Face (not so good) book

What the hell....It can't be four months since my last post. This year is just flying by like shit through a goose. Well time for a little update cause god knows it could be Christmas before I do this again.

Things are still status quo on the domestic front with friends and family, no deaths, births, or incarcerations. Yeah! Mostly still dancing and doing my country activities, which eats up the bulk of my time. Oh yeah, and work.

One new wrinkle to my daily grind is this thing called facebook. I created an account in February, and it has turned into a mild addiction as I find myself checking this silly thing at least three times a day, to see who, what, and where is going on. Its like some cheap voyeuristic sort of thing as you find people that you haven't seen in thirty years, and suddenly you are right back in their lives with a simple little friend request. Its sort of neat to find former classmates etc...and reconnect. Even in a casual way to see how everyone is doing.

My biggest disappointment with Face book is the amount of crap that they offer to keep you on their site. Instead of general conversations between old friends, they have all of these games, and quiz's, and make believe wars, and surveys, and on and on with this stuff to do while you are on their site, so that you can post the results of what kind of ass you have to all of your friends. I think what bothers me most is that its a continually dumbing down of people into some soap opera stuff that doesn't make a nickels worth of difference. When the site could be used to reconnect with people who we haven't seen in years and have some sort of meaningful conversation. It disappoints me on some level to see my face book friends get caught up in this stuff when we could actually have a conversation about most anything other than who looks the most like Brad Pitt etc... etc....

I understand that on some level it is supposed to be entertaining, but to me it is like the sit. coms on television that aren't funny; if it weren't for the canned laughter nobody would laugh.

Moving to fast to walk.

I have been so busy the last several months that I had forgotten just how much that I enjoyed taking a walk after work. I used to take a 3 to 4 mile walk every evening to wind down and think. I finally had time this evening and it was great to just walk and think, think and walk. I almost dreaded having to stop walking. The weather was beautiful. Makes me want to skip work and do it again tomorrow. Maybe I should just prioritize my time, and become less of a human doing, and more of a human being. Now that's an idea.

Balance...what is it?

Balance. What is it? Such a simple word with so many implications. I have always known that it was important. What I feel that I haven't until recently realized is just how important it is to all aspects of life. I think that I am realizing that it is a very big common denominator in life. Not only in the natural world what ever that is, but in the emotional and physical world too. I realize that it is important, but when I think back in my life I find that balance has always been a reoccurring theme. Be it on a conscious or subconscious level. It does not seem to matter whether we strive for balance or not. The universe is bound and determined to in some way either subtle, or not, to always seek a homeostasis if you will. Actually I have a hard time trying to think of a subject or activity that does not seek a balance point.

Hmmmm.......let me toss out some quick topics to see if I can find one that does not require or is constantly seeking balance. Here we go. Eating, sleeping, working, drinking, driving, relationships, fun, money, Eco-systems, nutrition, education, horseback riding, dancing, walking, kindness, heat, cold, dark, light, up, down,.....even gravity is trying to bring us back to the center. Back to a balance point. To a comfort zone, where all is stable with the least amount of pressure. Where all elements in the universe can seek a respite without conflict. I really cannot think at this time where anything being out of balance is good, even in my swivel chair as I write this.

Oh well, this should give me some things to think about.

Obama lite / less filling?

Is it just me, or does it feel like the air is a little less heavy since Obama took office? I know that in reality that not much can change in just two days, but I get more of a feeling that things are finally going to turn to a positive slant. Not just here in the homeland, but around the world as well. I don't know if it's me just drinking the political kool-aid or what. The one thing that I do know is that my own personal ground zero in which I traverse feels different. Feelings can be fickle. Only time will set the reality. Anyone else sense anything? Just curious.

Simple musings

Their is just some things that baffle me to no end. I will keep this short.

1. How do people make it in this world without getting shot, when they have virtually no people skills? This includes listening, talking, thinking, and eating with their mouth shut. How do they end up in customer service jobs? They also tend to have enough kids to start their own soccer team. Ughhhh!!

2. Why don't we teach critical thinking skills to our children? To adults? Why is it that adults act more childish than the children they bare?

3. George W. .............why did it take eight years? ( refer to #2) Enough said!

Happy new year!

I know what you are thinking. Your a little late dude. No kidding!

For all of you that know me, and for those who don't. I just want to extend a happy new year to everyone that I may have come in contact with this last year. That includes, but is not limited to physical, mental, and cyber connections. It's those interactions that help us become what we are and are not. May you and yours have a great 2009! Blog on!! Yohon.

Deer, Dance and Ducks etc.etc.etc.

I think I have to many hobbies. Is that possible? Or do I just have to many interests for my allotment of time on this mud ball that I am riding on? Isn't it great that we have the ability to pursue all of the things that we can imagine in this life? I think that we are very lucky to live in this day and age. Yeah........their is plenty to complain about, but their is in every generation. In my way of thinking it comes down to one's perception of their existence. Are you coming from fear and the feeling that their is not enough, or the thought that their is an abundance of everything good and enough for all to enjoy? Perception is everything. Gotta go....tomorrow is coming and I need to get rested up!

No way around it.....dang it

I know its difficult to see the similarities between roping steers and ballroom dancing, but I can attest that their is not much difference in the skill, physicality, or emotional highs and lows that one experiences when you take your craft out of the class room and put it in front of your fellow peers and total strangers to see. When you use that as a barometer of your learning it can be quite humbling.

In ballroom dance and team roping the similarities can be very similar in that your body must be able to multi-task at a seconds notice and legs,torso,hands and feet must be able to adjust on the fly all the while your eyes and brain need to be in sink with your current surroundings to avoid wrecks, and awkward situations. Mastering the art of maintaining your partner in a controlled manner be it horse or dance partner to me is one of the biggest challenges. Just about the time that you think you have it down pat, you take your horse to town to show off what you have learned only to get bucked off in front of your friends. I know that is the quickest way to measure where you are at in the learning process but sometimes it really sucks. Especially when you think your game was solid. You spend hours and hours training and thousands of dollars in the process only to find out that the learning has just begun. It's good, it's cool,....I have been down this road before, it's just that you hope this time you can skip this step in the process. Ain't going to happen this time either but it's always good to think so.

How's the old saying go......sing like no one can hear, dance like no one is watching, and love like you have never been hurt. Bodes well this time.

Random thoughts # 27

Their is a number of things that have me more than a little nonplussed in the last few weeks. Here is a short list of some of the ones that have left me thinking.

Domestic violence. Any of it really, but I am thinking more about Larry Johnson of the KC Chiefs in particular. Here is someone who can take hits from defensive linemen that weigh 360 pounds, but doesn't have enough balls to walk away from some little gal that bumps into his ego. I mean WTF! Larry. I suggest that you use some of your guaranteed 18 million to get some help and to have your drinks delivered to your house until you can get your ego in check.

Brail key pads at the drive up ATM. Enough said.

People that want to set you up with a date, but start the conversation with........I would like you to meet this great gal but I don't think she is your type. Are you kidding me!!! I mean how the hell does that work! Shes not my type... that's fine, but why would you even bring that up. Heck, I think I can do that one myself. Swear to God that happened to me twice in the last couple weeks with different people.

How the world population went from two people, Adam and Eve, to 6 billion with out incest in the beginning.

People that will not eat an apple with a worm but will eat hamburger, when 75% of all U.S produced burger tests positive for some form of coliform.

How come eggs don't taste like chicken?

Their is more but those were some that stood out for me lately. Ahh.......much better now.

Since I was gone.

I know it's been some time since I last posted anything, but as we all know sometimes life just gets too damn busy. So here is a quick little update of things that have been going on.

Things on the management ground have gone fairly smooth, we did a controlled burn in mid-August on some of the fields that we sprayed in July to kill out the fescue. The burn went fairly well until the midday winds started to pick up, and for a short moment thought it might burn my truck! I was a little nervous, but I've been scared before. I was more nervous about the fire getting into the timber. It was already in the low 90's ambient and it felt about 1500 degrees standing between the timber and the field trying to keep it contained. At the end of the day the cool river water never felt so good. The fields have since been planted and it will be interesting to see how things come up this fall. The fields that we planted in the spring look awesome. I don't think I have ever been so excited to see these fields, that had been fallow for years, become little wildlife Mecca's. I still can't stop myself from standing in the edge of the fields in the morning with a cup of coffee and just enjoying the fruits of our labor as it all comes together.

On a side note I am starting to get more than a little anxious about the loggers getting into the areas that they were in this spring and getting the roads, log decks, and ephemeral pools squared away. I understand that it's been a wet year, but things have been dry enough as of late to get in and get some work done. I am at about three weeks from blowing a gasket if this shit doesn't get done before the leaves start to fall. Also their are still stands to check, logging roads to seed and approximately five more fall food plots to plant,...as well as firewood to put up.

Switching gears now. In early August I competed in my very first ballroom dance competition at the Embassy Suites hotel up by the airport. Wow! Talk about being out of my element. Four days without a ball cap, toothpick, or hot beer," that's rolled around in the back of the pickup for at least two weeks, " no country music, cigars, or sports radio, I mean what the hell was I thinking. Am I trying to kill myself or what?!

With all do respect I must say that I had a great time at the event. I had the opportunity to meet some very nice people from all around the country. I really figured that being around so many pretty people, that they would all be kind of snobbish. They were not at all. In fact just the opposite. Cool!

So my dance instructor when this event is first brought to my attention asks me if I am interested in competing. My first thought is, is he freaking crazy! Has he not been watching me. Is he trying to kill his business or what. In the end I decide to just do it....just like the Nike commercial. I am not new to competition, I have competed in all kinds of sport, from football to tennis, team roping to chess, power volleyball to debate, golf to archery. This was probably the most nerve racking. The largest event I had competed in had a little over 2000 entries. This one had 7000. WTF. did I just sign up for? To make a long story short I was entered into eleven heats in my division, doing seven different dances " I still can't believe that my instructor entered me that many times." I placed in six out of the eleven events. Wahoo!

I am still doing volunteer work for the Missouri Dept. of Conservation, and am having fun being around like minded people who have a common bond in the sharing and educating of those in and around the community about the natural treasures that we take for granted in this day and age. I helped with the Missouri Blue bird convention this last weekend, and I am scheduled to help with the prairies awareness event this weekend in south Kansas City. The end of the month has me heading to the state capitol for the MDC. state wide volunteers get together. Also I will be doing my first controlled burn workshop next week so that I may be qualified to help with controlled burns on MDC areas. After the experience from my own personal controlled burn, it sounds like a sound investment.

I am still wanting to get to Steelville to rope some steers before the first frost. I still miss the smell of the roping arena, the sound of the gates and the sound of the hoofs thundering down the arena in a race against time. The smell of horse and cow, and sawdust and hay,... man what a day!

Their is still many more things that have been going on that I haven't mentioned but maybe this hits the high points. On a side note I would like to extend best wishes to, gia at best, which represents half of my IT. support, lol!... for their new found career opportunity. Break a leg!!

I do, sort of.

A good friend of mine and I was talking about relationships and such as we so often do. Mostly because it is a interesting subject. One that brings out emotion, dreams, fears, fantasy, and last but not least.......reality! I must confess that I have not been in a lot of relationships over the years, but I have been in some very long and protracted relationships. I only mention this as a quantifier for my limited opinion in regards to prenuptial agreements. I know that the mere mention of this will strike an immediate reaction with most of you, one way or another given your own experiences. I also must say that my own inclination is that I feel that I am a hopeless romantic myself. The problem being is that I am a realist as well. Their in lies the dilemma.

This may seem cold but I tend to view marriage more as a business partnership than a religious proclamation. I think the ceremonies are nice, and well.... warm and fuzzy but in reality it is a legally binding contract that states that when you partner up, you are agreeing to take on all of the other parties baggage and cover for it as well. Think of it as glorified cosigning for someone for life.

My thought is that we buy insurance for everything else in life that has a much higher degree of not happening, and we fail to insure ourselves against a legal partnership that has over a 50% degree of probability of not seeing the ten year mark. Why? I believe that for a lot of people it is a lot like talking about our mortality. We are pretty sure that it could happen, we just don't want to bring up the subject because it makes us uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is getting in a relationship of any sort using emotion as the primary driver. It doesn't matter whether its a car, a cell phone, or contract at Golds Gym. It drives me crazy to here someone say that you shouldn't talk about prenupts because you are focusing on the negative and you must not really be " in love " if you even bring up the subject. I say Bullshit!! I say if you really care about someone that these topics need to be addressed, as painful as it may be, its even more painful to have to live with the coulda, shoulda, wouldas, because of emotion. This is not why we go to school to learn things, just to get out in the world and let fantasy, religious mysticism's and emotion run our lives.

To set the record clear I am all for marriage if it makes sense and is well thought out, but not for indiscriminate coupling just to keep people with ideological fantasy's to keep from having to think outside the box.

Scared to grow, or Scared too grow.

Scared to grow, or scared too grow, seem to have two different meanings. It can mean that we are scared to grow, or that to grow we must be scared into growing .

What an interesting concept. Not that it is new by any stretch of the imagination. I am just fascinated by the semantics of the whole phrase. One keeps us held back and the other pushes us forward. Fear being the common denominator. A real dichotomy if you will. Growth forward or backwards is still growth I guess. But is backwards growth still growth? Can positive growth still be obtained while receding?..... Direction may not be as important as the outcome, and the knowledge gained. I sure hope!

Row,Row, Row, your boat....

I know this is a sensitive subject for some of us, but the subject still remains. Should we bail out, (literally) people who choose to live in flood plains? I can see saving the farmers who work the bottom grounds of these watersheds, because that is where the best soil is located. In fact it is because of these floods that makes this ground so fertile.

To knowingly build homes and entire community's in such a precarious place when you have no vested interest in this ground borders on absurdity. It seems even more absurd to bail these people out. Living on higher ground dates back thousands of years. This is just common sense...which hasn't been real common for a while now. I realize that we cannot avoid all of natures wrath....and that is how it should be, but to be so cavalier about our supposed dominance over the forces of nature just grates on me sometimes. Oh well, I guess I'll feed the birds, and they can feed the fishes. G-day!

Buck up Buttercup!

It seems that their is two types of scared. One for your physical life, and the other for your emotional life. I am really starting to think that the emotional scared is by far the worst. I have been involved with the physical fear for my life a couple times in my existence, and as scary as that is, their seems to always be a way out of the circumstance... usually by being physical. On the other hand emotional scared is the scariest because your mind knows all of your weaknesses, fears and insecurities. Throw in ones own ego and you have the makings of a real train wreck.
Metaphorically speaking that is.

So the question is how do you toughen your mind without going ga ga? Surely one doesn't purposely create situations that would cause such turmoil....that would seem counter intuitive, almost self destructive. But just like a boxer who has to toughen their knuckles by repeated strikes, their is no easy way to practice what we all must do multiple times in this life. That is to summons the courage to face the unknown,... knowing that to do so is the only way to gain the realization that our fears are what really keep us from being all that we can be.

Free wheeling

Wow! Just about the time you think things will settle down in ones life more stuff comes up. I suppose thats alright, it just never seems like the timing is right. Maybe the timing is perfect for our maximum growth, but that doesn't make it any easier. Ok... I'am using this as a prelude to excuse myself from not writing lately. If its any consolation I have a ton of topics that I would like to talk about but, don't seem to have the time to sit down and put my thoughts together in a complete sentence. So these are some of the topics that have landed on my radar screen as of late that I would love to talk about but just have not had the time.

Grape Nut flakes. Whats up with that....no grapes and no nuts! Although most of the people that I have encountered lately remind me of cereal. I mean what ain't fruits and nuts, is flakes.

Weddings vs. Funerals. Weddings are probably more fun except that funerals get over in about an hour, and weddings can take roughly ten minutes shy of eternity. Especially during football season. I also believe that it is cheaper to put someone in the ground than it is to get married. Your life is not the same after either occasion in any event, but at least we don't have to go through our own funeral multiple times.

If you can't hula hoop without assistance, should you really let your dance instructor talk you into entering a dance competition? I'll have that answer for you sometime in August!

Why are we the only industrialized country that doesn't have universal health care?





If corn oil comes from corn and coal oil comes from coal....where does baby oil come from? Not real sure that I want to know, but it has crossed my mind.





If the stuff that happens to you when you are in your forties happened to you when you were in your twenties...would you really want to live to thirty?





If I go on a date with a blind person do I still have to dress up?





I know I know already. This is some silly assed stuff but you have to admit, a mind given half a chance to free wheel, when left alone can come up with some pretty unorthodox thoughts. On some level letting our minds go of all the programing that we have endured... even for a few minutes can be quite cathartic.

We the people.....

Their have been several articles lately in the local print media concerning the human population in the world and eventual demise of our planet and the people on it. It seems as though that their are numerous factors in regard to this trend. Not the least of which in my opinion has been due to our own intelligence. Yeah it seems weird that we as the smart ones on this planet ( or so we think ) are our own worst enemy. We have created problems today with our intelligence... that we cannot fix with the same intelligence.... that created the problem in the first place! In a nutshell I would like to interject a few of my own random thoughts about this subject, not in any particular order, just some knee jerk things that come to mind. Because this is to vast of subject to try and pick apart on this site and I don't want to spend the rest of my life trying to analyse the nuances of demographic populations and the control their of. I think you all would agree.

First and foremost is the advent of agriculture. When you can grow more food you can support more humans. When you have more humans you need more food. Which takes more ground to grow more food to support even more humans. Pretty simple. Ask the native Americans why we put them on reservations...so we could control more ground and grow more stuff, their by reducing the competition. So that we could control our own food source....to support more humans.

Trying to westernize indigenous culture's that are living in perfect harmony with the land that is native to them. I am thinking of Africa in this instance and how we have transformed them from a primarily nomadic culture that traversed the plains. Following the rains and the game animals, to a bunch of people crammed into a couple square miles trying to live the western dream, because we have convinced them that that you are not very developed as a people if you cannot live in a pseudo urbanized setting depleting the immediate surroundings resources. Their by product of which results in depleted food sources, disease, famine, crime, and a host of other problems to great to try and cover.

Medicine and technology. This seems straight forward that their is a lot of us alive today, that wouldn't have survived a hundred years earlier. What with C-sections, drugs, x-rays, etc... me included. But given the chance to play God we by most accounts try to save every living thing that we can. I am just not sure if that was the way it was really intended. In the real world their are checks and balances that keep populations in check. Once that system has been compromised it creates a false sense of reality that we come to believe is real. Which is not real at all. It is an artificially propted up population that over time is destined to fail...because it runs counter to the reality of the natural world.

yes... I mean no!

Accomplishments seem so surreal sometimes. We spend all of our time and energy getting through the task...and then when it is finally over we somehow don't want them to end. It is the true dichotomy! The ultimate oxymoron. Come here, go away! No don't go! What a weird way of processing things. To me it seems to be a seasonal phenomenon, normally the spring. I wonder if that is because that is when most of us graduate from school. That is also the time if you have ever been involved in any winter recreational leagues that you are truly ready for them to end as well. Then two weeks later you wish it hadn't ended so soon. I mean it was only thirty six weeks long! We are definitely creatures of habit...even if we can't wait to kick the habit. I don't know if we will ever be able to just live in the moment and enjoy the feeling, even when it is the most hectic. But it has got to be a better feeling then wishing it wouldn't go... after complaining over the last several months that we wish it would just end. Hmmmm???

It's official!

Spring is officially in the books as far as I am concerned. I know this because this is how my spring always looks to those of us who spend time in the Ozarks. The peepers and wood frogs and chorus frogs are in full concert. The Nan king cherry and service berry are in full bloom. Winter flocks of turkeys are breaking up and the morning air is filled with song bird music as they come awake with the first morning blush of light to the east.

The woods have a smokey smell from people in the surrounding areas burning hay fields to encourage the early spring green up, and on occasions that smoke smell is from the woods that have caught fire from untended burns.
The
rivers run full from spring rains so that travel at times is difficult, do to the low water crossings. This sometimes can and does add countless miles to a normally short trip.
Spring has also arrived because that is the time when the stock men and those in the deer management arena make sure that their is plenty of mineral available for our four legged ruminants. To insure a good healthy offspring.
This is spring to me. This is the spring that I know where one stands out on the high ridge points at dawns early light listening for turkeys gobbling , with a warm cup of coffee in your hand, in anticipation of the season to begin. A few snow geese flying north still, heading to their breeding grounds on the Arctic tundra, with the rest of us hoping that we don't get a late spring freeze.

I know it is spring because I just picked the first five ticks off of me. Welcome back...welcome back.

say what?

I never thought that life would be quite like this! I am ever so amazed at how many things that I don't know. I swear that it seems as though I am learning ten completely different things a day this last month. I know I said in one of my early blog entries that if we aren't learning something everyday that I don't know why we are on this mud ball, or something to that sort of thought. But wow I feel as if I am going into sensory overload. The flip side of this is the fact that I absolutely love this feeling...of pushing my grey matter to the limit. The flip flip side to this is the idea that a lot of the stuff I am learning would probably not even get a yawn from most of my readers. Its amazes me how we react to stuff that we already know, or is assumed to know. As opposed to the things that we learn for the first time. I am not sure why we act / react to these things in the manner that we do, but it does strike me as interesting. Why are we not as excited about someone elses learning experiences like we are our own? Does that make us shallow or indifferent or callous? Or could it be that our ego just kicks in to tell ourselves that hah...we already knew that,... to cover up for the things that deep down in our psyche ... we know that their are things in this life that we know absolutely nothing about, but feel as though we should already know these things... at this point in our life. Because we also know that at some point we are going to be at that first time learner level as well. When someone else will be standing their next to us thinking what we are thinking now... that we should have already learned that... Wow, the ego is an amazing thing!

News...what News?

Is it just me that feels that the soul purpose of the news media is to dumb down the people of this country, or what? I'm not just talking the stuff on television, but the print media as well. I know I am not the first person to complain about this stuff, so I will attempt to not,... turn this into some incessant banter, but here goes. We have news casts that are supposedly thirty minutes long. In this news cast their is approximately eighteen minutes of stuff that isn't commercials. Take out the Sports....which isn't news... it's entertainment. Take out the entertainment section because, well.... it's the same as Sports. So now we are down to roughly ten minutes of stuff to talk about. They spend another three to five minutes doing crap like, try it before you buy it, or their investigating report on someone on the city counsel that parked in front of a parking meter that was broken so they wouldn't have to pay! This passes for news? Throw in the other everyday stuff about a house fire, a car wreck, and Paris Hilton doing a photo shoot in Atlanta. That gives you three minutes to talk about the war, politics on the hill, the financial debacle that the nation is in, and a ten second sound bite of the president,.... in where ever he is for the day!
The print media is not any better. The sensational stuff makes the headlines. The rest of the real news gets a paragraph on pg. 12 buried between the Lipitor add, and the Spring white sale at Wal-mart. When as a culture we don't read, and our kid's don't read, and pop culture makes the "news" as the way that we define ourselves in some sort of ego extension. When critical thinking skills become less important than the shoes that we wear, or the car that we drive, or neighborhood that we live in. That to me is the real news! That is why everyone has an opinion on Iraq, but no one can find it on the map. Most people couldn't tell you weather Saddam was a Shite, or a Sunni. It feels that the only place that you can get an accurate report on the news is on your local PBS. station or the BBC. It is definitely the only place where you can listen to two sides, with opposing views, actually talk for more than two minutes on a particular subject without some interruption informing me of some other late breaking news. Like congress investigating baseball and steroid use. It's the entertainment industry. They get paid for putting butts in seats for money. Who cares! When Sit-coms become funny, and reality TV becomes real, and the lobbyist in D.C. have used up all of their multinational petroleum industry's money buying seats in congress, and the White house. Give me a call. That will be news!