Don't Try This At Home

Sunday YouTube: Thriller

I don't even know how I found this one. Inmates with a lot of time on their hands practice perfecting the Thriller video. Of course, one of them has to be the girl.

Links You Must See to Believe

I completely admit to spending my entire day online. Most of my time is spent drumming up business for Bloggy Giveaways and writing how-to-blog posts for Blogging Basics 101. I also spend a lot of time reading news online. Since I don't watch much TV and I'm already plugged in to my computer, I may as well find out what's going on and what's hot, right? Sometimes, though, I come across the most insane things. And I must share them or explode.

1. A new game for your Wii. Really? Pole dancing? Sure, they say it's for mom and dad and great for exercise, but come on. Ten bucks says some pillar of parenting is going to see this as the next big thing for her daughter. Then that kid is going to show up at my kid's school and show everyone how she's already studying for her career. Holy canoli, people. Really?
2. Fizz cup. OK. This is cool. What a great summer-time treat! Except my kids hate soda of all kinds. But they'd love the idea and waste all kinds of soda trying it out! And? Cavities are still better than pole dancing.
3. Scarlett O'Hara costume from The Dollar Store. You really do have to see it to believe it. Some people are just creative beyond all get out.
4. Nightmare playgrounds. Pictures of still-in-use playgrounds that are outdated. And scary if you're in the under 5 set. Or even if you're an adult.
5. Personal DNA. I am a Considerate Inventor. What are you?

Seriously. You Need to Do This.

I remember my mother telling me that when she was a little girl people used to burn the clothes of cancer victims so others wouldn't "catch" it. These days we see the absurdity of that. We've made great strides in detecting and treating cancer, but we have not eradicated it yet. We still have many questions.

Cancer, specifically melanoma, is something I worry about almost daily. I didn't wear sunscreen as a child of the 70s and 80s. I grew up longing to be that baked tan color even though I was a fish-belly-white red-head with no hope of a tan unless I developed one all-encompassing freckle. In eighth grade I went to a track meet where all the other runners were using baby oil to tan between races. Let's just say I couldn't move for four days--literally--and I still have the scars on my shoulders. As a teenager I was a life guard for three summers in a row. In college I once burned my back so badly I had strap marks for two years. Of course, they were really scars.

I've not been kind to my skin. I have "halos" around a mole or two that I need to keep an eye on. The halos, if you aren't familiar with them, are proof that I've had several severe sunburns. They are just what they sound like: white circles around a mole.

I have also known others whose lives have been changed by cancer. Their stories aren't mine to tell, but suffice it to say, things have not been easy and there were frightening moments.

Cancer is scary, but knowledge is power. My blogging friend Karen at Simply A Musing Blog is leading the charge to help us gather that knowledge. From her blog today:

Here's the deal. I have some oncologists in Texas that want you to be informed so badly, they are willing to donate some time to the cause.
They are inviting you to a question and answer right here on my blog.

Leave your cancer question and I'll do my very best to have it answered by one of these highly trained oncologists. Obviously, not every question will be able to be answered, but we will get as many as we can. I will accept questions throughout the weekend and comments will close at 9 pm central mountain time on Sunday, May 18th.

You can leave your question here or there. If you leave it here, I'll forward it to Karen. Please head over to her blog and read what she has to say today. It could save your life or that of a loved one.

Kirtsy

Have you ever noticed that my posts here and on my other blogs (Blogging Basics 101 and Bloggy Giveaways) give you the option of sk*rting an article?

Sk*rt was started about a year ago as a site similar to Digg, but aimed at women. It really took off. Then Skirt magazine ordered sk*rt to quit using the name or face the wrath of corporate lawyers. And maybe they had a point, or maybe they didn't. But the sk*rt gals changed their name anyway.

To kirtsy.

Get it? Put the 's' on the end of skirt and add a 'y'? Genius.

So now you can kirtsy my posts instead of sk*rting them.

Want to add the "kirtsy this" link to your own posts? I can tell you how to do it at Blogging Basics 101.

If you haven't tried kirtsy before, I encourage you to click over there. It's addictive. I love it--and not just because I've been on the front page a few times (thanks!). There are some great bloggers over there and they are finding some interesting articles.

Druidawn and Some Bragging

A few years ago, my homeschooling homey, Emily, turned me on to the creative writing program called Druidawn. From an article at the Druidawn site:

Druidawn is a lot of things. It's a series of anthologies written by and for children and teens. . . It's a role-playing game used by language arts and creative writing teachers to motivate kids and get them excited about writing.

For a few weeks, Emily hosted my children and some others and walked them through the first lessons of Druidawn. My kids were immediately hooked. They were asked to imagine a character and choose physical and emotional traits for that character. Each child was also assigned writing tasks: they had to write a song for something, they had to write a poem to open a box, they had to describe what was in the box, etc. The creativity, the drawing, the peer interaction and discussion of ideas interested them even though they were only four and six at the time.

Emily has since moved, but my children still remember and love their Druidawn experience. If I were a better mother, or at the very least, a homeschooling mother, I would re-start Druidawn with them. And who knows? The summer hasn't started yet. There's still time for me to get in gear.

Emily has continued Druidawn with her own children. The poems her kids wrote in order to open a box bowled me over. Seriously. They knocked my socks off. I have to share them with you or I will explode.

Whit's poem:

What am I?

I am a river. I flow on and on. But when I find the perfect rock, I linger behind it, forever.

I am the sky. Lives pass away time and time again, but once I’m created, I never die.

I am a metaphor. I am abstract, but exquisite and poetic.

I am air. Every man hungers greatly for me, but I never run out.

I am paper. New inscriptions are made every day, but are seldom erased.

I am life. I am an optional feature of the universe, but a universe without me is unbearably tragic.

Incredibly, in my own special way, I am only one thing:

I am love.

Coolio's poem:

I   AM   VOID.   I   AM    UNAVOIDABLE   WITH  MY    STAFF   IN   MY  HAND.   

I   CAN   DO  ANYTHING. 

I  am  water, I   flow  in   a  stream,  you  can   not   stop   me.   

I   am   sand,  as  you   tread   over    me   you   make   a   physical   imprint  in  me. 

I   am  glass,  I   can   be  broken   easily.   

I   am   strong.   

I  am . . . really.

Whit is not yet a teen; Coolio is not yet in double digits.

Dude. Are those some awesome poems are what?

Did I Mention I'm Giving Away Over $3000 Dollars Worth of Goods?

Oh yes. I am.

Today's giveaway at Bloggy Giveaways is worth over $3,000 from Dwell Studio.

What are you waiting for?

Sunday YouTube: Folger's Commercial

This is just laughable. I'd love to hear what you'd say (or do) to your husband if he pulled this on you. Seriously. Leave me a comment. This one's too good not to discuss.

5 Minutes for Mom

I'm posting over at 5 Minutes for Mom today about RSS feeds and feed readers. Go check it out.

The One Where I Realize I'm the Idiot

This morning I was watching cartoons with the kids and sorting the laundry. Because I'm busy like that.

The kids had tuned in to Tom & Jerry.

Tom was shooting at migrating ducks and hit the smallest one. The small duck fell from the sky and was disoriented.

Jerry hurried to save the duck by pushing him into a hollowed-out tree before Tom could see him.

Tom approached the area and did not find the mouse or duck.

"Pshhhfft," I said. (Because I'm nothing if not eloquent.) "Like he couldn't see the skid marks in the dust. What an idiot."

And then I realized that I spend way too much time watching House and CSI and LOST and talking back to the TV.

Sunday YouTube: Glad

Do you ever say or hear a word that it kind of loses it's meaning?  Or it starts to sound not like the word you started out with?

Yeah. This is sort of like that.

Spring Fun

I gave them a hose.

You would have thought I'd given them gold.

Wild Thing's Story

This is a story Wild Thing wrote at school today:

One day a mama cheetah didn't feel so good. She said, "Oh, I don't feel good." So she went to the doctor. When she came out, she found out she was going to have babies. Her stomach opened up. "Babies!" she said. She named them Emily and Nick. The end.

I don't know. That just struck me as completely hilarious. Probably because I'm her mom. Remind me to tell you how my kids re-enacted birthing sometimes. Let's just say that was the end of Magic Schoolbus.

Sunday Morning

This is my idea of a great Sunday morning:

This may have something to do with why my children refer to me as Lazy Bones.

Sunday YouTube: Engineer's Guide to Owning a Cat

I'm married to an engineer. I have an orange cat named Oscar.

This is hilarious.

Bloggy Giveaways Winners!

The winners of my giveaways are as follows:

1. Toast8: Queen B
2. Emma book & movie: John (@ gmail)
3. Mansfield Park book & movie: Michelle
4. Jane Eyre & Pride & Prejudice: Gigi (@ innerasylum)

I will be contacting you today via e-mail to let you know how to collect your prize. Please, everyone, make sure you are checking your spam folder! You'll have four days to respond to my initial e-mail with your snail mail address. If I don't hear from you by then, I will pick a new winner.

Thank you to everyone who played along! What fun! I can't wait to share my love of the classics with you!

If you are new here and found me via the carnival, why don't you subscribe to my feed (click that orange button on the left sidebar to add me to your feedreader) so you'll know every time I update my blog with my infinite wisdom. ;)