I was going to make a quick post on the new Batman movie, but that can wait. Watching the movie made me think of other things.

Earlier post is in Bold print, newer thoughts are in the regular type.

Things like if doing good makes things go bad, are you still doing good, are you in the right?

Heroes in movies are always trying to do good and the right thing. It doesn’t always work out for them. We see that in everyday life too. We try to do what is right, or good, and sometimes the way things work out, a different path should have been chosen. We can tend to dwell on this, constantly asking “What if?”. Dwelling the “should ofs” and “could ofs” will inhibit our chances of make the correct choices on later issues. We can’t always be assured that doing the right thing, means things will turn out good for us. Sometimes being right is worth the effort, no matter what the outcome.

What would it take to go from good to bad, or bad to good? Is it that big of a difference?

This is something I have some experience with. I know exactly how far I can be pushed. It isn’t so much of going from good to bad, but it is going from easy going to violent or fairly relaxed to a nervous wreck. Major events in ones life can do a number on how you behave. You think beforehand that you know how you will react, but once in the situation, you did something you never would have believed possible. For me those experiences revolve around protecting the weak and innocent, and protecting and loving my family and friends. Since I have been in these situations more than once, I know I would put my own health/welfare on the line if anyone I care about is in trouble. This is something deeply ingrained in who I am. I also know that if pushed too far, I could fall apart. I’ve been close to that too.

At what point do you have too much power?
My feelings is that you can have too much power, when power is your goal. I’ve always found that the people who handle power the best, are the ones that really don’t want it in the first place.

What sort of circumstance would break your will? What would drive you forward? What would stop you dead in your tracks?

I had a daughter in a very serious car accident. I did things I never thought I could do. At the time it was the most difficult life experience I ever had. Just the possibility of losing a child brought me to the brink of stopping my dead in my tracks, but I pushed through and drove forward. Not much more than a year after that, my wife was told she had cancer. 1 1/2 months later it would take her life. This loss was almost to great for me. Even with my children needing me, I almost fell apart. They pulled me back from the abyss. This was something that broke my will. If my girls had not been there, or I had people pushing me in a different direction, the person I am today would not be around. Frightening thought is that I don’t know who or even if I would be today. There are things that happen, that will change the person you are today. Sometimes for the good, sometimes not. I never take abrupt changes in behavior for granted any more.

Yesterday, and part of today, I spent cleaning house here on my blog. I didn’t see any use to keeping the “Tag Clouds” on my page, I never used them, and they didn’t really help me find past blogs. So I threw the clouds out, and put in Categories instead.

Then I noticed I wasn’t very good at putting categories on all of my posts. That wouldn’t help my searches at all. As I passed 50 or so posts, it wasn’t good enough just to go back page by page just when I wanted. So I’m going to be cleaning up my posts, entering new categories to help me find things, and maybe figure out a better way during the process.

I’m open to all suggestions on this.

A little bit of sports trivia. The only bit of major pro sporting news yesterday was Baseball’s All Star Game. Today outside of that last game that really counts for yesterday’s scoreboard, there is no major pro sporting event going on.

No Pro Football, Basketball, Women’s Basketball, Hockey, Arena Football, or even Soccer. The British Open in Golf will start tomorrow. That’s right folks, today is a downer day for sports fans. After we finish talking about the All Star Game, there are no other scores to talk about. Tomorrow, until the British Open first round scores start coming in, and MLB starts again, there will be no scores to talk about.

Today is the one day for the year, you can be sure there will be no sport scores other than the game that started the day before. Interesting? or a MLB conspiracy? Will we ever find out?

Just thought you would like to know

It was the bottom of the 9th when I decided to check on Baseball’s All Star game. Little did I know it would continue into the 12th inning. I’m just watching it on Gameday, so I haven’t seen much of what has transpired. I do know that both teams have had scoring chances in those extra innings. The game should be over by now.

The game will now go into the 13th inning… They should be able to get everyone in now, don’t you think?

15 innings!!!

An Inventions Quiz, 15 famous inventors and their inventions.
***********************
***********************
***********************
I should tell you my score, but I will wait until you get a chance.

I have a better thought. I will leave a clue to my score in the text of this post. In fact, if you can puzzle out the clue, you can report my score. I thought of a way to give a clue, but I think I need to do better than that. I am positive I can do better than that.

Yes, there is a clue or more in this post. I found a way to give multiple clues. In fact, the number of clues I created points to a clue. Can you figure it out?

This is another post obviously trying to get more people to comment. I’m hoping an interactive post is the answer.

I’m having too much fun. I think it is time to stop.

The title of this article just got to me. For some reason it just tickled my sense of humor.
….NASA Sticks a Fork in Mars, I hope they remembered the knife and spoon.

Anyway, I do like the work the landers and orbiters are doing on Mars. In the past few years, we’ve learned a lot about the next planet out. I’ll keep on looking for updates on what exactly this probe finds, so I can make a comment or two on that.

Today I took a trip back in time, sort of.  For just a little while, I was back 20+ years ago having a donut with my little girl.   She’s no longer the 2 or 3 year old I would carry on my shoulders for 4 blocks to the donut shop, and she definitely eats more than 1/2 a donut now.  But just for an instant I saw that very young father, and his daughter in the refection of the door entering the donut shop.

The shop changed in the past 20 years.  There is no longer a bar with stools to sit and watch the frenzy behind the counter.  The library and store that as across the street no longer exist in that location.  The apartments still looked the same.

They say you can’t go back, and of course that is true.  I would never want to try to live in that little apartment again.  I’ve grown to comfortable living in the country away from the noise, the lights and the people.  I like the silence and the darkness.  Most of the time this suits who I am.

I’ve changed over the past few years, but I haven’t changed to the point where I can’t enjoy a quick trip to the donut shop with one of my girls.  I hope all my girls have some special memory of things they did with their parents.  I know I have some for each of them…

As a society we are surrounded by coffee. In larger cities there have been Starbucks on every corner.  Stretching the point a little, but they did just close a number of “extra” shops.  There are also a number of other coffee places that are national/international brands.  Even the likes of McDonalds are starting to sell their own premium coffees.  Were does in end?

Now I a admit being a bit of a coffee nerd/snob.  I have tasted good coffee and desire it above all others.  I like the pure 100% coffees from specific regions (Kona and Kenya AA are at the top of my list).  I like  various blended coffees (Mocha Java and Kona Blends).   I like good dark roasts, medium roasts and light roasts.  I even go for a good shot of espresso every now and then.   When it comes to flavored coffees, there are those I like and those I don’t.  Adding flavor to coffee is outside the realm of a simple cuppa…  So are most of the fancy blends and even the espresso.

I’m talking about a simple no nonsense cup of joe.   That fresh jolt of black goodness in the morning. And the thoughts of that cup bring back memories of days long past.

I’ve told the story many times, of my wife and I finding a coffee shop of all places to spend a little time alone.  At that time, I was the only one  to even drink coffee.  It grew on her.  But I felt myself being drawn further back in time.  To a small apartment, our first, in Toledo, OH.  This little two bedroom unit was about 3 or 4 blocks from a Dunkin’ Donuts shop.  I remember walking down on some Saturdays to get some donuts and for me a coffee.  That coffee was some of the best I’ve ever tasted.  To this day it is still one of my favorites.  In those early days, we didn’t even have a coffee maker in the house (I would consumed the whole pot), so this was a treat.  I even had a Dunkin’ Donuts thermos so I could get cheaper re-fills.

If I have my count of Toledo area donut shops correct, that one Dunkin’ Donuts is the last in the Toledo area.  When we lived there, there were a least 4 in the area.  Who knows why they left this part of the country for a while.  But I’ve heard that they are opening up new shops in the Ft. Wayne IN area.  I now live halfway between Toledo and Ft. Wayne, so maybe I’ll be able to get coffee and a donut from Dunkin’ Donuts when I’m on the road.  I’d love to see them expand in the area again.  But maybe 65 miles isn’t too far to go to relive a memory…

I thought today was going to be a real downer.  Work seemed endless today with barely a break for lunch.  If things could go wrong, they all waited for today.  But with some luck, I had a much better late afternoon/early evening.

As told earlier, I went to a movie.  I went with not 1 but 2 of my daughters.  We all had a good time, it was just a fun little show to watch.  Then we went to dinner.  Dinner was Pizza Hut, so I didn’t find it very good, but the girls seemed to enjoy it.  Then off to the Putt-Putt.  With two free game one at an earlier time, we were able to putt with no money down.  One of my daughters doesn’t like putt-putt, but is willing to keep score.   Except for 2 miss-played holes (really badly mis-played, I had a good game.  I was able to break par by 1 stroke.  I think I figured out my problem with putting.  I get too sure of myself at times, and don’t concentrate on what I am doing.  Makes be flub up sometimes.  I guess I should be more careful.

Then we had Ice cream at the Creamery again.  Still good stuff, a bit expensive, but it is good to splurge every now and again.

Time to run.. or sleep as the case may be, it is now a bit after midnight.

Well I just saw the movie, now I’m going to explore some the science (or lack of it) involved in this journey. In Jules Verne’s original book, the center of the earth is a large cave like area with some sort of electro magnetic field producing light. Same in the movie.

Current Science views the center of the Earth as a molten metal core, mostly iron. This would be well above the temperatures that humans could survive in. But just for arguments sake, lets pretend there is a large cave with volcanic vents that connect between Italy and Iceland. Why would we have prehistoric dinosaurs and other animals living there. What could be the possible connection. I can’t really think of one, maybe my loyal readers could.

One other small problem, at least for the movie. The biggest plot mover in the movie is that temperatures will soon rise to unsurvivable levels. It is also indicated that it happened 10 year prior to this visit. How did the animal life stuck in the center survive, if it was so crucial that the intrepid explorers got out very soon. Must be something really special in the water that was going to evaporate in less than 3 days. I don’t think I can believe the quantity of life in the center of the earth if every few years it is going to become an oven.

I guess since they went that far with the science, that God is having a hand again in matters here on Earth or in this case under the Earth, a running a new version of creation every 10 or so years. That would explain everything. Hmm, I guess I’m saying that there isn’t a lot of science in the movie.

However, since I didn’t start thinking about this during the movie, it really didn’t matter. It took a while for it to settle in my brain.