Where Has Our Compromise Gone?

      With the events that took place in France last week, I have to ask myself , "Has compromise become obsolete?" Where was the face to face conversation that may have provided information? Where was the conversation that may have provided a small unit of understanding which may have prevented the murderous outburst?

      People may have widely opposing views, but they don't have to kill each other. It's not a black and white world. The winner takes all is a poor way to play the game.

      It seems that when two opposing views collide there's only room for one. Fight the opposing view until it is obliterated and then you get your way.

     In France it was an extremist group that insisted  that Mohammad should not be depicted in a graphical form. The other guys looked at it as a free speech issue. Somewhere there should have been a point where both sides could be accommodated  and everybody wins. Now that would take compromise.

     Some Muslim denominations want Sharia law. Fine for them, but it doesn't have to be forced on those who are a majority and do not support Sharia law 

    Compromise is missing in the Canadian Government. Prime Minister Harper wants to maintain power at any cost so he splits the opposition. He governs with 35% of the vote while 65% voted against him. Our election procedures allow him to use the system to gain power. Of course, he also cheated in the last election. Two of his members have lost their seats because of breaking election spending rules. Many other constituencies have reported robo calls but only one was charged and is now facing a jail term. He governs catering to his supporters but has no consideration for the good of the whole country.

    Christians show intolerance to each other. Ireland is a good example where Catholics and protestants slaughtered each other for many years. They had to be drawn kicking and screaming into an agreement that was a compromise.

    Why is it that groups with different views can not show some tolerance that would allow satisfaction for each. It's not win at all costs. It's not completely destroy the other guy and then you can do what you want. Doing things this way is a major failure. 

    There are many examples of cooperation and compromise to show us that compromise works. I think in Iceland the parliament members sit in a circle instead of facing each other in opposition. That's a simple idea but it works. They have to listen to each other and do not sit in an opposing way. 

     We have to concentrate on looking for examples of how compromise and cooperation work. We have to keep our eye on the positive and work hard to obtain the greatest good for all.

Snow Report

      I would think that a high percentage of my posts have been on snow. Sometimes I'm embarrassed that so many posts are on the same thing.

     Snow is a prominent part of our winter.

    This winter has been one of extremes. We'll get ten days of very cold. We'll get ten days of mild weather. Then to keep things interesting we'll get a good dump of snow. The two thaws we've had, have melted some of our snow. We've also had two rains which is rare for us.

Next time I there'll be brighter sun

    So I thought it was time to give a snow stick report. My stick location is on top of a work table I have in the yard. It's not a good place for a snow measurement but it's easy to get to. So as the snow stick shows , we have a little more than 9 in of snow. Now some of the snow has been blown off the table. Some has been blown on the table. And some has melted off the table so take your pick on how accurate this is.

    Today the sun rose at 8:36 and set at 16:53 for 8 hours and 17 min. of sunlight. We get about 45 min. more sun than on Dec. 21. We're on the way back.

My snow loaded table

My constant faithful friend

One of my favorite neighborhood trees.

The spruce at the end of my street

Oh How I Miss My Microwave...

      It's funny how much we miss something once it's gone.

      A few days ago someone wondered what it would be like if we suddenly didn't have the Internet. What would we miss? How would we handle it?

     Well, today I had to drop my microwave off for some repairs. I dropped it off in the morning and would be able to pick it up in the afternoon.

     Everything was fine until I went to start my lunch. How do I cook my soup? It took me a minute to think, "Oh ya! In a pot on the stove." I'm used to making one pot of coffee in the morning and when I want a cup of coffee I heat it in the micro wave. What happened before? Did I not drink coffee? Oh yes! We had instant coffee! Anytime you wanted coffee you boiled the kettle and made a cup of instant coffee. I even had instant coffee for breakfast. I had instant coffee at school!

    So today I suffered a little when I had to do without my micro wave. I missed it in so many ways.

    Now the repair turned into a nightmare. As soon as I saw the micro wave I could see marks on the glass part of the door. The marks wouldn't come off. The only thing they knew is that it wasn't scratched. Yes , they would replace the door. They sent me home with my micro wave to wait for a new door. Then I found the same marks on the side. I couldn't get them off either. 

   Now since I had a chance to take a close look at it, I don't think they replaced the door parts they were supposed to replace. But how do I know? I think they just greased the latches.

    So I got a double dose today as I couldn't use my micro wave and had a miserable experience with the repair.

    Wish me better luck tomorrow.

Words That Should be Banned from the English Language

    Yesterday I listened to  phone in radio show on words that should be banned from the English language. I hear one or two of these shows a year and I find them fascinating. I'm quite low key when it comes to vigorous protest. There are words that I may not like but I don't go out beating a drum to have them banned.

    So what do people want banned? Some things are expressions that are meaningless and inaccurate. Example: "like." "Like" tell me! "Like" get a life! "Like" cool man! Another example"you know". "You know" I really like blues music. "You know" Fords are the best cars.

    Others phoned into the show were "going forward" "from the get go" "irregardless"

    Other examples were just grammar errors that are repeated. One I remember was "jet fighter" when it should be fighter jet" because what you're talking about is the kind of jet so the modifier should be before the noun.

    Others criticized words the have an er added to the end. I used one the other day when I said "littler " when I should have used smaller. I use funner quite often.

    We are a community of writers with our own styles. As writers we have some interest in expression and vocabulary. Many bloggers spend a tremendous amount of time editing to polish up their post. They care. 

    I find the styles used by bloggers interesting as they have found a successful way to tell their story. Many  bloggers write as they speak. They have an interesting and sequential way writing their post.

    So are there words you would like to see banned from the English language? What words or expressions really bug you? Is "bug" one of those words you want banned from the language?

Trouble at Hiawatha House

   I've had a few problems with my blog in the past. After lots of head scratching I found solutions.

   I'm still working on the present problem. so this is just to give you a heads up on what's not happening sometimes. I'm having problems getting to the comment window in some blogs. So some people will be missing comments from time to time. I will try my est to sort this out.

    Today was a very bad day on my computer all day. I could access only a few sites. the others said not available or some expression. I found that I had to adjust some of the advanced Internet settings. It's the first time I had to do such a thing.

   So when problems show up you usually have to learn something new.

    I think I may have used some of these in old posts. but I did get them from my ipad to my desk top!

 

 

Why do selfies exaggerate your nose?

 

Bone Density Treadmill

     Today I had my bone density measured. That's the end of the story. The beginning of the story is a long time ago.

     The beginning of the story of bone density loss probably started in my mid twenties according to some study or other. Loss of bone density slowly went on in my body until a crisis occurred and then it was found that my bone density was almost in the osteoporosis category.

   Usually osteoporosis is considered a female condition. No doubt about it. Men have osteoporosis too. Males just have more bone density so more to lose. If osteoporosis affects men it's usually later on in life.

    There are a number of conditions that contribute to loss of bone density. One would be a poor diet. Another  is lack of weight bearing exercise. And a third common cause is smoking. There are more conditions that contribute to bone loss. 

    The crisis that brought my low bone density to light were two broken bones. I broke my right wrist in 1991. The bone was broken into 7 pieces. Magic and skill put the wrist together and I have full usage with no after effects. I 2002 I broke my right wrist again. This time it wasn't as serious a break. This time I said to my doc, "Should I have my bone density checked?"

    "Yes ," he said, "You should get it tested." His story was that women break hips and men break wrists???

    So my Doc put me on actonel and a bone density test every two years.  The first two tests showed some increase of bone density. Now there is little change. I have had some serious tumbles and have not broken anything. I had a nasty bike incident where I went head over heels and although I had injuries, I had no broken bones. I fell down stairs last year and lived to blog about it. 

   My point is that we get put on testing schedule and it goes on for years. My bone density has not changed. But, they keep saying they want to monitor it. I feel like telling them to go and find some wet paint to watch. 

    However, I will keep my mouth shut and keep getting tests when I'm told. I will go to the place where the hallway has little dressing rooms with littler curtains and change to get ready for my test. 

   I would suspect that many people are enjoying the same regime as I am. I hope that you are maintaining bone density.

How Much of the Story is Fact

    Our sense of reality is something that I've often thought about. On many occasions we hear people's versions of the same thing and they are quite different.

    As a child I loved listening to adults tell of their experiences. There are some people I loved to listen to even if they repeated the same story many times. A good story teller always told the same version.

    An exercise I did with my students, was to start a sentence at the front of the row and see what ended 5 seats later. All of this was oral and it was pretty wild what ended at the last of the row. Sometimes the exercise was sabotaged when they decided to deliberately twist things. Then they wanted another try to do the exercise correctly. 

   Many times we hear people giving an account of a common event and there are different versions. In fact there may be arguments about  the accuracy of the version .

   My brother and I have versions of the same event that are fairly similar. There are certain events he can not remember at all and certain things I do not recall.

   For my wife and I, quite often our version of events is quite different. Sometimes it seems that we are not even talking about the same event.

   So what makes for the differences of the perceptions we have of the same event?  Does space matter?  If I'm behind a certain event and you are ahead does that make for some difference in an account?  What influence does our life experience make in how we see an event.? What difference does experience after an event have on our account of an event? Does  being male or female make a difference in the version? Does age make a difference?

    Now I consider these issues, because like it or not, I have been labelled as a story teller on my blog. I appreciate comments which show appreciation for what I have written. 

   The stories I tell are of the experiences I've had. How close to reality are my accounts? I like to think my accounts are fairly accurate. My life has been adventurous and I've often experienced some interesting times. There are different ways to tell a good story.

   I think a combination of these things have to be in place to tell a story. The information and experience have to be present. Now the event can be fairly common place but if you have any idea of how to tell a story the event becomes interesting.

   So do you think the relation of events is always precise or is there variation.from the original?