Thursday, June 24, 2010

FB, yay for Julio, and boo for me

Thanks Molly for this!!!

1. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

2 Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

3 I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4 There is a great need for a sarcasm font.

5 I think everyone has a movie that they love so much; it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

6 How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

7 I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

8 I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

9 The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

10 Was learning cursive really necessary?

11 LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

12 Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

13 How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

14 I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

15 While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

16 MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

17 Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

18 I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

19 Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

20 I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

21 Bad decisions make good stories.

22 Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

23 Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from; this shouldn't be a problem....

24 You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

25 Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

26 There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

27 I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

28 While watching the Olympics, I find myself cheering equally for China and USA. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that when Chinese athletes don’t win, they are executed.

29 I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Darnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

30 I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

31 I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

32 Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

33 It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

34 I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

35 Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

36 Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

37 My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

38 I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

39 I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
~
I can't remember where I read this, but I thought it was nice.

March 28, 2008
Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31 year old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx on stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.
But one night last month, a Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.
He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.
"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go.'" Diaz says.
As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."
The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "Like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?"
Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, the I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me..hey you're more than welcome."
"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help." Diaz says.
Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.
"The manager comes by, the dishwasher come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?"
"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"
Diaz replied, "Well haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"
"Yeah, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way", the teen said.
Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.
The teen couldn't answer Diaz- or he didn't want to.
When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill, 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you.:
The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I have him $20..I figure maybe it will help him out. I don't know."
Diaz says he asked for something in return- the teens knife- "and he gave it to me."
Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."
"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world"
~~


I haven't blogged in a few days, not much has been going on. Scott will miss a little work, he ha a staph infection in his hand. And a big LOL to his boss who said this morning that "Scott's off because he has a yeast infection".

I hope we still get a chance to go on vacation this summer. If I am going to be here until the end of the year, then some things are going to have to get better. I am NOT going to continue to be used and treated like crap anymore. It will hurt some feelings, and probably spark a lot of texts and phone calls, but I don't care. I am done. If you want to be my friend, hang out and do things, I am all for that. I enjoy getting out of the house. But don't talk crap about me, drive by to see if I am at home, and then call to ask whatever you want from me. /end rant

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Amelia Earhart

I have always been fascinated with Amelia Earhart. I can remember being 10 or so, having to write a book report so I could get "C" privileges in school. And trust me, it was a big deal. I can remember at least once a year writing the same report from the same red encyclopedia. I giggled every time I would read the name Fred Noonan... Luckily they never caught on. It's amazing how I made it my entire academic career without the internet. There was no Facebook, or Myspace to communicate with my friends, that's what 3 way calling was for. I believe I read those encyclopedias beginning to end. For a while some of them where underneath my bed to keep the frame even. My mother was not pleased.
So anyway, I get a daily email from Discovery.com, and it was a couple of lines about how "new evidence" suggests her last days were a struggle. I went and found earlier articles, so I could make it "C" privilege worthy.
And I also slept til noon, and then napped for a couple of more hours, so more than likely I will be awake all night. Not that I need to justify my lack of any sort of life. I am enjoying it while I can..
And before I begin, let's note that I found the portrayal of her character in the movie "Night at the Museum 2" insulting. I know it's a lighthearted movie, but I was still insulted they made her boy crazy, ditzy, and calling everyone "fly boy" and "ace". Not to impugn Amy Adams who played the role. I haven't seen "Amelia" with Hilary Swank yet.

So here I go...


"Fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life, and the procedure, the process is its own reward.” -A.E.




Born: July 24, 1897

Died: July 1937 (?)
Nickname: Lady Lindy
Occupation: Pilot

Earhart was 12 years old before she ever saw an airplane, and she did not take her first flight until 1920.
Amelia Earhart was so thrilled by her first airplane ride that she quickly began to take flying lessons. She wrote, "As soon as I left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly."
In 1923, Earhart received her international pilot's license - only the 16th woman to do so.
In 1937, she attempted with a copilot, Frederick J. Noonan, to fly
around the world, but her plane was lost on the flight between New Guinea and Howland Island.
The U.S. Navy conducted a massive search for Earhart and Noonan that continued for more than two weeks.
Neither the plane nor Earhart nor Noonan were ever found. No one knows for sure what happened, but many people believe they got lost and simply ran out of fuel and died. Amelia Earhart was less than a month away from her 40th birthday.



~Nowadays, Amelia Earhart is remembered for her last, lost flight. But in her time, she was best known as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, an adventure that began on this day in 1928.

Earhart wasn’t the pilot, but a passenger. In the months after Lindbergh-mania hit America, publisher George Putnam, who eventually became Earhart’s husband, went looking for a woman to accompany two male pilots, Wilmer Stultz and Louis “Slim” Gordon, on a transatlantic flight. The trip’s sponsor was a wealthy aviation buff, Amy Guest, who originally had contemplated making the trip herself. Instead she hired the 29-year-old Earhart—an avid if mostly unknown pilot with a day job as a social worker in Boston.

Stultz, Gordon, and Earhart took off from Newfoundland in a Fokker F7 on June 17, and landed in Wales after “20 hours and 40 minutes” (the title of her book about the flight, published that same year). Earhart was instantly famous, toasted by royalty, honored with a ticker-tape parade, but never boastful. Downplaying her limited role in the flight, she sent a note to President Calvin Coolidge saying, “SUCCESS ENTIRELY DUE GREAT SKILL OF MR. STULTZ.”

Four years later she had all the glory to herself, becoming the first woman—and only the second person—to fly solo across the Atlantic.
By: Tony Reichhardt — History of Flight~




This image shows Earhart standing in front of the Lockheed Electra in which she disappeared in July 1937. Born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1897, Earhart did not begin flying until after her move to California in 1920. After taking lessons from aviation pioneer Neta Snook in a Curtiss Jenny, Earhart set out to break flying records, breaking the women altitude records in 1922.

Earhart continually promoted women in aviation and in 1928 was invited to be the first women to fly across the Atlantic. Accompanying pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon as a passenger on the Fokker Friendship, Earhart became an international celebrity after the completion of the flight. In May 1932 Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across in the Atlantic. In 1935 she completed the first solo flight from Hawaii to California. In the meantime Earhart continued to promote aviation and helped found the group, the Ninety-Nines, an organization dedicated to female aviators. On June 1, 1937, Earhart and navigator, Fred Noonan, left Miami, Florida on an around the world flight. Earhart, Noonan and their Lockheed Electra disappeared after a stop in Lae, New Guinea on June 29, 1937. Earhart had only 7,000 miles of her trip remaining when she disappeared. While a great deal of mystery surrounds the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, her contributions to aviation and womens issues have inspired people over 80 years.

Forty five years later on June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly to space.
excerpt from NASA.gov~

~Tantalizing new clues are surfacing in the Amelia Earhart mystery, according to researchers scouring a remote South Pacific island believed to be the final resting place of the legendary aviatrix.

Three pieces of a pocket knife and fragments of what might be a broken cosmetic glass jar are adding new evidence that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan landed and eventually died as castaways on Nikumaroro, an uninhabited tropical island in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati. The island was some 300 miles southeast of their target destination, Howland Island.

"These objects have the potential to yield DNA, specifically what is known as 'touch DNA','" Ric Gillespie, executive director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), told Discovery News in an email interview from Nikumaroro.

Gillespie and his team will be searching the tiny island until June 14 for evidence that Earhart's twin-engine plane, the "Electra," did not crash in the ocean and sink, as it was assumed after the futile massive search that followed the aviatrix's disappearance on July 2, 1937.

Tall, slender, blonde and brave, Earhart was flying over the Pacific Ocean in a record attempt to fly around the world at the equator. In her final radio transmission Earhart reported that her aircraft was running low on fuel.

SLideshow of preparation pics

According to Gillespie, recent advances in the ability to extract DNA from touched objects might help solve the enduring aviation mystery.

"If DNA from the recovered objects matches the Earhart reference sample now held by the DNA lab we've been working with, we'll have what most people would consider to be conclusive evidence that Amelia Earhart spent her last days on Nikumaroro," Gillespie said.

The expedition marks TIGHAR's tenth visit to Nikumaroro since 1989. During the previous campaigns, the group uncovered a number of artifacts which, combined with archival research, provide strong circumstantial evidence for a castaway presence.

The ongoing excavation is now focusing on the island's remote southeast end, in an area called the Seven Site. Densely vegetated in shrubs known as Scaevola frutescens, the site appears to be where the partial skeleton of a castaway was found in 1940.

Recovered by British Colonial Service Officer Gerald Gallagher, the human remains were described in a forensic report and attributed to a white female of northern European extraction, about 5 feet 7 inches tall, a stature consistent with that of Amelia Earhart. Unfortunately the bones have been lost.

Gillespie believes that many of the bones might have been carried off by giant coconut crabs, suggesting an unmerciful end for Earhart. However, parts of the skeleton not found in 1940 (the spine, ribs, half of the pelvis, hands and feet, one arm, and one lower leg) may still remain at the site, scattered in the bush.

The researchers have just carried out an experiment to test the hypothesis.

"In 2007 we conducted a taphonomy experiment with a small pig carcass to see how quickly the crabs would eat the remains, and how far, if at all, the crabs dragged the bones. The primary answers were 'pretty quickly' and 'all over the place,'" Patricia Thrasher, TIGHAR's president, told Discovery News.

"This trip, they went back to the site to look at the bones that were left. It's now been three years that these mammal bones have been out in the weather on Nikumaroro. If Gallagher found Amelia Earhart's bones, that's how long they would have been lying out," Thrasher said.

Indeed, the bones looked much older than three years, in accordance with Gallagher's report of gray, pitted, dry remains.

Gillespie dropped the pig bones on the coral rubble, and they virtually disappeared, to the point that it took some searching to find them again some 10 minutes later.

Apart from searching the coral rubble for bones not seen by Gallangher, the team is investigating an area around a big Ren tree. There, they spotted a rough ring of fire remains which prompted several questions.

Did the castaway construct a ring of fire to keep the crabs away at night? Was it an attempt to signal search aircraft?

Other questions come from the pocket knife and the glass jar fragments. Perhaps a cosmetic jar, the small container features some sort of embossing on the base, either letters or numbers now unreadable because of the dirt.

"The finds are indeed important. In the case of the knife, we found part of it in 2007 and have now found more. The artifacts tell a story of an ordinary pocket knife that was beaten apart to detach the blades for some reason," Thrasher said.

Was the castaway trying to make a fishing spear? Were the blades used for prying clams?

More questions are likely to come up in the next days. The researchers have just found another fire feature and are about to excavate the area, while other members of the team are exploring the Western Reef Slope, a strip of coral reef at the island's western end.

Using a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV), they plan to carry out an underwater search for the wreckage of Earhart's "Electra."

"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace". -A.E.

According to the researchers, the steep nature of the reef slope makes it likely that any wreckage lies perhaps as far as 1,000 feet down.
~




Please know I am quite aware of the hazards.

I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, then failure must be but a challenge to others.




"Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done." - A.E.

Life as an introvert

I just read this and felt the need to share. It sums up a lot of my life. And possibly explains as to why some may think I am unfriendly or rude. I had to add my own little quirk at the end...

~I am an introvert.

And, like my fellow introverts, I am sorely misunderstood.

Common wisdom says that America is a nation of extroverts and here, introversion is stigmatized. Parents worry about children who would rather play alone in their rooms than join the gang in the playground. Bookish teenagers are exhorted to break out of their shells. Adults are chastised if they would rather work alone than as team players.

Phooey.

I'm not shy, socially awkward or in any way (that I know of) socially inept. I don't hate people, I'm not unfriendly, I'm not stuck up, and I am perfectly capable of carrying on a conversation. I can even speak in public and do so fairly often. To meet me, you might think I'm extroverted.

But the difference between extroverts and introverts is not that the former are good at socializing and the latter aren't. It's that extroverts are outwardly focused and draw energy from social interactions while introverts are inwardly focused and drained by interactions.

That describes me perfectly. But a lot of people don't understand this.

I have been shamed many times for my loathing for the telephone (not uncommon for introverts), for my reliance on online interaction (ditto), and for my desire to leave parties shortly after arriving.

We introverts often try to push against our nature, having bought into the myth that extroversion is better and that it's the American way. But neither introversion nor extroversion are the "right" way to be. They're just different. And here in this blog, we are going to bust through extroversion bias. We will embrace our our introversion, celebrate it, learn more about it, and share strategies for living fulfilled, happy lives as introverts.

Because, fellow introverts, it's time we stop pretending and apologizing, Sure, we can present an extroverted face to the world when necessary, but it takes a toll on us in private. And I say it's time to embrace our nature and start defending our case.

Quietly.
-Sophia Dembling~

If I am your Facebook friend, there is a 99.9% chance I like you. So if I see you somewhere, and I just smile and keep walking, it isn't because I am stuck up, or I am just your friend to see what is posted on your page (oh please post more pics you took of yourself in the car), it's because I am a total social retard when it comes to making smalltalk. The things I hear come out of my mouth during these awkward encounters makes me want to sew my mouth shut. I never know what to say. I absolutely HATE nosy people, so I don't want to ask questions. I don't ask about relatives, because the last time I did the person I asked about had DIED, and I stopped asking about children, because I am the #1 go to person for a free babysitter (in Alabama), because I can not say no.(It's the JuJu syndrome) And it all starts off lovely, but after a few weeks, I turn into a doormat for you (you know who you are) to leave your kid with me while you go swimming, do your grocery shopping, meet up with friends, and run all your errands, while I am sitting here waiting to do my own things. Sorry, got a little carried away there. Not that I won't keep your child, but if I do, for the love of all that is holy, try not to treat me like monkey poo, mmkay?

This is mainly for my Louisiana peeps, if I see you in that God forsaken Walmart, please don't take offense if I don't speak. I am to used to being here in Alabama, not knowing anyone, so I don't pay a lot of attention on the Dr Pepper aisle, I tend to scan over a lot of faces.

However-
there is a chance I don't like you and I am avoiding you at all cost. ;)

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Aokigahara

I came across this, and of course had to dive head first into it. Here are some articles I found, and OF COURSE, pictures. Every article had the same images, so there aren't too many that I found that were different.

What Niagra Falls is to weddings, Aokigahara is to suicides. This place makes The Blair Witch Project look like Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood.
The trees are reportedly so thick, that even at high noon it is hard to find places that aren't completely surrounded by darkness.



Called "the perfect place to die," the Aokigahara forest has the unfortunate distinction as the world's second most popular place to take one's life. (The first is the Golden Gate Bridge.)(And my sister wants to visit and even have her ashes scattered there. Freako)



Since the 1950s, Japanese businessmen have wandered in, and at least 500 of them haven't wandered out, at an increasing rate of between 10 and 30 suicides per year. Recently these numbers have increased even more, with a record 78 bodies in 2002.



Japanese spiritualists believe that the suicides committed in the forest have permeated Aokigahara's trees, generating paranormal activity and preventing many who enter from escaping the forest's depths. Complicating matters further is the common experience of compasses being rendered useless by the rich deposits of magnetic iron in the area's volcanic soil.

Due to the vastness of the forest, desperate visitors are unlikely to encounter anyone once inside the so-called "Sea of Trees," so the police have left signs reading "Your life is a precious gift from your parents," and "Please consult the police before you decide to die!" mounted on trees throughout.


Contemporary news outlets noted the recent spike in suicides in the forest, blamed more on Japan’s economic downturn than on the romantic ending of Seicho Matsumoto’s novel Kuroi Jukai, which revitalized the so-called Suicide Forest’s popularity among those determined to take their final walk. (The novel culminates in Aokigahara as the characters are driven to joint-suicide.)

Locals say they can easily spot the three types of visitors to the forest: trekkers interested in scenic vistas of Mount Fuji, the curious hoping for a glimpse of the macabre, and those souls who don’t plan on returning. (I totally love the use of the word 'macabre')

What those hoping to take their lives may not consider is the impact the suicides have on the locals and forest workers. In the words of one local man, "It bugs the hell out of me that the area's famous for being a suicide spot." And a local police officer said, "I've seen plenty of bodies that have been really badly decomposed, or been picked at by wild animals... There's nothing beautiful about dying in there."

The forest workers have it even worse then the police. The workers must carry the bodies down from the forest to the local station, where the bodies are put in a special room used specifically to house suicide corpses. The forest workers then play jan-ken-pon - which English-speakers call rock, paper, scissors - to see who has to sleep in the room with the corpse. (I guess the "Big Bang Theory's" RockPaperScissorLizardSpock is out of the question..)

It is believed to be very bad luck if the corpse is left alone, for the "yurei" (ghost) of the suicide will scream through the night, and the body will move itself on its own.
~~
The forest floor consists primarily of volcanic rock and is difficult to penetrate with hand tools such as picks or shovels. There are also a variety of unofficial trails that are used semi-regularly for the annual "body hunt" done by local volunteers, who mark their search areas with plastic tape. The plastic tape is never removed, so a great deal of it litters the first kilometer of the forest, past the designated trails leading to tourist attractions such as the Ice Cave and Wind Cave. After the first kilometer into Aokigahara towards Mount Fuji, the forest is in a much more pristine state, with little to no litter and few obvious signs of human contact.
~


Friday, June 18, 2010

A book review..

I finished this book today. Highly recommend.
Amazon.com: The Book of Fate (9780446612128): Brad Meltzer: Books
I was kind of skeptical with the Masonic emblem on the cover, seeing as since "The Davinci Code" came out, every one has went Freemason crazy, but there is very little Masonic mentioning.
I literally got chills at the end. I listened to it mostly on a CD, that I bought in the bargain bin at Barnes and Noble, after I bought the book. I started it back in December while making the 8 hour drive to my mom's, and 2 trips later I was almost finished, so I whipped out the book. It's "my" kind of conspiracy, mystery type I normally go for.
Definitely a Brad Meltzer fan now :)

I am about to complete another book by him, "The Book of Lies". I had started it a year or so ago, but I tend to get sidetracked with books sometimes. I think there are currently 4 book on my nightstand that I have started and not finished. Not to mention I plan to reread "The Deathly Hallows" soon.
I actually bought "Book of Lies" first, and saw "Book of Fate", and my impulse book buying kicked in, and I had to have it. Here is the description...

"In chapter four of the Bible, Cain kills Abel. It is the world's most famous murder. But the Bible is silent about one detail: the weapon Cain used to kill his brother. That weapon is still lost to history.
In 1932, Mitchell Siegal was killed by 2 gunshots to the chest. While mourning, his son dreamed of a bulletproof man and created the world's greatest hero; Superman. And like Cain's murder weapon, the gun used n this unsolved murder has never been found.
Today in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Cal Harper comes face-to-face with his own family tragedy: Hi long missing father has been shot with a gun that trace back to Mitchell Siegal's 1932 murder. But soon after their surprising reunion, Cal and his father are attacked by a ruthless killer tattooed with the ancient markings of Cain.
So begins the chase of the world's first murder weapon It is a race that will pull Cal back into his own past even as it propels him forward through the true story of Cain and Abel, an 80-year old unsolvable puzzle, ad the deadly organization known for the past century as the Leadership.
What does Cain, history's greatest villain, have to do with the world's greatest hero? And what do two murders, committed thousands of years apart, have in common? This is the mystery at the heart of Brad Meltzer's riveting and utterly intriguing new thriller."

Even though I am on chapter 56, I will probably just start from the beginning.

On a unrelated note, the previews for "Jonah Hex" are ruining my happy place.

Here is what is on the first page of "The Book of Lies". I am excited all over again.
"The story of Cain and Abel take up just sixteen lines of the Bible.
It is arguably history's most famous murder.
But the story is silent about one key detail: the weapon Cain used to kill his brother.
It's not a rock. Or a sharpened stone.
And to this day, the world's first murder weapon is still lost to history."

And what, may you ask, strayed me from this book? Oh that would be some unknown tale called "Twilight".

I am almost a month behind on my Bible reading. Shame shame.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Questions from God

The text came from an email, but I spent a couple of hours trying to find the appropriate pictures. I cried a little.

If you never felt pain, then how would you know that I am a Healer?


If you never had to pray, How would you know that I am a Deliverer?


If you never had a trial, How could you call yourself an overcomer?


If you never felt sadness, How would you know that I am a Comforter?


If you never made a mistake, How would you know that I am a forgiver?



If you never were in trouble, How would you know that I will come to your rescue


If you never had a problem, how would you know that I can solve them?


If you never had any suffering, Then how would you know what I went through?


If I gave you all things, How would you appreciate them?


If I never corrected you, How would you know that I love you?


If you had all power, Then how would you learn to depend on me?


If your life was perfect, Then what would you need me for?

LOUISIANA!!!!!!!!!!

I received this in my email today, but it wouldn't let me copy and paste, so I retyped it (that's right..by hand) and added the pictures for flair. Because I reek of flair.
Thanks, Sherri :)


A little Louisiana History Lesson


If Hurricane Katrina causing the levees to break in New Orleans is the only thing you know about Louisiana, here are a few more interesting facts about the Bayou State:

*The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is the longest over-water bridge in the world at 23.87 miles.


*Louisiana has the tallest state capitol building in the nation at 450 feet.


*The Louisiana SuperDome in New Orleans is the largest enclosed stadium in the world.


*Louisiana's 6.5 million acres of wetlands are the greatest wetland area in America.



*The oldest city in the Louisiana Purchase Territory is Natchitoches, Louisiana founded in 1714.

Natchitoches, LA


*The first bottler of Coca-Cola, Joseph Biedenharn, lived in Monroe, Louisiana and was on of the founders of Delta Air Lines, initially called Delta Air Service.
Coca Cola Museum

*Delta Airlines got its start in Monroe, LA when Parish Agent C.E. Woolman, decided to try dusting the Boll Weevil that was destroying the cotton crops in the Mississippi River Delta from an airplane. It was the first crop dusting service in the world.




*Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA is the largest predominantly black university in America.



*Baton Rogue was the site of the only American Revolution battle outside of the original 13 colonies.



*The formal transfer of the Louisiana Purchase was made at the Cabildo building in New Orleans on December 20, 1803.




*When states had their own currency, the Louisiana Dix (French for ten) was a favored currency for trade. English speakers called them Dixies and coined the term Dixieland.



*The staircase at Chritien Point, in Sunset, LA was copied for Tara in "Gone With the Wind"



*Louisiana is the No. 1 producer of crawfish, alligators, and shallots in America.




*Much of the world's food, coffee, and oil pass through the Port of New Orleans.




*Tabasco, a Louisiana product, holds the second oldest food trademark in the U.S. Patent Office.


*Steen's Syrup Mill in Abbeville, LA is the world's largest syrup plant producing sugar cane syrup.


*America's oldest rice mill is in New Iberia, LA at KONRIKO Co


*The International Joke Telling Contest is held annually in Opelousas, LA.



*LSU in Baton Rouge has the distinction of contributing the most officers to WWII after the US Military academies.



*The Louisiana Hayride radio show helped Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash achieve stardom. It was broadcast from KWKH Radio in Shreveport, LA from 1948 to 1960.


*The term Uncle Sam was coined on the wharfs of New Orleans before Louisiana was a US Territory as goods labeled U.S. were from "Uncle Sam".


*The game of craps was invented in New Orleans in 1813 as betting was a common activity on the wharves.



*New Orleans is the home of the oldest pharmacy in America at 514 Chartes St in the French Quarter. These early medical mixtures became known as cocktails, coining yet another term.


*New Orleans is the birthplace of Jazz, the only true American art form. Jazz gave birth to Blues and Rock and Roll music.

*The French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle names the region Louisiana to honor France's King Louis XIV in 1682 and his wife Queen Ana.



This actually took a lot longer than I thought it would...so go read it again.