Paper Towel Diapers…

Went out yesterday with the baby to run errands and other stuff.  All was well, but then on the way home we decided to make one more stop to the Korean supermarket.  Pulled into the parking lot and the baby started to cry because she was hungry.  Thats okay, so we sat around a bit while I fed her her bottle.  All done time to go!

Oh, not yet!…time to change the diaper!  Thats okay the back seat of the car makes a great changing table.  I cleaned her up and just as I was putting the diaper on, she decides that she is not done and lets loose a load in the diaper I was putting on her.  Not a problem change the diaper…easy. 

Nope, not so easy.  I did through the diaper bag and find that I forgot to add more diapers and I only had the one!  Nooo problem, just go into the store and buy some.  It is a specialty store, but hey…they should have diapers!  Into the store I go and look for diapers.  I don’t find diapers, but I do find sanitary napkins…its a thought since the server kind of the same purpose, right?  Noo, too thin so if she goes again it won’t hold everything in to keep her clean.  Lets check again…no still no diapers. 

Then I spot them…paper towels.  Hmmm…seems like the best bet…plus they are Bounty!  Super absorbent!  So, that is what I bought.  A little folding and tucking and Voila!…paper towel diaper!  It worked…not so sure the baby was pleased, but it worked.

Pay It Forward…

This is a concept that comes from a book and later a movie of the same title (Pay It Forward).  It’s the story of an 11-year-old boy who has to do a school project to come up with an idea to make the world better.  He comes up with a plan to help three people and have them pay it forward and help three other people.  At first, he thinks his plan is a failure but later discovers that it has been a success when a reporter traces it back to the boy after being a recipient of a favor himself.

Basically, when someone does you a favor or helps you, instead of paying them back,  you pay it forward.  In other words, you do a favor for someone in the future and they in turn pay the favor forward and do something for someone else.  In this way, you get an ever building pyramid of people doing good deeds. 

How the plan should work.

So, I’ve have been given the chance to pay it forward.  It’s not something I have done yet, but I will. 

This is what happened that gave me the opportunity:  On Tuesday, while driving home, a screw got embedded in my back driver’s side tire resulting in my very first flat tire.  Great.  The good thing was that it was not so flat that I needed to change the tire.  So, I get the tire repaired via a plug by Pep Boys (great place btw) for free thanks to their rewards program and I think all is good. 

Not so.  While driving on Thursday of the same week, my car suddenly starts drifting to the left while I am driving.  It’s another flat with a screw but this time its the front driver’s side.  However, I thought it just needed air because again it was not completely flat and I didn’t notice the screw, so it got air and all seemed well.  My husband saw in the morning that it was flat as a pancake…fantastic.  So, I got my Dad who happened to be here (good timing!) to change it.  On the way to Pep Boys we decided that I should get new tires because mine had seen better days and I figured that was the problem.  So, got my brand new tires and all seemed well again.

Not so.  Friday rolls around and my car starts drifting to the left again.  Great!  Not only did I seem to have another flat, but my baby was in the car.  I pull into a shopping plaza and get out of the car to take a look.  The same driver’s side tire is completely flat again!  This time there is not screw or nail but the tire is flat none the less.  Grrr…I pull all the necessary items out of the trunk to change the tire and was having a hard time of it.  I figured that Pep Boys did a crappy job and was almost in tears as I struggled changing the tire.  A car drives by me in the lot and then turns around to stop by me.  Help was here!  A good Samaritan gentleman stops and gives me a hand to change the tire.  You have no idea how grateful I am that he helped me.  I would have been there on the floor in tears.  I thank him profusely and he makes nothing of it, so I promise to pay it forward and he agrees to that idea.  So, there you have it…I have to pay it forward and I will do it gladly.

Back to Pep boys, they tell me that the changing of the tires was done well and I might have a cracked rim.  Oh no!!  Something else to worry about.  Its turns out not to be the rim though, it’s another nail or something only this time it just punctured the tire and came out so I didn’t realize it.  They change for a brand new tire for free and I’m a happy girl again.

So there you have it, my pay it forward story.  I’ll let you know when I do have the opportunity to complete my side of the deal.

Project Runway…

This show is addicting.  I’m currently watching it and remembering how I once spent an entire day watching this show one episode after another.  There is just something mesmerizing about it…it sucks you in and at the same time makes you want to go out there and create your own fashion line.

I once thought about making dresses for Barbie dolls because I figured that since I’m probably not the best seamstress, it wouldn’t be too hard.  I never went through with it though because work got in the way and it became a ‘one day when I have time’ thing…and I basically forgot about it.

Maybe, one day if I have time….I’ll just draw a fashion line.  It might be a cool idea to just do the competitions with the contestants on the show and not watch the results till I design my own dress.  Then, I can compare what I created with what they created and judge whether or not I think my design could stand up to their competition.  I’m no designer, so I kinda figure theirs would be better but it is something fun to do.

Well, these ideas are just added to my list of things to do one day.

Imagination…

Imagination is thebeginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.
George Bernard Shaw

Trick or Treat!

My husband asked me yesterday why we give candy to kids on Halloween.  I didn’t really have an answer for him.  I guess it really doesn’t make sense does it?   I can kind of figure out that wearing the costumes has something to do with keeping away bad spirits or monsters of sorts…or it may have also been to blend in with the creatures that come out on All Hallow’s Eve so that they do not find you.  That makes sense.  It changed during the years and just became a fun day to dress up.

Back to the candy though.  Why do we go trick-or- treating?  Well, I have found the answer!

Trick or treating can be traced back to pagan times when food and drink would be left outside the house for the roaming spirits. Through time this became the custom of the poor called “going souling”. On All Souls Day (November 2) in early England, the poor would travel from house to house begging for food. They were given “soul cakes”, a kind of fruit cake, and in return would pray for the departed.  Courtesy of Associated Content

 There you go…another tradition that has changed through time to join the world of commercialized holidays!!  I can say that I enjoyed it yesterday, not because I went trick-or-treating but because I got to dress my newborn daughter as an Angel and she looked adorable if I do say so myself!!

Whats in a name?…Movies

Thinking about names since I just had to name my new baby girl…How important do you think the name you give your child is for their future?  Personally, I think names are important.  Its one of the first impressions that someone will get of you…and on that note, I think movies have a big influence on naming trends. 

If you had a name like….Cornelius, for example.  The first thing that would come to mind for me is ‘Planet of the Apes’.  You know, the good chimp from the movie.  Not a bad thing, but do you want someone that you just met to be thinking of chimps and apes?

Then there is the name Damian.  Its actually a very cool name and I like it, but I would think twice because of the ‘Omen” movies.  Do I really want my child to be associated with movies about the devil?  I guess what it comes down to in this case is if you can get over the cliches and famous references to this names.

As far as girls names go, I’d never use a cutsie name like Muffy, Buffy..or some thing like Fifi.  There is way too much stereotypical baggage associated with those names…think ‘Legally Blonde’.

We can’t forget positive associations though!  I think the name Trinity would be cool for a girl because of the movie character…a strong woman (didn’t name my daughter Trinity).  I even thought at a point that Ripley would be a cool name too…another strong woman and both names are very unique.  Didn’t use either though.

I’m guessing that there are going to be alot of Edwards and Bellas this year…lol

The Goldfish Story…

This is what I imagine the poor goldfish felt like after his ordeal.

So, a funny thing happened on Monday night.  We have a tank with two goldfish in it and on the bottom we had small blue pebbles.  My husband comes home and looks in the tank.  He notices that the bigger of the two fish has something stuck in his mouth…a blue pebble.  So the fish had been swimming around for who know how long with this pebble stuck in his mouth unable to close his mouth.  Poor thing!  So, my husband and Dad decide they have to help the poor fish out. 

They take him out of the tank…my hubby has fish in hand and was examining the situation…the fish then begins to flop around and falls on the floor!  My husband shouts ‘Oh, my God!’ and snatches up the fish..my Dad and hubby then began shouting for my Mom and I to give them a toothpick so they can get the pebble out.  My Mom in her rush has a hard time getting them the toothpick…finally, she gets one out and my husband is able to pop the pebble out of the poor fish’s mouth…I know because I heard the pebble hit the floor.  Goldfish goes back in the tank after a successful operation and all is well. 

I had a good laugh while all this was going on and the next day we got rid of the blue pebbles and put in bigger rocks.

The New York Minute…

…is supposed to be a more like a second.  At least that was my impression growing up in New York City.  When you are at a traffic light in NYC, the New York minute is how long it takes for the person behind you to honk their horn for you to move your car when the light turns green.  The impression is that it’s about half a second.

Here are a couple of definitions and explanations for you:

 New York minute n. Slang An extremely short period of time: “If we could find [a merger in another city] that would work as well, we’d do it in a New York minute” (Jonathan Golden).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Courtesy of The Free Dictionary

New York Minute
A reference to the hectic pace that New York citizens live their lives. The term may have originated in Texas in the late 1960’s, with people saying a New Yorker does in an instant what a Texan would do in a whole minute.
Courtesy of IdiomSite.com

So, what does this mean?  It means that most people think that New Yorkers are the most impatient and fast moving residents of any city around.  Now I’ve always thought this to be true, but recently found out differently.  I’ve driven in New York and admittedly, I’ve been honked a few times when my attention to the instant the light changes has wandered a bit.  It happens.

However, yesterday, I discovered that the Philadelphia minute is shorter than the NY minute.  While driving in Philly, I must have been honked about 4 times.  After the first time, I paid rapt attention to that light and I swear the instant it changed, my foot was on that gas and my car moved.  This was not fast enough for those Philadelphians though!  Wow, that Philly minute is like a quarter of a second.  I’m not the only driver to get honked either.  I heard many others get honked when they couldn’t merge fast enough or accelerate fast enough once they did merge and dang if they didn’t turn those corners at a speed good enough for those Philadelphians.

All, I can say is wow…and kudos to you Philadelphians as you have made the New York minute seem like a really long time!

To Boldy Go Where No Man Has Gone Before…

…is how I remember Star Trek always starting out.  I wonder if we will ever get there.  Will we continue to explore space and discover new planets and new species?  I mean apparently  we made it to the moon (though many question if we ever made it that far!), so why did we stop?  What really was the point of going to the moon anyway?  The space race!  We had to get there before the Soviet Union…and we did.  Now what?  I thought nothing was happening, but I found out otherwise!

Astronomy.com - New mission to the Moon

NASA - Going to the Moon!

Apparently, we are planning to go back and to have a real presence on the moon!  If all this comes about, the future should be pretty interesting.

On the lighter side, is this what we have to look forward too?….LOL.
Image from yatahonga.com

 

I saw this posted in a forum that I sometimes visit (SciFans Forum) and had to share.

This brings to mind two things that we should be aware of…if there is life on the Moon or Mars and we should probably respect their rights to their own planet, because hopefully we have learned from our past mistakes.

From what I can tell by briefly look at the NASA articles, that could be the way we are headed…landing on Mars that is.  If it actually happens in my lifetime…very cool.  All in all I’m just glad to know that we are still out there trying to explore in ways that are beyond just sending our probes to take blurry pictures that we can barely figure out what we are looking at on the image.  I always figured that we’d be much more advanced on this stuff though.  We shall see.

Until then…I’m out for now…Beam me up, Scotty!

Its the end of the world as we know it…

…or so people say is what will happen in December of 2012.  In fact, there is a new movie coming out about that very topic and it is called 2012.  It seems that the movie is thinking of 2012 as an end..the apocalypse.  However, now everyone thinks of it as an end.

Alot of the idea of the end is taken from the Mayan Calender that we have heard so much about and its end.  Apparently the calendar ends on December 21, 2012 and that is interpreted as our end as well.  However, some do not believe that is the case…it can also be seen as a new beginning.  My amateur research on the web finds that many believe that we are in a time of change or a new age.  These are the times where we begin to see the error our ways and have to make a conscious effort to change for the better.  In addition, some say we on a kind of cosmic or spiritual journey that will change the way we think…perhaps to become less violent and warlike.

Here is  a bit of an excerpt from one site on the topic:

2012 in brief

The Mayan civilization of Central America was and is the most advanced in relation to time-science knowledge. Their main calendar is the most accurate on the planet. It has never erred. The Mayan fifth world finished in 1987. The sixth world starts in 2012. So we are currently “between worlds”

1. Humanity and Planet Earth are currently going through a huge change or shift in consciousness and reality perception.

2. The Mayan civilization of Central America was and is the most advanced in relation to time-science knowledge. Their main calendar is the most accurate on the planet. It has never erred. They actually have 22 calendars in total, covering the many timing cycles in the Universe and Solar System. Some of these calendars are yet to be revealed.

3. The Mayan fifth world finished in 1987. The sixth world starts in 2012. So we are currently “between worlds”. This time is called the “Apocalypse” or revealing. This means the real truth will be revealed. It is also the time for us to work through “our stuff” individually and collectively.

4. The Mayan sixth world is actually blank. This means it is up to us, as co-creators, to start creating the new world and civilization we want now.

5. The Mayans also say that by 2012

we will have gone beyond technology as we know it.
we will have gone beyond time and money.
we will have entered the fifth dimension after passing through the fourth dimension
Planet Earth and the Solar System will come into galactic synchronization with the rest of the Universe.
Our DNA will be “upgraded” (or reprogrammed) from the centre of our galaxy. (Hunab Ku)
Everybody on this planet is mutating. Some are more conscious of it than others. But everyone is doing it.
Quote taken from this Website.

 

So, that doesn’t sound so bad, does it?  An age of transition sounds way better than “The End”. 

 Then it comes to the whole apocalypse from the Bible and other sources.  Now there is a whole lot of reading to do on these topics and a lot of interpretation and study that I don’t have time for at the moment.  I’ll say this though, it seems that no one really states that there is a clear end…it seems that things are more stated as a transition or a cleansing.  Natural disasters probably won’t destroy us or the planet, but it will change things and things go back to basics and the instinct for survival.

So, what this all comes down to for me is that I’m not going to live in fear.  Whatever will be will be.  There are lots of books coming out on survival and other interesting info which I’ll post here on occasion as a matter of interest, but I’m not going nuts.  One doesn’t know if any of this will happen and the world is a book of blank pages yet to be written….yeah, maybe some people can get a sneak peek and warn us how the story may go, but there are always rewrites!