There are things I should be doing, but I’ve gotten on a game-playing kick again. I’ve been playing Bubbles all afternoon instead of writing reports and doing laundry. Yesterday I played my favorite Cow Game for a while, but I already know all of the boards, so it didn’t eat up quite as much time.
Christmas has come and gone again, but we’re not going to quit shopping, are we? Seems like there’s always one item we’ve hinted for that we didn’t get, doesn’t it? But that’s okay, because we’ve been so generous with our giving that we ought to treat ourselves to something special. That’s my stance, anyway! I can never have enough books, and there are a few on my wish list that Santa didn’t deliver, so I’ll be grabbing a coupon for amazon.com to get them at a good price. There are a lot of other merchant coupons on this site, so take a look around and find your own wish-fulfillment. I love a good deal!
I went to Yokohama Bay Beach yesterday afternoon. That’s on the western end of the island, right before the place where the old highway was closed when it became unsafe. At one time you could go from our Leeward Coast to the North Shore via that route, but now you have to drive towards town and traverse the island through the mountains to get there. Yokohama Bay is the “end of the world” from this side, unless you’re on foot. I’ve taken the hike a few times from Yokohama Bay to Kaena Point, which is the extreme western tip of Oahu. I need to do that again sometime, to see the albatross that nest there. But that’s for another day. Yeterday I stopped short so I could meet friends for their annual Christmas visit to Yokohama Bay.
It was a beautiful, sunshiny day with stiff breezes coming in off of the ocean. Quite a few people had come out to play.
The ocean is very changeable this time of year. In the hour or so we were there it went from flat …
… to frilly …
… to booming!
That didn’t bother the sun worshippers …
… or keep the kids from trying out their new boogie boards …
I took some photos of my friend and her son, because they don’t often have the opportunity to have their picture taken together. I also took pictures of the mountains, and more pictures of the scenes at the beach. A total of eighty-three pictures were on my camera card when I got home. I could look at each in the viewer of my camera. I wanted to select a nice mother and son photo to frame for my friends and, of course, to share the best with you. Alas, something is wrong with my camera, or maybe the card or my software. Each time I’ve tried to correct it I’ve lost photos. I’ve ended up with no mountain pictures & no photos of my friends. I did manage to save the last photo of the day, one I took impulsively as I was coming home. Here’s a little local color for you.
Wow, I’m just glowing from all of the attention. Sorry folks, but comments will now appear after I approve them, and you’re going to have to do those nasty little word verifications before you can post.
An original watercolor creation by Debbie Hauter
Debbie & Stan Saltwater Clip Art Collection
You’ve been watching RockStartup.com, right? It’s PayPerPost’s new reallity show which chronicles the establishment and daily activities of the group of whackos who pay bloggers to advertise. Episode # 3 is out now. Ted, head honcho of PPP, is ready to move his fledgling company out of its cramped quarters into a new, spacious office. The new office space is spattered with paint and has no windows for the nuts & bolts folks who keep the operation running. Thoughtful guy that he is, Ted leaves town for the critical period and allows his hard-working staff to do all the heavy labor.
You can watch all of the episodes at RockStartup.com.
I think the stuff I put out for United Cerebral Palsey this week was stolen once again before the truck got here.
This week I’m actually kind of glad my old poi dog, Buddy, is deaf. There have been fireworks going off intermittently for the last three days. Poor old Buddy has had nervous conniptions when a single firecracker exploded in past years. Last year he only reacted to the really big boomers, and I’m thinking he’ll sleep through New Year’s Eve this time around. I certainy hope so. I hate the after-effects of giving him doggie downers.
I’m watching The Sound of Music as I type this. I’ve probably seen it fifteen or twenty times, but it’s been a few years. It still charms. I’ll still cry.
I need to do a bio and some termite education stuff for homeowners, per request of a client who will promote me to her realty network on her website. I’m going to hate doing the bio. There’s a fine line between promoting oneself and bragging.
I really miss my son this time of year, and feel the miles between us more.
Quick! What was the first ad spot that came on last night during your favorite prime-time show? What about the premier, top-of-the-page banner ad on the last web site you visited? The full page ad on the back of the first section of this morning’s newspaper? You can’t tell me? Someone spent megabucks to show you their product, you saw their presentation, and you’ve forgotten it already? What’s wrong with you? Well, actually, nothing! The majority of us don’t remember advertising within a few minutes of being exposed to it. The fault is not ours. It’s with the advertisers. If they aren’t giving us something unique to ping our memory with, they’ve wasted their money.
Now suppose the shoe is on the other foot. What if you’re the advertiser. You don’t have mega-bucks to spend and you definitely want people to remember you. What to do, what to do?
Your answer is the neverending link, an unique marketing website that is ridiculously inexpensive and will bring traffic to your site. As readers scroll across the screen they will see a story woven from phrases posted by individual advertisers. Each phrase is an embedded link and they are all cleverly woven into the story. It’s silly and compelling and I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to NOT interact and respond to the links. I’ll be going back to to see where our intrepid travelers go next.
Because all of us need a little nuttiness this time of year …
Make sure Santa can easily access your chimney.
Take a look around inside, too. Remove any offensive decor items,
Otherwise Santa may be short a few reindeer next year.
It might be best if parents supervise the provision of goodies for Santa.
Make sure you gas up your SUV for Christmas Eve, just in case it’s needed.
I hope you’re all finished with the shopping and wrapping and baking and madness. Now is the time to relax and enjoy your holiday.
Mele Kalikimaka, my friends, and Hau’oli Makahiki Hou to you all. May 2007 be a year of great thigs!
The first HP 6 mega-pixel digital camera and printer have been given away. The lucky winner is Anna-Marie, whose surreal fantasy charmed the payperpost and HP judges. Now, I’ll have to agree with them that her contest post is classy. The girl knows how to use a camera. She’s pretty persuasive, too, what with her hard-luck stories about carpal tunnel syndrome and being robbed. But, well, would you just look at her? If you were one of the judges, would you have voted for her? Of course you would. You wouldn’t even have needed to read a word she wrote! I’m quite certain that the judges were drooling the entire time that they were reading her post (if they were able to tear their eyes away from the photos long enough to actually read it.) She’s probably the reason that the contest was delayed; they wanted an excuse to review the entries again and again just so that they could gaze upon her loveliness . Even women are beguiled by her. Tune in to the PayPerPost YouTube Channel and behold the groveling PPP staffer kissing Anna-Marie’s camera so that the imprint of her lips can someday caress Anna-Marie’s hand:
Video link deleted.
Now I ask you, is this contest fair? What do you think my chances are of winning one of the nine remaining HP 6 mega-pixel camera and printer sets? How can an over-the-hill, grandmotherly type compete with that? Nothing I can say or do is going to make an impression on judges so focused on youth and beauty. The only way they will ever be able to convince the world of their impartiality is to do an abrupt about face. I happen to love PayPerPost and care deeply about their reputation. I’m sitting in my office next to my HP Officejet 7410 All-In-One while using my Compaq (HP) computer to compose this PPP post. I just finished downloading photos from my HP320 digital camera (which, sadly, only has 2.1 mega-pixels,) so it should be clear to everyone that I also love HP. My loving devotion and customer loyalty are surely worth rewarding. PayPerPost was kind enough to sponsor this post, but I don’t think that’s adequate recompense. I think HP, PayPerPost and I can come to a mutually beneficial agreement here that will salvage their reputations and put a nice new camera and printer in my possession, don’t you? Yes, I’m volunteering to be their token old broad. Selecting me will remove the taint of their past prejudicial practices and allow their reputation to shine once more.
