A study was done some time ago in which 5 gorillas are put into a holding pen. In the middle of that pen, there is a ladder that leads to a bunch of bananas that are suspended from the ceiling.

Eventually, one of the gorillas begins to climb the ladder to reach the bananas. As soon as he does so, all five of the gorillas are hit with cold water from a fire hose. After a few more attempts at the bananas and a few more hose-downs, none of the gorillas will approach the ladder.

Now, we replace one of the gorillas with a new gorilla. After a little time in the holding pen, that new gorilla begins climbing the ladder to reach the bananas. To the new gorilla's horror, he's attacked by the other gorillas the minute he begins going up the ladder in order to keep themselves from being hosed down yet again. After another attempt or two at the bananas and another couple attacks from the other gorillas, the new gorilla refuses to head toward the ladder.

Next, we replace yet another of the original gorillas with a new gorilla and we find that the same thing occurs. When the new gorilla approaches the ladder, all of the other gorillas attack, including the one that had been previously introudced.

We continue to substitute gorilla after gorilla until all of the original gorillas have been replaced. Now that we have 5 new gorillas, we shut off the cold water and walk away. However, by the next morning, the bananas are still hanging from the ceiling. No gorilla will approach the ladder to go after the bananas in fear of attack. Why do they attack? They don't really know - they've never been hit with cold water, but that's just the way it's always been.

Hence, we have corporate policy - we just do it that way because that's the way it's always been. :)

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What a beautiful day we had here today. The highs today were nearly 70 degrees! I had to turn the AC on in the truck and Liz and I even did some yard work tonight. I checked out the weather forecast for the next week and it's supposed to stay like this for some time - it just doesn't get any better than this.

I doubt any of you know it, but I started another blog elsewhere on the net shortly after I started this one. Unlike this one, which is really just a way for me to keep in touch with friends and family, my other blog is professional - it's all about Java, Java Certification, to be precise. It's hosted by JavaRanch, which is a forum site that I volunteer to help moderate, which covers almost anything and everything related to Java. However, even though my professional blog is still very young, I was surprised to find that it has made its way all over the Internet already. I doubt any of you would find it interesting, but my professional blog can be found here, but I was surprised to see links to it cropping up on sites such as java.blogs and others. I'm sure it seems like a small deal, but I think it's rather neat that there are other professionals out there that have the ability to and gain some benefit from reading what I have to say.

Anyway, enough about all that - what else is going on...

Nate's family just made it into the Clintonville paper last week. They were selected by FVTC as one of a handful of farms in the area to feature and give tours of. Chatting briefly with Nate, he mentioned that they had over 400 people tour the farm yesterday. I only knew because my loving mother cut the article out of the paper and mailed it to me. :)

Liz's folks just made it back from vacation, this weekend, as well. They spent a week down in Puerto Vallarta soaking up the Sun and learning Spanish. :) I haven't heard much about the trip but I'm sure they had a good time...although I have heard some rumors of cigars and tattoos...I'll have to look into that. ;)

Well, I think I'm going to sign off as my wife wants me to play video games with her now. (I sure have a rough life, don't I?) Cheers, everyone - catch ya soon!