Random Soapbox for Saturday 5/31/14

I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but ...

... I find those "let's move" ads a bit disturbing.

To be clear, this isn't some kind of partisan attack.  First of all, at this stage in the double term presidency, that would seem a little passé , no?  Second of all, there are other places where you still can get your fill of that kind of thing, if that's your bailiwick.

And it's also not a statement said ignorant of what is a real problem ... in that I get that there's a generation of overweight youngsters up and coming in a way that is making the future as shown in Wall-E to be closer and closer to a reality every day.  Plus, I state that as someone who could stand to lose more than a few pounds himself.

Instead, my complaint is that both of these ads I've seen (the "find my wallet" scavenger hunt one and the "flip the master fuse" turn off the video game one) seem to be predicated on the notion that the way to skinny kids is to ruin the relationship between parent and child through the introduction of lies and deception.  Of course, maybe my protestation is misplaced and maybe lies and deception are part and parcel of any parenting.  I just have to think that there's a better ... more direct ... more honest way of combating the issue.  Sure, the kids are all smiley at the end of the commercials ... but the day they discover that those entrusted with raising them in the best way possible are ultimately not to be trusted would be a sad (albeit skinny) day indeed.

SO THE HEART IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE:
http://www.letsmove.gov/

BUT THE AD IS A LITTLE SOUR TO MY TASTE:
http://www.parentdish.com/2011/03/29/this-lets-move-ad-isnt-going-to-get-kids-moving/

SURELY THERE'S A BETTER WAY TO COMBAT THIS EPIDEMIC:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/health/childhoodobesity/

Random Flashback for Friday 5/30/14

Here's what I know.

It's summer (admittedly, not meteorologically but it's that wonderful time between Memorial and Labor Days), which is a time best spent with friends and family.

It's customary for me to flashback twenty years each week, and this photo is dated on the back as July 9, 1994,  so I know I'm on point (although five weeks early from a purist point of view).

It's what I looked like when I let my hair all hang out (zoom in for some of my natural curls [ ;0 ]), and before I gained some mass, and before I added a few tattoos.

Here's what I don't know.

Where it is we're eating ... I zoomed in to the place mat and it doesn't have a restaurant name on it, although I feel very very certain that it's somewhere around my old stomping grounds in Lebanon.

Here's what I need.

The person who took this photo to help fill in my memory ... so Millie ... what do you know?  Where were we when we snapped this picture?

Random Thought for Thursday 5/29/14

I'm not sure how I ran into the quote, I just know that I did so recently.

And after googling its origin, I'm more confused what with the fact that I've not recently been reading the Talmud OR the Koran/Quran NOR have I seen Schindler's List.

But somewhere I saw the notion of "saving one life saves the world/humanity/the world entire", and I liked it enough to e-jot it down in my phone's notepad (oh yeah ... I've finally embraced something technological that started being used many many years ago).

With all due respect to Hebrew scholars/Muhammad/Schindler, I plan to appropriate some version of it for the slogan of my foundation.  (Disclaimer:  "my foundation" is something that only exists in my mind until that point in the future when I wake up to discover that I am independently wealthy and can launch said organization.  Second disclaimer:  you can't win the lottery if you don't play the lottery.  Third disclaimer:  [one's] reach should exceed [one's] grasp or what's a heaven for?)

Until then ... so long as there are those in this world who will care more about the welfare of others than the welfare of themselves, all hope will not be lost.

Whose life will you save today?

AS PER SCHINDLER QUOTING THE TALMUD:
http://www.auschwitz.dk/lamus.htm

AS PER MUHAMMAD IN THE KORAN/QURAN:
http://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter=5&verse=32

AS PER JAPANESE ANIME (REMEMBER, I LIKE IT RANDOM UP IN HERE):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQrYdY2gbD8

Random Wordplay for Wednesday 5/28/14

Stolpersteine.

Used in a sentence:  "I surely loved my time overseas in Cologne, Germany during a semester abroad in late 1990, but I left before the first of thousands of Stolpersteine were created there."

And, as per usual, I'm not the most timely and I'm a month or so late regarding the Days of Remembrance regarding the holocaust, but I did see a travel article in the local paper that mentioned the placement of various blocks in European cities of these Stolpersteine ... or "stumbling blocks" in German, and it's been rattling around in my head since then.

Turns out it is an "art installation" that serves to put a small reminder in the sidewalk outside of the last home of any one of any number of groups who were persecuted by the Nazis in World War II.  What started with a few in Cologne in 1992 has spread across multiple countries and now represent over 43,500 memorials in approximately 1000 cities and towns.

It's a fascinating way to take something so large that it can be hard to fathom (i.e.  the numbers of those who lost their lives) and to make it small and personal and memorable and even more heartbreaking.  I'm not sure what anniversary I'll return to Germany (25th next year seems too soon ... maybe the 30th in 2020?), but I know I'll be on the lookout for the Stolpersteine when I do get back.

THE WIKI IS PERFECT FOR LISTS LIKE THESE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_country_that_have_stolpersteine

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE STOLPERSTEINE HERE:
http://www.stolpersteine.eu/en/

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE HERE:
http://www.ushmm.org/remember/days-of-remembrance

Random Tune for Tuesday 5/27/14

It's been kind of hard getting excited about the start of summer in a place where it is summer all the time ...but, a day after the Memorial holiday (where it topped ninety down here in my neck of the woods), it is still the unofficial start of summer all the same (even if meteorological summer is still a few weeks off ... during hurricane season).

So ... here it is ... my prediction for the song of summer (as chosen from Time's list of fourteen songs competing for that title) ... this upbeat ditty from a certain Ed Sheeran (whom I thought on his previous downbeat ditties sounded a little like the second coming of Tracy Chapman) that's been massaged to perfection by the touch of that Canadian mountie music man Pharrell.

Plus ...a bonus ... puppets in the video!

SING!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlYcUqEPN58

BONUS LINK (the aforementioned TIME list):
http://time.com/119285/song-of-the-summer-2014/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fentertainment+(TIME%3A+Entertainment)

Random Memorial for Monday 5/26/14

Gone but not forgotten:  those who served.

Although I have friends and family who spent time in the military, I am also lucky (in a selfish kind of way) that all who did made it out alive ... a trend I most certainly hope continues for those serving now.

But I know there are many who can't make that statement, and my thoughts are with them on this day.  As I posted on Saturday, I spent just a little time listening in to the names of those who died in the post 9/11 conflicts, and it was both haunting and overwhelming to realize how quickly those numbers add up and how each "number" is obviously so much more than a statistic.

[BTW ... The photo is from my biological father's grave at Ft. Indiantown Gap ... although his time in the army was decades ago when he was just a young man, his service served him well in his final years of life, with the military benefits that permitted him to be in a private nursing home and to have this place in which he could rest in peace.]

Those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to this country ... and those who served long ago and are now a generation dying off ... you will be missed.

UMMM ... YOU MAY HAVE BROKEN THE LAW TODAY AT 3PM (SEE FACT #3):
http://time.com/110697/memorial-day-facts/

LAST YEAR'S POST:
http://capcognition.blogspot.com/2013/05/random-memorial-for-monday-52713.html

AND THE ONE BEFORE THAT:
http://capcognition.blogspot.com/2012/05/purposeful-memorial-for-monday-52812.html

Random Scandal Sheet for Sunday 5/25/14

What southern Florida is talking about this week ...

... it's right there ... in last Sunday's paper.

Not the Oosthuizen leaderboard climbing.

There ... in the corner.

Proving how dangerous it is (and anti-reading-comprehension, I might add) to only scan headlines ...

My first thought was ... "Come on, southern Florida ... why didn't anyone give the hooker an umbrella or something.  I mean it's hard enough to be in the life down here in this neck of the woods, what with seniors hopped up on the blue V pills so that working professionals of this ilk have to maintain ninety year olds in their clientele lists ... surely, someone could have gone out of their way to keep the hooker dry."

My second thought was a little more adult in nature with regards to the wet-dry continuum, and won't be repeated due to this being a holiday weekend when the kids might be out and about.

My third thought is simply one of encouragement to all hookers out there ... wet or dry ... go on with your bad self!  Go Hooker Go!

THE AFOREMENTIONED ARTICLE, THE INTERWEBS VERSION:
http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

AS IT WERE, LOOKS LIKE THEY PLACED SECOND:
http://www.pompanofishingrodeo.com/

MAIN SEARCH RESULT FOR "GO HOOKER GO":
http://www.discogs.com/John-Lee-Hooker-Live-At-Cafe-Au-Go-Go/release/2551038