How I feel when I'm on Ambien:
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
What's in Your Keyboard?
After eating a lunch consisting of an egg and potatoes O'Brien, I decided to catch up on reading some blogs. I had just finished typing a comment and hit the publish button on http://mrssudz.blogspot.com/ when the internet locked up. So, instead of losing my religion and turning the plate glass window in the kitchen into a mess of shattered glass, I grabbed the vacuum and began cleaning my keyboard.
Is it obvious that I have cats?
Is it obvious that I have cats?
Friday, January 13, 2012
Off The Mantle - A School Geography Bee
I'm almost at a loss for words. I know teachers are only human and that they make mistakes too. But, I think this went beyond one teacher's mistake.
My stepson participated in his school's Geography Bee last week. The contest came down between two kids, my stepson and another boy. The event apparently exceeded the time allotted for it, so the match off was held Wednesday. I did not attend but my husband did and here is what happened...
"The second to last question asked was: "What is the name of the area of the earth between the crust and the core?"
Son's answer was "mantle"
Other's answer was "lithosphere"
The initial determination was that lithosphere was wrong. My assumption is that the judges had the answers written down on a question sheet and made this initial determination. However... someone decided to intervene, and declare that the lithosphere is also a correct answer.
This was a mistake. The lithosphere is a wrong answer.
Per the National geographic website:
The lithosphere is the solid, outer part of the Earth. The Earth consists of three main layers: the core, or the inner layer; the mantle, in the middle; and the crust, which includes the continents and ocean floor. The lithosphere, which is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) deep in most places, includes the brittle upper portion of the mantle and the crust.
Because the question was asked as what is the region between the crust and the core, lithosphere can not be correct. The lithosphere is the outermost sphere of the planet. It consists of the crust and the little sliver of mantle that interfaces with the crust. Using the word "between" would exclude the region being used to define a boundary."
Son stated to his father afterwards, that he knew he was right and the other boy was wrong, and so husband decided to go check for himself. Husband also thinks that is why he missed the next question, because he was still working through his head the possibilities of the last question.
"He has resigned himself to submit to the decision of the judges... However I also feel there must be a way to remedy all of this properly, via the guidelines set forth by National Geographic."
After my husband contacted the school about this, I was a bit stunned to see the response received from the school. They told my husband that they attempted to get in touch with the National Geography Bee people but did not hear back from them. Therefore, they were going to let the decision of the judges rule.
This is a school. A Catholic school. Their job is to teach and to, hopefully, teach correctly. In my opinion, someone was basically saying that the question had two correct answers. If that were the case, then, wouldn't the judges have had both as the correct answer on their sheets of questions? And if so, would have told the boys that they were both correct as opposed to that one was wrong? Why did someone have to step in and "intervene".
It just smells too fishy for me.
My stepson participated in his school's Geography Bee last week. The contest came down between two kids, my stepson and another boy. The event apparently exceeded the time allotted for it, so the match off was held Wednesday. I did not attend but my husband did and here is what happened...
"The second to last question asked was: "What is the name of the area of the earth between the crust and the core?"
Son's answer was "mantle"
Other's answer was "lithosphere"
The initial determination was that lithosphere was wrong. My assumption is that the judges had the answers written down on a question sheet and made this initial determination. However... someone decided to intervene, and declare that the lithosphere is also a correct answer.
This was a mistake. The lithosphere is a wrong answer.
Per the National geographic website:
The lithosphere is the solid, outer part of the Earth. The Earth consists of three main layers: the core, or the inner layer; the mantle, in the middle; and the crust, which includes the continents and ocean floor. The lithosphere, which is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) deep in most places, includes the brittle upper portion of the mantle and the crust.
Because the question was asked as what is the region between the crust and the core, lithosphere can not be correct. The lithosphere is the outermost sphere of the planet. It consists of the crust and the little sliver of mantle that interfaces with the crust. Using the word "between" would exclude the region being used to define a boundary."
Son stated to his father afterwards, that he knew he was right and the other boy was wrong, and so husband decided to go check for himself. Husband also thinks that is why he missed the next question, because he was still working through his head the possibilities of the last question.
"He has resigned himself to submit to the decision of the judges... However I also feel there must be a way to remedy all of this properly, via the guidelines set forth by National Geographic."
After my husband contacted the school about this, I was a bit stunned to see the response received from the school. They told my husband that they attempted to get in touch with the National Geography Bee people but did not hear back from them. Therefore, they were going to let the decision of the judges rule.
This is a school. A Catholic school. Their job is to teach and to, hopefully, teach correctly. In my opinion, someone was basically saying that the question had two correct answers. If that were the case, then, wouldn't the judges have had both as the correct answer on their sheets of questions? And if so, would have told the boys that they were both correct as opposed to that one was wrong? Why did someone have to step in and "intervene".
It just smells too fishy for me.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
8:05 a.m.
Finally had a good nights sleep. I've been battling some kind of seasonal viral funk since last Wednesday night. Congestion, coughing, nose blowing crap.
Unfortunately, I was awake at about 4:45 this morning. After about a half hour awake in bed, I decided to fill the tub with hot water, grab my bowl of cereal and cup of coffee and have breakfast in the tub.
What else have I done so far now that it's three hours later?
I've changed clothes, pulled our clothes from the dryer and moved a kids laundry over from the washer to the dryer. Dumped our clothes on the bed (which I actually made for a change) and folded about half of the load. It's nice to have lots of underwear now that I've cleared off some of the dresser. It had become a pile-up of numerous things. Camera, binoculars, hats, scarves, dust, and lots of clean underwear that somehow got buried under it all.
Kids and hubby are off to school and work.
I fed the goose a slice of bread and after watching that special someone toss two plastic cups and a beer bottle from his vehicle into the yard, I decided I'd do some clean up in the rain. No wonder the kids just leave all their trash in the yard instead of throwing it away in a trash can. Darn good thing none of them are serial killers. Yet.
Today I will be spending about 4 hours doing volunteer work. Also known as standing around creeping out the patients.
I have also finally figured out what a good idea it would be to bookmark my own blog, making it easier for me to find. Go figure.
8:14 a.m.
Trimmed cat #1 again while she was drinking from the bathtub. Clipped a few pieces off of #2 just to piss him off for being nosey and antagonizing #1.
8:30 p.m.
Twelve hours and 16 minutes later, I feel like this morning was two days ago.
I spent my scheduled volunteer time doing a few things that were more than just standing around. Although I worked more taking the stairs from the 7th floor of the parking garage.
Now, what else did I do today? Oh yeah, after my shift, I went to the nearest Harbor Freight. I bought a small desktop magnifier and one with a light to wear on my head. Then I headed off for one of my favorite "thrift" shops. It just happened to be on the long way home. Of course I bought a bunch of crap.
Came home and found hubby on the phone with me.
Ate dinner.
Ate dessert.
Didn't get a damn thing done around the house again. Unless you count the small load of laundry from this morning, which is still scattered across the bed.
Oh, and I almost forgot... I lusted after a purple handbag.
Finally had a good nights sleep. I've been battling some kind of seasonal viral funk since last Wednesday night. Congestion, coughing, nose blowing crap.
Unfortunately, I was awake at about 4:45 this morning. After about a half hour awake in bed, I decided to fill the tub with hot water, grab my bowl of cereal and cup of coffee and have breakfast in the tub.
What else have I done so far now that it's three hours later?
I've changed clothes, pulled our clothes from the dryer and moved a kids laundry over from the washer to the dryer. Dumped our clothes on the bed (which I actually made for a change) and folded about half of the load. It's nice to have lots of underwear now that I've cleared off some of the dresser. It had become a pile-up of numerous things. Camera, binoculars, hats, scarves, dust, and lots of clean underwear that somehow got buried under it all.
Kids and hubby are off to school and work.
I fed the goose a slice of bread and after watching that special someone toss two plastic cups and a beer bottle from his vehicle into the yard, I decided I'd do some clean up in the rain. No wonder the kids just leave all their trash in the yard instead of throwing it away in a trash can. Darn good thing none of them are serial killers. Yet.
Today I will be spending about 4 hours doing volunteer work. Also known as standing around creeping out the patients.
I have also finally figured out what a good idea it would be to bookmark my own blog, making it easier for me to find. Go figure.
8:14 a.m.
Trimmed cat #1 again while she was drinking from the bathtub. Clipped a few pieces off of #2 just to piss him off for being nosey and antagonizing #1.
8:30 p.m.
Twelve hours and 16 minutes later, I feel like this morning was two days ago.
I spent my scheduled volunteer time doing a few things that were more than just standing around. Although I worked more taking the stairs from the 7th floor of the parking garage.
Now, what else did I do today? Oh yeah, after my shift, I went to the nearest Harbor Freight. I bought a small desktop magnifier and one with a light to wear on my head. Then I headed off for one of my favorite "thrift" shops. It just happened to be on the long way home. Of course I bought a bunch of crap.
Came home and found hubby on the phone with me.
Ate dinner.
Ate dessert.
Didn't get a damn thing done around the house again. Unless you count the small load of laundry from this morning, which is still scattered across the bed.
Oh, and I almost forgot... I lusted after a purple handbag.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Resolutions and Accountability
Looking back, I have to say that I have rarely made resolutions. Why bother? I doubt I would have kept any of them.
Driving around on New Year's day I saw tons of people walking. My guess is that they resolved to exercise this year. I wonder how many have stuck with it ten days later?
I did decide that I would try two things this year.
1. Change my purse every Sunday
2. Keep track of what I do on a daily basis
I think I've said it before in one of my posts that I have a bazillion purses. I'm a purse whore. Drop me in the middle of a store and I will gravitate right towards them. I'd love for a therapist to explain to me the obsession I have with purses. Maybe it goes back to childhood. When my mother would hide her purchases in the trunk of her car and wait until dad went to bed to bring them in. Uh oh. I think I just became my own therapist. Moving on...
As of yesterday, I have begun to keep track of what I have done during the day. I need to see how much time and money I'm wasting, so what better way? It can definitely be a rude awakening. I've kept a food diary before and it was disgusting to look back at the day and see all of the crap I ate. It started out as a record keeping of sorts on my sodium intake. My blood pressure had been creeping up and I didn't want to depend on medication to keep it down. The most vivid of meals I can recall was a lunch of hot dogs and chips. And I'm sure a Coke or two. By the time I tallied it up that one lunch amounted to about 1,700 calories. I don't even remember the sodium total. Probably too appalled to even have gotten that far in my records. A day's worth of calories all in one meal.
So, let's see. Sunday I changed purses for the first time in a couple of months. It's always kind of fun to change out handbags. I never completely clean them out. There's always a handful of coins, half a dozen receipts. One time I found about a dozen or more lipsticks and lip balms all in one purse. Now that I no longer wear lipstick I've noticed my lips aren't as chapped as they used to be. These days I only carry around a tube of Burt's Bees.
Tonight I will be bringing my spiral bound calendar and notebook to bed with me. Just as I did last night, I will be reviewing and writing down my activities from the day as well as looking over the "To Do" list to see what I didn't do.
Driving around on New Year's day I saw tons of people walking. My guess is that they resolved to exercise this year. I wonder how many have stuck with it ten days later?
I did decide that I would try two things this year.
1. Change my purse every Sunday
2. Keep track of what I do on a daily basis
I think I've said it before in one of my posts that I have a bazillion purses. I'm a purse whore. Drop me in the middle of a store and I will gravitate right towards them. I'd love for a therapist to explain to me the obsession I have with purses. Maybe it goes back to childhood. When my mother would hide her purchases in the trunk of her car and wait until dad went to bed to bring them in. Uh oh. I think I just became my own therapist. Moving on...
As of yesterday, I have begun to keep track of what I have done during the day. I need to see how much time and money I'm wasting, so what better way? It can definitely be a rude awakening. I've kept a food diary before and it was disgusting to look back at the day and see all of the crap I ate. It started out as a record keeping of sorts on my sodium intake. My blood pressure had been creeping up and I didn't want to depend on medication to keep it down. The most vivid of meals I can recall was a lunch of hot dogs and chips. And I'm sure a Coke or two. By the time I tallied it up that one lunch amounted to about 1,700 calories. I don't even remember the sodium total. Probably too appalled to even have gotten that far in my records. A day's worth of calories all in one meal.
So, let's see. Sunday I changed purses for the first time in a couple of months. It's always kind of fun to change out handbags. I never completely clean them out. There's always a handful of coins, half a dozen receipts. One time I found about a dozen or more lipsticks and lip balms all in one purse. Now that I no longer wear lipstick I've noticed my lips aren't as chapped as they used to be. These days I only carry around a tube of Burt's Bees.
Tonight I will be bringing my spiral bound calendar and notebook to bed with me. Just as I did last night, I will be reviewing and writing down my activities from the day as well as looking over the "To Do" list to see what I didn't do.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Happy New Year
And a great big welcome to the creepiness of the beginning to the end of the Mayan calendar.
I try to not follow those kind of news items. Why bother? More than likely, nothing will happen. But if it does, what the hell am I gonna do about it? As if it's suppose to scare me? Seriously. I can't figure out their calendar. Nor do I want to. Daylight savings time is confusing enough.
So, 2011 in over and done with. For the most part. Come April, we will be looking back at 2011 for deductions and anything else to help reduce our taxes when our returns come due on April 15th.
If there are any resolutions that I would like to work with this year, it would be organization. We still haven't filed out 2010 tax returns. That drives me nuts. For all of my adult life, I have had my returns prepared and mailed out long before the April 15th deadline. Thankfully, we are due a refund. But that doesn't make me feel that much better about being so late.
I'd like to resolve this year to just not give a shit. That doesn't mean I'm not going to help someone who has dropped groceries or hold a door open for another. I think it means that I'm going to work on moving slower. To the beat of my own drummer, not someone else's. If I'm ready to head out the door when the others aren't and it causing some or all of us to be late, well to hell with it. I'm not going to worry about being late. I'm not going to worry if one forgets something for school or karate. And I'm not going to stress down the highway pushing the speedlimit in order to make it there on time. If we're late. Too bad.
I'd like to resolve to be more creative. To think creatively and to actual create and put those ideas to work.
I'd like to resolve to mow the lawn if i'm tired of looking at a yard that needs attention.
I'd like to resolve to find friends. Whether it be virtual friends through blogs, forums etc., or friends in real life. I need to step out of my shell and get out more. I'd really like to find some special friend in real life. That partner in crime type person who is willing to step out of her or his shell and help me with some ideas. Yeah, I think I need a gay male friend. They are usually good for those things.
I'm sure I could sit here and find a million things I need to resolve. But some take priority.
Right now, I'd like to thank those of you who follow my posts and post responses to them. Heck, I'd like to thank anyone who drops in on this and reads something.
Thank you to those who have offered me advice. Thank you to those who laughed because they found my post funny. Life is so full of sadness. I much prefer to find humor in as many things as I can... even in death and cancer. I won't let either of those take away my humor and my smartass sarcastic self.
May you all have a peaceful and blessed new year. And if not, then may you find so much humor and laughter in it that you pee in your damn pants!
I try to not follow those kind of news items. Why bother? More than likely, nothing will happen. But if it does, what the hell am I gonna do about it? As if it's suppose to scare me? Seriously. I can't figure out their calendar. Nor do I want to. Daylight savings time is confusing enough.
So, 2011 in over and done with. For the most part. Come April, we will be looking back at 2011 for deductions and anything else to help reduce our taxes when our returns come due on April 15th.
If there are any resolutions that I would like to work with this year, it would be organization. We still haven't filed out 2010 tax returns. That drives me nuts. For all of my adult life, I have had my returns prepared and mailed out long before the April 15th deadline. Thankfully, we are due a refund. But that doesn't make me feel that much better about being so late.
I'd like to resolve this year to just not give a shit. That doesn't mean I'm not going to help someone who has dropped groceries or hold a door open for another. I think it means that I'm going to work on moving slower. To the beat of my own drummer, not someone else's. If I'm ready to head out the door when the others aren't and it causing some or all of us to be late, well to hell with it. I'm not going to worry about being late. I'm not going to worry if one forgets something for school or karate. And I'm not going to stress down the highway pushing the speedlimit in order to make it there on time. If we're late. Too bad.
I'd like to resolve to be more creative. To think creatively and to actual create and put those ideas to work.
I'd like to resolve to mow the lawn if i'm tired of looking at a yard that needs attention.
I'd like to resolve to find friends. Whether it be virtual friends through blogs, forums etc., or friends in real life. I need to step out of my shell and get out more. I'd really like to find some special friend in real life. That partner in crime type person who is willing to step out of her or his shell and help me with some ideas. Yeah, I think I need a gay male friend. They are usually good for those things.
I'm sure I could sit here and find a million things I need to resolve. But some take priority.
Right now, I'd like to thank those of you who follow my posts and post responses to them. Heck, I'd like to thank anyone who drops in on this and reads something.
Thank you to those who have offered me advice. Thank you to those who laughed because they found my post funny. Life is so full of sadness. I much prefer to find humor in as many things as I can... even in death and cancer. I won't let either of those take away my humor and my smartass sarcastic self.
May you all have a peaceful and blessed new year. And if not, then may you find so much humor and laughter in it that you pee in your damn pants!
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