I just watched Hannity debating with Al Sharpton on TV and I’m pretty sure he said “colored people” on TV.  Am I crazy or did anyone else watch that?

He’s such a jerk.  I hope he gets fired over this.

Since when did charities become so picky?

Allow me to explain before any assumptions…

I cleaned the girls rooms and I told them to put all their plush toys in the hallway…I’ve been telling hubby and family that they own WAY too many plush toys. Every birthday or outing with grandma they get a new one. The last outing with dad they brought home two more…some huge dinosaur and the younger child a small kitty plush animal. So I was like “thats it.” Obviously these people don’t have the slightest idea of volume.

Anyhow, we filled the hallway with plushness… and with that visual my 9yo was able to let go of half of them…even she was like “woah, that IS a lot of animals.” Victory at last…

So after filling three large size black bags full of brand new plush animals, that were hardly touched EVER, I called three places, two closed and the last being the local Ronald McDonald House.

Me: “Hi I wanted to know if you take plush toys”
Sir: “Oh yes! You can drop them off anytime. Just make sure they are new.”

What? What’s the point of donations then? I’ll take new things too…c’mon now! I buy in consignment stores and gladly take hand-me-downs. I graciously accept them, then decide later which to keep. Most of the time I keep them for paint-time clothes.

New? Seriously? What a waste…

Anyone want 3 bags full of plushness?

Technorati Tags: charity, picky, donations, toys, refuse

This article:BBC NEWS | Americas | Head-to-head: Refuge for deserters? with this deserters letter had me fuming! I too joined the National Guard…also was Military Intel and it was always very obviously clear that there was a chance I might go to combat…then I joined a non-deployable unit…and I still knew this status might change.

Grow up…why do you think you learned to fire an M16? So you can fill sand bags in New Orleans? Why did you attend basic training with regular Army folks?
If you’re a conscientious objector, be one outside of the military…not in it.

Here are some gems from Mr Corey Glass…deserter.

I signed up to defend people and do humanitarian work filling sandbags if there was a hurricane. I had no conception I would be deployed to fight on foreign shores.

OOOH…I get it…you joined the Army National Guard, to fill sand bags? Because we all know you could have done this as a volunteer…but you know you CHOSE an MI MOS…did they teach you at AIT to fill sandbags? Oh wait, filling sandbags was a task in the new soldiers handbook? Must have changed then since I went in ‘96.

What’s so hard about this: you don’t get to pick and choose who you defend or where you’re deployed. You serve at the pleasure of the governor…and at his pleasure he deferred that decision to the President.

In my time here, I have been self-sufficient and I have made many friends. I have built a life here.

While you’re making friends in Canada, your “buddies” where taking up your slack. Perhaps you didn’t make friends in the Army? At least you have no loyalty to them…

Through this job I had access to a lot of information about what was happening on the ground in Iraq. I realised innocent people were being killed unjustly and I tried to quit the military while in Iraq

What a little liar! If he had access to “information” then shouldn’t he have brought it up to the chain of command? How about show this “evidence” in court or heck, at a last resort, the press?

My commander told me I was stressed out and needed R&R, because I was doing a job I was not trained to do.

Did you show him your stress card? And then what do you do? Go on R&R thanks to your very kind commander? You weren’t even at combat arms and got stressed out pushing paper?

I believe the Iraq War is illegal and morally wrong.

I believe the war is wrong…and your desertion morally wrong and illegal. Want to talk morality? Go to court and show your case…

I believe it is every soldier’s right to refuse to take part in that war.

Translation: I believe I can join the military thinking it’s camp as a weekend warrior, until it becomes serious, then I should have the choice to second guess my orders for whatever reason I deem worthy…leaving my buddies in the field to pick up my slack because working my desk job gave me paper cuts.

I hope he gets deported fast and put in the brig.

Technorati Tags: Corey Glass, deserter, conscientious objector, Iraq War

This weekend was eventful. My sister came in town on Friday for my daughter’s birthday party on Saturday. All went well, despite only 8 girls showing up…but that was our fault for deciding on the plans last minute; as in Wednesday. It was half-of a Pokemon party, filled with Pokemon cake and pokemon games, then to finish it off a dip in the community pool.

Then on Sunday my mother in the early morning, unbeknownst to us, drives herself to the worse nearest hospital to us complaining of flank pain. When we get there, mom’s in the ER room and the billing idiot guy comes by and hands her drivers license and insurance card and says:

“Your insurance covers the ER visit except for a $100 copay. Do you have that now?”

My mother is in pain, moaning and groaning and this guy is asking her to pay now before we even see the doc? WTF????? So my sister protests

“Isn’t this bad timing? I mean, shes in pain, can’t we do this at the end.”

The moron guy sorta ignores her, looks at my mom again as if to imply…lemme just take it now. The nurse hears the commotion and comes inside asking “whats the problem here.” To which I say

“It’s just that my mother is in pain, isn’t exaclty in the position to coherently sign papers at the moment and this guy here is asking her for money before we’ve even been seen by anybody!”

My sister, less tactfully perhaps that she should have been, says pissedly: “can’t he do this later? my mother is sick and this very rude!!!”

To which the bitch nurse replies “He’s just doing his job…you have to understand that this is a business.“

No, I’m not kidding…I wish I were.

So my sister, in all her tactfulness begins mocking her words…repeating over and over and dry-ly laughing “it’s a business” in utter disbelief.

But the drama isn’t over…my mother is then given some narcotic – Hydromorphine for pain. Do you think that before giving someone a narctotic they might a) hook her up to a heart monitor and pulseox and b) take blood pressure readings? Or how about c) warn the family that there may be adverse effects that may pass? And lastly d) stay with the patient until the adverse affects pass?

None of those things happened. Before we knew it my mother started to make noises then her arms started to twitch and her eyes going back and forth into her head, her lips turned blue and her skin pale and we panicked. Two nurses come in with paramedics, and say “oh this is normal…” so much so that they shoo us out of the room close the door and hook her up to a monitor and whatever else they did in there while we panicked outside.

All of this drama for a kidney stone in the end… this is the last time we use this hospital (NFRMC). This is the 3rd time we have issues with the treatment we’ve received, and by far the scariest.

It’s been a while since I blogged. I’m bad about setting time aside to do it…I mind as well ramble for now.

1. Semester is over and so are my classes. I’m done with classes technically forever…I can CHOOSE to take a class, but no longer shall I be forced to take a college/graduate class ever. And it’s just as well because between Physics and Engineering grad courses I am pooped out and my brain hurts. Oh yeah, and I passed my last class, that my advisor taught. Got a B…who cares about GPA when you have over 90 grad credits? grrr…I do.

2. I’m on a research slump again. I got sick after classes with strep, then had a trip, then saw some data that wasn’t good and I lost my motivation again. Everyday I consciously consider quitting…then stay one more day because I don’t want to quit. But the finances are getting tighter and the bills remain the same but the cost of living has gone up. Yesterday I got a call from an Air Force recruiter…random and weird but I actually fathomed returning to the military for a moment…a not so brief moment.

3. Yesterday I was watching a show on McDonalds and the guy was showing one in canada that’s fancy and the drive-thru caters to farmer on tractors….and it pans to the inside where it showed a fireplace in the McDee’s…then the narrator says this (loosely quoted) “…and inside you can sit by the fireplace enjoying your burger…” to which he adds “…because even farmers need some class sometimes.” I’m not a farmer and even I was insulted!

4. I leave today to go camping at Disney for one night with my almost 9yo. She hates camping…but it’s Disney…and there are people dying at this very moment, so she better not complain. The catch is that in girl scouts, girls and parents must sleep in separate locations (in our case tents)…rules for boys on the other hand is that they are allowed to sleep with their parents…’cause we all know that boys aren’t sexually abused…only girls are. Weird rules.

5. My weight loss saga is going well. I’m at 24lbs lost… Almost the weight of my 3yo daughter. And I’ve been trying to play tennis 3x / week. It’s about 1lb/week loss and no weird dieting. Just eat less or whatever I want, estimate caloric intake, and no sugary drinks. That’s not to say I don’t indulge in sweet tea or OJ…but I try to have one glass of sweet tea, or mix sweet/unsweet, and I add a 1/2 water to my OJ. For meals I stay away from simple carbs, but nothing drastic. For bfast, I’ve discovered (thanks to my friend Kee) the amazing thing that is apples and peanut butter. OMG it’s so amazing! And I have the wonderful, natural, omega3 added type peanut butter. Jiffy sucks… yuck.

6. Lastly my MacBook Pro is broken. It freezes when off the power cord. So is my 1st gen PowerMac 1.8 single G5 (mouthful, I know). I changed the battery to no avail and as of the last update, the fans keep going bonkers and then….kernel panic. My MBP is being backed up now and I’ll send it to “the depot” today. They’ll gut it, tell me nothing’s wrong for sure, only to send it back probably completely erased… yeah, I have little faith.

Technorati Tags: MBP freezes, girl scouts, research

I got over the whole Obama Rev Wright deal.  After a talk with my friend Kee (an official black person), I came to her conclusion that “hey, I have some friends whom I go to for advice on some matters but not others.”  So I love Obama again, and it’s a good thing because I was feeling rather lonely and sad after he was gone from my choices.

My problem with Rev. Wright remains though and I pointed this out to my friend.  I don’t like radical people, and my definition of radical is: People that incite anger and hate but offer no solutions.  My friend contends that Dr. King was a radical, but I assert that he’s not by my definition of a radical person.   Perhaps I should call these people by what they are really doing, and that’s being inflammatory and re-center my definition of the word ‘radical.’  My language isn’t precise enough I suppose.

Anyhow, I find Rev. Wright to be inflammatory and in that sense he really isn’t a radical after all because he is not offering solutions when he screamming “God Damn America.”  (you can find the whole excerpt online in full context.)  His lesson is that God does not change, but governments do, and people do.  But while his point, and a very entertaining one, is that God is a constant, he keeps getting distracted listing all the atrocities this country has ever (and continues) to make.

So when listening to this you have to ask yourself: what’s his goal?  Is his goal to have those people in church learn about the constancy of God or is his goal to pander to an audience?  The irony is that during the sermon, the moment he starts screaming “God Damn America” you can hear a moan/cringe from the audience despite the appearance on the news that people from this church are in 100% agreement.  Certainly he hit a spot, but I found his sermon didn’t inspire or offer me tools to become a vehicle for change.  He missed an opportunity to show his congregation how despite the government we can uphold and demand human rights.

Ofcourse we could get into a whole discussion about how the bible itself treats women as second class citizens and how the bible instructs people to kill sons and brothers in the name of God… so why does it surprise Rev. Wright when the government acts like God if this is a Judeo-Christian nation that reads the same book he does?  Why does it surprise Rev. Wright that this and other nations have held people as property and in slavery and the Bible also does?(Leviticus 25:44-46)  Why does it surprise people that certain peoples are kept from being educated when the Bible asks women to “learn in quietness and in full submission?”(Timothy 2:11 -14)

But that’s for another post….

So after pulling an all nighter, 2 group members waltz in 30 minutes before presentations and report is due, with nothing in their hands. “No, I didn’t finish.”

Ofcourse you didn’t finish….you didn’t stay up like I did. The second group member forgot her data at home, the third I saw IN class. The other two groups were done…but not us. I was fuming, beyond mad. With 10 minutes left I reorganized my presentation, to show only my data. The others I saw in class finishing their presentations IN class. After class is over I leave pissed off, sleepless and back to finish the report. The other three talk to the professor and tell her it was my fault for I never made to the meetings…BS! There were 3 meetings and the last was supposed to be at 7am before the 8:30am deadline! You know what else? One totally faked data, showed an Excel spreadsheet with data who knows how she was able to get… and in the end I get called to the office, to my adviser who is also my class prof.

Why does honesty get me in trouble? this is BS….the truth did not set me free, it sent me to the office.

I got assigned to a new group…did I mention the last group was all the women in the class? 4 girls in a group, where’s the wisdom in that? Prof admitted that wasn’t the best idea….ya think?

What an awful week.

10pm – Day before project is due.

In my last grand stand class, we get assigned to groups. I hate groups. I like people, and enjoy friends, but being assigned to a group of people you barely know sucks. Of all the people in my group one neither is of this planet or appears to be ON this planet at the moment. An inflated sense of ego is an understatement…today this group member mentioned plans to “attend MIT and solve the many electron problem.” WOW! AMAZING! Thousands of scientists at it, since FORTRAN was born, but this person will somehow squeeze into MIT and solve it. Ofcourse the reason why this group member can’t do it here (a top 10 dept!) is because, well, this person wasn’t accepted to the PhD program, nor does this person have an advisor! And it’s 1am and this dolt is still trying to figure out basic Linux commands. Brilliant.

1am – Day project is due

They’ve all disappeared. All my group members are enjoying sleep…my children haven’t seen their mother since 7:30am, but these single group member are nowhere to be found. King of Dolts I mentioned before hasn’t said a thing over email since he once again reminded the group just how far behind his 133+ h4×0rz skills on linux really are. How does someone sign up for a Comp. Quantum Chem class and doesn’t know linux? uh, let’s see…there’s ls, cd, mkdir, and ./script.sh.

Sorry for the geek-rant…it’s late and this project wont make it…not when my 3 group members snore away their my grade.

I’m so mad right now I could just roll in mud and run through a Bridal shop yelling dromedary obsceneties!

I’m tired. Really tired. I’m in that stage where a project at school is due and I find myself thinking I’m just over all of this school stuff. I’m exausted really. I have over 90 graduate credits (switched graduate majors, long story) and this is my LAST class….

But I’ve been here before; my last class. I did Physics, finished all my classes and [long story later] then moved to a new school, and moved to Engineering. Again I find myself taking my LAST CLASS – again. It’s my last class, and this is HW 1, due Thursday, and already I’ve run out of steam.

I still have quals, and defense left, not to talk about the research that fits somewhere in the middle. I wanted to bridge theoretical with experimental…I left reality-lacking experimental Physics behind and the heavy theoretical lectures that are naturally part of Physics. But I find myself not quite studying application, and into theory that isn’t theoretical enough. Why am I unhappy about my research?

It’s because my research doesn’t work. And class gets in the way of it, and I’m getting in the way of myself. I can’t get excited about it and I’m tired of classes, of projects, of homework, of late nights after the kids go to bed. My head hurts, and this dream of being a prof is just too hard. Today’s been a rough day in grad school.  Mercifully tomorrow is almost here and I get another chance to take another step forward.

To quote our eloquent president “this is hard work.”