Humor 6/26/00: Olympic Village & 1000 Marbles
Hi everyone,
Thanks to all of you who sent me a card or email to congratulate me!
I'll do my best to reply to you personally this week. Some of you asked
what I will be doing. I'm going to stay here in LA and do a startup in
the entertainment/leisure industry. Until we get seed funding or
incubation, we will work out of my apartment. I've bought another
computer and just ordered a DSL connection.
In last week's email, I mentioned pictures I took from graduation and
the Japanese Garden. Here are the links. Again, if you are a Star Trek
fan, one of the pictures in the Japanese Garden album looks like a
building from an episode of Star Trek. Take a look!
Graduation
http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4294043135
Japanese Garden
http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4294043199
This past week, I took my parents on a 3-day tour of the Grand Canyon
and Las Vegas. We went with a Chinese tour company. We tried to visit
all the major casinos (we didn't gamble), but just to check out their
architecture and unique aspects. We especially liked the Bellagio and
the Venetian. The Bellagio has a small lake in front and an awesome
water/light show set to classical music. I especially liked the Italian
song that Andrea Bocelli sings (very romantic song, but I don't know the
name. If you know, then please tell me). The Venetian replicates the
canals in Venice, with street performers, shops, cafes, etc.
Here are links to some of the pictures that I took. I didn't include in
all the personal pictures.
Grand Canyon
http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4294043149
Las Vegas
http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4294043105
Hoover Dam
http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4294043075
This coming Saturday, I'm getting a group of friends together to go
watch "Titan A.E." here in the San Fernando Valley, probably in
Winnetka. If you would like to come, please let me know.
This week's thought provoking question is: "If you could have composed
any single piece of music that already exists, which would you choose?"
This week's humor was forwarded by Anna Man, followed by an
inspirational piece forwarded by Kelly Chu.
Enjoy!
-Josh.
_________________________________________
Three guys are trying to sneak into the Olympic Village in Atlanta to
scoop souvenirs and autographs.
The first says, "Let's watch the registration table to see if there's a
crack in the security system that we can utilize to scam our way in."
Immediately, a burly athlete walks up to the table and states, "Angus
MacPherson. Scotland. Shotput."
He opens his gym bag to display a shotput to the registration
attendant. The attendant says, "Very good, Mr. MacPherson. Here is your
packet of registration materials, complete with hotel keys, passes to
all Olympic events, meal tickets, and other information."
"HOT DOG!" The first guy grabs a small tree sapling, strips off the
limbs and roots, walks up the registration table and states: "Chuck
Wagon. Canada. Javelin." The attendant says, "Very good, Mr. Wagon.
Here is your packet of registration materials, hotel keys, passes, meal
tickets, and so forth. Good luck!"
The second guy grabs a street utility manhole cover, walks up the
registration table and states: "Dusty Rhodes. Australia. Discus." The
attendant says, "Terrific, Mr. Rhodes. Here is your packet of
registration materials, hotel keys, a full set of passes, and meal
tickets. Enjoy yourself."
They scamper in, but suddenly realize the third guy is missing. They
groan - OH NO. He's a simpleton from the hills of Vermont. They forgot
to make sure he doesn't do something stupid and blow their cover
stories. They spot him walking with a roll of barbed wire under his
arm. He walks up the registration table and states: "Foster Bean.
Hardwick, Vermont. Fencing."
__________________________________________
A friend sent me this:
May your Saturday mornings be special.
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings.
Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise,
or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either
way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement shack with a
steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.
What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those
lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you
about it.
I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio
in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came
across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden
voice.
You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting
business. He was telling whoever he was talking with something about "a
thousand marbles".
I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say. "Well,
Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay
you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family
so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or
seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your
daughter's dance recital."
He continued, "let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped
me keep a good perspective on my own priorities."
And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."
"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic.
The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live
more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five
years."
"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the
number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire
lifetime.
Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part."
"It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in
any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over
twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be
seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy."
"So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I
ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles. I
took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container
right here in the shack next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I
have taken one marble out and thrown it away."
"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the
really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your
time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."
"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take
my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last
marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday
then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can
all use is a little more time."
"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your
family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. 73 Old Man, this
is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed
off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work
on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few
hams to work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and
woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids
to breakfast."
"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing special,
it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the
kids.
Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some
marbles."
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny.
But what we put into it is ours.
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-61), Swedish statesman, Secretary-General of U.N.
Markings, "Night Is Drawing Nigh" (1963; written 1950).