Just say NO! to Twitter?

I’m saying NO to Twitter and I encourage you to do the same as well. Ok, I’ll be real for a moment here – I think about 6 people read this blog so I highly doubt I am going to bring down the empire that Twitter.com has become but that being said – I encourage my readers to say no to Twitter.

It seems like the last few weeks have been all atwitter (HAR!) about Twitter and how people are using it. Members of Congress were “tweeting” during the President’s address to Congress. Reports have segments about what people are “tweeting” to them during the broadcast so that they can answer them on the spot. People say that they follow companies and organization’s tweets to know what is going on there. Just this morning, Joe Scarborough talked about how he used Twitter to understand how people on the left, right and center were responding to White House press conferences. Ok – so Twitter gives us instant access to people’s thoughts and actions. Is that such a good thing?

I really and I mean REALLY loved that Obama responded to a question about why he took a few days to respond to the AIG bonus crisis by saying “I like to know what I am talking about before I respond.” Your damn right you should know what you are talking about before you respond to stuff – particularly when your words can send the stock market into a tail spin. I think we, as a nation, have become so insistent on instant access and instant response that we have forgotten that sometimes it takes time to formulate the response that you want. And it is that formulation of response that begins a conversation and the best conversations of my life have definitely happened in bites of more than 140 characters.

Toke Up Baby!

Yay US Justice Department.

YAY YOU!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/us/19holder.html

I am not a pot smoker. You could hand me a bong right now and I’d pass it on to the next guy. It just doesn’t interest me. But the fact that we have made it illegal is just silly to me. You can get liquor and cigarettes legally, I don’t get why you can’t get pot. Making marijuana legal would do so much more positive in the world than negative. It would empty our jails, it would help us raise much needed tax revenue and it wouldn’t make folks like Michael Phelps a big story for anything more than being the greatest swimmer of our time.

But even if you don’t want to legalize pot. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let’s legalize medical marijuana. It is SUCH a no brainer. We give people poison EVERY DAY to fight disease. I wanted someone I loved very much receive radiation and chemotherapy and I saw how sick it made him. We’ll do THAT to a person to help them “get better” and we won’t allow someone with migraines or MS or …oh, I dunno … the horrific side-effects of chemo to smoke something that will make them feel so much better?

Oh yeah, that seems fair and logical.

Please let me remind you....

Dear Citizens of Philadelphia,

I would like to talk to you about the difficult situation that we as a nation, state and city find ourselves in right now. To put it bluntly and simply, we’re broke. We aren’t poor – poor is a state of mind, but we are broke and just like with your family, when we are broke we have to take a second look at how we are doing things.

I know that you don’t want your libraries to close. I don’t want mine to close. I also appreciate the fact that in the latest poll, you have expressed that you don’t want services to children, the elderly and the homeless cut. Good for you for knowing how important it is to take care of those who can not care for themselves. I know you don’t want to lose police officers or firemen. I know you don’t want to pay $5 per month for trash pick up and I know you don’t want your taxes raised. I get that. Were I you, I’d feel the same way.

But let me remind you of a very important fact here, we’re broke. The city is estimating a $1,000,000,000 deficit in the next 5 years -- for those of you math challenged folks, like me, that’s $1 billion.

Yes folks, we’re broke.

And when we’re broke, that means we have to tighten the belt a bit. In my life that means not going out to eat as much or not buying that sweater I have my eyes on, or cutting down on how many zillions of cable channels I have or getting a part time job.

For a city it means cutting services or raising revenue. And the way we raise revenue is to raise taxes. The talk of which caused you to boo Mayor Nutter today when he mentioned some short term tax increases.

Or we could cut services – which means that we close say 11 of 54 library branches. Yes, that is 20% of the libraries and that is a lot but would you rather have to walk a few more blocks to the library (by the way, my closest library is 2.6 miles away) Or would you rather not have a fire station in close proximity to your house?

Again, let me remind you. We’re broke.

You can complain all that you want about not wanting to lose services and not wanting your taxes raised. I get wanting 2 things at the same time but unfortunately, those 2 things are not currently compatible wants – so you pick.

Again, let me remind you. We’re broke.

Sincerely,
Amanda

The Real Thing, Part 1 & 2

It doesn't taking knowing me very long to know that my favourite actor of all time is the one and only Michael J. Fox. I have loved him since the days of yesteryear when "Family Ties" was the #2 rated TV show in the country (#1 being "The Cosby Show"). I watched Alex P. Keaton -- the embodiment of damn near everything I am against and yet I adored him and I adored Michael J. Fox. I used to see all of his movie as soon as they came out. I had 63 pictures of him on my bedroom walls circa 1986 and when I ran out of pictures, I used to take pictures of the TV so I'd have more pictures. I was a 13 year old girl with a very serious crush.

A few weeks ago, I found out that reruns of "Family Ties" was on FamNet channel so I started taping them. I knew I was getting close and today -- after a few less than fabulous days -- FINALLY - my 2 favourite episodes were on. For those of you who aren't in the know -- these 2 episodes are when Alex meets Ellen Reed (Tracy Pollan) and falls in love. When I was 12, this was the HEIGHT of romance. And it's funny -- I'm watching these episodes now and I still remember the dialogue, I still remember what they characters wore - it is all so familiar. I must have watched these 2 episodes over and over again until the VCR tape wore out and then I'd tape them again and again.

It is nice that some things -- even 23 years later can still bring such a huge smile to my face and a big tear to my eye.

It's the final countdown...

I feel like hell.

I have a low grade cold which in and of itself isn’t killing me. It’s the cold – coupled with a lack of sleep and I just feel like I am punch drunk tired. I was literally weaving walking into the office this morning. If someone saw me, they would have thought I was hitting the bottle before 8 am. Not good.

I am coming up on my birthday and I am feeling very conflicted about it. I really love my birthday and love the trappings of it (except having happy birthday sung to me, I hate that – always have) but I do love the day.

I also really love my life right now – I like my job, I have a fantabulous boyfriend, I have great friends and am doing a bunch of things I love and yet I can’t help but look at where I thought I’d be by 36. I try not to focus on that but some days are harder than others. I think I thought that by 36 I’d feel like a grownup and I most certainly DO NOT. Then again, I’m not sure what would make me feel like one – perhaps nothing and that’s why everyone says they don’t feel like a grownup. I know I’m not alone in this one.

So as we mark down the days until the 16th, I shall work on focusing on all that I do have and all that I have achieved as none of it is anything to sneeze at.

And I just made myself sneeze – I’m such a rock star.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun...

Are we having fun in here? I have been writing and editing a blog post over the last few days so I decided to just start over and blab for a bit before I go upstairs and finish the laundry and pack.

Why pack you ask? I'm going to Baltimore tomorrow with my sweetheart for his niece's 1st birthday. I am bringing the camera so this will be the first real test run of it. I tried to take some pictures last weekend of Holly's daughter but it was a bust. Well, not really as the pictures are cute but they didn't capture what I was trying to for my photography class. Speaking of which -- I am loving my class! We're also going to stop at a winery or 2 on our way there and/or back as March is Barrels on the Brandywine and we have our passports and glasses ready! Now we just have to go taste wine. YAY!

I also declared this morning that I am sick of feeling like crap. I'm sick of eating junk, I'm sick of being tired all of the time and I'm sick of being out of shape. So I got rid of a bunch of junk in the house tonight - I ate really well today and I contacted wonder trainer Jen to help me put together a program and I registered for a 5K. I haven't done one since October so it will be...ummm...interesting but 5Ks keep me honest and I do enjoy them so back to them I shall go! It is starting to warm up here so I'm going to get up early tomorrow morning and hit Ridley Creek Park and walk the 4.3 mile loop. And then not be able to walk for the balance of the weekend. HA! It will be good for me and will feel good to be back out in the world. I am just so ready for this winter to be over. It does feel good to do things that are good for me. I just have to remind myself of that when I am tempted to do things that aren't good for me.

In other news, I booked plan tickets to go to Florida in May. Three of my best girlfriends are flying own to visit the 5th of us. I am excited! We haven't gotten together like this in a long time and it will be nice. 2 of my friends are expecting babies this summer so it will be a nice last horrah before they are back in new born mode. And maybe I can get a little sun in my face too.

And on that note - I shall go prep for the weekend so that I can get up early and hit Ridley Creek.

Hail Mary Full of....snow?

When I was a little kid and the weather folks would call for a big snow storm, I was sit in my room and make the sign of the cross over and over again really fast chanting "please let it snow God, please let it snow." I always thought if my dad had found out that I was doing the sign of the cross, he'd get pissed but I couldn't help it. I wanted snow days, dag-nab-it!

So here I find myself on the verge of what may or may not be a snow day almost wanting to do it again. It was supposed to start around 6 and now it is almost 8:30 and there is nothing yet. So I wonder if it will really happen. We haven't had any real snow this year so it would be nice.

But nothing.

I made up a meal for dinner tonight. I like making up stuff and tonight's turned out good.

3 cloves of garlic
1 chopped onion
olive oil
turkey sausage
1/2 red wine
1 can (28 oz) organic fire roasted tomatoes
1 can mushrooms (I have always preferred canned mushrooms - don't know why)
1.5 tsp Italian herbs
salt
pepper
chopped basil (6 or 7 leaves)
Organic Penne

It turned out really yummy! And there was plenty for leftovers tomorrow. I meant to add capers but I forgot -- I'll add them when I warm it up tomorrow for lunch or dinner (depending on if I am home or not.)

I have been trying to shop at Whole Foods more and pick up Organic items when possible. I do wish that eating better didn't cost more - that is a frustrating part of the process but it is worth it in the big picture.

I spent some time today stimulating the economy. I am in the market for some new shoes and I have a big challenge finding shoes as I am a "rare" size. I'm an 11 and it totally sucks. I went to the outlets outside of Pottstown and went to about 8 stores and didn't really find what I wanted. I did get 1 pair but I am still in the market for a brown pair. Buying shoes shouldn't be so challenging. I did pick up a few other things that I have been wanting so that was good too.

And I tried to complete my first photography class assignment and I botched it up. I am not really sure what I did wrong except perhaps my subject was too far from me. I'll try it again tomorrow if I can find a time and place to do it. Hopefully tomorrow will be a snow day and I can wander around and take some pictures....yay!