When did my phone become so important?

I almost can't remember a time that I didn't have a cell phone. It was a different world when I was young. Slower, and more thought out you had to plan your day as well as your week. Going over to spend the night at a friends house was a major ordeal planned days in advanced. Phone calls were made the day before to make sure all the arrangement were O.K.ed by both parents.



Thinking back I also remember a time when my grandparents were living with us. The phone was not to be touched durning certain times of the day. My grandfather was a paramedic and was on call, it seemed like to me, all the time. I had to walk down to A&W Root beer, two blocks away to make a phone call. Now, back then a phone call cost 20 cents and the phone booth didn't give change for a quarter so I had to make change at the A&W or be out a nickel. The good thing was you could talk forever because there was not time limit on your call.

Now my world has changed. My cell phone is a piece, a very important piece, of me. It is with me all the time, with out it I feel naked and exposed to the world around me. I don't use my cell that much in fact I almost never text. Still, this small gray box is always there. Maybe it's a security blanket so I'm in touch just in case. I think I would miss my right pinkie finger less than the thing that interrupts my day and my sleep.



Now the cell phone as taken over my life. I have it with me all the time like its a part of me. To be with out my trusty cell would mess up my entire day. Thinking would be almost impossible. I even use the alarm to wake me up in the morning. It might be easier to loose my right arm.

DARE to compair

In my edu. class today we discussed the needs of children "at risk". The list is long like low income, single parent, GLBT, teen suicide rate and drug use. The issue was raised about teen pregnancy rates and how if the school take any government money the teachers must teach abstinence in the class rooms. Health education could not talk about safe sex or the use of any contraceptives. This stems from the fear that talking about such thing would increase teen sex and as a result would increase teen pregnancy and increase sexually transmitted deceases. This started a debate with the majority of the class in support of sex ed. classes to include all of the for mentioned as well as handing out condoms and birth control pills in school.



The next topic was drug use among teens. With an increase in teen drug use the drug awareness program D.A.R.E was dropped from schools. Some of the reasons for the removal of the program were the increased knowledge the students received made drugs more accessible and an increased curiosity leading to greater experiment with drugs. Including one student in class to say "D.A.R.E. was a joke."



To me this seems like a contradiction. More info is good for sex ed. and bad for drug use. The pregnancy rates have gone down in resent years. And drug use as gone up. Maybe the two are not connected at all. I just found it interesting that more information or less information can be justified among the same people. I think that emotion plays a larger roll in making the right decisions than most people want to admit.

one million dollars

If I had a million dollars I would do the standard stuff frist. You know, pay off the house, pay the bills, pay for school and tuck some money away for the kids. My wife would like a new car so that would have to happen. Dad use to say "If moms not happy nobodys happy."



Whats left for me? Not much. One of my secret dreams has been to open a guitar store. The store would small and simple with a relaxing feel to it. Acoustic guitars would hang from the walls and placed in stands on the floor. A small glass counter to hold guitar strings and other small do-dads like tuner and string wax. The store would open up towards the back of the shop with chairs and stools for nightly jams.

Acoustic guitars would be the only guitars in the store. Some would be lower cost name brands but the gems in the store would be the hand crafted guitars selling on consignment. Beautifully rich sounds would fill the store on each strum made on these one of a kind instruments.

The store would also be the place for after school lessons. I would donate my time and store to help teach kids to play guitar, sing and write songs. This is something I want to do maybe when I retire or if I get lucky maybe just maybe Sharps Fine Acoustics could become real and not just a what if.

The Next Paper

In Text form Dennis Hopper says to invest with ETrade and he's got a lot of money so that's where I'll go. I don't have time to look around for advice so I'll do what the movie stars says is right.

On a billboard A picture of a Dennis Hopper wearing a very nice suite holding a chicken in one hand and looking very confused. Caption below "You wouldn't want my advice raising chickens but I do have a lot of money and like to hold on to it! Save time and listen to an expert"

Blog If you needed advice on raising chickens you ask some one who has a lot of chickens and had the chickens for a long time. Just like a chicken rancher. Like wise you would want to get fiances advice from some one who has a lot of money. Has had a lot of money for a long time and has time to research how to invest the money. Movie Stars fit in all of the categories and can be readily seen in commercials telling you just what to do.

The way I introduced my argument became different on each media I used. Blogging was simply condensing the paper down and only making a small argument. As for texting, I don't text much at all so to put the argument in a text was limiting to say the lest. Maybe as an ongoing conversation it would work better. The billboard I can see in my eyes as a satirical comment but I found it hard to put in words.

pressure

Fall is here and the start of crunch for most of us. In one way or another we all feel the pressure. For some it is the school work and projects we have been putting off thinking we have plenty of time or avoidance to push away the pending pain as long as possible. The sands of the hour glass are now past the half way mark so good luck if you have not been keeping up on your studies.

For others it is the pressure of getting things, like the house, the kids the menus and all the rest that goes with the holidays, together for the holidays. You can over hear most every where you go"Wow, it here already and I was going to get every thing done early." How many of you have said the same thing in the recent days?

Some are trying to do both. Just the thought of trying to do both automatically puts a person three month behind to start with. Try to remember that we are all in this together, you are not alone, and some how, some way, we will get it all done in time. We may have to fake it on some stuff or get a little creative on the how. Just remeber your not alone and drinking is still legal.

To Vote

I stood in for an hour and a half waiting to vote. Finding myself with time on my side I decided to pass my time people watching. A balding man in glasses would be my point of reference as I moved forward in the line. He was about fifteen people ahead of me in this snake like line of people. He is taller than most so it will be easy to follow him as he makes it closer to the door at the DMV. It was great to see people of all walks of life in line that day. Another nice thing about the day was that no one was talking about politics. Maybe people have had enough politics and just wanted to vote and be done with it. Maybe the political tension is to high and people don't want to start anything that might escalate and get in the way of voting. For the most part people were nice and friendly to each other even with the differences hiding under neath the smiling faces. In fact this give hope that we can all get along and let the political system work in a very civil way. The tall bald man in glasses finally made to the door. The family just ahead of me had a small child maybe the age of four and the dad was trying to explain that we were all here to pick a new President. "I don't want to see the President." the small child said. Yes I made it in the door. I voted and I feel very hopeful for the future.