Birds... and a whole lot of stuff that's been on my mind

This is a picture of a male great tailed grackle. They are very numerous down here and often poop on my car. There are certain times of the year when it's a really, really bad idea to park under a tree and run into the grocery store, because when you come out, your car will have a new speckled white and black paint job, courtesy of the grackles. However, I like to watch the interaction between the male and female grackles. The females are smaller and have brown feathers and a less intense color eye. They also seem to be the ones doing all the work. Every time I mow the lawn, a small flock of females follows close behind me to pick up bugs or grass clippings, I'm not exactly sure what. It's always the females though, never a male. Apparently what the males concern themselves with is puffing up their feathers, sticking their wings out and chasing after the females. This must work on occasion, otherwise I'm sure they wouldn't do it, but I've yet to see a female do anything other than completely ignore their display. I think it's hilarious. There I am, eating my cheerios, looking out the window, and there's a big black bird on my lawn doing a ridiculous dance being completely ignored by all the female birds, who are busy gathering food and twigs. It's almost as good as watching men trying to pick up chicks at a bar. Only problem with that scenario is most of the females don't realize they could do better, and end up being swayed by a ridiculous man way below their league. And really, if you take a look at the media, it's not a big surprise. I don't know how many beer commercials feature pudgy, below average men picking up really hot girls. And sitcoms, too. It always seems to be an overweight, whiny guy married to a thin, beautiful woman. Of course, maybe that's what makes it interesting is the ridiculousness of the situation. I don't know. I just know it bugs the hell out of me and I don't watch those shows.

So, I made a banner yesterday for my blog. I have way too much time on my hands. Good thing school starts soon. Speaking of school, I logged on to the university web site yesterday just to make sure that everything was all set for next week, and of course, there was a huge problem. I won't go into exactly how it happened, but I will say that the woman at the financial aid desk was about $500 off when she told me how much my summer tuition was going to cost. Which means, the loan I took out to cover summer school and the cost of Chloe's daycare is now $500 too low. And thanks to another stupid event, the loan money I did take out is being split up into two different disbursements, and I don't know when I'll get the other half of my money. So, as it stood last night, I didn't even have enough loan money to cover tuition, let alone get Chloe started in daycare or buy any books. So I called my dad in a panic, and asked if he could pay for part of the tuition so that I would get at least a couple hundred dollars in refund before school starts, otherwise, I won't be able to go because I have no one to watch Chloe and no money to pay for her daycare. It's just so frustrating because I spent 2 hours in that stupid financial aid office last week changing my schedule and doing everything that I needed to do in order to make this work, and it still got screwed up. Anyway, dad agreed to do that, which is great, and now I'm just hoping that the second half of my loan gets here within the first week of school, otherwise, no daycare.

I heard on the news last night that Rosie O'Donnell isn't going to replace Bob Barker on The Price is Right. I'm not sure why that was on the evening news, but it was. Talk about dodging a bullet. I consider myself fairly liberal, and I think a big part of being liberal is practicing tolerance. I may not agree with a lot of the stuff republicans have to say, but I will listen to their view point, I'll try to understand where they're coming from, and I'll respect what they have to say. If liberals want everyone to be tolerated and treated equally, they need to practice that themselves and tolerate people with different view points. Rosie drives me nuts because she just won't listen to anyone else, she won't tolerate anyone who disagrees with her, and she's way over the top. If she took over the Price is Right, she'd turn it from a silly game show with goofy prizes to some ridiculous anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-republican rally. That's fine that she feels that way, but there's a time and a place, and I don't think she realizes that.

As far as my view point, I consider myself socially liberal but fiscally conservative. Anything that has to do with human rights, feminism, gay rights, the environment, etc. I'm 100% liberal. But one problem I have with a lot of liberals is the sense of entitlement that a lot of them seem to carry. It almost seems as though many liberals feel it's the government's job to take care of them. South Texas is notorious for frivolous lawsuits, and it becomes wildly apparent during the commercial breaks of judge judy (who I love- she doesn't take crap from anyone). There are so many commercial featuring these crappy people claiming that they can't work because they "suffer from depression" and they "hurt their back real bad". And "social security denied their claim three times!" You know why? Because if you're well enough to sit there and tell me a story about how you "just can't work" you're well enough to sit in an office chair and take customer service calls! It's these kind of people who think that they're entitled to drift through life and have the government pay for them to sit on their asses all day that drive me crazy. They abuse a system that was created for people who truly need help. I think it's great that we have a government that cares enough to try and take care of their citizens when they need help, but it's unfortunate that so many people feel they're entitled to have the government keep them alive while they sit around and smoke weed all day. So I guess this is a point where I'm somewhat conservative. I believe in taking responsibility for yourself and working hard. If you want to be lazy, then you can just starve to death. However, if you're really working hard and you still just can't make ends meet, then by all means, take a little TEMPORARY help from the government til you can get on your feet. Well, there's my two cents.

One more thing. Last week the missionaries came by needing to borrow some tools to fix a bike. So I brought them my hex set and a pair of pliers and they worked on the bike in my front yard. When they were done, the one guy asked if he could borrow the pliers and bring them back later that night. I said "Okay, as long as you bring them back, that's my only pair." Yeah, that was a week ago, no sign of the pliers. I couldn't get my mapleine open the other day, and I had to use my teeth. So first, this guy tells me he wants me to do his job and try to force the mormon religion on my neighbors, and then he steals my pliers. Needless to say, I'm not impressed.