Last night, Nikki and I went to Stevie’s Open House at the Southport 6th Grade Academy. His Languages Arts / Social Studies teacher passed out a handout with the typical classroom rules and grading scale. In the handout, she included a document that listed 11 things the students wouldn’t learn in school. Supposedly Bill Gates (of Microsoft fame) said these things to a high school audience.

Being the first time I’ve encountered this list, I was impressed with it’s clarity and forthrightness. “Right on” I said to myself. “About time” someone has said this to modern day American students. “Wish I had this when I was in school” I thought.

Then I wondered what a ‘put down’ black student would think, or another ‘minority’, or a white student from a trashy drug infested neighborhood. Most of the 11 Rules are aimed at the student’s personal responsibility instead of the warm fuzzy politically correct ‘you’re a victim’ rhetoric common to most school systems and the mainstream media. Especially since this list was verbalized by a multi billionaire white guy.

Rule #1 … Life Isn’t Fair – Get Used To It.

Wow. How clear. How succinct.

I wholeheartedly believe that opportunities and privilege are freely given to all in some measure and manner.  However, most people who cry “foul” and protest against life being unfair are those that have squandered some aspect of the opportunities and privilege that they have been given.

Given by who you ask? Given by God, government, parents, friends, or strangers. Given, but squandered.

It’s taken me over 48 years to come to the conclusion that …. Hey, Life Isn’t Fair! And I am ashamed for the opportunity and privilege that I have squandered because I thought that life should be fair.

I recently read through the Bible book of Ecclesiastes. The words ‘meaningless’, “vanity” and ‘chasing after the wind’ are repeated many times. I believe that I see ‘unfair’ in that list too.

But, I’m getting over it now. I’ll still have my concern for people who find themselves in tragic situations of their own creation or imposed by others. I used to say “why them”, “why me”, but now I’ll understand that whatever comes your way is driven by an unfairness that is lifelong and enduring under this sun. How meaningless.

On a side note … this list of 11 Rules has been attributed to Bill Gates. However, these Rules were actually first written by Charles J. Sykes.  Here’s the source of this interesting fact. He wrote the book “Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good about Themselves, but Can’t Read, Write, or Add.” Certainly this is an example of life being unfair, since Sykes isn’t receiving the credit due to him.

This morning, I crafted this widget out of a php script I found online and some CSS I wrote myself (wow). The widget will count down the days to the event I now call the “15P – 5K”. This event will (I hope) be the culmination of 17 weeks of diet and exercise so that on December 31, 2010, I will be 15 pounds lighter on the scale and 5K further down the road.

So, as of today, I have 119 days to complete this task.

And, for anyone who believes that you have learned everything you will ever need to know by kindergarten …. today I learned that the background-image property doesn’t work in an inline <div> or <span> tag. I guess it only works in an external style sheet … go figure.

It’s been a year since the Issue started and I fell into a deep depression which I tried to push aside with food and drink. I actually enjoyed the drinking and will miss it but the eating, however, wasn’t enjoyable as much as I added almost 45 pounds to my small frame. The depression lifted with the help of a little white pill, but I kept drinking and eating anyways.

Even so, I’ve come to the conclusion that any totally satisfying resolution of the Issue isn’t really going to happen so I’ve decided to adopt the ‘I don’t care anymore’ attitude and move on.

It’s taken a while, but “it is as it is” as they say.

So, in trying to deal with the Issue, I’ve put on almost 45 pounds and now find myself at my highest ever weight (or as close to it as I can faithfully remember). I find myself to be lazy and lethargic, fearful of  doing much of anything least certain people disapprove of my ideas.

But, it’s time to ‘get over it’ and move on and the way I’ve decided to ‘move on’ is to lose the weight (again) and start running (again).

So, it’s time to set some goals (again). I’ve decided that there will be two goals that I will try to achieve by Friday, 12/31/10. The first is to loose at least 15 pounds. The second is to run a 5K. As long as I work towards those two goals and achieve them on Friday 12/31/10, I believe that Life Will Be Good.

In past years, when I’ve set goals like this, I’ve tended to set higher goals, like (1) lose 40 pounds and (2) run a half marathon. Maybe it’s the age (I’m nearly 50) but this time I’ve decided to set more reasonable goals and concentrate on the daily effort to achieve them.

I also decided to give myself more time to work on the goals. This time, I’ve given four months to achieve these goals. So, starting September 1, I hope to be 15 pounds lighter on the scale and 5K further down the road on December 31 than I am today.

As my “carrot” (this is – my dangling motivation) I decided to buy a 6 pack of the Oaken Barrel’s Snake Pit (my favorite beer) and if I loose the 15 pounds (or more) and run the 5K (whether it be a sponsored 5K or just a personal run), then I will enjoy the Snake Pit. Until then, I will stay away from the beer and control my eating and build up my fitness to run the 5K.

I’m looking forward to the new possibilities and maybe a new outlook and attitude. While I’m disappointed in myself for letting a whole year go by, at least I taking a step to move in a different direction.

It wasn’t their fault. I remember that I was ashamed and embarrassed with my lack of immediate proficiency in the beginning levels of play. While I believe that I was somewhat musically inclined, I never developed that ability because I refused to practice because I was impatient with myself becoming extremely angry and frustrated. I believed that I should have mastered the material with little effort. I just gave up.

In college, I hung out with a group of people who were musically talented and gifted. I felt inept and wished that I had listen to Mom and Dad when I was younger. As an adult, I still feel inept in  regard to music and wish that I had listened to Mom and Dad.

After completing the Imovie Essential Training with www.lynda.com, I decided to sit through the 4.5 hour Garage Band ’09  Essential Training course. My goal was to see what the program was all about and to see if it could help me create original musical lead ins and scores for any video I produce on my own or for Advantage. Instead of buying copyright free music (which is expensive) I figured that I could develop my own. And since Garage Band 09 ships free with the Imac, why not take advantage of it?

Garage Band is loaded with enough record music tracks from all sorts of different instruments that any person could assemble their own ‘music’ without touching a guitar or piano. But the real power in Garage Band is for those people who know how to play a guitar or piano. I wish I had that power.

Maybe I could be one of those late middle aged adults who pick up the guitar or piano and become somewhat talented. If I’ve learned anything in life, it is that talent is nothing more than the perseverance to continue developing a skill. How I wish that I had discovered that realization in elementary school.

I’ve become a huge fan of Lynda Dot Com and recently viewed the “Making Of” videos. One video in particular that I favor is the “10 Things I Knew To Be True” video.

These 10 Things are really 10 things from Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin, from www.lynda.com, so I can’t take credit for them. But, they articulate these 10 things much better than I could.

#1. Things I did early in life may not seem to have meaning then. But today they make all the sense in the world.

#2. Business doesn’t have to be a win / lose or winner take all proposition. Everyone can win.

#3. Your passions are your drive in life, love and career. Do not ignore them.

#4. To master anything in life you must do it again and again, over and over. Often without success but learning and fine tuning along the way.

#5. Education is life long. Stay hungry. Stay curious.

#6. Our biggest success happened when the biggest doors of opportunity were slammed shut. Learn to look for other ways to achieve your goals when opportunities close. Own your problem and invent your own solutions when others will not solve the problem for you.

#7. Do what you love and do it really, really, really well.

#8. My best educational experiences happened when I was the motivated learner, making up my own experience.

#9. Curiosity only kills cats.

#10. Make your mistakes, frequently, fast and often. Just not repetitively.

The weather men say that today will be the hottest day of the year (so far). Inside the office, at my desk, the ambient air temperature is 88.5°F. The outside air temperature is 96°F. At least the inside humidity is at 38%. But, even so, my forearms are sticking to the desk top.