Ok, so I’ve been annoying my husband and son.  Since I’m not in the mood for Christmas, I’ve been trying to watch Christmas specials to find the Christmas spirit.  They would rather not watch all of the Santa Clause movies… I’m trying to figure out where I can watch the Rankin/Bass movies that we watched as kids… You know, the Rudolph and Frosty movies. 

Honestly, even though I’m trying to fnd the holiday spirit, it’s hard.  It might be because I miss my dad a lot more this year.  It might be because my grandma died this year.  It might be because I went to 2 funerals in 4 months.  It might be because I can’t see my family this year and I had my hopes up that I’d see them sometime this year, for my niece’s wedding if not for the holidays.  Or it might be all of these reasons. 

Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot to be thankful for.  I have a stable job, even if I don’t particularly care for what I do, the company is still doing well.  My husband has a stable job, since his employer makes things for the oil and natural gas industry, his job is not going to go away.  I have a mostly healthy husband and three healthy kids, one of whom has turned out far better than I would have expected when I was single and having so much trouble with him.  He’s on track to be a marine and though that scares me, I’m still proud of him.  I try to tell him at least once a week that I’m proud how he’s become more responsible.

I have several good friends, and though I met most of these friends through the Internet, I know I can talk to them about anything and they’ll listen and give me advice or a kick in the rear if I need it.  I also reconnected with a very dear friend this year, and I’m thankful for that too.  He knows me a hell of a lot better than I would have expected 10 years ago.

My sister and I have gotten very close since 2003, and that makes me happy.  I only wish we hadn’t lost so many years with the stupid sibling rivalry.  

I’ve also been making money writing.  Not a lot, but some.  It proves to me that I know how to write, so I need to do more to focus on that.  Granted, I know that I’m not going to be able to make a living out of writing books unless I get a really lucky break (like JK Rowling), but I can work at it. 

So, what are you thankful for?  There has to be some good in everyone’s life somewhere.  Another day above ground is a good day.  I know my kids are thankful I’m still around.  Even the snappish 17 year old trying to break away from mom.

FDA Draws Fire Over Chemicals in Baby Formula (Opens in a New Window)

This is just scary.  With the problems in China with infants hospitalized because of melamine in baby formula, the FDA said that there was no safe level of Melamine.  That is until they tested the formulas here in the US.  Now, they’re saying it’s safe under 1 ppm. 

 So, they’re allowing us to poison our most precious asset, our helpless, dependent infants.  That’s really comforting, isn’t it?  Sometimes I wonder what these people are thinking in saying that stuff is safe with no scientific evidence to support their statements?  I mean they’re doing the same with BPA in bottles… instead the manufacturers have removed BPA from the bottles on their own. 

It’s possible the backlash is going to get the formula manufacturers to pay more attention to their formula.  I would certainly hope so.

Just a note before I start with today’s entry, I’m aware that thewoodedglen.com is down.  I should be able to get it fixed tomorrow. 

 So when I opened my Yahoo! email last night, I saw that the Fed (namely Paulson) is against a bailout for the automakers.  Honestly, this makes me crabby.  It was so imperative that we bail out Wall Street, for the “trickle down” effects.  The banks needed the bail out so that they could keep lending… uhh yea, they’re tightening the lending standards so much that if you don’t have perfect credit, you cannot borrow anything!

 Which leads to the problem that the “Big 3” automakers are having.  They can’t get the credit they need to advance money to their suppliers, so they are close to declaring bankruptcy.  Ultimately, this will mean more than 3 million people out of work.  That’s the people who work directly for the automakers, their suppliers and the various support companies.  A friend of mine in MI is looking at the possibility of losing her job because the company she works for deals with GM. 

Yet, Paulson doesn’t want to bail out the automakers.  Anyone who is against unions is saying that it’s the fault of the UAW.  Uhh yea, ok, the unions are the reason that the automakers have been focusing on the SUV’s and Hummers.  When reading a different article today, I saw an interesting opinion article on the bailout.  I agree with the author of the article, in the long run, it will be cheaper to bail out the automakers.  Otherwise, when they declare bankruptcy, we’ll have to pay unemployment benefits to these 3+ million employees who will be affected by the bankruptcies.

http://suicidegirls.com/news/politics/23423/ (suicidegirls.com is an adult themed website, but they have some interesting articles at times, additionally, you will find that the language could stand to be improved)

Some of the comments in the article point out a few other things that should be considered.  If GM declares bankruptcy, then a Chinese based company could “inherit” the technology they’ve developed, including the plug in technology for an electric car.  Then we’d have to apply to this Chinese company to be able to use the technology in our cars.

I was lucky, no one said a word either way at my work, even though I’m in a very Republican state. I expected to hear a lot of sour grapes, but I didn’t hear anything.

On the other hand, some online friends of mine are upset. They think that Obama’s tax plan is going to make the economy tank worse. My feeling is that any changes he makes to the tax code are going to have to go through congress. The Democrats don’t have enough of a majority to push anything through without the support of at least a few Republicans.

People are talking as if the president has the sole power to make our country great or break it down. We have a system of checks and balances for a reason. Plus, though our government may affect others impression of our country (ie France, Australia or the UK), we are all able to make changes to make things better or worse. Each time people demand that our government work on other energy sources, we have a say in how our country operates. No, it’s not as much power as we used to have, but people have chosen to not do as much to curb our government and this is where we’ve ended up. We need to learn to band together and take back our rights as citizens.  Our country was founded on an idea.  That idea is still there, even if we don’t all agree on everything.  The whole point is to find a common ground and go from there.

I read in the comments for one of the blogs I read regularly that some people in Indiana said that the KKK would have something to say about Obama’s presidency.  Let’s hope their wrong.  We need to be united now, not divided.  The recent election was very divisive, not only between the parties, but within the Republican party.  We need to get past that.  We are all Americans.

I was talking to a friend of mine in MO last week.  She said that she’s been getting a lot of robo-calls from the Republican party.  At least one of these robo calls was recorded by Rudy Giuliani.  According to her, all of the robo calls have been nasty, mud slinging packs of lies.  Each of these robo calls has reaffirmed who she wants to vote for, and it’s not McCain. 

Another friend of mine is seriously worried about race issues if Obama wins.  She’s afraid that the KKK or the Neo-Nazis won’t like having a black president and will be out to assassinate him.  I can see that… especially after the recent arrests of those two idiotic redneck skinheads.  If he ends up assassinated, we may find the country divided like they were after OJ was accused of killing his ex-wife, or after the Rodney King tape was released. 

What I find even scarier is what’s happening in my own town.  There have been complaints that people are destroying Obama/Biden signs, that’s not the bad part.  That happens a lot during election years.  What’s disturbing is that the people who are stealing these signs are supposedly yelling racial slurs, and keying these peoples cars.  Then you have similar reports in other areas of signs being stolen and cars with McCain/Palin stickers being keyed.

Then I find myself wondering… McCain doesn’t say he’s a Christian, but Palin says she is.  From what I’ve seen of her behavior, she’s not being a very good Christian role model.  No, it’s not up to me to judge.  However, from what I know of the Bible, Christians are not supposed to talk or act like she is. 

I don’t know why, but a certain member of my husband’s family never ceases to amaze me with her behavior.  Tonight, she wanted my husband to drive her to McDonalds, even though he told her he didn’t have time before he had to leave for work.  She followed him into the bedroom as he was trying to get dressed, and she woke up my 3 yo with her repeating her demand for him to give her a ride.  She got mad because my hubby wouldn’t bring her to McDonalds.  She also told him that another member of the family is having marriage troubles, and she was smirking the whole time because she doesn’t like that person’s wife.  How, immature. 

 I really need to learn to get past her behavior.  She just doesn’t think about anyone else, not even her own daughter, that’s just how she is.  Kinda like when I’m talking to members of my family about other members of my family, I’ll say that’s just how she is, or that’s just how he is.  But their behavior isn’t selfish, more stubborn and set in their ways. 

Email from OK Senator Coburn (Opens in a new window)

Well, after several weeks, I got an answer from OK Senator Tom Coburn about the bailout bill.  Jim Inhofe, who is the Republican incumbent for the senate has a political ad saying that he voted against the bill (of course the ad is attacking the guy running against him, but that’s another matter entirely). 

 I found it interesting that Senator Coburn stated why he voted for the bill, and he says that we should be pointing fingers at Congress for the issues that have lead up to the need for the bailout.  I thought the email was a good read and others might like to see what a Republican senator thought about the bailout.  Granted, some of what he said seems to be regular political rhetoric, but the rest is interesting.

Because there has been too much focusing lately on the economic problems. 

Funny Videos

http://www.naturalnews.com/024461.html (Opens in a new window)

Research is showing that younger and younger girls are having problems with body image. In the above article, it’s suggested that girls get a poor body image from their mothers.  Women who go on crash diets and focus entirely on losing weight or how fat they think they are, even the innocent or not so innocent little comments to their kids about not eating too many sweets because they’ll get fat?

That’s damaging to a girl’s self image.  My ex’s daughter had self image issues.  Her aunts used to tell her that if she didn’t watch what she ate, she’d end up as fat as her father was.  Because of this, she had eating issues.  She’d chew on the same bite of food for up to 5 minutes at a time, or hide the food in her cheek instead of swallowing it.  I always felt bad about yelling at her for this, but I didn’t know how else to handle it.  In the meantime, when she was at our house for the weekend, he and I tried to make sure she didn’t sit in front of the tv all the time like she did at home.  Of course, it meant she needed to be constantly entertained because she didn’t know how to entertain herself without sitting in front of the tv. 🙁

I look at my daughter now, and listen to her.  I know I’m unhealthy and need to lose weight, but I don’t see her reflecting this in her own body image.  I put her hair up in the morning and she runs to tell her daddy that she looks beautiful.  She’s always wanting to look at herself in the mirror.  She will also freely tell anyone that’ll listen that I’m beautiful.  I guess in a way I am, when seen through the eyes of a little girl who looks up to her mommy and wants to be like her.

I try to keep her active and eating balanced meals.  I know this is something I’ll have to work at as she grows, I know I need to work on it for myself too.  I need to start being more active and eating healthier foods.  I will soon have 2 kids under 5, and I want to be there for them.  Since my husband chooses not to take care of his diabetes, then I need to do everything I can to make sure I stay healthy for these kids.  I also want to be around for my older son.  He graduates this year, but he still needs his mom. 

All of us need to focus on the good in ourselves instead of the bad.  So, maybe I’m not good at standing up to people who disagree with me.  I am still a geek.  I still know computers, and I still like science fiction.  That doesn’t meant that I’m a bad person.  You have to weigh all of your good and bad traits.  Focus on the good ones, work on improving the bad ones. 

 As for me, once the baby is born, I’ll be focusing on getting healthy for all three of my kids.

I know I said before that the CEO of the company I work for gave a “state of the company” presentation last month or the month before.  He spoke about how our company is not affected by the economic downturn, that the company’s sales are still increasing.  Since we sell to stores like Sonic (and that’s one that he gave as an example), the company’s sales will continue to increase. 

 However, according to Forbes, same-store sales for Sonic were positive for franchised drive-ins, but negative for partner locations, leading to an overall negative same store sales outlook.  They’re also blaming softening consumer spending and increased prices.  Hmmm… that doesn’t sound too positive for the company I’m working for 😛

Let’s add to this whole situation with more interesting news in the disconnect between perception and reality.  The company I work for offers downpayment assistance for first time homebuyers.  To get this assistance, we have to complete a homebuyer workshop put on by the local community development office.  At this workshop, they were saying that we have a negative unemployment rate in this city, that we are importing workers because there aren’t enough people here who need a job. 

Another benefit the company offers is an interest free emergency loan once a year.  For example, if you get a cut-off notice for your electric bill, then you can get a loan to pay it, and they’ll take the money out of your paycheck.  However, to defeat the purpose of it being an emergency loan, they are now running out of money before it actually becomes available.  I was asking about it at the beginning of September, and they said they were out of money until October 7.  I called and asked on Friday, and they said they were out until November 7, but I had to fill out an application now if I wanted money in November.  Umm yea, that makes sense… I always understood it to be an emergency loan.  Obviously things aren’t going as well here in town as was implied by the homebuyer workshop.

To make it even more interesting, at the homebuyer workshop, they fully admitted that there is an affordable housing shortage here.  With what the companies in town pay, most people can only afford houses that cost under $60k or so… all of which get snapped up almost as quickly as they’re put on the market.  For rentals, it’s almost impossible to find one that’s under $700 a month, which is out of the price range of most of people in town. 

Yea, the forecast that we’re not going to be affected by this downturn is wrong.  I know we’ll get through it.  It’s just going to be a rough ride for awhile.  There’s always a plan in what happens, we just need to wait and see what it is.  In the meantime, I just find it ironic that so many company executives seem to think that things aren’t as bad as they are for their employees.  That’s the real disconnect.