Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Tis The Season...


I love Christmas. Halloween is my all time favorite holiday, but Christmas comes in a close second. I remember as a teenager, we didn't have much, but my brother always got me what I asked for. Birthdays as well. He was cool like that. But the one thing I remember the most was the year I went door to door asking for canned goods for our food drive. I was a personable teenager, I suppose. I was always polite to my elders, held the doors open for people and usually didn't give anyone a hard time (unless they were snobby....well we won't go there...).

So why do I remember that year so much? Because the feeling it gave me. The feeling that I was doing something good. I was GIVING.

I love kids, but sometimes I just want to go door to door and not ask for canned goods this time, but to give lessons on what it means to be a good parent. Working with kids these past few months I've heard and seen a lot! How kids talk to their parents, how they treat their parents and how parents just don't seem to care. Their lack of concern isn't always bad, I just think the parents get so wrapped up in their own private issues and stop communicating. They don't discipline either. Whatever the kids want, they get. So when it comes to teaching children proper manners or respect, that falls to the people who take care of them the most. Teachers and essentially in the end, us glorified babysitters. I feel like I am mean to them a lot, but when it comes down to it, those kids respect me and I respect the heck out of them as well. I try my best not to treat them like idiots, because they aren't. They are smarter than people, especially their parents, give them credit. They just lack the skills to verbalize their emotions.

Okay, so enough of that tangent. The whole reason for this post was to talk about the giving aspect of Christmas. I had to give you a little insight to kids these days. (Yes, I realize that makes me sound ancient...) Most kids these days have developed a Greed Syndrome that just astounds me. They expect everything to be handed to them and don't seem to be thankful for it. I have to stress again that I don't believe this to be the kid's problem, but the parents. You know, those ones who are all wrapped up in themselves and forget the kids. So when the kids ask for something, rather than question it, the parent just gives in. They don't "have time" to "deal" with their children, so they do everything they can to pacify them and get on with their lives. As the kids get older, they demand more and get more.

So who is teaching those kids to give?

Not very many people, I tell ya. I think the only kids who truly understand the giving and the receiving are those who have parents who are struggling to make ends meet, the parents who haven't turned to some form of addiction to help them get by; the ones who meet these challenges head on even if they hate how their lives have turned out. There are those parents who don't have to struggle and still don't give their children everything they ask for, but these sort of families seem to be a dying breed. More often than not, I hear about children demanding something from their parents and getting super snotty when they don't get it or worse, don't say thank you when they do.

We need to teach our children the importance of giving, not just to kill that Greed thing, but so they can experience the feeling it gives them. The pure joy of knowing that they are good people and doing good things can lead to greater rewards than the latest xBox game or iPod Touch.

Merry Christmas to all of you, my unselfish friends, the ones who truly care, who give from the heart and pass their wisdom on to their own! May your new year be blessed with most of your wishes coming true, because we all know that God answers all prayers, just sometimes the answer is 'No'.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Yes, It Is Me...

I know, I have been scarce. Work is creeping up to Winter Break, which begins on Friday for me. It is nice, I get to have the same school holidays off as my daughter. It makes things a little easier on her as she has been struggling with the fact that I am working during her Senior year and not always here to help her when she gets home from school. We're making it work, though. Dinner might be late on the table some nights, but dinner gets done. Somehow.

I'm going to try to schedule a couple of posts and spend as much of this break as I can catching up on all of yours! I need to, at the very least, read the current ones just to know what is going on. Or you can all comment here and catch me up on the details. *Nudge, nudge*

When I have been writing, I worked on "Legend of Black Rose". Then the other night, my creative juices were flowing so much I couldn't sleep, so I opened up "Crowning Absolution". Most of you know, this is my re-write of my first book that was published through Publish America. I'm still waiting for that contract to end, hopefully soon. We'll see. They probably read my blog and point at the screen and laugh maniacally. This deep booming voice from the large crack in their floor bellows, "You wish, lady!!"

Annaway...

I have been getting back to writing, very slowly, now that things are settling down on the business proposal stuff as well. Almost done with it!

Just wanted to drop in, say hello and to work on those scheduled posts. I miss you all!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

It Has Been Awhile...

Phew! That about sums things up at the moment. Life is a little chaotic, a little unbalanced still. I don't complain because the outcome is going to be something amazing. I do have two weeks off coming up, Christmas break for the kids at school means a break for us as well. The downside, I won't be paid, but I can live with that!

So I promised you all, when I got a moment to breathe I would share my brother-in-law's invention with you. Since we have been going public with things lately, I figured I better get this out there to you all first! I did promise.

First, I am going to share a couple of facts with you.

1) December is the worst month of the year for electrical fires.
- The reason behind this fact is all of the overloaded outlets with Christmas lights plugged in, people in cold climates running electric heaters and things like that.

2) Electrical fires cause over $1.2 Billion dollars in direct property damage. (As of 2007, noted by the National Fire Protection Association.)

3) Electrical fires cause 451 deaths per year and 1,641 injuries.

With that being said, enter my brother-in-law's invention. The "Hot Shot" and "Sentry" are fire prevention products that are installed into existing fixtures. The "Hot Shot" is a small canister that connects to an outlet. There are ways to figure out how many amps are being drawn through an outlet and if the amps are too high, that outlet is a potential risk. If and when the outlet reaches a certain temperature due to the amount of restricted electricity running through it, and continues to do so, the canister will eject a foam filling the outlet area, spilling a little out to alert the home owner. Prevention is the key word here... this is not suppression. This effect does not happen after a fire has started, it stops it from starting at all by eliminating the fire triangle.

The fire triangle has three elements: Source of ignition (heat), oxygen and fuel.

The "Sentry" does the exact same thing as the "Hot Shot", only on a larger scale and is installed on top of or outside of the load center (circuit breaker box).

How do you clean up the mess? Well, imagine dried shaving cream. The foam ejected from the canisters will basically dry up enough to turn to a dusty powder which can be easily swept away.

So there you have it. That is the invention. I know lots of you are on Face Book and now I have a favor to ask. I have a "fan page" up for Chesley Inventive Products and would like you all to "Like" the page, only if you like what you read here.

I'd also like to ask, would you want to see this product on the market in a few years? Oh, and I will share some pics of a mock up prototype. Our website is currently under construction and as soon as that is up I will let you all know. Thanks!!!
Patent Pending USSN 12/221,113