Reading is Fundamental

I was in Hastings a few days ago looking for a Hard copy of a book that I purchased on my Amazon Kindle. Funny enough with this situation it is a diet book and I wanted to look at it on my Kindle before committing. Also, when I try a diet, I am always making copies out of the book to take everywhere with me anyway (grocery store, etc).

After looking at it, I decided I wanted the hard copy of the Ultimate Tea Diet. When I went to Hastings I couldn't find it and needed some help. We were looking for the book, and I told the guy, "this book seems to be eluding me today." He said "Wow, you must be a reader all right." I was dumbfounded. Is that really that big of a word?

Since using my Kindle I have been using better vocabulary. I can't always spell it, but I am working on that too. At work in the past, I would use "big" words and would be made fun of by fellow workers, "Hey lets get out the dictionary around her." In order to try to fit in, I just stopped using large words. Since some of it is coming back (if you don't use it, you lose it), I'm not going to be goaded into dropping it. They'll just have to crack open a dictionary.

Now if I'm speaking around some other people I know, I still don't sound very intelligent because they are writers, English majors, etc. I'm just a little Math major. But hey, at least I'm trying man!!

Got One Book Down Today with My Kindle

Thanks to My Beloved Kindle (love it, love it, love it), I am reading voraciously. It just seems like I am able to read easier because I can read anywhere, anytime, etc. Plus, my books are cheaper and I get them immediately. My books are not cumbersome and heavy. If I get tired of one book, I switch to a different book. Then when I am done with a book, I can save it to an SD card and save it that way. If I am reading a book and don't understand a word, I scroll to the word and hit look up and it looks it up (cool). I can highlight passages, bookmark, etc. I just plain love it. Oh did I already say that. :-)

So today, I finished off, "The Reader." It's pretty short. It has a lot of disturbing subjects in it, the Holocost, statutory rape of boy (he may be 15, but she was 38), and the after affects of that relationship on a boy. A lot people would say, "That's every boy's fantasy to have a relationship with an older woman when he is under 18", but I beg to differ and it will ultimately be a disaster and this book shows how in part III a little. Now that I am done reading the book, a lot of the it can be taken as allegory, for Nazis and the German people and their seduction by the Nazis and the after effects. That's a little deep for me, but I can see some of that when I think hard enough (some smoke comes out the ears, but I can do it)

As I read the book, I thought about two people I knew in high school. Unfortunately I am horrible with names, but one was a German exchange student who was in my math class and the other was my German teacher/math teacher one year in high school.

The German exchange student was amazed about the things she was learning about World War II history because she said that it was not taught at all in her country which I found shocking. This was in 1988. She said that World War II is just completely glossed over and not talked about in school. Now, remember this is before reunification started in 1989, so I don't know if that changed now.

The other was my German Teacher. He didn't mind talking about the war, but he wanted to talk about how the American's bombed his home town when he was a baby and that we committed war crimes and should have been brought to Nuremburg (sp) too. Now this is German class. I remember his yelling, "We didn't have any factories near my home town!" and one of my class mates yelled back, "How do you know if you were a baby?" As we all know, you can't believe everything that you are told from the authorities. This guy was just full of anger too, because I believe he got in trouble for hitting a student in math class. He said that is how things are done in Germany, but he was still reprimanded.

Snow (Ice) Day!

Well, No Work for me today. 'Round these parts, nobody knows how to drive with ice on the road, especially since we do not salt the roads. It is also illegal to have chains on your tires. Granted, this doesn't happen very much, so we usually just start late, but it is so bad today that they just shut down my workplace and said don't even come in. So I got a sort of Snow Day. If it was a real Snow Day, I'd go play in it, but I don't intend to play in ice.

My car doesn't drive well on ice (Camaro Z-28). One year I didn't get the word in time of a shut down and tried to drive in it. Not good.

Plan for today--Stay warm and read. Howwahh

"Let's Don't Worry"

A viral Video that I really enjoyed from the award winning documentary, ""Playing For Change: Peace Through Music". There is also a website for this:
playingforchange.com

Barack, Inc.

I just finished an awesome book, Barack, Inc by Barry Libert and Rick Faulk. It goes over President Obama campaign and looks at it from a business perspective. The book points out how in the 21st century, Candidate Obama was doing everything right to make it to the White House and if he had been in a fortune 500 Business, they definitely wouldn't be needing a bailout right now.

Since I have recently come off of being in a position of authority, I can understand these kind of books a lot better and certainly enjoy them. My boyfriend has his own business and I have read quite a few things in this book that can be essential to help him that he can use.

So if you interested in business, read this book which emphasizes three things that Candidate Obama did to become President Obama:

• Be Cool.

• Be Social.

• Be the Change.

The authors also have a website.

http://barackinc.com/

So be cool.

Hooray

Tomorrow is the Big Day

I am very Excited. Tomorrow is an exciting day for me and millions of others. I know there are people that are not happy and wouldn't admit it and that's OK; it doesn't matter to me. I am so happy that Barack Obama is going to be Our President, and even though he can't possibly accomplish every single campaign promise, if he gets 10% of it done and doesn't make any steps in what I would consider the wrong direction (one only needs to look at the last eight years to know what that is), then I will be happy. I think he can do that.

Just by getting through his inauguration tomorrow and making it through his speech, he would be making Dr. King's "Dream" come true, and that is quite an accomplishment, but We still have a long way to go.

Third time's a charm

The Shoops people came back out again and replaced the trap with one that is little more easily set off. My Squirrel is really liven it up in the attic. I believe he is going into the trap and eating the stuff and the trap isn't going off. Now the trap has peanut M & M s in it (yummy). I told these people how annoyed that I am that guy is still in my attic.

Just eat a dang banana!

As an instructor to airmen, these young people are not generally full fledged adults, no matter how much they would like to think so. It's very difficult for them because they believe they are completely mature, as I did at their age (if only I knew the truth), but Thursday was a good example of why we need us instructors around to watch out for these young people.

I am responsible for keeping my students awake, so I told him to wake up. When he did, i noticed he poured a pouch of powder into some water and slammed it down. I asked him what the heck it was. He showed me the box. It was a product called "Power Edge" Energy Drink Mix. It sounds ok on the front because it is suger free, but then on the back it says 80 mg of caffeine per serving and serving is 1/2 of a packet. I asked my student if that was the first one he had that day. It was the fourth. Holy crap.

Essentially he was having 640 mg of caffeine before 9 am. Scared the crap out of me, but it didn't really get through to him until I showed him on two websites where it said that a normal days max caffeine is 300mg and the Power Edge is equivalent to 2 Red Bulls.

Supposedly my student has promised me that he isn't going to pull this again, so one can only hope because he was shaking the rest of the day, and some the next day. I wanted to send him to the hospital, but he didn't want to go, and you can't force a student to go.

"Your Mother was a Hamster and Your Father smelled of Elderberries..."

My brother, Amy, Logan and Oliver gave me Monty Python's Holy Trinity. It contains MP and the Holy Grail (Favorite), the Life of Brian and the Meaning of Life. I watched the Holy Grail first. They added some extra thing to the movie which is fine, but I can still recite almost every line. My favorite part has to be the French Taunting. My boyfriend Bennie (who is not a huge britcom fan) even likes that part. I think it is because he is Cajun. The insults are hilarious. In the Broadway play Spamalot, they made the French Taunting even more hilarious if that is possible.

Ninja Squirrel Redux

The Shoops people came back and put a new cookie in the trap and left it in the wrapper. The man said that the squirrel must have gotten to the other cookie from the side. I didn't understand what he meant until today. I checked the trap, and the wrapper was on one side of the cage and half of the cookie was on the other side. Therefore, this little guy takes his paws from the outside of the cage, gets the cookie, gets a couple nibbles, turns, more nibbles, turns, until the cookies is gone. Hummmmm. Scary Smart. I think he has been trapped before in a cage.

Now that he doesn't have a way in and out of the house, he gets very frustrated about water. Now I am his only resource for it. So when he hears me take a bath (get ready) he shimmys down the pipes and waits for me to drain the tub. (OOOOOOOO) Believe me I don't look down that drain, I don't want to see. Anyway, he starts to get impatient sometimes and bangs on the bathtub wall, so I bang back. One day I hope to knock him silly for putting me through all this.


Well, Bennie is coming back tomorrow, and next week is his turn to deal with the Shoops people about our "little friend."

Sometimes I yell at the squirrel, "get in the trap and we'll let you go jerk." I'm losing it, I know.

I have a Ninja Sqirrel

I checked the squirrel trap today as usual in my attic. The bait cookie was gone, but no squirrel. I called Shoops and they said sometimes they will find a way to get it out from the side without setting off the trap. The guy that put a new cookie said he opened up the package, but left it in the package so that the squirrel will have to get into the trap this time and hopefully set it off unless his ninja skills are incredible.

We shall see what happens. Wish me luck.

Don't Forget the Black Eyed Peas!

New Years Day 2009. Woo hoo.

Didn't get much done today, but I made sure that ONE THING GOT DONE....I ATE BLACK EYED PEAS!

Last year, I did not follow this southern superstition. (One is supposed to eat black eyed peas on New Years Day for good luck . I have even heard that it is more specifficaly for good luck with money, but I just always heard the good luck think.)

I also was trying to fight my natural Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and force myself not to take part in this tradition (superstition, call it what you like). Wrong, big mistake. I won't be doing that again.

2008 was for me full of highest highs, followed by the lowest lows. Now, do I blame it all on my lack of consumption of black eyed peas on January 1, 2008. It would be easy to say, "YES" and sum it up like that. But I won't take any chances in the future that is for damn sure unless I am stranded somewhere on an island. In that case I probably wouldn't even know it is the New Year and it won't matter!