What’s All This Then!

I’ve been getting emails that my “About Me” page is too sparse. As an rather private person, I didn’t think that any one cared to learn anything about me. Apparently, I was wrong. I often am. (See there’s something that you didn’t know before!) So let me dribble out insights about me over the course of a few posts.

For example, “Pearls Before Swine” has to be one of my all time favorite comic strips. Take today’s piece:

So what else do you want to know?

While in the Boy Scouts, I learned a lot of different skills — social ones of courtesy and responsibility, survival ones such as fire building and knot tying. But our scout masters never told us that we could be get in trouble for having this knowledge. If we acted irresponsibly, well, yes, of course we would be punished. But simply having knowledge isn’t a punishable offense. Or at least I thought so until I read about a boy scout being kicked out of school for what he knew.

That’s what happened to scout Travis Grigsby of Missouri’s Lee’s Summit West High School. As a member of the drum line, his team mates were discussing how to best tie down the drum equipment when the subject of tying nooses came up. Although Travis admitted to knowing how to, he responsibly said that he wouldn’t because “you can get in trouble for that.” No truer words were spoken. Later, a black student told a teacher that he was offended by the use of that n-word: noose. As a result, the school district then suspended Travis for 10 days.

You know how a gun can be used beneficially in defending your life or in an unjust fashion to rob someone of theirs. A string twisted about itself can be used productively or wrongly. Words have the same power — to right wrongs or to create problems where none existed. So I wonder which has been more of a noose-ence in this Kansas City school system: a knowledgeable scout, a thin-skinned person, or misguided members on a school district board? Do you think that this is the last of this type of grade school silliness? A frayed knot, I mean, afraid not.

Let’s have some fun. Dell has a new promotion out. Since I’m helping Santa take care of my family and friends, I get to have various famous people help with my Christmas. So let’s see how well it works …

Just click the arrow button to the right of “yoursishere.com” to see why Chuck Liddell thinks YOU should help me get a Dell for the Holidays.

Of course, if you want to be my very favorite Santa …

Yes, I promise to use my new laptop for the betterment of man and woman kind. ::: big, bambi-eyed look ::: So please don’t feel shy to contribute. Together, we *can* change the world! At least, Chuck Liddell thinks so …

Just when you think you’ve heard the ultimate silliness in political correctness, someone somewhere comes up with something even more stupid. Take the latest news story that grabbed worldwide attention on Thursday. Surprisingly, it did not happen in the United States. No, this little gem took place in Australia where a Santa recruitment firm has banned their Santas from uttering that famous festive laugh of “Ho, ho, ho!”

At first I thought that this company was worried about children confusing Santa with a gardener. But hoe no! This was not the case. Rather, this Australian business didn’t want children to confuse Santa with a pimp! Now, I don’t know how pimps dressed in Australia. Here in the United States, a heavy woolen red suit with a matching floppy, pom-pommed cone hat is not the norm for pimps. Just the fur trimming … on the suits, I mean.

Of course, there may be some women with self esteem issues who were taking offense with this sound of jolly laughter. They may have forgotten that Santa isn’t laughing at them, just near them. Besides, what if they have been in more laps than a napkin? This doesn’t make them anything but very people-friendly. So if they confuse Santa’s laugh as a mistaken guess of their profession, then they probably simply need to dress differently.

Oh well. I guess we’ll see if Australian Santas trade their “Ho, ho, ho” for the politically correct “Ha, ha, ha!” Then we’ll see if silliness infects the rest of the world faster than Santa’s sleigh ride on Christmas eve.

If you haven’t been able to make up your mind about Microsoft’s latest and greatest (their words, not mine) operating system, then watch this humorous video. I should warn you first that some of you might be a little offended since it uses certain four letter words, such as ‘Bill’ and ‘Gates’. Otherwise, enjoy!

That’s what our company president said today when the owners announced who they wanted to sell the company to. We’re all not too surprise by their choice. For the past several years now, the owners have been vetoing pay raises for all their hard working employees. You can imagine how moral has suffered. The longer we work for this company, the more we’ve noticed how their business integrity is like oxygen. The higher you go in the organizational chart, the less there is of it. This week we confirmed that at the level of our owners, it is a complete vacuum.

I should explain that the owners had a choice between two buyers for the company. One group was comprised of seasoned businessman. They had plans to raise the standards and the morale of the company — with pay raises and much-needed improvements to the equipment within the plant. This group actually had people from within the company. Because of this, the owners have been declining their offers for several years now. The buyers weren’t of “the right stuff.” We have yet to understand this snobbish attitude.

The other group is simply investors — bean counting financiers. Obviously, they are interested in the amount of money they can pull out of the company. This is what the owners have been doing for the past decade. As I learn more about investors, you would think that they were protégés of the owners. Perhaps that is why they ultimately won out. I am sure that the fact that the owners weren’t fans of the first group came into play as well.

I don’t know why our corporate organization is like a septic tank. The really big chunks have risen to the top. And now, the top floaters want to retire. They are smart enough to realize that you can only milk the cow so long before you’re left only holding the pail. I think the owners know that they have been udderly ridiculous in how they have undermined a great company.

At one time, I respected the owners as businessmen. Over these past years, they have hurt their business through the most selfish decisions imaginable. Things are far worse than I have posted in these few words. I can say that we don’t know what is going to change over the next few months. Should we hope for a Christmas miracle that we keep our jobs and get a 7 year cost-of-living pay adjustment? This has gone beyond a Dilbert nightmare …

Do you want to increase your gas mileage right away? One of my good friends at told me of a idea that is making the rounds on the Internet lately. According to these ‘experts’ on ‘Net, you should use the highest octane gas in your car. They reason that it will burn better and will pay itself by giving you higher gas mileage. Hmmmmm….

First thing that comes to my mind is to check is your car’s owners manual. It will say what octane your car is designed for. If you put 93 octane gas in a car that’s built to run on 87, you’ll just foul up the plugs, cause the car to run hotter than it should and get much lower miles per gallon than you had to start with.

Second thing is the cost. Let’s say that my car can use the super duper premium plus gas. What is the minimum miles per gallon that will make this temping change cost effective? Well, I get 30 mpg. At 3.00 $ per gallon, gas costs me 10 cents a mile. If I buy the “caviar of petrol” at 3.20 $ per gallon, I need to get over 32 mpg for any savings to be possible.

At the moment, I don’t know if switching to the expensive stuff will help me. I do know that there several alternative fuels on the horizon. For example, I’ve read about plans to make gas from horse manure. Will it improve gas mileage? I don’t know but I’m pretty sure it will cut down theft by gas siphoning.

Here in America, it seems like we strive to have everything light: light beer, light sodas, light food. And now I learn there is a light festival in another part of the world! India is currently celebrating Diwali - Festival of lights. I’m not sure if they are celebrating everything light or just a low calorie celebration. Isn’t it great how our American influence has reached across the globe?! I hope this is an event light in calories and not in fun.

Well, not this blog but my “Warning: Life Under Construction”. A few days ago, I asked Valmg of “I know EVERYTHING - just ask my hubby” if she would take a look at one of my sites and review it. Even with her busy schedule of working, caring for her family and maintaining five blogs, she visited my oldest site and posted a very concise evaluation of my LiveJournal blog. Her impressive critique brought some important issues such as post images, sidebar tag list length, and number of posts per page to my attention. In fact, I am now applying her insightful recommendations to all my blogs.

So I want to say “Thank you, Valmg, for your help!” And if any of my readers have a moment, please visit one of her entertaining sites:

I know EVERYTHING - just ask my hubby
Cats and Coupons
Computer Chit Chat
Fun, Crafts and Recipes
Hinderized
Our Big TV

When was the last time you looked into the night and caught a glimpse of a rare comet. Tonight’s your lucky night!! One has just made an unexpected show this week by suddenly becoming brighter than expected. In fact, comet Holmes is bright enough to be seen without using a telescope or binoculars!

You can see this heavenly wonder by looking towards the north sky. Here’s a sky chart:

The biggest surprise about comet Holmes is how its tail suddenly plumed causing it to become one of the brightest comets in years. In terms of relative size in the sky, it is now bigger than Jupiter:

So take advantage and view this amazing celestial traveler before it disappears. We have a week or so …