Just an observation...

Have you noticed all the choices you have when you walk in the convenience store lately? Have you seen how much variety we have in ALL the stuff that is bad for you? The best example, besides the obvious Soda section, is the refrigerated section for Energy drinks! Unfortunately, this has made me somewhat of an energy drink conoisseur. Now let's think about healthy foods. What kind of variety does everyone have in this country when it comes to healthy food? Well, besides the vegetables, not much! If we Americans had as much variety in options for healthy foods, at an AFFORDABLE price mind you, we would all be a little healthier, don't you think? Of course, I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem like rocket science to figure out that this counrty's priorities are a little out of whack! Oh well, here's to my next red bull...gulp gulp gulp.

My life's a Country Song...

I woke up the other morning to the radio, playing a country song with some familiar voices. I realized it was one of my favorite duos, and they were singing a song I had heard once or twice on the radio, but really hadn't taken the time to truly LISTEN to the words. As I was slowly coming back to the world of the living and listening to the song, my little five year old son was scratching my head, and he looked down at me and smiled real big. The words of the song were simple, but here are the ones that really caught my attention. My old truck's still running good....Ticker's tickin' like they say it should...Got supper in the oven, a good woman's lovin', and another chance to be my little kid's dad...Lord I'm a lucky man. Well, I didn't tear up or anything, but it made me realize how truly blessed I am. It made me realize that I have just about everything in life I asked for. I have a truck, I have a house, I have my wife, I have a son....Heck - the only thing missing is a dog!

Tornado...

Okay here is an idea for a story that I actually started writing, got about fifteen pages typed, and then lost the file somehow on my old computer at home. It starts out with a high school football player, Sam Roberts, who is an extremely gifted young man who feels like he can never live up to his potential due to the constant suggestions of his father. Then one Summer day before Sam goes off to college, he decides to help his older brother, John, chaperone a group of middle-schoolers from their church on a day's outing of bowling and movies. On their way between the bowling alley and the movie theatre in the next town, a tornado hits the immediate vicinity of their stalled church van. The two brothers and the young teens all huddle up under an overpass, and pray for their safety. The Tornado rips away part of the overpass, and Sam's older brother, John, along with it. Just before John and a couple of middle-schoolers are taken by the churning clouds, he prays to God that his brother will live to see his true, God-given potential. As John and some of the kids are carried off and sucked up by the swirling dervish, Sam is suddenly endowed with a mysterious strength that lets him hold on to the pillars of what is left of the overpass, and the kids that stayed with him cling as tight as they can around his legs and waist. When the storm passes, there are prominent indentations from Sam's hands in the black and yellow stripes of the concrete pillar that served as Sam's anchor during the tornado. Although sad for losing his brother, he dedicates his life to helping to make the world a better place using his newly discovered strength. When Sam goes off to college in New York, he bids farewell to his parents in Kansas and becomes familiar with his surroundings in New York City. Sam decides to take on a persona to fight crime in the city, focusing his attention on the city's subway system. Just as the last thing people hear before a tornado is upon them is the sound of a freight train, so do the criminals right before they are thwarted by the new hero in town - the Tornado.

Time...we just don't get enough!

What if you had all the time in the world to get everything you ever wanted to do accomplished? Wouldn't that just be dandy. First of all, you could apply for ten jobs or so, and make bukus of money. You could probably make sure you still got to read all the books you wanted to read, get plenty of workouts in, spend time with family, go to work every few hours, and still have time to write a book or two. If I had all the time in the world, well, I just don't think I would know where to get started. Wait; yes I do. I would first quit the crappy job at the Elementary school! Then I would have plenty of time to get better at my fitness jobs, and at the same time take some training in real estate, and maybe even take a creative writing course or two. Alas, the world just does not work this way. Of course, I think the good Lord knew what he was doing when he limited the time for us finite humans here on Earth. I mean, sure; there's the job that I would quit first chance I got, but then where would my priorities fall? Who would be able to prioritize anything? So, I guess it is a good thing in the long run. But maybe one little streak of Groundhog Day moments wouldn't hurt.

Trust

Isn't trust becoming more and more rare in the world these days. I mean it is becoming harder and harder to trust people, because it seems like the more people I get to know in the professional world, the more back-stabbing there seems to be taking place! I have seen it in the fitness industry, and I have seen it in education. As a matter of fact, I believe it is quite rampant in education. My dad remembers a time when just a handshake meant something. He tells me he remembers when there were a lot more things you could get back when he was younger without signing a contract; where a man's word was his bond. I want those days back. I am tired of looking over my shoulder to see who is trying to get me when I am not looking. I think I will have to write a story about trust - the plot will have to be about the need of trust for mankind to continue to exist on this earth.

I am fryin'...how about you?

Well, I have been outside all day long teaching the lovely NEXT Generation, and I am totally fried. Well, maybe baked is a better description. I am starting to believe in the whole global warming bit. First of all, my skin is about two shades darker than it was this morning. Second of all, the sun has totally drained me of my energy. I guess it is because it helped evaporate any sweat I might have had; I don't know. I can't think of anything else to write about today, so I thought I would just write about how hot it was. You know, when I stop to think about it - I remember days at school getting way hotter when I was in middle and high school. I remember highs like 102, or 103. I remember all the air-conditioners broke at my middle school in eighth grade, and we got to go home early three days in a row! Now that was hot. So on second thought, maybe the whole global warming bit is a farce.

The Brother-Hood

Okay, first you need to know that I have two brothers. Second, my dad keeps wanting to buy more houses in our old neighborhood to rent out to different tenants. Well, I had an idea for a story of a similar set of brothers in a similar set of circumstances; only these brothers' father owns almost the whole neighborhood, and their father dies and leaves all the properties, and the tenants, to them. The bad thing is, one of the brothers does something to anger a couple of the local gangs down the street, and a sudden chain of misfortunate events begins to take place around the neighborhood, and it is up to the three brothers to save their father's legacy, and the neighborhood. Don't know exactly where I will go with this one, but I think it could be a fun story.

Blessed?

Okay, I just thought of another idea for a story. What if there were one person, on the entire planet, who had lived a pretty miserable life for the first twenty-five years of her life, and then suddenly, without any explanation at all, only good things began happening to her? I mean, things will be so good, so quickly for her, that she won't even have time to think about why it is happening. What would other people think about her? If anyone actually did have bad or jealous thoughts about her, wouldn't that lead to bad things eventually re-entering her life again? Or could anyone have bad thoughts about such a mysteriously blessed person? I am going to explore this further...wish me luck.

Think about this -

What would happen if you could think bad thoughts about someone who has done something evil to you? What if you had the power to just think of something awful happening to them, and BANG! It does! If the whole world had this power, than I am sure the evil nature in us all would lead to the extinction of mankind. But what if just one person had this power, or curse? That is going to be the subject of my next story I write. I got the idea from one night about a month ago, when some genius decided to key my truck for no good reason. I wished I could get even with that person, even if I could never know who actually did it. Then I thought of this idea for the story; only in the story, the main character who ends up with this power, discovers that the power is more of a curse than anything else, because people he cares about begin suffering.

More Random Thoughts...by Jason

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if we didn't have junk food? How healthy would we be? How much less disease would there be in the world? What if nobody had ever heard of a twinkie, or a fruit roll-up, or even pop tarts? I wonder if there would be different sports records; I mean like what if people like Michael Jordan or Mahammad Ali never TOUCHED a candy bar or sweet treat in their entire life. Would some of the people who have fallen down the path of never-ending appetite and obesity be some of today's greatest athletes? Just a random thought I know...but sit and think about it for a while.

Well, here we go again...

Well, I seemed to have lost access to my old blog, so here is a new one. I don't know if it is worth my time or not. I know I like writing random thoughts, and this is like my own journal...but it gets time consuming when you feel like you are starting all over with something.