I wanna do something that matters

There is a Lady Antebellum song called I Was Here that's used as part of an advertisement for one of the breast cancer fundraising walks around here. It's an encouragement to "do something that matters" like raising funds for breast cancer research. I've not taken part in any of the walks so far, but I wanna do something that matters too.

I wanna leave something behind. I want someone to remember me for what I've done. I have not set such lofty ambitions as curing cancer, curing the common cold, or creating world peace (though if someone could take care of those soon, I'd be grateful). Those are simply not in my skill set to achieve. I won't be able to build a faster computer. I won't be remembered in some encyclopedia, filed virtually alphabetically. I won't even be able to build a better mousetrap – have you seen how effective those things are already?!

My daily routine outside of the house involves a lot of data manipulation. But once it's manipulated, I'm done. I've found some interesting ways to manipulate the data, and some interesting insights because of those manipulations, but in the end it's very ephemeral. Once it's done, it's done. I may not be able to change the masses, but I think, I hope, that I'm changing those a little closer to home.

I've never been one to collect friends along the way. I have several people (non-family) that I care about, and only want good things to happen to, but none that I really hang out with. Perhaps that's part of my not liking crowds, or because of. I have several people at work that I battle between calling "co-workers" and "friends." The dictionary defines friend as:

• A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.


• A person whom one knows; an acquaintance.


• A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.


• One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement

I guess they'd be considered friends then. :-)

Those people, I think, I have an impact on. I offer my knowledge, assistance, and my ear. I think that they appreciate each of those, and thereby me. I appreciate that.

Family… There, I think, is where I can really do something that matters. It may seem like just a little thing to some. I truly think that some people just don't get it – the act, role, the responsibility of parenting. I see it every time I'm out in public, but I think that's where I can leave my mark which will enable them to leave their mark as well – far into the future.

There is no instruction manual for parenting. There is not even an agreement on how to parent that could be documented. It's all trial and error – and a lot of both. You craft your own operations manual as you go along. There are dog-eared pages when you find something that works, and a bit of highlighting here and there for emphasis. There are notes in the margin, reminding you that this or that doesn't work every time. The recipe is written in pinches, dashes and smidgens.

There is no science as to the amount of attention, sleep, craft paper, bandages, money, exercise, toys, or food that any one child needs. The only thing that really matters is that you wrap it all up in love. You take the life experiences you had, the parenting that was inflict…, er um, used to raise you -- thanks Mom and Dad :-) --, and a grain of updates from the doctors and the media (remember that no one agrees on what's right, and because they use statistics, there's always an equal argument against any stand they take), mix it all together and repackage it as your own parenting style. With a little luck, you'll raise children that are half-way well-adjusted, able to conquer, or at least deal with adversity, be productive members of society and start the cycle all over again with their children of their own.

I think that I'm doing a pretty good job with my kids. My wife has more time with them during the day, but in the end, we find a balance. She adjusts my parenting and I adjust hers. We have a similar style in most regards, so it's more tweaks than corrections. We're teaching our kids to be loving, creative, self-sufficient, inquisitive, caring, intelligent, productive, empathetic individuals. I hope that they appreciate that when they get older.

I am doing something that matters. I am doing something lasting. Sometimes I just need to remind myself of that as I struggle through the other daily challenges.

Goin' dark for a few posts...

Maybe it started when I realized I was turning old-er. Maybe it started when Gary got sick. Maybe it happened when I had a little cardiac scare several months ago. Don't know, but my mortality has been kinda running through my head recently. People I know are dying -- my age people!

I've lost three of my grandparents already, but don't remember too much about their deaths (the last one passed away in 1997). I was younger, and two of them were far away so I didn't see them often. My last grandmother is hanging in there and doing well, all things considered. She turned 90 this past March.

A friend at work is dealing with the imminent death of her father who's been battling cancer.

Sometimes I feel like I'm being paranoid about every little thing… Waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop. I know that, for the most part, I have no control of when that shoe drops, and I need to just live my life. I know that, and yet, the little fears keep creeping back when I'm not looking.

I find it a little therapeutic to write these posts - to get my thoughts out there - for my sake. If I get them out of my head, sometimes they leave me alone for a while. So, bare with me for a quick detour through my fears, paranoia and other completely irrational, yet natural, thoughts.

Never thought I'd say that!

Shortly after my kids were born, my wife noticed that she was saying some things that were, um, unexpected... They made perfect sense in context at the time, but after she said them, she realized how absurd they sounded.


Most recently, my daughter had gotten stung by a bee while playing outside in her bare feet. My oldest son ran upstairs to get his Dangerous Book for Boys book (it has, among other things, survival, Boy Scout kinda stuff). As I removed the stinger and applied cortisone and ice, he came rushing down the stairs, book in hand to help. About 10 seconds later... "That's very nice of you to offer, but NO!, you can't pee on your sister's foot!"

Amy -- I suggest you start a book now and give it to your daughter at high school graduation -- or perhaps share it with her potential dates after you review the naked baby bathtub pictures. :-)

Anyone else remember things that you thought you'd never say to your children? Leave them in the comments.

Gameshow funnies

Woman's Day has a collection of 10 Great Game Show Gaffes, mostly from the classics.

Does this kid have ADHD or what?!

My kids' attention span is like this still some days! Heck, MY attention span is like this some days. :-)

Facebook... I'll never understand it.

Guess Julian Smith won't either...

I hope he has a lot of solar panels

The guys over at Ironic Sans found this cool idea for a wall design. It's a wall covered by electrical outlets! I suspect that not all of them are live, but it is certainly a conversation piece! I love the fact that you could (or could not) somehow identify which ones will actually give you juice.

Scanning the comments on the site, the best one was "Baby proofing this would be a bitch." I can just picture someone putting those little plastic caps in each of the sockets :-)

Click on the picture for the full post including a close-up picture.

Cute & sporty babies

I know a song

Up to you to start up

You think English is easy???

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'?


You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report.

We call UP our friends. And we brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP. To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearingUP... When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!

Set your alarm

At five minutes and six seconds after 4 a.m. on the 8th of July this year, the time and date will be: 04:05:06 07/08/09.

A history lesson

A long time ago, in a land not so far away, before the "Internet," the "iPhone" and "Madoff", there was a little(r) thing called a "Walkman." Some bloke across the pond decided to punish his some (probably for not eating his veggies) and make him use one of these old-style telephonic harmonic reproduction and transmission machines for a whole week! Those English are really treading on thin ice -- risking an international outcry as soon as we're done with our current ones...

The thirteen-year-old must have been a little naive when he accepted his punishment. Read the whole article on Scott Campbell at the BBC's site and see if he survived, and more importantly if he learned his lesson.

U - S - A...U - S - A...U - S - A...

Sorry I'm a day late posting this, but it's worth posting even late...

What teachers make

It's still sad how much we don't appreciate teachers. How we focus on the bad teachers we've had over the years. The boring ones. The ones that gave us homework over the holiday break. The ones that didn't really understand their subject matter. The ones that should've retired years ago. The ones that taught the class instead of the students. The ones that had eyes for the students instead of eyes on the students. The ones that never really understood how to connect with the students. The ones that thought we were all the same. The ones that held no faith in any of us.

But, the good ones... For all that they gave us, and give us, most aren't paid nearly what they're worth.