Observations of a puzzling world

Monday, December 11, 2006

An update...

Hello readers. My apologies for not blogging regularly last week. As you may know, I've decided to become a cowgirl and move to the praries ... so that means lots of preparation (on which I will comment further this week). This past weekend I wrote my professional exam - along with about 1000 other people - most of whom were men over 35. I had the privilage of sitting in front of someone who was a "whisperer" - someone who must quietly read each question aloud to himself, writes down his answer, and then quietly read that aloud to himself. I thought I won the jackpot when I heard him whispers his answers! What luck to sit in front of someone who is just giving answers away! The more I listened though - I wasn't convinced his answers were right, so he just became the annoying whispering guy. All the exam invigilators had Scandinavian names (according to their nametags). Maybe there they breed people with a keen eye for cheaters? Or maybe all these people wanted to play a trick on the candidates and just make up names? I would have done that - only I'd use characters from Three's Company.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

You're a mean one...

I don’t think that anyone appreciates being around a mean person. Mean people really do suck. There is no need to be mean … just be nice! I think we’ve all been around people who are mean to us – and it is never pleasant. So in the spirit of the holiday season (since there apparently needs to be incentive to be nice) – everyone just lighten up. Smile at a stranger, say good morning to the coffee shop lady, and hug your neighbor. Spread the love and hopefully the mean people will learn from your excellent example of kindness.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Clementines

I bought some oranges last week ... correction, I bought some "clementines" yesterday - and was quite impressed that this variety of citrus fruit comes in a wooden crate. It just seems so "general store" like to purchase produce in a wooden crate. Rather wasteful though - I've been trying to dissect my wooden crate to determine what type of wood it is made out of. I haven't figured out the mystery though - but the wood is extremely flammable (that I learned with the help of a gas stove). Imagine how the carpentry school dropouts who make these crates must feel when they learn that we don't even reuse the crates but just toss them into the recycling bin. These clementines only come to the shops during the holiday season - but they are accompanied by other orange-like fruit like mandarin oranges. I'm not sure what it is about these fancy oranges, but they are somewhat snobby. The clementines come in a wooden crate, and the mandarin oranges are individually wrapped in a thin green piece of paper. I've seen some mandarin oranges individually wrapped in plastic bags. They sure want to differentiate themselves from the lower class naval orange!