Dysfunctional In-laws

In one of Plato’s many writings, he creates a dialogue between himself and a guy named Meno. In the dialogue they are discussing “virtue” and what it means.  In their debate they eventually get to the point where Plato has to expand on what it means to learn and to have knowledge.

Plato argues that nobody really learns, but that they only remember things that are already known by their immortal soul. He proves this by taking an uneducated slave boy and, through a series of simple questions from Plato, the boy proves the Pythagorean Theorem (a complicated theorem in geometry).

I was watching Sariah roll over from her back to her tummy for the first time today and was wondering:

1. What was motivating her to turn over since there was nothing she could see from her tummy that she couldn’t see from her back)
2. How did she learn, without anyone helping or teaching her, all the complicated muscular interactions and positioning necessary to push up to her side, get her arm out from underneath her body and complete the rest of the roll?

Maybe Plato was right and all she needed was the first couple movements to jar her memory. Kind of like when somebody makes a random comment and suddenly you remember a dream you had the night before.

Or maybe she was just sick of seeing my ugly face going PEEK-A-BOO!!! HEY SARIAH!!! PEEEEEEEEEK-AAAA-BOOOOOO!!!! and out of desperation/motivation found a way to turn away from me.

What do you think?

Hey, this year (April 14th) is Les’s 80th b-day. We would like to invite everyone to the DA for Easter to celebrate both Easter and Les’s 80th b-day. Are there any conflicts out there? We had initially planned on doing it 4/12-4/13 but Gwen has a conflict. Easter Sunday is March 23rd (William’s b-day)….wow we can really celebrate. Anyways, please mark your calendars. I would love for the guys to put together some fun games for the adults and perhaps some people can give ideas for meals and that type of thing. Everyone is invited including Ryan and his family and Julie and whoever else would like to come. Someone with some power could start a new thread about that weekend and start planning, planning, planning…….Mandy, are you out there? I need you and your mom. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here’s a couple starter ideas, add some more and then we will do a survey to make a decision

1. A two day decathlon (We can do traditional events or switch them up to something more creative)
2. A full day “Amazing Race” scavenger hunt with GPS coordinates, hints, challenges, etc
3. A ten mile day hike to the peak of Mt. San Jacinto from the top of the tram station (It’s really cool)
4. “Biggest Loser” weight loss challenge with a pool of money up for grabs (reporting percentage weight loss only, no actual numbers!!)
5. Paintball war
6. Ultimate frisbee tournament
7. Junkyard wars (teams build a machine to race around an obstacle course with provided materials)

Othr ideas?

URGENT REQUEST….Someone with power can start another thread but this is what I need and I need it quickly. My mom has put together a really cool project on the 10K. Several people posted about the experience on this blog. However, others did not. WE would like to get everyone who participated to write something up about their experience, training, what they got out of it, etc and e-mail it to my mom at pug888@aol.com
You might not think this is important enough for your time but really it will be part of Geneology and was such a cool experience. Anyways, just do it and quit giving me a bunch of grief. E-mail my mom your readers digest version of your 10K experience. ALL OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO IT!!!!!!!!! DO IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here I am sitting here watching “Fight Club” for the 961st time. I start thinking about why it is that we as humans are in a never ending pursuit of possessions. For those of you that have never seen this movie it is not just about guys beating up each other like my wife believes. It is about learning to live a life free of possessions tying you down. “The things you own end up owning you.”  How often do you catch yourself going to work thinking “I need to get my car paid off.” or “2 more years of this and I can finally pay off all my credit card bills.”  Now I am not going to say I am the epitome of some one  who lives their life not chasing after material things.  There are days that all I want is  the newest quad or sport bike.  But do I need it? Of course not.  The question I want to ask everyone here is what do you really need to survive? You may think that you can’t live with out your high-end luxury car or surround sound and High definition TV.  Or you may think that you just need the basics food, water, and shelter. Do you live outside of your means just because you think you need something to survive?  What is it that drives humans to accumilate things? Is it human nature? Is it keeping up with the Jones’?

I had a strange dream recently:

I dreamt that there was a stairway that was (for some reason) in my grandmothers house. The stairway had a door at the bottom that let in you into the stairway and at the top of the stairs was a dead end.

In the beginning of my dream, it was explained to me that the rules of the stairway were:

1. If I went inside and closed the door, I could go to the top of the stairs and back. One trip would seem like 10 seconds to me, but one year would pass for everyone outside of the stairwell.

2. For every trip up and down the stairs, I would receive 1 million dollars.

I, without thinking of anything but the money, ran inside the staircase and went up and down the stairs as fast as I could. Each time I came down, I would briefly peek my head out of the door for just a second or two.  Sometimes I would see nobody, and sometimes I would see various people that I knew, always with funny and different clothing and hairstyles as a decade passed before my eyes. After the tenth trip. I stepped out of the staircase, eager to greet my wife and determine how to spend our newfound wealth.

She was sitting on the couch smiling softly as she saw me for the first time in 10 years. She looked beautiful and as I walked toward her, the impact of what I had just done hit me like a ton of bricks and I whispered very quietly:

“I just left you alone for 10 years, didn’t I?”

She smiled bravely, but sadly, and nodded slightly.

I have never in my life felt such an overwhelming sickening feeling of guilt and regret, either when awake or in my dreams. It was indescribably heart wrenching. The money would not buy my time back.

Weird, Huh?

Anybody else have any strange dreams lately?

Lets hear them!!