They're laid to rest before they know just what to do. Their souls are lost because they could never find what's this life for?

I am not an introspective person. I rarely think about who I am. I live thinking, rather dreaming, about the bigger things. Is there a god? Is there life on other planets? Is there anybody out there just like me? What is death like? What does real, physical pain feel like? I think about that one because the worst pain I’ve ever had is when I severely pulled my groin muscle while playing hockey. When I say severely, I mean that I also broke a bunch of blood vessels in my leg, which caused a lot of blood to seep into the muscle; which caused a lot of black, blue, purple, then eventually yellow and green colors to form on the entire inside of my left leg; which also caused so much swelling, my leg was stretching the leg opening in my boxers and fit snugly into my jeans. To me, that’s the only pain I’ve even known, but what does it feel like to break a bone? To be concussed? Or sprain an ankle? Ok, so this is not where I intended this post to go, so I’ll stop with the pain section!

Anyway, the reason I’m talking about not being an introspective person is due to my boss calling me in for a little chat on Tuesday. He stated that while I do very good work on assignments with specific due dates, anything that is left open-ended seems to stay unfinished. I told him that I understood what he was saying, but I also explained that when I have those types of projects, anything else that comes up with a deadline, tends to be the priority and the other ones just keep getting pushed back. I don’t need assistance in finishing these projects; I just need other things to not come up, as they tend to do.

He went on to say that it is in my best interest to finish these projects because it reflects better on me that I am completing things and when bonuses roll around at the end of the year, it will show in mine.

What he asked me to do was come up with a list of 5 goals that I have for myself, to provide motivation for completing these tasks and for them to see what drives me and how they can help. This is where I have the problem of not being introspective. Sure, I know what I want; it’s pretty basic I think. It isn’t anything that most people don’t want. A house, a better car, a companion, a family, to travel, to have friends that truly know you, to retire comfortably, to take care of your parents when they're older are the big ones I can think of. Who doesn’t want at least one of those things?

The bigger question, I suppose, is what drives me to get those things? Is it in this office? Is it in this city? I have always had a hard time defining myself and this question has truly tested my thoughts.

I know this for sure: I came up with 2 lists so far and I am working on a third. The first list is all of my short-term goals. Finish school, find a job in my field, take a great vacation (I’m thinking the 2010 Vancouver Olympics!), buy a car, and pay off my debt. The second list is long-term goals: find a companion, start a family, buy a house, travel regularly and build a life and live it. The third list is all of those in between things that are important to me, drive me to be a better person and will make a difference in not only who I am, but the people around me as well. These are items like, be a great friend who can be counted on, be active in my community to make changes for the better of our society, donate money or time to charities that I think are worthy (Alzheimer’s and heart disease), be a good dad (when that time comes).

After writing these things down, I began to wonder which were more important? I mean, without finishing school and finding a job in my field, I suppose none of the others are likely possibilities. However, is it more important to be a great friend or to travel regularly? The questions I’ve been asking myself for the past 40 hours or so are: What is the most important thing in our lives? Everything is inter-related, but which one should take the priority and why? I’m at an impasse. I could give him the easy answers and see what he has to say, but inside, I know there are so many more questions that I need to answer for myself that I think I’d be cheating if I gave him those. What to do?

O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

In 2 months, on September 11, 2006, it will be the 5th anniversary of the day that changed the United States forever. To honor the 2,996 who perished that day, I have volunteered to write about a specific person who will be assigned to me by this website. I wish that anyone who reads this will be willing to add their name to the list of volunteers.

I found this site through here, by way of here. I thought they should get mention for leading me to something that I am passionate about.

What it can buy I can use, I need money, that's what I want

Are we just a bunch of free agents? Is this what sports have taught us? If we think we aren’t making market value for our job, or if we’re unhappy with our current employer, we can’t seek a trade to another company, like athletes do, but we can apply and interview for a new job, essentially a try out for a different team that wants our services. When we get that new job, we play for that team for a while and when we’re unhappy or undervalued again, we try out for another new team. I’m a big believer in loyalty. I worked for the same company for 15 years before moving to Houston and switching careers altogether. However, as I stated a while ago, I am currently looking for more. Part of it is that I feel undervalued, but a bigger part of it is that I am underutilized. My intelligence level is way beyond this job, as well as the fact that this place is family owned. While they ask for my input, they don’t really want it, they have their minds made up before I open my mouth and that makes being here difficult. It’s too bad really, because this place has problems that I know I could fix, but I’m not being allowed to do those things, so I sit here and write blog entries when I have either the time or a topic to write about.

Going back to my original point though (are we just some free agents?), this seems to be a phenomenon that has only recently taken hold in the U.S., say the last 20 years. Before then, workers showed loyalty through good and bad times for their employer. I’m not sure loyalty really exists anymore. People come and go all the time, even here. It’s a wonder we get any work done because we’re always training someone new. By the time they know what they’re doing, they’re usually gone because they can get paid more elsewhere. Part of it I blame solely on this family for not paying their employees fair market value, but part of it I blame on the people themselves. They use this place to get their careers in order, get experience and move on to a better paying team. "That workplace may be better or worse, but there’s more money over there." That’s what the driving force is for most people. They need money to support themselves, their families, healthcare costs, childcare costs, 401K and other retirement funds, hobbies, habits, activities, vacations, social events, sporting events, transportation and the list goes on. I realize the cost of living is rising faster than the cost of wages and that people don’t want to settle for middle class anymore, you’re either wealthy or you’re not. It’s not about being happy in your mediocrity, it’s about being comfortable, maybe only slightly above mediocrity, but to them it’s comfortable.

The reason I’m bringing this all up is because in my economics class yesterday, we were talking about how companies should be required to give cost of living increases, even if they can’t match the current rate of increase, they should have to give you something to offset how much a home value or the price of gas has increased. I was quick to point out that not all companies could do this, such as small family owned companies like this one. I started to think about how to resolve this issue, or at least give a starting point as to how to resolve it and I came up with this:

Tax credits for companies who pay for healthcare and childcare costs for employees under a certain, government dictated, wage level . Instead of giving them tax breaks on silly things that hurt the environment, the local economy, or worse a tax break to the top 1% of Americans. Give them tax breaks that actually help the economy. For example, (and this is JUST AN EXAMPLE!) company X makes multi-million dollar profits on a yearly basis and employs 100 people under this wage level (let's say 35K/year). If they pay for their employees health insurance and pay for the 50 people who also have childcare costs, let’s say they have to pay 6K/employee for healthcare and 4K/employee for childcare (I don’t know how reasonable those numbers are, but we’ll go with them anyway), that’s 10K/employee, times 50 employees is 500K and then for the other 50 employees it will cost them 300K. That’s 800K/year to take care of their employees. Now, the company has made a very significant investment in its employees, what do they get in return? Well, they get a tax break on a certain percentage of what they paid out in those costs. I think it would have to work in brackets, sort of how it does now, where the more you paid, the more you get back. In any event, the company is winning because its employees are happier and the employees are winning because they just got a raise without their base salary increasing. Happy employees lead to more loyal and productive employees. Without the high turnover, the company becomes even more productive and sees its profits grow to heights unseen before. Maybe to partially offset some of this, the company also reduces the number of personal time off days each employee earns, not by a lot, maybe just a couple days/year, but this way, instead of a company paying you to not be at work, you are at work and being productive. Companies could get creative on how to offset these initial costs, but in the long run, doesn’t this sound like a huge win-win?

Now of course, here’s the glitch: does this plan make enough money for the government? If they are giving these tax credits out all over the place, is there anything left for them? Well, here’s the answer the Democrats are going to love: raise taxes. Of course, it can’t be a ridiculous increase or this wouldn’t work at all, but if we raised it even just a little, it could work.

What about the employees over that wage level? Well, maybe they get a percentage of their costs paid for, as they do now. To me it’s obvious that if you make over X amount of dollars/year, you should not be in trouble financially and if you are, it’s your own fault and your employer shouldn’t have to bail you out because you can’t budget well enough (let’s hope you don’t work in the accounting department!).

I believe companies have given-in to their employees in many cases, which is due to the low-level people in the organization sometimes being more important to the day-to-day functions than some CEO making $20 million a year is. But, in my mind, there are all sorts of benefits to this plan. It works for the company, the employee, the government and local, regional, state, national and global economies. It does have a downside though, psychiatrists may not have as many people coming to straighten their lives out because people would be happier. Well, I know I would happier, I could use the health insurance so I can pay for seeing my shrink.

It’s a choice between fact and fiction; And the whole world has gone astray; Except there’s no religion, no religion, no religion here today

So, I started out over here reading comments, which led me to here, but this post in particular. I've talked about religion and God before (here, here and here) and I only got through reading about half of that post when a few thoughts struck me. Now maybe this logic doesn't work for anybody else, but in my mind, it works just fine.

I began to reason that because homosexuality DOES exist, it helps to prove that Catholics/Christians are wrong about their God and that maybe it helps, in a small way, to prove that God doesn’t exist at all. Their God says that homosexuality is an abomination right? Then why does it exist? Why would He (or She) have even created the concept? Isn’t it fair to say that because the concept and the reality of homosexuality DOES exist, that God, in Catholic/Christian terms, could not co-exist? He’s all big and self-righteous about saying what a bad thing it is, but if it’s so bad, then why did you create it in the first place? I guess this argument goes along with the argument of Evil. If it’s so bad and we are supposed to love one another, then why does evil exist in the world? Even a religious man such as George W. Bush [as I chuckle and smirk] acknowledges the existence of evil.

Thoughts?

A Change Will Do You Good

Ok, so everyone is probably wondering where I’ve been right? What? You didn’t notice I haven’t been around? Fine. Be that way! So you don’t care that I’ve been ridiculously busy at work and only have time to make comments on the blogs I read, so what? See if I care that you don’t care about me – I DON’T! Ok, seriously, I do! Please come back and read me! I’m just so busy that I don’t have the time to do this as I wish I could. Plus, I’m searching for a new job which is extremely time consuming, but if anybody knows of a job opening that pays well and doesn’t require a lot of experience, feel free to let me know about it. I’ll take you out to dinner after I get said job, because with it’s great salary, I’ll then be able to afford going out to dinner!

Anyway, I have a specific topic I want to discuss and I plan on pissing someone specific off, so by all means, please comment on whether you think I’m right or wrong and if I am wrong, I’ll definitely apologize – but I’m not wrong, so don’t worry about it.

Ok, in the last few weeks, The Puck Stops Here has managed to anger me in ways that only comes about when I am deeply passionate about something; in this case, it is hockey. If you’ve read my previous posts about hockey (here and here), you’ll know this already. In order to properly understand why he has pissed me off, you’ll probably need to read THIS POST, THIS POST AND all of their subsequent comments. This WILL take a while. It’s ok, I’ll wait. (sung to the Jeopardy theme) Dum dum dum dum, dum dum dum. Dum dum dum dum duuum da da da da da. Dum dum dum dum, dum dum dum. Dum, da dum, da dum. Dum. Dum.

Ok seriously, you had to have read those posts and comments or you will not completely understand my position. Did you read them? Honestly? Ok, if not, you asked for it!

Yes, hockey has changed. It is not the same game it was 5, 10 20, or 50 years ago. That happens. Maybe you hadn’t noticed it in other sports, but it does happen in ALL sports.

Football has changed. The rules have changed. The game is harder hitting, the players are bigger and faster and teams have a salary cap. There was instant replay, then there wasn't, now there is again. The game that Jim Brown played is not the same game that Walter Payton played and his game was not the same game that Reggie Bush will be playing. It’s a billion dollar business played by multimillion-dollar athletes. Many of who have a “me first” attitude, which personally, I despise. Watch films of games from the 50’s and 60’s. The game was brutal, players were almost always bloodied, they played on fields that were not nearly as well-taken care of as they are today, but they played their hearts out because they loved the game. I don’t know how many of today’s players see it the same way as they did 50 years ago.

Baseball has changed too. The players are more athletic, train harder, although they rarely ever play injured (god forbid they have a hangnail), and is also a billion dollar business, played by multimillion dollar crybabies who are juiced up. Ok, not all of them. Nevertheless, seriously, who needs a $125 million dollar/10-year contract? Watch the series “When It Was a Game” and you’ll notice the difference between then and now is dramatic. Babe Ruth used to smoke, drink, and go hunting in the off-season. Now if a young guy doesn’t workout or play in the winter leagues, he’ll probably never make it.

Basketball has changed as well. It is starting to recover from the “Jordan hangover” and has some serious superstars that have taken the game to a different era. However it is still not the same game that Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls played. His game wasn’t the same as the game Larry Bird and Magic Johnson played. That game was not the same game Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain played either.

See my point? Hockey too has evolved; it’s changed. We had Gordie Howe. We had Wayne Gretzky. We had Boom Boom Geoffrion. We had Rocket Richard. We had Mark Messier. We had Patrick Roy. Now we have new superstars and maybe we’re in the same sort of “hangover” that basketball had after Jordan. But, we have some fresh, young talented players who will take the league to new heights in the next decade. Crosby, Staal, Ovechkin, Malkin, Miller. I don’t care that in the meantime, there is, as you have put it, mediocrity. To me, the game is still entertaining; maybe not as it once was, but if you watch the game for what it is - a game - it can be pretty good!**

Life is a series of high and low times. Hockey is coming out of its lowest time ever. We knew that it would never be the same after the lockout last year. Whether you care to accept it is your personal choice and it is certainly your right to express your opinion.

However, here is where I take issue with you. I have said a few times in my comments that it may be too early to tell what the complete ramifications of the new CBA are. I’ve also said that the teams that have had success this year, be it in the regular season or the playoffs, may be the future of the NHL, but unless we have a crystal ball and can see what that future is for sure, we can’t speculate on their successes or lack of until they happen. I realize this gives you something to do and a place to debate and I admit, I have taken part of it willingly. Nonetheless, I think your are so blinded by the past versus the here and now that you are unwilling to look at what the future may hold and you chastise everything that the NHL may be trying to accomplish in its future.

I will openly admit, your arguments and responses are well thought out and make sense if you know what the future holds. But you don't know and it appears to me, as your reader, that you don’t acknowledge the fact that you may eventually be wrong. You argue your points with conviction and I admire that, but you tend to not acknowledge or accept that another point of view exists. It is your way or no way.

Here is my point. If you don’t like where the game is headed; if you don’t like having to wallow watching “mediocre” hockey – THEN STOP WACTHING IT and STOP BLOGGING ABOUT IT. I used to enjoy reading your blog because it would get me fired up about things, but recently I realized after re-reading all of your particular comments on the “elite teams” post, that you’re not going to change unless in a few years you’re proven wrong somehow, probably with some metric system that someone will invent. If you’re not going to change, and it's your right not to, I can't keep reading, because I have better things to do than get all fired up about some guy who craps on the game I love.

It’s too bad it has come to this because I certainly don’t like pissing people off and I never intended to write this sort of post on here, but the passion I feel for hockey brings me to this level of anger after reading your blog.

**Of course I don’t have the time to go over everything about how each of the big four sports have changed, I gave a few examples of each and left it at that. Some of the changes have been for the better of the sport and some, many people would argue are not, but they’ve changed nonetheless and are more popular and make more money than ever before. This is where I hope hockey heads, even if it means we lose a little of how great the game once was.

Do You Come From A Land Down Under?

Imagine That...

Your Linguistic Profile::

45% General American English

35% Yankee

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Midwestern

0% Dixie

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The intention of my blog was never to rant about recreational issues. Issues like sports and things going on in my personal life. It was started because I wanted talk about things that really mattered. It’s apparent in my first few posts, but eventually, I realized that to talk about those things, you really need to research the issues and I just couldn’t find the time to do that. In addition, my interests shifted slightly, so here I am talking about me. And sports.

The NHL playoffs are about halfway through and heading into the third round. Only one second round series is left to be decided and because three of the four series’ ended in five games or less, the media and bloggers have been rehashing numerous issues about the teams that lost those series.

Of course, I’m a huge homer and I’m rooting for my beloved Sabres to continue on their marvelous playoff run. However, in reading what people have to say about their second round win against the very talented Ottawa Senators, most people are faulting the Sens problems and barely giving credit to Buffalo’s accomplishments (if any!). Maybe everybody has forgotten that the Sabres were only 3 points behind the Senators at the end of the regular season. Maybe they forgot that the Sabres won 52 games this year. Maybe they forgot the Sabres had the fifth best record in the entire league. Maybe they weren’t watching the same series where the Sabres out coached and out hustled the Senators. I don’t know what the problem is, but I’m just asking for a little bit of credit to the Buffalo Sabres for playing within a system and successfully beating the favorite to win it all this year.

All that being said, I know the Senators were not the same team they were during most of the regular season. They had injury issues, most notably to Dominik Hasek. Yes, Ray Emery let in some soft goals and he was shaky at times, but I think he also played the best he could at times. He saved them in Game 4 (the only game the Senators won). They had their two best defensemen battling issues as well. Zdeno Chara was not the same dominant player he was for ¾ of the regular season. Wade Redden just lost his mother a couple weeks ago and was still likely feeling her loss. Many of the star players on the Senators did not “show up” to play (Heatley (cough), Alfredsson (cough, cough)).

Or maybe, just maybe, the Sabres found a separate weakness and exploited that. Maybe the forward line of Chris Drury, Mike Grier and Derek Roy, as well as the defensive pairing of Toni Lydman and Henrik Tallinder had a job to do, which was to shut down Heatley, Alfredsson & Spezza and they did that. Maybe Ryan Miller had to show how much of a big-time goalie he is now and will be for the future and he did that. Maybe the Sabres needed scoring from everyone on their roster instead of relying on four or five players, like the Senators must and they did that. Maybe the Sabres are greater as a whole team (hence the word TEAM!) than they are as individual parts, like the Senators are.

Maybe the Sabres had that one intangible thing that most teams would give their backup goalie for – confidence. They knew if they executed their game plan, they would beat the Senators. They didn’t question themselves, they believed they would win this series from the start. Ottawa may have had confidence before game one, but losing five different leads, two of which were in the last 1:37 of the third period and then to lose 18 seconds into overtime, the confidence left the Senators locker room and firmly planted itself in the Buffalo Sabres room for good. It was like a three-year old throwing a temper tantrum, screaming, “No way am I going back to them!” It was firmly entrenched in the Sabres minds and they forced it onto the Senators for the rest of the series.

Instead of laying the loss at the Senators feet because of their faults, how about showing a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T for the Sabres and their accomplishments.