Yay for the day. Whatever that means. Today was kind of off focus for me. I started my posts about canes, and had to learn a lot about them! But I have a weeks worth almost ready, so that's a good day's work. Now to get to posting them. ^_^

We got our 1099's out today, so anyone that contracted services with us last year -- you'll get them soon!

I missed the State of the Union address, but read the excerpts posted on the Whitehouse website and it sounded like a load of crap. I think he's freaking Big Brother, talking about how ending tyranny in the world. It is just absurd. How the hell can you pinpoint 'tyranny'. And why is it the US's job to end it? Gosh, he says that isolationism will end in decline. Well I say his plans will drive America to its demise.

I would be all for his impeachement if I didn't see Cheney sitting right behind him with a smirk on his face. Oh shit, I think. Impeachement is not a good idea! Let's just let his whole administration be taken to court after he gets out of office.

I read the funniest online article today, The BEAST 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2005. Very funny stuff. That same site had a good article about Israel that I learned a lot from. It's very hard for Americans to get real stories about that area of the world, with America being so very pro-Israel. This article is refreshingly, and even shockingly, real!

Um, I feel off focus today, like I already said. I don't know why. I need to start getting up early, I have fallen back into the habit of sleeping til 11 or 12 even. That makes me feel really unproductive, because I am the type of person that can get more done from 9 - 12 than I can from 12 - 6. But my body almost demands that I sleep 8 hours, from whenever I fall asleep. So if I stay up too late I sleep late. So I need to get off the computer and go to bed. It's Gaia's fault, it's my nighttime funtime. xD

I think I'll quit writing for the day, I feel rambly and not very cohesive.

Tags: Bush, State of the Union, Big Brother, 1099

I got this in an email some years ago, but found it printed out when I was unpacking some stuff. It makes me crack up, so I will post it here for posterity. Too bad I don't still have it saved, but it's funny enough to type out. I think my Uncle Eddie sent it to me!

Why the English language is hard to learn

• The bandage was wound around the wound.


• The farm was used to produce produce.


• The dump was so full that it had to refuse any more refuse.


• We need to polish the Polish furniture.


• He could lead if he would get the lead out.


• The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.


• Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.


• On the head of the bass drum was painted a large bass.


• When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.


• I did not object to the object


• The invalid's insurance was invalid.


• There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.


• They were too close to the door to close it.


• The buck does funny things when the does are present.


• The seamstress and the sewer fell down into the sewer.


• To help with the planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.


• The wind was too strong to wind the sail.


• After a number of injections, my jaw got number.


• Upon seeing a tear in the painting I shed a tear.


• I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.


• How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend.

Let's face it, the English language is a mess.

Only in English can your nose run and your feet smell.

There is no egg in eggplant, or even ham in hamburger. Neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins are not English, nor are French fries French. Sweetmeats are candies while sweet breads have meat in them!

Those who know English from birth take it for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither a pig nor from Guinea.

And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groc, and hammers don't ham?

So the plural of tooth is teeth, right? Why isn't the plural of booth beeth? If there is one goose, and two geese, why aren't there one moose and two meese?

It's funny that you can make amends, but not one amend, and that you can comb through the annals of history, but not one single annal. If there are a bunch of odds and ends, and you get rid of all but one of them, what do you have?

If teachers taught, why don't preachers praut, or butchers butch? And is it freachers who are fraught? And really, if a vegetarian eats only vegetables, please tell me what a humanitarian eats?

Sometimes I think all English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. What other reason could there be for saying that people recite at a play, and play at a recital. Or ship cargo by truck and send cargo by ship. Or again, have noses that run and feet that smell.

How can a slim chance and a fat chance mean the same thing? And then a wise man and a wise guy mean the opposite? How can overlook and oversee be opposites?

How can weather be one day hot as hell and the next be cold as hell?

Have you noticed that we talk about some things only when they are not present? Like, have you ever seen a horseful carriage, or a strapful gown? What about a sung hero, or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly, or peccable? And where are those people who ARE spring chickens or who would hurt a fly?

Who have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house both burns up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

People, not computers, invented English, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which is indeed not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when a light is out, it is not. And when I wind my watch I start it, but when I wind this post up I end it. Ahh.. Linguistics.


Whew, I typed that whole thing from a print out, I'm proud of myself. ^_^

Tags: English, email, linguistics, humor, funny

Well more bad computer news. When I came home from my parent's house this evening my computers temperature and fan monitor was on: my CPU was at 85 degrees. So I turned my computer off, for some time.

Now it won't start up. Not even in safe mode! It gets to the point where Windows is starting up, and seems to stall out.

So that totally SUCKS. Now I'm very thankful to have access to my dad's laptop, because without it I'd be totally without a computer. Which I just cannot have. This is how I make my money.. which I need to fix my two broken computers.

Ugh, when it rains it pours. I don't know what's up with my computer... I thought it was just the fan but now with it stalling on startup, there might be something else wrong with it.

Had a good dinner over at the folk's place tonight. I enjoy going over for dinner. I need to visit Momo, I haven't been over since we all stopped by on Saturday. I drive by her house every day and think, damn I should stop by. But I'm always doing something else. I know that one day I won't have that luxury and I should really take advantage of her company now while I can.

So my Dad's computer is driving me nutso. The "Connect to Internet" window keeps popping up for some reason, and it won't let me do anything with Internet Explorer. It says I'm working offline, but I am not. Plus the keyboard is so different for a laptop than a desktop. I am used to my desktop.. heh.

Well that's it I suppose. I guess I need to send both my computers to be repaired. Which I'm not happy about. The computer that just started being bitchy is our backup computer. I have not been able to back everything up yet, so I run the risk of data loss. I will cry if I loose any stuff, quite honestly.

Oh last night I created a Xanga blog. I had to use faeriebell1 as my username, because someone has taken faeriebell. And when I checked their blog, guess what? Nothing on it. So yeah, thanks. Take my username, which I have used ALL over the internet, and don't even freaking use it. Blah.

I seem gripy tonight, I guess I am. PMS, or something.

Tags: computer, desktop, laptop, Windows, Xanga, computer problems

Do sites like Reunion.com and Classmates.com piss you off? I hate seeing some long lost friend on a list, or seeing that someone has added you as a contact but not being able to talk to them without paying. I, for one, am not going to pay some rip off site $30 to talk to some old friends, not when there are sites like MySpace, Xanga, or Livejournal around that are free. You can enter the schools you attended into MySpace, and usually find some fellow alumni.

I want to post a name of people I would like to get in touch, at least to say hey how've you been, but can't, for whatever reason:

Jordan Johnson
John Vogel
Hannah Thompson
Joslyn Dyer
Sherol Scott
Linda Spears
Amy Thomas
Marie Thomas
Casey Louviere
Michael Glatzer
Chris Williamson
Julie Williamson
Samantha McDonald
Ashley Hand


So, if you do an ego search and find your name on this list: comment! I will be so happy to hear from you. You can also email me at faeriebell 1 (@) y a h o o .com

Edit: And oh yeah, my last name is different! It used to be Beatty. So don't let the Mashraqi throw you off. :)

Tags: lost friends, friends, high school, childhood

Well today was a long day, even though I slept til 11. (which is something I need to stop doing)

We didn't eat lunch until after we went to the bank, which is in Hartwell. We went yesterday only to find that the bank closes at 4, every day except Friday. We were bummed that we drove the 15 minutes to Hartwell only to turn back around.

Yesterday was an emotional day for me. I had to be short with someone on the phone and after I hung up I just got all emotional and cried. I was frusterated, I guess that's why the tears came. See, I submitted a change of address form at the USPS post office BEFORE I moved, and we still hadn't been getting any mail. I called to inquire and 1. the lady postmaster gave me a hard time because my mail came from a different post office than the one at which I submitted the address change form (which doesn't even matter because you can do it online xP) and 2. they hadn't entered the company change of address that I submitted on the same card as me and Farhan's. So our company mail was still being delivered to our old address thanks to the postal services' incompetence.

So frusteration, yes. A bit of a panic, yes. We have checks in the mail that may be sent back to the merchant, and we'll have to wait for another month before we get that money. With things not going so hot right now, this will cut things pretty closely. But hopefully we got that all worked out.

So today I talked with them again and found out I need to submit the company one again and also one for my maiden name, as I still get some mail to that name. Ok, no problem. I run up to the post office at 4:30, thinking I have time to spare. Nope, not in this town. Post office closes at 4:30. WTF.

So I came home and submitted them online. Guess what? The postal service charges $1 to submit a change of address form online. How fun. I just hope they get our mail freaking delivered to our new address and quickly. I hate when you do everything right and they fuck up and then give you a hard time. Grr

Had a good dinner tonight with the folks, salmon with sesame seeds and teryaki sauce, zipper peas, and rice made with chicken broth. My dad is a good cook. mmm. I am really enjoying us living so close to them. My dad can just call me up, ask if I want to come over and eat dinner, and we can be there in 5 minutes. After many years of living more than an hour away, it's a treat. I'm close with my family, we had some rough years when I was in college, but we're a close group.

We watched Dancing with the Stars... it was somewhat enjoyable. Master P was a horrible dancer. The guy from 98 degrees did best, but I wasn't surprised because he was in a boyband and they have to dance a lot. I liked Tia Carrere's Tango a lot, she was elegant. I like ballroom dancing, I think it's super neat. I can dance, but not like that. I used to be a raver, so my dance style tends to be of that nature. But ballroom has always interested me, even in highschool. I used to turn on Atari Teenage Riot and mute the ballroom music. Funny shit, do it sometime!!

Blogged some today, but not enough. Bad me. I just posted once about the Bin Laden tape. I did post to my LJ, which I didn't think I'd be doing much. But what the hell, I'll litter the Internet with my posts.

I also posted to my MySpace blog. OMG, it's such a shock to find so many people I know from highschool there. People I haven't heard from or thought of in years. It's cool, in a way. I found two ex-bfs, people I was good friends with, people I loved, people I hated, people I just knew in passing. But it's just cool to see their pictures and know that's someone who at least knows my name, if not many embarrasing details. I remember a time when I wanted to distance myself from the crowds I hung with in HS, but it's been long enough (Meadowcreek class of '98!) that I can imagine talking with these people without bitterness once more.

I made a few MySpace layouts today, will be uploading them to our MySpaceLayoutsDesign blog tomorrow.

Um, I appear to be rambling, so I'll make an end to tonight's post. So night, world. ^.^


Tags: Dancing with the Stars, ballroom dancing, MySpace, MySpace Layouts, postal service, USPS, Meadowcreek, high school, friends

Do you have a cat who scratches your furniture? Have you tried to get her to use a scratching post to no avail? Thinking about getting her declawed to save your furniture? Or maybe you're moving to a new apartment that requires you to declaw any cat before they can live there.

Think again, do some research.

Declawing is not just removing the cat's claws, as the name implies. It is rather better described as de-toeing. Onychectomy is the amputation of a cats claw and first finger joint. It's comparable to a human getting their fingers cut off at the first joint, where the fingernails are.

Onychectomy is not a small or minor procedure. It is 10 separate amputations, each excruciatingly painful. The pain does not end after the surgery, and many cats develop behavior problems because of the pain they are in resulting from the amputation.

Some problems cats may have post-declawing
1. Lameness - your cat may not be able to walk.
2. Pain - your cat may be in chronic pain after declawing. It is speculated that they may also feel the phantom pain that human amputation victims experience.
3. Joint Stiffness - because your cats joints and tendons cannot extend like they would with claws, the cat may experience frozen joints and stiffness.
4. Arthritis - Because declawing changes the way your cat's weight is distributed, they may develop arthritis in the elbow or other joints.
5. Litterbox problems - Because the cat may associate the pain they feel when covering their waste with the litterbox itself, many cats will stop using the litterbox and will urinate elsewhere.
6. Biting - because declawed cats have lost their first defense, many resort to biting.
7. Personality Changes - your cat may have permanent changes to their personality.

There are more risks, as serious as death. Declawed cats with behavior problems have a higher risk of being locked in a room, basement, or being abandoned all together at a shelter or on the street.

Here is a description of the procedure from the Textbook of Small Animal Surgery to give a medical rundown of the actual procedure. "The claw is extended by pushing up under the footpad or by grasping it with Allis tissue forceps. A scalpel blade is used to sharply dissect between the second and third phalanx over the top of the ungual crest. The distal interphalangeal joint is disarticulated (disjointed), and the deep digital flexor tendon is incised (severed). The digital footpad, is not incised. If a nail trimmer is used, the ring of the instrument is placed in the groove between the second phalanx and the ungual crest. The blade is positioned just in front of the footpad. The blade is pushed through the soft tissues over the flexor process. With the ring of the nail trimmer in position behind the ungual crest, the blade is released just slightly so that traction applied to the claw causes the flexor process to slip out and above the blade. At this point, the flexor tendon can be incised and disarticulation of the joint (disjointing) completed. Both techniques effectively remove the entire third phalanx." (Excerpted from: Slatter D; Textbook of Small Animal Surgery 2nd ed vol I, p.352 W.B. Saunders Company Philadelphia.)

A cat can always be trained to use a scratching post, young or old. Do the right thing, do not declaw your loved pet. Her full and pain-free life is worth more than a chair or sofa in your living room. Cats are feeling, thinking, perceptive beings, and should be treated with more respect. If you don't see the problems with declawing, I don't know if you should own a cat.

Links (forgot to add these last night):

- SoftPaws - a novel alternative to declawing, these nail tips are glued on your cats claws and protect everything from being scratched up.
- Declawing - informative site about declawing.
- Declawing of Cats
- Declawing Should be Outlawed
- Facts about Cat Declawing
- So you're thinking of getting your cat declawed? - words from a veterinary technician.
- Photos of a Cat Declawing (just so you know these are graphic and not pleasing to look at)


Tags: declawing, cats, de-clawing, claw, humane, Onychectomy

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day. Every time I hear his 'I Have a Dream' speech I cry. His speech transcends time, race, and everything else. A great voice was snuffed out in our history, and I always say a prayer of thanks on this day for his great vision.

As for my day, it was rather uneventful. Woke up late, fell back asleep for another hour. Went to the grocery store to get some tea and sugar, and also bought this delicious danish cheese coffee cake. Yeah, I don't need it but it was so good with my chai.

After breakfast (late enough to be lunch!), I went to the office for my "half day", and got the messages off the machine and put them into the message book.

Then I talked to my sister out in Cali, my parents had already left for the airport. They should be home by now, but they had a long long day travelling and I'll talk to them tomorrow.

I talked to my Aunt Lynn today, she is my "favorite Aunt Lynn", as I always call her. She is going to get her test results tomorrow. CANCER FREE, we all pray. She has been battling myeloma for a few years and her test results have been very, very positive the past few times; the doctors said she was virtually cancer free. She told me she has some nerve damage in her feet and some other side effects from the chemo, but if she is cancer free she can deal with that no problem. I hope the test results are good, and she is free of cancer!


Momo (my Grandma) called me at 6:30 and said "I missed my visit today!" So I ran over to her house and had a good visit with her. We have had a good time visiting while my parents were away, it's good to have "adult" conversations with her.



Had some cat hygene issues today, again. Lovely. Garf got poo stuck in her hair. >.< So I trimmed around her bum, hopefully that will stop that from happening. Her new nickname is officially "Fluffy Butt"! ^.^ Now I gotta try and trim her nails -- she's lethal right now and she just won't use the sratching post I got her. I've rubbed catnip on it, layed it on its side, tried to scratch it while she's looking at it... but she just looks at me like I'm crazy. She did play with it right after I rubbed catnip on it, but she didn't scratch it. I am tired of my couch getting the nail treatment! Please, suggestions?

I watched the Civil War drama today Gods and Generals this evening, and I must say it was a very good movie. I cried... more than once. But I cry at movies really easy, I'm hopeless. The last bit said this movie was the first of a trilogy of movies, one being Gettysburg that came out 12 years ago. I now need to re-watch that in view of this prologue. I enjoy learning about the Civil War, so does my dad.


Tags: Gods and Generals, Martin Luther King Day, cats, personal diary, grandma

I started a new blog project over at MySpace, my first foray into that huge network.

I want to create MySpace layouts for people who want theirs to be totally unique, and are willing to pay a few bucks for their profile to look all spiffy.

So I named it MySpaceLayoutsByMe, and spent the day learning the ins and outs of their templates. I am very proficient with CSS, just had to see all their custom styles and the limitations of their software.

I found at least 5 people I knew in high school within minutes of signing up, which amazes me. I've never seen so many Meadowcreek alumns on a site, besides Classmates or Reunion, of course. Those sites suck anyway, because they don't let you do much without forking over cash.

I made a few layouts tonight and am working on a way to get them posted so they'll be previewable and everything.

So do you have a MySpace account? If you want a profile let me know.

Tags: MySpace, CSS, MySpace layouts, graphics

Ahh what a day. We were woken again by my parents, at 10:30 or so. They wanted to go to a Chinese buffet restaurant in Toccoa. Of course we were game, we don't often refuse a meal. So we met my parents up at the office and had a good meal with them. The food was really good, but not as good as the restaurant in Lavonia. But they had California rolls, pretty awesome.

My parents are leaving tomorrow morning early for California, their flight leaves at 10:00 in Atlanta. Actually, they leave today. They usually try and fly out of Greenville, not only is it closer, it's also a much less stressful trip. But there were no flights out of there this time, so they are going down to Atlanta. I hope they have a safe trip, I am not fond of flying and always worry when someone I know is going to be in the air. They're excited to see my sister and her family though. And they get to fly into San Francisco and see my cousin! Lucky ducks.

Anyways, back to meine day. After lunch I got busy blogging, I wrote just 3 posts today, I usually aim for higher than that. This does make 4, but I like to get in at least 5.

I created a new blog today, for a House M.D. Valentine's Day contest I am hosting with Odalisque on Gaia. The contestants submit a short House fanfiction with a Valentine's Day theme. The blog is for posting the various submissions in a neat manner.

There will be two winners, Crew's Choice wins a November 2K5 Donation letter (Nitemare Parasol or Snow Yeti Plushie). Reader's Choice wins an August 2K5 Donation letter (Whip of Fire or Whip of Ice).

The blog is called House Addicts of Gaia, check out our submissions so far. ^^

Um, other than that what did I do today? Tonight we ate dinner at the Downtown Cafe, I had cheese ravioli and it was good. Farhan had a Gyro.. our normal meal there. They're just so good. ^^

We returned Batman Begins but found out that it was a day late, so we were charged for this week as well. So we said, hey give it back, we'll watch it again. So we have it til Sunday. We also rented War of the Worlds, it's due Monday.

I really liked Batman Begins, it was a kick ass Batman movie. I liked the Tim Burton Batman movies.. but this one was better. I can't wait to see the next movie with the Joker. *batman dork*

So tonight I've been on Gaia. It is a bad habit of mine. I do other things while I am on Gaia, but I do tend to get sucked in. What did I do... I invited users for Poll World, and banned a crapload of users for House M.D. Addicts Anonymous. Then I quit a ton of guilds I never post in, so I could have all my guilds on one page.

Other than all those activities I have been working on OpenEncyclopaedia.com with Farhan. We now have an OE toolbar that is just awesome, I think it makes using both OE and other places around the Internet much easier. I really like the OE project, and hope it goes far.

That's about it, we're about to go to sleep. Goodnight, world!

Tags: diary, gaia, Chinese food, California, San Francisco, House, contest, OpenEncyclopaedia, OE

I had a pretty uneventful day. I woke up late, 11 am. My parents were calling to have us meet them at Zaxby's for lunch (sometimes my dad gets hungry early!) and we drove up to meet them. We met the Director for Habitat for Humanity here in Lavonia. My dad is President, but I later learned that the Director is a paid position.

After lunch, I went up to my parent's office to refresh myself on how to do the things I will be doing while they are out in California visiting my older sister. They were to be going out there to help her move (they've been doing a lot of that recently), but they're not quite ready to move so they'll just be visiting and helping them get ready to move. They are in old military housing that will be demolished once they are out of there. I'm sure my two nephews, who are 4 and 8, are excited to see their grandma and granddad. I'm sure my sister and her hubby are anticipating their visit as well.

Anyways, after I went over the fuel tax once (my parents are in the safety consulting business for trucking companies), I figured I would have no problems doing that when they are gone and then my mom and I went to check out the gym in Lavonia's prices. We all need to get in shape, and my mom saw that the gym has started offering yoga, pilates, and kickboxing courses, as well as their normal offerings of the gym and equipment. It seems expensive, $1200 for the year, but that is for 4 people, and it comes out to like $25 a month for each of us. I hope my dad agrees to pay, I would love to loose some weight and get in shape, but me and Farhan don't have the cash right now for that.

After we got back from doing that I came home and blogged all afternoon. A lot going on today. At 6:30 we went to the Welcome Neighbors meeting at the Depot in Lavonia. The crowd was all older people, Farhan and I were by far the youngest people there. But we enjoyed it none-the-less, save for the time when someone hounded us about what church we go to. When we told them we are Muslim, they got kind of cold. But whatever, if they want to be prejudiced, that's fine. I still enjoyed myself and the guest speaker, who I later learned used to be president of the Habitat for Humanity before my dad took over, gave a pretty funny speech. A good time was had by all. I don't know if we'll be going back, simply because most of the people there were much much older than us, in fact most of them were older than my parents. I don't know why my parents go every month... it was good food. ^^

After the meeting, I went over to my parent's house to watch House, M.D. I don't have tv yet at home, and living up here in the country we don't get any local channels with an antennae. We need to get Direct TV but haven't got it set up yet. We won't be using DishNetwork for satellite tv again, expect a blog post on my faeriebell blog sometime soon.

I've been putting around the Net since I got home, posted something about the Friend's of the Library meeting I went to last night (another thing my parents are involved in!) and how the state book budget has been decimated in the past 5 years. A shame really.

So that was my day, for the most part. I really am not used to writing in this diary style, but that is part of what I want to do on this blog, so I have to train myself to get used to it.

So do I tag this post... of course. I tag everything. ^^

Tags: diary, daily activities, today, personal, Lavonia

Ok I saw a mention of Pandoro on a blog and once I read what it was, I really want some. I am a carbohydrate fiend, this is just what I need to gain a few more pounds. ^^

Sweet bread, literally golden bread, it sounds delicious.

Site: Pandoro

Tags: Pandoro, sweet bread, bread

I saw this on DecemberFlower's blog and wanted to do it too!

What to do: Take your playlist from whatever MP3 player you're using, and choose one to three favorite songs for each letter of the alphabet. Not having many MP3s, this should be easy for me. ^^ I don;t think this is my whole collection, but just whatever was in my playlist at the time.


0-9
311 - 1,2,3 (3:01)
311 - Omaha Stylee (4:14)

A
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion (5:08)

B
B-52's - rock lobster! (6:53)
Beastie Boys - Paul Revere (3:40)

C
Chuck Berry - You Can Never Tell (3:13)
Coldplay - Clocks (5:06)

D
David Bowie - Under Pressure (David Bowie an (4:01)
Digital Underground - Humpty Dance (5:41)

E
Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You (3:55)
Elvis Presley - It's Now Or Never (3:18)

F
Fiona Apple - Fast As You Can (4:39)

G
Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains (3:56)
Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood (5:55)

J
James taylor - Carolina in my mind (3:59)
James Taylor - Fire And Rain (3:22)

K
Kylie Minogue - Charles Hart - Can't Get You Out Of My Head (5:38)

M
Manau - La tribu de Dana (3:46)
Missy Elliot (Feat. Ludacris) - Gossip Folks (3:54)


N
Neil Young - Harvest Moon (5:02)
No Doubt - Sunday Morning (4:33)

P
Paul Oakenfold - Someone (8:18)
Prince & The New Power Generat - Cream (4:13)

Q
Queen - 04 killer queen.mp3 (2:00)

R
R.E.M. - So. Central Rain (3:14)
Radiohead - Kharma Police (2:19)
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop (2:10)

S
Santana - africa bamba (4:42)
Shakira & Amr Diab - Spanish Arabic - Shakira Featuring Amr Diab - Ojos Asi (3:56)
Smashing Pumpkins - Hummer (6:57)


T
t.A.T.u - How Soon Is Now (3:15)
The Cure - Just Like Heaven (3:34)
Tori amos - little earthquakes (6:51)

V
Veruca Salt - Seether (3:16)
Violent Femmes - Add it Up (4:43)

I have a wide variety of favorites.. now I want to listen to some.

Tags: mp3s, playlist, game, music

My mom sent this on to me and I wanted to post it, it made me giggle.

Baking Cookies with your Cat

1. Look in cookbook for cookie recipe.
2. Get cup of coffee.
3. Get cat off of cookbook.
4. Find that special recipe.
5. Get cat's nose out of coffee mug.
6. Go to fridge and get eggs.
7. Get dry ingredients from cupboard.
8. Break eggs in small bowl.
9. Sift dry ingredients in large bowl.
10. Answer the phone.
11. Cat ate eggs; get more from fridge.
12. Get cat out of flour bowl and dust cat off.
13. Get Band-Aids for scratches on hands.
14. Throw flour out and get more.
15. Preheat oven for cookies.
16. Looking at cat & wanting to bake cat now. Cat runs for cover into bathroom.
17. Flour the counter to roll out cookie dough.
18. Big crash in bathroom; run to see what happened.
19. Cat has TP all over floor; stuff spilled and knocked over on top of bathroom counter.
20. Yell at cat. Cat falls in toilet bowl.
21. Can sense cat is angry.
22. Take cat out of toilet to dry cat off.
23. Get bandages to cover more scratches on arms and legs.
24. Cleanup bathroom.
25. Hear a thump in kitchen ... Oh Golly ... now what?
26. Get cat off floured counter in kitchen.
27. Try to pick out cat hairs from flour.
28. Step on cat's tail and get bitten.
29. Get coat, car keys, and go to store to buy cookies.

Too true, Garfield is always nosing her way into whatever we're doing. The other day I was putting together a cabinet, sitting on the living room floow, and Garf decided she wanted to lay in my lap at that particular moment. Hey, I was on the floor, fair game.

Tags: cat, baking, cookies, humor, baking cookies

My sister just lent me the Chronicles of Narnia to read. I enjoy reading a book before seeing it on film, just because I tend to like books better than movies.
The book I have is all 6 books in one large book, but this set I found on Amazon is worth a look: The Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set

I can't wait to read it, I remember reading it LONG ago when I was young, probably 11 or 12. I was a voracious reader at that time, I read anything I could get a hold of. I don't get much of a chance to read lately, but I like to have a book on hand if I do get a free moment.

Tags: Chronicles of Narnia, Narnia, C.S. Lewis

Ok, my template is all to my liking, finally. I want this blog to be a personal blog, one where my family and friends can read and not be bored with politics, current events, and other things that I write about on my other blogs.

I am happy to be posting with my real name, sans pseudonym. Anyone who knows my name can just type it out and voila, there I am.

So until I find the right voice for this blog, I guess it'll be a diary of sorts. Nothing too interesting to those who don't know me personally. ^^

I like my layout. Pretty! I hate Blogspot's default templates, they are just the ugliest things I've ever seen. I just spent 1 hour modifying the minima one, and this one looks MUCH nicer now.

So... anyone who wants to comment please do, I really want this to be a good personal blog for everyone I know to read.

Oh and check out Farhan's blog at Mashraqi.com too, he's really happy to be using this domain again.

Tags: Mashraqi, Michelle Mashraqi, personal blog

Another test post, just checking to make sure the previous posts is working in the sidebar.

This is my first post on this new blog. Yes that's my name. Don't stalk me.

This is a sample blockquote, I am still playing with the template. You know I couldn't keep the default one, right?