Thoughts on turning 36

Time for another blog entry. I celebrated my thirty sixth birthday today. I was thinking back on how things have changed since I was born back in 1969 and It amazes me what has gone on. First of all. Child proofing. When I was young there were no child proof locks on the cupboards. We just knew that if we drank the pink stuff under the kitchen sink we were going to die a slow painful death. My sister and I just knew to leave the cupboards alone. The toys we had back then would be banned today. If someone tried selling lawn darts today they'd be tarred, feathered and ran out of town. But we had them, and they were not plastic either. THEY WERE REAL. We also never worried about toy guns. We were taught the difference between real ones and toy guns. Don't forget about tinker toys. If you remember, these were long pointy sticks and little round things that any child could have poked an eye out with and swallowed. We just knew to keep them out of our mouths or we would choke to death slowly and painfully. I have to laugh at how child proof my sisters house is because when we were growing up it was not that safe. And we drank water out of the well, unfiltered. Probably why my sister and I hardly ever get sick. My parents did not do any child proofing until my youngest sister was born. And television, we did not have our own TV's in our rooms. I did not have my own television in my own room until I went to collage. When we did get our own TV's my sister and I had to buy our own. Now five year olds have TV's in their own rooms. If you wanted to watch TV you went in to the liveingroom and watched it with mom and dad. Maybe you went and watched the black and white TV in the kitchen if there was something you wanted to watch. Of course we did not have cable in the country. We had four channels. Until 1982 when we received a fifth one. One channel for each of the THREE TV networks and and a PBS station that went off the air between ten am and three pm. later their was a fourth added called FOX. Remember when that was a new network? My parents will try and say they get nine channels. But basically they all broadcast the same thing since they are all network affiliates. I remember when I met the woman I am now married to I had to explain over the air TV. She was not aware that when they said NBC 5 Chicago that meant the over the air signal was on Channel five. She did not understand the difference between cable, satellite and over the air TV.
and there was no such thing as TIVO. You went to the bathroom during a commercial break and if you missed the important part of the ball game or other TV show, you missed it. There was no pausing live TV. Which is by the way my favorite function of my DVR. The ability to pause a ball game when the dog has to go out.
Music including rock and top forty was on AM radio when I was in grade school and we listened to records an tapes. CD's didn't start coming in to the main stream until the mid eighties. The son of a friend of ours saw a record and had no idea what it was. Phones were just for calling someone. You didn't play games or listen to music on the phone. Heck, I won't be surprised if pretty soon you can watch satellite TV on your phone. I'm not saying things were better back then. I love all the technology. My wife and I are huge tech geeks. If there is a gadget out there we probably have it. I'm just amazed at how much has changed in the last thirty six years. Even this blog that I'm typing. Used to be your sister would write this stuff down in a book she kept under her bed with a lock on it. Now it is called a blog where everyone male, female, or what ever you happen to be can type what ever you are thinking and post it on a website for the whole world to see. That brings me to the internet, my final thought on this blog for today as I reflect on the past thirty six years. Who would have thought thirty six years ago we could communicate instantaneously with anyone around the world and be able to look up information on any subject with the click of a keyboard and mouse. Used to be a mouse was something you set a trap in your house to get rid of. Now if you don't have a mouse your considered out of touch.
Until next time.
Later

Have a good weekend

A little lighter post than the last few. It is a Saturday and we just got back from Shopping with friends. We went to Best Buy and Circuit City. Two stores which we should not be allowed in unsupervised. I bought "Mercenaries" for the XBOX and my wife bought an MP3 recorder to do podcasting. Yes, we are techie geeks and proud of it. We're just getting ready to go visit my in-laws. My sister in law is up with our niece so I'm going to go and spoil her like a good uncle should. You know, let her do whatever she wants and then give her back to her mom, hehe. Looks like the hot weather is back. We had a little reprieve the last couple days but it looks like 90's all week. Have to run. Saturday is no day to be spending all day on the computer so if your reading this on Saturday, get off your buns and get out and do something. talk to you next time.

How to Deal With Violent Video Games

There has been quite a bit of news lately about violent video games and if stores should be banned from selling certain games to children under a certain age. The big story has been the download for the new "Grand Theft Auto" game that lets the player pick up girls on the street and have sex with them. Here in Illinois a law was just passed baring stores from selling violent games to children under 18. Store owners can be fined or even serve jail time. Other states have tried laws similar to this one and they have all been struck down as unconstitutional. Hopefully Illinois law will have a similar fate. First, government does not belong in the job of parenting. Our governor says that parents need all the help they can get to make an informed decision. There is already a ratings system for games. If parents cannot determine if a game is appropriate for their child based on the ratings than they have a few issues that no law is going to help. They are just bad parents. The current ratings system is good enough. People need to stop expecting someone else to raise their kids and do their jobs. You had the kid now raise him or her properly. If you don't want your child to be playing a game then don't buy it for him. Pay attention to what games your kids are playing. Any idiot can tell just by using common sense that a game called, "Grand Theft Auto" is not a game that a child should be playing. It has the mature rating for a reason. Get involved in your kids lives and raise them and quit expecting the government to do it for you. Second. The easiest way to get around this law is to have someone of legal age go and by the game . Who says an older friend of even relative can't pick the game up.
Third, Doesn't law enforcement have better things to do than to go around making busts at video stores for someone selling a game? You would think they would be more concerned about people who commit real crimes? Nice to know the crime rate in our country is so low they can waste valuable time and resources going after these awful game sellers who are corrupting the minds of our children. Apparently they would rather ignore the drug house where drugs are being sold to go after someone selling a copy of "Grand Theft Auto" to a teenager who's parents should not have let him buy the game in the first place. Nice to see we have our priorities in order. Finally, "Grand Theft Auto" could not have asked for better publicity. Thanks to these so called parents groups this game has become more popular because they drew more attention to it. My solution is simple. Probably too simple for some people. It is called, do your job as a parent and monitor what your kids are doing and you won't have to worry about what your kids are playing because you will be involved in their lives. Try being a parent and stop expecting the government to do your job.

Strange Advice and other Strange Parent Stories

A good friend of mine has a job interview today and I wish her the best of luck. It got me thinking back to when I was job hunting and some of the strange advice I received from my mother. She was always well intentioned but usually got her advice backward. I remember after one job interview I had asked her to pick up some thank you notes so I could thank the prospective employer for taking the time out of his schedule for interviewing me. My mother actually said that it would not be appropriate to do that because according to her I took the time out of my schedule to be interviewed by him. I tried to correct her on this but she became mad at me for not "closing my mouth and taking some advice for once". Never mind the fact that I had taken a job hunting course in collage and knew what I was talking about. No problem, I called a friend of mine and she sent off the thank you note for me. Not sure what my mothers problem was. You'd think she would know that the person who has taken the job hunting course knows what they are talking about. She had a history of doing strange things like that. I recall we were at a fast food restaurant the day before I turned twenty four. Still lived at home unfortunately. I was getting my order and my mother grabs my arm and pulls me away. I told her I did not appreciate that and she actually got mad at me telling me I should "she was just trying to help and that I should use my brain and get with the program". What ever the heck that was supposed to mean. I just made sure I told everyone I knew about it and boy did she catch heck from my dad for pulling that one. She could not figure out what she did wrong. Don't get me wrong, I love my mother but she has a history of doing some really strange things and thinking they are somehow helpful and then getting mad when someone tries to correct her on it. She really hates it when you show her the evidence that she is wrong. She used to have a habit of accusing me of things I did not do and when I would prove myself right, instead of apologizing she would actually get mad at me because then she would have to actually go yell at the person who was actually responsible for the offence. One final strange parent story. I was away at school and I had received a card from some relatives saying they missed me and were sorry I could not attend a family reunion. I decided to call them and thank them for thinking of me. No keep in mind I paid my own phone bill from the money I made at my campus job. A few mornings later at seven thirty I received a call from my folks telling me they were not happy to hear that I had called some relatives to thank them for sending me the card. My first though was, this call must have been my moms idea. I informed them that I pay my own phone bill and who I call is none of their business. My mother actually tried to threaten to have the phone removed from my dorm room. I told her that as long a I'm paying the phone bill with my money I will call who ever a pleas and there is not a damn thing she can do about it. I hung up, went to class where I was almost late for a test thanks to them I don't think they realized how foolish they sounded. I did make sure I told everyone I knew even relatives the story and they thought it was pretty funny. Just some of the strange things my mom has done and said. I'm sure yours has done some strange things too although I'm guessing not as strange as mine.

shuttle launch

I was watching the coverage of the Space Shuttle Discovery launch this morning on CNN and could not help but notice how negative the commentator was just before and after the launch. He went though all the cenerios of how they could abort the mission if something went wrong. We were all nervous enough about this launch and we did not need mister doomsday expert going on and on about how dangerous the launch is. We already know this. Tell us something informative like what they will be doing on the mission. Or better yet just show us the launch and shut up. The last thing we needed was to be made to think something was going to go wrong. Sometimes I thought the CNN commentator was just talking to hear his own voice. Here's a news flash for CNN. We already know shuttle missions are dangerous. Do us a favor and stop telling us things we already know. I wish the crew the best on their mission and a safe return and hopefully next time CNN will be a little more positive in their coverage and tell us some things we don't already know.

seven years

Seven years ago today was a great day. I married a wonderful woman. We had a beautiful ceremony and the weather was very nice. Upper seventies witch is pretty good for July and much better than the weather we've been having. The temperature reached 104 yesterday. Anyway back to reminiscing about my wedding day. The service went off perfectly. Nobody fainted. I did have a few too many drinks thanks to my brother in law and one of my cousins. Let's put it this way, by the end of the reception I had the garter on my head. Also being visually impaired, I thought it would be funny when going for the garter to pretend I could not see where it was. I thought it was funny and my bride was trying to beat on my head telling me to come up for air. So what have I learned in the last seven years about my wife. Well, what can I tell you without getting in to trouble. I'm one of those husbands that actually thinks when my wife asks me a question she must want an honest answer or at least a smart allec one. I pride myself in being a complete smart ass. She once asked me how I could stand to watch the "Three Stooges" on TV. My response, "I'm not standing, I'm sitting down". Or she'll ask me " what on earth am I watching?" I'll tell her,"This device is called TV. for over fifty years they have shown visual programming that is called TV shows for people that would be you and me to enjoy visually." Trust me, she was used to those comments long before we were married witch is why I'm surprised she does not phrase her questions more carefully. Luckily my wife is not one of those women who care what position the toilet seat is located. It amazes me that some women throw a fit like a child when their man does not put it down for them. My feeling is that your a big girl you can put it down yourself. I don't expect you to put it up for me so don't expect me to put it down for you. It is very simple. ask your husband to show you how to do it. If your afraid of falling in when it is night and the lights are off, take the two seconds it takes to turn around and see if you need to lower it or not. It amazes me the number of woman that complain about something that dumb. Also the whole witch way the toothpaste tube should be squeezed. My mother used to make a big deal about this one. We were finally able to get her to shut up about it by simple ignoring her complaints about it. So guys if you want your wife to stop complaining about something dumb, just ignore her she will eventually give up. The only silly thing my wife ever complained about was the toilet paper being on the roll the wrong direction. My solution, I just set the new one on the sink and let her put it on. That solved the argument on that subject. And thankfully she does not watch Lifetime television. I've never understood how any intelligent female can watch that garbage. Here's every Lifetime move summarized in a few lines. Woman meets nice guy, friends try to warn woman about nice guy. they claim he's psycho. at first woman does not listen to friends until it is almost too late at witch point she barely escapes death and spends rest of movie trying to elude psycho and finally new boyfriend almost gets killed by psycho ex and ends up killing him and new boyfriend and woman start to have sex as the credits roll. No need to ever watch Lifetime again. That's how all the movies go.

until next time

have a good day.

Zman

This was going to be a Cubs rant but they won so I had to change the rant.

Hello, I'm zman977. My name stands for my on air name, I am a radio peronality, in other words I'm broke, and the 977 part is the frequency of one of the radio stations I work for. I just finnished watching the Cubs beat the Cardnals on a Neffi Perez (SP) grand slam. At first I thought I was going to have to do some Cubs bashing after they blew a one run lead in the bottom of the ninth with two out and two stirkes but that idea was canned when the Cubs decided to actually not blow a lead this time. So I'll have to think of something elce to rant about. I know. Working in radio I do get some strange phone calls. My favorite ones are the people who will call during a sports broadcast like a NASCAR race and request a song. Now I can hear the race in the back ground so I know they are listening. The funny part is they cannot figure out that we cannot interupt a sports broadcast to play a song. There are also the people who will call during severe weather warnings to request songs. "I know a tornadoe is haeding right for my house and will kill my whole family but I just have to hear the new Brooks & Dunn song". Another one that gets me is the peole who will call a station and request a song that is completely off the format. Calling a top forty station and requesting Bary Maniloe. That actaully has happend. Again, you can hear the station in the back ground. I politely tell the person that we don't play anything that old. When I am actually thinking, "idiot. Do they hear what we are playing?" I also like the people who will call us and ask if they won the tickets when there is no contest going on. They apparetnly think by just asking if they won a contest they will trick us in to thinking that we must be running one. I also like it when telemarketers will call the request lines and try to get us to buy something. I like to tell them that I cannot take phone selisitations and then I transfer them to my boss and of course they hang up. I also like the people who will call on Sundays and ask to talk to Rick Dees during the broadcast of the Weekly top forty. They often sound shocked that it is a program that we recieve on CD. I'm sure everyone who works with the public has their own stories of those speical people. Those are just a few we deal with in radio.