Odds and Ends (God Bless James King!)

I'm pretty proud of myself today - I finally did some apartment cleaning, and I got my next TESL assignment completed. I definitely had to do some cleaning, not necessarily because my apartment was so dirty, but the guilt was starting to set in. I blame the Woman's Television Network. I've been watching some WTN shows lately, and they have a commercial that totally freaks me out! It starts off with a warning that if you don't like dirty pictures you should turn away. That of course prompts curiousity. Before your sick minds wander too far away from the story, I should tell you that it's a commercial for a new show called "How Clean is Your House?". The dirty pictures are of actual dirt! They show filthy, disgusting homes filled with mold, rotting food, and insect galore! My place does not in any way look like that, but it still makes me feel guilty that I haven't done my cleaning yet. Hence the cleaning binge I went on this morning.
I'm also happy that I got to finish my next TESL assignment. I have to say, as much as I used to enjoy school, going back to do any kind of school work SUCKS! I have little motivation to get my assignments done, so I have to force myself to work on it on Sundays. Luckily it's been pretty easy so far, and I am actually learning stuff! I think in order to force myself to complete it in a timely manner (it's Distance Ed., so theoretically I suppose I could work on it forever) I'm going to have to reward myself big-time when it's done. For those of you who are curious to know how I want to reward myself, I think I'll buy a new Nintendo game. Either Donkey Kong Jungle with congas, or Mario Party 7. For those of you really, really generous people out there, feel free to walk into Future Shop and drop $60 on one of those two items in order to reward me yourself. I won't be offended; I can always think of another way to reward myself!
Now comes the James King part of this blog entry. Does anyone know who James King is? I didn't think so. He is the inventor of the washing machine! He invented a modern version of a washine machine with a drum, but it was still human-powered. He's the best person I could come up with to answer my "who invented the washing machine?" question. I say God Bless him because I'm doing some laundry right now, and I don't think I'd ever get anything done if the washing machine had never been invented. I also know that I would hate my new apartment if I hadn't purchased a place with in-suite laundry! So, the next time you get some kind of stain on your outfit, or the next time your dirty laundry piles up, please take a moment to say thank you to James King!