April 8, 2011

12 Top News Stories Sent from My Couch

My mind is still a bit unfocused, or should I say "focused intently on unrelated things for short periods of time" so here goes:

1. Blogger does not accept paragraph returns when accessed through Internet Explorer. Foxfire to the rescue...of my mental health. If you use Blogger you probably know what I mean. If not, please advance to #2.

Thank you to February Grace and Stephen Parrish for the suggestion to try Foxfire (please click on the links and see their fine blogs....in fact, go there soon, because Stephen has a cool video up right now with "Ideal Stephen Parrish" avator...Oh heck, I'll just paste it below and make it easy for you). My son, Jesse, has advised me to use Foxfire for years. One of the companies he's involved with Snipi was first designed for use with Foxfire. And my sister Joan uses Foxfire...all smart people, so I now join their ranks.


2. Still irritated at Microsoft—what's going on with Windows Explorer on my laptop? All of a sudden for no apparent reasons the "View" choice does not show the little mini images of graphics as it always has for-like-ever and now I have no idea which photo "0193283.jpg" is unless I give it a real name that I can remember. If this happens on my desktop, I'm toast. I like my technology to make sense, be predictable and not change unless I ask it to. And then if I do yet should not have, it must be easy to find the solution. I'm thinking of switching to a Mac....

3. WOUB reported that a memorial service was held next to the Japanese trees here in Athens, Ohio. I wish I'd known about this. Here's a nice link to OU's Japanese Student Association. I like that their Twitter feeds show a real interest in the blooming of the cherry blossom trees. Also, this Sunday, April 10th, is the 2011 Sakura Festival in Baker Center, which would be a great thing for locals to attend to celebrate Japanese culture (including food!).

4. Combat to Compost: Soldiers Learn Organic Farming. Cool segment on NPR yesterday. The program is in California. I wish it would come here to Ohio too. Athens is one of the best places in the country for organic farming and there is still room for more vendors in our Farmer's Market.

5. Kathy Morman shared the lost-and-found story of her dog, Brandy, with me for my book (Open Your Heart with Pets, Dreamtime Publishing, 2007). Brandy has been battling bronchitis, but she's turned the corner and is doing much better. This was great news and Tyler, Farley, and Jackie give Brandy (and her sister Gracie) 2 paws up! (See photo of Brandy and Gracie below, courtesy of Kathy Morman.)


6. Why did the weatherman, excuse me meteorologist, just refer to Southern California as "So Cal"? I think weathermen should not use slang, nicknames, or try to be hip with their fancy graphics. But I'm just a grumpy Midwesterner this morning.

7. Driving down Rt. 33 in SE Ohio yesterday near Nelsonville I passed the sure sign of spring, the woodcarver who sets up along the Hocking River. He and two other men were there, with a huge, maybe 6 foot, piece of wood, saw at the ready, something wonderful waiting to emerge. I always miss him when I go by and he is not there. One day I, too, will have a big carved bear or eagle or totem or something in my yard, if only to keep this guy doing what he does.

8. The Wedding: 600 million people are expected to view William and Kate's wedding. I hope she gets the dress right... I also hope they have a marriage of love, respect, fidelity... all that good stuff. Go, young people: Wave, wed, and go do lots of good works. Try not to muck things up.

9. Speaking of things mucked up.... "members of Congress will still get paid" says GMA announcer. The Federal Government, shutting down. Will this be much ado about nothing? Will I notice? There's a "shut down clock" on Times Square. "We are fighting three wars and troops will not get paid." Now that I notice. That is just wrong, in every way. Also, Donald Trump, I do not want you to be my next president.

11. I'm so upset that the artist who created the Bird's Nest Stadium (where those lovely events were held during the Olympics in China) has been arrested. That stadium design increased my love of Chinese art a hundredfold, it was the best visual hook of the entire games and meant more to me than the eerily perfect synchronization of the opening ceremonies. Set Ai Weiwei free, China.

12. I had to go back to the dentist yesterday because a temporary cap came off, and also it was so thin it had a hole in it, which in my mind seemed to have doomed it to fail from the start.

The dental assistant replaced it with a metal temporary, which at one point popped off and went INTO MY THROAT! I sat up and started acting like our Chihuahua, Jackie, when she has a weird "reverse sneeze." All sorts of things went through my mind like: "Am I going to have to have surgery or is this no big deal?" "Could this thing get stuck in my tiny throat?" "What will this metal do in the acids of my stomach?"

But, alas, with determination there was soon a lovely ping! in the dentist's stainless steel sink, a temporary firmly affixed to stubby tooth, and a cold drink soothing my irritated throat and frazzled nerves.

Have a great weekend!
Janice

5 comments:

Jessica Bell said...

That's weird. I'm having no trouble at all with line spaces! :-/

Stephen Parrish said...

My paragraphs continue to run together. They STILL haven't fixed the problem.

Thanks for reposting the video!

Dina said...

Your crown description had me coughing/spitting my coffee. It's a near exact description of what happened to me a week ago. My temp crown keeps falling off in true temporary fashion, I suppose. Fortunately it never went down my throat but it came close - that is scary! I've taken to going without and am waiting for the permanent one to come in.

Gov't shutdown - it's the height of hypocrisy for the Congress to not to it's work, thereby causing the fed gov't to shut down and STILL PAY THEMSELVES while leaving mililtary families in the lurch. Not to mention all the fed workers who need their weekly paychecks. I suspect the fat cats in Washington could miss a day or two or a week or more and get by just fine. :/and there ends my rant.

Janice Phelps Williams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Janice Phelps Williams said...

Jessica: Count your blessings that your Blogger is working fine. Mine works fine on my desktop in IE, but on my laptop (same operating system, by the way) I have to use Foxfire now.

Stephen: Thanks for stopping by. I downloaded your book to my Kindle!

Dina: It was very scary and the dental assistant was pretty scared to. She apologize several times. I told her I can't believe it doesn't happen more often. A tiny, shiny, smooth surfaced object, hanging over an open throat....

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