I’ve mentioned before that I’m a creature of the Internet. Some people are “private people”. I’m not. I like sharing stuff with other people because, frankly, I do believe that people are inherently good. I believe this because I’m a believer of natural selection. People who can’t play well with others have tended not to be as likely to pass on their genes. There are clearly exceptions to that but all in all, most people I interact with fall well into the “good” category.
I have a lot of friends. But I try to keep the number of close friends down to a very small group. So what does close friendship mean to me? 1) I am always glad to hear of the success of my close friends. I take personal pride (for no rational reason) when my friends are doing well. The better and more successful they are, the happier I am about it. Their victory is my victory. Their good fortune is mine. 2) I try to be very loyal to my close friends. I keep their confidence....
I learned today that one of my friends was recently in a very serious car accident. I've been been stunned much of the day at this news.
The thing about Valentine's day is that you can appreciate the love of your life. My wife is really wonderful. She's my best friend and the mother of our two children. She has an almost infinite level of patience and has a quantity kindness that I've never encountered in another human being. If she has only faults, it would only be in her questionable taste in spouses. I am very glad that I met her and that she is part of my life. We've been together 13 years now and each day I wak...
I talked to my dad today and he was leaning towards Kerry. He's a really smart guy. One of the smartest people I know. But he doesn't follow politics that much, he's very busy doing other things. So he gets his info from the mainstream media which has done a pretty good job convincing him that Bush is a bad guy. So what were his issues and how did I counter act them? Outsourcing. If you're really worried about out-sourcing then don't vote for the candidate whose party and policies have l...
If you're reading this and you're in high school then let me tell you something: Those aren't the best days of your life. My high school days were hellish for me. But I wouldn't have it any other way. They gave me a healthy chip on my shoulder. Sure, it's negative, it's ugly, and whatever. But it motivated me to work harder to succeed in life. Since I was of the nerd class in high school, far down in the food chain and made to feel unworthy, there's a certain satisfaction at being successf...
Because I'm mentioned in Time Magazine this week the subject of "the company" came up from time to time at the wedding I attended. One question that comes up, inexplicably, is "are you still running your company out of your house?" I've had this question posted 4 times by family members. I'm not sure how this comes about. Our company was never run out of our house. It was in my dorm room for a very short amount of time, 11 years ago. But since 1995 it's had an office. ...
My cousin Dirk got married this weekend. The wife and kids and I went out to Plainwell for it and had a good time. It was a pretty thorough family reunion for the "Bradley" side (my mom's side of the family). Dirk and Danielle had been together for 13 years, that's a year longer than my wife and I. Normally with weddings you hope for the best but you can never be sure with how things will work out. Not so with D & D since they are a great couple. Why they decided to get...
Last month I wrote about the importance of friendship . I think for me the biggest reason why friendships matter so much is because I'm an only child. And not just an only child, the only-child of a single parent who grew up with no local extended family members for most of that time. So for me, friends mean a lot. They're like family. And I don't mean that like a cliché. People who have no brothers or sisters, for instance, simply cannot imagine the feelings associated with having the...
Over the years I've learned the hard way which lines work and which lines do not work when picking up women. Well...okay mainly I've learned which lines do NOT work. Here they are: 1) You have a pretty mouth. 2) I admire your fatty deposits 3) You have good birthing hips 4) Do you want to see my turtle? 5) You seem clean. 6) Do you like to cook? 7) Do you want to see my Chevette? 8) Want to play video games on my computer? 9) Not all of that is dandruff. 10) Actu...
When you're intelligent, it can be very frustrating to recognize that one lacks wisdom. And recognizing that truism is the first step on the path to gaining wisdom. When I was 17, I started keeping a journal of my thoughts and experiences. It was part of the whole internal conceit that comes with being young and assured of ones intelligence relative to others. I kept the journal for many reasons but one reason was because I wanted to remember what it was like to be 17-21 so that when I had ch...
“Can't we just get along?" If you hang out in a net community long enough, eventually you will have those who just don’t like you. The technical term I use for them are detractors and they fall into 3 categories: Passive detractors. These are people who, if exposed to something you write, will tend to criticize it, even “unfairly.” Active detractors. These are people who will go out of their way to “stalk” you on a particular site or news group to flame you. ...
The United States is premised on the separation of church and state. But over time, what that separation means has changed. The founding fathers wanted to ensure that people were free to practice whatever religion they wanted. Moreover, they wanted to ensure that the government did not establish any official religion. You will regularly hear the ACLU refer to the "establishment clause" of the US constitution as the basis for their various lawsuits against states. It's a sticky situation...
My wife and I have started dating again. By that I mean each other. Despite my attempts to stress to her that I'm a stallion and as a stallion I must roam and roam free, she still insists that I date only her. We've been having a lot of fun and it's amazing how much things have changed since when we dated before we got married. 12 years ago, which is about when we started dating, I drove a vette. A che vette but a vette none the less. Surprisingly, chicks weren't impressed by it. They weren'...
Through life we all have experienced, to varying degrees, how high ideals don't survive the encounter with real life. To put it another way, life is unfair and despite noble sentiments otherwise, some things are true even if they shouldn't be true. I've always been a very social person and one to talk to people about all kinds of things (which shouldn't be surprising since I started a blog site). I've been running BBSes, bulletin boards, forums, chat channels, you name it for the pas...