I know recently I've been worrying a lot of you by my posts about prayers & positive thoughts for some health concerns of mine that have come up recently. Some of you I've been able to talk to, e-mail, DM, send smoke signals, let loose carrier pigeons, etc... to discuss personally, but frankly there are too many to do that on an individual basis. Believe me, that is in no way a burden; it's actually a blessing that I have so many people who care.
Let me start off by saying that I FEEL FINE. But what prompted this all was some back pain I'd been having at night, which woke me up pretty much every night about the same time. Add to that some frequent trips to the bathroom & I'd self-diagnosed as having kidney stones. After about a week of putting up with the pain, I made an appointment for the doctor. He seemed to agree with me, but also wanted me to get some blood work done, along with a CT scan & x-ray. I had all of those done in the same night & the results were available that night. The blood work was normal, but the scans did not show any kidney stones. Instead it showed some slight enlargement of my spleen & various lymph nodes.
Fast forward to now. After more blood work, a PET scan, visits to an oncologist & a consult with a surgeon, no one is still sure what is going on. For all intents & purposes, I'm a healthy person...just with slight enlargement of the spleen & lymph nodes. It could be that some infection is being fought off in my body causing the enlargements & it only showed up coincidentally due to the back pain (I had been lifting heavy things between putting a swing set together & moving items for an auction, which could explain the pain; remember who we're dealing with: a guy who doesn't DO physical labor). There are possibilities of lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or a similar disease, but I show no symptoms of these. Also there exists a chance that I have some sort of cancer (lymphoma or leukemia), but again, I show no other signs of illness. The oncologist is pretty stumped at this point because he sees a patient that would be easier to diagnose if he felt or looked sick. But I don't & therein lies the problem. In another month I have some repeat blood tests to do, which will check levels against my previous tests. If the oncologist sees a change, I'll be scheduled for a biopsy of one of the lymph nodes (probably one at my left collarbone) to know once & for all what we're dealing with.
All I can ask from all of you is to keep up your prayers & positive thoughts, because that's all I can do for right now: keep on keepin' on & doing what I know to do. Again, to reiterate, I FEEL FINE. If that happens to change or if something new pops up from the next round of tests, I'll be sure to pass it along. Thank you again to all of those who have passed along your well-wishes &/or took a moment of your day to send me some encouragement. I've been on a roller coaster with this, but I'm determined to stay on the positive side of it. God only gives us things He knows we can handle & whatever it is that is thrown my way this time, I'll get through it. Knowing I have you all on my side helps.
Now, can someone please bring back the less-serious Shaun? I like him much better.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Conservatives: REALLY???
This isn't going to be a long blog, because it doesn't have to be. I could make it one, but apart from being extremely dull & boring, I probably couldn't BS my way through it enough to make it a huge blog. So here goes nothing...
Specifically I want to target my conservative friends on this blog. Through the tweets, statuses, blogs, etc..., I've been seeing the information you post about candidates & this election. No one can say that you're not passionate about your beliefs! I know that most of you get into very heated discussions about who you think should or shouldn't be president. But the one thing that gets to me is when you say something like the following: "If (insert name here) gets the GOP nomination, I will not support them." This concerns me greatly & here is why...
(At this point my liberal friends may want to look away, because the rest of this blog may send you into fits. Are you all looking away? No? Some of you are still reading? Well, continue at your own risk.)
Conservatives know what is at stake at this next election. This country has been subjected to years of leaning towards big government & all that it brings to the party with it (diminished rights, increased entitlements, debt & unemployment through the roof, etc...), not just by our current president but by ones that preceded him. The United States is sliding down a slippery slope that is becoming increasingly difficult to reverse unless we act NOW. That's why this election is so important. We have an opportunity to start the correction that sets us all back on the right course. That's why I find the talk about not supporting this or that candidate to be so destructive. Granted, there are some vying for the GOP nomination that aren't as conservative as the other candidates, but if there is a "perfect" conservative, I haven't met them yet. Chances are we won't see them in an election anytime soon either. If he/she does exist, it's a person like you or me who tweets, blogs, talks to friends, etc... about what this country should do, but doesn't possess the strong leadership qualities or financial backing to do anything about it.
To simplify my point, here it is in a nutshell. There are a couple of choices you can make when it comes to this next election. If the person you don't like gets the GOP nod, you could go third party. Currently there isn't a big enough third party movement with enough votes to defeat either the Republican candidate or President Obama, so your vote (although noble & true to your heart) is a throw-away. A write-in of one of the candidates that didn't get the Republican nomination could be done, or to vote for a Democrat challenger to Obama, but this is another throw-away. If they were good enough to be on the general election ballot, they'd have secured the nomination. With that choice, President Obama is a second-term president. You could sit at home & not vote at all, but that's even better for the Democrat party. This counteracts some of the votes they're losing to dissatisfaction & once again, you have President Obama in the White House. Then there is the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy & voting for Obama, but that makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. If you're going to make that decision, you'd have made that already & the election wouldn't be the deciding factor in your change in political ideals. The final decision & only logical one (as I see it) is to support whoever the Republicans nominate.
I would love to see someone running that I agree with 100% of the time, but I know that will NEVER happen. It's just absolutely impossible. I can sit here & pick out at least one thing from each of the remaining GOP candidates that I can't stand, but is it really enough to not vote for them? Compare each of them to Obama, my fellow conservatives, & tell me they're not a better choice than our current president. If you honestly would place a vote for Obama over one of them, I question the sincerity of your philosophy from the very beginning.
I've said it before & I will say it again: Democrats win elections by throwing full support behind their candidate no matter if they agree with them fully or not. Don't you think the Hillary Clinton supporters were growling & snarling as they pulled the lever for Obama four years ago? Yes, but they realized it was better for their cause to rally behind the candidate chosen as the best possible to win. THAT is exactly what Republicans and conservatives need to do. When it's been narrowed to a choice, we need to throw 100% support behind that person.
Somewhere down the road I hope it becomes possible to eliminate all of the PAC's, the special interests, the lobbyists, the endless campaigning, the slanderous commercials & everything that makes presidential elections so awful. I'd like to see it become a way for anyone, regardless of their background or bank account, to be able to serve this country as president if they get the votes from the people. Let them state their case to the country for a few months as to why they are best qualified, then skip straight to a nationwide general election where you vote for the candidate that best represents you. When the votes are counted & the dust clears, the person left with the most votes will be the president.
Wow, this ended up being longer that I originally thought. But simply put, my point behind this whole blog is this: conservatives, will you REALLY not support the candidate who secures the GOP nomination if they aren't your first choice? Please let that weigh heavily on your mind before you answer that with a "no". You may be making a HUGE mistake.
Specifically I want to target my conservative friends on this blog. Through the tweets, statuses, blogs, etc..., I've been seeing the information you post about candidates & this election. No one can say that you're not passionate about your beliefs! I know that most of you get into very heated discussions about who you think should or shouldn't be president. But the one thing that gets to me is when you say something like the following: "If (insert name here) gets the GOP nomination, I will not support them." This concerns me greatly & here is why...
(At this point my liberal friends may want to look away, because the rest of this blog may send you into fits. Are you all looking away? No? Some of you are still reading? Well, continue at your own risk.)
Conservatives know what is at stake at this next election. This country has been subjected to years of leaning towards big government & all that it brings to the party with it (diminished rights, increased entitlements, debt & unemployment through the roof, etc...), not just by our current president but by ones that preceded him. The United States is sliding down a slippery slope that is becoming increasingly difficult to reverse unless we act NOW. That's why this election is so important. We have an opportunity to start the correction that sets us all back on the right course. That's why I find the talk about not supporting this or that candidate to be so destructive. Granted, there are some vying for the GOP nomination that aren't as conservative as the other candidates, but if there is a "perfect" conservative, I haven't met them yet. Chances are we won't see them in an election anytime soon either. If he/she does exist, it's a person like you or me who tweets, blogs, talks to friends, etc... about what this country should do, but doesn't possess the strong leadership qualities or financial backing to do anything about it.
To simplify my point, here it is in a nutshell. There are a couple of choices you can make when it comes to this next election. If the person you don't like gets the GOP nod, you could go third party. Currently there isn't a big enough third party movement with enough votes to defeat either the Republican candidate or President Obama, so your vote (although noble & true to your heart) is a throw-away. A write-in of one of the candidates that didn't get the Republican nomination could be done, or to vote for a Democrat challenger to Obama, but this is another throw-away. If they were good enough to be on the general election ballot, they'd have secured the nomination. With that choice, President Obama is a second-term president. You could sit at home & not vote at all, but that's even better for the Democrat party. This counteracts some of the votes they're losing to dissatisfaction & once again, you have President Obama in the White House. Then there is the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy & voting for Obama, but that makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. If you're going to make that decision, you'd have made that already & the election wouldn't be the deciding factor in your change in political ideals. The final decision & only logical one (as I see it) is to support whoever the Republicans nominate.
I would love to see someone running that I agree with 100% of the time, but I know that will NEVER happen. It's just absolutely impossible. I can sit here & pick out at least one thing from each of the remaining GOP candidates that I can't stand, but is it really enough to not vote for them? Compare each of them to Obama, my fellow conservatives, & tell me they're not a better choice than our current president. If you honestly would place a vote for Obama over one of them, I question the sincerity of your philosophy from the very beginning.
I've said it before & I will say it again: Democrats win elections by throwing full support behind their candidate no matter if they agree with them fully or not. Don't you think the Hillary Clinton supporters were growling & snarling as they pulled the lever for Obama four years ago? Yes, but they realized it was better for their cause to rally behind the candidate chosen as the best possible to win. THAT is exactly what Republicans and conservatives need to do. When it's been narrowed to a choice, we need to throw 100% support behind that person.
Somewhere down the road I hope it becomes possible to eliminate all of the PAC's, the special interests, the lobbyists, the endless campaigning, the slanderous commercials & everything that makes presidential elections so awful. I'd like to see it become a way for anyone, regardless of their background or bank account, to be able to serve this country as president if they get the votes from the people. Let them state their case to the country for a few months as to why they are best qualified, then skip straight to a nationwide general election where you vote for the candidate that best represents you. When the votes are counted & the dust clears, the person left with the most votes will be the president.
Wow, this ended up being longer that I originally thought. But simply put, my point behind this whole blog is this: conservatives, will you REALLY not support the candidate who secures the GOP nomination if they aren't your first choice? Please let that weigh heavily on your mind before you answer that with a "no". You may be making a HUGE mistake.
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Don't Blame Doc Brown
Already I'm hearing comments on the Internet, and even in person, from people saying, "Back to the Future was full of crap! It's almost 2015 and nothing has come true like the movies". Did you ever stop to think that maybe it's for a good reason (other than "Back to the Future" is a movie)? I thought about this today (maybe for too long) and came up with a few answers as to why none of this has happened..and don't you dare blame Doc Brown.
First, anyone who is a sci-fi geek like I am can tell you that anything dealing with the future is an uncertainty from the word "go". While many theories exist of how time travel can occur, many agree that events that happen in the past directly affect how the future plays out. Anyone with foreknowledge of those events and means of time travel can affect the outcome. Even such a thing as killing a butterfly in the past can affect future events on a grand scale (see "the butterfly effect" on Wikipedia or elsewhere). It's very possible that Marty McFly's adventures in the future and past could have affected timelines and events so much that those displayed in the movie never occurred. Nothing shown there appears to be a "fixed point" in time, or something so pivotal to time itself that nothing can alter it. Still, not knowing how the years played out between 1985 and 2015, all of this technology could still develop sometime in the next three years. I still find it hard to believe, though, that fifteen more Jaws movies could happen between now and then. Please, for the love of Spielberg, don't let that happen.
Another theory that has just as much sci-fi goodness as the last one is that the "Back to the Future" trilogy occurred in an alternate universe. Although I don't claim to fully understand physics, some scientists are of the belief that there are universes just out of phase with our own, some with Earths having subtle differences, others having drastically different characteristics. For example, in one universe I'm writing this blog about "Back to the Future" starring Eric Stoltz (see Wikipedia info on the original screen tests). In yet another universe, I'm not writing a blog at all because electricity hasn't been invented. See how that works? Imagine a possible outcome and *BOOM* it's another universe. Want to really blow your mind? That universe both existed AND didn't exist until you thought of it. It was real AND not real simultaneously. Read up on Schroedinger's cat for more info on that bit of mind-screwing. So to recap this theory, somewhere in another universe, Marty McFly and Doc Brown are real people having real adventures.
Last, but not least, is an idea that my friend Kris thought of today, something that I hadn't considered. The technology in the movie is indeed possible RIGHT NOW, but the government doesn't want you to know about it. Yeah, I know...fit me for a straitjacket and lock me in a padded room with Fox Mulder and the Lone Gunmen (which, by the way, would be a kick-ass nerd band name). Call me a government conspirist, but I think this is totally possible. Think about it for a second with the biggest, most important technological advancement of the movies (other than time travel): FLYING CARS. Can you imagine the repercussions this would have? Citizens would all have to pass different exams to drive/fly a car. Different safety upgrades would be made for all new vehicles. Older cars would be retrofitted with this technology and THOSE cars would need to be upgraded for safety. Companies like those in the tire industry would have financial loss (why replace tires when you don't need them except for takeoff and landing?). Buildings would needed to be upgraded for safety, possibly with each including a member of Air Traffic Control, to navigate vehicles safely around them. We'd constantly have to be on the lookout for Jihadists trying to fly their explosive-laden cars into structures. Do you see the problems this causes? And that's just ONE upgrade and advancement in technology. The government probably has this stuff hidden in Area 51 with the rest of the alien technology it has captured over the years (again with the conspiracy!) but refuses to release it because of the myriad of issues that would ensue upon its release.
There may be more reasons that the "Back to the Future" trilogy hasn't come true, but I think these are three pretty good reasons why we don't see it happening in 2012 (or 2015 for that matter). I may not be able to fly my Honda Accord to work using the scraps from last night's dinner, take a leisurely ride through the park on my hoverboard, or take in a matinee of Jaws 19, but I take a minute to appreciate what I can do and what I do have. In the amount of time mankind has been living on this Earth, we've accomplished some great advancements. In an even shorter span of time those advancements have increased exponentially. If you think it hasn't, look at the smart phone you most likely carry on your hip or in your pocket. Such a thing wasn't even a reality for the general public ten short years ago. That should put some things in perspective.
So, please don't blame Doc Brown, Marty McFly, or any of the other characters (well, maybe Biff) for a near future that doesn't resemble the movie. Instead, be excited for what could possibly be even better than what the movie predicted. Look forward to what lies ahead down the road. Wait..."Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads." Yeah, that still may be a possibility :)
First, anyone who is a sci-fi geek like I am can tell you that anything dealing with the future is an uncertainty from the word "go". While many theories exist of how time travel can occur, many agree that events that happen in the past directly affect how the future plays out. Anyone with foreknowledge of those events and means of time travel can affect the outcome. Even such a thing as killing a butterfly in the past can affect future events on a grand scale (see "the butterfly effect" on Wikipedia or elsewhere). It's very possible that Marty McFly's adventures in the future and past could have affected timelines and events so much that those displayed in the movie never occurred. Nothing shown there appears to be a "fixed point" in time, or something so pivotal to time itself that nothing can alter it. Still, not knowing how the years played out between 1985 and 2015, all of this technology could still develop sometime in the next three years. I still find it hard to believe, though, that fifteen more Jaws movies could happen between now and then. Please, for the love of Spielberg, don't let that happen.
Another theory that has just as much sci-fi goodness as the last one is that the "Back to the Future" trilogy occurred in an alternate universe. Although I don't claim to fully understand physics, some scientists are of the belief that there are universes just out of phase with our own, some with Earths having subtle differences, others having drastically different characteristics. For example, in one universe I'm writing this blog about "Back to the Future" starring Eric Stoltz (see Wikipedia info on the original screen tests). In yet another universe, I'm not writing a blog at all because electricity hasn't been invented. See how that works? Imagine a possible outcome and *BOOM* it's another universe. Want to really blow your mind? That universe both existed AND didn't exist until you thought of it. It was real AND not real simultaneously. Read up on Schroedinger's cat for more info on that bit of mind-screwing. So to recap this theory, somewhere in another universe, Marty McFly and Doc Brown are real people having real adventures.
Last, but not least, is an idea that my friend Kris thought of today, something that I hadn't considered. The technology in the movie is indeed possible RIGHT NOW, but the government doesn't want you to know about it. Yeah, I know...fit me for a straitjacket and lock me in a padded room with Fox Mulder and the Lone Gunmen (which, by the way, would be a kick-ass nerd band name). Call me a government conspirist, but I think this is totally possible. Think about it for a second with the biggest, most important technological advancement of the movies (other than time travel): FLYING CARS. Can you imagine the repercussions this would have? Citizens would all have to pass different exams to drive/fly a car. Different safety upgrades would be made for all new vehicles. Older cars would be retrofitted with this technology and THOSE cars would need to be upgraded for safety. Companies like those in the tire industry would have financial loss (why replace tires when you don't need them except for takeoff and landing?). Buildings would needed to be upgraded for safety, possibly with each including a member of Air Traffic Control, to navigate vehicles safely around them. We'd constantly have to be on the lookout for Jihadists trying to fly their explosive-laden cars into structures. Do you see the problems this causes? And that's just ONE upgrade and advancement in technology. The government probably has this stuff hidden in Area 51 with the rest of the alien technology it has captured over the years (again with the conspiracy!) but refuses to release it because of the myriad of issues that would ensue upon its release.
There may be more reasons that the "Back to the Future" trilogy hasn't come true, but I think these are three pretty good reasons why we don't see it happening in 2012 (or 2015 for that matter). I may not be able to fly my Honda Accord to work using the scraps from last night's dinner, take a leisurely ride through the park on my hoverboard, or take in a matinee of Jaws 19, but I take a minute to appreciate what I can do and what I do have. In the amount of time mankind has been living on this Earth, we've accomplished some great advancements. In an even shorter span of time those advancements have increased exponentially. If you think it hasn't, look at the smart phone you most likely carry on your hip or in your pocket. Such a thing wasn't even a reality for the general public ten short years ago. That should put some things in perspective.
So, please don't blame Doc Brown, Marty McFly, or any of the other characters (well, maybe Biff) for a near future that doesn't resemble the movie. Instead, be excited for what could possibly be even better than what the movie predicted. Look forward to what lies ahead down the road. Wait..."Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads." Yeah, that still may be a possibility :)
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