Live Salty - the tattoo experience

If you are a friend of Dustin Bryson and have his contact information you need to change your gmail status to reflect the launch of pcitylive.com! If for no other reason than below:

Click on the picture to read the small print - I want to see my name as a tattoo on his face! That is commitment!

World Malaria Day

According to the CDC,

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite. People with malaria often experience fever, chills, and
flu-like illness. Left untreated, they may develop severe complications
and die. Each year 350-500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide,
and over one million people die, most of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Each day 1 person dies of Malaria every 30 seconds. That is 565,000 deaths per year that can easily be prevented by giving out insecticide-treated bed nets for kids and families to sleep under, as well as by giving anti-malarial drugs.

The fastest thing we can do is to buy bed nets for the people living in the malaria rampant areas (see map above).

Follow the links below to buy a net and save lives ($10 will buy one, $20 will buy two, you get the picture) --

"Bears attack local teens"

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read this tonight. How could I have missed this the first time I read through the pages? I stopped and read it again,

"...two bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the youths..."

This was the end of the quote. Let me lead you back to the beginning. I found the story in the 2 Kings 2:23-24. Yep, the Bible. Here is the entire verse:

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road,
some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you
baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" 24
He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the
name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled
forty-two of the youths.

I found this verse reading Stuff Christians Like, a blog by Prodigal Jon. Each post is brilliantly written (as is everything else I have read on his other 2 sites). The posts in this specific blog are brilliant because they are truth - it may be ugly, embarrassing, convicting, but the things on the site are all laughable because we all know "that guy or girl".

I think that Jon is part robot. He has to be, there is no other way to explain how quickly and thought provoking each of the posts (plural) he puts up each day! I struggle to put post something once or twice a week and here is Jon (3 sites, multiple posts) - a posting machine.

Check out his Stuff Christian Like site - if you like what you are reading let him know. Besides posting, he is also writing a book (based on the Stuff Christian Like site). I've read the first chapter and can't wait to read the next ones!

The "Real" Tom Cruise

ht: Flowerdust

This is how I picture Tom Cruise at his house. I got the link for how celebrities would look if they lived in Oklahoma from Flowerdust - be sure to check out the rest of the pictures. Some are awesome and not that much of a stretch from reality.

Readability...

I was doing my daily blog stalking and came upon this blog reading level. I was sure that the reading level was preschool or lower, but some how it measured out as Genius.

Really? Weird...

ht: Bill LaMorey

Kindergarten Cop

17

That is just SO wrong.

Heart strings

This picture is killing me - it makes my heart break. But it also gives me hope that lives are being changed.

There are a group of bloggers from around the US (maybe the world?) traveling with Compassion to Uganda showing the lives of the children living in extreme poverty (financial, education, and nourishment).

Here are three blogger's view from Uganda

Heather
Carlos
Ann

I love Olan Mills!

HT: List Of The Day!

Bloggers getting LOST in Uganda

The following bloggers are off to Uganda with Compassion International to use their eyes, hearts, and high blog hits to bring attention to the need of humanitarian aid to the people of Uganda.

Keep these guys and gals in your thoughts and prayers (not to mention on your RSS feed or favorites).

Evangelical Outpost
Family Research Counsil
BeliefNet - J-Walking
Ethos
Chris Elrod
Ragamuffin Soul
Whittaker Woman
Rocks In My Dryer
BooMama
Flowerdust
Heartlight Magazine
HM - The Hard Music Magazine
Shlog
Spence Smith
Brian Seay
Keely Scott

Where in the world?

What do the following things have in common?


Chicago, Yellow fever vaccinations, a Fat Ragamuffin and Whittaker Woman, Flower Dust, The BlogFather, and a Shlog.

They won't tell until Monday...


I think they are going to finally put their heads and blogs together and save the world!

Parents Are Clueless

Go check out the website ParentsAreClueless.com and see how the world of teenagers and parents really is not that different. It was interesting to me that a lot of the fears of the Kids echoed the fears of the Parents. The next series at NewSpring Church is focusing on the parenting and building stronger families.

HT: Perry Noble

Sharing Some "Ink" Love

Carlos (a.k.a Ragamuffinsoul) is going to be showing off his tat tomorrow on LA Link. Be sure to watch The Learning Channel (TLC) at 10 PM (EST)! If you watch carefully, you may even see him cry a little.

Oct 02, 10:00 pm
(60 minutes)
LA Ink Kim Looks for Love TV-PG
(DL) Kim's single and ready to mingle. The crew is determined to find her a
good man and she finally takes a gamble on love at Drag Queen Bingo.Chris
combines his two passions in life in a rockabilly style pin up.

Check the times in your hood! Do you think that it is Los in "drag"? =)

Adding a new link this weekend

I want to add a column of all the blogs that I frequent through my RSS reader at Bloglines. So sometime this weekend, I'll be adding all the blogs that are in my reader as well as those that I read (when updated) that I can't figure out how to add to my reader.

Stay tuned for some "link love"!

Typical?

Mute Math from the Jimmy Kimmel show - not exactly a Typical performance!



HT: Ken Murphy

Negative to Positive

Look at the picture and follow the instructions below:

• Stare at the four spots in the middle of the picture for about 30-35 seconds.
• Look at the closest wall to you and blink a couple times

HT: Two Blond Boys

Guess What!?!

As of March 9, 2008 our house will be rockin' with the sounds of projectile vomiting, middle of the night feedings, and an endless supply of baby talk. We are pumped up for baby #2! Anyone willing take bets on gender or give ideas for baby names?


HT: Double 3
Go check out "Spell with flickr"!

Reason: 1,254,692,301.07

(This post explains one of the many reasons why I am glad I'm not female!)

I am blog-stalking at work today and came across this post. I have already sent the link to the post to a number of people, but figured it would be best to repost it on my blog to get more hits (I am getting ever so close to 2000 visitors, things are getting desperate - so thanks Hold On Let Me Think!)

WAX is “Not your Friend”

CAUTION: Be prepared to laugh out loud…I laughed till I almost cried as I could just see this happening!

All hair removal methods have tricked women with their promises of easy, painless removal - The epilady, scissors, razors, Nair and now…the wax.

My night began as any other normal weeknight. Come home, fix dinner, play with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours: “Maybe I should pull the waxing kit out of the medicine cabinet.” So I headed to the site of my demise: the bathroom.

It was one of those “cold wax” kits. No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the strips together in your hand, they get warm and you peel them apart and press them to your leg (or wherever else) and you pull the hair right off. No muss, no fuss. How hard can it be? I mean, I’m not a genius, but I am mechanically inclined enough to figure this out. (YA THINK!?!)

So I pull one of the thin strips out. Its two strips facing each other stuck together. Instead of rubbing them together, my genius kicks in so I get out the hair dryer and heat it to 1000 degrees. (”Cold wax,” yeah…right!) I lay the strip across my thigh. Hold the skin around it tight and pull. It works! OK, so it wasn’t the best feeling, but it wasn’t too bad. I can do this! Hair removal no longer eludes me! I am She-rah, fighter of all wayward body hair and maker of smooth skin extraordinaire.

With my next wax strip I move north. After checking on the kids, I sneak back into the bathroom, for the ultimate hair fighting championship. I drop my panties and place one foot on the toilet.

Using the same procedure, I apply the one strip across the right side of my bikini line, covering the right half of my *hoo-hoo* and stretching down to the inside of my butt cheek (Yes, it was a long strip) I inhale deeply and brace myself….RRRRIIIPPP!!!!

I’m blind!!! Blinded from pain!!!!….OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!! Vision returning, I notice that I’ve only managed to pull off half the strip. OH NO! What have I done???!!! Another deep breath and RRIIPP!!

Everything is swirling and spotted. I think I may pass out…must stay conscious…Do I hear crashing drums??? Breathe, breathe…OK, back to normal.

I want to see my trophy - a wax covered strip, the one that has caused me so much pain, with my hairy pelt sticking to it. I want to revel in the glory that is my triumph over body hair. I hold up the strip! There’s no hair on it. Where is the hair???

WHERE IS THE WAX??

Slowly I ease my head down, foot still perched on the toilet. I see the hair. The hair that should be on the strip. I touch. I am touching wax. WHAT?! I run my fingers over the most sensitive part of my body, which is now covered in cold wax and matted hair.

Then I make the next BIG mistake…remember my foot is still propped up on the toilet? I know I need to do something. So I put my foot down. My LIFE FLASHES BEFORE ME!!!!!! I hear the slamming of a cell door. *hoo-hoo*? Sealed shut! Butt?? Sealed shut!

I penguin walk around the bathroom trying to figure out what to do and think to myself “Please don’t let me get the urge to poop. My head may pop off!”

What can I do to melt the wax? Hot water!! Hot water melts wax!!

I’ll run the hottest water I can stand into the bathtub, get in, immerse the wax-covered bits and the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it off, right??? WRONG!!!!!

I get in the tub - the water is slightly hotter than that used to torture prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment - I sit.

Now, the only thing worse than having your nether regions glued together is having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of the tub…in scalding hot water. Which by the way doesn’t melt cold wax.

So, now I’m stuck to the bottom of the tub as though I had cement-epoxied myself to the porcelain!!

God bless the man who had convinced me a few months ago to have a phone put in the bathroom!

I call my friend, thinking surely she has waxed before and has some secret of how to get me undone. It’s a very good conversation starter - “So, my butt and *hoo-hoo* are glued together to the bottom of the tub!”

There is a slight pause. She doesn’t know any secret tricks for removal but she does try to hide her laughter from me. She wants to know exactly where the wax is located, “Are we talking cheeks or

*hoo-hoo*?”

She’s laughing out loud by now…I can hear her. I give her the rundown and she suggests I call the number on the side of the box.

YEAH!!!!! Right!! I should be the joke of someone else’s night.

While we go through various solutions. I resort to scraping the wax off with a razor. Nothing feels better then to have your girlie goodies covered in hot wax, glued shut, stuck to the tub in super hot water and then dry-shaving the sticky wax off!!

By now the brain is not working, dignity has taken a major hike and I’m pretty sure I’m going to need Post-Traumatic Stress counseling for this event.

My friend is still talking with me when I finally see my saving grace….the lotion they give you to remove the excess wax. What do I really have to lose at this point? I rub some on and OH MY!!

The scream probably woke the kids and scared the dickens out of my friend.

It’s so painful, but I really don’t care. “IT WORKS!! It works!!” I get a hearty congratulation from my friend and she hangs up.

I successfully remove the remainder of the wax and then notice to my grief and despair….THE HAIR IS STILL THERE…….ALL OF IT!!!

So I recklessly shave it off. Heck, I’m numb by now. Nothing hurts. I could have amputated my own leg at this point.

Next week I’m going to try hair color…..

Send this on to other ladies who need a good laugh!

Quote of the day:

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and I could say, “I used everything that you gave me” ~Erma Bombeck

While reading this at work this afternoon, I had to stop about a quarter of the way down and focus on work stuff, so as to not disturb my cubicle neighbors. Oh the muffled sounds coming from my cube: snorts, snicks, zonks, cries, etc. (shaking my head in embarrassment)

D' Nile ain't just a river in Egypt.

As you can tell, today has been an extremely busy day at work. Recently I have fallen down on the posting. I think I have made up for that with all the random blogginess from today. Here is a sign of my addiction to the blogosphere....

77%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Upper Math?

I borrowed these two examples of "new math" from some random blog that I stumbled upon. The utter lack of understanding (a.k.a. "effort" or "brain power") was not really that surprising; after all I did have something to do with the teaching of America's future leaders.

Blog Stalking

Ok. So I have not spent near enough time updating the blog recently. I really don't have that much to say lately to the 3.5 people that read the random thoughts on here. But here is something I had to share - the best part is that I didn't write it! So it takes no work to link you to it.

Here is one of the latest posts from Perry Noble. He is lead pastor at Newspring in South Carolina. He is a Clemson fan, so I can't harass him too much (ACC? Come dude, get a real football conference!). Apparently Clemson and Auburn are "sister schools" whatever that means (i.e., similar colors and mascots???). Anyway - here is the post about comparing his church to a cult. Enjoy!