It is possible that many people justify unethical behavior by assuming the opposite party is already acting with unethical intentions. I've encountered first hand this path of thought in close friends and businesses.
Consider what happens if both parties take this mindset.
Don't be this person. Assume the other party has good intentions. You'll be in the right. And I'm betting you'll find their intentions were not as nefarious as you first thought.
I'm in Pittsburgh, and I'm going up to State College this evening. It's such an emotional time yet I can't wait to be there.
First - My heart breaks for those kids. I hope and wish that they are able to deal with and heal from the pain. I never want to see this happen to another child again. I've spent time researching child abuse prevention this week. If you are a pedophile, and you're associated with me, I'm going to find you. And you are going to jail.
I've also spent some time this week reflecting on my alma mater. PSU has people that run the gamut of integrity and class ( as does every university I'm sure ). Yet to me being a Penn Stater has always been about looking at myself through my ideal self image. "Am I being the best that I can be today? What can I change today to make it better?" It is difficult to explain why PSU has one of the biggest seats at the table of self worth and image. Perhaps it was the examples of people living those ideals and working for the university. This includes a few names you know, and even more that you don't. Perhaps its the fact I went in to that school unconfident, emotionally vacant, and naive. Through easy and hard lessons I left with a much different level of maturity & ready to take on the world. Combining these feelings with the student, alumni, and staff overall collective good that changes the world ( we are... ) and it is something special to me.
I've thought a lot about how to explain this week to other people. Imagine your own table of self worth, with chairs that represent each of your major contributing pieces. Parents, individual heros, maybe even your own alma maters. The PSU seat at the table of my own image has been damaged by a very sick individual and callous leadership. It has been dragged through the mud on national television. But if the leaders are a part of that chair, they aren't the legs. The chair still stands, and I'm picking that chair back up and putting it back where it belongs.
On Saturday I'm going to support college kids that have worked their tails off to play a football game. It's the least I can do for the kids on both sides of the ball. Leslie will cheer for Nebraska, I'll be cheering for PSU. I hope that one of us can & will rub it in after that game. I'll be wearing blue in support of raising child abuse awareness and in support of my school. I'm sure I'll see some folks drinking too much and making poor decisions. I'll also see some folks who have done so much good in this world. Most importantly though is for me to set an example. I'm going to be the best Penn Stater ( read: human ) I can be.
The Dundee Dell give Omahans a liquor collection that few other bars in the world could boast. Combine that with sensible prices and you'll be able to experience premium liquor for a great discount compared to bars in larger cities. At this moment the Dundee Dell has well over 700 open unique bottles of single malt scotch. A ridiculous number. Combine that with many dozen varieties of tequilas, rums, vodkas, rye, bourbon, etc. Their inventory day must be hell.
The selection is daunting for those not versed in good liquor. Their bartenders are very friendly and helpful if you ask them assistance. Sit at the bar, have a conversation, and you may end up with a few free sips and a great education.
I'd thought I would supply a noob's guide if your not in a situation to have a session with their bartenders attention. The Scotch and other liquors here are mostly 'value' purchases - those that I consider to be good bang for the buck and a wonderful introductory experience.
Organized from least to most peaty or smokey. Prices are for a peg (1.0 ounce-ish).
You must try the Del Maguey Mezcals. Not considered a Tequila because it is not from Jalisco Mexico. One sip of one of these bad boys and you'll realize what you are missing. They are super complex and provide an experience that the clean blue agave premium brands you know of cannot touch. Check the bar for prices of each - as they range from $6 to a heck of a lot more. If you are a Tequila lover you will not be disappointed. I believe that Eat the Worm is the only other establishment to carry some of these in Omaha.
The Dell sports a couple rums with considerable aging in the barrel. No caramel color additives here. Most are made with quality molasses. Again this is one to check for at the bar as prices and selection of the moment varies. Usually $5 - $9 per 1.5 oz.
This is the letter I sent to Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska regarding the current TSA policies and enforcement of those policies.
Dear Senator Johanns,
I urge you to recommend swift and practical changes to the TSA's current policies regarding invasive backscatter x-ray machines and even more invasive searches if the flying public chooses to 'opt out' of the machine.
I have already been subjected first-hand to the backscatter x-ray (or similar technology) machine at the Omaha Eppley Airfield as well a search following the scan. I was surprised how humiliating I found both. It was a clear violation of my fourth amendment rights.
We do not have to compromise security by stopping the use of the backscatter x-ray machines and violating pat downs by TSA employees. The Israeli Government has already implemented practical solutions (see for some initial details http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/744199---israelification-high-secur... that better line up with our american values as defined in the constitution.
Adopting similar measures as those implemented by the Israelis would likely result in a happier public and TSA employees. We can have better security and more privacy.
Thank you for your time.
Best Regards,
Andrew M. Wirick
My wife and I decided to try an interesting experiment. We are looking to live simpler lives. Step 1 is to greatly reduce the clutter. We decided to be a bit creative. Could we get rid of 10% of our stuff every weekend we were home for the rest of the year? That is a total of 6 weekends for us (we are traveling a lot).
Weekend 1 is over and we got rid of about 6% of our stuff. It wasn't difficult to get to 5%, but it takes a bit of time and we don't want to consume our weekend with one activity.
So what stuff were we liberated from in week 1?
- Clothes - Everything that was considered 'summer' clothes but hadn't been worn that season was tossed. Same went for any items that were considered 'nostalgic' but were never worn. It wasn't hard to cut the wardrobe down by 30-40%.
- Extra glassware - glassware is so easy to accumulate. We almost never threw away glassware out of possible future usage in some fabricated scenario. "Well we might have 4 people over that would want whiskey in a rock glass...". Easy to accumulate stuff when you throw in all those what ifs.
We instead kept everything that we identified as being used in the last 6 months. Even with that simple requirement we reduced our glassware by about 50%.
That is it for week 1! We donated everything to charity and took pictures of things we deemed worthy of tax deduction.
Boy it felt good. Give it a try.
Everything in this home office (sans electronics, but including the chair) fit in a single trip from Minnesota in our Yaris Hatchback. Seems ridiculous now that it is put together.
My lunch today - Gazpacho. It is easy to make, incredibly healthy, and perfect for this time of year with all of the fresh veggies available. The tomatoes and basil in this dish came from our home garden. My recipe:
