(The Port) Deal or No Deal?

What upsets me about this port deal? Where to start. First let me admit my ignorance. I was not aware that any of our ports was being managed by a foreign country. When did that happen? And why in the world would we do it? Globalization is a fine thing when it means we share medical information, help the impoverished, and cooperate instead of compete against other countries, but when it means handing over jobs related to our national security? Then there's the matter of the country who'll be doing the managing. First cut the nonsense about being anti-Arab. It's a known fact that Dubai had links to terrorists, we are still occupying Iraq after starting a questionable war, and if you Google "national security alert" you can go to the Department of Homeland Security and discover we're still on yellow alert (as of March 3, 2006.)

Then there's the matter of a president who claims it's no big deal and it's perfectly safe. Funny, he's one of the few who thinks that. Is he listening to Congress? Our elected officials are a little peeved that they weren't in the loop on this one. I can't say I blame them. Has he noticed that the governors of New York and New Jersey are filing suit? Since I live smack in between Port Newark and Manhattan, I find that reassuring and admirable. Thanks, gentlemen!

Am I anti-Arab? No, I was and still am against the war in Iraq. I work at a job where I meet and serve many people from middle eastern countries, mostly women and children. I happen to like them a lot. But permitting our ports to be managed by people who may have a connection, no matter how tenuous, to terrorists is a foolish and dangerous thing to do.

Computer Conundrum

Would you believe I have two hard copies of a completed manuscript called the Christmas Eve Shop, but nothing on disk? Yep, I did it on a word processor before I got a computer and the disk wasn't compatible, so there it sits. Then I got a computer but no printer and wrote several chapters of Sparrow Hill on Corel's Word Perfect. Three months later my baby Dell got a virus and I lost everything. Ah, but I had most of it on disk. Only problem was my computer didn't like Corel (and neither did I) so we went back to Word 2000. Unfortunately, no one I knew had Corel. Then I wrote about fifty pages of The Home for Nanwrimo on Word 2000 and copied it to disk, but for some reason when I tried to print it out at work, the computers couldn't read my disk.

Are we seeing a pattern here?

I was finally able to print out the initial chapters for The Home and I'm now attempting to rewrite the two chapters I lost during the above named crash. As for Sparrow Hill, my coworker, Tracey, installed Corel's Word Perfect in one of the lab's computers at work and I was ecstatic to see my work after all this time! Then we discovered the machine didn't have a printer or Word 2000 in which to copy and paste. She loaded the program into another machine. That one refused to recognize Drive A so I couldn't open my floppy.

Bless her heart, Tracey offered to try a new machine for me.

Takin' any bets on this one?

Olympic Fever

Okay, I admit it, I have Olympic fever. I like the skating best, but I've looked at quite a few of the evening shows all the way through to midnight. For some peculiar reason, I can watch skiers sail off into space and be completely awed, but the skeleton thing, where they go down the luge run head first, gives me hives.
I used to ride my sled that way and it was great fun, so I guess it's the speed and closeness of the walls that scares me. One of the women was two months pregnant. That's a risk I'd never take.

Athletes amaze me by continuing to compete when they're injured or sick. Because of my disability, I hate to see that. I always think of the possibility of permanent injury. I admire their single mindedness, but personally, I prefer the variety life offers.