Technorati

After Put Up Your Dukes... It's Football Time, you will see an odd blog post that is random letters and green circles.  The reason for this is that I have submitted my blog to Technorati for publication.  Technorati is an internet search engine for the blogging community.  They aren't just any search engine though.  They are the "Harvard" of search engines.  You must submit your site and they must determine if your blog is to their standards.  I am in the last stages of their submission process, which involves confirming this to be my site.  This will be a huge accomplishment if I am accepted.  I am very excited and hope to announce that I have been officially accepted shortly.  I will keep everyone informed.

Put Up Your Dukes... It's Football Time

This week has been incredible for any football fan out there.  Free agency is always a nice reminder of why we love football and gives us a little taste of what to expect of our team in the upcoming season.  This week was particularly active.  Possibly the greatest quarterback of all time, entered free agency;  Quite possibly the most polarizing quarterback was traded from Denver to New York;  The Saints were exposed for their, well, unsaintly behavior.  As most of you know, this wouldn’t be my blog if I didn't throw a philosophical twist into the mix, would it?  Nor would it be my blog if I didn’t add a little of my own experiences.

Anyway, I would venture to say that some fans are about as crazy as a redneck at the demolition derby... or their mama’s weddin’.  Before anyone is too offended, I am a self proclaimed redneck and darn proud of it.  I am also a huge football fan and I have a lot of opinions, so here goes nothing.  

Why are people so passionate about their sports teams?  This is a problem from little league t-ball, all the way to the National Football League.  I understand as well as the next guy, that watching your team go all the way and winning is amazing.  First, the game is memorable for a lifetime, and secondly, you get bragging rights... especially towards your rival’s fans. 

However, some of the things people say and do is just too much!  What is the cost?  Well, it could cost you your life. 

Young, Dumb and Daring

I often look back to my teenage years and wonder how I lived to tell my tales.  Knowing exactly the stunts I pulled, makes me that much more nervous now that my oldest is sixteen.  I’ve been fortunate that, so far, my son appears to be more grounded and aware of his mortality.  My teen years were filled with the parental cliches.  You know... the, “What the hell were you thinking?” and, Do you know how much that little stunt is going to cost us?”

I believe having parents who love you, teach you of life’s dangers and more importantly encourage an open line of communication can reduce the stupidity that seems to plague our teens.  I still wonder if that is enough.  What actually makes teens do the things they do?

First, let’s look at a few scenarios of two separate teens to determine what their drive or motivations actually were.  We will also see if there is a difference between a teenage guy’s decisions and the teenage girl’s decisions.  The first teen, is my husband Tom, and the second teen, myself.   

Tom spent most of his time with his friends.  Shooting pool, video gaming, and drinking were their favorite activities.  Although Tom had friends that were over twenty-one that bought beer for them, it was still not uncommon for Tom and his friends to stand outside of liquor stores and solicit people to purchase alcohol when necessary.  One of his friends, Jason, hopped into a car with a few guys and took off out of the parking lot.  Tom stood there in horror wondering why Jason would leave with strangers and if he would return.  And to think, all of this just to get drunk and “impress” our friends.  

Silent Tears, Silent Pain

The old expression is “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”.  I will have to disagree with this one.  Only a bully would create a grammar school rhyme stating it is not harmful unless your physically attacked.  I believe that every man, woman, and child has been bullied at one point in their life.  Even the bullies at school are bullied... usually at home by a parent.  Bullying has become an epidemic that society has turned their backs on for far too long.  

Despite Columbine, the Virginia Tech massacre and the Pennsylvania Amish School shootings, bullying has not only become a larger issue but has gone high tech.  Once upon a time, most kids only needed to worry about being called names and pushed when they were at school.  In today’s age of technology we now have the unfortunate ability to make people’s lives miserable from our keyboards and cell phones.  

Social networking such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter have allowed sociopathic members of society to publish harmful, embarrassing, and untrue pieces of information on others.  http://www.webmd.com/parenting/tc/bullying-characteristics-of-children-who-bully.  For many of the victims of this bullying, the burden of their fear, shame, and worthlessness becomes so overwhelming that they chose to end their misery through suicide.  The most famous of this is Phoebe Prince who had been bullied relentlessly.  Despite the amount of people who were aware of the heartless treatment this young girl was enduring, not one person came to her defense.  I guess this is a two fold article in the respect that the one thing that disgusts me more than a bully, is a bystander that looks on with the “it’s none of my business” attitude.  

Looking in Through the One Way Mirror

Writing about gaming addictions has proved to be the biggest writing challenge I have ever faced.  I must admit that I learned a lot about myself and my husband while on this excursion.  Part of the difficulties of writing a piece on this addiction was that it was very personal to Tom.  My concerns were for his feelings and at times what I felt was appropriate, Tom felt it wasn’t and had crossed the line.  This piece will actually be the perspective of the outsider... my viewpoint of gaming addiction.  Tom will be assisting me on the next article which will be his perspective of the subject.  

Having said that, I will jump right into this by saying I believe the activity level in his brain is not the same as mine, nor is his thought process.  The experts have dubbed technology addiction as Popcorn Brain.  From an outsider’s perspective, it seemed more to me like spaghetti brain, as I felt like his thoughts were intertwined.

I was also surprised to see that I was at a loss for words for the first time in my life.  I am the one person who is never at a loss for words!  I began to wonder if he was the norm, and it was my thoughts that were actually tangled.  Through all of my research, however, I decided there was no right or wrong.  There were only differences in the area of activity in our brains.