Being Touchy Feely

This has been one of the top news stories the past few weeks: Pat downs and full body scans at the airport. I usually stay away from overly hot topics, but since I will be flying next May, I have an opinion on this one.

First of all, I would much rather be scanned than touched by strangers. I don't care that TSA are professionals and they're trained. So are prostitutes. I don't want them touching me either. I am not and never have been a touchy feely type of person. I hug friends and family but not people that I don't know very well or don't like. I don't like shaking hands either when it comes right down to it. I certainly don't want strangers rubbing all over me, and yes, the TSA people do that from what I've seen on the news, especially in full view of lines of other strangers. I can count on one hand how many people have touched my boobs: my husband and my doctors. That's it. The thought of TSA people doing so in public sets my nerves on end. I will definitely opt for the full body scanners when the time comes. I will wear the most simplest clothing that I can find to do my very best that nothing looks suspicious on the scans so that I won't have to have a pat down in addition to the scan.

I've seen lots of people that say that if you don't like the scans and pat downs, then take a bus or drive yourself. That's a very narrow opinion if you ask me. You can't take a bus overseas and I can't imagine taking myself and my kids on a bus from California to Ohio in the case of an emergency or something. The Mister and I are taking a 15th anniversary vacation to Fiji in May. You can't drive to Fiji from the United States. Should I opt to just stay home?

When it comes to my kids, I will definitely avoid flying whenever possible. I really don't like the thought of strangers rubbing their hands over my children. My youngest, who doesn't have "normal" reactions to strangers, this will be a real problem for her and it makes me wonder if parents of other special needs kids have or will have the same sorts of problems when it comes to this issue too.

Something else that bugs me about this is where does it stop? It used to be that we just had to pass through metal detectors and send our carry on luggage through an x-ray machine. 9/11 happened and airport screenings really stepped up. It made it so that getting from your car to boarding your plane takes 2 hours now. We have to take our shoes off (which I find weird but not overly so, btw) and all other manner of things at the gate. Then came along full body scanners and now we have to be subjected to being touched by strangers. What happens when some reporter or someone else trying to make a point, gets past the new security and onto a plane carrying things they shouldn't have been allowed to take on the plane? I see a future of naked people walking around the airport and anal probes. I have to wonder how much I am exaggerating here, if at all...

Hello Old Friend

Our Thursday meme brought to you courtesy of Booking Through Thursday

Who would you rather borrow from? Your library? Or a Friend?

(Or don’t your friends trust you to return their books?)

And, DO you return books you borrow?

I don't borrow books. I think if I were to borrow books from friends, I would return them...eventually. However, almost every single time I (or anyone in my household) checks out books from the library, they are returned late. The same thing goes if we ever rent a movie or video game. We just have a block when it comes to returning borrowed items on time. I would much rather just buy my books, especially since I consider my books to be a collection, than borrow them from the library only to rack up fines and return them late.

In the same vein, I can only think of one or two people to whom I would loan my books and trust them to return them to me in a timely fashion. I can recall lending books to someone only to have the person return my books to me three years later. I've also loaned books out and NEVER gotten them back. At this point, if I give someone a book from my collection, it is with the understanding that I never want the book back and don't expect to ever see it again. I'm firm about it and not afraid to say no to a loan request, and have, either. ;)

I Knew It Wouldn't Last

So I'm all out of the running for NaBloPoMo. I figured I wouldn't make it to the end, but this year, it was out of my hands. My Internet connection has been spotty to say the least for almost a week now. As a result, I've had to turn in homework late, answer work emails days after I get them, and drop out of NaBloPoMo. I'm completely frustrated. I called Time Warner and they verified that I was having problems with my connection saying that my modem wasn't receiving info (No! Really?!?). I had a tech out on Friday and he blamed the problem on my wireless router. The wireless router tech blamed my Internet connection. I'm inclined to believe the router people because I've never had as many connectivity problems as I've had with Time Warner. We've had several issues with our connection since we moved here. We also have continuous problems with our cable too. For instance, my on screen guide doesn't work on my downstairs DVR box. My DVR also regularly will record only the first 10 minutes or so of a show. My HD channels tile so badly that I can't watch them occasionally too. Thus far, I'm am not impressed with Time Warner.

In other news...

As you may or may not have read in a previous post, the Mister and I are having a weight loss competition. So far, he's beating me by about 2%. We both decided to boost our weight loss with supplements. I don't know if you have had any experience with weight loss supplements but they suck. They work, but with side effects which suck. I'm not promoting them so I'm not giving names and don't ask. Do your own due diligence should you decide to try them out. The ones we both opted to try out have large amounts of caffeine in them. This means that we can't ingest any other forms of caffeine while taking them. No chocolate, no coffee, and certainly no soda. I haven't had any liquid caffeine in over a month. That's the longest I've ever gone probably since I was a toddler, lol. Lucky for me, I don't crave chocolate so that's not a big deal. However, I love my soda and coffee so it's been a challenge to give them up. I know. There's decaf but I don't believe in decaf. It's all or nothing for me.

Another result of our challenge is that I have given up fast food. I admit, I was a fast food junkie. If you've never watched Supersize Me, you should and you will understand how fast food can be an addiction. But you know what? I don't miss it at all. I feel really good about eating healthier. The biggest challenge of giving up fast food is that the kids don't understand it and they constantly ask to eat out. I need to sit them down and make them watch Supersize Me. I actually have it on DVD so I just might do that. The problem with making kids understand why eating bad food is bad for you, is that they are young and thinking about the long term ramifications of eating unhealthy food is beyond them. My dad has had so many procedures for heart disease that I've just about lost count. The Mister's family also has a history of heart disease. My kids have it coming at them from both sides. I need to change their eating habits now while they're still healthy and while I still have any influence in that area, lol.

On Having a Good Day and a Quiet Evening

I had a great day today. I sat out on my patio and enjoyed the heat. I only lasted ten minutes before I had to go in though. Highs in the 90's today. I love the heat, especially in November, heheh. I also got caught up on some work today. AND, the Mister called. He's doing well. His biggest complaint is being bored. In a war zone, I would think bored is better than the alternative.

As for my evening, the youngest's mouth got her sent to her room and the oldest is at the high school for band practice. It's just ME in my clean house relaxing with no kids to bug me. Heaven.

Swimming in November

We've been having beautiful weather here in SoCal. Considering the downright chilly summer we had, I'm enjoying the warmth. We're having a mild Santa Ana so our high for today was 88 and the forecasted high for the next two days is 92. I LOVE it. It was so nice that the kids went the neighborhood pool for 2 hours after school today.

Oh. And last night, (for those of you that aren't Facebook friends) the oldest child put regular dish soap in the dishwasher. The dishwasher was so full of bubbles that you couldn't even see the dishes inside and suds were running across the floor. It was pretty funny looking back. At the time, I just couldn't believe that she'd do something so silly. We had dishwasher tabs for pete's sake. Kids.

Should I? Can I?

November is supposed to be National Blog Posting Month. I don't even think I attempted it last year with moving and other stuff. I don't remember. Should I attempt it this year? With the Mister gone, I have even less to say than under normal circumstances, lol. But, whatev.

Today, I wasted a good part of my morning trying to buy passes to Comic Con 2011. They went on sale this morning at 9 am PDT. I was online at 8:30 and had the page open, my credit card standing by, and I watched the clock waiting for 9 am to roll around. It took something like 15 minutes just for the page to refresh. I was on two computers trying to get the website to work. It was so overloaded that it took about 45 minutes just to get to the first registration page. I typed in my info, hit "next" and then the next page wouldn't load. I did this until 10'ish when I checked their FaceBook page and saw the message, "We are aware of the current server issues and are working on a resolution. We apologize for the inconvenience." The comments on their page were quite funny. I certainly wasn't the only person who was frustrated. Anyway, at about 10:30, they posted another message saying they were still trying to fix the problem and to check back on the 8th for more info about when tickets would go back on sale. I was pretty disappointed. 2011 is the first year that I will have a chance to go and I can't even get the tickets, lol. The biggest gathering of geeks and they are brought low by technical issues on their website. Ironic, I think.

So closes my first post of the 2010 NaBloPoMo. ;)