Monday, March 23, 2009
Shit-Fit of a Lifetime
They just don't recover from water. I managed to get a new one without paying $450 bucks, so I'm ok now, but I pretty much wanted to die. I cannot be without a Crackberry. I just CAN'T. I think I would have sold a kidney to get another one. Seriously. I don't have many pleasures in life, but the Crackberry keeps me going. LOL.
Hey, I've lost some of my fans. Come back! I miss you! Why did you go? Has my blog started to suck? Did it always suck? Did I piss you off? Did I scare you? What will it take for you to come back? I'm crying. Where art thou?
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Issues and Alien Raiders
I am going to watch "Alien Raiders" now with Carlos Bernard. YUMMY! (Tony from 24 for those of you living under a rock.) It just came out. I hope it is decent, the previews looked good. Then I'm going to watch "Bolt", the cute Pixar dog movie.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Chicken noodle soup cures all.
I was doing better, then last night sucked. I coughed ALL night resulting in no sleep and a raw throat. I'm at work now guzzling soup and tea. I'm having other issues, but I think you have heard enough for now.
Plans for the weekend include sleep, movies, sleep, cough syrup. My boss said I looked stoned yesterday. LOL. Such a great thing to hear from your new boss. Things are going ok, I just don't want to work anymore, and I get cranky about it sometimes. Well, I should say that I want to work on MY terms, not retire completely. My terms this week would have been sleep.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Somebody kill me.
There is absolutely nothing of interest to blog about.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Serious Cough Syrup
Monday, March 16, 2009
I am not a good sick person.
Bronchitis
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Semiahmoo
Friday, March 13, 2009
Crisis Averted
It is also fun dealing with IBS on an hour and a half commute. UG.
TMI? Get over it. :)
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Excuses
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
I enjoyed this article. You may or may not.
OK, NOW the Sky is Falling.
In September of last year when Lehman Brothers filed for what was then the biggest bankruptcy in the United States, the Dow dropped a whopping 504 points.
On that same day in September, Senator John McCain lost the 2008 Election with these words: "The fundamentals of our economy are strong."
One can argue all day about how the Republicans are responsible and how Obama inherited a bad economy, but the facts are neither Republican or Democrat.
When Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid announced in 2006 that they were going to fix the "Bush economy" the "Bush economy" had enjoyed more than 55 months of steady growth.
When the new Congress was seated, the Dow was celebrating the recovery of all its losses since 9/11, closing above 11,000 for the first time since. This isn't partisan stuff, this is history.
In January, 2006, George Bush was a lame-duck president presiding over a Congress dominated by the other party. It was after Pelosi/Reid seized the majority and started fixing the Bush economy that it began to roll over, not before.
It doesn't matter what political party one belongs to, the history is still the same.
If there was a first domino that set all the rest of them in motion, it was pushed over after control of the Congress was handed to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
Assessment:
The Democrats began running for president long before they had a candidate, and they said from the beginning that their strategy was to focus on the 'Bush' economy -- which, as noted, was up to that time in pretty good shape.
Here's the thing to understand about the US economy. It isn't a 'thing'. It isn't a person. It is you and me. It rises or falls depending on how much confidence we have in it.
If I don't think my money is going to be safe if I leave it in the stock market, then logically, I am going to take it out and put it somewhere less risky.
So if somebody I admire and trust (like my Congressional leaders) tell me that the market is about to tank, and someone I've grown to despise and distrust (Evil Bush) says the market is safe, I have two reasons to pull my money out.
Multiply me times all the Evil Bush-haters that both feared for their wealth and enjoyed making Bush look bad who pulled out of the market and you have the beginnings of a recession.
After awhile, even those less enamored of Pelosi/Reid and less distrustful of Evil Bush are going to worry about their 401ks and rethink their exposure on the stock market. Which makes the numbers shakier and a recession more likely.
The Left campaigns mainly on handouts to the poor and taxes on the 'rich'. Let's define 'rich' and 'poor' as is applied in political theory.
'Rich' means white, middle-aged working professional couples, with no kids still at home.
(To the taxman, grandparents backed by a lifetime of investments and purchases are 'rich', even if they earn no more than a working couple just starting out.)
By our mid-50's we're as professional as we're gonna get, and we're making about as much as we can ever hope to, which we are trying our best to make stretch into our retirement.
'Poor' means single-parent families on food stamps, young parents still learning their skills earning entry-level salaries, and two-parent unskilled working couples with children.
There are more poor people who want handouts than there are 'rich' who want to fund them, the more the Left can demonize the 'rich' the more votes they can get from the poor.
That is not partisan politics. It is accepted political theory as was applied in recent political history.
When the 'rich' realized that the next likely president was going to be an ardent socialist, the 'rich' started yanking their retirement funds out of the stock market and steering them into what they hoped were safer investment vehicles.
All through the presidential campaign season, the market unravelled as nervous investors pulled out enough money to expose the crooks in the system. In August, Barack Hussein Obama secured the nomination for president.
In September, the unemployment rate jumped to its highest level in 5 years. As Obama began to outline his economic plans, more and more investors fled the market. By mid-October, it was going into free-fall.
On the day Obama was elected, the market had fallen from its peak of 11,000 when the Dems took over Congress to just over 9,000. By Inauguration Day, it had fallen to 8,000.
It has fallen by 1,400 points per week for every week Obama has been in office. If it continues to fall at the current rate it will be at zero before the end of April.
What is curious about this is the fact that Obama continues to talk down the economy, knowing the effect his words are having. If the President STILL says your retirement money isn't safe in the market, what do you do? And what effect does that have on the market?
So, WHY is he still slamming the economy?
Obama, or his advisors, know the history of American recessions and how Americans get out of them. Or deeper into them. Higher taxes and increased government spending have the same effect on a national economy as compensating for a pay cut by spending more on your credit cards.
What is the end game? Rahm Emmanuel explained it over the weekend on TV. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before."
Especially a crisis that was more than two years in the making. It's already paid off, big time, so why rein things in now?
Things are just starting to go their way.
Weirdness
I woke up this morning with this "Yes" song in my head, "Shoot High, Aim Low". I downloaded it a few years ago but haven't really listened to it since college. I have no idea what brought it into my head, I don't recall thinking about it, but maybe some memory was sparked. It is a good song, but an obscure one that you don't hear often; not in stores or on TV or anything. I woke up singing it and I knew the lyrics, which is bizarre because not only do I never remember lyrics even to my favorite songs, but I also never knew the lyrics to this one at all. BIZARRE. So, I burned my copy to CD and listened to it in the car on my commute in. The lyrics are weird.
We hit the blue fieldsIn the blue sedan we didn't get much further
Just as the sun was rising in the mist
We were all alone we didn't need much more
So fast this expedition
So vast this heavy load
With a touch of luck and a sense of need
Seeing the guns and their faces
We look around the open shore
Waiting for something
Shoot high break low
Aim high shoot low
Break high let go
Shoot high aim low
This was to be our last ride
With the steel guitar and the love you give me
Underneath the skin a feeling, a breakdown
Well we sat for hours on the crimson sand
Exchanges in the currency of humans bought and sold
And the leaders seem to lose control
Shall we lose ourselves for a reason
Shall we burn ourselves for the answer
Have we found the place that we're looking for
Someone shouted "open the door"
Lookout
Shoot high break low
Aim high shoot low
Feeling of imagination
Break high let go
Shoot high aim low
Shoot high aim low
Nothing you can say
Shoot high let go
Takes me by surprise
Shoot high aim low
Who says's there's got to be a reason
Shoot high let go
Who says there's got to be an answer
We were all alone, we didn't need much more
Shoot high aim low
The sun's so hard on this endless highway
Shoot high let go
Shoot high aim low
I've heard the singers, who sing of love
Shoot high let go
In the blue sedan we never got much further
Shoot high aim low
Monday, March 09, 2009
America is collapsing, my friends.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
What is the point?
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Feast 3
Friday, March 06, 2009
Not so deep.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Applebee's
I wanted to stick sharp things into my eyeballs at work today, but I am getting the hang of things.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Walk from the parking garage.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
New Job Loneliness
I'm still feeling out of place, but that will just take time, I guess. You know how you feel when you are missing someone? That is the best way to describe how I feel. A little lonely, a little displaced. My other jobs afforded me comfort in that I hit the ground running on the first day, but that was a rare luxury I now know. What I am doing here is not that difficult in the grand scheme of things, but I do have some challenges ahead of me for producing change when people don't know me. I am much more tired at the end of my days here, that's for sure.
My personal life? I'm still battling the same demons, they never seem to get tired, but I'm pushing through the best I can. I've had to let go of someone recently, and it hasn't been easy. Not everyone is appointed to stay in your life, sometimes their presence is only for a season, for whatever reason. In this case, I think it was a combination of a lesson, a distraction, and an awakening.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Distractions Help
I'm going to have a busy week at work reading procedures and learning the ropes. My boss is out of town, so it will be extra difficult. I actually brought in some personal items for my desk today, which was a feat with the hike I have to do. (Have I complained about that enough yet?) I still need flowers or a plant or something. I also forgot my lunch today, so I get to go wandering around Seattle today looking for food. Maybe I'll take a pic or two. I am so completely out of my comfort zone that it is a little amusing.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Office project, complete.
The next step is picking out colors and painting, then designing a desk/bookshelf to build because the one I have is garbage. One thing at a time.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Saturday Morning Fun
I'm not a groomer.
Well, I survived the first 3 days of my new job. It has been a big change for me, and all the walking has made my butt and hips sore. Shutty. I know.
I apparently woke up yelling "Get out!" LOL.
I think I've lost the ability to blog in any sort of organized fashion.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
I'm working in the city now.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
First Day
Yes, Juice, the commute sucks, and no, Nichole I don't work at Fred Hutchinson. I'll tell you where I work if you email me, I need to be careful on the blog these days.
Once I figured out what floor I work on, I then got stuck in the bathroom. There is good smelly lotion in there and after I washed my hands, I put some on. I then could not open the door with the big heavy round knob. I had to use my shirt to get it open, and even then, it took me a few minutes. Yeah, I'm doing great! What a loser. LOL.
I am now enjoying a LARGE adult beverage. Nighty night.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Parking Lot Blogging
My last day at my contract job today was a little sad. I wouldn't have thought it would be, but I actually made a friend I will miss. I was only there 3 months, but it was pretty cool. I am starting a job tomorrow a little unlike anything I've ever done before. It's in the city, it has more than 50 employees, and it is Biotech. (I previously was in medical device.) I need to put my 'A' game on, and I guess that is why I'm nervous. It is exciting, too, but my life has been a bit topsy turvy and I need to make sure I am focused.
Monday, February 23, 2009
3 Day Headache
We had some excitement at the CrazyDogMama household this past weekend. Two young guys were causing trouble in my front yard destroying property and yelling and fighting. One guy was trying to restrain the other who was clearly either drunk or hopped up on drugs. Totally out of control. I called 911. The cops came and surveyed the damage, but the boys were long gone by the time the fuzz arrived. Crap! My neighborhood is going to shit. I hate that.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Nervous about the new job.
Uncooperative
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Office Project
Holy crap, what a complete mess. My office is a train wreck, much like my emotional stability of late. It is time to tackle this monster. I have NEVER in my life been this disorganized and messy. I'm usually the one people are calling to help them out with THEIR mess. Well, I can't stand it any longer!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
My little life lessons/wisdom.
1. Expect the unexpected. The weirdest shit happens to me right out of the blue. SERIOUSLY.
2. The littlest thing can impact your life forever in a big way. And you won't necessarily know it until much later.
3. Cool earrings make all the difference in the world. I went a long time without wearing any earrings at all, then I started to again, and they change your whole appearance.
4. Someone will always find out.
5. My hairstylist told me that she took a poll, and most women think straight hair on women is more attractive and most men think curly hair is more attractive on women. I have naturally curly hair, and with this knowledge I still straighten my hair most days. Go figure.
6. Candles DO change your mood.
7. Hearing someone call someone else a 'stupid motherfucker' is funny. It just IS.
8. Writing in a blog can cause all KINDS of trouble.
9. If you really look, you can see that something good always comes out of something bad. I challenge you to look back on your own life and find this.
10. It is true that if you really love someone, their happiness becomes more important than your own.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
There is no point in going over it all.
I've still got froggy throat and now a big UGLY fever blister on my lip. I look sexy, let me tell you. My head is starting to feel thick, too. Super.
The good news? It is time to go home. Buh bye.
Sometimes waking up is a waste of time.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Frog
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Happy Birthday, Amy!
My friend Amy's birthday party bash. We talked, we drank and then they went to a piano bar, and I didn't go because I'm lame and wanted to go to bed.
Cherylisms
OK, so now, how was "Friday the 13th"? Well, it wasn't bad, but it was lacking the Creep Factor. Even though nothing scares me, I need to feel something. It was entertaining, but I wasn't disturbed.
I finally got around to watching the "Saw" movies, which no one can believe it took me this long. I watched the first one and wasn't all that impressed except that it had a good twist. Much later I watched the second one and liked it, but it didn't have a rich enough Creep Factor for me, so I stopped watching them. Just last weekend I watched "Saw III". Awesome! GREAT Creep Factor! SO brutal! Loved it. You definitely have to watch the unrated version though. "Saw IV" was pretty good too and now I'm going to watch five this weekend.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
I got the job!
I start the 25th in the heart of downtown Seattle on the waterfront not far from the Space Needle. It is in an area known as "Belltown". The commute will be a BITCH, but I am so excited. It will be a very challenging job for me, but I'm going to give it my all.
OK, Valentines Day. I'm going to go see the "Friday the 13th" remake. YAY! Full report when I get back, it looks well made. I am sick and twisted, aren't I? One minute I'm posting Bible verses, and the next talking about horror movies. LOL! That's me. Love me or don't. ;-)
Friday, February 13, 2009
Friday the 13th
Important Quote
I don't usually post quotes from the Bible, but I am today. I read this, this morning, and it really stuck in my head, especially the "Let us not lose heart in doing good" part. It is so easy to lose heart, to give up, to stay pissed off. But it's not worth it. Carrying around anger and resentment only hurts YOU. It is an awful way to live. I gave that up a while ago, and while I still struggle with depression, I feel free of those other destructive emotions. Sure, I get grumpy like anyone else, but I'm not angry anymore. I spent MANY years hauling around that burden, and take it from me, it is NOT worth it. No good can come from it. Even to those that have hurt me I am trying to do good for, and it is quite redeeming. Not in a egotistical or smug way, but an honest and compassionate way. I like it much better.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Words to Live By
1. Life is too short to wake up with regrets, so love the people who treat you right, but also love the ones who don't because you CAN! Love can change people.
2. Believe everything happens for a reason, because it does!
3. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands.
4. If it changes your life, let it!
5. Kiss slowly.
6. Forgive quickly.
7. God never said life would be easy, He just promised it would be worth it.
Hello Blog Family!
For Valentine's weekend I'm going to go see the new remake of "Friday the 13th" (so romantic!) and go to a friend's birthday party. So, it's not sounding all that bad. Maybe February is finally changing for me!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Motherload
In other news, I'm freezing, and I still have cramps. I know, ya'll think I'm Bi-Polar or something don't you? LOL.
Funny boss story.
My boss keeps putting these boxes full of parts on top of my filing cabinets, and to mess with him, I give him a hard time about them being in my way constantly. A day or so ago, I put my hands on my hips and said, "These boxes are still here, have we not talked about this?" in a sarcastic tone. All of a sudden, as he was standing next to them, he reached out his arm very dramatically and did a complete SWOOP and sent the box flying; little parts going EVERYWHERE. He calmly smiled and said "Better?". It startled the shit out of me and TOTALLY took me by surprise, and I started laughing so hard until I was crying. Then he started laughing, as well as the other temporary employee. It was just classic. Too funny.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Crampy
Monday, February 09, 2009
I Love Quotes
-Theodore Isaac Rubin, M.D.
“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”
-Voltaire
"After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box."
-Italian Proverb
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
"As a human being, one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is."
-Albert Einstein
"Once integrity is lost, the rest is a piece of cake."
- J.R. Ewing
Jean Bling
Back in the Saddle
Saturday, February 07, 2009
All is Quiet on the Western Front
Friday, February 06, 2009
I have a look.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
I am a doofus.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
The body I am striving for.
Sleeping on the job.
I am also starving. I could eat an entire cow right now. My tummy is making really loud grumbly noises and I'm starting to get cranky. I do not like being hungry.
There are so many things I'm anxious to talk about, but I have to wait, and you know how I am with patience. Soon, though.
One more random thing for this disorganized post; I almost went catatonic yesterday. I was going to the ladies' room, and upon opening the door, my Crackberry went flying! (Yes, I take it to the restroom with me. Shut up.) I froze with fear as I watched it break into three pieces. I pounced on it and THANK THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY (I'm serious), I was able to put it back together. There are few things that give me joy right now and losing "The Precious" would tip me right over the edge.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
No kittens were harmed.
Confessions
Yes, I just said that on the internet. What haven't I said on the internet?
Super, now I can't concentrate. LOL.
Pressure
Monday, February 02, 2009
Something I found intriguing.
SOMETHING OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS IS HAPPENING
By Tim Wood 2008 December 1
I am a student of history. Professionally. I have written 15 books in six languages and have studied history all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, a mortgage crisis or a credit crisis.
Yes, these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus. Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten - fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two years.
We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back. Why?
We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000, 000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money, yours and mine.
And that is three times the 700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it?
I thought this was a government of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not, they now control us. We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?
We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents of why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving.
Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, and school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?
We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (now violently in California over proposition 8 that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?).
We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing un-elected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government, our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about) the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x ten.
And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, religion and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course the media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more important.)
Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: change. Why?
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now. This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life.
In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure.
Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again. And that is only the beginning to a world social government. I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930's. In those times, the messiah was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory and promises.
Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully them into submission.
And then, he was duly elected to office, a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department-by- department, person-by-person, bureaucracy- by-bureaucracy.
The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the indigent, and goodies for the military-industrial complex.
He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world.
He did it with a compliant media; did you know that?
And he did this all in the name of justice and 'CHANGE'.
And the people surely got what they voted for. (Look it up if you think that I am exaggerating. )
Read your history books.
Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930's while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.
Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities.
And in less than six years, a shorter time span than just two terms of a U.S. presidency, it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors, all with the best of intentions of course. The road to Hell is always paved with them.
As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another drink, and ignoring what is transpiring around me.
Some people scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe and why I believe it.
I pray I am wrong. Pray with me for the truth, because the truth will set us free.
Screw today.
Life does NOT obey our expectations and it does not care about our agenda. Life has an agenda of its own and good luck going up against it.
How would we handle things if we could put fear aside? If you could do or say what you REALLY wanted to? How would that change your world?
Greetings fellow insomniacs!
Sometimes I really hate being alone with my thoughts. Don't you? Do you have things that dominate your thoughts like I do? Questions without answers, feelings that make no sense? Wanting to get up up out of bed, but feeling paralyzed in a way?
Yeah, me neither.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Oh, and the best commercials?
The Game
Saturday, January 31, 2009
A very nice day.
Ridiculous Selfies, and Gigantic Cinnamon Rolls
The cinnamon roll baking adventure was fun, we got very sticky. OMG, they were warm and ooey and gooey goodness. Swoon.