Boat parts sales kept Grandpa alive

My Grandfather was one of the original boat parts resellers on the lake he and Grandma lived on in northern California. They originally moved to the area from the mid-west in the early 1950's and decided they wanted to live on the shoreline of that beautiful lake.

Grandpa had worked for almost 25 years in a factory that built outboard motors for small to medium sized watercraft. As a consequence, it had always been his dream to retire and fish away his remaining years. Well, Grandmother would have none of that.

When they moved to California, Grandfather immediately saw a need for the local community to have a retailer they could count on for the parts and accessories they desired for their boats. He only had to hear someone ask him where to buy OMC parts so many times before he opened shop.

Ironically, it was Grandma who was behind him all the way. Even though they were going to risk most of their retirement savings on opening the business, she knew that without it he would likely not live long enough to spend the money they had saved their entire adult lives.

Happily, as it turned out, that business is still humming along, and though my grandparents have both passed, they lived long, fruitful and happy lives as a result.

The People Who Designed the Jackson Funeral Did Some Good After All

I was watching the Michael Jackson funeral today , and I thought everyone did a pretty good job. I was a little wary of Rev. Al Sharpton, but then he kept it cool and did well. I really liked the part where he mentioned (or was it that Democratic Representative from the House?) that people in South Africa and lots of other people in the world were also mourning. Specifically, they said from Birmingham, Alabama to Birmingham, England. I didn’t even know that there was a Birmingham, England.

I’m sure the folks designing business strategy in Birmingham were happy to hear that little mention! I’m sure all those people that work on search engine optimisation in Birmingham are going to get a few more hits for their businesses. And finally, I’m sure that lots of people were very happy with how all of it all turned out, and the incredible intimate look at a genius’ life. These were provided by Magic Johnson, Brooke Shield, the guy who founded Motown Records but most of all, from his young daughter, Paris.

I wonder why we villify throughout our history those gentle geniuses who seem so weird at the time but turn out to be major contributing figures in the end?

Teaching kids to play

A lot of people don't seem to understand this, but you actually have to kind of teach kids to play when they are little. If you never show them how you want them to play, chances are they are going to find a lot of things that you don't want them to do in order to amuse themselves.

A prime example is, unfortunately, my three and four-year-old nephews. Their mother is rather, er, hands off about raising them (that's a nice way of saying lazy), and as a result they don't really seem to know how to play without hitting, pushing, or throwing things.

My nephews also don't have the kinds of toys you would expect at that age, such as wooden toys or jigsaw puzzles, which I think is part of the problem. They have some cars, but mostly their toy box is full of dart guns and balls, which aren't really good toys for teaching kids to play nicely, and a bunch of push button toys — you know, the kind where all it's really good for is pushing a button and making it talk, or make gun sounds, or make some kind of movement. Those toys may seem really cool to kids at first, but they are also the kind that kids lose interest in quickly, because they only do one or two things and once you've gotten bored of that, you've gotten bored of the toy.

The difference I'm talking about here is, of course, open ended toys. A while back I read and thoroughly enjoyed a book called The Case for Make-Believe, which talks a lot about open ended toys and encouraging imaginative play. The author states that a good toy is 10 percent toy and 90 percent your child's imagination, and I totally agree.

But of course, you still have to teach your kids how to "play pretend" — or at least get them started. Once you show them how to use their imaginations, they tend to take it from there on their own, but they do need a little bit of guidance to be sure they don't learn bad habits such as playing too rough.

Research is Easy on the Internet

Every now and then you hear about how modern technology is dumbing us down. It's true that we waste a lot of time watching silly YouTube videos. But I think that the Internet has actually made the average person more knowledgeable. That's because it's so much easier to research your interests now than it ever was before.

For example, I recently picked up a magazine at my dentist's office that mentioned the popularity of visiting ice fields. The article was about Canadian travel. It said that one of the most popular things to do in Banff, Canada is to visit the large ice field located there. I'd never heard about this before and got curious about it.

When I got home, I immediately started looking up ice fields. I learned a lot about them really quickly using basic websites like Wikipedia. I can now tell you how ice fields are formed, where they are located and what types of activities people enjoy when they visit them. It only took a couple of hours to gain this knowledge.

If I didn't have Internet access, I probably wouldn't have bothered to pursue learning anything about ice fields. They interest me but I wasn't dying to know about them so I wouldn't have sought out books on the topic. For this reason, I think the Internet makes it easier for us to access and use knowledge than was ever possible in the past.

Writers Do More Than Just Writing

I used to always tell people that I'm a writer. Although I do writing for a living, I've stopped saying this so much anymore. That's because a lot of the work that I do these days involves tasks that aren't necessarily heavy on the writing.

One of the things that has happened with the recession is that print writing jobs have become scarce. At the same time, web writing jobs have become more prevalent since many magazines and newspapers are switching to all-digital content. As a writer, it's been necessary to do more writing for the web.

Writing for the web involves a lot more than just writing. For example, let's say that I get hired to do web content writing for a Tampa business. This work might involve doing SEO writing, internet marketing or Tampa website promotion. At the same time, I might have a job working as a San Francisco live music reviewer which includes doing interviews and attending events.

The core work that I do is still writing. However, there's a lot more involved in my job than just that. Telling someone that I write doesn't really explain what I do. So, if you're planning to ask me what I do for a living, get prepared for a lengthy answer!