Ever since I left my teenage years, my mom has been getting smarter and smarter. She recently suggested that due to the repeated borking of my blog, that maybe I should post pictures on Facebook. Who knew my mom would be so au courant? Okay mom, I posted some pics from our visit to the Kangaroo Conservation Center. I’m on Facebook under the ever-so-witty name of Kim Alderman. Same goes for Twitter. I’m so clever with the pseudonyms.

Dave & Dan have a more, well, let’s call it a more cynical view of business and capitalism than I do. But I do agree with them on some facets. A recent op ed by Paul Krugman summarizes some of these issues in a much more well-stated piece that I could ever write. Guys, read this and use it when people blather on about capitalism and for-profit being the cure for everything. Nothing like having a little backup from a Nobel-prize winner.

Stacey, sorry I never got you that little paper I wrote for Sherman addressing his fears about a single-payer health system. Here you go!!

We are on the last week of summer vacation here. I think I got all of Devin’s back to school supplies together — it was quite a list. The only thing I still need is hand sanitizer. I read a recent article about all the toxic crap in our household cleaners, so I’m going to pick up some CleanWell sanitizer. Once Devin is back in school, I think I’m going on a purge mission under our cabinets. Yuck, we put tons of crap in the air and on our household surfaces all in the name of being clean.

Today is my brother’s birthday. For the longest time, I didn’t really get my brother. He has a quiet, calm nature and yet people flock to him as though he’s the life of the party. Unlike me, he can learn any physical activity with ease, from drawing to musical instruments, from motocross to snowboarding. I used to wonder how he couldn’t spell his way out of a paperbag but he was the star student in a highly technical medical program. How is it that if I email him three questions I *might* get an answer to only one, but he could self-learn and excel at multimedia & web design? He is currently looking for some descriptive text to describe himself on his website, so I thought maybe my ponderings on the nature of Dave could help:

Dave is the quintessential right-brain dominant thinker. His mind combines all the sensory inputs of a moment in time: the light streaming through the window, the sound of kids playing in the backyard, the smell of bread baking. He then has a collage of that time and space, and his relationship to it. He sees the big picture and how we are all connected. Our right brain enables us to be spontaneous, creative, and imaginative. For Dave, this is how the world exists — the moment of now is timeless and abundant. And this is the quality that makes Dave’s photography so evocative and emotional.

Happy birthday, big brother. Sorry it took so long to understand you, but it was certainly worth the wait.

When we moved to Atlanta, we got a 30-year mortgage on our home so we still had about 27.5 years left. This morning we refinanced at a significantly lower rate of interest for 15 years. Because of the lower rate, our payments are actually the same (okay, it’s actually $14 less but I didn’t want to rub that in). And now the mortgage will be paid off in 15 years. So we just knocked 12 years off the time to paid-in-full!! /happy dance

We also had the yard cleaned up yesterday (thank you Lawn South) and I did thorough cleaning of the first-floor rooms. I also rehabbed the pool so it is a sparkly blue. Ahhhh, we will be grilling porterhouses for dinner and eating out by the pool. The weather in the evenings is gorgeous right now. Yes, I am spoiled. Yes, life is good.

On a tangent, I was thinking about how lucky we have been with Devin’s kindergarten teacher, Ms. Pasquarelli. Last week their letter of the week was the combination -ing. They had a worksheet that came home showing how they added the -ing suffix to different words, and how sometimes you drop the last e (bake to baking) or add another consonant (run to running). I thought that seemed pretty good for kindergarteners. Well, in her weekly newsletter, Ms. Pasquarelli explained that the lesson was originally going to just be the simpler words, but the kids were so curious about other -ing words they were seeing in books, she decided to expand the lesson. Awesome! She could have just said “You’ll learn that in first grade” but she took the opportunity to follow the student’s natural curiosity. I hope Devin’s teachers are always so supportive of the desire to learn.

Just got back from Spring Break in Florida with my son, and who knew? Other people like to go there for Spring Break too. Lordy, nine hours between Atlanta and Tampa is just not fun times, trust me. But it was worth it! We got to see all my family and all my husband’s family in the area; quite a feat, I tell ya. And being away does make you appreciate home even more. A special thanks to my Mom and Richard for playing such fantastic hosts — love you guys! Side note: Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D is totally worth it. I didn’t realize a full-length 3D movie would look that good.

Something dawned on me today. I have a lot of women in my life that are amazing. Some are family, some are friends, and some are even strangers that have enriched my life. In no particular order, I am very appreciative of the following women:

My mom, for being a raging Democrat who is always in the know about current affairs. She definitely keeps me on my toes.

My sister, for her envy-producing self-growth. She is constantly pushing herself to new goals.

My aunt, for her strength and perseverance. She is willing to move mountain and oceans to help her family; lord help the mountains and oceans.

My friend Sharon Linne Faulk, for her understanding and support. She tolerates my crappy attentiveness, and always welcomes me back when I’m ready.

My brother’s friend, Tracy Winter, for her talent and work ethic. She is a fabulous artist and graphic designer, and is probably one of the hardest workers I know.

My guild co-leader, Jen, for her patience and kind nature. She has tackled a difficult job with grace and humor.

My favorite blogger, Janet Phillips, for creating an amazing website and resource for digital scrapping. She saw a need and has exceeded all my expectations.

My favorite media personality, Rachel Maddow, for her intelligence and insight. She makes the hardest subject seem interesting, and actually makes news enjoyable.

I’m sure there are more, but those came immediately to mind. Phew! I’m lucky to have all these ladies adding to my life.

Is it possible that fair and balanced reporting results in an unbalanced presentation of reality? Bear with me here as I go through this little exercise. I think *most* legit news sources try to present multiple views of important issues. However, by giving air time to opinions that are marginally held (at best) do they give weight and strength to those opinions? For instance, while it is true that a small percentage of scientists disagree with mainstream beliefs related to global warming and the human-impact, does mentioning these few outliers give the nay-sayers something to latch onto? “See? I told you! Those scientists agree with me!” I’m not sure what the solution is, but I was just wondering if this bothers anyone else.

Next ramble: education. It seems everyone and his brother feels U.S. public education is in dire straits. But how to fix it? There is no shortage of ideas, but nary a consensus. Presentation Zen has a great entry with links to TED presentations on education. This is truly high-level stuff, but don’t we want to get to a higher level?

Despite all the doom-and-gloom about the state of education, I feel truly blessed. Devin’s school and teachers are wonderful, and I am amazed at what they are learning in kindergarten. This week they learned about U.S. symbols, like the flag, Statue of Liberty, bald eagle, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial. Devin was excited each day to tell me the facts he learned, and last night at homework I was happy to find out that he knew the Pledge (every word correct, not just the general sound, lol) and who was our 1st and 16th Presidents. He knew many of the places that President Obama had lived. Today was Arts in Education day, and professionals artists were at the school to share their passion with the students, from painting to puppetry, from song to dance. His favorite was dancing like different animals to music. I guess there is hope after all.

One of my favorite sources for Adobe product tips is hosting a FREE 10-week Photoshop course starting February 26. Go to the CreativeTech Tips blog for more information. They need at least 1000 people to sign up to make the course viable, so spread the word!

I go through phases with food. My current passions run to some varied choices:

Guacamole – after Robert took us out to Sinigual over the holidays, I have been searching for a wonderful guac recipe. I tried one last week that was pretty good, but it lacked the *WOW* factor. Next time I’m adding cilantro and serrano pepper. By the way, if you are one of those people that say they like avocado but not guacamole, I say you haven’t had the good stuff!

Cape Cod Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Kettle Chips – I’m not a huge fan of potato chips, but these are positively addicting. Just the right amount of salt, crunch, and the pow of cracked pepper. Bet you can’t eat just one (bag).

Salads – I don’t mean iceberg and tomatoes, nor do I mean the over-loaded restaurant variety. I’m talking some baby greens/herbs, some fruit (strawberries have made it on most of mine), a palmful of walnuts, maybe a little sprinkle of Gorgonzola, a tablespoon of low-fat raspberry vinaigrette, and fresh ground sea salt and black pepper. Yum; I could eat one of these every day.

Pork butt – Sounds like just a cheap cut of meat, and one of it’s attractions is it’s price point. But holy moley, when Sherman grills one of these, it is juicy, tender, delicious — and makes fantastic leftovers.

So, what are your current food favorites?

Okay, time to check up on my character progress from last week. I’m quite pleased if I do say so myself:

• I reached Ebon Blade revered and got the new helmet enchant.
• I went through Friendly and am now honored with Sons of Hodir. That opened up 2 more dailies, yippee!
• Instead of crafting an Icestriker Cloak (a 15 DPS gain), I used my tokens to buy a Hammerhead Sharkskin Cloak (48 DPS) and got it enchanted with +22 agility.
• I regemmed my gloves with a Deadly Monarch Topaz; it did have some low-level gem in there.
• Got lucky on drops this week: Webbed Death for melee stat-stick, and best of all, a Strong-Handed Ring!
• My rogue can now fish in Northrend and has been busy fishing up Dragonfin for my buff food. I also leveled Phly’s cooking so now both of them are doing the daily cooking quests.
• What the heck was I thinking? My pet doesn’t need Mammoth Treats but instead Kibblers Bits! I farmed a bunch of Buzzard Meat to keep my kitty buffed.

All in all, I think that was decent progress for the week. Here is my new gear wish list:

gearwishlist_feb11.xls

There has been a lot of talk recently about the excessive compensation that was rampant in Wall Street. The stories of million dollar bonuses and extravagant office remodels, in the midst of an acute financial crisis and government intervention, seem to point to an industry severely out-of-touch with average-America and demonstrating an inability to self-regulate. But I’m not naive enough to think there is only one side to this story, so I’ve been trying to read opinion pieces that tell a little more of the story. Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial about this subject. They noted that the New York comptroller’s estimate of $18 billion dollars of Wall Street bonuses in 2008 included everyone, from secretaries to CEOs. They further stated this represented a decrease of 44% from the previous year, “the largest percentage decline in 30 years.” Well, they satisfied me a little bit, until I realized that most executives weren’t seeing a 44% decrease. Guess that means the little guys got hit the hardest.

This weekend, Roy Smith had a piece in the WSJ entitled “Greed is Good.” While I don’t like the title, he made some good points about the pay for performance model that was originally implemented among Wall Street firms back in the day of partnerships. He wove an interesting tale of changes that occurred as private partnerships became public corporations, and as strict performance-based bonuses became guarantees in order to attract the stars. Both of these pieces are well-written and provide additional facts that paint a more robust picture of the capital-markets industry, and the necessity for a compensation model that may seem unusual in other industries. I guess I’ve had a few points reinforced here:

1. Perception is very important. I don’t care what the reason, but a million dollar office remodel in this environment is CLUELESS. Seriously. I wouldn’t trust Mr. Thaine with my son’s piggy bank.

2. Luring a top-performer by offering obscene incentives does not guarantee you will see the same performance. This goes in sports and well as corporate life. There will always be star performers but they aren’t always the same from year to year.

3. Getting mad and trying to impose restrictions against an industry that no longer exists is fruitless. By the same token, let the light shine on those who make horrendous decisions and then don’t reward them further.

And on a totally different note, here is another of the old photographs I am scrapping for Sherman:

Our GL posted on our forums about raiders needing to be better prepared. I have to admit; I haven’t been as diligent as I should have been. The content hasn’t been overly challenging (well, until we tried Sartharion +1 drake, lol) and my performance has been passable. But when has passable ever been the standard for me? I got too involved with trying to level alts and haven’t spent the time to maximize my raider. So this is an accountability post. I’ll come back in a week and see what improvements I have made.

Helmet – I need to reach Ebon Blade revered for the enchant; I am currently more than halfway through honored. I’m currently using the one from BC. This will require championing (tabard equipped) and doing dungeon dailies.

Shoulders – I need to reach exalted with Sons of Hodir, and I am only barely at friendly! This will require doing the dailies (only 3 at first) and farming Relics of Uldar. Neither my helmet nor shoulder are BIS, but I need to be prepared.

Chest – This should be okay for now. Once I get one of the 3 best chestpieces, I’ll need to spring for Powerful Stats to squeeze out that extra +2 to all stats.

Back – Okay, but need to look at making the Icestriker Cloak. This was not previously a DPS gain for me, but Shandara’s spreadsheet is now showing this as a 15 DPS gain for me.

Wrist – Okay, but saving tokens in case I don’t get the Slime Stream Bands.

Waist – This looks good for now. The spreadsheet shows Torn Web Wrapping as a -9 DPS loss for me, but they are included as part of the Theoretical Best DPS set for SV hunters. So if the drop comes, I’ll roll.

Legs – I think this is BIS. I regemmed today, replacing a +14 agi with +16 agi, and replacing 16 AP/12 Stam with 8 agi/3 MP5.

Feet – Holy cow! I’ve been running around without enchanting these guys after I bought them off the token vendor. What a dork. I’ll slap Icewalker on these for now, with an eye to Superior Agility if I can get over hitcap without the help from Icewalker.

Ranged & Melee – Look good for now, and will just hope for some drops.

I have created a Gear Wish List based off my current gear imported into Shandara’s spreadsheet. I change this everytime I get new gear, but it is very helpful when raiding so I don’t have to evaluate each drop and worry that I’ll miss something.

gearwishlist.xls

The other thing I need to do is make sure my buff foods are the best I can bring. To that end, I am leveling my rogue’s fishing to 380 so she can cook up some Blackened Dragonfin. I also need to farm mammoths so my pet can get some Spiced Mammoth Treats. I have Elixir of Mighty Agility & Mighty Thoughts, but on nights with LOTS of wipes probable, I will continue to use Flasks of Endless Rage. Whew, lots to do!