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The girl in the window – St. Petersburg Times

14 August 2008 By Leave a Comment

Part One: The Feral Child

PLANT CITY — The family had lived in the rundown rental house for almost three years when someone first saw a child’s face in the window.

A little girl, pale, with dark eyes, lifted a dirty blanket above the broken glass and peered out, one neighbor remembered.

The girl in the window – St. Petersburg Times.

Wow. Just wow. Michael sent me this link. I just finished reading it. Wow. Heart wrenching comes to mind. How something like this can even happen, I cannot fathom.

The girl is just precious. There is a family photo on the page. How someone could ignore a baby like that, to the point that it isn’t a person. It makes me want to hug my babies tight, and I did. It makes me wonder how neighbors didn’t call (more often), and how DCF could ignore it for so long. That is addressed in the end of the article, but it’s just amazing.

My son is so high functioning, he’ll just fall through the cracks if I don’t speak up. It’s disheartening that this little girl just fell through the cracks, because there was no one to speak up. No one to speak up….

I’m not pointing fingers here. From the article, it sounds like the mother has some problems of her own and possibly should have been checked in on a little more often in general. DCF winds up in the news a lot for dropping the ball, and I am not excusing them that, but how often do they properly do their job and it isn’t reported? One in a million is too many to mess up on, let alone more, so I’m not cutting them any slack, I’m just saying that it’s not an everyday occurance.

Mind boggling.

Filed Under: MediaWhore Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

YummySoup!

9 August 2008 By Leave a Comment

How on earth did I forget to mention this gem of a program? YummySoup! is only the best recipe program ever that I have seen, and I have the joy of it being a Mac only program at that! (Joy only because how often is a program PC only? Only almost every time!)

http://hungryseacow.com/From their site (my comments in red):

Organize, Share, Cook & Shop.

Try YummySoup! free for 15 days. If you decide to keep it, use PayPal, e-check, or any major credit card to purchase.

Here are just some of the features that make YummySoup! the best recipe app for your Mac.

Not only does YummySoup! support fully automatic web imports, but also boasts the most intuitive interface for importing recipes from any website! (<- my fav feature, btw) There are fully automatic web imports from a growing list of sites and the new AnySite Web Importer for everything else including any web site, text based PDF, and text files. Both these features are simple and intuitive. Check out the new video tutorial on these features!

Browse your recipes with the adjustable full screen view, that gently fades into view. Use your Apple remote to flip through your recipes, or have your directions read to you! Cook with ease, assured that you won’t have to touch your keyboard or mouse since sleep timers are deactivated when using this view.

Send rich formatted emails with pictures. These emails look exactly like prints. If your recipient also has a copy of YummySoup!, then they can add your creation to their library with the included export file, sent with every email. (this feature is awesome too!)

A seamlessly integrated user contributed Online Library. (with some fantastic recipes, I might add)

Keep track of your favorite Wines, Beer & Liquor with the built in Wine & Spirits manager.

The navigational structure of YummySoup! is fantastic. Groups of recipes can have subgroups which makes finding the right meal easy. Browsing any one group, will show you not only the recipes belonging to that group, but all the recipes belonging to all subgroups.

Smart groups are powerful. Whether you want to find all the recipes you can make with a handful of ingredients, or just want to find a Spanish style Main Dish that is not only easy to make, but has a five star rating. (love this too – I found catagorizing them to be a bit of a pain (as far as is this an appetizer or a snack?), but this way I can just search for ingredient A and find what I am looking for)

.Mac backup and restore.

YummySoup! uses a family-pack style license. You are free to use your license file on any computers in your home that belong to you or your family members residing in your household. YummySoup! is also a constantly evolving application. Many users have suggested great ideas which I have either added, or am in the process of adding to YummySoup! Have a great idea? Let me know!

I normally hate paying for programs, esp. when they are so many reasonable free ones out there, but this one is worth every penny of the 20$ and then some. It is one of the best, easy to use, nice interface, multi-functional recipe programs I’ve seen. I just might start entering frequently used recipes from my books and see about packing them away or donating them… at least the ones I know I only use one or two recipes out of ;)   Seriously? If you have a  Mac, and you cook, and you have a bazillion recipes (I have a bazillion loose recipes I am in the process of entering) you need this, yesterday. I needed it a few years ago.

Filed Under: Food Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you are into superheroes or other speculative fiction…

4 August 2008 By Leave a Comment

As per my lovely husband, this looks to be quite interesting. In the spirit of my new informational blog, here is some information!


If you are interested in picking this up, see about buying it on the day it is released to help boost the interest in it on Amazon.

The Amazon write up is as follows:

The shining metropolis of Seventh City is the birthplace of super powers. The First Wave heroes are jerks, but they have the best gifts: flight, super strength, telepathy, genius, fire. The Third Wavers are stuck with the leftovers: the ability to instantly make someone sober, the power to smell the past, the grace to carry a tray and never drop its contents, the power to produce high-powered excrement blasts, absolute control. over elevators. Bar owner Keepsie Branson is a Third Waver with a power that prevents anything in her possession from being stolen. Keepsie and her friends just aren’t powerful enough to make a difference. at least that’s what they’ve always been told. But when the villain Doodad slips Keepsie a mysterious metal sphere, the Third Wavers become caught in the middle of a battle between the egotistical heroes and the manipulative villains. As Seventh City begins to melt down, it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad, and even harder to tell who may become the true heroes.

You can also check out the author’s site if you are interested in more. She has a few running Podiobooks as well.

But wait, there’s more! (edited to add on 8/05)

From [info]sailormur, the author herself,

Thank you for the write-up! I do want to mention that people can download the entire book in audio form for free, if they’d like to preview the book.

Very much appreciate the post! Thanks for the support!

So, yeah, go check out Mighty Mur.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Changes… feel free to skip

2 August 2008 By Leave a Comment

I am far from religious… or even what I would call spiritual. That said, I am going to try to make an effort to have a more wholesome household. What does that have to do with religion? I have had a lot of exposure to Orthodox Judaism, and they seem so happy, it spills over to their families. I am not saying the mothers don’t have the same stresses non-religious mothers have, but in my mind, that happiness, that… Je ne sais quoi, tends to go hand-in-hand with God. Being as I am at odds with God, god, and that guy over there right now, I am not interested in bringing religion into the picture, not in the daily sense.

I want to stop yelling. I want to stop losing control of myself, and by virtue of that, my family. I want to have my day planned out the night before. I want my home to be “company ready” all the time. I want to de-clutter. I am going to start scaling back, minimizing, zen, if you will. I want to be free of our possessions… to the extent we can be. I like having certain things, so to be able to pack into a bag is unrealistic. I want to pare down our clothing to fit in our drawers. I want to not be overwhelmed so very often. I want to pare down. In that vein, I’ve started two lists for every month. Stuff I want to buy, and stuff I bought. Stuff I want to buy will be kept for the month and re-evaluated the following month. Stuff I bought will be re-evaluated and see if it was something I needed or a useless impulse buy. I am trying to work on my spending.

This could go on and on, but it wont. I am just making a declaration for myself. I’ve done very well on my raw food diet. I have one meal that isn’t raw a day, the rest is raw goodness. Some days I don’t have a non-raw meal. I am pleased with my progress. I have to say, I notice I feel different on days I backslide and eat too much in the way of cooked foods. My stomach hurts and I just feel bad. It could be in my head, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not.

On the subject, I am also going to try very hard to stop “I can do it/start tomorrow” and turn tomorrow into today. I always put things off, thinking there is time tomorrow.

Tomorrow (because it’s 8PM and my kids are in bed… or should be) I am going to go bike riding with my kids. And we’re going to play in the pool outside (just a little wading pool) and I am going to measure for my raised planting beds. I can’t buy the lumber until next weekend, but a little planning can’t hurt, right?

Filed Under: Philosophy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

a family undertaking

5 July 2008 By 1 Comment

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2004/afamilyundertaking

The parlor, or “death room,” was an important part of funerary rituals for most of the 19th century, the place where deceased family members were laid out for final respects. This image dates to c. 1890-1905, a time when many funerals were still taking place at home. Soon, however, death would begin to leave the home and by end of World War I most Americans will receive their health care in doctor’s offices and hospitals and most funerals will take place in funeral homes. As the funeral “parlor” came into vogue, the home parlor was rechristened a “living room.” A 1910 issue of Ladies Home Journal declared the “death room” to be a term of the past.

interesting to read this, mainly because we have had two people, literally, deathly ill in our living room, each died in there. I never knew that what I grew up calling the “living room” used to be the “death room.” How very. Perhaps the death room is going to come back into vogue? Perhaps it is just more… natural? I fought for both of them to be brought home, to be allowed to die surrounded by their loved ones, in a setting that some part of their brain might still recognize as home. Or maybe it is just more comforting to those of us who are being left behind.

Filed Under: Philosophy Tagged With: , , , , ,
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