2013 Airing of Grievances

“I’ve got a lot of problems with you people!  Now, you’re going to hear about it!” – Frank Costanza

I am starting a new tradition this year.  It’s not one with family or friends.  It’s not in the name of good tidings or great joy.  It’s one more along the lines of what I’m calling “bah humbug-ery.”   I don’t wish for this airing to create a flurry of replies, be they in support or criticism.  I simply wish that we all take a moment to reflect on the things we truly believe in and truly wish to share with others.  Social media has become an outlet of voicing our opinion.  It seems most tend to use a social media outlet to voice their disgust, anger or hatred towards something.  And while I will be airing some of my grievances in perhaps a similar tone, I’m doing so to vent and expel these feelings before my favorite time of year.  I pray that we all take these last few moments before Christmas to prepare our hearts for love, peace and thanksgiving.  I also pray that this feeling will last not only in the days leading up to Christmas and on Christmas day, but throughout the upcoming year and beyond. 

Phil Robertson.  I guess I’m the next person to fall into the trap of providing my view on this one.  And I guess since it’s so close to the present that the wound is still fresh, so to speak.  Let me start by saying it makes me ill to hear and see so many people jumping at the opportunity to support Robertson even though they are a bit blind/deaf to what he actually said.  It’s like there are people out there ready and willing to pick a fight with the LBGT community, but they just need more “catalysts” like Robertson.   Please feel free to read what Robertson actually said during his most recent and public interview with GQ magazine.  Then, please feel free to read what he has said in the past about the LGBT community.  He has been quoted to say that homosexuals are “full of hatred”, “full of murder”, “senseless” and “ruthless” just to name a few.  Now, I don’t have a problem with Robertson exercising his right to freedom of speech.  We all do it and I am currently exercising my right.  But I will never agree or condone what he said about thousands upon thousands of people he’s never met.  What he’s done is he’s taken a group of people, stripped their identity by lumping them all together and emphatically rebuked them.  As far as I’m concerned, anyone who supports what Robertson said supports hateful thinking.

To me, there is a very clear distinction between not having the freedom of speech and being reprimanded by your employer for publicly acting against their company standards and guidelines.  There is not a government agency seizing Robertson, throwing him in jail, breaking and persecuting him until the point of silence, or worse.  Robertson has the freedom of speech and it prevents him from facing any of the above hypothetical consequences.  So let us not overreact to what A&E has done in handling the future of ‘Duck Dynasty’.  A&E is aware Robertson has the right to say what he said, he just can’t be expected to say those things and get away with it while being a part of A&E.  A&E has the right to punish Robertson for his actions.  Even children know they would be in trouble with their teacher and/or principal for calling a classmate something far less hurtful than what Robertson has said about homosexuals.  There is only one offender in this case and it’s Robertson.  And furthermore, Robertson is not the victim here.

I pray that we all put this topic to bed and we all learn to love (I’ll gladly settle for like) one another- regardless if they’re hetero or homosexual.  Regardless of their race, color, creed, religion, national origin, age and gender (which is the basic definition of civil rights).  You don’t have to understand someone, but for crying out loud, just have some respect for them and let them live their life.

Let my discussion continue by jumping from one amendment to another.  The second amendment, to be exact.  This seemed to be another pretty hot-topic debate in 2013, and it’s been a pretty cold winter, so let’s add some coals to this fire to keep us warm.

I’m not going to focus so much on the amendment itself and how it should relate to the 21st century, but rather, focus on the militaristic and violent culture of our nation.  Some of the most advertised and popular video games (there are also movies, television shows, sports like MMA etc.) revolve around violence.  Not the comic violence of jumping on a turtle’s head and using his shell to KO walking mushrooms.  I’m talking about the Call of Duty-type games where it puts you in a somewhat realistic war-time scenario, arms the player with a bevy of weapons and asks them to go and kill.  To me, it’s a bit scary because I feel people are becoming out of touch with what actually happens during war.  In war, one simply doesn’t respawn after taking a rocket propelled grenade to the abdomen like in a video game.  I’ve read plenty of stories of how combat changes ex-soldier’s lives- mentally, physically and emotionally.  And the closest people to them.  And that’s if they even come back- no respawning here.

Now, I could throw out statistics such as how weapons are constantly at the top of the U.S.’s most-exported goods, which means we have some hand in the manufacturing and/or distribution of said weapons, statistics on how readily available semi-automatic rifles are to those who wish to purchase them, or my take on the “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” phrase.  But again, I don’t want to discuss so much the second amendment as I do our nation’s violent culture- though I believe there is a direct correlation.  Switzerland is a country well-known for their neutral stance on taking part in any of the recent wars that have centralized in Europe.  Switzerland does not have a standing army, instead opts for a people's militia for its national defense.  The vast majority of men between the ages of 20 and 30 are conscripted into the militia and undergo military training, including weapons training.  The personal weapons of the militia are kept at home as part of the military obligations; Switzerland thus has one of the highest militia gun ownership rates in the world.  So, why then, are their homicide rates so low?  In the year 2010, there were 40 homicides caused by firearms in the entire country of Switzerland, a country where many of its citizens own firearms, and a country with a population of about 7.8 million at that time.  If you do the math, you’ll find that Switzerland has one of the lowest annual rates of homicide by firearm in the world.  For some comparison, the city of Chicago has about one-third of Switzerland’s population, but roughly 10 times the number of homicides.  Different cultures, different mindsets.  Different gun control and gun operation laws.

Now, I don’t intend to chastise anyone out there who play these type of war-esque video games (I have), collect and enjoy firearms, hunt wildlife and certainly not anyone who is in the military defending someone like myself.  I can make the distinction between reality versus fantasy, hunting versus homicide, and a soldier versus a mentally ill person who shoots up a shopping mall.  I also understand that the vast majority of those who own firearms use them responsibly.  But something that fills my brain and rarely seems to leave is the question, “If everyone in the United States curbs its opinion and attitude about violence and truly desires to head towards a more peaceful society, would the likelihood of events like Sandy Hook dramatically decrease?”  I suppose you can call it a rhetorical question because, in my mind, the answer is: “yes.”

Though I know it won’t be an easy task, I pray that our country finds a solution to the gun control regulations in a way that ushers in more peace to our society.  It will have to happen at all levels of our society.

So, if you made it through this, you must be either: a.) My mother or brother, b.) Of the Carson clan, or c.) someone who may have been mildly interested to read this.  For that, I thank you.  And it could have been longer because I wanted to touch on the Affordable Care Act, though I’m afraid of running out of time before the big day.  And although the day reserved for being thankful has come and gone, I think tomorrow needs to be as highly regarded as a day to be thankful.  It seems Christmas gets more and more overdone in a country where millions of people already have the “stuff” they need to live on a day-to-day basis.  I may not know what presents I will receive tomorrow, but I already know the best Christmas gift of 2013.  It’s the gift that I will be sharing Christmas Day with the same people I spent it with last year.  2013 has been a kind year to me and I hope it has been to you.  I pray that all of you will find favor in what you already have and not what you are about to receive.  And may your holidays be filled with love, peace and thanksgiving.

 
Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year to come!

"And now it's time for the Feats of Strength!"

Back Into the Groove

Oh, blog. I have forsaken you. I am sorry that it takes the perfect conditions to write to you anymore. But, Good Friday (which means no work), no Katelyn (back in Ohio wedding dress shopping), badgering from friends and family to write are enough to convince me to get back into the groove.


1. "Guess Who"

No, I'm not writing about the Canadian rock band who's most notably known for quintessential classic-rock songs like "American Woman", "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature", "Share the Land", etc. nor the 2005 Ashton Kutcher, Bernie Mac flick. I'm talkin' the "Guess Who?" board game that I'm sure we've all played at least once or at least know the concept of it.

Now that I am pretty much fully acclimated with the job, the site, and the workers, I play a who's-who game with myself every time I walk the site. Only it's not like the racist board game where only 2-3 characters are non-white. You know what I'm talking about, if you happened to get a woman or a black person in the game you were instantly screwed because there were like only 2 or 3 of them. This game, however, involves about 40 character's who have at least 2-3 names they go by, and the caucasians are the vast minority, which means I am screwed due to my limited exposure to island culture and dialect. For example, one guy has: a birth name that he never goes by (it was only made known to me because it is on his official work records), a personal nickname (that his friends and co-workers refer to him as), and a work nickname (mainly a radio handle). There are still a lot of nicknames of guys that work in the field, in which I have no idea what their real names are or what they even look like oddly enough. It took me several months to piece together that "Kiki" is a nickname for Enrique and a several more weeks after that to put a face to Enrique. I swear, they do this just to confuse me. Just this past week, one of the workers came up to me and asked if I had seen "Koy" (or "Coi", or "Koi", or "Koye" or...."Quoy"?) come into work that day. I said to him, "As far as I'm concerned, he has NEVER shown up to work because I have no idea who that even is."


The game continues and I feel like I am losing.


2.  "Uke-an Do It!"

Wow. It has been a while since I have written on here. Well, since *cough January... Katelyn and I celebrated our anniversary together in mid-February. But a few days before that, we exchanged gifts. I got her a string of pearls with matching earrings and bracelet, something she has wanted for quite some time. And in return she got me something I have had my eye on for a while as well. A ukulele! Oh man, what better gift can you give somebody on an island? It is a pretty cool instrument too. Such a unique, recognizable sound. Now, before you start searching for my name on Ticketmaster to see if I will be touring at a town near you... I need practice. Quite a bit of practice. I grew up not appreciating music enough to ever attempt to play anything out of my own freewill, so notes, measures and tones are still a bit foreign to me.

I plan on re-stringing my uke this weekend with hopes of mastering "Paint It Black" in the foreseeable future. Maybe a video will make it's way onto here in a few months? Maybe I can drag Katelyn into it with me and we can perform a duet?... (I wouldn't put much hope into the latter.)

By the way, anybody have a good name I can call my uke? I've given nicknames to my cars and just realized I have yet to name my stringed friend. Just please, please don't say "Koy" (or various forms of).


Well, I hope everyone back home is doing well. And I hope everyone will enjoy their Easter weekend. Me? Think I'll go snorkeling. The water is heating up.
Ciao!

Shutter Island I

1. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

One of St. Croix's most heralded landmarks is Point Udall. Point Udall is the easternmost point in the United States and it also happens to be the first spot in the U.S. that sees the sun rise (makes sense, right?). Another swell little fact is that St. Croix rang in the new year one hour before all of you landlubbers who are stateside.

Below are a few pictures taken from Point Udall for your enjoyment. And you are not mistaken in thinking like I that when you look out into the vast blueness that is the Caribbean Sea, you can't help but thinking that somewhere out there the world just doesn't continue.

2. "By George! That's a pretty flower!"

Another hot spot in St. Croix is St. George's Botanical Garden. It boasts some of the most exotic, tropical species of flora known to man. Many of the plants there can only be located on the 17-acre grounds as development of the island has proved to be detrimental to their livelihood and even existence. Many of the pictures you'll see show these plants interspersed amongst ruins of a Danish sugar cane plantation and rum distillery from the 19th century. It truly is a beautiful site and sight. I took about 150 photos, but 1000 could have easily been taken because there was so much to see and explore.

Too bad that our trip was cut short due to rain, I'm approximating that we only covered about 80% of the garden. BUT, if it didn't rain I wouldn't have been able to capture Katelyn shying away from the rain by huddling under a tree, something I couldn't help but laugh at.

 

 

It's December?

1. “Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November”

Well, if you don’t know by now, Katelyn and I are engaged! I must say, I’m the man. She didn’t see it coming.

How it went down…

We had planned to go to a beach for several days leading up to November 5^th. The weather all week, however, was seriously looking like it was going to pose a threat as it rained all week…every. day. I had it set in my head that I wanted to propose on that Saturday, no matter the weather. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” could have thwarted my efforts to propose on that day. Ha! I somehow forgot that it takes TWO people to propose.

The morning started out a little rocky between Katelyn and I. I had a scheduled agenda (time, place, setting, etc.) of how the day was to go down, ultimately sneaking in the proposal at a calculated moment. Katelyn had HER own agenda as to how she wanted the day to develop. Needless to say, they did not match up and a brief stalemate ensued. My whole plan was to propose to her on a beach while she wanted to do something a bit fancier that involved her/us dressing up a bit and maybe going to a beach at maybe this time of day. This is understandable that Katelyn would want to do something a bit more upscale than what we’ve been doing, because at that time Katelyn didn’t stray farther away from our apartment than the maybe 200 yards it took to get to the pool and back. Nevertheless, it was dissolving my plan and I had to act. After minutes of playing the give and take game of our afternoon plans while maintaining poise and not blowing my cover, the plan was now that we would go to a beach for the afternoon (albeit, the beach that I wanted to be at for the proposal…success!) and we were to do something fancy that evening by getting dressed up a bit and going out to eat.

Post lunch, we head out for our destination, Shoy’s Beach. Katelyn and I are traversing by car on unfamiliar territory to get to Shoy’s and when we get to the designated parking area for the beach, we see no beach. After some nosing around, I see a footpath leading to what looks like a shoreline. I coax an uneasy Katelyn to take my lead and head through the footpath to our endpoint. Now, I’ve heard of the term “deserted beach” a time or two in my life. Stateside, I much, much, MUCH more enjoy the less-commercialized beaches of North Carolina as opposed to the Myrtle Beach zoo-esque beaches. I even loosely and undeservingly use the term “deserted beach” to describe those beaches of my preference. But in all reality, the emptiest of beaches I’ve ever been to have all been down here in St. Croix, and those have consisted of roughly 16 or so people. Shoy’s Beach contained not a soul when we arrived. Excellent. So we spend a while swimming and sunbathing, Katelyn seemingly enjoying herself while I kept a close eye on our belongings, hoping a swift tide wouldn’t wash out the engagement ring and take it out to sea (we’re close enough to the Bermuda Triangle where all things lost at sea are never found). A few hours have passed and Katelyn and I are satisfied with the time we’ve spent on the aptly coined “deserted beach” that is Shoy’s Beach. BUT. One more thing left to do.

I ask Katelyn to join me in one final hike up and down Shoy’s before we leave. We walk and walk and…walk a good ways away from our stuff and Katelyn gets a bit nervous about straying too far away from it. I ask her to humor me and keep walking a bit further where we are out of sight of others(yes, there are now about 4 people on the beach at this time). I wanted privacy for this. I stand on a sandy mound, hands at my waist, surveying the area when I notice Katelyn starts to head back. After much coaxing yet again, I get her to stand next to me and look out into all the shades of blue that is both the sea and sky. I then break the silence by saying, “so, could you see yourself getting married here?” Katelyn replies, “sure.” I then ask, “well, could you see yourself getting engaged here?” Katelyn (oblivious) replies, “sure.” I then drop to a knee and pop the question.

…..Thankfully, I didn’t get a “sure” response this time.

2. “Frederiksted Friends”

Part One of the day is complete. We’re engaged, “googly-eyed”, and super glad it didn’t rain. We both spend the rest of the afternoon calling our closest loved ones, breaking the news and what not. Now it’s time for me to live up my end of the deal and take Katelyn out to dinner. We get relatively dressed up and head out to the boardwalk in Christiansted which is lined with shops and restaurants. We end up at “Fort Christiansted Brew Pub”, a restaurant that boasts the only on-island microbrewery. Upon entering the restaurant grounds, we pass another couple and I give them an island-friendly head nod and greeting as we make our way to our table. Our drinks are ordered and delivered to us after a few minutes. We then order and proceed to sit back and watch the sun set. Shortly after ordering our meals, I see the guy from the table we passed on the way in come over to our table. He apologized for interrupting our dinner and then he asked if we were staying in St. Croix or just visiting. We told him we’re here to stay for a few years. Then they pulled up some chairs and joined us for dinner.

We exchange greetings and names. It turns out this other couple is in a similar situation as us. They expressed their desire to look for other people on the island to hang out with and we seemed to fit the bill. And, Katelyn and I were absolutely in the market for friends as well. They are in their mid-twenties, are married, and have just moved to Frederiksted. He is a high school science teacher and she works for an advertising firm, working at home via the web. A wonderful meal with some new friends put the icing on the cake to a day Katelyn and I will likely never forget. New friends Katelyn and I will likely never forget as well.

OH! And the best part (those sneaky snakes). They were especially blown away at how just hours prior, we became engaged. They were genuinely excited and happy for us. So much so that he stealthily paid for our dinner without us knowing and they both left before we had any idea what was going on. Very cool. That day, “everything was coming up Milhouse Katelyn and Ben.”

3. “Brought to You by the Letter ‘H’”

One of the many cool things about living down here is that you are completely engrossed in the island culture. My favorite cultural difference so far would have to be local vernacular. It simply amuses me. It took me a little while to realize why it was so humorously intriguing to me, but then one day…it hit me. They don’t pronounce the letter ‘H’.

One day, me and Anthony (locally known as: “An-tuh-knee”) were having some fun with a few of the guys on the job site (WITH. Not AT the expense of. These guys are very friendly, good sports and ultimately find some way to reverse the jokes, making fun of us whiteys. It’s all in good fun.

Question: “Could I hear you count, starting from the number one.”

Answer: “One, two, tree, four….”

Question: “What does a pitcher do with a baseball?”

Answer: “He trows it!”

Question: “What place is awarded the bronze medal in the Olympics?”

Answer (my favorite): “Turd place!”

4. “hge5y bnr67f”

My days at work are busy. 10-11 hours at work isn’t quite enough time to complete most tasks I want to accomplish before leaving. A small part of the reason I’m not 100% satisfied with my progress is due to our internet and network server performance. The way our network is set up, it runs through my boss's computer. So if he’s not using his computer for a while and it goes idle, my connection to the network is disabled. The internet goes out at random moments throughout the week as well. One knows when they have been disconnected from the network because you get all kinds of error messages while you’re working with or trying to save a file on the server. Personally, I get about 10 “(is not responding)” messages….per day. On top of this, any given day can be a super, extraordinarily busy day in which something arises that needs my attention. So when I get error messages like the ones below, I just want to drive my forehead into my keyboard. *hge5y bnr67f*

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Now Accepting Dubloons!

1. “Glad All Over”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDSepEeMgPg

Well. You-know-who made it down here and life is good again. For those of you who don’t know the history of Katelyn and I, we’ve gone through many sad-yet-necessary periods of time where we were split apart due to different circumstances. We spent an entire summer apart when she studied abroad in the country of Jordan while I was in Ohio. We spent a whole school year apart while I was attending my fifth year at Ohio State and she was attending her first year of grad school at American University. Sure, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I’m not aware of any other dating couples who have been together over 5 ½ years and have gone through something like that. But. Now she’s here and baby, I’m glad all over.

2. “Buck-aneers”

The first full day Katelyn was here (10/23), she and I got to enjoy a rad day on Buck Island. Buck Island Reef National Monument, or simply just Buck Island, is a small, uninhabited, 176 acre (712,000 m²) island about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of the northeast coast of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. It was first established as a protected area by the U.S. Government in 1948, with the intention of preserving “one of the finest marine gardens in the Caribbean Sea.” ….Yep. The point is, it’s lovely there. Now, some of you may say: “Gosh, Ben. Traveling to a tropical, paradise-like island while already living on a tropical, paradise-like island?! Kinda greedy, no?” The thing is we were invited to join several other people on this excursion headed by Joe, the owner of TTC. He borrowed a boat (yes, I was on a boat….insert frat song here) from a friend and sailed it to Buck Island where we pigged out all day and wondered what the rest of St Croix was doing. Sailing over warm waters, crude jokes, a slight sunburn and cool people all make for the best weekend I’ve been on St Croix to date.

3. “But I don’t wanna be a pirate!”

As promised from my first blog…post…..thing, I told you I’d be updating you on any island “trophies” I pilfer for myself. Now, I must mention, the word or term “pirate” has a tad different meaning down here in the Caribbean than back in the States. “Pirate” in the States refers to a rum-guzzling, yar-har-har-ing, peg-legged, swashbuckling, swindling, thieving seafarer. “Pirate” down here pretty much means hippie. All the more reason I could get used to referring to myself as a pirate.

Back to the trophy pilfering. I was at work (what better place to steal things, right?) and was asked to run a tape with Anthony, a civil-y/CAD guy I work with, to dimension the new trailer office that we will be using for the next project that is set to commence in less than a month. We dimension the exterior of the trailer and then make our way inside….to the booty. The first thing I notice after entering the trailer is that it is not completely empty. An old beach towel, a few filing cabinets, a Florida phonebook from 2002 and miscellaneous rubbish scattered across the ground were just some of the non-trophy-worthy things present. Anthony and I continued to dimension the interior of the trailer, marking rooms, doors and partitions when I saw something I had to have. A slick pair of new, old shades! Now, few people know this and Katelyn rags on me because of it, but I had never bought a pair of sunglasses my entire life prior to moving down to St Croix. I gave in then to Katelyn’s badgering and succumbed to buying a brand new pair of aviators. My personal life goal of never paying for sunglasses vanished at the cost of four paper Washingtons (ZZ Top would still be proud though). Stumbling upon this pair of shades in the trailer has since “re-invented” me. Trophy #1. Trophy #2 came just mere seconds after the rush of blood and elevated heart rate from finding the sunglasses. This trophy came in the form of a Florida Marlins baseball hat that couldn’t have been made in the 21^st century. It had the signature green bottom-of-bill design that I adore. Classic 90’s cap. If it was a snapback as opposed to a tetherback, it wouldn’t leave my side.