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Friday, March 28, 2008

Try it again?

My first edit. I am almost in love with my mac.






If you still can't see it, try this. Let me know what works...

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Spring

I am sharing this from a FLYlady email. It just made me really thankful for not only the beauty and grandeur of our natural world, but also grateful for the (so called) simple things.


Spring-

What if we had to pay for it?

I imagined Terry [authors husband] saying,

"Pam, we have to talk."

"What?"

"With the economy the way it is right now, we just don't have the
money to pay for a full blown spring. So you're gonna to have to make
some decisions about what you absolutely have to have bloom as far as
your roses go and we REALLY have a tree dilemma!"

"A tree dilemma? What d'ya mean?"

"I mean you're gonna to have to pick which ones you want to leaf out
and which ones we can leave bare. We can't afford to pay for them
all. Like I know how much you love the walnut tree, but do you have
any idea how many leaves have to go on just that one tree to fill it
out? And then there are the birds."

"What about the birds?"

"We just can't afford to bring `em all in this year. Do you realize
how much it costs to travel these days? So again, you need to decide
which birds you can do without out. You can choose ONE. Pick a bird."

"Pick a bird?"

"That's what I said."

"But I need my Rufus's, and the robins and the finches and the
chickadees and my quail and my crows and those little "walnut" birds
(they're really called bushtits but I don't like that name) oh and I
have to have my blue birds!"

"I wish we could afford all of `em, Honey, but just take those blue
birds for example, they ship from 3,000 miles away! And as much as
you love the robins, the cost of feathers (especially red ones) has
gone up 150% in the last year. Oh and those humming birds you love so
much are energy guzzlers and we just can't afford to have them this
year. Pick a bird."

When I came out of my fantasy dialogue I was filled with gratitude!
Spring is FREE! ALL my trees get to leaf, ALL my roses get to bloom,
ALL my birds get to come, ALL my chipmunks, squirrels, deer, bob cats,
elk, yes and even bear and cougar will be enjoying a very free spring
right along with me.

Thank you God!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

anti-intellectualism and virulent ignorance

Simple. Just simple people. Don't confuse, condemn, or try to show them the error of their ways, for there is no error. Just ask them. There seems to be a perverse pride in their belief that it is not important to be educated. Forget even educated, how about even aware. "Pardon me whilst I bury my head in that lovely sand mound right over there."

There is a new book on my list, The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby. In it she examines this anti-intellectualism:

"Americans are in serious intellectual trouble -- in danger of losing their hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations."

"According to a 2006 survey by National Geographic-Roper, nearly half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 do not think it necessary to know the location of other countries in which important news is being made. More than a third consider it "not at all important" to know a foreign language, and only 14 percent consider it "very important."

"That leads us to the third and final factor behind the new American dumbness: not lack of knowledge per se but arrogance about that lack of knowledge."

"The problem is not just the things we do not know (consider the one in five American adults who, according to the National Science Foundation, thinks the sun revolves around the Earth); it's the alarming number of Americans who have smugly concluded that they do not need to know such things in the first place."

"Call this anti-rationalism -- a syndrome that is particularly dangerous to our public institutions and discourse. Not knowing a foreign language or the location of an important country is a manifestation of ignorance; denying that such knowledge matters is pure anti-rationalism."


"Far too many of those who think they're knowledgeable on some very important subjects have in fact been educated into even greater ignorance, swallowing a series of falsehoods and half-truths that make them think they know what they're talking about when they don't..." ~Ed Brayton

ho hum

Not too much to report, even though it has been quite a stretch in between posts. The vacation was the best ever. It worked out that we got a larger room (wonderful with the kids) and access to a private pool. That in itself almost made the vacation. But we also did some very fun stuff. And who wouldn't just be happy to leave this dreariness for blue water, cloudless skies, sand, and warmth? That alone was worth it. SO it was great. I'll stop reveling now, but it was great.

I came home to cram for two days for the psychopharm test. It's all over and i made it through. I start back march 31.

I am trying to get back into my flylady routine, I miss it. I feel like I have been aimless, wandering around with nothing to study and not sure what to clean (I assure you, there are no shortages of options). J really likes it when I am on it, I think he was so impressed that he was going to let some of his married buddies know about it. I call him my flyguy when he chips in and takes some of the routine off my hands. He would probably kill me if he knew I shared that. Good thing he isn't a reader of this blog.

But overall, things are pretty much back to normal. I ordered a new film scanner to scan my negatives to convert to digital. That is going to take months so I thought I can do it when i am studying and whatever. It takes almost a minute per frame! So that is a project. It can run while i am otherwise occupied, but at the computer.

BTW- does anybody have any experience with macbooks? I am also thinking about one of those to do all of my photo and video stuff on. Just not sure if it would be worth it or not.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Bye!

Bye guys!

I am still running around trying to get everything packed and things crossed of my to do list in typical fashion, not Flyladying it here at all. So, the floors aren't vacuumed, sorry Anna!

We are leaving extra early to try and avoid the nasty weather.

I hope.

I am going to try to send photos to my blog from my cell, I haven't ever tried, but apparently it is something you can do.

I will miss you but will catch up with everyone when I get back.
The ship has email, but I don't remember what my email address is there, or how often I will be checking it.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Weekend

The weekend was good. The wedding went fine. It went and that was the major thing. The boys had an absolute blast. There were a few other children, but not too many so they played, danced, and got sugar stoned from the open bar (they got sodas whenever they liked). It was awesome for them. A little awkward for me, if you know the backstory you know why. If not, it will have to wait, it isn't bloggable I'm afraid. But overall, tolerable and at times enjoyable. Jeff and I had a good time together, and it has been a while for that, so that was good.

I am again, chained to my desk trying to finish all of my reading and assignments. There are only 2 weeks left of this (insert own pejorative here) class. We leave on Saturday for our cruise and I really can't wait. I don't want to have to do too much on the boat. Nathan will have schoolwork, so we will have to take some time, but I don't want it to interfere with our fun! Alright, I am off to it.

BTW-I need a house/dog sitter. Anybody know of anybody?