With the official opening for the summer being this weekend, let’s make sure we all take a minute to honor the men and women of the Armed Services. Despite what you might read in the news, this is still a country with a freedom that is the envy of most of the world. And a lot of that is due to the sacrifice of those in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. When I say sacrifice, while many have lost their lives in service, others have put their own lives on hold to serve the country and its people. They deserve our thanks for bearing the responsibility as a profound duty not only for themselves and their families but for countless strangers throughout this land. If you have a veteran in your family, make sure you let them know how much you appreciate them and how much their years of sacrifice means to you.

“We have let people down.”

This statement of the ultra obvious comes from the CEO of BP Tony Hayward. Gee, Tony, ya think? Not only have you wasted a resource, you’re dragging your feet in initiating a cleanup when the planning should have been done way in advance, and your signature on the ecology is in black and red. You let us down doesn’t even begin to describe what your company is doing and who knows what the end ramifications are from all this.

I have some righteous indignation to get off my chest and it’s aimed right at BP. We all know about the Gulf oil spill and the effects it is having not just on the ecology of the Gulf but also what it is doing to our national political scheme. We have entered an era of finger pointing and blaming and political spin that hasn’t been seen for a long time. Lost in this muck is the facts about the cleanup. BP execs said today that their experimental plan to try and stop the oil leak could only be implemented as early as Wednesday. And the language they were using made it sound as if their not really optimistic that it will happen that soon. Also, they’re not even sure it will work!! They never thought to try this even though they went full steam ahead in building the off shore rig. While it is a mile down, find a way to test this since this was always a possible disaster, you nitwits! As if that isn’t bad enough, if this plug experiment doesn’t work, execs said it will be several months before a relief well can be drilled. OK, you just take your time meanwhile the shrimping industry and other industries in the Gulf will just slowly die while you get your act together. WHERE’S YOUR PLANNING!? Is there not one Boy Scout among you? The boy scout motto of “Be Prepared” was obviously not something you studied in school. IDIOTS!

I’m sorry for this post, but the more I read about this, the angrier I get.

Well, we have another gem from Daniel Scocco on how to make your blog better. I have to say that I get more from this particular gentleman than anyone else when it comes to ideas on blogging. Daniel has provided a list of things you can do to keep your readers from nodding off when reading your posts. While there are some things he lists that are pretty self-explanatory, there are others which invite discussion. One such item was to make every post entertaining. Scocco really means to make sure there is some humor involved. I would say that while humor goes a long way, placing a joke in every post can undermine your message sometimes. Think about it this way; have you ever had a friend that was always cracking jokes while you were trying to discuss a serious topic? You probably started getting rather annoyed. And I believe we have to treat our posts as a conversation sometimes, a conversation that takes place over many days instead of a few minutes. And if you are always joking around, I have to think your readers will start to get a little annoyed. Humor is a great way to connect with people, but it can also be a shield to hide behind if you’re not careful. Use humor, but don’t sacrifice your message for a joke in every post.

This happens to be one of those days when I have nothing to offer. No nuggets of insight, no interesting story to share. Just you, me and this page. What do you think? I love the banner; it was custome designed by a friend. It perfectly summarizes what this blog is about. Blogging ideas, tips, strategies and some unassociated nonsense for fun. I enjoy just looking at the design. I’m not narcissistic enough to revel in past posts, but I do like the color scheme and layout. I find it actually soothes me. That cool greenish-blue (or bluish-green) reminds me of the ocean in the tropics, full of coral and other sea creatures. I like my blog.

As you can tell, I do sometimes find myself going off on tangents from time to time. We all need that. We can’t be so single-minded all the time that we forget to address other areas of passion in our lives. Case in point, I have a friend who lives near Newport Beach and he was crowing about this ring he had just gotten for his fiancee. I asked him where he got it, since we used to hang out a lot in that area, and he told me. I was having trouble remembering the place specifically when my friend told me, “just do a search for jewelers newport beach and you’ll see where they are.” As soon as I got off the phone with my friend, I took his advice. I did my search and there it was. As soon as I saw a map of the location and knew exactly where it was and what was nearby. Then I decided to take a look at what the store had to offer. It was amazing, they have a great collection of really uniqe merchandise. I may have to look at this place again for gift ideas for my wife when my 10 year anniversary rolls around.

Ok, this is going to seem like a lot of ideas going in a lot of different directions, so all I can say at this point is I’m trying to sort my ideas as they come. I was watching the latest episode of Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel last night. If you’re not familiar with the show, it follows the boats that fish in the Bering Sea for crab. The show has been going on for 6 years now and there about 4-5 boats that get filmed every season. Two of the captains from those boats had a major falling out at the beginning of the season. Last night, one of the captains tried to reconcile while the other captain wanted nothing to do with it. I don’t know the particulars of the argument and who’s right and who’s wrong, but when someone comes up to me and we’ve had a disagreement and they extend the olive branch, I have never turned them away. I felt horrible for this captain and was actually depressed for the rest of the night. You might say, “well, don’t watch the show.” And that’s all well and good for some.

But the thing of it is for me is that people are all we have. If you can’t get along with others, or you don’t make an effort, you are condeming yourself to a lonely, bitter life. I have a friend who wants nothing to do with people in general because humans are not as smart as he thinks he is. Ouch. I have another friend who asked on Facebook, “How many times must I extend the hand of peace before I become a doormat?” Every time. When you offer friendship and forgiveness, you are always the bigger person. And if someone chooses not to accept, or worse accept it then hurt you again, you have to continue making the offer. Because even if you don’t get through to the intended person, others will see what you do and reward you accordingly.

I got to thinking about video blogs and what the proper protocol for getting something like that going. I went to YouTube and did a search for blogs just to see what would pop up.  this is one of the videos I got.  This is a very clever presentation of the benefits of both blogs and wikis.  For those unsure of what a wiki is, it’s a platform for sharing information where the content can be edited by the readers.  This “debate” uses the Kennedy/Nixon presidential debates of 1960 as its vehicle.  Now, I think that while this is a good presentation, I also believe it automatically sets a bias in the viewer’s mind because we all know what Nixon eventually did when he was President. Which is why I wince to say I sided with the Nixon side of the debate in general. At one point, Nixon talks about how you can see who said what when.  With a wiki, you can edit anonymously and there is no repercussion if your statement is incorrect.  But, watch the whole video and decide for yourself which platform is better.

I decided to do something different for this weeks bit of Friday fun.  Remember the old word game Mad-Libs? I decided to take a story and edit it, protecting the names of anyone involved, and replaced words with blanks to create a fun, silly story.

Martin Stone, an 83-year-old World War II veteran, and his wife Rosetta, 82, say that police have come looking for __________(noun) at their house about 50 times in the past _______(number) years.

It’s not clear why.

Police arrive from all over and ________(verb) on the door of the Martins’ two-story home searching for a _________(adjective) _________(noun) nearly every time. “I’m really worried,” Rosetta said. “How could so many people get my __________(noun) and how could cops be ________(verb ending in -ing) from so many different precincts?” The couple said one of the most __________(adjective) mix-ups came when police and ___________(celebrity) rolled up, hunting for _____________(famous villain).

“That is one I can’t get over,” Martin said, unable to understand how the NYPD could not know how to _________(adverb) find one. Even police don’t understand why the couple’s ____________(noun) continues to be a target. “Our identity theft squad is investigating the matter,” Inspector Red Mulen said.

Martin says they’re ___________(adjective) — but it still makes his ____________(noun) ______________(verb).

Ok, I usually don’t go into politics too much. I learned one thing from my mom growing up and it’s this: there are two things you never discuss unless you’re looking for a fight; religion and politics. And there’s a good reason those lead to arguments. Both of these topics are so connected to our inner nature and personality that the second someone says their own view of religion or politics is better or that your views are wrong, we immediately go on the defensive. As you should because if you don’t you are not a person of strong conviction.

That being said, I have to just sit back and marvel at the political landscape over the past year. I guess I’m a political moderate. I agree with the Republicans on certain issues and Democrats on others. Because of that, I don’t take offense when one party calls out the other. The recent senatorial race in Massachussetts is a prime example. I have a friend who lives near me in the midwest who had some choice words for the people of MA due to the election results. His anger stemmed from the effect it would have on the healthcare debate. I have another friend whose mother is a government employee and is facing some health issues. There’s a lot of bureaucratic red tape this poor mom is dealing with, and as a result, my friend doesn’t want to see government healthcare. Now, in his State of the Union Address, President Obama calls out the Supreme Court for a decision they made recently. This caused a visible reaction from one of the justices. Of course, the justice is going to disagree otherwise he wouldn’t have voted the way he did in the case. Like the title says, politics is fascinating to watch. I believe in the democratic process, but boy, does it get funky sometimes.