A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?' The father who, despite having a heart condition, says 'Yes'. They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'Yes' to his son's request of going through the race together. One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.'
To which, his father said 'Yes' ...
For those who don't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island .
Father and son went on to complete the race together.
I try to find some peace in my soul, while trying to quiet the turbulence in my mind.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Massachusetts fishing town reels from news of teen pregnancy pact
By Melissa Trujillo, The Associated Press
Ok. The reason I posted this blog about this 'pact' is because of a recent thread on my page. I had posted a quote and a bit of a discussion occurred between myself, a friend, and a friend of a friend. In this thread, the friend of a friend mentioned this pact in one of his replies. I hadn't heard about this pact when he mentioned it, so I could not comment on it. I mean, how can I possibly comment on something I had no knowledge of?
It showed up on my Yahoo! Canada home page today, so I read the above news story about it.
I cannot agree with this persons take on this 'pregnancy pact' totally. According to the above story, there are extenuating circumstances that goes along with it. I will say that this is the wrong way for these girls to go about all this, but if this is what they felt was the only path offered to them due to "difficult socioeconomic circumstances" without the proper support and guidance they desperately needed, who am I to say that what they have done is a shameful act? That this is a reflection upon a society of bleeding hearts that took the shame away from teenage pregnancies? How many of these girls lost their fathers in 1991, that was highlighted in the movie The Perfect Storm with George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, leaving all-of-a-sudden single mothers to raise them the best they could with what they had at hand?
Add to that the media's feeding frenzy when it comes to who is pregnant lately. Angelina Jolie, Jamie Lyn Spears to name two. Every time you turn around, there is a front page story, complete with pictures about these pregnancies. The media tends to glamortize pregnancies amongst the rich, the famous, the notorious. The rag mags blaring it on the front cover at the check out stands who is pregnant, who is divorcing, etc etc, with no thought to truth or community awareness. Is whatever sells.
Canada may be behind the times in some ways, but some schools are offering condom machines in the washrooms. They have accepted that teenagers WILL have sex. They offer the education as well, but the kids will make up their own minds if they are ready and willing. And what better way to give them a fighting chance at their future by helping them not get pregnant too soon? Is all about educating them about the consequences.
But considering the whole story to these girls at this high school getting pregnant, I cannot say I am ashamed. I am saddened that these girls felt this was their only option in their lives.
GLOUCESTER, Mass. - The girls showed up repeatedly at the high school health clinic, asking for pregnancy tests. But their reactions to the test results were puzzling: high-fives if they were expecting, long faces if they weren't.
School officials in this hard-luck New England fishing town say an alarming 17 girls - four times the usual number - became pregnant this year. And even more disturbing: Some of the girls may have made a pact to have babies and raise them together.
"A typical girl you would think would say, 'Oh my God! What am I going to do now? How am I going to support this baby? How am I going to finish school?"' Supt. Christopher Farmer said. "These young women clearly have not seen that."
The story exploded after Joseph Sullivan, the principal of Gloucester High School, was quoted by Time magazine this week as saying the girls confessed to making such a pact. Sullivan was on vacation Friday and did not return calls for comment.
The superintendent said he had no independent confirmation of a pact. But he added: "What we do know is there was a group of students being tested for pregnancy on a regular basis, which would suggest they were not taking steps to avoid becoming pregnant, and that when some of them had their babies, they appeared to be very pleased."
None of the girls or their families have come forward to confirm any type of pact, and school and health officials have not identified any of the youngsters.
The girls are all 16 or under, nearly all of them sophomores. The superintendent said they have been reluctant to identify the fathers, many of whom are older. But one of them "is a 24-year-old homeless guy," the principal was quoted as telling Time.
City and school officials in this town of about 30,000 people 50 kilometres north of Boston have been struggling for months to explain and deal with the pregnancies, where on average only four girls a year at the 1,200-student high school become pregnant.
Just last month, two officials at the high school health centre resigned to protest the local hospital's refusal to support a proposal to distribute contraceptives to youngsters at the school without parental consent. The hospital controls the clinic's funding.
Mayor Carolyn Kirk said Friday there are many contributing factors to what she called a "blip" in the pregnancy rate, from glamorization of teen pregnancy in pop culture to cuts in funding that have reduced teachers and health classes in Gloucester.
"We have fallen on hard times," Kirk said of her city, which has suffered in recent decades with the decline in the fishing industry that has defined Gloucester since the colonial era.
Gloucester is the town that lost six fishermen in the 1991 shipwreck that inspired the book and movie "The Perfect Storm." Its high school teams are known as the Fighting Fishermen.
Student Council member Emily Spreer said many of the girls came from difficult socioeconomic circumstances: "Their circle or clique, they're not the most fortunate family-wise."
"If you're a young person who really is struggling to find an identity for herself, absent the support and the guidance, it can become almost a default option for some to become a mom," said Patricia Quinn, executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy. "We need to do more for young people and show them more paths."
Gloucester - a heavily Roman Catholic town with a large Italian and Portuguese population - has long been supportive of teen mothers. The high school has a day care centre for students and employees.
Christen Callahan, a former Gloucester High student who had a child when she was 15, said on NBC's "Today" show that some of the girls would ask her about her own pregnancy. "They would say stuff like, 'Oh, I think my parents would be fine with it and they would help me,' stuff like that," Callahan said.
Sarah Brown, chief executive of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, suggested some of the blame lies with the country's Hollywood-obsessed culture, in which stories about pregnant celebrities abound.
Just this week, 17-year-old TV star Jamie Lynn Spears, the unmarried sister of Britney Spears, gave birth. "Juno," a wry comedy about a 16-year-old girl who gets pregnant, was one of the most acclaimed movies of the year.
"Baby bumps get written about the same way designer handbags do. It's just one more lifestyle choice, just another personal expression: these shoes, this bump and that handbag," Brown said. "It's not surprising that teenage girls can get confused or even seduced by the allure of celebrity pregnancy."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`Ok. The reason I posted this blog about this 'pact' is because of a recent thread on my page. I had posted a quote and a bit of a discussion occurred between myself, a friend, and a friend of a friend. In this thread, the friend of a friend mentioned this pact in one of his replies. I hadn't heard about this pact when he mentioned it, so I could not comment on it. I mean, how can I possibly comment on something I had no knowledge of?
It showed up on my Yahoo! Canada home page today, so I read the above news story about it.
I cannot agree with this persons take on this 'pregnancy pact' totally. According to the above story, there are extenuating circumstances that goes along with it. I will say that this is the wrong way for these girls to go about all this, but if this is what they felt was the only path offered to them due to "difficult socioeconomic circumstances" without the proper support and guidance they desperately needed, who am I to say that what they have done is a shameful act? That this is a reflection upon a society of bleeding hearts that took the shame away from teenage pregnancies? How many of these girls lost their fathers in 1991, that was highlighted in the movie The Perfect Storm with George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, leaving all-of-a-sudden single mothers to raise them the best they could with what they had at hand?
Add to that the media's feeding frenzy when it comes to who is pregnant lately. Angelina Jolie, Jamie Lyn Spears to name two. Every time you turn around, there is a front page story, complete with pictures about these pregnancies. The media tends to glamortize pregnancies amongst the rich, the famous, the notorious. The rag mags blaring it on the front cover at the check out stands who is pregnant, who is divorcing, etc etc, with no thought to truth or community awareness. Is whatever sells.
Canada may be behind the times in some ways, but some schools are offering condom machines in the washrooms. They have accepted that teenagers WILL have sex. They offer the education as well, but the kids will make up their own minds if they are ready and willing. And what better way to give them a fighting chance at their future by helping them not get pregnant too soon? Is all about educating them about the consequences.
But considering the whole story to these girls at this high school getting pregnant, I cannot say I am ashamed. I am saddened that these girls felt this was their only option in their lives.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wisdom of Larry the Cable Guy
The wisdom of Larry the cable guy......
1. A day without sunshine is like night.
2. On the other hand, you have different fingers.
3. 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
4. 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
5. Remember, half the people you know are below average.
6. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
7. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
8. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap
9. Support bacteria. They're the only culture some people have.
10. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
11. Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.
12. If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.
13. How many of you believe in psycho-kinesis? Raise my hand.
14. OK, so what's the speed of dark?
15. When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
16. Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.
17. How much deeper would the ocean be without sponges?
18. Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
19. What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?
20. Why do psychics have to ask you your name?
21. Inside every older person is a younger person wondering, 'What the heck happened?'
22. Just remember -- if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off.
23. Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
24. Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your butt tomorrow.
Gotta Love Carlin !
GEORGE CARLIN'S NEW RULES FOR 2008.
(Note: these aren't for the timid!)
New Rule: No more gift registries.
You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it's for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. Picking out the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving, it's the white people version of looting.
New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for classmates.com!
There's a reason you don't talk to people for 25 years.
Because you don't particularly like them! Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days --- mowing my lawn.
New Rule: Don't eat anything that's served to you out a window unless you're a seagull.
People are acting all shocked that a human finger was found in a bowl of Wendy's chili. Hey, it cost less than a dollar. What did you expect it to contain? Lobster?
New Rule: Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged.
I have a better description for these kids: 'Lucky bastards.'
New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone.
Here's how much men care about your eyebrows:
Do you have two of them? Good, we're done.
New Rule: There's no such thing as flavored water.
There's a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket, water, but, without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt, that's your flavored water.
New Rule: Stop screwing with old people.
Target is introducing a redesigned pill bottle that's square, with a bigger label. And the top is now the bottom. And by the time grandpa figures out how to open it, his ass will be in the morgue.
Congratulations, Target, you just solved the Social Security crisis.
New Rule: I'm not the cashier!
By the time I look up from sliding my card, entering My PIN number, pressing 'Enter,' verifying the amount, deciding, no, I don't want Cash back, and pressing 'Enter' again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy.
New Rule: Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you Spiritual.
It's right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to 'beef with broccoli.' The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just high.
New Rule: Competitive eating isn't a sport.
It's one of the seven deadly sins. ESPN recently televised the US Open of Competitive Eating, because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting. What's next, competitive farting? Oh wait, they're already doing that. It's called 'The Howard Stern Show.'
New Rule : I don't need a bigger mega M&Ms.
If I'm extra hungry for M&Ms, I'll go nuts and eat two.
New Rule:If you're going to insist on making movies based on crappy old television shows, then you have to give everyone in the Cineplex a remote so we can see what's playing on the other screens.
Let's remember the reason something was a television show in the first place is that the idea wasn't good enough to be a movie.
New Rule: When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to hear '27 months.'
'He's two' will do just fine. He's not a cheese.
And I didn't really care in the first place.
New Rule: If you ever hope to be a credible adult and want a job that pays better than Minimum wage, then for God's sake don't pierce or tattoo every available piece of flesh.
If so, then plan your future around saying, 'Do you want fries with that?
(Note: these aren't for the timid!)
New Rule: No more gift registries.
You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it's for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. Picking out the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving, it's the white people version of looting.
New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for classmates.com!
There's a reason you don't talk to people for 25 years.
Because you don't particularly like them! Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days --- mowing my lawn.
New Rule: Don't eat anything that's served to you out a window unless you're a seagull.
People are acting all shocked that a human finger was found in a bowl of Wendy's chili. Hey, it cost less than a dollar. What did you expect it to contain? Lobster?
New Rule: Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged.
I have a better description for these kids: 'Lucky bastards.'
New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone.
Here's how much men care about your eyebrows:
Do you have two of them? Good, we're done.
New Rule: There's no such thing as flavored water.
There's a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket, water, but, without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt, that's your flavored water.
New Rule: Stop screwing with old people.
Target is introducing a redesigned pill bottle that's square, with a bigger label. And the top is now the bottom. And by the time grandpa figures out how to open it, his ass will be in the morgue.
Congratulations, Target, you just solved the Social Security crisis.
New Rule: I'm not the cashier!
By the time I look up from sliding my card, entering My PIN number, pressing 'Enter,' verifying the amount, deciding, no, I don't want Cash back, and pressing 'Enter' again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy.
New Rule: Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you Spiritual.
It's right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to 'beef with broccoli.' The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just high.
New Rule: Competitive eating isn't a sport.
It's one of the seven deadly sins. ESPN recently televised the US Open of Competitive Eating, because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting. What's next, competitive farting? Oh wait, they're already doing that. It's called 'The Howard Stern Show.'
New Rule : I don't need a bigger mega M&Ms.
If I'm extra hungry for M&Ms, I'll go nuts and eat two.
New Rule:If you're going to insist on making movies based on crappy old television shows, then you have to give everyone in the Cineplex a remote so we can see what's playing on the other screens.
Let's remember the reason something was a television show in the first place is that the idea wasn't good enough to be a movie.
New Rule: When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to hear '27 months.'
'He's two' will do just fine. He's not a cheese.
And I didn't really care in the first place.
New Rule: If you ever hope to be a credible adult and want a job that pays better than Minimum wage, then for God's sake don't pierce or tattoo every available piece of flesh.
If so, then plan your future around saying, 'Do you want fries with that?
Sunday, June 15, 2008
TNOTW
http://home.comcast.net/~singingman7/TNOTW.htm
50,000 names carved in the wall ......
Sung by George Jones.
I didn't know this song existed.
Posted in honor of my friend who was there, and for your friend/family too.
God bless them and keep them.
50,000 names carved in the wall ......
Sung by George Jones.
I didn't know this song existed.
Posted in honor of my friend who was there, and for your friend/family too.
God bless them and keep them.
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