Practice what you preach

The overwhelming urge to let my thoughts spill all over the place is here once again. More on that at My ever so slightly distorted point of view. I'll admit that using KDLG to attract someone to my blog may seem pretty low. Fact of the matter is that if I wanted only my friends to read it, only my friends would have the address.

Ok.  Today the reason for letting it all fly loose is because I'm bothered again by Kathy McLinn's comment saying that I'm 'Anon/DGR.'  I fail to see the connection between anon and myself other than maybe she thinks I'm just trying to pump up my comment numbers.  If this were the case, then I would probably have a blog that's completely peppered with comments.  It is not.  In any case, anonymous commenting has been disabled to prevent this from happening anymore.

Now I'll point out for the second time that I wrote Something more important than Pebble Mine before Kathy McLinn's second comment.  While I may seem like a hypocrite for writing that after saying that the Pebble Mine rally sounds boring, that's all I did was say that it sounds boring.  I didn't do any name calling.  I don't know who was at the meeting.  I don't know what went on other than what Kathy McLinn explained to me.  When I clicked on post comment after saying the rally sounded boring, I had one of those 'oh no, what did I just do' moments because revitalization of Yupik culture from Kathy's comment jumped right off the screen and hit me in the face.  Everyone has a 'what did I just do' moment.  We're human, right? More on what I think is going on with our native culture at Old ways vs. new ways. Some of my first thoughts on Pebble Mine can be found here.

Humans are usually entitled to their own way of thinking, and can make their own decisions based on the way they think.  In most cases, an individual does something based on the way they think, regardless of what others think.  That's what makes each individual human a unique one.  I think the way I think, and others think the way they think.  I do what I want, they do what they want.  If this were not the case, then we would all be robots and nothing more.  Some countries keep their residents as nothing more than prisoners.  You see cults where people get brainwashed into being robots, but in my opinion- the ones that fall victim have very weak minds.  But we are not there.  We are here.

Today, I am bothered by two things:

1. That the place we live in is full of people that make assumptions.  This may be ok when buying a lottery ticket, or a stack of pull-tabs.  This is not ok when it comes to judging someone based on nothing more than assumption.  Usually, facts are needed to make these decisions (judging someone).  Otherwise, it's just a guessing game.  Assumptions and gossip seem to go hand in hand around here.
2. People fail to see the real facts, based simply on where the facts are coming from.  Apparently, you need to be on a 'side' to be believed.  This is horrible.  This shows me that some people are incapable of making decisions based only on facts.  To them, the facts have to be coming from one side or the other.  Brainwashed comes to mind again.

People that make assumptions usually don't do it just once.  In my mind, that is the way they think all the time.  I am bothered by people that just seem to 'know' with nothing to back it up.

Let's shift gears a little and think about our children.  Their future relies very heavily on two things.  (Remember, everything I say is just what's going on in my head)

1. Rock-solid parenting skills.  No one plays a more important role in steering a young one down the right path than the parent.
2. Education.  Teachers.  They dedicate a pretty good portion of their lives to going through the proper training to become who they are.  Teaching is their passion, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.

Is it ok for a teacher to make assumptions, with no facts as back up?  Is it ok, because they are teachers and have childrens best interests in mind?  Are they right only because they are teachers?  While I doubt that a teacher that made assumptions on a regular basis would pass this horrible habit on to students, I have to wonder.  Whether for good, or for bad- children learn from what they see.
  
Kathy McLinn, when you said I think your comments are a poor reflection on you, not anyone else, you forgot to think about how your own comment will reflect on yourself.

p.s. me calling pebble mine opposition liars was an effort to raise awareness on the pebble issue- i do not want pebble mine.  also- i am not a 'paid' pebble partnership pawn as someone else pointed out.

I'm unique because I'm me, you're unique because you're you

Just to point out- Something more important than Pebble Mine, below, was written before someone saying that I'm "Anon/Dgr."  I'll have to admit the tone I set sometimes is not the friendliest, but that's me.  What goes on in my mind is in my mind, no one else's.  I'm doing nothing more to sway the way people think than to speak my mind.

My sarcastic tongue tends to let sarcastic thoughts fly occasionally.  It also lets fly some 'light' profanity like ass, or hell.  Or damn.  If I have 'heavy' profanity on my mind, I'll censor it with some symbols so someone can put two and two together without 'seeing' the bad word.  I also call people names.  Oh, lets see.  Hippie (if that's considered name calling), loonie- what else?  Not much.  I'm not into the harsher name calling because it's pretty mean.  Enough said.

Kathy McLinn- is it my writing that offends you, or the comments that happen to be at the end of the writing?  If it's my writing, and I toned it down a bit, would you continue to come back to see what's on my mind?  If it's only the comments, FYI- people can no longer make an anonymous comment.

Something more important than Pebble Mine

Kathy McLinn answered my question on what happened at the Pebble Mine rally.  Sounds like a lot of good things went on.  One of the things she said that caught my eye was- It was a day to affirm the importance of the preservation and revitalization of Yupik culture.  It has me thinking-  does it take a Pebble Mine rally to bring something like this up?  Are there other times when this is an issue and talked about?

In one of my previous posts, Old ways vs. new ways, I hinted that our native ways of life will be lost in a generation or two if today's young ones aren't taught.  This, in my opinion is much more important than preventing a mine.  Of course a mining disaster can destroy our wilderness and wildlife in one swift kick, so it can't be completely ignored.  I have more on Pebble Mine, but that can wait.

Feedback, please.

Well...at least it's faster than dial up.

Yeah right.  That's my favorite one.  People that get frustrated with their slow @ss internet around here like to comfort themselves by saying this.  Another one of my favorites is how the package you choose is sold as "up to" whatever speed you think you need.

Everyone and their mothers are just getting off of work, going home, and firing up the old computers.  Which means everyone and their mothers are heading straight for the net.  Which in turn means that you have to click on whatever page you're loading, then go prepare your dinner while it's loading up.  You click on something else and then go eat while your new page is loading.  Sound familiar?  I thought so.

Our neighbors in the big cities pretty much have speeds that begin at 1 megabit per second on up to 10+ megabits per second.  Talk about heaven.  The possibilities with such blazing speeds.  Back to us- they can't stop at charging insane rates- they have to rub our noses in their yellow puddle by stripping our wallets if we decide to download a couple of songs and go over our skimpy limits.  Ever went over your meager download limit?  Hmmph. 

Go to Speedtest.net, click on begin test, wait for it to finish, and come back to let me know who your internet service provider is and what your blazing speed is. Remember 500 kilobits = .5 megabits, 200 kilobits = .2 megabits, you get the point. I had some trouble posting my own comment a while back- I had to allow third party cookies long enough to make my comment.  (Just clean em out when you're done)

Liars, Liars, Liars

It's all peachy keen to hear that everyone is against the big mine that is about to come through here.  I'm all against it.  If I think about it for a little while, I can tell you that environmental concerns, local hiring practices, and crafty advertisements are at the bottom of my list of reasons to not like a Pebble Mine.  At the top is the fact that big powerhouses can and do simply impose their will to get what they want.  Might not happen overnight, but over time- it does happen. Just a matter of time.

If I think about it just a little bit more- I can tell you that I can see through most people that claim they don't want a Pebble Mine.  Why? Because these people that claim to be against this mine will most likely be the first in line to apply for jobs that will pay more than they can earn around here.  Survival, greed, many other reasons.  Peoples brains will shift gears from "I hate Pebble Mine" to "Well, I gotta pay the bills somehow."  There will be stiff competition to latch on to one of these soon to be very desirable jobs.  If you get one of these jobs, you are "up there."

Hopefully, these soon to be turncoats will do everything they can to stop this mine from happening.  Which brings up another question. What can you do?  Vote?  Go to a rally?  What next?  I didn't go to the Pebble Mine Rally or whatever it was called because I had visions of it being nothing more than a room full of people whining and complaining.  Isn't that what rallies are?  To whine and complain?  I don't know- I've never been to one.  Seems like concocting a plan of some sort, rather than whining and complaining would make more sense.  Like I said- I don't go to rallies, so I don't know all of what happens at them.  Maybe someone can clue me in.  Anyone that went to this Pebble Mine Rally- please tell me what happened.

The Invisible Patrons

You're going to buy some ready-made grub in one of the local restaurants with someone.  You already have your taste buds delight picked out.  Place is busier than hell, so you figure you'll just wait for your turn.  But it turns out that the place is busier than heaven and hell put together.  You wait and wait some more.  You don't dare walk out because you don't want the time spent waiting to go to waste.  Then you start thinking "What the F^%*, there's some cash just waiting to be spent here.  Why aren't they jumping at the opportunity to get their grubby little hands on it?  Isn't that the number one reason they are in business?"  You finally end up walking your behind out the door to drive down the street to someone that is willing to serve you and your every need in exchange for some of that moola in your pocket.

So...what's up with these establishments that have massive gold mines sitting in front of them, but fail to stake their claim?  First thought that pops into my head is that it's just busy.  Can't blame them for being overwhelmed.  Too much demand, too little goods.  Think again- you can blame them for being overwhelmed.  These busier than heaven and hell put together times roll around like clockwork.  They are very, very, very predictable.  Same time of day, every day.  Clockwork.  Predictable.  No rocket science here, just simple observation.  I say the problem lies within the management of the business.  Upper management.  Failure to please the people that keep you in business is no way to stay in business.  I can give them an A for effort in the beginning, but eventually they slip down to pulling off a D at best.  Being an armchair restaurant manager, I'm going to say that all that they need to do is to take a quick glance at this clockwork and make a simple adjustment or two in the daily routine.

Now- these horrible customer pleasing practices seem to trickle down into the lower ranks.  When someone walks into your joint and you are so busy that you can't even say "I'm sorry, we're very busy right now- it's going to be twenty to thirty minutes, do you mind waiting?"---this is a pretty good indication of the level of service your customers are going to receive if they ever do get a chance to order.  At least tell your underlings to say SOMETHING.  When you run a business with no consideration for your customers, you are going to be nothing more than a flash in the pan because your customers will just wander down to where they will at least get greeted when walking through the door.

When I walk through your door and I am treated like an invisible patron, I'm going to be just that- because I'm going to high-tail it right out of there.  To top things off, the chances of me returning anytime soon are razor thin.  When a business is run horribly, a horrible thing happens to that business- they lose business.                

Meth Mouth

Seems like it's been a while since reading of the last meth-lab bust in the Mat-Su area.  I remember something about them being the meth capital of Alaska.  Seeing the latest bust in the paper reminds me of a show I watched a few years ago that focused on the meth problem in Oregon.  Supposedly Oregon was the biggest problem state as far as meth use goes.  This may not be true anymore, because this was years ago.

Now- what this show pointed out was that meth users develop what is known as meth-mouth.  They mentioned that meth is so full of toxic chemicals, that users teeth start to horribly rot away.  Meth users don't bother to brush while high, apparently.  Every time I see someone with teeth abnormally rotted (what are normally rotted teeth?), I can't help but to think about that show showing people with meth-mouth.  I think "damn, is this person a meth addict?"  

Do you know anyone with horribly rotted out teeth?  Google meth-mouth and compare that person's teeth with what you come up with.  Then ask them if they use meth.

Best reason to shop at Best Buy...

...you get to look at their prices and say 'who the heck are they kidding?'  Then you can go over to their high-performance, high-priced Apple MacBookPros on display and surf the net for some better prices.  No kidding.  When someone comes around asking if you need some help, you just say "No thanks, I just found some better prices" (Speaking from experience)

Go hang out with the hippies, PETA

With the 2010 Iditarod underway, everyone's going to be rooting for their favorite musher.  I don't have a favorite musher, but I'll say that I'm rooting for Lance Mackey.  Partly because he's a cancer survivor.  Partly because he's won so much lately.  But mostly because everyone is giving him some low blows because he smokes marijuana.  Smokes marijauna WITH a medical marijuana card, making it perfectly legal.

What bothers me more than the poor sports out on the trail are the people saying that the mushers are torturing the dogs by making them run for such grueling distances.  Animal rights loonies.  While I don't think that animals should go through any suffering, I think animal rights loonies are missing something upstairs.  Lack of red meat in their diet has caused some weird chemical imbalance in some part of their brain, or something.

Dog deaths are something that you probably don't pay much attention to. (Unless it happens to be here at the local dog pound where the dogs are starved to death, and it makes it big-time in the news.)  Who pays more attention to dog deaths on the trail than us and the animal rights loonies?  Trail veterinarians that are there to make sure dogs are healthy enough to run the Last Great Race and to pull a dog out of the race if it's not.  If a dog dies, they try to find out why the dog died to make sure it doesn't happen anymore.  Watching the start of races, you kind of get the hint that these dogs love to run.  They were born, bred and raised to run.  That's what they do- run.  What happens when dogs feel like they've been overworked?  They just stop running.  It's happened before with teams headed for sure victory down the homestretch.  The dogs say they've had enough and just stop to lay down.  No more running. 

Now for loonies saying don't eat animals- humans happen to be somewhere near the top of the natural food chain because we can make a weapon of some sort to go and kill something to eat when we need to, to survive.  Chances are pretty good that the animal is going to experience a fairly quick death with almost no suffering at all.  You hear about the big farms that raise animals to go on your kitchen table where the employees are pretty mean to the animals, but they're probably just redneck hillbillies (if the Simpsons show can make fun of these types of people, so can I) from Iowa that go home and play Russian Roulette for kicks after work with their drinking buddies.  They are about as smart as the animal, so you can't say it's humans being cruel to animals in those situations.  Just animal on animal. 

Since we're talking about food chains, why don't we think about animals that go and kill each other for food.  When you see the sly fox running off with a bunch of baby geese in her mouth on tv, or the wolf biting onto the baby caribou's back- these are the nice versions.  (From the show Planet Earth, a Christmas present- best show I ever watched)  What about the zebras getting chomped on, guts spilled and all while still alive by a crocodile?  Gotta be more pain and suffering there than my caribou or moose getting shot.  What do the loonies have to say about animals eating each other?  

Animal rights loonies need to go hang out with the hippies for a while.  Maybe they'll get high and accidentally eat some real food made from animals after getting the munchies.  This will cause them to snap out of the fantasy world they live in.

By the way- I had some eggs with pork sausage for breakfast, ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, and a tasty hamburger for dinner.  I wouldn't think about eating a meal for dinner that didn't have meat in it.  

I swung by PETA's website and found myself leaving just as fast as I got there.  I then Googled People Eating Tasty Animals and found their site a little easier to stomach.  Looks like the site hasn't been updated in a while.  Be sure to check out the hate mail at the People Eating Tasty Animals website.

Home Schooled Home Slice

One thing I don't understand is home schooling.  Why do people choose to home school their kids?  Is the parent better at teaching the kid than teachers at the local public school?  Maybe.  You never know how your kid behaves in school, because you're not there.  Maybe your kid does his/her homework, maybe not.  You never know unless you're the one assigning the work.

I'm sure the list goes on and on about why home schooling is better for some kids.  But there's another list that goes on and on about why home schooling is bad for kids.  Let's think about the good and the bad:

Good:

• You know exactly where your child stands, because you see with your own eyes and not through a report card.
• Can't get into trouble at school, because they are not there
• No more thinking 'who do I believe, my kid or the teacher?'
• Teacher to kid ratio can't get any closer to 1:1, versus 1:20 (or more) at the local school

Bad:

• No interaction with other kids on a daily basis.  This is horrible, horrible, horrible.  Makings of a little robot are in progress.
• Maybe the parent isn't as good at teaching as they thought.  Shaping the kids future lies in their hands, not in the hands of people that are trained to do this.   
• A parent can effectively 'brainwash' a kid.  Forcing opinions down someone's throat is not the same as forcing facts down someone's throat.

The lists get bigger and bigger the more you think about them.  But I think the bad reasons for home schooling by far outweigh the good reasons.  Unless you live 200 miles away from a school, uphill both ways, and it's always raining- I think home schooling is very bad to put your kid through.  Your kid won't always wonder what it is like to have buddies at school or play on the basketball team if they go.  Keep the home schooling to home schooling yourself, home slice.  Send your kids to school- where they belong.