Neider's Notes

Update: Where I was the Past Month

It has been a while since I have posted on here, and for that I have been sorry.  However, I thought I would give everyone an update on what I have been doing the past month or so.

I just recently spent a month at Ft. Lewis Washington at the Leadership Development and Assessment Course (LDAC).  This is the course all Cadets must go to before being comissioned as officers in the United States Army.  The course evaluates a cadet’s potential as an Army Officer, during a simulated “deployment.”  While the evaluation can be a tad subjective, and requires grading something intangible such as leadership, each cadet leaves with a ranking.  I received the highest of the three rankings: E (Exceeds the Standard), and was in the top 5 for both my Platoon and Company. I also received “go’s” on all the other tested events (Land Nav: Day, Night, Written Tests, PT Test, etc.)

One day of the course was devoted as what I can only describe as the Army’s version of a career fair.  Basically all the branches (read jobs) the Army has set up tents and we could walk around to view the presentations from the branches we were interested in.  I went to the Infantry, Armor, Engineer, and Quartermaster Tent (for my mom and Liza).  This day only made me more certain that I wish to be an Infantry Officer.  I will know this news sometime in late October or early November.

After I came back from LDAC, I spent a few days down in Bloomington starting to get my stuff ready to move to an apartment in Mid-August.  Then it was off to the Coke Lot, for my friend Jeff’s Bachelor Party.  My cousin Mike came with us, and I have reblogged one story from that weekend earlier.  It was great to hang out with Jeff again, and the weekend was just like one we would have had in Bloomington had he never left.

Now I’m getting ready for another trip.  When I was in the field at LDAC I received a letter from Liza (my girlfriend) that said her mom had booked me a ticket to Cancun with them.  They left on Sunday, but since her and her mom knew I had the Bachlor Party, and would need a recovery day, I fly out tomorrow.   We will get back late Saturday night.  I’m looking forward to this trip, and am sure to have many stories.

Grandpa’s Chairs: Why Nick and I are true Fords

myblanketfort:

As most everyone knows my Grandma Ford is moving out of her house. She has been there by herself for the past five years and it is time for her to have some more company. She is moving in with our Aunt Karen and this means Grandma will not need a lot of her possessions. What I thought would be a mad rush for things I consider family heirlooms has not been that. I just assumed everyone might be as sentimental as me when it comes to family memories and such.

I immediately went over to Grandma’s house shortly after the “come and get it” announcement to call dibbs on old furniture. I know that I already posses the coveted peanut dispenser, but why not continue to fill my house with memories? I claimed the old recliners and paintings from the basement and the old couch that I know myself and the Banich boys took plenty of Sunday morning naps on. I just hate to see things I have a lot of good memories with disappear.

Grandma also gave me a bunch of old pots and pans and kitchen utensils. These things were more out of necessity of need than memories. They are just things I won’t go out and buy on my own because I can get away with just eating tuna out of a can for dinner and not cook anything because what should I cook it with? Anyway, Friday I stopped by Grandma’s to pick up some boxes and while there she offered me to two old brown/yellow/white lawn chairs that Grandpa would always take to family events. I was on my way to the Brickyard with Nick and thought the chairs would be great. So I threw them in the car.

Those chairs provided to be just as great as I hoped. Not only are the still functional as chairs, but they are also incredibly light. They maybe weigh a pound each, maybe. After a weekend of camping and drinking Nick and I started our mile walk back to his car parked at his Grandparent’s house. Let me paint a picture of Nick and I carrying bags with clothes, sleeping bags, a tent, various other objects, and these two chairs.

We were both exhausted and ready for a shower and clean bathroom when a woman comes running across the street from behind us calling for us to hold up. She comes up and asks if we’d be willing to sell the chairs to her. She told us she’d been chasing us down for 3 blocks after we passed by her because she had been looking for chairs just like those. I assume she meant the color scheme of orange/brown/white. She was holding $20 in her hand and I looked at her and said “Sorry, but these chairs were just giving to me by my Grandma. They have some meaning to them for us (Nick and I), so I just can’t sell them.”

The lady understood perfectly and thanked us anyway. I was glad she didn’t continue to pursue it and try to haggle. As we kept walking I looked at Nick and said, “I bet everyone else in the family would have sold these chairs for $20. Hell I bet some of them would have offered some change after the deal.” Nick agreed and we just laughed thinking that it’s tough to be any more proud of being a Ford than us.

What to do?

My Cousin Michael’s commentary on my family:

myblanketfort:

A few weeks ago my cousin graduated from Roncalli High School. He was very involved in sports there playing football, basketball, and track. His brother graduated from Roncalli just three years ago. So for the past 7 years Roncalli High School has had a Banich boy attending school and playing sports. This also means for the past 7 years Nick and Kevin’s parents have been going to games, school events, and hosting pool parties. Now Kevin is going to Ball State in the fall and their house will be eerily empty. What will Jeannie and Joe do once Kevin heads off to school?

This is a dilemma that many parents face when their youngest leaves for college. However, it seems to me this might be a little different for Jeannie and Joe because of how they almost never missed a game or a meet, and were always attending something at Roncalli. So I began to wonder what my aunt and uncle will do with their free time and I came up with a few things.

What Joe Might Do:

1) Become very involved in Fantasy Sports. Possibly manage multiple teams in multiple sports. Did you know they have Fantasy Golf? Well Joe might know soon enough.

2) Become an ISHAA sanctioned referee. Joe will be the most intense ref ever, set a record for “toss outs” in a season, and eventually be fired for throwing penalty flags and calling fouls on every Cathedral player on the field/court. It’d be fun to watch.

3) Try to get a job with the Roncalli radio station as a sports commentator. He’d do a great job and not hold his tongue which will make for great radio. He’d be fined by the FCC during every Roncalli vs. Cathedral broadcast.

4) Become the Uncle that comes to everyone’s games. I’m sure he will go watch his nephew Zach play football at Roncalli next year, and his brothers in the following years. As more Ford family children grow up and go to Roncalli Joe will be there, just as long as he has a reason to be there and bad mouth Cathedral, he will be there.

What Jeannie Might Do:

1) Organize more frequent family vacations. With both her sons gone one, trip to Hawaii a year won’t be enough to make up for lost family time. Soon the Banich family will have spent enough time in Hawaii that they’ll be registered voters there.

2) Hang out with Grandma a lot more. She is just around the corner and not going anywhere. Jeannie’s hands will be hurting more than Grandma’s from playing solitaire with her all day.

3) Finally start using that pool they got. Jeannie will realize that you can get in the pool as well as hang out by it. Soon she’ll start doing laps and by next year she will be challenging the neighborhood kids to races and seeing who can hold their breath the longest.

4) Become the Aunt that goes to everyone’s game and supports them. I’m sure she will go watch her nephew Zach play football at Roncalli next year, and his brothers in the following years. As more Ford family children grow up and go to Roncalli Jeannie will be there right next to Joe, hiding her face as Joe bad mouths Cathedral with his booming voice from the top row of the Roncalli stands.

My fingers are crossed that Jeannie and Joe will not do anything crazy with the found free time. Hopefully they do continue to support Roncalli and the rest of the family that will attend there. And hey, who knows, maybe I’ll see them more often at the Kegger’s Nick has and I go down to IU for.

My Reaction: The Czar Administration

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

The two lines above were two of the charges the United States of America listed in their declaration freeing them from the rule of monarchy.  This document was of course, the Declaration of Independence.

With Obama’s announcement of Kenneth Feinberg as his “Pay Czar,” the total count of “Czars” has grown to somewhere from 16 to 20+ in the administration. These individuals are not just “advisors” as one Washington expert had yesterday, but rather have budgets and regulatory authority.  They are actually making and enforcing laws in this nation.

When the United States ratified the Constitution, we set up a system of checks and balances that assured that no one branch of our government would become too powerful, a way to protect the citizens from the government, and to prevent the tyranny which ruled over the states when they were colonies.  The founding fathers knew that government had the ability to grow into an oppressive burden on its people, and set up a system so that each branch could keep the other two in check.  This would keep the legislative branch making the laws, the executive enforcing them, and the legislative ruling on behalf of the law. The three would do their job and have the ability to limit the power of the other two.

A cornerstone of this system was that the President would have a Cabinet, who were the heads of Offices of the United States, with regulatory power to enforce the law, and that the members of his Cabinet would be confirmed under Advice and Consent of the Senate. When George Washington took office, he had four members, Secretaries of State, War, Treasury, and the Attorney General.  As our nation and it’s issues grew in scope and complexity, so has the cabinet to the United States.  The current cabinet is comprised of 15 members.  Again, these appointments are looked at by elected representatives of the United States (the Senate) before they take office, and can be called in by those elected representatives for hearings. It is the check on the President’s advisors who hold regulatory ability.

However, these “Czars” are elected by no one; they are confirmed by no one, and answer to no one:  except for the President.  In effect he has created a silo of power in our federal government.  Now this would not be an issue if they truly were just “advisors” to the President.  For example, if the President just liked having them in the Roosevelt Room for when he needed advice, fine. No.  These czars are given the ability to write and enforce law.  Take our new Pay Czar. He is allowed to legislate (decide what the limit for executive is) and then enforce it (penalize companies who exceed this).  This destroys the limits of power and checks and balances.

If the issues of this country have exceeded the capacity of the Cabinet, fine.  However, give an overhaul to make up of the Cabinet, rather than just ignore the system the Constitution has put into place.  Especially, when there are Health Care and Car Czars, when we already have Health and Human Services and Commerce Secretaries, two positions with nearly identical scopes.

The President’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel said, “Rule One: Never let a crisis go to waste.  They are opportunities to do big things.”  Well let’s not use the crisis facing this nation to do an end-around our founding documents. Do not use it to create “New Offices” that “harass our people.” Do not use this time to “abolish our most valuable Law” in the Constitution thus, “altering fundamentally the Forms of Government.” Rather let this time be a chance to champion the laws and ideals we were founded upon, and overhaul the Cabinet for the 21st Century.  This nation became great because of those laws and ideals; we need to stay committed to them if we wish to remain so.