Numb Bum

I'm pretty sure all of us has experienced the sensation of one of our appendages falling asleep. I have woken up in the morning with my hand completely numb and had to start shaking it to get some feeling back in in my fingers.

Cell phones are great for passing the time when you have to wait for something, like a long line if you happen to be in a store and wanting to return something, or waiting in line for your morning cup of coffee, waiting for anything really. They help pass the time really well.

What they really excel at is your bathroom time, no longer do you have to sit staring at the wall listening to your body remove it's waste, but therein lies a problem, the amount of time we spend in the washroom has been expanded by huge margins.

A two minute bathroom break now can be ten minutes to a half an hour depending on what you are doing on your phone, and this is where I bring the title of this blog into focus.  I have sat on the toilet for so long playing on my phone that my butt has fallen asleep.

And not only my butt, my legs and feet have joined the party as well.  I have had to slap my feet on the floor like two dead fishes until I have gotten enough feeling back in them so that I can stand back up and get out of there. I know I'm terrible when the ole bathroom break comes along and now I almost fear it. I don't realize the passage of time when I am engrossed in a time wasting technological marvel that is the cell phone.

Why is it that I can sit in a vehicle for three hours on a long road trip and not a thing goes numb? Give me fifteen minutes in the bathroom and I become a paraplegic from the waist down. It's very annoying but the thought of leaving my phone outside when I use the bathroom is almost impossible to think about. 

What's even worse I that know what I am doing and I know how to fix it but I don't, because it would be inconvenient for me. How sad is that?  I would rather have my ass go numb than be done in the bathroom sooner and avoid  the very uncomfortable feeling of of my appendages falling asleep.

Scott Goerz

Global Warming

Whether you believe global warming is real or a hoax has no bearing on this story,  my own opinion though is that global warming is very real and very much a threat.  There are others out there like me that also believe global warming is a threat but they have the resources to do something about it.

Calcium carbonate, which is the active ingredient in antacids, is a tempting candidate for global cooling because simulations show that it could stay in the air for years as it reflects sunlight. Scientists are going to send a balloon up carrying a mere hundred grams of the stuff and then analyze it with a laser to monitor how much sunlight will be diverted back into space.

I do not like the train of thought with this idea, didn't something similar happen in the matrix?
They were trying to block the sun so that the robots couldn't use solar power to live, it worked, the robots simply adapted and used humans as batteries as a replacement for solar power.

If the planet continues on this course and continues to constantly warm we will be plagued by massive droughts, more frequent extreme weather, and a catastrophic sea level rise that will wipe out entire cities, humans populations will likely suffer due to widespread disease and increased famine.

Yes, it sounds nasty, but how about instead of panicking, and doing something rash like trying to block out the sun, we try an approach that will benefit us all, like an auto trade program where you trade your vehicle in for an all electric model.  We could solar panel the sides of buildings to make extra energy. Make our highways use kinetic energy to make power, or all sidewalks and walkways, the inside of every house, office, arena or mall could harness the power of kinetic energy.

We need to rid our dependency on the things that put carbon into the atmosphere, and it needs to happen yesterday but were going to have to settle for right now.

Scott Goerz.

Creation Is Life

I used to watch my niece and nephews draw pictures when they were small children, the non pattern scribbles and and meaningless lines scrambled across the pages meant nothing to my eyes but in their little heads it was a fascinating artful experience.  I think they must have used every color in the box of crayons they had, just to see what each one looked like.

As they grew their minds decided which colors were the best ones, and the lines drawn on the page became more focused and started to look like objects. This continued on until they reached a certain age and then, stopped.

We all stopped, I think that all of us at one time or another scribbled nonsense on a piece of paper, and continued to do so until we got better at making it look like something but eventually stopped doing it.

Why? There is a certain creativeness we must achieve before we can move on to bigger and better things, I moved on to music, I begged my parents for a guitar and eventually got one. My creativeness had changed from one form of art into another kind.  Some people write poetry, some of us play other instruments, some of us build things from nothing, creating as they go, and some of us need a map to create something another person has dreamed up. 

Creation is life, it defines us, helps us grow, from baking a pie to knitting a scarf to building a cell phone.  If we didn't create anything we would have never existed in the first place or probably died out soon after we took our first steps on this planet. If we were never curious enough to make life better for ourselves there would have been no point to living.

Don't ever be afraid to try something new, or to be better than you are, continuing to create and make new memories, or meet new friends can only enhance your life.

Scott Goerz

Eye Of The Beholder

If someone owns a particularly ugly pet, such as a cat or dog, that owner has looked past the visual aspect of the animal and loves it for what it is, not for how it looks.  That person beholds that animal  and sees it in a way no other person does.

The same can be said about people, there are some truly attractive people out there, and we feel envious when we only gaze upon them, or we are speechless with the amount of visual beauty that appeals to our senses. Some of the truly gifted in the looks department have the ugliest inner beauty, and that far outweighs their outer looks unless you happen to be a very shallow person.

It is possible to be both beautiful and ugly at the same time and ugly will beat the beauty every time, when ugly refers to personality.  On the same token an ugly person with a truly beautiful soul and personality, will actually start to become less ugly the more you get to know them. The heart speaks volumes when you start to fall in love with another persons soul.

The first time you meet someone you might be attracted to them based solely on the way they look but after a few minutes of short conversation you will realize that the person that you were attracted to is ugly inside, and no amount of eye candy is going to change that. Most of us stay away from these types of people.

It's easy to say you love someone because of certain things, They treat you good, they love you back, they go out of their way to make sure you are comfortable. Me, Me, Me,  That's all I hear with those statements. You rarely hear someone say they love someone despite certain things. They have a mole, are not very smart, are overweight.  The people that can love someone despite their flaws have seen something deeper in that person to fall in love with.

You are the beholder, and the eyes are yours, don't let someone else tell you what you should see.

Scott Goerz

Young At Heart

My wife and I enjoy a little gaming when we have some down time together, we are in our 40s although my wife doesn't look it.  We are currently into games that expend a little energy as well, as in they make you sweat.  Some might say these games are for kids but I disagree, Games can expand the imagination and even sometimes teach you things you didn't know about yourself, games are for anyone who is young at heart, it doesn't matter how old you are.

I downloaded a virtual reality game called Astrobot,  you are a cute humanoid robot that must traverse levels saving his little friends that are scattered throughout the level, sometimes hidden from view.  My wife is in love with this tiny android and it's easy to see why, from the little noises he makes and the way he waves directly at you when he gets close it would be hard not to smile and appreciate the character that the programmers have made.

When you play virtual reality, you are in the game, it is not like looking at a tv screen at all. In VR, everything around you no matter where you turn your head or look is completely in another dimension and it's hard not to lose yourself when you are in it.  I love the game as well, it is very cleverly designed and when playing it you sometimes have to stand up or look straight down to find out where to go or to look for little lost robots to save.

Another game we have fallen in love with is the new beat saber game, also in virtual reality. This game makes you sweat so much you have to wipe the headset off afterwards with a rag. In this game you stand up and hold two very accurate light sabers, one red and one blue. Blocks of the same color of each saber come at you with arrows on them indicating where to strike them, they come at you with the very addicting beat of multiple songs that are extremely catchy and you find yourself humming the song long after you have stopped playing.

This game actually makes you exercise and enjoy yourself immensely while you are in it. Working out has never been so fun and enjoyable, it is fun and also extremely challenging especially in the later levels, but the better your physical motor skills are the better you will do and practice makes perfect, this game will make you want to practice all the time.

My wife and I played Beat Saber for about 5 hours the other night, taking turns and letting the other person rest while we tried to get past the levels, we each cheered the other person on as they finally beat a level we were stuck on.  You don't have to be a child to enjoy a cool video game, you just have be young at heart.

Scott Goerz

School Bus Beasts

You can watch videos online of school buses stopped to let their children out.  The stop sign on the side of the bus is out, the strobe on top if the bus is flashing, and the doors are open. People in their ignorance still pass the bus while it's stopped, letting your children out. If you watch the videos, you will see that there are quite a few near misses from cars hitting the kids. School bus passing

I don't know if it's only an issue of sheer ignorance, or is it the fact that more and more people don't know the laws?  Do we have drivers out there that can't read our English language?  That is still no excuse, the red and white octagonal sign is impossibly hard not to recognize, it's in just about every country, and you don't need to read it to understand it's meaning.

I have an idea, we retrofit all school buses with a photo radar stop camera that activates when the stop sign on the bus is out, if you pass it, it will take a photo of your vehicle and you will be fined for failure to stop for a school bus, not for failure to to stop at a stop sign.  Your first offence is 400.00, the second time it's 2000.00 That will put a stop to the people passing school buses that are letting children off. 

While I'm on the topic of school buses there is another issue that needs to be brought to attention. 

It is the law to wear a seat belt in all vehicles, and up to a certain age you have to use a booster seat belt, but not on school buses.  Does this seem incredibly stupid to everyone else besides me?  There should be seat belts on every bus, let alone just school buses. How about the buses that take people long distances to work once a week?  All vehicles should have a seat belt.  ALL of them.  I wonder how many more people would have survived the Humboldt crash had they been wearing safety belts?

I hate wearing a seat belt, but I grew up in an era where it wasn't a law yet.  I wear my seat belt, hate it or not, it gets put on. (Mostly because the alarm drives me nuts) but I still put it on, and nowadays I feel like something is missing if I don't have it on. It is a proven fact that seat belts actually have saved more lives than not wearing one.  If you have any arguments against this fact you are seriously uninformed and will lose said argument.

Stop for the school bus, get some seat belts in those things, and put yours on. Enough Said.

Scott Goerz

Lazy Next Generation?

When I was growing up and did something wrong I got a spanking, it was a punishment to make me very aware of my bad choices. I got a lot of spankings. Later on it was groundings, in which I basically never got to leave the house for a year, then it gravitated to extra chores that had to be completed. I did resent these decisions my parents put in place but it did teach me how to work, and work hard.

Later on, when I joined the workforce on my own, I got yelled at, put down, swore at, and degraded as I learned what I was supposed to do, and how it had to be done properly. I adopted this type of training when I had to teach fresh new workers that came to work on the job.  If they couldn't handle the pressure of the job and the derogatory remarks then they either quit or got fired. You couldn't be soft in my line of work, you had to be able to get the job done under duress and if you were weak minded or lazy you wouldn't have a job very long.

The world has changed since that time, and now we have rules and regulations against treating people a certain way, and the next generation coming into adulthood is a softer weaker type of person. They don't fail classes, they don't get spankings, they don't learn discipline, and they get away with a lot more than I used to.

It's for this reason that I thought they were a lazy generation, and our world would be worse off for it.  I'm sure my parents and their parents before them thought the exact same things as I do about the future generation of children turned adult. But just like in every new era the world changes and continues to change.

The work is different, and it's no longer just a purely physical or mental type of work force out there anymore. Now we have robots that do a lot of our menial tasks for us. I think about all the graphics, blogs, websites, app creation, YouTube videos, snap chat photos, opinion articles, self help, medical advice and a whole slew of new and innovative idea stemming from the internet alone, creating jobs for millions when there was a limited amount before the internet came into existence.  

The generation I thought was lazy is actually a huge force out there, brimming with new ideas and concepts for design innovation that goes far beyond simply going to work every day.   It's a love of what they do, and it shows with all the new products and ideas out there.

Maybe the next generation isn't as lazy as I thought and perhaps there is hope for us yet.

Scott Goerz

Destroying An Epic Story

The First Ghostbusters movie was an instant classic the day it was released, it has become some families yearly Christmas movie, but the sequel to it was not as big of a success, and neither has anything been before it.  The last Ghostbusters movie was an epic failure, it was a movie that wanted to capitalize on the name only and not live up to the expectation of its fans.

The Ghostbusters movie was not the only one to fall to crappy sequels that couldn't live up to the hype.  The predator movies fell to this scenario as well, with the first movie being a hit and the rest of them slowly getting worse with each reiteration. 

What I can't figure out is that when you have a great show with incredible ideas and a well written story, why can't a proper sequel that builds upon the first movie be better than the original and push the story even further.  This almost never seems to happen and I think it's because the second movie is looking for a free ride, and expects to be a hit just because the first one was.

This has been a trend since the first television was invented and for some reason nobody has learned from the mistakes of the past because they keep repeating themselves over and over.

Some sequels are on the horizon, a new Avatar movie in in the works, and I'm hopeful that it will do the first movie justice and not be an action packed shit show that just wants to build upon the success of its predecessor.  I'm hoping that the producers are taking the time to expand upon an already great story.

The infinity war 2 is another movie I am impatiently waiting for,  Marvel has done an excellent job of keeping the continuity in their movies, even going as far as linking them all together, an incredible feat in my opinion.

Hopefully the cash cow era of using another movie's success to make money on a terrible sequel is over and some people down in Hollywood  have learned their lesson from the new examples out there.  This is me being naive I think.

Scott Goerz

Finish What You Started

How many times have you been excited about a task and couldn't wait to start it, only to find out half way through that it's not as fun as you thought it would be?  Eventually you get frustrated enough that you quit or give up, and all that time and effort has gone to waste.

Quitting is different than giving up, when you decide to quit, you are making a conscience decision to stop what you are doing, you have weighed the pros and cons and come to the conclusion that what you are doing is not worth it anymore.  When you give up, you have exhausted your mental and physical boundaries, you are confused and stressed out with no idea on how to proceed, so you stop doing it altogether.  Quitting is always better than giving up.

If you have decided to do something new and completely foreign to you but you are still excited to try, then don't take on a huge task, do something smaller and easier to get a feel for it, if you can do that you are more likely to succeed than if you were to take on a larger task.  If I wanted to build a house and have never done it before, maybe I would try to build a small shed first, to see how that would go before I tried my hand at a full blown house.

Give yourself and end date.  No one wants to start something that never ends, and it doesn't have to be a large project either.  It could be something as simple as a diet, in which you are going to do it for a month, to see if its working or not and to say you completed your task.

The more times you can complete many different tasks, the more likely you be open to try new ones, and you will also be more likely to try bigger and bolder things.

Most of us always want to start with the biggest most complex project, something that might make us money and pushes the limits of our resources but it usually comes at a high price when we can't finish or get overwhelmed.

KISS= Keep it simple stupid. This phrase is paramount when starting something new. Start small, keep it simple, affordable, and well within your abilities to finish it. If you can do that you almost always will.

Scott Goerz

Dogs Are Like Kids

We have three dogs, and we love each one equally. They are our children or should I say our babies. With time and patience we have raised our dogs to be the dogs they can be.  Some people get upset when we compare dogs to children, they take offence and scoff when we use that comparison.  I'd like to give a few examples.

If you have children you know that when they are babies you have to watch them carefully when they are roaming around, their motor skills are weak and they don't know how to control themselves properly.  Same with puppies, you make sure they can't go down stairs or fall off a higher area such as a chair or bed.

You have to watch what they put in their mouths, a baby and a puppy will eat just about anything they find on the floor or anything you might leave lying around, they could choke on it, or swallow something that could be poisonous or hard to come out the other end. 

You have to make sure they play well with others,  there are no fights, and they know that they have to share their toys or play with them with other kids or dogs without any hostile intentions.  We have to correct these behaviors so that they don't get out of control as they get older.

We are constantly worried when we leave the house and take them somewhere, we want to know where they are and what they are doing, we make sure they don't go somewhere they are not supposed to go.

We make sure they are healthy, if any problems arise we have no issues taking them to the doctors, or the vet.  I have no problem dropping everything I am doing if I see my dog limping or in pain or in any kind of danger.  I make sure my dogs are healthy and in good shape.

We love them unconditionally, they are part of our lives and they love us back, we snuggle with them, have pride in them, and show them off to our friends and family.  I love my dogs but just because I love them does not mean I spoil them, I teach them right from wrong, Loving does not equal spoiling.

Here we are at the end of the page, I hope you enjoyed some of my reasons why dogs are like kids.

Scott Goerz

Worrying About The Words

Why do we have people in this world that have to take a name of something to extremes?  Why are they worried about the name of something that might be considered offensive?  A word in and of itself cannot be deemed offensive, it is only a word. How someone interprets that word is reliant upon the person.

The Edmonton Eskimos, is getting a lot of grief because of the name Eskimo, it is being referred to as a racist slang and is considered offensive. To whom, I wonder?  Which person or party is taking offence to the title of a football team? There is no one that I have talked to that finds it offensive in any way, and as a matter of fact, there are people out there who are taking offence that the name Eskimo is being put into question in the first place.

Are we so weak minded that the mere name of anything could invoke a rising up from certain parties that claim it is an insult to bear such a name?  Is it really necessary to open up a political debate that costs time and money to change the name in question?  The Washington Redskins is another example, and people are getting their hackles up because the implies some sort of racist tendencies.  The Washington Redskin team itself holds that name with honor and pride, and have never had a racist thought about it. Why now?  Why is it coming out now that it is considered offensive and not when the name was first announced? 

There are some names in which I can understand renaming for the sake of humanity, such as mankind has been changed to humankind, to apply to everyone and not just men.  I think it gets taken to far when you want to change the name of a manhole cover to personhole cover for the same reason, we have to let some things go.

If this trend continues on then no name will be safe and it will set a precedent that anyone can claim if they find it offensive, someone could say that the name Apollo as referred to in the space capsule, is a religious figure in a religion that they do not follow or agree with, and therefore deemed offensive.

It's ridiculous! This sort of neanderthal way of thinking needs to be squashed as soon as it comes up.  We are at the point where we can't have Christmas anymore and instead have to call it a happy holiday because the former is insulting to other races and cultures.  We need to stop pandering to this type of bullying. Call it what ever you want but telling me I have to change it is wrong.  If you have a problem with something it is your problem, not mine or anyone else's.

Scott Goerz

I Can't Do It.

This statement really gets under my skin when you ask someone if they can do something, but before they even try they give up and claim that they can't do it.  How could you possibly know if you can or can not do something if you have never even tried.

I think that it's more of a case of I don't want to do it so I'm going to say that I can't so that I don't even have to try. If you are on a job and you tell your worker to go do a task and they look at you with a blank stare for a moment and then claim that they can't do it without even trying they probably wouldn't last very long and get themselves fired.

Another possibility could be that they are too scared to try and afraid that they could hurt themselves, which is totally understandable, but still could be done with proper guidance and supervision, but I have had someone tell me they think something is dangerous as an excuse to get out of working.  Example: Take the plastic caps off of wires after the power is off, fear of electrocution.  You can't get electrocuted when there is no power.

Another example of the, "I can't do it excuse." is when you have done something before but have only done it one way. You are comfortable doing something in a way that you know and feel comfortable with, even if it takes a really long time and is inefficient and unnecessary. Letting go of the old way and learning a new way is unfamiliar and uncomfortable so you would rather do it in a way that you know rather than learn something new.

I have fallen victim to this scenario many times, but lately I have been trying things a different way and been extremely happy with the new better way.  I should have changed it a long time ago but I was stubborn and did not even want to try. I am so thankful that I gave it a chance.

Don't give up before you even try, Don't look at something new and think of the work involved and convince yourself that you can't do it. Try it, then come to a decision if you want to continue doing it the old way or the new way. You may even surprise yourself.

Scott Goerz

Be The Bigger Person

There is something to be said about being the better person when it comes to your actions when confronted with insult or injury. Some of us like to think that a tit for tat attitude should be implemented when someone else hurts our feelings or does an injustice to our person.  They hurt me, so I am going to hurt them back to get even.

To me this mentality is very much akin to junior high school tactics and is considered very childish in nature. For some reason, that response never leaves some of us and continues on into adulthood.  That person cut me off do I'm going to speed up and cut them off, that person said something rude to me, so I'm going to be rude back.

I don't believe in sinking to that person's level.  If what they have done is considered so indignant and rude to me, why would I want to emulate that behavior?  I don't want to become a person that I wouldn't want to associate with. 

To seek revenge against someone else is a never ending cycle that continues to repeat itself, nothing will ever get solved by doing it and it could lead to a dangerous consequence down the road.  If you are in a situation where someone is constantly getting on your nerves, don't bother trying to get back at them, but instead get rid of them.

Don't associate with them, don't plot and scheme, don't watch them and wait for them to screw up so you can point out their flaw.  Don't bother with them at all and go on with your life without worry. Don't become the thing you despise.

Be the bigger person, get yourself some think skin and don't let someone who acts like a child get the better of you. If you can do that, you will find yourself happier and in a better mood most of the time.

Scott Goerz 

A Good Driver?

I don't know about you, but almost everyone I meet thinks they are a great driver. They brag about their skills, and even boast about how much better at driving they are, when under the influence of a substance than other people out there.

What makes a good driver?  I remember in my 20s I thought I was the best driver in the world. Now that I'm in my forties, I don't consider myself good or bad, the fact that I can make it from one place to next and not die in either direction tells me that my driving skills are adequate. And I hope that when I do travel to and from destinations that I am not causing accidents from cutting off other drivers and driving like an ass.

After listening to stories form groups of people who claim to the very best drivers in the city, a thought occurred to me, maybe we have to tell ourselves that we are great drivers when we are younger to give us the confidence to get behind the wheel and know that we are not going to kill someone or ourselves.

That thought does have some logic to it, but it doesn't explain why someone would claim to be an excellent driver instead of simply a decent one. It could just be the normal exaggeration and over confidence of youth in general.

There are no perfect drivers out there, we all make or have made multiple mistakes on the road, do you signal every single time you turn, change lanes or go faster than the posted speed limit?  No one is a perfect driver.  I believe that, for the most part, most of us are terrible drivers and driving is a larger version of Russian roulette. Every time you get behind the wheel you run the risk of dying and even more so if you are not paying full attention.

It's not only yourself that you have to worry about, it's everybody else on the road that you have to worry about as well.

Scott Goerz

Autonomous Vehicles

Unlike other people, I am excited for the day when we can hop into a vehicle, and tell it where we want to go.  There are a lot of people out there who are totally against this idea, claiming that it's their right to drive, or that autonomous vehicles kill people.

To that I say, so what if a self driving car hits a person, or another car, we do it all the time, and we do it frequently, I would say it happens on a daily basis.  We also go out driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, which is way worse than any self driving car.  I am under the impression that an autonomous vehicle would be less likely to get into an accident, and that the collisions that do happen are on rare occasions.

Where in any autonomous vehicle advertisement does it say that you would not be able to control the vehicle?  It's also my impression that there will be a manual position where you drive the vehicle yourself if you wanted to.  Nobody has a problem getting a cab or an Uber, you jump in the back seat and tell the driver where to go, and you hope that the driver actually knows how to drive even though you have never met them before that moment.  You will let a complete stranger drive you around but not a computer driven car.

I look forward to the day when I could get into my vehicle, tell it where to go, and lay back and have a snooze.  If it's a particularly long trip, I could watch a movie, read a book or play a game.  How nice would that be?

No more road rage drivers, people driving like idiots, or impaired drivers to deal with. You could go out for the evening and have as many drinks as you want and let your car drive you home.  Sounds like an all around good idea to me. If you ever want to enjoy the drive yourself, put the car in manual and knock your socks off. 

I imagine that there will be autonomous only areas where you are not allowed to manually drive, and other areas where you will have to manually drive. 

Love it or hate it, one thing is for certain, autonomous vehicles are almost mainstream forms of transportation and it's only a matter time before we see them all over our streets. You can fight it, or sit back and enjoy the ride.

Scott Goerz

Helping Out And Getting Paid

I like helping out.  If one of my friends or family members needs a hand with a project I enjoy doing the work and spending time with them. I do not need money to help them.
I appreciate some food after the work is done, or maybe some beers on a hot day but in no way do I demand it and have it as a stipulation for my help.

I do have a different view on helping out a friend who has a business and needs an extra hand for a day.  My view on this subject is that if the person I'm helping out is making money on the job we are doing, I expect that some of it should come my way as well.  Yes we are friends, but helping out a friend in need is different from helping out a friend in need in their business is a different story altogether.

Why should your friend pocket all the money they made with your help?  They expect you to work for free because they helped you move last year?  Did you make any money while moving and not share the wealth with your buddy? No, you did not.
A favor is just that, helping out with no expectation other than they should help you out when you need it.

If I make money doing a job with the help of a friend I called in, I make sure that some of that money ends up in their pocket. I don't call it a repayment of a favor or that they owed me for something I helped them out with in the past when they needed it, so I don't have to pay them.

Business and friendship need to be separated, you do not let a friendship affect a business or vice versa. When you help someone on a job you have to put your friendship on the back burner while you are doing that job. The most important person on a job is the customer, and making sure that they are happy.  If they are not, chances are that you won't be making any money from them in the future.

There are exceptions to every rule, and if you and your friend have come to an agreement before the job then of course that will work too, but don't try to come to an agreement after the work is done, that will just come out as an argument and turn nasty. One or both of you will harbor some resentment.

Once you pay someone for something there is nothing owed afterwards, you are even.

Scott Goerz

What Am I Doing?

I question myself all the time. Why am I up so late? Why don't I drink more water? Where did I put that thing? Am I losing my mind?  I also tell myself that I should or should not be doing something but for some reason it almost never happens.  I should exercise more, I should quit smoking, I shouldn't eat these chips before bed, I shouldn't have more coffee. 

The worst part of asking myself these questions is I almost never listen to them. I don't heed my own advice. I know it's for my own good but I have always been a bit of a rebel. 

The worst part of asking yourself a question is when you actually have no idea what you are doing to begin with but you are in the middle of it, you have started something and realize at that moment that perhaps what you are doing is either unsafe or just plain wrong, or you are in a sort of hypnotic state, going through the motions and you suddenly snap out of it. 

One morning I woke up groggy as a person could be and still moving around, my mind needed coffee but it wasn't actually giving directions and my body was kind of moving on its own. In a daze I took the coffee can out of the cupboard it normally is located and put it in with the coffee mugs while taking a mug out of the cupboard, then I pulled out the filters, opened the cupboard to look for the coffee can. I probably stood there for ten minutes looking into the cupboard before I finally snapped back into full consciousness. 

What the hell am I doing?  I closed the cupboard removed the old filter, washed out everything and then went back to the cupboard to get the coffee can. To my dismay the can was not there and I had no idea where it was.  I looked everywhere I thought my wife might have put the coffee, and I was get angrier by the second. Eventually, I completely gave up, and started to put things away, including my coffee cup. 

I opened the cupboard for the mugs and saw the coffee can in there and stood dumbfounded for a few seconds. Then I laughed at my own stupidity (and mentally apologized to my wife.)   I have done this type of thing to myself before, I have put screwdrivers in knife drawers, sugar in the refrigerator, milk in the cupboard, and a ton of the type of things like that continuously throughout my life. 

 If only I could ask myself "What am I doing?" sooner, it would alleviate all that stress later. If someone could tell me how to do that, it would be greatly appreciated. 

I made my coffee cleaned up my mess and smiled inwardly as I took my first sip. 

Scott Goerz

Inner Thoughts

Most of us that are in a relationship have days that are up and down, one day you are feeling good and the next day you don't. Some factors that affect your mood could be work, kids, your significant other, and friends drama. 

Trying to balance a consistent mood throughout your relationship is hard, and most of the time we tend to blame other issues for our problems. My boss pissed me off today, traffic was stressing, the kids are too noisy, we have no money to pay bills and get groceries. 

Have you ever looked inward at how you react to things, how you handle situations, how stubborn you can be, and what specifically is your fault and yours alone. Do you take responsibility for your own actions and what sort of impact it has on your relationship?

After you have found some things that could be harmful to your happiness, what do you do to change it or can you change yourself at this point.  Some of us have this notion in our heads that a relationship has to be a certain way, and when it isn't we fight back to make it the way we envisioned.

I am constantly looking inward at my own flaws, and wonder if I am putting undue stress on my wife to conform to my way of thinking. She is her own person and has her own thoughts and feelings and while we agree on many things I think it's healthy to disagree to a certain level.  It makes you stop and re-evaluate your own opinion sometimes, and then either realize that you were wrong or confirm that you were correct.  That sort of disagreement can actually make you stronger as a couple, as long as there is no animosity in the disagreement.

No one likes to admit when they are wrong, that's why looking in and evaluating your personal opinions and actions is such a great thing, the only person you have to admit them to is yourself, and you can change yourself for the better and no one has to know but you.

Scott Goerz

TV Show Shenanigans

We use be able to watch a tv season once a year with some sort of cliff hanger ending compelling us to impatiently wait for the next season.  The episodes for each season usually were around fifteen to twenty four episodes per season.

Then the walking dead came out, and at first it followed that criteria, until it became really popular and someone on the marketing side decided to cut a season in half and then give the viewer a two part season for the year. 

Soon after that other popular tv series adopted that same method and it has been going downhill from that point.  Now we get five episodes per year and have to wait three years for new material? What the hell has happened here? 

Game of Thrones is the absolute worst culprit for this type of marketing, and why is that? It all boils down to money, between seasons of the show being on the air, toys are being sold, costumes, books, higher resolution copies of older episodes, and merchandise of all types is being sold while we the viewer wait for the next season of a whopping 5 episodes with more to come three years later.

Its despicable greed that we have to wait for, and it's setting the new standard for television programming.  I imagine in the very near future where all our shows are online, or set into a digital interface from your cable company, that we will have to pay for each episode separately, and depending on the show and it's popularity that price will go up.

The viewers are being bled dry financially and soon it's going get worse, I'm tired of being seduced into paying more for a service I already pay for.  What's even worse is that they know you have no defense against it.  I am one of those suckers that will watch Game of Thrones when it gets released, and if it boiled down to paying five dollars per episode extra, I can't say that I wouldn't do it.

There should be some sort of regulatory system in place that stops these companies from gouging the viewer.

Scott Goerz

A Laugh A Day

I used to look for the humor in what I was doing or where I was. Something I can make a joke out of and get others to laugh but over the years that perception has seemed to have left me and I find myself searching for the joke once again.

Laughter increases your mood, it actually makes you feel better in the long run, if you can find something to laugh about once a day then you will be so much better off than someone who doesn't. 

When I say laughter I mean laughter, not lol on a text or a fading smile.  A right from the gut bellow that you can feel throughout your whole body, and you will remember that laugh and why you laughed that hard for a long time after because it affected you so perversely.  Remembering what was so funny is as important as feeling the sensation to begin with. You can bring back the laughter from remembering what had happened.

When I would go to the mall I really used to get a kick out big burly men sitting in a woman's clothing store holding their girlfriends purse while the girl tried on clothing. The look on their face was priceless. I can relate to it as well as I have also been a guy in a clothing store holding my wife's purse on many occasion.

I've always had a bit of morbid humor in what I've thought was funny, but I think a lot of us do, especially when we witness someone else hurting themselves by slipping on the ice, or falling off a horse, the impact is even funnier if it happens to be one of our friends.  I'm not totally heartless, I don't want my friend to be badly hurt, I think it's the loss of composure and some of their pride that gets me laughing. The look on their face afterwards.

Somewhere along the line I have become too...adult, I guess you could call it. Too serious about situations and people. I overthink almost everything and that stops me from simply enjoying myself.  At some point in my life I have been slowly burying my inner child and it's time to dig him out and clean him off, and make sure it doesn't happen again. 

A laugh a day will keep the blues away.

Scott Goerz

Understanding A Documentary (Making a Murderer)

I watched making a murderer on Netflix, the first season and the second. In the first season it gave you both sides of the story and let you the viewer decide for yourself if you thought the guy was innocent or guilty.  It had facts that it showed and didn't offer up its own opinions to influence yours. It was a very well received show.

In the second season it is very one sided, and leans very hard to the fact that Steven Avery is innocent, and as a viewer it is almost impossible to to come to any other conclusion other than that he is innocent from the tests shown and the evidence found.

It's in my opinion that he is is innocent, for no other reason than he isn't smart enough to plan this complicated web of lies and deceit designed to fool authorities.  He isn't smart enough to frame the police to make it look like they framed him.

His nephew is the same story, this kid is mentally challenged and I think the police could get him to confess that he had visited the moon and talked to aliens if they wanted him to.

Any documentary can sway your opinion if it is one sided, meaning that they only show one side of the story. As a viewer you have to realize that this is happening and take that into account before you make an informed decision to believe it or not.

I despise these types of documentaries, I want the whole story, I want both arguments and all the facts available from both sides, that is what makes a great documentary and is why the first Making a Murderer was so successful.

When I was much younger I watched a documentary on how the earth was slowly moving away from the sun, and in time, the whole planet would be unable to sustain life and humanity would be dead.  That scared the hell out of me, and I feared the day when that was going to happen. 

While that documentary had some truth to it, it did not give me all the facts. I found out much later the whole story. If that documentary had given out all the information, I wouldn't have lived in fear for those few years in my youth. If that documentary had explained that while this was slowly happening, it would literally take millions of years before we would ever be in danger, I would have had all the facts and been smarter for it.

The news does this, reporters, media in general. You only get one side of the information and therefore you opinion is flawed when you voice it.  I'm not a trump supporter, but I do know it's a rare occasion when the news shows him doing a good deed. All they show is him being a moron, so naturally everyone thinks he is a moron.  I'm sure there has to be another side we are not seeing.

With all the media out there, we have to take some time to know if we are getting the whole story or not, if we can do that we will all be smarter for it. 

Scott Goerz

Food From Strangers

Have you ever been over to a friends house or a strangers house and they push their food into your face ? It's weird that you have never been to that place before and the people that live there want you to sample their food.

I can understand if they were gourmet chefs that owned their own restaurant but let's face it, that is probably the most unlikely scenario imaginable. 

My parents tried to teach me the politeness you should have when you are in someone else's place. Respect them and their home, be courteous, and mind your manners.  What happens though when you are presented when a horror like scenario?  The owner of the house brings out their two day old tuna and ham tater tot casserole that they want you to eat so that they can get rid of it.

There is a level of politeness you should have but when is it ok to draw the line and say no thank you as politely as possible?  I don't think anyone should push their food on you the first time you are in their place let alone old leftovers that they themselves don't want to eat.  Old people are the worst for this.

Thank goodness for grandmothers and grandfathers, I have rarely met a mean granny from another family and they are always smiling and love to please their company.  But there is a twisted side to these people, they love to fatten us up, and don't get me wrong some of them are amazing cooks, but there is an exception and a few of them are truly horrible in the kitchen and I pity the victim that ends up in her domain.

I'm a picky eater to begin with, I like certain things cooked certain ways, I'm not a veggie fan, and hate fat of any kind, when I eat any type of meat it has to be cooked thoroughly with no pink parts indicating rawness. I'm also at the wonderful age where I have no problems refusing to eat something and feeling bad afterwards.  But I do have a feeling that I am not welcome in certain peoples homes because of my bluntness. Some people get insulted when you don't eat their food.

I was at my friends parents house and his parents were dutch or something, and his mother had cooked up a nice big batch of blood pudding. (Don't know what that is? Google it.)  At first I respectfully declined her offer for me to have a bowl. But she was not going to take no for an answer, and she kept on me with the why not, and just try, routine. I stuck to my guns and held firm with a continuous no thank you and no thank you ma'am. But she was relentless in her efforts and kept pushing me to eat it. I swear I could hear her husband in the next room giggling like a little school girl.  Finally I got upset and said it smelled like an old boot with a chopped off foot still inside of it, she didn't seem to understand what I was saying so I gave her another similar insult referring it to how a crotch of a vulture must smell.  She got the point then.

Needless to say, I didn't stay long after that and I avoid that house as if it were infected with the black plague,  I am relieved that I am not welcome over there as well. If I have to pick up my friend I wait in the car.

Don't offer food to a stranger unless it's planned that you are having them over for dinner, and keep your meals simple, something that everyone knows what it is when it is mentioned.  Like spaghetti or something similar.

Scott Goerz

Cloning

I was reading an article about cloning, and at the beginning it wasn't talking about whole body cloning it was on the topic of cloning your heart or liver or any other internal body part that you need to survive.  The problem with this process at the moment is that it has to be grown in another living animal, such as a pig.

I wonder why we would have to use another animal as a sacrifice to save ourselves.  It reminded me of the cultist groups that exist and they sacrifice a chicken or a goat in order to live a longer life. I have also read that scientists have created an artificial womb and can use it if a baby is born premature to save its life.

If they can make an artificial womb then why not grow the cloned body part in this type of environment? It would eliminate having to use a live animal as a test subject, and I imagine it could be reused over and over to grow different parts for numerous people.

The article then went on to talk about whole body cloning using a vat of hormones, steroids, peptides, and other things needed to recreate a human body, and it would start in the womb environment but later be transferred to an area where it could continue to grow, it would be completely lifeless and its, brain dormant.

The purpose of this clone would be for you to eventually take over its body after they have perfected the task of downloading your brain.  Yes, this seems far fetched to me but apparently they are working on a technology for this exact purpose and they have some of it figured out.

The idea of it sounds interesting, you are old and feeble, blind and deaf, you now have the option to die or have your brain downloaded into your clones brain and you continue your life in a 20 year old body that is an exact replica of who you once were.  I don't think even star trek could make this up.

The actual future of of species is turning out to be wilder than any of our tv shows or movies.

Scott Goerz

Useless Information

I met a friend of mine for lunch one time, and while we were talking someone he knew approached us and started chatting, it was kind of ignorant and he didn't seem to care that we were in the middle of a conversation and he started telling us about his life story.

While trying to listen to this buffoon, which was really quite difficult, he kept dropping names of the people in his story, their first and last names and where he knew them from. It was like a phone book had started reading its pages.  This made the conversation almost impossible to listen to, the guy kept pausing trying to remember a name or a place that was supposed to be relevant to his story.

I gritted my teeth as he babbled on, stringing more and more pieces of useless information together, I wondered if he thought this tactic was adding credibility to his story. I sat patiently, my mind ignoring what he was saying as I focused on the posters on the wall of the restaurant.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse he started listing off the types and years of the vehicles that the people owned in his story.

He blurted out a few vehicles and years before I lost my mind and stopped him mid sentence, "Does this story have a point?"  I asked as I cut him off and caught him off guard at the same time. He looked at me completely stunned, and was silent for a second, so I proceeded to tell him that the friend I was with hadn't seen each other for a while and we wanted to catch up before we had to go our separate ways and basically told him to piss off in the nicest way I could.

My friend had a broad smile on his face as his arrogant acquaintance walked back to the other side of the restaurant. He leaned in close and said "Thank you, I hate that guy."  I shook my head and we both laughed.

The guy who was telling the story put in so much useless information that it made whatever tale he was trying to spit out completely irrelevant. It was annoying and made both my friend and I uncomfortable.  If he had stuck to the basics of his story and got to the root of the matter maybe he would have more friends and people wouldn't avoid him.

I don't care who Bob Johnson and his ruby red 1986 Grand Prix is, I do not know the person therefore do not care that you do.   Keep your useless information to yourself unless someone specifically asks you for it.

Scott Goerz

I Call Bullsh*t

After listening to someone who is clearly lying to me, that little voice inside my head will tell me to either leave the conversation as soon as possible or call this guy out on his lie.  It's at that point that I weigh my options and try to decide if it's worth it to start up a confrontation or to walk away and never talk to that person again.

It depends on the situation I guess, but I do think we should all call out someone who is clearly trying to fool us by lying about just about everything that comes out of their mouth.  It is not just about us when someone is lying, it's also about that person getting away with their lie and continuing on their way, lying to everyone they meet.

When you meet someone and they are wearing a jacket that they bought in the 80s and their clothes have the odd food stain on them, and they tell you that their Ferrari is in the shop getting a nitrous kit installed in it, it's time to ask some questions."Oh, you have a Ferrari, where did you buy it?"  "How much did it cost?"  "What shop is it in?"  "When is it going to be finished?"  "What are you driving now?"  "Where do you work?"

I guarantee this person is going to stumble on these questions unless they actually have a Ferrari.  The work question is great because if they say they work at McDonalds you know they are full of shit.  If they claim to work at a large corporation as the senior accountant this is also bullshit.  You could ask more questions but at this point just say that you don't believe them and walk away.

Some people are impressed if they meet someone who is well off and has the toys to prove it, other people prey on this knowledge and pretend to be big shots themselves. I am not impressed with braggarts and will not waste my time with them and it doesn't matter how much money you have. 

Not every lie is about money, some lies are to invoke pity, so that others are nicer to them. It doesn't matter who or what it is about, what matters is that someone is trying to take advantage of you in some way and it needs to stop.  We get lied at in order for someone to sell us something, or to feel sorry for them, or to be impressed and envy them, but if we all stood up these types of people and said "I call Bullshit." Maybe the world would be a better place.

Scott Goerz

No Destiny

I have a real hard time with someone who believes that the path they are on in life is their destiny.  I do believe we all have a certain skill that surpasses the normal standard of the average human.  We can all read but some of us can read faster and understand what we are reading better than another person. 

When you do something you are good at and can make money while doing it, some people might say that you were destined to to that specific task because you have a natural affinity for it.  One might argue that everyone has a certain thing that they were meant to do, they need to find out what that is and harness their ability.  Some people never do figure it out, so they don't fulfill their destiny? 

I would consider that not destiny then.  I don't believe that there is a set path for any one person and a destiny to fulfill.  If I did actually believe that such a thing existed I would be very displeased with the powers that be for deciding how my life is going to turn out. 

Who decides if a child should live or die?  Who decides that one person gets cancer and another does not? What deity would deny a couple to have children?  Why live at all if everything is laid out in front of you while you follow that path to the end?  There is no choice with that option, and nothing you do can change that path.

If you want to believe in something, believe in yourself and your own abilities. If you want to believe in a higher power, then believe that that higher power already gave you all the skills you need in life to get yourself where you want to be, it is up to you to use them. 

There is no set path for any of us, there is no destiny. There is only your will to get where you want to go with the skills you have, it is possible to hone those skills to be much more powerful than what you start with, it is up to you to figure out how. You will meet individuals along the way to help you on whatever path you decide to take.

Scott Goerz

Parent's Lies

Remember asking your parents questions? No matter what you asked them, you believed the answer to be true no matter how ridiculous it was, it was your parents after all and they knew everything.

I remember asking my mother about pimples, and why do we get them, her answer to me was,  because I was growing and still an adolescent, my body was still dealing with hormones but after I have grown up I wouldn't get them anymore, adults don't get pimples.  This answer made a lot of sense to me and I believed her, and while it might hold some truth to it, it is not totally true, I still get pimples.

My father was worse than my mother because he just made stuff up to mess with me I'm sure.  Whenever he would use the barbecue, it never got cleaned and had black charred food stuck to it.  I asked him one day why he left it on there and his answer was that it made the food that was cooked on top of it taste better.  His answer was also collaborated with some of my friends dads as well, so I believed him for a few years.  To this day you will still hear this comment from a few people but the fact of the matter is that it is not true. 

If you don't believe me then there is a way you can have first hand proof yourself.  Simply go over to your barbecue and break off a piece of that black charred food and eat it. Then tell me how good it tasted.

My parents also banded together to fool us kids when we were young. For some reason we started going to church when we never used to.  Every Sunday we would get dressed up and go over to our local catholic church, sing terrible songs and listen to man who clearly liked to hear himself talk.  I absolutely hated it.  This went on for years.

  Long after we had grown up and lived on our own I asked my mother about god and her opinion on the subject. She plain faced told me that she didn't really believe in religion, I gawked at her for a second when she told me this and then I asked her why she made us go to church if she didn't believe in religion and she told me that she thought it would be a good experience for us.

I understand why parents can't tell you the truth about things that are above our mental capabilities when we are younger, that and the fact that maybe we should wait to learn about certain things until we are older.  I always thought it would be funny to mess with kids, but I have come to conclusion that they are much better off with actual facts that make them smarter, not dumber. 

Scott Goerz

Workin Out

We go to work, we come home, eat, rest, watch T.V., play with our kids, clean the house, fix the car, renovate, go to events, visit with friends, visit with family. Who the hell has time to work out?

I have read all the articles about trying to be fit and incorporate it into my routine. You'll often hear this quote, " You will be fit if it's not a choice but a part of your lifestyle."  Oh yes very inspiring, but only if you have no life to begin with.

You can diet, but that only lasts if your are dedicated to it... for the rest of your life. As soon as you stop dieting you go back to the way you were.  Who really wants to do that or live that life? When there is so many food options out there that are all delicious , from snacks to meals to fast food.

The last thing anyone wants to do after busting their ass off all day is go to the gym, unless it's your career and you are a professional athlete.  Most of us don't want or have that kind of life and to to do something when you really don't want to is not going to last very long.

I think that most of us can agree, that if there were a safe pill out there that was proven and effective to maintain your ideal body weight, we would all be using it.  I am tired of seeing all the scams advertised everywhere, from lemon and ginseng juice coupled with starvation, to the equivalent of baking soda and vinegar cocktails, that don't work at all, to the Dr. Ho's electric fat burning torture device and plastic wrapping your body to force it to sweat.

A simple pill that you could take once a week that would solve everyone's problems when it comes to fat loss, it would be simple and effortless and only take a few second out of your life so that you could enjoy the more enjoyable things in life.

Scott Goerz

Population Control

After reading an article with population alarmists, (People who are worried the population is growing out of control) I was initially worried myself. The article explains that food shortages will be a severe problem even if everyone turns into a vegetarian.  It goes on further to say that if we reach 10 billion people on the planet that will be very close to the cap amount, we already have 7.6 billion people living on this planet right now.

China has a one child per family policy, and in some parts of India there are sterilization camps set up and forcibly used on unwilling women in the poorer regions. Everything in the articles I read are all worried that we are nearing the maximum amount of people the world can sustain due to birthing rates and longevity of humans living longer lives.

When I was finished reading these articles I was shocked and was not sure what this world was going to become but then I started thinking for myself and realized that there is something missing from these stories.

If people around the world all had children on the same day and some of them were twins, triplets and so on, the world's population would increase by a substantial amount, wouldn't you agree?  But this recipe is missing an important ingredient, how many people die each day, from natural causes only?  50 million on average,  keep in mind that these are natural deaths, what about unnatural deaths? There apparently isn't a number that can be agreed upon but these include automobile accidents, natural disasters, murders, disease, accidents at home and any other unnatural causes. 

Here is an info-graphic I thought was interesting: Worldometer And: Death clock

The deaths and the births are somewhat close with one cancelling the other out a little.  Obviously the births are more otherwise we wouldn't be gaining in population at all.
The births 75-80 million, the deaths 56 million.

That is my thought of the day I hope you enjoyed it.  

Scott Goerz

On My Nerve Noises

I like driving,  something about it is relaxing, you are doing something and nothing at the same time, the slight vibration from your car as your tires find little discrepancies in the road is like a massage. You can crank your music up and sing along with your favorite songs without the fear of someone hearing you.

Sometimes that relaxing trip you are on can be broken by an odd noise coming from, somewhere.  I'm sure we have been there, we are travelling along and out of the blue we can hear an out of place noise that is random in nature but repetitive, and it starts to drive you crazy.

What the hell is that noise?  That's what you're thinking, and you start to follow the sound with your ears so you can locate it with your eyes.  In my opinion, there are two types of noises,  an unnatural noise and a vehicle noise, meaning one noise is coming from the vehicle itself, and the other is not, that is the first thing my brain processes, is my vehicle breaking down and do I need to stop to see if something is wrong?

The worst type of noise is the one where you are driving alone and there are two glass items in the back banging against each other and there is no way for you to stop them unless you physically stop your car, get out and separate them.  The reason you have to stop your vehicle is that there is no possible way for you to reach those items while driving.  I have tried, believe me.

Another type of noise that really gets me cranky is the type that you know the general location of where it's coming from but you can't visually locate the source, and it only makes the noise while you are in motion and at a certain speed, so if you were to stop and try to find where it was coming from, it would be next to impossible.  You need another person to find it for you, which brings us to the next segment.

That noise that has been driving you nuts for days is finally going to be found and resolved thanks to your wife or buddy, so you think.  You get driving turn the music off and wait for it to start. Finally, that annoying sound rears its ugly head, and in triumph you say "Hear that?" but to your dismay the other person says no.  Try as you might to convince the other person of the noise you hear, they just can't hear it and now, to them, you seem slightly crazy.  You are not crazy, you drive in that vehicle every day and you know the sounds it supposed to make, the passenger has no idea.  You have a decision to make.

Deal with the noise or sell the vehicle, I always wanted a bigger truck....

Scott Goerz