Not History, Propaganda

While it may be historical in nature, much of what we’re taught in school about history is a deceptive reduction. I well remember year after year of the same badly done documentary hopping from region to region, with the topics always coinciding with the national holidays. We always seemed to be talking about Columbus around October and the Pilgrims around November reaching some sort of climax around President’s Day with a discussion of Abraham Lincoln. Because of this many of my people have been led to view this man as some sort of saint, whereas it took a college professor to explain that if he could have brought the South back to the union without freeing a single slave he would have.

Our textbooks have been little more than bound volumes of propaganda leaflets. Our teachers have been mostly unwitting ministers of the same. It would have been more honest, but probably no less damaging had WWII bomb groups flown over cities daily and sprinkled our lessons over the school buildings. We emerge with our diplomas of indoctrination, most of us knowing little more than what was fed to us.

The only honest historian is the revisionist historian. Only by reading and re-reading as many sources as possible can we approach an accurate picture of our past. While a single revision goes much farther into showing what happened, it usually does not go far enough. Therefore the process must be repeated exhaustively. Beware the person who tries to tell you that revisionist historians are undermining or subverting the truth. To suggest that we know all we need to know about a thing is to do both.

National Alpine Ski Camp

I would have to get in a lot better shape to attend the National Alpine Ski Camp in Mt. Hood, OR. It would be training to train. Attendees are treated to 7-10 very full days starting at 5am and going until 9:30pm. It’s camp. So there are counselors and expectations. There is a little free time here and there but mostly you are either training, eating or prepping for the next day. You’ll be trained by top snow skiing trainers in the country. Some of whom were members of the U.S. Ski Team. Their emphasis is on giving you the proper professional training that led to them being world class competitors. There is a method to learning to ski. It is not just strapping on boots and locking in skis and hitting the slopes. People like that end up with bad form, not knowing how to use their muscles properly and in danger of injury. Your time at NASC will set you apart from those folks. You’ll learn how to use the skis and take care of them, what things to avoid while on the slopes. You’ll be prepared so that when you go on your next vacation you’ll know what to do and won’t be simply imitating others.

Living out the dream

If the dream begins with the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It ends with the statement “I shoulda, I coulda, I woulda.”

We all live out two lives. There is the life we pictured ourselves having when we were young and then there is the life we actually live. The difference between these two is affected by a number of different things. A large part of living out or not living out your dream has to do with preparation but that’s not all your fault. Preparation takes the form of physical, mental, linguistic, financial, social and spiritual and it needs to begin very early in life. Parents begin the preparation. Parents and schools continue it. You finish it. Some parents shirk their responsibilities in this area and leave the task solely up to the schools…usually the public school system. The extent to which it is entirely the job of the schools to teach these lessons is a subject of ongoing debate. The results show how all this works out. We exit the school system retarded in a number of critical areas for everything life is about to throw at us. My apologies for borrowing a word some consider sacred to a certain concept but that is the best word for what many young adults face. Our financial development is retarded. We reach adulthood not understanding that you cannot consume more than you have produced. No one teaches us that whatever isn’t earning you money is costing you money. Instead of that we’re encouraged by advertisers and credit peddlers to borrow sums we cannot pay back. And that corruption goes all the way to the top. Right now the American president is proposing sending everyone a check to spur economic growth. And there are rumors that they really want us to buy stuff with it rather than save it. I’m suggesting that everyone put it to the best use they can, starting with savings and working outward from there. Since we aren’t prepared for dealing with money growing up we have to take the time to learn about it on our own. More people are starting to understand this and learn the things they have needed to learn thanks to authors like Robert T. Kiyosaki of the Rich Dad/Poor Dad fame. I really wish I could have sat out a year after high school and before college to just study money. That would have helped me a lot over the last 27 years. I mean I didn’t want to be a banker, but I have only begun to understand why my finances have gone the way they have.

There were several things I thought I wanted to be when I grew up. When I was in kindergarten the teacher brought out a bunch of little posterboard dolls and asked us what we wanted to be. This was in the late 1960s. There were no male nurses, female cops, or postpersons. There wasn’t even an astronaut in the pile. And after the moon that is what I thought I wanted to be. Well I didn’t prepare myself. And so the astronaut thing is out. Best case I will be able to retire in 11 years and become an astronomer. I have a lot of work to do towards that end and most of it doesn’t have anything to do with astronomy. Is the fact that I am not doing what I set out to do 39 years ago anyone’s fault? Yeah. Mine, mostly. Some of it my parents. Some of it the schools. Things could have been done/happened differently all around. And that is not unique to me. I don’t know anyone who set out from age 6 and worked towards a goal and achieved it at 25. We make decisions. There are distractions. At best we end up headed back towards whatever it is we set out seeking. So if there is anything that you wanted to do more than anything in this world when you were 8, go do it. Don’t let the fact that you’re 58 stop you. If you wanted to be a scientist and you’re a journalist, become a science writer. If you can’t be exactly what it is you wanted, then figure out a way to at least be able to rub up against it. Fix the plane if you can’t fly it. Design a better breathing apparatus for firefighters. Improve the shoulderpads and shinguards for football and soccer players. No it’s not the same. But at least it allows you to touch with your passion and your abilities the thing you have always been passionate about.

Direct Student Loans

When I was applying for student loans and other forms of financial aid, we had very few options. There were grants and loans but not much was explained to us about how each was funded. We knew we didn’t have to pay back the Pell Grant and the scholarship funds and that we would have to pay back the student loans but that was always 6 months after graduation. The three options available to you as an undergraduate or as a graduate are Federal loans, including both Stafford and PLUS loans, private loans and consolidation loans. Direct Student Loans explains each type of loan, helps you determine what you are eligible for and has the necessary applications available online. There are FAQ pages for consolidation loans so that you can understand why consolidation is important and what it entails. Most students graduate with several loans so consolidation is usually the best route to take. Directstudentloans dot com is a part of the Student Loan Network and is dedicated to helping you make the best decisions so that the process of applying for aid as easy as possible. You can also subscribe to Financial Aid News for information on financial aid as well as notices about scholarships and grants.

Associated Training Services - Heavy Equipment School

If you’ve ever wondered how one gets to work as a backhoe operator, well you generally don’t see ads that say “no experience necessary” or “we’ll train.” That may happen. But it’s rare. To do that job you need specialized training in heavy equipment operation. Associated Training Services is a nationally accredited heavy equipment school with over 40 years experience in construction equipment training. They have schools in 8 states with more being added. Finanical aid is available and there is job placement assistance. You can apply online or request a free brochure and DVD. You can attend full time or take a part time machine-specific course. Their accreditation and your certification is through NCCER (National Center for Construction Education and Research). This allows the graduates to apply for work nationwide. Check out their website at equipment-school dot com, and view video student testimonials.

OnePlaneGolfSwing.com: Improving your swing

I guess I first need to learn how to swing. I haven’t been on the course much. If I were going to start learning I’d watch some golf instruction videos and get a club and go practice in the back yard a while before s I start paying driving range fees. The little bit that I did play was fun. We were so slow that the guy running the tournament for our church had to drive out to our hole to tell us to pick up the pace. There are a number of ways, at oneplanegolfswing.com to help you learn to swing and improve your swing. Check out dozens of free golf tips. You can take advantage of online lessons, buy the golf swing book, see how others are doing by participating in golf discussion boards, order videos on golf swing techniques or try out an online golf video membership. By getting better at your swing you’ll have an easier time improving the rest of your game and will enjoy the sport more. check them out at oneplanegolfswing dot com

Vigintiphobia: Friday the 20th

When I turned 25 my birthday fell on a Friday. I walked into work that day saying it was “Friday the 20th.” It wasn’t so much of a fear of the number 20, which is what vigintiphobia translates to roughly. It was more that I didn’t really like turning 25 at that time because I wasn’t where I had envisioned myself being at that point in my life. I guess the pipe dream was of being 25 and having the degree and the degree-requiring career with good pay and a social life. When I turned 25 I had the degree. I also had a job but I could have been trained to perform most of those duties, except the driving part, when I graduated Jr. High. And I didn’t have much of a social life to speak of. But you have to put effort into that, which I really wasn’t doing. I wasn’t where I wanted to be and I wasn’t exactly happy and it was no one’s fault but mine. I was in the situation I was in due to lack of preparation. It wasn’t the job of the university professor to prepare me. And it wasn’t the job of my parents beyond about age 16. It wasn’t society’s fault. It wasn’t my employer’s fault. The responsibility was mine and I hadn’t done the work. I am doing the work now. But 19 years have gone by. It’s not that I’ve been unemployed and sitting on my arse for nearly 20 years. It’s that I am having to do a lot of catch-up work that I should be long past at 44.

Creditnet Financial Network

About 10 years ago you could go down to the airport, walk up to the ticket agent, order tickets to some location and write a check to the airline for the amount. Well they won’t let you do that now and they’re not alone. However a person ends up with credit card bad credit is important but not more than learning the lessons and information they need to use credit wisely. There’s no reason while you’re learning those things for you to not have credit or a credit card. You have to make paying the bill and not increasing your debt beyond your ability to repay it a priority in your life. But while you’re doing that your credit isn’t going to be the best in the world and you are going to be limited to a certain group of credit cards. You need to know which cards you can get and understand how credit works, how budgeting and savings work and how you can get on the way to being debt free. Creditnet is a good place to go for that information. They have a forum to allow you to communicate with other consumers. There is a newsletter you can subscribe to and pages with information on the various aspects of personal finance. Repairing your financial situation and retiring debt are not easy tasks. But then nothing worthwhile ever is.

Graduated, yes. Financially literate, no.

The school system does a major disservice to class after class of graduates and without some serious changes to the curriculum kids are going to come out of high school and probably college not understanding money. When I was in high school I had to argue with a counselor to take a consumer math class. Her argument was that I was in advanced math courses and was “too smart” for that class. It wasn’t until I told her that while I could graph y=² I couldn’t balance a checkbook that she signed or me to add the class. Yes the math itself was easier and I made an A, but I wasn’t there for the math. I learned some things about stocks and mortgages but there was much the class didn’t cover and some of those things I am learning now. No one told me, for example, that the fact that something is only going to raise my bill $10 a month that by the time I pay the account off it will have ended up costing me twice or three times the original price. So I accumulated things. And there have been times when I have been over the limit and maxed out on my credit cards and unable to pay for certain necessities because I was so busy acquiring things that I didn’t pay attention to where the money was going. I think credit card companies just make the situation worse by making inappropriate credit offers. I mean getting you to manage your money and deal with credit responsibly is not a profit making endeavor for them. So they’ll let you keep buying and charging and adding a little more here and there until you have bad credit. I cannot say that I would have listened had anyone explained how the system of credit worked. I was young and a compulsive buying person. I had absolutely no business as a college senior with an American Express card and no job. But there I was not leaving home without it. I would max out, get loans to pay off the debt, stop, start over and keep this rolling, revolving motion going. So in my adult life I have learned that lesson (that you cannot consume more than you’ve produced) several times over. Hopefully this is the last time.

Safety Training

It has been my experience that you’ve got about 15 minutes, maybe less, of productive time in any meeting before eyes start to glaze and the pace of mind wandering increases. The problem is that employees need a deeper and broader understanding of material related to most safety issues. Web-based training can be a useful tool for bringing smaller groups of employees up to speed on information they need. safety training is more than just a series of “don’t dos” that you present a group of employees with and expect them to follow when the situation arises. Employees take to the training more when they can do more than simply sit and absorb. Let’s say you are installing a new oxygen-depleting fire control system. You’ll need to train your employees on both the operation of that system as well as SCBA equipment. Rather than take entire groups off-site for training and going through the expense of paying overtime for coverage, environmental health and safety software would allow you to have smaller groups train on the material and then bring in an outside trainer when the system goes live. PureSafety offers training software to meet the needs of your organization. From their website at puresafety dot com, you can request a demo on topics such as asbestos management, spill prevention, environmental awareness, etc. Their training courses are available in six languages and are eligible for IACET-Approved CEUs. They provide both safety training and incident/injury management training. Have a look at their website and see if they can help meet your training needs.