Google Custom Search Engine has its pros, but there's one annoying design oversight...

I'm using the Google Custom Searchbox on my web pages because it does offer users a way to tailor a search theme to their web theme and it is somewhat flexible in design - though frankly I'm more for the old-fashioned hard coding. I really played around with this and tried out the various styles etc., but the more I tried to fix the issue, the more frustrated I became. Just because of that annoying little x beside the "Search" button - yes, look very closely, it's there - for clearing the results and thereby setting focus back onto my pages. I can't understand why they have stuck us with that tiny-cramped-into-obscurity-against-the-search-button tiny little x.

In my frustration I find myself believing it was intentional, to keep the visitor moving along into googles own ad arena instead of staying on my site. It really couldn't be all that difficult to place a matching little button about 1/4 width of the adjacent search button that users will notice - even subliminally - and instinctively click to clear the results and view my page again.

Then I would feel Google really was thinking of me in the master plan.

The Painful First Blog

I thought it would be a great idea to start a blog and tell the wayward few what I think about almost anything going on in the world today. Those wayward few could then comment and more will come, and they will join and everyone who drops by will do the same. Eventually maybe we would stimulate some discussion that will improve the environment, save children, stop chemical pollution, lower fuel prices, increase free time, spread love, feed the poor, expose hypocracy in government regulation... you know, all good stuff.

Of course there came that dream of making some money from it all too (sound familiar?) but for that 

Only 4 1/2

I thought I'd post the true story of a life-altering event that took place in my childhood. No doubt it was a significant factor in shaping my journey into adulthood. What is significant are the sub-plots that are revealed to an aware reader that give insight into the intensity of my life-experience as a child. I was 4 1/2 years old. It's called "The Cigarette."

Do we have the facts about HPV vaccination and cervix cancer (cervical cancer)?

I guess it must be about five years since the frenzied idea of blanket vaccination of very young girls first surfaced. I appreciate the devastating reality of cervical cancer, but we need to have the facts for decisions like this, and in the instance I describe in the following paper we did not.

Shame on the authorities - whom we trust to lead us responsibly - for blindly accepting unvetted the influence of multinational corporations with profit motivation. I meet parents of girls in my travels around the world who are passively letting their young daughters be vaccinated, telling me "because 'they' said it will stop cervix cancer"...

The Cost of Complacency: Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse

Elvis Presley,Kurt Cobain,Janis Joplin,Jimi Hendrix,and Michael Jackson to name but a handful; and now Amy Winehouse.The death list of popular idols grows, and these ones are just from the 'Recording' arm of the Entertainment Industry alone. The Entertainment Industry's "See No Evil" response to their contracted Artists' problems with alcohol or other drugs has to be brought into check. It is heart-breaking to see these troubled human beings being milked like a commodity cow while they obviously are not capable of making healthy choices for themselves. Is it possible to have conditions of self-care included in their contracts; perhaps under the heading of "Safety?"

Political correctness in the guise of human rights might arguably be the first deadly overdose for these artists - and society in general - preceding the alcohol and other drugs.

Yet I wonder, are we, Society, any less guilty of the "See No Evil" artificial ignorance by way of our complacency when it comes to holding our politicians responsible

What are we doing right about Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse?

Where are the billions of dollars going in the struggle with Alcohol and Other Drug abuse. Changes in views have broadened Government response in many countries. I wrote a follow-up essay to "Up Your Alley" (featured in the post above this one). It doesn't have all the answers but it might give ideas that stimulate some thought of your own. It's called "The Best Defense."