Spinning Lady

Okay, now that you're done looking at her nipples, check out which direction she is spinning. If she's going clockwise, you're a right brainer. If she's going counter-clockwise, you're a left brainer. For the life of me, I can't get her to go any way but clockwise. Hubby is convinced I'm insane and there's no way she can be going clockwise at all.

Here's the article. It tells me how I think. I don't see myself as having of right brain ways of thinking, since I see myself as a facts-oriented individual, but maybe I'm just too right brained to "get" the list. The part about knowing an object's function rather than its name does apply to me though, and I do fantasize a good bit.

Got this from Ace.

Update: When I read the paragraph and look back up at her, she starts going in the other direction.

This Guy Must Know My Husband

Here's a quote from a blogger in Australia...

Am I the only person talking about the real issues in this election?

Nearly one whole week has passed and I have yet to hear a single candidate from any party say word one about the pressing, clawing, biting issue of the Undead.

The writer is John Birmingham. I wonder if Australia has a Zombie Squad?

Got this from Instapundit of course.

Here's a link to the whole article. You should really read it. If you know my man, then you'll get a real kick out of it. Can hubby be living a double life down under in some journalistic zombie hunting Australian militia? Anything is possible. But I think we should keep our Zom-boys closer to home.

I know the Instapundit link isn't working. Dunno why. Bush's fault I guess.

I Struck Internet Gold

with this website.

I accidentally happened upon it through a strange episode of serendipity. Among other things like art, people, and my kids, I love two things: watching "You Are What You Eat", and playing around with my guitar. I'm trying to eat healthier so I can have more energy to deal with just about everything, so I watch the TV program. The guitar part includes searching the web voraciously for guitar tablature, audio, and video. I have a very hard time finding tab on the web, especially with alternate tunings, so this takes up a good deal of time I could be using to actually play.

So today, I was watching "You Are What You Eat" on BBCAmerica, and thought I might look up Gillian Mckeith's recipe for seed loaf (It's like a meatloaf, but made from beans and seeds). I typed "gillian seed loaf what you eat" in my search engine. The first site that came up was Howard Wright's. He exposed this Gillian McKeith lady as a bit of a flim flam artist; who not actually a medical doctor, but uses the prefix Dr. before her name. So she was misleading me a bit. Well I do love the truth too. I never felt the need to send off my family's poo to Ms. McKeith to find out if we're going to have heart attacks in our sleep, but she does show me some interesting ways to prepare vegetables. So I'll still watch, but I'll be a bit more skeptical of her apocalyptic declarations.

Anyway, I noticed on the top line of this blog, there were links to a massive collection of his guitar tabs. Oh heavens! Some of these tabs are Joni Mitchell, and her alternate tunings. Then links to other great music sites. Unfortunately there were no recipes.

I'll be spending a lot of time there using it as a search engine, so I'll put his site up on the links in my sidebar. He has piano music on there too. Check it out. I know some of you will really like the music selection, because I actually know some of you. You know who you are.


OH. Maybe someone (Ron?)can answer a tab question for me, since I didn't see it on Howard's tab instructional. I'm learning a song right now and one measure confuses me. There a part where I'm supposed to pull off from the second fret to the open string. But I don't know how to play it just right because I haven't encountered this particular thing before. It shows me the 2, which I play, but between the 2 and the 0 there's a little 2 in parentheses. Like this 2 (2)-0.

Einstein Talking

This is so cute to me. My favorites are "Lookitchoo! You're all wet!" and "Shake shake shake, shake your booty." He would probably get annoying after a while, but apparently his owner is a real sweetie, because that's all you hear coming from him. Or I think it's a her.

Makes me wonder what my parrot would say if I had one.

Probably "Joe-See! Hey Jake! Hey Jake! Hey Jake! You know what? You know what? You know what? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! SORRY! SORRY! SORRY! GetcherbuttinhereNOW! I said I was SORRY! Hey Jake, hey Jake, hey Jake, you know what?!"

I'm not sure I want a parrot this verbal.

So, dear friends, what would your parrot say?

High Levels of Lead in Lipstick

Here's the article.

Excerpt:

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Lipsticks tested by a U.S. consumer rights group found that more than half contained lead and some popular brands including Cover Girl, L'Oreal and Christian Dior had more lead than others, the group said on Thursday. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said tests on 33 brand-name red lipsticks by the Bodycote Testing Group in Santa Fe Spring, California, found that 61 percent had detectable lead levels of 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).

Lipstick, like candy, is ingested. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of public health, environmental and women's groups, said the FDA has not set a limit for lead in lipstick.

One-third of the lipsticks tested contained an amount of lead that exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 0.1 ppm limit for lead in candy -- a standard established to protect children from ingesting lead, the group said. Thirty-nine percent of the lipsticks tested had no discernible lead, it said.

When I was pregnant with Josie, I worked selling cosmetics at a department store. Ultima II is a Revlon company, so I will check them out. There was also the Iman line, she had really pretty lipsticks. I don't know who owns that company. Color Me Beautiful was my line, I wore two colors Cinnamon and Terra Cotta by the Color Me Beautiful line just about every day, and if it came off, it was reapplied. I never wiped off my lipstick before I ate either. After working there for so many years, I just thought I looked sick without makeup. I wonder how much it costs to get a tube of lipstick tested for lead?

This is the bit of the article that really got my attention:

Lead can cause learning, language and behavioral problems such as reduced school performance and increased aggression. Pregnant women and young children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure, the group said in its statement.

Well, that's pretty much what we're dealing with.

Update: It may all be a bunch of hooey.

Captain Absurd Questions The Physics of Peanut Butter

Mother, wouldn't it be cool if peanut butter could melt heat?

Captain Absurd, In Awe of Dust

Mother, did you know dust has parts of people in it?

Yes, dear son. I imagine dust has parts of most everything in it.

Even broccoli?

Yes, son. Even broccoli.

More Illustrations

First the froggy waits.

Then the froggy jumps!

Bye Bye Ponytail

I got a cut and a color. Big deal, you say. But I've looked like a ponytail soccer mom for far too long. I'm an arteest for crissakes! So I got this really edgy thing done- red on top, dark brown underneath, and choppy. When I got home, my husband told me that my hair looked Scully on top and Milla on bottom, then he acted like he needed to leave the room:) I guess that's a good thing.

I got the cut and color in exchange for a drawing I did a while back. I would never have spent the money I got for drawing a portrait on a hairstyle. It would have been frittered away on stupid stuff like batteries and barrettes. So it kind of paid for me to do the barter thing this time. I've had bad luck with bartering in the past, but this time it worked out.

Yes, I like my hair. That's what makes this post blogworthy. I mean how often do you hear any girl say she likes her hair?

On ChimpyMcHitlerBurton and His Ilk.

There's a new study out of Germany that says when chimps are given a choice, their decisions are rational, and driven by self-interest. That wouldn't have sent up such a red flag to me if there hadn't just been a similar published study on Liberals and Conservatives and how they make decisions. Even the term "homo-politicus" was used in the title of the article.

I'm waiting for the grand conclusions that will be drawn from this study. The one with the hypothesis that since conservatives are driven by self-interest then chimps are conservatives, and therefore George Bush is actually more or less a chimp.

You know there are folks already gathering their chimpanzee subjects and putting them in simulated voting booths.

That's funny to me.

Then on the other hand I seem to remember the Nazis were very fond of painting Jews as driven by greed and self-interest, and also had a strange fixation with the caricature of the Jew as a gorilla. It always troubles me how less rational elements of the left use that same Nazi propaganda tactic when protesting Bush, painting him up like a chimp.

History: lather, rinse, repeat.

Yes, I know Americans used similar propaganda, but today we look upon it with scorn, unless that is, the propaganda is used against someone like the President. We certainly wouldn't paint the terrorists who intentionally kill innocent people as raging gorillas. That would be intolerant.

Oh wait. I think the study says that chimps are more rational than humans. Makes sense. Never mind.

Ernesto Tamayo

For Wenso because she let me know he would be in town. Here's a YouTube. So fast! Does it sound La Cuckarachish to you? (There's no official spelling for that, so I did my darndest.)

Ouch.

Makes my stomach sink.

Dream On by Aerosmith on Classical Guitar

I don't know what the "crowd's" damn problem is. But he must be playing at a freekin' Wal Mart or something, because this loud ass lady won't stop chuckling with her girlfriend and that limp-wristed applause makes me think the audience not only didn't have a musical bone in their body, it's very possible they had no soul. But if you can cope with the morons, you're in for a treat. Played a bit imperfectly, but the listeners didn't deserve perfection anyway.




What a fitting title. If I ever tell you I can play like this guy, that will be your response. "Dream on, Chica."

My Fish Soup

With the kids out of town I was able to go to the grocery store and get everything I need. Usually I'm trying to get in and out as fast as I can because they distract me so badly that I get nervous that I will forget something. If I move quickly, I'm less likely to forget, right?

I also have had the opportunity to experiment with recipes this week since the picky ones are out of the picture.

Today I made some very healthy fish soup.

Here's the recipe. I don't measure. I also don't know a damn thing about fish. There's salmon, shellfish, then there's everything else. So I used tilapia, cause it was on sale.

Two filets tilapia
onion
zucchini
fennel bulb
vegetable broth (I used chicken, because that's what I had)
dry white wine (mine wasn't quite dry enough, so I drank it, then my glass was dry and I was sad. I did put some in the soup.)
garlic
thyme
tomatoes (we don't do tomatoes in my house because hubby is instituting an anti-tomato pogrom, which coincides with zombie preparedness and religion somehow, so I used prego tomato sauce which doesn't count because the tomatoes have already been brutally pulverized, and this pleases hubby greatly.)

Slice the fennel bulb lengthwise thinly. Chop the onion and zucchini. Put it in the saucepan with vegetable stock, garlic white wine. Bring to boil. Reduce to med and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the fish and tomatoes (or sauce) and thyme. Then cook for 5 minutes.

All done.

I ate it and thought it needed a little lemon herb seasoning. Then I got really adventurous and added some Jim n' Nicks habanero sauce.

It was good. I'm sweating.

An Illustration

Here's an example of one of my unfinished illustrations that will be in an as-yet-unpublished yoga book for children.

(I hope someone from a big time publishing company is reading this blog.)

Whatnot

A very strange word.

Strange words are often more strange when said multiple times in quick succession.

Whatnot
Whatnot
Whatnot
Whatnot
Whatnot

We don't say it on it's own. Often it is said at the end of a sentence as a sort of et cetera. Like your sentence is pretty much done, but there are still a lot of little things laying around that the sentence needs to pick up before it's clean, and it just uses "whatnot" to accomplish the task. A little sentence cleaner upper.

Maybe it's more like a sentence junk drawer because it is a combination of the words "what" and "not". Which is strange, because those two words together imply that the sentence you are finishing is "not" exactly "what" it seems to be.


Here's the definition:

what·not /ˈʰwʌtˌnɒt, ˈʰwɒt-, ˈwʌt-, ˈwɒt-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[hwuht-not, hwot-, wuht-, wot-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	a stand with shelves for bric-a-brac, books, etc.

2.	something or anything of the same or similar kind: sheets, pillowcases, towels, napkins, and whatnot.

---

[Origin: 1530–40; from the phrase what not?]



Still makes no sense to me. Notice how it states that the word refers to "anything of the same or similar kind..." From the sound of it, it should refer to anything of a different kind, what with the not and all.


Which just adds more evidence to my notion that people of the 16th century just didn't have a clue. It may have been because they were often seen standing and pretending to read books with podiums coming out of their shoulders and funny hats with halos and whatnot.

I know. I should be sleeping, but I prefer thinking about nonsense. Sleeping just puts me to sleep.

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (So Why is There a Lump in My Throat?)

I just read Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. It's about a boy with ADHD and a less than ideal start family-wise. I'll give it five stars, but you have to be geared up for it if your kid has "something" or you have "something". I don't know if the author intended for this to happen, but I cried through the whole damn book.

Study: HypoThyroidism Linked to Obsessive Blog Posting and Excessive Donut Consumption

In a double blind study conducted over two days of one female subject aged 34 who forgot to take her 150 mg of Armour Thyroid.

Six chocolate donuts, one gigantic chocolate chunk cookie from the cafe Barnes and Noble, 3 pancakes with peanut butter and syrup. Three beers (one with a chocolate donut perched momentarily on the rim for humorous effect on hubby.) 4 Blog Posts. One illustration. Three loads of laundry on the pool table.

Now get me my medicine.

(Maybe a Motrin too. )

Wisdom (Or Why I Can't Make it Through a Yoga Class Without Laughing Dandelion Tea Out My Nose)

The other night when I was up way too late for my own good and my husband was snoring away next to me, I got to chuckling. I had a funny thought that stemmed from a conversation I had with a yoga instructor friend of mine. She was telling me about energy lines in our bodies, and why we sit with our index finger to our thumb when we meditate. She told me that once upon a time, gurus would spend as much as 20 years isolated in caves for the purpose of studying these lines. One guru may spend years only focused on the index finger, or the middle finger. She told me the middle finger was the finger of wisdom. I just can't shake this picture in my mind of a naked, wizened and worn old guru staggering out of a cave with his middle finger fully extended and exclaiming to the crowd "I got your wisdom right here! Now get me a big bean burrito!"

But the whole middle finger/wisdom thing makes sense. Often this finger has been used on me, and the dose of wisdom was instant.

Ajeet, forgiveness is divine, but I think an immature sense of humor is diviner. Yes?

Hey, put that finger back.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today is a celebration of all the people whose birthdays I have forgotten or haven't properly acknowledged this September. I'm not so good at birthdays. Usually it's because I want to do something so great for you, because you're so great, and I look around for the best present for days, then I stress out because I haven't found anything. Then your birthday passes and I feel too guilty to call. Then I send you something as quick as I can. (Yes Monica, this bit is about you:)).

But I can't neglect to remember the birthday I remembered not to forget, which is the birthday of one of my most favorite-ist people in the whole world. I remembered her birthday today. And her birthday is actually tomorrow! So pat me on the back.

September is a big birthday month on my calendar.... So put a floppy red bow in your hair and twirl around in that pouffy blue sateen dress, and sing along!

(Yes, you too,Sam.)



Happy birthday
happy birthday -
Happy birthday
happy birthday -
Happy birthday
happy birthday.

Happy
happy birthday in a hot bath
To those nice
nice nights.
I remember always
always I got such a fright.
Seeing them in my dark cupboard with my great big cake.
If they were me
if they were me
And I was you and I was you -
If they were me and I was you
Would you have liked a present too.

Happy
happy birthday in a hot bath . . .

Happy birthday
happy birthday - . . .