Shop-a-what?

Are you a shopaholic? Do you live for the next sale, deal or bargain? I have a confession: I suck at shopping. If someone ever taught a course in this stuff for girls I missed it. I was probably down at the park playing basketball, baseball or hockey depending on the season. As I hit the teen years, I didn't spend much money on clothes, make up or nail polish. Nope, not me. By the time I hit high school, I needed go juice for that four wheeled ticket to freedom more than any pair of jeans.

I've never been much of a girly girl. More book oriented, sporty or techie would be much more descriptive of me. Don't get me wrong. I know how it's done and can play the game with the best of them. I just don't see the point in painting myself up every day for work. My geeky friends and colleagues know what I look like and respect me more for . . . *gasp* . . . my brain than my looks. I just don't see the point in using the stuff when it just wears away, smudges or washes off before I go to bed.

When it comes to clothes, I'm pretty lazy. I like comfort. I like durability. I like classic styles. Why spend $100 on a trendy pair of jeans that you wouldn't be caught dead wearing in 6 months? I can spend $20 on a pair I can wear for years and still look presentable. I'm not even going to talk (much) about what constitutes presentable for jeans in this day and age. If I can see your underwear or any part of your anatomy that shouldn't be showing: butt cracks, belly bulge, love handles, whatever . . . it's not presentable, but that's me.

What does all this have to do with shopping? Well, I shop like a guy. I know what I want I go in and buy it. End of story. I guess that's more hunting than shopping. I buy tech toys, gadgets, DVDs, books, and the like. I do some research, figure out what I want based on features, coolness or potential usefulness and only as an afterthought consider the cost. That is where my money goes. I've cut back A LOT in recent years, but there are times when I cannot resist the latest and greatest toy on the market. For instance, I have cell-phone envy. I'm in a tech world with a tech job. I see gadgets all the time and I want them because they are cool! Wow, you can check your email? Stock report? Traffic? And cook dinner with it? I have got to get me one of those!

Needless to say this means that I need to be aware of the money I spend. Tech toys can really add up fast. Especially in a world where as soon as you buy one something new comes out the next day. Now if I could just figure out how to have all of that and save for emergencies, the future and whatnot . . . I'd be in great shape. All I can say is that I'm working on it.

Manners Online

Web 2.0 was a major move forward in the Internet and allowing of more online interaction and community. There is no doubt that the way we've evolved to interact with each other has embraced the updates in technology. The technology will continue to evolve whether people like it or not. The question becomes: are we all so inured to criticism and feelings that our conduct online is considered appropriate? Have we completely abandoned the concept of manners?

People post things all the time. Personal, technical, opinion, public, anonymous or not: the topics are endless. Some discussions are very civil and stay on topic without degrading into personal attacks or vituperative remarks. Those are the exception rather than the rule, it seems.

No area or subject is immune to comment trolls as I call them. These are the people who take a valid topical discussion and bring in a personal attack that derail everything. Granted, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

My question is: has technology evolved to the point where individuals no longer care that another person is at the other end of the comment, post, article, thread, email, text message or whatever? Have we devolved to the point that manners are not important? We're more and more isolated by technology. Need to contact someone, send a text. Need to discuss details on a project, send an email. Want to comment on a product or technology, make a post on your blog or comment on someone else's blog. Even while we're in social settings, mobile phones and wireless devices keep us abreast of what's going on in the ether. Has someone you know answered a text or responded to an email while you're in their presence in the past week? I bet you have seen this.

Any online offering is subject to this behavior: games, newsgroups, blogs, shopping sites, reviews, etc. At what point do we say enough? Some people admit to being provocative and hostile on purpose. They don't care that others take what has been said personally. Follow up posts telling people not to be so sensitive are not helpful. What is written in text does not contain the nuances of feeling or tone that could make an innocuous message hurtful. Hurtful messages are hurtful regardless.

There are times when unplugging is the right thing to do. What happens when all the good people unplug and leave all the content to the trolls? Given the way technology and industry are going, I don't believe this is going to happen. More people would benefit from "Nettiquite" and better writing classes.

Fool’s Who?

Ok, I'm something of a skeptic. I've spent all day thinking about the fact that it's April Fool's Day. Fell for a couple odd jokes as well along the way. However, given the line of work I'm in, nothing that a customer wants surprises me anymore. That, however, is a topic for another day.

What I don't get is everyone trying so desperately to be funny. Most of this crap isn't funny, not even slightly. Granted, I looked at everything I read today with a jaded eye. If they keep pushing these stories forward on a real news site on any day but today, I'll be absolutely sickened. All I can say is, "Thank GAWD it's almost over."

I'm all for a good joke, but nothing I saw today even remotely resembled a "good joke."

A year of change

One year ago today, we learned we were pregnant. It was a very memorable occasion given all that had happened to us.

It actually wasn't the first time we discovered we were pregnant. No, I only have one child. You see, we miscarried in January 2007. We learned this at our 9 week appointment, the first doctor visit for us. We had been so excited over the holidays. We'd kept it quiet and just enjoyed the secret knowledge that we were going to have a baby. Only those that really knew us were in on it as they noticed the change in my habits. The night before our 9 week appointment, I felt a huge flutter. Not knowing anything, I was so excited. The baby moved! All that excitement came to a crashing end the next morning when there was no heartbeat during the first ultrasound. After much reflection and discussion with our fabulous doctor over the next couple weeks, we determined that I had felt the seizure that lead to the baby's death that fateful night. There was no necrosis of the fetus on that first ultrasound. The baby looked perfect, just no movement and no heartbeat. We learned what necrosis meant over the next couple weeks as my body didn't reset still thinking I was pregnant. It is heartbreaking to see what at first had been a perfect fetus slowly wither away. The news was devastating and even worse was the waiting. We knew the baby was gone but we still hadn't actually miscarried yet. It took weeks and 2 D&Cs to actually get everything back to normal. In the meantime, I mourned.

Those closest to me realized I was desperately fighting a losing battle with a major depressive episode. My mother, her friend and my husband conspired together and decided I needed a change of scenery. It was off to the big island of Hawai'i for us and 2 blissful weeks of not thinking about anything but our whims and wishes. We went hiking, geocaching, snorkeling, scuba diving and ate wonderful fresh seafood. Somewhere in the middle of the trip I began to feel a bit funny but I waved it off. After all, we were in paradise! The night we were scheduled to fly home, I ordered a sumptuous lobster meal that I don't normally get and practically turned green when the plate hit the table. I couldn't eat it. My husband and I winked at each other simultaneously as he took care of my dinner as well. Thoughts were racing . . . were we pregnant again?

After an all night flight home, we didn't hesitate in heading for the store and a home pregnancy kit. Yep, that was one year ago today. A lot has happened since then: pregnancy complications in the form of gestational diabetes, birth and the subsequent wonderful months of raising our son.

What a wonderful year it has been.

Switching Sides

Depending on where your mind is that title could have all sorts of interesting connotations. However, I'm looking at one in particular: changing the hand you brush your teeth with. If you're like most people you brush with your dominant hand. If you believe population genetics, that's about 95% of us brushing right handed and 5% left handed.

Per a comment I read excerpted from a book I haven't read yet, the theory is that if you exercise your brain in some simple ways it leads to more production of neurotrophins that help fight off the effect of mental aging. Don't believe me? Here's a link to Laurence C. Katz, Ph.D. and Manning Rubin's site, and book, Keep Your Brain Alive. The concept is simple, do thing a little differently than you usually do and you exercise your brain. A simple example is brushing your teeth opposite handed, (there are more, go check them out.)

I tried brushing with my non-dominant hand last night. If you haven't done this before and are not somewhat ambidextrous from some other cause (breaking a dominant hand or arm one or more times during your formative years,) this is HARD. Doing it normally, you go in, don't even think about it and viola, 2-3 minutes later you're off to do something else. Getting your teeth clean if you use the other hand takes longer . . . I'm picky about my teeth. I brush the recommended 2 minutes every time being sure to balance the areas covered. If I find a spot I missed marked by distinct texture where there should be smooth enamel, I go back and take care of it right then. Doing this process entirely with the opposite hand (and no, I didn't cheat at all, thank you,) takes time. About 15 minutes in my case.

It is just one of those things that make you go, "Hmm," as you go about your daily routine. If it means a healthier brain down the road, I'll try it. It's time to go find a copy of that book and do some more investigation.

Little things that count

I'm going to say something that may sound rather odd to most folks. Last Friday night, I was thankful that my husband still smoked. You see there is a reason I make this statement. One of our neighbors has outdoor cats. Not something I would do in this climate as we can have rather harsh winters. We also seem to be in a string of hard weather winters around here as well. Then again, these are not my cats.

Recently, the neighbor went out of town. They provided food and water. However I don't believe they provided enough food and water. Granted, the animals are not skeletal nor are they normally ill-cared-for. But in this case, one of the kitties made its way across the street to socialize with my hubby. Hubby is a kitty friendly guy. Cats of all shapes and sizes love him. He came back inside from his smoke and mentioned that he thought the neighbor's cat was hungry.

After talking about it a bit we put out some food for the cat. See, we recently lost a cat (she was 17) and we still have some left over cat food that I haven't made myself throw out yet. Normally I choose not to interfere. In this case, I will NOT let something suffer when it's obvious that the critter is hungry and no one is home to feed it. The cat ate every bite we put out.

These people are not cruel. I think they just don't quite understand the volume of food required by their pets when they leave for extended time periods. I heard that this isn't the first time that hubby has intervened. They were away at the Christmas Holiday as well and underestimated the food requirement. The sad part of that was he encountered another neighbor doing the same thing as they had also noticed the hungry kitties.

Sometimes you just need to do something a little nice for someone. Next time I see them, I'll mention that they need to up the volume of nutritional supplements they leave out for their animals when they're gone.

End of an era

As if everyone else in the world was not talking about it, not grieving over it . . . Arthur C. Clarke has passed away at 90. Over 100 books written. 2001 and 2010 made into movies. It truly is the end of an era of Science Fiction. He will be missed.