Hey, does donating blood count as helping a stranger?

And I do know how to spell wierdest.

I gave blood today for the first time. That's right a blood donation virgin. It wasn't that bad...had to admit I was a little nervous. I'm not afraid of needles or blood or anything like that but my body tends to take control and do unexpected things. Like the time I almost passed out when my wife shut her finger in the car door. Anyway no problems this time.
Wirdest part of the whole thing? I went with seven others from our office as part of a blood drive. 4 of the 8 of us have type AB blood. AB is the rarest blood type, only found in 3% of the population. We also have a very high percentage of lefties but there doesn't seem to be a connection between being a lefty (I'm not) and having AB blood. There must be a way to get a government grant to study something like that. Oh well, maybe next week.
Have a good weekend!

The Friday Five, I can do this:
When was the last time you...
...Sent a hand wirtten letter? Whoa, too long ago to remember; probably when I was about 8.
...Baked something from scratch or made something by hand? Does yardwork count? It's probably been a few years since I baked something from scratch. I did build a fence a couple of years ago.
...Camped in a tent? That's easy, last weekend. Yup the whole family, we have a "fit everyone and the dog" size tent.
...Volunteered your time to church, school, or community? It's sort of ongoing, I'm president of a community choir that I sing in. That ends this year though, so I guess I'll have to find something else.
...Helped a stranger? Hmmmmm, that's a toughy. I donate lots to charity if that counts. Otherwise I'm a little low on the helping strangers scale.

Okay, here comes my very first public (assuming someone else reads it) rant.
There is a debate among many people in our city about protesters and the issues surrounding many of the violent protests of the last few years. Namely world domination by big multi-national corporations.
I'm going to get this out of the way before I go any further: Everyone should have the right to freely speak their mind in whatever legal forum they wish. As I am doing here.
An aquaintance came to me yesterday after having left work to join a protest that was passing the office. Organizers were dissapointed in the small number of people who actually showed up for the protest and this person remarked on the apathy of our citizens. Without thinking I said "well I'm sorry but I guess I'm one of those people". She said " Don't apologize to me, apologize to your children". I was quite taken aback and, as usually happens, I thought of a bunch of whitty and snide comments after the fact.
It got me thinking however. Where does someone get off telling me to apologize to my children for the fact that I actually stood up for my beliefs. I didn't go protest because I didn't agree with the protest, not because I was to afraid or didn't care. This person joined the protest when it was convenient for her and on work time. Was she going to take the morning off to go to the protest from the beginning? No. What does that say about her motive for protesting? Was she just doing it because everyone else was, and if so how does she explain that to her children (she doesn't have any of course so there's no reality check necessary)? This is also a person who sells a service to companies and would love to have some of these evil (my word not hers) mulit-national companies as clients.
I feel it just goes to further my belief that a lot of these protesters are hypocrites who are protesting because it's popular and they don't really have a grasp of the true issues. This isn't always true of course. I'm always impressed when someone can get up and speak knowledgeably about an issue and give some feasable alternatives to the help fix a problem.
I will unapologetically teach my child that she should stand up for what she believes using whatever means she feels necessary (always legal I hope). However she should always have a solid understanding of the issue and the problems all sides need to address.
There, I feel better now.

...there, that's better.
Send me feedback and check the links. I'm sure I'll have something to say a little later.

Just testing to see if my template changes worked. I can't bear to push the button...

Ahhhh, panic! In Blogger, the posts show who posted them. I'm trying to keep this somewhat anonymous. OK I freaked for second. Ready to throw in the towel.
Go to my actual blog and lo and behold, no names. Whew!
Yeah, I know it all makes sense to me now.

Hey, it worked!
Uh oh, writer's block. Think, think, think...

So here I go. I've been reading various blogs for a little while now and I thought that I'd give it a try. You know how we all think we're funny and intelligent and have interesting things to say? This is my test to find out if I am. I hope, of course, that the answer will be that I am, but I'm fully prepared to find out that I'm not. I guess I'll only find out when you have some way of sending me feedback. I'm sure I'll figure that out soon and when I do I'm prepared for the worst. Oh yeah, you'll notice that this isn't all lowercase. That may be a big no-no in the blogging world, but the thoughts in my head aren't all lowercase and so they won't be here either. If you're going to write, you might as well do it properly (my grade 6 L.A. teacher would be happy to hear me say that).
This blog will be very short on personal details. There are many reasons for this, the primary one being that my wife (there's generic personal detail #1) and my mother-in-law would both have a huge fit. I also (on a much lesser scale) have reservations about publishing personal details for all to see. As a systems administrator (generic personal detail #2). I am very well aware of how information can travel and tranform on the www and I'd rather that didn't happen to my personal information and more importantly my family's.
OK, here goes I'm going to make my first post...