Nice...

I got a new laptop and I like it! 4 gig of ram...my old one had only a half. This is much better. I can actually have video calls on this, before if I wanted a video call I had to use the desktop. That was fine, but this is better. Neat.

Not Fun...

I was called to the school today because Stephen was not feeling well. He said he was dizzy and he had a headache. I picked him up and brought him home, and as soon as we got home he threw up. About 20 minutes later, he threw up again. Last spring when he got bacterial meningitis, it started with dizziness, throwing up and a headache. The thoughts that were running through my head today were not good thoughts...I was very worried! I brought him to the doctor, and while we were in the waiting room he threw up again! I noticed some other people in the waiting room move away from us. Hehe. Actually, it was good that he threw up in the waiting room...I think it got us in to see the doctor faster! The doctor said that it looked like just a stomach virus and that he should be fine. Stephen ate some toast and crackers for dinner and he is curled up in his SpongeBob pajamas right now. He seems to be feeling a lot better and I am relieved. He will not be going to school tomorrow, but I think he'll be just fine. We'll just take it easy tomorrow.

I think I will panic every time he gets sick for the rest of my life now. Whew.

New York Plates...

Motorists in New York will be getting new license plates beginning in April. Is it me, or do these new plates look very much like the plates we had in the 70's and early 80's? Sample plate pictured below.

Oh Dear...

Oh geez. This is the Harris Teeter I go to when I go to Harris Teeter. People laugh at me because I insist on always locking my car doors when I'm in the car. I think keeping the doors locked is a GOOD idea, as evidenced by what happened here. Don't you agree?

Twitter...

You know what? I still don't get twitter. I was just reading someones twitter stuff and I couldn't tell who was talking to whom or what was going on at all. I'm sticking with facebook. I get facebook.

Waldenbooks...

Borders is closing Waldenbooks. How long has Borders owned Waldenbooks? I worked for Waldenbooks briefly back in 1990 and my paychecks always said Kmart. I wonder when that changed. Oh well. I was never very impressed with Waldenbooks, anyway. What is the point of Waldenbooks when Borders and Barnes and Noble are huge and have everything I might be looking for? Unless, of course, I'm looking for something very old or unusual, but then I can go to a used bookstore or find it online. Oh, and, I had no clue that Barnes and Nobel owned B.Dalton. B.Dalton is also being shut down. These small bookstores just can't seem to compete with their owners!

Stop It!

I have a request. Please stop inviting me to your church. Please stop inviting my child to your church. My family is not interested in going to your church or any other church. I'm happy you go to church, I'm happy you're happy with your beliefs, but please respect MY beliefs. I respect yours, please respect mine. The more you ask, the more I back away...I am not interested. Please stop. The first 100 times you asked was enough.

I have written about my religious beliefs many times, and I am now going to do it again. In a nutshell: I don't believe church is necessary. I don't believe baptism is necessary. I don't believe there is one true religion. I DO believe in God, and I think this god created the world and chose to do so through evolution. I believe God is forgiving and friendly and not to be feared. I don't believe this god is a jealous god. I don't believe in hell as an actual place of eternal torment and damnation. I just don't buy it...a loving god would not do that to a person, no matter how bad they were here on earth...they would get a chance to be forgiven after some, shall we say, remediation. I also believe I might be wrong. I don't know the truth for sure, nobody does. We won't know until we have died.

Anyway, that's it. Those are my beliefs. Those have been my beliefs for more than 2 decades. I don't see them changing anytime soon, so please, please, please, stop asking me to go to your church! If I decide I am interested in attending a church (which I seriously doubt), I will seek one out for myself.

Thank you. :-)

Grave Sharing...

Interesting article here about sharing grave plots to save space. It seems they are running out of room for dead people in England. People don't like the idea of grave sharing.

You know what I think? I think once you're dead, you're dead, so who cares if you share a grave with someone? It's not like you're going to get up and converse with someone once you're 6 feet under. It's not like you're going to have a fight with your grave mate over who gets control of the clicker. You're dead! That's it!

When I die (when I'm about 250 years old...I really like living!), take all and any parts you need to help other people (transplants, research, whatever, just take 'em, I won't be needed them!), then turn me to ash. No room is used then, and nobody will have to worry about if I have to share a grave spot with anyone or not.

Trick Or Treat, Smell My Feet...

I keep hearing about and getting fliers about something called 'Trunk or Treat'. These events seem to be put on by local churches, and they promote a 'safe' and 'fun' alternative to the traditional trick or treating. Huh. You know what? To each their own, but that honestly doesn't sound fun to me. I mean, I suppose if the weather sucked, or if we lived way out in the middle of nowhere with no other houses in sight, then yeah...that might be an option. But for us, hell no! We'll be doing it the traditional way. Our son will dress up, wait until it gets dark, and go on out. There will be ghosts, goblins, and Hannah Montana's. There will be Fart-O-Meters and robots. There will be jack-o-lanterns and candy and scary music. It will be FUN! Safe, yes, but with the illusion of danger, I suppose. Being in a well lit church basement surrounded by warm fuzzies just doesn't do it for me for Halloween. Although, again, I can see where it would be great for some people, and I'm not knocking them. I just don't have any interest in it.

Pumpkin Test!

You Are a Green Pumpkin

You are easy going, thoughtful, and content with who you are. People may not recognize your uniqueness, but you know how special you are. You believe that life's too short to care about what others think. You just try your best to be yourself, and you figure that is good enough. You are a bit of an introvert. You are the most interesting companion you know, so it's hard for you to want to be all that social. You enjoy the company of others, but you don't like small talk or gossip. You rather discuss ideas or dreams than superficial topics.

What Color Pumpkin Are You?

Sex Offenders...

Ok, first of all, let it be known that I have no use for sex offenders. Well, let me put a disclaimer on that...I have no use for 'real' sex offenders. People who rape. People who abuse little kids. That kind of stuff. The 18 year old who had consensual sex with his 16 year old girl friend, or the drunk frat guy who decided to pee in public...those people, in my opinion, are not sex offenders and should not be forced to register as such. For the real sex offenders, though, they are useless. HOWEVER, once they go to jail and have done their time and are released, we have to give them a chance. If they are so dangerous that that they can never be around kids, then they shouldn't be let out of jail in the first place. They should stay in jail and rot there. If they are going to be let out, that should mean that they have been rehabilitated and are able to rejoin society...right?

These sex offenders living in a trailer park in Florida, might be forced to move because they live too close to a bus stop. Well, no, I'm sorry. There is no law that says they can't live near a bus stop, but there is one woman who thinks they live to close to it, so her plan is to build a daycare near the trailer park so that they'll be forced to move. What the hell? You can't do that! Great. So she'll purposely start a daycare center near where some sex offenders live, for the purpose of getting rid of them. Then what? Lovely, yeah, then there will be a bunch of homeless sex offenders wandering around where it will be even harder to keep an eye on them. Bad idea! Leave them alone, where people know where they are, don't force them out and make them hide. I kind of want to know where they are so I will know what they're up to.

Not only that but, really, like I said, they are out of jail now. How on earth are they ever going to rebuild their lives and be productive members of society when they can't live pretty much anywhere and can't get jobs? Really, if they are that much of a threat, they should still be locked up. How do we expect them to lead productive lives and contribute to society if we won't give them that chance. And truthfully, I'm afraid of the murderer who was released from prison, but I don't see any Murder Offender Registry anywhere. I don't know where the murderers live. I know not everyone convicted of murder gets the death penalty or spends the rest of their life in prison, so there are some convicted murderers living amongst us. Why don't we worry about them living near schools, daycares and churches? I wouldn't be surprised if convicted sex offenders just give up and commit some other crime so they can go back to jail. I mean, if they don't have many options for housing, if they don't have many options for work, if they can't even go to church (which, you know I'm not a church going person, but I'd think if someone sincerely wanted to go to church and try to change their lives for the better that should be encouraged), just what do we think they're going to do? Why were they let out in the first place if we won't give them a chance? Something just makes no sense.

Again, I want to reiterate that I really have no use for real sex offenders. Anyone who hurts a child in any way, or forces a sexual encounter on anyone who does not want it no matter what the age, is just a horrible, bad, evil person. But...if we think they can be free, then we need to give them a chance to actually be free and contribute to society. They're not going to be good for anything if we don't give them the chance.

What I Like About Cold Weather...

What could I possibly like about cold weather? I'll tell ya...COATS! Really. I am not a purse woman. I hate purses. I hate bags. I just don't like carrying them. I do, though, only because I cannot find women's clothing with pockets large enough to carry my wallet, keys and cell phone! When it is cold, though, I wear a coat. Coats have large pockets. I don't have to carry a damn bag in the winter! This is good! :-)

Cold!

I swear, I feel like I should have the Christmas tree up. It is DAMN COLD outside! Seriously, we're having December weather! Whew! The fire is going and the candles are on though...this is nice. :-)

Bobtown, PA...

I'm glad I don't live in Bobtown, PA. Geez, come on...let the kids have some fun. Let them trick or treat after dark, let them eat candy, let them have fun. It's just once a year...let the kids be kids. Be safe, yes, but being safe doesn't mean canceling Halloween.

Well, I guess I chose the right phone, then. Battery life still sucks, though, in my opinion!

You Are a Blackberry

You are one of those super hard working, cellphone to your hip types. You like gadgets that do what they're supposed to do, especially when they keep you super connected to the world. You prefer function over flash, so things like a long battery life and easy features appeal to you. You may not look as cool as all of the iPhone kids, but you're probably being more productive than all of them!

Are You An iPhone or a Blackberry?

Hometown Commercial...

Find more videos like this on Art Rocks - Clinton, NY

I Want To WALK!!!!!!

So, I just went here to check my neighborhoods walkability rating and saw that my neighborhood now comes up with the lovely score of....20! 20 out of a possible 100, for a rating of 'car dependent'. I then put in my parent's address and they have a wonderful score of 82...very walkable. I want that! They live in a small town in Upstate NY, but you can walk to anything. I like my house, but shit, I want to be able to walk somewhere. I've said this many times, and it hasn't changed...I want to walk to the library. I want to walk to a cafe and get a cup of coffee. I want to walk to the pizza place and order a slice. I want to walk to the grocery store and buy a gallon of milk. I want to walk to the bank. I am so tired of having to drive EVERYWHERE except my son's school. My son's school is about a mile and a half from here...an easy bike ride, but really, that's about it. I suppose I could ride my bike to Food Lion, but it would be difficult to carry a gallon of milk on the bike unless I used a backpack. Other than that, though, there is really nothing that I can get to without a car. Much as I like my house, and much as I like the cul-de-sac for my son to play on without worrying about being run over by a speeding car, I would never choose to live this far out in the 'burbs' again. I think a more walkable area is preferable.

Btw, yes I did post about this, using the same site about 2 years ago, and back then the walkability rating of my neighborhood was 0, so maybe things are looking up, or perhaps it's just that the school is now finished, making the neighborhood slightly more walkable. Actually, I think that's it, since nothing else new has been built. And my parents neighborhood went up in the ratings, too, but nothing new has been built there..maybe they just got updated information and corrected mistakes.

Barcode!

Hey! Did you know that today is the 57th anniversary of the barcode being patented to Norman Woodland and and Bernard Silver? How exciting. Really. Seriously. I mean that.

Had it not been for the barcode on Google's search page, I never would have googled that. Google caused me curiosity today.