A video made from 4500 photos

Now this is pretty cool.


Notte Sento (English subtitles) from napdan on Vimeo.

Have you seen this?

In short, AshleyMadison.com assists married people in finding others to have affairs with. So, it's like Match.com for cheating...

While 90 percent of me is totally disgusted at the thought, the other 10 percent is intrigued at not only the business model but also with the ethics behind it.

In your opinion, should these sites be allowed to exist? I don't think it's anyone right to govern or decide what my morals should be...but I also don't like the thought of websites tailoring to such a lack of moral judgment (of course, in my opinion) - making it easy for people to cheat on their spouses.

The site's been getting quite a lot of media attention. Check some of it out here. Noticeable appearance on Ellen, the Tyra Banks Show and Good Morning America.

What are your thoughts?

Considering myself an avid reader...

...when I ran across this list I found it interesting. Take a look at the list if you wish and let me know what you've read, what you liked and what you think should have been included.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen – Yes (um, my cat's name is Mr. Darcy)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien – No
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - Yes
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - Yes
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee – Yes
6 The Bible – All of it? No.
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte – No
8 1984 - George Orwell - Yes
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - No (I've never heard of this book...)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens – No
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - Yes
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - No
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller –– Yes
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - No
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - Yes (this book began my love of reading)
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien – No
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks – No
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - Yes

19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger – No (but I have it in queue)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot- No
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell – Yes
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald – Yes
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens - No
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy – No
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - No
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh – No
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - No
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - Yes
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - Yes
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - Yes
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - No
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - No
33 The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - No
34 Emma - Jane Austen - Yes
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen - Yes
36 Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand – No (where are her other books?!? The Fountainhead? Anthem?)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - No (but also in queue)
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres- No
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden – Yes
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne - No
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell – Yes
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown – Yes
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez – No
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving - YES
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - No
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery – Yes
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - No
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood – No (but I'm reading The Blind Assassin right now and I have to say, I'm not in love with it...)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - No
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - No (but the movie was ah-mazing)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel - No
52 Dune - Frank Herbert- No
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons – No
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen – Yes
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth – No
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon – No
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens – No
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley – No
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon – YES
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - No
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck – Yes
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov – No
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt – No
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold - Yes
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas – No
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - No
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy – No
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding – Yes... (is this an accomplishment?)
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie – No
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville – Yes (uh...)
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens – No
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker - No
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett – Yes
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson – No
75 Ulysses - James Joyce – No
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath - No
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome – No
78 Germinal - Emile Zola – No
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray – No
80 Possession - AS Byatt- No
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - No
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell – No
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker – Yes
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro – No
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert – Yes
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry – No
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White - Yes
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - No
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – No
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton – No
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad – No
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupe – No
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks – No
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - No
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole – No
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute – No
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas – No
98 Hamlet – Shakespeare – Yes
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl – Yes
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo – No

Grammar Guide

You know those certain things that keep you up at night? You swear you're going to remember to look them up in the morning...and then you don't.

This time, I remembered to look them up - putting to bed two of my sleep stealers.


Pled vs. Pleaded

Internet consensus? Either is correct. It's simply a matter of preference. "Pled" seems to be more old-fashioned, however. The AP Stylebook, on the other hand, condemns "pled" saying that it is colloquial.

Which one do I prefer? I've always preferred "pled" - but, then again, I've always been an old-fashioned kinda girl, I guess.

Hung vs. Hanged

Hung apparently refers to something you would hang on a wall. People dangling from ropes, however, are always hanged.


Interesting, huh?


Oh, and did you hear about this? Literally, stuck on the toilet. Gross.

Happy St. Patty's!

From an Irish girl to you -

Here's to helping you celebrate in style with some Irish drinking toasts and a little history (after the jump):

May God bring good health to your enemies enemies

May you live to be a hundred years, with one extra year to repent.

May you be in heaven one half hour before the devil knows you're dead.

As you slide down the banisters of life may the splinters never point the wrong way.

May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.

May you get all your wishes but one,
So you always have something to strive for.

Here's to your coffin...
May it be built of 100 year old oaks which I will plant tomorrow.

Here's to you as good as you are,
Here's to me as bad as I am,
As good as you are,
And as bad as I am,
I'm as good as you are,
As bad as I am.

May the sons of your daughters smile up in your face.

Health, and long life to you
Land without rent to you
The partner of your heart to you
and when you die, may your bones rest in Ireland!

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.

May your neighbors respect you,
Troubles neglect you,
The angels protect you,
And Heaven accept you.

An old Irish recipe for longevity:
Leave the table hungry.
Leave the bed sleepy.
Leave the bar thirsty.

I've drunk to your health in the pubs ,
I've drunk to your health in my home ,
I've drunk to your health so many times ,
That I've almost ruined my own.

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been,
The insight to know where you are,
and the foresight to know when you've gone too far.

May you have warm words on a cold evening,
A full moon on a dark night,
And the road downhill all the way to your door.

Jellys!

If you're like me, you think that jelly fish are pretty freakin' cool. In fact, they are extremely gorgeous. If you don't believe me, do a Google image search - you'll be delightfully amazed. Anyway, I stumbled across these pictures of this lady swimming in the Black Sea surrounded by hundreds of jellys and I thought I'd share. Apparently, they aren't the "stinging kind" - but I still don't know that I would jump in for a brisk swim. It just seems like it might be like swimming with a bunch of living boogers. There are more pictures after the jump - you should check 'em out!

PS - You should also check out this really amazing artist, Satava. He has some beautiful glass art of jellyfish that (when you see them in person) may make your eyes a little moist.

Did y'all hear about this??

New York Girl of My Dreams

He's all over the internet and TV. Just Google him, you'll see... :)

Also, as an aside - he's from Nashville and went to Hume Fogg....

There are some bizarre people in this world...

MAIDEN, North Carolina — A man who bought a smoker at an auction of abandoned items might have thought twice had he looked inside first.

Maiden police said Tuesday the man opened up the smoker and saw what he thought was a piece of driftwood wrapped in paper. When he unwrapped it, he found a human leg, cut off 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 centimeters) above the knee.

The smoker had been sold at an auction of items left behind at a storage facility, so investigators contacted the mother and son who had rented the space where the smoker was found.

The mother, Peg (wow....her name is Peg - hilarious) Steele, explained her son had his leg amputated after a plane crash and kept the leg following the surgery "for religious reasons" she doesn't know much about.

"The rest of the family was very much against it," Steele said.

Steele said her son, John Wood, plans to drive to Maiden, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) northwest of Charlotte, to reclaim his amputated leg, police said.

I'm back! Well, sorta...

I'm coming out of my blogger silence and hiatus with this story to share:

Minnesota Toe Licker Napped

Please (I beg you), please read this. The picture for the article is worth one million (that's right, million) words...and uproars in laughter.

They all look alike, right?

Most likely you've been embarrassed about it before...but you don't necessarily have to be anymore.

New research shows that it is difficult for people to distinguish faces of different races (he. he....faces...races...that rhymed). Anyway, the research indicates that it's not because we are racists, it's the in-out syndrome.

In a series of experiments, Miami University undergraduates were led to believe that they would view the faces of fellow Miami students (the in-group) and students from Marshall University (a perennial football rival, making them the ultimate out-group) on a computer screen.

In reality, none of the faces, all of whom were white, were students at either university. By merely labeling them, however, the participants better recognized faces that they believed were fellow Miami students.

It is believed that the findings suggest "recognition deficits" can occur "without the need for race or different physical characteristics, arguing instead that there is more than just unfamiliarity with other races at play in the cross-race effect."

According to the researchers, "people frequently split the world up into us and them, in other words into social groups, be they racial, national, occupational, or even along the lines of university affiliation. Our work suggests that the cross-race effect is due, at least in part, to this ubiquitous tendency to see the world in terms of these in-groups and out-groups."

China Bridge Collapses

Kills 29. Injures at least 22.

With America's recent obsession with all things structural, the question is, will we care about China's recent tragedy?

And in other news:
9th body found at MN bridge collapse
South Asia's flood death toll has reached 2,000
Cracking down on crack...
1,340 (367 whom were handicapped) rescued from slave labor in China
Cho may have made a practice run at Norris Hall (Virginia Tech)


And after that, I'm starting a new thing right now. Only good news from now on. I have to start slow....it's a different way of thinking. Here's my first. Yea!
Amazon deforestation reduced dramatically over the last three years

Oh my!

Pregnant 10.5 years of her life? Jim Bob Duggar's wife has been.

Read about her and her 17 children here.

Gaining Perspecitve

Ever noticed how something horrible can happen a world away...and "it sucks", "gosh that's terrible".

But if this event were to happen, say in your own country, it would occupy the minds and hearts of all citizens...thousands of newscasts...countless of hours of television...and journalist efforts devoted solely to what happened...

Big or Small.

Let's take, for example, the floods that are currently happening in India. Gosh, that sucks, doesn't it? Millions are marooned and the current death toll is over 1,000.

1,000!

But in Minneapolis, 4 people are dead and 20 are missing. Let's just assume for a moment that all of those 20 missing will turn up dead (that sounds callous, I'm sorry). Even still, that makes the death toll from a bridge collapse possibly 24 people.

24!

Can we gain a little perspective here?!

Technoriti is telling me that 170,529 people linked to this one article about the MN bridge collapse. That's just one article of the thousands that have been published, printed and reported.

One person, one, linked to the article from ABC World News about the floods that are currently killing thousands in India.

Me.

The bridge collapse is also mentioned three times in Technoriti's top searches.

But there's not one mention of the devastation in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Now, don't get me wrong. I feel for the families that have lost loved ones in the bridge collapse and I know the reason we obsess over needless tragedies such as this is for the simple fact that they are close to home.

And maybe those countries, so far away, don't seem real to some. But they are very real. Those 1,000+ people included in that death toll were mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and children...just like the ones in Minnesota.

Sometimes, I just feel that we, as Americans and as inhabitants to the world, need to gain a little perspective.

Personality Test

It's been awhile since I took the Myer's Briggs personality test and low and behold, I'm still the same.

Your Type is
ENFJ

Extraverted	Intuitive	Feeling	Judging
Strength of the preferences %
22	12	38	44

If you want, take your test here. Comment back what you are. I'd love to know.

Here's a little about my type, you know...just in case you're interested!

• ENFJs are energetic, enthusiastic, and very aware of others. Their genuine interest can usually draw out and involve even the most reserved person. They listen to and support others, but also have a very definite values and opinions of their own, which they will express clearly. ENFJs are energized by people and are socially adept; however, they also have a strong need for authentic, intimate relationships.
• Abstract in their thought and speech, cooperative in their style of achieving goals, and directive and expressive in their interpersonal relations.
• Especially capable of educing or calling forth those inner potentials each learner possesses. Even as children this type may attract a gathering of other children ready to follow their lead in play or work. And they lead without seeming to do so.
• Expect the very best of those around them, and this expectation, usually expressed as enthusiastic encouragement, motivates action in others and the desire to live up to their expectations. This type has the charming characteristic of taking for granted that their expectations will be met, their implicit commands obeyed, never doubting that people will want to do what they suggest. And, more often than not, people do, because this type has extraordinary charisma.
• Found in no more than 2 or 3 percent of the population. They like to have things settled and arranged. They prefer to plan both work and social engagements ahead of time and tend to be absolutely reliable in honoring these commitments.
• Values harmonious human relations above all else, can handle people with charm and concern, and are usually popular wherever they are. But Teachers are not so much social as educational leaders, interested primarily in the personal growth and development of others, and less in attending to their social needs.
• And here's a really good site describing ENFJs that I won't burden you with here.
  

So, take the test. Tell me what you are!

Bikini-Clad Mowers in Memphis

They'll mow your lawn almost naked! So far, there have been no requests for the male version. Probably because men mow the lawn sans shirt anyway. Why pay more?

Prison's going to be awesome!

And, you know, should I ever have to go to prison...I hope it's something like this...

Owner of a Lonely Heart...

Yes...
(hahaha)

Japanese men are finding it increasingly difficult to partner with a women that will please them. So...as any natural person would do, they turn not to dating sites or prostitutes...but to plastic.

Plastic sex dolls.

These dolls are life like and are anatomically correct and range in price from $800-$5,500 a piece. The more expensive models are made of silicone (more life-like and have, get this, 35 movable joints).

Please read the attached article...it makes me really sad for this one guy who goes by "Ta - Bo".

"Each has a name. Ta-Bo often watches television with his toys before bathing them, powdering them so that their skin feels more human, dressing them in lingerie and then taking them to bed.

'A human girl can cheat on you or betray you sometimes, but these dolls never do those thing. They belong to me 100 percent,' says the engineer who has spent more than 2 million yen ($16,000) over the past decade on the dolls."

Poor Ta - Bo! He has three of them lined up on his couch when he returns home...then he bathes them and powders them.

He has obviously been cheated on in the past.

Ta - Bo, not everyone cheats! I promise. You have to pick up the pieces, man. Date women. Real ones that don't come from a factory or a company. And don't advertise the number of movable parts they have.

There's a girl out there for you. Don't give up hope. Seriously, these were originally meant for handicapped men....but whatever floats your boat.

Obviously Ta - Bo wanted some girl to "belong" to him and do whatever he wanted her to. He likes the silent, submissive type. Those kinda girls might be difficult to find.

Well, I guess he found one. Scratch that...he found three of them. Until his next paycheck and he can buy more. Whoo Hoo!

Final Period

With the development of a birth control that allows women to never have their periods, Karen Houppert, a NY Times columnist, has some things to say.

It's really good. Read it. I dare you. Period.

Ugh - Just a horrible fashion trend...

You know, if you ask me...

Apology for all the sex/preggers articles...

But here's one more. I need to get my mind on other things today!

NY Times - Positive Trends for Today's Teens

Take Aways:
*The teenage birthrate hit a record low. The teenage birth rate in 2005 was 21 per 1,000 young women ages 15 to 17 — an all-time low. Comparatively, the rate in 1991 was 39 births per 1,000 teenagers.

*In 2005, 47 percent of high school students — 6.7 million — reported having had sexual intercourse, down from 54 percent during the 12 years between 1991-2003

*Of those who reported having had sex during a three-month period in 2005, 63 percent — about 9 million — said they used condoms. That is an increase from the 46 percent reported in 1991.

“I think the H.I.V./AIDS epidemic and the efforts in the ’80s and ’90s had a lot to do with that,” Mr. Wagoner said of the improved numbers on teenage sexual activity, condom use and births. “We need to encourage young teens to delay sexual initiation, and we need to make sure they get all the information they need about condoms and birth control”.

Honestly, I just can't imagine 54 percent having sex in high school. I mean, I know they did...and I know that I was sheltered...but come on! None of my girlfriends had sex back then and not many of my guy friends did as far as I know...and I am pretty sure they would have talked/bragged about it...because I got to hear everything else. Whatever, though. Perhaps I was just friends with the other 46 percent.

Also, this brings up the condom issue. Thank God the number of teenagers using condoms is going up.

I understand that it might be embarrassing to look for and perhaps even, buy condoms. But don't be stupid.

If it's the cost, suck it up. Your $5 dollars (or whatever condoms cost) is a lot cheaper than caring for a child. And after all, you think you are old enough to have sex, therefore you are old enough to have a job and pay for your condoms.

If it is the embarrassment, you should only be embarrassed if you look like a baby about to engage in a sexual act...which you probably do because you're in high school. Even still, you need protection. I would imagine that going to the doctor to find out that you had herpes and/or gonorrhea would be pretty embarrassing too...only it lasts a lot longer than your check-out with the other pimple-faced teenager at Target.

And that concludes my rant...sorry if it offends... :)