Dyno's Whine

Kickin' Back Old Style

2009-05-26T22:10:00.002-06:00

OK, we're in Chicago and so far it's been AWESOME. At first, I was a little worried. The two days of driving were very long, thanks to lots of construction and heavy rains, and then the hotel we had originally booked (the Days Inn in Niles/Skokie) was AWFUL. Like, blood on the walls, no towels, internet not working, bad shower curtain AWFUL. So today we checked out of that hotel and moved to the downtown Howard Johnson's. It's old and obviously 'economical', but it's well-maintained and the people are nice so we consider it a big improvement, even though we're paying more for the convenience of being downtown.
We went to the Sears tower this morning which was pretty cool though the weather was hazy. I started getting souvenir-crazy then, though luckily I've been able to say 'no' to most everything so far. Then we went to Giordano's for some real Chicago deep-dish pizza that was ever so tasty. Then we went to Grant Park and saw Buckingham Fountain, easily the most impressive fountain I have ever seen, though some might consider it overly ornate. Then we went to Millennium Park and saw sculptures and fountains and gardens and the Giant Silver Bean (I believe it is officially called the cloud sculpture or something like that) and I was duly impressed. This evening we headed out to Wrigleyville for a Cubs game. It was AWESOME. It's amazing how everything, absolutely EVERYTHING there is built and geared around the Cubs. It was awesome! I got a new Cubs shirt and we ate hot dogs and popcorn and got rained out and the CUBBIES WON!! Hooray!
Now I'm bushed, though we still have 2 more days here. So fun!

Authority

2009-05-21T14:53:00.003-06:00

I have what some would call an unhealthy respect for authority. I don't believe EVERYTHING I see/hear, but by golly if someone who's done a lot of validated research comes to me and tells me that the sky isn't blue, I begin to wonder if blue means what I think it means.
This is the opposite of my husband. If he didn't think of it, or if he can't understand it, then he generally blows it off or disparages it.
This produced a lot of conflict in our early marriage. So I begin to wonder: what is a HEALTHY level of respect for authority? If you don't respect any authority, then not only does it make certain social interactions (like work) difficult, but you are doomed to repeat many mistakes and not be able to learn beyond what you are able to test for yourself. But if you believe everything you are told, well, you'll end up buying a lot of Brooklyn bridges. Either extreme, you get hurt.
I don't know the answer. (HA! You came here looking for answers?! Sucker!) I like my level, imperfect though it is. I suppose everyone has to find their own level. But from what I've seen in the world of late, I would recommend erring on the side of healthy respect for authority. So many people throw away authority simply because it is what it is, forgetting that authority became that way through experience and gaining knowledge. It's not always right, and sometimes it is even taking advantage of you, but if you show people respect you at least improve relations with them and might learn something in the process as well.

A Short Film

2009-05-13T20:29:00.001-06:00

Was directed to this short film, entitled "Validation," from a forum I frequent. It's 16 minutes long but I really liked it.

An Explosive Topic

2009-05-13T14:35:00.003-06:00

OK, this has been on my mind for a while, and I know I'll get a lot of hate mail for this, but I just wanna speak my mind.

Marriage is an interesting institution. Our government and society has assigned a lot of legal baggage to go along with the institution, but barring that, it's a social institution that defines a basic unit of a family and therefore a basic unit of learning, living, and society at large. The authority for defining this basic institution comes from one of two places: 1) God, or, if you don't believe in Him, 2) society (which only makes sense, since it's a societal institution).

Since we live in a non-theocratic republic, we cannot say that one person's religious beliefs are more valuable than another person's. So we must use the societal definition of the institution -- majority rules. It doesn't matter what influences each individual's definition -- we cannot dictate another person's conscience -- but when polled/voted for the majority's definition, we need to try to accept it graciously. Government shouldn't get involved because marriage isn't a 'right'. It's a social construct, defined by the society in which we live. If you don't like it, then you're free to live the way you want without the 'social stamp of approval' or move someplace where the society defines things more to your liking. Don't go spewing hate against the people where you live.

fun music

2009-04-20T21:15:00.001-06:00

Just checkin' in, posting a neat music video I saw on youtube.

knitting, knitting and knitting

2009-03-16T13:36:00.002-06:00

I have many nieces and nephews on the way, so I am a knitting fiend. Here is a picture of the baby blanket I am currently working on. Isn't it cute? Please ignore the camera strap on the right and the evidence of my messy messy house on the left. Anyway, I use Karabella Aurora 8 yarn, which is this luscious pre-shrunk merino wool that is very soft. I also have yarn in lilac purple and seafoam green for the other blankets. I doubt I'll get them all done in time but if you're waiting for one, be patient! This much knitting is hard work!

Geeky television

2009-03-15T22:13:00.002-06:00

I just realized I have a follower, and it's not my husband, so now I feel pressure to perform. Ahem.

We're putting together an HTPC -- that is, a Home Theater PC -- and having some fun and some grief with it. Basically, it's a computer you connect to your television setup so you can watch things like youtube videos or Hulu shows or downloaded Netflix movies on your TV. You can also connect a TV tuner card to the PC and turn the HTPC into a DVR, but we haven't gotten that far yet. We want to walk before we run. Anyway, being cheapskates AND geeks, we bought the nice little entertainment-center-compatible case and micro-ATX motherboard and all that and put it together ourselves. We are going to use Linux on it, but right now we're on our 2nd distro and we seem to be having problems with the DVD drive we're using, as we keep getting I/O errors. We're also looking for a way to get our wireless keyboard -- a Belkin Mediapilot -- working with it, which is proving difficult because it requires drivers and Belkin doesn't support Linux at this time (the heathens!). Jake is far more excited and determined about this than I am, but we're having fun with it nevertheless. If anyone out there knows how to get the keyboard working with Linux, let us know! In the meantime, I'll keep searching the 'net for solutions.

New table!

2009-02-24T22:50:00.003-07:00

After 15 years of the table I got for free after some friends had left it outside for 6 months, dropped it from the back of a pickup onto the road where it split in two, and another friend put it back together for me, we finally have a new table. We took our tax refund for this year, went down to RC Willey and found a lovely rustic table and some nice leather chairs to go with it. We only have 5 chairs for now, because that's what the budget allowed, but we should be getting 3 more in the next few months. It's completely huge with the leaf in (the pictures are without the leaf), but should do nicely for Thanksgiving. And it has a nice couple of drawers in the stand which will be very nice for tablecloths and such. Hurrah!

Doodely-doo

2009-02-16T12:35:00.002-07:00

Just checking in. The house is still pretty clean, mostly. Though I need to clean the bathrooms again. I still play World of Warcraft, though only about 30-60 minutes/day, max. Writing is slow. Have switched to a new book about the spirit world. May be interesting. May not. Depression still sucks. Haven't been exercising enough lately. Been listening to a LOT of music lately, especially a lot of Girlyman and The Weepies. And Coldplay. And a little R.E.M. thrown in for good measure, as always.
Our ward was just split. They made 2 new wards in our stake and adjusted the boundaries on almost every ward in it. We lost some good acquaintances, as our old neighborhood is now in a brand new ward and we're still in the old ward. Even though the growth around here has slowed considerably, our stake is still bursting at the seams, as we now have SIXTEEN wards! Crazy!
Oh, I found something cool yesterday called restaurant.com. You can buy gift certificates for lots of good restaurants for CHEAP. There's restrictions, but for the most part they seem pretty reasonable.
Otherwise I'm ready for the winter to be over. While I like the cold, the darkness and lack of green is getting to me. I want to see some life again.

Foster care

2009-01-28T00:47:00.002-07:00

We finished our Foster Parent training tonight and I'm really excited now to be a foster parent. It looks hard and scary but oh so rewarding. There's such a great need for good foster parents out there! Go and investigate fostering in your area and see if you can lend a hand! Ees gud!

Dittmer memories

2009-01-04T20:35:00.002-07:00

For 2007 we had a great reunion in the Lake of the Ozarks for the Dittmer side of my family. While we were there we videotaped all the kids remembrances of grandma and grandpa Dittmer. Well we finally got the video digitized and it's being uploaded as I type so if you want to see it go here. If you happen to be reading this ultra fast it might not be uploaded yet, but it should be finished uploading later tonight. And be careful with it, we're not made of bandwidth, ya know!

Post Christmas wrap up

2008-12-29T11:31:00.003-07:00

First, just to get this out of the way: You know you take too many pills when you open EVERY bottle by 'pushing and turning'. Bleah.

Anyway, I had a good Christmas. Did you have a good Christmas? We went to our resort in Bear Lake and it snowed all day and it was AWESOME! Though I ironically had 'there's no place like home for the holidays' in my head much of the time, it was nice to get away to a clean place for a few days and lounge in the pool and stuff. Yes, you heard me, the biggest difference there was that it was clean. Dang it I WILL have a clean house someday!

My new hard drive came in while we were gone and we just got it installed and it seems to work splendiforously so far. Took some time to move everything over, but we found a great free image maker called Macrium Reflect on www.download.com and it worked quite well. Now I have a full Terabyte to waste! Hurrah! Shall I put every CD I own onto my drive, and scan every picture I've ever taken? Hm. It's a possibility now. Just have to decide if I'm un-lazy enough.

In the meantime, I need to exercise today and do the dishes. Fighting the depression we are, fighting always fighting.

Hope everyone has a great new year!

Passion

2008-12-20T11:14:00.004-07:00

Of all the things I miss in this depression, I think the thing I miss the most is the passion. Being able to feel things strongly and express them used to be so important to me. It is really reflected in my writing -- with the passion deadened like it is now, it is nearly impossible for me to write in a way that brings emotion to the reader. And who wants to read stuff like that? Certainly not me! While reading the Twilight series recently, that became evident -- while I didn't fully appreciate her writing, one thing she did well was passion. And look at how popular she was for that! So...how do I bring the passion back? How do I feel it again? I know I could write it if I could just feel it again....

Music -- Christmas and otherwise

2008-12-17T21:01:00.003-07:00

I have rediscovered music. Through imeem and emusic I have been introduced to some new artists and sounds and it has made a huge difference in my life. It's amazing how much music inspires and lifts me. Sometimes I hear a song and whole scenes of books come to me, I just wish I could put it to paper with the strength and clarity that the image comes. It touches through the thick protective shell I have around myself and brings up parts of me I thought long dead. It's a marvelous thing.

Christmas music brings the spirit of the season to me especially strongly; I am so glad that we have the tradition of buying a new Christmas album every year. I highly recommend that tradition to everyone. The Sarah McLachlan Wintersong CD is especially nice. I'm listening to it right now.

Find the people you love and tell them you love them. Every day. It's so fleeting.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-15T11:58:00.003-07:00

Well for all of you who would rather receive a Christmas card, I'm sorry, I'm too lazy for that. This is what you're getting.

I've already received one Christmas present, on accident. I got home from scouts one evening to see a nice big Brother box on the porch which Jake hadn't noticed and hidden. Amazon had shipped my new laser printer (yay!) in its original box (boo!). It's really nice. Prints faster than our old one and hooks directly to the network so we don't have to leave the computer on to be able to print. Whee! Technology!

We're going to one of our resorts in Bear Lake for actual Christmas this year. I've already put a plethora of Christmas music on a CD for the long drive and I'm so excited!

Jake should be getting a double raise and some back pay this Friday so we'll have enough money for the holidays. Overall I'm just plain excited. I love Christmas. I wish I could spend it with my family but we'll have to just save up to be able to do that next year. I wonder how that will work with foster kids? I don't know, I guess I'll have to ask at our class next month!

Three things to update you on news-wise: 1) We've almost completed the process for fostering. We have to take a class next month (like 30 hours of class) and my mom is coming next month to help get the house ready and then we'll be done! I hope to have a kid or 2 in the house by February. 2) I've been working a lot on my book. It's getting better, if you ask me. Silly anxiety. Why did I ever listen to you? Anyway, if you are interested in reading it, let me know and I will e-mail you a copy! I could always use more input! 3) I'm back in counseling, which is helping with the writing and getting the house ready. It's hard work though. Stupid depression.

Otherwise, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! See you around!

2008-11-11T12:31:00.001-07:00

Well, igleast it's cool for we studious types. =) Go to www.arcticowlsoftware.com and download the free software for learning the states, or the countries of Europe, or even the Canadian provinces. They are small and fun little programs for learning those things most of us tend to forget or never learned. I even find the knowledge pretty useful when it comes to current events in the world. So go over there and download that stuff and play with it a while. It's good for your brain!

Catchup (no not ketchup)

2008-05-23T22:36:00.002-06:00

We had a GREAT time in Canada last week for our anniversary trip. Totally gorgeous! This week I started out Monday with a job interview that immediately turned into a job. I'm now an administrative assistant for Kuna Counseling Center, which is a bit wild and disjointed but not bad. It's the closest thing I've had to using my degree since I graduated in '92. :) The people there are really nice and the schedule is very flexible; they have given me all the time I need off for the summer which is most awesome. It's still a bit nerve-wracking for psychologically wimpy ol' me, but it's good mental exercise. Jake gave me a blessing the other day and since then the Lord has been helping me a lot.
With the income from that and the savings we have from refinancing our house, we have been spending a bit much lately. We bought a 2007 Toyota Prius (which we LOVE), are replacing my dead laptop, and upgrading our satellite to HD. Can I just say that I am excited? Whee! I love spending money! Bad me! But with the refinance we are COMPLETELY out of credit card debt! Now that IS something to cheer about! Hooray!

It's sad when...

2008-05-02T16:21:00.002-06:00

You're home all day and end up checking online to see that something has been delivered and is sitting on your doorstep.

I'm just sayin'.

Caveat Emptor!

2008-05-02T13:53:00.002-06:00

I have lost the 2nd Compaq laptop in 3 years due to motherboard failure this week. No warning, just suddenly dead and every boot attempt results in a beep code saying that the CMOS can't write to RAM. Replacing the CMOS battery and removing/testing the RAM didn't help, leaving the motherboard as the culprit. AGAIN. Last time it was the onboard video card. My MIL lost her Compaq to a motherboard problem about a year ago as well, so this is not a rare occurrence, apparently. Now I have to save up for another machine and pull data from my little hard drive again. So to those of you out there who are shopping for laptops: avoid the Compaqs! Anyone have a brand they particularly recommend? I'm looking at Toshiba or Lenovo, but I would rather have XP than Vista.

We're failing our children

2008-04-24T13:36:00.003-06:00

This is something that has been bugging me for a while. I've seen it around a bit, but the most profound examples of how we are failing our children seem to come from my sister who teaches high school in Oklahoma. Over a third of the senior class in her high school are flunking out. OVER A THIRD! And from the tales she has told me of so many of her students, it's not a surprise. The kids just don't care, and their parents don't care, to put even the slightest modicum of work into their education. They won't bring their books to class, they won't even bother to read the questions on tests -- she actually had a student who prided himself on getting through an important test quickly by guessing on every single question. The kids are beyond apathetic and rude and cheating is second nature. I could tell you many stories but I will spare you the gory details. And lest you get the impression that this is just her school or just Oklahoma, I have heard similar stories up here in Idaho. It's appalling. These are the people who are going to be running our businesses, working on our vehicles, helping us in stores, and working on our homes. Not to mention the ones that will be helping us in hospitals, flying us across the country, and other life-threatening situations.
Where do these kids come from? Answer: lazy, apathetic, or self-absorbed parents. I've seen many parents try to absolve themselves with statements like "I didn't teach them that" or "I don't know where they get it from, must be from other kids at school," but the bottom line is the kids learn this crap from their parents. Responsibility, love of learning, integrity, all good things are learned from the smallest age, way too young for blame to be placed on the schools, not to mention that it has been proven in study after study that parents have the biggest influence by far out of any factors influencing children. And many parents are just plain too stupid to realize what they are teaching their children when they do things like get mad at a kid for asking questions ("curiosity and learning is bad") or attempt to justify a dishonest behavior ("as long as I get what I want, it's okay").
Please, people, pay attention to your kids. If you don't HAVE to work, stay home with your kids and love and teach them the things that they need to grow up smart and strong and good. It's hard work. REALLY hard work. If it's not hard, you're not doing it right. But it's worth it. Not even the best schools or daycares can make up for what you are teaching or not teaching your kids right now.

Why Facial Hair is Not a Sign of Manliness

2008-04-23T17:11:00.003-06:00

OK, first, for the sake of argument, we must define manliness. I will give two criteria that will be difficult to dispute for my definition: 1) The ability to conquer, and 2) the ability to attract the ladies.

For the first point, I bring up three of the most conquering societies in history: the Romans, the Mongols, and the English. The Romans were one of the earliest societies to make clean-shaven men the norm, and they are commonly acknowledged as some of the greatest conquerors of the ancient world. Surpassing them in conquering ability, however, was the Mongols, who ruled land from Bavaria to the Pacific Ocean. While commonly portrayed as bearded heathen, they actually eschewed facial hair. Then surpassing them, and everyone else, in conquering ability, was the British. The sun didn't set on the English empire as during the 19th century they ruled land clear around the globe. And everyone knows that they are a traditionally rather clean-shaven bunch. Therefore, according to our powerful examples, facial hair is typically negatively associated with the most powerful conquering peoples.

As to attracting the ladies, most women do not like the scratchiness of beards and other forms of facial hair. Ask any marketing specialist and they will tell you that all of the studies in the Americas find clean-shaven men to be far more attractive to women than their bearded counterparts.

Therefore, based upon scientific evidence, facial hair is not a sign of manliness.

2008-04-17T17:37:00.001-06:00

I lub dis song. And I'm testing out imeem's embed features so maybe you can learn to love it too.

Social the Networks

2008-04-17T17:27:00.003-06:00

OK, I don't know what's up, maybe it's because it's Spring, but I've joined three social networks in the course of a week. sparkpeople, facebook, and imeem. It really makes me wonder about today's kids, with all this shallow socializing on these huge specialized networks! Imeem seems great for music and sparkpeople is interesting for health and facebook is just...well, facebook -- but if this is the way people socialize today, I'm really feeling old! How do you keep up with it? How do you resolve and determine REAL friendships? Or do you just use the online to supplement?

Funny Kitties

2008-04-15T18:49:00.003-06:00

This video is somewhat like how we are with our cats. Have I mentioned that we love our kitties? They are our children. I don't know how I will cope when they aren't around anymore. And if you ever doubt me, just look at our vet bill!

Does it make me lame now that i posted about kitties on my blog?

SparkPeople

2008-04-14T11:34:00.004-06:00

I'm not generally much of a person for online social networks. I mean, I belong to a few, but I just don't get INTO them. I think I'm too old. :b But my sister pointed one out to me yesterday that I thought might be helpful, so I joined it. We'll see how it works out.

For those who have never met me in person, I have to confess: I am very fat. VERY fat. I have a metabolic disorder which has ALWAYS made it difficult to lose weight, but over the last 10 years a few bouts with serious illness have pushed me over the edge from overweight to very obese and it has been very discouraging. It makes me tired, aggravates my depression, aggravates my genetic predisposition to insulin resistance, makes it hard to move around, etc., etc. Until you've actually been this fat you have no idea how hellish it is. With the depression it is even harder to fight than it used to be, so most of me has just sort of given up. And I find normal diet and health plans to be such a huge amount of bother and effort and so full of chipper, happy, gung-ho people that they just make me want to run away. So I'm afraid of trying this, but I'm going to try it anyway. Not anything high-falutin', just trying to exercise more and eat a little less and eat a little healthier. Just being more aware, not calorie-counting. Hopefully it will make a difference. We'll see. I really don't want to get gastric bypass surgery. If you want to try the site out for yourself, say hi to me there -- my username is mouriana.