Thoughts from the Mountain Top

This is a post I've contemplated for a number of years.  There are people who will think differently about me after I've said what I need to say, but I feel the need to get this out there. The cause of these school shootings is not one thing.  It's not just bullying.  It's not just easy access to guns.  It's not just social isolation.  It's the combination of these things and the lack of compassion and empathy we've been moving to as a society that's created the perfect storm for this to happen in. Back in 1999 when we had the first mass-shooting at a school in Columbine High School, I said to some people I understood perfectly how it happened.  I understood the level of anger, despair, hopelessness, and frustration that people who are bullied face.  I had a rough time in high school.  I did have some great friends, many of whom I am still friends with today.  In that way, I wasn't totally isolated.  I was also bullied, sometimes rel...

Our online communities are not "safe" places, no matter what the press releases say.  The people that are in charge of policing these sites rarely get it right.  You are on your own.  Remember that, Case in point, a friend of mine was recently sent an unsolicited dick picture by someone she'd been acquainted with for a while.  Before you start thinking "she must have done something" - she hadn't.  There was no reason for this; it was out of the blue.  She reported the violation to Facebook, then proceeded to "out" the offender and publish the pictures he'd sent her, albeit with the offending parts blurred out. The following is the response she received from Facebook: They say "your safety is important to us."  Yet all they have done is warned him not to do it again.  As she stated in her response, there is nothing done to protect anyone who might innocently become friends with him again from the same thing happening to them. To ...

Pros:  unprecedented access, great depth to the early years, flows quite well Cons:  bogs down at times, glosses over recent work Summary:  Close to 5-stars for me.  I learned some thing I didn't like about my idol, but at the same time came out with a more realistic portrait. I can remember the day my life changed.  I was about twelve years old and browsing in the record department of our local department store when I became intrigues by this white album with two guys on the cover.  I'd heard bits here and there about this "Bruce Springsteen" person but his music wasn't being played on the top-40 stations I (then) listened to.  In any case, I bought the album for the whopping price of $5.99, brought it home, and put it on my kiddie turntable. And my life was never the same. It's with this hero-worship that I've had all my life for this man that I approached the recent biography simply titled Bruce by Peter Ames Carlin.  The media ta...

One of the things I always loved doing with my own children was quiet time sitting reading together.  I get to do that again with my granddaughter. When she was just over a year old, she went through a phase of being crazy about everything having to do with the Disney movie Frozen .  I found this cute collection of small board books that were perfect for her attention span. This is a collection of twelve board books.  Each book is about 3-inches by 3-inches.  The pages are very thick and made it easy for her as a small toddler to turn the pages herself. The stories themselves are short.  Some of them have a little education to them, such as teaching words that star with "S" or counting.  Most are just fun short stories.  We've read them so much she has some of the stories memorized.  The length of time to read the 5 pages in the book is good for her as it doesn't require that long and she can shift to a different story. The pictures are ...

Pros:  more "gossip" and revealing than John Taylor's book, easy to read Cons:  I don't think he was as candid and honest as he could have been Summary: Although revealing about what went ri wrong with Duran Duran, Andy Taylor seems to shy away from subjects that other 1980's biographies have also.  Still, it's an enjoyable read. After reading John Taylor's recently released biography, I was motivated to seek out the older autobiography by Andy Talyor.  People I talked to said Andy was more forthcoming about some of the conflict within the group where John seemed to be a bit more gracious, shying away from any true "gossip".  Andy tells his story of a childhood that wasn't conventional.  He dealt with abandonment issues by his mother and grew very close to his father in an English fishing village dominated by members of his family.  Answering an advertisement, he met up with the other members of Duran Duran and they embarked on supers...

When I lived in New York, I always said I didn't have a football team.  I mean, the Jets and Giants both played in New Jersey, not in New York.  The only real New York team was up in Buffalo, which was pretty far from Long Island.  When I moved to New Hampshire 12 years ago, it was an easy thing for me to start cheering for the Patriots.  You won't get me to change m y allegiance from my Mets in baseball, but football was a different story. I've enjoyed watching the Patriots play for all these years.  Tom Brady is a sight to behold.  Most of the time he makes it look so damn easy.  It was easy to regard the hate directed at them with "they hate us cause they ain't us".  The Patriots have been to 8 Superbowls over the last 16 years.  That's an amazing record. This year they lost in the Superbowl.  That doesn't take anything away from what a fantastic team they are.  I mean, Tom Brady has a record of 5 wins and 3 losses in ...