Mental Health Hotline

Bill had a post about automated answering systems today, and how tired he was of pressing 1... it reminded me of this video. Enjoy!

Doing Research

I'm sad to hear this week that Multiply is going to focus on the marketplace portion of this wonderful site. They're headquartering themselves in Asia, where the bulk of the sellers (nee spammers) are located. They haven't mentioned anything about whether they will continue to support and maintain the blogging portion of their business. Having survived the slow death of Yahoo 360, I'm skeptical that Multiply will remain the place it always has been for those of us who were "refugees" looking for a home.

I've been looking around a bit, in case we have to abandon ship, and came across LiveJournal. Here's what one site has to say about it:

LiveJournal, formerly owned by Six Apart and written in PERL, differs from other major blog platforms because of its unique community feel and social networking features. The “friends list” provides a way for people who have LiveJournal accounts to connect with each other and a friends page displays a feed of LiveJournal posts (or “entries”) made by friends. One bad thing about LiveJournal is the fact that you must display advertisements (from LiveJournal) even if you upgrade to a Plus account. Plus users are able to change the display option for the advertisements as well as store and manage photos (not an available option in the free version) and create post polls and surveys. If you would like to go advertisement-free, you need to upgrade to a Paid account ($20 per year) which gives you many more features like creating new syndication accounts and creating a custom journal design with advanced options.

I opened an account just to check it out (http://mommadish.livejournal.com/) and it seems pretty easy to use. Does anyone else want to try? This may be premature, but I remember what happened with 360 and how we scrambled to make sure that we didn't lose anyone in the move... and then we did.

That 4 Thing Going Around...

I thought I'd resisted, but it still goes on... and it is kinda fun! So here goes...

1- Four states I've been to - New York, Louisiana, California, and Montana.
2- Four smells I love- Baking bread, garlic, Coppertone sunblock, and baby powder.
3- This one is supposed to be four people who will reply, but I'll turn this into 4 states I haven't been to- Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Oregon
4- Four TV shows I like- House Hunters, Supernatural, Cake Boss, House

I don't watch a lot of TV. I'd rather read a book. And I'm sure glad I didn't have to pick just 4 books I like!

Life isn't Fair

Those of you watching the news might know that my state (North Carolina) passed an amendment to our state constitution stating that NC will only recognize marriage between a man and a woman. This has caused a lot of discussion over the past few days, some of it constructive, some of it full of venom and hatred, no matter which side you were on.

As usual, I'm a moderate. I can really see both sides and was conflicted on how to vote. I listened to my friends, the people I respect, and they were on one side of the issue or the other. My Christian friends who believe in the Bible know that God sees homosexual relations as a sin, and voted "for." My more liberal friends want everyone to always have what they want when they want it, and voted "against." I was still conflicted.

After a great Facebook debate, it hit me - I had to figure out where I stood. What I stood for. What principles I live my life by. Then I would know. I won't tell you how I voted because it doesn't matter- the amendment passed with a good majority. But I did know where I stood, and that it was the right place for me to stand. At the end of the day I feel good about my vote and am happy I chose the way I did.

But it does bring to mind one thing I learned a long time ago- life isn't fair. And I don't think it was meant to be. We don't have the "right" to have anything the other person has just because we want it. When you get down to it, that is the basic idea behind communism- everyone gets what they need (until a dictator comes in and "needs" most of it!)

I did an exercise with my boys when they were little. I was so tired of hearing "it's not fair" that I declared a FAIR DAY. Things were going to be fair for one day. They were excited! They both got up at the same time, ate the same breakfast, drank at the same time, watched the same shows, had the same snack, played the same game (and had to have the same score)... which lasted about 3 hours before they screamed for mercy. They didn't want the same snack. They don't like the same shows, and they wanted someone to be victorious in the game.

It was a good lesson. Life isn't fair. You don't always get the same thing, or the same amount, that the other person has. And sometimes, the state you live in passes a law you like, and sometimes they don't. That's life. Good thing we're only here for a short time, then we're on to an eternity of better!

Gingrich shares lessons from a life in politics with students

http://www.lincolntimesnews.com/?p=51202&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gingrich-shares-lessons-from-a-life-in-politics-with-students
Despite what your personal beliefs are, this was a wonderful visit by Newt Gingrich to my daughter's school on Wednesday. He didn't speak about politics, but encouraged the students to learn something every day, dream big, and be true to themselves. I applaud Newt, who had canceled his NC tour last week, for re-thinking his visit to our town for the morning. I hope our kids learned something...

Did You See It?

Those of you who know me well know what a voracious reader I am. I read all the time. There's something wrong in my world if I don't have an open book nearby. I read the Twilight series while they were still in hardback because one of the high school girls told me she hated to read, but couldn't put it down. When my friend told me about this new series two summers ago called "The Hunger Games" I knew I had to read it too.

I don't usually like science-fiction, especially futuristic Americana. But this is so different. Suzanne Collins created an entirely different world from which we live in but made it believable. It seems familiar somehow. The characters, for the most part, are lovable; the situations, depressing. And of course, the heroine is vulnerable but courageous. I loved the book, and had to read Catching Fire and Mockingjay just as quickly as the first book.

So I've been very skeptical about seeing the movie. It is hard to take the creations in my head (the pictures that I formed while reading the book) and adapt them to what I'm seeing on the screen. Usually book-to-movie stories disappoint me. So imagine how excited I was to see the pictures in my head come to life on the big screen.

The producers did an amazing job of sticking (mostly) to the story line. The wardrobe and set designers used the images in my brain to create the characters. And, for the most part, the casting department chose actors who fit the characters. I really enjoyed seeing this book come to life on the big screen.

The one inconsistency from my mind has to be in the character of Haymitch. I saw him as more of a DeNiro character than a Woody Harrelson. You don't get a good sense of his motivation from the movie like you did in the book. He was a little too likeable. But Katniss and Peeta and all of the people in the capital looked so much like I knew they should. The author did a great job describing them, and the movie makers did a good job of listening.

If you haven't see it, or aren't sure you want to, read the book first. It starts out slowly as it sets the characters in the location and time, but quickly picks up so that you'll be wanting to read the other two books in the trilogy before you can put the first one back on the shelf. Or in my case, in the archived list on my Kindle!

"You can always tell a liberal- you just can't tell them much."