It's All Post Apocalyptic Training

Now I finally understand why we have the games we do. Oh and just in case you're worried, I've got us covered if Tiberium really exists :) http://www.theonion.com/content/video/are_violent_video_games?utm_source=a-section

Sony's latest product

A-ha, their evil plan is finally revealed.

What would you do with a trillion dollars?

It's hard for many of us to fathom the amount of money the government is talking about when it comes to the stimulus plan. We all grew up thinking millionaires where the aristocratic upper tier crowd seeded with a few billionaires; but a trillion, who has that kind of money? Think of the wealthiest of the world (i.e. Bill gates, Donald Trump, Oprah, ect.) and none of them even come close to this about of money even if you where to combine their income. It's such a large amount of money it's hard to think about how big it really is. If you think of a trillion dollars in terms of weight and put it in simple terms people understand, say $100 dollar bills... well a trillion dollars would weigh 22,026,432 pounds or about 11,000 tons. To put this is something you can grasp, the Eiffel tower weights 10,500 tons. So a trillion dollars weighs more than Paris's most famous landmark, but not by much…

I've often wondered what I would do if I came into a large sum of money. I pass the billboards advertising the local lotteries and they spark thoughts of "what if". What if I won the money, what would I do? Being that I'm naturally lazy, of course I would “retire” from working but what would I do after that? Would I become a philanthropist, entrepreneur, or miser? Well here's my "what if" plan:Since I have children my first thought would be for them. All three of my kids are in collage and are creating their own debt via student loans so I'd have to erase these loans and then make sure they would continue their education by creating some kind of annuity for them to draw from. I'm not real big into giving out money "just because" but by making sure they have an education I'd be setting them up for success throughout their lives so they can find their own path in the world without the burden of finding the funding. I'm not a materialistic person but I do like being comfortable so I would also make sure they have a reliable car and a comfortable place to live during their college years. That way they would only have to focus on studying and not where their next meal is coming from or having to go out and get a job to make rent. One of the main things I would do is to establish independence for my kids by encouraging them to choose their own path in life. College is an important aspect in this process so by giving them this opportunity without limitations I'd be setting them up success throughout their life. This wouldn't end with my own children however; I would establish some kind of scholarship for all my nieces and nephews so they could enjoy the fruits of a good education as well. Education breeds success, and success breeds happiness.

Family is one of the most important parts of my life. We look at brothers, sisters, and parents who struggle with the day-to-day burdens of life and want to help any way we can. One of the things I would like to do is to have a large ranch or farm with several homes on it open for my immediate family to live in when they need to. It's not going to be an open checkbook however; I'm a firm believer in establishing one’s own destiny not through charity but through pride and a sound moral center. I would not want my brothers and sisters to piggyback their success off mine nor depend on me, but I would like to give them a leg-up so they could establish success within their own family. Nothing brings more pride in someone than becoming successful in life and providing for your family.

Business... If I had an unlimited amount of money what kind of business would I create? I don't know really because it's hard for me to describe what I like to do. One thing I've learned about myself during my military career is that I like to help people out. I look at myself as a fairly good leader but I have very few skills that apply to a particular trade. I have a brother in-law that is a talented machinist that can create almost anything you could imagine with a CnC machine. He's had several businesses but for one reason or another all of them has had their problems and now he's selling machines (and being very successful at it). I've never had a marketable talent like this but one thing I do have is an ability to manage and lead people. If I was going to create a business most likely it would be a family business exploiting each of the talents of the family. Here's the individual talent I could draw from just within my siblings; a computer guru, an office manager, an accountant, a visionary, a social worker, a marketer, 2 natural salesmen, and me, a leader. We have all the attributes we need to create a successful business but we lack the funding or vision to initiate it. I still don't know what we would do but whatever we decide, with a talented force like this how could we fail.

One of my favorite things to do is to travel and see the world. I’ve been blessed with having a career that fed this desire but I’ve had about enough of traveling the globe just to see the confines of the airport we land at. I want to travel to the far reaches of the globe and see all those things that most people only experience on the Discovery Channel. Machu Pichu, the Antarctic, fishing for Arctic Char above the Arctic Circle; these are then things I want to do and see but I want to do them with the people I love and care about. I did a search one time for a cruise and found one that originated in Australia and ended in New York, It would take about 6 months and cost about 50 grand but the port of call were all once in a life time locations. New Leland, Easter Island, the Panama Canal and many others, all of those dream places we only hear about. Now that would be an experience of a lifetime and all from the posh comfort of a 5 star cruise ship. Now that would be a definite thing to do but I would want my family to come with me. With 11000 tons of cash I think I could afford it.

These are all things that having unlimited cash can allow people to do. Right now I don’t have an unlimited amount of cash but I do have my dreams. One day I will be able to do some of my “what-ifs” but right now I do what I can. I have a wonderful family that no money can buy and we are all happy in our lives. Money can’t buy happiness but it can sure make a life less of a burden and more of a dream. We can all do a little dreaming now and then, it keeps us hoping and keeps us interested in living. So go out there and do a little dreaming and if you are lucky enough to come across a butt-load of money, share it with the ones you love and fulfill their dreams as well.

February Surgery - Not a reason for Universal Health Care

Monday, I finally got some problems fixed that has been causing me many problems. At least that's what we're hoping. It all started several years ago when I was on a C-5 mission in Puerto Rico. It was raining slightly and I slipped when leaving the airplane while carrying a suitcase. I fell about 10 feet to the tarmac but at least I had the presence of mind to try to roll into the fall rather than just smack the ground. At the time the only problem I incurred was a broken wrist but as time went by a few more problems came up. About 4 years after that I started losing strength in my left arm and went to see a neurosurgeon. The MRI found that I had a herniated disk in my neck that was impinging the nerves in the arm causing the problem. He went in and opened up the nerve conduit in the spine and relieved the problem but in the process weakened the vertebra. At the time we didn't realize this but recently I fell again but this time the impact was on my right arm. The transfer of the impact reinjured the weakened disks and I started having the same symptoms again but this time centered in my right arm and wrist. The MRI revealed another impingement and herniation which required another surgery. Also the Doc identified a carpal tunnel problem in my right wrist so back under the knife I went and now I'm in the recovery phase. Here are some pics of the results:

A few points I'd like to make here. First, the quality and expediency of the medical coverage we in the military get is almost unequaled in the civilian world. Of course being an crew-member covered under the flight medicine program helped out but still from the time the problem was diagnosed until the surgery happened was only a few weeks. We in the military are taken care of very well although I know there are a few folks out there that would disagree; for me I'm pretty damn happy with them.

The other point I'd like to make is how even though I'm in a government run health care system this should not be a statement as to how a system would be beneficial for the rest of the country. We in the military reap the benefits of an affluent private medical system that augments our own. When I first joined almost every base or post had its own hospital with its own cadre of doctors. Since then the government decided to shift the care to an insurance based system (Tricare) with referrals from our primary care physicians at the base. This system uses the local medical infrastructure to support the base population so we get top-notch care at no cost to us. It's pretty much transparent compared to what we used to have. While this process works for us it only works because we have a local civilian medical team to feed off of. If the government decided to take over the health care system we would be back to what we had before with long waits, poor service and endless amounts of red-tape and bureaucracy. As far as medical care goes I'm almost in a perfect world right now, why would I want to go back to an antiquated system that had problems supporting the very people it was there to service? No, don't equate what the military gets when you try to argue for government run health care, its apples and oranges since we still depend on the strong prosperous medical system our country enjoys.

By the way, I'm doing fine now and with luck, should fully recover. :)