Discovery of Neat "Stuff"

Since I have discovered what I consider "neat stuff," I thought I would pass it on to you. You'll have to let me know if you consider it neat as well.


Has everyone discovered webcams? Not the porno type, but educational, scenic and strange? I'm not sure how I happened to stumble upon these, but I am hopelessly hooked. Let me give you an idea of what I did this past weekend (a small portion of it anyway):

I visited Key West and admired the ocean surf. It was beautiful, the weather was a balmy 72 degrees and people were waving as they passed the cam.


Then I visited the Wailing Wall in Jeruselem and even stuffed a prayer into a crevice. (Okay, you can type a prayer and someone prints it and does the deed for you.) In any event, it was a moving experience for me, really. I was actually able to see the Hassidic Jews as they prayed at the wall.


Then, I visited a place Unknown, MA United States, and watched for Ghosts via multiple webcams placed in a house built in the 1920s in Massachusetts. Watch a downstairs basement, several corridors, and a boiler room for any suspicious activity. Webcam images update every minute.


How about visiting Hong Kong? No problem...you'll see the city from a cable car all from the comfort of your home or office!


Want to watch penguins in Antartica? No problem!


One last thing...you HAVE to check out www.cutethingsfallingasleep.org and the 2nd video down (a beagle puppy). WATCH IT! You'll melt.


More Musings Later-

Healthcare in America SUCKS

Not too long ago, I was in the hospital. Now, before I entered this hospitial, I felt comfortable going to it, it seemed nice and clean, full of competant medical professionals. Boy, was I wrong.

Top 10 Things you can expect while in the Hospital

10. You're not going to get any sleep.

Nurses are in and out and out and in all freaking night. Do they bring towels? Water? something you can use? No, No, and No. That takes forethought.

9. You're going to drive the nurse's station crazy because you'll hit the wrong button on your remote and call them when you really want to watch channel 2.

The deep exaspperated sigh over the intercom evokes a vision of the nurse rolling her eyes at you.

6. You will encounter "Hospitalists". They are doctors but they have a crappy schedule and work "for" your regular doctor. You also won't be able to remember their names and what one says versus the other. What's even worse, you feel so bad, you don't care. You just want them to shut up.

5. There will be a sign above your bed that will say, "Do NOT take BP in left arm." They do it anyway.

(see the sign above the bed to the right?)

4. When they come to make up your bed with fresh linens, they bring you wash cloths and towels. The problem is once you use them, they never take them back.

3. When you carry on conversation with a "nurses tech" (they take temp, bp and put a bandaid on your boo-boo).

The conversation goes like this: "So, what kind of experience do you have to have to become a nurses tech?" Nurse's response? "Nothin, I'm right off the street".

2. My toilet paper doesn't runneth over -

You need a roll of toilet paper. You ask....and ask....and ask....the nurse looks bored and wonders if it's going to flurry outside. She walks out of the room and you ask...and ask...and ask some more.

1. You're ready to get out of the hospital because they are still scratching their heads over what you have and you know the bill is going to be expensive.

You punch the nurses station button and tell the nurse, "Where is the doctor? Nurse: "Maam, he is in another part of the building seeing a patient and then he is going home."

Your reply: "Don't make me get all Shirley MacLaine on you," there is a long silence. Next thing you know, the hospitalist is standing in front of you reading your tests which equates to: "I dunno".

Time to Clean out the Closet

Isn’t it amazing the things that you accumulate in your life? If you need a reminder, try cleaning out your closet. You know, the one you came out of at “that moment”.
I found myself doing just that a couple of weeks ago. I walked into “that closet” and took a good look. It was very good at keeping my personal things out of sight. It made everything look like it was in order and functioning just fine, thank you very much. I knelt down and opened some old boxes and started going through some of my childhood memorabilia.

I had to chuckle to myself, here is the lacey dress with petticoats that I wore when I was about 5 years old. Oh wait, the patent leather shoes….My God, here they are. Did I really wear all that? Oh, yes. Wait, here’s another box of photographs. I’m wearing my ever-present Shirley Temple hairdo, courtesy of my Mom, hair rollers and significant amounts of Dippidy-Doo and Aqua Net. I was the frilliest, most feminine little girl I had ever seen.

Then I looked at myself really closely. I think my eyes said it all. I was different. So different it was absolutely painful, and I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why or how I was different from everyone else. I looked like all the other little girls in elementary school. I looked at another picture and something caught my eye. I was standing in front of my elementary school smiling for the camera, and someone had spray painted on the brick walls, “Taryn is a Queer”. As I saw this phrase scrawled behind my right shoulder, I realized that it had been following me all my life. There it was, always right over my shoulder.

It wasn’t for quite a few years that I turned to a counselor to help me clean out my closet. Together we talked, I cried, felt relief, anger, denial, guilt, and a plethora of other emotions. I had to experience them all to get where I am now. I put the lid back on the boxes and neatly arranged them in my closet. I turned out the light and quietly closed the door and thought to myself, I’m glad I had the courage to clean out my closet.

Need help with cleaning out your closet? Don’t hesitate to contact a counselor, trusted friend or parent. You’ll be glad you did.

More Musings Later-

Whitney Houston, Kathie Lee and Hoda and More...

I don't know about all of you, but I have been getting my jollies from Saturday Night Live lately. Why? you ask?? They really have talented people on right now although I hated to see Tina Fey and Amy Poehler leave the show. They were the yin and yang of each other.

Which leads me to my first comments on the Grammies from last night. Did anyone see Whitney Houston? Whoa. She looked fabulous but she was still high on something...I thought she might break out in her "Weed is whack" chant with Diane Sawyer any moment. Instead, she introduces Clive Davis and gives her acknowledgement and love to him. ?

Can I get a "Chaka Khan"?

Then, I remembered when Saturday Night Live began having this woman imitate her. She was hysterical, but I had to remember she is a very talented singer that has lost the battle with drugs. At least back then. Is she damaged goods now? Is she always going to talk like that? You think her Aunt Dionne's Psychic Friends would have warned her. All I can say is, Praise Jesus that Cissy Houston has custody of her daughter. Otherwise, she's going to think it's normal living the way she did before.

Moving on to Kathie Lee and Hoda

I have to say I MUCH prefer Kathie Lee working with Hoda than seeing her on with Regis Philbin. I mean, Regis is just too MUCH! He always shouts his sentences in a crescendo with the loudest "oomph" for the exclamation point. I'm shocked he hasn't had a stroke. Then, Kathie Lee was Cody this, Cody that, Cassidy this, Frank that. She was exhausting. Watching "LIVE" left me drained and needing a nap. And, have I noticed that all woman that co-host with Regis are required to stop eating? I didn't even recognize Kelly Ripa when she first started the show.

Why Hoda is better than Reeg..

Hoda is a laid back kinda gal that doesn't care to get on anyone's bad side. She has a cute personality and is willing to take a back seat to Kathie Lee's hangover from the Reeg days. Again, SNL began spoofing them and it is HYSTERICAL. Not so much for the job they do on Hoda, but the woman who does Kathie Lee is dead on. From the goofy dances, talking of hormones, sweating, did I say hormones? and her adventures with the carbon copy of Bill Clinton's sex drive; Frank.

Yes, K & L show the spoofs each week and I cackle each time I see it. And, Kathie Lee gets strangely quiet when they are shown and Hoda sits back and smiles really big for the camera. You can tell she is LOVING it.

Corporate America (Yes, I'm going there...)

If you have read my blog at all over the years you will know at least 1 thing about me: Corporate America is not my favorite entity within our culture. That's putting it delicately.

I have to say that when President Obama (nice ring to it, eh?) was chastising CEO execs over their "shameful" actions and irresponsibility with finances and their personal salaries/compensation packages; I was shocked. I honestly was.

I sat looking stunned for a few moments and listened more...then it hit me. President Obama must have never worked for a Fortune 500 company before. I'm sure that if you go to an employee of XXX, Inc. and ask them about financial corruption and so forth, their response would be, "Yeah, and???"

The snip of video that I saw on ABC said it all: The CEO's were seated behind a desk begging for money. When a senator asked what was being done in order to help get their financial issue under control, the CEO rattled off dozens of "corporate america buzz words." The senator let him finish his gibberish and then said, "Now tell me in English." The CEO stammered and looked uncomfortable until the senator offered a suggestion: "How much do you make as a salary?" he asked.

The CEO hesitantly said, "7 million dollars in salary and 1.5 million stock options of company stock." The senator looked disgusted (I was enjoying this part of watching a CEO squirm) and asked, "Do you think you could pare down the salary and options a bit? I mean, you are laying off thousands of employees and you seem content to do that and keep a rather large compensation package." The CEO mulled it over for a few seconds and then slightly smiled at the senator. "I'm doing okay, thanks anyway."

Instead of getting a laugh to ease the situation, he got uncomfortable silence for almost a minute. Almost as if people couldn't believe that he admitted it and said it. And, he didn't mind screwing over his employees as long as he could live an extravagant lifestyle.

That CEO has been my experience in every big conglomerate corporate giant. When he made his last statement, I was furious. While I'm not one of his casualties, I felt so badly for the ones who worked for this sorry excuse of a human being. I was also furious because it reminded me of all the blood, sweat and tears I shed when I worked for corporations such as his. All the anxiety, the office politics, the invisible eggshells that lay on the floor daring us to not crack or break as we move about.

I'm still furious. So, when you appear surprised at the actions of these senior level employees of their greed, I'm jealous that I can't be surprised too.

So, the question "Is Corporate America corrupt?"

Slightly smiling I would reply, "DUH, Ya THINK?"