Follow My Book Blog Friday with Alison Can Read #11

Once again I am linking up with Alison Can Read for her Friday blog hop for Book Lovers and Book Bloggers!

Question of the Week: The New Year is here -- and everyone wants to know your New Years Blogging Resolution! What are you going to try to revise, revamp and redo for 2012 on your blog? 

This question is hard for me, because I honestly haven't had a ton of time to plan things out for my blog... Maybe, however, that could be my resolution! Spending more time on my blog... Maybe just commenting more to blogs I read, posting more (like say at least a post a day or every other day) and just trying to keep current. I think my issue is that I feel like it has to be an all or nothing deal so when it feels like I am spending too much time blogging I completely pull away and then don't blog anything at all. That being said, I will be taking the Oregon Bar in late February, so this resolution may not be able to come to fruition until after that hurdle is jumped. (Just for those of you who care and will hold me accountable to this)

Today's rant and realization...

Rant = why are dentist fees so astronomical? I have been researching dentist fees in my new area and for a crown it's upwards of $1000! I have been having some issues with my molar on my left side on the bottom and am thinking I need to have it looked at. However, for an unemployed, uninsured individual, I am having a very hard time wrapping my brain around spending that much money for a dental procedure. It's not even dental surgery (technically)

GEEZ...

Realization = maybe I should have been a dentist instead of going to law school...

Interesting Thoughts on the "Green" Movement

I don't really like to think of myself as uber political by any means, but when I saw this posted on my aunt's facebook today I just knew that I had to share it with someone. Largely because my younger sister is on somewhat of a green crusade and gets really down on people who aren't "green". I suppose you would say this is an older generations opinion toward the younger generations' ideas toward being "green"

"In line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day." The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment." He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day. We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day. Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day. Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then. Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?"

Just Closed... [Catching Fire]

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It took me awhile to get through this book because I had checked out some books from the library and I had this one bought on my Kindle. I really liked this book and thought the ending was quite different than anything I could have expected to happen. I don't want to say much to give it away, but Katniss Everdeen does a great job again as the heroine of this story and she is able to survive in an arena unlike anything we experienced in the first book of this phenomenal trilogy.

View all my reviews

The Barbri Repeater Conundrum...

Sooo today the Oregon Barbri class begins again... I am doing the class online, since their is no actual class here in Salem this time. What I am struggling with is what all I should do again and what I should forgo in the attempt of doing other things that might be more worthwhile to my studying... I am taking this course again because it is free. I took it last summer. How much of this should I really need all over again? How much of it really helped me the first time? Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result? Sorry for the mass of jumbled and pointed questions that don't really fit or flow... Just needed to let some of this out and see if any of my readers might be able to provide some insight. I'm listening to the orientation lecture, which I don't know is completely pointless because I know what the Bar entails.. Obviously! Since I already took it in July. Anyway, I guess I should get back to it! Thinking I'm going to modify my study program a bit.