whereisjodi.

Act now to reserve your seat on the Virgin Galactic spacecraft. Flights are scheduled to start in about a year for the bargain price of 100,000 pounds...which is something like $162 grand American <or $1350 a minute, if you'd like to do some comparison shopping>. My favorite portion of the article I read was the comment section where "David" from "Alpha Centauri" wrote:

When will the price come down? Will welfare clients be discriminated against because of the cost. If you want to keep inner city high schools from dropping out, would free flights for them help lower the drop put rate?

That comment reminded me of an article I saw earlier today, linked off of Drudge, where I was informed that high school students in Georgia are going to be paid $8/hr to study in an afterschool test program, determining whether students do better with monetary incentives. The comment section on this article was also humorous, but I won't bother quoting any of it.

Posted by authorjodi at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I spent an hour and a half on the phone with a nice gentleman from India who watched the sun come up while instructing me in the fine art of hard drive reformatting. Despite being slightly jealous that his call center desk had a view of the sunrise while the closest I ever got to that in cube world was a flourescent light exploding over my head <jk> ... we had a marvelously successful conversation.

Well, the sunrise and the fact that his compatriot yesterday assured me I had everything I needed to reformat, but as it turns out I now have to repurchase Windows Office if I want to ever read a word doc again. Ahem. How cool is technology that, at one point, I was able to allow Andrew from India control over my computer and watch while he rapidly maneuvered my mouse to install drivers, all the while still chatting on the cell phone. It really is a small, small world.

I've spent all evening reloading programs and content -- have to say I was actually a little sick to my stomach when I'd moved all my data from the last many years onto an external hard drive and then hit the self-destruct button. Who's to say the external drive won't flip out and fry itself <and take years of projects with it> in the space it takes to reformat the computer? Thank God, literally, that things seem to be ok and the instabilities are gone.

The only bummer so far <besides the office fiasco> is that I backed up the wrong browser favorites folder, so the 30 or so articles I'd saved to blog about went pooof. Oh well.

Posted by authorjodi at 09:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This morning I was running late so I went tearing out the door to Bible Study without a coat, nor my cell phone. The coat was a problem because it was 19 degrees and it took the whole 20 minute drive for the car to warm up sufficiently enough that my fingers didn't stick to the steering wheel in a scene not dissimilar to the tongue-to-the-flagpole incident in A Christmas Story.

The cell phone was a problem afterward, when I had the bright idea to call a friend for a late breakfast since she lives near the church. Once I realized I'd have to pull over at the gas station and plunk an unknown amount <it's higher everytime I look> into a payphone to call my dad to get her number <because of course I don't have it memorized -- it's in my PHONE!>, then spend another unknown amount calling her, all while standing coatless in the 19 degree weather...well, I just drove home instead. ;)

Meanwhile, I wait none too patiently for DHL to arrive with my reformatting disc from Dell. Yes, my dear four year old Lulu has finally decided to lose her mind. I'm going to try to rehab her by reformatting the hard drive, but the outcome remains uncertain. Not uncertain is how painful it will be to part with $3 grand, should the maneuver prove unsuccessful.

Posted by authorjodi at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The pithy worldnetdaily headline is worth a laugh by itself: "Bill Clinton: I have a dream, literally."

Poor President Clinton <former, not hopeful> has been campaigning too hard. He apparently fell asleep today during an MLK service. My favorite scene is around :41 where his head falls off his hand and he quickly nods like the speaker's made a great point. At the end he checks his watch, which is also snort-worthy. I understand he's been working hard and I'm all for giving a guy a break -- but you'd think sitting right behind the speaker when you know you're on camera would make you a little more circumspect.

Posted by authorjodi at 09:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

That's my new name for Simi Valley. I almost got blown off the road coming back to my lovely home. Three more nights in the hotel and I'll be on my way back to my real home. I'm hopeful that the snow hasn't passed me by -- I've got an invitation to try out snow-shoeing if enough snow piles up before spring showers.

Someone I find mostly entertaining and sometimes off-her-rocker-and-overboard is Ann Coulter. I see tonight that she's given her endorsement to Mitt Romney. I hope that carries at least as much weight as a snippet of news I saw last week when Will Smith endorsed Obama at a press conference for his new movie...

Read about a sweet contest I'd seriously consider entering if I had school-aged children. It's a video/essay contest called "The Sky's Not Falling" and it's designed to "highlight the absurdities, untruths and downright lies that children are being taught daily about 'climate change' in public school."

Reminds me of a silly story I saw on the news a couple months ago about the top "stressers" for young children. They put global warming as number one and showed some poor kid explaining what he'd learned in school -- something along the lines of "we're melting all the ice and killing all the animals." No wonder kids are stressed out! Click here for more details about the contest and to learn the meaning of Globaloney.

And finally, the ACLU is at it again. Now they're claiming folks who engage in sexual activity in a public restroom "have an expectation of privacy." Unreal.

Posted by authorjodi at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Technology is, at times, a beautiful thing. Yesterday morning I sat in Southern California watching a live stream of my nephew being dedicated at my brother's church in Las Vegas while texting my parents who were watching the same stream in Idaho. :)

Another marvel of technology...something a coworker showed me today that has me completely mystified. Click here for an interesting brain test -- and if you can figure out how they did it let me know! :p

Posted by authorjodi at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I felt a little out of the loop tonight when my father called to tell me the news channels are flush with questions about how Hillary pulled it off yesterday, despite all the polls. I didn't check into it right away because I was on my way to that paragon of American consumerism -- the home of Mr. Chuck E. Cheese -- where you can experience the privilege of dropping 5 bucks on tokens to walk away with 20 cents worth of plastic crepe. ;)

When I got back to the hotel I thought I'd flip on Fox News for a little bit and do some catching up. The first thing I saw was a story on a French-developed video game offering you the opportunity to try to shoot down planes flying at the World Trade Center. The second story was about a woman who posed as a 13-year-old boy and harassed a girl into committing suicide. I think that's all the broadcast news I can handle tonight. :(

Two stories that caught my eye in a quick online-news-browse:

• NBC reporter admits that "it's hard to stay objective" while covering Barack Obama. That's about as shocking as...nevermind...not much is less shocking than someone in the MSM finally admitting to bias.

• A woman I read about some time ago is back in the news. She's a British Airways employee singled out for wearing a cross to work who, consequently, filed a discrimination suit as the company had no problem with coworkers with other beliefs wearing symbols of their faith. She's lost the discrimination suit, but plans to return to work wearing the cross.

Posted by authorjodi at 09:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

QuickLink:

A German family has completed its flight to Great Britain after the mayor of their hometown filed a court action to give custody of the children to the state because the parents have been homeschooling...

Read more.

Posted by authorjodi at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I saw a commercial last night for a new show that gives children to teen couples who think they would be good parents. It must not have been more than a 30-second clip, but I think this is a reality show I could get behind! :p

Meanwhile I continue with my mini-dip back into the corporate pool. I'm experiencing the struggle I have every time I've returned over the past two years -- finding it really hard not to slide back into the political, gossipy muck that exists here with one intrigue after another.

The worst part is that they've realized the folly of dissolving my department two years ago and are now reassembling it. I'm fairly certain I could have my job back tomorrow if I nodded my head in that direction. Not so certain I could have the sweet deal of working from Boise, but it's definitely not out of the question.

Steady, hefty paycheck. Reliable money to pay off my bills. A responsible, contributing member of society... ;)

But I'm not sure I'm ready for a return to that ball and chain. I'm not sure I want to give up the faith gains of the past two years by rejoining a lifestyle where I can provide for myself quite nicely without overtly needing God.

Posted by authorjodi at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"A 10-year-old Mexican boy glued his hand to his bed to avoid going back to school..."

Now that's one I never thought of when bemoaning the end of Christmas break! ;)

Today was a bit odd. About seven years ago I left my job as an administration clerk on the first floor and began my career as an instructional designer in another department. A couple years after that I took a higher paying job on the 5th floor. Then I moved to Boise and worked virtually for a year and a half before being reorganized out of a job. A year of book touring, and then today -- owing to reorgs, moves and consolidations -- I was sitting back at my old desk on the first floor.

So weird to think how much life has changed since the last time I occupied that desk. I wasn't even a coffee drinker way back then! I didn't start that habit until my next job, which I considered professional enough to necessitate dropping my juvenile mountain-dew-for-breakfast preference. :p

As my regular readers know, I read a lot of news on worldnetdaily. One interesting article I'm going to spend some time on when I have it to spare is their retrospective on "The Most Ignored Stories of 2007." Scanning it, I discovered some stories that were familiar and some I'd never heard of. I imagine that was their point.

The other article I'd suggest reading is another in my ongoing non-official series: "That Couldn't Possibly Be America They're Talking About." Apparently an 11-year-old Colorado boy fell on his head while playing and his father, a paramedic during Vietnam, evaluated him and decided not to take him to the hospital.

Unfortunately, a neighbor had already called an ambulance and the paramedics, though agreeing there was no "significant impairment," still wanted to take him to the hospital. When the family refused, paramedics called the police. When the police said it was the family's decision, the paramedics called the sheriff. The next day social workers showed up demanding to see the boy. Later that afternoon a SWAT team showed up, punched a hole in the door, threw the family to the ground at gunpoint, handcuffed the father and took the boy to the hospital...where he was evaluated and immediately released.

Seriously? America?

Posted by authorjodi at 07:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm cackling as I sit in a hotel room in California watching the new version of American Gladiator. I remember watching the show as a child...and it's as campy now as my memories of it. And my oh my, they just showed a commercial for a remake of Knight Rider. Hopefully it'll be better than the disaster they made of my childhood fave: Bionic Woman...

Anyway. :p My old company called again so I flew down today for two weeks of consulting. Last year at this time I was living in my motorhome, so I guess living out of a hotel is sort of similar. There were two inches of fresh snow on the ground when I left Boise and I arrived to a deluge. Hopefully it'll stop raining long enough for me to enjoy a little sunshine.

On a much more serious note -- here's an interesting article you might want to read. It discusses a Canadian city considering some new guidelines for churches, including these doozies:

• A limit allowing only one "place of worship" for every 10,000 residents.
• Ban religious meetings in homes if they involve more than 20 people, children included.

Posted by authorjodi at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You make everything glorious
and i am Yours
what does that make me?

I'm quite sure my spiritual slump is, in great part, due to the amazing high of Senegal. I was part of a blazing cloud of light in a dark, dark place. I saw battle in crystal clear images and the lines were plainly drawn. Things were so grim, so horrific at times, that I knew I needed God with true desperation. Here in America I go to the grocery store if I'm hungry <or not> and pick out something I don't have to pray won't make me sick. I sleep relatively well in a warm, clean bed without the distractions of barking dogs, the ever-present call to prayer, roosters, cold, blowing sand, visiting spirits...

In Senegal I knew I needed God every single morning. During the day I couldn't go more than an hour without being reminded how much I needed Him to survive. As hard as it was, I think I miss that level of clarity, that level of dependence.

Posted by authorjodi at 03:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I had to laugh today -- I was flipping channels this morning and landed for a few moments on a special about a new movie called Mad Money. Apparently Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes conspire to steal money from the Federal Reserve. It's all for a good cause though, Diane's movie husband Ted Danson lost his job and all their money.

I can't remember exactly, but Ted Danson said something like it's good to have criminals you can root for -- yes, technically they're taking money that doesnt' belong to them, but it's a little teeny crime and you can get behind them because life has done them wrong. And come on, they have so much fun while they're doing it. 

All I could think of was the ludicrous hypocrisy of the 'piracy is stealing' campaign Hollywood keeps running. Make stealing look hip and cool in movie after movie, grind morals down into the dust and make good folk look square...then turn around and tell people stealing from you is bad. Uh...yeah.

Posted by authorjodi at 08:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Over at Cornhusker Academy, The Minor Protection Act by yours truly has been selected as the 1st Most Life Changing Book of 2007. I don't know if that means #1, or first of several to be named, but thanks for the honor. :) Janna also interviewed me right before Christmas -- you can read it by following the link above.

And while I was in Senegal, an interview was published over at Window to My World. Thanks Kim!

Posted by authorjodi at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Too bad I don't work in Hollywood: I could blame my blogging absence on the writer's strike. ;) As it is, I've no one to blame but myself...but I guess I've dragged out my hiatus about as long as I can justify.

In the days to come I'll work back into the usuals -- like the homeschooling mom who fled her home rather than put her kids in public school <true story>. Or the mom who got kicked off a public bus for reading the Bible while on her way to church with her kids <no details yet, just heard about it on the radio>. And I'll probably start writing about my experiences in Senegal as a way of helping process some of the things I saw.

However, as the header says, I'm easing back in. Hence, three videos from youtube that have come to my attention in recent months.

• A beautifully creative youth group 'skit' <for lack of a better word> to the song Who Am I, by Casting Crowns, using only white gloves and black lights.
  
• The first audition for Paul Potts on Britain's Got Talent. I wouldn't have known about this if someone hadn't sent the link, but it brought me to tears in a triumph of the human spirit kind of way.
• And I can't help but include a football video that I just read about in Time magazine. Trinity University's 15-lateral, 61-yard touchdown with 2 seconds left on the clock. Try not to laugh too hard at the announcers as the clip progresses.

Posted by authorjodi at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)