Three women jointly receive Nobel Peace Prize - CNN.com

Three women jointly receive Nobel Peace Prize - CNN.com:

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Great role models for our daughters; it is nice to see women recognized for trying to make our world a better place. More of us need to strive to do this. We don't have to do major things in the world, but rather small things where we are. If we all did this then it would amount to a big change, there is power in numbers and we all can make our world a better place for us all if we choose to do so.

Dreaming of a tight Christmas: Tips to keep kids happy when money is scarce | Deseret News

Dreaming of a tight Christmas: Tips to keep kids happy when money is scarce | Deseret News:

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This is our family this year, tight and all. While most kids nowadays only believe in the commercialized holiday and not the actual holiday, which is sad, it is my intent to try to instill that during this holiday season, it is better to give than to receive. It is nice to receive gifts, but the gifts isn't the primary purpose of the holiday. Spending quality time with family and friends is, regardless of one's religious belief.

Horror For The Holidays: Meet The Anti-Santa : NPR

Talk about a variant of the Boogey Man for naughty children at Christmas time. The YouTube video in this article is great to watch. Being someone that just loves Halloween (Samhain) this was just the icing on the cake, so to speak. Looks like a fun festival too.

Horror For The Holidays: Meet The Anti-Santa : NPR:

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Nifty crafts for kids - custom notepads

Nifty crafts that kids can make and give this holiday season.  I found this article online and the magazine is free.  If you have Windows you will be able to view the magazine offline.

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March/April 2011

The Packer - California grower-shippers donate produce - Handling & Distributing

The Packer - California grower-shippers donate produce - Handling & Distributing

This is a true testament to the holiday spirit, donating and helping those in need. Today's economic times are tough, but when people come together to help solve a common problem like this, it just gladdens my heart. Some day I hope to be able to do the same. I want to start my own farm so that I can help my community, both from a food prospective and from a therapy perspective (my wife and I do foster care and love helping kids). The best lesson I can pass along to my kids is that you can make a good profitable business, but you can also be thoughtful and help with the social issues our society faces. There is no single cure, but if everyone helps out, we can accomplish great things. In the testament to the holiday season, let's see if we can keep this charitable feeling alive throughout the year.

The Packer - Higher costs, delays predicted with new trucking regulations - Handling & Distributing

The Packer - Higher costs, delays predicted with new trucking regulations - Handling & Distributing

I am adding this article to the blog, and I have comments posted in it. I am including this as I am still looking at truck driving as a possible job avenue, and this article covers some very good information that people should be aware of. As with any regulation, regulators need to hear from the actual people that the new regulations are going to affect, namely the long haul or OTR truck driver, in this specific case. It is understandable that people want to improve safety and efficiency, but they need to get all of the information and not just information from those that do not do the actual driving. The drivers can give you first account information on how the HOS affects them. Keep in mind, though, the HOS only accounts for when the wheels of the truck are moving and do not include the fueling, pre-trip and periodic truck inspections, the loading or unloading, etc. So, when figuring in the HOS, they need to factor in the big picture that it fits into and try to balance safety for the driver and those around them with the economies of the situation. You want safety, but you also have to factor in the fact that reduced hours will reduce delivery times and equate to higher costs to the consumers. Maybe if we had a better infrastructure here in the United States then it wouldn't be such an issue, but at the moment we do not have such a system in place. Therefore, we really need to get input from our truck drivers with respect to the HOS regulation updates. Once done, I feel that we can make a win-win situation that will benefit us all and meet the intentions of those proposing the changes in the HOS regulations.

Jesus visits the Dentist

Yesterday, Jesus visited the dentist to have a couple of teeth pulled and to have an abscess pocket cleaned out.  It was noted that Jesus doesn't react well to anesthesia as he fights the sedative effects and becomes violent.  Not surprised at this as he fights going to sleep at night too and we have to give him Melatonin to just relax enough to get to sleep.  I am getting cranky due to the lack of sleep.  Oh well, this should pass, at least I hope so.  The dental visit, on the whole, went ok, but Jesus had to be held tight until he calmed down enough for the medication to take effect and so that the dentist could do his job.  There are times that I wonder if that kid simply likes to be in pain, as he doesn't like to do things that can make the pain go away.  Hopefully we can instill in him the desire to take care of things while they are small before they turn into major issues, otherwise he is not going to have a happy adulthood.  Being in pain all the time is not fun and it can alienate everyone around you and it will be 100% your own fault for this.

Oh well, we still need to keep Jesus on the antibiotics until the abscess completes its healing.  It will be interesting to see what will happen later today. Right now, Jesus is back up again, so as it is time for more ibuprofen, we gave that to him and I sent him back to bed. It isn't working at the moment, so I may have to let him up and then put him to work doing chores. Maybe doing something he doesn't like will get it through his head that night time is for sleeping and not for trying to keep everyone else awake.