Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Summer 2023 Thoughts

 Hitting the age 41 but still living young at heart. I have learned in life that we can chronologically grow old, but it's our hearts/minds/bodies that we can keep young. It's all up to us!

In the words of the late skateboarding legend, Jay Adams: "You didn't quit skateboarding because you got old. You got old because you quit skateboarding."

So just do it because you can. Who cares how old you get! Still live that life with an adventurous mind!

Monday, September 28, 2020

Texas Surf

Nope, those aren't waves in Hawaii! That is off the Texas coast near Port Aransas. 

Some great lefts and rights formed during that swell!

-Large 9-11 foot swells from Hurricane Laura (August 2020) in the Gulf of Mexico-






Kelp Noodles Dish

 Tasty and healthy dish


Kelp noodles, Alaskan salmon (cooked in air fryer), chopped green onions, chopped cilantro, avocado, tomatoes, and sriracha added for spice.




Seeds and Nuts (Healthy Snacks)

As an absolute chocolate lover, I'm attempting to "fix" my snack habits. Here's some healthy alternatives to the usual gas-station candy option.





Wednesday, February 12, 2020

That beach life - Keeping our fun/kid mentality


Politics - Rolling my eyes as I venture into this territory of opinion (But need to vent)

So I'm still in that wondering of "is this really all one crazy alternate reality we are living?!"

We all have some type of political viewpoint, even those who say they are not into politics. And here's mine. I have my personal views, don't expound them too much to others, but here we go.

Are we really living in a country where we have Donald Trump as our President?!?!?!?!?!?!

Isn't that sad just asking the reality of that? - A man who made fun of a special needs person before a live studio audience, said "grab them by the p**sy," and said he can just start kissing beautiful women because he's rich. (That was all BEFORE presidency, just a few to begin with.) - A man who now is deputizing the Department of Justice to go after political opponents or to subvert investigations, witnesses, and evidence.

Think about the long, long, long, long list of traits this man has blatantly shown that is a far cry from anything presidential. He's literally the walking, physical embodiment of narcissistic egotism (with plenty of sociopath "lack of conscience" moments, with immense pathological lying - Yes, yes, pretty much all politicians lie, but this man has carried that beyond a new level and then some). Sit on that for a moment. My gosh, sit on that every day! Whether you consider yourself Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, other party, liberal, conservative, moderate, independent, anarchist, whatever, this is still the moment of history we are living in.

The United States of America, a country where competing political ideologies have always existed. But this day and age has created the pendulum swing to the extreme. This has happened in many governments of the world in history. The move to one side creates a movement of citizens who absolutely fear and hate it, so the anger of emotion and fear creates the opposite swing to the far side. Hence, the move from Obama's leftism to the extreme right wing politics in Trump. Like this or not, we (ALL OF US IN OUR COUNTRY) did this to ourselves.

Media has itself as part of the blame. Now, first off, yes I absolutely believe in free speech, no matter how dumb a lot of free speech can be from many people. But like it or not, if you want to live in a society of freedoms created and protected by our government, you need to accept that there will be different viewpoints from free speech. And just so you know, the media's job IS NOT TO REPORT THE NEWS AS YOU SEE IT. IT'S JOB DOESN'T EVEN HAVE TO BE OBJECTIVE AS YOU SEE, OR THINK IT SHOULD BE. In a capitalist society, the media's job is actually to make money like any company. Look it up! That is literally a protected right the media has. But that right and freedom the media has (and is protected under our Constitution the President has dangerously gone against calling the free speech media an enemy - The usual tendencies of dictators) has also created "monsters" in all of us. There is rarely a hint of objective media today. Yes, they ALL ARE GUILTY! (CNN, Fox, NBC and all its partners, ABC, CBS, blah, blah, blah) Just because you say "fair and balanced” doesn't mean fair and balanced. It's literally saying a lie long and loud enough to make people believe it's truth. Just because you put "news" in your title doesn't mean it's news. They are all pretty much 99.99999999999999 % opinion shows, and creating the mob mentality of saying what people want to hear. And Trump is feeding off of this. You're either his enemy or his loyal follower. If  any of these networks say something his thin skinned mentality can't bare to hear (because it doesn't portray him in a positive manner), you're automatically placed in the enemy category.

I feel like I'm watching a 13 year old in the White House who pouts and can't take any form of criticism!

So on to the egotistical narcissistic part. Okay, I'm just rolling my eyes and laughing at this because it's too obvious, and yet, so blatantly and willfully ignored by many simply out of their blind loyalty to Trump. All about me, me, me is what this man is. He's a reality TV walking disaster that we see everyday. When he retweets himself as seen as the "2nd coming of the messiah" to Israel, uh yeah, enough said. And here you go as the obvious. When someone says (orally and on social media)," no one more than me" in several instances, the perfect example of egotistical narcissism is on full display.

The easiest way to spot his pathological lying is simply to hear him talk every 5 minutes it seems. And he's been doing that way before becoming the President. For example when he supposedly sent a "team of experts" to Hawaii to personally look through government records for President Obama's "fake birth certificate" and proclaimed on Twitter they "could not believe what they were finding" without ever explaining himself (simply for the attention), that was just part of his ability to say things that are fascinating to the public, but never having to explain himself. And he's still doing it as the President of the United States, and the cowards in the supposed checks and balances are letting him do it out of fear of the mob who blindly follow him. He's used this lying tendency to convince so many by saying what they want to hear, without repercussion, and their adulation is what he craves the most. Another easy example to spot continual lying is when he uses the term (Almost weekly on Twitter) "in history." You add that to sentences, and it increases the importance of the sentence. But every time he's stated such, there's the easy facts that can be researched that prove his words are nothing but nothing. "Healthiest president in history" (with all that McDonalds/soda contributing obesity he has) was one of the funniest things I ever heard. A few more highlights of obvious lies - Mexico paying for the wall, taxes revealed, Ivy league education (Have you heard his 4th grade vocabulary?!?! - Money created his education on paper - not his mind), etc.

Okay, I could go on and on in creating a doctorate study regarding the psychological analysis of our adult daycare in the White House, but here's my vent of politics for now. And no, I'm not saying vote Democrat, because I'm not the biggest fan of their policies as well. I don't consider myself Republican or of any political party, and neither should anyone, but that's the pigeonholed mentality our society has created. Think about this blind loyalty to party, tribalism-type politics going on. Don't give me that voting for the "lesser evil" excuse. We as a society have unfortunately done this to ourselves in the creation of one side or the other, and forgetting there are many other candidates (lesser known) on the national ballot. Imagine if we all voted with our conscience instead of fear. I voted for Independent candidate Evan McMullin in 2016 because I agreed with his stance on most things and saw the danger of a president like Trump. I pray we will see that continued possible danger in 2020. Nope, as some people wrongly pointed out, it wasn't a vote for someone else like Hillary because I didn't vote for Trump. It was my vote for who I voted. Washington said it right in his farewell address of beware of the 2-party system. He absolutely hated it because he saw the danger in this tribalism we have today. Gosh, if our country could have that viewpoint again.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Never Take Life For Granted

Another year, another remembering I have a blog in the vast web universe. Life can have its high ups and way downs. And I'll admit I've experienced both more than once. As a human with faults, I've seen the valley (feels like a canyon!) that can happen in life and I'll admit, nothing to be proud of at all. But in finally recognizing that, I want to say LIFE IS ABSOLUTELY BEYOND BEAUTIFUL, and never take a moment for granted. Never pass the chance to smile at someone. Never pass the chance to remind someone how special they are to you. Never pass up a thank you. Never judge someone without judging yourself first. Never skip that good deed to help another human if you are able to. Absolutely never, ever, ever pass up saying I love you to that special someone in your life. Life is meant to be lived. I've seen the emotional movies, songs, and all those memes saying live each day like it's your last. Sounds great. But they are true. We have schedules, responsibilities, commitments, obligations, and all that is part of life. But in having that, don't let those be obstacles to your life. Let them be a part of your life and just LIVE IT. Look at that sunrise/sunset you may be around daily, but actually don't notice it. Go on that random drive to somewhere with your special someone/family. Learn something new because you want to experience it just once. Do we want the end of our life to be wow, that was one incredible ride, or do we want it to be so many chances missed? So having said that, I'm 37 years old now, and I want to go finally make that big drop on my skateboard down a ramp (after years of failing), risking falling and breaking who knows what, but you know what, can say I did it. May not be your want in life, but hey what a story to tell my kids.

So, what are you waiting for? Life isn't. Go for it.