14 Basic Skills

Recently in my RSS feed appeared an article entitled "14 Basic Skills All Men Should Possess."

Sean Percival evidently couldn't come up with one more to make the list nice and rounded. Or he got to 10 and thought of four more things. So here we go. Do you agree? Can you align yourself with these arbitrary and random skills?

1. Drive a Stick-Shift (check)
2. Hook up and Entertainment Center (check-though it would be fun to get to set up a new one some time!)
3. Fix a toilet (check - forced learn that one!)
4. Navigate a Map and Use GPS (check and check, though these seem like completely different skills to me, and the GPS one doesn't even really seem to be a skill at all.)
5. Change the Oil (check-yeah, motor oil)
6. Balance a Checkbook (check, but file this under obsolete skills-at least in the analog world. Who actually balances a checkbook? I make Quicken do it.)
7. Cook the Perfect Steak (CHECK- come on over some time, I'll show you how it's done)
8. Swim the Breaststroke (check - though there's no distance specified. That's good. I can do it pretty well, but not for very long)
9. Write Effectively (hmm, I think so, my blog readers can decide, and the recipients of my many, many emails can toss in an opinion here too. You know who you are.)
10. Dress for the Occasion (FAIL)
11. Sew a Button (check. I've got this one down. I probably average a button every two months)
12. Do Laundry Properly (check, though my kind and gracious wife usually handles my laundry, when she's away, I can clean my underwear and starch my shirts)
13. Handle Roadside Emergencies (check-Anyone can call AAA, right? I've changed a couple of tires in my day. Loads of fun.)
14. Build a Fire (FAIL. I have never started a fire without a match or lighter, but I can set up a pretty good, long-lasting fireplace fire or campground fire with good kindling.)(I miss my fireplace)

I'm giving myself 12 out of 14. Soon I'll write the "14 skills every woman should possess." That oughta get things stirred up.

"...and now on to the scores."

I tweeted earlier today that I was looking into Neil Postman, who's book Amusing Ourselves to Death I finally read five or six years ago. It had been a while since I had heard anything about him and I was curious to know if he had done any recent research.

I was prompted to look into him again, wondering what, if anything he has had to say regarding the acceleration of media, trivial information, and bizarre juxtapositions of news items brought on by the internet. His book, "Amusing..." out in the mid-80's before the internet explosion, and really before cable and satellite became mainstream, dealt with how the never-ending flow of information over the airwaves diminished intelligent discourse and robbed truly important events of their meaning by pairing them (unwittingly, usually) with "...and now a word from our sponsor."

Unfortunately, I discovered that he passed away in 2003.

What rekindled my interest in him and these thoughts was an emotional report I saw this morning on ESPN's Sports Center. The story was an update of the NFL players and friends who have been missing off the coast of Florida. A former coach was being interviewed, choked up, could barely finish his statement and then asked quickly to be excused from the cameras.

Back at the anchor desk, we heard (after an uncomfortable pause) "And now on to the scores."

If ever a triviality was unwittingly delivered on the same plain as a life and death event, it was exemplified here.

Wallet update

My wallet post generated quite a stir. I guess there's a lot of pent-up insecurities out there among guys trying to do the right thing with their money while feeling secure, but not looking like they've got a small print edition of Crime and Punishment in their pocket.

I glanced down my page at an ad that appear for thin wallets. Maybe this is something that can be a solution for us all!

SoCal adventure, Day 1

I enjoy traveling from east to west. And I don't mean from Capital to Glenwood, I mean from Raleigh to SoCal. The thing about leaving early is that even though you spend what feels like most of the day traveling, once you arrive, you still have plenty of time to do things because of the three hour time change. In my case, I arrived so early, I almost had too much time.

I decided to go spy out some famous streets in North LA, in an area known as Hollywood. Maybe you've heard of it.

I got a couple of pictures of the famous Hollywood(land) sign, but this may have been my best angle.



After spending some time finding a place to park, I stepped out of my rental car (which, by the way, is a red Mustang--truthfully, I don't really care for it) and found myself at Hollywood and Vine in the midst of the "Walk of Fame." I took a few pictures of the stars with names I recognized.














One of the more interesting things about this to me was that this was in an area full of regular stores. Below is a picture of a line of stars along Hollywood Blvd next to a tire store. But this is just a downtown area. The stars continue around Sunset Blvd and several of the connecting streets adjacent to a CVS, a Borders, an auto repair shop, a McDonalds, etc.



Another feature of this area are the homeless people. This caught me off guard as you had a surreal mixture of touresty people like me, taking pictures of the side walk, regular people scurrying from place to place to either shop or go to work, and homeless people asking for change. The whole juxtaposition was not at all what I expected.

The whole reason I hung out in this area of town (not specifically to see the sidewalk, I can assure you) is because I had arranged to meet my cousin, professor Joe at a restaurant. He is teaching at USC in San Bernardino, and teaches mostly Children's Literature. It sounds like he's enjoying it. We had a great time talking about families, interests, and life stories. I was surprised at how similar our interests in understanding things are, but with specialties in different disciplines.

We had decided to meet at Taix French Restaurant on Sunset Blvd. in part because I thought I might go to see the Dodgers play the Indians. We were SO CLOSE to the stadium, but we didn't finish up until after the game started (we were chatting nearly three hours) and I was beat up, having gotten up at 3:50 that morning.



I had about an hour drive down to Orange County where I am staying. It was fun to listen to the legendary Vin Scully call the CLE/LAD game on the radio. He's been their broadcaster since 1950. Once I got back I stayed up a bit, finished the game, discovered I had a full-sized refrigerator, sink, dishwasher, microwave and two stove top burners in my room (it's a Candlewood Suites hotel) so I went and got some food before I went to bed.

The Life of a Bullet

Several weeks ago we rented "The Kingdom." It is a movie I would recommend, though not for the kids. It depicts a fictional terrorist attack on a military base in Saudi Arabia and the ensuing American response. The movie is raw, which for some reason I typically interpret as realistic. I guess that's exactly what the director is hoping for.

The American government team sent to "investigate" the crime scene goes without proper authority, but in a fit of emotional fervor the leader puts together a team committed to bringing a kind of justice to a fallen friend and comrade. The story depicts experienced and maybe "smarter," self-assured American investigators jumping into the "crime scene" evidently oblivious to the culture, and even cavalier regarding it. Acting as if the Americans have a thing or two to teach the Saudis about how to run a proper investigation, they are constantly frustrated and their progress is blocked for religious, cultural, and political reasons they never grasp.

The movie's climax ends with a dramatic chase and shoot out among the terrorist group in the city, including women and children (used as manipulative pawns). Without giving too much away, one of the last things we see is the patriarch master-mind passing on his legacy to a grand child close by him in his dying breath. In essence, he tells his kid to never stop killing the Americans until they're obliterated. The movie ends, though it was never intended to end this way, and the tragedy of children involved in violence and wars much bigger than them and ones they don't understand is perpetuated.

This ending reminded me of the brilliant opening of Lord of War. This portion of the movie has ironically been called "The Life of a Bullet." Ironic, because the sole intent of a bullet is to squash life. Follow the path of a bullet from a Russian manufacturing plant, into the Russian military, then eventually handed over into corrupt hands.