The Occupy Movement

My first introductions to the "Occupy Movement" came from posts on friends' Facebook feeds. Some of those posts were very negative and some were positive. Knowing my friends as I do, I decided that I needed to find out more about the "Occupy Movement" for myself so that I could make my own informed decision on how I feel about the entirety of it.

Here are a list of websites that I visited to learn more information about both sides of the debate. If there are other sites that you think give great information about either side please comment and give us the link because making your own informed decision about political debates is what this country is based on and why I am writing today.

OccupyWallSt.org http://occupywallst.org/about/

An Editorial from the Forum, a student run publication titled "What is the Occupy Movement?" http://www.piedmontforum.com/2011/11/03/editorial-occupy-movement/

A CNN video called "Jesse Jackson supports the Occupy Movement" there is discussion about what it is and why he supports it. http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2011/11/05/nr-holmes-jackson-occupy-movement-seg.cnn#/video/bestoftv/2011/11/05/nr-holmes-jackson-occupy-movement-seg.cnn

"The Disturbing Agenda of Occupy Wall Street" from reason.com http://reason.com/archives/2011/11/04/the-disturbing-agenda-of-occupy-wall-str

This is an obscure bikers' blog but the author really did the background work and with all the good information, charts and tables that are brought into the piece I had to include "Baby Boomers vs. the Occupy movement, a must read" from the bigbendbikersforfreedom website http://www.bigbendbikersforfreedom.com/2011/11/baby-boomers-vs-occupy-movement-must.html

Okay, I could go on forever listing sites that have opinions one side or the other about the movement but I'll move on and let you share your favorites in the comments.

I am still not sure how I feel about the movement, there are some good thoughts and some that I'd not really support. Like most politics the decision is never easy. I love the fact that we live in a country where we are free to express our opinions. I do not have to fear because I have shared this information.

Do I notice a disparagingly large difference between what the top people make and the bottom ones in our country? Yes, of course I do, but I am sure that I do not want the government to step in and control everything.

Government control and their warped idea of what "we the people" want and need is what has gotten us in this mess.

I'm not an anarchist and I want our government, I pray for our leaders and that they will make decisions that will help our country.

So, my decision on the Occupy Movement is that I am pleased that they have started the country discussing important issues and I pray that we will continue to discuss and resolve the issues in the best way possible for everyone in the country.

Summer Moves

First I must appologize this morning right up front for my long absence from writing anything this summer.

For those who didn't know we moved since my last post, and moved again and then one last time. It was a busy, crazy insane summer that led us full circle right back home to Michigan, literally a few miles from where we had lived for 20 years. I think it was one of those things where we make our plans and then God laughs and says "Yeah, right, they'll learn." Yes, I picture God as sarcastic as I am but we'll leave that for another day.

Part of the reason that I haven't written till now has been stress, and being overwhelmed by the moving and settling in, the new "old" job and my new "old" school. I was trying to do it all and quite frankly wasn't getting anything done very well and wasn't getting any sleep at all.

I wised up took some time off work and just worked one day a week for the last month decided that if no one else in the house cared about the dang boxes I would try not to let it bother me so much and caught up on my homework, reading and my sleep. Now I finally think I'm ready to get back into a schedule of chatting with you on a regular basis.

I know my original plan for this blog was to chat here with you about current issues in the news and it still is. I will be getting back to that but I didn't want everyone to think that I had just gotten lazy or stopped caring.

So, welcome back! I'm glad you are here and I hope you'll stop by again, I'm going to try to schedule my writing here on Monday and Friday mornings. Have a great day.

Please leave me a note let me know you dropped in and what you did this summer. Did you move? Have a life changing event? Or wished something, anything would have happened?

Dancing With The Stars

I love watching Dancing With the Stars and was very excited this season. What am I saying I love it every season. But this post is more about my amazement the other day with their Facebook post and the response that it received. It definitely got me thinking and involved with the discussion.
           BRB gotta grab another cup of coffee.
           Okay, now where were we...
If you haven't been to the DWS Facebook page yet check it out Dancing With the Stars link to FB

They posted "What if YOU had the opportunity to cast the next season of Dancing With The Stars? Who would you choose? Now's your chance. Let us know who you'd pick!"

What a cool idea! There were 6775 comments as of this morning and their very smart social media person linked it up with the DWS website and created a page for viewers to choose the next season of DWS! There have been 432 comments left on the website. They have really created a stir and got the viewers talking.

Now does it matter if they choose someone that was the viewers' favorite? I'm figuring if they have an official poll and listing and then a viewers vote then they were serious about choosing viewers favorites, but there is so much more that goes into a star being on DWS.

I love the way that they try to have a well rounded celebrity group. Some older, younger, sports, talk, movies they get a good mix. The catch for the viewers' favorites is that

1. The star must be willing to be on the show
2. The star's schedule has to be open during that time 
3. The star must be able to come to a salary contract agreement with DWS 

I found a link that discusses how the pay from DWS is not that great for television. I personally would love to learn to dance and get paid to do it but I doubt that we'll ever see George Clooney or Brad Pitt up there dancing for us because they can make so much more for much less effort.

All that said, let's go back around. Wow Kudos go out to DWS great marketing idea and with as many people as there are talking your ratings shouldn't drop for next season.

Who do you want to see on DWS? and did you tell them?

My question where will they go with this? Only time will tell...

If you took the time to read and enjoy a cup of coffee with me please leave me a comment and let me know. Have a great weekend! 

Genetically Modified Food

I am starting the last week of my Writing for the Biotechnology Industry class from North Eastern University out of Boston, MA. Before this class I knew nothing about scientific writing and in my previous five years of college courses in writing had never even used the APA style for references. I in my complete love for writing was extremely excited to learn Scientific writing and thus be able to better market my writing capabilities in the future.

I had no idea that this writing class would open my eyes to a world of science that I honestly did not know even existed. I know I live in a cave. Well, no not really but I do keep my nose to the grind stone and with school, a family of four kids, and either working or searching for work I don't usually watch a lot of television or read the newspapers. I know bad habits for a writer. I must admit this blog is forcing me to find out what is going on in the world around me.

I recently wrote a scientific review article for my Writing for the Biotechnology Industry class and learned so much interesting information that was both scary and exciting. I'm not really sure how I feel yet about finding out that whether I like it or not, I eat genetically modified food probably every day. When I sort it out I'm sure I'll share.

Our professor gave us a list of topics we could choose from for our scientific review articles our really big paper that we had been building up to writing over the last several weeks. I chose to take on "transgenic food and allergies in children". I am a mom with four children and two of them have food allergies so it made sense to me.

You may have heard me mention the title on my Facebook or Twitter as I was working on it or checked it out because of my Writing Updates Blog. The title is

More needs to be Done to Protect Children from Allergenic Transgenic Food

it can be found on my Online Writing Portfolio if you would like to read more. But I'm talking about it today because it could lead people who only read the title to the wrong conclusions. 

Yes, more needs to be done BUT there has never been a diagnosed case of an allergic reaction to a transgenic or Genetically Modified food. The biggest issue that I found was that we do not force the companies that produce genetically modified food to label it at this time. This is a suggestion that was made in several of the scientific articles that I reviewed and one that I carried through into my paper. 

It is the protection from the possibility of potential allergens that labeling will provide. I'm sure producers are afraid that such labeling will keep the population from purchasing their products and instead turning to local growers and farmers markets for their purchases. Which we should be doing anyway but that is another day's rantings. 

So get interested like I have recently in finding out just what it is that you are eating and what is going on in the biotechnology industry there is a lot of really great things out there like the rice that can grow fortified because of biotechnology with all sorts of good for you things in it so that people in developing countries can be healthier. They are using biotechnology to produce foods that used to be allergenic but will someday no longer elicit those reactions. And they have identified what causes hay fever and are working on that issue. 

So read learn and decide for yourself then let me know or just tell me now, what do you think about all this genetically modified food and biotechnology stuff? 

New Cigarette Warnings

all images were taken from the FDA site 

I just read in the on my local news website about "FDA Reveals Graphic Warnings For Cigarettes".
Of course my next step was to go to the source, check out the FDA site.

I guess they think that if you make bigger warnings on highly addictive, medically proven cancer sticks that people will want to quit.

YEAH and I have a chunk of ocean front property in Kansas I'd like to discuss selling to the FDA too.

all images were taken from the FDA site 

REALLY, bigger warnings are not going to matter, quitting campaigns and free quitting help from the Government aren't saving lives either.

What needs to be done and what has to be done to save lives and end all this nonsense is to
MAKE CIGARETTES ILLEGAL. 


We all know that the only reason they haven't been made illegal is because the tobacco industry is well involved in the government and the government makes big bucks from the cigarette taxes collected from these poor addicted individuals who are killing themselves and those they love.

I smoked when I was young and rebellious. I quit several times but continued smoking on and off up until I had my fourth child and I'll be the first to admit, I was an idiot. Remember it is highly addictive and I grew up in a smoking environment, it was natural for me to want to try it. Honestly I still enjoy smelling the smoke of cigars and pipes when it wafts by me. So call me hypocritical, I don't care.

Smoking cigarettes is bad and kills. The FDA doesn't need to force bigger more graphic warnings they need to outlaw a dangerous drug. If your addicted to cigarettes you don't care how big the warning is just that your next fix is inside that box.

all images were taken from the FDA site 

My (highly addictive caffeine filled) coffee cup is empty, so I guess my Coffee Bean Babblings are finished for this morning. I'll climb down off my soap box and say that these are purely my opinions as always and if I hurt anyone's feelings I'm sorry that is not what I mean to do.

If your a smoker and need help quitting please visit smokefree.gov. 

So, if you agree, leave me a comment. If you disagree, leave me a comment too. 

Let me know, what do you think, are the new warnings going to help? 

Happy Father's Day

As I sit here sipping my coffee, I'm trying to type quietly since my dh is still sleeping about five feet away. It is Father's Day and we will be celebrating by being nicer than usual to my husband, somehow. LOL

For me it is also a day of remembering because my father passed away unexpectedly when I was 19. It was quite a shock. I wrote about it in my Simple Family Stories blog where I write about the moments from my life since meeting my husband.

Today I thought it would be appropriate to share some of my favorite memories of my dad.

The last conversation we ever had in person was when I told him that I was going to Michigan with my friend. He said that he loved me and didn't want me to go, but that he knew I was an adult and could handle myself. He told me that I could call if I needed anything and gave me a hug and a kiss. Then off I went on the adventure that would start the rest of my life.

Going to the beach in Florida and swimming together with him and his girlfriend and her family. I remember he would always throw us. He would put his hands together and let us put our foot in and then he'd throw us into the air. We loved being thrown over and over again.

Waking up in the night to find him sitting in his chair watching Star Trek and curling up with him in that chair feeling safe and protected.

Going fishing or flying kites together when I was young were great memories.

So, dads make some memories with your children.
Enjoy them love them and respect them and they in turn will love and respect you too. I was never an easy child I've always been stubborn and wanted my own way but those same traits that make difficult children, also make strong, self-assured adults.

Have a Happy Father's Day and enjoy those that you have remember those that are gone.

Please leave a comment share your favorite father's day memory.

Admiration is Tough

Yesterday I went off on one of my little bunny trail tangents on the internet to land nicely on a little website called Divine Caroline.

It is a writing website that looked intriguing so I began to "build" or fill in the questionnaire that would begin my studio, much like a facebook profile. Most of the questions were cute and interesting, different little things like the "top 5 things always on your to do list" and "three things you would take to a desert island". But when I got to the question "The woman I most admire is..." I was stumped it honestly took me over an hour to decide what to write in that space.

WHY? For me that was such a loaded question and one that I hadn't really taken any time to consider in a very long time, if ever. Many names and thoughts came into my head and were reasoned away. Here is a little of the process that went on.

*I could put my mom.
She was strong, she worked three jobs at the same time for a while to support our little family of girls after her divorce. She put up with a lot of crap when we were teenagers.
------But I can't use my mom, that would be lame, like a cop out everyone admires their mom.

*I could put my sister. She fights for her life every day now battling diabetes and trying to manage her sugar, she has nearly died more times than I want to think about. Her strength and determination to keep battling and get her college degree makes my life seem like a cake walk.
------But I can't use my sister, again that would be lame, like a simple answer siblings are supposed to admire and recognize the strengths in each other.

*I could put Jan.
She is a pastor's wife and a great role model I met her when my children were young and she helped me, along with my mom and sister to decide just what type of mother I was going to be. When it was good to take a stand and how to deal with certain issues. Since my family was several hours away, she was the person I'd go crying to, in person, when I was at my wits end and needed ideas.
------No, I can't put that, she's a pastor's wife women always admire them, I have to be original.

Maybe a woman writer.
*Nora Roberts, I love quite a few of her books. Or maybe J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter series is amazing. Maya Angelou I love her poetry. Anne Rice, I don't think I've read anything of hers I didn't like.
------Nope not a woman writer there are to many I love, I can't just randomly choose only one.

Someone really famous.
Like Carrie Underwood I watched her all season on AI and love her music. Then there is Fantasia she has quite a back story too. What about Oprah, Sally Jesse Raphael and Barbara Walters, but then there is Ellen DeGeneres and Whoopi Goldberg. I love music by Anne Murray, Madonna, Faith Hill, Sara Groves and Reba.
------This list is to long. It has been a long time since I started this process.

It is just one little question.

Finally, I decided I'd go with Kirstie Alley. I watched her struggle since Cheers with her career and her weight and with her being on dancing with the stars I voted for her every week. I also struggle with my weight and I'd love to learn to dance and she is not to personal and close to me so...

The answer by default to the question of..,

The woman I admire most is Kirstie Alley.

That was tough. No more questions please I'm going for another cup of coffee, that is all the babbling for today.

Please leave me a comment and let me know who the woman you most admire is. I hope it is easier for you than it was for me.

Unbelievable ads for Freelance Writers

It is just sad that there are people out there that want to pay less than a penny a word for my writing abilities. I think a penny a word is ridiculous but, less than a penny a word for well written copy that goes by their guidelines is obscene.

Seriously there are all the sites on the net that advertise or promote themselves as helping free-lance writers when all they want is writing slaves willing to work for the masters crumbs!

Sure there are people that are willing to do it, but I can make more for my crafts and spend less time and energy making them. How many other people have found these ridiculous advertisements on the internet?

Here are a couple links that annoyed me recently.

from Freelancer.com

ODesk

Have you experienced these types of ads? Please share a few and your opinion in the comments

Children Beauty Pagents and Botox

I first heard about the San Francisco Mom injecting her little 8 year old daughter with Botox for beauty pageants on television and I was outraged. This morning I read that ABC News had over 18 thousand outraged individuals who commented in some form or another.

The sad thing is that they took the little girl from the home while the state investigates. I believe the mom is over the top, but they could have sat down with her and put together an agreement where she agreed not to use the Botox on her daughter while they investigated. Now this child will be forever changed and her idea of her mother will also be forever changed.

People might not agree with me, but I blame these stupid children's pageants. They drive these over-competitive women over the edge. They put children into adult roles walking up and down the runway in swim wear and evening gowns on display for their beauty and being compared to one another.

Childhood is a time when every little girl is a beautiful princess and should be cherished for the beauty and talents that God gave her. Every little girl no matter her body's shape or size is beautiful and every little boy is a handsome prince. These pageants make little girls who should only be worrying about what beautiful little outfit they are going to wear to school the next day become little adults worrying about wrinkles that aren't there.

As far as I am concerned all pageants should be for ages 16 and up. If the children's pageants were eliminated then most of this insanity would stop.

Moms, I beg you love your little ones just as God made them and cherish the fact that they are young and carefree, don't force them into adult roles.

For the 18 thousand other people that were outraged, let's band together and do something good!

Wild Animals in the Cities

When I lived in Michigan out in the country, I used to keep a watchful eye out for the wild animals that would come running onto the road from the fields. Sometimes I would keep a mental list if it was a particularly active animal night. One night I actually saw a deer, raccoon, pheasant, rabbit and fox. The fox was roadkill already which was sad because I'd never seen a live wild fox. It was not unusual to see animals out in the country.

Since moving here to the big city of El Paso, I have seen a rabbit and a lizard wild while walking on the hill near the mountains that are practically in my back yard. I realized that many other wild animals might live in those mountains but it had not occurred to me that actual mountain lions would live there.

El Paso is in the middle of a very bad drought and we recently had a mountain lion come down out of the mountains and make his way into our city. He wasn't just in the outskirts like I am, he was in the busy city. It was of course on the news and you can watch it from the KTSM news instead of me telling you all about it. Of course being in a city with mountain ranges near by this has not been the first incident the city has ever dealt with. People are angry because the mountain lion was shot and killed.

The thing that gets me though is that they were not the person standing there with a scared, hurt mountain lion coming through a fence toward them. You bet if it was me and I had a gun, that lion would be dead. The police officer did his job. Maybe I'm biased because I have friends back in Michigan who are on the police force. But do people really think it would have been better to let it run loose on the city again where it could have injured someone, someone's sister, mother, daughter or brother, father, or son.

Other cities have had issues with wild animals coming to the city. I remember in Detroit they had a deer issue, when a deer leaped through a restaurant window. Animals enter cities and property can be damaged or people could be hurt.

I don't think that every animal that enters a city should automatically be killed, but I do think that as citizens who expect to be protected by our law enforcement officers we should not criticize them for doing their jobs.

Do you know of an animal sighting in a city on video, have you experienced this type of thing? Leave me a comment and maybe a link to let me know.

Top Five Annoying Words List

I am always reading about how great it is to make numbered lists for magazine articles and Dave has his top ten list every night. Every time I open a magazine I read a list for something 5 reasons you should walk your dog that kind of thing. So here is my first stab at a list.

My Top Five Annoying Words List

1. CAN'T - "Mom I can't find it." Mom I can't do it, I need you to do it."

Really what they are saying is I'm to lazy to look I want you to tell me where it is and I don't want to try to do it for myself I want you to do it for me.

2. GONE - "It's just gone I can't find it anywhere."

Inanimate objects do not get up and walk away. Nothing is just gone. What they mean is I don't want to look for it and mom will find it for me.

3. HOMEWORK - "I have so much homework can I swim first?"

They have homework, I have homework, my husband comes home from work and does homework all night for his classes. Do you even wonder why I dislike the word homework?

4. TOUCH/ED/ING - "Her foot is touching me." "She touched me first."

This is when I groan roll my eyes to keep from having a melt down and send them to their room because it was all well and find to be touching each other five minutes ago when they were rolling on the floor tickling each other but suddenly now it isn't and I'm supposed to mediate. I don't think so.

5. NOTHING - "I'm bored, there's nothing to do." "I'm hungry, there's nothing good to eat."

Which is code for Mom I want attention especially if your in the middle of something and Mom I want you to come find me something and make it so I don't have to do it myself. Really, there is never nothing to do or good to eat. I seem to always be able to handle it, why can't they?


So, there it is my top five most annoying words and why I feel that way about them. Hopefully you can relate or at the very least they made you laugh. If your a mom how many times have you heard those words? How do you feel about them? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Have a great day, gotta go refill my coffee.

Yes, I Had to go There

Everyone everywhere is talking about the death of Bin Ladin. Some are cheering, celebrating and congratulating our troops and our country for a job well done. We did it and got rid of the bad guy. Many are putting his name right next to Hitler's and discussing the similarities. Personally, I think that is giving him to much credit. He was not even near Hitler's league of bad guy in my eyes and I hope that he does not gain the same notoriety that Hitler did. If he does then he will have what he wanted.

He wanted his cause and his hatred to live on. If we continue to put him in the same discussions as Hitler and build it up as a milestone for the USA then this man will be immortalized in our history books and in our country forever. He doesn't deserve to be remembered and discussed forever, what he deserves is to be forgotten as a sad hateful old man who started things he could not finish and then ran to hide from us.

There was never any doubt in our American minds that we would find him and serve him the justice that he so deserved. After all we are America we are the best with military and intelligence, it was only a matter of time. Many hoped that we would find him before he died of old age or natural causes to serve that meal best served cold, revenge. We did.

My hopes and prayers are that we quickly resume our lives and not allow him more time in our thoughts and minds than he deserves, this man who would talk so brave and then run and hide like a coward at the first sign of trouble. In America, we always follow through and stand up for ourselves and our friends even when it is tough, even when it hurts. We never turn and run like cowards. America is brave, full of a society that believes that life can always be better if we are brave enough to stand up and make it better.

Okay, there are my thoughts on the whole thing. My coffee cup is empty so I must step down from my soap box and go fill it up. Have a great day and please leave me a comment, tell what you thought.

The Royal Wedding

This morning I woke up and decided to go ahead and find the royal wedding that everyone was talking about. Yes, I found it streaming live on Wedding Central. I happened to tune in just as they were about to say the vows. Boy does that take me back. I'll save our wedding story for another story all its own.

It really got me to thinking about why was I so curious to see this wedding. I usually avoid going to weddings, mostly because they are long and dull and I have to dress up. But this is one that I could kick back in my PJs and put my feet up while drinking my morning coffee and attend. Now, that is a wedding I don't mind. Even better, I can multi-task durning the wedding and do homework, blog, clean the kitchen it doesn't matter because I'm at home.

This got me thinking. With the power of live internet why don't we broadcast all weddings live online for relatives that can't be there. Many people probably put their weddings on YouTube or some other similar site for relatives to watch already. What a fabulous thing though for those who are nearly hermits such as myself and for the most part enjoy their solitary lifestyle. The internet provides so many ways to keep from going out.

Okay that was my babbling for this morning. If you took a moment to read could you please take just one more and leave a short comment. Thanks.