St. Jude Rides Fund Raiser 2011

Poverty = success?

I'm a 43 year old white male and I grew up on welfare. I was the youngest of 5 kids, watched black and white TV and played with Legos and G.I. Joe's. My mom did peoples laundry so that we could celebrate birthdays and Christmas, the act was probably illegal but hey, food stamps don't buy shoes and this was before wage garnishing laws.. I think.

Technically speaking, we lived in poverty. We were dysfunctional way before the term was a word, without a father in the house, what was left was a power void that my oldest brother and sister tried to fill, but that only ended up in more yelling and fighting. One by one my siblings left home, this freed my mom up to try to improve her situation. When I was in Jr. High, and only two of us left (one older brother going into High School) my mom mustered up the courage to complete her G.E.D., she then got her drivers license and found a job at a laundromat, starting over, at 45.

We didn't have money or connections but what my mom did have is a sense of responsibility and faith in God. We didn't got to church but there was a large picture of Jesus' face wearing a crown of thorns over our fireplace mantle and large Bible underneath the coffee table, I guess those two things gave me a sense that God was watching over us. My mom met a man when started High School and they soon made plans to get married, he actually took my mom and I out to dinner and made the announcement himself to make sure I was OK with it. I was elated to know that she was going to be taken care of and gave my consent.

One thing I've never heard my mom say is "that's just not fare". Question.. is poverty fare, no. Did we get "governmental help", yes, for about 8 years. Did my father pay a price? I think so.. relationally. He on the other hand traveled the world (Saudi Arabia, Chile, Hawaii) working for a large construction firm. He eventually settled in California, Marin County as a mater of fact and remarried before my mother did. Fare? No.

So what was the byproduct of this in my life? A personal drive to succeed as I saw to define it, this is America, right? I joined the Air Force at 21, got married, went to college full time, had two kids and worked hard, played by the rules, finished my degree and found a good job.

My mothers sacrifice and courage taught me a lesson, that if you have courage, faith get an education and work hard, you will succeed. Are we rich, no, did we find success, yes, this is America.

2008 to 2009

2008 (A Short Summary)

ELECTIONS
I'm a conservative and felt let down that the Bush Administration failed to communicate the complexities of attempting to bring stability to the Mideast through a necessarily forced democracy. Where was the communication? It was sadly revealed that Bush did not have the ability to communicate to Americans that is expected in our day and age. "Cause I said" doesn't cut it any more. Add to that the increased spending on Homeland Security that got government spending again.. what is the future of conservative politics?

OBAMA
Again, I'm a conservative but have to admit, much like Bill Clinton, Obama has the communicative ability to conceptualize what America is and how to motivate people to participate in it. Participating in the democratic process, way to go. What I'm afraid he will bring is more social programs that we can't afford with our current budget, much like Chicago's budget deficit.. $141 million this year, 2008, but should be up to $420 in 2009. As for an true African American becoming the President of the US, amazing. Makes me, a poor white kid from Tacoma Washington, think anything is possible again, the true American creed... Destroy Nazism, fascism, Communism.. racism? Hope so, it would be nice.

ECONOMY
So, like I said above, I'm just a poor white kid from Tacoma Washington that joined the Air Force, got married, got an education and started a career in IT, so far so good, right? Well, along the way in the past 13 years I started putting money aside in what's called a 401K Retirement Account, seeing it dip in the late nineties because of Y2K but recovering for the .COMs, then dipping for the .COM bubble burst in 2002 then gradually recover to see it now in 2009, I'm shocked actually, loosing 25% and in the negative numbers daily. All in all though, our daily lives, because of working in IT, are pretty comfortable with enough resources to do what we like on occasion. Rich, no, comfortable? Yes!

WORK
Moving into Electronic Commerce, exciting times!

HEALTH
Can you say "Brachial plexopathy" kids.. I didn't think so. It's a "decreased movement or sensation in the arm and shoulder due to a nerve problem", very general, but that's what I was diagnose after 2 weeks of excruciating pain that ended up in a cortisone shot in my spine, through my neck.. an epidural actually. After 6 visits to the Neurologists and 2 MRIs I was told, "I'll schedule some time for physical therapy". I turned it down and opted to begin a long term workout routine and self maintenance schedule. 6 months later and 25 pounds lighter, much stronger, around 90% in my upper back and shoulders, and with some good habits, I can head into 2009 feeling and looking much better. Ahh.. got a Yellow belt in Shotakan Karate as well. Oss.

So long 2008
Hello 2009!

National Review Article

2007 Resolutions

New Years resolutions..

1. Reject Passivity
2. Accept Responsibility
3. Lead Courageously
4. Expect Great Things

Revelation

How many people actually believe there is no God, any God, just matter, time, mass and energy. I would venture to say, a very small percentage of the worlds population does. Is the belief in the theory of evolution increasing or decreasing, has science increased our ability to care or actually inspired anyone lately? OK, maybe computer science..

Think of a few thinks for a moment:

• The sheer complexity of our bodies
• The vastness of the universe
• The amount of life on Earth (17,500 species of butterflies alone)
• Seasons
• Love
• The desire for excellence
• Curiosity
  

Who or what came up with these things? Did God? I would have to say, yes. What do you think if I said that you can actually "know" God? Well, I would have to say it would be impossible to completely know God, but I would say that you can begin to "get to know God" and that journey will never end.

In 1983 I began to seek out God and the first place I looked was in The Bible, actually, a paraphrased version of the Bible called, "The Way", named after a phrase that the Apostle Paul used to describe this new way of life that he discovered by revelation from God. I have to say, I didn't believe that Jesus was more then a pacifist do gooder but I did hold the Bible as truth, I just never read it. As I read "The Way" I began to get an uncanny feeling that this was not just true but The Truth.

It wasn't until I accepted my oldest brothers request to go to a winter "church retreat" that I received a revelation of who Jesus really was. Get this, some guys offered to share some weed with me and I was actually walking out to the football field to help them smoke it when a voice inside of me reminded me that there was some sort of speaker that night.. so I said, "hey guys, I think there's going to be a speaker tonight, I'm heading over there", what a choice, amazing.

The man who spoke was in his twenties.. he told jokes, he smiled.. this guys was... FUNNY! I couldn't believe it, Christian humor? Was there such a thing? This wasn't just a guy trying to be funny, trying to be cool, trying to get my attention, he WAS funny, cool and he definitely got my attention. OK, I was now listening, what he did next was really different. He had us all to close our eyes and visualize being a kid again, sitting on our front porch on a summer day, just hanging out. He asked the group to then picture a man waling down the street toward us, and that man was Jesus, how ever we pictured him to be, and he walks right up to you and approaches you and places his hand on your head. Well, at that time this guys began walking around the room touching peoples head.. or did he.. I never opened my eyes but someone touched my head. At that point, I had a revelation of who Jesus actually was. Can't explain it, just knew that he had the power to change my life.

After the little visualization exercise, this guy began to speak from 3 John about God being our Father, multiple times in that book John describes the readers as children. From the depths of my hard heart I began to become a child again, to believe that God was my spiritual father and that I was his son.

Do you believe in spiritual revelation? In many places in the Bible it says that "if you seek Him, you will find Him", all you have to do is open up your heart and believe. I encourage you, read the Bible, not to become a better person, but to meet your creator and once you actually meet him, you'll want to become a better person on your own. But actually, you're not on your own because the Bible says that Jesus, in his physical absence, will give us who believe the Holy Spirit to help us know the truth and to empower us with even greater... revelation.

I used to complain at work about how so many people would be gone on Fridays because of virtual hours, 4 10 hour days, "I can't schedule ANY meetings" I would say, inwardly feeling jealous that I was at work and THEY were not, SLACKERS! Well, if you can't beet'm, join'm. :)

Having Friday's off is great! What this has allowed me to do is actually spend more time with my family on Saturdays. Instead of getting up, doing yard work and trying to "get things done", I'm now much more relaxed on Saturday so it actually feels like a day off.

For instance. Today's activity:

1. Took the kids to school early so they could work on a project
2. Had breakfast at McDonalds (love those Breakfast Burritos)
3. Went to Target to look for a Nintendo SP charger so I can sell my son's SP on eBay (among other things) so we can lay down some $$ on the next generation Nintendo gaming platform, the Wii. Get this, found one with a car charger.. CLEARANCE, man do I feel like a woman!
4. Started organizing the kitchen junk drawer and overhead cabinet, you know the usual mess; nail clippers, tones of pennies, batteries, crazy glue, books, light bulbs, nails, screws, screwdrivers, pocket knives, old keys, new keys, spare keys, car keys, van keys, locket keys.. DONE.
5. Added a shelf to a bookshelf in the office (to put the books on from the clean up in bullet 4), took the hamster bedding (that was in the bookshelf) down into the basement to store with the cage (hamster die 10 months ago).
6. Found some old photos that my step mom gave me of an old Hart homestead, called my uncle in Utah to have him clear up some family history, I ended up scanned the photos and emailing them to him.
7. Checked out the SP charger, checked out OK, have to put that on eBay or sell it at work.
8. O! Tried out my new pipe tobacco that arrived today from Tobacco Direct, Caribbean Sea and Trade Winds Pipe Tobacco, not bad. (I am an adult boys and girls)
9. Created this Bog.

The drawbacks for a 4 day workweek? Getting up at 5am. Working 10 hours. .. That's about it. The rest is alllll good.