Failure is not an option! This is a mantra that many of us have used in the passed. I will not accept anything other than success. It is a motivational thing that kept me and many others on track and for many years i felt that to be true as I worked through school and jobs and marriage and children. On the scale of raising children, being a failure is not acceptable. I will not and cannot fail my kids. On the other hand, the only way to fail as a parent is to not take the time and make the effort. I am not always right and I make wrong decisions but is that failure when I make a decision that doesn’t exactly turn out the way I planned. I am, of course, not considering life and death type decisions. Those decision need to be on a whole other level and thank goodness I have not had to make that many of them.

I have recently come to the realization that our society has taken a motivational saying and changed the entire culture from the top down. Our Education system is being redesigned in order to not allow anyone to fail. The bar is set so low that the system does not have a failure option. The bailouts! How many time have I heard that whatever the industry is to important to fail or to big to fail. That really makes me wonder why the bankruptcy system is even in place.

What I am getting to is that I have changed my mind on the “failure is not an option” mantra. From now on I think I will go by a new mantra and I hope as many people as possible, including businesses and government that make tough decisions every day. Try and remember that those who you are leading are looking to you for guidance and depending on you. In that, I hope we remember –

“Failure is an option, consequences are not.”

At this point I am completely frustrated with everything going on around me. My car is getting a $1700 repair. My wife has sent me to the doghouse. I finally got around to helping my daughter use her iTunes card and of course I have to convert the format into mp3.

But then I remember. Today I am not at work, which in itself gives it all a positive taste. It is also the day we celebrate a great man who led to a more equitable society, I think. All I know is that I got the day off and instead of honoring two of the greatest men in American history, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, as we did when I was in school we get to honor a civil rights activist that gave a really good speech. I am not trying to diminish the accomplishments of the civil rights movement. I am just wondering if this PC Holiday needs to be reconsidered as fairness day or everybody gets to share in everything equally day. Maybe it is because that day has not come yet.

I am a white guy who really wants the African American community to look at itself and fix what is wrong just like the rest of the country did thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. and the rest of the civil rights activists no matter what race, creed, color, or religion.

I have been hiding of late. I have not posted anything to any blogs recently. Here’s my reasoning. I was tired. I ust didn’t have the energy to spend on writing stuff down that people may or may not care to read so I just kept it to myself.

I was not out of touch though. I have been more active on twitter, plurk,and facebook do to the increase in folks that I know that are on those services. I truly enjoy interacting that way.

Here are some of the things I have been working on. The 2008 review and 2009 preview for FTH3T. I am thinking about video blogging those since It may be a little easier on me to produce and on those who wish to check it out. We will get a great show up and running this season, and maybe even some others. Ok, so I am back in the swing of things and the holidays are over. Talk to you more later.

Today in the DFW Metroplex, it is the beginning of our annual winter freak out. People around here don’t know how to handle the snow. Allow me to explain, last night it snowed at my house for about 5 minutes. Nothing stuck on the house, the grass, the car, nothing. The local weather guy had mentioned that it may sleet ust a little bit so I was not surprised.

Fast forward to the 10 o’clock news. The first story, Winter Blast 2008! OMG! They had actually sent paid reporters to a shopping center that had maybe 1/4 inche accumulation on the cars, if that much. They talked to a lady who was worried about driving home in this terrible weather. For the record, driving conditions around here can get very bad, very quickly because the people in the charge of keeping the roads clear are the same folks who freak out about every little thing. I have seen them sand bridges when it was thinking about freezing and then have them not have enough materials and personnel to handle when it actually does freeze.

Around here everybody drives. we have high rise bridges everywhere. When it freezes, the rods are literally sheets of ice. As those who know how to drive in snow, it is not that bad, but the ice is another thing. That is what causes everybody to freak around here. we know how bad it can get and that the authorities can’t do anything about it. Even knowing that it makes me laugh at how big of a deal they make this.

Some days I have so much energy that I could apply to the internets it amazes me. But here’s the thing, I like having a family. I love my wife and my kids and spending time with them is important to me. I have our computer located centrally in the house so that whenever the small kids are using the computer we can help them and/or monitor what they are doing. This also happens to be my computer. This is where all the business gets done, bills, email, budgets, searching, purchasing and all that.

Since the ghetto has move on to the next plain, I have no other way of accessing the web. My wife has a laptop that she uses. Part of the deal when we bought it was that she has a machine that she can use her way and learn how to use it. i handle the IT part of it and troubleshoot, but other than that, it’s all hers.My oldest daughter has hers that she does everything on. Her purchase of that laptop is paying off greatly.

Now, I have a desktop that I love. It does everything that I want it to do. it is, as i mentioned before, centrally located in the living room. This means that in order for me to do anything I have to wait until no one is around. i can’t christmas shop for my wife while she watches TV. I can’t do anything with my 4 year old son in the room without Nick Jr. or PBS go eventually turning on. I am just getting fired up or motivated to do something on the computer and then BANG! they suck the life force out of me by demanding my time be focused on them. Please, don’t misunderstand this, I love them all and will gladly give them my time. This is just an illustration why I believe I could never work from home. The distractions are gigantic. I feel like I am there to take care of all of them and everything else be damned.

I am not whining, but i just needed to get this off my chest before I explode. Thanks for letting me rant.
 

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those who get it. Get it. Those who don’t, either, refuse to change in order to become somebody who gets it, or, feel the need to ridicule those who do in order to make themselves feel better. Unless, of course, they don’t even realize the are not getting it.

I hope everybody had a fantastic holiday weekend (here in the US). We had a fantastic weekend! Spending turkey day with friends and then Black Friday kinda searching for good deals and relaxing. Saturday was a good day of skating and a trip to Putt-Putt. Sunday was fantastic. Our priest celebrated his 50th anniversary of his ordination. Mass was very moving and I am proud to know him. The city actually proclaimed it Fr. George Foley Day in Mansfield for yesterday the 30th of November.

Ok, now for the tech. I am overwelmed by the amount of technology that is available this Christmas season. The fact that technology is becoming more generally accepted as “standard” really impresses me. The fact that most of the inovation is NOT coming from ths country bothers me.

As I was giving thanks for all the gifts that I have been blessed with, I began to think how often we take the things we have for granted. I am talking about that “fat and happy” Americans. We are quick to consume anything and everything in our path. Spending money before we even actually have it. This is a trennd that is beginning to bear fruit throughout our economy. The need to have the biggest and best of everything and the fact that the banks were giving us more than enough rope to hang ourselves, in fact, they gave us enough to hang ourselves and everybody involved in the process. The thing about this whole economic mess that bothers me is that the taxpayers are paying for it all. Those of us who pay our bills on time, pay our taxes, obey the speed limit and work hard for what we have, have become the ass in which the burden of those who suckle on the government including corporations, banks, citizens, illegal imigrants, and government itself. I don’t want to be negative and gloomy. I feel like the opportunities for success are even more available now than before.

One thing that keeps bugging me and then I will move on. I mentioned this to my wife and she actually thought I might be right. During the last campaign season one peice of rhetoric that I heard from everybody was “We want our children to be better off than we are” Is that really a good idea? granted I don’t want my kids to have to deal with somethings that I have, but at what point does the entitlement generation stop thinking that the have a right to everything? I want my kids to be able to handle adversity rather than never be faced with it. That is the way things are going now, Instead of dealing with anything, people deflect it. Children are spoiled and always have been, I think now that I was at times in my life. The fact that I had a job when i was 15, the fact I got to drive a car at 16, the fact that I can’t remember actually being hungry. I am not advocating pain and suffering on the youth, I am just trying to say that it isn’t the ability to give a better life to my kids, but, the ability to teach them how to earn a better life that is important.

I will be showering them with gifts over the holidays, and I will provide for them as much as possible. I fear that we as a nation have lost our way. We continue to live in the moment and short-term solve problems. I think we are at a point in time where we can effect the world and our children forever. If we don;t get it right we will fail. If we don’t start thinking long-term we will create a problem that our spoiled children who had all the things we didn’t, will not be prepared to solve.

I am thankful to be the father of 3 great kids and married to a beautiful woman. I am thankful for the advances in technology that allow me to rant like this. I am thankful for the ability to thank God freely and openly for all these gifts. But most of all I am thankful for the opportunity to live in this time and know that great things are in store.

recently I have been feeling the urge to create/improve on something that can get the juices flowing in a positive way. I am trying to find the courage to bring to my boss the vision of the future that I have for our small group that can do so many great things and can become a real player in the market. I don’t know how receptive he will be to my ideas and the last thing I want is to step on his toes.

I am very passionate about things that i enjoy and things that make a difference. I love to get involved in things (sometimes too much) that make a difference. I don’t do it for my own good, but for the good of the project/organization. That is why I got involved in Nosebleed, and started writing about stuff that I love, sports. Unfortunately, the passion has been squashed a little in that area.

 I am also passionate about politics but I try to keep my emotions out of that realm because it causes irrational things to be said and bad decisions to be made. I find that politics is something that strikes to the core of all Americans. it is the degree of the strike that I find most interesting. It seem as though the politicians that are the most successful can touch that nerve that gets people to get involved. If the passion that lies in us all can be aroused, that is how they get the ground game moving. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it is brainwashing, but it is like an adrenaline high that you can over look all the bad stuff. Kinda like exercise, the pain is difficult to deal with, but the result of it is what matters.

I am on a Gary Vaynerchuk kick lately. i just love the passion he brings to a subject that quite honestly, is boring. But, like I said earlier, passion is what gets things moving. I am gonna go get some wine.

I am so glad to be involved in social media. Granted my footprint is small. But the mere fact that I understand it is exciting. I find more and more information, conversation, and motivation from the fact that I have people to talk with all over the country, and I can ask a question and actually get an answer.

I quit listening to the radio at work, I have switched to the Strategy Room from FoxNews.com. They carried me through the election and continue to entertain and enlighten. Gary Vaynerchuk is a fantastic person to listen to. He has an insight into this media that i have not heard in a way as passionately as he does it. Very raw, but very real.

The lack of confidence in the Government is reaching an all time high. I would say the lack of confidence in the American people is at an all time high. The uneducated, ill-informed, celebrity mentality that is leading the sheeple to the slaughter is making me want to scream from the mountain top. Don’t you see what is happening!? Do you realize that you are being fattened with incentives to distract you from the problems!? Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

The “Bailout” was the biggest money grab, backstabbing, lack of respect, overreaction, and best example of what is wrong with our government officials at this time. The only solution is throw money at it, protect our self interests, and keep our rich buddies safe and not look bad. The fact that it failed the first time gave me faith that there may actually be a spine in Washington. Now, I am thinking it was a political move to show strength to constituants and then “compromise”. After they added the $150 Billion in pork to get the extra votes, I felt like I went in for a root canal and came out with that and a colonoscopy. Please, stop spending my money.

Now, to the realization that the socialist are steadily taking over. The bailout is step one. The congress blatently ingnored us, the taxpayers and voters, to do what they think is a necessary thing. The few are leading us into government control of everything from the housing industry, to credit cards, to Wall Street, to education, to health care, you name it. I am begging the American people to wake up and smell the stench of socialism. Read 1984. Understand that a government that it’s sole purpose is self-preservation cannot and will not be of the people, by the people, or for the people.

I have concerns that either candidate will not be able to stop the tide of big government. McCain has not shown me that he can be a “Maverick” all that much. Obama has said, he wants to “spread the wealth around” so he wants to become the head of the huge government that provides for all the teet of nationalized health care, taxes for unacceptable behavior and tax credits for good behavior, everybody in a home that would give bankruptcy judges the ability to adjust the terms of a negotiated mortgage.

The thing that has gotten me fired up the most is that none of the conversation that is needed to get our country moving in the right direction is taking place. All I hear is sound bites and talking points, bad news about everything, and how it’s the other guys fault. We, the people of these United states, must put this crap aside and rethink who we are sending to Washington. Get informed about the issues, understand who and what you stand for, and most importantly remember what a miracle this country is. If you would like to end up being a so-so diplomatic power in the world that is unable to stand on it’s own, ignore the problems and look for “Hope” and “Change” that the government provides. Let’s start taking responsibilty for our own future, believe in each other, and perpetuate the American Dream. Work hard, do good, be responsible, and strive for excellence.

For clarification: socialism – any of various
economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental
ownership and administration of the means of production and
distribution of goods. per http://www.merriam-webster.com

If the government become overbearing and demanding that those that actually achieve greatness are forced to give away there hard earned capital to bailout anybody or any failing company/city/state it is nobody’s fault but our own.