Seinfeld and pants

So, today I had a thought that could have shown up on a Seinfeld episode. While I was in the process of "ringing out my wet sock," as my grandfather would say, I had a thought. Why do we refer to pants in the plural form? We wear socks and shoes, which, there are two of each, and we wear a shirt. So, why do we not wear pant? True, you could say because there are two legs, but, would not the same be true for shirt? Hence, my question to you all is, why are pants so special to get the extra "s?" I am interested in your thoughts, but please try to resist researching the idea and shoot for something original first. Then look it up to see if you are correct. I have not looked it up, so I am not sure there is a right answer.

Choices

This time of year I often reflect about life and choices. As some of you know, I originally went to undergrad with the intent of becoming a psychologist. The reason being is that I love analyzing people and their thoughts and behaviors. Well, recently there have been a few events in my life that help me analyze life and what is really important; two of which actually occured today. First, I would like to relive Christmas. The family and I were visiting my mother and step-father, and a lady came to the door holding her insurance card as her hand trembled and apologized because she had backed into our vehicle. This lady had not been in an accident before, and thought that she was going to get yelled at. Well, as you all know, I deal with accidents that involve serious injuries to others, and sometimes death, so I peacefully explained things to her and gave her a hug. A few days later she told the gentleman that inspected her vehicle that she was so pleased because she too is insured with Allstate, and the process was painless (I think she may now be a customer for life). The interesting thing about that day is that it was not too different from many claims that I have dealt with in the past. However, in many instances people chose to get mad at the other person and scream profanities. This is what I find interesting. Now, what does this say about the one who is doing the screaming? Does this mean they value cars over people, or that they are not capable of controling their emotions? I will let you decide. I feel people have choices to make in life and one can either choose to be mad and upset about a meaningless object, or one can see it for what it is, which is just a car, and forget and move on.

Next, today, I got to work and found out that my co-worker's husband was fixing the fireplace on the 30th when he stood up, became dizzy, fell over and struck his head on a slate table. He subsequently went into a coma and later died. Now, this event put my car incident into perspective even more than before. Do you think that my co-worker thought when she woke up on Thursday that it was going to be the last day she saw her husband alive? I, and I am sure you, know she did not expect this, especially considering they had only been married for six months. Do you think she and her deceased husband would have done things differently that day if they would have known this was going to happen? Of course we cannot anticipate fluke accidents like this. However, we can choose how we spend our time and who we spend it with. Think about it next time you are considering watching countless hours of TV, or tending to your yard. Was it worth it?

Lastly, this final event is not so much an event as a moment that triggered a synapse to fire. I was in Riteaid tonight picking up an Rx for Stacy. While I was waiting I perused the aisles, and stumbled upon a lady reading the prices of vitamins. At first I thought she was schizophrenic because it appeared she was carrying on a conversation with herself. Then, I realized she was on her blue-tooth. Anyhow, what struck me is that she was complaining because she had to spend $7 on vitamins. However, minutes later, the same lady purchased a pack of cigarettes for approximately $5. Now, I say to myself, where do her priorities lie, and is she going to regret sacrificing her health for a temporary fix? You could imagine all of the judgmental thoughts that ran through my head.

Anyway, the gist of my post is to remind you to please evaluate your life and determine what is really important to you. If you had to give up your house in exchange for good health for your family, would you do it? Additionally, when you are in your later years of life, are you going to look back and think, boy am I glad I owned that house or car I could not afford, which prevented me from taking vacations with my family? I sure hope you choose the former over the latter. Remember, only you can choose which path to take, so please be cognizant of your decisions because you may not get a second chance to make the correct one.

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