I remember when the only thing I had to worry about was whether the other kids liked me or not and whether I had acne that day or not. Yes. They were odd years. Being a teenager is tough. But ignorance is also bliss. There are so many things I didn’t know then and sometimes wish I could unlearn. Of course, today is different for teenagers. With so many “anti-something” groups, there’s always some controversy about something.

Even today’s teenagers have to figure out whether they want to use a regular acne treatment or a natural acne treatment. Or whether they should have regular beef or the torture free variety. As I recall, the beginning college years is when all of those choices become “important” to us. This brings us to my point. There are so many “yes” or “no” choices out there that people have really made it impossible to like each other:

• “Oh my. You were such a nice person but then I found out you don’t care if your beef is tortured or not.”
• “I love you. But you’re a Democrat. I can’t love a Democrat. Goodbye.”
• “You’re Southern Baptist. I’m Free Will Baptist. It just wouldn’t work.”
• “Your mom worked for the steel mill. I can’t stand feminists. We can’t be friends anymore.”
• “Wait. You’re from Texas!? I can’t be seen with you.”

“But Mike. Those are absurd. I’d never be like that.”

Really? Are you sure. Have you ever seen someone with a tattoo and immediately decided they were “bad news”? Or maybe someone with a Mohawk haircut walks by and you get freaked out? Or maybe you read my “thoughts” post and decided you didn’t like me? These are only examples, but you should get the point.

The problem is people don’t have tolerance anymore. According to Merriam-Webster, a definition of “tolerance” is:

2 a: sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own

What’s wrong with other people’s beliefs? Do they affect you? Is the fact that someone somewhere believes in reincarnation going to affect your own beliefs of what happens after you die? Tolerance is necessary to become an informed individual. I know. I know. I said there are things I wish I could unlearn. But that was a fib. I like knowing things. I think knowing things is important. How can you truly say that you don’t agree with someone else’s beliefs if you don’t even know or understand those beliefs? Isn’t it possible that your beliefs and theirs are more alike than you may think?

I’ll give a quick religious example:

1. The Hindu religion is based on reincarnation. A quick way of saying it is that if your soul has not learned everything it needs to learn it is sent back in another physical form to learn more. Once your soul is fully knowledgeable, it goes to live with God.
2. The Christian religions believe there is a hell that people who are non-believers go to when they die. Hell is a place of suffering. They also believe there is a Heaven where people who believe go when they die. There is no suffering there.

With those two concepts in mind, wouldn’t coming back to live on Earth be a form of suffering? And if you’re always a non-believer and never learn enough to believe (in any of your lives), would you not suffer for eternity in a physical body on Earth? Couldn’t hell be what we experience in our physical bodies? And then when we believe, we go to Heaven?

I’m not expressing my own beliefs here. I’m playing the “what if” game. But there is a possibility that those things could be true. I think it scares people to think that their beliefs may be “wrong” and it makes them go nuts when someone challenges them. But, again, “what if” there’s no such thing as a right or wrong answer?

I’m not saying I’m right. What I am saying is I’m giving you something to think about. Have a mature debate with your friends about it. Listen to what they say. Listening is a really good skill to use to gain knowledge. Speaking of listening, the next time you see a tattooed guy with a Mohawk, try asking him what he believes. He may surprise you.

Posted by Saphrym | 15 Comments »

This is my first attempt at a Photoshop tutorial. I’m calling it a Photoshop fix. You know. Like “get your fix!” This particular one ran between 7 minutes and 8 minutes, but I want the titles to stay consistent, so I’m calling it the 10 Minute Photoshop Fix. They’ll always be 10 minutes or less.

This particular graphic made me think “Bewitched” after I did it. Might be the sky and stars and the word “Goddess.” At least I didn’t include platform shoes in the graphic. But this one was for Domestic Goddess. The finished graphic is below the video. Enjoy my first attempt at this. The videos will get better quality as I go and learn what I’m doing.

The finished graphic:

(To see other Entrecard Ads I’ve done in the past, go here.)

Posted by Saphrym | 8 Comments »

This is the true story of the storm that attacked Louisiana as seen from my eyes and the way I remember it. Continued from Part 1 and Part 2.

I had no idea what an ademco was until I rented a house and got renter’s insurance out in the part of Louisiana where we lived. See, to lower the rates (tremendously by the way) you needed a security system. I never left my house unattended much. But this was the day after Katrina. It became a necessity.

The sun came back up the next day. The sweltering heat was felt throughout. Walking outside felt like walking through a waterfall. Louisiana is know for its humidity. That day was much worse. The other problem with heat and humidity is mosquitoes. They love that time of year. They also love human blood. Little tiny vampires with a penchant for sweaty bodies. We didn’t have screens on the windows or doors at the time (a lesson we learned from and remedied later) so our windows and doors had to stay closed to keep out the little bloodsuckers. That made it even hotter. There was me, my wife and daughter, my wife’s mother, brother, sister, great aunt, grandfather, two nephews, four dogs and a cat. We were all crowded in a house that had no electricity, unclean running water, and closed doors and windows. Sometimes we’d go outside and get in the van and turn it on for a bit to have air conditioner. But gas was a rarity, so we didn’t do it often. Ten people and four animals in a hot house just wasn’t working. Two of the adults were over 70. There were three kids under 7. They all had red, sweaty faces with no true relief to be found.

I checked the gas level on the van. We had half a tank. Same thing on the other vehicles. We had to get out. The storm hadn’t killed us, but that heat was about to finish the job. We all packed up, said a couple of prayers, and headed down the road passing empty gas station after empty gas station. After a few hours we were very low on gas and finally found a gas station with people. We waited in the mile long line. We finally pulled up and filled up the tanks with half-hearted smiles on our faces. The store was open, so we went in and got drinks and food, something we hadn’t had since the day before. It was nice and cool in the store. Some of us stood by the drink coolers for a while. We stayed there for about two hours, worried about the trip ahead. While sitting there, the last of the gas was sold. We had been lucky.

We packed up and headed off again. Everyone was cooled off. The vehicles had gas. It was time to find a hotel. We started this trip on the Eastern side of Louisiana. When night fell, we were almost in Texas.

(To Be Continued)

Posted by Saphrym | 7 Comments »

DIET DIARY

STARTING NUMBERS (Before I started the diet)
Blood Sugar: 287
Weight: 355.0
NUMBERS FROM TODAY
Blood Sugar: 116
Weight: 281.8
Fat Percentage: 48.1
Water Percentage: 30.3
Muscle Percentage: 34.8

Looks like I’m still dropping. Not the pound a day I used to do, but this is better than no dropping at all. My wedding ring is getting smaller though. It flew off my finger in the van when I was quickly trying to parallel park. Thank goodness it flew in the van and not out of the van. Also, I bought some shorts. Size 44-46. And they fit rather well with a little extra room. Yay!

Side note, I found a fedora while looking for the shorts. Finally found a fedora that looks right on me. Again, I say yay! Maybe I’ll show it to you after my beard grows back out some and I do another before/after pic.

Also, we’re thinking about a vacation this summer. I’ve never been on a vacation. Found a cool little condo hotel (condominium that’s rented out as a hotel room) in Vegas. I’ve also never been to Vegas. I really want to go. I have a secret passion for magic and would love to see some of the magic acts out there. Also, my favorite magic store, Penguin Magic is based out there. Would love to visit them and meet the faces behind the names. Any of you guys out in that area? Maybe we could meet up.

Oh. Just got over the sickness two days ago, so still no website update like I wanted. Will have it next weekend. Hopefully.

But there is one order of business I must take care of. Connie is my winner of Random Reward Vol. 4. I’ll be sending her $5 through PayPal and a free t-shirt if/when they get designed and made. Congratulations Connie!

That’s it for the update. Katrina Part 3 coming soon.

(Sorry Evan. At least it’s a different Saturday update, right?)

(For more information about my dieting and weight loss, click here. For more information about the specific foods I eat, click here. For the diet I follow, click here.)

Posted by Saphrym | 7 Comments »

I’ve got to show you this picture:

That is my daughter holding a her poster and the copy of the 5th place award certificate she got for that poster. Over 300 children entered and she got 5th place. She also got a couple of t-shirts and a cash reward of $20.00. I’m quite proud.

As a matter of fact, her mommy and I have been looking around at swing sets to see if maybe we can give her a reward after school. Not just for this, but because she also has perfect scores in school and she’ll have perfect attendance at the end of the year. Not to mention first place in the Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP) contest for the district. Me proud.

Posted by Saphrym | 15 Comments »

(The Weekly Read is a series of blog posts written on posts that have been found throughout the Entrecard blogosphere. If you’re interested in having your own post listed here, send me a link to that post THROUGH ENTRECARD. You can do so by clicking on the “E” on the Entrecard widget to your right. As you’re reading, make sure that if you like the sites you see, that you share them with friends, subscribe to them, etc. There’s never anything wrong with giving good content extra traffic. Actually, there’s always everything right about it. Confuse you yet?)

I finally got smart and changed the name of this post. After all, I never could seem to get it done on Monday. So now, I don’t have to. I are smart.

• 5 Ways to Make Your Blog Design Unforgettable
  By: Blog Design Blog
  I’m not your typical guy. I mean it. I’m not into sports, cars, trucks, or bikinis (I like dress suits… but I digress). I wouldn’t know billet grilles from centers. However, I do know graphics design and website design. I don’t always practice it the best, but I know it. This guy knows it, practices it, and teaches it. Go. Now. Learn.
• The Best Saturday Ever
  By: Art Constellation
  This one you have to see to understand. And I completely can agree. Daisy might not like it, but I’d love it.
• I Am Famous (and More!) so you don’t have to be
  By: I Do Things
  I love this site. She does things so we don’t have to. Great premise. And this is a quick rundown of random things she does so we don’t have to. I thank her for doing so. I also laughed my… well, if THAT was possible I’d be happier. I did laugh though.
• Speed Up Your Firefox Browsing
  By: Sueblimely
  Excellent article on using Firefox. Since I use Firefox, I had to read it. The suggestions are great and now I’ve got some new plugins to play with. I love plugins. They make me happy.
• Seventies Photos
  By: Roller Blog
  I’m cheating. This is a category. But it’s such a wonderful category of posts on The Roller Blog. Want to see some of your favorite bloggers as they were in the seventies? Then check these out. I might show up there one day if I can find that picture of me wearing a… nevermind. Not gonna happen.

Posted by Saphrym | 5 Comments »

DIET DIARY

NUMBERS FROM TODAY
Blood Sugar: 130
Weight: 282.4
Fat Percentage: 48.4
Water Percentage: 30.2
Muscle Percentage: 34.7

I know. I know. Blood sugar was kind of high today. However, having the flu means an increase in infection in your body which therefore also means a higher blood sugar. So it’s normal, I promise. But did you see? Although it’s probably sickness related also, my weight finally dropped again. 282.4. Yay! (And when compared to last time, the fat percentages have gone down and the muscle percentages have gone up. So it does make sense.)

Last weekend I hoped to unveil a new graphical theme and layout for the blog. Didn’t happen. Just now getting over being sick, so it didn’t happen this weekend either. ‘Bout the only thing I had time to work on this week other than laying in bed fighting the flu was doing homework and a little web surfing. Even managed to stare at a few very unreachable caribbean cruises. They may be cheap, but still out of my budget.

So there you go. Not much news because not much has happened. And don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about the last Random Reward. I’ll pick a winner next Saturday and hopefully unveil the new theme and the t-shirt design. Until then, keep reading. More Katrina this coming week along with a few rants I’ve been meaning to voice.

And before you go, a quick poll to see if you’re interested in me videoing some of my graphics design work so you can “follow along” :

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(For more information about my dieting and weight loss, click here. For more information about the specific foods I eat, click here. For the diet I follow, click here.)

Posted by Saphrym | 12 Comments »

I kind of wish we lived on the West Coast of the United States. See, my daughter wants to be one of two things when she grows up: a teacher or a star. And no, I don’t mean the kind of star that shines in the night (as long as you don’t live in a polluted area that is). She wants to be a star on television.

Well, a friend of mine pointed out a place that exists on the West Coast called Gonnabe. That’s a quick little Hollywood Reporter article that mentions it. Since I don’t have “connections,” Gonnabe sounds like something that would come in handy if I knew my daughter really wanted to be a star. After all, she really wanted to be a puppy when she was younger, but she doesn’t want to be that now.

I guess that everyone would want to be a star. Come to think of it, I’d like to be a star myself. Too bad I’m too old for Gonnabe. Hmmm. Maybe if I shave and lock myself in a freezer for a few days so I can shrink. Maybe I’d be able to do it then? Nah. I’ll stick to hiding on this side of the screen.

Seriously, keep your eyes and ears open for this one when it arrives. Supposedly there’s a chance they’ll start working with kids throughout the United States. So if your own daughter or son wants to be a star, they just might get their shot.

Posted by Saphrym | 6 Comments »

(Sorry for my lack of posts recently. I ended up getting really sick Monday. I’m still not over it, but it’s becoming bearable. So, figured I’d make a post out of it.)

So while being stuck in bed because you’ve got the flu, there are always ways of amusing yourself. Some are rather obvious, like taking cold medicine. That’s always an enjoyable experience, right? (Notice the sarcasm.) Here’s a few of the less obvious ways to amuse yourself when you’re sick as a dog:

10. Staring at the ceiling and making pictures with the little dots. I found Charlie Brown a couple of days ago. However, he morphed into Arnold Schwarzenegger while looking at him, so that may have been the Nyquil. I don’t know.

9. Again, staring at something can be quite amusing. In this case I was staring at a digital frame. I had it loaded with pictures of the in-laws and pictures of farm animals. After a while the two started merging in my brain. Was rather hilarious to me.

8. Realizing you can sing much lower. Seriously, have you ever been sick and noticed your voice dropped an octave? Now you can do the Barry White solo with ease. Just don’t try in the shower ’cause the steam clears out your throat and you start sounding like a much younger Barry White. Kind of throws off the mood.

7. Reading is always a great way to pass the time when you’re sick. Of course, you might want to stay away from the fantasy and horror books. With the medicine and the delirium of a fever, you start imagining some of the stories coming true. Can be rather scary. This is one of those few times a guy is allowed to read a romance novel.

6. Write a book. Since you’re just laying there, you might as well make good use of the time. Write a book. Just realize that when you finally get well again you will not be able to read your handwriting. And if you use the “writing it in my head” method, also realize that your “sick” head and “well” head are two different things. Therefore, your “well” head won’t remember anything that your “sick” head did anyway.

5. Practice origami. I made some swans that could flap their wings, a frog that could really jump, and a boat that could really float. I also made some Chinese throwing stars and practiced throwing them at the ceiling. I even manged to hit Arnie right in the nose.

4. Silly Putty. Can’t say this enough. If you have a little plastic egg with some of this stuff in it, feel free to play with it for hours. It’s quite the stress reliever. And if you have some newspaper, you’re set. You’ll be copying comics all day and reading them backwards. Just don’t try and use it as a bouncy ball when you own a cat. It becomes fuzzy. And fuzzy Silly Putty is not a fun thing to play with at all.

3. Speaking of toys, my Rubik’s cube got plenty of use out of it. The stickers won’t stick to it anymore. So now it’s really easy to solve. All of the faces are black. Doesn’t matter how much I mix it up, it’s always solved.

2. Cell phones are fun. You can play games on them. You can make prank phone calls. However, it’s very hard to dial *67 before making a phone call with a cell phone. So prank phone calls don’t work as well when the person picks up and says “Hi Mike.”

1. The best way to amuse yourself when you’re sick as a dog is to build a play mountain out of the sheets and bed spread. Look around for items you can use as army men. Now just fill in the rest with your imagination. The really great thing is when your wife comes in and sees you playing like a little kid, she’ll only think you’re delirious from the medication and let you get away with it. Make sure to include plenty of >pyoo pyoo< noises when firing the imaginary guns. You won’t be able to do them any other time.

What do you like to do to keep yourself amused when you’re sick as a dog?

Posted by Saphrym | 14 Comments »

This is the true story of the storm that attacked Louisiana as seen from my eyes and the way I remember it. Continued from Part 1.

Oak. Before the storm there was an oak tree in front of my wife’s family’s house. It was a huge, beautiful oak tree that stretched out to touch the backyard. It stood there protecting the family. But they had come to our house not too long before Katrina showed up. They were riding out the storm where we lived. Hurricanes always skirted our city until Katrina. So they felt they would be safer with us. And they were. The old sentry had shallow roots just like the tree in front of our house. So while we were all cowering from Katrina’s wrath, that old oak tree was uprooted and fell within their house. We had no idea about this until the storm was over. In this story, it’s not over just yet.

The rain was now sandblasting the roads. They were shining from the moisture. But they also contained numerous tree body parts. Limbs all over the place. Pine cones dribbling down the road. These were sights normally seen in silly dreams. But this was a nightmare. If you listened carefully, you could hear the orchestra playing minor chords in the wind. Another >crack< shot my eyes upward and I saw a limb as big as our smallest tree falling straight down to the ground. It landed with a bass filled thump that would cause any audio system geek to shriek with envy. The cacophony of breaking branches and thumping limbs was a terrible beauty.

Then it was over. It stopped so suddenly I was sure it was only a lull. But it was over. The wind stopped blowing and the rain only trickled down, slowly stopping. We had survived the night. The hurricane couldn't hurt us anymore. Or so I thought. What I didn't know at the time is the aftermath of such a storm is much more frightening than the storm itself.

(To Be Continued)

Posted by Saphrym | 10 Comments »