Happy New Year!
Well, this is my first drink of the evening… its called The Blue Moon.
Updates from December, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Carmen
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Carmen
What a joke…
So, these are on sale today on Gilt and I’m just floored by the balls these people must have. And I’m floored by the gullibility of the people who buy this. I mean, somebody must be buying them or they wouldn’t be in business right? Anyways, apparently if you put these on your face you won’t get pimples and it will reduce wrinkles, depending on which one you use. Officially:
“Using superior technology developed by NASA, the Baby Quasar works by stimulating the natural production of collagen in the skin, thereby diminishing the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and enlarged pores. Extremely effective in firming and toning the skin and increasing blood flow and circulation, the Baby Quasar uses 24 LED’s in four discrete wavelengths of red and infrared light.”
This is pure bullshit. And even if it wasn’t and by some miracle the light from LEDs did something beneficial for my skin I’m not going to pay $500 bucks for it! I’ll just go rub my face in the christmas lights! Cmon people, this isn’t the 1920′s! Actually the 20′s were better, at least they were advertising for things that worked – Coke! Delicious and refreshing! (Yeah it was, cause it had cocaine in it), Stay slim with your very own tapeworm! (hey, you will actually lose some weight. In fact, I’m gonna go get some tapeworms right now and start my new business! “Lose weight by meeting my little friend!”)
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Olga
Don’t forget the key phrases in your worm/diet business. You must use important sounding lines like “developed by a New York Cardiologist” it wouldn’t sound the same if you said “developed by a Mississippi Bariatric MD”. Don’t forget the all important timetable. You must keep it very specific, example “Lose 300 pounds in just 32 weeks! not 31 weeks, not “lose 300 pounds in about 7 months” 32 Weeks and I’m done! So when can I get my worms? Were they trained by NASA to eat fat fast? Are they discrete?
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Emilily
a new toy
Hey, guess what! Mis padres are getting me a Kindle for Christmas! I’m getting the smaller one, that has international download capabilities. I know this doesn’t mean a whole lot for the blog, except that I will still be able to read all kinds of cool science articles. There’s even a Wired blog I can subscribe to. Although I will completely ignore any misgivings I might have about jumping on the e-reader bandwagon at the expense of real books and bookstores, both of which I love, I also feel like I am being suckered into an expensive yet cool gadget that will make me think “how could I have survived before I had this?” just like my iPod. Thank you technology, for ensuring my life is more entertained, informed, complicated and expensive.I was reading reviews before we purchased it, and found that there are lots of people who are really down on Amazon. I suspect it is just because they are scarily massive. Someday I might regret saying this, but I cannot help but root for them because they started small but through a combination of luck, good timing, and shrewd business strategy, have built an empire – it feels like good old fashioned American capitalism, which certainly won’t cure world hunger, but it’s nice to know it works every so often.
Also, I bet someday we will look back at Jeff Bezos as one of the most notable entrepreneurs of our generation; in fact, there are probably already MBA courses analyzing his every move as we speak. In a recent shareholder meeting, he was quoted as saying, “Advertising is the price you pay for having an unremarkable product or service.” Probably not entirely true, but his arrogance is endearing.
On an unrelated note, I was trying to find a funny review I read last night slamming Amazon for not releasing sales figures* and I came across a blog that you may already know about, but that had some cool stuff. It’s called Geeksugar, and it appears to be some sort of offshoot of Popsugar. They have a combination of geeky, techy gadgets and girly fashion stuff, including these cool little travel speakers.
*The quote was something like: Amazon, on their self-proclaimed remarkable Kindle sales: “The good news is, we’ve sold every Kindle we made. The bad news is, we made 5.”
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Carmen
awesome. i’m jealous.
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Emilily
back!
I’m in Oceanside now, at my grandma’s, and we’re finally wired again! We had to buy a wireless router today – it was the only solution, since being offline for the next 8 days is not really an option.
Unfortunately, I cannot think of anything interesting to post about at the moment…
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Carmen
Movie Review/Science Education
So I watched Angels and Demons last night and my official review is this: SO Good!
It was actually quite beautiful as it takes place in Rome and the characters are whisking themselves to all the gorgeous historical buildings with all of their statues and fountains. Also, I’m sure it was factually accurate so all of the information that Dr. Langdon spouts regarding Catholic and architectural history is an education in itself! Not only that, but they show the Vatican Archives! (I’m sure its real and not a replicated set) Now, the best part of this movie is in the beginning when they show the Large Hadron Collider in all its glory. I had no idea that this movie was going to be such a treat with all of my favorite things, including a great soundtrack. So in the beginning they show all the scientists busy at their LHC computers in a crisis about how and when to “harvest” some stuff which turns out to be antimatter. Antimatter looks pretty cool in the movie – all glowy and powerful – but what is it exactly? I have no idea. So I’m doing a little research…
Turns out CERN (home of the LHC) has an Antimatter Academy. Their site has tons of information about it and I am still trying to understand it and its implications. Antimatter is definitely the way of the future.
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Dave
Carmen, how does antimatter relate to strange, degenerate, exotic or dark matter? Speaking of elusive dark matter, indicators of it’s existence have been felt in a mine in Minnesota: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/17/dark-matter-detected
Happy Winter Solstice to you both!
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Carmen
Good article! Very interesting. I had no idea there was a group called the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, I’ll have to contact them and see if they’re looking for new members. There is one thing in that article that seems contradictory… They were saying that dark matter has a unique characteristic that allows it to move through matter as if it didn’t exist and yet the only way they can detect it is to wait for dark matter particles to bump into their high powered sensing machines. Maybe what they meant to say is that their machines can sense when dark matter particles are passing through them, not bumping into them. Anyways, if thats true dark matter is probably in here right now!
Also, thanks for the pop quiz Dave! Lucky for me the answer to your question is simple = Theoretically. -
Emilily
I have not yet seen the movie, but I did read the book, and really enjoyed the parts about the LHC. I am not really crazy about Tom Hanks, I feel he is a little too old and soft-looking to play the dashing Dr. Langdon (who is, I like to think, more of an Indiana Jones type, but maybe that’s just me romanticizing it) especially opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones, but I will probably check it out nonetheless…my superficial view of what the characters are supposed to look like will not get in the way of my love of CERN!
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Emilily
That was a great article, Dave. That was the first I had heard of supersymmetry being one of the goals of the LHC, or that dark matter might explain why time only travels forward. Fascinating! Although, I did question why a dark matter detector was located at the bottom of a mine in Minnesota? I would have thought they would put them in space, but underground? Where else do they have dark matter detectors? How many are scattered around the world…like, enough that I could run into one someday? What does it looks like? More research is in order….
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Carmen
planning for the future…
In preparation for our next blog entitled “How to be More Like Kristopher Dukes” I went and bought some of this stuff, I’ll let you know how it goes:
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Emilily
oxymoron of the day: Fox News
Sometimes when I am at the gym, they have Fox News playing on the TV in the locker room. They also have the TV mounted on the ceiling, with no volume or channel controls in sight, so I have to quickly change my clothes while singing a little song I made up called The Fox News Song. It goes “la la la la la I can’t hear you la la la la....” Unfortunately, the other day, in between verses 17 and 18, I heard about this guy, I believe he is a Senator, named Inhofe, who has formed something called The Truth Commission. My details are sketchy, because I was still trying to not hear the first half of the story, but apparently, The Truth Commission has made it their mission to debunk climate change. I’m all for challenging commonly held assumptions, even if they do appear to be based on massive amounts of statistical data, but I have two issues with The Truth Commission.First, it is composed of three members – one of them is Inhofe, the other was some guy who’s name I did not recognize, and the third member was, and I quote, “…a secret.” Aside from the fact that we’re supposed to believe a three-member commission of politicians has discovered the truth* behind global warming that scientists around the globe have apparently got wrong, isn’t it contradictory to have a secret member in a truth commission?!
Second, even if I were to somehow accept that they are promoting a truth so infallible it need not rely on the credibility or identity of its proponents, what’s with their name? I think they are trying to emphasize a direct contradiction to the movie An Inconvenient Truth, but they gave up on coming up with anything clever and settled instead for the obvious, PR-equivalent of I-know-I-am-but-what-are-you. If you’re trying to contradict something, you usually pick words that are antonyms or exaggerated forms of the opposition’s title, and then use them in a clever way, so that the opposition can tell you are mocking them, rather than just trying to ride their publicity by using their name as a front for your own hair-brained idea. Here are some suggestions I think they should consider: The Convenience Commission, The Real Inconvenient Truth, The Commission On Climate Staying The Same And/Or Changing But Not From Man-Made Causes, or Team Petroleum.
*In case you were wondering, the truth about global warming is that “...it is a liberal-inspired hoax, intended to wrest control of world energy policy and wealth from Western countries so the United Nations can have its way.”
Damn United Nations, damn Western countries hoarding all the wealth from all that oil…oh, wait…
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Olga
Yes, Yes, we can always rely on Fox to give us news we can trust. Just look at how they uncovered Obama’s REAL plan on healthcare reform. Obama’s plan says that doctors would be reimbursed for having those tough discussions with patients about how they want their end-of-life to look, ie: do you want everything done; tubes coming out of every hole or do you want to go naturally, peacefully with no aggressive treatments to extend your life. Leave it to ex-gov Palin and Fox news to identify the REAL truth about this part of the healthcare reform bill. DEATH PANELS!!!!! OH YEAH!!! What is really going on is this; doctors are going to decide for themselves, arbitrarily who will live and who will die. Doctors will say “oh, this grandma is too old and ugly, no aggressive treatments for her!” or “oh this guy is my neighbor, he gets every orifice stuffed”. Yes yes, Fox and Palin nailed that one huh?
I just find it so incredible that such a large percentage of the country believes this crap. Ok. that’s it. That’s all I have to say.
I think I will go watch Jerry Springer now. -
Irene
Ditto everything Olga said about the “Truth Commission.” It is truly awful how so many people believe and vote for this propaganda. And it’s only a 3 person committee, with a secret member?? Or maybe it’s really a 2 person committee?
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Carmen
a dream come true…
Remember when I told you I wanted to find (or make) a cloche hat? Well I found one!
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Emilily
That is really pretty. Where did you find it? You’ll have to send me a picture of how you wear it!
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Carmen
What do you mean ‘how I wear it’? That is how I wear it! Does it look like I’m wearing it wrong?
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Emilily
I meant, when you wear it out, with an outfit, to some sort of public event or outing…I was assuming the picture above was just to show me the hat, but I imagine there will be some sort of cloche-centered ensemble debuting in the future…
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olga
Sometimes,(Emilily) a hat is just a hat.
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Carmen
A little LHC history…
In reading the New York Times this morning I came across an article that taught me alot about the history of supercolliders. Did you know there was a miniature one built really close by, in Berkeley? Way back in 1932! It was only a foot in diameter as opposed to the 17 mile loop of the LHC. And speaking of big loops did you know there was one being built in Texas with a 54 mile loop? Its true. It was called the Superconducting Supercollider (an arrogant Texan obviously thought up that name). But the SS program was shut down in 1993 because costs exceeded 11 Billion. Oh poor babies. 11 Billion? Oh yeah, thats way too much, especially because we have to spend 1.8 billion per week on our wars in the Middle East (according to msnbc). So now because of that brilliant decision by Congress there will be no new discoveries concerning particle physics coming out of the U.S. Which is probably a good thing, Europe will do a better job anyways.
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Emilily
Well, you know I am as big a fan of cool science as you are, so I read the New York Times article too! I have to say, I did not know we had any supercolliders in this country, but props to the one in Illinois – even if it is a measly 3.9 miles around, Tevatron is an awesome name. Although we are about to get our physics butts kicked in a serious way.
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Emilily
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Carmen
Yeah, a misplaced hyphen!
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Carmen
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Emilily
Wow, that’s super awesome. What a good idea. Where on your body would you put that?
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Olga
Nice font. I like it. I too want to know where on your bod you would put it?
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Carmen
Oh I don’t know. I just like it. But I can’t get a tattoo and blemish this skin.
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Emilily
muffins!
I tried another bran muffin recipe this past weekend, and they turned out pretty delicious. I got the recipe from Dylan’s mom Irene – she sent some home with him after Thanksgiving, and I think I ate about 4 a day until they were gone!The (modified) recipe was originally from this great blog, Farmgirl Fare. It’s by this woman who one day packed up her California lifestyle and moved out to a remote, 280-acre farm in the middle of Nowhere, Missouri. I think I can relate to packing everything up and embarking on a new adventure! I also like the name of her blog, because it reminds me of The Princess Bride (Farmboy) although I doubt this has any relation to her blog at all. Anyways, there are a ton of healthy recipes, pictures of her farm animals, and a smattering of gardening tips and photos. I think this weekend I might try a batch of these blueberry breakfast bars, but with persimmons instead, since they’re weighing down the trees in the front yard.
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Carmen
My beautiful Grandma…
I found this picture of my grandma (on the right) and her sister. Isn’t she lovely?
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Emilily
Oh she is! I can see some of your grandma’s features still.
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Carmen
Remember when…
Val Kilmer used to be hot? What happened Val? Please get a personal trainer and stop breaking my heart.
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Emilily
I think I am going to cry.
Just for some perspective…
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Carmen
Thank you.
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TuesdayKnight
I wouldn’t be so quick to deny him your desire, his voice is super alluring and he has one of the best tree houses in the world, I’m still a fan Val, call me!
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Emilily
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Carmen
Hmm. I think I’m the wrong person to ask. Nail polish and I had a falling out a while ago and I have yet to rekindle any kind of love for it (except for maybe clear). However, from as objective as I can get I can say that color looks….futuristic.
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Emilily
Well put, it is SO futuristic! It’s matte, absolutely no shine or gloss at all…it’s like my fingernails are absorbing light.
The color is called Metro Chic but clearly a better name would be Spaceship Primer. Or, What Color Is Your Battlestar.
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Emilily
not blonde
So, here’s my new cut and color. The color on the box was Marilyn Monroe blonde. The color on my head is Emily Hawkins light brown/dark blonde. Clearly, one of the perils of color in a box; I just gave about 117 of my hair follicles cancer for no point. The cut is probably going to grow on me…I trust Spencer, but he went way shorter than I expected. Lucky for me, the 80′s are coming back in, so my new asymmetrical style will be super on trend. Maybe. Either way, I got carded twice last night, so I’m feeling pretty good about it so far.-
Carmen
That look great Emily! I really like it. I like it better than the other cut for sure. I wouldn’t mind seeing a profile shot!
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Emilily
eh, after a weekend with the new hair, I am not sure if I like it, it is too short, I can’t do much with it. On the plus side, it will now be easier to cut it all off.
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Carmen
Too short? Well how are you going to feel when its only an inch long?
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Emilily
Well, I can tell you what I am not going to feel like: 1988.
All I need is a little hairspray and I could be rockin’ this look today:
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Carmen
Whoa.
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Emilily
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Carmen
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Emilily
That looks beautiful, like a magical sparkling waterfall raining shopping happiness! Maybe that’s where the free-designer-clothes-fairies come from!
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Carmen
speaking of hair…
Do you think this lady looks like a lesbian? Not that there is anything wrong with that. However, I am trying to not look like a lesbian but my hair is growing out and I need a good in between cut. I really like this cut but I’m afraid if I got it I would look like a lesbian from the 80′s. I think my end goal cut will be this last picture.
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Emilily
Unfortunately, I agree with you – the woman in the top three pictures looks like a lesbian with that haircut. I say unfortunately because I too like the cut, and I like her style, but the two together look very lesbian. Cool, chic lesbian, but lesbo nonetheless. I have the same dilemma, because I really like a menswear-ish clothing style, and I am going to have short (shorter) hair soon, and I am really wondering how on earth I am going to avoid looking like a lesbian. I have nothing wrong with lesbians, but I don’t want to look like one. (Same as there is nothing inherently wrong with 15-year-old boys, and I don’t want to look like one of those either, but I am afraid that I will at some point in the very near future look like a combination of the two.)
Yasmine’s hair is absolutely gorgeous. You are so lucky that your hair, with the right styling products, can probably look exactly like hers. That’s probably similar to the haircut I have now, but on curly hair…I’ll bet you can rock that in a few months, until then…maybe just avoid wearing collared shirts, shoulder pads, and blazers.
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Carmen
Will do.
On the other subject:
I wonder how you can spice up your soon-to-be 15 yr old boy/ Lesbian look…. Perhaps a colorful scarf? Some earrings? Or its possible that the only thing they will allow is a rosy color to the lips? -
Emilily
I am honestly not sure. I know make-up is allowed (after basic) as long as it is not “unnatural in color” like no electric blue eyeshadow or black lipstick. Earrings…there are some restrictions as far as size…I think you’re kind of limited to studs, too. I suppose since you have to be 18 to join, the uniform won’t make me look like a 15-year-old boy, although looking like an 18-year old boy is no better. There is a version of the uniform with a skirt and heels, so…now we’re back to lesbian.
Hey, here’s a question for you – do you think Kara Thrace looks like a lesbian?
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Carmen
You mean this Kara???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Thrace
(how do i post a picture in the comments section?)
I have no idea if she looks like a lesbian. All I know is she’s hot and I’d do her. Ahh just kidding (i think my grandma reads this blog)! I’m not a lesbian grandma! -
Emilily
Yeah, that Kara! And even in the earlier episodes when she had shorter hair, she didn’t really look like a lesbian to me, she just looked hot! But, I am a girl, so then by default…does that mean she does look like a lesbian? It’s all such a gray area…
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Carmen
show off
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Emilily
ha ha.
I just go back to the last post that had a picture in the comments and copy the html and replace the image source with the new image, and the image dimensions with the new dimensions. For some reason, it doesn’t show up the first time you save the post, you have to copy the new code, save the post, go back into edit the post, paste the code back in, and the second time it shows up. Don’t know why, but it works every time.
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Carmen
Thats alot of work. I think I’ll leave it to you to do all that. Good job.
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Olga
Splitting hairs. Not everybody is as conscious of style nuances as you two are. Or maybe it’s me that has no eye for style or gender preference coding. I think that it takes way more than a haircut to make a woman look lesbian. The shoes, clothes and mannerisms are really what set the bar for women trying to show the world that they like other women. I mean what about Halle Berry? She has had some pretty short hair and not once did I think “oh, she’s a dyke” But take your Kara for example. She does not have short hair but she could easily be taken for a lesbian. It’s all in the way you carry yourself and act. Not in the cut of your hair. That’s my opinion anyway. So there.
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Carmen
Oh logical reasoning, why do you vex me so???
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Emilily
Posting from my car!
Guess what I’m doing tonight!-
Carmen
whoa whoa wo what
you just spent all this time getting your hair au natural! what happened? -
Carmen
And get it done at a salon for goodness sakes!
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Emilily
I know, but now I’m bored with it, and anyways, when it is 1″ long, it won’t be hard to get it back to my natural color. And why pay for salon color when I pay for my cut in beer?
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Carmen
Alright go for it. It always looked good blonde! Post a pic afterwards.
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Emilily
blog business
I just noticed the time on my post last night was not adjusted for stupid daylight savings time. It was not 12:15 am, it was 11:15 pm. I’ve just changed our settings to reflect this. Obviously, WordPress agrees with me in that daylight savings is nothing but a useless annoyance.
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Emilily
WordPress app test!
Ok, so here it is, I am posting from my phone! So far all I have figured out is how to type, not yet sure how to add (or view) pictures.Have you tried this yet?
Well, I selected a photo from my camera, and there was no “add photo” sort of command but when I viewed the preview, it said there would be a picture attached, so I guess the final version is really best viewed online still.
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Emilily
Well, there’s the picture alright, so it did work. Although now I’ve just established that I can’t leave replies via safari on my phone because it is asking me to sign in.
Oh well, I go to bed now.
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Carmen
Awesome! geez my nose kind of looks big in that picture but I think its just the angle. I think I have a normally proportioned nose. This is great though, I’ll do a post later from my phone to try it out.
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Emilily
You have a totally normally proportioned nose. All the plastic surgeons reading our blog should take note, that’s what a nose ought to look like. Evil villains take note, too – that eyebrow arch says “Take over the world? who, me?”
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Emilily
WordPress iPhone app
I’ve just downloaded the WordPress iPhone app! (In order to get it to work, I had to go into our writing settings an enable XML-RPC publishing protocols, so I hope this doesn’t screw anything up.)So far, it works okay – I can see posts and comments and view pages, but I can’t see any pictures, all I get is a jumble of code as a placeholder. Maybe I have to play around with it a bit. Overall, I think it will be really useful for reading posts and adding comments when we’re away from the computer!
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Carmen
Oh yeah, I downloaded that too but I hadn’t gotten around to adjusting our publishing protocols – so thanks for doing that! I’ll try to post this weekend via iPhone from the Christmas tree ranch where we are going to cut down our own 10 foot tree!
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Emilily
Nice! I am jealous you get a 10-foot tree, it is going to be lovely in your main room. I suggested to Dylan we get some decorations and he brought home like 10 boxes of super-power high-tech LED lights, so we’re going to hang them this weekend….it’ll be so bright you’ll probably be able to see the house from space.
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Carmen
I’ve seen those LED lights, they kind of hurt my eyes. It looks like they are vibrating really fast and my eyes cant actually focus on them. Does that happen to you? We’re going to put lights on the firehouse too, it looks like it will be a dangerous task.
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Emilily
On the outside of the firehouse?! Sounds like an opportunity to wear your ninja gloves to me!
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Carmen
Oh yeah ninja gloves! There is always an opportunity for ninja gloves – I’m wearing them right now!
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Emilily
pretties
I usually like simple, clean, modern lines in jewelry, but for some reason I am really attracted to these pieces by M.C.L. Matthew Campbell Laurenza (on Gilt today.) They’re beyond gaudy, and even worse, designed by an incredibly snooty looking man whose biography actually includes such lines as “…influenced by his family’s collections of art and antiques, Matthew started flexing his creative muscles at a very early age. As a child, he had the impressive ability to produce artistic sculptures…” Sculptures, really? wow.Despite this, I cannot help but thinking a pile of these on my arm would look fabulous.
Update: I think these would be fun to draw, too!
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Carmen
Wow, there is alot going on here. The only one I like is the red cuffs in the middle picture, I would totally wear those. The rest I could go without, especially the purple group – yuck. But I commend the artist who made them, as pompous as he is, I salute anyone who has the balls to stand behind his creations for all the world to critique.
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Emilily
I agree, they’re pretty busy. And they’re so opposite of what I normally like, but I think I am attracted to the amount of detail on each piece. And the sparkles. And the colors. The more I look at them, the more I think they’d be better to draw than to wear. Especially because I think they’re real gemstones and probably all I can afford is a drawing of one.
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Emilily, 
Carmen, and 
Dave are discussing. 
Irene, and 
Atom Ant 5:44 am on January 1, 2010 Permalink
How appropriate. The next blue moon we will see in December will be 23 years from now. Well, that’s what I heard anyway. Some say that a Blue Moon is the second moon in a month. Others say that a Blue Moon is the forth moon in a season (3 months) and at least one person says that the drink above is a Blue Moon. What ever it is… i say happy new year and bottoms up!
Emilily 10:27 am on January 4, 2010 Permalink
I have heard the first – that the Blue Moon is the second full moon in a month. Hoooooweverrrrr…I just looked it up on Wikipedia, and it appears I was wrong. Wikipedia says it is the 13th full moon in a year, an explanation I like better because thirteen is a prophetic number on its own, so it makes the Blue Moon extra eerie.
Hmmmm, there’s actually a ton of really cool information on this article, so I’m going to do a post on it instead!
Carmen 10:52 am on January 4, 2010 Permalink
Finally!
Emilily 11:13 am on January 4, 2010 Permalink
I know, right?!