Pencil sculptures & life lessons...

a must-read!

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Met vriendelijke groet, with kind regards,
mmbhacs

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BE SURE TO READ THE END

A PENCIL MAKER TOLD THE PENCIL 

5 IMPORTANT LESSONS JUST BEFORE PUTTING IT IN THE BOX :

1. EVERYTHING YOU DO WILL ALWAYS LEAVE A MARK .

2. YOU CAN ALWAYS CORRECT THE MISTAKES YOU MAKE.

3. WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS WHAT IS INSIDE OF YOU.

4. IN LIFE , YOU WILL UNDERGO PAINFUL SHARPENINGS, WHICH WILL ONLY MAKE YOU BETTER.

5. TO BE THE BEST PENCIL, YOU MUST ALLOW YOURSELF 

TO BE HELD AND GUIDED BY THE HAND THAT HOLDS YOU.

We all need to be constantly sharpened. This parable may encourage you to know that you are a special person, with unique God-given talents and abilities. Only you can fulfill the purpose which you were born to accomplish. Never allow yourself to get discouraged and think that your life is insignificant and cannot be changed and, like the pencil, always remember that the most important part of who you are, is what's inside of you and then allow yourself to be guided by the hand of God.

Regrets

Have you ever regretted anything in your life?  I know I do.

I can't believe I'll say this, but I've never felt so much regret in my life...except for this.  I know I have regrets...but not this much.  I didn't wish for another way around...except for this.  I never hoped to turn back time...except this time.  I never cried for anything that doesn't involve my own life and my loved ones' lives...except for this person.

I can't recall ever saying, I wish I didn't have a child so soon...because I'm happy with my kids right now.  I haven't said if I can turn back time and marry again, I wish it's more fabulous, because my wedding was the best it could be that time, and I'm happy with it.  And never in my life did I say, I wish I didn't take that job in Cebu...because I had the time of my life there, I learned to live.

But last night, I cried so hard for one regret...and it doesn't even involve myself, my family, my loved ones.  I cried because of one regret...that I hesitated.  I asked myself, why did I ever hesitate if it can cause one innocent life?  Every time I remember that event, I bow my head in shame, and cry in vain.  Why did I ever turn my back?   What have I become that I was so cold and heartless?

I wish I called out.  I wished I asked.  I wish I helped.

8 Signs That You Are Alone

8. When no one reads your blog nor leaves a comment on it.

7. When you receive forwarded text messages or emails ONCE IN A BLUE MOON.

6. When it's only your partner who texts you that often. Either because you are away from each other or because it's out of obligation.

5. When no one buys you on "Friends For Sale" in Facebook.

4. When you're the only active Facebook user who doesn't use "All My Friends" application because you were not tagged in the first place.

3. When the only people who you think cares for you don't always call/text/email you.

2. When your family only texts you for important things.

1. When you can only feel happiness when you are with your family, more specifically, you bundles of joy.

Bird "IN" the House

When you hear this, you might say, "so what??" because there's a lot of people who are already keeping birds as their pets. But not us. So this is unusual for us. hehehe...

My sister, my kids, and I discovered our visitor when we got home from our older sister's house. We thought it was our father who caught it, but they were also as surprised as us when they got home.

My parents and siblings said our cute visitor is a woodpecker. It has a blue body and a long beak. But I can't tell if it's really a woodpecker (since I haven't seen one, yet. hehe). Maybe they're right. What do you think?

Anyway, our initial reaction was very funny. It's not everyday that we have a visitor like it. So what happened to it after? Well, it's still here inside the house. I saw it a while ago about our cabinet, now, it's on the chandelier.

Vertical Subcategory Listing in Entity XMLPackage

Last week, I was dead worried on how to do this.  The default in ASPDNSF is horizontal listing.  Although it's okay for my client to display that way, he wanted a vertical listing more.  I consulted the forum but to no avail.  Finally, I came up with a solution.  It's a very long one, and I must admit, it's not the best one either.  I'm hoping there's a shorter one, but for now, since I have a tight deadline, I'm okay with this solution.

Here's what I did.  I created a new XSLT function that accepts the parameters WebsiteID (This is multistore so WebsiteID is necessary), ParentCategoryID, and the NodeCount (although personally, I don't think this is necessary anymore).  This function does all the work.  I can't think of anything else that will only touch the XMLPackage so I went deeper.

In my XSLT function, I created an ArrayList of Items that will hold the nodes (or the subcategories) of my query.  I also created a temporary ArrayList that will hold each field of my subcategories.  This temporary one will be stored in ArrayList Items.

then made this code:

// sql query to store categor fields into temporary ArrayList
// then stores the temporary ArrayList to Items

double SubCategoryCount = Items.Count;
int ItemsPerColumn = (int) Math.Ceiling(SubCategoryCount / 3); // I only have three columns
int counter = 0;
StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder();

foreach (ArrayList al in Items) //traverses all subcategories in Items
        {
            if (counter < ItemsPerColumn)
            {
                str.Append("<tr>");
                // code for the first column

                if ((counter + ItemsPerColumn) < Items.Count) // checks if this index is not yet out of bounds
                {
                     ArrayList al2 = (ArrayList)Items[counter + ItemsPerColumn];
                     // code for the second column
                }

                if ((counter + ItemsPerColumn + ItemsPerColumn) < Items.Count) // checks if this index is not yet out of bounds
                {
                     ArrayList al3 = (ArrayList)Items[counter + ItemsPerColumn + ItemsPerColumn];
                     // code for the third column
                }

                str.Append("</tr>");
                counter++;
            }
            else
            {
                break;
            }
        }

This is a very long solution but works fine with me, so I'm sticking to this for now.

VS IDE: Dots and Arrows

I'm a little bit ashamed to post this but somehow, I have a feeling I might be needing this in the future.

I was typing fast and while supposedly pressing a shortcut for something, I accidentally pressed the wrong keys that resulted to dots and arrows, dots replacing normal spaces and arrows replacing tabs.  I tried ignoring them since I don't know how I did that.  But I still found them annoying, and made me lost with my coding.

So I searched for this problem.  Luckily, I wasn't the only one who had this problem.  From a forum, even though the threader starter was OT, other forumers still answered him.

The solution:  Ctrl+Shift+8
If this won't work, try Ctrl+R+W

Simple, isn't it?  That's why I hate myself right now.  Haha!

Contact Details

I don't get it.  Why do some people constantly change their contact details, specifically mobile phone numbers?  From what I recall, I only changed my numbers three times since my very first cellphone.  My father only changed his mobile number once, when analog cellphones where faced out.  My sister, once when her phone was stolen the day our house was robbed.

You can say that because anonymous callers are bugging you.  They are indeed annoying, but is that reason enough to change number?  'Cause from what I see, the only ones who benefit from this are the network companies.  The more often you change your number, the more income they generate.

Sorry, I'm ranting again.  I'm just annoyed with constant changing of details, not only on mobile numbers.  My niece always changes her number and now, I have no way of reaching her.  Then there's also this annoying friend from my social network who constantly changes her public name.  I really believe she's doing this to increase her karma faster, but it's really annoying.  I just recognize it's her because she updates her status every now and then, and surprisingly, a lot in her circle are replying.  Imagine in your Facebook, someone floods your bulletin with eating this and that, then moments later, drinking this, then later again, "hayyy busog".  Wouldn't you become annoyed.

Here I go again, with the spaghetti-meatballs talk.  Better end this now before the topic goes somewhere else.

Just to point again, I don't like constant changing of contact details.

String Split using JavaScript

Found this helpful when I'm trying to modify a script that I didn't do...hehehe

Split a string in JavaScript using the following method:

var stringToSplit = "string-to-split";
var splitArray = stringToSplit.split("-"); //splits the string when the system encounters "-", the delimeter

In a function:

<SCRIPT language="JavaScript">
<!--
function split_string() {
var stringToSplit = "string-to-split";
var splitArray = stringToSplit.split("-");
alert(splitArray[0] + "\n" + splitArray[1] + "\n" + splitArray[2]);
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>
<FORM>
<INPUT TYPE="button" onClick="split_string()" value="Split string-to-split!" />
</FORM>

Con-Ass? Anyone?

Have you heard of Constituent Assembly?  If not, then you should check the local news as this is what's hottest in politics these days.

During these times (I mean when National Election is fast approaching), Cha-Cha (Charter Change) is always the noisiest thing in politics.  Some of the people in positions want to amend the current laws of our country.  As to why, I don't fully understand.  A lot of people (who are against it) are telling me, if the administration wants to change the provisions to their favor, it will be bad for us.  They said, there will be another Ferdinand Marcos if this happens.  But even so, isn't GMA already told us she will really end her term?  Does this mean that the people don't really trust her words anymore?  Because if that's the case, maybe Con-Ass isn't a bad idea after all to retain the respect and fear of the people to the authorities.

I mean, have you seen the country right now?  Rallies here and there, most are shouting "Gloria Resign!".  We are indeed given the right to freedom and the democracy, but all I can see now is abuse of that freedom.  The people want to overthrow anyone in GMA's position, as if no one's going to be good enough for our beloved country.

I'm not ranting about this.  Something about the "Ako Mismo" campaign hit me that I'm trying my best not to blog anything that might destroy our country's reputation.  All I want is for the people to have faith on our leaders.  Yes, we heard a lot of corruption issues.  Yes, there are cheating everywhere.  And yes, they've made mistakes.  Who didn't???

Being on that position isn' easy.  I believe that GMA is doing her best to please us.  But she can't do everything.  She indeed has the power to mandate everything, but she's not a superhuman.  Even though she's the President of the Philippines, she's still a person who has a limitation.

Now, about the con-ass.  Do you agree to have amendments in our current laws?  Or are you one of those people who want to stop Con-Ass tomorrow?  Will you take a step. try to be heard, and oppose the Con-Ass?  Or are you in favor of that?  As we always hear in marriage ceremonies, "Speak now or forever hold your peace...".

2010 Presidentiables

Hello again.  This is just going to be a short one since I still have work to do.

In the news this evening, one of the reports was about the presidentiables for the coming national election.  Well, surveys say that GMA's trust survey went down.  Likewise, polls for Joseph Estrada, Mar Roxas, etc. went up.  Noli de Castro's credibility is torn when a group of people rallied and campaigned for "No Votes for Noli".  *sigh...when will this ever end????

Anyway, the question is not whose presidentiable will be worthy enough for the position.  From my viewpoint, the real question is, whose presidentiable is the LEAST evil that CAN be on that position.

My sister, who's still in first year high school, told us, a lot of people hate GMA again.  She said that no matter what GMA do, people won't trust her again.  Well, our mom and I told her, it's not easy to be in that position.  No matter how huge her accomplishments are, people will find a way to destroy her.  This goes on and on from the beginning, no only in her watch.  She might have done 5 good things during her administration, but one small mistake and the people won't trust her anymore.  That's life...that's Philippines...that's the world.  Do you know crab mentality?  Well, that's the reason...

Hairstyles

Here's another conversation about hair. Read on and enjoy..^_^

BuzzTrends

Hit Counter in a Web Page

The site I've been working on needs a text hit counter in it.  As usual, I searched the internet to look for answers since I'm new to this.  I found two solutions: through storing in the database and through storing in a text file.  The database looks complicated (and IS complicated) but read it anyway.  It touches some files, and the Global.asax.  But although it looks complicated, I was really trying to avoid the text file solution.  And then I found this forum thread for the same solution.  A user somehow said it's better to use the text file, that's because the solution might not be that reliable after all.

So I'm using the text file, and so far, I like the results.  Here's the code I used (courtesy of Dipal Choksi):

    private int GetHitCounter()
    {
        StreamReader ctrFile;
        FileStream ctrFileW;
        StreamWriter sw;

        string strPath = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("hitcounter.txt");
        string strCounterContents = string.Empty;
        int nCounter = 0;

        if (File.Exists(strPath))
        {
            ctrFile = File.OpenText(strPath);
            strCounterContents = ctrFile.ReadLine().ToString();
            ctrFile.Close();
            nCounter = Convert.ToInt32(strCounterContents);
        }
        else
            nCounter = 0;

        nCounter++;

        ctrFileW = new FileStream(strPath, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write);
        sw = new StreamWriter(ctrFileW);
        sw.WriteLine(Convert.ToString(nCounter));
        sw.Close();
        ctrFileW.Close();

        return nCounter;
    }

And then in my public method, I called GetHitCounter()

        string temp = string.Empty;
        int nCount = 0;
        nCount = GetHitCounter();
        temp = nCount.ToString();
        return temp;

My reference used image to return the counter.  He (or She) used the namespace System.Drawing for the image, hence, the GDI+ classes.  I, on the other hand, only needed the string retult, so there's no need for me to use the other method he (or she) used to return the counter.  Anyway, if you just want the current hit count, just remove the nCounter++; from GetHitCounter() method.

That's all.  I hope other people might find this helpful.  Happy coding.. ^_^

2010 Philippine Election Automation - Update

I was watching tv earlier, then while channel-hopping (again), I came across ABS-CBN's Bandila giving updates on the planned Election Automation.  Well, the report said that the government is open to the possibility that the proposed automation will not happen in the 2010 National Elections, and that they are still preparing if in case the elections will be done manually again.

The reason for this is because all the bidders got disqualified during the pre-bidding.  Bandila listed a handful of companies that bid for the automation, and said that this bidders failed to submit all the bidding requirements, hence, they were disqualified.  I guess the Government is really double checking everything this time to avoid anomalies in the future, just like what happened in the previous biddings (e.g. ZTE and Agricultural products). 

Anyway, what we can do is to be patient for this.  Biddings are really a  pain in the a**, so we can't do anything about it but to wait and see.  These requirements are not easy to get.  Tax clearance, annual ITR, and Statement of Accounts, which basically proves the same thing -- you're a taxpayer!  Then there's the sworn statement of compliance to Implementing Rules and Regulations, Certificate of Authenticity, and other papers that needs to be notirized.  Then copies of your accreditation, business permit, certification from DTI, certification from PhilGEPS, and your outstanding and/or past contracts.  If you lack just one of these requirements, then say goodbye to the bidding.  Really troublesome!  But even so, these requirements are there to ensure the company's credibility.  I just hope the right bidder will win.  I mean, we're talking about our future leaders here.  So goodluck to the people, and goodluck to Philippines' IT Industry.. =p

Having A Headache - Ranting Again...

Well, where should I actually start? I just want to rant (again) about my cousin.  I've posted before a rant about her, and thanks for those who sympathized.  But here she goes again.  If before, it was just me.  Nor, it's the whole family against her, and we can't do anything because of our father.

My mom isn't getting any younger, and our youngest is still too young, still in the first year of high school this coming June.  And so, my siblings and I are doing our best not to give her any problem.  But this LOVELY cousin of ours is, on contrary to us, doing her worst!!!  She doesn't respect our mom at all, and she acts like everything in this house is her own.  Can't she consider for a second that she's just living here (also) just by HER request???  I mean, even us, our parents' own kids, don't act as if we own everything here.  Geesh!

Okay, what she did this time?  During my brother-in-law's birthday, she had a talk with his sister, whom he enrolled for college here in NDKC.  Well, we thought it triggered her envious intentions again, that in the morning the next day, she approached our mom and told her, "Te, mu-eskwela NA LANG ko".  And by that statement, Mama thought, she isn't really serious or even willing to study..because of the fact that she used "NA LANG".  And in the first place, cuz already refused to study.  Yet, when my brother-in-law's sister plans to study here, cuz goes saying she'll study!  What does she think about college???  It's not easy, we all know it.  Aside from the workloads in studying, we still have to worry about money.  It isn't something that we just pick up anywhere we want to!  Does she really think it's easy for our parents to support a college student, and yet will be wasted when the one they're supporting to will just stop?  Does she reallyl think we're rich??? She doesn't have common sense, I'd say. *sigh...Mom, of course, didn't want any trouble so she just didn't speak.  And of course, because Mom got offended, she didn't tell to our father about her decision to study.  If she wants to, she's the one who should tell father.  But of course, the damage has been done to our mom.  She's really hurt, everyone knows it except cuz and our father.

Next incident is about the fruit seedlings.  Cuz approached papa nights before we went to Sirawan.  She asked if she could have some hills of fruit seedlings (which is from what I remember, costs around P50 each budded seedling).  She asked! She didn't buy!!!  My father, not knowing about her plans, thought that the seedlings will be for her sister Hilda (for her new house in Inawayan) and allowed her to TAKE some.  Then the day after, mom told us, she went at our backyard and chose seedlings from the pile, not even saying a word to our mother, who was also busy rearranging the rubber seedlings. Not even a simple "Te, manguha ko ha.  Nananghid na man ko kay Uncle".  Talk about respect!!!  So my mom got offended again.  Even when she saw my cuz was getting direct seedlings and not budded, Mom didn't say a word.  She was so pissed off.

The day came and started loading the seedlings in the pickup.  Papa saw that those were not budded, so he sort of scolded mom.  He replaced all direct with budded ones (don't forget that it costs P50 each not so long ago, so now it will maybe run to P60 or P65 each budded seedling).  I don't know how many hills, but it was plenty.  When we arrived there, she unloaded the seedlings in their house and we left her there.  We went straight to our aunt's house.  Later that day, a tricycle arrived carrying the seedlings we just brought.  My father was a little shocked when she told him that she GAVE the seedlings to their neighbor (and not to Hilda whom Papa thought will receive the seedlings).  You judge what she just did!

So right now, the whole family (except maybe for Papa) is againsts her.  My mom always tells me and my sisters, she wishes our cuz will leave.  We can handle the chores here anyway.  Besides, we won't be having any headache.

Gil's Last Episode

You might wonder who Gil is.  Well, Gil (full name Gill Grissom), is a forensic entomologist that is also the night-shift supervisor in the series CSI.  I've been watching CSI since I got back from Cebu, but sadly, didn't start with Season 1, I don't know what season it was.  Luckily, my former officemate is also a CSI fan, so I borrowed his copy of seasons 1-4.

Anyway, AXN is airing CSI Season 9 every Wednesday night at 10pm.  In last week's episode, Gil announced that he'll be leaving CSI for good, and told everybody that he wanted Catherine to take his position so that he be sure that they will be of good hands.  So tonight, he leaves.  He solved his last case, together with a new character, Professor Ray Langston (played by Laurence Fishburne, and I'm hoping he'll stay, but I don't know yet).  After solving the case, he went to see Langston and offered him entry-level position in CSI.  But as I've said, I don't know if Langston will be returning the next episode.

So there, Gil's leaving. Packed his things from his office, took a walk around CSI observing his colleagues, then left.  Towards the end of the episode, I was telling myself, "Please let Sara be there!  Please let Sara be there!"  And there she is!  After leaving the office, the next plot was, Gil taking a hike in a forest, holding a GPS, and finally arriving at his destination.  And Sara faced him.  And they kissed.... ***in love***

Personal note, I really cry at goodbyes, whether it's death or just simply leaving.  But I like this goodbye.  Yes, I was teary-eyed in the end, but I was satisfied.  Now I wonder, what will CSI be without Gil?  Hmmmm...

Fresh Start

What a programmer wanted the least is his/her computer to crash.  If that happens, it only means one thing, the troublesome and tiresome reinstallation.  Imagine that.

Well, my husband's laptop didn't really crash.  It's just that, I can't drag-and-drop anymore.  This affects everything because most of the time, I drag files and drop them to another storage.  It's also easier to drag-and-drop files in FTP, rather than finding the button to upload/download the files.  But that, I can still live without.

But in the end, I decided to reinstall.  Why?  Definitely not the drag-and-drop problem.  It's my IIS.  I couldn't open the properties dialog box in sites.  And while looking for the solution, I realized, it's not only in IIS.  The problem also persisted in Event Viewer and Services explorer, and everything with the same explorer as IIS.  I cried hard because I felt I was very unlucky.  So there, I was only able to work for a few hours, then I started the reinstallation of the OS (with the help of my husband, of course -- I don't know how to start the reinstallation).  I was up until 4AM.  Really troublesome.

So now, I'm having a really fresh start.  I already started working again just this 8PM.  And while doing so, I continue installing with the rest of the programs that I often use.

Changing href Link Through JavaScript

I've been looking for ways to change the anchor link through JavaScript. Luckily, I found this site that helped me with the solution: WebSewak's Techjunk.

I just want to post the solution here so that I won't forget about it.

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
var boardpics = new Array();
var boardpicsLarge = new Array();
boardpics['1'] = 'images/product/medium/22_1_.jpg';
boardpicsLarge['1'] = 'images/product/large/22_1_.jpg';
boardpics['2'] = 'images/product/medium/22_2_.jpg';
boardpicsLarge['2'] = 'images/product/large/22_2_.jpg';
boardpics['3'] = 'images/product/medium/22_3_.jpg';
boardpicsLarge['3'] = 'images/product/large/22_3_.jpg';
function changeImagesrc(id){
document.productimg.src = boardpics[id];
document.getElementById('productimgID').href = boardpicsLarge[id];}
function changeImagesrc1(){
document.productimg.src = 'images/product/medium/22.jpg';}
</script>

A Site's Value

What good is a site? Really, I'm asking.

I've been working with online stores for more than a year now. I'm in charge with how the design works in a site. I make sure everything is working perfectly. I've been part of countless site developments, and even deployed a few on my own. Right now, although I'm not really deploying a new site, I'm the one that makes sure that the site looks good and doesn't have bugs or any problems. But just what good is a site?

I still believe that a site is just as good as the number of hits it has. Whatever you do with your site, whatever design or theme you'll apply, it's just as good as how many times it is viewed. In theater, if there's a stage play, one can measure how good the play was by the number of people who went there to see and appreciate it. In short, your site is nothing if only one or two people visits it. This blog or the rest of my pages are nothing if only my husband and a friend views it. This is worthless.

But why do I still make an effort to make this look good? Why do I still make blog entries? Because this is my passion. This is how I release my emotions. So do I actually care if only one or two people sees this? Of course, I do! I want a lot of audience for my play. But what can I do? I don't have a lot of friends to watch my self act. I'm just a lonely actress. My site is just a lonely stage. But I still value it.

So which is it?

Again...Again...Again...

Here I am again, ranting.  I know it's not good, and my husband told me not to do this, but I can't help it.  Besides, this time I'm not naming names, so what the heck?

My cousin lives with us.  She was my son's nanny before, and I was giving her enough salary (I think it's higher, though).  But she asked to stop working and to go home (she said her father said so but I don't believe her).  So what could I do?  I don't want my uncle or our relatives to say something bad about our family, so I let her go.  That was also one of the reasons why I stopped working.  My son didn't have a nanny anymore, and I was to give birth, so I had to go home.  My mom encouraged me because I was a little upset.  She said it will be okay, we can handle it.  So that was fine with me.  My cousin left by the end of September.

But on November, when my family went to Sirawan (to visit my grandparents' graves), my cousin requested my father to come back (all that sweet talking...sheesh!!!).  My father didn't really care so he agreed.  When we came home, I told my sister that our cousin wanted to go back, and that's when she told me about what our cousin really wanted before.  Ate said that she wanted to work with her, but Ate didn't permit it (because of me).  Ate didn't like the idea that she left me in the middle of my problems, and now she wanted to work with her?  That'll be impossible.  She didn't know my sister's real reason, though.

So my cousin came back a few days after my delivery.  She didn't work as my son's nanny, though, since I don't really want her back.  Now her job is to help my mom with the household chores.  She does the laundry, sweeping, anything.  She wakes up at around 5:30 am, cleans the windows, sweeps the floor, does some gardening, then after breakfast, does the laundry.  After doing the laundry, there's nothing she can do anymore, so she watching tv, or goes directly to the room and God knows what she is doing.  In short, the hardest (or heaviest) chore she does everyday is doing the laundry.  But although it's the hardest, the quality isn't that good.  The smell is still there, the colored clothes fades, and the dirt is still there (like chocolate or juice stains).  My son's t-shirt has light blue sleeves.  Now, it's plain white.  Chocolate stains are also left and my mom would repeat washing the clothes.

Other than that, she leaves the house in the middle of the week, goes to town.  And during Sundays, during her day-off, she seldoms help at all.  Not that I don't want her to take her day off, but since she stays at home, she might as well even the littlest chore as setting the dining table during meals.  Then everynight, when everybody else is busy, she just sits in the living room, watching the television, or texting.

You might think that I'm just overreacting since she's doing what she's suppose to do.  But I'm ranting because even I help in the house.  I am used to helping with the chores since I grew up without a helper.  That's why eventhough I'm holding my daughter, I still help with the chores: sweeping, setting the table, arrange neatly the living room, watch over my son, etc.  And I'm ranting because while I'm multitasking, I can see her sitting, doing nothing to help.  I'm nt asking her to be aware as my mom's helper.  I'm asking her as my cousin who lives with us almost free of charge.  All I want from her is a little bit of consideration.

*sigh...I feel better now.