Now I remember when I was growing up, when you had something to tell somebody or somebody had something to tell you, you HAD to wait till both of you were home so you could call and tell them. And, then we got a answering machine, and we were high on the hog I tell ya. We went from not even knowing if anybody called to holy shit we have twelve messages, and to think we were only gone the weekend. Phone tag had just become a contact sport. Then during the evolution of the phone, came the bag phone and the "Brick" phone. Now, when you had one of these, you were surly "important", well you at least had a job that a portable phone was important, like a doctor, chief of police, fire chief, someone that it would actually benefit to have one for an emergency, or you just had too damn much money for you own damn good. Cruising in your overpriced convertible, talking to the poor sobs that were tied down by their land lines. A year or ten later you saw more people with portable or "cell" phones. Lawyers, nurses, business owners and managers, and construction foremen had the ability to contact people at will. Beat cops, wrecker services, tool pushers, truckers, and others were easier to get a hold of instead of using the old CB style car phones of the eighties and nineties. But, even then it was kinda a big thing to have a cell phone, you had it for a reason. To make phone calls, hell they didn't even have texting capabilities then anyway. And, so the evolution goes, and they come up with sending mini-e-mails through your phone, and on to the world wide web or Internet. And, now you are hard pressed to find someone without a cell phone. Hell, most of my daughter's friends have cell phones, and they're in the pre-teen range, ten to twelve years old. Now I don't know what business a twelve year old kid had with a cell phone, but when I was in school the only students that had pagers were drug dealers. But, I digress. And, now you see people sitting at the Chinese buffet stuffing their faces with Crab Rangoon, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Fried Rice, and Pepper Beef chatting about how they improved their handicap from 130 to 118 and planing their next Golf outing, with who the hell knows. It's getting to where you can't even take a shit without hearing someone in the next stall talking on their cell. Is figuring out what kind and how many dognuts you need for the next staff meeting so damn important you can even expel your lunch before you have to hash it out? Or was the dress Jenny wore today that ugly that you can't get make it home three blocks away, that you have to call Tammie as soon as you shut your car door? Do you really think I want to hear the tell tell splash and plunk from your end when your on the pot while you call me. Yes, I have a cell phone, and yes I keep it with me for the most part. But, I've gotten where I don't even take it into a restaurant with me, and if momma has her cell I usually leave mine at home now. Now, I'm not trying to say I'm better than anybody because of this, I'm just saying for me I'm cutting the invisible cord, and freeing up my busy time. If I'm running errands, I don't want to have to make and take calls for other crap while I'm busy doing this other crap. I don't want to be tied down by my cell phone, when I go camping, I don't want to decide where I pitch my tent based on how many bars I have, I won't. I'm just working my way back to the simpler times of when we just had land lines, but still have the convenience of my cell just in case I do something stupid and roll my Bronco or something. You know for and EMERGENCY, which is why most people justify a cell in the first place, and more so when they buy their kid a four hundred dollar I-Phone.
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side. Aristotle
Found this through Yahoo, it's an article by Esquire.com. It is a list of seventeen gifts for CHRISTmas based on your personality...kinda. The list is pretty good, and I checked out a couple or three of the links. Definitive by no means, as most "Must Have", "The Best", "Guaranteed", and "To Save..." lists, this is a decent list though. My favorite has to be the last one. For The Cheater; Divorce. That would be the best gift to give your spouse if you are a cheater.
I found this article from Forbes.com on Yahoo news. It's about recalled toys, the four it shows are a pogo stick, rocking horses from a specific company, a stick horse that is available from Love's Convience stores (Or so it apears from the tag), a bathtub submarine toy, and an inflateable toy from Fishe Price. The only one on there that I could see that would possibly pose a threat to anybody is the pogo stick, it has a slight problem with the rivets breaking that hold it together. Three are just plain lazy parenting, the bathtub toy is something just plain silly. Parents watch your kids or just give them up for adoption.
I just came across this article a little while ago or I would have posted on it earlier. There was a shooting in Wisconsin, nobody was hurt except the gunboy, (he shot himself and later died from the wounds) and there are talks from the school board about having gunman drills with the students. There is a link to the article below along with my comment on the article.
Yup, I say give them all a Colt .45 and take them to the range, and teach them how to use the damn thing. As far as the panic drills, they'll do about as much good as hiding under your desk with your hands on you legs and you head between your knees when a bomb gets dropped on the school. That'll just make it easier for the Police to find the bodies. Other than that, panic drills won't save lives or prevent the incidents. But, knowing that Mrs. Smith has a pistol in her desk just might make 'em think about pulling out a gun in school.
Fear is not a proper defence against those that wish to harm you.
Yes, I know you're proud, and I know you think you're kids are cute. And, yes I agree your kid may be cute, and I'm very happy for you and yours. And, yes I would like pic's of the kid sometimes. And, even monthly for the frst year, or at certian milestones (first crawl, first steps, first time he/she flips your the bird) is fine by me. But, I don't need you to send me a pic of your seventy eight month old. Once or twice a year is fine by me, especially after the kid hit's the big 2.0. Now, I don't have anybody sending me pics of their kid every other day or even weekly, but I've had that done in the past. And, eventhought I'm excited for you and your newest addition to your family. And, no this is not directed at anybody at all. This came to me during a commerical of a family on vacation sending pics of their baby directly to their families printers. I love technology and all the goodies that they're coming up with these days, but I damn sure don't need to come home and find a pile of pictures on the floor in front of my printer, and when I reload it I still have ten minutes of printing to do.