Really. I couldn't be happier for you.
I've seen and heard comment after comment from people who believe they are superior to others because they aren't or weren't scared of a little swine flu. It cracks me up. I suppose since I am one of those people who did understand what it meant to get the swine flu, that it was more like the regular flu, and yet I still planned on pulling my kids out of school should it arrive in our area that I'm one of the crazy, overzealous, uninformed parents out there. @@
It's simple math really people.....Household of 5, 1 full bath and 1 half bath, the need to designate 1 for BM end and 1 for the vomiting end, the potential to have more than 2 people at a time needing one of those bathrooms for any given end.....yeah, I'd rather "avoid" it. I'd rather not deal with a vomiting 3-year-old should I feel like crap myself. Not scared of it at all.
So next time you feel the need to wave your common sense superiority over the heads of others, in your group of "in-the-real-know" about the issue, etc., give it a thought. Some of us merely gave more thought past contracting the illness, you know, like scrubbing vomit out of carpeting or needing to vomit into a toilet someone just had a diarrheal blowout in, etc.
Showing posts with label Hmmmm-Head Scratchers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hmmmm-Head Scratchers. Show all posts
May 26, 2009
Random Thoughts About Feet
Why is it that you wouldn't dream of putting on the same pair of socks 2 days in a row and yet you think nothing of putting your feet into the same pair of shoes day after day after day?
I've been putting my feet into the same set of sneakers for over 1000 days now.
I've been putting my feet into the same set of sneakers for over 1000 days now.
Feb 2, 2009
Born a Woman-What's the Mystery?
This has been bothering me all day....Most of us saw the little clip via commercial promo of Oprah indicating a man was going to have a baby, and some of us tuned in as if we were going to be witness to a real life miracle or freak of nature. I missed it, but looked it up online. "Tacky" is my first thought, and not at the woman turned man, but at the way it was set up by Oprah, and subsequently throughout the media. I blew it off back then and chalked it up to our shameless media circus in America culture.
Today I've been watching promo after promo about medical mystery time on TLC, and this man and his pregnancies is a part of the theme.
What am I missing here? He was born a woman, had his breasts removed, still has his female reproductive organs, but is legally a man, and he quit taking his testosterone for the pregnancy....What's the big mystery? !
Jan 26, 2009
Food for Thought....Reap What You Sow?
We were discussing consumerism and companies who design products to fail quickly so that you have to buy another sooner.....
In discussing it with my husband, he shared with me an article he read in National Geographic about where all of our electronic waste goes. I wanted to read it. I found it easily enough on a search of my own. Click the link and be sure to click the other links within this article, such as the Photo Gallery link.
While I don't buy the latest cell phone models, printers, monitors, etc. because I am the woman who should be embarrassed of her outdated equipment that she begrudgingly finally had to buy for business. I have bought 1 new of each when the other failed. I tried to find out how to properly dispose of these items. I decided to allow my toddler to use the old cell as a toy. I still have the old printer; I just need to find someone to fix it so that I can pass it down to my kids. The 4 giant monitors I had, however, was another story.
Those monitors and 2 CPUs had been sitting in my storage room for years. I thought I might be able to use them as servers someday...a technology I'm not all that in the know about. One computer was in my ownership alone for 15 years and was one that I had received free when a business I worked for shut down. I had worked with that computer for 3 years prior to it becoming my own personal computer. It had also suffered a motherboard failure at the hand of lightning and I paid $1000 to get a new one installed (that's how much that cost way back then). It started out as a Compaq 486 but turned into something else entirely with new disc drives, 3.5", etc. throughout its lifetime. The monitor went on it and my brother-in-law gave me one of his, but even larger...so large I could barely pick it up. When I needed access to speedy internet access, my cousin gave me his brother's old computer (he had passed away), and the monitor that came with it; this one was in my possession for about 7 years and was about 10 years old. I can't even tell you where the 4th monitor came from. I remember one starting to blink, so someone had to have given it to me.
Now we fast-forward to where my home business is now successful and requires more--I order a new computer with 2 monitors with a dual-monitor function to help my production and I now needed something to accommodate CDs and all of the new equipment I need that requires more from my computer, as well as the serial ports versus the USB ports. lol. I now needed fancy sound cards, etc. Then I needed to be mobile so I needed a laptop so I could take a vacation and still work, as I don't get any days off. I've had the desktop for 8 years now and the laptop now for 7.
Last year it was time to get the old equipment out of the storage room, "clean house" so to speak. I contacted my garbage service, as I had heard it was illegal to dispose of computer monitors in the trash. They told me that they weren't supposed to pick them up, but that if I put them in the trash, they would take them. I asked them what they did with them, and they told me that they put them in the landfill. In amazement, I shared that I was told that was what we should be trying NOT to do. Some conversation followed with a giggle--what else can you do? She said "You'd be amazed at what we take that we aren't supposed to." I called my City to see if they had a hazardous material pickup date for these things - they didn't know anything. I called computer repair shops too. I can't remember who else I called that day, but many, many sources. I was somehow referred to a charitable organization. Success! They said they DO take used monitors. I dropped a "Well, at least someone else can actually use them." comment out of relief my search had finally ended, but he replied with "Oh no, we don't actually resell them or donate them, we give them to XXXX. I think they have a recycling program or something." Oh brother. I opted for saving them until our Spring Cleanup Day where people drive around and pick through the items on the curb and find treasure in another woman's trash. I kept the cords in the house and put a sign up indicating they should ring the bell for the cords, as some people cut cords off of the items you put out there. Someone took one of the CPUs that I had removed the hard drive from, but that was it. I finally took the remainder to the place accepting donated monitors. I figured I did my best.
Finding and reading this article in the midst of trying to keep us with what CPSIA really means.....it suddenly hits me.....Do We Reap What We Sow? It implies that at least some of the lead in items from overseas is from our electronic waste that made it back to us in the form of products -- could it have been a material from one of MY monitors poisoning a child in ANY country? I pray that it was not.
It makes me wonder whether it is the country as a whole that reaps what it sows....afterall, they just keep buying newer and better models for items there is really nothing wrong with, no? They allowed this practice of dumping toxic electronics in other countries, no? At least some manufacturers believe it is better to build products planning them to expire and to be irrelevant more quickly so we "need" to replace them sooner. What is the price of convenience? Was it not convenient enough the model prior? Are we, even those who believe the CPSIA law is nothing but a good thing, actually hypocrites? Is it okay to destroy other countries and entire villages, their residents, their children--just not our own?
This actually makes me relieved to know that those very children and adults who are literally killing themselves stripping the barely valuable components to fetch a dollar to feed themselves and their families probably don't have a TV or exposure to the hypocrisy of what we are worrying about right now.
I absolutely hate it when this usually proud American feels like an ashamed American. We've apparently been shipping toxic products by the tens of millions a year to other countries and now we're all upset about it being done to us when some of those products complete a cycle we've actually started - it started with us and is ending with us, and now we're mad about it? I'll keep fighting the battle to stop unnecessary and redundant testing, although now with a little voice in the back of my head.
I know this doesn't apply to every toxic product in question here, but it still bothers me to think that even one child has suffered because of what WE have allowed to happen elsewhere. I am angry it happened to "us," but I'm also angry it has happened to others as well. I believe that needs to stop as well.
In discussing it with my husband, he shared with me an article he read in National Geographic about where all of our electronic waste goes. I wanted to read it. I found it easily enough on a search of my own. Click the link and be sure to click the other links within this article, such as the Photo Gallery link.
While I don't buy the latest cell phone models, printers, monitors, etc. because I am the woman who should be embarrassed of her outdated equipment that she begrudgingly finally had to buy for business. I have bought 1 new of each when the other failed. I tried to find out how to properly dispose of these items. I decided to allow my toddler to use the old cell as a toy. I still have the old printer; I just need to find someone to fix it so that I can pass it down to my kids. The 4 giant monitors I had, however, was another story.
Those monitors and 2 CPUs had been sitting in my storage room for years. I thought I might be able to use them as servers someday...a technology I'm not all that in the know about. One computer was in my ownership alone for 15 years and was one that I had received free when a business I worked for shut down. I had worked with that computer for 3 years prior to it becoming my own personal computer. It had also suffered a motherboard failure at the hand of lightning and I paid $1000 to get a new one installed (that's how much that cost way back then). It started out as a Compaq 486 but turned into something else entirely with new disc drives, 3.5", etc. throughout its lifetime. The monitor went on it and my brother-in-law gave me one of his, but even larger...so large I could barely pick it up. When I needed access to speedy internet access, my cousin gave me his brother's old computer (he had passed away), and the monitor that came with it; this one was in my possession for about 7 years and was about 10 years old. I can't even tell you where the 4th monitor came from. I remember one starting to blink, so someone had to have given it to me.
Now we fast-forward to where my home business is now successful and requires more--I order a new computer with 2 monitors with a dual-monitor function to help my production and I now needed something to accommodate CDs and all of the new equipment I need that requires more from my computer, as well as the serial ports versus the USB ports. lol. I now needed fancy sound cards, etc. Then I needed to be mobile so I needed a laptop so I could take a vacation and still work, as I don't get any days off. I've had the desktop for 8 years now and the laptop now for 7.
Last year it was time to get the old equipment out of the storage room, "clean house" so to speak. I contacted my garbage service, as I had heard it was illegal to dispose of computer monitors in the trash. They told me that they weren't supposed to pick them up, but that if I put them in the trash, they would take them. I asked them what they did with them, and they told me that they put them in the landfill. In amazement, I shared that I was told that was what we should be trying NOT to do. Some conversation followed with a giggle--what else can you do? She said "You'd be amazed at what we take that we aren't supposed to." I called my City to see if they had a hazardous material pickup date for these things - they didn't know anything. I called computer repair shops too. I can't remember who else I called that day, but many, many sources. I was somehow referred to a charitable organization. Success! They said they DO take used monitors. I dropped a "Well, at least someone else can actually use them." comment out of relief my search had finally ended, but he replied with "Oh no, we don't actually resell them or donate them, we give them to XXXX. I think they have a recycling program or something." Oh brother. I opted for saving them until our Spring Cleanup Day where people drive around and pick through the items on the curb and find treasure in another woman's trash. I kept the cords in the house and put a sign up indicating they should ring the bell for the cords, as some people cut cords off of the items you put out there. Someone took one of the CPUs that I had removed the hard drive from, but that was it. I finally took the remainder to the place accepting donated monitors. I figured I did my best.
Finding and reading this article in the midst of trying to keep us with what CPSIA really means.....it suddenly hits me.....Do We Reap What We Sow? It implies that at least some of the lead in items from overseas is from our electronic waste that made it back to us in the form of products -- could it have been a material from one of MY monitors poisoning a child in ANY country? I pray that it was not.
It makes me wonder whether it is the country as a whole that reaps what it sows....afterall, they just keep buying newer and better models for items there is really nothing wrong with, no? They allowed this practice of dumping toxic electronics in other countries, no? At least some manufacturers believe it is better to build products planning them to expire and to be irrelevant more quickly so we "need" to replace them sooner. What is the price of convenience? Was it not convenient enough the model prior? Are we, even those who believe the CPSIA law is nothing but a good thing, actually hypocrites? Is it okay to destroy other countries and entire villages, their residents, their children--just not our own?
This actually makes me relieved to know that those very children and adults who are literally killing themselves stripping the barely valuable components to fetch a dollar to feed themselves and their families probably don't have a TV or exposure to the hypocrisy of what we are worrying about right now.
I absolutely hate it when this usually proud American feels like an ashamed American. We've apparently been shipping toxic products by the tens of millions a year to other countries and now we're all upset about it being done to us when some of those products complete a cycle we've actually started - it started with us and is ending with us, and now we're mad about it? I'll keep fighting the battle to stop unnecessary and redundant testing, although now with a little voice in the back of my head.
I know this doesn't apply to every toxic product in question here, but it still bothers me to think that even one child has suffered because of what WE have allowed to happen elsewhere. I am angry it happened to "us," but I'm also angry it has happened to others as well. I believe that needs to stop as well.
Jan 10, 2009
Things that make me go "hmmmm"
I have many head-scratching moments that cause me to bite my tongue many times a day it seems.
Tonight, our whole family went out to eat at the new restaurant in town that has been too busy for us to put up with waiting for hours to be served. Really good snow day today meant it would probably be available. Before we left I asked my husband if he had any cash on him for tipping the waitstaff. He said "No, but we can just add it on that little line for the tip portion of the receipt." The thought entered my mind that they might not do that, but I didn't say anything. So we order, eat, and pay, and sure 'nuf - no line for tipping and no cash.
I asked the girl for her name so I could come back and give her a tip. I passed the bank, which is only about 1/8 of a mile away from this restaurant, if that, and was gearing up for a turnaround to hit the ATM machine. Hubbie announced there was no need, to just go home and get the cash. So, again, I think "Okay, it's further, but why take out money if we already have some on hand?" ya know? So I drive the 2 miles back home and as we pull in the driveway, I say, "Make sure you give me a $X and a $X. (we bought desert bringing another waitress to us that needed a tip). He then answers "I think all I have are 20's."
Hmmmmm.....the bank only lets me take out 20's from the ATM....You had me drive 6 extra miles and an extra 30 minutes for a 20 from home?" @@ (2 miles home to get it, 2 miles back to deliver it, and 2 miles back home again). Sheesh. It was a nice opportunity to turn the tunes up loudly all alone though I guess.
Tonight, our whole family went out to eat at the new restaurant in town that has been too busy for us to put up with waiting for hours to be served. Really good snow day today meant it would probably be available. Before we left I asked my husband if he had any cash on him for tipping the waitstaff. He said "No, but we can just add it on that little line for the tip portion of the receipt." The thought entered my mind that they might not do that, but I didn't say anything. So we order, eat, and pay, and sure 'nuf - no line for tipping and no cash.
I asked the girl for her name so I could come back and give her a tip. I passed the bank, which is only about 1/8 of a mile away from this restaurant, if that, and was gearing up for a turnaround to hit the ATM machine. Hubbie announced there was no need, to just go home and get the cash. So, again, I think "Okay, it's further, but why take out money if we already have some on hand?" ya know? So I drive the 2 miles back home and as we pull in the driveway, I say, "Make sure you give me a $X and a $X. (we bought desert bringing another waitress to us that needed a tip). He then answers "I think all I have are 20's."
Hmmmmm.....the bank only lets me take out 20's from the ATM....You had me drive 6 extra miles and an extra 30 minutes for a 20 from home?" @@ (2 miles home to get it, 2 miles back to deliver it, and 2 miles back home again). Sheesh. It was a nice opportunity to turn the tunes up loudly all alone though I guess.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
