I admire eccentrics. People who live their lives differntly and don’t apologize for the little quirks that make them stand out from the crowd. Not everyone can wear the title “eccentric” well. If you insist that your pet duck serve as interpreter in every conversation, you’re not eccentric, you’re a little (or a lot!) undone. But if you channel your weirdness creatively and make it work for you, you can claim to be eccentric. Have you heard about the weird dude who created a huge buzz when he convinced the town of Halfway, Oregon to rename itself Half.com? Now that’s eccentric, crafty and, incidentally, helped him make a lot of money. He did it to publicize eBay’s Half.com, and it shot from zero to 8 millionm registered users before being sold for 300 million bucks. I’m pretty sure someone like him ebraces the title “eccentric.” I would if I were him.
He’s still creating buzz while sharing the method to his madness. He wrote a book about that and other phenomenal business experiences and is now a professional speaker. I won’t knock the keynote speaker at the last convention I attended, but I sure would like the opportunity to hear Mark Hughes next time around, talking about his book, Buzzmarketing, and his unusual take on business. We pest control professionals have a natural inclination towards eccentricity ourselves. I’m thinking he could teach us a thing or two about how to use it to our best advantage.
A while back I posted an old Cosby Show episode, the one where the family performs the Ray Charles classic, Night and Day. I’m not one of those folks who moans about TV programming these days. There’s some mighty good stuff out there, regardless of what genre tickles your fancy. I’m not ready to retire all the oldies, though, because that was pretty fine, too, and now comes with a bucket-load of nostalgia when watched. The Cosby Show aired from September of 1984 through April of 1992. There was never a bad episode, and with 201 of them, that’s saying a lot. I was going to school at night for much of that time, and holding down one, two or three jobs at any given time. Still, I managed to watch most of the episodes that aired, and my son watched a lot of them with me. We didn’t have to worry quite as much back then about what our kids were exposed to on television, but The Cosby Show was the best of the bunch where family programming was concerned.
I dip into YouTube every now and then looking for various things, and almost always look for Cosby clips while I’m there. This one was posted in August of last year and is still being viewed regulary, based on the comments that continue to flow in. If you need reminding that Bill Cosby is one of the funniest men alive, and that Raven started off cute and just kept getting better, here it is. Enjoy!
Fashion has never been a huge item on my agenda. I told you recenly that my wardrobe is built around classic pieces. My efforts in the past to add variety and flexibility to my basics have centered around accessories or multi-purpose pieces. A jacket and sassy shoes can take a very low-key daytime outfit into the evening hours. An outfit for shopping is classy enough for doing lunch with friends when I add a scarf and hat.
Fashion as a hobby was never my thing until a few years ago. The sudden upsurge in televison programming on the subject has changed that somewhat. I’m addicted now to a couple of shows in particular. I’m slowly learning what I shouldn’t wear, and I love seeing fashion novices vie for their own design houses. I’ve recently added another resource to my own personal fashion-watch. Have you checked out the Belisi blog yet? First of all, he’s incredibly good looking and makes my little heart go pitty-pat. Is it scandalous for an old gal like me to admit that? Well, so be it, but Peter Belisi is not just another pretty face. He, too, understands that “just right” accessories are a must for every wardrobe.
His scarves are soft and feminine and totally elegant. I love his handbags because they’re so classy. I really want design 21 red, because my look sometimes need something hot and spicey to wake it up!
What’s most interesting to me about Belisi is the heart and soul that permeates his blog. I told you recently about his What’s Beautiful to You? campaign. He makes his living in fashion, but he knows that the clothes you wear are not the most important thing in your life (or his.) He also used his blog as a platform to publicize charitable events worthy of support.
Peter Belisi is an all-round guy who has his priorities straight. I like that about him, and I like tht he sponsored this post so I could introduce you to him, too.
By popular demand, I present one of my favorite recipes. I was about seven or eight years old the first time I made this. Mom was insistent that all four of us had to learn self-sufficency, starting at an early age. She stood over my shoulder the first few times I tried a new dish, of course.
I’ve never had a “real” recipe. I pinch & dab a lot in the kitchen. I’m not a pro at translating what I do, but here’s my best try!
DIRTY RICE
giblets from 3 or 4 chickens, chopped into bite-size pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 or 3 stalks of celery, chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 teaspoon thyme
1 or 2 bay leaves
2 cups rice
water or broth as needed (1 - 2 cups)
Chop the pepper, onion and celery. I like mine fine-chopped, but chunky is good if you prefer. This was called the Holy Trinity of the Louisiana kitchen long before Emeril came along.
Heat olive oil in a dutch oven or large pot over medium heat and add the giblets. Cook until brown but not done, stirring frequently. Remove the giblets from the pot, using a slotted spoon. (When I make this for myself, I like it “meaty” so I ususally puchase a package of chicken liver to add in. “Normal” people use what they’ve saved and frozen from the last few whole chickens they’ve purchased.)
Stir the chopped seasoning vegetables and garlic into the pot. Stir and cook until onions are translucent and the vegetables are beginning to brown. Add the meat back into the pan and add the rice.
Cook for another ten minutes, stirring frequently, until rice is brown. Add the remainder of the seasoning.
Drizzle a small amount (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup) of liquid into the pot (less its better!) Stir, turn burner to low and cover the pot. Allow it to cook until the liquid is absorbed, about eight to ten minutes. Add another small measure of liquid and repeat the last step. Continue in this manner until the rice is done, about half an hour. Stir throughout the process, but not so often or so vigorously that you break down the rice.
The last step is the hard part. If you add too much liquid too quickly you’ll end up with mush. Take your time & add the liquid gradually to achieve perfection.
That was my Easter dinner last year. The flash and the blue plate did terrible things to the color of the carrot salad. What can I say? I’m no pro when it comes to photography. The pile of goodness at the lower left is a sauteed mushroom concoction. At lower right is a garlic chicken breast.
I used to make this much spicier. If you’ve got a cast iron stomach (mine’s worn out!) add additional pepper & Tabasco to hit your perfect spot on the “hot” scale!
My son is coming to visit next month. His visits are always a good time for me. He lives in California, you see, and I’m out here on a little dot in the middle of the Pacific called Oahu, Hawaii. Neither of us can hop in the car and dash over for a visit on four-day weekends. It takes advanced planning and more than a few bucks for us to get together. It’s been about a year since I’ve seen him, so I’m really anticipating his visit. When I pick him up at the airport and bring him home, he’ll see something like this stretched across the driveway:
Don’t recognize it? It’s a Trade Show Display, and I’ve handled plenty of them in my time. In a past life I was employed by a large, national corporation that did trade shows almost monthly. I didn’t go to all of them, but I usually did three or four a year. Our Trade Show Booth would start off looking like much like the one above. Then we’d install panels that pictured our services.
Part of my job was to arrange our displays and set up samples and brochures on a table . Then I’d spend two or three days meeting and greeting the public. It was a fun and very effect way to get our message out to a widespread audience. I don’t work for that employer anymore, but my son’s impending visit got me to thinking about how an attractive display can be a very effective way to catch someone’s attention and have a big impact on their thought process. They see the display and realize that they just have to have whatever is being offered, even though they had never before given it a thought.
So here’s my plan: I’ll start with a twenty foot Trade Show Display. That will fill the entire driveway from gatepost to gatepost. In the middle I will have a much-enlarged photo of sonny boy and his girlfriend. I have just the right picture, but I’ll have to doctor it a little. I’ll fix it up so they can see how wonderful they’d look as a bride and groom. All around them I’ll put pictures of the wonderful future they’ll share: a lovely home, romantic dinners and such. My primary goal with this campaign will be featured also, of course. Lot’s of pictures of kids. Chubby little babies, beautiful miniature beauty queens, kids in baseball and soccer uniforms, maybe a few pictures of moms and dads beaming in great joy at their newborns. The piece de resistance will be features right over the heads of the bride and groom: A collection of condom and oyher birth control packages with that universally recognized “NO” emblem placed over it.
I’m so sure it’s going to work that I’ve already got the rocking chair, and a room full of children’s books, toys and videos. I even have a great nursery design in mind. I’m so glad that Smash Hit Designs sponsored this post and ispired my daydream. Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much!) for supporting my campaign.
I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop on a really bad situation that can only get worse. Is the waiting harder than just getting it over with? Right now I think so, but maybe I’ll long for this horrible slow crawl of time soon. The difference between hurricanes and earthquakes, I guess. Hurricanes give you warning, those terrible days of anticipation. Earthquakes blindside you, leveling everything in their path with no warning. I’m waiting for the hurricane when I’d rather have an earthquake, please.
Sure, I told you quite recently that I wasn’t in the dating game. I’m old and I’m tired and men can be such high-maintenance pets to keep. I can barely keep up with the care and feeding of my furkids, so my thinking was that I just don’t have the energy to keep up yet another constant distraction sucking away my time and patience. If there was a way to get around all of that, sure, I’d love to have another companion who would adore me the way the boys do. Who wouldn’t? That was the gist of my reasoning a month ago.
Things change.
It’s come to my attention that I may have been hasty in my judgement. Suppose I’ve been looking at this the wrong way around. What if I could find someone who had the wherewithal to make me a woman of leisure? Without the distraction of a nine-to-five grind, perhaps I’d be able to devote myself to someone? Let’s further suppose that my prospective Prince Charming had enough of the green stuff that he, too, had the time and leisure to spend his days seeing to my every need, romancing me, making my pleasure the central focus in his life? Suppose I could find a way to meet Millionaire Singles, who could certainly meet the above qualifications. Could I change my whole perspective on this thing if I had a way to meet a single man with the means to treat me like royalty? Do you think that under those circumstances, it might be appropriate for me to start dating again.
Could be. ;0)
Now that I’ve explored their site, I’m glad that Date a Millionaire sponsored this post and gave me the opportunity to consider relationships from another perspective.
A big mahalo to two posties who gave me a hand today. I spent many hours putting together my two new blogrolls, only to have the script corrupt into an unclicklable mess. I posted this morning that I would look for the bugs when I got off of work, and then fretted about it all day while I was in Waikiki.
When I got home this afternoon I opened up my computer and went first to the blogrolls. Nope, it wasn’t a bad dream. They were still just long lists of links that wouldn’t link. I was more than a little afraid to go to the thread at PayPerPost where I’d offered to share my work. I noticed that I had PMs so I checked them out first. I was halfway expecting to find either sympathy or curses. What I found instead was a cure for what ailed me.
The first was from Mooger who explained why I’d had a problem and then gave me step-by-step corrections. Do you know Mooger? He’s a tech whiz who seems to pop up every time a postie has a code problem or other technical gremlins to deal with. He’s got two great blogs where you can get to know him better. In Just Some Thoughts he opens up his head and blogs about whatever falls out. Fun, funny, interesting and entertaining. Most of the posts contain links to interesting things he’s found while wandering around the net, like this very unusual Zebra Calendar from a recent entry. His other blog offers reviews of all things musical. Check him out for the latest in guitars, amps, software and more at Todos Music Gizmos. His reviews are direct and factual and seem to me to be unbiasd and fair. Mooger seems to be an expert at finding the offbeat and unusual. Who knew that you could have an amp in a vintage toaster?
After I finished reading Mooger’s advice I moved on to the next PM, still wearing my flameproof big girl panties and expecting some not-so-pleasant words. Instead I found that my friend CyberCelt had not only offered the same corrections I’d just read, she’d done them for me! Strangely enough, I had written some stuff about her a few days ago & had saved it for a final polish. Here’s what I wrote before she bacame one of my guardian angels:
I’m a Texan, you know, and spent a lot of my youth exploring the great outdoors. That’s why I got hooked on CyberCelt’s Texas RV Travel Blog the first time I visited. She loves to brag about Texas and (don’t we all?) and her pride comes through as she tries to entice you into checking it out youself. She did a wonderful job of decribing some wonderful fishing spots in the Texas Hill Country River Region recently. She’s also generous of heart and has reminded her readers about our obligation to help those in dire need. Make sure you also check out her Click and Comment Monday on CoolAdzine for Marketers and her blog monetizing strategies at Advertising for Success.
I hope you’ll go visit my friends Mooger and CyberCelt and tell them how wonderful they are!
Bulgaria has become a tourist mecca in the last several years. Attractions include first class skiing, sunny beaches and historic archaelogicial sites. Tourists are flocking and the low cost of living makes this an excellent market for real estate investments. Whether you are considering a move or looking for a fast-growing investment market, you might want to put Sofia property on your list of prospects to investigate. You can check out this recent article to find out smart investors are looking to Bulgaria these days.
Aren’t you glad that Bulgarian Dreams sponsored this post so you could know these things!
My blogrolls are complete and can be accessed from my sidebar. Clicking on either Postie Blogroll or Good Folks to Read will take you where you want to go. If I’ve inadvertantly left you off, give me a shout. Feel free to copy either one from here if you like, but I find I get corrupted links that way. I’ve saved each as a Word document that will give you a result that should look just like mine. Leave a comment here or send me an email if you’d like me to send it to you. You can save that, then copy and paste it into a fresh post on your blog & you should be good to go. Installing your blogrolls inside your blog (instead of a sidebar list) will give you genuine incoming and outgoing links, so they’re good for your PR. If you’d like to be included, send me the name of your blog(s) and the link(s.) I’m not going to promise to add every one that comes in, but most of you should be able to meet my high standards. ;0)
Note: I will NOT add abusers or violators of PPP TOS. You know who you are, so don’t ask. If anyone notices that I’ve added someone that shouldn’t hang around in good company, I hope you’ll let me know ASAP!
EDIT: Sorry folks! I scrambled the whole thing when I edited last night. I’ll find the bug and fix it when I get home from work!
EDIT 2/29/2007: The bolgrolls are on the tab at the top of each page in my new domain blog!
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