August 26, 2007

Self Portrait Sunday for August 26, 2007

I wish I could grow old gracefully. I wish that clients would not judge my fitness for the physical rigors of my work by the absence or presence of gray hair. Neither of those things is happening. Today is root day. This time I’m trying Garnier. The superior gray coverage of the one I used last time was fine, but the color had no depth or life. It was very uniform and flat looking. If the Garnier turns out not to be a Sarah Jessica experience, I’ll probably go back to the gray coverage stuff, but in a lighter shade. We’ll see what works. Maybe I’ll get lucky this time and be hot enough to join the exclusive clientele at Orleans hotel Las Vegas. Right at the moment I’m hot and itchy of scalp, waiting for the last five minutes to run out on the timer. When I’m done I’ll go to Digi-Cass and see what my friends are gambling on today. You should do that, too, and you should join in on the Self Portrait Sunday fun so I can see your smiling face every week!



Edit: Early results are mixed. I can see red and gold highlights, even with my hair still wet. Alas, I can also see silver at temples and forehead. It appears that the color has depth but the gray coverage is not so good.









Technorati Tags: meme, photos, self portraits

Posted by skeet @ 11:37 am • Uncategorized • 29 comments  

Table of Contents gets a little culture

The Table of Contents, a group of BookCrossers on Oahu, met today at The Hawaii State Art Museum. I’m so glad I found this wonderful group. They have all become dear friends and they’ve introduced me to some wonderful local experiences. I was pretty much a loner before I started meeting regularly with them, and I’ve never been one to do much exploring on my own. Sad to say, but in the twelve years that I’ve been in Hawaii I had never visited HiSAM or the other museums that TOC has introduced me to.

We met in the cafe for lunch. The menu is limited but superior. I selected an amazingly light and airy omelette served with a mix of fresh local greens. I’m not a huge eater of salads since I can’t digest raw vegetables, but today I nibbled a bit more than was probably good for me (and sent the rest home with a fellow diner.) All of us were over-the-top pleased with our lunch. There were only five items on the dessert menu, so we decided to order them all and share. If you have never had cucumber sorbet (and I’m betting most of you haven’t) you should try to find some in your own area. I took a taste, not expecting to like it at all. Ha! That’s what I get for thinking. The flavor and fragrance were delicate but quite distinctive and we all enjoyed it tremendously. The churros were “French style,” much lighter than the denser but more authentic Mexican variety, and were served with a chocolate dip with a rich cocoa flavor. The pannecotta literally melted on my tongue and induced near-ecstasy. The entire menu was true gourmet fare. I regret that I don’t have the culinary vocabulary to adequately describe it. Oh, and the service more than matched the food. Chris took great care of us, was informative about all of the menu items and was attentive but unobtrusive. Mahalo, Chris! You gave us a great dining experience.

My fine art vocabulary is also sadly lacking, so I will let the photographs do most of the talking. HiSAM features the very finest local artists. Today we viewed carved wood and pottery exhibits. Is it Michelangelo who is credited with the quote that he did not create sculpture, he merely freed it from the stone? The concept occurred to me again and again as I viewed the amazing carved wood artistry. Even my untrained eye could see that the artists pulled their visions from the natutal grain and contours of the wood. It seems a magical and enchanting process to me.

My camera batteries died shortly after we entered the pottery exhibit, but I got one imperfect picture of a special piece. A very dear friend works at a local community college. They periodically showcase and sell the work of their art students and instructors. My friend has gifted me with several small pieces by Kauka deSilva, talented and much acclaimed local artist and educator. It is pure serendipity that his piece currently on display was inspired by the Waianae Mountain Range, “my” mountains. Make sure you read the text about how he creates his colors. (Click on any photo above to be taken to my Flikr page, where you can view the photos in full size.)

Our group was small today but we had a wonderful time together. We traded some books, gave some to the wait staff at the restaurant and released a few into the wild. (Check out BookCrossing.com if you don’t understand that statement. ) I behaved myself and only brought home a few books. The day was further enhanced by the rain that has been falling off and on all day, even out here on the dry leeward coast. The cool, moist air energized me and I caught up on quite a bit of work at home this afternoon. All in all it’s been a very good day filled with friendship, good food, some amazing art and a sense of satisfaction. I am, at this moment, perfectly contented.

Technorati Tags: art, BookCrossing, food, Hawaii, Hawaii State Art Museum, Hawaiian art, photos

August 24, 2007

Meanwhile, back in the real world …

Having wasted several days goofing off, I find myself playing Friday catch-up. The laundry is going, the dishes are done and now the office awaits. There’s a teetering pile of filing on the corner of my desk, threatening to bury my mouse pad. The books are at least a week behind. Checks remain un-opened and un-deposited. My date book is a shambles with inspection orders crammed between pages instead of being neatly penciled in.

Having a home office is a mixed blessing. I’m working in my jammies at half-past noon. That’s a big plus, but it blurs the line between business and pleasure. When I’m in pajamas I feel like it’s okay to take frequent breaks to visit with my message board friends or sort through the new batch of email forwards from a cousin. By the same token, when the weekend comes and I can give myself permission to ignore work, I can’t do it because it’s always *right there* reminding me that there are things to be done. It’s a routine I’ve tried to balance for over seven years and I’m still not very good at it. How do you separate work and private life when they are so intertwined? If you have the answer I’d love to hear it. My computer is a work tool and a toy, so it’s hard to focus on one appliction without the other intruding. Should I get a second one and put it in another room, so that I can clearly define my intent at any given time? I don’t think such mind games work very well for me. I would know they were both mine, and probably find myself working on reports in the living room while watching TV or checking my blog from the office computer rather than going down the hall to do it. Leasing a commercial space for my office might do the trick, but I’m a small business and that’s a ridiculously expensive way to address what, in actuality should be addressed by bettering my organizational skills. And the problem with that is that I’m an old dog, resistent to learning new tricks.

So I’ve answered my own quesitons, but still would welcome your input. How do you focus on the things you need to do when the fun stuff distracts? Those of you with home offices - how do you put a meaningful division between work and everything else? Is it possible to establish organization out of chaos? I may or may not learn your tricks, but I’m eager to know what they are.

Technorati Tags: business, goofing off, home office, organizational skills

August 23, 2007

Obsessing about: hidden object games

If I’m going to waste all of my time playing games, it seems only fair I should share them with you, right? Just to mainatain the fiction that there’s actual human contact in my life, you know?

My latest obsession is hidden object games. Have you ever played any of these? I’ve played a few over the last few months, but I found myself in trouble when I found a whole teasure trove of them. In case you’re not familiar with them, the gameplay is relatively simple. You’re shown a picture of a cluttered scene (I can relate!) and given a list of items to find. So you might be looking at a scene from a garage sale and be told to find a broken dish, three digital cameras, a camel and a tulip. Some of the games “reward” you with other games of different types every time you complete a set number of scenes. There’s a theme that runs through all of the scenes within a game: solving a crime, reassembling a lost work of art, planning a wedding. The treasure trove I mentioned is at Big Fish Games, which currently lists over twenty-five hidden object games.

As you can see, the scenes are desinged to make those of us living with clutter feel right at home. In Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos you are collecting clues that will lead to the capture of a dangerous criminal. The actual purpose, of course, is to suck the life out of you and turn you into a zombie.

Travelogue Rome 360: The Curse of the Necklace takes the rich visual experience to a higher level. See that compass at the bottom? It allows you to pan around the entire room, zooming in whenever you want a closer look. This is not just a rotation around the walls of the room. You can climb the walls to get a Spiderman-type view of the ceiling, or drop down for a toddler-eye view of the floor and lower parts of the room. As you move about the picture, the items on the list are highlighted when they’re in view.

The menu of hidden object games at Big Fish Games is extensive, but since I’m obsessing I have to plan for the future. A link from Yahoo! Games first led me to Big Fish, so I went back there to see what else might be available. I entered “hidden object games” into the Yahoo! Search box and, wouldn’t you know it - I won’t be running out of games any time soon. Make sure you use the quote marks when you search. It will narrow the search field from over five million to a measly 150,000 or so results.

So, what are you doing with your spare time lately? Any good games you’d like to tell me about ? (I’d insert an evil-face icon here, but then you might not come back and tell me about any games you know of that aren’t already on my list. )

Technorati Tags: games, hidden object games, Big Fish Games, obsessions, Yahoo! Games

August 22, 2007

Change of plans

It’s inevitable, I think, that the peaut butter side of the bread will land face down if you drop it. Just as inevitable that the one grocery bag I dropped was the one I should have been most careful with.

It wasn’t a total loss. I’ve been thinking of Mexican food for a few days and had picked up a taco dinner kit for my evening meal. I’ve never been big on following recipes anyway, so I added a step to the instructions printed on the box.

It turned out to be a mighty tasty meal. I’m actually thinking about adding some powdered eggs and a taco kit to my evac box. It would be easy enough to prepare this in an outdoor kitchen should the need arise, and would be a pleasant break from canned and dried foods if I ever have to rough it for a while.

The boys were happy, too. They each got a little scrambled egg and cheese mixed with their kibble last night. They almost always benefit when I get clumsy in the kitchen.

Technorati Tags: accidents, eggs, food, Mexican food, scrambled eggs, tacos

The Giving Hands

For all of the diversity in the blogosphere, one thing that bloggers do really well is to come together for a common cause. Bloggers from around the world united last month to raise money for various charities. They all solicited sponsors and agreed to post at least once every half-hour for twenty-four hours. My friend Pelf kept her committment to Blogathon ‘07 and raised $778 $810 USD in pledges for Eden Handicap Service Centre. This was no surprise to me as I know Pelf to have a tender heart and a giving spirit. She has raised awareness and encouraged her readers to donate to several worhty causes in the few months that I’ve known her. This recently led her to establish The Giving Hands, a new blog dedicated to charitable causes.

Not one to rest on her laurels, Pelf is already moving forward with her next big project. Did I say big? Make that huge! On September 15th she’s kicking off a month-long campaign on issues relating to the environment. It will all culminate on October 15th, Blog Action Day, when, once again, bloggers will unite with a single focus, the environment. Pelf is looking for guest bloggers to help out. If you have a favorite environmental cause or a special area of knowledge, check out The Giving Hands, then contact Pelf and let her know you’d like to contribute. She’s already written a number of posts supporting environmental awareness. With your help she can fill her blog with the stuff we all need to know to make this world a better place.

Technorati Tags: Blog Action Day, Blogathon ‘07, charity, environment, environmental awareness

August 21, 2007

Tuesday Teaser photo verification

Sorry for the delay, folks. I had to take care of some real world business. I knew when I posted the puzzle that I was probably being too easy on you this week. Sure enough, Pelf guessed the answer almost as soon as the puzzle was posted. She didn’t know the name for a bobbin case, but her answer makes it clear she knows one when she’s looking at it! She’ll get a linky love post for one of her blogs and her name will be entered into the gift card drawing at the end of the month.

Mahalo to you all for playing. I promise I’ll try to make it a bit more of a challenge next week. See you then!

Technorati Tags: contest, meme, photo puzzle, photos

Deal Locker

Up until about a year ago I had never done any shopping online. Scoff at me if you will, but putting my financial info out there always scared me. Friends who are wiser than me in the ways of the internet (um - that would be most of you!) finally convinced me that secure shopping online is just that and I finally gave in. Since I’m somewhat agoraphobic, it didn’t take me long at all to fall in love with the ease and convenience of shopping from home. At first it was just a few purchases from mega-companies whose names I already knew and trusted, but now I actively seek out online shopping opportunities for pretty much everything except my weekly groceries and cleaning supplies. The thing that really changed my attitude was the help I got from my readers when I was shopping for a camera a few months back. You not only gave me good info about various brands, features and models, you also told me where to find the best bargains. I saved almost $150.00 because of reader input about saving with free online coupons for that purchase!

The sharing of information with real people is what I like most about the internet. I’m a born skeptic. I don’t always buy the corporate line and the marketing hype, but if my friends and other satisfied customers tell me something is a bargain, I’m going to check it out. Let’s face it - that’s the way it works in the real world. We love to talk about our shopping experiences. If we find a bargain, we can’t wait to tell our friends. When we have a shipping nightmare or get shoddy merchandise, we talk about that, too. That’s the feature I like most about Deal Locker. Real customers rate the merchants, the products and the coupon codes based on their own experiences. Given a choice among similar brands and prices, I’m going to select the product that made the most real people happy.

My next “big” purchase, probably sometime between now and Christmas, will be a laptop. What I once considered a luxury now seems like a sound investment for my business. Generating my reports from the field would allow me to better organize my work day and would be a real plus with my clients. It’s primarily my technophobia that has kept me from getting a laptop sooner, but I need to get over that in order to stay competitive, so I’ve started cautiously shopping around. As with my camera, I’ll be wanting feedback from my readers and I’ll be looking for laptop coupon codes that will help me get the most bang for the bucks. In addition to Windows and Microsoft Word, I’ll be using report templates (generated in Word) and a drawing program in the field. My closest friend, whose experience I trust, is using a Dell, having had less happy experiences with other laptops. She’s almost convinced me that a Dell is the only way to go, but I would really appreciate feedback from you guys, too, whether negative or positive. I already know that I can get one in my price range using the Dell Coupon codes at Deal Locker. Their customer feedback has rated the coupon deals “Guaranteed to Work,” but what do you think? Is Dell the right computer for generating my reports? Is it the bargain I think it is? Most importantly, is it a computer that a technophobe like me can adapt to? I’m not in a big hurry. I can take my time on this and want to get as much information as I can before I make a final decision. I’d appreciate any feedback you think will help me.

Technorati Tags: computers, coupon codes, coupons, Deal Locker, Dell, laptops

Tuesday Teaser for August 21, 2007

Can you identify the item depicted above? Take your best guess and post it in the comments below. If your guess wins, you’ll win a nifty prize. Here’s how it works:

1. Write a comment giving your guess as to what the item is.
2. First person to identify the item wins.
3. The author of this blog will be the sole judge as to what constitutes a correct answer.

What will you win?

1. The author of this blog will write a LINKY LOVE POST (review) about the winner’s blog. The LLP will contain the url for your blog plus at least two deep links and will be posted here on Skeet’s Stuff, a PR4 blog. Skeet writes good reviews.
2. The winner’s name will be entered into a drawing for a $10.00 gift card from Starbucks or Amazon.
3. Drawing for the gift card will be held on or about Augist 31, 2007, and will include all weekly winners for the month. There are four Tuesdays in August, thus the maximum number of people who will be eligble is four.

Other stuff

1. All comments to this blog are time and date stamped. The winner will be the first person (according to time and date stamp) to provide the correct answer.
2. No hints will be given.
3. Answers must specifically identify the item. For instance, if the item depicted were to be a button on a remote control, the answer “button on something electronic” would not suffice.
4. Decisions of the judge are final. Don’t argue with me. I won’t answer.
5. I will attempt to post every few hours as to whether or not a winner has been declared, but I am not continuously at the keyboard so please be patient.
6. Entries must be posted before 12:30 a.m. Thursday, August 23, 2007, Hawaii time (GMT -10, approximately forty-eight hours from now.)
7. This is intended to be an ongoing feature at Skeet’s Stuff. If it turns out to be a dud it will cease to exist, but all qualified winners will get their prizes.
8. Skeet’s Stuff is a do-follow blog, so you get some link value just for commenting.
9. Let the fun begin!

Technorati Tags: contests, photos, photo contest, blog contest

August 20, 2007

I don’t want much

I don’t ask for a lot in life. I’ve never sought fame and fortune. I don’t need piles of cash, a fancy car and heaps of sparkly jewelry to make me happy (though all of those things are very nice, indeed!) The love of my family, a few friends, a little work, enough money to pay the bills, something good to read - those are enough. Oh, and a little less stress. This time last week we in Hawaii were on a rollercoaster. Within a three-day period we were under advisories or alerts for a hurricane and a tsunami, the Big Island was having earthquakes and there was a huge brush fire practically in my own backyard. I don’t even count Pele’s contribution, because the volcanos are just a little background to our lives. I’d like a quieter week, please. I hope I’m not asking for too much.

Here’s to a normal week, Hawaii. I think we’ve had enough excitement for a while.

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, just stuff