Life Without Facebook – Day 24

After counting the days in my calendar, it appears that I’ve made it past the half-way mark in my Lenten journey. I am proud to say that I have not cheated and logged into my Facebook account. Sometimes it’s hard, and I get really bored and don’t know what to look at on the internet, but I’ve survived. I’m not reading as much news and “important things” as I still feel that I should, but I think cutting out Facebook has improved this part of my life a tiny bit. I don’t plan on giving it up forever (at least not yet), but I’m hoping that this withdrawal will curb my “need” to use it.

One downside of not using Facebook is not having the ability to reach lots of people at once. I’m participating in the AIDS Walk Kansas City for the fourth year in a row, and I’m hoping to raise $250 by doing so. Please visit my fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/emmaclaudius to make a donation. Any size contribution is greatly appreciated!

I’m thinking about trying to give up something else for 40 days when Lent is over. Soda? Fast food? Procrastinating? Unnecessary spending? If it takes 21 days to form a new habit, then doing something (or not doing something) for 40 should really make it concrete, right? Any thoughts on what I should get rid of for a while?

I finally uploaded the pictures from my vacation! You can check them out here. I’m still working on titling them (they just have number titles right now), but they can be looked at!

Blergh!

I am not a fan of forwards. Depending on who the e-mail comes from, I’ll scroll through it. But I almost never pass these messages on to others.

What’s the most annoying kind of forward that shows up in my inbox? The kind that are sent to me by people who supposedly know me but think I’ll want to read something in which the content is basically the complete opposite of my beliefs system. My mother (via my sister, via my brother-in-law) sent me one today about a statement the Prime Minister of Australia made discussing his support of activities to prevent terrorism, including spying in mosques. I am all for thwarting terrorism, but isn’t this racial/ethnic profiling? Shouldn’t they be keeping tabs on activities in all holy sites in the nation, if they must do it at all?

Anyway, while what the PM said bothers me, I’m more upset that my mother would send it to me. I’m even more bothered by the fact that apparently she, my sister, and brother-in-law all think this okay. Once people are legally living in a country, they are protected by that nation’s laws and citizen rights, regardless of their religion or primary language. They should not be spied on by their government (just like we shouldn’t have our phones tapped or our library records unsealed).

Check out the links below, if you’re interested in this sort of thing.

Ramblings

I’ve been back in good ol’ Kansas City for nearly a week now, and it’s good to be home. Being back at work isn’t so great (my desk is a war zone), but home is nice. Life was a little stressful when I returned, thanks to school. I had a paper due the night I returned and another due the following night (both were completed in a relatively timely fashion, but were lacking a bit in quality). Now that those papers are done, school is pretty quiet, at least for the week. No discussion board posts, no assignments due, and my 8-week class is in its final week. Hooray!

Florida was great. I got to visit the sites I wanted to see, as well as my family. And just being away from whining dogs and demanding work things was wonderful. I took some good photos and some mediocre photos, which are off my camera but not yet on the internet. I’ll try to post a few here, but I’ll upload them all to a photo-sharing website (which I’ll link to). It wasn’t crazy warm when I was there, but it was definitely nice. Lucky me, I left the day before KC was hit with 6 inches of snow. Actually, I was cruising around on a boat the day of the blizzard. Lovely!

Last night, a little boy Tabby cat found his way to our house and has taken a liking to us. We went by the vet this morning to get him scanned, but there was no microchip to be found. We put him in our basement last night because it was rather cold outside, and, boy, did he meow! And Brooke was going bonkers! If we end up keeping this little guy, I think we’re going to have quite the adjustment period on our hands. We’re still going to try to find an owner, so when I take his picture for the fliers, I’ll put one up. He’s adorable!

I need to do something… deep clean my house, organize ALL of our closets, bake some cookies and a pie for Pi day, clean the basement, organize the kitchen, walk the dogs (away from the stray kitty), watch the 5 movies I have checked out from the library, get rid of junk, UNPACK!