Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Here I Am in This Uniformish, Pant-Suit Sort of Thing

Choose and Defend Wednesday is here and with it comes your chance to speak your mind and set the record straight! Or you know...you could just talk about your favorite cereal. It varies.  Today, I have had art on my mind. So, I thought, what kind of an art question could I ask? There is so much art! So many mediums, so many apples and oranges situations. Given that, I decided to narrow things down as best I could to a couple of iconic paintings. We can compare them, Choose a favorite and then Defend your choice.

Let me ask it this way...which of these paintings do you enjoy the most?

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1503-1506)
OR

Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh (1889)
 
There couldn't be anything much more subjective than your own enjoyment of any work of art. So be bold and state your opinion! I'd welcome any other thoughts you have about art and artists...what you might enjoy creating or just what you might enjoy experiencing.
 
Choose and Defend, you little artiste, you!

Saturday, October 12, 2013

You Don't Really Want Anymore From Me

Another Saturday, another Saturday Scavenger Shots post! This week's word was chosen by Jasen over at Swamp Gas & Moonlit Reflections. He waited a long time to choose, because we kept hoping for another brave participant to join in. Alas, no one has yet taken up the cause. So...he finally chose the word PRAY.  Wasn't sure how to post for this one. As an atheist, I don't, generally speaking, PRAY. Of course, I do think deeply about my desires and how to let them go if  I need to and about my gratitude for the good things that life provides.

In that vein, here are a couple of the good things in life. In my own way, I give PRAYers of thanks.

I am thankful for delicious food. I might even PRAY over these burgers, if saying "omygawd" as I take the first bite counts :)

There is so much beauty in the world. I look on a scene like this with such gratitude. As I said, that is about as close to PRAYing as I come these days. 

Thank you for stopping in to PRAY, in my own way, with me! If anyone would like to post a photo or two or three on the theme "PRAY", just drop a comment and tell me where it is. Blogs, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter...wherever you like to post things, I would love to see what you have!  If you have a theme you'd like to explore, comment! Jasen and I would love to have some more participants in our small creative endeavor. Thanks again :)

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

That Clinking Clanking Sound

Oh, yes, here we are again, all up on Wednesday. It must be time to Choose and Defend.  Recently (and always, to some degree) I've had my mind on my money and my money on my mind.  I do my best but there is never quite enough. You know the complaint :) Anyway, I thought we could do a money based Choose and Defend Wednesday.

If you HAD to do one of these two things, for whatever reason, which would you rather do?

Borrow $2,000 From a Friend

OR
 
Panhandle Until You Have $200
 
Rules and asides....let's say you can't immediately pay your friend back. You need that money for a legit purpose and they won't see it for awhile.  And for panhandling, you can make a sign, walk up to people, whatever...but you are out on the street asking strangers for money. 
 
The rules of Choose and Defend say you have to make a choice and then defend that choice in comments. It is as simple as that. So what will you do? Choose and Defend!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Gigantic, Gigantic, Gigantic

Happy Birthday to Honorable Number Two Son, Paul Secret Agent Man!

He's 27 as of 4:02 this morning. 

He is one of those quiet types with a biting sense of humor. Secret Agent Man is such a self-contained person...always has been and I imagine he always will be.

He runs a popular Simpsons Tumblr, which you can find here -  Springfield vs. Shelbyville  If you like The Simpsons he's your guy. (That is also why this week's musical message was sung by Montgomery Burns!)

 He is a big Lakers fan and is one of those guys playing a pick-up game in the park.

He lives in an apartment with his brother, Social Animal, just a block from me, but I don't see him that much. Between work and his friends and possibly not liking me all of the time, I know he is busy. But I love him ♥

 Here is an old picture of my oldest four and my nephew. Secret Agent Man is in the green shirt, all buttoned up :) Happy Birthday!

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Have a Snack

Like, you know, maybe some TRAIL mix? Yeah, this week's word, choosen by me at the last instant, is TRAIL. I knew I had some nice TRAIL pictures on hand, as long as we don't choose to mind the most literal interpretation ever. I have pictures of various TRAILs, as hiking is one of my few active activities...and I haven't even engaged in that active activity for awhile now!  But I still have pictures. You may look at them - 
 
This is a little rock bordered TRAIL up at the wilderness park in Arcadia, near where I work. It invites you for a stroll.

Here is a narrow TRAIL through the pretty green growth of the park that DR and I used to hike on a lot. It is near our house. For several months the whole of the property was sort of hard to get to, as a dog park was being constructed at the foot of the little hilly area. Now it is open again and will soon be not so hot, maybe we can begin hiking this TRAIL again.

Here is DR walking the flat part of the TRAIL at the top. I'm just the photographer, along for the views.
 
Hope you enjoyed today's TRAIL mix. Seems I will not get any takers, but I still invite you to pose a word. I'd love the challenge of a fresh new word :) Thanks! 

Friday, October 4, 2013

Friday 5 - ID

Hello from the world of Friday 5  I'm going to need to see some ID before we can proceed any further. Yes, this Friday 5 is about identification. Let's begin -

1. What was the last t-shirt you acquired because it identified you as a member of a specific group? (you know, like a faculty t-shirt if you’re a teacher, or a class t-shirt if you’re a student, or a volunteer t-shirt for some event you helped with…) Every year we get to choose a new city employee shirt. I have quite the collection and just got a new one a couple of weeks ago.

2. What was the last event for which you filled out a HELLO MY NAME IS nametag? The last thing I wore a nametag for was probably a library performers showcase. It has been a couple of years though. Guess I don't get many chances to wear my name on my boob these days :(

3. Besides websites and personal computers, how many things do you have passwords or combinations for in order to prove you’re authorized? The doors that leads to the Tech Services area at work.

4. What was the last thing you wrote your name on so that people would know it belonged to you?
The sample art project I did for Toddler Time.  Trust me, if I didn't label it you wouldn't know if it was mine or a toddler's.

5. What was the last thing you put your name on so people would know you supported a cause, or were a member of a side? I believe something regarding legalizing same sex marriage. It would be so cool for each and every state in the union to join the 21st century.

Now my identity is confirmed! Do you Friday 5?  You certainly should give it a try! Hope to see you tomorrow for a Saturday Scavenger Shots post. Just follow the TRAIL.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

And If I Had a Nickel for Every Damn Dime

Choose and Defend Wednesday has snuck up on me once again. This week I scoured the interwebs for ideas and found the one I decided to pose to you in a BuzzFeed post.  You only have one, brief life to live....or do you? What if you had this choice?

Would you rather live...

One 1,000 Year Life
OR

Ten 100 Year Lives

What do you think...and why do you think it? Choose and Defend. It is your life (or lives)!

Saturday, September 28, 2013

I Carried Karats for Everyone to See

Welcome to a lovely GOLDEN Saturday Scavenger Shots post. My arm is all twisty here, patting myself on the back for posting Saturday Scavenger Shots on an actual Saturday. Good job, GOLDEN girl! (I like to kick, stretch, and kick! I'm fifty!) Thanks for Jasen @ Swamp Gas & Moonlit Reflections for the fantastic last minute word choosing skills :)

Here is what I brought to the party -

Last night, DR and I decided to bake up this Cookie-Brownie Delight mix. Look at the box...You have your brownie and then on top, you have your chocolate chip cookie. GOLDEN delicious cookies standing out against the rich, dark chocolate of the brownie. Nom.
 

Here is the result. The chocolate chip cookie portion is not so much GOLDEN as it is brownish. Still, the taste was pretty fantastic. I mean, it was a brownie / chocolate chip cookie monster! Not as healthy as a GOLDEN delicious apple. Not as shiny as that GOLDEN medallion you used to wear against your chest hair when you went out to the discotheque. But pretty darn tasty, nonetheless.
 
I hope you are having and continue to have a magical, GOLDEN weekend full of adventure! Would you like to choose a word? Choose a word. Go on. Choose a word. Do it. Do it. If you do I will thank you in the manner of your choosing....because I trust you not to get crazy :)

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Where Pink Flamingos Grow

Why, hello there! Nice to see you here on this Choose and Defend Wednesday post. This week's choice involves a heist. I will leave the exact goal of the heist and all the planning and such completely up to you. If you have a heist in mind, that isn't too top secret, I'd love to hear the details. But what I must know...what all of us here must know is...

Will you execute your heist...

Solo
OR

With a Team

As you've probably already gathered there are fairly definite pros and cons to each scenario. But what will you Choose? And how will you Defend that choice?  Choose and Defend!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

No Repeats (clap clap clap) Or Hesitation (clap clap clap)

Hey, what's going on? This isn't Saturday at all! Looks like....a Tuesday. Yep, definitely Tuesday. Yet here I am to post my Saturday Scavenger Shot.

The word - CONCENTRATION. The person who chose it - me. The reason I chose it - No idea.  Why I am doing this Saturday oriented post on Tuesday - I'm going to have to go with laziness :)

Anyway, here is some CONCENTRATION for you.

DR and I having our way with a very thick milk shake. It was the perfect CONCENTRATION of ingredients. If you check out the straws, you will see that my opponent is winning this race. No doubt it is his fierce CONCENTRATION on the suck, as opposed to my inability to stop laughing.
 
There you have it. Quite late, but I doubt anything bad will happen...right? Right? Oh geez...
 
Well, we'll see. Check back tomorrow, if you can, and see if I made it out alive to give you yet another awful Choose and Defend Wednesday post! :-D

Friday, September 20, 2013

Friday 5 - Film Flam

Scrivener over at Friday 5 is in fine form today with a really fun one for this week. These questions are based on movies and are quite thought-provoking! Let's give them a go.

1.In The Spectacular Now, the main character is good at making everybody laugh. What social skill do you bring to a large party? I am pretty shy and don't see myself as the life of the party. However, if I can infiltrate a small group, I think I am good at asking people questions to draw them out. I am a good listener. Not a great skill for a large party, but not a bad skill to have, in general.  

2.In The Way Way Back, one character was supposedly there when, at the local water park, one person passed another on the huge water slide. What amazing or strange feat that everyone supposedly knows about did someone pull off in your area (or at your school)?  I can't really think of any amazing or strange feat...what comes to mind is that nearly everyone who works with me at the library at least pretends to believe that the ghost of a woman who used to work here haunts the building. She was an older woman, an administrative assistant, and she died when a car hit her in a bookstore parking lot. She was there picking up something for the library. So, there is this whole legend of the Ghost of Mary who wanders around the stacks at night and all new employees must hear about her.

3.In Austenland, the main character spends a week in a large Victorian-era house designed for fans of Jane Austen. In what book’s setting would you love to spend a week immersed? I want to spend a week in the Hundred Acre Wood with Winnie-the-Pooh and those guys. It would be the most lovely, fun week ever! Smiling just thinking of it.

4.In The Heat, two main characters at first have great difficulty getting along personally, but they work unusually well together professionally. With whom have you had huge personal differences while still doing excellent work? Seems hard, to me, to work well with someone professionally when there are too many personal differences. Anytime I've had big personal differences with someone and we have still done good work together, it has been more a matter of both of us acting as professionals rather than working unusually well together professionally.

5.In We’re the Millers, a marijuana-dealer and a reluctant stripper pose as husband and wife in order to complete a job. If you had to do the same for an undetermined length of time, who could pose as your Platonic life partner? If we were posing as partners and it could be platonic, then I think I could make it work with my bestie Milly. We could be a nice lesbian couple and I totally think we could be convincing.

And now you know! Please feel free to post your own Friday 5 in your blog or in comments here. Or just comment. I am very into getting comments. Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

And We Do It With Flare

No one seems responsive to Choose and Defend Wednesdays lately. Well, not no one! The people who do respond are not to be trifled with! But still....maybe I need to ask less weird questions. Are my questions weird? Too heavy? Too hard? Too boring? It's not me, it's you?

I guess I won't give it up just yet. I'm no quitter. Just ask the nails I've been biting all my life. So. Let me try once again. This week's Choose and Defend will strive for simplicity and good times.

It is almost autumn. Why not make a little fire and get your s'more on? You even get three, three, three choices this week, as I ask you.....What is the best part of a s'more?

Chocolate Bar


Graham Cracker



OR

Marshmallow

 Which is your favorite ingredient (Choose) and (Defend) why? Thank you in advance for your participation.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

That Old Familiar Tweet Tweet Tweet

Everybody's heard about the BIRD, because that is this week's Saturday Scavenger Shots word. Chosen by Jasen @ Swamp Gas & Moonlight Reflections, BIRD is a word to be reckoned with. I mean, you could definitely go simple and straightforward with this. Which, okay, yes, is what I did :)

Come fly with me...or float...or maybe just stand around...

These ducks at Legg Lake have one thing on their BIRD brains...food. They very aggressively encourage anyone who ventures anywhere near the water to provide them with something to eat. Honestly, I know it is silly, but these BIRDs always make me a little nervous.
 

This beach BIRD is a pelican. He knows how to hang out on the pier at Newport and coax food from people. Are you sensing a theme with the BIRDs? They would prefer to have food handed to them rather than hunting for it. Well...I mean, I feel the same.
 

Finally, a photo of my youngest son with the Most Interesting Cardboard Man in the World. Handsome Lad took this opportunity to flip the world the BIRD. Because apparently that is what teenage boys do. At least ones whose parents don't raise 'em right :)
 
Now, back to the book mines. It is very busy today and I have a program to present soon, but I didn't want to miss out on being the BIRD with the word. What's next? Can't wait to find out.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Today

Hi Choose and Defend Wednesday-ers! This week's came to me suddenly and is inspired by various social media postings. Today is, of course, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001.

So, let me just ask which you think is a more useful strategy on a day like today.

Remember the Past
OR

Look Towards the Future
 
How do you roll? Probably a little of both. But if you had to Choose....and you do....
 
Choose and Defend!