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Back to High School

itstiffmarie — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:50:01 +0000

Today was visiting day at City Honors. Many of the graduating students from ‘09 and before came to the school to see the teachers and students. This is always a fun day, not just for the students coming back, but for the teachers and students who are still there.

My friends and I observed that our teachers love when students come back because that gives them an excuse to abandon their usual lesson plans and live vicariously through the students who have gone out and started a new life. For us the students, especially the seniors, we get excited to see all our friends who we haven’t seen in months, and get to pick their brains about college life and what we should expect.

I’m always guilty of choosing to hang with the students who are visiting and neglect my classes. This year, I actually didn’t miss too much class and only came late to my one in which my friends and I walked around the school and bumped into everyone in the span of about 30 minutes.

This day always gets me excited and thinking about how it will be next year when I come back from college and go visit my old high school.

After school I went out my friend Alexis on elmwood, who I became extremely close with over the past two years, and we got some hot chocolate at Spot and caught up on about 2 months of hot gossip. Although we’ve stayed in touch via texts and facebook, it is never the same ad seeing each other in person and beign able to elaborate on everything that e have to say without worrying about a word limit. While walking down elmwood we saw our friends Liz and Ella and we all just walked around Elmwood and I told them about my college choices and they gave me good advice about visiting and picking colleges.

These are the best years of our lives. Although most people don’t want to believe this statement as being true, and choose to believe that being an adult and growing up is the best, i disagree. We will never have the times that we experience during high school and college. Once you graduate you will bever experience those craz, random, slightly awkward, but fun house parties that happen every weekend. We will never experience goign to the frat parties and makign fun of the broskis who hit on all of the girls once we graduate colege.

These times are filled with firsts and lasts. I would rather enjoy this time to the fullest and live with no regrets, than to play it safe and look back on it and say man ” I WISH” I had gone out with my friends instead of staying home. I plan on living it up, and not taking life too seriously aong the way

Thanksgiving Blessing

Doc Arnett — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:00:03 +0000

The blessing of smiles and hugs at the front door,
the sound of laughter in the living room,
the feel of warm voices in the kitchen
and a peaceful clamoring at the table,

The reassuring fill of good food and fine desserts,
the satisfied brush of napkins,
a lingering at the table
and unhurried dishes stacked by the sink,

An evening of contented conversation,
an intermingling of hearts and lives,
stories shared and shared again,
good moments re-visited, caressed by caring,

Safe travel,
Peaceful arrival,
and the bounty of God’s own hand:

May all this
and more
be yours.

H. Arnett
11/25/09

Crazy Clay Art / Loco Arte de Arcilla / Fou art d'argile

sartenada — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:39:20 +0000

Originally there should have been 100 tons of clay showing huge clay cube. But what happened? It collapsed, all this huge clay cube. Then somebody got brilliant idea. Let’s citizen of Helsinki (Finland) make their own art from that clay. That was nice idea, because about 1300 persons made their own art and guess if it was a great success. / Originalmente la idea era hacer de 100 toneladas un inmensa cubo de arcilla. ¿Pero que sucedió? Se derrumbó el cubo de arcil. Entonces alguien recibió una idea brillante. Se permita que ciudadanos de Helsinki (Finlandia) hagan su propia arte de arcilla. Una idea genial. Aproximadamente 1300 personas hizieron su propia arte y eso fue un gran triunfo. / Au début il aurait dû avoir 100 tonnes de d’argile pour faire une un énorme bloc cube d’argile. Mais qu’est-il arrivé ? Il s’est effondré, tout ce énorme cube d’argile. Alors quelqu’un a obtenu une idée génial.Laissez les citoyens de Helsinki (Finlande) faire leur propre art de l’argile. Cela était l’idée brillante parce que a peu près 1300 personnes a fait leur propre art. Vous pouvez bien deviner que c’était un grand succès.

Crazy Clay Art / Loco Arte de Arcilla / Fou art d'argile

Happy Birthday

Paul Salahuddin Armstrong — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:24:21 +0000

Dench visits dentist in costume

wnewsfeed6061 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:43:52 +0000

Dame Judi Dench reveals she had to make an emergency trip to the dentist in full period costume after damaging a tooth while filming BBC drama Cranford…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: travel tickets. The blog is also related to: airport shuttle.

Glass museum / Museo de cristal / Musée de verre

sartenada — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:37:34 +0000

Glass museum is situated in Riihimäki (Finland) is from Helsinki 70 kilometres / 43 miles to the North. In this museum there is quite huge collection from Finnish glass products whichs has been made during 300 years. / Este museo de cristal se halla en Riihimäki (Finlandia) se halla al Norte de Helsinki unos 70 kilómetros / 43 millas. En este museo hay una colección bastante inmensa de productos cristales finlandeses que han sido fabricados durante 300 años. / Le musée de verre est situé dans Riihimäki (Finlande) est de Helsinki 70 kilomètres / 43 milles au Nord. Dans ce musée il y a une collection tout à fait énorme des produits de verre finlandais qui ont été fait pendant 300 ans.

Glass museum

William, Stacie, and Dad came for a visit!

kyleandjessi — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:30:21 +0000

I’ve been a little bit homesick lately, wishing we had the time and money necessary to head back to Michigan for the holidays. So I was pretty excited when Dad decided to come out yesterday to visit with us and brought along Stacie & William (Travis had to stay home as he’s been sick with a cold).

William watching all of the trucks woosh by on his drive out to Virginia.

We made a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, turkey sausage (went over so-so), home-fries, waffles and hazelnut coffee (also went over so-so) and had lots of fun catching up. I’m currently babysitting while Dad, Stacie and Kyle check out the NRA museum, then this afternoon we’re headed down to the Mall so Dad & Stacie can see the Capitol building, some of the monuments and maybe even hit up the Natural History Museum (everyone’s favorite).

Me & William just hanging out. He's starting to smile and has the best dimples ever.

-Jessi

I'm a winner!

shoutabyss — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:20:20 +0000

Wow. Are things going my way or what?

First I received a $20 gift card to Starbucks from my mom. It’s the thought that counts, right? Even though I’m not that into coffee and the nearest Starbucks is 30 miles away.

So I decided to take Mrs. Abyss on the trip and make a date out of it. (The gory details of that excursion are documented here.)

While there the “barista” talked me into getting a 12-pack of Starbuck’s “VIA” instant coffee. Two fancy trendy coffee drinks and some instant coffee – POOF! My gift card was shot.

The “barista” also talked me into entering their contest. I normally don’t fall for that, but this time, what the hell. I gave in. Lo’ and behold, a week later I get a phone call and I was informed I had won a prize! Woot. That never happens to me. But, like an idiot I failed to ask what I had won.

So we make the 30 mile trip to get the “prize.” Can you guess? Yep, it was three individual packets of VIA. A retail value of about $2 bucks. I figure I spent about four times that amount on gas so my prize cost me about $6.

Today at the grocery store, though, I actually won a real price. The checker asked my name and then broadcast on the store’s PA system, “Congratulations to Tom who just won $20.” I was so stunned I voided by bowels. (Woot for the “poop” tag.)

Lastly, an honorable mention for site traffic yesterday. My “Sarah Palin is a liar” post got hit by a troll and I set a new all-time traffic record. In fact, my previous record was tripled in a single day. Something seems askew with that. I think WordPress must be counting “views” as multiple visits from the same two people who were bantering in that post. Apparently visitors are not tracked by “sessions” so repeat visits keep adding up on my little stats graph. Still, I’ll take it and call it a “mini-win.”

Woot. Look at me. I’m a winner!

we'll be moving

kill_me — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:56:23 +0000

first move for carbonppl
second one for me
i will be trying to dedicate my ass
100% art only on a new blog
this blog will not be closed though
coz, it’s brimmed with so much LEGAL files XD
(jabba’s apologize with robot voice hit 135 downloads XO)
we are hitting around 6 to 7 unique visitors a day
amounting up to 3,421 visitors now
(that sucks)
wanted to see how many people are in here
for my art

we will cut the connections between the 2 blogs
the move is not now, but soon
we still have loads of shit to attend too
not to mention, my freaking spm
and blique busy with his finals too
so, look out yeah
by the way, kaiyuan2lifeless, we need your details
send them through mail to me yeah

and i still think how mabel is doing for spm…

Gracias, seguimos creciendo

JoséyJota — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:09:59 +0000

Muchísimas gracias a todos los einoneros, porque estais ayudándonos a crecer a lo grande. Llevamos desde el martes con un mínimo de 150 visitas diarias, y el miércoles alcanzamos un récord histórico: 163

Lo que más me impresiona es que muchas no son visitas redirigidas de un buscador, un top, un banner… (que también cuentan, todas nos hacen crecer, y por algún lado se empieza a mirar einoo) no, la inmensa mayoría son visitas de gente que pone http://einoo.wordpress.com en su barra de direcciones o nos tiene en favoritos.

MUCHAS GRACIAS, DE VERDAD, SEGUID ASÍ, QUE QUEDA POCO PARA LAS 50000 VISITAS. ESTE BLOG LO HACÉIS VOSOTROS.

By: J-Fénix

City leader visits revered People’s Teacher

Viet Nam — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:35:34 +0000

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Le Thanh Hai on November 19 visited Professor and People’s Teacher Nguyen Van Giau who is recognized for his many contributions to the field of education. The meeting took place in recognition of Vietnam Teacher’s Day (November 20).

Phan Xuan Bien, member of the Standing Board and head of the Commission for Propaganda and Education of the city Party Committee and Huynh Cong Minh, director of the city Department of Education and Training, attended the visit.

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Le Thanh Hai (R) visited Prof. Tran Van Giau on November 19 in Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: SGGP)

Mr. Hai wished Prof. Giau good health, happiness and a long life to continue contributing to the development of the nation.

Prof. Giau, a senior teacher of several generations of educators and leader in scientific research, has made significant contributions to national education.

The professor has also received a number of medals including the Ho Chi Minh Medal and Independence 1st Class Medal for his outstanding contributions to national education. In addition, Prof. Giau was honored for his 80-year membership in the Party and life-long devotion to his career.

During the visit, Prof. Giau emphasized that he would like to see more talented teachers being trained by municipal education sectors.

On the same day, the city Labor Union organized a meeting with outstanding teachers and students in HCM City.

Most participants agreed that teachers significantly affect a student’s personality development and success. Educators play an important role not only by teaching subject material, but also by helping shape the virtues of students, the meeting heard.

At the city’s Youth Cultural House, the City Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union organized a meeting to honor 113 teachers including 72 educators from primary schools and 41 university instructors on November 19.

Also in recognition of Teacher’s Day, The University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City presented the “Tri An” (Gratefulness) fund which collected more than VND1 billion to help poor teachers.

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

Banner Advertising - The Ultimate Website Traffic Strategy For Avoiding the Google AdWords Slap

tohimanen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:05:48 +0000

days site -PG Web Portal Pro – portal web site software.

Have you ever been “Google Slapped?” It is not fun is it! If you don’t know what this is – it is when Google AdWords decides they ‘t wish for to run your ads and give you traffic anymore. So they will deactivate your ads and then make you pay as much as $10 a click to prepare e dress them requital online. In want to show you why symbolleading advertising is the remotest game to avoiding this in your market.

Overcoming The Google AdWords Addiction:

In most markets online, most people are addicted to buying website visitors from Google AdWords. They provide a ton of traffic & you can get it righht away.

The problem with this is you can get thousands of visitors to your site lifetime in and day out and one day it can all be gone. That is why you want to sure you understand that there is a better way!

Taking Your Traffic Freedom Back Into Your Own Control:

That is why you desire to standard advertising undeviatingly from the website owners. You don’t own to deal with quuality scores and things like that.

You can make deals with them and they won’t care what quay page looks like! They not care about making sure they force paid & that you are fairlegitimize.

Don’t tthrow out Google AdWords!

Just make sure you focus on getting visitors from the site owners directly as well. Using both of these souurces will dramatically increase your sales & lifestyle you separate what you’re doing.

vishwakosh - vai

Meena Kharatmal — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:34:14 +0000

I happen to visit the vishwakosh (encyclopedia) office in vai on 7th nov. I was really glad to interact with the people and look at the interesting and resourceful library of classic collection and encyclopedia. It is worth visiting the library. Prof. H.C.Pradhan was discussing with Mr. Chaunde related to the biology encyclopedia. Since i had some curiousity about it which i have also mentioned in my earlier post related to change in biological terms, I participated in their discusison. Chaunde was showing how they are managing the entries, the usage of sorting cards. The information on the sorting cards display the name of the term and also a related entry with see also. In this way, they are now trying to embedd the terms which are introduced in the textbooks. It seems that the vishwakosh project began about five years ago, the list of entries was decided but the textbook committee have overlooked this project and hence there has been discrepancies in the names of the terms. But even this problem is being handled by the vishwakosh. They are really meticulously taking care of such issues.

Over a cup of coffee, Chaunde shared his experiences about peoples responses to their work. Overall, I was satisfied with this meet, cos my quest of finding the rationale behind the change in the terms was a bit resolved.

Comparing pulpits / Comparando púlpitos / Comparant chaires

sartenada — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:47:42 +0000

How are pulpits looking in Finnish churches? Are they same looking? My collection of 41 pulpits is presenting pulpits of small churches on countryside as some of those of bigger ones in cities. / ¿Cómo están púlpitos en iglesias finlandesas? Mi colección presenta 41 púlpitos de pequeñas iglesias en el campo como también algunos de ésos de grandes ciudades. / Comment sont ils les chaires dans les églises finlandaises? Ma collection de 41 chaires Vous présente des chaires de petites églises de provinces comme aussi ceux-là de plus grande églises dans les villes.

Comparing pulpits / Comparando púlpitos / Comparant chaires

Pulpit of the world's biggest wooden church in the world

1000 Visits!

sororitylifeguide — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:37:01 +0000

Wooo! 1000 visits. Let’s see how quickly we can get to 2000. Post my website link on your feed, then leave a comment here telling me you have, along with your Sorority Life ID. I will post a link to your character here so you can get some extra votes!

Zulace

xoxo

A Visit to Kingston, Ontario

Jacqueline Grice — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:29:25 +0000

Several Year ago…let’s say four Years to be exact, over the Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend my Husband and I had this great opportunity to have a few days to ourselves. We had a wonderful cottage in the woods available to us and the weather was ok. Not the very best but just to be together and having time with each other was nice.

We went on an Artist open house tour all though the nearby area and came across several very neat places and Artists. It is fantastic to see what some very Creative people come up with and what they call Art. Each has their own style and ideas. We visited some very interesting styles of homes….just amazing. My eyes just took it all in.

On our walks in the forest we found some other wonderful places as well and took some beautiful pictures. Just have a look and see for yourself.

Week 3 - 8th Street Grill & Tavern

isotbbidm — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:38:21 +0000

Date: 11.19.2009

Location: 8th Street & Marquette

Special:

The rating system:

Burger: 0-10 Experience: 0-5 Value: 0-5

	Burger	Experience	Value	Total
*BC	0	0	0	0
*AL	0	0	0	0
*SP	0	0	0	0
*BS	0	0	0	0
*JS	0	0	0	0
TP	0	0	0	0
EJ	0	0	0	0

*Charter Member

Comments / Quotes :

Potential future meeting locations

- Dan Kelly’s

- The Loon

- Runyon’s

- The Local

- Kieran’s Irish Pub

- Keys

- Hells Kitchen

- Rock Bottom

- Lyon’s Pub

- Peter’s Grill

- Hubert’s

- Murray’s

- Manny’s

- Grumpy’s

- My Burger

How to correctly show off your WP blog stats

Romy C — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:04:42 +0000

When a WP blog shows off on its sidebar the following:

Blog Stats
• 3,000 visits

or worse,

Blog Stats
• 3,000 hits

without any additional information, I start asking: “What exactly does that mean?”

If a blog stats are presented in this fashion, the numbers look like a block of meaningless information.

Blog Stats widget dialog box

I know this may be hard to swallow, but that is the truth.

Let me just backtrack a little bit and elaborate before someone starts calling me names.

1. Currently, there is no method which can claim to produce web statistics with 100% accuracy. And the resulting numbers are dependent on what methodology is applied to generate those numbers. The fact that even Google has to explain the terms used in its analytics and how the Google numbers are calculated shows the difficulty in coming up with commonly accepted standards. You may wish to check out this page as an additional background.

2. Without being critical, WordPress.com in its Support page provided not enough information as to what the Blog Stats numbers are. Perhaps, to others the numbers need no explanation? Or perhaps there is another related Support page which I missed? I certainly don’t have the answer to that.

3. Again, without being critical, the same WordPress.com Support page says that we, the bloggers, can choose which word to use in describing the numbers. The two popular words, according to WP, are: “hits” (which is the default label in the Blog Stats widget dialog box), and “views”, the label “views” being more consistent with the label “Total Views”, used in the Blog Stats Dashboard | Summary Table.

4. The use of “hits” was okay, and even a buzzword, many many years ago. Is it still okay to use “hits” these days without defining what you mean by “hits”?

5. In technical terms, “hits” is not “visits” nor “views”. “Hits” are the number of files served when a web page (no distinction here between WP “post” and “page”) is requested from a server. A graphic, an icon, a banner and all sorts of files that make up a page are, technically, “hits”. For example, when you opened this page, the server’s log should have recorded at least 40 “hits” just on the bullets, icons and images alone displayed on this page.

Given this background, where does that leave us if we want to show off our WP blogs stats?

You may have other ideas, but right now I can think of only two things we can do to correctly show off our WP blog stats:

1. Stick to using “Views” to label those numbers. I will not use labels like “hits” or “visits” if I were you. In the absence of additional information from WP, these labels may be inaccurate information. You may be describing the numbers something that they are not. In the Blog Stats dashboard, the numbers are labeled “views”, remember?

2. Disclose the period covered by the stats. Again, the numbers are pretty much meaningless unless the period to which they relate is described. Here is an example to show how futile and frustrating it is to read blog stats crafted using the Blog Stats widget:

Blog Stats
• 3,000 views

If you are the owner of this blog and you know that your blog stats are for 12 months, no problem. You know what your stats stand for. But if you are a visitor of this blog and you don’t have that same information, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? What do these 3,000 views represent? Are these yesterday’s views? Or perhaps, last week’s? Or last month’s? Or, last 12 months’? And how do I compare the “popularity” of this blog with another blog with only 1,500 views but I know that this other blog has been online for only 2 months?

Any suggested wordings?

By the way, I am not fond of showing off my site’s stats whether here at WP or in my company’s websites. We also do not display in my company’s websites any stats counter or meter. But if I were to show off my blog stats on the sidebar, I would probably disclose the numbers this way:

Blog Stats
• xxxxx page views from (date blog or the Blog Stats started) to date

or something like:

How popular is my blog?
• xxxxx pages had been viewed by my friends from (date blog or the Blog Stats started) to date. Oh yes, they are very pleased too!

A little bit long, you think? But no one will argue the suggested wordings are not misleading. And they are easy to understand.

Again, in a worst-case scenario too, you can present a screenshot of your blog stats dashboard plus some other information about your blog to prove that the blog stats you are claiming are factual. That is, if someone starts questioning your numbers and you need to show proof. About your friends being very pleased? I am sure your friends would be happy to come to your rescue and say they are pleased with your blog!

.
End Notes: The WP Blog Stats inside my blog’s dashboard is an excellent tracking and management tool. With the Blog Stats, I learn a lot about my blog. But when used as a widget and without additional information about the numbers displayed on the sidebar, the stats are meaningless. Did I step on sensitive toes with this post? I hope not. But if I did, that’s a risk I take.
.

St Alban's - first contact 16th November

shajam — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:18:13 +0000

We were late. Never, ever use computer printout directions without a map – as once you get off track you are doomed. So after driving around a rainy Pontypool for a while and battling against the outgoing school traffic, we manage to arrive 20 minutes late at St Alban’s School – eeek! We dashed in to meet our team (Amy, Ben, Brendan, John, Indrani, Joey, Lewys, Olivia, Suzanne) in the art room. We introduced ourselves and gave a brief overview of our ideas for this preliminary meeting and what we were going to get up to in the museum. We then played human bingo – revealing that few of us had read ‘on the origin of the species’, and that those who had tried had not got far.

Paul then gave a chat on what he had been up to as an artist – showing his smelly lynx and huge whale pictures (see his website for an explanation). Ciara talked about Darwin, the 200 years that had passed since he was born ,and his ideas about natural and artificial selection. Jacqui told the students about the fore-runner to domestic cattle – the mighty aurochs – and discussed how they became the domestic cattle we now know. The talk then returned to dogs and, with the help of a few skulls, we considered how humans have changed dogs to fulfil a variety of roles. Finally, we discussed the initial ideas for logos the team had come up with. It was over quickly, particularly as we had arrived late – but we motored back to Cardiff feeling we had made a great start.

ITEC - second contact 17th november

shajam — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:16:26 +0000

Another day and a much easier journey – we took a taxi to ITEC (and the driver did not get lost). We met the team and immediately were impressed by the fabulous work on logos the students had been doing – lots of great ideas and artistic talent. We introduced ourselves and Pauls’ lynx and ‘eight days to draw whale’ were once again admired. During another round of human bingo we were introduced to our new team (Cherie, Clare, Eloise, Hannah (x2), Kimberly, Joely, Sarah) many of whom had already visited the museum. We ran through our talks – once again we discussed giant cattle and the fact that, whilst you could tame individual aurochs’ calves by catching them young, you could only permanently change animals behaviour or shape by controlling their breeding. Ciara got us to think about the roles that Alasatians (big and mean), sheep dogs (obedient and passive), whippets (light and fast) and great Danes (Scooby Doo) were bred for. The skulls of the dogs, and in particular their teeth, evoked a good discussion and the Pekinese (the product of a love affair between a lion and a marmoset monkey engineered by Budha!?) was a great talking point.

Paul spent longer looking at the logos the student had produced (giraffe fish, penguins with wings, butterfly wireless speakers, miniature dogs to name a few. We discussed what made a good logo – Micky Mouse’s head, the Macdonalds M, apple for macs and STAPLES (Pauls favourite) and then Paul gave advice on how to rework the inital sketches into logos.

The best logo for each group gets to be their t-shirt and the best of the three groups gets to be on the project website.

We left students working on their logos and hope to see the finished results soon.

Filling in

Tse Hwee — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:13:59 +0000

one more month!

drew up my schedule for the following 8 – 9 weeks till the Taiwan trip in January. just wanted to be more organized on when i’m free and when i’m not. was telling buddy that at least this time i’m slowly filling up the empty spaces and not trying to squeeze appointments in like the one i had for study break. so yup, it’s a good sign i guess.. trying to fit more work into the empty slots, need $$$ for birthday party and the trip!

but still, i just keep writing and re-writing my to-do list on my phone, my com and paper because every time i am free, i just think of what i need to but have yet to do.. so yea, while waiting for things to do at work, i scribbled like a whole list of things i had to do and slowly cancel them off.

Sunday was to zoo zoo zoo with the kids. had some issues but i actually preferred the times chilling outside the zoo than under the sun in the zoo. but still, i thought it was a good experience considering that i haven’t been there for ages. i felt like a kid who’s amazed by every single act of the animals. haha. visited gabriel at his place after that and please my dear 日, GET WELL SOON! (:

back at work and boss saved a cup of roma’s home-made ice cream for me. guava flavoured. yummys. one day i wanna learn too. then i can make my own vanilla ice cream! *grins*

after that, he proceeded to making breads, in curry potato and in tau sar paste. only got to eat it a day after but as usual, they tasted great. my boss is a really talented man but too bad, i’m really too lazy to attempt to master his skills. hahaha.

headed down to school for bi-AGM after half-day work on Monday and this is my beloved MnP department. welcoming teddy back to the department and congrats to all newly appointed excos. (:

off to halo bar after that with the usual people. with flora, the lovely girl whom i always snatch sides with. hahaha i think we look pretty awkward in this picture cos both of us were trying to tilt to show the left side of our faces. *laughs*

a toast to our new MnP head. erm, i know it the picture it looks like wilson but nopes..

it’s for EVANS who was cut away halfway in the picture.

the squeezy room when more people joined us after dinner.

with babe. i realised we haven’t been taking much pictures together!

look at the big bruise on my thigh! i think it looks really real. don’t you think so? hahaha it’s actually just a shadow from the sunshield on the car’s window. heh.

anyways, accompanied sissy to NUH earlier on for her tooth extraction. was like her personal assistant; helping her to call people, flag cab and guess what she’s trying to say.. hurhur. oh ya, that’s her tooth before she went in. well, she’s a brave girl but i still think it’s stupid to pay money to suffer! i shall be a very good sister and help her eat whatever she can’t eat during this whole period. wahahha. so much love right? (:

always in a dilemma.

Don't say you're not amazed when you know you are

astasigrun — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:50:19 +0000

Here in the burgh we are slowly allowing the Christmas feeling to break out from the cupboards and brighten the dark and cold days that are November. For those who are allergic to the mention of Christmas before December first, I promise I won’t ramble on*…

I’ve said it once or twice and I’ll say it again, I have no tolerance for folks who shudder at the thought of a bit of Christmas spirit too early. By the middle of November I’m usually desperate for December, the darkness and the idea of going home has gotten the better of me. Well what can I say, Lyngberg 17 is just irresistible during December.

However, although I like to introduce the festivities in at various speeds during November, I make sure that until after Kalli’s birthday on the 22nd I haven’t gone too mad. I don’t like associating his B’day with Christmas; he should have that all to himself.

But so far I’ve put up my fairy lights- they make me and my roommate very happy, and they turned out nicely. I need to fix them up a bit this weekend; I have visitors coming next week (eeeekkk so excited!).

Thus I need to find my inner domestic goddess (I fear she may be a bit rusty…) and channel her to good deeds this weekend also. There is some dusting, cleaning and baking to be done- fear not I won’t do all three simultaneously obviously.

Some more decorations will be put up, I don’t want to reveal to many as I have a feeling my guests might read this and I’d rather they see it first hand… Well let’s just say I have a banister and I’m so excited about decorating it is getting rather embarrassing.
This week and next weekend will sadly be epically boring I fear. There is much work to be done school wise (going ok at the moment, crossing fingers it continues that way!- however I sometimes think that if I would think of myself as an employee, I’d fire myself… probably not the best ). My inner domestic goddess-ness will have to do and the inner student in me will be worked to the bone. I have a feeling lots of folks from Iceland will be bored too, seeing as exams are just around the corner for them so maybe I’ll be entertained via facebook or msn:)

Right I’m signing off now, but I’ll leave those of you who are in the mood to look at some festive youtube videos and couple for those of you who arn’t:) Then I promise after the 1st to put up a proper festive blog that will get even the biggest scrooges into the Christmas spirit….

First a song that Sæunn sent me the other day which made me very happy

Judy Garland singing Have yourself a Merry little Christmas, from Meet me in St.Louis (Which I might dig up this weekend and watch seeing as I’ve never seen it….)

And then Simon and Garfunkel singing one of my favourites: Flowers never bend with the rainfall

Finally Mandy Moore singing Merrimack River, I’d also like to recommend this album: Amanda Leigh by Mandy Moore, now you may think I’ve finally gone utterly mad, but it’s really very good. Take it or leave it…

Love

Ásta Sigrún

xxx

*For those who noticed the star… Yes I may have told a fib… and yes the blog was pretty much about the unspoken and yes I’d like to say I’m sorry- I really would want to force myself to apologies … but I wont… awww búhú for you…!

Democrats Worried About Fact That They Haven't Been Worried About Jobs

Michael Eden — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:58:32 +0000

This would be funny, if it wasn’t so blatantly pathetic:

Pelosi switches to jobs
By Mike Soraghan – 11/16/09 08:41 PM ET

House Democratic leaders, worried they’ve appeared unresponsive to rising unemployment because they were absorbed by healthcare, are aiming for a legislation solution by Christmas.

That focus follows a similar shift in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told colleagues he also plans to bring up a jobs measure, The Hill reported first last week.

The House change began Monday night when leaders scheduled AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect, to address the House Democratic Caucus.

And it could end with an economic package on the floor sometime in December, Democratic sources said.

But some leadership aides cautioned that leaders are still debating whether to do one large package or a series of smaller bills.

And they say the Obama administration has yet to get on board.

One way or another, aides say, House Democrats’ message from now to Christmas will be about jobs.

“We continue to look for opportunities to build on the recovery package and other actions Congress has taken to bolster the economy,” said Nadeam Elshami, spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Leaders want members to have something to take home with them to show that they’re working on the economy. But they have to balance that against growing discomfort among voters about skyrocketing government spending.

It’s not that Democrats give a damn about jobs; they just want to make sure like they LOOK like they give a damn about jobs.

Obama promised that if his giant pork-laden generational theft act known as the “stimulus” passed, unemployment would be capped at no higher than 8%. And then it just kept growing and growing.

The Democrats’ plan never was about jobs, but about government control and about creating a trillion dollar political slush fund.

Don’t believe me about the stimulus slush fund?

To get as far as the bill did so far, it appears the administration might have spread some money around. California Rep. Jim Costa was wavering but told a local newspaper last week that his vote could be contingent on getting some federal money for a new medical school in his district along with help for local hospitals.

When a constituent named Bob Smittcamp e-mailed him to complain about his vote for the House bill, the congressman explained he’d been offered the dollars he was looking for — $128 million in federal money.

“He responded to me by basically saying that he did not like many of the elements there were in the legislation. However, he was able to procure $128m for the University of California medical school in Merced,” Smittcamp told Fox News.

They have spent the last five months (plus) utterly consumed by a government health care takeover that most Americans didn’t want virtually from the outset.

Now we’re learning that this massive 2,000 page monstrosity is anything BUT “deficit neutral” even in the first ten years (and it blows up into enormous deficits thereafter) and that it most definitely WILL hurt seniors and undermine Medicare.

And all the Democrats can say is “full steam ahead!”

A few things come out of this “Pelosi switches to jobs” article:

1) The Democrats are literally afraid that the American people will recognize the truth and get angry about it.

2) Democrats have absolutely no clue how to create jobs. And Obama has even less of a clue than the other Democrats.

3) The Democrats are turning their “job creation” over to the unions.

And it’s number three that frankly pisses me off the most.

It’s amazing that the SEIU only has 2.2 million members, but more influence than anyone else bar none in the Obama administration. SEIU president Andy Stern – basically a confirmed Marxist – has had more visits to the White House (22 so far) than ANYONE.

It’s really no surprise that Obama and the Democrats would run to their special interest to write their legislation for them. SEIU was given a huge hand in crafting both the stimulus and the health care legislation; why NOT let them write the next jobs bill too?

The words of Barack Hussein Obama, as presidential candidate:

“Your agenda has been my agenda in the United States Senate. Before debating health care, I talked to Andy Stern and SEIU members. Before immigration debates took place in Washington, I talked with Eliseo Medina and SEIU members. Before the EFCA, I talked to SEIU. So, we’ve worked together over these last few years and I am proud of what we’ve done. I’m just not satisfied.”

Obama’s number-one visitor is on the record as saying:

“We’re trying to use the power of persuasion. And if that doesn’t work, we’re going to use the persuasion of power”

And Obama’s union thugs are all about using “the persuasion of power.”

Glenn Beck pointed out that he had a solid 3 million viewers. And he wondered how the American people would act if HE had had more visits than anyone else to the Bush White House, and got to write the stimulus and the “job creation” legislation.

The AFL-CIO has about 11.5 million members, based on their own information. With a total of 15.4 million union members in the United States. Rush Limbaugh has 14.2 to 25 million listeners, according to the Washington Post. And I wonder how liberals would react if Rush Limbaugh had more visits to the White House than anyone, and got to write the laws that will run the nation.

So you start to see just how blatantly partisan and ideological the Democrat Party truly is. The union agenda is just as hostile to what Republicans want for the nation as Glenn Beck’s or Rush Limbaugh’s agenda is to what Democrats want for the nation.

We’re not just talking about partisanship; we’re talking about HYPER-HYPER-partisanship.

Let me say about jobs what Libertychick said about health care: “SEIU (and by obvious extension AFL-CIO) doesn’t care about jobs. SEIU cares about SEIU.” Barack Obama and the Democrat Party are going to let the unions and the hard-core union agenda write themselves huge sums of taxpayer dollars.

What’s that? You DON’T think that the SEIU only gives a damn about the SEIU?

From the Allentown Morning Call:

In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.

Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city’s largest municipal union.

Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.

“We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails,” Balzano told the council.

These unions don’t give a damn about you. They don’t give a damn about your family. They don’t give a damn about your community. They don’t give a damn about altruism or volunteerism or doing right. And they would burn a Boy Scout’s house down if they thought it would serve their greedy partisan interests.

And the Democrats don’t give a damn about you, either. Frankly, the Democrats aren’t much different from their number one special interest group. Democrats are now rushing to cover their hindquarters because they ignored the economy while they were focused on trying to TAKE OVER the economy via their health care agenda.

Tom Jones in Malta - Article in The Times of Malta, 17th November 2009

77greatestates — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:54:05 +0000

Tom Jones played to three enthusiastic generations on Sunday night during a concert at the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre, Ta’ Qali.

Youths sang along with septuagenarians during the Welsh legend’s two-hour set in support of his critically acclaimed album 24 Hours. Some 6,000 people were at the concert, organised by NnG Promotions.

Tom Jones dipped into several of his all-time classics, from What’s New Pussycat, which kept the elder members of the audience happy, to his cover version of Prince’s Kiss, which elicited a huge response from the youngsters. Yet it was his 1968 hit Delilah which earned the biggest roar of the evening.

Tom Jones lived up to his nickname The Voice, never faltering, defying his five decades in the business, though not as fit as he was in his heyday.

Wearing a blue suit and sporting white hair and a goatee beard (finally dispensing of dyed hair), Tom Jones is now clearly acting his 69 years. At one point he pondered on why U2’s Bono and The Edge had written a song for him called Sugar Daddy.

The renowned tradition of knicker-throwing at Tom Jones’s concerts seems to be dying down, though the odd piece of underwear was seen on the ground after the event.

However, at one point, one elderly woman was seen approaching the stage, hobbling past security and depositing an item of underwear neatly on stage.

Though he finished off the concert with the relatively unknown Take Me Back to the Party, the crowd cheered and danced – by then many had forgotten the traffic chaos which took over Ta’ Qali before the gig.

these days, it comes, it comes, it comes, it goes

sunnysidemaybe — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:35:24 +0000

How are you today, Interweb? I’m doing alright. Not great, but alright. I’m really happy