Fixing some green velvet cake for St. Patrick's Day

Guest post written by Brenda Stevens It never hurts to do something a little special for your family. One of my favorite things to do is to bake treats. So I like to bake desserts for my family to mark special occasions. I started planning what kind of dessert I should fix for my family for St. Patrick's Day after our big dinner. We're of Irish heritage so I really love to fix some straight-up authentic Irish cuisine to help promote the holiday.

But I wanted to make sure that I pick out some food that my kids will eat. They're kind of picky, so the super authentic stuff sometimes doesn't pass their approval. When I was looking for some kid-friendly Irish dessert I saw the website http://www.debtsettlementusa.com and after I looked through it a little bit I decided to finally settle our debt. We've had financial issues for a while and I'm ready to have our finances be much better.

I found a recipe for green velvet cake, a twist on red velvet cake and just decided to fix that because I think that the kids will love that a whole lot more.

By what will I be Judged?

I have been in a slump. I suppose it is unavoidable. When I get just a bit too much in the brain, it tends to wander aimlessly—perhaps as a means of survival?
I have been busy with classes at the university, everyday obligations at the school and now preparing to move. This means packing, cleaning, and painting. We, actually I, am painting to make the place look “nice.” Which in and of itself is somewhat of a oxy-moron. The previous tenants used this pea-green Exorcist vomit color throughout the house. We were renting so the color didn't matter a whole lot to us. Though we were somewhat leery when the owners said they had only been in the house less than 4-5 times since the bought it 5 years ago. Not only was this said with a straight face, they were proud of this fact. They further clarified their commitment to the house when they added that they had invested practically ZERO dollars since they bought it as well. We want to say with pride that it obviously showed, but for the $650 we were paying, we just looked like we were truly impressed.
Anyways, I am again wandering from my intent. Like most of the planet, I have a FaceBook. In fact I have several. I wanted to make sure no logical human being could ever connect me to an account and I avoided posting pictures with faces of family members. I changed my birthday every month. I had friends sending me birthday wishes 12 times a year, how cool is that?
I even have the other gender box checked which created a few serious discussions with people I went to school with that I didn't even really know. But as I tell my students, it is a new millennium and we are allowed to be ourselves—unless you are a republickin then your true personality remains in the closet.
And make no mistake, FaceBook is tracking our every move.



You are being WATCHED

But still I am wandering. There are so many tangents, they are like small shiny objects that I just can't resist. Temptations...

My snark. That is what I started out writing. My snark is the “friends” we have on FB. I have become obsessed with my friends. Well, not the people per se, but the friends list itself. Every time I am on FB, I check my friends list. I am not looking for manes. Nor am I looking for a chat. I am looking at the number of friends on my list.
I occasionally go to other peoples FB and see they have hundreds, even thousands of friends. Can they actually know ALL these people? I suppose it is possible. I am not one to measure FB success by the length of my friends list. After all, I have gone to some pretty bizarre extremes to AVOID being found. My friends are typically those I have chosen to be friends with as opposed to them seeking to add to their cumulative total at my expense.
Like most of you, I am sure you get some strange shares from your friends. I mean if someone is my friend, they are probably kind of weird anyways, right? SO I either ignore the shares, sometimes I laugh and I might even share it myself—which is probably redundant as almost all my friends are friends of each other.
Lately I have been collecting some new friends on FB. People I have never met have sent me friend requests. I generally accept since I am always looking to expand my circle and stay outside the box. I had a friend who lived in Trinidad. She was anxious to talk. When I found out she was 16 I told her we could be FB friends, but conversation was off limits. I posted on a news article about the All-American Muslim Show and had another new friend from Malaysia. I even posted some comments on her wall. She rarely writes or either that she doesn't share? But she is on my friends list.
Lately I have returned to my roots, sort of. I have always been an advocate at heart. It is a very painful way to go through life. Speaking for those who have no voice, are terrified to speak or just generally uninformed about what they should be speaking out about. So I have found some pages on FB supporting various causes. The one I am really interested is is the We are Women March taking place on April 28, 2012 around the country. I have 2 or three new friends on my list from this great organization.
Like I said, I get all kinds of shares from this group and others, along with some from friends from the neighborhood. The annoying ones I hide. The really senseless ones that a person sends all the tome like apps and games, I just hide everything. No problem. I even had a friend from the place I taught at in Clinton, Michigan. He was a staunch republickin. Now I have no problems with political or religious opinions. Provide they are not crammed down my throat. I would see his shares and giggle. Sometimes I would comment. Then I started posting / sharing views that were contrary to his politics and religion. I thought he would hide them or just ignore the shares.
Now, I finally get to the point of this wandering snark. UN-FRIENDING people. I check my friends list everyday to see who has unfriended me today! It is an obsession. Suddenly FB has become a form of censorship? Post something someone does not like, and they will unfriend you? WTF?
I suppose it is like life everywhere. We tend to FB with those just like us. We fear the diversity. We are anxious about those who live, talk and eat differently from us.
So it is, with every pro-Obama post, every pro-choice—whether it be choosing life or religion—I am risking another FB relationship.
FB has really evolved into a replica of our society. I suppose it was unavoidable. Humans as a whole are terrified of each other. Sure we all watch the news and shed a tear when an innocent is harmed or dies. We get frustrated when the government is lackadaisical and we get screwed at the pumps or taxes get a bigger chink of our shrinking take home pay.
But almost without hesitation, we REFUSE to speak for CHANGE. We as a civilization have learned the ONE lesson authority has been cramming down our throats since the beginning of time. He who questions first is punished more severely.

Christ was crucified for challenging the authority of Rome, not because He claimed to be god, or represent god. He continues to be misunderstood today because people want to put Him on a pedestal as one of the three god-heads.

Listen folks....IT DOES NOT MATTER WHO CHRIST WAS, WHO He is...it DOESN'T matter who Mohammed IS, BUDDAH, DALI LAMA, or even the BILLY GRAHAM. They matter little in the scheme of existence.

We all know what really matters (and it isn't the length of our FB friends).

What makes a difference is:

WHEN OUR NEIGHBOR CAME TO US, DID WE DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO HELP?

The world begins to change

Three years doesn’t seem like a long time. It is barely long enough for a toddler to begin walking and talking. Just a little over half way through elementary school. It is just quick enough to get through middle school and not remember the agony. Three years will make you a junior in high school if you are on track and passed all your classes. Three years is just a measly 2.5% of the American box turtle’s expected lifespan.
Three also has some significance in the numerology world for being lucky. The holy trinity is three, the wise men were a trio, and Jonah spent three days in the belly of the whale. Then there are the rare references to the dark side of the three.
The three-day Christ was on the cross is probably the first evil 3 to come to mind. Then there is the 3 on a match curse. As I spent these three years in exile in North Carolina, I never knew how these three years were silently wreaking havoc in my life.

Divorce

Contribution by Saul Martin

When I look back on my childhood, I never would have thought that my family would end up the way that it has. I didn't have the best childhood, there was a lot of fighting, but I really did think my parents were different and would stay together. While my friends' parents were going through divorce, I felt bad for them but I didn't really understand how it felt. Well, now I do. After 28 years of marriage, my parents have gotten a divorce. I am starting to wonder if any marriages last? I have been married for six years and I can see how it happens. Marriage isn't easy, but I still can't imagine not being with my husband. My mom has had the hardest time. I don't think she ever thought they would actually get a divorce either. She just moved into her own small two bedroom house by herself. She said she has never felt lonelier. I go over there every Tuesday and Thursday for dinner but I know that is not enough. I got her ADT Security Blair to help her feel like she wasn't alone. I think it has really helped her feel safer.

Like the ancient Phoenix

I suppose I should start by apologizing for my piss poor snark the other day. I was not only in a psycho-funk from a warring cold, but I was indeed pissed.
I have this issue with frustration. Once I have entered the frustration zone, it is extremely difficult for me to focus and I tend to become circular.
But alas, I also tend to digress.
Just about a year ago, Mary and I registered our domain name and hooked up with an internet host—In Motion. We were looking at going full time on the road in our recently acquired Coachmen Catalina 5th wheel. So we created a domain name BLUE ROAD BLOGGER with our host. Along with our initial site hosting, we have 5 or 6 other domains we can register with In Motion and for the cost of registration; we can have several web sites on out initial plan.
We later registered GET YOUR SNARK ON in anticipation of re-dressing the politically correct mentality.
Though it had been awhile since I was snarkin at the system, I thought I could just snark at the obvious and provide a platform for others to snark along. Kind of like a wanna be closet snarking society if you will. But as I should have known, one , at least I cannot snark quietly.
Then several months ago it started. I friended some anti-GMO groups, a few Agent Orange groups and then I went looking for trouble. I found my old favorite magazines on Facebook---RETHINKING SCHOOLS out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; THE PROGRESSIVE magazine out of Madison, Wisconsin (see the trend?), and eventually I was back in Madison 1996, at least mentally I was. Walking down State Street, sitting st Canterbury Coffee / Bookstore and writing.
Then I find a FREE subscription to YES! Magazine. I had so forgotten about this publication. When I was living in Madison I had subscriptions to YES!, THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE, ADBUSTERS, RETHINKING SCHOOLS, and 2-3 other social commentary publications. I even drove to Milwaukee to work on RETHINKING SCHOOLS. There I met some devoted educators and great teachers fighting for their students on the front lines in Milwaukee Public Schools. In Madison I learned about Leonard Peliter and the Second Taking of Wounded Knee. I discovered Peter Kropotkin, Colin Ward, Black 47 and why society as a whole was drowning.
I was advocating the resistance to the IMF, the Summit of G8 (Now G20), and GMOs in 1996. I was suddenly a prophet and preaching about all that was wrong with society. I saw it as my duty to warn the others of the impending apocalypse. I was the black sheep no one wanted to acknowledge.
Eventually I settled down and let the frustration fall into a well-deserved sleep. I thought I wanted to be normal, and if that meant being comfortably numb, then I would be just that. So it has been for the last 10 years.
SO please be patient as I seek to regain my voice and my clarity. I have been practicing on a web site, CITY-DATA where I have been promoting the evils of GMOs and facing off with two total capitalistic idiots who I believe work for mansanto as they have made several appeals to the moderators to close the thread they deem to be baseless. It has been a great venue for me to present an argument without the frustration taking control.

OUTRAGE----Y not?

So are you feeling the outrage? Everyday we are witness to some corporation taking something from our community. We stand by as some politician taking a little more in our wages and attacking unions as the all-evil, soul stealing boogey-man. And all along they tell us it is getting better, it is for our own good, and the best one of all time-----I am from the government and I am here to help….ROFLMFAO…seriously?
Now before all the political entities get in a bunch, this is NOT an us against them rant. It will not be democraps vs. republickins death match. Neither side is innocent in this fiasco.
Both, in fact dare I say ALL politics travels on money; really big money and a lot of it. Just watch the news and see all the corporations being served at the trough of earmarks. Whenever there is a disruption in the system, a protest or strike, the politicians are ready to send in the clowns—aka muscle; enforcement; law. If the clowns are to small, the military is always an option.
Multinationalistic businesses current own us. They have a license that has NO expiration date, because we love the ride. We are firmly entrenched in the front seat and holding on tight. Every year they add new and improved features that compel us to stay the course.
We are willing to pay big for the pleasure of having folks we elected to do what we want them to do for us—TELL us what they will do to us. And we accept this? Like Frankenstein, we have built a monster that no longer serves its master. Like I Robot, we have permitted the creation to rule the creator. And we want to believe it is all for our own good, because we are incapable of deciding for ourselves?

Do they really have to ask WHY?

SO the 1% and their wanna bees are asking why the rest of us are PISSED OFF?

After 10 years of "wanting to BELIEVE" in the america Mitt Romney espouses, I am ready to BE OUTRAGED again!