Asides

Categories
Big Picture life

Teach your kids not to suck.

special2.jpgTo say that growing up I was nice to every kid that I came into contact with would be a flat-out lie. I think that me and some of my classmates could have put a couple of kids in therapy later in life. I was not a bully. I have never been in a fight in my life. My quick tongue kept me out of those. I did pick on kids that were different from me. I’m not proud of it, but it happened.

My 5th grade teacher taught me a lesson one day. We made fun of some girl in our class, don’t ask me why maybe she said something silly or whatever. Our teacher said, “You guys are making fun of her?” He then proceeded to pick something off each one of us. Me? He said,”Souza, you got a big booger hanging out of your nose, maybe we should call you Booger-Nose.” Now, by today’s standard, I could have him brought up on charges, but then, it did what it was meant to do; Put me in my place.

I have a simple request for all parents: Teach your kids not to suck. (Underlying message: Teach them some acceptance.) When you see a child with Downs Syndrome, tell your child not to stare. When you see someone in a wheelchair, explain to your child that they use a chair because they can’t walk. Explain to them that just because they look different from you, that they have the same feelings as you. Don’t use the term “retard”, it degrading. Special Olympics has started a campaign to end the use of the “R-Word.”

When my son sits down next to your kids and they scoot away and say “eeewwww.” It hurts. I’m not naive enough to think that kids will stop being kids, but if you can teach your kids that we are all God’s creatures, we will go a lot further on this planet.

r-word.org

Categories
Baseball

1 Down, 161 to go

rangLet me use every possible baseball quote here:  “It’s a long season”, “We have to take them one game at a time”, “We got roughed  up today, but we will get back out there tomorrow”, etc, etc, etc.  The Tribe dropped their season opener in Texas 9 – 1.  Cliff Lee came in with a Cy Young award and left the game with a 12.60 era.  He has stuggled all spring, but then came into this game and sat the first 3 batters down like spring training didn’t even happen.  Then the implosion, 4 runs in the secon and a three-run home run in the 5th.

I gave my outlook for this year  on January 29th. Two months have passed and I thought I better look and see what look different now that the season has started.
Closer – Well the game was a blow-out, so I will have to get back to you on this.
Power-Hitting DH – Well, Travis did get his at bats this spring so I look for him to put up 30 & 100.
3B – Still like Mark DeRosa, looking forward to having him this year.
Rotation – I thought I would not have to worry about 1-2 in the rotation, but this spring Lee was bad and Carmona looked more like the ace.  Pavano started out bad and got a lot better as the pre-season went on.  Still worried about the 4 & 5 spots.
Opening Day line up – OK, how close did I get it?
Predicted                    Actual
1. Sizemore                 1. Sizemore
2. DeRosa                   2. DeRosa
3. Hafner                    3. Martinez
4. Martinez                 4. Hafner
5. Peralta                    5. Peralta
6. Garko                     6. Choo
7. Fransisco                7. Shoppach
8. Choo                       8. Fransisco
9. Cabrera                   9. Cabrera
OK, so only 4 out of 9 spots, but 8 out of 9 players.  They sat Garko against Millwood, a lefty.

I’m just happy that baseball is back.  That means that summer is coming and the temperature is on it’s way back up.  I still think the Tribe has the chops to win the AL Central.  (and Sickles, the White Sox suck).

Categories
Autism

Simple Autism Facts

Logo_WAAD.jpgToday, April 2, is World Autism Awareness Day. Rather than make a grand story about autism, I thought I would give you the simple facts to make you more aware. Everyday is World Autism Awareness Day in our house.

Autism Facts:

  • A Child is diagnosed with autism every 20 minutes
  • 1 out of 150 children have autism
  • Boys are 4 times more likely to be afflicted than girls
  • More children have autism than: diabetes, cancer, Downs, and AIDS Combined
  • These is no test for autism and no cure.
  • 1 million people in the U.S. have autism

Early detection is the key.  If you are a parent, grand-parent, friend, teacher or caregiver, know these early Red Flags:

  • No big smiles or other warm, joyful expressions by six months or thereafter
  • No back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles, or other facial expressions by nine months or thereafter
  • No babbling by 12 months
  • No back-and-forth gestures, such as pointing, showing, reaching, or waving by 12 months
  • No words by 16 months
  • No two-word meaningful phrases (without imitating or repeating) by 24 months
  • Any loss of speech or babbling or social skills at any age

My last bit of advice for new parents: Do your research on immunizations. Is it a cause? Is it a trigger?  I have read both sides until I’m blue in the face.  Just do your research and know the facts.

The more people understand, the easier it will be on everyone.  As we take time today to raise awareness, do me a favor:  Learn something about autism and share it with your family.  Knowledge is power.

Categories
life Web Stuff

Pause button….for 20 years.

pause.jpgAhhhh, the Facebook. A place to connect with friends of old and new. A place to see what is going on in your friends life. A place to upload drunk pictures from your phone.

I believe that the greatest aspect to FB is the ability to reconnect with long-lost friends. Over the past year, I have reconnected with the two people (outside of mom and dad) that I have known since I was 4 years old. While not all my relationships go back that far, I have shot over the 400 friend mark thanks in large part to my high school/college friends.

Of course, the first things that you ask each other, “What have you been up to?” Wow, take a second to think about that. If you had not seen someone for 20+ years, how do you summarize you life. Do you simply focus on your personal life? (Got married, have x kids, run marathons) Maybe professional life? (Worked for XYZ Corp, started my own business, etc.) Maybe you just take the highlights of both.

I think what I’m going to do is to write up my bio in short form to be able to let people know what I’m up to. Maybe take a page from Twitter and summarize it in 140 characters. Here’s my first attempt:

SIU grad, worked at bank, went into investments, married Jennifer, one son: Truce(has autism), started Souza Financial, try to write more

That’s 137 characters, enough to fit in a Twitter window. But I didn’t say anything about living in Hoopeston, getting engaged and married on the same day in Las Vegas, my Indians tattoo, anything about my parents or brothers.

I just found an old friend the other day on FB and his question was, “Do you still listen to Anthrax?” Understand that my license plate used to read ANTHRX 2. Boy, hit the pause button for 20 years and that’s what he remembered? It’s who I was, but I almost felt like a sell-out to say that I still like them, but don’t listen on the regular. It’s funny to look back 20 years and think of all that you have been through and to summarize that in 2 or 3 sentences. When I get the 140 character bio perfected, I will post it here.

Categories
Big Picture Economy Web Stuff

Dan Ariely on TED

I found another TED talk that is worth sharing. This one is by Dan Ariely. He’s a faculty member at MIT. His talk is about “Why we think it OK to cheat and steal (sometimes). He shares his insight to the recent round of wall street woes. It’s 18 minutes, so grab a cup of coffee and watch away.