The Oscars and The End of an Era

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

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

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

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...

1. I just recently started to play Cityville on Facebook.
2. I have in a very short time surpassed the person who got me playing.
3. In starting the above game I went back to playing Farmville after a l-o-n-g hiatus.
4. 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.
5. I am so boring a person that I am almost exclusively making this about FB apps.
6. To mix it up a bit I will say that I have nothing to say about Twitter. LOL.
7. Are we done yet! :)

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

1. -----
2. -----
3. -----
4. -----
5. -----
6. -----
7. -----
8. -----
9. -----
10. -----
11. -----
12. -----
13. -----
14. -----
15. -----

Carmen

The CBC Doesn't Always Stink - Who Knew?

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

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...

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


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


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


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


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


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


7. 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.

1. http://mrlondonstreet.blogspot.com/
2. http://findyourselflove.blogspot.com/
3. http://oneyearchange.blogspot.com/
4. http://volcanicensemble.blogspot.com/
5. http://facsteacherjenna.blogspot.com/
6. http://ignorepreviouscookie.blogspot.com/
7. http://treebytheriverblog.blogspot.com/

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

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

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

*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!

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

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...

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

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

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)

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

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?

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

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!

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

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