Ever given someone your number and later regretted the barrage of text messages or phone calls from that individual? Have you ever wasted time looking through call logs and old texts trying to find a phone number that you called or an address that somebody sent you? What about getting that important phone call during a meeting and having to wait anxiously before listening to the voice mail that the caller left?

For anyone that has had similar experiences to these, what if there was a service out there that could help alleviate or eliminate some of these problems? What if there was a service out there that let you block individual numbers, search through all of your stored text messages, and read transcribed voice mails at those inconvenient times when you cant listen to your messages? Well, in comes formerly-known-as-GrandCentral, Google Voice. As if what I mentioned was not enough, Google Voice also does multiple phone ringing, call screening, text messaging, personalized voice mail messages based on who’s calling, call recording, and in-call phone switching.

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A couple of years ago my oldest daughter’s accelerated fifth-grade class viewed a film version of the well-regarded novel, “The Devil’s Arithmetic,” which involves a contemporary girl being thrust back in time into the horror of the Holocaust. I was thrilled she had a teacher motivated enough to teach her and others about the Holocaust. Unfortunately, some ignorant parents of other students in the class protested and initiated a crusade against the teacher, who was more or less suspended for several days. The intolerant parents were enabled by milquetoast district administrators who mostly took their embarrassing side. What’s most interesting is that a key argument against the teacher was that she had shown an “R” rated movie. She hadn’t, of course. “The Devil’s Arithmetic” is a TV movie. When I informed a district administrator that the film was not R-rated, he seemed very surprised. It was clear the non-existent “R” rating was a big deal.

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A new Pew poll shows voters are dissatisfied with incumbents at a near-record level. Only 52 percent votersnow  support their incumbent. In 1994, only 49 percent of voters supported their House incumbent. Majority party Democrats lost 52 seats. In 2006, according to Pew, only 50 percent supported their incumbent and majority party Republicans lost 31 seats. Here

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Sometimes that big bag of spinach you bought at Costco just didn’t seem so big until you got it home, and realized it doesn’t even fit in your crisper. What were you thinking, Popeye?  Sometimes you want something easy, inexpensive, nutritious, and different.  Maybe you’ve just had some dental work and want something easy to chew.  I have an answer for you: Spinach Dahl, an east Indian dish made with lentils, spinach, and a few easy-to-find spices.

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Just two days until Weber State opens the college basketball season, and we all know what that means.

It’s time to start looking at the projected brackets for the NCAA tournament in March.

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Organizations are “crazy” if they inhibit the use of social media in the workplace, says David Bradford. The CEO of Fusion-io should know, because he sometimes spends a couple of hours a day on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and realizes how it benefits himself and his company. He’s been engaged in online networking since the first days of the Internet in the 1990s.

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Well, I was over at a friends house this weekend and I was trying to explain all the different life enhancing technologies that I am currently using. Her look of question turned to down right confusion when I told her about a network capable sprinkler control system (www.irrigationcaddy.com). I continued to explain to her how I could adjust my sprinkler settings from any place that has an internet connection. From work, from the library, from my mom’s house, even from my phone. After I ran down the list of perceived benefits she stared me in the eyes, still with a look of utter confusion, and asked, “why don’t you just go into the garage to program them?”

“There’s a fiendish plot on Sesame Street!“  … Or so says a sour right-wing blogger! According to blogger “Stage Right,” a recent episode featured journalist Oscar the Grouch of the Grouch News Network (GNN … get it!) offending a TV viewer. She, in turn, exclaims loudly “From now on. I am watching Pox News. Now there’s a trashy news show!”

And that peeved “Stage Right,” who wrote, “If Mom and Dad watch cable news, it’s better than 50/50 they watch “POX News.” So what gives? PBS — a network partially funded with my tax dollars — has the right to tell my kids that their parents watch “trashy” news? The message is clear, I can’t even sit my kids in front of “Sesame Street” without having to worry about the Left attempting to undermine my authority.” … Well, now I know why my four-year-old smiles when Al Gore’s on the TV screen and scowls at Dick Cheney!

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