Earth Day and Science March

April 22nd is Earth Day this year. Scientists and science enthusiasts around the planet are planning to march in support of science and the smart people that know its worth and provide it to all of us. Earth Day is a perfect day for this because here in the US, we have a climate of politics that is trying to convince the world that science is not important in order to take funding away from things like climate change research, regulations for our protected lands and animals, and laws that keeps us safe and healthy. This is all in the name of the dollar and nothing else.

If you care at all about your health, the planet and the generations behind you, you need to realize that without science, our planet would be a wasteland and our species would already be extinct. We need science if we have any hope of surviving the changes that are coming to our planet due to our own negligence and greed.

Please go to this site and find a march near you and join in the effort to keep science funded and ultimately keep our planet and ourselves healthy.
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Nine Years Ago on In My Words...Seventh Generation (and I still use this brand faithfully)

RESIST

Got this shirt from Amazon the other day!!

Love the message...it isn't about a party winning that I don't agree with. It is about someone in office, that along with Congress, is more concerned with lining pockets than the good of the people and the world. I want them to use their brains and do what is right, even if it isn't the most financially profitable thing for them.

I really don't think I am asking too much when it comes to these six things...anyone in a public office representing those in this country and around the world should already have it in their playbook from the start.
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Nine Years Ago on In My Words....Seventh Generation

The Book Thief

Read this book a few years ago and absolutely loved it. Today, I finally saw the movie. I felt like they did a god job of it.

I highly recommend both of them. The stories are hard but they are things that we should never forget and should always learn from.

A decade ago, we were able to visit the holocaust museum in DC, while there as tourists. It was a life changing experience. I left there feeling like a trip to that place should be a requirement for graduation in the US so that will never forget and will always learn so we do not repeat the errors we humans have made.
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Last Month on In My Words...The Untouchables

Smile 73/100 Flag

The weather has been awesome, the windows have been open and having the flag out there fluttering in the wind just makes it that much better.

It really feels like summer when I see the flag out there blowing in the breeze.

We have flown a flag at every house we have owned. It has become a bit of a tradition. The house we had on the east coast had an actual pole in the front yard that we would raise a flag on each day first thing. It was kind of a cool start to each day.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 from our front balcony with no flash. I then edited it in GIMP 2.6 to add the fuzzy border and balance the color and light.

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Eight Years Ago on In My Words...Flat B

The Drinkable Book

I saw this, this morning and was pretty impressed. I am hoping that this will help the countries that have water problems around the world. I am glad that expense is one of the things that has been covered in the production of this filter because we all know how to make great filters, but to make great filters that are economical is key.

I think we might get one or two just for our own emergency kit.


Let's hope this makes a change.
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Five Years Ago on In My Words...Making a Cup of Coffee

Adobe Flash Update - Do It Now

Saw this article this morning on Google News and posted a link to it on my Facebook and my G+ pages to alert all those I know that they need to do this update...doesn't matter what OS...just get it done.

I heard about this vunerability a few weeks back when dealing with the Java vunerability (which is on going), but it wasn't being exploited then and now it is. So get those updates done if you aren't on auto update.

I tend to not allow auto updates on my systems so I had to update Adobe on both computers but it was pretty painless (although it tried to reset the auto update feature...LOL).
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Seven Years Ago on In My Words...It's Cold Out There

Oracle Leaves Fix for Java SE Zero Day Until February Patch Update | threatpost

Okay, I was waiting for the October 16th update to be released before sending out an "all friends" alert but seems that Oracle is not concerned enough to fix this vulnerability in Java until they release the Feburary update.

So my advice to all, is disable Java plugins in your browsers. Not javascript, just the Java Add-ons/Plugins. Apple has already dropped Java from its browsers because of this vunerability. I have disabled it in both Firefox and Chrome on our two computers. In the case of Internet Explorer, stop using it altogether since you can't disable Java completely in it.

In Firefox, for the most part regardless of version, the Addons manager can be access through the Tools menu at the top of the browser. For Chrome, it was a bit more complicated to find at first but I have the shortcut for you. When you open the Chrome browers, just paste chrome://plugins/ into the address bar and you will be taken directly to the Plugins page where you can disable the Java plugins.

Hope this helps everyone!
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Five Years Ago on In My Words...Chase At Home

The Negative of Facebook

While to most of us, it seems like Facebook gives us more opportunity to stay in touch and keep family and friends up to date...I sometimes have to wonder if it is the exact opposite.

Yes, I do check in with Facebook regularly (too regularly probably) and when I do post something new on my main blog, it does feed into my Facebook Notes to update my friends and family there. The problem is that because I feel like I am so connected, I have completely slacked off on any real correspondence, and believe me, I am a corresponder. I don't write emails much, I don't write snail mails much, and I definitely don't make phone calls. I have gotten so used to providing little "bites" of info, that I really feel like I don't have much to say that would be worth spending time writing an email,letter or even a blog post for that matter.

Reality is that I am providing "tidbits" to hundreds of friends on Facebook daily and to those that read my blog when I update it, but nothing really personal and definitely nothing to those that don't use computers, like our grandparents. Due to my need to maintain a bit of anonymonity I have to keep things a bit vague and inpersonal on the web, so that dictates a certain level of correspondence on Facebook and Blogger.

There is no excuse though, for emails, letters and phone calls that I am just not making to those close to me. I need to get back to writing personal, real correspondence to those I love. It has been too long.

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Five Years Ago on In My Words...Procrastination Has Taken Over

Doing Something Good

Today was a nice day. I was able to participate in a great thing. An organization I am part of, was able to award a significant amount of money to an orphan here so that she might go to an ESL school in Minnesota this summer.

I know that doesn't sound like much, but kids in orphanages here don't have the same opportunities that regular kids have. Not only that, but she is a girl and this makes this event an even more unusual opportunity.

So we met at the orphanage, had a tour, met the director, talked with some of the kids and took a lot of pictures. We presented Ryoko with a oppportunity. She responded with a handwritten thank you speech that she delivered perfectly.

Reality is, the ESL school is not very long, and she won't come back fluent in English, but with any luck at all, she will discover a desire and interest in English, and the opportunities that speaking English along with her own language might provide her in the future.

Maybe we gave her a chance today...we'll see what she does with it. It was an honor to be part of it.

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Last Year on In My Words...Peek-a-boo

Project Kaisei: voyage to clean up the plastic vortex - CNN.com

It would be so hard for me to go to this place and not stay there until it was all cleaned up...this is exactly why I don't do individual plastic drink bottles anymore and why I have stopped using plastic bags too...humans should be ashamed of themselves for letting this happen to the ocean.

Hopefully now that we are aware, we can get to cleaning it up before we permanently damage the ocean. We know now that our existence on this plant depends on the environment around us and the ocean is one of the most important parts of that environment.

We need to get out of the mindset of convenience and the present tense, and start thinking about doing what is right for everything living on this planet and the future for all of us.

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Four Years Ago on In My Words...My God! It's Full Of Stars

Afghan Women Protest New Restrictive Law

I am glad to see that they are protesting...that is a step in the right direction, but I am sad to see that the government is currently caving to politics as usual. I hope that the Afghan president does appeal most of this for the sake of the people of his country.

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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Goodbye Amazon Again

Okay, I am reposting my peeve from last year because this really pisses me off. I started to use them again because it seemed that they had changed their ways but they have not...I have complained to them until I am blue in the face about how I can get the same products from their competitors that they refuse to send to me. I am done with them...so tired of it. I will just continue to use their competitors.

I am recommending to everyone if you live out this way or if you have family that uses them that you stop doing so. What a disservice they are doing.

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They are on my sh1t list right now. They have changed their shipping policies (for the hell of it, it seems) and most of the stuff you can get from them can no longer be shipped to me. This sucks because when we lived here before, they were one of the few companies I did business with because shipping here was so easy.

So I have made my wishlist private so no one will buy me anything from them and I am not doing business with them again until they change their ways. In the last two months I have tried to order three different items to be shipped to me and none of them could be shipped but I was able to order the item from other sites and they were shipped with no problem.

So goodbye Amazon, until you can get you sh1t together!!!

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18 Months Ago on In My Words...Goodbye Amazon

Peanut Butter Recall

J and I eat a lot of protein or energy bars. We keep them in various bags so if we are out and about, we don't end up binging on bad food just because we are getting hungry. I was sick last week when the full news of the peanut butter recall hit, and didn't get a chance to go through our bars to see what might and might not be safe to eat. I basically told J to just stay away from any of the ones we had that had peanut butter in them (which is most of them). He bought some chewy granola bars to get by with.

Today, I finally checked the FDA's site since I wanted to throw a bar into my bag for my 4 hours at the gift store. It seems the only bar we have that is recalled is a Clif bar. All the Powerbars and Balance bars are NOT affected by the recall...which is good news since these babies are not cheap either...haha.

Anyhow, I just thought I would share the info just in case others had not gotten to the site but had a stash of Powerbar or Balance Bars....they are NOT affected by the recall. They must get their peanut butter from a different plant.

If you have other brands of bars or snacks with peanut butter in them, I highly recommend a visit to the FDA's site to make sure your food is good to go. This info I have provided is not all inclusive by any means and everyone should check out their cupboards on their own.

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Ebi Filet

Mission For Fitness

Well, I am back at it again. I finally got so fed up (part of this is due to seeing a horrible picture of myself) and I am back on a program. I only started yesterday but I am determined to stick with it. My food has always been pretty healthy (as long as there is not Halloween candy in my house) but I have needed to get with a portion control and definitely some exercise (consistent exercise that is) for a while now.

I found this cool site through a friend that lets you map your runs/walks and then if you add it to your training log when you do the walk or run that you have mapped, it tells you a lot of info about your workout as well as your "green stats". I sent the URL to my sister since she is a runner these days and I think she will find it completely useful as well. The weather has been bad here (downpours with wind) so I have not been on a walk since discovering this cool site but I have mapped several of my standard walks so I can just add them to the training log when I do them....it is so cool to know exactly how far I have gone too. My pedometer is supposed to tell me that but I don't think I have my stride length set correctly.

I would love to be feeling and looking better before the holidays are over (really before that but I am trying to be practical) because when it does get a bit cooler here, I do want to be able to wear my "winter" clothes without having to buy new ones.

Anyhow, part of my committment to my program is to broadcast that I am doing it so I will feel obligated to stick with it since everyone will know. My sister has recommitted to her program as well and we will get things back on track with the support of each other. I know that even with only a day and a half of doing this, I am already feeling better about myself and that is always a good sign.

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Anyone Want Anything To Drink?

Live Your Life

★Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
★Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.
★Get more sleep.
★When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My purpose is to______ today'.
★Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
★Play more games and read more books than you did in 2007.
★Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
★Dream more while you are awake.
★Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
★Try to make at least three people smile each day.
★Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.
★Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
★Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn.
★Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
★Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
★Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
★Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
★You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree..
★Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
★Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
★No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
★Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?
★Forgive everyone for everything.
★What other people think of you is none of your business.
★Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
★Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
★Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for_____. Today I accomplished_____.
★Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
★Enjoy the ride. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.

Author Unknown

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Irritation

Progress (Or Maybe Not)

I have actually been getting quite a few things done that have been nagging me (no, not the big things that have been on my list since last year, but others) and that feels great. Thing is, most of them aren't on the list, so what do I do? I add them to the list of course so that I can then strike them out....duh!!!

One of the things that I have wanted to do was get all my book posts on my reading blog switched over to Powell's from Amazon because I am not doing business with Amazon anymore. While I was waiting to do this, I had made most of my old posts into drafts so they wouldn't be seen and therefore the links to Amazon would not be available. This included all of my year end recaps.

Okay, so the other day, I spend a fair amount of time updating that blog with my new post for July which had all my books from our trip listed in it. While I am on there, I figure, what the heck, why not just get the update for the year ending 2007 done and then fix those other posts. I do this.

Now, here is the bad part.

After I was all done, I go to view the blog and realize that in the year end recaps, the html I was using to show little stars for rating of books, was not showing little stars in anything but Internet Explorer. Well, if you know from a previous post, I recently switched over to Firefox from IE because it pissed me off one day, and that is how I am...I love using Firefox now but there are small (miniscule actually) cases where I still do need to go on the web in IE. Anyhow, I wanted the posts to show stars in Firefox so I did some searching and found some html that would work to make this happen.

I went back to the recaps (which mind you have only been re-published for one day at this point) to get this done. Basically, I copied the html (Ctrl C) I needed to use, and then selected the old area, deleted it with a backspace and then pasted in the html from my clipboard using my keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl V). This worked fine on two of the recaps and most of a third. Unfortunately, one of the quirky things about Firefox is that sometimes it doesn't get along with Blogger....and what is selected in the post editing window is not what gets deleted....you can see where this is going, right?

Yep, that is right. For my 2005 book list, most of it was deleted during this process of modification, but it was happening above where I could see in the ITTY BITTY POST EDITING WINDOW BLOGGER GIVES US. So I dind't notice it until I had already re-published the post......

As soon as I realized what had happened, I tried to get back to the previous version and couldn't (those fast Blogger servers), and even tried to find a cached copy of it online. Unfortunately, that didn't work either because the recaps were posts that hadn't be online except for that day and therefore hadn't been recently cached by the search engines. I even wrote to our friendly Blogger Employee (being a Blog*Star does sometimes have its perks) and he was not able to help me retrieve even a text copy of it.

So if there is anyone out there that does read my reading blog regularly and might have printed or saved a copy of my 2005 list to read from....I would love a copy of it....otherwise it is just one more thing lost to the ethernet...

Right now, I have the post saved as draft until I can figure something out. I don't own most of the books I read during that time anymore so I don't even know where to start to recompile it. I DIDN'T BACK UP the post like I SHOULD have.....back up, people, back up,...I am living proof of losing something you don't want to lose.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Amazing Skies

CDC: Salmonella-tainted tomato illnesses reach 228 - Yahoo! News

In case I needed another reason to buy local veggies....

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Three Years Ago on In My Words....Pavlov's Dog

As cyclone refugees wait, Myanmar refuses aid - Yahoo! News

What is wrong with these people?

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Reunions

Tropical Cyclone Death Toll in Myanmar

It keeps rising. I might see if I can send some money via the Red Cross but I hope that it gets to those that need it and not just to the pockets of the government there that doesn't seem to care about it's people.

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Mom Visit

Seventh Generation

I have happened upon a socially and environmentally responsible company that I am proud to do business with. According to their website (link also in title), they have been around for 15 years but I only just found them. I use their toilet paper but will be on the look out for other products that they put out so I can make a small change in whatever way I can to make this earth a better place for those that come after me.

They have a blog that I have added to my reader so I can get an idea of what other options might be out there. I might end up linking them on my blog as well, but for now, I will be happy to just read and educate myself.

I have put a button my sidebar to the company website so you can check them out anytime you want. I know that at least a few of you will find this as interesting info. In the meantime, here are some astounding facts found on their label that might help persuade some of the naysayers...
"If every household in the US replaced just one-4 pack of 400 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissue with 100% recycled ones, we could save:

• 1,450,000 trees
• 3.7 million cubic feet of landfill space, equal to over 5,500 full garbage trucks
• 523 million gallons of water, a year's supply for over 4,100 families of four
• avoid 89,000 pounds of chlorinated pollution.

Recycling paper prevents unnecessary landfilling of valuable resources. In addition to saving trees, producing recycled paper uses less water and energy than paper made from trees."

Update- had to remove the button on my sidebar because they redid their website and no longer have gifs or jpegs to use as buttons....unfortunate but true.