Terra Sears - Addicted to Research

Backstory;

In a game I am playing I lose a city to someone else (it is a war game), no big deal. (Believe it or not I actually do not take my games very seriously. Few games hold my attention for a long time, I get bored with them.) Anyway, I am watching chat and this is what I see:

Someone bragging about getting kicked out of an alliance (like a guild for the game), because he told someone that said they were losing or lost a kid – have another one. Now in his defense he might be right, the particular person that he was talking to most likely wasn’t in the process of losing a kid, (after all who would care about a game in such a situation & shame on the person for making such a thing up at such a time.)

Here is the thing though; shame on both of them. (Assuming that the person was not telling the truth)…

So this is what I ask of all people on the internet; even if we don’t know who you are, even if you think someone is not telling the truth, have some compassion in what you say… Some things shouldn’t ever be said, no matter who you are talking to. The idea that a baby is something that can be traded in for a different baby is heartless to every person that has ever lost a child…

Just got out of classes (yes it is 10:00 PM), and I was doing my nightly stuff. I haven’t mentioned it on here yet, but I quit smoking again… I am now doing my nightly stuff. So here is what I do before I go to bed.

I go to MyPyramid and log what I ate today (menu planner). It lets me know what I need to eat more of and less of. Now, let me tell you I have been doing doing really good and loosing weight (more than with any diet that I have done), until this quit smoking thing. Guess I need to buy carrots or something.  The good part? Dust quit too! He has gained ten pounds! (He is underweight to that is GOOD.)

Then I run over and make sure that Nina has been doing her spelling games. (Last year with everything we tried she still didn’t do well. Using these games she has been getting at least a 80%) WEIRD

Then I go to Heaven’s schooland log her hours and make sure that there isn’t anything I need to print for “tomorrow” as well as to check my kmail to be sure that none of the teachers need anything from me.

Then I go to my school and check my email, and depending on how tired I am, I check what is going on in my classes. (More often I do it in the morning.) Then I check my NORMAL email. (I reply sometimes, and sometimes I don’t… Depends on how tired I am

Depending on if anyone had anything to do with a doctor, dentist or whatever I then go enter that information in my family’s health manager. I then decide if I am gonna go play my silly games or not.

Last I decide what I am gonna read before I go to sleep. (Tonight? Forensics Under Fire by Fisher.)

What did I do today? Laundry, dishes, bathed all 6 dogs, bathed both cats (they made friends with a skunk the other night), watched my lectures, read some of my work for classes, helped Katrina with her math homework, ran to town, and on on on…

Good Night

It is going to take me months to put out this article, and while it is most likely already to late for this term, that is to long for what I want people to know. (NOTE: Any ideas given here are open to the public to use and reuse without permission from me. This is to important for any one person to sit on them. – Thank you, Terra Sears; Wyoming)

There are legal avenues; I haven’t done all the grunt work yet (as alluded to before.) However, there is precedent within the jails and prisons that make it so that care has to be given. It goes around the idea that they are responsible for you. In addition hospitals (I believe it most likely has to do with federal funding), have to give life saving treatment regardless of ability to pay.

Then there is the fact that all people on US soil are under the jurisdiction of US law, in addition that they are subject to (can’t think of the term here) specific rights. Add it all together (with a few more that I will find for my article), and I believe a good legal argument can be made for why health care is a right and not a privilege.

The avenue for approach might be a bit different, however, I firmly believe that this will be the best option since we can’t seem to get our representatives to move on initiatives even when 60% of Americans want them… (Talk about failing in a big way.)

Anyway, have at it… It will take me months to prepare the legal argument (as well as the article.) Of course the article has to be submitted as well to rebut any of the arguments that can be made against it…

Here is some more information for you if you haven’t written to congress and the senate for your state yet…

From PNHP (physicians for a National Health Reform)

So what does the MMI tell us? Only an idiot would isolate the largest and healthiest sector of society into the collective employer-sponsored risk pools, assign a package of benefits to each family, assess contributions to be paid based on that package, shift all non-benefit costs to that family, add a hidden charge for wasteful administrative services, and still leave many families exposed to financial hardship. What does that say for those members of Congress who are hashing out this model of health care reform behind those closed doors?

We need a health care financing system that is funded equitably, based on ability to pay, and that uses the power of our own public monopsony to be certain that each of us receives the care that we need. The MMI tells us that it’s time to enact a single payer national health program.

View the rest of the article here, and don’t forget let’s not be idiots.

I love uplifting stories. I love reading all the good things, sometimes we are reminded of all the things we need to be thankful for through sadness though. I titled this “The Dust” after “The Dust Will Wait” as the blog is generally uplifting and the thought behind it conveys all I am feeling right now. I have been spending a lot of time with my kids the last few days; we played monopoly (all day), built a ginger bread house and so on. Last night I stayed up late and drank coffee with liquor in it with Dustin and his friends. We played darts and did some visiting until the wee hours of the morning.

Then this morning I learned some horrible news. I suppose some background is in order. This tiny girl (I mean like maybe 4 foot 6 inches, maybe 75 pounds) lost her father a couple of years ago. She is the same age as Heaven (15 years old). She has nothing to do with her mother (I have never asked why, but the “suggestion” has been the mother is into drugs and stuff). So after the dad was killed (he was shot by his girlfriend or the girlfriends son – the rumors make it impossible for me to know which), she has lived exclusively with her grandmother. Before she lived with her grandmother and her father. Well last night the grandmother died…

The child was with a friend and didn’t know for a while, but I guess she knows now… I just don’t know, but for some reason that I can’t fathom I just feel so *strong emotion here*, I can’t explain it. I don’t  really have a reason to have feelings about it, but at the same time I know them and I can’t believe that this little girl now has no one. They spent Christmas with us (us being Dustin’s family), and Dustin’s uncle has taken it upon himself to be the father to this little girl (the girls father was his best friend.)

Then I went and took a look at a couple of new posts, this one from Lottie just set the tone.

These things usually irritate the heck out of me. Tonight, though, I’m thankful for them because they’re signs that my son is alive, well, and safe at home.

I guess I feel that today is a day that I am being reminded not to take anyone for granted. If you have someone you care about, call them and tell them. If your kids have done something to upset you, hug them and gently remind them… I don’t know what else to say

Not really but it feels like it. Working on my reports, my test that is like a report (the good part it is a take home test, the bad part is it is like a REALLY long report.) So anyway that is what I am doing. Plus I made room for the Christmas tree (yes we celbrate Christmas just not with the reason for the traditional reason for the season.) Normally the tree is up right after thanksgiving is over, this year I am way late. Heaven’s birthday is right around the corner too. The tenth, so I feel tested in life and school right now.  Off to do some more homework, have a social thing I have to do tonight…

There is one piece of advice I can give to parents, listen and talk to your children. I know they have little things on the radio sometimes, and little things on TV about this, but I am here to tell you really talk to your kids. It works, I am not saying they won’t occasionally give you the answer they think you want to hear and so on but really listen. Some silly teen drama, isn’t silly teen drama to your kid, it is life. If they feel like their world is ending because of a boy insulting them, hold their hand, tell them you care. Open yourself up, let them tell you things you don’t really want to hear, and then you are better able to offer real help.

You think _____ might be a problem with your child, talk to them. Don’t accuse, don’t yell, talk. In that talk tell them WHY it is important, use real life examples when you can, and talk in a language they can understand. Let them laugh at you if it helps, tell them it is an uncomfortable subject for you too. Be as honest as you can but really, really, really listen…

I am not perfect, and will never be perfect… However, I got this one down, and I am shocked every time my kids come to me. That shock is a proud feeling though. I love that they feel they can come to me, even on things they know I don’t approve of. I am sure it isn’t everything, but it is the important things…

I had to change by background, but thought some cuteness was in order. So here we are, I don’t know how long the cute little snowman will last but I am in that mood right now. So off to bed I go after a great day with lots of visits. A huge thank you to Dustin’s grandmother for a great meal (even if she did try to tell Heaven I let her eat to much junk food and always had). Thank you aunt Nicky for a great dinner. I also want to thank Dustin’s uncle Joe for some interesting talks, and my uncle Terry for some interesting talks. I enjoy good conversation, and appreciate them.

If you can’t tell other than the grandmother making Heaven mad today was a great day. I wasn’t in the same room when the talk happened, but find it interesting that the woman that feeds my youngest daughter junk food everyday in the summer accused me of letting her eat to much junk food. (Snacks my kids are allowed are carrots, celery with peanut butter, cereal, sandwich, oatmeal, apples, and so forth.) I wonder if me being upset at such a thing makes me a little less thankful than I should? Is it petty of me to feel she is unfair? Our biggest argument about food (she has never talked to me about this junk food thing) is that I don’t feed my family enough protein (well Dustin doesn’t get enough.) You know because we only eat meat with dinner and lunch… Maybe I am just upset because she assumes that but has only been to my house a couple of times, or maybe it is that she had this conversation with my kid instead of me?

Am I wrong, was this a tacky thing to do or am I totally blowing something that is silly out of the water? (I might be I have prejudges against the woman. For things like totally being all over me when Katrina was little because I wouldn’t let her put honey on the pacifier, telling me that I was wasting money by going on a diet, that I need to quit school since Heaven is ill, trying to teach Katrina about Christianity behind my back, telling me that Heaven is a totally out of control, sex maniac, with a drug problem?) Maybe it is just all of that stuff combined. I guess I just feel like if I turn right she thinks I should have turned left, and if I turned left I should have turned right. Either way I feel like I can’t win, and either way it all hurts my feelings…

So tomorrow is my birthday… I think I will be 32? (Born in 76, that part I know). Dustin of course can’t wait until my birthday he had to dish the goods. (He isn’t the mean thrill seeker I am, he gets no perverse pleasure putting presents out so the person they are for gets maximum amount of “OMG, What is that?!?!” squirm time.) So he bought my birthday presents yesterday, and insisted repeatedly until I felt like “FINE, just shut up already”, that I needed to open them.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

One new digital camera, in purple and one new mp3 payer in blue. Both are wonderful, the camera is bitter sweet since I have asked for one for like 2 years (but hey I could have given up and bought myself a new one.) The mp3 is absolutely wonderful, a sansa (and OMG it works so well with windows and you and take music on and off of it.) OK so I am a little over impressed with it, but after all of our IPOD nightmares, and them kicking the bucket way sooner than would be expected I am thrilled. So far it works great, it is really cute, and it sounds good… I think it is safe to say that I haven’t used it long enough to know if it is going to be great, but so far it is everything I wanted (well and a bit more; I can record with it and stuff?)

So anyway, countdown to my actual birthday has begun. Time to get to work on some more cleaning and homework… Interested in America in regards to other countries? Listen to my homework with me here. (US policy in regards to international court.)