Ginny Otte

The holidays are over! The amount of stuff I had to do in the past two or three weeks has caused a lot of stress, reduced my overall sleep and made me wish I was back at work. When I say "stress" I don't mean the kind that causes a little bit of a headache either; I mean full-out panic attack, "oh my God am I having a heart attack?" kind of stress. Well, here I am, back at work! Hooray! There are still some things I have to do...but I can feel free to say "no" as new things pop up now, since I am back at work. Working 6 days a week actually has advantages. Who knew? Thank God for being a workaholic!

Good news is I saw all my kids, and they actually took portraits for me as my Christmas present. I will scan them when I can and show off the kiddies in their best duds, which for one child means a lovely dress and for the other two, their dress uniforms. Plus I do have some Christmas pictures that I will eventually put up on Facebook, which, if you haven't friended me yet...you really need to. I log in to Facebook more frequently than I do my web site, and these rare posts wind up over at Facebook anyway as notes.

If you have not yet donated to LBEH.ORG, please consider helping send a military member home for the holidays, who otherwise would not be able to go home on their own. When Ernie Stewart started this in 2001, I donated; I donated what little I could every year, as my kids grew & finished school; as one entered college, and then as two joined the military themselves. As a military Mom I now understand exactly what it was I was helping out with every year by donating: I now know, first-hand, how it feels to have a true Homecoming. While my own kids were able to get home without the assistance of LBEH, so far 118 service people in need have been able to say "hi mom!" and walk through the door...because of Ernie Stewart and the help of his selfless assistants, and donors. As of this posting they still need $14,614.31 in donations or Frequent Flier miles to handle this wave of requests. If you have donated...Thank you. I love you. If you have not yet, and can afford to...please, help bring these kids home. And thank you.

Time for my annual request to get a Christmas present not for me...but for the guys & gals in uniform. Ernie Stewart is once again buying as many tickets as he can to get our troops home for the holidays. If you can help, head over to Let's Bring `em Home and Paypal whatever you can, knowing that 100% of what Ernie takes in after Paypal fees, goes straight back out to buy a ticket. He even keeps a running tally of accounting for visitors, and you can see the soldiers that are being helped. It's all-volunteer, and it keeps getting better every year...and best yet, it's tax deductible. So let's bring `em home!

Because of a movie, people are now up in arms and in a panic over the date Dec 21, 2012. The sky is falling! We're all gonna die! Everyone is pointing to the end of the Mayan calandar, but there is a Mayan elder out there saying "what about the date 4772? There are inscriptions at Mayan sites that mention dates far, far beyond 2012. Only the calendar ends in 2012, and it ends because the folks who wrote the calendar only inscribed 13 eras called Baktuns (or eras), because 13 was sacred to the Mayans. In other words if they were still around to make calendars...they probably would have inscribed another 13 Baktun calendar for us. Hey, they worked in advance. Look at the calendar on your wall. It only goes to the end of December on any given year. This doesn't mean that January 1 will never come around, it just means we have an easier way of making a new calendar--a printing press--we don't have to use rock cutting tools. We don't have to make a nice big one that will last until the next stone worker decides to start looking for a good rock to carve.

This won't stop folks from being in a panic because of a movie. Everyone was equally terrified over the weather when "The Day After Tomorrow" came out, and holy crap the fuss that was made out of 2000 was amusing. When I was a girl I remember people declaring that the world would end in 1976, as this was the 200th anniversary of the New World and somehow that was significant; people looked at Revelation and pointed out passages that "proved" 1977 would never come. For as long as there have been people, there have been end time prophesies of one kind or another which seems convincing enough but if you look closely at it you realize that the "answer" to surviving the apocolypse being predicted, or the key to redemption after it, revolves around following one person of group or cult's or religion's belief systems.

December 2012 is just another date. If you don't believe that, if you think I am full of it and that the world is gonna end and I am going to be completely unprepared, then do me a favor and on December 11 of that year, turn over all your savings, real estate, stocks, and jewelry to me. You're not gonna need it anyway. I'll take good care of it all for the 24 hours I have left, ok? :-p

There are 599 additives in traditional cigarettes, listed here.

These ingredients release 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, including radioactive compounds polonium-210 and potassium-40,radium-226, radium-228 and thorium-228.

There are two ingredients in almost all elecronic cigarettes: propelyne glycol and nicotine. While propylene glycol is used in some antifreeze products, it is considered so safe for "smoke" making purposes that it is also used for firefighters' training, and theatrical and concert "smoke" making machines. That is, of course, on top of being used as a main ingredient in deodorant, and toothpaste, mouthwash, and more.

Lawmakers want to either ban the use of electronic cigarettes for indoor use, or ban them altogether. They refuse to ban regular cigarettes, which releases 4,000 chemicals into the air with every puff, including 5 radioactive compounds.

Why?

Electronic cigarettes are not subject to sin tax as they are not made with tobacco but with the same medical grade nicotine as patches and FDA-approved inhalers. And that, dear readers, is the only thing that makes them a "sin."

...at least that's my opinion and I'm sticking with it.

Yesterday, CBS reported on how lawmakers in Paramus are trying to ban electronic cigarettes for indoor use in the state of NJ. The thing they cite is that proprelyne glycol, the main ingredient that makes the water vapor, is "found in antifreeze."

What they are FAILING to tell you is that it is one of many ingredients in a "less-harmful" version of antifreeze AND that proprelyne glycol is found in such dangerous substances as toothpaste, food, medications, deodorant, medications, and more.

So, I am breathing in what you brush your teeth with. If you ask me, that is still a hell of a lot safer than the 1,400 other chemicals that I am not breathing in, were I to use a traditional cigarette.

Oh, and the other thing I am not doing is paying cigarette sin tax, which as I've pointed out previously is just a way for smokers to smoke, die, and fund healthcare for nonsmokers, who live longer. If all those dirty, dirty cigarette smokers quit tomorrow--or switched to an electronic cigarette--public healthcare for all, including nonsmokers, would wind up in collapse; as there would be almost no funds to pay for it all without seriously taxing nonsmokers. NJ needs smoker worker bees to smoke, get ill and die, and not muck up the works by setting aside cigarettes and living healthier.

THAT is why they are seeking a ban. That, and nothing more.

I uploaded photos to Facebook and videos to my youtube page. Here's a preview, a shot of Watkins Glen.

A friend pointed me to an article about yesterday's topic which moved me so much, I wrote to the author. I don't normally publish my outgoing email, but I felt that I should because what I tell the author of this article you should read too, especially after yesterday's post.

The article in question is at http://www.fredoneverything.net/Gates.shtml
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Dear Fred;

I'm writing to you about your article on Joshua Bernard and the photo which shows him on the ground, legs blown off, moments before his death. I write to you because I, too, weighed in on the topic on my own web site. I, however, had a different opinion because I saw that photograph from a different perspective; I see that photograph as the mother of a USAF Airman and a USMC PFC. With two kids in the military, I see that photograph as every goddamn nightmare I've ever had, all rolled up in one bloody, horrific photograph. You, sir, see it from the vantagepoint of a man who has been there, who has lived that horror. You view it from life experience. All I can do is see it as someone's mother. Forgive me my uninformed opinion.

Your article caused my to think long and hard about what you said, and what that photograph actually says.

While I seriously, seriously doubt that photograph--and even a million more like them--will cause the American public to stand up and take notice, I cannot, for my own selfish sense of well-being, really ask the AP to keep my own personal boogyman at bay by not publishing that photograph or others like it. My personal fears include the random jackasses who will cheapen that photo by photoshopping it or turning it into an internet joke on a messageboard somewhere. We live in a desensitized society where the average person really doesn't give a shit any more so long as things don't interfere with their TV watching habits or ability to play their video games; as long as world events do not keep them from their iPhones or 10 pound cheeseburgers, life is fine.

But you, as a man who continues to pay the price for the follies of politics, have every right to want to show that same ungrateful citizenry, drowning in their own hedonism, what is happening to our nation's children. I wonder, however, how many deaths and mutilations will be enough. I wonder when the tipping point will come. I wonder how many parents must open their morning paper to see their own progeny splayed out in the throes of their own deaths before enough of us stand up and say "no more."

Thank you for your article, and thank you for your service.

Ginny Sanchez
http://www.ginnysanchez.com

So, last night was first date #11. So far, what I've learned in those 11 dates is that people are rarely as at ease during a first meeting as I am, and out of the 11, there is only one fella I actually want to get to know better, but that might turn out to be a one-sided feeling. However I do have a tip for folks who try out internet dating:

Forget the romance. That first date--especially the first hour of that first date--is more like a job interview. Can you maintain a conversation with that person? Do you have anything in common? Will there be a spark of friendship? Unless your shared goal is a fast hookup for an intimate encounter, you should be looking at the other person's mind, not their ass.

If the first date should flow naturally into something else that is fine. But grabbing her and roughly pulling her to you mid-sentence...is not a natural flow. That's a borderline assault. Just sayin'.

Have no agenda. Your only goal is to have a nice time, a good conversation, and say goodbye. Do not expect to do anything but shake her hand, chat, have dinner or a drink, and then go home. Just be yourself, and you will.

...and you just might have a second date if you do.

If you ever need to use a dating site, ladies, there is really only one approach that will work:

Beer specials.

I offered a free drink (beer if wanted) to any man who actually meets me in person. I posted this offer on Friday and received over 100 responses to the ad by Monday. If anyone ever wonders if I can write effective advertising...well yes I can. Anyway I weeded out the responses, thinned the herd dramatically, and am now in the process of learning more about the 2 - 3 are left. (and I only contacted two men on my own, as I perused my inbox pictures of men get displayed along the top and two fellas caught my eye.)

"But Ginny!" you ask. "How can you weed out so many, so fast?"

Simple! If they used the number 2 instead of the words "to" or "too" or the number 4 instead of the word "for" I didn't answer their letter at all. If they gave me a simple "wassup" and nothing else, I didn't answer. If they asked how big my boobs were, I didn't answer. If their profile picture showed them with a mountain of laundry behind them I might have answered, but only to kindly tell them that unless they were looking for a laundress they needed to change their profile pic.

Doing that...I weeded out dozens of responses on the first day.

I mean...if I am going to buy you a beer, I at least want to buy a beer for a guy that I want to talk to. :-p