I wonder if others are seeing this too
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Publié :9/12/2009 3h08
Dernière mise à jour :7/12/2011 2h30 14946 vues
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In the last few months, I seem to find a lot of internationals in my Who's viewed me, and flirts list.
I have set the cupid settings for under 3000 miles, which would include Mexico and Canada, but I keep seeing these cute young girls from Ghana, Nigeria, and elsewhere in Africa.
I'm not sure if these are greencard hunters or what, but there is virtually no chance at all we'd ever meet.
Has anyone else been seeing a lot of overseas interest?
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Retirement
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Publié :26/9/2009 20h37
Dernière mise à jour :26/9/2009 23h25 14992 vues
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Well, it's almost upon me. On Wednesday September 30, I will work my last day at SIUC.
Its been 28 and a half years, some good ones, some not so good, but all in all, its been ok for me.
So, from now on my weekends, and my weekdays will be free. I don't know how I'm going to fill all that time, but I have a few ideas.
It should be an interesting ride.
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Good news
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Publié :15/8/2008 17h19
Dernière mise à jour :7/12/2011 2h29 15187 vues
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Well, I am 53 now, and turning 54 on September 19, so my doctor said it was about time I had a test on the condition of my prostate.
You are probably aware that this has a "creepy" effect on most guys, since the prostate exam we have all learned about is the one politely described as a "backward handshake". A part of the creepiness for me is the idea of a hand going up there, and that the particular opening involved seldom says anything anyone wants to hear (or smell).
Well there is also a blood test that can be done to see if there is a particular marker that identifies a possible prostate problem. With my family history of diabetes and the Graves disease (hyperthyroidism, treated 7 years ago with radioactive iodine, now using Synthroid to bring my Thyroid Synthesized Hormone back up to the correct level, since, as anticipated, the radioactive iodine sometimes over compensates for the excessive production of TSH) I get a blood panel about every 90 days. They just added this one to the panel on the one I took on August 1.
I had not heard anything from the doctor's office since the test, and I thought I was on easy street, until I got a personal message from the doctor on Tuesday evening. Well, usually I hear from the office, not the doctor, so I was getting worried. I tried consoling myself with the idea that I usually have an appointment after the blood test, so I thought it was probably that, but wondering why the doctor was calling personally.
We played phone tag from Wednesday until about 4:30 this afternoon. She called me and told me that everything was fine except that my triglycerides were up a little. She said it was usually things like butter that does this, and I told her that I usually use margarine of the canola oil type, so I wondered if it could be ice cream. She said the canola oil would probably be good, so it was probably the ice cream. She doesn't want to change the meds right away, but if I was really a big ice cream fan, we could try that. So for now, we're going to try without the ice cream, which I only eat during part of the year anyway.
So that's my good news. We don't have an appointment scheduled, no subsequent blood test for a while, and I'm ready to start the semester on Sunday night.
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A Musing that probably isn't amusing
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Publié :28/5/2008 12h52
Dernière mise à jour :1/5/2024 15h26 14909 vues
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There isn't a typo there, it was a pun, called by some lazy writing, but I'm comfortable in knowing that William Shakespeare put the words "Look for me tomorrow and you'll find me a grave man" in the dying Mercutio's mouth.
Sixteenth century Paduan rumbles aside, I'll move on to my main topic.
I have had some time off lately, and that usually involves moving between the TV and the computer. Here, I am looking at photos and videos of people enjoying themselves and one another, in a creative and carnal fashion usually. There, at this moment anyway, I'm watching a story of a young girl who witnessed the murder, followed by the forcible of her older sister who had placed herself between her little sister's hiding place and the English soldiers who had burst into their home, and then the girl grew into a rallying point, exploited by her King to place him on the throne.
It sends one's mind toward heaven, but the flesh still craves flesh.
It reminds me of a contradiction I've noticed in literature, and sometimes reflected in life.
In John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad first meets Jim Casy after returning to his home on parole from the penitentiary. Casy tells Tom that he used to be a preacher, but that he found when he was preaching a particularly powerful message, when the Spirit was really on him, as he put it, he found that afterwards he would always go off into them high weeds with the young girls. This contradiction, though no pointed out to him by his congregation, bothered his conscience so much that he questioned his faith. He left the pulpit and drifted around just trying to be of help to folks when they needed it.
Peter Matthiessen also wrote of a roshi who he had studied with for many years, and then in the later portions of the roshi's career, the roshi began drinking a great deal and seducing his young female students. This was dissillusioning to Mathiessen's mind, as it is to most of us, when we see someone in a spiritual role, engaging in the kinds of things we see as inappropriate for religious types. But I sometimes wonder.
I am not talking about the incidents that have taken place between members of the clergy and children, as I see these as more about power than sex.
The sexual part of a person, whether it be Zen master or itinerant preacher, doesn't disappear I suppose, regardless of how long celibacy is practiced. Sex between consenting adults, even if it's an Archbishop of Canterbury who illegally marries a German girl and can only take her from one place to another in a box (Cranmer) to save them both from the chop by his King, is still a gift.
Anyway, this is probably just more intellectual masturbation.
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Eventus Interruptus
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Publié :12/2/2008 13h47
Dernière mise à jour :1/5/2024 15h26 14964 vues
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Well, I started out at about 2:30 this morning. There had been a snow and icing event here in the Ohio Valley this last two days, which is still going on. When I was clearing the ice and snow off the car, there was no precipitation
I got out of my driveway ok, but there was no plowing on my street, so I was sliding all over. I got to the ATM and couldn't get pulled up close enough, so I got out and walked up. I didn't want to skid into the pilings.
On the highway, mostly it was ok, but guess what, it started raining. The temperature on the car said it was 30 degrees outside, so I began reconsidering my 300 mile trip. I finally decided that it was the smart thing to turn around and go home. So, after a stop at the grocery store, that's what I did.
I got home ok, though in the time I was gone, a tree had fallen across half of the road, so I had to drive around it. I called the Sheriff and they sent someone out to take care of it.
This afternoon I got an e-mail from my ex-wife, who is now a close friend, calling me a sentimental old fool. She pointed out that 30 years ago on February 12, we were married, and we had an ice storm. Actually the weather held until we got from her folk's house to Charleston (we were both GA's at EIU that year, and in those days Illinois Universities had Lincoln's birthday (a Monday holiday on Feb. 13, that year) off. The ice storm was starting up as we arrived home.
Then, I looked at the Lincoln Birthplace site, and they said that in spite of their previous assertion that it would go on despite weather, they had cancelled due to the ice. So, I did do the smart thing, since I would have arrived too late for the ceremony on the square with the new statue, and Mrs. Bush wouldn't have been speaking anyway.
They originally thought it would be the President, but as a librarian, I think I'd have preferred listening to the librarian in that family.
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Well, I'm off on another excursion
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Publié :9/2/2008 3h03
Dernière mise à jour :1/5/2024 15h26 15401 vues
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As you probably know, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln is February 12, 2009. I visited the Lincoln Birthplace memorial and the Lincoln Boyhood Memorial on my summer excursion, and it made me think about the bicentennial coming up.
I looked at the Birthplace's home page and found that they were planning to make a year of it. The inaugural ceremony for the bicentennial is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, February 12. The last report was that President Bush was going to make the keynote speech. I've never heard a President speak in person, not even one I agreed with, so it should be interesting.
Anyway, I'll let you know how the trip went when I come home.
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Four years, really?
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Publié :22/10/2007 23h02
Dernière mise à jour :23/1/2008 1h28 15060 vues
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Well today is October 23. On this date in 2003, a punctured work romance made me decide it was time to try my luck online.
And here it is four years later, and I have no complaints. I'd love to have more room for pictures. I think I've seen some members with a lot of pictures on their networks than 50, and I wonder how they manage that. I suspect it has to do with a VIP membership, and my natural caution (as my late father would say, "we're careful with our money, not cheap") makes me weigh the options and decide against it, at least for now.
I have enjoyed the company I have met here, and I hope we will all enjoy more time together.
On October 3, I had an SLT on my right eye, for glaucoma, and I will have the left eye done next Tuesday, the 30th. The right eye is doing just fine now,and I hope I will be able to give up the eye drops in that eye when I see the doctor next week.
I've been doing less time online here than before, because I've been doing a lot of time on Answers. Some of you already know I'm a reference librarian and a history buff, so it's no surprise where I've been kibbitzing over there. It's fun, I enjoy it.
Anyway all, Happy Halloween, and have a terrific fall. Stay warm, wrap yourselves up in someone (I mean something, or do I?) nice.
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A "minor" inconvenience
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Publié :17/8/2007 1h25
Dernière mise à jour :1/5/2024 15h26 15097 vues
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First of all, I am using the word minor here in the same sense that Jonathan Swift used "modest" in "a modest proposal" when writing about dealing with a famine in Ireland by eating babies. As Swift, an Irishman, felt that cannibalism of the young was anything but modest, I don't consider what happened as a minor event.
It's been hot here in Southern Illinois in the last few weeks, our discomfort levels have been running over 100 degrees at midday fairly consistently since the end of July. Our ambient temperatures this week have been between 99 and 102 for highs all week. So, our air conditioners have all been running hard all this time. My AC is an electric furnace, and air conditioner combined, and it was installed in 1989.
Tuesday morning, I had just finished shaving and was getting ready for work when Ms. Holly (the cat) and I began to notice a funny odor. I started seeing smoke and started checking lights and so forth. It seemed to be coming from around the AC, so I popped the cover off and looked inside. There were flames inside the unit. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and zapped the unit a few times until the flames were gone. Then I had to call my boss and tell her that I couldn't be in. I called the HVAC people and told them what had happened. The receptionist said that it was going to be 1 PM before they could get anyone out here. I said that would be OK, thinking that it wasn't going to be much better with anyone else in this weather. They got here about 3:15 and looked the unit over. There was a leak in the pan, between the coils and the electrical wiring. This is probably what caused the short. The wiring inside was melted and would all have to be replaced. In short, it was going to cost more to repair than to replace. They called a supervisor and he came out about 3:45 to give me an estimate. The total for a new unit would be $2,954.00, more than I had available. They offered financing at about 13%, but I told him I wanted to check with the Credit Union and see if I could get a better rate. He said they could do the work Wednesday or Thursday when I had decided. I thought that I would have to wait until morning to check with the Credit Union, but discovered they were open until 5. I imagine this isn't a surprise to the younger generation, but I still figured banks closed at 3. So, I hurried over there, sweaty as I was, hardly the way I usually conduct business and they not only got me a rate of 10.9%, but deposited the money in my account before I left at 5. I called the HVAC people and left a message with the night dispatcher. About 15 minutes later, I got a call from the supervisor I had spoken to, and he said they'd be out by 8 AM.
They finished the job yesterday, and it was cooled down nicely by bedtime. In the long run, this may turn out to be a blessing, since it gets cold here too, and no heat in January is almost as bad as no Air Conditioning in August.
School starts Monday, and the students are coming back now. This means we will be very busy, but busy makes the workday go faster doesn't it?
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Watching
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Publié :11/5/2007 23h07
Dernière mise à jour :21/5/2007 1h14 15270 vues
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Watching is something we all do, with the webcams, blogs and new member matches. We look in on old friends and friends to be. Because this is an adult site, most of the time we're looking for a reason, looking for something exciting, titillating or sometimes prurient. We all have screen names to conceal our identity, a little like Clark Kent in that way I suppose, I know that in early adolescence I always wished I had x-ray vision, provided I could control it enough to see through clothing instead of skin and bone.
In watching and reading blogs here, I've started to notice that the real people are shining through, still concealed behind their screen personas but the caring and concerned hearts are showing, through the tats and the skin, past the sexy lingerie and the leather, and beyond the fantasy.
Things like V-Tech have people, particularly in university communities like I am a part of, called upon to be more aware of the vulnerability of the young people we have in our care. We had this after 9-11 too, because the impact it had on the entire country could potentially be reflected in this little town in the midst of the corn and bean fields and boarded up coal mines.
It makes me think about this community, the passion community, the alt.com community, whatever community besides this we are a part of. People here are sometimes lonesome, and loneliness is a very vulnerable state.
I think we should all try to be aware of our friends, and take notice of little clues that hint at despair. Thoreau wrote in Walden that "the great mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, confirmed desperation becomes resignation". I tend to fall back on Thoreau and the Bible in thoughtful moments.
Then maybe we should try to interrupt that "quiet desperation" before a good friend, or even a casual acquaintance, becomes resigned to something harmful, to themselves or someone else.
And like the Sarge used to say at turnout time on Hill Street Blues, "hey, let's be careful out there".
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I get a little silly at work sometimes
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Publié :2/5/2007 2h27
Dernière mise à jour :13/8/2008 22h07 15382 vues
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I was re-linking some articles that had become unlinked. It was a class with 60 some articles on the psychology of gender. I was working with a title that referred to "sexual orientation", and started giggling.
I suddenly had this mental picture of a seminar for virgins.
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