Once again, it’s time to make a weekly trip to the local grocery store. I hate to shop, let alone grocery shop. Prices have gone sky high and there seems no end in sight. One can of veggies that went for .49 are now doubled…and that is the store brand or generic. I’m armed with my list, pen and grocery money, but it took me all of last night to figure out what I am going to make for a week’s work of dinners, plus what to buy for the extras that we need. It’s all starting to bum me out a bit, to be honest.
News on the fly
Most people agree that following the news and current events is important, yet as many as one third of people don’t keep up with the news on a regular basis. Among reasons cited for NOT following the news are the time required, difficulty in understanding the topics, bias of news sites, sensationalism of the headlines, negativity and fear mongering by the media, and the annoyance of click bait and video ads.
Informucate.com is a different kind of news site that seeks to address these issues by providing All the News in Just 12 Views, leaving out the bias, bloat and bull!
Informucate synthesizes the news into just 12 current stories, each only a paragraph or two, with explanations of jargon, concepts, and key terms right alongside the stories. Not sure about ISIL ? Don’t know what FOMC means? Can’t remember who Rand Paul is? Don’t understand the terms Triple Crown, Grand Slam, or March Madness? Anytime you read a story with terminology, jargon, abbreviations, institutions, or names and places that might be unfamiliar, there is a quick explanation right alongside the article.
Informucate is not a news aggregator. All daily stories are selected by editors and written by journalists. Compared to bloated and biased news sites, as well as other “explainer” sites that in actuality do not explain, informucate allows viewers to get their news in just a few minutes a day, and more importantly, understand what they have read.
The 12 stories cover the top news of the day, as well as health, trending, entertainment, money, technology, and the popular ‘bad behavior’ report. By presenting a mixture of news that runs the gamut from serious to entertainment to trending, the 12 stories give everyone the information they need to stay informed and be more confident at work, school and in social settings. Best of all, it takes just 5 minutes a day to get informucated.
In addition to news stories, there’s also a fast facts video encyclopedia that includes fun daily trivia and other short videos on subjects including, dogs, cats, US Presidents, colleges, holidays, and more.
Mail order brides
Have you ever watched any television shows where the theme of the show revolved around mail order brides? I seem to remember a movie a long time ago called “Seven brides for Seven brothers” that revolved around that theme. I remember a Star Trek episode that was dedicated to the adventures of the crew that was transporting a man who was delivering mail order brides to his customers. Every now and then I watch a more recent television show that features the story line around russian brides. Usually the story is a murder-mystery type of show like Law and Order or Elementary.
When the more recent TV shows started to feature stories about mail order brides I have to admit that I was surprised to think that this type of match-making was actually really going on! I find myself wondering how many of these types of marriages become long and happy marriages, and how many of them end in a more unhappy way. I guess that as I gotten older, I’ve become more skeptical about other people’s motivations.
I don’t know how I would react if someone in my family told me that they were getting married to someone they had met online but had never actually spent face-to-face time with that person. I would be very concerned about how they will feel after a few months of reality. I would strongly encourage them to date for as long as possible, and maybe even get a pre-nuptial agreement before the marriage took place. But then that would be meddling, wouldn’t it? Oh dear…
Welcome September
September is one of my favorite months. Temperatures start to cool off, and there are a lot of family birthdays to celebrate. Fresh apples are readily available to use to make caramel-candied apples, and fresh apple cider is available in the stores (no preservatives added – my favorite!) Fall festivals abound, and the whole world seems to start getting ready to hunker down for winter. Some evenings and mornings I can smell one of the neighbor’s wood fire wafting in the air. There is a clean, crisp feel to the early morning air, and I love watching the squirrels gathering their acorns and the leaves on the deciduous trees start to change color.
Cooler weather
It really cooled down last night. The temperature gauge on the porch read only 63 degrees at about midnight and I was chilly even in sweat pants and a sweat shirt. I put on some fluffy socks and sat outside for awhile looking at the stars. The night sky was so black and clear and there were so many stars that could be seen, it sort of made me realize exactly how small we are, if that makes sense. This morning I noticed that the leaves one of the dogwoods in the front yard is starting to change to red already! It won’t be long now before we are all complaining about the winter weather again!
Have you ever wanted to get published?
I have a lot of friends that tell me that they would love to be able to have some of their writings get published, but they don’t know how to get started. I often tell them that they could start their own blog, for free, using WordPress, but that seems to scare them off somehow. I think that they are afraid that they will then have a huge commitment to write everyday.
Some of them try using Facebook, but I don’t really think that is the best platform for creative writing, and to be honest, I’ve struggled with trying to find older posts on Facebook. A lot of people will post something on Facebook and write “Share on your own wall so you can find it again.” I have not had good luck finding that thing I shared again – ever!
Believe it or not, I get a lot of emails from people asking me if I will pay them money for them to write a guest post on my own blog. I wouldn’t mind doing that from time to time, except that the people then want me to pay them big money for inferior writing that is really all about promoting their own services or product! They claim it will help my search engine rankings, but I know better than that. I get angry that so many people think I am that ignorant!
Hard to Be One Handed
Silly me has hurt her arm. Well, hurt my wrist is more accurate. I was in a hurry, I slipped on the porch steps and I fell. I can’t even blame it on anyone else by my own silly fault. I don’t think it is broken, but it sure hurts.
I think I will keep it wrapped tight in an elastic bandage today and if it still hurts this badly in the morning then I might try to see a doctor about it. I just don’t want to waste anyone’s time and money if all I did was sprain my wrist. Sure, it’s hard to do anything around here with just one hand. But a sprained wrist takes it time healing up and as long as it is not actually broken, there is nothing I can do except keep it wrapped and deal with it for a week.
Adapters are a good thing
I have to admit that I have a love-hate relationship with technology sometimes. I think technology is great, but there are so many different connection types for things that it can make my head spin! Would you believe that I have three drawers full of different types of adapters? These are an accumulation of at least twenty years! Some of them are a mystery to me at this point. I wish I had been smart enough to put them each in a zipper-type of plastic bag and labelled the bag with what type of adapter was in the bag! Doing that would come in really handy when I need to find a dmx 5 pin to 3 pin adapter! I am going to start doing that, starting with the next time I am putting an adapter in the drawer! And from now on, when I have to rummage through the drawer to find an adapter, when I find what I need, I will label it before it goes back in!
Decorating Ideas
Although I don’t have a lot of money, I love to look at magazines and websites that showcase interior decorating. I like to fantasize about how beautiful my house could be “if only” I had plenty of money and the kind of family that wouldn’t break everything within two hours of the arrival of the items I had purchased! Today I was looking around at the domestications bedding section of a website that sells home and patio decor and was surprised to see that they were selling melamine serving ware for what I would consider a hefty sum of money!
I can remember when I first moved out of my parents’ house, my first set of dishes was melamine. I bought them because they were the least expensive set I could find. I was really pleased with them because they were not likely to chip or break, and they lasted a good long time. (I don’t remember whatever happened to them – did I donate them to charity?) Anyway, I was surprised to read the descriptions of these particular melamine products, how the descriptions said that melamine was highly valued for their durability. Made me wish I still had those plates (maybe they would be worth some serious money!)
But continuing to read the fine print about melamine, I saw that it is not recommended for use in the microwave, and that hand washing is recommended. The description said you could wash them in an automatic dishwasher but over time it would ruin the finish. Thinking about how almost all of my cooking is done in the microwave, and how much I use my dishwasher to wash my dishes, pots and pans, I was quite surprised to learn that there really is still a market for melamine dishware at all!
Time flys
This summer seems to be flying by really fast, and it seems that with working so many hours, I’ve missed it. I’ve wanted to do so much this summer, but all of July it seems that I was not feeling well at all. I think it was the heat that got to me. It never bothered me before this year. Is this a sign I’m getting old? (Horrors!!) Anyway, it is already August and where did the days go? Hopefully next summer we can at least take a family vacation. Or at least go on a vacation of some sort, and any of the kids that wish to come, can tag along. They are all into their own thing though, so we’ll see what happens. School starts for two of the kids still at home and I’m figuring my oldest son will also take up some college courses. It’ll be nice to have the house to myself for a few hours during the day when I’m not working. Maybe I can get some deep cleaning done around here. It’s nearly impossible with them at home. Ask for help? Yeah right… lol!