Tis the season of the Girl Scout cookie. Every time this year my wife buys a couple of boxes of cookies. This year it's even worse as she is a troop leader. As we were munching on some thin mints I was commenting on how small each cookie was. I could easily finish a box of these things. When I checked the nutritional info on the side of the box I was shocked. These things were REALLY bad for you. Worse than ice cream or a snickers bar or sugar cereal. How do you teach young girls about health and nutrition? The biggest problem is that their so addicting. Who can eat just two? The box indicates that is one serving. No way! While your eating them you feel really great. Then, after, you feel really guilty. Maybe we should outlaw cookies like we do drugs.

I'm always open to criticism or ideas about our paper's content, customer service, or website. If there is a better way of doing things, I know our readers can give advice. We can have a chat to discuss what you want and if it's possible to give it to you. Oneida is a small community and being open and honest is one of its benefits.

If you have any questions about how or why we do something, we can discuss that too.

You can comment on this blog, call me at 363-5100 or e-mail me at PAustin@journalregister.com

If you haven't seen our new monthly publication, I encourage you to take a look. We feature many of the activities and special events going on in the southern tier of our county. It's such a large geographical area that delivering it ourselves seemed like a daunting task. That's why we brought in the expert help of the US Postal Service. That's right, we mail it! It comes to over 14,000 homes and businesses from Cazenovia to Munnsville and everywhere south. It can also be found on our website in the upper right skybox or by going to:

http://marketplace.capitalcentral.com/SS/Page.aspx?ptype=SS_TILE&secid=78853&pagenum=1&facing=false

If you get a chance, check it out. I think you'll find there's lots going on down there and it's really not that far of a drive.

My wife and I have agreed to disagree on some smaller areas of raising kids. The big issues we agree on and I suppose that's the more important issue. It's the smaller topics that seem to create the most havoc. Here's an example...I am a big believer in teaching kids about the real world and my wife goes more towards protecting them from it. When it comes to swear words my wife doesn't want the kids to use them (I agree), but the difference is that I teach the kids new swear words and what they mean. My philosophy is they need to know what the words are so they know what they are hearing and what is right and what is wrong. If your oblivious to it then you could repeat a word you heard and not even know it's bad...until it's too late. It started when my boy was four and gave me the middle finger. He didn't know it was bad. He saw another "adult" do it and thought it looked cool. Now, I haven't mentioned the "F" word yet because the concept is still over their head. They know what the others are though and know not to use them. We have a quarter jar in the house which is fairly empty, thank God. If I even say "hell" a quarter needs to go in. Tough crowd!

I did my taxes this week and like all Americans, I was swearing at the computer the whole time. Actually I used Turbo Tax and it wasn't that bad. I started using Turbo Tax last year and I didn't think it was all that great. It still took me a long time and it cost me $60 for the program. This year was a different story. I loaded up the software and it got all my information from last year and moved it over. Luckily, I haven't had a lot of changes year over year so all the information from last year was the same. It was just a matter of plugging in a few numbers and I was done. I had swear words left over and no where to use them! I guess this blog turns out to be an infomercial for a tax product...who knew?

I talked to a friend of mine who lives in downtown Boston. What a difference in culture. He also has kids about the same age as mine but they have very different problems.

My kids - Go outside to play in the street or over to some one's house
His kids - Never go outside alone for fear of the neighborhood and parents always accompany the kids inside their neighbors houses

My kids - Ride bikes around
His kids - Don't even own bikes

My kids - Wait for the bus to school
His kids - Get driven everyday

These are just a few of the examples. Everyday life is also different. The traffic is always hectic in Boston. Even just to go to the store for a gallon of milk. There is a murder on the news every single night. Pollution is a huge problem in Boston. There are plenty of things to complain about living in Central NY, but the grass isn't always greener on the other side

I have a confession. I have a crush on Sandra Bullock. Not only is she adorable to look at, I also love to watch her give an interview. Her sense of humor really is what I am attracted to. I've seen her on Jay Leno, Dave Letterman and last night with Barbara Walters. I laugh more at what she says than the so called comedians hosting the shows.

I was glad she won last night and I really enjoyed the movie :The Blind Side" that she was nominated for. Even in her acceptance speach she was funny.

I must admit that the decision to close some parks hit home as I live in Chittenango. As a family we have gone to this park for many differeent reasons. We have had picnics, gone to organized functions, camped, taken some walks just to get outside and most importantly, brought people who were visiting from other areas there to show what an amazing place it was. All this right in my own back yard. Granted, it is not the most visited park in the area. When we go, there are only a hand full of cars are in the parking lot. Conversely, if we go to Green Lakes, it's packed! It doesn't seem to cost nearly as much to run as a Green Lakes. I wonder how much they are saving in closing it down? None of the reports seem to mention this.

I hope they keep it open.

I have had a facebook account for about 6 months now. When I first got on I was stunned at how many people were on and more importantly, how much time some people were spending on it. I was contacted by people who I graduated with from high school and college 25 years ago that, frankly, I haven't even thought about or remembered. It was a nice flashback that soon faded. I realized I was getting updates from the same small group of people inviting me to join their online games and treasure hunts or just telling me they had a good day. Of the 100 or so "friends", none of them were ever close and I have more important things going on in my life to keep up with that many people's daily activities. I can see, however, how it can get addicting. I know lots of people younger than me who go to it all the time and it is a great tool to get information sent directly to you rather than having to go search for it. Twitter, on the other hand, is something really new to me that I have seldom used. I really don't get this one. I like following news agencies, sports stations and maybe the occasional celebrity, but the "normal" person's information of what they had for lunch really doesn't interest me. Neither is a play by play event that is going on that I will here about in its entirety later on.

You may have noticed that we have had more and more videos on our website. Our parent company, Journal Register Company, has given us new devices called Flip Cameras to help bring our community to life. These cameras are small enough to be put in your purse or pocket and pulled out whenever needed. The idea is to get quick video that doesn't take a lot of time to take or a lot of time to edit. The quality may not be perfect but that's not the point. Getting a different look at a story through video can be very informative to the public. Seeing body language, facial expression and tone of voice tells part of the story that the print version can't. Plus, it's pretty cool to see yourself in the paper and even more cool to see yourself on video that you can show your friends and family.

My thanks and gratitude go out to our photographer, John Haeger, who has embraced this concept and has done a great job not only in getting these videos, but setting an example for us all to follow. Each of our reporters have a video camera and John has graciously helped them with questions, editing, guidance and leadership.

Like with any new idea, time is the biggest hurdle. Our staff already has plenty of things to do and this just adds to their plate. I think in time, though, that it gets easier and easier to do because of familiarity. You get to know what needs video, what looks good on video, and how to edit film easier. Hopefully this will be the case. Only time will tell.

Did you see it yesterday? I wasn't sure what it was until somebody told me they called it a "sun"!

Yesterday was beautiful. The sun was shining and it got up into the forties. If you were in Florida they would think the world was ending, but here the world looks better than ever. I can feel spring is on its way. We may get one more snow storm (we usually do in March) but after that I feel the crocuses will be popping, the daffodils blooming and the tulips right behind.

As you can tell I'm kind of a flower guy. Please don't tell any of my guy friends, I'll deny it.

Just a couple more weeks and we'll be there!!!!

I was saddened to hear about Gov. Paterson not wanting to run again. I can understand his decision with all the scandals going on around him, the difficulties trying to get anything done with the Legislature he has to deal with and the looming billion dollar deficit in front of him. I did, however, love the way he went about being a politician. It was refreshing to see someone who didn't seem to have a political agenda other than getting NY fiscally responsible again. His message was not liked but, unfortunately, it is a reality. He realizes the problems the state faces economically and was trying to deal with it head on. The Senate doesn't seem to see it the same way. They are the problem. They are politics as usual that everybody hates. They should be the ones not running again for office.

Every aspect of NY is going to be affected. When he started announcing his plans of cuts, the commercials started showing up. "Send a message to Albany not to cut our stuff" was the cry from every group. Whether it be education, health care and now the parks and tourism, the commercials are the same. The problem is so dire that EVERY aspect of the budget needs to be cut. No one area will be saved and the Legislature doesn't understand this. The Senate has kept the spending going for so long and now there is no money to pay for it. This next year it is going to get ugly.

If you live in NY you will pay the price. All areas need to be shaved a bit. Everyone will need to pay more in an already high tax area. Some programs will need to go away all together. No one will be spared. It's just like your own home. If you've used your credit card in the past to pay for things and now your maxed out, you can't buy the things you've had in the past. Cable TV needs to go, sell the new car and buy used, don't go out to dinner and get a part time job. NY government needs to look at the same way.