Stream of Consciousness Saturday: A Review Of The Movie The Losers

***Stream of Consciousness Saturday is my day to talk about random things that I want to blog about. I pick a topic and just start typing. It's good for me to let my mind wander (and it helps my typing skills to keep up with my brain, lol). Enjoy my random topics. If you want to hear my thoughts on a topic, suggest next weeks SOCS!***

This is a movie I did not want to see. I saw the trailer and decided it had too much violence and not enough plot. I loved every single main character in the movie and knew they'd each be believable in their roles. And still I had no desire to pay money to see this movie.
 
This is a big deal coming from me. I spend damn near $100 a month on average seeing movies (don't get me started on the hundreds I spent going to see he Dark Knight ten times). So to not want to see a movie, I must be convinced it's going to be a special kind of suck. But I was cajoled into seeing it by Bad when we decided to go to the movies and it was the only one we could agree on. I only agreed because he promised me the violence wasn't so bad and that the movie did indeed have a plot.
 

That being said, I really loved this movie!! Seriously, it was awesome. It was very violent, but no blood. Don't ask me why it's okay for someone to bleed profusely in my emergency room, but not on the big screen, I don't know. But I can deal with all types violence if there's no blood.

 
And the movie had a real plot! With an evil CIA mastermind effectively ending the main characters' lives as they knew it, they set off on a journey with the mysterious woman, played by Zoe Saldana, to right all the wrongs.
 
There were a few predictable parts. SPOILER ALERT. Such as, duh of course she's the bad guy's daughter. She looks just like him!
 
I found myself imagining I was her and deciding which of the men I was going to sleep with. How does one choose between Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, and Chris Evans? I wouldn't have been able to.
 
 

My Favorite Things About The Losers: 1) It didn't get too campy as movies based on comic books can end up (Spider Man trilogy, I'm looking at you) 2) Columbus Short's comedic timing is improving, making him even more attractive. What woman doesn't love funny? 3) The fight scenes were exciting and hot! Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Zoe Saldana burning down a building will turn anyone, and I mean anyone on.


My Least Favorite Things About Bounty Hunter: 1) The evil person was just too evil. It doesn't make sense that people would get involved with him. Throwing people off buildings should be a good enough reason to cut ties, that's all I'm saying. 2) The trailer for the movie was just awful. It didn't fit the movie. It billed it as a plotless action movie when it should've been billed as a lesser known (by the general public) comic book come to life with sexy people you can't tear your eyes away from. There's no need for such talented people to not gain a bigger audience. I blame the trailer. 3) Idris Elba's character disappointed me. I just... I know the character had to be that way, but it doesn't change my emotional response to Idris Elba being that way.

Final Rank: 5/5 This movie had everything in it that I was looking for. I thoroughly enjoyed every part of it: the characters, the settings, the plot, and the acting. Plus, it helps that I like movies that: blow things up; are comic books come to life; have lots of sexy people in it; have a villain that is over the top; have a plot that is reasonable even when far-fetched. If you've considered this movie but decided against it, please ignore the trailer and go see it anyway.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday: Barbie Dolls

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is my day to talk about random things that I want to blog about. I pick a topic and just start typing. It's good for me to let my mind wander (and it helps my typing skills to keep up with my brain, lol). Enjoy my random topics. If you want to hear my thoughts on a topic, suggest next weeks SOCS!

Barbie dolls are something every girl I knew growing up had. Even the really poor girls who didn't have grandmothers to buy for them managed to pick one up at a birthday party door prize. But Barbie was so different when I was a child. She had an RV, a Red Corvette (with seatbelts), a horse, and her dream house only had about 6 rooms, but it did have an elevator (cue oohs and ahhs)!!

Over the years, that chick has come up. Ken stopped looking less sexually ambiguous. She got a job (several jobs actually, but more on that later). She got younger siblings. She got more car options. She got a freaking plane!! Her horse got a stable. Her dreamhouse had ten rooms and a pool. She really became quite something.

I first noticed my bitter response when walking through Kay-Bee toys and seeing all the wonderful Barbie options that weren't even available to me as a child. I wasn't just rueful, I was outright hostile. Certainly hostile enough to use words like, "I can't believe this bitch has all this stuff. Barbie has a beach house!! In my day she had a damn RV! What the hell?!" Or something like that. The point was there were small children around and I still said it. Can you tell I was bothered by this...? Moving on.

Barbie's new job opportunities went far and above her options in the 80s. No more Flight Attendant Barbie. Now we had doctor Barbie, Lawyer Barbie, Fashion Designer Barbie, Pet Doctor Barbie. And many more, those were just my favorites. She was doing big things for women!

About the only thing I'm glad stayed the same about Barbie is her Holiday wear. I'm so into traditional American holidays, it's not even funny. And since my mother still collects Barbies, I get to spend a part of each December hunting down the rare African-American Holiday Barbie for that year. And there have been some fabulous dolls believe me.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday

If you've looked at my other blog posts with Stream of Consciousness tags, you know there's no rhyme or reason, I just write as things come to mind. There's no particular order to the blog posting.


I just got back from an overnight stay at Bad's new apartment. It's a lovely apartment in a lovely building on Chicago's South Side. We used to call it the low end when I was younger, but I haven't heard anyone use that phrase in a while. But it's so close to everything! It's close to downtown, the Lake, his job that is slightly further south, and the major intersection of al lthe major highways. He did good.

We went to Grand Lux Cafe and got some fresh made beignets and a blow up mattress from Target. I felt like being back in college and helping a friend celebrate their first real apartment. Bad has had real apartments before, but this one feels different. Probably because it's not near where college students live, he's paying for it with money earned on salary, and Jordan is moving in with him soon. It's so exciting.

Oh, there's a great story about the beignets. We ordered them in advance since we were at Vintage 338 and Grand Lux was closing soon. When we drove there to get them, I go up to the upstairs counter, only to be told the beignets had "gone missing." That basically meant they gave them to someone else who neglected to order them in advance.

The manager comes over to profusely apologize for this "very unprofessional" situation. He then offers to make some more fresh, and for the incovenience of keeping me waiting for up to ten minutes, they'll be on the house. I was like, fuck yeah! Lol, I didn't say that. I just smiled graciously and said, "that works for me."

Then this guy from the kitchen comes up to me about five minutes later and says, "Hey, pretty lady. The beignets will be ready in about 4 minutes." They apparently put the order in ahead of whatever other desserts they were making. They packaged them up for me and gave them to me free of charge. That was such a nice thing to happen. It just brightened my night. I wasn't in the best of moods because my father called me a drop out yesterday.

I don't want to get into the dirty details, but he was a drop out. I am not a drop out. It took him damn near 20 years to get a college degree since one day in the late seventies he just stopped going to class. That's what a drop out does. I withdrew. There's a process to withdraw. I didn't just quit. But either way, the free beignets helped. :)

Stream of Consciousness Saturday

This the first Stream of Consciousness I'm actually writing on a Saturday. If you've looked at my other blogs with Stream of Consciousness tags, you know there's no rhyme or reason, I just write as things come to mind. There's no particular order to the blog posting.

Something I left out of my blog yesterday because I wanted to talk about it today has been weighing heavily on my heart. In the middle of my talk with Top, trying to explain to her the big decision I've recently made, she abruptly got off the phone with me to deal with an emergency her roommate was having. When she called me back to tell me what happened with him, I was ashamed to be an American.

Her roommate, whom we'll call Lee, had just returned from a trip to Canada. He is Lebanese. Apparently to some people, that is synonymous with Muslim extremist terrorist type (even though no Lebanese person has ever been responsible for any attacks on America). He often gets stopped at airports because of his name, and so he's used to that. But this time, they checked his ticket, saw he was headed to NYC, and freaked out. They searched him, his bags, and began interrogating him, for hours. He was travelling with a friend, as classmate of his from grad school. She missed her plane waiting for him. They sent her a fake letter that was supposed to be from him saying it was fine to get on the plane and head back to America.

While they were interrogating him, they went to his parents' house and his father's store. They interrogated both his parents about their money, their phone calls, and their possibly terrorist son. I know his family and they are such sweet nice people. They are not terrorists. They speak to their family back home because they're close. In case you're wondering, yes the Canadian officials at the airport called the FBI, who was more than happy to start interrogating those family members who are stateside.

They managed to pull up information about phone records, bank records, travel records and say it all points to support for terrorism. They played back recorded phone conversations to the father. What was on these recordings? Things like family members discussing the health of the elders, making plans to visit each other, and updates of performance in school by their children. All of this phone tapping is illegal currently without a warrant, by the way.

They harrassed this entire family for hours because one family member took a trip to Canada to be a part of a perfomance art piece. Being African-American, I'm very familiar with the way this country profiles and discriminates against people who look like me. The classic example is the young black man pulled over on the side of the road because he "fits the description" of a perp for a crime recently committed in the area.

But I have no frame of reference to let me understand why, for any reason, the FBI thinks it's okay to rip someone's phone out of the wall when they try to call their lawyer because they feel that their home has been entered unlawfully and they do not wish to answer any questions because they are being intimidated and threatened.

When Lee walked into his house, he broke down into tears. He was distressed and stressed and sad about what happened. All because he has a name that sounds Muslim. Of all the ignorant things that can happen, this is truly a new low. If they did it to him, they're doing it to other people. This country (and Canada) is fucked up. It just doesn't even make sense. If someone really were a terrorist, would they break down and confess everything because someone stopped them in an airport? Seriously? It just doesn't even make sense that the people in charge truly think these methods have any effect except reducing immigration of entrepreneurs who are contributing quite a bit of money to America (Lee's family is very well off). It makes no sense, and it makes me want to cry to think there's ever a justification for treating people like this.

Downsizing my Blogs

I currently have four. They're all relatively new. I decided to downsize my blogs. One I made just to make reviews, but I can easily put that on here so I don't feel the obligation to constantly review things if I don't try anything new (or new to my current experience, lol). The other I called Stream of Consciousness. It was just whatever I wanted to talk about in a Stream of Consciousness. I've decided to have Stream of Consciousness Sunday so I can keep that as well. Yay.

But, it's just too much work trying to keep up four blogs that hardly anyone reads yet anyway, lol. So if you were reading my other blogs, http://reviewsbycece.blogspot.com/ and http://socbycece.blogspot.com/, they're gone. Everything is now on this site. Of course, I still have a separate blog dedicated solely to My Love Life, and the love life of my closest friends and family. They're lightly protected by code names. But it's so easy to know who's who if you know me, lol. Sorry about putting peoples' business out there, but it's just so interesting, I feel the need to share it with the blogosphere. Moving on to my first Tuesday blog, trying out the themed days still, so far so good. I think Medical Mondays went well yesterday...

The Sims 3 Can Be So Dramatic

When I can't sleep, sometimes I'll load up my Sims 3 game on my PC. I don't normally have time to play very often, but I did play last night. And oh what drama ensued. It's a quite good life plot, so I thought I'd share it with the blogosphere.

Some basic background for those who have no exposure to the world of the Sims. The Sims 3 allows you to create people/avatars and life out their lives. They have a major life goal, characteristics, body types, families, friends, careers, hopes, dreams etc. It's all pretty awesome. They live in a town and live and grow and die. There's even a graveyard you can visit and meet some ghosts. If you create the Sim, you can pick out all their traits or randomize them. If you pick an existing one, you'll take what you get. You get rewards points for fulfilling a goal. There are rewards you can get with those points. For example, if you pick out a sim but don't like their personality, you can pick out new traits that influence their personality once you get 20,000 points. These Sims get married, have sex, get fired from work, go out on the town, make BFFs (literally it's called BFF), plant gardens, become best-selling novelists, whatever you'd like. They can even die tragic deaths from drowning and stuff. Moving on...

The family I started is the Goodwins. It started out with just one man, Tyler Goodwin. He got started, got a nice little house and decided he wanted to be a farmer. It's honest work and can be quite lucrative once you get good at it. The average wage for someone at the top of their career is $1,000 a day, but only like 3-4 days a week. A farmer with a large garden (including money trees) can make $3,500+ a day, seven days a week. To Tyler, it was a no-brainer. Tyler meets Lisa. They immediately hit it off and quickly get married. Tyler and Lisa decide they want to have children, but Lisa is all about her career at a professional criminal (her life's goal is to get to the top of that career track), so they decide to have one baby and adopt a male child. This male child they name Taylor. The boy they have biologically is named Kyle. They grow up like any normal family.

I'm gonna fast forward here because my main story that's so interesting to me is about Taylor's son he decides to name Tyler. Kyle moved out of the house as soon as he got married because he felt the place was too crowded. Taylor had already gotten married. He and his wife had adopted a son and were pregnant with their other child. Plus, Kyle didn't want to live in the house with all those memories. His father, Tyler died in the house (of natural causes) the night before his wedding. He and his wife, Tina haven't had children yet. Tina neve had a good relationship with her own father, and barely talks to him and her two toddler age half brothers who she didn't even know he had until she ran into them out at the park.

Taylor and his wife end up having 5 children. They adopt two boys, about age 8 when they were each adopted. They have two girls and one boy through normal pregnancy. Lisa still lives with them and does a good job of contributing to the household with her money (and art) from heists and from her fishing prowess. The oldest son, Tyler is the first to move out. He was a loner his whole childhood. He never really got close to his parents, his grandmother, or any of his four siblings. He preferred to sit and his computer and write books or to stand in front of his canvas and paint. He never even had a girlfriend. Although, a girl did eventually catch his eye. A family friend named Iliana went to high school with him and two of his younger siblings. She was his first kiss and his first "romantic interest." That night they kissed, it was obvious she wanted him to ask her to go steady, but he was far too nervous to do that. So he decided he'd wait until next time they were alone to ask her.

But they were hardly alone. He spent a lot of time working on his books. He even began to sell them. One bcame a hit!! He was an official author who was making real money. He began to improve his skills at painting. Young Tyler decided his  life's aspiration should be to learn the max skills for painting and for writing. Selling his novels and his paintings would be a good way to earn a living without going the traditional career route. Before he knew it, it was time for graduation. His parents didn't force him to leave, but he knew that when mom delivered baby number 5 the night he graduated from high school, maybe he could give them some more room in the house. After all, Grandma Lisa was still around to help out. She had been much younger than Grandpa Tyler when they got married, so she still had lots of time left in her life.

Tyler decided to move out on his own. His family did what they always did when one of the kids left the nest, they helped bankroll the purchase of a new house so the kids could start off a little better than the first generation of Goodwins in town did. They bought Tyler a nice little 2 bed 2 bath house with anticipation he would fill it with a family of his own. His love interest Iliana was still in high school, but he kept in touch with her hoping they could resume their working towards a relationship once she graduated too.

Tyler's dad gave him 15 money bags from the money trees in the garden to get him started until his paintings and books began to make real money. When Tyler first moved, he was happy because he was a loner and he didn't mind waiting on Iliana. He worked on his craft and wrote two more books that earned him good money. His paitings began to sell for hundreds of dollars each. He felt he could easily reach his life's goals. But then he started to notice he was always alone. He looked at his rewards points and decided to spend them on switching from a loner to a great kisser!

He called Iliana to catch up and see how it was going as she was finishing school. He found out she was dating his younger brother who still went to high school with her!! The girl he thought he'd marry someday was dating his brother!! He didn't know how to feel about that.

So he went out on the town to try and meet new women. He noticed that a lot of the women seemed to be grossly overweight, and he didn't want those genes! He didn't know what secrets lurked in his DNA since he was adopted. He didn't want to take any chances. He went out days in a row and still didn't meet anyone desirable. This was going to be harder than he thought. He started going door to door, literally meeting all his neighbors in the hopes that someone would have an attractive young daughter. So far, no luck. He can't take too much time away from his work, but he doesn't know what to do. And he really misses Iliana...

That's where I am now. How crazy is that? Just from 4 hours of playing the Sims, lol.

Why I Prefer To Be In The Minority (In Most Aspects of My Life)

I'm a minority in most aspects of my life. By minority, I mean either in numbers or in power structure. I'm African-American. I'm a woman. I'm in my 20s. I'm 5'0". My income bracket is non-existent. I'm a student. I'm a cat lover. I'm an independent woman who thinks a man should be the head of the household. About the only thing I am that isn't a minority is that I'm Christian, Baptist to be specific. I know I'm Protestant, but still, I'm Christian. That and I'm a proclaimed Democrat (though I do love my guns, but that's more than balanced out by my support for taxes).

But I think I prefer it that way. It seems that the majority and/or the people in charge with all the power are always fucking up. That is kind of strong language but it expresses my point. Look at our government, our financial system, our Catholics. Everyone is fucking up. They so rarely get it right, I'm glad to not be associated with being male, or Catholic, or rich, or in charge.

That John Mayer song "Waiting on the World to Change" is one of my all-time favorites. Literally, it's Top Ten. But that's how I feel sometimes. The people in control are always screwing things up with their extreme views and skews. But I know I can't count on things gettin better as those people die off. There's always some new young hot blonde thing reporting on Fox News to remind me there is no dearth of supply of youngsters to take on crappy opinions and carry them into the future.

But at least me, in the minority, is somewhat free to form my own opinions and take my own stances on issues and make my own decisions when it comes to how I see this world. I will never be forced to stand with the majority for sake of avoiding pissing of my standard bearers.

Even when white Americans are no longer the numerical majority in this country, I'll still be in the minority. Let's see how Latinos will do with the job of being the majority. I think it'll be quite interesting. I bet all those anti-abortion racists will be regretting that they fought so hard against the government paying for any sort of birth control. They want "their country" back, but they keep doing things that are counter-productive to that initiative.

Minority or not, I long for the day when cognitive dissonance will hurt again. It doesn't seem to hurt some people. I want people to be able to disagree without it becoming an issue of fisticuffs (literally or metaphorically). I have strong views, being an American gives me that right. But it'd be nice to not be demonized for disagreeing with the majority. If I impeach someone else's views, it's the logic or the hypocrisy or the insanity that went into that decision. Not their right to have that opinion. I wish more of the majority would do the same.

Confederacy History Month

So, this is one topic about which I cannot even pretend to be objective. As and African-American woman with no living relatives who lived through slavery or its immediate aftermath, I cannot understand why anyone would want a Confederate History Month.

Well, that's not entirely true. I can understand how they get caught up in the romance of it all. Brothers battling on opposite sides of the same battelfield. People standing up for what they believed in. It's all very typical war story stuff. But when put into context of why the Civil War happened and how different this world would be for me had it ended differently, I can't even fathom taking it beyond a romantic memory.

Yet, some governors of states in this country have declared April Confederate History Month. These are the same governors who are supporting the filing of suits to bat down healthcare reform. These are the same governors who are against immigration. These are the same governors who shunned the stimulus money then took credit for the money when the ceremonies were had to celebrate its arrival. These are the people who are showing themselves to be not patriots, but enemies of the good of this country.

They keep saying things like "remember who we are" and "take our country back". They speak in terms like we and our and us. Yet somehow, I don't think they mean me. Me, both my parents, all four of my grandparents, all 8 of my great-grandparents, and at least 10 of my great-grandparents were all born and raised in this country. Most of the deceased died here too. The point is, we're super Americans. But because of the color of my skin, someone I'm not one of "us." And no one can tell my why that is.

Is it because I think taxes are a good idea? What can I say, I like roads and tunnels and bridges. I like public school (I've been in public schools my entire like besides pre-school). I like police men and firefighters. I like Medicaid and Medicare. I like government workers (when they don't have me on hold). I like that they send our veterans to college when they return from service. I like the things our government does with its money. I don't want to take any of that away. But hey, that's just crazy thinking I've got going, right?

I'm also against rewriting history. Slavery happened, there's no avoiding that. Reagan's de-regulation is the main cause of the muck we're in now. Catholic priests have abused thousands of minors over the decades, but that's not a problem of homosexuality, that's a problem of pedophilia. America used to have a problem of leaving a country without cleaning up the mess we made (time will shortly tell if we still have that problem). I thought being American meant having my opinions and being expected to respect others' rights to have a different opinion.

That America I think I live in means it's okay for there to be a Confederacy History Month. But I thinks it's highly irresponsible to try and rewrite history all while exposing your ulterior motive. Virginia's governor is just trying to piss off the black president of this country by exploiting either the romantic or racist (they can be mutually exclusive) notions of his constituents. I wonder if he truly realizes what he's done.

Having A Pet

When I came to visit my parents for the weekend for the Easter holiday, I left my beloved kitten (she's barely still a kitten) Belle at home in my apartment. She doesn't like travelling. She literlly spend the entire hour and a half drive yowling and meowing in protest. It's not fun for either of us. Oh, and she also spend part of that time escaping from her super cute travel bag and prowling around the car and my lap. Yup, all while I'm trying to drive on the expressway.

But having her is usually a joy. I live alone and I love living alone. I'm a fan of being naked. It makes me happy to be alone in my house and not worry about imposing my nakedness on someone. Oh, and it's super-wonderful to walk into the kitchen and know that the cereal bowl in the sink is there cause I put it there. I never walk into the bathroom to find someone has used the last of the toilet paper and didn't replace the roll. It's just lovely for so many reasons. But it can get lonely too. That's where Belle comes in.

She likes to climb in my lap and lay on my chest and go to sleep. We have a comfortable pattern of living together and she makes it better to live alone. As long as I keep her food bowl full, we don't have too many problems.

She is always very demanding for attention when I'm gone for a while, like going home for the weekend. She seemed to like when I came home on Saturday and even curled up next to me when I took a nap. And she was less crazy-acting when I got home Sunday. And my house is never ruined when I return after days away, which lets me know she is the perfect pet for me. And I thought I'd do better with goldfish while in med school. What I know is she's way better. Lots of personality, but way less maintenance than a puppy, lol.

Peoples' Reactions to Obama and the Things He Says

There have been so many times I've read some news article or opinion piece where someone is lamenting Obama signing up to do something they don't want him to. This applies most recently to drilling offshore for oil to help us transition to clean energy. There have been others: Obama not demanding the public option; Obama trying to negotiate with Iran's president; Obama "continuing" the war in Iraq while expanding the battle in Afghanistan; Obamas feelings on taxes. This list goes on and on. Each time Obama takes a definitive stance on an issue, there is someone there to point out that's not what Obama said he was gonna do when he was running for President.

All you have to do is wait about 3 days for someone to pull up the quotes and debate statements from the campaign to find out that Obama has yet to flip flop on any issue. We all know that if he did flip flop on anything, there would be a loud cry from Fox News etc. calling him a flip-flopper. But it doens't quite matter to those who get first bite and what he has to say.

Whether it's far-right conservatives, far-left liberals, or just someone in between who is complaining about a policy they don't agree with. One of the first things out of their mouth is that they don't remember Obama having said position in his campaign. But so far, they've all been wrong. All of them. I like it when our president stands true to what he has decided are his policies and views. It's so nice to see the message stays the same as was promised to me in his campaign. It certainly isn't Obama's fault if people weren't listening closely. I heard you Barry, and I like what I'm seeing. A decisive man who sticks to his guns and makes the hard decisions.

Paying Bills

This, and the next few days, are the days when I pay my bills. I don't like paying bills. It's not that I don't like spending money. I like spending money, but I like spending money and getting an immediate, hopefully pretty, reward for what I've spent. This most often results in a pretty dress or a lovely pair of strappy sandals.

But when, it's bill-paying, it doens't feel the same. I know I sound like an excerpt from "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and I don't mean to. But I do like the feeling I get when I've purchased something. And I know that I am getting something for the money. After all, if I didn't pay my bills, I wouldn't get to keep having water when I turned my faucet on. I wouldn't have access to the past episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" on On Demand on Comcast. I wouldn't even have the juice or internet connection to write this blog. I get it, I just don't feel it, you know?

But that doesn't change what I have to do. I have to go online to a couple of website (thank God for online bill pay) and walk over to my property manager's office to pay my bills for March/April (there's some overlap there). But the fact that I have to pay bills never means I'm going to enjoy it.

You know what would work better for me? Being able to pay as I used something. Like, if I had to enter a code when I turned on my TV, type in a pin number before each shower, swipe my credit card when I turned up my heat (or A/C, go Spring!), or confirm the last 4 digits of my social when I logged onto the internet, I'd more appreciate what I was purchasing. The separation of goods and payment for goods makes me feel like I'm spending money while getting nothing in return.

I don't like being this grown up with bills and other crap. Part of me wants some man to sweep in and take me away from all of it. He will take care of me and I'll never have to be bothered with paying a bill ever again. Just lovely strappy sandals in my future. That is so melodramatic, I know. But that's how I feel when I pay bills. I feel melodramatic. I can't wait until April 4th. Of course, there needs to be some concern about filling out my FAFSA too. And my taxes. But that's what Daddy's are for! And once I get married, that's what my husband will be for. And if by chance my hubby has no skills, that's what H&R Block will be for.

Water Supply

I have, over the years, heard a lot about water. The latest is actually related to the healthcare reform debate. The attorneys general who have filed suit against the new law say that one can't be told what to buy by the government. It is the center of the case. Yet, the article I've linked to shows that it is very possible for the government to force the people to buy things if it is in the best interest of the people on whole.

These people are not allowed to use their well water, but have to purchase the municipal water. Even if they would prefer to buy all their water in bottle form (even for bathing), that's still not allowed.

Can you imagine, if someone wanted to use all their water from bottled water. How would that work? Would they make all the drinking water Fiji, all the cooking water Evian, all the cleaning water Aquafina, and all the bathing water generic brand? Would that even matter? How much waste would that produce in the form of plastic bottles? It's very impractical to be sure.

I wonder how many people have had the argument about whether water has a taste. I don't know if water itself has a taste, I don't believe I've ever had water with nothing else in it. I don't mean Crystal Light, I mean without chlorine or magnesium, or salt. There are all types of metals and minerals floating around in the water. I know I don't like spring water, it tastes like it probably has microscopic particles of soil floating all through it, yuck.

But, having grown up in Chicago, gone to college in Florida, and now living in Rockford, I know what it means to appreciate your water supply. The difference in the quality of the water source and the purification process is really something. And it's not just about drinking water. It's also about bathing water. I take a lot of pride in my skin and how it is to touch, and there's always an adjustment period when I move to a new area because the water is always very different. Chicago's water is wonderfully soft on the skin and palatable to the tongue. Florida is neither. Rockford tastes okay, but doesn't feel very good. Without Dove, I would be in a bad place.

The Summary: water is not only a sustainer of life and cleanliness, it's also capable of breaking apart the fundamental argument against healthcare. Go water!