Did I win?

Yesterday I was spring cleaning (not really). Are there still people who really do the whole spring cleaning routine? I was just clearing out my email accounts. Deleting old emails, rearranging emails, saving some to the right folders and I even deleted a whole account, when I came across an email dated a few weeks ago. It was a voting confirmation. Yes, I vote and not only when there are important elections but I also vote for silly things like the best commercial, the home shopping award, the best ad, best book and so on. Important? No, of course not, but when there is something nice to gain like a prize, I’ll join in.

While I was reading my email I noticed they mentioned a closing date in the email. The result should be in by now and the prizewinners would be announced on the website. Quickly (not really, what is the chance of me winning something…… 1 in 250.000 or something) I visited the site and after scrolling past lots of award winners I finally ended up at my desired destination, the list of prizewinners and believe it or not, my name was on the list…… in lights :D Of course not in real lights, but in bold capital letters :) Cool! Hooray! Hurrah! … I’ve won something :) Not sure what I’ve won yet :( but that doesn’t really matter. It is nice to be surprised.

Hmm, hold your horses, wait a minute, maybe someone else entered with the same name….that is possible :| , isn’t it? Okay, what are the chances? Oh well, if I did really win I’ll receive an email soon with more information. I’ll keep you posted :)

What did that test say earlier …….

You are curious about everything, so when I saw this on Kat’s blog today and I was immediately fascinated by the whole thing. So let’s give it a go. Follow the link and pick 5 or 6 words to portray me.

Thank you in advance :)

I want one!

I want one!! I want one of those cute Wi-Fi bunnies a.k.a Nabaztag. Who is Nabaztag? Nabaztag is the first smart rabbit. It’s a newborn bunny, one of a unique species of intelligent, smart objects. It is 23 cm tall, it wriggle its ears, it sing, it talks and its body lights up and pulsates with hundreds of colours. Isn’t it cute? For more info, see the demo here :)

Okay, this is getting pretty ridiculous.

This picture shows the enormous amount of junk (mail) I received in just one afternoon… a grand total of 56 items. How absurd!

Cartoon Tuesday: The man!

A bad connection

A couple of weeks ago my home phone rang. Oh, how exciting ;) No, it isn’t, I know! So, my phone rang and I was in a strange mood and I decided to answer it. Yeah, I need to be in a strange mood to do that :) Why? Well, most of the time I screen my incoming calls. This doesn’t mean I’m paranoid or something, but most people call me on my mobile phone. When my home phone rings that usually mean that it’s just another person who wants to sell me something like a new mortgage, a paper, insurance, cable, you name it and they have it on offer.

But like I said, I answered my phone and on the other end was a lady and the conversation went something like this:

She: Hi, …e…a…s…d….r….t..w..g (garbled) and I’m looking for A……….(garbled) or Jo…………..(garbled)
Me: Sorry, can you repeat that please. We have a bad connection and I didn’t understand a thing you said.
She: ……e…a……s…d…r…t…w…g. (garbled again) and I’m looking for Anna or Josh?
Me: Oh! Well no Anna or Josh here! I think you’ve got the wrong number!
She: Okay, thanks! Bye!
Me: Bye!

Nothing strange so far, but this week I received a rather odd email from this lady I knew in highschool/secondary school, who is organising a reunion. According to this lady another lady had tried to contact me but that hadn’t worked out the way they had planned. So her questions to me: What went wrong, did you have a fight way back when? Was I no longer interested in the reunion? Huh! Where was all this coming from? For a long time I just sat in my chair staring at the email, totally flabbergasted! And this morning the other shoe dropped, a light went on, the quarter fell. That lady, the other day, wasn’t looking for Anna or Josh; it was Anna Josse a lady I went to school with so long ago………………..oops! :)

Let love be your energy (or just pick another energy booster)

Finally winter has come to an end! It is time to get rid of that winter blues and get some energy to embrace spring with both arms. I came across these interesting tips that might give you some extra energy. So, are you feeling drained? Try these energy boosters! Basically it all comes down to 3 things, namely Feel, Think and Do!

Feel
Concentrate on your breathing for a couple of minutes. Make an ‘ooooo’, an ‘aaaaaa’ and an ‘mmmm’sound. Feel how your lips vibrate, after a couple of minutes your lips will start to tingle, an instant energy boost.
Laugh to relieve stress. One laughing minute equals 45 minutes of relaxation. When you laugh your organs get a free massage. Laughing also releases serotonins (the happy hormone).
Hug someone. Touching, feeling, having contact is essential for your energy levels. No one to hug? Get a massage or take dancing lessons.
Appreciate. We all need at least 5 compliments a day. Enjoy them when you get them and be generous too, give compliments! The more you give, the more you get :)
Sleep when you feel the need, it will recharge your battery. Didn’t sleep long enough last night? Take a powernap! Try, at least once a week, to be in bed before midnight. Before midnight your melatonin levels are high, you will sleep better.

Think
Screen your surroundings and make 2 lists: 1 with people who give you energy and 1 with people who suck the energy right out of you. In bad times, stay away from people on the last list. Need some energy? Contact one of the people on the first list. You can make a similar list for music. Note down music that gets you down and music that cheers you up.
Alpha waves. Give yourself a natural high. Paint, read a book, work in the garden, listen to music. Especially classical music is good for stimulating you Alpha waves (but ambient music can do the trick too). Just lose yourself in whatever you are doing, go with the flow.
Leave the past alone the past has past. Staying preoccupied with past will suck all your energy away and will give you nothing in return.
Making plans boost your energy and gives you something to look forward to.
Stop procrastinating. You can’t enjoy life fully, if you have too much on your “to-do” list. You only will get annoyed by all the things you haven’t done yet, just another waste of your energy. Do things a.s.a.p., you will feel better.

Do!
Move! Movement is the key to more energy. It really doesn’t matter what kind of activity you choose. If it satisfies your senses, gives you pleasure, it’s okay! It will give you strength; your personality will grow, just as your enthusiasm and energy level.
Call a good friend. This will provide you with some emotional balance. Communicating gives you a handle on your situation, puts things back in perspective.
Create order. Pick one day in the month to clean away any junk that stacks up around the couch, on the table or kitchen counter.
Take a five-minute break just to do nothing. A lot of us feel we don't have the time, but really, it's just five minutes.
Get plenty of daylight. Not only does it generate vitamin D, it also increases serotonin levels.
Eat slow food The right type of carbohydrates gives you more energy, helps you feel full and keeps your blood sugar level even. Go for coarse rye bread, pasta, rice, nuts, dried apricots, raisins, fresh pineapple, bananas or potatoes (and I don’t mean French fries!).

Have an energetic spring!

The natives are getting restless.

Or at least one native is getting restless and that one native is me. The last couple of days (actually it was a week) I haven’t been feeling quite right. All my friends were in bed with the flu and my recalcitrant body couldn’t decide to invite the flu in, or show it were the exit was. (Make up your mind woman ehm…. body!) So, one minute I was feeling quite all right and the next I had a temperature and the sniffles, a cough and no energy at all. But that ship has sailed. My body finally made up her mind and has shown the bugging bug the door. Hooray!

Now I have a different bug and I think it would be safe to say that it is the world-famous spring bug. Never heard of it? I didn’t either, guess I just made that one up, but nevertheless spring is bugging me. Or to be more exact, the absence of spring is bugging me and I am in desperate need of some spring. I can’t help it, I feel all that energy flowing again and I can’t do anything with it. Of course you can do things in the winter too, but for these kinds of things you really need some spring weather. Wouldn’t it be nice to work in the garden again, to ride a bike to a remote place and have a picnic, to have a glass of wine outside a nice café, to hike, go to a music festival or the beach, take pleasure in the sunshine while enjoying a good book and a nice cup of tea? Pfff… I can’t wait and I’m getting sick and tired of this dull cold weather! But there is nothing to be done; I have to wait a little bit longer. Bummer!

Today’s another grey day, only 41 degrees F/5 degrees C :( and it is still freezing at night. That doesn’t seem right now, does it! We, or at least I, need a spring ritual or something, just to speed things up a little bit :)

Video Tuesday: The evil Ka!

Creativity is a skill – part II

Earlier I wrote Creativity is a skill …here is the follow-up

Solution 1: (cutting the cake)

Solution 2: Was it more difficult then you thought? Most people get 9 objects in 3 minutes. When you had fewer results, try to look at the square from a different perspective. Look at it from above, from the side, maybe the square is in the air or under water. Just fool around with it a bit.

Solution 3: Empty the fifth glass into the second.

Solution 4: There are no right or wrongs here. This exercise is just here to stretch your mind. Nothing more, nothing less.

Oh …….cake and kudos to Phil :)

Flickrfun!

I was surfing the other day and found these two fun sites.

The first one is Flickr toys (which you btw can also use if you aren't a flickr user). You can create all sort of things there like mosaics, billboards, posters and so much more with your own photos. Just check it out (when you are bored or something :))

The other one is Spell with Flickr. Spell with Flickr is a small program that lets you type in whatever you want, then goes to flickr and grabs pictures for each an every letter. When you try it you will end up with something like this :)

Have fun and a great sunday :)

Do I have “STUPID” tattooed on my forehead or something?

There is this guy who has been after my phone number for quit some time now, but I’m not interested in talking to him and I told him that (I figured this was a nice situation to be brutally honest for once). But still, he keeps pushing.

First it was: Call me sometime, here is my number! I didn’t want his number and I told him (again) why. So then he emailed me his number :( Again I told him that I was not interested and again he asked me for my number because according to him I was to shy to call him……YEAH right! When that didn’t work out the way he wanted, he tried to get my number from people I know. Luckily they didn’t give it to him because they know how I feel. So, he had to come up with a new and improved tactic and he did. Next trick in his book: okay, if you don’t want to give me your number, just send me a text (SMS) message!!

Does he really think I’m that stupid?

Creativity is a skill

Mozart and Van Gogh were, and scientists who discover amazing stuff are. Creative people, people who think outside the box. They can come up with solutions others never think about. Some people are envious of this and want to think up creative solutions too. Is that a problem? No, it isn’t, because fortunately everyone can learn to be creative and can learn think outside of the box. You can train your brain to look at things differently just by stimulating it.

Most people are efficient observers. During the day our brain is attacked by all sorts of information. Things that are important to us, are saved for later use and irrelevant static disappears into the background. That’s why we can, for instance, have a normal conversation at a loud party. If we want, we can still understand the person we are having a chat with, because the loud noise and music is filtered into the background by our brain. (hmm…. So when you can’t make out what the other one is saying you are either deaf or not interested?! ;))

The downside of this quite useful filter is that it limits our ability to think up smart and clever solutions. But like I said earlier, you can change this; you can learn to think outside of the box. So enough of this, time for some assignments (that is, if you are interested of course)

Assignment 1: Cutting the cake

Here is a cake and it needs to be cut into 8 equal pieces. That doesn’t sound to difficult now, does it? There is only one problem, you may only take the knife and cut 3 times

Assignment 2: Quick drawing.

Here are 16 squares. Change these squares into objects. You have 3 minutes to do this. Be creative and try to make a diverse range of objects. And you don’t have to be precise and neat, you are not creating a piece of art.

Assignment 3: The glass is full or empty

Here are 6 glasses, 3 full and 3 empty. You can move 1 glass to make it 1 empty, 1 full, 1 empty, 1 full, 1 empty and 1 full.

Assignment 4: Associate.

Start with any given word and associate. For example start with water. You could get a chain like this one: water – drinking – coke – America – Bush – Iraq – war – peace – Christmas – candle – flame – fire etc. Now during the next minute, make your own chain starting with mushroom. And, how many did you get?
Now do it again and try to increase your outcome by 50%, start with the word violin or diamond.

Okay enough assignments for now….. go and be creative :) On a later date I’ll post the solutions and/or more information.

I took a test today…..a strength test.

Today, I was reading a magazine and there was this interesting article about character strengths. There was this little test you could take, but there was also this link to the real and complete Values in Action Strengths Survey. Of course I was curious so I took the test online (for which you need to register btw).

So here are my 5 signature strengths:

#1 Curiosity and interest in the world
You are curious about everything. You are always asking questions, and you find all subjects and topics fascinating. You like exploration and discovery.

#2 Honesty, authenticity, and genuineness
You are an honest person, not only by speaking the truth but by living your life in a genuine and authentic way. You are down to earth and without pretense; you are a "real" person.

#3 Humor and playfulness
You like to laugh and tease. Bringing smiles to other people is important to you. You try to see the light side of all situations.

#4 Kindness and generosity
You are kind and generous to others, and you are never too busy to do a favor. You enjoy doing good deeds for others, even if you do not know them well.

#5 Zest, enthusiasm, and energy
Regardless of what you do, you approach it with excitement and energy. You never do anything halfway or halfheartedly. For you, life is an adventure.

Hmmz… I’m still not sure I can agree with all of them or even like them ;)

Cartoon Tuesday - The Datingsite

Click on the cartoon for a larger image!

The negative aspect of being happily in love.

When you are happily in love, your chances of having a nightmare are increasing rapidly. This is discovered by researchers of the Santa Clara University in California.

For this project they questioned 29 (why not 30?!) married and single women. Women, who rated their relationship as a high quality one, admitted having more unpleasant dreams then singles or unhappy women. In those unpleasant dreams the partner often has a leading part. They committed adultery, had an accident or ran off.

Explanation by the researchers:

People who are happy have a lot to lose and when people have a lot to lose, they stress about it unintentionally. It may not show in day to day life, but you see this back in their dreams.

Hmmz… I must be very happily not in love because I have pretty weird or disturbing dreams from time to time too, or maybe it is just something in the water ;)

Quote!

“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history – with the possible exception of handguns and tequila” – Mitch Ratcliffe

Interested in the new Lenny Kravitz absolutely free?

The new single Breath is not for sale but can be downloaded for free at absolute

Honestly……I need some feedback!

I always thought that being honest and sincere was the way to go in life, but lately I’m not so sure anymore. Although I've said some things with the best intentions in mind, honesty (again) has got me in some trouble and I don’t like it. Hmm.... that reminds me of this quote: “Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold – but so does a hard-boiled egg.”

Wikipedia has this to say about honesty, but what do you think. Is it better to be honest or tell a fib/a “little white lie” from time to time?

Well….. I think it’s funny

The following people are stranded on a desert island in the middle of nowhere:

2 Italian men and 1 Italian woman

2 French men and 1 French woman

2 German men and 1 German woman

2 Greek men and 1 Greek woman

2 English men and 1 English woman

2 Bulgarian men and 1 Bulgarian woman

2 Japanese men and 1 Japanese woman

2 American men and 1 American woman

One month after being stranded, the following things have occurred on the island:

One Italian man has killed the other Italian man for the Italian woman.

The two French men and the French woman are living happily together in a ménage-a-trois.

The two German men have a strict weekly schedule of when they alternate with the German woman.

The two Greek men are sleeping with each other, and the Greek woman is cleaning and cooking for them.

The two English men are waiting for someone to introduce them to the English woman.

The Bulgarian men took a long look at the endless ocean and one look at the Bulgarian woman and then started swimming for home.

The two Japanese men have faxed Tokyo and are waiting for instructions.

The two American men are contemplating the virtues of suicide, while the American woman keeps on bitching about her body being her own, the true nature of feminism, how she can do everything that they can do, about the necessity of fulfilment, the equal division of household chores, how her last boyfriend respected her opinion and treated her much nicer, and how her relationship with her mother is improving. But at least the taxes are low, and it’s not raining.

Why we forget names and remember faces.

Most of us will be familiar with this: We never forget faces but the name that goes with the face is a whole different story. The reason for that is quite simple, we can easily recognize a face but it’s much harder to remember a name. When we meet someone for the first time, certain brain cells react to specific distinctive points on a face. When we meet this person again our brain cells will react quicker and easier then when we met this person for the first time. In fact our brain is thinking: ‘Hey, I’ve done this before!’ Or in other words: I know that face! So there will be no need to dig into your memory.

Remembering someone’s name is another process altogether. When you have recognized someone, you will have to kick your memory banks into gear. We need to connect with our nervous system/brain and find all the gathered information (like their name) we collected during a previous meeting. Is the information not accessed for a while (was the meeting a long time ago) our brain gets sluggish. It takes longer to gather the necessary information and this can lead to awkward situations, which we are probably all familiar with.

Get a grip on your spare time!

Are you frustrated by the constant lack of time? These tips might help you with your planning.

What do you do and when do you do it? Create a daily or weekly "To-Do" list.

Prioritize. Write the most important things on your calendar. Invest in a day or a family planner.

Set clear, honest and realistic goals for yourself and write them down.

Have a weekly meeting with your partner (and/or kids). Talk about current affairs and new activities.

Enjoy the things you do, live in the here and now

Are there thing you don’t like to do or just don’t get around to…..delegate, supervise and let go! Say "no". You're one person, and you cannot do it all! Exercise your stress management techniques by saying "no" occasionally when asked to do things that are of least priority to you.

Stop pleasing others. Prioritize. Try this exercise: First contemplate the to-do list you're carrying in your head or your planner this very day. Now imagine that you're reading the list many years from now, moments before your own (peaceful) death. Which of the items on the list will you be glad you did? Which will mean nothing? If nothing on today's schedule offers soulful nourishment, write in some “me time”.

At the end of the day, stop for a minute and see what you did that day

Be kind to yourself. Pencil yourself in ... to YOUR schedule! Take some time out for yourself. In our obsessively busy society, you may be hard-pressed to convince family and acquaintances you need “me time”. Don't bother. Just excuse yourself, firmly, unapologetically, with minimum information. Say, "I'm sorry, I have an appointment at that time" or "Nope, I'm booked" or "I need 15 minutes alone."

Enjoy yourself. What makes you happy? Spending time in the garden? Seeing movies? Going to the spa? Playing sports? Evaluate yourself and what you like to do. Schedule some "me time" in that spiffy new planner you've got and treat it like an appointment. Although doing something such as gardening may sound like the least priority, it is something that relaxes you so you can keep up with all the other things. Everything has its own time. Make time for yourself.

Spring!

Click on the cartoon for a larger image!

Who came up with that idea?

This morning I wanted to brush my teeth, so I held my electric toothbrush in one hand and the toothpaste in the other. I twisted the cap of the tube of toothpaste and gave the tube a little pinch…..huh, nothing? That could not be, I had just bought new toothpaste (funky blue with white stripes :)). So, attempt two: I gave the tube a real squeeze. Still nothing! Huh…..flabbergasted I looked at the tube and I really started to think about brushing my teeth without toothpaste for once because I really wasn’t in the mood for a struggle with a non-cooperating tube of toothpaste. But I decided against it because that wouldn’t leave me with clean teeth and a fresh breath, now would it?

Third time lucky, I thought and gave it another try. I put down my electric toothbrush, grabbed the tube with both hands and gave it a real hard squeeze. Hooray….toothpaste, just the size of a pea, but enough! While I was happily brushing my eyes darted through the rest of the bathroom and all of a sudden I noticed that many things come in plastic tubes these days. Hand cream, body lotion, and facial cream and hair products. I suddenly realised that I have to struggle every day to get things out of tubes. Who on earth came up with the idea of putting all these products in tubes? Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against tubes, but plastic tubes? What was wrong with the old collapsible, easy to roll up aluminium tubes? At least when you used those, the product was willing to come out! Nowadays you have to tube wrestle to get something out.

And how about this, did you know that about a 10% (or even more) of the product will never see a ray of light. When you think the plastic tube is empty, there is still a lot product left. You don’t believe me? Cut one open (be careful :)) when you think you are finished with it :)

Hmmz… it must have been a manufacturer who came up with the plastic tube idea. The sooner we dispose of one of his tubes, the sooner we buy new! Wow, that is ingenious way of making money. His company must be a multinational by now! :)

Okay…..who forgot to send the memo?

According to the Meteorological calendar spring started on March 1st, but this is what I saw this morning :) SNOW!!

So, who forgot to send that memo to the weather gods? I was really looking forward to spring :( Oh well, guess I’m shifting back into winter mode now.

Hooray, it is winter and it has SNOWED!! :)

Just another story caught up in a photograph.

This morning I took a little trip down memory lane. I got some old boxes and albums filled with photos out and started flicking through them. These guys from my past (and wanderingthinker's comment the other day ;)) had made me curious, was there something special about me when I was so much younger? In my memory I was just a loner, a shy little tomboy, who liked to climb trees, swings, built tree houses, run and played outdoors a lot. I must have loved my little Wellington boots because I wear them a lot in the early pictures. I also discovered I was behind bars at a very young age :). Oh, and I loved to ride horses because I’m on quite a few. To be more accurate, my dad loved horse so he took us out riding a lot. But honestly I can’t pinpoint why these guys have such an extensive memory of me. When I look at my school pictures I’m just one of the kids. I couldn’t identify something specific or extremely special…..it was me, just plane old me and hey, I see me everyday :) Oh well, that is not completely accurate, what I saw in the pictures was a much younger version of me :)

Maybe I should just ask them. That might be an option! Hey, I can’t help it, I’m curious! It always amazes me, that when you ask people about these sort of things, they always come up with a totally different picture of you. It could be interesting to see which picture (version of me) they have in their minds.

At least I can thank them for my trip down memory lane. It was very enjoyable, some pictures made me laugh out loud, made me smile, others made me cry and they made me think of these lyrics:

“It's just another story caught up in another photograph I found.
and it seems like another person lived that life a great many years ago from now,

When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.
when I look back on my ordinary ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.”

Jamie Cullum – Photograph

Yes my life is pretty ordinary, but there has been (and there still is) a lot of magic too :)

Sometimes friends make you smile and they don’t know why (a.k.a. funny situations)

Most of my friends don’t know I do a lot of (in their eyes) silly things online and that is just fine by me. But it can lead to some funny situations.

Like for instance the time I was out and about with one of my friends. It was when I was hunting 43’s. I asked him to stop the car so I could take a picture of a 43,0 hectometre sign. He looked at me all puzzled, like I was weird or something, but stopped the car. I took the picture and happily returned to car. Of course he wanted me to explain why I was all of a sudden fascinated by the number 43. I only told part of the story and I told him that it was just another one of my weird projects (I have them on a regular basis :)) – Photograph 43 things with the #43 on them. He seemed satisfied with that explanation, so we didn’t talk about it anymore. Later that week he sends me an email in which he said: I did some research and did you know there are more people who have this weird fascination with the number 43? There is even a group at flickr.com! (duh!)And even more surprisingly there is a site called 43things (oh!), I thought that might interest you :) Hmm… that left me flabbergasted for a while. Funnily enough he had not found my page on 43T.

Same goes for my blogging. It is not a big secret or anything and if someone who knows me in RL comes across my blog, I would not have a problem with it, but I’m just not talking about it. I’m not sure why I don’t talk about it, it’s not like I have to be ashamed or anything. Hmm… I think it has to do with censorship. Now I can write about….. well, whatever I fancy and I truly believe that it would change if I knew that certain people were reading it. Strange hey? The funny situation in this story? Just the other day one of my friends was dropping of some stuff and she also brought over a book called:

Blogging for Dummies!

There are currently nine million blogs, with 40,000 new ones created every day; 25 percent of Internet users say they read blogs, and 9 percent say they've created one. This book walks people through what they need to know to launch a blog, maintain it, publicize it, syndicate it, and even make money from it. Topics covered include choosing a Weblog host such as Blogger.com or TypePad, hosting a blog on one's own, solving blog problems, working with blogging software (Movable Type, Greymatter, Radio Userland), and delving into RSS syndication. It offers tips from veteran bloggers, a rundown of Blogosphere protocol, savvy pointers on earning revenue from a blog, and advice on specialized blogs such as podcasts, vlogs, and photo and MP3 blogs

Somehow she thought that blogging might just be my thing…….I don’t know where she got that idea from ;) Well…… I guess my friends know me.