i go off to college in less than a year… assuming i get in, of course. but already, i’m experiencing a bit of separation anxiety….

every other week or so, my mother has a conversation with me that goes something like this:
during dinner… Continue reading →

So recently I’ve seen these psychological breakdowns of Disney Princes and Princesses (above), and I feel like they’re such a cursory coverage of the real stories. 

Snow White: The Prince fell in love with her when she was – for all appearance sake – just a servant. He loved her before he saw her when he heard her song. Remember how he climbed the wall to find her??

Aurora: So against being married for politics, she wants to marry for love. Again, Philip falls in love with her before he sees her, and her being beautiful is just an added bonus. Also, if Philip only liked her for her looks, it wouldn’t be true love, so his kiss would not break the spell. And really, how many boys would be willing to take on a temperamental dragon. If he only wanted a beautiful girl, I’m sure it would have been much easier to give up on Aurora and find someone he didn’t have to work for.

Jasmine: Isn’t the entire point of this story that love can’t be arranged? Yes, her culture dictated a marriage to royalty, but the entire point is that she fell in love with someone because of who they were, not what they had, so so of course Aladin’s quick wit helped save her in the end. Also her father really does want her to be happy, which is why he didn’t force her to marry one of the other unsuitable suitors. Continue reading →

When I was a child, I could not really fathom why there were two German nations.  Continue reading →

We waited a week before we struck again. During that time some of the girls staff did a very boring and unimaginative raid on the boys camp.They came in at night and scattered the laundry bins, littered the boys camp with already dirty laundry. The boys had to pick up their dirty clothes again.

The section heads of the boys camp were all pretty much duds when it came to raiding.They talked a better plan then they carried out.Hence I summoned my boys again. It was going to be trickier this time. The girls camp had set up sentrys (making an already long day even longer). They would have to be avoided at all costs.

I drove into town to get our supplies after arranging for my boys to meet me in my office at 1am.Once again I told them to dress in black and keep their mouths shut.They got right into it, showing up with their faces smeared with mud , like some army commandos or something.

A good raid is one where no one gets hurt , and where the victims have to sit back and wonder “how did they do this?” A good raid leaves the campers alone (unless it is a planned event like a water balloon fight) or at least tries to.And of course a good raid is one you pull off and they don’t know you did it.

We met in my office at the aforementioned time and I handed out what each of us would need. I had planned out what each guy was responsible for covering. I told them where the sentrys had been posted and we agreed to meet up afterwards at the “theatre” and make our way back together. Then ever so silently, we set out. Continue reading →

America’s favorite mouse may soon be getting his rat on. After years of the same old white-gloved cheeriness, Disney is revamping its mousy mascot to be, well, interesting. According to The New York Times, it’s a two-prong process:

First, Disney is developing a new Nintendo Wii game slated for fall 2010 called Epic Mickey, featuring a titular mouse with more sass than we’ve seen in years. Players will essentially be able to choose if they want new Mickey or old Mickey—whether they want to benevolently aid their fellow characters or, as the game’s creative director describes, act “naughty” and “selfish.” Apparently, Mickey will even begin to look more ratlike for players that elect to go the sinister route. Continue reading →

In America, and perhaps elsewhere in the world, we seem quick to place blame.  Often, we’re quick to take litigious action as well.  Slip on the ice in front of someone’s house?  It’s there fault for not salting, so sue them.  It certainly isn’t your fault for being not being aware of your surroundings.  Burn yourself on coffee?  Sue the restaurant who, heaven forbid, thought you might like your hot beverage- well, hot. 

I think we’ve all heard these types of stories, unfortunately.  There is also the desire to blame others for things that really are your fault.  You don’t have a significant other?  It’s because all men (or women depending on your preference) are jerks/idiots/insert other fitting term here.  It can’t possibly be because you don’t shower and spend your free time picking your nose.  These are some light hearted examples, but I think you can get the idea.  It feels better to blame others for things that we don’t like.  That way we don’t have to change.  That way we can somehow imagine we are better.

There is another, less obvious problem with responsibility assignment.  Continue reading →

…but I was so disappointed to hear that the shooter in yesterday’s Ft. Hood massacre was Muslim.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan

I felt sort of the same way I do when a black celeb is in trouble with the IRS, or when sports stars are arrested for marijuana misdemeanors. Do we really need this shit?

All this does is turn an already tragic situation into something that has the potential to cause enduring harm. For many this will become an issue about religion, race, or false patriotism. It’s more a matter of the safety and psychological well being of our armed forces.

I fear that for many close minded people, this will be another opportunity to discuss the problems that having Islamic soldiers in the military pose, when really we should be focusing on the problems Islamic soldiers in the military face. A fellow Ft. Hood soldier said of the situation, Continue reading →

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t mean to suggest families can’t have Game Nights or that they can’t have fun with video games. The choices Wal-Mart makes in their commercials, meanwhile, are almost insultingly unrealistic. One memorable ad has Mom, Dad, Sis and Bro all huddled around the Xbox 360. Bro is apparently the family champion of the system, and on one lucky night, Sis “crushes” him. Mom and Dad are worried about Bro being angry, but he shows restraint and congratulates her on a good game.

Of course, no gameplay is ever shown; your imagination is left to wander as you hear the random bleeps and bloops coming from the TV set. Given the ages of the kids, though, I’d really like to know what game Little Sis is actually able to beat Big Bro at, possible coaching by Dad be damned. At the very least, playing the Wii would make more sense. And how many boys would really be that nice to their sister if they got killed in a game they were supposedly good at? I don’t care if you’re 12 or twice that age, you’re probably going to want to smash something.

In one of their newer, more game-specific ads, Mom is practically the first one on the couch, eyes all lit up, demanding the kids get over to the system for…NBA Live 10? No offense, ladies, but even if you’re not a mother, chances are you won’t be salivating to play this game with your family. If Commercial Mom is anything like my real mom, chances are she’d be pushing buttons in a random fashion, asking questions like, “Who am I?”, “Who are these people supposed to be?”, “How do I move?” and “Whose idea was it to buy this damn game?”

There are other commercials in the series, which can be viewed here. At least the Nintendo DSi spot is kind of funny; Mom is a bit eccentric, but her accomplishment is realistically proportionate even if her response isn’t. For the most part, though, game enthusiasts will want to do a face-palm upon seeing these ads. Perhaps I’m a cynic, but most parents will be buying these games and systems so their kids will entertain themselves. More likely would be a family gathering around a board game or a movie. Moreover, the whole “all smiles” world where everyone is happier than you will ever be is nauseating. It’s bad enough I have to see it in Olive Garden ads, but don’t let it ruin my gaming too.

Have you seen the Wal-Mart Family Moments ads on TV? What was your reaction?

Personal URLs are back on Xanga!  Personal URLs let you change your site address from the standard username.xanga.com to a totally custom address like yourname.com! (A “URL” – also called a “domain” or “domain name” – is just a fancy word for a site address.) 

And if you want to see a Personal URL in action, please swing by my site and say hola! 

http://www.scienceandinquiry.com

(Yes, I’m a science geek; I’m hoping the new URL will inspire me actually to write more about that stuff.)

URLs are one of those features that are important to be competitive in the market… we’ve been meaning to add it back for a while, but we had to finish some backend work to prep for it first.  We actually had this feature a looooooooong time ago (about 9 years ago!! ), but we ended up taking it down because the technology wasn’t there to let us offer two big features people kept asking about: Continue reading →

Now, if that title didn’t grab you, nothing will. I am asking forgiveness because I am going to be discussing a topic that I have covered, oh I don’t know, a thousand times already? No, that isn’t really possible because I don’t think I have reached a thousand blogs, but you get the idea.

I started this blog just over a year ago for a few reasons. Reason number one; I wanted to be famous. Okay, not really, but I am in a weird mood today. Seriously, I started writing mainly because I wanted to tell Emily’s story. Prior to having her, I knew nothing about Down syndrome and I realized that I was probably not the only one. I never wanted, nor do I want now, to be known as “that woman with the kid with Down syndrome”, but I have come to realize that those that read me often do not think of me in such a manner.

In my time here I have had a few people reach out when they were facing the potential diagnosis of Down syndrome. I have tried to give them a realistic version of what life with Emily is all about. I am writing this today because a few days ago I was put in touch with a family that is dealing with this very issue. I won’t mention names because that isn’t my place, but I will say that the family was unaware of the diagnosis until after the birth. In the interest of giving them some words of encouragement and not forcing them to search my blogs for the ones that have dealt with this; I wanted to give a brief retelling of Emily’s story. I am going to try and go about it a bit differently. Not so much from her perspective, but from my feelings when I found out. Continue reading →