Poodlezzz blog

Ran across a website today that lets you see what you might look like if you were a different age, a different race, or a different gender.  http://morph.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk//Transformer/index.html

Here's 3 photos of Dana Delaney.  When I was in college (ie much thinner) I looked a bit like her.

Dana-races

Hey Ranger!: True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America's National Parks

Jim Burnett

Hey Ranger is a really amusing collection of anecdotes from a real Park Ranger.  Makes great bathroom reading, or for tuning out commercials when you're watching TV.

Scaling Down : Living Large in a Smaller Space

Judi Culbertson

I picked up "Scaling Down" as part of my "get rid of a bunch of stuff and ORGANIZE what's left" craze.  When I moved in Spring 06, I got rid of TONS of stuff (thank God for the Salvation Army just down the street, and FreeCycle.)  But I still moved way more stuff than I really need to have.  I only moved 5 miles, and it was just my stuff, no one elses -- but it still took an entire weekend, and a much larger truck than I thought it would...  I don't own much furniture, but we lifted tons of boxes (thank God I can get free boxes from work.)  But many of the boxes have never been unpacked...  So, time to get rid of more junk. 

"Scaling Down" is designed for empty-nesters moving into a condo, or for people moving their elderly parents into assisted-living facilities.  But it has some good stuff for everyone

Problems are:

Purposeful

Roadblocks

Offering

Beneficial

Lessons (to)

Enhance

Mental

Strength.

Inner strength comes from struggle and endurance, not when you are free from problems.

Praise God, the major roadblock to me going to back to chool seems to have been removed.  Or at least, detoured.  I prayed so hard about this, and God heard me.

Of course, now I still have to actually get admitted to the university, and hopefully get some scholarship money.  But this one thing was so totally blocking all those chances.  And now it looks like that one thing is taken care of.

There have been several potholes in this journey so far, but I keep going, because I have a destination firmly in my mind.

And I am keeping this in mind as my motto:

Recent research has pinpointed a unique regulatory sequence on the DNA of small dogs:

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070405_small_dogs.html

Poodle

3Sizes

Dogpencilsharpener1

Turn his tail to sharpen pencils!

In pink or blue, $3 from One Good Bumblebee or Karma Kiss or Stupid.com (good description here.)

Black & white one available at Spoonsisters for $6.

I found this great website that scans old, out-of-print books that are no longer copyrighted.  There's tons of Mother Goose rhymes!  The first Mother Goose book on this list was published in 1886.  Great old illustrations, too.

http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/super-index_M.htm

Here's an odd one:

Een-a, deen-a,

Dine-a, dust,

Catt'll-a, ween-a,

Wine-a, wust,

Spit, spot, must be done,

Twiddlum, twaddlum, twenty-one.

O-U-T, spells out,

A nasty dirty dish-clout.

I found a similar one in another of the books, with the notation "used by children to decide who is to begin a game."

One-ery, two-ery, ziccary, zan;

Hollow bone, crack a bone, ninery ten;

Spillery spot, it must be done:

Twiddledum, twaddledum, twenty-one.

O, U, T, spells out.

Voxer "Bonita in Pink" had an interesting post about the use of pink in prisons:  Pink is a Punishment?   Voxer "Greenish" posted a similar story.

I personally love the color pink (as does Bonita in Pink, obviously!) and I should probably wear it to work more often.  Maybe bathe my cubicle in pink...

Pink not only makes "macho man" prisoners feel uncomfortable / embarassed, it has a calming effect that lowers their aggression and violence. 

Pink in prisons   http://www.colormatters.com/body_pink.html

Here is the info for the actual scientific study (citation and abstract only, I don’t have access to the entire journal article).

The physiological effect of color on the suppression of human aggression: Research on Baker-Miller Pink, by A.G. Schauss in The International journal for biosocial research, Volume 7, Issue 2, 1985, Pages 55-64.

Summary:  It is hypothesized that a newly discovered color, Baker-Miller Pink, has a measurable and predictable effect on reducing physiological variables associated with aggression in subjects of normal intelligence. Studies at one U.S. Naval correctional facility, two county correctional centers, and two state and federal psychiatric hospitals confirm these preliminary findings. In several controlled university studies the effect has been found to be significant but the magnitude of effect small. The effect has also been seen in both the non-visually impaired, those color-blind, and some blind subjects, suggesting a physiological mechanism. The possible physiological processes believed to be involved are unknown, however, undetermined neurochemicals in the eye communicating with the hypothalamic center as suspected. A color swatch is available and mixing directions for the color are provided, as it has been found that the precise shade is essential in accurately assessing outcomes.

Mmm, ginger!  I'd sure like gingerbread animal crackers...  Check out these Gingerbread Skeletons:  http://bakingsheet.blogspot.com/2005/10/cooking-school-gingerbread-skeletons.html  and  http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/232938

Oooh, instead of a gingerbread house, a gingerbread BARN and gingerbread animals:  http://www.kaboose.com/features/holiday/recipe.html?id=16

And a gingerbread Noah's Ark and gingerbread animals:   http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/bhg/story/data/NoahsGingerbreadArk_06202002.xml&catref=cat630059

Oh, this is awesome, I wish I had kids!

Just discovered (via a Voxer's blog):  "Pimp That Snack!"  a website in which people try to make bigger/smaller, cooler versions of their favorite foods.  There's several entries for really big Kit Kats -- looks like quite a project.  Here's my favorite 3, things I'd like to actually try baking some day:

Giant Canadian Maple Cookies   http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/project.php?projectID=207

Giant Hostess Cupcake   http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/project.php?projectID=189

Giant Oreo   http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/project.php?projectID=85

There's also a few for Animal Crackers and Gingerbread Men, that looks quite simple, maybe I'll start there.