As I've posted before, I do a fair amount of driving in my daily life. Mostly freeway driving, but still, a fair amount. Because of all that driving, I have the opportunity to see all types of drivers, vehicles, pedestrians, and road conditions. And, as I stated in my first posting about driving pet peeves, this is my blog and if someone reading this has a problem with what I'm writing, get your own blog.
I want to start with potholes. They are a fact of life in Wisconsin, and I give credit to the crews that work hard to keep them filled in. However, the City of Milwaukee seems to excel at not filling them in. And, they waste money on senseless projects that could easily be forgotten and use that money instead to build the roads back up to level. Two weeks ago as I was driving west on Capitol drive, lanes were closed off for what I at first thought was road repair, but was for island clean-out. A crew of five people were doing flower bed maintenance. Raking, cutting dead plants down, mulching, etc. Meanwhile, I bounced out of a pot hole so big that my car bottom scraped the edge of the hole. Why is that crew not FILLING IN THE POT HOLES? I don't give a rodent's buttocks about the island flower beds. As far as I'm concerned, pave the stupid islands over and FIX THE POT HOLES! How much money is wasted on employees, equipments, supplies, water, and electricity for something that no one really cares about? When was the last time you even THOUGHT about the flowers in the island dividers? And, there were three teams fixing these islands along the way of my drive back to interstate 43. What a colossal waste of taxpayer money.
My next gripe is with motorcyclists and bicyclists. This time of year brings warnings from every media outlet that (usually "cage" or four wheelers) drivers should be on the look-out for these individuals. I come back to the same thought every single time. Shouldn't EVERY driver, no matter the vehicle, be on the look-out for things they could hit? As with everything that relates to humans in life, there is a broad range of good to bad. But, for some reason, we are expected to accept that ANYONE who rides a two-wheeler as the PERFECT embodiment of road safety and perfection. That somehow the cyclist is NEVER at fault, and that they can do no wrong. That this romanticized notion of the cyclist is somehow above the law. Two years ago as I was driving to work in the summer, there was a traffic jam on south 43 that had both lanes of traffic stopped. As I waited for the traffic to start moving again, I heard a motorcycle moving. And sure enough, I looked in my driver's side mirror and lo and behold here is Mr. I-can-do-no-wrong motorcyclist driving BETWEEN the two lanes of cars. Right on the dotted line. I have seen this several times since then, and it absolutely infuriates me because all that needs to happen is for someone to decide they are going to switch lanes and butt their car out and Mr. Motorcyclist is history and the car driver is at fault.
I have also observed on several occasions young kids on sport bikes going incredible speeds on the freeways. They weave in and out of traffic and have absolutely no regard for traffic laws, safety, or anyone's lives, including their own. And what makes it really exciting is when a car driver makes a lane switch and because these cycle-jerks are going so fast ends up accidentally cutting one of them off. And yet, it's the "cage" drivers who are expected to be the only ones responsible for road safety.
I work across the street from UW-Milwaukee, and this last Tuesday when I was making a right turn onto Oakland ave, a bicyclist came rolling along on my LEFT side, cut in-between me and the driver in front of me, scooted along the curb and then crossed the street in the crosswalk while riding his bike. Traffic was stopped for the red light, but when the bike person cut in front of my car, I had just tapped the accelerator to start moving forward before making my right turn as the light had just turned green. I blared the horn at him, but all he did was turn and smile and wave at me. I really want to know when in our society the rules stopped being applied to everyone? As a side note, I'm really tired of pedestrians taking advantage of the crosswalk rules. While I was trying to avoid bike boy, there was a group of kids who were jumping back and forth between the cross walk and the curb. What this effectively did was make the drivers who were going straight slam on their brakes and the ones who were trying to turn right, not. And these are the kids who will be running the country in a few years. The best they can do is play "red-light, green-light" with traffic? They would jump back to the curb, laugh, and when the cars started moving again, jump into the crosswalk and make the cars stop. Infuriated doesn't even begin to describe my level of road rage at that point. It took me two light cycles to get through that intersection. I was already late for my class as I was leaving work late to drive to school, yet these yahoos had the law on their side and knew that the car drivers couldn't do anything about them being in the crosswalk. Once they did start to cross the street, they STOPPED half-way through the intersection to tear-around and have a chat. Just stood there laughing. Future leaders of America....
My last peeve of this blog is parking lots. Why do the traffic rules not apply in parking lots? Drivers that cut across the lanes, parking areas, and cut other drivers off so they can get ahead by one second are never in short supply. A parking lot is not a free for all! Rules still apply there. And, put your carts in the cart returns or I'll send my husband after you....
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
I joined Facebook several weeks ago, and I have 12 friends now. I'm not sure how I feel about Facebook and the whole exposing every detail of my life, but it is kind of fun. I keep finding people who are on there that I know, and how the typical reaction goes:
Friend or Me: "Wow! You're on Facebook? Will you be my friend?" (Shades of Mr. Rogers there..) As if you are not friends before, you some how have to prove you have friends.
And then the general ensuing of hand expressions and disbelief that either one of us is on Facebook. I was sucked into it from Natalie, who had sent out invites to me a couple of times. I finally gave in to curiosity and joined. I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about. It is fun, and I find myself wasting more than a few minutes on it sometimes. It's also fun to see the different sides of people you think you know. This got me thinking to how we choose to present our public selves to the world around us and how the shield of Facebook sometimes makes it a little too easy to reveal ourselves. And, to be fair, Facebook is not any different from any other blog or personal webpage on the internet. It's the safety of being able to post something on the web, and not having to "face" the other person or persons reading or, in the case of my blog, not reading what you've just laid out for the world to examine. Forever. I find it ironic that people will cry foul and bemoan the loss of privacy one minute and then post something on the web the next. Of course, you choose the information you want out there, but sometimes people can't, won't, or don't know that they should filter ideas before posting.
Several weeks ago, there were stories on the local newscasts about teenagers using their mobile devices and computers to do something called "sexting". Sending explicit messages or pictures of themselves to other people they may or may not know. The story had warnings about not doing this, and telling parents they need to have a talk with their teens about why this isn't a good idea. Now, I realize that when I was a teen, cells were probably only being used by the military, were 100lbs, and cost a small fortune, but it never occured to me or my friends to exchange explicit messages or pictures of ourselves with each other or people we didn't know. Seems like a no-brainer when you take the electronic aspect out of it. The personal interaction required to do so stops you in your tracks. I guess the absence of digital photography and mobile devices probably helped with that , but my point is, just because we have the technology now doesn't mean that some things in life should change. It is (or should be) understood that you just don't do certain things. My parents never had to say to me that you shouldn't send these messages and images to other people.
I'm not a parent, but I have a hard time imagining myself saying to my teens, "you know you aren't supposed to send naked pictures of yourself to friends and strangers, right? You probably shouldn't post them on your webpage and Facebook pages either, right?" Isn't this a foregone conclusion? Why do the digital devices used for such purposes allow someone to drop all sense of inhibition? Or, in a not so extreme example, let people post things they would never say to another face to face? Just because someone may never meet the person they are commenting on in the real world, doesn't mean they should call them vile names or be hurtful. I stay away from chat groups and forums, but my husband has several for HD and home theater that he participates in. The moderators don't always remove posts quickly, and I'm often surprised at the venom exchanged between posters. What are the chances they would act like that if they had the person right in front of them?
While I still have fun with Facebook, and love to find new friends, I can't help but feel it is a bit "stalkerish" when they want me to divulge my address book under the pretense of finding more friends for me. Or that I should just start putting in names of people I know and see if they turn up. If they wanted to be friends with me, or have contact with me, wouldn't they just contact me? I won't be allowing access to my address book, as I just don't think it is any of Facebook's business knowing who all of my contacts are. But, I'm guessing there are a lot of people who don't think twice about that.
So, if you want to be my friend, look me up. Or just talk to me. Either way, you'll get the same person whether in real life or cyberlife.
P.S. On a completely unrelated note, what happened to the term cyber-space?
Friend or Me: "Wow! You're on Facebook? Will you be my friend?" (Shades of Mr. Rogers there..) As if you are not friends before, you some how have to prove you have friends.
And then the general ensuing of hand expressions and disbelief that either one of us is on Facebook. I was sucked into it from Natalie, who had sent out invites to me a couple of times. I finally gave in to curiosity and joined. I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about. It is fun, and I find myself wasting more than a few minutes on it sometimes. It's also fun to see the different sides of people you think you know. This got me thinking to how we choose to present our public selves to the world around us and how the shield of Facebook sometimes makes it a little too easy to reveal ourselves. And, to be fair, Facebook is not any different from any other blog or personal webpage on the internet. It's the safety of being able to post something on the web, and not having to "face" the other person or persons reading or, in the case of my blog, not reading what you've just laid out for the world to examine. Forever. I find it ironic that people will cry foul and bemoan the loss of privacy one minute and then post something on the web the next. Of course, you choose the information you want out there, but sometimes people can't, won't, or don't know that they should filter ideas before posting.
Several weeks ago, there were stories on the local newscasts about teenagers using their mobile devices and computers to do something called "sexting". Sending explicit messages or pictures of themselves to other people they may or may not know. The story had warnings about not doing this, and telling parents they need to have a talk with their teens about why this isn't a good idea. Now, I realize that when I was a teen, cells were probably only being used by the military, were 100lbs, and cost a small fortune, but it never occured to me or my friends to exchange explicit messages or pictures of ourselves with each other or people we didn't know. Seems like a no-brainer when you take the electronic aspect out of it. The personal interaction required to do so stops you in your tracks. I guess the absence of digital photography and mobile devices probably helped with that , but my point is, just because we have the technology now doesn't mean that some things in life should change. It is (or should be) understood that you just don't do certain things. My parents never had to say to me that you shouldn't send these messages and images to other people.
I'm not a parent, but I have a hard time imagining myself saying to my teens, "you know you aren't supposed to send naked pictures of yourself to friends and strangers, right? You probably shouldn't post them on your webpage and Facebook pages either, right?" Isn't this a foregone conclusion? Why do the digital devices used for such purposes allow someone to drop all sense of inhibition? Or, in a not so extreme example, let people post things they would never say to another face to face? Just because someone may never meet the person they are commenting on in the real world, doesn't mean they should call them vile names or be hurtful. I stay away from chat groups and forums, but my husband has several for HD and home theater that he participates in. The moderators don't always remove posts quickly, and I'm often surprised at the venom exchanged between posters. What are the chances they would act like that if they had the person right in front of them?
While I still have fun with Facebook, and love to find new friends, I can't help but feel it is a bit "stalkerish" when they want me to divulge my address book under the pretense of finding more friends for me. Or that I should just start putting in names of people I know and see if they turn up. If they wanted to be friends with me, or have contact with me, wouldn't they just contact me? I won't be allowing access to my address book, as I just don't think it is any of Facebook's business knowing who all of my contacts are. But, I'm guessing there are a lot of people who don't think twice about that.
So, if you want to be my friend, look me up. Or just talk to me. Either way, you'll get the same person whether in real life or cyberlife.
P.S. On a completely unrelated note, what happened to the term cyber-space?
Friday, March 13, 2009
Along with the rest of the country, my husband and I have watched our stocks (in a local bank), our 403b and 401k tank. I keep trying to be positive and think that they will recover and as all things cyclical, they will. But, our country has never been through this bad of an economic downturn before, and I keep wondering if my financial assets really will come back to their previous levels and if they will go beyond that. Both my husband and myself had parents that grew up during the depression. When I was a child, my maternal grandmother had a basement full of home canned goods, and was almost fanatical about growing a very large garden every year and making sure she had food for the upcoming year. A child of the 1970's and a teenager of the 1980's, I really did not understand my grandmother at all. Even though my parents didn't have much money, I never went without food (hamburger gravy...YUCK!), shelter, or clothing (even if it was second-hand). For my grandmother, however, it was a different story and being poor at the begining of the depression, and then surviving the depression with two small children and a husband to take care of is unfathomable for me. My mother would often mention stories of living in a chicken coop while they tried to build the farmhouse that I was familiar with, but like all kids just assumed their parents were exaggerating a little. Now, I'm not so sure.
My grandmother passed away April 1, 1986 at the age of 78, and up until her death, she continued to raise that garden every year. She started seeds in the basement even before all the snow was gone in the yard. She had a huge fenced in area that was once the part of the horse pasture, and had a permit from the DNR to shoot the woodchucks that tried to consume the efforts of her hard work. As one of her four grandchildren, I was put to work weeding and tending that garden when I would stay with her for a few weeks in the summer. I hated it. To this day, I can remember whining about it, doing a half-hearted job, and consuming all the ripe strawberries when she wasn't looking. I'm sure she knew, but never said anything. She grew everything from fruits to nuts. And then, the canning would begin. If I thought the weeding was bad, canning was worse. Hours and hours of prepping the food, the jars, the lids, the mashers, sieves, and spices. Hot, sweaty, weary, and sick of smelling vinegar and cooked food. Still, it never once sunk in to my self-centered kid brain that for grandma, this wasn't a hobby. This was her survival. This was how she survived the roughest economic time in America's history.
Now, close to 23 years after her death, our country is facing far worse economically than what my grandmother went through, but I still don't feel the need to start growing a garden. But, that isn't because the lesson of my grandmother's struggle was completely lost to me. At some point, her tendencies to, oh, let's say, stock-up and grow her own food, was replaced with I'll buy extra when on sale and stock up that way. She understood that the only person she should really rely on was herself. There was no need in her eyes for the government or the taxpayers to solve her financial woes. I am always amazed at folks who do not take advantage of sales or are not willing to buy an off brand to save money. Or even worse, just walk into a store and buy items higgly-piggly with no regard to price, name-brand, sale, or quantity. I'm continually floored when I see other people's shopping carts in stores filled with very expensive items that are really nothing but packaging and no substance. Or have non-essential items like alcohol or cigarettes. Yet, these are the same people who cry that they cannot feed a family on $100 a week, and that's true when you buy nothing but non-sale brand-name items that are more convenience than substance.
I also can't help but compare my grandmother's take-care-of-herself-spirit with all the folks clamoring for hand-outs, buy-outs, help-outs, bail-outs, and the flat-out gimmes. Many of whom got themselves into these predicaments of needing taxpayer money because they were selfish, greedy, and self-centered. Not all are, and to help the folks who TRULY need it I'm glad to do it. But, they are such a small minority that it wouldn't even register on the evening news in any other time but the gimme, gimme, gimme time we are in now.
I'm angry because my husband and I did everything right. We kept full-time jobs and steadily built our lives up the way we were taught you should do it. Rent until you can afford the house, buy a house within your means, eventually you'll sell that house and buy a bigger one, pay off that mortgage, and save for your retirement with a 401k and a 403b. We did EVERYTHING we were supposed to, paid our mortgage off four years early because we put extra money to the principal every month and still put money away for retirement. We don't carry credit card debt and bought our last two cars with cash. Oh, and those two cars? Normal cars that get good gas mileage and not the giant honking SUV's that cost more than both of them together. So why, then, are we now watching all of our hard work evaporate AND not only have our savings gone but have to bail-out dead-beats who just spent, and spent, and spent and never ONCE thought that this would come back to bite them in the ass?
Yeah, I'm angry. And, if I have to start growing a garden so I can have food in the coming year, I will be cursing every dead-beat to eating hamburger gravy forever for every seed I have to put in the ground. But, it will be my ground, paid for with my money, not taxpayer money, and unlike most of the dead-beats I'll be bailing out who won't even think twice about where that money is coming from, I will still be thankful that I did things the right way and know that my grandmother and parents would be very proud of me.
My grandmother passed away April 1, 1986 at the age of 78, and up until her death, she continued to raise that garden every year. She started seeds in the basement even before all the snow was gone in the yard. She had a huge fenced in area that was once the part of the horse pasture, and had a permit from the DNR to shoot the woodchucks that tried to consume the efforts of her hard work. As one of her four grandchildren, I was put to work weeding and tending that garden when I would stay with her for a few weeks in the summer. I hated it. To this day, I can remember whining about it, doing a half-hearted job, and consuming all the ripe strawberries when she wasn't looking. I'm sure she knew, but never said anything. She grew everything from fruits to nuts. And then, the canning would begin. If I thought the weeding was bad, canning was worse. Hours and hours of prepping the food, the jars, the lids, the mashers, sieves, and spices. Hot, sweaty, weary, and sick of smelling vinegar and cooked food. Still, it never once sunk in to my self-centered kid brain that for grandma, this wasn't a hobby. This was her survival. This was how she survived the roughest economic time in America's history.
Now, close to 23 years after her death, our country is facing far worse economically than what my grandmother went through, but I still don't feel the need to start growing a garden. But, that isn't because the lesson of my grandmother's struggle was completely lost to me. At some point, her tendencies to, oh, let's say, stock-up and grow her own food, was replaced with I'll buy extra when on sale and stock up that way. She understood that the only person she should really rely on was herself. There was no need in her eyes for the government or the taxpayers to solve her financial woes. I am always amazed at folks who do not take advantage of sales or are not willing to buy an off brand to save money. Or even worse, just walk into a store and buy items higgly-piggly with no regard to price, name-brand, sale, or quantity. I'm continually floored when I see other people's shopping carts in stores filled with very expensive items that are really nothing but packaging and no substance. Or have non-essential items like alcohol or cigarettes. Yet, these are the same people who cry that they cannot feed a family on $100 a week, and that's true when you buy nothing but non-sale brand-name items that are more convenience than substance.
I also can't help but compare my grandmother's take-care-of-herself-spirit with all the folks clamoring for hand-outs, buy-outs, help-outs, bail-outs, and the flat-out gimmes. Many of whom got themselves into these predicaments of needing taxpayer money because they were selfish, greedy, and self-centered. Not all are, and to help the folks who TRULY need it I'm glad to do it. But, they are such a small minority that it wouldn't even register on the evening news in any other time but the gimme, gimme, gimme time we are in now.
I'm angry because my husband and I did everything right. We kept full-time jobs and steadily built our lives up the way we were taught you should do it. Rent until you can afford the house, buy a house within your means, eventually you'll sell that house and buy a bigger one, pay off that mortgage, and save for your retirement with a 401k and a 403b. We did EVERYTHING we were supposed to, paid our mortgage off four years early because we put extra money to the principal every month and still put money away for retirement. We don't carry credit card debt and bought our last two cars with cash. Oh, and those two cars? Normal cars that get good gas mileage and not the giant honking SUV's that cost more than both of them together. So why, then, are we now watching all of our hard work evaporate AND not only have our savings gone but have to bail-out dead-beats who just spent, and spent, and spent and never ONCE thought that this would come back to bite them in the ass?
Yeah, I'm angry. And, if I have to start growing a garden so I can have food in the coming year, I will be cursing every dead-beat to eating hamburger gravy forever for every seed I have to put in the ground. But, it will be my ground, paid for with my money, not taxpayer money, and unlike most of the dead-beats I'll be bailing out who won't even think twice about where that money is coming from, I will still be thankful that I did things the right way and know that my grandmother and parents would be very proud of me.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Migraines
I suffer from migraine headaches. I've had them since I was a young girl, my sister suffers from them and my mother also had them. This past weekend, (Feb. 28th) I woke up at 3am with a pain so intense on the right side of my head it felt like someone was shoving a flaming hot saber through my eye and up and out the back of my head. I would have confessed to anything to stop that pain. I even denied it when I first woke, telling my husband, "My head is killing me, but I don't think it is a migraine." I hate migraines and usually try to deny they are happening when they do strike. They are a whole body experience for me, the pain, nausea, sound and light aversion, tactile over-stimulation, and the pain. Yes, I know I mentioned that twice. I always laugh at the migraine commericals that show a person up and at whatever activity they were doing an hour before they took the medicine that eliminates their symptoms.
It doesn't really work that way.
I have both over-the-counter and prescription medicines to try to prevent them and to treat them when they do strike. For some reason my daily Rx meds are not doing too well as I'm two for two in 2009. I had one January 1st (that's a good way to start off a new year) and then this one yesterday. The Rx med I took to actively treat one did work for me, but not until I slept for several hours and took an OTC med with it that has aspirin, caffeine, and acetaminophen in it. I had to take several more doses of that yesterday too. So, no, after an hour I wasn't "up and at 'em" like the TV commercials.
My point in divulging all my migraine history is that in the past, I have heard mention (from non-migraine sufferers) that these headaches are just exaggerated from the people claiming to suffer from them. That we are somehow trying to get attention, or that we want a day off of work, or that they really aren't that bad, and if you watch the TV commercials, they aren't. The active mom just pops her OTC or Rx meds and the next thing you know she's running around in the yard with the kids! Nothing could be further from the truth. Maybe I don't have the right meds, but just trying not to throw the pills up is a major milestone in the course of a migraine for me. Running? Cognitive thinking? No, that's not going to happen for many hours yet.
Sometimes I get a visual aura before the major symptoms hit. It's like looking through a kaleidoscope of broken crystal that shimmers like sunlight on water. I know that most people who suffer from aura have different types of it, but mine starts on one side of my visual field and progresses toward the other side, blocking my vision for as long as an hour. Whether I close my eyes or not, it's the same sight. I've come to think that it's my brain trying to figure out why it's being assaulted by its own blood vessels and trying to fight back. Yeah, yeah, corny, I know. What it is anyway, is an early warning for me to take something RIGHT NOW, because what's coming is going to be hell if I don't. However, if the aura occurs in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping, I can't do anything about it until I wake up feeling like I'm being stabbed in the head.
So, if you are reading this and happen to be one of the people who thinks that migraine sufferers are just exaggerating their headaches, you are wrong. Just plain wrong and despite what the TV would have you believe, we won't be up and running a few minutes after taking whatever product is being hawked on the screen. Unless we are running for the bathroom and hoping the pain of throwing up won't send us into a seizure.
It doesn't really work that way.
I have both over-the-counter and prescription medicines to try to prevent them and to treat them when they do strike. For some reason my daily Rx meds are not doing too well as I'm two for two in 2009. I had one January 1st (that's a good way to start off a new year) and then this one yesterday. The Rx med I took to actively treat one did work for me, but not until I slept for several hours and took an OTC med with it that has aspirin, caffeine, and acetaminophen in it. I had to take several more doses of that yesterday too. So, no, after an hour I wasn't "up and at 'em" like the TV commercials.
My point in divulging all my migraine history is that in the past, I have heard mention (from non-migraine sufferers) that these headaches are just exaggerated from the people claiming to suffer from them. That we are somehow trying to get attention, or that we want a day off of work, or that they really aren't that bad, and if you watch the TV commercials, they aren't. The active mom just pops her OTC or Rx meds and the next thing you know she's running around in the yard with the kids! Nothing could be further from the truth. Maybe I don't have the right meds, but just trying not to throw the pills up is a major milestone in the course of a migraine for me. Running? Cognitive thinking? No, that's not going to happen for many hours yet.
Sometimes I get a visual aura before the major symptoms hit. It's like looking through a kaleidoscope of broken crystal that shimmers like sunlight on water. I know that most people who suffer from aura have different types of it, but mine starts on one side of my visual field and progresses toward the other side, blocking my vision for as long as an hour. Whether I close my eyes or not, it's the same sight. I've come to think that it's my brain trying to figure out why it's being assaulted by its own blood vessels and trying to fight back. Yeah, yeah, corny, I know. What it is anyway, is an early warning for me to take something RIGHT NOW, because what's coming is going to be hell if I don't. However, if the aura occurs in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping, I can't do anything about it until I wake up feeling like I'm being stabbed in the head.
So, if you are reading this and happen to be one of the people who thinks that migraine sufferers are just exaggerating their headaches, you are wrong. Just plain wrong and despite what the TV would have you believe, we won't be up and running a few minutes after taking whatever product is being hawked on the screen. Unless we are running for the bathroom and hoping the pain of throwing up won't send us into a seizure.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Saving the environment
Can anybody tell me why our new President feels the need to fly everywhere to give speeches he doesn't really need to give? Or why in all of Washington D.C. and the top chefs in our country (who are working at the White House) cannot provide a romantic meal for the first couple for Valentine's day that they have to fly to Chicago for a meal? What happened to his promise of saving the environment? Or was that just for us peons? A "do as I say, not as I do" kind of thing. So far I have seen nothing of his gallivanting around the country at the drop of hat that shows me he is serious about saving money, saving fuel, not wasting resources, or taking advantage of his office. Just because you can fly to the Windy City for meal doesn't mean you should. A little more restraint and common sense would go a long way to convince skeptics that maybe he is putting his money where his mouth is. So far, the only money I've seen him save is... oh wait, he isn't. And, with this joke of a stimulus package going into effect, no one will be saving money. What a complete sham.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Viva Las Vegas!
During winter break from school, my husband, Scott and I went to Las Vegas for a week. We planned this kind of at the last minute and chose the perfect week to go. It was bitterly cold at home and perfect 50 to 60 degree days in Vegas. We had talked about going there a few times in the past, but never really made an effort to go. With air and hotel prices at bargain basement levels, we jumped at the chance to go. We are not gamblers, nor did we go there just to gamble. Sight-seeing and buffets were our primary goals, and we excelled at both.
We didn't anticipate, however, the amount of walking that entails a visit to Vegas. The "strip" isn't that long, only about 7 miles or so, but the hotels and casinos are so BIG that walking from one end to the other can take as long as a half hour. We also chose not to rent a car, so we took the bus, a double-decker known as The Deuce. When getting on The Deuce, a recorded message was broadcast at an ear splitting level that informed you to HAVE FUN! RIDE THE DEUCE! By the end of the week, we were mimicking it perfectly. It was more frugal that the taxis, which are really expensive.
We saw two shows, Louie Anderson and Mac King. Both were very good and we recommend going to them if you find yourself out that way. We wanted to see Penn & Teller, and had planned to go on Thursday night, but the guide book we had was incorrect in its listing and they are off on Thursdays and Fridays. So much for making a plan. We also used the half-price ticket booths, and that turned out well for us.
I got to go horseback riding in the Red Rock Canyon, which was something that I had wanted to do for years. Not necessarily the Red Rock Mountains, but originally the Grand Canyon. Red Rock was closer, less expensive, and a much smaller group. There were only five of us and it was a really "personal" tour. We didn't ride in the canyon, but followed the mountain up and down and rode along the canyon rim. I've never been nervous riding a horse before, but had a brief glimmer of it when I realized that if she wanted to, my horse, September, could have flipped me into the abyss without a second thought we were so close to the edge. One slip on a stone and that would have been the end of happy trails for me.
We went to five buffets while there. The Belliagio, Harrah's, Tropicana, and two others that were not so good and I can't remember their names. The buffet at the Belliagio was by far the best, and although pricey at $35 each, was well worth it. Go hungry and be prepared to eat. It is a huge buffet and has delicacies from around the world on it. Heavily influenced with seafood, my favorite was the lobster ravioli and Scott's was the African Blue Nose fish. Outstanding.
While we didn't do a lot of gambling, it was surprising how fast the week went. We had a beautiful hotel room at The Signature at MGM. It was on the penthouse floor, 30 stories up. A balcony and a great view to boot. There is a considerable amount of construction going on, and it seems like each casino keeps trying to out-do the one before it.
All in all, a fun trip and a great break from the dreary Wisconsin winter.
Friday, January 9, 2009
And the secret is.....
Spoiler warning: I'm discussing the book "The Secret" and giving away the secret. If you want to find out for yourself, read no further. You have been warned.
I just finished, or well almost finished, the book "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne. I had heard a few people here and there talking about it, and finally decided to read this book and discover how I could make everything I want happen, happen. The secret is the law of attraction. And in her book, Ms. Byrne has interviewed several experts on the secret. They all state the same thing. If you truly believe what you want to happen, you will transmit that to the Universe and the Universe will give you what you want. The book states that we are all transmission towers and that the Universe "hears" us and then gives us what we want. So, if you are in a bad mood, bad things will happen. If you are in a good mood, good things will happen. As I was reading, I began to wonder if at the end of the book, there was a gotcha! line coming along. So, I did something I NEVER do. I skipped ahead to the end of the book. Nope, the interviewees believe that if you feel good, are a positive thinker, and can really convince yourself that what you really want IS what you really want, you will get it.
I'm a skeptical person, and I freely admit that. Life experience and years of practical jokes and not so practical jokes have taught me that you can't take everything you experience with your senses for real. Especially when the husband tells you stories about earwigs. To have someone then tell you that you just need to think positive and feel happy and you will be positive and happy leaves me with the feeling that someone has been heavily medicated. Same with wanting money or wealth. If you imagine yourself living in wealth, you will get your wish. If you want to be fabulously beautiful, you just have to think and believe that you are. I guess somehow, faeries or gremlins will somehow transform you while you sleep and you will wake up with whatever vision you want yourself to be. While this is all good and wonderful, I began to wonder what would happen if someone REALLY wanted an enemy dead, or disgraced, or ruined in some way. Would it happen? The book only addresses how negative feelings impact you, not if you can transmit negative thoughts to that annoying neighbor's dog barking at 2am.
I read all the summaries and skipped the last 1/3 of the book because I could no longer stand the exclamation points, the Stuart Smiley like text and the trite way of how we should deal with life. If this utopia described in the book is possible just by the power of positive thinking, does that mean that there is also a doppelganger version that accounts for all the bad things that happen in the world? Good and Evil are as old as time itself and are found everywhere. But wouldn't the majority of the human race want good? Shouldn't we have a very small percentage of people that can't help themselves and want bad? The question then becomes do we really have so many people in the world that want bad? Crime, disease, corruption, war, poverty, slavery, apathy, deceit, disgrace, hate, rage, could all be eliminated just by thinking happy thoughts. The book states that love is the most powerful feeling you can experience or transmit. If you could live in a perpetual state of feeling love, you would never know unhappiness. It was at this point I stopped reading the book, because while I don't disagree that love is a very powerful emotion, it is impossible to live in a perpetual state of that blissful, flower-child sentiment from the 60's. Just watching the evening news will put a dent in anyone's love-o-meter.
The idea of the book is wonderful. If you could really pull this off, there would be no mental illness. I would say it is a safe bet that if you ask most people who suffer from say, depression, that they could cure their depression just by feeling happy, they would. In fact, there are probably many of them that have tried to help themselves just by doing that very same thing. "Maybe if I just put on a happy face....." Maybe they should be thinking that they should fix the chemical imbalance in their brains? Do you have to be that specific for the secret to work? "Oh, I know my serotonin levels are normal today!" And *POOF* depression cured? Could we really put the medical business out of business? Do we bring on our cancers ourselves by our negative thinking that we are going to get cancer?
So, I guess the only real thing I believe from this book is the money part. I got the book from the library, but I know there are many people who bought this book and went to see the movie that was based on it. I guess the author must really have wanted wealth because she found a way to make that happy thought come true.
I just finished, or well almost finished, the book "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne. I had heard a few people here and there talking about it, and finally decided to read this book and discover how I could make everything I want happen, happen. The secret is the law of attraction. And in her book, Ms. Byrne has interviewed several experts on the secret. They all state the same thing. If you truly believe what you want to happen, you will transmit that to the Universe and the Universe will give you what you want. The book states that we are all transmission towers and that the Universe "hears" us and then gives us what we want. So, if you are in a bad mood, bad things will happen. If you are in a good mood, good things will happen. As I was reading, I began to wonder if at the end of the book, there was a gotcha! line coming along. So, I did something I NEVER do. I skipped ahead to the end of the book. Nope, the interviewees believe that if you feel good, are a positive thinker, and can really convince yourself that what you really want IS what you really want, you will get it.
I'm a skeptical person, and I freely admit that. Life experience and years of practical jokes and not so practical jokes have taught me that you can't take everything you experience with your senses for real. Especially when the husband tells you stories about earwigs. To have someone then tell you that you just need to think positive and feel happy and you will be positive and happy leaves me with the feeling that someone has been heavily medicated. Same with wanting money or wealth. If you imagine yourself living in wealth, you will get your wish. If you want to be fabulously beautiful, you just have to think and believe that you are. I guess somehow, faeries or gremlins will somehow transform you while you sleep and you will wake up with whatever vision you want yourself to be. While this is all good and wonderful, I began to wonder what would happen if someone REALLY wanted an enemy dead, or disgraced, or ruined in some way. Would it happen? The book only addresses how negative feelings impact you, not if you can transmit negative thoughts to that annoying neighbor's dog barking at 2am.
I read all the summaries and skipped the last 1/3 of the book because I could no longer stand the exclamation points, the Stuart Smiley like text and the trite way of how we should deal with life. If this utopia described in the book is possible just by the power of positive thinking, does that mean that there is also a doppelganger version that accounts for all the bad things that happen in the world? Good and Evil are as old as time itself and are found everywhere. But wouldn't the majority of the human race want good? Shouldn't we have a very small percentage of people that can't help themselves and want bad? The question then becomes do we really have so many people in the world that want bad? Crime, disease, corruption, war, poverty, slavery, apathy, deceit, disgrace, hate, rage, could all be eliminated just by thinking happy thoughts. The book states that love is the most powerful feeling you can experience or transmit. If you could live in a perpetual state of feeling love, you would never know unhappiness. It was at this point I stopped reading the book, because while I don't disagree that love is a very powerful emotion, it is impossible to live in a perpetual state of that blissful, flower-child sentiment from the 60's. Just watching the evening news will put a dent in anyone's love-o-meter.
The idea of the book is wonderful. If you could really pull this off, there would be no mental illness. I would say it is a safe bet that if you ask most people who suffer from say, depression, that they could cure their depression just by feeling happy, they would. In fact, there are probably many of them that have tried to help themselves just by doing that very same thing. "Maybe if I just put on a happy face....." Maybe they should be thinking that they should fix the chemical imbalance in their brains? Do you have to be that specific for the secret to work? "Oh, I know my serotonin levels are normal today!" And *POOF* depression cured? Could we really put the medical business out of business? Do we bring on our cancers ourselves by our negative thinking that we are going to get cancer?
So, I guess the only real thing I believe from this book is the money part. I got the book from the library, but I know there are many people who bought this book and went to see the movie that was based on it. I guess the author must really have wanted wealth because she found a way to make that happy thought come true.
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