46 Mashups

Here's a list of all my song mashup ideas for 2007.

I might do them on guitar, like some tenacious diva where all songs are transformed to C, D & G with crunchy campfire goodness, but I don't have plans to pitch-shift and tempo-match and all that it takes to make real mashups like you find at DJ Earworm's site here.

So, without further ado:


1. Sonny & Cher - The Beat Goes On / Led Zeppelin - Misty Mountain Hop

2. Bob Dylan - Blowin' in the Wind / Fleetwood Mac - Tusk

3. Beethoven - Figlio Perduto / Popeye Movie Soundtrack - He Needs Me, He Needs Me

4. TV Show Theme - Futurama / Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

5. The Go Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed / The Knack - My Sharona

6. Jethro Tull - Living in the Past / Movie Soundtrack - Mission Impossible

7. Coolio - Gangsta's Paradise / Lulu - To Sir With Love

8. Fallout Boy - Sugar, We're Going Down / TV Show Theme - Bewitched

9. Soft Cell / Led Zeppelin - "Whole Lotta Tainted Love"

10. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water / Prince - Purple Rain

11. Carl Orff - O Fortuna / Ben E. King - Stand By Me

12. Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner / Django Reinhardt - Limehouse Blues

13. Paul Simon - The Obvious Child / Schoolhouse Rock - Mother Necessity

14. Carole King - I Feel the Earth Move / Blue Oyster Cult - Godzilla

15. Pink Floyd - On the Turning Away / Scottish Bagpipes - Amazing Grace

16. Pink - Get This Party Started / TV Show Theme - Inspector Gadget

17. Frank Sinatra - High Hopes / Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive

18. Jose Fernandez Diaz - Guantanamera / TV commercial for Taco Bell - Flavor's Here

19. Tommy James and the Shondells / Party Song - "My Baby Does the Hokey Pokey"

20. The Rolling Stones - Beast of Burden / Kid's song - There's a Hole in My Bucket

21. Richard Wagner - Siegfried's Funeral / Henry Mancini - Pink Panther

22. Al Green - Love and Happiness / Otis Redding - Try a Little Tenderness

23. TV Show Theme - The Brady Bunch / Party Song - Chicken Dance

24. TV Commercial - Let's Go Outback Tonight / Paul Simon - Slip Slidin' Away

25. Pocahontas Movie Soundtrack - Savages (Part 1) / Barnes & Barnes - Fish Heads

26. The Beatles - Yesterday / Jimmie Davis - You Are My Sunshine

27. Ian Lloyd & Stories / Patti LaBelle - "Brother Louie Marmalade"

28. Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side / Elton John - Rocket Man

29. Elvis - Can't Help Falling in Love / Lawrence Welk - Adios, au Revoir, Auf Wiedersehn

30. Jimi Hendrix - Cross Town Traffic / TV Commercial - I am Stuck on Band Aids Brand, Cause Band Aids Stuck on Me

31. David Bowie - Golden Years / Alanis Morissette - All I Really Want

32. The Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe in Magic / Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop

33. America - Tin Man / Kid Rock - Bawitadba

34. Donna Summer - Hot Stuff / Frank Mills - Music Box Dancer

35. Smash Mouth - All Star / Lionel Richie - Hello

36. Sheena Easton - Morning Train / The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday

37. Van Morrison - Into the Mystic / Counting Crows - Mr. Jones

38. Hanson - MMM Bop / Lou Bega - Mambo No. 5

39. Gwen Stefani - The Sweet Escape / TV Commercial - Garnier Fructis

40. Shania Twain - At This Moment / Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train

41. Kid's Song - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star / Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five

42. Joni Mitchell - River / Grateful Dead - Ripple

43. Simon & Garfunkel - Hazy Shade of Winter / TV Show Theme - Batman

44. Alice cooper - Clones / Tone Loc - Funky Cold Medina

45. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Symphony No. 40 (First Movement) / Bing Crosby - Let it Snow

46. Movie Soundtrack - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch / Joan Baez - We Shall Overcome


If you make one, please drop me a line and show me how it turned out! : )

Be Positive

Just a quick pop-in to wish you a Merry Christmas! : )

Funniest thing I saw today: I had to go to work this morning. The husband and the boys got to stay home and clean. I yelled out to the boys "It's Christmas Eve so listen to your Dad today and be positive!" When I came out of the bedroom they said "Look, Mom! We're being positive!" They ran across the living room at each other, like for a hug, then about three feet away ran into and bounced off of the invisible magnetic force. Silly kids! : )

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Symphony No. 40" and "Let It Snow"

Think of it like this...

Here's an introduction to delegating for uber-geeks:

Say you could clone yourself and have an identically functioning person.

And just ignore the pesky details like what do they wear, eat, where do they sleep, do they have human rights, can they sue you for all your stuff, should they be kissing your spouse, and who's in charge here anyway, etc.

What would you have your clone do? Good, make a list. Keep all the stuff you love or better yet, be nice and give the clone all the stuff they love.

But what if the clone didn't come with all of your memories? Could you teach them how to do things? Good, make a plan.

What if they didn't turn out like you at all? Nurture trumped nature and a stress-free test tube was the best thing after all. What if, for instance, they like to use Microsoft Word? Now, you can't use Word because it doesn't do math (efficiently) and if you needed to do a mail merge there's always Access... Plus you never figured out how to turn off double-space.

But this person not only uses Word, they're good at it and can turn out professional, attractive documents in a jiffy! How did you ever get so lucky? : )

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Clones" and "Funky Cold Medina"

Dreamscape

Woke up with this: "Improvements come in many little brush strokes." (Must be time to paint?)

I'll strive to make everything a little bit better. Plug away!

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Hazy Shade of Winter" and "Batman"

Little Boxes

Less is more! We did a reorganization of the kids room and got rid of the junk and donated a few things. There is so much more space. We got rid of the clear plastic boxes that had cracks. To stand on a soapbox for a second, clear plastic boxes are dangerous. Z and I have both been cut by them. The opaque storage bins like rubbermaid are much safer and tend to bend rather than crack into jagged edges...

We got our Christmas tree! $15 for a Scotch pine at Home Depot. Thanks, Home Depot! : ) I wanted to drive home with it on top of the car. Because how many times a year do you get to drive around with a tree tied to the top of your car??? (Seriously, a tree on top of the car is usually a bad thing.) But we got a small one and the trunk is big, so it went in the trunk. It got home fine and we pulled out the decorations and the boys did a beautiful job.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "River" and "Ripple"

This I Used to Believe

Here's a cute site about things people used to believe when they were kids. Here are some good ones from there:

"My father played a lot of Beatles music for me as a child. Until high school, I thought that the standard color for submarines was yellow, like school buses.
Anon"

"I used to believe that when people said that they were in their "birthday suit" they were talking about a clown outfit.
Jocelyn"

"When I was little and I heard a weather report in the winter, I always wondered why they gave two temperatures: one for the "windshield factory" and one for everyone else. I couldn't figure out why it was so much colder where they made windshields. I don't remember how long I thought this before I learned about the wind chill factor.
chilly girl"

"When I was quite young, I believed that your coffin was really a spaceship to take you to heaven.
Sunshine"

"I used to believe pencil shavings were the key to bringing clay creatures to life. My best friend and I made a point to volunteer for the positions in school which emptied the pencil shavings from the sharpener, then secretly stash them away and bring them home to animate a small clay monster we hid in the basement. It never worked out as we planned.
Anon"

I love it! : )

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Take Five"

The Blues

Here he is! He's bummed because he has to go wash it out.

Crazy Hair Day

I just spent ten minutes spiking my son's hair blue for "Crazy Hair Day". I know it's real; I saw the note. But still, I'm dreading the call: "Ma'am, your son has blue hair. We didn't mean that crazy."

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Mashup I am not going to make: "At This Moment" and "Crazy Train"

Lessen

Here's one: The very moment you get a little comfortable with the fact that you're a little weird, you get a little less weird.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "The Sweet Escape" and "Garnier Fructis"

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Superpower of Marginal Utility: Getting good ideas about what else to buy at the grocery store, while you're in the aisle.

Plane

Today's my husband's birthday! Here's a short video of him flying his plane:

Music Test

Here is a really cool test for musical pitch perception. It's really difficult and kind of time-consuming, once everyone takes it.

Z got 76, I got 83 and my little one, E, who I should mention is not so little anymore, since he's huge and he's ten now, blew us away with an 86. Neat, I'll have to get him back to lessons. Z is our rhythm guy. Unbelievable but true, he would kick in time to my heartbeat before he was born. Cool.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "MMM Bop" and "Mambo #5"

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(New Category!)
This song reminds me: Every time I hear the song, "It's Raining Men", it reminds me of the Thanksgiving episode of WKRP.

Fluff Head

"If you fill your head with junk, your head will be full of junk."

Had to get away to my retreat because my husband wanted to watch "The War" on PBS and that stuff gets to me. Violence, pain and despair and there's nothing I can do but have nightmares. When I get upset I want to fix it, do something. (I like my news in print because there are fewer explosions (!) and usually a little hope.) It's so pathetic, I even like scary movies that aren't really scary, like "Skeleton Key."

In the late 70's, supernatural was the craze. e.s.p., ufos, horoscopes, in search of... all over the place. It's hard not to believe what you hear when you're a little kid. I wasted so much time on that garbage, all the way into my teens. I wish I'd realized when I was drawing up charts that I just liked math and studied math. What a waste of afterschool hours. And the thought still pops up sometimes, when the phone doesn't work and the car doesn't start and the computer won't boot up: Gee, I wonder if Mercury's in retrograde? Ugh.

I did straighten out, studying science and skepticism and philosophy and literature. When I got married I had almost 900 books. I finally pared it down to... less!

If you learn Tengwar script, Arabic will evoke Tengwar. And if we watch the ghost movie, the plumbing will sound scary.

I'm just trying to raise the kids up to be smart, with skills, and common sense about money and compassion in life...

Becoming christian is important to me. So why when I hear Jesus loves me do I inwardly ask, why? How can that be true??

One day last summer we were going out to lunch, (we eat cheap, my kids eat off the kids menu and I take most of mine home for the homebody husband) and we decided to go somewhere my kids had previously said they didn't like but today it sounded good. We were parking and my little one said, "Listen, I know that voice." Next door to the restaurant was a bike shop and the voice was a lady who was getting bikes ready to go on a mission to Laos. We went up and said hi and found out it would take 3 hours to repair the bike and she had packing to do and no ride home. So we gave her a ride home since we were there.

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Superpower of Marginal Utility: (Heard about this in a car ad tonight.) real Time Travel updates!

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Into the Mystic" and "Mr. Jones"

You Are Here

Every once in a while I like to pose this question to my boys: "One third of accidents take place within a mile of home. Why?"

And my big one says "Because you're running late and you're in a hurry." And my little one says "Because you have to pee."

Good answers. But the one I was looking for is: "Every journey begins and ends at home."

And I meant to say that the fact is just an example of probabilities. That's just the statistics of being in a certain place a lot. And it turns out the article I got the fact from doesn't mention that conclusion (which I find strange for a company with actual actuaries on staff). They say it's because home is where you let down your guard.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Morning Train" and "Ruby Tuesday"

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Touche Cliche: You can't go home again if you're too scared to tell them you wrecked the car.

Scary

(Moved this to Halloween.)

Unreal

I saw on TV last night that Britney Spears got her lips pouffed up.

Woke up this morning thinking about fame. Sometimes I wonder why none of my friends are famous. I don't mean why don't I acquaint myself with famous people, I mean how is the world missing out on all that specialness? Talented writers, comedians, musicians, leaders. People with grace, wisdom and the common sense to point out door #3.

I was half asleep but some formula was trying to form... caring is inverse to distance... the pedestal looks taller up close... 100,000 screaming fans equals one good conversation with a friend...

The world may be missing out, but us people are not. We have our own treasures.

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Funniest thing I saw "today": Last night I stopped at the grocery store and I ran back to get celery for our snack. A lady came through the door, looked at me and said, "I look good. Everything I'm wearing is black and white." She kind of raised her left hand up towards her ear and continued, "Even my earrings are black and white." I said, "Sure, you look nice." and she smiled and walked away. What was that? Er, I'm sort of wearing black and white, okay... Then she turned towards the right and then I saw the blue cell phone attached to her right ear.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "All Star" and "Hello"

The Sunny Seed

Here is a fun site that has "Famous Poems Rewritten as Limericks".

I thought it looked like fun, but it turns out I don't know many poems (or at least I'm not sure how famous they are).

So instead of that, here is a...

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Famous song rewritten as a limerick:

Some speak of love as a bad thing,
A risky clingy hunger pang.
And nights lonely and long,
But I think they are wrong,
For love grows to a rose in the Spring.

Fillet of Sole

Last night we saw the Head and Shoulders commercial where they give everyone the same shampoo and then one lady said all she wanted was cat food. My son said "Ew, they're trying to say that lady eats cat food!" My husband said that's probably an urban myth and we all talked for a while about things you can eat to get by. Once my husband and his friend went a few days on just a bag of carrots. I said "One time... Oh, no!"

Things I believed when I was six: We were sitting around the dinner table, chewing and my dad said "Oh, we're having shoe leather for dinner." I asked my mom "Is this really shoe leather?" She good naturedly said "Yes, honey." I said "Where'd we get it?" My dad said "I had an old pair." I said "I hope you washed it." No wonder they were giggling. I chewed and chewed. Because that's how it goes when you're eating shoe leather.

Everything Bad is Good Again

I heard the Annie Lennox/Aretha Franklin duet on the radio and remembered an interview with Annie about how she had to practice so much to get there but Aretha made it look so easy.

I was just wondering how some people are so easy-breezy and others try so hard it hurts. I like to think I'm a mix, because that's what I like to think.

I made a big faux paux, stuck my foot in it, on the order of Hyacinth "bouquet" Bucket. BYOE (Bring Your Own Example). But it's been insightful to ask "Why did I do that?"

I think bad things really get to the depths like good things can't. Like when kids are sleeping it's so easy to see how beautiful they are and feel sweet love. But when things go rough, and you have to ask "Why do I put up with this?" That's when the answer hits even deeper and gives you strength.

I had a nice time last night at the workout at Church. Exercise mats fear me everywhere! (Doesn't work, does it?)

I was also thinking about my growth as a Christian and I realized I'm doing more reading about it than the actual Bible and I need to get on track. Oops.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Hot Stuff" and "Music Box Dancer"

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(New Category!) Bad Advertising: "We'd better eat that today or it's going to go bad!"

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Superpower of Marginal Utility: Reading backwards

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Most optimistic thing I heard today: I was talking to my friend about 401(k)'s and he told me his has been up and down. He said when it's up that's great because it's worth more. When it's down that's okay too because his money buys more shares. : )

A Little Shady

"Little kids look terrible with 5 o'clock shadow!" From my son, looking at a Halloween ad.

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Things I believed when I was six: I was in front of my son's school this morning, feeling under my seat for some change he needed for lunch money. I told him "You'd be surprised at how much change people vacuum up in those car wash vacuum cleaners..." and I flashed back to how I knew that. When I was little and bored because my dad was taking forever I stuck my hand into a hole in the bottom of the vacuum and pulled out a big handful of silver. If it was garbage, wouldn't it be dirt and pennies? Oh no, I accidentally ripped off a car wash vacuum in the 70's!

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Tin Man" and "Bawitdaba"

Hey Ya! Charlie Brown Style

This video is cute and very well done!

>>>The Journey: True Magic

Here is a really beautiful post by Tink on her blog, The Journey:

"True Magic

I watch the black belts practice judo throws and see the strength and power that comes from technique rather than tremendous strength.

I watch Gyps with a horse and see her listen and understand as it speaks to her.

I watch my children grow, I see them becoming more unique and independent and I long for the magic, the technique, the whisper that will allow me understand them. To hear their thoughts by looking into their eyes, to feel their pain and joy with a simple touch.

A soft voice speaks to me, it says if you want to hear, take the time to really listen, if you want to feel, take the time to hug, to hold and to just be with them.

A deep sigh is followed by a prayer of thanks."

That is so beautiful and meaningful.
Tink is an amazing and talented person and her blog is a treasure.

What Shelf?

Busy, busy, like a bee! I haven't touched my computer (other than all day at work) in 5 days.

Last night I went to aerobics at church for the first time and we did pilates. It was a blast! Everyone is so nice. (Plus, you've gotta love free.)

I saw these in a magazine: Invisible bookshelves. But I'm wondering which would look better, horizontal or vertical? Or maybe both?

http://www.sticklebook.com/index.htm

http://www.instructables.com/id/Invisible-Book-Shelf/

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Do You Believe in Magic" and "Don't Stop"

Oops Time

Here's a quote from an article about mistakes (http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/08/the-importance-.html)

"Not every change is an improvement, but every improvement is necessarily a change. If we only admit small local errors, we will only make small local changes. The motivation for a big change comes from acknowledging a big mistake."

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Golden Years" and "All I Really Want"

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Funniest thing I saw "today": The other day I was running early for work and decided to take surface streets instead of the highway. At the railroad crossing the gates were down and I saw it was only a single engine coming, no railroad cars. (Yay, this will be nothing!) It stopped right in the middle of the road. 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30, 40. Everyone in the other cars seemed to be getting steamed, trying to figure out if we needed to detour. One car did. Then it backed up and the gates went up so it was practically nothing, but isn't that how it goes when you're waiting?

Out of the Jam, Onto the Tire

I'm lucky enough to live in a city that has everything, but it's not too smooshed. We have highways that cut through North/South and East/West and a loop so we're all set. (You can literally get anywhere in 20 min. or less.)

But because of the rarity of traffic jams they also seem to coincide with the times you realize you haven't bothered listening to "Traffic on the Tens" for quite some time now... You really must start again... Cycles, everything's in cycles. : )

So here's an article about how we, yes individuals in individual cars, can cure traffic jams and make the world a better place. Kind of. http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/trafexp.html

If you would like more of the science behind it, check out "Waves" and the other pages. It's very cool.

Have a good day and drive nice!

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Cross Town Traffic" and "I am Stuck on Band Aids Brand, Cause Band Aids Stuck on Me"

Scales of Justice

Woke up with an actual obviosity this morning. Yay! On track occasionally.

I've been trying to watch what I eat to get in shape. Life happens. It ebbs and flows and it's high tide to do something about it.

So here we go: "You can't eat yourself buff."

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Can't Help Falling In Love" and "Adios, au Revoir, Auf Wiedersehn"

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Superpower of Marginal Utility: Scientific Notation

Dervish

Life in overlapping parallel universes
not a gant chart, but the other one:
all of these are those and some of those are mine

Sing evanesence by myself like your own personal judy tenuta
(nothing to believe in -- reach out and touch faith)
When will the great schrodinger pry open this box
(nine times?)

You have the whitest teeth but the darkest eyes.
you can immerse me, but you can't submarine the yellow
eternal golden braid

A tug of war on both arms, both directions at once
turns out it was a circle, arms spread for a hug.
love you enough to save you

Pop

They're having a Warhol exhibition at the museum:
http://www.toledomuseum.org/Exhibitions_Warhol.htm

I didn't know much about Warhol except for the Marilyn's and the Soup Cans and the fifteen minutes of fame. I thought it was going to be somewhat silly. But the exhibits are very powerful: Flash, Electric Chairs, Cowboys and Indians. What did I know.

It's in town the rest of the week. See it if you can.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Walk on the Wild Side" and "Rocket Man"

3 Dollars

Found this article here: http://theologica.blogspot.com/2007/08/3-worth-of-gospel-please.html and I'll quote it below:

"From D. A. Carson's Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians:
I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please.Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted.I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust.I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture.I want ecstasy, not repentance;I want transcendence, not transformation.I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races – especially if they smell.I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged.I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please. (pp. 12-13)"

And I was touched and all... But, there are too many clues... This is not the chronicle of a man's own doubts. This is not the realization, "I've made a mistake, these are the wrong thoughts I was thinking." This is a parody. Who is it about? I don't know this writer, but is a person supposed to agree that they can go into a place with enough language to get the message across and have done a good job, but then when it comes to their neighbor, the neighbor doesn't stack up?

No Cake for You

Z had a nice birthday and got an R/C helicopter. Technology is cool!

I found that recent study on obesity. It's pretty interesting: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/4/370

I figured the media was misinterpreting what it really said, but apparently not. We are really that connected. Be a good friend and be healthy.

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Stupid things to do: Dumpster diving at the bakery.

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Mashup I am not going to make: Brother Louie Marmalade

Incredible Shrinking Human

Last night I took my little one to Toys R Us so he could use his money to buy a birthday present for his brother. I was looking around at all of the stuff that doesn't really work for a boy who's turning 13 on Sunday. The store is getting smaller and smaller because there are really only 3 areas left to shop. I was pretty melancholy last night about how it's all about to change.

Woke up this morning on the flip side. You know, the whole time we've only had about 3 areas to shop. I wasn't sad when I could only buy Fisher-Price but the Match Box trucks looked cooler!

It is what it is and we are where we are, and that's exactly how it needs to be. Treasure!

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Yesterday" and "You Are My Sunshine"

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Superpower of Marginal Utility: Wobbling without falling down.

Give It If You Got It

Obviosity: People give what they have.

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Funniest thing that happened today: I was slightly panicked when my boss emailed me about the same thing twice in one day. The upshot came later though when I got to mark the little flag complete... twice! : )

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Savages (Part 1)" and "Fish Heads"

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Touche Cliche: All snowflakes are made of snow, so they're sort of alike.

Snow Code

We've been sick with this silly summer cold. Lots of sneezing and whatnot... and you know what I mean.

I was thinking about what Paul Simon said that I posted about in June... Paul said when you start out, it starts out simple. As you study something, it becomes more and more complex. Then you reach a point where it becomes simple again, but you approach it with the complexity you've gained.

I can see that things become more complex. As you go along and you gather experience, you gather responsibilities. More things land on your plate so you get more plates to make room and now you've got your own buffet. (Come and get it!)

To put it another way, how big can a snowball get and still be able to roll?

How _do_ you reach the point where things become simple again? Do you need to be a millionaire and take a few years off?

Well, I don't just want to rant, I want a real solution. Or at least a method to tackle it.

One thing they say to do if you're too busy is to cut out extra-curricular activities. (Blogging for instance.) This seems counterintuitive to me: Let's make life better by cutting out fun. Whoop-de-doo.

What I'm working on is limiting my view of the snowball so I'm just focusing on the little patch of ice that needs melting right now. Excel is my friend.

Oh well, that's how I roll!

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Let's Go Outback Tonight" and "Slip Slidin' Away"

Stand and Deliver

This morning I was telling my kids about last night's episode of Last Comic Standing and debating the ethics of referring to another comic's joke in a showdown and my little one asked me about the difference between doing stand-up and telling jokes. I told him stand-up is like an oral essay where you make funny comments about life and telling jokes is like when you say "Did you hear the one about the elephant that walked up to the zoo...?"

A joke started without a punchline is just not right, so we finished it:

A giraffe, a kangaroo, and an elephant walk up to the zoo. The giraffe says, "Hey, guys, there's food in there!" The kangaroo says, "I'll jump over the fence and open the gate for us." He does and the giraffe walks in the gate. The elephant tries but he can't fit through. So the zookeeper comes out and lets him in the back way.

Dragonfly

My mom called me tonight. She told me a dragonfly landed on her screen. She watched it and looked at its wings and told it "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you." She said it was there for an hour. Then a bird swooped down and grabbed it and flew away with it.

Gosh, I need to take her out to dinner. Take care of your folks.

Quick Tip

Touche Cliche (contributed by my 12 year-old, Z):
"When Nature calls, don't let the machine pick up."

Infusiastic

Note: Here's how to spell the word you want: enthusiastic

Today I painted the trim on my pool-shed. (I don't have a pool, but a metal shed that used to accompany a pool decades ago.) When I came in my little one said, "Mom, you'd better look in the mirror." I did and saw that I had spackled my face (and hair). I had also given myself a reverse French manicure. The guy at Home Depot this morning...

You know the Home Depot commercials where it looks like they'll give you a full lesson on your DIY project? I really wasn't expecting that. Normally they treat people with respect as if they aren't imbeciles. But if you ask enough stupid questions and make it clear that you really, really don't know what you're doing, they will go ahead and give you the full treatment. Thanks, Home Depot! : )

Anyway, the guy at Home Depot said that the only thing that would get out this oil-based paint was paint thinner and he brought me some mineral spirits. I took a second to think well, we'll be really careful and not spill any... right!

So when I came in and saw myself, I washed my hands and arms with the mineral spirits. But I did not want to wash my hair with mineral spirits. So here's the good news for you. Noting the oily texture of the mineral spirits I figured I'd experiment and wash my hair with NEW! Caress Exotic Oil Infusions cream oil bodywash. (Mine's "Japanese" scent and it smells like Shalimar or Emeraude.) I washed my hair and face with it and they are paint-free! So since new products come and go, I'd recommend picking some up and keeping it on hand for a better smelling personal paint thinner.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Brady Bunch" and "Chicken Dance"

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Touche Cliche: Eggs come first because nobody eats chicken for breakfast.

Stuffy in Here

I've been thinking about the topic of decluttering. I must have at least 5 different books on the subject. I read them but I don't follow their rules about what to throw away. Like the six month rule. Yeah, right. Heard of seasons?

Since I haven't been able to ever completely do it I think I must finally come to the conclusion that I don't agree.

I tried to look on the web for pro-clutter resources and there are like, none. (If Google leads you here someday, Hi! : ) Our Pastor even did a sermon about decluttering last month. If he reads this he'll know I'm thinking about it. Working it out.

If I don't jell on it, why not? It's not that I'm an extreme case that has relationship with stuff. I'll let you throw away my favorite gum wrapper.

Possessions are expressions of our intentions. Equipment for our possibilities. And if I purge that thing I've lost that potential. If I get rid of those jeans, will I really lose 10lbs? If I sell my suede pants, will I ever rock again? Sure, I've read those books but won't my kids need to read them? Sure, I have 3 bottles of mildew remover, because I forget I have it and I really, really don't want to get mildew. We've got four bibles now...

I'm still working it out but here's one thing: Treasure your treasure and trash your trash!

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Funniest thing I saw "today": A car had a temporary tag taped up in the back window. Next to it, they had taped up a paper plate.

Russian

Did you ever have a day that was exactly like a game of Tetris?

Yikes!

Splendored Thing

I was just thinking about an old acquaintance. Her favorite topic was marriage. Every time we'd eat together she'd have books and magazine articles about making romance work. I said, "Romance isn't work." She said, "Yes, it is. If both people don't work hard enough it can't last." I picked up the implication, intended or assumed, that if I didn't do the same, my own marriage was doomed. (Hey, is this a poem? No? Okay.)

She made appointments to talk with her husband about their relationship. Sometimes I wondered how he felt about being treated as such a project. I'm glad I was already married, because that may have made me think... Love looked so difficult. But it's been ten years since I've spoken to her so as far as I know, they're fine. (And I truly hope they are.)

Maybe I'm naive in thinking if you give your heart, it's gave. It's not yours alone any more. Love won't lead you wrong.

Also, I highly recommend having a bad year. Have one. Then you'll know you can get though a bad year.

But I'll try not to let the striving become strife. Because if you have faith, you're 90% there. The flowers and cakes are just gravy.
(Mmm, gravy cakes...)

We chose each other and as it turns out, we were both right. Even if he hates karaoke and my eyes glaze over when he talks about R/C servos, it's all good.

Obviosity: If your eyes glaze over... Wait a minute, give it another shot because technology is cool!

(Okay, I guess that obviosity isn't universal : )

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Love and Happiness" and "Try a Little Tenderness"

ignore please

I'm trying to edit my profile, but I can't make it work. But at least now I know how to add pictures.

Cool It

Obviosity: The cooler something is, the less time it takes.

If a project is barely possible, you will stay with it long hours, never lose focus and fend off all but the direst distractions to accomplish it.

(The flip-side though is, sitting around doing nothing takes just as much time as doing something.)

Add interest to your drudgery using technology, humor, music and challenging yourself to beat your personal best.

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Mashup I'm not going to make: "Siegfried's Funeral" and "Pink Panther"

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Touche Cliche: If you're bored to tears, you've got nothing to cry about.

Like a Million Bucks

Funniest thing I heard today: My son told me "Mom, if you ever win a million dollars, spend it as fast as you can so they can't tax you." : )

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Mashup I'm not going to make: "Beast of Burden" and "There's a Hole in My Bucket"

Thin Paint

Did you ever paint yourself into a corner and then run out of paint? And it doesn't even make any sense?

Someplace Else

Friday on Good Morning America they had the mother and toddler who were kicked off a plane.
Here's the story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO1f8MvSIZk
I didn't see the GMA video posted but it was really cute how the toddler was climbing and crawling all over. One of the other reporters came up to help entertain him so the mother could talk to Diane Sawyer. My kids were fascinated. They'd never seen this much go wrong on TV, because fortunately we went to the kitchen to get a snack during the Superbowl.

I told them about when they were babies. My little one used to headbutt whenever he got happy so I made a hugging and singing game for him to help spare my head. : ) My big one
never wanted to miss anything. Anything that ever happened he wanted to be in on the action. He hated to go to sleep lest he miss something. He'd cry for hours. After doing all I could to make sure everything was in order and he was comfortable, everytime he'd almost doze off, he'd start to cry all over again. I finally found a trick for him.

I'd take him really strange places. One night I carefully picked my way down the stairs to the basement. When he finally opened his eyes he took a breath and... silence. What in the world is this? He looked around for a while and stared at the ceiling and finally relaxed and dozed off. After a couple times, this didn't work anymore. Been there, done that.

So I took him out on the front porch. It worked, Yay! That worked a couple more times then the third time I was thinking, well maybe I'll have to try the backyard. Then, Yay! Something wonderful happened. The garbage truck arrived at the business next store. It was one of the big ones with the arms on top to pick up a dumpster. In the morning mist with its yellow lights and backup beeps and all the noise and the slow motion movement, it was the coolest thing ever. I'll never forget that morning.

Friday at work I was a little nervous because I was stretched a little thin so I went to lunch early. I wanted to eat healthier so I went to Subway. I walked in and thought, wow I haven't been here for a really long time. It's so different from the Subway near my house. Huh, this trick works on grownups, too! : )

Go someplace you haven't been to. Just a thought.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "My Baby Does the Hokey Pokey"

World Food

Here's a neat site that shows some examples of what people eat around the world. The photography is great.
http://www.linkinn.com/_What_The_World_Eats

Obviosity: Almost everyone likes bananas.

I can't believe the family in Germany spends $500 a week. ...Oh.

I want to visit the Ukita family because I really like seafood, but they'd have to get rid of the scary dracula guy on the TV.

Okay, I'm being glib... What a disparity, huh? That's a week's worth of food. How resourceful would you need to be to cook meals from a sack of grain?

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Guantanamera" and "Flavor's Here"

On the Shelf

Does your bookshelf = Your world view?
http://blog.creativethink.com/2007/05/does_your_books.html
Found this article Friday and it's had me thinking... I need to update.


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Touche Cliche: You can't judge a book by its cover, but you can read the back.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "High Hopes" and "Wanted Dead or Alive"

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Superpower of (Not So) Marginal Utility: Adult Super Vision

52 of us

Today is the 50th anniversary of the day Paul McCartney first met John Lennon.
Here's an article: http://www.star-telegram.com/408/story/159296.html

What would music be without the Beatles? I'm imagining an alternate musical universe. Elvis against the Bee Gees in a great big disco battle... Just a thought.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Get This Party Started" and "Inspector Gadget"

Happy Day

Hope you had a nice 4th of July!

This came up: Is it safe to eat food you drop on the floor if you pick it up in five seconds?
Here's a neat article about the Five Second Rule: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-second_rule

Funniest thing I saw today: An old mini-van whose paint was chipping off. They had chipped away the paint on the hood in two sections to make Shelby racing stripes. Cool!

Against the Wind

In my last post I really gushed about Paul Simon. But what about Paul? What about Simon? Am I giving myself a clue? Am I living my life at cross-purposes? ...Or not.

Could I hold a candle in a debate?

Scientists are making flourescent green mice: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/01/0111_020111genmice.html
And I wonder, why isn't this on the news? (Is milk the catalyst?)

The problem is man is so good. We can imagine everything imaginable. We can make stories and make movies and make music and make buildings and make art. People's lives are saved at the hospital every day. There are sci fi stories about the robots battling their creators, Turing machines that don't believe in us. Are we giving ourselves a clue?

And of course we're wonderful now, with all the iPhones and the hive mind. But look back through time at how special we've always been. Especially bad sometimes, but still. Capable of everything imaginable. Is this a clue?

I think the candle holds me.

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Mashup I am not going to make (that would be a lovely bombastic montrosity): "On the Turning Away" and "Amazing Grace" (Scottish bagpipes)

Keep it Simple, Simon

Paul Simon was all over PBS this week. He's one of my favorite songwriters. He really captures the poignancy and interest of everyday life.

(I guess I have to accept that folk-rock is my favorite genre. Paul Simon, Grateful Dead, Jethro Tull, Carole King. If you can, seek out the album "All Around My Hat" by Steeleye Span.)

There was a big tribute to Paul Simon on last night with James Taylor singing a lot of his songs. Tonight he was on Charlie Rose. (They are doing a really great job keeping Charlie Rose's collar down this year. But I kind of miss his rumpled look. A cute and human foible.)

I'm going to have to paraphrase because I didn't have my stenography machine handy...
Paul said when you start out, it starts out simple. As you study something, it becomes more and more complex. Then you reach a point where it becomes simple again, but you approach it with the complexity you've gained. I thought that was so cool.

The chapter about Paul Simon in a book I have, "Songwriters on Songwriting" by Paul Zollo, tells about the sheer work he goes through to write songs. Pages of crumpled up legal pad. He said something like to write one good song you have to write one hundred bad songs first. (I can't wait for my hundredth bad blog entry. Hoo-boy! After that, look out! : )

So my obviosity is: Success is when you care hard enough to try hard enough.

My old bandmate wanted a song based on an essay she wrote. I'm no Paul Simon, but I sure crumpled up some legal pad. My friend Michele helped me pick out some phrases that had a ring to them and come up with examples and rhymes to fill it in. It took five hours but it was fun. I'll never forget that day.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "The Obvious Child" and "Mother Necessity"

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Touche Cliche: KISSing is never simple.

~Hello!~ : )

Some nights we have a lovely evening and other nights everybody's a little cranky...
And it seems to come down to the greeting. Make sure to let the people you love know how happy you are to see them, even if you have to jump up and down and lick their face.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Tom's Diner" and "Limehouse Blues"

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Superpower of Marginal Utility: Having a tail to wag.

Earth Mover

Mashup I kinda made: "I Feel the Earth Move (Under My Feet)" and "Godzilla"

For years my youngest one's favorite song was Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult. My oldest one's favorite song was Flood by Jars of Clay. When we went for a long drive in the summertime, I would alternate tapes back and forth so we could hear each song over and over again. I still have a Godzilla/Flood repetitive mix tape. (Treasure!)

Bathtime was so fun when they were little and I played songs for them while they washed and played. I Feel the Earth Move/Godzilla was one of the favorites.

I had the cleanest kids in town. "Look, Mommy! My fingers are old!"

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(New Category!)
Women's Issues: Long Fingernails vs. The Ability to Play Guitar

The Wheels on the Bus Keep on Turning

Here's a really interesting article about transitions. It's pretty long, so set it aside for when you have time: http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/transmgt1.htm

Obviosity: Major life changes can be major.

The thing I was surprised about was that it said transitions take 6-12 months to work through. Doesn't it seem like there's a much shorter expectancy?

The best thing, the thing to strive for, is the opportunity. Tear down this house, even to the foundations, and build me a better house.

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Touche Cliche: If you don't compare apples to oranges, how will you know which one you want to put in your salad?

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Mashup I am not going to make: "O Fortuna" and "Stand by Me"

Stale Green

Have you ever been driving along and the light's green and it's green and it's still green and you toodle along, thinking you're going to make it?

And now you're going too fast when it turns yellow. Oops.
What were you expecting?

You've Got to Rearrange...

I'm still busy "straightening up", but I want to spend a minute here because it hit me...

Everything's changing.

Tricia got a new puppy, George is about to retire, Michele is getting married today. My heart goes out for those on the cusp of a new life. : )

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "Purple Rain" (What a lovely bombastic monstrosity that would be!)

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Stupid things to do: When you're a sophomore in high school, spend a week's worth of afterschool hours learning to read and write Tengwar (elvish script) to impress a Lord of the Rings freak. When you hand him the note you wrote him, he won't be able to read it and will, in fact, think it's Hebrew. Be too embarrassed to explain.

Pickup Game

Have you ever kind of "Let things go"? Gotta get ready for vacation, gotta work extra, summer's here and the time is right for dancing in the street? Straightening up has come to mean aligning the edges of the piles... Well, the piper's finally calling about his Past Due bill.

I figured I'd gather some cleaning strategies to help tackle it. A couple different methods to switch it up a bit, with cutesy names to make it more fun:

Truckin' (location) - Move around the room checking a two foot square area at a time, putting anything you run across that's in the wrong place into a box so you can put it where it goes when you get there.

Sortin' (category) - Search the whole room for one specific category, such as books or Hot Wheels.

Lookin' (impact) - When you've been out of the room for a while, close your eyes as you're coming back in. Whatever catches your eye first is the most important thing to fix up.

Quiltin' (alternating) - Sometimes you have to spend time on something that is necessary but invisible. Alternate between things that are easy but visible (moving the boxes to the closet) and the details (making sure the right things are in the right boxes.) It's like laying down a patch and then sewing it down.

Here's a great website all about keeping up with housework: http://www.flylady.net/

Quiltin' is great at work. You can give everyone a nice report and update it every week. Or you could lay in some infrastructure and just refresh and check it every week.

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Superpower of Marginal Utility: Sorting folded laundry without messing it up.

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Touche Cliche: A rose named "Stinkypoo" might not get smelled as much.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Whole Lotta Tainted Love"

Loose Change

"I want to change... I just don't want to be different."

This one walloped me last night.

I was thinking "You need to work harder on being a leader." Okay, I agree but...
What is the problem? Then I realized I had a picture in my head of the embodiment of leader and it is: A Talkative Man.

No wonder I haven't been able to just jell on it and make it happen. That's why it feels "them" and not "me". I agree with the qualities, but the picture is wrong. I know so many women with wonderful qualities I can strive for. : )

So, change always sounds good. But if it's difficult, check your vision.

What do I think of as a "good Christian"? Could I become that? Is that vision correct or just a stereotype I picked up? What will it look like for me?

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Sugar, We're Going Down" and "Bewitched"

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(New Category!)
Things I believed when I was six: There are dogs and cats and there are lions and tigers. Lions are dogs and tigers are cats.

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Touche Cliche: Sow's ear is the new silk.

>>>emerging Chris: You Give Love a Bad Name

>>>emerging Chris: You Give Love a Bad Name

Incredible Sugar Hulk

When you're driving along, about an hour after you've all had Oreo Pie for special vacation "lunch dessert", the radio gets too loud, all the other drivers on the road become idiots, and he's on my side and won't give me my toy back!

From now on, no sweets on a road trip. We'll stick to mixed nuts and try to fend off the raccoons.
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Touche Cliche: An apple will fall far from the tree if it's really, really windy.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Gangsta's Paradise" and "To Sir, With Love"

Black and Blue and Red All Over

"Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a great excuse to go to lunch early. You can't actualize if you're hungry!"

We're back! We did the grand tour of North and Upper Michigan. Up by Crystal Lake I stepped on a stick and poked it into my foot. We put Neosporin on it.

We went Camping in Platte River campground (Yay, showers!) at Sleeping Bear Dunes
www.leelanau.com/dunes/camp/platte.shtml, walked the trail to Lake Michigan, with many trips to Empire (friendly small town).

We moved along and had dinner in Traverse City (beautiful bay) drove through Charlevoix (must go back, looks like Newport, OR) drove through Petoskey (City. Lunch at Burger King.) across the beautiful and scary Mackinaw bridge, stayed at a hotel in Paradise www.exploringthenorth.com/paradise/homepara.html drove up to Whitefish Point (butterflies! Waves and rocks.) Went to Upper Tahquamenon Falls. (Get the whitefish at the restaurant in the park.)

Camped some more at the Lake Superior campground west of Deer Park. (Great rustic campground!)

Drove up to Grand Marais. Grand Marais is wonderful. (Thank you, Nancy!)http://www.grandmaraismichigan.com/ Had to visit the hospital in Newberry, but at least we got to eat at Timber Charlie's which was great http://www.timbercharlies.com/ The hot beef was awesome. We went to the Helen Newberry Joy hospital www.hnjh.org to get my foot looked at. The PA's were really nice.

Stayed in Munising for a couple of days. Munising is wonderful. This is the place to go to take a boat ride and see the Pictured Rocks. We got a pontoon for a half day, which was one of the highlights of vacation. Munising is a good HQ for driving around and visiting all the waterfalls.

I almost forgot to mention Marquette... We wanted to see it because we had never been there. The neat thing is the bicycle culture... This city seemed to have everything a city should have, only crammed into a much smaller city. It was surprisingly crowded.

It was a lovely vacation. It was fun interacting with the wildlife. The bug spray kept the mosquitos off but the flies just thought "Mmm, barbecue sauce." The raccoons ran away with our can of honey roasted cashews. The chipmunks at the campgrounds come up and tap you on the shoulder like "Hey buddy, where's the food?"

The sun up there isn't deterred by little things like SPF.

Well, like the title said, we were black and blue and red all over. I was the best with my wounded foot and tetanus arm. But when you're itchy and scratchy and hurty... it breaks it all down. We don't miss TV. We only twinge a little for the internet. This is the most minor suffering ever. (It makes you think.)

And you really can actualize when you're hungry.

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Superpower of Marginal Utility: Invisibility to bugs.

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(New Category!)
Definitions: "Boy"-- two parts B.O. and one part Whyyy?

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Living in the Past" and "Mission Impossible."

Set Up

Sorry the comment settings wouldn't allow everyone to post. That's fixed now.

Feelin' Graphy

You know how on TV crime shows they run things through a "machine" and get a little graph like this:
http://www.mikanservicesltd.com/images/vib-analysis.gif
and say something like "Look, it's made of lead. It must be paint." (Okay, I know it would have been better to say something really, really specific. "We ran it through our Everything in the World Database and it's exactly This."--Trade secrets aside! But I need to move along.)

In a really simplistic way, it could be applied to people. It's really easy for me to use my "spikes". And I'm blessed and it's wonderful, but I get stuck in a rut almost. And then I wonder why I can't do something else...

"How could you not do X? You're excellent at Y!"

I think I need to put down the hammer and just learn how to use the screwdriver like everybody else. Do the work and do the practice. Doing it badly is better than not at all.

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Superpower of Marginal Utility: Untying knots.

24/7 = 3.4285714

Got this one while working out a SQL formula to strip time out of datetime, some of the time. But I think it stands as an obviosity all on its own...

"Yesterday's always over, but today usually isn't."

The past is the past, but we've still got today.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "My Sharona"

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Touche, Cliche: You probably can make the horse drink, if you know he's thirsty.

Power Up!

The power was down this morning and now it's up but now I must go!

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Futurama" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

When You're Looking, You're Seeing

Have you ever had a feeling like "reverse deja-vu"? You hear about something and suddenly it's ubiquitous? You get a new car and now you see the same exact car everywhere?

You're writing songs and lyrics pop into your head 3 times a day. Your son is writing a comedy routine for the talent show and now everything he says is funny. Everyone is talking about Burger King today...(?)

I learned on the internet that this experience of sudden ubiquity is called the "Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon". Scientists explain it as the brain's form of pattern recognition. Here's the article: http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=417

So, there are a couple of different ways of looking at this: The statistics of probability working through brain chemistry? The synchronicity of the Jungian collective unconscious?

But on a day that is so tough you're not sure you want to go through any more days, and on top of that you have to go shopping, when you see three different people at the store who say "Hi! How are you?" and give you a hug... You realize that all these little things are just priming the pump so you can see the signs when God shows you that he loves you.

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Superpower of Marginal Utility: Being able to distinguish between colors that are really, really, really close.
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(New Category!)
Touche, Cliche: The pot's not boiling because you don't have the lid on, silly!
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Mashup I am not going to make: "Figlio Perduto" and "He Needs Me, He Needs Me"

You Can't Expect to be Happy

(Woke up and realized I need to explain more to understand more.)

You can't expect to be happy until you realize you can't expect to be happy.

It's not about being a gloomy pessimist so much as not taking things for granted.
Sure, if you expect your day to be rotten it probably will. But a situation with too much hope and hype pinned on it can't live up to all that.
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Superpower of Marginal Utility: Filling up restaurants. Got this one. We have a way of arriving at restaurants that are empty and shortly after we sit down to eat, many more people arrive. We attribute it to our red everyman's car and our smiling faces in the restaurant window. Us getting hungry early is irrelevant.
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Mashup I am not going to make: "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Tusk"

Meta-Meta-Meta

Got up early thinking about what I'm going to put on my new blog. Quickly ran into meta questions: Should I include editorial comments? Yes, it's just me. Should I number my lists? No, that will be a pain. What if I stink? Who am I not to? Okay, then jump right in...

An obviosity is a thought that comes as a summary of a problem. Then comes "Well, duh." Then "But, yeah..." It's food for thought. If it's not what you need at the time, it may just stay duh. I only have a handful. But when you're looking for things they find you. (Hey, that might be one. Ouch, my meta-head.) Okay, here's the first obviosity: "You can't expect to be happy until you realize you can't expect to be happy."

Other things I can post on my blog...
Mashup ideas for mashups I am not going to make. The closest I ever came to making a mashup is a song my old band did called "Psycho Stalker Love Medley". All I have is a practice tape. Here's the first mashup idea: "The Beat Goes On" and "Misty Mountain Hop".

The funniest thing I heard today. The funniest thing I heard today was my husband snoring. In the future, I'm going to expand the meaning of the word "today" to include "whenever".

Superpowers of Marginal Utility. Ever since MicroEconomics 201, I love that phrase, marginal utility. http://investopedia.com/university/economics/economics5.asp (Our meat market has 12 people working behind the counter. Amazing.) Here's the first superpower of marginal utility: Being able to tell, through an airplane window, exactly where you are.

Stupid things to do: Convince your new teacher that your name, Wayne, is actually pronounced "Buena".

Phrases: "Material in the aggregate". Couldn't find a good link. It's an Accounting term that basically means little things that add up. "Washing this silverware sure is a pain in the neck." "Yes, son, but it's material in the aggregate." "Okay."

Obviosity from Qaro

This is a test post just to see how this thing works. : )