I'm just an old Okie who has been around long enough to have learned a few things the easy way, a few things the hard way, and quite a few things by making mistakes I probably should have known better than to make.

Over the years, I've accumulated a fair collection of thoughts, opinions, observations, experiences, and, yes, a few petulant peeves. Some are serious. Some aren't. Some may make you think. Others may simply make you shake your head and wonder what in the hell I was thinking. You know, one of those "Hold my beer" moments.

That's okay. I'm not here to tell you that I have all the answers. I don't.

What I do have is experience.

Like Mark Twain said "Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions,".

Okay, maybe a lot of experience

I've watched people make the same mistakes over and over again. I've made plenty of those mistakes myself. I've also learned that sometimes the best lessons in life don't come from books, classrooms, or someone standing behind a podium telling you how things are supposed to work. Sometimes they come from getting it wrong, living with the consequences, and hopefully being smart enough to learn from it.

I believe there is still something to be learned from the people and generations who came before us. History isn't just a collection of dates and names. It's also the accumulated experiences of people who have already been where we're going.

Many of you are probably thinking that now is different than any time in history. You are right. It is different. But the mistakes of the past were made by people just like us. The mistakes made today are being made by people. Even the big computer mistakes can be traced to an exhausted programmer in a cubical somewhere.

Unfortunately, we don't always seem very interested in listening.

I'd like to think the younger generation can learn something from the mistakes of those who came before them rather than feeling obligated to repeat every one of them personally. I've certainly provided enough mistakes of my own to contribute to the educational process.

And that brings me to one of the things that concerns me about the world we live in today.

We live in an age where a mistake can follow a person forever. Say the wrong thing. Make a bad decision. Post something foolish. Have a bad day. Exercise poor judgment for five minutes.

Someone may record it, photograph it, post it, share it, criticize it, judge it—and preserve it on the internet to be remembered long after everyone involved would rather forget it.

There was a time when you could do something stupid and, eventually, most people simply forgot about it.

Now all of our mistakes are out there and Google will help anyone find them.

Maybe that's a pretty good reason to occasionally listen to someone who has already made a few mistakes.

So, who am I?

I'm an old, occasionally petulant, admittedly obnoxious Okie who has lived long enough to have accumulated a few stories and enough experience to have some opinions about how things used to be, how things are now, and where I think we've gone wrong.

I'll probably complain about things.

I'll probably question things.

I'll probably tell a story or two.

And every now and then, I may even have something useful to say.

I don't expect everyone to agree with me. In fact, if you've read much of this blog, you may discover that disagreement is perfectly acceptable around here.

Think about what I write. Question it. Challenge it. Agree with it if you believe I'm right.

And if you think I'm full of crap, well...

You may be right.

I've been wrong before.

I'm sure I'll be wrong again.

That's part of being human.

I'm not writing this blog because I think I'm smarter than everyone else. I'm writing it because I've lived a little, learned a little, screwed up a little, and paid attention along the way.

These are simply some of the things I've seen, learned, questioned, believed, and occasionally found irritating enough to write about.

Take what you find useful.

Question what you don't.

And whatever you do, don't believe something simply because some old obnoxious Okie says it's true.