So Much for Good Resolutions

It's midnight and here I am.

The good news. We're almost ready for school. I finished up the sorting of clothing today, at least until cold weather sets in (usually mid-October here). All we have left is making sure their clothes are laid out tomorrow (without too many mind changes in between) and their backpacks are ready.

We have a new visitor. Welcome to Josie from Vancouver BC.

One of my commenters had a couple of questions; reminding me once again that even though we all speak English, we don't always share a frame of reference.

She asked first about Rice-a-roni (a food peculiar to America). The commercials call it the "San Francisco treat" but it has nothing to do with SF. It's a packaged food, rice and small pieces of vermicelli (thin spaghetti) with a seasoning packet. Brown the rice/vermicelli mixture and add water and seasoning. Cook until rice is done. I sometimes make it into a complete one dish meal with veggies and chicken and sometimes turn it into Spanish rice. There must be at least 20 different varieties by now. It's been around a while. I admit it, I cheat occasionally.

She asked about "flaming". It's usually a one time attack on a blogger, also called "hit and run". Always anonymous and nasty and written by some idiot with nothing better to do than to surf the blogs and cause pain.

I think of "trolls" as something else although they're usually discussed together. They do come back over and over and they're more apt to criticize your writing, your blog style, your parenting, your subject matter. Anything that will feed their appetite. They might or might not be known to us under their actual names (which they generally don't use). They're angry and they're attention junkies.

I'm not talking about a discussion and opposing viewpoints. That's entirely different. Of course we're not all going to march in lockstep. It would make for a boring world. You should see the comments when someone mentions Spam (the meat, not the garbage that poses as email).

The best way to lose a troll is to starve it. Don't respond to the comment or the email. We can't win and they'll keep coming back for more. Negative attention is better than no attention. Whether you delete the comments is up to the individual blogger.

Here's the Wikipedia link

Enough of that. I hope none of you have to deal with either one.

The bad news. Golly, there isn't any. No complaints, no whines about the weather, I'm not even going to be upset because the Giants have lost 14 of their last 17 games.

Did I ever mention how much the girls and I like ABBA? (I don't know how to do the backward "B"). Probably. PBS (Public Broadcasting - educational channel) ran a special tonight (pledge time again) of the 1979 Wembley (London) concert. Too much talk; not nearly enough music but we still enjoyed it. Surprising how that music has stayed around all these years. I seem to be raising three Dancing Queens, bouncing around the living room singing Take a Chance on Me and Super Trouper (which wasn't part of the concert but they have memorized) from our dvd and cd's.

My older son is home from El Centro (National Guard) for the weekend. It's his and Melissa's second anniversary. Baby Jonathan is thriving. I don't see as much of him as I'd like with Melissa working and me busy. It's hard to coordinate visits.

And now it's 1:00 a.m. I'm not sure about church tomorrow. I'll decide when we wake up.

Take care everyone.