for my college friends

i have a few great friends of mine that are leaving for college this summer, and it is sad.  i just wanted to say (you know who you are) that i really do care about all of you very much.  you guys all mean a lot to me and it's not going to be the same without you. 

winning and losing

winning and losing.  here we go.  it seem like the concept of inequality in sports (especially for little kids) is becoming almost controversial.  according to my older sister, when my nephew played T-ball, they didn't keep score because everyone was a winner no matter what.  there is something seriously wrong with that.  not having a winner and a loser is like not having a night and a day, literally.  a winner cannot exist without a loser, night cannot follow anything but day.  i justification (for parents anyway) could be that they dont want their kids to feel bad about losing, or that winners get more than losers.  DUH,  losing sucks, no one likes it, but it builds character.  rewarding a loser the same way you reward a winner steals all of the sense of acomplishment that a winner feels and deserves.  it conditions kids to expect fair and equal treatment in everything they do, which isn't how life works.  winners are winners, they work their butts off to win, losers dont work as hard so they lose, and then they feel bad, and then they get better and work to become winners themselves. that's really all i have to say on the matter.  peace and God bless- Joe    

Winnie the Pooh

okay, so i was just thinking about the greatest kids stories ever, Winnie the Pooh and what it has become.  the first Winnie the pooh i ever saw or heard of was the Disney movie from the forties.  it had a few of the popular Pooh stories on it and  was awesome.  i still watch it sometimes.  after that came the books, which are incredible.  and then the adventures of Winnie the pooh.  and whatever there is now.  i hate what it has become.  i mean they made Christopher Robin a flipping girl!  why?  Christopher has always been a guy and it upsets me that the people at Disney have strayed so far from the original story.  i mean the tigger movie was fine, so was piglets big movie,  and before that everything was okay, but why do they have to mess with all the little kids now, who will one day tell their kids how great Winnie the pooh was, but they themselves never really experienced Winnie the pooh for what the stories really are.  it is kind of frustrating for me, and maybe this rant doesnt make sense at all but i'm not really going to worry about that right now.  i mean, it's not just winnie the pooh, big companies are trying to bring back a lot of old stuff, which would be great, if they werent redoing everything to conform to today's standards of what is "good".  i'm talking about the old warner brothers cartoons, like bugs bunny and daffy duck.  i just saw a "new" episode last night, and it was horrible.  it was loud and really really  dumb (yes the argument could be made that the old ones were dumb too).  why cant these companies just bring back all the old cartoons, just because they didnt crazy good CGI aimation doesnt make them any less than what they are.  the new remakes and renditions of all these wonderful old kids shows are crap compared to their older counterparts.  this of couse is just my opinion, and if you love the new stuff more than the old stuff, good for you. thats all for me today, Peace and God bless---- Joe     

music

music is one of the greatest things ever.  it lets people express themselves in a much more really and honest way than words do.  i honestly think that if more people knew what real music is, and if they opened themselves up to it, there might be a little (only a little) less crap in the world today.  when i say real music i mean music that really has a purpose and meaning.  not today's pop or rap or even country or rock, but music that doesnt need words to express itself.  classical music, or jazz and most other instrumental music fits into this catagory for me. i'm not trying to make mainstream music seam less than what it is, (i LOVE a lot if bands and music groups, Avenged sevefold is my favorite band) but it seems that artists have lost their idea of what true art really is. Art isnt just playing a few chords, layering in a cool rythem and beat, and then adding some generic lyrics to it.  real or should i say honest musc comes from a place inside of you (the artst), and maybe some mainstream artists' music really does come from thier hearts but i cant always see it myself.  with that being said (if anyone is reading this) a few (in my opinion) real artists artists to listen to would be Andy Mckee, or Don Ross, or Antone Dufour, or Erick Mongrain.  these guys all play the guitar but there are other guys to search for.  anything by the youtuber romanczyk, he is a fantastic composer and a true artist.  most classical composers, especially beethoven, mozart, and vivaldi was a real musical genius.  roy todd is also a talented pianist on youtube.  there are also some songwriters (because words are nessecary sometimes) like Justin Taylor, or Andrew White, or Gordon Lightfoot, or Jack Johnson, these guys capture music in a different way, a more simplistic way (even though jack johnson is a little generic in my opinion some times), a good way.  well that's enough ranting for me tonight. peace, and God bless you all - joe