Just last week, while searching around the vast vaults of YouTube, I once again stumbled upon Red and his merry band of Canuck misfits. Noah happened to be sitting next to me while I sifted through the videos, and found Red's antics to be particularly entertaining.

Last night, while we were watching the Olympics, Noah pulled the Red Green videos up on the computer again, and we made him put headphones on because it was too noisy. That only solved half the problem though, because we could still hear Noah belly-laughing loudly as he watched the videos! It was actually quite cute. :-)

Here's Noah's favorite "Handyman Corner" video:

What a great show...

As an example, I am opposed to big government, but I also believe that domestic businesses have a responsibility to take care of the citizens that live within their communities, preferably through employment of those citizens. If the needs of the people are met by those who benefit most from a free market economy (business), then there is less need for government programs to do the same thing. If large corporations, and the executives who run them, choose to keep all of the profits at the top, then the only way to meet "the people's" needs is through bigger government. Not many hard-liners on the right or left would agree with such a view -- most believe you can have one without the other, but I don't.

When it comes to candidates, I prefer to support those with a real grasp of the issues at hand, or ones that can at least express the core tenets of their political viewpoints without resorting to notes scribbled on their palm. In other words, I refuse to support out-right stupid candidates. It doesn't matter if I may agree with some of the issues raised by the 'Tea Party' rallies, if Sarah Palin is the leader of the band, I want nothing to do with it.

Almost two years ago we saw miserable failure at the hands of that big meanie of a TV show host, Katie Couric. This should have spelled doom for Ms. Palin's political career, but for some strange reason she is still around -- babbling away like an empty-headed ventriloquist's dummy that can't really think for itself, she's still there.

This brings us to my main point... last week, at a 'Tea Party' rally, Sarah Palin resorted to writing notes on her hand so she could remember the core values for which she is campaigning -- while at the same time, blasting President Obama for using a teleprompter for his speeches. Here's a link that documents the Alaskan ex-governor's latest escapades:

Palm Pilot - Palin Edition

Note: I am in no way advocating the reading of the Huffington Post, but in this case, they have a good run-down of Ms. Palin's antics. The HuffPo is generally far too liberal for my tastes.

My fellow Americans, please give your collective heads a shake if you have even an ounce of support for this woman. Is this really who you want to serve as the head of your political party -- or God forbid, your country? If you ever hope to regain the moderate vote from the American populace, you had better come up with some better, more intelligent candidates than Sarah Palin -- and I don't mean Rush Limbaugh! If they are the alternatives, I'll stick with the "hopey-changey stuff".

2/11/10 Addendum:

For those who want the quick answer to what was written on her palm, here you go:

Energy
Budget Cuts
Tax
Lift American Spirit

Here is a transcript of the segment for which Ms. Palin so exquisitely utilized her cheat sheet:

Question to Sarah Palin: "When we are successful, and we have a conservative house and a conservative senate -- as soon as that happens -- what do you think are the top three things that have got to be done?"

Answer from Sarah Palin: "We've got to reign in the spending obviously and not, you know, raise these extremely high, um, budgets and then say OK we're gonna freeze a couple programs here -- that doesn't do us any good, really. [looks down at hand] We've got to start reigning in the spending... We have got to jump start these energy projects that, again, we've heard so much about because it's ridiculous that we have, just sitting warehoused, under God's green Earth, here in the United States of America, rich resources -- oil and gas, and our coal, and, and all these conventional sources of resources. We have got to, actually, walk that walk to allow them to come to development."

"And then, I think, kinda tougher to, um, kinda tougher to put our arms around, but allowing America's spirit to rise again. By not being afraid to kind of go back to some of our roots, as a God-fearing nation, where we're not afraid to say, especially in times of potential trouble in the future here, we're not afraid to say, you know, we don't have all the answers as fallible men and women, so it would be wise of us to start seeking some divine intervention again in this country, so that we can be safe and secure and prosperous again."

Or you can watch it on YouTube:
Tea Party Video

The first part is just a bunch of random sound-bites strung together. It's just a bunch of babble -- she obviously doesn't understand the difference between a budget cut and a tax cut! And the second part? She doesn't want to go back to our roots, she wants to go back to Nazi Germany's roots.

This concludes the first, and hopefully the last, political post on Jethro's World.

"If you have an order for 50 boxes, and they cost 5 dollars each, then the total for the order is... [hits the equals sign] 250 dollars."

My first thought was, "Wow, they're already teaching that in first grade?!", and my second thought was, "Hmm, maybe this kid will make a box maker after all." But when I asked him if he had learned multiplication at school, he said that he had just figured it out himself. As a quick test to see what he could do, I asked him what five times five was. He thought for a moment, and gave me the correct answer. He didn't do so well with numbers that weren't easy to count in multiples, but I was impressed with his understanding of the concept, none the less.

I wish I had been as studious as Noah is at this age, but then I guess some of that comes with being a first-born parent pleaser. But whatever the reason, I'm just glad he is able to take on new challenges, and enjoys learning. I'm sure his little sister will do well, too; but I think she's going to be more into hamming it up and cracking us up than wowing us with her grasp of new concepts -- but you never know!

For me, all too often the battle has been couch-potato-ism - that's right, the overwhealming desire to sit on the sofa, watch TV, and munch on junk food. The end result is high blood pressure and a high body mass index. For others, this propensity for lounging around is inconceivable -- something that just is not in their blood; but for me it is very real.

It took the spark of being an assistant soccer coach to realize the mountain that stood before me, and it set the first steps on the course I am currently following. Most of the activities I now choose help me make my way down that path -- running at 5AM, old man basketball, Wednesday morning Bible study, paintball, and now tap dance.

The road I travel is different from yours, and the choices I've made may be different from what convention would suggest, but I have to follow the path God has laid before me, discerning it as best I can. I have chosen to get off the couch and live -- for Jesus, for my family, and for myself. All I ask is that you don't judge me on how I choose to live, just praise God that I have chosen to come alive, and support me as I seek to overcome.

"Take a picture of me and tell papa that this is what I want for Christmas!" Hopefully by the time she's 16 she'll be willing to drive something a little less pricey than a pink Escalade. :-)

Merry Christmas from Murphy and the rest of the Roth family!

Our new machine is now fully operational, and we are learning new tricks all the time. Efficiency is improving every day and it looks like it will be a perfect fit for our operation. Now if we can just stay busy like we are now, that would be even better!

My feet are cold, I'm ready for another pineapple express!

We got a new toy at the box factory -- a used BMC-55 Rite-Size Box Maker. We hope it will increase efficiency considerably on many of the items we run. It has all new wear parts, electrical, and hydraulic hoses, and the Rite-Size technician is out in the shop installing it as we speak.

It's kind of scary entering a new realm of box making machinery, but based on the level of service we have received so far from Rite-Size, I'm confident their after-purchase support will be excellent as well. This is the first piece of machinery in the shop that has not been home-built. It was, however, built at approximately the same time as all of our other equipment, so it should fit in quite nicely.

This evening Emily and I made a trip to the grocery store because Steph was feeling under the weather. As we exited the Safeway and headed down the center concrete sidewalk (with flowerbed 'islands'), we were treated to one of my biggest pet-peeves of all: shopping cart laziness!

This wasn't just shopping cart laziness either, it was laziness getting passed down from one generation to another. A grown man was showing his 8-year-old son the finer points of leaving his shopping cart in such a way that the front wheels sat completely in the flower bed -- this kept the cart from rolling away. Nevermind that the 'cart corral' was only 20 feet away!

Then to top it off, as I was unloading my own groceries, a big, bald, bubba of a man propped the front two wheels of his shopping cart up on the concrete sidewalk and left the other wheels down in the parking space. The cart corral was only 10 feet away from this bozo!

After I unloaded my groceries and my girl, I walked the 5 to 10 feet to the cart corral and politely placed my shopping cart where it belonged. And stewed in disgust at the shopping cart carnage that was spread around me in the parking lot. Dear lazy people of the world, put your shopping carts where they belong!

I've lost 10 lbs in just under 2 months by doing all of the above. Sure, that's not as impressive as the 35 lbs lost in 3 months that I did back in 2000, but hopefully I will keep up the exercise a little longer this time, and thus keep the weight off. So far, this feels a lot better than going into the gym for an hour-and-a-half every day after work (something I don't have time for anymore).

Noah played a little offense and defense in the first half of this past Saturday's game, and then got to play goal keeper in the second half -- something he was very excited about. Steph took my DSLR to the game, and snapped a slew of photos. I have posted a few of them below (click to enlarge).

I'm not sure Noah has the aggressiveness to continue at the next level, but for now he is having fun (most of the time). He really likes the idea of playing goalie, but I actually think that defense is a better spot for him. He actually has the speed to play offense, but at this point he has more fun just being out there running, and occasionally kicking the ball... usually in the right direction. :-)

Too bad they don't have U8 cross-country running teams... I think he'd be really good at that!

It all started last week when his teacher brought in a new classroom pet -- a hamster named M.C. Hamster. He has a little plastic ball that he climbs into so he can stroll around the classroom, and now Noah thinks we need a similar pet. So much so in fact, that he has been dreaming about a cage layout, and today he put it down on paper:

[Click on image to enlarge]

As a trained draftsman, I must say that I am very impressed with the young fellas abilities -- well beyond what I could conceive of at the age of 7. I'm really thinking maybe he should switch his grown up plans to being a 'mechanical' engineer, rather than a 'train' engineer... but I can give him a chance to finish being a kid before making such a suggestion. ;-)