Sunday, January 31, 2010

Beyonce - Talent and Shame

Let me admit up front that I'm old fashioned. I like people who have taste, who respect values and morals. Beyonce Knowles is one of the greatest talents on the music scene today. With Destiny's Child, she had some incredible hits and then she went solo. She can act, and she is absolutely hands on with every movement and beat of her performance. She works hard, and make no mistake, she is the woman in charge of each dance step, gesture, and note played by her musicians.

This is why I don't get it. She starts out with such a dynamic entrance for her number of the Grammy's. Her powerful voice is belting it out, and I'm focused on what I believe will be a 'wow' performance. Then she makes a gesture that lasts several seconds to punctuate her song, and it just turns me off big time.

There was no need for that crude move. She put herself on the level of Roseanne Barr. It disgusted me, and it lowered my respect for her.

As nice and generous as I've heard Beyonce is, I also hear that she is quite the diva, with a demand list that is ridiculous. A demand list is what she insists be present when she does an appearance. I also recall a couple years back she backed out of a tour overseas because the government simply asked her to dress more appropriately. The woman couldn't keep her clothes on for a couple of hours so she could bring her music to those people. That went down the wrong way for me, too.

I guess I'm just very confused over Beyonce. Maybe she's a generous diva and a crude talent. I just can't like her the way I would if she had more class in her performance and decisions.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Haiti Outrage

I am really upset by what is happening in Haiti, and I'm not talking about the search for victims or the help to rebuild.

There is a local family who has been working on adopting a Haitian boy. After the quake, they didn't know what happened to him. An NBC news crew tracked the boy down and shot video to send to the parents. Since then, they've been trying to get their boy to the United States, as have several other potential parents.

The parents were set to fly to Salt Lake City to meet their new son on Thursday only they got word that the flight was off. It seems the Haitian Prime Minister was in Canada and refused to signed the documents. Excuse me? His country is in shambles. Little kids have no where to go. People want to help. And the PM is in Canada? I'm outraged.

I'm even angrier because all through the night, negotiators were working with the Haitian government to make this flight happen and bring these kids to the US. Now we're there, investing our hearts, minds, souls, equipment, time, food, supplies, etc. -- all in the name of human compassion and goodness, and the PM and the government of Haiti won't release these kids? These homeless, hungry children?

Outrage! Then today, they let the kids on a plane, saying they could go to Florida and while on the plane, they forcibly remove the children because they can't match the names.

Well excuse me. I thought we were helping a nation to rebuild, but apparently they would rather squabble over names. I don't freakin' care who these kids are or what their names are. They are little children, hungry, hurting, in need of care that Haiti can't give them and who have people here wanting, anxious, and hopeful to give them homes.

What the heck is going on? This makes me question everything we're doing.

Let those children go. Let them out of that nightmare.

Or maybe we should just come home and let them deal with their destruction themselves.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Farewell, Palmer Cortland!

Veteran actor James Mitchell passed away this weekend. Mitchell is best known for playing the wicked, wealthy, and otherwise sneaky and domineering Palmer Cortland on the soap opera, All My Children. It was a role he played for three decades. Personally, I couldn't stand the character, except for one or two brief moments when his first wife showed up on the show.

Mitchell's last appearance on AMC was for their 40th anniversary on January 5th. He showed the signs of illness, but he still had those strong facial features.

The movie role I always remember of Mitchell's was the hit musical, Oklahoma! He played the fantasy Curly dancer in a long sequence.

While not really a fan, I appreciate Mitchell's contribution to AMC and he was from my hometown, so I felt a mention was appropriate here.

Farewell, Palmer!

Search Engines and More

Happy Monday Everyone!

I heard on the news last week that there is a deal in the works to have Bing replace Google as the default search engine for most computers. I'm not sure if that will go through or not, but it does show how Bing is continuing to improve and make a drive to be the #1 search engine for the internet.

When Bing first came out, I used it and wasn't impressed. I've continued to use Google. I also like a place called Dogpile, which a friend introduced me to several years back. I like the way it sorts through various sources to get to its results.

I can't say I'm a big fan of Ask.com which never seems to answer my question. There certainly are a number of places to search. Remember Lycos? Or Looksmart? I've used a ton of them. Music, Video Search Engine is another one that's out there. These days, searches can be specialized, like just for pictures, sounds, or videos. We've come a long way with our searches.

For now, I'm sticking with Google, but at some point I'm going to check out Bing again and see if it's improved since its debut.

By the way, we're on day nine of rain where I live. We've had pockets of sunshine, but there's been rain every day, and there's more coming.

Have a good week, and tune in for more posts!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Hope for Haiti

Tonight is the Hope for Haiti benefit organized by George Clooney. I've been watching the live feed on CNN, though the west coast viewing on networks doesn't start for a couple of hours yet. Though I've been struggling to get by myself, I had to give a few dollars. I, at least, have a roof over my head. Those people have nothing at all now. It's been so hard to watch on the news.

I did get to have some fun. For the first time in my life during one of these celebrity things, I actually got to talk to a celebrity. Molly Sims of Saturday Night Live was the one who got my call. Then all of a sudden, there was Chris Pine of Star Trek. It was a two-fer as Molly called it. Then all of a sudden, Olivia Wilde of House, M.D. got into the act. How fun as that? Pretty fun.

I know it's hard when we're all struggling, but I hope we all come together to help this country in need.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Golden Highlights

I watched the Golden Globes last night and found it to be one of the more enjoyable award shows of recent times, and it had nothing to do with the host. I just adored Mo'Nique's speech at the beginning and then Sandra Bullock's and Jeff Bridge's. There was such humility in these expressions. For humor, we had Robert Downey Jr. For going with the flow, there was the amazing Paul McCartney. It's just too bad he didn't win, but I love that he attended. I even liked how George Clooney tried to keep that low profile, not even wanting to acknowledge his role in getting the Hope for Haiti charity event set up (it will air on several channels net Friday). Those were the highlights for me.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Valentine's Day Part Two

Happy Friday, one and all! I just got back from doing a bit of shopping. While I was out I couldn't help myself and bought a couple of Valentine Day's hearts. We're talking those little things at the store that cost about 59 cents or thereabouts.

If I get anything more expensive, I think I'll shop for coupons, like this one -- Proflower code. Actually, I've discovered that there are a lot of coupon sites on the internet, so that if you are planning to shop somewhere, you can just google the place or the item and add 'coupon' or 'discounts' and come up with some good deals. It doesn't work all of the time, but it does some of the time.

With so many of us having to cut back on luxuries, coupons and discounts help a ton, so if you're shopping the internet, google and see what you can find.

I do love Valentine's Day, though. It's a nice day for watching some romantic films and listening to good love songs.

Until later!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Valentine's Day

Now that the Christmas and New Year holidays are over, it's time to start thinking about Valentine's Day. I remember years ago, back in school, when everyone would give cards to each other. It was a lot of fun. Do they still allow that in elementary school? They've cut so much out I'm not sure if they do or not.

I read the other day that people are looking for more unique gifts, things that are different than the traditional flowers and candy. That's why you see things like Valentine Gifts and other articles, even websites, devoted to how to have your Valentine's Day be even more special. Sometimes, it's just how you do it.

You know what? I'm traditional. I love flowers and treasure getting them, and I adore candy. Buy me a box of Sees or Godiva chocolates, no fruits, no nuts, just that luscious chocolate bordeaux or mints, and I'm a happy camper. I don't need unique. I just need the love of the tradition.

Is that really that crazy?

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Having fun

As the rain continues to splash down around me, I'm just sitting here thinking about having fun. I'm probably going to work some more on my fan fic later. I have a long story about India almost done.

I missed American Idol tonight. Have you ever used torrent technology to find shows you miss? I have from time to time. There are a bunch of sites out there where you can get show torrents. You can get game torrents as well, if you're into games.

There was a time when I was using torrents a lot to get Stargate SG-1 episodes, back in its seventh and eighth seasons especially when I couldn't wait months for America to air the shows (England was getting the shows before us; go figure.).

I don't know that I care that much about seeing the trials of American Idol, anyway. What they show isn't really representative of who will make it. Nowadays, it's more a spectacle of who can be the worse.

Maybe I'll go back to bed. That's fun; it's relaxing, anyway!

Rainy Day Thoughts

As I'm sitting here listening to the Canadian Brass doing their stirring rendition of The Saints' Hallelujah, I'm pondering the state of the state of the economy, my personal economy, and the promise of the future. I do believe in that promise; I have to. After all, the future is all we have, right?

So, even as I consider that small business and how I might or might not go about it, I find myself hopeful and optimistic. Now the truth is that I don't think my little potential star clips business would need its own space, though if it did, I might have to check into something locally that was like this Property Manager in Cincinnati. What I'm contemplating doing is just an at home, as I can type of thing.

I have a friend, though, who has always wanted to open up a pet business of some kind. The hard thing for her is figuring out how to go about it and how to get the financing for it. She definitely has more problems than I do in that regard and she's the one who might need that property management firm.

For now, I'm content to have a roof over my head and simply think about the future and try to be positive about it.

Oh, and it's raining outside today, so you know what they say about rainy days -- gives you a lot of time to think.

Happy Tuesday all!

Still Thinking

What an interesting week. No more Walter Cronkite to lead into the CBS news, Leno's back in a true late night time slot, and Mark McGwire finally admits to use steroids, something we all knew. All of this has generated even more articles and tidbits that I could use if I ever do decide to go ahead with my star clips small business.

There's just so much to be considered. I chuckled, though, when I found out there are actually companies that help you start a business. I just stumbled upon this one, Nevada resident agent and was amused that this type of business existed. I guess there's a business for everything apparently.

Well, why not. We have career placement and job agencies, so why not this? Goodness knows, sometimes we need the help.

Maybe I'll make my mind up one of these days. I'm just not much of a gambler and that's what keeps holding me back.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

More Decisions

So, still thinking about whether or not to get into the star clippings biz again, I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle or not. Actually, it's a lot of fun, and as I said in my last post, I know how it is to find something new you didn't have before.

Then there's the hassle of the shipping, especially figuring out shipping cost. It's easier in the States, but when you go overseas, it's harder. Quite honestly, the market is bigger if you go international.

On top of that, there's the payment thing. PayPal has fees, and that irks me big time. If you take checks, there's a huge risk there. I've been stiffed a few times in the past, and it's hard to let that go. When you're not an official business, there's no comfort zone. So, you could go the credit card route, but as a small business, that's hard to do, too. Then you have to worry about merchant credit card processing services and all that entails. It's not an easy process. There's a lot that goes into what cards to accept and the fees they have.

There are just so many decisions. Wouldn't it be nice if life were simpler and didn't give you headaches?

Decisions, Decisions

I may have talked about this before but back in the day I used to auction off clippings on eBay. The clippings were articles and photos of stars that I had accumulated on celebrities and famous people. As a fan and collector myself, I know how fun it is to acquire articles I missed or perhaps never had access to because they come from overseas.

In recent times I've thought alot about doing that again, only not through eBay. They have changed their rules so much and I really don't like the way they handle things now. So, I've considered offering them myself through a separate website.

That's where so many of decisions come in. A website and domain cost money. Is it worth in these troublesome times? Would people find 'me' and would they take a chance on someone who doesn't have that eBay guarantee. I'd need a good site and probably a logo. Every type of company, big or small, unofficial or hobby, needs a logo. Look at this - Real Estate Logos - even these guys have logos. It's all in the eyes.

So, do I take a chance or not? It's a risk, and I've got a ton of stuff, waiting for a home. Decisions, decisions.

Monday, January 4, 2010

This is scary!

You hear about this kind of thing all the time, but now I know it really happens. I received some papers from Social Security over the weekend, and stapled to my papers were someone else's papers. Can you imagine? I have their address *and* their social security number. People, beware and be very careful. Our government tries, I'm sure, but this was a careless mistake made by a worker following protocol. It's just scary to think who might have ended up with copies of my papers. As my sister said, they are lucky it came to someone like me, who would never do anything wrong with it and who will even notify Social Security as to what has happened. Scary, scary, scary!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Have Old Crayons? Need Crayons for Your School?

First of all, happy new year, folks! I hope it's a good and peaceful one for all of us.

Second, I found the neatest website today. It's a place where you can send old crayons. They melt them down and make new colors. It's really exciting from what I've read. So, I want to start the new year by passing the information about Crazy Crayons on and urge you to take a look.

There's a notice on the website that they have an abundance of good crayons that have been donated that don't need to be melted down. They want to give these to schools, shelters, or any 'caring organization'.

I haven't actually dealt with the organization, but I stumbled upon it doing research for my fan fic. It looks worthwhile, so if you have old crayons or need some, give them a look.
 
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