In keeping with my choice to use this blog, I've decided to port over the older posts to this one, and continue from here.
As a consequence, those of you who read me, (god knows why) will read some posts you've already seen today..
I promise to "new it up" tomorrow..
Have a great day.


Bigotry and assorted character traits.
May. 22nd, 2006 | 10:28 am
mood: annoyed

Recently I had the interesting experience of being a target of bigots..and had it repeated again this week.
Of course they didn't title themselves so, but being a woman of strong opinions I did it for them.
There are a large number of Hispanics in my community.Where I live there are about fifteen families, many of whom do not speak English.
They had a vehicle stuck, and because I believe that it is our obligation to help people when they need it, I took a shovel and went out to help them get the car out of the deep rut.
Only to find them making fun of me in Spanish, which they assumed I could not understand.
making it clear to them that I could understand it did not impress them..*EG* Strange how people are unhappy with such revelations.

They then proceeded to write letters to the lady who rents property to my sister, who lives across the street from them, telling her that the white people in the community permitted their dogs to run loose, and had not cleaned their yards of animal waste.

Because this was patently untrue, I phoned her, offered her photographs of both their yards, which looked like a used furniture store, and the others about whom they had complained, which did in fact look reasonably nice.
She replied to them that perhaps they should attempt to make a community atmosphere and work together..
I suggested that we have a neighborhood cleanup, and plant some plants to make it somewhat nicer.
That was a suggestion that was not received well.
Yesterday a small child ((approximately 5) rode his bike in front of my sisters van, and refused to leave the street so they could leave the community.
This is happening on a daily basis now.
Last night, as she attempted to leave the park, a little girl, of about 4, walked some twenty feet in front of the van, for three or four minutes, all the while holding up her middle finger.
This is not something a child of this age does without some adult coaching.
So yes.. you are bigots, and in fact.. people who we now do not want to associate with, because in fact,we try to protect our children from that behavior, and to teach them that people are just people.. and we don't encourage obscenities in our toddlers.

Granted, it is perhaps not politically correct to accuse a minority of being a bigot..
I am not a politically correct person.
I believe that we call it what it is..
For ten families, all Hispanic, to point fingers, refuse friendship to do that to only what they see as "white" people.. is prejudice, bigotry and frankly.. bullshit.

I work very hard to teach my family that color is just color.. to look at the heart and the mind, and the character of a person.
To see such a vast array of bigotry and rude behavior in one place, by one race, undoes all that we try to teach..
It teaches them by example that these are not nice people, and regardless of how we try, if we have no pleasant Hispanics to point them to, what do they learn?

So to those people.. when in fact, you are viewed in a less than favorable light, when people look at you and see a color and choose not to visit with you, or to try to get to know you, or to be your friend, speak your language.. think that perhaps it is not what a society of caucasians taught them..but what YOU taught them by your actions and behavior.

Prejudice is learned behavior, yes.. and you are the ones teaching it..

Bigotry in any race, by any person.. is always wrong..
and it is always ugly.


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Internet Service providers.. Where does the word service fit in here?
Mar. 5th, 2007 | 06:46 pm
mood: amused

Charter Communications.,. the operative word is communication.. and they don't have it.. Today for the third day this week, I've attempted to communicate with them.. yesterday, in consideration of the fact that my converter wasn't working, I phoned them, and said.. my converter box says .. under configuration.. disconnect. yes..
Well she replies with a distinct and barely understandable accent.. its not off.. its working..
No, I reply, it isn't working.. its a black screen for which I am paying a fairly premium price..
I will reset it, she says. and telling me she has done so, asks me if I know how to connect it correctly..
I reply in the affirmative, and say, it is still not functional..
two more phone calls in like vein.. they say.. your box is connected.. it should be working, therefore, we will send a technician..
I say no, thank you.. The last time you did so, what occurred was that they removed one of the lines into my home, and did nothing else.. I fixed my own internet..
HOWEVER>. if, each time the technician comes, he removes a line in.. then this time, I'm screwed because I have only one more line..
She says.. thats all I can do to help you..
I hang up, recall, hoping against vain hope to find another tech who speaks English. To my dismay, I do not.. they do however tell me that they have no internet currently and so, are unable to help me.. SURPRISE.. neither do I..
Last phone call.. failing in my earlier attempts, I choose to use the automated system, and reset my own converter box.. SHOCK.. it comes immediately on./
I phone back and issue a complaint.. asking why it was not turned on.. they say.. well .. it was.. I say no, I just reset it myself.. she checks the cable and says.. oh,.. well that was a mistake.. If you had our business account, we take care of those a bit more rapidly..
I ask.. so let me get this right.. you want me to pay you twenty odd MORE dollars per month, for something that doesn't work now..
Why didn't I think of that..
She says.. well we will issue you a credit.. it was a mistake that you lost two days..
I say. well which is it.. it was either still working perfectly, or it was a mistake..
She asks. in a perfectly mirthless voice.. Is this a complaint??
I reply.. equally as lacking in humor.. Yes, this IS most assuredly a complaint.. Imagine.. the ONLY thing they got right out of five phone calls..



Saddened and Dismayed..
Feb. 13th, 2007 | 03:02 pm
mood: apathetic

I wish with all my heart you had chosen to behave differently.. and just let our parting of the ways happen. I have no ill will toward my former site, and I have not in any way attempted to take chatters from it. To the point that I even did not invite those who used to chat in my room .. I find it strange that having completely left him alone, and not one of us spoke anything detrimental in all these months,a business owner cannot behave in the same fashion and simply agree to disagree, but many many months later, chooses instead to resurrect an ancient argument.

I cannot dislike or hate this person regardless of our past. I will not speak rudely of him because I think its wrong. I don't think.. I KNOW its wrong..
There were mistakes and miscommunications on both sides.. There was outside input that wasn't entirely upright.. These things happen..so it goes.

We parted company months ago, and thats the end of it... NOT ONE person heard anything I knew, or had saved, and I think thats as it should be.
I am apparently mistaken.

He who breathes the breath of scandal the most times in his life, dies a winner??
No they don't..they die a fool.
If MY fragile psyche cannot handle the fact that someone makes mistakes, corrects them as they can, and moves on with their life after a nearly year, then I submit it is not their issue, but mine..
I suggest to you that if such a heinous person was part of my site, and left of their own volition, I think I should be happy simply to be rid of them.and pleased that all the problems they caused now belong to another site owner..
THERE I GO.. doing my own thinking again..


Originality.. is overrated.
May. 18th, 2006 | 02:09 pm
mood: thoughtful

Not long ago I heard a friend decry the youth of today, much as they did us just a few years ago.
He stated categorically that they had no real originality of thought, were a brady bunch lot with no real fire or passion, and that many if not most of them were being led around by the schools that had spawned them.
While there are aspects of that commentary I may agree with, it is still a theory that is fraught with flaws.

We, in our society do not encourage free thinking, nonconformity, but rather conformity.
We tend to penalize those who think differently, who don't belong to the "pack"

What do we teach in our public schools.. to surpass others in your book, or to stay abreast of them..
What rewards do we offer to those who want to move faster in their learning..
None, but rather, we encourage them to stay with the class and to do uniform studies.. not to forge ahead, but to work as a unit...
Who is completely original??
Absolutely no one you know..
Each of us has been taught by someone who formed us, gave us ideas and opinions,put a spin on our way of thinking, or impressed us enough to want to emulate them.. They, in turn were taught what they taught us, in the same fashion.. and even if we, at some point take that knowledge a step further, it is not, in point of fact, originality.
Merely , we are standing on the shoulders of giants to arrive at new places using old thought processes.
Just as did those who complain that there is no real originality..
Curious, isn't it..



Online communities
Apr. 29th, 2006 | 05:04 pm

Does it seem to anyone but me, that we tend to forget those people we meet online more easily..
To injure them more readily because we can do so with impunity?
Three stories I've heard in as many days give me real pause for thought.
Someone who is convinced they need to get off the internet. Understandable if you haven't really the spare time, or the self control to limit your input.
But those people you've met there.. its okay to simply forget them? To not be concerned that they may miss you after years of interaction.. It's fine to be so self absorbed that who you injure isn't troubling to you??

Someone else is convinced by a family friend that people you meet on the internet, are somehow less important.. less.. human, than those you meet in .. a bar for instance.. or the laundromat..
Aren't people, just people, regardless of how you meet you them..
THe internet has some definite drawbacks, due largely to the fact that it can be so anonymous, that we may be just about anything we like.. Isn't that true of the guy in the bar, who says hes a doctor.. do you ask him for his physicians license??
There seems to me to be no less number of ways to be dishonest in the "real" world, if we choose to do so.
In fifteen years online I have never been taken advantage of by a person I"ve met there.. I wish with all my heart that I could say the same is true of what you all refer to as the "real" world..

A word to end the rant.
People are just people.. they are as close or as far away as you make them. If you find someone who shares your thoughts and goals and dreams with you.. Take advantage of that, and hold onto it tightly.. you may never find it again,,. not online and not in your oh so real life.. to waste it is the work of a fool.