Whatsamatta U

I'm in my first week of Vo-Tech School. That stands for Vocational and Technical for those of you who didn't know. Trade Schools are kind of infamous for their "bottom of the barrel" student body and I have the perfect example. I am not making this up. These words actually had the opportunity to be expelled from a student's mouth. The question was, "What is a plethora?" The reply? "Oh, isn't that those fake leather pants you buy at the mall?" Three days in and I feel smarter already.

Never Too Old For Cartoons

For some reason I haven't been able to outgrow cartoons. I mean yes some of them have lost their pizzazz and you won't catch me watching Blue's Clues or Arthur. No offenses to those who enjoy the aformentioned programs. But I love Spongebob and Foster's Home for Imagianary Friends. I also love the animated movies of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. But the real reason I'm writing this is to highlight the fact that you can watch some of my favorite cartoons on these sites. First off is http://toonamijetstream.com. I go their to watch Naruto. Naruto was a popular Manga in Japan and is now an equally successful cartoon. The main character is an orpan ninja in training and the website has the first five or six episodes. But be quick they will only be up for about a month longer. The nice thing though is they post a new episode every week or so. The second site is http://turbonick.com. This site has tons of winners. they have newbies like Spongebob and Avatar, but the best part is they have classics like Ren and Stimpy, Rocco's Modern Life, and Invader Zim. I love it! So if you got some time to kill and a broad band connection, I strongly reccommend getting your kid on and watching some old school toons. The best part there is little to no commercials, so sweet.

As Diverse as a Box of No. 2 Pencils

This one is more of a thinker, more of that big picture stuff I seem to get stuck in. I'm just got finished with diversity training. So I feel I'm adequately educated to comment on the subject. We were taught all about acceptance of differences. This is diversity. But strangely enough, all of us, being diverse and accepting, are actually not. If I dislike homosexuals or their lifestyle, I'm seen as unacceptable. But why isn't a homosexual seen as unacceptable for not accepting my view? I'm not trying to argue right or wrong. I am strictly talking about acceptance. If I'm supposed to be accepting of women in the workplace, why aren't they expected to except males who prefer women in the home? You could try to carry that over to different skin colors. But if you do, could you be more specific? How dark does my skin have to be before I'm no longer white? If you hate Native Americans because of their skin color, you should probably also hate most high school cheerleaders. They tan so much its the same color. So maybe you hate their culture. This I can understand a little better, but get it straight. Skin color is such a poor indicator of what someone is like. You might as well hate all people who wear baseball caps, at least they had a choice in it. Even here, the diversity proponents perpetuate the cycle by acting as if their is such a thing as ethnicity based on skin color. Ethnicity is based on upbringing. If I was raised in a Asian family, but I'm dark-skinned or round eyed, I'm still Asian. We need a massive rethinking of skin color. It needs to be treated as it actually is, something independent of all other attributes. But that is just a tangent, back to the subject at hand. Diversity in my school, means everybody thinks the same way. We all accept everything and everybody as long as they do the same. As soon as someone has concrete beliefs that disagree with your own, they are intolerant. We all sit in class, and say we need to celebrate diversity. We do this by having no distinguishing differences, and sitting around applauding each other on our ability to accept diverse peoples. I end by saying only the truly diverse and acceptant will even be able to give this a read, without thinking of me as a bigot and hate monger, and in this I rest my point. I actually teach acceptance of all people, though non-acceptance towards specific behavior. The world system wants extremists in all regards. I preach moderation and middle ground. The true balance of a loving and violent God.

The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread....

I found myself traveling across this great land recently. This creates the opportunity to participate in one of my favorite activities, truck stop diners. This of course runs the risk of the crabby waitress. Up until just recently, I found myself often at the whims and fancies of a chain smoking, post-menopausal, retired Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. They would give you that look, expressing their desire to be caressing that cigarette, left still smoking in the break room, and remembering the glory days when Bobby Quarterback use to shell the big bucks just to shake her pom-poms. Instead she in some dirt dive waiting on geriatrics spending their pension checks on senior discount coffee and French onion soup. But my brother and I think we have found a solution. We all know that every waitress is dependent on tips. I mean come on $3 an hour isn't going to get you very far in life. She already smokin' that money up, just to deal with the AARP fan club. So we have created an incentive. When we first find ourselves seated at the booth, we place a "tip counter" on the table in plain sight. The tip counter is a small device with a number amount printed on it, much the same way that an odometer would. The words "YOUR TIP" are printed huge right above it. There are two buttons on the top of the device, one reduces the amount and the other increases it. So the waitress rolls her eyes, I hit the button, you just lost ten cents lady. She doesn't fill my cup with everybody else, that's 20 more cents. I think this helps them visualize in a more tangible way how their behavior is affecting their pay scale. After just a few minutes all you have to do is hover your hand over the tip counter and, you can see an almost magical transformation. It has greatly improved my restaurant experience. If this sounds like something that you need, just drop me a line and we'll send you one for the paltry cost of $10. You easily pay that off in the benefit of improved restaurant service, I know I have.