Exercising your public voice : Daycare Dangers in Minnesota

This is a topic that I really wanted to educate to current parents and to people that will have children in the future.  As you know there has been several news stories that involved some type of children related issue.  The most recent story was about  Sandstone Daycare in Sand Stone, MN, she was drinking while watching ten children, one of the toddlers some how got out of site and wondered off onto a highway and came close to getting hit by several cars.  I have to tell you this made me sick to my stomach when I watched this on the local news last night.  In my mind it could have been my son in that position.  The news said that she admitted to having several drinks through out the day and is only being charged with child neglect and child endangerment?  It should be a felony not a gross misdemeanor and more then a year in jail.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/22610913/sandstone-daycare-charges-toddler-on-highway

I propose that we have a harsher punishment for this type of crime. For starters we should immediately take their daycare and put it out of business and make sure there are never able to run one again. Second,  instead of up to a 3,000 dollar fine make the daycare provider pay the parents for endangering their children.

Like I said before this is just the most recent story I have seen but if you search Google or look at the StarTribune.com you will find several more stories on this topic. 
http://www.startribune.com/local/150283965.html

We as a community, as parents , and the law need to be more ambitious on coming up with ways to prevent this. I know there is only so much we can do and we can only ask law makers to try but if you look at the real it could be one of our kids or our friends and family's kids.  Let's make the change by starting some kind of online community like Facebook, or start a blog where we can drop resources to picking daycares, share experiences amongst one another, and a place where we can get advice.  Who's with me?

The Old School Flip Phone (Fun Post)

It was mentioned a couple of times in class this semester that seemingly everybody has a smart phone in this day and age. I’ll admit, I do think that they are very cool when people show me the tasks they are capable of performing. It is absolutely amazing to me that almost any information in the world can be available at the push of a button (or sound of a voice) in a seemingly instant speed. But when it comes down to my personal preference, I have yet to make the jump from the classic flip phone.

As I said earlier, I think that the idea of a smart phone and its capabilities is cool and often amazing, so my reason for not switching over from the traditional flip phone isn’t necessarily to prove a point against smart phones. The biggest reason that I like my flip phone is that it’s very simple. I don’t have internet or anything on it, but that’s good because it won’t distract me from things I need to get done. It doesn’t have a touch screen, so when it’s closed I can’t accidentally push buttons and “butt dial” people. It’s not sensitive to touch in anyway, so anything that it does (calls, text, and tools) is because I intended to utilize it for that specific reason and not by mistake.

I must admit, there is a part of me that is paranoid that getting a smart phone will make it easier for me to enter an Orwell type of world. I’ll be tracked and monitored all the time and under the constant eye of the Thought Police and Spies and eventually taken to Room 101…okay, so that rant was meant for humor, but in a much more simple way it has some validity. I suppose it doesn’t matter much these days what type of phone a person has, they all can probably be tracked the same. I guess what it boils down to is that I’d just rather not have my phone post to Facebook my location every time I check into a restaurant or go to a convenience store; who needs to know that?

In the end, I’m probably going to have to make the move from the flip phone to a smart phone, as flip phones could end up going extinct. But until that day comes, I’m sticking with the simple phone and leaving the internet resource to my computer. It’s not like it matters too much anyway, any time I want to know something, I just have to turn to a friend and ask them and they’ll give me an answer in a couple seconds. Everybody’s got one these days, I can get benefits from second hand 4G.

World Premiere of GP's famous Culinary Creations

(GP Blog Post 6)

I have never posted these pics before, that I can recall.

Knead, boil, bake, season: Home-made Bagels!

Knead, stuff with olives, bake: Olive Bread!

Knead, knead more, and bake: Artisan Bread!

Milk and other things, curdle: Home-made Cheese!  

I hope you enjoyed!

Cheers (Fun Post)

With the help of a cool program called Netflix, I've been able to watch shows that I haven’t seen in years. Not only can I watch them, but I can see ever episode in sequence without commercial interruptions. But I do not want to get off track and make an entire blog post about Netflix, so I’ll just stop kissing their butt and get to the point: the show Cheers and how great it really was.

The characters, and the actors who played them, where all likable and brought something different to the episodes. Norm was the “every man” who was satisfied being a fixture at his favorite bar; Cliff was the typical know-it-all type of person who often had no real understanding of what he was talking about; Carla was a spunky lady with an attitude to trash talk anybody; Coach was a blue collar old man who had some dim light bulb moments because of sporting injuries, but he was loyal to his friends and very loving; Woody, who replaced Coach after his death, was a good ol’ boy from the Midwest who wasn't very bright but honest, hardworking, and a true good person; Frasier was a brilliant psychologist who was at times pompous and arrogant, but also had an affection for his friends at the bar and enjoyed the camaraderie; Rebecca came in midway through the series as a stern and focused woman who tried to hide her weaknesses but often failed to do so; Diane was pretentious and often diluted about what her true talents were. Despite this, she truly wanted to help people and for them to do the right thing; she also served as the potential soul-mate to Sam; Sam Malone was the series’ main character and had many layers despite being criticized for his lack of depth: he had an addictive personality (alcohol and sex), he was fun loving yet often reflected on his age and the idea of getting older, he was filled with braggadocio and machismo yet fell in love with Diane and had a buried sensitive side.

The characters all brought their own individual contributions to the show, but the best part to watch is how they collaborated and meshed together. The way that they converse with each other comes off as so natural that it genuinely feels like they had already known each other for years prior to the start of the series. This brings me to another reason this show was great; the writing

The writing of this show was perfect. The dialogue and situations never felt stale or boring, and there are numerous times when I’m watching the show and I’ll swear that I know exactly what’s going to happen next and it goes the other direction. The reason for this is that everything seemed real and organic; there was rarely any part of an episode that felt forced.

Perhaps the biggest reason I enjoy Cheers is this: every time I watch it, it makes me feel happy. It feels like I’m actually hanging out with this group of people and that they are offering me, as a viewer, their friendship. Every viewing is a mini “getaway”, and every episode makes me feel better than I felt before I watched it.

Coca-Cola Ribs-with Chives

(GP Blog Post 5)

I have a perennial chives garden and maintain small annual herb gardens.

Here's your ticket, which uses two American favorites: Coca Cola and ribs.

1. Boil the ribs with 2 liters of Coke and a handful of chives for 60-90
2. Remove and drench in BBQ sauce
3. Gas-grill closed-lid for 15-20
4. Enjoy!

I tried this last week-and they were amazing!  Lemme know whatcha think!

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good or How I learned to stop worrying and embrace living by cliches

I will make my first foray into blogging short and to the point. You have to walk before you learn to run. Nothing wrong with looking like an overmatched novice or "tourist." Prodigies in any field are rare and they should not be what you set your stopwatch too. Preparation is key, but sometimes you do just have to jump in the freezing water to feel your way around. A wise person knows their limits and works from there to get better. Unless we're talking violins, classical music, or age-specific sports like gymnastics it's never too late to reach for your goals. Ignore the naysayers or as they're known in the more colloquial form "haters." Let the momentum be with you. With all that said and out of the way, I'm looking forward to my next 5 blog posts in the coming day and a half.

Blog Topic #1-Life Lessons

Exercising Public Voice

This two-party system mindset is getting real old these days. Let me make something perfectly clear before I get moving further into this post: I am not going to be preaching about a specific third party, nor will I be talking trash about the two major parties. I am talking about the mindset that much of America has; this defeatist attitude that the machine is too big to change and that no third party could ever possibly win an election.

You hear it all the time, “if you don’t vote Democrat or Republican, you’re throwing away your vote!” While I can understand the basic idea of statements like this, this attitude is why third parties generally aren’t elected. It seems that many people are so focused on winning and so afraid of losing that they only vote for the two major parties, regardless of whether or not they fully believe in their choice. So, the same thing happens after every election: people complain about the way things are and talk about how something has to change, but when the time comes to use the privilege of voting in order to actually make a change, one of the big two is elected again and the cycle starts over. Look, there may be no perfect system, or maybe there is. Either way you look at it, we can take a different direction than the two most popular options.

Third party candidates have won smaller offices in this country; it’s really not out of the question that a third party candidate can take a seat in a major office in the future. If people decide that they do indeed want something different, it can come true. Whether the result will be good or bad is unknown at this point, but making a change can be guaranteed. If you do not fully agree with either of the two major parties and you want to see a third party have a chance, it's okay to take an unorthodox step and vote for something a little more nontraditional.