today i would like to devote my thoughts to my daughter chloe. she is such a special girl. she is so talented and so smart yet so fragile. it is sometimes hard to forget she is only 2 years old. she acts like she's 4 or 5. i am not just bragging. she knows her colors, letters, planets (my favorites are baluto (pluto of course), penus (venus), jupater. not only that her she seems to have photographic memory. she has not seen the baby einstein video for ages and watched it about 4 or 5 times for one day. the next day shes eating in the kitchen and the video says konichiwa, she states, "bear" really calmly and almost smugly (or self assured, but i saw i glint of smugness), and sure enough, there was a bear on the screen. this video is pretty random and has no order or sense to follow. im starting to believe more and more she is a child genius or if not partially psychic. she keeps amazing me. she reads my thoughts. and kelsey could vouch that just recently my son mikey was swimming next door with the neighbor's son. chloe had no clue. she kept saying mikey bubbles (a bath reference), and mikey duck towel. and tonight she really wanted to watch the wiggles. she was watching kelsey on the computer. kelsey was typing in to go to yahoo and the wiggles just popped up. when she was saying wiggles. in my mind she does not know how the computer works, so there is no limitation in her mind. mommy and daddy watch what they want, why not me? she just willed it. im convinced. that is why im writing this. kelsey does not lie and she could vouch for this and many other incidents. i love you chloe.

lately i've been thinking about eric hoffer's writing. when i was around 14 i stumbled across his book in my grandma's old books (which we kept at our house). passionate state of mind. the title caught my attention and the green cover caught my eye. it looked like a light read. i had been devouring books by age 8 and would sometimes be caught reading encyclopedias for the lack of other reading material. heck i would catch myself reading the shampoo ingredients and safety warnings and such. i think that's where chloe gets her love of reading, though kelsey's mom i noticed, has a passion for reading. anyways, i read that book and i think its a very powerful book that does actually stimulate you to think. its just a bunch of insightful quotes as to the nature of man and society and life. he was a working man and a philosopher. i didnt and still dont agree with all his writing but for the majority its a must read. here are some of his quotes:

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything in to an empty head.

We do not usually look for allies when we love. Indeed, we often look on those who love with us as rivals and trespassers. But we always look for allies when we hate.

It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.

How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization.

Animals can learn, but it is not by learning that they become dogs, cats, or horses. Only man has to learn to become what he is supposed to be.

No one has a right to happiness.

In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.

We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.

Work Place Rivalries

I was talking with Kelsey on the phone and she was telling me about Mr. Daisy Dukes not allowing the weather to spoil his fashion sense, and how he still paraded around in his infamous shorts. This got me to missing the work place. Every job, no matter how petty, comes with its own mini-dramas, power struggles, rivalries, and plenty of funny/interesting stories to talk to your spouse about. I started to reminisce about how much I liked to work at the Harbor Bridge. I was remembering one of my own petty rivalries. It all started pretty innocently. During an inspection the blasters and vacuumers would take a little lunch break. I pulled out turkey sandwich; it was decked out with avocados, onions, lettuce, and such. I offered a one to Martinez, which is not his real name. We just call him that on account of his first name being Martin. Anyways he complimented my sandwich but with a look that I took for envy. Maybe its just me. The next day he brings his own version of a sandwich. He brings it in fresh deli bread with all the fixings. It wasn't just the sandwich though. It was in the way he casually pulled the foot long sandwich out of his lunch box. As is it was custom to bring in extravagant food to our work place. He had even pre- cut the damn thing! He offered two other people besides myself a piece. It was a damn good sandwich, but even as I swallowed I knew this was a silent war between me and Martinez. Everyone else munched on their sandwich oblivious to the challenge Martinez had just slapped me with. Damn that Martinez. Similar incidents occurred with other things such as knives, gloves, and other work related items. Each and every time Martinez would come back with something fancier, shinier, more expensive. I sadly came to the conclusion that I could not outspend Martinez, but must beat him by other means. One night in the bedroom, Kelsey and I were talking, when it hit me like a lightning bolt. A cantaloupe! That would trump him. Not only would I defeat him by bringing a cantaloupe to work, but cantaloupes taste well. Well Kelsey already knew about my rivalry with Martinez, but I think she pretty much thought it was silly. Anyways I ramble on. I told Kelsey of my flash of inspiration. She thought that was silly as well. She did not fully understand the nuances and subtleties of the warfare we engaged in. I was going to go to the store specifically for that cantaloupe to finally end this war. Call it bringing in the nukes. It was about time seeing as how Martinez had been on the war path for the two past weeks with things such as $40 gloves and fancy scrapers, not to mention breakfast tacos and coffee (that was just to rub it in). I did not go make the trip because I was exhausted from work, and though I knew Kelsey would make the trip for me if I pressed enough, I chose not to as I knew her sentiments on the whole thing. I went to work the next day waiting for Saturday to come. On Friday Kelsey was going to go shopping and I had put the special item on the list. Come break time, I wondered what Martinez would bring in this time. On seeing him pull out a cantaloupe out of his ice chest, my jaw hit the floor. He cooly and casually pulled it out. Then like something out the movies he pulls out his knife and flips it open, and starts to part it. I was speechless in utter defeat. I could not protest and tell him I had intended to bring in a cantaloupe of my own. I would have sounded like a liar and a sore loser. I had to suffer my defeat like a man. It only made it more bitter knowing I had the same idea; we could have ended this war on a stale-mate. We would have been equals, Martinez and I. Instead, I was crushed. Damn that Martinez. He was a worthy adversary. As I look back in retrospect, I see how silly it all was. I should not have accepted defeat but brought in a watermelon. Anyways, if you learn anything out of this, it's to not procrastinate, no matter how tired you are or you never what might have been.