Sophie's Story

   Every so often I will watch a clip of Last Week Tonight on Youtube. Last Week Tonight  is a late night show on HBO hosted by British comedian John Oliver who also writes for and produces the show.  The clip that I watch is a 20 minutes or so where Mr. Oliver talks various topics of interest from that week. He's talked about televangelists, multi level marketing, various political figures, authoritarianism and why the state attorneys general election is important.    I enjoy his humour and his point of view. He makes some very good serious points in what he says. The part I don't like is some of his language. He likes to use a certain four letter word for emphasis. I don't get it. Mr. Oliver is a smart man. He went to a good college. Why does he need to use profanity for emphasis?   Why do comics in general feel the need to use profanity? I have never understood it. George Carlin is a good example. Many of his comedy routines are laced with profa...

  Last week I decided to post on Facebook each day one thing for which I am grateful. I hadn't planned to do it. My original thought was to post something about how blessed I feel to be working where I am working. I had planned to post a picture of a rock with the words, "Keep the Faith"  carved on it that my boss left near my workstation one morning.    As I was planning the post, I thought it would be a good exercise for me to expand it to one thing each day for a week. I also decided I had to list why I was grateful for that thing. I decided to include things that might be taken for granted.   Monday I posted about my job and coworkers as originally planned.   Tuesday I posted that I was grateful for C. I assured him that the posts not in order of importance.   Wednesday I posted that I was grateful for the cats. Later that day Scamp peed in on the dining room floor for no reason that I can think of. It was hard to feel grateful for him after...

   This is not your traditional Thanksgiving day column. Usually I or one of the cats writes about things for which we are grateful. I'm going to take a slightly different spin on that topic today.     I have been a healthcare provider for 25 years. In all those years I have always provided the health care, not received it. Lately, I've found myself on the receiving end. It's been an interesting experience. It's made me grateful that I live in a state where there are a lot of good healthcare providers. I only wish that health care wasn't so expensive so more people would be able to get the care they need. (That's another topic for another day.)    I have been learning a lot. I've been learning that certain tests are not as scary as I thought they were. I've learned that it is possible for a phlebotomist to have a really good sense of humor. I've learned that questions are encouraged.    I have also learned that it is not easy to take a pill t...

     My uncles are always saying that they are busier now than they were when they were working. One of my uncles says that retire means being tired over and over again. I never understood that. When you retire, you don't have to get up and go to work every day. You decide what you are going to do and when you are going to do it. Right?    I'm beginning to understand now. I'm not retired, but I work part time as opposed to full time. That means that I should have lots of time to do the things that I want to do. Knit, crochet, read, cook, housekeeping, instrument practice, work on my Personal Progress, study my Scriptures and do service work.    My to do lists should always get done. There is not a single task that I should have to leave for another time. I'm not working full time so I should have plenty of time to do everything. Shouldn't I?   I'm finding that this is not the case. Take Monday for instance. I had a to do list with four items...

   There are all kinds of things I can do with a smartphone. I can text, take pictures and text them to people. I can use the counting app when knitting. I can look up Scriptures. I can get directions to anyplace I want to go.    One thing I discovered I can do with my phone is use an app called Bitmoji. This is an app that allows you to make a character that looks like you. You can dress this character in various types of clothing or costumes. You can use this Bitmoji on social media and texting. (I still haven't figured out how to use it on Facebook.)    I really like Bitmoji. I am lucky in that my character does look quite a bit like me. (She has more hair than I do though.) I even found hats that look like hats I own to put on my Bitmoji. Here are a few reasons why I like Bitmoji. (These are in no particular order.)   There are a wide variety of pictures with different types of text to choose from. For instance if I search for hello, I get He...

   Now that elections are over it's safe to watch TV again. The political ads get pretty tiresome. The worst are the attack ads.    I don't understand why political candidates still run attack ads. I don't know anyone who likes them. They are not helpful in making an informed decision on who to vote for. They've got to be expensive to put together. They must be effective though or I don't think candidates and other entities would continue to use them.   To me campaigning for political office is like applying for a job. The only difference is that instead of one or maybe a few other people that interview a job candidate, there is a county, an area,a state or even an entire country that interviews and then votes for who they think would do the best job representing them.   If you look at campaigning for political office like interviewing for a job, then you can understand why I don't get attack ads. It's usually considered to be in poor taste to bad mout...