Today's Insanity and Other Stuff

Have you heard about the upcoming law that's gonna wipe out the economy?

Oh, wait. Economy already wiped. Okay, consider the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 the salt in the wound, or the foot kicking everyone while they're down.

Basically, any product meant for children under 12 has to be tested for lead before being sold or given away. The onus is not on the importers who brought in those 45 million lead-containing toys made in China last year, nor is it on the manufacturers in this country who make toys, clothes, shoes, books, and jewelry that kids might have access to. It's on Amazon, and Walmart, and the little shop around the corner. I'm told they have decided to exempt thrift stores and resellers, so yay, you won't be committing a felony with this spring's yard sales. But there's a lot more to the problems of a panicked, broadly worded law. This article explains it far more eloquently than I ever could.

I don't generally buy used stuff (for deep psychological reasons) but I'm involved in publishing, so this affects the people who might contract my books, and I feel for the small retailers who will get forced out of business by this insanity. So check it out, do your part if you feel so inclined.

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FYI, Adobe Acrobat Reader has a version 9 available now. I learned this when I tried to open my paperless bank statement in PDF and it gave me an "Adobe failed to open" message, even when I opened the reader manually. If this is happening to you, go to the Adobe site and click "Get Acrobat Reader" on the right. Save yourself some frustration.

I don't know why Acrobat Reader can't tell when there's a whole new version when it runs it updates, but it can't.

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I felt like a hero last night. My brother-in-law (BIL) texted me the other day for suggestions for finding pink skull stickers my niece needed for some unknown reason. He called me less than helpful. Well, I showed him!

Last night Number Two was working on a project for school and wanted wavy scissors to cut out her text for display. Normally, I'd have put her off, since it's the weekend and the project isn't due until Tuesday, but I played Good Mom and went to three different stores last evening, looking. Of course, the first two (drug stores) didn't have them, so I went to Michael's. I went down the sticker aisle, curious, and BAM. Pink skull stickers. Texted the BIL, niece still needs them, so they are on their way to Florida today.

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That success went a long way toward easing the pain of sucking. Some people can be trained and trained and instructed and helped and handheld and educated and then trained some more and still not ever be able to do what needs to be done. I'm really hoping that's not me, but the hope dims a little more each time. Mega thanks to all my friends for trying to convince me I'm more of a Matt Cassel than a David Carr. You all rock, and I couldn't do any of this without you.