My Degrees.

Just recently we had a break-in where the thief actually got away with more stuff of sentimental value than anything else and no one was hurt, considering that we were all sleeping and snoring as loudly as possible while it happened...but anyway....the thief left a pretty legible hand print of dust on the surface of the sofa.

When the police turned up and I showed the officer in uniform the hand print , which was relatively small btw, the officer leaned in close and to my utter astonishment, humor and a fair amount of disbelief he wanted to press his fingertips to the hand print to dust it ever so lightly just to 'see if it really was a fingerprint' :o and jussssst before he touched it, I was like, you would been so proud of me...I was like ' Oh, No! Mr. Officer you cannot do that. Uh Uhhhh! They might want to see if they can get a fingerprint off of that. I said to him, where he back-stepped and nodded very vaguely.

And in this incredulous situation I thought to myself. If I know a teensy little bit more about forensics and the such than Mr. Brawny Police Cop Officer over here, then maybe :) I should be hired as sort of a leading Investigator Detective Sargeant or something like that. Because what I figured out....is that although 'they' say that you can't really learn real life stuff from watching all these detective shows on T.V I say that you can! :D

And considering I just outwitted Mr Brawny Police Cop Officer I think I shall declare me qualified enough. What about these qualifications for size...

For watching Season 1-9 of NCIS I say a Masters Degree in Forensics specializing in Computer Forensics!

For watching Season 1-5 of NCIS: LA  A Bachelors Degree in Investigative Media Technology (that sounds so AWESOME they should actually make something like that!)

For watching CSI various seasons and various spins like NY, Miami, and the other one I forgot, a Higher Certificate should suffice, don't yet know in what....maybe in Fingerprinting!

And last of all for watching Law and Order from about 11 years old hat would make me have a PhD in Law.

I am soooooo in the loop! :)

NB: please not that the comments depicted above are no true reflection of the programs mentioned above and have simply served a purpose for this blogs purpose. :p

14th February (Valentine's Day)

This time every year happens to be a really important time to remember...so this time is actually frantic fanatic crazy-eyed shopping time. But! This year I thought to myself, '...stay calm, and shop sensibly. What does he need? What does he want? And before you buy it, think about the affordability of it all.'

For instance, he is really into photography, but a gorgeous camera I can't get right now. And next would be jewelry of some kind, also a no-no. So what are my options you ask?

Welllll....I went into the store with a really crazy-eyed look, I looked to the left, I looked to the right. I bee-lined frantically for the pajamas with all the little hearts all over them annnddddd.....bee-lined straight away from them! Can't be a fanatic and buy the same thing three years running, now can I?

What to do, what to DO?

...So I came home, sat down at the computer and called my old buddy, old pal. Mr. Google and typed 'Valentines Day gift ideas for men!'  so Original I am!

The Hunt Continues...

Job Hunting and the work you love.

The old saying 'get a job you like and you will never have to work a day in your life'!

There I was in perfect oblivion, studying the subject I love, English, so love the English. Trying a hand at writing books, articles, art, alot of web surfing, looking for outlets for this really big love for the written word and penmanship and all sorts of novel writing could vent out on.

And a thought hit me...sometimes what you love to do, might not always be the best way to get the rent paid, it's an uphill road and sometimes quite a lonely one.

But I have learned this in all this writing of book proposals and manuscripts and articles and C.V's and application letters that the only way to get there is to keep on trying. If you are sure of what you want, keep going. That might not mean not getting something to pay the rent and the bills while you try...but a dream is there for a reason.

Oh and before I forget...these are a few of my least favourite questions when trying to find a publisher or writing work...

1. What is your target audience? I am like....ummmm it's a children's story sooooo.....I know this one, I do!.... How about CHILDREN! Yes? Is that the right answer? By the way....I did not write all this down. 'Course not, I just thought it...what I wrote was a whole lot of words that basically meant CHILDREN.

2. What puts you apart from the others? What makes you noticeable? Why should we hire you? My answer...albeit I did not want to put any one else out of work, which that question clearly states I will do....ummm cos there is only one of me and maybe my view on things might be helpful to you. What I actually wrote was all of that just with really big words and lots of polite conversational phrases.

3. And lastly for now was the all important...how does your manuscript stand out from ALL THE OTHERS ON THE MARKET? Now I have read alot of children's books in my time, from the time I could read which was a good odd thirty years (wink, wink) ago until I obviously stopped reading children's stories and graduated to comic books, which I still read BTW, but anyway so recently reading bedtime stories and old kiddie classics are where I am right now. I did some web research on similar books as mine but obviously there was just too much info to actually compare eventually I just stuck to my guns and figured if my toddler awfully love it then there must be something appealing to the young mind in the story, but what I actually wrote was a whole lot of comparisons...!

Anyway. The dream is still alive will keep going til I get there and will blog about that too when it happens!

I just recently found a lovely website that offers a whole lot of journalist work so if you are a writer, editor, journalist or artist who also needs to pay the bills please see www.journalismjobs.com. Will post more should I find any worthwhile websites. :)

Thanks for reading keep on smiling. Only way to do it xoxo

Movie repertoire.

You know you are a true movie connoisseur when you actually can recall the movie score while traipsing thru the mall and recognizing the songs playing over the radio from various movie tracks and you just know which part of the movie its actually from. Now that is when you know you are truly a movie buff. So here is the comprehensive list of movie viewing that gives me, myself and I, the well-fitting cap of a true connoisseur which amounts to a few hundred views per month if not thousands over say the past five years! 

Winnie the Pooh...watched that since we bought it when it came out at the ardent and sometimes tearful requests of little people a good 200 times, told ya I was a connoisseur : and you doubted me... :(

Then I have watched Ice Age 1 and Ice Age 2 and Ice Age 3 and Ice Age 4 also about 200 hundred times each and if there ever happens to be an Ice Age 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 I'd probly be 

at 1000 by then :D 

Ahhh yes and I must definitely not forget about Madagascar too...yup it makes the cut it does at just under 200 views. And I can personally write down all the words for 'I like to move it, move it' ALL BY MYSELF! 

Then we have Cars and Toy Story, and if it wasn't for Mater making me chuckle I definitely would not have made it through the +- 300 times I have watched that. Some adult going...'who's Mater?' Don't you worry Sir, Ma'am your time shall surely come... :) I not only know them I know their girlfriends, best friends and sometimes even parents and relatives too... Heh heh.

And to crown this list of all the movies is your and my favorite...Robots. Cute, clinky and just so Robotty they too make the cut or maybe top the cut at approximately 400 views. 

Now we might just be thinking, where on earth does all this time come from that she has to just sit and watch movies with the little people. Welllll......Okayyyyyy...for a slight writers license I would have to borrow that elusive tool of exaggeration today but its soooo true that I have watched some movies people and lotsa times too...

You know how I know is because...every time we have to watch said movies the inward groan does Not present itself, AT ALL. Can you just believe that! Yes...it is honestly nowhere in sight...and the reason being this...after the first couple hundred and the repetitive action of watching them over and over with the rapt attentions from the little people...I noticed that most often I was redundant! Which gave moi certain stolen moments to kick back and sip at lovely steamy, frothy, creamy coffee munching whatever tidbit they were munching and chilllaxed! I had gotten clever...and unfortunately it does take the 100 times or more for me before I realized it...okay so maybe not toooo clever. :(

Ice Age...BRING  it on...! :D

Rewards

Soooo Mother's Day had rolled around and all I got three very lovely gifts...and after all the kisses and hugs...my four year old softly pats me on the back and with a really earnest face sez 'Mum...you know why you got all those presents?" and I am like here it comes...and He says "... it's because you were being good! You were only a little naughty, BUT you were MOSTLY good and that's why you got presents!"

Isn't it just lovely being soo forgiven at the drop of a hat!

The forgotten wave.

I have what one might call 'over exuberant moments' where feeling quite excited at seeing someone I know, maybe in a place I have never been to, I give somewhat an exuberant wave of 'hello'! And it has occurred many a time, probably too many to count, that sometimes this mad waving doesn't elicit almost the same amount of enthusiasm from whoever I am greeting. So I have ways of excusing this faux pas that seem to be committed and some times they hold water and sometimes it's just a showering going on :)

Case in point, we were at a fair over the weekend and I saw a family that I knew vaguely surrounding one of the rides as both our kiddies were on... Anyway so the lady is like staring at me not casually mind you, but the kind that makes you think there's something gross on your face, but there I was and I locked gazes with her, so what was I supposed to do but say hello, justifiable, right? Anyway so I am like...'hi, how are you?' with my previously mentioned 'exuberant wave' and ma'am looks right through me...and stares straight at me...go figure...so here are some of my 'letting-off-the-hook' reasons I came up with to understand this socially awkward situation...

1. Maybe...she didn't see me? Ok...that coulda happened...if I was maybe standing anywhere else but directly in front of her. So a stunned me just turned around and went someplace else...oops not the right time to greet just then :D Shouldna dunnit!

2. Second excuse was maybe she thought I was greeting someone behind her. And for a teensy moment I was thinking maybe I should continue talking to this imaginary person behind her...'fine thanks, ok see you around' and then turn quickly and walk away! Only...the thought occurred that she might just swing around and look for whoever I was supposed to be greeting and cause some more awkwardness, for lack of a more dignified term:)

3. Orrrr....maybe....cause of my tinted glasses! Maybe my glasses were so dark she really didn't see me looking at her and therefore greeting her...holds water...right? Please be saying 'right!' And not riiii..iiii...ght :( am so mad at me. Exuberance schmoooberance!

4. Maybe she just plain doesn't like me :( or.... :) maybe it's cos she doesn't know me!

Yup!..maybeeee...she just doesn't know me and so she doesn't want to talk to strangers!!!

Ear-piercing, ground-shaking jubilant scream.

Have you ever answered the phone and was rewarded with an ear-piercing, ground-shaking, window-shattering, milk-curdling, hair-curling jubilant scream. The kind when you know it's not anything bad but bad for you because hearing will only restore in that particular ear after hours if not days. Welllll....that is what poor Hubby got on one distractedly fine day. The reason for the joy was because I had applied to a website to join the writers team and was accepted...ergo my ecstatic call to Hubby, and on his gentle "Hello?" I LET LOOSE! 

Anyway what happened was, I had emailed my details, awaited the reply email and got the  acceptance email and that was that. I only wanted to share the news once I knew what the results were and after I received the acceptance and called him I was just about ready to burst with rainbows and stars and glitter and...and...all things nice!

So there I was just letting the scream permeate the cellular network ready to bust at the seams and explained further by letting him know the process of the emails going between us and how I was accepted and then I let go with another spine-stiffening, dog-howling scream. And then I panted and waited for him to join in the happiness...and dear Hubby was like..."Oh...I saw the emails and did you see the most recent one?" He asks. And I am like 'pffftt...yes I did! Which one was that again?" 

Hubby was a leg up on me...because he had seen the most recent, recent email where the editor had seen this blog and mentioned it. So there we go...

And now writing for this blog I have included it here, it is of a more serious note that I have written beyond this blog. It is a news website on www.newsblaze.com and the story I wrote is on the following link http://newsblaze.com/story/20130430074917gege.nb/topstory.html


Please let me know if there are at all any comments, I would sincerely love to hear them. Once again...Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhieeeeee!

What I would do without Google?

Ever since I first started surfing on the World Wide Web and was introduced to Google.com I was hooked. And, like with friendships, you play with other people, in this case search engines, you always return to that one friend that you know is going to play nice with you, no offense to other friends electronic or otherwise :) 

So began my introduction to Google and here are a few things I have learned about my 'Google-ing'.

1. Just like in friendship when you have a friend for a really long time you begin to understand their nuances, the things that make them who they are and how they operate, as well as their moods and the way they speak. So one of the first things I learned, and am still learning as per my post for finding a publisher, is that my friend Google, speaks a language all his/her or errrr...it's...own rather. The language use is different, polite conversation is completely ignored if not redundant, and all it wants is precise language as if speaking improper English. Sort of like saying...I go there,  I sit here, I eat that! Ps...that's how my little girl talks too, cute isn't it?

2. Next was the mood angle, sometimes Google was friendly, and sometimes not, I think that mostly had to do with what computer I was using too, but anyway, sometimes my friend talked quickly, concisely and to the point...and other times was really sloooooowwww and vague and pushed me in the wrong direction. And then I had to be firm and rephrased my search words and was all like Noooooo I do no want to do what you are telling me I want to do what I want and you can't push me into going somewhere I don't want to go ;) Firmness established I had to show it who was the boss o' me :D

Thirdly and lastly...for now...was the friendship angle, and just like a good friend, it's always around to help...when it was job hunting, or researching for assignments or hairstyles, or for more fun stuff like celebrity photos and present ideas for kiddies and even for the serious stuff like wording for business plans or marketing strategies and the like. 

Even poor Hubby blessed with an incredibly inquisitive wifey and asked several hard hitting questions throughout his day, the likes of....'they are fixing the road, why do you think they put those wooden poles in the ground, what are they for and why do they need them if they keep falling down?' Serious questions you know, the kind you never expect but inevitably rise out of the blue.  And in his matter-of-fact and highly serious voice he says...'WHY DON'T YOU GOOGLE IT!'  He once told me...'ask your friend Google!' And I laughed and said, 'you know what...I think I will, after all Google has several degrees, several PhD's, countless number of workers all backing it and jussssst waiting for me to hit that search button and they will all start running around to find out stuff for me, like what present I can get for a sweet toddler who is turning two...!' 

Google earned it's degrees...*sigh* what I would do without Google... :P

The Hunt for the perfect Lip Gloss

What defines a lady's face more than her lips. If my face is done up really nice and there is absolutely nothing on my lips....I look like I just walked in from the desert where I had been lost for a number of days. Needless to say  I NEED some product for my lips. So for years I was hooked on this gorgeous Yardley Lipstick that was a sort of nude sort of glossy sort of a plummy color that was actually working together with my skin tone and not battling it, but anyway it was soooo doing the trick for me and I used to get a lot of compliments from the ladies on the color...Golden Spice it was. Yes...lovely lipstick. But then....I spotted a lady who coated her lipstick with this really lovely clear Lip Gloss and I found out they call them 'plumpers' pretty name for a Lip Gloss, asking a lot from it I thought, but it really does that, so if you have really plumpy lips...like mine, moderation is key otherwise you have all sorts of leakage going on then it looks like either you have botoxed or kissed a blowfish, oh yes unfortunately been there done that, saw my reflection and went directly back to the desert for a while :D

So a-hunting I went. Next I started using colour lip glosses and tried several chain store ones including the Avon Lip Glosses that I used for a while. Then I moved onto the Revlon Charlie Range but unfortunately that too I abandoned. You see there was a desired list of criteria that I had developed while chopping and changing between these products, and even though for a while they sufficed, after some time using them began to see more of their flaws in my case and here is what I was looking for.

First and foremost was 'stickability' which meant that when I applied I didn't want it disappearing on me after one smack of the lips or one sip of coffee and it was all over the cup and not on my lips. Secondly was 'non gooey-ness' which meant that although I wanted a long lasting Gloss I did not want something where you parted you lips and it looked like I was really in the desert for all the stringy-ness. Yes, it's not at all pretty. Then was color, now the plumper is perfect if your lips are even toned or over a lipstick but on its own I needed a color that would suit me and I wanted nude because I am really loving the smokey eye right now. And that was the real challenge...finding the perfect colour with all the above-mentioned attributes.

So now have figured out that what some do is apply their concealer and go over their lips and apply Gloss over them for that even colored look. But right now, in my hunt, I have found a lovely Gloss from Clinique called Long Lasting Lip Gloss, it's got a lovely texture, lovely moisturizer and it also comes in the perfect nude shade for me... :)

One major thing I learned though is that for all it's stickability to my lips, when I kiss Hubby good-bye, it's just as tenacious on his lips...so now if I want the goodbye kiss where there is no scrubbing and scouring going on for poor Hubby's lips, can't let the lovely man suffer so, it's first desert time, then gloss time. But that I think I might just prefer for then ;D 

Right now I am stuck on Clinique but who knows...the hunt may continue!

Bling Bling Nails.

Isn't it strange that when you have a really gorgeous outfit on and the heels to match, every hair in place and you still feel like you are lacking something...kind of like if you have one earring on or forgot to brush your hair or didn't put on any lipgloss, so love it more than lipstick...at the moment (just saying) :D but it's that moment when you are double checking everything and you can't put your finger on what's missing until you have to wave your hands around and the nails catch the sunlight juuuust so and every little bitty crack and unevenness is revealed. Aha! (lightbulb mo) it's the nails or should I say lack thereof...cos mine are shorter than short. And if you are moving among ladies that have the sense to take a few hours and get that elusive but lovely object called a manicure...yippee Kai yay! But if not...then begins my meager attempts to attract as litttttle attention as possible to the little guys. Like...offering money to the teller between my knuckles, HOW COOL AM I?! Or folding, my hands in my lap, because I am just sooo proper,yes I am...!

So I got to thinking that this hide-away scheme of mine doesn't always work and I was now wondering what could be done in a real hurry to get them looking fab. Well aside from getting a proper set of gel overlays or acrylic nails done. I decided that since my available time is mainly at night...I was gonna do my own nails. So armed with an acrylic brush and all the goodies hubby supplied for me...he's just lovely yes?...I proceeded to educate myself with doing my own acrylic nails. I googled every possible wording to find out 'how to' and then came the practicals...needless to say my first set was outright depressing. They looked like they had been dipped in candlewax and then began the laborious task of getting said candle wax off. Not a good time had by yours truly :( but through persistence, courage, ambition, a go-getting attitude and most important of all the absolute desperation that if I do not get this right the kiddies are going to get terrified at the sight of Mummy's mangled nails plus I'd probably scratch a little person with what I had on...I just had to persevere. And persevering it surely was because it took immense trial and error to get them looking salon quality...of course this could all have been avoided should I have just done a course or two but anyway I managed to DIY it through after mostly a few years.

And now if there is a serious function taking place where Madames nails need to be just right...I go down to the pharmacy and no matter what Brittany from 'The Chipmunks - Chipwrecked' says I just march down that aisle and go get me a pack of press-on nails that look just like a gorgeous French manicure with diamanté to boot and I slap on those bad boys and in half an hour can flip and wave with the best of them. Ps...they really work too, done well enough they last quite long and nobody is any the wiser...shhh....! My quick fix solution :)