SISTA GP Exits RAW DAWG BUFFALO RADIO 12/29 by RDB Radio | Blog Talk Radio

My last broadcast as host of RAW DAWG BUFFALO RADIO

NEXT ON RAW DAWG BUFFALO RADIO 12/29 by RDB Radio | Blog Talk Radio

DO UNION STRIKES REALLY WORK 07/14 by RDB Radio | Blog Talk Radio

This Week on Raw Dawg Buffalo Radio

DO UNION STRIKES REALLY WORK 07/14 by RDB Radio | Blog Talk Radio

With the Chilean Codelco strike this week, the postponed strike at four Chicago funeral homes, two-week Grasberg mine in Indonesia, and the South African strike that threatens to bring the county to a halt, how successful could they be?
Let's take a look at past strikes, the "GOOD", the "BAD", and the "WASTE OF TIME".

GPS: Globally Provoking Stupidity

There comes a time when we must realize we can't replace thinking with technology. Being in the Information Technology industry, I'm well aware of its benefits, but I'm also aware of its hindrances.
Not so long ago an expected visitor requested my address for use in their navigation system.  Thankfully, not being in any online mapping system, I alternatively began to provide driving directions. 
Take note that the driver was in the Atlanta, GA area and I live in the Central GA area.   I began with..."From 75..", but was interrupted with an unnerving reply..."75 what?"
Responding with "South", I continued with the rest of the directions in hopes of not exposing my shock and sadness of what had just conspired.
I know I use my phone's navigation app especially when travelling, but this is mostly after I've previously planned my route.  I've even used it when in unfamiliar areas, but to totally rely on a navigation system is not intelligent and totally irresponsible for any driver. 
What happened to the skills of reading maps?  Knowing the general layout of the interstate highway system? Ability to read navigational signs? Knowing locations of cities, North, South, East,  West, from where you live.

Technology can be useful, like this blog post.  I'm using an Android Blogger app on my phone for this post.  It's a convenience alternatively from booting up my PC at the other side of my house.
My actions and thoughts are basically the same.

Folks, when you go about your daily tasks, remember you have a brain, use it or you might just lose it.

Prenuptial Agreements Expanded for Wedding Participants

Prenuptial agreements were normally contracts between the couple getting married. Now because of escalating wedding proceeding costs and increasing rate of divorce, wedding participants are now seeking attorneys to develop Prenuptial Agreements for wedding party participants and guests against the engaged couple.

In case the couple divorces, participants now want reimbursements for expenses incurred by being a member of the wedding party, i.e. gowns, shoes, tuxedo rentals, etc.  Along with guests, they are also seeking reimbursements for travel expenses.

Their reasoning is that people spend into several hundreds of dollars in preparation for and attendance to wedding proceedings, but seems wasted when couples divorce within a few years, or less.  More is spent when the event is located in a vacation environment such as a cruise or Caribbean resort.  Many participants coincide their vacation with the wedding proceedings, which could raise their expenses into the thousands of dollars.

The agreements have commonly stated the couple would reimburse participants on a pro-rated scale of 10% reduction per year if the couple divorced before their 10th anniversary.  Estimated expenses had to be submitted along with agreements and actual expenses had to be reported and updated into the agreement within 30 days after the wedding.

The 10-year period was selected figuring if the couple could survive that long, they would have figured out how to continue the marriage longer.

In case of infidelity, the injured spouse would be able to divorce the cheating spouse and be released from the prenuptial agreement, leaving the cheating spouse fully responsible for the indemnification of the prenuptial agreement.

In the case of death, not caused by a spouse, the agreement would be nullified. In case of spousal-incurred death, the surviving spouse would still be responsible for the indemnification of the prenuptial agreement.

Having previously attended a Caribbean wedding and knowing of others that have traveled to attend and participate in weddings that were costly and the coupled divorced within years, I wish I had several of these agreements in place. Oh, well, maybe for the next one.

Ok, this not real, just satire, but what if???

Birds Of A Feather

It amazing how naturally we gather around those alike us.  I don't believe it's intentional, it just happens.  I sit now in my son's school gymanasium awaiting tonight's PTO 4th grade program.  Arrived early for best selection of seating, I sit terminating the fourth row.  When selected I was the only one of distinctive shade of brown. 
Moments later, a brown-shaded couple occupied the pair of cold metal seats in front on me.  Their selection was not immediately noticed while I perused Tweets.
Distracted by a three-some group excused themselves as they crossed my path to select seating on my row, it was then the flocks began to appear.
My area was not the only grouping in this section, earlier I had noticed a couple in another mostly vacant section as I was originally.  They are now joined by other groups of brown_shaded complexions. 
I don't have the demographics of the fourth grade student population and their families, but wouldn't be surprised if tonight's attendence corresponded.

Program is starting......

As I think of Dad (RIP), would have been 79

On Daddy's Birthday, reflections on previous posts

Would have been 77

Now I know

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Sista GP
http://sistagp.blogspot.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sistagp

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You like to fly with eagles?
Eagles are going extinct, but chickens will be here FOREVER!
Be mindful of your alliances.

THE FOREST...THE TREES

Those that can't see your forest for the trees
ARE STRANGERS TO YOU

Those that can't see your forest because they are the trees
ARE THOSE INTIMATE TO YOU

Those that can see the forest because they surround it and can enter at any time
ARE YOUR TRUE FRIENDS

Friends tell you when YOUR FOREST IS ON FIRE!!

Cherish your friends, they can save your life AND your trees..

PROTECT MINORS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA SITES

Being in the internet applications development field, security stays in mind.  Browsing a site earlier today brought great concern.  Social media sites can offer a plethora of privacy options, but none can protect against misuse of an authorized account.  Let's say a minor post pictures of oneself and friends on their personal site.  This site is accessible by their "friends" of the same age aznd most likely have the same associations (school, church, neighborhood).  Some may think that since their privacy settings are restricted to just "friends" all is well. 

What about the credentials of those friends? How safe are they kept? 
Think about these scenarios...

Scenario A
A "friend" of the minor shares a computer with others, family, friends, or just anyone in the household.  They all use the same computer account and password.  This minor also has their social media site setting to leave them logged on to the computer.  This would be convenient for the minor's friend but also has made the minor's pictures available to strangers.

Scenario B
The minor's friend, or anyone accessible to the account, purposely saves the minors images from the browser and distributes them to strangers.

Scenario C
The minor posts status of current activities denoting location and pattern of events.  A stranger, having the minor's images, could now identify and track the minor based on these status live via mobile access.

In each of the scenarios, the minor may have no idea who is viewing/tracking/stalking them.  It would not matter whether the minor's images were provocative or not, there are many ill people in this world that should not have access to these images and status messages.

Some of these sites have restriction of 13 aged minors, this needs to be increased to no one under 18.
It shouldn't be that hard.

LANDSCAPING PROJECTS SUMMER 2010

Highest priority
I'll be posting the projects we been doing in the past few months...it's the main reason why I have been anti-social networking lately, basically no blogging, twittering, or facebooking, other than the show, of course.

By the end of each day, I preferred a bed over a laptop...you'll see why....

Chemicals vs Henna?

As I have continued my Natural Hair Journey, one area that was not so natural was my hair coloring methods.  Several times I had planned to just keep the gray rather than use the chemical coloring processes. I even contemplated applying the color myself, but was afraid of leaving it in too long.  While perusing many natural hair sites, there were mentions of henna, but I hadn't paid much attention  until recently.  I don't recall which site gathered my most attention, but one did, then another, then another. The biggest draw was the longer you leave it in the better.  Opposite of chemical coloring...
So a few weeks ago I decided to try it.  First problem was trying to find the right henna.  I needed to find Body Art Quality henna.  I tried several places, but none could be found.  At the store I regularly purchase my hair products, the merchant reminded me of a Indian store located back in town.  They may have the henna I searched.  He gave me directions, but it would have to wait another day.
Days later I sought the store based on the merchant's directions to discover the store is not at that location anymore.  Vaguely recalling a Indi-Paki store recently opened near my workplace, it was my next choice.

This grocer did have two types of henna products.  The first the merchant presented advertised as different shades.  From my research, this brand would not be one I needed.  The other brand was not legible to me as I hoped. I recognized the Mehandi name from my research and it was labeled for Hair Color usage only.  For $1.99 a box, it was worth a try.

From my research on Henna For Hair, lemon juice was the recommended method of extracting the pigment from the henna plant powder. Gloved in latex in my newspapered bathroom I began the mixing process until the product was like pudding or yogurt.  The paste mixture was then covered in plastic wrap touching the mixture to restrict air penetration. I let it set overnight until late the next morning.


Henna - Lemon Juice mixture


Before application, I mixed in more lemon juice. During the wait time, I shampoo washed my hair.  Afterward, enjoying the fun gooey mess, starting at the nape of my neck, I began to heavily apply the mixture over my head as described in the Free Ebook provided on that website.


Applied mixture back


Applied mixture top


Once applied, I wrapped my head in plastic wrap. 

Post-application wrap-up


After about 5-6 hours, I rinsed then shampooed out the rest of the mixture and styled in to my most common style, THE AFRO.
Results




It was a fun process.  I've read that some initially henna several times weekly, then weekly, then monthly.  Maybe it's because of the method used, but my color still looks great after these weeks have passed.  Next week being a holiday weekend, I may henna again.

You want to try it?

Purse interior shouldn't be black

All this week I have been looking for my headphones. For their protection, I keep them in this pouch. I had unsuccessfully searched my purse AND other cases several times. Now this morning while looking for something else, I noticed the "bottom" of my purse seemed different. One quick pull, out came the pouch.

There are too many black items that are lost in a purse.  This doesn't just apply to purses, I've lost items later discovered in laptop cases, messenger bags, and luggage, all having black interior. This default color needs to change. 

Or is this just a problem with me misplacing things.  What do you think?

Cookout vs. Grilling vs. BBQ

As the summer approaches, outdoor cooking and eating is more prevalent. Recently stated to me, "what the South calls Grilling, the North calls BBQ" made me wonder what exactly each mean. Now, a cookout seems to cover all. The meal is prepared outdoors using heat supplied via gas, charcoal, or wood, followed by consumption outdoors too. 
Grilling adds specifics to the way of cooking, differentiating from open pit and campfire. There are gas grills, charcoal grills, and smoker grills with wood smoke boxes. To me, this isn't a BBQ.
A BBQ is an event, it includes grilling (ribs, chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers), eating outdoors, family, friends, music, games, joy and laughter.

Yesterday we had a BBQ.  Hubby grilled several slabs of ribs, sausages, hot dogs, and chicken. Also he prepared his "original" baked beans and BBQ sauce, while I prepared the cole slaw and managed the cleanup as-you-go.  We hung out in the garage where the kids went back and forth from sitting with us and playing games to frequent bike rides.  The garage was convenient for protection from the scattered rain showers we had all day. For some, this may be called a BBQ, but for me, the addition of music tops off the definition.  Music can be live, cd, mp3, or even streamed as we did.  But the significance is how the music was provided.  Hubby ran new speaker wire from his amp to an old speaker, piping the music streamed from Pandora through my phone connected to the amp and the indoor speakers and now outdoor speaker in the garage.  Later in the day, a neighbor and his dog joined us to finish off the day.

Now that is what a BBQ is to me.  What does it mean to you?

I miss my blog...with so much to do, when is there time to write?

Having the second contractor to cancel their visit to provide an estimate to fix the damage from the leaking roof (finally fixed after 1.5 years) and paint the room and believing the estimates received so far to be overpriced, I've decided to do it myself.  I've watched plenty of DIY projects completed by my parents and having DIYNetwork as the most watched channel in my home, I should be able to pull this off.

I spent all weekend, scraping, kilzing, joint compounding, sanding, paint sampling, and priming....


Main damage from leaking roof


Main work area


Trying to decide which color blends better with furniture and curtain panels I plan to convert from window scarfs.


Once getting handle on knockdown patch...painting room will be next task. First try...too wet

Blogoversary #2 ADHD: Fact or Fiction

It's surprising to believe that it's been two years since I started this blog.  So many elements have changed in my life since this blog was started which resulted in reduction of my post frequency.  It is not that I had not wanted to write, it was a matter of schedule.  I've realized more lately that since I started writing a few years ago, writing is a part of me and I must incorporate it in my life just as much as what I do for my family.  This is something that I must do for myself, for my sanity, for my soul.  I renew this journey with this post.

Once again the topic of ADHD has come close to home.  As with many unfamiliar topics, I've spent many hours researching to learn as much as I can for an informed understanding.  Much of this research has been online medical based articles, but some were on forums.  I've also had direct conversation with parents of children diagnosed with this condition and some that have not.  From this research, I learned the heart behind this condition. 
There are some who believe that this condition does not exist, that this is just children behaving normally, or acceptable teenage behavior that they'll grow out of it, or adults that should know better.  'Parents just want to drug their children because they don't want to do what is necessary to be parents.'  'It's just "boys being boys"'.  To this group, I hope you are right if your child exhibits this behavior.  I hope you have not missed an opportunity to treat your child offering them a calmer, more focused life.

There are those who believe that the condition exists, but won't allow pharmaceutical treatment for fear of the propaganda that's been spread of the side effects. To this group I understand your feelings as I too have heard them and drawn fear.  I could never watch my child walk around scrawny and in a doped daze.  But as with most medications, there are side effects.  Some are temporary and others are persistent.  As many do with pain and allergy medicine, when one doesn't work as effective or have undesirable side effects, we try another.

There are also those to choose to seek a positive solution by any means available, including pharmaceutics.  To this group, I do not believe pharmaceutics would be your first choice of a solution nor even your second.  I believe you would have tried many means of behavior adjustment, such as scolding, removal of favorite entertainment, bribery, counseling, home remedies, and even ignore in hopes it would go away.

And there are those who are a mixture of any of these.

In any case, I don't see how one can stand in judgment of another without being in their situation.  Being able to see they one face the daily battle of completing the simplest of tasks?  Being there to watch a child call oneself 'STUPID' for not being able to grasp skills mastered by others and for making impulsive actions knowing later that it should not have been done.  I can understand how a parent watching their child's grades and self-esteem exponentially decrease would try any means available to help their child. I know living this would break my heart.

For those who pass judgment of others' methods, I hope you will take the time to understand them.

Tonight on RAW DAWG BUFFALO RADIO #BlogTalkRadio

'Parenting in 2010' 11PM EST on Raw Dawg Buffalo Radio #BlogTalkRadio - http://tobtr.com/s/905932 (call-in anytime during show # 347-324-5722)
I expect it to be a "lively" show.