Ask (or Whine Relentlessly) and it Shall Be Given

Alright.
I did it.
It took me some time...and I STILL don't like it as much as the blogger one, but I've switched to Wordpress and gone public.

It's taken me awhile because:
1) I had to sit down to actually take the time to do it.
2) I had to switch the URL so that it didn't have my name in it. I don't necessarily want clients (current or potential) to find my personal blog where I blather on about Obama, roadkill, baby poop, and how long I pee for when they google my name.
3) For certain things, I have a hard time with change. I love this old blogger blog. It's been with me since the beginning. *sniff, sniff*

SO.....new blog. I'm not making any promises that I'll stick with it. Because it's weird. And green. and the text column is too narrow. So I'm trying to figure out how to fix it and if I can't, we're turning this blog around and coming straight home- do you understand??

In the meantime, add it to your readers and RSS feeds: Behold, the new, public blog: http://nowiggiditycentral.wordpress.com/

A Few Things......

You might be proud to know that I..... have cut back a LOT on my "counting how long I pee for thing". I only do it like....once a day now.

You might be surprised to know that I..... can play the piano.

You might already know that I..... plan on getting a tattoo for my birthday this year.

You should probably know that I..... am not nearly as cool as I appear. LOL!

You may not believe it when I tell you that I........ cry easily.

You might have always wondered why I..... haven't made this blog public yet. It's a combination of procrastination, poor time management, and apathy.

You might think "it figures" when you consider that I..... want to dress up like a hippie for Halloween this year.

You might wonder about my sanity if you knew that I..... rarely open the door of a public restroom with my bare hand. I always use my shirt, or a paper towel.

You might think I'm weird if you knew that I...... have conversations with myself in the car...practicing for real life, things I WISH I had said, things I would say if I had the guts, etc. etc.

You might laugh to know that I..... just finished watching about 12 minutes of The Wiggles Videos, and Beyonce's "Single Ladies" videos on Youtube. For Tyler. He likes dancing to them. Now he's too busy dragging the toaster around the house by the cord.

You might roll your eyes when you know that I...... tagged you to do this on your own blog. Clint, Amy N, Amy Porter, AmyLynn, Ness, Klasieprof, Aunt Dee, Mom N, Rob&Manda, and Casey......you're it. :)

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Oh, and I forgot Melissa, and Heidi. And if anyone else reads this blog that I forgot about...you're tagged too. :)

You Could Sign This....if you agree

Me = Obama Fan
Me = Not a FOCA Fan.

I don't know if it will do any good, but you can sign the petition here, if you're not a fan of it either.

Owen: On the Way to School-ism

Steve just called me after he dropped off Owen and said this transpired in the car:

Owen (stuffing a Darth Vader toy in his pants pocket): Dad! Look who's coming to school with me!
Steve: Oh yeah, Darth Vader. Is he going to hang out with you today?
Owen: Yeah...he's going to have school all day today... in my pants.
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A few minutes later...talking to himself:
Owen: I'm sticking him in my pants to no one will steal him.

Hello, It's Mister Nasty!

Remember these lines from the movie, You've Got Mail?
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Joe Fox: [talking via email, to who he doesn’t know is Kathleen Kelly] Have you ever become the worst version of yourself. That a pandora's box of all the hateful things, your spite, your arrogance, your condecension has sprung open? Someone upsets you and instead of smiling and walking away... you zing them. "Hello it's Mr Nasty". I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about...

Kathleen Kelly: [talking via email, to who she doesn’t know is Joe Fox] No I know exactly what you mean and I'm completely jealous. When I'm confronted by someone I get tongue tied and my mind goes blank. Then I spend the rest of the night tossing and turning over what i should have said. For example what should I have recently said to… [meaning confrontation with Joe]
Kathleen Kelly:…a bottom dweller who recently belittled my existance. [stops and thinks] Kathleen Kelly:Nothing... even now days later I still can't figured it out...
Joe Fox: Wouldn’t it be great if I could pass all my zingers to you, then I could always be nice and you could be nasty whenever you wanted to be. Although I must warn you... when you eventually have the pleasure of saying the thing you want to say at the moment you’re wanting to say it... remorse eventually follows...
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Generally, I'm think fairly fast on my feet. I can easily banter back and forth with someone, and throw in the occasional witty zinger. But is that a blessing, or a curse?

Yesterday, I posted the videos of Tyler's various messes over the last week or so, and in order to post them on here, I first had to publicly post them on Youtube. It doesn't bother me to put them up on the internet for the world to see, mainly because the clips are only 30 seconds long in length and have no identifying information in them. If some stranger in Oklahoma wants to watch a video of my kid with oatmeal on his head.... whatever.

So....the possibility is there for comments from people that I don't know (like the 5th grader that commented on AJ's "Itchy Cast" video saying...." I feel ur pain".
Well, last night I check my email and see that I have two comments from someone on Tyler's Egg Video from yesterday.

The comments were from the same person and they were laughably absurd. I wish I had saved them so I could cut and paste them here.
The basic gist of it was: I can't believe you let your kid get so messy, just so you can show it to the world on youtube. It's testament to what a bad parent you are to let your kids be so disgusting.....blah, blah, blah. It was a long comment.

I laughed. Seriously, what an idiot.
So then I deleted her comments, and closed the video comment section so that no one could comment on them. I know some people on youtube post videos because they WANT a lot of comments and attention, but I only use youtube as a means to an end (to post videos here and on Facebook for my family and friends to see).

And then I left it alone and didn't think about it again.

yeah, right.

No. OH NO.....
Instead....feeling the need to "inform" this woman of the petty, insecure, judgemental, idiotic, irrelevant dumbass that she was, I sent her a message via her youtube contact page.
And here's where Mister Nasty came out.

It was a clever message - Dismissive, but scathing. Belittling, but with pointed sarcasm. Brief enough to convey that I don't have time for her, but lengthly enough to convey my message. Pointing out the pathetic nature of a person who trolls youtube at night making judgemental commentary on the parenting styles of people that she doesn't even know. It was intentionally nonchalant, with biting undertones. I'll spare you the details. Suffice to say, it was ugly. Ugly wrapped up in a witty, educated delivery.

It was unneccessary. But it made me feel better.
For a minute.

And then as Joe Fox said....."remorse inevitably follows".

Words can cut deep.....I know that. I've experienced it quite a bit in my 29 years- which is maybe how I learned it myself. Sure, it can be a fun "tool"....when your'e joking around or trying to be funny with your friends. But if you make me mad? Insult me or my family? Watch out- because my tongue will lash out at you and cut you to pieces. Where does that come from?? How do some people "know" how to do that so well, and other's don't? Or maybe the "others" just exercise more self-control. Sadly, more often than not - I hold back from completely tearing someone to shreds. Somehow I KNOW what it is....what words I COULD say if I wanted to, that would cut you straight to the bone. I'm also a fairly perceptive person - in more ways than one - so I also can somehow....just know. Know your weakness, know your insecurity, know your deepest fear - and I could put my finger on it and press. If I wanted to. I guess my basic desire to be a generally good and loving person keeps me from going there.
Makes me real approachable, huh? Maybe a little bit more about me than you wanted to know, eh?? Well, this is me being real. *sigh*

Just a humbling reminder this Wednesday morning of the ugliness of my heart, the power of words and the danger of a sharp tongue.
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Where do you fall on the "Zinger" scale?? Do you get tongue tied and then spend the next 4 hours thinking of what you should've said?? Or do you open your mouth and "zing" them?? Feel free to discuss. I think I need an intervention.
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"But the tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison."

Terrible Two's Got Nothin' on Tyler

Boy, is THIS a fun age. *rolling my eyes*

Owen: An Obama-ism

Today in the car on the way home:

Owen: We have a new pres-dent!
Me: Yes, we do! Do you know his name?
Owen (thinking): Barack Obama.
Me (feeling proud): Very good! That's right!

Just now:
After getting home, and giving the boys a snack...I'm watching the inauguration coverage on CNN and Owen comes into the room.

Owen: Hey! Is that Barack (thinking)... O-Broccoli??

MLK JR. Owen-ism

Getting in the car after school on Thursday:

Me: How was school today?
Owen: Good.
Owen: Guess what we learned about?
Me: What?
Owen: Martin Luther King Jr.
Me: Oh yeah? What about him?
Owen: (whispers) He had a DREAM.
Me: He sure did. Do you know what his dream was about?
Owen: (thinking) I forgot. But we don't have school ta-morrow because Martin Luther King had a DREAM.

Torture...the talks continue.....

Things had a glimmer of activity in the comments section of the Ethics Question: Torture post I put up a few days, so I thought I'd blather on here about my own opinion on the matter. I see that we're all split about the matter, so maybe if I piss somebody off enough with my opinion, they'll comment. :)
Seriously though...I would like to hear arguments from the other side. I'm really intrigued to know.

Perhaps unsurprising to you, but I think torture of another human being (no matter the desired outcome or reasoning behind it) is abhorrently wrong. Mostly for these reasons, which come from a Christian framework:

1) As a believer in the message of Jesus - I think torture goes against everything Jesus represents. Yes, people are twisted. Yes, there is evil in the world. But this is not the world as it was created to be. This world is about as far out in left field as it was intended to be by it's Creator. I think that when believers hold hands with politics and war....it's a dangerous romance.

2) As a human, I respect the sanctity of life....all life. I'm pro-life. I think that killing the unborn is wrong. I also think that torture/execution of believers in China is wrong. And that massacre in the Congo is wrong. I think all human beings deserve respect and dignity. How can one respect life with exceptions?? That just doesn't jive with me.
I believe that Jesus loves us all unequivocally, without exception. And when one of his "children" is slain (no matter their "sins") it pains him.
In Genesis, when Cain killed Abel, God told him "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground" (Gen. 4:10).
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That's all I've got for now.
Go on then....fire away.

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"You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."Anne Lamot

"I have been held without trial by the US for 6 years, 1 month and 12 days. That is 2,234 days (very long days, and often longer nights). Of this, about 550 days were in a torture chamber in Morocco, and about 150 in the 'Dark Prison' in Kabul. Still there is no end in sight, no prospect of a fair trial...It is long past time to end this matter. I have been next to committing suicide this past while. That would be one way to end it, I suppose."Binyam Mohamed, Guantanamo Detainee, in a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown

Cry Baby...the sequel

So Clint went all sappy and did the emotional human interest story on his blog....so here's mine:
This little video pulled at my heartstrings a wee bit. But I'm an animal lover. :)

Like Pulling Teeth......

Here's a poll, you silly boobs:

Stir the Pot

I just read this article about a US Official who admitted that torture occurred in Guantanamo against a Saudi national who was alleged to have been planning to participate in the 9/11 attacks. She is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured.

Thought I'd throw it up for discussion....what are you thoughts on Guantanamo? About torture? Should Guantanamo be shut down?

Dear God....an Owenism

Last night, the boys are eating dinner and Owen decides he better pray for the food. Sets his fork down, folds his hands:
"Dear GOD {dramatic pause}...........
[BELCHes loudly, eyes fly open in surprise].
(very sweetly): "excuse me. Amen"

Sometimes you have a faux pas so large there's no way to recover.

Conceived WHERE?

On the way home from dropping AJ at preschool, the radio DJ's were talking about baby names. The one DJ said something about how some people name their kids based on where they were conceived - either the city, or elsewhere. He called out the other radio DJ and revealed that his son would've been named Datsun 280z.....and his would've been named Embassy Suites. LOL

So I thought it would be fun for a little reveal......what would your kids be named if they were named by place of conception?? Anything interesting out there?
Or....if you're unlucky enough to know: What would YOUR name have been??

Be anonymous if you want...but, this could be fun. :)

And that picture--->?? It's a petri dish. You never know.....

Sick. And Pantless Skiing.

I know this blog has been seriously lacking in content lately - and for that, I'm sorry.

We've been hit with a triple whammy the past week - Tyler got sick first with a wet nasty cough and quickly passed it to Owen, then AJ (who has decided to add a few a la carte's to the mix: specifically ear ache and a minor bout of vomiting). And now I have it as well. Times 10. I really don't ever get sick SICK - like barfy, flu type of sick, but I DO usually catch a sinusy-cold every winter. This year's is the worst in awhile...ear aches, stuffy head, miserable sleeping at night..the whole shabang.

One of those colds that makes you want to curl up in bed with movies and a blanket and not move for 5 days. But since we can't ALL take a break from life like Dan-o (who landed himself in the hospital on Sunday, for those of you not in-the-know....love ya D-man!), I just keep on truck'n. And try not to complain about it too much.

And hope to God that Steve doesn't get it too.

So I've got nothin' for ya....except this:
It's really terrible...and it could've been quite tragic....but since it wasn't, it's fun to gasp and laugh at, the poor, poor man.

Man Left Dangling Upside Down, Pantless, After Vail Skiing Mishap


Enjoy.

Happy New Year!

I was thinking about resolutions and new year's and stuff and it got me wondering what you're yearly M.O. is when it comes to New Year's.  So here's some polls for you.  Feel free to expound in the comments if you like. :)

Copyright Ramblings

In light of the thing that happened with the Albany Journal swiping content off my friend Amy's blog, I thought I'd share something fun with you.

Most likely, it won't apply, but it's fun just the same.

If you go to CopyScape.com, you can enter in your website's URL and it will scan the internet for other sites that have the same content that you do. So if, for example, someone saw my bio on my website, and decided to steal it and use it on their OWN website, then Copyscape would find it, and then say something like, "Copyscape has found 47 of your words on the following website:" and then you can click on the website and it copyscape highlights the words for you.

Probably a tool more geared towards writers and whatnot, but still fun to see if anyone out there has stolen your intellectual property (your blog words).

Now....if your stuff is taken by people and put in the newspaper....I can't help ya there.