THE HOBBIT 2012

For someone who professes to only read and see 'feel good books and movies', I was taken to see The Hobbit this afternoon.  I love it.  When the Tolkien series, the Lord of the Rings came out, my grandson was in college and I took him to see them because none of my 'senior lady' friends wanted to see them.  I did.   Now, more than a decade later, that grandson took me to see it with my grandson-in-law.

It had been many years since I had read the book  so I couldn't compare the movie to it.  I was told there were characters added to give a central villain to the story.  Maybe I will find the old dog-eared paper back I believe I still have and I will re-read it, but then again, maybe I won't because it really doesn't matter to me if the movie changed this plot.  The point was made clearly that Tolkien intended.

I do resent that the recent movie about bin laden changed reality and made the claim that torture helped find him which led to his destruction.  It upsets me that history will be contained in the movie as future viewers will believe it.  That saddens me.  However, Tolkien fought his battles between good and evil in a manner that was clear it was fiction, yet the real message got across: Anyone can be a hero, anyone can fight for good against evil, and anyone can choose to fight to save humanity or lose to the evil ones who try to take over the world.  The aallegory is all there in our political process in Washington today.

INTRUDERS INTO YOUR LIFE AND COMPUTER

A great annoyance to me is when I am working on something and an old program I have not used forever, it seems, pops up and wants to update itself.  Being distracted from what I was doing I made the mistake of clicking to update Real Player, which I can't remember last using, and as I clicked I noticed I had clicked a download to Norton Security/  I immediately went to (this computer is still XP) removing programs.  Norton does not respond to remove until after it has done a complete scan of your computer.  It cannot be removed.  It has been a long time since I did a 'regedit' but a few years ago I recall it was the only way to get rid of Norton.  I have a particular abhorrence of programs that will not let you throw them out and want to take up unwanted residence in my computer. 

Some programs that want to update do one the courtesy of a tab that says 'later' and quietly fades away when you are in the middle of something that requires your concentration or speed to finish.  When they don't and just hang in their I want to find the programmer and do damage to that person.  I obviously am not violent but I can fantasy,m can't I?

SO MANYT LIES HAVE OBSCURED REALITY FROM THE MOST IN NEED

The obstructionists are pushing us off the fiscal cliff.

While I wish people looked up what they don't understand, I am convinced a small majority of people do that.  Those may be the ones who use computers; I'm devastated to realize how many do not, see and hear nothing relevant but vote for elections on the brainwashing they get.  If you want to hear what Stieglitz, Nobel prize winning economist, speaks on this video.  Hang in to when you hear a couple of people speaking first.  Click here.

Grover Norquist accuses President Obama of not negotiating.  Click here.  

A small number of people have ever heard of G\rover Norquist yet he runs the Republican party,. Most Republicans who are refusing to vote for a tax raise depend on Norquist's financial support during campaigns.  Without this help, they fear losing their job and have no allegiance to the voters who put them in office, actually.  It is one of the major reasons that we are in such a broken government today.

CHRUSTMAS IS NOW OVER FOR 2012

There can be no greater thrill today than to see a two year old's face light up at a gift.  There can also be no assurance just what gift can assuredly elicit that response.  My two year old relative was made to sparkle brilliantly and spoke the creatures name for the very first time..'.Sqauky'  reminiscent of the glee decades ago at the original Henson puppets like Kermit the frog, Elmo, and all those others so many children had with which to grow up, learn concepts of interaction with other children, how to recognize and express feelings, how to share and so many of life's lessons.  The puppets have been in 'evolution since and today there is a whole new species called Pajanimals.  When we had the Velveteen Rabbit as a transitional object, life has added many more stuffed animals so that children now have a regular zoo of them.

The second success gift was an electronic piano that plays about three octaves and has  a little microphone.   How quickly a little starlet (ham, that is) learns to use the mike.

I can't imagine how the world survives the stockpiles that must exist of candles, mugs, handmade soaps, and other assorted  staples that keep us all for years.  I never thought I'd see the day when the thrill of Christmas for me is giving, not receiving, but it has actually arrived.  To anyone reading this who gave me a gift, that is not to mean that you should stop giving me gifts...it only means I love to see the joy which usually comes from the faces of children while the adults are more inscrutable.

Now we can look forward to Christmas 2013.  The Mayans were either wrong or no one knows how to read their calendar.  Or are we now living in an alternate universe?

SEASON'S GREETINGS, WHATEVER CULTURE, RELIGION, OR LANGUAGE THEY MAY COME IN

Season's Greetings

Today I will be celebrating the Christmas Holiday simply as a day to spend with family, which is what the day means to me.  I have no idea if there was a Christ, where he was born or when, and whether anyone knows whether I am dead or alive who lives outside our planet Earth.

The dread days of the earth ceasing to exist seem to have passed with no great upheaval.  Anyone who reads this post is being wished a much happier 2013 than 2012 which seems to bear some need for improvement in our current times.

Enjoy a few hours of freedom away from the media beating us down with dire warnings, untruths and many other messages determining to keep us in a constant state of anxiety.  Take a deep breath and tell yourself to relax until you feel in control of your life and have some choices you can make.

EVOLUTYION: WHAT WAS AND WHAT IS

As I get older, I realize all the many states of learning one must pass through.  Whoever designed us was pretty ironic.  Just we finally got it right, we either lose it all to dementia or die.  It would have been kinder if the designer had reversed it so that we were fully developed by age 18 and endowed with all the wisdom needed to make satisfactory life choices.  Then we might have several decades to truly enjoy life fully equipped for it instead groping our way or stumbling though it. 

It would be even better if all people really were made equal in intelligence, health, creative ability and all those good things a few seem to start out with or later acquire.  Speaking of intelligence, would it not be nice if our politicians had equal intelligence and knowledge.  We wouldn't have had men assigned to  science committees who lacked even a basic knowledge of human biology or science in the 21C.  Of course, responsibility also rests with the leaders in the Congress who appoint incompetent people to those positions.

How can we call ourselves a democracy when we have a Supreme Court who ruled that we should allow corporations and the wealthy to buy us our politicians.  Fortunately, the people saw through some of that and voted President Obama into office.  We must consider that there are politicians who still do not believe in evolution.  I heard the comeback of a physician to a patient who came in needing an antibiotic to kill a virus.  The doctor said that 30 years ago a particular antibiotic was used but it will not longer kill that virus which has adapted to it (otherwise known that had evolved).  Another has been developed.  He asked the patient if he would like the one that worked 30 years or the one being used today.