Sunday, November 23, 2003

let it snow!

Hmmmm, well, not so likely in beautiful Southern California, unless you are in the mountains. While there's no substitute for the real thing, I found something really fun to evoke the feeling of the season we are entering, via The Big Pink Cookie!

Taking me right back to the sweet and simple days of elementary school projects, here is a delightful virtual snowflake maker, appropriately called Make a Flake! And then, just like in grade school, the teacher displays your beautiful artwork for all the world (or the class-your little world anyway) to see! YaY! So much fun!!! Let it snow!!!
Posted by etherealfire :: 3:06 PM :: ---------------oOo---------------

Saturday, November 22, 2003

a sad and distant memory: losing camelot

The Day A Generation's Spirit Died:

"But what today's cynics miss -- remain, in fact, almost wholly blind to -- is the way and the success with which John Kennedy called us to something larger than ourselves. This is called leadership and we haven't seen anything remotely like it since. From any candidate of any party."

I was five years old. I had just gotten out of kindergarten and was with family running some early/pre-Thanksgiving Day grocery stocking up and other assorted errands. The excitement of the impending event was forever buried alongside the most ominous and heartwrenching news that came like an unwelcome visitor through our tinny little car radio.

The announcer was barely able to speak. When he was finished I watched in horror as my whole adult world, my safety net dissolved into a grief so deep as I have never witnessed before. I don't think I was fully capable of understanding that the President was really gone, much less how anyone could have done such an unspeakable thing. But I knew that something horrible beyond understanding had just occurred as I watched my maternal grandparents and my parents come completely undone with the news that we had just heard.

I was too young yet to understand that along with the President of the United States, an American Era of Innocence was put forever to rest and that from now on dreams were going to be sorely tested and the fight against cynicism would be a long and treacherous battle....
Posted by etherealfire :: 8:31 PM :: ---------------oOo--------------- quiz of the day


You represent... hope.
You're quite a daydreamer and can be a hopeless
romantic. You enjoy being creative and don't
mind being alone at times. You have goals, and
know what you want in life... even if they are
a little far fetched.


What feeling do you represent?
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by etherealfire :: 11:46 AM :: ---------------oOo--------------- mighty fun

A Mighty Wind was one of the best comedies I'd seen in a long time and now that it is soon to be released for home viewing I think I wanna add it to my Christmas list! The promotional site is kinda cute too. If you haven't seen the movie yet there is a trailer for a sneak peak. This movie is surprisingly poignant as well as being hilarious. If you haven't already, go meet Mitch and Mickey, The Folksmen and The Main Street Singers and prepared to have some good old fashioned earnest folkie fun!
Posted by etherealfire :: 11:27 AM :: ---------------oOo--------------- This Dixie Chick's No Chicken!

Not even the horrifying past experience of death threats or a punishment by certain radio stations and former fans will intimidate Natalie Maines from speaking from her mind and heart.

For me, she remains a poignant symbol that freedom of speech, even in the one place in this world where it is supposedly to be protected above all else, often comes with an ugly price. She has a great deal more courage than others might in a similar situation, unwilling to compromise honesty and integrity for personal safety and popular opinion.

Still she would be happier by far to admit that there was never anything to talk about in the first place.

"Maines said Friday she did not feel vindicated by how the war has unfolded: `I would have liked to have been proven wrong.' ''


Posted by etherealfire :: 9:49 AM :: ---------------oOo---------------

Thursday, November 20, 2003

Solar Energy and the Sundance Kid

Robert Redford gets environmental in this Grist Magazine Interview found at Working for Change.com.

He has been working to educate people (including me - never heard of it till now!) on the
Vote Solar Initiative, a most lofty goal - and one that is apparently more "do-able" than it was some 30 odd years ago in the infancy of solar energy promotion for the public sector.
Posted by etherealfire :: 2:11 PM :: ---------------oOo---------------

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

i'm a january girl

Found another couple of fun quizzes - amazingly right on target once again! :-) Yup, that's me alright. LOL!


January


Which month are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

This next one I had in a folder from a long time ago waiting to post and I just came across it while cleaning out files...only to fnd that the site is gone. :-( But I love this one so much I have to post it...

My fortune cookie:



*Take This Test!*


Love this one!!! Maybe the best bit of philosophy ever!

And finally this one:

You Are Tangerine

You are a beautiful person, in a wistful kind of way. If you could, you would spend all your time daydreaming and writing poetry. You are a tragic beauty.

You are sensitive and caring, and you don't take insults well. You don't smile much, but when you do, you really mean it.

People like to be around you because you are a calming influence. You have an appreciation for all things beautiful, and you probably have some potted plants. You also most likely own a cat.

You like Sundays and hot tea. You will spend your entire life yearning for quiet beauty, which is a rarity in this world, so you read a lot.

Everyone you know thinks you're "nice."

Take the Which Led Zeppelin Song Are You? Quiz

Posted by etherealfire :: 6:58 AM :: ---------------oOo--------------- Bush credibility~A UK Poll

I came across this article via a newsgroup I regularly read. It is interesting indeed to hear what our closest allies really think about what is going on with our leadership....

A wake up call for America is due in short order...can it really be too far behind??? Personally I'm giving it through the holiday season at the most. The Season of Light and Peace should be particularly poignant this year, I believe.
Posted by etherealfire :: 6:48 AM :: ---------------oOo---------------

Sunday, November 16, 2003

excavating the past

Archeology has always fascinated me but adding the excitement of underwater finds like this truly captures the imagination! Franck Goddio, underwater archeological explorer extrordinaire, has a site full of photos like this one highlighting many of his excavating activities. A thoroughly fascinating site that I never would have found without the link provided by a savvy fellow from a (completely unrelated to this type of topic) newsgroup I've been following.

Another fascinating place I stumbled upon was a beautiful photo history site of Pompeii from photographer John Hauser. Here is another really nice photo site from Tour of Italy.

I hadn't thought much about the story of Pompeii until I read some of the recent buzz about a new novel of the same name by Robert Harris. The review wasn't exactly glowing but then that rarely sways me when I'm interested in a book, movie or music because past history has shown me that I'm rarely disappointed by following my own instincts about things like that.

Now my curiosity about the book has been intensified and I'm probably going to have to indulge in satisfying it with a trip to the book store very soon...
Posted by etherealfire :: 7:43 AM :: ---------------oOo---------------

Saturday, November 15, 2003

Follow the Yellow Brick Road ( to beautiful blinkie madness)!!!

I followed the links to perhaps the most awesome blinkie site I've ever seen and I just have to post one of the many cool ones here and pass on the link. OD's Girl, you RAWK!!! I have never had so much fun in recent memory as I did perusing the incredible volume of unique blinkies I found at this awesome site.

This is one of my favorites:


But there are just tons of original adorable ones to be found there!!! I've got a few scattered around the blog too. Probably too many, but I can't help it. I'm like a little girl playing with paper dolls. It is just too much fun!!!! Go have some cute blinkie fun yourself - right now!!!! It's good for your soul! :-)

A sorta related topic was this quiz result that fits the Wizard of Oz theme going this morning:


You're Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.
Dorothy was a young girl lost in a strange world.
When she was home all she wanted to do was
leave it and when she left all she wanted to do
was get back. Dorothy doesn't like to be a
nuisance but will speak her mind if she feels
strongly about a topic. She is very friendly
and headstrong.


What fantasy movie character are you? (images)
brought to you by Quizilla


So appropriate! I even have a little Toto of my own, only his name is MacKenzie and he is a Cairn Terrier to the power of 10 I think! LOL! And as soon as I can get some unghostlike photos of him I will post the little scamp!

I see a new digital camera in my future. Or at least that is what I'm hoping to get from Santa this year....
Posted by etherealfire :: 7:13 AM :: ---------------oOo---------------

Friday, November 14, 2003

Quiz Craze!!!!

I went on a Quizzing Spree this morning! Too fun!!!

I couldn't resist taking this one - and I think it is right on (well, except my thumb isn't nearly as green as I wish it could be but other than that)!


You are a descriptive writer. An avid reader of
Robert Frost, perhaps, you LOVE to use flowery
words and use the paper and pen as your canvas
and paintbrush. You prefer to paint a mental
image rather than simply toy around with
people's minds. A very inspired person, you
love to be in nature and usually are a very
outdoorsy type of person. A writer with a
natural green thumb, perhaps?


What's YOUR Writing Style?
brought to you by Quizilla

---

And this one! I just love the image and could stare at it all day! :-) Too beautiful!


Fantastic!! You are GEORGIA O'KEEFE.
You are a true spirit of nature, and it shows in
the flowing floral paintings for which you are
most famous. You feel the beauty of all things
around you, and your friends appreciate you for
your ability to share that extraordinary beauty
with them.


Which famous artist most reflects your personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

---

And finally this one: totally fun but I'm actually surprised that I did as well as I did on it because the 70s era was really mine. Still I loved the fun of 80s music and I surprised myself with the amount of lyrics I was able to pull out of the dark murky corners of my brain.



Ah....hmmm, well....that was fun..... um, yeah. Well, I guess I will carry on with the more mundane part of the day....
Posted by etherealfire :: 11:31 AM :: ---------------oOo---------------

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

scary date!!!!

This is probably one of the scariest things I've ever done; I'm shaking even as I type this...but at one of the message boards I frequent, suddenly everyone is posting photos so now I'm scared if I don't people will think that I think I'm such a troll I am not fit to see the light of day....but if I do post it, I open myself up to horrible terrifying scrutiny. Sure if we were meeting in real time it would be no different but somehow being able to talk to people up front seems less scary somehow...

Oh well, since I don't have any place else to post the photos except here I've decided to post the photos here as well. To make matters worse, I have a billion old barely alive scanner and an apparently now dead (and incredibly cheapa**ed to begin with) digital camera. So all I have to show for it is a few ancient (yes I am about 3 million years old-LOL!) photos, one of which I have chosen and then a few new ones (pre-digital camera death that is - who knows - maybe I AM a troll and broke the darn thing with too much exposure to ugly !) that make me look like an alien - I mean for Chrissake I am pale but not THAT pale - and where did my nose go???? Every friggin picture turned out that way too. :-( I don't know - I was probably doing something wrong, and I tried to fix it at the time of the photo taking as well as trying to mess with it in Photoshop Elements 2 but - I guess I just suck.

Oh well, the bright side is (YES, there is one - YaaaaY!!!) that I have a feeling that this Christmas Santa just might bring me a REAL digital camera - not so sure about the scanner though...and that is a shame because I really need to have a working one for about a million reasons....but I digress.

See, I'm clearly procrastinating here.....because I'm terrified. So please, PLEASE be kind. Anyway here goes nothing:



Posted by etherealfire :: 4:48 AM :: ---------------oOo---------------

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

a quiz to start off the day

YaaaY!!! Some early morning quiz fun before I run out the door to drop Mina off at school! Now - Go check out what your Japanese name would be! Enjoy!


Yoshimi - "Happy Beauty"
Sponsored by www.life-blood.cjb.net


What would your Japanese name be? (female)
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by etherealfire :: 6:23 AM :: ---------------oOo---------------

Sunday, November 02, 2003

a unicorn: the mythos quiz


You are Form 3, Unicorn: The Innocent.

"And The Unicorn knew she wasn't meant to
go into the Dark Wood. Disregarding the advice
given to her by the spirits, Unicorn went
inside and bled silver blood.. For her
misdeed, the world knew evil."

Some examples of the Unicorn Form are Eve
(Christian) and Pandora (Greek).
The Unicorn is associated with the concept of
innocence, the number 3, and the element of
water.
Her sign is the twilight sun.

As a member of Form 3, you are a curious
individual. You are drawn to new things and
become fascinated with ideas you've never come
in contact with before. Some people may say
you are too nosey, but it's only because you
like getting to the bottom of things and
solving them. Unicorns are the best friends to
have because they are inquisitive.


Which Mythological Form Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I was expecting maybe a phoenix??? Regeneration/Transformation issues and all that.... After reading the description, I guess this doesn't surprise me much though. LOL!
Posted by etherealfire :: 4:20 AM :: ---------------oOo--------------- nascar dads, confederate flags and nra blacklists adds

Ever since I first heard the term Nascar Dads as a description for a certain political demographic, I have wondered what the story was about; here is one opinion on the matter.

Meanwhile some Democratic Party candidates are looking to win the coveted Confederate Flag vote; not sure how that particular demographic fits in with the Nascar Dad demographic but the story can be found here.

And apparently there has been a rush of Americans dying to get their name added to an NRA Blacklist that was publicized last week. Hmmm, I guess the safety must've been off because something seems to have backfired there..... :-)


Posted by etherealfire :: 12:12 AM :: ---------------oOo---------------