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Except where noted all commentary is written by me. R.T. Vance. It should be attributed such. If you find grammar errors in these please remember I am very dyslexic, and I cause most professional editors to have ticks because of the way I phrase things... punchlines come first.  1 Complaining about fuel prices while still buying fast food is a special kind of stupid.  2 Plumbers/Pipe Fitters and Truck drivers are the ONLY reason you have the life you do. Without them you have nothing, not even your prolonged health. 3 People don't want to be happy or healthy. 4 The most expensive thing in life is a 15-minute nap not taken 5 If you can't argue the opposition's opinion you do NOT deserve your own.  6 There is nothing more that the world loves, and loves to destroy, than a good man. 7 Be the difference you didn't have 7a Be someone you would look up to 8 If your religious truth does not markedly enhance your life, including your interactions with its memb...

When I was around the age of 12 the leader of our congregation, also a high school football coach, brought in a man who told us a story that went a little something like this... It has been 28 years please forgive the details.  This man told a story of a teenager, his friend, who had a list of goals on his wall. He spoke of how his friend had achieved all those goals. The friend worked towards them and had accomplished all of them save one. It was to compete and win at the state level in his athletic of choice. He had achieved the honor of doing so... including playing in the final round of completion. His coach, our religious leader, came to him one afternoon, the regional special needs school was having their prom and the coach ask if this young man would be willing to take one of these students, a young lady, to their prom. There was only one thing that was that it was the day of the competition; his coach did know the significance of the date but felt strongly he should ask thi...

  “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ―  George Bernard Shaw

 TRUE FREEDOM IS FOUND IN FAILURE. 3/2009 It seems that communism, socialism, and even democracy all have one thing in common. Then are striving to make all men equal, equal in value, equal in rights, equal in pay, equal in say... with the use of government to help ensure you can't fail, it is security. As H.L. Mencken said in his book  Minority Report  "Most people want security in this world, not liberty." Security? What is security? Security is an illusion that you are safe. People spend fortunes on security. 5-star safety ratings, Security Systems, Firearms, Life Insurance. . . 5-star cars still kill people; Security systems can be and will be defeated; Insurance companies deny claims, and firearms are only as good as the person using them... even if they are the #1 crime prevention asset you will ever own. (Ask a Criminal, not a liberal.) It seems to me that by removing the ability of someone to fail, by rules or protection or Political Correctness or Affirmative Act...

We've lived Covid, you understand the trucking thing, even if you are back to driving like baboons on the interstate. Without the advances in plumbing, the sickness of old would still be killing in extreme numbers. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/no-plumbing-disease_b_158567

 Someone Not Something By R.T. Vance 2005 It's amazing how many cares disappear when you decide not to be something, but to be someone. - Coco Chanel Over the years I have found that people for whatever reason, decide that they need to become what the social norm is, or what their group is. This was rather frustrating for me because I would watch my friends be a different person around girls than they were as a bunch of guys! I found it difficult enough to be who I was trying to be and found that being consistent across the board was far easier than trying to impress people.   I'm not saying that I'm better than anyone else, I'm saying what worked for me because God knows I'm not perfect and my troubles are neither simple or small for my current evolution but they are what makes me me.   I have found that as people struggle to find who they are that in general, they wish to travel the path of least resistance, I won't insult you saying that I don't; I'll...

I am reminded of a story.  It is one of the earliest memories of my father. I can remember it clearly. He has heard my story and hardly remembers the event, it was just something that happened in passing that had no bearing on him, but it defines my actions regularly. We were traveling to Green River, WY to visit my grandparents living there. Along the way, we stopped at a rest area to discover that a family had run out of Gas and also out of money. My memory tells me that they had broken down while on vacation in SLC and had had to repair their car to head back to home, Omaha if my memory is correct.  My parents filled their tank and I remember a discussion about some food. I even remember the gas station where they got the gas at, Fort Bridger, WY. It is no longer there, I went to try to get pictures of it 10 or so years ago. Here is the remarkable thing... After my parents did this and got this family out on the road I remember the discussion about how their finances were t...

Intrepid By R.T. Vance Original Post: 3/2005 Intrepid: Characterized by resolute fearlessness, fortitude, and endurance Fearlessness! Fortitude! Endurance! Intrepid! I know many who who are Intrepid, that give us hope to carry forth, these people do what is right no matter the odds. They fight for a cause that to many would seem impossible, never accepting that it is impossible. They are unrelenting in the quest for the success of their cause; unwavering in pursuit of a higher ideal; with hope looking to the future. Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. It's harsh and cruel. That's why there's us. Champions. It doesn't matter where we come from, what we've done or suffered, or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be. -- David Boreanaz - Angel For some their cause is the energy robbing, and body destroying sicknesses that plague our human body. As we watch them fight to survive and defy all ...

Look I love parents. Without mine I wouldn't be here. . . yes, yes I did 'Just'. * Your core personality is said to be developed prior to the age of 5. It is influenced by those you spend the most time with in those 5 years. Which for most of us is our parents.  Consider your habits and personalities traits. Consider your parents and their traits, flaws, habits, and oddities. I am going to guess you have a little of flawed parent one and a little of flawed parent 2, and a handful of 'who the flawed knows' * rolled in.  You don't have to pay it forward if I came at the end of belt; the dragons temper or the hoard. There are different ways to be, to parent, to rage, or even store your things. Some may be more health, some may be less... but the point is you don't HAVE to be the product of your flaws.  A story to illustrate this a little better. We have all heard the story about the wife who cuts the end off a ham? This is one version of the story I've hea...

 I am not aware of anyone who is totally happy with their life. If they say they are liars. The fantastic thing about getting older is that we grow into ourselves. Had I been stuck doing what I had wanted to do with my life at 18 I may be very wealthy but I would also be very unhappy. When I first met you I was 24. The person's goals and aspirations, while essential to who I am today, are no more who I am today than the pizza I ate in those same days. I have changed. Some goals I finished. Others I traveled towards only to realize along the way that it was not what I wanted to do with my life. Goals aren't a required destination. They are waypoints on your way to a life well-lived. If you wanted to travel to China, by road, planned and researched a route, and set out down the road... Only to come across a bridge that was washed out. Would you stop moving towards China, I wouldn't I want my rice and noodles for dinner. I'd look at my goal, in this case, China represents ...

"You can take these hurtful events in your life that all become a building block by nature, use this hurt to help others by building a protective shelter for them... not a wall to keep them out. You can let your life be the difference... another 'you' did not have. If not you, then who will be the champion you desire?" -R.T. Vance 2009

Considering: Paying for grades. B- $50, A $6. . .no that isn't a typo. Editorializing: It is way harder to get a B- on purpose than an A. It is also more aligned with real life. To get an A: Do all the homework, follow orders, test particularly well. To get a B-: You have to get exactly 1 of every 5 answers wrong on purpose. Unless: A. The questions have different point values. If you have a 21 question assignment you have to get an extra quest right. B. The assignment is graded on a curve. C. What if the questions don't carry the same weight. Suddenly you have to know all the materials and maths to know what questions to get wrong. It is actually intellectually lazy to get an A. You didn't actually work at it. You followed the rules. Did you learn? Did you have to fight it out? It doesn't prove anything. Heck, I was reading at a 5th grade level at the start of my 11th-grade year... But I test so... Poorly, I tested poorly. Now I have state-required testing proving I am...

First let's look at the etymology https://www.etymonline.com/word/peace I speak English so lets us jump straight to the old English: It replaced Old English  frið , also  sibb , which also meant "happiness." The modern spelling is from 1500s, reflecting vowel shift. From mid-13c. as "friendly relations between people." The sense of "spiritual peace of the heart, soul or conscience, freedom from disturbance by the passions" (as in  peace of mind ) is from c. 1200. Sense of "state of quiet or tranquility" is by 1300, as in the meaning "absence or cessation of war or hostility." Specifically as "treaty or agreement made between conflicting parties to refrain from further hostilities," c. 1400.   - source: https://www.etymonline.com/word/peace Now I'll present my arguments: When this was originally coined I was speaking to a self-expressed pacifist. They thought that we should do nothing in the conflicts around the world a...

Unremembered FB poster:  What do you do when that mask does come off, and you don't know who the person in the mirror that is staring back at you!? Response: You realize that you've grown, and changed, and if it isn't for the better you go back to the drawing board set new goals and fake it till you make it all over again. We just need to be willing to let go of what we are, our hurts, our pains, our disappointments; to become what we want to be with those joy, those loves, and those excitements. Just remember there was a time that the person you recognized in the mirror wouldn't have been recognizable to that person either. . . Life is a moving walkway, either you move forward or you are automatically moving backward. The thing to remember is that in order to move forward you have to accept FULL responsibility for what you are, even if it isn't entirely your fault; and in accepting that you accept you are the full solution to your problems as well. You decide what ...

RTV : So adventure? KH: What about? RTV : Well if'n you were to just drive off where'd you go. KH : to the edge of the world R. Tyson Vance: The new world, the old world, or your world? KH: What do you mean? RTV : The edge of the new world I'd call Japan, The edge of the old world I'd call Rome, and the edge of your world is where fear begins. . . Where does fear begin? Your world ends where you are no longer willing to push its horizons. -- 2011

A story I am reminded of comes from Elder D. Todd Christofferson CES fireside talk titled Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread it reads as follows: "In the 1950s my mother survived radical cancer surgery, but difficult as that was, the surgery was followed with dozens of painful radiation treatments in what would now be considered rather primitive medical conditions. She recalls that her mother taught her something during that time that has helped her ever since: “I was so sick and weak, and I said to her one day, ‘Oh, Mother, I can’t stand having 16 more of those treatments.’ She said, ‘Can you go today?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Well, honey, that’s all you have to do today.’ It has helped me many times when I remember to take one day or one thing at a time.” 

Sorry, Sunshine. I don't give a crap about what your deity of choice says, if the interactions of those in your faith cause you to desire an expedited departure to the afterlife of your that religion is NOT and CAN NOT hold truth. No matter the truthfulness of its doctrine. If a religion's value can be measured, it is in the interaction of its congregation with itself, and tangentially with others. If that interaction results in a negative balance in your life you do not need, nor should you desire, to continue to interact with those of said religion just so you can be rewarded in an afterlife; you should demand a different congregation. It is okay to not feel welcome, it is a great lie the deceiver tells in every religion I have studied, it is NOT okay to be made to feel unwelcome by those who should be there to support and uphold a child of their God. The difference between Saint and Satan is where the "I" is placed. To a saint, I am supported and surrounded, right ...

I'll rephrase this. If you do not have the ability to at very least empathize with a viewpoint, understand how someone might get to that viewpoint, and then be able to defend THAT viewpoint, you have not spent enough time in thought and consideration of your view point to be anything more than what you think your opposition is. That being: A holder of an Emotionally Driven Opinion. To be perfectly clear, You do not have to agree with the viewpoint, you don't even have to like that viewpoint... but until you can defend that viewpoint you can not justify your own opinion on the topic properly. An example: I don't think that human sacrifice is acceptable, the taking of life for blessings from a diety...  Yet. I support the military; lives often sacrificed for the blessing of freedom and security. I also don't have to accept that every war is right or just. Or diminish the life cost by hating, tormenting, or belittling the people who fight for me.  I also sacrifice my lif...

The most expensive thing in life is a 15-minute nap not taken I know 2 people who killed someone due to being too tired, falling asleep, and wrecking. Another cousin likely fell asleep, wrecked, and died. My father damaged at least one vehicle falling asleep at the wheel. It is also very likely that had I stopped for a nap I wouldn't have wrecked our Honda Pilot. My brain would have been more alert to process data more quickly. 15 minutes can cost a life. A car. A livelihood. A family. . .

People do not want to be happy or healthy.  They will do anything and everything to sabotage their own success often without realizing they are doing so. In the bible, there is a story about needing to look on a brass serpent. People could not believe something so easy as just looking up would save them. They died.  I often see people who try meditation or self-help and if it doesn't change them instantly, in the first picosecond, it is clearly hogwash and modern-day snake oil. You can present well-documented and peer-reviewed papers, interviews with leading experts in the field, and a signed statement by their deity of choice and they will still refuse because... all because they want the instant gratification they get from public self-immolation. Self-immolation is what they are actually after. They find a perverse joy in tearing themselves down and then bragging about it: "I can not, I am not a well-adjusted human, and the .000001 second I spent in self-improvement or self-...