Stop saying you’re confused

Submitted by sarajean on 12/08/12 1:51pm
Because really, you’re just obnoxious.

For years, my biggest pet peeve was when people would retort, “True.” That’s just so obnoxious to me, like they’re validating what you say because obviously it might not have been true! Thank you for acknowledging that my statement wasn’t false. I know it’s a silly thing to get miffed over but it was mine.

Now it’s when people say, “I’m confused.” The thing is, they don’t say it when they are really confused; they say it when you say something against whatever they consider the “truth”—there’s that “true” element again!—and they disagree with it. “I’m confused,” a mom will tell me when I tell her of a special running at a venue she previously thought was closed or something. “I’m confused,” a relative will say when I tell them no, we didn’t go to X because we went to Y instead, even though we said we might go to Y the day before. (That’s irritating, too—when people act offended that you change your plans even when they aren’t involved in them.)

You are not confused. You’re just obnoxious. Why can’t you just say, “Oh, I thought X,” instead of whining, “I’m confused!” Save it for calculus questions, sweetheart.

Hairball remedies

Submitted by sarajean on 12/08/12 1:38pm
Have a long-haired cat? These tips could come in handy.

My longest-haired cat, Mononoke, gets bad hairballs. It’s not his fault; he has to keep clean somehow. So instead of cursing twice a day while I clean up what looks like super wet, deformed dead rats from the carpet, we decided to find the best hairball remedies we could and try them out for Noke.

The first thing we have tried seems to be working quite well—when we remember to give it to him! It’s a hairball control treat. It costs much less than buying hairball control food and we only have to give him a couple a day, so I like this option best so far. A buck for hairball control? Yes, please! And you can stock up when they are on sale. The only downside is that the other cats want them, too, so you might have to have two treat bags open at once while you give them out. Remember that too many treats are bad for your cat, too, so be sure to follow the directions on the package—or to consult with your vet about what treatment is best for your cat.

There are also hairball control foods, shampoos, and other products you can purchase to help curb any hairball problems in your home. You can comb your cat’s hair to help keep it down, though some cats won’t tolerate it.

Marijuana money coming to Washington

Submitted by erika on 12/08/12 1:25pm
A different kind of green

 

Savvy investors (like the two Yale MBAs profiled in this Seattle Times article) are getting ready to jump on the marijuana bandwagon in Washington state. If anything is going to convince the rest of the country to legalize marijuana, I suspect it is going to be the huge amounts of money to be made - both private and public - by its legalization.
 
Privateer Holdings is a Seattle-based private equity firm which is one of the first businesses ready to leap into the fray. Its owners, Brendan Kennedy and Michael Blue, believe that I-502 represents "the biggest opportunity I'm ever going to see in my lifetime." By the sounds of it, this could be bigger than the Yukon Gold Rush and the Dot Com boom put together.
 
Privateer Holdings is the first private equity firm to focus specifically on marijuana. The company is presumably planning to invest in grow operations, since sales of marijuana will evidently only take place through storefronts that are owned and controlled by the state. 
 
However, the grow side of the equation is big business in and of itself. Aside from the basic equipment (hydroponics, lights, etc) there is a whole segment of ancillary products, from insurance to software. Kennedy compares it to the collection of sub-industries that have grown up around the corn industry. There are entire market niches filled by businesses that just support the corn growing industry, and the same could easily become true of the marijuana industry in Washington. 
 
Analysts are forecasting that marijuana sales could become a billion-dollar industry once the state stores open up for business. And those numbers are only based on the estimated 300,000 Washington residents who would regularly shop there. (Surely that number is a low?)
 
Aside from the tax boost this will add to the state's coffers, marijuana tourism will be a boon for all Washington businesses. An influx of tourists will bring a boost to Washington towns and businesses that desperately need more traffic, after the last few harsh years. Smart businesses will start capitalizing on I-502 now!
 
The problem, of course, is that many fear that I-502 will be struck down in federal court. Business investors don't like to operate in an atmosphere of uncertainty. Here's hoping that public opinion stays positive, and that the increase to our state's public and private financial well-being proves convincing enough, to those who might otherwise want to rain on Washington's parade (which is scheduled to start every day at 4:20PM).
 

HELP: I have too many books!

Submitted by becksta on 12/08/12 1:17pm
BOOKS = Cluttery Uncoolness

 

Tune you should be listening to for this post: Piano Man by Billy Joel

 

It’s twelve-o-clock on a Saturday and I’m giving books away for free. There’s no one sitting next to me, and I’m just drinking some tea. 

 

You can turn the song down now and help me figure out how to get rid of my books. There are those (and you know who you are) that say that Dust Mites multiply. My books multiply. My books have sex without me knowing it and suddenly there are more in my closet, in my boxes, and on my shelves. My books are literally like bunnies. 

 

I know where to take my books. I know what to do. Pick out books which have no meaning to me and take them to the Good Will or the dump. Probably the Good Will since I can’t afford to take them to the dump and I no longer drive a truck. 

 

How does a book lover who is not a book collector get rid of her books? How can I get rid of them? It’s a sickness. I have books that I haven’t touched in months. I have two bookshelves that need to be dusted. I don’t have enough room to even look at my books. My place is too small. 

 

I’m scared that the sheer number of words in my place might intimidate a future guest. I need to de-clutter. No more paper. No more books. No more teacher’s dirty looks.

 

But, seriously. What am I without my books? I’ve always been known as the Fake Librarian with books ready for friends and family members whether they wanted them or not. But my friends and family are decreasingly excited by my books. Nerds are no longer cool. Geeks have taken over. I don’t even play video games, so I can’t be a Geek. I want to be Cool, but it’s so hard with all of these books around. 

 

Should I pick an arbitrary number of books to have at any one time? Should I just keep the books that make me look Cool--capital “C” intended--even if they aren’t my favorites? Should I start color-coding my books to undermine the Dewey decimal system? 

 

Or should I just go alphabetically and get rid of all the books from Q-Z? Or will that be enough? Are there any authors in that range that will be offended if I put their books in the trash? Not that they will know, but I WILL KNOW.

 

All suggestions should be directed to the comments section immediately. AND I’m not the only one in these shoes. READ THIS and you’ll understand my deep and undying pain.

Easy and surprising cat toys

Submitted by sarajean on 12/08/12 1:05pm
You don’t need to spend money on kitty this Christmas if you just use what’s already in your house.

My daughter made my husband a cat toy for his birthday. We were broke and she wanted to make him something he would “really use,” which I’m pretty sure she swiped from Alvin and the Chipmunks, and she knows that he loves to play with the cats.

So she took a stick from outside, secured a piece of yarn to it tightly, and wrapped it around the stick. Then she wrapped it up in some wrapping paper to give to her papa for his birthday. And wouldn’t you know it, not only did he love it—the cats did, too!

That got me thinking. We really don’t need to buy the cats presents; we have so many in our house already just waiting to be made! We decided that we’ll make a couple of catnip balls by sewing some felt around the catnip we already have, and my daughter is making our cats a similar toy she made already with some bells she bought for the season. These should make some very easy gifts to give our kitties this year—and leave a few more things under the tree, too.

One word of advice: if you do use catnip toys, don’t put them under the tree until the last minute unless you want to wake to torn presents!

Bears will travel to Minnesota to take on the Vikings

Submitted by USAsNewFavPASTIME on 12/08/12 12:50pm

 

The 8-4 Chicago Bears will be taking on the 6-6 Minnesota Vikings this week on the road. Minnesota’s Mall of America Field will host this week’s game against a couple old school rivals. The Bears have Cutler back and have been one of the NFC’s toughest teams this season. Minnesota, though, has been fairly strong and has surprised some teams. Adrian Peterson appears to be 100 plus percent and has rushed better then ever this season. The game could certainly go either way as both teams have seen recent success, but are both coming off losing weeks.

Last week the Bears did fall at home to a tough Seattle Seahawks team 23-17. The win helped Seattle get to 7-5, which helped set them up in good position for the playoffs. The loss came late in the game as the Seahawks engineered the win in overtime by scoring a touchdown on their first possession of the extra period. The Seahawks had struggled on the road most of the year, and really looked good against a tough Chicago defense.

The Vikings also are coming off a loss after falling to the Green Bay Packers 23-14 last week. The Packers moved to 8-4 with the win, but did not dominate the game by any means. The Vikings even looked like they may win the game at several points. That certainly would have been a tall-task and huge win. Considering how good the Packers are at home, especially this time of year, the win would really have been one that could of greatly helped their playoff hopes. 

Cory Booker's food stamp odyssey

Submitted by erika on 12/08/12 12:48pm
Newark mayor spends a week on a food stamp budget

 

Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, is taking a week to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes," so to speak. After being inspired by a Twitter spat, Booker decided to spend a week trying to get by on a food budget of $30, which is the average per-person allotment by the SNAP (a.k.a. food stamps) program. 
 
What Booker has found so far is that - surprise, surprise - it is possible to live on $30 a week, but it isn't easy. Booker has already experienced hunger pangs after eating lunch. And one night he had to make the (oh so familiar to many people) choice to either eat the last sweet potato, or go to bed hungry. (He chose to go to bed hungry and save the sweet potato for the next day). 
 
Booker began his week by making a trip to the grocery store. As you can see from the picture he Instagrammed (above), he shopped with the best of intentions, buying a lot of fresh produce as well as canned beans and vegetables, and a bottle of healthy olive oil. 
 
What Booker has since discovered is something that every low-income American already knows: vegetables are great for you, but they are not very filling. His lunch one day was "a can of peas and corn mixed together," which caused him to reflect that he should have spent more of his money on eggs (one of the most affordable sources of protein) and coffee (I guess Booker's office doesn't have a big coffee urn in the break room?).
 
Naturally, Booker's efforts are being Monday-morning quarterbacked all to hell and gone. I have seen a lot of people huffily exclaiming that "Booker is doing it wrong, where's his brown rice?" or "When I was in college I ate like a king on only $5 a week!" I can understand why people take this topic as an opportunity to brag or look smart, but trust me, this is not the time.
 
The point isn't that people CAN live on $30/week. Obviously they can, because millions of Americans are doing it. The point is that it's HARD. And that maybe it shouldn't be. 
 
Booker made some bad shopping decisions, and now he's paying for them. That's not much of a safety net, if you ask me. If someone buys a bag of salad when they should have bought eggs, and later in the week they suffer for this choice, that's a pretty lousy safety net. 

Steelers look for another win to secure a playoff spot

Submitted by USAsNewFavPASTIME on 12/08/12 12:47pm

 

The 7-5 Steelers will play the San Diego Chargers at home this week in Pittsburgh. The Steelers also are excited to announce that Ben Roethlisberger will be back with the team after missing the past three games with a rib injury. Ben should certainly be hungry and is looking to get his team into the playoffs. Currently they hold one of the wildcard spots, but they do have the Bengals nipping at their heels. The addition of Ben will certainly help as Steeler backups have had some difficulties. They did, however, win 2 of the three games they replaced Ben in.

Last week, the Steelers were able to win big on the road in Baltimore. The game ended 23-20 in favor of the Steelers who were the underdog in the contest. They went into hostile territory and took out the number 1 team in their division. The Ravens had a great chance to knock off Pittsburgh, and had one of the best chances they may ever get. When push came to shove, though, they lost again and will have to wait again to try another time. These two teams may certainly find themselves playing one another again come playoff time.

The Chargers will be the next step towards the Steelers getting in the postseason. They bring just a 4-8 record to Pittsburgh, but have been close in every game this season. Their last game was a 20-13 loss to the Bengals in San Diego last week. They continue to be in negative talks about changing their coach after the season, which seems to have deeply impacted the team as well. 

The Scorpio Races

Submitted by sarajean on 12/08/12 12:46pm
This book is simply amazing.

Maggie Stiefvater is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors, and her latest book The Scorpio Races did not disappoint. I do have to say that if you are a Wolves of Mercy Falls fan, you may or may not like this one because it’s vastly different from the poetic love story we all love so much. That said, if you treasure a good story, good storytelling, and unique plots painted well—not to mention mythology—you might just love this one like I do.

Have you ever heard of kelpie, or water horses? Some legends say these creatures are darkly bloodthirsty, and will eat a human just as soon as be ridden by one. In The Scorpio Races, we meet an entire island of people who rely on their annual race of such horses as their main tourist attraction and one young girl who enters to win in order to save her family after the death of her parents.

There’s some simple romance with some beautiful moments, sure, but more importantly there is the kind of archetypal, raw elements that you might find in a classical work woven into this young adult novel. I haven’t read anything like this since perhaps The Giver or Lord of the Flies,  yet it’s still very different on its own. The gravity of a teen book like The Hunger Games is present, but there’s a poetic nature that’s common in Stiefvater’s books, and a primeval mythic quality that I still can’t even think of an example to compare it with. It is thoroughly enjoyable, ruthless while beautiful, to say the least, and if you read anything this winter, you wouldn’t go wrong with it.

Redskins hope for win over Ravens

Submitted by USAsNewFavPASTIME on 12/08/12 12:40pm

The Redskins are rising in the NFL and have many experts raving about their team. It seems no one in the league can stop talking about Redskins rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III who has electrified the DC area. Griffin has done everything he could for the team to be an even 6-6 right now, and he would love nothing more then to get his team into the playoffs. To do so the team must just about win out, however, and their first test will be against a difficult Baltimore Ravens team.

The Redskins and Ravens will meet in Washington DC at the Redskins FedEx Field at 1 PM ET. The redskins come into the game after a convincing Monday Night wins last week. Despite winning by just a point, the team looked great against the defensing champs. It was also great for the city that has seen little success and had not been showcased on Monday Night Football in quite sometime. It also showed everyone that the Redskins could be a threat in years to come in the NFC East.

The Ravens have been very up and down especially in recent months. The team has suffered huge losses this season, but have been scraping by despite. The offense has been particularly up and down with their play including quarterback Joe Flacco. This game will be a huge measuring stick game for both teams, but I think we may learn more about the Ravens then the Redskins in the end.

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