The No News is No News Purgatory Thread, Volume 8

Status
Not open for further replies.

kellion92

A cat may not look at a king
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 15, 2009
Messages
5,245
Reaction score
4,613
Location
The edge
I was a Girl Scout and my daughter is -- I think the appeal of cookies is not value (they have never been a good value) but that they are available once a year, and that they benefit girls. I think selling cookies is a great endeavor -- it teaches responsibility, goal-setting, and assertiveness in a low-risk setting. It's very easy to sell cookies if you just ask, so girls can learn how to be successful along with experiencing more limited rejection. You make a sale maybe 1/3 of the time -- you learn to hear no without getting too discouraged. Imagine trying to get published if you had never learned to hear no! Imagine a child trying anything new and having the success rate that many of us have experienced while querying.

Girl Scouts does have a strong outdoors education and self-reliance component. My 13-year-old niece is still a Girl Scout and her troop has been raising money for a trip to London for FOUR YEARS. What a great lesson that is -- we live in a wealthy town where many kids travel all the time. I'm sure some or most of the parents of the Girl Scouts could just write a check, but these children are earning the trip on their own. And because they are earning it together, it doesn't matter if their parents can pay or not -- they are a team.
 

Rick

"Thriller" Apprentice
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 3, 2011
Messages
585
Reaction score
2,429
Maryn - Kiddo #2 did a science project in school on Splenda, with hundreds of blind taste tests with varying percentages of Splenda and real sugar. If you go half and half in baked foods, most people couldn't tell the difference. In drinks, like tea for example, you could go 3/4 Splenda without much of a noticeable difference.
 

JoNightshade

has finally arrived
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
7,153
Reaction score
4,137
Website
www.ramseyhootman.com
Thank you everyone for your thoughts on Kindergarten, etc. It helps. :) We've still got some time to decide, so we'll see how it goes. Right now our basic thought is that if he's reading by 4, we're gonna look into other options. If not, he can wait.

Not much to report here except that our scale may be broken. Let's just say that if one weighs ones-self, then does their morning constitutional, then comes back and the scale reads a weight gain- there is something wrong.

Yeah, I threw our last one out when it showed a weight gain of 20 lbs for me!!

I'd daydream in class and play around during craft time and for some reason was enamored with the concept of collecting one of each letter (A thru F) on my report card.

This sounds EXACTLY like something my son would do. Intentionally. He loves collecting sets of things, and will not be persuaded otherwise. I tried to teach him our house number, which starts with 3, and he refused to learn it because it was not 3456.

So, I'm up early this morning. Why? Because the house cleaner I hired from 9:30-12:30 showed up on our doorstep at 6:55. She hadn't written down the numbers from my craigslist ad, and thought it was 7:30. She'd said in her email she studies online, which I imagined to mean some sort of online college course, but she looks all of 16. :)
 

Dragonstar

a wishin' and a hopin'
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
1,297
Reaction score
1,231
Location
Planet Earth
Loved thin mints. I don't get them anymore mostly because I don't know any kids. besides they are the debil as far as my diet is concerned. Not that the diet stopped me from eating some Newton Thins the last couple of days. What? I have to eat them before the expiration date right? Can't be throwing those out. :D
 

Calla Lily

On hiatus
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
39,307
Reaction score
17,489
Location
Non carborundum illegitimi
Website
www.aliceloweecey.net
Maryn, when I was a teenager I had low blood sugar and was forced to cultivate an intimate acquaintance with all forms of chemical sugar substitutes. I've baked with Splenda (among others) and in my experience that chemical aftertaste will always be there. If you cut it with real sugar the taste will diminish, but it will still be present to the taste buds.
 

CalebJMalcom

And behold... A seed!
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 10, 2012
Messages
2,607
Reaction score
976
Age
40
Location
The gaseous pit of stupidity
I promised an update... so here it is
I had a talk with my family. Lasted like 2 hours. I let them know a lot of things over about 4 years. Anyway I had told them I was going to file for bankruptcy and would like to move back to Oklahoma temporarily to help heal because I have horrid debt, my credit is already shot, and I can't deal with that while trying to fix myself. I just can't do both. Instead my grandmother offered to pay off a large portion of my debt and then I pay her back. So we are going to work on the process of deed in lieu to get rid of the house and mom's going to let me move back in with her while I heal.
 

firedrake

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 19, 2009
Messages
9,251
Reaction score
7,297
Caleb, I'm so glad your family are rallying round. That sounds like just what you need right now.
Stay strong.
 

Rick

"Thriller" Apprentice
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 3, 2011
Messages
585
Reaction score
2,429
(((Caleb))) It's good to hear you've got some good family support. Take care and get well soon!
 

Snappy

A new year, a new avatar
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 11, 2010
Messages
2,136
Reaction score
1,259
Good morning, folks. How is everyone? Haven't caught up, but (((Caleb))) I'm so sorry for all you're going through. Glad your family is rallying around you.
 

xiaotien

bedazzled /bootay shaker!!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
3,405
Reaction score
6,667
Location
southern cali
Website
cindypon.com
mornin' puglets!

*shudders at all the girl scout cookies talk*
i don't care if they are pricier and it's totally
nice that it helps them learn--but the cookies
are vile. and the ones that i have liked a little--
they discontinue. boo.

not meant to be. and again, easier for my
Pastry Embargo.

caleb, so glad you talked with fam and i
hope it works out. *hugs*
 

Red-Green

KoalaKoalaKoala!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 21, 2007
Messages
4,392
Reaction score
3,782
Location
At the publishing party, whacking the piñata
Website
www.bryngreenwood.com
Sent you a rep, Caleb.

I am deeply, personally opposed to diet versions of naughty foods. It's like, no. If I want cake, I want cake with real sugar, butter, and eggs. Don't be slipping no applesauce and splenda in my cookies, maaaaan. Of course, I'm one of those unlucky freaks who can't taste the sweet in artificial sweeteners. Splenda doesn't taste sweet to me. It tastes like pool water.
 

xiaotien

bedazzled /bootay shaker!!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
3,405
Reaction score
6,667
Location
southern cali
Website
cindypon.com
red, i can't stand sugar substitutes
either. and i think i've read that it makes
you crave more bad things--so it doesn't
even even out in the end.

i will say that i a ADDICTED to baked
cheetos. LOVE them. tastes the same as
the regular! not sure if it's diet food though.
hahaha
 

SelmaW

Follow your heart; take your brain
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Messages
324
Reaction score
25
I'm the same with sugar substitutes - blech. Some people tell me they think Coke Zero tastes the same as Coke and I'm just like... no. That is not possible.

But on the other hand for people who can't have sugar it is nice to have alternatives available. I just don't want them personally :tongue
 

Calla Lily

On hiatus
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
39,307
Reaction score
17,489
Location
Non carborundum illegitimi
Website
www.aliceloweecey.net
Diet Pepsi. I love it. Corn-syrup pop makes me gag. (Except for purple Mt. Dew, which is NOM.) Coke Zero is nasty. I laugh at the commercials that have actors saying it tastes like regular Coke. Those are some darn good actors!

Anyone remember TAB? That stuff was 110% chemicals.

I also love regular Cheetos, but they are so bad for you! So I stick to wasabi peas when I can.
 

Rick

"Thriller" Apprentice
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 3, 2011
Messages
585
Reaction score
2,429
It's interesting how different people react to sugar substitutes. My Dad loved saccarin, but I think that stuff is vile. If I order coffee and they tell me the only artificial sweetner is saccarin, I pass. Can't stomach it.

However, I can't tell the difference between sugar and nutrasweet. I mean - NO difference at all.
 

Blondchen

Honey Badger don't give a shit.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 2, 2008
Messages
3,193
Reaction score
8,958
Location
Los Angeles
Website
www.gretchenmcneil.com
So I spent most of the last three days completely freaking out over this book that just is not working no matter how I try and force it. JL spent the weekend behind the Orange Curtain with his stepson (I went down for dinner Saturday night which is always entertaining - Friend: Blond, dinner tonight? Me: Can't. Having dinner with my boyfriend's late wife's parents, son, brother, baby-mama-in-law and children. Friend: Um, what?) so I felt the pressure to get a lot of writing done since I'm getting dangerously behind.

Instead, I found myself procrastinating in new and bizarre ways, which included the absolute compulsion to compile a John Hughes playlist in iTunes.

Which is when it hit me. What this book has been missing? JOHN HUGHES.

I pulled out my stack of Hughes movies and started watching them. The character tropes, the mix of over the top high school ridiculously and the angst of first love. the way the first strands of "Don't You Forget About Me" or "If You Leave" fill my heart with total 16yo emoness - OMG IT FINALLY ALL CLICKED.

I need to rewrite, well, everything I've done so far. But it's worth it. I've got like 12 weeks before I need to turn in a draft. Should be plenty of time!
 

FruitTree

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 28, 2011
Messages
182
Reaction score
161
Corn-syrup pop makes me gag.

Boy, am I with you on this - but I can't hack sugar substitutes either. I'm not a big soda drinker but I am super-glad to live in a state where Mexican Coke (i.e., made with cane sugar not corn syrup) is widely available.

((Caleb)) - glad your family is being supportive.
 

JoNightshade

has finally arrived
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
7,153
Reaction score
4,137
Website
www.ramseyhootman.com
I'm with Red - I want the real stuff or nothing at all. That's our philosophy here in the Nightshade household. Of course, we're probably all going to die of heart attacks before we're 60, but that's the price you pay. ;)

Girl Scout cookies: I can, will, and do eat multiple boxes of those peanut butter ones. Hey, it's only once a year. ;)
 

ink wench

ray of motherf#%&ing sunshine
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 11, 2007
Messages
3,764
Reaction score
5,952
Location
the winter of my discontent
I ate so many Girl Scout cookies when I was a GS that the thought of them now makes me want to hurl.

(((Caleb))) Glad you're getting family support.

Blond, yay for breakthroughs!

Tas, lol!

You know that scene in Spaceballs where Mel Brooks is yelling "I can't make decisions. I'm a president." Or something similar. I kind of feel like that right now. *curls up in fetal position*
 
Status
Not open for further replies.