Family

My family came over to hang out the other night. It's been so fun having everyone living close by this summer!


Lisa swimming


Emily jumping


Lexi running around


Scott and Eric


I read this article in the Trib last week. It's written by a retired public school teacher and aspiring writer. Here is an excerpt:

"Personal blogging is the technical phenomenon I have the hardest time getting my brain around. I don't care how people spend their free time or what they're angry about. Very few of these opinionated ramblings are interesting or important. The whole concept seems incredibly narcissistic. If it's the 21st century version of a diary, then it misses the point: Diaries are private."

Obviously, this guy was not an English teacher, because he totally doesn't get irony. Here's a guy who is not an expert in his subject, he's just a regular Joe, puts his "opinionated ramblings" about modern technology down on paper and sends it in to the newspaper for everyone to read. And yet, he thinks that other people who do THE EXACT SAME THING, just on their own personal web page instead of for the newspaper, are narcissistic and he isn't interested in reading it. Guess what! I feel the same way about some opinion pieces in the newspaper. If I don't care about the topic, I don't read it. That doesn't make the author a narcissist for writing it and sending it in. The beauty is, we only have to read what we want to. I happen to enjoy reading my friends' blogs, thankyouverymuch. And yah, blogging is somewhat narcissistic. So what? So are a lot of things we do. It's not like bloggers are out there bugging everyone they know to read their ramblings... you read if you want to, you don't if you don't. The other reason I know he wasn't an English teacher is because any writing teacher will tell you that people need an avenue to publish their work. Sure, some things that you write are meant to remain private. But, by and large, there's something artificial about writing for no audience. That's probably the reason that many people who don't enjoy writing in a diary or a journal do enjoy writing a blog. It's not that you necessarily care whether anyone reads it... it's the fact that it's out there. It's "published". It *can be read.

Here is an excerpt from an article from last Tuesday's Trib about the high caloric content of restaurant kids' meals.

"America's chain restaurants are setting parents up to fail," said the center's nutrition policy director, Margo Wootan. "McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and other chains are conditioning kids to expect burgers, fried chicken, pizza, French fries, macaroni and cheese, and soda at almost every lunch and dinner."

Ummmm... no.... their PARENTS are conditioning them to expect junk food at every lunch and dinner. It's not like Burger King and KFC are coming to their homes and feeding their kids. If you go out to eat a few times a month or once a week, and then eat nutritious foods the rest of the meals, how will your kids be conditioned to expect burgers, fried chicken, pizza, etc at every lunch and dinner? Take some responsibility, people! Sure it would be helpful to have some extra nutritional info about what's in kids' meals, and it's great for restaurants to offer some healthy choices. But none of that is better than just limiting the food in the first place. Common sense. Personal responsibility. Are those really such foreign concepts?