Month: October 2010

Happy Halloween

On By Michel McDonaldIn HolidaysLeave a comment

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year.  Not just because you have a legit excuse to eat candy but because it’s a day that you can pretend to be something you aren’t.

I loved Halloween as a kid but my mother was poor, she couldn’t always buy me a costume.  One year she put an old sheet over me with holes in it for the eyes.  It wasn’t a great costume since it was a pink flowered sheet.  I don’t think anyone was convinced I was a ghost lol.

Sometimes she would get her make-up out and dress me up as a hobo.  I would wear my oldest clothes that had holes in them and she would get them dirty and make the holes bigger.  She would put a 5-o’clock shadow on my face and then she would find a stick and tie a bandanna on one end and it would have socks in it to make it look like it had stuff in there.

Some years when she had the money she would buy a costume but I was never given a choice in the matter.  Here is an example:

This is a pretty lame costume but it’s the only Halloween photo I have.  I was the easter bunny for Halloween lol.

The costumes weren’t always this lame though.  Some years I was dressed up as a clown with the clown hair, some years a cowboy and since my parents loved country music, we all had cowboy hats so that costume didn’t cost a dime.  One year my parents bought fatigues for everyone and we were army people.

No matter how good or bad our costumes were, it was fun to go out and be someone else for a few hours.

When we were old enough, when I was 9, we were sent out on our own.  My sister was 11 and she usually baby sat me anyway and it was a bunch of us, my 3 cousins, my sister and I, we would go around the neighborhood trick or treating in the neighboring apartment buildings.

My parents never took our candy away from us and mixed them together, although they did go through them to make sure there were no razor blades and they would toss out all the fruit.  But then we were given the rest in our bag and allowed to eat that as we wanted to, which was usually until we ended up too sick to eat any more.  Then of course when our tummies felt better we would eat more until eventually the candy was gone.  The bags usually lasted a few days.

Just because I’m all grown up doesn’t mean I don’t still enjoy the holiday.  I started carving pumpkins around 1997 with those cool pattern books with the saws and I would carve a few patterns every year.  The last year I carved a pumpkin was in 2007, that’s because Darrin joined a church that doesn’t allow their members to enjoy Halloween and he wouldn’t let me put my pumpkins outside anymore out of fear that he would get kicked out of his church.

My fun was stamped on but I still enjoy Halloween and I will never stop because I feel that my body may be getting old, my mind is still that little child in that bunny costume.

Happy Halloween everyone!  I hope it’s a great one and I hope you don’t get too many cavities from all the candy you are about to consume.

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

On By Michel McDonaldIn Celebrities, Comics, Humor, TVLeave a comment

I woke up late (which is normal since I’m up till 3am most nights) and went into the living room and saw that Darrin was watching this rally in Washington D.C. on CSPAN. I thought, oh great, another Glenn Beck rally? No thanks. Then I saw it was Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Darrin was complaining about how stupid he thought it was but that didn’t prevent him from watching it all the way through.

I sat and watched it for about an hour with him then went in my room and turned the TV on and it was also on Comedy Central. I looked at the guide and it said Scrubs was supposed to be on. I wanted to see how much longer it was supposed to be on but since it said Scrubs I had no clue. Didn’t TV Guide know this was supposed to be on? I sat and watched the rest of it until it was over and it was pretty good. It was completely commercial free which is unusual for Comedy Central to do without some kind of brand recognition.

Darrin didn’t think it was funny, he complained about how Jon and Stephen kept interrupting the 2 singers who were singing about a train, he said it was completely uncoordinated. I had to remind him that it was part of a skit they were doing. It was obvious and I’m sure they rehearsed it.

There were quite a few singers and it looked like a fun rally that I wouldn’t have minded going to had I been in D.C., awake and knew about it beforehand lol. Then again, it’s a lot of standing, no thanks. I can barely stand long enough to do the dishes let alone stand in a crowd not being able to move an inch for 2 hours.

I actually don’t know for sure that it was 2 hours long and I’m sure those people had to wait several hours before it started. All I knew was that at 12 it was time to change the channel and put on Elvira’s Movie Macabre. I have my priorities you know.

In case you missed it, you can check in with Jon in the Rally to Restore Sanity or with Stephen to Keep Fear Alive. It was pretty entertaining and I appreciated what Jon said at the very end about tolerance and hate. Bravo Jon Stewart.

Finished One Book, Onto The Next

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, NookLeave a comment

Well I finished reading the 9th Xanth novel today “Golem in the Gears” and that was the final Xanth novel that was sent to me a few years ago. My friend Alyce who sent them to me didn’t ask for them back, otherwise I probably would’ve put more of a rush into reading them. I’m not going to sell them on Yardsellr though because I don’t know that she won’t want them back eventually.

I have a lot of choices for my next book since I’ve been getting tons of free e-books from Barnes & Noble through the Nook store. Every Friday I go into “The Daily” on my Nook and see their “Free Fridays” from the Unbound Nook and BN EReader blog. I think that I have gotten 3 free e-books so far from the Free Fridays. And actually, you can get tons of free e-books as you are browsing for whatever subject. I can’t count how many free e-books I have gotten that way. This Nook sure has paid for itself with all the free e-books I got out of it.

I have a lot of choices for my next novel to start reading tomorrow and I think it will be the 2nd book in the Belgariad which is “Queen of Sorcery” by David Eddings. I read the first one last month and I think that it’s only right that I read the 2nd one this month and then one every month until I have finished the series. I’ve had these books since 2007 and haven’t even touched them.

I have until next week to finish it so I can buy the 3rd Sookie Stackhouse novel which I plan to read 1 every month until the next season of True Blood starts. I figure it would give me a better insight into the show and the characters. Although, the show is a not even the same as the books. They changed so much for the show by adding or deleting characters and story lines. Even if I do read all the books I’m always going to be surprised in the new plot so the show is actually more of an alternate reality from the books.

You know, ever since I bought this Nook I have been reading every single day. I actually skipped 1 day and it was torture to skip it too, I really genuinely wanted to read lol. It’s so unusual for me to read this much but I guess I figured since I spent so much money on all these books and the Nook I might as well read them.

A friend says she is proud of me for reading so much but is that really something to be proud of someone for? I mean, it’s just reading. Well, I guess her reason for it is more because I refused to read for the first 35 years of my life then all of a sudden I decide I wanted to start reading and now look at me, I’m a book-worm. I know it’s not much but in the last few years I have finished reading 32 books, 10 of them in the last couple months since I bought my Nook. I think it’s pretty good since it takes me 4-5 days to read a 200-300 page novel.

Next month after I read the 3rd Sookie Stackhouse novel I’m going to start to re-read the final Harry Potter novel before I go see it in theaters. That should take longer than 4-5 days unless I spend 8 hours a day reading it just like I did back in 2007 when I read it originally. Although, I’m pretty sure I remember everything that I read the first time so who knows if I really will read it again. I’m not much into repeating the same book.

My aunt says that her daughter-in-law re-reads books all the time, sometimes about 5 times because she always misses stuff the first time. I personally think that if you pay enough attention to the details and not try to read it so dang fast, you might not miss anything. That’s the trouble with reading so fast, you are in such a hurry to read it that you miss a ton of stuff. If you read at a normal pace which takes longer then you will get more out of it. The time it took to read it 5 times, she could’ve just read it at a normal pace one time and gotten more out of the experience of the story she’s reading.

It’s not a race. Who are you trying to impress? Because I’m not impressed when a person tells me that they read an entire book in a few hours because I know they missed a ton of stuff that is important to the story line. If you’re going to be a book-worm then be passionate about what you are reading, not about how fast you read.

Wow, I feel like an after school special.

The Price of Tea

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I LikeLeave a comment

In my blog I talk about things that I find interesting or disturbing. My blog is more like a bad episode of Seinfeld. So… now I’m going to talk to you about the price of tea lol.

I went to the grocery store to buy some tea bags. I grew up on it and I like to make it as an alternative to soda. In my opinion it’s cheaper than anything else out there, all you need is a coffee maker, a tea jar and some sugar or sweetener. My mom used to brew it in the sun but I find it much faster to brew a pot of water in the coffee maker with the tea bags clamped on the coffee pot lid. I had an aunt who used to boil the water on the stove in a large saucepan then steep the teabags in the water then pour it into the jar. I like my way better.

I was a little confused about how much they charge for their teabags though because it didn’t make any sense. I was looking at the 100 count box which was $3.99. Ok that is a bit high but it’s not that bad I guess. But, I don’t need a big box, I just need enough to get by until Next week when I get some money. I looked at the box with 50 bags and it’s $3.49. What? It’s only .50¢ less? Well that’s not right. It’s half the bags, it should be half price right? $2! Then I looked over at the one that only had 25 tea bags and that one was $5.49 WHAT?!? How can it be possible? It has 1 quarter of the bigger box. How can it possibly be more? The box with 25 tea bags should cost $1 not $5.49.

Then I look and see all these boxes that only have like 10 tea bags and they cost more than the box of 100 bags. What is wrong with this picture? Why is tea so expensive when it’s in a smaller package? Why is this big box of 100 tea bags so cheap compared to the other ones? I don’t understand. And the box of 50 and 25 was the same exact brand and same exact flavor as the box of 100 bags.

Lipton, Lipton, Lipton, can we have a chat please? Is there something we can do to fix this? It just doesn’t make any sense what you are doing here. I just don’t see your logic in charging so much money for smaller packaging. It should be less but you charge more. Why? Is it because you are going broke? Is it because the packaging cost more than the tea itself? Maybe we can think of a cheaper way of packaging the tea bags then. I just can’t understand why you would charge so little for 100 bags but then jack up the price for the smaller boxes.

I’ve been a Lipton fan since I was a kid and I remember in my 20’s buying the smaller boxes of 25 bags and they were only $1.50 per box. I’m sure there was a mistake in pricing at the grocery store but it looked like it had the correct label so I don’t know. I just think that it’s a big waste of tea bags and packaging if nobody is going to buy the smaller boxes when they can get the bigger box so cheap. You know what I mean?

Ok, my tea bag rant is over lol. I’m stepping off my soap box now. Carry on.

Yes… that just happened.

Yardsellr Negative Comments

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I Like8 Comments

I’ve posted in here several times that I am on Yardsellr now.  Well, I have been noticing some disturbing trends happening over there.  Apparently it’s not just happening to me but other people as well.

People troll the Yardsellr website then leave nasty comments in people ads.  The other day 3 people left negative comments in my Pedi Paws ad saying the product is not worth your money, don’t waste your time etc.  Uh excuse me but I’m trying to sell it.  I don’t care what you think it’s worth.  Don’t go on my ads telling potential customers of mine that it’s a piece of crap and make me lose a sale.

Another person posted a comment on a video game of mine saying the game was gay.  I didn’t delete the comment but then he came back and posted another comment accusing me of deleting his prior comment and saying “gaaaaaaaayyyyyyy”.  Where were these people raised?  In the forest by wolves?  Don’t people have manners anymore?  First off, I didn’t delete your first stupid comment and second of all, I should just delete both your comments on principle.  I don’t even know why I didn’t delete them, I guess I figured if I deleted them I would get more spam in my other ads which I don’t want.

I clicked the “feedback” button so I could make a suggestion that they add a link or button to “report abuse” so that perhaps if a person gets reported enough times, their account might get banned from either commenting or using the website.  That’s when I ran into another persons feedback saying they are having the same issue as me.

Look, I’m all for leaving comments saying a product isn’t worth a damn but do it on a website that actually makes money.  Don’t leave those comments on a website where people are trying to sell their useless crap so they can scrape enough money together to buy groceries or pay their bills.

Besides the report button, I think they should also add a way for me to approve a comment before allowing it to be posted, just like in my blog and/or YouSayToo.  After so many nasty comments I have decided to make it impossible for people who aren’t members of YST to leave a comment and even members comments have to be approved before they be allowed to be seen.  On my blog the comment is not seen period until I approve it and that’s how it should be everywhere.  If I think a comment at Yardsellr is going to help me make the sale then I should be able to approve it but if it’s negative then it’s my prerogative to delete it and I shouldn’t be hassled by people who have too much time and negativity on their hands.

I wish people would grow up and stop with the internet bullying.  It doesn’t serve any purpose to be jackasses online.  My mother used to tell me that if I don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all.  I know it sounds corny but it’s true and should be applied to the internet too.  And parents, please monitor your children’s activity a little better.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, MoviesLeave a comment

When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out in 2007, I read it for 8 hours a day for 4-5 days.  I was just so into it that I couldn’t tear myself away.  What I love about these books is that they are so easy for me to wrap my brain around it despite the disabilities that I have to reading.  The Harry Potter books are truly what gave me a passion for reading so when I see a Harry Potter movie after I’ve read the book I get very emotional about it.

I was watching the commercial for this in the living room and you would’ve thought that I just lost someone by the way I was crying lol.  If you haven’t read this book then I don’t want to spoil it for you but someone dies in this movie and someone else loses an ear.  Yes, I was crying over an ear too lol.

I’m afraid to go see this movie in the theater because I know I’m going to be making a scene.  When we went to see Lord of the Rings Return of the King, you could’ve heard 1) a pin drop and 2) me crying.  I am such a big baby, I don’t know why.  I get so wrapped up in the characters that it makes me emotional.

Part 1 of Harry Potter and the Deathly is in theaters on November 19th.  I might have to bring my sunglasses and a box of tissues when we go see this because I have a feeling I’m going to be crying so I’ll need the sunglasses to hide my red eyes as we’re leaving lol.

Nook Color with Touch Screen

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Nook, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

I think I’m going to have a heart attack and die right now.  I just got an email from Barnes & Noble with this subject:

“Introducing NOOKcolor — The Amazing Sequel to the NOOK You Love.”

Oh really?  Are you joking me?  If they could’ve told me this in September BEFORE I spent $150 on the Nook Wifi, I would’ve had an incentive to wait a little bit longer.  This new NOOKcolor is $249 and has many more features than my current Nook doesn’t have.  Such as it’s a color touch screen, you can see magazines and newspaper in color, kids books come alive at the touch of a finger (like I care) and one thing I saw in the video when I clicked the link in the email is that you can have it read to you and it’s NOT a robot voice like the Kindle.

This one is way better than mine because it can do portrait and landscape which the Kindle can do but the Nook I have can’t.  It has an 8GB card along with the ability to add another.  Mine only has 1GB but I can still add to it.  Although, I don’t see that I would ever need to but with the NOOKcolor I can see needing a bigger card because I’m sure the books with audio are bigger files.

Another cool feature is videos in your books…  In the video they showed a cookbook and you can read the recipe but then the image for it is a video where you can see how to make the recipe.  That would be so cool.  What would be even cooler is newspapers where the image for the article is an actual video of what happened.  The newspaper could set up a news station type set with anchors who read the articles with video of what happened at the scene, just like the news on tv has.  Or a magazine could have a video of the interview with the stars and their ads could be a video commercial.

I see in the Barnes & Noble website a new newsstand which is “coming soon” so I think they are going to add more magazines finally.  Right now they only have a few.  I subscribe to PC Magazine for $1.49 per month (or per magazine) but I was hoping they would have a broader choice.  With the NOOKcolor they might have more magazines and I think that would be great for Darrin who loves to get the magazines from the grocery store.  I think if he had a subscription to them then he would save so much money.  But that means he has to get the new NOOKcolor, or he can use Nook for PC.

Well, it’s obvious that I can’t afford to buy it, I can barely buy groceries right now but who knows, maybe by this time next year they will have a NOOKcolor 2 for $149 that I can save up for.  Hey it could happen.  Last year the Nook was $249 and then it came down to $149 this year and that’s the one I have.  So maybe I’ll bide my time for another year and save money so I can get the NOOKcolor for Darrin for his birthday, that is if they go down.

I don’t have to have color, I really like my Nook.  I think that the new NOOKcolor is an LCD screen, it looks lit up like the little LCD screen at the bottom of mine.  I don’t think I can read from an LCD screen.  It’s too much for my eyes.  Darrin would like that I think, last night he went to read a book on my Nook and he asked me when the screen was going to light up for him to read it.  I had to tell him that it doesn’t light up, it’s e-ink, not LCD.

My Leg is Better

On By Michel McDonaldIn Doctor, Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

Just thought I would give an update about my leg. A week ago I posted about My New Leg Injury describing what happened to me on Sunday, October 17th. How I ran for the ice cream truck, ran faster then my calf muscle popped and stopped me dead in my tracks.

I was on crutches for a few days then I went to 1 crutch then no crutches. I was supposed to be out of commission for 4-6 weeks (or 6-8 weeks for my overestimation, just in case) but it turned out to be way less.

Over the last few days I’ve been walking on my foot instead of walking on my toes and limping. I think that has stretched what was tightened so that I can walk normal again. The doctor said ice for 20 minutes several times a day for the first 3-4 days then heat. Well, I did the ice and heat and it did help some but I think the best therapy is getting up and walking around. Sure it was painful as hell but no pain no gain right?

Every morning when I wake up I limp at first but once I start walking on my foot it starts to limber up and I can walk. Occasionally the pain will start up again but it won’t last too long then it’s better again. And actually I’m having pain in other places now. All the way down my leg from my knee along my shin down to my foot. I don’t know why the pain has moved from my calf to my shin but I’m sure it will go away in time.

I’m not 100% healed but I’m not too far from it. I rather enjoyed having a few days off and not having to take the dog out 20 times per day and having to make all the meals. Of course when I was able to walk on my own again I was forced to continue daily life as if nothing had happened. I could be laying in bed pretending for another 5 weeks but I’m a terrible liar lol.

AFA Hates that Home Depot Supports HRC and Gays

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gay Rights2 Comments

What has the American Family Association (AFA) become? They once used to be a respected organization but now they have turned into an alarmist group. They’ve turned into Glenn Beck!

They wrote on their website yesterday about the Home Depot sponsoring the Atlanta gay pride festival and about how Home Depot is supporting the “Homosexual Agenda” as if there is an agenda. Anything that they don’t understand or don’t want to understand must be an agenda.

Home Depot is one of the sponsors at the event and they have a booth with goodie bags to give to people. This is what’s inside the bags. As you can see in the very back the bag itself with the Home Depot logo on it. There are 2 brochures which I assume are for potential future employees, a sports bottle, a button saying “We’re Hiring” which is great because it doesn’t seem like anyone else is hiring, a Frisbee, key chain and a beer/soda can/bottle foam cooler. At least that’s what I think that is.

Ok, it’s not like they’re handing out iPads and cameras to people. But it’s not the gifts that the AFA is so worked up about, it’s the very fact that Home Depot is supporting gay people, that’s what they hate since they have become such a hateful organization. This is supposed to be an organization that helps families and I hate to tell ya but gay people have families. Lesbians are still women with a womb capable of creating life.

I once had Home Depot in my Boycott list because they were a sponsor of the so called “Dr.” Laura but I removed them because it was stupid to boycott any company who sponsored a radio show. What I realized is that they weren’t sponsoring a homophobic person so much as they were just sponsoring a person who played their ads on the radio. That’s what they are doing in Atlanta. They aren’t sponsoring the — as the AFA puts it — “homosexual agenda”, they are sponsoring the Human Rights Campaign and by handing out these goodie bags, they are handing out free advertisements for themselves.

My reason for boycotting Home Depot was for similar reasons as the AFA BUT once I realized they weren’t her sponsor for the reason I thought, I removed them. Same with all her other sponsors. I still have the boycott page only because I don’t want to spend money on gay haters. The AFA is doing the same thing that I am doing but in reverse. It just so happens that the AFA is listed in my Boycott page lol.

The AFA is asking people to call Home Depot and “Let the manager know that you will not be shopping at The Home Depot until the company stops supporting the homosexual agenda.” Then they have a link for the Home Depot website so people can find the phone number of their local Home Depot.

Look, it’s a 50/50 risk Home Depot is taking. 50% of Americans are anti-gay and 50% are pro-gay. I assume this based on the Prop 8 results in California where it was 51% for prop 8 and 49% against prop 8. So if they offend the straights by supporting the gays then they still have 50% of their customers. If they offend the gays then they still have the other 50%. I guarantee you that people won’t give a rats ass whether Home Depot supports the HRC and will continue shopping at Home Depot because they really don’t care.

It’s like when I had them listed in my boycott page. How many people am I going to convince to boycott anyone on that page? 1, maybe 2 people? Nobody reads my blog enough for me to convince anyone of anything. I personally believe the same thing about the AFA’s website. I’ve never even been to their website because I don’t care about them since they have no impact on how I live my life. Never have, never will so why should I go to their website?

Why am I writing about their website now? Well, I first saw this story on the (G-A-Y) Good As You website through Twitter. They wrote out a post and I couldn’t help but chime in and give my 2¢ on the subject. Here is the AFA’s hate post about Home Depot giving gifts to thousands of homosexual activists.

The Human Rights Campaign by the way isn’t just a pro-gay organization, they are a pro-human being organization. Any time a person is being wronged whether they are black, white, gay, straight or whatever, they are there to support your rights as a human being.  Get it? Human rights! Gay people are humans and we are being denied the same rights as straight people and that’s what the HRC is trying to fight for us.