Well, it’s a good thing we’re healthy. Thank the Lord. I’ve never been much for doctors, but as I get older I do need a bit more dental care. And the aches and pains seem to come on a bit more frequently! Most of what we need for good health comes from a healthy diet and good lifestyle decisions, I think. It’s a good thing because I recently read that health care costs have skyrocketed. According to a report by MSNBC News, outpatient visits rose 10 percent in the past YEAR. What the?

I don’t understand why health care is so, so expensive. Oh sure, doctors spend a lot of money on education and need to recoup that. Sure. And big techno machines are expensive to make (even in China) and they use up resources, sure. But take something as simple as an eye exam, a wellness eye exam. That and a pair of glasses can leave you $300 in the hole. What is you have a family of 4 or more? So no wonder people are searching for inexpensive health care coverage. Yow.

What do you think? Have you been affected by the increase in health care costs? Are you changing your lifestyle in any way, to avoid such expenses? The media portrays us as dumb oxen, continuing on in self-destructive lifestyles and swallowing the costs. What do you think?

And have you ever wondered where that phrase “healthy as a horse” came from?

If it wasn’t for my good pal Karen, I would have gone through this ENTIRE day not realizing what an important holiday it is! Hey, to us smooth-skinned homo sapiens, it’s not much to toot about, but to our furry friends, National “Hairball Awareness” Day is right up there with National “Change the Litter Box” Month and “Take Your Cat to Work Day”!

Because I am too lazy to write a new post To celebrate this momentous day, I thought I’d present a little blast from the past. I wrote this on my home improvement blog a few years ago. It was SO memorable that I thought I’d include it here for posterity!

Have a GREAT HAIRBALL AWARENESS Day, peeps! I hope you become aware of many a hairball on this grand day!

***

You know it’s going to be “one of those days” when you’re on the phone, making a VERY IMPORTANT phone call looking for employment, and the cat decides to choose THIS moment and THIS room to hack up her hairball. Yep.

So I’m on the phone, exchanging pleasantries with the secretary, and Livvy saunters in. Suddenly and without warning, she starts that HORRID retching sound. I’m trying to remain cool on the phone, but am frantically signalling for my son to GET THAT CAT OUTTA THE ROOM. His eyes grow big as he realizes what’s going on, then starts calling loudly, “Livvy! LIVVY! You got a hairball? Come here!! Come on!”

The kitty leaves the room, WHEW. I finish the call and hang up the phone…. and all is quiet. Preoccupied, I call the next telephone number in my list. Lo and behold, the cat walks back into the room and STARTS UP again! GAH!

And I don’t know if it is the bizarreness (is that a word?) of the moment, but my cockatiel then starts a huge commotion, squeaking and clacking in his cage…. ????

I’m doomed to be unemployed… the animals are against me….

I found an interesting test (thanks for the link, Karen!) that tests how quickly you read AND comprehend. I think it’s a pretty cool test. Here are my results:

I do read pretty fast, but not because I am good at reading– I am terribly impatient! I often skim a page quickly to absorb all the verbs (action) and move on. And some books I read slower than others, some I read faster. It all depends.

Cute quiz, though. I thought it was well done and it’s certainly informative! Take the Staples How Fast Do You Read test.

1. Describe yourself in 7 words.
Enthusiastic, pensive, curious, a “religious fanatic” (to quote my non-fanatic relatives), anxious, organized.

2. What keeps you up at night?
Good heavens, what doesn’t? I’m a mom. I haven’t slept well since before my firstborn, lol. Well, maybe that week I was on narcotics for back pain, that was some deep sleep…..
:jittery:

3. Who would I like to be?
A better me.

4. What am I wearing now?
Blue polo shirt, sweat pants. I’m going to go to the church to help clean the building today. I’m also very proud to say that I am wearing TWO socks with no holes in them!! (I am terrible about buying new clothes for myself so I usually wear them out first. And Livvy has lately been snagging my feet as I walk by, causing my socks to develop holes, ugh).

5. What scares me?
Anarchy.

6. The best and worst of blogging.
Best: building and designing the template; writing those first new posts; making new friends; when friends leave me loads and loads of comments (hint hint).
Worst: PageRank and Google’s underhanded control of the what we see on the Internet; the competition; technical problems; spammers and trolls.

7. The last website I visited.
Well, it was probably Photobucket to get that Tag image uploaded… before that, it was Karen’s blog to see the questions…. before that it was.. WKTV News.

8. What is the one thing I would change about myself?
I wish I tended to see the glass more “full” than “empty.” I was trained very early on to always be cautious, always be suspicious, and while this is OK for a soldier or in a pogrom, I tend to miss out on the joys of life.

9. Slankets: yes or no?
What the heck?

10. Tell us something about the person that tagged you.
Karen is such a sincere, straightforward, happy person. That’s probably why I like her so much. She’s easy to be friends with. She likes to “scratch below the surface of things.” I also like her “Things I Learned This Week” posts because I also like to learn new things.

So now comes the part where I tag others (insert creepy organ music)… I hesitate to directly tag folks just because some bloggers have a decidedly strong aversion to memes and because so many of my pals have been tagged previously. So if you are reading this and you have not done this post, consider yourself tagged! How’s that for the easy way out, huh?

Let me know if you play because I would love to read your answers!

*snicker*

Enjoi. And Merry Christmas.

***

From the Email Bin:

I recently asked my friends’ little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President of the United States. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there. So I asked her, “If you were President, what would be the first thing you would do?”

She replied, “I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.” Her parents proudly beamed.

“Wow…what a worthy goal,” I told her. “But you don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that. Tell you what – you can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my driveway, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house. How about doing something wonderful like that?”

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?”

I said, “Welcome to the Republican Conservative Tea Party.”

Her parents still aren’t speaking to me.

***

Disclaimer (*sigh*): Just so you know, my comments here are my OPINIONS and are not reviews of any of these apps. This post is in good fun with a sprinkling of common sense mixed in. If you have no sense of humor and are offended easily, you probably want to stop right now and go visit Elmo’s website or Dora the Explorer or something. thank you.

10. Stalqer
I don’t know if this app is available anymore. I looked in the App Store and couldn’t find it. Maybe Apple removed it for, um, obvious reasons… read on…

Stalqer is an app that shows you the current location of your Facebook friends. The ADDRESS location. Like, if your buddy Henry is two blocks away, the app will display Henry’s face and report that Henry is currently at 123 Main Street right now. And the worst part? Others can track you in real time, without your specific Stalqer approval. You don’t have to approve or “opt in” to Stalqer to get on someone’s stalking list– all you need to be is friends with someone on Facebook. Stalqer tracks your location every time you check your email on your phone.

… Yeah, it’s gone. I checked the Stalqer website and the domain is up for sale.

I just have a little question about this…. Stalqer worked because it pulled location data from Facebook locations, so…. even though Stalqer is gone, why does Facebook still track us?

9. MirrorMe
As if we don’t have enough to worry about with global nuclear annihilation, global bankers taking over the world economies, and those holiday pounds we need to shed, there’s MirrorMe. This app shows you what your corpse will look like! How’s that for classy, huh? You can enter in data every day, like how many greasy bacon cheeseburgers you eat, how little sleep you get, how often you get stoned or drunk, and how much you worry about your hangnails… MirrorMe will tabulate all the data and produce an image of what you’ll look like as you age and your death image when you keel over. Some people market this as one of those “this is a good app to make you more aware of your choices.” If people need to see what their DEATH will look like before they make good choices, Lord help them. P.S. People actually paid MONEY for this app. :blink:

8. iFart
I know I really don’t need to elaborate with any explanation on this app. The name says it all: “I’m a moron.” You can choose what “type” of…. *ahem* noise you want to make (Brown Mosquito, Bombadier, and Bye Granny, and The Muffler are just a few of the classiest selections). This app is actually 99 cents in the App Store. It has 21963 Ratings. :-? Unbelievable.

7. Virtual Girlfriend
Not considerate, sensitive or friendly enough to get a real girlfriend? Why bother when there’s the Virtual Girlfriend app! I imagine that the smart guys who have to buy this app had previously purchased creepy app #8….. This app creates a hot babe, a “virtual girlfriend.” Actually, there are a whole bunch of these types of apps at the App Store. What the heck?! Anyway, this app allows you to pick and choose your girl’s best features (next best thing to plastic surgery, I guess). The image will appear on your iPhone screen. You can then place your iPhone on your pillow at night and gaze into her lifeless eyes as she “gently breathes.” JUST.TOO.WEIRD.

6. Love is Not Abuse
This app, supposedly to *help* teenagers realize the dangers of bad relationships, actually does a great job creeping you out. It’s marketed for parents and “simulates the abuse that many teens endure in their dating relationships.” All day and all night on a constant basis, you can throw a “Freaky Friday” moment on yourself and get texts, emails and phone calls from a virtual abusive boyfriend or girlfriend. Yay.

In all seriousness, I realize this app has good intentions: to make parents aware of the stressful lives that dating teens face. But I have an even better idea: don’t let your kids date! Who was the jerk who invented teen dating, anyway?! I once heard a very wise lady say that “nothing good ever comes from teen dating.” I agree. I was a teen, once, so I remember. I don’t think kids need to “practice love” before they get married. For thousands of years, parents have kept a strict watch on their kids’ friends and relationships and it’s really only been the past 40 years that teens have been allowed enormous freedoms. I haven’t seen any benefit, and as a matter of fact it appears that relationship interactions have tanked lower and lower ever since…..

5. Annoy-a-Teen
This app actually doesn’t look too bad…. I MEAN– er, terrible, terrible! This app emits very high frequency pitches at varying pulses or tempos that only teens can allegedly hear. I did hear some of the sounds. Check out the video I found and see if you can hear any of the sounds.

I could see a good use for this app, yes.

4. Creepy Dolls
If creepy app #7 doesn’t appeal to you, maybe try this one. This app allows you to create images of various girls’ dolls– you know, the “Mama” kind of Chuckie doll — and add grotesque and disgusting features like fake teeth, creepy skin coloring, and more. oooooooooooooooooooooook.

3. iVomit
Here’s another winner from the App Store, yes indeedy. You can select various “flavors” and “textures” and away you go. I wonder if there’s a bulk discount if you get this app and end up having to get creepy app #7, as they would seem to go hand in hand….

2. Creepy
Well, at least they’re honest. The app is aptly named. Creepy uses your photo data from Twitter and Flickr to pinpoint your location. Called a “geolocation information aggregator,” Creepy creates a full-fledged map history of where you’ve been. Didn’t you know that your camera harvests your location data when you snap that photo? Yes, indeed! Flickr and Twitter harvest it; Creepy just shows it. Regular digital cameras AND smartphone cameras collect the geolocation of every photo you take. Gee, it’s amazing what these nifty little devices can do, isn’t it?

1. Carrier IQ
Carrier IQ is not an app. Oh, it’s in the smartphones. Like the Hotel California, you can check in any time you want, but you can never leave. Carrier IQ is a rootkit, a secret software program that stealthily records your activity on the smartphone and uploads that data. I blogged about it on my tech blog, TheOlderGeek.com. The iPhone allows you to turn it off (so they say), but Android users are screwed. Even when you “opt out” of data logging, it never logs you out. Nobody knows who is mining all this data and what its purpose is. Now THAT’S CREEPY.

Well, folks, don’t thank me! It’s my pleasure to help you decide what apps to avoid!

1. When I ___ I feel that ___ paid off.

When I am tired or very busy and the kids pitch in with the housework or renovation work, I feel that all that childrearing paid off. I had all four kids in my 20s, a kid just about every other year. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh it was tough. But now that they are older, it was SO worth all those pukefests, dirty diapers, baby food slinging, and 3am feedings. Well… the 3am feedings and pukefests weren’t so worth it. But I survived!!!!!

2. I just realized that____.

I just realized that it’s Friday. ON Friday. Kind of a big deal for me. It’s like a whole extra day!

3. My _______ come from _______.

My ancestry comes from England, Scotland, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands. I am a true melting pot, American mongrel mix. Where do your ancestors come from?

4. If I had _____, I would ______.

If I had more money, I would pay off the debt IN A FLASH. I hate reading the news headlines because they make me SO nervous about the economy. I know God will provide- He’s never let us starve!- but I hate the debt. Can’t wait to have it paid off.

That’s it for today! How’s your Friday going?

No one knows why starlings (also called grackles) flock together like this. There’s even a special name for it: murmuration. The results is a breath-taking black ballet in the sky.

Some girls were paddling along the River Shannon in Ireland and happened to catch starlings in action. You can hear them gasping in awe during the birds’ formations. Wow!

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

According to Wired.com,

Starling flocks, it turns out, are best described with equations of “critical transitions” — systems that are poised to tip, to be almost instantly and completely transformed, like metals becoming magnetized or liquid turning to gas. Each starling in a flock is connected to every other. When a flock turns in unison, it’s a phase transition.

Well, we already know what it’s like. But WHY do they do it? I think this is more difficult to answer, something that probably goes beyond mere biology.

The contest is sponsored by me :D and it’s at my New York Travel Blog. Please check it out– the tickets are a $50 value! Not too bad for a weekend of New York food.

1. I am afraid of____.
Ugh. No comment. I’ve been trying to avoid the news headlines….. I am in a good mood right now so I’ll just skip over to #2 if you don’t mind!

2. My ___ is my favorite room of my house.
My kitchen. We renovated it in 2010. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears, I tell ya. But it was worth it. I know most of you have seen the BEFORE and AFTER photos, but for those of you who haven’t, here is what my kitchen looked like before:

And after, standing in the same spot:

Yeah, it shocks me, too. LOL. I can’t believe we lived with that kitchen for 10+years. Now all we have left to do are the bathrooms, the upstairs bedrooms and the garage!

3. The last time I _____ I couldn’t ______.

The last time I bought printer toner, I couldn’t believe how expensive it was! Because we homeschool, I print a lot of worksheets for the kids. YOW that toner is expensive. And don’t get me going on the cost of a new printer drum. It’s cheaper to buy a BRAND NEW printer because the new ones come equipped with a new drum and a small starter unit of toner. I cannot fathom why that stuff is so expensive. Car Shipping in not that expensive. I think the printer companies are shafting us. Whew.

4. I got my first _____ when I was ____.
I got my first car when I was 20. I got my car about 4 months before I got my driver’s license. Don’t tell anyone, but I drove without a license for a while, hee hee. I have NO IDEA how I ever got car insurance before getting my license — did I even have insurance? Don’t you have to have your license before a company will insure you? I can’t remember. I was so naive when I was younger. I knew nothing about taxes, insurance, Auto Transport Quotes, how to balance a checkbook, nothing. I learned it all after I got married.

How would you fill these out, friends! Check out Hilary’s blog! Have a great weekend.