Cantankerous Old Coots

CNS- Failure is under-appreciated!

Posted by Ralph at 22:58 Uncategorized

Jul 022013

Image by Orin Zebest via Flickr

Don’t fail whatever you do.

If you listen to the popular media, they would have you believe that the worst thing you can do is fail. It is far better to stay home under the covers than to get our of bed and try to do something. Fear of failure is endemic. Fear of success is no less bad but we will just have to save that for another day.

You don’t earn your stripes as a Cantankerous Old Coots without failing big time. And not just once, but over and over again. It’s just human nature to hate failure. Nobody wants to fail. If expected to fail you wouldn’t put in the effort. Still the world is full of failure and the truth that nobody wants to hear is that failure deserves to be celebrated because it is the one sure way to learn success.

If you watched a baby learn to walk, this truth is apparent. The baby fails again and again learning something new with each failure. Then miraculously, the baby stands. Something tells the baby that this is the right process. There is no expectation of instant success and, in fact, without the lessons from all the failures, the baby would never be able to stand.

Somehow this obvious lesson gets drummed out of us when we grow up. We expect and demand instant success. And then give up when we fail,

FailFaireDC: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Failure

This weeks news story celebrates failures. FailfairDC is am opportunity to appreciate how much you can learn from a good failure. This conference provided ten examples of failures. One of life’s lessons is that success is built on failure and that so long as you don’t give up it is just a part of the process. If you haven’t seen much success in your life so far, the answer may be simple. Maybe you haven’t failed often enough.

I’ve got your feelings right here!

Posted by Justin at 22:58 Coots Lessons, Plain 'ol Cantankerous, rants

Jul 022013

Listen to this!—-> Frampton

If you didn’t bother listening to the audio clip above you missed out on some great Peter Frampton. Today, I get to bring up the rear on this whole “feelings” theme.

First of all, did you like the themed edition of the Coots? We are thinking that the first week of every month will be a theme week and you, the loyal readers of the Coots (i.e. Heather, Hansi and Dave) will be responsible for choosing that theme. Go ahead and cast your vote right over there in the sidebar for March’s theme. And if you have a suggestion for a theme by all means hit us with it via the contact form or in the comments.

Now onto the Cantankerousness. We spend a lot of time here at the coots talking about basically feelings. What feelings to have, what feelings to discard, and whose feelings to stomp into a mudhole when the time is right. Ralph has reintroduced the Cantankerous Old Coots University to our growing audience and, hopefully, has started more and more people on the path to true Cantankerousness.

In a lot of ways, Cantankerousness equals freedom. To be truly cantankerous, you will be embracing all of the core values that are wrapped up in the First Amendment. Coots say what they think. We say what needs to be said without regard for the sissy feelbads of this generation.

Sometimes, you just need to hear the hard stuff. Like Denis Leary says, “Life sucks, get a helmet.” Your feelings shouldn’t get in the way of the truth. The history of America is filled with insensitivity and lack of regard for feelings. We are stubborn and, well, cantankerous. Do you think that the Revolutionary War would have been won or even fought if the colonists worried about the “feelings” of King George? He sure didn’t care about us and we gave him the collective finger.

Think of the government policies regarding Indians. (Yes I said Indians. That is what they always were Native American is a whole other rant. And my Great Grandmother was full blooded Arapaho so don’t give me any crap about it.) The Indians that basically ruled what would become the United States were slaughtered and pushed to little tiny plots of undesirable land. More than once. And the ones who had the balls to resist (see Geronimo, ass kicker extraordinaire) were eventually snuffed out by the Government.

Cantankerousness is not just bitching about the world. It is taking a stand and forcing your position down the throats of all the namby pamby do gooders who just don’t get what it means to be assertive. Feelings are an invention of those who need something to explain their lack of intestinal fortitude.

This is the main mission of the Coots. To try and jump start that intestinal fortitude that is lying dormant in so many people these days. To show people that it is ok to put your feelings in a dark place in your heart and let them fester until they just can’t be contained anymore and you make someone cry telling them the truth and not holding back because of their “feelings”.

Now, watch this video, it sums up much of my personal philosophy very nicely.

Now tell me what you think about your feelings, the comments are open and waiting for your cantankerousness to flow.

Don’t forget to vote for next month’s theme. Semper Fi.

-Justin

It’s July 4th, Yet Again…

Posted by Justin at 22:58 Coot Smirk, principles, Reflections

Jul 022013

English: The earliest known draft of the United States Declaration of Independence, a fragment in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hey folks, if you haven’t noticed, this post is simulcast both here on Catharsis of the Bogue and Cantankerous Old Coots. It is almost the 4th of July here in the United States, one of my favorite holidays.

This image was selected as a picture of the week on the Malay Wikipedia for the 26th week, 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you didn’t know, July 4th celebrates the day when a group of British citizens here in the American Colonies decided to give the finger to King George and make their own country. July 4th is the day when those men we now call Patriots, signed one of the most important documents in the history of the world, the Declaration of Independence.

This is not just another day. This is our Independence Day. This is the day John Adams wrote to his wife about, saying,

“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

Those brave men who wrote, and then ratified that Declaration were so far from the milquetoast government that we have now. They knowingly put their names to a document that labeled each and every one of them traitors to the most powerful country on the Earth at that time. And they knew what they could make out of this country. They knew that King George was not the way. They knew that we had to have our own laws, our own officials, our own taxes.

And now, this country, with all of the problems that we do have, still shines as a beacon to the world, a democracy, a republic that has lasted for over 200 years. This Thursday is July 4th, when we should be with our families. We should raise a flag at dawn and salute whilst saying the Pledge of Allegiance. We should read that Declaration of Independence and understand what they were fighting for. We should read the Constitution and know what our country is built on. There is no better time to be a patriot.

Tonight, Tuesday the 2nd, I took it upon myself to teach my Cub Scouts about the Declaration of Independence. They range in ages from 8 to 10. Most of them had only heard of the Declaration (and no, Abraham Lincoln did not have anything to do with the Declaration, despite the insistence of one 8 year old). I gave each of them a copy that they could read with their families. We read it together and discussed what it meant. The other leaders and I tried not to realize that We, as Citizens of the USA, need to send a slightly edited copy of this document to Washington. But I digress. I know it is important to teach the Declaration and it’s meaning. And to debunk the map on the back. It exists only in Hollywood.

The Fourth of July, Independence Day, should not just be the day we watch fireworks. It shouldn’t be the day we finish cleaning the car, or mowing the lawn. We should be thankful for this country. We should give thanks to whatever God we worship that we are here, and are free of tyranny. We should thank our Service Men and Women for defending that freedom that we began fighting for back in 1775.

I love going to community festivals on Independence Day. I really like to be with others, celebrating this country and the fact that we are Americans. I love the “Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations” that John Adams predicted. I love to stand and remove my hat as the flag passes by during the parade, even when most people don’t bother. I love to sing that National Anthem with a field full of people, all of like mind.

Many people say “Happy Birthday America.” I do to. But more importantly, I say , “Happy Independence Day.” May you all have a great Independence Day, go out and celebrate, don’t let it be just another day.

-Justin

The Fourth of July

A retro moment I could have done without

Posted by Bob@HayleStorm Interactive at 01:52 Softer side

Jun 282013

Image via Wikipedia

I’m going to throttle back my overbearing, know-it-all, in your face attitude just a bit this week, and ask Ralph to forgive me for horning in on one of his favorite categories to write about… Nostalgia.

Despite this post being due for publication on Monday, February 28, I sit here on the previous Thursday feeling the need to write Monday’s post now. I saw something happen today that got the muse going, and she will not be denied.

First, let’s back up a little bit. 50 years, to February 20, 1962 to be exact.

Just nine months after JFK had called for the United States to put a man on the Moon by 1970, a fellow no one outside of military flying had ever heard of, John Glenn, climbed into a Mercury capsule and into the role of American hero.

Two men, wearing that newfangled career moniker “astronaut” had preceded Glenn in our quest to conquer space, taking brief, sub-orbital flights.

This day, this flight, was to be dramatically different. John Glenn, riding in Friendship 7, was going to be the first American to orbit the earth, circling it three times in approximately 4 hours before splashing down. Not to minimize the United States earlier flights, but this was a major step forward for JFK’s vision of reaching the moon. Sub-orbital flight amazed, but actually orbiting the earth and returning safely was almost beyond belief.

America’s march to the moon progressed through the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs, and ended on December 19, 1972 when Apollo 17, our last manned flight beyond earth orbit, splashed down. Astronaut Gene Cernan was the last man to walk on the moon. Little did we know it then that now, almost 40 years later, we would not yet have returned.

And now today, Thursday, February 24, 2011 we watched the sun setting on the United States manned space program. At 4:50 PM Eastern Standard Time space shuttle discovery, the first of the shuttle fleet, launched from Cape Canaveral for the last time.

Sure, there will be a couple more shuttle launches, but this, the final launch of the workhorse of the shuttle fleet, brings into stark relief the fact that the United States days of commanding the heavens are over, at least for the foreseeable future. After this and a couple more launches, culminating with a June 28 launch of space shuttle Atlantis, the United States will once again be earthbound for the first time since Alan Sheppard was launched in Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961 in a suborbital flight that lasted just 15 minutes.

When Atlantis lands at the end of its final flight, the United States will be hitchhikers to the international space station, a space station mostly built, and paid for, by the United States. Regarding manned space travel we will once again be at the mercy of the Russians.

When was the last time we were in that position? Before launch time on February 20, 1962. How’s that for progress?

Ralph got a bit agitated over the space program too.

Kettlebell Inspiration

Posted by Ralph at 01:52 Up With

Jun 282013

Image via Wikipedia

Our leader Justin here at Cantankerous Old Coots keeps us hacks jumping. I toe the line pretty well remembering all the old tricks I learned at work for keeping the boss happy. Bob is another matter altogether. Bob is a ‘my way or the highway’ kind of guy and sometimes it’s all Justin can do to keep Bob focused and on target- or even present. I rail about Justin from time to time but so far, he’s been the one keeping the wheels on the bus here at COC, slave driver though he may me.

What with being a stay at home Dad, web entrepreneur and running his own blog, you can imagine that Justin’s life is full of challenges. Mere mortals like me constantly ask; How does he cope? How does he maintain his balance and joi de vivre amidst this busy cacophony? I confess that I don’t have a clue. It would be beyond my meager abilities which are strained daily just pulling my weight here at Coots.

Still from time to time even Justin needs to fill his tank and refresh his spirit. He retreats to a quiet place and lets his spirit flow. He plays his kettlebells.

Justin will never acknowledge his talent. He disclaims any praise or attention and refuses to perform publicly. But his skill is legendary. No one has yet captured Justin performing either on video or audio. He keeps his light under a bushel, so to speak. Still, careful research has uncovered kettlebell masters who inspire and encourage Justin to grow his talent. You can get a small idea about the power of Justin’s talent from these videos . These powerful performances will give you an idea of what a kettlebell master like Justin can do.

Sometimes whtn Justin gets into his groove, the spirit takes him places where mere mortals only dream of going. Listen to those mellow sounds and then tell Justin that you want him to share his music with the rest of us. Mellow out with this second video and then send him a message here at Coots or at Justin’s Brainpan. Tell him you want to know the magic of kettlebell music. Talent like Justin’s deserves sharing.

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