I am a super hero!

I was on a walk today and I saw this about a block from the nearest H.E.B. 

The incline you see is pretty steep, but I managed to pull the cart out without getting icky wet.

Seems weird to just leave it there. Seems weirder that NO ONE else rescued it. Meh.

I walked it back to the store and handed it off to an employee with a description of what happened. He sounded sooooo thrilled to get it back. *Cough*


Anyway. Just a comment that when people decided to neglect common responsibility, we end up with carts in ditches. (or economies... )

A good citizen, a responsible one, I would hope would stop and take the time to pull the cart out of the icky ditch and return it to the store for restoration.

Also, from now on I shall be known as

ERIC, RESCUER OF CARTS!(tm)

The Hero...

Not being an athletic sort of guy, biking the 3.7 miles to the nearest movie theatre was... interesting. It took me about an hour to get there, and I more sweat then I want to admit to, but I huffed and I puffed my way in. It was just under a week ago, and I was ready to see The Avengers!

For those who need a refresher or have no interest in the movie, there are a group (And I use the term ... loosely) of "Superheroes" banding together to fight a common enemy. The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Thor, Black Widow... the lot of them are heroes and main characters onto themselves, but we see them form a group that can do some very impressive feats, once they use their strengths in unison.

My favorite is Captain America, but that is mainly because he is, pure and simple, a Patriot. He may be displaced in time, but he has proven that he is willing to die for his county because he loves it. It appeals to me.
Iron Man is cool... but.... eh. The Hulk? Meh. Hawkeye I don't know much about. Black Widow is hot, and I liked the character development she had... but she isn't a patriot. Thor... is Thor. Demi-god. Meh.

Captain America is, hands down, my favorite superhero.

But he isn't my Hero.

Now, some may think "Oh, he's a christian, he's gonna say Jesus!" ... Nope. Jesus isn't a hero. He's GOD. A hero is someone who has something to lose. God can't lose anything... He's GOD.

My hero is a man who gave the majority of his adult life to a career he was not fond of to support his family. He fought his own battles in his own heart and mind over issues I won't name out of respect for his privacy. He fought for a marriage on the rocks (many times). He fought to protect his children from any unreasonable harm, including at times himself. He fights everyday to love and honor and follow God.

My hero walked over a mile in the snow to take car part the broken down vehicle he left at work. He also walked a mile or more to get a can of gas, also in the snow. He stayed up longer then he really should have packing for a hard move, has driven the largest U-Haul you can get thousands of miles across two countries and both mountain ranges. One of those ranges he did twice.

My hero has resuscitated a stillborn puppy, drained the infected ears of an old dog, cleaned up after cats who just gave birth and carried a blind old mutt out from behind a pickup for years until he finally carried the dog to its final home.

My Hero taught me all I know about honor, loving someone even when it's hard, and how to make a fried egg sandwich. I would not be the man I am today without my hero.

Dad, I love you.

Eric.

Through Thick and Thin...

I spent money this last Friday, and I didn't do it to stimulate the economy or to be greedy or even to send it to charity. I spent 119.95 to have an item smaller than my cell phone shipped to me, set to arrive on Monday. What evil, nefarious plan must I have to spend so much for so little? I aim to do what Congress has failed to do over so many terms... Trim the Fat.

That's right, I want to be less of a man, be less of what I can be, to decrease so that... I won't increase. Okay, I kinda lost some steam on that last one, but really the truth is I want to lose weight, and I think this little gizmo just might help.

This is a Fitbit Ultra Wireless Tracker. 

One day a company decided to take a pedometer, the pager like device which counts how jolts it gets as you walk, and sent the lowly pedometer to get not just its B.S. in health science, but a Masters in public relations.

Obviously, I jest, but that is what it feel like when I look at the system Fitbit has built. I already have been using the online profile system that fitbit has set up to help me track my weight, activity level, food intake, etc. Fitbit must have done a lot of research into the social interaction framework of Facebook.

For example: Once I ordered the Fitbit, I created my profile on their website so I could get an idea of what I could do with it. I poked around a bit, then found I could enter in what I ate through out the day from a list of foods, including foods from fast food places, delivery, frozen meals, boxed meals, etc. Holy Cow! That'll help me git a grasp on just what I am eating, won't it? I happily entered in my frozen Sausage and Eggs with a Hash Brown frozen breakfast from Aunt Jemima. Huzzah! I was on my way. Ok. Lunch was my frozen lunch from Hungry Man. I went to enter it in and then found, to my horror, that it did not exist in their database! What would I do? If I can't track this, how will I be able to plan well? Not to worry, I found I can enter a brand name (Hungry Man) and enter new foods under that brand, included detailed nutrition information, for convenient recall for later meals. I don't know if my entry is now available for all users or not, but knowing that I can enter info as needed and can recall that info with ease gave me a bit of hope, and no small ego boost for actually *contributing* to the database. (I choose to believe, as there is not evidence to the contrary, that everyone has access to my data entry.)

I also went to look at the Food Plan feature. The basic premise is that you give it your weight, height, and target weight. It offered me four plans, pretty much divided up by how much you aim to lose a week. It gave the end date of each plan in big bold letters, and then under it gave the weekly loss rate. I decided my best bet was to try and hit 200 pounds just before my 30th birthday, or two years and change from now. I Cold have tried to lose faster, but at that rate I would be at 2 pounds a week, and that can get a little dangerous for your heart. I think two years is a good target for now.

From that, I have a calorie counter that updates through out the day. Based on what I log for food and activity, it updates how many calories I can eat through out the day, and what my daily total should be. The later factor caught me off guard when I saw my allowed calories drop with out me doing anything. Turns out that after a period  of inactivity it takes some calories off the top line. After being active for a while, it adds some to the top line. I presume the math behind it has an assumed basic daily level activity and calories, and when I don't meet the activity level, it reduces the calories allowed, and when I exceed the level of activity, it adds calories to help offset what was burned. This way it metes out a level of food compared to your activity to keep you at the rate of loss you've asked for. Pretty cool. (side note: You can also log your water intake. It shows a glass beside the log that fills up, and I presume once the glass is full you've had your daily intake that nutritionists suggest or some such. For me, it's more a game of "fill the glass!" coupled with the honor system.)

The activity log is another vital part of this system, and that is where the Ultra Wireless Tracker really comes into play. I can manually log my activity on the website, to varying degrees of accuracy, or you can sync up a  Wireless Tracker to your account. Not having the tracker yet, I can't comment that much on it, but I look forward to editing my activity instead of entering it all myself.  So long as I am within 15 feet of the charging dock, it will wirelessly connect to the website and upload the activity it has recorded.

But it then goes a step further. Lets say at work I took the stairs to go up to the Executive Suite (3rd floor), fixed an issue there, took the elevator back down, tooled around my desk taking calls, then ran up to change some toner in training (2nd Floor), and came back down via the stairs. Then Boss tells me to back up to the second floor to help in HR for a printer jam, then go to other end of the first floor to map a network drive. I use the stairs the whole way. I would unlock a badge saying I had climbed (at least) 5 floors that day. Well hey! I'm all about ego boosting badges, I'ma gonna place that sucker on facebook! Booyah!

The positive reinforcement and enabling of constant checking in to the system works well for my personality, and I think it's really going to help me get a good handle my diet and exercise. The biggest challenge (short of my stomach) for me in losing weight is seeing the results, and this will put solid, concrete number in front of me to help me see where I need to work on, and where I am succeeding.

I'll keep updating as I go along with this, so stayed tuned!


(Fair notice, I am not being reimbursed in any way, shape or form from Fitbit for this post or any other. I am merely sharing my thoughts from my life.)

Stop, hey what's that sound, everybody look...

Back in the day a band called Buffalo Springfield produced a song called "For what it's worth." You might know it as something else...

It was, contrary to popular belief, written in response to the Sunset Strip Riots of 1966. The basics of the issue, so far as I can tell, is that the younger generation felt the older generation was trying to suppress their good times by implementing a curfew.

This song was taken (albeit out of context) and used for numerous purposes, mainly anti-war protests in the Vietnam era and it would not shock me in the slightest if we heard the 99 percenters using it in New York and D.C. The general feeling it evokes is that we are almost intentionally ignoring the suppression of freedom and individual rights. Which would make it ironic that the 99 percenters would use it, but that is for another day.

Lesson: If we don't pay attention, we lose something important, like our freedoms.

What are we losing nowadays? What do we risk giving up because we choose not to be aware of what is going on around us?

The morality of our nation is at risk because we have buried our heads in the sand, and when the government said "Don't worry, we'll take care of your kids while you work," we said "Oh thank God," and pursued the false gods of greed and self. We choose to sell our children for a bit more time, a bit more money, a bit more peace. And when we lose our children we lose the future. We lose the chance to instill in them morals, values, and most importantly faith.

If we as a nation have lost touch with our faith than we have lost all hope for our future. Faith in God's grace, in His powerful works in our lives, in His ability to forgive our sins and give us endurance and strength to withstand temptation is what has made our nation great. We have been fearless in the face of overwhelming odds, fierce in our pursuit of justice, valiant in our fight against tyranny. And having lost our faith we have turned on each each other, looking to make a quick buck, climber higher by stepping on the other guy, letting the odds steal our children from us each day.

If we don't wake up and see what we are swiftly losing we won't have a chance to rescue it. All it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing. And we have done nothing for a long, long time.

But that's just my opinion, for what it's worth.

Idolatry in Government

I have been inactive for a while and I decided to change that tonight.

Just over a month ago, I took a journey of 5000 miles and untold years to northern Maine to help my mother take care of some pressing things for her mother, who just moved into a nursing home. I won't get into that tonight, as a great deal of it is still processing in my head. But the processing itself had done some work jamming up my blogging gears, resulting in a month long hiatus. I apologize.

I recently made a connection that I had not consciously been aware of, but had believed to be true with out even thinking on it. I was trying to understand how anyone could make an argument that you could take away someones right, or grant them. I felt that it was impossible to do either, we simply had the responsibility to recognize them. If we grant or deny something, it is then a privilege, not a right. Some will argue that is semantics, but I assure you it is not. In fact, in my mindful wanderings I have come to the conclusion that anyone or anything that supposes to grant or deny rights is, in fact, a false god. A weighty claim, but please hear me out.

How can government grant the right to healthcare? How can it deny my right to choose my own path in caring for myself? What grants government the (ahem... ) Right to do such a thing?

The Answer is: No-One.

No one grants the government any rights what so ever. I dare to say that the rights any government has is a distillation of the personal rights we corporately have.

I have a right to defend my self, the right to bear arms and use force of arms in my defense. So does my neighbor, and I would not deny him that right. As a group, the members of the complex where I live may, by right, band together in the common defense. The members of my city may form a guard or hire such guard as needed for the public defense, and they are bound to protect and serve. Our state may form such militia as they see fit, along with policing bodies and investigative bodies to defend the public safety and the state. Our national government has the right, and even the duty, to levy an army and navy to defend the public land from foreign enemies, raise federal investigative service to prevent federal crimes and apprehend the offenders. All of this is stemmed from my right to bear arms and defend myself.

I have a right to choose my way with my body. I may eat myself into oblivion, become a muscle builder, or starve myself. It's my choice and my right to hurt myself. I have the right to deny myself medical care. So long as my exercise of my right does not infringe on someone else's, the government can take a hike. The only state in which I am forced to accept medical care is when I can no longer choose for myself due to medical or mental impediment. At that point I am either a risk to others, or consent is implied. (Typically speaking, the guy bleeding to death wants to be helped, even if he can't express it. If he gets upset about it, then it's up to him to find a way to die without someone stumbling upon him as he goes about doing it.)

All corporate rights are based on personal rights, they must be so because if they are not than they by definition will infringe on our personal rights.

I know our personal rights must not be infringed upon. And I know this not because I value them that much, although I do, but because we do not have the authority to revoke the rights granted to us. Our rights were assigned to us by an authority that is of a higher pay grade than ours, and no government or man may challenge it.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, That among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

When making the argument to break from Great Britain our founders placed their case on the fact that the government had trampled on their rights as Englishmen and, worse, their rights as Men created by God, endowed by their Creator with certain Rights. No man, no Government, may dare do so. Any who do will suffer judgement at the end of days, and in the temporal realm man himself has been granted by his Creator the right and the Duty rise up against such a usurpation of man's rights and remove Tyranny from its seat.

Our government has infringed on our rights, and plans openly to continue doing so. We as a nation must once again band together and decide if we will allow usurpers to the throne of God, admitting by our silence that the government may give and take rights from man, or stand in opposition to the false god of big brother and nanny states. Any one who chooses to try and grant or deny a right to a free man has placed himself firmly in opposition to God our Creator an while God will in due time reprimand the offender we must as free men protest the injustice. Our Right and our Duty is throw off such men and governments and to align ourselves with the One True God, the Creator who has made us each free men and women.

It was this truth that I had found to be so self evident I didn't give a second thought until I found I was at risk of falling prey to Tyranny.

What will it take for you to discover the same?

First day/night

Had a good trip, most of it in the rain. The rain has followed us, and we woke up in Joplin Missouri to find it has caught up to us. Time change has us leaving at around 9:30. Running a wee bit late. But slept very well, which is good, cause I slept very poorly the night before.

No photos or video yet. no time to upload them. Hope to do it tonight.


Eric.

The Great Trip North.

Okay, time to fess up.

I missed last week, and I'm sorry, no excuses.

An explanation though, and maybe a chance to make it up to you.

Due to some family stuff, my mother and I are going to be driving up to Maine. ROAD TRIP! Weeeee!
So I have been a wee bit stressed about it, and trying to get things in order has been pulling me away from the blog.

That said, I intend to blog the trip up and back, and even post some video.  FUN!

To help, I have some handy maps.

There are two routes we might take. The first one is more southern,
http://g.co/maps/feknz


View Larger Map


The second heads north sooner, to avoid some on the wet weather the south is having right now.
http://g.co/maps/r9av3


View Larger Map


I can't go into much more detail now, maybe tonight. But your prayers for safety and levelheadedness (did I just create a word?) would be much appreciated.


Thanks.... and more to come.

Eric.


Update, New edits to the route. http://g.co/maps/da54a

Act of Valor Review.

Movie review time!

I just got home from watching Act of Valor. I have to say, great movie. Loved it. But that is as a gut reaction, so lets dig in and see just how good this movie really is.

First off, lets talk about the target audience... Men. Okay, some women will like seeing gungho guys going around and shooting stuff up and looking sexy all around. But the real target audience is probably males from between 17 to 30. And to be honest the only route they didn't take to get those guys to put butts in the theatre seating is to have some sort of heavy makeout/sex scene. But then, the movie is better for not having it, and everyone knows it. Other then "sex sells," they checked off every single box for the target audience aside from dinosaurs and giant mecha. Crazy frenetic gunfights? Check. Cool gunboats? Check. Cool gunboats IN THE GUN FIGHT? Check. Chase scene? Check. Cool sniper headshots? Precision check in the x-ring. Evil baddie and his plan of Doom(tm)? Check. Underwater scenes? Check. Submarine in the underwater scenes? Check. A guy taking an RPG to the chest and WALKING IT OFF? Check.

Guys, this movie ROCKS.

Ahem.

Plot? Huh?

Oooooh.... yeah. Plot.

Okay, we find out pretty quick that the Lieutenant in command of the SEAL team is A) married and B) they are expecting.  We also find out that a CIA operative in south america somewhere is trying to get info on a drug cartel guy who is hooking up with his childhood friend, the Muslim extremist who arranged and executed an attack on an international school in the far east (If I recall correctly.) killing a LOT of kids. Bastard.

The team gets called up to rescue this CIA agent after she gets made and caught. She gets tortured, but stays strong until the team can get to her. And the intel they get from the rescue op leads them down the rabbit hole...

I am not going to talk much more about the plot, spoilers being what they are, but I will say it held together pretty well. It was a bit hard to follow at times, since the cuts they used came pretty quick, but they used a common FPS game technique of super imposing a map and using a target box to track the movement of the major scene transitions. After the second cut like that, I was at home.

The narration from the chief was a little heavy handed in the beginning, and I am glad they dropped it until the very end. It works as bookends, but the upfront part drags a bit.

Acting. Okay. These guys are actual Navy SEALs, and they did a lot to bring authenticity to the film. Tactics, movement, timing, body language... they did a lot. But uh... actors they ain't. They are better than I am, and I ain't joking, but I think part of it is that they are playing themselves to a large degree. These guys know they can trust each other, and so their bond carries over onto film. It just that the fine nuances of tone and delivery didn't quite make it in some scenes. And that is ok, because they knock most of it out of the park. When you have a combat scene, or a high intensity scene, they are dialed in. It's the quiet intimate moments that they struggle with. And I can live with that.
Well... The guy who played Senior. I can't find him on IMDB (the SEALs are not credited in the film, and I don't see his face on IMDB...) so I presume he is a SEAL. I could just be blind. But wow. This guy is GOOD. The interrogation scene was GOLD.

Music was a rush. The tempo and bass was spot on for when the action began to heat up. I think I annoyed a few people down the row by tapping my feet to it.

Anyway. I am about out of things to say. I worked to day, so my brain is a wee bit toasty.

But I do wanna say this, if you are in the target demographic, and you don't get a "Aaaaaw yeeeeah..." feeling when the river boats touch off the mini-guns... you just lost your man-card. That was SWEET.

What. I'm in the demo.

Hiding in the Wings...

There are days when it is all you can do to simply be what you are needed to be. No more, and God help you if you are less. You feel tired, alone, sad, and you know that you are about to miss something important any minute now and so you keep on your guard to prevent it, but of course all that happens are minor screw-ups.

I started the day with a prayer. God, please help me to not give into temptation. Please give me the strength to get out of bed. To get to work on time. To honor You. That was hard for me. To make that choice was really hard. I am not great at the discipline of prayer.

I had not slept well, and have not slept well for around a month. I don't expect to sleep well tonight. Sleep deprivation is cumulative; if you miss some, you need to gain it back or you will begin to suffer. Miss some more, and it adds up.  Miss enough, and you may as well be drunk. I have missed quite a bit. I think today was a "tipsy" day. I got to work on time. Yay. Logged in. Cool. But everything I did was sub par, at least for me. I had Boss-man call and walk me through something I really should have known. He was kind about it, just training me, but I felt embarrassed.

I got a little snippy in an e-mail exchange over something that I know won't change in other peoples habits, and I didn't get as much done as I probably could have gotten done. All through out the day I just wanted to sit and cry for no real reason I could find.

I went to the store. Got some food and a candle. And a cheap pitcher, cause all my old pitchers broke. (note to self, vet roommates before moving in.) Came home to my cat. He ignored me.

It has been, as my mom said, a very blah day. Everything was just... blah.


I am making an effort to remind myself that this morning I did something new. I prayed before I got out of bed.

And God heard me.

Hold on to that in the sad days. The blah days. The crazy sad horrible days.

God hears us. If nothing else goes right, if all we trust in goes away, we can pray to a God who hears us, who listens, and who cares. We do not serve a God who abandons us but instead watches us like mother watches her child. He wraps us in His coat on a cold day, covers us in His love and we will never know how bad it could have been because when we pray He hears us.



Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry!
   Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!
From your presence let my vindication come!
   Let your eyes behold the right!

You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night,
   you have tested me, and you will find nothing;
   I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips
   I have avoided the ways of the violent.
My steps have held fast to your paths;
   my feet have not slipped.

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
   incline your ear to me; hear my words.
Wondrously show your steadfast love,
   O Savior of those who seek refuge
   from their adversaries at your right hand.

Keep me as the apple of your eye;
   hide me in the shadow of your wings,
from the wicked who do me violence,
   my deadly enemies who surround me.

They close their hearts to pity;
   with their mouths they speak arrogantly.
They have now surrounded our steps;
   they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.
He is like a lion eager to tear,
   as a young lion lurking in ambush.

Arise, O LORD! Confront him, subdue him!
   Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,
  from men by your hand, O LORD,
   from men of the world whose portion is in this life.
You fill their womb with treasure;
   they are satisfied with children,
   and they leave their abundance to their infants.

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
   when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

The Cat who thought he was God...

I did a lot today. Well, for me anyway. I went to the bank, took care of a few things there, went to Walmart and did some grocery shopping. Made dinner, talked with family for LONG time. (Love doing that!) Played some games. Generally had a good day.

And all day long when i was at home I had this cat who kept trying to take playful bats at me. "Hey!" Bat bat. "Play with me!" Meow meow. "I'm here!" Claw. "Hey yo- ooooh craphehasthesquirtbottlerun!"

Gandalf just wanted attention while I was busy with my own stuff.

Funny how we react the same way to God.