Cricket Watch - Day 3

He's followed me to work. It may be one of his friends. Regardless there's now one in the bushes behind my office that is just as loud. 

Why do crickets have to be so annoying?

I think the one that was keeping me up at night moved into our garage yesterday. I was washing dishes last night and heard one just chirping away in there. Better in there than outside my bedroom window.

Thankfully, I have not been woken up by a cricket in two nights now. I don't know if the one that had been keeping me up has moved on or decided to be nice and be quiet. 

Either way, I think cricket watch is over. Now on to more important things....

Cricket Watch

I seem to have gotten in a pattern of posting something to my blog about every three months or so. Excuses aside, I'm just going to jump right back in and hope that I don't go another three months without a post. (Honestly, I don't think I will -- in fact I know I won't, given the fact I have a major topic that is going to take a LONG time to write about of a LONG series of posts - the topic I promise is not about crickets)

Anyway, "Cricket watch?" you ask?

There's this cricket that has been my nemesis for about a week now. He lives outside the window closest to me in the bedroom and starts chirping about 11pm each night.

He's annoying.

He'll start up randomly throughout the night -- and just as randomly will stop. He always seems to know when I'm trying to figure out where he is.

He knows exactly what he's doing.

He's waking me up - at 1:30 am, 3 am, 5 am. At times when I really don't want to be woken up.

I'm one of these people that really enjoys my sleep. I've been knowing to turn sleeping into an art form. I slept through Hurricane Hugo. There's not much that can wake me up.

Except this stupid little cricket.

The first couple nights, I really thought he was in the room he was so loud. I checked one corner where I thought the sound was coming from. Then it would stop for a moment -- and start back up from what sounded like the other corner of the wall with the window. Chirp, search, repeat.

I eventually realized he was living right outside the window. He is just one really loud little bugger.

Last night during a lull in the rain we had had most of the evening, he started chirping again around 11:30. So I went outside and unloaded the household Ortho pump spray I have all over the ground, foundation, wall and window. I was hoping he would get the message and leave.

No such luck.

About an hour later he started up again. And woke me up at least twice that I can recall throughout the night. Once I was up, he just continued to chirp for the rest of morning while my wife and I got ready for church.

My wife says she can't hear him. But for some reason I can't tune him out.

So tonight, right around 11:30, he was at it again.

But I had an extra special present for him tonight. I bought one of those bottles of exterior pest Ortho that attaches to the hose and proceeded to saturate the ground outside the bedroom, the entire exterior wall, the bushes, the eaves, and the window frames with it.

It's 1:15 am right now. He's been quiet so far tonight since I sprayed his hangout down. That's a good sign that maybe he got the message and has decided to hop down the road permanently and annoy someone else.

In the meantime, I'm strategizing my next step in case he is just hiding or playing dead. If Cricket Watch goes into a third night, I am going to be really perturbed.

Either way, game on pal.

I'm Not Happy, And I'm Drawing A Line in the Sand

Upon pulling up to the gas pump this evening to our vendor of choice I noticed the dreaded sticker.

"This product may contain up to 10% ethanol" ... or something along those lines.

If there was anybody nearby, they probably didn't hear anything rosy come out of my mouth. I didn't notice. I was too mad.

Ingles has gone Ethanol.

They are now off my list of approved gasoline retailers.

And they will be getting a nice letter in the mail from me this week explaining my disgust in their decision - outlining why I believe they have succumbed to corporate peer pressure, perpetuated by big-oil and the almighty dollar and calling them out on their lack of concern for their customer.

The question I really have to ask is "Why do companies feel the need to take advantage of consumer ignorance in order to make money?"

That's what this is about.

Ethanol-blend costs less for the refineries, the oil companies, and therefore the resellers, i.e. in this case Ingles. Therefore said retailer, i.e. in this case Ingles, is able to sell it at a lower price than regular gasoline.

Customers flock to the place with the lowest price gas. The retailers get an influx of money coming in from those customers who want to save money.

And then they will end up taking that money they saved and spending it on even more gas to fuel their vehicle because their gas mileage sucks because they're running ethanol blend fuel. Their engine and fuel system pays the price in wear and tear also.

Most consumer don't know this. They're ignorant of the fact because that's not something the oil companies or gasoline vendors want people to know, and the media tend to not report on because those same companies spend advertising dollars with that media.

But if I have to go out of my way and be inconvenienced by the distance to the three regular gas vendors in my area, I will.

Ingles, you will no longer receive my money for gasoline. You may have lower prices on food. Hey, that's good. I'll buy your food. But I will not buy your gasoline.

Not until you switch back to tried and true regular, non-ethanol, gasoline.

You had me at regular unleaded. Now you lost me at ethanol. You suck.

I've ranted about the whole ethanol-blend vs. regular unleaded issue before. Read this

It's not like it really got me anywhere. Or will get me anywhere. That's one reason I'm so mad.

I guess if I have to go out of my way to avoid giving you money for your lousy product, I will. That's another reason why I'm really ticked off.

But I will go the extra physical miles down the road and give that same money to your competitor.

So, Ingles, here's my line in the sand (or red clay, as you find in this neck of the woods) - which I refuse to cross. You're going to have to cross it on your own by mending your ways and dumping your corn-blend gas.

As you can tell, I am not a happy camper right now.

End of Hiatus

When I wrote my last post here on MM, I was gearing up for what ended being a very busy fall. In the last three months, I have put together two magazines at work and have been working with some folks on redesigning our college’s web site.

So I didn’t really put a concerted effort into blogging – and imposed a hiatus, of sorts, on doing so.

“Life intervened,” to use a phrase from my dad’s blog.

I have missed blogging. There’s been more than one occasion when I’ve sat down to write something – I had gotten several paragraphs into a few topics. But not at any one of those points did I consider posting what I had written.

I guess my heart just wasn’t in it. I was too distracted by work. Or by the holidays. Or by praying this stupid healthcare bill would just die and go away.

Distracted by the economy. Distracted by our weird cat who is trying to eat a piece of twist -tie right now…

Hold on while I go take that away from her….

OK, I’m back.

Distracted by Twitter. Well, I got rid of that last week. I decided that I had no need for it. It was too different of an animal for me to get into. I just didn’t see the point in it.

Distracted by Facebook. I spend way too much time on Facebook. Kinda reminds me of college when I spent way too much time on bulletin boards and downloading Doom plug-ins. Except Facebook goes to entirely new levels to suck you in. Whether it’s updating my status while I’m waiting in the dentist’s office or getting on Mafia Wars first thing in the morning – I think it’s time to reign some of that in. So this week I’m trying an experiment.

I de-Facebooked a few days ago. No I didn’t anything crazy like delete my account. I just haven’t logged into it for going on four days now. I’m trying to see how long I can go before I start to have Facebook withdrawal.

Now that the holidays are said and done and the crazy fall semester is said and done, I’m hoping things will slow down a little. I’m hoping to get back into blogging on a regular schedule.

I was reading something recently that successful bloggers have to have a focus. That nobody wants to read things that don’t have some sort of message.

I agree with that – to an extent. But at the same time, that wouldn’t necessarily hold true to the title of this blog, Methodical Mayhem.

At the same time, I think that bloggers should have the right be a little off the proverbial wall. I’ve never really considered myself to be totally on the wall to begin with.

So focus, schmocus.

You may find a little more structure in posts to come here on MM. That’s really yet to be seen. But I do have some topics in mind that have been rattling around in my cranium for a few days or weeks, so keep an eye out.

There’s interesting stuff to come - especially in the next two days.

Mouths Open, Brains On Standby

Two posts ago I said I was going to work on one called "A Tale of Two Idiots."

At the time, I had in mind to talk about Mark Sanford's current real life soap opera - and Obama's crazy health care proposal and socialist tendencies. But there's been some interesting things transpire in the last week and a half or so that a title change to "A Tale of Three Idiots" doesn't really have as good of a literary ring.

In question are the following cast of characters: Mark Sanford, Joe Wilson, and Kayne West.

They're not exactly a group that you would imagine would play cards together late at night over a bottle of scotch and cigars. I can't quite picture them all hanging out at a ball game together either.

They're just not what you would call "birds of a feather."

One thing they do have in common though is that they have each found themselves in the spotlight lately for not being able to control their mouths.

First off, let's talk about Sanford.

This guy has been shooting himself in the foot since (re)setting foot in Argentina in June to meet up with his mistress. It started off with his bizarre press conference when he revealed his affair. From there it went to disclosing more sordid details about his affair. He goes on to talk about his "soul mate." Then as people start to ask for his resignation, he gets defensive.

He must think that we're going to let this slide.

Well guess what Mark? It's time to resign. Your colleagues have tried to explain to you why this is going to severely impact your ability to govern over the final 15 months of your term. Just do it. Just resign. Stop back talking everyone. Stop running your mouth. Stop trying to justify your own stubbornness and why it's best to keep you around. Just let us move forward with Andre.

Should Sanford had disclosed all that he has? We expect our leaders to be honest and forthcoming with us. Which he ultimately was -- to an extreme, mind you. But to continue to serve as a distraction when you should have realized that you're continuing to serve as a distraction is irresponsible.

We look for leaders. Leadership calls for responsibility and honesty. Sanford's sort of a mixed bag on that.

Next up, Joe Wilson.

Joe is one of those guys who speaks his mind. Ordinarily, that hasn't been in such a controversial way as what happened last week when he yelled "You lie!" in the middle of Obama's address to the full Congress. He's a die-hard Conservative who I admire very much. I'm a big Joe Wilson fan.

Bad place to say that though, Joe.

What I think we all can learn from Joe's case, in particular, is that people should be able to and should question their leaders. They should be able to and should question policies and the logic behind them, whether it is a policy that is being proposed or already in effect. But you should realize there is a time and place for doing and sometimes you need to step back and think about that....And you shouldn't just blindly vote, support, or go with what is being handed to you without thinking it through.

Yes, calling the president a liar in such a locale as the the halls of Congress, in a forum such as a public address by the president to the fully assembled bodies of Congress is in bad form. No matter your personal opinion of the president (or any leader you have issues with), you should respect the fact that they are the president.

I respect the fact that Obama is the president. I respect the man. I may not like him, but like and respect are two different things and more people need to learn to differentiate between the two. With the President, in particular, you need to at show respect for the man and the position in which they sit.

Instead this whole Joe Wilson thing is turning into a political circus. Just like what Sanford has done by opening his mouth continually.

But, Joe, to throw yourself in he spotlight ... the negative spotlight, with no warning... have you been reading from Sanford's 101 Points For Personal Destruction?

Were Wilson's actions disrespectful? Yes. Was he wrong for voicing his opinion? Maybe, maybe not. But he did apologize to the President. And that should be case closed on it.

Leave it alone. The man doesn't need to be punished any more. He doesn't need to be censured. All that is is a political ploy by the Democrats to shame a man. I'm sure he feels ashamed enough as it is.

Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with people having an opinion. Everyone has them. Everyone is entitled to them.

But people really need to think before suddenly voicing their opinion in a manner or forum which is inappropriate and will hurt themselves and the cause which they represent.

Which leads us to offender No. 3 - Kanye West.

What Kanye did by taking the stage Sunday night during the Video Music Awards, interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech, and belittling her work in front of the entire world was just complete and utterly disrespectful, shameful, and wrong.

Miss Swift is a young lady who was worked hard to accomplish what she has at a young age. This was her very first VMA -- awarded by an organization that has been so focused on hip hop, trash, and sleeze in recent years, who instead, on an amazingly positive note, decide to award it to a wholesome country artist. That alone says a lot.

This was her moment. And he took it away from her. That shows a complete lack of manners and respect for other artists.

Some in the internet discussion boards since the incident have called it racist. Whether it was racially motivated or not, Kanye should be ashamed of himself.

So what's up with all the bad behavior? Well, I can see how each could potentially think that they have nobody to be accountable to but themselves. And without the accountability I guess they think it's better to ask forgiveness than permission to act out of the ordinary.

In each case, though, there is a line of accountability. Wilson and Sanford to their supporters, the people who put them in office, and the entire constituency of South Carolina; West to the fans that look up to him, for whatever bizarre reason they do, and see him a a role model.

People in these types of positions are supposed to be role models. So what do we do with our role models? Do we discipline them?

We definitely should hold them accountable.

More and more political officers and leaders in South Carolina are calling for Sanford's resignation and trying to hold him accountable. Will he resign? Who's to know...

Should the House censure Joe Wilson? That is an obviously political move by the Democrats to put their finger down on the other side of aisle more and more. Is that really censureship or censorship? He's already apologized to the president. Now they want him to issue a public apology on the floor of the house.....Will he? Who's the know...

Should MTV let Kanye get away with his actions? Personally, I think they could take better steps to control the accessibility of the stage during events like that. Again, he's entitled to his opinion. But to opine in the manner he did, he probably would have been better off to sit in his seat and yell to the presenters "You lie!" Would he? Who's to know...

I admit my ideal outcome in each of these cases isn't consistent. But while the circumstances and back story in all three cases are different, the actions are very similar in nature.

All of these are just examples of why people sometimes just need to keep their mouths shut. Is it worth the trouble to cause trouble though? Really?

I guess it's just a case of people opening their mouths with their brains on standby.

It's Time To Go Back

Image courtesy of FoxNews.com

It was put into motion 48 years ago.

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish” – President John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961, address to joint session of Congress

Then, 40 years ago, mankind set foot on a celestial body that we had admired in awe, fascination, wonder, and sometimes even fear, since the day that God put our ancestors on this planet.

We committed ourselves to a goal. And we achieved it.

It must have been a wonderous feeling to watch – as the Saturn V rocket launched forward from its launchpad on plume of 7.6 million pounds of thrust; as our astronauts, Neil, Buzz and Michael, soared through the vastness of space toward the moon; as the Eagle descended and then landed; and as Neil put his boot down on the surface of the moon.

He stumbled a little verbally as he searched for the words he wanted to say.

But he said the phrase that we all know: “That's one small step for a man – one giant leap for mankind.”

Awesome.

We had put a man (actually two men that time - 10 more would follow in their footsteps) on the moon.

And guess what…. There’s an AMERICAN flag on the moon. WE did it. It was our boys who were up there. The United States of America achieved that goal.

Granted, it wasn’t all for the nature of satisfying our curiosity. It wasn’t all just to inspire people. There was a Cold War going on. We were in a space race with the Soviet Union. It was a constant game of one-upsmanship and power plays.

Kennedy himself was known to have only set that goal of the moon and of NASA’s rapid rise in the 60s for the purpose of having the edge in the Cold War.

Even still, it’s amazing to think of. In less than 100 years, mostly since the turn of the 20th century, man had pioneered the telephone, radio, car, airplane, television – and space travel. And we put a man on the moon.

I would say that landing a man on the moon was probably mankind’s greatest technological achievement in modern history, if not all of history. It was definitely the most inspiring achievement to the most amount of people at probably any time in history.

But it’s been 40 years. And we haven’t been back in almost 37.

I can honestly say that I don’t think there have been any achievements of any kind anywhere near that magnitude, let alone that inspiring, in the last 40 years. We need to be inspired. We need to have something that we all collectively want to achieve.

It was a moment in which the WORLD came together in fascination. One which still captures the imagination.

We can all say we want world peace. That isn’t likely to happen soon. That would be the best achievement we could ever reach for. But more realistically, we can all reach for the moon. It’s out there. We've been there before. We know it’s not made of cheese. And we know that no cow can jump over it without a rocket system engineered for that specific purpose, with sound life support and environmental controls and an adequate supply of grass for it to chew on.

Man did it though – and we will do it again. We need something to recapture that fascination and imagination.

But by the time we make it back, given no delays on the proposed timeline, it will be 2020 and it will be 48 years since man last set foot on the moon. That’s too long of a time.

Space exploration is something that we can’t hold back on. It’s in our nature to be wonder – to explore – to see what’s out there past our newest frontier. We’re never going to be satisfied to sit here on this rock we call Earth and not explore the heavens.

God made it all for us. He made a race of explorers. He gave us a curious nature. And he provided us with the tools to satisfy that curiosity and to send ourselves out on new adventures.

I think we owe it to the men and women that built NASA, that built our space program, and pushed this nation and mankind to that new frontier to go back to the moon.

But we’ve been spinning our wheels. We’ve lost 17 fine, brave souls in the process, 14 of those in a program that should have long since paved the way for something even more amazing.

We owe it to them to go back. They would have wanted it. We owe it to them to go even further.

On Sept. 12, 1962, President Kennedy, in an address give at Rice University on the space effort, declared “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

We chose to go to the moon. And we did. Now let’s get back on track and go back to the moon - go to Mars, go further out, and “boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Stay tuned for Part 2: You Call This Support?

Thoughts on 35

People always say that turning 30 is a big deal, but 30 didn't really phase me. Let's see... I turned 30 in 2004. W was running for reelection. I was too busy hoping he would be reelected than to even remember now what I did for my 30th birthday.

It was one of those days that was just another day.

My 20s are a blur. Despite the fact I can't remember what I did on my 25th birthday, it was a milestone because I got my auto insurance break. I do remember that on my 21st birthday, my buddy Blake and I went to Applebee's where they burned my steak.

16 and 18 are milestones for anyone, but I can't remember what I did on either birthday - other than became old enough to get my license and then old enough to vote.

What's happening to my memory?

I don't know in another 35 years if I will remember what I did today on my 35th birthday. If Blogspot is still around and this blog is, then I guess I can go back through the archives. That's an interesting picture -- me blogging at age 70. That's if my senility holds.

If I remember this birthday for anything it will be for just feeling old.

My wife and I helped administer the SAT this morning. At one point, I realized that most of the kids there were born in 1992 or 1993. I graduated high school in 1992 and now they're about to do the same this time next year.

I feel old.

The little kindergarten girl whose picture I took with David Beasley in James M. Brown Elementary School's library on the first day of school on my first favorite day of being a newspaper reporter in 1997 could have been one of those students in my classroom today - and is probably excited about next year being her last year of school.

I feel old.

I dare say all the kids in my classroom this morning were born after our first foray into Iraq - after we turned tail and ran home, leaving the job unfinished for another 12 years.

But the world changes. Styles change, cultures change, attitudes change, leadership changes, music changes, technology changes, idols change and seasons change. But the one thing we can always count on is getting older.

As I listened to and took pictures of one of our professors at the college I work at teaching one of his religion courses recently, he asked "Who here can tell me about David Koresh and the Branch Dividians?" The room was silent. I remember the whole Waco thing going down on TV - sitting in the dorm room and watching the news clips of the fire and the entrance into the compound.

I feel old.

There are a few grays here and there. It's a little harder to get up off the ground now. My knees feel it when I get up from standing on them to shoot photos. I don't feel nearly as conscious about wearing my glasses.

I still drive fast though - and I'm as impatient as ever. I don't think even with age either of those qualities will change.

My metabolism has changed. I used to be able to put down a whole pizza plus more. Now I generally stop at about 5 slices.

I get ornery easier. I can't stay awake as late as I used to on a regular basis - I find myself falling asleep to the TV more and more (thanks Dad for that gene). I will actually listen to NPR now. And I don't mind Barry Manilow as much as I did when I was little.

What really bugs me (because it fosters that feeling of being old more than anything) is that they now consider 80s msuic - the music I grew up with - as oldies. Turn to an oldies station now and you've got a mix of Bobby Darin, The Supremes, CCR, and Tears for Fears or Rick Springfield. What is up with that?

I'm now my favorite Jimmy Buffet song - "A Pirate Looks At (or will be in five years) 40". I guess that's not a bad thing. Age brings wisdom. One of the few benefits. I do try to impart some here and there when I have the chance. Not that many people probably care what I have to say. If I wore jeans and a black t-shirt all the time and spoke with a British accent, I could be Simon Cowell. Not many people really care what he thinks. Although he's right a lot more than the other judges.

Nobody likes to think of their own mortality. But hopefully I have at least another 35 years of getting older ahead of me.

OK, now I feel tired from writing all of this -- where's the Geritol?

Snow at the Beach?

It had already been raining for more than a day when my wife and I started following the winter weather forecast yesterday with both excitement and concern.

They were calling for snow at the beach -- our Sunday destination.

We woke up Sunday morning to the sound of a steady rain outside our house and puddles throughout neighborhood yards. No snow -- yet.

I had to go down to the conference at the beach this week, regardless -- it was already paid for and plus I'm on the board. So as my wife, who had taken the three conference days off for her own vacation time, debated whether or not she was going to go, I finished packing and loaded up the car.

OK, decision time --- are you going or not?

She really wanted to see snow. Even as time to leave the house neared, they were predicting heavy snow for our region of the state and some down at the beach.

So we hop in the trusty Honda and head off in the rain to pick up the rental car. We spent up until the Florence area in on-and-off rain. But as we neared Myrtle Beach we saw the sky and clouds turning a friendly color and the sun begin to poke out.

Apparently there is several inches of snow on the ground back home. And none here. In the past few hours, several hundred miles away, I've had to call TV stations back home and log on to websites to update them with the fact the college I work at is closed tomorrow.

We're still waiting to see whether that snow is going to hit down here. They say there is still a slight chance of precipitation tomorrow here.

She's on her computer right now, sighing and giving the TV a look of disgust as they talk about all the snow we got back home.

But as I sit here on the balcony blogging and looking out at the ocean, feeling the crisp winter wind, and listening to and watching the waves roll in -- there's a chill in the air. Slivers of moonlight are casting down through the slightly overcast sky onto the waves which seem to be reflecting back a message of "bring on that snow, buddy. We'll just wash it away."

It's not your typical coastal night. It's a weird feeling. Of course there's no precipitation coming down right now in any form, but I just can't help but wonder what snow at the beach would be like.

Looks like either way you cut it, we have the option of either making a snowman or a sandman tomorrow.

The Christmastime Parking Saga

I just thought I could knock this one out really quickly before shutting down for the night - you could potentially find it sad, amusing, and inspiring all at the same time.

Christmas Eve we were in the mood for ice cream and we didn't have any. We had seen a Ben and Jerry's on the main drag in Gatlinburg earlier that day so I told my wife "I'll run down into town, grab a pint, and come right back."

Got downtown and there was no parking spot to be found. I ended up finding what I thought was a timed lot (mind you it did have a sign that said $5/all day) - so I pulled in, got my ticket stub, found a spot, and ran three blocks to Ben and Jerry's.

The store was locked. It was 5:05. They closed at 5. Crap. I had however on my jaunt down the road seen a Baskin Robbins - so I popped in there, got some ice cream, and went back to the car. Drove to the attendant booth, gave him my ticket stub, and here's where it gets interesting.

Me: How much?
Attendant: Five dollars.
Me: You're kidding, right?
Attendant: No, five dollars.
Me: I'm not paying you five dollars. I was only parked for thirty minutes
Attendant: Five dollars

Do you see where this is going yet?

Me: OK. The sign says five dollars per day. It does not say five dollars period. If that's what you intend it to say, then you need to go rewrite it because as it stands that is false advertising. So if you figure you have probably 12 hours in the day when people use your lot at a $5/day rate, that's approximately 40-some-odd cents an hour and 20-some-odd cents for a half hour. So I will give you 50 cents and you'll let me out of the lot, or I will sit here all evening long and block you gate so nobody else can get out.
Attendant: No you won't. You'll pay me five dollars.

Can you guess what happens next?

Me: See, there comes someone up behind me right now.
Attendant: You need to pay me five dollars.
Me: No I don't.
Attendant: Yes you do.

**HONNNNNNKKKK**

Me: Ready to take 50 cents yet?
Attendant: No.

**HONNNNNNKKKK**

Attendant: OK, three dollars.

**HONNNNNNKKKK**

Me: One dollar.
Attendant: Two dollars.

**HONNNNNNKKKK**

Me: One dollar.

**HONNNNNNKKKK**

Attendant: OK, one dollar.

So I pay the price gouger and leave.

The next evening, Christmas Day, as my wife and I are looking for a place to park to go to the restaurant we had planned on eating at, we cannot find a spot. Downtown has exploded with people. It's nuts.

We decided to grin and bear it and pull into the closest lot to the restaurant and break down and have to pay the $10 parking fee on the big sign pointing toward the lot.

But then we make the turn into the lot and see that the gate arms on both sides are wide open. There is no attendant.

WOW. That was really shocking.

We park, go eat, come back, and still no attendant. Hey, free parking. I guess some people do have a heart.

It's people like that who really embody the true spirit of Christmas. Yes, as a business operator they could have chosen to give in to their desire for more profit, but they decided to give into their heart and provide many someones a heartfelt Christmas gift. They decided to give back.

That's what Christmas is truly about. It shouldn't be about buying an expensive gift for someone. It shouldn't be about expecting certain gifts from someone. It's certainly not about trying to get as much profit as you can, nor is it about starting arguments with a parking lot attendant. It's about giving from the heart - even it's something a simple and easy as opening up your gates and not charging parking fees for the day.

O' Christmas Tree

My wife and I went up into the mountains today (well, now, yesterday) in search of a Christmas tree. The whole ride back I was formulating a blog posting about my disdain for popular culture's excuse for Christmas music. I've decided that post will be for another time... but definitely in the next few days.

Right now, that tree is what's on my mind - and not for any good reason, either.

I'll start this off by saying that I should have learned my lesson last year.

The first Christmas my wife and I were together we started a tradition of having a real Christmas tree in the house. We had both grown up with artificial trees, for whatever reason neither of us are certain. So picking out a Christmas tree for us has become a tradition that we look forward to each year.

Up until last year, we would go to the same Christmas tree vendor - a friend of ours from my wife's home church who has his own Christmas tree business. He would always help us pick out a great tree (although one year we got one that thought it was Spring again and started dripping sap all over the presents), recut it, drill it, bale it, and load it on our car.

But last year we went to a "choose and cut" Christmas tree farm in Maggie Valley, NC, picked one out, had it cut, they did the drill, bale and load routine, and we brought it home. Then I found out not only was the bore crooked, but the cut was also.

So I borrowed a friend's drill bit because I didn't have size that I needed, broke out my excuse for a handsaw, and went to work fixing the tree. A hour later, there it stood, in its stand, ready to be decorated.

This year, we went to a different tree farm - figured we'd try a different place. And this one definitely was different.

They had Santa in a little cabin, a lake with fish and ducks, a store, a wreath making department, a (small) fire for roasting marshmallows, a few wooden elves and snowman for children to stick their heads through and get their pictures taken with, about 3 or 4 times as many trees to choose from, a hayride... and about two or three hundred families each with at least two or three kids.

Understandably, I can imagine that all of that compounded on top of the holiday craziness can stress out and distract the people that work there.

Well, we took our hayride to the top, picked out our tree, they tagged it, we rode back down, got some hot cocoa, roasted a couple marshmallows and went to go get our tree and head back home.

They didn't have our tree. We waited - for 45 minutes. They hunted. They didn't have our tree.

Me and our first tree (the one they lost)

Now I can imagine what Clark Griswold would do in a situation like this and it probably wouldn't have been as nice or diplomatic as how I handled it; but I definitely was rather annoyed. I explained we had just driven nearly three hours, we both really liked the tree we had picked out and since they had lost it, we'd like to pick out another. So with what little light was left, we went back up the mountain, found another one, loaded it, and headed home.

Three hours later, I'm hunting down the trusty handsaw and wishing I had that drill bit back. I've been working with one not quite the size I need and it's just not doing the job.

Had I not asked for a discount because of the fact they had lost our first tree, I would have been really, really mad to have paid the full amount only to find out that the cut and the bore in this tree are so crooked you would have thought the Christmas tree farm was run by a bunch of Democratic congressmen.

Needless to say, there's been a lot of unChristmaslike language targeted at the tree in the last two hours. I've got about an inch of the tree mount pin in the tree so it's a balancing act right now.

There's about at least a vaccuum bag's full of needles on the carpet. And I don't know how much sap I just washed off my hands into the sink.

Home Depot is going to be seeing me in the morning. For some lucky drill bit and power saw, they're going to see a new home in the morning. And that tree is going to see the business end of both.

Sidenote: If you've never been to Black Mountain, NC, you need to stop at Berliner Kindl. It's a German restaurant and deli - and they have the best sauer kraut and German potato salad I have ever had.

Election Day Part 4: So, So, So Disappointed

Damn.

That's pretty much all I have to say.

I wish us all good luck. We're going to need it.

This is not the change I was hoping for.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's wonderful that we've come to the point as a nation of Americans, brothers and sisters, to elect a minority president. I just wish it would have been someone else.

We're in for ... well, we're in for four years of socialist liberal policies that could potentially bankrupt our country, especially if we start spreading the wealth around too much.

We're in for tax increases. We're in for more entitlement programs. We're in for more government involvement in people's lives.

We're in for a signficant weakening of funding and support for the people who need that government involvement the most: our men and women in uniform. Iraq and Afghanistan will be in for a rough ride in turn. We could be in for more terrorist activity on our soil. Let's hope and pray that doesn't happen.

This is a dark, dark day for America.

We needed someone who would put us back on the map as a strong world power with a vibrant economy. That won't happen under Obama's watch, I can guarantee you that.

I guess we just ride out the storm the best we can and hope that someone better will come along in 2012 with the ability to fix the changes that Obama will screw us all up with.

You Have Got to Be Kidding Me....

And as we're buying our Halloween candy last night for the -maybe- five or six trick or treater's that we will have, I see the above scene.

This is wrong and tacky on so many levels, I don't even know what to say, other than "Come on, Target; are you kidding me?"

Are you as disgusted by this as I was?

A New Coach, A New Attitude

I've never really cared for football. I'm really not a big sports person to begin with. About the only sports that I pay attention to are Clemson sports -- and even at that, the bulk of that attention goes to football.

As a student, it's part of the ritual to go to the games and pull for your team, whether you're a Tiger, Gamecock, Bulldog, Terrapin, whatever. Then as an adult, it's part of the ritual to receive solicitations to join your alma mater's athletic club and/or give money to the the program. And you are kind of expected to be able to at least pull for your team in public conversations, which I do.

I have a lot of school pride and I like to be able to joke around with people who support opposing teams when Clemson beats them. But I've never been big into donating to the Clemson athletic program for several reasons, including the fact that the program is obviously all about football.

For all the time I sat in the stands at Clemson cheering for my Tigers, or cheered at home watching the TV, I never really believed in the evident coaching philosophy at Clemson.

Win at any cost.

Other than the fact that I admittedly don't know alot about the rules or technique of football, even after "attempting" to watch it for all these years, I have never supported the "win at any cost" philosophy.

In the last 16 years since I started college, Clemson has gone through three head coaches. In each case, they didn't come out and say outright that the reason that coach was "fired" was because their team didn't perform up to expectations and that lackluster performance was the coach's fault. But it's Clemson athletics, where football reigns. If the football team is doing bad, that affects revenue. From a business point, OK, it makes sense. But, again, I have a lot of philosophical issues with that.

I've obviously never been a coach. I have no idea what's that's like. But I can guarantee you that any coach has a tremendous amount of pressure on them from multiple directions. That is going to happen to anyone in that type of position.

It's just like a business. There is a direct line of accountability. Everyone has clear roles and duties. If one link in the chain is weak, it effects the entire chain.

I get that.

But the biggest part of a successful business, or team, or whatever, is attitude - how you perceive the situation, or game as the case may be; how motivated you are; and what your goal is and how you want to achieve that goal.

For years and years at Clemson, it's been about being the top dog; getting that ACC championship; going to the national title game and winning the championship again. Sure, it's fun to go up to your Gamecock friends the next day and say, "Ha, ha. Our team beat you."

But, really, to me that's neither here nor there.

One of the reasons why I don't watch pro-football or many other pro sports is because there are so many people who are in that because of the money. They may have at one point had the heart and passion for the game, but over time the money has taken over their focus.

I think it's wrong to put that goal of winning this and winning that out there for college athletics. First and foremost, it's a college. Students are supposed to be there to learn. So in an ideal world, the athletics should be there as a fun, extracurricular activity in which you don't have to worry about whether you getting that touchdown is going to affect your chances of getting a multi-million dollar pro-contract or your coach's chances for advancing to a bigger school.

But you get all these crazed athletic supporters that pump millions of dollars a year into a program to pressure young adults into performing something that really isn't the point of college. They want the win. And, of course, the athletes want the win too. You can't really be an athlete and not want the win.

So while they're in the game, one would hope that those athletes would go about achieving that success on the field with the right attitude.

They've been writing all week long about the change in attitude in the Clemson program since Bowden was fired last week. (They can say whatever they want about Bowden not being there anymore, we all know he was fired). Commentators have been saying that there is an palpable excitement in the air.

Following the Tigers loss to Georgia Tech yesterday, Coach Swinney made some comments that make the new change in attitude clear:

• “I could give a rat’s tail what that scoreboard says. What I was after today was to get a bunch of guys to come together as one,” he said. “To unite the Clemson and try to create some energy. We got that done today.” - Greenville News, Oct. 19, 2008
• “Yeah, we could have done some things better, we stunk it up in the first half. We had a couple of bonehead plays. We made some mistakes that hurt us on the scoreboard. This wasn’t about the game. “They laid it on the line today,” he said, “played with passion. I don’t think that’s been the case. They brought it.” - Greenville News, Oct. 19, 2008

So it looks like now we've got a coach that has the right idea. It's not all about winning. It's about having fun, having and showing heart and enthusiam. And playing with passion. It's all about attitude.

And I think we've finally found the right attitude in Dabo Swinney.

The Land Where Manners Stand Still

So the wife and I are sitting in a CVS, waiting on a prescription a few evenings ago. Some guy is walking to the back of the store and I hear him talking. As he rounds the corner at the end of the aisle and starts coming towards us, I notice he's got a Bluetooth device in his ear.

You know, one of those little "Hey look at me, I think I look cool but I really look like a geek from Star Trek" devices.....

He's not keeping his conversation very private. He was talking to someone named Lee, who at first I thought was a woman.

At first, the conversation went something like ".... I think we need to talk more about this .... Lee, this is a tough decision for me... there are some issues that I don't think are getting resolved..."

Oh man, dude is breaking up with his girlfriend in a CVS over a Bluetooth. How lame.

Then we hear "Lee, I think you're a great father.... Your son has some serious issues .... He needs help ... I want to be there to support you, but I don't think I can anymore ... Your son needs to talk to someone."

While all of this is being said, he's making a purchase at the prescription counter and conversing with the cashier also. I was just baffled at the complete lack of respect he was showing for the person he was talking to over the phone AND for the cashier by having this conversation out in the open, at a pharmacy counter nonetheless.

I don't get people like that.

I don't get why people think other people need to hear their what should be private conversations.

Why do people think the world needs to hear them yak on their cell phone all the time?

I think the cell phone is helping lead us down a path from which there is looking to be less and less of a return -- to The Land Where Manners Stand Still.

If I have something that I don't want other people to hear, I won't talk on my cell phone in public. I try to avoid talking on my cell phone in public in the first place. I'm really not a big phone person anyway. There are a lot of times when I'm with a group of friends or in a situation where I think it is really inappropriate to be taking phone calls -- and I'll just press the ignore button on the phone and let it go to voice mail.

If it is someone important, I will call them back when it is a more convenient time.

I see a ton of people that are totally the opposite of this. I know several people who I think have Cellphone Attachment Disorder, where they can't live unless they're on their phone talking to someone. It doesn't matter where they are, when they are, or who they're with, they always have to be on the phone. That I truly don't understand and think is completely rude.

Then there are the people who think they, themselves, are just the end all be all. This gets back to the "Gimme" attitude.

"Gimme a hamburger and fries. Oh, and gimme a coke too" ---- or "gimme that pen. I need to write you a check"

Well, gimme ain't never got me nothin'....

Whatever happened to "May I please have.." or "Would you mind if I borrow your ...." ?

I went through my adventures in paying car taxes and getting a new license plate today. All in all, not a bad experience. Didn't take as long as I expected. As always, there were a fair share of totally ignorant people at the tax office and at the DMV who have no clue how the process of paying taxes or getting a vehicle registered go. I'm amazed that some of these people know how to get out of bed and put their clothes on in the morning.

But there was this one lady whose number was a few before mine and made it up to the counter several minutes ahead of me whose conversation I happened to hear vividly.

She goes up to the counter, baby in a diaper and t-shirt in tow (being carried notheless) -- and slaps both her paperwork down on the counter and the baby.

"Gimme one of the new license plates - I just paid my money to the county taxman," she says rudley as her baby leans over and starts playing with this and that on the counter which all belong to the DMV rep.

I thinking, "Lady, I would love to give you a one-way ticket back to Kindergarten so you can learn some manners."

Why do people think they can just go from day to day thinking that they're so entitled to this or that and get away with telling people to give them this or that, rather than politely asking for something?

I am big on manners in public. I admit there are times when I'm irritated or frustrated or just in a bad mood and I get a little short with people. I always feel bad about that afterwards. Unless they just had it coming to them for whatever reason they were being difficult in the first place....

But so many people are setting bad examples of how to act in public. So many people are raising rude children (If I ever find my future son or daughter on a bluetooth phone in public telling someone to give them something... well let's just say that's not going to happen in the first place)

And society in general isn't doing anything to address rudness in general. Mostly, anyway.

I was in the post office recently, waiting in line, and this woman goes up to the counter yakking away on her cell phone,. Before she's able to say anything to the worker behind the counter, said worker says, "Ma'm, we have a policy that we will not help customers who are on their cell phone. I guess you may have missed the sign right there (and she points to one) --- So if you would please step to the side and finish your phone conversation, we'll let you get back in line when you're done."

I came about half an inch from clapping. Instead I just grinned.

"Well that's just rude," the woman on the cell phone said as she walked away from the counter to continue her conversation.

Lady, do you want to be the pot or the kettle today?

What has happened? --- are the cell phone makers to blame? Is Ray Kroc to blame for allowing fast food service to serve as a catlyst for rudeness? We're going downhill in a way which it's getting more and more apparent that we're going to have to have a miracle to come back from.

Why George... Why?

Dear George Lucas:

First you went as far as to have Greedo shoot first. Not cool.

Then you destroyed your core fanbase's hopes for three ultra-kickin' new chapters of the best sci-fi movie series ever by including a talking amphibian that makes flatulence jokes.

You went on to make the most overly-gaudy, CGI-heavy movie with Attack of the Clowns....

Developed some of the worst dialogue I've ever heard in the Revenge of the Sith. "Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo; so long ago when there was nothing but our love. No politics, no plotting, no war." C'mon, man.... Yuck.

Oh, I see.... you couldn't leave well enough alone. You had to go and make an animated movie. Of the Clone Wars? Again.. C'mon, dude....

At least if you were going to make an animated movie, set it between Sith and A New Hope so that Vader could be in it.

You suck George. You couldn't leave the ships dingy, dirty, and battle-scarred. You had to give them a CGI sheen. You wouldn't work with someone elses' novelization of what proved to be an awesome triology in "Heir to the Empire" and turn those into movies...

You had to turn Indiana Jones into a story about aliens. Finding Atlantis just wasn't good enough, huh?

Instead you decide to give us more garbage.

The Clone Wars --- as a computer animated movie? We put so much faith in your storytelling and your ability to fascinate us with space battles on a limited budget. Now you go and do this?

Well, I'm through with your garbage. As much of a mark as you made on my generation's fascination with sci-fi and my childhood toy collection, I will never undertand why you did this to us.

Why George, why?

Sincerely,

Disgusted in South Carolina