Life on the Plains

A couple years ago, my wife and I took a trip to Maine to attend my son's graduation from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor.

She had never been east and was awestruck as we drove up and down mountains.

In contrast, sometimes I find driving in the midwest boring.

Often flat, long stretches of road.

Sort of like life at times.

But if you need a roller coaster ride style of life, there will be times when you might get a bit bored.

And that is okay.

Boredom is a time to take a time out.

A time to chill.

A time to appreciate the wonder that surrounds us.

Reflect on where we are going, where we've been and where we are.

As much as I appreciate the exciting times in life, I also cherish the quiet times.

How about you?

VideoTime: My Son

I was going to just do the first video, but it's too weird by itself. My son Josh went to Iceland last September for three months and before he left, he bought a webcam so he could do free video calls via Skype. And he sent me this video after he installed it:



Then, since he was still in Iceland on his birthday, I created this one:

Fuzzy Face

Facial Hair. Most people have an opinion.

(Don't like it on women, except eyebrows.)

I've had some ever since school ranging from a full beard to just a mustashe, probably 90% of the time.

Thursday I saw my son in person for the first time since September as he was in Iceland and his beard is fuller than mine. I try and keep mine somewhat short and professional. Yet most folks would describe me as "bearded".

Friday night the Art of Manliness wrote about Beards:

The Art of Manliness

Growing a Manly Beard

Posted: 28 Nov 2008 10:03 AM CST

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Steve Wilson, the author of beards.org. Make sure to check out his manly site! It inspired me to grow my first beard this month.

Growing a beard is an affirmation of manliness and masculinity. The beard itself is a physical characteristic that separates men from the boys, girls, and women. In our culture that has downplayed good old-fashioned masculinity, growing a beard shows that you are not afraid of being a manly man. You can reclaim a too-often-lost aspect of manliness by growing a beard.

How to Grow a Beard

Go ahead. Break free from the shaving trap and grow a beard. If you are ready to step up to the challenge of growing a beard, it is time to start growing. The key to a successful beard-growing effort is commitment. Just make a decision to grow a beard and stick with it. Do not be swayed by naysayers or lapses in your own

confidence. Do not let a transient period of itching send you running for the razor. Just make a commitment to grow the beard and stick with it. Make it non-negotiable and always remember that. It helps to set a commitment date. Be sure that you allow yourself at least six weeks. Then, stick to your resolution not to cave and shave prior to your commitment date.

It can often be helpful to choose a bearded role model to serve as a source of inspiration while growing your beard. This could be someone you know or it could be a famous or historic bearded figure. While growing your beard, if at any time your commitment and confidence falter, just remember your bearded role model and realize that he successfully grew his beard and realize that you can, too.

Self-consciousness is often heightened during the initial beard-growing phase. Do not worry about it! Man up! Be proud that you are asserting your right to grow a beard for all to see. If self-consciousness is tough for you, try starting the beard while away on a vacation or holiday break. When you return to your regular environment, remember your commitment. Do not be shaken by the reactions of others. After all, it is your decision, not theirs. It also helps to take positive comments as supportive statements while disregarding negative comments as being irrelevant.

Picking a Beard Style

You will likely wonder which style of beard will best suit you. There is no need to make a hasty decision. You might think that you should find out what the latest fashion trends are and make your choice of beard style accordingly. Forget that. Growing a beard should never be about fashion. Growing a beard is about being yourself. It is about being a man. Grow the beard that you want without giving fashion any thought.

There will be one controlling factor in selecting the proper beard style for you. That would be genetics and the amount and configuration of beard development you have been dealt. The main rule here is to make the best of what you have. While a beard is definitely a manly thing, the ability to grow a beard varies widely among men. Some men have abundant and profuse beard growth, while others have little or even none. Most men find themselves somewhere in between. Those with scant beard-growth potential are no less manly. Let me be clear about that. The amazing variability in beard-growing ability is just one of the mysteries of the beard. The beard is a gift and gifts differ among men. Those who have the gift of the beard should share that gift by growing the beard for all to see.

For those who are physically able, I highly recommend growing the full beard. The full beard is the classic style, the iconic beard image. If you cannot produce the full beard, choose a style that makes the best use of your beard-growth pattern, be it the goatee, the chin curtain, the chin strip, or another variation.

Whichever beard style you choose, be sure not to make the most common mistake in beard-growing: premature shaping. For most beginning beard growers, it is preferable just to stop shaving altogether and let everything grow for the first four weeks or so. For many, the scruffy look during this period is too hard to bear and they yield to the temptation to clean up the look by defining a shape to the beard. The trouble is that early attempts at shaping frequently result in too much of the beard being taken off — going too high up for the neck line or going down too low on the cheek line. The resulting awkwardly-shaped beard usually does not look right and often gets discarded as a failed-attempt at growing a beard. If you really cannot afford to stick it out and avoid premature shaping, at least approach your shaping effort with the objective of taking off too little rather than too much.

Itch Relief

Many a new beard has been sacrificed for the desire for relief from itching. Do not let itching deny you your beard! After being accustomed to shaving for so long, the growth of a beard presents your skin with a new environment. Sometimes it causes a period of itchiness. Do not give up because of this. Keep growing, knowing that the itchiness should pass as your skin gets used to the presence of your beard. Remember your commitment! Meanwhile, you can soothe your itchy skin with a moisturizing lotion or other skin-care products that are used to relieve itching.

How To Care for a Beard

As your beard grows into a real beard, you will need to learn how to care for your beard. Many guys take charge of their own beard maintenance, not trusting the care of their beards to anyone else. It can be tough these days to find a barber who really knows his stuff when it comes to beard trimming. If you cannot find a barber who is sufficiently trustworthy to trim your beard, buy a beard trimmer and learn to use it. Most men find that maintaining a beard is much easier than daily shaving.

Growing a beard is an adventure that can be a surprising process of self-discovery. And it certainly is a manly thing to do. It’s even manlier to grow a beard and keep it. A recent comment sent in to beards.org puts it nicely: “Beards are just the best way to live life.” For all the information, support, and inspiration that you might need to make your beard-growing adventure a success, visit http://www.beards.org/ .

Tonights Video: jh@24

So what is the cryptic message? My son Josh is in Iceland and today he turned 24. So as a unique present that he wouldn't have to pack when he returns later this month, I created this:

Churches, Iceland and Pictures

See these two church buildings? Go ahead and look. The other day I found this webpage and what caught my attention was the first picture featuring a church in Iceland where my son is for another 3 weeks.

If you like pictures, then go over here to my picture blog.

Iceland Issues

Never before have I given as much thought to Iceland as I have in the last 9 months.

My son Josh is spending the first tri-mester of his senior year of undergraduate studies there, returning in about 5 weeks.

The group he is with from the United States was keeping us up-to-date on a blog, which hasn't been updated recently but we get emails now from Josh. Click here to go to the blog and check out the pictures! (Like the one you are looking at right now.)

One of my radio co-horts, JJ Fabini and I were talking Friday about Iceland and he commented about how beatituful the women are in Iceland, and I discovered that he had been to Iceland several years ago with his dad on a trip to Germany and they spent several hours touring the country side.

And if you haven't heard, the economy in Iceland is going thru some hardships, which may serve as a warning to our government leaders. This story was in the Wall Street Journal 4 days ago:

Dispatch From Iceland: ‘We Might Lose Our Country’

Iceland’s central bank today slashed its key policy rate for the first time since 2003 in an unscheduled announcement as the country remains perhaps the hardest hit in the financial crisis. The nation fell into crisis last week on concern that the Icelandic authorities couldn’t back up debt obligations of the struggling, almost entirely domestic-owned banking sector. Meanwhile, international trading in the krona has since all but stopped due to low confidence in the currency. Amid such broad turmoil, sometimes the plight of the average citizen gets lost. Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir, an Icelandic journalist, writes from Reykjavík to a friend in New York.

Hallgrimskirkja, a modernist church in Reykjavik, Iceland. (Getty Images)

Thanks for asking how we are — we’re fine, although the situation here is very strained. It’s such a strange feeling, having your entire perception of reality changed so drastically in a few days. Until these past weeks, we were living in one of the richest countries in the world, and although we were a little worried about the economy, nobody would have imagined anything like this storm. Now, all our biggest banks are bankrupt, our currency is basically dead, it may be difficult to buy food, oil and other necessities from abroad, and we even fear that we might lose our country, just like happened to Newfoundland. Hundreds of people are losing their jobs, many more might be losing their homes, and people’s life savings are either lost or drastically reduced. People are scared for the future, that our state may actually go bankrupt.

Everybody is very tired — watching your country suffer like this is almost like watching someone you love become ill, it’s like suffering from a broken heart. Most of our tycoons seem to have left the country, and the government is under police protection — a first — but it doesn’t seem like people are angry or aggressive. We are stunned, very surprised, that this expansion adventure that made a few people very rich but didn’t really affect the general public, has turned out this disastrous. Yes, people here bought expensive cars, and allowed themselves an annual trip to Copenhagen or to a Spanish beach, but most of us kept working 10 hours a day and kept on as we have always done.

There is also a sense of hope and unity, even a sense of humor — people seem determined to go on with their lives, even if it will be a bit harsh for a while. You can hear people all around say things like: we survived the terrible volcanic eruptions of the 18th century, we survived the frost winter of 1918, we survived famines, Black Death, earthquakes, we’ll survive this. Families and friends are coming together for dinners and chats, at night there are candles burning in the windows in most houses here, and inside people are sitting together, talking, talking, talking. Most of us are hoping something positive will come out of this, that our greed, arrogance and materialism will be replaced by care and gratitude for the more important things in life.

My family and friends are not affected by the storm yet; most of us are government workers, teachers, doctors, journalists etc., and not part of the jet set. None of us have been particularly patriotic up until now, most have lived for long periods of time outside Iceland. Now, however, we feel fiercely loyal to our nation, basically a big extended family, grandchildren of farmers and fishermen, who lost their way on the international markets.

Do you know how to type?

I got an animated text message from my son this morning. Texters and Bloggers are now in the majority it seems.

More than 50% of US adults are using text messaging, blogging and other types of social media to regularly communicate with others, according to MediaPost, which reported results from the latest wave of Universal McCann’s large-scale “Media in Mind” tracking study.

For those 18-34 years old, the reigning form of personal communication is social media, which 85% of those in this age group say they use to connect with people they know.

Below, additional findings from the survey.

Older tech, such as email and instant messaging, are also still replacing analog communications:

• 22% of all American adults say they rely on instant messaging, up from 9% in 2007.
• 21% of adults age 18-34 rely on instant messaging, up from 14% in 2007.

Mobile media is becoming a dominant force as well, as evidenced by the pervasive use of texting:

• Only 41% of US adults say they’ve never sent a text message, down 8% from a year ago.
• Among 18- to 34-year-olds, the proportion of those who have never sent a text message has fallen to 22%, a decline of 16% from last year.

Self-publishing online and reading blog content also are growing:

• 10% of US adults now publish blogs. That number was only 5% last year.
• Younger Americans publish blogs at twice that rate: Some 20% of US adults age 18-34 publish a blog, up from 10% last year.

About the research: Universal McCann’s Media in Mind study is an annual proprietary survey of 5,000+ adults that analyzes how consumers relate to media and products in their daily lives.

More Useful Websites (the College Edition)

I have two kido's doing the college thing. Abby heads back to Purdue this month, and Josh starts his senior year in Maine next month except, for the first couple of months he'll be studying in Iceland!

So the other day the DLM blog had these tips for the college-bound:

11 Things You Shouldn’t Leave For School Without

Written by Sasha R. Lahijanian, a reader of DLM that has no agendas to advance or blogs to promote, she just wants to help people.

A simple list to simplify your life.

When you first arrive at college you will be introduced to problems that you never knew existed. While no list will ever include a solution to all of your ills, this one hits on some things that you may not have considered.

Here are some cool and fairly undiscovered websites which will solve many of your everyday issues.

Trust me - finding these sites now will save you a ton of time.

• Campusi.com – Instead of looking through dozens of different websites for books, this websites finds the cheapest books offered on the internet, and shows the prices from all the other websites as well.
  


• GetChunkit.com – Instead of clicking from link to link, this add-on is able to mine every link on a web page and pulls out the information for you. Makes researching 10x faster.
  


• Instacalc.com – Online calculator that can do everything, and allows you to share your calculations with others online.
  


• Ottobib.com – Enter the book’s name or ISBN, and this website does your bibliography for you in any format.
  


• Bugmenot.com – Bugmenot lets you find and share disposable logins for popular websites that force you to register. Also use “email.bugmenot.com” for quick disposable email accounts.
  


• Teleflip.com – Have your emails forwarded to your phone as text messages.
  


• eFax.com – Nobody has a fax machine in school. So when you want to receive faxes, just use eFax. eFax will give you a phone number that you can give to people, and your faxes will show up in your inbox.
  


• Qipit.com - Take a photo of your school notes or other documents, and this service will turn them into a readable, taggable document.
  


• FranceRadio.net – Because you need to stop using Youtube for your music. And because downloading at school is a no-no.
  


• Zoho.com – If you love free things and can’t stand Microsoft, then this office suite (and much more) is for you.
  


• A hug from your dog.

What other sites or apps can you recommend to a new college student? Let us know in the comments.

Sasha

Designing Websites with Free Software.

This Summer, my son Josh as part of his internship, has designed a website using Microsoft Publisher.

A few months earlier my wife had a website designed for her business.

I know a couple of folks that are paid to design sites, but what if you want to venture into that world by yourself? You don't need to pay anything for the software according to Kim Komando.

Click here for her tip and a link.

Or just click here for the link.

A Peek at Iceland

My son Josh was back in Indiana for a week, and now he is in Ohio for a summer internship. In the fall he will be traveling to Iceland for the first tri-mester of his senior year.

While looking (Googling), for info on where he is going, I found this video:

A Very Snowflake Christmas

It began a couple years ago, as a way to make Christmas fun and unique. Snowflakes, each one is unique and so the tradition was born. Last year we had a paper snowflake contest, and this year the competition was turned up a few notches. At Thanksgiving, word went out to create a unique snowflake and win a prize. Brandon, Rachael, Josh and Madeline each brought their own creations and the voting resulted in a tie, broken by a debate and the money was handed out.


And so that everyone would be included that visited, Snowflake pajama's were given out to one and all. Thanks to everyone that came over, called, played, and sang!

Here's a group shot of the kiddo's:

Family Friends and Frenzy

FAMILY:
It was good to see Josh and Mad Sunday. They have been in Maine going to school since August. Stories will abound in the days and weeks ahead before classes resume in January. Rach came over, and we saw Abby briefly over the weekend without having to leave our home! In a couple of days we will have a houseful.




FRIENDS:
Saturday night we went to a private party hosted by our church that included dinner and dancing (drinking too)! I had previously wondered how Lutherans were supposed to party and now I know. There must have been 40 people on the dance floor doing the electric slide including a brother and sister that were at our table that were in their 80's.


FRENZY:
This past Saturday Kathy, Mike and I did the leaf collection one more time. I'm ready to invent artificial regular trees (not just Christmas trees) that retain their leaves and have electronic technology so we can change the colors without ever having to rake.





The other frenzy I was thinking about was the Christmas shopping frenzy. I recoeved in my email today a list of where folks are planning on shopping this Friday. If you want to avoid the crowds, use the following as a guide:

Planned Shopping Locations (% of all respondents)

Location

% Planning to Shop

Wal-Mart

63%

Target

57

Best Buy

43

K-Mart

28

Sears

23

Circuit City

21

Kohl's

27

Macy's

25

Victoria's Secret

17

Source: MaritzResearch, November 2007

A link to the boy and his tiger

My Favorite Son has a fascination with a comic strip that no longer exists. Well, it still exists, but it is no longer being created. It is the classic Calvin and Hobbes. While cruising thru Stumble! this weekend, I found a link for him and anyone else that wants to check out the boy and his tiger.

While MFS is off in Maine, I doubt that he packed his collection of Calvin books. This way he can have a Calvin fix from the comfort of his laptop.

Trivial info: The First Calvin and Hobbes appeared almost exactly 1 year to the day of MFS's 1st Birthday. The strip continued until MFS was 10 years old. Only MFS knows for sure when he started reading Calvin and collecting the books.

One other bit of trivial info: MFS's dad (that's me) had a stuffed tiger as a favorite for many years until I puked on it and it was to disgusting to save (according to my parents).

Somewhere I still have my stuffed bear that has these weird, life-like 3 dimensional eyes that watch you from the corner of the room.

And one day I'll find, scan and post a picture of the giant 5 foot Easter Bunny that I had as a kid.