A Bit About The Intelligent Community Initiative

When I heard about The Intelligent Community Initiative Website, I looked at its basic aims and goals and then just let the idea percolate in mind for awhile.

The mention of "bootstrapping" aid reminded me of what I read in a Johnny Cash biography. When Cash was a young child, his father made the family participants in a big social experiment. They moved to Dyess, Arkansas. Dyess was a planned town. It was part of the New Deal. This is about as socialist as America gets. The initiative probably changed the lives of hundreds of families for the better, but it was not without its critics.

The Intelligent Community Initiative isn't some government project working on a grand scale. It has the simple goal of making everyday life better for people living in small communities of 150,000 or fewer people. The way it plans to do that takes a LOT of explaining.

$40 Million From Shakira's Charity

I apologize to Shakira for criticizing her choices in charity spending. She made a huge announcement yesterday to the tune of $40 million. This will go to help in the recovery efforts in the aftermath of an earthquake in Peru and a hurricane in Nicaragua.

Another $5 million is going towards health care and education for children in four different countries. keep an eye out for video clips from the climate change summit that Shakira attended.

Source: BBC

Loungewear from Erin Braxton

Having clothing that is comfortable enough to wear around the house and looks good enough to wear outside of the home on errands is one of life's little victories.

I looked at page after page of womens loungewear and sleepwear on ErinBraxton.com and I was impressed with the style. These clothes look really comfortable and convenient. The dresses remind me of what we have been seeing celebrities wear when the are out and about shopping and drinking coffee.

I am quite pleased about the selection of colors that are in style right now. Black is just the same old black and all the earthy colors are easy on the eyes. The eStore is a very convenient place to shop and I appreciate the fact that is clothing is crafted in the United States.

Shakira's DR Home

Shakira is demonstrably concerned with the poor children in Colombia. She grew up in a coastal city in Colombia.

She now owns a luxury home in the Dominican Republic. I am curious as to whether she is a social activist in that country as well or if she does what most rich people do there, which is to enjoy the sun and sea and to avoid rocking the boat.

The divide between the rich and the poor is staggering in the Dominican Republic, whose national motto might as be be "Well, at least we're not Haiti."

An Ethical Credit Card

Many responsible people these days are making an effort to spend their money on products that are produced with a minimum of social and/or environmental harm. they buy organic produce from local farmers. They buy fair trade coffee and tea. They long to be able to buy an electric car.

One of the things they may overlook as consumers is their credit cards. I remember having my world view shaken a bit as a kid the first time I heard that on of the Banks that I knew and trusted was using an inventive strategy to do business with Apartheid era South Africa.

Co-operativeBank.co.uk has a transparent ethics policy that should appeal to customers who want to be as responsible as possible. One aspect of the policy involves not investing in anyone that is in the business of extraction or production of fossil fuels. They also have programs that allow your credit use to directly benefit a charity of your choice.

A Music Website Recommendation

I just returned to a website that I hadn't visited in years. Acousticwood.net has a lot of links to some great quirky music. If you have RealPlayer, you can watch any of a collection of old 'Morning Becomes Eclectic' shows. These are intimate performances and interviews with important musicians like Beck, Ben Harper, Steve Earle and more.

If you are a musician and you are playing somewhere on Halloween, I suggest you watch the Beck performance and then go rehearse a version of 'We Live Again.'

I love songs that are spooky and beautiful. I think it would be great if Shakira got a bit darker with her writing. I think some of her Spanish songs are edgier than her English work.

Toe Rings Are Cool

When considering what metal to have penetrating your skin as body jewelry gold is the best choice. I don't have any piercings and I looked around FreshTrends.com to see if there are any fresh trends that don't involve holes.

That is when I discovered toe rings. I think they are a great idea. I once spent about 8 months straight wearing nothing but sandals. If your toes are showing, they might as well have some bling. A plain gold band for your toe, hand crafted in America, is only $45. I want one.

House of Shakira

No, this is not some automated reblog, I just look for news and gossip about Shakira and more often than not find none. That girl is way too well adjusted and decent to devote a blog to. Oh well, I still love her.

Since there is nothing to talk about with her until she has her big wedding, I thought I would just mention the Swedish band House of Shakira. A British fan suggested the name and it was originally the name of a clothing boutique that got busted as a common bawdy house.

The band is kinda lame, in my opinion. I got a kick out of the commenter on YouTube that thought this was Shakira...and was ok with it.

Shakira to Appear With Bill Clinton

Bono, Alicia Keys, Shakira, and Chris Rock will sit at a table with former President Bill Clinton and talk about social change.

This is being produced by MTV. Shakira and Alicia are also slated to perform during the broadcast. This event is being planned to coincide with the Clinton Global Initiative's annual conference.

This will be presented as a live webcast on September 29th. Check my source, MTV, for more details.

Dell Notebooks

I have two Dell notebooks in my house. When we made the decision to move thousand of miles away, we sold almost everything and used these two Dells as our only computers for about a year before going ahead and buying a desktop. I guess that is when we knew we were really home.

A notebook computer these days has all the power and memory that most people would need for work or entertainment. I have no problem recommending Dell because they have dependable pc portables.

I also love the fact that Dells are familiar to people all over the World as good, solid computing tools. I should inform American Dell fans that the whole 'Dude' thing doesn't translate that well to continental Europe.

The Company You Keep...

When Shakira was letting off some steam on the LA club scene this summer, I was worried that she would fall in with the wrong crowd. In the end, I think her main companion for these outings was Penelope Cruz. The clubbing involved the normal range of activities and the wearing of pants.

It seems like a lot of celebrities end up together at drinking establishments. I was irked to hear that Avril Lavigne was in the company of Britney Spears on the evening after her Britney's child custody hearing. To me it always appears that socializing with someone is in effect condoning the lifestyle choices of that person. Britney is quickly running out of people who will do that. Avril comes off looking like a user of people. This is junior high crap. I also still think it is possible that they were only in the same place by coincidence, I don't know the full story.

A Really Nice Steel Box

If you were to ask me what I was going to do with all that junk in my trunk...I now have an answer for you. I would store it in a high quality rugged stainless steel tool box from CarGuyGarage.com. These things last forever and come in all different sizes.

I have a lot of oddly shaped junk that I want to keep in one place. Right now it has all been dumped into a big cardboard box from my computer monitor. This Stainless Steel Swing Door Garage Roller Cabinet looks better and is much more secure and convenient.

Yucatan Scenery

I developed an interest in Mayan culture when I was a Fair Trade coffee roaster. One of my favorite coffees comes from the Asociacion Chajulense Val Vaq Quyol in Guatemala.

Colombian coffee is good, too. For some reason, it was always hard to obtain a good supply of organic coffee from Colombia. I hope that the Colombian government is looking ahead to a future where more consumers will demand organic coffee.

Dining Room Furniture

The Dining Room Furniture in my parents house had two purposes. On special occasions the Dining Furniture was festooned with fine china and silver tureens and fancy place mats. During the other 362 day of the year, we would pile assorted mail and half-finished science projects on the table. We mostly ate in the kitchen.

Formal Dining Room Furniture from Furniturefromhome.com includes a set that looks a lot like my mother's furniture. The casual dining furniture is more like the stuff they used to fill the cafe that I used to work for. I like simple metal chairs that are light but sturdy. They have some of those on this site.

History Lesson

It is very difficult to get a satisfying picture of American history. History is written by the victors and most of the Peoples that occupied America when the Europeans invaded hundreds of years ago are defeated people. Many of them have lost their language and culture as well as their lands. When the successfully adaptive members of a defeated people begin a salvage operation on their history they are fighting a battle with time. They are also tempted to sanitize their own history to make it a comfort to those who want to clinge to it.

Learn to Bachata Like Crazy

The bachata is a dance that is becoming very popular in salsa clubs. BachataCrazy.com has a series of three DVD's that can teach anyone to do this dance that is a great social activity and also great exercise.

As you can see on this intro, the instructors, Alison and Jesus are engaging and professional. I really like the choice of music that I am hearing on this video as well.

Shakira is Attending UCLA Part-Time

The University of California, Los Angeles offered a history course on the subject of ancient civilizations this summer. Shakira began attending this course after finishing her World tour and missed the last few classes. I wonder if she found herself being followed by the paparazzi and chose to avoid turning the school into a media circus?

I was not surprised to hear that she is interested in higher learning. I was not surprise to hear her instructor complimenting her on her intelligence. I was surprised to hear that he did not recognize her. I suppose that her hair is one of her most recognizable features and it is easy to change or cover up.

Family Planning: Looking After Their Financial Future

Morris, Hall & Kinghorn, an Arizona law firm, offers free consultations with a view to getting people started on an estate plan that will help them avoid the inconvenient and costly process of probate.

MHK belongs to an association that is concerned with issues reacted to the ever increasing population of elderly people. The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Inc. was started in 1987. Providing retirement planning is one of things that these lawyers are really good at. Dan R. Morris co-wrote a book called A Will is Not Enough in Arizona.

Many people, including myself have put of estate planning with the age old excuse 'It doesn't really matter yet since I don't have much to leave anyone.'

But we owe it to our families to have a legal plan that will prevent the expensive headache that can result if we leave this earth without having first drawn up a legal document. In the US, and in Arizona in particular, protecting your family's future goes beyond just having a basic will. Revocable living trusts are a step that Morris, Hall & Kinghorn recommends and assists with. Federal law regading living trusts changed on January 13, 2004. If your estate planning hasn't been reviewed since that time, you may not be prepared in a way that is best for the future of your family.

I Like Big Butts...

I have said it before and I will undoubtedly say it again.

It frustrates me that people who are dangerously skinny get treated like sex symbols in the media. I hope, for the sake of an innocent baby, that Nicole Ritchie is being supervised by a competent dietitian.

We need to celebrate and adore a normal range of body shapes and caution the outliers on both sides of that normal range. Here is a blog related to Plus Size Modeling. The behind the scenes posts about the fashion industry are quite interesting.

NINTENDO SIXTY FOOOOOOUUUUUUURRRR!!!!

My kids are still in possession of an N64 system. I have pretty much told them that they are not getting anymore gaming platforms for the rest of their childhood. Sometimes they get tired of the gamecube and the PS2. That's when they dust off their nintendo 64 games. Zelda: Ocarina of Time was one of the classics and its magic still works. If your cartridge won't work, maybe you should check out JJGames.com.

JJGames.com is a cool online resource for used games, consoles and controllers.

I may have to buy a used gamecube. I fried my kids' console by plugging it into the wrong voltage

Shakira Works Well With Others

Shakira Works Well With Others. Now she has an award to prove it. Beyonce and Shakira shared the honor of best collaboration at the MTV VMA's.

The presenters were Kanye West and 50 Cent. They aren't working with each other. They are having a music peeing contest. I think they are trying to replicate the kind of buzz that the cola wars used to get. People who pick sides tend to consume more when there is the perception of intense competition. Remember kids, if you download an illegal copy of an album, that doesn't count as a sale for your favorite.

Black Friday Shopping Without the Bruises

This looks crazy. I have never participated in this kind of foolishness. Why does anybody? Well, the stores offer major savings in order to drive people to this kind of behavior on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It's not called Black Friday because of the carnage, it's called Black Friday because it is ideally the day when the profit begins in the retail industry.

Everybody is sitting in front of the TV on Turkey Day with all those opiates in their brain from the turkey overload and the thanksgiving ads brainwash them into thinking that it is absolutely imperative that they get out there and buy. The flyers that come with your newspaper immediately before Black Friday are generally the first source that people have for the actual sale information. Don't be one of the masses. Go check out Black-Friday.net to find out how to take advantage of the savings offered by retailers from the comfort of your own home. The site allows you to opt in to an email list for the specific retailers that you are interested in. They will then send you the detailed sale information before anyone else gets it. They also provide direct links for you to go and purchase your items on line to avoid the rush and the crush of actually going out on Black Friday.

So think about getting your BestBuy deals the stress free, pain free way with Black-Friday.net.

Click on the picture to see part one of an old interview with popular Dutch host Jensen. His interview is in English, which I believe is a second language for both people.

There is an excellent video montage in the middle of this video that feature some childhood photos of Shakira. She is so cute.

Get Help With Luna Skills

Are you looking for a Lunia Forum?

MyLunia.net provides a community for fans of the MMO Global Lunia: Record of Lunia War from Action Arcade.

You may not have heard of this game before because Global Lunia has only just started their open beta service on July 31, 2007. MyLunia.net features screenshots, videos, guides, & more. It is a fansite for Lunia and is in no way affiliated with the actual creators of Lunia . Managing skills for Lunia Eir is discussed on threads such as this.

Val's Art Diary

I am quite artistic AND I am a dog. I was destined to come across Val's Art Diary on YouTube. My lover has definitively stated that she hates Val. I still check out her video every week. I say that I have to see if I won the painting that she is giving away. Val awards a free painting to one lucky subscriber each week. She throws a dart.

I'm embedding a very small video...