A thin veil of KoolAid

So, I can write anything I want here. I know that no one reads it, not even me.

I'm a pretty boring person really

Yeah, just like the subject said. So, i spent 2 weeks trying to figure out what the heck password I used. until I finally reset it.

I saw this on another journal and stole it for here:

What are your nicknames?
Rufus (work), Bobo (my husband), Ruthie (lots of people), the Kid (my dad), Rootie (one friend), Buzzbee (a few work friends), Dorcas (long story)
What is your bedroom like?
Huge and a mess. It is crowded with yarn and craft supplies. It is bland otherwise.

What's the last book you read?
Goodnight Nobody by Jodi Pouclti. It was ok. She has a common theme for her books. Good escapism.

What color shirt are you wearing now?
Dark blue with white lettering, yes a t-shirt

Are you an introvert or extrovert?
Extrovert

Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer?
Chrome

Do you nap a lot?
Whenever I can.

Who was the last person you hugged?
My daughter, just because we were in the same room.

What's your current fandom/obsession/addiction?
The Office. I watch it every day on demand.

What are you currently reading?
Research papers.

Coffee or tea?
Tea

If you could magically change careers, and be as successful in your new career as you are in your current one, what would you be?
Actress

What websites do you visit daily?
Fark, Woot, Facebook. I don't visit any others anymore. Almost like I used up the internet.

What's the last movie you watched?
Cutters,I think that was the name, on IFC on demand

Do you like to clean?
No, not really.

What time is your usual bedtime?
8 or 9am

What kind of mp3 player do you have?
Iphone

What is your favorite weather?
68F, breezy, slight clouds

What did you last laugh at?
A really inappropriate joke that I won't repeat here.

Where would you see yourself in ten years?
Working as a midwife at a different setting, but still busy. Visiting my kids at college/new homes. Playing with my first grandchild.

Like the majority of people I know, I watched the inauguration. I had two friends with me, unfortunately, my family was not here. The schools said they would be showing it live, but ended up using the CNN feed, which was spotty at best. My son said he wished he had stayed home so he could see it better.

I was surprised by my reactions. I actually had goosebumps and tears. Lately, I have not been feeling that deeply about things. I don't think that is all bad, but sort of weird. Today proved that with the right stimulus, I will still have deep reactions.

Obama's speech was well done. It spoke to me and I found myself shouting out "Yes. Exactly" It is nice to have someone in charge who I can agree with. Someone who really appears to have listened to the people and taken what they have said to heart.

I am grateful that I was alive to see this happen, more grateful that my children will grow in a world that is changing for the better.

My biggest hope for the next four years would be an improvement in health care. Specifically, I hope we end up with universal health care. It may not be a perfect system, but truly our system now is not much better.

I also hope that midwives become the leaders for normal birth. That we end up with proper respect and compensation.

All you have to do is click above and if you are a US citizen, you can register to vote.

Yeah, I don't think so.

You Belong in 1951

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

87% John Edwards
86% Barack Obama
85% Bill Richardson
84% Chris Dodd
84% Hillary Clinton
80% Dennis Kucinich
78% Mike Gravel
77% Joe Biden
45% Rudy Giuliani
36% John McCain
28% Mike Huckabee
28% Mitt Romney
23% Tom Tancredo
19% Fred Thompson
14% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

I am amazed that I can still learn so much about human nature every day.

Not everyone is nice. Not everyone wants to be friends. Not everyone can play well with others. Sometimes there are mean people. Sometimes it amazes me who can be mean for fun.

I'm glad that I am where I am, and I am who I am. Not perfect, not always happy, but overall in a good life.

126,117 People

I started to swap only the middle of this year and already I am tired of flakes and thieves.  Don't worry, they are caught out, but then they have the apologists.  Those people who think they need a hundred chances, and not to be picked on. I guess the same people would hold the door for the shoplifter?

How the heck hard is it to be a decent human being?  Send the stupid swap?  Don't feel you are owed by everyone and can just take whatever the hell you please.  And don't think because you yell louder that everyone will think you are honest.

Blech

While on StumbleUpon, I came across this site called Swap-Bot.  I had never heard of swapping before, but it looks like a bunch of people have been doing it forever. Basically, for those like me who didn't know what it was, you make, or buy stuff to swap with others.  On Swap-Bot, they have themes for stuff, knitting, dollar store, etc ( I mean it can be anything.) 

This sounded like fun to me, so I joined and swapped.  I found people who are like me, they like Dollar Stores, and socks and stuff.  I got some really neat stuff.  There are people out there who can make some really amazing things.  And people who choose stuff that is so much fun.  I found out that stickers are fun to get. Of course, Princess loves this.  She has a great love of stuff, just like mom.

Anyway, given time I found the forums.  This was good and bad thing.  It brought back memories of the early days of Ebay. Anyone else remember when eBay didn't require registration?  When anyone could leave a feedback? Yeah, wayyyy back when, 1997, the olden days. 

Swap-bot forums were made up of the usual suspects, those who loved Swap-Bot, those who liked to play games (there are swap games, I can't really explain, but it does have to do with sending more stuff and getting more stuff) and of course, there turned out to be a section to complain.

Now, I don't have a criminal mind, and it didn't occur to me that there would be people who would take but not send. I guess it makes sense, get stuff for free. But, heck I would figure you would get caught pretty quickly and the fun would end.  But, the more I read, the more I realized that it seemed to be pretty easy to steal on the site.   There are a few reasons, it requires rating someone for not sending, and people are basically good hearted and don't want to give out bad ratings if they aren't needed.  So, someone can rake up a ton of things before anyone says anything.  Another reason is, at the time I joined, there was no way to stop someone from doing it.  There was no automatic "off" switch when someone got a bunch of bad ratings (sounds like eBay again).  And, finally, there were people who sent out just enough to look good and then take off.

Anyway, as per usual, I got caught up in the forums.  I read and posted and finally found myself sucked in.  And not in a good way. I found it was driving me crazy, I wanted to reach through the screen and shake some of these people.  How could they be so rude, immature, nasty?  How could they steal for people and then claim they were the victims?  It isn't that I hadn't seen this sort of behaviour on the net before?  I've been doing this long enough.  And in some chat rooms that could get downright vicious.  But, this was ridiculous.  And you know what, a lot had to do with it being mostly women.  People were claiming victimhood so easily.  "You are being mean" is used a lot. 

Well, I backed off after once again running into someone who was passive/aggressive and accusing those who stood up for themselves and others of being bullies.  I can't stand the whole passive/aggressive personality.  It is maddening and I have yet found a way to work against it.   How can you call someone out who doesn't say what they really mean? Who hides behind an innocent facade and calls others mean for not being as phony as they are?

Let me say, the majority of people on Swap-Bot are great. They are fun, creative women who care enough to share what they do.  But, those small few, and I think I can count maybe 3 or 4 so far who are really bad, make it so difficult to enjoy time on the site.  What makes it more difficult is that the site owner really wants to be "fair"  She wants to believe that others are good and want to do well.  So, what to do?  I don't know of any other site that works like Swap-Bot, but I have such a hard time with a site that allows the nastiness of a few to disrupt everyone.  And then turns and says that the ones who stand up for themselves are the "bullies". 

What is this whole post about?  Who knows. I think I needed to voice all this at once. To start to come to terms with the whole thing.  And finally, to help me to say what I feel can't be said on the site.

It is 7am.  Dad gets here at 4.25.  I think we are mostly ready.  Just the junk to clear.  The loose papers and what-not. Plus I need to clean out both cars.

Princess came down last night, I am not sure if she was sleepwalking or not.  Didn't say a word, just climbed in my lap and slept. I put her on the couch and she is still asleep. 

I got done with the upstairs yesterday.  Except for vacuuming the hallway.  Bis is going to have to do that after he finishes his room today. He had the day off yesterday since he went to Ren Faire and had a GREAT time.  Came home exhausted.  Since Grumpy is staying in his room he has a lot of work to do today to clean it up.

Buddy got home late last night, with Wings, whoohoo. We haven't had eat out in a long time.  We sat down to watch movies.  Number Two of the Pirates Movies.  Buddy was exhausted so slept through it.  That is usually my job:).  Then we put in 1408.  Bad choice, Princess was still awake and freaked, well so did I. So, we turned that off.  Until she fell asleep. Then we watched. I have read the story, but oh my gosh, I had my hands over me eyes most of the time.  It was so well done, even if different from the book.

Today, downstairs.  Buddy says he'll finish the kitchen, but I get the fridge and microwave. The oven, well, that is a lifetime project, it is a wreck.  I have to clean it daily just to try and get off the old stuff.  I get the bathroom (again). Bis has the playroom.  Princess gets the walls and baseboards.  Nader has the floors and uh...whatever else I feel like making him do.

Oh, did I mention, there is a pile of laundry taller than Princess.  All from upstairs.  And with all that, Princess has no jeans that fit. How is that possible?  So, off to shopping sometime this week to get her a few pair.

Well, my dad is coming to visit. This is a very big deal. It is very tough to get him to come out here.  This is the second time this year!  The first was for Nader's Bar Mitzvah,  so we were all suprised he agreed to come out for Thanksgiving.  I think the letter Princess sent along with the ATC she made, was the guilt letter that did the trick (hooray for Jewish/Agnostic guilt).

Anyway, now I am so dang stressed. The house is it's usual wreck.  Swap/craft stuff everywhere.  The usual flurry of papers flying around.  No matter what we clean it seems another part of the house explodes.  I can't seem to keep it contained.

We did get two of the upstairs rooms clean.  Princess loves to have it clean, hates to keep it like that.  Nades hates both.  But their rooms are done.  Almost looking great.  Although, I know that complaint will be that they have too much stuff. They do, I agree, but it isn't like we go out and buy them stuff all the time.  We only buy at holiday and birthday time.  We just don't throw away.

That leads me to the next part.  We are throwing away this year like never before.  I am going to purge toys, books, clothes.  Each year we do this before the holiday influx.  Well, this year, it is going to be brutal.  Ok, well, no Legos, Barbies, American Girl, Star Wars, stuff will be sent away.  So, not horribly brutal.  And stuffed animals, I hate to get rid of those.

So, instead of cleaning the bathroom or my room upstairs I am playing here.  yeah, I have a horrible stress response, sleep and procrastinate.  OH god, I am so stressed out about this house.

I don't expect anyone will really be reading this. I just thought I would give it a try. Honestly, I don't trust online journals since I think that I would worry too much about employers finding things they disagree with in my online writing.

Anyway, here I am.