I ran across this...

Was going to pick & chose a few things but then it is all out of context. The link is here. I like what he says.

Frank Furedi: Five things I have learned


Name: Frank Furedi

Occupation: Professor of Sociology at University of Kent, and author of books including Paranoid Parenting, Politics of Fear, Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?, Therapy Culture, Culture of Fear and Wasted: Why Education is not Educating

Education: BA in international relations at McGill University, Montreal, then studied African politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and received his doctorate from the University of Kent.
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Lives: Faversham, Kent

Born: 1947, Budapest, Hungary

Family life: Married to Ann; says he is "attempting to father" his 15-year-old son, Jake

Unusual fact: A former student radical, in the 70s, he was the founder and chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party.

1. Listen - because you can learn from anybody.

I have learnt that it is a mistake not to listen to people, even people who you don't take seriously, because those who appear ignorant can surprise you with their insights into life. Even if you disagree with what they say, through listening you can learn what it is that leads them to adopt an erroneous conclusion. That's one way of learning about other people's experiences and about life.

A genuine listening strategy is surprisingly difficult to acquire - but it is well worth the effort.

2. Question everything

This is one of the things I found most difficult to do. It's very easy to fall back into old ways and repeat things you have done in the past. When I simply follow someone else's opinion or unthinkingly repeat what I thought previously, I quite often end up realising that I'm on the wrong track. However, through questioning my beliefs and those of others it soon becomes evident that what worked yesterday may be inappropriate in a different context.

Moreover, it's only in the course of questioning that you make progress in developing and refining your ideas. I have really come to appreciate Socrates. He was always annoying everyone by going to the market and asking questions. But those questions often led to greater clarity.

3. Rely on your intuition

We live in a world where we are bombarded by conflicting instructions through the media. As a father and a teacher I have been forced to rely on my intuition. I have learned to use my intuition even when people that I respect point me in a very different direction. Intuition is really your experience codified - insights gained through the working of your emotions and ideas. It doesn't mean you are always right but it does put you in the right direction.

4. Always reflect on your motives when you are dealing with your children

Parents make big emotional investments in their children so that sometimes they confuse their own needs with those of their children. It is easy to overlook the fact that sometimes what we want for ourselves is not what our kids need.

There is so much pressure to live our lives through our children. That's why we need to pause and have a reality check. We need to think about our motives by asking the question: "Am I doing this for them or for myself?" You may still end up doing something that meets your own needs rather than those of your child, but at least you will not be deluding yourself.

5. Things are never as bad as they seem.

This is something I learned later in life. I was a micro-manager, always meeting deadlines, imagining that everything that could go bad would go bad. It is only relatively recently that I learned that the situation is rarely as bad as you imagine. We have a tremendous capacity for resilience, for bouncing back and not allowing our disappointments to overwhelm us.

Often what happens depends on how we respond to a problem. We can make a drama out of a crisis and feel sorry for ourselves for the next 10 years or we can find a strategy for moving on and looking for new opportunities. Moving on, always moving on, has become one of the key principles guiding my daily life.

What is a " Miche " bag?

Jamie is all excited about getting one. How did she figure all this stuff out on her own???!!!
haha

F :)

Ride cancelled:(

Playing the Song Title Game

I am going on a ride to Rochester.

Tomorrow. I made up the route. I am looking forward to it. The weather looks good. We will have to be careful of wash out from the rain. I am staying with Jamie tomorrow. She is in charge of a walk. She syas it is for FAT people . She works with obese patients & their diet/ insulin/ diabetes. It is disconcerting that she refres to her patients as FAT people but then I remeber a certain teaher calling his students "little bastards" & thought THAT was funny. So I should understand.

I understood the stupid green sheets. They were in flux & some things are just like hat.

M

I get a kick out of Dan.

Right now he is rumaging around the kitchen opening up every cubbard & drawer, scrabbling through pots, pans, silverware, everything looking for God knows what.

He does this every morning too looking for the lids to the glad ware he has put nummy food in for my lunch.

I told him the other morning when he was particularly loud & obviously frustrated, "Dan, I bring every single piece of glad wear back every time I remember to bring my lunch pail back". To which he retorted, "Then where is it ALL GOING?!!!!". To which I replied, "well, you might want to ask Jessica".

Which he did & she admitted to taking it & leaving it along her trail of living spaces. Case solved.

Why all the riffling through cubbards now? I have no idea. Is he mad that he is cooking cornbread & fritters AGAIN and needs a break? Does he wish that I would pick that last pair of socks off the floor so he can vacuum up all the seeds Buster has pulled out of his fur & spit on the floor?

All I have to say is welcome to the woman's world of the 1950s buddy. Suck it up.

Flash.

New technology coming in YOUR lifetime!

Microchip the kids.

And then they can be monitored from the office via computer screen. Attendance need not be taken.

Kid lost in a cornfield? No problem.... no need for bloodhounds. Too much upkeep.

Wondering if your teenager is where she says she is? Yeah, try to dig that CHIP out of your shoulder little Missy.....

F :)

My baby will be 24 yrs. old in 10 minutes.

It's hard to believe, really.

These two.

Are always together.

I couldn't find a pcit. of just Jessica.

Matt & Jess will be hiking the Superior Trail from Silver Bay to Beaver Bay this weekend.

Dan," How are you going to get back to Silver Bay?". Jessica, "Oh. We;ll just hitch a ride". Sigh. The free spirit of being young.

She left tonight.

I miss her already.

F

Arrest me.

I just broke the law:

Song Title Game

On one of the motorcycle forums I frequent there is a thread titled "Song Title Game". It's very simple, someone posts the title of a song & the next person's challenge is to post a different song title but it has to have at least one of the words of the previously posted title. Make sense?

Here was the most recent progression, starting from the bottom. I posted Cell Bock Tango...my fave!


Cell Block Tango.. Chicago ( The Musical)



Two to Tango - Vanessa Daou


If It Don't Take Two.... Shania Twain



Take it Easy - Eagles


Easy - Commodores/Lionel Richey



Easy Livin' - Uriah Heep

Mmmmm this looks GOOD!

Num Num.

Our tomatoes are about done.... but our neighbor has some ripening. The crust sounds DELICIOUS!

Flash!

And THIS!!!! Will be cooked this week!!!!

I'll admit it.

I watch Hoarders, Swamp Men , Dr. G., & Intervention, Minnesota Bound, Antiques Road Show, Dirty Jobs, Houston Animal Cops & when we travel sometimes I catch a show where the rosary is being said by nuns in a tiny , granite chapel with awful acoustics.

Really? Doesn't anyone realize that these shows are a POOR excuse for people like me who don't do drugs and are SEARCHING for ESCAPE???

Seriously. Someone needs to produce a show for meditation. I NEED to be mesmerized.

Stupid Americans.

I've had all SUMMER? And I rebel NOW??!!

I didn't wear a bra yesterday or today in protest to having to go to "work". God. I am SLOW ( and hanging quite low).

Flash!