Vio - Top 10 Bad Beverage Ideas - TIME

Vio - Top 10 Bad Beverage Ideas - TIME

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Behaviors Chosen For You

I remember a high school teacher discussing parental habits on their children's choices later in life, a preordained measure of what a grown individual will choose based on their parents habits. This being an interesting psychological observation which reminded me of Albert Bandura's social learning theory. Bandura, who states, "learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do."

True somewhat, isn't it?

I know an individual, who will remain anonymous, who states an all but true characteristic that bridges on being politically correct; so I will alter it slightly. "If you show me an overweight kid, i'll show you an overweight parent." As rude or incongruous as this may seem, it's an unfortunate truth. Behaviors of parents largely dictate attitudes, values, and norms of their children. Personalities I believe are greatly uno-centric, however, largely formed by the nurturing process. More so, the extrinsic choices young adults make (i.e. spending habits, nutrition and exercise habits) are also largely based upon the lifestyle of those whom they modeled after, their guardians. Examples as simple and remote as picking a toothpaste or a news channel to more serious life style choices such as setting up retirement plans early and being a philanthropic community contributor, are acts stemming from our parent's behaviors.

True in form; I buy Colgate toothpaste. I read the Boston Globe. I watch FoxNews (despite...). I'm a Red Sox fan. The gas in my car is never below a quarter tank. Peanut Butter of choice? Jiffy. All of these minor preferences and choices i've made above stem from a model of social behavior of my parents. Of course what i've exampled for myself are minor and ultimately have little effect on who I am as a person or to that of others, however, they do characterize me. More importantly there are values and life style habits I follow that severely dictate my long term well-being - again, predisposed choices based those of my models.

You'd like to think you're completely self-made, and in many measures you are. The steps however taken to get to where you are were indirectly chosen by your guardians. I'm not a psychologist, nor have any credentials toward social theory. Just plain human observation and of course a little insightful reading on the side.

To [Plea]se question

I saw this article this morning from yesterday's metro section out of the Boston Globe, initially cruising over it considering we've heard this unfortunate story time and time again. The article "Three Teens Charged with Alcohol Offenses," should rather be labeled, "Three teens declare their twenties in jail as pleading not guilty."

Washed up three months after the event, a few teens under questionable counsel are pleading 'not guilty' to a combination of drinking underage, providing alcohol to minors, driving while intoxicated, and negligent motor vehicle homicide. On the morning after their senior prom in May three teens hoped in a car post binging on the beach and while driving home killed an 87 year old woman and critically injured her 41 year old daughter early in the morning on the 16th.
When waking from a dazed state the driver, an 18 year old hotshot, responded "No way, really?" to his friend's realization that he hit two people.

What boggles my mind are the facts being disputed. Under no unreasonable doubt did the events occur to provide the courts with appropriate charges. The were all underage, they all drank illegally, they were furnished with liquor illegally, one drove while under the influence, and cap stoning the great decisions made that early morning - the driver indisputably hit and killed/critically injured two innocent bystanders. Why are they pleading 'not guilty' and effectively lengthening their sentence by allowing these charges to go through trial in front of a jury?

Batching RE-Transplanted Persepective.

"I don't think for a second that the people I had seen and talked to in New England were either unfriendly or discourteous, but they spoke tersely and usually waited for the newcomer to open communication. Almost on crossing the Ohio line it seemed to me that people were more open and more outgoing. The waitress in a roadside stand said good morning before I had a chance to, discussed breakfast as though she liked the idea, spoke with enthusiasm about the weather, sometimes even offered some information about herself without my delving. Strangers talked freely to one another without caution. I had forgotten how rich and beautiful is the countryside-the deep topsoil, the wealth of great trees, the lake country of Michigan handsome as a well-made woman, and dressed and jeweled. It seemed to me that the earth was generous and outgoing here in the heartland, and perhaps the people took a cue from it." -John Steinbeck

I've been back "home" for a week and half, and I see such stark differences in attitudes and behavior from the wonder of the Midwest. I'm speaking much like Steinbeck, because I am thinking like him. I've been reading and re-reading passages from Travels with Charley and I am in complete agreement and shared relationship with the same experiences of the beauty and hearth of the Midwest countryside and its people.

After returning in my own personal welcome after a disappointing last few days in my former home, I have been greeted in the same value of crippled emotions of where I had grown up. I didn't know any better of such a tawdry atmosphere until I had experienced something else. Northeasterners, here specifically I speak of Mainers, are taciturn, frank, assuming, and most disappointingly - they are hard to place trust in others. They do not speak openly with strangers. They assume all conversations are to be started like a car; upon planned and active implementation with a key to an ignition, a foot to the clutch, and push of the gear shift. Everything planned and calculated, there is no welcome for free flow of tongue.

I miss the air of candor and kindness of the Midwest. What is negatively hashed upon here in the Northeast of life in the Midwest is acumen to their character. What is not normal, what seemingly fails to be outside their comfort and subjective beauty is tarnished with mental images and words to sooth their own geocentric views. When speaking of other lands, Midwesterners talk in sincerity of their positive experiences or their lust to visit. Never can I remember hearing any negative self-assuming remarks of places away from their home. I miss this, and think to myself to make the Midwest a future home shared with those who don't know any better as I had before my return.

Phone Photos from Around the World

What we can capture with a "camera" has shown us the sights of wonder and amazement in times beyond the disappointment in not having a camera on hand. As technology is ever-improving, what we think was taken by a 35mm real camera is actually a product of a cell phone. The NYT compiled a few hundred camera photos submitted by readers from around the world, whether at home or traveling. Only rule - it must have been taken by a cell phone.

Excerpt of Steinbeck

Taken from Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck:

"Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the-glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you can control it. I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand it."

Back in the Bunk

I made it back last night after an exhausting and arduous 27 hour drive through half the country. Leaving Des Moines around 6:30pm on Wednesday evening I drove through the night stopping in eastern Indiana to take a quick cat nap before hitting the road again and reaching home around 9:30pm the following evening. Trailer in tow.

The last week has been one of the worst on the books. Preparing to leave Tuesday morning, Wednesday at the latest, I had packed most everything on Sunday evening and Monday morning. All the familiarities that you need in every day life; dishes, toiletries, I even threw out the food I wouldn't need for the next day. Bad move. Receiving no information from the moving company (of which was provoked by our own initiative) except that the truck at a "mechanical issue." Ok- so they'll be here on Tuesday, fine. I can leave Wednesday no problem.

Tuesday comes and hitting mid-afternoon and not hearing anything, i'm thinking something is more than wrong. After leaving messages and not hearing back by Wednesday morning I decided to check online and figure out who I can contact to get through. Before I do I decided to look at online reviews people had left (keep in mind this is a company my father had set up.) To my unfortunate but no surprise I had read more than I needed to verify this company's lack of professionalism and credibility. Stuck having to find alternate plans, I was lucky to have been able to reserve a long-distance trailer AND movers. Nice.

On the trip back from the U-Haul company, everything was running smoothly. I wanted to pick up some waters for the movers and while pulling into the grocer got into an accident. Unbelievable. My damn luck kept sinking. As I had to turn right, I put my blinker on and veered a little to the left to make sure the trailor didn't hit the curb and tip. As I had veered left a guy tried to squeeze by me on the right and as I turned in he hit me on the right-side door and fender. I can't even explain how I felt. Just shocked. I'd pair better holding a golf club up to the sky on a stormy day.

Needless to say - I made it back, now just having to deal with unpacking and setting my life back up on the coast. Car repairs, bank accounts, consolidating loans, packing and moving again will occupy my summer. Sometimes i'd settle for settling.