C.A.T.Stuff

My First Module Finished!, 101 Things..., and An Open Diary

2011-12-12T21:01:00.002-07:00

From Yahoo Images via http://www.dailyinfosec.net/

So today I got my marks for the first of my Social Studies 20 modules. The picture I used to illustrate this post is a little misleading. LOL. I didn't do quite that well. No A+ for me this time. But I did get an A. Eighty-six percent. The A+ is my goal for subsequent modules. That's one reason for posting the picture.. The other is that is what was available. Mostly though, I am thinking of it as my goal. That (a goal) being something pretty unfamiliar to me. LOL. Well, not any longer hopefully.

Aside from the goal I've set for my Social Studies that is my first course towards eventually getting my Grade 12 Diploma, I guess I'm going to have to start getting used to having goals as I have also signed up on a website called the Day Zero Project which is the site where you do something called 101 Things In 1001 Days. It is a goal setting challenge that has a pretty self-explanatory title. 1001 Days is supposed to be about 2.75 years. The site claims that this is an optimum (as well as numerically catchy) amount of time.

In addition, I have just started a new blog (one that I am actually using!) on Open Diary. I am using it to answer the "5000 Question Survey" that I had come across a fairly long time ago on blogger but never made note of whose site it was on (so I don't know who to thank for giving me the idea to try it). When "Googling" 5000 Question Survey I was led to Open Diary. It seems the original was from there. Even though I originally placed to do it as a page/tab here I found (at least I think) that I had to be a member...

... to gain access to the survey. Regardless of whether that is actually true or not, it ended up working out for the better (or at least very well) because there is at least one thing that is different in a good (better!) way at the Open Diary site vs Blogger/Blogspot. That is that as a member there, there is an actual directory of other blogs and a friending feature. While I'm not sure that the friending feature adds much other than to remember whose blogs interest you (there is no following feature like here - I guess this is it!) I like the directory!

To read my first few portions of the 5000 Question Survey, which I am doing in the standard 50 question sections, go to Open Diary and search Carmen Tourney. My actual blog name on that site is C.A.T. Stuff 2.0 but you find it by searching for my name as that is how the directory works. If you do bother to check out that blog and the survey portions I have up so far (I started one week ago today) I would really appreciate it if you left a note (what they call comments on that site).

Carmen

P.S. Other than posting my posts that I have under draft status from before my 200th post that count towards it but were not done this may (or may not! if I stop obsessing) be my last post till January. I had originally planned to have 106 posts for this year to match last years number since I noticed toward the end of November how close the counts were.

However, by posting twice today I am one over after I post my backdated posts which seem to show up in the overalll number of posts count but not the count on my archives. I think I will just possibly add a backdated post to last year to make it even. I know it's silly to care about things like this so much but as far as obsessions go, I guess this is a reasonably harmless one. LOL.

The C.A.T.

A Dishonest Denial

2011-12-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

From a Yahoo news story via the news agency Reuters. What does this look like to you? ... Exactly!

Three guesses what the prototype for a building in Seoul, South Korea by a Dutch architectural firm looks like and if you need the last two guesses...

What is most sad about all of this is that the people behind it claim (one wonders if it's with a straight face!) that not only was a resemblance to the exploding twin towers not intended but that it wasn't even something they noticed when they designed the mid-section that of this building which was/is to house pools, restaurants, cafes and a gym in the tacky and blatantly obvious stunt.

I said was/is to house... in the previous paragraph because in an equally outrageous act the design company MVRDV said it hasn't yet been decided if the design would be changed! This in spite of claiming "We sincerely apologize to anyone whose feelings we have hurt. It was not our intention." on the company website. Needless to say survivor's families are none to happy with this.

My question to you is, even though many really deplorable things get said and done on a regular basis, is this not one of, if not the most offensive things a company has ever done?

Carmen

P.S. Oh, and isn't that one of the lamest denials and apologies you have ever come across. Pathetic!

The C.A.T.

Where Did Everyone Go?

2011-12-04T22:00:00.001-07:00

This cartoon picture came from Yahoo Images via http://www.explodingdog.com/. The owner of the blog is named Sam Brown and the blog is basically all drawings like this that he does when you send an email to the address provided with a caption that he then creates a picture for. Neat, huh?

Hi there. Just a short little post today since I just got home after my weekend away and I feel like going straight to bed. This post will just be a pathetic cry for attention that asks the question you see in the cartoon I found. "Where Did Everyone Go?".

I ask this because lately I have been getting not only a lot of new followers (newest one Satia is someone I thought was already a follower - lol) but also a reasonable amount of comments. Until the last few days that is. Where are you, people?

I miss you and all your comments already. Particularly because I have posted some public interest type stuff to help some (two actually) causes so I really would like some feedback on those articles especially. It's never to late to go read them and leave a comment. (Hint, hint!).

Carmen

P.S. Sorry, I didn't mean to press the button. LOL.

Someone Needs Your Help - Now!

2011-12-02T00:45:00.004-07:00

This comes from http://www.leukemiatshirtsandgifts.com/

I wrote this first for FB but it wouldn't post in my status. Perhaps it was the length. I left it though and copied it for here because each word is important. It involves helping someone out who has a serious problem that can be remedied with a rather simple and fairly easy solution. Please read it and feel free to pass it on through your blog if you happen to blog or by other internet means as mentioned at the bottom of the post. Thanks.

----------

As you know I blog. That means I also follow other people's blogs. On one by a San Francisco blogger, photographer, design enthusiast, et al named Victoria Smith called http://sfgirlbybay.com/ (note there is no the in the name of the blog and no blogspot if you end up typing it in if their is a link problem) she is appealling to people to help a young man who is a friend of hers that has been diagnosed with acute leukemia.

She has a 1:14 video from YouTube up on her blog (Dec 1, 2011) Please watch it.

He desperately needs a bone marrow donation but unfortunately he is South Asian. It seems that South Asians are quite under-represented in the marrow donation system at the moment unfortunately. You can help change this though. FYI, for people who aren't South Asian but would still like to help, if you have friends that are Indian, Pakastani, Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Maldivian and Sri Lankan they would all be eligible to help. Please pass it on.

It is very easy to help. All a potential marrow donor needs to do is get a free kit that simply involves a cheek swab. You can register at http://www.marrow.org/

You can also donate money which goes to providing this test matching kits for free to make it simple and easy for people to do it without a thought.

Thanks, Carmen

P.S. If you would be willing to pass this along via the internet (FB, Twitter, YouTube, other) that would help considerably.

P.P.S. Go to the http://www.marrow.org/ site like I did to test the link & you will be stunned by with the statistic at the top of the home page that only half of victims receive the needed marrow.

This also comes from http://www.leukemiatshirtsandgifts.com/

Yesterday Was A "Flipped" Out Day! LOL.

2011-12-02T00:30:00.001-07:00

This is the same picture as yesterday from the same place of course. I thought I could flip it but no such luck.

So this is what yesterdays post said "right side up", for those of you who had no time &/or no patience to read the "flipped" out version.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today's post is being brought to you courtesy of "upside down writing"

( http://www.sherv.net/flip.html )

So what to say, what to say. Well, I guess I can start by telling you that I once gave a speech (at a Chamber of Commerce Toastmasters club no less) backwards. LOL. That may be something that would be even more appreciated if I were using the upside down writing feature now. Don't worry though. I'll get to that too. LOL.

Anyway's onto the actual "meat & potatoes" of this post. With today being December 1st, NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are both officially over as is the commenting week IComLeavWe (NaComLeMo) that ended on November 28th. Let's start with NaBloPoMo since that's where it was at for me. I finished the whole month and didn't cheat on my main blog. On the blogher site I missed one day by two/three minutes but since the posts to that site were reposts from my original site and it was posted on time there I don't count it as a fail.

Additionally, the administrators nicely gave me time change day credit for that post and reposted/retimed it somehow to show as being posted an hour earlier at 11:02pm even though the time change day was a few days later. I'm not complaining. It made my posting days look "proper" to anyone checking out my posts from the blogher site.

Then there were the pictures that I started posting as of October 31st with the Hello Kitty carved pumpkin photo. That one was followed by the entire NaBloPoMo month's worth of postings being accompanied with at least one photo each. Congratulations to me. Somedays I really wondered what I was going to post. Hopefully it didn't show that much.

Then there is NaNoWriMo. That was a total bust. I signed up and had a profile on the site and wrote exactly - nothing. Had a 0 word count for the entire month. LOL. Pathetic, I know. Blogging is easy. Novel writing, damn hard. Or in my case, this year anyway, impossible. Well, there is always next year. I think I'll start "training" now to get a "jump-start".

Finally on the topic of NaThis and IThat, there is IComLeavWe (NaComLeMo). I missed finding out about it until 3 or 4 days after it started so I have to wait for this month's version. Signup starts today (the 1st of each month) and goes till the 21st of the given month which is the start day as the week goes from the 21st to the 28th. I will definitely be doing this this month as well as trying to continue on with my daily blogging that NaBlo... helped to hopefully permanently instill good regular blog posting habits in me.

On to a last item unrelated to the Na.../I... stuff, November was a number of different groups specified "Profile Month" that I had heard about in passing and didn't fit into my posts. One that I actually remember and want to note its conclusion is Movember. That is, for anyone unfamilar with it, the "Profile Month" designation of the moustache growing contest that has taken place every year for the last several in support of prostate cancer research.

My nephew, Larry (one of three Larry's in the immediate family - lol) took part and raised at least/aproximately $500 last I heard which was well before the month and the event ended. So congratulations Larry on a job well done on your first but hopefully not last year supporting the cause.

Carmen.

P.S. As you can see from the first paragraph there is a bit of a wonkieness to it as I state that I am not writing upside down as I clearly am. That is because I typed that in when I was using a different feature on the sherv site but it turned out it was only copiable in msn message lines.

When I copied it to the flip feature I forgot about it and copied it as is. When I realized it, I didn't feel like going to the "trouble" of changing it incase it screwed up the whole flipping and therefore the whole post. Unlikely, but what can I say, it was late.

P.P.S. I will be posting a second post for the day shortly (as soon as I can get it prepared) with an appeal for some help regarding someone who needs the simple help of a bone marrow donation. Please read that post.

The C.A.T.

Today Is "A New Day" (Month)... And A Crazy Day!

2011-12-01T00:00:00.005-07:00

˙ʇ˙ɐ˙ɔ ǝɥʇ

˙ʎɐʍ sıɥʇ pǝʇsod uǝǝq sɐɥ ʇı ˙ɹoɹɹǝ ɐ ʇou sı ʇı sɐ doʇ oʇ ɯoʇʇoq ɯoɹɟ ʇsod sıɥʇ pɐǝɹ ˙s˙d

˙uǝɯɹɐɔ

˙ǝsnɐɔ ǝɥʇ ƃuıʇɹoddns ɹɐǝʎ ʇsɐl ʇou ʎllnɟǝdoɥ ʇnq ʇsɹıɟ ɹnoʎ uo ǝuop llǝʍ qoɾ ɐ uo ʎɹɹɐl suoıʇɐlnʇɐɹƃuoɔ os ˙pǝpuǝ ʇuǝʌǝ ǝɥʇ puɐ ɥʇuoɯ ǝɥʇ ǝɹoɟǝq llǝʍ sɐʍ ɥɔıɥʍ pɹɐǝɥ ı ʇsɐl 00ގ$ ʎlǝʇɐɯıxoɹdɐ/ʇsɐǝl ʇɐ pǝsıɐɹ puɐ ʇɹɐd ʞooʇ (lol - ʎlıɯɐɟ ǝʇɐıpǝɯɯı ǝɥʇ uı s,ʎɹɹɐl ǝǝɹɥʇ ɟo ǝuo) ʎɹɹɐl `ʍǝɥdǝu ʎɯ

˙ɥɔɹɐǝsǝɹ ɹǝɔuɐɔ ǝʇɐʇsoɹd ɟo ʇɹoddns uı lɐɹǝʌǝs ʇsɐl ǝɥʇ ɹoɟ ɹɐǝʎ ʎɹǝʌǝ ǝɔɐld uǝʞɐʇ sɐɥ ʇɐɥʇ ʇsǝʇuoɔ ƃuıʍoɹƃ ǝɥɔɐʇsnoɯ ǝɥʇ ɟo uoıʇɐuƃısǝp ,,ɥʇuoɯ ǝlıɟoɹd,, ǝɥʇ `ʇı ɥʇıʍ ɹɐlıɯɐɟun ǝuoʎuɐ ɹoɟ `sı ʇɐɥʇ ˙ɹǝqɯǝʌoɯ sı uoısnlɔuoɔ sʇı ǝʇou oʇ ʇuɐʍ puɐ ɹǝqɯǝɯǝɹ ʎllɐnʇɔɐ ı ʇɐɥʇ ǝuo ˙sʇsod ʎɯ oʇuı ʇıɟ ʇ,upıp puɐ ƃuıssɐd uı ʇnoqɐ pɹɐǝɥ pɐɥ ı ʇɐɥʇ ,,ɥʇuoɯ ǝlıɟoɹd,, pǝıɟıɔǝds sdnoɹƃ ʇuǝɹǝɟɟıp ɟo ɹǝqɯnu ɐ sɐʍ ɹǝqɯǝʌou `ɟɟnʇs ˙˙˙ı/˙˙˙ɐu ǝɥʇ oʇ pǝʇɐlǝɹun ɯǝʇı ʇsɐl ɐ oʇ uo

˙ǝɯ uı sʇıqɐɥ ƃuıʇsod ƃolq ɹɐlnƃǝɹ pooƃ llıʇsuı ʎlʇuǝuɐɯɹǝd ʎllnɟǝdoɥ oʇ pǝdlǝɥ ˙˙˙olqɐu ʇɐɥʇ ƃuıƃƃolq ʎlıɐp ʎɯ ɥʇıʍ uo ǝnuıʇuoɔ oʇ ƃuıʎɹʇ sɐ llǝʍ sɐ ɥʇuoɯ sıɥʇ sıɥʇ ƃuıop ǝq ʎlǝʇıuıɟǝp llıʍ ı ˙ɥʇ8ᄅ ǝɥʇ oʇ ʇs⇂ᄅ ǝɥʇ ɯoɹɟ sǝoƃ ʞǝǝʍ ǝɥʇ sɐ ʎɐp ʇɹɐʇs ǝɥʇ sı ɥɔıɥʍ ɥʇuoɯ uǝʌıƃ ǝɥʇ ɟo ʇs⇂ᄅ ǝɥʇ llıʇ sǝoƃ puɐ (ɥʇuoɯ ɥɔɐǝ ɟo ʇs⇂ ǝɥʇ) ʎɐpoʇ sʇɹɐʇs dnuƃıs ˙uoısɹǝʌ s,ɥʇuoɯ sıɥʇ ɹoɟ ʇıɐʍ oʇ ǝʌɐɥ ı os pǝʇɹɐʇs ʇı ɹǝʇɟɐ sʎɐp ㄣ ɹo ᄐ lıʇun ʇı ʇnoqɐ ʇno ƃuıpuıɟ pǝssıɯ ı ˙(oɯǝlɯoɔɐu) ǝʍʌɐǝlɯoɔı sı ǝɹǝɥʇ `ʇɐɥʇı puɐ sıɥʇɐu ɟo ɔıdoʇ ǝɥʇ uo ʎllɐuıɟ

˙,,ʇɹɐʇs-dɯnɾ,, ɐ ʇǝƃ oʇ ʍou ,,ƃuıuıɐɹʇ,, ʇɹɐʇs ll,ı ʞuıɥʇ ı ˙ɹɐǝʎ ʇxǝu sʎɐʍlɐ sı ǝɹǝɥʇ `llǝʍ ˙ǝlqıssodɯı `ʎɐʍʎuɐ ɹɐǝʎ sıɥʇ `ǝsɐɔ ʎɯ uı ɹo ˙pɹɐɥ uɯɐp `ƃuıʇıɹʍ lǝʌou ˙ʎsɐǝ sı ƃuıƃƃolq ˙ʍouʞ ı `ɔıʇǝɥʇɐd ˙lol ˙ɥʇuoɯ ǝɹıʇuǝ ǝɥʇ ɹoɟ ʇunoɔ pɹoʍ 0 ɐ pɐɥ ˙ƃuıɥʇou - ʎlʇɔɐxǝ ǝʇoɹʍ puɐ ǝʇıs ǝɥʇ uo ǝlıɟoɹd ɐ pɐɥ puɐ dn pǝuƃıs ı ˙ʇsnq lɐʇoʇ ɐ sɐʍ ʇɐɥʇ ˙oɯıɹʍouɐu sı ǝɹǝɥʇ uǝɥʇ

˙ɥɔnɯ ʇɐɥʇ ʍoɥs ʇ,upıp ʇı ʎllnɟǝdoɥ ˙ʇsod oʇ ƃuıoƃ sɐʍ ı ʇɐɥʍ pǝɹǝpuoʍ ʎllɐǝɹ ı sʎɐpǝɯos ˙ǝɯ oʇ suoıʇɐlnʇɐɹƃuoɔ ˙ɥɔɐǝ oʇoɥd ǝuo ʇsɐǝl ʇɐ ɥʇıʍ pǝıuɐdɯoɔɔɐ ƃuıǝq sƃuıʇsod ɟo ɥʇɹoʍ s,ɥʇuoɯ oɯodolqɐu ǝɹıʇuǝ ǝɥʇ ʎq pǝʍolloɟ sɐʍ ǝuo ʇɐɥʇ ˙oʇoɥd uıʞdɯnd pǝʌɹɐɔ ʎʇʇıʞ ollǝɥ ǝɥʇ ɥʇıʍ ʇs⇂ᄐ ɹǝqoʇɔo ɟo sɐ ƃuıʇsod pǝʇɹɐʇs ı ʇɐɥʇ sǝɹnʇɔıd ǝɥʇ ǝɹǝʍ ǝɹǝɥʇ uǝɥʇ ˙ǝʇıs ɹǝɥƃolq ǝɥʇ ɯoɹɟ sʇsod ʎɯ ʇno ƃuıʞɔǝɥɔ ǝuoʎuɐ oʇ ,,ɹǝdoɹd,, ʞool sʎɐp ƃuıʇsod ʎɯ ǝpɐɯ ʇı ˙ƃuıuıɐldɯoɔ ʇou ɯ,ı ˙ɹǝʇɐl sʎɐp ʍǝɟ ɐ sɐʍ ʎɐp ǝƃuɐɥɔ ǝɯıʇ ǝɥʇ ɥƃnoɥʇ uǝʌǝ ɯdᄅ0:⇂⇂ ʇɐ ɹǝılɹɐǝ ɹnoɥ uɐ pǝʇsod ƃuıǝq sɐ ʍoɥs oʇ ʍoɥǝɯos ʇı pǝɯıʇǝɹ/pǝʇsodǝɹ puɐ ʇsod ʇɐɥʇ ɹoɟ ʇıpǝɹɔ ʎɐp ǝƃuɐɥɔ ǝɯıʇ ǝɯ ǝʌɐƃ ʎlǝɔıu sɹoʇɐɹʇsıuıɯpɐ ǝɥʇ `ʎllɐuoıʇıppɐ

˙lıɐɟ ɐ sɐ ʇı ʇunoɔ ʇ,uop ı ǝɹǝɥʇ ǝɯıʇ uo pǝʇsod sɐʍ ʇı puɐ ǝʇıs lɐuıƃıɹo ʎɯ ɯoɹɟ sʇsodǝɹ ǝɹǝʍ ǝʇıs ʇɐɥʇ oʇ sʇsod ǝɥʇ ǝɔuıs ʇnq sǝʇnuıɯ ǝǝɹɥʇ/oʍʇ ʎq ʎɐp ǝuo pǝssıɯ ı ǝʇıs ɹǝɥƃolq ǝɥʇ uo ˙ƃolq uıɐɯ ʎɯ uo ʇɐǝɥɔ ʇ,upıp puɐ ɥʇuoɯ ǝloɥʍ ǝɥʇ pǝɥsıuıɟ ı ˙ǝɯ ɹoɟ ʇɐ sɐʍ ʇı ǝɹǝɥʍ s,ʇɐɥʇ ǝɔuıs oɯodolqɐu ɥʇıʍ ʇɹɐʇs s,ʇǝl ˙ɥʇ8ᄅ ɹǝqɯǝʌou uo pǝpuǝ ʇɐɥʇ (oɯǝlɯoɔɐu) ǝʍʌɐǝlɯoɔı ʞǝǝʍ ƃuıʇuǝɯɯoɔ ǝɥʇ sı sɐ ɹǝʌo ʎllɐıɔıɟɟo ɥʇoq ǝɹɐ oɯıɹʍouɐu puɐ oɯodolqɐu `ʇs⇂ ɹǝqɯǝɔǝp ƃuıǝq ʎɐpoʇ ɥʇıʍ ˙ʇsod sıɥʇ ɟo ,,sǝoʇɐʇod & ʇɐǝɯ,, lɐnʇɔɐ ǝɥʇ oʇuo s,ʎɐʍʎuɐ

˙lol ˙ooʇ ʇɐɥʇ oʇ ʇǝƃ ll,ı ˙ɥƃnoɥʇ ʎɹɹoʍ ʇ,uop ˙ʍou ǝɹnʇɐǝɟ ƃuıʇıɹʍ uʍop ǝpısdn ǝɥʇ ƃuısn ǝɹǝʍ ı ɟı pǝʇɐıɔǝɹddɐ ǝɹoɯ uǝʌǝ ǝq plnoʍ ʇɐɥʇ ƃuıɥʇǝɯos ǝq ʎɐɯ ʇɐɥʇ ˙lol ˙spɹɐʍʞɔɐq (ssǝl ou qnlɔ sɹǝʇsɐɯʇsɐoʇ ǝɔɹǝɯɯoɔ ɟo ɹǝqɯɐɥɔ ɐ ʇɐ) ɥɔǝǝds ɐ ǝʌɐƃ ǝɔuo ı ʇɐɥʇ noʎ ƃuıllǝʇ ʎq ʇɹɐʇs uɐɔ ı ssǝnƃ ı `llǝʍ ˙ʎɐs oʇ ʇɐɥʍ `ʎɐs oʇ ʇɐɥʍ os

( lɯʇɥ˙dılɟ/ʇǝu˙ʌɹǝɥs˙ʍʍʍ//:dʇʇɥ )

,,ƃuıʇıɹʍ uʍop ǝpısdn,, ɟo ʎsǝʇɹnoɔ noʎ oʇ ʇɥƃnoɹq ƃuıǝq sı ʇsod s,ʎɐpoʇ

from http://www.mens-en-gezondheid.infonu.nl/. I'm guessing at the last part of the web address (nl) because it cut off that part on the Yahoo Images attribution.

Beagle Tales - A Rescue Project

2011-11-30T16:58:00.003-07:00

As you can see from the above photo it was marked by the site where it came from. The obvious from it's name German site, is, for people who can't see writing that small http://www.gaestebuchbilder.net/. It seems to be a German picture sharing site. It does (or my computer/blogger link check does) have a translate feature. So have at it if you want.

As for the picture itself, isn't that beagle puppy cute. Sad looking but definitely uber (a word chosen in the spirit of the German site the picture came from - lol) cute. The sad part is well-suited to this post too because what I wanted to pass on today was a story I saw yesterday on Yahoo News.

I just looked back for it and it has already moved to 40 of 40 featured articles so if you want to see it, check fast. Or google ARME (the Animal Rescue, Media & Education group that took in the dogs mentioned in the article and this post). Actually, you don't even have to bother. I did it for you. So no excuses. Check out http://www.arme.tv/.

The article I mention if you get the chance to see it and the six or seven minute main video (which is not graphic "just" very sad - you will cry - but uplifting in the end) with it shows just a portion of ARME's work. The article is about something called The Beagle Freedom Project.

It seems that because the beagle has the otherwise positive trait of being extremely docile it unfortunately makes it a good candidate for being used for lab testing of various household, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. Also, they apparently are better at "adapting" to being continuously caged (a dubious honor if there ever was one).

In fact, as the video highlights, after being "rescued" (with the support of the research facility that had kept these animals since birth) after they had outgrown their usefulness at between 4 to 7 years old, they were being exposed to sunlight, fresh air and wide open spaces for the first time in their lives.

A final few points to mention before I leave you to check out the Yahoo News and ARME's site (again it is http://www.arme.tv/ so there is no excuse not to take a few minutes to visit it). First, I will tell you about something you will find on the ARME site if you look for it (right now it is on the front/home page. One very important one, for California residents, is the license plate initative.

In California, they now have license plates that promote the crucial spay/neuter message with that state's "California Pet Lover's License Plate program. ARME is now a member of that program. What that means to you and especially to them is that if you or any animal loving friends and family live and drive in California and you get these plates it is important that you mention on the form you use to get your plates that the way you/they heard about these plates is through ARME.

If enough people do this, it will secure ARME some addition funding. And as everyone who lives on a budget [which is pretty much everyone I've ever met :)] knows, every little bit helps. So please help ARME help the animals. Oh and the other things I wanted to mention is that ARME is a registered charity in the United States. Just sayin' in case anyone wants to make a nice little donation. They also sell t-shirts and videos about their cause on their site to and apparently the one on the fur and even the faux-fur trade is quite enlightening.

Thanks for listening and hopefully at least taking a look if not helping just a little.

Carmen

P.S. I almost forgot in my appeal for ARME to show you one more photo of an adorable beagle. This one has particular signifigance to me. Not because I know the animal in the picture as it is also from Yahoo Images but because long before coming across the article that caused me to write this post, when I put up my first (and so far only) computer wallpaper about a month ago, I chose to make it of a cute animal.

The animal I chose was, of course, the beagle. As you will see in the picture this beagle is doing what the lab animals that aren't "saved" never get to do and that is be out and about in nature. Enjoy the picture. I love it so much I may never change my wallpaper. Before I forget the picture below is, as mentioned, found on Yahoo Images but I neglected to mention that it is via http://www.az-wallpapers.com/

The C.A.T.

P.P.S. I just went back to Yahoo News after posting this minus this p.p.s. and noticed that, indeed, the item is off the top 40. Therefore use the Yahoo Video button (versus Yahoo News or Yahoo Images etc.) and type in ARME. Look at the 5 plus or 8 plus minute videos. There you will see that these animals are so timid it took about 10 minutes for the first one to leave it's cage and venture outside when given their first chance.

The C.A.T. Squared

The "Magic" Number

2011-11-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

So today's topic is magic. Well not really. We are not going on a word picture trip to Disneyland either. I was looking for a nice picture of a wizard to signify magic but wasn't immediately successful and well, didn't feel like looking a bunch so when this came up under the search magic... the rest was history.

The Yahoo Images picture via http://www.en.wikipedia.org/ is of course of Disneyland but the larger signifigance of it is that the beautiful fireworks lighting up the Magic Kingdom from behind say magic like no other. So what magic will I be talking about?

The magic number I refer to in the title is, of course, 75. As in 75 followers. A number which I just noticed hitting this morning at 2:00am (never mind what I was doing up then - lol). I'll try to keep it brief. My newest follower is Dan Hillman.

He is the guy with the cross-eyed photo of himself (Dan! Get a more flattering photo. You're a nice looking kid. I saw your twitter picture). He has a blog too. But don't google it. Click on his picture and use the link you get from that. The only person who comes up on Google is not the same Dan Hillman. I checked.

Anyway, welcome aboard, Dan. Welcome to the magic that is C.A.T. Stuff. LOL.

Just a short little note before I go on what I will be writing about tomorrow. It is a sad story I just heard about on Yahoo News. It does, however, have a (sort of) happy ending. So check back for that.

Carmen

Isn't This Cute? Oh, And It's My First Original Pictures...

2011-11-28T22:01:00.001-07:00

Today I am posting, for the first time, a picture that was while not exactly taken by myself it is the next best thing. It is not off the internet or borrowed from anywhere or anyone. It was taken by a staff member in the house that I'd like to think of as sort of a friend. I would have taken it myself but I didn't feel right doing that with her camera.

I asked her to bring in her camera and uploading cord because my inexpensive digitial camera got broken like I mentioned on the day I posted Dr. Rus' picture of a first snow in place of one of my own that I was planning to take until I realized my camera had gotten broken when I had it in my purse.

The picture is an almost but not quite perfect representation of the sizes of both the little bitty orange (2cm's wide and probably about as tall) and the cuter than cute little mini box that it came in with 1.5 pounds of little orange goodness. That works out to about 80 "baby" oranges if my estimating skills are correct.

I got the little darlings from my mom who bought the box and gave me twenty of the last ones she had (she kept only two - of course that means she already had about sixty so I guess she had her fill). That is how I estimated there were eighty. The twenty I took filled the bottom of the box basically and I figured that the box held about four rows. I might be wrong though. I'm thinking now that it could have managed five.

Take a look at the picture below and decide for yourselves

Oh, and aside from the fact that you may or may not have noticed in the first picture that I was totally riffing on the old bigger than (or in this case smaller than) a bread box thing with one of my two reference point items in the picture (the other being of course the ruler) you have to appreciate that the reference points I picked were pretty much perfect. Only two things were wrong with that first picture.

First, the lady who took the picture got it framed almost but not exactly right. There should have been the whole top of the bread box and a little "white space" above it for a perfectly proper reference point in my opinion. It was my fault really though. I didn't notice that. After several poor referencing attempts with a twonie (it caught the light funny) I guess I was too easily impressed with this attempt to notice that that one fine detail was missing from an almost perfect picture.

The second thing wrong was that it could have used a third and final reference point that I put in a separate picture that is immediately below.

That is, of course, a grape.

And no, it is not a super giant hercules grape.

Now if I were a better photographer/composer of pictures I would have thought of the grape at the same time as the breadbox and ruler. I like to think I have some idea of composition but as this slip up shows I definitely have a ways to go. Regardless, I think me and my "official photographer" Maritess did a pretty reasonable job of "capturing the cuteness".

What do you think?

Carmen

P.S. They aren't just absolutely adorable they taste awesome too. Also, in spite of what my mom says, they aren't that hard to peel. Of course I've peeled like 2 so far where as she peeled 60 to 80 (depending on whether the box held 4 or 5 rows). LOL.

The C.A.T.

I -Heart- My Followers

2011-11-27T23:35:00.001-07:00

The picture today is pretty self explanatory. It is also the title of my post. The image, again from Yahoo Images, this time via http://www.favim.com/ which is some kind of a picture sharing site I think, based on the minute or less I spent checking out the link. Check it out and see what it's all about.

Now to why I picked today to let my followers know how much I love them. LOL. Well, when I came here something funny (sorta, I guess) happened. I noticed on my dashboard that my followers were now 74. For a brief second, I crazily thought that was a reduction of one rather than the increase of one that it is.

After I cleaned up the puddle on my chair (just kidding, I do get very excited about new followers but not that excited) I went to my followers gadget which, miracle of miracles is still working after being on the frizz a very long time. Anyway, seems that in a round about way I may have lost another follower in spite of what I just said.

You see, just like the one of the last times I mentioned it, there were not one but two new names. Something else just occurred to me, though, and it's actually good news/bad news. First the good news. Maybe it really is two new people and blogger forgot to count one. That is also the bad news.

It's good news cause more followers mean more potential commenters, although all but one of my newest 7 (that's the count I'm going with) followers haven't left comments yet :( It's bad news of course, cause for me anyway, numbers do count. So get with it blogger. Count all my new followers, would ya!

Oh, and speaking of said new followers they are Ninja Clown and Depends on who you ask. To both of you welcome aboard. Thank you so much for joining and please leave me lots and lots of nice comments. That goes for all of you actually. LOL.

Before I sign off, I couldn't resist adding one more photo. It isn't heartfelt like the first one, nor does it really go with the post like the first one does but I found it while looking for the first one and it is about followers and it is funny. You've haven't been getting funny photos from me recently so this can sort of make up for it.

Obviously you have to be old enough to remember Pac-Man to get it but I think there is still a few of us out there don't you think? :)

Carmen

A "Moment" At The Movies

2011-11-26T11:35:00.001-07:00

Exciting news. To me anyway, I am at the library doing this blog because I had an errand in my mom's part of town that I wanted done this week (it was at an office so it had to be done on a weekday and needed to be done by December 1st. So anyways, being on a library computer, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to save and add a picture but as you can see, with a librarian's help, success!

The picture is from Yahoo Images as they often are, this time via http://www.influx.com.br/. It is a foreign language site of some kind and I didn't notice a translate feature (I didn't really look hard either) so you are on your own if you decide to check it out.

To the heart of the matter. Movies. I have been at many movies since the last time I wrote a movie review post (heaven only knows how long ago that was). I mentioned (yesterday I think) that I had a number of drafts in the queue. Well one of them was for a review of the movie The Adjustment Bureau.

I hadn't posted about movies for a long time before or at all since and just by the film you can tell how long ago that was! (even though it was at the cheap theatre there isn't that much difference in time).

I was going to talk briefly about all the movies I'd seen since then. However, I don't (but should) keep a list. Why? How about because, in trying to think of them all I am drawing a pretty big blank.
Maybe it's for the best though. I did after all title this a moment at the movies. So I'll just talk about the one that I remembered first. Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris.

Let me start by saying that while I kind of wanted to see it I kind of didn't too. LOL. If that makes any sense at all. You see I can't really remember ever seeing a Woody Allen movie and I wasn't sure I'd like his style. I did like the concept of the picture which was essentially travelling back in time in, well, Paris.

But then there were other Woody Allen movies I had heard about that also sounded interesting but never made a point to see. Well, in the end I did see it. It took me forever though. It was so far into it's run at the cheap theatre's that it was only playing in the evening. Kind of ironic actually. Late Night at Midnight In Paris.

The movie stars Owen Wilson & Rachel McAdams. An interesting pairing. The OW character is his typical mildly charming guy. The RM character doesn't fare as well however. She's a bit of a bitch. There's not a whole lot of plot really. Just a pleasant little movie about exactly what you think it's about.

The one thing that was a little different than I was expecting was the ending. That is not to say it was especially surprising, just a little unexpected. To me anyways. Well worth renting. If you can find a place to rent it. I mean an actual store that is. Well, I guess there are those kiosks now.

Carmen

.

200th Post! - Free Hugs aka A P.S. With Pictures

2011-11-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday as I was in my edit feature I chanced upon a revelation. I had kept track of my 50th, 100th and 150th Posts but almost missed the 200th.

What do I have for you on this momentous occasion. Well, I thought that I would offer a continuation of sorts from yesterday's post on commenting. Hence the Hug Coupon. Remember, "Comments Are The New Hugs". LOL.

So either way feel free to use these to share the blog love and otherwise with your's truly and your other deserving internet peeps.

Oh, and just to "mix things up a bit" I'll keep this post as one of my occasional "short and sweet" ones.

Carmen

P.S. You just knew I was gonna ruin "short and sweet" with a long p.s., didn't you? LOL.

I almost forgot, on the subject of hugs, there is also a group through which I got this on Yahoo Images - http://www.freehugscampaign.org/ that I actually personally encountered once and once saw from a distance, in Edmonton a number of years ago.

Above is not one of them as obviously it is "home made" but the site sells t-shirts promoting their cause. They also have a nice, heartwarming little blurb on how it first came about.

Finally, we have a more tasteful picture I found while visiting their site to check the link. It's also a "more official" photo since, even though I am not her biggest fan, I think we all know that being on "Oprah" when it was still on really meant you had arrived.

That and the founder is wearing a suit with a shirt that doesn't involve pink duct tape. That adds to the tasteful factor just a bit too. LOL. Although, I'd say, "in the trenches", that is on the street where the hugs are typically provided that (the "low brow" version) is more in keeping with the spirit of the movement. Kind of like the Food Not Bombs types. A lovably scruffy, rag-tag group.

So be on the look out, or go to the site and plan your own free hug day (it needs planning to avoid the police sometimes) and have a wonderful, "hugalious" day.

The C.A.T.

P.P.S. The expansion continues. LOL. I was just checking my files again and noticed before posting but not before signing off - see just above - that in fact this isn't techically my 200th post. Or more to the point, it is technically but not exactly if you want to think about it that way, my 200th post.

You see I have several old draft posts left in from last summer or somewhere around there kicking around. I guess they count in the total.

So this is what I'm going to do. Call it a compromise. Since I'm nothing if not a reasonable person. LOL. I am going to continue to call this my 200th post even though I am not going to besmirch the sanctity of my one a day for the month of November (and the insuing scramble for about ~~three~~ seven posts worth of pictures).

So, where's the compromise. Well, here it is. I am going to go back, after NaBloPoMo and do some backdating to the times of the original drafts inceptions. That is the best I can do. Deal with it. LOL.

Like you care.about my blog machinations that much :)

The C.A.T. squared.

NaComLeMo

2011-11-24T12:01:00.001-07:00

Well so much for promises (soft or otherwise). On the plus side (for you not me!) I have no new followers to mention so I'm keeping that promise. However, while it wasn't exactly a promise I did say I wasn't thrilled about using a little narrow picture the day I posted the cheery balloons that came from a wallpaper and was therefore quite narrow and small.

Well, I beat that version of narrow and small all to hell here. LOL. But for good reason.

While using the "next blog" button to check out new blogs I came across an infertility site of all places. For anyone who is interested in checking it out for themselves or family or friends the address is http://chhandita-phoenix.blogspot.com/. If it is not something that pertains to your situation, consider mentioning it to family or friends, etc. who are so afflicted.

So, obviously as a single, never been married 40 something who doesn't want kids what caused me to stop there long enough to mention it here. Well, two things actually. Maybe three. First, the background template is the same sixties psychedelic orange and pink one as mine. One of the first other ones I've encountered.

Then there was the sidebar. That is the main reason I have for bringing up this site. The background template lured me in and the sidebar reeled me in. You see, that teeny, tiny badge or whatever with the doggie on it is all about a commenting contest that they were participanting in, a la NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo, that looked interesting.

Clicking on it (don't try it here as I just copied the picture as the code was not there to take as the contest has already started - you can either go to the site mentioned and click on it or go directly to the main site which I will also mention here) won't work. You can go directly to the contest originator's site, which is another infertility blog called http://stirup-queens.blogspot.com/

To get back to my (sortof) third reason for sticking around to check out the first blog - it caught my interest a bit by having a header that used nothing but pictures and only had one slight bit of text that was also underneath it and not so highlighted. While I thought the pictures were a nice touch, I would have liked to see more text and some of it probably either at the top of the pictures or more highlighted at the bottom.

The final thing I want to say about the first site is that if you, or someone you know is having infertility problems, it is a good site to spend at least a second or two on. Why? Well, as it is not a problem of mine or anyone close to me, I didn't read much if anything of the site so I don't know about the quality of the particular blog itself, although I'm sure it's fine enough. What I did notice though, when looking at the sidebar, was the extensive blogroll of other like-minded sites to also check out.

But back to the main thrust of this post. The commenting contest. I, like probably every other blogger out there, love getting comments. I can never get enough of them. I am also guilty of not leaving enough for others, although I do leave a fair number when I do check out other blogs. That is the problem though. I check out other blogs a lot less frequently than I'd wish to to find good stuff and return the favor to other bloggers who read and comment here.

I do my bit most often through the blogger coffee shop forum that I've talked about here before. Less frequently do I use either my "blogs I'm following" Reading List or the next blog feature that I mentioned using to find the first blog I mentioned today. Finding this blog commenting contest has inspired me (I hope - I can't start it now till next month having found it about 3 or 4 days too late to register for the month, well actually week) to try to do all three on a more regular, and more importantly, systematic basis.

For those of you who want to hear the basics of the idea without going to the other site, here goes. Since going year round from the original one month of the year when the week not full month like NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo are comes up the criteria of leaving "x" amount of comments per day has been slightly decreased to make it less onerous a process. Now it is 3 comments to random blogs or blogs signed up with them and 1 reply comment to someone who has commented on your blog.

If nobody has commented on your blog then you aren't "free and clear" of that extra comment. It just becomes one more that you give to a "random" blog/one on the list. Of course, the idea is to properly read a portion of each person being commented ons blog and leaving a quality comment. Basically, do unto others... Sounds easy enough, right? Definitely sounds fun! So check it out.

Oh, and in case anyone caught it, my title and "pronouncing" of the title of the contest does differ from the official title which has gone through a couple changes and is now called IComLeavWe. I use my own acronym because I prefer the "symetry" mine has with it's forerunners that it took the idea from and made it's own. It also sounds better. Also, even though it is only one week of every month and not the whole month like NaNo... and NaBlo... it still comes up monthly.

So, I guess all that remains is to ask... "Are you going to jump into the commenting deep end (it's not really that deep - just 4 comments a day for a week remember) and play next month. If so sign up is from the 1st of the month to the 21st. Then the fun begins on the 21st and ends a week later on the 28th.

Carmen

P.S. Gotta love the catchphrase "Comments Are The New Hug". LOL. Definitely agree with that one.

P.P.S. Check out the originating site to find out the significance of the puppy on the button.

P.P.P.S. Check back tomorrow for a special post.
The C.A.T.

Up, Up & Away!

2011-11-23T19:15:00.001-07:00

I can't tell you just how excited I am. So I might as well show you since it's still "picture month".

Sorry it is so long and narrow. Unfortunately, the perfect picture (this) was a wallpaper. It comes from Yahoo Images via http://www.kyleabaker.com/. Apparently he is a web designer but if you scroll down the page if you go to it he also seems to take pictures too.

Anyway, onto the subject at hand. Yesterday I talked about my three new followers and one comment - both of which I solicitted in the blogger coffee shop forum. Well today, I came to my blog to see if any of my new followers (or the non-following commenter) left any new comments.

Imagine my surprise when I see another new follower (the previously non-following commenter!) who also left another comment. Yay, Jamie! Then, I left for quite awhile and also checked out and commented on some blogs before coming back to do a post. I wasn't sure what it would be on ... until ...

I notice another follower. Only one (minor) problem. I went looking in my followers list to see who it was and, if you remember me mentioning yesterday that unfortunately I lost track of a few newbies, noticed other than Jamie, not one but two unrecognized names.

That could mean one of two things, I think. First, one of them (but I don't really know this) could be from before. Second, they could both be new and the number only went up by one because I simultaneously lost a follower. Not likely in such a compact, coincidental (took a minute to remember the word - lol) timeframe.

Not likely, but within the realm of possibility. Either way, welcome to all three people I noticed Jamie, who I mentioned in yesterday's post, and lacey wilkins (lack of capitalization as it was) and SuperClown.

Even though it's going on the second anniversary of my blog and my header still (I have no plans to change it - as it "archives" my previous intent) has the plea to give me 75 followers by the first anniversary I am now within two. LOL. Oddly enough, I was close a year ago too. I've only gained about 5-7 in the last year.

If, on the off chance (please God, if you exist) I get some more (two or more ideally) followers between now and tomorrows post I promise that aside from welcoming the newcomers and, of course, crowing as much as is reasonably tasteful, I will actually pick a topic to write about too.

Till then...

Carmen

P.S. Wish me luck with those last pesky two would-be followers! LOL.

The C.A.T.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You (& Thank You Again!)

2011-11-22T21:06:00.002-07:00

This photo from Yahoo Images as is often the case and via http://www.goodorbademail.com/ and if you go there and scroll down and look at the triple boxes that say other things you might like or something similar you can find funny things like "Rupert Murdoch's No Apology Letter"

As for the picture itself, there were other Thank You pictures that displayed the thank you in greater detail but this was one of the cutest. I think the recipients should like it.

Speaking of recipients, just like the first three thank you's in the title, the first three people I want to thank are my three newest followers Indra, Alexia and Elle. The final thank you (in brackets like this) are for Jamie J over at http://itsagaylife-jamiessmiles.blogspot.com/ who left a comment.

Both the new followers and the comment are I believe linked to a post I left yesterday in the blogger coffee shop forum under a thread I started called "My Blog Is Lonely".

While I'm at it, I'd also like to thank any previous people who joined who weren't individually thanked. I know I missed a few of you. I'm sorry. Just know that I appreciate you as well. I just dropped the ball during that period of time. But I still value you just as much. So for you ...

Carmen

P.S. I just noticed that I hit 2500 visitors (from 44 countries), presumably today, on my Neo Counter. Yay.

Occupy This!

2011-11-21T18:40:00.001-07:00

Found this picture on Facebook. Yesterday night at 11:00pm was supposed to be the deadline (a "soft" deadline) for the Occupy Edmonton protesters to take a hike.

The police said they wouldn't be arresting them though. They said they would be "working with" them to "find a resolution" or something similar. I doubt that is going to work. Sorry for the cynicism. Who knows though. They could have just went in and arrested them so ... maybe!

Anyway, wouldn't it be nice if when the police do finally do something it turns out to be something like in this picture. I l-o-v-e this picture. So priceless.

Carmen

Cloud Island

2011-11-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

I was at a bit of a loss for what to post today until I saw this...

.. a picture that I will tell you right off it that of a professional photographer named Andrea Ricordi (I do not know if this is a man or a woman as there are men named Andrea in places like France or Italy).

S/he managed to catch the picture at a time when the cloud was just hovering above the island.

I take no credit for the title this time as this is what it was called where I found it on Yahoo News. No title I could come up with myself could do it any more justice.

Amazing, isn't it.

Carmen

Mr. Snackmaster

2011-11-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

Found a funny story in one of the free daily papers (Metro or 24 Hr's) that talked about a actual professor at some U.S. university who actually refuses to teach his class if his students don't all bring a snack to class.

Above, is a picture from Yahoo Images via http://www.gurufeet.com/ which, if you choose to follow it, calls itself "a meeting place for spirtual people". Like, presumably, ~~Mr~~ Professor Snackmaster.

Considering his dedication to having snacks in the classroom has spanned 39 years! and involved him walking out of his class in the last week or so because one person seemingly forgot their portion of the class snacks I thought that this would be a good pictorial representation of the good professor.

Quoting from the Edmonton Sun (I found the article - it's the Sun and not Metro or 24 Hours), which was itself taking it's article from the Sacramento Bee newspaper, he tells students on their first day and even puts it in a handout. "Not having a snack = no Dr Parrott (George Parrott of Sacramento State University) or TA's. Now you are responsible for your own lab assignment."

Ouch!

He offers a rational that I won't bother to explain in depth since I'd just be parrotting the article. LOL. But I will summarize it. He says the obligation encourages students to work together and brings together students who might not have anything to do with one another otherwise.

Further, he states that having snacks in class keeps his classes from being too "formal and rigid".

He even goes on in the handout to diss Nabisco products specifically (although I'm fairly sure that they are specifically getting tarred with a brush meant for all processed goodies!) under the category of "Bad Ideas"

"Good Ideas" include homemade or, I guess in a pinch, bakery items, and fruit &/or veggie platters.

I called this post Mr. Snackmaster because, in Toastmasters, in two of my old club's and in some others I've heard of, there was always a person designated to bring snacks for the group - the snackmaster.

I always thought it was a good idea in Toastmasters. When reading the article about Professor Snackmaster I thought that the term the papers used for him - eccentric - definitely fit. But really, what's good for the goose... (if that saying actually applies - lol). Maybe it's not so crazy after all.

I mean he did even offer a rather elaborate rationale, that I mentioned above, as any good professor would. So what do you think? Crazy. Or crazy like a fox?

Carmen

Flying The "Friendly" Skies

2011-11-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

For whatever reason, I'm super tired so just a quick post tonight.

The above photo is from Yahoo Images via http://www.oopshi.nl/. If you check out the link then know that the site is in Dutch. There is a Google Translate feature present on the site though.

Today, I will briefly talk about not one but two plane related incidents that I heard about the other day at the same time. The first one was about a pilot who left the cockpit to go to the bathroom and got himself locked in the toilet. He alerted a passenger, who just happened to have a thick, foreign (presumably Middle Eastern) accent. He gave the guy the cabin code and told him to tell the co-pilot.

The co-pilot was having none of it and radioed in to control assuming the worst. Turns out that the flight was minutes away from an escort into their landing, which they were about to make, from fighter jets.

Ethnic profiling or a reasonable precaution?

The second airplane related story is much more disturbing than a simple accident and the insuing drama. Seems a flight from India to Britian was highjacked - by the airline employees themselves.

Yep. Turns out that getting the passengers fares wasn't enough. While in route, they hit them up for "gas money" - that's right, gas money! before they would go any further.

The passengers were left to ~~search~~ scrounge around for aproximately $30,000 between them in cash before the flight took off again. Unbelievable, right? What is more unbelievable is that apparently this is not the first time this has happened. Huh?

This time though, the airline appears to be "grounded". For awhile anyways.

Carmen

I Actually Am Surprised ... and Sad!

2011-11-17T23:45:00.001-07:00

This is of course the wedding picture of Ashton Kutcher & Demi Moore. It came from Yahoo Images via http://www.forum.purseblog.com/

Oddly enough, a site called purseblog that does, in fact deal pretty much with, you guessed it, purses has on the forum part, a celebrity section near the bottom if you check out the site in curiousity that this photo was found there of all places.

Anyway...

Despite the ridiculous hat he is wearing and the fact that she is wearing a veil (and a long one from the looks of it at that) I look at this picture and I don't see a bogus marriage like some are now claiming on the heels of Demi Moore's announcement that she is divorcing her much younger ~~second~~ third husband Ashton Kutcher.

I find it all pretty sad.

For months now there have been rumors, and those rumors were at least tacitly denied while they presumably worked on trying to salvage their six-year marriage.

In case you are inclined to agree with those who believe the marriage was a sham or at the very least ~~doomed~~ destined to fail I will point this out... Moore's first marriage to Bruce Willis, which produced three daughters, lasted only about twice as long at thirteen years.

So, even though six years is a short time, it's not that short.

I guess I can't really logically explain why I find this so very sad other than that it helped validate the choice of woman (& their partners too I guess) to date and marry younger men much like men have dated and married younger women for ions.

So, failing to come up with a reason better than the above, I will let a few pictures speak for themselves and show two people who looked pretty happy together to me.

Looking good in what might have been a more appropriate use of white for a wedding like theirs. Him minus the dopey hat and formal suit and her in a less first wedding type outfit.

The above picture taken at music mogul Sean Coombs 4th of July party (he and presumably all the other guests wore white too) was found at Yahoo Images via http://www.fashionfarai.wordpress.com/

This photo from Yahoo Images via http://www.accessmaratoday.com/ while a bit of a fashion disaster on her part (he looks pretty good - it wouldn't have hurt her to have classed it up a bit) also shows them looking seemingly pretty happy

Oh, well. You never can tell. Look at Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. They too were sort of May/December. Although they never married, they were together almost 25 years and then woosh it was over.

One celebrity couple, albeit not so famous, that is also May/December with an older woman/younger man combo and that did marry (and even had a child together!) and is still together after 20 or 30 years is Juliet Mills (of the Mills acting family and of late the defunct soap Passions) and Maxwell Caulfield (of Dynasty and the Michelle Pfeiffer version of Grease). Long may they last.

Carmen

Are You There Playlist? It's Me, Carmen

2011-11-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

You're probably wondering what this picture, found on Yahoo Images via http://www.lechoix.fr/, has to do with the music sharing. Well, I found it (albeit on page eight) when searching for a picture using the keyword Playlist. Look closely and it seems to be the cover for a playlist compilation.

What I loved about it (other than the fact that there was a dearth of good pictures under the term playlist) was that if you look into the heart of the kiwi (literally) you'll see that they photoshopped a heart into the kiwi. LOL.

So, credit goes to Judy Blume for the inspiration for my title. Playlist has abandoned me. More so than I first thought. But not as much as it could have it turns out, so I guess that's something to be grateful for. You see, this post all started from a conversation I had with one of my blog followers who came from my list of FB "randoms".

I think I asked her if she had seen my blog lately since I had started adding pictures. If I'm correct (because this conversation took place a week or two ago) she said no but ended up following my link that I FB'ed her to quick check it and she complemented me on the music on my blog. I was caught completely off guard as my playlist has been deactivated (in Canada at least) for 6 months or more.

Turns out it must only have been in Canada though because she said she got music. I guess that means I'm vindicated in keeping the player at the bottom of my blog in case any thing were ever to change with the rules. I mean after all, the rules changed once because initially it played in Canada too. I mostly kept it on though so that people (including myself) could see the songs I picked as they still showed up but didn't play.

Anyway, back to my assertion that playlist abandoned me more than I thought but less than it could have. By that I mean since my friend/follower can still hear my songs outside of Canada/in the U.S.& or whereever else they have hammered out a licensing agreement I have been abandoned less. The abandoned more comes from me trying to sign in and finding I can't even get a lost password notification to my e-mail.

Oh well, at least somewhere in this world (likely only the continential U.S.) there are still people who get the advantage of knowing that that marvelous 80's novelty hit "She Blinded Me With Science" is #1 on my list of songs that I wanted people to hear and moreover know that I actually admitted to liking. LOL. When I told someone else on FB that when I first put up my playlist, I could just hear them cringe over the internet. LOL.

As for what's new here in Carmen World today, my nephew Larry and my great-niece Grace stopped by. Larry had been planning for quite a while now to fix my combination vcr/dvd player that I bought two Christmas' ago and couldn't use because it needed a connector piece since my still incredibly good tv (I love my tv!) is older than it seems and didn't have a third connector. He came over and had it done in about 5 minutes! Awesome job. Thanks Larry.

Now I guess that means I start watching the 100 or so movies I bought when Blockbuster Video was going out of business. Yes. You heard me right. A hundred or so. I bought about 20+ movies when they went to 70% off of the regular price of $6.99-$9.99. Then I bought another 60+ movies (!) when they were going for 10 for $10 on the last day or two. That should keep me busy throughout the winter.

Carmen

I is for Internet or Little Mouse on the Prairie

2011-11-15T22:33:00.010-07:00

This picture comes via http://pbase.com/ From checking the link when I added it just now, it seems to be a photo sharing site. I got the picture originally from a search on Yahoo Images.

As you can see, the picture is, in fact, a "little mouse on the prairie". LOL. I titled (or rather sort of sub-titled) the post and added the picture in honor of my speech yesterday of the same name. I thought I'd talk a little about that today. I am writing this pretty much only because I said I would yesterday. It seemed like something worth doing yesterday. Today, not so much. Well, I said I would so I'll at least take a stab at writing something about it.

You see, yesterday when I finished my speech I was sort of on cloud nine. It was my second speech in the first manual like I think I might have mentioned yesterday. While I had completed the full first manual (the old version - actually probably a couple versions back!), I wasn't pleased with most of my speeches from that time around. That's why when I joined Toastmasters again this last January I decided to re-do it. So instead of the CTM I had gotten the first time around, if and when I finish this one my certification will be called a CC.

So, as I said, writing about it is probably silly in the clear light of day (or what would be the clear light of day if I actually wrote many of my posts in the daytime - lol) but here's what I thought yesterday was of such importance to share. My first speech which was titled, "My Name Is Carmen, And I'm A Zyngaholic". Like the first speech my second speech dealt with things internet. This time though, instead of dealing with one aspect only - the game Cityville basically - I talked about my obsession (yeah, I guess it is a bit of an obsession) with "connecting" with all and sundry over the internet.

Through e-mail to Twitter, from Facebook to here at Blogger. I could have went into more of my avenues for exploring the internet like Yelp and such but as it was my speech was almost perfectly timed as it was. Only :37 over the max time span given of 5 to 7 minutes. This was a bit of an improvement (about :45) from my first speech. That one was supposed to be 4 to 6 minutes and clocked in at 7:15 or so (give or take a few seconds). So, in terms of closeness to the target time, I was better this time even though the total time was actually about 30 seconds more.

Other than gloating about being pretty good for time (it's harder to plan than you might think) both times (which is a h-u-g-e improvement over my previous attempts the first time around doing my CTM), I had written my entire speech out word for word. This is another win for me. That in spite of the fact that the program actually ~~encourages~~ expects you to eventually (sooner rather than later) not use a fully written out speech. It suggests that if you do write it out in full to start, that you then break it down to note cards with the highlights listed that you can glance at - if need be - should you forget a part.

I'm not sure, as my mentor (who I didn't use for the first speech due to time constraints - eg. me doing it at the last minute - lol) is now no longer in Toastmasters this new year (which started in September) so he couldn't help me this time either, but I think you are to try to plan the speech to be a "modified Table Topic" (little extemporaneous mini-speeches) rather than memorize the speech in "chunks" since a notecard wouldn't be entirely helpful if you forgot part of a highly memorized, word-for-word speech.

Thinking of it this way (as a longer Table Topic) might actually make some sense. After all, when I was giving my speeches in my former Toastmaster life and was about 50/50 (to be generous) in giving "ok" speeches I did go the free-flowing style. In fact, that is where I coined (for myself anyway) the term "modified Table Topic" speech. Truthfully, when they work they really work. It obviously allows for freedom to have great eye contact, gestures and just a generally more spontaneous looking presentation.

But back to me saying that writing out my speech for the second time was a "win" even though it is something I will need to get away from if I am to succeed in terms of completing my manual and the program in general as it is meant. I am happy about writing it out in full because the first time around, I had a real mental block about doing this and I think that it is the perfect starting point. This is because if you write it out in full you can flesh out details.

Also, with my former problems with time management in my speeches (shades of my many epic posts - lol) it allows for timing a speech in a way that you can't, at least initially, plan for with a more off-the-cuff like (and I stress the word "like") speech. So basically, consider this my not so short and sweet bit of crowing about my accomplishments to date in my new club. Oh, one final bit of boasting. Just like the first time, I was able to add a number of jokes to my speech. I didn't hear anybody LOL but I was told that people smiled. That's good enough for me. I guess. For now. Eventually, I'll have them rolling in the aisles. That's the plan.

Carmen

More %*$^# Snow

2011-11-14T22:12:00.004-07:00

Ok, so there wasn't this %*$^# much snow after only three days. But being out in it also wasn't as fun as seeing a big giant snowperson either so I guess the exaggerations cancel each other out. Right! LOL.

Now here I go ruining things with my cancelling out idea by adding another picture but I couldn't resist. Just like the enormous snowperson, the gigantic snow fortress (complete with a drawbridge!) also said in a way that wouldn't make me want to slit my wrists (eg. more "fun" than frozen) that it was damn cold for only the second day of having snow.

The first picture is from http://freechristmaswallpapers.org/ or http://freechristmaswallpapers.net/

I say one or the other (and not .com! - it leads to a buyable name page) because at Yahoo Images the location information cut off just before the end of the address. So take your pick. Both locations have some nice stuff. Check them out.

The second picture is from http://playcloths.com/ (don't ask me, I just type it in like it says - lol).

So, today I went out to Toastmasters and gave a speech - my second of the first manual. I'll be talking about that more tomorrow as I'm not really into doing much this post. I blame the snow. Yeah, that's it. Also, I want to make it it's own post. Other than that not much happened today. School was cancelled again today (Monday) just like it was Friday. Friday was, of course, for Remembrance Day and today was PD Day or something.

I'm surprised they have PD Day (I'm pretty sure that's what they called it when they told us about it) because it's just one teacher and an assistant in an upgrading high school for adults in the mental health system. Anyway, that's what it was. Just like with Toastmasters, I have some stuff to tell you about school that will have to wait to another day. With that, it will be a bit (a fair bit?) longer till I get to that because what I want to talk about in this case hasn't quite happened yet but should pretty soon. I'll keep you posted.

Finally, in the "you'd really have to be interested in my life to care about this" department, supper wasn't bad considering it consisted of three out of three things I don't really like at all! How does something like that happen. LOL. We had some sort of pork that was sitting in a nice sauce that covered the taste of pork - that and the fact that I ate only the tiniest piece. Then there was rice. But it was brown rice and there was the sauce too so that explains that. Finally, we had brussel sprouts. Used to like. Not anymore. But had two. Didn't die.

So that, along with reading something funny that will also be shared another day, was my day. Out of curiousity, I'd be interested to know what any readers I might still have did today. Also, where are you from? I ask because I'm wondering if you had to deal with crappy weather today too. If so, what do you plan to do to survive the long winter coming up? As for me, I don't have a clue. Cry everyday? That's definitely an option right now. The future looks so bleak. Ok, now I'm just being melodramatic. But it is true too. Sad to say.

Carmen

On Rainbow Love, Being Mad Scary & Just Plain Mad

2011-11-13T23:34:00.003-07:00

Today I have three pictures for you. A pair and a spare so to speak. Except the spare is the lead picture.

This picture comes via Yahoo Images from http://edgeboston.com/ which is a gay men's e-zine site.

It is appropriate that the place the picture originated or at least came from last was a gay site because that is exactly what I am going to talk about now.

For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the news (tv, print, internet) in the last week or two, heres the story. It seems that the a Canadian Zoo - the Toronto Zoo in fact, is going to split up a pair of seemingly gay Africian penquins named Buddy and Pedro. They claim, and it seems from reading a rather complete article on the website http://www.canada.com/ , it is to ensure the survival of the species. According to that article, penquins used to number an estimated just under a quarter of a million wild Africian penquins as late as the 1990's. Now, the numbers have nosedived to more like just over 50,000.

So Buddy, 20 and Pedro, 10 (gay human men are often said to partner up with others of quite different ages so I thought that that age difference here with the gay male penquins was ironic, if that is the right word, and just very, very funny), need to be split up. At least it seems for the short term.

The gay Canadian penquins are not the first gay penquins either. It seems that there were some at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. The Manhattan zoo's penquins were named Roy and Silo (ages unknown - lol) and they apparently chinstrap penquins. They got together in 1998 and were still together as of early 2004 according to http://www.sfgate.com/ the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle. The article says that they were offered female companions and flatly turned them down. No loss to the females who were said not to be interested either! LOL.

Lets get back to Buddy and Pedro though. Unlike Roy and Silo, the females at the Toronto Zoo are seemingly hoping that Buddy and Pedro are bisexual. ' "The two girls have been following them; we just have to get the boys interested in looking at them," said Tom Mason, curator of birds and invertebrates at the Toronto Zoo ' according to the canada.com article. As I said before though, the zoo says that once they've done there duty they will be put back together. Asking them to "take one for the team" may or may not work though. On the may side gay (bi?) penquins in yet other zoos have successfully been remated.

On the may not side, it's said that penquins mate for life. Which means that either there are also such things as bi penquins who possibly mate with one of each sex (for life) or that they again were bi and hadn't fully mated with their same sex partners. Or maybe, just maybe, "experts" don't know as much as they think they do. LOL.

Oh, and jumping back to Roy and Silo (because that's how the story flowed), there is a pretty funny story about them. It seems that they really wanted to be parents (shades of the human homosexual community again to anthromorphize a bit) so they found an appropriate sized rock and took turns sitting on it. Isn't that cute. What's even better is that there was an abandoned egg that the zoo then let them hatch and then take care of the baby, named Tango, for the first 2-1/2 months of his life until he was ready to go it alone. This, in fact, became a book called "And Tango Makes Three"

So the controversy that has insued over the breakup may all be for naught. The zoo did after all say they would "re-patriate" the couple upon completion of their duties in the name of repopulation. It's hard to say if that consession was a result of the controversy. Finally, it is worth noting that at the New England Aquarium, penquins are regularly split up. This is not however because they are same sex mating and therefore not reproducing. It is again for the future of the species but the reasoning is different. The penquins are separated and re-matched because of being too closely related. Kissing cousins or just too closely genetically matched, I'm not sure. But it does go to show that perhaps this is not about homophobia. Let's hope not. It is 2011.

Now I'll leave you with the last two pictures which are not "naturalistic" pictures like the first one was. These are in honor of the fact that the story, which serves to remind that homosexuality/bisexuality is quite common in the animal world and in the case of penquins said to be "quite rampant", was brought to light thanks to the gay community - a mad scary one that you don't want to mess with :)

This is of course the Rainbow Love part of the title.

This being the Mad Scary part. Oh, and remember if penquins are mad scary and gay people can be mad scary then just think about what you get when you combine the two.

Carmen

First Snow Of The Season aka Snow Day Musings

2011-11-12T23:31:00.005-07:00

The above photo comes from the site of Dr Rus D. Jeffrey, a professional photographer

Please look at his site which can be found at http://drrusphotography.godlaughs.net/

While there check out all the wonderful photography he has on the site. One of the ones I particularly liked was of a half eaten apple on the ground with a hornet or something on it. Beautiful.

Do consider purchasing some of Dr. Jeffrey's works if you appreciate this photo.

Remember, if you want to use any of Dr. Jeffrey's art to contact him as they are, of course, copyrighted materials.

This picture quite accurately portrays what I and other Edmontonians woke up to today. While the picture is a beautiful one, despite it's accuracy, the real scene struck me as more sad than beautiful. November 12th and already it's "unofficially officially" winter. The first snow of the season. Couldn't it have waited. Like perhaps until New Year's Eve, like it did one halycon year a number of years back (the late 90's/early 00's I think). I guess that kind of luck probably comes around like "Brigadoon". Once every hundred years. A soon-to-be frost-bitten Canadian girl can dream though, can't she.

Today I was supposed to go to my mom's for the rest of the weekend (a day and a half basically) after finishing up this blog. Of course I waited till the last moment. Also, with the snow, even though I knew a light dusting of snow didn't necessarily mean sub-zero temperatures it bummed me out enough to cancel on that basis as well. All I know is aside from getting my blogs done earlier on a consistent basis for the rest of the month, I better learn pretty damn quick to "put on my big girl panties" and suck it up. Winter is coming.

So, what did I spend the day doing. Well, mostly looking on-line news and other people's blogs as well as spending some time in the blogger coffee shop forum. If nothing else, I should have some fodder for blogging. One thing that is going to make it increasingly hard however, if I don't manage my time better, is finding picture pairings like I'd like to have for more rather than less of my remaining November NaBloPoMo posts. I have plenty of pictures but it does take some time to pair them up or find single ones that somewhat segue from immediately or close to it posts as I also like to do.

I may also have to spend some time looking for even more pictures to fit the some of the news that I may like to lead off with in my next few posts. One is animal related so it fits that way with a lot of the comical animal pictures recently posted. It is different though, because it is a story rather than an extended caption and comments and because it is a serious one (if not a bit wacky depending on your views) needs some more thought put into it. I think when you read it you will find it interesting. I won't say enjoy as it is not that kind of story neccessarily. Well, you'll see what I mean when I post it. Of course, comments are always encouraged.

Finally, I went to take my own picture this morning with my cheap but functional kid's digital camera only to find that the screen had broken and it would not work at all. I had, at last gotten to the point of being willing to take pictures of my own and ask staff to help upload it now that I know how to actually put the picture on the blog once it would actually be put on the computer for me. Alas, it was not meant to be. Now I have to look for another, almost 100% likely more expensive digital camera (the old one cost $10!).

I will probably try FreeCycle. Obviously there are no guarantees there. Oh, and although I started the last paragraph with the foreshadowing word finally, I do have one more thing to say related to taking pictures as opposed to saving them from the internet & figuring out/actually getting around to doing simple computer tasks I always thought to be difficult. I made my first video, from my webcam, and posted it to YouTube. It was just a silly little "this is a test" type thing of just over a minute but, finally, I have content on my channel.

Carmen

P.S. Which title do you like better - "First Snow Of The Season" or "Snow Day Musings". I guess I'll have to pick one before posting but if I get feedback that the other one is preferred I will probably change it. Titles are, and have always been, important to me. Enough so that I was pleased that a real life friend who also reads this blog once told me, unbidden, that I always seemed to have such good titles. That day I sure felt that my mild obsession with the perfect title was justified. And appreciated. A good day indeed.

The C.A.T.

P.P.S. As you can see I hedged my bets. LOL. And it's staying that way! Comments still welcome of course, they just will be for interest only.

P.P.P.S. Remember to check out - http://drrusphotography.godlaughs.net/

The C.A.T. squared!

11/11/11 @ 11:11:11

2011-11-11T23:11:00.001-07:00

Cheer Up... Things Could Get Worse.

2011-11-10T22:52:00.004-07:00

One day I sat thinking, almost in despair: a hand fell on my shoulder and a voice said reassuringly: cheer up, things could get worse. So I cheered up and, sure enough, things got worse.

- From CheekyQuotes.com: James C. Hagerty quote.

Ok. So it's not really that bad. But I was starting to wonder. I haven't been getting much sleep these last few days and only got a couple hours worth before having to go to school today. I wouldn't even have gotten that if I didn't halve my school day from two periods to one. Anyway, I get home, eat dinner and take a nap. After that I get up to take my evening pills with every intention of going straight to the computer because it's already 8:30pm and I know how fast midnight sneaks up on me these NaBloPoMo days.

Well, since I got up a half hour earlier than I planned to to take my night pills I end up watching tv. Luckily, it was only a half hour and I didn't get sucked in further. However, I still have to pick my picture(s) from my extensive file of photos for today's post or find something new through a Yahoo Images search if I want to pick a specific topic not already on file. The idea that came to me, and thankfully very quickly, was a sunrise and a sunset picture because today was so beautiful (it hit +11 or +12!).

Then I thought that since I usually do two pictures that match up somehow, like the sunrise/sunset pictures would anyway, but I had one day with one picture only that today perhaps I could add a third picture that would also fit in and in fact enhance the other two. This idea came because +11/+12 at this time of the year is quite an accomplishment so what better third picture than a nice scene of a lovely fall day. My only worry was doing three different searches and finding, saving and creating the post for all these pictures when I ended up getting started at about 10:00pm. (I ended up losing the time I saved not getting sucked into the tv. by getting sucked into reading just a few internet news stories.

Of course I couldn't realize that there would be time for that later. No, of course not. Well finally after saving almost the whole first page of sunrises - only the first search! - I decided to narrow my picture search down to one thing only. I changed to full moons, which my roommate said we had tonight. I knew that the fall scenes and sunsets would just present the same problem, one I didn't have anywhere near the time for, as the sunrises. As luck would have it. I found one clear favorite in the moon pictures. So I'm set. I'll just go with the one again like the other time and that will be a book-ended thing. Not so fast. I go to click on it for the post and it says something like incompatible with my system.

So I go back and hope there is a good second choice. Again, luckily one jumps out as a clear second favorite. But wait. Surprise, surprise. Same thing happens again. So I give up on that idea. Wasn't gonna get caught on third time lucky/unlucky. So again, fortunately an idea quickly pops into my head. I'm screwed! LOL. Not so fast. I know what you're thinking. How is that fortunate? Well, I meant search for the perfect picture that states that very point. And sure enough there are some. Thankfully, not too many good choices to overwhelm but enough to give choice. So that's what you got tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Screwed or not, I can't complain. They were pretty funny.

Carmen

P.S. So are you wondering what I was talking about saying both they and were pretty funny. If not, you should be. I didn't change the body since I slaved over the wording. LOL. Really, it's mainly because I thought it was kinda funny - in a sick sorta way - that I assumed that the three other pictures I saved, two of which I planned to use as I felt they were a good matchup (they were both demotivational pictures and both of animals - each with a bird and one including a cat).

Seems I was wrong. Both of the demotivationals and a funny but twisted one of football players had the same error message I mentioned above. In what turned out to be the only real lucky break I got here tonight with my picture gathering I found one sorta funny, kinda cute one that was a free stock photo. Bingo. Success. Thank God for that. Oddly enough, for a stock photo, it's not actually lame. That's what I always thought that most that would fall under that label would be. Glad to be wrong. This time. LOL.

P.P.S. It didn't fit into the body (at the usual place after the picture explanation) because I wanted to explain the picture change situation in a P.S and it would have separated the picture information, but I would briefly like to take the time to weigh in on the Ashton Kutcher faux-pas (I looked and that was the more popular spelling). Actually, maybe it would have fit somehow, because Kutcher got screwed by his "fans", etc. the other day. It seems he was shamed by a hate blitz into making the announcement that he will be taking a break from Twitter - which he seemed to love - because of what I believe is an honest mistake.

People can be such assholes. Seems he spoke up for the imbattled sports guy who was fired for his handling of a sex-abuse scandal because he didn't know that was the reason he was fired. He thought it was due to ageism since this guy, who apparently still cut it as a coach, is in his 80's. I say Kutcher's mistake was the kind any of us could make. I mean who researches every comment they make. Embarrassing, yes. Lynch-mob worthy, hell no.

After all, he is known to be a very vocal advocate for those dealing with sexual abuse. Honestly, people should use there brains and their hearts when they speak. Kutcher did (well, the heart anyway). What are his critics excuses. Personally I don't think he needs to take a break from anything. Nor does he need to turn over his Twitter feed to his handlers like he plans to saying that perhaps it is too much for one person in his position. I say this - Ashton, don't be too apologetic. There is no need. A simple sorry, I goofed would suffice.

The C.A.T.

The Lush Life & The Not So Lush Life

2011-11-09T22:19:00.001-07:00

Yesterday marked the third day that my picture(s) part of my posts were food related. Today is the third day that they come from the site http://thisiswhyimbroke.com/

In this set of pictures we have two items that are a little bit "luxe". One is a fancy-schmantzy version of a old college dorm stand-by. The other is truly unique. When I first looked at the picture and read what this everyday item (actually a two-piece item) was made out of I wondered for a second if it was for real. It is!

So, as you can see, the upgraded college dorm item is a genuine leather bean bag chair. Snazzy isn't it.

I can see it in someone's dorm at some Ivy League college like Harvard. Maybe even a set of them. The only question there is where to find all the usual college accoutrements in deluxe form. Although if you came from money I'm pretty sure you or your parents would have a lifetime of knowing where to find it.

Hammacher Schlemmer perhaps. Or Neiman Marcus. These are two that I just thought of. I'm sure there are many, many others. After all even if they are only the "1%" there are still lots of wealthy people to supply.

Next up is this bamboo computer keyboard and matching mouse. Have you or have you not seen everything now. I wonder if you could get splinters from these. Probably not. That wouldn't be very deluxe now would it. Speaking of bamboo, it you can believe it, I actually was given a bamboo/cotton towel. That's right. A towel that is partially made of bamboo. Crazy huh. The craziest thing is it's quite soft.

So would you buy either of these items?

Myself, I would have to say given the choice of one or the other I'd pick the keyboard/mouse set. Yes, the leather chair is nice but remember ... I'm a fat girl. Fat girls (and presumably fat boys too) have a hard time getting "low to the ground". Besides, leather is more common. Pedestrian even. Deluxe sure, but not unique. Bamboo hardware. Now that's unique.

So on to other stuff. Two things in the news today caught my eye. The first is more of a light item. The second definitely much more weighty. I put this paragraph in after finishing the entire post but before posting it when it occured to me that with the two items from the news added to the "main" posting of photos of deluxe consumer items, and in particular the second one, deals with such important subjects a title change from "The Lush Life" to "The Lush & The Not So Lush Life". As luck, and maybe serendipity, would have it while the original title was completely wrong for what this post became in its entirety it was not a bad place to start or wholely off the mark.

First off, let's start with the lighter item since it will directly be following the picture portion which isn't exactly hard news. LOL. The parents of the show 19 Kids and Counting, Michelle & Jim Bob Duggar are having, get this, their 20th kid next spring. In April, I think. Originally the show was 17 Kids and Counting, then 18 Kids and Counting, now since late Dec.2009/early Jan 2010, the current 19 Kids and Counting. Presumably, if they don't get cancelled like Kate Plus 8 (formerly Jon & Kate Plus 8), by the middle of next year it could be, assuming all goes well, 20 Kids and Counting. And counting they may very well still be because in an interview I saw with the parents and all their kids with them on either the Today or the Good Morning America show they said that they were open to the possibility of more if it happens. Yeesh.

That said, I am in the minority I guess when I say leave them alone to have as big a family as they want. It may not be the most responsible thing to do when it comes to population growth but then I've heard that it is primarily nations like China, Japan and Africian nations that are the problem when it comes to world over population anyway. Apparently white people are actually supposed to be dwindling.

And while I wouldn't make a spirited argument on their behalf based on their religious beliefs (which it seems is a primary reason why their family is so large - they don't believe in birth control anymore after losing one child to their one time decision to use it) because I am not really religious myself and much has gone on that gives religious freedom a black eye such as the FLDS sect and their alleged treatment of women and children or Christian Scientists who would let a child die rather than seek conventional medical treatment, I still do support them.

Aside from the fact that this seems more of a harmless religious choice where it is simply a matter of where do you draw the line, 5 going on 6 or 19 going on 20 or more, I have to admit that I actually inwardly gave a little cheer when I first heard the news. The biggest reason, and maybe the only one, is that when I was younger (about 13 or so) and was given a a couple of old trunks by my grandmother and grandfather when they moved into an old folks home shortly before they died I found inside the one that was my grandma's a scrapbook or two that was devoted to old movie stars, various royal families around the world, and finally oddities like quintuplets like the Dionne sisters or sextuplets/septuplets like Kate Gosselin and even a woman who had octuplets (I don't think they all survived) way before the world ever heard of Nadya Suleman.

I loved this stuff. It seemed so far removed from everyday people's experiences. Like a chance for regular people who weren't celebrities or royalty to have a chance to be unique, special and in the news. I know this is silly and some would even say irresponsible but I disagree. After all, for even one couple like the Duggars (are there actually any - lol - well probably) there are probably at least 10 others (couples &/or singles) that don't have, either by choice or by chance, any kids. So it balances out is basically what I'm saying.

As for the argument that they, and others who are in lesser degree like them, can't possibly properly look after that many kids I say, what a load of ^(*$#. What about parents of previous generations when having many kids was much more common. Yes, it was before birth control but then as we all know birth control is not everyones choice. Some would even argue that it is a little like a very early abortion. I don't know if I'd go that far but I guess it has some merit. Anyway, parents back then did the best they could, including having the other children help out, and that is what this family is doing too I would guess. I don't think having the kids help out, as long as it's not to the exclusion of getting to be "regular" kids too, is such a bad thing either.

Kids helping with kids, in age appropriate ways, can be a valuable lesson. If nothing else it can be a way to let the kids that would be helping out know, well before it's time for them to have their own kids, whether they actually want the responsibility. Because surely not all of the 20 or so kids this family now has or soon may have if all goes well is going to end up having the exact same beliefs as their parents. Maybe more families including smaller ones should include their kids in helping with the younger ones. If only to a small degree. Not enough to "take away their childhoods". Not only would it help let kids see what raising kids is about in small part so that they can tell if they want their own someday so that people who clearly shouldn't have kids don't but also it might do a little something to make kids think twice about having sex before they are ready to assume the ultimate potential responsibility for that choice.

The second thing that I wanted to mention is the Occupy movement. For the most part I would have to say I support it. It is supposed to be a loosely organized thing so saying that you support it is potentially a bit like stepping in dog shit. I say that because, if the police are to be believed, and that may be a big if, the protests are morphing into something less idealistic and more chaotic and hard to handle. That is to say other elements - vandals, troublemakers and even criminals are co-opting it.

While that is clearly a realistic possibility because there are always opportunists and it is hard to self-police a motley group not to mention that when big public groups get together often nothing good comes of it (eg. riots) it can really be hard to believe the police when I haven't so far heard of a lot of trouble and the police are quite well known for being over-zealous. I'd like to see the police leave the protesters alone. With winter coming soon it will be interesting to see if the protesters do, as I've heard some of the Occupy city groups to say, continue on through the winter.

These groups (which may in fact be and I hope are, all of them) that have said they plan to stay over the winter obviously will have greater or lesser problems dealing with the weather depending on where they are located. All I can say is good luck to Occupy Edmonton and other winter Occupy cities in -40. Hell, I wouldn't want to be out there at -10. For anyone who is that committed, assuming we get to witness that if the police don't move in to force them out first, I say you have my respect.

Speaking of respect, that brings me to something my oldest sister said at the dinner table this last weekend while we were celebrating a couple of family birthdays. Someone, very possibly me, brought up the Occupy movement and she was quick to state a rather ambivalent position in a nevertheless quite hostile way. She basically said that while she somewhat can see their point she doesn't really believe in the movement because anyone who actually has the ability to camp out or protest on a regular basis (especially in the mornings I would presume) is not really the ones that it is supposed to be all about.

That is to say she didn't say that they were all bums but instead that they, whether bums or presumably privileged types who took the time to be there alike, are not your average working person. Personally I disagree. I really don't care who is there. That they are taking the time out from their regular lives is enough for me. If they are street people then they definitely are the disadvantaged. If they are more privileged then they have obviously given up comfort at the very least and some I have heard of have even let their apartments or good jobs go to be there.

Not to mention that even the average working people may be there in a lesser capacity. That is, they may not stay over night or may not plan to stay as long as others (including over winter) as it would keep them from work and bills. But there are always people, no matter how small that group may be, that make great sacrifices when they believe in the cause. After all, look no further than the civil rights movement in the 60's in particular but also the women's rights movement starting in the 70's and the gay (later LGBT) movement starting primarily in the 80's (but going back at least in one particular instance as far as the late 60's).

People who have been pushed to the limit & others who are not as personally affected but just of greater convictions than most and have seen things they can't ethically stomach have been doing society's "heavy lifting" during these times as well as, really, throughout all of history. They should be praised. Anyone who isn't terminally (and that I think is an especially appropriate word) naive realizes that protesting, even in a democracy, can get you blackballed/blacklisted, severely fined, jailed, seriously injured or possibly killed. Just look up James Reeb, but one example of the high cost people pay to protest. The fact that he was privileged (by virtue of his white skin) didn't save him in Selma.

People with half a brain and possessing even the smallest measure of self-preservation don't take protesting lightly. That's why cowards like me count on people like them to do the dirty work of maintaining or creating some semblance of fairness in an unfair world. So I guess I would like to conclude this by saying think hard before condemning someone for doing something that you likely do not, but probably should, have the willingness to do, whether it be because of the emotional, financial &/or the physical risks involved. With Remembrance Day just two days away (look at my FB badge on which I have changed my profile picture to a white "Peace Poppy") consider please consider these things.

Carmen

P.S. May the bravest and most noble amongst us, whether they be the soldier or the protester, have the longest and happiest lives.

P.P.S. After editing in the first paragraph not dealing with the photos right after finishing the P.S. it occurred to me to that here would be the best place to add that even the Duggars should/could be considered in the "not so lush life" part of the title because, even if it is hardly as much of a sacrifice as those of the soldier or protester, committing yourself to raising that many children obviously requires many sacrifices both personal and financial.

That is another reason why I believe people should respect their choice. A choice among the many we have that was fought for, again by soldier and protester alike, and that people in China. for instance (although maybe with good reason there), don't have. As always, I look forward to hearing what any reader think - be it about the picture portion of the post or my written musings. Being, in part, more controversial I reserve the right to use the comment deletion feature but only if a comment is truly hateful. So far, I've never needed it.

The C.A.T.

Pizza! Pizza! - Easy! Easy!

2011-11-08T10:45:00.002-07:00

Today is the third day for posting a food-related photo duo. The subject today is that well loved All-~~American~~ Canadian food - Pizza!

As with yesterday, the two items I will show you come from http://thisiswhyi'mbroke.com/
Unlike yesterday, neither one of them is in any way disgusting. LOL. In fact, both items are, in my opinion, ingenious. I'll let you be the judge of that however.

This first item is a dual use utensil as you can see. Both a pair of food scissors to cut the pizza in a jiffy and a attached spatula to scoop it up directly on to your plate. Pretty cool, huh.

The scissors look quite sturdy, the spatula I'm less sure about but I guess it would be made out of the same material as the handle of the scissors so maybe it's nothing to worry about. In any case, it would be an amusing implement to pull out at your next pizza party.

This second piece of kitchen equipment is even cooler. Much, much cooler to be honest. Just take a look at this baby! I shouldn't even have to tell you what it is. But I will. Because after seeing it, I'm sure you don't believe it. Yes, that's right. Someone has actually created a mini pizza-cutting circular saw. A real circular saw. While it is clearly labeled on the box as being for pizza, I'm sure you could find another food cutting use or two out of it.

Pictures out of the way, I'd like to move on to the topic of computer functions which have I've recently learned to us and their value to using my computer for blogging as well as otherwise. I want to brag about my epic accomplishments learning to do the simple things that most people probably figured out were easy to do five minutes after buying their computers. LOL. I'm still proud of myself though. Everytime I figure out that something is easier than I thought and I add/change something I feel like I've conquered the world. LOL So then here are a few new computer accomplishments to share. As I probably mentioned on my Halloween post or shortly after, I am now able to add pictures as you have been seeing and will continue to see for all of November if all goes according to plan. What I didn't tell you is that it all started with my finding out indirectly, at school where I've just started as of a little over month and a half ago, that adding a background to my computer was also easier than I thought. The background I chose is gorgeous. To save pictures so I don't run out of photo topics for the whole month and because I like each post to be about a one picture or a related set of picture I will save it for another post but the screensaver I chose is of the cute animal variety that includes a very nice background that adds added interest to the picture. I know that when you see it you will love it and perhaps even want it for yourselves if only as a saved picture.

First it was saving pictures to my computer six plus months ago, then it was the background wallpaper about a week or so ago, then the blog picture posting a day or so later that took advantange of the picture saving knowledge and around the same time as the recent discoveries I mentioned there was also finally taking off the default screen-saver and adding a cool Aurora Borellis one. I tried the bubbles one but unfortunately it left whatever was on your screen behind it which was a two-fold fail. First, it didn't look as good as having a neutral, matching blue or black background like the Aurora Borellis. Second, all the bubbles were quite big (about the size of a golf ball) and of a uniform size. Not as attractive as it should have been. Not at all. The final thing I want to point out finding was a feature that I don't know if many people know about because it may not be considered very important by most when they hear about it but that I find very useful. It's a cursor finding mechanism. It comes in very handy because I can't count the number of times I've used words I don't like to use in public when I've lost sight of where my cursor is and then have a hard time finding it. Typical ^%*#$ moment. Well, this feature lets you set your computer to have a circular outline pop up around the cursor and then quickly, for lack of a better word, collapse around it by getting to be a slightly smaller circle in the space of a few seconds simply by hitting the control key.

So I think I've exhausted sharing all my new discoveries with you. If there are any of you out there who are as timid about trying new things with your computer, I urge you to take a chance or two experimenting with finding out new features. It's well worth it. If nothing else, and this goes even for others who aren't so timid but probably didn't know about the cursor thing, try using the cursor finding feature. You can find it under Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Personalization>Mouse Pointers and then check the enable pointer shadow box at the bottom of the mouse pointer page.

Carmen

Green Sandwiches & A Mug With A Plug

2011-11-07T23:00:00.001-07:00

I was debating calling this post "Co-Worker Proofing Yourself" but the tell-all title (much like yesterday) won out. It just seemed to sound a bit better. In a bizarre way.

In any case, today we have two pictures again that I found independent of each other (on the same website but not side by side or in any way matched up) that I thought shared a theme in common. Basically I'm saying I was the one to see the connection, although when you see them and what they are meant to do you will surely see that it is an obvious link. That is namely, the aforementioned co-worker proofing.

As you can see this first one is rather gross and quite obviously the green sandwich portion of the title. The item is found, like it's soon to be shown companion (not gross at all just strange and rather brilliant) on the website http://thisiswhyimbroke.com/ It is a site that has a variety of unusual items that you may very well think, despite in some but not all cases a rather high price tag, I just have to have that.

Clearly, on first glance this may not be one of them. It is gross. But the idea is to fool potentially lunch lifting coworkers into believing your perfectly good sandwich is a gross moldy mess that has been sitting in the office fridge too long. Obviously, the item is a baggie printed with a tasteful (lol) mold design that overlays your sandwich. The problem of course with this little trick is that there is always the ever so helpful co-worker that takes it upon themselves to clean up the kitchen, including the fridge. So your "perfect solution" to work-place theft purchase could get unceremoniously tossed.

This second item is more tasteful if crazy and much less likely (one hopes!) to hit the trash. I call it the Plug Mug. The idea is simple. Instead of co-workers "~~stealing~~" borrowing your mug when you are not there and they don't have one and germing it up, you take out the plug when you are gone. Voila, they can't use it. When you come back you simply put the plug back in and fill it up. How cool is that?

So what do you think? Would you purchase either of these items (or both) for yourselves. I know I would. At least I would the mug. The sandwich bag, not so sure. LOL. Anyway, again the big question is "Who comes up with this stuff?"

Carmen

Kevin Bacon Strips & A Fanta Sea

2011-11-06T22:15:00.004-07:00

So today I have no cute, funny animal pictures to show you. These pictures, from FB "randoms" again, are still funny though. Just no animals involved.

It's a stretch, but what they have in common is they both are indirectly related to food and drink... and they are both obviously created by people with wacky minds. I mean how do people come up with this stuff.

Aren't these funny? Personally, as much as I appreciate the Kevin Bacon Strips, I think the Fanta Sea picture is even funnier. I think it takes an even loopier person to create it. LOL. What do you think? Which is your favorite? Why? Oh, and while I think of it, even though I like the Fanta Sea better (and really who doesn't like a good Fanta Sea? Get it! LOL) I just have to ask "How many degrees of separation are there between Kevin Bacon and Kevin Bacon in the pan?". LOL.

Carmen

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie ... On The Couch ... With A Pillow

2011-11-05T11:54:00.005-06:00

So here's today's quota of pictures. Perhaps the title told a little to much of the story but I still think it was the right one. Lays it all on the line. Besides what it didn't tell was how I managed, and so close together, to find two pictures of virtually the same unusual - or what I consider unusual anyway - event. I myself have no idea.

Serendipity?

This is the first photo which I marked as #100 in my list of saved pictures (I told you I'm a picture saving maniac. You would know exactly how much so if you knew just how little time it took to save all those pictures or how many I have now and again in how short a time it took to get them.

Anyway, this picture is the title to a tee. Cute isn't it. He (or she) is really "livin' the life". LOL.

This second picture, which it is hard to tell just now exactly how well it is centered (crosses fingers!) incorporates another piece of bedding in addition to the pillow... A nice cosy blanket. This one is not only "livin' the life" but has moved up in the world a step from his pal in the first picture. But not to worry. There won't be any rivalry. Pal's was stretching it. As far as I know, they don't even know each other. LOL. Besides, I'm sure if the first dogs owner realized they forgot the blanket they'd be appalled at their oversight.

In other news, I just have to mention something very sad but really not surprising happened sometime on Friday. 60 Minutes former ~~correspondent~~ commentator Andy Rooney just died. As I said, it was not surprising since he was both 92 and in hospital for serious complications from a recent surgery. The worst thing about it is that I'll never get the chance to bother him at dinner (lol) for an autograph - which he always refused to give.

He said in his last 60 minutes commentary about a month ago, when he finally retired, that he hated being bothered by fans, especially while eating dinner. Sorry Mr. Rooney. I loved you, but I would have done it anyway cause prickly (or as everyone else called it - curmudgeonly) as you were you were just so darn cute. I wouldn't have been able to resist. Your foot in my ass would surely have made you seem less "cute" in retrospect though. LOL.

But luckily for me, even had you lived even longer, I probably never would have travelled to New York or wherever else your "circles" were. I'm not much of a traveller. Well, I guess I'll end this little tribute with my wish that wherever you have travelled to in the great unknown you are having a great time - with no more petty inconveniences. Maybe you're also having fun catching up with other famous newspeople like, for instance, that other late, great -- Walter Cronkite.

Carmen

P.S. I just noticed when I posted this (before this edit) that the second dog is even lying on a fully tucked in sheet. LOL.

P.P.S. I almost forgot to mention that these pictures came from FB where they were posted by some of my "random" FB friends.

P.P.P.S. To belabor the point of the past several days about my posting habits re: time management - I bring your attention to the fact that this was posted a full half day before it usually has been at the last possible minute or in the case of BlogHer mere minutes later. Just before 12:00pm to be exact. Yay Carmen. The start of a new trend? I sure hope so.

The C.A.T.

The Finer "Points" Of Reproduction

2011-11-04T21:46:00.000-06:00

Hello. Today's picture follows along the lines of the one from two days ago. I would have used them on back to back days if I had this one yesterday but I just found it after my again last minute posting.

Isn't this priceless. I won't say I laughed out loud when I saw this but that was only because it was late and I had been saving a bunch of pictures so I guess I was "burnt-out" and not properly appreciative - cause this is not only extremely funny it is also extremely cute.

In the so-called (read the very bottom) hamster's defense (I still think it's a mouse) - it is another mouse!

Moving on, as far as my posting for NaBloPoMo yesterday. I did it again. Even though I thought I would get it posted to the BlogHer site on time I missed it again. This time by one minute. It was 12:00am when my first copy went through. I say first copy because there were other problems besides the ones that cost me a crucial minute or two in posting.

When I finally got the block of text here to copy for pasting (it usually doesn't work on my computer the first time or three) I hurriedly pasted it in and hit save (the post feature there) and got an error message because I was in such a hurry I forgot the title and it won't save without a title. If it would have saved it as "Untitled" I might have got it in under the wire and then have been able to go back and edit in a title.

Which would have been better. As I've said before, and I'm sticking with it, as long as I've posted before midnight here on the original blog I think it still counts for me to say I've posted on time every day like the rules say. It's just that I still would like it to be posted properly on time before midnight there too. When I say properly I mean on time not correct without revisions because I also think it's ok to have the post mostly correct and posted and then go back and make edits - even fairly big ones like the title.

I guess maybe that's just the self-justification of a procrastinator caught up in the consequences of her procrastination. Still, better I do this clinging to technicalities and get the benefit of the contest's emphasis on posting regularly than not at all, I think. More self-justification. LOL. You be the judge. Anyway, like I was mentioning earlier on that 12:00 posting was but the first posting of the same thing. My other technical difficulty that I was talking about was that when I did get the title in and hit save it didn't seem to want to save

So I had to hit save again. Then when I looked at my profile page it had it posted twice. %*$#@. What's worse was that there doesn't seem to be any way of deleting posts - editing yes, but deleting no - on that website. Or if there is I haven't found it and I sure did try. Well that's my sad tale of woe re: NaBlo... Today it is now 9:25pm so, fingers crossed, I really don't know how I am going to screw this up again tonight. But if there's a way... LOL.

While I bore you with my endless, nightly self-recriminations about something that I say doesn't matter technically anyway, I might as well pass along a quote I came across that is very appropriate considering.I can't quote it directly, or even attribute it at all, because I can't find it where I thought it was written. So here goes from memory.

"Just because you screwed up doesn't mean I'm here to fix your emergencies". That may sound lame but the true quote was similar but much better. It doesn't apply totally, since no one need fix anything for me (except maybe teach me how to delete at BlogHer if it's even possible) but it does speak to the responsibility issue. Since I'm not especially known for my stellar sense of personal responsibility though I won't dwell on it LOL

Carmen

P.S. I'm finishing this at, as of now, 9:39pm so while I'm safe at BlogHer barring a major technical snafu that won't let me post at all I am cutting it close for the last bus from right in front of my home as I'm off to Mom's house for what's left of the weekend (I usually leave Thursday).

I'm always behind for something and I thought I had gotten better. Sigh. Well it's now 9:43pm - LOL - so I'm off to BlogHer and then the bus, "God" willing. See you again tomorrow. Again it most likely will be a picture or a series of pictures "headlining" the post.

The C.A.T. (9:45)

Cats Being Sneaky

2011-11-03T23:43:00.004-06:00

The following is a two item series of pictures that show cats being, well, sneaky.

This first picture is the cute version of sneaky.

The second picture is just downright bad sneaky. Bad Kitty. LOL.

While I like both of course (after all I did save them), the second one is more my style. I know, I know. Bad Carmen. LOL. Both pictures are via Facebook. Each was originally posted to me by a different "random" FB friend of mine. I have to say I could spend all day saving cute, funny, ridiculous, etc., etc., etc. pictures from my Facebook feed.

In fact, that is what caused me to cut it so close in posting my daily NaBloPoMo post yesterday - with only a minute or two to spare and two to three minutes late on BlogHer which is the hosting site for NaBloPoMo. I consider myself to still be in the running because this is my regular blog and the BlogHer post was just a re-posting.

It still kinda bugs me that I couldn't squeak the second one in under the wire. Now it looks like, and on that site I guess technically is, no Nov. 2nd post and two Nov. 3 posts when I copy this one to the site. You'd think I learned my lesson. Maybe a little. As I type these words it is just after 11:25pm. So I have a bit of time. A bit. Still cutting close. Way too close. But not as bad.

Anyway, like I said yesterday, I think I am going to try including pictures every day. If I don't want to run out or low and have to do the all-day picture searching and then the last minute posting I better plan on doing single picture posts some days. The only thing is I like the double duty ones too because I think they tell a story in a "bookmarked" way. It's like it shows I've tried harder. Made a connection.

I guess a little bit of both would be the solution to having my cake and eating it too. Speaking of which, I've always thought that saying was ridiculous. What good is having your cake if you don't eat it too. Quite a while back I came up with what I think should be the amended, more sensible version of that saying. Here goes... "You can't have your cake and your pie too". But I'm digressing. And running out of time.

So I'll end this post by saying that I hope you have been enjoying the picture posts and will continue to. I also hope now that I have committed to NaBloPoMo and will be blogging every day for at least the month of November that those of you that have followed me in the past and came back and those of you who may have just found me will stick with me. I also hope that my new dedication and the pictures make it as fun as I think it will be.

Carmen

P.S. It is now 11:51. ^*%#. Gotta go. See you tomorrow.

The C.A.T.

Interspecies Love! LOL

2011-11-02T23:58:00.001-06:00

Yes this is exactly what you think it is! LOL. That is a c-a-t on top of the chihuahua.

The picture comes from http://www.interspeciesfriendships.com/ I believe.

As you can see I am really getting into the picture thing now and I think I am going to make all thirty of my NaBloPoMo posts with pictures. Maybe.

Anyway, better hit publish post as my computer says 11:57.

See you tomorrow.

Carmen

Now That I Can ...

2011-11-01T20:07:00.001-06:00

I got these photos from Facebook. The first one I found was the first one posted here - the Homer Simpson Nude Woman as I call it. I saw it posted by a random of mine and shared it on my wall and also directly sent it to one of my nieces, my nephew and my sister that is on FB. My niece wrote a little comment on it saying how gross it was. LOL.

Ironic, since she was known, as a teen particularly, for being the queen of gross out comments, etc. Anyway, for some reason I decide after reading her little comment to do some "reconnaisance" on her page. To check for evidence of worse crimes, I guess. LOL.

And lo and behold, look what I find a friend of hers posted to her page. If you guessed a picture of a certain long nosed dude you'd be correct. So I'll leave it for my readers, or in this case viewers, to decide. Aren't they equally "risque". And funny. Damn funny. LOL. I think I'm gonna love this being able to post pictures. :)

Carmen

P.S. This marks Day 1 of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) which I have mentioned before but which I will briefly elaborate on as I will be trying to observe it this month during it's official month. NaBloPoMo, like it's inspiration NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is officially done every November. But unlike NaNoWriMo, which I will also try to do but probably with lesser success as it is much harder, NaBloPoMo also is done unofficially every other month of the year. The hosting site for NaBloPoMo is BlogHer. Check it out and stick with me this month while I try to observe the rules - basically, post every day and no backdating. Wish me luck.

The C.A.T.

Hello Kitty Halloween

2011-10-31T22:31:00.000-06:00

This is my first time adding a picture here. It comes from http://www.nicekittyworld.com/

Happy Halloween.

See you tomorrow for the start of NaBloPoMo (which is also NaNoWriMo)

You Don't Say! Brief Musings On "Old News"

2011-05-29T21:48:00.000-06:00

So just a short post (I think!) on a subject that I have been ignoring out of laziness for some time now. The now a thing of the past British Royal Wedding - 2011 Edition. I had actually sat up all night to watch it and so therefore did have plans to post something on it. In fact, several somethings as it had triggered a variety of separate thoughts in my head. But I think I will leave that for another more inspired day.

The main thing I wanted to point out is that I had a bunch of stuff to say about the "Wedding of the Century" (p-l-e-a-s-e, like that isn't an overworked phrase) and had thought that failing to post immediately after the wedding I would make my amazing conclusions on the first possible "related" date time. Well that time has come. Today is the first (month) anniversary of the wedding.

All I really plan on saying now (a bit of a "teaser") since I am s-t-i-l-l feeling lazy about posting is that while it was fun to have another wedding to watch (it has been 30 years since Charles and Diana - sheesh!) it really did bring out the critic in me. Again, if you are interested in my curmudgeonly response to it all, you will just have to wait for all the details. Suffice it to say though, my big complaint was "the dress".

That said I will say that as time had and has worn on my grumpy distain for what were I hope were the brides choices (since it was her day) have lessened. I'm sure she will be happy to hear that. LOL. Anyway, if you are waiting for my "wedding coverage" I will try not to make the wait as long as the wait between my brief mention of the engagement and now which is the first time since then I think that I have brought them up again in spite of saying that I would give my thoughts on the (then) upcoming wedding.

I am not sure of what it will take but I will try to channel my inner blogger. This not posting stuff is kind of lame. Especially since I have some new followers in the time since I took my break. I can only hope that they have/will stick with me in spite of my laziness about posting regularly. One suggestion though. Leave comments. That helps inspire me I think. Unfortunately both my main followers widget (not the networked blogs one) and my recent comments widget have not been working for the most part (with one or two very short exceptions I've noticed).

So I will have to check for comments manually. Therefore, excuse me if I don't happen to notice it if you do in fact leave one. If I don't respond with a comment of my own in about a week of leaving one then feel free to e-mail me at my main e-mail (which is listed under my facebook badge) carmen_tourney2@live.com Also, feel free to leave me some posting ideas. While I do still have some of my own kicking around my otherwise empty head (lol), it would be nice to get some reader ideas. I can't guarantee that I will write about your ideas right away but I will try to write about every idea I am given.

Carmen

An Update: Huguette Clark

2011-05-29T21:19:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone. This is actually two updates of a sort. First of all, it is my first time back blogging in about a month and a half. That's the update aspect I hadn't really thought of when I made my title. Primarly because I don't intend to make this first post back a "mish-mash" of topics like I sometimes do. I plan to do each (or at least most of the elements I have to talk about separately.

The update in question then is the fact that while reading the Sunday full page big articles obituaries in the Edmonton Journal today I came across two (of the four listed) that caught my eye. One in particular is the subject of this post and one a bit of an afterthought. The main one was on a person who I had written about here under the "fancy" title of simply her name. Huguette Clark.

Hugette Clark, as anyone who read the post I am talking about was a very wealthy (on par with the Astors and the Vanderbilts, etc) and extremely old (103 or 104) woman who lived a very reclusive life for many decades before her death. I pretty much covered what interested me in her life in the post I made before (so if you haven't read it yet and are interested, look it up in my archives).

This is just mainly a "endcap" to the story letting people know how it eventually turned out since considering her age at her death her life was shrouded in mystery and there was the "controversy" over her last days/years and whether or not she was really alive or not or whether her "people" (mainly her lawyer &/or accountant) had engaged in any "funny business" in regard to possibly pretending she was still alive for their own gain.

Turns out the paper I read (the Journal) didn't alude to the controversy (just the unlived in mansions that were kept for decades) other than to refute (which may be the wrong word since they didn't actually talk about all that business) the fact that anything untoward had gone on. I can't remember the exact wording but I do know that it conveyed to me anyway the clear message that nothing was wrong.

So, I guess H.C. is up in heaven (if you believe in that) playing with her expensive dolls and watching endless reruns of The Flintstones (she had good taste - lol). Actually that leads me to wonder if she watched any newer t.v shows. If I had known her personally, I would have suggested The Big Bang Theory and %*&$ My Dad Says. LOL. Oh and maybe Grey's Anatomy.

Anyway, goodbye Ms. Clark. Mystery solved.

Carmen

P.S. The other obituary I alluded to was of a colorful British Lord which is kind of appropriate since my next post will (nominally) be on The British Royal Wedding: 2011 Edition.

The C.A.T.

Back To Work

2011-04-02T14:58:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I talked about NaBloPoMo and how I was going to try it this month. I also committed to posting daily without backdating. Well, there is one exception to that. It won't affect honestly posting every day.

What happened is for April 1 anyway and possibly like the previous 2 months (when it was easier because I was backdating) I may post on a 2 a day schedule on 1 week followed by a 1 a day schedule for the next week and then repeat.

Because I am using library computers while my computer is being fixed I did my post yesterday before signing up for NaBloPoMo so if there were any problems with the sign up I would still get my post done on time, which I did (the NaBloPoMo post).

However, in my hurry to get done before my library time was up and ideally get officially signed up (you can do that for the first few days after the month starts - you just have to have been posting on time beforehand) I neglected to notice the second post for the day which I actually wanted to post ahead of it (the Look It's A Squirrel - April Fools post).

Since I did have one done I think I'm ok. in my books doing this and really that's all that counts in a "non-official month. Now on to the topic at hand. Since I had to go to Best Buy with the computer yesterday (and again today as it turned out) I didn't get to go to Xentel to re-apply like I had planned to at the very beginning of the month.

Therefore, I have decided to go on the first Monday of April (the 4th) which is exactly one week before my 42.5 birthday (I celebrate half year birthdays at "critical junctures"). The 42.5 birthday being a critical one because it means I am 1/4 of the way through my 40's and heading into my 50's. Yikes. Hopefully that will be a good omen for applying.

Jatin did say I should come back and apply and that he would hire me back. It seems odd that I would need to officially re-apply but then again maybe not. Actually it does. Why not just fill out the legal paperwork and leave it at that if he was definitely going to hire me again as he seemed to say. So hopefully it is a sure thing like I was lead to believe.

If not then I will try the Heart & Stroke Fund like Debbie suggested although that is only short-term. I also met another old Xentel worker, Tim on the bus from Best Buy today (he lives in the area, one that I would never otherwise be in). He told me to try Regional Maple Leaf when I told him I wanted a central location. I think he thinks I'm nuts going back to Xentel considering the pay, etc. but he never actually said it. LOL.

So basically I'm saying here that hopefully in the next few days I will be working again. So I'd just like to ask you all to cross your fingers for me as I spent a bit of money on the computer (it was a warrantied problem but I needed anti-virus protection renewed).

Carmen

NaBloPoMo

2011-04-01T20:20:00.000-06:00

A while back I talked about something called NaNoWriMo which stands for National Novel Writing Month. I found out about it, as I probably already mentioned, through reading someone else's (I forget whose) blog.

Well, not only is there a NaNoWriMo but there is also something patterned on it that deals solely with blogs that is called NaBloPoMo or National Blog Posting Month.

Like NaNoWriMo the "official" month for doing it is November. Unlike NaNoWriMo though NaBloPoMo does unofficial months all the rest of the year.

Also different is the NaBloPoMo, perhaps to differentiate the official and the unofficial months gives actual prizes that it solicits from the public during the official month.

NaNoWriMo simply (but still a nice thing to get for "bragging rights") gives a certificate if you reach the word limit and do it in the time limit (including submitting it on time).

I decided to try out NaBloPoMo on the very next full month after finding out about it (sometime in mid-March). So today is the day to start.

Oddly enough, NaNoWriMo does have one thing other than it's official month of November and that is a script writing month that it later started that starts in, yes, April.

So perhaps that is a good omen for my trying NaBloPoMo for the first time this month. On the negative side of things, my computer broke two nights ago and is in for repairs with The Geek Squad.

Therefore, it will take a level of commitment to follow the only rules to NaBloPoMo, which is to write a blog every single day, on the exact day (ie. no backdating), for the month.

This will be a challenge for the first week or so of the month since my computer went in for repairs/cleaning today and won't be back for about a week. Till then, it's going to be daily trips to the public library.

Also, weekends count to in this contest so there will be no slacking off on Saturdays and Sundays. Wish me luck on this as I can be lazy and the trips to the library might be a bit of a nuisance.

Carmen

Update: I dropped out after about one day! So much for my level of committment being up to using the library daily. LOL. I guess I'll wait for next month or maybe even wait till November.

Look, It's A Squirrel!

2011-04-01T11:00:00.001-06:00

April Fools Day.

Geraldine Ferraro

2011-03-28T16:24:00.000-06:00

Former Vice-Presidental Candidate (the first woman to be one) Geraldine Ferraro died on Saturday around 10 am in Boston. She was 75. I do not plan to speak much about her accomplishments or her later decline in politics as you can Wikipedia her.

I did however want to bring it to the attention of anyone following this blog that she has in fact died (of pneumonia/bone cancer) because she was truly a pioneer in terms of women and the U.S. presidency. Her candidacy predated Hilary Clinton's run for President and Sarah Palin's run for the Vice Presidency (1st Republican and only 2nd VP run after Ferraro) by more than 25 years!

One thing I do want to note is that in addition to having her campaign as VP implode because of family scandals and later runs for lesser office in New York State be unsuccessful she didn't do herself a great deal of good as far as leaving a glowing legacy when she, as first female to run for VP, called out Obama as basically only being a credible candidate because of his race.

While I would like to acknowledge her for her accomplishment at being the one deemed worthy of that historic first by her running mate Walter Mondale I am disappointed in the race thing. Even though she was a strong (obviously, considering the Obama comment) Hillary Clinton supporter, the comment doesn't reflect well on her at all.

I myself was left at the end of the primaries in 2008 wishing that Clinton would have been the victor (the favored choice of an abundance of riches choice) but I'd like to think I was still happy for Obama. After all, I was also excited for his candidacy even when up against Hillary. The fact he bested her may have to do with history. After all, the 1st Supreme Court woman came after the black. By about 20 years!

So, I'll end by saying in spite of it all, congratulations Ms. Ferraro on your accomplishment regardless of what happened during the campaign and beyond. I'm sure everyone can agree that we can rarely predict what will happen.

Carmen

Huguette Clark

2011-03-25T17:00:00.000-06:00

Being that my last post was about a 103 year old who just died I thought now would be the perfect time to mention a story I read about quite some time ago about a woman who, if she is still alive (it is a matter of some debate/mystery) would be 105.

Her name is/was Huguette Clark and so far as it is known she seems to still be alive. I say seems to be as she has for about 60 years or so been extremely reclusive. She is the daughter of former U.S Senator William A. Clark, a railroad robber baron.

As such, she also shares in common with yesterdays subject Dorothy Young that she is/was an extremely wealthy woman. Her estimated wealth is somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million just in property. Mind you she is/was trying to sell some finally so she may be cash-poor. LOL.

Cash poor with $200 million or so in property. Oh to have the problems of the rich and famous. In all seriousness though, she is a rather sad figure. According to the authors who have looked into her mysterious life (particularly her later life) she became reclusive after a bad divorce.

She was only married once while still fairly young and the author of the story I read seemed to think the shame of her failed marriage and her grief at losing her only full sibling was the cause of her retreat into her own narrow little world.

I only mean to give a slight retelling of her story as if you google Huguette Clark you will be able to read about her in much more detail as she has an entry on Wikipedia as well as a lengthy piece by a man who originally went in search of details of her because of a rather wacky reason.

It seems of all this property she has (including about $100 million of it on Fifth Avenue in New York alone) she rarely spent any time in many of these many multi-millions of dollar homes. One home that she bought and spent no time whatsoever in cost almost $25 million.

Carmen

Dorothy Young

2011-03-25T16:21:00.000-06:00

One of Harry Houdini's final "assistant's" has died at the ripe old age of 103. She got her start as a dancer in the background of Houdini's shows. He noticed her and brought her to the forefront. This was shortly before his death and she actually left the show a few months before he died.

In and of itself this is mildly interesting that someone who was a part of this illusionist's history was still alive after all these years. What makes it more so is that she seemed to have been a person who went on, in some small way anyways, to achieve even more.

In the obituary I read, it stated that in addition to her time with Houdini and being a dancer, she was also a author of at least some small acclaim. It didn't go into great detail on that so the other thing that was interesting is likely to have been something attributable to her family (I'm guessing here).

She managed to leave $14 million to her alma mater. Now that is some legacy. The connection to Houdini is one thing but I am incredibly curious as to whether or not it was her own doing or family money that contributed to such a bequest. That's something we'll probably never know.

Carmen

The King's Speech

2011-03-24T22:27:00.000-06:00

I took my mom to see this movie. As you surely know, it just won an Oscar for both Best Picture and Best Actor. This isn't why we went to see it.

Mom had expressed an interest in seeing it and since I like to take her to the few theatre movies she actually shows an interest in I had planned to take her for awhile now. The thing is though, I really wasn't expecting to like it much myself.

Even though I was a huge fan of royalty as a kid, I thought that this movie would be the height of boring. Surprisingly, it wasn't. I can't point to many specific things that made it more interesting than I would originally have guessed.

I will say though that while I probably didn't like it as much as The Social Network (which I was also unsure about oddly enough) it definitely is worth going to see I think.

Carmen

A Man Of Mystery, A Woman Forlorn

2011-03-24T22:12:00.000-06:00

The tail-end of this post may admittedly be a little bit lame but I wanted a catchy title and the first part is kind of funny. I think so anyway. LOL. It all started with my friend from my time at Xentel, Debbie. We were talking on the phone after not talking in several weeks.

She told me she had recently quit. We also talked a bit about the other staff. Gossip basically. LOL. Anyway, she told me about a co-worker who she was quite close to going to jail and probably not for a short time.

Even though I had heard previously from her about some things that would suggest this wasn't improbable, it was still a shock to me. She also told me about another worker there who she oddly enough, for a reason I won't mention, lives in the same building as her moving ... to another (higher) floor.

Like me, she joked that it would mean a longer commute. LOL. The thing that was really funny though was when, in saying that she couldn't understand why I thought so highly of the person she lived in the same building with and another coworker who is quite close to that person workwise, she made a joke.

She said something along the lines that this person, who I am quite fond of, is "a bigger mystery to her than the Cadbury secret." The crazier thing is she claims to know the Cadbury secret so, this person may not be so mysterious after all.

So that's the "Man Of Mystery". As for the "Woman Forlorn" that is simply me. She also told me that the other person that she wasn't sure why I liked so much thought of me as far as giving me a nice gift of a freebie from our former workplace when she was still working there & I had called her there.

They realized (too late) that I was on the phone & had planned to offer me something. That I didn't get the freebie/gift is not so much the source of my being "forlorn" but rather the fact that that person didn't find out I found out and realize how much I appreciate the thought.

Carmen

Elizabeth Taylor Won't Be Tweeting Anymore

2011-03-23T12:00:00.000-06:00

Well Elizabeth Taylor has died. Even though she was in really poor health for some time I wasn't expecting her to die before Zsa Zsa Gabor who was in seemingly even worse health.

She wasn't my favorite old time movie star. in general because of the movies I had seen and in specific because of her seeming attitude toward both Debbie Reynolds and Sybil Burton at the time she had affairs with and then married their former husbands.

I still think it is a sad day for the movie world as the number of big name old time movie stars that were around as far back as the 1940's is dwindling down to almost nothing not surprisingly considering it is now 2011. One thing I will say for her is she did stick by her friends.

Of course I'm talking about both Rock Hudson and Michael Jackson. Remember that in 1985 when she took on AIDS as a cause because of her friend Hudson it was much more controversial. Of course, one could say that with her career basically finished.

Also she was a multi-millionaire (she was the first female actress to get a million for a movie for Cleopatra I believe) several times over and her general devil may care attitude it was less of a personal risk. Nevertheless, being a famous actress for so long one would think that there is a certain amount of ego.

It was also courageous (or at least showing an perhaps admirable loyalty depending on your view of his would be guilt or innocence) to support Michael Jackson even after all the hits he took for seemingly being a child abuser because she herself believed in his innocence.

Not to mention that Debbie Reynolds could forgive Taylor might say something about Taylor (it definitely says something about Reynolds) and her ability to get people on her side. After all, Reynolds was quoted as saying not only did men love her (as she pointed out, her husband included - nice touch - lol) but that women liked her.

I personally wouldn't have likely been so forgiving considering they were actually friends when she did it and worse Taylor actually babysat Reynolds kids all the while cheating with her husband! I definitely don't think I could be nearly so forgiving as Debbie Reynolds. I'd be curious what specifically lead her to forgive and forget.

Finally, the other laudable thing about Elizabeth Taylor was her sense of humor. You may have read yourselves already but she left instructions that her funeral was to start 15 minutes after the stated start time so that it could be announced that she was late for her own funeral. LOL.

Oh and I guess I forgot that anyone who loved jewelry the way she did obviously lived up to the ideal of what a star is supposed to embody. Maybe that isn't such a good thing as she also was known to party with people like arms dealers in her time but she definitely had star power.

As for movies that I would recommend to "see her out" as I have with other celebrities that have left us recently I won't name three as I had for three other stars/celebrities that had died in short order that I did that for but I will suggest one. A probably hard to find one.

There was a movie from probably the 50's called Scent of A Mystery that also starred the late Denholm Elliott that was a novelty of sorts. It was the first movie,and probably last as well, that was filmed and shown originally in Smell-O-Vision.

At certain points in the movie select theatres were rigged up to release smells that corresponded to the action on the screen. Obviously, if you could come across this likely hard-to-find film it wouldn't have the gimmick it would still be interesting to see how they put a solid story into it.

Oh, I almost forgot. As for the irreverent title of this post, she was an older star who actually to her credit took to Twitter. This was a thought I immediately had. I wasn't the only one though. When I was looking at on line articles about the death a commenter on one said much the same thing.

Carmen

Brown Makes News, Internet Funster Makes Joke

2011-03-23T11:00:00.000-06:00

Just thought I would share the following rather funny little story I found on Yahoo. As I'm sure you may have heard, the rapper and abusive boyfriend Chris Brown went nuts in a studio after a interview where he was yet again asked about his previous bad behavior re: the girlfriend abuse.

What was funny was that in the article it referred to makeup and hair people on the set being scared by his behavior in a bit of an aside. In the comments after the article one of the comments was that not to lessen what he did but that makeup and hair artists scare easily. LOL.

It seems I wasn't the only one who found this funny. There were about 14 or 16 sub-comments for that comment (I later added one too!) and most of the people sub-posting wrote to say they found it quite funny. One person who identified themselves as a makeup person even found it funny.

Carmen

Watermelon Wilts, Strasberries Suffer

2011-03-22T10:09:00.000-06:00

So I am back to bitching about my Cityville/Farmville "losses". This time it was totally my fault. I planted crops and forgot the timing.

When you plant crops in both games I think the rules on timing before wilting are the same. The amount of time that a crop takes to mature is halved and that is the leeway time you have after they mature before they wilt on you. Crops are anywhere from 1 hour to over 2 days.

By over 2 days I mean they give times like 1.8 and 2.6 days. On Cityville I planted watermelon. I think that matured in 4 hours. For Cityville that is a mid-time crop. On Farmville, where I planted the strasberries (whose timing I don't remember) the times tend to be a lot longer before a crop matures.

Yet I still missed harvesting them. Now I have to rely on my neighbors to "unwhither" my crops for me. That could take awhile since each neighbor can only do 5 plots per day. I increased the size of my farm in Cityville and in Farmville because Farmville is more about crops its much bigger still.

Finally, I just want to share a funny thing a FB friendwho I met working at a now defunct internet cafe in the city had said when I asked him if he played any FB games. He is a professional comedian who is also the worlds fattest contortionist. He can actually put his feet to his cheeks and he weighs about 400 pounds!

Anyway,he said no. I told him about the farming on both Cityville and Farmville. Then he said to me, "Oh, it's like Grand Theft Auto ... with carrots!" I guess it kind of is. LOL.

Carmen

Disaster Strikes/Museum Mishap

2011-03-21T22:04:00.000-06:00

So I'm playing Cityville. I'm collecting coins hand over fist. I buy myself a museum. It costs 8000 coins! Then I decide to add a small piece of road mostly for aesthetics. But it looks funny where I thought it would look good. I notice this after I insert just one 10 coin road.

So I decide to delete the road. 10 coins for the road plus 1 coin to delete doesn't seem to much of a loss so I delete it. After that I click on my museum to check on what I need to make it useable. For anyone who plays you know that means ribbons, marble, etc, etc, etc.

Well the second I click on the museum - it disappears! All 8000 coins and 5 builds gone! Turns out I neglected to toggle off the delete button. WTF. I say WTF because even though I forgot to toggle it off, it shouldn't have mattered.

I say that because when I was getting rid of my 10 coin roadway for a 1 coin deletion cost it made a big deal out of asking me if I was sure. So where the hell was the are you sure prompt when 8000 coins are at stake. As I said before, WTF.

I'm sure it seems a little silly bitching about a virtual museum but geez. I guess I really am getting into this Cityville. The one good thing is that I seem to have reached a point where the coins are coming fast and furious so the 8000 coins don't really matter as much as they could.

Well, I guess that's all I really wanted to say for the most part. That and why so many permits to add land. Every time I expand my land the cost in coins goes up & the number of permits I need increases. God, just like the "real world". Someone sees you want something, up goes the price!

Carmen

Another Award! Yay, Me.

2011-03-21T10:37:00.000-06:00

Today was the day I gave my first speech at the Kossowan Toastmasters Club. It was, as a first speech in the first manual, a icebreaker speech. So the topic was to be something that told a bit about my self, my job, my hobbies or something of that kind.

I decided to do it as a humorous speech about my new "addiction" to playing Cityville and Farmville. I titled it "My Name Is Carmen ... And I Am A Zyngaholic." Zynga being the company that created both Facebook games as well as many others like Cafeworld, etc.

I didn't really know what I wanted to say when it came time to do my first speech as I knew from experience the last time around at Toastmasters that it always seems as though there is nothing to say but when you do pick something it always ends up way to long.

For me, anyway. Sure enough, the Zyngaholic topic I picked because I wasn't sure how to talk about some other aspect of myself in a 4 to 6 minute window oddly seemed to flow right out of me when I did my "draft". In fact, I didn't even have to re-write it or even make many changes to it.

And it was written quite quickly, in one sitting no less. The only thing was I knew from using a not very accurate watch (I don't yet own a digital stopwatch) but one that did at least have a second hand that I would be a "little" (about a minute was my guess) over time.

For me, from past experience, that was nothing short of a miraculously good job. So since the material came so easily I decided that I wasn't going to "jinx" it and make any changes that would reduce the time to hit the 4 to 6 minute mark better.

As it turned out, I was correct about the time pretty much. My final time was 7 minutes 12 seconds. So all in all, not too bad I don't think. If I didn't also decide that I was going to stand behind the lectern and use my notes I would have reduced the time as notes save time.

Regarding the speech it self, there were several points where there were humorous elements (in addition to the topic in and of itself) but there were also parts (some were the aforementioned "humorous" parts) that were kind of risque or as I referred to them in the speech - tawdry!

All in all, it went over quite well. So well in fact that although the first speaker - there were two of us - was the very accomplished and can-be-funny-even-in-serious-speeches Fred Sawka, I managed to win the better speaker award for my speech.

My first speech since re-joining. It's been a long time so I really don't know for sure but I really don't think it's likely I ever won a better speaker award during all my time (abt 10 to 15 years!) @ the Norwood/N'orators clubs.

Maybe it's possible that in all that time I won once or twice but I don't recall it. My speeches were for the most part "patchwork" and mostly over-long so I don't think I'm being self-effacing when I say it was less than likely that I won often if ever.

So it's nice that I am starting out with a fairly strong first outing. In fairness, though, but without taking anything away from this speech and the fact that I did win the award because I am very proud of the my presentation and it's reception,

I think I had a better chance because mine was humorous. That is why I titled my post this way. I decided that while I've written a lately about blog awards and Toastmaster awards (for Table Topics) today's being for being a prepared speaker was extra special and was worthy of really crowing about!

Carmen

Cotton Candy & The Avon Lady

2011-03-18T03:35:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I wrote a post about a neighbor and fellow church member of my mothers that I had the good fortune to know a little bit who died recently. That got me to thinking about the neighborhood that they (and I used to) live in.

One of the more fun things I remember getting the chance to do in that neighborhood happened shortly before I moved out. It was about a year or so before leaving that there was a carnival at the local community league.

That year I had taken on (somewhat stupidly considering my lack of appropriate skills) the role of secretary on the community league board. It was through working at the community league that I knew about a community festival that they were having that year. It was my good fortune to help out at this event.

I don't recall if I had an assigned job originally. In fact, I really don't think I did. When I got there, it turned out that they needed 2 people to run the cotton candy machine! Yay! Fun. Well, yes in fact it was. An awful lot of fun in fact.

I wasn't the best at it (you need to swirl the paper cone pretty fast to do the best job of it) but I did a credible job. And did I tell you how much fun it was. Oh yeah. I guess I did! LOL. Seriously though, it was so much fun.

So much that even though doing that job all afternoon meant missing out on getting a free caricature portrait of myself done I would say it was still worth it. I do still feel bad about missing out on the portrait but I can pay for that some other time.

When else however am I ever going to get a chance to be the cotton candy girl. I even got to make it in more than one color. Ooh. I bet that makes you all really, really jealous now doesn't it. Well, it makes me feel a little special and that's what counts, right. LOL.

So there you have it. That is my recollection of one of my times in the sun. The other time I felt just a little bit special (I know, I know I am a sad, sad person. LOL) was when during my teen years I sold Avon. You might be wondering what is so special about selling overpriced junk door-to-door.

Well, the biggest thing that I remember from the time I sold Avon were the kids. When I would go on my "rounds" door-to-door in a area of about 6 to 9 blocks immediately closest to my house I would be toting a tell-tale bag. The Avon Lady bag.

Well, on at least one occasion as I was walking to the next house I heard little voices in excited tones saying... It's the Avon Lady! Yes, it doesn't take much to impress little kids apparently nor for that matter it seems does it take very much to impress me.

Call me crazy but at that moment I felt like the Queen of England. LOL. Well that's my little reminicenses for the day. I'll go hang my head in shame now at being a total attention seeking geek who revels and basks in having the quirky job (the cotton candy girl) or the impresses the four year old's job (the Avon Lady). .

Carmen

Walter Megley

2011-03-17T03:35:00.000-06:00

Recently a church member at my mom's church died. I mention this because this very nice older man was also someone I knew from years back when I was doing the volunteer job of Zone Captain for the Alberta Lung Association for a few years.

I started out as a canvasser and eventually they asked me to do a Zone. It was when I took it on that I met Mr Megley. This was probably about 10 or 15 years ago already. At this time he was already older (he was just a few years - about 5 actually - older than my mom).

Because of his age and some health problems he eventually had to retire from service to the Lung Association. However, while he was a canvasser, he was not just one of the best he was the best. Inevitably people would cancel on me at the last minute, but not Mr. Megley.

In fact, I could always count on him until the end to take a second route to help me out with the drop outs. Not only that but he also was the one canvasser that I could count on to bring in a good amount of donations. It was hard to get donations for most, but he had a special touch.

Not only was he someone I could count on with the annual canvas but as I found out at his memorial service he had a number of interesting hobbies that kept him busy. He apparently kept bees at one time & was a fisherman who even wrote a lengthy, interesting poem about it.

I will miss his smiling face and pleasant greetings when I go to the occasional event at my mom's church where I used to see him and his equally nice wife. Actually, it has been awhile since I and others were able to experience this as he had a incapacitating stroke months before his death.

Fortunately for those who knew him both well or like me in small part he lived a good long life managing to live to the ripe old age of 89. Most of that time thankfully he was healthy and quite active as evidenced by his helping me out. Goodbye Mr. Megley.

Carmen

150th Post

2011-03-16T03:34:00.000-06:00

Today I was going to do something about history, ie. what might have been going on on March 15th, 1861.

Then I found out that it was the American Civil War. That dampened my enthusiasm for the historical angle a bit. When I typed the date Wednesday, March 15th in though, before I got to the 1861 part something mildly interesting and some would say historical came up. It seems in 2006 that was the day Starbucks coffee shops chose to give away free coffee. How's that for historical, huh? LOL.

The dates seem to change from year to year but the event which does in fact seem to be yearly appears to always happen in March.

Carmen

P.S. Just a note on the "short and sweet" nature of this post. Leave it to me to have a number of huge posts on lesser things and a mini post on history.

P.P.S. One that ends up being on Starbucks no less! And no I am not being compensated. LOL.

The C.A.T.

Ruby Tuesday(s)

2011-03-15T03:32:00.000-06:00

Well, as you can see I am stretching a little for a topic "tue"day. I tried (very briefly) searching for historical information on Tuesday March 15th. Didn't come up with anything that interested me. So yahoo listed Ruby Tuesday's restaurants among the Tuesday "listings". I thought, why not? LOL.

One thing you should know right off the bat. In Canada, as far as I know we have no Ruby Tuesday's. Certainly not in Edmonton anyway. So first thing I did was to take a look at their website. It's got a good basic layout and has some really nice shots of their food. Definitely makes it look like a place I'd like to try if given the chance someday.

One thing that was surprising to me though was in the "our story" tab/page I believe it was, they seemed to liken themselves to a five-star restaurant when to me it just seems like an upscale family restaurant. Like Appleby's. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Who knows. I'm just a Canadian after all. LOL.

The salad that they show on their site is absolutely gorgeously photographed. So much so that even though it seems to involve a lot of broccoli, it still looks good. Maybe it's the plating in part. They are on nice heavy, square all-white dishes. Also, they have a good sized "portion" of grapes on the plate. An "awful" lot for a garnish. And a pretty elaborate garnish at that.

One thing that put me off a bit but that has a positive side is the size of their portions. The steak and shrimp plate seemed to be quite small. The size of the steak, the amount of shrimp and even the dollop of creamed mashed potatoes seemed smaller than most places. That is probably a good thing as many places offer way too much according to nutritionists.

The only thing about the size of the portions that isn't so good is that I suspect that considering that they mention themselves in the same breath as five-star restaurants their pricing probably doesn't reflect the smaller portion sizes. It figures. Then again I'm really just guessing. But I doubt that I'm wrong about that.

Finally, they list on their website their charitable endeavors. Principally their involvement with a program called Feeding America (formerly called America's Second Harvest). They sell gourmet cookies in "mini-bulk" - a half dozen whereby 10% then goes to the charity. I'd be curious as to how popular these cookies are and how expensive. Nice thought though as it's year round.

Carmen

P.S. One funny thing is that they have a take-out option that they amusingly call (even writing it on the take-out boxes) Ruby's Tue Go. LOL.

P.P.S. So to my American readers and anyone else who has one of these restaurants in their area or has ever eaten there - how was it?

The C.A.T.

Jumping The Gun And A Few Surprises

2011-03-14T09:00:00.000-06:00

Starting off a Monday, the beginning of the week with my 150th post! Nope! I thought that this was going to be my 150th post until luckily I caught sight of the counter a second time.

Turns out that when I first set out my draft posts I had two posts sandwiched in before this post that I counted because I was closing in on 150. But then I moved them to future dates for the sake of order and forgot about the "new" numbering. Well, at least I caught it before I wrote my "150th post" and had to correct myself later.

Speaking of my 150th post though as it is in only two posts I'd like to give you a little hint of what it will be about. I will simply say this - I plan to make it "historical".

Now that I've mentioned how I jumped the gun I'll mention what I referred to in the title as "a few surprises. My Social Vibe gadget had been stagnating at the same number in the low to mid 50's until, in what was a surprise to me, I noticed it jumped to 68. Thank you to whoever used it. As you should know, it does benefit charity. Feel free to do it again. And again. And again.

The second surprise I noticed at the same time which was during my near daily checks of the stats and changes (like the fridge magnet gadget) on my sidebar.

I noticed that there was one "sharing" of my blog with either Facebook or Twitter - it doesn't specify which. To whomever did that, I'd also like to thank you. Feel free to do that again too. LOL. I really wish I knew which readers did these two things. I do have my theories. I think it might be the same person. Whoever you are, do leave a comment that it was you if you'd like.

Carmen

Now That's Young!

2011-03-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

Another FYI: This is also a backdated story that I read about at the same basic time as the "out of hand parties". It was actually reported a few days after this post's "byline".

It seems that there is a new youngest grandma in the world now. She is a gypsy woman from Romania named Rifca Stanescu. She is 23. It seems she was 12 when she had her daughter - not named in the article - and her daughter was 11 Rifca, had hoped her daughter wouldn't be as young but said that's gypsy life.

No worries though. They were both married when they had the babies as apparently that is also the gypsy way of life. LOL.

My source for this is the Huffington Post. It also claims that the previous oldest grandmother or grandparent was a British woman who wasn't named either who was 26. I don't recall it saying where in Britain or if the authorities got involved in either the mother or daughter's case.

In double checking my facts for this post I noticed another article from Yahoo Answers that cited Ripley's Believe It or Not as their source for saying that the youngest grandma was a Nigerian woman named Mum-Zi (pretty cool name especially considering - lol) who was part of a harem of a chief.

It seems, as hard as it may be to believe, that she was only 8 years and 4 months old when she had a (again) unnamed daughter who was also 8 when she had her baby. It didn't say how many months past 8 the daughter may have been but listed Mum-Zi as being the youngest at 17.

And there you have it folks, another strange story from my travels over the internet. So much more interesting than the local tv news usually. LOL.

Carmen

A "Real' Party In The U.S.A.

2011-03-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

FYI: I am writing this as a backdated post so the story I am about to tell actually happened a few days after this "byline".

There was a story on yahoo about a girl who I believe was turning 15 who was going to have a birthday party where she invited people through Facebook or MySpace. She said that the people who RSVP'ed could "bring a friend".

Apparently she had an "open profile" and the invitation got "hijacked" by some joker who posted it somewhere(s) else in such a way that she ended up getting 20,000 people RSVPing to her birthday party. LOLOL.

Needless to say, it had to be cancelled. Not only that but police apparently were contacted and the mother of the girl went postal on her threatening not to even give her a birthday card over the mishap. What an ass! Again, LOLOL.

Only goes to show you just how powerful "social networking" can be. And also just how crazy life can be sometimes.

Carmen

P.S. Apparently an Australian girl who was turning 16 had a similar and even more extreme experience with about 200,000 people RSVPing.

The C.A.T.

Octomom On Oprah

2011-03-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

Octomom On Oprah. Oooh. LOL. On Friday's Oprah show (which wasn't it supposed to end at the end of last year!), the Octomom, Nadya Suleman will be on with Oprah financial guru Suze Orman who is supposed to be advising her.

Apparently, Orman really takes a strip out of Suleman according to pre-show reports. She is even said to call her a liar to her face I believe! That doesn't sound like advice so much as it sounds like an inquisition. I have to say, stupidity aside I can't help feel sorry for Suleman.

Even she now admits that having all those kids was a mistake but she is nevertheless bound to be trying her hardest to be a good mom anyway. After all, the misdirected desire to have all those kids hopefully shows that she does at least really want them.

I don't know about all of you but I think if Orman is too hard on her, maybe, just maybe people will be forced to have some sympathy for her. After all, I would hope that people are more forgiving of even the most stupid of mistakes than they are of a self-righteous scold.

So if I remember to watch (as I've said before - even shows I like a lot I don't always make a special effort to watch) I will be sure to update you with the highlights (or lowlights, such as the case may be). Will you be watching?

Carmen

Apprentice Premiere

2011-03-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

I had other things I wanted to write about so this piece about the premiere of Survivor last Sunday is just now being posted. Oddly, I put Survivor Premiere as the title by mistake at first. I say oddly because other than just being a mistake in general, it is quite the mistake since I really haven't watched Survivor since the first season and only periodically then.

I can't say I am a "must-see t.v." viewer of The Apprentice either but I was interested enough that I did watch the much of first year on dvd and that was the plain old Apprentice. I have to say the celebrity version is definitely something that I would plan around watching if I gave t.v. that much thought anymore. I don't even do that with my favorite, The Big Bang Theory.

I just want to say that in watching the first episode this year I was really hoping that David Cassidy would stick around for awhile. Naturally, he was the first to go. LOL. It was really quite sad the way they (and perhaps even he himself) made him look bad (sad really). He definitely has aged since the 70's - I guess not surprisingly as it is like 40 years. But really, he seems to have shrunk. Even 40 years doesn't have to do that!

If I had to pick a favorite from just one showing I would say of the women the ex-anchorwoman Star Jones or the (ex)-model Niki Taylor. If it were to be a man since it can't be Cassidy then I would probably pick the former baseball player Jose Canseco who seemed to take a liking (or at least have an affinity for the underdog) to Cassidy as well.

I think I will try to make more of an effort to watch at least a majority of this season. It occurs to me that my preliminary picks for favorites are based on having seen very little of the stars in question in action. Things change. I have learned that from past Apprentice seasons. Another thing I hope to see is Trump advisor George Ross on occasionally since the Trump kids are the main advisors to "The Donald" now.

What do you think? Or is Celebrity Apprentice even something you bother watching it at all?

NaNoWriMo

2011-03-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

In my blog travels I came across an interesting phenomenon. Apparently there is an event every year and has been for just over a decade where the common person tries to write a novel. Not necessarily a good novel. But a novel nevertheless. The idea is to write it over the course of just one month. The thinking is that to do it quickly will free the writer to just do it.

The event in question is called by an acronym of sorts - NaNoWriMo. This stands for National Novel Writing Month. It has gone viral in a big way. It is now truly an international "phenomenon". Edmonton's is called EdmoWriMo or something similar. The month set for this is November so this post is in no way especially timely. I am just mentioning it shortly after coming across it.

The idea has kind of dazzled me. Got me to thinking, "Could I do it?". "Would I do it?". The only "rules" are that it has to be done in 1 month only -November, and it should be 50,000 words. When you are done. You submit it before the deadline to the website and they put it through a word counting mechanism. If it "checks out" then you get a certificate acknowledging the feat.

The idea according to the site is not to try to write a great novel. Or even a very good novel. The idea is just to write. And write. 50,000 words in 30 days. Throw something at the wall and see what will stick. Even though the originators of this contest say to continue even if you think what you are writing is atrocious, it has had its share of success.

I believe the website said that there were something like 13 novels that were some past "winners" that have been professionally published! Remember to "win" means simply meeting the basic but not necessarily easy criteria. One that was specifically mentioned by name was a book that has been turned into soon to be out movie.

That book/movie is "Water for Elephants". I have not read the book myself so I can not attest to it being any good in terms of theme (from my standpoint anyway). But I do intend to see it. The film stars Reese Witherspoon, who is an actress that while I wouldn't call her a favorite is certainly someone who I enjoy in the average romantic comedy. I hope this falls in that category.

I just checked out the trailer for the movie and while Witherspoon's costar is Robert Pattinson(!) and I can't say I'm a fan it actually looks quite good. He even grew on me a bit in the trailer. The trailer itself is not one that "tells all". It's all a little obscure. It is basically a wordless 2-1/2 min. telling a story that seems to involve higher education, the circus, destiny & cruel love. Whew.

If you get a chance go and check out http://www.nanowrimo.org/ On the site there is a very detailed ... and very interesting telling of each of the first ten or so years of the event. I'd call it a summary but that denotes brevity. As I said each years telling is very detailed. Well worth reading though. I found it extremely interesting. Basically, the anatomy of the event.

Also, something to note is that NaNoWriMo has branched out to include a month in which people do the same type of thing with movie/t.v. scripts. The reason I mention this is because this makes this story a little more timely as the month set aside for script writing just so happens to be April. I think it even gives pointers on the site on how to do it or how to find out how.

So have I interested anyone in this event. Did I neglect to mention it "went viral" because it became the "darling" the the education set. Schools do it. Elementary's. Junior High's. Senior High's. College's. Literacy groups. Based on how the site describes it, it caught on like wildfire and just spread and spread. So who is going to join me this November (or possibly even April!).

Carmen

Blog Fodder

2011-03-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

Doing a lot of reading (both on the internet and through the library both in the library itself reading non-circulating current & "in-house" magazines and free magazines to take home.

Also have taken out a number of books to read at home including the "New Yorker" magazine writer and best-selling book author Malcolm Gladwell's (The Tipping Point) What The Dog Saw.

Another book I'm reading is Google Blogger for Dummies. LOL. That is actually what inspired the change to the new background template and possibly even attempt the music player.

Hopefully in the coming weeks and months you will see the product of my prodigious reading. For now though, I have some things already planned, for better or for worse. Most are short.

When I am done with the Gladwell book, I may very well do a review of it. I read his book The Tipping Point a number of years ago (bought it actually) but though I liked it, it wasn't "sticky".

That is to say I don't remember after all this time really anything about it other than the fact that it popularized the "Broken Windows" theory of crime prevention that was in vogue once.

Well, that's what's on the agenda in the near future. But before I sign off I want to ask you the reader, "What is it that you have been reading/watching (mostly reading) lately?".

Carmen

Tangerine Dream

2011-03-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

As you can see I have a new template. This is new template number 2 (3rd template total since starting). I call it C.A.T. Stuff 3.0. LOL.

I also have a new music player at the very bottom of the blog (due to its size!). It is jam packed with music. Most people with auto-players have 5-10 songs on it. Mine has close to 100.

The crazier thing about the auto-player is that I'm not done yet. Not nearly done. By the time I get through with adding all the (mostly) 80's songs who knows how many there will be. LOLOL.

But back to the template. I spent a lot of time looking through -all- the choices of free basic blogger templates. Most were variations on the same things but two were decidedly different.

Only one (this one!) was something I would want though. I have to say that considering this was really only one of two really different ones and the only one I really liked, I truly do like it. A lot.

I can see myself keeping this one for a lot longer than the couple days to a week that I had the blue one. Basically, I feel confident saying this one is for keeps.

It comes at just the right time too, as I have made some arrangements to have my blog informally reviewed by fellow bloggers who I will return the favor for in the near future.

If there is any really good stuff mentioned (since these reviews aren't on each others blogs but in the blogger forum) I will tell you about it. Basically by good stuff I mean interesting or funny.

So, what are your first thoughts on the template. I personally think the paisley design is reminiscent of the 1960's and that is when I was born. So it is somewhat appropriate. LOL.

Oh, and if you hate the autoplayer then there is a mute "button" on it. If that doesn't work (it should) then just turn down the sound on your computer. Personally, I love the 80's. :)

Carmen

The Oscars and The End of an Era

2011-03-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

I generally don't post on the weekends and I had personal award information to share yesterday in my two posts so I left my Sunday stuff that w/h/b posted Monday for today (Tuesday). I watched the Academy Awards for the first time in a long time on Sunday. Or I should say most of them as I started watching about 1-1/2 into the show.

It occurred to me as I was watching that there is a reason that I generally don't bother. There wasn't anything all that interesting to report. But then maybe I missed all the good parts. LOL. Anne Hathway and James Franco as co-hosts had back-to-back commercials for their most recent movies during the ceremony was the one thing that I thought was kind of interesting.

There is one thing I do like to take note of in the annual Oscars broadcast and that is the memorial tribute. Susannah York was listed in the memorial tribute. I don't recall seeing any of her movies but I had heard of her. I believe she was in Tom Jones. I was surprised to hear she had died as I hadn't thought her that old. She was in her early 70's.

Apparently, upon googling her, I came across a stupid protest she made upon herself being nominated in the late 60's/early 70's. She lost to Goldie Hawn for Cactus Flower. Basically, despite attending the event she supposedly was said to be offended that she wasn't asked if she wanted to be nominated. Then she attends anyway. What a twit.

The other reason I decided to check out this years show was I was hoping for either Jesse Eisenberg or The Social Network to win in Best Actor and Best Picture. Considering this would have been over Colin Firth and The Kings Speech but I wasn't holding my breath. Good thing!

Even though I missed the first 1-1/2 hours of the show and so I missed the Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards I figured out by the closing song the Supporting Actress award. I will have to google the best supporting actor if I want to know that as I didn't see any of the nominees on stage for the final song so I could figure that out too.

Now to the end of an era. There was a theatre in the West End of the city that closed after about 50 years. That was where I was coming back from when I missed the beginning of the Oscars. I went with a local FB friend that I met through a former local FB friend that I was closer to. We saw the Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston movie called Just Go With It.

I was pleasantly surprised. I always like Adam Sandler even though his movies often are not as funny as I'd hope for them to be. Nonetheless I am a diehard fan. This one was a little different. Although Jennifer Aniston routinely gets lambasted for being in crap movies I like her movies well enough for the most part.

As a result, I think putting the two of them in the movie was a case of the sum being greater than the whole of it's parts as they say. Neither always has a "strong" costar. I really enjoyed this and I can't really point to any one scene (not that I'd want to give anything away even if I was able to point to a special scene or two).

I will say that it had Nicole Kidman in a small role as a old "frenemy" of the Aniston character. I will also say that they had a "hula-off" competition that involved a guy & a coconut. LOLOL. Got not one but two free tickets to an Empire theatre (the only one I think is the downtown one) but did pay $12 for the ticket to the final show. Maybe that's why they are out of business!

So if it is the end of an era then maybe a better era, I can be glad that it isn't the end of the cheap theatre era (at least not yet with one of the original three in the city still surviving).

Carmen

My Second Toastmasters Award

2011-03-08T00:30:00.000-07:00

This should hopefully be a brief post. Just a little bragging is in order. I won my second Table Topics Award since joining the Kossowan Communicators a little over a month ago.

Oddly, the topic was, or at least what I turned it into was, Chinese New Years. This is something I was just talking about in passing in my last post that mostly had to do with entering contests.

My topic was supposed to center around goals and targets. I manuevered it to the fact that each year I do a three strikes New Year's resolution. First the regular, then Ukrainian, then Chinese.

I guess the novelty of the approach was what won the day so to speak. I plan to keep a running total of when I win the award and see if I can get it 5 times in this Toastmaster year.

I'm sure this seems a little lame, but such is life in my little world. I live for little things like this. I can't tell you how happy it makes me when I hear that I've won even something little.

And at the Kossowan club, winning 5 times in the year might not even be such a little thing since the competition is definitely there and the topics aren't always easy. So wish me luck!

Carmen

My First Two Journal Contests

2011-03-08T00:15:00.000-07:00

Maybe I am scrapping the bottom of the barrel here and with my last few and next few planned posts but in this post I am going to mention what passes for exciting news in my world. LOL.

Today, before Toastmasters, I went to the public library to do some photocopying of some belated Valentines that I gave out to my fellow club members. It was a little more than a page of cute saying about love by little kids that I may have mentioned already on the actual date.

Only two people stuck around to receive their "valentines" from me on the actual Valentine's Day though (the meeting was actually on Feb 14th). So I gave them out at Xentel and planned to make new copies for today (last week's meeting was cancelled for Family Day) which I did.

It was after doing this that I did the highly exciting thing I was talking about at the beginning. I entered a contest. Well, two actually. I almost missed out on them completely due to my bubble-headedness. The only reason I remembered, literally just under the wire was due to...

... sheer luck. The second of the two contests I had heard about on the same day (Saturday) in the Edmonton Journal was for a local restaurant week. It was only because I happened to be passing a participating restaurant on the way to the library that I remembered to enter.

The closing date/time on both contests (the first one was for approximately $115 worth of jewelry) was Monday (today) at noon. My Toastmaster meeting starts at noon. I left the house shortly before ten. I had the valentines to do. So you can see how close I cut it.

More so because, you had to register with some participating site that runs the Journals contests and send an email to them. As usual, I got that "pop file" or whatever nonsense and because it was a library computer I couldn't send it directly anyway.

So I had to print out the address and go back to my email. Extra steps when I was short of time as it was. The prizes were certainly worth it however. As mentioned the first contest was for $115 in jewelry - a necklace and bracelet set.

The second, was for either one of two $25 coupons for specific local restaurants or a third coupon for $40 at a restaurant in the Hotel MacDonald. The good part - the $25 coupons were the basic price (not including tax or tip) of the set price lunch meal for this "restaurant week" promotion.

The $40 one didn't quite cover the $50 set price of dinner but still wasn't too shabby. It was for the Hotel MacDonald after all. Not a place that I would generally think of going to on an "average outing". So $10 plus tax and tip isn't so bad if you are lucky enough to win.

So what makes this worthy of a post. Well, if any of you remember, I did talk about my Chinese New Years resolutions back around Chinese New Years. One of them, if I am not mistaken, was to emulate my grandmother on my mom's side who was a veritable contest maven.

Now two contests do not a modern day maven make but it is a start. Also, it should be a lot easier to just knock out the entries now that I'm registered. Not that you can enter more than once per contest. But anything that makes it easier to do it last minute is appreciated.

I intend to keep my eyes posted for any more Journal contests (specifically in the Saturday Style section where I found these one after the other). But I'm also on the lookout for any and all contests to enter, especially local ones. So fellow Edmontonians, pass the word when you see one.

Wish me luck and more to the point wish me follow through that I continue keeping my eye out because this is probably one of the easier resolutions I made in that 50 item laundry list of Things To Try To Do in The Year Of The Rabbit.

Carmen

My Second Blogging Award

2011-03-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

The other day I talked briefly about winning my first blogging award - a "blogger to blogger" award called the Versatile Blogger. I was so excited to win that award. So much so that I did something unheard of for me. I followed the rules. LOL.

I'll get back to those rules in a minute but first I want to say that you may recall from the comments section of that post that I may have came off as a bit of an ingrate or at the very least a little presumptuous by mentioning another award that I really wanted to get as well.

Turns out that my mentioning that other award, which is also another "blogger to blogger" award that I was doing a good thing by myself - putting it out to the universe just what exactly I would wish for most ardently. Two days later, and voila, a wish comes true.

The person who gave me the second award is the same person who gave me the first. I hope that doesn't mean that she is the only person that likes my blog enough to give it awards but rather that that is just the way it came about. She on the other hand got them from 2 places.

The second award, is called the Stylish Blogger Award. If I was doing what I had planned to do with the first one, before I had the trouble copying it the second time for the actual post vs. the new award section of my blog I would place it immediately following this paragraph.

I decided, for now anyway, to be lazy, and not try to copy either that other award into the post as an after thing or try it here now since I didn't do it there. So to see them you will continue to have to consult the awards tab/page.

Speaking of being lazy, that brings me back to me following the rules (or not!). With this second award I am no less appreciative or grateful. I am however less willing (able?) to follow the rules that go along with the award. Namely, the naming of fifteen worthy blogs to pass it on to.

The seven I gave had to pass the award on to the first time took some time and thought as it was. Also, I would like to pass this award on to different bloggers so that it spreads around the "love" a bit. So I am going to change the rules a bit, but not altogether ignore them.

My Stylish Blogger Award is from 7ladybugz too whose blog address is http://7ladybugs.blogspot.com/ and I will try to come up with the (still) seven new things about myself that is asked. However, I will put off (for now only) the naming of the fifteen new blogs that I am passing it on to.

I will do some blog surfing in the next little while, especially now that I have, through the blogger coffee shop, come across a number of "newbies" that might be heartened to receive some praise for their blogs in their early stages if it turns out there is something good there.

As I find and decide who I should pass this on to, newbies or otherwise, I will add them to a list at the bottom of this post that will continue to increase in size until I hit the magic number of fifteen awardees. So periodically check back on this post [if only to keep me honest :) ].

Here are the seven (new) things about me...

I just recently started to play Cityville on Facebook.
I have in a very short time surpassed the person who got me playing.
In starting the above game I went back to playing Farmville after a l-o-n-g hiatus.
Before I figured out that I had blocked Farmville inadvertently not lost it through inactivity I managed to sign myself up for a Japanese version by mistake. LOL.
I am so boring a person that I am almost exclusively making this about FB apps.
To mix it up a bit I will say that I have nothing to say about Twitter. LOL.
Are we done yet! :)

Now for the fifteen blogs that I am passing the Stylish Blogger on to...

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Carmen

The CBC Doesn't Always Stink - Who Knew?

2011-03-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

Just something quick. For two weeks over the course of several more weeks I have listened to CBC One on the radio. While I wasn't so impressed that I have anything to really quote here I would like to say, for the record, that CBC doesn't appear to be as boring as I thought it was.

The thing that they could change is that lame "ticker-tape" music they use between shows. It seems dated or "CBCish" (probably what I meant by thinking that CBC was so boring). The shows I have listened to are on in the early afternoon on Saturdays.

The one I most remember dealt with several different authors of various types of books. They speak to each author separately in different segments of probably about twenty minutes each. One of the most interesting dealt with a man who was both the son and grandson of scientists.

I urge you all, if you live in Canada or if you get the CBC internationally to check out the programming on Saturday afternoons at the very least. If nothing else you may find one or two books that you write down to look for during your next trip to the library.

Carmen

My First Blogging Award

2011-03-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I just got through telling everybody yesterday about how my blog went from pink to blue. Now, as I logged in tonight to do some posting, you can imagine my surprise when I found out I had gotten an award! Yes, that's right. My first blogger to blogger award.

Now the award itself is green so I guess I no longer have to be green with envy that everybody but me has been given a blogging award. Before I go any further, to give thanks where they are due... A special thank you goes to 7ladybugz at her blog http://7ladybugs.blogspot.com/ for thinking of me.

Also, in a six degrees of separation kind of way, I would like to thank "Marty", the person who gave ladybugz the award which she in turn passed on to me amongst others. Speaking of which, I should tell you the rules I am to follow to properly claim this honor.

First let me show you the award, which is called (I love this!) The Versatile Blogger Award...

My computer is not letting me copy the award here. More specifically it is letting me copy but not paste! I had already copied and pasted it to a page/tab entitled awards (cause I expect them to come rolling in now - lol). So look for it there until I can figure out what the hell is wrong here.

Now on to the rules I was mentioning before. Recipients of this award are to list 7 things about themselves and then pass the award on to 7 other bloggers with the same rules passed on. I am curious who first came up with the award. Maybe me, ladybugz, Marty and so forth could do a little "forensic review" to see who initiated it. I'd like to thank them too. Since getting this award, I'm so full of love. LOL.

Anyway, here goes...

I'm seriously bummed out that I wasn't able to copy & paste my award here yet.

I really hope I can find out who the originator of this award was/is to say thanks.

Just like ladybugz I want to create my own award to give out when I figure out how.

I love copying pictures of "lol cats" to my computer. I have a "bazillion" so far! LOL.

The file names I use on my pictures are bizarrely long. Don't even ask me why.

As soon as I am done this post, I am going to the blogger coffee shop forum to brag.

This kind of makes up for recently losing one follower. But I still want them back!

Now for the 7 bloggers that I want to give this to.

To the seven of you, because I wasn't able to copy the award onto this post, you will have to go to my awards page to copy it. Do not be put off by the size of it. It is the only award I have received so I used the large size option that I was given when I placed it down with the paste button. I am sure you can reduce it to normal sized like most normal people would. LOL. If not then go to the 7ladybugz site (listed above at the top of my post) and copy it from there. Enjoy.

Carmen

Blue Skies Forever

2011-03-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Just a short post this time I think. As you can see, I have a new template. I was experimenting the other day for two reasons. First, I was using the computer at the library when I was away from home on the weekend and the pink background (very large pink background I might add!) was also a v-e-r-y pink background on that computer. A seriously shocking pick.

So I had to seriously consider a new background based on that alone. I mean if anyone else saw my baby like that I'm sure they might have run screaming in the other direction. It was the visual version of listening to a little kid scream at the top of their lungs. The second reason just cinched my decision to change it.

I had taken someone up on a tit for tat review of each of our blogs. I reviewed hers, so she reviewed mine. One of the things she pointed out (that I was actually willing to change - lol) was that my template was one of the very first ones that blogger/blogspot started with and that people were probably tired of it.

When I went to try out different backgrounds/templates I started with the one I ended up with. I didn't see a lot of fanciness in any of the basic ones and this one was both tasteful and not too bright as well as having the added benefit of having a sidebar that actually fully accommodates my fridge magnet gadget. Also, once I changed it I found the old one was no longer an option!

So, with going back to my very bright background because of it's familiarity (I had it for over a year - the whole of my blog's lifespan till now) not an option, I am slowly getting used to the new background. As for all of you, my loyal readers and any stray newbies that pass by, what do you think. I trust that this background doesn't scream it's "blueness".

Finally, some sad (blog) news. I seem to have lost a new follower. I'm not quite sure what happened. After all, for a change, I think I actually know who it is that is gone. It's a newbie! Since they just joined, I would assume that they aren't disillusioned this early so I'm hoping it's one of the blogger "follower loss glitches" I've heard about in the blogger coffee shop forum.

Carmen

P.S. You may also have noticed that my titles are in grey and my archives titles are oddly colored. This is a problem with the new template. Hopefully, it's fixable... (crosses fingers!)

I Have Arrived! But Now I Must Depart

2011-02-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. After that superlong post (haven't had many of those for awhile now - lol) yesterday, today's post can't help but be smaller. In fact it is going to be fairly brief and not just in comparison.

That is not to say that I don't have something fabulous to say, because I do. Something super fantabulous actually. It's really that good. Yesterday, I found out by in my email that I had a new comment. I always go to blogger to check them out rather than reading them in the email notification.

It's a good thing I do it this way to because if I hadn't I might not have noticed (at least not right away) that the commenter also became a follower. What is so amazing about this is that my newest follower, Sandra, who has a blog of her own, has 1177 followers. Or at least she did when I joined her blog.

When I came back today to get her address to share with all of you I noticed that in one short day she had gone up to 1183. So what exactly is so fantabulous. Well, how about just the fact that someone with such a successful blog would actually find and also follow me!

So I have as I said I have truly arrived. While I am mentioning Sandra I should mention that between the last time I mentioned new followers I got two others. I neglected to blog about at the time but they are 7Ladybugs and Anything Place. 7Ladybugs is the person who gave me the idea for yesterdays post as I had said.

I don't know much about Anything Place but look forward to getting to know more about them as well as Ladybugs Shouldn't be a problem: they both blog too. I also neglected to mention that I have a new Facebook/Twitter Share button on my sidebar just under my pretty new blog button I mentioned before.

Now I told you how I have arrived all that is left to mention is why I feel I must depart (until March 1st that is). This is my 26th post of February. In 2010 I had only 104 posts for the entire year. Therefore I thought that I should quit at 1/4 of my total yearly output in 1 month.

Carmen

P.S. See you March 1st - a Tuesday.

Carmen

My Funeral

2011-02-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

*The idea for this post came from a forum I belong to. More about that later. Here is the post I made there copied here w/ liberal additions @ the end.

Dearest Fellow Bloggers

I really haven't decided on cremated or buried. They both suck. As for the funeral I have given it quite a bit of thought. I want it to be put on by my sister that has the money in the family. LOL. After I was diagnosed with a mental illness and ended up in a group home she said if I ever needed anything just ask.

She did say something along the lines of that that didn't mean if I needed a coat that she'd get me a fur coat. But, and excuse my "undainty language" but FUCK THAT. I have no real need of anything, at least not now. But I want to take her up on the "if you need anything" when I die. And I "need" a fancy, schmancy "fur coat" funeral.

Since she is 20 years older than me I also think, just to make sure, that I should get up the nerve to tell her this soon so that if she goes before me (I'm fat and out of shape and she's thin and in shape so that may not be the case) like you'd normally expect, that she can make arrangements in her will for the expenses if neccessary. LOL.

I want it to be held in at a nice time of year regardless of when I go (so maybe it would be a memorial service not a funeral depending on what time of year I die). I don't want it to be overly religious unless I do a last minute fear conversion because of a painful illness or I know I'm dying. Hopefully I'm not that much of a coward but probably I am.

I want lots of singing. I want a the choir from my Unitarian church (a sort of non-religious religion) to all be there in their colorful, unmatching ceremonial neck thingys.

I also want the guy in our church who plays the harp and has previously auctioned off specially written harp pieces to write a special piece for me to be played at the service. Perhaps called "Ode to Carmen". LOL.

Even though I probably don't want much if any overly religious stuff, I do want "Amazing Grace" played. On the bagpipes. It always makes me cry. Should get others crying to. I want a lot of crying. I know a bagpiper or two.

I want the guys who wear the purple robes and white plumed hats to be there too. Unfortunately they probably aren't allowed to since I'm not one of them, or a guy for that matter. Damn.

Maybe I can get my fellow Toastmasters to wear a outfit of my design of similar oomph. Members from as many different clubs as possible. They would of course file in in their splashy outfits second only to my immediate family.

I want a fairly long one or two (one by family, one by friends perhaps) eulogy(s) liberally sprinkling in my favorite funny jokes in addition to fun and inspiring stories about me. A story or two about a endearing flaw or two to "keep it real".

I want my fellow Toastmasters especially those who are the very best at telling funny and inspiring stories or who have a special "Carmen story" to be a big part of an "audience sharing time".

I want people to sit in sections based on how they dress. The tastefully elegant, tradional black clad people in one area. The alternate mourning color of white in anotherPeople in regal purple (my favorite color) in still another.

People who wear other colors are not only tolerated but encouraged but should be nicely dressed. GLBT people (Unitarians attract them) can be as flamboyant as they want. Rainbow colors would be festive..

I want boatloads of flowers. Not tacky wreath type flowers either. Multi-color rose arrangements. Orchid arrangements. Calla lillies.Beautiful mixed flower arrangements from a chi chi florist. Every conceivable type of pretty garden flower.

I want a big poster board of pictures of me mostly when I was young and actually looked fairly good. I also want a slide show of pictures set to music. 80's pop music maybe. Or maybe more elegant. The Four Seasons and Bolero. LOL.

I want a little booklet that tells my life story in summary and includes some of my favorite quotes by others and myself. My brother in law and his younger brother were both quoted in theirs and it was by turns really funny/heartwarming.

I want something called a Rosetta Tablet put on my grave/urn area. It is a new thing for the computer age that lets people scan this tablet thingy with their smartphones and then read up on my life story. LOL.

I want either doves or butterflies released at the end of my service. Preferably butterflies. You can buy them for that specific purpose. Lots and lots of butterflies set free by my family and closest friends and the little kids attending.

I want donations to go to a scholarship in my name to be given to adult's who got their basic education late in life. Or that program that teaches kids chess in school to increase their comprehension. I want people donating lots. LOL.

I want a huge feast of a luncheon. I went to a funeral/memorial where some of the sandwiches were crabmeat. Very nice. I want a variety of sandwiches and squares. I want a champagne toast. No make that umbrella rum drinks and slurpees for the kids.

Finally, I want people never, never to forget me. I want a lot of crying initally and then I want people to smile because they liked me, thought I was nice and kind and hopefully funny. And I want people to continue reading my blog...

... in perpetuity. I hope I can count on you, my fellow bloggers to help make sure this last one happens. Spread the word. My blog is at http://catstuff-carment.blogspot.com/ LOL. But I'm still serious! That is "all". ;)

Kisses, Carmen

1 of 1 people found this answer helpful

As you can see 1 of 1 people found the answer to the question that was asked by a fellow blogger coffee shop forum member about funerals helpful. LOL. Yay, me.

I made a few "amendments" to this after reading others (none were quite as thorough as mine though - lol). The changes were all things I had planned but forgot.

They include a umbrella rum drinks and coke slurpees for the kids and anyone else who likes slurpees better than rum drinks as I had edited into this already.

They also include a little goodie bag for mourners including a packet of wildflower seeds to plant in my memory, a little clear bottle of bubbles like at weddings...

... and a coupon book for "free" slurpees. They actually sell them you know. Also, when I mentioned rum drinks and slurpees note that I'd have the machine there. LOL.

Two things were suggested to me that I actually hadn't thought of and that was a New Orleans band to play their way to the funeral (suggested by "betterindividual")

This is what -he- (see comment below) said:

Carmen: your funeral is like an event. all your missing your friends walking down the main roads with a new orleans band playing and for it to be on the news.

I told -him- that it was a great idea but that since I was serious about this idea I was afraid this might not happen but one of the bagpippers said they could get me...

... a full band (that he belongs to, for free!)

The second suggestion was from someone named Psycho Basher who said this...

@Carmen - but I should say that is a well thought out master plan. Would you consider though the Chippendales to be pall bearers, with white sheer robes instead?

All in all, I think they are good ideas, but I am afraid if I got the "Chippies" then the "white plumes" would boycott. Well, I guess they wouldn't come anyway.

So that is that for my funeral I think (pending any other last minute additions) but I also want you to know what some of the other people had in mind that sounded good.

From NickNayls (the DiaperLover! - check out his blog. I'll give the url later)...

I will have a giant castle erected in my honor to commemorate my life. It would be filled with all the treasures I found, things I did, pictures of myself and my family; the works! I would have my biography playing 24/7 in the Imax portion of the castle so that people could watch my life as much as they need to. There would be a food court, an arcade, and smoking lounge (although you are completely allowed to smoke wherever you please). I also believe that I would have a Sports Bar area for the fans, and a small casino in the basement.

Now, in the middle of the 1st floor room shall be me. Standing straight up in a casket made of crystal, dressed in a suit of armor and holding a sword. I'll probably have a cape. I shall remain there for all eternity.

1 of 1 people found this answer helpful

As you can see 1 out of 1 persons also found this helpful. LOL. I know I did. Then there is this (also from Psycho Basher)...

As to mine, maybe in 3 C's - Cremation, Celebration, Contribution
I prefer Cremation. And yes I would love full blown up pictures of ME on walls.

I prefer my memorial in a warehouse adorned as an underground party cum Celebration. People should be in all-white ensemble. The theme is celebrating Life. The Menu will be the best banquet of choice international cuisine that I love. Music will be mixed, Ibiza style, but with mixes of 80's and 90's dance tunes. At the entrance, every guest is mandated a double shot of tequila. Only the designated programs/Events Director is not allowed to drink to ensue that the flow is executed well. Video walls will be all over the warehouse, mainly slideshows and videos of my life with most of the people in the event. My Eulogies are pre-selected. But each one would essay about how much I loved life and lived fully. (however the circumstances of my passing) At the end of the ceremony --- a Blood Bath. Pipes will be filled up with strawberry tequila or sangria and sprayed all over the warehouse on all the guests whilst they go wild simulating a blood bath.

Upon exit, yes, Amazing Grace arranged in blues rhythm, very serene, will play. They are expected to make Contributions to my pre-identified Charities - preferably for Children with Autism. So instead of flowers and whatever, they give their Cash to contribute.

Each guest would go home with a loot bag. My choice writings, a book, and a photo-journal of the event.

1 of 1 people found this answer helpful*

*Actually, for some silly reason no one found the above helpful so before copying and pasting it -I- clicked on it. LOL. Someone had to do it.

It definitely isn't for me (it's one idea I'm certainly not stealing) but the blood bath is definitely original. And showy. And apparently tasty too. LOL.

For the end of this post I thought I would give links to the blogs of the people who I quoted. More than anyone however, the first should be someone I did not.

Her name is Sue or 7ladybugs. She was the one who commented on the thread right after me and said I beat her to the long overdramatic funeral idea she had too.

She however beat me to writing it up on her blog. Not only does she have a post also titled My Funeral but she did one just before about a Redneck Funeral. LOL.

There was also, I believe, something she did just after the "My Funeral" post about what would be on her headstone. So as you can see, she really got into it.

I am giving you her address first, since she gave me the idea of making this an actual blog post. Followed by betterindividual for posting the original question.

As promised here are the links:

http://7ladybugs.blogspot.com/

http://betterindividual.blogspot.com/

http://psychobabblingbasher2.blogspot.com/

http://nickthenayl.blogspot.com/

Carmen

Family Day!

2011-02-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

Today is Family Day here in Alberta. Not doing anything special. It's kinda cold. Also, I would have visited my mom but I didn't get the backlogged blogs done until yesterday night. I usually only go over there if it's for two days. Being Family Day, I probably should have made an exception, but it's a little late now. :(

So it's a pretty uneventful day. I did however go to join a new site and managed to follow the rules aboout posting a link box to their site. It is the pretty pink and white box at the top of the right hand side of the blog. Click on it and see where it takes you. LOL.

I also, finally, added some Blogs I Like in the list feature that I added but did not activate (or talk about therefore) immediately. It now has five links under it for you to check out when you have a free moment or two. It is near the bottom of the right hand side of the blog.

Other than asking, how do you/would you spend a day like Family Day?, I pretty much am done except to thank one of my latest followers with her help on getting the button up and running. I managed to get it originally but it didn't link. She noticed this and helped me get the code correct. Thanks very much Sue. :)

Carmen

Sherlock Strikes Again

2011-02-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

Just another brief little post. This time a bit of a rant.

We just had dinner here at "Vegetable House". A little bit after we sit down, one of the ladies in the house gets up to microwave her food. Staff was in the other room when she got up to do this. Just when my roommate gets to the microwave staff is right there behind her asking "what are you doing?".

I mean come on now, really. Really? How stupid!

Now normally I probably wouldn't make a big internet deal out of it. But, other than being a slow day, it is the cherry on the sundae. I mean, this is far from the first time that this particular staff member has asked a really dumb question like this one. It actually happens with alarming regularity.

The things I put up with. LOL. Then again, it could be worse!

Once A Libra...

2011-02-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

Today I was thinking about just how soon the end of the month will be here. I plan to use one of, if not the last day of the month to do a post on how well I have been keeping (or not) my Chinese New Year's Resolutions.

This got me to thinking about something else I wrote awhile back (maybe even in the same post) about how the zodiac is/was changing and we were getting an extra sign. The new sign would mean, of course, rejigging the whole set of star signs.

Well, I didn't make a point to edit that post or post a follow-up at the time I heard this a little later (actually when I told someone at my old job about my post). It seems that the change doesn't affect/effect(?) anyone before 2009!

So I don't have to change everything I thought I knew about myself up until this point in time. Whew, that was a close one. LOL. Actually, it only makes sense that it would not be retroactive. But sense flys out the window when you "panic".

Anyway, just thought I'd let all my "peeps" know on a slow news day. Now you to can breathe just a littlle bit easier and not worry about replacing all your piles of zodialogical knick-knacks that I'm sure you have. :)

Carmen

Dear Math: Not A Love Story

2011-02-17T18:42:00.000-07:00

Another short post this time around.

I was at Urban Dictionary (see last post) and I came across something else. It reminded me that I had in the past heard a few Math jokes.

Yes, you heard it correctly, Math jokes. The one I saw on Urban Dictionary was on a t-shirt. That makes it neither more nor less funny than the other one I will tell you. LOL.

Ok. So for my one other Math joke that I still remember. Here goes... Did you ever notice how people get so excited when a store says that prices are a fraction of what they were. Unfortunately sometimes that fraction is 5/4ths. LOL.

Now for the Urban Dictionary t-shirt saying joke... Dear Math: I am not a therapist, solve your own problems. Again, LOL.

So which one is funnier? Or is it a draw?

The Curse Of The Jade ... Gummy Bear

2011-02-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

For any of you who are Woody Allen fans, I'm sure you've heard of his movie The Curse of The Jade Scorpion. Well right now I'm going to talk a little about the Jade Gummy Bear.

Very little it seems because after hearing a tiny bit about an artist who actually made a jade gummy bear - size unknown - on a radio show I googled it only to find ...

... Nothing!

That's right. Nothing. Surely, the making of a piece of art so evocative of the later half of the twentieth century would come up in a google search in the first ten searches.

But nope. Apparently fine art is underappreciated by Google search engines. I did however find something from the Urban Dictionary ( http://www.urbandictionary.com/ ) about wet gummy bears. Get your minds out of the gutter!

Apparently, wet gummy bears speak in German, too. LOL. Don't ask. Ok, so maybe your mind being in the gutter (if you know anything about the urban dictionary it isn't surprising that that is where you would have went) is to be expected.

After all, most dominatrixes have German accents, don't they. Anyway, I am getting a little far afield. Seems this artist did a jade gummy bear. Based on my limited, lazy excuse for a search I can't find anything about it.

So, in lieu of the comments I have not been getting lately, I will ask you my dear followers, can you find anything about this. Do you perhaps have better search skills than I do. More endurance. If so, please do tell.

Of course this does mean leaving a comment. I trust I can count on you to do this little thing for me. After all, I've only slaved over just over 125 posts for you. Sniff, sniff. (Is it working yet?) LOL. See you soon.

Carmen

Instant Beauty (Pageant)

2011-02-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

So I'm watching TV. Channel 33. Or for those of you outside of Edmonton it's Slice. Something called Instant Beauty Pageant is on. They are at a mall in Victoria, B.C. The tv people picked five pretty young women in the mall, asked them if they wanted to be part of an impromptu beauty pageant with a trip to Mexico for two as a prize.

Then the girls/women got $400 to shop for a bathing suit and an evening gown and a time limit that I don't recall. It wasn't a great deal of time though. There was a lot of running around being done. In fact, one girl, the surfer gal even lost the shoes she bought for with her evening gown. Luckily for her, someone found them.

The funniest thing about the show is that I pretty much picked the order of the final eliminations exactly. The only one I got wrong, I got wrong due to sentimentality. Otherwise it would have been five for five. I figured the black lady was/should be the winner but I had a soft spot for the underprivileged youngest girl.

My first instinct about the beautiful black women was the right one in the end. In addition to winning a trip for two to Puerto Vallarta, the winner got a $1500+ tiara. That's right $1500+. It was really quite beautiful. It had "pearls" on top in addition to the rhinestones/crystals. I still think that my tiara (yes I have one) is prettier though.

I'll end this with another question. Would you be up for something like this if you were suddenly approached by strangers with a camera crew at your local mall? If so, what would be your reason? Would the lure of participating be the notority of being on national t.v. or would it be the prize they were offering (remembering that the beautiful, expensive tiara wasn't even mentioned)?

Carmen

Cute Commercials

2011-02-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

I got to thinking about funny commercials. This happened the other day when I went out to an art event with my friend Karen. Not real sure how it came up, but come up it did. So here are a few of my favorites for you to ponder.

1. The Geico Piggy commercial

2. The Leon's Power To commercial

3. The Leon's Christmas commercials

If you haven't seen them go to YouTube and check them out. Especially the Geico Piggy commercial. Then tell me what you think about them. Which are your favorite commercials? Why do you like them?

As for me the pinwheels out the window and the exasperated "we're home" from the mom driving were the funniest parts of the piggy commercial.

The "Power To Turn Water Into Ice" was the funniest part of the Leon's Power To commercials. There were some other funny ones but that was definitely the funniest.

Finally the Santa sitting on the lounge chair and being bounced out of the chair because of his weight was probably the Christmas one I liked best.

So now it's your turn. Have your say! Like I said before which ones of these did you like/not like? Which other ones would you add to the list?

Carmen

P.S. These three came to me right away. One came on shortly after posting this that I just had to add as a P.S. The Whiskas Cat Love commercial. The guy is lying on the porch getting a little too cosy with his cat. LOL.

Do We Have To Talk About It?

2011-02-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my friend Kevin a few days ago and he said the funniest thing. I thought I'd share it with you.

We were talking on FB chat and I asked him what for me is basically the inevitable question! That is "Did you read my blog lately?"

His answer was hilarious. His answer was "If I lied and said yes we would probably have to talk about it." Funny, huh? Well, it made me laugh.

Carmen

Orders Of The Day: A Bit Of Bragging

2011-02-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

As anyone who is into noticing this kind of stuff will note, I have been posting/plan to be posting twice a day in the first and third weeks of this month and once a day in the second and fourth weeks.

Just a little bit of bragging in this post. I'll leave that for the end though. Yesterday being Valentine's Day my second post of the day dealt with that (V-Day that is). So this bit of "Toastmaster Talk" had to wait for today. Here goes ...

First of all, yesterday I was the grammarian. I offered myself up for the job sort of last minute after I found I wasn't on the agenda at all for the entire three weeks that are listed at one time.

Since I did this late in the evening before the meeting, I didn't really expect an email response so I didn't check my email before leaving for the meeting. As it turns out I got one as of exactly 10:00am.

I knew this ahead of the meeting only because I decided to go to the main library to print out copies of a really cute page or so of sayings about love by 4 to 8 year old kids that I came across through a fellow blogger in the blogger coffee shop.

I decided to check the email just to see if I got a Toastmaster response but not expecting one. After all, the page of sayings was saved in my hotmail "office". I love that you get the Windows Office setup for email.

I found out I was to be Grammarian and that I was also to pick the Word Of The Day. Normally, at my old clubs, it went without saying that the two went together but I had noticed this wasn't always so at the Kossowan Club. So I was surprised.

Not just surprised but a little off-guard because I was quickly running out of time since I got a bit later a start that morning than I'd planned. Then to add to the time crunch, the library "lost" my printing credits. Then the printer acted up.

And so it went. When I realized I needed a word on paper and A.S.A.P. I went to one of the two main desk area and got some comment card slips - the perfect size to write the W.O.D. on. Then to find a felt pen. That was the challenge.

I tried both desks. Finally, after it was clear I wasn't going to be finding a black felt and I literally had no time to spare (it was apparent I would likely be about five minutes late - which I was) I used the green highlighter I was lucky to get.

So I write out two possible words and high-tail it out of the library and walk the several blocks to the convention center. Down three really long escalators and I'm finally there. About five minutes late as I said before.

I sit down just minutes before my duty is announced. Thank God. So luckily when they ask for the word and I point out that I do in fact have one but the Toastmaster will have to find a way to affix it to the lectern, the tape just happens to be handy.

Of course, I don't get off totally unscathed. PK himself reminds me when I give the said word to the TM for affixing that I should define it. I point out I barely had time to find it. LOL. I tell them they can define it for themselves.

Seems to have worked. Probably because the word I picked was passion. Easy enough to use I thought. And so it was. I think all but one person used it. The only one not to use the word was a guy whose first language wasn't English so I can understand.

Well, as you can see by the thoroughness of this recitation of the meeting so far it shouldn't surprise you that my grammarian report was very thorough as well. So much so that I did a kind of weird report.

I properly listed the 1-1/2 uses of language that I found "off" for lack of the correct term. Then I gave 1 or 2 quick examples of "good" usage. Then I listed off everyone who I had made a note of in my lengthy report (which turned out to be all).

I then told everyone listed (as I said that turned out to be all) to check the grammarian sheet I filled out for their instances of interesting language and explained my method of noting things as it was a bit here and there. LOL.

It worked out though, as about half the people in attendance did exactly that and came by to check out which words/phrases they used that I happened to personally find to be interesting.

I also got a Table Topic. It was my fellow inductee Jeremy's first time as Table Topic Master. He did a pretty good job. The fact that I got a bit of a "softball" topic was nice too. He asked me about my my favorite t.v show.

This actually related in some way to Valentine's Day. I think it was through a reference to his wife (his Valentine of course) and her obsession since having their young son who is their first and only child. The obsession: reality tv. LOL.

So anyway, I smartly refrain from thanking him for giving me "an easy topic". Had I said that I probably would not have the following to brag about. I ended up sharing Best Table Topic honors with Walter. Who oddly enough, I voted for. LOL.

I brag about this because, my first week at the PKC club (my one week as a guest before immediately jumping into joining) I got Best Table Topic speaker. I chalked that one up to being the guest however. So this was nice. A "real" win. Well partial.

Carmen

Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T04:34:00.000-07:00

Well, well. So original. I decided to title this attempt at a Valentine's inspired post with exactly the same highly inspired title as last years version.

This is just a short post to say that oddly, I think, many of the blogs that I have been reading for their V-Day posts are pretty much all saying they hate V-Day.

I'm not sure what's up with all the V-Day hate. I don't have a Valentine which is the usual state of affairs for me but I still wouldn't say I h-a-t-e V-Day.

What do you think? Is V-Day a favorite holiday, a hated non-holiday or something else entirely?

Please do a little blog surfing from my list of blogs followed if neccessary then come back here an leave a comment on your V-Day thoughts.

Kisses...

Carmen

Two Times Two ... Plus Some

2011-02-14T04:15:00.000-07:00

I got two new followers about a week or two ago and two new widgets at about the same time. This is the first chance I've had (or made) to "brag" about it. The followers are, in order, Sibi & karenchamchuk.

The widgets are Google Translate and a telephone translator that switches the number from words to numbers. Google Translate I hope helps me get foreign readers who pass through using the Next Blog feature. That's why it's at the top of my sidebar. The telephone translator is way further down (near the bottom) and is really for myself.

Actually, after coming up with the original title Two Times Two I got one more follower and two more widgets. The other follower is Acorn. The other widgets are a labels column and a new poll.

The labels widget I just found. I had originally (for the first two months of this blog) been putting in my posts. Then since they didn't show up - I thought it was an automatic thing which really it should be - I stopped adding them to the posts. So now I am going to have to add them for the previous 10+ months. A big job.

The new poll is also something that shows glitches in blogger/blogspot. I had an old poll which is still up on my sidebar but the results have disappeared. I leave it there to remember the question. So I got a new poll, which looks exactly like the old. Hopefully at the end of the polling period I set is over and a bit of time has passed the results of this one won't disappear too.

Carmen

Blog Lovefest Part III

2011-02-11T03:43:00.000-07:00

Since I did my LiveBridge posts way back when as a trilogy, I have decided to do the same with my Blog Lovefest posts. So following is the final in this series. Since I follow so many blogs I obviously may direct you to more in the future but it will be under (a) different title(s).

For my final Lovefest post I have picked a blog that is called One Year of Rapid Fire Change ( http://oneyearchange.blogspot.com/ ) This is a blog by a guy named Michael Thiessen. He now lives in British Columbia but was previously an Albertan like me. He was born here and grew up on various farms as the child of Mennonites. His blog is meant to be a chronicle of 2011.

Even though the year in question is 2011, he actually started it with two posts on December 31st, 2010. These posts were meant to provide the background for what is essentially a one post a day blog diary. So far, as I have just found his site, I have mainly read his introductory posts. But they really set the stage for what appears to be quite an interesting journey. I encourage you to read it.

The Fuzz Was Abuzz

2011-02-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

Not much happened today so I will just share a unusual little happening that occurred later in the day.

I was coming home from an errand downtown in the late evening. A bit of an odd thing happened. Police cars went in three different directions - multiple cars in each direction - from one intersection within about 5 minutes total. Crazy, huh.

I wonder if there is a full moon tonight. LOL. That's the only explanation I have. I mean three different directions from the same intersection and I don't think that there is a police station that close. I'm not sure but I haven't seen one.

Makes me a little curious what those calls could have been. On second thought, I probably don't want to know the details.

Carmen

A Gay Joke That's Actually Funny!

2011-02-09T04:25:00.000-07:00

Just a short post again this time but a funny one I think.

I wish I could attribute this one but I was furiously site surfing - jumping from one site to another and back again so I don't know where I got this from but I thought it was so funny that I was tearing up when I read it.

Here goes... There was a recent study from the UK that asked gay people how they became gay. 44% said they were born that way ... 10% said it was a product of their environment ... and 46% said they were sucked into it!

I know, I know. Very bad. But very funny. Wouldn't you say?

Carmen

Blog Lovefest Part II

2011-02-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

On Friday I did a post called Blog Lovefest Part I. Well today it's time for Part II. I am doing this so soon after the first because I have yet again spent the better part of yesterday "blog-surfing".

I'll cut to the chase and just tell you that the source of today's blog that I am going to share with you (minus the bonus one that you got last time) was the blogger "coffee shop" that I have spent a lot of virtual time in lately.

The blog that I'd like to encourage you check out is one that goes by the name of http://findyourselflove.blogspot.com/ It is a blog of a young girl named Angela. Her actual blog's title is ... "to put it simply, it's quite complicated" - and yes the first word isn't capitalized. Her url is different so if you remember only one remember the address.

Her blog is includes several different things. She uses lots of quotes. She often starts off a post with a quote. She also takes a lot of pictures. She writes poetry. She also talks at times about her struggles and challenges with her somewhat more dysfunctional than the usual family. This time I won't suggest any particular posts to read. Just go on over and browse for yourselves. See what you think.

Carmen

The Concrete Jungle

2011-02-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Toastmasters Induction Day - the theme was Spring - I had 3 jobs and a Table Topic. So as you can see I was busy today. At least at the TM meeting. Otherwise, all I really did was pick up my last paycheque.

The day didn't start out very well though. First of all, I didn't sleep at all last night. Well that's not entirely true. Well then again, yes it is. See, I did sleep. But it was in the morning after I took my morning pills. For about two hours. Then I had to be at Toastmasters. I couldn't really miss today, since it was my Induction Day - along with a fellow new member, Jeremy.

Jeremy also jumped right in and signed up to give his IceBreaker Speech today as well. I feel a bit bad that I didn't do mine even though I was asked. This is because I've been in Toastmasters before and Jeremy is just new so if he can jump right in then why the hell can't I. Well I guess that's just me. I also imagine it is better to make sure I'm fully prepared. This time around I want to do better than my first go round.

Anyway, the day continued to be bad after the sleep thing because, in order to get that two or so hours of sleep so that I would be at least functional at the meeting, I had to take a cab. That wouldn't be such a big deal as it is only an occasional thing now but after all, I'm not working anymore so it wasn't something I really wanted to do. Oh well. That was the least of it. The cab driver has a brand new GPS that he wants to screw around with. So when we get downtown and he seems to be going in the wrong direction (further west) at the last second just before going up the hill I stop him.

I get him to go up a hill that I think will get us close. It turns out that had I been right about the location of the building (based on the directions I was given at the previous meeting after all) it was exactly the right hill by chance. The one that goes up to the Chateau LaCombe and The Edmonton Journal building. So the building I was looking for was supposed to be just behind (to the South of) the Chateau LaCombe. So since there was no place to park on the hill, I had the driver drop me off in the Chateau LaCombe parking lot.

I then walk down the steep, curving hill that thankfully wasn't too icy. I find then that there is no front entrance, just two parking garage entrances. I walk back up the hill and the only thing I see is what appears to be an office or appartment building and not another hotel like I am looking for. So I walk back down the hill to see if I missed a side path to walk around to the front entrance. Nope.

I end up walking into the second entrance of the parkade and walking around the curving parkade for about a level. The first level had a card locked door so no luck there. So curving around the parkade I reach the second level. Finally a door that I could get in. It however, takes me to an area that has several doors that are numbered but seem to be hotel maintenance rooms only. The door to the hotel area is still a card lock door. So I decide the only thing left to do and hope for is that if I walk up the remainder of the seven total levels to the first main floor maybe it won't be key lock.

After all, how do new guests without the card get in. Luckily, at the top I am able to get in. But still, aargh. Seven levels through a damn parkade itself and it's stairwell. Turns out I was given faulty information. The main entrance is not actually behind the other hotel (the Chateau LaCombe), it's the parkade that is. The main entrance is off to the west side of the Chateau. It's on the top of the hill and off a couple of blocks as the river valley is wont to have strange ways. Perhaps if I had trusted the GPS I would have been taken to the front entrance.

Then when I get into the main entrance, there are several people in line at the dual check in/check out area. Even though I expected to be quite early I am only about fifteen minutes early at this point. I had to use the front desk as we weren't given the floor or room information at the previous meeting. While I was waiting, my luck changed though. Another Toastmaster walked in. He too needed to find out where to go

Since I was already in line, he waited by the elevators until I got the information. When we got up to the floor we were supposed to be on, I was glad he was there. It turns out that the hotel has hallways like a mouse maze. He found the way to the room. I'm sure I would have eventually but I would probably have gotten even more annoyed. Also, when we got there, we were only five minutes early.

I ended up with three jobs as I mentioned at the start. My assigned duty was to do an invocation. I chose to do it as a quotation which I was previously told was an acceptable alternative. I actually found the quote on the internet site Brainy Quotes
It was by the actor, comedian and all-around zany guy Robin Williams. The theme of the meeting was Spring of all things. The quote was short and sweet (and quite funny, not surprisingly considering the source).

It went like this... Spring is nature's way of saying "Let's Party!". LOL. I couldn't figure out why they picked spring as a theme though. At the meeting it was explained early on however that it was in relation to Groundhog's Day being a portend to spring. Still that is a minimum of six weeks away. Sheesh. A better theme might have been Groundhogs Day itself. Well I guess the Educational Vice President was being optimistic.

The second job I got was timer. I knew probably be doing this. The Ed. V.P. told me when he confirmed my main role that he didn't yet have a timer and if he couldn't find one would I do it. My final job was a big surprise. After the meeting had already started, a member who was sitting next to me that was doing the Speaker Evaluation (of Jeremy no less) asked me to evaluate his evaluation for his Leadership manual project.

I was surprised he picked me since I was just being inducted today as mentioned but I guess he remembered me saying that I had previously been a long term Toastmaster. I must say I enjoyed getting to do an evaluation and especially so early on. I will say it was a little bit of a challenge, though not as difficult as I thought it would be, to do the evaluation while trying to time Jeremy's speech. I slipped up a couple of times very minorly in timing the Table Topics due to trying to eat lunch but the evaluation and timing of the speech went without a hitch.

My Table Topic went ok. this time. It was definitely an easier topic this time than the last (first) time I got one since started at the Kossowan club. It had to do with the icy conditions. A lot easier than the previous one dealing with the possibility of an impending oil crisis. Lunch was simple. Hot dogs and hamburgers. There was also a macaroni salad but that didn't appeal to me. I would have preferred a potato salad. One nice thing was they didn't just serve coffee and tea but also had juice and pop to choose from.

After the meeting I made the trip over to Xentel to pick up my final cheque that I should have picked up Friday. That was rather uneventful. A few of the staff noticed me and said hi. One asked if I had found a job yet. I told him I hadn't even really started to look. My friend Debbie wasn't there though. The person who asked me about a new job, who is also close to Debbie, told me that she was off sick. She has had something for quite awhile that she hasn't been able to shake. I'm glad I never picked it up.

Well as you can see, the day started badly but in the end turned out ok. After all, it ended with me getting money. LOL. So my time in the concrete jungle of the parkade was a case of all's well that ends well.

Carmen

A ...Kiss... By Any Other Name

2011-02-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

I can't remember what brought me there but I was at Dictionary.com. I ended up looking up a lot of different things as the site is more than just an online dictionary. It has quotes and a thesaurus too.

One word I found did stick out though. In honor of Valentine's Day, which is just around the I've picked a word to highlight for today's post. Osculate. Just another slightly fancier way of saying kiss.

I actually prefer the simple, straightforward word kiss. Osculate sounds like a medical term don't you think. LOL. Kiss is much nicer, far more romantic. At least I think so. What do you think. Will you be osculating or kissing this Valentine's Day?

Carmen

Blog Lovefest Part I

2011-02-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

Well today, I'm here to talk about blogging. The AAYSR people would definitely say %$#@, not again! In my defense, it isn't so much "blogging about blogging" but instead blogging about other bloggers. I had the idea of doing three in mind. But I've changed my mind and I'm just going to do my very favorite one.

First off too, I should probably give credit where it's due. And oddly enough, that's to AAYSR again. I hadn't been there at their extreme review site ( http://www.iwillfuckingtearyouapart.blogspot.com/ ) much since not long after my review in August last year. I decided to start with the present and work my way back in the previous posts to when I was last there. It just works better that way based on how they are set up.

I only got to the beginning of December/the end of November because of all the digressions I was taking to the reviewed blogs, the blogs on their blogrolls, and the blogs of those on those blogrolls too! LOL. Even after planning to avoid the reviewed blogs themselves (and therefore all that came after) until catching up on all the reviews. Aah, "the best laid plans of mice and Carmen".

It's a blog called http://mrlondonstreet.blogspot.com/ It is a blog that is actually up for an award right now. If you like it as much as I did please vote for it to help the guy win. You can click on the link to the awards on the top right hand side of his blog. When you get there click on the European choice on the left side as he is in the running for Best European Blog. Hurry though, voting ends on February 20th and the prize is awarded February 27th.

When you go to vote, also know that when you get the nominees pop up after you click on the European option, there will be about five different choices. If you click on both the name of the blog or the picture either way it will take you to the blog to have a look (in case you want to check out the other nominees). To actually vote you have to look a little harder.

In the bottom right hand corner of the picture is a little white box. click on that and it will check it off and then ask for your e-mail which is required for voting so that they know you have only voted for each category once. In order to finalize your vote you must then check your e-mail and click on a link in the e-mail they then send you within a day (if you don't get it go back to the site and do it again). Then your vote will have been cast. Not that difficult really.

The winner of the 2011, 11th annual weblog awards or Bloggies as they are also known gets the astounding prize of 2,011 U.S. cents, or $20.11 U.S. But more important, are the bragging rights. I can't remember if Mr. London Street has won before or not. I seem to remember reading that he did. If so, it wouldn't be a surprise to me as, from what little I have read, it is extremely funny.

Now I have probably, no definitely, put the cart before the horse in telling you all about voting for his blog before even telling you a little about it. I will correct that oversight now. Without cribbing his very funny stories, I will simply tell you a few that I read that I think you should check out. On the right hand side again, a little ways down you will find a section called Selected Highlights, 2010 Edition - The One... Under that pick ...about the Other Side, ...where I explain the birds and the bees, and finally ... which contains shaved testicles.

There is also two recent ones. One is from February 3, 2011 called Chemistry. It is about a quirky friendship of sorts with a rather unique male co-worker. One is from February 6, 2011 and is called Running Mates and is an interview with a fellow nominee for a Bloggie Award but in a different category. His category is Best Entertainment Blog. The guy he interviews writes a movie review related blog called The Kid in the Front Row. You can link to it at the bottom of the Mr. London Street post. There is a companion post on TKITFR's blog where Mr. London Street is being interviewed by him as well.

Anyway, do check out these two blogs Mr. London Street and The Kid in the Front Row. Especially Mr London Street as this is the one I actually picked to talk about. The Kid in the Front Row is just a bonus because of the post on the dual interviews being one of MLS's best recent posts. Also, who doesn't like a movie blog. As well, if it wasn't Mr. London Street who previously won a Bloggie, then it was Kid in the Front Row. I know I read that one of them did. Maybe even multiple times. Well that's it for today.

Carmen

Hey Rocky, Watch Me Pull A Rabbit Out Of My Hat

2011-02-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Chinese New Year's. This year is the "Year Of The Rabbit". According to http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese-new-year/ the year of the rabbit is "a placid year" following the "ferocious" year of the tiger.

It starts today, February 3rd and lasts 15 days until the next full moon when it ends with a night-time lantern festival.

I didn't do anything to celebrate it today but I think I will in the very near future make up a list of indeterminate length of resolutions. After all it is my last chance of sorts.

Chinese New Year's has always been my last minute resolution stop ever since I can remember. First there is New Year's Day, then comes my second kick at the can, Ukrainian New Year's. Finally, third time presumably lucky (and Chinese being more into lucky things I think) Chinese New Year's.

I guess the future is now. Now being as good a time as any. So what are these resolutions? How about a list. I've seen so many on other blogs. My first I think. The time seems ripe for it here. So here goes...

1. Lose some weight. A serious amount! No less than 25 pounds and no more than 100 for now as I worry about baggy skin.

2. Go swimming 10 laps to start/3 times a week at least and take a "brisk" 30 minute walk daily (in a mall if necessary).

3. Do my taxes in a timely fashion. Fix up the previous years in need of it. Further resolve to do it on yearly basis.

4. Read and save my mail in a serious, adult fashion that involves a filing system. Do not wait to open my mail ever!

5. Get a new part-time job at H&S temporarily before trying back at Xentel in April of this year as per Jatin's suggestion.

6. Pick a charity to sponsor for the year and donate the $30ish dollars I save on an AISH bus pass monthly when working.

7. Blog on a regular basis. Eventually resubmit to AAYSR review site. Save for a Cutest Blog On The Block package.

8. Read 5 different blogs on a daily basis for inspiration for my blog as well as for my Toastmasters speeches.

9. Go to the library and read 5 different newspapers & newsmagazines weekly for the above reason as well.

10. Take Mom out to lunch/dinner once a month after I start working. Try and get her to go to new places sometimes.

11 Call friends/family on a more regular basis. Remember that we do have un-limited long distance for a reason.

12. Write letters where calling is not possible or when a card/letter is the more appropriate choice.

13. Always have my calling cards and my "info-lets" to hand out as needed. Make sure to always have pens and extra paper too.

14. Write in a paper version of a diary daily - both as inspiration for blogging regularly and to have an alternate "voice".

15. Go through all the papers/magazines I have on my desk and nightstand on a regular basis and keep the piles to a minimum.

16. Sort through the 3 or 4 remaining drawers in my plastic cabinets and organize/rework/purge what is in them.

17. Plow through the 3000-5000 backed-up emails at live.com main email and get it down to a daily amount then check daily.

18. Go to Goodreads, AVEN, IMdB, and other sites I belong to on a more regular basis of at least once per week if not more.

19. Complete my new CTM/equivalent in 1 TM dues period if possible - 2 tops. Do some "outside" speeches if necessary with 1/2 @ my club.

20. Take a TM officer position if they continue to offer it but find out exactly what's involved & plan accordingly.

21. Re-do my parlimentary procedure & my contest judges training again by end of calendar year. Also do a speech contest as participant.

22. Attend this years AGM at UCE to put parlimentary procedure skills to work as well as attend some city council meetings when I can.

23. Learn about civic/provincial/federal issues and candidates well in advance of the next elections for each of the above. Then vote strategically.

24. Find a volunteer job. UCE Sunday School, Lung Association, Food Bank, Bissell Centre, Food Not Bombs, etc. are all some good possibilities.

25. Go back to O.A. Ask K.C. if she wants to do this too. If L.U. is still there try to "make amends". Get and use a sponsor this time. Make a F.P & E.P.

26. Use a mentor in TM this time around. When I reach CTM/equivalent level offer to be one. Keep/get new mentor as needed for next level of certification.

27. Take a sales training &/or writing/editing course through continuing education if it is a "reasonable" price. Find a partner to go with if I can.

28. Keep up with Laura at Mental Health about job status and also about my possible attendance at Highwood to do my diploma and not a G.E.D.

29. Help Katherine with potentially finding a new apartment in a better location transportation-wise and use that experience to consider my options.

30. See if L.B. is willing/able to be reasonable and if I can get my stuff back from her. If she does decide to do this, don't let her "bully" me this time.

31. Use my digital camera and learn how to upload and print (after getting printer hooked up finally). Get Virginia, etc. to show me how to do it.

32. Start adding pictures to my blog or if it doesn't suit the background and I can't or decide not to change it then start a 2nd blog for pictures too.

33. Get my scrapbooking materials from Mom's place, cautiously buy what else I need to do a full, smail album. Is Jin or K.C is interested in doing it too.

34. Find out from Karen about the writing for money (to a paypal account - set one up) site she uses called __________. Try & write sometime daily/weekly.

35. Get Larissa to make good on her promise (of 1-1/2 years! ago) from back at the Life Without Limits Challenge. Try and get this done by the 2 year mark.

36. Buy a single Lotto-Max ticket weekly as it is hard to hit the jackpot without an actual ticket. LOL. Have "my pie" divided and my exit strategy in place.

37. Continue to do the Random Acts of Kindness gifts both small (Werthers, Sweet & Low Candies) and larger (Purdy's, etc. cards). Set a goal and a limit.

38. Always carry adequate money for a payphone/to use someone else's cellphone esp. but not limited to if I decide to stop using my Telus cellphone.

39 Have one package or portion thereof of bus tickets in case my bus pass is ever lost/stolen & to possibly help out people. Keep separate from pass.

40. Clean out purse & any carrying bag daily. Do this so I can safely carry food, important papers needing later filing, etc. Give set time to do this.

41. Remember people's birthdays/special days with a card. Try to find a blank card to personalize when possible. Use dollar store/find sales due to volume.

42. Save money in a rainy day (emergency) fund. Try to save $25 per check when working and $25 a month when simply getting my monthly benefits.

43. Drink more water. Try for the oft-quoted 8 glasses a day amount. Carry a non-toxic water bottle with me in my tote bag or in my purse, ie. Nolan one.

44. Eat salad or raw vegetables every day. Use far less dressing and possibly even low-fat/low-sugar varieties. Vary the vegetables even if I end up buying.

45. Tell ten people something nice every day. Try and make it specific & out-of-the-ordinary when I can. Do this for family/friends/strangers alike.

46. Make a list of affirmations for myself. Post them within my room at "Veggie House" and at Mom's, and general ones in common areas incl. work.

47. Continue to use bus link, and the complaints and commendations line at ETS on a regular basis. Also start utilizing the safety line as well.

48. Write a to=do list daily and also do a weekly and a monthly version. Use the check off boxes & numbering system. Write in pen and check in red felt.

49. Be prepared to add/subtract from this list as needed but check it daily either first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Be flexible about it.

50. At the end of each month (and finally at the end of the calendar year or next Chinese New Years!) make a written list of now well I did. Then celebrate.

As I said, and then amended myself, at the beginning the time went from in the near future to now and as you can see the "indeterminate length" was soon to be decided on 50 items.

I picked 50 because a lot of my resolutions where in twos and therefore 50 was the best number for a major (and in some cases minor or "glossy"/"detailed") list to fully renovate my life. A resolution make-over if you will.

A make-over seems appropriate since it is also a bit of a do-over what with the 3rd time lucky Chinese New Years version of resolution mania. Now it's just a matter of starting out keeping them.

One thing will make it easier though, I think. I picked both small and large things and with the large things made them "measureable" as they say for the most part. And to further make it easier I will try to capture my successes (and failures) here in periodic update posts.

I'll end this with a few final thoughts. First, do let me know what you think of my resolutions. Too much? Not realistic? Ambitious? Silly? Also, which ones do you think are more important to keep? Which ones inspired you (if any) or made you laugh at their triviality perhaps? Second, if you blog, consider a list of your own.

Carmen

P.S. If you aren't a blogger but are a commenter consider giving me a few of your resolutions - big or small - to see how they compare. And Happy (Chinese) New Year. Again.

A Marmot, A Mass And A "Memo"

2011-02-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, for various reasons, I neglected to note in my two posts for the day that it was, in fact, Groundhog Day. This can not be considered a slight oversight as Groundhog Day has assumed, in my mind anyway, the position of actual holiday.

If for no other reason than one of the better films of fairly recent times in the greater scheme of movie history is, of course, Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. So much so that I even bought it with the idea of celebrating the day with a yearly viewing. LOL. That's the marmot aspect of this post.

There is also a "fantastic occasion of greater importance" according to http://www.theholidayspot.com/ called Candlemas. This is a religious holiday for Roman Catholics and Anglicians, etc so I won't go into it much except to say that if I was more religious then the idea of blessing all the candles to be used throughout the coming year as it does would seem "quaint" for lack of a better term. This is the mass aspect of the post.

Finally the "memo". I told FJ, in the comment section of my last post, that I would probably talk briefly about the details of "the funny" that I purposely left out of the post. I did this under the impression that it was more of a you had to be there moment, but well, he did ask. So here goes.

The three funniest words or phrases that people on the blogger coffee shop forum came up with that annoy the shit out of them were "that's sick", "bangin'", and especially "a whole 'nother". Like I said you had to be there. The nominators reasons really made it. For instance, the "whole 'nother guy was practically frothing pointing out that it would have to be short for "a whole another" which makes no sense. Truly. And he's absolutely, hilariously right.

So the "memo" aspect of the post is in actual fact a "in-the-body-of-the-post P.S." that made for better alliteration and the ability to use the law of the threes in my title and I'm nothing if not "pedantic" about my titles. Almost as much, maybe more than my spacing as mentioned in a long ago post.

Carmen

P.S. Both quaint and pedantic were put in quotation marks because I wasn't sure - until checking with dictionary.com - that I had the essense of how I wanted to use the word right. I did, but I left them that way to show that there was some thought put into those words and using them correctly.

Serendipity, Friends ... and Berries ... and Cows

2011-02-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

Back again. I was just sweeping the floor and I came across a fancy picture frame that the main staff lady here at the house bought on shopping day a few months back.
It is a black frame the has the word Friends written on the top and six smaller boxes for individual pictures to be placed in.

I was looking at it again as I have in the past since it was first purchased and aside from being quite attractive with it's six b&w pictures of model versions of friends in a matching b&w frame it never fails to impress(?) me about the serendipity of Virginia having found it.

You see, there are six women living here in this house and that was what made her buy the frame. While friends may be overstating the roommate situation most of us have a little bit (friendly is more the word) it was a nice thought that worked out numbers-wise.

When I was looking to write a little something on the picture frame and my musings I questioned whether I really was using the word serendipity right. So I checked it out on dictionary.com. Yes, I was right but for those of you still wondering about the word I will give the definition(s) they gave.

The first one of the two listed was what applies here. It is as follows ... "an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident". The second in case anyone is wondering was simply "good fortune; luck". I guess it applies as well, if not as nicely. It also listed a synonym that I also like ... happenstance.

I would also like to direct those interested to the dictionary.com site as they have other things on there like the listing of the origins of the word. For instance, if we go back to the word serendipity, it actually was coined in reference to the characters in a book from the 1700's called "The Three Princes of Serendip".

If you are interested in the origins of the above in a little more detail, check out dictionary.com yourself. Other things they have on the site are lists of "like words", quotes(!) and a thesaurus. I will briefly mention the like words and the quotes before stepping back and talking a little more about the friends angle.

The like words included serendipper if you can believe it. Personally, I think that is a stupid way to conjugate (if that is the right word) the word serendipity. Another "like word" was serendipity-berry. Also known more commonly it seems, as the miracle berry, it is African berries (2) that when chewed turn sour things sweet!

Now for the quote. There is a random quote button that I tried about a dozen times but none of the quotes that came up rivaled the original quote that brought me to the button. The first quote was by advice columnist Ann Landers from what they attribute to a August 21, 1989 Time magazine article. Here it is ...

... "I don't believe that you have to be a cow to know what milk is." It goes on to say that she was 'explaining why, despite her untroubled Midwestern upbringing, she felt qualified to advise people with serious problems.' Well said.

Maybe not the best way to look at the subject considering the proliferation of advice doctor's like Dr Phil, Dr Drew (oh so gorgeous Dr Drew - sigh - lol), but still it does make some sense and is a pretty cute saying.

Well back to the friends. I said that me and my roommates aren't exactly friends but I can definitely say that I am not worried that it's a Leighton Meester movie (the soon to be released The Roommate) waiting to happen. LOL.

Carmen

Laugh Till You ... Cry

2011-02-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hi again. So I was at the blogger coffee shop forum and I was reading about some non-blogging topics. They had me laughing so hard that I was gasping for air, my stomach hurt (and I mean really hurt) and I actually vomited. Yes vomited.

I didn't actually cry (this time) but the title would have been gross if I had made it more accurate. So this is just a little post where I am going to ask the question what makes you laugh till you ____________.

Oh, and if anyone is interested one of the two "offending" forum post questions I was reading (can't remember the other) was about words/phrases that annoy the shit out of people.

Now I could tell you what some of them were, but I think that if you aren't already a blogger member you should join so you can start blogging too and I can find even more blogs to read. Then you can find out too.

Carmen

"Schooled" By A Religious Drunk!

2011-02-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

Hi again. When it rains it pours. Second time posting today. When I was at the aforementioned (see last post) movies something funny happened on the way home. I thought it deserved it's own post/title.

Katherine and I had just gotten on our second and final bus to head back to mom's place for dinner and were sitting in our pretty much usual places on the bus when they are available. Up front near the driver. Call us Bus Driver Loonies, Greg. LOL

Well, that meant I was sitting in the first seats facing the side and Katherine was sitting in the first front facing seats just behind me. About one or two seats separated us.

I was just starting to tell Katherine what I considered to be a very funny story - which because this story was funny but infuriating at the same time I don't actually remember! LOL.

Anyway, just as I start to tell my now forgotten story a homeless type man gets on. He was a pleasant looking man albeit quite scruffy and carrying a big black plastic bag. Well the pleasant looking younger, darker version of character actor Cecil Kellaway was only pleasant in that one regard.

Immediately after boarding the bus and only seconds into my planned story, this man plunked himself down directly between Katherine and me and started talking to Katherine even though I was clearly already talking to her!

As this was pointly and not the slightest bit just mildly rude but really pretty outrageous (to me anyway) I decided I was not going to stand for it. Just about seething would be an accurate description of my mood.

Nevertheless, I didn't tell him where to go and how to get there. I merely decided not to "give up the floor" to him, so to speak. So I tried to continue talking as if he wasn't even there. A mere pesky little fly if you will. Didn't work.

I tried this numerous times over several minutes (or what seemed like it). As I said it didn't work. Probably because he was directly in between Katherine and myself. It didn't help matters any either that Katherine was actually responding to him. The nerve.

This of course, made me even madder. LOL. At the end of this story though, you will see why I ended up actually being glad that she was paying some attention to him. If she hadn't we might never have known why he did what he did. And it's funny! At least I think so.

So, back to where I left off. I had been trying, without success, for several minutes it seemed to get him to stop interrupting me until I finally snapped. Well, snapped might be a bit of an exageration but I did get snappy at the very least.

I finally stopped trying to talk over him (pointless!) and said to him directly "Do you mind if I finish my conversation with my friend!". And sweet as pie (aargh) he says something like "not at all". As if nothing had happened!

As I said before, the story I told Katherine is now lost to the sands of time (and infuriation!). What happened next, happened after we got off the bus. I confronted Katherine (mildly - as I could concede even in my state that it wasn't that much her fault) about her actually letting that oaf interrupt me.

That brings us to the funny. Seems he told her something like that he was 1) very religious and 2) had just had about 10(!) beers - not sure how the two connected in his mind other than maybe they were just the two biggest things of note about him.

I guess, according to Katherine, these revelations were both followed with "praise the lords" "hallelujahs" "hail mary's" or somesuch. Most of what else he said she said she didn't understand. Probably because of the 10 beers. LOL.

But she did get one last important thing. Apparently, he told her why he planted himself between us and interrupted. It seems it was on purpose.
Being God's little angel he decided upon boarding the bus that we were gossipping. And it was his job to save us from this!

How sweet! How noble! How very big of him! LOL.

Carmen