Blog Archives

January Topics

1/1/2018

Happy new year! I realize that time is time and each year we get 8,760 hours to get things done, but it sure seems to pass by faster every year. I guess it depends on someone’s perspective because I’d imagine that for some school kids, a year appears to drag on. I think a good goal for all of us is to try to make a larger percentage of the 8,760 hours we’re given every year happier than the previous one.

As usual there are a lot of political posts this month. Articles include: 1) The new tax plan. 2) Children being exploited by NBC. 3) Problems at CNN. 4) Scare tactics. 5) Our relationship with the United Nations. 6) More fake news. 7) Political correctness. 8) White privilege. 9) A travesty of justice. 10) How ICE is trying to protect Hispanic communities.

Along with the above political articles are ones that are just meant for entertainment purposes including: 1) How to reduce stress and be happier. 2) The story of Charles Dickens. 3) The famous Henry Deutschendorf, Jr. 4) Sailing in the 1700’s from Britain to the colonies. 5) How my brother saved me. 6) Story about a Sound of Music cast member. 7) The Book of Proverbs. 8) What does “A stitch in time” mean? 9) Something you might not know about Paul McCartney and Prince. 10) Funny quotes.

Take care and make it your best year yet!

The Problem with Easy

1/1/2018

The problem with things that are easy to do is that they're also easy not to do. The moment we think of something we need to get done, even if it is something easy to do like make a quick phone call, in less than ten seconds our minds can distract us and prevent us from accomplishing the task.

For example, taking a walk is easy especially if it is just a ten minute one to get outside for a little while. Why don't we get up and do it? Because our minds quickly come up with thoughts to halt our progress. I don't want to put my tennis shoes on (as if we need them for a ten-minute walk). I'll check FaceBook first then go out (ain't going to happen). I'll make a quick phone call then go (once again, it probably won’t happen).

We'll typically piddle around until the thought of taking a walk no longer seems attractive or we’ll actually forget about it altogether. It sounded good at one point, the point when we first had the thought, then we let our minds steer us towards other things and away from something that would’ve been good for us. Like I said, the problem with things that are easy to do is that they’re also easy not to do. The trick is, think less and do more.

Wonder

1/1/2018

I think a lot of people “wander” too much and “wonder” too little.

Don't Worry

1/1/2018

One of the best ways to live a happier life is to do what we can to reduce our stress. We can’t control it or prevent it, but we can influence it with the choices we make. Here are some things that can help:

1) Influence more but try to control less. There's no doubt we can have a positive influence on events and people which is great to know but the fact is we only control our thoughts, words, and actions. We aren’t totally responsibly for outcomes, but we are responsible for doing what we think is the right thing to do in the moment. One of the problems we have is that we sometimes have the tendency to beat ourselves up over choices we made when the fact is we thought we were making the right choice at the time.

Our minds naturally think differently about certain events as time passes but it really isn’t fair to play armchair quarterback over our decisions. If we tried to do the right thing at the time, then we need to do our best to let it go. Mulling it over in our minds hurts our ability to experience happiness.

2) Live below our means. Living paycheck to paycheck is certainly stressful and the fact is, there's a lot of people who wouldn't be going through this if they focused on needs more and wants less. Let's face it, when a lot of us were little we had little to no impact on what our parents would buy but now a lot of children get their parents and/or grandparents to buy things that at the end of the day, won't mean a thing to these kids. How often does the outrageous excitement a child has for a Christmas gift sustain?

We need to remember that pretty much everything loses its luster. If you’re at home now, look around at all the extra stuff that you use to decorate. If you’ll admit it to yourself, there are probably some things that at one point you thought would look awesome in your house and you were excited about it, but now it’s just sitting there hardly if at all noticed.

How many things do you have in your home are for other people to see when they visit? How many people have seen it? When you visit someone’s home does all the various knickknacks mean much to you or is it more about the drink, food, and conversations?

I realize that some people say it feels good to have their home nicely decorated and that’s fine, I’m just saying that if you’re comfortable with your long-term income security then that’s fine but if you aren’t and it leads to some stress, then it might be good to evaluate things like this that are clearly wants and not needs.

Another way to limit the amount of money we spend is to not walk into temptation. For example, if we don't "need" a new car, then it's best if we don't go car shopping. If our homes are good enough, then going to check out other homes to see the fixtures, layouts, etc., might lead to a huge expenditure that isn't necessary or at the very least make us more disappointed with our current home. I know some people who if they see something nice that someone else just bought, they quickly buy one for themselves. Keeping up with the Joneses is very stressful.

3) We need to have realistic expectations about happiness. When throughout the history of mankind have you known people who live in non-stop bliss? Everyone has good days and bad. Fancy things (i.e. cars, clothes, homes, etc.), don't influence whether we’ll have more good days than bad. Hollywood is loaded with mansions where the owners came to realize that a house isn't a home. Their nice swimming pools that were filled with people when they first bought their mansions and were showing them off to various people, get to the point where it's just a cement pond; something to look at but not swim in.

We of course like to think we’re intelligent creatures, but I believe most of us really get faked out about life. We look around and think there’s something better. We see other married couples when we’re around them and think they’re madly in love and have no problems when the fact is they’re not going to present themselves at their worse.

4) We need to keep in mind that life is cyclic. The good news if something bad is going on in our lives is that it will pass. The bad news is that once the good times arrive they won't last. It's life. At work we used to say nothing is ever as good as it seems or as bad as it seems. This very much reduced our stress and made us enjoy our work more.

It's so easy when we fall on tough times, to get tunnel vision and convince ourselves that life sucks and will never get better but there's thousands of years of data that proves that on average this isn't the case. The problem is we often make some terrible life choices during these down times. The best thing to do is not make any major decisions and count on someone we trust to let us know if we're about to make a huge mistake. We naturally think we know what's best for ourselves but quite frankly, we sometimes don't.

5) “Don’t worry be happy.” Do you remember this catchy song from 1988 by Bobby McFerrin? Some of my favorite words from the song are: “In every life we have some trouble, when you worry you make it double.” So true.

I’ve been a huge self-development fan all my adult life. There’s probably not too many best-sellers on self-development over the last several decades that I haven’t read, and I’ve seen many of the best speakers like: Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Steven Covey, Zig Ziglar, etc. Guess what personal strategy I’ve never heard them say will make you more successful? Worrying. I’ve never read or seen someone speak about worrying being a successful tool for making things happen.

I’ve read various research over the years and I’d say that on average most reports state that around 93% of the things we worry about never happen. Mark Twain described this best when he said: “I’ve been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” This is both funny and profound. Add to this that out of the 7% of things that did happen only a fraction of a percent could have been influenced at the time of the worrying. This goes with what I wrote earlier about us having some influence over things but no complete control over the outcomes.

I believe some people are born worriers to a certain degree. I believe that women in general worry more than men. I realize that it can be difficult to shake but the fact is until you get a handle on worrying you absolutely will not enjoy your life as much as you should.

Keep in mind, your happiness level affects those around you as well. Less worrying can make you a better spouse and a better parent. It can improve all your relationships both personal and professional. Isn’t this worth doing something about? There are numerous articles, books, YouTube videos, etc., regarding how to reduce your worry and anxiety so the answers are readily available. I absolutely promise you it is worth pursuing.

5) Research shows that people who have a faith life are generally happier than those who don’t. There are several reasons for this including people who believe in God have someone to turn to during difficult times. The fact is, prayer works at the very least in providing peace of mind. People who believe in God also have the peace of knowing that no matter how bad things get, they’re just passing through on to a better place.

I’m not going to belabor this point, but the facts are the facts. There’s no doubt people have some logical reasons for not being believers but unfortunately it increases their stress and reduces their happiness levels.
There’s certainly a lot more to this topic than what I’ve listed above but I think it’s great news in knowing we can make a better life for ourselves and those around us. Take care and make it the best year you've ever had!

Trump's Message to the United Nations

1/1/2018

Democrats and the mainstream media are attacking the Trump Administration for playing hardball with the United Nations. Nikki Haley basically told them we weren't going to continue to carry the load when time and time again, other countries work against us especially from France, Germany, and the Middle-East.

Notice that the same people screaming about what the Trump’s Administration is doing won’t share some very important truths including how much of the U.N.'s peacekeeping budget is the U.S. paying for? Wouldn't this be responsible journalism to explain why we’re doing what we’re doing?

The reason they don't share it is because it would burn their narrative because the U.S. under the Obama Administration, had us footing 28% of the U.N.'s budget. There are 193 countries in the United Nations and this includes humongous economies like Britain and China, yet we were paying 28% of the bill. It’s outrageous.

I guess it would be one thing if there was an advantage to it but too many countries have been working against us and this includes France and Germany. Why in the world would we pay more than our fair share? Our U.N. Ambassador (Nikki Haley), pretty much said we're no longer going to be the world's sugar daddy and I love it and I'm sure most Americans love it as well.

Democrats and the mainstream media probably agree as well but they aren’t going to admit it because they won’t let the truth get in the way of politics. They certainly aren’t going to admit President Trump has done anything right.

This is one of the reasons why the Democrat Party is losing credibility. This is also why the mainstream media deserves their title of Fake News. Making it look like the Trump Administration was out of their minds in how they're handling the United Nations is irresponsible and completely unethical.

I'll throw this out one more time...why in the world wouldn't the mainstream media share the percentage of the United Nation's budget that we are funding? Isn’t the real story how we’ve been taken advantage of? There's only one reason the liberal media doesn’t share the real story and that’s because they've become an extension of the Democrat Party.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

1/1/2018

Charles Dickens died at the young age of 58 but he certainly made the most of his life. He was born into a poor family (he was the 2nd of eight children), in England and when he was a teenager his dad was thrown in prison for not paying his debts.

With his dad in prison, Charles quit school to work in a factory so he could take care of his family. He loved writing, but it wasn't known as a legitimate way of making money back then, so he wrote on the side for the recreation of it.

He fell deeply in love when he was 18 years old with Maria Beadnell, who came from a wealthy family. Her parents told her to stay away from Charles because he wasn’t of her social class. Any chance of them being together was distinguished when her parents sent her to Paris to attend school. One of the characters in his book David Copperfield was said to have been based on her.

He worked late hours at the factory and then wrote into the night. He learned to write short-hand and got a job as a court reporter. His natural sketching ability also made him valuable to the court. He used this talent to provide sketch work for various publications over the years for extra cash.

Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms. His work ethic was tremendous.

He married Catherine Hogarth, who was the daughter of a newspaper editor, and they had ten children. When they got married one of his brothers moved in with them along with Catherine’s 17-year-old sister Mary.

Dickens and Mary became extremely close then one day she became very ill and died in his arms. He was devastated by her death and quit writing. When he did start writing again he used elements of her character to keep her alive in unique ways. Dickens said that losing Mary cut so deep emotionally that he was finally able to write about death in his novels.

A lot of writers like to keep their manuscripts hidden except for allowing the editor(s) and publisher to read it but Dickens was different. The primary reasons authors do this is that they don’t want their writings stolen before they are copyrighted but also because they’re vulnerable to criticism because it’s not their best/finished work. Dickens pursued feedback from a variety of people including his wife regarding his works which helped him develop his stories and characters. For as amazingly talented as he was he didn’t have the ego to go along with it.

His hard work paid off as he went on to write such classics as: Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol. He was just 25 when he published Oliver Twist. Keep in mind that this entire time he continued to write for small publications, help edit other people’s works, etc., another indication that he was modest and just loved reading and writing.

I feel like his writings are so enjoyable to read because of his wit; sometimes even dark subjects would get a little lighter because of the words he chose to use. But not everyone appreciated his works such as Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf as they thought his writing lacked depth. I certainly don’t know if this was jealously or not, but the fact is Dickens came on the writing scene fast and furious. He kept pumping out successful novels and books were fairly expensive back then (I guess they still are now), so he was certainly taking away sales from both Wilde and Woolf.

Besides being such a successful writer, he never forgot his roots and spent his life as a philanthropist helping women and children in need. During a trip to the United States he spoke out against slavery and the oppressed in general. He also spoke out about international copyright laws and piracy which was taking place in the literary world.

Exactly five years to the day before his death, he was on a train that went off the tracks where seven rail cars plunged into a river. Dickens was instrumental in attending to the victims receiving credit for having saved several lives. He began experiencing strokes and then died of a heart attack at the age of 58. He was still writing up until the moment of his death.

I guess the real proof as to how awesome Dickens was is to consider that after 166 years we can still find his books and DVD’s of his movies, pretty much everywhere. That's an awesome legacy!

Political Influence

1/1/2018

Democrats and the media have gone wild over Russia getting involved in politics here in the U.S. It’s been around a year now and still no proof of collusion exists even though there have been so many reports by the media that have pretty much guaranteed corruption.

There’s no doubt though that Russia used social media to run ads that were meant to disrupt the election in some ways. Nothing very effective with some crazy things like anti-Muslim propaganda but still they did spend some money. There were even some ads that went against Hillary.

But here’s what the media isn't sharing and it’s for obvious reasons…all U.S. Presidents have been involved in spending tax payer money to influence elections around the world. Not just who will be put in power but also in issues like Brexit where the Obama Administration spent advertising money to get voters to vote to keep Britain in the European Union (Euro).

Why is what Russia did so evil when we do the same things? I truly find it embarrassing that politicians and the media stand on their soap boxes talking about the various evil deeds being perpetrated by Russia (or other countries in general), when we are just as guilty.

The mainstream media knew the Obama Administration spent U.S. tax dollars to influence elections. They knew about Obama trying to get Benjamin Netanyahu out of office. Every day I get more and more information that truly disgusts me about how the mainstream media is misleading the citizens of our country. They purposefully blame Trump for things that they know good and well Obama was guilty of. How can they say they’re not biased?

Both political parties are screwed up. There's plenty of bad stories to go around. But because of their liberal bias they only focus on the negatives and not any positives regarding the Republican Party and their strategy is just the opposite with the Democrat Party. They are no longer news agencies but political tabloids.

True Artists

1/1/2018

One of the two greatest artists who had the ability to write, sing, and who actually played every instrument on at least one album (separate tracks then blended in), were Paul McCartney and Prince.

By the way, the lead singers for The Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails, and Smashing Pumpkins all produced one album each where they played all the instruments.

Elizabeth Warren

1/1/2018

Another example of the public sector being a whole different world than the rest of us is how Elizabeth Warren got away with stating she was a minority (Native American), to gain benefits in entering college but also used it in her job applications such as she was listed as "minority" professor at Harvard. Harvard benefited by her lie and of course so did she.

She has provided no documentation that proves she is Native American instead she said that her family told her that she was, so she assumed it was true and ran with it. Keep in mind, many people have told her that all she has to do is to turn in her DNA to a place like ancestory.com and that would be good enough, but she hasn't done it. Why won't she do something so easy to get rid of the controversy? There's only one realistic answer.

By the way, the Boston Globe had to retract an article they provided that stated they had proof that Warren wasn't lying. They got caught providing fake news. The above isn't the only tremendous insight into her character there are plenty of negative stories about Warren, but this doesn't matter to Democrats who consider her to be a superstar.

Of course they also tried to force Hillary on the country but it didn't work because more people than naught said character matters and they didn't trust Hillary more than they didn't trust Trump.

Funny Stuff

1/1/2018

Here you go...

1) If I had a dollar for every girl that found me unattractive, they'd eventually find me attractive.

2) I find it ironic that the colors red, white, and blue stand for freedom, until they're flashing behind you.

3) Today a man knocked on my door and asked for a small donation towards the local swimming pool, so I gave him a glass of water.

4) Take my advice — I'm not using it.

5) My wife and I were happy for twenty years; then we met.

6) Women spend more time wondering what men are thinking than men spend thinking.

7) Is it wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly?

8) Sometimes I wake up grumpy; other times I let her sleep.

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Author: John Mann

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