Testing AndroBlogger...

so I can blog from my cellphone whenever I think about it....

Testing AndroBlogger...

so I can blog from my cellphone whenever I think about it....

TotallyADD question posed and my answer

Ask Questions
Do you become furious at people who have no idea, know zero information, are clueless about the facts and yet have a very strong opinion about ADHD? Do you find yourself immediately going into the attack mode, wanting to set them straight? Or at least stuff their mouth full with a knotted tea towel?

My answer:
I have a unique angle for dealing with blowhards… First, both parents, my brother, at least one cousin and one aunt on each side of my family and myself all have ADHD. It runs thick in my family, and we all have different abilities, different non-abilities. Mine is primarily a broken circadian clock.. I have no accurate sense of time. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years…what I think was just a few days ago was actually a couple weeks ago. What I thought was just one more hour was actually 4 hours. I have to set reminders to eat lunch and to go home when I’m at work, or I will forget. I am not shy about letting people know that I have ADHD, but I spin it as something I’d never want to give up, ever. It is because I can’t tune out odd noises and notice small movements, I see wildlife that most people would walk by without knowing it was even there. I am able to take awesome photographs because of an eye for the aesthetic that people think is amazing to them, and they ask how I can always get the good shots, how I always seem to catch beautiful photos – It’s because of my ADHD, not being able to tune anything out. If they can appreciate my photography, then they have to accept the reason that I am able to see what I do to photograph it, which is my ADHD.

My appreciation without fear of wild animals is another thing I can point to my ADHD… I go into hyper-focus, where I am so keenly aware of that creature, their actions and reactions to my actions, that I can get closer than most people would dare. 10 yards from a bobcat as it eats? I did it. 15 yards from a Javelina family with babies? I did it. Rescue Rattlesnakes out of people’s yards, then release them back in the wild areas nearby? I volunteer! Impulsive? sometimes, but when it comes to dealing with non-human wildlife, I’m in my element, I am completely focused on that animal, whether it’s a bird, bobcat or rattlesnake. “How do you do it Kat?” My answer, “I am blessed with ADHD!”

It's been a couple months

Since my last post, I finished Wil Weaton's book, it was fun. He has a blog that he writes as well, and he takes a few of the best of his blog posts, and publishes it in a book, with  his thoughts after the fact about what he wasn't saying in the blog at the time. It's an interesting, irreverent look into his mind. I will probably buy a couple more of his books.

I also had bought my husband a Kindle 3 for his birthday in October, which he fell in love with instantly... I did too, so when I was given a gift certificate award at work for my part in a Fed Government audit we had recently had, I used it to by another Kindle 3 for myself. 

At the same time, I bought a couple of books, and though I don't have much time to read, it is easier to find that time when I can slip this Kindle into my purse and go. I am also fortunate that I have the ability to read and walk, so if I'm on the way to or from a meeting across the building, I can read along the way without running into anything or anyone.

The first book I have been reading is "Einstein's Cosmos:How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time" by Dr. Michio Kaku. I also bought his "Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel". Apparently Dr Kaku likes long book titles.

What I truly appreciate about his books and his TV series on the Discovery channel is that he is able to write in such a way that it brings the daunting subject of physics, especially theoretical physics and quantum physics to the average person. I've never taken a physics class, even my high school science class didn't really delve much into physics, but I understand the basics.

I was also able to download Einstein's "Sidelights on Relativity" and "The Einstein Theory of Relativity" by H.A. Lorentz, though I think that these might be a little more difficult to comprehend. We'll see...

Geeks Rule

So, I am reading "Just a Geek" by Wil Wheaton, and occasionally read his blog because he's just darn funny, and has a wonderful writing style.

Also, my immediate family is nothing but geeks. My husband loves to go gaming once a month, and frankly, I'm surprised that they don't meet twice as often.

So, when I read this post by Wil, I could relate, and I laughed, out loud, and showed my husband.

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2010/10/testing-the-theory-that-one-can-not-have-too-many-dice.html

Another Religion Rant...

There is this article, linked here, that had a comment by someone calling themselves "shahid b"
This person, upon reading that Druids are now officially recognized in Britain as belonging to an official religion for purposes of taxes and charities, spouted such vile hatred toward anyone non-Christian that I was compelled to reply. This is my reply, as posted in the comments.
_________________________________________

Shahid, I thought that followers of Christ were supposed to have compassion, and yet, I don't see any of this in your post. I see hate and bigotry. How sad. It seems to be something that has gone viral through the Christian community, I don't think it's curable with penicillin, but may be alleviated with time, education and desire to really follow Christ, and stop the "Old Testament" casting of stones. You should examine your own heart, are you without sin? Doesn't the bible say something about this? (As a Humanist, I'm not going to quote chapter/verse without googling it, but I know enough about the stories within the bible to know that it is only he who is without sin who could pass judgment on another.) 

There is too much bigotry and hate in this world that is based in the age-old (childish) "My God can kick your God's ass" rhetoric (I guess biological fathers are replaced by spiritual fathers once a person is beyond physical childhood. (Mental "childhood" is debatable at this point.)  Oh, and don't bother replying that your God can kick my God's ass, or however you want to phrase it, until you at least look up what a Humanist believes.

I have seen a lot of religion- based bigotry in this last year, just in the United States, and it sickens me to the core. I fight this ignorant rhetoric with rational dialogue whenever possible, and have defended many different religions that are under pressure from so-called Christians such as yourself, and yet,

I personally don't believe in the religions I defend so vehemently. I've defended Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and every other religion found in the US, as their followers have every right to their beliefs just as Christians have their right to believe as they have. Fortunately, in the US, I have the right to believe in no higher power, creator or God, by whatever name people choose to call the one they follow.
_____________________________________

I won't go back to see if they bother to reply, because it's just not worth the effort.I probably should have re-phrased that last paragraph a bit, but oh, well, I honestly and firmly believe that everyone has a right to their personal beliefs, no matter what that belief is, but the violent hatred that has been perpetrated against non-Christian religions has become worse than I've ever seen it before this year, it's disgusting. Why do so many people think that it's okay to express such bigotry and hate?

As my husband is fond of saying, "What's right isn't always popular and what's popular isn't always right." He's right. 

QRCodes R Cool

 Just created a QRCode for my Photography Deviant Art page.



Android has a cool app that will read any UPC or QRC and they can link to just about anything you want them to, and I'm sure that iPhones do too. Very interesting way to get your info out there. I think that I'll put this on stickers to put on the back of my photographs.

Why should someone else make my medical decisions?

Every person in this country has the right to decide what their medical choices are, whether they will refuse treatment because of religious views, or whether they have advised "do not resuscitate" if they have a heart attack/stroke, etc therefore, it is up to every woman to have the right to make this choice about her body, her life, and have her own moral compass to guide her. I made my choice in 1988 and again in 1991.

I did not make my choices lightly, and I was fortunate to not make them alone. My mother supported my decision fully in both cases, but it was still MY CHOICE. In 1988, I chose which family would adopt my daughter, and she's had a wonderful life back East. In 1991, I planned my pregnancy down to what month he would be born. (April) These were my choices to make and mine alone.

I can not pass judgment on any woman for making the decision that she makes, because she is the only one that knows what is right for her. No one has the right to inflict their judgment or their so-called morality on another person when it comes to this choice. If more women had access to contraceptives, and then had the ability to make her choices based on her needs, her specific circumstances, then maybe there wouldn't be such an overpopulation in other parts of the world, or for that matter, here in the US.

The cat's out of the bag!

The cat's out of the bag
This is an interesting Snopes article of how this phrase came into our lexicon. I think that they spelled it wrong, it should be "Kat" LOL but then again this is less suspect.

In my new role at my office, I look for failures in the process system and try to help find solutions to avoid the same failures from continuing. It seems that along with this, I have been shining a light into the dark recesses of the processes that never seem to get fixed and have lately offered some creative solutions that may actually be used. The "powers that be" are looking into the coding of a couple of these things and if it's an easy enough change, it might even make it into the updates before the spring equinox. Of course, I'd be thrilled if it made it into the coding before the winter solstice. I will settle for spring, but continue to hope for winter updates.

I has a Button

It's been a LONG while.

In responding to a blogger's post here I remembered that I had a blog and just have not used it in For-EVER. So, with this, I thought I would share my entire comment in my blog, just in case something happened to my comment, which ended up being sent in two parts.

Basically, their blog is about how their wonderful Pit Bull Rescue is trying to educate people about the bad rap that this breed gets. I personally have never met a Pit Bull terrier that wasn't a warm, gentle, loving animal. I have only met a few dogs that made me nervous, and none of them were Pits, none were bull terriers of any sort. Of course, each one of those dogs was only defending it's territory and it's human from an unknown potential trespasser. So, BAD RAP Blog is run by people who are doing wonderful things to dispel the myths on these dogs and to give them a second chance with loving families.

So, here is my reply to the blog I linked above:

I don't have dogs or cats, but I do have snakes, lizards, degus, frogs, toads, a finch, and 3 tanks of fish - All of which are on both PeTA and HSUS hit lists.

Along with USARK, I would suggest checking out Responsible Exotic Animal Owners www.REXANO.org for some good info on breed specific legislation that they are always on the watch for and fighting, as well as fighting any legislation that PeTA or HSUS pushes to make any exotics illegal. They also are an excellent resource for statistics on just how many human deaths have occurred due to animals. Remember, PeTA and HSUS have multi-faceted attacks against all pet owners, whether they have domestic or exotic animals, and they won't stop at anything less than every human being forced to become Vegan, with no animal companionship of any kind. Domestic and Exotic pet owners must all stick together to fight PeTA and HSUS. One breed or species lost to legislation is one less we all have to love and cherish.

The fact that PeTA and HSUS both seem to be working toward the same ultimate goal is not surprising when you learn that each of their Board of Directors one or two people in common.

PeTA is absolutely dead set on eliminating all domestic animals - period. They don't want farm animals to be raised for slaughter, don't want laboratory animals to help us discover new medical treatments. (Byetta wouldn't be treating Type 2 Diabetics if not for research on Gila Monster venom!) They don't want people to have service animals, like seeing eye dogs, they don't want our law enforcement and military to have K9 cops.

Someone already said it, PeTA is a cult, pure and simple. They warp the minds of all their followers and especially of their employees. I try to educate as many people who are animal owners supporting PeTA because they don't know any better - yet.

as a final note: Ever really look at the PeTA logo... just as I've typed it here, the "e" is always lower case... that's e for ethical, and it's the least important word in their title, or they would have their whole logo in CAPS. They have no ethics, don't care about pets. Murder could never be called a viable "treatment" of animals. They truly are "People Euthanizing Trusting Animals" and it is disgusting.

There really is a difference between Animal Rights and Animal Welfare. Animal "Rights" generally means that all animals have the same rights as humans, and have the right to not be owned (in servitude as slaves)

Animal Welfare generally means that all animals that are under the human's care, or owned by that human, must be treated right, to be kept healthy, clean, well cared for, socialized, and safe from harm.

And then there's the Responsible Exotic Animal Owner, who would not only keep their animals healthy, clean, well cared for, socialized, safe from harm and from harming others, but would also accept full responsibility for anything that happens to their animal or by their animal. Check out REXANO for more information.

They (We) believe that loving relationships can exist between non-domesticated animals and their owners. We believe that as long as a person can properly keep an animal, healthy, well adjusted, clean, socialized, safe from harm and safe from harming others, and the animal was not poached in the wild illegally, or imported illegally, and have all applicable permits then they should be able to keep them. The couple who operate REXANO's website have large cats, legally, and follow all their state's laws, keep their animals safe from harm and safe from harming outsiders. They fully accept the risks as well as the rewards with working with their animals. The majority of Exotics animal owners fully accept the risks of the animals they choose to keep. They fully accept the responsibility of keeping those animals as well.

The minority of exotic animal owners are the ones who we read about in the news, their irresponsible behavior sensationalized by reporters trying to sell their story, who haven't ever considered and couldn't ever imagine having a non-domesticated animal for a pet. Meanwhile, those in the majority wince, because we know that the Animal Rights followers will use that news to create a new fear-laden propaganda machine, and keep those wheels turning for all it's worth. Fear-mongering at its worse.

My Final thought: Every animal owner I have ever known has been completely owned by their animals, they put their own needs secondary to their animals. I know we do in this home.