They Call Me Cupcake

Your result for What Cupcake flavour are you? quiz...

Chocolate Cupcake!

You are a charmer, almoste everyone loves you. You can be a little bitter at times, but that just adds to your charm. You are popular all over the world, lucky you!

Take What Cupcake flavour are you? quiz at HelloQuizzy

I Love the Red Gloves

You Are 90% Feminist

You are a total feminist. This doesn't mean you're a man hater (in fact, you may be a man). You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It's a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action.

Are You a Feminist?

I'm actually never thought myself much of a feminist, I just believe in fairness and equality for everyone.

Your result for The Well Rounded Geek Quiz...

The Companion

See that beautiful girl in the picture above? That's you. You are smart, you are savvy and you've got the common sense needed to be a very well rounded geek indeed. But not QUITE at that higher echelon yet. But you're in good company. Chances are you know at least one good, well rounded and worldy person to glean some information from so stick with them, through time travel and dimensional hopping. You'll come out the otherside weathered and FANTASTIC.

Take The Well Rounded Geek Quiz at HelloQuizzy

That's Highly Illogi-oh, look at the kitty...

Your result for The Right Brain vs Left Brain Test...

80% Right Brained!

Your answers indicate that you are more right brained than left brained. Approximately half the population is right brained. People who are right brained tend to be more creative, spontaneous, visual, and emotional. You prefer variety and randomness. You prefer to look at the whole picture, rather than the minute details, and you probably don't like being pinned down. Art, religion, and philosophy are usbjects that most likely interest you. You are the friend that gets the most calls for 3am diner runs. You are a bit of a dreamer ,and sometimes flighty. Artist Pablo Picasso was right brained.

Take The Right Brain vs Left Brain Test at HelloQuizzy

Brilliant! I'm a Weasley

Much like Pam, I couldn't really argue with the results. The description is dead on, except my Weasley twins are all packed into one guy.

Your result for The Harry Potter Husband Test...

Mrs. Weasley Twin

Laughter is important to you. You want a guy who's never boring, who can always put a smile on your face, and who can pull the best of pranks and never get caught. Or possibly two such guys. Because let's face it, they're pretty much a two-fer. You get one, you get both. Even if one of them's only a friend, he'll still be around so much you'll feel like you're married to him, too. Sure, they may not seem like the most mature guys in the world, in a traditional sense, but just ask them about their business plan. When they drive you nuts by relentlessly testing their latest inventions on you, you can console youself with that huge stack of cash and dragon-leather jacket. Besides, you know you're powerless against those stereo smiles.

Take The Harry Potter Husband Test at HelloQuizzy

Our Dog is a Fruit Addict

It started the way these things usually do. Standing in the kitchen having The Talk.

"Sweetie, I know you think that you want some of this pineapple but you aren't going to like it."

Ears remain up, every movement of the pineapple chunks being watched like they were particularly active and tasty-looking rodents.

"Seriously, sweetie, you aren't going to like it."

Head cocks to the side, tail begins to wag gently.

'Dad' comes into the kitchen and has pity. One pineapple chunk is tossed in the air and snapped up by eager jaws.

'Mom' smirks. "Didn't like that, didya?"

Ears prick forward, tail wags harder, and all 70 pounds of him begins to wriggle in on my personal space. This is not typically a wriggly dog. Two more chunks of pineapple go down with ever-increasing enthusiasm. 'Well,' we think, 'if he likes pineapple what else might he like?' We all share a fresh orange and a banana.

That was the day we realized that maybe our dog Herger was a bit of a freak. We knew that some dogs liked fruit, but it seemed that maybe he liked fruit Too Much. Today made that all very, very clear.

I was up first this morning and decided to be sweet and peel an orange for my Doggy-Daddy. As soon as I pierced the skin of the orange, Herger was dancing attendance under my feet. We hadn't had fresh oranges for awhile so I tossed him a slice of orange to see if that would chill him out. Uh, no. I took the bowl of orange slices into the bedroom and Herger followed closely behind, jumping up on the bed. This normally well-behaved and/or at least very shy dog nearly intercepted the first orange slice on the way to Doggy-Daddy's mouth! We had a Correction Moment which, shy boy that he is, requires only one Serious Talking To that lasts all of about 2 seconds after which he sat back and sighed, watching us eating the orange with rapt but mournful attention. We saved the last sections to share with the dogs back in the kitchen where they are supposed to get food near their bowls. His sister shares in the bounty out of fairness, although she really doesn't get the whole fruit thing. She just wants what he has. Since he was so mournful about not getting more of the morning orange I gave him almost a whole one, a section at a time, after I got back from work. He also got some baby greens because, well, he also likes that. This was all in addition to his daily kibble. Basically the dog has a healthier diet, and diet tendencies, than we do.

Now, just the "almost taking orange out of Daddy's mouth" incident would have been noteworthy. But tonight, after having all that orange and a salad, too, he was still on the lookout for a drive-by fruiting. I was grabbing a snack and had a banana along with a lot of other stuff to carry, and dropped the banana. He grabbed it and ran!! It was hard to summon up a good "Drop!" command when I was howling with laughter so he managed to get all the way to the den and behind the futon before I caught up with him. It's important in this story to note that all of our pets are trained to the "drop!"command, including the cats (handy when one caught a bird and then complied to spit it out within a half second). It's an important command because you never know when a pet might try to ingest something hazardous to their health, therefore the "drop!' command is non-negotiable and always strictly enforced. I know Herger knows "drop!" but he was NOT going to drop that banana! I chased him around the futon, the drop command becoming more commanding as it became clear that he was on his own plan. He finally dropped it in the hallway after he had managed to get half of it down. It landed right in front of his sister who had the "please don't tell me I have to eat this" look on her face. She, apparently, had far exceeded her daily fruit allowance.

As for Herger? Well, when I finally got my own banana snack he sat wriggling at my feet, obviously contemplating a coup. We've been saying for awhile that he would like for us to move to the tropics where he can eat tasty fruits off the beach every day. Now I'm thinking I need to check his bed for plane tickets. He doesn't seem like he will wait much longer.

If you would like to get Herger some fruit feel free to give his Doggy-Mommy the order and donate funds here. He swears we don't get him nearly enough of it.

Getting out the Evil Camera Contraption makes the ears go down but doesn't shift his Mommy-Has-A-Banana focus.

I Thought You'd Be Needing That...

Since today is Sci-Fi and Bureaucracy Day I thought we should celebrate some EFFICIENCY.

Something to Think About

I've gotten far enough in The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World by Lynne McTaggart to discover that thoughts cannot, in fact, get stuck in my head. Apparently they seep out into the world like little ninjas bent on their own purpose.

The basic point of the book is to pull together results of scientific research that indicates that something is indeed afoot in the universe. Quoting the Amazon product description, "Using cutting-edge research conducted at Princeton,MIT, Stanford, and many other prestigious universities and laboratories, The Intention Experiment reveals that the universe is connected by a vast quantum energy field."

I know what you're thinking. "Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field controls my destiny! It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense."

Well, maybe and maybe not.

The information is compelling to think about. And, since it proposes that thoughts influence the world, I suppose that's a good thing. Among the studies in the book is evidence that all living things react to not only action but intention. Thinking that you will burn a plant's leaves is enough to give it stress. (Until, apparently, it learns that you only have torture thoughts and don't actually do torture. Then it chills out and decides not to worry about your crazy self.) This sort of information has made me anxious enough that I will probably want to take to my bed for a week because just walking on the grass will make me think about it screaming little helpless grass screams of agony. Actually, I guess thinking about walking on the grass is getting that response right now. Eep! I knew there was a reason I'd spent a good portion of my life shutting down my extra-sensory perception.

So, what are your thoughts? Crack-pot or not?

Raising Eyebrows?

You Are an Eyebrow Piercing

You are unique, quirky, and more than a little eccentric. You cultivate the weirder sides of your personality, and you don't mind sharing them. Ever since you were a kid, you've had strong opinions. You've never been like everyone else, and you're okay with that. And you've always been able to tell people exactly what you think - even when they don't want to hear it. You love to create, dream, imagine, and communicate. You live in your own universe. And unlike most people who live in their own little world, you're happy to invite anyone in!

What Piercing Are You?

Cheese Gods Are Everywhere

Yet another who claims to be the God of Cheese. I wonder how Aristaeus feels about that. Of course, I doubt that Aristaeus ever had such a cute avatar or signature graphic...

I Have Needs

Remember the Google game "[Name] is"? Well this is "[Name] needs."

Sue needs to look at getting back in step with us if she wants to stay and participate as a full member of the Liberal party [ed. Ouch!]

Sue needs an outhouse where electrical items can be stored

"SUE NEEDS YOU!"

Sue needs to back to school to learn the basics of What Not to Wear [ed. Ouch!]

Sue needs occasional prompting when reading

Sue needs to be rocked

Sue needs developers

Sue needs help!

Sue needs a good avatar

Sue needs YOU to sell our city

Come on, Scoops, you know you wanna... Tip o' the hat to Deb Land, who I found via Wendi Aarons, who I found because she authored this wicked awesome open letter to P&G over their stupid Always brand "Have a Happy Period" marketing.

Starlight, Star Bright...

Back in 2004 I pointed out that it was doubtful that a Sagittarius would win the White House. This time around we have a Leo vs. Virgo match up. I'll have to dig out my history of election results (where did I put that thing?) but I'm pretty sure that the odds are in favor of Leo.

Purple Brain and Orange Glasses? Apparently I'm Still Into Punk

You See the World Through Orange Colored Glasses

You live your live with enthusiasm. You enjoy what you have, and you are determined to live a happy life.

You judge all your interactions through the lens of curiosity. You are genuinely interested in other people and tend not to be judgmental.

You face challenges with a playful attitude. You are determined to succeed, and a part of you enjoys any challenge.

You see love as the utmost expression of creativity. For you, love is about building a unique and interesting life together.

At your worst, you are irritable and burned out. Sometimes you burn too brightly.

You are happiest when you are given free reign to explore, create, and play.

What Color Glasses Do You See the World Through?

Gender Challenge

I ran across a new role-playing website today called Gamegrene (now in sidebar) and thought that the post A Tale of Two Characters was particularly interesting. It was about gender stereotypes in gaming. She described two characters and asked the readers to figure out which character was which gender. As readers of the Thoughts may realize, I'm against most "isms" and genderism is definitely on the list.

Personally I've always been drawn to playing tough women so for me it is always a stretch to try to play something a little more "stereotypical." Meanwhile my sister excels at the roguish vixen. So in our last D&D game we switched it up a bit and I played the sweet, somewhat helpless witch while she was my tough, smelly, brawling twin sister. (Oddly, this is the first time we've played siblings after a good 20+ years of gaming together.)

I figure in role playing there is always the chance to stretch and do something fun and different, including a different gender. I'll give you three characters I've played and tell me if you can figure out which one of these is a male. Bonus points for figuring out the gender of the other PC named in #3.

1) A party cleric who was really good at healing. Turned out that was because it happened to be a necromantic skill. The party took exception when the character decided to raise a bugbear as a minion and it began to decompose and smell. The character casually turned to the bugbear and said, "stay at the back and strip off all your flesh." The party got the collective wiggins.

2) An elven mage who tended to walk three steps into a room before thinking to check if it was safe and one time foolishly forgot to pack any food for a dungeon crawl. Once the party killed the dragon the hungry character poked at the flesh and inquired hopefully of the DM, "Is it tender?" Later in life, once they weren't quite so young and stupid, the same character used a wall of fire to trap a troop of orcs and then dropped a wall of something hard on them (can't remember what). Squish.

3) A quick-draw bounty hunter who once shot a Jedi because they were "in the way and not doing anything about the prisoner escaping." War veteran in the infantry, learned to pilot after being granted a ship by a planetary ruler for a particularly (politically) important rundown. Teamed up with and overprotective of an engineer named Dylan who is no longer allowed to touch weapons because they just end up 'shooting self' or 'shooting friend'. Every. Freaking. Time.

Innovator

You Are the Innovator

You're the type of person who is always a step ahead of everyone else. You thrive when you're experimenting with new designs, ideas, and attitudes. You are a creative person with many talents. You have to have artistic outlets in your life. You need to create - whether it's writing furiously or redecorating your home. If not, your life becomes chaotic. You tire of doing the same thing every day. You change your job, friends, and personal style often. You are at your best when you have a focus. If not, you develop a flaky artist's temperament.

What Role Do You Play?

Cybernetic Organism: Ratbot

Some Brits have come up with a robot that is controlled by rat neurons. I don't know about you, but I have images of Ratbert dressed like a Borg running through my head.

There are some pressing questions, though. Does the robot crave cheese even though it doesn't eat? If the project doesn't get funding, will it jump like a rat off a sinking ship?

I won't even get into the ethics or other scary items around this. However I guess this means that daggets aren't very far off. That'll be convenient at the rate we are destroying life on earth.

via Chip at SFBFD

Coolest Thing of 2008

I just found out that someone is publishing George Orwell's diary day by day as a blog. They started with his August 9, 1938 entry on August 9, 2008. Check it out. Found via Easy Bake Coven.

My Brain is Purple? Well.... duh.

Your Mind is Purple

Of all the mind types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense. Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

What Color Is Your Mind?

Should I File This Under "Coffee, Tea, or Me"?

You Are Black Tea

You have a bold personality. You're not afraid of simply being yourself. You have the courage to speak the truth. You are fearless in your actions. You come off as a bit intimidating and unapproachable. Only confident people are attracted to you. You don't try to scare off anyone. You're just an intense person!

What Kind of Tea Are You?

Olympic Hopeful

You Are Kayaking

You have a competitive spirit, but you don't like to compete alone. You do well in a partnership, where you can feed off the other person's energy. If you have the right partner, nothing can stop you. Your energy is infinite!

What Olympic Sport Are You?

Masters of Science in TTGSiMH

Link via Scoops.

God Loves Cheese

Even though, as Chesterton pointed out, the poets are mysteriously quiet on the subject of cheese, it seems that God and his ever-lovin' followers can't shut up about it. Even when it doesn't totally make sense...

Does God Exist? The Moon Made of Green Cheese Analogy

If you can figure out what point (or at least valid point) they are making there, get back to me.

The World is Smaller Than You Think

Sometime around 1990 when I was the office manager in a restaurant I coined the phrase, "Anything purple is mine. If it's purple, don't touch it." This was primarily a defense against having young, irresponsible managers breaking and losing my stuff. Alright, I was younger than them, but much more responsible and dammit things needed to be STAPLED at 7am on Monday morning so I didn't have time to be messing around.

I wasn't a morning person, what can I say?

Now on Amazon I've run across a t-shirt that you might suspect I had made. Anything purple is mine. Everything else can by dyed or painted. Funny.

But seriously. Leave my stapler alone.

Geeks R' Us

We can check off a few too many of the things from "You Might Be a Fan If..."

For instance:

• You have more than one pet named after favorite characters.
• Your wedding march was Darth Vader's theme. (It was close.)
• ...While you and your spouse were in costume.
• You spent more than $100 on your costume and had to special order some of the pieces.
• You were making up stories in your head years about your favorite TV shows before anyone ever said the word "fanfiction" to you. After you found out what it was, a lot of your life made a lot more sense.
• You are incapable of hearing, reading or speaking the word "inconceivable" without quoting "The Princess Bride." (Yes, that would in fact be inconceivable.)
• The action figures you have bought yourself as an adult outnumber the toys that survived your childhood.
• The action figures live on your desk.
• You can't help but think LEGO anything is automatically more cool.

Obsess Much?

The book I'm reading, Creating a Life Worth Living, has an intriguing little section called "Cashing In on Your Bad Habits."

There is one last little tool I have used to get people thinking in new ways about day jobs. Use your compulsions, your obsessions, and your plain bad habits."

Typical day in the life of Commander Sue: group of friends are out at a restaurant, a debate begins, Sue whips out her blackberry, friends roll their eyes and groan, and she uses her Soogle super-power to locate the correct answer. This obsession with locating information is second nature, I just have faster access to the answers now. Back in the day I had to remember the discussion until I was able to locate a source document that contained the facts. Aforementioned friends can corroborate that I would rarely forget to follow up. And it is never about proving myself right. I'll look up the answer when I didn't even have a stake in the debate and I'm actually quicker to communicate out the correct answer if I was debating and turned out to be wrong.

I even have some specialized tools. As I've mentioned before, I'm a subscriber to the IMDB pro site and I drive my husband slightly crazy because I am usually reading up on the movies and television shows we watch and sometimes I (accidentally) announce things that ruin the cinematic experience.

In Clifton StrengthsFinder parlance, this is actually an expression of my strengths #1 Learning "...a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve...the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them..." and #5 Input "...a craving to know more...like to collect and archive all kinds of information..."

I'd never thought too much about it, but I suppose that someone might pay me for the research skills I've developed to feed by fact-finding obsession. For instance, I found this job listing for an Online Research Librarian. Not many people have taken me up on my Soogle offer yet, but maybe one day they will.

I'm sure that what my friends would like to know is, if I spent more of my work time doing research would I spend less of my personal time doing it? I'm sure they hope so.

Boyntonology: The Study of Whimsy

I've known for a long time that Sandra Boynton was a personal hero, but that was just based on her cute hippopotamuses and her sense of whimsy. I couldn't resist picking up her book "What's Wrong, Little Pookie?" recently even though I don't have kids yet. Now I've run across her website and can say that her Boyntonography reads like an essay titled "My Perfect Life."

...I couldn’t face the prospect of waitressing again, though I had almost perfected the requisite accommodating manner. Instead, I designed gift cards and Christmas cards, had my Uncle Bill, a printer, print them, and I trudged around to various East Coast stores selling them. In the summer between college graduation and graduate school in drama at U.C. Berkeley, I continued to sell the cards, did more designs, took them to a trade show in New York City, and at summer’s end, signed up with a Chicago company called Recycled Paper Greetings...

Over the past thirty-odd, odd years, I have designed, by varying estimates (none of them in fact mine because I’ve not yet gotten sufficiently motivated to start counting) somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 greeting cards. Almost all were published by Recycled Paper, 1975 to 1996. They sold 50 to 80 million Boynton cards per year in the peak years (1980’s)...

I choose the projects I do and products I design somewhat at whim, and only if there’s a company that looks interesting to work with. I only “license” what I can develop and design myself, rather than letting companies adapt my characters according to their own sense and sensibilty. I have no agent, no business manager, no contracts attorney. This is a rather haphazard way to do things, but it’s more fun than an actual plan. Since I’m not sufficiently committed to Optimizing Market Potential, I seem to be a bewilderment and, one hopes, a minor annoyance to many.

I'm Not Sure I Believe These Results

You Are 63% Skeptic

While you aren't always skeptical, you generally approach life from a skeptical viewpoint. You're open to any outlandish claim, but you need proof before you'll believe it. That being said, you're occasionally willing to go out on a limb and put your faith in idea. There's a few beliefs you hold because you hope they're true - not because they've been established as true.

Are You a Skeptic?

We're Number One!

We get excited when the Thoughts come up as the first Google hit for things. It's just cool.

• Colbert fan fiction
• Kevin Smith 37
• employee hierarchy of needs
• Ghost Hunters fan fiction
• maybe I'm a dreamer
• the Doobie brothers broke up
• hyperintelligent shade of the color blue
• monk's head cheese
  

When do you come up #1 on Google?

It All Suddenly Makes So Much Sense

Of course. Why didn't I think of that.

What Day Is It?

As you may have noticed, the blogging has gotten light again and I'm not keeping up with my "days," not even "God and Cheese Day." I'm afraid there is no exciting story to relate that explains this away with a proper amount of wit and humility. It's just the way it is.

So what have I been doing with my time, you ask? Well, I've spent a fair portion of it staring into space contemplating my existence. Another decade is winding down and I have to ask myself, "Is this what I meant to do? Am I on track to do anything I planned to do in this life?" I'm considering enrolling in a Master's degree program, changing jobs, and/or running away to the Caribbean.

The books I'm currently reading (yes, all at once) are How to Win Friends & Influence People (I first read Carnegie's classic when I was a shy, awkward 15 year old and it had a big impact on me), Creating a Life Worth Living, and A Darkness More Than Night (Harry Bosch). I've been on a Connelly streak and have read six Bosch novels and two non-Bosch novels in about six weeks.

When online I check in on my peeps. That's why I know Sunday is moving to LA (we hates her! LA is my precious!). I also spend a bit of online time Stumbling, and finding entertaining little pages like Rip My Bodice. Oh, come on. You know you want to click.

So what have you been up to?