YouTube Tuesday

Apparently last night the boys did not get the memo that Heather and I were tired and wanted a good nights sleep...this is apparently the message they received instead...

Monday Listicles

Stasha at The Good Life hosts a great hop called Monday Listicles.  This week's theme is birthdays...  Since I hate birthdays (yes, I am the Scrooge of birthdays) I can only stomach doing five instead of 10.

5.  Congrats! You made it another year on a large rock hurtling around the sun at approximately 66,500 MPH.  Good thing you don't feel like you are constantly going in circles.  Life is indeed going by quickly.

4. Thanks for contributing to the economy.  The average American spends approximately $25 on a gift.  That means if the average person receives three gifts, that means $23.25 billion is spent annually on gifts!  The Chinese government could not survive without you...Oppps.  I means America's retail industry.

 3. In 1400, life expectancy was 24.44 years (thanks to the Black Death); that doubled to 48.11 in 1500.  Today in the USA, life expectancy has risen to nearly 80 years.  So you will have that many more to celebrate.  Women in the USA can expect to celebrate five more birthdays than men.  That gap is closing however, as women are picking up more bad habits such as smoking, drinking and workaholism.  See gender equality does have its disadvantages.

2. If you want to celebrate the most birthdays though move to Monaco where the average life expectancy is 89.68.  BTW the USA ranks number 50 on that list.  If you are sick of birthdays, Chad should be on your moving list because life expectancy there is 48.69.

1. October 5th is the most common birthday in the USA.  Over one million Americans share that day as their birthdays.  So join with them and thank their parents for getting too drunk on New Years Eve to remember  to use birth control.

Now go visit some other Listicles by clicking the button below.  Happy Monday!

 

Monday Quiz About Me

1. What are your favorite pizza toppings?

I like Hawaiian pizza and at the right time BBQ pizza.

2. What is the strangest name you've ever heard for a child?

How can one not mention - Dweezel and Moon Unit Zappa

3. What is the best vacation you've ever gone on?

You think a tourism professor that I would have a ton to choose from - but it is a case of physician heal thyself.  I do not typically enjoy vacations because I am analyzing everything.  It is the real downside of my job.  I can not go to a wedding, festival or resort without thinking of ways to increase productivity or enhance services.  The people who I work with love this about me but it make vacationing very challenging.  

4. What is your favorite quick summer meal?

A restaurant in Charleston serves a cucumber salad that is absolutely fabulous.  The recipe below is the closest I have found on the web.  

Ingredients: Servings: 6-8 Units: 2 cucumbers, very thinly sliced 1 red onion, very thinly sliced 2 tablespoons vinegar or 2 tablespoons lemon juice 2 tablespoons low-fat sour cream or 2 tablespoons yogurt salt and pepper, to taste (I like a lot of pepper) 1/2 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill 

Directions: 1 Mix cucumbers and onions together. 2 Mix rest of ingredients together in a closed bowl and give a shake. 3 Add to cucumbers, chill till very cold & serve.

Photo from: http://food.sndimg.com/img/recipes/51/72/1/large/picRZvv8O.jpg

Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/cucumber-salad-51721?oc=linkback

As Heather says, "And don't forget to add a 5th Question on your own blog so we can answer as we hop around!"

5. What is the last movie you watched that you could not make it through?  

Thor was a terrible movie.  This should have been an excellent story and they brutalized it.

Sundays in My City

Thanks to the Unknown Mami for hosting Sundays in the City.

An Early Morning Walk

Six Word Saturday

Those were some weird/ freaky dreams...

Last night, I had a just a wild night.  Every time I closed my eyes to go to sleep, I entered a world in which my thoughts were twisted into scenarios that were either gruesome or out of a early Salvador Dali painting.  It seems as though my clock had sprung.

What was really strange was that I usually do not recall my dreams, so that fact that I can remember four of them is freaky in itself.  It was also weird that when I was dreaming and it got 'bad' so to speak I would not wake myself up.  My mind was racing last night in a world which felt like a Quentin Tarantino movie mixed with an Edgar Allen Poe poem.  For instance, in one dream my child was captured along with B.J. Honneyicut from M*A*S*H (a show I have not seen in at least five years) by Nazis to be experimented on.  They tied his feel to a rope and swung him like a pendulum trying to hit B.J. with him.  When they stopped swinging him, he asked for more.  After that, my dreams got wider and more graphic...

Now, I did not eat anything weird last night, nothing out of the ordinary happened yesterday and I can not think of a reason why this series of really strange dreams occurred.  I am just glad to be awake...

Friday Fragments

Once again, thanks to the great Mrs. 4444's for host this most fraggily good time...

• Every Tuesday my blog post is something called YouTube Tuesday. It is where I take a theme and find YouTube clips to go it. It could be something as simple as 80s classics to a harder six degrees of Kevin Bacon challenge. Heather has been telling me I need to turn this weekly feature into a hop. What do you all think?
• On a related note - there is really only one clip necessary for Friday Fragments...

• Today, I am out at the Ocean Course for a meeting in preparation for the PGA Championship being hosted here the first week of August.  I am looking forward to working with the luxury suites at the Championship.
• On a related note: I am actually teaching a class at the PGA Championship.  How cool is that?  Hope the students receive a fun, challenging and potentially fruitful (especially if they network well) experience.
• It has been fun to spend more time with my children lately.  Each of them is very cool in their own way.  It is amazing how very different each one is... Robyn is intellectual, Liam is loving and Erik is energy.  
• On a related note: Liam is riding his bike at a fever pitch now.  It is hard to keep up with him.  It is amazing that at the beginning of summer, he wanted nothing to do with a bike.
• Did you read about Dennis Rodman (yes, that former basketball player) met his estranged father of 42 years this week. This is a 'man' who has acknowledged fathering 29 children by 16 mothers.   Incredibly, his 'father's' name is Philander Rodman Jr (click on the link if you do not know the definition of philander).
• On a related note: While he may be the biological father to 29 children, I wonder if he is a dad to any.  All  the more to pity.

• One of my favorite blog hops is Brenda Youngerman's - Pondering with a Purpose - Think, Think, Think, I Can on Thursday.  If you have not already, check it out.  I have written some of my best blog posts as a result of this hop.

• On a related note: I am quite proud of the one I wrote on the extreme theme this week. 

Now go visit some other frags by clicking the button...

Pondering with a Purpose

Every week Brenda sets us a task of writing on a theme.  This weeks' theme is about: EXTREMES.  Specifically, what extremes would you be willing to go forward with for your loved ones?

While I am not Buddhist, I do think the philosophy is correct in regards to the need to keep to the middle path.  I generally try to avoid extremes whenever possible because they rarely contain the correct choices.  One only has to look at politics to understand this concept.  Choices made on the extreme are usually emotionally driven rather than by rational thought.  I have more examples in my life of where impulsive decisions were incorrect than carefully considered ones were proven to be poor choices.  With these thoughts in mind, I will endeavor to answer Brenda's pondering challenge.

One of Brenda's questions was would I give up my life for one of my children?  Once again, here is an example of where extreme could lead to a poor choice.  The obvious answer would be 'yes' but would it be the right choice?  For instance, in my case, I have three children.  If I gave my life for one, would all of my children be put into a position where they would suffer greatly as a result?  I love my children but is it better to be there for the living ones than there for a dead one?  If all three suffer because I saved one and left them; is that really the correct choice?  This is a choice I hope no parent ever has to make but an example of where an extreme choice could lead to increased suffering rather than alleviation.

Moderation is one of the keys to a successful life.  It generally leads to one making better choices and thus leads to less situations where the consequences of ones actions is harmful.  Does that mean, I never make extreme decisions?  The answer, of course, is no but they are calculated risks.  When I engage in behaviors that others may view as extreme it is because I have considered this a time when it was necessary in order to do so for the greater good.  For instance, I abhor violence but I would have volunteered to fight in WWII.  Some things are greater than you.  Being moderate means sometimes having to go to the extremes so that you know where the middle path remains.  Otherwise you will be extremely moderate and that in itself is a wrong as well.  The real question is when to take these calculated risks?

This brings me back to the question of family and extreme choices.  Yes, I would sacrifice a great deal for my family but it has to be in their best interest to do so.  There are times when I say no because the lesson and/or situation would either harm the others to a greater extent or that by my coming rescue the individual will not learn to be independent or make their own good choices.  I love my children enough to say 'no' at times.  I guess you can call that extreme if you would like.  My thinking is that Meat Loaf had it right, "I would do anything for love but I won't do that."  That would be just too extreme.