Lots To Talk About Today!

Hi everybody. Today I have oodles to talk about. So much so, that I think I'll overflow (Hey that even rhymes!). So this will be a bit of a potpourri post.

First of all, since my last post was about a very sad and painful subject and so as not to jump all around on bad news and good news (relatively speaking) I will first mention that my FB friend FJ or Francisco Javier Moreno is from Chile so he was affected by the big earthquake. Apparently it was 8.8 at the epicenter which was only 200 miles away from him and his wife Francesca Lores Malonek.

I have to admit to being pretty dense when I asked my usual first FB chat question of "How are you?". I don't follow wars or natural disasters so I blew past the Chilean earthquake news on yahoo. All that registered was there was a big earthquake "somewhere". Didn't want to know more. Don't like following enormous events of catastrophic consequences as it seems so hopeless. So sorry, Francisco. for not even realizing you were in danger.

To all my blog followers who are FB friends too, if you were part of the FB make friends groups that Francisco and I met through as well then consider following his English speaking blog too as I have requested he tell about his personal experiences. The address is http://english-fj.blogspot.com/

For all my blogger/blogspot followers that are FB friends, if you happen to be a friend through the FB make friends groups that me and Francisco met through please consider reading his blog at http://english-fj.blogspot.com/ Then we will know about the personal story and the doable stuff and can support him as a individual friend.

The second unpleasant thing to happen since the last posts horribly unpleasant news is that a dear friend and I had a h-u-g-e fight today. Hopefully not a friendship ending one but it feels catastrophic. It was over some very serious issues. Hopefully we will be talking again in about a weeks time or less.

On the happier front, the news is much smaller and not so important as the bad stuff but it is still good news. First of all, I have to say I am at "22" followers. That number includes a stat bloop but still, it also includes 2 new followers, no actually it's 3. I forgot someone who I also know from FB that just joined within the hour.

The 2 people that I first mentioned are different from all my other followers including the last one. Or at least 1 of the 2 is for certain. That difference is that that 1st new follower from earlier today whose name is Scott is a total random. That is to say that he is not anyone I have directed here myself. He found his way here on his own, presumably from blogger/blogspot. The first person to independently choose to follow me. Yay.

The 2nd person to join today is named Beverly and she may or may not be a FB random. Of course, she could, like Scott be a total random. I have messaged her to see. Hopefully she will respond. Regardless of course it is nice but the total randoms tell me that I can get people I don't know. The measure of a truely successful blog, I think.

The 3rd and final person who is definitely a FB random friend is named Randy (Attention Whore) or should I say fellow attention whore. LOL. I joined Randy's blog on Blogger/Blogspot too but I should tell you that he is now basically on a different site for the most part called, I believe, Multiply. Nevertheless, if you want to check him out here his address is http://scribbbs.blogspot.com/ and remember that there are 3 b's in scribbbs.

The rest of the news is quite random and can serve as fodder for subsequent posts perhaps after a brief mention. First of all, I take some pride in successfully downloading the application limewire yesterday night. The pride is because as I probably have pointed out I am basically technologically illiterate. That is why the blog has only words and no pictures or bell and whistle add on's (yet - I am determined to eventually try to add some).

There was a fly in the ointment though. It seems either limewire as a (in my case) free service is quite virus-ridden and is the reason my computer has kept crashing repeatedly today. I was also willing to blame it on the toolbar I added called add-it I think (don't know as I deleted it when the problems continued "to be better safe than sorry"). Unfortunately, this companion to limewire (yes they are somehow connected I think) when it came off allowed limewire to add itself as a toolbar against my express wishes. It just appeared! And with no delete button unlike the other toolbars. So limewire is likely the problem.

This is a problem as I like the service itself despite the annoyance of not being able to find a delete method for songs that wrongly get downloaded. They are like a would-be old boyfriend or girlfriend that won't go away! If anyone here is more computer savvy than me, please suggest a way to delete these without deleting the whole program and my new library of songs that I spent a great deal of time downloading and don't want to lose regardless.

I guess my Toastmasters training should have taught me about the sandwich method of speaking. Good, bad, more good. Because in spite of my best intentions to talk about the bad news first the limewire thing was a mixed blessing. A very mixed "blessing".

Not to mention I forgot about another fairly big bad thing/annoyance. I was told by a friendly acquiantance who I have daily contact with about a free concert of "Cuban music" to be held at a Chinese Baptist Church as the venue. When I got there I quickly realized from the powerpoint presentation displayed while we waited for it to start that it was actually a "gospel extravaganza" or something. Bait and switched. The music was more christian rock than cuban too. Highly repetitive highly "religious" music where phrases were repeated ad nauseum.

The worst part was that I brought two friends. One of whom has a daughter who I had just the day I asked her to this "Cuban" music event told me was now in a cult. Added to my distaste for "he is merciful, he saves" message when someone in my immediate family is most likely suffering greatly at his end. And I never was too convinced of the message before either. Needless to say, two of us left early when near the end (the last 1/2 hour or so) they got to the praying and the saving.

In fairness, one of the speakers (another sore point - there was preaching along with the religious "Cuban" music) did say just before we left that if you didn't believe not to feel the need to say you did but then again it was rather disingenious I would not doubt as to what went on in the last 1/2 hour.


We ended up in a bar where I treated my neighbor friend to a drink to apologize for the totally upsetting under the circumstances dishonesty. Thankfully, as we talked a little more about her situation she seemed to get some of the stuff off her chest and along with the drink and another she bought for herself while I was finishing mine she said when we got home that she felt a little better. Said the drinks definitely washed away some of the bitterness of the message and the dishonesty.

Well, I guess this will be a reverse sandwich with a dollop of good tacked on top as I will leave you with the fact that along with my music downloads I did a lot of catching up on my blogs I supposedly follow all approximately 250 of them. LOL. And odd news reading on yahoo. And a conversation with a different friend than the one I had the major falling out with who coincidentally was the 2nd one at the "revival". She told me (or rather re-told a story I had forgotten) about a humorous situation with a young nephew that along with the copious blog and odd news reading will provide fodder for many a blog of mine in the next while I hope.

So that, finally, is that. See you in about two.

Carmen