Deborah Woehr

This guy was one of my favorite comedians because he wasn’t afraid to defy the Politically Correct with his viewpoints on, say, abortion or religion. The above clip is his show about why he thinks religion is bullshit.

Goodnight, George.

A coworker came back from lunch and asked me if I knew the Serenity prayer. I told her that I heard of it, but that I didn’t know it. Curiosity sent me to the Internet to search for it. As it turned out, I knew the short version, which goes like this:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

–Reinhold Niebuhr

I copied it and pasted it into an email for her. She came back to my desk and thanked me with a big smile. Then she went on to say how everybody needs to print this prayer out and hang it where they can see it everyday, that people get too stressed out over things that don’t really matter in the long run.

After she left, I thought about the conversations I had with my husband last night and this morning. He asked me if I was going to give myself an ulcer over an issue that’s been bothering me for a while now. I smirked and said, “That’s not my plan.”

He gave me a big hug, wished me good luck, and went to take a shower. Twelve hours later, I’m home, and although the issue still isn’t resolved, I have a better attitude about it. At least for today. One day at a time.

Meanwhile, I found this song by Enya. I don’t have any of her albums, but I find her music very peaceful and moving. Hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

More than 1,000 crashes were blamed on drivers using a hand-held cellular phone in 2007, injuring 447 people, according to the CHP.

My cell phone has come in handy while driving only a couple of times . . . when I needed to call a tow truck on the highway. I’ve come to loathe cell phone drivers, which is why I look forward to this new law. Effective July 1st, people caught talking into their hand-held cell phones will get a $20 - $50 ticket. I wish the fee were higher, but hey it’s better than nothing.

Source: CBS5.com

Mike and the Mechanics’ The Living Years has a special meaning for me, as it came out during a time when my feelings about my father were the most ambivalent, the year I became engaged to my husband, and the year I lost my grandfather to Alzheimers.

Yesterday, I read a moving post by my friend, Michael, whose father is in the late stages of Alzheimers. I thought of this song immediately when I read the passage where he questioned whether or not his father knew how he felt.

As I thought about what I was going to say in my comment to him, I kept seeing my father’s face in the back of my mind during an emotional conversation we had after my brother died. There were so many things I wanted to say to him that night, but I couldn’t. The emotion was too raw and sharp. In the back of my mind, I knew that whatever I said wouldn’t change things. I’ve done my best to love him, and he’s done his best to love me.

I’ll call him tomorrow to wish him a happy Father’s Day. We’ll catch up with each other about the things that are going on in our lives. The conversation may last as short as ten minutes, or we may be on the phone for 30. Either way, it doesn’t matter. He knows I still care.

Today was my day off and the boys’ first day of summer vacation. They got to sleep in, but my internal clock woke me up at 5:30am, of all hours. During the week, I struggle to wake up at 6. Go figure.

I sat at my computer, thinking of all the things I need to do before we go on our annual trip, the Adobe training I’m still working on, the blog posts I had yet to write, and ideas for my latest WIP. All this kept spinning through my mind as my oldest kept talking to me about Macs. He’s been obsessed with getting one since before Christmas and still won’t stop talking about Leopard and what he would do if we were to buy him a Mac.

I’m sitting here this morning, listening patiently and nodding my head and uttering a few short responses. At the same time, I’m thinking, ‘He’s going to drive me crazy if I don’t get him out of the house.’

So I took him and his brother to Chevy’s, with the promise that I was going to drag them to the bookstore. They didn’t complain too much on the way into the restaurant. On the way out, my youngest chimes, “Can I get a CD, Mom?”

What do you expect from teenagers?

I told them that we were going to look at books first. My oldest has required summer reading, and my youngest needs something to do. We left with books, movies, and a CD. It was an expensive day, but it was fun (at least for me).

Over the past month, I’ve been researching Down Syndrome for a new character I’ve created. I’ve watched several YouTube videos, including snippets of the once-popular TV show, Life Goes On. I had this set to rent on my Netflix account, but when I saw the first season sitting inside Barnes&Noble, I couldn’t resist. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the first DVD and remembering why I enjoyed this show so much.

I was in my early twenties and newly married when this show debuted on television. I don’t remember it touching me nearly as much then as it did today, as a mother of two boys. My eyes teared several times while watching the last show on the first DVD, where Corky deals head-on with the limitations that Down Syndrome has placed on him. Will I ever be able to drive a car? Will I ever get married? Will I ever have children? Things that we all take for granted.

I’m learning more about this syndrome and how it affects the families involved. My new character keeps speaking to me. His name is Zach, and he has some pretty heavy secrets.

When I first saw the first trailer for M. Night Syamalan’s latest film, The Happening, I was intrigued and still am. I’ve always enjoyed apocalyptic stories, and I find it especially cool that the movie is premiering on Friday the 13th. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, I’ve tacked it here for you to see.

I considered taking my oldest son with me until I read the USAToday, which explains that the movie involves children getting murdered as well as mass suicides. This is definitely not a family friendly movie. If I’m able to go this weekend, I’ll post an update or a full-bodied review.

I’ve been drooling over the iPhone since it was launched. The biggest attractor for me is mobile web surfing and email, not to mention the design. But it was out of my price range. That, and I already have a perfectly good cell phone that I don’t use all that much. So, I began looking at portable Internet tablets, such as the iTouch and the Nokia.

That said, I asked one of my colleagues how her son liked the iPhone that he got last Christmas. She said that he loves it and that I should wait until June, when the new iPhone hits the market. June is here, and the iPhone G3 was released with better features, such as faster Internet speed and a lower price tag. The new phone costs $100 less . . . initially.

Christopher Null calculated the real price of owning one of these phones in his article, How the Cheaper iPhone 3G Actually Costs You More.

For the price they’re charging their customers for this phone in monthly fees and add-ons, you could buy a brand new MacBook Pro or two PC laptops. Ridiculous.

If you work in an office, you’ll definitely relate to this compilation. The last clip was priceless.