Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Happy New Year, Barack Obama is still President!





35 comments:

  1. Happy New Year, guys!

    As we begin a new year, Howard remains first!

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  2. Spent the evening reading the second Georgianna Rannoch, A Royal Pain. I definitely like these books, but they are definitely chick lit. Oh well, nothing wrong with chick lit, right?

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  3. BTW Puddle, thanks so much for posting Phil's poem on the last thread!

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  4. ❄ . ❄ .❄ ❄ . ❄ ❄ . ❄. ❄ ❄ ❄ .❄ . ❄ . ❄. ❄ ❄ ❄
    HAPPY ❄ NEW ❄ YEAR ❄ DEAN ❄ LOVERS!!
    ❄ ❄ ❄ .❄ . ❄ . ❄ . ❄ ❄ ❄ .❄ . ❄ ❄ . ❄ ❄ . ❄ ❄

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  5. Happy New Year everyone, even though it's still a few minutes before midnight. Have to go get something to toast the change of date.

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  6. Guess what? I initially got Firefox because IE was giving me trouble on HEP. But tonight Firefox decided it wasn't going to let me post, even after i restarted the computer. The "Comment as" box was collapsed. But IE is working fine. Suppose it makes sense to have two browsers for when one decides to act up.

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  7. One thing I did this New Year's eve was check out our spending for the year. We aren't as well off as I'd thought. Understand, as long as we're both working part-time there's plenty of money, including for getting the things done on the hourse that were put off for so long. But I'd thought our reitrement income alone covered what I think of as "usual and normal expenses." Or at least would once Penny starts drawing her IRA annuity a year from now. Turns out that's not so. We'll have to cut back a bit at some point. Although by the time I'm too old to work I'll presumably be too old to travel, so some of that won't take much effort.

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    1. AFter a bit more thought about all the taxes and the true business expenses that will go away once I am no longer working, the gap may not be a big as I'd thought. Depends somewhat on how much Penny's annuity comes to, which we'll find out sometime this month.

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  8. Cat ~~ Nothing wrong with chick lit. And at least the first of the series is definitely check lit. More romance than mystery. Surprised they let the author use a male name.

    Got several more chapters read tonight. Getting new the end, now, even as I look to get other things done. Will have several days off work -- not because of the holidays but because everything we're working on is on hold until the researchers get us more data.

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    1. Isn't there an actress Rhys Somebody? Frankly, it didn't occur to me that Rhys Bowen was a man's name. Names are funny. My name can be masculine. I even once came across a man named Shannon, though I think he was a southerner.

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  9. We got texted by our son and his wife with the 20 week ultrasound photos of our next grandchild! This is when most couples find out their baby's gender, and they have decided not to find out until the birth. Hard to wait, but that's one adorable profile photo! ♡

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  10. Anyone else reading Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander yet? It's profound!

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    1. Susan, note for you below...reposting here:


      Susan, I've read it and listened to the unabridged audio read by the author. I like the audio better, which I rarely ever say...! Mah*Sweetie is reading it now. Root*Center*Son got the audio for Christmas and loved it. He's big into meditation, so it was right up his alley. I'll be interested in how you receive it.

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    2. In truth I'm not having a good reaction. I had to put the book aside. It was filling me with fear and revulsion. I don't know why, but I needed to avoid the book for a while. Maybe I'll try again later.

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    3. Hi Susan,
      About where were you in the book (or the story) when you began to feel you shouldn't keep reading? I have a high comfort level for NDEs, both from having had one and from chaplain work I've done. It hadn't occurred to me that something like this could spark revulsion. I want to be sensitive to friends and to library patrons who read the book. Any hints you can offer are much appreciated. If you just can't do that right now, that's fine too...! XOXOXXX

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    4. My brother also had an NDE, but he didn't get beyond the ceiling of the emergency operating room.

      I'm on Chapter 12 (or was). I cannot at all deal with the feeling of having no control of my own. Because of my chaotic childhood and life up to this point being under the control of anyone or anything else equates to nightmares and pain. I was not reassured by the seeming benevolence around the experience, all I could see was "no control", "no control". And in my life that has always been a very, very bad thing. Or maybe I'm just going to be cast into the pit.

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    5. Well, that makes sense. You were a sane person in an insane situation. Perhaps the key to remember here is that there is a huge difference between reading about a situation like this and actually experiencing it. In the author's circumstance, he was unencumbered by his past, because his brain was too ill to remember it. I honestly believe, from experience, that free will is still key in the equation in a scenario like this one. And I say this as someone who, as a child, lived in a chaotic, unreliable family. You don't have any pits in your future, Susan. I think you may well have some pleasant surprises. XOXOXXX

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  11. I seem to be experiencing a post-"craft show" let down, lol! Relief, a desire to clean house, and wondering what to *do*. . . . May take a nap.

    I gave up the wait for a new year at about a quarter to twelve. Radio didn't bother to announce it, grin. Still I'm pretty sure it happened, eh?

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    1. *grin*

      BTW love those fireworks on the front page...so nice and quiet!

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    2. Sometimes a New Year comes in on little cat feet. =^. .^=

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  12. Replies
    1. Oak Park has been getting all its electrical energy from alternative sources for a year now, and Chicago will be soon.

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  13. Bill--I have four browsers on my computers; Safari, OmniWeb, FireFox and Chrome. Each has its virtues, and the operating system can make a difference too. I have gravitated to using FireFox and Chrome for HEP.

    --Alan

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  14. Just finished Her Royal Spyness. The only surprise was de Mauxville's identity. I didn't see that coming at all. And just how Tristam arranged the boat "accident" when he wasn't even there was never explained. Maybe it was really an accident? Maybe he hired one of the sailors to do the deed? A definite loose end. But I presume the author thinks readers don't care about loose ends.

    Another surprise was the copyright notice: Copyright 2008 by Janet Quin-Harkin. Why a female author of a book of this type would choose a male pseudonym is beyond me. I had also thought it was much older. It seems to get the flavor of 1930s Britain right on -- although I wouldn't know from personal experience. But about half-way through I noticed it was more open about sex than any romance would have been before about the 1980s. Not that it is ever explicit, but the existence of sex goes well beyond the hinting stage. Which would be realistic for private conversations in the 1930s, but not for books. Still, the book didn't have a 21st-century feel for me.

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    1. The boating accident was a genuine accident. That's what gave Tristram the idea. This is stated in the wrap up.

      Yes, the discussion of sex is more frank than one would expect for young women of that class and time. Other than that, I too found the feel pretty much right. Reminded me a bit of Georgette Heyer, actually.

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    2. Ah! I seem to have missed the last four pages. Thanks for the tip.

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  15. So we've taken a half step back from the fiscal cliff. What I see is disappointing. The stupid Bush tax cuts have been made permanent -- PERMANENT!!! -- for everyone but the wealthiest. Although I guess that one was lost from the beginning, after Obama himself embraced them. Still, I was hoping for and expecting just a temporary extension.

    And decisions on spending cuts were put off for two months. So we still don't know what sort of disaster that is going to be.

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  16. Looks like it's not going to matter, Bill: the House seems to be gathering up it's shit to take home. . . .

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  17. Ooops! Now it looks like they're going to vote, w/o amendments. Without amendments, the Dems will likely carry it with a bit of help.

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  18. Thanks, Cat! I gave up hoping it would pass the House without Amendments tonight.
    That's something anyway!


    Susan, I've read it and listened to the unabridged audio read by the author. I like the audio better, which I rarely ever say...! Mah*Sweetie is reading it now. Root*Center*Son got the audio for Christmas and loved it. He's big into meditation, so it was right up his alley. I'll be interested in how you receive it.

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    1. I suppose half a loaf is better than none, but I see no reason to be so helpful to the GOPers. In the immortal words of the ever quotable Napoleon Buonoparte, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

      --Alan

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