ITSOGS

I’m so tired of the same old, same old stocking stuffers that I buy for my kids every year. Over the years, I’ve basically just filled them up with candy and by Christmas night, they both have belly aches from already eating most of the candy. Well, I don’t want to do that again this year so I’m trying to come up with some better stocking stuffers.

I went online to try and find something that would give me more ideas about what to put in my kids’ stockings and when I was doing that I actually came across the website www.clear-internet.com and read through it. After that I signed up for one of the Internet packages for our household on the site.

My daughter is a pre-teen, so coming up with stocking stuffers isn’t so hard. I got her a little manicure set along with some finger nail polishes and lip gloss. For my son, I got a comic book and a coloring book, along with a big box of new Crayons, which he kind of needed anyway.

Bad publicity is something that affects everyone, regardless of where you are in life. The problem with bad publicity is that it can not always be repairable, which in itself can be a death sentence to the one who gets it. Many people in high places hire publicists to ensure that they look good to the rest of the world, sadly they don’t always follow the advise of these individuals, and find themselves on a greasy slope to nowhere. Many celebrities (like Tiger Woods) find it difficult to rebound once they lose their footing, although now on his way back up the hill, Tiger Woods seems to be doing reasonably alright.

There are some situations where it is impossible to rebound from you disaster, in fact it is only a question of which death you would prefer to experience. Will your ultimate demise be embers instead of flames, where you slowly burn out, or would you prefer to go “all at once”? What strikes me as extraordinary is the fact that many of these celebrities waste their money in the first place, paying a publicist to protect them and yet they turn around and fall right into the trap that they were warned about in the first place.

Recently I have been observing quite a few advertisements on the television requesting donations to support animals who are either abandoned or abused by their owners. While I see this as an admirable task, I suspect that it is an expensive proposition to the ones accepting it and maybe why donations are being sought after. I appreciate anyone who chooses such a task, however, I see this as a venture that may not be on the top of many agendas today. There are many people who abuse their pets and while I agree that the issue needs to be addressed, I am pretty sure that the problem is more disastrous for human beings.

I would venture to say that a prominent person or event would go a long way to helping the ASPCA in their attempt to gain more financial support among possible donors. If my memory serves me correctly, the advertisement that has been aired has been engaging the services of an actress who is quite prominent, which is another reason why success may be within their grasp. Another way to curb the abandonment of many these animals is to initiate an across the board plan of “spading”. I know that this is already being done to animals that are being adopted, but we may wish to consider extending that process a bit further.

As most of you probably already know I was taught to play the piano at a fairly young age. My claim to being a professional pianist is the knowledge of playing by air, with absolutely no ability to read the music. It is all about “picking out” the sound and matching it to the tune. What some of you may not know is the fact that I actually considered learning to play the guitar at one time, sadly I realized that I would have a difficult time becoming a very versatile guitarist simply because my fingers were a bit short. I am sure that adjustments could have been made to the guitar, or I could have used a smaller guitar to accomplish my dreams.

The moment that I realized there was a problem, I decided that my destiny would not include the ability to play the guitar, Another time, another place, I probably have made it work, but as fate would have it, this would not be the time. I guess (as I saw it anyway) I would not be able to play a guitar, as much as I thought I enjoyed hearing that kind of music. No, I am not disappointed really, if God wanted me to learn that particular instrument he would have made it happen for me.

One of the more difficult things for me to appreciate is a job that takes away from your personal life, one that can be a very demanding and stressful career. Some of us can be found “locked into” these situations where their job is more important than what they have at home. There are reasons why some people look at life that way and in most cases they are not good. The problem is that spending all that time and energy “on the job” leaves little or no time for a personal life, so unless you are married to your job and have no family, (that you care about) your career needs to be carefully thought about before you choose which one you intend to follow.

Then there are some people that consider a job as a source of income and nothing more. Those individuals tend to live their lives much happier and stress free. With little to burden them on the job, they put in their time, taking nothing home with them as they leave the job site. On their return home, their priority is either spending time with their kids or their spouses for the rest of their waking moments. The question is this, which kind of life would you prefer to be living.