It's way too early O'clock!

So, what am I doing awake, you ask? I haven't the foggiest idea. I woke up at about 5am or so. I don't know why. Probably some random sound or something... *shrugs*

Let the pup out (granted, he's two and a half years old now, but he's still a pup in my eyes) and stumbled back in here. booted up the comp and played a few games of Freecell. I can't yet go back to bed as my back is throbbing and to lay down would simply increase the pain to an unbearable level.

Can't yet go out and get the paper, cause Mom's room is right above my door and she's such a light sleeper that I think if I had my front window open, she'd be awakened by the sound of my typing.

I am not a light sleeper. I can usually sleep through nearly any sound, noise or commotion. However, once in a while, I will find myself waking up for no explicable reason.

Actually, *attempts to engage her brain* since my back is throbbing at me right now, I would imagine that the back pain is what woke me. It did take me some effort to actually sit up.

Yes, it's nasty to be in enough pain to necessitate waking up, yet be unable to actually move the body enough to relieve the pain. *shrugs* This is the wierdness which is me.

I've been getting some positive feedback on the new look of the diary. For those of you who know me or have read me for the past two years, you know that I don't stick with one specific design for too long.

I should probably have been taking "screen captures" every so often in order to make a collage of all those different set ups. But then again, who would really care? It's not like anyone is going to be amazed, centuries in the future, by my cave-wall-scribblings. Heh.

This is usually a good time for me to be posting some vastly verbose entry as my verbal inhibitors are really kind of... well... non-existant. However, I don't really have a topic on which to write.

OH! Not true! I just heard it again, so I do have something to write about...

I've been hearing this commercial, quite a lot lately, for a video tape which teaches children, up to age 11, good manners.

WTF?

It teaches children how to answer the phone and take a message, table manners, respect for property, respect for elders, etc.

This irritates me. Greatly. I'm irritated because 1.) there actually is a need for this product and 2.) that shows that indeed, many parents don't have time to teach their children the basic fundimentals.

It really irritates me that my own niece and nephew really need this video. My niece is 11 and though she is much better off, manner-wise, than my nephew, she's still sassy and she pouts/whines when she doesn't get her way. She doesn't take good messages... none of that.

My nephew is atrocious as far as that whole manners thing is concerned. Neither of them have good table manners. Neither of them even has passable table manners. It's so nasty to watch them, that I won't sit at the same table with them.

My nephew talks with his mouth full, can't chew with his mouth closed, and you should see their plates after they've had pizza. *rolls her eyes* Just a plain cheese pizza and they scrape the cheese off, nibble at the crust and claim they're done.

Do any of you remember being taught manners? I remember that whole being picky about food thing. Sure, I remember complaining about what food I was going to get and then being told, in no uncertain terms, that I wasn't required to eat it.

For instance, I saw this in a "Curtis" comic strip and it brought back fond memories.

The young boy is complaining about the food options, vociferously. His mother tells him he doesn't have to eat it, he should go on up to his room and she'll bring him a jam sandwhich. Immediately he complies, figuring he got out of eating the "icky" stuff.

Upon receipt of the jam sandwhich, he calls out saying that "jamming" to pieces of bread together was not funny.

I thought it was hillarious. And, it's something I would do. You don't like what I've spent my effort to prepare for the family? I understand that. Maybe you don't like my taste in cooking. Regardless, just because you don't like it, doesn't mean that I'm going to hop up and spend another two hours preparing something for your sensitive pallet. I'll just offer you bread and water.

Now, the kind of person I am, if my kid were polite and told me, in a respectful tone of voice, that they really didn't like what I had prepared, and would it be okay for them to have something else... I'd probably make something else for them.

Knowing me the way I do, I'll probably have three or four kids just like me and one or two like my husband. *laughs* Therefore, the kids which are just like me, will have very strong opinions about what they do and do not like to consume.

Regardless, that's wayyyyyy off the mark. It truly irritates me that there is such a need for some video tape to instruct children on how to be polite and well mannered individuals.

I suppose I'm "old fashioned" in that I believe instruction of the children belongs in the home. Meaning, the parents instruct the children. I believe that it is MY responsibility to teach my children how to tie their shoes, how to deal well with other people, how to respect people and property etc.

It is the school's responsibility to teach my children those things I can't teach. Such as, science, history, spelling (obviously) etc.

I figure I'll teach my children to read and do basic math. I'll be reading to my children throughout the gestation period. (let's hope I won't have to be reading to them throughout conception) Heh.

I am a person who does not believe in the power of the State. Perhaps that's not the right phrase. I don't fear the power of the State. The State does not have the right to tell me how to discipline (or when) my child.

I will spank my children if their behavior warrents it. If my child is about to walk off the end of a pier (don't laugh, my brother did that) from which they will most probably drop to their death, you can bet your ass that I will do whatever I have to in order to ensure that my child doesn't kill him/herself.

That means, I'll grab them by the hair if that is all I can reach. I will grab an arm and I might even leave marks... a hand print, something.

I will also be in a world of panic because my heart has just blundered into an impromptu swan dive. Cliff diving at age 10 (my brother's situation)

===Okay... Dan was about 10 or so and we were down at the waterfront. He was just being totally oblivious of everything and anything around him. And, he started walking off the pier. Downtown Seattle, a good 15 or more feet from the edge of the pier to the water below. My brother was not the smartest cookie in the bag.

I think Dad snagged him by the back of the shirt. Dan had one foot on the pier and was supported by Dad's grip. I would not put it past my children to be so completely preoccupied with something else. For my kids, though, they'd probably be preoccupied with a book. Heh.===

Anyway... wherever it was I was going with this... I'm too confuzzled right now to continue. And yes, I mean "confuzzled". I'm not exactly confused and I'm not completely fuzzy. It's a combination of the two.

So, that will draw my early morning entry to a close.

Peace unto thy hearts.

And finally, I'm already planning Joey's next birthday party. I really should make some effort for this one, cause after all, he'll be 21 in dog years. I should get him his own sampler of different alcohols. *grins*

You know, a teaspoon each of Cuervo, Glen Morangie, Remy Martin et al. A little doggy bender. *smirks*

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not actually going to do that. But I think it's a funny idea.