Mine Own Advocate

Has anyone else noticed the fact that people seem to be unable to take any type of criticism any more? In fact, to make matters worse, they try to turn it on you, making you the bad guy by calling you abusive when the only thing you have done is point out a mistake and are asking that it be rectified. They mishear strong advocacy as "yelling." I do not yell at people, call them names, or use any form of invective. However, at times I may be thinking these things as I have a very low threshold for stupidity of any kind. In addition, I do not like to be treated with an "one size fits all" mentality. I am an individual -- I am not to be squeezed into any generic category. So what if "most people only have"..... I am not "most people"! I do not want to be treated like "most people" -- I want to be treated as an individual.

Washington Post Eliminating Daily Business Section

Last night I heard on The Rachel Maddow Show that the Washington Post will be eliminating its daily business section. The reason that I sat up and took notice of this is that I am presently writing a longer essay, which I will be posting here, on my views of the current economic system and the changes which I believe will be necessary for the future. The current system is more than in a shamble. I believe that it is totally broken. In addition, we will be needing to create a whole new paradigm for the world's total Gross Worldly Product, rather than just the GNP. The idea that a company should be making money for parasitic investors by sending out the manufacture of goods to other countries with virtual slave conditions is not only immoral; it is also inherently bad for the company in the long run. However, too many so-called executives only believe in the short-term rather than the long-term as can be seen by their actions.

Another Mucha

I would probably also use this one, too, in the side-bar area. Maybe she can change the goose quill to peacock feathers?

The Alphonse Mucha

This is the other major picture which I really like. Maybe we can use both?

Planning For The Re-Design

I have decided to have this blog re-designed. It is so plain when compared to my knitting blog. I am going to hire Darcy, the wonderful designer who did my Knitting With Athena blog. So, in preparation, I have been looking up art work to use in the re-design. There are two Alphonse Mucha pictures which I like very much as well as a new one from Josephine Wall. She is very generous in letting people utilize her art work, as long as they don't make any money from it. Needless to say, a blog like this makes absolutely no money. Anyway, the picture above is one that I like very much. It especially goes well with the title of the blog.

Books Read in 2008

I can hardly believe that I read all these books last year. There is a real variety in quality represented here, I admit. A number of the action/adventure novels were just too cinematic for my tastes as the plots turned out to be just one cliffhanger after another. I will be adding more of the authors to this list as well as my awards (stars/razzberries); generally **1/2 will be applied to books which are just fun reads and/or guilty pleasures:

Amazonia (J. Rollins) **1/2
Black Order (J. Rollins) **1/2
Blasphemy (D. Preston) **1/2
Brimstone (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict ****
Dance of Death (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Deep Fathom (J. Rollins) **1/2
Deep Storm (L. Child) **1/2
Excavation (J. Rollins) **1/2
Ice Hunt (J. Rollins) **1/2
Map of Bones (J. Rollins) **1/2
Mount Dragon (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Pompeii *****
Relic (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Reliquary (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Rip Tide (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Sandstorm (J. Rollins) **1/2
Still Life With Crows (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Subterranean (J. Rollins) **1/2
Temple (M. Reilly) * (very frantic; however, loved the rapas)
The Alexandria Link (S. Berry) *****
The Amber Room (S. Berry) *****
The Athena Factor **1/2
The Book of the Dead (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
The Cabinet of Curiosities (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
The Codex (D. Preston) **1/2
The Crystal Skull **1/2 (author is a veterinarian)
The Drowning Tree (C. Goodman) *****
The Expected One (RAZZBERRY)(only if you are desperate)--the worst of the Magdaleneia
The Ice Limit (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
The Judas Strain (J. Rollins) **1/2
The Last Oracle (J. Rollins) ***
The Last Secret of the Temple (P. Sussman) *****
The Lost Army of Cambyses (P. Sussman) *****
The Lost Constitution
The Night Villa (C. Goodman) *****
The Romanov Prophecy (S. Berry) *****
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Willig) ****
The Secret Scroll **1/2
The Secret Supper **1/2
The Seduction of Water (C. Goodman) *****excellent mystery
The Templar Legacy (S. Berry) *****
The Third Secret (S. Berry) *****
The Venetian Betrayal (S. Berry) *****
The Wheel of Darkness (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Tyrannosaur Canyon (D. Preston) **1/2

A Place For Snarkiness

I need a place for me to be snarky on occasion. Of course, that is becoming far more frequent with time. I also need to be able to identify stupidity when I see it. Even though there is still too much of that out there I do see a few bright lights through its dismal fog. Far too many people still fall into the category of the general populace in Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Emperor's New Clothes." We need to be clear eyed like the little boy who says, "The Emperor isn't wearing any clothes!"
Of course, the current chief subject for snarkiness is Sarah Palin. Where to begin . . . She is an embarrassment, at the very least, and a foul liar at the worst. McCain has aided and abetted all this behind the scenes, maintaining a facade that is just as rotten. As an Air Force veteran (I know he's Navy), I am more than upset when I hear him say that he is qualified just because he had been a prisoner-of-war. PULEEZE!!!!! This is an illogical argument and he would fail an introductory course in Logic by using it. WARNING: SNARKINESS HERE: Of course, he was not known as a good student at the Naval Academy. His basic intelligence at this point is also in question. ;-)