This is one of the many reasons I stay home on "black Friday".  No bargain is worth someone's life.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6529135

Get a grip people.  It's not even Veteran's Day yet, much less Thanksgiving and already I'm hearing Christmas music on the radio.  Grrrrr!!!

I realize that people do Christmas shopping early.  I even wish I was so organized as to do that.  And of course they put decorations out for purchase so that you can be ready to decorate for Christmas .... but please .... Christmas music on the radio already .... that's too much.  And actually decorating stores and business for Christmas .... that's too much too. 

It happens every year.  And it gets me agitated every year.  You'd think I'd learn not to let it bother me.  Instead, I keep hoping that someday someone will finally come over to 'my' side and make the world 'right' again. 

This 700 BILLION dollar bailout just chaps my hide!  I didnt do anything wrong, I didnt borrow more than I could pay back, and I'm working hard for the little bit of money I get.  Why do I have to bail out everyone else?  (By the way the stocks are still free-falling even after the bailout bill passed!)

My dear friend Tony Mullins (a very successful Nashville songwriter) has written a song "Who's Gonna Bail Me Out?" and made a video for it and posted it on YouTube.

I know the media hypes this "image" thing ... and if you look at today's American (I mostly know about country) music image ..... with the Carries and the Taylors and the (not country) Mileys .... it's pretty bad.  But for crying out loud, this kid is SEVEN years old!  How can you be "not cute enough" at seven years old to have to be lip-synced? 

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- A little girl and her song captivated millions of viewers during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. But what they saw was not what they heard.

Games organizers confirm that Lin Miaoke, who performed "Ode to the Motherland" as China's flag was paraded Friday into Beijing's National Stadium, was not singing at all.

Lin was lip-syncing to the sound of another girl, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, who was heard but not seen, apparently because she was deemed not cute enough.

"The reason was for the national interest," said Chen Qigang, the ceremony's musical director, in a state radio interview. "The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression. ... Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects."

The decision was made at the highest levels, Chen said.

"We had to do it," he said. "We'd been through several inspections. They're all very strict. When we rehearsed at the spot, there were several spectators from various divisions, especially leaders from the Politburo, who gave the opinion it must change."

Few who watched the Olympic ceremony realized the deception. "Tiny singer wins heart of nation," read the headline in Tuesday's China Daily newspaper.

"Lin Miaoke might be only 9 years old but she is well on her way to becoming a star, thanks to her heartwarming performance," the article gushed -- without mentioning she never sang a note.

But as word has gotten out on the Internet, some Chinese bloggers are outraged.

"If you're not good-looking, no matter how well you sing, you'll not be onstage. Do you know you're twisting a whole generation?" read one comment.

Another said, "If foreigners found out, they'd think we can't even find a girl who is good at both."

As for Yang Peiyi, she's been quoted as saying she was honored to have had a role in the opening ceremony, even though few realized just how big her part really was.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/12/oly.kids/index.html

Mood:  irritated

Some parents (if you can even call them that!) should just be tarred and feathered - no questions asked. 

http://www.kpho.com/news/16585299/detail.html

Mood:  irritated

Did you notice it too?  Well heck, how could you NOT notice it? 

Dancing With The Stars ....... one of my favorite programs ... something the whole family can watch together.  Tonight on the elimination show they did a tribute to Michael Jackson's "Thriller".  Now I'm not a MJ fan (not since the Jackson 5 broke up) but I realize he is a very much a part of 'music history' and I was willing to accept that.  And then ........ the 'lead' dancer - the 'Michael' of the group ... GRABBED HIS CROTCH AND GYRATED WITH HIS HAND ON HIS CROTCH!!  I was apalled!!!  And the camera was ZOOMED IN on it!!  This is PRIME TIME you idiots, what were you thinking?????  And if 'prime time' wasnt enough to keep you from it (on a FAMILY show no less!) must I remind you that on this episode we had the 'dance off' for the JUNIOR dancers.  You know .... the KIDS.   The "less-than-teenage" KIDS!! 

And they showed clips from all their schools and the events and pep rally's the schools were having to show their support (elementary schools, remember?)  so you know that even though this program is a family friendly show and kids watch every week, there had to be an enormous number of KIDS - VERY YOUNG KIDS - watching tonight.  And this is what they show?????   GRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! 

Mood:  irritated

Personally, I think they ought to take this woman back up on that bridge and toss her off again - and again and again.

DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- A woman threw her two struggling young children from a freeway overpass during Wednesday's morning rush before leaping off herself, police said, but all three survived the 22-foot fall into traffic.

All three landed on concrete in the far left lane of westbound Interstate 30 at about 6:30 a.m.

"It was really miraculous that we didn't have some fatalities with this incident," said police Sgt. Gil Cerda. "At this particular time, there is very heavy traffic and it is fast-moving."

Police believe Busby and the 8-year-old were struck by cars. There were no car accidents on the interstate below, Cerda said.

Busby could face two charges of attempted capital murder, Cerda said.

Janse said Busby and her sons were in a car with her father, heading to a friend's house. When they stopped for gas, she took the boys to the overpass while her father was paying for the fuel, Janse said. 

"She was not fleeing for her safety", Cerda said.  She just threw them over and decided to throw herself over."

"The why remains a mystery to us," police Lt. C.L. Williams said. "If you try to apply logic to these incidents, they totally defy any logical explanation."

Child Protective Services had intervened with Busby at least twice but for incidents that "were relatively minor in nature," Williams said.

Busby has a criminal record, including convictions for assault and criminal trespass of a habitation.

 http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/12/children.thrown.ap/index.html

Mood:  irritated

Repetitive redundancy ........

There really should be NO reason to ever plan to do the same work twice.   But, for the sake of argument, if there is a legitimate reason (trust me, there isnt) to need two seperate instances of the same work those two instances should be done simultaneously - or at least concurrently.  There is NO, I repeat NO, reason to have one person duplicate the work previously done by another person.  Especially ten months later!  None.  Nada.  Zero. 

Needless to say, I am the one having to not only do the work again, but I first have to try to figure out what work has to be done because the people that planned for the work to be done twice did not keep an accurate accounting of what that work is!

Mood:  irritated

If I send you an email (or phone message or whatever type of communication) and say "havent heard from you in a while, I'm worried, how are you?" I expect you to answer, dadgumit!!

If you dont want to hear from me any more just say so, but dont ignore me!!!  Grrrrr!!!

Mood:  irritated

Dont you just hate that "hurry up and wait" mentality?  It happened to me at work today.  Well, it started a couple of weeks ago.  My supervisor emailed me to tell me that I would be contacted by another department regarding a project I needed to handle.  So the other person emailed me the next day to say "Is tomorrow good for you?" and I replied "I'll be here all day".  Well, that was the last I heard from either person about the project.  (I knew it was going to be a tedious project so I didnt encourage further communications).

 Today I had to contact that second employee (the one that was going to "get me started" on the project) regarding another matter and he suddenly remembered the project.  So, he gave me instructions and sent me on my way.  I went back to my desk and started working ... only to find out that every time I tried to do what I was supposed to do the software freaked out and wouldnt let me.  After several implodes (both the software and myself) I contacted said person and told them that I couldnt get it to work.  Of course, said person was at lunch.  Said person gets one hour for lunch -- I get one-half hour for lunch.  I went to lunch and took 45 minutes. 

Upon returning said person was not in his office so I moved on to my regular work, after emailing said person the details of the problem (including screenshots of the error message).  An hour later I passed said persons office and he was in there so I asked "did you get my message?" to which he replied "yes, but I just have to check my voice mail first and then I'll look at it." 

Two hours later (less than one-half hour til quitting time) said person emailed me with the message that it should be working fine now and apologized for taking so long.  I started to email a reply that I was working on another project and would notify him if it was working whenever I had a chance to get back to it.  Fortunately, if I've learned nothing else, I have in the past few years (ok, two years) learned that I should NOT reply when I am not happy (whether it be work-related or personal).  So I just worked quietly until quitting time, and now here I am telling you all about it. 

Thanks for listening.