A Drow for Old Gary :)
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Friday, September 29, 2006
Which Horror Movie Are You?
The Craft
You're whole life, you've felt different. You know you're different, and that is why you break away from the norm and don't give a shit what other people think about you. You're you, you're proud, you're a bit... weird might I say? but you're far more interesting than most people will ever percieve. Keep being yourself, whether people like it or not.
Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
 | You scored as Goddess. You are a goddess. Your constantly helping people with their problems, but you never take time for you. You should try to take some alone time. Take a trip far away, where noone knows you. It will be good for you, because you deserve a break.
What ancient breed are you? created with QuizFarm.com |
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Toilets ~ A Modern Marvel
A couple weeks ago I watched a program with my brother called "Modern Marvels". This particular show was about the toilet. It's really fascinating history. I found this excellant essay
Clicking on the headline will take you to a corner of the web called the "Toilet Museum". You can check out everything from techno-toilets to toilet earrings. Personally, I feel the museum is not near as interesting as the essay, but I included it because I'm a visual person: pictures are fun. :)
Thankfully, I haven't had "pray to the porcelain god" Or "Worship ralph At The Porcelain Altar" in a long time. But, after reading the history of toilets maybe we should all hold them in higher regard.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Political Compass
Click the heading to take the test:
I was happy to see that my results (the black and white graph with just the 1 red dot) show me just about lined up with The Dalai Lama :)
The website has some interesting insights into how/why it works like it does. Try it out!
One of my favorite 'feel good' songs
Smooth by Carlos Santana & Rob Thomas
(click on the heading to see a very HOT video :D )
Lyrics:
Man, it's a hot one
Like seven inches from the midday sun
Well, I hear you whisper
And the words melt everyone
But you stay so cool
My Munequita
My spanish harlem Mona Lisa
You're my reason for reason
The step in my groove
And if you said
This life ain't good enough
I would give my world to lift you up
I could change my life to better suit your mood
Cause you're so smooth
And it's just like the ocean
Under the moon
Well, that's the same the emotion
That I get from you
You got the kind of loving
That could be so smooth
Give me your heart
Make it real
Or else forget about it
I'll tell you one thing
Well, if you would leave
It'd be a crying shame
In every breath and every word
I hear your name calling me out
You hear my rhythm on your readio
And you feel the turning of
The world so soft and slow
It's turning you' round and 'round
And if you said
Well, go forget about it....
Give me your heart, make it real, or else forget about it
Friday, September 22, 2006
Color Quiz
This test is partially based on research by Dr. Max Lûscher during the early 1900's. He has devoted his life to the study of how color affects behavior and has been hired by some of the world's largest companies as a consultant.
The test itself is based upon fundamentals in color psychology. With years of research by color psychologists the characteristics of certain colors has been identified to cause an emotional response in people. This was done by studying the response from hundreds of thousands of test subjects around the world in order to isolate how certain colors make us feel. By doing the reverse, using the colors people prefer to determine how people feel, we can get some interesting indicators about a person's current emotional state.
It is important to understand that the results from tests like this can be both short-term and long-term in their meaning. For example, if you are feeling depressed about something when you take the test you may see this reflected in your results. You may also notice deeper conflicts showing themselves consistantly if you take the test time and time again. This test can be taken quite often and still yield results that are accurate. The results will not be the same each time you take the test, for the most part, unless you are taking them without some time interval between them.
The test is widely used in Europe and overseas. There are very few experts of Luscher's work in the United States, so for some of our American visitors the notions behind this test may seem rather strange...But give the test a try and you will be surprised!
Is the test reliable? We leave that to your opinion. We can only say that there are a number of corporations and colleges that use the Lûscher test as part of their hiring/admissions processes. It can be a useful tool for doctors and psychologists as well and is used to get a quick overview of potential issues patients may have in their lives.
My Results:
Free personality analysis from ColorQuiz.com.
Generated on Fri Sep 22 21:51:21 2006.
Your Existing Situation
Active, but feels that insufficient progress or reward is being made for the effort exerted.
Your Stress Sources
The existing situation is disagreeable. Has an unsatisfied need to ally herself with others whose standards are as high as her own, and to stand out from the rank and file. Her control of her sensual instincts restricts her ability to give herself, but the resulting isolation leads to the urge to surrender and allow herself to merge with another. This disturbs her. as such instincts are regarded as weaknesses to be overcome; she feels that only by continued self-restraint can she hope to maintain her attitude of individual superiority. Wants to be loved or admired for herself alone; needs attention, recognition, and the esteem of others.
Your Restrained Characteristics
Feels that she is receiving less than her share and that there is no one on whom she can rely for sympathy and understanding. Pent-up emotions and a certain egocentricity make her quick to take offense, but she realizes that she has to make the best of things as they are.
Feels that things stand in her way, that circumstances are forcing her to compromise and forgo some pleasures for the time being.
Your Desired Objective
Seeks an affectionate relationship, offering fulfillment and happiness. Capable of powerful emotional enthusiasm. Helpful, and willing to adapt herself if necessary to realize the bond of affection she desires. Needs the same consideration and understanding from others.
Your Actual Problem
Wants to be valued and respected, and seeks this from a close and peaceful association of mutual esteem.
Your Actual Problem #2
Needs to achieve a stable and peaceful condition, enabling her to free herself of the worry that she may be prevented from achieving all the things she wants.
The test itself is based upon fundamentals in color psychology. With years of research by color psychologists the characteristics of certain colors has been identified to cause an emotional response in people. This was done by studying the response from hundreds of thousands of test subjects around the world in order to isolate how certain colors make us feel. By doing the reverse, using the colors people prefer to determine how people feel, we can get some interesting indicators about a person's current emotional state.
It is important to understand that the results from tests like this can be both short-term and long-term in their meaning. For example, if you are feeling depressed about something when you take the test you may see this reflected in your results. You may also notice deeper conflicts showing themselves consistantly if you take the test time and time again. This test can be taken quite often and still yield results that are accurate. The results will not be the same each time you take the test, for the most part, unless you are taking them without some time interval between them.
The test is widely used in Europe and overseas. There are very few experts of Luscher's work in the United States, so for some of our American visitors the notions behind this test may seem rather strange...But give the test a try and you will be surprised!
Is the test reliable? We leave that to your opinion. We can only say that there are a number of corporations and colleges that use the Lûscher test as part of their hiring/admissions processes. It can be a useful tool for doctors and psychologists as well and is used to get a quick overview of potential issues patients may have in their lives.
My Results:
Free personality analysis from ColorQuiz.com.
Generated on Fri Sep 22 21:51:21 2006.
Your Existing Situation
Active, but feels that insufficient progress or reward is being made for the effort exerted.
Your Stress Sources
The existing situation is disagreeable. Has an unsatisfied need to ally herself with others whose standards are as high as her own, and to stand out from the rank and file. Her control of her sensual instincts restricts her ability to give herself, but the resulting isolation leads to the urge to surrender and allow herself to merge with another. This disturbs her. as such instincts are regarded as weaknesses to be overcome; she feels that only by continued self-restraint can she hope to maintain her attitude of individual superiority. Wants to be loved or admired for herself alone; needs attention, recognition, and the esteem of others.
Your Restrained Characteristics
Feels that she is receiving less than her share and that there is no one on whom she can rely for sympathy and understanding. Pent-up emotions and a certain egocentricity make her quick to take offense, but she realizes that she has to make the best of things as they are.
Feels that things stand in her way, that circumstances are forcing her to compromise and forgo some pleasures for the time being.
Your Desired Objective
Seeks an affectionate relationship, offering fulfillment and happiness. Capable of powerful emotional enthusiasm. Helpful, and willing to adapt herself if necessary to realize the bond of affection she desires. Needs the same consideration and understanding from others.
Your Actual Problem
Wants to be valued and respected, and seeks this from a close and peaceful association of mutual esteem.
Your Actual Problem #2
Needs to achieve a stable and peaceful condition, enabling her to free herself of the worry that she may be prevented from achieving all the things she wants.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
The Rock Bottom Remainders
"We play music as well as Metallica writes novels."
--Dave Barry
"Your band's not too bad. It's not too good either. Don't let it get any better, otherwise you'll just be another lousy band."
--Bruce Springsteen
The Rock Bottom Remainders have no record contract, no music videos and no Grammy nominations, but have over 95,000 hits on Google
The band members include Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Stephen King, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, Robert Fulghum, Matt Groening, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Tad Bartimus, and Greg Iles. Band members collaborated on a book about the band, Mid-Life Confidential.
"I picked up one of the two guitars I'd been using, and just as we were about to start, Stephen King tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'We have a special guest.' I turned around, and there was Bruce Springsteen. I still don't know how he came to be at this convention; I don't believe he's a bookseller. All I know is, he was picking up the other guitar. My guitar. 'Bruce,' I said to him. 'Do you know the guitar part to Gloria?' This is like asking James Michener if he knows how to write his name." - Barry
"People are throwing panties at you. They certainly never do that at my book signings." -Matt Groening
"There's an audience out there, and the key is to kick it in the ass." -Stephen King
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Say whatever else you will, this man has balls...
Venezuela's leader Hugo Chavez has called US President George W Bush as "the devil" in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.
"The devil came here yesterday," he said, referring to Mr Bush's speech on Tuesday. "It still smells of sulphur today," he added.
US state department spokesman Tom Casey said that it was disappointing to see a head of state speak in such a way.
Mr Chavez went on to criticise the UN system which was "worthless".
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Reiki
Reiki
The word Reiki is made of two Japanese words - Rei which means "God's Wisdom or the Higher Power" and Ki which is "life force energy". So Reiki is actually "spiritually guided life force energy."
Monday, September 18, 2006
My Grandparents graduating from college with my mom. They both served in the military in WW2. They met in Hawaii.
Some very hungry kids. *note* it was NOT my idea to give all the kids coke to drink. 8 little kids with tummies full of spaghetti-o's, mac & cheese, doughnuts and coca-cola is not something I recommend. My sister seems to think it's lots of fun though. It always takes me a week to get my kids eating habits straightened out after the rest of the family has been here!
Yes this is my sister reading the directions on a can of spaghetti-o's. (she'd kill me if she knew I'd posted this pic :D)
My brother right before he left for the airport to return home to his wife Yukie. They are having twin girls in December!
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Say What?!
I got a phone call from Liam's school today saying that he was sick and needed to be picked up. He has G.E.R.D. and sometimes it acts up and he can't quit puking. Not fun at all and def. not something you should be dealing with in a public restroom. Anyway I grab his medicine and get to the school as quick as I can. I go into the office and since it's a new school the receptionist doesn't recognize me yet.
I say, "I'm here to pick up Liam X". The office is almost vacant just the receptionist that I spoke with about 30 minutes prior to this and a pre-teen girl that was loitering around for some reason.
I get a blank stare in return and then the receptionist replied,"Ohh is that the short little kid with white hair?" Which totally threw me for a loop. I didn't know how to reply at all. I mean, I'm short only 5'1" and Liam is in 6th grade and shorter than me but I'm not sure if that means he's short in general. I mean he's only 11. I didn't think 11 year olds were supposed to be 'tall'. And Liam has light brown hair almost blonde, but it is definitely not white in color. Did she mean 'white' type of hair? As in 'white people'?
At this point I was pretty speechless. As you may have been able to tell by some of the family photos in my blog, my family is composed of people of all different races, religions, colors, s.o., shapes and sizes. Judging people by their color or size or shape or anything of the sort just does not enter into our thoughts or speech or belief system.
So I just said, "I just got a phone call saying he was sick and I needed to pick him up." She replies,"Well now where did he get off to? Did he go back to his class? or the bathroom again? He's been in the bathroom quite a few times..."
Now I'm thinking, How in the world am I supposed to know where he is? I just got here! She finally thinks to call his teacher who then sent him back to the office to go home with me.
I left with a very sick child and even less confidence in his schooling than I had previously. I can't believe that she thought describing my child (any child in fact) as a "short little kid with white hair" was acceptable. I might be over-reacting but I am upset about it.
One thing I am glad of now is that I know how really ignorant some of the people at his school are and I can help him deal with them better now, hopefully.
Edit
I've been thinking about this and talking about it with some members of my family and I wanted to add some more thoughts.
I realize when discussing people that some descriptive words are needed and used. I did it myself when I described the people in the office. In saying the "pre-teen girl" some people would argue that I am being sexist or judgemental about the age of people.
My brother went with me when I went to pick Liam up in the office and I talked to him about his reaction. He said he was pretty shocked by her words also. I think it was the way she used the words, her tone or something more than the words themselves.
There is a big difference between being described as a "petite asian girl" and a "short jap chick". So obviously some words are not as 'nice' as others. But, when I really started thinking about it I realized that this subject is not clearly defined and some of my arguments actually seem hypocritical. Because I do use descriptive words when talking about people. I just tend to use 'nicer' words.
My dad said the receptionist was probably one of the "old school southerners". The type that would have no problem describing 2 children in a room as "a tall nigger, and a short white lookin' boy". I realize that he is probably correct because Mississippi is not known as being a progressive, open-minded, tolerant, equal rights for all, type of state.
For now I'm just trying to decide if the receptionist is a "benign slightly befuddled grandmotherly type" or a "nasty bigoted white old hag". It's a tough decision to make.
I say, "I'm here to pick up Liam X". The office is almost vacant just the receptionist that I spoke with about 30 minutes prior to this and a pre-teen girl that was loitering around for some reason.
I get a blank stare in return and then the receptionist replied,"Ohh is that the short little kid with white hair?" Which totally threw me for a loop. I didn't know how to reply at all. I mean, I'm short only 5'1" and Liam is in 6th grade and shorter than me but I'm not sure if that means he's short in general. I mean he's only 11. I didn't think 11 year olds were supposed to be 'tall'. And Liam has light brown hair almost blonde, but it is definitely not white in color. Did she mean 'white' type of hair? As in 'white people'?
At this point I was pretty speechless. As you may have been able to tell by some of the family photos in my blog, my family is composed of people of all different races, religions, colors, s.o., shapes and sizes. Judging people by their color or size or shape or anything of the sort just does not enter into our thoughts or speech or belief system.
So I just said, "I just got a phone call saying he was sick and I needed to pick him up." She replies,"Well now where did he get off to? Did he go back to his class? or the bathroom again? He's been in the bathroom quite a few times..."
Now I'm thinking, How in the world am I supposed to know where he is? I just got here! She finally thinks to call his teacher who then sent him back to the office to go home with me.
I left with a very sick child and even less confidence in his schooling than I had previously. I can't believe that she thought describing my child (any child in fact) as a "short little kid with white hair" was acceptable. I might be over-reacting but I am upset about it.
One thing I am glad of now is that I know how really ignorant some of the people at his school are and I can help him deal with them better now, hopefully.
Edit
I've been thinking about this and talking about it with some members of my family and I wanted to add some more thoughts.
I realize when discussing people that some descriptive words are needed and used. I did it myself when I described the people in the office. In saying the "pre-teen girl" some people would argue that I am being sexist or judgemental about the age of people.
My brother went with me when I went to pick Liam up in the office and I talked to him about his reaction. He said he was pretty shocked by her words also. I think it was the way she used the words, her tone or something more than the words themselves.
There is a big difference between being described as a "petite asian girl" and a "short jap chick". So obviously some words are not as 'nice' as others. But, when I really started thinking about it I realized that this subject is not clearly defined and some of my arguments actually seem hypocritical. Because I do use descriptive words when talking about people. I just tend to use 'nicer' words.
My dad said the receptionist was probably one of the "old school southerners". The type that would have no problem describing 2 children in a room as "a tall nigger, and a short white lookin' boy". I realize that he is probably correct because Mississippi is not known as being a progressive, open-minded, tolerant, equal rights for all, type of state.
For now I'm just trying to decide if the receptionist is a "benign slightly befuddled grandmotherly type" or a "nasty bigoted white old hag". It's a tough decision to make.
Monday, September 11, 2006
River's Edge The 9/11 photograph you didn't see
River's Edge
The 9/11 photograph you didn't see.
Posted Monday, Sept. 11, 2006, at 5:14 PM ET
In his New York Times column yesterday (TimesSelect subscription required), Frank Rich discussed a photograph taken by Magnum photographer Thomas Hoepker on Sept. 11, 2001, showing a group of young people chatting on the Brooklyn waterfront, apparently indifferent to the scene of destruction across the river. Slate has reproduced the photograph below, which the Times did not print with the column.
Hoepker did not publish the image until recently, in David Friend's book, Watching the World Change. Rich writes that it can serve as a powerful symbol for our national psyche:
Seen from the perspective of 9/11's fifth anniversary, Mr. Hoepker's photo is prescient as well as important—a snapshot of history soon to come. What he caught was this: Traumatic as the attack on America was, 9/11 would recede quickly for many. This is a country that likes to move on, and fast. The young people in Mr. Hoepker's photo aren't necessarily callous. They're just American. In the five years since the attacks, the ability of Americans to dust themselves off and keep going explains both what's gone right and what's gone wrong on our path to the divided and dispirited state the nation finds itself in today.
Monday, September 04, 2006
RIP Mr Steve Irwin
Australian naturalist and television personality Steve Irwin has been killed by a stingray during a diving expedition off the Australian coast.
Mr Irwin, 44, died after being struck in the chest by the stingray's barb while he was filming a documentary in Queensland's Great Barrier Reef.
Paramedics from Cairns rushed to the scene but were unable to save him.
Mr Irwin was known for his television show The Crocodile Hunter and his work with native Australian wildlife.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
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