1. Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

2. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad in first class.

3. The barbie doll has more than 80 careers.

4. The average 4-year-old child asks over 400 questions a day.

5.Being unmarried can shorten a man’s life by ten years.

6.On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.

7.A snail can sleep for three years.

8.If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.
She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.

9. Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.

10.Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

11.Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

12.Two-thirds of the world’s eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

13.No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

14.A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

15.Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

16.There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

17.A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

18.The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.

19.The original name for butterfly was flutterby.

20.Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a
piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

Here is this week’s edition of “Useless Friday Info”.

“Only female mosquitoes bite.  Females need the protein from blood to produce their eggs.”

“Mosquitoes dislike citronella because it irritates their feet.”

“A snail can sleep for three years.”

“in some parts of Africa, ostriches are used to herd sheep.”

“During childbirth scenes in movies and sitcoms, infant actors are smeared with cream cheese and red jam for an authentic “just born” look.”

“Cruise control and automatic transmission were invented by a blind engineer named Ralph Teetor.”

“The average hot dog is consumed in 6.1 bites.”

“When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state’s third largest city.”

A few years ago I woke in the night with an idea about a little snail going on an adventure. I quickly sketched it down, and incorporated it into Motion 101 class, which led to this.

Lately, I’d been thinking about creating a 3-dimensional slug, but just of its bust. Sort of a “happy face” to hang on the wall. Or a hunter’s prize, which is rather silly – not just because how could you stuff a slug for a wall bust, but rather why would you be proud of being able to snag a slug? Well, silly things give me joy, so here’s to some clay, slime and love.

Posing on the wall

“Spludge” – what I call wonderful slug neck fat. Looks better in person.

Slime test

Painting clay. Forgot to take pics of sculpting process…

Sitting in a tree
Wondering what to do
I decide to be a train
Off we go, choo-choo

Getting bored of that though
And I’m running out of tracks
It’s like being in the 80s
Frankie says ‘Relax’

So I curl in to a ball
And pretend to be a snail
I’m searching for redemption
It’s the holy Grail

Now I’m falling downwards
I’ve rolled off my branch
This is just a nightmare
Emotional avalanche

My daughter was five years old when she brought home a snail from school. She uncovered the tissue paper and proudly displayed her first pet. Her love for creepy crawlies was confounding. She explained that the school was building an auditorium and she found this hapless, ownerless creature in the heaps of sand mounds. 

I remembered reading that pets are therapeutic for children. Psychiatrists believed that children who grow up with pets tend to be more caring and pick up life lessons easily. I decided the pet stays.  I raced off to Google  found whole websites devoted to snails and their care. Thus began a fascinating hobby.

Our snail was very moody. It would disappear for days going without food and water. When we nearly lost hope it would emerge from under the sink or out of an old shoe and would painstakingly climb walls and stay within sight. It re-appearance would bring laughter back in our lives.

Gold bonding
Tales of the snail-lic adventures reached far and wide.  On her birthday my nephew gifted her goldfish. The snail and the fish lived together in the fish bowl until that fateful night. 

All was quiet. I was working on my laptop, its whirring sound keeping me company.  Suddenly there was a sharp cracking sound. I knew instantly that it was the snail. I was right; the slimy, slippery creature lay motionless on the floor separated from its shell.  I woke up my husband and the two of us figured that there was a dispute between the fish and the snail as our fish bowl was not large enough for two. 

The snail having had enough of its roommate had formulated its escape plan. Being stronger it had worked its way up to the lip of the bowl, couldn’t hold on, tethered and fallen off. We cleared the remnants and flushed it off. (it was too late into the night to give it a burial).  I saved up the shell for memories sake. Needless to say we hid the truth from my daughter and despaired while she searched the house for her pet.

In her grief she grew attached to the fish. The fish however missed the snail and ignored the flakes we sprinkled in the bowl and went hungry for two days. I rang up my nephew and was told try blood worms. When my husband dangled one from a toothpick it jumped out of the water and snatched it. We were all relieved.

But I think we killed it with kindness because one day it was floating. I hid the incident from my daughter and husband. I buried it surreptitiously under a tree and quickly got another one.

Feathered friends
The spate of deaths was killing me mentally and emotionally. Around this time my father gifted us a rooster and a hen.  I will save up the story of how we had to cull them because of the bird flu for another time.

It has been crazy around my house this past week.  We had Thanksgiving number one last Saturday at the river with my parents and my brother and his family.  Thanksgiving number two was here (yesterday) with my parents, and Ron’s Mom and brother.  I spent the week shopping and  cooking and trying desperately not to avoid my newly adopted, bi-weekly pilates class.  So, I have not read much – I am still reading The Space Between Us, which I really like, just have no time for.

Luckily, there is always time to read to Meredith.  She is so ready to be reading on her own and is becoming frustrated with the process (she is in Kindergarten).  I hate to admit it, but I will be a little sad when she can read…once they read on their own, they seem to move away from the read to me stage and into the “I can do it myself, Mom” (insert that ‘duh, you moron’ tone here).  I love storytime; I have even been known to hold storytime in my high school classes – they love it.  But, we all know there is a stage our kids go through where Mom doing the reading is simply ‘unnecessary’.  My plan is to continue to read books to her that are well beyond the level at which she is reading; so maybe this time will be different.   Anyway, we finished The End of the Beginning by Avi.  This is a darling story with wonderful little words of advice.  Meredith really liked it – the story is simple enough for a five year old to understand and insightful enough for Mom & Dad.  As Avon, a snail, and Edward, an ant, begin an adventure together, we experience first-hand the difference between a slow mover and a fast mover – in more ways than one.  It is a darling little story, lovely in its simplicity and quite smart. I definitely think it is a read-aloud.  A child who insists on reading alone would find it boring (although it really is not).  I also think it would be a great gift for an older teenager who may be frustrated with the lack of adventure in her life.

“Actually,” said Edward, “no matter how fast I went, or where I went, all I saw were branches and leaves.  The truth is, it wasn’t very different there…than …here.”

“Edward, you needn’t worry about that,” said Avon sympathetically.  ”As far as I can see, I don’t get anywhere, either.”

“True,” said Edward.  ”I rushed off and you stayed put.  But, nevertheless, we’re both here.”

“What’s more,” said Avon, “it took the same amount of time for both of us to get there.”

It’s full of poems, comics and an article about saffron milkcap mushrooms. You can also read in its entirety Eric’s MA thesis about Oink Oink Oink, his latest novel. Here’s how Eric describes Oink Oink Oink:

The narrator of the story, Squirly Fern (SF), is of Japanese/ Australian descent; his grandfathers fought each other in World War Two and he is living with his mother in Japan.  At the beginning of the story, he moves to Australia to meet his father, not realising that his father has fallen in love with a transgenic pig and has been ’stimulating’ the swine in his charge for some time.

Eric’s first novel, Snail, was a major touchstone for me when I was writing Man Bites Dog. And now the internet has provided us with Dando on tap. Lovely.

All that the scarecrow in Tim Preston and Maggie Kneen’s picture book wants is for the animals to like him.  If only he weren’t so, well, scary.

This simple story follows the progression of the seasons with stunning illustrations of foxes, badgers, ducks, mice, and even a snail.  The wheat grows, the animals scurry away from the passing of the combine, and the leaves fall from the trees.  Eventually, a heavy snow falls, transforming the ugly scarecrow into a jolly snowman.  At last, the animals come near to be with him! And when the snow melts away, they remain his friends.

The messages in this book are many: the importance of patience, the changes brought by the passage of time, the kinship of all animals.

Ages 3-8.

EXCLUSIVE

Malcolm Stewart

 

By Calum Liddle

A young Scottish pioneer has opened the country’s first commercial snail farm, in his parent’s back garden.

Malcolm Stewart, a 17-year-old from Leith, is successfully breeding and nurturing common garden snails as escargot for some of Edinburgh’s finest restaurants, and the orders are filling fast.

Malcolm said: “The snails come from a designated plot in my dad’s back yard before they are treated, cleansed and put into forced hibernation in the kitchen fridge.”

The slimy creatures have proved a hit with the town’s restaurants and Malcolm claims he cannot keep up with the demand for around 300 snails every month.

“I’m now earning an income for when I start studying for my business degree next year, selling fresh and delectable home grown produce to top-notch restaurants.”

The bourgeoning sales of the helix aspersa and pomatia variety are not exclusive to restaurants with a Gallic flair, but include the city’s cafés and bistros from Morningside Road to Leith Walk.

Gerry King, head chef at the Chez la Mère restaurant on Haddington Road, Musselburgh said: “We bought our first batch of 160 snails last week. It’s been popular so far, although, customers are generally taken aback by the sight of the very familiar snails.”

He added: “Why would we want snails that have been frozen and shipped from the continent? The snails are fresh, of supreme quality due to their diet and ultimately delicious.”

Grub's up

The snails are fed on a diet of dried food, chalk to make their shells strong and fresh leafy vegetables.

Malcolm said: “I’ll admit to becoming quite attached to them. They are really quite friendly and somewhat curious creatures. They don’t smell, make any noise or mess. They’d make perfect pets.”

The snails, which are usually shipped from farms in Eastern Europe, are in short supply with the French alone consuming 700 million tonnes each year.

A spokesman for Scottish Enterprise said that Malcolm’s business, which is yet to be named, had “scope for further development and enlargement”.

“During the recession, it has become apparent that individuals look to exploit market gaps. In this case, we have witnessed the creation of Scotland’s first snail farm and it looks to be doing very well.”

Malcolm added: “As long as the Scottish winter isn’t too bitter for the snails, then I’ll remain confident for the future.”

For recipes on cooking escargot visit the BBC food website.

Delicious

If the only way you could eat any meat was by actually killing the animal yourself, would you still be a carnivore?

I am aware that I am a hypocrite. Because if I could only eat the meat of animals that I killed myself, I would dang near be a vegetarian. Fish don’t really make sounds or look at me, so I could kill them. And eggs. Plus they don’t have to suffer such a violent death as noise-making, blood-spilling cattle, chickens, turkeys, and pigs.

The thought of eating the veins, muscles, and fat of what was recently a living being is so weird. But still for every lunch and most dinners, I eat a meal consisting of cut-up chunks of animal flesh. And aside from the act of slaughtering an animal, there’s the cleaning and processing of the carcass.

The only animals I have a desire to kill are the ones that want to kill me. And so far no grizzly bears, killer wolves, rabid foxes, spitting cobras, or hoof-punching deer have tried to attack me. Just mosquitoes. And they deserve to die because they’re trying to steal my blood. And blood is life. They are trying to kill me; therefore they deserve to die.

When it comes down to it, I’m a vegetarian at heart. Just not in action. The main reason I’m not a practicing vegetarian is because I don’t see how that would be a practical lifestyle.

We plan so much of our lives around eating. When people get together for more than a few hours, a meal is often involved. What if I went to dinner at someone’s house and they grilled out hamburgers for me and there was no salad available? What would I eat, just a bun with ketchup and onions and pickles?

Often vegetarians eat portabella mushrooms instead of meat. Maybe I could do that with pickles. Put a slab of pickles in between two buns. I can see it now, taking the nation by storm: Pickle Burgers, because…

“If you don’t hear that crunch, then it ain’t worth the munch!’

Pickles Make for Good Reading Material Table of Contents:

Episode 1 http://wp.me/pxqBU-1X
Episode 2 http://wp.me/pxqBU-20
Episode 3 http://wp.me/pxqBU-26
Episode 4 http://wp.me/pxqBU-4o
Episode 5 http://wp.me/pxqBU-ef

Sometimes i wish time would pass by a little more faster than it’s passing by usually. Like for example yesterday and today. Yesterday because i truly hate Tuesdays since the only lesson I like is the British Culture and Civilization every second week. And the rest is just boring crap and stuff i don’t like and i’m not interested in, since i don’t see the point of Phonetics and the more the General Linguistics based in Hungarian literature while studying English and Finnish. The last thing i have ever expected was to have something based on Hungarian literature which i must confess (whether some might consider shameful or not) i hate… and even more those people who study it and think they know everything and they are the smartest people on the Earth…let’s get back to reality.

I can’t believe that there is no train going directly to Tg. Mures. I wanted to visit the next weekend some of my old classmates but there is only train with connection so i have to change them. Ok, this wouldn’t the be the end of the world but the biggest problem is that those are personal trains and they do stop at every small village and go like a snail, so it would take up to 3-4 hours to arrive there. I could go home with that energy i spend to go there, and the distance by the way is half to the one i have ’til home. It’s annoying to not to have a direct train to such a big and medically important city in the country.

Today… went to university for nothing, as usual on most Wednesdays to go to there at 10AM. Waiting for the rest of the people and the teacher i saw some of the 2nd or the 3rd year coming to the class where we were supposed to have the lesson, so me got fed up of it and went to buy the gift to my dad for his birthday on Saturday. yes, that’s the reason why i’m going home again tomorrow afternoon…if i will have some luck and will be able to get my legitimation and traveling tickets from the secretary of the university in time to arrive to the sport lessons too. And then wasn’t in the mood for Beowulf, aka Old/Middle English Literature. And now home and preparing to leave to the university doctor for a SINGLE STAMP for the piece of paper i need to give to my PE teacher me is not wanting to do stupid aerobics… had enough of it while in the 6th grade and been at some of the lessons held.

Peace and see you on Friday!

Pentru a mai scapa cat de cat de stresul cotidian urmariti aceste filmulete produse si create de Remi Gaillard. Astea sunt doar cateva din multele productii care apartin acestuia si vi le recomandat pe toate.

I was just perusing the BurdaStyle photo album of homemade halloween costumes and came across this beauty!!

This definately has to be one of the greatest reasons to have kids, dressing them up in the most insane outfits and taking photos!!

As I am a fan of the ‘odder’ costume my other favourites is this:

Most people have never had snail. To be honest, most people never even considered snail a food for human consumption. However, Manuel Jouvin chose to make packaging for cooked snail out of snail excrement (yes, poop!). In order to give it the right color, snails are given colored paper which gives the material its color.

Pretty gross… In a cool way!

There is no greater pleasure in life than that of lying on one’s bed, feet jammed against the railing, and drinking in every note of the music sent to one’ s twitching ears by the stereo blaring from the IKEA shelf opposite.

The bed’s frame vibrates in rhythm with the bass, as do the cobwebs on the ceiling which you are busy counting. Even though there are only two, the hypnotic pulsations make your eyes flit from one to another until you are left star-gazing at the galaxy of dazzling arachnide confections overhead.

You are listening so intently that sounds are decomposed and recomposed, each instrument isolated from its counterparts. Harmonies are redefined, notes shifted from one octave to another until they sink into musical oblivion: you no longer hear them at all.

They have become as natural as the spider-infested air you are meditatively inhaling. Your heart beats in time to the music…or perhaps ’tis not your heart at all…maybe ’tis only the music obediently following suit. You can’t really tell anymore. All you can feel are zillions of molecules whizzing around, penetrating each pore, every crack in the wall…

You are all under a spell…until that click, that earth-shattering mechanical noise, which your heart does not follow. Swept out of your daze, it all comes back in a flash and flush of emotion : Nooooooooooooooo! Would someone please press the repeat button!

I wrote that before owning a laptop. Before my stereo became a worn and greying testament to a dying generation of hi-fi equipment, prisoner of a dust fortress, humbly accommodating my glasses and a stack of old ATM receipts.

How I miss those dreamy trances, where notes and instruments carried my undivided attention.

Now, it’s all about multi-tasking, multiple tabs, burnt retinae, carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow  induced by 10:30 pm surfing, chatting, listening, caffeine-laced-beverage sipping, reading, typing, editing, photoshopping, bitching.

It’s a good thing I’m not much of a phone person, or I’d have to add ‘bluetoothing’, and ‘updating my Apps’ to the list.

The spiders have sensed it too. Our evening interludes gone, the neglected creatures have sought out new locations to exhibit their silken weavings.

<<< I found a snail on my desk the other day. A slug trapped in a shell…a sign of the times perhaps?

I have been playing Batman: Arkham Asylum for the last two evenings now and really loving it. Not so keen on the Scarecrow Nightmare scenes; I thought this game was quite tame up until the first encounter, then I had to hide behind a pillow while I played. I’m not good with scary things. I think I am over a third through it all now, collecting a load of Riddler points on the way (and Xbox Achievements too). I might write a review once it is completed…

Now… for baby animals!

Yes yes I know, that baby otter is ridiculously gorgeous. I wants!

The last few days I have been reading a blog by a lady named Monica Solorio-Snow, going by the name Happy Zombie.

I love all of her posts and ideas, I have been so inspired and cant wait to make things, and buy new fabrics and yarn. She also works for Moda Bake Shop. Here are a few of her favourite pictures that I have found so far:

I also found some adorable animal ears silver rings by The Golden Plague.

I also signed a petition here today to pass a law which makes micro-chipping pets mandatory to keep them safe. I think it is a good idea, it would help a lot of animals.

Anyways, True Blood is on and I am missing it!

Jenn x

credits: XtinaMaria @ youtube

It is not a secret that I am hurting nowadays. I’ve always been open about how I feel. And with all honestly and humility, I tell you that Super Junior often, if not always, makes things easy for me. For this time, they succeeded once more.

Maybe I really should believe on destiny. I mean, I’ve always been seeing this video on youtube but it is only now that I decided to watch it, hear Kyuhyun’s voice and understand the meaning of the song.

I thought it was just another song filled with Kyuhyun’s magic on music but as I try to comprehend the message behind the melody, I knew God sent me another reason to believe that He is just there.

This time, He used Kyuhyun. He knows about my latest attachment to the magnae so he used him as an instrument to remind me that at the end of the day, I should still stand strong. Things may drain all the strength in me, but the day will come that I will be able to forget everything that happened.

At the moment, I’m still listening to Kyuhyun’s voice. The magic is transcending in me.

Hmm… God, thank you. I know I’ll be fine. I know I’ll be okay.

En este episodio volvemos al mundo del stoner, con los siguientes grupos:

Solace
The Compnay Band
Trouble
Red Fang
Abdullah
Snail
Firebird
Sideburn
Masters Of Reality
Struck By Lightning
Solarized
Hermano
Unida
Queens Of The Stone Age

También se habla sobre lo siguiente:
The Dead Weather, Jack White, Pentagram, Neil Fallon, Clutch, James Rota, Fireball Ministry, Jess Margera, CKY, Brad Davies, Fu Manchu, Kory Clarke, Live In L.A., Bill Steer, Carcass, Napalm Death, Meteor City, John Garcia, Kyuss

El podcast se puede descargar en formato que prefiere desde aquí:

O escucha online aquí:

Prints  and Framed Art Available Here

These snails where plentiful around and near the waterways this year.  Their shells are typically an inch or more in diameter.