Holiday Blues

Took a vacation from the computer this Holiday season, to focus more of my time on family. I was disappointed with the outcome. Much of my family found it especially hard to be in the Holiday spirit this year. Finances and Fatigue seem to have turned them as blue as the pacific. Unfortunately, it seems to be catching for as the New Year approaches; I am in a little of a slump. The clouds are closing in. The misty atmosphere is humid and hopelessly depressing. I've made sugar cookies, fudge, Penuche, and numerous other holiday sweets. Unfortunately, none of this has helpped me except made my New Years Resolution be extra exercise and weight loss. No worries though it can't be this impossible for much longer. I hope I will be in the mood to write more in the next few days, when the holiday blues has passed for the New Year celebration. Hope all is well in cyberspace. Wish me luck!

Just Think About What THEY put in the Candy Cane stripes...

A little conspiracy Christmas spirit for those of you out there who don't believe in coincidence, random acts of kindness or selflessness. For the honest few who check all labels, believe that the elves are spies and watch the skies for UFOs...that might be Santa. For anyone that has ever thought they would call the police and report Santa as a burglar. For the naughty and the ones with coal in their stockings...this is for you....you Scrooges!

A Recipe for Christmas Spirit

Ingredients:
A Few good and close friends and family
1 warm fire
A plate of Christmas cookies
2 or 3 Christmas CDs (a mix of old and new: Some Bing Crosby, a little Rosemary Clooney, some Nat King Cole)
1 6ft tall Bushy Noble tree
3 cups. Memories
1 cup painted walnut shells, strung popcorn and cranberries
2 cups candy canes
Pinch of ribbons
Dash of handmade children gifts
Enough Lights in a variety of colors to cover
1 Angel or Star for the topping

Directions: Put Family and Friends in front of fire, add music. Mix in the Christmas tree, set out the memories to reach room temperature. Together put on Lights, walnut shells, popcorn and cranberries. Sprinkle on memories, candy canes, handmades and top with Angel or Star. Finally switch on lights, and turn off the lamp. Bring family and friends to the tree. Grab sugar cookies mix with Friends and Families and enjoy the Tree. Laugh, Remember, Listen and Watch.

The Mystery of Music

Some of my favorite bands have very odd names 'Canned Haggis,' 'Tears for Beers,' or 'Celticburn.'
While some bands...not my favorites of lesser repute...are oddities of the profane and ridiculous : A Box of Fish with Tartar Sauce
A Boy Named Gomer
Above Average Weight Band
A Cat Born In An Oven Isn't a Cake
Adickdid
Adult Children of Heterosexuals
Afghanistan Banana Stand
Agnes Morehead
Albino Toilet Boys
Cookie Mould and the Smegmettes
The Couch Slugs
Cortizone 5
Crappy the Clown and the Punch Drunk Monkies
Craven Morehead

Let us not forget the Famous Limp Bizkit...who has an album called Chocolate Starfish and Hotdog Flavored Water. Really where do these things come from. Some bands provide us with a nutshell explaining their name choice, others are a cute twist, oxymoron, attention getter or simply a mystery. Some are down right disgusting and offensive...others belong in the black lagoon.
Chris Harwood the author of 'Life as I know it blog'...introduced a very interesting game I'd like to share with you...a little parody on band name choices:
1) Go to wikipedia.org and click "Random article." That's your band name.
2) Click "Random article" again. That is the album name.
3) Click "Random article" 15 more times. Those are the names of the songs on that album.

Here was my Choice
Band name:MITES
Band Album:Vous êtes toujours là
Songs:
1. Conservation of energy
2. Walthamstow Central station
3. Alfred Pink
4. Moloko Temo
5. List of asteroids
6. Crash Crew
7. Sister Angelica
8. The Kennedys of Castleross
9. Ogbomosho
10. Painkiller
11. Iles
12. Halle, Saxony-Anhalt

To gift or regift? That is the Question

Through out the year we walk to and fro along crowded sidewalks, with hardly enough space to breathe. People focusing on nothing more than the next cup of coffee, work, or their finances. In today's world when credit cards are a dime a dozen. Receiving enough fake plastic in the mail to decorate a Christmas tree. Temptations creeping into the mind like nuts in a peanut cluster. Why is it so strange that gifts have become so important? Whether to buy name brand...how much to spend, are you spending enough, is that too cheap? Curiously questions arise of what to do with those totally needless terrible gifts you receive from Aunt Laudie or Uncle Claud. Should one regift? Isn't regifting a form of free commerce and capitalism? Or is regifting an ungrateful extension of materialism. Affluenza symptom: regifting those gifts that just don't jive with your tastes. Rude? Or Enterprising? Look to the wisdom of your Elders: My Grandmother Juanita was an avid regifter. She literally regifted everything she was ever given. She only kept what she bought herself...but the trick was in her old age, was not regifting the same gift to the person who gave it to her. Now that was a mighty tough task when you are 83 and have 6 children, and numerous grand and great grand children with a slight bit of senility. I on the other hand often forget what I have for breakfast and have to write all birthdays and anniversaries on the calendar know the answer to that question is: No regifting. Yet all the papers, bows, ribbons, buttons and tissues of bright ruby and emerald....I reuse so that I can call my self a Green Elf....so that all our future generations my enjoy the Holidays.

Richie Rich? Investment in Entertainment or Stupidity on the Rocks?

Guinness World Records held a special ceremony to crown an original Trader Vic’s Mai Tai as the most expensive cocktail in the world. At $1480 per cocktail at the Merchant Hotel in Belfast in Northern Ireland you can sip this sweet confection. This Mai Tai is made from 17-year-old Wray and Nephew Rum used by trader Vic Bergeron to create the original Mai Tai over sixty years ago. Even though the 750ml bottle of rum looks plain but it costs £26,000 per bottle. A rare batch of the 17-year-old rum was recently acquired with one bottle being purchased by Merchant’s Bar. There are only three of the world’s most expensive cocktails have been made. Can you believe it? Honestly....the more money the less worry over what is done with it, but the more worry over making it? I wouldn't know, I don't even have enough for the toothpick afterward. Take a look, I dare you!
http://www.forbes.com/wineandfood/2007/04/05/cocktail-expensive-decadent-forbeslife-cx_pl_0406cocktail_slide.html
For me its impossible to imagine spending that much on a cocktail. Definitely not what I would do with that much money. Can anyone explain to me how you can rationalize spending more than 5 bucks on a cocktail? Maybe at a wedding, anniversary or birthday, but still more than 20 dollars is ridiculous.

Sleep is Overated

Last night, for once I felt tired. Can you imagine? Usually I am up for hours till 2 or 3 am...fighting the battle of inconsistent insominia. Yet, last night I thought ...lets try to go to sleep early. Explore the unknown realm of sleep. Allow the Sandman an easy trick this time. It was a terrible experience I woke up every hour on the hour. Exhausting...finally I turned the light on and opened Popular Science. I think the Sandman slipped a little bit of nightterror into to that dust. There is something traumatic about moving from sleeping to waking over and over all night long. Anxiety, frustration, sour stomach...accompany the experience. Its one long game of cloak and dagger where I am running from something I can't see. Have you ever been there?
I've made the decision, never to again. Tonight I am staying awake til at least 2, then I should sleep like a dream. I find it curious to think that this system should work. During this night; of on and off consciousness I didn't dream. I never fell into REM sleep to dream. Dreaming seems to be an important part of my ability to rest. Freud asserts dreams are wish-fulfillments, of those wishes that are the result of repressed or frustrated sexual desires. THANK GOD, such assertions are no longer accepted as true. Others like my dear Mother insist it isn't the dreams we should worry about, but the absence of dreams.We have all had a few wierd dreams. I had a dream about a chess board that recurred throughout my youth. After mastering a mediorce ability to play chess, I never experience this plague of chess again. Wierd? Any one out there want to guess what frustrated sexual desire that is? No...please don't! Foolishness ruled the roost in my childhood, I had nightmares by the dozen. Know anyone who doesn't dream? I think they are lying...everyone dreams in some fashion...Don't they?

Wanted

Someone to tell all my dreams to,
A friend to share all my fears,
Someone to drink hot cocoa on a cold night with,
A partner for walking on the beach,
A person to watch television with on the weekend,
Someone to finish the other half of a beer I can't,
and that special person who knows the difference between conversation and yakking.

Skills: Good listening skills, ability to smile and laugh.

Reason: Winter break and Loneliness

Please apply in person.

P.S. If there are readers out there or cyberspace friends...this is a personal entry

I Think Therefore I Am

Curious Article: I found in a Daily Daton News. Michelle Incanno a confessed Starbuckian is now boycotting Starbucks coffee due to what she calls an offensive quote printed on her cup of Java. Printed on the cup was: "Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure."

She now will not support Starbucks for their offensive practice and anti-religious rhetoric. Curiously I wonder why this is so offensive to her, in the world Religious people should be open to questions that make us doubt our own faith and ways of thinking. Religion in its most pure form lies in the middle of knowing, believing and doubt. It should spur the soul towards truth but never be stuck in the depths of stagnation. Religions teach one to enrich the mind, body and soul, not to isolate the self.Religion isn't conservative, but Creative. For me, Jesus teaches transformation and the urge to move forward affecting the world with compassion and love. I must admit I am a strong opinionated person, but even with God's help I can't overcome and endure a lot. Without him I feel I would loose my compassion and love, and I find It takes a very cognitive person to discover this and search after it. It takes time and work.

I think Starbuck's quotes are a way to open the mind to a whole new way of thinking, even if oppositional to my own. Keep it up Starbucks! God can take care of himself...and Believers don't need to be told to believe...we just do!

(http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/05/06/ddn050607cup.html)