• March 15, 2013 •

Good evening. Yes, it's the evening edition this time. Yesterday I cleaned the house which consisted of finishing the laundry from the day before, cataloging & putting away another item from my inbox, filling an unused dresser drawer, dusting the dining room wall decor, cleaning the small appliances, changing the afghan on the my living room chair, mopping the living room, & then I decided to rearrange my office again. I had my desk between the bookshelves & that was driving me nuts. I finally put all the bookshelves together. The single bookshelf is white & doesn't match the quad-section set I have in the corner, but at least they're all grouped together now. Much better! I could have put my desk on the same wall it was originally on, but in the corner now (since the white bookshelf is now where my desk used to be), but then my printer would have been in front of the white bookshelf or desk drawers. That doesn't work. I rotated my desk so it's now on the same wall the door is on. No one can walk in my office (or down the hall) without me seeing them now. My PC is now on the floor next to my desk instead of on top. So ... the wall that parallels the hallway is now UPS, PC, printer, & desk. I had to put my speakers on the desk now, but there was space since the PC is now on the floor. It all looks very nice. :) I fed the pets, swept the closet & was completely exhausted. Then I felt it. The beginning of a cold. At 1st it was nothing more than a weird feeling that's hard to describe. My throat hurt a little, but it wasn't really a sore throat yet. I felt stuffy, but not congested yet. I knew the feeling & hoped it wouldn't take. I knew I overdid it that past couple of days in a row, & now a cold? Great. I went to work on eBay & then started to check facebook, but Pete came home & was in a great mood. He wanted to go out to dinner, so we headed out. In just the short time since I finished the housework & Pete getting home, about 2 hours, the cold hit me full-force. I was stuffy, congested, headache, fever, sore ... I think even my hair hurt. I told him he would have to drive because I just didn't feel up to it. About a block later I was asleep. I woke up at Texas Roadhouse, one of my favorite restaurants ... THANK YOU PETE! I was hoping I was well enough to enjoy the meal & I was. It tasted great! We went grocery shopping at Albertson's, came home & put the groceries away, & then the nighttime routine. I was SO tired ... by the time we went to bed I had a splitting headache & couldn't stop blowing my nose. I took NyQuil & hoped for the best. I asked Pete to tell Kyle to let me sleep in. So what does Pete do? He wakes me up this morning. Ugh! I felt better than I did last night, which is good because worse would have been a hospital trip & same would have meant I stayed in bed. I got up but was pretty much worthless as far as being productive. I managed the strength to take the dogs out & then got on my PC & programmed code & played Sims all day. That was all I had the energy for. It's 7:p now & I finally felt like I had the energy & a clear enough mind to blog. My poor Sim-self didn't do well either. My experiment failed & I deleted the whole thing & started over. This time I was smart enough to save the household as it is instead of having to pull Pete's Sim & mine, put them in the house, then go get Xoco's Sim & human, add them to the house, kick out the human, then get the rest of the pets' Sims & their human & kick THAT human out of the house ... just to have our current household. Saved & if there are any more problems or if I want to play this family in other houses, I can now (which I probably will) ... easily. The problem with the 1st game was that although real live & Sim life are very closely paralleled, there's still just enough of a time difference (a Sim day is a little shorter than a real-life day), that nothing was really working right. The 2nd game went a little better as I tweaked a "Sim Schedule" that is close to mine in real life, but allows for the shorter Sim days. When I was finally done tweaking the Sim Schedule I deleted that game & started over a 3rd time. THAT game is now in the beginning of its 6th day & going well. I only have 1 item that I don't have time for & at the end of the 1 week mark I'm going to make another change to make sure it gets in there. It can't be a daily thing, but maybe I can squeeze it in 1 day a week at the very least.  My Sim-self has a cold to. HA! No, I didn't give her one, she caught it while she was fishing. Yesterday my Sim-self woke up & chatted w/ someone on the PC, cleaned the house, cooked goopy cabonara (yes, dinner for breakfast ... her schedule is as screwed up as mine), went fishing, went back home & invented the smasher & achieved level 1 of the inventing skill, painted, spent time with the pets, sculpted, started a Sci-Fi novel, cooked pancakes for dinner, showered, & went to bed. When she got up this morning she checked the paper for weekly events & plans on attending the Great Cat Roundup on Saturday sometime between 9:a - 8:p @ the Cat Park. My Sim-self has reached level 3 of the cooking skill already & Level 1 of the inventing, painting, & sculpting skills ... all 3 of which produce items that can be sold at the consignment store for cash income. Back in real life, the LCFD Easter Egg Hunt is tomorrow from 2:p - 4:p.

Ask an intern, "What's your name again?" every day for his or her entire tenure.

Charles Darrow, the inventor of the board game Monopoly, based the playing pieces off his wife's charm bracelets.

Did you hear what the Navy admitted spending? The Navy admitted spending $660 on ashtrays. ... Do you remember when they spent $800 on a toilet seat? And now $600 on an ashtray? I guess they give a lot of importance to where you place your butts. -Johnny Carson 1985

Divide kitchen drawer items into 3 groups & store them separately. Flatware & serving pieces go in 1 drawer (those in heavy rotation should be front & center); often used gadgets in another; & things you seldom touch in a 3rd.

Gorbachev calls for radical agricultural reform (1989):

In a dramatic indication of just how far he wants his reforms to go, General Secretary of the Communist Party Mikhail Gorbachev calls for an end to the Soviet agricultural bureaucracy and the introduction of free market principles. Gorbachev's speech was an indication that his economic program in the Soviet Union was suffering serious troubles--problems that eventually led to the collapse of his government and the Soviet Union in December 1991.

By 1989, the Soviet economy was reeling, and one of the biggest problem areas was agriculture. The Soviet centralized farming system, in which farmers worked to fulfill quotas set by the government and sell their produce directly to the state, was a disaster. Despite billions of dollars in government subsidies, the majority of the nation's farms operated at a loss. Each year, the Soviet Union was forced to import tons of wheat, meat, and other products. Gorbachev reacted to this embarrassing Soviet dependence on foreign markets for essential foodstuffs with his March 15, 1989 proposal to decentralize the farming system and allow more free market policies to dictate the agricultural industry in Russia. In his request to the Soviet Central Committee, Gorbachev stated, "The essence of economic change in the countryside should be in granting farmers broad opportunities for displaying independence, enterprise, and initiative." Under his plan, many farmers would be able to sell their produce directly to farmer's markets or restaurants, for example.

The Central Committee issued its approval of the plan the following day. However, Gorbachev's proposal was too little, too late. The Soviet economy continued to falter and agricultural production never met demand. The economic problems contributed to the failure of Gorbachev's government and other reform plans, and in December 1991, Gorbachev formally resigned as president of the Soviet Union. Shortly thereafter the Soviet Union was dissolved.

Most stylish cities top 10:

1. Madrid, Spain
2. Amsterdam, Netherlands
3. Berlin, Germany
4. Melbourne, Australia
5. Barcelona, Spain
6. Rome, Italy
7. New York City, USA
8. Sydney, Australia
9. Paris, France
10. London, England

RedBall 3 HD:

You are Red. You are a ball. This is Redball 3 HD! Your girlfriend has been captured by your old nemesis and it’s up to you to get her back! Bounce, float, fly and roll your way around the many challenging and unique levels, collect stars and make it to the flag at the end!
IMPORTANT: This app is universal. Red Ball HD has Retina Display enabled and will also work on iPhone 4!
Red Ball 3 HD Highlights
• 20 challenging and varied levels
• Physics based platforming action
• Features hidden tunnels, vehicles and lots of different e environments
• Find your way to the flag and collect the gold stars!
• Unlock secret gifts!
• Retina Display graphics!
• Playable on iPhone/iPod touch and iPad!

Seafood Watch:

Seafood Watch recommendations help you choose ocean-friendly seafood at your favorite restaurants and stores. Our app brings you the most current recommendations for seafood and sushi along with complete information about how each item should be fished or farmed. Our new Project FishMap feature lets you contribute to the app, adding the names of restaurants and stores in the U.S. where you’ve found sustainable seafood and locating what other users have found at businesses near you.
Features
• Provides free, up-to-date recommendations at your fingertips with detailed seafood information
• Uses your phone’s GPS to load the right regional guide for your location
• Enables you to search for seafood quickly and easily by common market name
• Allows you to sort seafood by "Best Choice," "Good Alternative" or "Avoid" rankings
• Sushi guide lists fish by Japanese name as well as common market name
• Provides alternatives to seafood on the “Avoid” list
• New Project FishMap feature lets you contribute to the app by adding the names of restaurants and stores where you've found ocean-friendly seafood and locate businesses where others have found sustainable seafood
• Highlights our list of “Super Green” seafood that’s good for you and the oceans

Some people don't have much use for style, like former ice hockey superstar Bobby Orr once said, "Forget about style; worry about results!"

Who needs substance when you can have style!

Win-Win agreements focus on results, releasing tremendous individual human potential & creating greater synergy, building Production Capability in the process instead of focusing exclusively on Production.