Daily Dose

Daily Dose of Music – and Silence

Kid Talk, Melissa Ferrick, Pet Peeves, Sights & Sounds /

For years I worked from home and insisted on doing so without music in the background. The TV was fine, it wasn’t a distraction. I even spent a couple of years looking forward to working with MTV’s The Tom Green Show and Loveline (I miss Dr Drew and Adam!) in the background. And then there was the .wav fixation, that lasted for all of about 3 minutes. But other than that, silence was my preferred work environment, (or as much silence as you can get with a house full of kids and animals).

That’s all changed and I blame Michelle. She came home from school one day in April of 2004 and never went back! Along with all of the craziness that comes from having a teenage daughter home all day and attempting to home school her and work at the same time, I somehow acquired a need for music while I work! I didn’t even notice it had happened until she went to NJ for the summer and the silence surrounded me!

Well wait, that’s not really true, I knew something was missing when she left but assumed it was just “her” and not the more specific lack of music. I realized it was the music that was missing when I landed on the Yahoo Launchcast Radio page after exploring Yahoo 360° for my boss.

Before I knew it, I’d programmed my own channel, (which I don’t really like because it won’t let me program down to some very specific artists), and then all of a sudden I was listening to the Melissa Ferrick Fan Station all day long while I worked. Ah ha, so this is what was missing! It wasn’t Michelle – it was Melissa and Ani and MUSIC!

And so, all was right with my work world – except for an overabundance of Indigo Girls and Bitch & Animal and a curious amount of Dar Williams (Who may be from the Boston area, (like Ferrick), and may be a folk singer, (like Ferrick), but is really not the same TYPE of musician as the majority of others on the Ferrick “fan station”. Yahoo has created some interesting play lists, that is for sure!).

But alas, something bad happened today – I ran out of “free” airplay and am now floundering around wondering what to do. Do I pay the ghastly $2.50 a week in order to hear too much Indigo Girls and Bitch & Animal? Do I muddle through with a station that I’m really not enjoying? Do I track down a radio station that might be better? Do I grab some CDs and try and find some routine of changing CDs so I don’t find myself listening to The Other Side or Massive Blur over and over again?

I have to do something! I can’t sit here in silence, Michelle will be back in a week or so and we’ll be back to music all day and then I’ll struggle to get use to that all over again.

Kids are trouble.

, ,

Daily Dose of Music – and Silence Read More »

Daily Dose of Exercise (or is it diet?)

Diet and Exercise /

According to this article from WebMD, Drop in Physical Activity in Adolescence May Promote Childhood Obesity, it’s not the calories taken in, it’s the calories not burned.

I really hate studies like this, or maybe what I hate is the articles that report them because I don’t have time or energy to go and track down the full study and see what REALLY happened.

I am just not buying the idea that it’s only a lack of exercise and not a combination of diet and lack of exercise. Actually, I’m not buying that it isn’t an overall change in lifestyle.

The teen years are the years when kids take more control over their food. They’re in the cupboards after school and they’re choosing “interesting” lunches while at school. They’re hanging out at the mall or the corner coffee shop and they are definitely taking in a different TYPE of calories. That’s GOT to play a role.

I believe, generally speaking, that the way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you eat and I’m generally of the belief that the TYPE of calories doesn’t much matter. BUT, I have my limits there.

If my teen daughter ate 500 calories worth of fast food and friend ate 500 calories worth of fruits and vegetables and both were just as “sedentary” I fully believe that after 6 months of that, my daughter would no longer be skin and bones.

And let’s take that further. Let’s pretend M ate 500 calories worth of fast food AND got a wee bit of exercise. She likes to skateboard; she occasionally does some Tae Bo and might even do some yoga. Let’s pretend that her pal still at 500 calories worth of veggies and fruit and just sat back and watched M… I don’t think we’d see the pal gaining weight anyway and I’m not sure we’d see M holding her own. All of that fat, all of those simple carbohydrates and all of the sugar have to be processed differently by the body – both when hanging on to create fat and then again when being burned by exercise.

Articles like this and studies like this just drive me nuts. It’s not as simple as saying “teen girls aren’t getting any exercise” and tada there’s the answer to childhood obesity.

, , , ,

Daily Dose of Exercise (or is it diet?) Read More »

Daily Dose of Gender

GLBT /

WebMD so graciously provided me with the perfect daily dose, I should figure out how to thank them for this. Oh wait, blogging about them is thanks enough, right?

What Makes Girls Play House and Boys Play War?

So how exactly does that explain the girly boy whose parents encourage him and model boy behaviors? How does that explain the tomboys whose parents encourage and model girl behaviors? It doesn’t, does it?

Does that mean that the feminine boy who grows into a less than masculine man had feminine modeling done for him? Or that his father or male role model wasn’t as strong as the mother or female role model? I just can’t buy that, except maybe where my own son is concerned, lol. Heck, he’s more girly than I am most of the time and his father hates every ounce of that girlishness. It might mean that in J’s case though, but that’s another story entirely.

Does that mean the masculine girl who grows into a less than feminine woman did so simply because of genetics? And no other outside factors played a role? No role modeling plays a part? Have I had no influence in my girls? Has TW had no influence in hers?

It seems to be just another study hell-bent on supporting the more relaxed view society takes on lesbians and the much stronger negative views held toward gay men.

,, , ,

Daily Dose of Gender Read More »

Daily Dose of Kids – Patrick Scoble

Kid Talk, Personality /

Since we don’t actually have a single FULL child at home right now, just the half child wandering in and out as his schedule permits, I’ve got time to give you a daily dose of a kid I’ve thought a lot about lately – Patrick Scoble.

First a wee bit of background. Patrick Scoble is the 11 year old son of “Scoble” aka “Microsoft Boy” (and for the duration of this piece I will refer to the adult Scoble as either Scoble or Microsoft Boy, depending on what I want to convey hehehe and Patrick as, well, Patrick!). Patrick seems to live primarily with his mom in California and visits dad in Washington state on holidays and such. Patrick does not own an iPod but wants one and being an 11 year old boy living in Scoble’s house; he heads to iTunes and downloads some podcasts. Unfortunately, (or obviously), he downloaded some “inappropriate” podcasts. Inappropriate because they have the “intended for adult audience” labels attached to them. Scoble found out and decided Patrick’s punishment would be to record his own podcasts with Microsoft Boy and that’s where it really gets fun.

I say fun because it was fun to listen to Patrick and Scoble, though I must interject that I could have gone a lifetime without hearing Scoble’s voice because he sounds EXACTLY like TW’s ex when he is interacting with his overindulged children or responding to something he’s slightly uncomfortable with but doesn’t know how to handle. Anyway, the other part of this that was fun was reading the comments that came in on Scoble’s blog regarding the podcast or more particularly to Patrick.

A lot of folks actually called Patrick a brat and worse and I’m troubled by that. They did so because he called his dad stupid and idiotic and used the word “hag” to refer to an administrator at his Catholic school. Shrug, none of that bugged me at all. He’s 11 and fathers are idiotic and stupid, Microsoft Boy in particular because he is the almighty Scoble. I’m telling you if I had to sit next to him on the red couch and podcast, I’d probably go all out and call him stupid too! I find it hilarious that these folks get all upset over a few silly comments by Patrick, an 11 year old, when Winer exhibits 11 year old behavior on a weekly basis and he’s far from 11, isn’t he? You put an 11 year old boy on a podcast with his non-custodial dad who just happens to be Scoble and proof you’ve created a monster!

Don’t these people realize that Patrick was podcasting to entertain? To cause a stir? To serve his time? To be a spectacle? Do these people really think that Patrick acts like this all of the time? And guess what, even if he does, that doesn’t mean he’s a disrespectful brat. It might just mean that he trusts his dad to understand and respect his feelings and feels comfortable enough with him to call him stupid to his face rather than giving him a “yes sir, you’re amazing Microsoft Boy, sir” and then grumbling behind his back about just how dumb his paternal parent is? I can tell you from personal experience that my kids understand that when they get ticked off or annoyed at me, they can tell me exactly how they feel and we’ve still got the mutual respect thing happening. I can also tell you that they would never tell their father exactly how they feel because they don’t trust or respect him. So folks, before you slam Patrick or his father, you might want to take a close look at your oh so respectful children and examine whether that respect is honest or not.

I do have to ding Scoble for a second though, you punished Patrick for downloading inappropriate podcasts even though it’s pretty obvious that you didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Dawn and Drew may not be intended for an audience like Patrick but you didn’t really mind all that much. Patrick knows this, you know this, Dawn and Drew know this and the rest of the blogosphere knows this. So why punish the kid at all? And why choose to make him do some podcasts? I’ll tell you why, because it was a nice bit of publicity for you, tossed you right into the spotlight as if Microsoft Boy didn’t have enough of a spotlight already. Don’t do that Scoble, I don’t think it earned you a bit of respect.

And Patrick – podcast away, just gag your dad and do your own thing. I’m tired of hearing him ask you what you’re going to do this summer or what you’ve been doing, two podcasts of that was more than enough. You are more interesting than Microsoft Boy ever thought about being.

,
,

Daily Dose of Kids – Patrick Scoble Read More »

Daily Dose of Diet

Diet and Exercise, Foodie, Health and Wellness /

I suppose it’s fitting that I kick off the first REAL daily dose with a dose of diet. And a troubling dose it is…

Both McDonald’s and Burger King have some marketing folks that I’d like a word with. TW and I have succumbed to their skills twice in the last five days, that might be ok for the normal American but we are vegetarians. Not the PETA nutty type or the Health nutty type, but yukky tummy type.

I’ve got a history of disordered eating and TW went on a diet altering trip to Italy where the furry meat would put anyone off carnivorous behavior for life, not to mention she has ulcerative colitis which makes tummy trouble really troubling.

What’s really troubling about our forays into fast food, besides the tummy troubles, is that we didn’t even GET the Amazon gift card we went for (they ran out!)and TW got a measly pet pet toy that isn’t worth the $2.75 we paid for the Happy Meal!

Someday we will learn to ignore those marketing people, won’t we?

, ,

Daily Dose of Diet Read More »

Daily Dose of Family Life

Daily Dose /

Since I’ve hidden the bulk of my profile, for reasons I can’t even comprehend myself, I should give you some info right up front so you can go ahead and unsubscribe to that RSS feed, right?

I’m a 40 something woman who lives in Gainesville (Go Away Gators), Florida with: my significant other, 4 ½ children (which is an improvement over the 6 that were here), 2 dogs, 4 cats (which is also an improvement since we had 7 for too long), 3 turtles (wow another improvement) and no fish (which isn’t really an improvement but I’m ok with death).

I spend a lot of time reading blogs, or reading RSS feeds since I rarely ever click into an actual blog and surfing interesting sites. I read a LOT of books but not as many as my s/o which is often a point of contention around here.

I watch almost no TV but I am addicted to The Gilmore Girls and to Survivor (also a point of contention around here). I’m addicted to Trading Spaces too, but only when we are out of town and can lay in bed with the TV on.


Here’s a recent photo of 4 of the kids who live with us, taken this spring at my daughter’s Coming of Age ceremony. You’ll hear me talk an awful lot about most of these people, aren’t you looking forward to it?

Daily Dose of Family Life Read More »

Denise Everyday?

Daily Dose /

Another Blog, I know what some of you are thinking: “Oh (insert preferred deity here), not another one!” or “Oh (insert preferred deity here), I can’t get enough!” Well guess what folks, it’s not about what you are thinking; it is all about me – as usual!

I will, however, tell you why I’m doing ANOTHER Blog. I’m here because H is a nice person and she made me laugh once. Well she made me laugh a lot and that counts for something with me.

I’ll also tell you quickly what you’ll find here, (go ahead and set up your RSS feed, I’ll wait for you). OK now that you have your RSS feed set up, you’ll find a Daily Dose of Denise, duh! If we were using real blogging software I’d have nice folders set up so I could tag various doses of Denise everyday and give you things like “Daily Dose of Diet” or”Daily Dose of Books” or “Daily Dose of Women” but since we are trapped on not so great software I’m not sure what types of doses you’re going to get. Maybe only one dose a day, maybe five. I guess you’ll just have to watch your RSS feed to find out, won’t you?

The problem here is that I may (ha, undoubtedly) find myself trapped between a rock and a hard place and hopefully I won’t have to use my trusty multi-purpose tool to cut off my hand or anything. The other problem I’ve encountered already is that I’m exceeding my self-imposed three paragraph rule! And folks, just because I’m doing it does not mean that you now have free reign to do it too. The rule still stands and only DENISE is allowed to break the rule. ‘Cause, it’s all about me, duh!

, ,

Denise Everyday? Read More »

Our anti-government prejudices are keeping us FAT???

Daily Dose /

“Above all, we need to put aside our anti-government prejudices and realize that the history of government interventions on behalf of public health, from the construction of sewer systems to the campaign against smoking, is one of consistent, life-enhancing success. Obesity is America’s fastest-growing health problem; let’s do something about it.” Paul Krugman

This is really not making any sense to me at all. In my experience, the folks who are ignoring federal government’s health claims regarding obesity are doing so because losing weight is HARD and TIME CONSUMING, two things that Americans are really not into dealing with.

I seriously want to go to my message boards and ask those folks if their anti-government prejudices are keeping them from losing weight. I bet they’d laugh their asses off.

Our anti-government prejudices are keeping us FAT??? Read More »