Join a community commitment to make a thing a day
for the month of February. "knit cook draw paint sodier (sic) write
install destroy invent document" are presented as ideas to demonstrate
that anything goes.

I'll see you there.

Here's a secret:  I'm obsessed with sticker pictures.  I have a collection of over 100 sticker pic sets   Not so much lately, because no one ever wants to do it anymore!!  .. But here are some recent ones taken in the $10.00 type sticker booths.

Me and teh boyfriend.
Top left:  The poop is too shiny!!!

San Francisco Trip
We're just goofballs.

 
CUE!!
You can't tell, but I was suffering from the flu here.

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Would you rather be paid money to do fairly engaging, but very challenging work... Or would you rather do [for the same amount of money] brainless, but somewhat tedious work?

Most days, I like the government -- we need it for a reason... But some things make me feel like this country's going straight to hell.  I heard about this mandate on the radio... I couldn't believe my ears...


Big Brother to control thermostats in homes?

Proposed mandate would grant utility companies unlimited remote access to regulate temperatures  

Add thermostats to the list of private property the government would like to regulate as the state of California looks to require that residents install remotely monitored temperature controls in their homes next year.

The government is seeking to limit rolling blackouts and free up electric and natural gas resources by mandating that every new heating and cooling system include a "non-removable" FM receiver. The thermostat is also capable of controlling other appliances in the house, such as electric water heaters, refrigerators, pool pumps, computers and lights in response to signals from utility companies. If contractors and residents refuse to comply with the mandate, their building permits will be denied.

The proposal, set to be considered by the commission Jan. 30, requires each thermostat to be equipped with a radio communication device to send "price signals" and automatically adjust temperature up or down 4 degrees for cooling and heating, as California's public and private utility organizations deem necessary.

Claudia Chandler, assistant executive director for the California Energy Commission, told WND the new systems would be highly beneficial to residents.

"From the Energy Commission's perspective, all we're doing is ensuring that this new technology is included in new homes instead of the older programmable technology," she said.

The Programmable Communication Thermostat, or PCT, will allow power authorities to control home temperatures while denying consumers ability to override settings during "emergency events." Nowhere in the proposal does it clarify what type of situation would qualify as an "emergency," but Chandler offered her own explanation: "An emergency is when the utilities need to implement rolling blackouts and drop load in order to be able to meet their supplies because the integrity of the grid is being jeopardized."

From this article: WorldNetDaily

I constructed these counters using nothing more than the vague idea of having a wheel-type counter that could go up to 99 (without having a bunch of tiny numbers on one wheel).  They were designed in Photoshop using a lot of printing, measuring, and cutting.

If there's enough interest, perhaps I'll post the pattern.

Counters
Materials: Heavy cardstock, two brads each, clear packing tape
Created with: Photoshop, Printer, Xacto knife, scissors

Time:
Engineering: about 3 hours [and lots of paper scraps ]
Creation of each counter: about 15 minutes

--To date, I've made about 13-15 counters

For your kind words.  In case you were wondering... I think I had/have the flu.  I didn't go to the doctors, but my symptoms were:

Fever for 3 days
All over body aches
Dry cough
Chest pain
Extreme fatigue

Today's my first day back at work... The fever's gone, but everything else is still here..   I'm just shocked I've been able to stay sitting upright for this long.  It's 10:50 and I'm already exhausted beyond words.

Only 7 more hours to go.

The range of temperatures I've been these last few days.

In today's political climate, if people on the other side of the world were to begin something akin to the holocaust, would we stop it?

By we, I mean America as a collective group.

While what's happening in places like Kenya, Burma and even the things that are happening in North Korea right now aren't exactly genocide and the killings aren't on a grand scale necessarily, I can't say they don't rile up something in my internal righteousness. 

I want to fix it.  I want to change things.  I want to do something that will make things right in the world.

But what can I do as an individual?  So, I look towards our government.  Should our government do something to help these people?  As a nation founded on Christian principles, it would seem like the resounding answer should be "Yes". --However, isn't sticking our nose into other country's business what got us into this economical rut and anti-government morale in the first place?  I doubt that America's going to step in on another country's politics again anytime soon (especially in a place where there's no oil to exploit).  That leaves.. the UN.  I think we can all agree that fixing these things is probably the job of the UN.  Too bad the UN kind of sucks.

That said, what if a situation like the Holocaust were to arise?  Do you think America would step in to stop it? Would the UN step in to help?

And when would help come?  How many people need to die before we decide that a situation isn't right, and there needs to be change?  Would we need to wait until someone attacks us before we can politically make another move, like WW2, or 911?

And if the government doesn't help -- is there anything that we as regular citizens of the world can do?

Oh yeah, and one more thing -- do economic sanctions even WORK?

From SLATE I thought these were interesting quotes:

Paul Mirengoff at righty blog Power Line thinks it's a sad day for politics:
"Iowa has given its seal of approval to (1) a one-term Senator who
stands for 'hope' and 'change' and (2) a tacky, big spending governor
who doesn't know much about foreign policy but did stay at a Holiday
Inn Express. The common demoninator here, other than a patent lack of
qualifications for the presidency, is likeability."

Jay Tea at Wizbang is all set
to welcome the candidates to his home state of New Hampshire: "I want
every voter who can to take a Democratic ballot and write in Mike
Huckabee's name. And those who will be voting in the Republican
primary, make your mark for Huckabee proudly -- then tell the ballot
workers that you misunderstood the way the ballot works and ask for a
new one, which you then mark for the candidate of your choice. (Mine's
going to be for Fred Thompson, and so should yours.)" And Vodka Pundit's Stephen Green has penned an open letter
to Iowa Republicans: "32 years ago, your Democratic brethren took one
look at Jimmy Carter -- the worst 20th Century President bar Nixon, and
the worst ex-President ever -- and declared, 'That's our man!' Three
decades later, and along comes Mike Huckabee. Same moral
pretentiousness, same gullibility on foreign affairs,
only-slightly-less toothy idiot's grin. Then you so-called Republicans
took a look at Carter's clone and said, 'That's our man, too!' "