Category: Intellectual

A Dad’s Response To #YesAllWomen

As a dad there are certain things that I need to teach my daughters before they are old enough to be on their own.

For those of you that don’t follow the crazy Internet news, there is a new hashtag trending called #YesAllWomen.

To quickly explain, #YesAllWomen is a way for women to tag their posts, updates, tweets letting people know what all women have to deal with. It started in response to Elliot Rodger’s killing spree where he posted a YouTube video blaming the “cruelness of women” for his actions. He basically said that because girls wouldn’t give him a chance he was a going to have a “day of retribution”. You can read more about it on this CNN article.

As a dad there are certain things that I need to teach my daughters before they are old enough to be on their own. I use the word daughters because the only children I have are girls but this would apply to any boy as well.

Respect

There are many things that can be solved by showing everyone the level of respect that you demand back. Always say yes ma’am and yes sir. Always look a person in the eyes when you shake their hand. It doesn’t matter if they are twice your age or half your age.

Be Aware of What Around You.

Bad things happen in bad places. That is just how the world works. That doesn’t mean they can’t happen in good places but statically the chances are smaller. I will always drop everything to come get you no matter where you are.

Trust Your Gut

If you get a bad feeling about somebody, get away from that person. If you have a bad feeling about a situation, get out of the situation.

Never Leave Your Drink

It doesn’t matter if you are at a Bar, Frat Party or hanging out with friends. If you set your drink down and walk away from it, get a new one.

Stereotypes Exist For A Reason

You will be judged based upon how the world sees you. It sucks I know but it is how the world works. If a girl walks around dressed like a Hooker, people are going to say she’s a hooker. If a guy works out all the time and makes himself look like he does steroids people are going to say you are on steroids. That is how the world works. Deal with it.

Always Have an Exit

The very few people that know I do this make fun of me for it. When I am somewhere I have never been before I am always scanning the area for the exits. When I get to a restaurant I have never been to the first thing I do after getting seated is go to the bathroom. When I walk to the bathroom I scan the area. I see what food looks good. I notice where the two or three extra emergency exits are. I know this sounds silly but it has saved me multiple times and not just from ordering garbage. This doesn’t apply just to physical exits either. On a first date, have a polite way to leave if you are uncomfortable.

I think #YesAllWomen is a great way for women to bring to focus what they have to go through. I don’t want my daughters to have to deal with any of the things I have read on Twitter or Facebook. I also would’t want my son to have to put up with a lot of the things guys do on an everyday basis either. #YesAllWomen brings both of these out into the open and if it can even help make a single person rethink what they say or do in the future then I am all for it.

Some people suck, some people were not raised based off the “Golden Rule”. It is something we have to deal with as a society. Just because one guy treated a girl like trash doesn’t mean all guys are that way. Just because one girl treated a guy like trash doesn’t mean that all girls are that way. That is just the way the world works.

Crazy Cell Phone Drivers!

I am kind of pissed this morning. I was driving to the office this morning and almost had a lady hit me pulling out of our neighborhood. She was talking on her cell phone and didn’t even look to see if there was a car coming before pulling out. I can’t imagine that her conversation was so important that it was worth wrecking her brand new Outback. The worst part is that I live in an area that has very bad cell service. She was going to have the conversation drop as soon as she got 2 miles down the road. She was most likely going to spend the next 10 minutes asking “Are you there, How bout now?”, and eventually start looking at her phone hitting the redial button a dozen times.

I am not saying that I have never talked on the phone while driving. I have an Jawbone, and it is great as a hand free device letting me talk without having to hold a phone up to my ear. I still don’t even like doing that. It does decreases the odds of getting in an accident but it isn’t better than not talking on the phone at all.

I have to commend most of the drivers I see around Crested Butte. I tend to see a lot of them pull off the road if they need to make a call. I am not sure if that is just because they will lose signal if they keep driving or not but it doesn’t matter to me. They are doing the right thing either way. I know this has been a problem for a while but I can’t even imagine how bad it is in larger cities now.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a day to remember the men and women that have died fighting for our country.

I wish I would have gotten to know either of my grand-fathers better. Both of them died before I got a chance to really know them. My paternal grand-father was in the Navy, I believe, and fought in World War 2. He died when I was very young and I have a few memories of him but not much. My maternal grand-father died when I was a freshmen in college. I regret not making it to his funeral. He also fought in World War 2. When I was little he would tell my brother and I small stories about the war. I wish I would have been able to spend more time with both of them.

I remember the first time I got a call letting me know that a friend of mine had died while in Afghanistan. It was the summer after my first year of college. We had just spent some time together a few weeks before I got the call. The men and women of our armed forces lay down their lives every day for us to have all the rights we exercise every day.

I just want to say thank you to all the men and women that are serving or have served our great nation.

Still Missing A Major Goal

Since the beginning of May I have written a post a day. That’s 22 posts in 22 days including over 6,000 words. I have covered a lot about my newest daughters birth and all the tribulations of having a child born with Congenital Heart Disease.

Since the beginning of May I have written a post a day. That’s 22 posts in 22 days including over 6,000 words. I have covered a lot about my newest daughters birth and all the tribulations of having a child born with Congenital Heart Disease. I have talked about things that have been going on in my life and even some things that I want to have go on in the future. I am pretty proud of my accomplishment so far since I have never tried anything like this before.

I had 3 goals when I started this Post a Day Challenge.

The first goal was to get as much information out as I could about Isabel’s birth. I believe I have done a good job with that so far and there is still more to come in the near future. I am only to the second week of January in Isabel’s Birth story and we didn’t get to leave Denver until February 3rd.

The second goal was to learn that things don’t have to be perfect all the time. When I first started this it was very hard for me to finish anything that was written. I would spend hours writing and proofing an email. It was a gross waste of my time and would keep me from spending as much time on doing what needed to be done in the first place. I have quickly learned that I can read over something once or twice and feel confident that it is written well. I am sure it could be better but it isn’t always worth the time to re-examine every sentence just to eliminate one or two extra words.

My third goal was to share my believes and not fear being criticized for them. I am a Conservative, Christian, White Male and based off my Facebook feed I am in the minority on the Internet. I think there is way to much ignorance on the Internet and want to be able to have a conversation with you without blindly following the pack, right or left, like so many do. I want to be able to hone my believes so that when the time comes I can share them or explain them intelligently.

I was reading through some of the old posts this morning and I realized that even though I have shared a lot about what is going on in my life, I haven’t shared much about my own thoughts. I have played it safe by not trying to make somebody mad or challenging myself. I have avoided topics that have been buzzing around specifically because I didn’t want cause somebody to not like me because of how I think or what I believe.

I am quickly learning that if you don’t stand for something you might not be standing at all.

Smile, It’s Monday!

I don’t understand why people say that they hate Monday’s so much. Looking at Facebook this morning I notice that there are two or three of my friends that post every Monday that they hate Monday’s. It is kind of silly to me.

I don’t understand why some people hate Monday’s so much. Looking at Facebook this morning I notice that there are two or three of my friends that post every Monday that they hate Monday’s. It is kind of silly to me. You would think these 20 or 30 somethings would have figured out that no matter what they do Monday is coming and they should prepare themselves for it. Today I am going to list out a few things I do so that I don’t hate Monday’s. Maybe you can use them to help out your Monday’s.

Don’t Quit Early on Friday

If you have stuff to do on Friday get it done. Don’t leave early because it is a Friday and leave a bunch of work that will have to get done first thing when you walk into the office on Monday. If you have a stack of paper work waiting on you Monday morning, how can you possibly have a good attitude about heading into the office.

Plan Your Monday in Advance

I set aside 20 minutes before I head home every friday to list out my To Do’s for the following Monday. This gives me the opportunity to see if I need to send out any last minute emails and have an organized starting point when I walk into the office Monday.

No Monday Morning Meetings

I try to never schedule meetings or phone calls on Monday mornings. This gives me the opportunity to put out any fires that might have happened over the weekend without having to worry about making it to that 8:30 conference call.

Be Early

One of the guys that used to work in the office with me when we were living in Tulsa used to always come in 45 minutes late each Monday. He would always blame it on the weekend and it being a Monday. He would spend the next hour apologizing for being late and rushing around trying finish up everything that should have been finished up on Friday.

Be a Nice Person

Say good morning to the people you meet. I suggest doing everyday but if you don’t start on a Monday. When you see somebody smile and say good morning. Smiling is contagious and puts everybody in a better mood. Plus being a nice person is just the right thing to do. You never know what the other person is going through and you might have just made their day by saying hi. I know I have had some days where another person smiling at me and saying good morning helped me have a better day.