Just Another Ordinary Miracle

I love that song. So many of Sarah McLachlan's songs are beautiful in that simple kind of way. Sometimes I wait for them to put out a 'best of' album cause I don't want to spend the money OR start another collection of any kind of stuff, including CDs or DVDs for music or movies. But, in this case I might see what I can find next time I'm in Zellers. Would be lovely to listen to her at home while I'm writing.

Sarah McLachlan - Ordinary Miracle Lyrics

It’s not that usual when everything is beautiful
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

The sky knows when its time to snow
You don’t need to teach a seed to grow
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

Life is like a gift they say
Wrapped up for you everyday
Open up and find a way
To give some of your own

Isn’t it remarkable?
Like every time a raindrop falls
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

Birds in winter have their fling
And always make it home by spring
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

When you wake up everyday
Please don’t throw your dreams away
Hold them close to your heart
Cause we are all a part
Of the ordinary miracle

Ordinary miracle
Do you want to see a miracle?

Its seems so exceptional
Things just work out after all
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

The sun comes up and shines so bright
It disappears again at night
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

It’s just another ordinary miracle today

TwtPoll for Spring

Lightly Wicked

There is a side, well more like a facet really as sides seems so limited in number, anyway, there is a facet to me which I don't talk about much in this blog. I used to talk about it more often. But, I haven't had anything new to say. Not the Witch stuff but the kinky stuff. Yes, the ever naughty sounding BDSM. If you have to ask what the initials mean, go ask your Mother. Ask her anyway, just to see what she says. My Mother would give me that kind of disappointed look and wonder how I can be so old fashioned on one hand and yet like something which to her is so alien and just, bad, for lack of a better or shorter word. A lot of people think BDSM is bad, just wicked, evil stuff for yet more of the devil worshipers who are all going to hell anyway. Sometimes it really is convenient not to believe in hell.

Having blabbed all that. Mainly just to give you some space before pulling out the big guns... I have met someone who actually is interesting. Yes, I've said that a time or twelve. But this time it isn't someone who replied to my ad, penis in hand (often literally I think). I replied to his ad. So we have not met face to face yet. This weekend he has plans to be sledding with friends so it won't happen right away. We met because he is looking for someone who likes kinkiness. He isn't looking for a relationship and that is fine with me. I don't really want anything so serious and heavy. I don't want to make promises or be expected to use the big L word any time soon. I'm kind of fed up with the dating plan.

So I will just enjoy a man. I don't know if I have ever done that, not since my husband when things were still pretty new between us. Before immigration, jobs and other stuff complicated things.

I don't know how many women have ever dominated a man. In any kind of way, not just a sensual way. It is a LOT of fun. I'm not some butchy, demoness, bitch type. People usually describe me as sweet and nice and all that other stuff. I like being that way, not so much what it does for my reputation but I'd rather be nice than the other option. But, when it comes to dominating a man in this way, you really do have to try it, at least once in your life. There is such a power in it. Such a thrill and a charge of energy in leading him around and having him behave at the end of your stick. Not that I am into anything harsh or messy in a yucky way. Water and oils are about the only liquid substance involved.

Of course it helps a lot that I've seen a photo of him and he is lovely looking, a kind, nice face and tall. He even says he is kind of shy. That just works along so well with my wicked, evil plans.

Anyway, I am undecided about how much to post here. Not everyone wants to read about sensuality and wickedness, even if it is fun. Still, this is my blog and I do think women would really enjoy this if they weren't set against it just because their Mother's told them it was bad, disgusting, and downright yucky.

I will say that it is not about sex itself. I think people who spurn it on principle imagine orgies and whips and a lot of really casual sex. It isn't that unless the people involved do all of that. Mostly it is about foreplay, for some it is lifestyle as they live it rather than think of it as something they do leading to sex. I'm somewhere in there. I don't plan to have sex with someone I have just met on a first date but I may make him squirm a little. Just for fun, for the power of being able to do so if I choose to be wicked.

To All the Smokers I Have Known and Lost

I wrote this as letter to the editor for our local newspaper. It was a reply/ rebuttal to another letter which talked on and on about the freedom and rights smokers should have. I know it is a long and tired argument but it isn't often that smokers talk about anyone but themselves when they argue for smoking. I thought it was time someone pointed that out. Maybe it will make a difference, likely not. But it was said. Time will tell, time is a blabberwort that way.

Regarding Steve West's defense of smokers and their rights... Why is the smoker's lament always "my rights", "my choice", me me me.

Let's think about other people first for a moment. The downside of smoking related health problems are pretty well documented. Health and health care for smoking related illnesses and those caused by second hand smoke. Also, smoking puts people at risk for other health problems, other kinds of cancers for one. It even affects those not born yet. If we could eliminate smoking as a health problem our economy would benefit too. There could be more money available for research or cures for other illnesses which are not self-inflicted. Governments and other organizations could put their resources into more essential things like daycare, eldercare, etc. There could even be more resources to really help people stop smoking rather than trying to convince them it would be a good idea to try.

Then there is the environment. Smoking causes a visible pollution in the air, it deposits a film of grime on surfaces like car windows and walls inside homes. Smokers choose to flick their cigarette butts on our sidewalks, in public parks, at bus stops, outside of shopping malls and restaurants. That's called littering yet it is overlooked. If each cigarette butt were a pop can, coffee cup, plastic bag, water bottle or pet poop would it be overlooked then? Do smokers even notice butts piled up in places where children tend to pick things up?

Now lets talk about you. Have you looked at your teeth lately? Have you smelt your breath? Unless you use a pretty strong whitening toothpaste (which isn't helping the durability of your tooth enamel) your teeth are grungy looking. Kissing you is like kissing an ashtray. Sitting next to you in public place is stinky business. I can smell it on your clothes, in your hair. When you sit next to me I come away smelling like smoke too and it bothers me all day, until I get home and shower. It's not doing your clothes any favours either is it? Do you have that hacking cough in the morning? My smoking relatives do. Sounds awful, like they are struggling to cough their lungs out so they can breathe again. How much fun is that?

Now lets get to me. I am a non-smoker. I have asthma. I have a physical reaction to your smoking. It makes it hard for me to breathe. I'm not just asking for you to put out your cancer stick because I don't like it. I don't like not being able to breathe the air. It's a habit I've grown into. Much like your own habit except I started a lot younger and really do think I should have the right, the freedom and the choice to continue doing so.

I forgot to add about the extra cleansers needed to clean up smoking grime, how those are all extra detergents and chemicals being added to our water, our ecosystem.

Spring Obsessed

I started using Paint for trimming my scanned drawings. Recommended by Calpurnius. Tricky to learn a new program but I've found most of the stuff I usually need. Didn't read the tutorial, of course. Much easier to do it the hard way. :)

I'll spend my golden years in Alliston, Ontario

It was a very friendly town, just enough retail but not too busy. All the essential services and a salt water pool you could go to all year round.

Annie's Seashells

Sea shells
Originally uploaded by anniebluesky.•*♥

Amazing amount of shells on a beach. So many I thought they were all pebbles in the thumbnail I first saw of this photo.

Crochet Lucky Clovers and Shamrocks

These were in a Knotty Generation, a crochet blog.

Itty Bitty Shamrock
H-8 (5mm) crochet hook
any green worsted weight yarn

Start: ch 3, join with a sl st to 1st ch to form circle.
For petals: [ch 3, 1 trc, 1 dc, 1 trc, ch 3, slip stitch into circle] repeat 3 times total.
For stem: ch 5, sc in 2nd ch from hook, sl st rem ch sts. Fasten off and weave in ends.

4 Leaf Clover
H-8 (5mm) crochet hook
any green worsted weight yarn

Start: ch 4, join with a sl st to 1st ch to form circle.
For petals: [ch 3, 1 trc, 1 dc, 1 trc, ch 3, slip stitch into circle] repeat 4 times total.
For stem: ch 6, hdc in 2nd ch from hook, sc rem ch sts. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Do You Really Want a Personal Blog?

I posted this over on the CMF Ads forum. A response to someone who was interested in starting a personal blog but didnt' seem to really want to write too much about themselves or have a select group of the public masses read it. I'm sticking my comment in here cause later I will want to read it and remember I wrote about the nose picking thing a fourth time now. What a twit I am. :)

I read your first post and nothing else. My first thought was why do you want to do a personal blog? Seems you are all against the whole point of a personal blog. Plus you don't want one set of people to read it yet want to promote it to find readers. Which is it?

I've been keeping a personal blog since 1998. My current one started in 2004. It's freewriting. It's temper tantrums. It's rants and links you want to find later but forget all about and then realize they just didn't matter all that much anyway. I go for months without promoting my blog. I don't write it for anyone really so what does it matter who reads it. I don't even know why I read it some days. I've been through a divorce in my personal blog. I've been through immigration, toe lint, nose picking and the agonies of online dating. I've written about being very unhappy and I've written about the best days in my life. I write things I hope family don't read but still I post them, daring fate. If you can't write about all of that in your own slant what is the point? Stick to a topical/ niche blog.

I don't hide much about who I am. If you find yourself in Barrie, Ontario you can find me there. That is a real photo of me in this forum. If I looked like a movie star I'd plaster more of them around. Having a personal blog is liberating. I don't give my URL to anyone I know but they sometimes find it. Most of them are not Internet types so they read one post and wander off like cows grazing in a field.

I've had two online stalkers in the time I have been online. I have had my blog hacked once (mild stuff and once I changed the password it was over). I've had people go totally off their rockers when I posted about being Pagan and really go bonkers when I posted about being a Witch. Then I posted about picking my nose and I had tons of comments from people laughing along with me. That's what a personal blog is. Throw caution to the wind, sit back and laugh at yourself.

Hair Tan Lines and Other Useless Stuff

My hair has a tan line. Like an expiration or best before date where the dye stops and the old colour (my natural colour) begins. I love my natural colour, I'm not too fond of those insolent grey hairs that started coming in along with my natural colour.

People tend to say I look a lot younger than I am. I feel my age in some ways. But, really, what is your age? It's just a number. A number of years. I don't feel 80 yet and I don't feel 20 still. So, somewhere in there, is where I am.

I've given up TV for now at least. It is all just a fuzzy mess if I forget and switch it on. I've gone without TV for a few years before. The only thing I missed were The Gilmore Girls but I caught up a lot in re-runs the past year or so. These day I like Being Erica. CBC runs it on the web, so I don't have to miss anything. I just open up their site each week and watch it, commercial free even.

I was wondering if going back to dial up Internet would really be all that noticeably slow. My high speed isn't fast. Firefox hangs frequently. But, then I remembered that it isn't the websites and blogs we wait to load, it's the frugging ads! If you wonder why it costs so much for Internet, now you know. The ads take more time to load than the text or image content on the page. In nearly every case. Web designs work to keep page load time quick and simple. Ad companies don't give a flying squirrel how long you sit there and wait for everything to load. Bastards!

I want a web browser that I can censor out some of the worst offenders. Like the old pop up window blocker. Now we need one to block out ad domains like doubleclick.net/ com. That one fouled up my browser this morning. I had to restart the whole computer. I had just reformatted the whole PC last night so it began with a clean drive, no junk and no cookies and nothing else that could have caused a jam up.

That is about all I am going to blab right now. I still have to take out the garbage tonight. I'm still stalling cause it is cold. :(

Jennifer Aniston: The Cigarette Hag on Facebook?

Why is Facebook letting this ad run on and on? I'm suprised they are showing Jennifer Aniston smoking. The ad is for some fountain of youth deal but she actually looks a lot older in the picture they chose. She looks like a cigarette hag.

Or is that not really a cigarette? It sure looks like one to me. Really ironic picture to sell a beauty product.

Host and Domain Turbulence

The domain I bought for this blog is up for renewal and I think I will just not bother. Today it is down. Third time this year, not calendar year but year since I last paid. Not worth it for a personal blog. People have said they had trouble getting the domain to load at various times.

I may just move thatgrrl.ca over to the new web host and have it as the blog domain. I can have a domain hosted there free as I already have one. Nicer than paying for the same thing twice.

Anyway, if you notice the missing header with the blog title, now you know why it is missing. I should start storing them on the other host.

Wasting Time While Time Wastes You

I don't know what is wrong with me the last several weeks. I just can't seem to get anything done. I've got a ton of things I should be doing, big and small, important and less important. Each morning I start thinking of how I can get started on at least some of the things. Making plans. But, next thing it is 5:00 and I've done nothing, none of the things I needed to do.

Tonight I have the fourth date with the guy who likes the paranormal. Maybe this time he will be there. I don't feel like going. Part of it is that this is the fourth time I've tried to meet him and that alone seems excessive. Part of it is not having the money to spend on extra bus trips and coffee out. Part of it is that I haven't gotten dressed yet today and could just stay this way until I go to bed tonight.

This isn't me! I've usually got at least one thing I care about and want to do enough to pull me out of bed and into life each day. I know the answer is to just get up and get doing. I know that and yet... I can't seem to get there.

My brother phoned, I heard his voice as the phone recorded the message. I haven't listened to it. He will just have a list of his own of things for me to do. It just goes on and on and on. People can always find things you can do for them.

I think I will get out early for the coffee today. So what if I'm too early. At least I'm not just here watching useless TV and playing silly games on Facebook.

St Paddy's Greetings

Comments - Graphics - Layouts - Photobucket

Patty Day Font

I found just about the perfect St. Patrick's Day font. called Patty Day. You never know what you will find on those old personal websites. This one is long abandoned but the font link worked.

Shamrocks to Inspire

The Four Leaf Clover

Shamrock Virtual Jewelry

I was looking for shamrock designs as inspiration to doodle something for my new blog header. St. Patrick's Day is special for me, I think of my Grandmother and her sisters. It's also the start of Spring, not officially but weather wise it starts to feel less like Winter and more like Spring around this time of year.

Here are designs in virtual jewelry from AlienBear Designs. They were created to be worn by virtual avatars in Second Life, an online game and social network.

St Patrick's Day Banner

I should be home again on Tuesday. Will be so glad to have my own computer again. My sister has Rogers for her Internet and it is very slow. I get impatient waiting 15 minutes for it to do anything. Then I end up clicking on something else cause it moved at the wrong time. Urghh!

I found a St Patrick's Day banner I like. I'm including it here so I don't end up leaving it on my nephew's computer.

Your Very Own Comic Hero

Canucklehead has become a super hero. I went to The Hero Factory to show off my own heroic image.

Gluebooks

Don't Stitch Where you Eat has a post about gluebooks.

Gluebooks are a cross between art journals and collage. Collect the paper fallout from your daily life, and turn it into art!

Gluebooks seem to be what scrapbooks used to be, before the commercialism. Funny how things that really do last can overcome the hype and get back to what they really were, the basic essentials.

I kept a gluebook (formerly known as a scrapbook) when I was a kid. Just things I clipped out of the newspaper or magazines. One was all pictures that caught my eye for whatever reason. The other were all clippings about paranormal things. I don't still have any of those old books.

Roll Up the Rim Online

For Canadians... You can roll up the rim online everyday on the Tim Horton's website.

Updateable Updating

I've never had a real plan for this blog so I'm not really starting one now. But, I do want to get back into the flow and discipline for writing a regular column again. Weekly will be enough discipline. Having done a few weekly columns (at the same time) before I know how tough it can be to keep up with that schedule. But it will be good to be productive and feel I am at least accomplishing that much.

Also, will be doodling more often. I won't go back to the daily posting thing. It was too much and eventually I was feeling the whole thing was a real chore more than something I can do just to enjoy and annoy myself.

Last of all, the Valentine look will soon be changing. I don't know what to, yet. No clue at all.

Cut Promotion Pollution on Twitter

Use Twitter Karma to get a list of those who follow you and those you follow. Why is this of any interest? Because you can see on one page which people are following you in return and which are just ignoring you - only keeping you as a notch on their bedpost.

I have three which I know are set up like Twitter newsletters. I am ok with them cause I read their blogs fairly regularly too. But there is one which asked me to follow them but is now not following me in return. Sorry, but there is no excuse for asking me to listen to your babbling and then putting a cork into it when it comes to listening to me babble.

Kind of a handy thing to run Twitter Karma. Lady Banana posted the link in her Twitterings.

Dazzling Bejewelled Christmas Tree

It's past Christmas but this is such a beautiful luxurious Christmas tree I had to post it when I found it today.

From a jeweller called Soo Kee Jewellery.

In 2006, Soo Kee Jewellery, a famous Singapore Jeweler, produced the world’s most expensive Christmas tree (at that time) made out of 21,798 glittering diamonds totaling 913 carats, 3,762 crystal beads and with 456 lights to decorate and make it all bling-bling. Weight almost 3,215kg and really tall, at 6 feet in height, it worth US $1,005,000.

I cut and pasted the above description from the Funny Cool Stuff blog. I couldn't find the tree on the Soo Kee site. I guess it was dismantled once they were done with it.