The Lewis Show

Memorial Day (formerly known as Decoration Day) is a day that American's have set aside to remember our fallen veterans. There was originally a Union and Confederate Memorial Day basically at first where we would all have parades in the north and south, celebrate the soldiers that endured that horrific war, and decorate and visit the graves of those that fell. That tradition has taken more of a take time off from work and cook things on the barbecue twist, but veterans made a tremendous sacrifice to give us that freedom. Today I remember Private Louis Jones. Mr. Jones was my great uncle and died in battle near Frankfort Germany in March 1945. He was part of the 16th Calvary mechanized tank regiment and was was part of that final push to cross the Rhine River allowing the Allies to finally defeat the German war machine. Tens of thousands died like him in World War 2, but since he's family, I wanted to make a mention of him here. Louis joined the war effort immediately. H...

Over the past 18 months, I've done a fair amount of reading about colonial American times. I discovered I had some notable relatives from those times and started researching them in depth. Being a Virginian made things more accessible with the ability to visit a lot of these sites and getting a feel for the times today. I have visited a few sites here in Richmond as well as Fredericksburg and some areas in the Northern Neck. The close of the 18th century was a fascinating time to be alive. As children we're taught about the American Revolution but so little is taught about culture and in depth profiles into some of the more notable personalities of the day. The most notable being our first President. While he's the most profiled character of his time, what is not as often discussed is why or how he gained such predominance.  George Washington did not earn his legendary status from his accomplishments. With any detailed study it's found he did not string tha...

I will start writing again, eventually. Life has taken many turns over the past year and none of those events were conducive of writing in any capacity.  I had a change in jobs, I took in two boys, and this winter has been brutal. If i could hibernate right now I would. As you can see, by and large I don't want to go into great detail about my personal business lately. I also know that posting life events from an otherwise simple and quiet life is not the things that people want to read about, so I'm going to start sharing thoughts here that some will hopefully enjoy.  I am still around. I'm alive. I'm thriving. I'll be back.

We all saw the many reactions and tributes given after news of Williams' death circulated social media. I took the one of speechlessness. We don't associate comedians or funny people with depression or sadness much less suicide. He spent many years fighting addiction and the voices in his head that told him to give up. I am sad to hear that he could not survive it. There aren't a lot of thoughts that I could add. I can only offer my perspective. Williams first appeared in my life via television on Mork and Mindy. Later one of the first programs we watched on HBO when we got satellite was his performance at the Metropolitan Opera. Then through the years, as I grew older, he was in many movies that I consider favorites. Now in a flash he's gone and we are left wondering what happened or what could have been done to prevent this. When I saw Williams, I saw a man who never looked comfortable in his skin. He always looked deep down like he was out of place. I never sa...

I never like to write posts like this, but I feel the need to share some memories and pay homage and respects to someone I recently lost. A friend of mine and a former roommate in college passed away on Wednesday. David Hobbs probably deserves a book written about him and his exploits but I'll try and do him justice. I made my first big excursion away from home attending college back in 1996. I had spent a couple years in community college, so I was older than most of the kids in my dorm. Most of them were 18 and I was 21. They were all kids acting like they were attending summer camp, that is all of them but one student. Hobbs looked like he lived a nice long life already, which was crazy. He was only a couple weeks younger than me, but the man was literally larger than life. Weighing in about 400 lbs. He did take up a good amount of space in those dorm rooms, but he was agile having played football in high school. He was constantly sneaking up on me. My dorm mates ...

So 2007 called, they wanted this blog post back. This probably comes almost a decade too late, but up until a week ago, I had never owned a Kindle, never wanted a Kindle. I thought unitaskers such as this were a waste of time and money. The older versions seemed to be very clunky and I felt they were a slow ends to a simple means. I cannot begin to describe how I hated the look of the early Kindle with those keyboards. Over time I noticed the Kindle improving their UI. Barnes & Noble came in with their Nook, Kobo joined the US market, and they helped push the tech along. Then Apple and Google debuted their more multipurpose tablets. I was very quick to purchase a Nexus 7. I could never justify the expense of an iPad considering the amount of other hardware I owned at the time. I loved my Nexus 7. When they release an 8" tablet this year, I'll probably still buy it. I even think the iPad Mini is a wonderful device and I'm not partial to Apple products. But this...

Something has been poking at me the past couple days so I return to get it off my chest. This Memorial Day weekend people will be grilling meats and enjoying time off from work. Some however have taken to their social networks to tell people how they're supposed to observe the holiday. Unless we fall on our knees before God and weep, we're not properly celebrating the holiday and doing a disservice to our troops. Yes, the purpose of Memorial Day is to quietly reflect on fallen soldiers. We have cemeteries full of people who made a tremendous sacrifice and cannot enjoy this day with us today. Those people choose to end their lives in defense of our liberties and our way of life. I have a lot of family who have fallen in previous wars to enable my freedoms. I take time to remember them today. But they did just that, they gave up their lives to give us the freedom to celebrate in our own way. If you don't want to observe, don't observe. If you want to drink beer a...