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.

how could i have forgotten?

this is a great article on an old passion. it's just not too neat to be on the receiving end.

how fun!

MYS sent some very interesting articles!

one is of a family living in the tippy-top of a pointed building in downtown seattle -- you HAVE to see this (complete with chihuly)!

and the other is of a woman living in a teeny-tiny studio -- very cool!