A couple years ago, an older gentleman who has a very thick accent (and who now considers me a friend) came in the feed store and said to have a nice "'Arbor Day". I thought he meant something about planting trees.
It slipped my mind that the date was 12/7.
He jumped my case, asking what they teach in schools nowadays . . . For a while after, he wouldn't so much as acknowledge my existence. But he and i do share a friendship now.

In my defense, i did know what "Harbor Day" was then. Not quite as much from school (though i had read a lot about it in my curriculum) as from a video game called Medal of Honor: Rising Sun. I had memorized the names of the ships that were sunk that day from that game. I knew how many people were killed, even down to the minute the first Zero came in because of that game. All that was covered in history books, but it wasn't as easy to remember as it was when a guy was shouting in my virtual ear about which ships went down and when.

But this isn't a pro-video game post--i scarcely play them anymore (historical learning can be a lot easier when put into things like that, though).

This is just to remind people that real people died that day for you and i. Not characters in a game, not actors in a movie, but real flesh-and-blood people.

They gave their lives in service to their country and to their families. They gave their lives for our freedom. Your fathers, your grandfathers, your great-grandfathers; these men chose to serve this country to the fullest extent possible, some paying the ultimate sacrifice.
Thank God for them, and thank God for those who have served since and are serving now.

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

(this was written in OpenOffice, so the capitalization of "i" is autocorrected in many instances but not in the cases of "i've" or "i'm". Sorry for the inconsistency)

So, last weekend, a couple people I know saw me sipping from a Nos energy drink. Now, I only drink one a day, occasionally two.
It's a bad habit, I know, but it's the same as having two Cokes or Dr. Peppers as far as the caffeine content is concerned. Not really enough to harm me.
Apparently, there have been about a dozen or so people die in the last few years with their deaths linked to the 5-Hour Energy shots, and about half a dozen linked to Monster. Mostly heart issues. My guess is it's people drinking more than the recommended limit of 3 per day, and with preexisting issues. But I don't know for certain . . .
But to the point, when they saw me drinking it they said “You know, those are bad for you.”
Here's the irony. This was said by an ex-smoker. They don't smoke anymore, so good for them.
Then the other person there said they'd been linked to about fifteen people dying over the last few years. I thought this was funny because this was coming from someone who drinks religiously. To the point they're drunk practically every weekend.
Now, i'm not going to say that drinking them is less bad for me because they drink alcohol, but I was very tempted to say “Within that entire amount, how many people, drinkers or bystanders, have been killed as a result of your favorite beverage in the last forty-eight hours?”
But I held my tongue.

When buying one of those once, the cashier told me of the dangers of them and how a few people have died from them . . . This cashier works at a store about a half-mile from my house, so I pass by there quite frequently—she's often sitting outside smoking.
Again, not excusing my energy drink drinking, just pointing out the irony.

I should quit drinking energy drinks. And I probably will, but it will be my choice at a time of my choosing.

Why i hate football (and other professional sports) . . .

On Thanksgiving, there was apparently a very thick cover of fog on I-10. There was a 100-car pile-up, and two people were killed. It's sad that something like that happened on Thanksgiving. Two people's families will never celebrate Thanksgiving the same way again. With the way my mind works, it was hard to not put myself in the families' shoes and wonder how to give thanks when tragedy like that strikes (i hide things like that rather well). I know it happens all across the country on any given day, Holidays notwithstanding.

That doesn't seem to have anything to do with football, does it?
Well, here's the thing. That happened early in the morning. I didn't find out until after the Texans v. Lions game. People died, and they didn't interrupt broadcasting of people PLAYING A GAME to tell us that friends, neighbors--famil(y's)(ies'), father(s) and/or mother(s), brother(s) and/or sister(s), son(s) and/or daughter(s) had died. And a game couldn't be cut off for a minute to tell us?
Besides, after the game was over, it's not like they spent more than twenty seconds on the news to tell us that two people had died--twenty seconds . . . Couldn't spare twenty seconds in a three-hour sports match. That completely disgusts me.
Oh, yeah, and after that, there was an eight-minute special (in the "news", not the "sports") about how the Texans won their first Thanksgiving day game . . . Somehow, the fact that they won was twenty-four times as important as two people's LIVES.

So why is it that the "news" is more concerned with a game than it is with our fellow man's lives?
I didn't care for football (or other professional sports) before, but now i'm genuinely outraged and sickened by it. If you watch it and contribute to it being a higher priority to the general public than the lives of two people, thank you. Thank you for making me feel this way about it.
If this offends you . . .  Well, let's put it this way: if you contribute to what offends me and yet you don't care, why should i care if what i say offends you?
Watch your pointless games that mean nothing.
If you're an adult and watching it, it's a game. Being played.
(it's not very Christian of me to be this irate about something, but . . . I'm in the world, not of it. I'm not angry at people, i'm angry at the world and the way it is)

My two cents.
Don't like my opinion? Blogs are free. You can write your own about how it's just entertainment . . .