Mishmash Musings

I swear, I have the absolute worst luck when it comes to waiting in lines at the grocery store, McDonald’s, wherever. I always choose the one that ends up moving the slowest, the one that the manager is going to swap the cash drawer out of, or the one that needs a new roll of printer paper. Seriously — every single time!

But today I went into one of my regular restaurants and saw that both cash register stations had these new epson tm-t88iv receipt printers. The printers were super-fast and smooth, so I breezed through the process just as quick and easy as could be. Now if only the grocery store would add these things…!

I wake up practically every morning with my back in utter agony. I clearly need a new mattress, because my current one is just so soft and saggy that it provides zero support. I actually end up on the floor most nights because that’s really the only place my back feels somewhat comfortable. I wish we had the money to buy a good mattress right now, but that’s not gonna happen. Guess I’ll have to start saving up for a while. In the meantime, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about my back!

Did you remember to cut your lights for Earth Hour this year? According to Wikipedia, Earth Hour is a global event held on the last Saturday of March each year during which participants shut off non-essential lights and appliances for an hour (8:30pm to 9:30pm local time) as a show of solidarity for climate change. This is an AFP photo of Big Ben darkened for Earth Hour 2010.

To be honest, I always forget about Earth Hour, and this year was no different. On the bright side, however, we are very conscious of our energy use anyway. We turn off lights as soon as we leave a room, unplug video game consoles when not in use, and shut off our computers if we’re going to leave them for 20 minutes or more.

Still, I’m going to try to remember to participate next year. I already set a Google Alert to remind me!

Whenever I’m wondering what other people are searching for on the Internet, I just check out Google Trends, which lists the top searches for the past few hours. Today’s top search is for Jesse James mistress photos, showing that America is completely fascinated by what happens in the lives of celebrities.

Though I admit to sometimes being guilty of this sort of thing myself, I usually spend my time more productively. My recent search history indicates that I’ve looked for a free life insurance quote, IRS tax forms, and TurboTax 2010. Yes, I’m trying to get my financial house in order as I’ll be leaving my job at the end of this month — but that ‘s a story for another post!

Now that the health care bill has been passed, I wonder if we’ll start getting some real answers about what this means for the American people. During the debates leading up to the vote, Democrats said one thing about what kind of services would be provided, while Republicans usually said the complete opposite. It was very difficult to try to figure out what was real and what was just typical political doublespeak.

What I want to know is how this bill will affect me and my family. How much will I have to pay for health insurance if I willingly quit my job? What if I get laid off? Will my uncle in Raleigh be able to keep his Blue Cross NC policy, or will he have to change to something that the government mandates? Are children covered no matter what?

Hopefully we’ll all be getting some answers soon. I can’t even figure out if this health care bill is a good or bad thing yet because I still have all these questions.

It seems that everywhere I “go” on the net, I see the name Justin Bieber. He’s ALWAYS a trending topic on Twitter, and is usually listed as one of Yahoo’s top searches or a top Google Trend. The thing is, I had no idea who this person was — until curiosity finally got the better of me today and I looked him up.

THIS is what everyone’s going crazy about???? Are you kidding me???? There must be a LOT of preteen girls with absolutely nothing better to do in their lives than net-stalk this 16-year-old boy. OMG, I cannot believe that there’s this much fuss about him. It must be the floppy emo hair.

Remember that story last week about someone at a New Jersey Wal-Mart getting on the intercom and making an announcement saying, “Attention, Wal-Mart customers: All black people, leave the store now”? Well, Wal-Mart predictably came under fire from “civil rights groups” for the announcement, because they figured it was some Wal-Mart employee who did it. But it turns out it was just some random 16-year-old customer who picked up the intercom while wandering through the store.

So even though Wal-Mart had zero control over what happened, some people are still blaming the company, pointing to past labor issues or whatever as some kind of indication that they’re racist despite being cleared in this latest incident.

Whatever. It seems that some people just hate giant corporations and will go out of their way to slam them for any — or no — reason at all.

So the big story in celeb gossip circles this week is the marriage trouble that’s brewing between Oscar winner Sandra Bullock and husband Jesse James. There have been rumors of infidelity on Jesse’s part, which was sort of confirmed when he issued a vague apology to Sandy and the kids via People magazine.

Does this mean Sandra Bullock and Jesse James are headed for a divorce? Nothing definite has been printed yet, so the only two who know for sure are Jesse and Sandra themselves. To be honest, I’ve always thought they were an odd match as a couple, and am surprised that they made it this long. A split wouldn’t at this point wouldn’t exactly be a shock.