Get Free Shipping on the Perfect Dress

Regardless of whether you are into wearing dresses, there are going to be events in every young woman's life that require a dress. Why not be well prepared with the perfect dress from ElegantMart.

They provide free shipping on their lines of Evening Gowns and sexy party dresses. They have eleven pages of dresses that run the gambit from the iconic little black dress to the idyllic poofy pink princess number, with plenty of tasteful stops along the way.

Trying Out the Blogger Video Upload

I am trying for the first time to upload a video to Blogger. I didn't know until just now that this was even possible. It seems to upload quite quickly and the process is very simple. I picked a random video from my collection.

Ok, so I was mistaken about the whole fast uploading thing. It seems to be taking forever. I'm going to check to see whether the video was in a suitable format...

Yep, it was a .wmv, Blogger is supposed to be ok with them.

So, I retried and went out for pizza and now the video is up. Yay.

A New Hypnosis Guide

I have always wanted to learn hypnosis. When I was in high school, our art teacher lead the class through a drawn out procedure that brought most of us into an altered state of consciousness and the process fascinated me. When we reviewed the experience afterwards it seemed that I was in the group that is more open to being hypnotized.

There is a new guide for sale over the Internet at http://www.hypnosiscoach.com/

I don't think you can be hypnotized over the Internet, so you should be able to safely go to the site and see for yourself what it is all about. I think that melding together self hypnosis techniques and personal development strategies is a pretty sound way to make some positive changes in your life. This particular training package has a pretty reasonable price tag as well, it's creator appears to have a business plan that involves low cost and high volume. I would be worried that every human being on Earth except me might buy this program and improve themselves, thereby making me the least improved person on the planet

Fidel Castro is Dead

An Iconic leader of the Caribbean country of Cuba has died. I would like to add my voice to those that are pleading with exiles in Miami and elsewhere to avoid having celebrations turn into catastrophes.

I would also like to express my hope that the United States with make changes in relation to trade and aid preemptively in the hopes that political reforms are inevitable now that the dominant stick in the mud is destined for the earth.

Quiz Rocket has Fun Personality Quizzes.

Ok, so I didn't actually take a gay test. I am just going to rely on anecdotal information. The terms of service preclude me from telling any of these anecdotes.

Quiz Rocket is a website that offers dozens of fun personality and trivia quizzes. You can embed your results on your blog or MySpace page. If you really don't want to know whether you are gay or not, you can take this online bible quiz instead.

I used to participate in sword drills at Bible Camp.

The quizzes at Quiz Rocket are professionally written. This makes them remarkably less irritating than the bulk of online quizzes that are out there.

New Look

I changed the look of this blog. They say not to judge a book by its cover, but the fact is that everybody does. If anyone dislikes this new look so much that it fills them with rage, please leave a comment and I will change it back to the boring default colors that I have had for months.

I took the header photograph myself. My kids said that nobody can tell that the boat is full of tourists instead of pirates. I think the pirates are dressed a bit to colorfully to be convincing.

Teen Rehab at ECHO Malibu

Every parent who thinks that drug abuse and other life threatening behaviors simply can't happen with their child needs to watch Thirteen. My two girls were only eleven when I saw that movie and I was pretty darn frightened. It was a good reminder to stay vigilant. The first defense against adverse outcomes with your teenage kids is for you to always be aware of what they are doing and with whom. GPS seems like a reasonable thing to me in this day and age.

Despite a parents best efforts, kids do get in trouble with drugs. A Teen Rehab facility like Echo Malibu has a program specifically designed for teens. The worst train wreck of a teen that I ever had to deal with was my girlfriend's ex best friend. I was a residence assistant at a college. She was an alcoholic and she was acting out sexually. She was also very withdrawn and depressed when she wasn't drunk and acting out. She ended up going to a publicly funded residential detox program. She later told my girlfriend that it mostly consisted of playing cards with creepy old men. I think it at least had some negative reinforcement, and it gave her the chance to get over the physical addiction. I hope she has figured out how to live a happy life by now. An effective program like the one at Echo Malibu can give your kid the life skills to be happy while they still are a teen.

Shakira and Hurricanes

With the season's first hurricanes already raining on many figurative parades, I am starting to wonder about Shakira's September wedding plans in the Caribbean. She has had bad luck with Hurricanes before.

The 2005 MTV Latin Awards Show was canceled due to Hurricane Wilma. It was to take place in a coastal city in Mexico. Shakira was given five trophies as part of a taped 1/2 hour special later that year.

My thoughts are with all those living in the path of existing and future hurricanes. Be Safe!

Buy Furniture From Home

The quality and convenience of the FurnitureFromHome.com website helps this eStore stand out from the crowd. It makes a lot of sense to buy furniture. You can plan a whole room and shop for the elements of your new look while you are comfortably sitting in that room. This eStore has some really great search functions. Straight off the landing page you get to decide whether you want to search by Room, by Style or by Color.

Searching by room makes a lot of sense to me. If you want to search for entertainment centers, you start at the TV room.

The best furniture idea that I have seen in a long time is the Expandable TV Media Corner Console. It doesn't look gimmicky at all, it is an attractive wooden piece of furniture. It is built in such a way that it can be adjusted in width to fit your TV. I once had our large television malfunction and it was off being serviced for months. The small second hand TV looked pretty ridiculous in the big corner console. This adjustable unit looks right whatever size television you happen to have. The lower shelving is sized correctly for DVD players and TiVo's.

FurnitureFromHome also has high quality comfortable sectionals to relax on while you watch your television.

A great feature of the furniture sales on this site is that when you go to a specific item page, there is a sidebar featuring links to other items you might like. I don't know how it works, but the items that show up in that field tend to compliment the item I am viewing. I am looking at a couch that I really like and off to the side, there is a thumbnail and a link to a throw rug that I also like. That's helpful.

Hair Like Shakira...

I did a quick search and found a yahoo answers apge answering a girls question about getting a Shakira hairstyle. Most answers were quite involved and use several products. I like the girl that said 'just don't brush your hair.'

My son swears by that method. His is actually more of a Napoleon Dynamite 'do.

Hurricane Season in the Caribbean

Storms are in the news in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. Residents of many islands in the Caribbean are watching the progress on Tropical Storm Dean. Shakira grew up in a coastal area of Colombia and has property in the Dominican Republic. Hurricane Odette caused millions of dollars in damage to crops and homes in the DR in 2003.

Shakira is planning a wedding in this area this fall. Let's hope no hurricanes disrupt her plans.

Awesome Number Plates

AcrylicPlates.co.uk has two categories of products. They make high quality road legal Number Plates. These are made to the governement mandated specifications. The options with standard plates include a choice of badge. Show your national pride with a flag representing either Scotland, Wales or England. A Union Jack and a standard Euro ring of stars round out the options. You can also have your choice of two fonts and four border colors.

Show plates are only limited by your imagination. You can't hit the road with them on your car.

Personalised number plates needn't be boring.

New Commercial Featuring Shakira

A Jon Lovitz character in my favorite Adam Sandler movie was looking out from behind a curtain and said:

He's losing his MIND...And I'm reaping the benefits.

Shakira must feel that way sometimes when all the A-list singers and actresses seem to be too busy self-destructing to do any shilling for multinational corporations. She just finished making some very pretty ads for Panasonic.

Check them out on YouTube, advertisements don't get removed the way music videos do.

Review of Elliot Yamin

I am listening to a single by elliot yamin while I write this review. I have to say his music is pretty easy on the ears. This particular track hits a middle ground between the sweeping ballads of old school boy band stuff and the more syncopated R&B stylings of people like Nelly.

Here is the video for the song I was just describing:



Elliot work well with others. No less a star than Chris Daughtry was performing duets with Elliot during the tour that followed their appearances on American Idol. Elliot Yamin placed third on the 5th season of American Idol. That season was quite remarkable in that someone who was not very marketable won top honors and hasn't really done that much since. Chris Daughtry has actually had a more successful career than Taylor Hicks and Chris finished in fourth place that year.

Elliot Yamin's album has a glowing review on Amazon and the reviewer expects that his voice will win over the core R&B audience. The problem that many American Idol contestants have had in the past is that they make an album that plays to their strengths in a niche genre of music and the audience for that niche rejects them because they are from a television show. A man who actually won American Idol, Ruben Studdard, has never been as successful as the winners who pursued pop careers. I think the same will be true for the country flavored Carrie Underwood in the long term. And Taylor Hicks just isn't very good.

One of the highlights of Elliot's post Idol career was singing the American National anthem at the start of an NBA final game. Elliot Yamin is nearly deaf in one ear and he has diabetes.

IdolMe.com has information on many of your favorite artists including many who got their start on the American Idol television program. The site has a forum. It requires that you register before you can view it.

Some of the artists that get an in depth description on this site include Kellie Pickler, Christina Aguilera, Nelly Furtado, Mika, Corinne Bailey Rae, Gym Class Heroes, James Blunt, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Lil Wayne, My Chemical Romance and Panic! At The Disco.

Shakira Breast Rumors: Caused By Digital Effects?

The rumors of Shakira's breast implantation surgery is not widespread. This makes me doubt their accuracy. When I was doing a search to try an find out more about it, I came upon an article about Kiera Knightley and her admission that most of her scenes in the popular Pirate movie involve a digital augmentation of her breasts.

It seems quite possible to me that this same thing happens to Shakira, but in a more subtle way. Maybe the originator of the rumor got confused while watching the Beautiful Liar video. A concerted effort was made in that production to make Beyonce and Shakira barely distinguishable in some shots.

Starcraft 2 is Awesome

Ok, I admit it, I only know about starcraft because my kids have it on their PC. CreepColony.com is a fansite for Starcraft and people there are excited about Starcraft 2.

Here is what I gathered from a quick review of Creep Colony, it is popular and growing. In fact they are looking for a staff member to help contribute content. They have videos of actual gameplay. These can be a godsend for noobs and whatever you say for the opposite of noobs alike. Go check it out.

Are Shakira's Breasts Still Humble?

I haven't been paying attention, but there are a couple of items on the Internet putting forth the notion that Shakira has has breast augmentation surgery.

She did spend some time in LA, which must be the boob job capital of the World. She did profess to have very small breasts to start with.

I haven't seen any pictures that make me think that she has had plastic surgery. I will keep an eye out.

Car Angel

Shakira's huge fund raising effort for her charity involved one very special car. A SEAT that she customized to her own tastes.

Car Angel is a charitable ministry that enables people to make Car Donations that will benefit a charity of their choosing. I really like the concept. My parents wanted to give a house away years ago and they ran into so much red tape that they changed their minds. Car Angel can immediately give you a tax receipt for a car, truck or boat. Beyond the good feeling that you get from knowing that your asset is benefiting those in need, you also get a tax benefit. You also get to avoid all the expenses and hassles of selling a used car.

We recently moved from one country to another and we had a used van to sell. It was such a headache. There were guys who said they loved the van and the asking price. They would beg us to hold on to it for them until they got the money together. We would never see them again. There were the 'tire kickers' who would take up hours of our time letting us know about every flaw and then offering a ridiculously low amount.

In the end, we had to leave the country without selling it. My wife had an old family friend with a small dealership and she held it on consignment. After we left, she went out of business. We were beginning do feel some distrust. Eventually she sold the van and we got a little bit of money. In retrospect, giving it away would have been a better choice.

With Car Angel your car can be used to lend help to prisoners, single mothers, orphans, homeless, teens and more.

Love in the Time of Cholera

Shakira is set to contribute to the soundtrack for a movie that is in production. The movie is based on a book. I have read parts of the English translation. It is a very good book. The idea that suffering for love is noble is very prominent in the book. I think this theme works well will the range of emotions that Shakira conveys in her singing. The book, EL AMOR EN LOS TIEMPOS DE COLERA (LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA) was written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who is a friend of Shakira and who mostly resides in Mexico City.

I am worried that the movie will not live up to the standards of the book, which chronicles a 50 year love triangle between three very richly developed characters.

Furniture for your Home or Office

I heard an anecdote about a guy who has no Furniture a few days ago, with the exception of the necessary Bedroom Furniture. We joked a bit about the possible strategy behind that. It's kind of like in the song Norwegian Wood. You know, the whole thing about being told to sit anywhere and then seeing that there isn't any chairs.

I have all the typical dining room
Furniture Home Office furniture and living room furniture.

Furniturefromhome.com has excellent quality furniture. I am especially impressed by their advanced search function that allows you to search by room, by color or by style. I used to have a thing about dull green furniture for the living room. I have yellow plaid stuff now. I really don't care what it looks like as long as it is comfortable.

If you are in the market for a Bar Stool, you might want to check out a contemporary bar stool from FurnitureFromHome.com. I really like the Swivel Tilt Tall Dinette Kitchen Stool. I don't think I would recommend getting drunk while siting in a tall stool will a tilt feature, it might bring new meaning to the word tipsy. You are definitely spoiled for choice at this website. I like the plain solid backless stools as well. I don't have a stool, and I used to always prefer to play guitar while sitting on a stool. I think my voice projects better when I am sitting on a stool.

I was once at a rowdy teenage house party. The house was heated with a wood stove and some body accidentally broke one of the wooden dining room chairs. Someone decided that the best course of action was to burn the evidence. If memory serves me correctly, it made so much heat that somebody thought it was a good idea to burn another one. I want to point out that I was not involved. I guess it sort of made sense to burn the second chair, it would have raised suspicion for there to be an odd number of chairs.

Another News Item with a Shakira

Pop singer Shakira doesn't do that much in th way of newsworthy behaviour. Other websites are trying to recycle the prenup negotiations ten times over. It is really quite boring.

I have resorted to talking about other people with the name Shakira who have interesting stories. A Shakira in Florida made the news because her nasty, ugly mom was trying to solicit donations for her funeral. Police arrested Jean Fontalvo as she arrived to pick up a $500 check from a doctor's office. The staff there had called the police after running a background check on the lady. Shakira was alive and well and waiting for her mom in the car.