No time like the present.

I've started the transition to a different blog location, but am keeping this one up as an archive.


Come read about what my cat did.

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Just Who Has Been Reading This Blog?!

Mashable.com, via Google Reader, informs me of a new service being launched by Pitney Bowes, the postage-meter pioneer.


Described as "a free digital mailbox in 2011 that will allow customers to pay multiple bills online without remembering more than one password," it sounds like a winner.


But the name they came up for it?
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Why this was a good day

There's been stress from multiple directions throughout the last few months -- the usual challenges, as well as a sense of things unfinished, unaccomplished, and stalled.

Overtime (more on that later) is basically what keeps me afloat financially.  Some afternoons I simply cannot stand to be in the office one minute beyond clockout, but other times it's refreshingly peaceful to have the place to myself for a couple of hours, with the quiet necessary to think and finish tasks.

Wednesdays, I never work overtime.  This is mainly because the cleaning crew comes in and I just prefer to leave them to their business without making them feel like they have to chat with me.  I'd rather they didn't anyway -- I don't need any new friends -- so to make life easier all around, I just go.

Due to this early arrival home on Wednesdays, I've scheduled this as the one day when The Phone Folks can reach me.
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A Happy New Year Wish

and word of appreciation to all my loyal Blogger friends who keep their Thinking Caps on Amid Life's Crises, even when Negativity is the Norm and you feel like a Bad-Tempered Zombie.

Raise your glass of Alpen Wasser!  Have A Taste of Ipecac if you're Pleading For Sanity!  Never turn off those Deep Thoughts or cease your Internal Monologue.  Whether you're a Clergy Guy or just an Everyday Unitarian, I hope the New Year finds you No Longer Quivering and free from Katastrophe.

May all the truly Stupid Evil Bastards in your life Swerve and Vanish -- let them be Forever in Hell, while the rest of us are just Laughing in Purgatory.  No matter how many Post-it Notes From Hades they try to stick on us, despite their Ramblings, we'll just say "Down With Tyranny!"

Let Me Be Frank:  It's All One Thing.

So, my fellow scribes and constant readers,

Namaste, For Today.

...and if you're not included here, my feeble brain just couldn't figure out where to work you in.  I appreciate you just as much!  :) Click Here to Read More..

PayPal, Part 3

This morning (why is it always first thing in the morning, before my first infusion of French Roast courage?!), I had an email from PayPal, saying my account had been "limited," and that I needed to change my password and security questions.

Well, okay.  I figured this had followed from the previous week's misadventures in electronic funds transfer.  During that crisis, I had changed my security settings with no prompting from the company.  They, in fact, seemed rather surprised that I had done this on my own, without them having to tell me to do it (or how to do it).

But it had been roughly a week, and since they were coming back to me with this little heads-up, I decided to cooperate and change the password and questions again.  Having recently learned some valuable techniques for creating really hard-to-crack passwords, I figured this would be sort of fun.
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A Lifelong Bad Habit Blown Away By One Good Sneeze

An update on the unpleasant but extremely well-timed sinus infection.

It's mostly fine; I'll be back at work tomorrow (almost looking forward to it -- oh, what the hell, it's a 3-day week, what's not to look forward to!).  The weekend's been sublimely dull & boring; sleep caught up on, one good home-cooked meal successfully executed, assorted filing accomplished, cat spoiled extra-rotten, etc. etc.

I have this one habit that goes all the way back to childhood and I have no idea where it originated.  When I sneeze, I shut my mouth and pinch both nostrils closed. 

Yeah, I know.  Various well-meaning souls (Mom, Dad, both husbands, co-workers and complete strangers) have told me what a terrible habit this is.  "You'll kill yourself!" "You'll give yourself a hemorrhage!"  "You'll blow your brains out!" "You'll go deaf!"  "Your head will explode!"

Well, as should be quite obvious, not one of these predictions has come true.

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(Almost) Robbed: Epilogue, Etc.

Well, the money is back home safe.  PayPal said it might take until the 29th to get it back into the bank, but after all the hoopla, they were probably watching as closely as I, because the transfer has already been completed.  I'd still like to know where this thing originated, though, and certainly hope it wasn't just some silly little glitch on their part.

It's the first day of a 4-day weekend, and I'm quite grateful to have it.  We had our typically laid-back obligatory group luncheon at work yesterday, and approximately two hours before it started, as I was doing my best to get done with anything I didn't want biting me next Tuesday, I noticed some discomfort at the corner of my left eye, near the bridge of the nose.  It felt enough like conjunctivitis for me to be worried, but other than the pain, my eye looked fine.  However, after lunch it got worse in a hurry; I practically ran out the door an hour before the usual clock-out time.  Got some sublime Chinese take-out (several employees brought spouses & kids along for the dinner, which meant virtually no leftovers to bring home).  After dinner, I felt even worse, like the whole left side of my face was puffed up.

"Does my face look weird?" I asked Carl.  That's the sort of question that generally makes him spew a drink all over himself, and it did.  He assured me I was my usual perfectly beautiful self (after the choking subsided).    I went to bed around 7, but woke up several times just moaning.  Blowing the nose didn't help a whole lot.  The only thing that helped was the reassuring presence of my kitty, who peered into my face and trilled at me every time I made a sound.  The pain was, and still is, excruciating.

So as of this morning I have a diagnosis of "acute sinus infection," a prescription for amoxicillin, some OTC suda non-Fed, saline nasal spray, extra Kleenex, and time to wait this sucker out.  Just hoping my face is back to normal by Sunday, since I've got somewhere to be.  Even Carl couldn't lie to me this morning: My face looks like Quasimodo's back.

Cheers, happy  holidays to all!

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I Wuz (Almost) Robbed! Part 1

I slept late Saturday -- after 8 a.m.  Got up, fired up the old PC and started reading my email.

First thing that caught my eye was from PayPal.  "Your transaction is in process," it said.

What transaction?

I've been using PayPal for 7 or 8 years, ever since I first bought something on Ebay.  Lately my participation has been pretty scant, but PayPal is still handy for relatively hassle-free money transfer and charitable donations.  I've heard all sorts of horror stories about it, but have never had the least trouble with it.

Up until Saturday.

First of all, PayPal makes a huge deal about email.  Understandably so, I suppose.  But once you're clued in to the difference between a scam and the legitimate thing, it's fairly easy to tell them apart.  A couple of read-throughs just to be sure, and the next thing, I had logged onto my PayPal account.  Sure enough, there's a transaction "in process," whereby $20 or so is being transferred from my linked bank account into PayPal, with an estimated date of completion around the 22nd.

The problem is, I never authorized any such transaction.  And oh yes, I spent a fair amount of time thinking very carefully, just to make sure something hadn't slipped my increasingly slippery mind.

I will often wait until I amass a respectable sum in my PayPal account and then transfer it into the bank.  Or I will tell PayPal how much I want to send to someone, and they will draw the money from the bank and then send it on.  But I will never simply ask PayPal to transfer money out of my bank into PayPal for no particular reason.  So the "particular reason" became the urgent matter of the moment, with the deeper question, of course, being WHO set this up?   No one on this planet has authorized access to my PayPal account except me.  Not my husband, not my son, not my cat, and not my BFF.

So now that I was 100% up and my pulse was racing (while the coffee hadn't even finished brewing yet), I was on the phone, urgently trying to get hold of PayPal to find out WTF was going on.
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Two ?Radical Views on Education

Last week I encountered two interesting stories on education.

The first, from the New York Times, talks about a middle school in Minnesota that makes what seems to be a radical leap in policy.  They will evaluate students' academic achievements on the objective results of their tests.  In the process, the whole spectrum of what we call "school" for students is parsed out -- what they've learned, with their behavior and performance in an entirely different category.

Maybe you're thinking "Duh -- how obvious."  That's a natural initial reaction, I think.  It was mine, until I continued reading, and then that ol' lightbulb came on.

What is school about?  I remember my "brilliant" educational career.  Ask nearly any of my high school teachers what they thought of me, and with very few exceptions, they'd give me glowing reviews.  Why?  Because I knew how to, quoting this article, "do" school.

In any situation where my objective knowledge of a subject had to exceed my ability to "do school," I was in trouble.  I could usually find another student somewhere next to whom I looked better, either in terms of performance or personality, and this is what I comforted myself with.  I wasn't a total loser, wasn't at the bottom of the class.  But from this lofty place of middle-aged wisdom where I now stand, it's finally hit me straight on that my good grades did not come from academic achievement.  They came from knowing how to do school.  This is interesting, because I clearly remember how academic grades were shown separately from the "life skills" items (making good use of time, effort, following instructions, conduct, etc.).  But I know that in many cases, the higher grades came from having a good rapport with the teacher.

If the American educational system as a whole adopts these new standards, which separate actual learning from "acceptable behavior," then this is going to be great news for the kids who feel like square pegs -- who don't fit into an accepted social group, or who don't feel like schmoozing with Teach, or who dress funny or have bad attitudes, but who DO grasp the subject matter and can hold their own on tests.  It may also be a wakeup call for the students who are getting by on personality -- and even more so, for their parents.

The other story came from NPR, which had an update on the story of Central Falls High School in Rhode Island, where the teachers were nearly fired en masse, but then got to keep their jobs.  Now morale is low.  Some of the teachers who fought hardest against the firing spoke to the reporter about all they had done for the students - coming in early, staying late, buying glasses, paying rent, buying food.  They are resentful that these efforts don't count with the higher-ups who are pushing for educational reform.
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This week's USA TODAY news quiz (12/11/10)

No braggin' rights for me this time around.  Only got 5 out of 10.
:(
...but at least I know how to find an exit ramp...


Here's the quiz. Click Here to Read More..

Dumbth

Steve Allen's book Dumbth devotes a lot of time to hours* he's wasted in conversation via telephone with people who just don't get it and never will.

I had such a conversation today.

Our office is participating in a program whereby employees are screened for common health conditions that can potentially raise insurance rates.  I am not here to go into the pros and cons of this plan -- I've heard enough grumbling from co-workers on the subject to last a lifetime.

Unfortunately, I'm in the position of coordinating this project, which will take place in late January.  Yesterday I retrieved a phone message from a young lady whose speech was full of hiccups and "up-talk" -- you know, when every statement is phrased as a question.  "My name is Jennifer Smith?  I'm calling to set up your screening?"
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This week's USA TODAY news quiz

http://www.usatoday.com/news/news-quiz.htm

I got 9 out of 10.

This is a good one.  Some news quizzes are lame, emphasizing numbers and statistics, such as "So N. So got drafted by the Yankees this week -- how much was his contract for?"

Who gives a flip?

Give me good ol' history/geography type questions -- who/what/when/where.

Maybe my addiction to NPR is starting to do me some good. Click Here to Read More..

Milestones, or, Where the Gray Hair Comes From

It occurred to me a day or two ago that the last 20 years (soon to be 21) have been the toughest in my life!  First Mom died, right after the first of January 1990.  Then my marriage to Doug began to unravel (the unraveling took 5 years, but looking back, the signposts are very clear).  Then Dad died.  Then 2 years after that, we both gave up our jobs to start a business that fell flat on its ass.  Then the divorce.  Chicken pox, a car wreck.  Single parenthood.  Two ID thefts in 5 years.  Conflicts with Doug. 

My relationship with Carl was overall pretty positive, except for the fact that he turned out to be a lemon in the stepfather department.  So from there, I had to contend with trying to keep Wally, Carl and Doug happy.  Throw into the mix my own bumbling management of my life, and the sudden recognition of my own chronic cluelessness just before turning 40.  Depression.  More dumb decisions.  Lousy work habits that came back to bite me.  Moving, first to NY, then back to Atlanta.  Now here.  True, my inner life has changed very much for the better since moving here, but financially it's been a very tough uphill battle.  The year and a half that Wally spent with us certainly didn't help that.  My own "perfect" health also began to fail. 

So it's been tough.  But the best thing, I think, is finally being able to SEE that it's been tough.  Finding a pattern and consciously deciding what to do about it.  I can now focus on breaking this "jinx."  20 years ago I would have assumed that this would happen "if God willed it."  I'm truly grateful to now have as my motto, "If it is to be, it is up to me."

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You Have (Probably) Not Been "Unfollowed." Just Moved.

If you keep assiduous track of who's following you, your count has probably dropped and I am among the missing.  This does not mean I'm not interested in your blog.  Quite the contrary.  I have simply moved about 100 blogs previously being "followed" onto my blog list to the right, so that anyone checking out this site will be more easily aware of yours, too.  My categories are: Atheist, Feminist, Political, Spiritual/Philosophy, Neurodiversity, and just general Favorites.

If you think your blog belongs in a category other than where it is now, let me know and I'll move you.

If you haven't posted in months & months, I've left you where you were for the time being.

Happy reading / writing. Click Here to Read More..

Oldies But Goodies

I was hunting through an old journal (10 years) looking for something, and realized that some of the entries are hysterical.  Here are a few excerpts:

December 31, 1999

Evening

          Obviously, a special night: the last night of the 1990s.  Also, according to most normal folks, it’s the last night of the decade, the century and the millennium.  Some extremely anal-retentive, technical people will insist to the last breath that the new decade/century/millennium doesn’t really start for another year.  But we normal people are ignoring them.  Judging from what they’re showing on TV, there are millions upon millions of normal people, and many of them are celebrating in crowded public areas. 

          I’m currently at the office, having volunteered to do “Y2K watch.”   The concern over massive computer glitches kind of mutated into concern over mass anarchy, terrorism, Armageddon, etc. etc.  Some people are behaving the way they did in the ’50s and ’60s, building bomb shelters and stocking up on staple supplies like water and canned goods. 

          Carl’s niece Terry just had a baby.  One of her mother’s co-workers “warned” his sister that if Terry’s baby wasn’t born before midnight on 12/31, “God will just take it back and it will dissolve back into nothing inside her.”  These are people who actually run around loose and operate machinery!!

Thursday, January 06, 2000

          Afternoon

          Things are looking up just the slightest bit.  Yesterday I got my pay stub and saw that it was $2 more than what I usually get.  First reaction:  “They made a mistake.”  Next reaction, “Oh, it’s more.”  Third reaction: “Oh, no, this is the new pay rate, my raise, and this is all I get??”

            I picked up Carl at work, and told him the good news/bad news.  Then awhile later, I showed him the pay stub.  He went over it, item by item, and asked me about my UNICEF donation of $25.  “Damn, baby, you send them $25 a month?”  I told him, no, it was just a one-time donation and……

          Then I realized that yes, it’s just a one-time donation, and it’s just for this pay period!  Which means my next check will be $25 more, $27 more than what I was getting in 1999, and $54 more per month.  Not a fortune, but not bad, either. 

           Wally went to school this morning in 30-degree weather, in shorts, multiple layers on top, and no hat.  I yelled at him and slammed doors and windows, waking Carl.  Then after Wally left the house, I went into his room and took all his shorts away.  He won’t be allowed to wear shorts unless the high temperature for the day is going to be at least 70 degrees, and it has to be at least 45 degrees in the morning when he leaves.  Enough is enough.  He stalls and delays as long as he can, so he knows I’ll be in a hurry to rush him out the door, and uses that tactic to wear clothes that I object to.  Jeez-Louise, we’ve been having this type of war since he was three!  I remember writing a journal entry where we argued about shorts (and woke up Doug…), back in 1994.  The little booger!

Friday, January 07, 2000

          A high-gear, frustrating sort of day.  The most recent example:  I was on the phone, dialing Brother Fax Machines, because our particular machine is malfunctioning.  I’ve been meaning to do this for days, but was delayed by other things.  The preparations for such a call include: making sure you’ve recently changed the toner, because they’ll accuse you of not doing that; getting the model & serial number written down; finding the sales receipt and warranty info; finding the correct, updated number to call; being ready to stay on hold interminably.  Well, I finally got all that in order, made the call, and wouldn’t you know it, some guy from HR calls with a request for some numbers, which I had.  I hung up from Brother, gave Mr. HR the information, and when I went to call Brother back, I got a busy signal, because their queues are full.  Shit.  It’s just that kind of day.  People are missing their paychecks, etc.

          

Later:  Der fax ist fixt.  The technician told me to put it on the table and whack it.  

Tuesday, March 07, 2000

          We just learned that Wally is:

§         Buying breakfast every day at school (even though I usually give him a pop tart or something for the bus)

§         Buying a full cafeteria lunch

§         Also buying ice cream

§         Eating the lunch I pack him (which includes lots of snacks because he says he’s “starving.”

§         Not bringing home the payment details from the cafeteria, so I now owe nearly $17 in back charges for my little eating machine, who swears up and down that he never eats the cafeteria lunch because he hates it.  The lunch lady read me an itemized list of everything he’s eaten lately:  corn dogs, hot dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets, chicken biscuits, sausage biscuits, cereal, waffles & french toast.  To quote her directly, "Honey, that child eats EVERYTHING."

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Can We Help the ACLU?

I'm usually able to ignore the right-wing fundies who work for the same employer as me, but sometimes there's no dodging the whackadoodle emails that people insist on passing around.

Here's the one I got today.  In the immortal words of Dave Barry, I am NOT making this up:

Christmas cards VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!
  Pass this on to your church, coworkers, family, and friends.  What do you have to lose but 44 cents, what do you have to gain ----------- more than you will ever know? 

What a clever idea!

Yes, Christmas cards. This is coming early so that you can get ready to include an important address to your list.

Want to have some fun this CHRISTMAS? Send the ACLU a CHRISTMAS CARD this year.  

As they are working so very hard to get rid of the CHRISTMAS part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice, card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world.  Make sure it says "Merry Christmas" on it.

Here's the address, just don't be rude or crude:

---

---

---

[Volly is leaving this out so as not to supply ammo to the wrong reader, TYVM]

Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations because they wouldn't know if any were regular mail containing contributions. So spend 44 cents and tell the ACLU to leave Christmas alone. Also tell them that there is no such thing as a

"Holiday Tree."  It's always been called a CHRISTMAS TREE!

And pass this on to your email lists. We really want to communicate with the ACLU! They really DESERVE us!

For those of you who aren't aware of them, the ACLU, (the American Civil Liberties Union) is the one suing the US Government to take God, Christmas or anything religious away from us. They represent the atheists and others in this war. Help put Christ back in Christmas!

[end of whackadoodle email]

So...is there a way to help the ACLU, in case too many people take this crap seriously and send them "Christmas" cards in the hope of tying up their operations while they open the envelopes looking for donations?  

We need some creative ideas.  

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Always a Happy Ending

We need a little Christmas.  Right this very minute.  We need a little Christmas, now.

Here it is, November 7th, and although the stores have all their decorations up, the music barrage hasn't started yet, and best of all, the usual debates about the "war on Christmas" or lack thereof have yet to begin.

And it won't start here, either.


I'm just here to say that I'm looking forward to the all-too-familiar music, a sprinkling of snow, and the expectant atmosphere that accompanies December.  The anticipation has much to do with the end of the year.


In my journal, I provide a summing-up spot for each week (which for me ends on Fridays), and each month.  Around the 25th of every month, like clockwork, I jot something like "Ah, the end of the month approaches once again, and as always, I'm glad."  For most of my life, New Year's Day has been my favorite holiday.


Why am I always so glad to move on, turn the page, and bid farewell to the past?  I haven't yet gotten to the point where I look ahead to the future and see nothing but failure, but the feeling of defeat does tend to hit about halfway through the week, month, and year.  All of that is due to age and circumstance, and possibly brain chemistry as well.  I'm gradually turning into a pessimist.  One of those people who walk around sighing "What's the use?"  I get tired at the midpoint, thinking "Yeah, yeah, whatever, same-old, same-old, let's see if the new [day/week/month/year] brings any good surprises."  I don't know what it is I'm expecting, since it's finally gotten through to me that "good stuff" won't just come along and jump into my lap.  "If it is to be, it is up to me," as the saying goes.  But if I'm the engine that drives my life, I'm no longer saying "I think I can, I think I can."  Those hills are looking steeper and steeper as time goes by.


A lot of people I know looked forward to the beginning of this year with particular relish -- the last decade has sucked so very spectacularly.  The church I attend had a ceremony in which we wrote down regrets and resolutions.  The regrets were consigned to a burn-barrel out behind the church.  


There's no question that things "felt" better this year -- we all encouraged one another and the renewed vigor got most of us through the little dips and dings.


A lot of groundwork was laid this year and there's still a lot more energy and determination in the air than there was last fall.  The moments of soaring optimism tend to come in spurts nowadays.  I watch for them with the hope of a child scanning the skies for a shooting star. Click Here to Read More..

A Quick Ten Plus 3

Casting about for something worthwhile to write about, I discovered that I had not yet graced the world with a list of my ten favorite movies.  IMDB's Top 250 was a good memory-jogger, since the last few listed have been faves for a long time...I just forgot about 'em.

They are not in any particular order or rank beyond the first two.

• Love, Actually  
• Why is it on this list?  My son turned me on to this one.  It has an ensemble cast (Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Professors Snape and Trelawney, and one well-known American who wasn't allowed to bring his Sling Blade on the plane, hint hint), catchy tunes, ridiculously funny scenes, plenty of "Aw" moments, and situations everyone can relate to, at least half the time.  A very good first-date movie for the open-minded.
• You Gotta Be Kidding Me factor:  Well, I know a couple of people who didn't appreciate this movie.  First, my husband, who doesn't like Hugh Grant.  Second, my cousin, who said it took her half the movie to figure out what was going on.  Though she said she liked it more by the time it ended, she didn't request a replay, so I take that as a "meh."  There's simulated sex (one of the couples meets while working as body-double in a movie that features nudity and simulated sex), so I would definitely caution you -- it's sweet and Christmasy, but absolutely NOT a family flick

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Get this book! Get some REAL inspiration!

Seriously,  Mitch Albom doesn't know doodly-squat about inspirational writing.  The late Mr. Buchwald did.  Afflicted with type 2 diabetes, he experienced loss of kidney function just after his 80th birthday.  This was followed by a medically necessary amputation of his lower leg.  But in order for the surgery to be performed, he had to go on dialysis, something he'd been resisting.  After 12 treatments, he said "Enough," and was accepted into a hospice facility.  No one expected him to survive beyond a month or so, with no kidney function.

Well, guess what? He was released from hospice care after 4 months, because he did not meet the criteria for a "deteriorating" medical condition.  In fact, his kidney started working again, all by itself. 

But while he was in hospice, Mr. Buchwald entertained a large array of prominent people from politics and media, and began collecting all the eulogies that had been prepared in his honor.  They appear in this awesome, wonderful book.

No spoilers here, other than to give away the fact that he did, indeed, pass away eventually.  How eventually can be learned on Wikipedia.  But you can't gain the full measure of his lovely heart and soul from a reference website.  Please read this book.

Naturally, I'll benefit if you click the handy link and order it via Amazon, but please get it any which way you can ... and celebrate. Click Here to Read More..

Just keeping up the old post count...

...or something...

Still have that persistent feeling that nothing I write here is of significance or importance to annnnybody, but it's also interesting that my most mundane posts frequently attract the most comments, while the rare flashes of political and social insight are less likely to draw comments.  Who knows?  Just one of those mysteries.

But because I get tired of seeing the old subject header every time this page is opened, here's a random update.  My source is none other than the personal diary I keep offline as a Word document.

So here it is.  You asked for it.  Well, actually, no you didn't.  But here it is anyway:
~

9/1:  FG has friended me on Facebook.  He was, I guess, the first boy I ever kissed – in 9^th grade on a music department trip to Washington DC.  I just wanted to try it out, a what-the-hell kind of thing.  Naturally he turned out to be one of the nerdiest kids in the whole school and thought we'd end up getting married or something.  He kept following me around.  I never had the slightest interest in him.  Fortunately, he got married ASAP, to some girl, less than 2 years out of high school.  But – the first thing he said to me on Facebook was how vividly he remembered the kiss.  Mama mia.  No one's gonna tell me my lips are, or ever were, that special!!

9/4:

Very roller-coastery mood type of day!  I had the alarm set for 8am, but woke up at 6:02 and all I could think of was the neighborhood's executive committee meeting and how I hadn't 1. typed the minutes from last month's meeting; 2. typed an agenda for the president or 3. typed the minutes from the August general residents' meeting that Dorothy R. had recorded when I couldn’t make the meeting on Aug. 12^th. [anxiety]

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