Dear Facebook Capitalists,
$1billion for Instagram, a filtering system that makes photos look crappy?
Really?
As you see, I can can get the same grainy looks using a cell phone camera in bad lighting. 
(Or if you are sadly too rich to have a access to a crappy camera, you can go to all kinds of free sites on the web for the same effects like http://pixlr.com/o-matic/.)
How long is the grainy, grunge, sepia, colour filters fad going to last anyways?
Seriously, my aethestic senses are in pain already, I really don't need that filter system integrated into Facebook.
Gracias.

My birthfather's civic hybrid sold this morning. One more piece of him is gone. I feel mixed about it- happy that I'm that much closer to being done with the 5 dead people estate mess from hell in Montana. But that bumper sticker was such a great example of him- proud of supporting his science, minimalist, loud and self-righteous. Despite his over-the-top crazy, I am reminded that I'm still a little sad he's gone.

Selling my dad's 2005 Civic Hybrid.  Its in excellent condition and low miles.
http://edmonton.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-cars-trucks-2005-Honda-Civic-Hybrid-Sedan-W0QQAdIdZ370953869

Before

After

Many of my high school friends on Facebook have been lamenting their 40th birthday recently.  My husband is 7 years younger than me and he's starting to have a grey hair here and there. I haven't started greying yet, but I realized the clock is ticking if I wanted to donate this hair while its still blonde!Sure feels strange.  The last time my hair was this short, I was in fifth grade!

If you are in Canada, the Canadian Cancer Society has directions on preparing your hair to donate and a list of places that take hair. 

The American Cancer Society recommends these two organizations for hair donation:

• Pantene Beautiful Lengths
• Wigs For Kids

With Obamacare in question at the Supreme Court level, I see that United Statesians are re-examining Medicare for all.  I was shocked to find out Medicare only has a 3% admin cost (vs. 30-40% admin cost for private insurers.)

• http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/04/02-0
• http://www.medicareforall.org/

Clarence Thomas' wife Virgina will earn millions if he helps kill Obamacare
TAKE ACTION: Ask Clarence Thomas to Recuse himself

Congress is budgeting.  Tell them you want your money spent on Healthcare, not warfare.
TAKE ACTION: Sign letters to Congress

WTF?! USDA is planning to let chicken and turkey plants inspect themselves. 
They already tried this in the 90s and the Daily Kos reports "The average error rate for this category in the chicken slaughter facilities was 64 percent and 87 percent in turkey slaughter facilities." Gross! Stop their pilot program or you'll be eating poop.

TAKE ACTION:

• Leave a comment for the USDA at http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FSIS-2011-0012-0001
• Sign the Daily Kos Petition to stop the pilot program at http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=109

Are any of you using http://pinterest.com ? Anyone want invites ?  If so, send me a private message with your email.

The previews of The Hunger Games movie peaked my interest.  Movie theatres and babysitters are out of my budget right now, so I picked up the book.  Written for young adults, it is a fast read and I found myself wishing I had bought the next two books in the trilogy.  Dystopian novels are my favorite genre.  However, I couldn't help but feel like I was reading a mash-up of The House of Stairs, Handmaid's Tale and The Running Man.  Maybe I'm getting old enough that everything new is starting to feel like a knockoff of something else.

http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/

  

My daughter has been wanting to share more with grandparents and our friends, but I didn't want to inundate my facebook page with her artwork or manage bunches of email for her.  She was getting more and more upset about it.  I'm certainly not ready for her to be on Facebook.  I'm trying a blog as an alternative, and now she is at her own site at CheekyandGreen.com.  I'm right there with her typing as she tells me what she wants to say and helping her post her pictures, etc.  I'm planning to be there for every post until she's a teen and even then I plan to be heavily involved.

She wants a cellphone too, but we aren't going there for at least 10 years.  And I thought my arguments with my kindergarten daughter were going to center around shoes and ear-piercings!  As my kids enter school, I am not finding life to be as I expected.  I miss my 3 little sweet toddlers and life that centered around Little People toys and Wooden trains.  A year ago, I never dreamed that this year my time would be spent settling sibling arguments over who has the nintendoDS Mario Kart cartridge, playing referee to who's turn to do Zombies on the iPad or fighting battles of will over posting photos!  It certainly is a new digital era!  How do you manage your kids' access to the digital world?