This just seems to be my bitching place.

Eric and I create slide shows for memorials, birthdays, etc. Photographers sometimes offer this service; however, we touch up and fix minor (and sometimes not so minor) issues with old pictures, fix the exposure, and generally tell a story with the show. Ours can include photos from a person's entire lifetime, not just one event such as a wedding. (This is what most photographers offer.)

This is not a simple Windows Media or Power Point program we use. It can be timed to music, not just have music in the background. It can be customized in many ways.

Now here is something that gets me. I know a couple of people that keep telling me how he/she can do the same thing in 30 seconds with some obscure shareware or some such thing. IT'S NOT the same. What they are doing is randomizing pictures with music in the background. What we do is create a memory, or bring memories to life. Because this is about the client and helping to make their day as special as possible. Not about doing something as cheaply or simply as possible.

I'm so consistent, yes?

Obviously I'm not when I have so many things to keep up with!

So Eric and I were talking last night and working out how we are going to work with our two 10 year old boys on learning how and why money is spent and how the world works. One of them really gets it. The other, not so much.

So here's what we're going to do. Do you remember on The Cosby Show when Theo wanted to move out and be a model? Cliff and Claire turned their home into a mini 'real-world-experience' for him with a job, an apartment, loans, and stores. We're taking it a step further and stretching the experience out. This will go for a full school year.

We are developing a chance game in which they will get jobs, have bank accounts, pay bills, and make other life choices, such as whether or not to purchase a car or ride the bus. (If the dice tell us the bus even runs close to their home and work.)

We will use some real-world events to determine when money comes out and for what, but also we will make news stories that are sent by email or make videos to deliver the news...these stories might affect their jobs, or their income, or spending habits.

For example...If they choose to have a car, there will be choices about which car to buy. Then they will have choices about insurance, maintenance, etc. Say they choose to have a car, but neglect changing the oil in favor of going to the movies or some other discretionary activity. The chances of the engine locking up increase by 20% or so.

So there are random events, and planned events. I am so looking forward to this!

I don't think I've told anyone this before.....

....Beyond a few psychology classmates and my family, anyway.

Have you ever wondered about female to male prejudice? We all know how men supposedly treat women across the board unfairly, but how many stop to think about the reverse? What is it that we women do to men that is stereotyping them? Do we assume they have shortcomings just because they are men?

I play a game called Second Life. I have two avatars. One is a female, and one is a male. I created the male character because I wanted to study these questions. I started out by asking men I knew in my personal life these questions. The answers convinced me that there was something to this idea. They invariably told me yes, but it was tough to get them to elaborate. So I figured that the closest I would ever get to being able to pass myself off as a male would be in Second Life. I actually found that it's still incredibly hard to do. I talk (type/use language) like a woman. I behave like a woman. So I got a male buddy of mine in the game to coach me. Once I got the basics down, I started off on my own to explore.

I discovered that men tend to avoid friendships with other men in the game unless it's over some kind of shared passion....competition, motorcycles, etc. Then when I finally got some women to talk to me, it all started becoming obvious quickly. Invariably, I was assumed to have no fashion sense, not be able to cook, etc. Just imagine the worst male stereotype you can, and that is exactly what I was assumed to be. I said hello to one woman, and she immediately fired off a ridiculously over-compensating put-down to keep me from hitting on her. I guess. She informed me that I must really enjoy blondes a lot, since that's what her avatar was, and she informed me in no-uncertain terms that she wasn't blonde in real life. She then proceeded to verbally bitch slap me into perceived submission, before stalking off and proclaiming to all within earshot that I was a complete jerk. All that from a simple 'hello' greeting.

So she was extreme, but the treatment I received from other women was quite interesting. I know it opened my eyes to subtle ways in which we treat men as inferior. I immediately apologized to my husband and now watch myself very carefully to avoid doing this. Men are not automatically incapable of taking care of children. They are not automatically on the prowl or incapable of cooking or dressing themselves.

All I can really say to my fellow women is 'SHAME!' This is not what women's liberation was supposed to do for us. Just as men haven't the right to treat us as inferior based upon our gender, we have just as little right to do the same to them.If we want to be treated equally, then shouldn't we do the same?

!!!

I learned the coolest thing today.

I was at the chiropractor due to a migraine. I woke up so miserable and unable to keep down even water. If you've ever had a migraine, you know what it was like. So I went in to get my head put on straight. We chatted briefly about different things, and he offered to set me up with certain clients of his for the next psychology paper I have to write. He said he'd hook me up with one of his bi-polar patients. I thought that was a weird offering, and said, "Oh, bi-polar disorder....yikes, I know people with that and think I get enough of that in my personal life." He laughed and said he meant he'd show me bi-polar disorder from the non-allopathic treatment view. (Non-traditional treatment)

After talking a bit more, I found out that many times bi-polar disorder is strictly structural. Nutrition doesn't come into play at all, which I would have thought. So I came home and decided to look up studies and information on this treatment method to see if there was efficacy or any credence to the idea given by the traditional medical establishment.

This DC (http://www.erinelster.com/ConditionsDetail.aspx?ConditionID=4) has been published in journals and has some good information on this. I'm so blown away - partly by the fact that I'd never really considered this before. I've apparently come close to the idea with another paper I've written on "Brain Gym' which is like cross-crawl. (I may have to describe that one later.) But I'd never really thought about the structural problem being implicated in bi-polar disorder, tourette's, depression...

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Maybe once I get all my neurons firing again (since the adjustment, I'm slowly becoming coherent again) then I can do a bit of research and it could be a topic for a paper in the future.

And maybe I can pass information along to those who are managing their disorder with medication...I know they hate it, and I know they'd love to get off of it.

Just flabbergasted....

It's 1 am...Can You Smell Your Pets?

Boy, I can! Well, really only one. We brought home a kitten and she's a doll. Even Eric likes her.

Problem is, she was fed something that apparently didn't agree with her, because it's 1 AM AND I'M CHASING HER AROUND THE HOUSE CLEANING UP DIARRHEA!

I'm giving this until Thursday. If I have to live in a house that smells like a litter pan, she's going back, because I won't do it. Normal dog smell is one thing, but cat crap is totally another.

Oh my god, even Pine-Sol isn't helping the smell in the room I have to sleep in tonight. I think I'm going to cry.