Category Archives: Life

Prom Spending

Posted on May 6, 2013 | Leave a comment

Money

From all the Facebook posts I’ve been seeing, Prom Season is here.

It’s always fun to read the Visa Prom Report:

FOSTER CITY, Calif., April 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Spending on the annual high school ritual of the prom continues to outpace inflation and grew for the second straight year, hitting an average of $1,139 per family in 2013, results from a new survey released today by Visa Inc. show. That represents an increase of 5% from the $1,078 that American families who have a teenager attending a prom spent on all aspects of the dance in 2012.

Full Disclosure:  I didn’t go to either my Jr. Prom or my Sr. Prom.  I’m a geek and I know it.

That said, $1,139 is an ENORMOUS amount of money to spend on one night.  And that’s only each HAL of the date.  I’m assuming the other half spends the same!  That makes the one night date a $2,278 affair.

Jeepers.

But this is what caught my eye:

One troubling statistic is that parents surveyed who fell in the lower income brackets (less than $50,000 a year) plan to spend more than the national average, $1,245, while parents who make over $50,000 will spend an average of $1,129.

What the what?

But that’s not all:

Additionally, single parents plan to spend $1,563, almost double the amount that married parents plan to spend at $770.

Why would single parents spend more on a Prom than married parents?  And given that single parent households are disproportionately less wealthy, what does that say about the decision making of single parent households?

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Posted in Economics, Life

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Honeybee – Colony Collapse Disorder

Posted on April 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

Bee Hive

I’m getting ready for the new honeybee season.  The hive above has a twin.  In honor of my first real IT job, the one that started this whole thing I do now, I have named them Calvin and Hobbes.  They were the names of the two servers in that little start up company in Seattle.

I digress.

As I mentioned, the hives are getting closer and closer to being ready.  I have one of them painted, the other is on tap.  I’ve selected the spot in the woods where I’m gonna locate them and now only have to clear branches and level the ground.  Well, and obtain concrete blocks and some wood to create a brace; but we’re close.  I stopped out at the bee yard where I’m getting some of my bees and we are on track.

In fact, sitting in the sauna at the Y the other night, I was talking to a long time fellow “Executive Workout’er” and he expressed great interest in establishing a hive at his place.  He loves the idea and wants the bees to assist in his garden.

Done!

Anyway, I was distressed to see this headline from the local news:

Bee colonies collapsing as workers abandon hives

I have to admit, however, that my first thought was: “There HAS to be an Obama joke in their some where!  Workers abandoning hives?

But seriously, the problem exists here in NC too:

Jaynes, president of the North Carolina Beekeepers Association, thought he’d have more bees this spring.

He had 12 hives last fall. Now, only two are active after the bees abandoned the other 10.

It’s a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder, and it’s happening all over North America and Europe. Beekeepers and scientists say it has gotten worse in the past few years.

“The hive just abandons,” Jaynes said. “They’ll abandon everything – everything but the queen and a handful of bees.”

Federal officials say there are a number of factors that lead to colony collapse, and there is no direct link between that and insecticides. But a new Harvard study says there is, especially with one particular pesticide called imidacloprid. The pesticide is part of a class called neonicotinoids, which are commonly used on farms and home gardens.

In the study, 15 of 16 bee hives treated with the pesticide died after six months. Those exposed to the highest levels disappeared first.

I plan to keep decent documentation on my hives so we’ll see how mine do.  I just hope not to get stung and get my hives, bees and all, safely to the winter!

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Joe Biden: Personal Wealth

Posted on April 7, 2013 | 10 comments

Joe Biden

Second only to democrats coming out in support of gay marriage, all the rage in Washington is for officials to take a pay cut in support of government officials who may face a furlough.

Obama and several other cabinet members rushed this week to day they would turn back some of their salary to the U.S. Treasury as a gesture of solidarity with federal workers facing furloughs. So far, Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Eric Holder, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have all said publicly that they would be giving back portions of their $200,000 salaries.

A nice gesture, I have to admit.  Something that I think helps in regards to the optics of the whole situation.  However, Joe Biden isn’t all in, yet:

Others, like Biden, have said they will return a portion commiserate with the number of days their department’s employees are furloughed.

But Biden’s decision not to follow Obama’s lead and return a flat portion of his salary — and the possibility that nobody on the vice president’s staff will be furloughed — has already prompted speculation in the media that Biden was looking to sidestep the pay cut.

I think that there are two reasons for Biden holding onto his money – actually three:

  1. He’s a democrat.  And democrats don’t like to part with their money for charitable reasons.
  2. He rightly thinks that he’s earned the money and has a right to keep it.
  3. He doesn’t have a lot of money and so a $11k cut would hurt.

Actually, I suspect all three reasons contribute to Biden’s reluctance to subject himself to a voluntary tax, but The Hill takes the high road and points out that Joe isn’t independently wealthy:

Unlike some members of the Obama Cabinet, he is not independently wealthy.

Obama’s net worth is estimated at between $3 million and $8 million and Secretary of State John Kerry’s wealth is in the range of $200 million according to The Hill’s “50 wealthiest lawmakers: list.

Biden’s net worth in comparison, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, is around $230,000, an amount roughly equivalent to his annual salary.

When I first read that this afternoon I kinda nodded and was like, “yeah, that makes sense.  He should be expected to give up 5% of his net wealth in a show of support.”  However, it then hit me, how does a senator who makes north of $150,000 a year, and now a Vice President who makes north of $220,000 have a net worth of only $230,000?

How is that possible?

If this is true, it means that the Vice-President of The United States of America is almost living hand to mouth.

Fascinating.

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Posted in Economics, Life

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Football

Posted on April 6, 2013 | 2 comments

Going through some old Facebook and found this from late last year.  I think it’s important now as my son continues to love football and the draft is coming up.

While the NFL took a step in protecting defensive players this year, there is still work to do.  And until then, I have to begin backing away from the game.

Last year I watched every game the Vikes played.  This year it will only be half and I’ll not talk about or encourage football for the boy.  Not until the NFL begins to seriously protect these kids:

  • Eject players for intentional shots to the head
  • Suspend them for the same
  • Same for shots to defenseless receivers

Anyway, check it out:

I grew up in Minnesota, I was born in 1968. Some of my earliest memories were running the 3 or so blocks from my church at 11:50 on a Sunday morning so that I could be in front of the TV at noon. We were lucky because the Vikings would play their home games on the CBS channel, which in those days meant a LOT. See, the CBS station came over the VHF, channel 12, a channel unlike the UHF channels that carried the other games.

I remember Fran and Carl. Chuck and Krause. Did you know that the greatest defensive end in the entirety of the whole world once returned a fumble the wrong way resulting in a safety for the other team? I remember Jim Marshall.

I was a kid not yet old enough to drive when I would go to the campus of Mankato State where the Vikings would practice. I stood on a sidewalk in the middle of that campus, a piece of paper in my hand and a pencil. Alan Page, the only defensive player ever to win the NFL’s MVP award, was running towards me. I wanted his autograph. He didn’t blink as he ran by me, ready to run OVER me if I hadn’t jumped out of his way.

I remember Rashad [hearing about] and the Browns. Kramer and the Eagles. Young and the scramble. Pearson and the push.

My lunch box had all the NFL teams on it – Before Tampa Bay and Seattle.

I know that we passed on a Hall of Fame running back to draft a piece of shit who would drop the game winning TD against the Redskins that kept us from the Superbowl. Can you believe that we choose Darrin Nelson over Marcus Allen?

I played football for hours; for days. We would play in the street catching toe touching in bounds passes against the curb falling into the grass pretending that we were Sammy White. We used to go see the guys practice at summer camp. We had them autograph every card they ever had made.

I know about Kansas City, Miami. I remember Pittsburgh and Oakland.

I bleed Purple.

And now I have a son. And since I’ve had his older sister I’ve been throwing balls to my kids. The girl could catch and throw at 2. The boy has been watching Vikings games his entire life. As he moves from a gangly toddler to a clumsy grade schooler I practice. Day after day. And now, just now, he’s able to catch a fade, a fly and is even able to adjust his route and his velocity to accommodate me guiding him deeper or shallower; left or right. Truly a father’s joy.

The little bastard is just like me. He runs like the wind and catches everything thrown close.

But the reason I didn’t make a good football player was that I was a pussy. I couldn’t take a hit. And the reason that I couldn’t take a hit was that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. I wasn’t gonna make my mark in this life like that. The same God that granted me the ability to hit a sparrow at 30 yards, or throw ten straight bulls eyes at 8 paces; catch any ball thrown to me, gave me the mind that has allowed me to be who I am.

On any given Sunday I buy my ticket to the Colosseum. I knowingly and willingly watch and cheer and roar with approval as my team engages in combat with our enemy. I loudly and admittedly yell “Kill him” as John Randle chases down his prey. As Doleman his. Or Allen his.

But my son watches me. And he sees what I approve of. And he wants to be that. He has learned to love that.

And these men kill themselves. With guns. To their heads.

My child, MY kid, wants to play football. And I can’t let him; there is no way. Boys 10-12 years old are taking concussions. Boys not yet 20 years old are ruining their lives. And yet, in it all, we have players in the game PAYING a bounty to hurt other players. No one doubts that they did it; there’s no justification in their actions. The only defense is that everybody else does it too. As if that’s justification.

I’m nearing the end of my love affair with football. These boys are modern day gladiators; they’re being maimed and killed for our love of bloodlust. And the Saints had the unfortunate fortune of being in the perfect storm; they were caught during my enlightenment AND they cheated against my Vikings.

If you love the game, punish the Saints and save the players. If you aren’t willing to do that, well, Hail Caesar!

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Posted in Life, Raising Men

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Shocking Headline

Posted on March 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

Gopher Basketball

I saw this in my [soon to be extinct] Reader Feed:

Gophers Win First Official NCAA Tournament Game Since 1990

Now, I’m from Minnesota so I’m accustomed to shameful defeat, but 23 years…?

No way.

Then I realized that we cheated and were stripped of our wins.

It’s hard being from Minnesota.

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North Dakota – Defining Life

Posted on March 23, 2013 | 2 comments

Life

For me, the issue of abortion comes down to two things; life and liberty.

There is a clear difference between a collection of cells and of life.  No reasonable person has any moral compunction about cutting a finger nail, removing hair or even taking a kidney; cells, even human cells, do not constitute life.

However, living human beings have a right to expect to liberty that  is called out in the Declaration; The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I have long suspected that 80-85% of Americans agree on this issue; we’re divided because of the extremists on either side.  For example, when asked if abortion should be legal is the woman’s life is in danger 88% of people responded that it should be – 82% agreed that it should be if the health of the mother be in danger.  And on the issue of victim of crime, 83% responded that it should be legal.

Further, I think that most people agree that there is a place and a time; support for abortion in the 2nd trimester falls by more than half when compared to abortion in the first trimester and by 75% when the pregnancy is in the 3rd trimester.

Polls here.

All this adds up to the fact that Americans are very aware of the issue and that two things matter:

  1. Why
  2. When

The why, except for discretionary reasons, is straight forward.  I suspect the when speaks to the beginning of life.

Personally, I do not believe that life, scientifically, begins at literal conception.  I do not believe that a human being is present at the time the sperms fertilizes the egg.  However, there is a time when that collection of cells becomes a human being.  And at that time, that human being is entitled to natural rights.

All this is a lead up to the state of North Dakota defining life at that moment of conception; that time when an egg is fertilized by the sperm:

North Dakota lawmakers Friday completed action to outlaw almost all abortions, voting to define life as beginning at conception.

The Republican-dominated House also approved a so-called personhood amendment that asks voters to change the state’s constitution to recognize and protect “the inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development.”

Pretty far out there if ya ask me.

 

 

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Posted in Life, National

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Potty Talk

Posted on March 21, 2013 | 4 comments

Outhouse

So, a long time ago I was working as a busboy at a hotel on campus at the University of Minnesota.  Out of the blue, one of the waitresses says to me, “You are the strangest person I know.”

Huh.

For a long time I’ve been thinking about what the ramifications might be if when we legalize gay marriage.  When we finally move from the old places to the new places.  What will that mean practically.

What will the changing definitions and norms of the sexes mean in today’s culture.  And I keep coming back to bathrooms and locker rooms.

Consider, for example, why we have different rest rooms for different sexes?  Why is that?  What is the reason for the segregation?  I have no historical basis to go on, so I can only assume that it’s because women don’t want men seeing them in their most vulnerable and likewise don’t want men dropping trau in their presence.

Makes perfect sense.

Until you think it through.  Stalls all around.  And, being a long time man, I’ve never barged in on another guy in his “private time” to see, accidentally or not, anything that would make a nun blush.

Ever.

Yet the norm remains.  Men in men’s rooms and women in ladies rooms.  Why?

So, if we are now having fair and open discussion surrounding the fact that some people are straight and others are gay, and more importantly that that is okay, is there ever going to be a discussion surrounding potty etiquette?   I’ve thought about it but never thought that I would start it.

Bring on Arizona via Moe:

Kavanagh’s [new amendment] prohibits a person from entering a “public restroom, bathroom, shower, bath, dressing room, or locker room” if the sex designation of that facility does not match the individual’s birth certificate.

So, I never went there, but it’s close.

If there is a case for separate restrooms based on sex, is there an equally strong argument for separate restrooms based on sexual preference.  Now take it further, the YMCA or any other gym.  If we decide to build and maintain separate showers for men and women, for what I think are obvious reasons, isn’t there at least as compelling reason to build separate facilities for gay and straight people?  After all, if a woman doesn’t feel comfortable showering in front of a man who might be sexually attracted to her, don’t I have the same reasonable right to the same expectation?

Now, before anyone goes all crazy on me for being some looney wacko, understand that I’ve experienced this to a degree.  I used to live in Seattle and have vacationed in the parks of Orcus Island.  And one of those camps had a jacuzzi and sauna, co-ed, with an expectation of nudity.  For the first 10-15 minutes it was out-of-this-world-strange.  However, after that initial period of weirdness, things kinda gelled into normal and it was like nothing was odd at all.

So,now that I’m not the guy that started it I can wonder out loud in print.

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Posted in Liberty, Life

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Tarheel Runs

Posted on March 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

2013.Tobacco Road.Finish

Yesterday I ran – and finished – the Tobacco Road Half Marathon here in Raleigh.  Great times!

Last year I had hoped to run the full marathon but thought better of it.  This year I signed up for the half.

Advice if you wanna run either a half or a full marathon:

1.  Train

2.  See #1

I’m pretty busy and I let the training slide almost completely.  However, about 1-2 weeks before the race I started seeing behavior in my son that I wasn’t real keen on; not following through on goals, not competing at high levels and stuff like that.  So I felt that in order to make a statement to this little dude, I should run, finish and sing the praises of the value of a “Finisher’s Medal”.

So, I crash trained for 5 days.  The results were predictable.

Severe pain, agony and humiliation; a great number of people beat me who I had no business losing to.  However, I did mange to crack a sub-3 hour time AND bring home the hardware.  My son was duly impressed – we’ll see if it worked.

Anyway, bring on The City of Oaks!

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What A Woman Wants

Posted on March 12, 2013 | 8 comments

There has been lot’s of play on the book written by Sheryl Sandberg and her view on why women are not making more progress in top positions in the corporate world.  I have my ideas, but I came across this today via Mark Perry:

Isn’t it odd that people who exhort us to increase the numbers of women in powerful, high-paying jobs on the speculative grounds that this will be good for the world, discount the roles of women as mothers, which are (usually) of undeniable benefit to their kids? Many women have figured this out. One put it this way: “The world will not be affected one way or another if it has one more accountant during the next decade. But my kids will be profoundly affected by having me raise them.”

Many women also find that devoting their time to raising happy, ethical, and responsible children is more rewarding than spending 60 hours a week at the office. Why should they be made to feel that they are letting down the team?

 

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Posted in Liberty, Life

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Of Do’ers and Non-Do’ers

Posted on March 12, 2013 | Leave a comment

Worker

I resonate with Romney and Ryan when they claim we’re a nation of  “Takers and Makers.”  I also resonate with the counter argument that we are a nation of people who USED to make and now are, so called, takers.

I’d like to change the terms and introduce what a word that a buddy of mine at the office and I use:

Do’er.

I work in corporate America and it’s fast and quick.  There’s little time to do it once, none to do it twice.  I quickly learn who delivers and who doesn’t.  And I gravitate to those who do.

The do’ers.

We need more do’ers:

The 18-year-old hiked through an ice storm for 10 miles to interview for a minimum wage position with Dairy Queen Inc., and a local restaurateur was so impressed that he hired Reagan for double the state minimum wage, which would make his salary $14.50 an hour.

Reagan’s dedication came to light Friday while he was trudging through a winter storm outside Indianapolis for the Dairy Queen job. On the way, he asked a man for directions. The man turned out to be Art Bouvier, the owner of a local restaurant, Papa Roux Cajun Cooking. When Bouvier learned of Reagan’s 10-mile journey, he asked the 18-year old, “How come you’re not on the bus?” Reagan answered: “I can’t afford the bus until I get a job,” Bouvier told Indianapolis TV station Fox59

…

After picking up Reagan, Bouvier dropped the teen off at his interview. But before he let him go, Bouvier told him that whatever the Dairy Queen offers, he’d double it for him to start working with Papa Roux, according to conservative news site TheBlaze. After his interview, Reagan soon found out that the Dairy Queen decided to fill the position with another candidate. But Bouvier told Reagan that he’d have a job waiting for him at Papa Roux on Monday.

When I turned 10 years old my father gave me a job.  I’ve been pullin’ a paycheck since.  While I never walked 10 miles for an interview, I DID walk through snow and ice and cold doing the job.

We’re a nation of do’ers, non-do’ers and done’ers.  We need more of one and fewer of the others.

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