Youthful Living

I have noticed that children often take on the same interests and characteristics of their parents. It is said that if the same child were to have grown up under different parents, they would have become a different person. Do you think that's true?

Take my life for example. As a child, I don't recall that my dad was much of a sports enthusiast. I never grew up around sports except through my friends. My wife, on the other hand, grew up around sports. Her three older brothers were deep into hockey, football, curling, and many other sports. Much of that was as a result of her father. As a result, she too knew mostly sports and therefore loves them. As for me, my mom was in love with music and my dad with electronics. Unlike children of today with their PS2's and X-Boxes, my dad had a Tandy 1000 from Radio Shack (a computer with no hard drive and a processor less powerful than most of today's graphic calculators). Instead of games, my dad would buy me programming books and cassette tapes. If I wanted to play a game, I had to first write the program using the instructions from the books, then save them onto the cassette tape(no hard drive, remember? And floppy disks were expensive). I learned the basics for computer programming at a very early age.

My mom taught me a love for music. She sang and played the accordion. As a result, I sang in the children's choir from age 5-13. At 10, I was a part of a musical production of the Music Man and I pretended to play the french horn. That production gave me an interest in marching bands, so I joined a real band at age 11, where I learned to play the euphonium. When I couldn't sing because of my voice change, I began working in the sound booth at my church.

I grew up around electronics and music, therefore I became a musician and a lover of electronics. My wife grew up around sports, so she sees curling the way I see computer programming.

But that brings up the question I posed before. Do you believe that a child would become a different person if they grew up in a different family environment? Some would say that it is genetics. It is in our blood. After all, my sister and youngest brother grew up with an amazing talent for art. They can draw like I could only imagine. But while they excel in art, they lack in music. My other brother and I love to play an instrument, but we have limits in our drawing abilities. He plays the piano while I play the euphonium, trombone, trumpet, and a little alto sax. If the genetics theory is true, then did I have any hope in becoming an athlete? I mean, sure...I was a bowler, diver, and at one time (believe it or not) a gymnast. But that was a long time ago and I'm sure that many of you sports enthusiasts would say that bowling and diving aren't real sports.

If a child's development is based on our parents interests being put upon us, then could parents be limiting their children's growth? Their maturity? My wife recently read these words to me. I'm not sure where she got them but now I pass them on here.

"Is the sole purpose of having a biological child so that you can say to others, 'Oh look. He/She has my nose, my eyes' thereby fulfilling your own ego by thinking that you created that child? That child was not created for our benefit but rather to bring glory and honour to God, the child's true Creator. God blessed you with a gift, a child HE created for you. Have you asked what God wants for your child, or have you told God how things will be?"

God has a plan and a purpose for each person...each child. He puts that child into the lives of those He feels will offer the best upbringing. So if that is true, we should be humble and give our children back to God. If our children are to know and grow in sports when neither parent has ever been interested, I think that it is our duty and responsibility to support our children's development and growth in sports. But of this I'm certain. God wants parents to teach all children of His word, and raise them in Godly ways. For they are His children first.

Even if that child is not a biological offspring of a couple but one who was left behind, whether by abandonment or by death, for adoption. That child is a child of God. He wants all of us to take the responsibilities in caring for His children. May we do our part with humility and honour to God to make sure that every child has the chance to grow into the Godly person whom He desires of them.

Jesus Loves the little children.
All the Children of the world.
Red and Yellow, black and white.
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

A Blogging We Will Go

Blogging has certainly become a rapidly growing phenomenon. Created from the words "weB LOG", it is a modern day journaling of the authors thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Interestingly enough, blogging is actually more like a fad than you think. The reason I say this is because it was actually very popular at a previous time, like yo-yoing...then died off for a few decades or so, only to come back full force.

Back then, it was called a billboard. The internet was new and web pages were no where near as extensive as they are now. Computers could barely keep up with today's standards for graphic rendering. In fact, it didn't matter anyway because monitors were monochrome (one colour, such as white on black or orange on black). One reason the internet was created was as a way for scientists to 'post' their findings and allowed other scientists in another geographic area to read those findings and post their comments and theories. These postings were called 'Billboards" and they were used very much the way that blogging is done today. Simple text posted on a site and open to public review and scrutiny by way of comments.

The strangest part is that I am old enough to remember billboards, how they lost interest to html based webpages and IM services, and now returned to blogging...and yet I have only recently entered my 30's. Technology sure does go fast.

Now that the history lesson is over, the whole reason I started this blog was to express how open people have become using technology and yet how closed off and private that same person can be in public. Blogging has been taken by most of the first world as a new fad of journaling their deepest feelings. Feelings that once would be written down in a book and then locked with a key and hidden from siblings and parents are now being published for any and all people who know how to access the internet. It is still being kept locked to a degree by the anonymity of their blog handle, yet their closest friends and family all know who that handle refers to, so is it really such a secret?

I have heard and even experienced how much easier it is to write my feelings down during an IM with someone. You feel a little safer because the other person can't read your face and neither can you read theirs. It is a security blanket of sorts. I remember reading science fiction novels about what virtual reality would be like. You put on a headset and gloves and you can meet people from around the world, but change your appearance to that other person...all from the comfort of your livingroom. You could be skinny, muscular, and wearing a tuxedo, while you are actually wearing nothing but your pj's. Same thing with blogging now. We can be in any state we like as we write our thoughts. At the same time, we can saturate those thoughts with anything we want; revealing the truth about ourselves or by wearing a 'costume' of sorts, as one of Yog's friends put it. This is why we feel secure. No one really knows if what we are saying is real.

But those novels I read usually come to the same conclusion. The people in their VR worlds forget that there is a real world out there. And in all the preoccupied time in their 'safe' world, they forgot how to live and interact with real people in a real way; face to face. They no longer remember how to read peoples facial expressions and they don't remember how to tell the difference between a lie and the truth. Most are too frightened to be seen by other people as they really are. They lost something to technology.

Perhaps this is too extreme to comprehend. Or worse, there are those out there who know all too well exactly what I'm talking about. Remember that a journal is something for one to reflect upon themselves. To self analyze in order to learn and grow. If you blog, I hope you haven't forgotten how to just log. You don't always need the weB to express yourself.

Gotta follow your gutt...or your hero

Ya know, I've been reading plenty of blogs and even commenting here or there, but I just can't seem to push myself to actually write anything. I don't know if it's because I'm not inspired to write, or maybe I've got so much to say but can't decide if the 'world' wants to hear it. It's pretty obvious that many millions of people are out there writing something because they just want a voice. Me...I'm writing this particular blog because I realized that the alter ego of my second favourite super hero actually reads my blogs and so I better write something. Thanks UltraMan.

And since you do read my blogs, I've been meaning to ask you. Did Dr. Jeffcoate get you so interested in science that you gave up the cans and decided to create an interdimensional portal into hundreds of different worlds? If not, then I should warn you that there's a doppelganger out there by the name of Quinn Mallory, making a name for himself on the back of your popularity. If you ever decide to return to the super hero business, let me know.