Tag: fairness

“Kill every last gay person” – Ugandan Legislators

On By Michel McDonaldIn Anti-Gay, Petition1 Comment

There is an injustice happening in the world today.  I won’t even try to explain it in my own words because I will probably screw it up, so read this email that Change.org sent me today.

Dear Michel,

Citibank and Barclays could save the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Uganda.

The Ugandan legislature could vote any day on a so-called “Kill the Gays” bill that could result in legalizing the death penalty for any LGBT person in the country. But Citibank and Barclays together have hundreds of millions of dollars invested in Uganda and wield significant influence in the country, just as banking lobbyists wield influence with Congress in the US. If Citibank and Barclays speak out against the “Kill the Gays” bill, Ugandan legislators will take notice in a hurry.

Collin Burton is a Citibank customer — he’s also gay. Collin started a petition on Change.org asking Citibank and Barclays to speak out against the “Kill the Gays” bill. Click here to sign Collin’s petition right now.

Citibank and Barclays are both big supporters of LGBT rights for their own employees, yet they invest money with a government that is threatening to execute LGBT people. “I expect Citibank and Barclays to live up to the values of equality and fairness, not just list them on their websites,” Collin says.

If Citibank and Barclays speak out against the “Kill the Gays” bill, Ugandan legislators will see that they are risking the business relationships that keep their government afloat.

Click here to sign Collin’s petition asking Citibank and Barclays to issue strong statements condemning Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill. The bill could come up for a vote any day, so swift action is essential.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Eden and the Change.org team

Does this not sound like a holocaust to you?  They want to exterminate gays just as the Nazi’s exterminated the Jews, Gays, Blacks and anyone who wasn’t what they expected to be the perfect human being.

How can you help by clicking the link above and signing the petition asking Citibank and Barclays to condemn Uganda?  If they threatened to cut ties with them, perhaps Uganda will change their mind.  If they still won’t change their minds at least Citibank and Barclays won’t have blood on their hands by being associated with Uganda knowing they are in bed with the Nazi’s of today.

Please, sign the petition.  You don’t even know how many lives you might save just by clicking a link and signing a petition.  It could be in the thousands or millions even.  If this is allowed to happen in Uganda then perhaps the hate might spread like wildfire and next thing you know other countries will be following suit.

It’s just a shame that Citibank and Barclays, being pro-gay businesses themselves, didn’t just take action on their own.  Why has it come down to a petition on change.org for them to do something?

Books Being Deleted by Amazon?

On By Michel McDonaldIn KindleLeave a comment

I am a huge fan of technology and when I first heard that Amazon came out with a e-book reader I was so thrilled at the thought of it.  But of course I can’t afford one with the price they charge for it.  However, after reading this article on the SyFy tech website Dvice.com about Amazon deleting books from Kindle owners it got me a bit concerned.

SHIFT: Is Big Brother Living In Your Kindle?

Can you imagine buying an e-book then go to read it and it’s gone?  In all fairness to Amazon they refunded the money back to all those that they deleted it from.  And the books were illegal too.  But if you buy a book from the amazon website how do you know if you are buying a legal copy of it?  I mean, you are trusting that Amazon is going to sell you legal copies of e-books right?

Well, Amazon has apologized about the whole thing and they promised to put that delete button away in the basement.  They are such a good company that I will probably still trust them to keep their word.  They just need to stop selling illegal books lol.

This has not deterred me from still wishing I had a Kindle, I mean, I have one in my Amazon Wish List (link to the right), the new one for $299.  I’m going to continue to wish that I had it too until I get the money to buy it.  But then again I think I’m still holding out for color touchscreen with a 8.5″x11″ paper sized display for $99 to $199.  I’m going to be waiting awhile lol.

Busy Day For Me

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I hadn’t planned on doing anything today, just resting my legs for tomorrows bike ride but then something came up.

Our new tenants are moving in tomorrow and there isn’t very much that Darrin can do over at the little house because of his job.  So, he had me go to buy some keys for the new tenants, 2 copies of 4 keys.  That’s fine, I was going to take the bus but I decided to ride my bike instead so I got some exercise in today.

But then he dropped the bomb on me.  Our shed is filled with boxes and furniture.  Well, the new tenants want to use the Shed and Darrin told me that he told them that we have our stuff in it.  I told him in all fairness that shed does belong to that rental so they should be able to use it.  Me and my big mouth.

So, today (right after I click the publish button) I gotta go put our stuff from the patio inside the house then hose the patio and hose our back yard too because our lovely neighbor blew all of our dead leaves from our grapefruit tree all over the place to make a big giant pile for me to shovel into the green cans.  I guess I appreciate it but I would’ve liked it if he didn’t get all the dust and dirt all over my back yard.  Anyway, off topic hehe.  I have to hose our patio and back yard.

While the patio and back yard are both drying I gotta move a piece of furniture from the living room to the bedroom (it’s a dresser and there was a dresser taken out of the bedroom so this is just going to be put in its place.  Then I gotta start carrying the boxes from the shed to our patio which is the space between the house and the garage.

Once all the boxes and furniture is in our patio then I gotta start pulling the stuff out of the garage and going through boxes to see if we need any of that stuff then start stacking boxes from the shed in the garage with our other boxes.  UGH!

I just ate a Tigers Milk energy bar so that should give me a little bit of energy.  Plus I got some coffee already brewed and waiting for me.  I’m taking this time to blog to rest my legs from that bike ride to the mall and back before I start this BS mission lol.

Discouraging

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, ExerciseLeave a comment

I bought my new bike wheel on April 13th, I think.  My first ride was on April 14th so I’m going to assume it’s the 13th when I got the wheel.  I have 2 weeks worth of riding in my log which technically is only 3 days per week.  But in those 2 weeks I haven’t lost 1lb.  It’s a bit discouraging when you ride so far and get no results from it.

I guess in all fairness I wouldn’t lose the weight so easily with only 3 days per week but I’ve just stared exercising again so it’s not going to be easy on my legs to just get back into the routine again.  I mean, when I first started riding last year I only rode for half a mile before my legs were just killing me because I hadn’t ridden in so many years.  And it took me 2 weeks just to get to the point where I was riding for 6 miles a day.  Then I went up to 10 miles a day then next thing you know I was able to ride 18 miles.  That of course was only 2 days that I did that.  I knew it was too much so I went back to 10 miles per day.

My point is that I’ve started up again going 10 miles a day instead of easing myself into it.  So it’s a bit discouraging that 30 miles a week gives me no results.

That first week that I was riding Darrin got his check on that Friday so he wanted to go to Hometown Buffet on Sunday for dinner when he got off work.  Then the very next day was his day off and he took me to China Town Buffet.  Oh and plus we went to Taco Bell.  I knew I wasn’t going to lose weight that first week but come on, the buffets and Taco Bell were a bit much for someone who is working so hard to lose weight.

The 2nd week I wasn’t even trying hard enough to eat right.  I’d have a bowl of cereal for breakfast or some days just toast then go ride and eat a Tiger’s Milk bar when I got to the half hour mark when I took my break to give me the strength and energy to get back home.  But then I’d come home and I was so hungry that I’d end up eating 2 sandwiches.  Some days I’d eat a whole box of Macaroni and Cheese (cooked of course duh lol).  That’s definitely not good for trying to lose some weight.

I’ve taken the last 2 days off.  The day before yesterday I took off because I had ridden 2 days in a row and my legs just needed a break.  Then that day I couldn’t breathe through my nose so I took yesterday off thinking I was coming down with a cold but I was fine.  I’m still a little stuffed up.  But I’m taking today off too because it’s Chips day off.  Plus our dog doesn’t seem to be doing too well for some reason.  I don’t know whats wrong with her.  She might be constipated or she might be sick.  We can’t take her to the vet so we’re watching her.

This week I have to really focus on what I eat and I have to try hard to get motivated to ride because I don’t want to be discouraged.  I need to lose this weight.  We’re talkin 90lbs here that I have to lose.  I have to try so hard to eat less to shrink my stomach so that I get full faster so I don’t overeat.  I’m going to try the best that I can.  I don’t have any money until Friday though so I have to eat what we got in the house.  I’m going to buy a head of lettuce though to try to eat some salad for lunch today and maybe for dinner too.  That should help start getting my stomach smaller.

I think one of the things that is stopping me is the stress from thinking about it too hard.  They say that stress raises your Cortisol levels which makes it harder to lose the weight.  I’ve been documenting my every move (my rides that is) so maybe that is causing more stress than anything.  Plus the stress every time I weigh myself.  UGH!

I think the new plan should be to write down all the info from the bike computer but not think too much about it.  Try my best to start eating salads and maybe even sliced cucumbers and carrots etc.  Just eat veggies as much as possible to help with my hunger pangs.  And maybe put the scale in the back of the car so Darrin takes it to work with him so I don’t have any way of weighing myself every day.  Just do my weekly weigh in.  Or maybe a month weigh in.  That should help if I only weigh in once a month.

Oh that reminds me.  (I’m sorry, this post is getting too long.)  A few years ago I think I was 212lbs and so I started eating salads.  I wasn’t restricting myself on what I put in it.  I put sliced olives, hard-boiled egg or tuna, cucumbers, carrot and I used the salad mix (not head of lettuce) and I used ranch dressing.  I didn’t weigh myself at all for 3 months and I got down to 170lbs.  All of a sudden I weighed myself and that was the end of the weight loss.  Weighing myself put stress on me to keep losing weight so I was constantly weighing myself and the weight started coming back on.  Maybe I should just act like I’m not trying to lose weight and eat the salads again but not weigh myself ever again lol.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I LikeLeave a comment

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is a product that does exactly what it says it does on the commercials.  Wow, I just never knew that it would work that well.  Darrin doesn’t like buying things that he sees on the commercials because 9 times out of 10 they don’t do what they say they are supposed to do because you can usually buy the generic brand and it does the same exact thing.

Our tenant next door left the house just filthy when he moved out.  It took me 2 hours yesterday to clean out the refrigerator.  The freezer was completely covered in mold because his electricity got shut off.  There was this one spot on the fridge door that was just so beyond gross.  It was a build up of something, I don’t know what.  All I know is that it was so gross and it would not come up.

I gotta go back there today after I eat my lunch and clean the stove top and the oven so I bought some oven cleaner and I bought a package of magic erasers because I know if anything will clean that stove it will be the magic erasers.

I just did a test with 1 of the 2 that were in the package on our stove.  There are these certain spots that I just cannot get clean.  Although, when I try it’s usually with just a wash cloth and soapy water from the dish soap so in all fairness I’m not really trying that hard.  But the magic eraser got it all up real fast and the stove was sparkling clean.  Wow, I just couldn’t believe it.  With very little effort too.  Just amazing.

I’m going to have these on hand from now on because this is an amazing product that does exactly what they say it will do.  In a world of false advertising, it’s nice to see a company who is actually telling you the truth.