It's Simple: Keep Your Private Stuff off the Web!

NEWS FLASH:

The Internet is NOT, in any way, PRIVATE!

***No matter what you say

Okay, so your bank has figured out a way to “lock it down” and so have credit cards, but that’s just because they want YOUR money. Facebook wants someone else’s money, so you are useless to them, a number, a demographic.

The latest and greatest is the “All Rights Reserved” people are putting on their photos. While this does cover you in a lawsuit (kinda), do you really have the money to hire a lawyer and sue someone for using your image? It’s a protection for after the fact, after all your friends have linked, commented and shared your most embarrassing moment. What good does that to you? The way to really protect your image is a watermark across the photo so that people can’t use it. Of course, people will still probably share it…if it is funny enough. What’s the next step, protecting pictures of your cat? If you don’t want to risk it showing up somewhere else, don’t put it on the web...period. If you don’t want someone else to post it, don’t get your photo taken doing something stupid. Or, develop a sense of humor…learning to laugh at yourself might be the only way to survive in this data fishbowl we have created and participate in everyday

Every few days there is some huge paragraph that someone has come up with claiming your “rights” on the public forum of Facebook. It either gives some protracted list of things you need to do in order to ensure “others” can’t see your photos or it states your explicit instructions to keep all your information private. Here’s the thing, if you want your information private, don’t use Facebook. If you don’t want to be tagged in photos, then unfriend people who do that to you. All the multi-paragraph statements do is annoy your friends for the space they take up on the newsfeed (love Twitter for the 140 character limit at that moment!). Admit it…you’ve stolen other images before that you found were funny, it’s just for fun: ease up!

Your concerns should not be based around what your friends are doing but rather how your data is being sold to advertisers. Funny how those ads around the side suddenly changed the other day when I ordered a pair of dirt bike riding pants. Guess what? Every time I log in now there are other dirt bike ads all over the page for gear and otherwise. I wasn’t logged into Facebook at the time, but I accept that somehow the crawlers on the web know what I buy and what I use.

Is it “Minority Report,” big brother is watching like creepy, hell yes; but I accept it as a modern age form of finding the right audience. Truth is, I would rather see ads I am interested in then the endless barrage of ED medication to buy online. I love it when they try to sell me things for a piece of anatomy I don’t even possess! Let’s all agree to accept that social networking is a public place, if you wouldn’t want it on the wall at Starbucks, maybe don’t put it on Facebook.

Germ Ridden Children, Why is Logic Considered Evil?

This happened to a friend recently and it just reminded me of all the crazy things we do for kids and the judgment parents and grandparents pass if you choose to be logical rather than emotional about the children in their life. I preface this by saying I love kids and I love playing with kids. The person this happened to does not. I even love babies and I have a special place in my heart for a number of my friend’s progeny around the globe. This person does not. That being said, I will defend his position of logic and I question the unfair shunning he received for simply hating germs, the flu, colds, other diseases and the basic grossness of the situation.

You see this child was running around giving high-fives to everyone in the room. She is an adorable little girl with an infectious laugh and a slightly runny nose. The hand touching was not bothering this friend until the moment right before the small person gave him a high-five. She stopped, picked her nose and then reached out. Suddenly, he removed his hand and said, “I’m all good.” Collective gasps around the room. Seriously!? If I blew my nose and tried to hand you the tissue, would you take it?

Every parent I know is worn out, never gets enough sleep and is susceptible to every type of bug imaginable because they have a little Petri dish at home that just keeps growing new germs. Now it is nearly impossible not to catch what your kid has, but there are simple things you can do to try to avoid it. Besides, if you catch said cold, flu, illness you will be even more tired and sleep deprived and it is not good for anyone. If you can’t avoid it, why would you want the rest of the world to suffer?

Snot is gross. Throw up is gross. Boogers are gross. Diapers are gross. These are facts, not opinions. When they come out of small little humans they are slightly less gross but still gross. Why am I Satan for not wanting to touch any of the above mentioned things? Our mind responds to these things as “gross” because intellectually we know they carry bacteria and disease. I have no problem with a mom who stuffs dirty tissues in her pockets because there is no place else to put them and I applaud her for not littering. I would advise stock in Purell, but that is not always possible.

Unfortunately it is your responsibility, you wanted/had kids so that’s a lifelong commitment of putting up with all the crap that comes with the joy of raising a little person. I prefer the “borrow” plan but most people want their own. I understand I am in the minority. Now it is my responsibility to put all my sharp, pointy, breakable objects out of the way when I have your kid over. I don’t want to be sick if I can avoid it, so don’t give me your dirty tissue kid and think I am going to be happy about it and don’t judge me for not wanting to touch it. I, in turn, will not be upset if the child breaks something in my house because it was my fault for leaving it out.

The kids don’t know not to touch gross things, but you do. They learn by example. I don’t want to be sick, I don’t touch other people’s dirty kids. That does NOT make me a bad person. No one judges me for sleeping on the couch when my husband has the flu and subsequently washing everything before I even consider sleeping in the bed again. I love him, but I can love him just as much from the other room and he loves me more (I am certain of it) when I am not grouchy and sick. It’s really a win-win.

                       ***supposedly there is a filter on this, but I think it is pretty nasty.

Now, obviously, little kids can’t take care of themselves so parents have to make sacrifices. I get it. I have taken care of children when they were sick, you suck it up and do what you must. My sister had walking pneumonia one time when I was “babysitting” her and we stayed in bed all curled up watching movies for days on end. I didn’t drink out of her cup, I didn’t share food with her and I washed my hands until they were raw. Guess what, I didn’t get sick. She needed the comfort and on in that instance luck was a tad bit on my side. But when I have a choice I am going to avoid contact with germs and if it was anyone other than a kid I was directly responsible for, I would not have been in that bed.

My friend, Carrie, is probably cracking up right about now as she was the former germaphobe who has two children now and has to be more lenient. (Of course Carrie wouldn’t judge me for not handling a sick kid, because if she had a choice she wouldn’t either.) I was the former “nothing can get me sick” person. Well, I am a learning system who has decided the few days of feeling like ass aren’t worth pretending I don’t know better. I wear shoes when it is cold outside, I wash my hands, I take zinc and vitamin C all winter and I avoid children when they are sick. All it took was a few too many vacations partially ruined by illness and I decided to grow up.

Don’t judge me for believing in the overwhelming evidence supporting germ theory and taking the necessary precautions. And I won’t judge you for all the slightly icky things you have to do in the name of love for your child, such as sucking on pacifiers that have hit the ground, carrying around dirty diapers, wiping noses, etc. And please know if your child has boogers on their hand, I’m not going to touch that hand until I have doused it with soap or Purell, get over it and keep your loud sighs to yourself!

Leap Day Resolutions

I am not the kind of person who can handle New Year's Resolutions. There are many reasons I avoid them. One, failure. Typically I am traveling around that time of year so any attempt at making some sort of statement of what I am going to do with my life becomes an instant failure as I will never get it done while I am on VACATION! Two, everyone does them and I don't want to be cliche. Have you ever gone to the gym New Year's week or the entire month of January. There are people there you have never seen before and won't see again after February 1st. Three, I think you can choose to change your habits any old day you want. You can start a "clean slate" every morning if you like, so why glob it all up on just one particular day that one particular calendar says is "new."

Of course, all of this got me thinking. With all the changes in my life there are a few things I would like to make a pact to do differently, not least of which is to start keeping up with my blog again. Here I was staring at this day that only happens once every four years. Now there's a day that is special, truly unique and a great time to lay on the line a few of the things I would like to do differently this year. What better way than to start with my long abandoned blog. (In my defense, Carrie Currie pointed out to me that I had a pretty good excuse as to falling behind on things given that since July I have not been in my "home" for more than 10 days in a stretch.) But enough! Enough with the procrastination and excuse making. It is time to seize the day and stick to a plan. I don't have kids, so I don't have an excuse.

Resolutions:
1. Read a new book every week. This comes from the simple fact that I write better when I am reading. In addition, it actually inspires me to get other things done and now that I have my handy dandy iPad I really have no excuse not to. I did start this resolution early with the Hunger Games series and then a horrible little book that somehow drew me in at the end. I still can't decide whether I liked it or not, but you can read it for yourself if you want to suffer too. "Bumped" is the title.

2. Stick with my blog. This means at least a once a week post about something. There is enough that happens, I must have something to say, right!?

3. Finish my projects. Now this is a long list and I think I need to tackle it monthly. One project a month until they are done. Many of you are going to laugh, but my March project is going to be to finish the wedding album I have started, separated and worked on a million times yet still have not finished and/or ordered. Lisa was married a month after me and with her OCD surely had hers done within a week after the honeymoon and she managed to make a person already. So...no more excuses there. Happy due date Lisa!

4. Get back into my Yoga kick. Not that any of you care about this, but I promise you, the size of my butt does! I have chosen a profession that keeps me planted firmly on my ass far too much which means I need to make an effort to get up and move. I realized this year how much I miss working at Sea World and running around all day. Man, that was fun.

5. Travel more...not just to see family but forcing my husband out of his comfort zone and going places. The truth is, he does like to travel, it is just the nagging work thing that keeps him stressed. Well we are going to be perma-travelers now for work, so I intend to extend that experience.

I think 5 things is enough. I reserve the right to revise and rework my list as necessary. Okay...let's see how this goes. The image is only to showcase that today was apparently the beginning of winter for Mammoth, so if snow can choose a new beginning so can I! :)

A Month of Change

We are pretty settled into life, even if most of our stuff has yet to be moved. Trying to keep up three locations is ridiculously difficult. I am scheduling meetings in the city while applying for jobs in both Mammoth and Carson City and attempting to spend time with the hubby. We are very lucky to have the support of friends and family as we navigate the constant change we are experiencing.

We had a wonderful anniversary weekend in Tahoe where we pretty much did nothing. I never thought doing nothing could be so good, but after all the upheaval it was very much worth it. Of course, it was strange to walk downstairs in the hotel and find out the convention in town was the California Coroner's Association. But we made it through our first year. Jobs, lost jobs, 2 moves and hopefully on the path to a little bit of settling...but life always throws a curveball or two, right?

Then it was back down to the city for back to back meetings and packing. I was able to attend a going away Thanksgiving for Brett, Stace and Kyla. They are off to Morocco and I can't wait to visit. It was great getting to hang out and drink some wine. Then, last meeting on the way out of town was at Sony. Imagine driving your truck, filled with boxes onto the lot. Furniture, boxes and junk were spilling over the edge. The gate guard thought I was dropping stuff off for production when I had to explain it was merely my stuff. He definitely looked at me with a puzzled expression, wondering if I was homeless I am sure.

Met the hubby in Mammoth for some wooding. I said that to my Dad and he thought it was a cute term for hiking. No, this means pulling out chainsaws, going into the woods and cutting apart wood for winter heat. Then I think my Dad just thought I was crazy. John and Cheree came to help us with the second day of wooding. We averted dropping the truck down a large embankment due to John's calm demeanor, got the truck and trailer out of the sand with lots of back and forth rocking and at the end of the day headed into town for yummy Mexican food.

I was suddenly reminded of what it is like to live in a small town as we ran into two old friends back to back. It was nice to see friendly faces again. Needless to say...got all the work done and now it is back to work! Hopefully things will calm down over the next few weeks and one of the jobs I want will pan out. Sorry I don't have anything particularly funny to talk about, but I am sure I will find something in the very near future.....

Untangling the Truck

A bottle jack. Who knew there were these ultra small jacks that work with hydraulics, don't cost a lot and can lift 8,000 pounds. Ish knew. My first experience in our new home of Carson City was going to be at Home Depot. As much as I love Home Depot, and I do LOVE Home Depot, I have become accustomed to the Los Angeles attitude of help. Here I was going to be walking into the massive store with no idea where such a device would be and in LA no one will help you.

You walk into a Home Depot in the Southern California area and employees actually run and avoid eye-contact. They do everything they can to look as busy as possible to keep from having to tell you where anything is. Now in their defense, the typical person in a Home Depot in SoCal probably knows NOTHING about home repair and couldn't find even the most simple things. Couple that with an entitled attitude and I wouldn't be keen on helping either. But when you are in a hurry or can't find the needle in the haystack bolt you are looking for, a little advice is handy.

I brace myself as I walk through the door already on the lookout for someone so I can beeline it to the person before they can play "duck and dodge." Thoughts of Christopher alone with the RV just "trying" a few things leaves me with images of the entire thing knocked off its wheels, lying on the ground or the back half of John's truck laying on the ground. How do you explain that one!?

Suddenly, I am the one under sneak attack. Out of no where comes and employee who asks, "Can I help you find anything today." I stand in stunned, confused silence. This has NEVER happened before. I, of course, stutter out some version of a response along the lines of, "I am looking for a jack, but one of those bottley ones that can lift a lot of weight. It's hydraulic I think but I don't really understand how it's in a bottle and how it doesn't cost a fortune but my Grandfather said...." and I realize the guy is already leading me in the direction. I fully expect to be abandoned in the "general area" to fend for myself. Nope. He stays, searches through the area, finds the bottle jacks, goes over the options and tells me what he thinks will work best. Holy cow! This is the fastest I have ever gotten out of a Home Depot and with the right thing.

Back at the new digs, we know we are supposed to use a board to equalize the pressure on the frame. Done. What we didn't know, was this crazy powerful jack could shoot right through the board making a terrifying noise as the small, circle jack top hits the metal frame. Normally, not that scary. But you've seen what we have been dealing with on this trailer. I am fraught with thoughts of the dynomo splitting through the metal and the entire trailer falling over. This is not a logical fear but one none-the-less.

We prop the RV up and up and up and UP some more. Now even Chris is getting nervous. The freakin ball will not release from the truck. We almost have the jack fully extended and even though I have been running around like a hamster on a wheel cranking up the four corner jacks, as the RV becomes taller and taller my fear of it listing to one side grows exponentially. With a large "THUNK" the truck is finally free of the trailer and we begin the process of leveling the entire RV. Well, almost.

Chris has driven the truck all the way from SoCal up to here. I remember my uncle's instructions very well, you don't have to use first and DON'T push on the gas. It is a fuel injected system and will go on its own. What I forgot in all of that is the fact the truck is on a minor slant and having the clutch pushed in is the same as having it in neutral. I start to pull the truck out and instead of going forward the truck lurches backwards. Mind you the tow hitch is right near the precariously propped up bottle jack and the front of the trailer. Chris screams, I scream and slam on the gas proceeding to skip-chug down the road until I am a safe distance from the RV. Then I slam on the brakes and take the moment to gather my senses. From there on out I got along fine with the truck, but in that moment we were not friends. I think our "Home Alone" screaming moment introduced us to our new neighbors.

The Trekking RV Adventure

New house meets apartment.

Because nothing can be simple in this world, you have to expect there will be a few hurdles when trying to accomplish a major task such as relocating an RV from Garden Grove to Carson City. Especially one that had not been used in five years. After getting past a majority of the RV integrity and repair issues and completing Hacker work camp it was time to move the RV. I must clarify that while I am behind in my blogging, this all happened immediately following Hacker work camp because Chris needed to start work on the 8th. We began our trek on Friday the 5th after having schlepped up to Carson City to complete all the license and HR requirements.

We arrived at my uncle's house with no problems. Up to the top of the mountain, we exchanged trucks and got the low down on his six-speed diesel. The week before I had determined Bunny, my Honda Ridgeline, had earned her "big, big truck" badge for hauling motorcycles back up to Mammoth and then towing 7,000 pounds of rock to the yard. She may have a badge, but John's truck is truly a BIG BIG TRUCK. I listened diligently to all the rules such as "don't give it gas," it has an accelerator system, probably start in second gear, the gas gauge doesn't work, so don't take it lower than 1/2-ish, use the engine brake when going down hill, etc, etc. I was intimidated but we could do this!

Our only snafu was with Bunny as we did attempt to remove the ball from our tow hitch which did not go so well, but while John obsessed I got to hang with the girls so all was good. Home we go, making the day an 8ish hour adventure. We were about 30 minutes from home when some guy comes screaming up the side of the truck. Now in LA traffic this just means he is going 15 MPH as we are practically sitting still. He announces that our "fuel pump is hanging." Chris diligently pulls over and I run around the back of the truck. See, John keeps two huge built in gas pumps in his truck, one for regular, one for diesel. I assume the pump for one of those were hanging but neither was. Oh, well. Crazy guy, back in the truck.

About 4 minutes from home Chris hears and feels a big "clunk." Not good, but things are in the road all the time in LA, the truck is still running we must be good. As we unload Chris is about to take off to run a few errands so we can leave first thing in the AM. Best laid plans and all that, his car battery is dead. In all fairness it has been sitting for a week and has a faulty interior light that likes to turn itself on. Either that or the ghost of his grandmother watching over us, either way, the battery was dead, dead, dead. The auto car lock clicker won't even work. As I wait for the elevator to take our bags to our apartment he is going to pull the truck over to jump start the car. He arrives back at the elevator with wide-eyed look of "oh, crap!" Come to find out the "fuel pump" the man had been speaking of was actual the fuel pump for the truck that was now hanging down off the bottom of the truck. Not good.

A quick call to my uncle and all we need is a bolt, a locking nut and some baling wire. No problem, IF we had a running car. As we wait for AAA for the jump-start, we inspect the underside of the truck. Chris remains befuddled as there are two holes but they don't line up. I share with him, John knew all too quickly exactly what I was referring to, so he has probably done something funky and we should just do what he says. We determine we will pack tonight and get everything together in the morning as fast as possible. Adventure number one.

After seeking out all the appropriate materials, we get the truck up and running and head over to Samoff's house to pick up the trailer. Because of a small rainstorm, he became worried about our seals and worked on sealing all of our work again, meaning the other repairs were slightly behind schedule. Needless to say, he stayed up all night getting our lights hooked up so the trailer would be ready to roll. The paneling on the inside would be a project for Carson, that's cool. Hooking up the trailer went fairly well, with the exception of shooting the ramp out the side and almost taking out a very small magnolia tree. We pulled towards Disneyland and hit the road back to our apartment to load the RV. Driving the RV in the skinny streets of Long Beach and backing it up to our front door, adventure number two. Our soon to be ex-neighbors did not know what to think of the RV parked in front of our fancy building, but I think it is prettier than a moving truck. Finally loaded, we were off to Mammoth, only six or so hours late, but whatever.

One the road.....

An uneventful trip up ended at the house in Mammoth where we decided we needed an extra night. It is Saturday, so we have to get the RV up to Carson on Sunday, Chris starts work 7am Monday. We reluctantly get up the next morning, feverishly load the trailer, get the mattress in (adventure number three) and I get the moniker "clock-watcher" as I keep pushing Chris to stop being a perfectionist, we need to get on the road. After a brief stop at Mono Cone we keep pulling all the way to Carson. A lesson I didn't want to learn was that all those people who tell you fuel efficiency is much better at 55 MPH, they are right. We made it all the way from Long Beach to Carson City in the Honda Accord on one tank of gas. 500 miles. I hate that driving slower saves fuel!

Mammoth house meets Carson home.

Home free. We made it 15 minutes before the front desk closed at our RV "Resort" (thank you clock-watcher), got our spot, pulled in without incident and set about to free the truck from the RV. Adventure 4: Not so fast....The jack that pumps the trailer up and removes it from the ball, broken. It worked fine hooking it up. Somewhere in the interim the pin fell out and there was no way to make the crank spin. Until it hit resistance, I could push it with my finger or a stick, but that wasn't going to work for a 4000 pound trailer. A phone call to Ish was in order.....

TO BE CONTINUED......

From RV Repair to Hacker Work Camp

Normally have a week's worth of information to share on my blog would not be that big of a deal. But this particular ten day period happens to be ripe with more fodder than usual. For all the doubters out there, we were able to finish the RV, sort of. You will have to follow subsequent posts to hear how everything turned out, but I am posting a few pictures to showcase the end of the week. We complete the framework and fully sealed the back of the RV on Friday, July 29th. Not as far as we wanted to get and a much longer day. We were 3 days late leaving for Mammoth and did not finally make it there until 3am Saturday morning. But we left knowing a major portion of the RV was done and Samoff was going to finish the rest.  We now had two days to complete the forest service fire requirements for our mountain home.

When Chris and I first started dating we took a road trip to Oregon. On our way we were stopping off at his Mammoth house to do a "few" repair things and then we would continue on our leisurely road trip. It was a good thing the promise of the trip existed and that I had known Chris for quite awhile, otherwise this fix-up work might have been enough to scare me off for good. We repainted the outside of two sides of his house, rebuilt the framing around windows, sanded, dug, planted and generally did some massive physical labor for all the daylight hours three days in a row. Not all bad, but Chris does not like to stop for lunch or dinner, so I was a bit surly by the end of each day. Of course we made amazing progress and were both happy with the finished product. I dubbed the few days as "Hacker Work Camp" which was apparently my "dues" for getting to go on vacation. The rest of the vaca went extremely well with a Shakespeare Festival, White Water Rafting, Water skiing and jet boat riding so I decided Hacker work camp was worth it.

It has been a yearly summer event with the exception of last year as we were preparing for the wedding. We dove back into Hacker work camp immediately post RV repair only this time with a mandate from the forest service. Due to the Station Fire, there are a number of new rules regarding clearance around the house, branches, wood piles, etc. Needless to say, Chris on a ladder with a chainsaw is not my favorite sight. Of course having the branches of super tall trees thrown directly at my head is not exactly awe-inspiring either. Ben asked if I was a lumberjack camp when he heard the din of the chainsaw in the background and I am pretty sure Chris almost fell 15 feet off the top of the ladder at one point, though he says he was in control. Of course the chainsaw was still spinning, so while I was diligently holding the ladder steady I was also thinking of where I could duck for cover should the whirring chainsaw come flying down at my head. We definitely did not need a live action replay of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," as I like my head in one piece. We raked and piled, cut and dragged, pulled and pushed, loaded and unloaded until the yard was well above code. We had a pile of branches taller than me by the end, filled three dumpsters, taken two other trips to the dump with bags of yard waste and a beautiful yard to show for it. For those keeping track, this was 4 12-hour days of RV repair, followed by a 5.5 hour drive hauling motorcycles, and 3 12-hour days of yard work and stone piling. (I got Saturday off for good behavior and for being the one willing to drive the whole way until the 3am arrival.)

Chris is obsessive. He gets an idea in his head and it is pretty much impossible to get it out. I normally wouldn't be worried but we were heading up to Carson for his pre-employment physical on the 4th, so he did need to be able to move. Can you imagine him going in for his physical, moving like an 80-year old man and beat up to boot? He was already worried about his fingerprint cards for his license as he had gouged a pretty significant chunk out of one of his thumbs. Not as dramatic as removing your fingerprints with acid or anything but still suspect. Luckily I did convince him we could split the wood he had gathered in the forest  and from the trees we downed later as we were about to enter our RV pulling marathon. But if it hadn't been for that, I think Hacker work camp would have continued for at least four more days and ended with at least one hospital visit. I left camp with a tan/burn, stronger, definitely filthy and sap covered. I am pretty sure I finally found the last bit of sap in my hair with this last wash, mind you camp officially ended on August 3rd and it is the 9th. It should only take a month or so for my nails to grow back, at least they are finally white again.