Monthly Archives: April 2011

Real Life and What You Don’t See

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I wish I had something informative to write on this day that most people would find useful and be able to immediately put to use in their life. I do not for this post. What I have is information that you may not want to read. Information better left to others and other places and times. Today, this is something I am thinking about, and I think everyone should think about it too if they profess some concept of good verses evil or right verses wrong balance in the world.

I was watching a movie the other day, “Fallen“, about a demon and a Police Officer. Since then this dilemma thought has been nagging at me. Someone you know or come in contact with on a frequent basis is being deceived and tormented by what we have named Demons. What they really are, we really do not know. What their purpose really is we do not know either. But they exist, as surely as you and I exist.

I always receive affirmations they exist when I write a post such as this one. My typing becomes riddled with more than the usual mistakes, and almost every sentence has either misspellings or a grammatical errors on a higher level than my usual than my usual grade school level grammar. I do not like writing about this topic. I would rather write about something fun, and enjoyable. Those beings we named Demons would prefer I type out a nice post about the wonders of hot dog casserole, planting bulbs in the garden, or some other happy silly subject.

Some subjects prefer to be left unsaid and unwritten. They prefer an out of sight, out of mind existence. If no one thinks about them or discusses them, they have free reign to do what they want, whatever that is. I am not, some crazed Thumper who can’t take their focus off the worst life has to offer, and the eternity that follows. In the circle my life is on, I have seen the best and worst of life. I know my life circle is not too much different than yours.

What brought me to write about his is I know someone who’s whole life has been twisted warped by what we call a demon. Their focus, their day, their reason for existence has been twisted into something any normal person would never want to see. For this person, their whole waking day, day after day, is looking and waiting for something horrible beyond imagination, and they want it to happen.

Whether there is only one demon, or their is the unnamed horde of demons running this person’s life, is really not important. The situation is, this is happening to someone I know, and it is probably happening to someone you know too.

It started I am sure, with the most worthy intentions. Over time, those most worthy of intentions have been slanted, restructured, and refocused. To state it simply, over a long period of time, one persons focus has changed from wholesome and honorable to something less. Skipping over the detestable interim they believe there is goodness at the end of it all. How long the transition lasts is another matter, another way of measuring what we refer to as time.

I have seen people like this before, as you have too, if you choose to remember. In a split second their visage changes, and they do something wrong, totally out of character. Once the deed is done, their expression changes back instantly. I have never asked, but I always wonder when it happens. I want to ask, do you know what you just did or tried to do? Did you mean to do that?

A very cautious driver looks you in the eye and swerves into your lane, runs a stop sign or red light, or cuts you off. Someone says something cutting, or breaks something. Someone says something distasteful, who normally would never utter the like. People commit these totally irrational acts, and are nonplussed over them. I have to wonder if they realize what happened, and did they do it, or did they lose control for an instant, and the act was done by something else?

I do not want turn this into a scary tale about the Bogey Man, or make you think your soul is in jeopardy. I do wonder however if you are aware of the occasional odd happenings around you? People doing something out of character, saying or doing something that is not like them. In one instant, are you aware of them and how they look. It happens so fast, I think most people, including the people who are the doers do not even notice.

Noticing takes awareness. It takes knowing that what you think you are seeing, the everyday things that happen during your day which you think you see, may not really be what is going on. Knowing that not everything is an accident. Life can becomes so trivial, so mundane that we see what we expect to see and nothing else. We do not see as the movie, ‘Men in Black’ portray during a scene of what passes for late night characters in a big city. We see what we expect to see.

As you go through your day watch your world unfold with new eyes. Pretend everything you see, from being stuck in traffic, to conversation, to how people act, and then it changes. It changes so quickly, if you were not looking for it, you do not see it. You will be surprised over what is really happening when you really look. It may scare you, the extent happenings you never noticed until you look for them. People willfully trying to do harm, and in an instant, it is over, as if it never happened.

Whatever they are, whether we choose to call them Demons,  or give them another name, they are all around us. They are always looking for someone new to get close to and maybe into. They are looking for someone new, someone like you or I. Someone to change and torment.

Don’t expect the Bogey man to jump out of a dark corner at you. Don’t expect an attack from some winged creature as you are wait for the bus,  or someone hiding by your car on a dark night. Don’t expect your bed to start shaking as you try to sleep. For the most part, those are stories and ideas meant to scare the already scared. Instead, look for things happening that are much more subtle, things that happen instantly, and then are gone. as if they never happened.

Be aware. Be aware of your thoughts and actions. Make sure the thoughts you have are your thoughts, and not injected thoughts you normally would never think. Be aware of the sudden impulsive urge to do something you would never normally do. We live a life measured in decades. Demons or whatever you choose to call them seem to have all the time in the world, and at times, patience to match.

You are the owner of your house, and no one else has access to it unless it is okay with you. Saying no, and meaning it, and demanding ‘It’ get away from you is all that is needed to protect you. Steeling yourself, and wrapping yourself in prayer does not hurt, if you feel the need. Anything else is added drama that has no real effect other than entertainment value, though you are providing the entertainment, not watching and enjoying the drama.

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Know what the Rod and Staff are, Really

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A splinter Christian group made the news lately with a statement to the effect that if a child is not occasionally bruised from a spanking, the beating was not performed well enough. What a ignorant bunch of people! They are likely the same people who think a baby should be ignored at night so it can learn to be alone, while they cuddle up to their spouse in another room listening to the baby cry.

Humans are about the only animal in the world that punish their Children for silly infractions and offenses, holding them to some code of behavior set down and memorized only by the Parent.

Many Children’s punishments are meted out because the Parent is angry and the Child committed some infraction of their rules – rules that really do not matter anyway. The Child is spanked or beaten, and the Parent feels vindicated. The Parent feels they taught the Child a lesson, and the Child won’t commit the same infraction out of fear for their physical self – for a few days any way.

I have seen Animal Parents punish their offspring severely, though only in cases where the animal baby is in immediate mortal danger. The lesson is swift, and effective. I have never seen an animal punish their offspring simply for behavior modification. Animals provide direction to their offspring, Humans often Punish and we think ourselves superior to mere animals.

That is not to say I am against correcting a child, or even giving a child a swat when they are too young to reason when it centers around their physical safety, and other measures have failed. After a child reaches the age of three or four years old, and children are still getting spanked, there is an issue with the Parent’s ability to effectively parent. Unfortunately some Parents enjoy punishing their Child because that is how they were brought up. This is often cited as a reason molester’s molest; it happened to them as children. The only difference is in the action.

Ineffective, uneducated Parents often misquote a Bible verse that is not even in the Bible, “Spare the Rod and spoil the Child”. What they think they are referencing is an early King James verse in Proverbs 13:24: “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes”, as their reason for spanking or beating their child.

Notice the word spanking or beating is nowhere to be found?  Ignorance also is apparent  in their understanding and usage of the word ‘rod’ in the biblical verse. They easily ignore or forget the Bible Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

In King David’s period the Rod and Staff had only one function, and that was one of providing comfort. A Shepard’s use a Staff and a Rod to sort and tend their flocks. Ever hear of a Shepard beating his Goats or Sheep? Of course not, that would be foolish, not to mention a way to lessen the value of ones Goat or Sheep. Damaged goods do not return the highest profits.

Animals living in fear are animals that are hard if not impossible to control. How could a Shepard control his flock if his flock feared him? The animals would cower and run, and the Shepard would be out of a job in no time.

Shepard’s used and still use their rod and staff to separate, direct, and defend their flock, not to punish them. If a Wolf or Bear came close to the flock, the rod was used to poke and stab at the predator. The rod was used with a flock to direct their movement, as was the staff, which was also used when footing was poor.

It is beyond the time for all of us to put and end to the ignorance. When I was child, a ten year old boy was thrown through a wall by his father, but he was not beaten. In school one day, a Teacher put his hand on a Boy’s shoulder. The Boy flinched in pain. The Teacher lifted his shirt and his back was covered with blue, green, and black welts. One of his Parents had beaten him with a garden hose. All those two Boys leaned from being beaten and abused was they could act that way when they had children of their own.

In some cultures around the world, Children are not forced to mind. In those cultures, Adults correctly believe a Child who modifies their behavior because they understand it is wrong, grows into a more responsible adult and better community member. Here in the United States and other countries. where we lead the world in per capita people behind bars, too many of us believe that punishing a child by spanking or another form of punishment makes for a better adult.

Perhaps it is time for Adults to learn how to become effective parents, instead of abusive parents. Punishing children to satisfy parental frustration is obviously not working, nor does punishing children creat good citizens.

As an effective parenting tool, Parents need to be role models, providing direction to their Children. This is the true meaning behind ‘sparing the rod’. Provide your Child with the direction and guidance to grow into wholesome adults. Spanking or otherwise punishing Children is unhealthy for all and leads to emotionally stunted adults who follow rules blindly out of fear of violence and abuse.

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Recumbent Trike Decision Making Process

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I have a few posts on this blog about making decisions. I also use my Rule of Three quite often when making decisions.  I know it is always good to modify my Rule of Three when my, Rule of Three, does not work correctly for that situation. Sometimes a decision is important and available information needed for making a correct decision fits all decision choices almost equally – that is a problem. When this happens one or more of the three rules need modifying.

In this instance my initial Rule of Three failed me in trying to choose a Recumbent Trike. I was wavering between four models and two companies. I thought the decision would be easy as I decided what my top three needs were in a Recumbent Trike. They were:

1. Quality Build – If I am spending what is to me a large amount of money, I want to most quality product my allotted dollars can buy. This decision was made more complex by the pricing structure, and ignorance of bicycle components. Both companies and all models seemed to have almost equal yet different makers and level of the installed components.

2. Crowd favorite – As I have little Experience with Recumbent Trikes, it was important to stick to a manufacturer and model which other have bought and are or were happy with before they decided they needed something more.

3. General comfort and high speed safety – I love to go fast. I also want to be comfortable. Unfortunately, comfort and speed do not meld together well in a human powered vehicle.

In situations such as these where there is no clear choice when the most important factors are used, a new model needs to be created to do a better job of showing differences between what appear to be almost identical choices. I have heard this called, “Keep investigating until one of your choices reaches out and grabs you”.

That is a good explanation, and it works. Make a snap decision, and any of my four choices may indeed have been good. I may have been happy with any one of the four choices I narrowed my search down to. And maybe not too.

The problem is it is an important decision. I need to be happy with the result long term and be comfortable knowing I made the right decision. Because there were four Recumbent Trikes in my list, and they all seemed equal, I had to find areas where one choice clearly outweighed my other three choices .

My choice needed to be solid enough so I do not suffer that little nagging voice in the background telling me, maybe I would ‘really’ be happier with one of the other Recumbent Trikes other than the one I chose because I could not choose correctly.

When that little voice starts, it is hard to quiet it. It is a subtle little thought that appears whenever something is not quite perfect with a choice I made. It whispers, “…maybe the other choice would have been better?” Of course there is no way of knowing either way, and the doubt lingers and grows over time.

What I did first was ignore what was written by people who were obviously in love with their Recumbent Trikes, and read comments from people who had quibbles with their purchase. What did these people mostly agree on that was good for each Recumbent Trike though they chose a different brand or model?

Secondly, I placed a formal weight on each of my choices. I started with 100 point pie and split it into three, giving each slice thirty-three points. That did not help much, but it led to a different set of criteria. I needed to rethink and redetermine how much each of my choices really mattered when added together to equal one-hundred.

High speed, though fun, is not really crucial to my enjoyment of peddling around as it is once in while event. What the crowds prefer did not help either because everyone has different needs and wants. Neither did comfort, because for every complaint in the comfort department there is someone else who was thrilled, or there is a fix in place.

My final list boiled down to with about thirty points for each item was:

  • Quality of Manufacture and Components.
  • Provable value for each dollar spent.
  • Technical experience of posters on various Trike forums.

Quality was number one. The car commercial is correct, Quality is Job One. Quality was given the biggest slice of my 100 point pie.  Value for each dollar spent changed my thinking on how much I should spend. That was the second biggest piece of my one-hundred pie. Third was expertise and experience of Trike riding posters in the forums. People who had years of cycling experience and were now riding a Recumbent Trike, enjoying it, and having knowledge and experience to back up their opinions.

After re-slicing my 100 point pie, everything became simple. I was still using The Rule of Three, but now they were three criteria that showed the strong points and flaws in each of my previously ‘about the same’ four picks. Especially when I had the opinions of cycling experts available to weigh my guesses against.

Basing my decisions of these three weighted wants, it was a simple matter to make the most correct choice. Revising and weighing my wants against each of the four Trike models I narrowed my view. The best choice stood out easily over the other three. I went to sleep feeling I had arrived at a good decision, and woke the next morning, knowing I arrived at the best decision for me.

This was good learning! The learning in this post, is if you follow a sound decision making process, and all decisions appear to be equal, take a few moments and redefine the criteria you are using to arrive at a decision. When you are objective and use the correct criteria instead of what you think is the correct criteria, the right choice is a no-brainer. It will, “reach out and grab you!”

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Carp Fishing and Unusual Bicycles

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Spring has arrived in the Southwest! It is easy to tell when spring has arrived because of the sequence of events that occur each spring. The weather starts warming up. The afternoons are wonderful having a nice temperature, and no cold breeze to spoil the day. The daffodils bloom, and shortly thereafter the flowering shrubs and fruit trees bloom.

Once the fruit trees bloom the pollen attack sets in. If the ultra high pollen counts were not enough we experience some fairly high winds, and even higher wind gusts. There were gusts topping seventy mile per hour last week. If the pollen does not do you in the seventy mile an hour dust blowing into your sinus cavities and implanted into your eyeballs will.

I also know it is Spring because thoughts of fishing enter my mind. I know that Carp fishing is just around the corner. If you have not yet, and you are a fisherman, it is time to break out the tackle box, take an inventory, and replace lost or worn tackle.

If you put off tackle replacement, until you want to go fishing, everything you want to buy will be in someone else’s tackle box, and you will be staring at empty spaces where the hooks and lures you were planning to buy were going.

This spring, I want to start bicycling again. I want to save my back from the road jar sent up a diamond frame bicycle so I have started to look into alternatives. There is one bicycle type named a ‘Recumbent Bicycle’. If you have never seen a recumbent bicycle, they look kind of strange. Imagine lying on the couch as you are peddling down the road. Perhaps slumping in your favorite chair and peddling.

Recumbent Bicycles are fast. So fast they are banned from most major bicycle races including the ‘Tour de France‘. It seems a recumbent bicycle and rider won the Tour de France back in the 1930′s by such a margin that Recumbent Bicycles were outlawed for having an unfair advantage in the race.

I was skeptical of that fact until I read, only a few years ago a Tag Team of riders riding a Recumbent Bicycle crossed the east/west length of America in five days and one hour at an average speed of twenty-four miles per hour! Quite an impressive achievement that has stood for almost two decades now, and probably will not be broken except by another team riding a Recumbent Bicycle.

The drawback to a Recumbent Bicycle mentioned most often is low speed – under ten miles per hour – instability. Because the wheel base of recumbent or “Bents” as they are fondly called, is so long, and your feet are generally at or above your seat height, there is a greater probability of falling over sideways at slower speeds.

At higher speeds, you can be the undisputed King of the Road, and very relaxed while you ride. Many newer Recumbent riders stated they found they were riding at least one-third there normal riding distance longer, and still not feeling tired or sore as they did on their diamond framed bicycles.

Also in the realm of possibility is a ‘Recumbent Trike‘. A recumbent trike is a very high tech three wheeled bicycle. Think of a multi speed Hot-wheel with bicycle wheels and a steel or aluminum frame. The come in two distinct versions. The first version is called a delta trike and has one wheel in front and two in the back. The second version, called the tadpole has one wheel in the back and two in the front. For general riding the tadpole seems to have the greatest advantage.

There is only one dealer in town having Recumbent Bicycles, and Recumbent Trikes, so it really narrows my selection choices, unless I want to buy without trying online. I am leaning towards a Trike as sometimes I ride with people who like to ride slow; they feel it is safer. Personally, I prefer going as fast as possible!

Recumbent Trikes are perceived to be a little slower than their bicycle counterpart, but they make up for it in the relaxed ride they provide. Eat a sandwich, drink some water, and enjoy the scenery all around as you peddle down the road on your favorite chair on wheels is what I read. Popular informed opinion seems to think its more about the engine than the ride.

Between work, thinking about fishing, bicycles, and sinuses, I am staying busy. It is time now to stop thinking and start doing, as we get later into spring the winds show up later in the morning and next month, not until afternoon. I wonder if I could find some makeshift pontoons and a paddle wheel? I could be the first in the state to fish using the new Recumbent Trike trolling method?

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