During lunch today, I went out to Santa.com to see what they had out there. Kids can email their wish list (complete with a list-making "feature" that lets them "look-up" their items via online web stores) and Santa now has his own blog, too.
A couple of entries struck me as very wonderful responses to a few of the things going on. "Milk and Cookies" offers a wonderful explanation as to WHY Santa needs to be plump (insulation from cold weather at the North Pole, DUH!) and how he would be very happy to eat nutritious snacks, if the parents so choose to leave those out. There is also a response to the age-old question: Is Santa real?
On another, much sadder note, there are "churches" in Nigeria whose leaders have convinced the congregation that the CHILDREN are actually possessed by demons and are practicing witches. Yes, you read that right - 9, 10, 11 year olds are witches. Worse than that, you ask? How about the THREE, FOUR, and FIVE year olds accused of such bull-crap? One article is here, but the one I found earlier today had a slide show with captions, showing children who had been cast out of their homes, burned with acid and/or hot water and oil, or attacked with machetes. These are CHILDREN, and the stupid church leaders have the parents and communities convinced that only through shame, beating, and torture can they be rid of the demons that make the kids witches. Oh, and money. Yes, you see, the pastors of these churches will gladly take the family's money in order to perform an "exorcism" of the child.
How does a person get to the point where they no longer see a child as a tiny human and see them as some demonic entity? It is way beyond my comprehension level. People who are otherwise smart, are slashing their kids because the crops did not grow this year.... Explain to me, oh wise doofus, how that makes any sense to anyone?
As you may have read, yesterday we ordered our photo Christmas cards from Walmart.com. I went to Wally World to pick them up today, and the clerk (photo lab technician, maybe?) told me that she did not have anything waiting for me. I wasn't too upset because I said I was going to pay for them at the store, so at least I was not out money. I went back to the office, logged in to Walmart.com and re-created the cards. When I went to check out, I saw the problem. Yesterday, we had selected the "regular" delivery method, but then saw that for 3 bucks we could get 1-hour. We switched to one-hour. Well, what we did not see is that the 1-hour address was in South Carolina! Why? Because when my cousin cam to visit, we had pictures sent to the closest Wal-Mart where he lived. So, our first batch of pictures in a Wal-Mart in South Carolina. Ooops. I made up a second batch, and sure enough, our Wal-Mart had them ready for me when I got off work.... Excellent!
For as long as I have been employed ANYWHERE, I have been subjected to that fine-print clause which reads, "Other duties as assigned." Yet again, John and I were summoned to perform another task, which I shall to my list of things I can do should I forget technology: We installed smoke detectors. Technically, John installed them. I watched, held screws, and installed batteries. Oh, I also pressed the "test" button to make sure the whole building was aware of our current assignment.
As long as you are willing to perform "other duties," my guess is you'll have job security for as long as you want.
One of the electronic "magazines" I get in my work e-mailbox is from the George Lucas Education Foundation (GLEF). Normally fully of interesting features regarding technology, students, teachers, etc, today's contained the title of an article that struck me as funny: Girls Dominate Siemens Competition. I'll just let you mull that one over...
(stolen from my Indians Baseball Card blog):
The great "98-cent Experiment" on eBay is going is little slower than I had expected (98-cent opening bid with free shipping). But, for control measures (for lack of a better term), anything that does not sell will be relisted under some "regular" guidelines - that is, starting bid of $.05 with $1.00 shipping. I'll let you know how that goes, too. Of course, there are still about four hours left (at the time of this writing) for the first batch of listings (I ended up doing three batches of about 30 cards each), and I know a lot of people are sniping, so I may be surprised at the final results of the 98-cent experiment.
There are several game-used items, but I think one of the coolest (non-GU) items is a 2001 Topps Gold Traded Albert Pujols (0739/2001). I don't know why, but I like it. LOL... Hope the winner does too! :-)
There is a way you can help the children if you would like. I have been researching this for a while and have created a blog with information and three petitions that can be signed protesting against the treatment of the children and the so called pastors that are extorting the parents of the children. Please consider signing them for the children.
ReplyDeleteChildren of Nigeria http://childwitches.blogspot.com/
Thank you for posting this, the more the word about this gets out the better.
Thank you,
Kelli