander, or squad leader can call out a play, and have it immediately executed. No questions, or confusion, or having to sit and make on the spot plans, which waste time. Nothing complicated or overly done. Like if a commander yells out ZULU! ZULU! It could mean something as simple as; regroup at our base, or lay down suppressive fire whith two flankers on that position.

Well that's the update for now. Unfortunatley there is snow on the ground, and the temps are in the single digits these days, so there hasn't been any paintball lately. As the weather starts to warm up, maybe we can get some games going, and I can start recruiting for the team. The SPPL regionals are in July. I don't know if that gives us enough time to get a team together and practice enough to be much of a threat. So, maybe I'm looking at getting a team together to spend the summer practicing, and then enter the SPPL tourney the next year. I hate to see a whole year go by though.

No Room For Pride

Well, I got some feedback from some good experienced paintballers from a forum at specialopspaintball.com

I asked about my idea of using sectors. Has anyone tried anything like this before? If so, how did it work?

I got a good answer, and it has changed my plans for sectors.

Instead of dividing the field up into imaginary sectors, you overlay an imaginary football field over the paintball field in your mind. The actual field doesn't need to be one hundred yards long, as long as the fifty yard line is pretty close to the real center. And instead of the yards going like this: 10,20,30,40,50, and back down;l 40, 30, etc. You just keep adding up: 50, 60 , 70, and so on. Your home base is always at the one yard line. Basically you are dividing the field up into hundreths. There probably won't be any need to get anymore specific than five yard marks. Then you just refer to actual areas on the field like this; thirty left, or thirty mid, or thirty right. To get a little more specific you could go with mid-left and mid-right to name in between the middle of the field, and left or right.

So let's say your sniper is up field a ways, and runs into an adversary patrol. A radio exchange between him and his captain would go something like this, " Juliette, Charlie. Three bogies sixty right moving fast your way.

" Juliette copies. Charlie hold your fire. Bravo, and Lima. Set up a hasty ambush at thirty right. Charlie when they are in the trap you close the door on them from behind. "

" Charlie copies "
" Bravo copies "
" Lima copies "

This will be much easier to learn and use than my sector idea. I'm a little bummed cause I really liked my sector idea. But, part of being able to put together a good team is going to be having the ability to recognize when someone else's idea is better than yours, and being humble enough to admit it, and use that better idea.

Finding That Edge

I have been thinking a lot lately on some of the small things a team could do in a tournement to gain tactical advantage over an oppenent. One huge advantage I think to a team would be familiarity with the field being played on. If we intend to compete in tournements, one big obstacle we will run up against, especially in the woods ball scenario is trying to coordinate and be effective on unfamiliar terrain. So, I've come up with a solution to the dilema. It doesn't really solve the problem entirely, but I think this system if practiced, and put into play by a team could give a team a big advantage that they would have normally gone without.



My idea is to mentally picture any field you come upon sectioned up into six sectors. You can see my illustration of what I mean below.









You don't get to play on a perfectly rectangular field usually, so I drew a randomely shaped field to show what the sectors might end up looking like typically. Sectors one and two would always be the nearest to your teams home base. In this case the blue box, represents the home base. You start on your left and begin numbering left to right.



I think using this, a team could arrive on a field they've never been on before, and still be able to somewhat communicate to each other more accurately of what's going on out there. Imagine your forward man or sniper is somewhere in sector three, and spots an enemy patrol moving in his direction from the other side. He can simply guestimate the sectors and give decenty accurate info over the radio of enemy movements without having to be expertly familiar with the terrain. As long as he's pretty sure of about where mid field is he will be pretty accurate. i.e. "Lima, Juliette I've got four bogies sector six moving slowly towards sector 5, copy?" Just one quick sentence, and the whole team can now visualize pretty clearly what he sees and react accordingly. This would be much better than, " Johnny this George. I can see like four guys. They're about one hundred hards to the front and right of me, and they're moving kinda diagonal across the field. Kinda by the middle."



I would like to give this a try. It will take some dedication and practice to get it down, but I think the advantage to learning this would be well worth it. In fact, If the team gets it down pretty good, then I would like to take it one step further by dividing each sector into quadrants. So you'd have Sector Two Alpha, or Sector five Bravo, etc, and be even more accurate while communicating on the radio.



It might be too much and too complicated to learn though. But, it might be worth a try. I know we use nicknames for a bunch of spots on the field we play on now, and it really works well to our advantage to call out on the radio, " Ambush at Arnold's trap!" Why give up that kind of advantage just cause you happen to be on the road?

Ch ch ch Changes. . .

Well, I am considering giving up on this blog in a sense. Not abandoning it entirely however. I think I am going to give up on my rather lame attempt at providing profound remarks on the latest news and current events. Once in a while something might enrage me to the point of posting something here, but I think for the most part I am going to leave that kind of political analysis to the pros. Instead I am going to start narrowing the range of topics on here. I would like to start focusing in and making this more of a blog centering on my paintballing. And since my performance on the field is directly affected by my own fitness level, I will most likely make some fitness comments as well.

There's kind of a reason for this sudden switch, and that is I am seriously considering putting together a real team and for the first time in my paintballing career competing on a competition level. i.e. tournements and the like, instead of just shooting it up with pals in the woods on the weekends. So let this post be the first in the beginning of my newly themed blog about my journey in pursuit of excellence in the competitive paintball world.

------

As the season for outdoor paintball winds down I'm getting depressed. I didn't get to play as much as I wanted to this summer. Work schedules, and especially the weather did not work out. This spring was way too wet and cold to play, and the summer was DANG HOT! I enjoyed a few games this fall though, and made a new vow not to let the weather play such a factor in going out or not.

Ok so here's what I want to do. I want to put together a ten man team and compete hopefully next year in the SPPL. I've been glued to the web site ever since I discovered it, and the more I think about it the more I want to do it. This tourney has me written all over it!

First things first. I have to find ten to twelve guys willing to do this. It's going to take dedication, and commitment to do this, and I can't afford to have any last minute flakes on the team. So, selecting and putting together a team is going to be hard. I have about six guys now, they are:

Myself ( Lima )
Delta
Bravo
Juliet
Hotel
Alpha

For their privacy I've given them code names for the blog.

One major problem with this group is that Bravo and Delta both live four and three hours away respectively. And Juliet may be going off to med school. So, who knows how this will turn out. Gonna have to start keeping my eyes open for potential candidates to join the team. Not only do I need to get a team together, but I need to find a group of guys to practice with. Another team perhaps, or a group of recreational players that would be willing to help us practice. Basically be our tackling dummies. This isn't as easy as it may sound. To be a tackling dummy wouldn't be your typical day of playing paintball. Lots of stops and starts, and probably lots of getting hit. Being asked to do things you wouldn't normally do in a regular game. The most important thing at this point is to find a TEAM. . . no team no tourney.


Well, that's it for now. I will be on to update as time goes on.

Uber Geek

I was just thinking about my hobbies and interests the other day, and what an uber geek I really am. An uber geek goes beyond just geek. A normal regular geek might just be someone who's good at math and got a good job in computers. Or just some guy who likes Star Trek a little too much. But, an uber geek is something different. An uber geek is geeky in all sorts of ways, and to the max. Ok, so maybe I'm not a complete uber geek, but I'm definately a geek. Anyway, I started thinking of how I can tell if I'm a geek, or just an uber geek, and as I thought and thought, I sort of started coming up with a mental list of uber geek indicators. So, I decided to share on my blog my top ten indicators that you are an uber geek. So, in the tradition of Jeff Foxworthy, but probably not as funny and creative, here you go.

1 - You've ever mixed your own soundtrack for playing Dungeons & Dragons

2 - When you get together with friends you always get discouraged trying to squeeze XBOX time between your busy paintball, and radio controlled car schedule

3 - Your senior year in high school you were voted MVP of your debate team

4 - You've read Lord of The Rings more times than your pastor has read the bible

5 - You have contempt for anyone who claims to be a fan of Lord of The Rings, but has never even read the books!

6 - You recently broke up with your long-term girl friend because she refused to email a picture of herself to you.

7 - You're 32 years old and your kids have to drag you out of the action figure isle at Toys R Us.

8 - You're frequently on a waiting list for a new video game release.

9 - You own a real sword, and you're actually pretty good with it. You're pretty good with a bow-staff too.

10 - You host your own blog site.



Well, there you have it? Are you an uber geek like me? I'm not saying I qualify with all ten of those indicators, but sadly many of them I drew from my own life. But, I'm not telling which ones. NO WAY.

Go Ahead. Take God Out!

Ok, so the nasty little debate over The Pledge of Allegiance is back. Goody. For the past few days I’ve been listening to both sides go at it back and forth. Both sides heatedly and passionately battling it out in the arena of thoughts and ideas.

Let me set something straight right off the bat here. I do believe in a supreme being, a creator, God, or Great Spirit if you will. I believe that we are a nation under God, and that it was through his intervention, and his will that we even became a country. I believe that He sustains our existence as a nation from day to day. I also believe that when we as a nation ultimately turn our backs on him, then we will reap the whirlwind.

That said, I don’t think that taking the words “under God” out of the Pledge is going to spell out our ultimate demise. After all, the original version of the Pledge didn’t even contain the phrase. But, is it so necessary? I mean what is the big deal with these atheists? They say it’s unconstitutional for a child to be forced to acknowledge the existence of God. Last time I was in school, nobody was being “forced” to recite the pledge! We had a member of the Jehova’s Witnesses in our school, and when we said the pledge she would just stand silent. No big deal. Can’t these atheist kids do the same? Can’t we just avoid dragging the country through the muck on this?

On no. Some little attention starved attorney, has to have his fifteen minutes of fame, at the expense of the nation. Well, you know what? I almost hope he gets his way in this. I almost hope the Supreme Court decides in his favor. Cause, you know what I’d love to see? I’d love to see the kids in the schools of this country stand up as one voice and tell the courts and politicians that enough is enough! That we are sick and tired of our right to free speech, and our right to pray, and to have clubs, and to read certain books, and study certain topics being trampled on by lawmakers all in the name of “separation of church and state.” Here we have a free country where supposedly the right to express ourselves is the most valued sacred right we have, but enter one of our public schools, and the thought, and speech police are watching from the front of every classroom.

Imagine a judgment being made to remove the phrase, “under God” from the pledge. Now imagine a pep-assembly at a high school at Anywhere, USA. Think of the kids reciting the pledge, and when it comes to the omitted phrase, as one united student body, they all include “under God” extra loud, and extra clear. Think of this happening all across the USA. How awesome would that be. What are they going to do about that? I’d love to see it. I’d love to see crowds of kids gathering every morning before the bell rings in front of their school to independently recite the pledge, and acknowledge this country’s freedom as a divine gift. I would love to see it. Love to.

It might be crazy enough to work

Just read an interesting article on the Fox News website. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169052,00.html

It's titled: Pentagon Considers Nuclear Deterrent for Terrorists

Here are some phrases from the article that caused me to pause a moment after reading them.

- A Pentagon planning document being updated to reflect the doctrine of pre-emption declared by President Bush in 2002 envisions the use of nuclear weapons to deter terrorists from using weapons of mass destruction against the United States or its allies.

- in a changing environment "terrorists or regional states armed with WMD will likely test U.S. security commitments to its allies and friends."

- the U.S. needs a range of capabilities to assure friend and foe alike of its resolve

- "U.S. forces must pose a credible deterrent to potential adversaries who have access to modern military technology, including WMD and the means to deliver them."

- In such cases, deterrence, even based on the threat of massive destruction, may fail and the United States must be prepared to use nuclear weapons if necessary."

- U.S. policy has always been purposely vague with regard to when the United States would use nuclear weapons and that it has never vowed not to be the first to use them in a conflict.

Anyone else find those excerpts interesting? I'm still deciding what to even think about all this. Is this the right road to be heading down? A big part of me says, YES. Nuke em' and be done with it. But, another part of me thinks of the old saying, " you reap what you sow. " If we were to start using nukes, what Pandora's box are we opening? On the other hand, I think of when we had Bin Laden cornered for a bit in Tora Bora. Anyway, they are pretty sure he was there, and barely slipped through our fingers, leaving his followers behind to fight us to the death. Imagine if we'd just nuked the mountain side. Hmmmm. It sure is tempting isn't it?

I think a bit more on it, and you know what? I'm for it. I am for taking a hard stance against these villians. They don't think like you and me. They only understand violence, and slaughter. We are eventually going to have to start playing hard ball with them if we expect any peace. They have families and loved ones too. Maybe they'd be less willing to conduct the work of death if they knew our retaliation would not only consume their lives, but the lives of their families as well. I'd love to see the look on Bin Laden's face if a week after 9/11 we had started nuking the whole Mid-East. One terrorist sponsoring state after another. And the look on Kim Jong's face would be pretty priceless too.

AMEN BRUTHA!

I found this while surfing around. I think it hits the nail on the head of how many of us "angry white males" in America feel. Beware of a little crudeness.

Enjoy-


George Carlin

- I Am Your Worst Nightmare.
- I am a BAD American.
- I am George Carlin.
- I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some mid-
level governmental functionary with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts squirting out babies.
- I'm not in touch with my feelings and I like it that way, damn it!
- I think owning a gun doesn't make you a killer.
- I believe it's called the Boy Scouts for a reason.
- I don't think being a minority makes you noble or victimized.
- I believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac, you'd better do it in English.
- I don't use the excuse "it's for the children" as a shield for unpopular opinions or actions.
- I think fireworks should be legal on the 4th of July.
- I think that being a student doesn't give you any more enlightenment than working at Blockbuster. In fact, if your parents are footing the bill to put your pansy ass through 4-7 years of college, you haven't begun to be enlightened.
- I believe everyone has a right to pray to his or her God.
- Hillary Clinton is a carpet-munching lesbian... not that there is anything wrong with that
- My heroes are John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, the Simpsons, and whoever canceled Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
- I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.
- I know wrestling is fake and I don't waste my time arguing about it.
- I think global warming is a big lie. Where are all those experts now, when I am freezing my ass through a long winter?
- I've never owned a slave, or was a slave, I didn't wander forty years in the desert after getting chased out of Egypt, I haven't burned any witches or been persecuted by the Turks and neither have you, so shut-the-#$%!-up already.
- I want to know which church is it exactly where the Reverend Jesse Jackson preaches. And where does he get his money. And why is he always part of the problem and not the solution.
- I think the cops have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you're running from them.
- I also think they have the right to pull your ass over if you are breaking the law, regardless of what color you are.
- I think if you are too stupid to know how a ballot works, I don't want you deciding who should be running the most powerful nation the next four years.
- I hate those bastards standing in the intersections trying to sell me crap or trying to guilt me into making 'donations' to their cause.These people should be targets.
- I think if you are in the passing lane, and not passing, your license should be revoked, and you should be forced to ride the bus until you promise to never delay the rest of us again.
- I think beef jerky could quite possibly be the perfect food.
- I believe that it doesn't take a village to raise a child, it takes two parents.
- I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement.
- I think Dr. Suess was a genius.
- I'm neither angry nor disenfranchised, no matter how desperately the mainstream media would like the world to believe otherwise.
- I believe if she has her lips on your Willie, it is sex, and it is sex for both of you. This even applies when you are President of the United States.
- If that makes me a BAD American, then yes,.. I'm a BAD American.

What's Your Opinion?

I friend of mine asked me to post a question on my blog and see what others out there think of his current situation. I haven't gotten a comment on my blog for a while, and so I don't know if anyone is even reading anymore, but here goes anyway.

He is a newly wed of about five months. About a year ago his wife bumped into her old high school boy friend. They were a couple for about two years, and were sexually active with each other. She broke up with him their senior year, because he was making her uncomfortable. Basically stalking her. They've had no contact until running into each other accidently a year ago.

I guess the boy friend is married now with kids.

Well, he immediately starts calling her all the time, and sending her text messages on her cell phone, and by her own admission has said a couple of things that she said were inappropriate for a married man to say to another woman.

Here's where it gets wierd. The four of them, ex-boy friend and his wife, my friend and his wife, all get together and do stuff as friends. They will have dinner together, or whatever, and sit around talking about the good ole' days of high school and stuff. Everyone but my friend who didn't go to school with them.

This whole situation makes my buddy very uncomfortable, and he hates going over there, and doing that. He thinks it's dangerous for their marriage, and that x-boy friend has more on his mind than just being friends. He's tried to talk to her, but she is VERY stubborn and determined to keep up this so-called frienship. He asked me to blog about it, and see what the opinions of others might be out there on the situation. He'll be checking in to read your posts, and he'll probably eventually show them to his wife.

Your help is appreciated

Scatter Brained

Well, what can I say. It's been a while since my last post, and that's mostly because nothing worth mentioning has really happened of late. I actually have a lot of thoughts swirling through my brain right now, and I think I will randomely just jot them down until I get tired. So, here goes.

That lady down in Texas protesting the war is dishonering the memory of her son. He volunteered. He made the ultimate sacrifice, but she detracts from what he did for us with her little tantrum. On the same note, he did die to give her the right to protest. So there you have it.

I'm tired of the Natalie Halloway story. People go missing every day. Why all the attention just to her?

I'm starting to think that buying and caring for a horse might be cheaper than filling my cars with gas anymore. But, I'm not blaming the president for prices. It's the market, and the market - they say - will correct itself if left alone. At least cars don't run on Nyquil.

Cinderalla Man starring Russel Crowe is an excellent movie that everyone should see. It meant a lot to me, because my late grandfather was a Golden Gloves boxer during the same era. Chalk it up there with movies like Hoosiers, Iron Will, Rudy, and Remember the Titans.

Never pay anyone to hydroseed your land. Especially some twenty year old high school drop out with a mohawk and pierced nipples. Pay them to level it, and then plant the grass yourself, or you might end up all pissed off like me.

I love this time of year. The temperature starts cooling off, and you can tell Fall is right around the corner. Fall is the best.

Well, those are some random thoughts that tend to cross my mind about every day lately. Maybe next time I will be a little more focused on one particular topic.

Out.

Maybe a small thanks can go a long way

The other day I had to come into work on my day off for some extra training. What a day it was! For anyone new here, I work as a security officer at a nuclear complex.

Anyway, we got trained on the HK 69 grenade launcher. Yep, I got to shoot real grenades. It was pretty cool. I got a real "bang" out of it. = )

I also got to be trained on the FM 240 Bravo. For those of you who don't know, the 240 is a machine gun kinda of akin to the famous M60 that you see in all the movies. What a weapon. This is the swivel-mounted gun that you see on TV, mounted on the turrets of Humvees in all that Iraq war footage. After shooting of a belt of ammo, I actually almost felt pitty for Al Qaeda. I can't imagine squatting behind a mud wall while someone fires off bursts at you from that gun! What a nightmare that would be! At least it would be a short nightmare. But, also a HOOT to shoot. Everyone should have one!

But now the point of my whole post today. At the end of the day we did a combat scenario exercise with equipment that we call Miles Gear. Miles Gear ( and I may be spelling it wrong ) is basically a high-tech Laser Tag system that allows you to use basically a real gun, but shooting blanks.

The scenario pitted four of us against two snipers in the sage brush approx. 500 yards down range. It was a moving and tactics exercise. I partnered up with a guy named Chris and off we went leapfrogging through the sage brush desert. After about ten minutes of running, diving, shooting, crawling, and picking cactus needles out of our skin, I was exhausted! Suddenly I realized I had gained a new appreciation for our guys over there in Iraq. It was around 101 degrees for us, and I thought I was going to die from the exertion. My throat was parched, and my legs felt like rubber. I thought to myself while catching my breath behind some cover, " Man, those guys in Iraq have to do this in heat and conditions waaaay worse than this, and on top of that. . .IT'S REAL!

I just want to say, hats off to the American Military. They really are sacrificing over there for us and deserve our honor and respect. I don't care what end of the political spectrum you fall on, or if you agree or disagree with the war. These men and women deserve your respect, and your support. I can't imagine if I was there putting my life on the line, and hearing some of the crap coming out of people's mouths over here. So, here's my small and insignificant way of saying thanks to the troops. A lot of us believe in you.

Just for the fun of it

I never thought I'd say this, but running can be fun. Yeah, seriously! All it took for me was to get off the treadmill, and go for a run outside.

For the last several days during my alotted workout time at work, I've been finishing up with a two mile run down a dirt road that winds through the sage brush out here.

Tonight I ran as the sun sank below the Lemhi Mountains to my left. It's at this time of night the desert comes to life. I saw rabbits scurrying out of my path, and a huge desert owl of some kind gliding gently in the evening breeze on huge wings. I noticed that even the desert is beautiful in its own rugged sort of way. My lungs were engorged on sage scented air, and for the twenty minutes I ran, it was just me, and the desert, and the mountains in the distance.

I am realizing some things lately about fitness and staying in shape. If you can find something new, different, or enjoyable, then it goes from being "excercise" to a hobby or an activity. For example. I have fallen in love with mountain biking lately. As I pedal along the rutted paths, steering around and over different technical obstacles, I don't even notice my own heavy breathing, or pounding heart because I'm having a killer time!

The new goal is to continue to explore ways to make fitness fun, fresh, and enjoyable.

Shadow Spawn gets censored!

Today, I got up and first off mowed my 3/4 acre lawn. Then I hacked some brush on my property with a machete until I was a glistening sheen of sweat. After that I came inside, and hit the weights on my new olympic weight set. Did some back, biceps, and triceps. After that we packed up the kids and went to the lake. I swam for a while. . . nothing tremendous. Then we came home and I went on about a ten mile bike ride through the surrounding hills of my home.

Whew! What an active day, and I feel great! I think I ate pretty sensibly all day too. Just got to maintain this level of activity and I’’m bound to lose some weight.

Now for my topic of the day.

All this week, I have been engaging in political debate on another blog named americablog.blogspot.com These guys are extremely on the fringe of the left. Very liberal. It has been fun to take them on in the arena of words. While doing this I have been called a Nazi among other unmentionable names in the comments section. Our views are so different, that many of them think I am kidding and just trying to generate rage to attract attention to myself. By the way, if you are thinking about going there, be fore warned that it is a site laced with profanity and very adult topics sometimes, so be careful.

Anyway, I was involved in a debate over homosexuality yesterday that earned myself tons of criticism, and not to mention attacks from the creator of the blog John Aravosis, who supposedly has a law degree, been a guest on several talk shows such as O’Reilly Factor, and claims to speak five languages. Anyway, I posted a comment stating a belief I held about homosexuality that I won’t get into here, and boy did they all get angry with me. They all called me names and bashed me on a personal level, but nobody would counter what I had said. I even challenged them. I asked them to counter my point. All I got in reply was, “ You have no point.” I must have really gotten to them, because I little while later when I went back to continue my argument, I found to my shock and amazement that my comments on that post had all been deleted from the web site. Everyone else’s was still there, but mine were gone.

This is the final point I want to make. They continually rage on that web site about the freedom of speech, and the right to express yourself. Well, I just want to make this observation. They sure love the freedom of speech all right. . .unless you say something they don’t like. Then you get censored, and erased. Can you imagine how they’d behave if the tables were reversed?

Daddy, are there such things as monsters?

Last night my four year old girl got out of bed and came to me because she was afraid. I asked her what she was afraid of. " What if the orcs come?" She asked, her big blue eyes glistening, and wide expecting an answer.

"Don't worry about orcs ( it's pointless to tell her they don't exist ) Daddy can kill any orcs that try to come in here."

"What if they have swords?"

"Daddy has guns. Now off to bed."

As I tucked her into bed and gave her a kiss I thought to myself what an innocent time childhood is, when fictitious orcs are your biggest fear. Monsters aren't real, yet to her they are. Then a darker thought clouded my mind as I remembered the eighteen Iraqi children killed by a homicidal bomber on wednesday, and the score of kids that have been in recent news as victims of murderous predators. I grimmaced and thought to myself, monsters are real. And they are more terrible in real life than any imaginary orc.

The real monsters come in the form of terrorists, murderers, molesters, abusers, drug dealers, the porn industry, and many other nameless forms. As a father I wondered how to protect her from the real monsters. If she could only just stay afraid of orcs for the rest of her life.

Today I sit in fatherly indignation at the evils lurking in the world. Who would plow through a gathering of children and blow up themselves in a vehicle, killing all the kids, just for the chance to get at two Americans handing out candy? What monster is capable of such evil? I think of the sicko, Joseph Duncan, who kidnapped Shasta Groene, and while repeatedly assaulting her sexually over the next several days bragged to her about murdering her family. The real monsters are out there. The evil is real, and for crying out loud, the fight needs to start getting REAL.

I for one am sick of hearing that 9/11 was our fault. That we need to see what we did to make the terrorists mad at us. I am sick of hearing all the crying and weeping over the so-called poor conditions at GTMO! I am REALLY REALLY tired of finding out every time a child is murdered that it turns out to be a repeat offender, who should have been in jail!

This isn't about republicans, democrats, liberals or conservatives. I'm just a father, husband, and American and I know I'm not alone in my desire to protect my family, and my freedom. I see evil at the doorstep. I see the monsters in the dark, for who they really are. . .Monsters, and they should be treated as such.

It's All About Lifestyle

Wahhhh! The vacation is on its last gasp now. Only three of the twelve days left! And I didn’t get to do half the cool stuff I was hoping to do. The white water trip got postponed, and the paintball game fell through. Jeeze! I did make it up to Mesa Falls for a day with the family. Mesa Falls is a gorgeous waterfall up in the mountains of Idaho that border Yellowstone, and Grand Teton National Parks. Took some pics and amazed the kids, and realized it’s been way too long since I’ve been out in the mountains. Gonna have to start planning some backpacking, and camping trips. Right now though the temps are in the high nineties, and so we’ll most likely wait for things to cool off.

I’ve got a new diet and exercise program I’ve been trying out for the last couple weeks. It’s called the JUST WATCH WHAT YOUR EATING, AND BE A LOT MORE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE program. So far it’s been great! I have started biking every day now. I started with a six mile ride into the rolling hills near my home. that’s been now increased to ten miles and includes spontaneous excursions onto dirt paths that wind away mysteriously into the hills. I have been trying to include the whole family in my new program, so my wife accompanies me on many of these rides, and the kids follow behind in a bike trailer. We also go to the pool as a family now about every other day or so, and swim. My wife spends time with the kids in the kiddy pool at the beginning, while I head to the lap pool and swim laps for fifteen or twenty minutes. The other day started with a swim, then got home and went on a bike ride, and then later walked the dog for two miles. I figure hey! you gotta notice a change if you start having days like that. Right?

On top of all that, I bought a three hundred pound olympic barbell set on Saturday. I am still shopping around for a bench though. But, once that’s all set up, my days will also include quick, high intensity weight lifting routines. I got a mega deal on the weights, and the sale was ending that day, so I just bought em.

Last and finally on my list of ridiculousness is I have been itching for a kayak lately. Once the white water rafting trip got postponed, I realized how much I was really looking forward to doing it. Now I unexplainably find myself on the internet reading articles and blogs dealing with white water kayaking. I don’t have a lot of “river” experience, or boating experience at all, so the thought is a little daunting. Am I going to get myself killed? Luckily I have a neighbor who is an avid river runner, and former guide. At least I have his brain to pick. And maybe, just maybe he’ll agree to take me along some time to show me the ropes.

Final thought: My prayers go out to the people of London. They deserve our honor. They stepped up in our defense when we needed them, while others turned their backs to us in fear. I hope they catch the cowards responsible.

The Lettermen Leave an Impression on Gen X

Last night my parents took my wife and I to a Lettermen concert that was held here at our civic auditorium. Yep, that’s right. . . The Lettermen, as in “ Put your head on my shoulder”, and “When I Fall In Love” Lettermen.

As a member of the much misaligned generation X, I must admit, that I wasn’t sure what to expect as my wife and I took our seats on the sixth row back from the front of the stage. Oh, I’m no complete stranger to the works of the Lettermen. I remember hearing those unforgettable ballads on my Dad’s vinyl records while growing up. I have to admit, I was almost frightened on their behalf, as I waited for the concert to begin. Yes, I was doing the math. “ Let’s see. Not sure when they hit it big, but let’s say maybe 1965 they were maybe 20 - 25 years old? That would put them somewhere in their sixties? Maybe getting close to seventy? Can they do this?”

Suddenly they were announced, the music started, and my fears seemed on the verge of realization when I saw three bent-over, bald, or gray-haired old men walk out on to the stage in tuxedos. But. . .Then they started to sing. I was astounded and amazed. The same melodious, harmonizing voices from my childhood filled my ears. My eyes refused to see the truth for what it was at first. I leaned in towards my wife and whispered, “ Those voices don’t even match. I can’t believe those voices are coming from those bodies.”

For the next two hours I sat enthralled with the music, a stupefying grin plastered on my face. They sang a mixture of patriotic tunes, and some of their hits from the sixties and seventies. When it was over, they got a standing “O” from the audience. I rushed home to bu y a CD from Amazon. Yeah, I’m a sucker for music.

What has happened to that kind of talent? Yes, there are a lot of talented contemporary musicians out there, don’t get me wrong. But still, after seeing this show I was left with a feeling that there is a void in today’s world of entertainment. A feeling of longing and nostalgia gripped me as I drove home, the dial on the radio tuned to KUPI 98 Gold. I laughed to myself as I thought that maybe someday I’d be taking my kids to see a bent over, balding, gray-haired Jon Bon Jovi perform at the local auditorium, and my kids would be wondering, “ What’s happened to the music? “

A Much Needed Break

ahhhh. Two more hours and my vacation officially begins. I'll have the next 12 days off. I can't wait. Gonna do some paintballing, some camping, some swimming, and even some white water rafting. I also am hoping to use these next 12 days without the interuption of work to try to get ingrained back into a solid work out routine. I won't have my job to contend with, so getting out there to the gym, or on the bike, or hitting the trail head should be a lot easier to do.

Biking has been my latest thing to do. I live in a quite hilly area, and have been trying my best to get in about six miles a day so far. I can already feel my endurance building and am getting ready to up it to eight miles. I know this doesn't seem like a lot, but try pulling sixty extra pounds worth of kids in a bike trailer behind you up steep hills. It gets my heart beating sufficiently.

Final thought today is on the 4th of July celebration. God Bless America, and all who defend her.

-Out

Feel The Rush

Fervently I scan the dense foliage around me, though I know it’s in vain. Trying to be as quiet as possible I will myself to take another step. This is crazy. They are hidden and hidden well. Yet I continue to scan, hoping that perhaps I’ll catch a slight movement, a darker than usual shadow, or the sun reflecting off of equipment. Nothing. Another agonizing, twig-snapping step forward. My heart’s racing in anticipation. I know they are in these woods somewhere, just waiting, most likely drawing aim on my chest. I take a quick inventory of my teammates. The line is staying together as we comb through the woods. I finger the safety on my Tippmann A-5, yep, still good to go. Combing the woods in a skirmish line guarantees two things. One: eventually you will find your opponents. Two: You’ll know you’ve found them when they open fire on you, or a teammate, depending on who stumbled across them. Everyone in the line knows that someone is going to get it, you know that whoever it is has no ability to do anything about it either. I crouch under a branch, then step over a log. Every foot step echoes like a rock concert. Surely they can hear all of us crashing along. I draw quick aim on a shadow. . . No just a tree stump.

Suddenly, the waiting and the silence are shattered by a burst of automatic fire about one hundred yards off to my left. Someone returns fire. As I run towards the sound, I can hear paint balls impacting on trees by the dozens. SMACK SMACK SMACK. Before I arrive I hear my teammate call out “hit!” He’s out. Worse than out. He’s now on the other team! We lose one, while they gain a player! As I run up, I see my team mate, Clay pinned behind a tree, doing his best to return fire. Little splatters of paint are flecked across his goggles from a near hit. By this time it’s a full on fire fight. Dozens of rounds are exchanged by the second.

I can’t detect any fire coming directly at me, so I continue in my flanking maneuver. Suddenly I hear another of my team yell out “hit”! And run over to join the opponent. This is not going well for us. The odds have now been turned. Instead of five humans hunting down two aliens, it is now three humans vs. four aliens. Clay and Josh are both pinned down, but the good news is that I’ve just saved a bunch of money by switching to Geico! And, they haven’t seen me, and have no idea where I’m at. . .yet. I hand-signal Clay to keep them busy. He does his best to draw their fire. Every time they have an exchange I take advantage of the noise and move in closer. I still haven’t even seen an alien. Just moving towards the sound of their guns.

Then, just like a ghost one of them steps from behind a bush to try to get an angle on Clay, completely oblivious to me standing twenty feet behind him. My response is automatic as I raise my Tippmann place my red-dot sight on his back and squeeze off a quick 3 round burst. Three perfect splats appear on his back, and his hands go up. One down. I move in closer, see another one crouched behind a tree and open fire on his exposed back. Two down. They know about me now. As another one tries to adjust to my presence, he gets eliminated by Clay. The remaining Alien bolts in a dead run. He’s kinda far away by the time I get a clear shot, but not too far for my new Flat Line barrel. I let off a stream of rounds in his direction. He trips and falls, inadvertently saving himself. . .for a moment. I aim into the grass where I saw him go down, and send off another burst. His hands come up. He’s out. He sits up, my blue paint coating his forehead.

As friends we all walk back to the staging area. Pair up new teams. and spend the next three hours doing it over and over again. This is paint ball. This was Saturday night for me. Can’t wait until next time. Hope my welts are gone by then.

The weather is driving me mad

I can't believe the weather around here this spring. We are technically in a drought here in south eastern Idaho for the past seven years or so, but this spring you wouldn't know it. Last month we got four times our average precipitation! Although I am happy to see everything so nice and green, and it's been nice to not have to water the lawn, the rain sure is interfering with my paintballing. The cycle of stormy weather has been perfectly coinciding with my days off! While I'm working we have pretty decent weather- low eighties to mid seventies - but, by the time I get off for a few days, the temperatures drop into the mid fifties and it starts raining and blowing. Back in my youth, we still played no matter what. Maybe I just need to toughen up.

Ok, so this week is the week to hopefully kick off and restart a workout habbit, even though I am leaving town for a couple of days. We shall see how that goes. Just for kicks I started back on the Atkins diet a month ago to hopefully jump-start some wieght loss. I haven't been overly strict, and have cheated quite a bit. To my dismay my wieght loss hasn't been as dramatic as I experienced the first time on Atkins. Two reasons I can think of. #1 I am twenty pounds lighter now than I was the first time I started it. I think that the more you need to lose the faster it comes off at first. And #2 the first time I did it I was extremely strict, and this time I haven't been near as strict. I am on the verge of tossing in the towel and just going on a calorie watch, and increase my physical activity. I guess I have about two weeks worth of grilled hamburger patties still in the fridge I need to eat. So, we'll see where I'm at then.

Blogging myself out of the blogosphere

I have to laugh. When I began writing this blog, my original intent was to get on here daily, or at least weekly and jot down the daily wanderings of my mind. I never expected my blog to recieve any comments from others. Once others began commenting on my blog, I suddently felt a burden of responsibility to come up with profound, and thought-provoking topics to write about. I puzzled all day long, "what to write?...what to write?" Sometimes I was albe to scrape up something from the daily headlines. Other times, I would dig into my brain and just toss out a personal belief I hold, that might be slightly controversial. Unitl I just realized why I haven't written anything for over a week now, and the thought was like a chore in my brain. " need to blog about something....but what?" Somewhat similar to " I really need to start getting back into the gym."

Well today's blog is to remind myself why I started this in the first place. #1 I enjoy writing, and welcome the opportunity to have others be able to comment on my rantings. #2 I like the opportunity to meet all kinds of different people with different lives through this blog. What an adventure.

Well, back to it. For now on I will write in my blog without being so dang conscience of what others are going to think when they read my post. I still love the comments and hope they continue, but my blog won't be dominated by trying to attract comments, or satisfy those who may be reading anymore. Back to doing it for myself.

Whew! I feel better already. Can't wait until my next post.

Is it really about the Koran?

I just want to make a short point on this whole desecration of the Koran thing.

They are all up in arms and killing people over unconfirmed stories of alleged Koran abuse. For example, the US has had to close down the embassy in Indonesia because of threats.

My question is this: Where's all the freakn' outrage by the Muslim community when one of their fellow Muslims blows up a bomb, at a mosque killing people, and most likely damaging many Korans, Where's the demonstrations and outrage? What? It's ok to blow up your holy book, as long as you don't set it next to a toilet?

My other question is, what other country in the world would be even allowing these suspects to have a Koran besides the USA?

In my point of view, these people will use any excuse at all to be violent and malicious towards us. This places and extra burden of responsibility on our media at home, and they need to recognize it. The free ride for them is over.

Common Sense Prevails

Well, I am happy to report that the Union met and voted on Tuesday morning, and we will not be striking. We voted to ratify the new contract in a landslide. This was a good contract, and I am glad to see most union members had their heads screwed on straight despite the fanatical rantings of some of the members. The Union President told us that some PACE national representative actually saw our figures and said that it was an astounding raise in pay, one of the best he's ever seen, and it should be an automatic ratification. Without going into actual numbers, I can say that over the next five years, my pay will be 28% higher than it is now. That's incredible!

It completely blows my mind that there were members campaigning for a strike! I am sure they would give their reasons, but jeeze la wheeze! When is enough, enough for some people? This is one of my problems I have with unions. Some members get really greedy and think they can strike and get whatever they want.

Anyway, it's all good now. Now we all have some healing to do. A lot of ugly things were said throughout the whole ordeal.

I must be sick

I am referring to the video to come out recently of a sixty six year old substitute school bus driver getting into a physical altercation with some teens on his school bus. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,157351,00.html

I was just getting ready for work yesterday afternoon and turned the TV on to Fox News just in time to see the video and a "panel of experts" discussing what had happened. In the video you basically see the bus driver in an attempt to control two boys, who happen to be brothers, basically flip out. He turns and slaps one brother who yells an obsenity at his back, and then grabs him by the neck and walks him back to his seat by the neck. Then he proceeds to go to the back of the bus and pushes the other brother against the window, and I think he puts a seatbelt on the kid.

I know it's probably wrong to sit here and try to justify what this driver did. Yes, he should have remained calm despite the outrageous desrespect these boys were dishing out to him. But, as someone who has had my share of dealing with little spoiled brats like that, I secretly took much gratification watching this driver dish out to these kids what they needed. The look on the little snot's face when that driver grabs him by the throat was priceless.

Anyway, it just kinda goes to show you how things in this world are changing. If this had happened to me when I was a kid, my parents would be more ticked off at me for being a little shi# than they would at the bus driver. My parents would have probably made me go mow the guy's lawn for a summer as an apology.

Kids these days don't have to worry about getting what's coming to them, and they know it. This is a problem. I can't imagine being a school teacher these days with no disciplinary options available.

If you're that desperate, I have some good ideas...

Watching the last episode of Everybody Loves Raymond last night, I saw a trailer for the new Tom Cruise movie coming out, War of The Worlds. I now have to ask what in the heck is going on? Has Hollywood lost all of its creative talent and ability? I can’t believe all the remakes going on recently. A list just from off the top of my head.

War of The Worlds
Dukes of Hazard
Starsky and Hutch
Amityville Horror
The Haunting (not so recent but still...)
Flight of The Phoenix
The Longest Yard
The Incredible Hulk
The Exorcist
The Stepford Wives
Dawn of The Dead
Magnificent Seven

I am sure there are a ton more that I’m not aware of. So, what’s the deal here? Has Hollywood lost its ability to create something new and imaginative? Or are they just unwilling to take a risk or gamble on something new and imaginative? Surely there are screenplays out there being written that are brilliant. I can’t imagine all the ideas are used up.

It seems the trend here is to either remake an old classic, make a movie stemming from an old 70s era TV show, or make a movie out of a Comic book hero. Is anyone out there having any original ideas? Even George Lucas has fallen prey to cashing in on previous success with his new Star Wars movies.

I guess I am not really complaining all that much. In a lot of cases the remake is awesome and definitely needed to be done. But, in so many other cases it drives me nuts when the new remake isn’t as good as the original, or even worse, it is EXACTLY IDENTICAL to the original and you walk away wondering, why did they even bother?

I am sure it’s all about the money. Capitalizing on the success of the original will always be too much of a temptation for Hollywood I guess. For some of us these remakes are blasphemy, like the Muppet version of the Wizard of Oz. For others it’s an exciting opportunity to see their old favorites with better special effects, and newer, hipper actors and scripting.

For me. I’d rather see something new and fresh. Leave the originals alone. And don’t even get me going on the remaking of SONGS!

The Forger's Fire

The union and the company have negotiated an agreement. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but it’s nice, at least for me, to see both sides talking and agreeing on something.

The company wanted a fifteen day extension to the contract really bad. We weren’t going to give it to them. The company is not ready for a strike. They don’t have what they call a contingency force ready yet to take over in the event of a strike. You have to understand that this is national security. If we strike, the plant still must be protected. So, what the company does is send out an “all call” to other DOE sites across the country hoping they will send extra security officers they can spare, to make up part of the contingency. Well, I guess they haven’t gotten much of a response this time. Probably because everyone is already taxed trying to meet post 9/11 standards.

So you can see that we had pretty good leverage. Giving them fifteen days was basically almost giving them everything. But, we gave it to them. In exchange we got, what I would call a pretty decent pay raise. Also, they agreed to change the wording of our official job category. I wasn’t aware of this, but for ever we have been officially described as “unskilled labor”! This is unbelievable to me. It’s not like they hand me a shovel and ask me to dig a ditch! I have more qualifications to keep up than most people out there. Everything from pistol, rifle, hand to hand combat, first aid, CPR, to working in radiological environments, and wearing a gas mask. That isn’t even the half of it. So, I am glad to see that we are now described as “skilled workers” which will justify more pay down the road.

A lot of security guys - guys who’ve been there for twenty years - are ticked off at our union for giving in. I think these guys don’t realize that this is how things are done. Both sides must give a little. That’s why it’s a negotiation instead of a gang rape. Who wants to see a strike? Anyway, I hope this is the end of all the talk of striking. Who knows though. A lot can still happen by the 30th.

Thought of the day:

I was just thinking the other day about that old commercial for the USMC. (Marines) It starts out showing a black smith hammering away on a red hot lump of metal. Huge molten sparks fly through the air as the hammer smashes away. A voice comes over, saying something like; “ You begin with raw steel. You shape it. You form it “. At this point you can see the steel taking on the shape of a sword. The voice continues on about the pounding required to form this sword. The transition from fire to water over and over, and the constant smashing of the hammer. At the end you see a Marine Corps officer holding the sword, and the voice tells us how it’s now polished to a fine perfection, and razor sharp.

I have always loved this analogy. I like to think that we are “raw lumps of steel”. If we are to realize our true potential, and become what we were meant to be, we have to endure a certain amount of time in the forger’s fire, and put up with his constant pounding. It is life’s trials and difficulties that shapes us and makes us stronger. Personally I take it further, and like to imagine God as the forger. We don’t often see the reasoning or purpose for our hardships or difficulties in life. Perhaps, we are being forged. Perhaps we are being polished and prepared for greater things to come. Perhaps, this particular moment in our life that we find so hard, is just exactly what we need. The difference between real steel and us, is we have a choice on how we will react and respond to the forger’s attempts at shaping us. I like to hope that some day I will be that razor sharp, finely polished sword. But, I am kind of afraid of the process.

The Big Face Off

Well, it's down to the wire now. Looks like my union is most likely going to strike soon. Negotiations with the new contractor are not going well at all. All the other security officers that I talk to are grumbling and rumbling about striking. We've never striked before. The company doesn't believe we'll do it. I think they are in for a major surprise.

I don't want to strike. In fact, I am pretty content with my pay and benefits as they stand now. But, it seems I am alone in this thinking. I hear stories from both sides, and in my opinion both sides are being stubborn and stupid. But, I have to lay most of the blame on this new company. They could have pacified us by doing very little, and we would have settled for not much at all. But, they showed up ready for a fight, and have seemed to go out of their way to antagonize the union.

This sucks! I can't afford to go without pay for very long. This is the best job I've ever had, and I can't stand the thought of it being jeapordized by something this stupid!

There will be no crossing the line. The company, for the sake of national security, will lock us all out in the event of a strike, despite this being a "right to work" state.

So here I sit wondering what my situation will be like in the next week or so.

= 0

It's all good

Well, life moves on. thanks for the sympathetic comments made by those who purused my last post. For those interested, the little tyke is just as good as ever. I worked on throwing and catching a football with him today. Funny, how I seemed to so much more appreciate that little moment now.

I must have bruised some of my ribs in the fall. I didn't workout yesterday, and will most likely skip tonight as well. My abs and left arm are tremendously sore after my incident. I feel like I've done a thousand one-armed pushups. I will probably give my body a few days to recover. Plus, the day after the accident I had to go to a hand-to-hand-combat class for work that lasted all day. It consisted of kicking and punching bags, and throwing each other around on a mat. So, I am actually pretty sore from all that too.

Can't wait to get back into the groove

Peace

Angels Among Us

I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty tough guy. I never cry. I’m a big weight lifting guy. I work as an armed security guard for the government. I’ve been trained to shoot to kill, to arm bar someone to the ground, apply pressure point compliance, and handcuff them. There are firearms in my home, and not far from reach. ( for me, NOT THE KIDS ).

Today, I found out I’m not as tough as I thought. Today, I discovered there is a chink in my armor, a breach in my fortifications.

I live in an old farm house out in the country, and when we moved in there was a lot of reminders around the place of the old farm, which for the last four years I have been slowly cleaning up, mainly fencing. Today, I was unbolting and old cattle gate from a post. My wife was trimming weeds nearby, as the kids played in the yard. I finally got all the nuts from the u-bolts and was attempting to yank the gate - which probably weighs around one hundred pounds - from off the u-bolts. It was sticking. I gave it one really good yank, and to my much surprise it slipped free with ease. This put me completely off balance. The corner of the gate dropped to the ground, causing me to take a stumble forward. Being off balance and the weight of the cattle gate pulling me forward, I completely lost my balance, and began to fall, holding onto the gate in front of me. To my absolute horror I saw my two year old son standing right in front of me, completely in the path of the gate and myself!

It all becomes a blur at this point. A blur in slow motion. The worst part is it took a couple of seconds to fall. An eternity to contemplate the worst of which was about to occur, and completely out of my control to stop it. I heard my wife screaming. I realized I too was yelling incoherently. It was like I wasn’t even in my body. I remember trying to reach through the bars of the gate as I fell, trying to grab my son and actually throw him out of the way in time. I think I managed to push him, but I can’t remember. My final thought was, This is going to kill him or really seriously injure him at the least.

The next thing I knew the cattle gate and I were both atop my son. the top bar was right across his throat. He was screaming. I can’t convey in words my horror. I couldn’t get off! I was sprawled on the stupid gate, and couldn’t get off! “ I can’t get off “! I yelled, as my son continued to struggle and scream beneath what must have been over three hundred pounds of weight. I distinctly remember a small bit of blood trickling from his lower lip. At this point my wife and I had one of those adrenaline moments. I just knew I needed to get the weight off of him..somehow! Holding on to the gate with my right hand and holding it close to my chest, I extended my left hand and basically did a one armed pushup, pulling the gate and myself off my son. My wife at this point did her best impersonation of Xena Warrior Princess, and lifted the full weight of the gate and myself even higher.

We got clear of the gate, and I scooped up my boy into my arms. I was so afraid I’d crushed his tiny rib cage, or collar bones. upon examination, I am glad and grateful to report he was perfectly ok except the bloody lip. He keeps trying to wrestle with me even as I type this.

I have always believed in God, and I think he was there with me today. Maybe it wasn’t adrenaline that allowed such an exertion of strength. Which I have to add must have been a major effort. My left triceps is as sore after that two three seconds as after any major workout. My abs feel like I did a thousand sit ups today.

I wanted to take this chance to thank the Big Guy Upstairs in as public a way as I know how. I think about what a disaster this could have been. I should have been rushing to the emergency room at the very least. To get off scott free like this...

What more can I say? I got a second chance. I hope that by posting this maybe I can reach out to some of those in the blogosphere in need of a little boost. As Alabama the country band once sang. “ I believe there are angels among us...”

Peace to all.

Spirit and Body

I was just kind of thinking today, as I stared a candy bar down in defiance, that it's so funny that all the things that are good for us, are hard to do, and all the things that are bad for us are easy and enticing. I think that in order to become masters of our own lives, we must learn to master our impulses and cravings.

Who are we really? What is left of us when you strip away the natural impulses, the unhealthy cravings, etc? I believe we are spirit joined with body. But, who is really in there? When you are hungry...are YOU hungry, or is it just the physical body? How about all the other desires of the flesh?

I watch my dogs and conclude that they absolutely give in to every bodily craving and desire that they experience. My Alaskan Malamute isn't going to excercise restraint if I put a female in heat in his pen with him. No more than he would if I threw a little bunny rabbit in there. But, we aren't animals now are we? Some would disagree. They think we're just a higher evolved animal and we shouldn't expect much from ourselves. If a man cheats on his wife, it's ok because bottom line he's just an animal behaving on instinct.

I think that one thing that seperates us from the animals is the ability to recognize that we are more than just flesh behaving on instinct. We have spirits, we have souls, and we feel this deep in our hearts. The great difficulty is how intertwined our spirits are with our bodies. Even though great joy, or great anger are purely emotional and derive from the mental and spiritual form of ourselves, we still have physical reactions from these emotions, like crying, or laughing.

What I'm getting at is that to become the master of our own universe we must recognize that we are spirit matter. We have to learn to master our body, instead of the body mastering us. We must learn that we are so much larger than just mere animals acting on base instinct.

I think the whole "we're just animals" argument is simply an excuse to not rise to the occasion and become who we know we could really be.

Quote of the day:
The definition of an intellectual is: Someone who has been educated beyond their ability to learn anymore. author unknown

Keep on Truckn'

Well, I am on six straight day shifts now. This was day three....three more to go. So far I have had the chance to workout twice in the last three days. Not bad. More than I thought I'd get with the busy schedule at work. The chance for a workout tomorrow looks bleak. But, if I can get one in the day after that, I will be pretty pleased. Then back to some graveyard shifts, and daily workouts.

I am frustrated because I just don't seem to be making any headway in the way of fat loss, especially around my belly. In another week or so things are supposed to really slow down at work, and that should give me the opportunity to get more workouts in and settle into a routine of some kind. One thing I've decided is to cut back my carbs a tad. I think I may be getting a bit too many. So, instead of the chicken or tuna sandwich everyday, I will be cutting out the "bread" part of the sandwich, and just eating the meat with an apple for that meal. I've done it for the last three days, and haven't noticed any big defeciency in energy during my workout. Yet, I still wonder what kind of results I could achieve with a low low carb diet like the Atkins combined with heavy weight lifting. My curiosity is very peaked in this manner despite the warnings. I don't know. I still need to give this other program a decent shot before I discount it entirely.

On a seperate note, I got some cool new upgrades for my paintball gun. I own a Tippmann A-5. I recently got an Egrip, which allows me to fire the gun at full auto ( 18 rounds a second ), and a Flatline barrel, a patented barrel with a curve on it that actually puts a backspin on the paintball, giving it one hundred extra feet in range. There are a few more things I need to get, like a stock, and a chronograph. A chronograph is an insrument that measures the velocity of your paintball, so you can adjust your gun not to shoot too fast, or too slow.

If I could play paintball every day, I wouldn't need to worry about all this diet and excercise. Oh well. Keep on Truckn'

The ups and the downs

I am writing this on the tail end of a stupendous week of good dieting and excercise. I was able to stick strictly to my diet for six days, and got in a pretty decent workout for each of those days, with the exception of one day, when a fellow security officer had to work a double shift and was trying to get some sleep in a room across from our workout area. Since I quite often find myself working out between 1am and 3am when on graveyards, I decided to show a little courtesy to this guy. I still worked out, but just some weight lifting. I was planning on some cardio, but figured this poor guy would be disturbed by the sound of someone plodding on a treadmill.

Anyway, that being said I am a little discouraged, because I don't know if I have noticed much change in my body, but it was only six days for crying out loud! You need more than that to make a change. The real discouragement comes from knowing that tomorrow I rotate to five "day shift" days of work, and I will be lucky if I get to workout more than twice in those five days. And working out after work is pretty much not an option with a fourteen hour work day. Sigh...

The good news is that in a week or so, things are supposed to slow down a bit at work and perhaps then I will have more consistent opportunities to get my workouts in. Then I can really put this new program into effect, instead of this dabbling.

Free Speech or Contradiction?

For some reason I have been thinking about the practice by some Americans to burn our nation's flag in protest. I remember back when George H.W. Bush made it illegal to burn the flag. I remember seeing images on tv of people burning the flag in DC and being hauled off by police. Personally I get offended when I see Old Glory being burned, stomped on, or spat upon. I see it as an act that almost borders on treason. Can I defend these feelings logically? Probably not. I am only being honest in how I feel when I see it happening.

Those who defend this practice usually cite their constitutional right to freedom of speech, and expression. They also claim they are merely practicing their right to peaceable assembly in protest to the government.

Although these are all rights that I do condone and God willing, we never lose these rights, I have to question the whole flag burning. I don't believe we can make it illegal to do so, just as we can't stop anyone from burning a Bible if that's what they want to do. But, what I have to ask is; what logic comes from burning the Flag? What is the symbolism? What are they trying to say when they burn the Flag? When I turned on the tv on 9/11 and saw Muslim extremists in the streets of Baghdad burning our flag, I could see the reason. I got the message loud and clear. But when one of us does it....

To me it only speaks volumes of a person's ignorance when they chose to burn the very symbol of the freedom that allows them to demonstrate their protest in such a way. I can't think of very many nations on God's green Earth that would permit such a demonstration. But here in America, land of the Free, it's a simple matter of free speech. But to me it is the ultimate hypocrisy. The Constitution guarantees a person the freedom of speech. The Stars and Stripes is our ultimate and most sacred symbol of that very constitution. To burn it, is in effect burning the Constitution in effigy. In my mind these people are symbolically canceling themselves out.

Instead, you should be flying that flag with pride! Wave it in the face of oppression and tyranny! By all means protest and demonstrate if you disagree with policy. That's what this country is all about...That's what that flag you are burning is all about. Think about it.

The Words of a Master

Years ago I was heavily involved in power lifting. This was a two year stretch in which I went form 190 lbs to 270 lbs. I was really strong, and could do 1,000 lbs reps on the leg sled. I didn't do it alone as I had a trainer the whole two years. He is an olympic weight lifting coach for the USA, consultant to the Bulgarian weight lifting team, and has trained 36 body building champions in his time. It was a privelage to be under his wing for two years.

Now, as I strive for better health, weight loss, and muscle gain, I have recently been reflecting on this time in my life. The workouts were horrendously difficult. I reached levels within myself that I never knew existed. I pushed through mental walls that I didn't even know were there. Now as I struggle trying to lose weight, and get in good consistent workouts one of his sayings keeps popping back into my head, and I thought maybe all of us could benefit from his wisdom. He said, " Your body is simply a machine...it will do whatever you ask of it...if YOU will get out of its way ! The body physically has no concept of TOO hard, or TOO heavy. It only does what it's told ".

Just another day

Cold and windy today. The weather is sucking out my paintball enthusiasm. At least I know that eventually the weather should clear up someday, and I can start playing again.

Well, yesterday was my new start on working out and diet. It felt good. The workout went well, and I am sore today, so that's good. I am hoping to get to workout tonight, but my LT. is sending us to the range to bone up on our shooting techniques, so I might not get to workout tonight. Maybe if I get done shooting in time, I will be able to squeeze something in.

Tomorrow shouldn't be a problem for sure. So that's good. Well, that's it for today...nothing profound pops into my head at the moment.

Premature Longing

Yesterday's post I was all longing for paintball and glorifying the warm springy feeling in the air. Yesterday I grew nostalgic watching kids ride by on thier bikes with baseball gloves dangling from their handle bars. The smell of fresh mowed grass wafted through the neighborhood, as I sat on my Dad's porch taking in the lazy afternoon sun while burgers sizzled on the grill.

This morning I woke up to a near blizzard! Snow covered the ground as giant wet flakes fell for most of the morning.

Ahhh...Springtime in the Rockies.

SPRING IS IN THE AIR

Paintball! Oh Yeah! With the weather warming up I am really starting to jones for some paintball. I haven't mentioned this on my blog before, but I have been playing paintball since it's conception in the late eighties. I love this game! In my opinion it is a game that brings all of the base elements of most sports, and combines them together. One of the great things about paintball is it doesn't matter if you are young, old, skinny, fat, female, or male...everyone is on an equal playing field. The only thing that really matters is experience.

Well, every spring I start to get all worked up over paintball. I start getting all of my gear out from storage, and cleaning it up. This spring I have ordered some stuff for my paintball marker (gun) to enhance the performance. Can't wait for the stuff to get here.

If I could only find a way to play paintball every day, then I wouldn't need to worry about excersice and diet so much. Maybe I will start up a tournement team, and try to go pro = )

If you haven't given this sport a try before, I strongly urge you to give it a shot. Most beginners that I've invited out to play with me, usually end up buying all their own gear, and become regulars.

As the summer progresses and I start getting some playing time in, I plan on posting some war stories on this blog. So stay tuned for more.

Don't know if I can take it much longer

Well, update on my diet time. I sure have packed on a lot of muscle mass it seems. I am enjoying the look and feel of bigger arms, chest, and legs, but unfortunately I have also increased in body fat. I am not sure by how much, but my pants are tighter than before. My last update, I had dropped my calories down to 1500, thinking that that should do it no matter what. Turns out that this few of calories just caused me to be super hungry to the point where I would have no will power, and tended to binge at nights on unhealthy snacks and crap. I haven't really followed any semblance of a decent diet, or work out routine in about two weeks. My busy work schedule is partly to blame.

I talked to my friend who happens to be a personal trainer, and fitness consultant, yesterday. He said that reducing my calories to 1500 was the worst thing I could've done. Someone my size should be eating more. Fewer calories on someone of my size will actually result in a slowing down of the metabolism!

Anyway, I have reworked things and am going to be starting fresh and new again on monday. I would start now, but my parents are grilling burgers sunday, and I figured I might as well enjoy one last good meal before getting all serious. I am going to be back up in the 2,000 calorie range, and still eating six meals a day.

My friend also advised me that I should be trying to get in at least three cardio sessions a week, so I revised my training split.

Day 1- Abs / Chest / Cardio
Day 2- Back / Biceps / Triceps
Day 3- Shoulders / BIG cardio
Day 4- Legs / Traps
Begin with Day 1 again.

Well, we shall see. I am frustrated because I feel like I am undoing all the progress I made on the Atkins diet. It is tempting just to get back on Atkins, because the weight really does come off, and you aren't ever hungry. But, at the same time I want to be building muscle mass and become a more active person. I don't know what kind of muscle building I can achieve if on a low carb diet. Seems I should be able to add muscle if eating all that protein. Who knows. If it starts to get too drastic, I may have to go back to Atkins. Any advice from anyone?

He Thinks He's So Special!

First off, let me explain why it’s been so long since I last posted on my blog. Basically I usually blog on my days off, and when there is down time at work. Well, the past week there have been no down times, or days off, hence no blogging. My schedule doesn’t permit me to blog after I get home because, I usually barely have enough time to prepare the following day’s meals and get to bed. I am out the door by 5 am and don’t get home usually until 8:30 pm. I think my wife would kill me if I spent the few precious minutes I have at home blogging.

Well, onto my topic for today.

“ I hate him! He always thinks he’s so much better than anyone else “! How many times have we heard this phrase, or even spoken it ourselves? This past week at work I heard this said about a fellow coworker. I was shocked to hear it actually. This is a person - I will call him John - that I actually have a lot of respect for, and was surprised to hear some speak so venomously of him.

John is a young married guy with two kids. He seems to be a great husband, and father. I admire his ability at work to always stay above the back biting, and politics. I’ve never heard him slam anybody else behind their back. He is faithful in his religion. Doesn’t drink, smoke, gamble, tell dirty jokes. At work he takes his job seriously, never caught snoozing on post, always scoring high on his firearms qualifications, and is dedicated to keeping himself in shape.

Is he perfect? No. Is he trying to be? I think he is doing his best, to be the best he can be. Back to the ugly phrase I began with, “ I hate him! He always thinks he’s so much better than anyone else “! I’ve decided, that in most instances this isn’t true at all. The person being criticized as pompous, or self-righteous doesn’t assume they are better than anyone. The next time you start to assume this about someone, stop and consider this: Maybe it’s not that they think they are better than you....maybe it’s that, deep down you KNOW they are better than you! They aren’t self-righteous, just ...righteous. Some people just can’t stand or abide this self realization, and their own petty jealousy comes blazing out in slanderous profusion.

I am reminded of an analogy I was once told about a bucket of crabs. I was told that if you fill a bucket with a certain kind of crab, they will all try their best to stand up and climb out of the bucket. Occasionally one will manage to hook a claw to the rim of the bucket, and begin to hoist itself out. At this moment all the other crabs will grab a hold of him and pull him back down into the bucket with the rest of them.

Isn’t this so true of humanity, and the way we treat each other. Especially one who may stand out and with their own piety reflect back to us our own downfalls and imperfections. Rather than hold up this individual as a shining example, we would rather pull them back down to our own level. We would rather not be reminded so painfully of our faults, and short comings.

Just some rambling for today.

Minutemen and Border Patrol

I feel like these minutemen down in Arizona helping to patrol the US border down there are getting a bad wrap from the msm.

While doing some patrolling of my own last night, I was listening to late-night talk radio, and heard an interview with a radio reporter who was embedded with the minutemen down there, and he had some interesting things to say.

He said that although, publicly the US Border Patrol has denounced the minutemen and expressed concern for the action taking place, this reporter has seen the actual agents, the guys getting down and dirty everyday, walking up to the volunteers and shaking their hands, and thanking them for the help. He has seen agents salute the Minutemen as they drive past.

Another thing he said is that since the Minutemen converged they have seen the attempts at border crossing diminish by one half, and this was only on the second day.

Also, they are apparently having an effect on the drug smugglers as well. He told a story, of an incident when all the Minutemen radios were simultaneously jammed for several minutes. After the jamming ended everyone was able to hear a conversation in spanish for a few minutes between two men, discussing a "drop" that was going to be expected later. Many are guessing that the smugglers needed to move something, and took such measures as to actually employ the use of some kind of jamming device so that any Minutemen who saw anything would have no communications.

Myself, It was refreshing to hear these accounts from someone who is really down there. Are these people anti-immigration? No. Just anti ILLEGAL immigration. Are they behaving violently towards those crossing the border? No reports of any violence yet.

Something to consider. Many experts on terrorism are predicting that if any other major attack occurs within the US, it will originate from the Mexican border. This threat is real enough to have prompted the government to hire up to five hundred more border patrol guards. At my job we receive FBI briefings often on fugitives, and wanted terror suspects. I have heard stories of Arabs going to Mexico, and assuming a Mexican name, and crossing the border into the US illegally with more on their mind than finding a job picking tomatoes. Some of these illegals have even managed to receive government clearance and get jobs working in sensitive areas!

We have a long ways to go securing our safety. We should be commending these Minutemen for volunteering their time, and putting themselves at risk, instead of demonizing them as thugs and racists. Someone has to call attention to this ever-growing problem that even the President seems to turn a blind eye to.

Blogger Suicide

Well, this post might do me in, but I must know what others may be thinking on this. First, let me be up front and apologize to anyone this may offend. I mean no offense. I'm not really trying to make a point here, but am really asking a question.

As a society we label deviant sexual behaviors such as pedafilia, necrofilia, or bestiality as being a mental sickness. Now, I'm not an expert or psychiatrist, but I think most people would agree with me that people who have these desires would be considered sick, and in need of some kind of medical help, or counseling at least. My question is how does homosexuality escape being lumped into the above category?

I realize that there was a time when homosexuality was considered a sickness, but is no longer recognized as such by the medical community. I beleive the Freud was one of the first to take such a stance. http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_mental_health.html

Is it merely because of the victimlessness of the act? The whole arguement of "two consenting adults"? Of course we condemn a pedafile. He is sick! A predator! A deviant from nature! But isn't homosexuality deviant as well? By deviant I mean deviating from the norm. I'm not trying to make a case of weather it's a choice, or inborn. I am just saying it is a behavior that certainly strays from nature's intentions. What benefit did nature intend to gain from such behavior? You don't have to be from Alabama or read the Bible to realize that it's not "normal".

So my puzzlement here I guess is what is it about homosexuality that distinguishes it from other sexual behaviors considered deviant? How does it become accepted as "normal" by much of society and the medical community, when a pedifile or necrofiliac, for example, is considered to be mentally sick?

Does it all just depend on who you talk to? How widespread it becomes? If you talk to a member of the NAMBLA, they wouldn't consider pedafilia as a sickness. Would they?

Well that's it...let the hell fire begin. "Shuddering"

Musn't get discouraged....musn't! If I could somehow reach my utility belt...

All is well, I guess. My workout and diet program is now officially four weeks old. Results? Well, I still refuse to get on a scale, cause I know for a fact I have put on weight, and scales are evil devices besides. My first four weeks I did no cardio, and didn't watch my calories too much, though I did follow a diet eating specific foods. My main focus was strength training and putting on some mass. In this, I was pretty happy. I feel like I have added a lot of muscle. After just four weeks it is evevident in the mirror and when I work out. The negative has been the increase in my waist. Hopefully I will remedie that soon, as I now have added cardio into my workouts. Basically I do a straight hour of cardio every fourth day, and I have cut my calories down to around 1820 a day. After a few weeks, I will add more cardio to my routine and adjust my calories accordingly.

I do have to say that I almost can't even count week four. My workouts were good, and I made it to the gym almost every day, but week four also contained Easter, and three birthday parties! So, yeah I had a lot of crap to eat that I shouldn't have. Well, here's to week five and a new begining within a new begining.

Just for the record this is my training split.

Day 1 - Abs / Chest / Triceps /
Day 2- Shoulders / Back / Biceps
Day 3- Cardio / Abs
Day 4- LEGS
Start over.

How We think VS What We Think

I heard an interesting debate while listening to talk radio yesterday. The question was basically this: How come The Theory of Intelligent Design can't be taught in public schools side by side with Darwin's Theory of Evolution? Now, I am not posting this to continue the debate I already heard on the radio. This is a question that many have asked. Separation of Church and State right? Well, this guy was saying that you wouldn't need to cram it down the students' throats like Darwin gets crammed. Just make it a voluntary class, or elective for students who would like to hear another "theory". For that's all Darwin is...an unproved theory, that for whatever reason gets taught as fact every day in America's classrooms.

Anyway my actual reason for making this post is, one guy made a statement, and I don't want to detract from what he said by telling you what side of the debate he was on. I just think that what he said was profound, and good food for thought. Especially for those of us with kids who will or are participating in public school.

I will paraphrase the best I can from memory. He said, " You know in educational institutions you always hear of how important it is to promote free thinking. But, in reality free thinking is often found to be questioning authority, or being a trouble maker. I believe that we should be teaching our kids how to think, rather than what to think. Teach them to question everything. Teach them that questioning authority is not a bad thing, if done respectfully. In the end, it isn't the answers that are so relative, but maybe instead, it's the questions that we ask ourselves that matter most.

I heard this and thought to myself, "BINGO"! I know I had a bad experience with a history prof in my freshman year in college. Where I felt I was being treated unfairly because of my own religious and political beliefs. In high school my brother had an experience with a teacher when he confronted them in front of the class, calling into question some bogus thing they were trying to pawn off to the kids. Instead of getting in trouble, he should have been praised for the courage to question. Not just lap it up.

Whew! my two cents for today. = )

Touched By an Angel

I was at the gym last night working hard, when I noticed an unusual movement in the corner of my eye. I gave a quick glance and noticed a woman hopping around on one foot. At first I thought to myself that, yeah that would be a good exercise to build some leg strength. Upon further examination I realized she was an amputee. Her right leg was missing from mid-thigh down. Of course I have seen people with missing limbs before, but what made this extraordinary was her level of fitness. Her muscles were toned to rock hard shape, and her work out was just as intense as anyone else there.

As I watched her gather her crutches up under her arms and make her way painstakingly out of the gym, I couldn't help but feel inspired by her determination. I have to admit that I cranked out a few more reps after she left.

I wonder if she is ever aware of the inspiration she gives to others. It's funny how she so unknowingly touched me, and inspired me to be better, complain less, etc. Do others watch us? Do we unknowingly inspire others to do better? The thought of it is kinda scary. It sure makes me want to be a better person.

Not So Far From The Truth

A while ago White Salamander posted a blog about the TNIV translation of the Bible coming out soon. In the comments he got involved in a mini-debate. In his debate. scroll down to the post titled "See Paul Run"
he expressed his fears of the trend these days for evanglicals to be too light hearted concerning their Christianity. i.e. trying to make it more hip, and contemporary as to attract more Gen-X parishioners.

I have always held the same concerns myself and was satisfied to see his comments on the subject. Well, the other day I stumbled on this article. , and it seems to support even more the truth of what he was saying.

My problem with a show like this, is what do these people really know about Christ. This kind of show just further relegates the image of Christ to that of a mythological creation. like beowulf, or Santa clause. I am thinking someone has just taken notice of the box office success of "The Passion" or the long success of shows like "Touched By an Angle" and are trying to capitalize on the success of these shows.

Making Jesus cool, contemporary, and hip isn't the answer folks. Who wants to see The Almighty, Lord of Hosts, Only begotten of The Father, The Great I Am, portrayed as a doobie smoking, walkman carrying, hippie with a surfboard under his arm giving advice to a priest strung out on narcotics?

In a hurry to kill

Well, I have avoided posting about the Terry Shiavo case, but I just have a thought or two on it that I can't seem to ignore.

I don't claim to know or understand all the facts here, but to me it seems that these judges and courts ruling against Terry's parents are almost in a hurry to get it over with. I know the case itself has been ongoing for years now. I just think that with new allegations of possible abuse, plus a Mayo Clinic doctor who has examined her recently, claiming she is not in a persistent vegitative state, it might be prudent to put the brakes on for a moment here just to check things out. What would it hurt? If she doesn't "feel anything" anyway, then why the big hurry to kill her off?

I heard a quote on tv from the Florida Senate President from the last time her feeding tube was removed, and the Senate voted in "Terry's Law" to have the tube re-inserted. When the Senate had finished voting, the President stated to the rest of the house, " I hope we have done the right thing here tonight. I can't help but wonder if this is what Terry really wanted. If not, then God have mercy on us".

GOD HAVE MERCY ON US? Was he kidding? God have mercy on you for deciding to allow life over death? How about God have mercy on you for killing someone without knowing of a surety what her wishes were? If you are going to err, isn't it better to err on the side of life, rather than death?

Again, what's the big hurry here? Let's check into some of these new developements instead of sweeping her and her family under the all-powerful judicial rug.

Cutting back the calories

Well, after about 2.5 weeks of my new program, I am convinced that I am taking in too many calories. I have seen my waist expanding, and though I have not weighed myself on the scale, I can just feel it. I Figure I have given my body enough time to adjust to the new influx of carbs, and I must just be taking in too much. For anyone interested, and mostly for my self I am going to list my new diet that starts tomorrow. The workouts are great, and will stay the same, other than I need to start implementing some cardio now. I have done nothing but straight weight training for the last 2.5 weeks. My new diet is as follows:

5 AM 4 egg whites, and half of a whole wheat bagel (plain)
8 AM 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 serving whey protein, and 1/2 cup milk (together like a cereal )
9 AM Work out ( creatine monohydrate with 4oz apple juice immediately after workout )
11 AM 2 serving whey protein mixed with 1/2 cup mile, and 1 banana
2 PM 1/2 tuna sandwich on whole wheat, and 1/2 apple
5 PM 1/2 tuna sandwich on whole wheat, and 1/2 apple
8 PM Chicken Stir fry
10 PM 1 cup cottage cheese

Total = 1,820 calories

This is about a 500 calorie cut in my diet. The frequent eating should keep my metabolism burning, and prevent me from cheating as I always know another meal is right around the corner. I am about 215 lbs currently. At least I was 3 weeks ago. I figure if I stay dedicated to this diet and continue to make working out a priority than I should lose fat and add muscle. It's just a matter of finding the balance.

Living Breathing Document?

I got into an "exchange of ideas" at work the other day. And It prompted my next post on my blog.

I have heard people describe the United States Constitution as a "living breathing document". By this they mean the original intent of the drafters of the constitution was that the constitution be bend able, changeable to suit the ever changing tides of society.

I have a problem with this premise. I believe that the Constitution is there to protect us from tyranny. It is a document that was formed to limit the government from encroaching on what our forefathers believed to be unalienable rights.

Now I concede that sometimes change is needed. Not everything could have been foreseen. So, yes in a sense the Constitution is an ever evolving document. But to what extent should this be taken? My main concern here is the majority. Too many in this country think that the majority rules in every case. If the majority wants it....they should get it. If this were the case, you would have majority tyranny.

Let's take the freedom of speech for example. What if the majority in this country decided you can no longer openly criticize the President or something like that. Well, if the Constitution were truly a "living breathing" document, then they could do something like that. The Constitution should be solid. Should be there to protect the right to free speech, or right to bear arms, or whatever even if it's down to the last person who believes it anymore.

Some get so upset about prayer in schools. They get angry because one person can come in and have the court overrule the desires of the majority and ban a certain activity from a school just for one offended person. Now, I personally don't have a problem with prayer in schools-just for the record- but, sometimes we have to sacrifice the "wants" of the majority to protect the rights of the minority.

sigh...prayer in schools. I shouldn't have used that example. What a hornet's nest.

Week Three Begins

Well, today now marks the beginning of week three of my new attempt at body transformation. Week two went a lot better than week one. I got in all of my workouts. Probably due to being on graveyards this week, and was able to get into the gym at home and at work. (the company provides a small workout room for us security guards) I must admit that so far I have noticed an expansion in my waist. I even had to loosen my gun belt at work a tad. I am told that this is a temporary side affect to going back to eating carbs after so long. My body is storing it up just in case of another famine. Anyway, the good news is today I kinda noticed that possibly my waist is receding if maybe just a tad. Muscle growth has already been achieved in just two short weeks. I can see it, and feel it. And it feels terrific. I am still staying away from the scale for two more weeks. I am gonna see what bulk I can add. Starting week five I will begin recucing my calories a bit, and see what happens.