Generations of parenting

Kids in our generation are so much better than those of our parents generations.

Ha, they must be in Florida...

Yes, that is a huge statement, especially as many people don't see any of the good sides of this next generation.

This is what the older generations see...

I'll use my own family as an example. My grandpa wasn't really a dad. In fact, my mom hated his guts till she was 30. My grandpa never held or touched any of his babies, pretty much he'd just say, "Oh, that's nice." All he did was go to work, come home and eat and watch some television show and then go to bed.

I nearly forgot to mention the alcohol...

But when he got mad at one of his kids, he got quite mad. He would just explode. But that was how many of the fathers were in the 1950's. That's just how it was. Of course there were always exceptions, as the tv show Leave It To Beaver.

Of course, I didn't just hear bad stories about him from mi madre and her siblings...there's lots of funny ones...but those are mostly from when he started getting old.

But with every passing generation, the kids have the chance to improve upon the family that they grew up in, to make it better.

Gotta hope for it, but you can't just sit and dream... you gotta get up and make it happen.

The internet helped with that a lot. Over time more and more parenting books, articles, videos, tv shows, and everything started to come out. More information became available to everybody.

That earth should have zillions more dots. There are many more computers than that.

Our parents for the most part (I'm talking about the parents of kids born in the 90's such as myself; maybe late 80's also), have been in that transition between not a lot of parenting skills, and the opposite. Some of them just didn't know what to do with this influx of information, so could be, confusing.

Blogs being stupid... it says "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."

Like my friend Kevin, his father is a very confusing case looking at it from the outside.

I really should have put up a picture I took while I was in Bahrain. The lights are red and green at the same time. Confused me at first.

And kids in my generation seem to be much better than those that came before us, already I can see that even at such young ages. No matter how much I may talk crap about my own generation, I believe they are going to end up as great parents. Of course... I could be wrong.

Grada

Pictures on the wall

I was listening to a talk at a church meeting a few days ago, and the guy that was speaking briefly mentioned pictures on the wall.

 First I thought of the song Pictures Of You by The Last Goodnight. And when I saw this picture, the first thing I wanted to do was get a Polaroid camera. I really really want one now.

And of course he got me thinking and I ended up zoning him out :(

You know I know how,

To make 'em stop and stare as I zone out,

The club can't even handle me right now...

But all of that thinking ended up for good. As those pictures on the wall are going to influence you every day. You may not think too much about it, but you walk by them all the time.

When you walk by a wall like this outside... what are your first thoughts? I'm in Detroit? Naw, I love graffiti. There needs to be designated areas so that people don't do it everywhere else...

Pictures can change the entire mood of a house. And teenagers are some of the worst with this.

I love this.

Immediately when you walk into a room, you are going to get a feeling. And pictures largely influence that feeling. Imagine you are walking into a room with pictures of the sea, paintings of old houses or a meadow, or of a mother holding a child...

I actually took this picture. This is my favorite painting in our whole house. Sorry for the terrible lighting that makes it look yellow. It's supposed to represent Michigan.

And then compare that to the average teenagers room. You walk into his or her room and it's filled with images of abbreviated women or shirtless guys along with other celebrities and posters that influence them.

A few of the many people teens adore their walls with...

The feeling that those two rooms convey is completely different. And those images that your looking at every single day are going to influence you a bit more than you thought.

Try to pick better images. Or at least an image that isn't idolizing something.

Before I zoned out, the man who was speaking at the church meeting told a quick story. He was in a friends house, and his friend at the time only had one TV, and that was in the basement. So all of the time his five boys would go down those stairs. As the speaker was going down those stairs, he noticed there were a couple pictures, most of which were pictures from when his friend was on his mission.

Here's a missionary plaque, that might have been something that was in the hallway.

The speaker went on to mention that all five of those boys went on to serve a mission eventually. Pictures, especially those you see every day influence you. Change up the pictures, and you'll immediately sense a difference.

Sometimes it's hard to see the differences. Like in these photos. There are twenty differences. I've found 18 of them. Never-mind, now 19, look at the green roof.

Tear Ducts

So, today I went to one of the most evil institutions in the whole entire of the world, and that place is called the eye doctor. No offence to my friend who is becoming an optometrist. He doesn't know it's evil.

This kid is smiling? SMILING? They're shining a light brighter than a thousand suns right at his retina.

So first off, I have to wait for around a half hour. An entire half hour! I don't have that kind of time! And meanwhile all of the assistants are just chatting doing nothing, and I'm one of four people. I may have patience in most aspects in life, but at this evil place... I don't want to be in there longer than I have to be.

Fact #22: I hate waiting for the incredibly dark forces that are at work to do their job. Just do it already! I have patience for most other things, but not the evil eye doctor...

So FINALLY I get called in and go to the room. Do some more lousy waiting. At least I can fiddle with all the instruments of torture that they will be using on me today.

You have to get permission to get Lasik, and then they permanently make your eyes satanic.

After what seemed like decades someone came in and asked me if I could see these certain letters with an eye covered up.

These are the letters. How am I supposed to say these without the helpful hints below? After Spanish and French I'm going to learn Arabic, not Hebrew. Depending how easily I can learn.

I told her the exact same thing I've been telling these people in this outrageously unprincipled building for years. I can read absolutely every single line with my left eye, and only the first one with my right eye. Even then she decides to test me.

Just as evil as this building from Ghostbusters. Ya know, the one State Cream Puff came and got all marshmellowy?

Yeah, I'm kind of an oddball. I'm right handed, but because of my right eye I shoot guns like a lefty, I bat lefty (meh it's half and half), I shoot bow and arrows lefty...most activities that require eyes. I may not be too good with those, but give me a pistol and I'm a perfect shot if I shoot lefty.

Haha I need to show this to Hunter...

Anyways, in the room after the needless testing where i was proved right, she tells me she has to put in the drops. The drops that turn your eyes all black like a demon. Yeah, those horrid things.

This is their goal. They have not yet perfected the formula...haha I love my imagination...but I really very much dislike the eye doctor...

She tells me the first round are numbing drops and will not hurt at all. She lied. They stung slightly. I wiped away all the tears that came out with a tissue.

If only I saw this eight hours ago...

This might be a good time to tell you I have over-active tear ducts. If I just think about eyes my own start gushing. When I'm on that amusement park ride that uses force to make you stuck to the sides (through spinning), about a gallon of water comes out of my eyes. And other times too that I don't feel like describing.

This is that ride. I'm not sure if I like it or not. Uses centrifugal force to pin you to the side of the ride.

So, then she tells me she has the second round of drops. Again she said they won't hurt since I got the numbing drops. This time she didn't lie. I dry my eyes once again.

So, I get ready to leave this medieval torture room, and she tells me that I still have one more round of these sickening, gut clencing, black eye producing drops to go.

And they expect me to enter willingly? Wow.

Sadly, I still am forced to comply to her demands. Great. She's putting more of those little drops of pure evil into my eyes, the window to the soul. Good thing her plan to make me evil never works.

You can usually tell intent through a persons eyes, so yup :)

Before she does it again, she tells me it won't hurt. Liess. This round hurt like a son of a - well, I don't really know. It just really hurt. For about ten minutes. She must have put some high-grade turn-people-into-evil poison into my eyes.

So I googled 'eye wound' and this was one of the results. $6 to buy this pre-fabricated latex. Prices are getting lower each and every year...of course this one's quality is in the middle but it's still okay :)

Then, I'm escorted out. To await my fate of looking like a demon. More dang waiting! Grrr. I hate it so I blare my music out. But, sadly, they like my music. The devil's minions listen to similar music. Who knew. Ha, how about some Abba! That shut them up.

Hahahaha

Hmmm. Now I'm thinking I should have played some Kenny G, specifically Songbird. That really would have made 'em mad...

Yup. It's a saxophone. Guaranteed annoyance level of 10.

Who knows how much later, I go through the rest of the too tough to describe stuff. It was painful in every possible way. Even afterward, I was sensitive to light because of those dang drops! Lasted for an entire hour! Man. This yearly trip is always the worst.

I would prefer this as my yearly trip. Sadly I've only ever been here twice. But, I did collect an awesome cup each time. I think that might be a tradition haha

Wow, that's so gallivanting.

There's one thing that us people just love to do. And that would be to generalize things. Which is what I'm about to do. Deal with it.

 I did this huge report on Easter Island in 7th grade. I got an A... looking back at my standards now, it totally sucked. Anyways, these guys agree with me.

Okay, so the problem with many people on this planet is that they notice the negatives in themselves while ignoring the negatives in others. They see only the positives on other people. Which could be a good or bad thing I guess.

Thich Nhat Hanh. Whomever that is... well, he is a vietnamese buddhist monk who has published over one hundred books and is internationally known. Hmm.

I'm self-famous for doing so. But me and all those others that oh so commonly do this just need to stop it. Sounds simple, right? Just stop. It's like asking a smoker to just quit. All of a sudden BOOM! The guy is done smoking.

One of the many benefits of quitting this terrible habit of smoking cigarettes. I'm guessing this study is assuming that.

And when we are unable to see those positives in ourselves, well, that's what friends and family are for.

Soo funny..but sometimes bad. That's why Netflix is so great... I can skip the parts I don't like :)

But don't think that's the only thing family should do (of course you don't think that, but I'm using that as a segway to my next topic). They also need to point out the negatives in us. And this is something we hate. We can point out our own negatives, but SOMEBODY ELSE?! GRRRR!

Haha I loved Invader Zim when I was a kid. Too bad they had to cut it short...he's quite mad in this picture. Thinking about it now around five seconds later, I don't think that's Invander Zim. Either way, it was a good show. Nevermind, I just looked it up, that's him in what I called his dog suit.

Even if we didn't know that negative thing about ourselves that is sometimes our response. And we need to treat the people that do that better than we do. These are some of the people we should listen to a little more closely.

That goes for everyone, not just children.

Now, I may be gallivanting around the topic that would pull everything together so that there's an ah-ha moment. Sorry. That's for you to figure out.

Haha, the caption of the picture was, "Gallivanting the tracks in Salta, Argentina" I think that is one of my new favorite words. Gallivanting.

Parachutes and airplanes

I was posed the following question, and the first things I thought of quite surprised me. It's possible that I would have the same answers if the situation were to happen... but I don't think they'd be as 'far out there' as the following ones that came to mind when I was posed the following question...

It was either this reference, or Jumper by Third-Eye-Blind. Needless to say, I chose this one.

What would you think about if you fell out of an airplane without a parachute?

1. Where's iron man when you need him?

Just saying... that would be awesome. To have an Iron Man suit, not to fall out of a plane without a parachute.

2. How about Spiderman? No Superman is much better.

3. The movie Dakota Skye: "On the way down, which way would you rather be facing? Would your ather be looking up at the sky having no clue when the end is gonna hit? Or would you rather face first be aware of the moment when everything cuts to black knowing that this second would be your last. Or would you rather be faced up, legs kicked back, and enjoy the ride down?"

4. Wouldn't it have been safer to stay in the plane?

Maybe not...

5. The movie Rugrats in Paris: "It's a bird, it's a plane...it's Angelica!"

6. My friends and family.

7. In heaven will there be Jamba Juice? Would I be able to fly up there? Wait, I can pretend I can right now...

Squeeeeeeze

8. What will my body look like after it lands? Would cologne stop the smell coming from my body if I put on enough? How long does it take a dead body to smell?

9. Haha, that farm looks funny.

10. If I were to hit the top of a pointy building, like a spire or something, how far down on the spire would my body go?

I'd say halfway down the spire and then my body would split into multiple parts. It would be much cooler if my body stayed on the spire however...

11. I finally know what it's like to be inside of a cloud and not be in an airplane. And what if I somehow survived by landing on a warehouse full of pillows shaped like clouds?

12. I'm an idiot.

Now you tell me I have to have a parachute?

13. No I'm not, the plane was crashing anyway... might as well have fun with it.

14. Well you could have jumped off closer to the ground...

15. Yes, I'm right. I am an idiot.

16. Is this a dream? Ow! Nope, that would be a no.

Will the top fall down?

17. What are people going to remember me by? As 'the guy that jumped out of a crashing airplane and was the only one to die as the plane didn't actually crash?"

18. What if I came back to life during my funeral service and walked out of the coffin during the viewing? Or maybe come back in a different looking body and say to people at my funeral, "Ya know, I never really liked this guy anyway."

That actually happened to this guy. He was alive during his funeral.

19. I'm gonna die. Crap.

20. Might as well enjoy the ride down...

 Yet another fantastic actor.