Technology

Modern Technology

> When my son (who just turned 23) was 2 and my oldest daughter was a newborn, I remember one day watching a daytime television show called The Home Show. On the show, they had a guest that was showing a computer that they claimed would soon be in every home. They showed how the floppy disks could hold the whole encyclopedia. They also showed how you could access things like clips of the moon landing.
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> I thought this was crazy and a pipe dream. At that time I couldn't imagine life with a computer in MY house!
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> Now, we have 3 laptops, a desktop, 2 iPhones, 2 Blackberries, an iPod touch, a wifi enabled plasma tv, and the list goes on. I can't imagine life without them.
Sent from my iPhone

Spinning out of control

Life seems to be moving so fast these days that I can't tell it I'm coming or going! I've just been able to recover my account for this blog and hopefully will begin again.

Pretty is as pretty does...

This morning I came down to sit at my computer to find a random site open. I presume it was left open by one of my 3 teenage daughters, but I don't know which one. The site was http://www.operationbeautiful.com/. As I began to read, I was impressed by the creator's mission to help random women, who are strangers, to overcome negative self image and sometimes paralyzing negative self talk. She and the others who have committed to do so, leave notes of positive affirmation in random places. It's just the kind of thing that I would do anyway.

As a person that has always "struggled" with my weight, I have tried diligently to teach my daughters that beauty does not come from a certain size, shape, color or age, but from a person's willingness to treat others with respect and kindness. I have always told them that they are beautiful, followed by "but pretty doesn't matter if you're not kind to others".

When I was 10 years old, my best friend, whom I thought was beautiful, was murdered. This is hard on anyone and you never, ever really get over it. Shortly after that, puberty hit and I was awkward and pudgy. Probably within a year or two, I had thinned out, but my self image had already been formed by the pudgy, awkward girl. I hated myself.

By the time I was 16 and filling out papers to get my driver's license, I was humiliated to admit I weighed a whopping 106 pounds. The number has been burned into my memory by the horrible feeling I had admitting I was over 100 pounds! Looking back, I see now that I was one of the smallest and actually quite average, but for some reason, I thought I should be shot!

Now, I truly am overweight and 75% of the time, I don't really care. I feel that I am a good person, I try to treat others well and I have truly realized that people come in all shapes and sizes. Have you ever noticed that a basically thin person who puts on a few pounds only has to think "I should drop a few pounds" and they do? And yet...the person who is basically naturally more curvy, only has to think about a Cinnabon and they find those pounds the thin person lost!

The other 25% of the time, I am still just as negative about myself as ever. Since I am overweight, I often say self deprecating things right off the bat so that nobody else can judge me more harshly than I have already judged myself. I think it is an unconscious defence mechanism.

Overall, I hope that my daughters remember their whole lives that relationships and integrity are all that matters. I hope that they have learned to reserve judgement until they know of a person's character. I have known people lacking in the surface, shallow, physical beauty that are among the most beautiful people in the world. I have also known some "beautiful people" that are very ugly indeed.

Gratitude

As I reflect back on the past five years, I realize that no matter how bad things get, someone, somewhere is worse off.

3 years ago, we were flying high; #1 in our company with an obscene income to match, traveling the world, renovating our home to look like a high-end, posh hotel, able to help others and feeling on top of the world. Now we are living below the poverty line, unable to heat our house in subzero weather and living off of our depleted food storage...and yet...

I have a husband that loves me unconditionally, healthy children, a car to drive and my own health to help us overcome this horrible economy.

I am truly blessed.

Lessons Learned-Day Three

Some time on the second day, the 'vacation ownership' team caught up with me and my friend and talked us into listening to their pitch and tour the next morning by promising us a combined $150 in food vouchers for the resort. What can I say? Money talks.

Day three we were up and ready and down at the spot to meet our 'guide' at 7 am sharp for breakfast on the house. The guide was so anxious to please us (hoping to make a sale later) that he willingly got breakfast for all of the girls too. Of course, although they promised breakfast, it was pretty measely. Just a bagel and juice or something of the sort...but free is free and free is good.

After the pitch that seemed to go on forever and the meeting with the guide to 'crunch numbers' and pretty much facing the fact that we probably just were'nt as loving to our children as the wonderful vacation owners who loved their families enough to buy a vacation package, we got away with out $150 in gift certificiates for food at the resort.

Since I had 3 in my room and my friend had 4 in her room, we really only had about $21 each. By the time we went to Johnny Rockets and had an icecream cone, the money was gone.

We decided that although the money didn't go far, we felt more satified with the meal than when we had to pay for it. We further discussed how even though it seemed 'free', we really had to put in a lot of hours to get the free meal and also put up with a lot of irritation in trying to ward off 'the close'. All in all, we had a good lesson for the day.

Lesson: Free is always good!

Lessons Learned- Day Two

While happy to be in the Bahamas, jet lag refused to let me get 'up and at 'em' the next day. I made a conscious decision not to get all uptight about where to go and what to do so I got up when I felt rested, took my time in the shower and wandered up to the next floor to meet my friend. By the time we got our act together, it was past lunch time. We ate a late lunch, explored the resort and decided since it was so late, we would get ready to go to the pool/beach, but wait for the girls to finish dancing for the day.

Shortly after 4, we laid out our towels and took the first plunge into the pool. It felt so good to be lazy and relaxed. We decided that we didn't care how late dinner was because we had a late lunch and we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

Time flies when you are relaxed! After lying on a lounge chair for about an hour and a half (but what seemed like 20 minutes at the most), we strolled back into the pool to cool off. We were in the pool for about 5 minutes when the lifeguard blew a whistle. Everyone started to get out, but we just floated along, chatting and paddling around. Soon the lifeguard was blowing his shrill and annoying whistle again and pointing right at us.

"What's the problem?" I asked him

"Pool closing!" he said in his local accent.

"Closing?" we said in unison "What time does the pool close?"

"Six PM madam" said the lifeguard

Who has ever hear of a pool closing at 6 pm? I love night swimming the best! I intentionally avoid the worst heat of the day to insure that I don't get burned! Begrudgingly we got out and toweled off and went to get ready for dinner.

Our little group (2 moms and 4-6 girls) puzzled over the early pool closure was we made out way to the Marina area where shops and restaurants were. I began to notice that everyone in the entire place was headed the same direction. I pointed this out and everyone agreed that earlier, when we had been on the Marina, the shops had very few people in them. Now they were full to capacity and doing a booming business. We noticed the layout of the resort and the Marina and the way we all headed where they wanted us. It seems perfectly natural if you don't think too much about it. Since we were thinking about it, we felt a little like sheep. It was insulting to our intelligence. Resorts especially Atlantis and such use blatant tactics including psychology to steer you to where you need to be to spend more money. They don't really care what you want to do as long as you are doing what they want you to do.

Lesson Two: Be aware when you are being manipulated or herded like sheep!