Retaining wall

For the last couple of years I have had a barren, desolate, and sometimes weed infested side yard on the north side of my house. No more! I've been working for the past week or so to landscape it nicely by adding a decorative fence and some retaining walls. Pics of the work can be seen here.

I've had several people in the neighborhood come by when I've been out working and tell me how nice they think it looks. Even though I wish I'd bought this other house I had looked at for the prestige and valuation, I have to admit that I picked a pretty darned nice neighborhood. Most of the people are friendly, my neighbor across the street has helped me on quite a few projects, my neighbor to the north cuts my hair (and does a good job), I can walk to the grocery store, work is 5 minutes away, Home Depot is 5 minutes away. So why can't I get happy with my house?

Cheeseburgers and bottled water

How many people have seen this phenomenon: An obese American who will only drink bottle water? Don't they realize that most bottled water is just filtered tap water and that the U.S. has the cleanest water supply in the world? Are they convinced that their health problems are a result of their drinking tap water? Maybe they should try eating fruits/veggies instead of McD's and exercising instead of watching TV. I know that some people have thyroid disorders and the like and that's fine, they can't do a lot about it but that is an extreme minority.

Have you noticed that the term 'overweight' discrimination is getting a lot of play in the media lately? I was reading an article about how some companies are penalizing workers who have high BMI's in the form of payroll deductions (essentially higher premiums). The same companies provide support for weight loss and will refund the money if that employee gets below the target BMI. For some reason this has people in an uproar, claiming that all of these people can't help it and to discriminate against them is cruel. Let's dissect this argument. First of all, is it possible that we have evolved to have a 40% obesity rate in the last 30 years? That's the only way I can think that these people "can't help it". Secondly, why is it okay to discriminate against someone who can't control their urges to harm others but not those who can't control their urges to eat? Many people say the second option is a victimless crime but in reality it is not. Weight bias is not simply about looks, it implies several things about that person including the fact that they are generally less healthy and have poorer productivity. This ends up costing everyone of us whether through higher premiums or job loss because of low productivity. This ends up feeding into the welfare and medicaid/care systems and before you know it we're victims. I love the idea of penalizing people who decided to engage in unhealthy activities (smoking, not exercising, eating poorly, drinking to excess). Why should everyone else pay for your poor judgement?

Native American?

I had an interesting conversation with my friend's wife who is from Peru. She was asking if I had seen the movie 'The Patriot' and told me that she needed to get a native American's perspective on the movie. I told her I wasn't a 'native American/Indian' and she said that she had just meant someone who was born here. That makes me wonder if people who come here from other countries are likewise confused about what exactly a Native American is. For all intents and purposes, this is my native land...my family emigrated here 120 years ago and all I've ever known is America. It's my home, I'm proud to live here, and would lay down my life to defend her. So am I or am I not a Native American? Maybe we need a different term to describe what people around the world know as 'American Red Indians'.

Thoughts?