The aftermath.

Bluntly, I was not a fan of being told what tto do by someone who refered to herself as 'task Master' and 'Overlord.' 

Not that I have a problem with the person doing the telling, it is more of a problem with delivery. I was not offended, or hurt, or any of these other PC types of things, I was more mortified that a class on leadership was being proctored by this type of leader. 

Before this gets too messy, and too many feelings are hurt, let me say this: I am confident that she was not using these titles as an actual play for authority, but more for the irony or humor that came from using these titles in such a setting. At first I was taken aback by the audacity she showed by inserting these titles into our routine, but as I came to know her I realized there was no malice or sense of entitlement drawn from these titles. They were simply her attempt at lightening the mood. 

So I buckled down and went with it, afterall it didn't make a whole lot of a difference to me what she called herself, as long as I was getting the knowledge and benefit from her experience she could have called herself Rascolnikov for all I cared. 

In the end I woner if it was a test. Whether she did it to see if someone would comment on it, possibly call her out on it. If that was her agenda I applaud her. It is a nifty thing to inject this type of social roughness into a place like RPI. People run around in their little bubbles, afraid to infringe on someone else's comfort zone. People have lost the ability to communicate in a traditional social setting. We rely so heavily on social media as our medium of communication that we are uncomfortable discussing our social environment face to face. 

So, no matter her motive for these titles, there was no harm done by the great and powerful Task Master. It may have been unnerving and slightly disquieting at the beginning, but after I got to know the person and understand her motives it all made sense and fit into the overall flow of the course.

There's a stranger out to find you....

There is a certain amount of honesty expected from the people who cultivate our food. We expect them to give us what they say they are giving. No one expects their pork chops to taste like lamb, or their pork rinds to have comparable nutrition to green beans. This same courtesy is presumably extended through to other members of the food production community.

There are a few exceptions to this, namely when Monsanto is called into play. This company seems hell bent on the destruction of all competition. They seem to want nothing more than complete control of the market. Unfortunately for them they seem to be blissfully unaware of the laws of economics. A monopoly will do them no good, they can never maximize profits and they will never be able top legally set one up.

All the legalities and poor economic practices aside, big GMO companies will need to recognize that there is a potential genetic catastrophe looming on the horizon. Even if this catastrophe is only perceived in the minds of the consumers, it will wreak havoc on their pocket books.

In recent years the demand for 'Organic' food stuffs has gone up, people are becoming more mindful of what they put in their bodies. It follows that eventually the demand for 'pure' foods will increase to the level that big businesses will find the added expenses of organic farming to be worth the opportunity cost.

Side bar: The trouble with the generic GMO label is that it doesn't discern how modified the food is. Should I be worried about the corn, beans, spinach, arugula, peas, hops, cucumbers, zucchini  tomatoes and squash that I planted from seeds this year (well, the hops are from a rhizome, but that is a different story)? Most of the seed sachets were labeled 'Organic', but to what degree? Will my tomatoes excrete pesticides, and will they leech these chemicals into my soil so that I need to worry about any future gardens? How exactly were my cherry tomatoes created? Were they truly hybridized, or were their genes spliced with mild mannered Dexter Douglas, nerd computer ace? These are things that should not worry me as I plan out my yearly harvest. I shouldn't have to worry something that is otherwise nutritious harming my family. If, on the other hand, the crops were modified to be more hardy, more compact, less draining on the soil (I'm looking at you corn...) then I believe the GMO debate would be less of an issue, ASSuming the modifications did not present a threat to my genome.

Monsanto's bullying of farmers and corporations who want to provide truly wholesome food to their customers is telling of the quality of the company. I will try my hardest to boycott them on that principle alone. Might does not make right, no matter who you are. If you are going to push around the little guy just so you can swim through your money bin then prepare to feel my disquietude.

Ass Hatery

This week has been an exceptional week for news programs across the board. Each time I logged onto a news site I saw reports of the Boston Marathon bombing. The information in the reports were generally the same with some varying accounts, but all in all rather solid reporting. The televised news however left much to be desired.

First off, let me preface this by saying it can't be easy to sit up there and discuss a story all day and night and ensure everyone is getting all the information. I understand the need to circle back every now and again to the pertinent facts and discuss points made earlier.

What I don't understand is why these news organizations feel the need to expound on conjecture. I heard one 'expert' state that it was this boy's Muslim faith that may have motivated this attack. Really dude? How are you to know that? And just because he is Muslim doesn't make him inherently dangerous.

The one saving grace in this whole ordeal came from the police and FBI who refused to comment on anything but the minor points of the investigation and manhunt. This, in my opinion, mitigated any loss of life and property that may have occurred had the authorities been transparent with the news media. Reporters notoriously care about the story, and if the suspect got away and went on to something more gruesome that would be another story to them. I am not saying they don't care about the loss of life or about people in general, but I am saying that their narrow minded focus on getting every detail out is a hindrance at best,at worst it is obstruction.

The same thing happened when That madman shot up the elementary school, and again when that other freak-show shot up the batman movie. The media plastered their faces all over the place, distant cousins neighbors dog-walkers cardiologists are interviewed, conjecture is thrown around... there is no end to the hype placed around these individuals. There are assuredly more than one reason these individuals inflict this type of evil on their fellow man, but I would wager that the news outlets putting them front and center does not help the next generation of potential ass hats. What this country needs is a national hero, someone who can eclipse all these perversions of humanity.

When did our news media become a circus? When did we start caring about shock and awe and sensationalism more than noteworthy news. I think it was when we stopped focusing on the good within humanity and started focusing on the bad. It is a cycle that must be broken. We see these nincompoops paraded in front of us on the news and we don't see the lighter, happier side of humanity.

Don't get me started on celebrity news and that whole soup sandwich.

Necessity Engineering

I am a big fan of taking something that may be past its prime and revitalizing it with a little elbow grease. There are times that i fix whatever it is and there are times when I change its purpose all together. The trouble  I see is that I am one of very few people who actually do this.

It is convenient in our society to throw something out rather than fix it, after all, stuff is relatively cheap so why bother putting the time in to fix a broken whatever-it-is? This attitude is fine and dandy for the affluent like myself, but what of the less fortunate? What about the people who barely scrape by? They don't have the luxury of wasting anything.

Growing up in a lower middle class home taught me many things the most pertinent is waste not, want not. I learned from an early age that with a little imagination, some work, some base knowledge and patience there is no limit to what can be re-purposed. These days the term most thrown around Pintrest is 'Up-Cycled,' but whatever you call it doesn't matter.

It was, however, refreshing to learn that RPI's chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World had done a little up-cycling of their own. While Mr. Warmann's discussion petered off into nonsense, he did have a few attention grabbing points. Well, really just one... RPI's ESW has up-cycled several shipping containers into buildings of sorts for communities in Haiti. I'm not sure who pointed it out or if I read it on line, but these shipping container structures  can be used as mobile orphanages, medical centers, houses, pizzerias, and anything else requiring a rigid frame to house some facility.

While this isn't necessarily turning old tires into crocodile lawn ornaments, it is infinitely better than letting these containers rust some where.

I couldn't help but think of the Terre Cafe as I walked to my car today. Mainly because there is a little pond behind Sage that would be perfect for some Koi, Talapia or even some hardy goldfish, and with a little imagination, some pipes, a pump or two, and some worms a nice little aquaponics system could be built to feed the green house. A small solar array could provide power to the pumps and a natural convection solar heater could increase the heat inside the green house. 

All it takes is imagination, some work and the Bear Necessities and nothing is impossible.

Half a league, half a league, half a league onward.

At times it may not seem as though we are as free as we can be, yet by comparison we are some of the most free people in the world. We have no fear of our government seizing control of our lives, we have no fear of a government spewing lies with no alternative source of information, we have no fear of our government at all. The Constitution has protected us for centuries, and has never failed us. We have suffered through knee jerk laws and asinine regulations designed to keep us safe, but through it all we fought to maintain our freedoms. Even a small faction of freedom lovers can overcome insurmountable forces, as is seen in the American Revolution. From this world changing revolution the seeds of freedom were planted in all areas of our lives.

Our freedom of expression goes deeper than just the press and news outlets. We are granted full rights to actively offend* people, if that is what we want to do. The protection of every point of view is what differentiates the United States from other countries with state run, and censored, news. In these countries it is hard for an outsider to discern truth from fabrication, and as such we are kept guessing at that country's motivations.

Take North Korea for example, it is difficult (not impossible) to wade through the bull to determine what is actually taking place. Even in our beautiful American freedom we still find in necessary to wade through fabrications and nonsense to get to the deeper issues in news.

During each and every Presidential election I have  witnessed there is some type of mud slinging that aims to discredit an opponent or to sway public opinion. There is little we can do to combat this deformation campaigning but with the advent of the websites like Snopes we are better able to determine fact from fancy. The most recent Presidential election found me alternating between fact checking and laughing at Smiling Joe Biden. It is situations where we are forced to look outside the passive, and often invasive, news organizations that we grow as a country.

By entering the discussion of facts and opinions we become more rounded, more informed, and more capable of making decisions based on the greater good. These opportunities to discuss life, politics, religion and all other hot topic issues are necessary to our growth as a culture. We, as a nation, cannot afford to bowl alone, we need to open more channels to express our opinions and ideals. This is something that is most efficiently done in a country like ours, where speech is not limited, speech is not censored, and there is a facet for every view point imaginable.


*I was going to put a link to the Westboro Baptist Church, but I didn't want them to get ANY traffic from my Blog. Just know that they actively preach hate, which is in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus Christ. They are no more Christians than I am an Iguana. They give the rest of us Christians a bad name.

The Philosopher's Walk

A leader is only as good as his followers, or so the saying goes. In truth, a leader's strength is not derived from any external source but from a place deep within. 

A traditionally great leader is driven from within to become the leader we read about in history books, yet the same can be said of the villains we are taught to fear. An internal mechanism is triggered by an external event or situation. We are each capable of either great good or great evil, the differentiation lies in how we prepare ourselves to meet our destiny.

The main difference between the two types of great leaders lies in the motivation behind their leadership. If a leader's choice to lead stems from a desire for fame or wealth, there is a good chance that they will go down as a villain in our history texts, but if a leader chooses to lead because of a deep desire to see a change or to improve a condition, then that leader will be remembered as such. 

It is impossible to know the depths of any one person's soul from an outside perspective, but it is completely possible to know your own soul better than everyone other than God himself. The truth of the matter is that we all search ourselves continuously, we are introspective and we scour ourselves for an answer that lies within. Unfortunately this takes more work than most people are willing to undertake. I have heard it said that, between our modern lives and our hustle and bustle, there is little or no time to accomplish this introspection. The truth is that any and all spare moments can be utilized as an introspective opportunity  unfortunately these moments are rarely harnessed. 

Such a time can be, and I would wager has been, used by any leader to search himself or herself and discover their purpose. If they are driven by lust, greed, anger, hatred or entitlement they will find themselves personifying those traits and bringing those who are like minded under their banner. If they are motivated by a greater good, a desire to better the world they will bring all walks of life under their banner. Even the greedy want a better life for their children, even the angry want a world where their children can walk safely down the road, even the deceitful want to be told the truth. This is why a leader who's motivation is inherently good has far more power than a leader who seeks his own glory. 

Just like in fairy tales, good always wins over evil, but it takes a long time to notice the good in things because the evil is so much easier to see. A bad situation today may prepare you for an even worse obstacle in the future. When you look back at that first hurdle you will see it was not as bad as it seemed and it may have actually been for the best.

Vindication of the Bad Apple.

I was but a wee NUB (Non Useful Body) aboard the sweet Lady J. when I was exposed to some of the worst leadership available to man.

I was preparing for my first underway and I was frustrated with the long hours I was spending at work (from around 6 am to 6 pm, on a good day). I had a new baby, and a wife who was not yet accustomed to the submariner's lifestyle, so I believe I had some grounds to be frustrated. My direct superior, MMC (SS) JC ***** (I have omitted his last name to protect what little reputation he may have... I don't want to directly commit slander), approached me in one of my surlier moods and asked what the matter was. I, believing he was a sympathetic soul since he had a family of his own, spilled my guts and proceeded to divulge my fears and insecurities. His response will stick with me for the rest of my life, and I apologize for the crudeness but such is the way of the Submariner.

"Stop your fucking bitching. They didn't come in your God damned sea bag did they? You are a fucking Submariner, start acting like it and stop being such a pussy."

Never mind the rest of his inadequacies as a leader, this single point defined how I felt about the man.

Some time later, after I got my fish,  Chanse and I were sitting around in the Engine room shooting the breeze, occupying ourselves amidst the boredom of being underway, when up walks JC. He scolded us for being lazy and sent Chanse off to do some menial task. After we left JC vented to a senior mechanic, Luke, about how I was such a bad influence on the newer guys because I didn't align with his view of what the Navy should be and because I fostered a thirst for knowledge rather than verbatim compliance. He then uttered a phrase that would brand me for the rest of my time on the sweet Lady J.

He looked at Luke and said, "I don't want Runkel hanging around with our NUB's anymore. He is such a Bad Apple... he just doesn't get it." After he left Luke, a good friend of mine, regaled me of this exchange, and from that day on I was "the Bad Apple," a moniker I wore proudly.

Shortly after I was dubbed The Bad Apple my entire division left, and I was the most senior ELT on the boat. Over time new guys came in and I was responsible for training them and helping them acclimatize to submarine life. I had no idea how to do any of that, but I did know how not to do it...JC was a good role model in that respect.

A year or so later JC had left the boat and Jimmy Sitz was on his way out. We were slated to get a new boss, but there was going to be a gap of a few months where we would be leaderless. Jimmy Sitz recommended me to the position, despite protests from the Chiefs that I was too junior to lead. Eventually the Captain and Engineer saw that I was the only option, and concluded that I was better than nothing. My oral board consisted of three extremely knowledgeable men trying to find holes in my knowledge and technical expertise. An hour and a half later I was done and awaiting the verdict.

The Captain called me in to inform me that in his X number of years he had never sat on an oral board that went as perfectly as mine. Normally there would be some questions left unanswered that would need to be looked up, but I had made such an impression on him and the rest of the board members that I left nothing to be desired. He qualified me on the spot.

When we pulled in to port my first call was to JC. He had told me once that I would never qualify LELT because my attitude was so poor. He didn't answer, so I left a voicemail. I haven't heard back from him yet.

I went on to lead my guys for two months. In those two months I drove a hard line with my guys, I ensured the work was done to the standard Jimmy Sitz set for us, and I listened to them. My goal was to foster a working environment where they could come to me with any problem and I would help them deal with it.

My time in the Navy, and especially my time with JC, has reinforced and developed the mottos I live my life by. JC's biggest contribution was reaffirming that knowing how not to do something is as important as knowing how to do it. I have had a long time to think, out there under the deep blue wet thing, and in my ponderings I have come to the realization that, even though JC was the worst boss I have ever had, he still taught me many valuable lessons. Most of the lessons he taught me are centered around how not to be a leader, and how to alienate those above and below myself in the leadership totem pole.The great thing about my interaction with JC and then Jimmy Sitz is that I have seen both ends of the spectrum of leadership. I know what I want to be, and i know what I don't want to be, so in a way I owe JC a thank you card or something.

An idea and ingenuity

As an add on to my previous discussion on Public Relations (Got Milk?), I would like to continue with a discussion of PR from an actual company rather than a movement.

The company Nasty Gal (not what it sounds like) has been growing from humble beginnings since its inception in 2006. Today it is worth millions of dollars, most of which can be attributed to the close relationship and down-to-earth attitude of the owner Sophia Amorusa.

With a fledgling company it is difficult to spend the big bucks on marketing to reach a target audience. As with my milk toting friend, Ms. Amorusa went with the free marketing of Myspace and now Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Here she works closely with her customers to ensure their needs are being met, presumable operating under the notion that a happy customer is a repeat customer.

Working so closely with her customers is apparently paying off, her business is growing, money is flowing, inventory is cycling through, and word is spreading. The ability to please her customers is an artifact of the scale of her business. The larger her company becomes the harder it will be to please all of her customers, so there will come a time that she will only please a majority.

For now her marketing strategy seems to be inclusive enough to reach her target audience, the novelty of expanding the customer base through word of mouth is genius. It creates the feeling of exclusivity, like the customer knows something others don't.

In the end, I hope this company succeeds, for no other reason than it exemplifies the American Dream.

Techtonics

The art of group leadership is tricky to master. There is always one person who wants to pursue their own agenda. While this may be a good thing in certain situations, it is almost always a distraction to the other members of a group, and it more often than not slows any progress to a crawl.

This can be exemplified in our government. We elect individuals to positions of great importance in hopes that they will carry out our wishes and speak for us. The unfortunate point that invariably comes about is the elected officials tend to go about their own way in the name of their constituents. If their actions were truly the desire of their constituents congress would not have an abysmal approval rating.

It is understandable that any approval rating will not be 100%, but something above a majority would lend more confidence to the system. The current approval rating not only hints at congress's failure to uphold the value of the American people, but it screams it from the tallest peak. The question begging to be asked is why are they still in office? Why do we still gladly suffer these fools?

The simple answer is that the American people do not believe they can make a difference with their vote. They believe that one little vote will not change the course of history. Yet we are thirsty for change and we desire, as expressed in the low approval rating, a new crop of people to alter our future. There in lies the crux. We want a change but we don't enact it. Are we afraid of revolution? Do we fear reprisal from our elected officials?

No, it is not us who should fear them, but they who should fear us. We, the American people, have all the power. We elect them, we tell them what we want, we demand their compliance. The fact that they do not follow our instructions is grounds for termination. We have given them ample opportunities to change their tune and improve our country yet they have continued to bicker and fight like children.

The fact that they continue to argue over the most minute detail should tell us that they are not willing to change, and a compromise that would lead us into a desirable future is not even on the horizon. This squabbling and mud slinging show a group of individuals who care more about their paychecks than their country. They care enough to increase their pay and benefits while the military looses theirs. They care enough to line their own pockets while the average American is scrimping and saving. If the justification for their pay increase is the work they do then my six year old should earn their pay, she can squabble and bicker about petty things just as well as they can. The difference is that my children will eventually reach a compromise

 No government official should wield the power to increase their pay, that power should come only from the people they represent. We, the people, have more power than we realize. We are slowly wiping the sleep from our eyes and we don't like what we see. We, the sleeping giant, will find a new group of people to lead us, a group that will better represent the hard work and resiliency the American people are forged from.

Then, when the dust settles, and the newly elected officials are left to their own devices, and we go back to sleep, the corruption and fighting will continue. Without diligent management from those who place them in power, every elected official will slide into the darkness of corruption. The only thing that dictates the rate of this slide is the moral fibers of those within the system.

Got Milk?

I have a friend who is obsessive (not in a bad way) with breast feeding. It is not only a matter of her breast feeding her kids, oh no. She feels the need to post pictures and articles and (at one point) pictures of a baby staring at a nipple to her facebook profile. While it is slightly unsettling to have a surprise boob pop up on a mostly PG site like facebook, it is also a wonderful medium to get her point across.

There has been a large movement recently to remove the taboo of whipping out a boob in public to feed a child. If you think about it for more than a few seconds it is pretty easy to see that it is not a big deal. Am I forced to eat only at home? Am I forced to cover my head with a fancy shawl when I am chowing down on some delicious waffles (although sometimes things can get pretty messy)? No, of course not, that's a dumb rule that would be impossible to enforce. So why should we make mothers cover their baby munching on some life nectar? Plus, have you ever tried to breath for any length of time with your face under the blanket? I can only imagine how uncomfortable inhaling a porterhouse would be if I were forced to be nestled under my covers.

Side bar,  boob feeding is free, no potential side effects from formulas... only unadulterated nourishment.

It is not surprising that a country fueled by Chicken McNuggets and Quarter Pounders houses people against feeding our children the healthiest food possible. Still, the mothers fight on. The public relations campaign waged by mothers everywhere has sought to empower the breast feeding mother. Nurse-ins have been staged to admonish businesses for kicking nursing mothers out. Nursing mothers have made the local news more than a few times. But still the war wages on.

In the end, my friend has waged a successful PR campaign on behalf of breastfeeding, and nursing in public more specifically. She has taken the taboo out of this act and shown me that it is no different from me snacking on a big juicy, slightly tart, Granny Smith apple while strolling through the mall.

Her other crusade, cloth diapers, is not going as well though. I still don't know how you can justify reusing something that was once covered in toxic goo.

Where the Grickle-grass grows.

The trick to playing the Economy game is to diversify your portfolio, and that's just what media companies have been doing for as long as media has existed. The simple reason is profit, the in depth reason is building a market to reach more people to increase the companies profit.

The easiest way to understand why a firm would desire to grow beyond it's current state can be found whilst analyzing the complexities of the Thneed market.

"I meant no harm. I most truly did not.
But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.
I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads.
I biggered my wagons. I biggered the loads
of Thneeds I shiped out. I was shipping them forth
to the South! To the East! To the West! To the North!
I went on biggering...selling more Thneeds.
And I biggered my money, which everyone needs."

Here we see the Once-ler's desire to increase the profits results in an increase in production. Through innovation (the Super-Axe-hacker is capable of chopping down four Truffula Trees in one smacker), Low prices (a Thneed sells for the low cost of $3.98), and versatility of his product ("A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need! It's a shirt.It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat. But it has other uses. Yes, far beyond that. You can use it for carpets. For pillows! For sheets! Or Curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!") the Once-ler seems to have a great product made from quality material ("The touch of their [Truffula Trees] tufts was much softer than silk. And they had the sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk."). The problem with the business model, other than the lack of sustainability, is his company is wrapped up in a single product. If he were to expand his operation to selling the Truffula fruits, a staple in the diet of the Brown Bar-ba-loots, or possibly a perfume made from the extract of the Truffula tuft he would have increased his share in the market for multiple items.

The ultimate downfall of the Once-ler and his Thneed company can be traced to Once-ler's ignorance of the Law of Unintended Consequences. If the Once-ler had been more of a fan of Adam Smith he may have known that his company, a precursor ot O'Hare Air, was falling victim to his own size.

When the Once-ler announces his intentions to continue "Biggering and BIGGERING and BIGGERING and BIGGERING, turning MORE Truffula Trees into Thneeds..." he does not count on the limitations of his business being reached. When the last Truffula Tree is felled reality crashes down onto our poor friend, the Once-ler. His company is wrecked, his family abandons him, his one companion, the Lorax, leaves him with a "sad, sad backwards glance."

A direct parallel can be drawn to today's businesses. To ensure continued success in a market and fiscal growth, a unique product is not enough. Proper planning and acquisition of other outlets to ensure profit flow is a necessity to growing a business beyond self sustaining.Even a diversity of offered products will increase the profit margins.

Big companies know this, and are capable of this. It is easier for them to buy other companies to obtain their product or idea, whereas a smaller company has more barriers to entry and competition due to smaller coffers.

All economics aside, the Once-ler should have practiced more conservation. If a Thneed is truly something that everyone needs, it is worth the extra time and money to plant a few trees.

A narrative based on The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss. 

Bring me that Horizon

Each one of us is inspired by many different things. We can be inspired by the actions of an individual, by a speech, by an emotion, for a cause, or for an idea. Each instance of inspiration can be specific to the person, or to a whole group, it all depends on the alignment of the group or the individual.

In some cases the individual is inspired to inspire others, and thus a leader is born.

Margaret Mead said "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." She is absolutely correct, nothing changes unless we, and people of like minds, can get together and decide to enact the change. While an individual may make the difference it is harder to ignore a group, and unfortunately we will be ignored until we reach that critical mass that allows us to increase our influence beyond our immediate company.

There is a movement within our country to reduce the number of Veterans who are unemployed. A noble and worthy cause to say the least, but it seems that we are going about it in a slapdash haphazard way. We entice our young into Military service with promises of free college, guaranteed employment, pride in a job well done, and the promise of the American Dream. True, some join out of a sense of duty to their country, but others still see the military as a path to a future they cannot attain on their own.

We love the idea of Veterans. The crusty old guy from Dubya Dubya Two with stories of hardship and sacrifice brings about a sense of nostalgia and pride in our country that is hard to match these days. Admittedly the Veteran has drawn a better lot now than in the times of my Grandfather, but there is still much ground to be covered. We pigeon hole Veterans into a general image of a camouflage wearing, assault rifle toting, sand encrusted soldier hardened from sights they cannot unsee. This is simply not a true depiction of our fighting men and women. There is no specific category that all Veterans fit into. Even within one branch of service Veterans are as different as night and day.

The point of all this is that there is something to be done, and someone needs to stand up and speak for these men and women, someone who knows what it is like to be separated from their family for a long period of time, someone who knows how to do without. Not an elected official who is only concerned with the bottom line, not an elected official who has never served our country with full confidence that they would give their life to see her remain free. We need someone, or a group of someones, to be that small group of thoughtful, committed citizens who elicit a change in our way of thinking. The desire to help our Vets is there, we see it as bumper stickers, military discounts, military appreciation days; we need to harness this desire and transform it into progress.

There are two fundamental things that this country needs to reevaluate it's approach on; education and it's support for those who sacrificed for us. Not that those are the only things we are lacking, but they are the two that are recurrent throughout recent memory.

The winds of change are billowing at our backs, it is up to us to shift our sails and ride where they may take us.

The things you own end up owning you.

Consumerism is capitalism's ugly step sister.

When I was growing up the who's who of Harbor View Elementary school could be determined by the brand of shoes they wore. Air Jordans, Reebok's, Adidas were the pumped up kicks of the day. If you wore Pay less specials you weren't even on the fringes of cool. This continues today in a more muted and subversive way, I haven't heard anyone making fun of me for the clothes that I wear lately.

We watch ads where perfect physical specimens wear a certain brand of undies, we watch movies where our hero drives a certain car and our sports stars drink their electrolytes from a certain manufacturer. Is it too much to say that we are saturated with marketing? Even our Facebook profiles have ads on them.

Joe Camel was the face of cigarettes for a generation, as was the Marlboro man. They both went the way of the Dodo. Joe was killed off when we started to get wise that a cartoon character was the perfect way to sell cancer sticks to kids. The Marlboro man fought a bigger battle, seeing as he kept buying the farm it was harder to sell his image of manly invulnerability.

The demise of these key players in advertising was brought about, in part, by an increased public awareness. We are becoming aware that sometimes the media lies to us, especially when they stand to make a buck or two. Why else would they imply that a certain underwear will make you appealing to the opposite sex? The name of the game is making money, and they play on our insecurities, fears, and desires. We all want to be healthy wealthy and wise, so if the guy on television is one of those because he eats a certain brand of cereal then, by golly, I will too.

We are wising up to the fact that not everything on the tube is true, and that we should do our research. For instance, the link between genetically modified foods and cancer has shown a positive correlation, and not just in California. What does this mean for the average American, are we all doomed?

The benefit of this study and others along similar veins, is that we are becoming informed. We now go to the super market knowing that the Twinkies are not the best source of Calcium, or that Soda may be detrimental to our teeth. We are learning that the key to longevity is not wearing C.K. underoos, or smelling of Dior, but rather taking care of ourselves.

Downwards and Backwards

The trick to successful leadership, in my experience, is to avoid extremes. There is no way you will make everyone happy all of the time, but you can keep everyone at a mild level of agitation.

You see, people don't operate at the extremes. There is no benefit to leading the extreme Conservative or extreme Liberal forces into battle. Either way you still have an entire portion of people who have a strong disdain for what you are trying to accomplish.

If you can walk closer to the middle you can alienate fewer people and provide a more effective form of leadership. The middle is a nice and comfortable place for most people. There are common threads running through both sides of any argument, and it is at the extremes that they fray. In the middle, however, those threads are the strongest, and are more flexible.

For example, not everyone has the same views on the color white. Some prefer an eggshell approach, while others prefer a glossy true white, but they agree on the benefit of painting their walls some form of white. It allows for easy identification of muddy child prints and crayon treasure maps as well as brightening rooms. Rather than fight over the hue of walls, it seems like the mature and progressive thing to do is find a shade that offends both parties equally. It gives everyone the satisfaction of knowing their opponent didn't get their way, as well as putting some paint on the wall. Win win in my book.

Today marks a potential catastrophe brought to us by the extremes. The sequester we are facing right now could be solved if both sides of the same coin could agree on a plan that everyone hates mutually. Rather than try and get their way like a pissed off teenage girl they should realize that there are more important things than being right. A thriving economy and voter happiness are the first things that spring to mind when I think of generally important issues facing America.

I cannot pretend to predict the future, but I am willing to bet that there are more than a few congress men and women who will not be in office next time around. While people want their opinions heard and their voices counted, they do not want, as a whole, to throw a wrench in the works and grind our economy to a halt.

In the end, congress will pull something out of their derrieres that will be passable enough for another few months or even years, and then all the squabbling and bickering across the aisle will start up again. I don't agree with it, but until I am voted into office it won't change.

The infamous Softball Incident

Providing a stable role model for a group of twenty-something males (men seemed like a stretch in this case) is not an easy task. Couple the obvious hurdle of kids barely out of their teens away from home and on their own for the first time with the extra bonus of being locked in a tube a few hundred feet below the surface of the ocean.

Generally the older a Submariner gets, the more he becomes an all around surly individual. The grand colloquialisms spew from his mouth as a way of teaching the younger generations about the dangers of OPSEC and slamming toilet seats. There are the few exceptions though. George was an older salt: white hair, a little softer around the edges, but still as sharp as ever with a vitality that some of the younger guys would have loved to have.

George led his men through some of the more trying times a submariner can face, namely port and starboard watches. For one reason or another George's division kept coming up short on people. A mast here, a sailor going UA (Unauthorized absence) there, someone crying to the Chaplain about work being too hard. Whatever the reason, George had to lead people who were overworked and under compensated.

While most Chiefs would come to Quarters, divvy up the tasks for the day and then go hide out in the Chief's quarters until lunch, George stuck with his men. He not only taught them, he worked along side them. I would have killed to have a Chief like George.

Because of his apparent fondness for us dirty blue shirts George was the black sheep in the Chief's quarters, and we all knew it. When George asked us to do something, whether we worked for him or not, we tried our damnedest to get it done. We knew that George went out of his way to ensure we were not getting the short end of the stick, and for that each one of us was grateful.

One eventful day the entire Engineering department was, across the board, doing some pretty detailed maintenance when who should stroll through the engine room but the COB (Cheif of the whole Damned Boat), the enemy of all Nukes. Rather than siphoning carcinogenic water (used for reactor shielding) from a holding tank into big yellow buckets he saw us gaffing off his cleaning list. We were neglecting his engine room, not performing underway limiting emergent maintenance. As far as he knew, all the Nukes cut out early to go play on our newly minted softball team.

When we all got to work the next day there was something in the air (other than the Amine) that just didn't feel right. It turns out that the COB had read the riot act to the Nuke Chiefs (via email) about our poorly run engine room (apparently an engine room must be shiny to work properly) and was up in arms about our department leaving to play softball while his Forward Area Guys (Coners a.k.a the guys who steer the boat/bend periscopes)came back to do our cleaning. Mind you this is the same guy who, when we were doing submarine things and a tool box took out one of our Torpedomen in the Torpedo room ran back aft to yell at us for poor stowage.

Moral of the story is that any non-emergent work was put on hold so we could herd Dustalos (an inter-species hybrid of Dust Bunnies and the American Bison). While a complaining Sailor is generally a happy Sailor, this hit us hard. We were crushed with all our work, and now this.

George, in a show of solidarity, printed the email form the COB and posted it throughout the engine room. He gladly passed out copies of the email to all who wanted them. He said that if we were to be persecuted, we should at least know why.

George, with his white (sometimes mahogany) hair, and his unwavering moral compass, is the type of leader a man would love to follow. What's more, he is an example for future leaders to learn from.

Adult Content

There was a time when that annoying little black box with TV MA, or TV Y, or any other variety of TV rating, did not appear in the upper corner of the screen during our favorite television shows.

The reasoning behind this move towards content rating can be traced back to Tipper Gore's crusade to protect our children from questionable music retailed without warnings. Tipper worked to ensure a little black box would appear on our music, ensuring parents wouldn't go out and buy their kids Judas Priest or Motley Crue albums without thinking twice. While the uproar Tipper's war caused within the music industry caused more than a few ripples, it also paved the way for the transformation of television rating.

The incorporation of television content ratings can be attributed to shows like the Simpsons and Power Rangers becoming increasingly popular with children. The battle cry was a need to better monitor our children's intake of sex, violence, and otherwise detrimental material.

Mind you, this was all before the advent of the Internet we know today. A parent could not Google a synopsis of a show to determine its compatibility with their views on what children should or should not watch. In my house there was a definite shift in viewing habits before and after the inclusion of content ratings.

It seemed that my parents were trying to shield me from what other parents were shielding their children. In a 'keeping up with the Joneses' sort of move we were suddenly unplugged from the popular culture around us. It was now only the 'cool' kids who watched The Simpsons.

This separation of popular culture and home life falls back to one of the many facets of parental responsibilit: the totalitarian control of our children's development. The sole weight of education, emotional development, social integration and life skill development lies with the parent. There are many institutions around to help grow a well-rounded child, but in the end the parents are to blame or to be applauded.

This new content rating system opened the eyes of many parents, and forced them to take note of the types of material their children were watching. To this day it continues to assist parents with selecting appropriate shows for their children. To my dismay this doesn't stop networks from producing more reality shows and less educational shows.

I don't think the Discovery Channel, The History Channel, and TLC can wholly live up to the standard their names seem to imply, but that is a discussion for another time.

Cedar and the Lube oil King

I have seen people work their fingers to the bone and get nothing more than a high-five.

I have seen the people who delegate responsibility receive more accolades than I care to count.

I have seen some of the dirtiest grease monkeys earn some of the shiniest medals.

The fact of the matter is that sometimes credit is not given where credit is due. It is a product of the work environment we place ourselves into. Extremes rarely dominate any area of the work place though, and we can expect that sometimes we will receive our comeuppance, and sometimes we will need to take a back seat to other people's (sometimes undeserved) spotlight.

Picture it: Haze grey and underway, 2009. I was working hard at expanding my repertoire of useful skills by assisting a short handed division. I would stand their watches and perform some of their maintenance. I replaced large components, I replaced valves, I trained their junior personnel in the art of making water. I quickly became one of their 'go to guys' for all sorts of technical issues, and I was seen as one of the 'in crowd'.

This embattled division eventually overcame some pretty big challenges; challenges that would have staggered a fully manned team. What's more, they did it with style and class. Naturally, when it came time to receive awards for all their hard work they were graced with awards all around. The problem came when they had to admit someone (me), who was not part of their group, had a big hand in their success. It seems that it was bad form to admit they had received help. It turns out the divisional leadership didn't want to send the message that they had a weakness, and that I had helped fill a void.

The exception was Cedar the Terrible. Cedar, a leader within his division, saw my efforts and he genuinely appreciated me. He filed the paperwork for an award for me and was shot down. Again and again he did this, each time the outcome was the same. I remember him coming up to me and saying he tried his best and was still unable to get me the reward I deserved, but he was able to get me a smaller award, a menial one. I gladly accepted his generosity; it wasn't very often that his group of people acknowledged what my group contributed to the overall goal. In fact I remember Cedar telling me that I was in a support division and our main duty was to serve him and his. Never mind all that fancy chemistry and radiological controls we had to perform to keep NAVSEA08 off the Captain's back. Either way, an 'atta boy' from him was generally hard to come by.

Cedar used some typical Cedar methods to ensure I received a three day special liberty pass (the fine print said I could only use it in conjunction with a weekend and i had to find someone to stand my duty...).

While I was grateful for the recognition, albeit slightly skewed from what I actually did, it was still less than pleasant watching the people I had worked arm in arm with get awards for things I had been a part of. On the other hand, it did offer the newer guys a much needed boost of confidence and allowed them to become almost as good at their job as my division was at ours.

Equality 7-2521

For security reasons the government cannot tell us everything. We are expected to trust them in some manners, mainly those pertaining to national security. What then should be our response to the news that we (assuming certain wickets are met) may be targeted by drones?

While it is terrifying to think that imminent death from above could be around the next corner, it is also comforting that those appointed to govern this great country take their oath of office seriously. Our enemies have often come from within, and this step to ensure we are protected from those who wish us harm is a step away from the Rough Men we generally associate with our protection.

While the comfort and disquietude we are offered through these reports often cancel each other out, it is a fair assessment to say that the ever inquisitive and seldom trusting American people desire justification for these actions. The main outlet for the average American is, these days, Internet news or a local news network. Unfortunately these outlets rarely have a central path to their stories. Each article is biased by the writers as well as the overall corporation. There seems to be no single source of news that offers an objective view of facts. General experience dictates reading reports from both sides of the issue and determining an individualistic path. Unfortunately there are people who do not see the value in a differing opinion.

The freedom with which we receive information these days is baffling. It was only a few decades ago that information about an on going military campaign would be held close to the chest. Now it seems that the free dissemination of information requires us to share our guarded secrets with our entire populace. A populace that can, has, and will generate enemies of the state.

A simple remedy can fix this problem, one that has helped many nations quiet their dissident populace. The wonderful practice of censorship brings the freedom of information to a grinding halt. There is no longer the worry of vital secrets or individualistic ideas being spread through the masses. The masses are now told only what the party deems appropriate, peace can be assured.

That is until people become tired of being spoon fed life. People will find their freedom, and they will fiercely protect it.

This is the reason the freedom of information we see in our media is both a blessing and a curse. We can watch as the pure information is twisted by those who are pushing an agenda or we can fight tooth and nail for the freedom the pure information allows. It is not our government that we should fear, but the biased media forcing half truths into our minds.

These are not the drones you are looking for.

Americans love their freedom. There is nothing in this world that so universally describes the American dream than freedom. It is the fundamental belief this country was founded upon. We are all entitled to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, or so the story goes.

It turns out that we are in a perpetual dance with those who want to take our freedom. It seems that there arise certain entities that would remove our freedoms from us little by little and leave us enslaved to their cause with no voice of our own. Often this takes the form of an outside enemy, radical ideology,  or possibly a foreign dictator.

These days we sit securely in our isolation. We are comforted by the fact that we have few enemies capable of reaching our shores, we are complacent in our security. This complacency and comfort comes with a price: Our own paranoia. We see our own government as a threat, we analyze every action or inaction that comes out of the White House and asses it as a threat to our freedom. Generally these threats are evaluated on a party line basis. If we feel especially aligned toward one side or the other we are inclined to react accordingly. For example, my facebook feed is overrun with anti-Obama posts. I cannot go a day without reading about how he is stripping our freedom away while we sit back and watch.

The Drone debate hasn't hit my facebook feed yet, but I can assure you that it will. When it does I will have to wade through all the hatred and disgust in order to determine fact from fiction. On the same token, isn't this what our founding fathers wanted? Didn't they desire us to question our government in order to keep the power with the people?

The problem, as I see it, is that Americans see their rights being stripped in small quantities, and the trend is towards tyranny. Whether or not this is the actual intent is beside the point. Americans perceive their liberty threatened, and they will not stand for it. We have heard the debate over gun control, and now we see drones as a watchful big brother.

Let us presume that gun control and the use of Drones are, in fact, for our benefit, then why would we fight it? Simply put, Americans naturally do not trust our government. It is ingrained in us, our country was born from the hatred of tyranny and the love of freedom. We will fight for our beloved freedom at home and abroad, we will defend our constitution against all enemies until the last man falls. We love this country, every last one of us, and we don't want to see it fall to shambles. Too many men and women have given their lives in the defense of our most sacred freedom to call it quits now.

If the general assumption is made that all Americans love this country, and would do nothing to harm it we can also assume that the government falls into that same cast. From this we can then draw that there is no right or wrong in governing our country provided it is governed with freedom on the heart of every person who leads this country. The trick is to push or pull those governing us towards what we want. On occasion our leaders will lean either left or right, but the middle ground seems to be the place where the most ground towards freedom is gained.

Are the drones necessary over our cities? Do they serve a purpose in war? Does gun control really make us safer? Is the second amendment still relevant? Those questions are all worthy of an answer, but in the end they all boil down to our beautiful democratic process. If we as a country, as Americans exercise our duty, we can rest assured that our voice will be heard. It sounds cliche, but when dealing with something as important as freedom, every voice counts.

So continue to blow up my facebook feed with your views on gun control, abortion, drones, immigration, foreign policy, Republican propaganda, Democratic evangelism, and disco rave invitations. I will not judge you in any way shape or form. I will, however, judge you if you do not use your God given right to freedom to let those who lead us know what you stand for by casting your ballot, signing a petition, or writing your congressmen.

Crisis management

Children require food, shelter, clothing, and an adult to ensure their safety to survive.

When compared to the requirements to thrive, survival looks minimalist at best, and negligent in most lights. To foster an environment which will allow them to flourish the adults and specifically the parents of these children must provide more than the minimum. Parents must provide, love, loyalty, creative outlets, structure, love, understanding, discipline, and a slew of other situational actions and emotions in an attempt to ensure their children do not end up emotionally malnourished, drains on society, or even violent criminals. This is not to say there are not exceptions to these guidelines, there are always exceptions to every rule.

The tricky part of this whole parenting thing is finding the perfect balance based on individual values and desired outcomes. As soon as we figure out the right balance and start to think "This parenting thing isn't that bad, we should have another one..." we are hit with a left hook when our second child is nothing like the first. Parenting styles that work on the first kid may not work with the second, or vice verse.

There is no return policy on children. Generally they are your responsibility for the next eighteen years or so. Contrary to what my mother said, you  can't just take them back to Kmart for a refund. So how do we move forward in our parenting adventure? Simply put, we trudge on until we figure it out.

One method would be to look to our parents for inspiration...then again, my  mom did threaten to return me to Kmart. If we are improve our children's prospects for the future, maybe a look at parents we don't want to be like is also warranted. The parents in the store who let their children run rampant through the aisles and play hide and go seek in the clothes racks seem to be a good candidate for this category. At the same time, I remember those being some pretty fun hide and seek games.

If an undamaged child is something we strive for, maybe we should model ourselves after the rich and famous parents. They should be able to give their children every thing they need to ensure success. Still, it seems there are a higher number of celebrity children who are in therapy, or into drugs, or have some form of severe emotional damage. Maybe giving our children everything isn't the best option.

I guess, in the end, we can only rely on our wits while parenting. In my experience parenting is equal parts hope, dread, love, and terror. We hope our actions are sufficient to give our children every ounce of life skills they deserve, we dread the inevitability of our own humanity in that we will do something that has the potential to destroy their fragile senses of reality. We love them with all that we have, and we are filled with the terror that they won't know that we still love them when they are getting a lecture on why it is not acceptable to color on the walls.

Parenting is a dangerous game. At any moment catastrophe could strike and our children could be ruined. At any moment we could scar them irreparably, and spend the rest of our lives paying therapy bills. On the other hand, I had a less than traditional childhood, and I turned out relatively normal. In fact, I believe that it is the minor emotional scars, the subtle character flaws and the ability to survive any sort of catastrophe my mother threw at me that made me who I am.

The Lady Gaga experiment

Music goes in cycles from new and edgy (relative terms) to commercialized and stale. It seems that the music industry pigeon holes a certain type of music that sells well and over saturates the market. Rather than focus on the truth that can be found in music, the trend seems to be a reproduction of what is already in vogue. Shows such as The Voice and American Idol seem to perpetuate the sound of the moment. On any given season one can count on several incarnations of Adele, Beyonce or Madonna. Each individual standing on the shoulders of giants to make a name for themselves.

MTV and VH1 are not helping the cause of relevant music; they seem to be more interested in reality TV and shock media like Jersey Shore and Teen Mom. It seems as though every time I turn on VH1 (I can't stomach MTV these days) there is another "Greatest hits of the '90s" show on. The most recent count-down I watched was "The 100 greatest women of Music," and while I agree with Madonna being in the number one spot, I cannot agree with many others on that list. The main reason for her continued relevance is that Madonna continuously reinvents herself. The only thing that is constant in her world is her controversy. Still, there is a chance, given enough time, that even Ke$ha could be as influential as Madonna. Only time will tell.

There is a glimmer of hope on the horizon; the advent of YouTube as a medium for sharing music. This wonderful medium does not care if you are OK GO or The Prime Time Band. This new way of sharing music allows innovation; it showcases the individuality of the musicians. While there are still droves of cookie cutter musicians out there, they are vastly out numbered by the kids with a dream to become the next big thing. While they may cover some of the more famous musicians, there is an invariability that they make the song their own.

Even MTV knows the value of innovation. After years of criticism for abandoning their roots of Music Television (funny, that sounds like an acronym waiting to happen...) MTV has partially returned to actual music. There is now an entire channel dedicated to music, sadly it is only one of a couple hundred.

The driving factors behind each step in the musical innovative process are rather easy to see. First off, the void we don't see in music is spontaneously filled with something we never knew we always wanted. For example, we didn't know the necessity of The Beatles until they were established in our hearts. I cannot fathom a world in which Eleanor Rigby does not exist (and that isn't even the most influential of their songs). Before those mop tops from across the pond ruptured our musical traditions, we craved something new. What we wanted was unclear, but we wanted it anyway. depending on your tastes it was either fortunate or unfortunate that each time we advanced into a new musical realm the market quickly became saturated.

Take punk for an example; while it is not the most wide spread flavor of music, it has been influenced by the over saturation of the musical market. When punk burst onto the scene the market was saturated with big hair, spandex and power ballads. The Ramones gave us a way out. Now the market is becoming saturated with big name acts like Green Day, who now have a major Broadway production, so it seems fitting that the next bubble under the alternative music flag is beginning to form before the older bubble becomes irrelevant.

This type of natural leadership follows a Darwinian/survival of the fittest trajectory. It seems that the evolution of music is truly a group effort, and the only way to ensure it flourishes is to continue with the genetic diversification that we have seen in the last few decades. The de-homogenyzing of typical genres of music has lead to a greater diversity of the waves penetrating our ears. The blend of traditional country and rock into rockabilly exemplifies the juxtaposition of two unlikely bedfellows that work, and in a wonderful way.  A dash of this, a smidgen of that... new bands and new genres are forming all the time.

The leader in this situation is the market. When one market is dull, another takes over. The customers drive the innovation, and in the end it all boils down to what makes money and what sells, but at the same time the art should stand on its own and be an individual testament to what drives the artist. The carbon copy artist does nothing to further the diversification of the field, and is eventually weeded out.

Drubber Originale

How do you eat an Elephant? Jimmy Sitz knows.

This guy, Jim, has used every ounce of leadership he possessed to drag me kicking and screaming into a more stable career path.

There was once a time when I questioned every directive. I would obstinately state my opinion on every matter. I yelled. I yelled a lot. I was on a quick track to failure. Every "leader" I came in contact with threw authority at me. They forced me into submission, and it only made things worse.

I remember watching Jim saunter into work his first day. Quiet, unassuming, I instantly hated him; a feeling that would quickly change to admiration and respect.

The group of guys I had been working with had been through a lot together. We had faced every obstacle together, and we survived.

Jim was not happy with survival. He wanted us to be the best. He wanted every single person to envy our success. He wanted our supervisors to sing our praises, and he had a plan on how to get there.

Every new boss had tried to break us down and build us back up to their own standards. They wanted to force change on us and we would have none of it. We made them earn every single inch that they gained.

So what was one more boss?

Jim came in, reviewed our records and watched us. For a week or so he sat back and observed. Then he sat us down and pointed out our strengths. Bob was amazing at drawing samples, Dustin had an incredible program, Nick knew more about this than anyone else, Dave knew all the requirements. Then he showed us where we needed help. While we didn't like it, we went along with it.

We still had our share of fights. I distinctly remember openly yelling at him on numerous occasions, all because I didn't want to to x, y, or z. Still he stuck at it, trudging an up hill battle against us.

The day I came to respect him as a man and as a leader was a normal day. I had openly shown him some form of disrespect (probably more than once), and I was going about my life. Some time during my romp into insubordination someone at the top of the totem pole came and found me. This supervisor pulled me aside and was completely honest with me, a novel approach for his class of people. He said that I was in significant danger of punishment. In fact, he said, the paperwork has been written, and rewritten several times.

Each time I had been on the cusp of implosion, Jimmy had stepped up and taken responsibility for me. He expressed his belief in me. He told the higher ups that he saw small changes that were becoming bigger as the days passed. He didn't want to destroy all the time and effort he had invested in me with something that would send me back to my old ways.

I looked inside myself that night, and what I saw scared me. I saw that I was truly changing. I saw that I was becoming a better man. Not just better at my job, but a better man!

I would love to say that I became the man Jim hoped me to be the very next day, but the sad truth is that it took some time. I did, however make up my mind to learn everything I could about my job, and moreover how Jim elicited such a change in me.

While my study was never fully completed, I can look back on my time with Jim and see a direct change of course. I went from the guy who was destined for punitive actions to the guy who ran the show.

The most important thing I learned from this man is the need for compassion and empathy. Without those two things I would have been lost, and because of them I am back on the right path. Without a doubt Jim has had a huge influence on my life (even today he critiques my beer recipes), and it was all won with baby steps.

Super sassy self assesment

I have a way about me, I like to talk. Unfortunately this doesn't allow much space for other people to squeeze their two cents in. I do try and give a little ground when participating in a group presentation, especially one so loosely scripted. The problem usually arises when I am placed in a group with people less confident in their communication abilities.

All that being said, I believe that there is something to be said for taking charge of the situation. Not that I think the other members of my group incapable, they just seemed less comfortable in their public speaking roles. While I know it is beneficial to everyone involved to encourage growth, I also know it is beneficial to produce a product. The trick is threading that fine line.

I have noticed that there are a few other students who continually (all two times) step up and take a larger speaking role. What their motives are... I can't pretend to say.

to 56k, and beyond!

The fun part of being an older person (I am 27) in a college environment is watching the 'kids' in my class look on in awe when the Professor discusses things like 'life before the internet' and 'reading a newspaper to get your news,' or 'Dial up internet.'

And by fun I mean it hurts me. I had a class with a kid who had no idea who Nirvana was. I mean, really? One of the most iconic bands of the 90's? Wow.

All that aside, life today is much faster and more hectic than ever before. I remember riding to the record store with my stepdad and buying the newest Metallica album on cassette. Nowadays there is no need to drive anywhere to get music. Even if you want to support an artist, you can buy a digital copy of their album on iTunes, or buy an actual CD  through Amazon. One would think that this drastic evolution of technology would equate to more leisure time, or that we would devote more time to bettering the Human condition.

Nope. The Internet has been fully functional (available to pretty much everyone in the U.S., loaded with all sorts of informational goodies, and providing cute pictures of kittens) for over twenty years. The idea of the Internet has been around longer than I have been alive, and we still rush around like ants on a hill. While we have more leisure time, more things are jockeying for our attention. We can play the newest video game online with people on the other side of the planet, all the while screaming obscenities into a wireless head set. We can stream movies right to our phone while sitting in class, and look up the lecture notes on LMS when we get home.

Even Everclear's AM Radio is behind the times. Portable CD player? Please, we now have phones with touch screens, more storage space than my first computer, and the Internet. The inclusion of the Internet alone has has transformed the way we work. Couple the Internet with surprisingly fast processors and full operating systems and you have a truly mobile office. My neighbor said he wrote every paper of his senior year (as a mechanical engineer) on his iPhone.

What's more, we are now restructuring our laws to suit the ever changing landscape that is the Internet. Unfortunately our laws are not as readily adapted to our new technological world as the Human element. We are still playing social catchup, we are figuring out how our laws marry into this techno-scape.

One day we will figure it all out, but by then we will have new problems to overcome. That is what sets us apart from those damn dirty apes (or is it?), we are infinitely adaptable and through our ingenuity we will thrive. How we thrive is still up for debate.

As a side note, I learned that 'Internet' is a proper noun. Thank you spell check, and I suppose Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as well.

The Gold Standard

For this to make any sense we must assume an exceptionally broad view of leadership. Not just the stereotypical war heroes (Patton), presidents (Washington), social dissidents (Martin Luther King Jr.), and corporate magnates (Rockefeller). We must look at the leader as anyone who can influence us into action.

Childhood is full of trials, growth, and learning. Children look to their parents, teachers, coaches, older siblings, and celebrities to lead them through the thicket of childhood. Unfortunately some of these role models are less than savory, and may not be able to properly communicate the messages they should.

A prime example of this is Lindsey Lohan. This young lady was once an adored child star, I remember having a crush on her back in the day, but now she is a punch line. What little influence she may have had is eclipsed by her inability to make good choices. Now, this doesn't mean that every child star runs out and becomes the paparazzi fodder for the tabloids, but the good children rarely get the media attention they deserve. What's more, Americans rarely get exposed to the good works of such people.

Rather, we are inundated with negative examples of celebrity. This in itself can actually be a positive example of how to live. The main distinction is to ensure we realize what not to do.


What each of these troubled stars lack is an introspective dedication to self betterment.

My parents were adamant that I learn the value of being told "no", at every turn it was "No you may not have a Mohawk," "No you can't stay out all night looking for the Great Pumpkin," "No you can't move to California to become a pro surfer, you don't even know how to surf!" Unfortunately it seems that our celebrity children are not told 'No' often enough.

This is, ultimately, a failure in the leadership in their lives. This does not mean that there aren't little hellions in a traditional, non celebrity, role; this simply means that the celebrutants are publicly documented in the media. The masses don't care about little Timmy getting hooked on blow and ruining his life. The masses care about Corey Haim's (please don't judge me for using Wikipedia...)travels down self destruction.

Unfortunately irreparable damage has been done. Gone are the days when children looked up to astronauts and people who truly add to society. This day has slowly crept up on us, and we watched helplessly as our heroes were transformed into side shows. We looked on as Neil Armstrong was replaced by Snooki. While we all share a stake in this blame, I contend that the story hungry media has perverted journalism to a new level. The availability of honest journalism is eclipsed by the supermarket checkout tabloids.

This laissez faire approach to media has taken away our heroes, discredited our leaders and raised the idiotic and asinine upon a pedestal. While it is perfectly acceptable to discuss celebrities, let us please remember that they are not special. They are, in most cases, just pretty people.

Really, why do we care.

Leadership Con Carne

We all have had the boss we would walk through fire for. This is the man or woman who, by virtue of their leadership abilities, can ask us to perform tasks well outside our comfort zones and skill sets, and yet we strive to achieve them. Not just a check in the box achievement, no, a full on excellent job achievement. Then again, there is the boss who does not inspire us to push ourselves, who does nothing to ensure we will strive for that extra mile. This is the boss who is only in it for the accolades. This guy doesn't care two figs about your circumstances, he only wants the job done. I have found that this second type of boss leaves much to be desired. They are the type of boss who does not respect your family time, does not respect your time off, does not particularly care if you had plans; you will be in to work on Saturday. You will (in my case) get down into a bilge and, you will, scrape, prep, and paint it. What's more, they expect you to be happy for the opportunity to work with them.

Pilfered from a google search, and This site.

While both types of leaders may be effective, I would argue that the leader who has the people on his side has a distinct advantage over the other.

Now, this may seem inconsequential (if you value your job you will end up jumping through hoops anyway), it does bring to light one of many distinctions of leadership. Leaders can be broken down into two general groups: those who are followed due to an imposed directive, and those who are willingly followed. The imposed directive leader has a sense of entitlement. They walk around as if they can do no wrong, that their word is law, that they are infallible. In my experience they are almost always wrong.

Their air of self importance and over inflated sense of self worth is, again in my experience, generally linked to a deflated self confidence. As discussed in class, one of the traits of a good leader is a high level of self confidence. This along with an engorged ego can lead to people who believe they can accomplish anything. A dash of optimism and a sprinkle of charisma and you have a person who can lead a horse to water and make it drink.

As a matter of national security, we often choose a President based on likability. This little story describes how the American people tend to, at least in part, choose their future leader based on whom they would rather share a frosty pint with. Moreover, we tend to elect people who can relate more to the average Joe. This has not always worked out, take Andrew Jackson's presidency as an example. While Old Hickory was seen as a man's man, he was also the main proponent of the trail of tears, as well as the 'Bank War'. All that aside, the phenomenon of judging our president based on our personal impression of the man, rather than the policies, is a relatively new concept dating back to the Nixon-Kennedy election of 1960.

In the Nixon-Kennedy debate radio listeners called Nixon the clear winner, yet the television viewers saw something completely different. Through the entire debate Nixon seems far less comfortable in his own skin than Kennedy. At one point he breaks out in sweat. These are not qualities we want in the leader of the free world. We want confidence; we want nerves of steel. This was one of a few factors that cost Nixon the Presidency.

For the first time in the history of America people were paying attention to the facial expressions, apparent nervousness and general demeanor of our future President. My favorite part of this past Presidential debate was watching Joe Biden openly disregard what Paul Ryan had to say.

Yet, we still elected the Obama-Biden ticket. Despite the holes in policy, despite the uncertain future they may bring...We elected this dynamic duo.

Why?

Simply put, Americans could not relate to the Romney Ryan ticket. This goes back to the previous argument about who we would rather lift a pint with. Above all we want our President to adequately represent us. We want a person who, at least on the surface, represents the average American.

Interestingly, a search of "is Romney relatable" on the Wall Street Journal's website resulted in zero relevant articles. I will leave you to your own conclusions on that one.