OK so I was reading an article in Details magazine (I bought it accidentally) and it is an article about douche bag hair, and it got me thinking. Am I one of those? Good god I have the little drip catcher on my face along with the chin scruff. Good god I use product everyday. Good god I have way to many different bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Good god I AM a douche bag, well maybe metrosexual. How did this happen? I love the outdoors. I love camping and hiking and hunting. Hell I can make fire with just a metal match. I can kill, gut and skin an animal then cook it over the aforementioned fire. How did this happen?
I blame my father actually. I did not grow up poor. We were comfortable and it was just me and my dad. We ate out 4-5 days a week, I went to a good private school. But as much as dad spent money on those things he never, ever spent his money on clothes, good hair cuts, shoes, quality hygiene products. Dad did not stink but if he could buy it in bulk, he did. And it did not matter what brand it was. When I was 14-15 I had bad dandruff, because the stuff I was using did not moisturize my scalp (ok, that sounds really douchey). Dad had a cool car, I had a passable one, which I agree with to this day, and I still have a passable car not a cool one. But dammit I would have loved to have a pair of Adidas, not "Sweats".
If anybody reads this they will say why did I not just go out and get a job and buy it myself? Because I was not allowed to have a job. My job was to concentrate on school, which I was not very good at. So now I have a counter full of product, more than my wife, I take great care into my looks (but not really my weight, I could lose 30+ lbs), I choose my clothing very carefully, and now that I make my own money I buy nicer things, but I do shop sales and outlets to maximize my cash. My car is passable, I bought it used and it is ok, not great. My house is nice, well decorated and appointed, although the kids do trash it a lot.
So I guess I am a douche bag. I can't wait for next season, maybe I can erase some of this.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Tipping the canoe
So as a few know the family and I took a week vacation to Ely, MN. it was very cool. No phone, tv or internet. Nothing but family time, it was what we all needed. But that is not what I am here to talk about. While there Jo, my beloved wife, decided she would like to rent a canoe. I thought this was a great idea. In our younger years we both did quite a bit of canoeing and both have very fond memories of it. But again this is not what I am here to talk about.
As many people know I quit smoking this year. I have always been a "large" man, but because of this lack of cigarette in my mouth I found something else to occupy my time, and that would be food. Yes the glorious thing we need to survive. We just don't need the copious amounts I was shoveling into my mouth. So needless to say I have put on "some" weight, and I will just leave it at that. When people ask if I want to get into shape I always reply, 'I am in shape, round is a shape".
With that being said we rented the canoe and Jo took out our 2 younger daughters. When she got back I said I wanted to go out. So I did and I went to meet the fam at the swimming beach. I made it there without incident. When it was time to go back, I realized I had been sitting in the bow, or front, of the canoe. So I got back in the canoe, this time in the proper place, the backor aft and watched as the bow started to raise out of the water. I soon realized I was under the water. Yep I tipped the canoe. being me I jumped up and laughed at myself, a good thing to learn, and realized my cell was in my pocket. I threw that at Jo and she opened it and took out the battery so we can go back and do the rice trick. Well I decide to get back in and sit the way I had been on the row over and again found myself in the drink.
So to summarize I quit smoking, got fat and fell into the water and was able to laugh at myself. Moral of the story, who cares, it is just funny to think of me falling into the water.
As many people know I quit smoking this year. I have always been a "large" man, but because of this lack of cigarette in my mouth I found something else to occupy my time, and that would be food. Yes the glorious thing we need to survive. We just don't need the copious amounts I was shoveling into my mouth. So needless to say I have put on "some" weight, and I will just leave it at that. When people ask if I want to get into shape I always reply, 'I am in shape, round is a shape".
With that being said we rented the canoe and Jo took out our 2 younger daughters. When she got back I said I wanted to go out. So I did and I went to meet the fam at the swimming beach. I made it there without incident. When it was time to go back, I realized I had been sitting in the bow, or front, of the canoe. So I got back in the canoe, this time in the proper place, the backor aft and watched as the bow started to raise out of the water. I soon realized I was under the water. Yep I tipped the canoe. being me I jumped up and laughed at myself, a good thing to learn, and realized my cell was in my pocket. I threw that at Jo and she opened it and took out the battery so we can go back and do the rice trick. Well I decide to get back in and sit the way I had been on the row over and again found myself in the drink.
So to summarize I quit smoking, got fat and fell into the water and was able to laugh at myself. Moral of the story, who cares, it is just funny to think of me falling into the water.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Modern Communication
A while back my wife and I took our 3 kids out to dinner to a local pizzeria. We get there and we see that there are 2 adults sitting at a table for 6 and a kid sitting at the other large table by himself playing his Nintendo DS. Fine the kid just does not want to be near his parents. So my wife asks if he is sitting there and could we have the table. His parents reply, very nicely that they are waiting for their friends and they need both tables. Cool no problem, they even help us put tables together. Very cool, so why you may ask am I writing this. Ahh, just wait.
So the other families show up and the kid barely looks up from his game to acknowledge new people. Then the other kids, and I mean all of them, whip out their DS's. Now I don't know much about these things but it seemed like the kids joined him in his game and they were chatting about the game, via the game. That's right not one spoken word, and they were sitting right next to each other.
In this day and age of technology the spoken word and parts of the written word are being lost. kids are losing the ability to deal with anybody face to face. Yes I know this seems like an exaggeration but it is true. I see it in the schools. The kids from the lower income homes who cannot afford the fancy toys like the DS are actually better able to communicate face to face than the kids in my neck of the woods. The lower income people might not have the best grammar, but then again not everybody does no matter what their economic situation, but theses kids actually have the ability to be social and deal with their peers better than the kids who had the expensive messaging phones or the DS or any number of high priced gadgets.
Yes my medium to get my point across is via a laptop on a website reaching out to the world, but I still speak with people everyday using my mouth and without adding emoticons in my sentences.
So the other families show up and the kid barely looks up from his game to acknowledge new people. Then the other kids, and I mean all of them, whip out their DS's. Now I don't know much about these things but it seemed like the kids joined him in his game and they were chatting about the game, via the game. That's right not one spoken word, and they were sitting right next to each other.
In this day and age of technology the spoken word and parts of the written word are being lost. kids are losing the ability to deal with anybody face to face. Yes I know this seems like an exaggeration but it is true. I see it in the schools. The kids from the lower income homes who cannot afford the fancy toys like the DS are actually better able to communicate face to face than the kids in my neck of the woods. The lower income people might not have the best grammar, but then again not everybody does no matter what their economic situation, but theses kids actually have the ability to be social and deal with their peers better than the kids who had the expensive messaging phones or the DS or any number of high priced gadgets.
Yes my medium to get my point across is via a laptop on a website reaching out to the world, but I still speak with people everyday using my mouth and without adding emoticons in my sentences.
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