Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

Grandma Cathie and Grandpa Lenny came up to visit this weekend. I posted a bunch of new pictures to my Flickr page.
It’s amazing how fast a few days can go by, but we had a fun visit.

Here’s a picture of Bella and Gilli with Grandma and Grandpa. This was a hard shot to get and I had to settle for one with eyes closed. Miss Bella was making the craziest faces.

I thought this one of my Mom and the girls turned out really well.

Well, I made it through 1/3 of NaBloPoMo. Actually, I kind of enjoy trying to come up with something to post everyday.

I just read an article that illustrates why unions are important and without them employees have no protections. (Link via Digg)

The corporation who runs Taco Bell fired a 64 year old woman who had worked there for 30 years. It seems to me that this is a clear case of wrongful termination, but since she does not have a union to stand up for her she is out of luck. Corporations are not going to do what is right on their own. We need more protections for the working class, stronger unions, and better labor relations.

We can’t seem to catch a break with our dryer. It has broken again. This time it has different symptoms, it won’t even attempt to light. Ugh. I hate appliances.

I was reading Slashdot and came across this in one of the comments:

“Computers are just like greek gods. They are capable, they are omnipotent, they just take everything you demand literally. Basicly computers are just levers mounted to your own incompetence, and they increase hundredfold every mistake you make.”

This is such a brilliant, true, and humorous statement. Things like this are why I enjoy reading Slashdot so much.

I just read an article on a recent language learning game called Spanish for Everyone. The clips they had and the description made this sound like a parody or something. But apparently it is a real game. Read the article (link) and see the game for sale on Amazon (link).

Frankly I’m surprised that in our politically correct world that something this culturally insensitive would be published as a game. Do we really need to see the Hispanic boy run off to Mexico while being chased by the police to learn Spanish? Seriously, this looks like something from a comedy source and I really thought it was until I saw it for sale. I guess the one concession they made was that they gave the boy and his father a limo to escape to Mexico in, it could have been an El Camino or something.

I read a short blog post on a book called The Four Agreements (link). That sounds like a good book, I’ll have to read it. It is about moving past conflict. I have to admit I have problems with #2 and #3 myself. I tend to take things very personally and make assumptions. It’s one of those things that you don’t pay attention to until you see it in writing.

We took Erin for her two week checkup today. Everything is fine with her, she is doing great. However, the doctors office is located in a higher elevation than where we live. We were having wet snow showers all day, but imagine our surprise when we encountered this on our drive:

I was voter 243 at my polling place around 6:30 tonight. I have no idea how many people are eligible to vote there, but 243 seems like a low number. It is sad that more people do not get out to vote. If there is one thing I have learned it is that the people who make their voices heard are the ones who decide things. I try to be as involved as possible because otherwise someone else will be making decisions for me.

Chautauqua County Election Results

Today I noticed that it got dark by 5:30 PM. Over the summer I get used to it being light well past 9:00 PM, so having it get dark four hours earlier is just depressing. I am starting to get used to the vast differences between Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter in Western New York. Where I grew up (on Staten Island) the change in sunset was not as pronounced as it is here, I am assuming since we are further North. It makes for remarkable summer nights though, even if it is harder to convince the kids it is time to go to bed even though the sun is still shining. Too bad it gets dark so early now though.