Summary of my political positions

Summary of my political views:

-Guns:  I have no interest in guns for myself.  No problem with people who like them as long as they are responsible.

-Drugs:  If we took the criminal element out of drug laws, the profit motive would go away and a lot of crimes related to drug wars would not exist.

-Gays in the military:  What’s the problem?  It’s only an issue for the people who make it an issue.

-My general attitude about government social programs:  Educate the young and take care of the sick & elderly.  Everyone else is on their own.

-Health care:  Affordable health care should not be a political issue. No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick.

-Welfare:  For most able-bodied people, it shouldn’t be available.  There are plenty of ways to help people get back on their feet.

-Public schools:  Why not?  They aren’t perfect, so fix the problems instead of advocating abolishing the whole system.  Most of the problems are societal anyways.

-School extra-curricular sports programs:  Should not be taxpayer-funded.  They should support themselves, just as music programs do.

-School lunch programs:  Keep meal choices available.  Don’t try to enforce good eating habits; that’s a parent’s responsibility.

-Social security:  I don’t see anything wrong with the concept..

-Illegal immigrants:  There are legal ways to enter the U.S.  Use them or you don’t belong here.

-U.S. involvement in “nation-building”:  No.  We should stay out of other country’s affairs.

-U.S. involvement in other wars:  Only if it directly affects security of the U.S. mainland, Alaska, Hawaii and its territories.  “No” to wars related to oil, other profits, and/or “pre-emptive” wars based on fear.

-Global warming:  I believe it's caused more by nature than by humans.  Actually, this shouldn't even be a political matter; it's all science.

-Cause of the Civil War:  I've read the arguments of historians who say it was about slavery and historians who say it was about states' rights.  I've concluded it was about slavery.

-Unions:  If a group of employees wants to form or be a part of a union, there should be no laws restricting that freedom.  All other details (membership, pay and working conditions) should be negotiated in the contract with the company or agency.

So, I Bought a Guitar!

I sometimes think about how good I'd be now as a guitar player if I stuck with it the first time I took guitar lessons.  That was in 1969, when I was in third grade!  But like many elementary school children, I dropped out after not getting very far with it.  My second time around was approximately ten years ago when I bought a starter electric guitar and amp combo.    I signed up for lessons with George Collichio, but again, they didn't last very long.  So I sold the guitar and amp.

In recent months the urge to "play melodies" has been biting at me.  I took up rudimentary snare drumming 3-4 years ago because I wanted to be able to "play songs" on an instrument.  The drum patterns that rudimentary snare drummers play, especially ancient martial beats, usually stand alone very well as drum solos when not accompanied by fifes, brass or wood instruments.  So I've been very happily "playing songs" on my drum the past few years.  Sometimes by myself, sometimes with dozens of other fifers and drummers.  But I still felt like something was missing.  I realized it's the ability to play melodies that's missing, and to do that, I'd need to learn a new instrument.

A couple of weeks ago I felt like I need to satisfy this urge to play another instrument.  I began comparing various instruments based on a reasonable amount of ease in learning, portability of the instrument, how quietly I could get it to play in my not-very-soundproof apartment, and how much I enjoy listening to the sounds that the instrument makes.

I think I probably enjoy the sound of a piano more than any other.  I have taken piano lessons in the past, again not for very long, and my family owned a Conn organ for many years, which I learned to plunk out tunes with my right hand by simply memorizing the pattern of the keys.  I'm also intimately familiar with what keys play what notes, and when I think of notes, the vision of piano keys pops in my head.  So piano was a strong contender.

On Facebook, I asked people for suggestions, with the idea that maybe something would jump out at me that I wasn't thinking of.  Fife was a good and obvious suggestion, but it's too loud for my apartment.  Let's face it, fifes were used to be heard in battle!  Another suggestion made was harmonica.  I own one and have messed around with it, but I just don't have the enthusiasm for a harmonica.

Through all the suggestions, the one thing that stuck in the back of my mind was acoustic guitar.  Mary has a saying that if you flip a coin to make a choice about something, once that coin is in the air and you find yourself hoping for one of the two options, then you've made your decision regardless of how the coin lands.  I found myself hoping people would suggest guitar.  So my decision was made!

An acoustic guitar fits all the criteria of what I want in a music instrument.  It can be played quietly in my apartment, it can "play melodies," I can play it for hours at a time and completely enjoy what I am doing, and most important, it is motivating.

Why now?  What would motivate me after giving it up in 1969 and again around 2000?  Quite frankly, my snare drumming.  I was a rock and roll kit drummer for 35 years before I learned rudimentary snare drumming.  For all of those 35 years, it frustrated me that I could never play snare drum the way I really wanted to play it.  But I proved to myself in 2008 and 2009 that if I really put my mind to it and practiced every day for a minimum of 30 minutes, that I could be the drummer I always wanted to be.  I did it!  And now I want to do it with guitar!

The next step was to buy a guitar.  I spent a lunch hour last week at the Guitar Center, just browsing around and checking out the various guitars.  They have quite a selection there, but I didn't know how to compare the quality of their products.  Some guitars are "el cheapo" and I didn't want to take a chance on getting a crappy guitar versus a halfway decent guitar at a bargain price.

Since I believe in supporting small businesses anyways, I decided to go to Stutzman's Guitar Center after work that day.  I knew I could trust their products.  When I arrived, I quickly narrowed down the acoustic guitars in my price range and then chose one because I liked the artwork on the neck.  It sounded and felt good to me, so I bought it!

I'm very happy with this guitar.  It's a used guitar, but it looks brand new.  Either it was rarely or never played or Stutzman's lived up to their reputation and did an awesome job restoring it.  In any case, Stutzman's does beautiful work.  You can't go wrong there.

My goal is to be able to play songs on my guitar by myself.  I have no plans to formally join a band.  But the idea of getting together with other stringed instrument players for jamming is very enticing.  I'm hoping for and looking forward to the day when I can do that.

Here I am with my new acquisition:

The Art of Drumming

This blog post could really be called the art of playing any music instrument, but since I play the drums, that's what my focus is.

There's a motto that I learned recently that I've been thinking about a lot.  "To have a good life, you need someone to love, someone to be loved by, something to do, something to look forward to, and a good BM every day."  I'm intrigued by how much wisdom there is in that single sentence.  Sure, there's humor, but who can argue the point of having a good BM every day?  As for the rest of the motto, aren't we always in pursuit of a good, loving relationship?  If you have that, then life is good.  We all want something to do.  Whether's it's to indulge in a hobby, work a job, see a show or watch TV or a movie, listen to music, take a stroll or hang out with friends or loved ones, we're happiest when we are doing something.  No one wants to be left in a sterile environment, staring at a blank wall.  And we all look forward to something:  "I can't wait for my vacation!  I can't wait for Christmas!  I can't wait for the weekend!"  If we have nothing to look forward to, then we may as well be staring at a blank wall.

I love walking through an arts and crafts store to see the various raw materials that people use to form their own creations.  People will spend many happy hours working on a painting, a pottery project, a knick knack, a doily, or a refrigerator door masterpiece.  I don't think it's so much the final project that brings someone happiness, but the act of working on the project.  When finished, many of these items will be given away to appreciating or unappreciating relatives, sold at an arts and crafts fair, or set on display in their own home.  Over time, some of these things will surive, but very often many end up in a landfill.  The point of these objects isn't the object iself; it's the hours of joy that go into creating these objects that matters.

This is what drumming is all about for me.  I love picking up a pair of drum sticks and playing patterns that form drum beats and/or songs.  Whether I'm playing by myself or with a group of other musicians, it feels like the organized sound we are creating is something tangible that you can almost hold.  You can't actually hold it, of course, but you can move to it, groove to it, be emotionally attached to it, or become mesmerized by it.  While I am playing, I "have something to do."  I can drum for hours at a time and be perfectly happy.  I am creating something; it is art.  But as soon as I stop playing, it doesn't exist anymore.  I can't give it to you or sell it to you.  It can't be placed on a shelf for display or thrown into a landfill.  It was never really tangible to begin with.  But yet it is there.

Yet, it is art.  It is subjective.  Like a painting, you either like what I played or you don't like what I played.  It takes many months and years of practice for me to be able to play the way I do.  I have a goal to be even better than I am.  I would never be satisfied creating the stick figures of a child for the rest of my life; I'd want to paint a masterpiece.  I am never satisfied playing the basic drum beats I learned as a beginner; I constantly want to challenge myself and be a better drummer.  It is a satisfaction that I bring to myself for doing it.  It is even more fun to do with a group of other musicians.  Together we are painting that masterpiece.  When we finish playing, the masterpiece doesn't exist anymore.  To live the good life I described in the motto, we must continually get together to paint yet another masterpiece, time and time again.  We look forward to it.

And when we're done, we go off our separate ways to have a good BM.  :-)

Old Photos

Several years ago, I decided to scan my entire personal photo collection and keep it on my computer, along with the digital photos that I've been taking since the early 2000's.  The reasons for doing this were detailed in an older blog post.  http://paulsbeat.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-i-sold-my-dream-home-and-went-back.html

Some of the photos are from my parents' albums.  These are photos that I always knew existed but hadn't paid much attention to until I began scanning them.  There is one in particular that really stood out to me.  It's this one, of me sitting on my mother's lap in 1962 when I was a year and a half old, at a picnic in our back yard.  I always loved taking baby pictures of my daughters, but it's a real treat to turn the tables and see myself as the baby, or toddler in this case.  Since my mother has been gone nearly ten years, this picture means even more to me now.

Downsizing

So I've decided to close my website hosting account.  Most of my activity will be though blogger/blogspot.com, which is free, so all of my current domains are being reset to point to here.  That's why you got this page.  If you have any questions about content you had seen prior to my making this move, please contact me.

My Political Philosphy

After one too many political discussions on Facebook, I have decided to go back to my policy of NOT discussing politics.  I plead guilty to being actively involved, and in some cases the instigator of such discussions, but the end result is always the same:  I do NOT enjoy those discussions.  I know better than to argue with people who have extreme political views because nothing I say is ever going to change their minds.  The one advantage to having political extremists is that they cause the political pendulum to swing back and forth a bit; in the long run, that's probably healthy for the U.S.

So for those who want to know where I stand on the political spectrum, the answer is Moderate.  I believe in capitalism with reasonable regulations; I believe in a mixed economy.  I believe in public education and social security.  I believe welfare should be abolished.  I believe health care should be available to all American citizens, but I don't care whether in the end it's run by the private sector, the government or a mix of both.  Just as long as it gets done.  I hear too many pundits blaming unemployment and lack of health insurance on lazy welfare receipients, etc.  Sure, they are out there, but my own exposure has been to mostly decent, hard-working people who are unemployed due to no fault of their own. I believe people have the right to live their lives as they wish as long as it doesn't interfere with other people.

I find the polarizing talk shows and bigmouth one-sided pundits to be very discouraging and a threat to America's well-being.  I admit to being a huge fan of Rush Limbaugh for a couple of years in the early 1990's.  After awhile I started to realize that I was only hearing one side of an argument; the fact is there are always two sides to an argument.  The truth lies somewhere in between.  Hence my "moderate" status.  I believe people who only listen to pundits on one end of the spectrum are doing themselves a huge disservice.  I rather like the concept of "equal time," but with the proliferation of all media beyond traditional broadcasting, it's unlikely to be workable today. 

There is no way that conservatives can be right all the time or liberals can be right all the time.  Society, industry, technology, communication methods and transportation methods are always evolving.  What may work in one era may not work in another era.  While we must learn from history, we cannot set in stone that past methods will or won't work today or in the future.  It is through true, honest DISCUSSION and not mudslinging and attacks that we will find compromise on these issues.

I am very proud to be an American.  It may not be a perfect country, but it is better than any other country and there is no other place I'd rather live in.

Paul Pakusch

"Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays"

Once again, I'm hearing the annual debate over "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays."  I roll my eyes every time I hear people giving their arguments over what should be a simple, well-intentioned greeting.

I've been using BOTH terms since long before one group decided "Merry Christmas" was offensive and the other group decided "Happy Holidays" was offensive.  For me, "Happy Holidays" was the simple convenience of lumping a Christmas and New Year's greeting into one phrase since both holidays come so close together.  Whether I say one or the other is never a political statement; it's exactly what I mean it to be:  "Merry Christmas" means Merry Christmas, and "Happy Holidays" means Happy Holidays.

America is a free country.  If someone wants to say one greeting or the other because one has more meaning for them than the other, then so be it.  The person receiving the greeting should accept the well-wishes and reply appropriately without taking offense.  If a store or business wants its employees to use one term or another, then that is the businesses' prerogative.  Likewise, if a customer really finds a greeting to be so offensive that they can't shop there, then they are free to go somewhere else.

It should be noted that Christmas, like any other holiday, is what people want it to be.  It has evolved through the years with both secular and non-secular traditions.  For some, it is a religious holiday and they treat it as such.  For others, it's a day for family gatherings with no religious meaning.  Others prefer to ignore it altogether.  There is nothing wrong with any of these observances; like I said, America is a free country and people are free to celebrate holidays however they see fit. 

If You Can't Say Anything Nice.....

As an armchair weather geek, I first became interested in a Youtube video a couple of days ago of a tornado crossing the New York State Thruway.  It was shot by a young woman who stopped at the Mohawk rest stop with the intention of waiting out the storm, which she said had quite a bit of cloud to ground lightning.  As as a weather geek herself, she spent her time in the car getting video of the lightning.  Perfectly understandable.  I've done that myself.  What caught her completely off guard was a tornado that suddenly appeared in front of her.

I was among the first 300 people to view this video on Youtube less than 48 hours ago.  As of this writing, that video now has well over 120,000 views, and naturally, plenty of comments.  What I find to be really annoying is the number of negative comments; people criticizing her repeated exclamations of "Oh, my God!", people criticizing her choice to stay in the car, and people just generally attacking her actions and reactions.  I can't comprehend how these people can criticize someone when they are safely watching this video on a computer, hiding behind their internet anonymity, and not in the position that she unexpectedly found herself in:  Inside her car with a tornado that appears to be about a half mile away from her (and thankfully not moving in her direction).

This is just one example of what I think is a disturbing trend of negativity, especially on the internet.  I've experienced ridiculous negative comments myself with a couple of Youtube postings.  Negativity is especially bad on political forums.  I was involved with one political forum for several years and finally stopped my participation when I woke up to the fact that the regulars among the group didn't care what I said, whether I agreed with them or not.  Because my political ideaology was different from theirs, their only interest was in personally attacking me on any topic.  They have a lot of pent up anger.  Probably because they spend too much time complaining among themselves that this country will never meet their extremist ideals.

It follows on Facebook, too.  I see certain people posting nothing but negative comments about our current President.  Facebook is supposed to be social, isn't it?  How can it be social when you're only using it as a platform to further demean our President?  Based on these Facebook posts, you'd think Obama is 100% wrong in every single thing he does.  I'm not saying I like everything he does, but geez, this is just nothing but pure negativity.  I've already dropped several Facebook friends because of their constant political rants, and I'm very close to dropping others if they don't stop with their constant negative posts and be a little more "social."

Talk radio is a problem, too.  Certain talk radio hosts, TV hosts, and column writers on both sides of the aisle base their entire career on trashing their political ideaology enemies.  They get paid a lot of money for it too, thanks to the readers, viewers and listeners who they get riled up.  If you are one of the people who take in a daily dose of vile from these one-sided hosts or regulars, I feel sorry for you.  You are doing yourself a great disservice by listening to only one viewpoint.  It's said that there are always two sides to an argument; the truth is somewhere in the middle.  So, do your blood pressure a favor and stop listening to these anger-inducing bigmouths.

New bookkeeping business is officially launched!

After four years of planning for it, tonight I officially launched my bookkeeping business. In May, I had set September 1 as the launch date, but after spending a lot of time crossing the t's and dotting the i's last week, I realized there was nothing holding me back. So I did a mental checklist of things that need to be in place and decided to launch it.

What does "launching it" actually mean? Simply that I'm now advertising it. On Facebook, Craigslist, LinkedIn, and the website, http://www.paulpakusch.com/. 

Oh, I've been doing bookkeeping all along.  More than 20 years as treasurer for my union local, treasurer for a couple other non-profit organizations, bookkeeper for the Henrietta Foundation, and now a degree in Accounting.  It's just that publishing a website, networking through social sites and advertising on Craigslist make it all official.

Some people have asked me if I'm leaving my job at Channel 10.  I have no plans to leave anytime soon.  Bookkeeping will be on the side and will eventually be my "retirement job."  But I have no specific date in mind.

And for those that have asked, yes I will be preparing personal tax returns.  Seems like I got asked that question more often than any other question while I was taking classes for my accounting degree.  There is a new requirement by the IRS that tax preparers must be registered with them, so I did register and I am all set to start in January.

Oh, how did I do in school, you ask?  Very well, thank you!  Got mostly A's in all my classes and graduated "With Distinction!"

Now to get the ball rolling, I'd appreciate any referrals, thank you very much!

Are You Prepared for New Advances in Computer Technology?

I was reading an old message I had sent to one of my daughters about how much computers have changed in my lifetime. She was wondering if she'd be able to keep up with the changes in computer technology. My answer was designed to imply that no matter how prepared you think you are, technology is probably going to take a course that you're not expecting. Here's what I wrote to her:

"Well, computers have been around all my life, but in a nutshell, here's the progress of my experience with it: High School and college, we had mainframes and punch cards. To "talk" to a computer, you had to know BASIC language, which almost nobody uses anymore. PC's started coming around in the 1980's, and then DOS became popular, followed by a now-ancient version of Windows. Most PC's were sold with no software loaded; you had to understand the language (BASIC or DOS) and install it yourself. I initially used database programs that I could program myself and I got good at it. When those started getting replaced by "easier" programs that did all the work for you, I had a hard time with it until I finally allowed myself to completely change my way of thinking. And this was all before I was even 30! Computer geeks got together and connected with eachother through BBS's, then taught the rest of us how to use them on dial-in modems. Then one day in the early 1990's a friend showed me something called a "web site." I thought it looked cool but I couldn't comprehend how anybody was going to use it on a BBS. So I ignored it for awhile. Well, the internet took off in the mid 1990's and you know the rest. So that's a glimpse of computer technology over the past 30 years. That will give you some idea of what to expect for the next 30 years. What you see now bears little resemblence to what will exist 30 years from now. There's a lot of technology "fashion" ideas and fads out there, no one knows which route will survive. So, choose carefully and hope you pick the right route!"