Random thoughts and stylings

The day after Thanksgiving our family adopted a lovable though rather large chocolate lab from the local humane society. He was about a year when we adopted him and weighed 85 pounds, now 95. His name – Zeus, a logical name for a dog this large. Over all he is a great dog, listens fairly well and loves to be loved by the kids and all he comes in contact with.

My father keeps asking me if I think he is a hunting dog or not. I had no idea as we have not had a chance to do any kind of field tests or gun trials with him. Yesterday we found out that he does have some hunting skill in him. [Read more →]

An interesting marketing ploy was revealed to me yesterday. One that made a friend and I chuckle over lunch yesterday. We were at a local fast food shop watching CNN on their televisions. The volume was such that if you listened very close you could make out what the news anchors were saying. During the commercial breaks the volume was about the same level as the programming in general except for one ad.

The ad was for AARP. The volume was about 50% louder than any other ad during the commercial break. I thought to myself, “Wow, they know their audience or they just insulted a bunch of them.” Duly noted though that the older generation still needs the volume turned up. I wonder though if that is true for blogs. Maybe I SHOULD SPEAK UP WHEN WRITING FROM NOW ON.

I was thinking about this topic this morning after hearing that the US Vice President Joe Biden made a statement about how he has told his family that at this time he would not ride in the subway or on a train to protect himself from the swine flu. This has caused a mass rebuttal from the different transit interest groups along with I am sure many people rethinking how they will get to work or on a vacation.

While pondering this statement whose repercussions are not yet know I was thinking of two other instances where words had the power to change people radically. The first was H.G. Wells radio broadcast of War of the Worlds in which millions of radio listeners on Sunday, October 30, 1938 heard that martians had landed and were attacking earth. It sent some, though not all into a panic. The second scenario I was pondering was when Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” How this sent some into a panic that ended up in Jesus’ death and resurrection, but to many it gave/gives them a hope that no other can no matter whether there is oppression, jail time or swine flu.

Point being is be careful with your words they carry more weight than you may know. As Proverbs 10:19 says
“Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.” Sometimes that may be the best thing to do.