Before you drive over to your local Wal-Mart or Sam's Club (same owners, multi-BILLIONAIRE Walton family) and go wandering around their 20,000 square foot store looking for some tiny thing nestled way in the back, watch the following movie. Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. Really eye opening to say the least. Jules and I recently got it from Blockbuster online but it is probably possible to find it on NetFlix or even your local movie store.
It is pretty disgusting the way that unchecked anything-for-a-buck capitalism and corporate greed has demolished any sense of trust that consumers can have in the products that they buy. There doesn't appear to be any accountability for the rip offs out there. Some people may say "well that's what you'd expect from a place where you can get cheap clothing." There is a difference between getting a deal because of smart shopping and getting a deal at the expense of someone else's livelihood. Let us not forget that many of the products that we get in the great USA are made overseas by workers that get barely enough money to live (and not at poverty level, like our USA Wal-Mart employees mind you). It may be difficult to make smart consumer choices when it seems that everything is unPC at times. Do you eat farm raised salmon or not, should I buy this J. Crew shirt made for pennies in Malaysia, what happens to the waste products of the computer manufacturing company in Korea? Tough, tough and I know that I am not by any means innocent of consumer misinformation or apathy myself. But just ask yourself the question the next time you go to a McDonald's or a Wal-Mart or any other store guilty of poor payment and treatment of workers or life (animals too!).....Do I want to support the poor ethics of this company and reinforce their shady dealings with my dollars? You decide.....
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Great Success!
For those of you that know my Dad, he isn't easily surprised but my Mom and all us kids pulled a big one on him. He turns 60 on February 26 and to celebrate, my Mom put together a surprise party at a local restaurant. It has been in the works for several months now and I am amazed that there was no tip off or bungle that ruined the party. Regardless, it went perfectly and as he entered the restaurant, he was greeted by many of his friends and family. The look of shock on his face was priceless..... 
and once he realized what was happening, all he could do was give my Mom a big high five (a la Borat....hence the title of this post) and hug.
After that, it was on to the Grand Marniers and congratulations from all the revelers. We had gotten to the restaurant earlier in the day to decorate the room with streamers, flowers in watering pots painted especially for the occasion, and Happy Birthday signs. Lindsay (my sister) did a great job acting as the liason for the gathering and organized the invitations and RSVP list with a detail savvy mindset. Julia and I lent our artistic prowess to the invitations and watering pots as well as getting the tables ready for the celebration. But the biggest congrats has to go to my Mom for scheming the whole idea in the first place. I am sure she just about has an ulcer from having to remain tight lipped about the whole thing when she was around my Dad. She even went as far to delete her informational e-mails from the "sent e-mail" folder after she sent us a message about the party. Pretty sneaky.....I guess she picked something up from all those deviants she nabbed while working in security for Verizon. The evening closed with a gift extravaganza back at Chez Lehmann where my Dad got to see how much people really appreciated him being their family member and friend. I am sure he'll keep plenty busy planting all the flowers and hitting all the golf balls he's going to buy.
and once he realized what was happening, all he could do was give my Mom a big high five (a la Borat....hence the title of this post) and hug.After that, it was on to the Grand Marniers and congratulations from all the revelers. We had gotten to the restaurant earlier in the day to decorate the room with streamers, flowers in watering pots painted especially for the occasion, and Happy Birthday signs. Lindsay (my sister) did a great job acting as the liason for the gathering and organized the invitations and RSVP list with a detail savvy mindset. Julia and I lent our artistic prowess to the invitations and watering pots as well as getting the tables ready for the celebration. But the biggest congrats has to go to my Mom for scheming the whole idea in the first place. I am sure she just about has an ulcer from having to remain tight lipped about the whole thing when she was around my Dad. She even went as far to delete her informational e-mails from the "sent e-mail" folder after she sent us a message about the party. Pretty sneaky.....I guess she picked something up from all those deviants she nabbed while working in security for Verizon. The evening closed with a gift extravaganza back at Chez Lehmann where my Dad got to see how much people really appreciated him being their family member and friend. I am sure he'll keep plenty busy planting all the flowers and hitting all the golf balls he's going to buy.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Long time between posts! Sorry :(
Hey everyone, so sorry for the span of time between this and my last post. You know how daily life gets....all the little things that seem to monopolize our time. I just like to have a larger chunk of time to sit and write something and haven't had that since school has started.
Speaking of school, it is going great! This term we are being introduced to the two other modalities of Oriental Medicine: Japanese Acupuncture style and Herbal Medicine. I have intro classes in each of these and am finding the Japanese style very intriguing. The treatments are a little less invasive than the Chinese style since the needles are inserted superficially and typically thinner gauge than the Chinese needles. It is primarily based on treating imbalances in the energy/Qi meridians that run throughout the body. With a few well placed needles you can get some amazing results. I have personally had this style and while skeptical at first (because I didn't really feel any Qi sensation, which is the heaviness that normally accompanies the needle in a highly effective treatment) it really seemed to help me on a more subtle level. We have also been working on our palpation skills since a lot of the Japanese style diagnosis is based on pulse readings and abdominal palpation. The Herbal class is very interesting as well but a little drier. Much of the material in it just has to be memorized. With that in mind though, it may be one of the more powerful Oriental Medicine treatments available if you don't mind swallowing pills or herbs "dissolved" in water. Many of these herbs are kinda smelly, bitter, and downright nasty tasting which leads you to the problem of having a patient comply with taking them. They are natural though and can effect a great change in the body if taken regularly and properly. Anyway, we have to chose our tracks very soon and I will embark upon the Dual Track which includes the standard Chinese style acupuncture, as well as the Japanese style and Herbal Medicine. A lot of work I know but I figure that since I am in school, I might as well learn all there is to know about Chinese medicine.
On the other side of things, I have been enjoying the winter here in Boston. We had an opportunity to go skiing in Western Massachusetts a couple of weeks back when Julia's Dad's family was at Jiminy Peak. It was nice to see them (they're from Florida) and the skiing wasn't too bad once it warmed up a tad and melted some of the ice. A excellent training session for our trip to Jay Peak in Vermont over President's Weekend. After our visit with them, we drove down to Julia's Mom's place in Bloomsburg to spend some time with her family. It was great to see everyone and have an opportunity to catch up with the little ones as well as the big ones, particularly Julia's cousin Matt who was back from China for a little while and had some interesting stories to share. Here's a picture of my sweetie with one of her sweeties, Remme.
Jules and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary on January 27th as well.....a day I'll never forget since it was the night before the Ravens won their first Super Bowl and the day I met my Jules.
Anyway, we made a wonderful dinner of seafood risotto and just relished the time we had together while snuggling on the couch.
On the entertainment side of things, I have seen two good movies lately. Cloverfield, which was developed by LOST creator J. J . Abrams, and There Will Be Blood, the much heralded Oscar worthy film starring Daniel Day Lewis. Cloverfield (which I saw alone since Jules isn't a big fan of monster movies) was excellent although the shaky filming style got to me a bit. If you are a little unsure think Blair Witch Project on steroids. Anyway, if you do go see it, some friends of mine mentioned that if you sit way in the back, it isn't so bad. The movie did a great job of creating an eerie feeling throughout and you really had no idea of what the monster was for a while. You only got to see NYC getting the crap beat out of it. Seems NYC is a popular place these days seeing the I Am Legend also had the city, deserted this time, as it's centerpiece as well. There were a couple of freaky parts but not too terrorizing considering its PG-13 rating. It certainly kept my attention all the way through and left me satisfied. There Will Be Blood was our most recent film foray. Jules and I both enjoyed it and felt like the nearly 3 hour film did an excellent job of remaining on task and upbeat throughout. By upbeat, I mean not dull, since the subject matter and DD Lewis' character's outlook on people was a little depressing. Of course, DD Lewis did an amazing job as the Oilman whose only aim in life is to make money and keep others from succeeding. It is a little tough to get a bead on what his true motivations are since even his "son" isn't that meaningful to him as evidenced by his actions in the film. I'd be interested to hear what people think about the ending and to get an idea about what DD Lewis meant with his final words. Oh, I also loved the music....very haunting and conveyed the fire sweltering under the oilman character particularly well.
On our vacation last month to St. Maarten, I also got into the Golden Compass Trilogy written by Philip Pullman. I finished 2 of the 3 while on vacation and quickly devoured the 3rd once I was home. If you like Harry Potter you will definitely get a charge out of this series as well. There is a lot more philosophical and religious material in this series than Potter so it makes for a significantly more involved read. The basic premise is that there is an impending war that is developing between the Authority (God & the Church) and those that believe in the value of free will. A young girl and her older boy companion are drawn into this conflict and hold the key to tipping the balance in either direction. Perhaps the coolest thing about the series is the idea that each of the characters has a daemon, which is an animal that accompanies you throughout your life and is able to do things for you as well as reveal your internal emotions to the world. An adult's daemon stays fixed in one form while a child's can change. The difference between the adult and child is also a major part of the stories. Jules and I saw the movie version of the first book and I found it to be pretty true to the book, except for the requisite happy Hollywood ending.
Finally, yesterday we headed over to our friend's Alli and Steve's house to celebrate the Patriots-Giants Super Bowl game. After various appetizers, chicken fingers, chili, and little football shaped whoopie pies, we settled in to watch......one of most frustrating games I have ever seen. The Giants defense did a fantastic job of stifling Golden Boy Tom Brady's offense and instead of watching a blowout, we were treated to a game where you just knew a single big play was going to seal a victory for one side. Well, that play came on the Giants' fourth quarter drive when their receiver made one of the luckiest catches I have ever since.....made even more lucky by the fact that Eli Manning almost got dragged down by the Pats defense on the play (check out the YouTube videos if you don't believe me). After that, it was hard to remain positive about the Pats chances and ultimately they fell in defeat despite an undefeated record up to that point. It certainly is a shame but we know that they'll be back in that position again in the future. Of course, the Ravens are going to give them a run for their money in '08 but until then, I guess it's all about rooting for the Celtics.
Speaking of school, it is going great! This term we are being introduced to the two other modalities of Oriental Medicine: Japanese Acupuncture style and Herbal Medicine. I have intro classes in each of these and am finding the Japanese style very intriguing. The treatments are a little less invasive than the Chinese style since the needles are inserted superficially and typically thinner gauge than the Chinese needles. It is primarily based on treating imbalances in the energy/Qi meridians that run throughout the body. With a few well placed needles you can get some amazing results. I have personally had this style and while skeptical at first (because I didn't really feel any Qi sensation, which is the heaviness that normally accompanies the needle in a highly effective treatment) it really seemed to help me on a more subtle level. We have also been working on our palpation skills since a lot of the Japanese style diagnosis is based on pulse readings and abdominal palpation. The Herbal class is very interesting as well but a little drier. Much of the material in it just has to be memorized. With that in mind though, it may be one of the more powerful Oriental Medicine treatments available if you don't mind swallowing pills or herbs "dissolved" in water. Many of these herbs are kinda smelly, bitter, and downright nasty tasting which leads you to the problem of having a patient comply with taking them. They are natural though and can effect a great change in the body if taken regularly and properly. Anyway, we have to chose our tracks very soon and I will embark upon the Dual Track which includes the standard Chinese style acupuncture, as well as the Japanese style and Herbal Medicine. A lot of work I know but I figure that since I am in school, I might as well learn all there is to know about Chinese medicine.
On the other side of things, I have been enjoying the winter here in Boston. We had an opportunity to go skiing in Western Massachusetts a couple of weeks back when Julia's Dad's family was at Jiminy Peak. It was nice to see them (they're from Florida) and the skiing wasn't too bad once it warmed up a tad and melted some of the ice. A excellent training session for our trip to Jay Peak in Vermont over President's Weekend. After our visit with them, we drove down to Julia's Mom's place in Bloomsburg to spend some time with her family. It was great to see everyone and have an opportunity to catch up with the little ones as well as the big ones, particularly Julia's cousin Matt who was back from China for a little while and had some interesting stories to share. Here's a picture of my sweetie with one of her sweeties, Remme.
Jules and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary on January 27th as well.....a day I'll never forget since it was the night before the Ravens won their first Super Bowl and the day I met my Jules.Anyway, we made a wonderful dinner of seafood risotto and just relished the time we had together while snuggling on the couch.
On the entertainment side of things, I have seen two good movies lately. Cloverfield, which was developed by LOST creator J. J . Abrams, and There Will Be Blood, the much heralded Oscar worthy film starring Daniel Day Lewis. Cloverfield (which I saw alone since Jules isn't a big fan of monster movies) was excellent although the shaky filming style got to me a bit. If you are a little unsure think Blair Witch Project on steroids. Anyway, if you do go see it, some friends of mine mentioned that if you sit way in the back, it isn't so bad. The movie did a great job of creating an eerie feeling throughout and you really had no idea of what the monster was for a while. You only got to see NYC getting the crap beat out of it. Seems NYC is a popular place these days seeing the I Am Legend also had the city, deserted this time, as it's centerpiece as well. There were a couple of freaky parts but not too terrorizing considering its PG-13 rating. It certainly kept my attention all the way through and left me satisfied. There Will Be Blood was our most recent film foray. Jules and I both enjoyed it and felt like the nearly 3 hour film did an excellent job of remaining on task and upbeat throughout. By upbeat, I mean not dull, since the subject matter and DD Lewis' character's outlook on people was a little depressing. Of course, DD Lewis did an amazing job as the Oilman whose only aim in life is to make money and keep others from succeeding. It is a little tough to get a bead on what his true motivations are since even his "son" isn't that meaningful to him as evidenced by his actions in the film. I'd be interested to hear what people think about the ending and to get an idea about what DD Lewis meant with his final words. Oh, I also loved the music....very haunting and conveyed the fire sweltering under the oilman character particularly well.
On our vacation last month to St. Maarten, I also got into the Golden Compass Trilogy written by Philip Pullman. I finished 2 of the 3 while on vacation and quickly devoured the 3rd once I was home. If you like Harry Potter you will definitely get a charge out of this series as well. There is a lot more philosophical and religious material in this series than Potter so it makes for a significantly more involved read. The basic premise is that there is an impending war that is developing between the Authority (God & the Church) and those that believe in the value of free will. A young girl and her older boy companion are drawn into this conflict and hold the key to tipping the balance in either direction. Perhaps the coolest thing about the series is the idea that each of the characters has a daemon, which is an animal that accompanies you throughout your life and is able to do things for you as well as reveal your internal emotions to the world. An adult's daemon stays fixed in one form while a child's can change. The difference between the adult and child is also a major part of the stories. Jules and I saw the movie version of the first book and I found it to be pretty true to the book, except for the requisite happy Hollywood ending.
Finally, yesterday we headed over to our friend's Alli and Steve's house to celebrate the Patriots-Giants Super Bowl game. After various appetizers, chicken fingers, chili, and little football shaped whoopie pies, we settled in to watch......one of most frustrating games I have ever seen. The Giants defense did a fantastic job of stifling Golden Boy Tom Brady's offense and instead of watching a blowout, we were treated to a game where you just knew a single big play was going to seal a victory for one side. Well, that play came on the Giants' fourth quarter drive when their receiver made one of the luckiest catches I have ever since.....made even more lucky by the fact that Eli Manning almost got dragged down by the Pats defense on the play (check out the YouTube videos if you don't believe me). After that, it was hard to remain positive about the Pats chances and ultimately they fell in defeat despite an undefeated record up to that point. It certainly is a shame but we know that they'll be back in that position again in the future. Of course, the Ravens are going to give them a run for their money in '08 but until then, I guess it's all about rooting for the Celtics.
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