People with too much time on their hands

I have decided to dedicate Saturdays to the people who have too much time on their hands. What do these people do with their time? All their brain power? Talents?
They come up with stuff like this...



I know its not the cure for cancer, poverty or the greenhouse effect...but it brings laughter to those of us who drive ourselves crazy worrying about all of the worlds problems.

Thank you ;)

The Last Goodnights

I just finished reading The Last Goodnights by John West. This is a true story about John's assistance in his parents suicide. In the forward Mr West explains:

I don't know what my booze bill was for that time, but I'm sure it was big. I had a good reason, though: I had to kill my parents. They asked me to. Actually, they asked me to help them with their suicides, and I did. And if that doesn't justify throwing back an extra glass or three of Jameson's on the rocks, then I don't know what does.

Usually I read to escape the problems of life for a while and the subject of this book seemed to guarantee a box of Kleenex in my future. With a forward like this, though, I thought I would be able to associate with his sense of black humor and wouldn't get too overwhelmed with the emotions I would surely find in the book.

John's father was Louis Jolyon "Jolly" West, a well know psychiatrist who examined Jack Ruby after he shot Lee Harvey Oswald and was chief psychiatrist for Patty Hearst's defense. Jolly approached John with his desire to end his life when his cancer started to eat him alive. Even though their relationship was strained, John felt it was his duty to put all that aside and heed his father's wishes. John's mother, K, had midstage Alzheimer's disease, plus osteoporosis and emphysema. She too expressed her wishes to John that she wanted to make the decision about the end of her life.

The back of the book reads: Intimately told, The Last Goodnights points out the unnecessary pain and suffering that are often forced upon dying people and their families, and honors the choice to live or die with purpose and dignity. In the end, this story is not just about death -- it is also about love, courage, family and autonomy. It fell short. I was not drawn into this book at all. It mostly seemed to be a book about John patting himself on the back for doing "the right thing". His father did seem to be bad off, and by page 64, John had already "honored his father's wishes", and forced enough pills down his throat to kill him. I'm not kidding, the night after his father returns home from double hip replacement, John is twisting his leg to inflict pain so his father will wake up long enough to take more pills to kill him. The bulk of the book is about his mother who really does not seem that bad. He gives us scenes of her debilitating disease, but honestly I feel I forget more than his mother did. And it seemed to go on and on, for 167 pages I saw a lot of "poor me" on both John's part and his mother's but no concrete evidence that it was truly that awful. I came away with more of a feeling that his mother had depression than anything else, and that John was anxious to help his mother die even getting upset when they had to move the date back. There is an interview on ABC that has a lenghty excerpt.

Needless to say, I didn't need the Kleenex.

I give this 1 out of 5 stars.

We're number 2!! We're number 2!!

Our little town made the national news!!
Who knew??
Go check it out

Michigan Town One of the Happiest Places in America - ABC News

Stumble find

I found the greatest site stumbling around today....

Stumbleupon rocks out-loud!!!

http://myfirstfail.com/

Parenting out the window

I was born in 1965, so I was too young to enjoy free love and all that. I do embrace that time in history though, often wishing I could have been an original hippie. I was born in the Midwest in middle class America. I was taught manners, had a mom that was always home, and chores. Something has shifted though and I can't quite put my finger on what it was. Somewhere, parents stopped parenting. We moved from the simple life to I MUST HAVE THAT! This in turn has moved us from the stay at home mom, to the, "we bought so much crap now we both have to work". I don't know...I'm not sure if it is even all the consumerism that is the cause for 2 income families or if its the economy itself. In any case, moms aren't home and when we are we are too tired to do anything, let alone deal with Johnny's temper tantrum properly. We give in and let him have whatever he wants or promise to buy it for him if he will just shut up or go play somewhere else. Just watch Supernanny...I don't remember my friends pitching fits and getting what they wanted....and I KNOW I didn't. Swear to God, my mom chased me around the coffee table to give me a spanking...I have no idea why, but I was naughty and that was my punishment. She started laughing (it was quite comical) and so I thought, "mom's laughing, she's not mad anymore, I must be off the hook." Nope, still got spanked. While I don't agree with spanking (personally I did time-out or take away prized possessions as punishment) the point is she followed through. She didn't decide it wasn't worth her physical exertion to teach me a lesson...she knew if I was to grow up and be a decent human, I needed to learn life lessons when the consequences were easier to handle, rather then when I'm older and a consequence could be prison.

When I was young, schools were safe. We played outside all day and all the moms in the neighborhood watched out for us kids. There was community and we didn't even stop to consider that the world wasn't a safe place. We rode bikes with out helmets or pads...we played kick the can after dark...I morn the passing of my youth and the fact that my child cannot have what I had. I know where he is at all times...I teach him to open doors for ladies, and say yes please, or no thank you. I look around and I see kids my children's ages and they are rude, self serving and spoiled. Now believe me, my kids are far from perfect, as am I, but at least try to be kind in front of strangers, know what I mean. And let me tell you, when these kids do get a job, they suck. Work ethics are out the window, they want their money just cause they showed up..."what do you mean I have to actually do work for my check?"....AAhhh I don't know....

Black Friday

I recently read Black Friday by Alex Kava. This is the 7th book in a series about Maggie O'Dell, a profiler.

The story starts with three college students and friends at the Mall of America. Rebecca and Patrick came with Dixon to Minnesota for the Thanksgiving holiday. While at the mall, Dixon intends to join two of his childhood friends in a little "big business mayhem" by carrying backpacks around that will disrupt computers and cause the business to loose money. On the busiest day of the year, this electronic blackout will cause people to realize how vulnerable we are to terrorist attacks. These three were offered a new IPod for their troubles, only as they are about to begin, Dixon finds out his grandma is in the hospital and talks Rebecca into taking his spot, giving her the IPod. The backpacks do not contain jamming devices but bombs which were detonated by remote control.

Maggie O'Dell is called in to determine what terrorist group may be behind these suicide bombers. As the authorities are sifting through the wreckage, looking for clues, an anonymous tip is given to the media saying that Patrick is one of the bombers who has gotten away. We find out that he is Maggie's step brother which now makes this case very personal for her.

The Project Manager is very proud of his skills to shake things up and terrorize. He planned the bombing and has more up his sleeve. He is so good in fact, he got Timothy McVeigh to take the fall for his execution of the Oklahoma City bombings. He has more planned, too.

I thought this sounded like a great concept. America proves to be susceptible to attack and we seem to have a very short term memory, as a nation. I did not realize this was part of a series, so I think I lost out on a lot of the nuances of the relationships. Maggie had apparently been poisoned in a previous book, and lost her mentor/boss. It seems she has a relationship with her doctor, but this was brief and not quite clear at the beginning of the book. As she traveled to Minnesota, she runs into Nick Morelli, which she seems to have a past with, although again it wasn't really clear. Also, we read a lot about Patrick and his infatuation with Rebecca , Dixon and his grandparents and Rebecca's past, however the writing digresses without coming back to bring closure to any of these story lines. The book seemed to be going in one direction, only to jump to another plane altogether and move in a different direction. Perhaps I need to have started with the first in this series to be able follow, which is a shame. I think books in a series should be able to stand on their own and be able to draw you in to the point you want to go back and read from the beginning. I didn't get that with this book.

I give this 3 out of 5 stars.

Surrogates

I just watched Surrogates and I thought it was a good movie. Very thought provoking. I liked the song at the end, so I actually watched the credits to see what the song was and who sang it. (I Will Not Bow by Breaking Benjamin) As the roles/actors was scrolling by I noticed one character was named "Big Woman". I find this slightly offensive. Who wants the title "Big Woman"? I checked it out on IMDB and found she was played by Christine Mascott, whose only other movie credit was in "The Invention of Lying" in which she played "Woman #2"..... I'm not sure if she is moving up or down in her choice of movie roles.