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Tuesday, July 26, 2011
FreeOK in Tulsa, OK July 30th
FreeOK in Tulsa, OK July 30thHere is a link to the FreeOK convention in Tulsa, OK Saturday, July 30, 2011.
The main slated speakers include Matt Dillahunty, AronRa, The Thinking Atheist and more.
The tickets are just $10 and this event needs to be supported with as many people as possible.
It is important that the radical fundamentalist see that reason and rational thinking is alive and well supported in Oklahoma.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Science centers and Museums
I want to make a blog of the science centers and museums I have visited over the years. I think this is important as the more a person learns about reality of the world the better they are at dealing with it. So in no particular order is a list of some of the amazing places I have seen.
Museum of Science and Industry. Chicago, IL This is one of the first times I recall going to a museum.
Southeastern State College, Durant, OK Science building
Bicentennial Train, Ardmore, OK
NASA space traveling exhibit.Dickson, OK [Saw first moon rock there]
Kirkpatrick Center, Oklahoma City
Cowboy Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City
Wichita Omnisphere and science Center, Wichita, KS
Kansas Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, KS
Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, OK
St. Louis Science Center, St.Louis, MO
National Westward Expansion Museum, St. Louis, MO
Art Museum, St. Louis,
New Mexico Space Museum and Space Hall of Fame, Alamogardo, NM
National Solar Observatory, Sunspot, NM
Roswell Science and art Center, Roswell, NM
Blackwater Draw, Eastern New Mexico University, 8 miles north of Portales, NM
Kansas History Museum, Topeka, NM
Oklahoma City Zoo, Oklahoma City, OK
St. Louis, ZOO, St. Louis
Topeka Zoo, Topeka, KS
Hillcrest Zoo, Clovis, NM
Bob Dole Museum, Lawrence, KS
Marland Mansion, Ponca City, OK
Conoco Museum, Ponca City, OK
Marland's Grand Home, Ponca City, OK
Museum of Science and Industry. Chicago, IL This is one of the first times I recall going to a museum.
Southeastern State College, Durant, OK Science building
Bicentennial Train, Ardmore, OK
NASA space traveling exhibit.Dickson, OK [Saw first moon rock there]
Kirkpatrick Center, Oklahoma City
Cowboy Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City
Wichita Omnisphere and science Center, Wichita, KS
Kansas Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, KS
Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, OK
St. Louis Science Center, St.Louis, MO
National Westward Expansion Museum, St. Louis, MO
Art Museum, St. Louis,
New Mexico Space Museum and Space Hall of Fame, Alamogardo, NM
National Solar Observatory, Sunspot, NM
Roswell Science and art Center, Roswell, NM
Blackwater Draw, Eastern New Mexico University, 8 miles north of Portales, NM
Kansas History Museum, Topeka, NM
Oklahoma City Zoo, Oklahoma City, OK
St. Louis, ZOO, St. Louis
Topeka Zoo, Topeka, KS
Hillcrest Zoo, Clovis, NM
Bob Dole Museum, Lawrence, KS
Marland Mansion, Ponca City, OK
Conoco Museum, Ponca City, OK
Marland's Grand Home, Ponca City, OK
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Judgment and judging and the curse of expectations
I find the way people act to be a good indicator of what they believe regardless of what they say they believe. My daughter back in September on a visit to see her asked her step-dad to adopt her. Of course prior to this action I had no clue whatsoever that she had even entertained the idea. Needless to say it hit me like a brick wall on fire. I couldn't believe it. The daughter that I love so much and had worried about and worked so hard to cultivate a good and open relationship was asking this of me? How could this be?
[This is in response to a letter I got from Madeline Saturday.] Oh yes. I remember. My old friend religion was at work here. The Christian was showing the true nature of what it means to be an adherent. Reality isn't what matters but it is the perception of what make her comfortable. The trip went ahead as planned but needless to say the call from her Uncle on the morning I left for Kansas was a most distracting thing to deal with. Her Uncle happens to be the attorney that was handling the adoption.
So a trip that was designed to be a fun time with my daughter and girl friend became a horror filled nightmare. Why? Well, that really is the question. Had I ever hurt her or abused her or did anything to her detriment? No. All I ever wanted for her was to be happy and healthy and smart. The last time I saw her she had made a point of wrapping a present for me and giving it to me for Christmas. What had happened from the caring loving daughter I had last scene then? During the year I would call her and also send her text messages. For awhile I got messages back but I figured she was busy and such.
But this was much more than a communication situation. It was the influence of religion in all that moved my loving daughter to a hostile person. It was through the encouragement of people that are self-righteous and would prefer to hurt me and destroy Madeline rather than show the love and charity and compassion that their religion asks for them to do. No doubt, it was and is hate that fuels this behavior.
How many times must one forgive? Is it three times? It is seven times? Even if you have forgiven seventy times seven you have only just began to forgive according to the sayings of Jesus. What are the characteristic of this love? Aren't they long suffering, patience, tenderness, forgiveness, gentleness, self control, faithfulness and kindness? When did God give up on those that believe on him and call on his name?
I see the hand of my self-righteous ex-wife at work in the actions and words of my child. The burden of anger and frustration that I feel is so intense and so burning with rage that I can barely explain it. How I want to teach all of them what is the right way to act. How I want to force them to confess their evil deeds and turn to me and ask my forgiveness.
How I want to steal my daughter from the influence of the lies that she has been force to accept as true. And even more evil that I wish I could do to them for the hurt, pain and anguish they have caused me. But can I?
I am not sure how many of you are familiar with the story of The Good Samaritan. It is a parable from Jesus and talks about the compassion of one person given to another person that is undeserved or at least rightly with held. The Samaritans were a sect of the Jewish people that had a slightly different view of how to worship God than the more Orthodox Jews. The Samaritans felt you could worship God where ever you wished and the more Orthodox Jews felt this was only done in the Temple. Because of this the Samaritans were hated and viewed with utter contempt by the Jews.
So, as the story goes, a man was on a journey and was beaten and robbed and left to die on the roadside. [a pathway in today's meaning] As the man laid in need a priest came by and walk by him and did nothing to aid him. Likewise the same with the Levite that walked that way. No assistance was offered or given. One could understand this situation. The bandits may very well be waiting nearby to beat and rob the person that would help the injured man.
Then as we all know finally The Good Samaritan comes and helps the man, binds his wounds and takes him to an inn where the Samaritan pays for his rest and recuperation asking nothing in return. Yet even saying to the inn keeper that anything the man needs, that when he comes back he will pay for that as well. The man who was despised by the one he helped was the one that showed loved and mercy. To this, Jesus doesn't call him his brother or his friend. Jesus simply calls him his neighbor. If that is how you treat a neighbor, isn't that much more to your own father?
Jesus asked the ones that listen to the story who was the one that showed mercy? The answer was hard for them to say. Because the right answer was the man that was despised, the Samaritan. So what was answered was, "The one who showed mercy."
This is the way I have to react when people treat me with cruelty and bitter anger and hate. Am I going to answer their evil with evil? Am I going to judge them by my worse fears? Or am I going to hold out hope that my tolerance and hope for them will lead to a path that we both can share and help each other?
While I am sure it would thrill my ex-wife to no ends to have me become angry with my daughter she has no way to fathom the love I can show and that I feel. Some say that the love of God stretches as far as the East is from the West. I don't know about that. But I do know that when you show love it helps you and the person you show it too.
Maybe if more Christians were more eager to show God's love we could dispense with the divisions in the world and our country and focus on helping one another instead.
Great evil and malice has been shown toward me yet I will not act in kind. I will judge this situation by the actions of what has happen to me. But I will do it in patience and with reflection on my own human frailties.
What is worse; to destroy someones body or destroy someones mind and will? How about both are bad and not do either to the best we can.
Why do people seek to cause others harm? I could only guess that it has to do with false expectations. As humans we tend to project certain ideas and results on people and groups that we think we have a valid understanding of. This is part of human nature. Sometimes these expectations are worth merit but more often than not they are a best guess.
If you have ever meet another person, out of the two of you one is more intelligent. That is a fact. But according to the Dunning-Krugger Effect, If you have two people both will assume to be above average in their intelligence. This, of course, cannot be right, only about 40 percent of the people can be above average. The rest are about average or below average intelligence. Having study this effect I have seen how I am a victim of my own self delusional behavior and tend to think what I think is right or best isn't always the best or right way after all.
This applies to our relationships as well. The amount of time one invests into a commitment tends to amplify the value of that commitment. I once collected stamps and loved to get new ones and find out where they were from and all about them. I went to stamp shops and went to stores and looked up all sorts of facts and things about stamps. I got great joy from them. They were stolen from me when I was about 18 years old and that hurt me very much. Even to this day, all the time and effort and education I put into it still brings a bit of pain. But the truth is to someone that has no desire in stamp collecting my actions and feelings would be foreign. Rightfully so.
Because of this, I could have an unreasonable expectation of them to empathize with how losing my stamp collection made me feel. A reaction to that may be to get even madder at them because they fail to react as I would want them too. This would be an unreasonable reaction on my part. Of course, this also applies to careers, politics, and religion.
We have by nature unreasonable expectations for others to accept our ideas and behave as we wish. I surely do that. It is hard to explain how we feel and to do the often tedious work of explaining ourselves. But I try to be aware that my expectations may not be reasonable. Just because I have invested a lot of time and effort into them doesn't mean that others must feel the same as I do.
Sometimes the most simple things is to step back and say, Why don't you feel like I do? Or what do you think or feel about this?
Of course, this requires communication and since my ex-wife thinks it a great idea not to communicate, that left my daughter with very little of my influence. I know for a fact that if I hadn't been left out of the picture that I wouldn't be dealing with this Today.
It doesn't hurt to reevaluate your values now and then. You might find betters ones. After all, didn't Jesus change the way the Jews were thinking?
[This is in response to a letter I got from Madeline Saturday.] Oh yes. I remember. My old friend religion was at work here. The Christian was showing the true nature of what it means to be an adherent. Reality isn't what matters but it is the perception of what make her comfortable. The trip went ahead as planned but needless to say the call from her Uncle on the morning I left for Kansas was a most distracting thing to deal with. Her Uncle happens to be the attorney that was handling the adoption.
So a trip that was designed to be a fun time with my daughter and girl friend became a horror filled nightmare. Why? Well, that really is the question. Had I ever hurt her or abused her or did anything to her detriment? No. All I ever wanted for her was to be happy and healthy and smart. The last time I saw her she had made a point of wrapping a present for me and giving it to me for Christmas. What had happened from the caring loving daughter I had last scene then? During the year I would call her and also send her text messages. For awhile I got messages back but I figured she was busy and such.
But this was much more than a communication situation. It was the influence of religion in all that moved my loving daughter to a hostile person. It was through the encouragement of people that are self-righteous and would prefer to hurt me and destroy Madeline rather than show the love and charity and compassion that their religion asks for them to do. No doubt, it was and is hate that fuels this behavior.
How many times must one forgive? Is it three times? It is seven times? Even if you have forgiven seventy times seven you have only just began to forgive according to the sayings of Jesus. What are the characteristic of this love? Aren't they long suffering, patience, tenderness, forgiveness, gentleness, self control, faithfulness and kindness? When did God give up on those that believe on him and call on his name?
I see the hand of my self-righteous ex-wife at work in the actions and words of my child. The burden of anger and frustration that I feel is so intense and so burning with rage that I can barely explain it. How I want to teach all of them what is the right way to act. How I want to force them to confess their evil deeds and turn to me and ask my forgiveness.
How I want to steal my daughter from the influence of the lies that she has been force to accept as true. And even more evil that I wish I could do to them for the hurt, pain and anguish they have caused me. But can I?
I am not sure how many of you are familiar with the story of The Good Samaritan. It is a parable from Jesus and talks about the compassion of one person given to another person that is undeserved or at least rightly with held. The Samaritans were a sect of the Jewish people that had a slightly different view of how to worship God than the more Orthodox Jews. The Samaritans felt you could worship God where ever you wished and the more Orthodox Jews felt this was only done in the Temple. Because of this the Samaritans were hated and viewed with utter contempt by the Jews.
So, as the story goes, a man was on a journey and was beaten and robbed and left to die on the roadside. [a pathway in today's meaning] As the man laid in need a priest came by and walk by him and did nothing to aid him. Likewise the same with the Levite that walked that way. No assistance was offered or given. One could understand this situation. The bandits may very well be waiting nearby to beat and rob the person that would help the injured man.
Then as we all know finally The Good Samaritan comes and helps the man, binds his wounds and takes him to an inn where the Samaritan pays for his rest and recuperation asking nothing in return. Yet even saying to the inn keeper that anything the man needs, that when he comes back he will pay for that as well. The man who was despised by the one he helped was the one that showed loved and mercy. To this, Jesus doesn't call him his brother or his friend. Jesus simply calls him his neighbor. If that is how you treat a neighbor, isn't that much more to your own father?
Jesus asked the ones that listen to the story who was the one that showed mercy? The answer was hard for them to say. Because the right answer was the man that was despised, the Samaritan. So what was answered was, "The one who showed mercy."
This is the way I have to react when people treat me with cruelty and bitter anger and hate. Am I going to answer their evil with evil? Am I going to judge them by my worse fears? Or am I going to hold out hope that my tolerance and hope for them will lead to a path that we both can share and help each other?
While I am sure it would thrill my ex-wife to no ends to have me become angry with my daughter she has no way to fathom the love I can show and that I feel. Some say that the love of God stretches as far as the East is from the West. I don't know about that. But I do know that when you show love it helps you and the person you show it too.
Maybe if more Christians were more eager to show God's love we could dispense with the divisions in the world and our country and focus on helping one another instead.
Great evil and malice has been shown toward me yet I will not act in kind. I will judge this situation by the actions of what has happen to me. But I will do it in patience and with reflection on my own human frailties.
What is worse; to destroy someones body or destroy someones mind and will? How about both are bad and not do either to the best we can.
Why do people seek to cause others harm? I could only guess that it has to do with false expectations. As humans we tend to project certain ideas and results on people and groups that we think we have a valid understanding of. This is part of human nature. Sometimes these expectations are worth merit but more often than not they are a best guess.
If you have ever meet another person, out of the two of you one is more intelligent. That is a fact. But according to the Dunning-Krugger Effect, If you have two people both will assume to be above average in their intelligence. This, of course, cannot be right, only about 40 percent of the people can be above average. The rest are about average or below average intelligence. Having study this effect I have seen how I am a victim of my own self delusional behavior and tend to think what I think is right or best isn't always the best or right way after all.
This applies to our relationships as well. The amount of time one invests into a commitment tends to amplify the value of that commitment. I once collected stamps and loved to get new ones and find out where they were from and all about them. I went to stamp shops and went to stores and looked up all sorts of facts and things about stamps. I got great joy from them. They were stolen from me when I was about 18 years old and that hurt me very much. Even to this day, all the time and effort and education I put into it still brings a bit of pain. But the truth is to someone that has no desire in stamp collecting my actions and feelings would be foreign. Rightfully so.
Because of this, I could have an unreasonable expectation of them to empathize with how losing my stamp collection made me feel. A reaction to that may be to get even madder at them because they fail to react as I would want them too. This would be an unreasonable reaction on my part. Of course, this also applies to careers, politics, and religion.
We have by nature unreasonable expectations for others to accept our ideas and behave as we wish. I surely do that. It is hard to explain how we feel and to do the often tedious work of explaining ourselves. But I try to be aware that my expectations may not be reasonable. Just because I have invested a lot of time and effort into them doesn't mean that others must feel the same as I do.
Sometimes the most simple things is to step back and say, Why don't you feel like I do? Or what do you think or feel about this?
Of course, this requires communication and since my ex-wife thinks it a great idea not to communicate, that left my daughter with very little of my influence. I know for a fact that if I hadn't been left out of the picture that I wouldn't be dealing with this Today.
It doesn't hurt to reevaluate your values now and then. You might find betters ones. After all, didn't Jesus change the way the Jews were thinking?
Friday, February 18, 2011
Some good news some bad.
 |
| More people are hitting the trail with warmer weather. |
This is for a couple of days since I have been pretty busy. The good news of the start is that even though I have not been posting daily I have still been doing my walking. So far this week I have walked more than 57 miles. This puts me over the 20 percent mark for reaching my goal of 1750 miles. I have walked 364.61 miles since December 28th. This also means I only have 1385.39 miles left to go.
Some more good news is that I have lost more than 40 pounds since I began. I hit 256.4 yesterday and that is 40.6 off my beginning weight. The bad news is that I got a new scale to replace the old spring one that I had and I found out that the old scale was off [light] by about 7 pounds. Because of this I have adjusted my starting weight from 290 to 297. It may be more because there isn't a direct linear comparison. But that seems to be fair. More than likely I was over 300 pounds. SO that is the bad news part.
The trail has really seen the number of people go up with the warmer weather. Seems that Ground Hog may have been onto something after all. I always had faith in him. Never wavered a bit. Over the past three days we have 151, 147 and yesterday there was 197 people. It is odd to see them out there. Some of the people I have seen many times and some I have only seen one time. But there are only about four or five I have seen even in the coldest weather. I am so glad I started when it was cold because I have a feeling the heat is going to wipe me out. I am already in shorts and t-shirts. This is with the temperature being in the 40's and 50's.
 |
| Let's see what this look like in a couple weeks. |
I am going back to Chicago for a few days to see Cheryl and will do some more walking from there. Though it has only been a couple of days since the snow has melted, there is green grass and some leaves beginning to grow on the trail. Get ready for pollen if you have allergies.
While my stomach is still pretty huge it is at least much softer than is has been in a long time. Not long ago when one would poke my belly it was hard and you could poke it in. Now it is soft and I giggle when that happens. Like the Pillsbury dough boy.Too bad I can't lose weight like how the snow melts. Or can I?
More birds and squirrels are around the trail now too. Dang squirrels.
Keep on Track,
Thomas
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
People are Getting on my Trail.
Yesterday there was a record number of people on the trail during my walk with 51. Today there were 37 people. This of course doesn't count the dogs and babies which have no say in the matter. One of the funniest ones was a woman that brought her bike with her to the Tesson parking area and just rode her bike to Gravois. That was only a two mile bike ride. I guess it is better than nothing at all but it seems really minor to me. I walked 10.63 miles and I thought I should have gone further.
There seems to be an issue with the livestrong.com website. I have tried several times to get on it to
track my walking and food but the pages keep going blank. I wonder if it will be fixed soon. That is a bit inconvenient.
 |
| The ducks were out Today, so were the people. |
I saw some ducks in the creek near Grant's Trail near the headend at The Lodge end of the trail. They were all swimming together in their little ducky formation and quacking just as ducks tend to do. It will be interesting to see what sort of facility that is going to be built there and how that will relate to the park and fitness. I should look into what is available at the Clydesdale Park. But I think just walking up the hill is about enough activity for anyone.
 |
| It is very quiet in here in the morning. |
I went to Grant's National Park for my turn around point. I was joust going to Gravois but I had to use their bathroom. When I was in there I sneezed. I guess it was a bit loud and the Park Ranger stuck his head in the bathroom to see what was going on.
I think I am going to get a scale that works Today. That will help measure my actual weight without having to guess. However, when I was up visiting Cheryl one time we went to Zannie's comedy club and the guy there was selling t-shirts that benefit dog rescues and I got one, The thing is the only size they had was large so I had to got that. I wore that shirt Today. Of course I am fat in it but I can at least wear it somewhat without it being over stretched.
According to my fitness tracker I have walked 331 miles and I am at almost 19 percent of my goal to walk 1750 miles. Just think, almost 20 percent done. Looking back it looks so easy, but looking forward it looks really hard.
I also had a large number of hits on my blog yesterday. I want to say thank you for reading and I hope that you will be returning to see me become successful on my journey to a better me. I couldn't do it without you. Well I could and I am.
Keep on track,
Thomas
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