Why do I keep pushing

Some people ask me (I don't know who, let's just go with some people and keep going with my train of thought OK?) "Why do you push, push, push all the time, just let go and relax." The problem is a few things. 1.) I'm a type A personality (if you have ever met me for 3 minutes you probably are aware of this), 2.) I only really try to focus my time and do things I care about (yes this is selfish, but God only gives us x amount of time on this planet, so want to do the stuff that I enjoy and/or can benefit others by doing) - which means I care about it and so I have to push hard to either be able to do what others want or be able to get my hands around what's going on to contribute, and 3.) Because I honestly don't know any other way. 

Now I could write a blog post simply on each of these, and I very well may in the future; but today I just wanted to jump on and type this and say... I care. If you see me getting frustrated, angry, or just impatient it's because I care - and I want to try and do the best thing for everyone. Inside my head I have the same problems that everyone does: fear, depression, anxiety, regret, etc - but outside I have to be this bolstering person to either instill confidence in others or to just fool myself into doing what needs to be done to make things better. 

Maybe I'm less of a person for admitting this on the internet. Maybe I'm just crazy and will regret this latter as some future employer or worse sees this and knocks me off of a short list. But, In all truth, I'd rather be honest with you than be fake (which is another post for another day [crap, I've got at least 5 more posts on this one alone -score-]).  

So in summary - I push because I care, and if you see me pushing you, it's because I care about what your doing and who you are.

-J

Zoo Day

One of the nicest things that Mary and I received for Christmas last year was a family membership to the Cincinnati Zoo. (Again, thank you to my Uncle Dick and Aunt Judy for such a nice gift!) If you have kids and never taken them to a "good" zoo, please do so. There are several GREAT zoos in the world and not all of them are just animals sitting around looking like bumps on a log.  

Having a zoo membership is great, we can go when we want to, get in, and stay as long as we feel my son will tolerate it and then leave. We feel no pressure to "see everything" or be forced to move at break neck speed to go do something else, because if we miss it on this trip, we'll just come back in a week or so and see it again. The other nice thing is that zoo membership gets you into "associated" zoos across the US, so if I'm traveling to San Francisco and for whatever reason I just wanted to hang out with lions, I could go and show my card and either get in for free or at a steep discount. Most zoos will also give you a discount on food and items purchsed in the zoo to members, plus the usual other stuff that zoos do for members like member's only nights, zoo formal parties, and so on. But let's keep it to stuff you'll actually do - discounts on food is nice - especially when it's $3 for a bottle of water and you only pay $2.50 (yes, I'm cheap, but that $0.50 is going to pay for some nice trinket for my son).  

So go out and see zoos, they're fun, realitivly inexpensive, and a great way to spend a day.

Also - if you want to see some of the photos I took (only the good ones) look in the photo gallary, they're after the Washington DC photos. I've also put some animated .Gif's at the very end of the gallery with an ocelot jumping and a cheetah moving at top speed.

 - J

Sometimes... I can be a jerk

OK, so my mom posted the below on Facebook, and I well... had to respond...

Now, I'm not normally a jerk... yes, I can be smarmy and sometimes nit picky - but I think that maybe this response might have been in the land of jerk... so publicly - on this blog "Mom, I apologize for being a jerk."  

That being said - who doesn't know about country of origin markings... I mean, like duh!

 -J

Joys of being a father

So this weekend Sam and I were alone (mommy had to work during the day). And we had some fun. Saturday we worked on getting the house in order and picked up the toys, and did the laundry, went to church, and then watched some Pingu (which is his favorite penguin on netflix apparently). On Sunday he decided to get up waaaaay to early and so we had little to do, so we went to the park and played catch (well, as much as I can play catch with a 2.5 year old, I threw the ball and he picked it up and put it back in my glove... he did try throwing a few times, he's much better with an over hand throw than the under hand), and he played on the slides, swings, and some ride-able dinosaurs (raptors I think); then we took mommy some lunch from chipoltle, and went home... he fell asleep once we pulled in and I put him down for a nap. Then we went back to the park and played a little more. 

It's kind of nice to have this father/son bonding time. I know that I'm lucky to be able to do it when he's this young and impressionable - but I keep thinking maybe I need to do something else with him, and maybe I need to have some down time to myself. 

Maybe that's what this blog is about... my downtime and musing what I could  be doing instead ;)

- J

Starting out

OK, 

If your reading this then HOW DID YOU FIND ME? I've been hiding for so long! Now you've found me, crap... OK I guess I should tell you a little about myself... wait - no that's over in the about me area - OK if you don't know about me, click about me! HA that problem is solved. This whole blogging thing isn't so hard... now what do I write about?

Crap... OK ummm well, I got this new webpage, I've actually had it for a while - but finally decided to upgrade, maintain it. Make it look somewhat cooler. 

If your on Facebook with me, then you'll get more of the unfiltered Thatcher experience (it also means I know who you are) - if it's on here it's going to be ramblings about things that my family/friends probably are sick of hearing me talk about (namely work, music, anime, politics, and religion -- I've always heard those last two are the ones that scare people off... are you gone yet? Crap...) 

-- J