Always lock doors, people.

One of the many reasons I describe a certain ex-housemate of mine as crazy is because she thought CLOSING the front door was silly and pedestrian. And locking it - please, how boring and mundane could one be, daaaarling? Yes, I wanted to kill her.

Oh, tommyrot, feel better.

And yes, lock door. The only reason I sometimes don't do it is that 1. my country has ridiculous low crime percentage (compare to U.S.), 2. My building has intercom system and a locked front door, 3. I still lock it 90% of the times. It just takes one time, and I don't wanna hear that time happening to any of you Buffistas. It's not about feeling safe: I feel safe with unlocked door, I grew up in a boarding school where all doors were open 24/7. It's about not being stupid, and not takes chances that the person to knock on the door will be a freaking care bear. The good people will understand if they'll have to wait 15 more seconds until you unlock the door to let them in.

Then again, humans almost always terrified/disappointed me.

If I want the door closed - I have to keep it locked. However, it is not always a practical idea. I need the front door open for ventilation. My screen door, even with a lock is not going to stop a home invasion. In the back of my mind is the idea of getting one of those security screen doors -- real estate people hate them, but a door that lets air in and can be locked well enough to slow a no-gooder down is a win. I have friends who live next to a public park -- they can get the breeze from the canal at night , because of the security door.

The only times I will leave my door unlocked is if I am doing yardwork and bopping in and out of the house. Chances are, if it's nice enough to be doing yardwork, there will be a bazillion neighbors out doing the same.

I live in a double and leave my inside door unlocked when I am not home, and locked when I am. Sort of weird, but I trust my downstairs neighbor and feel the chances of me losing my keys are larger than the chances of someone breaking in to steal...nothing but books and a 19" TV which will be obsolete come february.

I grew up in the country, though and we never locked anything until we had a kid on the street who liked to kill and torture animals. I wonder if he has been up to any serial killing lately?

Timelies all!

I don't always relock the door when I get home from work. The door is always locked when I go to sleep, however.

My paranoia was something I was born with (although a few incidents as a young child reinforced it), so even when we lived in the country, we would lock most doors when we were home. And from like 9 on, if I was home alone or home at night with my brother only, I'd often have all doors locked, curtains shut, and a gun out. I'm better now and never bring out the guns when at the parents house, even if left alone.

And yay! I got approval on Monday off. I think I will make cookies for teachers (10) and maybe start the cards to send out.

In pictures: Kitschmas

To celebrate the countdown to Christmas, the satirical Christian website, Ship of Fools, has published its annual selection of religious-themed gifts spotted on sale, such as these nativity ducks.

I like this one:

Jesus is one of the most famous beardies of all time, but simply add a hot drink to this mug and the familiar facial hair of our Lord disappears, leaving him clean-shaven.

I lock my doors at home but at my dad's we usually only lock at night or if we're leaving. Just how I grew up I guess. My upstairs neighbor leaves her interior door unlocked all the time - I know because she's asked to come through my place a few times when she's forgotten her keys. (Or actually, the first time I realized was taking care of her cat over the holidays last year, but at the time I thought that was just because it was last minute and she had several people doing it over the three weeks she was gone so I thought it was just an emergency situation.)