Are cell phones impeding or enhancing society?

So, I have two weeks of class work left for my master's degree, then a practicum. Since my time is limited and I would like to begin my practicum immediately in January, I often have random thoughts about what I can potentially do. Well, this morning I was thinking about how I can incorporate my practicum at Allstate in a way that will be beneficial to my career; while serving a greater purpose for society. I then began "googling" some themes and stumbled across safe driving and cell phones. This prompted thoughts about teen driving and distractions because one of The Allstate Foundation's focus is on teen safe driving. I began thinking, how can I encompass dispute resolution into safe driving? I have not figured out the answer, but if any of my three readers have any ideas I would be glad to hear them. Anyway, this random thought fired another synapse in my brain, and I recalled a new story from the other night which mentioned a new study that stated texting is now the number one distraction for high school kids. This story got me thinking about the title in this post. There are so many great things cells phones can do, and if you have a smart phone the options are almost limitless. However, if you look at all the problems that come with cell phones as well, it becomes a cost benefit analysis. So, if research was conducted to measure the benefits versus the drawbacks or cell phones, do you think there would be more benefits than detriments? While we will likely never know the answer to this question, and cell phones are not going anywhere, I find it interesting to think that the more we advance as a society; the more we also seem to retract.

Elizabeth Smart

So, like many Utahns I am attempting to follow the Elizabeth Smart trial. What I find intriguing is seeing how many people are finally willing to steam-roll Brian David Mitchell...mostly noticeably Wanda Barzee. Now, I am not one to judge, well... just-kidding, I actually judge far too often. Anyway, Wanda Barzee, who is Mitchell's wife, just finished testifying against him in exchange for a plea. Now, in my mind there is no doubt that Mitchell is guilty, and will/should be convicted. However, I do have a problem with the justice system, and Ms. Barzee's testimony, and I'll tell you why. For years Wanda was deemed incompetent to stand trial, and then somehow she was eventually found competent, which prompted her to rollover and take the plea. Now, I am admittedly a skeptical person by nature, but her testimony sounds too awfully good for the prosecution to be completely accurate, expecially given the fact that she was originally not competent to stand trial. Here are a couple of things that were said by Wanda during day two of her testimony: quoting Mitchell, "they were given a command by God to take young girls ages 10-14 and it was definitely a 14 year old girl Mitchell was after"; "he spent five months planning the kid-napping"; and she claimed she was manipulated by him. Now, as you can tell, this looks like some pretty strong evidence to fit the prosecution's plan. I just do not understand how a woman who has been married to him for twenty-five years, been through so many odd things with him, goes through therapy, takes some meds, and is now credible enough to present so much evidence that could potentially imprison him for life. I personally think that if you are that close to someone that crazy for twenty-five years you are probably not he most sane yourself, so trying to place blame on one person just seems too convenient and well timed to be completely accurate. Well, at least that is how this cynic sees it.

Vibram Five Finger

So, tonight I went for my first run in my Vibram Bikilas. Stacy and I each bought a pair a month ago, so we could see what all the craze is about. There is a new movement of barefoot runners, and the five finger is meant to give a little support, while replicating the feel of being barefoot. I felt this subject was apropos for the time period, and want to look back on this post in five to ten years and see if barefoot running is a fad, or it revolutionized the running world. Earlier this year I read the book "Born to Run", which is about one man's quest to find the solution to running injury free. The author learns of a tribe in Mexico called the Tarahumara that has the uncanny ability to run fifty plus miles at a time over mountains while wearing what looks like pieces of leather lassoed to their feet. He ultimately finds the tribe and convinces them to run in races in America against some of the greatest trail runners in the world...specifically in the Leadville 100. If you have not heard of Leadville, it is the most difficult 100 mile race in the U.S. It takes place at altitudes of 10,000 feet and above, and I believe the cumulative feet ascended during the race is apprroximately 27,000 feet, which equates to running from the Salt Lake Valley to Park City nine times. Believe it or not, a member from the Tarahumara tribe wound up winning the race in shoes similar to the ones posted above. Why did I tell this drawn out story? One, because the book was fantastic and a "must read" for anyone interested in running, and two, because I find it interesting to see how far technology has come in the running shoe department, and some little tribal man can beat professional trail runners that have access to all the gear and equipment anyone could want. Maybe this means barefoot running does have some staying power...I guess we will have to wait and see. All I know now is that every year people spend millions of dollars on shoes to help for ailing problems with their backs or knees, and I am now curious, could the real solution be not wearing any shoes at all?

Food Matters

On Saturday we signed up for Netflix, so we could watch movies through our Wii. I searched through the documentary section and noticed quite a few that I would like to watch, so last night I began viewing "Food Matters." This documentary focuses on how our nutrition and the food choices we make affect our health and the diseases we get. It focused a lot on cancer, and claimed that even with the billions spent yearly on various types of cancer the incidence rates have not been declining, and instead the medical community considers somone "cured" if they go 5 years cancer free. Ultimately this show is just promoting a healthy diet of primarily raw vegetables and a high dose of vitamins, and claims that the medical community, i.e. doctors and pharmaceutical companies are not advocating for diet changes because there is no money in it, and instead spend all their efforts trying to medicate a problem instead of taking a preventative approach by limiting the amount of processed foods. While I am sure this documentary is not without its biased research, I am quite certain the advocates for this type of living are on to something. If you look at the insidence of cancer in other parts of the world, specifically Asian countries, you will see that they have much lower cancer rates than the U.S. and Western Europe. Since we're all humans and are pretty much made the same way the most logical reason for the discrepancy is diet. Thus, my question to everyone is, do you think the medical profession is really concerned about curing these diseases like cancer and heart disease? I am now skeptical because I personally feel that if people were to eat a raw vegetable diet and exercise regularly the rates of diseases would decrease tremendously. Whether they become obsolete...probably not.

"The Donald"

While many people do not like Donald Trump because he is arrogant, and likes to talk about how great his buildings or casinos are; I tend to look passed his pompous nature and listen to his message. I figure, if someone can make billions, lose it, and make billions again, they probably know a little more about business than I. Anyway, I was listening to an interview with him this morning, and he was opining on how to fix the economy. Basically, it really is not to difficult, and makes sense. Many pundits have mentioned this approach, but neither congress or any president thus far have been willing to do anything about it. So, what is the simple solution? Stop shipping U.S. jobs oversees!!! Illegall immigration is not the cause of the economy going the wrong direction. Granted, there are some jobs that immigrants are taking that could have gone to U.S. citizens, but by and large, if the U.S. still had all of the jobs that have been shipped oversees there would be enough employment for all that are willing to work. I say willing to work because there will always be those unmotivated people to mooch off the government as long as it is allowed. So, my question to everyone, how do we convince the U.S. Government to stop proving tax incentives to companies shipping jobs oversees? I don't know about anyone else, but I am quite concerned about the increased power and money being generated in China, and as Trump points out, China could very well be the richest, most powerful country within the next 10-15 years, and the U.S. is the country subsidizing their growth.

Here is the link to the Trump interview: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/transcript/donald-trump-039on-record039-part-1

Voter disatisfaction

So, last night was election night, and most everything turned out the way that I hoped...Democrats lost the majority in the house, so Pelosi is no longer the speaker, which is the best politcal news I have heard in awhile. I am not here to speak my political views though, but what I am here about is how frustrated I am with politicians that try to trick Americans into thinking an amendment is for a purpose other than what it is really for, and Americans that are too lazy to take the time to really understand what the amendment is about. Last night there were 4 amendments on the ballot, all of which were phrased in a sneaky way to confuse the general public about what they were really approving. While some of the amendments could go either way based on whether you approve large government, the amendment I am most upset about, is the passing of water rights. The water rights amendment was written so cleverly that I had to read it a few times to understand what it was really changing, but I was determined to grasp the concept before casting my ballot. Basically, the amendment allows more tax breaks to individuals and businesses, and not just non-profits, which it tried to highlight. What upset me the most is that this amendment now will give a tax break to people just because they share a common border with non-profit land, or land that was awarded the tax bread. I could be cynical, but this sound like large business paying off a politician for a tax break. Thus, we, as Utahn's just allowed more rich people to pay less tax on their land for providing no benefit to society. Way to go Utah!

Are you a bigot?

Imagine this...thousands of people are on "The Oasis of the Seas", which is currently the largest cruise ship. On board there are eight men wearing traditional clerical garb, so the passengers assume there must be a Catholic meeting taking place. However, these eight men ultimately blow up the ship and kill most of the passengers on board. Wow...what a depressing way to initiate a post. Now ponder this, if you were getting on a cruise ship after this event and saw men who appeared to be priests, would you be apprehensive?

The reason posed this example is because a political commentator, Juan Williams, was fired by NPR because he stated that he still feels uneasy when he gets on a plane and sees people wearing the traditional muslim clothing. The rationale behind his firing is that his comments were offensive. Thus, this got me thinking. Is it irrational to be nervous or apprehensive because something or someone reminds you of an extremely traumatic event? Juan did not state that muslim made him apprehensive or that he had any problem with muslims, just merely that he felt uneasy in the abovementioned situation. Now, I am not sure if many/any of my 2 readers know who Juan Williams is, but he is a left leaning commentator who also appears on Foxnews, primarily on the O'Reilly Factor. If you have any history of watching him, you would realize that he is about as open-minded as a person could be. So, my question to you, was NPR justified in firing Juan? Were his comments hateful and inappropriate? Or, was he putting forth an opinion that millions of people share, but are not willing to admit?

Voting Season

Well, we are less than one week from voting again, and I have an ambivalent attitude toward most of the candidates. I do know that I will vote for Prop. 1, which will provide funding to the Utah Museum of Natural History. The family and I went there last weekend and saw how run-down the building is, and Stacy and I would like to see an upgrade for our children. I am not here to discuss my polictical view, but would like to bring up a topic that could be viewed quite differently in our kids' generation, depending how voting goes next week in California.

In California Prop. 19 has been introduce, which will legalize marijuana for the state. I was reading an article last night from Newsweek that discusses how more conservatives are jumping onboard its legalization. The article discusses a devote Catholic woman who was a strong opponent against legalization, until her son suffered a severe spinal injury, and marijuana was one of the only drugs that helped him function. Well, her son ultimately started a school in California, "Oaksterdam University", that is devoted to studying pot, and is now a millionaire. Anyhow, I just thought I would bring up the topic and find out people's opinions on the subject of legalization because I am curious to see what unfolds in our lifetime and be able to look back on this post and see if any thoughts come to fruition.

Right to Life

So, I am in my final quarter of graduate school. For a class I am currently taking I have been given a writing assignment of advocating for the Governer of Nebraska in an on-going debate about whether to provide prenatal healthcare to undocumented immigrants. The governer is taking the position that all illegal immegrants should not have access to any resources since they are in the country illegally. Conversely, the pro-life advocates are taking the stance that a child born in the U.S. is considered a legal citizen regardless of his/her parent's status, and thus prenatal care should be provided to decrease costs associated with premature births and other varing ailments. Well, the intent of my post is not to discuss my assignment, but to put forth the question of, how can someone not be pro-life? Here is a brief description of what is done to an unborn child..."second and third trimester abortions utilize an instrument with sharp metal jaws to grasp parts of the child's body, tear it away from the uterine wall, and the child's head must be crushed." This is of course from an article from someone taking a biased pro-life stance. However, having two children of my own, I cannot fathom doing this to what I consider to be a living person. Maybe may view is obscure, however, if you have been to any doctor's appointments and seen your child's heartbeat, could you envision doing those things to said child? I doubt not. Anyway, this is my rant for the day because I could not stop thinking about the article.

Drastic Change

This morning I did something drastic...I deactivated my facebook account. The last few days I have pondered doing this, and it hit me, why do I waste so much time reading other people's status when I could be writing about my life or my family's? If I were to look back on life ten or twenty years from now, would I really remember anything that was posted on facebook? My answer is, not likely. Thus, I decided I would spend more time blogging and creating memories that my family and I can look back on years later. While some people may ask, why not do both? My answer to this question is...because it will take too much time away from my family and doing something meaningful with my life. For example, I was reading posts on facebook prior to deactivation, and noticed that I continually see posts from the same people, and the posts are usually ubiquitous and quite dull in all honesty. I am not trying to sound like an ass, but too many people spend too much of their life posting about life's mundane events, instead of doing something worthwhile. I find it diffiult to believe that these same people are going to be pleased with their choices later in life when they finally realize how much time was wasted posting on facebook or reading about other's memories instead of making their own. Hence, I am trying to be more proactive, and make changes so I do not become that person. So, look out blogspot, you will be seeing much more of me in the future.

Stereotypes

During this morning I was listening to 94.9 Zrock as I do on most Saturday runs. Today I realized I hear the same commercials that annoy me every weekend. So, this caused me to focus on the type of commercials that were being broadcast. What I noticed is that many were related to hiring an attorney or a bailbonds man. One attorney even specializes in defending DUI's. Boy, he must be proud. After listening to these commercials for a few minutes I thought, wow, some stereotypes must be true because why else would advertisers spend so much money targeting one specific group if the stereotype didn't pan out. The stereotype I am referring to here is that rockers tend to consume drugs and alcohol, which leads to DUI's and needing to be bailed out of jail. Additionally, I would assume is the most common evening for drinking after a long hard week of manual labor. I know all of this is just my opinion, but it sure makes sense to me why these commercials are playing on Saturday morning on this particular station.

To confirm my assumption I decided to switch stations to something more reputable. My intention was to listen to 97.9 the Breeze, however, that station is no longer and is currently call "Now", and plays pop culture type music. I listened anyway, and noticed that this station was playing traditional type commercials like obtaining home loans, getting rid on wrinkles, and buying roses for Valentine's Day. So, my assumption panned out.

While there are many untrue stereotypes, I firmly believe that many are true and for a very good reason... to make rich who can afford to advertise richer, and to amuse the rest of us.

What a decade!

During my run this morning I was listening to kbul 93.3. They were playing the top forty songs of the last decade. One particular song got me thinking - "There Goes My Life" by Kenny Chesney. I am not sure why it got me thinking, it's not like I haven't heard the song dozens of times before. But, this time it was something different, and I think it has to do with recent changes, and my resolutions for this year. The song caused me to reflect on changes that have occured in the last ten years, while I would like to reflect on all of them, I don't think it's practical for my blog to become an acutal memoir, so I will focus on one significant event that I feel contributed to all the others.

Most people don't know, but when Y2k began I was going through one of the most difficult periods of my life. At the time I was working a dead-end manual labor job, which led to much stress and ultimately - panic attacks. So, here I was celebrating a new millenium in my bed because I had so much anxiety I was afraid to face the world and had developed agoraphobia. While this was a difficult time for me, this is also what caused me to change my life for the better, and I can attribute this time frame to much of my present motivations. This panic ridden period propelled me to make changes in my life, such as go back to school and change jobs, which subsequently led to meeting my lovely wife, and the creation of two wonderful children. While I may have met Stacy even if I was not in college, my guess is that nothing would have materialized had I not been pursuing an education, since she was also pursuing higher education at the time. In addition, when I finally won my battle with panic disorder, it gave me so much confidence that I was willing to attempt anything, i.e., like approaching Stacy in the first place, which is something I was not accustomed to.

While "There Goes My Life" is about the birth of a girl changing a young man's life, this song caused me to think about my youngest daughter, and how she likely would not be here had I not had all of those panic attacks. Thus, although it has taken me ten years to say it...THANK YOU anxiety, you are inadvertantly responsible for the most precious things in my life.

Renaissance

This year I have decided to make monumental changes in my life and perspective. As many of you may have also experienced, last year was a difficult one emotionally. There were many changes that occured that were quite stressful. Although many of the changes in my life were due to pleasantries; the birth of Audra, purchasing our first home, starting graduate school. There were also many other experiences that were equally as taxing that were not so pleasant: downfall of the economy, which led to many friends being laid off, and a constant reminder that I too could lose my job at any minute. I wish this last sentiment were not true, but unfortuneately it is reality. Do to this unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach, I have decided to alter my behaviors for this coming year. To do this I felt that a couple changes needed to be made. First, I have stopped drinking alcohol for an indefinite period of time. I feel that by doing this I should have more energy and focus to accomplish my resolutions and maybe even more. Second, I have altered my eating habits. I used to avoid eating vegetables as much as possible. However, this year I am going to be diligent in consuming the recommend amount, the same is true for fruits, I just don't have a difficult time eating them. While these may not sound like such an undertaking, if you know me well you know that I consume 1-2 alcoholic beverages every evening, and rarely eat vegetables. I feel that by accomplishing these two feats I will have more energy and better health to fufill my other 7 resolutions listed on Facebook. If you have not read those resolutions, two of them relate to running (run 2 marathons and 1100 miles), which is why I am addressing these changes here. Therefore, here we go on a new journey, and I intend to make 2010 one of those life-altering years - in a positive way of course.