Ruminator

Photo by: Tim Bindner It was a fairly productive weekend for me.  One I enjoyed.  Nothing earth shattering by societal standards, but I had fun. My sister is the type that has to run, run, run and always be busy.  She blames work, her two boys in multiple sports and then whatever other things she can do to fill time.  I am the opposite.  I like quiet time.  If I am rushing here and there, then I feel I miss things, and my anxiety goes into overload.  I am perfectly content doing what I do when I want to do it. Saturday, my wife and I attended a neighborhood cul-de-sac party.  It began at 5pm and was supposed to end at 10pm.  A simple pitch in with bring your own chairs, BYOB, and bring a dish.  We walked down the street and arrived around 6:30pm.  I began talking to the neighbors I knew and met some new neighbors I didn’t.  As the time, as the alcohol flowed, I talked to a new neighbor I had not met before.  She was in my personal space (you know, the close talkers), and my thoughts we...

Photo by: Tim Bindner Someone recently asked me to tackle the subject of intelligence vs. education and if they are the same thing or dependent upon each other.  Specifically, if you are educated, does that mean you are intelligent and vice versa? Technically, I feel intelligence is the ability to think critically, reason and analyze data and make informed judgements based upon data. Education can develop intelligence by fostering the growth of these skills, but intelligence is not dependent upon having taken part in an educational system. Education is a process that develops skills, not one that shows a level of intelligence. This is solely based on my opinion and subjective.  To break it down in simpler terms, I feel intelligence is the ability to think and reason, education is purely just knowledge.  I see it like this.  A computer is educated with knowledge, facts and data, and a human brain can take many of those same facts, data and knowledge and analyze them into a rational solu...

Sunday morning, September 20th, I woke up to temperatures in the upper 40s.  I had not hiked in many weeks and felt the risk of encountering snakes or ticks was minimal because of the temps.  I packed my gear and headed to Mt. St. Francis. I arrived in the parking lot at 7:22am and there were no other cars there.  I knew I would be alone (at least for a while), so I took full advantage and quickly took the path toward the lake.  My usual route took me around the lake, across a bridge and up my first hill.  I have two hills that I usually take that are a gauge of my fitness level.  If I can climb them without stopping, reach the summit without stopping or minimal rest, I know I am doing okay.  If I struggle, there is work to be done with my fitness. The woods were eerily silent today.  Birds were quiet, no squirrels darting about, and the only sounds I hear were the thumping of my boots on the path below me and the pounding of my heart in my chest.  I soon arrived at the intersection an...

Photo found on Google Today I purchased the re-release of my favorite Prince release called Sign ‘O’ the Times.  I should have the re-release in less than two weeks.  The original had 16 songs on a double album.  The re-release has 8 CD’s, 1 DVD, a book with liner notes and never released photos of Prince.  The new collection has the original 16 songs plus an additional 76 songs! So what makes Sign ‘O’ the Times my favorite?  His music spans so many eras and so many genres, but when this one hit the record stores, I was in my first year of college and the world was a scary place.  I was trying to figure out what I was going to be, and the world was a bit of turmoil.  There was AIDS, the Space Shuttle disaster, illegal drug usages was prevalent, poverty and gangs was very high in America, and here I was a 18-year-old going to college and trying to figure out the world and my life. As usual, Prince wrote these songs, addressing me.  I will not go into every song as this blog would be 100...

Photo by: Tim Bindner Today’s topic is deep and definitely not solvable, but I wanted to discuss it, anyway.  This is my opinion based on my own experiences and observations.  These are the conclusions I have derived and I point it out not to dissuade you but to get you to think. I believe we have become a culture of non-thinkers.  Yes, this is a generalization, and does not include everyone, but as a whole I see the masses as non-thinkers.  What exactly do I mean by this, and how do I draw my conclusions.  First it is because I observe and think, then draw my own conclusions.  I see this all the time.  People support one political party or better yet hate another one, support a cause or fight against it, pick a sports team or type of sport or fight against it, buy certain products based on cultural bias, eat certain things and so on. I am a planner.  I research.  I try to get as many facts as I can (sometimes too many) and then decide my conclusion.  I tap into experiences, knowledge ...

Photo by: Tim Bindner Sunday I went for a pleasant walk with a friend.  It was nothing spectacular in the way of excitement, but I had a great time and took some pictures. I arrived at Mark’s house around 7:30am.  He was sitting on the front porch waiting for me.  He hopped in my car and we made our way towards 65 South.  As we merged onto the expressway we had concluded our customary hellos and began talking about the plan for the day. We exited the expressway and made our way across the Ohio River on the 2 nd street Bridge.  We soon turned on Market Street and headed towards our first destination, Cave Hill Cemetery.  As we arrived at the gate, it was 7:50am and it worried me they were not open (they open at 8am), but to my surprise the gate was open, and Mark said “go for it”, so we entered.  I drove to the Office parking lot, and we unloaded, grabbed our gear and headed towards the pond. The weather was cool (low 70s) but the air was thick with humidity.  We crossed the road and w...

Steve Arnold Today my heart is breaking as a lifelong friend will take his last breath (at 1:42pm) and be leaving this world.  My friend, Steve, will be removed from his ventilator today after a long battle with heart problems. I wrote about Steve not so long ago in my series of interviewing various photographers.  You can read that here . As mentioned in the link above Steve and I have been friends since our freshman year in high school in 1982.  We were inseparable throughout high school.  We stayed at each other’s houses, hung out at the mall, went to high school football games together, attended high school mixers and even went skating a few times.  Steve worked at a local movie theater and would sneak me in often.  I would find myself with a free popcorn and soda, and saw many of my favorite movies like Friday the 13th before the age of 18. Steve had a daughter and got married at age 18, and soon after moved to Florida.  We lost touch for a long time, but soon again connected...

A friend recently asked me if I have achieved any of my dreams.  To me, a dream is way different from a goal.   I see dreams more like wishes and goals as measurable, something achievable, and more realistic. This next 12–18 months I will finally achieve a long team goal I have been striving for all my adult life.  My goal is to be debt free.  I am within eyesight of that goal and I am so excited. Marcie and I have always lived under the principle to have little to no debt.  We have gotten car loans but always paid them off early.  I have never had a student loan, but Marcie has.  Again we paid that off early.  Credit cards rarely, if ever, carry a balance over to the next month.  The only real debt we have consistently had is our house loan or mortgage. We have sacrificed, worked within our means, stayed on budget and we will soon be debt free including the mortgage.  It will be so nice to take our monthly payment and put that into savings every month. We are not rich, but we have wor...