June 24, 2003

Shudder

"When I'm president, we'll do executive orders to overcome any wrong thing the Supreme Court does tomorrow or any other day," said Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri.

I don't know which is more frightening...the idea of another Presidential Dick (nope, NOT referring to Nixon) or the thought that this kind of statement is par for the course for the left......

Update: The more I read Gephardt's statement, the more I am convinced that Frank J is his speechwriter... a statement like that is just so absurd!

Posted by Susie at 10:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Mush Brain

I have been working on my paper for most of the day, and it's almost there. Unfortunately, I had hoped I'd finish it today. Life interrupts art. One of my nieces turned 11 today, and my sister decided to have the birthday party at my house (yes, she asked first, and I agreed). But there went three hours of homework time (pre-cleaning; party;post-cleaning). The good part [aside from the acknowledged excellence of cake and ice cream] was that I got my brother P.K. to critique my paper, and he gave me some good suggestions. I also persuaded him to install the drivers and software for my digital camera, which I used to take pics at the party.
Boy, was I disappointed. Like blogger, the camera was free, and I got what I paid for. (Actually, now that I think of it, I had to put up with earthlink for all those months to get that camera, so I paid WAY more than it was worth!).
So that you know what I am talking about I am going to post one of the pics I took at the party.

This is the birthday girl: View image

It's blurry, grainy, the colors are bizarre........ sigh.

Here's one P.K. took of himself, fooling around:dsc_033.jpg

He's actually pretty good-looking in person......sigh.

Posted by Susie at 09:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 23, 2003

No Breaks Allowed

Don't you hate it when your favorite blogs go the entire weekend without an update? It's almost as if some of these folks have an actual life or something....
Ok, I am as flattered as the next woman when my blog is the top story for days, but it seems like Glenn, Tiger and Frank are the only ones considering MY entertainment needs....
(Pixy Misa is granted absolution because he warned me he was going on a road trip, and left me a catalog of his music to keep me amused til his return.)

Get with the program, guys!


UPDATE: Let me reiterate, Glenn(NOT Reynolds), TIGER and Frank worked very hard over the weekend to keep me entertained!!!!

Posted by Susie at 09:16 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

June 19, 2003

I Need H. & R. Brock.....

Well, I can register for my Fall classes today, and it's Moral Dilemma time again... (not really, it's just that ever since John Belushi did that "ad" on Saturday Night Live my family has descibed any kind of decision as a "moral dilemma": pink or mauve lipstick? moral dilemma. steak or chicken? moral dilemma. one hard class or two easy ones? moral dilemma.)

Not that any of my classes has been easy; just some have been less labor-intensive than others (2 papers v. 4, daily "discussions" v. written reports). So my two remaining required classes are Applied Economic Theory and Financial Administration and Budgeting, and they both sound pretty scary to me (I'm not really into that whole Math thing).

So Management Theory sounds pretty innoculous, and so does Human Resources Management..but then I will have used up 2/3 of my electives.

Like I said, Moral Dilemma. Well, I have until August 4th to decide....

Posted by Susie at 10:06 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 17, 2003

Some People are Mean

To all my Loyal Readers: If you have not already, please bookmark this site. It is the Symantec Security listing of email hoaxes.

My best friend forwarded me this email this morning:

We may have a problem.... see instructions below.
Chuck Langenfeld

Unfortunately, a virus has been passed on to me by a contact. My address
book WAS infected.
Since you are in my address book, there is a good chance you will find
it in your computer too. The virus (called jdbgmgr.exe) is not
detected by Norton or McAfee antivirus systems. The virus sits quietly
for 14 days before damaging the system. It is sent automatically by
messenger and by the address book, whether or not you sent e-mail to your contacts.
Here's how to check for the virus and how to get rid of it:

YOU MUST DO THIS.
1. Go to start, Find or search option.
2. In the file folder option, type the name jdbgmgr.exe
3. Be sure you search your C: drive and all subfolders and any other
drives you may have.
4. Click "find now"
5. The Virus has a Teddy Bear icon with the name jdbgmgr.exe DO NOT OPEN
IT!
6. Go to Edit (on the menu bar) and choose "select all" to highlight the
file without opening it.
7. Now go to File (on the menu bar) and select delete. It will then go to
the Recycle Bin.
8. IF YOU FIND THE VIRUS YOU MUST CONTACT ALL THE PEOPLE IN YOUR
ADDRESS BOOK, SO THEY CAN ERADICATE IT IN THEIR OWN ADDRESS BOOKS.

To Do This:
a) Open a new e-mail message
b) Click the icon of the address book next to the "TO"
c) Highlight every name and add to "BCC" (which means blind copy)
d) Copy this message and paste to e-mail

Ciao, Donna

Of course I checked Symantec before I did anything, and emailed my friend that it was a hoax, but not before she had deleted the file.

It is very sad that some people have nothing better to do than to sit around and think up these terrorist plots.

I know, it sounds kind of strong to call an email hoax a terrorist plot, but the only point of this kind of email is to scare somebody, which is really the point of terrorism--to scare all the people who weren't killed outright in the attack; to scare us into taking actions that might not be in our best interests in the long term, because of the fear of the consequences of NOT acting to prevent imminent and future damage to ourselves and our property. (Do I hear you murmuring "Patriot Act"? I thought so...).

We need to always think before we react blindly to a perceived threat. Granted, sometimes instinct takes over--the old "fight or flight" reaction that Mother Nature programmed into our wiring--but there are degrees of threat and degrees of available reaction time to that threat, and we need to always use any time we have, even if it is only seconds, to give our brains a chance to analyze the response mechanisms and override them if necessary.

Maybe it is easier for me, because I have to to do this on a daily basis. You see, I suffer from Panic Disorder.

I had my first Panic Attack at age 12, at the top of an escalator in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. At the time, I had no idea what it was that I was really experiencing, so from that moment on I avoided escalators. As the years went on, the list of things to be avoided grew. (This is one reason why I love the movie "What about Bob?" and the elevator scene in particular--my terror of everyday life experiences depicted in accurate, yet humorous, terms). Eventually I became completely agoraphobia as my world shrank to the safety of my home. I couldn't hold a job because I couldn't leave my parents' house. I developed LOTS of hobbies that could be done without going outside, such as baking, needlework, reading, and watching television.

Then, one night, while curled up in my favorite comfy chair, watching TV and embroidering, I had a panic attack. And as I sat there, trying to figure out just what it was that was so terrifying (my chair? my chair is not scary, it is my favorite chair; the embroidery? I embroidered all the time without injury to myself; the television? puh...leeze) it occurred to me that maybe there was NOTHING to be afraid of.

That didn't stop the panic attacks, of course, and in a way it made them worse since now the fear shifted to internal foci for the fear (I'm having a heart attack, I'm having a stroke, I'm dying here and no one is noticing) rather than external ones (I am afraid of riding in a car, I must avoid cars to avoid the fear). But it DID make me seek medical treatment for the heart attack/stroke/imminent death, and that eventually resulted in an accurate diagnosis, treatment, and an ability to function the way "normal" people do, including finding a job, owning a car, and paying taxes.

I still have panic attacks. They still scare the heck out of me. I still find myself in the ER convinced I am dying at least once a year. However, fear doesn't scare me the way it used to, which is probably why I took some time to see if that email was legitimate before franticly deleting that "suspicious" file and emailing everyone in my address book.

FDR said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
If he were alive today, I think he would add: "and, if you are a Palestinian, Buck the Marine."

Ok, I'm done channeling Bill Whittle.

Posted by Susie at 12:23 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

June 14, 2003

Lunar Luck

Let me preface this by saying, I am not at all superstitious.

Ok, not very superstitious. And Friday the 13th has never bothered me. In fact, today is the first ever Friday the 13th that I ever remember anything unlucky happening to me.

Guess what? No paychecks today. Lost in the mail or something. Then I find out from Victor that the tax cut kicks in today.

Personally, I blame the full moon. Nuke it.

Posted by Susie at 12:08 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 12, 2003

Girls just want to have fun

I'm still playing!!!!!

Thanks for the punctuation tip, Pixy...if I had known that two days ago, the whole pink thing might never have happened! :P

So I am fiddling around going "what's this do?" which means you may see some odd things as I experiment.

Notice the white border around the blog entries? I was trying to get the entries themselves to have a white background, but I kind of liked that so I left it (for now).

I have been playing almost ALL day!!! Not just on MT, but I actually went out to eat!!! (KFC has a terrific buffet for only $5.99... I blew the budget, but what the heck, I only get one day off in 12.....). I have also taken TWO naps today!!!!!

The down side is I've only gotten one page of my paper done today, which means I'll have to work on it during my blogging time over the weekend.

Could be worse...could be raining... (Marty Feldman to Gene Wilder, "Young Frankenstein").

Posted by Susie at 11:59 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Her Tools

One of the reasons that the male/female equality issue is still ongoing is that the women came late to the party. (Ok, we pretty much crashed it, helped out by a few men who weren't total Neanderthals, but that's not the point.) See, God let Adam name everything, and we women have been stuck with guy-names for everything ever since.

Take tools. Is there a tool sensibly named "that pinching thingee"? Nope. It's called a pliers. How about that lifting-up thingee for the car when the tire is flat? A jack. What about one of those little baby nail thingees that hold pictures in their frames? A brad. Except for the fact I've never met anyone named "Pliers" you'd think guys were namimg all this stuff after themselves!

There is a tool we have at work that one of the girls calls an alum wrench, that I think was named by some man named Allen, which, had I been the one to name it, would have been called "that bent thingee we use to lock the doors." See how much more descriptive a name that is?

Posted by Susie at 02:54 PM | Comments (1)