The Aging Cubs Fan

I'm from Chicago...well the suburbs actually. I believe I was a Cubs fan since birth. When I was young I remember watching the games on WGN with Jack Brickhouse announcing (Harry Carrey would come to Wrigley later). I couldn't tell you how many wins or losses they had. I loved watching the games, that was all. I loved Rick Monday, Billy Williams, Don Kessinger, Jose Cardinal (with his wild afro sticking out both sides of his cap), Randy Hundley, Ron Santos. These were my Cubs as a child.

I didn't really know a lot about the World Series at that time, I just loved baseball, I loved the Cubs. Hated the White Sox because you couldn't like both teams. Living in the south suburbs, most of the neighbor kids liked the"south side hitmen", not me, I loved the Cubs. I never realized that the Cubs hadn't won a World Series in a long time. I didn't realize that my dad wasn't even alive the last time they won a world series. I just knew they were my Cubs, and I had to root for them.

And I loved Wrigley Field. I loved the vines on the outfield wall, the old clock on the score board. I loved watching the people sitting in lawn chairs on the roof of the buildings just beyond the outfield...there's actually bleachers there now. I remember Dad taking a day off work to take the family to see the Cubs; and as the older kids moved on, got married or went to college, it was just dad and me. I remember when Uncle Doug came for a visit and the three of us went to a game. It was magical. I think that was my last Cubs game at Wrigley. I've been to two or three Cubs games at Dodgers Stadium since moving to California, but it just isn't the same.

As I grew older I became aware of the Cubs' reputation as the "lovable losers" and I began to realize the meaning of "there's always next year". Still I cheered for the Cubs. I held out hope that one day the Cubs would in fact win the World Series. Last season was particularly exciting for me. The Cubs had the best record in the National league for most of the season. I was sure they would make it all the way. I was ready to print up bumper stickers reading " This is 'Next Year'". But alas it was not meant to be, and to make things worse, they were swept in the playoff by the LA Dodgers (my lovely wife's team).

My Dad is 81 and has never seen the Cubs win a world series, yet he still cheers for them. I'm not sure if any living Cubs fan remembers the 1908 World Series...I kinda doubt it. I don't know if my dad has conceded the fact that he will probably not see the Cubs win a World Series in his lifetime. When I set out to write this blog post, I was planning to tell you that last seasons disastrous finish had led me to concede that fact, concede that I would never see the Cubs win a World Series. But in writing this, I find I still have hope, beyond all rational thought, and despite 101 years of evidence to the contrary, that some day I will cheer my Cubbies to a World Series win. ...Maybe Next Year!

Scary driver

If you live in the San Bernardino area, you probably are familiar with Old Waterman Canyon Road. This is a road that heads from the lower end of Highway 18, to about a third of the way up to Lake Arrowhead, where it again connects to Highway 18. It is a relatively narrow two lane road, and is a bit straighter than the twists of the lower end of highway 18. Although there really is no logical reason to take OWCR rather than the highway (I've timed it, it save absolutely no tine unless there is an accident on the lower part of the highway), I usually take this route on my way up the mountain. I did so today after having my car serviced, and almost came to regret it.

You know those moments when you're faced with impending mortality and they say your life passes before your eyes? Well today there wasn't time even for the highlight real. I was coming up Old Waterman at about 55 (I go up faster than I come down, ask me if you want to know why). I was approaching the first bridge (I think there's three as you go up) which is barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other. The bridge was in sight, but not too close yet, but I started to slow down because there was a full sized pick up crossing the bridge coming down and I knew I could not pass him on the bridge. Suddenly as the truck came off the bridge and was nearing me, there were two truck. A smaller pick up apparently thought the larger truck was going too slow (or they were both racing?) and came off the bridge into my lane. I hit the brakes and started praying and bracing for collision (and all that a collision would mean...hospital time, more time off work, loss of income...no wonder I had no time for my laife to flash by). Then, just when I should have felt the small truck hit me, I saw him fly by the right side of my car off the road in the dirt, and in my rear view mirror I saw him getting back on the road in front of the bigger truck. After catching my breathe, and smiling in relief that I wasn't dead, I contemplated calling the police and realized by the time I got off hold, the two trucks would have reached the bottom, and who could tell which way they had gone from there. So I thanked God and continued my drive up the road. Will I let this incident scare me off Old Waterman Canyon Road..I don't Think so!

Just a thank you

No witty post, or confessions today. No humorous insights. Just a not of thanks to everyone who prayed for Cece, my niece's tiny baby girl who had surgery today to remove 20 inches of her colon that was not functioning properly.

Special thanks to Melissa Joan Hart who re-posted my prayer request on twitter, spreading the word to her 17,000 followers.
Thank you

Maturing Musically, Part 2: Under the Covers

It is my firm belief that most of the really Great songs have already been written. Hand in hand with this belief is a belief that at least 80% of the new music coming out today is pure garbage...of course this may be the ravings of a grumpy, balding middle aged man, but so be it. (If anything you read here sounds familiar, I think I posted a similar blog on MySpace about three years ago, but I'm not sure.) Ah, but my mind strays from my point. As I said, most of the great songs have already been written, thus the popularity in recent years of cover songs, and even cover albums.

A cover, if you aren't familiar with the term is when a current artist goes back and records someone else's hit. This is in no way a new thing. Many of the earliest Beatles hits, Twist and Shout for example, were originally hits in the 50's. Today there are for basic ways covers are packaged.

1. There are tribute albums featuring Various artists doing songs by one group or artist. Examples include Two Rooms, the tribute to Elton John's music; Come Together..Country Stars Salute the Beatles, and Common Thread the music of The Eagles. I have found most albums in this category contain a few week tracks, but are good over all, with a variety of artists spinning their style on songs we all know. A recent twist on this was the Across the Universe soundtrack, with various stars of the movie singing the songs of the Beatles...much more successful than the Sgt. Peppers movie in the 70's.

2. There are also what I call album reworkings. This is where several artists will record songs that were all originally on the same album, and release it as an album. A great example is Tapestry Revisited where artist from pop and gospel recorded the music of Carol King's Tapestry album. It's a really good collection. I've noticed in recent years that there have been similar releases of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. I have not listened to these, as I'm afraid they could only ruin, and not improve on Pink Floyd. (grumpy old man again)

3. Sometimes an artist will just record one or two covers and mix them in with there own new music. This has been the most common use of covers over the years. Sometimes this works well (The Beatles' Twist and Shout, or Sarah Brightman's way of turning classic rock hits into classical ballads) and sometimes these are just aweful (Think Britney Spears' version of I Can't Get No Satisfaction).

4. Last of all is one of my favorite kinds of albums, where a single group or artist sets out to record a whole album of covers. Some of my favorites in recent years are Mandy Moore's Coverage (Yes that Mandy Moore, yes it's GOOD); Wilson Phillips' California where they cover the bands of the late 60's early 70's California music scene; and the ever quirky Erasure doing Other Peoples Songs, a strange ecclectic collection worth adding to your library. Barry Manilow has releases a disc each of 50's, 60's and 70's songs, and I'm sure the 80's are coming, and they're actually pretty good. A few others that don't work as well are Big Band Theory by Styx, and the cover CD Rush recorded (can't remember the name). These two fall short in that they break one of the cardinal rules of covers...stick to songs people know. Each of the CD's sound good when they are doing familiar pieces, but then they dabble in songs by obscure bands or regional artists that most of the country won't know.

Oh, and I almost forgot my favorite cover CD of all time Phil Keaggy and Friends Acoustic Cafe. The guitar king is joined by a few friends and family members to cover music by Dylan, the Beatles, he Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper and more. A must have for any collector. I only hope he comes out with an Electric sequel. I could go on all night about cover tunes and music, but then you'd probably think the old guy was rambling, so I'll go plug in my headphones and Drift Away

Confessions of bad driver

I remember when I was young, cruising through the parking lot of any given shopping center at a speed that was probably nowhere near the posted 15MPH, with my windows down and the radio blaring WLS just as loud as could be. I would from time to time hear a voice from an older pedestrian over my shoulder, "Slow down, don't you know you're in a parking lot?" Today I was walking in the local Target center parking lot when I heard someone call out those familiar words. I looked around to realize it was me calling out to the mini-van cruising through the lot...I had become the cranky old pedestrian. I think I began slowing down in parking lots when my oldest daughter started walking. She never wanted to be carried and could never quite keep up with our walking stride, when walking to the car. It dawned on me that every parking lot was probably full of parents trying to keep the little legs moving while the child was more interested in looking at shiny gum wrappers, or the pretty flowers in the landscaping, or the cute little girl looking back at her from the shiny bumper on the vintage car she was walking past. I did not want to ever endanger one of these precious little ones, so I slowed down in parking lots.

Realizing that I had grown up from the young days of a parking lot terror I began thinking of how I drove in general. It wasn't good. I remember in my younger days very few accidents. I remembered years in my 20's and early 30's where I got the safe driver's discount on insurance. But those days seem to have slipped away. In the last ten years I've totaled no fewer than three cars, and had numerous fender benders. I've broken my wrist, collar bone and shoulder in car accidents. This is not a good track record, and I'm not sure if it is just due to getting more careless and easily distracted in my old age, or if I've just become a worse driver due to twenty years of driving the California freeways.

I have come to realize I have multiple-driving-personality disorder. It seems I am two completely different and opposite drivers, depending on where I am. In the mountain, where I live, I drive at or slightly below the speed limit (to understand my caution, read the earlier post which discusses my road rage incident). If you are behind me in the mountain, and think I'm going to slow, and decide to ride my tail, back off, I will slow down. If I'm going the speed limit, riding my tail makes me take my foot off the gas and coast. If I'm in a stretch where I feel safety requires me to go slower than the speed limit, I will pull off and let you pass, if you stay far enough back that I don't feel I'll be clipped by your passing. This is mountain driver Steve.

Down the hill, especially when I hit the highways, it's totally different. Here the roads are much straighter, and driving off the shoulder doesn't usually end in a several hundred foot drop. On the highway I consider the posted speed limit as a minimum, not a maximum (always keeping eyes out for CHP officers). I generally set my cruise control to 78 or 79MPH. The reason for this is that most of the highway speeds around me are at 65 and the cut for a ticket being an infraction rather than a misdemeanor is 15 miles over posted limit. I generally will drive in the fast lane. If someone wants to zip past me while I'm going 80 I will gladly pull over IF it doesn't mean I have to slow down to 60 for the guy in the next lane. If I can't get over with out braking, the person behind me will have to wait until I can, or he can try to fly around in the micro gap and get past me. This is downhill driver Steve.

By now I'm sure you're glad you don't live near me, so you don't have to deal with my driving. I'll admit, I'm a pain behind the wheel. And I'm sorry, but I think I've grown too old to change. Oh, if I'm in a big hurry, all of the above rules are off, just get out of my way!

Bragging rights

One of the rights and responsibilities of growing older is becoming a parent; one of the rights of being a parent is the right to brag about your kids. I see it all over Facebook, pictures of kids starring in musicals, posts about the scores of your kids' games, "my kid's starting college", "My son is joining the army". I smile when I see these posts. At first it was scary to see that people I went to college with have kids in college, but then I realize again how long ago the class of '87 graduated.

I have many friends who started their families right out of college, and these are beginning to feel the nest emptying. As for me, I waited till I was over 11 years out college before I married and started having kids, and I also have many friends who waited and have younger kids at home. Either way, children can be a source of much joy and blessing, along with the sleepless nights and occasional headaches.

This is the first of what will probably be many posts about my children. I could tell you story after story about 4 year old Ireland, our littlest spitfire. She is so full of life and personality, although as of late prone to fit throwing...terrible two came late to this one. And I will undoubtedly brag time and again on my oldest girl, Dakotah who at 10 years old is reading at a 12 grade level and scoring 100% comprehension on her reading quizes.

But today I'm going to brag on my son Walker. He is just starting the 2nd grade, and following in Dakotah's footsteps. Dakotah and Walker just started attending the Awana program at my church, and in his first week he completed all the work for the first two weeks. (applause please) But that isn't all; today at school he had a special pizza lunch with his teacher and two friends he got to pick. I asked him what he did to get a special lunch. He said, "I answered a really hard problem and I was the onltyone in my class who could answer it." I asked him what the question was, and he said, "Mrs. Murikami asked, 'if there were three lines at the swings and there were three people in each line, how many people were in line?' and what you do is multiply three times three and there are nine people in line." So I got my second grade math lesson from the only kid in his class to get the answer. I love my boy...and my girls.

Now go hug your kids!

Blogging with the Stars

In just less than an hour the fall season of DANCING WITH THE STARS premieres here in California. Many out east have already watched. I am beyond excited. My family has been hooked on this how since season one. I personally have been a fan since season 4 when I first caught sight of Julianne Hough, she's just adorable...and not on it this season. I have suddenly become enthralled with all things ballroom. It is just such fun to watch...perhaps I'm just getting too old for regular TV. In fact in our house I believe the only first run regular show we are still watching is CSI Miami.

We had long resisted reality shows. We watched the first two seasons of Survivor, then quit. We watched most of season one Big Brother and then quit. Then suddenly when Dancing with the Stars and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition hit the airwaves, we got hooked. It wasn't an over night jump away from scripted shows into reality, but before long we added America's Got Talent. Then during the writer' strike we watched Celebrity Circus, Nashville Star, and every Game show that came to prime time. It was coming out of the writers strike last fall when all the shows were back from extended hiatus that we realized we actually preferred the non-scripted reality/competition shows. We followed Kris, Danny and Adam as they battled it out on American Idol, and were glued to our seats as Jeanine peaked at just the right time to win So You Think You Can Dance.

Have we left scripted TV behind for good...We'll see after we watch tonight's CSI Miami on our Tivo Thursday night (No Dancing on Thursday). Of course we still watch the reruns of Seinfeld, and our DVDs of Friends. And I've Got Alias, Dark Angel, 24 and Heroes to watch on my lunch at work.....Ah, but tonight is for Dancing with the Stars!!!

Medication, aging and why I write

When my oldest daughter Dakotah was almost a year old I started having feelings of weakness and shortness of breath. One day when heading to work I started having severe chest pains and thought I better go see a doctor, so I headed in to urgent care. After many hours of poking and podding and wires running to my chest, and being asked numerous times if I was taking cocaine, I was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. I was sent immediately to a wonderful cardiologist, who put me on a regimen of heart and blood pressure medication, which seems to be keeping my heart going. The first several years my heart function increased, and then it leveled off. This last check up it had again increased, so the medication must be doing its job.

I guess it is a sign of aging to be on heart medication, I knew it sure made me feel old. And after a couple of years on the medicine I noticed other signs of aging. I was starting to forget things. You know that feeling when you walk into a room and can't remember what you had walked in there for? Well that was happening to me ALL THE TIME. Or I would be at work, putting parts away, I would skip a location because I couldn't find the part in the case I was putting away. When I got to the end of the aisles I'd have the part left, and couldn't remember why I had a part. Then I'd look at the computer and couldn't figure out why it was sending me back. Or at home I would be talking and suddenly couldn't remember the name of that big white box where we put food to keep it cold. Words were disappearing from my mind. I though I had early onset Alzheimer's. I thought I was going crazy.

Then I got online and looked at side effects for my medicines. Buried on a small little website, not listed on most of the websites, under my Coreg was "Short term memory loss". I also looked up ways to fight memory loss. It suggested playing mental games throughout the day. It also said that keeping a journal or writing were good things to keep the mind active and alive. So if people at work see me mouthing things to myself in the aisle, or doodling on a break, or generally looking distracted, I'm probably just playing a mind game, so I don't lose my mind. And my blog here, although new, and the novel I'm writing, and most of my other writings, are just ways to keep my mind going to battle off side effects of a drug I need to keep my heart going strong. So as long as there is a heart beating in this chest of mine, words will be flowing out on my computer, so I'll remember that food goes in a refrigerator.

Maturing Musically

Three things in life I cannot live without. First and foremost is my faith in God. Second is my family. And the third thing is music. As far back as I can remember my house was filled with music, often from several different rooms at once. When headphones became the rage in the 70's I believe our family kept KOSS in business. From my mother I learned to love Johnny Mathis, Lou Rawls and many jazz artists. My sister Gloria introduced my to Neil Diamond's music, ABBA, and later Phil Keaggy (still my hero), John Michael Talbot and the world of Christian music. My sister Sharon is where I learned to enjoy the Carpenters. Brother John introduced me to the world of opea, and a lot of musical theatre (didn't admit I liked it at the time). Brother Dave was into Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens and Peter Paul & Mary. Later Dave was also responsible for introducing me to the British Punk movement of the late 70's and Early 80's which I'm sure is what eventually lead me to be a U2 fan. Dad used to listen to country in the morning before work...I liked a few songs, but mostly resisted it.

As for me personally I started, as most kids do with Disney music. The Mary Poppins soundtrack was a favorite as I remember. I remember very well my very first "grown up" album. Olivia Newton-John's Have You Never Been Mellow. I was soon a huge Oliiva fan, and I believe I had all her albums up to Physical. Another grown up star I got into at a young age was thanks to Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari. The theme song for their show Busom Buddies was Billy Joel's My Life, and begged my mother to buy me the 52nd Street album. I have been a huge fan of Billy's music ever since, and now also enjoy his daughter Alexa Ray's music.

But I think the moment my musical taste was blown wide open was in 6th grade (?) music class when our music teacher asked students to bring in one of their favorite songs and present it to the class. Jenn Treisenberg (sp) brought in the movie soundtrack to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and played Aerosmith's cover of Come Together. My first exposure to the music of the Beatles. Two years later when our class had an 8th grade graduation party Jenn brought in the actual Sgt. Pepper album by the Beatles, and I was officially obsessed...still am, just picked up the Magical Mystery Tour CD when they re-issued last week.

Through high school my favorite bands besides The Beatles were Kansas and Styx. But this is also when I was getting into punk and NewWave like Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, the Clash, The Pretenders, etc. I always said, "I like all kinds of music, except classical, country and really heavy metal"

When I was in college I discovered U2, and have loved them ever since (although their mid to late 90's was not my favorite era). I also was exposed to a huge variety of Christian rock. Favorites during this time were Petra, RezBand and 77's. Also I discovered the musical genius of Charlie Peacock, and the Christian New Age sounds of Jeff Johnson (Can you use Christian and new age in the same sentance? Just did). And thanks to a music appreciation class I hated, I grew to love classical music, especially Mozart and Beethoven. So my credo became, "I like all music except, Country, Heavy Metal and Rap"

As I grew beyond the college years I have kept many of the same favorites, but in my late twenties I did add country to my list of music I like, although I'm still picky about what country music I listen to, And even as I've matured and added more styles, I still don't enjoy much Heavy Metal and Rap.

No I must admit, when I was dating Bekkee (my wife) I tried to enjoy rap and hip hop because she enjoyed that kind of music. It never quite caught on with me, although I don't mind some of the mellower R&B music she introduced me too. Nowadays my wife enjoys country, which is much better for me. My wife however only enjoys current music, while I still love stuff from all period, both the stuff I grew up on, and even music from before I was born. She likes to make fun of my music, especially my 80's stuff, but I can't help it, I like it. We change, we grow, but forever music will be part of my life.

Computer expert by default

In my house I am the resident computer expert. With that said, let me give you a quick background about me and computers (or is it computers and I?) When I was in college my roommates Dave and Steve both majored in computers, an emerging field at the time. I majored in what I thought was something much more stable, communications (theatre/radio emphasis), thinking that computers were just a passing phase. Then Al Gore went and invented the internet, and computers went through the roof. Now most of the stuff I learned about radio is done by computers. (Oh to travel back in time and study computers).

Now for a shocking revelation from the computer expert of the house. I have never bought a new computer (hope to change that soon). My first computer was a used laptop my brother-in-law let me have. I had to buy a new power adapter for it, but didn't pay thing other than that. It worked fine for my writing, and for playing games. Really slow online, but it was okay. The computer I'm using now was my father-in-law's home computer. He got a new one two years ago or so, and I took over this one. It is 13 years old, and full of all kinds of junk I can't get rid of. "Why not," you ask? I don't know? 5 years ago or so, we flushed the memory and rebooted everything on it, and somehow, the guy who did this fix managed to lose our control panel (Can not get to it anywhere) and any time I try to delete or uninstall a program, it says I need to get clearance from my administrator... I have no administrator...what do I do?

Okay, you see my level of expertise. And let me be open with you, I have no clue when people start talking RAM and hard drive and MB or GB...Okay, I know a GB is bigger than an MB, and the higher the number the more space you have for storing junk on the computer. Other than a 6 hour class on Powerepoint I have never had any computer training. So how, you may ask have I become the computer expert? It is quite simple really, because I'm not afraid to do stuff. I teach myself. I print all the didgital photos our family takes (I use Paint Shop Pro, not photo shop) I make mini posters out of just about any picture my wife, mother-in-law or daughter find. And of course I'm the guy who can google anything (although Dakotah is also a darn good googler now).

The funny thing is because I take the time to learn stuff on the computer, everyone else gives me all the computer tasks, leaving me little time sometimes to do what I want to do (write, write, write). So the middle age guy on the old computer with no formal computer training is the man with all the computer answers in our house... I think our house is in trouble.

Social Media and the aging process

Going with a different color ink for the letters tonight, what do you think? Tonight's topic is social media and the aging process. As I age, I find myself more and more into this social media stuff, which is supposedly the domain of the younger generation. At least that's how it started.

My first real experience with social media came with MySpace probably about 4 or 5 years ago. Several of my friends from Domino's kept telling me how great it was, how you could reach out to your friends, how you could keep updated on music, etc. These were all pretty much teenagers I worked with, and I brushed MySpace off as just something for kids. Then I got an invite from my friend Doug Brown from my KLoRD days. He had set up a page to promote his music, so I joined, and quickly found I enjoyed it. I even did a bit of blogging. At time I had over 300 "friends", but most of these were bands, or people who were interested in the same bands I was. A few were friends mostly from Domino's, and young people I knew on the mountain here. I had only one or two friends near my age, a few voices from my past. I made my MySpace page as load and flashy as I could, and tried to convince myself I was as young and hip as most of my friends there. But as time went on I felt less and less connected to my MySpace friends.

Then about a year ago I think, I started hearing, "I switched from MySpace to Facebook, come Join me." from more and more MySpace friends. And so, I did. And it has been amazing. I have found friends from college, high school and the church I grew up in along with my KLoRd fiends, Mo Media friends, Camp O-Ongo friends and of course Toyota friends (All places I've worked). I currently have 210 and know at least 200 of them personally. I read an article a few months ago that "old people" are ruining facebook. By their definition, I'm pretty sure I'm old, and I'm guessing most of my friends are too (My dad is on facebook and he's 82). I'm not sure what we've done to ruin facebook, but I say lets keep ruining it.

For months I was happy to stay in contact on facebook. I kept hearing about this Twitter thing, but had no interest. You know us old folks are slow to try anything new. Then a job as internet information director, or something like that came up at work, and I applied, but it said you needed to know twitter, so I quickly signed up for twitter. I didn't get the job, (Probably too old and unhip) and quickly abandoned my Twitter account.

Then came the swine flu scare and I found out that the CDC had a twitter account that posted swine flu updates. As any old guy who fears dying of swine flu would do, I jumped on twitter and started following CDC updates. Purely out of curiosity I started following a celebrity or two...oops! I was hooked. I now follow 152 people. Athletes, authors, celebrities, dancers, and a couple people I actually know.
I think it is a fun way to get a touch of who these celebrities are as real people. that is if you can find the real people from the fakes. Thank Twitter for Verified accounts to make this easier.

And now with Blogger, I am attacking the blogsphere and hope to gain some attention (or at least a few more comments) as a writer, so someday the novel I'm trying to write might be published, or at least made available on Kindle before I am too old to enjoy the royalties. So please read my blog post. Comment on them here (my comments are open to anyone, not just Blogger members). Share them with your friends. And promise you'll by my novel....whenever it gets published.

Foolishness and Grace at the VMA's

Dictionary.com defines jackass as a stupid or foolish person. So when I refer to Kanye West as a fool, you'll know what I mean. Last night at MTV's Video music awards Kanye gave a very vivid visual example of a fool. What he did to Taylor Swift was not only rude to her, but to every person watching, and to Beyonce, the person he thought he was complimenting.

But let me back up in case some of you haven't yet seen the video clip, I'm sure its on YouTube. Taylor Swift, a country girl, and MTV outsider won the Best Female video award. As she was giving her acceptance speech the fool (Kanye West) grabbed the microphone from her, tells her that her video was good, but that Beyonce had made the greatest video in the world and should have won. Taylor just stood there in shock. Beyonce looked on from the audience in disbelief, and a large number of people booed.

Now you must understand that these are fan voted awards, and thanks to Twitter and MySpace, Taylor has a huge, voting fan base. She wins almost any fan-voted awards. And those fans started tweeting the minute this happened, and the fool has become the most hated man on the web. Rumor has it Kanye has been banned from all future VMAs, not sure if its true or not.

If this were a sporting event, he would have been charged with unsportsman like conduct. Unfortunately, the music business has no such penalties. And also unfortunately most of his fan base probably won't turn from him, although there were quite a number of upset tweets even from people who said they had been his fan. I can only hope he sees some consequences from acting the fool.

Another person I felt played the fool on the VMAs was PDiddy. When he was listing the nominees for best male video, and Kanye was on the list, and the audience began booing, He acted like he had no idea what was going on, and then he said, "hey, we're all family on this one." To me this was kind of a snub to Taylor as well. He seemed to be saying there would be no trouble with this award since they were all MTV insiders, while Taylor was a country girl, and not part of "The Family".

The saving moment of grace on the show came when Beyonce won video of the year and told the audience, "I remember when I won my first VMA at 17 with Destiny's Child, and what a great moment that was. Now I want to call Taylor up here so she can have her moment." And she gave up her acceptance speech to let Taylor give her's. So by trying to honor Beyonce, the fool actually stole not only Taylor's moment, but Beyonce's as well.

And lest you think that I'm just a crazy upset Taylor Swift fan, going a little overboard, you must consider what a huge breach of ettiquite it was to interrupt her speech. Imagine if you would an Academt Award ceremony and Martin Scorsese receiving a best director Oscar, but Tom Hanks running in saying, "Marty, your movie was great, but you know Spielberg made the bst film ever." Can you picture anything that crazy? Or imagine a candidate winning an election and some fool coming out and saying, "no this other candidate should be president, lets recount the votes."...I mean really could anything be more foolish?

Oh, and speaking of Presidents, it seems that off the record, President Obama thinks Kanye is a fool too (see definition at top of this post, in case you forgot).

Celebrity Examples part 2

In this yesterday's blog post I forgot to mention Christina Applegate. The former star of Married With Children is an amazing example of a celebrity who is growing older (not old by any means) gracefully. Since leaving her break thru role as Kelly Bundy, she has kept working with many movies and guest star roles in television, and most recently in the amazingly funny Samantha Who? (shame on ABC for canceling it).

But recently Christina faced breast cancer, and has now become a very vocal spokesperson for breast cancer awareness, especially among younger women. She is a shining example of the good that can come from celebrity. To find out how you can help Christina raise breast cancer awareness go to www.denimday.com

Celebrites examples of growing older gracefully

Good morning. My first morning post on a lovely Saturday. Today I'm going to tell you about three celebrities I feel are Growing older gracefully. Now let me emphasize I don't think these celebrities are old (They are I believe all younger than me) but they are growing older gracefully; that is they are older than they were when they first rose to stardom. It would be easy to list the child stars, and young Hollywood celebrities who have grown older ungracefully. The list goes on and on of stars who have faced addictions, troubles with the law and family issues. But I don't want to talk about them. I want to talk about three celebrities who show that you can come from success at an early age, and turn that into a really productive life.

First off is Alyssa Milano. You remember her as the cute little girl with Tony Danza in Who's the Boss or as one of the bewitching sisters in Charmed. These days Alyssa is the author of Safe at Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic and the designer of Touch, a line of sports fan wear designed specifically for the female sports fan. She will also be returning to TV in a mid-season series Romantically Challenged. But if that isn't enough, Alyssa is an avid user of the social media network twitter, sharing post on any topic she feels passionate about, from Dodger Baseball, to the Iranian Elections, to helping save a rescue dog. She is constantly using her popularity and celebrity for good causes and I salute her for proving that being a child star doesn't have to be a curse. Oh, and she still goes home for family dinners on Sunday with her parents and brother.

Another former child star who is growing older gracefully is Melissa Joan Hart, the star of Clarrisa Explains it All and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Now in her early 30's Melissa is the proud mother of two boys. She has her own production company, and her own sweet shop Sweet Harts. She has recently relocated her family to the east coast to be closer to her mother as she recovers from surgery on a brain tumor. Melissa is also very active on Twitter and MySpace. And starting in 9 days you'll be able to watch her compete on Dancing with the Stars. Quite a long way from Clarrisa and Sabrina.

My third celebrity who I feel is growing older gracefully is the lovely Kathy Ireland. I remember Kathy from the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. She was the covergirl of the 25th anniversary edition of the swimsuit issue. But what I remember most was hearing her talk about how after the shoots when all the other models would go out on the town to unwind, or in between shoots when there was down time, how she would spend her time reading the Bible. this really stuck out in my mind. Today Kathy has a design company that designs home decor, fashions, garden solutions...oh heck, just go to kathyireland.com to see it all. And beyond that Kathy is involved in a number of charity outreaches and worthwhile causes kathyireland.org will show you all of these. And she also is an avid Twitter user, giving advice to busy moms, and keeping us up to date on the causes she supports. And you can also see Kathy on Dancing with the Stars this season.

These three woman are shining examples that celebrities are not all spoiled brats, or wild party-going egomaniacs. Three cheers for these three stand out celebrities.

A slip in the "gracefully" part

Day 4 of the blog. Today i was going to write and give you some pop culture examples of people I feel are growing older gracefully, but I'm putting that post off till tomorrow. Tonight I'm going o share with you something that happened on my way to work this more. A moment where I was totally ungraceful...not a proud moment for me.

Let me set this up for those who may not know me well. I live in the Southern California mountain community of Lake Arrowhead, Every day I drive down the mountain on highway 18, a curvy mountain road. The lower half is four lanes wide, two in each direction. For the first several years I loved up the hill I raced down the mountain, covering the 14 miles of curves in 12 to 14 minutes. Then three and a half years ago I lost control of my car going 65 or more around a sharp curve. I slammed into the guardrail and broke a piece off of my shoulder. The piece is now held on by 9 titanium screws. Needless to say, I now try to keep it in the 40 to 45 mph range coming down the hill.

As often happens, there were many vehicles on the highway that have not slammed into the guardrail yet, who still like flying down the hill, This morning, as I was nearing the last sharp turn before the bottom of the hill a large pick up truck apparently felt that neither I nor the car in the next lane were going fast enough, and as a gap opened between myself and the other car he zipped through with horn blaring. I of course am not the best of moods at five in the morning, so I flashed my brights at him several times, and sped up behind him. This was not the smartest thing I ever did. The driver of the truck pulled over to the side of the road, and jumped out of the truck. He actually ran out in the road toward me, ready to take me on. I did not slow down and or stop to have it out with him, I kept driving. I was hoping that he didn't jump in the truck and chase me down. I spent the rest of my drive to the freeway watching my rear view mirror, but he was not in sight. ...Just hope he doesn't recognize my car on a future trip down.

So I lost the gracefully part today, but felt I grew much older today.

Defining "Growing Old Gracefully"

Day 3 of the blog. Today I will give you what I feel is my definition of growing old gracefully, and an example from my life. I think that traditionally the term "growing old Gracefully" is used to mean, letting your hair go gray, or away, starting to wear sweaters more, eating the early bird dinner at Denney's and quietly proceeding to the nearest retirement home for BINGO and early bedtimes.

I reject this notion of growing old gracefully. To me, I feel growing old (or growing older) gracefully means accepting the past as the past; a place to remember, nut not a place to live in. And it means accepting the place God has put you in, as the place you are meant to be. I have struggled, and still do struggle with this.

I also feel growing old gracefully means to keep doing what you can do, and knowing what things you no longer can do, and be willing to do without them. If that makes any sense.

A prime example of growing old gracefully was my Grandma Bell. After losing a husband after nearly 50 years of marriage, Grandma Bell continued teaching Sunday School at her church, figuring this is where the Lord wanted her to be. But before too long she felt a different call from the Lord and in her late 60's went on a two and a half year missionary trip to Italy. There was a group of missionaries who would go out and present the gospel in the streets of Rome. Grandma was the cook for the team, but for one week each month she would also go out with the teams to present her testimony. Certainly not your typical Grandma thing to do, but Grandma Bell felt the Lord's call and she responded.

Tomorrow I will give you a couple examples from pop culture of people I think are growing older gracefully. Until then, keep walking the road He leads you on.

Why Blog? And why the topic of growing old?

Day two of my blogging. Thought I'd just answer a couple quick questions to get them out of the way.

First Question, Why am I blogging at all? The answer is two fold. First i decided to blog after seeing Julie and Julia.I figure if Julie"s blog became so popular it landed her a book deal and a movie, well maybe I can get lucky that way too. Secondly, I've done MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter...blogging is the next logical step in my electronic social media journey (and this journey will be the topic of a future post.

Second Question, Why have Growing Old Gracefully as the topic. Wll, everything I read and heard about blogging said be specific, pick a topic, don't be too general. So I picked the topic of growing old, because, well, I am growing old..or at least older.I figured that was specific, but that I could also get pretty general about what I talk about as long as I keep it somehow filtered through the lens of Growing old Gracefully. So I guess I chose that topic to cheat the whole topic system. If I want to talk music, I can filter it through "changes in musical taste as you age". If I want to talk baseball I can write about, "The aging Cubs fan, will we ever see a world series.". I can talk about "The politics of Aging" or "Aging and its effects on eating habits." You get the point. I picked aging so I can write about what I want to. Hope somebody will want to read my blogs...eventually...And by the way, thanks to the on person who checked out my blog yesterday, and even commented.

Anyway, tomorrow I will give you MY definition of Growing Old Gracefullly, and a few examples.

Hair as a sign of growing old.

This is my first attempt at a blog, outside of myspace. I hope you'll enjoy it. I chose Growing Old Gracefully as my blog topic, because I feel it gives me a wide range of subtopics to expound on.
Tonight I'm going to talk about one of the most obvious signs of growing older, at least for men; your hair.

There are three distinct signs I have found, dealing with a man's hair and aging. I discovered the first sign in 1989 when I was visiting my sister Sharon in Chicago. I was a scarce two years out of college. I had been in California nearly a year, and was visiting Chicago for a music festival, not rally feeling like I was aging terribly. One evening I was watching a movie in the living room, lying on the floor next to my darling niece Debbie. Suddenly she said, "Uncle Stevie, you have a gray hair!" and she proceeded to pluck it out. A few minutes later she proclaimed "Oh, look, another one." and again yanked it out. After another few repeats, I told her to please stop before I went bald...

This leads to the second sign of aging that hair shows, the loss of hair. My wife's grandfather used to say, "Half my hair turned grey, the other half turned loose." I found that funny, until my widow's peak began peaking higher and higher, and the spot in the back of my head got thinner and thinner. I tried to convince myself that no one could notice the bald spot. This notion was blown away one Christmas when my oldest daughter Dakotah was only four. It was actually a week or so after Christmas, and we were getting ready to take our tree down. I was under the tree loosening the tree from the stand. Dakotah looked down at my head and said, "Daddy, you have a hole in your hair! There's nothing there." It was true, I was going bald.

The third sign hair give of aging is its appearance in places it doesn't belong. I speak specifically of the two places I have been cursed with hair growth, the inside of the ear (and sometimes the top) and the nose. Now I know nose hair serves as a filter for incoming air, but does it have to grow long and white? A few years back I broke down and asked for an ear/nose hair trimmer...yes I use it...yes it works...kind of. Point is, my hair, or lack there of shows me, beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am growing older...gracefully?