Facebook and Television Violence
I'm not quite sure how it happened, but apparently, I set up a Facebook account over a year ago and then never populated it except to upload a profile picture. Then I decided to accept and send a few (very few) "friend" invitations over the weekend and now, I'm up to 9 friends. Nine! This is rather paltry in the world of Facebook, I realize, but such is the story of my life. And as my husband says, you're lucky to have even one good friend in this day and age. I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the "garbage" on Facebook and am not likely to use it much because it's just so...much. And without a user's manual (or a 13-year-old), I can't figure it out. Certainly, I'll never be a Facebook addict, but I can see how it could become a great time consumer what with all the kidnapping, mafia hunting, egg gathering, flair sporting, quiz taking, bubble wrapping and gingerbread baking activities goin' on. Holy cow, Batman! Please, just give me a few good friends. To those who have accepted my request of friendship, thank you! :-)
Baby Spartacus watched the Super Bowl last night (following a long afternoon of cage fighting, "Grandpa, what are you watching with him, anyway? He is glued to the television!" "Cage fighting. He likes it." "CAGE FIGHTING?! What are you teaching the boy?! Oh, please, turn that crap off!"). The funny thing was, he really did seem to enjoy watching both the game and the cage fighting. Even if Grandpa wasn't holding him facing the tv, he laid on his blanket full of toys and ignored the toys, staring instead at the tv overhead. Later, there was much "unnecessary roughness" going on in our house. Little Sparky has already learned to hit! Everytime Grandpa tried to feed him, or wipe the drool off his mouth, or just hold him, there was much wild flailing of arms and smacking of Grandpa on the knuckles (especially painful if he happened to be holding a rattle). It was hilarious, really, because Grandpa asked for it. He doesn't do that at all when I hold him. It must be a boy thing. Finally, Grandpa had to throw down the yellow flag because seriously, who wants to get that call from the Kindergarten teacher?
Labels: Baby Spartacus, Fellow Bloggers
New Blogroll Additions
I've added a couple of new blogs to my blogroll...
There's something for everyone on
Cake Wrecks, a documentary of "when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong." Cakes for all occasions...check it out! This site is amazing in so many ways. If nothing else, check out the
Naked Mohawk-Baby Carrot Jockeys, or
this one.
And then there's Cake Wrecks' polar opposite,
Beau Speaks. "Beau Speaks" is
an old friend of mine, going all the way back to high school days. He is married to
Jen Speaks (Speaks is not their real name but when "Beau" met Jen, he preferred to remain anonymous on her blog and so his pseudonym was adopted). "Beau" is one of the smartest people I know. He is a political philosophy professor by trade, a new mostly-stay-at-home-father and a self-proclaimed "radical right-wing, gun-toting, conservative Christian." He's also one of the nicest people I know. It's about time he started a blog.
Labels: Fellow Bloggers
Extreme Makeover
What? I'm on my lunch hour, at Starbucks, catching up. Here, from
Lynellen's blog, is my extreme makeover. Knowing that there's not much to be done for my current look, I decided to see what I would have looked like as a child beauty pagent contestant. Still, not seeing it. This is just proof that it's best not to put makeup on little girls. It's the stuff of nightmares. But still, it's a fun little tool. Go ahead,
give it a try. When I have more time, I might actually give this a serious workover.
Labels: Fellow Bloggers, Insanity, Project 52 (Weekly Random Photos of Life)
Can't Blog
The "universe" is working against me lately. Again, the corporate IT rulers of the universe have determined that all websites containing the words blogspot or any variation thereof are off limit. I get some satisfaction out of clicking on multiple blog sites throughout the day though, hoping to trip a meter someplace in the bowels of our server, consuming bandwidth nevertheless, even if I can't actually read my favorite blogs. I'll bet the IT Gods are reading them though.
And at home, I am not even able to access the internet most times using my dial up service. It acts like it's going through the motions, at the speed of molasses, but ultimately comes back with "server not found." After multiple attempts, it might find the server, but then it is painfully slow accessing any actual content.
Very frustrating.
I need to find a hi-speed internet service that is available out in my neck of the woods without costing hundreds of dollars just for the set-up. We don't have cable access but I would think there is a satellite option that would work (without having to buy a special dish). Does anyone have any suggestions?
A happy belated 4th of July to everyone! Mine was spent visiting Sparky** in the hospital and staying home*, trying to pacify the one dog who can still hear the thunderous fireworks (Smokey is no longer bothered by noises of any kind). They went on all night around our rural neighborhood. Oy.
* While my husband was here (visiting our boat in Tacoma, while the Tall Ships were in port):
** gratuitous baby picture (the wires are all monitors of all sorts...he is doing great!):
Labels: Fellow Bloggers
Updating My Resume
20 Via
Jim, the
merciless child fighter.
20 may not sound like a lot to you, but I'm adding swarm-fighting skilz to my resume.
Labels: Fellow Bloggers, Quizzes and Memes
A Bloggy Introspection
This post over at Jim's place and
the ensuing links lead me to give a few minutes of thought to the following questions (I'd be more interested in your answers, honestly):
Why am I blogging? I blog for fun, to relieve stress.
Who am I blogging for? Me!
What am I blogging for? Therapy...I think this falls in the "deep inner need to express myself" category.
What is my blog’s purpose? I don't understand the question.
What is my blog’s mission? I can't even imagine answering this question with a straight face. I read blogs that clearly do have a mission. Mine is not one of those and I would only
embarrass myself to claim otherwise.
Where was my blog a year ago? Basically the same place as it is today, only I think I wrote more frequently and had more regular visitors (the notion of "readers" is laughable to me...the fact that anyone even returns to visit is a mystery).
Where is my blog now? I'm thankful for the good friends who still stop by on a regular basis and the new friends who've come along.
Where will my blog be next year? Not sure. I'm not committed to maintaining it, but I don't feel pressured to maintain it either. It's likely my blog will still exist in one form or another as long as it does not become a chore, which I can't even imagine.
Where will my blog be in two years? Now, this is starting to sound a little too much like work! Who knows?!
Where do I really want it to be? I'd like to think that it will be more exciting and thought provoking, less about dog crap in the dining room, and more about things that really matter, like pumping bilges.
Do these answers make me happy right now? Well, they don't make me
unhappy. ;-)
So...
is it time to stop blogging?
Labels: Fellow Bloggers
A Blogroll Addition
While I'm on a posting
frenzy (hey, it's all relative), I keep meaning to mention this blog that I've been reading lately that some of you may also enjoy. I think I found her blog through
Sisiggy's blogroll (only Sisiggy needs to update her link! ;-).
This post was especially cute (for those of you who are parents or can appreciate the antics of small children).
And
this one was a very well composed argument in response to the news a little while back that 1 in 4 teenage girls has some form of an STD.
And that's probably all the capacity for posts I've got in me for another week or so.
Labels: Fellow Bloggers
IT Haiku
Today, I found
this gem, at a blog I had not visited before. The credit for the following poetry goes to Bob-kat at
Bobkat's House (she did not write it but received it in an email...just trying to to give credit where credit is due). I've highlighted my favorites:
The web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
Program aborting
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.
Windows has crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.
Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
Three things are certain
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.
You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.
Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
Labels: Fellow Bloggers, Poetry
Mom Says I Have To Share
If I were a selfish person, I would not mention this. Instead I would bookmark
this site and keep it all to myself. Of course,
other people have already discovered it and in fact, led me to it, so I couldn't keep it my little secret for long. In the interest of playing fair and sharing a good thing, go visit
Idle Minutes and then to the Ebay links he provides, to see his beautiful artwork.
Don is a very generous person, and a most un-selfish artist. If you poke around on his site, you'll find some great paintings of animals, including
this one that Don painted for
Brian's family when they lost their beloved friend, Carla. It brought tears to my eyes to read the note that Carla sent to her family. When he offered folks a free painting in the form of a postcard, I sent him an email asking to be added to the list. He read my profile, learned that I liked the Blues and sent me
this.
I recently won two of Don's paintings (
Lamar Hills and
Grand Prismatic Spring). Unfortunately for Don, there wasn't a whole lot of competition, which is a shame (for him) because his work is worth a whole lot more than $4.95 (the minimum bid). From my perspective, I got two wonderful and
very affordable original watercolor paintings (free shipping even!). The paintings just arrived today and I was thrilled when I opened them! They are even more beautiful in real life (and his photos are
great). They are little
gems (2" x 3"). Their small size makes them very easy to fit into any decor (personally, I buy art that I love and then work the decor around it...one must never, ever, buy art to match the sofa, always the other way around, but the problem is I am running out of wall space, so these are perfect in that respect).
The least I can do is offer up a little free advertising, even if it does lead to a bidding war. I'm currently bidding on Granny's Place. Come on over! :-)
Labels: Art, Fellow Bloggers
Salt & The Fruit Tarts
I couldn't resist giving Sisiggy a plug for
this post. Go. Meet the whole family. So cute. I especially like the photo of Salt at the dining table. Don't you think Salt & The Fruit Tarts would be a great band name? Or a drag-queen cabaret act?
Updated to add Janie's post also, to the list of Dogs Behaving Badly posts.Labels: Fellow Bloggers, The Animals
I Am A Moron
Ever since I began blogging, eons and eons ago (well, long enough that you would have thought I'd figure a few things out by now), I've wondered why Google and I could not be friends. It's not like I'm dying for strange Googlers to drop in or anything. It's just that when other people make fun of the search strings that land people on their sites, I wondered why 1) I couldn't even Google my own name and a whole string of text to find my own site, and 2) I couldn't see the search strings that folks may have used to get here. So I got to looking again at my Blogger settings and LO! There was an option for that...I think it said something like, "would you like to allow Google and other search engines to crawl your site for search strings." And it was checked "No." Doh!
So now, coupled with the addition of a Sitemeter, I too can join in the fun.
And the first visitor from Google was looking for "
chili made with mango," but they only stayed for 0 seconds, so I'm not sure what that was all about.
Oh, and now I can tell what all y'all are saying about me behind my back, so stop that! ;-)Labels: Fellow Bloggers
Ashtanga Yoga
If you like yoga, or especially, if you don't, you'll want to read
this.
This is one of the funniest posts I've read in a long time. (*language alert* but still...some things can't be helped)
Via
Hillbilly, PleaseLabels: Fellow Bloggers
When You've Got Nothing Else to Blog About
Does everybody's kitchen look like this? Or is it just mine and
Jim's? My shot is not as "Kubrickian" as Jim's, but still, the resemblance struck me as almost eerie, especially in the context of Kubrick. I thought about posting a side by side, but that proved too difficult at this late hour, so you'll have to do the work yourself. ;-)
Labels: Fellow Bloggers
Blogathon 2007
I know I've been sparse around these parts lately, but I do hope that those of you who are still stopping by and who may not have already done so will consider supporting a few very good causes (and a few bloggers in their Wild & Crazy efforts to support those causes) by making a pledge. You can make as many pledges as you like over at
Blogathon.org, but in particular, please do consider these fine (and did I mention Crazy?!?) people. :-)
Jimmy at Sticky Doorknobs (blogging by his other blog name
My West Texas) will not only blog for 24 hours straight but will do so from a 30-foot high bucket in the local grocery store's parking lot!! You gotta admit this meets the definition of Crazy and Jimmy is as nice as they come, so please help him out here.
Updated to post this photo from Jimmy's website...Live From Midland, TX:
Julie at Lone Prairie Blog has been playing it low key but is once again sure to dazzle us with her artistic genius.
Updated to share what I mean by "genius"...go check out Julie's latest in the saga of Bob (every post, each post a new chapter in a short story, is accompanied by her own set creations like this one). Fantastic!
Jaynee at Cootiehog is not only blogging but also monitoring (and assisting) the other bloggers as a monitor, all the while raising 2 young kids and taking care of her husband.
Did I miss anyone?
I can't seem to find the energy to post but once a week, let alone once every half hour for 24 hours straight, so I will not be participating in the strictest sense. I will however check in on those who are "playing" to give them my support through the night. I hope you will do the same. And making a pledge is easy...go here and sort the list alphabetically to find the blogs you wish to sponsor.
Labels: Fellow Bloggers
"Not Mountain Climber Chic"
I sometimes think I live an odd life. I'm sure we all do at times. But some people really do seem to live a life meant for story telling. To see what I mean, go
here and read Hank's (aka
The County Clerk) latest episode of Truth is Stranger Than Fiction. And then there's
this little gem. And then there are his travel tales...learn the true meaning of Variats
here and what it's like to have dinner at The Castle with Nobel Prize academy members
here. Be sure to read the footnotes. Hank excels at footnotes so set aside a few extra minutes to enjoy Hank's antics; I find his sense of humor addictive.
Labels: Fellow Bloggers
Train Wrecks and Other Stuff
Is this a new addition to Blogger? I've never noticed this before, but now, with MapStats, I can finally see what search terms people are using to "find" my blog ("find" is a loose term since, as you can see, only a few lucky souls have actually permeated the iron curtain). I'm thinking about changing the name of my blog (as per the post title). Really, is this all I talk about? Any of you web geeks mind telling me what is going on here? Am I really shielded behind my Blogger account from the searchers and seekers out there in the world wide web? If so, that is just fine by me. I'm just curious. I've tried Googling my own blog name and have even gone so far as to Google entire post entries and I still don't show up in the search engine. Of course, I never tried Googling "train wrecks" (or "train wrecks"
with 2 spaces) before, so that explains a lot. *rolling eyes*
Labels: Fellow Bloggers, Planes Trains and Automobiles
DIY Mac Case Project
You see?
This is why I continue to venture over to
Isoglossia on a regular basis. Hilarious and practical and just generally geeky, all good qualities to look for in a blog. If you haven't yet voted in the Sil...er,
Satin Pajamas Blog Award competition, please consider clicking over to
this link and voting for
Mr. Sgazetti in the Expatriate category. He is most deserving of the dubious honor and promises to pay us all a princely sum if we will Just Do It. So go! And don't forget to check out the
DIY Mac Case Project before you leave.
Update: Thanks to Darko for pointing me to this post this morning. It was just the dose of laughter I needed to get me started.Labels: Fellow Bloggers
The New Improved Blogger
Bret did a nice job of addressing the latest
round of complaints that many of us share about Blogger, but given that the service is FREE, and therefore we have no leverage to change it, I have taken the bold and courageous leap off of the Empire State Building into the abyss and pulled the plug on word verification. You may now leave all kinds of spam comments without having to repeat yourselves for the hard-of-hearing WV Queen (and let's face it, her handwriting was sometimes atrocious). So...let the spamming begin!
Update 1: You might also notice that the "Powered by Blogger" button over in the sidebar no longer functions. This is just further evidence corroborating Bret's claims. The word "powered" clearly does not mean what you think it means when used in the context of "Blogger."
Update 2: Update 1 isn't quite true...the button does function, but the image does not. So, while I was over there poking around (wherever that button took me), I took advantage of the opportunity to change the language on my blog. From now on, we will be speaking "English (UK)" instead of ordinary "English." We'll see how that goes for awhile before jumping straight into Swahili or Hindi. In fact, I wonder, if you change the language often and eventually switch back to English, is the resultant blog going to read something like the results of that gossip game where the message goes around the circle and you compare the beginning and ending version of the story and laugh out loud at the results? We'll soon see, won't we?
Labels: Fellow Bloggers
Shopping Cart Stereotypes
John B has gone over the top with
this post in which he integrates the research of
this guy with his own findings along the river. You won't find this anyplace else in the blogosphere. This is good stuff, worth the extra few minutes it will take to read it.
Check it out. Labels: Fellow Bloggers, Flora and fauna, Shopping Carts
The Deposition, continued
In which I answer Question #3 of the
Inquisition. John asked...
3) Describe a piece of art in your house and what it signifies for you.I think I would have to pick this piece, by Abigail Howe, an up and coming young artist from the Kansas City area. I found it at
this gallery a couple years ago. I was not planning to buy anything, but I fell in love with this painting immediately. This portrait moves me on several levels, not the least of which is its title, which basically sold the painting. I think most people have heard of
The Girl With Pearl Earring, which is a beautiful work by
Vermeer, but it is distinctly lacking in iconography, something for which Vermeer was well known. Ironic then (or not) that this was the painting about which a book and subsequently a movie was written. Of all of Vermeer's works, The Girl With Pearl Earring probably had the least story to tell. At least that's my opinion. That said, the title of this painting parodies Vermeer's Girl With Pearl Earring perfectly, substituting a basically worthless stainless steel earring for the semi-precious pearl, a hardened gaze for the demure, and a nude (but not exposed) figure for the fully clothed one.
But parody aside, I was initially struck by its beauty which did remind me of Vermeer before I even read the title....the colors, the use of light, the pose (I think the back and shoulder muscles are especially beautiful, be they on a man or woman), the brush strokes, the serious gaze, and the way the model seems unaffected or unimpressed with her own beauty.
What else can I say? I hope this artist enjoys a successful career. I know we enjoy this painting of a perfect stranger in our home's entryway.
Girl With Stainless Steel EarringAnd now, are there any volunteers out there who might be willing to be interviewed? Hmm?
Labels: Art, Fellow Bloggers, Quizzes and Memes
