Okay, I think I understand you better now. But surely you must understand that one need no religion to maintain value on human life, right? You asked: Why do you find that sad? If the universe is essentially a random occurence, and there is no meaning or Reality to it, we're all going to die anyway. What difference does it make? Why would you have the idea that humans are meaningful? You imply that meaning can only come from belief in Christ: If Christ is Reality, dying for him is the most sane, rational thing one could do... However, to me, it is The Central Truth of the universe. But then you say: Not my truth, Truth. Truth regardless of what you and I believe. If there is such a thing. So I'm still confused. Can you define that Truth (the one regardless of what you and I believe) without inserting your personal belief (The Central Truth of Christ)?

I don't think I understand. You say that I can create my own meaning to life, but it is not logical or compelling because there would be no Truth (as you believe it). And your Truth is the only real and meaningful way to differentiate between your meaning to life and mine. But it only has that power because you give it such. You are using your accepted definition of Truth to place limits on whether the meaning I create for my life is logical or compelling. Whereas I allow that one can create their own meaning, even if they choose to find it from the Bible. Therefore it seems to me that my viewpoint is far more logical, because it does not rely on my personal beliefs and definitions.

You are assuming that the only meaning or reality to life comes from religion. I find that people who have no religion tend to value this life we are living far higher than the religious do, because we don't spend our lives looking forward to the "next" life. We live life to the fullest and value and respect everyones right to that, because (we believe) this is the only one we get.

My daughter was very much like this. To this day, she still does not really like being alone, but she's learning to handle it, in small doses. I believe some children experience a form of anxiety when left alone, just as some children experience anxiety when in large groups of people. And actually, you could substitute the word "people" for "children" in that sentence, and it would still ring true. It's easier for people to understand how forcing a very shy child to spend lots of time in large groups can be stressful, but they often don't see the potential stress of forcing a very social child to spend a lot of time alone. We tend to place a high value on playing by oneself, when, for some children, it can be very stressful. Take it in small steps, and keep him close by. Childhood is such a short period of time, and then it's gone. Cherish your child, and don't expect him to behave in the same way as your other child, because that only sets you both up for disappointment.

Well, I've only watched one news show about the decrease in the bee population, but my understanding was that it really only related to big farms that rely on bees to pollinate their crops. This was a bit of a shock to me, silly non-country girl that I am. I just assumed that big farms planted lots and lots of seeds each year and that's that, but it seems the bees do a lot of the work! Farms rent out hundreds of thousands of bees each year to help with pollinating. Go figure! :001_smile: But the show didn't seem to imply that it would impact individual's gardens. Or maybe since that wasn't the main theme of the show they didn't discuss it. Then a few days later I read that the same type of thing is happening with bats. One theory behind all this is that pesticides are harming the bees, who are insects after all - the target "audience" of pesticides. And it would make perfect sense if insects are becoming toxic from the pesticides and the bats are eating them. The description on pesticides of how they affect the targeted pests really seems to properly describe what is happening to these bees and bats. It's kinda scary! But I'm not sure that is what happened to your garden. But I'm not sure it's not. How's that for ambiguity? :tongue_smilie: Better luck this year!

Well, thanks to this thread, I Googled it, and apparently saliva is listed along with iron (rust) for causing Tetanus. :glare: And symptoms can take weeks to months to show up. Even if the wound doesn't appear infected. At least that is what my scholarly five-minute search pulled up. :tongue_smilie:

This has been a curiosity to me in several threads lately. People who have confidently stated their opinions have been accused of arrogance, anger, and hostility. I try really hard to see it, and I simply don't. Pam said (possibly in another thread, but on the same idea) that maybe it is because she agreed with the posts that she was unable to see the "tone" that people complain about. I don't know if that's what happens, maybe it is. But you know, not everyone has the same writing or speaking style. Some people are blunt. Others are gentle. Personally, I'm a tell-it-like-it-is person. For me to post something and try to make it palatable to the masses is very hard. I feel like a fraud if I try to sound "sweet". It just isn't me. But I know that for the most part, people respond negatively to those types of posts. So I just keep my mouth shut and quietly send positive rep to the people who have the guts to speak their minds. It's frustrating.

Well, I can tell you that I got two small puncture bites a couple of weeks ago, and it didn't even occur to me to get a tetanus shot. :blushing: I'm the polar opposite of a worry-wart (that was my mom!) so I just irrigated it, cleaned it, let it air a little, and applied Neosporin and a band-aid sporadically. It seems to be healing up fine. But, if I get lock-jaw any time in the next few months, I'll let you know! :D

I had several graduates from NCSSM as fellow students in my physics classes when I attended UNC Chapel Hill. At the time, I was a 24-year-old married step-mom to two kids who lived 1 1/2 hours away. Due to the outside responsibilities that come with these circumstances, I could hardly compete! Those kids were like machines (not meant in a bad way!). They thought nothing of nightly homework assignments that would take over 4 hours. Me? I can hardly remember ever doing homework for my honors high school classes, and very little for my honors community college classes. They were FAR and AWAY more prepared for rigorous classes than I. One of my friends and I would often philosophize about the difference between these kids and the "rest of us". We weren't sure if it was completely the schooling that had created the work ethic, or if they were just very left-brained people who thrived in that environment. My friend and I decided we were/are too right-brained to enjoy that much effort for only one class. All this to say, the NCSSM students were incredibly prepared for the rigors of upper-level physics work. Not surprisingly, I didn't have any of them in my math classes, so I am assuming they placed higher than I did in those. Oh, and this was in the mid 90's, so take it for what it's worth. :)

I use 4 of the family-size bags and a heaping cup of sugar. I just boil the water, remove from heat, add bags and let steep until the water looks deep brown. Then I pour it into the pitcher, add the sugar and stir until it is dissolved. Then I fill the pitcher the rest of the way with water.

Well, dh is heading to Blockbuster and it will be Sweeney Todd for us tonight. :drool5: And, uh, the drool is for Johnny, not all the blood and gore. I don't typically go for that kind of move, but Mr. Depp has a way of making typically unpalatable things quite palatable indeed. :drool:

I have one because it is my step-daughter's preferred method of communication.

I'm curious about your reason for covering one "week" over two weeks. Is it simply a scheduling thing, or would one hour be "too much" for a day, or are you trying to spread the program out and last longer? Or...??? And do you plan to continue this way through future levels? TIA!

Aw, it's not all it's cracked up to be. It became very hard for me to enjoy concerts after a while. Kind of like when you learn the ins and outs of a magic trick, it loses its, well, magic. The only concert I've been able to go to and just lose myself in the moment was over ten years ago on KISS's reunion tour. That was magic. :coolgleamA: I also can't stand how for the last several years concerts have gone almost completely to moving lights. Maybe I'm just getting too old, but I prefer the old PAR cans and gels over today's seizure-inducing light shows. DH knows it's a bee in my bonnet, so he sent me a link yesterday to an article about Lenny Kravitz's upcoming tour. He is going back to an "old school" lighting style, not using all the moving lights. That has me excited. :hurray: Well that bites. The school has changed SO much since I went. I have no idea what it would be like now. It was still very small back then. Everyone knew everyone; it was very personalized. I hope things work out for your niece. I don't think I would be able to talk anyone out of attending. The one and only big concern would be that if she were to want to continue her education later, the credits would not transfer. And since it's a two-year program now, that's a lot of time and money to invest in education that won't transfer.

I'm sure you have checked this, but it's the only thing I can think of... is the M/A switch on the lens set to A? I have accidentally switched that without realizing a couple of times as I changed lenses, so that was my first thought. Otherwise, I have no idea. I'm so sorry! Do you have more than one lens? If not, maybe you could try going in to a BestBuy or some similar store with your camera and ask to try one of their lenses, just to see? Sorry I can't be of more help. :confused: That really bites!

Well, I started there the day I turned 17, so I was awfully young, and many of the other students were older and had been working in the field and had more life experience. In some ways it was a tough program, in that you attended one class for eight hours a day (or fours hours lecture, four hours lab), five days a week, for either two weeks or one month straight. That's a long time to sit and listen to any single person. Sometimes the labs were from, say, midnight to 4 am and then you had to be back for class at 8 am. And my group was the first that was supposed to get to be in their "new" building, so we all got apartments near it. But you know how construction is, and we ended up having to drive 40 minutes in Orlando suburb traffic each way to get to class. But hey! We got a tour of the new facility before we graduated. :tongue_smilie: The problem after graduation was that I stayed in the central Florida area, and Full Sail had a pretty crappy reputation (late 80's early 90's) because of the sheer number of graduates they cranked out that didn't necessarily learn all they should have. :001_huh: Plus the fact that I'm a chic. But it wasn't too hard to prove myself once given the chance. I don't regret attending for a minute. I've had several career changes since then, but it allowed me to get my rock 'n roll wild days out of my system. :biggrinjester: My husband actually went there, too, although after I graduated. (We didn't meet for another couple of years after that.) My daughter has considered a career in video game design, so I have wondered if they would offer free tuition to a child of two alumni. :D

I love the smell of gardenias. There were gardenia bushes on my elementary school playground. Well, actually, it was an asphalt parking lot. That is probably what made the gardenias so much more interesting. :o

Full Sail for recording engineering Valencia Community College for AA UNC Chapel Hill for physics/astronomy (got pregnant and happily quit before finishing degree, though)

When we were investigating pellet stoves, the salesmen kept implying that it would warm the whole house. I find that hard to believe, given how ours is set up. For example, our floor plan includes an open living room, dining room, and kitchen. The living room is where the stove would be. But there is a hall off the living room that leads past a bathroom and laundry area directly to our bedroom, with a 90 degree corner down to dd's bedroom and my office. The heat from our wood stove was never capable of making it all the way down the hall to our bedroom, much less around the corner and down that hall to the other bedrooms. But the salesmen insist that it will. :confused: I'm thinking the living room would have to be extremely hot before the bedrooms would be comfortable. What do you think?

This is what we have done. We have a propane furnace, and we simply could not afford to keep filling it up. So we wear lots of layers, toboggans, and socks (ME??? Wear something on my feet in the house???). We also bought space heaters. The price of electricity here is not cheap, but it is certainly cheaper than propane!! My husband puts one under his desk (he works from home) and we have one in our school room. It sure makes walking through the house a chilly experience, but at least we stay warm when we are in our main areas. We also move the heaters to our bedrooms at night and close the doors. Much cheaper to heat small rooms than trying to heat the whole house like the furnace does. We have a wood stove, but it is an old Ben Franklin style and it is very inefficient. We looked at buying a wood pellet stove, but they run close to $3000 by the time it is installed. Of course we have spent close to that on propane this winter. :glare: Our plan for next year is to just suck it up and buy a few cords of wood and deal with the inefficient wood stove and continue to use the space heaters for the rooms that stay cold. Ideally, in a few years we will be able to switch to a pellet stove and maybe even an electric water heater and then not have to deal with the ever-increasing fuel prices.

So is Blogger messing up for you guys, too? :cursing: It won't load any new blogspot pages, or open the comments section for the pages that I did have open before it started messing up. Wah!!

Woohoo! This is the earliest I have ever gotten my WW posted and announced! :hurray: Link in sig.

Here is the only sample of Jacobs that I have come across. It's not much, but it's something. :-)

Would you mind sharing examples of what is included on the Calvert timeline? I have tried to find better images than the one at their website, to no avail. What I am interested in finding is one that has the basic time periods, and only the major events. Basically one that is less visually distracting than ones that include every last detail known to mankind. :D Thanks!

The more expensive one was Tampa Electric, and our was Lakeland Electric.