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I am in deep gratitude for all of the men and women that have taken a stand for our great nation and our freedoms. I found this article on the  Huffington Post and decided to share it.

Huffington Post , November 11, 2009 | 12:05:14 PM (EST)

Veteran’s Day only happens once a year, but our nation’s veterans need our support year-round. We’ve pulled together five facts about U.S. veterans, the great organizations that are supporting them and how you can help any time of the year.

FACT
260,000 veterans will be homeless this year.

WHO IS DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT
The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans offers resources and technical assistance for a national network of community-based service providers and agencies that provide emergency and supportive housing, food, health services, job training and placement assistance, legal aid and case management support for hundreds of thousands of homeless veterans each year. Over the past six years, the NCHV and their partner organizations have collaborated with the Department of Veteran Affairs to halve the number of homeless veterans in America.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
You can help veterans in your community by volunteering at a shelter, being a mentor or legal aid, organizing a Stand Down program or developing a veteran burial program in your area. Check out the community-based vet organizations that need volunteers in your area.

You can also advocate for homeless veterans in your local government and community. Or donate directly to the NCHV.

FACT
65,000 Veterans have recorded their individual war stories at the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center

WHO IS DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT
The Veterans History Project at the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. They currently store thousands of audio and videotapes, personal memoirs, visual materials and correspondence from American Service members dating back to World War I.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
You can help veterans commit their stories to history by collecting them with the project’s Field Kit. Interview family members at your next family reunion, gather war-related correspondence or visit a retirement community and get to know the veterans there. You can then honor and promote these stories with various community events.

FACT
As many as 35 percent of Iraq Veterans have or will experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The NIMH defines PTSD as “an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened.” People who have PTSD have persistent frightening thoughts and memories, can feel emotionally numb and can have trouble sleeping or being startled easily.

WHO IS DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT
Give An Hour provides mental health services free of charge to U.S. troops and their families. Mental health professionals volunteer to treat patients free of charge, and once their treatment is completed, troops and their family are encouraged to give back to their community by volunteering with a nonprofit organization in their area.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
In addition to pro-bono work by mental health professionals, Give an Hour needs volunteers who are knowledgeable in administration, communications, fundraising and event management. You can also donate directly to the organization.

FACT
There are more than 5.5 million U.S. veterans living with a disability.

WHO IS DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT
Disabled American Veterans provides services, outreach and advocacy to veterans in need across the country.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
Through DAV, you can volunteer to drive vets to and from VA hospitals and clinics, volunteer at your local VA hospital, or provide special services to the sick and disabled veterans in your community. You can also donate to support their services.

FACT
184,251 troops are currently on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon.

WHO IS DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT
There are many organizations that can facilitate transport of letters and care packages to our troops on active duty. One nonprofit, Give2TheTroops has provided care packages and letters to one million deployed U.S. troops. Since 2002, they’ve shipped 86,000 large boxes and 20 million letters and cards from caring citizens.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
With the holidays right around the corner, Give2TheTroops is organizing a “seasonal sights sounds and sweets” drive to send festive care packages to while they are abroad. The nonprofit has a huge list of suggested goods that you can donate to spread holiday cheer for the troops that receive the care packages. You can also work with friends and local groups in your community year-round to make care packages of the most popular items requested from troops to send through Give2TheTroops. The organization also accepts donations to cover their administration and mailing costs.

When veterans return from war, they expect the government to care for their needs and to keep the memory of their fellow soldiers alive. But often they find that the government is slow to help, or in some cases, can’t help them at all. That’s why community organizations have stepped forward to fill that gap. Some nonprofits, like the ones above, cater to a veteran’s specific need. Others, like the National Veterans Foundation strive to provide comprehensive aid to our service men and women:

No matter how you choose to support our soldiers this Veterans Day, you can be sure they will appreciate it.

I spent this past weekend working with a group of people dedicated to consciously and deliberately working to make their lives and their world a better place. It was an emotionally demanding and rewarding journey for them as well as me. One of these amazing people approached me near the end of the day on Saturday and asked me “How do I hold on to this feeling? I’m so full of joy and happiness right now, I never want to let it go!” It’s a question I’ve been asked many times over the years, and the only answer I have is “why would you want to hold on so tightly to this?”

Richard Bach explained it beautifully in a parable he included in his book Illusions, but let me explain what I mean here.

I’ve learned in my own life that anything I hold onto immediately closes a door and stops “the flow” of anything more. I could provide endless examples of this in my own life, but I want to share this particular one because it’s the moment that I got it loud and clear.

In 1996 I went to work for UPS, and I LOVED my job. I had recently left The Ritz-Carlton Central Reservations team, and so my phone skills and customer service were top-notch. I advanced quickly from a customer service agent on the phones to a floor advisor taking escalated calls and answering general questions to resolve customer issues. I was really good at it. Another opportunity came for advancement, and I took it. It put me in a whole new world that was more challenging than I had anticipated, and it came with plenty of growing pains and lessons. There came a point where the position was no longer good for me professionally or personally, but out of arrogance and stubbornness (I know, hard to imagine from me, right?) I held on. I ignored what was going on around me and where my career was headed and held on tightly to what I had, making sure that I delivered on the bare minimum of what my position required so I could say “see? I did what you asked, you can’t be upset or hold me accountable for any more than that!” I was unhappy and felt trapped.

And then one day I was reading a book by Randy Gage titled 101 keys to your prosperity, and I read a passage that stated very simply that as long as I was holding onto something or holding it tightly to myself, my arms were not open to receive whatever else may be out there waiting for me. That hit me pretty hard, and I walked into work on Monday morning and gave my two weeks notice, not knowing what was next or what I would do, but knowing that I had been holding on there for far too long.

That was in 2002, and it’s been a roller-coaster ride since then! I’ve gone through good times and bad because of that decision. In the first few months after I left I plunged my family into the depths of poverty, hovering just on the edge of homelessness and literally begging for food to feed my family. I’ve also experienced success, both personally and professionally from that one choice. Sometimes I wonder if I could have made it work at UPS. I’ve recently connected with several friends on FB from the good ol’ days at UPS, and I’ve seen the success many of them have had. One is in eastern Europe on assignment right now, many are in mid- and upper-level management. Could that have been me? Maybe, but I’ll never know. I made the choice to trust and let go.

I know that it’s the same with my emotions. I don’t want to hold on to happiness. I enjoy it while I have it, and then I let it go. I know that more happiness will flow towards me and away from me, as will pain, success, failure, etc. I imagine it’s something like a pendulum. I picture the one at the old Hansen Planetarium, with a massive, heavy gold ball with an ornate pointer on the end suspended from three stories up by a thin silver wire, gently swaying back and forth – never stopping, always moving, swaying. What would it take to stop that heavy ball once it reached the apex of a swing? How heavy would it be? How long could I hold it? How long before I started to sweat, and my muscles started to ache. How long before it started to gradually slip from my grasp to continue it’s gently movement back and forth, and around in a circle? The way I see it, it’s a lot easier and infinitely more interesting to let the pendulum swing, whether it’s coming closer or moving farther. The way I see it, it’s a lot easier and infinitely more interesting to allow my emotions and the flow of life to swing, whether it’s coming into joy and success or moving into pain and failure.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not just a leaf floating on the wind all willy-nilly – I make a conscious effort to always be working and moving towards a better me. I’m not perfect in this, or any other area. But I really work to not hold any attachment to what this world holds for me, good or bad. I want to see what’s next and what this time on the ride has in store for me. If I’m holding on, I may miss out on something. So I’m on this roller-coaster, arms in the air, eyes wide open, screaming at the top of my lungs and not having any idea what’s around the next corner. I’d like to think you’re on it with me, in the seat right next to me, doing exactly the same thing.

I figure that if you do anything for over a hundred years, you’re gonna get pretty damn good at it. John Lobb Bootmakers is no exception. They’ve been making the best shoes on earth for over 160 years now. What makes them so special? you may ask. Well, to begin with, Lobb’s is the official shoemaker to the Royal Family of England for over a hundred years, and it’s not just tradition that keeps them as such. Each pair of shoes is custom tailored and crafted to the individuals foot, much as a fine Italian suit would be. Lemme give you an idea of what goes into each pair of shoes.

First, the “Fitter” takes measurements of your foot. This is not just what size shoe you wear, and it involves more than one of those metal slider-thingies at Payless. There are dozens of different measurements taken, and this is such an important job that they have one guy that does it. Yep, his whole job is to measure your feet. He takes notes on features and stuff, too. It’s kinda like an eye exam for your feet – they know everything there is to know about your feet by the time this fella’s done.

Next, they take all of that information gathered by the Fitter and hand it over to the Last-Maker. This guy reads all this info and sculpts a model of your foot from hornbeam wood. By hand. The ‘last’ is the wooden model that your shoes will be built around, and Lobb keeps every last they make, just in case you want another pair later on.

Once the last is completed, it’s given to the pattern cutter. It’s their job to make a pattern for your shoes in whatever style you have chosen. That’s right, every pattern is made from scratch, specific to the customer’s requirements. And we’re just getting started here.

Now we’re getting to the good stuff – the Clicker. This guy loves leather, and not in a kinky kinda way either. He knows everything there is to know about the different types of leather, the animals it comes from, different methods for curing and coloring it – this guy LIVES for leather. And it’s a good thing, too. It’s his job to pick out the leather for your shoes. He carefully looks for patterns and grains that will fit the style you’ve chosen, and then he cuts it according to the pattern, making certain that the eight pieces of leather used for each shoe are perfectly matched and fitted.

Once the Clicker is finished with his job, he passes the last, the leather pieces and the pattern on to the Closer. The Closer does all the sewing, lining, stiffening and final shaping and cutting of the leather pieces around the last. But this is just the upper part of the shoe.

When the Closer is done crafting the upper, it’s given to the Maker. Although this guy has the most reasonable name, it’s basically his job to put the upper on a long-wearing  sole of the best English oak bark tanned leather and the layered, riveted heel.

The shoe is pretty much done now, but it needs a layer of thin, soft leather fitted to the inside. This piece of leather also bears the shops name and the Royal Warrants printed in gold. No pair of shoes this nice would be complete without custom-made shoe trees to help preserve them and hold their shape, so the completed shoes go to the Tree-Maker. He hand-carves the shoe trees that go along with the shoes.

And for that last finishing touch, the shoes go to the Polisher. This guy has probably the most important job of all, for real. You figure, you’re spoending $600 just on the shoe trees, and well over $2,000 for the shoes, they better look like it, and this is the guy that makes sure of that.

Ta-da. John Lobb really does make the greatest shoes on earth.

I don’t think it’s any secret that I’m not a Michael Jackson fan. Sure, he’s got a few snappy tunes and some feel-good messages, but overall I always looked at him as kind of an odd duck and a freak, and I couldn’t understand people’s obsession with him.

Was he a good dancer? Absolutely, and often imitated to boot.

Was he a talented singer? I suppose if you like that kind of thing, yeah.

Was he the greatest performer of our generation? Now hold on there! That’s a mighty bold statement, and until I saw “This Is It” I probably would have dismissed it with a laugh.

The truth is, I had no interest in seeing This Is It, but Megan did and I wanted to be with her and she decided to be in that theater, so… you can kinda see how things worked out.

Before I go any further, if you have any intention of seeing This Is It I strongly urge you to find a IMAX or XD theater to see it in. Believe me, it makes a difference. The sound in the XD theater I was in was brilliant and the massive screen made the show infinitely more visceral.

Now, you need to know that this is basically a documentary. This Is It is comprised of footage shot during rehearsals for the 50-show event in London that was cut short by Michael’s death last June. There’s no real story line, but that’s not a drawback at all. The film starts with short vignettes of dancers at the auditions, and as I listened to them tell their stories in 2 sentences or less I was immediately struck by the far-reaching ripple effect MJ has had on so many lives and indeed, our culture as a whole. Most of these dancers were born within the last 20 years or so, and likely have no recollection of Michael’s heyday in the mid to late 80’s, and yet, some of them were so inspired by the man and his music that they were willing to jump on the next flight and race halfway around the world when they heard about the casting call.

And then it goes right into the music. Footage of Michael performing and rehearsing many of his hit songs is interspersed with dialogue from cast and crew talking about how they have been influenced by Michael and his music, and how honored and thrilled they are to be a part of this show. There’s also quite a bit of footage showing details of the rehearsal and the effects that were planned for the show – pyrotechnics, video, stage effects, etc. It’s unbelievably impressive the amount of work and rehearsal that goes into a show of this scale.

But what impressed me the most, and indeed has made me a fan of Michael Jackson, was watching him orchestrate every nuance of the performance. I will never again look at him as an artist or a performer, although he is certainly both. The only way I can accurately describe what Michael Jackson did is that he is a master craftsman and artisan. In working with his band and crew to get everything just right and make the necessary adjustments (everything from timing a particular piece of music to his cues to perfecting a video montage) he was always courteous and gracious and very respectful of the artists and their talents. He never spoke down to them or was condescending in any way, and yet was forceful and direct enough to exact only the very best they had to offer. It was a tremendous and humbling thing to witness, if only through the silver screen.

He performs many of his hits, and even casual listeners of Michael’s will appreciate this film. It’s a fitting tribute to a life unfinished.

I was just surfing today and I stumbled across this little number which gives you an idea of how big one of your swimmers is (or one of your eggs if you’re of the female persuasion) in comparison to a coffee bean, and other stuff. It’s pretty cool.

But then I remembered this daddy right here – the Universcale by Nikon. It’s pretty effing amazing, and (I’m not gonna lie) I spent like, 2 hours just playing with it when I first stumbled across it. Nothing super-major, but it’s nice to know where I stand relative to, you know, the Sphinx, or Jupiter or some other shit.