PBO - SOTU Address - 2010

Being the "arm chair" politician that I am, I of course watched the State of the Union address last night. I was pretty wiped out after playing volleyball, so I only watched until 10PM.

Three remarks I must make.

1. Not once in the time that I watched the speech did the President look directly into the camera and into the eyes of the American people viewing at home. He looked left... into his teleprompter. He looked right... into his teleprompter. It looked like he was watching the pendulum of a grandfather clock swinging... left, right, left, right. Mr. President, I beg of you... TALK TO US. Don't speak to us like a an anchor reading us the nightly news.

2. A noteworthy funny moment that I picked up on while watching. While describing the deficits built up over the past decade, the poor economic growth and getting into two wars without proper funding he never once said "I inherited this mess from President Bush/previous administration". He didn't use any of those words explicitly placing blame on Bush (but the message was clear without much subtlety). This was evident when immediately as the Pres said this, the camera showed Sen. McCain turning to his right and saying "Blame it on Bush". You could not hear him but you could clearly read his lips. It was the comical event of the night and made me laugh out loud. Mr. President, I beg of you... quit blaming the last guy in charge before you arrived. Not because I am a "Bush lover" but you knew what was going on before you took office (I recall you being a Senator, and I think they work in D.C. as well). You applied for the job of President, you knew the problems facing the office of the Presidency, you got the job... TAKE RESPONSIBILITY!

3. I went to sleep before seeing this one but... you called out the Supreme court!? WTF? As I recall from my grade school social studies class, the Judicial Branch (Supreme Court) is one of three branches of government that are co-equal in power. You can't tell them what to do. It is their job to interpret the laws passed by the legislative branch and how they are enforced by the executive branch. Why call them out on a ruling they made? Mr. President, I beg of you... go READ A COPY OF THE CONSTITUTION you took an oath to uphold.

Twentysomething... A Recent Read.

I recently completed reading a book that Emily got me for Christmas. I was quite surprised by the gift because I had forgotten that it was even on my list of books I wanted to read. The book is called: "Twentysomething: Surviving and Thriving in the Real World".

I knew the book would be about how to deal with the hardships and joys associated with living as a "twentysomething" but I did not expect there to be so much spirituality involved. A main emphasis of the book was the importance of faith (particularly Catholicism). There is much talk in this book about how God has a plan for all of us. A concept hard for me to accept because it lies contrary to free will over our future.

Yet sometimes I wonder...

For instance, I spent a year of graduate school at SUNY Buffalo that turned out to be a nightmare. I made some poor decisions regarding which direction I wanted to go academically and it turned out to be a nightmare for me. I realized this, made some tough decisions and transferred to RIT for my Masters Degree. While this was going on I thought, "Why the heck is this happening to me?"

A couple of years later at Nazareth (my Alma mater) while sitting on a informational panel for undergrads looking to go on to graduate school, I was able to share my experience. In doing so, I hopefully allowed others to learn something and avoid going through a similar experience as I did.

Without going through the tough patches I did, I would have been unable to share the experience and help others.

So does God have a plan... sometimes I wonder.

The good, the bad and the ugly of 2009.

2009 was a year that was both filled with very happy yet some very sad events. There were many firsts. I have not made a habit of sharing enough of the personal events going on in my life, so this may be a good time to catch up. I will try to spend a bit more time writing about such things. (Call it a New Years resolution.)

Let's recap:

1. Engagements! Some big firsts in our family. First, the engagement of my younger brother, Jeremy, to his girlfriend Ellen. That happened in February. They are set to get married on July 24, 2010. Then who could forget... my engagement to my long time college sweetheart, the love of my life, Emily! :-) Read the full story here. We eventually decided upon May 21, 2011 for our wedding. This way we allow our parents to regain some sanity between weddings!
2. A very sad first for me. I had my first experience with the loss of a grandparent. On July 6th, my grandfather (Jon) passed away. This was after a sudden cardiac arrest after which he held on for 13 days. This is pretty unheard of considering that about 90% of patients who experience this don't even make it to the hospital alive. Sitting through the meetings with the doctors slowly coming to the realization that you are about to loose a loved one, having to disseminate that info to your family, helping carry the casket down the aisle of the church... all things that were much more difficult than I could have ever imagined.
   
3. In April, I marked my first full year with my first real job as a chemist. I have been with Kelly Scientific ever since graduating from RIT. Future outlook looks good.
   
4. To add insult to injury, about 2 weeks after the death of my grandfather, my father lost his job of 19 years with Calspan...
5. ...about a week or two before Christmas, dad got a job! He's a mechanic in an ice cream factory helping to maintain the machinery used to make ice cream. Pretty neat! He was out of work for 6 months but starts again in January of 2010.
6. For the second year in a row, our family went on vacation for a week in the Thousand Islands. A nice break for my parents given the loss of grandpa and my father's job.
7. On that vacation... Emily got the wonderful news that she got a job! A long term substitute teaching job for a year.
   
8. Mom had shoulder surgery... then a nasty sinus infection... then pleurisy... then another cold/sinus infection... then the wrong prescription... then... well, you get the picture. Just one to many health problems. No fun for her.
9. Just a couple weeks before Christmas, our family dog Baily, had to be put to sleep. A pretty difficult thing to do since she was home to provide companionship to my mother while she recovered from surgery and my father while he was out of work.

Lots of these things were pretty difficult firsts... so I am glad to put 2009 behind me and start fresh with 2010.