Grocery shopping

Half the time I think I'm lucky to get out of the grocery store without ending up featured on America's Most Wanted. I'm used to people being rude, but the grocery store seems to bring out the best in people.

Tonight I went in, got a cart, and proceeded to start shopping. I put about 5 things in the cart and set it to the side for less than a minute while I picked some hummus out from the deli. I turned around and my cart (which had been less than 5 feet from me) had completely vanished. Thinking someone might have mistaken it for their own, I looked around for it. I didn't see anyone with it and I didn't see any other abandoned carts. I went back to the front to get a new cart, picked out my groceries again, and started shopping again. I found my groceries from the first cart stuck on a shelf in the next isle. So someone grabbed my cart, ran, and ditched the groceries when they were out of sight. Classy.

Epic eye appointment

A couple weeks ago one of my contacts gave out. It was my last pair, so I had to go to the eye doctor. I had been putting an appointment off for a while, but it turned into and emergency. I can't drive, work or really function with one eye.

I managed to get an appointment and walk out with a pair of lenses. They weren't my full prescription strength, but they would work for a week while they ordered some lenses for me. I only had to suffer with them for a week while they ordered some lenses for me. Holy crap, these things are terrible! They are worse than the first pair. I don't know what's wrong with the prescription but I feel like I'm walking around cross-eyed. I had to go back to the first lense he gave me for one of my eyes. That one seems ok, but not 100% as sharp as it could be. The other one is all wrong. I can't tell whether it is over corrected or not high enough. The biggest problem I have is that my eye seem to be competing with each other, and it's hard to get a focus on something.

Two weeks of dizziness, headaches, and feeling sleepy all the time. Now I get to go back and get them to try and fix the prescription. One more week in a new trial pair, an extra week if they have to order more in. Each mess-up will be another week. I ordered a pair of glasses at the same time. I can't wait to see what those are like if he messed up with my contacts so bad.

Laser surgery is looking mighty tempting right now.

Hunger Games

A while back I picked up The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. I was creating a book list of post-apocalyptic books for teens, and I came across this one. I've heard a lot of praise from readers about this book, but never really looked into it. After reading the description, I had to try it.

The book is set in a post-apocalyptic America. War, drought, fire, and famine has left the country wiped out over-taken by wilderness. The remaining humans are secluded in a large Capitol City, with 12 districts scattered throughout the country. Life in the Capitol is rich and privileged, where existence in the districts is harsh, poor, and labor intensive.

Every year the Capitol holds the Hunger Games as a way of asserting control and intimidation over the districts. All the children between the ages of 12-18 in each district have to submit their names in a lottery. Both a boy and a girl from each district are selected and will be sent to the Capitol to participate in the Hunger Games. The Hunter Games are all about survival. In this "kill or be killed" battle, twenty-four kids go in and only one will come out as the winner.

I was immediately hooked by this book. As some people like to point out, the plot is very similar to some other books or movies, but this story is well-written, intense, and still very unique.

I miss my blog

Time to start blogging again. For my first post in a long time, I'll start with a book review.

Poor Blog

Just one more victim of my WoW obsession.

That's a sobering thought

Big Fire!

If the fire spread to the storage tanks, it would wipe out everything in a one mile radius? Hmm... that would have been exciting. Especially since the one mile radius includes my house!

You gotta be kidding me

I can't say this is a big surprise... she is quite the little go-getter.

Sarah Palin for President? Come on...

I have to admit that I am not registered with any political party. As I see it, I want to vote for the candidate that I feel is best for the job, not the political party. I know that I can't vote in the primaries, and I know if may be silly, but I just like that sense of freedom that being an independent gives me.

Now this past election, the choice wasn't extremely hard. I pretty much knew which way I was going to vote from the beginning, but I stayed true to my philosophy. I sat down, I researched the candidates, and I made my choice. Then they chose the VP candidates, and I went back over and looked at the whole package. Palin? Ye Gads!

I know she is going to spend the next 4-8 years grooming herself, but don't forget her true nature as a leader. And I'm not talking about how much her wardrobe allegedly costs, I'm talking about a documented track record from her performance in the offices that she held.

When she first became Mayor of Wasilla, one of the first things she did was approach the librarian and try to go about banning books. That's censorship based on her christian values. Just remember that there is a separation between religion and government. If you don't want to read the book, then you don't have to pick it up off the shelf. Which is exactly what she did, because when asked if she even read the books in question, she said no and she wasn't going to. When the librarian didn't remove the books, Palin took steps to try and fire the librarian. Luckily for the librarian the community rallied and spoke out against her removal, so her job was spared.

Then when the librarian went to Palin for help, her requests were ignored. What did she want? A renovated and larger library. Her library serves an area roughly the size of West Virginia, and was too small and out of date to fully serve the community. Libraries in smaller rural communities often serve as a very important community center. So instead of listening to the librarian and giving the community of 5,500 people a new library, Palin went ahead with her plans of building an NHL sized hockey rink.

So as she spends the next few years grooming herself, I just want to say:

Dear Republicans,

You can do WAY better. Please find another candidate who will serve the community as a whole, rule on the theory of "the greater good for the greater majority", someone who is compassionate and not vindictive, someone who has a cleaner track-record, and someone who doesn't have a bunch of personal agendas. I know there are a lot of people out there who would be a better candidate. Please find them.

*steps down from soap box*

Things that make you go hmmm...

I have a lot of comments I could make about this article, but I'll let you make your own.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/11/obama.gun.sales/index.html


Or maybe it's just a sign that the economy is getting better.

Dear lonely blog,

I haven't been posting much, but I really haven't had much to say. Most of my conversations have been focusing around either work or the election, which I don't feel necessary to post. Maybe now that the election is over, there will be something else to talk about.

Plus twitter cuts down on the blogging with it's instant gratification. If you can keep it to under 140 characters, it's worth a tweet!

Playing hooky

I'm home from work today. Not really sick, but not really well either. I've been fighting something off since this past weekend. So far I've just been pretty tired and feeling groggy all the time, but now it's gone into a stuffy nose and a little cough. I feel bad about calling in for something so trivial, but I think my body is begging for some rest. I'm hoping that maybe a day here will save me from getting really sick. So today will be spent on reading, knitting, napping, and thinking healthy thoughts.

Talk about a wrong turn

http://www.local10.com/news/17530705/detail.html

Where are the internets?

It depresses me a bit to see how innovative some libraries are concerning the Internet. I see libraries with amazing Wikis connecting patrons with library materials and services. I see libraries with myspace and facebook pages, making a presence for themselves where in the world where most of their patrons spend at least a few hours a week. Twitter is a fast and free way to advertise programs and events in less than 30 seconds. Not to mention the countless library blogs as well.

It just makes me wonder what opportunities we are missing out on. In a time when my library stands to loose so much, how many opportunities have we skipped past to gain recognition and the support of the community. Why are we so passively ignoring all of these opportunities and missing out on all the innovation?

How not to rob a McDonalds

Criminals are just getting smarter and smarter.


http://www.local10.com/news/17493143/detail.html?treets=mia&tml=mia_12pm&ts=T&tmi=mia_12pm_1_11000309172008

You say this happened in Miami?

How not to watch your children.
http://www.local10.com/news/17436177/detail.html?treets=mia&tml=mia_12pm&ts=T&tmi=mia_12pm_1_11000309102008

Big nest

Today they came and put down a ton of cable next to my work. When I went out for dinner, I saw this little guy sitting on top of one of the coils. He was still there almost an hour later when we came back. I wonder if he got confused and thought it was a really big nest.

Only in Miami

A 70 year old lady arrested for buying drugs

I'm crying

This is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

A dating site for Zombies.

silence in blog land

I've been noticing that the number of blog posts from people have been down. I wonder if Ravelry is the main culprit. If it is, then what is my excuse?

Where did it go?

The other day I came home from work and Daniel asked what was wrong with Milo. I looked down at Milo who was busy with his food bowl. I told him that he looked fine to me. Daniel said, "No, look at his face." I coaxed Milo to look at me and noticed that all the fur on one of his eyebrows was missing. I examined him a little closer and accessed that there was no bite or skin problem that might have caused it. There was no scratch either that would indicate a fight or excessive grooming. It's like his eyebrow just got plucked right out. It's just gone.

So for now, I'm calling him Baldy.

Look before you email

A few years ago when I opened my gmail account I decided to keep my username professional. I was just starting my job search and I didn't want to put something stupid like fuzzybearhugger1374 on my resumes. So to try and look professional, I chose an email address close to my real name. The problem is there are other people who have either the same, or very similar names.

Apparently there is another woman with my name that has a father named Steve. He writes very sweet emails, although a little personal in nature. Should I write him back and let him know that he sent them to the wrong Rebecca? It was nice of him to send such a cute picture of his dog. Then there is a guy named Robert who works for a bank or some kind of lender. i've gotten a lot of personal information sent for him. Some of them are regarding travel plans for business, but other involve information about people who are being foreclosed on. Not good. And the worst thing is that some of the emails come from his work account. I think he thinks he's sending them to a personal email account. At this point I feel obligated to track him down and let him know. But still, it's a good reminder on how insecure emails communication is.