Today everything at Goodwill is 50% off. Our shopping trip ended with:

6 pairs of pants
3 skirts
2 shirts
1 sweater
2 pairs of shoes
10 DVD+R’s
1 book
1 shower rack

=$35 and change.

So I continue to make morning entries into my podcast blog. When I start having some quality post I’ll repost them here, but for now I’m enjoying the lessons I’m learning from it. Google’s audioblogger only allows you to talk for five minutes before it cuts off your entry. This is going to teach me to be concise and not try to talk about too many things in one entry.
I’ve learned I need to narrow my focus. I’ve been jumping from technology related topics to moral and value and political thoughts in one podcast. Some people might like that, but the majority probably only want one thing at a time.
I need to use some notes to guide my thought process. With no co-host or anything I need to talk constantly for those five minutes. It might be easy for others, but I find it’s hard to think about what to say and say it all at the same time. Notes will help prompt me on the next thought I wanted to elaborate on.
Last, I need to stop saying “um.”

I often give a sigh of appreciation for technology when I hit the little sitemeter icon at the bottom of my blog. I click on over to the viewers by location section and I’m just fascinated.

The internet and the easy of blogging allows me to update, and keep updated on friends lives all over the globe. I can collaborate on a writing project with a friend in Hong Kong, Indiana, and Texas all at one time.
My updates and blog post are read by friends from all over the USA (California, Washington, Florida, Texas, Chicago, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, NY, Nevada and more), Peru, India, Hong Kong, China, Costa Rica, and the list goes on. Is that not amazing?
Not only do my friends read what I write, but any thought I have is viewable by anyone with an internet connection. I’ve made many new friends who share similar interest and values, and have gained advice and wisdom on issues and activities that are really important to me.

The greatest appeal to me is the contact it helps me keep with my close friends. Some might say it’s not as personal, or it’s shallow communication, but I have not found this to be the case. It’s seems that many friends open up more on a blog post then they ever would right off in a conversation. Not living close to many friends means the few times I get to see them are on short trips where I see many people at once, and the best we can do is just catch up on the little things.
Now if this blogging trend keeps us holed up in our rooms staring at a screen when we could be hanging out face to face with those same friends talking about things, I think we miss the point. For now though, I think blogging enhances my relationships far more then breaking them down.

It’s amazing the things people still say:

“I’m usually not prejudiced, but I don’t want an Indian in my government,” Sherrill, 69, told the Orlando Sentinel. “As far as I know, he could be a nice guy, but these kind of people get embedded over here. . . . You remember 9/11.”

Read the article here.

Sometime tonight when I get a chance I’ll put up my long over due attempt at a video tutorial (it’s miserable believe me) of what I learned at the VJ101 class a while back.

I had to wait till I got a hold of a camera to actually do it.

Now I just need some ideas for some newsworthy stuff.

we’ll see how it goes.

I’m not hooked or anything, but it’s a fun game that makes you think.

I taught it to my kids this week and they kind of liked it.

(my kids- means the kids I work with at my job, I have none of my own).

1. If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.
2. Brick or 2-liter bottle in your toilet tank
3. Shower LESS.
4. If you shower do it “water conservy” style, 30 secs to get wet, water off, soap up, water on to rinse off. Shouldn’t take but a minute or two of water on.
5. when rinsing dishes off after washing don’t turn the water on so high, it takes a little longer but saves a lot of water to do it slowly
6. don’t let water run when you brush your teeth or soap up your hands.
7. If you need to run the water till it gets hot or cold enough, fill up a bucket or jug while your at it and use that to water your plants, etc.
8. Try a grey water system.

What’s with marker caps these days? They are just too tight! It hurts my hand to push the cap back on. I guess they wear down overtime, but lately I’ve been drawing pictures with markers (with elementary school kids and high school kids, tough job huh?) and the caps are wearing my hands out.

So, it’s sort of a techie thing, and I wouldn’t encourage even the techies to venture over too much. But digg.com is a pretty cool site, keeping tabs on the latest in tech related things.

The problem is you can spend entirely too much time over there.

Those who think racism doesn’t really exist these days are naive at best.

Riots in Paris

Prussian Blue

Racism in Russia