But all I really have to say is a true American would not approve of the burning of any book at all. Today it’s the Quran, yesterday it was any version of the bible besides the KJV, day before yesterday it was Catcher in the Rye. But this time the lives of American soldiers could be at a higher risk.

I hope that the fire hazard of burning anything on September 11th will be closely watched. I understand there are ordinances that will be violated if they start this bonfire. I hope the hoses are turned on not just their flames but on them as well, they were obviously never spanked when they were out of control children and someone needs to set their boundaries straight. They should know better than to act like this. These kind of people are acting like short fused, spoiled, entitled, elitist, judgmental and EXTREMEly un-Christian 2 year olds. Sometimes the game of mine is bigger than yours is inappropriate. We as children of Abraham – Christians, Jews and Muslims we worship the SAME God…..!!!!!

• You know the last egg dropped on the floor. No breakfast omelet.
• One slice of bread in the bag. No ‘Dagwood’ sandwich for lunch.
• You hear someone is sick, someone else is unexpectedly expecting.
• Your vet sends the notice that your babies need their yearly shots. One more bill.
• You get kicked off of unemployment after pounding the pavement for a whole 28 days for the Census because of a clerical error. And you had to fight for the unemployment in the first place with the last, dumb, employer that let the best thing that ever happened to that place (moi) walk out of the door. And you did not want to file in the first place except for the conditions right now make it impossible not to
• You break your favorite coffee mug.
• Your kid asks for the last $10 you have in your wallet.
• Your aunt is sick, your mom is sick and your husband and cat are both sneezing and coughing. Did you ever hear a cat cough and sneeze? It’s a sad thing.
• My car gear shift breaks and I can no longer get my 2006 car into gear of any kind. Figures just paid it off.
• And 2 more overdue bills just came in the mail.
• My computer gets a virus.
• And I stepped on a tack and got bit by a spider.

This all happened to me on the same bad day about a month ago.

Prior to all this I was thinking of getting a baby gate to keep my cats out of my plant room. So they would not chew on the plants, I am not sure how safe that is or if that is causing the one’s allergies.

And for the longest (decades) time I wanted a beanbag of my own, my mom had one and I loved sitting in it. I wanted a terry lime green one. Not leather. And YES LIME GREEN. And I did not want to pay more than $20 dollars for it.

Well at the end of such a horrible day. I sat down totally defeated determined not to get up the next day, maybe even sleep the whole week away and try to forget about what a terrible, horrible, bad, very bad day this had been.

I said my prayer asking for strength. This was surely a test and I was failing miserably. I balled up and cried into my pillow until my husband got home. Then, as I cope, I asked to be taken out to walk around Meijer, it was late and nothing else would be open. I just had to act like I was shopping. Being a recovering shopaholic I only buy things that I have on lists.

And I only had two things currently on my list. That gate and that bean bag. Not wanting to pay more than $20 each. Not possible. Bean bags were going for 30 and gates over 40. And the lime green terry cloth was a long shot on it’s own.

So I am walking around in a haze leaning on the cart and my husband is saying that it’s not so bad, yeah – he had a hard time keeping a straight face saying that.

When I turned the corner into one isle and on sale -the first one you saw, ON SALE for 19.99 was a ….. WAIT FOR IT….. ….. WAIT FOR IT….. lime – green – terry cloth – bean bag. The only one there. The rest were normal colors or vinyl.

“OH MY! Thank you GOD for the little things!” My face lit up.

Then I rushed to the checkout with it, my husband said he would get it for my bday gift, and as we passed the baby isle on the way to the register I glanced over and there was an open box baby gate. Grabbed that even though it was marked 34.99. But when we got to the register is rang up 24.99 “W00t!”

It wasn’t the things that perked me up, but knowing that I was not alone.

So even when things are really, really bad, remember to ask for strength. Those little things got me back up on that mountain. And while it is sometimes a hard climb you have to remember that you are already on your way up all you have to do is keep from looking down.

Really? Voting no to extend benefits to Americans who have lost their jobs due to outsourcing, the death of industries and industrial negligence, the decline and closure of small business, just a bad economy in general. SHAME on any of the senators who voted no and who did not vote at all.

Not opening your eyes to the cost cutting that led to unsafe practices that led to the worst oil spill in American history. A spill that is decimating the Gulf of Mexico.

Honestly I can’t even begin to know who is worse right now. In our system of government if we don’t get along and work together then we cannot succeed. We don’t have the option of allowing our President to become a dictator to force people in line. No one wants anything like that. So our ONLY option is to give a little on both sides and get the work done.

This left wing / right wing bickering is accomplishing nothing at all. And was not the intention of our founding fathers.

I ponder on the words said by two of our founding fathers, a few of which I share here:

“We must all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity.” Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address.

It’s great to roll up the sleeves and help out. But are people going to do that for decades. I think the change needs to be not from people traveling into the city to help out but from the inside out. The only thing we suburbanites can do is show up at the inner city businesses to spend our money and show our photos on our blogs.

If I drive into the city to have a cup of coffee with a friend. I step around the people begging for money. I walk past the abandoned homes. I avoid the stray dogs in the street. I get in my car and high tale it back home.

But do any of us stop to talk to the person begging for money? Do we knock on the doors of the neighbors of the abandoned buildings to find out if anything has been tried to remedy the situation? Do we call animal control and wait until they show up to get the stray we saw before it bites some poor unsuspecting child? No our kids are safe at home in areas where animal control actually shows up.

We drive in and drive out.

It’s nice to take on a project or two to help out but these projects like Gleaners, Habitat for Humanity are ongoing. They are not additional assistance, just the day to day upkeep in a big city.

So Mayor Bing has taken a drastic step. I find it horrible to ask people to move from their homes because a neighborhood will be closing. But for decades they lived next to squalor and it is clear that these occupants are ok with that. Or they would have done something about it. Instead you see them barricade their doors with bars and put fences around their yards.

They shore up to defend their own little spot of land even if it is decaying around them. Something has to be done. And it looks like a lot of people are going to be forced to help themselves really soon. Maybe not soon enough.

We talked at a tweetea about how college students graduate and leave the city. I have to say that that is a good thing, because at this time there is nothing here for them. They can come back later when they have something to contribute. Not stay here to try to make it. But they can come back and bring their born and raised Detroit success back home when they are older and know what to do with it.

Maybe I am harsh. But I am being realistic. As a 40 year old I would move back to the city. But would I want my son to live there straight out of school? No. Not if there was nothing to offer him. Education not only has to be got, it has to be used.

So then you see the 75% drop out rate… well what do they see for themselves here? Most of them don’t know any other place. I think kids should travel more. On school trips. I don’t think they do much of that at all and so that makes their would seem even smaller and bleaker.

Just my thoughts as a kid who grew up in it. I think it is nice to speak of fixing things up. Problem is people living in it don’t think they need to have things fixed. It’s an apathy thing. It’s nice to give a man a fish. But why not give him a pole and teach him how to fish for himself.

This morning I spent an hour and a half showing a grown man how to hammer a nail. It is frightening how much basic knowledge people lack in some areas. Before people go in droves to fix things you have to look hard at yourself. You have culture, education, opportunity or the ability to create opportunity for yourselves.

I speak to people in the city who don’t even know where the main library is. They don’t know things, like you can take free lessons to learn how to lay tile at building supply stores. They don’t know there are green tax credits for home improvements. They could not tell you what the Internet itself does for them.They don’t use it the way most of you reading this now do. They are living in another culture. A culture of poverty and decay and showing up to sweep the dust and cobwebs away does nothing.

We should teach the children better and when they leave we should pat them on the back and say “bon voyage” and wish them well.

And if you are reading this and you are one of those people who says I am a Detroiter. Where do you live? If you live in a burb then “YOU ARE NOT” in Detroit – the issue is not with the suburbs. The issue and the TV shows are talking about the city proper. Don’t list your business as a Detroit business and hand me a business card that says Bloomfield Hills. Don’t tell my you are a PR person from Detroit and give me your phone number that has a 734 area code. Don’t tell my you hosted a Detroit event and it was in Canton. Really…. must be nice to be a Detroiter and not have to live where the problems are.

I am from Detroit, I now live in the suburbs. I am not sugar coating it. I don’t live in the city anymore. The city services were not good enough. The safety of certain areas was not good enough. And the upkeep of the neighborhoods was not good enough. So I left. But I love to visit.

Race Class Exercise
Detroit Moxie on Detroit

Adoption is a long process in the US and no matter where you adopt from you never know what kind of special needs the children may need. And dwarfism presents it’s own set of challenges. But as Matt and Amy Roloff demonstrate, parenting any child is a task of momentous portions and one that sees past each individual child’s strengths and weaknesses. They are proud parents of a wonderful family that includes a set of twins, boys, one average stature one that inherits dwarfism. And daughter Molly and son Jacob.

Honestly, it was so much fun watching everyone play and have a lighthearted good time. Jeremy was on the opposing team as Zack. The twins recent graduates from high school, w00t!, are no less competitive then any other brothers.

The celebrities on hand were also rigorously competitive and towards the end of the final moments pushed things into overtime.

The crowd was enormous and loudly supportive for the teams and the cause. I enjoyed the silent auction where the doors were manned by Star Wars Storm Trooper guards. Yep, it was definitely a celebrity, movie memorabilia / sports auction.

The event was presented by Biz Match Connect and hosted by Troy Athens High School where Marty Klebba of (Pirates of the Caribbean, Scrubs, movies and TV fame) is an Alumni.

Rick Mahorn was in the house that was pretty cool. Mr. Matt Roloff was proudly cheering for both of his boys while Amy was back at home at the farm holding things together. I was kind of hoping to meet her as both her and Matt are my parenting heroes. They hold it together with 4 kids when I have a hard time with one. As a lot of us do. Parenting is a hardest job you’ll ever love.

Watching ‘Little People’ on TLC I have to say that the idea that I had about life being impossible if I were a dwarf was blown out of the water. Matt especially has done things that I shake my head and say ‘Uh Uh’ and Amy has a never ending supply of parental energy and support. And Amy truly shakes her head at her boys just like the rest of us wives and mothers but watching the kids themselves and how they have been raised in a loving environment, the physical conditions that come up are always last thought on your mind. Kids and teens themselves are enough to raise, the health issues are not even center stage.

So it makes me think.

What a wonderful addition to any home a child is.

And these children, teeming with potential, can be a blessing to any parents.

I would have to think if you were looking to adopt this option has not crossed your mind. That the need even exists may not have been brought to your attention.

Additional information CODA

First off let me say that our Coffee Party Allen Park Michigan meetings happen on Saturdays. I overbooked my weekend so I changed our summit to Sunday.

I also changed the time to 2pm, from 12 noon, in case of church conflict.

That was the first two things that had to happen.

Next was Terry Williams (NEW head of the Michigan Coffee party) just happen to pick this day to visit our little coffee shop chapter of the Coffee Party meeting world. So for him, being new in his position, this is another funny moment in timing.

Then our meeting ran super extra long and people started to trickle in late, very late and still later.

Then when our official meeting was over Doug, Terry and myself stayed to chat for about 20 more minutes. Even standing for a few to continue our discussion.

Here is where timing is everything.

We were signing a thank you card during the days meeting for the passage of health care reform. My plan was to give it to Mr. Dingell because of historical reasons. But barring our ability to get a meeting with Mr. Dingell we would go with thanking Congressman John Conyers.

The card was signed throughout the afternoon. And each time it was signed I was asked, who will be getting this card? And each time I would reply ‘I would like to get to hand it to Dingell, but it probably will be impossible. But I have already contacted John Conyers and I am on a list, on a list to get an appointment that is. May take a while, they are busy men. But with any luck…but giving this to Mr. Dingell would be so…incredible.’ I gave this short speech to about 10 people today between 2-5pm. Never thinking that I had a snowballs chance of getting past handing the card to an aid. But I never give up hope and I am very persistent, so my odds were better than none.

And then we were walking out of the building when who is standing at the doorway holding open the door for us to leave.

YOU BET HE WAS!! THE Congressman himself. Whose unstoppable fight to get the people of the United States health care, and to keep it in the forefront of American politics never wavered. His father before him took up this flag and the battle was long and hard. And I am sure he is looking down with a pride, that must be indescribable, for his son .

WE WON!!

So naturally we (Me, Doug and Terry) just gushed and awwed and ahhhed. While he was left holding the door for us. Well it took me a minute but we came to our senses and got the door from him so he could get in out of the chilly, rainy Michigan weather. He is such a gentleman he never complained or shouted ‘Will someone get this door!’ He was great in person. Very personable.

Of course he did not really make it into the building, he made it into the hallway. We were so excited we lost all decorum. lol. But in a good way. Because our group in general is very pleased with the passage of hcr. It is a very good, overdue start.

We stood in the hallway and it took me a second to remember, in the spinning in my head, that there was a card JUST FOR HIM in my hand.

‘We have a card for you. Do you mind if we get a photo?’ I managed to squeak out like a teenager at a rock concert. As I fumbled in my bag for my camera. Which was well charged and already in my bag from the photowalk the previous day. Where normally the shot would have been taken on my camera phone at about 1/4 megapixel resolution. A quality which may have allowed you to see our faces clearly-NOT. And certainly could not be blown up to the size I will make the one taken on my camera.

‘Yes. You should be in it too.’ said his wife, wonderful woman, reaching for the camera and took the pic. Thank You! Mrs. Dingell because there was no way I was calm enough to even think that one through.

There went my plan to calmly meet with him and practice my speaking so that I sounded half sensible.

Imagine the odds…..

Image via Wikipedia

I wasn’t going to weigh in on this subject. Because I am Catholic and because I have had a personal experience in my life (a friend) that made me really pained on this issue.

I think abortion should be legal and unhindered by laws that go beyond establishing fetus viability.

BECAUSE:

When I was younger, around 19, a friend who was in a steady relationship came up pregnant. We were not kids we were old enough I guess. But after a few weeks she started to have this pain in her side. Well we thought maybe you should go get checked out. She did. It was then we learned about a condition called an ectopic pregnancy my friend had no choice but to have an abortion or both her and the baby would die.

So there you go.  You make abortion illegal it is a slippery slope. Denying payment for procedures that are abortions likewise condemns women.

Personally I think it is a sin, but medically sometimes it is necessary and so it is a morality decision (past the viability of the fetus, which it then becomes a life on it’s own outside of the womans body – I think) … and here we go again. Because what I think is influenced by my religious beliefs. And I would no more support stoning then forcing someone who does not have my religious views to think about it the same way that I do.

That is where crossing religion with law will end. The stoning of people. Plucking out of eyes. Think about it. Can you legally force morality on a human being with free will? If the answer was yes then the death penalty would mean no murders would take place in areas that have it. So………

Well, for one, you give a task to a Michigander and it’s as good as done. And with a smile. So if it is task driven the rest don’t stand a chance.  A Detroiter will eat gum from the bottom of their shoe for a prize (not really so don’t ask).

As it starts to warm up in our dual peninsula state we come out and with true joy we enjoy spending time with friends and family around town(s) we migrate internally a lot to be social. We eat at restaurants together, go to art shows, movies and just walks in the park. We shop at malls and talk over beers. And sometimes just sit on our porches and chat it up.

If anything can be said about a tweetup it is a gathering of friends simply coordinated on social media. And we work so hard for what we have here in Michigan that we party twice as hard when the time comes.

In Michigan there is never a shortage of bright smiles on the faces of the people I see at social media events, any social events really. It is truly our blessing to hang out.

To put it in the clearest possible terms. We, here in Michigan, are what tweetups are about. There is no getting tired when there is a goal on the horizon and ten times more energy surges through our veins when the prize is more fun with friends. So the other teams don’t even stand a chance. The Chevrolet Tweetup is as good as in Michigan’s grubby little mitten.

And btw we love the toenails.

Image by lululemon athletica via Flickr

The idea of gtFtr is mega.  I love it.

But there website design for their beta is not very nice and user friendly it is not. The link to how to format a tweet goes to a list of posts that are way too much information.

What I would like to see that would make me not only use gtFtr but I would pay a small yearly fee to do so. Like maybe even $19.95

Format of tweet:

to set an initial goal

@gtFtr activity/walking-span/daily-goal/10-unit/blocks

@gtFtr activity/walking-span/weekly-goal/5-unit/miles

@gtFtr activity/reading-span/daily-goal/300-unit/pages

to record activity

@gtFtr activity/walking/1  

would mean you walked 1 mile

@gtFtr activity/reading/200  

would mean you read 200 pages

span should be limited to   hourly daily weekly monthly yearly

To check status of a goal

@gtFtr ?reading

would return something like

You have completed 225 pages or reading in the last day you have not met your goal – keep up the good work

or

You have met your goal of reading! You Rock!

or

Goal of reading not met in last span. Count has been reset.

Image via Wikipedia

OK I totally am more than fine with fashion trends and the things that we do to fit in. I have been known to wear a pair of shoes two sizes too small because it was the perfect pair and the only size they had in the store.

I also like the fashion trend of showing a little boxer from under a pair of hard working jeans. That said – they should hang low not fall down. I just don’t get it.

When my son was about 14 I took him out for his yearly new school clothes and got the low riding baggy jeans and a slew of drink themed boxers (Jack Daniels, Heineken, Budweiser etc.). I thought it was a cute idea. His teacher’s did not think so, but oh well another story for another time.

But to have your legs bound so that you cannot walk without holding up your pants and if you hold them up you aren’t able to use your hands is just beyond me.

So after quite some time looking around at and being puzzled by this pants actually on the ground. I had to ask.

“Are you comfortable wearing your pants like that?”

And, not in a disrespectful way, but standing up for what they thought the group of teens answered me back with great confidence “Are you comfortable with your pants up?”

Kudos kids for sticking up for what you believe in and not being intimidated out of following whatever silly trend you like, after all the only one you can hurt wearing your pants like that is yourself when you fall down.  So if you are ok with that and your parents are ok paying the medical bills enough to let you leave the house like that then who am I to complain.

But please remember what my grandma used to always say “Remember to wear clean underwear when you leave the house.”

Image via Wikipedia

Short of hiring a real live personal assistant. I wish. I try to put together the best possible combination of software products to connect me with my scheduling/communicating data. I was using Google calendar. It was ok. They made some improvements to it, but I had trouble with the syncing of the data between various sources where I have my events listed.

So after my evaluation of Win7 expired I installed a purchased copy (ACER you should have supplied this for me). That meant that I had to backup and restore all my data and reinstall my software(s). Uggggh! BUT! This is the time I usually take to try other options for getting things done.

The latest rendition of Windows Live Outlook Connector Rocks! It links Outlook to my web based calendars on Windows Live. They sync seamlessly. No trouble at all – options for not importing duplicates (very important, this was big issue with Google calendar). Also another issue with Google calendar was that I could not figure out how to share and view each imported calendar separately on it’s own with private or public viewing options. If there was a way to do it then I could not figure it out and so it was not useful to me. Don’t make me think.  I want a single combined view of all my calendars with each on it’s own having security options.

So in Windows Live calendar I import by using the Subscribe link at the top of the page, I select the saved Outlook .ics file that I want to import make sure all options are properly selected and GO. Voila!

This may finally be a working solution. Not the half starts of the past. We will see. Keep an eye out for future posts about me trying to find a better PIM option.

BTW

I use a little paper weekly planner for my purse. I went through trying to use gizmos (PDAs, Sidekicks, iPhones, cell phone calendars, etc.) Nothing beats being able to pencil someone in or cross something out without having to boot-up, turn on, connect and navigate to where that is stored on a device.  imho

Image via Wikipedia

When I reach a certain point of frustration and I am at the end of my short string of patience I crack open the book and it usually calms me down – and then I crack open the other book and it gives me understanding. In the other book I look up the word that most encompasses the reason that I am feeling vexed. So that I may gain knowledge.

Last night that word was opposition.

Under the definition was:

 n. In politics the party that prevents the Government from running amuck by hamstringing it.

The King of Ghargaroo, who had been abroad to study the science of government, appointed one hundred of his fattest subjects as members of a parliament to make laws for the collection of revenue. Forty of these he named the Party of Opposition and had his Prime Minister carefully instruct them in their duty of opposing every royal measure. Nevertheless, the first one that was submitted passed unanimously. Greatly displeased, the King vetoed it, informing the Opposition that if they did that again they would pay for their obstinacy with their heads. The entire forty promptly disemboweled themselves.

Alrighty then…  It was the word opposition that was rattling around in my attic nothing about hate, or fear only the feeling of something pushing against me (us).

Because in our “great experiment” of American government our very own brand of democracy, that I believe, was inspired by God. 

Our system of government is sometimes slow, but ultimately our life under it gets better. Slavery gets ended. Women get the right to vote. All men and women get due process of law.

You might think some things are not quite there yet, and you would probably be right. Like healthcare reform.

I don’t hate the Republican party any more then I hate Democrats when a Republican president is in the white house.  They are just doing their job. I do hate, and think that the highest form of evil, this incarnation of the tea party. These are hateful, racist, malicious, bigoted, vial spewing, demagogic destroyers of our democratic process.

And they should be arrested and tried for treasonous behavior, imnsho.

Not for having an opinion against something. Heck you can oppose all you like. Say things that annoy me and that I totally disagree with and that is what our system is designed to have the minority and unconventional groups do, but inciting violence and hate (which the tea party clearly does) should not be allowed. Especially after we see that someone has already killed himself and another for this cause. And others support this act of terrorism.

Those people who openly support that horrendous act are no better than conspirators to the 9/11 bombing.  And they should be ashamed of themselves to think they are any different because the are citizens of such a country that even tolerates them for a minute.

You see if the minority party did not do it’s duty and oppose what we the people in the majority wanted then we would all be 400 pound, non-working, beer guzzling slobs that sit around stare blankly at our 60’ plasma TVs all day. Heck Yeah!

But it is also our duty to keep our voice loud and clear.  We are given the time to stand back and reflect – this period of opposition gives us that. If we take this time and still believe firmly that this is the right thing to do and it will benefit the people of the United States then there are options and procedures (reconciliation) in place to allow us to get what we (the people) want.

Sometimes we get it and it is bad. Then we will eventually have another option to allow us to make repairs. That is our election process. The minority may become the majority and repeal the law if it appears to have been a bad choice.

Now for the tea partiers. What idiot believes the lines of opposition? I just have to ask why these people believe that the government officials in the minority, on either side ever, believe their own words???  They are simply doing their job by voicing opposition loud enough and strong enough for us to calm down and consider our consequences. But after we fully understand what we are asking for then we can have it.

What brain damage infects this group of people who think that no health care system for all is a good thing? For what money? It costs too much you don’t want to pay? If that is your reason it is an evil one and so very wrong. We will always have costs. We will always, however reluctantly, turn over our tax dollars to pay for them. Because we benefit from them.

And this fear of the unknown. Lovers of democracy understand that our American system will allow us to repair any damage done by taking chances and trying bold things. So yes. I may worry that this new system of health care may not work right. It may turn out horrible. But in weighing that against doing nothing – just sit back and pretend that people are not dying every day in the greatest country on this planet… I would be ashamed not to keep shouting in favor of it loud and clear.

If you read this and were opposed to reform. You can always change your mind. It is, after all, the beauty of our great government of freedoms and options to allow us to do so openly and without fear of prosecution.

• http://healthcareforamericanow.org/
• http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/bipartisan-meeting
• http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/health-care

Troy, MI tax hike fails, city looks to close library, cut police officers <- cautionary tale of a successful tea party.

World Health Organizations Rankings by Country

The World Map of What’s Making Us Sick

Image via Wikipedia

I read the Internet. And I do this using Feeddemon. I read it like the Sunday paper. Sometimes one day during the week sometimes 2 and on Sundays. I subscribe to almost three dozen feeds. Some are only photo streams, some are Twitter streams and some are actual full blogs and – well you get the picture, if it has an RSS feed I will read it. If I like it.

I would love to be able to carry my feeds over to my ebook but at this time most sites do not format for ebook screens.

Anyway, in Feeddemon there is an option to share, this sends a link to whatever I was reading to Google Reader. From there I can do any other sharing automatically. I choose my Twitter stream. There is also an option to share with a note.

One thing: When I shared with a note knowing it would go to Twitter I wanted to give twitcred to the author. So I link to their Twitter account with a via @whoeverwroteit – this was fine until I ran into feeds where I did not know the author. Blogs like Huffington Post have multiple authors. Then I would have to manually look up the author and of course this was not fun nor efficient and if anything pains me most it it inefficiency.

So I thought about it? THE FEED!!!! THE FEED!!!!!!!!

So I edited the code on my own website. I added via @jchronowski47 to the title of each blog post to display only in feeds. That way when it is shared through an aggregator and/or parsed through whatever means to Twitter from my RSS feed it already supplies the poster with my twitcred mention

Not sharing just reading then the via @ doesn’t hurt it is just there.

Now all I have to do is cross my fingers and hope the world also thinks of this. Or reads this post.

Then my life would be easier and I would be happier, at least on my digital planet.

Image via Wikipedia

Spent this evening getting a sneak peak at the new DPL website. Looks good. Cleaner interface.  I hope when it is live they don’t make me think too much.

The library is in the Detroit cultural center area. College, museums, library, plenty of cafes. Where all the vibrant people of Metro Detroit thrive.

I enjoyed a tour of the library that brought back a memory for me around every corner.

I look forward to the post with wonderful photos on Detroit Moxie.

I think I spent at least one full day in that place the entire decade of 1970 and the entire decade of 1980 after that it was when I could drive down. Not nearly as often as I would have liked.  We still go there at least twice a month. But I will be in there way more often when the computer lab is complete. Wifi is a good attractor.

Conrad Welsing gave us historical tidbits while we walked the gilded halls. Conrad’s love for books, music and library life was enthusiastic as well as informative. He told us about the amazing computer lab project that is going on there and showed us the many computerized areas they already have working. Also the teen multimedia room has a feature that lend to the hope that kids will also become interested in the arts, the walls are lined with manga (Très cool!). And the game and music systems there are a sure draw to keeping kids in a place where they could thrive instead of get into trouble.

He told us about the various sections for books and that like the museum what you see in the public areas is only a fraction of the nearly 7 million books the DPL system has. I got to see the Ernie Harwell room. I didn’t know they had one.

They have many events at the DPL. The same night they hosted the #tweetup they had a AARP event and a Disco event, (I hope they have another disco discussion ‘cause I caught a glimpse and I’ve gotta sit through a whole one of these). 

People in the city as well as in the metro areas should really check out what is going on there. All over again.

They have a Facebook page. I fanned it. I hope to keep with the events via the FB Events app. But I also follow on Twitter.  Thanks to @beckdavis keeping on top of the metro area I caught the tweet just in time to run out and enjoy myself. When I heard the tweetup was at the Library I did not even think twice. That is one place in Detroit you can get me to anytime.

Walking the halls we heard about a few of the incredible and numerous murals, and there are so so many. Whenever you go to check out a book or a movie or to jump on the Internet on one of their computers take some time to stop in the halls and look around. Look up at the ceiling with all of its gold leaf and detailed carvings and moldings look at the artworks on the walls around you. These would be prizes in any museum. Take the time to really look closely at all the marble that lines the inner and outer structure. Think of how much work and time and care went into each square inch. It truly is a marvel and a beauty of architecture.

I was surprised to know that there are teams of elves that are master wood carvers that can be called upon to carve a broken piece of intricately carved whatever… the damaged piece is removed and the new takes it’s place. Seamless – they have such skills you would not know it was a replacement. I guess that is the idea. This piece of information was fascinating to me.

We stopped briefly in front of the lighted directory board probably installed in the late 60s. It is on the wall just inside the Woodward entrance. This was the way we found all the sections that housed all the books that contained the answers to all of our questions when I was a kid. On the tour we got to walk on and admire the stairway that is so incredible it just has to have it’s own role in movies.

Parents should take their kids here when they are very young. It is a way to instill awe. Both at the skill and the vision of such a landmark.  My mom took me and my fiends there and to this day these are my most heartfelt thoughts of my childhood. nostalgic and sappy.

It all make me miss my old neighborhood branch even more. The building was brick and just as impressive in it’s own much smaller less marble way. Each corner of stone is carved to say this is what knowledge can lead to, colossal achievements. If you learn you can do great things. Just sitting outside of the building after our girl scout meetings was inspiring and comforting at the same time. Learning who Shakespeare was while sitting on a stone step. Reading the whole teen choose your own adventure series one book at a time over the course of 3 summers. Thanks for the memories.

I am glad to see that the main branch is booming. Every time I go in there it is full of people. Parking is worth fighting for. And if you plan it right you can make a day out of a trip to the museum (you may try to get passes at the library) and get your read on, you can take in a concert or see a movie.  Remember too that this is the library which means they have classes. Learn computers or how to write a resume and search for a job too. This is where the knowledge lives and this is the life blood of the city. Live it. Share it. Experience it often and with friends.

Thanks for the memories @becksdavis @admore @davidlingholm @likelylad32 and of course our great host @detroitlibrary

Read the post and see the great photos of this masterpiece of a building by @becksdavis on Detroit Moxie

Minimum Advertised Price: an agreement between suppliers and retailers stipulating the lowest price an item is allowed to be advertised.

This is why when shopping online, sometimes the price doesn’t show up unless you add to cart.

I am a fan and show it – here is the code.

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Also allow visitors to your sites to become fans of #tweetea right from your website. With this code.

#tweetea is the brainchild of Hubert “GAM” Sayers III and a collaborative effort of Social Media professionals and fans in the Metro Detroit area.

Now this should not be retroactive. But it should include ANY GROUP (corporation/state) or THEIR REPRESENTATIVE who can help or stifle something that is being asked to be implemented to benefit or protect the people of the United States.

So that a senator or congressman who voted no on health care reform (or anything else) will not be allowed to use this service in their state.

The grace – Now this can be worked around. We don’t want to punish the people who have hypocrites running their state. So the workaround would be that the ones who got the thing passed would be able to vote amongst themselves whether or not to include that group/state that person represents. So it would be an act of grace by those who worked for something instead of against something.

Track the Money – even in your zip code


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Fight Recovery Act Hypocrisy :

http://my.democrats.org/hypocrisy

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Putting a rail system of any kind in any area to drive business. Well in a new area there is nothing but new to build. No memories, no history. So rails in the old days would bring people to fresh clean areas.

I was born and raised in the D. I saw the People Mover. hmmm. We road it twice in a time when most of my time was spent downtown then we opted to walk. It’s downtown, it’s not that big. Even in the coldest wettest weather we sometimes would not even bother.

This rail. This M1. I love rail systems. LOVE DC and NY. Have heard of others that I am sure I would like. But not for their ability to drive business. But to take me to where the action is.

Putting a rail in metro Detroit is like having a mansion. 15 bedrooms. No windows. You decide to add windows to a few rooms. Problem is there are bodies in all the rooms you have chosen. And you think people will just walk around them to get to the view outside of the window.

First of all you have to get rid of the body, then the odor, then the memory of the decaying corpse.

Detroit and Michigan have a lot of work to do before investing in anything like this.

It’s flawed thinking. I would love a rail system, but only after there is life for it to take me to.

Granted there are things to get to in the D. The stadiums, Fox, Greektown. But if I would be going to any of those

1. I could afford it
2. I would already have a car or some form of transportation
3. I would rather know that I could get in and out on my schedule so I would take my car and pay for parking
4. Standing in that downtown area waiting for the rail would make me feel uncomfortable and unsafe.
5. Too easy to go to a suburb with an established social scene. Why go to the D. No need to convince people to take the chance in Detroit.
6. Too much devastation to see while I am out having a good time. It is a downer.

Most likely people would at least use it to park there cars in safer areas like the burbs that the rail may go through. Turning them into giant lots. But then again who wants to be on someone’s else’s schedule to go into some areas.

It’s just facts. If you deny them then you will not fix them.

I think rather than trying to bring outside people to spend time in Detroit it should be done from the inside out.

There are entire communities in the D that never go to the museum, library, stadiums, proper restaurants like Greektown, the Indian town and Mexican town etc. They never spend time in the arts or nature areas of the city. They just don’t take part in their own city. They in some cases don’t even know how to. And when they hear of something there is a charge. Some people don’t realize you can get passes to museums at libraries. Why? Most libraries in the city closed down decades ago. And the will to get to the main library is only harbored inside of a few strong personalities unafraid to find their own resources and dispel the taunting designed to keep them from reaching higher peaks then their peers. Being a nerd in the suburbs is cool, but in the city it can be deadly.

When I go to the Detroit Public library I see tons of kids in there on the Internet. These kids will probably at some time during the year go to the museum, a show at the Fox and these same kids will also most likely graduate high school.  They have some basic skills to navigate their own community and to actually see what is outside of it. Some kids in the city limits do not even know what the Fox theater is. Much less any show that may be available for them to attend.

This I think is where the problem lies. Not just stick a way to get to nowhere in the middle of the ruin.

Simple enough. I also figured why not use HTML5 and CSS3 for the new theme. If you are going to do something be innovative. So in order to play with the theme you need to login to my WP theme site wpthemes.jack-in.com

If you would like to contribute a theme here is the CSS. Edit it and send it to me. I will add it to the vault so you can see it in action.

/* == BASICS == */
*
{
border-width: 2px ! important;
}

/* == ELEMENTS == */
/* a place for misc. styles */
/* == ALL YOUR CODE IS POETRY == */


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When I was a little girl I saw a TV show about the old Burma Shave ads. I thought that good advertising was the best thing in the world. This has always been my measuring stick. If I can do for clients what this campaign did then I am content in life.

Quick someone ring the alarm! Whew…I have not partied like that in quite some time. Vodka Vodka the charity event benefiting Forgotten Harvest. It was a very good time. 

I do have to say first that Detroiters really know how to play. We work hard for our money and you bet that bottom dollar we show it when the time comes.

A great time was had by me personally because of a few friends so shout out to Lisa, Pati, Pat, Donna, Tracy and her friend Ed and new acquaintance Betty and her husband. There were also several dance partners last night and I can only recall one LJ the rest were after a few of the free vodkas so they kind of blurred together (Yippie!!!!!!).  And yes there will probably be photos of me holding drinks on the internet. It was a vodka party. Get over it.

The Metro times has a few events this year and I plan to attend at least another two or three myself. I could be persuaded to get to more. But one has to sleep. 

Let’s start with the food… No… The FREE food! The best offering was from Svedka vodka. The ONLY all natural vodka. and it was very good (both the food and the vodka). They had pulled pork mini burgers with a raspberry vodka bbq sauce. YUM! Thank You Svedka. I was given this mixed drink at Svedka which was very good, and I might add that cherry ties into Michigan, cherry chocolate martini. This was something to have at hand at home on cold Michigan nights when you just gotta have something chocolate to warm you up.

And offering a burger as filler for a room full of drinkers was not only good eating but helpful. Their food was the only really worth mentioning at length.

There was also an extremely wise choice of bruschetta served, but as my bag with all my cards in it was missing at the end of the night I don’t remember who was responsible for that. It was yummy and a great choice for a vodka party.

There was a Michigan bean salad that included a side of whole grain bread, but it was cold and beans on top of a quart of vodka leaves lots of cleanup for the crew in the morning. Nachos are a nice thought but I have to lean with the comment about beans and cleanup. Best food to serve, and bars know this, with liquor are things that soak up that alcohol, pretzels, chips, breads, and if you want to be super then sandwiches are top of the food chain with large quantities of drink. Tons of variety of bruschetta would also be a fine decision for next year. Can we say waitresses with trays of hors dourves walking around that would have been a more ideal way to serve food and employ a few extra people also.

Sugar also is wonderful under normal circumstances, but after the first dessert like tasting of the night, a pleasure I might add or chocolate raspberry vodka truffles and lemon vodka truffles, oh so good, but your taste buds kind of don’t care what it is after a while. By the time I tried the raspberry chocolate something or other cake with something or other vodka frosting it became just that something or other.

I am sure I live in metro Detroit and I darn well know we can cook up a storm here. But reminding me at an event where I may not be able to keep your card and after a while the event itself causes me to forget who made what fancy thing. The only thing I remember is shot, pulled pork, shot, pulled pork, shot, pulled pork. It’s the only way to keep the machine going. So buy Svedka for your next party to remember. Because if you drink this vodka you are a person who must have fun but responsibly.

A side note here. It was nice and thoughtful of The Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Company to be there right by the door with fresh brew for the party goers. A sobering reminder to sober up before you tried to leave. They are also fair trade.

I am a straight vodka drinker (albeit a seldom drinker) and as such there were two vodkas that stood out for me Valentines vodka. Straight up it was a full flavor with a burn when it hit your mouth and no burn on the way down. I got a delayed reaction from it so when you are drinking the very nice Valentines vodka please wait a few minutes for it to kick in. It fooled me because of the lack of burn on the way down. Excellent for shooters. And hand distilled in Michigan. For the small gathering of real vodka connoisseurs.

There was another vodka that drank like water, but it had that kick and super fast. So if you ever wanted to try straight vodka but never have or don’t like straight alcohol at all try this one. Drinking this straight will amaze your party friends. Look like a tough Russian kicking back a few shots of straight vodka. True North hand-crafted in small batches using local ingredients, and you can’t beat the lake water of Michigan. This choice would be mine for the newbie straight vodka drinker for the reason of no harsh alcohol burn. And for regular vodka drinkers, beware, serving this in mixed drinks at your next party will lead to dancing on the ceiling. So if you want your party written up as a great time had by all in the society section then serve True North.

Now for the criticism.

Now keep in mind I am available and seeking a wonderful group of people to work with. I live in Michigan after all. And Sherry was a lifesaver of understanding and the rest of the Metro Times crew rocked, it is hard to keep a happy room sometimes when there is lots of drinking going on and they did it. So kudos the the MT staff.

BUT… on the event itself.

1. If you are going to have a drinking event. Forget the kitschy Russian rubles pass out tickets. And you would be required to turn one in for each drink. Only Grey Goose marked my rubel once. I had 5 drinks last night. Other people commented on the same thing. You don’t need that much to drink in 4 hours. 10 tickets would have set the biggest man up for a drive me home time. There were people telling me they had lost count at 12 drinks and they got there late.

2. Coat check. First thing when we walked in the door we were like “we are going to drink free vodka and have to watch our coat?” not good for the mingle.

3. If you are going to give out swag bags at the end of the night DO NOT allow people to walk up to the table and take them earlier. One person did – another did and then they proceeded to tell people go ahead I did, just walk up to the table and get one. Not a problem ordinarily but when you mix bags and drinking, there were people just picking up bags off of tables. OK lesson in manners is needed here. If a bag is on a table it belongs to someone. If you are not sure if it is your bag DO NOT be too drunk to look in it and remember what your had before walking off with it. The t-shirts in your bag were purchased by someone. So if you got a t-shirt in your bag chances are you just grabbed someone’s $10 shirt and walked off with it. Also mine was one of them and my eye glasses were in that bag. Please return them contact me or the Metro Times offices. You can keep the shirt. It will be appreciated.

4. The DJ sucked! And when going to ask if he had anything else to play besides techno I was told that they hired him because he plays what he wants, not what the crowd likes to hear. FAIL ! So he turned the volume up so high playing his techno people could have gone deaf(er). What did he think we could not hear him and that was why people weren’t dancing? Really? IT WAS BECAUSE THIS WAS IN LARGE PART NOT A TECHNO CROWD!!! So after a while he decided that he would play Prince and upon the first spin of that record the people trickled up onto the dance floor. So then he played 2 more Prince songs followed by a Michael Jackson song, rinse and repeat. Are you kidding me.

Now for the critique on the marketing, because that is what I do. I take things and make people happy to experience them.

Svedka your website needs to lose the flash. And what is up with the Robot? Who convinced you to spend all this money on this strange campaign. The vodka itself is great and it’s the only vodka able to say on the bottle all natural. Honestly, I could not even bring myself to link to one of your billboards it was like what?

Valentines vodka. Great idea to grab a small spot and pass out shots. But I had to ask for a complete ounce. 10ccs of vodka just wasn’t going to do it. And that was a little, um, frugal of you. And for having the best high end straight vodka you should have had a free flowing fountain of it (not really but lots of it).

And now a word about a sponsor. Not a vodka company. Vitamin water was great, but Red Bull, I got home and gave my kid the Red Bull and he noticed that in 3 days they would be expiring. Now expiring things as freebies are usually ok but not at a top level event like this one was. That was kind of tacky and I just had to say that because my kid did. And if the kids are laughing at you then you know you made a slight gaffe.

OK. so all in all it was a 7 on a scale of 1-10 for mass party/charity event. Could have been organized a little better but all in all a really good job. It was, after all, the MTs first Vodka Vodka. When is the Whiskey Whiskey?

Image by molotalk via Flickr

• You have a corporation. If you pass health care there will be some adjustment. It will take a little time but in the end your bottom line will be healthier employees therefore better productivity then leading to a better served consumer. Seems easy as 123. It would be but…
• Now. You have some people opposing this, and many other ideas. Why? Well if I were a manager, one who had lost my very morality, I would say that this would be a bad thing. What if my plan to implement these required changes failed? I would look bad, what if the plan cost the company money for 5 years and this 5 years was under my contract time. I would look like I was losing the corporation money. The bottom line would sway under me and I would have to put this on my resume. My 750k a year salary may drop to 200k I can’t have that. I am accustomed to this level of spending and so is my family. I am therefore opposed to any kind of change at all that would rock the boat, even if it is beneficial to the company in a time past when I would be credited or past blame.
• Third you have the largest rung of this ladder. The workforce. They need their income and usually work paycheck to paycheck. They are too busy to look into the details of the day to day running of the company that they may even be shareholders in. These are the people who are conditioned to believe that they have no power. So they digress. They sign away their corporate votes or don’t even care what the corporation does as long as they don’t don anything to lose whatever they are given for their days work. They don’t picket their own companies or rebel against the status quo in their own backyard, because their livelihood of their families is at stake. You don’t bit the hand that feeds you.

This third class. This middle class is who will be pushed even farther down under the strength of the dollar controlled by the few hands that do feed them.



I don’t know. This to me is frightening how something like this has even been allowed to pass.



Sort of like a flashback of the passing of the ‘Patriot Act’ after the movie ‘Enemy of the State’ came out. That was a big duh brain slip in American political history…



I guess until these legislations start to turn on those that supported them in the first place then we just will not learn.
So instead of just talking to these brick walls of walking idiocy, I think we should start to use their own tools against them. A bit of political aversion therapy.


And be the ones to stand up in the crowd and say that where there was smoke there might just be fire. While some in corporate America are comfortable just sitting still while the flames get closer and closer. They think there will always be time to head for the exits. We have seen this in so many huge ways in the past few years more so. The everyday man and woman on the street keeps asking ‘what about this? If you don’t change this won’t it go bad?’ And the big wigs say ‘no we are too big to fail like that, don’t worry we know what we are doing we are educated for this’. And the corporations take the short term money and toss it into the pockets of the shareholders and insist that the Titanics will never sink. And they believe them because their pockets are lined with gold. Gold is heavy when the boat sinks.

image from nationsonline.org

click to buy Chico Bags on Amazon

use water filters and refill your water bottles. Better yet, there are even bottles out there that make your water taste better. So rid yourself of the plastic all together.

Understanding-Plastic-Codes – Chart (btw if you are drinking out of some plastic cup or bottle that has the numbers 2, 4 or 5 on it you are safe from toxins. Number 1 can only be used once and should not be refilled. 3 don’t give your worst enemy a drink from this. Remember how many of us drank from the hose… If we knew then.




image from coliq.wongkediri.com


Locate a RECYCLE CENTER in your area


I think that these things are so easy and just about the minimum that you can do without even batting an eyelash. So what is the reason you would like to keep adding to the trash pile when it takes no effort at all to change just a few habits.

view the live plugin here http://wpthemes.jack-in.com

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And I started to over analyze (it’s better that way) about this whole process in general.



I always tend to jump ahead sometimes it just takes a leap of a faith that tells me that it is able and available to be done, but people just don’t do it. I know that I have seen defaults in themes. Where do they come from? How do they link in to a theme? Can I create my own default? Why not. Someone out ther had done this before me. I just have to find out what the steps are and do it also.



I began to wonder why I had to create entire pages of code. CSS can place and format any item on a web page. Why do themes contain pages at all?



It seems to me there should be an id for each part of what can display on a Wordpress site and that #id should have #names and each name could be assigned lower classes also. So, again what is with the pages of any kind of HTML whatsoever. I always said that I would not use CSS until I was ready to give up almost completely on using any kind of HTML at all. If my data is dynamic, and I can completely format with CSS why would I need anything else.



Well, Wordpress may just be the push I need. I would like to say that theme designers around the world need to agree on some standard #ids for components. We know that we use #container, #content, #post, #comments, #sidebar etc. so why not take these basics and develop themes that consist only of style-sheets and a theme settings page the active file being set up by Wordpress itself?



example:


If you have a #comment tag your theme settings can say show comments or not. the <#id> would then be hidden or not. With CSS and the settings of the theme that would be it. no need for the extra files to even exist.



Wordpress itself lets you borrow from other themes with their CSS setting Template: option. So why is it not used more often. Why are there not more strong bases to use as default templates. Kubrick is ok but I want more…lot’s more…



The template option is there for a reason.


Anyway, I just had to get that off my back. Redundancy really bugs me.

Related Posts On Other Sites:

• Wordpress Child Themes
• Parentchild Themes Wordpress

This really seems like a no brainer. Someone dropped the ball and people could have died.

This isn’t like someone forgot to clean up a spill in aisle 3 at the local grocery store. That is bad enough, but we are all human and mistakes happen. This is national security and placing hundreds if not thousands of lives at stake and mistakes like these are too simple not to have avoided. this is NOT acceptable at all! 

The President of the United States really has no direct input on day to day operations. He may set some major rules, regulations and lines of communications, but again if you were going to report something their is a correct person for each employee to call and you can bet your bottom dollar you don’t pick up the phone and report every possible terrorist to the President himself.

So let’s skip the ‘the President should accept responsibility’ speeches for now. He already admitted that people on his watch screwed up – that is the extent that he should really be directly involved.

Now, let’s run down who exactly should be fired. And keep in mind honest hard working people are out of work in this country as well as around the world. People who may not have a degree that allows them to get that job that they did so poorly. People who may not have a father and grandfather in the government to introduce them to people that may get them an interview and therefore jobs in the government. People who appreciate that there are no small jobs only small minded people who don’t appreciate that every job is important. People who did not have the time, money and connections to build careers such as these that some people obviously think are so easy they could slack at.

I personally know some friends that work really, super hard to get where they are today and others that have it handed to them. I don’t mind someone getting work handed to them just do the best job that can possibly be done, keep your skills up and if someone can do the job better you best get your butt on track and catch up extra fast to deserve to keep your position.

The List

1. The father reported his son. Who did he report him to? Did this person file the correct paperwork and bring it to the attention of the right supervisors or departments? If not then this person gets fired.
2. The information was reported. Repeat the first step and see who did not do their job and fire them. Repeat until all the people who slacked are gone.
3. Everything was reported and to the right people but not on time. The person or people who were lazy get fired.
4. Everything was reported to the correct people and departments but the procedures took too long. The person who tests and/or develops the efficiency of the systems and procedures gets fired.
5. All information was reported and this person did not get added to the no fly list? Why? Is it that he did not qualify? Really you parent reporting that you may be involved with terrorist does not get you automatically added to this list? Fire the person who set up the criteria for this list and/or the person(s) responsible for keeping the criteria up to the needs of the times.
6. He was added to a no fly list somewhere but they are not linked to each other. Really? Fire the entire IT department (in all areas) I need a job and I can get the databases integrated. I have done it before and I know a few good IT people I can have help me get it done. Really? In this day and age having more than one data repository (and several backups for this one) is the ultimate inefficiency and completely unacceptable.
7. The kid gets to the airport and has no luggage. Fire the people who let this kid get on the plane (ticket seller, bag checker, TSA inspectors, stewardesses, anyone who along the way into the plane had to interact with the passenger list at all) from Nigeria to America with no bags at all. Really? A two year old would ask this question. This underwear bomber had a huge amount of cash. For bribes perhaps? Really? Who travels with large amounts of cash?
8. In these countries bomb sniffing dogs should be mandatory. Who is in charge of saying where dogs should be? Fire this person.
9. Now some of you may be thinking ‘maybe these people said something and nothing was done or their worries were discounted’? if this is true, clearly, fire the bosses, supervisors etc. who did not take the info passed on to the proper places. Or were the listeners in the story of the boy who cried wolf. Sometimes the wolves are at the door.
10. And some employees may think that they have gone to their boss(es) before and they were told that they had come to them with too many little things. Really? This is national security and lives at stake. Fire the boss who said that and the employee for not continuing to be the squeaky wheel. If Tesla would have continue to dig ditches when Edison put him down and held him back where would we be today. Really people? Nagging is repeatedly asking for something you are not getting. If the nagging is about paying attention to the little things, and this has to do with saving lives, then nag away.

Ok now that this is cleared up let’s get those pink slips out there.

Who should be firing these people. Well EVERY single PHB should look at EVERY underling and evaluate. Including the President, he too I am sure is asking his subordinates a heck of a lot of questions about this, if the head of some national security department had a memo or note about this incident and did not follow through then fire him/her. Like I said before it is probably not likely that it got to this level in the time they had. But if it did. Bye, bye nice cushy job.

Don’t protect the clearly guilty or evil/violent intentioned. Just because you are trying not to be that squeaky wheel or nosy neighbor. And don’t be part of the problem because you might have bigoted thoughts. Learn to use critical thinking to tell the difference.

And if we are not adult enough to tell a Muslim from terrorist then we don’t deserve to say anything at all. The more hate that is spread among peaceful people the more hate you will earn in return.

I have met some radicals in my life, and if they said anything in support of a bomber or any kind of terror attack I would pickup the phone in a second and report them to the FBI. Now, having said that I also know Muslims(and not) who do say things I don’t agree with, saying that I as a Catholic will go to Hell is not threatening my peace of life, it is a personal belief. This can’t hurt me. But they do not advocate violence. This is the difference.

So don’t panic, just learn, listen and care about each other enough to accept our differences and know that hate and advocacy of murder and torture is not a difference but a universally unacceptable sin against any religion and any sane human being.

Image by smiteme via Flickr

Then go into the settings/writing section of your WordPress admin. Check if you are after all allowing XML-RPC (this will affect your ability to publish from programs like Windows Live Writer). If you don’t want it or don’t know what it is un-check the box. This way you can really be sure that no reformatting for XML should occur.


Of course the annoying thing is that you will have to re-edit the formatting.php file if you upgrade your WordPress install.

I, like the rest of us, dread the idea of owing. But I think that will not be a problem with this economy having been non-existent all this year.




Time to make the doughnuts…

I have a long list of features that no longer work like separating my trackbacks from my actual comments. This will occupy my night tonight. Maybe I can keep my mind off the cold. Michigan can freeze you for the winter. Polar bears come here to vacation brrrrrr. We have the heat on but trying to keep from turning it on a constant 82 degrees takes some will power and I stopped being friendly with Will a while back. I do cheat. I use a portable heater in the living room our cat sleeps in front of it, actually she sleeps right on it. I keep telling her I am pretty sure cat fur is flammable, but you know how cats are.

• eat ONLY organic meats or nothing at all

I am a omnivore and proud of it, but I must say watching Food, Inc and not being able to live in denial anymore I can’t eat another mass grown/butchered animal. Really wtf are you trying to feed a cow corn for? I think it would be chaeper to move them from place to place grazing. I would allow a farmer to let his cow eat my lawn any day. So would my neighbors.



It’s preferable to scooping out undigested corn from the cows stomachs. YUCK!!!



So resolution #1 less ecoli.

• I did blog a lot this year as per my last year resolution. ditto this one for this year.

I would say that I should probably jot out some kind of writing plan to follow. My blog is kind of all over the place. I love mommy blogging (reading it) I can’t be that brave myself. I can’t edit enough to not hurt my kids or hubbys feelings so I will again have to leave that alone.



I would think that my friends like my observations with a touch of sarcas so I will try to get more of this in my blog this year. I will strive for 3 posts per week. 1 article length comment on or about another website and 10 comments on other sites.


Resolution #2 more organized and productive writing.



Resolution #3 is a simple exercise based one. Jump rope 200 rotations per day. Sit ups 25 in morning 25 at night. dance until I sweat each day no matter what the hubby and kid say. Lady Gaga make me shake my butt off



resolution 4 actually started at the same time I started to watch Hoarders. I clean a bit after each episode. More than clean I toss sh** out!!!! I am pretty clean and no where near a hoarder, more of a minimalist. I live with two men (my husband and son) and they are typical men and so to me they are level one hoarders. They just are, because they are straight men. So I also plan to toss out there stuff too. Not just limit myself to my room and the kitchen.


Resolution #4 de-clutter the ENTIRE house weather people scream and cry or not. Then paint it. It is due for a new theme. I like steampunk.



Resolution #5 finish the LONGGGGG novel I started for nanowrimo. It will take probably all year. I will dedicate 1:30 minutes each day to this task.



Resolution #6 practice my french more at home. out loud. Yes. look like a lune talking to myself. No one in my house wants to be bi-lingual. I just can’t understand the ability to be fine with mediocrity and lack of worldly pursuits.



And resolution #7 go out and get another crappy job, because the good one is not happening. If there is a good one out there I think the hiring manager has not met me yet. Call me.



last but not least resolution #8 be more fierce!

About Our Food in America

Over this Christmas season my son got an iPod Touch with gathered Christmas gift cash. And me and my husband got an NAS file server that allows Media Center Server services that create this really cool way to open a media player that detects music library storage over a network and makes it look like your music library- like in Media Player. It will not be seen by iTunes. which brings me to my weekend escapades.



I wanted to be able to play music from our stored collection of like 10,000 songs. Yep 50 years (hubby and my years of music buying combined) accumulates in music years.



So… I am allowed to borrow my sons Pod as long as he is home and not using it himself. Since it will not multitask he does not use it as often as he likes. That will change when mom is done hacking it for him.



Yes, again, when a gizmo come into the home mom must hack it.



So I waited. First I give the manufacturer a chance to satisfy me. After all they have the technology. if it can make me run 20 mph then let’s do it…and don’t tell me that my feet may hurt…let’s do it I can worry about my own feet, I am an adult. We have the technology, let’s do this.



So wifi media center media file server installed and networked – check. iPod touch wifi connection to the home network – check. Headphones to connect to the Pod – check. Housework to get done – ah YES! Check. CHARGE!!!



The Pod did not see the media server



OK. No Problem. I must just need to get into the app store and get some app. I spent 3 days looking for this app.



What I found was something called Simplify Music that allows me to connect to the internet and then the internet connects back to my network with a password then allows me to stream my music through that internet connection. hmmm. Not quite what I wanted.



You know. I already had a secure internal network. I did not want to have to have an internet connection to play my music in my house over my home wifi… and this app is regular priced $7.99 (kind of more than I wanted to pay) but ok. bought it and ok takes a really long time to index ~ what my media server already keeps my music indexed for me. I waited over an hour indexing and finally it was done YIPPIE!!! Music. Let’s roll… uhhhh my laptop has to be on.



You see the software to connect to the website runs on a computer. not on the Pod itself. so to play music on the Pod I have to keep my laptop on to run the software to connect to the internet to connect to my homes wifi



hmmmm kind of redundant. Oh and did I mention I can give access over the internet to our music to 30 of my closest friends and family. ummmm I am friendly but not that friendly. I just wanted to play my own music in my own house and let my hubby and kid play it if they wanted to.



No problem with our computers we turn them on open Windows Media Player and voila there is our networked music collection. Happiness in a really long list.



But again iTunes is needed to add songs to the Pods. so I could not even add music with a wired connection to this gizmo if the song was not imported into my iTunes. It can’t even be a shared library of iTunes to add to the device it must be a drive on your machine or a file that you are not linked to but actually have direct physical access too.



Ok got a bit technical here but we are talking about a hack coming up so stay with me.



So I asked my kid if his friends know the hack for this iPod Touch. Yes but they don’t know much about it and it apparently is not very reliable. ‘That’s OK’ I said ”’my obsession to play my OWN music IN my own HOME without having to connect to the internet and pass through some server to do it when I have wifi”’ kicked in.



He said it is called jailbreak- well I don’t want to do anything illegal with it, just use it’s already present functionality to play music I already own. So. Ok I hack (jailbreak) the thing.  Browsing through the hackers apps that I can now add to this Pod I found something called whatever, and I say that because it was exactly the same thing as Simplify, and not liking redundancy there was no need for a hacked version of something that I already bought legally. Again I just did not want to share my music with 30 people or pass through the internet to play music over my homes wifi or keep my laptop on (this was actually the point of connecting my portable device to the wifi network, duh).



SO I digress. I am perplexed why Steve Jobs is content with not being able to play his music collection over his home wifi. This is not possible!::confusion::  He has to be aware that Windows Media Center has a better method of indexing files than iTunes. He must own a PC. Or run Windows on one of his Macs (you should always know your competition) so he has Media Player and knows that when you add new music to a folder that the WMP will add it to your library, no import file or folder needed.



When you import file/folder to iTunes it can create duplicates – annoying. So I don’t mind buying most of my music with iTunes but the organizer for my music collection has to be Media Center. It is just best.



And the Pod connects to wifi. So there is NO REASON why this can’t be done. And being that there are much smarter people out there than me, I assume that this has been done. I just have to find the app.



3 days of searching. Nothing.



Then when I had given up almost completely, out of desparation,  I searched for NAS (Network-attached storage) in the APPLE app store, not media player, not music, not network, not file server, not any of the dozens of things that I had spent three days looking for but just plain old NAS. And there it was.



But not to get my hopes up. What if it was one of those spoof proggies that are out there. You know the ones that look like they do what you dream of them doing because you know it is possible but it is just a video that plays on your screen.



OK 99 cents. here goes.



OMG!!!!!!!!!!! I just wasted 3days and $7.99 and got headache after headache trying to keep my internet connection running smoothly so I could listen to a freakin’ few hours of music and they had an interface for the Windows Media Server buried here all along. SHAME ON APPLE AND MICROSOFT!! For this petty bickering. I want progress and if we can do it stop putzing around and get it done.



I don’t like wasting time and money all in the name of mine is better or this is my toy I don’t want it in the toy box with your toy.



So here are the screenshots of how the app connects locally to your Windows Media Center Server just like you home computer running Windows Media Player.







The only thing is to have quick access to files you should create playlists on the server (And this feature does not seem to be working on my NAS as of yet. Perhaps I have to do something to get the file recognized?),  it pages through the lists about 25 items at a time, and had no search feature. but for the home wifi/media server functionality to work it is worth this little shortcoming. I figure there will be updates later to the app.



Now I still have the out to TV block Apple has inflicted on me (my eyesight is not so great for that small screen don’t block my TV out accessory from running on my Pod) Apple must realize that a lot of its customers are older.



And why make me attach your silly white wire to sync my Pod when it has Bluetooth??? Really are you that much of a selfish child Apple, block, block , block (unfriendly if you ask me)? We’ll see… After all the device has the technology.



Buy an NAS on Amazon

Image by coreygo via Flickr and app screenshot from iTunes App Store

Smart Chileans Original soda water contained sodium bicarbonate, not carbonated water.

I had asked about this because @retiredteacherd talks health and I asked his opinion on this http://twitter.com/jchronowski47/status/6441825842

He would be so upset if he read my blog and saw I was writing about this.

I had asked around just when he started to walk about how to potty train. I asked parents, doctors and read books. I found something that I thought i would try.

I decided to go with the nag method. I asked him each hour if he had to go.
Simple most of us could hold it for that long. So he always had the option to be made aware of his need.

During the night I spend 3 days not sleeping much at all. Nothing new for a mother of a toddler anyway. You are not really back on a normal schedule ever after having a baby.

Every hour I would snuggle up to his ear and whisper to him ‘do you have to go potty hunny?’ and repeat until I got a groggy yes or no. if yes I would lift the half sleeping child up out of bed and zombie walk him to the toilet. At this point there is some descrepency of how clean this becomes until he learned to actually wake up before doing the business.

But on the 4th day he woke me up and said mommy I have to go potty, EUREKA! it was 2:15 am and his need to tcb woke him up. I never had to deal with wet sheets in the mornings.

basically you just

1: Go to “Wikipedia.” Hit “random… Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2: Go to “Random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3: Go to some image site like http://www.public-domain-photos.com/
click on a link or stay on the front page

Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4: Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

I got

And the person coding sourcecow is in line to be a bestest friend if I ever met them in person. I love they way they think of process and code.

Now…

Everyone always asks themselves “Why are these people following me?” Even celebrities, I am sure.

And why would a company like, say, Pepsi be online if they did not want to see what people say about their products or to send information to consumers.

I might follow Pepsi because I want them to tweet coupons. How would Pepsi know this?? Then if I never get coupons I may unfollow. I would still buy Pepsi but it benefits no one if I am not getting what I want and they are not tweeting what I look for. If it were tv I would change the channel. Commercial value lost.

Maybe I followed Bill Gates to see if Microsoft will offer betas (Pick Me Me Me!!) of anything new. If I never get invited to take part in a beta then I may have no other reason to continue to follow MS. Maybe I just follow a lot of people in hopes of being followed back and I may never read many tweets at all? Then my reason to follow that person/company is nothing really. Just to follow.

How do we know? If a lot of people follow me to read my tweets about all things David Bowie then they may be highly disappointed. As I really love DB but may have only tweeted about him that few times that they read my stream and followed me. But at least I will be aware that that person wants to tweet about DB and I may DM or @ a few times directly to them about DB.

So this has enormous potential to unleash the true value of Twitter. Why use a marketing resource if you get no real, true, verifiable numbers? Twitter does not even make long term sense without sourcecow.

Actually a few followers have even DMd me and asked recently and some I know in person have said to me why has my level of communication dropped down Did I say something wrong? Am I not famous enough? Do people not like me? Should I just leave Twitter.

Eventually people drop services. Either they become too congested with advertising that does not really apply to them or they just find a better application that does the same thing and offers more customization and is better sorted out. Or people jsut get tired of trying to keep up with the interaction on both ends.

Like Facebook’s LIKE feature for ads. That is a good idea. I prefer seeing ads (if I must) that at least pertain to me. If I thumb down enough ads on FB about starting an account to trade stocks then I eventually will never see another ‘Do you want to trade stocks?’ ad on my FB pages. Nice… I have enough things I can’t get to – don’t toss more ads that are totally irrelevant at me.

So now for a few additional suggestions for sourcecow. My newest favorite Twitter app.

a feature to

• say why you unfollow (and must be defaulted if they unfollow off of Twitters page like say with a mass unfollow tool.
• add a why followed to people you already follow so you can be promoted to update this if it is not found on sc already.. Not sure what would be best way to do this…
• a checkbox quick why feature
  • want coupons
  • like their humor
  • same interests
  • want product support
  • just a fan
  • interaction

  with this quick select feature the data can be better disseminated.

• a search for whys  like if I want to search for everyone who was followed for tweeting about #hoarders the tv show then that could pop up.. and that should go along with a select each or all and follow feature.

Also I want to see why others follow say Adam Lambert.  Are people following him who think he’s hot or just because they like his music or both like me? So there should be like a page for each twitter id if they have sourcecow info to show http://www.soucrecow.com/jchronowski47 would be mine.

And how about if I choose to allow the world to see why I follow or not. Some people do not want to say or if they do they might want it kept private for their own use and this should be honored.  But if they choose to make there reasons public then how about a tab on their sourcecow URL that allows see why they are followed and why they followed other people.

and last but not least make it work in more browsers and leave it as a browser addon. Another application install no one needs. And Adobe Air sucks. Sorry Adobe but like your PDFs your application is bloated and slow and crashes my system using all it’s resources. And I have a lot of resouceses. But Photoshop is the be all end all so you save yourself .

I have lots of time on my hands being one of the millions unemployed in Michigan. And I love to think. So I am therefore opinionated. And I like things to work the way I use them. I can write code but I do not enjoy doing it when I am not paid to do so. So kudos to programmers who pound that keyboard and churn out thousands of lines of fabulous code for the rest of use to benefit from..

OK so my perfect 9-5 job would be working in a think tank. . . I love the implementers though. Where would we be without them.

I was creating custom fields for shortened URL to each post (ie: bitlyurl = bit.ly/1234 tinyurl = tinyurl.com/1234 etc.etc.)

How labor intensive to add each one into the custom WP field of each post. I first had to go the the shortener site and create the URL then copy paste it and update the post. Pain in the neck. but I wanted to display the short URL so…

Then I was playing with the code and discovered that when I used this snippet
view the txt here
But It must be linked to one of the like idk 85 plugins I have installed and also I tweaked them all so they are not original anymore.

I was also thinking that it could be linked to the Ping or Trackback features in WP.

Who know what happened but the URLs pour in from all of the shortening services automatically after they are created by anyone. Love it!!!!

BUT and there is almost always a but with new code snippets. It does not seem to work consistently.

It works here http://www.juanitachronowski.com/jdcblog/?p=1835

but not here (on this page) http://www.juanitachronowski.com/jdcblog/?p=2056 at least not at the time of posting this.

I am not sure what the factor is that turns it on..

If anyone knows what could cause this let me know.  Otherwise I chalk it up to a happy happenstance where it works and not worry too much about it when it doesn’t.

If you try it on your site and it works let me know (comment here I dofollow back) also

Using separate files for each part of the site and each part of each page on each site can be confusing sometimes. I customize any applications and websites that I code and this was no exception. I was changing things to spec on the fly and lost track of one stray tag.

I had designed my own theme to match an old design that was completely in ASP. I had to migrate it to WordPress and convert the database to fit into the WPbase MySQL and rewrite all the ASP to PHP. And also make it function the same. That meant hacking about 20 plugins, modifying and creating my own functions and really getting into the deep end of CSS because I was using a multi-column design and did not want to resort to tables within WordPress.

So I am going over each line of code in my head while shopping (What better time to do that?) then about 60 lines of code in I screamed out loud. “OhMyGaad! I put that DIV in the wrong file, I have it in two places!” I could not wait to get home. I had put a div in the main file and in the head by mistake.

I somehow think that my nerdy/geek husband was not too happy with my revelation. Or maybe it was the public outburst? It was a eureka moment what can I say. When inspiration hit – it hits.

Anyway — Fixed. I slept well that night.

Yes, I am geekgrrl and proud of it   I was a nerd before nerds were multi-billionaires.

Now about that website job you need done. give me a call.

If you use this bg please a send tweet Thanks for the bg @jchronowski47

this theme is for the Wordpress plugin (that allows the display of numbered pages instead of the previous | next) found here by jenst.se

#wp_page_numbers ul, #wp_page_numbers li, #wp_page_numbers a
{
background-position: center left;
background-repeat: repeat-x;
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
border-style: none;
text-decoration: none;
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
list-style: none;
text-transform: none;
text-indent: 0px;
font-variant: normal;
text-align: left;
line-height: 12px;
letter-spacing: 0px;
word-spacing: 0px;
font-size: 12px;
font-family: Arial;
color: white;
font-weight: bold;
}

#wp_page_numbers li.page_info
{
float: left;
display: block;
padding: 6px;
padding-right: 8px;
font-size: 11px;
}

Now you may have to ask what a feather party is. Believe me I had to look it up before I wondered for too long what kind of strange places my new friends were trying to get me to go.

A feather party is something that is local and started in Detroit by Polish immigrants who upon coming overseas to the new world were told that this holiday was celebrated by all and that it required a turkey. Well being newly transplanted they had little income to spend on such lavish food as a turkey. So they got together and purchased a few and raffled them off. After winning the (un)lucky bird they led it home on a leash and when the time came to cook it they had to de-feather it and, um, well, kill it for dinner.

So here we are in the 21st century in a group of about 500 people shouting “Chuck! Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!” and yes we meant the meat (ground chuck).

The turkeys were frozen. Good thing as my cat would not get along with another mouth to share her food with.

A better time I could not have had as Lyn unloaded her cooler of food, we were told in advance to bring, I will take this more seriously next time, who knew we would be trying to win meat for four hours. And stood in line to buy drink tickets so that we might be fully fortified for the night. Margaritas and meat.

It was a meat festival. A party to supply the meat for future parties. 

After a few drinks the cheers became as loud as a super bowl. “I won!” “Over here. I got the winning ticket!” “Yeah!” squeals of delight at winning boneless hams. Could you ask for a more satisfying prize then a pork loin?

I have to say that the giant bag of kielbasa really had me hungry. And they had a bag of beer (six pack in a brown bag) that would be a great win to pair with that sausage.

This was completely Detroit All-American FUN! Now I remember why Michigan has me by the cojonas.  I love to have a good time with friendly people who work their butts off and party like they won the lottery for the little things that mean so much and add to our bank of memories about good times with family and friends.

There was also some enthusiastic, fun entertainment in the form of the MC who in some previous incarnation was Ziggy Marley’s distant cousin from the islands. He was pretty good.

This VFW hall was a great place for groups of different people to {meat} meet?  There were veterans as well as retirees, ladies from the Red hat society, families and friends.  And to top it off your ticket for each round had about six chances to win prizes. Yes, bringing food is definitely on the top of my list next time. There were some tasty looking fully loaded potato skins at the next table over. Yum! And did I mention the meat? The Dearborn boneless ham I won was very good by the way.   Lisa I’ve got some great recipes for that roasting chicken.

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