blogging! magazine

blogging! magazine

Check it out. (link via amanita)

Sunday's Child is Full of Grace

DD spent the weekend at the inlaws, and when we went over to their house to pick her up, it seemed as if she had grown overnight. Sigh. My sweet lil tater is growing up so fast.

We ate lunch with them, and then came home. DH took a nap and DD and I played together and watched cartoons for awhile. I was tired and could have taken a nap as well, but I didn't. For supper, we had leftovers: pizza and I had leftover food from our trip to Texas Roadhouse the night before. Try the portobella mushroom chicken. It was delish!

Saturday Night at the Movies

After working for five hours, DH & I had a hot date. It involved a bookstore, Texas Roadhouse, and the Sci-Fi channel.

Ah, we live so dangerously!

Pimping a Local Business

Flesor's Candy Kitchen is a great little candy store that's locally owned and operated. I bought DH some chocolate-covered peanuts from this store, and we, I mean he, loved them.

The candy really is to die for--which was obvious near Valentine's Day. The place was jam-packed with customers.

Journal entry posted

Read it here. I discuss a movie I watched recently and traveling to Oz someday.

Puke Plague

Well, after the colds we suffered from a couple of weeks ago, I expected that we saw the last of the nasty winter cold and flu season.

Alas, it was not to bed. DD came down with something earlier in the week. She went to bed on Monday night, feeling fine, but by 11pm, she was throwing up every hour. DH caught it last night. He said he felt fine all day, but by the time 7pm rolled around, he felt as if the life force got sucked right out of him. He was at work, and luckily, it was a short night for him. He came home and immediately got sick. Ewww... DD stayed home from school on Tuesday and Wednesday, but she was feeling like her old self by this morning.

DH's mom and dad were also sick this week. They ended up going to the ER because they couldn't stop getting sick.

So, send good thoughts my way. I do not want to catch whatever is going around!

An Ending, without Resolution for Many

The NYC Medical Examiner's office has ended identifying remains from the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack.

1,585 of 2,749 people killed were identified using physical remains. Two of the hijackers were even identified. However, according to the article on CNN.com, the office had received 19,916 human remains. After exhausting all available DNA technology as it currently stands, the office will keep the records and contact families if better technology becomes available.

Guess they'll put the records in the morgue of the morgue.

Free Mojtaba & Arash Day

The Committee to Protect Bloggers hopes all of the bloggers out there in the blogosphere will support their protest today to free Mojtaba Saminejad & Arash Sigarchi, two Iranian bloggers who were imprisoned and/or face criminal charges for blogging. Even the bbc.uk covered the story.

Canine Plastic Surgery

Tonight on the news, I saw a news story about canine plastic surgery. Yeah, you read that right. This one lady had her dog's lazy lip nipped and tucked because it was making the dog drool. The veterinarian felt it was medically necessary. However, I think it was more of a aesthetic thing. The lazy lip did make the dog look silly, and it looked a lot better with the nip and tuck. But the lip wasn't hurting the dog, other than having a little extra drool.

The second woman interviewed had had her dog neutered, and then had prosthetic testes put back in, so that the dog looked intact, purely for aesthetic value.

I thought to myself, prosthetic testes. What will they think of next? If I had done that to my dog, why on earth would I admit it to anyone???

Apparently, the animal plastic surgery industry is becoming very popular, and surgery is not cheap, running at least $1500 for a doggie facelift. Um, yeah.

As I sat there watching the report, I was astounded that people would actually pay to get a facelift for their dog. Perhaps it was just the press putting a spin (read: cutesy take on) on necessary medical procedures. Still, the prosthetic testes was going a little too far, imho.

It's even the subject of a a reality show from the UK.

Site Updates

Pardon the dust while I work on the sidebar. It's rather a mess, with all those different blogrolls with duplicate entries. I will be fixing that shortly. :)

Taxing Dreams

I had strange dreams last night, involving finding a place to live, the girl Crispina from "The Magdalene Sisters" movie, and old college friends.

Weird.

I don't know why I had such dreams. I guess I have an overactive imagination. I got quite a bit accomplished last night, including preparing and e-filing our tax returns and making business cards for DH. I remember that I went to bed feeling very satisfied with myself, so perhaps that is why I had a lot of dreams. My mind felt free to wander and to make up interesting scenarios, instead of feeling so exhausted that it blacks out entirely.

I do feel a lot more balanced these days. I do what needs to be done instead of procrastinating.
*laughs* However, I had been procrastinating doing the taxes. This is the first year in my many years of working that I actually prepared them myself using the website freetaxusa.com. I found it through the irs.gov website. It cost $9.95, but that was better than spending $150 as I have done in the past at H&R Block. Not that there's anything wrong with H&R Block. I just don't have that kind of money this year to spend. It took me about an hour and a half to get everything completed, because I had to reboot once during the process AND I'm on dialup. :) The whole process was very simple, and I highly recommend it.

It looks like we'll be getting a nice chunk of change back from the government, after lending it to them freely all year long. I'm just grateful we don't have to pay anything.

New Album Released!

My man has a new album coming out on April 26. It's his 19th album. I can hardly wait! The news page also says he will be touring to promote the album. Sigh. It would be awesome to see him live and in concert again. (I saw him perform live when he was touring for "Ghost of Tom Joad.")

Why You Should Join BlogIt

Do you remember Themestream? It was a website with articles on any conceivable and possible topic imaginable. There were some good writers, and some really awful writers, but the idea was to get paid for writing, on a per-click basis. Alas, it went out of business, because of funding issues.

A somewhat similar site is BlogIt, formerly "The Blogging Network." This site is a subscription service, but your subscription money goes to the bloggers you read, and not just to the owners of the site. You can read the mission statement here, and some testimonials here. The site bills itself as "The Online Writing Marketplace," and you can find a variety of blogs on various subjects. Some people join just to read the articles. As with all blog sites, you will find some chaff amongst the wheat.

Why I write on BlogIt is to earn money for what I write. Of course, everyone hopes to earn money. Blogs get ranked in order of readership, and it's fun to see where I rate compared to others. Increasing one's ranking is an incentive to keep blogging everyday.

The key to writing on BlogIt is to write short entries every day, which keep people coming back for more. Good, attention-getting headlines are important too, because that makes readers click on that entry. Another great thing about BlogIt is the comments. Everyone over there is really friendly and almost everyone comments on each other's posts (you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours). It is a true community. In addition, you can block people from commenting on your blog or emailing you; you can change the basic template using HTML; and you can upgrade or downgrade your subscription to a different plan at any time.

Some people don't like the pay-per-view method of writing, but it definitely works for some writers on BlogIt. My blog on BlogIt carries different content from this one, so if you enjoy reading me here, you should enjoy reading me there. :)

/pimp over

A Face Only a Mother Could Love

Last night, while watching the Westminster Dog Show, I saw this cutie pie. Ironstone Mafioso won best of his breed, the Neapolitan Mastiff, also known as the Mastino.

Isn't he luvverly!? Not that I could afford to own one, mind you. The dog is supposed to weigh over 180 pounds when full-grown. As Ironstone Mafioso lumbered around the ring, I couldn't believe it was a dog. He was huge! Here's the WKC breed info page, and here is a link to the official breed club, and FAQ.

Dogs are marvelous animals, with an almost infinite variety.

V-Day

... was a huge success! In spite of my anti-Valentine's Day feelings, I was pleasantly surprised, and I surprised someone pleasantly as well. ;)

I went shopping with my mom on Sunday and boughtthis outfit from Lane Bryant, as well as something similar to this (in V-Day red, with ribbons).

Last year's V-Day felt forced, since DH and I were having some problems, but this year, although we were both kind of broke, we ended up having a marvelous time. DH gave me a lovey-dovey card, which was really sweet, plus candy (Reese's Peanut Butter Cups miniatures in a heart-shaped box), and a heart-shaped trinket box with a bear couple on the lid.

DH also fixed a delicious V-Day dinner: steak, scalloped potatoes, green beans, honey muffins, and apple crisp for dessert.

I'm so spoiled! :)

Dream Season

Bruce Weber is certainly doing something right. I don't even like sports, but I find myself rooting for the home team. Of course it helps that the team is only a half-hour away. :)

It would be exciting to see the Fighting Illini men's basketball team go all the way and win a national championship in the NCAA tournament.

Just don't get me started on the Chief.

For the record, I'm against it because it seems like a throwback rather than a symbol of the future. Keep the name; get rid of the chief, IMHO.

Arthur Miller Dead at 89

From the NYT: Arthur Miller, playwright of "Death of a Salesman," is dead at 89.

BG has been renewed!

"Battlestar Galactica," easily the best new show on tv besides "Lost," has been renewed for a second season. Yay!

A few years ago when the miniseries was on television, I didn't watch it, thinking it would just be hoky, but when I caught the repeat last year and started watching the series, I found myself getting caught up in the drama. Perhaps it is just another space soap opera, but it's a damn sight better than tired old shows like "Stargate: SG-1."

You know you've been online too long when...

you start dreaming about bugs in Firefox. I don't even use Firefox, but there I was, this morning, dreaming about having that security problem and needing to fix it.

Strangely (as though the dream weren't strange enough!), I don't spend as much time online anymore. In fact, I've limited my time in the evenings to a half-hour or less. Sometimes, I only get online to do a quick email check.

There are things I miss about getting online, of course, such as talking to friends, but I had to break my dependency on that interaction and pay more attention to my real-life relationships. The bad part is that I could quite easily see myself getting hooked back into spending hours in front of the screen.

I just have to keep busy.

It Takes a Village

**Warning: Spoilers about the movie "The Village" may follow**

We rented the movie "The Village" this past weekend. DH's coworkers had told him part of the twist of the plot, but I told him not to tell me because I wanted to be surprised, and man, was I ever! I knew there wasn't something quite right about "they who must not be named," but I did not see the ending coming. In fact, the more I think about, the more selfish I think the main characters were. No society is perfect. No society is free of strife. The arrogance of the village elders just stunned me. What gave them the right to perpetuate such a lie? The real story, I believe, is what happened AFTER the girl brought back the medicine. I just know that the secret would have to be revealed to the whole population.

I liked the movie, but I felt that it needed something more. Not to mention that it was veryyyy slowwww-paced throughout. I thought William Hurt's and Sigourney Weaver's talents were wasted here, but I liked Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

See it if the trailers had intrigued you, but expect to be mildly disappointed.

The Cold From Hell

It started last week, around Monday or so. I was exhausted, but I thought it was just because I hadn't slept well over the weekend. The kid had been sick a few weeks ago, but I had emerged unscathed...

or so I thought.

Damn Wal-Mart and its nasty, germ-covered carts!

So, Tuesday rolled around and I was still very tired, and I noticed the telltale sign: itchy eyes. I thought maybe that my contacts were just dirty.

I woke up Wednesday to a full-blown common cold. I took some over-the-counter medicine and felt better, but as the day wore on at work, I could hardly concentrate, in between sneezing fits and blowing my nose. My entire cubicle was littered with remnants from the plague. Used tissues filled my wastepaper basket, and I was alternating between cold and hot.

I got home that day and took more OTC medicine. I tried to go to bed early, but the medicine made my heart race. I didn't sleep very well. Thursday passed much the same, still dead tired, freezing, hot, used tissues out the wazoo.

On Friday, DH and I attended DD's first parent-teacher conference, and we had a date planned afterward, so I made myself feel better for those two events. DD is doing well in school, and our date was fun. We rented the movie "The Village," the plot of which was almost unbelievable.

Saturday, I worked, and when I got home, I felt worse than I had felt all week. I fell asleep early, but woke up early on Sunday. Sunday was almost the worst day of all--my eyes itched and were watery all day. I sneezed a lot and went through an entire box of tissues.

Now today, I feel better. I didn't need to take the medicine today, and my eyes are less itchy and watery. I hope it's gone. However, DH has come down with it now. Yay.

More Journal Cards

See my cards I made for round 2 here. This blog entry explains the first round.

Teen Novelist

While surfing NYT today, I came across this article. 18-year-old Amanda Marquit just published her first fictional novel, titled "Shut the Door." Here is an interview with the author. She started writing the book when she was fourteen and finished at age sixteen.

From reading the article and reviews, it would seem that it's along the lines of "Pure" by Rebbecca Ray, also a teeage novelist when she was published. Maybe if I were fourteen, I'd be shocked at the behavior portrayed in these books. Now, it just makes me sad that there are probably people out there who suffer like these characters do.

Traffic Exchanges

Blogclicker, BlogExplosion, and Blogazoo are three blog traffic exchange programs. The idea is to sign up for an account, sign up your blog, add a cute little link on your blog site, and then surf member blogs. For each blog you surf, you can earn "credits" at the exchange sites, which can then be used to assign visitors for your site.

I myself have not noticed any increases in visitors. I suppose there are people visiting, but they don't stay longer than the minimum 30 seconds. No one comments on anything I've written, which is disappointing. Granted, my writing has been not been stellar prose of late.

I primarily signed up for these sites to generate some new traffic to my site, who would hopefully comment. I had hoped to gain some new readers, but I suppose that I need to write something worthwhile to read. :) I have found some interesting blogs and added them to my blogroll or bookmarked them to read later.

I guess you get what you put into it. :)

In space, no one can hear you scream

NASA is looking to resume space flight, two years after the Columbia disaster. It's been long enough.