Are you a geek?

SciFi channel aims to shed geeky image with new name.

The comments are pretty negative about this change. People who either a) fit the "geek" image SciFi is trying to bust or b) fit the alleged demographic are both offended. As a 48-year-old female who has been reading scifi for at least 36 of those years, I agree. (I also like video games, BTW, and my teen daughters do, as well).

I recommend reading the comments, though. Some of them are pretty funny and point out things about the name that were apparently missed in the market research. (One person claims that "syfy" in Polish means "things that are stinky.") I liked the suggest of changing the channel name to OOPS, as in "Our Original Programming Sucks."

Some people pointed out that the programming changes (wrestling, anyone?) are what drive people away. Start out by providing interesting, quality programming and gradually get rid of the interesting, quality stuff, replacing it with, well, crap, and yes, you will lose viewers.

But who are the customers to argue with the marketing people? We may be the target audience, but obviously they know better than we do about what we want. Right.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Perhaps they needed something, but they are fixing the wrong thing.

Here we go again

It's 12:45 a.m. Sunday morning. I haven't fully prepared my lesson - not the way I wanted to. I came home and went on Twitter, turned to the History Channel (a show about Einstein) and basically wasted the last two hours.

So I need to either a) go to bed and get up in the morning and get done as much as I can or b) stay up and get done as much as I can, then go to bed and try to get up in the morning.

Either way, I'll be short of sleep - yep, it's Daylight Saving Time. I missed teaching last month - called in sick.

I had a great idea, but it requires preparation and I didn't do what I needed to do. Time passes too quickly. I get caught up in the day-to-day and forget to do the things on my list that don't have specific timelines.

And I make a habit of staying up too late messing around, making myself more tired, needing more sleep, leaving less time to get things done.

A seed of an idea

I always stress out over lessons I have to teach. It's easier in Relief Society, because I only teach once a month instead of every week as I did in Primary. But it's also harder, because I know I'm teaching people who are more knowledgeable than I am.

So there's a mixed blessing.

My next lesson (unless I'm off-track - please let me know if this is the case) is Lesson 27: Beware the bitter fruits of apotasy. I have read through the lesson, thought about it a bit and even watched a demonstration of a possible teaching technique at the Relief Society meeting in Ames last Saturday.

But when I woke up this morning from my skipped-school-to-sleep nap, I had a brilliant(?) idea. It involves seeds. That's all I'm going to say, but my mind is now racing along a track, thinking of the best way to present this lesson with my idea.

I'll read the lesson again (more than once!) and write down my idea in the manual. I also wrote down in the back cover some of the things said when I was set apart and I look at them from time to time to remind myself of the promises. Reading them is comforting when I feel inadequate as a teacher.

Grow your own vegetables

I didn't go to church on Sunday, but Mom did, and she picked up this flyer:

Grow your own vegetables

Those members and friends that would like to grow their own food and reduce grocery bills, consider the Fort Dodge Ward Vegetable Gardeners. We will be involved in planning our gardens, choosing vegetables, preparing soil, planting, tending and harvesting our crops. If you don't have a garden plot, consider growing vegetables in containers - we'll show you how.

We have free gardening seminars, discounts from local nurseries, instruction on food preservation, lots of advice and and a free initial rototilling service to get ready for planting. In the fall, we'll have a harvest potluck banquet with food grown in our gardens. Watch for information posted in our lobby.

The contact person is Dave Mills, but I'm not posting his phone number and email address on this blog. If you are a member of our ward, you can contact me at caysedai (at) gmail (dot) com. (Substitute @ for at and . for dot and squish together. It's so spambots can't pick up my email address.)

Cayla and I have been thinking of having a vegetable garden this year. I've already received verbal permission from my landlady. I'll have to call Iowa One Call ("call before you dig") to make sure there isn't anything where I plan to have the garden. I failed to check last fall to see what parts of the yard are shady. I can do some container gardening in the front yard, too, I think.

Frugal meals

I had been thinking of starting a website about being frugal. Yeah, I know - there are thousands of 'em out there. My niche would be that it would be specifically aimed at this area: Webster County and surrounding counties.

I would list some of the specials at Hy-Vee and Fareway. I would promote Freecycle groups in the area. I considered letting people list their garage sales, but I have a conflict - I work at The Messenger and can't risk cutting into ad revenue.

I still could do this to an extent. I haven't figured it out yet. In the meantime, though, I'll list a couple of sites I would link to in the event I ever get around to doing this.

$5 dinners
A Year of Crockpotting
Frugal Freebies and Deals
Menus for Moms
Hillbilly Housewife (She has bread machine recipes. But I gave Mom her bread machine back ... )
Pioneer Woman
Living on a dime

This is just a random selection of things I have bookmarked. Maybe I'll get around to doing my personal site and have a page or two on this subject on there instead of a full, separate site. I'm conflicted about that, too. I started a site using WordPress, then took WP off because I wanted more control. I can't remember now what it was that made me do that. So, I think I'll put WP back on my site and learn how to make my own themes for WP. My site is sad and bare now. And I had a birthday since then ...

Now it's time to go. I want to try to get a nap today before work. Which means missing school, but work has to come first. I have to work Sunday, too, so I can have next Saturday off for a meeting in Ames. I didn't know the hours for the meeting when I asked for the day off, but that's okay. It gave the person who's working for me on Saturday a chance to have a three-day weekend, and she's happy.

Past my bedtime

I have a bad habit of staying up too late. I'm more of a night person - takes me awhile to get going in the morning usually. I like to be up late. However, my life doesn't make this a good thing. I have to get up around 6 to get the kids out the door to school. I have school myself, and then work, as well. All this makes me very tired.

So when I stay up late, I know I'll pay for it the next day with fatigue. And even though I know this, I do it anyway. I compulsively stay up late to play around despite the consequences.

Guess I'm a slow learner.

Quote this

I just came across this quote: "When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on." It is attributed to Thomas Jefferson.

Really?

The man who wrote: "When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property." and "We hold these truths to be self-evident,—that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; 1 that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." also wrote this: "When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on." ???

That saying doesn't sound at all what I think Thomas Jefferson would have written. If it was from his time period, I would imagine maybe Ben Franklin saying it. But to me it sounds way more modern - 20th century, in fact. To me it sounds like a late '60s to early '70s feel-good saying.

If anyone knows, I'd like to hear where this saying came from. I'm inclined to contact all the websites that attribute it to Thomas Jefferson and correct them, but probably won't bother, even if it wasn't him. It is a slight possibility, however.

Anyway, that's my position today. I don't believe that saying came from Thomas Jefferson until someone proves it to me.