Haiti and the Hurricanes

A few posts back, I posted a poem and some commentary on the situation in Haiti.  It's been bad for quite some time with all the children being used as currency and the difficulties of being a third world country, but having been struck by multiple tropical events this summer, the country is devastated.  I found this article today that was written by Mia Farrow who recently visited the country.  The country is far from recovered....

Exhaustion ****An Update in the Life of Jennifer*****

I haven't written anything lately about what's going on in my own life, so for those of you who read my blog to keep up with me since I'm always too busy to actually see anyone, I figured I'd take a minute to update. For those of you who hadn't heard, we had a hurricane down here in Texas. Though it didn't really do anything here in Austin, it did fairly significant damage down in the Houston/Galveston area. This will be a mess we will be cleaning up for quite some time. Those of you who know me know that I work at an insurance company as a technician. I support claim handlers and thus if claims is busy, I'm busy. We spent a good portion of last week training adjusters to go out in the field and other miscellaneous odds and ends that have to be taken care of when we have a loss of this magnitude. I worked 23 hours of overtime last week. Things are silghtly more normal this week now that most of the initial set up is over.

I had two tests this week for school. That was difficult since I didn't have much time to study. I did very well on one of the two tests and still don't know yet about the second one. I'm enjoying my classes. Getting more flexible with Yoga! I am considering joining the Psychology Association at school. I know I am already thin on time, but it is relevant to my major and I really enjoy psych.

I am needing to get new pictures of myself. I hate all my pictures. None of them really look like me.....

Anyhow, I have nothing interesting to say about myself, so that's about it for now. I'll be writing more Voodoo Rental House of Horrors stuff when I get the chance. I'm still writing commentary and poetry as well. :)

(Misguided) Pride of the South

I checked my mail today.  I hadn't checked it all week long having been busy working extra hours to help get our operation set up and running for Hurricane Ike.  As usual, it was full of junk mail, bills, more junk mail, and a few things that I'm actually interested in.  I noticed a note card sized card fall out of my stack.  I knew it was junk mail, but since I don't leave trash on the ground I picked it up intending to throw it away when I got home.  Then my eye caught what it was and I stood and looked at it for a moment in utter astonishment.  It was one of those commemorative sales cards we all get occassionaly and most of us give it a glance and off to the trash it goes.  The reason this particular one made me stop in astonishment was because it was in fact a "Pride of the South Civil War Commemorative Ring."  WHAT?!  I have attached a picture of said ring to this post for your amusement (and/or astonishment).  You'll notice by the picture that it is covered in the confederate flag, has an engraving that says "Pride of the South" on the inside of the ring, and proudly states that the C.S.A. existed from 1861 to 1865.  This bothers me on multiple levels.  First, I see no reason why we should have a ring or any other item commemorating the war that had brother fighting brother in our own country stemed largely (but not solely) on whether or not it was OK to keep other human beings as slaves.  To me, this is a symbol of inequality and hatred.  Second, the south did not win the war!!  History lesson:  the Union won, the southern states were brought back into the union and the horrible painful process of reconstruction began.  Third, the Civil War was a bloody, horrible war fought mainly by the poor and I see no reason to glorify it.  And so finally, congratulations to whomever decides to buy this redneck symbol of hatred.  You'll leave the same words running through the minds of just about every rational person you come across:  "stupid redneck."  Thanks for making America proud! 

 

Look Ma, it's the POS Ring!

In Need of Help...

I'm going to be very serious for a moment.  We are all very concerned for the safety of those in our country being affected by the hurricane, but I want to take a minute to write about some other areas that have been devastated by them.  Haiti has been especially ravaged by hurricanes this season.  I saw some very heartbreaking photos of the dead, which included large numbers of children, and was brought to tears.  I won't post the link for the photos because it truly was horrific.  We live in a country, that despite its needed reforms, provides quite a lot of aid to those in need, and where the over all population lives better than some of the wealthiest individuals in poorer countries.  I wrote this poem after seeing these pictures.  I was also thinking of all those who die on a regular basis in the Congo and various other parts of the world with similar problems.  I think we all need to think about what this means not to just America as a country, but to all of us as a human race.  I am placing a link to UNICEF here.  Please donate what you can, when you can to their cause. 

Head Injury & A Hurricane

Today my son sustained a head injury while out playing at daycare. It wasn't terrible, but it was bad enough that he had to go to the ER and they glued the wound shut to stop the bleeding and help it heal. It was pretty deep, but not very wide thank goodness. He apparently tripped and fell on the playground, hitting his head on a concrete slab with an exposed edge. He also had several bruises where he hit the concrete and the rocks that are around it. He is doing pretty well and it definitely could have been worse.

Apparently Hurricane Ike is bearing down on us here in Texas. Fortunately for those of us in Austin, we are fairly far inland; however, it appears the storm is going to hit as a category 4 storm. It will devastate the coast near Corpus Christi if that's the case and it will likely come up through San Antonio as a category 2 in that scenario and probably a category 1 through Austin. I figure that we will likely have either a cat 1 hurricane or a tropical storm here in Austin this weekend. I'm not really panicked about it because I don't think it will cause enough damage here in our area to shut down the entire city and all the suburbs for any extended period of time, though I do think it is possible that we could be without power for a short time. I am waiting to see how many people completely panic and go out and buy up all the bread, water, batteries, canned goods, etc. in anticipation of the storm. I don't think it hurts to buy SOME stuff just in case for any temporary power outage, but I just don't see it being a catastrophic event in Austin. It will; however, be catastrophic to the coast if it hits at that strength. We shall see. There is still enough time for the path of the storm to alter considerably before it hits. But don't panic people!!!! Paranoia and panic will not save you. Oh...and this is a very neat storm tracking site called stormpulse.

Yoga Class - Part Deux

Well today was the second Yoga class for the semester.  Believe it or not actually did this pose.  I wasn't aware I was even flexible enough to do that pose.  Anyhow, I enjoyed it.  2 1/2 hours is still quite a lot of Yoga in one sitting, but I think I'll get used to it.  I'll be a lean, mean Yoga machine...or something like that. 

I'm rather tired.   Seems I'm always tired these days.  I don't sleep very well, perhaps 4 hours a night most nights.  Ah well.  I don't have anything overly interesting to say here at this moment, but I have blogged on my commentary site this weekend. 

Au revoir for now!

My First Night at Texas State

In the event that anyone still reads my blog, I thought I'd say a few words about my first night at Texas State.  I loved the class.  It is going to be very interesting and very applicable to my field.  I felt pretty smart when I could answer questions and respond in the classroom interaction and actually have input that the professor liked.  She is a PhD in Psychology and I feel very good that she thought my input was valid.  The class did get very long though.  It was of no fault of the professor.  It's just a long class since it starts at 6:30 and does not end until 9:15.  I got my student ID today also.  This is the result of the  3 pictures that had to be taken back at orientation in order to get a good one.  I'm smiling so I guess that's good.  I just think I'm not very photogenic is all.  I met some interesting people, including a guy who is currently a journalist of some sort.  I'm going to have to ask him more about that because I enjoy writing and journalism is very interesting to me.  I'd like to know what sort of journalism he does.  There was also a lady who was a pediatric nurse for 20 years and she seemed like a very interesting woman also.  I think I must be a complete and total dork.  I love school.  I could go to school for the rest of my life if I had the time and money. 

Yoga - The Day After!

Well it's the day after my first Yoga class.  It's odd because the only place i'm really sore is my shoulders and shoulder blades.  I actually thought my knees would be sore because there were several poses which required more stiff knee action.  I don't have very good knees so I thought it would be bad.  The pain isn't horrible, but there nonetheless.  I still don't feel that well, but I really have to go to work tomorrow.  I have too much stuff to do.  Also, tomorrow will be the first day of my Abnormal Psych class at Texas State.  It is a long class.  It starts at 6:30 and doesn't end until 9:15.  Look out!  I'll be able to analyze all of your abnormal behavior very soon! 

I've been bloging like crazy this weekend.  I have nothing else to do.  I'm sick and bored.  I tried to go bowling today.  I made it through one game before feeling ill.  My son was enjoying himself by spinning on the floor.  He has this weird obsession with spinning on his butt on wood floors.  I have no idea why.  Anyhow, I have added another piece of the VRHH story, more poetry and some more of my two cents worth of opinions.