JUST A PERSONAL NOTE ABOUT COMPETITION

Just a personal note about competition. It often doesn’t really tell you anything about Good, Better or Best. Case in point – the Academy Awards. Yea, I know that it’s just an advertising tool, but just look at this example and you’ll see why I’m not big on competition. My favorite movie of all times is 12 Angry Men (the 1957 version) The film was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing of Adapted Screenplay. It lost to the movie Bridge on the River Kwai in all three categories. As much as I enjoy The Bridge, it has never made my all time favorite list. Why? A lot of reasons. Mostly because it has that crazy British pride over all component to its plot and I’ve never been that patriotic (and I’m not a Brit).

I don’t know why The Bridge won over 12 Angry Men, but to compare the two is kind of ludicrous. First off 12 is in black and white, takes place almost completely in one room and examines human flaws in a applicable setting – that is “normal” real world issues. Bridge is a war movie set in a tropical setting and is filmed in color. It too looks at human flaws but how often is the everyday Joe going to experience a Prison Camp? It is a great movie and well acted, but it should never have been compared to 12. The only thing they have in common is they came out in the same year. How is that an issue of “best”?

I am not opposed to competition. I enjoy it and participate in it. In fact I don’t think any of us can say we haven’t engaged in completion even if we were the only one who was aware that we were competing. (LOL) I just have a problem with it being a determiner of “best”. It is hard to bring the elements for comparison together such that they all bare equal weight and appeal to “fairness”.

So, enjoy your efforts at besting something or someone. Just don’t make it the end all definition of the best possible.

Another Sign of Getting Old - The Death Of TV Icons

This photo shows the Nelson Family, Ozzie and Harriet with sons Ricky, left, and David, in their television home. David Nelson, who starred on his parents' popular television show 'The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,' died Monday, Jan. 10, 2011, at his home in the Century City area of Los Angeles. He was 74. He was older than Ricky but the last to pass. Ricky died in a plane crash on December 31, 1985.

The TV show was not the only entertaining this family presented. Before the TV show, Ozzie had his own Band, the Ozzie Nelson Band, in the 30s. Harriet was a singer and a movie actress. Ricky was a bit of a rock star with a couple of hits. David was a producer and acted - his last film appearance was in Cry-Baby (1990).

An interesting note, before the show aired, Ozzie Nelson persuaded ABC to agree to a 10-year contract that paid the Nelsons whether the series was canceled or not. The unprecedented contract and Ozzie's insistence for perfection in the show's production paid off in the show's remarkable popularity.


Still it was an interesting time watching this family (reality TV?) live their lives from our B&W vantage point. I remember how calm the family always was. I'm sure Ozzie orchestrated their lives as well as he orchestrated his band. Everything was perfect.

A Good Bit of Advice

Multi-tasking is cool and I like to do it but I find myself having too many irons in the fire and that actually kills the joy of getting things accomplished.  So here is some advice from the USAA folks for long term goals:

Do one thing at a time.  Although you may very well want to tackle that last $1000 in debt and those last 10 pounds, don't try to do both at once, advises Princeton University's Sam Wang, co-author of Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life.  Why?  Because willpower is a limited resource.  Your brain, he explains,can only be expected to focus intently on one goal at a time.  So pick your battle, win it, and then move on to the next.

Obama aide: Refusal to raise debt ceiling would be 'catastrophic'. Why???

 I'm not sure why it would be Catastrophic.  Why did we establish a debt ceiling in the first place if it can be exceeded so easily and why is holding our indebtedness to a finite amount bad?  Can we really not cut any government spending?

USA Today - Jan 02, 2011

Obama aide: Refusal to raise debt ceiling would be 'catastrophic'



The chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers said today it would be "insanity" for Congress to refuse to lift the nation's debt ceiling and that inaction would be "catastrophic" for the nation's financial recovery.

"This is not a game," CEA chairman Austan Goolsbee told Jake Tapper on ABC's This Week. "The debt ceiling is not something to toy with."

Goolsbee also discussed efforts to create jobs and generate economic growth. The debt ceiling discussion begins shortly after the 4:35 mark of the video.

The United States is about $400 billion away from hitting the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, and a congressional vote on whether to raise that limit should come this spring. Some Republicans have called for keeping the ceiling as a way to force cuts in federal spending.

Goolsbee said that would lead to a default on U.S. obligations, "which is totally unprecedented in American history."

That would create a string of other problems, Goolsbee said:

    The impact on the economy would be catastrophic. I mean, that would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008. As I say, that's not a game. I don't see why anybody's talking about playing chicken with the debt ceiling.

    If we get to the point where you've damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity ... There would be no reason for us to default, other than that would be some kind of game.

    We shouldn't even be discussing that. People will get the wrong idea. The United States is not in danger of default ... We do not have problems such as that. This would be lumping us in with a series of countries through history that I don't think we would want to be lumped in with.

(Posted by David Jackson)

Deeper than this thought reveals

A look at the GOP's proposed rules for the House reveals some fine print
to their deficit-cutting plan. Back in 2007, Republicans used budget
reconciliation, a process immune to filibuster, to pass the Bush tax
cuts and raise the deficit, two things reconciliation wasn't meant to be
used for. When Democrats took Congress, they changed House rules to
prevent such a move being made again. But the GOP's proposed House rules
roll back the changes. Specifically, according to the Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities, the new rules would allow reconciliation to be
used for bills that increase the deficit through tax cuts, though not
bills that contain spending that would increase the deficit.

Susan Edwards died this week of cacncer. She was 35. She was a reporter and was fearless when it came time to get the story from the most advantageous view point.

Politians make rule to serve their agendas regardless of the needs of the people represented and so many individuals work hard to bring facts to the public trusting them to use the info to their betterment.

Got to love the people, got to ask why the title polititan gives a group of power hungry charlitians the right to throw representation for all out the window?

How to make a fast buck on an election even if you have a snowballs chance in hell of winning

Why do Republicans dread improved public education?  After all, every potential Presidential candidate writes a book and shamelessly hypes it during their campaigns (for as long as they may last - usually up to Iowa and New Hampshire).

Could it be that public schools go beyond just Reading, writing and arithmetic?  (Note - more commonly known as "the three Rs"- ignorance is bliss)  Could it be that they teach science, higher math and history - all of which if mastered can make you change your religion to atheism?

In any case, the Republican Presidential wannabes are true to their colors and making the most of this opportunity to get excellent exposure for their money making opportunity book sales.  Can't fault leading by example, even a screwy one.

DNA provides answers to social questions

From an NPR article about DNA and learning more about our ancestors who live in caves.

"For example, a group in Spain published a paper this week analyzing the DNA from 12 Neanderthals found in a single cave. The analysis suggested the men were all brothers or cousins, whereas the women had come from different bands."

This amazing. It is something we could only speculate prior to this science. Once again women account for human diversity and men collectively protect thier domains.

Some of my showings at last nights Photo Club Meeting

It was cold as Santa's ice house at the Arts Center last night but 5 of us showed up. Here are a few of my offerings. The months theme was B&W. I think I did ok. LOL

Life Is A Trip - So Be Sure To Take In The Sights

Click here for my Photo of the Day

First time I've posted to my blog from my I-Touch. Like my best friend said a couple of days ago, "Who would have imagined 40 years ago when we were Audio/Visual Aids in Hendersonville High School?"

Here I sit in the coffee shop missing my NAFA friends. That little group was (and I'm sure still is) a great bunch of people. We did some great things together and they still do. The North Alabama Free Thought Association is "the bomb"!

I hope to have a photo session with my daughter and a couple of her friends. They want thier pictures taken at the Barn but it is cloudy and threatening to rain. I'm still heading down there because time spent with my kids is always time well spent.

Taking time to enjoy the natural beauty of this life

 

How is it that I seem to have so little time to get things done? Could it be that I insist on stopping to smell the rose . . . Or is it's that at this stag of my life I can talk bullshit so well, folks just want more of my time? :-)




Speaking of stopping to smell the roses, I stopped by the side of the road on the way to work this morning and looked up to see a sliver of a Moon and an overly bright Venus just to its left. Sunrise was obscured on the horizon by the tail end of yesterday's storm moving off to the west. That subdued the bright orange of a sunrise and left the sky a beautiful array of blues from a translucent tropical water color to cobalt blue between bands of narrow long gray clouds. There was a little haze giving the Moon and Venus a beautiful glowing effect. It was a great way to start the day.

OK, The Food Is Consummed And It's Now Time To Drain The Bank Account

Season’s Greetings and Happy Solstice.  The shortening days will soon reverse.

Yea I just love water.  Especially if there are boats around.  Took this from a Tour Bus window moving at about 40 MPH.  Not bad, Eh?



Here Is Where We Had Our Thanksgiving Dinner

River Queen - Savannah, Ga

I've always perfered Thanksgiving out.  Home cooked is fine but not fair unless the cook just really loves to cook.

Life Can Be Golden

Some days are jewels to live.

Don't wake Papa