The Setting: OK, after my greed-driven posting yesterday, here's the real deal: Network for Good. I like to use this site for making donations online. It allows you to search for your favorite charities and easily make donations to one or several organizations, all in one spot. It also keeps track of your donation history so you can print receipts for tax purposes. These are tough economic times for all of us, but if you have a few extra bucks, why not help out someone who may have it even worse than you do. Check out Network for Good here.
The Setting: Today I received my latest issue of Wired magazine in the mail. (Hi, I'm Val and I'm a geek!). This Dec. 2008 issue has a section called Wish List, which is a guide to help you find just the right gift for that special someone. First of all, they trick you by starting with a fold-out ad of the new Blackberry Storm, which keeps mocking me from those cool TV ads. OK, maybe I don't need that or any of this stuff, but here are some things Wired highlighted that I wouldn't mind having:
Nerf N-Strike Recon CS-6 - This "pump-action blaster" shoots nerf foam bullets and comes with a "red-dot sight for cubicle sniping." Pump action? Red-dot sight? Cubicle sniping? And it's only twenty bucks? I'll take one! This outta liven up those staff meetings a little bit...Tod's Cartella Computer Bag - This is a very, very sweet textured leather computer bag and it's only $1600. Ha! 
But the really cool thing is, Wired is having a contest and someone will win one of these bags filled with 23 very cool electronic gadgets. By "someone," I mean Val.Mitsubishi LaserVue HDTV - Apparently, this TV consumes 33 percent less energy than a similar sized LCD and the lasers
will never need replacing. Whatever. It's 65 inches of HDTV heaven! Picture it: my new TV, my La-Z-boy recliner, my 14 empty pizza boxes, and my big ole' fat butt. Merry Christmas! P.S. - This TV is only $6,999. What a deal.Photo Credits: http://www.toysrus.com/, www.neimanmarcus.com, www.laservuetv.com
The Setting: Yesterday, a friend of mine told me about a friend of hers who had gone to the pound to get a cat. She ended up taking it back. Then she got another one and took it back, too. Finally, she got a third one and kept it. Her explanation with the first two? "They just weren't working out."We thought that was hilarious. They were cats. How could a cat possibly not work out? They don't need or want much. Turns out, according to my friend's friend, the first two cats actually were very needy. I'm not sure in what way, but I just had to come up with my top ten things Puff the cat could do to cause her to "just not work out.". Drum roll please....- She keeps eating my Pop Tarts.
- She gets little splatters on the mirror every time she brushes her teeth.
- She never puts gas in the car.
- She keeps dressing my dog up in stupid outfits.
- She smokes in the house, even though we agreed she would only do it on the back porch.
- I keep coming home and catching her doing that Lord of the Dance clog dance. On my wood floors!
- I suspect she's having an affair with my husband.
- She won't stop licking herself.
- She won't stop licking my husband.
- She's a Republican.
The Setting: Puppycam! Watch puppies playing. And sleeping. A lot. But hurry! They won't stay puppies for long.I'm doing this for your own good. Scientific evidence proves that watching puppies pounce on each other, chew on each others' ears and tails, eat out of a shared bowl, sleep in a big pile, pee on a newspaper, shake toys around in their mouths, and jump up on any human who goes into their cage actually lowers your blood pressure and helps you relax .
Oh wait, that wasn't the puppycam, that was the party last night at my place. ;-)
Look closely and you'll see they have on different colored collars. Dark Blue Collar is my fave. View the puppycam here.
The Setting: How come there are so many movies that don’t live up to their hype?
I went to the movies the other day to see Quantum of Solace. I didn't like it as much as Casino Royale, also featuring Daniel Craig, but I liked it more than the critics seemed to. Before the movie started, I realized that I could probably enjoy sitting in a theatre and watching nothing but movie previews for two hours, as long as there were a medium popcorn and a large Slurpee involved. Whomever is in charge of editing those movie trailers (the directors?), does a really good job of making you want to see the actual movies. The trailers are like little two-minute movies, with nothing but good parts throughout.
The problem is, the two-hour versions of many of those movies can't match the excitement of the trailers. This happens quite a bit with M. Night Shyamalan movies. I always want to see his movies but often end up disappointed. One example is The Happening, starring Mark Wahlberg. Did you see it? Remember how great the trailers were? Don't get me wrong: the movie was OK. It had some good suspenseful scenes, and it had that message about mankind not destroying the earth, blah, blah, blah, but I just wanted more. Check out various trailers for The Happening.
The Setting: On Friday, November 14 about 2000 demonstrators protested at Temple Square in Salt Lake City against CA Prop 8, which amends California's constitution to define marriage as legal only between one man and one woman.
Another 2,000 protesters had picketed Thursday afternoon outside the Los Angeles temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Opponents of Prop 8 said they targeted the Mormon church because, allegedly, Mormon leaders had instructed church members to support the cause as much as possible, and that the church "donated a majority of money raised in support of the measure” (rumor has it, $19M). Protesters wondered if $19M was the amount needed to erase that line between church and state. The church said that it did not target any specific group and said in a statement that “it is disturbing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being singled out for speaking up as part of its democratic right in a free election."
The Mormon leaders recently stated, "undeviating standard of sexual morality: intimate relations are proper only between a husband and a wife united in bonds of matrimony." Protesters felt the church was being hypocritical, considering their history with polygamy, which involves relations between a husband and several wives. Although the practice was abandoned over 100 years ago, some Fundamentalist groups are rumored to still practice it underground (ala Warren Jeffs).
Needless to say, this battle will not be over for a long time to come. Whatever your views, my favorite picket sign I saw on CNN during the Salt Lake protests said, "My two moms can beat up your 14 wives."
The Setting: Here are just a few things that get on my nerves. There will be more. Day ain't over yet. Cheap-assed paper plates: Because they bend and you end up wearing the food. Pay the extra 43 cents and splurge for the Chinettes. Please. Precocious children: Because they are possessed by the devil. All of them. Prove me wrong. Bill O'Reilly: Not really a pet peeve; he just bugs me. He was probably a precocious child. People who never shut the hell up: Because they never shut the hell up. Mini vans: Because they represent everything that's wrong with America. OK, just kidding. Let's see... soccer mom driving her kids around, cutting me off because either that van has some wicked blind spots or mommy dearest has self medicated to deal with giving up her hopes and dreams to be relegated to driving small people around who actually have lives of their own. Wow, I really need to eat lunch - apparently, my blood sugar has dropped to dangerously low levels. ;-)~
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