On Politics, Family and Friends...

This past election season has been a particularly heated season. I think that all of us have been frustrated by the political process, the absolute gridlock, partisan bickering and general breakdown in government. We all think that we have the answer or those we choose have the answer or our parents have the answer and the fact stands that we don’t. There are a lot of myths floating out there about what the policies of the various parties are. One of the classics is that the Democrat party is the “tax and spend” party; I think Bill Clinton (no matter what you think of his personal faults) put that myth to rest. My opinion is that all of them are half-truths and it all depends to which part of the half-truth you adhere (kind of like “the glass is half-full, half-empty” thing).

I have described myself, politically, on my FaceBook page as a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. I choose to keep that description. I came out, vehemently, as a supporter of Barack Obama. I voted for him the first time around and I had no intention of backing down this time around. I am a registered Democrat, I have been, except for a brief period when I was disenchanted by the loss of Jimmy Carter for his second term; I registered as an independent and voted for Ronald Reagan in his second term. (In spite of my admiration and respect for the late Geraldine Ferrara, I could not justify the choice of a first term congressional representative [even one from my own district] as a vice-presidential choice. As far as I’m concerned, that was what sunk it for John McCain [Sarah Palin? Really! That was a “sales tactic,” not a valid political choice]). But I digress; I’m trying to make things better, not worse.

A cousin, on her FaceBook page, was protesting the fact that an individual who she thought was a friend of hers, unceremoniously “unfriended” her. What was the reason? My cousin was defending a political statement that her niece made. Evidently, this friend disagreed with the position and “unfriending” was her recourse. I tried to console her, I don’t know if it worked. However, I have found myself in a similar situation; a person whom I respect (though not a personal friend, more of an acquaintance) unceremoniously “unfriended” me. Subsequently, I noted that another acquaintance posted a “meme” to which to I took offense because it made generalizations about Democrats none of which described me.

I have used my FaceBook and Twitter accounts to vent my political frustrations and I believe that some of my rants may have offended the sensibilities (or sensitivities) of some of my FaceBook friends and Twitter followers. For this I am deeply sorry. It was never my intention to offend anyone. I was merely venting my frustration and rooting for the guy I supported. The unfortunate part of any contest is that someone also loses. His supporters take it personally. I never thought that Mitt Romney was a “bad guy.” I disagree with his politics; I disagree with his solutions to the problems. For those of you who disagree with me politically and wish to “unfriend” me, I understand. For those of you who do not wish to read or discuss my political rants, please let me know in a private message; I will put you on a list restricting you to general, non-political postings. If you’re a family member: tough. Remember, you choose your friends, God chooses your family.

Politics is very much like religion: we necessarily think that what we believe is the Truth; if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be what we believe.

Amen.

The Road to Welldom

Time now for my annual blog post ;-] I don't care if you don't like emoticons. At 60 years of age, I have decided to improve my general health and conditioning. It's somewhat motivated by my lovely bride, Carmela who has been going to the gym 4 or 5 days out of 7 and at the age of 29 (x 2) looks as good (to me at least) now as she ever has. Me, on the other hand, am as close to my all-time high weight of 260 pounds as I ever have been. You do the math, it can get pretty ugly from here. So, I decided to do something about it.

It started with the Internet, WebMD.com. They have some pretty nice tools to get a body on his way to better health and fitness. The second place is my iPhone. I mentioned in my previous post that I am "an old guy." When Carmela got me an iPhone for my most recent birthday, I thought to myself: "What the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?" I just wanted a phone to replace my old Motorola (which was the size of a hand grenade but serviced me extremely well), with something slimmer and a qwerty keyboard to make my messaging a little easier. Instead, I got this thing with a rather unfriendly Siri (despite what the commercials tell you). Then I discovered some apps. Now, I can't imagine how I got along without one.

One of my favorite apps is one named GPS+ Pedometer Pro by Arawella. This is one very cool app. It tells me how fat I am (BMI calculator) what my ideal weight should be, maps my route, counts my steps, calculates the mileage, calories-burned calculator, has a playlist that you can either create or import from your iPhone and allows you to make progress posts to Twitter and/or FaceBook. Like other most other computer applications, I've probably only scratched the surface of its capabilities and hope to learn more as I go along.

In any event, I got off to a great start, 3 miles the first day, 4 miles the second day and 5 miles the third day. I noticed "shin splints" on the fourth day and decided to "walk-through" them on the fifth day. BIG mistake. On the sixth day as I was walking, or should I say limping, to class on my second day of the new semester, my right leg was throbbing. I tried to massage my knee and shin all through this class and my next. When I got back to my car, I could barely sense my foot. Not good, especially if you need to move your foot from the gas to the brake. OK, so an entire week goes by; the left leg is entirely OK, the right one, eh, maybe not as good.

Time for a 60 year old to exercise some of that wisdom that supposedly accumulates over the years. I take it a little easier; every other day to get back on track and keep it to 3-4 miles. Now, a couple of weeks later, it's much better. I got a new pair of ASICS running shoes. (As an aside, I have been devoted to New Balance. They were the first manufacturer to accommodate wide sizes, I've got bear paws, not so long but really wide. But, I've noticed lately that the sizes are not so accommodating; the wide sizes are not quite as wide any more. They also used to be manufactured in the US; let's hear it for outsourcing :-p [I told you, I don't care]).

Hello World!

I have just completed my jump into the world of social media and I am feeling quite like the "man who fell to Earth." I recently activated both LinkedIn and Twitter accounts and based on some internet based advice, opened this blog page. Evidently, to get some credibility you need to have a blog page so that your "followers" can know who you are, otherwise you will not have followers; I think there is a Catch-22 in there somewhere.

So, I will take this time to, more-or-less, introduce myself.

I am an old guy.
My first computer was a Commodore 64. I had a dial-up connection to CompuServe and although, I can't recall the price, it was per connection, incredibly slow and seemed rather expensive. The "64" in Commodore 64 referred to the size of the RAM. The memory was cassette tape, access was sequential and the monitor was an old B&W TV we had; the entire setup was ridiculous. However, even at that time, I thought that the Internet access part of the experience held the most potential.
My next computer was an Everex XT. If I remember correctly, this one had 256k RAM and what I was assured was more memory than I would ever need, a 10MB hard drive. It proved not to be enough within 2 months. This machine had DOS 1.0 and Windows 3.3.
I've had a number of machines and OS' since then: a Radius MAC clone (OS 7.5), some generic PC made up on the spot at a Computer Show (Windows 98), our current desktop is an HP Pavillion with Vista and I have an Acer notebook that dual boots with either Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) or Windows 7.

I am a printing professional.
I am currently employed by Tobay Printing on Long Island as a pre-press specialist and I am self-employed (dba Three Village Printing) as printing broker and consultant.

I am a student.
I attend Stony Brook University. After sending 2 sons to college, I thought it time to finish up something that I started 40 years ago. Part of my problem was not knowing what I wanted to when I grow up; now, I don't worry about it anymore. I am majoring in Business and Economics, I feel both subjects will help me out with my current plans and expectations.

I am a musician.
I have been playing the guitar, rather badly, for over 45 years. Two years ago, I thought it would be a good approach to learn music from an entirely new perspective: as a rank beginner with an entirely new instrument. I saw the animated feature Waking Life and was absolutely floored by the accordion of Glover Gill and the Tosca Tango Orchestra, so my choice of instrument is the accordion.

I am a traveler.
My wife, Carmela, is a sixth grade teacher and loves to travel. I guess I got the "bug" from her. We've been to Norway, Italy, Costa Rica, Mexico; we've traveled to a few of National Parks (what an incredible resource our National Parks System is) notably, The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Death Valley, Red Rock Canyon, Shenandoah, Zion, Everglades. I'm sure I've neglected to mention a place or two and we have plenty more to see.

I am a bon vivant.
I enjoy life: I love to eat, I love to drink, I love to laugh. I enjoy the company of my good friends and family, I enjoy a good book, a good movie and I love music.

In the future, I will use my blog page to vent, rant, update and otherwise inform. Thanks for your time and interest and if you have any comments, please post.