Creamy Honey

Storing creamy honey in a cupboard above the stove is unwise, if you 1. use your stove, and 2. want your creamy, whipped honey to remain in a creamy, whipped state. 

Secondly, microwaving honey is never good for anyone. Use warm water. 

Speaking of accidents, it's important to know that when pickling cucumbers, not to let any vinegar mixed with mustard seed touch your kitchen counter. Apparently it's a permanent yellow stain. Unless it first leaks through a blue towel; then it's a permanent blue stain. 

Third, spraying spider spray along the floor where the sun constantly shines through the sliding glass window-door onto your white linoleum floor, could lead to a permanently DARK yellow stain. 

Forth, having a hand-me-down clothes dryer that can't do "low heat" (vs. high heat and no heat) can lead to permanent stains and problems with your clothes. Always check to see if your second-hand dryer is capable for functioning properly. 

Caulking the handle that's constantly falling off the toilet leads to more problems when you need to replace anything attached to that handle. 

Consider the other side of the wall before drilling a hole in your shower to fix the handles. 

These are just a few things I'm grateful to have learned before I ruined something important. (I'm not saying I learned all of these the hard way; I did not. Just the honey ones, the pickling ones, and the clothes dryer - I got lucky.)

Facebook

Recently Facebook has been made public to the stock-market. But there's constant debate about the value of Facebook for businesses.

What is the value of a 'like'? If someone 'likes' it, does it mean they're willing to buy its services? Will they use ad links to purchase services?

If a company is nationwide and has 4,000 'likes' vs. a local hamburger joint that has 40 'likes' does it reflect the company's popularity or determine its likely success? What if there was a 'dislike' button on Facebook? And that national company had 4,000 dislikes, while that hamburger joint had 2 dislikes? Would that be a more accurate description of its popularity?

Would 'likes' increase or decrease if any given company did/did not post updates about their business? If I 'liked' 40 different businesses, and each one had an update each week, would I feel bombarded with ads on my homepage? Personally, I would. And I'd go 'unlike' most or all of them. If this is the case, the value of a 'like' would go up. But the downside, is every business would have far fewer 'likes' than is possibly accurate.

Personally, as a young adult and from a technology-savy generation, I think the value of Facebook is minimal. I've clicked on ads on the side maybe 5 times in 5 years, and 3 of those times, it was spam that lead me to a completely different site. As a rule, I don't click on ads.

Secondly, I prefer to research companies from other sites to determine their quality of service. I don't get recommendations from Facebook friends hardly ever, and even when I do, I still do my research elsewhere.

Third, the biggest reason I use Facebook is because it's like an online address book. I don't have to try to keep up with my friends changing addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, and even if I loose all 3, I can still contact them via Facebook.

The second reason I use Facebook is to find out what my drifting away, or super busy friends are doing, without trying to get hold of them during their busy life, and making them recap their life for the 20th time. We can all keep up with each other's lives without making it impossible for everyone to get anything done. There are seasons in life where one is too busy to be social and other times, when it's time to strengthen old friendships.

And the last reason I use Facebook, is to try to determine the wide-spread opinions of people, particularly friends, on different topics... some political, some domestic, and to find out how informed my friends are on different subjects. This, however, has been disappointingly ineffective because even when I put a question in poll format and email it to 400 friends, I get a minimal number of responses. Not that I blame them; if everyone has 400 friends and a busy life with a finite amount of time, there will likely be fewer responses than hoped for.

For this reason, I've come to believe that Facebook is a place where many people tend to be slightly more self-centered; talking about their life, soapboxes, and complaining about little things... and only checking the status of their close friends and family... most of the time. I have nothing against that, and it has its place, but it definitely does nothing for the value of Facebook towards companies.

"I hope I don't die tonight."

"I hope I don't die tonight."

This is what an American Ambassador supposedly said earlier that day while being online. (http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/464291-U-S-ambassador-to-Libya-and-three-other-embassy-staff-killed-in-Benghazi/page3) See comment #33.

Apparently this attack was provoked by an american film written about muslims, which was recently translated and posted on YouTube. (“Innocence of Muslims” or “Mohammed, Prophet of the Muslims”).

According to the NewYork Daily News, this movie might have been translated inappropriately to include references about muhammad in a very rude way. (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/u-s-ambassador-libya-chris-stevens-killed-americans-attack-consulate-benghazi-libyan-officials-officials-ambassador-chris-stevens-killed-tuesday-night-a-group-embassy-employees-consulate-evacuate-staff-article-1.1157387).

As a result, a group of muslims seem to have taken offense and created a group to send a message to America by attacking the American Embassy. Unfortunately, J. Christopher Stevens, and 3 others were in the way of the muslim rage.

Americans (and many countries) are in shock. We live in a world where people are constantly being rude to each other; religion and personal beliefs are regularly being attacked; we yell back, swear, sometimes punch someone, but I imagine a lot of us just brush it off and ignore it. What's taboo in America is killing someone over a difference in opinion. But is that so in Libya? 

From the little I know about Muslim culture, I imagine that perhaps insulting their religion and their prophet, Muhammad, would be a worse crime than committing murder. There are hundreds of incidences in history of people being put to death over violations in religious procedure and beliefs. This is perhaps a difficult concept to imagine happening in reality for those living in America.

But what I'm wondering is, if you knew there was a chance you'd be murdered this evening, what would you do? Without any background knowledge of the situation, I think most people would say, "Run", "Get on a plane and leave", or "Hide." But I imagine these men were just 'at work.' They were fulfilling their responsibility to 'financially provide for their family', and to 'provide services for Americans currently staying in Libya.' If you thought you 'might' be attacked that day, would you, leave work asap? Would you close the business early (assuming you had the power to)? Or would you just continue working, hoping that nothing would happen? 

J. Christopher Stevens was a good, intelligent, charismatic, and wonderful friend. He stayed and fulfilled his duty as ambassador. He hoped for the best (http://www.sfgate.com/world/article/Libyan-ambassador-kept-human-touch-3859504.php#page-1). I don't know that Stevens necessarily made a mistake, though leaving work early may likely have saved his life. I think, in a way, that he was exceptionally honorable in continuing to fulfill his duties, despite the threat on his life. Stevens was a brave and honorable man. A loyal employee and friend to Libya. I imagine that he loved and enjoyed his job at least most of the time. 

Lastly, I can't but help wonder, that if all Americans were striving to be as good a person as J. Christopher Stevens has been depicted, how vastly different America might be. I imagine it would be a much better place.