Getting Lost on the Internet: Confessions of an Easily Distracted Human Being

One of the hazards of the Internet is the ease with which one can join a site, participate in it, then lose track of it, only to stumble across things again.  About two and one-half years ago I posted 4 videos to YouTube.  Life intervened, sending me down another path.   Months passed.  Memory faded.  I knew the videos were on YouTube, I just couldn't locate them again!  So I started another YouTube account.  

Of my original uploads, one had to do with my use of the Critter to make pulp for papermaking, another one was about our honeybees (who have since swarmed off into the wild blue yonder), and two more videos which were posted during the high gasoline prices a couple of years back.

The links to my "forgotten" videos are below.  I only found them because someone made a comment about one of the videos and through that comment I found my "lost" videos! Thank you, kind someone. (Some might think the video clips deserved to stay lost, but it was like seeing old friends again for me.)

Maiden Run of the Critter

Honeybees in southwest Oklahoma

Saving gasoline in Rural Oklahoma, Part I

Saving gasoline in Rural Oklahoma, Part II

Even if there isn't climate change or global warming . . .

What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? (Henry David Thoreau)

Short post today.  Just this:  even if Inhofe and all the other naysayers are right (which they aren't), but let's pretend - even if they are and there is no climate change/global warming, wouldn't it be better for the world, especially the United States of America, if we all lived as if there were climate change/global warming?

What is the harm of converting automobiles to cleaner fuel?  What is the harm of walking or bicycling more?  What is the harm of taking public transportation? What is the harm of reducing factory emissions?  What is the harm of cleaner water?  What is the harm of discovering alternative ways to heat our homes?

What is the harm of living as if there really is global warming/climate change?  (And there is climate change/global warming.)

Education in Oklahoma

Last night the Oklahoma City school board adopted a new calendar.  This coming school year -- 2011/2012 -- will begin August 1 and end June 1.  The Oklahoma City school board is referring to this new school calendar as "continuous learning."  I was heartened by this development until I read further into the article (which is in today's The Oklahoman).  The amount of days in the school calendar remains the same -- 173.  The days have just been redistributed. 

Why not add more days?  Apparently the Indianapolis Public Schools adopted a similar calendar, except they added 20 more days.  Hooray for Indianapolis!  Smart people.

You know why Oklahoma City didn't add more days?  That would mean paying teachers more.  Heaven forbid that Oklahoma should increase teachers' salaries.

Oklahoma gives lip service to wanting better education for our children, but when it comes to putting our money where our mouth is, we shut our pocketbooks and close our checkbooks, refusing to pay more in taxes.  Taxes should be called "life enhancements." (See my previous post regarding life enhancements.)

Don't you want your child to do better in life than you did?

A Somber Anniversary: Bush v Gore

"But don't you just want this election to be over?  Don't you just want a president?" said my boss after the November 2000 presidential election and during the Florida recount. 

And, ten years later, here we are.  A president who was given the office by the Supreme Court in 2000 did change the course of history and, in my opinion, not for the good.  This is a sad anniversary indeed.

This country's impatience will shoot us in our collective feet everytime!

Reference: December 6, 2010's Jeffrey Toobin article in The New Yorker

Also, an analysis on NPR this morning. Listen.

The Grinch and Sunflowers in December

There is no reason for the posting of this picture of the sunflowers I grew one summer other than that they provide a wonderful contrast to the Grinch.  Sunflowers are such happy flowers, don't you think?

This morning while I was relaxing with the newspaper and a cup of coffee, I came across an article in today's The Oklahoman.  I didn't stay relaxed very long.  The headline read "Dallas church's site reports 'Grinches'." The article is by Sam Hodges of The Dallas Morning News. There is a web site developed by the First Baptist Church of Dallas where people can "report" businesses who don't greet them with "Merry Christmas."  I visited the site just to see what people were saying.  For some reason, I was reminded of my grade school days and tattling.

Businesses are commercial.  Christmas is a celebration of a religious event.  Gift giving is something that has grown by leaps and bounds as the years have passed.  The spirituality of the event is long gone and requiring our business owners to greet us with "Merry Christmas" or we won't give them any of our green stuff will not bring that spirituality back. Christmas is a commercial event.  Some businesses make upwards of 70 per cent of their total yearly profits at this time of year.

To penalize a business because they don't greet a shopper with "Merry Christmas" is ridiculous.  The Grinch web site doesn't even like "Happy Holidays" as a greeting even though the word holiday is a combination of the words "holy" and "day."  The word "holiday" is Middle English derived from the Old English word haligdaeg. (Source for my reference.)


One complainant on the web site mentioned that she hadn't been able to find any gift bags with the manger scene printed on the gift bags.  Huh???


And as William Lawrence, dean of the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University pointed out in the article, "The appropriate thing for Christians to do at this time of year is to find new and more effective ways to extend the love and peace of the season to others, not to insist that such enterprises as commercial businesses put  up Christmas trees."


Poor Dr. Seuss.  I'm sure he never imagined his beloved Grinch being used in such a manner.  But then, I guess the pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas is enjoying all the publicity.

Ford, you need to do better!

Sunrise, 10 Dec 2010 at 7:27 a.m.

According to my latest mailing from the Union of Concerned Scientists, of which I am a member (I am not a scientist, but I am concerned), Ford, GM and Chrysler are at the bottom of the UCS’s Automaker Rankings 2010 report.  (The full report can be viewed at www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles)  The rankings were based on average per-mile smog and global warming emissions.  The higher the score, the more the vehicles polluted the atmosphere.

Ford came in just over the industry average at 108. Only GM and Chrysler ranked below Ford. Why am I concerned about Ford?  We drive a Ford.  A lot of people drive Fords.  People drive Fords because they are affordable and, for the most part, dependable.

Honda and Toyota were at the top of the rankings.  Their cars contributed the least amount of pollution to our atmosphere.

In the United States, passenger vehicles account for about 20 percent of US global warming emissions.  Here in my flyover state, we love our cars.  We bought a Ford Freestar van in 2006, before the economic debacle and the rising gasoline prices.  We did it solely because we have five grandchildren whom we like to take on little trips. We didn’t buy a Honda Odyssey because we could not afford a Honda Odyssey.  We can afford a Ford.

Ford needs to up its game and produce cleaner automobiles, while maintaining an affordable price.  Come on, Ford, you can do it.  You are the world's fourth largest automaker.  You have been around over 100 years.  We know you can do better than your current performance.

Sunrises and Slowing Down

Look at the gorgeous sunrise this morning.  Our Oklahoma skies are always so beautiful before the storm arrives!

In the December 6, 2010 issue of The New Yorker, in its "The Talk of the Town" section appears an article by Ian  Parker about Rod King, the founder of "20's Plenty for Us."   A resident of Warrington, Cheshire, UK, Mr. King recently visited New York to deliver a speech at an anti-speeding conference.  (The entire article can be viewed at The New Yorker)  


It is good to know that somewhere out there is another person who believes that slowing down is a good thing and a safe thing to do.

This morning on our local news, there was a report of gasoline prices going up, up, up.  And that report reminded me of where we all were a couple of years ago with a gallon of gasoline kissing the $4.00 mark.  The tax rebate that Bush sent out was spent by us on a three wheeled bicycle. We really believed that we would be cycling to the nearest town to get essentials.

Our three wheeled bicycle that we bought with
Bush's tax rebate.

In the USA, Tim Castleman has a web site, drive55.org, which advocates the adoption of a national 55 mph speed limit.   I am in favor of this.  In addition to improving safety on the roads, the 55 mph speed limit goes a long way toward conserving our dwindling oil supplies.

However, after the last gas crunch was over, Okies went back to purchasing behemoth vehicles and flying down the highways and byways.  Our more talented Okie drivers can do this while texting, eating, and running  DVD players in their behemoth vehicles.  When we are tootling home on I-44 in the evenings, SUVs will flash past us, their DVD screens flickering in the night.  Doesn't anyone want to look out the window anymore?  Hey, it's okay to be bored once in a while.  Our lives are filled with constant entertainment, leaving little time for reflection. But I digress.

I wish Mr. King well in his advocacy of 20 miles per hour in residential areas. Nothing is more important than a life.  A life cannot be replaced;  it can be snuffed  out in a moment through the negligence of inattentive and speeding drivers.

See my earlier post on walking and cycling in a flyover state.

Solar Power

Previously on this blog I have written about how we were without power for 11 days earlier in 2010 because of a horrific ice storm. (See Ice Storm of January 2010) While we had talked about alternative power sources before the ice storm, we never actually did anything about it -- it was just talk.  Then when everything went dark and cold for over a week, we decided to make changes as soon as we were on our feet again.

My husband says that we are too far along in life to try wind power even though we live in one of the windiest states in the nation and we live out in the middle of a cow pasture.  But he's right.  The start up costs for wind power are prohibitive for ordinary people, which is a shame.  Start up costs are at least $20,000 -- and that's doing it yourself.

However, Harbor Freight had a deal on solar panels and my husband thought we would experiment with that idea.  In addition to living in one of the windiest states, we also live in a very sunny part of our state.  He ordered the panels and they arrived promptly.  Then he found a video produced by user GoatHollow on YouTube which we found helpful and entertaining about installing and using solar panels from Harbor Freight.
Thank you, GoatHollow!

My husband built a frame for the panels and we installed them on top of my little house, "Summersgaze."  Right now the solar panels are powering two lights and my husband is also using the panels to recharge different batteries around our place.  We are pleased with the solar panels and if our little experiment continues to work, we may purchase more.

A box full of three solar panels from Harbor Freight

My husband installing panels on roof of Summersgaze.
I helped him lift the panels onto the roof.