Merry Christmas

I have been busy, a lot going on with the holidays, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year.

Notice I did not say Happy Holiday’s I said Christmas, folks, I don’t really care if you a Jewish or Agnostic or Muslim or any other religion, here in the states it’s CHRISTMAS TIME, not HOLIDAY time, your religion is your own, when I was celebrating Christmas in the Middle East do you know what they called it? Christmas, yes it was Christmas time, nobody in the heart of Islam was offended by celebrating Christmas, I have no idea why someone in the US, the supposedly freedom capital of the world, would get irritated by a nativity scene in the center of town, or at the Hospital, or even at the school. Why don’t people just play nice anymore? They look and look for ways to bother others, I guess it makes them feel important. I honestly have never had a problem ignoring things I didn’t want to look at, I pass billboards everyday that are of no interest to me, in fact some may actually offend me, but am I going to take the time and the interest to try and get them taken down? Hell no, I have important things to do with my life.

So enjoy the Christmas season the best you can, and if someone takes you to court over your baby Jesus in the front yard, feel sorry for the poor bastards, they obviously have nothing better to do with there time.

Pay for your actions

Not much new going on, just work and life, I am going to get a little Quail hunting this year, I went to try a little practice on blue rock this weekend, couldn’t hit a dang thing, but it has been 4 years since I’ve held a shotgun, I’m sure it is like riding a bike and will come back to me opening weekend, I will keep you informed of my success and failures of the hunt. Last time I promised to talk about the consequences of your actions, this is it.

At times in our lives we all screw up, after all we are human and we are going to make mistakes, how we handle these mistakes shows more about us then any other action, with the exception of success, you will never know your true self until you have success, once that happens, how you treat people will show your true self, of course it is a shame most people never find themselves in this situation.

I am sure you know someone that does no wrong, they are always looking for someone else to blame for the mistakes they made, these type of people are afraid of the consequences, I have news for them, you will never live a full and happy life until they face those fears and accept the consequences of the actions made, hiding the mistake, large or small, will only compound the problem. If your in business, every CEO on the face of the earth will tell you one thing, bad news only gets worse as time goes by, it’s never a good idea to hide bad news, in my years of employment I have never seen anyone fired or reprimanded for making a mistake, I have seen hundreds fired for trying to hide it. So make a plan to admit your mistakes and pay the consequences, the chances are you will not be in for the hard time you expect unless you hide it, or try to pass it off on someone else. Yes sometimes in life the consequences hurt and hurt a lot, they may cost you dearly, but by lying and cheating and hiding it will hurt much more in the long run.

Blog entry,
There are times in a persons life, that come from time to time, that have a very large impact on your personal reality, we call this having an epiphany, well I have had one, and it is this. I freaking hate cold weather, why I decided to move to New Mexico where it freezes and snows is beyond my wildest dreams, I guess it is because my other choice was Minnesota, and it has to be worse there, I swear I could go to sleep here in New Mexico and wake up back home in Kansas and it would take me 3 days to figure out the difference.

It’s going to take me some time to get used to living where there are no people again, after 3 years in Baghdad in a very crowded villa compound and then to Cape Canaveral with everything you ever wanted within 5 minutes drive, to being out in the middle of nowhere, culture shock is setting in hard and I am not enjoying it, you have read my thoughts on this place and my new apartment so I am not going to dwell on these issues, I guess it is time to wrote about my topic of the day, so here goes.

Mothers that there child can do nothing wrong. Oh My God, we see them all the time, the over protective mother,we all think its awful, we all feel sorry for the poor kid, and trust me I do feel sorry for the kid, or adult, I have seen very large grown men that there mother will lie, cheat and steal, just to keep them from paying the consequences of there actions. Mom let me tell you what your doing to that person you love so much, your teaching them that life is about lying and cheating and doing anything you want because you can get away with it, is that the kind of child you want to have? I doubt it, but that is exactly what you are making, someone that will either end up in prison or dead, probably through suicide, and your going to cry your eyes out because all you see is a poor baby boy or girl that you loved so much, well blame yourself, you made them, the way they are, by not making them pay the price of there actions.

We will expound on this later, for now, start to think about paying the price of your action, I think that will be my next topic, maybe, we will see.
Luvya meanit.

Read for fun

This job is going well, I moved into my new apartment Wednesday night, the furniture wasn’t there yet, it was there when I arrived last night, a couch, love seat and dinning room table, I honestly was expecting at least some end tables and a coffee table, does it matter? No, I need a use for all those tubs I traveled with anyway, end tables are a good use for them, I plan on getting everything put away this weekend, enough about my boring life, Let me tell you about my fiancé.
Qand is her name, she is an Arab woman from Iraq, the most beautiful woman you can imagine, I musts tell you one thing, She has those Arab eyes, those eyes that make a man drop on his knees and thank God he is a man, Those of you in the US that have never spent time in the Arab culture really need to try and understand it better. There are good reasons why they do what they do, I am not talking about the terrorism part, of course there is no rhyme of reason for that, I am talking about there everyday culture, I’ve seen my fiancé in normal clothes and I’ve seen her in the black dress, and I am telling you, there is nothing sexier then the black dress, nothing but those gorges Arab eyes being seen, and just the hint of what is under, when you know who and what, is under that dress, waiting on you, it drives you crazy, before you get on your high horse and start telling these people how wrong they are, remember one simple thing, there culture is where humanity started, they have been around over 7000 years, we have been around a little over 200, detach yourself from the high ground and look at this from a logical standpoint, you are an alien from another planet just starting to observe earth, you find out that the Arab people have been around 7000 years, America has been around 200, who would you listen too? I would listen to someone that is older and wiser, I am not trying to make them sound like they are the best thing since the coming of Christ, but I am just trying to point out some faults we have in our thinking. The Arab culture is not perfect, but neither is ours, a little understanding is all both of them need to make this world a little safer, I am big enough to admit I was wrong about them, are you?

Working in New Mexico

It's been a full week on the new job in New Mexico, Everything is working well, I'm going to be putting together a lot of BPA's (Blanket Purchase Agreements) but enough about work let's talk about living here, I've been here exactly 7 days and have had the chance to talk to a few people and size up the situation, enough to decide it's a very nice place to live, I found an apartment in Andrews, TX, 25 minute drive from work, and it's all at 75mph 30 miles or so, the town has 9000 people and it's a dry county. Hobbs NM. is about 60 miles away, it has a casino with slots only but it also has a horse racing track, I do enjoy a good horse race, Odessa TX. is 30 miles south, I haven't been there yet, I will check it out next weekend, there are about 250,000 in the Midland Odessa area so I'm thinking it should have everything i want or need, Malls, Bars, Nightclubs, anything me or my girl need. I was very lucky to get the place in Andrews, I have been making calls for places to live since I got here, with no luck, I called this place and they said they may have something for me soon, well i had heard that before so I didn't thing much of my chances, I was wrong, they called 20 minutes later and said they had a one bedroom available early the next week, I jumped on it, said I'll take it before seeing it, Drove over there the next day to leave a deposit, Still haven't seen the place and don't much care. I will full you in on the details next week.

My fiance and I had another fight, serious this time, I thought maybe she was going to go away for good this time but we talked and worked it out, I think, we will see in the next few months, I'm headed to Syria to see her within the next few months and we are going to be married before God and ourselves, I can't wait, I don't want to get into my personal life too much on this blog, the idea behind it was to promote my ideas and book, to tell the folks reading what kind of person I am and what kind of thoughts I have. Well this week was just about me and my life, Kinda boring isn't it? Don't worry, it will be better soon.
Luvya Meanit

New Job, first few days

This is my 3rd day on the new job, I am in the middle of New Mexico now, still have no computer at work, there seems too be a mix up on me being in the system.
Let me talk about the area and what we are doing here. If you have ever been to the East New Mexico/West Texas area you know what is here, Oil, Scorpions, Tarantulas, Snakes and not much else, a few people, finding a place to live is going to be a challenge, the company is reimbursing me for expenses until i find a place, once that happens I go on Per Diem. The company I am working for seems to have it's act together, the procedures and processes are straight forward and easy to understand, the people seems nice enough, in fact I meet a guy that i knew in Baghdad, I bet there are more I find as time goes on, those of us that travel for a living seem to be of the same mold and are drawn to the same strange places and jobs, it may be the money, it may be the excitement, I know for me it is the fact that I get bored quickly with my surroundings, even living in Cocoa Beach on the ocean now seems like another life for me, I do miss the people, and the friends I left. For some reason new friends are easy to come by for people like me, i guess because they see I am pretty easy going, not stupid, enjoy being around people, work hard and most of all, I listen.

Since I brought up the subject of listening, i will share some wisdom I learned at a young age, the old saying that God gave us two ears and one mouth was so we could listen twice as much as we speak, I have found that if you sincerely, truly listen to someone they will tell you more then you wanted to know, in some cases WAY more then you wanted to know, there are too may people in this world that think they have something important too say and don't take the time to listen first. one of the reasons I am successful is because I listen, not just listen but actually listen and try to comprehend what people say, do you know that one of the main training courses you will take if you become a spy is too learn to listen, it is one of the main wash out points while training, more people wash out and go home during this portion of training then any other point, strange isn't it? It tells me that learning to listen and not talk is very difficult to learn, some of the problem is people think there opinion is better then anyone else's, there pride tells them they know more, there better and they don't need to listen, they already know the answer. The problem with that train of thought is you don't know everything, I have spent years in Procurement and do know more then about anyone about the subject, but I still take the time to listen too the new guy if he has an idea, and believe it or not, sometimes they come up with something worth saying, in fact more often then not, they have a great idea, after I listen and tell them why they didn't tell someone else about this, they answer "I did, but your the first one that listened" I try to teach all the people in my department how to listen, and you need to learn also. the next time you are discussing something with a friend, stop yourself from talking and just pay total attention to what comes out of there mouth, then think about it, then and only then, speak your mind, you will be surprised at how much you learn about people if you just pay attention and think before you talk.

Enough preaching for today, stay tuned for the next lesson.
Luvya Meanit
Thanks again for reading my thoughts.

Keeping you up to date

I am pulled over in a rest area near Kerrville TX, it is Saturday night around 11ish local time. I'm tired, smell bad, and can't find a hotel. My reservation in the new town is for Sunday night and it is about 350 miles away. After carful deliberation and weighing my options with the good head God gave me, I'm planning on resting here for a few hours, catch up on my email and then move on to the next rest area, 123 miles away, sleep a few hours again, and move on, and so on and so on, until I reach my final resting place Hobbs New Mexico.

I have traveled all over the world, Thailand, Amsterdam, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, London, Sierra Leone, and the list goes on, this is the very first time all hotels have been booked. Does that tell you something about West Texas? It tells me nobody cares what happens out here, maybe the locals but I doubt it, why did I accept a job in noplace? Right now I am having a very hard time giving you a good answer. We should be thankful for small things, I have internet, and that is a good thing, the truck driving nieghbors are not bothering me, there is nobody banging on my window, yet, and I get the chance to update you on what is happening in my life.

Spent about 6 hours with my Uncle Larry, Aunt Susanne, there son Doug, (My Cousin) and his wife Falicia, ( I Hope no names are mis spelled) and had a great time, filled them in on my life and got caught up on a few things from teh family, talked too my fience, she is still in love with me and was very glad to talk too my Uncle. All in all, my life is good, a few pitfalls along the way, like no place too sleep, is no big deal. see y'all soon and remember to always look at the glass half full. (if it's not being tipped down the ftont of your shirt)

New Job

Well Folks, I have accepted a new job and will be moving this week. This may be my only article for a week or so. I am excited about the new position in New Mexico but I have to leave my ocean side Condo, not an easy thing, I do love this place, but sometime you just have to bit the bullet and go. I hope there are a few decent people in Eunice, I'm sure there are, in all my travels there are always good people wherever you are, and I am sure New Mexico is no different, I have a 26 hour drive ahead of me, and then the hassle of finding a place to live and so on, i will be back as soon as I can and let you know how it went. loveya meanit . Bye for now

Control your temper

If there was something I could say to every person in the world, to make your life easier and better it would be to learn one thing and one thing only, control your temper, I know its very hard sometime when stupid people do stupid things, but you have no choice in the matter, an angry person does things that no normal person will do, anger is like being on a drug, or being drunk, you will do things you will regret forever, I cant count the number of people in prison today because they couldn’t control there temper, I guarantee, you talk to people that are unhappy and you are talking to someone that looses it, I have seen perfectly normal people but once a week they loose it and there life is HELL, once you start as a young person acting on your anger it is worse then trying to get off heroin, so start practicing now, anger turns you into something ugly that nobody will be happy with, it is a part of knowing yourself, if you have anger issues, you better fix it and fix it now or your life wont be worth spit, so lets talk about how to control it when you get cut off by some idiot and your about to yell and flip them off you are going to be making a choice, yes your whole life is about choices, and your about to make the choice to get upset, you may have made this choice in the direction of anger so many times it is almost automatic, if this is you, we have a lot of work to do, but you are still making a choice, and every time you choose anger the choice the next time is easier to make, now when that time comes, the time to make your choice, you may have to keep notes on your dash, maybe keep writing every night, I will not loose my temper, over and over, I cant tell you how to remind yourself, but you will have to make yourself chose to let it go, I did have a small problem with my temper and I made myself choose not to do it, I read a phrase that helped me, one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time gave me the inspiration to make the right choice, I hope it helps you, a fictional character named Hobart Malloy said, violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, wow, think about that, I am going to type it again just to make sure you get it, VIOLENCE IS THE LAST REFUGE OF THE INCOMPETENT, this simple phrase said by a fictional character helped me overcome my anger, I realized the truth of this phrase, I have always considered myself a smart person, my grades weren’t good because school bored me to tears but I am very smart, and self educated, and after I read that it was like a light bulb went off in my head, I am to smart to be called incompetent so I started thinking ahead, making sure I didn’t get myself in a position to loose my temper, if there was something that made me upset, I avoided it until the time I could deal with it, I made the decision in my life to live by not loosing my temper, and thankfully it worked, now you can either do as I did, and use my saying, or make one of your own, but you need to do something and do it soon, talk to someone, let them know your working on staying calmer, get some help, there are very good therapists out there that can help, just make sure you get a good one, talk to your pastor, talk to friends, get into Yoga, do whatever it takes, if you need some incentive let me tell you what will happen if you keep getting angry, your children will be just like you, and the frustration will be laid back on you 100 fold, they would rather be anyplace then with you, your spouse will eventually leave you, they can only put up with nasty people so long, no matter what they feel for you, your friends will leave you, they have better people to be around then someone that blows his/her cool every time something doesn’t work out right, it hurts me when I see people in public acting like fools, because I know there on the path to living a very sad existence, they will die alone, sad and neglected, with no friends and nobody to care for them, our retirement homes are full of sad old people with good families but because there such nasty people nobody in the family wants to take care of them, why? Because they never learned to handle there temper. So get a grip, hold the anger, it will hurt, it will be hard, it may be the hardest thing you ever did, but it will reap rewards that you can never imagine.

Birthday

yesterday was my Birthday, I turned 46, maybe a little old to be playing around with a blog but it's something I enjoy, letting people know what I am about, letting people know what I am doing, and letting people know how close I am to finishing my book. It's getting closer by the day, I'm going to be putting the finishing touches on it this weekend, here is another paragraph to give y'all a little bigger taste.

Thanks for caring.

I quote the great Yoda from Star Wars, there is no try, either do, or do not, so quit trying to loose that weight, and quit trying to be a better wife, and quit trying to be a better husband get off your lazy butt and do it. Suffer a little, there is no pill, no diet, no secret to loosing weight people, it is actually very easy, eat less and be more active. AAAAAHHHHHHH look at that, the angels are singing, the world has just learned the secret to loosing weight, all the billions of dollars spent every year on a miracle fat pill are now useless, I am so impressed with myself for sharing the ultimate weight loss product in the world, in 6 words, I’m going to assume you’re an idiot for a while, please don’t take this personally, I honestly don’t think any of you are as dumb as I am about to treat you, but the fact remains that if I talk to some of you in an adult manner you just wont get it, so lets take a look at this miracle weight lose solution, the first step is to EAT LESS, what do I mean by that you ask? Well instead of eating the whole bag of chips only eat half, if your tummy hurts because your hungry and you feel week and your blood sugar needs a snickers bar, deal with it, don’t eat, go through a little pain, suffer for an extra hour, I can honestly say nobody I have ever known has died from hunger pains, yes it hurts, yes it doesn’t feel good, after all who is your boss? Your body, mind or spirit, your body is just a tool, used to get your mind around the world, you honestly don’t have to do what it says, I promise, it will still wake up tomorrow morning, it will still walk where you want to walk, it wont rebel and fight with you so it can have that last piece of cake, talk to it, tell it, body!! Yes your hungry but you’re a whiner, and your fat, your going to get into shape and stop eating like a pig and there is nothing you can do about it, just shut up and get over it, be the boss of your body and eat less, now for the second part of the miracle weight lose plan, move more, be more active, walk instead of ride, get a freaking bicycle, play more golf, take up tennis, do whatever you have to do, just move your fat ass more, if you come home from work and turn on the TV and that is your evening, well your just screwed, go ahead and sit and sit and buy the magazines and wish you were with someone that looked like Tom Cruise, and stay fat and ugly, for God sake people do you really think that your life is going to end if you don’t see who won American Idol? Get up and go do something. Now you know the whole secret to loosing weight, please send me $100 via paypal to the email address above, I’ve earned it, I just saved you thousands of dollars on crap your going to do that wont work, I guess I should’ve just waited to sell the secret but now that its out I just know I wont see a dime of the profits.

Nobody here?

Is there nobody here to read this blog? I have been writing for 3 days and not had one comment, I guess that is OK, i am not here for others, I am doing this for myself, to express my feelings and practice my writing, also when my book comes out with my webpage I expect it to start getting a little busier then it has been, for todays post Let's put up a paragraph from my book "How to Pick a Spouse, and other Words of Country Wisdom"

As I sit in my “man cave” surrounded by weapons, trophy animals and many mementos of a very good life, I realize the complexity of the problems I faced when younger and the problems you are facing now, as a young person, trying to figure out his or her place in this world, in your near future, you are going to make some of the most important decisions of your entire life. Between the age of 18 and 30 is the time these decisions are the most important, and the time you are the most ill equipped to make them. You don’t have the experience or knowledge, at this stage in life, to use your mind in the way it was intended. These decisions will affect you until the end of your days. And so I decided to write a book to help you and millions of others, if I am lucky maybe there will be some people out there that won’t have to go through what I have gone through, I will attempt to transfer some of my wisdom to those that have an open mind and are not afraid of thinking a little differently. There is a saying that some men are born to greatness, and some have it thrust upon them, I like to say that there are some that take what they want from life, learn from the mistakes of others and make themselves great, that is what I am here to try and teach you, how to live great, What is greatness you ask? Well am I glad you asked. Greatness is the best personal level of enjoyment in life you can get, before you start to scratch your head over this let me explain. Every man woman and child in this world only wants one thing, to be happy, and being great is simply that, being happy, happy with life and all that is associated with it, your partner, your spiritual life, your mental state, your physical state, all these things, when you were a youngster around 5 or 6 the only thing that it took to make you happy was a football and a few friends, and by God you were not only happy but ecstatic, the joy holds no bounds of the Saturday afternoon neighborhood football game, or any other thing you did back then to make you happy, in short it was freaking easy to be happy, now 15 to 20 years later your figuring out it isn’t that easy anymore, so how are we going to prepare our life to be happy? By planning young in life to make decisions, here and now, that will help you achieve greatness in the future, and not just decisions, but good decisions that will make a difference in years to come.

What is a Curmudgeon in Training?

As you can tell from the definition, crusty, ill tempered and usually old. I am not old, a little crusty, and not at all ill tempered, so I am not a full fledged Curmudgeon just yet, but with all the stupid things I see on a daily bases it's getting close, for a simple example, let us take a look at the fast food industry in our country, I have traveled the world and seen more American fast food places oversees then I have when home, and there is a HUGE difference, orders don't get messed up, The people are friendly, they want to serve you, you can tell when you walk in that your wanted, in the U.S. at least one in 5 orders placed in the drive through are not right, I never feel like the young person behind the counter wants me there, this little snot nosed kid is doing me a favor by taking my money for crap service. this is just one more key to America becoming a second class country, it is no wonder the world looks at us as spoiled rotten little brats, it is because we are. let me know what you think.
Thanks

Get Closer

I don't think people realize how much being close to others impacts there life. We as humans need to understand this and make use of it when we choose our friends, we all know we are stuck with our relatives but what about the people we hang out with? we all need to understand that friends from work and play have an impact on your personality, they affect the way you think, yet, very few people I know actually think about picking a friend, they just take whoever comes along. Maybe because they have a self esteem issue and don't think they are good enough to pick friends, maybe they are a little lonely and will take the first one that comes along. If you are in a low place it still pays to be picky about who you hang out with, I would not think about hanging out with crack heads, because I have no intention to be one, and the way they act will affect me, negatively. We all need to think more about our friends and take some time and think, Think about there actions and there personality, do you want to become like them? Because to some extent you will.

What do I mean

Folks, I am new to writing and new to bloging, I am writting a book on the subject of how to pick your spouse and other words from a common sense perspective, I have noticed too many stupid things happening in the last 10 years and felt i just had to put it on paper, I will be updateing content soon, Thanks for checking and please once I get this whole blog thing down, it will be a blast, you will enjoy it, check back daily
Thanks