A Day In The Life - Beloved Labelmaker

Ever have one of these days?

Deep Thoughts From An Angry Insomniac

Ok. I have a question about raising your own chickens. I know people do it to avoid eating eggs with hormones and because commercial farms are disgusting and disrespectful. I agree with that - makes sense to me - IF you want to eat eggs. I do eat eggs because I'm still programmed to want to. I now only by cage-free but even that bugs me because I wonder just what that means exactly and then I think I might not want to know.

Thing is, I'm starting to question: why? There are plenty of plant sources to provide the same health benefits, right? So why do we mess with chickens in the first place?

Isn't it disrespectful to the hens to constantly take their eggs from them to eat them even if you raise them to free roam? Or what if you let her hatch some of the eggs and raise a few chicks, is that much better? Why do we even eat eggs in the first place?

Why don't we convert our animal farming resources to produce more plant crops instead? (yeah - Monsanto - but there has to be a way to drive them out sometime)

Perhaps I play Angry Birds too much! LOL!

Squawk!

I'd like to see an Angry Cows game though, because I'm done with dairy milk, personally. I'm still struggling with cheese, yogurt and ice cream though I'm more conscious about it now and looking for alternatives here and there. I've decided, after having breastfed both my children and having to use a pump to produce for the first few months each time -- and having developed a love hate relationship with that damn pump -- that I can never look at cows being milked the same way ever again. I consciously made an informed choice to strap on an electronic torture device every couple of hours in order to feed my babies because that's what I felt was best. Now, don't get me wrong, I like you, but I don't like you nearly enough to make milk for you full time unless you grew inside my body for 9 months. I don't quite understand why we should expect this from another mammal outside our own species let alone forcibly and cruelly for the purposes of mass production of milk that we have no real right to be drinking anyway. It's quite unnatural, scientifically and the whole process is completely artificial at best. It just seems pointless anymore. (Having been a recipient of WIC (never again!) and seeing the dairy gluttony and subsequent waste - it physically pained me having to dump expired milk down the drain :(  and don't get me started on WIC (nutrition my-ass)

There is scientific proof now that we do not require cow's milk to thrive, but our culture hasn't caught up with that thinking yet and our agriculture supply and demand will likely keep it that way for years to come because many people don't know any other way and it's their livelihood. I get that, but it doesn't mean I need to buy into it.

Don't worry, I don't judge you for drinking milk, eating eggs or other meat as I'm still reviewing my own programming code for efficiency and bugs. I do believe in Karma though, so if you treat dead animal meat as a sport and are wasteful and unkind and an angry boar is headed your way while you're unable to defend yourself, I might just quietly say "oink" instead of "run!"

Food for thought: http://www.idausa.org/vegandays/faq.html#q5

Evolve Already

Hand-Made Mac Tip: Wrangle Unruly Previous Recipients

If you're using Apple Mail and are experiencing issues with failed attempts to send out a message because one or more of your friends' email address is borked, then your Previous Recipients may be to blame. Sometimes your Mac needs some general housekeeping.

It's one of those hidden gems in the Mail app that not many know about. Ok, so perhaps it's not much of a gem, but it is supposed to make life easier for you when it comes to composing and sending mail messages. You see, every time you send a mail message, the recipients — people you send the message To or CC or BCC — get saved into this handy-dandy section called the Previous Recipients window. The next time you go to email someone, you can just start typing a few letters of the person's name or email and the Previous Recipients List will serve up a history of all email addresses that match those letters regardless of if it's been stored in your Contacts (Address Book for those still on legacy systems). Unfortunately though, this same "feature" will also serve up any of the incorrect email addresses as well which in many cases, tired eyes may not catch and then all the fun starts. [sarcasm]

These email addresses congregate there like dustbunnies in heat and periodically just need to be swept up and sent away to never never land.

Like my 3-year old now says,

"But, WHY Mommy?"

Because I said so.

Actually, because, if you're having problems sending messages — and I've seen this too many times to count — (which is why I've decided to make it a Hand-Made Mac Tip) it's usually because you have several wrongly entered email addresses hiding in this list somewhere and it's just a matter of time before one of them bites you back.

How does this happen?

Two words: fat fingers.

Ok, one more word: cats.

It happens whenever you (or your cat) accidentally type an email address wrongly despite being absolutely certain that their email address was someoneawesome@theiremailaddress.con

or, how about: someoneawesome@gmal.com

Can you spot the mistakes? Does your cat care? If you answered no to either of those questions, then you've got issues.

Well, guess what. Mail servers can spot the difference but for some dumb reason, Mail collects and stores these boo boos in your Previous Recipients list despite this fact.

Here's how to clean it out and start fresh.

In Mail, select Previous Recipients from the Window menu. In the next window, select all of the addresses in this list and then click the Remove From List button. (Just do it, don't hesitate, be ruthless! Zap them all!)

Now this list will repopulate over time (rinse and repeat), but any badly entered email addresses will no longer cause problems with outgoing messages.

I hope this was helpful and that you feel all sparkly fresh now!

I Don't Suppose Zombies Recycle

I have the kind of six-year-old kid that can handle some deep kinds of adult discussions.

Or so I thought.

I don't know why, but last week during our date night, I mentioned seeing this cool urn idea where you can recycle your ashes and have a tree planted. I think we were discussing recycling. I told him that when people die, they don't need their bodies anymore, so why not grow into trees?

http://bigthink.com/design-for-good/this-awesome-urn-will-turn-you-into-a-tree-after-you-die

He paused and blinked for a bit and then I felt nervous thinking, crap, what have I just done to my six-year-old?!

He had this puzzled look on his face so I sheepishly said, "Well, what do you think about that."

He turned his head to the side looking completely perplexed and said, "So people just need their heads and their legs when they die?"

Meanwhile, Lucian continues to freeze off some major zombie butt in the app Plants vs Zombies. So much for a discussion on reincarnation.

(I tried to convince him to take his pink medicine for the ear infection by pretending it was a light saber that would defeat the germs.)

How Do I Watch Thee? Let Me Count The Ways

I just watched the last episode of Downton Abbey. sniff sniff. I need a hug now. damn show!!

I won't spoil it, don't worry.

Here is something cool though, in my opinion: I watched the first season through Netflix on my Apple TV. Season 2, I watched on my iPad in the Amazon Instant Video app. Season 3, I began watching on good ol fashioned over-the-air TV via PBS which is piped in from a big old mother of an antennae on our roof.

When my husband saw how devoted I was to watch it "straight from the tap" -as in- without a bathroom or ice cream break while watching it at its original air date and time, he became intrigued and started watching it too.

With my husband now hooked on it, I started watching it all a second time from Season 1 in Netflix. Then, since I no longer have an Amazon Prime membership, we were watching Season 2 on Hulu Plus on the Apple TV. Because of that I started to fall behind on Season 3 waiting for Hubby to catch up.

I just watched the last 3 episodes using the PBS iPad app with in-app AirPlay streamed to my Apple TV. The picture quality was wonderful with no lag and I could just set my iPad aside and lock the screen while it streamed the show - commercial free - with the ability to pause when Keagan came in the room (earlier than his usual clockwork 3:00 am)

App Link: http://www.pbs.org/services/mobile/

All this tech to watch a show in which the story is set in the 20th Century just as automobiles, rotary telephones and electricity were becoming standard.

Oh the irony!

In the words of Sh!t The Dowager Countess says, "Now I've seen everything!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs5_E1J_9hY&t=3m22s

PSA: Facebooking Your Parents

Is your mom or dad on Facebook? Perhaps you should consider the following before following:

From OnlineEducation.net Original Link: http://www.onlineeducation.net/2013/01/21/facebooking-your-parents

Psycho Killer Qu'est-ce que c'est - fa fa fa far better

Watch Bloodline, Wired's Video Series on the Taxonomy of Fear in Horror Movies

Get it in iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wireds-bloodline/id594239124?mt=2

I just watched all of the episodes for this video podcast on my Apple TV and I really enjoyed it. I love the short format, organization and attention to detail. Jay Dayrit  and Jordan Crucchiola are pleasant hosts who get their point across in an easy-to-swallow-pill. I really appreciate the psychological thought process in which they engage. It's both humorous, witty and educational. Who doesn't need a dose of life-saving advice like using a broken arm to unlock a fence when you're trapped and fear certain demise?

I really enjoy their wardrobe. Each time I wonder what will come next. On the most recent episode, whether planned or not, I really appreciated Jordan's brown Dexter Kill Shirt. Something about Jay really reminds me of Breaking Bad's Gus Fring! I'll just die laughing if you bring a bucket of chicken to an episode, Jay!

I think you should keep rolling with the wardrobe "easter eggs" as I see them :)
Keep up the good work and remember, it's just a podcast.