Following the crowd! or not!

I have always had a problem with following the crowd.  Where other teens would wear the “in” styles, I fought to do my own thing.  My love for the Beatles did not develop until well past the time all the other girls were screaming at them.  I liked Elvis until he got popular.  So, while I have had a blank mind lately for posts, and I find myself checking out the Daily Post at WordPress, I am loath to use their ideas.

It seems to be less loathsome to scroll back a few days and use those ideas.  Like eating.  Which is always on my mind, lately.  So, here I go again. 

What food would I eat if I could have anything I wanted?

Photo from konocook.blogspot.com

I am not sure how much of this craving is the melted butter but I have not had lobster tail in over twenty years.  I do not like shrimp at all, but I have loved lobster tail.

My second choice would be prime rib but I have to tell you that the longer I am on the Vegan diet the less appealing a slice of medium rare prime rib is to me. 

Who would I eat it with?  That’s is just too easy.  I would like to say the Dahlai Lama.

He looks like a jolly fellow,  but I think that I would be tongue tied around him.  It would be a quiet meal.  So, my choice:

Now, that was just too easy to pass up.

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Time for a New Years Resolution

I have never made a New Year’s Resolutions.  I figure, if I cannot get myself to do “whatever it is” during the year, then I am not going to follow through just because it is January 1^st.  I have not even gone to a New Years Eve party in many years and I rather miss doing so. 

One of my grand nephews posted his New Year’s resolutions the other day and it made me wonder about New Year’s traditions.  Like most research, you never learn just one thing, when you start digging. 

Did you know?:

That, Auld Lang Syne is actually a Scottish song and is totally unreadable in English for me.  I really like Hamish Macbeth and Bagpipes and the landscape of Scotland and the lilt in their speech.  I just cannot always understand it.  Thanks to poet, Robert Burns, who wrote it, and Guy Lombardo, who first played it in 1929, we have a tradition that makes us feel, on January 1st, like we are part of something greater, as people all over  (okay, in your time zone anyway) sing the same song, at the same time, just with the wrong lyrics.  Sort of like our National Anthem, eh?  Check the link at the bottom of this post to view the proper lyrics.

That, Scotland is also the birthplace of Hogmanay (hog-mah-NAY).  This is a “rousing” Scottish tradition of “first-footing.”  Okay, when did the Scottish ever do anything that was n0t rousing?  That is why I love them so.  “First-footing” is when neighbors visit each other for New Year’s wishes.  They bring a gift of coal for the fire (which would be really welcome this year) and shortbread (which, I have had honest-to-goodness Scottish Shortbread and it is good).  It is sort of like our bottle of booze and cookies, which would be equally welcome.  The part I like is that it is considered especially lucky if a tall, dark and handsome man is the first person to enter your house after the New Year is rung.  Hmmmm, Viggo Mortensen, I will be waiting.  (HAH!  Betcha thought I could not figure a way to get him in for New Years?)

 On to Japan: As a symbol of renewal, New Years is a very important holidame to bid farewell to the problems of the past and prepare for a new beginning, and houses are scrubbed, with this in mind.  For several years now, I have said to myself “Whew! That year is done.  It’s gotta get better, next year.”  Now, I know where my problem lies.  This New Year’s day will find me elbow deep in soapy water.  I am working on a good new year.

Then, in Spain, they eat twelve grapes at midnight.  This secures twelve happy months.  So, I will be scrubbing with grapes in my mouth. 

In my Ancestral homeland of the Netherlands, at least the Dutch part, they burn their Christmas trees and shoots off fireworks to purge the old and welcome the new.  Since husband is allergic to what they put on fir trees, I have a plastic one.  Oh, the shame and totally non-burnable, so can I just burn the wood that is down from the tornado?  I am hedging all bets here.

So, this year, as the New Year ball drops in Times square and millions of people in fancy clothing gather to swill their favorite drink , eat cookies, and sing Auld Lang Syne , I shall be down on my knees scrubbing the house and eating grapes and blacked eyed peas.  This is a traditional southern dish and ensures I will have plenty of everything the rest of the new year.

And, what about my New Year’s Resolutions?  Those items the Babylonians are believed to have first made and broken? 

If we just work at:

• treating each other with respect
• treating our world with respect
• and treating ourselves with respect

How can we lose?

It’s the first time I have used infoplease New Year’s Traditions  check it out.

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To all you stalkers out there

There are two people in our family who are just so funny that you love to be around them and often the comment is heard, “if we could get Sharon and Carol together one day, we would die from laughter.” 

Sharon lives in Indiana and Carol in Wisconsin, so it has not happened yet, but Sharon has begun blogging.  She was shamed into it really by a couple of bloggers, okay, me  and her friend.  She tried her hand, Just who are you people? « Braindebris’s Weblog, and was (as we suspected) hysterical.  She is one of ‘those’ people, who if she wrote regularly enough would be publishing a book.  She is that funny, just check out the The Immortal Rabbit « Braindebris’s Weblog if you want to split a gut.

She took a long break from blogging, much to our disgust, and is back now on a weekly blog schedule.  You would think she has a life or something!  She also mentioned it takes a good hour to put a blog post together.  Who knew!   

So, this morning, I checked how her weekend was and she brought up the often mysterious workings of the blogosphere and the people who take the time to read your blog but rarely write comments. 

My readership is not huge, it has dropped since I have gotten less regular in posting. However, in the beginning, when my readership would hit 1,000 for the month, I never had commenters, other than one.  There were 999 people out there lurking.   XUP always comments, all the way from Canada.  Aren’t you ashamed fellow Americans?  I have to get comments from Canada.  Pollyanna Rainbow Sunshine and the Needles of Doom often commented, but I have been really remiss commenting on their blog lately.  Don’t you love that name though!

 I have also been blogging a bit less lately myself, as I work on my eternal update to my website.  I feel like one of those people on the commercial, staring wide eyes, pupils dilated from staring at the screen, mind numb … anyway, you get the not pretty picture.  I only have one section left to go on the website and am soooo look forward to it being done.

This morning, here is a copy my monthly stats.  Notice the slow decline.

So, I checked Search terms. 

“no blood for oil Viggo” – as in Viggo Mortensen, no surprise there. Half of my readership is searching for “Viggo” –  Talk about stalkers! 

“Worms …” – EUWWW! especially when in the house. 

“actor with low ears” –  Okay, is this person casting a movie?  I have written about actors, and I have written a post due to the lovely commercial based on the old song “do your ears hang low. ” But, I have NEVER written about an actor with low ears.  I am not even sure why you would want to find an actor with low ears.

 

In an effort to raise my stats, I realize that I have three sure winners:

• Viggo Mortensen
• photography
• Movie reviews

Okay, Viggo Mortensen is hot and I do understand the fascination.  He keeps his private life mysterious and he’s hot and he likes dark chocolate and he’s hot.  What more could you want?  The only thing is, I do not actually know Mr. Mortensen (I love his name by the way— Viggo Mortensen—-it’s lyrical.  This is coming from someone named VanVleck.  Not so lyrical.

So, I shall now vow to make more of an effort to review movies about Viggo Mortensen and you, my kind readers (numbers 13 to 30 and occasionally 1,000) shall occasionally drop me a line to let me know what you like, or do not like, on my blog.

Oh, and I will try not to be a stalker myself.

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Simple vs complicated people

I know you are not going to believe this, but HONEST, I am not writing this blog to get my stats up.  I rarely even check on them anymore.  In fact, I was shocked to realize today, since I rarely get comments, that I have a following.  “You do love me.”  Well, like at any rate.

So, when I mention Viggo Mortensen, please believe me, that I am not mentioning Viggo Mortensen to ratchet up ratings. 

Viggo Mortensen is again in the news with his role in The Road (2009) and was referred to as being “complicated” in an article I read recently, and I apologize that I cannot find it to link here.  It seemed to me that the author had no understanding of the person he is.  Not that I would know what kind of person he is, having only read about a gazillion interviews of his, but never having met him.

But, I am thinking that he is actually a very simple person and not complicated at all.

Perhaps I can relate, as I have multiple artistic interests also  and feel as though we have a lot in common.  We both love the outdoors.  He speaks approximately five languages fluently and I can speak, let’s see, exactly one.  I was learning Amslan at one time and I have taken a Spanish class four times (obviously, not successfully).  But, I think our joint passion for Dark Chocolate counts.

It seems that he is an honorable, honest person.  I feel it is more complicated to be dishonorable and a liar as you have to keep all those lies straight.  Although, the liars I know are not very good at it.  And, you know who you are!!!

I think, as an artistic person, he is also simply entertained.  Getting in his truck and taking off on a discovery road trip, spending hours sketching, photographing, spending your time as someone else, being honest are all, in my mind, simple enjoyable things.

Now, the guys who have to have their heads full of ringing cell phones, and Wall Street numbers, and never sitting still for one minute to be in their own head—those are the guys who are complicated.

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Do Your Ears Hang Low?

I love the new advertisement for ?? is it WalMart?  It may not be the most successful ad, since I cannot remember what it is for, but I love it anyway.

We are all raised with an idea of what beauty is.  My mother tends to use the word pretty for all kinds of things.  “Doesn’t she have a pretty face?”  “That shirt is pretty.”  “There’s a pretty rock.”

Conversely, anything she does not like is ugly.  “That sausage tastes ugly.”  “That yard is ugly.”  Etc.

My idea of pretty is a bit off from my mothers.  I think that Whoppi Goldberg is one of the prettiest actors (I guess using actress is not PC.) around.  But, somehow judging say, Nicholas Cage, on a pretty scale is just wrong.  Now, if you want to talk Viggo Mortensen——.

I have painted portraits professionally for over twenty years now, and I think all faces are beautiful.  I love Whoppi’s smile.  It makes her beautiful.  Some people have beautiful eyes.  Some have beautiful wrinkles.  Honest! 

And, I love to watch that commercial because every one of those people is beautiful, and so are you!

P.S.  Right now, I’m looking in the mirror and reminding myself that I have always thought wrinkles were pretty.

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The answer is: “I am A Rock – by Simon and Garfunkle”

I am used to any number of hits, on any given day, for Viggo Mortensen and his girlfriend.  Half of the world is hoping that there is no girlfriend.  The other half is wishing they were his girlfriend.  He is a popular guy, and I refuse to say which camp I belong in. 

The other big searches, for my blog, involve my series on teaching Chemistry of Photography, pinhole cameras, etc.  I also oversee my mothers poetry blog (see link on side bar if you are interested) and once made the totally innocent post of putting a poem up about After Holiday Sales on the day after Thanksgiving.  Honest, I was not trying to inflate her numbers, but it sure did.  That day she had over four hundred, probably frustrated and angry hits, by people who thought they were going to find a bargain, but found poetry instead. 

Here is a recent high day for my blog:

Title	Views
Have we all learned our lesson now?	48
Viggo Mortensen – 99.9% perfect	5
Top 100 Hit Songs of 1966	4
Film Canister Pin Hole Camera	2
FLDS-Freedom to Abuse	1
Pringles Can Pinhole Cameras	1
We have an exciting future ahead of us!	1
Let’s Play: Boys Rooms! or DID YOU KNOW	1
Do brother-in-laws have the right of fre	1
I get attached to television news people	1
The difference between boys and girls	1
Butt Ugly Running Shoes

However, on May 8th, searches for the same terms, just worded a bit different, lead over thirty people to my blog.  Or, one person landed at my blog thirty times and I just cannot figure out if this was the result of something like a treasure hunt, or question on a radio station, for tickets,  or what.  Because why would thirty people have the overwhelming urge to search for “….a rock,  song 1966” or some version of that, on the exact same day?  What is it with that??? 

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the stop-bys, it is just a bit strange .  So, as a public service announcement, I am putting a link to I Am a Rock – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, where you can learn a lot about “I Am a Rock.”  This is a is a cool song by Simon and Garfunkel.  But then, most of their songs are.

This is a what my search terms for that day looked like:  Wierd!

a rock 1966 hit song	6
a rock, 1966 hit song	3
1966 hit song ” a rock”	3
” a rock” 1966 hit song	2
– a rock, 1966 hit song	1
writing a speech from brother to brother	1
chemistry of photography	1
1966 hit song rock	1
1966 hit song “..a rock”	1
1966 hit song ” a rock	1
“? a rock” 1966 hit song	1
” hit songs of 1966″	1
” a rock”; 1966 hit song	1
1966 hit song, ____a rock	1
beatles songs vietnam war	1
“i am a rock” hit song in 1966	1
song “. . . a rock” 1966 hit	1
what is a 1966 hit song with a rock	1
a rock: 1966 hit song	1
” a rock;” 1966 hit song	1
1966 hit songs a rock	1
1966 hit song ….of rock	1
like a rock a 1966 hit song	1
“——–a rock” 1966 hit song	1
chihuahuas go out rain	1

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Controlling the man in my dreams

Recently, okay, not that long ago but in my mind it is well ‘lucid’ (which my relatives often say I am not.).   I bet the punctuation is way off in that sentence.  Please excuse me, my unknown future and wonderful agent.  Anyway, I remembered this post from Lucid Dreaming for Slackers ? Cranky Fitness.

 

 

I have very vibrant dreams, and occasionally hallucinations.  Last night Irritating little Chihuahua woke me up and, instead of her, I saw a black “other animal” (I said the dreams were vivid not the memory) sitting up and begging against the back of the couch.  He was a lot larger than the Chihuahua, who was by this time on the floor.  I gotta lay off the Melatonin.

 

 

We were having dinner with JRock’s girlfriend’s parents Saturday night and she had the DVD of Twilight. I’ll get to the point, in a minute.  You know that scene where she wakes up and the vampire guy is in her room and she blinks and he isn’t.  Like he wasn’t ever in her room, but he really was there all along?  Well, that is my life. 

 

 

It is my night actually.  Sometimes, a swift image of a person is there. At times, I wake up and see clumps of black things dancing around near the ceiling.   I am sure it is some medicine I am on, perhaps combined with Melatonin.  It really doesn’t scare me any, so I haven’t bothered reading the inserts to see what is doing it.  Remember, this is the woman who found a rare earthquake great fun. 

 

 

I did try the Lucid dreaming note taking for a few days but it takes time and I have enough to do right now.  My former violin teacher had dream diaries that covered years.  He swore by the method.  He said he had great control of his dreams and could direct them.  My goal would have been to be able to control some dreams, like to be able to fly more often in dreams.  That is cool when it happens! 

 

It would also be neat to control who is in my dreams.

 

So, what I want to know—my burning question is: 

 

Why do I keep dreaming about Nicholas Cage rather than Viggo Mortensen.  If I have to have a vivid dream guy dream, I want it to be Viggo.

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“I got a wand and you didn’t!”

I am possibly – heck not even probably, we are talking certainly here, the ONLY sixty year old to tell a seven year old, on Christmas day,  

 

“Yeah, but I got a wand and you didn’t!”   

 

In my defense, I will say that I did not stick my tongue out at her and I let her help me open the coolest present I have ever gotten, nay, anyone has ever gotten, in the whole wide world. 

 

Master’s Daughter always gives the most thought out, greatest gifts.  She has reached an all time high this year.  She would have to give me Viggo Mortensen next year to even come close.   

 

The first gift I opened from her would have been noteworthy on its own.  I grew up with a clock that belonged to my Maternal Grandmother.  It was the neatest clock and I just loved it.  I have it, in fact, but it no longer works and when husband tried to get it repaired, he was told that the mechanism was no longer made and could not be fixed. 

 

First, I opened a box with a working clock just like my grandmothers; complete with flickering fireplace, clock and rocking grandmother.  It all works too.  I cried.  I really did.  It was something I never could have expected.  Master’s Daughter suggested that I take the works from the new clock and put them in the old clock, but the gift is just as special as the old clock, so I will put the new clock out in its place.

 And, as if that wasn’t enough.  I got the best gift in the world next.  Since I had already cried once, I held that in and started laughing so hard, that I had tears in my eyes.  I was overcome with happiness.

 It started with an antique trunk/chest. 

  The top tray had a cover on it and a letter lay on top, 

 

 from Minerva McGonagall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  And, of course, it included a list of the “necessary books and equipment.” 

 

 She had filled the trunk with all sorts of goodies needed to attend Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  The tray held supplies for potion making.  I have floo powder, Gillyweed, and Pollyjuice potion.  As Master’s Daughter pointed out, all I need is a few strands of Viggo Mortensen’s hair.

 

I have a plant to grow for herbology, a map of Hogsmead, a knitted hat and sock for my own personal elf, and S.P.E.W. badge, of course.

 

 

When I lifted the tray, I had books: The Government Manual for New Wizards, the Tales of Beedle the Bard (which I had put off buying) and the British version of the two book set of Quidditch and Magical Beasts.  I also have the Monster Book of Monsters and when you pull out it’s tongue it shivers, and I have a cauldron.

 

 As if that wasn’t a special enough gift, I also have a wand and a time turner.What more could a woman want?? 

 

 

 How about a partially knitted Griffyndor Scarf?  Is it any wonder she didn’t have time to finish it?  She offered to keep working on it but I will have the pleasure of finishing it myself.

 I must go now.  I am studying for my five book, thirty page, O.W.L. Exams, incuded in my chest.

 

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It is time for a Viggo Mortensen post!

Since Viggo Mortensen – 99.9% perfect beats my next top viewed post by double the visitors, I figure my Holiday gift to my readers will be a Polldaddy Poll. It will stay on top of my blog until New Years Eve (if I remember to let it move on down then), and there is no set times you can vote. So, have a ball, and check below it for more recent blogs, I will keep adding.

OKAY! Amendment here. I obviously am Post-dyslexic. I think I either picked the wrong post to use or I just always want too many questions. Anytime I look at someone elses poll, my first thought is, “They don’t have my answer to choose.” I guess you can’t include them all, so I am letting this drop down into oblivion. Besides, I have something important to say about mouths and eating.

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The state of my Blog

Like the state of the Nation, the state of my bog could be rather depressing, when I check what my top posts are.  So, here they are in order. 

Top Posts

Viggo Mortensen – 99.9% perfect

Update on Brown County Indiana floods-tornados

Floods in Brown County, Indiana

Chemistry of Photography-Thursday, prints-Friday, Chemistry Painting

Pringles Can Pinhole Cameras

Film Canister Pin Hole Camera

Ben Stein and his FLDS comments

Update on Central Indiana flooding 

And, the meaning of all this is that if it was not for Viggo Mortensen, Flooding, photography and Ben Stein and his idiot comments about the FLDS, I might not have any readers at all. 

All I can say is, thank you again Viggo Mortensen.

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