There are two groups that I do not participate in, one whose views I agree with, another whose views I do not, that I have gotten called for jury duty for posts.

I do NOT want to be a juror for these groups. The one I don't agree with, I often agree with the alerted post but I know that I am biased about that group so I don't want to make decisions about the posts there.

The group I do agree with the views seems to be having some interpersonal conflicts. I don't know the people involved and don't want to make decisions concerning the various conflicts of that group.

But I have been called for jury duty several times recently for both groups and it's getting annoying. Perhaps there should be a way to be automatically excused from jury duty for groups?

While looking for a clip of the Helen Reddy song "I AM Woman" I came across a video of Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears performing a song with the same title. I thought "Great! a remake of that old song."

How wrong I was. Rather than an empowering song enforcing how strong and independent women are, this thing sexualizes and objectifies women, not only in the dance routines of the video, but in the lyrics.

The most coherent verse of the lyrics is:


Now compare it to Helen Reddy and Ray Burton's I Am Woman:


What message does this give to our young women? No wonder we are losing ground on women's issues!

For those who want to compare the two videos for themselves:

This is not a very well written item, but somehow it seems that the Church of Scientology is trying to use AlienGirl's popularity now that she can't fight back.

Amazing!

Apparently tree swallows have been swarming in Florida at various places - Sarasota in mid-December and now Ruskin since about the first of February. My sister and her husband are going to try to watch them tonight

Here are some videos that people have posted on YouTube:









(This guy has several videos of the swallows, so check his channel)

I've been sure that these things were mangy coyotes, but this seems to indicate there are other possibilities!

For a long time I've been getting debt collection calls. Problem is, not one is looking for me. My phone is listed as A. E. Ziggy in the phone book and I keep getting calls for people whose first name begins with "A" and the last name of Ziggy. Andrew, Andreas, Anthony, Amanda, Abigail, etc.

Most of the time there is a human on the line that I can tell (1) they have the wrong number and no one by the name of A----- Ziggy lives here and (B) Don't call this number again. Sometimes, it's a robocall but when I call back the number I can reach a human and tell the (1) and (B). It's worked, those companies do not call me again.

T-Mobile? Nope, no humans involved. It's a robocall. If I make any of the choices in the menu, I eventually get to a place where I have to have a T-Mobile phone number or account number to get to a customer service representative. I've never been a T-Mobile customer, so that gets me no where.

I reported them to the Do Not Call list but I kept getting calls. I called the local T-Mobile sales place, tried every T-Mobile number I could find on the web, still get the calls. This has been going on for months.

So I put in a complaint with the state consumer agency and for good measure, the state Attorney General. I got a nice letter from the consumer agency with a copy of a letter from T-Mobile. The T-Mobile letter claimed they had removed my phone number from their accounts and notified their debt collectors to put it on their do not call list. The next day I got a robocall from a T-Mobile debt collector looking for Andrea Ziggy...

I had already written a letter to the consumer agency telling them that while I appreciated that MY number had been removed from T-Mobile's list, that did not solve the problem of other consumers having no way to tell T-Mobile that they have the wrong number and that T-Mobile should not call it again.

Tonight I got a call from a T-Mobile customer service person. She was trying to convince me that T-Mobile had done everything they could to make sure I was not called by their company again. Uh, lady, you JUST called me. According to her, my number has been on their do not call list since December and I should not get any calls from them. So who was it claiming to be calling from T-Mobile LAST WEEK?

I warned her in the first minute of the call that I was antagonistic to any one from T-Mobile. I was polite and did not use any curse words, but was not pleasant. I explained to her everything I wrote above.

At the end of our discussion, she asked what she could do to make me happy. I told her "Nothing. T-Mobile will never be able to make me happy with the company. I've never been a T-Mobile customer, will never be a T-Mobile customer, and will tell everyone I know, in person, in emails and over the internet that they should never be T-Mobile customers."

I did tell her that I might be satisfied if I don't receive a call from T-mobile or anyone representing them for at least two years. Or never.

My husband tells people I don't hold grudges - I nail them to the wall and throw darts at them.

Oh yeah - DO NOT do business with T-Mobile.

First episode I've watched, he tackled Paula Deen's infamous Krispy Kreme burger. I missed the calorie count on the original but here's his remake of it:



If he can reformat her recipes like that it might be worth watching his show.