My Controversial Thought of the Day – Prayer

Please don't get your prayer on me

I’m not religious; in fact I have a rather strange personal belief system that I won’t really get into here.  But I do want to chat about something that bothers the heck out of me, prayer.  I’m not complaining about those who like to pray and believe in it.  I think it’s good to believe in something and I strongly believe you have a right to think what you want, as long as you don’t push it in other people’s faces.

That’s where prayer comes in.  When someone asks you to pray for so and so, I feel like that is rather presumptuous.  After all, what if I don’t believe in your God?  What if I don’t believe in prayer?  It’s awfully rude to ask me to pray if you don’t know what my belief system is.  Did you know that only 30% of the world is Christian?  So, when you ask someone to pray for so and so there is a 70% chance that they have a belief system that does not have prayer in this form.  

Now, let’s say I am a Christian and I do say my prayer’s every night.  What right do you have to ask me to pray for someone?  Aren’t prayers supposed to be personal?  I can’t see God being okay with you praying for random people that you’ve never met or are only acquaintances.

Finally when someone that I care about is not well or something goes wrong and they are Christian we always have these awkward pauses.  As if they are expecting me to say I’ll pray for them.  I will not.  I’ll wish you luck, I’ll be rooting for you, you’ll be in my thoughts and if there is something tangible I can do for you I certainly will.

I can already see that this is going to be taken the wrong way.  There are going to be people who complain at me for daring to say all this.  But I’m not saying that you can’t pray, I would never take that right away from you.  Since I’m nice enough not to take your right away then you should be nice enough to be okay with me not wanting too.

Please don’t pray at me.

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean – A Spoiler Free Review

I have enjoyed many of the Lego games so far.  It all started with Lego Batman many years ago with my husband.  My love affair began there.  We moved onto Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and of course Star Wars.  When I heard they were releasing Lego Pirates I was very excited.

We just finished the game tonight; we are at 99.3%, which is something I’ll explain a bit later.  It took us about a month of playing a level a night to beat it, so I think it’s safe to say this one has about 30 to 40 hours of game play time, if you want to 100% it.  If you just want to play for fun and not unlock everything you could probably beat it in a few days.

The first thing I have to say, all the movies are included.  So, if like me and my husband, you have not seen the newest movie then you will be a little lost.  I also have not seen the second and third movie since they came out.  This was a bad idea.  The game tries to follow the movies and has no real story on its own.  So, if you don’t remember the movies, or haven’t seen all of them, you will really be muddling along.  The jokes weren’t as funny as maybe they should have been and a lot of the cut scenes were more confusing than enjoyable.  The final movie part of the game was so confusing that we really had no idea what was going on.

I understand the games (just like Star Wars, Indiana Jones & Harry Potter) are meant to be companions to the movies.  But Batman will apparently remain my favorite Lego game.  And it’s not because I’m a huge Batman fan.  As a matter of fact, I am not, and I don’t really like the Batman universe that much.  It was because the story was so much fun.  They really went out of the way to create the story so that it was enjoyable for everyone.  I loved how you played each level as the good guys then the bad guys.  The story is where I really feel the games fall short.  Otherwise, any Lego game is always worth playing.    

I normally love the puzzles in Lego games.  But in Lego Pirates I felt like they were trying too hard.  There were a few places where we had to look up how to get into a secret room or find a mini-kit (which were called ships in a bottle) and were surprised by how it was something we would never have thought of.  And we’re not stupid people.  Originally Lego games seemed to be written to target all age groups, so the puzzles were never overly hard.  But I think maybe Lego was trying to bring in a group of people who like harder puzzles.  I wish they hadn’t changed it; I enjoyed the games being fun and more on the easy side.

Why did I only 99.3% percent the game?  So far there are a few glitches that haven’t been fixed.  One of them is that the “Red Hat” for Extra Toggle is sometimes glitched out so that you can’t get it.  Another is that when you go to change characters you turn into the dog instead.  So, due to the Extra Toggle glitch I will not be able to 100% the game until they set-up the update to fix the glitch.

Should you buy Lego Pirates?  Yes, especially if you like Lego games or the Pirates movies.  Is it the best Lego game?  Absolutely not, in my opinion, but it does capture the fun of all Lego games.

I do highly suggest you make sure you have seen the movies recently and watched all of them, including the last one.  

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Slimfast Weight Loss – A Review

Yummy

After I had my daughter I decided I wanted to lose all the excess weight I had gained from pregnancy and quitting smoking.  That amounted to about 60 lbs.  I looked into different things and finally decided I would try out meal replacement.  I liked the idea of meal replacement because it would help me manage my calories easiest.

I started all this when my daughter was about 8 months old.  In the beginning I lost about 10 lbs.  I’ll admit I fell off the diet wagon a few times and had trouble finding time to work out.  But my weight fluctuated over the next year constantly.  My daughter is 20 months now and I’ve still only lost 10 lbs.  Like I said I definitely messed up in a few times but over this large amount of time shouldn’t I have lost a little something more?

I think I would just buckle down at this point and make it work, but, well here comes the gross part.  If you have a weak stomach then don’t read anymore.  If you really want to know why not to use Slimfast then you really need to read on…

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Okay, here we go…  The diarrhea that I suffered from while on Slimfast wasn’t just run of the mill diarrhea.  In the morning after I had the first shake of the day I couldn’t leave the house.  I had to be close to a bathroom, because I would have to run to make it and explode.  And I do mean explode.  My diarrhea would explode all over the toilet and then as soon as I stood up it would start all over again.  There were mornings where I would be in the bathroom 20 times before lunch.  And then my butt would hurt so badly.  I’d spend most of the day sitting funny. 

My daughter missed out on tons of events and going to the park.  All because I was scared I’d have an episode while we were out. 

So basically, yeah you’ll lose a little weight from using Slimfast but that will because you’ll be horribly dehydrated and getting exercise from running to the bathroom all the time.  I just couldn’t take it anymore.  I’m so happy to be done with it.

Passing the Torch

Hear the Beat!

When you watch these television shows on Nick Jr with your children all of the time you can’t help but get involved in them.  I have opinions on all of them and have seen every episode of Bubble Guppies, Franklin, Ni-Hoa Kai Lan, Wonder Pets, The Fresh Beat Band and a few others.  I know I’m not the only parent out there that is involved with these shows.

I love the fact that these shows teach our children lessons and educate them while having fun.  They even educate them on changes in their lives.  When Steve left Blue’s Clue’s they had a passing the torch episode.  He announced that he had to go away to school, which is very important, and handed the show to Joe.  It was all done perfectly and children everywhere were able to understand Steve wouldn’t be there anymore.

Steve & Joe

That brings me around to what bothers me.  On The Fresh Beat Band last season Reed left.  He’s the British guy who runs the music store and always wears green and white.  The person who originally played Reed, Hadley Frasier, left for Broadway to play in Les Miserables.  So, you would think that Reed would close up shop and they would introduce a new guy in his place.  Instead, boom, we have a new Reed, played by an entirely different guy.  His name is still Reed and he still wears green and white, but he isn’t the same Reed.  There is no British accent and his personality is totally different.  He acts exactly like Twist, one of the male leads.  That show did not need another Twist...   

On the left - Reed Classic; On the right - Reed 2.0

So, I was really indignant about this.  Of course he wasn’t a main character so maybe they thought they could get away with it.  It annoyed me because my child is not dumb and I doubt the rest of the children in America are either.  My daughter is 20 months and she knows that isn’t Reed.  Give our kids some credit please.

The new season of Fresh Beat Band finally premiered.  When I saw a commercial I was blown away... that’s not Marina!  Marina is the red head who wears blue and pink and is the smart one.  She was originally played by Shayna Rose.  The official word is that she left to get married and pursue future projects.  When I saw the commercial I thought, well she dressed the same but that doesn’t mean that she’s still Marina.  And then I saw the new episode.  Her name is Marina.  Are you kidding me?  She’s a lead and they dared to just change her.  The new girl doesn’t look a thing like her; her hair is Auburn instead of red and looks to be a dye job; she has a lot more body than Shayna and is obviously not her at all. 

Old Marina vs. New Marina

There are no words for how angry I am about this.  They might have been able to get by with changing Reed, but you can’t change a main character such as Marina.  I don’t understand why they couldn’t have just had her resign to go away to Julliard to continue her training and have them assign a new girl to the group.  It would have been a great opportunity to do an episode about making new friends and saying goodbye to old friends.

I’m not a television writing executive or anything like that.  Instead I’m a parent.  I know what my child likes and what I consider okay for her watch.  Normally I love Nick Jr. and I feel that they do a great job with their programming.  But as a parent I find the choices that Nick Jr. has made to be disgraceful and I am angry that they think our children are stupid enough that they can pass this off.  

So, in the words of their viewers…  Foo on you Nick Jr.

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Birthday Mom

I’ve already written many times about how things change after you become a mom.  Of course these are not woe is me things, my daughter is worth all of it.  Birthday’s and Holiday’s are also a big change.  I look forward to every new holiday so that I can see the way my little girl reacts.  I’m excited to see what she thinks of 4^th of July, she was too young last year to enjoy it.

My birthday was yesterday.  I turned…  Let’s pretend it was 29, lol.  My little girl is almost 20 months now and she didn’t quite understand.  I used to get really excited about my birthday, but ever since I had Kaylee I can easily say that I still enjoy them, but not with the fervor that I once did.  I’ve found that pretty much anytime I have to spend money on myself I would rather spend money on her, so getting presents makes me feel a little strange, because I wish she were getting something too.  I want to celebrate with her. 

We had a really great cake that my husband made and an awesome dinner that I requested.  I received a Kindle from my Mother-in-law Vicki and Father-in-Law Dan.  My best friend Mandy got me Settlers of Catan (although it was early).  My husband Tom got me a Pandora bracelet, Civilization V and a really awesome geek shirt (Anigo Montoya).  But I think some of the best presents were the ones that don’t cost money.  I got to sleep in, I got to choose what games we played and I didn’t have to change even one diaper all day!  My Father-in-Law Rick and Mother-in-Law Rhonda also gave me a card and gave me another awesome gift that costs a great deal; they’re letting us stay with them rent free J 

All in all I had a great birthday.  It was also our 1 year anniversary, which we are choosing to celebrate on Saturday.  We had wanted to go to The Melting Pot down in Charlotte, but unfortunately that plan has fallen through and instead we will just be going to see X-Men First Class.  I’m really excited, this is the first movie I’ve been to since I first found out I was pregnant with Kaylee.  That was over 2 years ago!

I need to give a shout out to Facebook.  I received more birthday wished this year than I ever have before.  I can assume that Facebook is to thank for this due to the fact that they constantly remind people whose birthday is coming up.  So, thank you Facebook for making this the most recognized birthday I’ve probably had since the 3^rd grade.

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