My three kids went back to school yesterday and I couldn't be happier. They have stuff to do and friends to see, they are no longer stuck in the same house with nothing to do but stare at one another. They were tired of one another about a week in to summer vacation and I have been sick to death of them being tired of one another ever since.
Growing up, I used to be insulted at the idea that my parents were glad to be rid of me. Now I totally understand and apologize for any grief I may have given them because of it. It's a beautiful thing to arrive home from work with the house in relatively the same condition you left it, I say relatively because they do get home a little before me, but just haven't had the time yet to do their regular all day damage.
Anyway, I'm so happy I think I'll make up my own little 'back to school' dance!!! Again I say, Woo-Hoo!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
So what have you done?
I've been thinking lately about how as a populace we seem to have a sense of entitlement. I'm talking about everything we seem to think we deserve just for existing. I've started with a broad brush, but this simple issue encompasses many problems both large and small. For example it can be linked to racism, sexism, immigration and nepotism just for starters.
A couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with a co-worker. We were discussing some of the immigration issues we are having and different feelings about them. He said that some hold the belief that we are actually all immigrants, to which I chuckled and replied, "Not me, I was born here, I have the birth certificate to prove it!"
Then he got a little ranty, stating that so was he and his great grandfather, grandfather and father had all bled for this country so he deserved his citizenship. I let him dig himself in a little deeper before blurting out. "Cool, they should be honored for their sacrifice, but, what have you done?" After stammering for a moment, he was ashamed to answer that he had done nothing.
My point is that to begin with, for natural-born citizens, US citizenship is nothing more than a lucky circumstance of birth as are a lot of other things people assume they deserve.
I believe that it's important to know and be proud of your heritage, but also know that it doesn't make you any more deserving or any better of a person. You have to do that on your own.
A couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with a co-worker. We were discussing some of the immigration issues we are having and different feelings about them. He said that some hold the belief that we are actually all immigrants, to which I chuckled and replied, "Not me, I was born here, I have the birth certificate to prove it!"
Then he got a little ranty, stating that so was he and his great grandfather, grandfather and father had all bled for this country so he deserved his citizenship. I let him dig himself in a little deeper before blurting out. "Cool, they should be honored for their sacrifice, but, what have you done?" After stammering for a moment, he was ashamed to answer that he had done nothing.
My point is that to begin with, for natural-born citizens, US citizenship is nothing more than a lucky circumstance of birth as are a lot of other things people assume they deserve.
I believe that it's important to know and be proud of your heritage, but also know that it doesn't make you any more deserving or any better of a person. You have to do that on your own.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
My new toy
I have been seriously neglecting my blog lately, I've been a little preoccupied. The truth? I haven't even turned my computer on for a couple of weeks (work doesn't count). What's been keeping me so busy? I got an amazon kindle and I haven't been able to put it down.
If you haven't heard of them, let me fill you in. A kindle is an ebook reader. There are a few other kinds out there but I got this one. I just love it. It was rather expensive a little over $350, but in my opinion well worth it. This one, unlike the others isn't back lit so you can read forever and it won't strain your eyes. Also it comes with it's own internet hook-up, you can download books straight to your kindle from amazon, so far I haven't found anything that costs more than $10 to download.
I would not have bought it however, if amazon was the only place I could get books. I'm a library girl myself, I like reading for free. Luckily, my library has ebooks available, there is some formatting involved in that though. You can only read kindle formatted books on your kindle, so you have to take them to the amazon site and have them format them for you. If you use the USB port to send them to your kindle from there it's free, if you do it wirelessly, it will cost you ten cents, still not bad. The only problem I have found so far is that you can't necessarily find all the books you want in ebook form, it's a rather new idea though compared with paper bindings, I'm sure publishers will come around. It's not too bad though, I was able to download the new twilight book from my couch for the weekend it came out.
There is a lot more it can do, but I think if I go any further, I'm going to have to try to get some money out of amazon for promoting their product.
Anyway, sorry to be away so long, I'll try to do better.
If you haven't heard of them, let me fill you in. A kindle is an ebook reader. There are a few other kinds out there but I got this one. I just love it. It was rather expensive a little over $350, but in my opinion well worth it. This one, unlike the others isn't back lit so you can read forever and it won't strain your eyes. Also it comes with it's own internet hook-up, you can download books straight to your kindle from amazon, so far I haven't found anything that costs more than $10 to download.
I would not have bought it however, if amazon was the only place I could get books. I'm a library girl myself, I like reading for free. Luckily, my library has ebooks available, there is some formatting involved in that though. You can only read kindle formatted books on your kindle, so you have to take them to the amazon site and have them format them for you. If you use the USB port to send them to your kindle from there it's free, if you do it wirelessly, it will cost you ten cents, still not bad. The only problem I have found so far is that you can't necessarily find all the books you want in ebook form, it's a rather new idea though compared with paper bindings, I'm sure publishers will come around. It's not too bad though, I was able to download the new twilight book from my couch for the weekend it came out.
There is a lot more it can do, but I think if I go any further, I'm going to have to try to get some money out of amazon for promoting their product.
Anyway, sorry to be away so long, I'll try to do better.
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