Monday Morning Blahg: Mechanically challenged

You know, it's hard enough to help my kids with their homework (especially math, in fact, I CAN'T help them with that anymore).  But then when the science teacher throws things in that you have to construct, that is normally beyond my capabilities.

Dioramas, I can do.  Charts, graphs, I can do.  Last night I had to help her with a balloon car.  First you have to construct the car, then you add a filled balloon to it to make it run.  My mind does not work that way.  So, one, I had to figure out what items were needed to construct a car.  We ended up using a plastic stick from the end of a helium balloon.  A crapload of tape, cardboard, dvds, and those thingies you drive into the wall to put a screw in (I have no idea what those are called.

Then I had to figure out how to put the car together without it falling apart.  This is where I'm mechanically inept.  My first try was pathetic at best.  I got the wheels on without falling off, but the didn't turn.  That car wasn't going anywhere (the teacher wants it to go five meters)

It was those screw thingies that brought it all together.  I used pieces of cardboard to kind of keep the wheels in place, then put those thingies on the ends of the sticks. 

We could not test it because I could not figure out how to get the balloon on.

Here's a pic of the end product.

I hope to god it moves at least a little bit. #mechanicalfail #crapihavetomakeformykids

Writing Wednesday: Taking Zoey

  Small unedited bit from my current WIP.  Let me know what you think.

     I slept though it was fitful.  I had nightmares I couldn’t really remember.  I only remember waking ever so often in a cold sweat although my closet was cold as my captor had not provided me with a blanket and I hadn’t bothered to put my clothes back on.

      I woke to him entering my prison, saying nothing.  He put a lamp on the floor and ran an extension cord out to the rec room.  He turned it on and stared at me for a moment.  He threw a bag to me and said, “Here.”  Then he scanned my quarters and said, “I’m going to work, clean this mess up while I’m gone.  And don’t try anything stupid.  Champ is here just waiting for the chance to attack.”    Then he closed the door, locked it, and left.

     I looked in the bag.  Inside were a pair of pink sweats, some slipper socks, and underwear.  I pulled the underwear out and inspected the package.  He bought the largest size he could find in the girls department.  They were pristine white some with flowers, some striped.  I tossed them aside.  No way in hell was I going to wear those and give in to his perverted fantasies.  I slipped the sweats and slippers on, then started picking up pieces of glass and porcelain and placing it in the now empty bag.

     There were some good sized chunks among the debris.  I began carefully inspecting each piece one by one, searching for the perfect weapon.  I finally found it in a big hunk of glass, curved and broken into a perfect point.  I slid it under my mattress and picked up the remaining fragments.  I put my own clothes inside the bag, never wanting to set eyes on them again, and tied a knot at the top and placed it in the corner by the door.

      I sat for a minute looking around the room now that it was light.  I didn’t really get a look at it when I was tossed in the night before.  I had a wall to my back, a wall across.  Inverted stairs made up my sloped ceiling.  The stairs never meet the floor, it ends in a small crawl space.  There was enough room to lie down in, but not enough to sit up and there was a door around the corner at the end.  I wriggled toward it.  There was no handle, just another crawl space.  I tried to get my fingers between the door and wall and pry it open, but it wouldn’t budge.

     Staring at it for a while, I imagined what was beyond.  Maybe shoe boxes full of photos of him and his daughter in happier times.  Her stuffed animals and clothing packed away in neat obsessive little boxes, tied up with string.   Her dead body.

Bullied to Death

Bullying has been around since the beginning of time, but now it's starting to take a deadly toll. Ellen Degeneres spoke  about young people that are being harassed, teased, and bullied to the point that they take their own lives. 

What are we teaching our children today that would cause them to treat another human being so cruelly?  This kind of behavior must be stopped, at home, at school, in our community.  And this isn't just about homosexual teens, kids tease for many different, senseless reasons.

Just yesterday my daughter was hanging out with some so-called-friends who told her some of the people she hangs out with are losers and asked why she would hang out with them.  Then they asked her to choose who she would rather hang out with them, or the losers.

I'm proud of her for standing up for herself and her friends.  She told them she would never choose between friends.  And you know what?  One of the kids, a boy spit in her face.   She ended up kicking him in the balls, and normally I would not condone violence, but she got to the point of frustration with these kids harassing her, so I don't say I blame her.

Parents, teachers, and peers need to stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves and help put a stop to bullying before it costs someone else their life.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has dedicated part of their website to help put an end to bullying, for kids and adults alike.  Check it out to find out what you can do to help.