On Finding Carmen Sandiego

Don't you think this Carmen Sandiego is perhaps older than she was when she appeared on TV? Or am I just imagining it? Oh well, it doesn't matter now because we know where she is and what she really looks like---and not that Hollywood made-up replica!


Since I found Carmen Sandiego, do you think perhaps now we can concentrate on finding that Waldo character? 

OOPS! Perhaps I found him too.

MY NEW YEAR COMPLAINTS

COMPLAIN- to express grief, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment or dissatisfaction; to find fault. However the affects of complaints on the people who make them, or the people they are made to, is nonetheless quite excessive.

"When a person complains they are expressing their lack of knowledge and understanding for the problem they are faced with. Voicing complaints is a way of iterating the need for help, in an informal manner. Some link the informality of the question and the nature of the person who said it. People who are self-centered have trouble voicing the problems with a situation because of their fear for inferiority. IT seems that the feeling of inferiority and self-centeredness go hand and hand."

A lot of people here in the USA spent the first few days of this New Year trying on "New Year Resolutions" that they think will be quick fixes for the ills of their lives and it is my opinion that these resolutions usually never work. Personally, I have found New Year resolutions do not fit well nor do they sit well with most people, including me. Resolutions are often dropped very soon after they are made and I am often quite amused by the fact that people still make them year-after-year. I think resolutions are as pleasant to make as it is to begin a diet and I think that somewhere in all of the mess of dieting can be found the reason resolutions are never successful for most people, it is the DIETING VERSUS LIFESTYLE DILEMMA---resolutions never seem to be chosen by anyone with the idea of changing anything, certainly not a precious lifestyle! So come spring most people and their New Years Resolutions will part company and those pesky resolutions will become a distant memory.

Sometime in December I recently came up with what I think is a brilliant idea. I wanted to start out my New Year WRONG, without the resolutions. (I like the sound of that, a New Year Without Resolutions, it sounds like a great title for a book.) I also began to think about how this coming New Year I wanted to get my negativity out of me at the beginning of the New Year and not wait latter. I felt that by doing this I might be able to pave the way for a much better New Year throughout the whole year long....of course this  brilliant idea is completely from my perspective. So here goes as follows, my long laundry list of complaints....

Complaint #1

I love to shop and if I could find a way to make money shopping I would certainly do so...because I live to shop. I like---the hunt and the smell of new things! I get an almost-aphrodisiac effect from the whole experience---looking at catalogs and ads, writing out lists, driving to stores, looking for a parking space, eating out while shopping, hunting for the items on lists, and leaving  the stores with  all of my purchases. What I don't like about shopping is a useless store clerk, rude cashiers, narrow aisles, elevator music, what I want is on the tippy-top shelf, etc! I despise them all and there are few exceptions! It is my opinion, most sales clerks and cashiers are no longer interested in their customers. Sadly enough it is a long-gone-era when most store personnel catered to their customers and thought the "customer was always right" and soon it will be forgotten by those of us who can still remember this time period after we "go the way of the world".  Often I cannot find anyone in a store to help me when I need help and when I don't want help I will often find someone annoyingly following me around. Finally when I lay my items up on the counter is when I experience the worst of all behaviors from a cashier, the cashier who rings up my purchases without even acknowledging my presence. To me this is the worst possible way to be treated by anybody, as though I was invisible! Usually these types of cashiers will talk back and forth with one another while ringing up sales, talking about customers, boyfriends, sex, doctor visits, etc. which is rude in my book. I have experienced it all BUT as I like shopping so much I put up with these horrible sales personnel. 

 Complaint #2

I have found that going out shopping has become more enjoyable with the age of ATM cards! I think the  invention of the ATM machine and ATM card is monumental in facilitating the quick spending of cash  on shopping events. Who knew that shopping could become so simplified and streamlined as it has become because of a little ATM card! Isn't it awesome, great and so convenient too! As I mentioned in Complaint #1 I despise shopping personnel, well I equally despise bank personnel. With the invention of the ATM machine and its equally awesome ATM card, I have now become freed of  bank tellers. I have not had many positive experiences with them though some of them are not half so bad as those thoughtless store personnel but  nonetheless terrible. I have had snide remarks made publicly about both me and my account, i.e. calling someone else to come forward when I was obviously the next person in line; and I was once called "Sir!" when I came to my bank in full camping attire. One time I came to my bank to close out my account (the teller was friendly enough) I went through all of the steps to close my account. The teller then gave me documents to sign. As I left I was confident all was done to close my account but sometime later I received a call from the bank inquiring into whether or not I had desired to close my account because I still had a balance in my account! Imagine that! The ATM machine and the card have now made it possible for me to do all of my banking business and rarely have to see a human face (and internet banking is equally awesome) unless I have to close my account again!

Complaint #3

I find myself from time-to-time in a line waiting to purchase items in some store. I find that the store clerks and cashiers are often too much to deal with and then I have to also endure standing in-line long lines with people on their cell phones discussing very private issues in public, and even intimate ones.
 Top Ten Most Annoying Cell Phone Habits

 I personally think that some things should not be discussed in public---i.e. which pad or tampon to buy (AND WHY!); latest pap smear results; which condom is best (AND WHY!); best sex position; what someone's Mama or boyfriend did to her; whether to spit or swallow after giving your husband, boyfriend or whatever, a...well... you get the picture don't you? I do not know why it is that some people, usually women, think cell phones come with a sound-proof chamber attached....FYI they don't! I would prefer to stand in the line in the quiet listening to people talking softly with one another but not listening to cell phone conversations that really should be private.

Complaint #4

I want to offer some words on bullies and bullying--- JUST STOP IT! STOP YOUR BULLYING!

Why would anyone who has ever been ill-treated, abused, and hurt in any way ever want to inflict that same kind of pain on someone else? Also, am I the only one that has thought that perhaps children who are bullying others are ACTING OUT? I think that children who are bullies are demonstrating the same mean behaviors that were demonstrated to them by someone previously and usually done to them by someone else, often a much larger person---like an older teenager or an adult. Could it be that those persons looking to root out the source of bullying behaviors might be looking in the wrong places, looking at the wrong people? I think that the source of bullying behaviors will be found in the homes of the bullies, in the communities where the bully has grown up and also in the schools the bullies have gone to---look at parents, community sports &amp community coaches, school principals & coaches, school counselors, school nurses, school teachers, church leaders, scout leaders, tutors and any other adults that regularly interact with children. I do believe emphatically that the source of the problem of bullying does not rest with a child, or with any child. I think all bullies are children mimicking what they have seen done to other children and/or what has been done to them. I think children who are bullied often become bullies themselves because it is a cry for help and unfortunately no one has been hearing this cry for help from most children for too many years in the past and right on into the present. We need to wake up and really look at the problem of bullying and think outside of the box for the answers. Targeting bullying children for the past 50 or more years has not solved anything so it is time to stop seeking answers in this direction. I think that schools will often punished children for this behavior without thinking through the problem thoroughly and adequately---maybe this is because they really do not want to find the problem, they do not want to find a solution and it is also so much easier to blame a child or children for the problem and then they can get higher authorities off their cases and get onto more important things but what is more important than a child in a school for children? And don't we think that not finding a solution in our lifetime only complicates matters worse than they already are? So what do we do about it?

I think the first step is that we must start to be kinder to the children, and treat them well regardless of their poor behaviors, regardless of their backgrounds and regardless of their educational abilities because often what a bully really needs and is seeking is someone to understand  validate what they went through and then to realize they have a safe friend to talk to---only after this has been established can a child feel safe enough to begin making a connection with someone, hopefully someone who could set a positive example for him/her, someone who could make a difference for good in his/her life.I believe love and kindness are always better ways to reach children than Zero-Tolerance, which in my opinion was permission to abuse children.What might have happened at Columbine High School before the year 1999 if someone had reached out with love and compassion to those  boys in the Trench-Coat Mafia? We will never know because it seems as if no one did, not even their parents, and now it is just one really sad tale and it led to so many other shootings in other places. Like the song from the 60s repeated over and over and over again..."what the world needs now is love, sweet love, no not just for some but for everyone...." I have long disagreed that "learning was never intended to be fun". Could this simple statement have been a excuse for decades to abuse children and to teach them to bully? 

Complaint #5

As I was walking this morning, I noticed again for the millionth time (I love exaggerating) that young people today have not learned very well to walk on the right side of a walkway, a sidewalk, down a hall or practically ANYWHERE THEY WALK! While I was walking slowly hoping to be able to pass soon I came to realize there was no place for me to go. These young people wer not paying any attention to the fact that they were approaching me and that I had no where to go but in the snow! I chose to go in the snow and as I did I hear snickers behind me as I they passed me! I realized they had seen me and I decided then to never allow another group of young people to force me in the snow. I now will play chicken with them if I have to to maintain my place on the sidewalk. I will not veer from my course.

Complaint #6

One morning this semester I was walking to class today with quite a large supply of items stuffed into two pieces of rolling luggage (one for my regular school supplies and books; the other one with art supplies for oils class), a small tackle box containing art supplies for my drawing class and a large art portfolio. I was walking in the snow and upon approaching the building I noticed some men were shoveling snow. I thought "Hallelujah!" but when I got up to the building I noticed they were only shoveling places marked for handicapped people but not where someone like me might walk. I said something to them. I told them that handicapped people would not roll their wheelchairs across the parking lot nor would they go toward the stairs because their ramp is further down and away from the walk (AND AWAY FROM THE HANDICAPPED DOORS---how much sense does that make?) All of  these details became more abundantly clear to me as I approached the ramp and thought about how all of this handicapped plan had been put together by an absolute idiot! I thought---Why couldn't there be two handicapped ramps, one on either side of the steps? (-one for those with canes and one for those in wheelchairs or scooters.) Also, when a handicapped person opens the doors there on the side of the building the button on the outside of the building is right there along the left as one enters the building, which is convenient enough but once inside the button for the inside door is wedged between the window and a magazine rack with less than a foot of clearance on either side---not at all a good place for the second button. Also, I don't understand why the handicapped door is the one on the right when the buttons to engage it are on the left. Finally, there is only one handicapped entrance to this building and yet students in scooters, in wheelchairs and with canes come from the other side of the building too but there is not handicapped entrance in the front of the building, or on the other side of the building. This would be a big problem only if this were the case for all the walking students but because they are problems for handicapped students---well, it becomes a moot point/matter. There is only one elevator in this building too and as such it also serves as a service elevator too---so the quilted pads are up all the time. When I ride an elevator sometimes I need to hold onto the rails but in this elevator the rails are rarely visible let alone available to us.

Complaint #7

I often find myself on the expressway on the exit ramp when someone behind gets impatient then begins to honk at me but I can do nothing at that point because I in line with no place else to go; I must slam on my breaks to avoid an accident and then this BOZO somehow cuts in in front of me! I of course allow this  because I do not want to get killed trying to defend my place in line. Everyone in line to get off the expressway are usually traveling about the same speed. Even though we are not bumper-to-bumper nonetheless a description of packed-in-like-sardines does seem to fit the situation.  So when people start driving like this and in numbers? I consider this driver to be using his/her vehicle as a WUD/Weapon of Urban Destruction. I am often passed by many WUDs traveling in the morning don the way to school and then again in the evening on my way home. I do not like WUD drivers so I slow down for them and try to give them a very wide berth because WUD drivers are usually armed with only cappuccinos, mochaccinos, caramel macchiatos, etc., for breakfast, very little sleep and a fierce need to be first in everything (including being first in line, any line).

Complaint #8

First I must say that not everyone who is handicapped has declared themselves handicapped nor is everyone who is handicapped in a wheelchair. I am handicapped because of congenital birth defects that left me with poor joints and with age they have become almost unmanageable. I am still mobile but I cannot walk up and down stairs nor can I walk great distances, which is impossible to deal with when elevators and escalators are not functioning and I miss my campus shuttles.

One morning when I was going into a building on campus to go to my art class, with a bag in one hand and the handle of my Pullman book-bag in the other hand. As I approached the building I pushed the handicapped button, I then waited for the door to open. Upon opening the door released a steady stream of youth  who came bustling out of the building using my door and not the other one. I had opened this handicapped door for me not only because of my heavy load but also because I cannot open the doors very well due to their heaviness. I watched helplessly as this herd of capable young people left building while I was trapped on the wrong side them (I could not get into the building through the other doors either. Also I might not have minded all of this behavior on such a warm day but it was a particularly cold day that day, around 10-12 degrees Fahrenheit. At the time I particularly tired from walking close to one mile to get to this building from my previous class because I had missed my campus shuttle bus; my joints ached extremely from the long walk and the cold chill of the day; I needed to get off my feet and get into the warmth of the building.

Most of the young people here on campus at IUPUI are lovely people and the young people I so often  encounter on campus and in the art building are lovely people, even the young people but on this particular day I had the chance to meet some who were not quite so lovely. After this event I have been thinking seriously of getting my handicapped parking stickers, state and campus.

Complaint #9
I have some major complaints about women's clothing and I hardly know where to start---Bra Complaints---

so I will start with a foundation garment---THE BRA. I am rather large busted but am petite in height. All bras I have ever worn do fit me around my chest and the cup size is right but the bra cups put some of my breast tissue under my arms. I need a bra that fits around, the cup size fits as well but also the cups are oriented out front of my chest where my breast actually are, like they most bras would fit a tall women or girl. I went on-line to see if there might be others with similar problems and if there might be a solution to this problem. I did find others who have this same problem, also short women, but the only solution offered ion-line is to buy a demi-bra, the push-up kind. I am not at all well pleased with this solution to my problem.

Pocket Complaints

I have also found over the years that there are rarely ever any pockets in women and girls clothing and if there are they are pockets, they are too shallow, made of flimsy fabric, fit wrong on the clothing, don't look right when the garment is worn or there are no pockets at all.Why is this? Most women and girls (at least the ones I know) want modest, practical, serviceable clothing (ones which wear well and long, stays clean and crisp, launders easily and does not shrink, fade, fray or unravel), in practical colors (as well in the "fru-fru colors," such as raspberry sorbet or cherry cordial) and with deep pockets in all of them (i vote to have them in underwear as well---bras and panties---for hiding money or other things). II think it is unfair that men get sturdy serviceable garments, made to last with long-lasting dyes, of good weaves while women and girls are stuck with clothing that falls apart before the season is through usually after the first wash where upon it looks hideous and fits abominably (if it ever looked right at all or fit right).

Where are the same clothing rights for women that men have been enjoying for centuries? Why shouldn't blouses, dresses, slacks, socks, stocking and tights have extra fabric---in the bodice; in the abdomen; in the rear; in the thighs and/or calves? A woman or girl should be able to walk out of her house in a skirt and have it be the same length in the back as it is in the front BEFORE SHE BEND OVER! In my opinion, it is ridiculous that this wonderful country cannot produce for women and girls---good fitting slacks, well-fitting suits, well-fitting and fully lined dresses, adequate well-made and comfortable fitting blouses, a good fit in stockings for all great-short-tall-small and the same in shoes. I won't mention the state of women and girls bathing suits in the US! Only in America can the fashion industry cater to the smallest (smallest size as well) percentage of a population---some of these clothes are really ugly and they wouldn't even make decent rags to clean my house!

 

Complaint #10
I found this article on the internet which explains my complaint better than I can:
They're Driving Me Crazy! Monday, October 13th, 2008

  t Second & Spring

Here in Indianapolis this is rude act by drivers, creeping into the pedestrians crosswalks, is called GREENING. I too find this act more than bothersome because I too know how scary this can be to a pedestrian but not only that can be harmful to everyone around if an accident ensues. Any driver doing this is showing everyone that he or she doesn’t care about others, isn't qualified to drive, that the driver is more important than pedestrians and animals, that the driver does not care about the life of others or ever about the value of his/her own life and there maybe other reasons too---I cannot think of any others right now.

I remember years ago when I stopped at a light. In my van were both of my children and also a dear friend with her youngest child. I hesitated when the light turned green and my friend became quite aggravated at me for this short hesitation. No sooner had she begun to verbally express her dislike for my driving habits than a full-size semi, with two trailers in tow, came speeding through that intersection. I gasped in horror at how close I had come to listening to the urgings of my friend and she looked at me equally aghast; we both knew at that moment if I had listened to her request all five of us would have been killed. 

This habit of GREENING is very selfish and immature; I think it should be policed as tailgating, rage driving and even drivers on cell phone.

Complaints #11

This complaint really makes me outraged---drivers who use their cell phones while driving and most especially those who text while driving. If I can make all of my calls before I leave the parking garage at my school or before I leave my driveway at home then I think it is fair to believe that others can do the same. I often tell myself when I get in my car before making any call that by calling before I leave my driveway can save lives and especially my own. In case drivers did not know--- DRIVING IS A MULTI-TASK OPERATION! When drivers add other tasks to the driving experience, such as ---eating, drinking, conversations, cell phones, etc. then driving becomes more difficult to focus on and just one false move can be disastrous! Also there have been studies done that prove that using a cell phone decreases focus and concentration while driving but when texting on that cell phone the act then becomes worse than drinking alcohol with drugs while driving! There are drivers killed while texting and that is bad enough but they also kill others and another thing is that texting while driving is a terrible habit for anyone to engage in and not just for teenagers.

See article below:

Drivers on Cell Phones

Complaints #12

Cigarette smoke bothers me and this is not just because I have C.O.P.D. and asthmatic bronchitis which I do have. Cigarette smoke bothers me mostly because of all the toxic fumes that are contained within that smoke. These toxic fumes and chemical sears my nose and throat as I breath it in when I walk past smokers. I try to avoid such situations but there are times when I cannot avoid them, like when I walk out of a building and there the smoke is curling out from the side of the building. This is bad enough but I also have a problem with the litter most of them leave behind them. I have encountered much smoke and litter here on the I.U.P.U.I. campus and I have to say that the smokers here are terrible litterbugs. The entire campus is littered with cigarette butts everywhere and not just next to the buildings but also on sidewalks, the parking lots, in and around the flowerbeds, planters and tree beds and also on the grass, in and around the patios---everywhere smokers can get away with it there are cigarette butts to document smokers’ existences. I recently heard a smoking student, who had just thrown down his cigarette butt, complaining about stepping in Canadian goose poop. I thought to myself that he deserved his icky fate and what audacity he had to make such a statement; unlike cigarette butts, goose poop is completely biodegradable, very beneficial to plants and there are creatures which consume it. Before he threw his cigarette butt down he should have taken a gander (pun intended) at this article!

A Butts.

MY SISTERLY CHATS

Recently I found this wonderful article entitled, Why Sisterly Chats Make People Happier   (written by Deborah Tannen) and after having read the article, though it did not make me feel any better about the loss of my sister, I did find in reading it a great measure of comfort I had been searching for. Also while reading the article, I felt as though someone finally understood me and my pain! The experience was outstanding! Also, while reading the article I was reminded of all the wonderful things my sister and I did with one another over the past 55 1/2 years. I know I can have her near me...in my heart and mind. I have so many fond memories of her---of good times we shared together as children and those we share over the years as adults. I know no amount of remembering will ever bring her back to me but I also know my memories of her do bring me good cheer, plus those wonderful happy tears. Whenever I think of her I am reminded of what a treasure I had in having a sister who was, such a good friend. I love her so much and miss her immensely but nonetheless I find I am crying less, feeling less blue  and am even missing her less now than I have over most of this past year.  Often I will just smile when I think of something she liked, i.e. a song, a scent or a scene or I might see someone who reminds me of her. 

I want to encourage anyone who is reading this article of mine to go ahead and link onto Deborah Tannen's article and read it---anyone who has a sister, has lost a sister or even wishes he or she had a sister. The article is well-written, thoughtful and provides comfort to the aching heart . You need not have suffered any loss at all to read & enjoy this article.

THOUGHTS ON MY SISTER: she made it so easy to love her as she did many things little things to let me know I mattered to her---i.e. remembered birthdays, anniversaries (this she did even though she never had a successful marriage) and all holidays (even lesser-known ones); e-mailed often; called regularly (every Sunday nite); sent silly, small, and inexpensive gifts. She was so much fun to be with, even on the phone. Because she and I lived so far apart all of our adult lives, the telephone became the main form of communication between the two of us and was often the only means of regular visits we had with one another. She raised her three children mostly without help of a spouse because she was a single parent and so she usually had very little money to spend but this did not interfere with her loving gestures.

 

Sometime in 1999 or 2000 my sister and I happened to be on the telephone talking when  both noticed we were watching the same movie, it was Pillow Talk starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson. We also found we were both in our pajamas so my sister hatched a brilliant idea that we should repeat it!  We called it Phone-call-&-a-Movie. The next Phone-call-&-a-Movie we added popcorn & soda, enjoyed 2-3 hours on the phone and had a blast; we watched That Touch of Mink, also starring Doris Day but with Cary Grant and Gig Young. We planned a third event, with Mixed Nuts starring Steve Martin and Rita Wilson but my sister passed away before we could watch it together as planned. My copy of the movie stayed on the shelf unopened for years.  About 5 years ago my sister suffered a horrific car accident from which she never fully recovered from and then November 1, 2010 she passed away in the night.

Over the 2010 Christmas holiday I went to visit my parents for the purpose of putting together a PowerPoint Bio & Photo Memoir of my sister's life for sharing with family and close friends. At some point during the course of the visit, my sister's youngest child John asked if I would sit with him, watch a movie and so I agreed. At the time, I felt I needed something to lighten up my spirits and so I suggested he choose a movie. He chose a movie I had never seen before, Mixed Nuts, I was delighted. We sat down with popcorn, sodas and watched the movie together, laughing and howling with delight at the ridiculous movie but then somewhere in the middle of it I remembered it, even though I had never seen it before until that moment! I said nothing to my nephew and continued watching it with him and enjoyed the time spent with my nephew. One moment I found myself laughing hysterically and the next I was crying silently; I found it a great comfort to be watching her movie with her son and so it was okay. He told me when the movie was over why he chose it---because it was one of his mother's favorites, I smiled at him through tears!

I am so glad I was able to spend the last two years of my sister's life doing things together with her, to get closer to her, to end it all on a happy note  and have relatively few regrets about any of it.  One of the last trips I spent in North Carolina with her, we went to Edenton to have lunch at Captain Bob's (the best Eastern North Carolina barbecue on the planet, since Tuck's in Elizabeth City went out of business) and then went about doing research, taking tours and shooting photographs for a book we planned to write together. That was something she left undone, a book almost complete, one only in the planning stages and another one I have only heard about from someone else. I will have to  complete these by myself. One is almost ready for peer review, the second one I have only complete the research on and I will worry about the third one after I complete the first two. 

To Debbie: I hope to see you on the other side...but not too soon, Sister! :) I love you. This photograph below looks like some shenanigan we might have done together! :)

The Apocalypse

“Another History Channel program titled ‘Decoding the Past: Doomsday 2012: End of Days’ says a galactic alignment or magnetic disturbances could somehow trigger a ‘pole shift.’ ‘The entire mantle of the earth would shift in a matter of days, perhaps hours, changing the position of the north and south poles, causing worldwide disaster,’ a narrator proclaims. ‘Earthquakes would rock every continent; massive tsunamis would inundate coastal cities. It would be the ultimate planetary catastrophe.’ The idea apparently originates with a 19th century Frenchman, Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, a priest-turned-archaeologist who got it from his study of ancient Mayan and Aztec texts. Scientists say that, at best, the poles might change location by one degree over a million years, with no sign that it would start in 2012. So the fact of matter is, all these new beliefs have been posed on Mayans by new age Christian views. Mayans never said anything about doomsday in 2012.  So get your soda out and calm yourself down!”

http://www.temptingmagazine.com/2009/11/please-stop-saying-the-world-will-end-in-2012.html

I found this incredible image on the internet and the paragraph of text above it was found on the same website and I could not help myself…I have to share it with all of you…plus my take on it all. I have been interested in this sort of “weird stuff” all of my life (I only call this information “weird” because others how declared my interest in all of this to be as such) and it so wonderful now to be able to “surf the net” and find a plethora of information on this subject. One of my friends recently emailed me about this exact subject and so I posted a new image, plus a website to go with it and my opinion to answer her question about December 21, 2012, polar shift and the galactic alignment of 2012.

I think the harsh realities of the events, catastrophes and cataclysms that every living creature will be forced to endure on this planet, as a result of our ignorance in how to care for an maintain a planet, will be far worse than anything that can be depicted in a movie or in a book but it is interesting to see the images, watch the movies and documentaries and read how authors try to describe this future event.