Are you giving anything up?

Today is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of Lent during which time many Christians give up some sort of vice or bad habit as an act of penance. The three traditional practices to be taken up with renewed vigor during Lent are prayer (justice towards God), fasting (justice towards self), and almsgiving (justice towards neighbor). Today, some people give up a vice of theirs, add something that will bring them closer to God, and often give the time or money spent doing that to charitable purposes or organizations.

I was thinking about these things this morning, and what I might possibly give up, when I came across a story that said that British church leaders are encouraging people to give up their iPods for Lent. They believe this will help save the planet.

They said to give up technology such as cell phone and iPods and also suggested eating by candlelight, cutting meats and vegetables thinner so that they will cook faster and flushing the toilet less often. I actually think I could do all of those except for the toilet thing. I just can't use the toilet and not flush it. Maybe I could put some antibacterial wet wipes in the bathroom and use those instead of washing my hands....that might help save the planet. I don't know though. I just HAVE to flush and wash my hands. It's a good idea even if I can't bring myself to do it.

So how about you? Are you giving anything up for Lent?

A funny & A way to help

Happy Valentine's Day everyone ♥

Reading the news last night while I couldn't sleep, I came across two things that I wanted to share with you today on this day of love. The first one is funny. The second is awesome.

The first story made me laugh so hard I thought I was going to fall out of my chair. It seems that British men don't want to be left out of the "Wonderbra" phenomenon that took over the U.S. several years ago. No, they aren't wearing bras but they are wearing "anatomy-boosting underwear". For real. Would I lie to you?

According to the story "The pants work by using a lift and hold feature at the front, like a male version of the cleavage-boosting Wonderbra. "The briefs mean that no man ever needs to feel inadequate again on the most passionate day of the social calendar," said Rob Faucherand, head of men's accessories buying at Debenhams (a British department store that has seen a 76% increase in sales of the underwear in the past week). "However we can't be held responsible for what happens once the pants come off," he added."

Personally I don't notice a mans "package" until after the pants are off...haha! I wish them luck though. Hopefully it won't cause their romantic evening to end short. :)

Ok, sorry, I couldn't help myself. On a serious note though, the second story I read totally made me feel good in an it's-an-awesome-way-to-help way instead of a falling-out-of-my-chair-laughing way.

Stars have united to remake Michael Jackson's We Are The World song/video 25 years after the original to aid Haiti in their time of need. The video is so cool to me. I love how they incorporated rap and Haitian music into it (I'm a big fan of just about ALL genres of music). You can download the tune and donate for Haiti relief. Here's the video. Enjoy it and donate if you can. They need our help.

Much love to all my Blogland friends. Happy Valentine's Day ♥

The cows are at it again

You may remember a story I wrote back in January about cows attacking people in Colorado (if you don't you can click here to read it). In that story the lady was just injured by a cow that was protecting her calf. Now the cows in Britain are not only attacking, they're killing.

Four people have been trampled to death in the last two months while walking their dogs near grazing cattle in Britain's main farming area. In the last eight years, 18 people have been killed by cows or bulls in Britain. That's scary.

I know it's not a large number considering that Britain has 7.5 million cows but that's still a lot of people to me. I grew up around many different types of animals and have had first hand experience with cows but I never saw one get aggressive.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) said that "cows can become aggressive and charge, especially when calves are present and walkers are accompanied by dogs." Aren't dogs used to help herd cattle? I believe they are. I've even had a COW DOG in the past. Why would the cows suddenly become enraged by dogs? Maybe they're tired of having dogs nipping at their hooves and running circles around them. I don't know.

I do know that would be a horrible way to die; under the feet of a very large animal. My heart goes out to the people that lost their loved ones.

I also wonder if Britain has dog parks like we do here in America. I would think that would be a better place to walk your dog then in a field full of cows. I know I wouldn't be in that field.

For the love of words

I have an obsession with writing which is probably painfully obvious to everyone that knows me. I also have an obsession with writing well, properly, in the correct way. I would never dare to try to claim that I write perfectly. There are many times I feel I’ve completely botched sentences, paragraphs or even the entire post.

Punctuation is probably the area I have the most trouble in. I’m not on a second grade level, but sometimes I wonder if I used whatever punctuation I’m lamenting over in the correct way.

One thing I don’t have an issue with however is apostrophes. I love them. I use them constantly. Apostrophes are a sign of possession. I read somewhere a long time ago (and cannot for the life of me remember where now) that in families with multiple children the oldest is more likely to use apostrophes while the youngest rarely uses them at all. I am the oldest; perhaps that explains my love of apostrophes.

Now knowing my love of apostrophes, it should be no surprise that I was intently interested in a story I came across this morning. The headline read: Its a catastrophe for the apostrophe in Britain.

Of course the first thing I noticed was the word ITS. It’s wrong. It’s means It is. Its means that ones something. For example I would say it’s not that big of a deal (It is not that big of a deal) or I would say the blue color is its signature color (the blue color belongs to that thing). I would not say it the other way around. It would be impossible for me. It would cause me typing pain.

Britain does not agree with me. They have been slowly removing apostrophes from street signs since the 1950’s. They believe they are confusing and old fashioned. What? How is punctuation old fashioned? Confusing I understand. Old fashioned, well, that just confuses me more.

Considering I will probably never make it to Britain it really doesn’t affect me but it does irritate me. It’s somewhat of a pet peeve of mine. Spelling and punctuation in general are things I attempt to pay attention to 99% of the time.

I read a lot of different things both online and off and I am constantly finding errors. I wrote a post on using Spell-check some time back but now I can’t find it so I’m assuming it was on my old Crazy Life site. That bites. It was a good one in my opinion.

The story from my news feed said the Queen’s English is now the Queens English. Not to me. I will always say it’s the Queen’s English thank you. I cannot and will not drop my apostrophes.

I wonder what’s next… Perhaps someone will decide we don’t need commas. After all they don’t do anything important except tell you when to pause while reading. That’s not necessary is it?

Facebook: A reason to kill?

In the virtual world, Facebook is at the top of the list of social networking sites. Millions of people all over the world connect through Facebook every day. On the front page it tells you that "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life". It also encourages you to participate by announcing "It's free and anyone can join".

I have a Facebook page. I think most people know that if it's available online, more than likely I have something there. I enjoy my time on Facebook. I play several of the games. Sometimes I write there, although most of my writing is here on Blogger. I keep up with several family members and friends that live far from me. It is a connection site for me.

And it is a connection site for many other people all around the world. I came across this story out of Britian last night about Facebook. A 41 year old man became enraged when his estranged 26 year old wife changed her status on Facebook to single.

Sarah Richardson moved back in with her parents back in April of 2008 because she had decided her marriage to Edward Richardson was over. She had stopped responding to his calls and texts and changed her Facebook status to single. Edward then went to her family home, broke the window in the front door and attacked and murdered her in her bedroom.

After stabbing her to death he attempted to take his own life but failed. On Friday Edward was convicted of the killing and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The headline of the story from The Independent was 'Life for wife-killer enraged by Facebook change'. Well I'm sorry but 18 years is not LIFE. He'll be 59 when he gets out of prison. 59 doesn't seem old to me. It seems like he'll have a lot of life left to live after his "life" sentence is completed.

According to the Wikipedia free encyclopedia, life imprisonment time varies from country to country and ranges from a minimum of 7 years to the death of the prisoner. Some countries have banned life imprisonment saying that it violates human rights.

What I want to know is what about the human rights of the people that were murdered? Did they not have the right to live their lives until a natural death occurred? And why does the person that took someone's life have more rights than the person they killed? That's basically what I feel they are saying. We know you killed someone and violated their right to live in the most heinous way, but we don't want to violate your right to live your life. We'll just keep you here and feed you for a few years and then we'll let you go...if that's alright with you.

Why worry about what they deserve? They MURDERED another human being. That person has no rights anymore to me. They don't get to decide anything. They ended someone's life therefore I believe their life should be ended too. Not just 18 years worth either. Forever.