Catchup (no not ketchup)

We had a GREAT time in Canada last week for our anniversary trip. Totally gorgeous! This week I started out Monday with a job interview that immediately turned into a job. I'm now an administrative assistant for Kuna Counseling Center, which is a bit wild and disjointed but not bad. It's the closest thing I've had to using my degree since I graduated in '92. :) The people there are really nice and the schedule is very flexible; they have given me all the time I need off for the summer which is most awesome. It's still a bit nerve-wracking for psychologically wimpy ol' me, but it's good mental exercise. Jake gave me a blessing the other day and since then the Lord has been helping me a lot.
With the income from that and the savings we have from refinancing our house, we have been spending a bit much lately. We bought a 2007 Toyota Prius (which we LOVE), are replacing my dead laptop, and upgrading our satellite to HD. Can I just say that I am excited? Whee! I love spending money! Bad me! But with the refinance we are COMPLETELY out of credit card debt! Now that IS something to cheer about! Hooray!

It's sad when...

You're home all day and end up checking online to see that something has been delivered and is sitting on your doorstep.


I'm just sayin'.

Caveat Emptor!

I have lost the 2nd Compaq laptop in 3 years due to motherboard failure this week. No warning, just suddenly dead and every boot attempt results in a beep code saying that the CMOS can't write to RAM. Replacing the CMOS battery and removing/testing the RAM didn't help, leaving the motherboard as the culprit. AGAIN. Last time it was the onboard video card. My MIL lost her Compaq to a motherboard problem about a year ago as well, so this is not a rare occurrence, apparently. Now I have to save up for another machine and pull data from my little hard drive again. So to those of you out there who are shopping for laptops: avoid the Compaqs! Anyone have a brand they particularly recommend? I'm looking at Toshiba or Lenovo, but I would rather have XP than Vista.

We're failing our children

This is something that has been bugging me for a while. I've seen it around a bit, but the most profound examples of how we are failing our children seem to come from my sister who teaches high school in Oklahoma. Over a third of the senior class in her high school are flunking out. OVER A THIRD! And from the tales she has told me of so many of her students, it's not a surprise. The kids just don't care, and their parents don't care, to put even the slightest modicum of work into their education. They won't bring their books to class, they won't even bother to read the questions on tests -- she actually had a student who prided himself on getting through an important test quickly by guessing on every single question. The kids are beyond apathetic and rude and cheating is second nature. I could tell you many stories but I will spare you the gory details. And lest you get the impression that this is just her school or just Oklahoma, I have heard similar stories up here in Idaho. It's appalling. These are the people who are going to be running our businesses, working on our vehicles, helping us in stores, and working on our homes. Not to mention the ones that will be helping us in hospitals, flying us across the country, and other life-threatening situations.
Where do these kids come from? Answer: lazy, apathetic, or self-absorbed parents. I've seen many parents try to absolve themselves with statements like "I didn't teach them that" or "I don't know where they get it from, must be from other kids at school," but the bottom line is the kids learn this crap from their parents. Responsibility, love of learning, integrity, all good things are learned from the smallest age, way too young for blame to be placed on the schools, not to mention that it has been proven in study after study that parents have the biggest influence by far out of any factors influencing children. And many parents are just plain too stupid to realize what they are teaching their children when they do things like get mad at a kid for asking questions ("curiosity and learning is bad") or attempt to justify a dishonest behavior ("as long as I get what I want, it's okay").
Please, people, pay attention to your kids. If you don't HAVE to work, stay home with your kids and love and teach them the things that they need to grow up smart and strong and good. It's hard work. REALLY hard work. If it's not hard, you're not doing it right. But it's worth it. Not even the best schools or daycares can make up for what you are teaching or not teaching your kids right now.

Why Facial Hair is Not a Sign of Manliness

OK, first, for the sake of argument, we must define manliness. I will give two criteria that will be difficult to dispute for my definition: 1) The ability to conquer, and 2) the ability to attract the ladies.

For the first point, I bring up three of the most conquering societies in history: the Romans, the Mongols, and the English. The Romans were one of the earliest societies to make clean-shaven men the norm, and they are commonly acknowledged as some of the greatest conquerors of the ancient world. Surpassing them in conquering ability, however, was the Mongols, who ruled land from Bavaria to the Pacific Ocean. While commonly portrayed as bearded heathen, they actually eschewed facial hair. Then surpassing them, and everyone else, in conquering ability, was the British. The sun didn't set on the English empire as during the 19th century they ruled land clear around the globe. And everyone knows that they are a traditionally rather clean-shaven bunch. Therefore, according to our powerful examples, facial hair is typically negatively associated with the most powerful conquering peoples.

As to attracting the ladies, most women do not like the scratchiness of beards and other forms of facial hair. Ask any marketing specialist and they will tell you that all of the studies in the Americas find clean-shaven men to be far more attractive to women than their bearded counterparts.

Therefore, based upon scientific evidence, facial hair is not a sign of manliness.

I lub dis song. And I'm testing out imeem's embed features so maybe you can learn to love it too.

Social the Networks

OK, I don't know what's up, maybe it's because it's Spring, but I've joined three social networks in the course of a week. sparkpeople, facebook, and imeem. It really makes me wonder about today's kids, with all this shallow socializing on these huge specialized networks! Imeem seems great for music and sparkpeople is interesting for health and facebook is just...well, facebook -- but if this is the way people socialize today, I'm really feeling old! How do you keep up with it? How do you resolve and determine REAL friendships? Or do you just use the online to supplement?