To all parents/grandparents/guardians of teenaged children. If you love your kids, then you need to watch this segment from Inside Edition. I sat here and watched this today and found myself sickened by what I witnessed. A man comes home one day, to find his teenaged daughter dead from hanging on her bedroom door. Not as a suicide, but playing a new game called The Choking Game.

These kids are depriving themselves and/or other kids of air, simply to pass out. This little game is video taped then uploaded to the Internet to be seen all around the world. If you’ve got kids in the house, you’ve got to talk to them about this. I couldn’t believe the things I saw these kids doing on TV. Choking each other, pressing against their chests until they pass out. Then laughing about it when they regain consciousness.

As I sat there and watched that episode, I could only see the face of my own daughter in those videos. I couldn’t even imagine coming home to find my child dead because of a game. This isn’t something that can be ignored. Even if you’re the coolest parent in the world, this isn’t something you can overlook.

Please, if you have kids, take this seriously. I’m not the kind of person who gets up on a soap box about a lot of things, but this one just kinda got to me. My daughter may end up hating me, but we will be discussing this issue when she gets home from school today. I never want to come home and find my baby gone.

I’ve decided that I need to do a little something good for myself and set on getting back into shape.  I know that at my age, gravity is not my friend.  Now that I’m over 40, things droop a whole lot more than they did 10 years ago.  So, I’ve decided to eat better and am going to try to exercise.  I stress the word “try” because at my age, it’s not a good idea to guarantee anything.  Let me explain.

So, this morning I decided to put my plan into effect.  I have this little stair stepper thing that I use once in a while.  I got it out and put it right next to my bed.  No problem.  But one of my biggest problems is the little mommy pooch I have.  And, I know that the only way I’m going to overcome that is by doing sit-ups.  So, I got down on the floor, and OMG.  When the hell did the floor get so far down and why the hell did it hurt so bad to simply sit up.  I did 25 sit-ups and I thought I was going to hurl.  I am not a large woman by any sense of the meaning, but What The Hell!!!!!

I know that if I keep at it, it won’t be such a big deal, but that whole first time thing sucks.  I’ll keep going, whether I like it or not, and hopefully I’ll be a little more graceful.  Oh hell, who am I kidding, I’ve never been a graceful woman before, and it ain’t gonna happen now.  But, if I can still fit into my jeans, I’ll at least know I did something good for myself.

Happy December 1st.  Yeah, I know.  Most of you are thinking, “ok, what’s so great about today”???  Well nothing really, except that I am smoke free for one whole month today.  I quit smoking on the 1st of November, but didn’t tell a lot of people in case I failed.  Now, a month later, I feel comfortable enough to tell everyone.  I had been a smoker for almost 30 years and I had actually quit 3 times before.  I quit smoking both times I got pregnant, but started up again as soon as my kids were weened.  I also quit a few years back, but ended up gaining about 50 pounds in the process and started smoking out of depression again.  This time, however, I was ready.  I honestly believe that if you’re not ready in both your heart and your mind, you won’t quit.

Anyway, that’s not really what I wanted to write about here today.  I wanted to talk about the little challenge that I’m taking on this month.  I joined the NaNoWriMo challenge last month, but didn’t get very far.  Then, I found a site that is dedicated to NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month.  Although this usually takes place in the month of November, they also have it set up so that you can work the challenge on any given month of the year.  I’m going to try and complete the challenge for the month of December.  Like I don’t have enough other things to do this month.  LOL

Why did I choose December?  Mainly to see if I can do this in the busiest month of the year.  Not only am I in the process of getting things ready for Christmas, a couple friends and I are in the process of opening up our own store.  Not only will it be online, but it will be a real shop right here in our little town.  The name of the shop is Calico Acres Thrifts and Gifts.  It’s going to be a classy thrift shop and a place for us to sell our handmade craft items.  I personally do quilts and quilt pillows.  Once we get our poop in a group, I’ll post the link to the site.  We already own the domain name, but I haven’t done anything with it yet.

Then, on top of all that, I’m still ghost writing for another blogger.  As of right now, there’s only one client, but that’s ok.  Sometimes, it’s better to only work for one person than a bunch of people.  You don’t get quite as confused with the orders.  LOL.  With all of this, I’m really hoping that I’ll have enough fodder to gab about for the whole month of December.  I don’t know how it will work out, but let’s all go along for the ride.  If nothing else, someone is sure to get a good laugh out of all this at my expense.  LOL

Ciao for Now,
Christine

I’m always looking for strange little freebies around the Internet. And, being a huge lover of music, I thought this site was kind of cool. The site is called Pandora Radio and it’s set up so that you can create your own radio station. Best part about this site is that it’s free.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the site, but I’m pleasantly surprised. To start out, I was asked to enter either a song title or artist’s name into the text box and click. Being a huge lover of Paul McCartney, I went with him. The site put up one of his songs and I had the choice of giving the song a thumb’s up or down. I gave it a thumb’s up and from there, the site looks for similar choices and plays them. You decide if you like the song or not, and go from there.

Another nice thing is that you can set up different radio stations for all of your tastes. I have days when all I want to listen to is my hair bands of the 80’s, while other days I’m in the mellow mood for my 70’s soft rock. I can create different stations for each of these.

Pandora also gives you the option of searching through genre stations, setting up your profile, and even has a way of setting music up on your cell phone. However, this site does not allow you to download music. Which for me isn’t a problem. I usually only listen to my tunes when I’m at my computer anyway.  Also, due to the licensing the site owns, free members are limited to 40 hours of listening time per month.  Once that limit is reached, you’ll see a box that allows you to either wait for the 1st of the next month to have your hours reset, or you can pay .99 cents to get unlimited listening for the rest of the month.

I’m still in the learning phase of this site, but so far I’m very happy with what I’ve found. If you’ve ever dreamed of creating your own radio station that plays only the music that you enjoy, I recommend Pandora Radio. There is even an upgrade option for those who don’t want to have to deal with ads.  This upgrade costs $36 for an entire year, and comes with some really cool options.  It’s worth looking into.

As a huge Stargate fan, I had to take the time to watch the newest series, Stargate University. I remember when the original movie first came out, starring Kurt Russell and James Spader. Being a huge Sci-Fi fan and ancient history buff, the movie became one of my all-time favorites. Then, they came out with the Stargate SG-1 series and I was hooked from the first episode.

Tonight was the 2-hour premiere of the newest installment, and so far it’s not bad, but it’s not great. However, I have to give it a chance as they have to establish a storyline for the characters. I will be disappointed that we won’t get a chance to see Dr. Daniel Jackson, but I think this show has potential. Unlike the last show I reviewed, I think this show might have a shot.

I was a little bummed to find out that Lou Diamond Phillips won’t be a regular member of the cast, but I love the idea of having a math whiz kid as one of the team members. He adds a little normalcy to the show, and a touch of humor. That’s the one thing I loved about both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. They had enough adventure to keep the story moving, but just enough humor added in to make them enjoyable to watch.

I think the reason I’ve always loved these shows is that I was also a huge Star Trek fan as a kid. The idea of going off to new worlds and finding new life forms has always been exciting for me, even if it is all set around totally fictional ideas. Maybe it’s the writer in me, or the urge to live in a fairy tale world, but I love these types of shows.

I’ll keep watching the new Stargate series, just to see where they go from here. I do hope they get better than the pilot episode, even though it wasn’t all that bad.