Rant - Spam email

I'm so sick of getting these spam emails I've decided to start publishing them. These people really are scum.

From: miss_annette06@msn.com
Reply to: annettegozim@hotmail.com

Dearest one,

Hi, My name is Miss Annette Gozim Yak, 24years old originated from Sudan. I am dark in complexion, loving romantic and caring angel. I gone through your profile truely is quiet intresting to me, I decide to contact you I really want to have a good relationship with you
My father Dr. Justin Yak Arop was the former Minister for SPLA Affairs and Special Adviser to President Salva Kiir of South Sudan for Decentralization. My father Dr. Justin Yak and my mother including other top Military officers and top government officials had been on board when the plane crashed on Friday May 02, 2008.

You can read more about the crash through the below site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7380412.stm

After the burial of my father, my uncle conspired and sold my father's properties to one Chinese Expatriate and live nothing for me. One faithful morning, I opened my father's briefcase and found out the documents which he have deposited huge amount of money in one bank in Spain with my name as the next of kin. I contacted the bank in Spain to transfer the money so that I can start a better life and take care of myself, but unfortunately, the officer of the Bank whom I contacted told me that my father's instruction to the bank was the money be release to me only when I am married or present a trustee who will help me and invest the money overseas.

I have chosen to contact you after my prayers and I believe that you will not betray my trust. But rather take me as your own sister. Though you may wonder why I am so soon revealing myself to you without knowing you, well, I will say that my mind convinced me that you are the true person to help me. More so, I will like to disclose much to you if you can help me to relocate to your country because my uncle have threaten to assassinate me. The amount is $8.4 Million and I have confirmed from the bank in Spain. You will also help me to place the money in a more profitable business venture in your Country.

However, you will help by recommending a nice University in your country so that I can complete my studies. It is my intention to compensate you with 20% of the total money for your services and the balance shall be my capital in your establishment. As soon as I receive your interest in helping me, I will put things into action immediately. In the light of the above, I shall appreciate an urgent message indicating your ability and willingness to handle this transaction sincerely. Please do keep this only to your self. I beg you not to disclose it till i come over because I am affraid of my weaked uncle who has threatened to kill me.

Sincerely yours,
Miss Annette Gozim Yak.

Rant - The Mac Store

My husband was working all morning trying to find a replacement for my Father-in-law's dead computer, an Apple G4 Desktop. After calling around and taking to several people at The Mac Store and the Apple Store they decided my FIL should buy the $599.00 (or 600.00) Mac Mini.

So off goes my FIL to the Mac Store and tells them he wants to buy the $600 Mac Mini. The sales person says they don't have a 600 Mac Mini, they have a 500, 700 & 900 Mac Mini. Apparently my FIL asked what the difference was and they told him that the $900 Mac Mini was faster and without knowing any better he bought it. The 500 (really 599 and closer to 600) one would have been a lot faster than what he has now.

They totally took advantage of a man in his middle 70s and instead of selling him what he needed they sold him what would make them more money. We use to go to The Mac Store all the time, but we will no longer be going there nor referring others.

Rant - Cyndy's House of Pancakes may soon be House of Pasties

I live just blocks away from Cyndy's House of Pancakes on Aurora and 105th. I just read an article on King5.com where they owners are selling and a prospective buyer wants to turn it into a Strip Club. Does anyone else find this disturbing? We have the Oak Tree Cinemas just a block away where families take their children to see movies. There already is the Dancing Bare place and the XXX Book store. Do we really need another strip club and especially one so close to neighborhoods, schools and churches??

Rant - Melissa & Doug toy recall in Canada

So now we can add Melissa & Doug to the list of China recalled toys. Although you wouldn't know that by looking at their website. In August of 2008 Canada issued a recall of the "Geometric Stacker" by Melissa and Doug and in September 2008 Canada issued a recall of the "Stacking Train" by Melissa and Doug. Testing by Health Canada revealed that the surface paint on the toy contains barium in excess of the allowable limit.

Why is barium even present in a toy manufactures facility? What purpose does it have?? When I looked up Barium in Wikipedia I see it is used in glassmaking, rat poisions, used for drilling oil wells, it gives fireworks their green color, but no where could I find why it would be present on a WOODEN TOY FOR TODDLERS. If someone could explain to me, please do so.

So when are parents going to wake up and see that these Chinese manufactures do NOT have our children's best interest at heart. How many tainted toys are going to be enough for everyone to stop buying these products?? Maybe we need to change the word 'tainted' to something more accurate like 'potentially lethal', maybe that will get peoples attention.

Rant - No Troll postcard to be found

We received Flat Stanley from a relative and so we decided to take him to the Troll in Fremont to take some pictures. Afterward we headed down to Fremont to look for a post card to send to the school. Could we find one?? NO. How can Fremont not have a post card of the Troll??

Rant - Score 1 for Mattel and Fisher Price, Score 0 for actual SAFE, QUALITY & EDUCATIONAL TOYS

I have stopped buying ANY toy that is made in China. For Christmas this year Santa is bringing baby girl the Chalet Doll House from PlanToys. It costs us a pretty penny and other than a few small items for her stocking, which are wooden figurines by Ostheimer, that is the extent of her Christmas. Well ok maybe a few books here and there, if I can find ones NOT made in China. Christmas is not a time to spoil our children with mass amounts of toys anyway. It is the Celebration of the birth of our Lord, something I am making sure my family remembers and celebrates. Next year I do not know what I am going to do.

See the United States Congress recently passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) requiring that all toys being imported to the US pass extensive testing fees of up to $4,000 per type of toy they make. They will also be required to permanently label each toy with a batch number and date. This will in most cases force the toy companies to recreate their molds.

So what does this mean for the little mom and pop businesses that sell wooden toys for a living? Well they will more than likely disappear. And probably no more SAHM or SAHDs selling handmade toys on etsy.com. Good quality wood, educational and Waldorf style toys are going to be even more expensive and harder to find.

One European company Selecta has already announced that after Dec 31, 2008 it will no longer be selling it's toys in America, how many more will follow?

So I want to say thank you to Mattel and Fisher-Price for having your toys made in China for lower costs and quality, which caused most of the recalls, all so you can make more money at my child's expense. And a big thank you to my Government for taking the choice away from me to buy my daughter good quality toys and leaving me with cheap, plastic crap from China.

I'm urging every American to read the following and write your Congressperson and Senator immediately!
Please read this from the Handmade Toy Alliance. You can also sign their online petition. And PLEASE, PLEASE pass this on to your family and friends.

And Honey you probably better start now making something for baby girl for next Christmas.

Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA from the CPSIA
The issue:
In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public’s trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.

For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatroy testing will likely drive them out of business.

*A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
*A work-at-home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
*A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
*And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of toys that have earned and kept the public’s trust: Toys made in the US, Canada, and Europe. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US.
If this law had been applied to the food industry, every farmers market in the country would be forced to close while Kraft and Dole prospered.

You can read our Proposal to Improve the CPSIA here.

How You can Help:
Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys. Use our sample letter or write your own. You can find your State Representative here and Senator here.


NEWSFLASH FROM A NATURAL & EUROPEAN TOY IMPORTER

As many of you may have heard, the company Selecta has decided to pull out of the USA market effective Dec. 31st 2008. We need your help to make sure other quality companies are not forced to make similar decisions.

While we all applauded efforts by the federal government to tighten the safety standards for toys, we all got much more than we bargained for. The law that was passed extends to all products directed to children 12 years of age and younger, and includes such things as clothing & toys and much more, with very few exceptions or exemptions. That wouldn’t be so bad, but there are a few requirements that, if left as is, will force most small businesses (and many medium & large sized businesses) out of business….including retailers, work-at-home moms and independent crafters making products for children. The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection will hold a hearing on Wednesday, December 10, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled “Implementation of the CPSIA: Urgent Questions about Application Dates, Testing and Certification, and Protecting Children.” This is an oversight hearing examining implementation of Public Law 110-314 (H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)). Witnesses will be by invitation only.
The staff briefing for this hearing will be held on Monday, December 8, 2008, at 4:00 p.m. in room 2322 Rayburn House Office Building. 3.

1. Existing Inventory: The law states that any affected product that does not meet the new standard (with the exception of phthalates) cannot be sold from the shelves after February 10th. The problem is that the law includes many new items that have not been under a previous regulation, and have not been tested. To test these items now, on the retail or wholesale level is prohibitively expensive, and/or simply not possible. So it is very difficult to confirm compliance (although most items in most companies would be compliant), and at the same time, penalties for selling anything that doesn’t meet the standard are very stiff.

2. 3rd Party Testing by SKU: The law will require 3rd party testing in the future for each sku (or style). The large pair of jeans have to be tested separately from the medium size of jeans…even though all materials are the same. This makes testing prohibitively (impossibly) expensive. There are other ways to form a testing regimen and be just as satisfied with the results.

3. Markings: All products manufactured after August 12th, 2009 must have markings on the package and permanent markings on the product indicating where, by whom, and when the product was made. Large corporations can afford purchasing multiple dies to do this. Small companies cannot. European companies with limited sales to the USA likewise cannot.

4. Complexity: The law is extremely complex. Needlessly so. It is requiring companies to hire lawyers just to get a grasp of what is required of them. Also, the requirement of including certificates of compliance of each product shipped, with each product is overly burdensome. Electronic certificates has been approved, and will help, but even then there is a substantial cost to the additional administration—which does very little, if anything, to improve the safety of our toys.

5. Frequency of Testing: Experts are still trying to get a clear grasp of this. However, it is very possible that each batch must be tested/certified. This is fine for large companies running 10,000 or 100,000 pieces per batch. For small manufacturers, with small runs, it multiplies the enormous cost from point #2, even higher.

What this means is small, innovative companies that typically make niche products, will be forced out of business, or forced to narrow their product range and sell to the mass market. Product availability and selection will diminish. We will be primarily left with imported plastic toys from China. Yes, quite ironic isn’t it.

URGENT Action:

The Subcommitte that put this law together is meeting to review its implementation on Wednesday. We need to send a message to them to revise the law or its implementation in ways that will maintain the integrity of the safety standards, but will not decimate the children’s natural products market. Here is a link to the list of Committee Members. Please contact your Representative of Congress. If any one of these Representatives on the Subcommittee is YOUR representative, PLEASE be sure to call & email them to voice your concerns about the provisions in the law as they affect you and the children’s products industry in general. Please do this as soon as you are able.
Here is a link to some suggestions for talking to our representatives from WAHM Solutions.

What else can you do? Pass this on in your e-newsletters, in your stores, among your friends. There is much disinformation in the market, and it is up to us to warn consumers and colleagues of the pending disappearance of the natural & specialty toys we have come to rely on in the recent years.

This is a critical time to raise our voices and be heard. Important issues that affect us will be discussed in a public way next week…NOT after Christmas.
What else can you do? Join the Handmade Toy Alliance, join the online community cpsia-central and become informed & involved. Contact the media, discuss this in forums and in your own online communities. It isn’t just small businesses that are at risk, it is the very nature of the toys & products our children & grandchildren will have access to in the future.

Rant - Reusable Grocery Bags

Has anyone looked where the reusable grocery bags the grocery stores carry are made??

QFC - CHINA
Central Market (Seattle) - CHINA
PCC (Seattle) - CHINA
Albertsons - CHINA

I have not checked out Whole Foods or Trader Joe's yet and and soon as I do I'll update this list.

I'm not sure about you but when I think of Environmentally Friendly China is one of the last places I think of.

Rant - Save the Elephants!

Africa has allowed their stockpile of Elephant Ivory to be sold to the highest bidder. And they have allowed China to be one of these importers. China is already the largest buyer of ILLEGAL ivory and other endangered animals. Not to mention their human right violations and possible organ harvesting from religious prisoners amongst their own people.

The fact that CITES has allowed the sale of this ivory is unbelievable. This stock pile should have been destroyed years ago. Will you sign this petition against this move?
You can read more about it here and here


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The decision to sanction the sale of ivory to China is not only ill informed and irresponsible, it has potentially signed the death warrant for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of wild elephants in Africa

Elephants cannot speak for themselves and it is the responsibility of compassionate, caring and informed men and women to give a voice to elephants. We are therefore asking our supporters to sign a petition against the sanctioning of China as a legal buyer of ivory.

Sign Petition

We have already added our name to this petition and hope you will do the same. We would also urge you to copy and paste the statement below into an email to your friends and colleagues, so that they too can choose to sign this petition and speak out for elephants.

The author of this petition will present it to Gordon Brown, as well as representatives of the CITES standing committee.

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I'm also asking that you watch what you buy. If it is made in China put it back on the shelf, do you really need more cheap plastic crap in your house? By American, or for my Canadian friends and family, By Canadian. Same goes for my English friends. Buy and support your local merchants who are trying to make a living selling good NON TOXIC products and who don't use child labor.

Thank you,
Kim

Rant - QFC Shopper

Last night I made a quick run to QFC to pick up a few things. While in the produce aisle I saw a woman taking items out of her cart and putting them on top of the books in the magazine aisle. And what was even worse was at least one item was something that should be refrigerated. I mean come on how hard is it to put the items back or even at least wait till you check out and tell the cashier that you don't want them. At least then they are not just sitting around the store somewhere.

Rant - Product Red pins

I'm sure most of you are aware of the (PRODUCT)RED branded product that help benefit Aids patients in Africa. I recently purchased a few pairs of jeans at The Gap and was given a red bead on a pin which was on a piece of cardstock.



When I got home I looked it over and saw something that just made me shake my head.



Is it just me or do others feel it would have served the public better by having these beads and cards made by Africans?

Rant - Play-Doh made in China

I wanted to buy some Play-Doh for Baby Girl since she had fun at her Gymboree Art Class with it. But every package I found said MADE IN CHINA and being a 'China Free' Household I put them all back on the shelf.

Does anyone know of a 'Not Made In China' substitute?

Rant - Gymboree Moms

This post is not about all moms but a few at my local Gymboree. We signed Baby Girl up for the Gold Membership at Gymboree. And while I love the teachers and classes what I hate are the Moms/Nannies who bring their children when they are sick!!! There is even a sign saying if your child is sick please don't bring them to class. But I guess that rule applies to everyone else and not THEIR child. If you child is coughing and yellow/green stuff is coming from their nose, KEEP THEM HOME!!!

Rant - Customer service isn't what it use to be

The other night we were at Macy's at Northgate Mall looking for a pair of black jeans for my husband. We found one pair of Levis in a style he liked but they were in the wrong size. We gave up looking and I went to find a Sales Person for help. But when I asked her if she could help us locate a size she gave a look like was crazy to ask HER for help.

Rant - Lowes Paints

In our bedroom we decided to have it like walking into a Bamboo Forest. I am a huge Martha Stewart fan so I wanted to check out her new paint colors at Lowes. We found two greens we liked, Kyoto Green for the walls and Green Hellebore for the ceiling. Before I start in on the Rant I will tell you a good thing. At Lowes you can get a sample of the paint color in a smaller can than the usual pint. Now on to the rant. The paints smelled horrible. I had a headache within minutes and both my husband and I needed to wear our respirators. And the paints didn't go on as smooth as the Behr nor do they look as nice now that the walls and ceiling are done. We both agree that next time we paint if we pick a color at Lowes we will go to Home Depot and have them mix it up with Behr paints.

Rant - Wrong number

Within the past week we have gotten 3 phone calls at various times of the day. The latest one was tonight while we were out. Before listening to the message I checked the Caller ID and noticed it was 'them' again. The messages says it is a text to land line and then proceeds to forward the message in a computer voice. The messages are not fit for repeating here. Let me just say

Jessica Semore
405-501-0283

quit calling us!

Rant - Unions

My husband belongs to a Union, not because he wants to but because he HAS to. At the end of 2008 the Union will be negotiating new contracts with the company. In the mail on Friday my husband received his latest newsletter from the Union with the headline 'Help Shape Your Contract'. There is a lovely photo of members who will be part of the negotiation committee and they are posing with a burn barrel. For those of you who do not know what a burn barrel is, it's a 55 gallon drum that holds firewood to keep people warm while they are striking.

So what kind of message is this sending the Union members and the Company.

Rant - Sony Imagestation is closing

Last year a cousin contacted me saying she wanted to put together a photobook for one of our Uncles who had recently lost his wife in a house fire. She wanted to gather photos from all of the relatives which is no small feat considering the size of our family. I immediately jumped on board to help her. We wanted the book to have photos off all of us, we also wanted to be able to work on it together. But the most important things were the number of photos and being able to have captions on all the photos. With 8 Uncles and wives, 4 Aunts and husbands, 29 Cousins & spouses and 40 1 Cousins once removed (Cousins kids) and the fact that many of us left New Jersey in the 70's so there are quite a few of us who have not seen each other since then. Not to mention 30 some odd years can change people we REALLY needed the ability to caption the photos.

So while my cousin put the call out for photos I started researching places to have our book made.

Snapfish was first. My cousin had set up a Group Room where we could all submit photos to use in the book. But when we went to create our book we found the layouts restricting and no capability of adding caption/text where ever we wanted. Plus you could not zoom in on a photo within the book making process.

Shutterfly while it has a number of layouts it again was restricting in allowing text where ever we wanted it. And you could not zoom in on the photos.

Since I am a Mac user I checked out the book making option in iLife but it too only had pre determined layouts with little or no captions.

Picaboo was next. While we were able to work on the book and send it to each other to review and comment, the pre determined layouts were very restricting and we could not put text where we wanted. After getting all the photos in that we wanted our book was priced at 117.00. Obviously this was too expensive.

My Publisher - You can zoom, flip, rotate and move the photo within the photo well but again you are limited to the layouts the company provides.

Sony Imagestation was a god send! Not only could we put photos where we wanted and what size we wanted but we could also put text where ever we wanted! We were actually able to get all the same photos we had in the Picaboo book PLUS many many others. Our book actually has 310 photos and 7 document images on 48 pages and cost us aprox 54.00 for the linen book. That is quite a difference in price compared to the one we did in Picaboo.

We had 1 to 2 pages for each Aunt or Uncle's family and pages for Communion, Wedding, Christmas, Halloween & Birthday photos.

Where the other companies are more concerned with layouts and background pages, Imagestation was more about the user having TOTAL control over the look and feel of their book.


sample of one of our Birthday photo pages


sample of a Wedding page


sample of a Family page



samples showing photos, images and text where WE wanted them

Since doing this book we lost a cousin to cancer so it is just that much more special to us. One of our other cousins was inspired by what we did that he has started scanning all his families photos.

We were hoping to do another book next year with updated photos of all of us, as some photos we had were very out of date. But with Imagestation closing we will have to wait longer till some other company offers the 'freestyle' format of putting things where you want them. If anyone knows if such a company exists please let me know.

Rant - Tying up 2 registers

Today I was at Aaron Brothers in Shoreline buying a photo album for my mother-in-law. Daddy was at work so I had baby girl with me. After deciding on the Kolo Catalina in mango, Baby Girl and I headed to the checkout. There was only 1 cashier and she was busy with a customer who had a number of things going on. Behind this woman was a man with a frame then me and someone behind me. After standing in line for a little while a second cashier came over to help out. She looked at me and said she could help me. I started to get in her line when the woman tying up the first register made a motion and said something about the guy standing behind her. I said to the man, "oh you are not together?" and gestured to him to go ahead. Now here I am with one album in my hand and my little girl in a stroller trying to keep her from making too much noise. So the man goes to the cashier and ties up that one along with the woman STILL at the first cashier.

My turn finally came and I bought my album while the man who was in front of me was standing off to the front of the registers. It turns out he WAS with the woman at the first register. How annoying!

Rant - Woodland Park Zoo

Today Baby Girl and I went to Woodland Park Zoo to get some fresh air and see some animals. It was kind of an overcast day so I didn't think there would be many people there, boy was I wrong. Parking was almost full but we found a spot and made our way in. Oh and someone had a dog locked in their red Hummer in the parking lot.

Anyway, we were making our way around the exhibits but other moms/dads/nannys/caregivers with their strollers and wagons full of kids would get in the way. I'm not talking about going slow I'm talking about blocking the paths so you have to come to a complete halt. It actually started to get quite annoying.

Last time Hubby, Baby Girl and I went to the Zoo we didn't see the elephants. Elephants are my favorite animal and I have a hard time seeing them confined. But this time we made our way and it was sad. They were in their barn and it just looked too small. The zoo must have complaints cause I saw a number of signs showing just how much room the elephants have for their exhibit. The problem is it's not all that much room. I've already blogged about this, but I just had to mention it again.

We were there for about an hour and a half and I think Baby Girl enjoyed herself. I was a little depressed about the animals but I know zoos do good things, so I'll leave it at that.

Rave & Rant - Woodland Park Zoo

My husband took today off so we could go on a family outing to Woodland Park Zoo. The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot.

We loaded up the car with everything we thought we would need, change of clothes for the baby, food, sunscreen, hats, water and blanket. We decided to buy a Membership since we will probably be visiting the zoo frequently with a child now. So we made our way up to the booth and told the gal we wanted to join. She asked us to go to the Membership booth since there was a family behind us and it would take a while to complete the membership. We did as she asked and the woman at the membership booth was non too happy. How dare we interrupted while she was sitting in the MEMBERSHIP BOOTH. Upon leaving we realized she didn't even hand us a map. Oh well I'm guessing she woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
Now my husband HATES zoos. He hates seeing animals stuck in cages. And I have to admit I don't like it either but I know zoos are trying to help survival of certain species. And most zoos are upgrading their animal exhibits with actual habitats unlike the concrete and bar cages I remember as a child. Like poor Ivan who lived at the B and I in Tacoma but now lives at Zoo Atlanta.

We started off with the Penguin Pool. The water was a bizarre shade of green but I think baby girl liked watching them. Then we made our way to the Tropical Rain Forest exhibit. The Colobus Monkey and Gorillas were of interest to baby girl also. There is a new female Jaguar who is there on a breeding program. She was pacing around and part of me was feeling very sad for her.

Next was the Temperate Forest with all the different birds and after that was the Family Farm with pigs, goats, sheep, bunnies, miniature donkey's, horses and cows. They even have a contact area where you can pet some of them. I took baby girl and she petted their bunny. I wish I knew what kind of bunny it was cause it was very soft.
Continuing on was the African Savannah, my favorite exhibit. They have zebras, ostriches, giraffes and gazelles all in one exhibit roaming just like they would in the wild. I think the hippos are in that exhibit also.

We noticed baby girl was getting fussy, her nap time is usually around 1:30 and it was now after 3. So we decided to call it a day and see the rest of the animals another day.