While I currently live in the Detroit area, I'm finishing my doctoral degree out of Indiana University, in Bloomington, IN. I thus make a number of drives back and forth between Detroit and Bloomington, which is about an hour's drive SW of Indianapolis. Every time I make the trip, it gets just a bit more disturbing. After the last round-about of driving, my hubby decreed that I'm banned from driving back from future academic hibernations in Bloomington. I have to admit that he may have re...
While I currently live in the Detroit area, I'm finishing my doctoral degree out of Indiana University, in Bloomington, IN. I thus make a number of drives back and forth between Detroit and Bloomington, which is about an hour's drive SW of Indianapolis. Every time I make the trip, it gets just a bit more disturbing. After the last round-about of driving, my hubby decreed that I'm banned from driving back from future academic hibernations in Bloomington. I have to admit that he may have re...
These days there's a distinction made between creepy guy and and freaky guy, and like a lot of offbeat folks, I can appreciate a good many of the freaky guys. We're talking, say, the Henry Rollin's type-- nothing creepy (by my book) about him. But he's darn freaky, in a good way (IMHO). No, by creepy I mean, well, creepy. Let me give you a few examples of possible characteristics (taken, unfortunately, from real life experiences): (1) It's noon and he can't decide whether to (a) get ...
These days there's a distinction made between creepy guy and and freaky guy, and like a lot of offbeat folks, I can appreciate a good many of the freaky guys. We're talking, say, the Henry Rollin's type-- nothing creepy (by my book) about him. But he's darn freaky, in a good way (IMHO). No, by creepy I mean, well, creepy. Let me give you a few examples of possible characteristics (taken, unfortunately, from real life experiences): (1) It's noon and he can't decide whether to (a) get ...
Ok, if you MUST be a Christian, it'd be SO much better if you'd do it according to The Christ's model. Effectively, that seems to come down to eight SIMPLE rules: (1) First, and most obvious: Love one another as I have loved you. What is so hard about this? Is war love? Is love war? Then WHY do you have a "God loves me" sticker on one side of your bumper and a "War IS the answer" on the other side? Am I missing something??? Yes, yes-- a JUST war is OK. Sure. But then how do YOU k...
Ok, if you MUST be a Christian, it'd be SO much better if you'd do it according to The Christ's model. Effectively, that seems to come down to eight SIMPLE rules: (1) First, and most obvious: Love one another as I have loved you. What is so hard about this? Is war love? Is love war? Then WHY do you have a "God loves me" sticker on one side of your bumper and a "War IS the answer" on the other side? Am I missing something??? Yes, yes-- a JUST war is OK. Sure. But then how do YOU k...
If one goes out for lunch in my town, one will run into lots mom/young child(-ren)/grandma combinations-- three generations out for the afternoon. Like many sociologists, I have a strong interest in (a) what makes people "tick" and ( how they interact. I thus spend a lot of time listening in on other peoples' conversations when I'm out and about. It's second nature for me at this point. During my latest lunch outing, my attention was especially drawn to a few things. In modern times, ...
I have seen so many family situations strained over money issues. I was lucky-- my family (at least on my mom's side) was ALWAYS generous, the "give you the shirt off my back" types. That's how I grew up thinking. If I have enough and you need some, it's yours. My dad came from a very different family-- if grandma was having company, you can be sure there were just enough pieces of lunch meat and bread to make exactly one thin sandwich per person. My mom managed to affect my dad's sense of $$...
Holy Cow-- I just watched the biggest train wreck of a remodeling show episode. Here's the description of the episode of Clean House: Clean House Niecy Nash and her team of experts reconcile this battling mother and her college-age daughter by dragging out the ugly excess, re-doing the living room, & the daughter's bedroom. (TV-PG) And here's what ACTUALLY happened (I couldn't believe what I was seeing!)... Ok, so the show starts off with the daughter looking like kind ...
My mom and I were just talking about grief last night b/c I'm so upset over my young cousin (she's my age and has a great husband and two little kids) who's seemingly losing her battle with cancer (a metasticized melanoma). Things NOT to Say to a Grieving Friend/Relative (and, yes, these are things people REALLY did say): (1) It's been ___ years/months, and you need to move on. I don't care how many DECADES it's been, one has no place giving this ignorant "advice" to someone else. (...
Ok, what better time to rant than RIGHT NOW while I'm sitting IN a phone queue...is there a worse misery of modern technology? Let's consider the components that make this such a supremely irritating experience: (1) You get a fembot telling you how important your call is. You know SHE'S LYING, though, b/c, of course, if your call was THAT important, the company would hire more PEOPLE to answer the phones. Hell, they don't even phone you anymore-- they use automoated computers to do that...
Ok, what better time to rant than RIGHT NOW while I'm sitting IN a phone queue...is there a worse misery of modern technology? Let's consider the components that make this such a supremely irritating experience: (1) You get a fembot telling you how important your call is. You know SHE'S LYING, though, b/c, of course, if your call was THAT important, the company would hire more PEOPLE to answer the phones. Hell, they don't even phone you anymore-- they use automoated computers to do that...
I was excited to discover that this is the Year of the Rooster by the Chinese zodiac system. I'm not much for the "science" of horoscopes, but any tradition that's nearly 5000 years old is inherently neat-o in my book. The complexity of the system is really cool, too. Instead of a simple 12-month/year-based cycle, there's a 12-YEAR cycle interspersed with five subsets for each of the twelve intervals. Thus, as a rooster-earth person, it's actually really only "my year" twice in my lifetim...