Mission statment

I have been writing a blog weekly for over three months now. This post today will be my 15^th. It has been going well and I still enjoy doing it very much. I look forward all week to Friday when I will be writing and posting each week’s piece. If there is any issue at all it is that through the week I find myself wanting to post more, just wanting to make short random posts. I could do this, but when I first started I made a choice to try and make everything that goes up meaningful, not just post every little thing that randomly pops into my head. I made this choice with two main goals.

1)      I dislike the type of blog that is just short little random posts. I can understand they are fun if you really fallow them, but it is not something I enjoy reading.

2)      It is my hope that by keeping to some kind of posting schedule I will keep doing it. I fear that if I post a lot all at once I will burn out and end up having nothing to say. I have seen quite a few blogs where that has appeared to happen. They went strong for awhile and then just stopped.

As part of this mind frame, when I first started I made my own little mission statement for what/how I would post and run this blog.

Mission Statement

“To write a weekly blog that is made up of my own self created content as much as possible. Is something that people want to read without knowing who writes it. Does not name or show pictures of me or anyone around me”    

Now that I have been writing it for awhile now I feel as if I need to give this blog a more solid direction, and I have been looking at my options. I have added a list of what I feel are the main types of blog. I could fallow one of these styles or simply take aspects of them that are working and add them to mine.

Blogs on a subject-
I have come across many blogs that people have made about a subject that interests them. These tend to be nice in that they are focused, but they can go for long periods between entries. Often this kind of blog it tied to events in an industry or other such field. So that nothing more can be said until something new happens that would fuel a new entry.

Blogs that document-
To me this can be split into two separate subgroups.  

The one which I have come across most often is the “family” blog. This is often like a giant Christmas letter. It allows a family to document their family life in a way that other people are able to come and look at whenever they wish. This style is very common with stay at home parents. It helps them to reach out and is something they are able to do whenever they have a spare second in their busy day.

The second is a blog that documents some kind of project. I have been seeing about a great deal of these as well and they do get quite a fallowing. Many people take on projects and by documenting them online it helps them to keep track. It helps to keep them to stay on track because other people are expecting progress and want to see how it is coming. This type is very good, but requires extra time on top of what is needed for just blogging.   

Blogs that teach-
This is a type I have considered adding parts of. Basically this is like a tutor. If you feel that you have a unique way of helping with a subject, or just knowledge and desire to help at all, you make a blog with tips and hits that you feel will help. Again this is not the kind of blog you post on a schedule. It is more about interaction. Someone may post a question and you work to answer it. This type gives the writer a good sense of reaching out and helping people.

So that is a short list of what I feel are the main types of blog. I am sure that there are more, and that many, if not all blogs fit into under more than one category. To me that is one of the beauties of the medium. It is a place where walls are broken down. Where anyone who has something to say is able to reach the world.

Over the next little while I am going to be looking at where this blog is at and where it is going. I would love any thoughts or input that anyone may have. Anything I am doing right? Anything I could do better? Anything I am doing just plain wrong? Please let me know. I want to be able to reach people and I can do that best when people reach back to me.            

Together Time and To Get Her Time

As you can read from the top of this blog I am in a long distance relationship with the love of my life. She is coming today home for a week, and then I am going up to see her for a week after that. I have prepared posts that are sitting in draft right now and need to simply be published, but thought today that I could better show the shift that most occur when a couple such as ours gets the time to be together. Some things, such as this blog need to be left waiting until later to allow energies to be focused on more important tasks. Such as showing my love to my love. 

Being Concise

This week I was working on a school assignment that was turned out to be harder then I thought it was going to be. The assignment was to interview at least two people who are working in the field that you plan to enter after college and then write a one page memo about it. Finding and interviewing three nurses was no problem, what I found difficult was keeping it to one page.

Over the years I have gotten better and better at being able to write how I speck. As you may have guessed I fallow the rule of why just say yes when you can tell people the whole process of how you came to that choice, or why not explain the whole history of something? I like feeling that I have helped people to understand things better. I am coming to realize that being long winded is not always very good. In my future I am going to need to write things in a short to the point way. I am going to work on that.

So in theme of being concise I am going to finish this entry now. Knowing full well that by saying that I have not been concise.  

Long Distance Valentine

Some people may think that it is still early to be thinking about Valentine's Day. Some people would even say that Valentine's Day is just a holiday made up by the card companies to sell more product and should not even be thought about at all. Both these statements may be true, but for someone like me who is in a long distance relationship Valentine's Day is very important. I fully agree that people should show their love for each other everyday, and I try to do that. Sadly it is not always easy. When you do not see the person you love everyday sometimes the little things get lost in the blender that is modern life. When you see someone everyday it is easy to show how you feel. "Here honey I will do the dishes." "No I am not really watching this lets watch that show you like." " I got off early lets go out to dinner and a movie." All these things are small daily little things that we often can do without really giving much thought to are important to building a strong loving relationship.

When you are living in different places it is not so easy. Things like, "I will call you when I get home." get missed because of traffic. To you it may have just been a phone call, but to the person you care about it is a symbol of how much you love them. If you are late, or even worse forget. It is a huge blow to them. Making a long distance relationship not only work, but work well means remembering about the little stuff and the big stuff. So is it really so bad to a have a day that reminds us of that. To have a day on the calendar that says, "You should get her a card and remind her how much you care and miss her."

So for anyone out there who thinks that Valentine's Day is just made up and silly, I will admit maybe you are right. But in my eyes any day that reminds me that I have a woman in my life that loves me and that I should celebrate her a bit. Well that is a day that is alright by me.

Taken from the Starcraft 2 Website.
A game that my wonderful girlfriend and I as a team online.

Becoming Colossus

Over the past few weeks I have been dealing with something that I never thought I would need to. From the time I started school my parents and teachers realized that like my father I had learning "issues" and required special help. I was formally tested and from that came an IEP (Individual Education Plan). The plan basically was that I would get extra time on tests and exams, and would also be allowed computer use. This was due to the fact that verbally I tested as intelligent, but that did not come out in my written work. When I got to college they looked at this same reports and I was given the same accommodations that I had been given in the public system, plus they arranged to have my textbooks scanned in to digital form so a special computer program could read them out loud to me. I did very well with all of that and was very happy. This year I changed from one campus to another campus of the same college. Where I was last year was a smaller campus and they simply looked at my reports and helped me the way they said would work best. This new campus is larger and they had me retested saying that, "we have more to offer and so need to update your report." This update is to take all that I have used and relied on for nearly two decades to help me do well in school. They say that I have learned how to compensate for what was holding me back before, and in fact in all but one area I test with an IQ higher than normal. So I no longer meet the criteria for special help. The details, reasoning, and motivates going on behind the scenes at the campus I question, but that is not the focus of what I wish to write about this week. What I want to explore is the fact that some who once that he was somehow lower academically suddenly being told not only is he normal now, but perhaps better than average.


I have been thinking a lot about my current mental state. The best that comparison I have been able to come up with so far is that of the x-men Colossus. Colossus for anyone who does not know is a mutant super hero with the ability to transform hid body into what is best described as living steel. His form grants him all the advantages that you think it would. He cannot be harmed and does not need to eat or breathe. He is also is so strong he is able to crush diamonds between his fingers. When he transforms it is all or nothing. He cannot for example just transform his hand if he is pulling a pizza out of the oven. He can stay in this form until he decides to transform back into flesh. So he has the choice to be fantastic. Unlike many of the "strongman" type superheroes he is not locked in. Super man is always bullet proof. If you shoot Clark Kent the bullet will just bounce off. Same goes for the Hulk. I have seen images of Bruce Banner being shot in the head one panel and the next the hulk is spiting the bullet out. I am sure I could go on for some time with examples like these. What feel, along with other things about him that I will also go into, makes Colossus a good example of my mental state is that choice. He can live his life as a normal person if he wants to. He could happily stay on his family farm working away surrounded by a loving family that accepts him for what he is and needs him. One of my favorite sense with him is where he is struggling with this choice. Weeping while talking to his father about what he should do when he is asked to be part of the x-men. Should he stay at home with his family that needs him and life a simple happy life? Should he embrace his full potential and help to save the world? One series that explores this in depth is the ultimate x-men series. Where he is seen questioning himself a few different times. He even leaves for a time and becomes a factory worker. The x-men come to him and ask for his help rescuing a submarine that is trapped on the bottom of the ocean. He refuses and says that is not who he is any more, and returns home to his family for dinner. While eating he over hears the news report about the trapped sailors. The next scene is the deck of a ship and a clocked figure being told if there are any issues a rescue team of super heroes can be called in. With that Colossus draws back his hood and stats, "I am the mighty Colossus, if I cannot do it no one can." He of course jumps on the water sinks to the bottom and then carries the whole sub out the ocean and on to the beach.

So to me that is the best example of where I am at. I sense that I have the power within me. I have the love and support of my family. I have the love of a woman who sees the power within me that I cannot. All I need now is the courage to believe in myself and to transform from what I was into something new and amazing.

I would Like to thank who ever drew this picture and posted it on the internet.
It greatly shows the image I have of Colossus,
and the relationship he and Shadowcat have.