A Little Good

I do best when I have soup, crackers, and Gatorade or something similar. Otherwise, indigestion. Brian, Melissa, and Brendan have had diminished appetites but have been eating non-soup meals. That's good that they can branch out. Hope we never get this again!

I'm still behind in blog reading and writing and emails. I'll do the best I can but also have all this reading for classes. This novel I'm reading for one has 600+ pages with little print! Books of essays for the other one with an assignment looming ahead I'm working on.

Watched some LOGO while lying around this afternoon and saw Drag Race and early episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Then I got into a profile on Jack Wrangler and wasn't familiar with until I saw this. Interesting about him and Margaret Whiting, whom I do remember.

(I wrote this last night - Saturday - but apparently didn't post it.)

Weather

It's snowing again. Great big fluffy flakes! Report in the morning about how much.

Just Sayin'

I still like President Obama and am glad I voted for him.

Knew it would be upsetting to see Orange Boner sitting there beside VP Biden during the State of the Union Address. It was worse than I'd thought.

I missed it. What are those black and white ribbons they have on?

Hillary's hair looked so good during the campaign. Not so much now. Also she looks more tired. Did she get help with her face during the campaign, too? I like her and think she's doing a good job but just felt compelled to mention the obvious.

Michelle Obama is beautiful and smart and lovely and a great mother. I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't go back to a career when they are out of office at some time.

Obama almost made the Weeper of the House cry, but he managed to get himself under control.

I do wish something that actually works would happen for education and no more of this extreme emphasis on testing. We're way behind and getting worse!

We need infrastructure, fast trains, energy advances, and more. Help!

Protest

On November 23, 1969, four years after receiving it, John Lennon sent back his Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) award. He stated that he was returning the MBE in protest against British involvement in Biafra, Nigeria, and Vietnam.

Right, Froggy?

Ten thousand insects are required to feed a single toad during the course of a typical summer.

Feeling Better

I'm feeling better and had breakfast this morning. That was my first meal since dinner Saturday. I spent most of the day in bed yesterday and still slept last night. This stuff is highly contagious and has run rampant in the schools, etc. Brian and Melissa also caught it, of course. Thank goodness it didn't last longer. Fortunately the gross part was over with after a few hours early Sunday morning (or what I call late Saturday night). The fever and malaise stuck around for a while.

Maddie texted me and is also sick with this same thing. He called in to miss work today and said he's almost never sick.

Whine Time

What Brendan had is highly contagious because now Brian and I have it. Brian said he thinks it's a norovirus (which I had to look up and think he's right). I went to bed before midnight and threw up every hour from around 2 until 4. I covered up in my "reading chair" as Brendan calls it and dozed off and on until around 7 when I decided to go to bed. Oh no, not so easy. Those of you with cats know about those spells of bulemia they get because of hairballs. Yes, as if my experiences weren't enough, Brigit threw up on my bed for the first time ever. Laxatone for her again. So I had to change my sheets. What a night and morning!

So I've been in bed most of the day and am heading back there. I have a fever so don't want anything to eat. I hope this fitness water has electrolytes in it since I've had a little of that. OK, see you later.

Saturday

Brendan is feeling better today. I called Brian to check on him, and he said Brendan was eating today and feeling pretty good. Based on Brendan's talking in the background, I'd say he was in usual form.

I went to the yarn shop to catch up with everyone. Then I went to this new market to check it out. It's owned by Mennonites and has all kinds of selections. This is a really dull part of this post! Good grief! I'll try to come up with something more entertaining next time or quit while I'm informative.

Visit Revised

Brian and Brendan made it here just fine; however, Brendan got sick on the way down. While they were here, Brendan got progressively worse even though he said, "I feel a little good" but stayed curled up in Brian's or my lap all afternoon. He dozed off some which is totally unlike him. He kept trying to feel better and said he wanted to stay with me. He kept saying, "I'll feel better. Let me stay with Grammy!" Then he started asking when they could come back to Grammy's. By the time they left, he was ready to be home. Bless his heart, he must have a virus that's going around. So Brian and Melissa decided not to go to ChattaCon, and Brendan will visit me another time. I wish he'd felt well enough to stay, but he wasn't.

The streets are fine, which is great since I was planning to make chili and have no beans. I have two of the three kinds I put in it (black and cannellini beans but not kidney or red beans). So I'll go out tomorrow and get some.

Brian and I had a good visit despite the circumstances.

Snow Again

I'm snowed in again which I don't really mind that much up to a point. I prefer being able to get out and about. Brian is planning to bring Brendan here for the weekend which worries me. My street is ICE. He and Melissa have plans to attend ChattaCon and are really determined to go. He said he'd park down the street near the by-pass and that he and Brendan will walk to my house. I think it's too risky, and it's supposed to snow again Monday and Tuesday. Even though he's going to come pick him up Sunday, the temperatures won't be low enough to melt the ice. They also have to drive over Monteagle Mountain (not really a mountain - Tug knows), and I really wish they'd go somewhere else some other weekend when the weather conditions are better.

School Night

Tonight is the first meeting of the creative writing class. More details on this later. The other classes were interesting. I've read two of the books for one of the classes and have seven to go! I'm ahead in the reading and hope to stay that way. It's so good to learn for pleasure without the stress of grades - no papers, tests, etc! I like auditing and am so glad it's free for those of us 60+ at state universities.

Some Words from Martin Luther King, Jr.

"You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. And you can be that servant. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

Understandable

On TV game shows, a contestant who freezes before the camera is called a Bambi, in reference to a deer paralyzed by the glare of headlights.

Snow Daze

From all those years of teaching I have the idea that I don't have to do anything productive during snow days. Funny since I'm retired but it lingers. Oh to be Samantha Stevens and get everything done by wiggling my nose!

One of my former students got in touch with me today. I've heard from him over the years by being asked to write recommendations for him for all kinds of things. He lives in Portland, OR, now and will probably show up in the comments here and on David's blog. Chris came out when he was in the 7th or 8th grade, I think, and had a nonchalant attitude about it. He was open about it and just went on with his life. At least that's how it seemed to me.

He was in the gifted program and lived up the street from me, so I've known him for a long time. He's extremely intelligent, has always read voraciously (would read the lit book in about two weeks after I gave them out), writes really well, and is easily bored. That translated to pushing my buttons in class now and then until we both got over it and moved on to other things.

I told him about David's blog, so he's going to start reading it. He looks sort of like Robert Downey, Jr. and is 28. I just love him and always have. Hope he comments and takes part in our fun since he watches many of the same shows David recaps.

One of the things he said he'd like to do is be a personal organizer. He has a degree in psychology, but I could see him doing that anyway. We were talking about my house and how I never used to be like this. I'm still laughing as I can hear him tell me, "Well, you know I think laziness can be addicting." LOL For sure!

Jon Stewart

I agree with Jon Stewart. We really don't know all the reasons for senseless violence that happens all too often. We lead the world in the number of gun deaths. I keep remembering Michael Moore's point in Bowling for Columbine and how our country has so much fear in our history and in our news. What is it about the American spirit of independence or whatever that makes it seem okay to be armed all over the place? It's too easy to own guns and buy ammunition. I'm so tired of being in the bad percentages when compared to other industrialized countries in education, healthcare, infant mortality, teen pregnancy, murders, obesity, etc. What's wrong with us?

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Violence

Showtime On Demand had a free weekend, so I've been watching Season 5 of Dexter. I watched Season 4 when they did this last year along with some episodes of Tara, Nurse Jackie, and some others. I have HBO and know I can't keep up with both premium channels since I watch so many other shows already. It's one thing to watch these crime shows that I do but altogether another when people carry guns and shoot people in real life. The arguments I've seen on FB have shown an unsurprising lack of logic and reason. It never ceases to amaze me even after all these years.

If you were reading my blog then, you might remember when I was scared and worried that something like this could happen. There was a heated discussion to put it mildly with that Teabagger Stalker Troll who thank goodness has left me alone since then. I hope she never comments again - so far so good. Here's the post from then in case you don't remember.

It's heartbreaking and scary when someone shoots anyone but especially all of those adults of various ages and a nine-year-old girl. Yes, we were afraid something like this would happen, and it did.

Good article Nutwood Beth linked on FB by PZ Myers HERE. Excerpt and quotes below:

What we have here is an attempted assassination of a politician by an insane crank at a political event, in a state where the political discourse has been an unrelenting howl of eliminationist rhetoric and characterization of anyone to the left of Genghis Khan as a traitor and enemy of the state…and now, when six (including a nine year old girl) lie dead and another fourteen are wounded, now suddenly we're concerned that it is rude and politicizing a tragedy to point out that the right wing has produced a toxic atmosphere that pollutes our politics with hatred and the rhetoric of violence?

Screw that. Now is the time to politicize the hell out of this situation. The people who are complaining are a mix of lefty marshmallows whose first reaction to the fulfillment of right-wing fantasies by a lunatic is to drop to their knees and beg forgiveness for thinking ill of people who paint bullseyes on their political opponents, and right wing cowards who are racing to their usual tactic of attacking their critics to shame them into silence. This is NOT the time to back down and suddenly find it embarrassing to point out that right-wing pundits make a living as professional goads to insanity.

If a Detroit Muslim put a map on the web with crosshairs on 20 pols, then 1 of them got shot, where would he be sitting right now? Just asking. - Michael Moore

A physician cannot treat an illness s/he willfully refuses to diagnose. Violent political rhetoric is not fault of "both sides." - Tom Tomorrow

Inspiring that our media pundits are so quick to reach for "everyone's to blame" when no conservative events have been terrorized by gunmen. - Jeffrey Feldman

Weird: rightwingers say movies, video games affect behavior -- but real world violent rhetoric from leaders & radio talkers have NO impact! - Tom Tomorrow

Jared Lougnner: drug arrests, too crazy for Army or for college or anything else, but getting a legal gun? No problem. - Tom Tomorrow

I find it abhorrent that Sarah Palin would stoke the coals of extremism with dangerous messaging, then delete it when something bad happens. - Jason Pollock

Sure, Sarah Palin didn't pull the trigger. But then, neither did Charles Manson. - auntbeast

Christina Taylor Green was Born on September 11, 2001, and killed today by terrorist fuckheads in Arizona. Irony much? - geeksofdoom

Sarah Palin rummages online frantically erasing her rabble-rousing Tweets like a Stalinist trimming non-persons out of photos. - Roger Ebert

I'll say this, if your first instinct after hearing about a tragedy is to scrub yr websites, you have a problem as a political movement. - digby56

CNN's Dana Bash says "this could be a wake-up call." THIS ... ? The whole Tea Party, carrying guns to rallies WASN'T?? - hololio2

Teaparty asses have been asking for this to happen, and how they're pissed off that we're calling them out on it. - TLW3

STOP SAYING"BOTH PARTIES"!! The Left has not been advocating Violence. @CNN assholes. - YatPundit

Do not sit there cowering, trying to make excuses for teabaggers and violent morons. This is supposed to be the part where you stand up, look at the shouters on the other side, and tell them, "This is wrong, and this is the harm you bring to our country." Instead, I see a rush to postures of submission.

On a Three Hour Cruise

The character of the Professor on Gilligan’s Island was named Roy Hinkley. The Skipper was named Jonas Grumby. Both names were used only once in the entire series, on the first episode.

Retirement Regression

Since I retired, I live like a teenage boy. That's why I can't let anyone in my house. I stay up late, sleep late, stay on the computer too much, watch TV, play my version of video games (Scrabble and Family Feud on Facebook and Spider Solitaire), don't make my bed, and have clutter. See? That is what is happening! So I guess I'll just have to channel my inner mother and nag myself into it.

Homage to Dust Bunnies ...
It wasn't this bad when I first retired and was managing emails, reading and writing blogs, having phone conversations, catching up on TV shows, enjoying books, and socializing with friends. I was able to devote time to housework of sorts but not the way I used to do it. I cooked and kept a clean house that always looked lived in and enjoyed. That's my style - casual eclectic. But now it borders on Hoarders in places and got that way after I was sick. Then social networking took on Facebook and Twitter and house neglect set in. I'm going to have to cut back on those because it's not likely I'll watch less TV. I used to tell students that they have to establish their priorities. That's what I've been doing and need to change my priorities until I get the house the way I want it. There are a couple of weeks before classes start that I'm auditing. One of the classes has nine required novels to read and the other has three books! Thank goodness I don't have to write papers and take quizzes, etc. for them, but I do plan to do the writing for the Creative Writing class.


Perhaps this is my problem! (Oh yeah right! Can I be Bernice and Einstein at the same time?)


Anyone remember Moonbeam McSwine? I won't be in touch as often until I clean up my act and house!

Win-Win

Winning "hands down" in horse racing means never once having to use the whip on the animal.

I'm Doomed!

Scientific researchers say promiscuous species of monkeys appear to have stronger immune systems than less sexually active ones.

Odd Blogness

This is odd. I tried to get onto my blog and got a message that it no longer existed and said that I had deleted it. So I clicked a few things and got another message that "unusual activity" had gone on. It let me create a new password and have Google send me a verification code text on my cell phone in order to restore my blog. Talk about panic! I checked my blog and there were no comments or anything that were from anyone other than those of you who comment. Quite a mystery. Has this happened to any of you?

In a possibly unrelated incident, I got all kinds of texts on my cell phone from Craigslist which I've never even been on. Ever. Verizon sent a message that they were closing the comments down because too many had been generated by ME in a short time. A gremlin virus? What's going on?

I downloaded Frostwire in order to download music. I already have iTunes. My granddaughters told me about it and said it was free and legal. While I was there doing that, I accidentally also downloaded iMesh which infiltrated my search engines. I uninstalled it and finally got rid of it.

All this is on the little netbook since my laptop is dead again and still dead. When I was reading about its problem online, others said that this same thing happened to them. This is a lemon batch of these HP Pavilions. They also got new hard drives and then after a short time, they, too, died. They said it's some problem that makes the computer run hot and mess up the hard drive, so installing a new hard drive isn't going to solve the problem. I'll explain that to the tech center which is in America and not India. Points to Staples on that. I had to send it to MA last time and guess I will have to again. I'm really getting tired of this.

The next time we have a no-tax weekend, I'm getting a Mac. Then I'm going to that one-on-one tutorial at the Apple Store in Green Hills in Nashville to make the transition. Sam and I were talking about this on the phone last night, and I told him we've been having a no-tax weekend in the fall and once or twice in the spring for several years for parents to buy things for kids for school. Computers under a certain price qualify, and the Apple Store had a good deal on Macbooks last time. Our sales tax is almost 10%, so that makes a big difference. Sam said he buys his electronics in Oregon and Montana because they have no sales tax. Must be nice. Ours is one of the highest in the country. Phil Bredesen, our governor for the last two terms has a degree in physics from Harvard and has managed the money pretty well, but I'm not sure what the legislature has done with it. Our new governor Bill Haslam owns all those Pilot gas stations and truck stops, so who knows how that will be. He and the majority of the legislature are Republicans now while the ones we've had for a while have been Democrats.

That's life here in low-tech land!

Entrepreneurs?

Anyone want to move to Nashville and buy OutLoud? Information here and an excerpt from the article in the Tennessean below. Interesting.

Gay-owned OutLoud moved into a former massage parlor in the 1800 block of Church Street in the mid-1990s — when no other landlord would rent space to a gay-themed bookstore — and it helped revitalize a dingy stretch of questionable properties near downtown.

Now, the 1500 to 1800 blocks of Church are bustling with a handful of lively nightspots and restaurants — serving as an entertainment hub for Nashville's gay community and others drawn to places as diverse as the new bar Canvas and the eclectic Suzy Wong's House of Yum restaurant.

...

Jensen and current business partner (OutLoud President Kevin Medley) moved a block away from the original location several years ago, built out a much larger space and added a fancy coffee house.

The coffee house proved to be a bust and a place that devoured cash. Several hundred thousand dollars in reserves that might have helped in lean times evaporated as Jensen added to his payroll with as many as 26 employees.

"We wanted to make it as beautiful as possible, but I expanded too fast," Jensen said with a shrug.

The plan now is to sell, if possible, or lock the doors, if need be, at the end of January.

No matter how it turns out, Jensen figures he made some sort of mark.

"I learned by doing and making mistakes," he said. "But this business was my passion. I ran it from my heart, not a spreadsheet."

No Schlock Spock

At the age of 8, Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) began performing in a local community theater in Boston. Later, when he moved to Los Angeles, he joined a Yiddish theater group.

Want to Live in Vermont?

Check out the HGTV Dream Home which I am entering the sweepstakes to win. It's in Stowe,VT, and sleeps 14! Who wants to live there with me when I win? You can sleep in the guest room and oversee the bunk room where the skiers will stay. Or maybe we could all live there and six of you can stay in the bunk room. It's pretty amazing. Look here for the tour.

I could probably afford to stay there a while since they also include $500K and can have all my family there for visits. However, I'll need people to live there - to cook, clean, and be fun! Who's in?