sheepdog

I saw that on the news last night. It was quite a surprise, especially when they mentioned sugary breakfast cerals would also be on the list, when you consider the amount of money spent by huge companys like General Mills that have advertised their fruit loops and frosted flakes on saterday morning cartoons for as long as there has been saterday morning cartoons for kids. The revenue lost to Disney will be huge. Personally I think all this food police business is way over the top. Recent story of the mayor out east, New York, New Jersey, I forget which who wants to ban large size soft drinks for example. And at the same time, adding a step to the legalization of marijuana. I wonder if they have done any studies about how smoking pot leads to obesity? I'm sure it does, anyway, it leads to getting the munchies which will sure put weight on you!

Just another example of why I enjoy Xisto as much as I do. To have a conversation with someone more or less on the other side of the globe is very enlightening and I find it fasinating. With my lifelong exposure to only things in the USA coming here can be a real eye opener sometimes.It's hard to fathom a country that is growing at such a huge rate technologically anyway, that would still be having difficulties with something as basic and important as electricity. When you stop to think about it, everything runs on electricity. I can't think of anything "modern" that does not require it. Imagine the jumps in production and lifestyle improvements something as simple as a good and constant source of electric would bring. Almost seems like India is putting the proverbial cart before the horse. Just out of curosity, where does India get it's power from? In the USA we have a lot of coal fired power plants, and hydro electic plants, and of course, Nuc's. (which I'm still pretty leary about, but that's another topic) It seem to me a shame to have all these great advances and then not have the ability to use them regularly or with any certainy. Does seem pretty silly to me to develople things requiring electric and then not have the electric to use them.

We all know that our pets give us unconditional love and companionship, but what many people don't realize is that there are many health benifits for pet owners too. Scientific studies have proven that pet owners live longer, and stay healthy longer in their older years than non pet owners. Part of which I do beleive stems from the fact that our pets give us a purpose in life, we have to get up and take care of them when there are some days when we would rather stay in bed and do nothing. Going out and walking your dog also give the human partner exercise that increase one's health. It has also been proven that in household with children, those with pets actually have less allergies and other health problems when there has been a pet in the home since the birth of the child. Scientists claim this is due to the child being exposed to the pathogens on the animals which make the immune system of the child kick into gear at an earlier age which protect the child throughout their entire lives

That's great! I wish you well. I just hope you don't have to go so deeply in debt to pay for collage you aren't in hock until you are old and gray. Don't forget to look real hard for any scholarships you can get, and if you do have to get a lone, make sure you do plenty of reasearch and get the best deal possible.

It's funny how time changes your perspective on life and the many inssues that come along during that lifetime. I used to think that in many cases, people who elected to have plastic surgery were silly, insecure and shallow people. Why don't you just accept who you are and the cards you were dealth in life? So what if your nose was a bit pointy or your ears stuck out? Deal with it. Of course, I would concede if you had some extreme case, like a nose the size of a lemon or some major scaring or birth defect that caused you to look like a freak that others stared at when walking down the street, that fixing something like that was ok. Fixing serious problems was fine with me. One example of people going way too far was a story I heard about one woman who simply wanted to look just like a Barbie doll. She had had multiple surgeries, and spent many thousands of dollars. The woman didn't look bad to start with, she just wanted to look like Barbie. That's just silly. Then along came those TV commercials about the new life style lift they claim only takes and hour, and they show the before and after photo's of all those woman, and I find myself looking at them and thinking, Wow! They look so much better, wish I could do that!

Now here's one even I am having trouble figuring out. I have a dog with a very strange fettish. New Missouri regulations state that a dog must have constant access to water, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. My inspector told me I coudn't even legally take the water pan out to clean it and put it right back. How stupid is that? I have to put in a clean pan and fill it and then take the other pan out to clean. Anyway, I've had a running battle with some of my dogs and their bad habits of playing in their water, or playing with their water pans and dumping their water out. Most of the dogs are pretty good, but I have a few that are a real challenge to keep in water. I fooled one by putting a brick that had one side broken off so I could put one edge of it in the water pan to keep the dog from dragging it off and dumping it, now it's too heavy for her to move and the drag of the block that is not in the pan makes it almost impossible to drag away. But one dog really blew my mind. Big dog, Giant Schnauzer to be exact, just insisted on getting her front feet in her water pan and digging out every drop of water. I made a special trip to town just to get her a new, deeper water tub, figuring that if it was a bigger pan she couldn't dig it out. Wrong. I got her a nice big pretty metal tub, put in it for her and filled it up. Instantly her feet went to flying and the water was gone in less than a minute. So I filled it up again, and right back after it she went, and promptly emptyied it again. I thought surely after a third fill up she would get tired of the game, but I was wrong again. By this time I was getting pretty aggravated, and it was well past lunch time so in total frustration I headed for the house to get a bite to eat. Checked my email too while I was at it, and then later after the hired help had gone home I headed back down to resume the dog fight over the water pan. When I went to look, I was really pissed off to see that my pretty new water tub was gone, and the dog had one of the old black rubber tubs that the inspectors had *BLEEP*ed about because the dogs had chewed on the edges a little bit. Luckily the help was already gone because I was cussing them for putting the old tub in there, since I would get wrote up for it being chewed just as easily as I would for the dog not having water. While I was raving over that, something suddenly dawned on me. The old tub still had water in it. Yes. Water. In the pen with this lunatic of a dog. I watched it the rest of the afternoon, and then checked first thing the next morning and it still had water in it. I asked the hired man what made him but the old tub back in and he just said it was an idea that he had. I still can't for the life of me figure out why the dog would dig the water out of the metal tub and not the black one. I did read in the pet thread about how some folks were feeding their dog on a silver dish and it barked at it's reflection, but these metal pans are shiny, but don't really have a reflective coating on them so I don't think that's it in this case. Luckily, I had another black rubber tub I was using for some other dogs, that was still in good shape, so they got the pretty new shiny tub and the trouble maker got their black rubber tub. And she has had water ever since. Go figure. For the life of me I can't figure it out.

I don't think you are going on at all. And it doesn't mean you aren't tough either. Since I do raise pups I see a lot of people going threw exactly what you are going threw. It is a lot more common than you think. And it's not even a man/woman thing, men are sometimes worse at grieving over a lost pet than woman are. My sister in law had to give her hubby some tranquilizers when they lost their pug awhile back. It is good that you have other pets in the house to fill in some of that painful void you feel now. But I know you still miss that one that is gone now. And you will for quite some time to come. Just don't let your grief be a cause for concern about your own mental health. What you are going threw is quite normal.

Thank you for the link. It's probably too late to order seeds for this year, but I just may have to break down next year and order some. I did break down this year and buy a package of regular white cosmos seed to plant in one of my smaller flower beds. I have always planted my cosmos in the big flower bed, and the purple shades are so predominent, there was hardly ever any white blooms, so I've tried for several years now to save more white seen, but it just doesn't seem to help for some reason. Sometimes I actually think the white plants seeds will end up being purple when you grow them the next year. Kinda been driving me crazy.I hoped some new seed would come closer to staying white since it woudln't be gettting any cross polination from all the purple blooms.

Yes, I think 1 1/2 is still pretty young to be getting concerned about. If you decided a doctors visit in in order, don't forget to have his hearing checked. Children with hearing problems tend to be less vocal. Don't forget to encourage his speaking. If you tell him, "do you want a cookie?" Unless he actually says Yes. don't give him the cookie. I remember a story about another child who never spoke, when ever she wanted something she just pointed at it and her parents got it for her. She was 3 years old or more and was not speaking, simply because she didn't have to. Finally her parents put their foot down and stopped getting things for her until she would actually speak for them. I guess it was pretty rough for a little while, but the child finally caught on and began to speak. Matter of fact, she actually became a real chatter box and wouldn't ever shut up, to the point her parents wondered if they hadn't messed up by getting her started!

Yes, I would say that you are definatly confused. You really brag on your current boyfriend, about how great he is and how close you are to him, and admit that you were never that close with your former boyfriend. So I really don't see your cause for confusion. It seems to me pretty obvious that number 2 is the better of the 2. Why did you break up with no. 1? Did you learn something about him, or even yourself about what you do or do not like in a mate? Did he have some habit you couldn't bring yourself to accept? We all learn from our experiences in life. It sounds like you are seeing the improvements with your second boyfriend, which is good. Now I'm sure your first boyfriend has some redeming qualities, or otherwise you wouldn't of been attracted to him in the first place, but now you've moved on to something better hopefully, so it might be best if you accept things and move on.

So very sorry to hear about Mozart. It is so hard to loose one after that many years of their company. But you did what had to be done, and you did the right and kind thing. The vet was right, he would not of lasted much longer anyway, and I'm sure he was suffering by that point. Enjoy your memories of him. I'm sure you have many of those. It will be hard at first. I remember it was weeks and weeks before I stopped looking down at my feet and for just a second found myself wondering where Ebony was, my last pet. She had been stuck to me like glue for several years, though not nearly as long as your Mozart was with you, so I can imagine how miserable you are right now.

Glad to see you back, and a big CONGRADULATIONS on graduating high school! Good job!

Man, you young pups make me feel old as dirt. I still remember PARTY LINES!!!!I especially remember these 2 old ladies that were on our party line, and every single week they would get on the phone and yack for hours and one of their favorite subjects was whatever they had seen on the Tom Jones show on TV the night before. They would go on and on about how vulgar and nasty he was. But what I always thought was so funny about it was that even though they thought he was the naughtest thing in the world, they sure did watch his show every single week! Wouldn't those poor old ladies have a heart attack if they saw what TV was like today? Back then the companies that made bra's couldn't even show a bra on a live human, they had to use plastic maniquins. Not at all like today when companies like Victoria's Secret show models in underware!

Now we are getting somewhere! With all the talk about air pollution and the high cost of gasoline Tata Motors of India has come up with a real winner! At least I hope we are, I got an email from my aunt about this cool car, and you know how it is with emails, you never know weather its real or faked, but I’m hoping this one is real. Tata Motors has designed a car that runs on COMPRESSED AIR! Imagine that! NO pollution folks! And the air coming out of the exhaust is quite cold, and can be used to run the air conditioning. The car body is fiberglass of course, and it’s glued together instead of being welded. I’m not real sure I like that part. I’ve seen the remains of a few fiberglass cars after a bad wreck, and they pretty much just turn to dust. One of the first things I noticed is that it doesn’t look so much like a roller skate on wheels, like so many of the new gas saving or electric new cars they are coming up with. It actually looks pretty roomy, much like our popular mini vans. It uses a microprocessor to control all the electric functions of the car, and a tiny radio transmitter to send signals to the lights and turn signals and all the other things. It doesn’t even need a key! The car works on an access card that it can actually read even if it’s still in your pocket. Now how handy is that? While it’s top speed is only 60 miles per hour, one big advantage of this car is that it gets nearly double the distance from a charge up of its air compressor as the current electric cars get on a battery charge. They will be getting compressors set up in locations around the area, local gas stations that will fill the car nearly as quickly as filling up with gas, or you can charge it up at home with it’s on board compressor in 3-4 hours, which isn’t all that long either. And talk about simple to maintain, all you have to do, aside from filling up the compressor, is change out one liter of vegetable oil (imagine that!) every 30,000 miles. I like that vegetable oil part. Sure be nice for the farmers to have some benefit as opposed to the big oil companies. The cost of the car in India will be around 365,757 rupees, or $8,177 in US currency. I don’t know if they would be imported to the USA for that price, but even if it was close to that, that is really cheap according to what most American cars costs these days. The car is set to be released in August of this year. I am anxious to see just how well the car does and how it works. You know sometimes things look good on paper but out in the real world they just don’t turn out like the designers had hoped for. I’m sure there will be some bugs that need to be worked out, but all in all it looks like a big improvement on the other options we have now for efficient and non polluting cars.

Yup, you guys have it figured out. All that time spent in front of a computer screen or with your phone in your hand is time that you don't spend in real contact with real people. People are not the same in person as they are on the computer. You can't learn to deal with real social issues from a chat room. I'm not sure you can learn much of anything in a chat room, except that you may discover there are a lot of really nasty, evil and quite rude and stupid people in the world. Every time I have been in a chat room somebody has come online and started talking pure trash, just to upset people. It's so stupid. I fail to see what they get out of letting everybody know what a moron they are. People, especially young people need to get outside, have real contacts and real experiences and leave those stupid cell phones shut off and the computer off too.

"If you are as old as I am, you probably remember a time when you were grappling with difficulties in convincing your parents to buy you that new touch sensitive cell phone." As old as you???? Seriously? I'm so bloody old I remember when we didn't even have cell phones! Your just a pup!

Well I never would of taken Michelle Obama as a garden enthusiest and certainly not a bee keeper. I wonder how many gardeners the American tax payers are supporting to keep her pumpkin patch weeded? And people who have to work for a living don't really have the energy to play hula hoop. Must be nice to vacation all over the world and play at gardening and kids games and tell other people how to live a healthy life style.

I think denile is one of the biggest problems in ferreting out cases of child molestation. Even if there is evidence that it is occuring, it is hard to believe that memebers of your own family who you love and trust could actually be such sick freaks. To most normal human beings, the thought of harming a child is so repulsive that they cannot even begin to fathom how anybody could do such a horrible thing.

I too find the possibilites that life can exist in conditions far different from those on earth. Didn't they recently discover some type of life forms living in super hot volcanic tubes deep in the ocean? Seems I heard something about it but don't remember any real details about it. But if life can exist in such a hostile contitions, I see no reason why there couldn't be life forms that can exist in conditions much different than we have here.I don't really think their PR department is in overdrive. I think they are actually staying pretty quiet about it, since this is the first I've heard about it, and I even asked Hubby if he had heard anything, since he does watch a lot more tv, especially the news, than I do and he hadn't heard a single word about it either. And in the grand scheme of things, 2033 isn't really all that far off. Heck, we will still be paying off the United States deficiet by then at the rate things are going now! Anybody remember how long it took the probes sent to Mars to get there and start sending back data? I know it was a fair amount of time. So even if it took a probe 10 years I think it would be worthwhile to send it and see what's out there. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Great, glad to see another new face at Xisto! As the previous posters already mentioned, this is a great place to earn your web hosting credits. And it's not too hard to do, just spend a little time visiting with folks and making new friends. And you can even get help with all kinds of problems. If your like me and not all that smart about computers, there are lots of folks here that are. Shoot, we can even help with personal problems, like our dating advice section. No matter what your interests, hobbies, or political concerns, there is a forum here that you can discuss it on. Even if you momma told you never to discuse religion or politics, we do that here anyway. It's all in good fun of course.

Some of you may of read my earlier Road Runner story, well, now I have a new game going.Several weeks ago I kept hearing this strange noise coming from the kitchen. Pretty loud noise, a lot bigger than if it was just a tiny little mouse running around for sure. Hubby was taking a nap, and our dog was asleep beside me on the couch. So I knew it couldn't be any of the usual suspects. So I headed to the kitchen to see what was going on. It was then I saw the blig black crow sitting in the window in the laundry room, which is right off the kitchen. I swear if the window hadn't been closed he would of come right on in. But he did take off when he saw me looking at him. But over the next couple weeks he just kept coming back. Sometimes he would come and peck at the window a couple times a day, and sometimes I wouldn't hear him for several days, but he was still making quite a habit out of his visits. Since I already had managed to befriend a Road Runner, I thought it might be fun to try a crow next. I have heard that crows are really smart and have heard of people makeing pets out of them so I figured I'd give it a try. Now, I'm not real sure what crows eat, but since I do see them pecking at carcuses. I figure they are probably meat eaters. So several days ago I put a slice of lunch meat in the window sill. Of course, for the next few days after that I didn't hear him and the slice of lunch meat just dryed up. It was chicken lunch meat, so maybe while crows are meat eaters, they arent' cannibals? Anyway, this afternoon I heard the now rather familiar pecking at the window again. He (or she, I'm not that sharp on crow sexes) was finally back. He did fly away again as usual when I approached, but this time the lunch meat was gone. But I don't know if he got it or if it just fell off or blew away. So I put out a fresh piece for him. We will just have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, if anybody knows what a crow's favorite food is, I'd sure like to know.

What you really need to do is find some way to boost your own confidence. If you can't get past your shyness to even tell Nick who you have obviously been around a lot for a long time and should feel comfortable with, I don't see how you are going to get up the nerve to start up a relationship with what is basicly a total stranger. A couple dances at a party is nothing like spending all those years in the company of Nick.

It is a great curiosity that as you said, children do not trust their parents and do not talk to them about things going on in their lives. At least a lot of children. I know the reason I didn't, was because I was rather onery as a teenager, and most of what I did I would of gotten in serious trouble so there was no talking to my folks. My parents were without a doubt, quite strict on me. Not that it stopped me from getting into lots of mischief. :)I think part of the problem with the lack of communication between parent and child is that teenagers are trying so desperatly to come into their own, and want to be in control of their lives and be mature. They want to work threw their trouble on their own without input from their parents. They think dealing with life is a sign of maturity. What I don't get is why nearly all teenagers can't figure out that what you do is gain wisdom with time and experience. They tend to think they are smarter than their parents, and they think parents don't understand their difficulties. They don't realize that when they get older they are going to look back at their teenage years and think, Oh my goodness, why was I such an idiot?

This is an extremely difficult situation. And very difficult to know how to deal with. Not only when to start educating your children, but HOW! Starting too young or going overboard with warnings may be nearly as detrimental as no education. You can cause your child to be fearful of all strangers, and have difficulties dealing with any social gatherings or just being out in th public. A child should not have to grow up in a constant state of fear. I know of one little girl who at 8-9 years of age still hangs behind her mother when meeting with people she doesn't know, which is typical behaviour for a very young child of 2 or 3 years old, but not a girl her age. I know her mother pounded the fear into the little girls head. And I do understand why the mother did it, as there is a relative that is a suspected child molester and the little girls mom feared for her daughter. So I don't really blame the mother, but the daughter now has serious lack of confidence. Yes, some education is definatly needed, but this without a doubt is a very serious issue that should be dealt with with the utmost care. Finding the balance between having a child that understands but is not constantly in fear is going to be a very tricky situation. Odd you bring this subject up. Just a few days ago I heard a story that really made me mad. This involves a somewhat disfunctional family, though one quite typical of todays society. Husband and wife seperate. They have 3 children between them. They get joint custody of the 3 children. One parent gets them for a week, and then the other parent gets them the next week. Husband gets new girlfriend, and moves her AND her 5 children in with them. So every other week they have 8 children. Small house, so the kids are all bunked in together any way they can be fitted in. The new girlfriend has an 11 year old daughter. There is some suspicion that she may be molesting the younger daughter of the ex wife. Nothing proven but the younger child has been acting strange and it is a good possiblity that sexual abuse of some kind is going on. Family services is notified, and they refuse to do ANYTHING, even refuse to investigate, because it is female on female. If it was a male child that suspicions were cast upon, they would investigate. I personally find this deplorable. Abuse of any kind is still abuse, and in this case, I could see how it could actually warp the mind of the younger child more so than in a male/female case.

The human mind is far to complex to put much more than a general clue as to the personality of the wearer of any clothing style, whether it is done in a manner somewhat unfitting to the circumstances or just completely outlandish. For example, someone might come out to a religous gathering, say easter sunday, wearing all black, when the custom is to wear light colored clothes to celebrate the rebirth of spring time and a new season. Now that person wearing black on such an occasion's personality could reflect any number of things. From a personality that is depressed, or rebelous, or it could just mean that they have no sense of style or knowledge of proper attire or fashion sense. Many people are not really aware of social customs. They could be the sweetest person on earth or a real tyrant. So no, I don't think clothes are the best indicator of a persons personality. But in a lot of cases, they could give us a real good clue. Just not every time.