Project Appleseed

After attending the local shooting range one weekend, the range instructor told us about a grass roots group promoting learning rifling techniques. After he helped my son and me with shooting.  The website is: http://www.appleseedusa.org/ The website states, "Through Project Appleseed, the Revolutionary War Veterans Association is committed to teaching two things: rifle marksmanship and our early American heritage. We do this for one simple reason, the skill and knowledge of what our founding fathers left to us is eroding in modern America and without deliberate action, they will be lost to ignorance and apathy.

Is there a direct relationship between understanding our country's founding and civic virtue? The answer should anecdotally be quite clear. As our citizens' knowledge of founding principles has declined, so too has our involvement in this government 'of, by and for The People.' Instead, our citizens seem all too content to relegate governmental decisions and knowledge to those that have been elected, all the while assuming these officials' abilities and agendas are working on their behalf. We believe that if this trend continues, our country will be left with an expansive gulf between the populace and the government." So with this type of grass roots movement wanting to teach parents and their children the history of America and how to shoot rifles, is their an alternative motive? Should I take my son out one weekend this summer and get the instructions they claim to teach? The group claims to "renewing civic virtue - prioritizing civic responsibility over personal interests and indulgence. We are wholly comprised of volunteers who commit time, resources and passion toward achieving the RWVA mission." This is what some people wish to do with their leisure time, should the rest of Americans take note?

Fighting Childhood Obesity

During Spring Break Michelle Obama was on Letterman and she was plugged her health incentive to end child obesity among other things.  But it got me thinking. Why did it take so long for a public figure to come out and say this isn't good and it needs to stop? The media has been telling the stats for many years about obesity in America and how it needs to change. But not many have done much about it. Are the stats not scary enough to change the way Americans live? The stats in class are enough for me to want to get healthy. Such as tonight's stats: 1/3 of Americans are overweight or obese, since 1980 obesity rates have doubled in America.

Technology Driven Leisure

As mentioned in class, Technology Drives our Leisure.
I have been sort of dwelling on this idea. It has been in the back of my mind while at work. Not much to usually focus on while cutting onions (other than not chopping of pieces of my fingers). My mind tends to wander. This week it has wandered on this idea.
So does technology drive our leisure? Any leisure really.
If it was one hundred years ago and our leisure habits were the same, would technology have changed what we would have been doing from the hundred year prior? I will focus on my habits, so in my leisure time I enjoy volunteering, fishing, shooting (firearms), and playing games/watching tv. So its 1912, and we live in the Stillwater area. We are college aged people enrolled at OSU at the time would be Oklahoma A&M College, and have leisure time. Granted their would be just a few of us since Oklahoma A&M held the first graduating with 6 men fourteen years earlier. I could attend one of the area lakes or ponds to fish, could go shooting, or play card games with my fellow friends. Technically in 1907 a Russian scientist and English Inventor created a mechanical version of the TV in 1907, but the first public demonstration was on March 25, 1925.  No video games during this time  frame (1958 was the first video game of table tennis on the oscilloscope, 1975  Pong is released on the Atari, 1986 Nintendo's NES is released in America, 1989 Nintendo releases Gameboy, 1991 Nintendo releases Super NES, 1995 Sony releases PlayStation, 2000 Sony's PlayStation 2, 2001 Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube, 2004 Nintendo DS, 2005 PSP and Xbox 360, 2006 Wii, PS3: from http://www.infoplease.com/spot/gamestimeline4.html). Fishing equipment is rather different, with hand made wooden lures and wooden rods. Shooting at local range would be rather hard to do too.  So I think its easy to say that technology has driven our leisure.Still able to volunteer, even though the group I volunteer with won't be founded for 13 years.
So take today for instance, its 2012. I have leisure time. I can drive to Stillwater Armory and shoot at their range with my personal firearm or rent one of theirs. I can play a video game on my computer or PS3, or with the download about any game from the early years of video games and play one of them. Plenty of places to volunteer, and OSU is having the Big Event on campus tomorrow morning. I could fish, the weather is a little better than its been the last few days. I own a license, so I could go to an area lake or pond and cast my non-wood lure on my non-wooden rod. I can still play board or card games too. I firmly believe that technology drives our leisure. But what do you think? Has the leisure you participate changed in due to technology in the last 100 years? Where will it go in the next 100 years?