"Labor Day Ponderings" written by Janelle on estrip.org

Category: life

09/03/07 11:18 - 74ºF - ID#40906

Labor Day Ponderings

Some thoughts as we celebrate Labor Day with barbecues and low, low prices at the stores!

US companies like Google and Wal-Mart are actively fighting current attempts by Chinese labor activists to reform Chinese labor laws that would afford Chinese laborers labor rights similar to those rights in the United States.

Los Angeles is close to replacing New York City as the sweatshop capital of the world.

Made in America labels are meaningless. One case in point below:

The US territory of the Commonwealth of North Mariana Islands is exempt from the minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards act and is partially exempt from the Immigration and Naturalization Act and gets to put Made In America Labels on the clothes produced in the territory.

Social workers, English professors, clerical staff/secretaries are just a few of several professions that had relatively higher pay in the days when those fields were dominated by men.

Alright, (e:peeps)! You can catch Drew and I at the Amvets on Elmwood Ave today trying to fight the man by buying thrift store clothing! That's our Labor Day celebration, lol!

janelle writes at 10:54:20 09/03/07 - Comment #23782: (e:mike): Look a little deeper into the North Mariana Islands and it gets a lot worse than exemption from minimum wage provisions and "Made in America". 16 hour work days; abort the baby you're pregnant with or you get shipped back to China; substandard housing condiitons; and oh so much more of interest for a place that is a US territory.

mike writes at 09:18:16 09/03/07 - Comment #23773: that is very interesting on the made in america in those island things. I bet nothing is actually made here anymore!

jason writes at 08:31:03 09/03/07 - Comment #23761: Wowsers, I am very, very impressed. Your compassion is admirable, Janelle.

I do not expect people all over the world to behave like we would like them to. It isn't true when it comes to Iraq, and it isn't true in many, many other applications. It is when the workers have literally no dignity, a la the labor camps, a la forced labor, a la diamond workers, garment workers, and many other people, when we should really become enraged. The thing is, most people are compassionate with their mouths and not their hearts or wallets. Made in China is ubiquitous.

Incidentally, my fave Bible verse is Jeremiah 29:11, and it is impossible to not think of them when you read it.

janelle writes at 07:40:03 09/03/07 - Comment #23757: Wow,
I should have let you write the post ;) Your work sounds interesting. I'd be interested to hear more about it. maybe in a post?
Wal-Mart stifling labor activists was just recently in the Buffalo news-either this past Sunday or the previous Sunday. The paper ran a lengthy article about China being on the brink of some major labor reforms. Major US companies, including Wal-Mart and Google, actively lobby the government not to pass the reforms. It is up to the Chinese government to pass the labor law, but it must be difficult for them when Wal-Mart and Google threaten to move to India if they do. But it sounds like you have much more knowledge of labor in China, so maybe you can give some insight on that.
I, agree, that paying Chinese workers in China according to US wage standards is not going to happen. Do people still think that's for real? I think maybe I thought that way up until highschool when I learned a few things about economics. I just think it would be nice to improve their work environment, working hours, etc... And I don't think it's the United States business to do that, but I also don't think US companies should exploit weak labor laws in other countries. And I have the right to express my concern by not shopping at Wal Mart.
The biggest issue that I don't like is sweatshop labor in the US. It was hard, but but after reading about the sweatshops in New York City fueled by illegal immigrants from the Fuzhou province of China, I finally made a commitment to almost exclusively buy thriftstore clothing. Ocassionally we shop at Marshalls/Big Lots when we really need something and we make this compromise under the impression that the company is still taking some loss by selling their clothes to a discount store.
Drew and I are both passionate about "oppression of workers" and I try to think about how I treat the staff I supervise. One of my favorite bible verses is James 5:1-6.
And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You'll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you've piled up is judgment.
All the workers you've exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You've looted the earth and lived it up. But all you'll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you've done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.

joshua writes at 05:55:54 09/03/07 - Comment #23751: Its funny how a few of these items are right up my alley - I am a social compliance auditor and we are the #1 auditing firm for the Big Gray Box in North America... and we regularly audit in China. Without saying too much, I can tell you that by FAR the largest issue that comes out of China relates to working hours. Almost every company in China has double books and its on nearly every single audit report that our company writes.

I'm unaware of any attempts by Wal-Mart to try to stifle labor activists in China. To be honest, ultimately those sorts of decisions are made by the Chinese government, and I can tell you with virtual certainty that the Chinese government is interested in some reforms, but not widespread. Wal-Mart could decide to simply not source from China, but that is a virtual impossibility. To a degree I think Wal-Mart is interested in social compliance but the code is extremely weak in comparison to codes like SA8000, WRAP, Levi Strauss and FLA. When it comes to issues like payment, alot of people are idealistic about the idea of paying Chinese workers American wages (also known as "fair" wages) - its simply never going to happen.

LA IS the sweatshop capital of the world. We work there a ton. If not LA, then definitely a couple cities in Pakistan could measure up. LA's garment district is shocking. The biggest issue in LA usually revolves around the legal status of the workers that are there, but ultimately we aren't the INS. We only report about whether or not the I-9 forms are filled out properly - that is the extent of our jurisdiction when it comes to legal status, but its an important enough issue that if we aren't satisfied then it means a virtually guaranteed revisit and another $2000 fee that the company pays us as a contractual obligation to companies like The Big Gray Box.

I'm not surprised that the FLSA isn't applicable in that island group you mentioned. The thing about labels is tricky - its actually illegal to domestically import something and not have the correct country of origin on the tag. We've seen it before, and companies that do this can get into a world of legal trouble - the doors can be closed and we've also seen that. The rules in between are a bit of a labrynth, but what I can say is that "Made In America" is a dying concept and I've personally been to dozens of American suppliers that are now out of business due to Chinese competition.

Activists drive our industry, and I'm glad that they are around, but ultimately they really don't know a whole hell of a lot about social compliance, how it works and the limitations... which at times are very real and very frustrating.

fellyconnelly writes at 11:42:46 09/03/07 - Comment #23718: oh yeah and as per your post... damn the man!

fellyconnelly writes at 11:42:25 09/03/07 - Comment #23717: oh man amvets... i love thrift store clothing....

Permalink: Labor_Day_Ponderings.html
Words: 187
Location: Buffalo , NY

Category: work

08/31/07 03:29 - 75ºF - ID#40862

Not Abuse?! WTF?! Long Rant...

I've spent a joyful week in orientation for work.
Not particularly informative or interesting to someone who has already worked in this field a bit and could probably teach the orientation class. But my ears perked when I heard the following during my incident reporting training...

The state office of mental retardation and developmental disabilities (OMR/DD) does not require social services agencies to report client on client abuse unless it is of a sexual nature.

Let me give you some background. Most states require mental retardation (MR) social service agencies to report a number of different situations to the state to ensure that social services agencies aren't allowing for/causing the abuse/mistreatment of individuals. These situations include: injuries, hospitalizations, abuse and neglect allegations, criminal victimization. Anything bad.

These regulations are a reaction to the big state hospitals of the past that were a world unto themselves with very little accountability where very horrible, awful things happened to the mentally retarded people who lived in them.

One of the awful things that happened in the institutions is clients would hurt one another. Some clients had severe behaviors and hurt people because they didn't know any other way to express themselves. Some clients were predators and bullies. Some clients severely injured and even killed other clients. Staff to client ratios were sometimes 1 staff to 30 clients so staff had little ability to provide the necessary oversight.

So back to present day. An MR agency does not have to report if one of their clients physically beats the shit out of another client whether because of a behavior or because the client is a mean nasty person who likes to hit people (the resulting injury if severe enough might be reported, but not the abuse). The optimistic part of me wants to believe that an agency with integrity will take steps to reduce and prevent these incidents. But the cynical part of me knows that social service agencies have thin financial margins (I have a whole other rant about how the non-profit social services sector should move into the for-profit sector, but that's for another day) that sometimes influence their thinking, so it bothers me that there is no state oversight in this area. I don't care if it's a slight shove or slap or a beating, an individual has the right to live free from such harm and the state should make sure of it.
Ok, rant finished.

lauren writes at 10:30:10 09/01/07 - Comment #23650: My mother is a uh...for lack of knowing the actual title, a secretary for the ARC. Basically, she is employed by the state of NY and handles a good deal of paperwork involving mentally retarded clients or consumers.

fellyconnelly writes at 08:46:25 09/01/07 - Comment #23649: i don't know what she is... but no not a nurse.

janelle writes at 08:42:50 09/01/07 - Comment #23648: Oh, right...<blush> Lauren's mom must be a nurse?

fellyconnelly writes at 10:41:08 08/31/07 - Comment #23645: BMs as in Bowel Movements. polite way to say 'make a poopie.'

janelle writes at 10:39:06 08/31/07 - Comment #23644: (e:tinypliny). Good analogy and good questions.

Yes, there could be a tendency to underreport instances of client to client abuse to lower the numbers.

What prevents the under reporting of such incidents is that agencies undergo annual surveys where the state comes through and combs through all forms of documentation. If they find an instance of possible abuse that wasn't reported, they cite the agency for failure to report abuse. Failure to report abuse is a significant enough issue to place an agency on "probationary" status which means they'll be surveyed again in 6 months and unless everything is up to snuff they could risk losing their license and the program is shut down.

If an agency did report every instance of abuse, there would be both censure and supportive intervention. The state would fault the agency for the abuse if it appears that the agency is not doing anything to prevent the abuse (i.e. client A keeps abusing client B on a weekly basis). In some instances, agencies can request more money from the state to help alleviate the situation. Worst case scenario is that the agency says we can no longer serve the client without endangering other clients and the client will go to a program better suited to his needs.

And for clarification, I don't work in the mental health world, I work in the mental retardation world. There are some similarities, but there are a lot of differences too.

janelle writes at 09:07:59 08/31/07 - Comment #23638: I'm guessing BM=Behavior Management, but not sure. Lauren will maybe answer.

tinypliny writes at 08:57:35 08/31/07 - Comment #23637: BMs? Bone Marrow Biopsy? How would those help?!
Confused.

tinypliny writes at 08:47:41 08/31/07 - Comment #23634: Hmm.. I am not sure I got any behavioural management technique training. It was a psychiatric ward where patients hardly stayed for more than 2 weeks at a maximum, so we didn't have many chronic patients. Many of them were cases of severe depression and suicidal tendencies (non-organic delusional, bipolar, schizophrenic, psychosis episodes), kept under observation. My only contact with them was talking to them to get their case histories. The entire time I spent in the wards was training on how to get reliable histories and get the acute patient to open up enough to talk to you.

Again, I am not sure whether the ward was overpopulated/ understaffed - I didn't think so. However, there were a couple patients that only the senior consultants were allowed access to. I think one of them had attempted to jump out the window and the other had tried to choke the patients on the adjacent beds.

So I guess the ward I was in was, indeed, a very different scenario to what you usually deal with.

That said, (and since I am somewhat curious about how the system you suggest might work) I gather your argument is that if the people managing the wards (or facilities) were required to report instances of inter-inmate violence to the higher authorities, they would be more sensitive to the issue and avoid looking bad by preventing these incidents or actively intervening to reduce these incidents? That could work - but what if, as you mention in your post, the institutions lacked any integrity to begin with? Would they not be then tempted to supress information anyway?

In trying to understand this argument, let me draw a parallel with infectious diseases. If each county was required by law to report every instance of polio symptoms, and if the county were overly conscious about its health infrastructure image, might it not try to under-report possible suspicious (but unconfirmed) cases of polio symptoms (Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP), an early symptom of Polio, is not unique to Polio - it can be a result of other viral infections/asthma etc.)?

Even if it did report every instance of AFP, would the state be forced to take measures to better fund the health-infrastructure of that particular county or would the county be blamed for the lacunae in its health infrastructure?

What do you think would be the situation in the mental health world? Would the organizations that report these violations be censored and reprimanded or would it lead to a supportive intervention from the higher authority?

lauren writes at 08:26:38 08/31/07 - Comment #23629: This may be totally off base, but this reminded me of watching one of those "inside our prison system" specials wherein the officers on duty will not attempt to break up fights between inmates, even or perhaps especially of serious injury or death may occur, because their own lives are at stake. In your case however, it seems that the consumers or clients should be the number one priorty and unless your own personal safety is in jeopardy, something should be done to prevent it. I of course also have no idea about the mounds of paperwork that must be sorted through on a daily basis, but according to my mother she has records of every clients BM's, so is abusive behavior less of a priority?

janelle writes at 06:56:12 08/31/07 - Comment #23621: Okay, I'm going to try to be succinct. Also, I've never managed a psych ward, so I'm coming from the perspective of someone who manages group homes which provides a little bit of a different environment, but there are some similar principals of human rights.
An agency realistically cannot guarantee that it will 100% prevent client on client abuse. Agencies do have the responsibility to decrease incidents and they can do it by considering how they place individuals together; using behavioral support plans and training the staff appropriately. I think that the incidents need to be reported to the state on a regular basis or an agency and its staff may begin to regard client on client abuse as a given and let it grow to dangerous levels. Or is that a slippery slope argument, lol?
When you worked in a psych ward with patients were you trained in behavioral management techniques? Just curious. My guess is that you weren't trained in those techniques but the nurses and other staff were.
My other guess is that isolation got used on the psych wards you worked in when the ward was understaffed or over populated.
Also, in the MR field we do consider isolation to be a form of abuse and it's rarely to never used.

tinypliny writes at 06:11:34 08/31/07 - Comment #23619: Okay - I have never been into social services but I have worked in psychiatric wards with patients before and here's what I don't get. How will you ensure that the clients don't continue to be abused by other inmates (also clients) if they are hurting each other? You could isolate the violent client - but isolation could also be a form of abuse. Where do you start? Where do you draw the line?

Permalink: Not_Abuse_WTF_Long_Rant_.html
Words: 407
Location: Buffalo , NY

Category: house

08/28/07 09:55 - 74ºF - ID#40793

The sounds of Tuesday night

It makes me smile that one of the evening noises I now associate with living on Lexington is the sound of the grocery store carts being pushed up and down the street by individuals sorting through people's recycling bin. Blends right in with the crickets.

I make my angry face, however, at the college students who stayed up until 4am last night drinking and talking loud on their front porch waking me up several times through out the night. I guess I'm becoming one of those old cranks who likes to be well rested before work.

Permalink: The_sounds_of_Tuesday_night.html
Words: 96
Location: Buffalo , NY

Category: pets

08/27/07 07:35 - 80ºF - ID#40763

As promised......

Bad Cat, Fat Cat and Devious Dog.
Also known as Tatanka, Nealie and Buckley.

Anyone want the bad cat? No really, bad cat is just a nick name, she doesn't really terrorize the house....<shifty eyes>

Permalink: As_promised_.html
Words: 40
Location: Buffalo , NY

Category: life

08/27/07 07:32 - 80ºF - ID#40762

My friends from Pittsburgh

The weekend before last I took my Pittsburgh MR/DD friends and their staff into our home and out and about for the weekend.
We went to The Anchor Bar which they loved, because, well, they love eating, and they really love eating fried things.

The next day we took them to the zoo. I hate to poo on my new city, but the Buffalo Zoo...really not so fabulous. But I understand that they have big plans for the future so I'm looking forward to that.

Jim, Marianne, Patty, Nelson, Patrick and Dennis in the Elephant House:

Marianne was the bravest of all and fed a cracker to the Giraffes. By the way, it costs a fricking dollar to feed a cracker to a giraffe, but you gotta charge that when you're building a new elephant house, I suppose.

Nelson, myself and Dennis on the carousel. Nelson's my buddy and wanted to share a horse with me, but I told him that Drew would be jealous so he would need to ride his own horse.

I also took them to the American side of the falls. I thought the American side was really nice, but people are always doggin' it!
I really love this view:

The whole crew at the falls:

Everyone picked out cheapy souveneirs and the ladies got hats that said "Cutie" and "Foxie"!

Patrick loved our dog, but Nelson would screach, "Son of a Bitch" if our dog even looked at him sideways!

All in all good time. Next year, I want everyone to get passports and secure permissions from guardians and then I'll take the whole crew to the Big City in Toronto!

Permalink: My_friends_from_Pittsburgh.html
Words: 289
Location: Buffalo , NY

Category: life

08/26/07 06:27 - 75ºF - ID#40739

Weekend Musings

Really nice weekend. Totally enjoyed meeting several fellow (e:peeps) at the bars on Friday night. People were a little bit different than I imagined, which made for fun to compare the online persona to the real thing in my head throughout the night.

Saturday me and some menly men helped two people move out of their third floor apartments into a third floor apartment together. It needs a little work, but seeing as she makes a living doing set/props design, I'm pretty sure that her place will be fabulous by the time she's done.

In the afternoon, I went down to the church to assist with the handing out of free lemonade. It was amazing how snotty some people were about saying no to free lemonade. A simple no thanks should suffice, yes? But a highlight was meeting (e:leetee) !

Sunday morning I woke up to the aching of my muscles screaming at me for all the third floor moving on Saturday. I willed myself out of bed and off to church where I played a piece on clarinet for the worship service. It was well received so I had a pleasant stroking of the ego today! The afternoon involved some good loving followed by Gilmore Girls on the couch. Now I gotta go because my husband just brought me a plate of pierogies with peas swimming in a white cheesy sauce.

Permalink: Weekend_Musings.html
Words: 234
Location: Buffalo , NY

Category: church

08/24/07 08:20 - 84ºF - ID#40716

The minister's wife....

is busting out her stuff at church on sunday. Come see me play clarinet at church service this Sunday!

Permalink: The_minister_s_wife_.html
Words: 19
Location: Buffalo , NY

Category: home

08/24/07 09:04 - 72ºF - ID#40704

Inferiority Complex

We left the suburbs of Pittsburgh to leave a culture and lifestyle behind that we disliked and to which we refused to expose any forthcoming children in our lives. The irony is that this suburb has one of the top ranked public school districts in the state and in the country. Maybe sometime (e:Drew) will even expound on his thoughts on why it's difficult to live out a christian mission in a rich suburb, but I digress...

We fulfilled a long time desire of wanting to live in an urban community (although I have to admit that my ultimate dream is to live in a particular urban community in Philly). So here we are and we love it for a number of reasons. I, for one, love how the old houses are built so that the porches are close to the sidewalk so that one can sit on their porch and comfortably greet their neighbors and passerbyers. Again, I digress....

Here, finally, comes the point. In this Pittsburgh suburb, folks were very wealthy and lived a very wealthy life style. The youth group kids at our church felt free to make fun of our beat up Geo Metro followed by our 10 year old beat up Acura Integra. A committee at church even removed some patio furniture off the front porch of our manse because it was unattractive. Yet, I NEVER felt an inkling of pressure to try to keep up with the Joneses...as the saying goes. In part, because it was absolutely a financial impossibility. I mean, we could have bought a few things of the life style, but barely.

I actually feel more community pressure and more angst from that pressure here in Buffalo. A common conversational topic around the neighborhood is house repair/renovation. And we have had and will continue to have some major repairs/renovations. We discussed house painting with a Buffalo friend who stated that if he had a house like ours he would paint it himself, absolutely. Oh, yes, it's that easy. Nights after work, weekend by weekend, bit by bit, you can paint your own house standing on scaffolding three stories high to reach up to the attic. Yeah, no thanks, we hired painters. We discussed our roof repairs with neighbors who said so matter of factly oh it's nothing to put a new roof on. They replaced their roof over the course of five years, section by section! Kewl, but I think I'll just save the money and have contractors do the work. (e:Drew) and I even joke about the potential shunning we might receive if people knew that the porch ceiling was repaired with vinyl instead of replacing the damaged wood <gasp>.

Don't get me wrong. I did a lot of minor repairs when we moved in. Sticky doors now close. I installed cabinet hardware so cabinets close. Tarnished copper door knobs are now a shiny rose color. I patched walls and did touch up painting all over the house. Interior painting is on the to do list down the road. But am I not worthy unless I sacrifice every weekend and summer evening to the idol that is my house?!

janelle writes at 08:44:32 08/25/07 - Comment #23039: I have to make sure the husband doesn't read your comment (e:tinypliny) or he'll never do anything around the house again...thanks!

tinypliny writes at 09:20:52 08/24/07 - Comment #23014: Everyone has pretty much said what I wanted to say, but I think this point needs to be made.
Splinters are the most abominable things to get into your fingers. They are an insidious cause of infection and have been known, at times, to cause loss of an appendage.

If your neighbour has a non-healing ulcer or a nasty pyrexic infection, you now know why.

lauren writes at 03:27:48 08/24/07 - Comment #22990: I say pick your battles wisely. Sure, put on new hardware, fix that creaky door, but don't go crazy and risk injuring yourself or your lovely husband. DIY can put some stress on a relationship, let me tell you, so only do it if you know you will have fun!

joshua writes at 02:04:09 08/24/07 - Comment #22978: Atta girl - enjoy yourself. Besides, the art festival is this weekend and the neighborhood is going to be jam packed with interesting things to check out.

In the end, if your house looks good and has a good roof then it doesn't really matter if you did it yourself... unless you have this strong compulsion to blabber to everybody about how self-satisfied you are! Screw that. =)

theecarey writes at 01:38:23 08/24/07 - Comment #22970

If you have the time and the know how- DIY can be rewarding on many levels; and it helps if you like to do that stuff. Again, time is big factor- consider where and how do you want to spend it. Otherwise, pay someone else to do it- when the two of you are ready. Dismiss what others are saying. I think its less about having the house look a certain way than it is to parade their own efforts, make you feel bad and put in their two cents- "look what I did! What..you arent doing it yourself?? ..Its sooooo easy.." Do you feel like their underlying question is "what is wrong with you" for not doing it all? yeh. Thats a sign they are just looking for an ego stroking. In short, like your title says-- inferiority complex, on their part. I'd compliment them on their know-how and suggestions, then leave it at that.

Do not* feel bad for not doing it all yourself- we do what we can given the time, resources, abilities, ambition and so forth. Be comfortable with that.

:)

I'm all for ATMs and EZPass.

janelle writes at 01:36:23 08/24/07 - Comment #22968: Well, I have concluded that I will no longer feel guilty for not being a DIY person who would probably end up doing it crappy, anyway. So I'll kick back and enjoy some beers this weekend instead of doing a roof tear down.

fellyconnelly writes at 12:38:17 08/24/07 - Comment #22957: i dont' think it is so much of 'keeping up with the joneses' so much as i think that buffalo is in a DIY boom right now... that is one thing that i have noticed about the area - everyone is fixing things up themselves.
maybe people are just very proud of doing it themselves?

jenks writes at 11:53:24 08/24/07 - Comment #22954: sorry mike.... I disagree. There's a bridge at home, and it's a major PITA b/c they won't take EZpass, and you have to buy these stupid tokens and it's just really annoying and takes forever. everyone is always begging the state to put ez-pass on the bridge, and they won't b/c then the toll collectors (there are like 2 of them) would be out of jobs.

Let them run the EZ pass sales then, I don't know. But don't hinder progress...

maybe i'm just too impatient.

mike writes at 11:35:06 08/24/07 - Comment #22953: a little addition to my comment...like I always find it so weird/kinda sad when like the bank tellers are forced to try and convince you to do all your banking online and getting direct deposit, and I just think um, then you wouldn't have a job right?

mike writes at 11:33:23 08/24/07 - Comment #22952: I am againt DIY in general one because I am kinda lazy honestly but two like people need to have jobs. Like why deny someone else like what they do for a living. That is why I go in banks instead of using ATMs and direct deposit and use toll collectors instead of EZPass. All these people need jobs so I feel like why not support them.

jbeatty writes at 10:11:47 08/24/07 - Comment #22937: They are beyond full of shit when they tell you its nothing to put a new roof on. Its hard work and dangerous as well. You will obviously pay a premium to hire a contractor to do the work but experienced roofers will be able to knock it out in 1 to 2 days where it would take the uninitiated a week or more.

paul writes at 09:58:42 08/24/07 - Comment #22936: (e:terry), our friend Dave and I replaced a 15ft x 15ft section of roof on the top of our house last year (e:paul,32779) - pics at th bottom of that entry. It was fun and a little bit scary during one wind storm but we saved a lot of money and learned a lot. It looks amazing now and didn't leak over the last year, so I supposed we did a pretty good job, I should take a new pic of it.

joshua writes at 09:33:02 08/24/07 - Comment #22934: That stuff is nonsense - to hell with what your neighbors think. I've actually never heard of anybody patching their own roof - WTF is this, do we live in grass huts now and have to thatch constantly?

Pay somebody to do the work and screw the rest. Seriously. I think that if you bothered to inquire further (which I wouldn't) you'd probably find out that your neighbors bizarre outlook on how to 'properly' renovate your home is only the tip of a very large, disturbing iceberg. With some possible exceptions, when you DIY, chances are its going to look DIY. That isn't necessarily a good thing when it comes to the outside of your home.

Permalink: Inferiority_Complex.html
Words: 535
Location: Buffalo , NY

Category: pets

08/23/07 08:39 - 71ºF - ID#40691

My cats opthamologist looks like a star!

I like the opthamologist whom my fat cat visits.
I don't like the fact that my fat cat requires opthamological treatment for a condition (e:Drew) refers to as "MUCKY EYE".
But I do like the opthamologist.
She looks just like Kirsten Dunst when she was in Spider Man.
She even talks like Kirsten Dunst.
I think Kirsten Dunst is really cute; so I therefore find my cat's opthamologist to be really cute.

The fat cat likes the opthamologist because she provides a never ending pile of treats for the fat cat and then giggles at the greediness of the fat cat as she snoops around the office for more treats.

The treats sure enough aren't helping the fat cat's fat issue though.

Permalink: My_cats_opthamologist_looks_like_a_star_.html
Words: 123
Location: Buffalo , NY

Category: life

08/21/07 09:16 - 60ºF - ID#40649

Blah

It bites that the weather is unseasonably cold.

It bites when you're parents get divorced.
Even when you're 28 years old.
Even when you're living on your own.
Even when you have your own family.
It still sucks.
I guess there is never a good time in life for parents to get divorced.

Think happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts .....*