Monday, March 31, 2008

Sentance Meme

I Am… who I am and nothing more.
I Want… peace on earth and good will toward fellow humans, but if I can’t have that solar panels for my house would be cool. :-)
I Have… a wonderful husband who supports me in everything I want to do.
I Wish… I could read faster.
I Hate… cooking.
I Fear… drowning....isn’t that a funny thing for a swimmer to be fearful of? The idea of drowning either while in water or in my own fluids with lung failure just makes my skin crawl and causes me to panic.
I Hear… Horse Girl watching TV since she is home sick from school.
I Search... for anything and everything. I love doing research. I search for random things on the Web because I want something to read or do.
I Wonder… why I have survived.
I Regret… nothing. Every choice I have made has caused me to be where I am in my life and I like where I am. That doesn’t mean I want my kids to make the same choices I have made.
I Love… my family.
I Ache… in my heart. Days that I am dealing with my chronic depression my heart physically hurts and I wish I could just reach in a pull it out.
I Always… try to view things in a positive light.
I Usually… smell like chlorine.
I Dance… with my girls in the kitchen.
I Sing… in the car at the top of my lungs with my girls.
I Never… have gone to a topless beach.
I Rarely… understand the IRS.
I Cry… rarely. People think that a person who deals with depression would cry all the time. I don’t.
I Am Not… like everyone else....to quote The Kinks.
I Lose… my mind on a regular basis.
I’m Confused… about how to spell most words.
I Need…. a new swimsuit.
I Should be… doing laundry, cleaning the house and all the other drudgery that I hate.

Book review

On Feburary 8, 2008 I talked about the book I had just finished reading along with the book I just started reading. I just finished "The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover's Secret War Against the World's Moat Famous Scientist"
The Einstein File : J. Edgar Hoover's Secret War Against the World's Most Famous Scientist

Yes it took me well over a month to read it. I am a very slow reader. Which isn't a surprise because of my LDs.

It turned out to a really great book I am going to have to look deeper on some of the topics like Hoover being on friendly terms with Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler.

Einstein has always been a hero of mine since I was 11 or 12 years old. Reading more about him lately makes me view him as a greater man then I thought he was.

It seems that because of different reasons Einstein's political views have been lost to history. Only when Time Magazine named him "Person of the Century" did a lot of his political believes came out. Even that article just breezed over his political views.

Did Hoover and McCarthy win in the long run because biographers are nervous to prove that Einstein was part of a number or radical organizations that if alive Einstein would told people he was part of without a problem. Einstein felt that largest problem in the United States was racism. If biographers and media could right more about Einstein's eloquent anti-racism writing and searches without fear, would US citizens have a different view of racism since the worlds greatest scientist said these things.

Once I am done reading "Buried By the Times" (I might have to write about this book when I am done also. New York Times owned by German Jews and worked to get their family out of Germany during WWII, but didn't cover the Shoah in their paper.) I am going to have to go on to read "Einstein on Race and Racism" it looks like it could be a good book and cover some of the questions I have. There is a whole list of his writtings and speaches on racism in the back of "The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover's Secret War Against the World's Moat Famous Scientist" I am not going bother to type them up here. Anyone who is interested now knows they are there and can go look at them themselves.

I know I should do goodreads.com, I haven't been able to get into it at all. I think it has to do with the fact when you come here and read my blog, you know about my reading and writing issues, at goodreads.com when I review a book I feel that I do not do the book justice.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Being a copy cat :-)

Other friends did this quiz so I had to do it too. :-)


I am an
Iris


What Flower
Are You?




"You are a very sensual person. You like to experience all the sights, smells, tastes and textures the world has to offer. Ordinary be damned, because you want to do it all."

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Gary Gygax

Gary <span class=Gygax Memorial Cat" style="word-spacing: 700314px; font-size: 700314px;">
see more crazy cat pics

I know Gary Gygax died over two weeks ago, but I just ran into this today. I loved Dungeons and Dragons and other role playing games. I was upset by the death of Gary Gygax, but he will be remembered by geeks everywhere. ;-) I found out about D&D when I was in 8th grade...I think....it might have been Freshman in high school. It ended up putting me on the road to where I am now. I learned geeks could be fun, which caused me to hang around computer labs more which caused me to meet Fly Guy. Well that is all a simplification of the path, but more or less correct. :-)

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Gifted and Talented and Learning Disabled

I have been reading a lot lately about what some people call twice-exceptional people. People with learning disablities and are gifted. Reading some of these research papers and journal articles about this subject is just freaky for me. It is like looking into some sort of mirror. I read about the typical traits for twice-exceptional people (I have trouble with term, but it could be from my self-critical part of me..which is a personally trait that is talked about a lot) and they hit my major personally traits right on. Then to read about how people who are both gifted and learning disabled and how they tend to deal with depression and be prone to suicide. I have always concidered my depression and suicidal thoughts to be a seprate issue then my learning disablity. Maybe that isn't the case. Since I have been having an emotionally down period the last couple of weeks reading these articles have caused me to think a little differently about my depression. I don't think it will cause me to change anything I do for my depression it just is making me think about it differently.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Gifted and talented

Horse Girl's school tests all the second graders for the Gifted and Talented program. When I was Horse Girl's age my parents were told I qualified for Gifted and Talented, but the teacher at the time didn't think it would be good for the G/T kids if I was in the program since I was special ed. Of course we all know special ed means you are barely functioning. Tell that to Albert Einstein (well he is dead so telling him would be hard), if I want to continue down the road of dead dyslexics John Lennon, Agatha Christie, Winston Churchill, Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci.....if we want some live dyslexics how about Orlando Bloom, Tommy Hilfiger, Bob Weir, Greg Louganis....any how I was not allowed in the G/T program and it has been a chip on my shoulder my whole life. It might be why I pushed myself so hard. So when I got the notice that Horse Girl was being tested I had a flashback to my childhood. I emailed Horse Girl's principal right away and asked what sort of test was it and told her that I wanted to make sure Horse Girl had a fair shake at it. Fair is not necessarily equal. The principal had no idea what sort of test it was. To her credit she got on the phone and found out for me and she got back to me and told me it was completely non-verbal and it was a bunch of logic puzzles, so no accommodations needed. I don't know if Horse Girl will qualify or not, but at least I know I have done all I can do to make sure she will have a fair chance.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Baseball season

It is nearly the start of baseball season and I have bought a bunch of Portland Sea Dogs tickets and few Red Sox tickets.

Being a Red Sox fan it is hard to know what to think now. Normally this time of year it is ok to be positive, but in the back of your head you know they won't make it all the way, but this year. It is sort of a niggleing in the back of your head that since there hasn't been any major player changes that they might go all the way again. Shhhh...I didn't say that...can't jinx things you know. So Red Sox fans have no idea how to act or feel this time around we all want to think positive, but we know how that has hurt us in the past. The Red Sox may not be the loveible losers any more, but there is to much hurt still in the Red Sox fan soul to willing just be positive about things. So here is to being cautiously optimistic to this season.

So here is to a good season.

First things first wrapping up Movie Meme

I am not a big person on hints so to me either you know it or you don't. That is my basis on arguing for extended time on standerized testing for people who have learning difference so I can't change my view just for this Movie Meme. I gave people extended time now time for the answers. :-)

1. Dreyfus once wrote from Devil's Island that he would see the most glorious birds. Many years later in Brittany he realized they had only been seagulls... For me they will always be - *glorious* birds.


Is from "Harold and Maude" it is an amzing movie and it defined a large part of my high school years. Maude said this quote.

2. Johnny Damon, you got the sweetest ass in the league!

Is from "Fever Pitch" which is the best Red Soc movie ever made, plus it has Drew Barrymore in it need I say more? Viv says this...she is one of the people that Ben has made friends with because her season tickets are next to his.

3. Yes, and I'm the bastard son of a peasant. What does that have to do with anything?


Is from "Ever After" which is a Cinderella story with a twist, the fairy Godmother is Leonardo da Vinci. It is just a a refreshing look at the Cinderella story and it has Drew Barrymore in it. (yes I have a crush on Drew Barrymore. :-) ) This quote is said by Leonardo da Vinci.


4. Rambling Mom got this one correct. Arsenic and Old Lace.

5. He was their friend, and he betrayed them. He was their *friend*! I hope he finds me! Cause when he does, I'm gonna be ready. When he does, I'm gonna kill him!

Doc Thelma knew this one but couldn't say because she had already given one answer. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"

6. Doc Thelma got this one. "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" I just love this Star Trek movie I know it is not most people's favorate when it comes to the Star Trek movies, but it is mine.

7. A souvenir. I thought it'd be a good idea to have a duplicate, turns out I was right. I actually had to pay for the souvenir *and* the real one, so you owe me $35, plus tax.

This is from "National Treasure" my whole family loves this movie. I think it might be History Girl's favorate movie. I enjoy it and think it is well done, I am worried that they are going to ruin it with sequls though. This quote was said by Benjamin Franklin Gates.


8. Nicole got this one. It is from the "Wedding Singer" once again a Drew Barrymore movie....yes I do have a crush on Drew Barrymore, have you seen her Covergirl TV ads? :-) Almost enough for me to buy Covergirl make-up. ;-)

9. addittothelist got this one it is from "The Big Chill" I have always loved the music from this movie.

10. You see, their young enter through the ears and wrap themselves around the cerebral cortex. This has the effect of rendering the victim extremely susceptible to suggestion. Later as they grow follows madness and death.

Doc Thelma also knew this one but couldn't say "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" just the clasic Star Trek movie, no lover of Star Trek can make a list of movies without this one on it. :-)


I have to say I left off one of my most favorate movie quote ever. I will leave it here and see if anyone can figure it out.

"Do you not get it, lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud: I'm black and I'm proud."

good luck. ;-)