New Notebook Time

The "latte" journal I started October 28, and used the last page December 5.



The new one should be cheery. It's published by Legacy Publishing Group, the artist is Teresa Kogut. I bought it at the Shade Tree at Lakeside this past summer. The old one (I bought a bunch of these) was $1.00 at the Discovery Shop. The artist is Deb Strain, an Ohio artist (according to the back inside cover) who left the classroom in 1994 to devote herself to her family and art.

Lots and lots of notes here I never used. So here's what I didn't write about--but will briefly note it here.

Correction--California Teachers Association only donated $1.25 million to oppose Proposition 8, not $3 million as originally reported in WSJ. That was the ballot initiative to overturn the State Supreme Court ruling that allows gay marriage. Can you get a teacher's job if you don't join the union?

70% of subprime loans that defaulted before they reset contained some kind of misrepresentation by the borrower, lender, or broker, or a combination of the 3. (no source)

Hutu Tutsi conflict continues in Congo. Rebels advanced toward Congo's eastern provincial capital. U.N. is there. Wonder what they have been doing since the genocide in Rwanda 14 years ago?

Will the left be happy now? Wal-Mart will continue its international expansion, but growth is flat in U.S. NIMBY attitude in many communities, so we all lose. They didn't even wait for President Obama to add more environmental regs, higher taxes, restrictive hiring practices, more punitive health care demands. And we wonder why business leaves?

Hand washing--a cost cutting campaign years ago at OSUL--my idea, but it wasn't accepted. Notes on soap dishes, keyboards in libraries, tables, chairs, etc.

Obama's ties to ACORN, John Fund article WSJ October 30.

There are 39,000+ runners in the NYC marathon--26 in the 80-90 year old division. In my dreams!!!

Lake Geneva real estate ad--$4.5 million--looks like an Hawaiian plantation. I wonder why you wouldn't go to Hawaii and get a real one?

Theresa Hogan has an op-ed saying don't make this a single issue election--abortion. Why not? I might not word it that way but we do need a leader with character, not one who gets a 100% rating from NARAL.

Friend highly recommends Fireproof at the AMC Dublin 18.

Another icon the left hates--McDonalds. In France it is opening 29 stores in 2008--its biggest earner outside USA.

Bank failures in 2008--17.

When was the last time you changed your mind on something BIG? I listed 8.

Pat Wynn Brown "Love is in the Hair"--she's a local actress, writer, cancer survivor. I remember reading her columns when she wrote for one of the free-circs. The event helps women who have lost their hair to chemo.

I'd forgotten these guys--Ricky Nelson's sons, Matthew and Gunner. Playing at the Alrosa Villa.

The clerk had a terrible cold--please send her home.

50 women to watch world wide (WSJ) Only 3 appear to be African or African-American. 26 are over 50. Whoopee.

Abstinance is 100% successful in controling the spread of AIDS and in reducing poverty, but it's a political wasteland with the pro-abortion crowd. There's no money in abstinance.

I'm ignoring Peggy Noonan.

In NY the UN Secretary looks up from his latte and polished desk and says he's "concerned" that women and children are being raped; homes burned and sons murdered. Someone buy this puppet a ticket to the Congo.

I wonder why the more government funding a disease gets, the more it expands? New cases of diabetes--increased by 90% in 10 years. Spending on drugs to control diabetes almost doubled between 2001 and 2007 from $6.7 mil to $12.5 mil. Must be a relationship. Ya think?

Oxymoron--mandatory volunteer

Theodidacti--taught by God

Hunger--now "food insecurity"

Illinois leads the country in allowing retailers to keep some sales tax--$126,000,000. Apparently costs 3.1% of the sum collected for the retailer.

Sea lamprey has "evolved" and now makes Vermont its home in Lake Champlain. Havoc on salmon and trout. No one seems to know how it got there.

Recipe for Buckeye Pie

Book review of "Breathing the fire" by Kimberly Dozier, Meredith Books, 2008, reviewed in JAMA Oct 1, 1595-96. Looks really good.

Lies about stem cell research.

Hank Greenberg (AIG)--huge losses in his foundations.

Just one or two drinks can impair memory--seems to interfer with how memories are stored.

In Jos Nigeria clashes of ethnic violence have killed over 400 and displaced over 7,000--mainly Christians by Muslims. I'm not going to say it was buried in the back pages of the paper because the victims were Christians, but I will say it was because they were Africans. But when you've killed millions by taking DDT away from them, what's a few more? Where are the happy-clappy, sappy-crappy one-globe folks when you need them?

June Kronholz, WSJ 12-4-08, "Massive bureaucracy promises exciting new opportunity." Sigh. She notes: Workforce is older; only 17% of Americans trust the gov't; very sluggish; outsiders are not hired; it takes years to remove an ineffective worker; hiring one employee can involve 110 steps; pay and promotion are not tied to performance.

McCain was the creator of the system that brought him down--the McCain-Feingold. "By not trusting the American people he allowed the worst, most corrupt money machine in history to decide our election."

Gasoline in Ohio is around $1.50/gal. Auto dealerships are closing. Columbus mayor is closing eleven recreation sites.

That's a lot of not writing.

New Notebook Time

When we were having coffee yesterday, AZ asked me about my new pink notebook. I wasn't finished with the brown Cafe Latte one--it had maybe 4-5 blank pages and usually I go right to the end and around the corner and onto the back cover, but the more I thought about it, the better it sounded to start a new month with a new notebook. I got this cheerful, happy notebook at Barnes and Noble for $4.95--the paper is pink and narrow lined, very unusual for a notebook this size. Here's what I didn't blog about in May.

1. Girls' disadvantage in career choices because they skip physics in high school.
2. How to improve the Columbus schools (based on a Columbus school teacher's opinion).
3. Virginia's response to 6 tornadoes.
4. Five hot business books authored by big idea people. None by women.
5. Boston Legal on Save our Shows list. Only conservative character on the show has dementia. Maybe they should write to a larger audience?
6. Where the 2001 rebates went: 64.1% went to the movies!
7. It costs $9 a pack to smoke legally in NYC.
8. Experienced crew manager at McDonald's list of benefits includes a car and paid education. Can add $100,000 to annual sales if good.
9. Only 10% of America's multi-millionaires inherited their wealth.
10. The model in the Aetna full page ad looks like she could die next week of an eating disorder.
11. Turkey chickpea chili--on the menu at Panera's. Yuk.
12. The problems of biking to work.
13. Gov't subsidized housing in Columbus.
14. Everything I learned I got in Vacation Bible School.
15. L. Gordon Cravitz on web 2.0
16. Those who identifiy themselves as conservative are more likely to be happy, to attend worship, to marry and have children.
17. "Kids are using their technological advantage to immerse themselves in a trivial, solipsistic distracting on line world at the expense of more enriching activities--like opening a book or writing a complete sentence." David Robinson.
18. Prescription drug use (not misuse) grows and the media sees this as a cause to worry.
19. Car pooling and bus ridership up in Columbus.
20. Bad advice from Dear Abby on who should learn to cook.
21. "Keep the immigrants; deport the multiculturalists."
22. Al-John McGore. It's really tough to support McCain.
23. Testosterone in the news (list of all the brief newsstories, usually in the Metro section) about men stabbing, shooting, looting, drinking, snorting and driving into or over each other. Includes occasional pedophile teacher.
24. Why conservatives don't like McCain. He's not conservative.
25. Picture a little boy in a row boat going out to sea to charge a naval fleet with a Soro's logo on his briefs.
26. Brian McLaren and the emergent church.
27. Signs of human life on Mars; they can't find it in the womb so they go into space.
28. Seen at the coffee shop. Men in expensive suits; women in anything they pull on in the morning. Could there be a glass ceiling in the closet? It's pathetic that a retired librarian is dressed better than 50% of the women going off to work.
29. WSJ, which has always had mostly liberal news stories, is now cluttering the opinion page with liberal columnists.
30. 45% of women 25-34 have college degrees compared to 36% of the men.

4597

New Notebook Time

There just wasn't enough time, space or pixels for everything in the last one. So here's what I didn't write about.

Deaths of journalists--I had noted particularly Mexico and Africa

Role disability--53.4% of us according to Archives of General Psychiatry

What the Constitution says about the religion of candidates

What Anabaptists say about Doctrine of Justification

November consumer spending rising fastest in 3.5 years

Americans aren't saving enough--GAO

Schwarzenegger's $14 billion health care plan

Public housing solutions in architecture journals--40 years of reading this

Social worker jargon for staff workshops

Should churches and religious groups be paying real estate taxes

Consumer changes 2005-2007

AMT, Bush tax cuts

Recipe for Chicken Merlot

13 fudge factor phrases (I'll probably still use this for a TT)

Free genealogy sites on the web

My "new" first issue (1895)

"If you're not hungry several times a day, you're eating too much."

New strain of MRSA in MSM

"Overcoming the worry gene" was most e-mailed WSJ story

Abortion front page story in Dispatch--word choices of reporters show hostility to pro-life supporters and advocates

The 2001 rebates

Lithuanian Jews "The Unknown Black Book"

Black 17 year old, accepted at 6 colleges, comments on Obama are really strange

How will your candidate handle Jihadism?

Posting calorie counts in restaurants

Stomach banding also cures diabetes - better than lifestyle changes - JAMA

Edwards' rich-poor gap a lie - Thomas Sowell

Freddie Mac swindles Ohio pension system

When half as much is twice as good

Top 1% of income earners paid 39.58% of all income taxes in 2005

Do not smoke or drink during Super Bowl--health risk

Notebook by Colorbök, Inc. 2716 Baker Road, Dexter, MI 48130, made in China, of course. Each page has narrow lines, and either the pinto (verso) or the sorrel (facing) with head turned. I also bought earlier a small nesting box with four horses in this design which includes a butterscotch/palamino color horse.

New Year's Resolutions

If I'd made a New Year's Resolution to update all eleven of my blogs, it would never have happened. But yesterday I noticed all but three had been updated in 2008, so I decided to go for it. I want you to know I'm doing my part to maintain the English language. A year ago, the Japanese language blogs slightly outnumbered the English language blogs. I'm not sure how social sites like MyFaceSpace are counted, but many young'ns like those self-absorbed thingies instead of blogs. Is it your patriotic duty to start another blog (regardless of your language or country)?

Hugging and Chalking--looked like a no brainer to me.

In the Beginning--usually I don't feature losers, but. . .

Coffee Spills--An embarrassing moment, now corrected

Church of the Acronym--Rahab's thread.

On my bookshelves--cross posted here with some revisions.

Memory Patterns--updated the statistics (final entry was over 2 years ago, but it keeps plugging along)

Growth Industry--5 tips for women

Class Reunion Blog--Lynne's letter to the Rockford paper

Exercising through the church year--group blog, but many have fallen away!

Illegals Today--new I-9 rules and new handbook

And my new computer still isn't unpacked! Do you think I'm avoiding something?

What Women Want

When I started blogging in 2003, I had a small problem finding interesting blogs written by women. Now they've taken over blogdom. The crafters are stunning with gorgeous photos of wip and wonderful group projects; the cooking blogs can put on weight just reading the ingredients; the mommy blogs are so well written you can almost smell the diapers and spit-up and they write vivid descriptions of labor and delivery, something I've tried hard to forget; the photobloggers seem to have a way with cats and nature; the book reviewers with their TBR lists put me to shame; the career blogs are sometimes a bit specialized and require some anonymity if they want to keep their jobs; and of course, the librarian blogs are very high tech but with a light, feminine touch.

Almost every blog I read gets 20-30 times more comments than I do (I get a lot of readers; not many leave comments). There are reasons for this, and you won't be surprised when I tell you why.

1. My age. Yes, folks, I'm old enough to be the mother or even grandmother of some of the ladies whose blogs I link to. This is a huge disadvantage in drawing comments--it's a cultural divide of unbelievable proportions. When Crazy Aunt Purl, who is 30-something, cute, divorced and struggling, not to mention funny and a fabulous cat photographer who knits, writes about getting out of debt with a strict budget, she might get 145 comments! If write about budgeting to stay out of debt, I'd be lucky to get a yawn. It's much better to hear from a peer than someone your mom's age who's never even had a balance on her credit card! Even if I sprinkled my budget advice with adorable photos of my cat, I wouldn't get comments. Aunt Purl and the very political Neo-Neocon's sites act as discussion boards where people return and comment on the remarks of the other readers.

2. Mine is not a happy-clappy blog, cheering on the ladies like some of the boomer bloggers I've read who have come out of life's struggles with a smile and a hug for everyone, and never a critical word. Wow. I love to read them, too--and you should see the comments. Lazy Daisy is just the person to visit if you need a lift--except for that really gross-out story about her son's apartment.

3. I am a conservative, evangelical Christian and am also politically conservative. I could measure the drop off of readership if I even mention abortion or creation. They are lead balloon topics for blogs, unless you're targeting those groups (dominated by male bloggers who think women should keep quiet in their presence). But I can't resist pointing out fallacies and murky thinking when it comes to protecting the weakest.

4. Although I read a lot, I'm really a dabbler, and prefer magazines and newspapers. I have no background in literature (in college I never had a class in British or American literature and rarely read fiction of any type). I like to read the review and literary blogs, but can't really make a contribution.

5. Many of my "regular" readers and commenters that used to stop by closed up shop after a year or so. Some have totally removed the blog site, others have just stopped posting anything. Even two guys I used to visit have disappeared with no explanation.

6. I don't participate in more than one ring, or event at a time. Women just love these things--they are so social! I liked Friday Feast, but moved on to Thursday Thirteen, then left that and took up Poetry Thursday. Many of the women I visit have an event going on every day of the week, sometimes two. Tasks for Tuesday or Wordless Wednesday or Super Bowl Menu and so forth--I think it's like running into each other at the market and stopping for a chat.

7. And lastly, even my friends and family don't leave comments. Some don't even read--they say they are too busy, or can't find them, or have to clean a closet. I read a lot of blogs where the comment windows are like family reunions. If it weren't for good old Murray whom I knew in high school and sends me the obituaries from our home town, you would think I just growed.