Hunter Patch Adams Quote

"The most revolutionary act one can commit in our world is to be happy."

- Hunter Patch Adams

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

-- Michael Jordan

I am so angry. The growing anti-war and anti-America sentiment is driving me into an unreasoning rage. Tonight (I am giving in to all my Isolationist tendencies), this is what I want to do:

1. -- Finish the Iraq situation. Remove Hussein and his Guard from power. Locate the WMD's by offering Iraqi $$$. Destroy them. Use the Iraqi Oil money to build a viable Iraqi democracy and to rebuild their infrastructure. Fully publicize all the atrocities committed against the Iraqi people.

2. -- Remove all US troops and bases from Germany. Setup more mobile troops and smaller bases in the countries of New Europe that request our presence.

3. -- Withdraw from Nato and the UN. Ask the UN to leave American shores. The UN can move to France or Germany, it is none of our business.

4. -- Close all US embassies except in England, Australia, and in our few other friends. Cancel all US treaties and agreements. Set a deadline for replacement treaties and agreements. If agreement cannot be made, forego the treaty or agreement. We shall be as strangers. Do not allow the embassies to handle visa or passport issues. All passports and entry visas need to be handled by mail or in America. All visitors will be fingerprinted when entering and leaving the country using the fingerprint technology in use in our federal prisons. This would include visitors from Canada and Mexico. In addition, once anyone enters our prison system, their fingerprints will be added to the national database and remain there. This database would be accessible to federal, state and local authorities.

5. -- Remove the 37,000 US soldiers from South Korea and station them within the US borders. Their primary responsibility will be border patrol and to protect the country from Terrorists (from within and without). Offer academic and technology training to these soldiers with an emphasis on skill building and working in the private sector.

6. -- Americans need to understand that the world is a dangerous place and if they choose to do business and live outside our borders, then they have to look to their host country for basic protection. There will rarely be a US embassy in a host country.

7. -- Remove all tax incentives for working abroad. Also, US business will be taxed as though they were expatriating their profits back to America. There shall be NO tax incentive for making any kind of investment in foreign lands.

8. -- Forget about the International Space Station. We go it alone. Patent everything we discover in space. Have the government award contracts to scientific think tanks for commercial applications of our space discoveries. License US companies to develop these applications. The US should receive royalties from these products. Begin charging patent fees to all users of our new technology. US taxpayers can obtain credits for these fees paid, but not the royalties. Use all of these fees to fund Education, Social Security and Medicare.

9. -- Convince the American public that we must stop relying on fossil fuels by adding a $2 to $3 tax per gallon of gas. Add taxes to the manufacturers of cars using fossil fuels. Add heavy additional taxes on the fuels used by industry and the utilities. Use this tax to find serious research into Solar power, wind power, tidal power, etc. Aviation fuel will be spared this extra tax for a while. There needs to be big tax incentives aircraft manufacturers to use alternative energies for the jets. Encourage homeowners to get off the energy grid by offering generous tax credits and subsidies for buying solar cells. Penalize utilities that do not invest heavily in alternative energy R&D (not to include nuclear power).

While the country is in the change over crisis period (from fossil fuels to alternative energies), continue massive federal deficits. Consider the deficit spending as an investment in our country's future, a future free from Oil Tyranny. As these new technologies become commercially viable, offer the products priced reasonably, to the rest of the world.

10.-- Establish the World Trade Center (WTC) funded by dues and other revenue raising steps to be determined.. This would be a close affiliation of trade and defense partners (US, UK, etc). To join the WTC, a country needs to actively participate in the War on Terrorism and pledge support of the overall aims of the WTC (established in the WTC charter). There would be a strong separation of Church and State. There would be no religious overtones of the WTC.

The WTC would maintain a peacekeeper force comprised of soldiers from ALL member countries. This peacekeeping force would be used to defend all member countries from attack. In addition, each country has to actively fight terrorism at home.The trade relations would be on the best terms available with no trade restrictions. Trade with countries outside the WTC group, would be at higher rates, have quotas, etc.

11. -- Offer the Israeli's land to resettle as a new country (somewhere in America, Australia, wherever, etc.). If they choose to remain in Israel, surrounded by their enemies, there might not be much that the US or the WTC can do to help. I am unclear if Israel would join the WTC. The WTC cannot expend all their energies protecting a member who refuses to take steps to protect themselves. This is a hard nut to crack.

Anyway,got all of that off my chest. Obviously, the plan is too simplistic to work in real life, but this is a blog.

So far, I have not been successful in locating a way to make the typing on this unit to be less stressful. However, I suspect that I will learn to put up with it. I did send an email to the company to see if they a solution.

I might feel funny using this at the library because of the clicking sounds.
Actually, now my neck is sore. I wonder if this is psychosomatic!

We had dinner at Eastern Garden. I have been feeling a little depressed all night. I wonder if they use a lot of MSG.

I went to Brian's and showed him the format toolbar for Excel. Then he showed me how to complete a couple assignments in Delta Force. Okay, it looked managable. I shall try the game again. I also brought home a game called Legion that he had given up on. I just thought that I would like to see if I could figure it out.

This a test of the typewriter function of the AlphaSmart 3000. The typing action is a lot harder than I am used to. I am not sure this will work for me. However, we shall see...Wow! This really worked! I am so jazzed. I went right from the AlphaSmart 3000 unit directly into my blog. So, I can write, then connect the USB and hit SEND and the file up loads. I can keep 8 different files going. This is a wonder. I am glad that I bought it. This will allow me to type anywhere.

There were a bunch of Writer's Tools that came with the unit. I shall have to read the manual to see what they do.

I just wish that the typing keys had a softer touch. I really have to hit each key squarely. My long nails may become a problem. May have to ask Ursula to shorten them.

(Later) - Okay, I guess we shall just be available as a resource when she needs it. I am counting on you to notice when she starts to tread water furiously. That is usually a good sign that the non-swimmer is in a bit opf a jam. Let's not let it get to crisis-size. We just have to be more intrusive...

DLH:
Intrusive? You like me get slapped or what? (ggg) Grumpy would be the operative word rather than treading water. Don't tell M I told you or I will get slapped. (nah nah nah just joking) It's starting to get tense around here tho, M is already getting flack from the managers regarding the renovation and move to town. Will it never end?

Three and a half hours later and I have not cleared any clutter. I have been reading blogs and watched the Terriers' section on the Westminster Dog Show.

Is is now 2:58 am and I can see the desk behind me. It has been months! Tomorrow, I shall start to organize all the papers I stuck in my pending folders.

Clutter and the Library

I spent most of today just trying to get rid of the clutter in my office. Instead of two to three feet high piles of "stuff" behind me, the piles are only about six inches deep. I plan to finish sorting tonight. I found a library book that was due on January 31st. It was at the bottom of a stack of "stuff". I returned it, plus two books that I finished. The Library is in total disarray. The conversion over to the Horizon System is still not going well. There are 10 books waiting for me to pick up. I plan to wait until the last possible time (around February 23rd). I am still trying to get ahead of the game where reading is concerned.

"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." -- Samuel Johnson

I have been reviewing my blog posts and found these quotes. I copied them into the blog, intending to come back and write about what got triggered. However, this rarely happened. Life just supercedes or, better yet, Life Just Happens.

I was a smoker for 35 years and stopped in 1996 because I got mad at the seven tobacco executives who lied under oath before a Congressional hearing.
I was a workaholic all my working life until an accident disabled me in June 1992.
I was a rehabiliholic from late 1992 through 2002.
I was addicted to carbohydrates off and on, all my life until 2003.

I am an on again/off again shopoholic.

I am addicted to reading books.
I am addicted to buying computer software.
I am addicted to my Internet activities.

I am getting addicted to Diet sodas.
I am getting addicted to blogging and journaling.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

-- Maya Angelou

These are powerful words. I am not sure how they fit with me, since under Usual, I am an 80 B and under stress a 65 A. How people feel about me is only mildly motivating when I am under stress. Under normal conditions, though, how people will feel about me is not relevant in determining my actions. Of course, if there is a strong likelihood that people might think I was stupid for following a certain course of action, I would probably think about the action a little more carefully.

Have a forgotten people that made me feel strongly about something? Well, yes. I have forgotten all the est trainers I ever had. Even Werner is a dim memory in my mind. But wait! I took a Making a Difference seminar in New York, 1979 at Penn Central Station. This experience allowed me to feel that I made a difference. I was so moved/inspired that I signed up as a Save The Children sponsor for 21 years.

Oh, I see. The other est trainers created a space for me to be moved, but it was not personal. Any emotions that I felt were stimulated by my own emotional processing.

So, what has happened to my wanting to make a difference? I got mad at Save the Children (STC) in 2001 and cancelled my sponsorship. I cancelled Dick's too. Wow. Vindictive. I want to look for another sponsorship organization that does not treat sponsors simply as accounts to be billed. I had noticed that over the years, STC billing practices got to be more offensive and aggressive. Finally, they sent me a dunning letter for not making my annual 2001 contribution. They had given Dick credit for both of the annual donations ($400) that we made. They had assume the excess to be a gift from Dick ($200) and sent me an offensive bill for another $200. I wrote them in anger canceling our accounts. They did not bother to respond, but continued to send me a couple more dunning letters! They continue to send me bills each year. I discard them.

Anyway, I still feel empowered when remembering the seminar. That memory was a strong link for me when seeing About Schmidt. When I had my company, I always had postcards sent to each child each year. I tried to pick postcards that represented Hawaii. I have never received an acknowledgement from any of the children that they received the cards. Perhaps, I should have followed up. Now, I wonder if STC ever bothered to forward the cards on. Guess I'll never know.

Any Regrets?

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-- Mark Twain

What do I regret not doing twenty years ago?

Let me think...1983. I started my own business October 1, 1983. I gave notice at the AY during June 1983 and agreed to complete an IRS protest. I finished that on September 30, 1983. When I gave my notice, I did not have a clue what I was going to do. However, I was not worried. I knew I would also be good at whatever I chose to do. God, youth has such confidence. Maybe it was naivete coupled with some arrogance. No matter.

Do I regret opening up my own business? Nope. Do I regret quitting AY? Absolutely not. What didn't I do that I regret? I don't remember contemplating doing anything else (once the idea of starting my own CPA firm occurred to me).

Let me broaden the question: What do I regret not doing?

I regret not asking my mom and grandma more questions about the family and its history. I also regret not asking my dad and his family the same questions.

I regret not handling my yo-yo weight problem. I suspect that allowing the yo-yo syndrome to happen has hurt me.

I regret the "awfulness" of the time before and after my mother died.

I regret my up-to-now inability to get organized and to move in the proper direction.

I am sure there are a ton of others, but these are all the regrets that I can think of...

Singing and MSG

Well, I just finished singing for two hours. What a difference. I was starting to feel depressed and a little down in the dumps.

I think it was the buffet at the Halekulani that Fred invited us to this morning. It is awfully expensive ($40+ per head) and had really great tasting stuff. But, because the hotel caters to so many Japanese tourists, I suspect the food is loaded with MSG and other flavor enhancers. They cook made-to-order omelets that taste wonderful. I know that taste did not come out of the eggs...nature had to have some help from man. I wonder if the Japanese nationals somehow are immune to effects of MSG. The people in Hong Kong also heavily dose their food with the flavor enhancers. Someone told me that even McDonald's had to add MSG to their burgers if they wanted Hong Kong customers. I hope we will not see some sort of MSG syndrome down the road. Hawaii definitely seems to be exhibiting symtoms of an MSG intolerance.

Anyway, back to singing, I sang about 40 songs, non-stop. That is a lot for me. Usually, D and I alternate singing so we can rest in-between songs. I feel like I have been doing some cardio and a little strength training. I did choose slower songs than normal. I guess it was just the disks I selected.

What if I only had three months to live, I would...

Complete the laser eye surgery and throw away my glasses and contacs.

Engage a professional genealogist to complete the family history.

Hire three full-time assistants. Their shifts would be 8 to 5, 10 to 7 and finally, 2 to 11. My job would be to overwhelm them with work. I would also need a manager to run the office (focusing on productivity, etc.). The types of activities would include:

completing all my topical photo collages and photo projects
figuring out what to give away and what to discard
giving away as much as possible while I am still alive
helping me record my 11 year accident recovery process
making musical CDs of my favorites songs
etc
Hire a couple ghost writers to write initial drafts (of articles, pamphlets, and books) based on my notes, etc. I would also need an editor to streamline the process.

Sing everyday. Possibly record some CDs in a professional sound studio.

Take a two week cruise with friends and some family to Australia and New Zealand. But, stay connected to office via internet and have working office setup on the ship.

Write individual farewell letters to friends and family.

Prepare for all the financial consequences resulting from my death, includng the future care of Tugger and Max.

Hmmm, most of the above list are not reasonable to do since I plan to live way beyond three months! However, I could start to look into hiring a genealogist to take over this project from me. I am having trouble getting back to it. Maybe, I should give myself the rest of 2003. Then, if no progress is made, hire a genealogist January 2004.

I could try to sing everyday. However, time-wise, this one is hard to accomplish. Or, am I just making excuses? The truth is that I hate to sing alone.

Need to give some thought to writing about my accident and the recovery process.

Farewell letters...I had never contemplated something like this. Need to think about this more carefully. What would I write in these letters that I should be saying while I am alive?

Getting Organized

Wow..things are really moving in my office. I got the camera, the photo printer, the photo scanner, the scanning pen, the wireless router (wireless and hardwired), replaced my Laptop network adapter with a USB network adapter, got a program to show me all duplicate spreadsheets and word documents, and deleted 1,700 duplicate files (53 MB). I had seven copies of some files. I knew that I had lost control, but this is ridiculous. I still have to complete this process on my other 3 computers. I am definitely not looking forward to this activity. The other computers tended to have different types of spreadsheets and docs. Maybe, I'll use a different approach for those machines.

Questions from the Anti-War camp

I am exhausted. I just replied in private to a lot of questions from the anti-war camp. Whew! I am tired. I had plans to do a number of things tonight. However, I think I'll just go soak and finish my current book, Double Your Brain Power.

"To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am." -- Bernard Baruch

Software Stuff

Tonight I reinstalled all my copernic software (Pro, Agent, Shopper and Summarizer). I spent several hours checking out the functions of all but the Shopper. The Summarizer is useful. It summarizes any written document. From 1000 words, to 250 words, to 100 words. It also goes from 50%, to 25%, to 10%, and finally to 5%. I need to take an article that I am already familiar with and use the Summarizer to see how successful it is in keeping the gist of the article while chopping the length. Until I am very confident, cannot use the program to help me read faster.

Running out of time...

Took me hours tonight to go through my email. I am going to have to develop a better routine because it is just taking so long. I get so sidetracked by articles, websites, etc.

"Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create that fact." -- William James

From D on the Columbia Loss

MRS, thank you for your honest reflection on the loss of the Columbia crew. I think "bad things happen to good people". Can the American psyche suffer any more? I think we are not in Camelot any more.......I really felt some comfort and I pray the families of the Columbia crew got some solace from President Bush's words: The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth---yet we can pray that all are safely home". Of all the words I heard during the hours and hours of news coverage and the stunning pictures of the fiery descent, these were for me the most reassuring. Amen

To Balance the Budget

How about this: The US government patents all space discoveries and charges a reasonable patent fee to all who want to use the patent. Initially, all the fees go to shoring up the social security and medicare funds. US taxpayers may obtain a credit for patent fees paid IF, if they provide more than X jobs.

The Columbia Space Shuttle

The Columbia Space Shuttle with all crew was lost today.

I am bewildered by my emotional response to this disaster.

When the Challenger was lost 17 years ago, I was devastated and cried for days. I was glued to the TV set and could not focus on anything else.

This morning, I grieved for the families of the 7 brave astronauts. It hurt to imagine the pain they were suffering over such a public tragedy. I watched the speeding smoke and fire plumes repeatedly on TV. Finally, I left the house and went to see a movie. Callous? Uncaring? No, I don't think so. I am sorry the disaster happened. I wish there was a way to undo it. There is none.

At least, the crew was able to spent 16 wonder-filled days in space. They experienced sights that very few humans will ever call their own. I feel that all 7 would consider their last 16 days to be one of their greatest achievements in life. I wish they were alive and telling their families and friends about their trip. They are not.

I feel a little more distant from this disaster. Why? There is a greater acceptance on my part that terrible things happen in this world. As I learned with the 9/11 catastrophe, life does go on. In fact, life must go on in order to validate the ultimate sacrifices made. I cannot hide from the ugly side of life. I cannot pretend that bad or evil things do not happen. I will be strong and resolute in the face of disaster.

Have the events of 9/11 made me colder? Have I become desensitized to pain? Or have the events cost me my innocence and naiveté about the future? Am I becoming a warrior in the War on Terror?

Or, am I simply 17 years older?