madameblogalot

So my blogging has not been a lot lately. I just don’t have the time. And it is no longer feasible for me to pay to keep my domain names. So this blog and one other linked to this account will become inactive at the end of this month. I will still write from time to time on my blogspot blogs as time allows. Funny how for so long I made time every day or every week to post something on a blog. And now that time is just not there for blogging. It also is not generating the “mad money” I was able to get in the beginning. So while I’m saying bye, bye to blogalot, I’ll still be around….

My daughter celebrates her 16th birthday this week. We are not having a big party, well, not really. She asked if we would take her to New York. When we said no she asked for Florida. No. So she asked for Corpus Christi. That was more feasible and we thought about that and said that it might work. As it is, we are going to take her and a few friends to Six Flags in San Antonio. I wonder if she had that in mind all along and just had to work us down to it….she is like that! But I know we will have a good trip and I hope her sweet 16 is a time of sweet friendships and fun!

It seems as if society can be driven by controversial issues. I guess it is a way to get a lot of people’s blood boiling, on both sides of an issue. Here are a few controversial issues I’ve heard about just over the past weekend, some new, some ongoing:

*whether or not to vaccinate children

*GPS tracking of children and teens

*using Hitler to sell “real man’s shampoo”

*playing video games in meetings

*women ingesting their placenta after giving birth

*shooting home intruders

*using a boy’s murder to incite calls of racism

The Queen: I’ve not read this author before and did not realize the book was considered “Christian fiction.” (My husband gave me this for Christmas, to help “balance out” all the Michael Crichton I’ve been reading!) I still have not decided about this book. The story was good and I like the lack of vulgar language. There is enough graphic gore and violence to keep most people who watch TV interested (??) I did feel like reading this was a bit like riding a bike with slipping gears. I would be going along and then something would jar, like a gear not quite catching. I am not sure what it was. At times I felt a bit lost in all the technology while at others I felt like too much was said (ex: “He took out his iPad 2″; why not just say iPad?) Overall I give the book a HIT and MISS but will also want to check out another book or two of his just to give a fair chance.

The Story of Us-Rebels: I found this series on Netflix and I think it will be perfect to watch while doing my bike trainer. Each segment of the series is about 45 minutes long and tells the story of America. Today I watched this first segment and overall enjoyed the story. I am not crazy about modern day cinematography (I guess that what it is…) but the information was good. I learned that one of the early Pilgrims to come over on the Mayflower was Edward Winslow. Interestingly enough, I have read many books in a fictional series about his descendants. If I understand, about 10% of Americans can trace their ancestry back to him. I also learned that John Hancock was one of the, if not the, richest man in Boston at the time. And I also learned that due to Ben Franklin’s night riders, all the colonies knew of the Bloody (Boston) Massacre before anyone back in England did. I was also surprised at the high level, well known people included in the interviews of this documentary: Colin Powell, Donald Trump, Brian Williams, Michael Douglas, Rudy Gulianni, Michael Bloomberg. Very interesting and I think made interesting and timely, using these current well known interviewees,  for a younger generation as well. I will rate this one a HIT.

The Story of Us: Revolution: This second segment was also enjoyable and informative to me. I learned just how many English ships came to fight-nearly 400! I also learned there were 14,000 soldiers at Valley Forge though many died from small pox. In fact, Washington proposed a small pox inoculation that pretty well kept him from losing all of his soldiers. I learned that Baron Von Steuben came to help Washington and started by incurring hygiene and discipline at Valley Forge, noting that in his previous experience in foreign armies he told soldiers what to do and they did it. Here, he was obliged to tell them WHY and then they would do it. I also learned that Washington had a network of spies including a loyalist writer, a tavern owner and a housewife and her laundry. I rate this installation a HIT.

11/22/63: Whew!! 849 pages including author’s notes. This is a “heavy” novel in some ways. I woke up after having dreamed about it more than once. The story is fascinating; maybe only for those who are interested in history and time travel, I don’t know. But I was drawn in to the story and remained inside it (like I said, even dreaming about it.) My husband asked if it was scary (I was leery to read Stephen King since he’s noted for horror which I do not enjoy.) I said not really scary in the sense of horror, but scary because it’s based on reality, which might be even more horrific….at any rate, I think I would call this story a HIT but I do have to put a HUGE disclaimer on the vulgarity used throughout to move the story along.  I like Mr. King’s story-telling but I just can’t seem to move past the vulgarity (language and sex-both crude and vulgar) used so constantly to tell the story. That for me is a MISS.

The Story of Us: Westward: This segment was another HIT for me. I do keep learning things I don’t remember hearing before. This segment does bring up some uncomfortable ideas from our history, particularly the way the native americans were treated and marched to reservations. There was brief mention of Lewis and Clark’s expedition and the Alamo. I was really struck by the westward movement to Oregon, Utah and California. I also learned that many pioneers died of “milk sickness” which I’d not heard before. Apparently cows ate a poisonous root and the poison was passed on through the milk. I was also amazed that in four generations the size of the nation grew from coast to coast (it was stated that Thomas Jefferson thought it would take 1000.) I do wonder sometimes how accurate these types of shows are, but I am still enjoying this one.

Reader’s Digest: Pretty much still always a HIT with me.

I have just not had the time to put into my blogs lately. But I also hate to see them “die”. Why? I don’t know. Other than I just hate to leave “jobs undone.” So I limp along when I can putting in lame posts just to keep the blogs alive. I guess it’s like having them on life support, which I personally do not want if I am ever in the situation! And since I don’t have too many readers anyway I guess it’s not much of a lifeline. But….here is just another empty post to keep my blog alive and breathing. (Mostly brain dead though!) Just blogging in for blogging’s sake…..

While nothing has been confirmed, save one, here is a list of the events I want and am hoping to do this year.

1. Gator Ride-not sure what distance yet

2. Kona Eastside Tri-sprint

3. Oklahoma City half marathon-already signed up and part of “Team OC”

4. CB&I tri-sprint

5. Ironman TX volunteer

6. COMBAT tri-sprint

7. Clear Lake International-Olympic

8. Brazosport relay

9. Redman-Olympic

10. 10 for TX 10 miler

And if I get the chance I’d like to do a Century Ride (100 mile bike ride). We’ll see what happens and how many of these I do get to accomplish….

Is that what you call a slacking blogger? I have been pretty distracted from the blog so far this year! Between my workouts, my chasing a toddler around, taking care of household chores and taking my nephews hiking once a week, there is not much time left for blogging! I have my HIT/MISS list ready to go in a couple of days. Other than that, I will try not to be such a slogger!

I heard a clip on “The Doctors” today stating that testosterone levels in men are lowering about 20% over a generation ago. The doctor stated they don’t know why the levels are lowering but feel like there is some biological issue taking place, whether caused by pollution, the environment or some other cause. I do wonder if environment does play a role in this. I also wonder if it is just a reflection of demographics. With the baby boomers aging and getting into the years where testosterone levels will decline, then there will be more men reported with lower testosterone levels. I also wonder if the pressure we put on our boys to “feminize” them, or at least “urbanize” them (ie-the “metro male”) is somehow quashing the levels of testosterone output. All very interesting and I guess we’ll see in the future how this question can affect all of us….

I have been looking for a part time weekend job since October. I have been extremely surprised at how hard it is to get this kind of job. I thought particularly at this time of year it would be pretty easy. So far I’ve only had one interview, a handful of rejections and many no-answers.

I heard on the radio the other day part of a conversation about this very fact, that there are many advertised job openings but companies are not actually hiring! It did not really make sense to me until my latest attempt at a part time job.

I filled out an application for an “off hours stocking” job thinking that would be just perfect (evenings and weekends.) Most jobs now have to have the application filled out online, so you never really get to talk to anybody. After filling out this most recent app, I immediately got an email back saying they are unable to consider my application at this time. I truly don’t know why. But the one idea that struck me is the fact that they will hold on to my app until Feb. It’s almost as if they are just trying to collect a pool of applicants that they can pull from if needed. So I am still unsure why there are so many advertised positions and so many people looking for work and so many rejected applications….

Pirate Latitudes: I found this Michael Crichton book on sale at the grocery store. Reading the cover flap I learned that this complete manuscript was found in his files after his death. I wondered why he never had it published. While reading it I just did not feel drawn in to the story. It was fine but just felt like something was missing. I thought maybe he had not really finished it or polished it and that is why it was not published during his lifetime. When I finished the story I felt that this is the first MISS Crichton novel I’ve read. Then I read the epilogue. It was very short. Too short. And too sparse. I decided that is what was missing from the story, the depth. And there was no bibliography. So it made me wonder if he had not finished his research and that is why he never had it published. Or maybe I am just not into pirate stories….

Airframe: Back to good classic Crichton. Good story. Drawn in from beginning. Another HIT.

National Treasure 2: While I missed the beginning of this one, I was happy to watch it since I had seen the first one last month. Even better, my nephew came in before this one was over so we got to finish this one together too. All of us watching, from preteen to grandparents, enjoy these movies and rate them a HIT.

Jurassic Park (novel): I held off reading this book since I remember not being a big fan of the movie. But I have to say that while this book is pretty gruesome in the killing scenes, I sped through those and really enjoyed this novel. I like the ending. I rate it a definite HIT and am hoping to even see the movie again. I also want to go back and see how the original Lost World ends.

Secretariat: A nice family movie, though my family did not watch with me. It was neither a HIT or MISS for me (though more of a HIT than not.) I did enjoy the ending and the blurbs about the real people portrayed in the movie.