The Hermit points to all things hidden, such as knowledge and inspiration,hidden enemies. The illumination is from within, and retirement from participation in current events.
The Hermit is a card of introspection, analysis and, well, virginity. You do not desire to socialize; the card indicates, instead, a desire for peace and solitude. You prefer to take the time to think, organize, ruminate, take stock. There may be feelings of frustration and discontent but these feelings eventually lead to enlightenment, illumination, clarity.
The Hermit represents a wise, inspirational person, friend, teacher, therapist. This a person who can shine a light on things that were previously mysterious and confusing.
Photographer Dina Goldstein has created images inspired by her daughter's fascination with Disney cartoons and real life issues surrounding her. The concept of Happily Ever After is challenged in this series of Fallen Princesses which turns out to be both somber and funny at the same time.
The only problem of marrying into princesshood is that your husband is a prince and he demands to be treated so.
Attending too many a ball induces alcoholism?
All the other princesses are doing it.
You must give them what they expect. The Sinead O'Connor look is so early 90s.
Woohoo! I was nominated for the Kreativ Blogger Award! Prestigious, prestigious indeed!
In order to receive the award, there are some rules to follow: (Since the rules seems to be incomplete, I traveled upstream to find the missing ones.)
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award. 2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog. 3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award. 4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting. 5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers. 6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate. 7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.
First, I'd like to thank Vik over at Maybe It's Just Me... for nominating me for the award. Anyone who hasn't read Vik's blog yet should go and check it out. Love his blog, I read it a few times a day, every single day!
Seven things about myself that people would find interesting... let's see:
a. I've lived in this second floor apartment in Paris for six years of my life and I always thought the name of the street was Beaudoin instead of Baudoin
b. I'm a bit of a kleptomaniac, I see it as an act of rebellion against big industries. The most expensive item I've taken was a cheap bracelet from a shop but the occurrence is less than once a year.
c. I'm paranoid when I'm alone in the dark, so I usually leave a light on constantly. When I moved to my current apartment, the light I keep on 24/7 turns out to be the bathroom light due to the awkward position of the switch.
d. Most people gets cheerful when the weather is sunny outside, but I prefer windy, rainy, stormy weathers. It makes me feel safer and warmer when I'm at home and I do like to feel rain and wind on me.
e. Over the past 13 years that I'm in the States, I have yet to learn how to drive. I'm afraid if I'm given the power of a vehicle combined with my low attention span, I might run over someone. I guess I could learn and get used to driving, but just the idea of it gives me a halt.
f. I used to be a big fan of horror films, but nowadays I can't seemed to be able to sit through a horror film without cringing or looking away. Doesn't help that the boyfriend likes to watch them though.
g. I love music, like to listen to them, think I can sing, adhere to rhythm and beat but for the life of me I can't dance. Maybe I'm overtly self-conscious and easily embarrassed.
I remember seeing this picture about a year ago of Congressman Aaron Schock. Congressman Schock is a very photogenic guy who looks better in his other pictures and he's only 29, though he is a Republican. In the spirit of bipartisanship, I can't find much on his platform, so there's not much to object about. Though he is quoted for suggesting selling nuclear weapons to Taiwan to force China into following U.S. policy in Iran. He's also seems to be for torture. Even though handsome, he's not quite my cup of tea.
I've not heard of the 22-years-old footballer until last week when the young man started stirring up trouble for starring in a pro-life ad that was bound to be aired during Super Bowl. Tim Tebow was born in Manila into a missionary family. During the pregnancy, his mother had contracted an infection and went into a coma, the doctor was expecting a stillbirth and recommended an abortion to protect the mother's life but at the end they both survived. So it is quite understandable the young man would have strong feelings on abortion. Though associating himself with an extreme group like Focus On The Family leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Mr. Tebow is indeed quite hunky and he likestoposeshirtless or somethinglike that, I can't wait for a sex tape.
Well, the picture was taken when he was 22 and it looks pretty damn good. Other than that, he's Republican teabagger, anti-gay, a racist, supports torture, supports death penalty, anti-health care reform and proud to be driving a truck. How did he get elected to be the Senator of Massachusetts again? He's a bit looney tunes, ain't he?
He is a 56 years old, well coiffed Democratic senator, so the studly factor is on the low side. Plus the whole lying about his extramarital affair and denying his own love child is a bit low on the moral totem pole. Though one of his aide has found a DVD at his film-maker mistress house that contains footage of several sex acts. The aide claims that Senator Edwards "is physically very striking, in a certain area. Everyone who sees it says 'whoa'." Really? A lot of people made a big deal about Tommy Lee's "physical feature" back when he made a sex tape with then wife Pamela Anderson but I wasn't really impressed since I'm desensitized by gay porn, though I'd still watch the Edwards one if given the chance. I've heard that John Edwards wife is now divorcing him and I wonder if his political career is going kaput now, maybe he can start doing porn?
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Two more things...
1. Can anyone tell me how many rebuttals or responses to the State of the Union address are necessary on the Republican side? GOP, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Log Cabin Republicans, and a commercial from the Cheneys. It's quite enough. If the disingenuous want to do something productive then let's do it, if not, I don't need to hear them jabber.
2. Can't we just make shameless scum Rod Blagojevich go away? I don't want to see him in commercials or in I'm a Celebrity Get Me Outta Here or The Apprentice even though I don't watch them. I don't want to hear about the guy either. Just make him go away. Isn't he supposed to be in prison or something?
Found some cool stop-motion videos over at Pink Tentacle and YouTube, I thought I'd share them. As an art form, it really require a high level of dedication, planning, creativity and artistry, it is from the truly talented. I hope you enjoy!
Minilogue/Hitchhikers Choice by Kristofer Ström. I really like his style of comics, it turns quite surreal near the end where he just manipulates things with his finger.
The creator who called himself “うｐ主" says he didn't use any photo-editing software. He created the whole video by just changing the position, focus, brightness, zoom, exposure and gain of his webcam. The song is called Bad Apple by Masayoshi Minoshima.
A Wolf Loves Pork by Takeuchi Taijin. I saw this a while back and baffled by the effort put into it, not to mention the thousands of photgraphs taken in order to make this. Just think about the photo printing costs.
Buenos Aires based visual artist Blu and North Carolina based artist David Ellis traveled to Italy to collaborate on this project called Combo. It's a loop that will replay in the middle of the clip, as long as you get the idea, I guess you don't have to watch it twice.
A video by Koichiro Tsujikawa for the band Cornelius' Beep It.
Earlier this winter, I met an investment banker who was diagnosed with a brain tumor five years ago. He's a managing director at a top Wall Street firm, and I was put in touch with him through a colleague who knew I was writing a story about the potential dangers of cell-phone radiation. He agreed to talk with me only if his name wasn't used, so I'll call him Jim. He explained that the tumor was located just behind his right ear and was not immediately fatal—the five-year survival rate is about 70 percent. He was 35 years old at the time of his diagnosis and immediately suspected it was the result of his intense cell-phone usage. "Not for nothing," he said, "but in investment banking we've been using cell phones since 1992, back when they were the Gordon-Gekko-on-the-beach kind of phone." When Jim asked his neurosurgeon, who was on the staff of a major medical center in Manhattan, about the possibility of a cell-phone-induced tumor, the doctor responded that in fact he was seeing more and more of such cases—young, relatively healthy businessmen who had long used their phones obsessively. He said he believed the industry had discredited studies showing there is a risk from cell phones. "I got a sense that he was pissed off," Jim told me. A handful of Jim's colleagues had already died from brain cancer; the more reports he encountered of young finance guys developing tumors, the more certain he felt that it wasn't a coincidence. "I knew four or five people just at my firm who got tumors," Jim says. "Each time, people ask the question. I hear it in the hallways."
Healthy, young executives who obsessively use their cellulars are getting tumors behind their ears. Even though, not much studies had been done on the subject in the States, the researches are popping up in Europe and Australia as well. I wonder if the rate of cancer is as high in Asia, Asians are obsessed about cell phones and I would assume that if cell phone causes cancer, they will suffer as much if not more. If a trend is not detected over there then maybe it had to do with the frequency of the signal since different countries uses different bandwidths. Another group that are obsessed with cell phone usage are teenagers who run up their parent's telephone bills, I wonder how many years it takes for the microwave to cause cancer. Will our next generation feel the blunt of it? How about wireless computers? Are they also hazardous to our health? Cancer is everywhere.
Read more...
The weekend before the past one, 8 high school friends of mine decided to go to Eastern Taiwan for a 4 days vacation. They went to a different city each day and from the 1,000 pictures that they have accumulatedly taken, they seemed to have had a really great time and I really wish I was there too.
Taiwan much like part of China is known for their rocky hills and different body of waters that runs through them. Not particularly my speed.
Though I guess it can be cute.
Small towns are a lot more interesting.
At the last day, they stayed at a bed and breakfast by the sea that looks quite special.
Every room in the b&b has overtly cute designs and knick knacks to follow
Swings and stuff animals to make it cartoonish and homey. I'd love to live there.
And the view looks marvelous.
Breakfast looks good too. A perfect place for R&R. There's also two pools and a jacuzzi in the premise.
The thing about a trip to Taiwan that sounds so good to me though is the food. There's a shabu-shabu with two kinds of broth and thin sliced marbled beef amongst other seafood and such.
In Taiwan as well as some Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, you might find a street or two that are lined up with street vendors at night that sells local specialties.
These streets supplies one of my favorite easting activities that we called "Sweeping the Street". Here we see an oven in the process of toasting some sesame pepper buns.
Some giant grilled sausages
You can see various duck parts here, including wings, necks, heads, feet and offal.
Various meats on sticks. Bacon-wrapped quail eggs, sausages, cauliflowers and tofu waiting to be fried.
Spring rolls getting stuffed and wrapped.
Grilled calamari stacked. TWD$80 is about USD$2.50 each.
A friend sent me a link to a very nice online game called Hoshi Saga which I find to be intriguing and entertaining so I thought I'd post it here to share the fun.
Hoshi Saga in Japanese means Star Search and that is the main objective of the game; to find a star. So far there are 4 different installment of the game and each game is divided into 25-36 different small stages. Each stage utilizes a different design while the player trying to discover what the controls are and what it is required to solve the puzzle and find the star.
A lot of them are actually quite straight forward. I got stuck on one that actually requires me to type a sentence over and over again real quick. Some are a little annoying but altogether I had a great time going through the puzzles. Some stages are very artfully done, and others utilizes interesting concepts. They all have various difficulty levels. I would recommend starting the game with Hoshi Saga Ringo and then go backwards with Hoshi Saga 3, http://nekogames.com/hoshisaga/hoshi2/index.html and then the original Hoshi Saga. If you got stuck the walkthroughs are here.
Most of them doesn't take half a minute to solve and you can stop anytime you want, your progress will automatically be saved on your computer. So it's perfect if you only wants to kill a minute or two.
This week has gone by incredibly fast but I didn't feel like I've accomplished much. Still selling books through Amazon, on Tuesday morning two FBI agents woke me up by knocking on my door and asked me whether I've noticed my neighbors down the hall from two years ago selling drugs, having loud parties or having Armenians coming and going, but I told them I was a bad neighbor and mostly kept to myself so that was it. They asked for my name and phone number, but they didn't even bother to introduce themselves which makes me wonder the legitimacy of the whole ordeal.
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is finally over which makes me a little sad and in the last episode when he touchingly advise his audience that cynicism is the least attractive quality and it accomplishes nothing touched a little too close to home. Is it possible that I can be less cynical? I thought cynicism is more based on reality and it gets people ready for disappointment but maybe I should rethink that.
Anyhow, I found this video on Serious Eats and the low budget constant repetition on the tag line is kinda mesmerizing. The jingle sorta reminds me of Jordy's Dur Dur D'être Bébé.
This week I found this meme at What If This Is As Good As It Gets?, It's a simple meme where you just have to Bold the statements you find to be true. Since I'm feeling lazy, this easy meme would work well.
* I have a serious attitude problem * I hate repetitive surveys * I dig 80s music * I’m feeling pretty lonely right now * Donnie Darko is really overrated * I have a shell necklace * Cats are my favorite animal * I wish I was with my boyfriend right now * My mother had me when she was too young * I haven’t brushed my teeth yet today * I love lollipops * I hate chewing gum * I once ate takeaway food three nights in a row * Will Ferrell is hilarious * I don’t think hats suit me * I wear alicebands (for those who don't speak Brit) * I have heard of the band Tears For Fears * I don’t drive & I’m not sure if I ever will * I’d rather be driven than drive myself * My job consists of sitting around on my ass all day * Oh no, the sun is out * I miss last summer * The good memories of my past make me want to cry * I HATE Star Wars * Angelina Jolie was a great actress in Girl, Interrupted * I know where Shakespeare was born in England * I’m not interested in Shakespeare or any of his plays * The term “whatever” is used when the person doesn’t have anything better to say * Zebra print is so effing tacky * If I were to get fat, I wouldn’t care * Girls who look anorexic, now that is repulsive * If you were to give me $200 right now, I’d go right out & spend it all * I want to go to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum * I don’t know much about my country’s history * I do not own a bikini * I wear earrings everyday * I had a very disturbing dream last night * I can’t watch animals eating other animals on wildlife TV; it makes me so sad * I love to read True Crime * I would find it hilariously funny if Former President Bush tripped over his own two feet & fell off a cliff * I live in America & do not have an American accent * I can fake a Scottish accent * Some music moves me to tears (most movies do) * I have read the book Jane Eyre * I love Borders bookstore * I’d love to work there * I HAVE worked there * I have never purchased anything from Starbucks * I can sing opera * I have seen a picture of my parents on their wedding day * My parents never married * Sometimes I wonder if I was adopted * I strongly believe in reincarnation * The celebrity I’d most love to meet is dead * I find Joaquin Phoenix highly sexilicious * I call people “fools” a lot * People in motorized wheelchairs make me laugh * I have been caught singing into my hairbrush * When I’m embarrassed I turn bright red * I don’t blush * I’m not squeamish at the sight of blood * Guys who smell good really turn me on * One of my favorite actors is Jim Carrey * Kate Winslet is the perfect example of an English Rose * I seriously think Sarah Jessica Parker is one of the ugliest female actresses out there * I enjoy taking walks by myself in the summer * One of my pets recently died * I want to marry a fat old man with loads of cash * I’m afraid of all animals with hooves * MOO * I’m interested in the supernatural * My mother is such a gossip
From the National Geographic series and Channel 4 using ground-breaking photographic techniques, plus state-of-the-art graphics, 4-D scanning techniques and the most sophisticated natural history models ever, we have images from a documentary called Extraordinary Animals in the Womb.
We have a kitty here.
A Puppy.
Looks like this one could be a sharpei.
A baby kangaroo in the pouch.
A baby elephant
Baby emperor penguin that looks almost like an alien.
Another penguin, still quite alien/monster-like.
A Parasitic Wasp's Larvae
Scary baby shark.
A cute dolphin.
For a brief video of the program, click here. Aren't they cute? Hope that put you in a good mood for the weekend.
Right before the end of 2009, One Mrs. Iris Robinson excused herself from the public life of being UK's parliament member. Mrs. Robinson is the wife of Peter Robinson, the first Northern Member Assembly. Mrs. Robinson is also a born again Christian and a major homophobe. Right after a gay-bashing incident took place, Mrs. Robinson offered to refer the victim to psychiatric counseling and after being called on being a homophobe she compared homosexuals as murderers that can be redeemed by being baptized. Like any other born again Christians, she claimed that homosexuality is an abomination and the thought makes her sick and nauseous. She's also quoted that "There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children" So guess why holier-than-thou Mrs. Robinson is leaving the political field in the UK?
Mrs. Robinson first claimed to have been in poor physical and mental health, but it turned out that the source of her poor mental health is because she has been buggering the 21 years old Kirk McCambley, which should prove that there's nothing really wrong with her physical health. Kirk McCambley has been helping out in his father's famous butcher shop since he was 9 and apparently his father was a close friend of Mrs. Robinson since that time and the boy had known the woman since then. (Sounds a little bit like The Memoirs of a Geisha if you asked me.)
After Kirk's father has passed away when the boy was 19, he has started seeing Mrs. Robinson then 59 which is more than 3 times the teenager's age, intimately. Mrs. Robinson in turn persuaded her friend to invest in a cafe for Kirk McCambley, approximately £50,000 was funneled into the business and Mrs. Robinson got 10% of it as kickbacks through a check made to a church that she attends. Aside from that the Robinson husband and wife also claim salary and expenses from the £572,000 a year. Four of their family members also receives £150,000 annually. (Sounds a bit like Sarah Palin.) The scandal cutely nicknamed Cougargate further grew and it turns out she has had been seeing the Kirk McCambley's father, the butcher, before he passed amongst a few other men. After the relationship has gone sour, Mrs. Robinson asked for the money back even though it wasn't hers to start with, there's also questionable dealings that involves a few councils that she sat on to get the kid his cafe.
She tried to kill herself after the husband found out about her affairs, which is sad, but don't worry, apparently she got a second chance from god. "I do not deserve a second chance, but I have been given one. I have been forgiven by god." That's just nice. I do like my hypocrites to commit to their storyline fully while condemning others. Though it's sure that her husband's and her own political careers are pretty much over.
Over at Slog, Dan Savage summarized the categories of anti-gay bigots to be either assholes who are externalizing their own internal struggles against their gay natures and desires (Haggard, Craig, Crist, Ratzinger, et al) and assholes who are attempting to compensate for and draw attention away from their own moral shortcomings by attacking gay people (Vitter, Sanford, Ensign, Gingrich, et al). So maybe when someone jumps up and feel free to spread bigotry, the focus should be what the person is hiding. Maggie Gallagher doesn't appear to be attractive enough to be hiding a teenager as a lover, can she be a secret dyke?
No doubt your Kirk McCambley deserves the young entrepreneur awards just as much as the next guy, he seems incredibly resourceful himself. Oh and apparently Kirk McCambley had signed with Playgirl, so we'll sure be seeing some Levi-esque pictures soon.
It's surprising to me that Massachusetts is going for the red team by electing this guy.
Is he the ultimate teabagger?
It's not shocking, I mean, he's a handsome guy and the president's approval rating is dipping below a certain point and with a name like Scott Brown, he should be pretty popular amongst the people with low attention spans. Though it is scary that his whole platform is to go against health care reform and he's a potential racist or at the very least a liar.
On Team Coco's front, I think it's pretty much settled that Conan O'Brien will be walking out of NBC's late night TV line up. There's a rumor out there that Conan will settle on a $42 Million dollar deal to walk away and it could be as soon as the end of this week so he won't able to badmouth the channel any longer.
More often than not I'm disturbed by the decisions of station executives. They are able to cut programs at will and replace them by other programs that doesn't do any better, meanwhile the viewers get abandoned midway through a story and get frustrated. Do these so called executives even watch TV or do they just focus on numbers? Don't they know that switching time and creating controversy will cause loss of viewership? In another level, to have the lives of the families of the whole cast and crew uprooted and move to another city and then have the show canceled after 7 months is rather unusually cruel.
Jay makes the whole thing sound like so impassive. He said he agreed to retire in 2009 to avoid what happened with Dave Letterman, but after all that has happened he agreed to take the show back. The whole thing with David Letterman IS happening again. If he was an upstanding person, he would have walked out. After all how many years had he been hosting the Tonight Show? Isn't it someone else's turn? I do think Conan is a funnier guy, but Jay's show has a lot more fun activities like Headlines, Jay Walking, Ten@Ten and the Green Car Challenge. Though I rather watch the Colbert show and Chelsea Handler.
The next three days, Conan's show is lining up with unusually important guests like Adam Sandler, Robin Williams, Tom Hanks and Will Ferrell, so this might really be the end for him. Maybe he can get a daytime talk show on ABC to replace Oprah? Though 42 Million should last anyone for a while.
