healthy -- yay!

i just ran across an interesting article -- the rankings of the health of all the counties in the country. my county is really healthy -- #6 of 39, my older son's is a touch less -- #12 of 39, and my younger son's is number one -- #1 of 32.

i need to get ready for work, but later i want to peruse this site more and see what exactly they're talking about. how healthy is your county?

short-sighted, greed- and ego-driven stupidity

honestly, you just have to shake your head when you read about nuclear power. obama is pushing for more nuclear plants in this country, calling them a necessity (2 new ones are soon going to be built in georgia) and yet acknowledging there are problems (e.g., storage and disposal of nuclear waste).

in light of the problems in japan the last x-days, there can't be any doubt that there are many problems with this technology. "we don't have a lot of experience with this," says one guy. well, duh. and yet, let's insist on going ahead with plans even though they have problems and are missing solutions. after all, we'll figure it out at some point, right? let's not count on it.

there's even an article which calculates the earthquake risk of u.s. plants. the one with the biggest potential for trouble isn't in california -- it's in new york.

but really, after looking back at all the times that man has tried to improve on nature and totally messed it up (like, bringing in kudzu to the u.s. to control soil erosion and having it run out of control, or bringing in a toad in australia to control the sugar cane beetle and the toad becoming a bigger, poisonous problem), how can anyone with half a brain assume that nuclear power is a good answer? only after solutions to the obvious huge problems had been found, would i consider the technology might not be suspect. but we're not there yet, guys. not by a long shot.

oh, look at the boats .... no, don't look

and if you want something different .... go here. some of her stuff is (ahem) really different.

you know, you have to wonder .... what would one's sex life be like if we'd been born in another country. america is just so repressed.

a different way of thinking about it

So .... do you like these?

Daddy Long Legs

A Pair of Lovers

We Were Made for Each Other

Well then, you'll like all of these!  And you can find more on his blog.

sorta like pig latin ....

oh wow, this is beyond cool! have you seen these guys? i've never heard of them, but that doesn't mean anything.

watch this video first -- it's a riot, whether you have the sound on or not. then watch this one, which is the making of the other one. they're singing backwards!!! hilarious!

spring forward, fall all over the place

personally i think daylight savings time is stupid. the whole thing just suddenly appeared one day and i've never reconciled myself to it. (you go, arizona!) it's a lot like the metric system, only we were able to head them off on that one.

regardless, this article is interesting. and be sure to read the part about yawning. i was wide-awake until i got done with it.  :)

bring it on!

oh goody. there's a new movie (just shown at sxsw) which is a sci-fi thriller dealing in parallel worlds. it looks great and as much as i don't really care for jake gyllenhaal, i want to see it. it's called Source Code and it's directed by the same guy who did Moon. i didn't want to see that one since it sounded sad and frustrating, although the performance by sam rockwell is supposed to be beyond superb, but i'm really curious about this one. the director for both, duncan jones, is david bowie's son. whooooooaaa .... what must that have been like?

earthquakes and tsunamis and melting ... oh my!

a partial meltdown is underway?? what in the world does that mean for all the rest of us? i've never really bought into the nuclear thing. humans are notorious for screwing up nature and anything else laying around so it's a given that someday at some point someone is going to somehow mess up things nuclear. of course, who counted on it being mother nature? still .... you'd think someone would have thought about that possibility. let's just hope they're able to get things under control before more lives are lost locally or abroad. those people in japan are having a terrible time!

new book

i've been trying to buy the new book, Delivered to Eternity by Laura Yirak, and can't get it done. since we don't have a kindle, i downloaded the app 'kindle for pc' last night and it self-registered. but when i tried to buy it, the site said we didn't have any applications to play it on. so i figured it needed time to get its records straight and i tried again this morning, but it's still saying the same thing. i went through all the info the amazon site gives about the kindle for pc, but the information isn't the same as what my app shows. good grief. so i finally sent them an e-mail about it. who knew it would be so hard to spend money?!

moms and mars

and then there's Mars Needs Moms. i don't know about that one -- it looks like it's not quite as much my style as Rango. still .... it might be good. i guess i'll see it when it's at netflix.

wild western

did i already mention Rango? i saw it billed as an animation for adults, so i watched a couple of clips. this one is pretty dang good.

woo, hoo!!!

the daughter-in-law's book will be available tomorrow on amazon!!!

buy it!! you'll like it!! it will pull you right in to several story lines!!

look for Delivered to Eternity, An Alesta the Vampire Book by Laura Yirak.

you can't go wrong!

if someone had done that to my kids .....

did you read about the father who vows to kill his son's murderer when the murderer's released from prison 12 yrs before the end of his sentence because he's had 'good behavior'?

reading about it was just disgusting. what was rhode island thinking to put this guy in jail for 40 yrs anyhow? he killed a little boy and ate his flesh. the guy is a total sickoid and letting him loose in society is unjustifiable.

in all the articles i read, there was only 1 comment where someone said the guy should be given a chance. oh come on -- take off your rose-colored glasses. how old are you anyway? and what's your religion?

i agreed with the rest of the comments.

repeating and repeating and repeating ....

my maternal grandfather was supposed to have been a sort of math wizard. i, on the other hand, missed out on a semester of math when we moved, and never recovered. so even though i know that math has some beautiful things (tessellations, mandlebrot sets), i usually stay away from it if at all possible.

now .... i discovered this little thing about pi. it is three-plus delightful minutes and i wish you the joy of listening to it.

so silly

if you want to take 2+ minutes and watch something funny/silly, watch this -- jennifer aniston's sex tape (sic).

up and up again

and then there was the group who floated a house off into the sky with 300 helium-filled balloons. they wanted to see if they could duplicate the movie Up!

of course, the house was not a typical house and there were two hot-air balloon pilots installed within, but still ..... each of the balloons was 8' tall and took a whole tank of helium, but still ..... only 300 balloons? no, i don't care for a ride, thanks.

she could be a great, great, great, great, great, great, great .....

did you read about the 23 yr old woman who is a grandmother? she gave birth when she was 13 and her daughter gave birth when she was 11. they are gypsies and getting married young is normal for them.

M-class sun events

oh goody -- we're supposed to be able to see the northern lights tomorrow night and the next night. apparently it's a Kp=4 forecast. i know, i know -- it sounds like something i would make up, but no. at that designation, we should be able to see it along with people in spokane wa, great falls mt, grand forks nd, sioux falls sd, minneapolis mn, oshkosh wi, grand rapids mi, and ottawa canada.

oh pooh -- every single time we hear of a good chance of seeing it, we have cloud cover. we will have clouds and/or rain for the next 7 days. dangit!

her book

my daughter-in-law has written a book. she's never written one before. she tried to contact an agent, but didn't have much luck, then realized she could publish online.

i'm not sure how she's going to do it, but her mom and i have given her tips, i've done some proofing on it, she has a cover and artwork, and she's decided on a title: Delivered To Eternity, an Alesta the Vampire book.

the story is great! it has several things going on and is very well written. it's hard for me to realize it's her writing. not that it's HERS, but that she's never done anything like this before and it's just very very good.

i'll let you know when it's available.

and another one

on the other hand, i could probably afford the tata pixel. its 'zero turn drive' is a kick. and it doesn't look too shabby either.

this is the one

i have just found my ideal car -- the renault captur. it is so beyond any expectations of a cool car i might have envisioned, that i can hardly stand it. the fact that it is not in production, and probably would cost more than i could possibly afford, are minor details. i am totally in love.

how long???

let's talk about snakes. i know they have value and some people enjoy them as pets. i don't really care for them. i've always been terrified of water moccasins, probably because of mis-information when i was young, and rattlesnakes surely have a good side.

regardless, i'd rather live some place that didn't have snakes, than i would some place that did. take florida, for instance. i wouldn't want to live there at all, but then i saw this picture which went with this article and then this one.

and now i think, florida? no f-ing way in hell.

how does he do that and keep himself secret?

so, you've heard of banksy, right? i have seen his name lately, as i scroll past this headline or that, but finally i decided to check him out and see what the buzz was about.

go here to get a quick view of the guy. you can also go to google images to see more of his work. it sounds like he's quite the character and some of his stuff is really great. some of it left me wondering what the deal was, though. regardless, now you know about him and may even know more than your friends do.

there are many paths to success.

which one is the good guy?

we used to watch a lot of movies. i've gone to reading all the time, the last few years, and don't watch movies as often although the husband still watches them all the time.

yesterday he said he had one i would enjoy so we sat down with supper and watched Knight and Day. it was pretty entertaining, but i thought cameron diaz was wrong for the part. well, she was probably right for the part because she played her character well, but she's gotten too old, or had too much face surgery, or something because i kept being distracted by the look of her face. it was lumpy, or fat, or old, or something. i never could put my finger on it and hey, i don't have anything against age, but if an actor's appearance detracts from the role he/she's playing, maybe another person would be better. after all, there's no dearth of actors.

the little things

dear diary, i've probably never told you this before, but getting old sucks. it's not just that you're getting older but it's the little things. a new wrinkle to mar your soft skin. unexplained skin tags and moles that turn up. age-spots that aren't nearly as cute as freckles. your gorgeous hair thinning out in a most horrifying way. a hair on your chin getting coarse and obnoxiously long. your eyesight playing pranks. your legs not wanting to lift up your body after you've bent down. your teeth getting discolored which must be from the pop you drink since you've never smoked.

it's just sad, i tell you. sad and bad. and figuring out ways to handle the little things is a challenge extraordinaire, although i suppose a person does best by just accepting it and dealing with the reality. so, where's the instruction guide?

my brood

MOS and his family visited us last weekend. it was soooooo nice. the grandaughter is almost 3 1/2 and the grandson is14 months. they are so cute and smart, of course, and delightful handfuls to have around. we enjoy their parents too, it goes without saying, and their visits always make me wish we lived closer to them.

at the same time i wish we lived closer to MYS. it's a tough deal for a parent who enjoys her kids so much.

i know! they can all move in on my block! that'd work! well, for me, anyhow.

which color do you like?

MYS's fiancee is wanting to buy a motor scooter. it's an  inexpensive option for them and, in their small town, should work out well.  they told me where a dealer is and i checked out the website. too fun!! seeing the scooters again reminds me that we had considered getting one years ago and, really, it might be nice to have one now. after all, we live in a small town, too.... what? oh, yeah. we have quite a bit of rain. oh well, it's a neat trip down fantasy lane to check them out.

here it comes and there it goes....

oh, this is cool! from up in the air, watching a shuttle launch -- what a great perspective! it got me excited about the space program all over again!

these drugs don't make you look better

do you know anyone who needs to be warned away from drugs? the multnomah county, oregon sheriff's department has made a new documentary which they're hoping will make an impressions on kids. and believe me, it's yuck. i am soooooooo glad i never wanted to get in on the drug scene. take a look, but not while you eat.

what's that red mark?

i forgot to mention the drama that MOS had a couple of months ago. he has to fly to north carolina every-once-in-a-while for his job and after he came home from one trip, he awoke one morning with bites all over.

with all the hype about bedbugs, super-defense and pro-action took place immediately. they called a number of exterminators before deciding on someone who sounded like he knew what to do, then proceeded to clear out possessions and clothing. i drove down and took care of the kids while son and dau-in-law worked to get things under control, then she took the kids and evacuated to her parents so the exterminator could come in the next day.

when i got home, i took off my clothes in the garage and stuffed them into the trash -- jeans, shirt, shoes, socks, coat, everything. the husband vacuumed the car, then we figured we'd done what we could and left the rest to nature.

as it turned out, the exterminator couldn't find anything at all to confirm the worst and eventually MOS decided it was a false alarm. the husband thought maybe our son had gotten  into a nest of spiders somehow, and that the bites were from them. all i can say is, thankfully it wasn't bedbugs. that is strictly a nightmare scenario!!

those were the days...

the husband said, "i was watching some old commercials on a video i got at the library, and they had a commerical with ozzie and harriet advertising a gas air conditioner." "gas," i said, "how the hell did they fill it up?" "it was natural gas," he said. "oh," i said.

the better to see you with, my dear ....

nothing changes in the world of vision except the shape of eyeglasses frames, right? well, maybe not right. this article talks about a new type of glasses which YOU focus depending on how far away your chosen object is. interesting concept and hey, i totally love the shape! bring it on!!

it's the force ....

and now .... some outtakes from little darth vader's ad.

where does the violence come from?

you know, i just can't help wondering, where did we go wrong? what is it with the crass, hateful, hurtful stuff that's going on with our society these days? i don't watch t.v. and it's probably a very good thing or i'd always be throwing up. i used to think all this brainless stuff started with roseanne, but the husband and i talked the other day and decided it really started with all in the family.  archie was a jerk. and people loved watching his show. *sigh*

so have you seen the commercials from the superbowl? there are a couple of sites you can go to and check them out. i like this site, probably because you can rate them. and believe me, there are A LOT of zeroes there. go check it out. the lowest of the low (according to me) were Pepsi (several were violent, WTF?!!), Doritos (just gross! except i like the fish food one), GoDaddy (they were about sex. and were stupid), Teleflora (disgustingly dumb!), Snickers, Staples, Chatter.com, Mini, Homeaway.com (encouraging infant abuse?), Stella Artois (puh-leeze), Fox, and Wendy's (slapping strangers??).

but be watching for these which (i thought) ranged from pretty good to great: E-Trade (cute), Bridgestone (the beaver, but not reply all), CarMax (pretty darn good), Best Buy (droll), Careerbuilder (so silly), Chevrolet (eco and tommy, but not glee), and the best - Volkswagon's little Darth Vader.

i wonder about the age group of the people (in their respective companies) who made the decisions to go forward with these commercials. were any of them older than 55? i'm just curious.

grand kudos to google!!!

OMG! google has completely outdone itself today!!! you know how they have their logo done up in a particular style every once-in-a-while? well, today it's jules verne! quick! before the day gets away! go to google.com and see it! it's even interactive!!!

what to watch for ....

gnomeo and juliet!!

new fun!

i'm so excited for MYS!! they found a great apartment and have moved in. his car made it down there just fine and they have it now, too. he's getting things squared away at work and will soon be up-to-his-elbows in projects. they're having fun learning about life in los alamos, and i love hearing them talk about it. such an exciting adventure!!!

darth has the force

the superbowl's not my thing except maybe for some of the commercials, after. but this one's out ahead of time -- very cool!!

sooooooo soft!

i just had a nice experience with an online shopping company! i once bought a set of towels which were made from bamboo -- they are sooooooo soft and have become my favorite towels. so i went online to see if i could find more (they're kassatex) and i ended up at cassadecor. so i ordered a set and while i was at it, i ordered a set of sheets (because they were on sale) which were also bamboo, plus some pillow cases.

the box arrived today -- all seven things. PLUS an eighth! i thought, oh no -- they accidently got something else in my order, and then worried about needing to contact them and tell them about it. as it turns out, when i was unfolding and clipping the tags off things, i saw that the two pretty little kitchen towels which i hadn't ordered were a gift from the company for shopping with them!! well! how nice! and you can bet i'll shop with them again! here's the link to the wonderful towels.

spring cleaning ....

have you ever heard of frazzil ice? i had no knowledge of this trick up nature's sleeve until my cousin sent me this link to a very cool (so to speak) phenomenon. maybe we should have a family reunion there in late march or early april.

but what does it mean?

it looks like change is afoot at work. at least in our little department. word is that in another part of the country, our department got combined with two other sections of the agency. no info on what happened to the people in the new department, but it looks like we're going to be finding out, first-hand, how it'll work. it's just conjecture at this point, to us underlings anyhow, but it won't surprise me if the action does take place, and within the next few months. and why do i think it actually will happen? because last week someone from the field office was asking what kind of stuff i did in my job. when my boss mentioned the query, she said she had told the big boss a couple of things to add to whatever list he had. 'good grief,' i said, 'two things? nobody has any idea what i do -- why didn't anyone ask me?' this was just before i went home, of course. the next morning i e-mailed her a three-page list of things i do on a regular basis. and i KNOW there were things on there she'd forgotten i was doing.

it'll be interesting to see how they handle everything. are we going to be riffed? are they going to give our jobs to officers? are there so many people in the other sections that they will get rid of some of us and spread the work around to the rest? it's long been know that our office has the most work/vehicles/people-we're-responsible-for of any office in the region, and we do our work with the least number of staff. like the big boss says, life isn't fair. i'm curious to see how it all plays out. and i just keep repeating to myself the mantra that the universe is looking out for my best interests.

movie fun

if you're in the mood to take a ride in the way-back machine, take a look at this. it talks about the best special effects in sci-fi/fantasy, and it's a lot of fun. i never think about 2001-a space odyssey anymore, or the matrix, or ghostbusters, or hellboy. and i never saw some of those horror flicks, i mean, yuck! but this is a fun half hour or so and brings back memories of times not that long ago (20 yrs, 30 yrs, etc).

for better or worse, getting older makes everything seem like yesterday.

preggers?

are you trying to get someone pregnant, but just can't seem to get the job done? maybe you should make some adjustments in the way you deal with the environment. prevention magazine has some tips, e.g. never touch a cash register receipt, avoid canned food like the plague, turn off your heated car seat, and always go organic. there are a couple more, but really, it seems like good advice for all of us. well, except for the heated car seat ... those of us without testicles should be okay.

i love you but i hate YOU

and then there is the hormone which promotes feelings of love and trust. recently it was discovered it also seems to reinforce bigotry. i don't know whether to be surprised or laugh.

i'm going to do what i want and the heck with everyone else

have you noticed, lately, how many people are rude or downright nasty? when everyone gets tired of being cut out of line, or taken advantage of, or getting a ticket while others whiz on by, then it's really going to get bad.

honestly, whatever happened to decency and goodness and courtesy? there's a lot more of that kind of thing in the midwest (north dakota south to texas and a state or two on either side) than there is in the pacific northwest or the east and southeast.

but the latest thing that caught my eye was ms. huffington who talked on her cell phone the whole time she was on the plane -- takeoff, flight, landing. what about the rules? i, for one, am really sick of people who just decide they don't have to obey the rules. one person gets away with it, and then another, then the whole domino thing happens. and if anyone objects, he is vilified and reviled! all this 'me, me, and only me' is going to bring this country down. damn.

at least the vote showed that most people didn't approve of her display. that's reassuring.

dream house

oh god i love this place!! click on the 'see all 25 pictures' and try to imagine what it would be like to live there! it was made (built?) in 1969 (good year!) out of chicken wire, burlap, and polyurethane. it's a 2-bedroom, 3 bath, 4000 sq ft place on 8+ acres with lots of trees and blue skies for $194,000-- what's not to like??!!!

insurance in other countries

i don't remember how i stumbled onto this 'women only car insurance' ad, but it's interesting. and the second one is frustrating as well as interesting. then this third ad is just great! i laughed so much and i'm not sure why. i mean, you've got to be proud of her -- she worked up her courage and accomplished her purpose.

so ... enjoy. or not.

look out, look out, look.... *splat!* and items suddenly quadruplicate....

the picture at the beginning of this article is pretty amazing -- so much junk we have left in space to fly around our world! good grief -- will we NEVER learn??!!!

they've been dying without 'em for years

oh this is rich. we are to belive that long-term care insurance is good for us? right. this article can't seem to figure out why more people don't buy it. well, let's see .... how much is top insurance management getting paid? have insurance companies ever screwed people? are premiums high and do they keep raising them? do insurance companies have dictates which should really be under the perview of doctors?

so, duh. people are sick of insurance companies and want to be left to die without the aggravation.

christmas music

well, now ... this is pretty cool. i've never heard of the north point iband, but check this out.

i love the bells, in fact the whole first thing was very great! i didn't care for the second one -- it pointed up how much better real instruments are. but the third one was very fun! all of it done with iphones and ipads. and the little robot guy was waaay cool!

enjoy!

i think it's in ontario

say you were eating at a shopping mall and music broke out ..... (thanks, sister-in-law!)

giddy-up

you've got to read this really funny account of a guy stealing food and making his get-away in a motorized shopping cart.

getting old is partly adventure and partly horror movie. i went to the eye doctor the other day because i had noticed, a number of months ago, that one particular ‘floater’ was always there in the same place. i didn’t go immediately because i wasn’t in any discomfort, it’s so hard to get away from work that i wanted to roll it up with a regular visit, and because the insurance company wasn’t going to pay anything unless it was more than a year since i’d gone previously.

after the eye doctor VERY thoroughly checked things out, he said it looked like my retina may have torn a little, but that it looked like my body was fixing it. he wanted me to come back in 3-4 months so he could see the progress.

he mentioned that if a bunch of floaters showed up, or one showed up persistently, or if a dark curtain covered half my vision, or anything strange happened, that i was to see him immediately. he also mentioned that several years ago, cataracts had started, but they hadn’t progressed.

do you know what this means? i’ve been moved out of the people-who-will-live-forever category into the people-who-might-die-someday category. i mean, these eye problems are things which happen to old people who do eventually die. honestly, it’s just amazing to think that includes me! who would have thought?!

computer weather

cloud computing. it's been a buzz-word for several years and now it's being adopted by the federal government. gsa is going forward with google and usda is going forward with microsoft. i know the gov't is trying to cut costs, but doesn't this seem like a right-hand/left-hand type of scenario? maybe they're trying to stay away from a monopoly situation, and maybe it doesn't matter, but big problems usually start out small.

but i guess the thing that really bothers me is this statement:  "But are there any security risks to moving to the cloud? One observer, noting that cloud platforms can host data servers on foreign soil, raised the specter of data being stored on third-party servers based outside the United States."

gsa doesn't seem concerned though:  "But Coleman told Nextgov that 'Information security is about much more than where your server sits,' because, regardless of location, all of the security controls in the contract are still monitored."

oh, of course. my fears are unreasonable. the security controls will be monitored. *sigh* will they never learn?

gsa has been, and continues to be, at the top of my list. of dunderheads.

amazing diversity

some republican comments about palin:

former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough: "What man or mouse with a fully functioning human brain and a resume as thin as Palin's would flirt with a presidential run?"


Mark McKinnon, a former campaign adviser to Republicans Bush and McCain: wrote that he admires Palin's "tenacity, her verve, her moxie and her pluck" but believes she is "perhaps the only Republican nominee who could lose in 2012."


Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak: "I think what's most worrisome is the uncertainty. She hasn't played the game at the national level like the others."

Jennifer Cross: "We just really like her. We think that she's down to earth, she's a mother and she's very intelligent no matter what others may say."

dumb bunnies

what do you think of this wikileaks thing? frankly, i think it's bad. i mean, anyone who discloses information like they've been doing should be thrown in jail.

FOIA was put in place to  legally get information, and there have always been moles and informants. but, gees, to get and distribute information which threatens our safety and way of life? i mean, does anyone really think these types of documents shouldn't exist? if so, you have no connection to reality!

trying to make everything the government does totally available to the public is just idiotic. you cannot run a large country by making every single thing public knowledge. do the terrorists operate that way? hell no. and have they been effective? pretty damn. do other countries honestly tell us what they're doing? hahaha.

transparency is a nice ideal, but get real. and people who expose sensitive and classified information should be allowed to rot in jail. without tv, books, computers, or yard time.

ah so ...

the husband and i went for thai tonight for supper. yeah, i know, we don't really like thai. i mean, lemongrass, cucumber, coconut, curry, and weird stuff like that -- yuck!!

but when we go there i get pad garlic. i mean, GARLIC!  yum!!! it's really great and it's fixed with chicken and spinach. just tooooo fabulous!

but that means i can't kiss the husband for awhile. he hates garlic.

turn here, no ... wait!

did you see how becoming a slave to gps might lower your brain function as you get older? i've just never gotten around to doing the gps thing. maybe my spiritual guide was keeping me away from something which wouldn't be good for me. i've worried along the way that maybe i was slipping behind in the 'knowledge of technology' area, but that might not necessarily be a bad thing. besides, i like doing the 'map' and 'getting lost' thing.

little green men? no.

it's amazing to me that these scientists are awed by their project of forcing microbes to assimilate arsenic rather than phosphorus. they have concluded, "If the claim holds up, it would lend weight to the idea that life as we know it isn't the only way life could develop."

well, duh. ego-and ethno-centrism at its finest.

i've always wondered when i've heard 'life couldn't exist there. it's (too cold, there's no oxygen, there's no water, there's no .....).' i mean, with the variety we have right here on earth, how could intelligent people NOT think life could appear in a variety of ways. *sheesh*

ca-na-ba-ru

able to last through extreme heat or cold! able to be used in shock absorbers or space craft! it's SUPer rubber!

entertainment!

some movies i think i want to see:

True Grit
Cowboys and Aliens
Tron: Legacy
Gulliver's Travels
The Tourist

no place like home

if you want to see a collection of interesting pictures of different places on our planet, go here. some of the pictures are interesting, some are cool, some are curious, some are icky, and some are beautiful.

don't always believe others

i don't get what hillary is trying to do with this longer hair style. it looks really bad on her. it makes her look tired, old, worn-down. her shorter style was much more energetic and complimentary. who is her hair dresser? honestly, some of the people who make fashion decisions must not care about the end result.

poor baby .... yeah right

the taliban people are tired and want the fighting to stop so they can rest. they have lost a lot of friends and commanders, and it bothers them.

but they have made it clear they just want a rest, not peace.

well, by all means -- let's give those poor people a well-needed rest so they can get restored and go back to massive killing and sadistic treatment of women.

or .... maybe we should hit 'em while they're down.

i just don't know what i'd do if it were my decision. 

tongues

just now, as i was thinking about lunch, i thought about 'sausage' then i thought about 'sorcerer' then i thought 'sorsage' -- try to say that fast, three times.

movers and shakers ....

my ex-boss is moving to florida. i guess it's been almost 2 years since she retired, and she and her husband decided since their family is all back over on the east coast that they should move back that direction. she's leaving a lovely house here on two lots overlooking the bay. nothing's moving up here, real estate-wise, so it could take forever for her house to sell, but i wish her lots of luck in that regard. and i hope she's happy in her new digs!!

oh, the weather outside was .....

i should have been taking pictures. thursday it snowed, probably between 2 and 4 inches, friday it rained, and today it's cloudy with absolutely no evidence of white stuff.

i had hoped we were going to have more of a winter than we did last year -- it mainly hovered around 57* all winter. so i guess you can say we did have more of a winter .... just not for very long.

amazing mishaps

did you see the item about the three youths (boys, aged 14 and 15) who drifted in a boat for 50 days across 800 miles? it's pretty amazing that they didn't suffer dramatic problems. they started out near the atafu atoll and ended up northeast of fiji. those islands aren't that big and that ocean is huge. i'm just in awe of the whole thing. in many ways they put kon-tiki to shame!

how has it come to this

i am mystified by the allure of sarah palin. yes, she's pretty, but so are a lot of people.

i believe if she were elected to the presidency that she would be so in-over-her-head and that nefarious personnel would 'come to her rescue'. i think those same nefarious personnel are leading the effort to get her elected, just so they can be in charge.

regardless there seem to be a lot of people who want to see her in office. WHAT are they thinking? she has incredibly little political experience, little world-wide experience, and not much class.

barbara bush doesn't have a lot of confidence in her either.

keeping up with the youngsters

if you want to read some funky, younger-person-frame-of-mind stuff, check out this guy. alt-text seems to have a good sense of humor, but i just really don't have time to check him out right now. i think it might be possible to get hooked on him, but i'm not really sure i'd understand everything he says.

ahhhh ..... old age. *sigh*

brush your hair

i came across this animated disney movie which just came out and it's 3-d, if you're into that -- it's called tangled and is a take on rapunzel. here are two sites you can go to and see what it's about. the first one gives you some background info on who the voices are, and the second one just gives you the preview.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40363738/ns/technology_and_science-science/

http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/tangled/#/home/ 

it looks like fun! and has some sweet graphics (reminds me sometimes of pandora).

do this, or combine this and this, or ....

would you like to get 93 mpg? well, then, check this out! the Volt goes on sale next month.

don't jump! you'll be de-rezzed!

i just saw a curious you-tube video. it's called The Apple Tree - A Tribute to The Glitch Mob.

i don't know anything about 'the glitch mob' but i thought the video was interesting. it had some great graphics, and quick-clips from about 200 movies. the movies i recognized were matrix, avatar, tron 2, and then, i guess, about a zillion horror movies, one thing that must have been freddy kruger and another one that must have been medusa.

the guy has a good touch at putting things to gether, no doubt about that. and it's 15 minutes of stuff.

but the thing that really caught my eye was the Tron video -- Tron: Legacy - "Rerezzed", music by The Glitch Mob. and it caught the eye of the Tron producer, too. this clip is only just over 2 minutes and is very easy to watch.

if you're drawn to any of that stuff, check it out. both videos can be found here.

i remember back when Tron came out that i thought it was great!! and my kids liked it and i kept thinking it was great down through the years. most people i mentioned it to had never heard of it. i never read about it and never heard it mentioned and at one point i think jeff bridges almost didn't own up to having been in it. and now the second movie is getting good buzz. validation!

manna from heaven!

looking through one of my recent catalogs, i noticed cougar gold, a cheese made by washington state university. i love cheese and this stuff looks really excellent. (buy from wsu, not any catalog you get.)

another thing this catalog had was tur-duc-hen. i'm not sure i've ever heard of that, but it's boneless turkey breast stuffed with duck, chicken and port sausage stuffing. it's $60 but doesn't it sound good?!

another catalog had vermont maple syrup, vermont cheddar cheese (!), and vermont cider jelly. if i were going to buy some of those things, i would purchase from them -- they had a cute catalog.

there's another catalog that we're definitely going to order from in the next couple of weeks and they're from texas. midwesterners are our favorite people. this cheese and sausage item caught the husband's eye and the thing i'm wanting to get is this turkey/ham/beef trio.

yummy to all!!

peek-a-boo ...

i know i just posted about makeovers, but really, this site shows how much difference makeup can potentially make. they've got one gal on there twice with completely different looks (i didn't even realize it the first time through!) -- the biggest problem, though, is that SOMEtime the makeup has to come off. so i mainly think of it as deception. i mean, you can't hide forever ....

the bus is bigger than you are

what would you think if you saw this in front of you:

it's the back end, though ....

more bus pictures here if you're interested ......

oh look, it's ... oh look at ... oh look ....

i love creative ads -- i just discovered this site which has some ads that are pretty clever. but i really don't get the red bull one.

this one about all the apartment buildings, however, is just depressing!

my oldest younger brother steered me to these shopping bags -- i like the gun and the dumbell, he liked the goose.

i've got to spend some time on this site and see what else they have!

cat toys

there's a lot of crap on the internet and then there's funny stuff.  this little clip reminds me so much of the cat we used to have, DabTac, hiding and sticking his paw out and feeling around ....

look, there's another one ...

the husband sent me a video showing which countries were doing nuclear testing between 1945 and 1998. it's depicted on a world map and is interesting, although i'd have preferred they explain who's flags are whose. history and geography weren't my favorite subjects. anyhow, it looks like a swedish company put it together or at least helped, and without doing my own research i don't know if the video is accurate. still .... it's interesting. make sure your sound is on since it's more effective that way.

be careful of being helpful

i just had the worst dream. i was in a small strip mall area and had lunch at a small restaurant. the owners were busy and some of the tables needed to be wiped off, so i got a dish rag and wiped the empty tables before i left.


i went down the street to another restaurant, a small diner, that an asian couple owned. i really liked them and, of course, their food, and had told them i’d watch their place while they ran an errand. it was afternoon so they hadn’t expected many customers.

i went in and sat at one of the tables just enjoying the sunshine and the quiet. then i got up and went over to the sink, which was next to a small refrigerator and a george foreman grill. those items constituted their kitchen.

the husband came in and sat at one of the tables, just to enjoy the day. then three burly guys in suits came in and said they were going to wait for the owners. then a whole bunch of people came in and filled up the rest of the tables but from what i could hear they were there for a meeting, so i happily announced that if any of them decided they wanted something to eat, to just let me know.

one of the tables of eight said they wanted menus. i passed them out and went back to the kitchen area. i figured i should at least put water on every table even if they weren’t going to order, so i opened the overhead cabinet and found a number of small water pitchers filled with water and ice, so i took several of them and started distributing them. then i remembered i better put glasses all around, but everyone had already gotten their own.

i went back to get more pitchers, but couldn’t find anymore. and the natives were getting restless. i kept looking and found some vases, but no more pitchers. crap. and then one of the ladies took the bag of ice and started filling the glasses at her table until the bag was empty. i knew we didn’t have anymore ice. crap.

i figured i’d better go over and get the orders from the table of eight so i headed over there, realized i didn’t have anything to write on, went back and searched for paper, and went back to the table. the first person said she wanted something i’d never heard of, and she had to show me on the menu. the next person ordered a hamburger for him and his two grandaughters. i suggested since it would be bedtime soon that maybe they’d just want water rather than pop to drink. the mothers smiled at me. the next person ordered something i couldn’t even figure out what she was saying. i thought it was ‘beam’ or ‘dean’ but when she showed me on the menu it was ‘faur’ and i just thought WHAT am i doing here???!!!

so i went back over to the kitchen area and before i even thought about the fact there was no way i could fix food for ANYone, the owners came back. as i was telling them about everything, i woke up. thank god!

look ma, no hands ....

it's interesting the things people used to do and not think anything of it. i just watched this video of a woman replacing a tire on an airplane back in the 1920s, maybe, and she didn't have on a parachute. oh, i forgot to say the plane was IN THE AIR.

as i watched her my stomach heaved and my palms got sweaty and even though i knew how it would turn out, it was difficult to keep watching. i'm not good with heights and could never in a million years have done what she did. and i usually figure i can do about anything. but not this -- not way up there.

the ONLY thing which could have induced me to do something like that would have been if one of my kids had been in danger. that's a mom for you.

go a little ways then turn left at the tree and go awhile longer ....

how are your gps skills? we've never gotten around to getting one and now i may be glad. it seems that using a gps (using it a lot, i would guess) may turn your brain to mush.

three studies have been done which conclude that how we navigate around today may impact the way our brain functions as we age. the article talks about the spatial navigation strategy versus the stimulus-response strategy.

it also talks about grey matter and alzheimer's and the hippocampus, blah blah, but i found it interesting. it would be particularly telling if they did another study made up entirely of air traffic controllers. controllers use spatial reasoning a lot! and if that group had a smaller percentage of alzheimer's victims, you'd think the theory really had truth to it.

regardless, i enjoy using maps and envisioning routes, and finding my way around, and i don't care if i get lost. it's a quick way to learn about the vicinity. of course, the way that guys give directions and the way that gals give directions are completely different and worthy of a study by itself!

anyway, read the article -- it's food for thought.

your turn....

did you know that airports don't have to let tsa screen travelers? i was aghast when i read this -- i didn't realize there was another option, but there is -- airports can hire private screeners and a florida congressman is encouraging them to do just that.

i actually don't know what i think about private screeners doing that job. it's a thankless, complex, difficult job and there are idiots, arrogant jerks, and unpleasant people manning some of the positions. still -- they have the inside information about what the government is encountering and trying to deal with, and i'm not sure private companies would be given all the information which is surely available to the tsa managers.

no i don't like those new scanners, and the new pat-downs? oh good grief! but at the same time, what IS the answer??

dust to dust ....

something from MYS's most recent post sure caught my eye. i don't know who put it together so i'm not sure of the validity, but check this out:

better this way? or this way?

i see this web site every once-in-a-while which shows a hair and face makeover for women. sometimes they look better, but sometimes they just look different. and, honestly, sometimes they look worse. of the 48 pictures i looked at today, i decided there were only about 27 that i thought looked better.

and, really, can those women style their hair they way the professionals do? get it all poofy and laying just right? probably not, which means they are probably going to end up going back to their familiar style.

and the makeup -- yuck! always so much eye shadow and tons of foundation. just gross. and they usually leave off their glasses for the final picture ... what are they supposed to do then, stumble around? nope, the glasses will go back on.

it just feels icky to me, but then i don't like plastic surgery either. yes, you can make the most of what you've got, but sooner or later the makeup is going to come off. what then?

into the future! or somewhere ....

well, yes. i live and breathe sci-fi and fantasy. the husband and i love star wars, and i was delighted to see this little flying remote droid which a hacker put together.

and do your kids love star wars? how about this tauntaun sleeping bag?

then there's the new movie, cowboys and aliens, which is coming out next july. oh yes, i'll be in line.

maybe a previous life?

i love bagpipes. i'm not sure why, maybe it's because of that underlying drone which feels comforting. and scotland calls to me for some reason, again, not sure why, but this little bit shows how beautiful scotland is.

where did this come from?

dreams are so weird. the husband and i had been traveling around the world (which would in itself be weird) and i had noticed that no matter where we traveled, the trees were always different. they didn't look like the trees back home, yet they were still trees and some were really pretty.

when we got back home, we gave a lecture (i think it was on the lincoln campus) to 70 or 80 thousand people about the trees we had seen. i remember there were so many people that we decided to walk up and down the rows so people could hear us better and we ended up walking through a tiny bedroom with blue carpet and one window. we went to the window to finish up and i leaned out and asked if there were any questions. i could only see about 30 of the multitude, but one guy asked a question so i answered.

at some point, we left that building and were going over to the parking garage, probably to get our car although i don't know why since we had another lecture in a little bit. at any rate, the husband had to go back to the room to get something and i walked slowly through the garage. an officer stopped several people, including me, and finally let them go but said i had to go with him. we walked up to the next level, which was the top, and i said i needed to call my husband and let him know where i was. the officer said i couldn't do that. about that time the husband came walking down the sidewalk and i waved and said hi. he looked around for the stairs so he could come up and the officer got irritated. i told him i wanted to see his credentials and he refused. i asked where his name tag was and he got angry. i said i wasn't going anywhere with him since i thought he was an imposter and i turned around to head for the stairs. then i woke up.

i can either what or what??

airport security just gets tighter and tighter, but should it? it's a tough issue for everyone to deal with, and now some people are protesting the new scanning technology. i don't like the idea of that equipment either but what is the alternative? decent people have gone along with all kinds of inconvenience because of the terrorist threat, but maybe we should start looking outside the box for answers since the answers we've used so far aren't that great. on the other hand, how do you think terrorists would effect their drama if people quit flying? that can really dredge up some unpleasant thoughts.

uhhh, what?

and now a little something from our furry friends ...

dog.

cat.

horse.

parrot.

i want to say one word to you, just one word. are you listening? plastics.

jennifer grey is pretty, nose job or not. but there is absolutely no way nadya suleman looks ANYthing like angelina jolie!

some of these people make you cringe (jocelyn wildenstein), some of them make you go 'oh yuck' (donatella), some of them make you shake your head (david gest, for more reasons than his plastic), some of them make you laugh (danielle/melan), and some of them leave you jaw-droppingly astonished (amanda, where is your husband the joker?)!

curious? here you go .... but only if you're brave or love horror movies.

o beautiful for spacious skies ....

this country is so beautiful!! in case it's been awhile since you thought about our national parks or the various terrains here for us to enjoy, give yourself a treat and go here. then scroll down to the 23 pictures at the bottom and take a lovely little vacation!

sunshine

i kept meaning to post this all week. i don't spend a lot of time thinking about the sun and don't spend any time reading about it. i think it's scary and you aren't supposed to get close to it and you aren't supposed to look at it and, ooohh monsters.

that said, these images are so very intriguing. they make me want to stick my finger into the sun and swish it around to see what kind of patterns i can make. hunh ... yeah .....

upper crust

since i shop online for everything except groceries, i got a lot of catalogs from companies i've never heard of -- per list-selling and all that.

this one just had me totally shaking my head. i don't begin to have enough money to shop with them and besides .... why would i want to? they have one flower arrangement (moss, 2 roses, a twig, some leaves, couple of mushrooms) for $124. they have a small tray with 2 candles, some twigs, and a bole of cotton for $68. there are 3 votives and twenty 3 1/2" candles for $98.

but enough of the ordinary stuff. they also have 3 ceramic bowls for $98, a wooden bowl with 3 packages of soup mix and a small soup cookbook for $198, a tiny ceramic colander to rinse off your berries for $64, 4 caramel apples for $48, 12 oz of sesame seed brittle on a platter for $98, a pound of pistachios for $38, and a branding iron with your own logo at no given price although if your order totals more than $1,000 they'll waive the one-time set-up fee of $395.

maybe i'm not being fair, after all there are people out there who buy this stuff. but then again, i'm only expressing my own opinion so fairness doesn't enter into it. so -- icky, patooey, gaaack! i'm not spending my money there.

what does that mean?

need something to lighten your day? here are some signs from around the world.

oh for pete's sake ....

i was just reading an article about superstition and the paranormal. i don't have a problem with people believing in ghosts or bigfoot or ufos. as long as people in charge aren't burning people at the stake for their beliefs, and the far-out beliefs aren't hurting anyone, i don't think it's a big deal. live and let live.

it's surprising to me, though, to read this quote: "regardless of the person or the phenomenon, paranormal experiences are purely quirks of the human brain" so says michael shermer who publishes skeptic magazine. i'm not going to bother checking out this guy or his credentials, but really. wrapping it up so neat and tidy just isn't the way the world works.

quantum physics is shadowy and mysterious yet has stood up to rigorous testing. how egotistical for smarmy shermer to declare that paranormal things are just imagined. making this simplistic ruling which discounts and discredits people, that is something that irritates me. buzz off, small man.

oh so cute!

are you having a bad day? sick of the world? can't stand people or things and just want to be left alone?

let's see if we can lighten your mood. go here and be sure to watch the videos.

dr. strangehand ...

this is just hard to believe. an independent hand! i can't give you the exact website because it only comes up as http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/ but the title is "when one hand develops a mind of its own". so go to the website and see if you can find your way to the article. it's creepy ... and hilarious!

yay! pix!

these are definitely cool!  pictures that people took of things that interested them. i liked the first one, the third, the sixth, the seventh, and the ninth.

then there's this series.  i liked the first and last. why were they their favorites?

wow!

wow! there's some interesting stuff in this world!

people can do amazing things -- scary, too.

this was back when, but still -- pretty funny.

remember when they first started making robots?

this is for the husband.