Telling it like I see it
so don't ask if you don't want to know
Wait, don't throw that away yet!
Mar 4th
Do you know you probably throw out cash money every day? Okay, maybe not every day, but more often than you’d think.
And even if you don’t have kids or your kids are old or you hate your neighbor kids, you can collect these tiny parts of your daily trash and donate to somebody‘s kid. Don’t just throw this stuff away. I know at least three friends (@tsdivadani and @mightymommy and @wendellk) who have kids who collect these things.
First there’s General Mills Boxtops for Education. You might have noticed these on your cereal boxes, but they’re also on Ziploc boxes, Huggies stuff, garbage bags, everywhere! So if you come across one just cut/tear it off and toss it into a container/box/baggie and when you have a bunch you can give them to your local kid. THESE ARE EACH WORTH 10 CENTS COLD HARD CASH to the kid’s school. 
And I know you know about Campbells Soup Labels, though now they just want the UPC part. Schools have been collecting these things for years.
I magnet a ziploc bag to the side of my fridge and toss these things in and when that gets so heavy it starts to slide, I hand the whole bag over to one of my friends. I even have a razor right there to cut the UPC and boxtops off before I throw the container away. It ain’t hard, it just takes a moment of thought to begin the habit.
School budgets have been shaved right down to the quick in most places. If they want/need anything NOT in the tightest budget they’re screwed. Every little bit helps and you’re just throwing the stuff away anyhow.
Think about it. Check out Boxtops for Education and Campbell’s websites to see what other products you might have in your home.
| Originally published at Spellwight. |
Yo new twitter tweeple
Mar 2nd
Because a bunch of my LJ friends are finally embracing twitter I thought I’d list a few pointers here:
1. Avoid the public stream. There are a few people in the world who want to keep up with the goings on of billions of twitter users but I don’t think any of my friends will want to. Find and follow your friends, see who they respond to, and follow the ones that seem interesting. There are some celebrities on twitter but only follow those that actually appear to have conversations. Because twitter is about communicating both ways.
2. Do not accept follow requests from people without checking their page. If they only post business links, have only posted once or twice, follow hundreds of people but only have few followers – AVOID. Don’t sign up for any autofollowing crap.
3. If you want to respond openly to a specific person: @theirname with no space. Most clients (twhirl, twitterberry, tweetdeck, etc.) highlight your @name. If you want to talk to someone privately: d theirname with a space – that’s a direct message that won’t go out on your timeline.
4. Use your real face for your avatar. Seriously, twitter is about communication and real people. Us local Phoenix users meet up all the time and it’s easier to identify new people by face than wonder if that person over there is a new member of your group or just some random guy – who we inevitably get on twitter anyway.
5. Don’t use 4 or 2 or U or any of that crap unless you absolutely HAVE to. We get that 140 characters ain’t a lot so shorten your comment rather than shortening your words.
6. Tell us what you’re doing, what you’re watching, what you just found that is amusing or interesting, or just that your sox don’t match today and you just figured it out. Send out questions. Report when something interesting happens in your neighborhood or town. Just not all at once. Don’t go on and on and on about nothings.
I imagine twitter as a giant cubicle zoo and you know how you might pop up and mention something funny or something interesting to the person in the next cube? That’s twitter. Short, quick and to the point.
Welcome and have fun. Any questions? Anyone have any other pointers to add?
PS. Twitter seems to be having issues over the last couple of days. It’s not usually this slow or problematic. They’ve come a long way since it started. Hang in there and have patience and pretty soon she’ll be back to normal.
Yo new twitter tweeple
Mar 2nd
Because a bunch of my LJ friends are finally embracing twitter I thought I’d list a few pointers here:
1. Avoid the public stream. There are a few people in the world who want to keep up with the goings on of billions of twitter users but I don’t think any of my friends will want to. Find and follow your friends, see who they respond to, and follow the ones that seem interesting. There are some celebrities on twitter but only follow those that actually appear to have conversations. Because twitter is about communicating both ways.
2. Do not accept follow requests from people without checking their page. If they only post business links, have only posted once or twice, follow hundreds of people but only have few followers – AVOID. Don’t sign up for any autofollowing crap.
3. If you want to respond openly to a specific person: @theirname with no space. Most clients (twhirl, twitterberry, tweetdeck, etc.) highlight your @name. If you want to talk to someone privately: d theirname with a space – that’s a direct message that won’t go out on your timeline.
4. Use your real face for your avatar. Seriously, twitter is about communication and real people. Us local Phoenix users meet up all the time and it’s easier to identify new people by face than wonder if that person over there is a new member of your group or just some random guy – who we inevitably get on twitter anyway.
5. Don’t use 4 or 2 or U or any of that crap unless you absolutely HAVE to. We get that 140 characters ain’t a lot so shorten your comment rather than shortening your words.
6. Tell us what you’re doing, what you’re watching, what you just found that is amusing or interesting, or just that your sox don’t match today and you just figured it out. Send out questions. Report when something interesting happens in your neighborhood or town. Just not all at once. Don’t go on and on and on about nothings.
I imagine twitter as a giant cubicle zoo and you know how you might pop up and mention something funny or something interesting to the person in the next cube? That’s twitter. Short, quick and to the point.
Welcome and have fun. Any questions? Anyone have any other pointers to add?
PS. Twitter seems to be having issues over the last couple of days. It’s not usually this slow or problematic. They’ve come a long way since it started. Hang in there and have patience and pretty soon she’ll be back to normal.
| Originally published at Spellwight. |
Opposite times
Mar 1st
Last night was soooo much fun. My friend Sheila’s birthday party! A Mardi Gras themed party even. Being the incredible me I was invited to come a bit early for Marshall’s spectacular chocolate souffle. Every time Marshall comes to town I get to try something different and he’s probably the best cook I’ve known. I love getting special invites to his meals. He made gumbo last night too. I’m trying new foods and I actually almost like gumbo. But I loved the souffle. He put mandarin orange slices and a couple of raspberries on the side. Little touches like that. Presentation. We never went much for presentation but I’m starting to appreciate it.
And the party was fantastic! Dancing in the front room, and plenty of Strongbow for me. Lots of friends, lots of laughing and I crashed there so I wouldn’t have to drive home. Got up (unfortunately too) early this morning and eventually Marshall made us all omelettes.
Yeah, I was toasted and managed to get most of the men and some of the women to show their tits for beads. I dragged people onto the dance floor to loosen them up and flirted ineffectually with just about everyone. That’s me. One young man was especially playful and sweet but I was still alone at the end of the night. Oh well.
ENDOFTHEGOOD
And I get home and my house is trashed, people in the basement, power sucking all over and a nasty sticky mess in the kitchen. I go dump my stuff in my bedroom and some young guy I’ve never seen before is in the kitchen looking for a bowl to feed Kira cereal. Uh, who are you and where is this child’s father? Someone broke the DVD part of my home entertainment system. Someone got into my stash of Thin Mints. Someone leaves bathroom lights on and kitchen lights on and TVs on when no one is around.
And would I like to babysit tonight? Fuck no. He cleaned the kitchen, mopped and vacuumed the floors and bathed the kid and apologized for everything. Including pissing off the neighbor. And they just left for the night.
ENDOFTHEBAD
I have this uber geeky couple living behind me and she’s tromping on my last nerve. The “I hate to be a bother, but,” bitch. If I have to hear one more time how they sleep/work different shifts and how allergic they are to cigarette smoke and how they moved specifically to these apartments because they’re supposed to be non-smoking and they can smell smoke through the fucking walls and she just about had an asthma attack because she can smell cigarette smoke in her bathroom and it’s making her sick and her husband sleeps during the day and he’s choking on the smell and oh yeah we’re too loud… One night she rings my doorbell at 10:30 to bitch because Kira had been making too much noise in the bathtub. Apparently last night she gives Casey shit because they were too loud outside on my patio, which is on the opposite side of the building than she is! So they shifted the party over to Mikey-O’s apartment which is right across from hers – just for spite. She’s right about the non-smoking clause in the lease, which is why I smoked outside and I’ve been bitching at Ginnie to do the same. She’s lazy and thinks smoking in the bathroom with the fan on down there is good enough. Uh, no.
You know, if you’re that sensitive to your neighbors why choose an apartment? Wouldn’t it be better to rent a little stand alone house out in the boonies where nobody will bother you?
Shit, her husband Peter (not cool enough to be a Pete) just showed up at my door to reiterate the lease and no smoking rules and that they were too loud last night and she almost called the police. Fine, call the police cuz I wasn’t even here. The cops will nudge us to be quiet and you to get over it. Whatever.
Opposite times
Mar 1st
Last night was soooo much fun. My friend Sheila’s birthday party! A Mardi Gras themed party even. Being the incredible me I was invited to come a bit early for Marshall’s spectacular chocolate souffle. Every time Marshall comes to town I get to try something different and he’s probably the best cook I’ve known. I love getting special invites to his meals. He made gumbo last night too. I’m trying new foods and I actually almost like gumbo. But I loved the souffle. He put mandarin orange slices and a couple of raspberries on the side. Little touches like that. Presentation. We never went much for presentation but I’m starting to appreciate it.
And the party was fantastic! Dancing in the front room, and plenty of Strongbow for me. Lots of friends, lots of laughing and I crashed there so I wouldn’t have to drive home. Got up (unfortunately too) early this morning and eventually Marshall made us all omelettes.
Yeah, I was toasted and managed to get most of the men and some of the women to show their tits for beads. I dragged people onto the dance floor to loosen them up and flirted ineffectually with just about everyone. That’s me. One young man was especially playful and sweet but I was still alone at the end of the night. Oh well.
ENDOFTHEGOOD
And I get home and my house is trashed, people in the basement, power sucking all over and a nasty sticky mess in the kitchen. I go dump my stuff in my bedroom and some young guy I’ve never seen before is in the kitchen looking for a bowl to feed Kira cereal. Uh, who are you and where is this child’s father? Someone broke the DVD part of my home entertainment system. Someone got into my stash of Thin Mints. Someone leaves bathroom lights on and kitchen lights on and TVs on when no one is around.
And would I like to babysit tonight? Fuck no. He cleaned the kitchen, mopped and vacuumed the floors and bathed the kid and apologized for everything. Including pissing off the neighbor. And they just left for the night.
ENDOFTHEBAD
I have this uber geeky couple living behind me and she’s tromping on my last nerve. The “I hate to be a bother, but,” bitch. If I have to hear one more time how they sleep/work different shifts and how allergic they are to cigarette smoke and how they moved specifically to these apartments because they’re supposed to be non-smoking and they can smell smoke through the fucking walls and she just about had an asthma attack because she can smell cigarette smoke in her bathroom and it’s making her sick and her husband sleeps during the day and he’s choking on the smell and oh yeah we’re too loud… One night she rings my doorbell at 10:30 to bitch because Kira had been making too much noise in the bathtub. Apparently last night she gives Casey shit because they were too loud outside on my patio, which is on the opposite side of the building than she is! So they shifted the party over to Mikey-O’s apartment which is right across from hers – just for spite. She’s right about the non-smoking clause in the lease, which is why I smoked outside and I’ve been bitching at Ginnie to do the same. She’s lazy and thinks smoking in the bathroom with the fan on down there is good enough. Uh, no.
You know, if you’re that sensitive to your neighbors why choose an apartment? Wouldn’t it be better to rent a little stand alone house out in the boonies where nobody will bother you?
Shit, her husband Peter (not cool enough to be a Pete) just showed up at my door to reiterate the lease and no smoking rules and that they were too loud last night and she almost called the police. Fine, call the police cuz I wasn’t even here. The cops will nudge us to be quiet and you to get over it. Whatever.
| Originally published at Spellwight. |
Max finally called
Feb 28th
I haven’t actually talked to Toadwort since December. He’s left a couple of messages that didn’t really say much.
So what I gather from this crappy call is that he’s been moved an hour north of where he was with a small group of other Army guys and they’re inside an Iraqi base, well protected by Iraqi soldiers. Peachy. And that their phone service is occaisional and spotty and he’ll call or email more often. Cuz I yelled at him.
He’s hoping for leave around the end of June into July and possibly back completely in October. We’ll see.
Max finally called
Feb 28th
I haven’t actually talked to Toadwort since December. He’s left a couple of messages that didn’t really say much.
So what I gather from this crappy call is that he’s been moved an hour north of where he was with a small group of other Army guys and they’re inside an Iraqi base, well protected by Iraqi soldiers. Peachy. And that their phone service is occaisional and spotty and he’ll call or email more often. Cuz I yelled at him.
He’s hoping for leave around the end of June into July and possibly back completely in October. We’ll see.
| Originally published at Spellwight. |
Annoying little beaurocrats
Feb 25th
I completely understand one mustn’t bitch about services one gets for free. Tough shit.
Over the years that I’ve been going to the VA hospital here in Phoenix things have majorly improved. There’s no longer throngs of smelly homeless vets with their missing body parts. I dunno where they went, whether they were helped or shipped out, but they are gone. Let’s hope they were helped out and are all better off now. Anyway, the smell of the place has improved. Also, the speed of service has greatly improved! Where you used to expect to spend the entire day down there waiting to see a doctor or get x-rays done, now you can be in and out in an hour. And because of that the parking has gotten better too.
But – the pharmacy services suck giant permanently flaccid dick. Seriously.
If you get a new prescription, you wait at least an hour. So unless I need it to keep me alive I have it mailed. You can order refills online to be mailed, so I guess that’s an improvement.
But – when your refills are running out, you have to wait until they’ve shipped the last refill before you can request more refills. And for some-odd reason I have three “in process”, three more that have ONE more available refill, and two I can order and yet I can’t just call and have them ask the doctor to give me another year on them all. They have to keep bugging him, he has to remember to allow, and THEN they’ll send them to me. No fucking wonder it takes them so long. It’s not like I take amphetamines or anything, these are asthma and high blood pressure meds. No big deal.
Originally, you could set your appointments up a year in advance. I’m required to come in for a yearly update with my primary care doctor and another yearly appointment with my Gyno every April. I used to set those appointments up yearly and get a reminder letter and it worked fine. Now you have to remember a year later to set up your own appointment (which doesn‘t coincide with when my medication refills run out dontchaknow) and now I have to remember to make an appointment in May.
My memory sucks. I’m assuming it’s an issue with years of not getting enough oxygen with my asthma or maybe the years of steroid use. I used to have a fantastic memory and I’m not old enough for it to be senility, so I’m blaming health issues. Whatever.
AND THE HOLD MUSIC! This deserves an OH MY GOD. The same crappy jazzish song over and over for. ev. er. We hates it yes we does. I really wish I could record it and share. After being forced to listen you’ll have that shit looping in your head for days.
Okay, bitching done. I feel better now.
Annoying little beaurocrats
Feb 25th
I completely understand one mustn’t bitch about services one gets for free. Tough shit.
Over the years that I’ve been going to the VA hospital here in Phoenix things have majorly improved. There’s no longer throngs of smelly homeless vets with their missing body parts. I dunno where they went, whether they were helped or shipped out, but they are gone. Let’s hope they were helped out and are all better off now. Anyway, the smell of the place has improved. Also, the speed of service has greatly improved! Where you used to expect to spend the entire day down there waiting to see a doctor or get x-rays done, now you can be in and out in an hour. And because of that the parking has gotten better too.
But – the pharmacy services suck giant permanently flaccid dick. Seriously.
If you get a new prescription, you wait at least an hour. So unless I need it to keep me alive I have it mailed. You can order refills online to be mailed, so I guess that’s an improvement.
But – when your refills are running out, you have to wait until they’ve shipped the last refill before you can request more refills. And for some-odd reason I have three “in process”, three more that have ONE more available refill, and two I can order and yet I can’t just call and have them ask the doctor to give me another year on them all. They have to keep bugging him, he has to remember to allow, and THEN they’ll send them to me. No fucking wonder it takes them so long. It’s not like I take amphetamines or anything, these are asthma and high blood pressure meds. No big deal.
Originally, you could set your appointments up a year in advance. I’m required to come in for a yearly update with my primary care doctor and another yearly appointment with my Gyno every April. I used to set those appointments up yearly and get a reminder letter and it worked fine. Now you have to remember a year later to set up your own appointment (which doesn‘t coincide with when my medication refills run out dontchaknow) and now I have to remember to make an appointment in May.
My memory sucks. I’m assuming it’s an issue with years of not getting enough oxygen with my asthma or maybe the years of steroid use. I used to have a fantastic memory and I’m not old enough for it to be senility, so I’m blaming health issues. Whatever.
AND THE HOLD MUSIC! This deserves an OH MY GOD. The same crappy jazzish song over and over for. ev. er. We hates it yes we does. I really wish I could record it and share. After being forced to listen you’ll have that shit looping in your head for days.
Okay, bitching done. I feel better now.
| Originally published at Spellwight. |
Kaydence Renee' Kinney
Feb 25th
My sister’s step-son’s (who I’ve never met) new baby, which makes me what?
Long lost not-so-Great Aunt Debbie?
So yeah, teeny tiny baby. I get my information 3rd hand through Myspace so I don’t know the weight but that is a TINY baby. Hope all is well. But seriously, Kaydence Kinney? Poor kid.
