When I was growing up, we were really poor.  We moved multiple times and we moved very quickly.  I know now it was because we were being evicted from the apartment or house.

So I learned to pack up what I had very quickly.  But a few times we had to move so quickly that I was not able to get anything that I owned.  So I would lose access to all of my toys.  Because of that, I still own a few things from my childhood.  They were just items that I was able to keep through the years.  One of the items was a teddy bear.  One of the items was a desk.  And I also have the very first outfit I was wearing when I was brought up from the hospital.    My parent’s life stabilized around the age of 9 so I had one home from that time until I graduated.

But I always kept this fear of losing everything I had.  My parents divorced when I was 30.  They were losing their house because they could not keep up with the payments.  I went over to the house before the bank took it and looked around.  Everything from the ages of 9 and up was in the house.  It broke my heart that once again my parents were losing everything.  I frantically tried to grab everything that mattered to me.  I grabbed my parent’s wedding photos.  I grabbed my art projects from my youth.  I grabbed things that I thought would matter to my siblings.  My heart was broken. I realize it is just stuff.  I am not sure it was even about the stuff.  It was about trying to save some moments of happiness from my childhood.

My second son wanted to sell his video games so he could buy some more video games.  It is a normal thing for a child to do.  He is 12.  I went to take him to the video store and it caused me stress to watch him sell the games.  (The store guy only gave him $1 per game which also bothered me).  My son had plenty of games and wasn’t playing with those anymore anyway.  I walked out of the store because I knew it was an irrational feeling.

I hate garage sales.  They cause me stress.  It causes me stress to watch people part with their stuff.  It causes me stress to watch them sell their stuff so they can have money.  I realize it is irrational.  I realize it makes no sense.  Again, it is not really about the material items.  It is about the feeling that something is lost that can never be recovered.

There is the MXA contest going on.  The contest has women judged on beauty, intelligence and creativity.

I think you know that I am against this and think women should be judged based only on looks.

So we are going to vote on which candidate is the prettiest.

1.  Scruffylizard

2.  Justplainmorgie

3.  Airbornerose:  Go here to look at her photo:  Link
 

4.  Hiskeiki

5.  Suggestivetongue

Which woman is the most attractive?

A woman sued the producers of “Girls Gone Wild” after her top was pulled off and it was caught on tape.  (I originally found this issue on this site:  Link).

The woman was asked to show her boobs and she said, “No.”  But then another person pulled off her top and it was caught on tape.  It then showed up in a Girls Gone Wild video.

So she sued the producers of Girls Gone Wild.  The defense claimed that she “silently approved by taking part in the party.”

The jury found that the woman gave “implied consent” because she was at the bar and was “really playing to the camera.”  But video footage has her saying, “No” to showing her boobs.  Here is the link:  Link

Is being present at a Girls Gone Wild party “implied consent” to having your top pulled off and showing up in a video?
                       
                            

A Federal judge has blocked “key” provisions in the Arizona law designed to make it easier for police to enforce illegal immigration laws.  Here is the link:  Link

It is estimated that there are about 11 million illegal immigrants here in the U.S.

Do you think we can just get rid of 11 million illegal immigrants?

I read a post earlier where a woman mentioned that she did not have a very favorable opinion about other women on xanga. 

I mentioned to Paul that I thought that some women struggle to get along with other women.  They only get along with other men.  Paul and I then had a discussion where he mentioned that he tended to get along with guys better because he had three sisters and an overbearing mother.  I told him I had three sisters and an overbearing mother and that helped me get along with women but I thought I get along with men and women equally.

Which do you tend to get along with easier, men or women?
                             
                                                        

A school district in New Jersey is no longer allowing for Ds on a report card.  A student can only receive an A, B, C or F.

The Superintendent said, “I’m tired of kids coming to school and not learning and getting credit for it.”

Anything lower than a “70 will be a failing score.”  Here is the link:  Link  (Do not go to the article because all of the errors will make you want to flunk the author of the article).

Do you think anything lower than a “C” should be considered failing?

When I was about 4 years old, my Aunt and cousin came to stay with us for awhile.

They had a small puppy.  We had a German Shepherd.  Our German Shepherd was tied up on a leash.  Their puppy was allowed to walk around in the yard without a leash.

One day I saw the dog walking around free.  It kind of upset me that the dog was able to run around free so I captured the dog and put it under a bowl.  I continued to play and forgot about the dog.

My Aunt came out looking for the puppy but she could not find it.  I helped her look for awhile but I had forgotten that I put the dog under the bowl.  It was a really hot day.  All of a sudden I remembered I put the puppy under the bowl.  So I let it out and the dog was not moving very well.

I never saw the dog after that day.  Years later I asked my mom what happened to the puppy and she told me they believed the puppy died of heat exhaustion. 

I think I killed the puppy.
                                    
                            

I was just reading an article about Jeb Bush.  He is the younger brother of former President George W. Bush.

He was a popular governor of a large state (Florida).  Plus his dad and brother were president.  In fact, in the last 22 years a member of the Bush family has been president for 12 of those years.

Now with the economy really struggling, some are wondering if we might need to bring in someone with experience to fix the mess we are in.  Here is the link:  Link

Do you think the country is ready for another President Bush?

Older users on Facebook are causing a new issue.  Some people on Facebook are dying.

But if a person dies, notifications are still going up reminding users to reconnect to their dead friend.

In order to address this issue, Facebook has made it possible for people to report the death of a friend or a love one.  This will “memorialize” a profile so people can leave messages to their friend that has passed away. 

This is causing a few problems too because a person can just fill out a form and send a notice of an obituary of someone of the same name causing their death to be announced on the site (Yes, we will do this to a few people next week).  Here is the link:  Link

Would you want your Facebook memorialized if you die?

I was reading an article about two women who were being robbed.

Two men robbed the women and one of them held a screwdriver up to the throat of one of the women.  He then told one of the women to take off her clothes.  The woman told the men she had more money in her purse and eventually she was able to get to the gun in her purse.

She shot both men and killed one of them.  Here is the link:  Link

Do you think you could shoot and kill another person?