Transitioning

You know, sometimes change can be a real pain in the rump but in all reality I learned to adapt to changing circumstances long ago in the Marine Corps. The phrase was "Adapt and Overcome".

So here I am, a widower of two months... My wife now past and I talked very deeply of this coming time and we had a firm understanding and agreement of what was to be. She let me know that she felt I should move on as soon as possible in all areas of my life, i.e., love, education, career, home, relational, etc., and I agree. The biggest thing which seems to hamper this progress is social or cultural "expectations". I am not one to sit in self pity but I can understand completely how others might go through this stage. This is not to say I don't hurt because I do but that is something which I must deal with and so I shall. I am not mad, nor angry, nor do I feel guilty. Death is a natural part of life and I know I did my absolute best to give Laura everything I possibly could before she passed away. So because I am not expressing these things in public does not mean I am repressing them. They are just not there and I see them as pointless and limiting. I have to go on, transition my life to a new life, and it will be done as smoothly, efficiently, and as quickly as possible. I am not forgetting my past either. I have incorporated and am incorporating all that we were, and all that she was to and with me, into who I am today and tomorrow. To me this is the way it should be. To nullify another and to "bury" their memory and that which they were seems like a shameful thing to do to a person once they are gone. I have more respect for who she was than to do that.

Would her memory inhibit or hamper relationships in the future? I see this question posed all the time. My answer to you is it will only make me more complete and whole. I am not one to compare my past to new relationships. I have spent a lifetime fighting what people do naturally - generalize. Each new day, my relationships with others start off on a fresh start despite what may have happended the day before or in the past. To categorize another into a grouping type because of past actions or other characteristics is to me wrong and immoral. It limits others from becoming who they may potentially become, especially when our categorical view of a person is expressed to others in our social settings. It is not fair or moral for us to hold someone back from change, hold them back from maximizing their potential as a human being. But unfortunately I see it done everyday, by countless people - often in pety, pointless ways. The point is, I refuse to do this if I possibly can ( sometimes because generalization it is a natural personal and societal survival aspect I am caught unaware of my own actions but rectify them to the best of my abilities if I can ). Is this "smart", to not hold past actions against another? One does not have to forget what another has done - be aware but allow the other to grow and change if they decide to. If their behavior repeats, then curtail their access to harmful intrusions for the moment or if it is continuous for the long run, but don't dump them into a grouping which inhibits their potential for the future.

With this understanding in place of how I deal with life, and back to the question at hand, no - bringing Laura into and along with my future life will not inhibit future relationships on my part because I deal with people on a fresh basis every day. Each new relationship I form with people is a unique and special relationship between that person and myself. How can one fully appreciate another if their interconnection is wrought with concern over how they stand up in comparison to a third person or to "expected" sociatial norms? In our hearts we each have our own understanding of what it is to be a moral person. This is what we should use to form our relations with others. If we use comparisons or social expections to form our relationships then we are not being true to ourselves or true to the other person. To allow these other factors to influence our construct of the relationship is to allow hipocracy, distrust, and negativity into the relationship which makes for a shallow interconnection at best. The question in I have to others is how willing are they to do the same in return? From my experiences in life thus far, sadly there have been few but I hold no ill will because I understand it to be natural that people seek an easier, simpler path through life which generalization and sociatial culture provides.

What will there be?

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A question that resounds in the mind is the question of "What will there be". What new things shall we see in the future that no one has thought of?

I will try to project a little but I am probably biased by all the media blast around me. At least I will have fun doing so. If I speak of something already known then forgive me, it is that I did not know someone had thought of it. At the very least I am reinforcing their idea.

Clothes That Change Color

I see that a number of individuals are working at creating clothes that change color often by using electrical signals, batteries, etc applied to specific fabric. Sooo. Lets take this a little further shall we?

Mood Clothes

What if clothing was made to sense the wearer's moods. Perhaps the clothing would change color based on pheromone production of the wearer. For instance, you are talking to someone you like and would like to know better. The clothing would sense your body's altering chemistry which might be based on the feelings you were feeling at the time. As your mood changes so does the color of the clothing. Nothing harsh - we would want a subtle transition to colors that are aesthetically pleasing to the other individual.

Now take this a little further. You both have put your true, tested color preferences into an online database as some time in the past. A testing facility or application has sensed and determined that certain colors have certain effects on you. This also has been done by the other individuals involved. So as you move about the room and chance conversation with different people at a party your clothing accesses an online database and changes the color of the clothing you are wearing based on your state of chemistry and the other individual involved. If you are feeling that hot rush, your clothes subtly change to the color that is preferred by the other individual in an attempt to attract them reciprocally. If you don't like someone, your clothing colors subtly change to colors that are displeasurable to the other party, not so much as to cause any hard feelings but enough to get the point across.

Hmmmm, just a thought. I will try to think of some more things even though they may have already been thought of somewhere in the world at some time in the past. The big thing is I am practicing. How about you?

Until then,

Rodney

Study Says Eldest Children Have Higher I.Q.s

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I read an interesting article about eldest children and family dynamics. Hmmm. Definitely got me thinking about the care and attention one needs to put into child rearing regarding all your children.

You can find the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/science/21cnd-sibling.html

Until Then,

Rodney

Personal voice activated bra

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Now don't go weird on me here. This idea is serious and I am sure there are millions of women who might agree.

For the sake of all of the ladies who struggle trying to release the hooks on the back, wouldn't be nice if some inventive soul could imbed a chip in the bra that only responds to the owner. This chip would control a release mechanism that would disengage the hooks in the back of the bra.

When you first buy the bra it would be sealed up or deactivated so no one could program it ahead of time. After your purchase, you could take it to the privacy of your home. You would then speak a couple of times with a word or phrase of your choosing to train the chip. After testing it a couple of times to make sure it works you could press in a tiny button that made the change permanent - it would only respond to your command from your voice.

1. There would need to be a manual method to unhook if desired.
2. The tiny button(s) to start the voice training and make it permanent could be so small you would only need to press them with say the tip of a ball point pen or special included plastic tool that looks like a non-sharp toothpick. They should be totally unobvious to look and feel ( except for a slight dimple to seat the tool).
3. The bra should only respond to one person after finializing.
4. To activate the training one could use a little plastic pull tab like the kind that is under those small batteries in some of the gadgets you buy. This way a person could try on the bra in the store and if it did not fit they would need not buy that size.

Ok you inventers and manufacturers and basically anyone interested in making a whole lot of money, get out there and make this happen. The world will sing praises to you!!! ( and you will be very well off ).

Until Then

Rodney

For The Birds

Ok, so now I read in the news headlines that large ecologically green electricity producing windmills are bad because they are killing a few birds and bats. Come on people, let's get real here. This kind of logic would have had us eliminate trains long before they first became our intercontinental transit network because a couple of cows were killed on the tracks or because some people just could not resist trying to beat the train and got killed. What did we do with the trains? We added "cow-catchers". We did not get rid of the trains, instead we used our noggins to create a solution. If - we want to do something "for the birds" then I am sure we can come up with a solution without disrupting the unfolding of this great energy alternative. Look how simple a deer whistle for your car is.

Rodney
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"Gas Out" Mumbo Jumbo

I received an email that had the same theme I have been seeing year after year. Below is a copy of the body of the email and following it is my response to the matter.

-------------- The email ---------------

Subject: Fwd: No Gas on May 15th

Don't pump gas on MAY 15 th

In April 1997, there was a "gas out" conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight. On May 15th 2007, all internet users are to not go to a gas station in protest of high gas prices. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most places. There are 73,000,000+ American members currently on the internet network, and the average car takes about 30 to 50 dollars to fill up. If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that's almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companies pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on May 15th and lets try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil industry for at least one day. If you agree (which I cant see why you wouldn't) resend this to all your contact list. With it saying, ''Don't pump gas on May 15th"

-------------------My response --------------------------


It seems that an even better response to the situation would be, since everyone is soooo concerned, is to start riding bicycles to work and school. I have seen daily commuters riding up to 40 miles or so one way, day after day, even in bad weather including snow. So what is everyone else's excuse for not riding, is it that they just want something given to them involving no effort on their part? It seems more and more people want a cheap free ride through life where they can rush to and fro to save a couple of minutes just to sit on the couch and watch in a trance the drone of repetitious, non-intellectual babble spewing from their television sets. Now tell me, what in the world makes anyone think that they "deserve" anything. You were not born with the alienable right to "deserve" anything you do not put some effort into obtaining or keeping. Personally, I think everyone should have to spend one day in the shoes of our earth's poorest peoples. That would certainly wake everyone up to the cold hard realities of life and wrench them out of the mumbo-jumbo fairy tale perspective that seems to be perpetuated for the sake of herding human sheep.

Just my thoughts on the matter.
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Rodney
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Really Scary Campfire Story

Here is a really scary story you could tell your children around the campfire: http://www.toxiclegacy.com/

Of course maybe it is too intense. Perhaps you could tell it to fellow adult campers.

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In A Little While Dear

In response to the question, "Just how long is 'In a little while', I must give my definition as this:

Since it is a "little" while, it obviously has a quantitative value, therefore it is not an infinite while.

While I am thinking about it, since it is a "little" while, it is therefore not the biggest or maximum while.

If we restrict our thinking to big and little whiles, then we can assume that it is at least less than or equal to a while that falls exactly between a big while and a little while, therefore a little while is only at the most half the size of a big while, that is, [ little while <= 1/2 big while ]

Now at least we have limited a little while to the lowest half of possible whiles.

While this may seem somewhat of a wily answer at least you can be somewhat assured that while you are contemplating awhile about a while, that it only took a little while because if it had taken a big while then you probably would have gotten bored in a little while and wondered again about the whiles and wherefores of the answer and therefore taken twice as long wondering about the wherefores too. That would have taken quite a while.