Asha Anujeeva » Opinion

I didn’t know people were eating monkeys!

Anu — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:59:39 +0000

I was reading a BBC.com website news story today about how 48% of the world’s primate species are facing extinction. The article explains that a large reason for that was the deforestation of the world; people are cutting down and/or burning the forests that the primates live in. That was depressing news. But what really surprised me was to read in the article that the extinction is being exacerbated by hunters who are hunting the primates for food! I did not realize that people considered monkeys as edible! I don’t know why, I just never really thought people would eat monkeys. That makes me especially sad, since I consider primates to be so closely related to humans that it almost seems cannibalistic to eat them!

Algae turned into fuel

Anu — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:13:02 +0000

According to an article dated May 29, 2008 in the LA Times, there is a company that is planning to use algae to start producing a crude oil that can be used to make gasoline and diesel fuel. The production of the fuel uses carbon dioxide, which would help to clean up our greenhouse gases problem. It can be refined in existing refineries and be used by the existing cars and trucks on the road. It plans to reach full commercial scale in five years. The company that is planning to do this is called Sapphire Energy.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful, getting oil from algae instead of fossil fuels!

Online shopping

Anu — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:34:26 +0000

Do you enjoy shopping online? As consumers find that their spare time is becoming more precious, many of us are turning to shopping online instead of going to the local shopping mall. Within just a few minutes, the consumer can order a wild variety of goods, like leopard print plates for a housewarming gift, bamboo strands for making placemats for a craft class, and a
God Bless Our Home Cutting Board, all while dinner is being cooked in the microwave in the room next to the computer.

Using the Internet to shop has opened up the entire global shopping market to everyone that has an Internet connection. Many companies now offer free shipping, and having the goods delivered to your doorstep, or if it is a gift they offer giftwrapping, a gift card, and delivery to the recipients address. How’s that for convenience?! And best of all, there is no worries about finding a parking spot, or locating your car in the parking lot after a long day at the mall! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy shopping at the mall from time to time, but sometimes the mall just does not have what I’m looking for, and sometimes I just don’t have the energy to deal with it.

Life would be so much easier

Anu — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:36:54 +0000

Have you ever wished that your employer would provide a company uniform for employees to wear at the companies expense? And by that I don’t mean a vest to wear, I mean an entire outfit, shirt, shoes, pants, the whole nine yards. Life would be so much easier if I could simply obtain a work outfit from http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Women/ and have the company reimburse for the expense. Scrubs are both modest and comfortable to wear. If everyone wore a uniform to work, you would never be having to suffer the bad taste of the person who wears their skirts or shorts way too short and their shirts way too low in the neck.

I know that a lot of people would object, saying that they want the freedom to choose what they wear, to be able to express their individuality, but I think it would be a great benefit for people to not have to spend a lot of money on work clothes. It would be even better if the company had a uniform laundry service. My uncle used to work as an automobile mechanic in a well known shop and his company provided the mechanics with work clothes and even had them laundered. I think that would be a wonderful benefit to have, don’t you?

Hard work

Anu — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:35:28 +0000

Thanks for the guest post by Susan Dorman

When my husband decided to surprise me with the birthday gift of one of those upright style commercial vacuum cleaners I exclaimed that it was the best birthday gift I had ever received, he looked at me quite skeptically. “It is?” he queried. “Well, yes of course it is” I replied. “When you give me a tool for floor care it means that you are going to take on the chore, and I can’t think of a better gift than for you to take on the carpet cleaning chore.

Well, what could the poor man say after that? He said “well, I wasn’t planning on taking on the vacuuming.” My reply was “then you should not have bought me a vacuum cleaner! I was perfectly happy with the cannister style vacuum that I have owned since before we met and the upright styles are too hard for me to push back and forth, so if you expect our carpets to be vacuumed with that, then YOU are going to be the one to do the vacuuming.”

Well he hemmed and he hawed and said that it was easy to use the upright vacuum, much easier than using the cannister style. So I told him that was great news because HE was going to be the one using it. Well, he tried to put on his best game face and he DID use it to vacuum the floors for about a month. Then he declared that it was, in fact, harder to use than the cannister style vacuum and he put in out in the garage, never to be used again. Until, of course, we broke up and I kept the cannister style vacuum! And when it came time that my cannister style vacuum broke down I ended up buying another cannister style vacuum. The upright ones are just too hard to use!

kim and kris

Anu — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:59:55 +0000

Posted by Darwin Garza

Thank goodness that I have local internet service. I have been on the internet all day today reading everything about Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries’ divorce. I was sad to hear that they are divorcing after only seventy-two days. I really like Kim and think that she is a sweet spirit. I hate to hear when marriages don’t work out. All over the internet people are giving her a really hard time about not working on the relationship. I wish that people wouldn’t be so critical. Sometimes people make mistakes. I know that I have made a lot, that’s for sure!! Yes, I’m sure she is upset that she wasted so much time and money and others are too, but I’m sure that this situation is emotionally trying for her. For people to be so hateful about the situation just isn’t nice. I haven’t seen the gossip magazines been this mean in a while. CNN and Fox News were even reporting on the divorce! It is like she is a politician and not a reality television star!

I just had to laugh out loud

Anu — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:05:15 +0000

I was reading an article on Yahoo news about a man, who lives in a tent on a tiny Shetland Island named Forvik has filed for “independence” from the British Crown. Apparently the chain of Shetland Islands fall under the British government, and this man (Stuart Hill) has decided to make his island a “crown dependency” out of the 2.5 square mile island that he owns. He says he will make his own currency and collect no taxes. What is so very funny about this story is that he is the ONLY resident of the island! I just can’t even imagine that!

How does one get “legal” ivory?

Anu — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:03:24 +0000

i was reading an article in the BBC news that China has been given permission by the The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to import “legal” elephant ivory. According to the article, there are several countries where the government legally owns stockpiles of elephant ivory, and that ivory was obtained legally. Considering the decreasing elephant population, and the poaching problems for illegal ivory it made me wonder exactly how does a country obtain “legal” ivory? Do they wait for elephants to die of old age and then go to the elephant graveyards to get it? Or do they hunt the elephants? This story disturbed me; I thought that all ivory was illegal everywhere.

Pinching pennies

Anu — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:53:35 +0000

As the economy appears to be at a standstill, I’m considering getting some online free auto policy quotes. I’ve been loyal to my discount auto insurance company for many years, but I keep seeing so many commercials and advertisements that encourage me to switch to a different company, I think I’ll spend some time trying to find a more affordable car insurance plan.

I know that one way to save money on auto insurance is to raise the deductible, but that is not a step that I want to take. With my luck, I’d probably raise the deductible and then within the week I’d have some crazy thing happen and end up paying something extra out of pocket!

One way that I know I can save money on the insurance is to drop the collision coverage on the car that gets stored in the winter. Just drop it during the storage time, and keep the comprehensive. As long as the car is in the storage barn it’s not going to be colliding with anything!

Navigon GPS frustration

Anu — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 08:34:20 +0000

Recently I bought a Navigon 2100 GPS unit. I was excited because it was on sale at Staples for $129.00 – a bargain! The first time I used it (about a week later) it started out ok, but froze up after a few minutes of driving and then told me that it didn’t have the little card in it that makes it run. (It DID have the card in it) I had to take the card in and out a few times and then find a paper clip to unbend and stick in the little “reset” hole in order to make it work again. Very upsetting, since that is not something you want to be doing while you are driving! So I took the unit back to the store and declared it defective and asked for a replacement.

Staples was very nice and they gave me a replacement. Which I did not use until yesterday. I had to go a few places I had never been before and even though I had maps I wanted a GPS with me to let me know when my turns were coming up. This one worked great for the first destination. When I was almost at the second destination it froze up again. I was so close to the destination that it wasn’t a problem, and I really didn’t realize that it was frozen up quite yet; I turned the unit off for a while. When I was ready to go to the third destination I turned it on again, and saw the screen was still frozen where it had been when I turned the unit off. I had to search through my purse, looking for something skinny to stick in the reset hole. I tried the tip of a pen – no luck. I couldn’t find a paper clip or safety pin or hair pin, but I tried the tip of a nail file and that worked. This was highly aggravating, and I’m not inclined to believe that I can get a refund on this critter since I bought it last May.

When I was ready to come home, the little machine was very insistent that I go fifteen miles out of my way to get home, and even when I ignored it and when the way I KNEW would get me home quicker, it never changed its mind and kept insisting that I turn around – even when I actually GOT HOME! Even when I turned it off and on again, it insisted that I go the long way around. When I reached my street it wanted me to drive right past it and go to some other destination where I would then have to turn around to come back to my street. When I actually got go the end of my driveway it told me that I still had twenty one miles to drive and thirty minutes to reach my destination. I was very under impressed with that situation, let me tell you! And when I got inside my house I turned it on again to see what it would tell me and it still told me that I had twenty one miles and thirty minutes to go. This time it was NOT frozen up (I’m sure of that, the screen was interactive.)

My advice to anyone thinking about buying this little GPS – if you DO, make sure to always have a paper clip ready to stick in the reset hole! And don’t trust it to get you there the fastest way possible. It has a mind of its own and it is unreliable.