Thank You, Dr. Oprah!

I just heard Dr. Oprah say the smartest thing. She was talking to obese children and their parents who weren't sure how they got that way. I kind of stumbled in on it, so she might have been quoting someone, but I'll just attribute it to her. She suggested that eating healthy is a shift of thinking. You think that fruits and vegies are too expensive, compared to crappy processed food? How about buying less video games for your kid who sits in front of the tv all the time (better yet, craigslist the tv, etc, you got for their room and gain money) and devoting that money to your grocery budget in order to make it more healthy. Also, I've done some of my cheapest grocery shopping of all time during My Time of Unemployment, and I managed to spend LESS than normal. How? First I bought the fruits and vegies that were in season (which affects their price) and on SALE. Also, I didn't overbuy as much, because I can't leave fruit and vegies on the shelf and come back in six months to revisit the thought of eating them, like the four boxes of crackers I have shoved in the back of my cupboard. Now excuse me while I go look for my chocolate.

I Heart You, Teachers, But...

Okay, so I fully support teachers. They're good. They taught me stuff. They helped me get into college. They are my friends. But, seriously? I get that they don't pay you enough. I get that you have too many kids in your class. I get that your job might very well suck quite a bit. But have you noticed the economy? And the unemployment rate? There are a LOT of people out there without a steady paycheck because they lost their jobs due to this yucky economy. I'm curious now what rate the Kent teachers are paid. I'm pretty confident it is more than I make. Just saying. I'm sure their demands are reasonable, and I'm pro-teacher here, but being without a paycheck is scary. People who intentionally go without one and then throw a party and dance and sing on the news seem just a little bit crazy to me. Or do you still get magical money when you are in a teacher's union? And more importantly, did I put the apostrophe in the right place? Maybe if I had been in smaller classes I would know.

P.S. I heart you Carrie. :)

You Say Potato, I Say Chipotle

I was thinking the other day about chipotle chilies, wondering what exactly a chipotle was, other than the name of a restaurant that makes fabulous chips and guacamole. In wikiworld, they tell me it's a dried jalapeno which has turned red, which apparently they do if you let them ripen long enough. Question answered. Then I realized that there is something about the word Chipotle that has always bothered me: the fact that my parents pronounce it Chip-OAT-lee. Emphasis on the oat, of course. But I always thought it was Chip-OAT-lay. Wikipedia says my parents' pronunciation is right. I thought that could not possibly be, so I looked here because I knew that they have the handy dandy little speaker you can click on to hear a human being pronounce your word of choice. There are two different speakers, a man and and a woman, and they both agree with me on pronunciation, however one of the definitions says that a chipotle is a pungent red pepper and the other says it is a jalapeno. Get it together, dictionary dot com. Wiki, did you fail me? I had to find a tie breaker.

This website I feel fairly confident is posting correct information, being that they're one of the best known dictionaries. They say that I am more right, although they also give a variation on the pronunciation, cheep-OAT-lay. That's at least fun to say.

So we've established that my parents and all you out there who are pronunciation challenged need to take elocution lessons from me, given my expertise. I would also like to establish that jalapenos are gross. Even given the passion with which I love me some Chipotle steak burrito with their yummy, yummy chips and guacamole, my spice tolerance does not expand much further. And I think that really, jalapeno eaters are showing a part of their true character that is best left hidden. You should not flaunt that kind of sickness.

Dizzle, it's not a very strong rant, but that one was for you.

P.S. Blogger does not believe that chipotle is a word. It suggest instead that I substitute the word chortle. Which is a fun word. Chortle chortle chortle.

I'm Not QUITE There Yet...

So apparently they have a place for people who spend all their time online, not even breaking to bathe, and eating at their computers. Besides High School. And I am proud to say that I still bathe from time to time. Also that I hate computer gaming. It's stupid. Yeah, I said it. When it causes people to forget dates they have sheduled, therefore forcing the girl to break the cd in half (no, it wasn't me, and she may not have broken it, but it was seriously considered), it has gone too far. When families sit in different rooms of the same house and "play" with each other and "talk" to each other online, instead of breaking out the gameboard, or, I don't know, going outside and getting fresh air and talking about real life, it has gone too far. When you are a 30 year old man, and rather than, I don't know, asking a girl on a date (again, not my target male) you get together ten of your closest guy friends you never talk to in real life together so you can all do all your techy stuff and play your game cubes or whatever together for what I'm pretty sure stretches out to at least ten hours, it has gone too far. And when teenagers and adults alike refer to someone as their "friend" and then fully admit that they've actually never met that person, and don't know their real name, but they're sure they're "real," what with all the bonding they've been doing over the game, it has gone TOO far.

I'm not even cranky today. Apparently I can rant about anything. Give me a random topic. I will rant.

Poor Mona

I feel that my education was surely lacking in the art history arena, since it was not until today that I learned that people like to vandalize the Mona Lisa. Did you know that:

1. It was stolen in 1911 from the Louvre, and the true thief, an Italian who believed it should be displayed in Italy, was not discovered until two years later when he tried to sell it? Also, the first suspect, who did not turn out to be involved, had threatened to burn down the Louvre in the past.
2. In 1956, it was damaged when someone threw acid on it?
3. Later in 1956 someone threw a rock at it?
4. On August 2, 2009, a deranged woman threw a mug at it, and was taken to a psychiatric institution, where it was determined that she was mad at France for not taking her as a citizen. The good news is, the museum finally wised up and installed bulletproof glass in front of the painting.

It's all true. The Internet told me so.

I Heart You, Moms, but...

I have a lot of love for all of you moms out there. I really do. And I will admit that I read some blogs by mommies. I don't read them because you are mommies, but because I like you, and if you have darn cute kids and talk about them, so be it.

But this reference to "Mommy bloggers". This I don't get. Since when is that particular group of bloggers entitled to a name? I want a name! Where's my group? And why is the Mommy blogger movement a thing? I supposed if I stop and think about it, a lot of my friends who have blogs seem to have established them to give updates on their families, and spend a lot of time focusing on their kids. This I get, because they spend a lot of time with the little whipper snappers. But, hey, didn't you tell me you are sooooo busy you don't even have time to email me unless it's a group email? When are you having time to follow mommy blogs? Don't worry, this is a rhetorical question, as I'm fairly certain none of those who have used that excuse on me read my blog.

And another thing. I just looked at the mommy blog places referenced in that article. One mentioned is this one. It looks like a lovely resource. In fact, there were quite a few little links on there about improving blogs that I found interesting. But I'm not a mommy, and I don't feel like inviting myself in. So why they gotta be like that? Why does it have to be about the moms? Why can't it be about being a woman? You could still post things about healthy kids, and healthy marriages, because those things apply to many women. But hey, healthy food (should) also apply to me too. What about me???? I'm going to go out and hunt me up a good resource for woman bloggers.... Hmm... and Google says... mommy and woman are interchangeable. Awesome. I'm going to go listen to my biological clock tick now.

Am I Wierd...

to be anti-mug? I don't like drinking water out of ceramic mugs. It tastes different. Also, I prefer to drink my beverages out of glass, but plastic is my second best option. A real bummer since we mostly have ceramic mugs at our house. I am not opposed to a hot steaming mug of hot chocolate, let the record show. Am I the only one that feels this way?

All the Little Birds Go Tweet, Tweet, Tweet

This whole twitter thing. What's up with that? I know there are people who love it, and who are addicted to it. Those are probably the same people who follow Ashton Kutcher. I personally tend towards the group that maintains that the internet has sucked us in enough already. Exhibit one: MyFace. Exhibit two: youtube. Exhibit three: Blog feeds. I'm covered. But apparently everyone in the world doesn't agree with me. Silly but true.


I googled "why Twitter," and a few of the very top posts were "Why Twitter Isn't a Waste of Time" and "Why Twitter Sucks." I keep thinking that it will die out. But even the guy that says it sucks says it will succeed. Bummer. I'm hoping that it at least morphs into something a little less ridiculous. I know it can be a place where you can get news about events or other things of interest to you, and that is neat-o. But I'm kind of over that. Just using the technology that I have, I can get more information faster than I ever could in my pre-computer, pre-cell phone days. Yes, that's right, when I was a kid, we didn't even have cable at my house.


I can find plenty of ways to fill my day with technology if I really want to. That's the dangerous and wonderful thing about it. I've noticed that I spend a lot of time on the computer, and walk away from it wondering how so much time has gone by with so little really accomplished. I can research things, catch up on TV shows, catch up with friends, read blogs from my favorite writers, and find recipes. All of these things are fun, and harmless, at least in small doses. But sometimes (especially with this whole unemployment thing), I find myself spending way to much time online. All the sudden I look up and it's dark and I missed the last lovely sunny hours of the day.


I've also seen that my teenagers often don't know what to do without a laptop in front of them or their fancy phones to text, check emails, etc, on. I can't say it's just a problem teenagers have, though, because it can be just as bad with adults. I have recently assessed my own uses of time and come to the conclusion that I need to stop getting sucked into things and make conscious decisions to do other things with my time. With all this free time, shouldn't I be doing some of those projects I've always meant to get to? Shouldn't my apartment be sparkling? Shouldn't I be nice and cook dinner for my roommate or something? I have family picture to catolog for my mom, tapes of family members talking to transcribe and add to the family history, toenails to repaint, old toys I either need to put in a box or let go of and donate/throw away. So why am I not doing those things? I could totally do them all.

But back to this Twitter thing. If it made you "jittery" to not be able to connect to it for an hour or two, would you admit to it? Because you shouldn't. Also, P.S., iReporter, not only do I not understand why CNN keeps letting you post things, I don't think Twitter needs a competitor. Unless that comes in the form of something less silly and more useful.

I Just Might be a Bass

My computer has gone on the fritz, right after my car went on the fritz, right after my mp3 player went on the fritz. Car is fine, mp3 player may never speak to me again. I'm hoping the laptop will continue speaking to me. Right now he as K's brother's getting looked at, AKA the Computer ER. Fingers crossed he will be able to resuscitate it. Noticed I called my computer a he. This might just call for a name. If he pulls through, that is.

Meanwhile the scene in my apartment just might look like this...

(Pretend that one scene from Spaceballs is here, where the princess is singing "Nobody Knows the Trouble I Seen," in a prison cell. I can't find it. Stupid Youtube.)

Update: Thanks BigSis. It was NOWHERE when I searched for it. Grr.