It's been a long time

A lot has happened in my live over the past few years.  This will be a bit of a random/rambling post.  I have moved 3 households, sold two houses, and added a new member of my household.  My 93 year old father-in-law is spending his last days with us.   Becoming a care-giver has became the life of our family.  I admit I have not given the needed time to my son's future (22 year old with Autism).. so he spends most of his day watching Anime and playing video games.

I am still in Toastmasters, I went from Sergeant at Arms to Club President and now the VP of Public Relations.  Toastmasters is an AWESOME organization, but they are also a very old organizations.  They are not TED talks, which I think some people are looking for when they visit our club. 

Toastmasters is playing catch up.  They have totally expanded their educational program so it allows greater personalization.  My hats off to pathways, it is a needed improvement.  Some of the members are taking a bit longer to adjust to the new program, which Toastmasters has allowed two years.

So as VP of PR I got off to a slow start, my father-in-law was hospitalized twice and my wife once. I became too stressed out to have any creativity.   I haven't given a speech or written in my blog since my father-in-law has moved in.  A few weeks ago, that all changed..the doctor recommended Hospice for my father-in-law.  Surprisingly I welcome the help, I know that it means he is getting closer to the end of his journey.. but it is a fact that we have all accepted.

Our club membership has dropped from 22 to 10, we have enlisted the help of a club coach. I feel in part that it is a failure of me not doing my job to draw people in.

Starting a week before Thanksgiving, I decided to jump into the PR thing with both feet.  I have made websites that stayed on the top 10 of search engines, I created clubs with 100s of members. The problem was, they died when I moved on.  I am taking what I leaned and applying it to Toasting Excellence.

Web Page.  The website looked like something made in 1990, optimized for Netscape. It was also hard to manage.  My upgrade to a Wordpress site is still a bit dated in appearance (2010 look) but offers so many more features.  http://excellence.toastmost.org

Social Media.  We do have Facebook and Twitter accounts.  To make us more visible I added MeetUp and LinkedIn.  I also posted our meeting information on Graigslist. 

We may be adding live video conferencing, testing Skype currently.

I am working on adding links to other local clubs and having them reciprocate. Toastmasters is a powerful organizations, if I can help build connections to help us move as one.. all of our clubs will benefit.

I feel my life is starting to get on track to start working on my personal improvement again.   I hope to have less random blog posts and more detailed post on what is working (or not working) and forward planning. 

My current goals are:
* Make sure my father-in-law feels loved and is comfortable as he reaches the end of his journey
* Build exposure and membership in my local Toastmasters club
* Find a program that will assist my son into becoming more independent.
* Continue to be a true public servant as I continue working for the state government.
* Find time to start dating my wife again.

Check back to see how I did and maybe offer some tips.

I started a Little Free Library(LFL) at work, it is not much only bookshelf in the breakroom.  LFL's are awesome and help build literacy in the community. I encourage everyone to start one.  I plan on adding on to my front yard this summer.  For more information visit http://www.littlefreelibrary.org

Diabetes

Like many Americans, poor diet and lack of exercise resulted in Adult On-set Diabetes. I was told back in November by my doctor that I need to lose weight, take meds, exercise more, and improve my diet.

I did not consider myself obese at 184 lbs, 5'8” tall. I ate what I wanted, and my exercise was yard work. I work in an office and sit on my ass most of the day.

The 1^st thing I did was to start cutting sugar out of my life. Not an easy thing to do. But I stopped soda pop and candy pretty much cold turkey.. and I lost 10 lbs in 4 weeks. I then joined weight watchers with my lovely wife. Each of us have lost nearly 20 lbs in the last 4 months. (I have lost nearly 30lbs so far)

My main focus is still to reduce sugar. I am struggling to get us below 30 grams a day (processed). Most sugar in fruit & vegies is off-set by the fiber, so that is very helpful.

I have learned that ALL sugar is the same: Honey, corn syrup, raw cane sugar.. is all basically turned to FAT if it is not offset by enough protein & fiber to make your digestion system work harder. Sugar alcohol is not really a sugar and is processed by your system differently not being turned to fat. No sugar added is MUCH better for you than low fat. I love some of the no sugar added ice creams.

Milk has 12 grams of sugar per 8 oz. Because of this we switched to GMO free, unsweetened soy and we make our own unsweetened almond milk.

All breads that we eat are now whole grain and low in sugar. This week we are switching over to free range eggs (The farm owner is my coworker)

Subway & panda express are our favorite fast food places.

More to on life as an aging opinionated American to come, have a great week everyone.

Loss & Living

I am currently morning the loss of two wonderful and caring people. A co-worker that I worked with for 17 years died in her sleep at age 61. And my sister in law's mom that passed at age 85.  They have touched the lives of many because they cared about friends, family, and community.  At the end of the day when most people went home and relaxed by shutting out the world; these fine ladies would be checking on friends.. either by visiting or by phone.  They loved their children & grandchildren and were always there when needed. 

Shirley and Deby, we will miss you both.  My world is a better place from having known you.  I hope I can live by your examples. 

One of my favorite quotes:

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

John F. Kennedy

Education - my suggestion to help fix a broken system

We are pushing our kids through school to be able to take test.  We teach them basic reading, writing, and math.  They are graduating (in fewer numbers each year) with no trade or social skills. 

I would like to do away with summer vacation, with a year round schedule.  A 3 month gap is way too long for kids to remember what they learned. If you are worried about those who work during summer vacation, maybe just do away with them for k-9.

We need more real like options offered like the new Career Technical institute in Salem, Oregon.  Bring trades back to high school. auto shop, welding, and wood shop, were all offered when I was in HS. We had a graduation rate of nearly 90% because kids saw real life applications of the math, science, and engineering they learned.     

A team in each school to follow up with chronic absenteeism and poor grades.  We need to break the cycle. A small team that is proactive in keeping kids in school and helping them succeed us a great investment.

End the draconian zero tolerance rules that cause many to drop out.  I can understand kicking a kid out for criminal acts (those that will land them in jail). But for bringing a bottle of OTC cold meds or getting into an argument (1st offence)?  Yes, chronic bullies need to be dealt with by anger management classes and separation until they can control their anger issues.  No tossing out on the street like yesterdays trash.

Expect more from students on IEPs and find ways to help them succeed.  Most of these kids are extremely intelligent, they just think and see the world differently. Instead of thinking outside the box they don't even see the silly box.  These are the Einsteins, the Ben Franklins, the Nikola Teslas and are our future. Help them succeed at all costs.

Stop teaching just to pass standardized test. Find was to engage the students, teach with passion and enthusiasm. 

Morning Rant - Smoking

I can't understand why anyone with the slightest bit of intelligence still smokes. The fact is, smoking is bad for your health. 

Life expectancy for smokers is at least 10 years shorter than for nonsmokers. Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States. More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking. This causes everyone's medical costs and insurance to be higher. This bad habit is costing taxpayers billions each year. 

If my taxes and insurance were not higher because of smokers, I wouldn't have an issue.. as long as they didn't smoke around me or my family... or children.. or..
Over 80% of our country's medical expenses are covered by the government (taxpayers - aka you and me) and insurance private insurance rates are high because they cover smoking related diseases.

One side of me feels that if someone wants to act in an irresponsible way, they should pay for the consequences. Its called personal responsibility. Yet I have too much respect for human life to let someone die because of their mistakes, so I they need to be covered by insurance. I will continue to whine and complain hoping more people will see the light and quit smoking. I also hope they examine their diets and start eating healthier (sugar is a bad as cigarettes).

I am far from a health nut. I have just lost too many friends and family to preventable diseases.