This week's theme was an easy one as I'm going to assume that "original" means any "original" photo that I have in my collection and this one looked pretty "original" to me! This one was taken last Fall at one of my favorite haunts (sorry, couldn't resist!) the Yantic Cemetery. I rather liked the colors of the sky and I rather like this particular tombstone also, I bet it would make a nice tattoo.
For more great "original" photos pop on by TNChick and see what everyone else scared up on their haunt hunt!
The meme that she tagged me with, "My Desktop Free View", was started by iRonnie at I Set No Corner with the idea that "Most people spend a considerable amount of time in customizing or in finding a desktop wallpaper that suits their taste. Sadly, our computers often remains… personal. Why don’t we brag to the world our good-find wallpapers and let them have a peek to our personality via our desktops?Interesting concept for a meme - I like it! Actually, I had seen the same meme over at Asara's Mental Meanderings and thought about picking it up from her (she didn't tag anyone in particular being the gracious blog-hostess that she is!) as it looked like fun but first I had to figure out how to do a print-screen on my trusty Dell laptop. With some instructions from Asara, I was able to figure it out and good thing, too what with that tag from Sanni coming out of the blue like that! I think Sanni really enjoys tagging people, she's so good at it! And how can you say no when she's just so darned cute??On the other hand, aren’t you curious on how does your favorite bloggers’ desktop look like? Don’t you want to find out how organized, or disorganized :D, they are?"
Look familiar? Yep, being the proud mama that I am, l like to keep some of Amanda's artwork on my laptop so I decided that the vinegar-fry-eating-Pegausus-with-rainbow from my Wordless Wednesday a few weeks ago was perfect! Actually, this one looks a bit different as Amanda made some revisions to it. As a matter of fact, if you really like this one - it's available on t-shirts and a few other items at Artistic Intoxication, Amanda's on-line CafePress store! Sorry, couldn't resist the shameless plug!Once you've picked up the "tag" gauntlet and posted a picture of your own desktop, don't forget to add your link to the bottom of the list! I added Asara to my list because I saw the meme at her blog first and I'm sure Sanni wouldn't mind in the least! Now, go ... read the directions and let's see what you've got!
My Desktop Free View Instruction:
A. Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun.
You can do a screen capture by:
[1] Going to your desktop and pressing the Print Scrn key (located on the right side of the F12 key).
[2] Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste (CTRL + V).
[3] If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it.
B. Post the picture in your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop just below it if you want. You can explain why you preferred such look or why is it full of icons. Things like that.
C. Tag five of your friends and ask them to give you a Free View of their desktop as well.
D. Add your name to this list of Free Viewers with a link pointing directly to your Desktop Free View post to promote it to succeeding participants.
P.S. - I apologize for not getting around to anyone's blogs on Wednesday, I had a medical procedure done that waited until the next day to wipe me out and I was barely able to keep my eyes open long enough to knock out a couple of posts. Hopefully I will be back to my regularly scheduled blog-reading later today!
Amanda decided to try doing something a little more "realistic" with her artwork so she did this drawing of the lead singer of HIM. Yes, that's an oxygen mask he's holding up to his face and no - I don't know why! I think she did pretty good and wish she'd do this sort of thing more often!She is walking in the name of another blogging buddy extraordinaire and all around great gal, Miss Bee, for whom she has named her team in honor of - "Empress Bee". If you are able and haven't already, please donate to this fund raiser by clicking here. Mags is very near her goal of raising $1,000 and every little bit helps attain this goal, with your help I'm sure she can reach it and beyond!
"Is this an intervention? You're a little late, since I'm not using drugs anymore.
"If you don't listen, you're never gonna learn." 
Speaking of sweetest things ever, I am hideously behind in mentioning this other award that was given to me a long, long time ago by two of my other favorite bloggers - Jean-Luc himself of Captain Picard's Journal and Morgen of It's A Blog Eat Blog World. Thank you ever so much, gentlemen, you both make me smile, too, and I sincerely apologize for the delay in getting this posted!
Amanda has been pestering me to write about the fun she had this past weekend with new friend Cate so on to that next. Being teenage girls they, of course, wanted to have a sleepover so I brought Amanda over to Jason & Amy's later on Saturday evening armed with three types of pizza and all of Amanda's plushie making materials. After pizza consumption and a bit of "Dodge Ball" on the TV, the girls broke out Guitar Hero II where Cate has already progressed up to the medium level and will no doubt be playing at hard before too much longer.
For now, Steve remains pantless but hopefully Amanda will get motivated enough to get him further clothed soon though it sometimes takes her even longer to do things than it takes me, if that's possible!
Meme Description:Bad writing shouldn't be all that difficult for me to accomplish as I've had years and years of practice starting when I managed to win a writing contest in 7th-grade with a story that I was sure had to be one of the worst ever in the history of the Dr. Helen Baldwin School of Canterbury. I think I only won because I had the nerve to not only write about but submit a story about a boy and his beloved dog while using, as the main character, the guy I had a hideous crush on for two years. I'm sure I only won so that the story could be published in the school newspaper and cause acute embarrassment not only to myself but to the guy I wrote it about because if I remember correctly, the story itself wasn't very good at all!
You have just finished writing the greatest novel ever written. It is getting rave reviews. War and Peace is mere pulp fiction when compared to your novel. Nobel Officials created a new category to award your work for they felt it would far overshadow previous works awarded for fiction if yours was awarded in the same category. Accolades and reviews for your novel pour in along with one unanimous criticism -- your novel has the worst opening sentence in an equally atrocious first paragraph, ever.
Rules:
1. Choose two genres from the ones listed below in #4
2. Come up with a suitable title for a different novel for each of your genre choices.
3. Write a different opening 'atrocious' paragraph of your 'highly praised novel' in context to each genre you chose, paying particular attention to the "Dark and stormy" quality of your first sentence of your paragraph. Don't just rewrite the "Dark and stormy" sentence for your paragraph. Come up with something new and fresh, but 'atrocious' too. The sentence and paragraph should follow good English grammar rules. Don't just write a grammatical mess of a sentence. Remember, you are a Nobel Prize worthy author.
4. Choose two of the following genres for each of your "Prized Novels": Western, Science Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Modern Contemporary Fiction, Mystery, Comedy, Horror.
5. Post the meme description and rules.
6. Post your first genre choice, title and paragraph, followed by your second genre choice, title and paragraph.
7. Prepare yourself for accolades of laughter and ridicule for your "Highly Praised Novels" atrocious openings.
8. Contact the Nobel Prize officials for you may just continue and write that award winning novel.
9. Tag people, lottsa people.
And there you have it, my attempt at literary greatness! I hope that I have made my favorite soon-to-be-best-selling author and blog buddy Gale proud. Let me just say that even though I stink on ice when it comes to this stuff that she is writing one heck of a fantastic novel. Go Gale Go!!! Go Gale Go!!!Entry Number One
Three Oxen for Father Santiago at Whiplash Pass
"It was a pitch-black night on the desert mesa brightened only by the occasional jagged bolt of lightning which was accompanied by an unrelenting curtain of water and wind that howled louder than the wolves that slunk their fur-soaked bodies back into their rocky caves as the prairie dogs took refuge in their dark underground homes (as prairie dogs are wont to do) while the cacti merely stood stiffly, like large needle-covered silent sentries, weathering the storm in sullen succulent silence as their prickly bodies were rooted firmly to the ground and they were unable to escape the fury of the storm that lashed the desert landscape with its wind-blown anger."
Entry Number Two
Tenderness in Tallahassee
"The sky outside was as black as ink and as unsettled as a creaky wooden vessel upon a storm-tossed sea while Vanessa stood at the window of her opulent and, despite all of its grandeur, empty bedroom; a solitary and forlorn figure who wrapped her arms around her not-ungenerous breasts as she looked out upon a magnificently rain-tossed landscape that no longer held any appeal for her since the love of her life, the dark-haired gallant and dashing Jerome, had ridden off on his magnificent specimen of a stallion leaving her bereft in her heart and aching from unfulfilled needs in other parts of her lush woman's body; unfulfilled needs that threatened to bring her to her knees in their unrelenting desire to be quenched and sated by a man who no longer held her tenderly in his arms due to a misplaced allegiance to the man whose seed had fathered him and then chosen to abandon him when he was just a mere boy."
Perched atop a 6,880 ft peak of the Quinlan Mountains, Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) lays underneath some of the finest night skies in the world. Founded in 1958, KPNO operates three major nighttime telescopes. The other 19 optical telescopes and two radio telescopes are operated by a consortium of tenant facilities including the Calypso Observatory, the only private telescope on the mountain.
The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, named after astronomers Dr. Robert McMath and Dr. Keith Pierce, is the largest telescope of its kind in the world. Built in 1962 it contains a three-mirror heliostat at the top of its main tower which collects the sun's light and focuses it down a long shaft that continues underground where the telescope's prime focus is located. The McMath-Pierce is used to study the structure of sunspots, as well as sunspot spectra, but unlike other solar telescopes, the McMath-Pierce is sensitive enough to observe bright stars in the night sky, too. As a second-grader, this was pretty darned cool to tour as its 100-foot tower seems even bigger to a 4-foot child.
Other telescopes at KPNO include the 18-story 4-meter Mayall which can be seen from over 50 miles away and the Steward Observatory's 0.9-meter Spacewatch telescope, on the left. If you're interested in seeing more of the Kitt Peak National Observatory, check out the KPNO webcams which are located on the catwalk of the 2.1 meter telescope and the 4-meter telescope. Should you ever find yourself near Tucson, I highly recommend a visit in person!
Amanda's Latest Style
Bee-lieve it or not it's yet another September birthday! This one belongs to the wonderful Kai of The Buzz Queen who just recently moved to her new home close to her beloved ocean that came along with her beloved Mountie's promotion. Plus said beloved Mountie will be joining her at the new home just in time to take her out for a birthday celebration! What more could a girl want??
Just as a bit of history for those not familiar with this particular piece of Civil War artillery, this 13-inch seacoast mortar weighed over 17,000 pounds and was intended for siege and fortifications and not field work. This particular monster, forged at the Fort Pitt Foundry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1862, was made portable during the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia by being mounted on a railroad car which was specially strengthened with extra beams and iron rods to withstand the strain of firing. Since this mortar threw a 218 pound shell about two and one-half miles with a charge of 20 pounds of powder, the strain was obviously considerable.
Yet another wonderful September birthday has arrived and this time it belongs to Lois Grebowski from Lowdown From Lois!
Swing on by and leave the first lady of Life in the Aluminotti some birthday wishes! You can even tell her I sent you! She's the big 45 today (awww, poor thing!) and she's serving up some cake so stop by, grab a slab, and say "Happy Birthday!"
It is with a great deal of pleasure and delight, as well as extreme humility and not a smidgen of hubris, that I can announce – I WON! I WON! I WON! And for women everywhere let me just say, it’s about dang time!!! What exactly is it that has me doing the “end zone happy dance”? What could possibly inspire me to set the laptop aside, jump up off the couch, and pump my fist in the air triumphantly? Well … glad you asked! For the first time in a long time, I managed to win first place in Mimi Lenox’s Saturday Comeback Challenge at Dating Profiles of the Day! WOOHOO!!!
Even though the contest is based on poorly written personal ads by men, it seems that every week the contest is won by a man. I have yet to figure this out as it just strikes me as funny – in the odd sort of use of the word – that men have snappier comebacks to other men than women do. The only reason I can think of for this phenomena is that men are so used to hearing women make snide comments when they themselves make a stupid statement that it has become second nature for them to be able to answer their own stupid statement with the exact snarky comeback that a woman would make. Does that make sense to anyone else besides me?
To put it another way – when men get shot down enough, they probably already know most of the comebacks they’re going to get shot down with. It’s sort of like when you’re paper training a puppy; after he has been chastised enough times for peeing on the floor, he catches on that if he pees on the newspaper laid out for him or, better yet, scratches at the door to go outside instead that he gets rewarded rather than scolded. Hmm, in rereading that, maybe that doesn’t make as much sense as I thought it did but I went to all the trouble of typing it so I’m going to leave it there.
This week’s Comeback Challenge also showed a female taking over the third place spot in the form of Katherine of Wading Through My Stream of Consciousness (and she didn't even get bleeped this week either!) while the ever witty and very snide Bud Weiser of WTIT The Tape Radio Blog claimed the second place spot. Even with Mr. Weiser sandwiched between us and putting up a valiant fight, it was the week for girls to rule! Oooo-rah!!
If you’d like to play along, Mimi posts the questions on Saturday and you have until midnight on Monday to email them into her. She judges the entries using a new system, so as not to accidentally play favorites, and announces the winners on Tuesday at Dating Profile of the Day. If you win you get a spiffy badge like the one I have below to post on your sidebar to tell the world that you have what it takes to be the snarkiest on the block. Just make sure you mark on your email really, really well that what you're sending is the entry answers or they might accidentally get deleted, right, Mims?
So what are you waiting for? Come on and play – you know you want to!
in the entire universe celebrated his first blogiversary and, true gentleman that he is, he gave out the gifts rather than receiving them. The one and only Bobbarama came up with not one but two new blogging awards that are sure to be coveted by any and all bloggers throughout the Blogosphere.
