But that’s why I haven’t felt like writing much or visiting any of your blogs. I’ll be back to my old exuberant self in a few days. :D

***

…and here comes another WordPress rant… (lol)

As much as I love WordPress blogging software, I can’t stand their propensity for issuing non-stop updates. Every couple of months, they totally revise the whole interface, removing good features and adding stupid ones. WordPress Guys– will you quit ruining WordPress?! If you want to add stuff, fine, but don’t keep removing some of the the things that we find useful! Ugh.

***

I have another reason to hate spammers, as if I didn’t have enough, lol. Because of blog comment spam, almost all blogs are now using CAPTCHA images for comments (mine included!). Because spammers have been figuring ways to get around the CAPTCHAs, the CAPTCHA software is becoming more complex. So I am finding that the CAPTCHA images are getting tougher and tougher to decipher. I may leave a looooong wonderful comment, enter the CAPTCHA and >BANG< my comment is lost because I can't figure out the dang images!!!! *sigh* I have tried the audio CAPTCHAs but those are worse. Have you ever tried audio CAPTCHAs? Try them on various blogs and you tell me if they are difficult or not.

Anyway, I am now in the habit of copying my comments to my computer keyboard before I try to publish comments. I don't think there's anything we can do. Spam is so pervasive. Why do spammers do it?! Do they really think people are going to buy their trash when they are so obtrusive and rude?

***

It rained the other day. HARD. It’s not unusual here in Upstate New York to have a January thaw, but our entire winter has basically been one big thaw.

I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop, though. We still have another 2, 3 months of winter. Reports are that Lake Ontario temperatures are unusually warmer than average. Should an arctic wind current descend from Canada across the lake, we’ll get clobbered with snow. I hope we don’t. I think I have really enjoyed this mild winter. I’m surprised because I am the one who loves winter and snow! It’s been a nice change, and I’m happy for all the folks who usually shovel heaps of snow, because they get a break this year. (So far).

***

I love Words With Friends!! What a fun game. I usually have 5 or 6 going at the same time. If you want to play with me, look me up– I’m RebeMecomber. One of my dear pals discovered that some players are using computer cheats and such with WWF. Just so you know, I don’t do that! So rest assured, you’re playing with the REAL Rebe when you play against me, lol. Anyway, I’ve always been good at Scrabble (my hubs thinks I should join a competition) but I’ve been sweating some bullets with some of you guys lately. Yow.

And has anyone else noticed this with the game?

:blink:

***

1. I worked at Chuck E. Cheese. AS CHUCK E. CHEESE. Yeah, I wore the costume. In the restaurant. In Philadelphia. I lived there for one month. It was all I could take. I lived there my friend who I’d met through a Star Wars fan club– we were pen pals for a few years. After graduating high school, she invited me to live with her in her parents’ home in Philadelphia. So I did. I intended to stay there the entire summer, working at Chuck E. Cheese. But I couldn’t stand the city, I couldn’t stand my friends’ lifestyle, and I couldn’t stand Chuck E. Cheese!! So I left after 4 weeks. I wrote more about my experience in my post Upchuck E. Cheese. lol

2. I went to drama school. I attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan in the mid 1980′s. I still can’t believe I did that– where did I get the chutzpah to leave my rural Upstate NY home and live in the nation’s largest city, knowing absolutely NO ONE? But I survived. It was quite the experience.

3. I suffered a house fire. It was arson. Without getting into too many gory details, my family life was, shall we say, “dysfunctional.” My stepdad went bonkers after my mom left him, and he set the house on fire. Thank God, no one was home at the time (although it was pretty hairy for a while because we couldn’t locate all of the family members at first, and the firemen were nervous about that), but the house burned to the ground. It was a really rough time in my life, but Jesus got me through it.

4. I delivered a 10 1/2 pound baby. For a while, we didn’t think I was gonna get it done, and my son wasn’t terribly cooperative…. at one point during the delivery, the doctor freaked out a little, and hollered to one of the nurses to go get the surgeon immediately. The nurse hesitated. He yelled at her again, but she turned to me first. She told me that the baby was not moving. My husband and I prayed loudly, “In Jesus’ name, get out!” and my son was born immediately. We could almost hear the doctor’s jaw clatter to the tile floor. He later muttered “It was a miracle!” The nurse later told me that if the surgeon had been there, he would have broken the baby’s collarbones. This is a very dangerous procedure, with a high risk of nerve damage, and my son’s limbs could have been paralyzed for life.

5. I was a disc jockey for a few radio stations before becoming a “stay at home mom.” I loved those jobs! I thought perhaps I could get back into radio after the kids were grown, but radio has changed so much. There are very few local stations anymore– everything is nationalized. Local stations no longer have local DJs, but they subscribe to satellite feeds from one centralized station. The local flavor and fun is gone. Such a shame.

6. I’ve been on TV and in a movie filming. I worked with Edward Hermann on a telethon in New York in 1986. I can’t remember what the fundraiser was for, but I was part of a group of fresh-faced drama students who “answered phones” on television. We were instructed to look busy and answer the phones even when the phones were not ringing. Hermann chatted with us students briefly. He has a wonderful voice– he did the narration for the PBS American Experience: Liberty series, and he’s done the Dodge Ram commercials, too. I was also cast as an extra in a movie called “A Christmas Rose.” It starred Della Reese and Randy Travis. It was filmed in Walton, NY, in the winter of… 1984? 1985? The movie never went to the big screen; instead the footage was redone for TV, for a show called “Touched By an Angel.” It was quite an experience.

7. I won a spelling bee. My family had JUST moved to a new town, and I was determined to start a new leaf and become more sociable and active in my school. I wasn’t a very good student– average “B” student — and the new school I attended classified the kids by their average grade. There was the “elite” group of really brainy kids, the “average” group of kids like me, and the “dummy” group full of dysfunctional or lazy kids. I don’t like those nicknames, but those were the nicknames we students gave each other at the time (kids can be so cruel sometimes). Well, only the “elites” entered the spelling bee, but dumb ol’ Rebecca the New Kid had no idea at the time that “average” and “dummy” kids never entered these contests…. so I entered, on a whim, and I won. I think everyone was very surprised that a bespectacled “B” student could outspell the brains. I think I was the most surprised! The prize was $10, a fortune at that time.

8. I’ve been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Yep, talking in tongues and praising the Lord. It’s in the Bible, ya know!

9. I was a Bible Trivia champion. Over ten years ago now, back when Microsoft MSN had public chat rooms, I joined a Bible Trivia Chat Group. It was led by a man from California– he’d been a criminal in jail, read the Bible, and became a Christian. He was so overjoyed that God had forgiven him that he started a special chat room dedicated to knowing the scriptures. It was so much fun– a moderator began by asking a Bible question, and the first one to answer correctly got to ask the next question. We went in rounds. It was great. I was awarded the champion because I knew so many details about the Bible (especially Old Testament history). It was a great opportunity, too, to share the gospel with other people. Boy, it was fun!

10. I can trace my genealogy back to the Scandinavian tribal chiefs from 900 AD. Weird, I know. Some of my ancestors include a King of Jerusalem (Guy Lusingnan), the kings of England, and a signer of the Mayflower Compact.

I’d really like to know what your unique accomplishments or experiences have been! I am in my 40s, and I’ve had a lot of time for experiences, lol. But everyone has some unique things that have happened– what are yours?

Questions:

1. The thing that scares me the most is __________?

Ugh, I can’t think about all those things! It’ll ruin my day. I’m kinda high strung and if I meditate on how the politicians are ruining our economy and out country, about how tenuous our life is here on this earth, about how everything can go crashing down in a matter of moments, I’ll go bananas! :cwy:

2. Do you like nuts in your Chocolate Chip cookies?

Yuk, no. When I eat a cookie — a rare occasion, by the way — I like the cookie to be soft. I like it to OOOOOOOZE chocolate from the chips. I like the cookie to melt in my mouth. Nuts get in the way!

3. If you couldn’t change the channel, what tv show would drive you from the room?

Well, just about everything, which is why I don’t have a TV. I wouldn’t be able to live in my house! My husband has this saying, “KILL THE TV!” We used to stream movies online, but I shot that down after being “surprised” by a few unsavory shows.

4. Pulp or no pulp in your Orange Juice?

No pulp. When I was younger, I was horribly picky about it. Now, it’s just a preference. I’ll pretty much tolerate pulp (down the hatch and all), but when given the choice, I’d choose no pulp. There’s just something unnatural about chewing your beverage before it goes down…

5. Who do you miss the most?

My grandma.

I love this old photo of my grandma as a girl. Doesn't she look SO mischievous, and like she's having an absolute blast?

I miss her a lot, I miss spending summers with her as I did when I was a kid. I grew up in a large “Yours, Mine, and Ours” kind of family, and being the oldest girl in a large family meant I did a LOT of work around the house (why do parents saddle girls with all the housework, anyway??). For several weeks in the summer, I escaped to my grandma’s house. There, I did very few chores and I just read books all day. Sometimes Grandma would take me along on her journeys to cemeteries (she researched genealogy). Other times, I just sat in the kitchen while she did various chores or read her newspaper. I liked those times of quietness when I didn’t have to hear the baby squalling or the boys fighting or the neighborhood noises.

Fifty years later. I don't often have photos of me here, as I try to protect my identity, but I look so different now than when I was young you'd be amazed. My poor grandma had such dark circles under her eyes. Grandpa was an invalid and required her 24-hour care. Plus, she probably worried too much from all the divorces, custody battles, and troubled times all her children and grandchildren were constantly going through...

Well, it’s short and sweet this week, friends. I have some catching up to do on my other blogs and I have a slew of articles to write for the job. Have a great day!

We rented a cabin in the wilds of Upstate New York. The Adirondack Mountain Forest Preserve is the largest national park in the contiguous United States, did you know that? It’s classified as a “wilderness.” We didn’t see any bears (apparently where we stayed there are more bears than any other area in the Adirondacks), but we did see deer and I did run over some honking big frogs that for SOME crazy reason were hopping across the roads in a rainstorm at twilight. Dumb amphibians.

Oh, and we heard packs of wild coyotes. They sound HORRIBLE at 3am, did you know that? I was kinda freaked.

We also visited Fort Ticonderoga, near the New York/Vermont border.

Don’t let the photo fool you, things are cool with our Vermont neighbors. :shades:

We just had a great time. I’ll have more about our adventure once I take a 15-hour nap and get my strength back from climbing Blue Mountain…. Livvy went with us and she had fun, too!

***

I’ve been spending my weekends fixing a flat roof with some friends. I got burned to a crisp over the weekend– me! I’ve always been a little brown and rarely burn, but the desk job for the past few years has made me lily white, I guess. My arms are quite crispy and sleep is uncomfortable. I heard that diluted vinegar on a sunburn hepls the healing, so I tried it this morning to see if it works. The good: the vinegar does soften the skin and my arms feel a LITTLE better. The bad: I smell like a salad.

***

Hey, is anyone else tired of all the social networking buttons we bloggers have to put on our blogs? This is just one of the plugins I use for my tech blog. I have social networking buttons coming out of my eyeballs.

Delicious, StumbleUpon, Redit, Facebook, Twitter, GoogleBookmarks, Blogger, email, Evernote, Digg, Buzzster, Bebo, MySpace, RSS…. and now, there’s Google+ and Pinterest. I am social-network-buttoned out, peeps. Overload, tilt!

***

A couple of months ago, I took the time to figure out how to install a forum website on a separate directory for a domain name. I’m pretty pleased I did it. Of course, I have no time to run a forum, but it’s still neat that I learned how to do it. If you are interested, see my tutorial. I thought it was cool that I didn’t need to purchase an entirely new domain for the forum site, I just make a folder called “forum” on my TheOlderGeek.com directory and installed the forum software in that. Pretty neat!

***

I haven’t had much time for blogging because I am exhausted after the busy weekends, and I spend the weekdays working, writing articles. Writing articles is hard work sometimes, ya know that? Blogging is easy, it’s stream of consciousness kind of stuff. But formal writing takes a lot out of me sometimes. I only wish calories were burned for all the brain power ya have to use.

***

I can’t believe it’s August already! This has got to be one of the shortest summers EVER for me. I’m glad because it means the cool temperatures of autumn are on the way, but sad because it means our vacation time for things like camping and such is quickly running out. I have to hurry up and make some plans!

***

Finally, I’ll leave you with a little tip: don’t ever eat a bowl of cereal over your computer keyboard. And we all thought soda was bad….

After I posted my article about the the TracFone cell phone plan, I was rather surprised at all the enthusiastic responses! It makes me wonder if the no contract phones are putting a dent in those major contract phone companies…. they certainly seem very popular.

I like TracFone for the kids. The plans are nice, I like the pay-as-you-go thing, and it’s good for my kids who are not “big” users of cell phones. It’s good for texting and when you occassionally call a friend. But what about people who use the cell phones a lot, like me? I do a lot of texting and, since we ditched our landline, I do all my calls through a cell phone now. TracFone is too small, too simple.

A couple of you mentioned the Straight Talk phone- and it looks like a really great plan with everything you need! It’s another “no contract, pay as you go” kind of phone plan, but it’s a little beefier than the TracFone plans and a LOT less costly than the contract phones. I saw this video and was very impressed with the service.

The phones are very nice– Straight Talk has app phones, qwerty phones, slider phones, etc. Phones include cameras, mp3 players, Bluetooth, video cam, voice navigation, the whole gamut. The plans are INCREDIBLE, no wonder people are falling for them hook, line and sinker. There are currently two types of simple plans:

1. $45 a month plan includes UNLIMITED talk, texting, mobile web. 411 calls are free.

2. $30 a month plan includes 1,000 talk minutes, 1,000 texts, 30MB mobile web. 411 calls are free.

According to Clark Howard quoting a Nielsen Mobile study, most cell phone users use approximately 790 minutes per month, and may an average bill of about $67. I use a lot fewer minutes but pay more for them. :-p I’m going to check out the phones and, if I like them, switch over as soon as my cell phone contract expires. I dislike the draconian regulations and “background” checks by the major carriers, too. It kinda rankles my libertarian sensibilities.

Straight Talk looks very cool! There are no activation or termination fees, no overage charges, nothing. Everything is up front, simple and no sneaky like some of the *cough cough* certain other cell phone contract companies.

I grew up without knowing my real dad. I remember those days as a little girl, longing to know him, writing him long, lonely letters because I wanted to know who he was and who I was. My mother’s family, bitter about the divorce when I was just 2 years old, told me how awful he was, how poorly he treated my mom. When I finally met my dad when I was 30-something, he said he did indeed treat my mom terribly. He was a drunk and a cheat. She deserved better. He loved us so much, but it caused too much pain to contact us, especially when he learned my mom had remarried. He said he never contacted me because his own mother had said to leave us alone and let us live our lives.

That was probably the worst advice he could have received.

No matter how lousy a husband he was, he was still my dad. I should have had the chance to know him, to make those judgments for myself. To know that I was loved by my dad. He never even sent me a birthday card. I had no idea he even considered me or thought of me.

I had a difficult childhood. I know not all fatherless children have hard childhoods. My stepdad did try his best, but he was a rather violent man. And when he and my mom split up, he admitted that he cared nothing for me and didn’t want me. That was another big blow for an insecure and battered teenager. It took me a long time to get over that.

Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that children need their dads. Dads are so very, very important. They are often overlooked because it’s the moms who do all the grunt work in raising the kids. The dads seem to just go to work, come home and watch TV and float around periodically in their kids’ lives. But technically, that’s not being a “dad.” That’s akin to what Dr. Laura calls a “sperm donor.” Dads are an essential increment in the family, not just a provider and certainly not just a gigilo for the needy woman.

Being a dad is not easy, especially in a culture that glorifies “hooking up,” adultery, and profligate irresponsibility. Dads need support, but dads also need to buck up and take responsibility. I think a heck of a lot of the cultural problems in our culture stem from absentee dads or dads disengaged from family life. I’m not the only fatherless child out there who has noticed it.

So I’m pretty excited about “Courageous.” The tagline for the movie is “Honor begins at home.” It sure does. Here’s a trailer from the movie.

I’m trying to force myself NOT to work or blog on Sundays. Boy, it’s difficult! My fingers are just itching to do it. But a day of rest is important, so I am purposely spending less time on the computer that day, and more time hanging with the kids, hopefully outside. Yesterday was a real treat!

Questions:

1. What feature of the opposite sex do you notice first?

Gee, I have no idea. Honestly, on first impression, I don’t think I notice a difference. Maybe it’s clothes. Guys usually wear t-shirts. That’s all I can think of. Besides maybe the hair style?

2. Do you talk to yourself?

Yep. Sometimes. Sometimes I’m praying or talking to God, too. What’s really odd is that no one seems to notice! Maybe folks in general notice things like that less because of those new-fangled Bluetooth devices. With those, it seems like everyone is always talking to himself or herself!

3. What is your current relationship status?

Married 22 years. I’ve been married more years, now, than I was single. I CAN’T BELIEVE how young I was!!!! I look at young people today, and think “I was married when I was younger than they are!” I was so unprepared for some of the ups and downs of the first years of marriage. I had no parents to guide me, being on my own since I was 17. It just solidified my conviction that the breakdown of the family has been very detrimental. Kids need their moms and dads.

4. Do you have a garden?

Well…… yyyeeeeeaaahhhh. How’s it looking?

I haven’t had ANY TIME to start a garden this year. After fretting myself over it, I decided to just give it up this year. Maybe we will have some simple stuff (like zucchini), maybe we won’t. I just can’t do everything that has to be done around here all the time. The kids are too busy to help with it, not until summer vacation begins. So we’ll see how things are looking after then.

5. What is your favorite licorice flavor?

Licorice. Of course, lol!

I like licorice. Some tea company– it is Stash?? — makes licorice tea. Oh it’s heavenly! You don’t need to sweeten the tea with honey or sugar, it’s perfect! I like to get it when fall weather arrives, as the scent permeates the house. I sometimes even carry the empty tea package in my shirt pocket, to smell it all day long. Yum.

So that’s it for this Monday! Have a great week!

We got to visit Patrick Henry’s home, Red Hill! We got to see the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk. And we got to see the Atlantic Ocean at Virginia Beach.

Oh my word, that was gorgeous. Walking along the beach, squishing my toes into the wet sand as the ocean waters washed over my feet was WONDERFUL. It was my favorite part of the visit.

We also drove through Roanoke and feasted on views of the glorious Appalachian Mountain Range.

And during one particularly stormy drive, we spotted a really freaky side-spinning funnel cloud in the sky. What do you think of this?

It’s a little blurry– taken on the road with my iPhone. But it was definitely some kind of twisting cloud, formed during a thunderstorm outside of Richmond, Virginia.

So we’re pooped. It’ll take me all week to get back to the normal humdrum of life and hectic pace at work… but I’m so glad I went. We are already hoping to go again soon!