M(imibot)arketing power

Small, easy to loose, and "everybody" wants one. Because...why? It's the latest trendy thing. And how many of them are going to be lost within the first month or so? Oh, wait. You can get that cute little hoodie to keep it in, for only a few dollars more. A whole wardrobe, even. Hardly any money at all, considering the hours of entertainment - and usefulness - it brings.

And "from now through December 10th", they had free UPS Ground shipping for any order over $100! Hot news...posted on December 14th. Can there be any more incentive than that to grab that credit card?

mimoco

Queen Rock Star Back At University For Astrophysics PhD - After 33 Years

Brian May, the multimillionaire guitarist who founded the rock group Queen, has finally completed the PhD in astrophysics that he abandoned more than 30 years ago.

Well, they say it's never too late. And I guess all that partyin may not rot your brain after all.

Blogged with Flock

Creativity Inspiration

Inspiring and strangely compelling. Makes me want to grab my Moleskine and mess it up...oh, my...

SuziBluTube

Putting money to better use

I just do not understand, with all the poverty and health issues in the world, why anyone feels the need to have a billion dollars, plus. How can one sleep at night? And no cracks about high-thread-count sheets. Just. Not. Funny.

Bill Gates Falls to 3rd Richest Man - CyberNet News

Bogie Down!

Just what I needed on this dreary day.

Thanks to Friday Distractions :: Boogie Down with Me! - eMoms at Home - The Internet Home Business Blog for Moms & Dads

Under what?

It's so hard to get good help these days. Or just help that's awake...

Thank You Ma'am: "Under Neat That"

Marketplace Bargain

Well, judging from the description, I think the real trouble is that the mom needs a little backbone support. As for the son: one month's rent at a storage facility, three weeks at the local motel, and the want ads. And for the mom? A locksmith.

Frustrated Mom, lists 19yr. old son in Facebook Marketplace. — Facebook Observer

Grocery shopping 2.0

Yes - sign me up for this. I hate shopping for groceries and I hate wasting time and money doing it. Unfortunately, I need to do it or go broke and sick eating fast food. But this is a solution I could come to enjoy. Please, somebody, do this!

The Post Money Value: The Wheels on the Bus

Nobody has successfully pulled off a comparison site that let's you put in your shopping list and simply tells you, go here, take these coupons and save this much.

Blog Action Day

One of the great things I remember about my childhood was being able to take off on my bike, ride down to the woods, and just wander. Walk in the stream, eat blackberries. Dunk silverleaf in the cool water and watch it shimmer.

Ticks were nothing more than an annoyance. The biggest danger was absently-mindedly walking through 7-year-itch, or the scare of encountering an unfriendly snake that hadn't scurried away fast enough.

The kind of adventures that I hoped my daughter could experience.

Unfortunately, by the time I had that daughter, well...the world was a very different place. The woods I walked were now housing developments. The streams were polluted enough to think twice about wading through, let alone drinking from. The only other water around was run-off from the new roads, driveways and parking lots, and occupied by disease-bearing mosquitoes.

Yes, the ice caps are melting. There are all kinds of dire warnings about the state of our world. All that's important, of course. But really?

I'd just like, someday, to watch my granddaughter jump on her bike and take off for a walk in the woods. And be safe.

The Art of Butch Belair

Watercolor is a medium I find as frustrating as it is rewarding. The initial observation and organization I tried to cultivate in my line drawings is even more important now.  I have a small travel palette with selected half pans and two or three brushes (nothing special), and I paint in the 5x8 watercolor books.  I am by no means an expert, but I love the paper and the book has become a bit of a fetish item. The book itself makes me want to paint.  My progress is slow, but to me that just means the process is one worthy of the effort.

butchbelair.com

I have the materials, but making those initial steps is difficult - my inner critic is screaming at the top of her lungs: you don't have time for this!

Blogged with Flock

Question the questions

I've reached the benchmark 5-0, and I still can't rattle off birthdays of relatives. Does it have anything to do with my memory? No. I come from a family that rarely sends birthday cards, goes out to dinner to celebrate, sends presents, throws parties. If there's nothing constantly reminding you, then why would you remember it? And the phone number? How many times do you call yourself? And what number do you use - home, work, cell, work cell? Come on. I think this poll would have a very different result if it had been asked 30 years ago, when you only had one home number to remember.

If you're going to perform polls like this, let's give a little more thought to what you're asking and leave the assumptions out of it.

When they were testing my daughter - at 3 years old - one of the objects they expected her to recognize was the silhouette of a telephone.

Like the rotary dial one she would have found in her great grandmother's house. Duh.

The downside of the outboard brain | 43 Folders

Til disagreement do us part

Most people don't know what the rights given by marriage are until they are facing divorce - and then it may be too late. How is property owned, in the eyes of the law? What can be done by your spouse without your knowledge that can end up legally binding you - whether you agreed to it or not?

The spiritual, or religious, side of marriage should be determined by the couples uniting. Who performs the ceremony, where it's performed, who witnesses - all up to them. But the legal side of things? That's a different story. You should know what your rights and responsibilities are when you enter into a contract - and as far as the state is concerned, marriage is a legally enforceable contract. Don't you want to know what it really says?

Maybe knowing what your rights and obligations are - at least as far as the courts are concerned - would have a positive effect on the divorce rate. So why can't we separate the legal side - the marriage license - from the ceremonial side?

Marriages by ministers ordained online in question | Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/08/2007

Pay attention, Mom

Before it's too late. Which is what, now? 2? The first click of the remote?

Pictures Worth...

Lord Lotus Blog | The World In Only 7 Pictures

Found via Kottke

Gmail in Facebook

What am I missing? All these apps for Facebook. (The following aside, I think Facebook is great.)

Why would I want to check my gmail, at about 1/3 the screen size, when I can open gmail in a browser window and ctrl-tab to it when I need to? What I am missing?

Fmail Brings Gmail to your Facebook

We did it because, well, we could.

Really, what is the point here? Can't you just go entertain yourself with, I don't know, a puppet show or something? Maybe for the local kids? Or your own kids, if you're spending too much time on the computer looking at this kind of stuff...


Blabberize.com

Two plu two

Gerald Bracey: Parents, Poverty and Achieving in School - Politics on The Huffington Post

Speak what?

Well, let me just say this. If I went to Germany, or France, or Spain, or Italy, I'd bring a dictionary to help me understand the language. And I'd use it. Whether I really needed to or not. It's just a simple courtesy.

I'd want to learn another's culture, their way of thinking, how they live. Isn't that the point? Not to turn them into another me.

I mean, I don't go visit people to I can take over their house. Do you?

Stephen Collins: To Continue in English, Press "1" - Politics on The Huffington Post

Still?

Michael J. Klarman: Why Little Rock Mattered - Politics on The Huffington Post

Fifty years ago today, President Eisenhower sent federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas to defend the right of nine African American students to attend formerly all-white Central High School.

And fifty years later, there is still fighting over something as petty as the right to sit under a schoolyard tree?

Why doesn't that seem completely idiotic to most people in this country? Don't we have more important things to deal with than the color of somebody's skin? People are dying because they can't get medicine or health care. There are people in this country who still don't know how to read. There is polluted air, and streams we can no longer swim in. Yet we are spending hundreds, thousands of dollars because someone wanted to sit under a tree and their skin was not the right color?

Show me the money

Interesting point. Even more interesting comments.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Why Civil Rights Leaders Didn't Get Jena 6 Defendant Mychal Bell Out of Jail - Politics on The Huffington Post