My Afflation

Tweet "Fluffy" did not elicit images of puppies and kittens (though there are plenty of those in the participants ), but clouds and flower petals. Which reminds me, I need to update my flickr clouds set .

Tweet I know that I am not the only one stoked for Tron: Legacy (soundtrack by Daft Punk available Dec. 7, movie opening on December 17) so here is a little sneak peek of a video and scenes from the movie along with a new Daft Punk video.

Watch live streaming video from twc2010 at livestream.com I was lucky enough to be able to watch most of the day at work. The panel that really caught my attention was "What Happens When Women Lead" What makes a good leader? Integrity Communicate Innovative Spirit - are you willing to be the catalyst to make the change? Inspire people to follow you. You earn the right to be a leader because the people who follow you want you to lead them. Courage - willingness to step out into the unknown and challenge others. Being able to take a risk. "You can learn to manage, you can't learn to lead" --Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo! Inc. It's Time to Talk About What Happens When Women Lead Host: Blair Christie, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Cisco Moderator: Campbell Brown, Anchor Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo! Inc. Anne Mulcahy, Former Chairman and CEO, Xerox Corporation The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate, T

The Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles Tweet

"How can one make friends without exquisite dishes!  It is mainly through the table that one governs!" ~ Jean-Jacques Regis de Cambaceres, French politician (1713-1824) Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.  ~Voltaire  You can read all about the gastronomical adventures in " Ganging up at Drago Centro "

Tweet I almost didn't wear purple today. It's one of my favorite colors, and I have plenty of it, but today has been organized as Spirit Day . Today, wearing purple has a meaning. I was taught "Love the sinner, not the sin". Despite my religious beliefs (more evangelical Christian than Sunday Christian) I know that everyone  is deserving of love, respect, and compassion. We need to teach our children that bullying, bigotry, sexism, and racism are  not acceptable . Adults need to take responsibility and stop the bullying when they see it. It's not funny. It's not "kids being kids". It is most definitely not something to be ignored. You would think that as reputably the highest species on the planet (and created in the image of our Maker) that we would have come to a place intellectually and emotionally to be past all this. Two of the suicides were 13 years old ! Caleb wasn't gay, but was bullied anyway. This is absolutely heart-breakin

I just had to try out the video camera on my Vibrant. It caught the lightening pretty amazingly well for no other light source. It started to hail as I filmed, so I took cover on my porch. The tree in my front yard makes a good shadow. I also played at getting some lightening shots with my D-SLR but haven't had time to upload those yet. Do you ever brave the weather to get an amazing shot of nature in action?

  Tweet Holy Cow!! I won! I found out about the contest when I was filling out a rebate form for a 16GB Class 10 SDHC card that I bought for my Nikon (all those soccer pictures of Joy take up a  lot of space). I followed both accounts, and tweeted, just once I think, and found out that I won. Not such a bad Monday after all. Can't wait to check the mail. I wonder how long it will take them to ship it.

Tweet Ingredients : 1 small onion - chopped 2 garlic cloves - minced 1 teaspoon canola oil 1 quart chicken stock 1 sweet potato (or yam depending on where you live) - peeled and cubed 1 potato - skin on, cubed 1 can diced tomatoes (15oz) 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon curry powder 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 1 teaspoon sea (or kosher) salt. 1/4 cup chunky peanut butter. Directions : Sauté the onion and garlic in the canola oil. Add the chicken stock, sweet potato, potato, diced tomatoes, spices and peanut butter. Simmer 10-12 minutes.  (You can end the cooking here or proceed to step 4) (This is where it exploded on me . The consistency didn't look right and I knew my kids would not eat sweet potatoes looking the way they did.) Take 1/3 to 1/2 of the soup and blend in a blender. May also work if you have a potato masher to mash the potatoes and give the soup a thicker consistency. Mix with remaining soup. Serve with whole wheat rolls and a

In the interest of killing two birds with one stone, I am combining A Southern Fairytales' Mouthwatering Mondays with Mamavation Monday . Why? Because I miss posting delicious recipes on Mondays for your enjoyment, and two, I am going to try to pledge to the sistahood . Delicious and healthy can be done. Even for a carb addict like myself. Regarding the Sistahood, I can't do everything they want a pledge to do because of my work and commute schedule, but I can do my best to get moving. And in fact did this past weekend (oh boy my arms!). Remembering to post pictures will be hard, but I can do that tonight. I got in 60 of the proposed 100 minutes of movement yesterday. Come to think of it, I walked on Tuesday and Thursday, so I think I went over the 100, woot! Thank goodness for CardioTrainer. Last week I actually had time to menu plan, and all the new recipes went over swimmingly, even the one that exploded in my face. There have been no complaints about having to eat lefto

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just a few miles down the highway the weather had turned to this Taken on a commuter bus with a samsung vibrant

Image by Heungsub via Flickr One week later and I am still carrying around two phones like a crack dealer. I think once I root and get the i9000 ROM + Froyo on the Vibrant I will finally be able to leave my Nexus for a few days. I gotta have a development phone, right? Tweet

With fall arriving in the southland also comes the weather related event called "Storm Watch". The freeways get wet, Californians lose the ability to drive at warp speed, accidents abound,people are hours and hours late for work, and we keep looking out of our windows wondering "when will the rain stop?" Today's "chance of rain" has so far equaled a light, steady mist that is nonetheless wreaking havoc with the morning commute.

SQUEEEE!!! A few weeks ago I was perusing Podiobooker and saw someone mention The Prince of Hazel and Oak , the sequel to Shadowmagic ( read my first impression here ). Boy was I excited! I added that puppy to my Google Listen account immediately. Prior to listening obsessively on a regular basis to Prince of Hazel and Oak I was catching up on Podcastle , various podcasts by Philippa Ballantine , and reading a lot more (still need to post those book reviews *sigh*). Right now I am regretting that I didn’t wait until the book was complete (to savor it all at once), but after listening to ep.24 (SPOILER ALERT!) I know that we are halfway through and that I can expect much more enjoyment. And a third book!! Congrats John! Truly, John Lenahan’s voice, inflection, and delivery always leave me smiling and in a good mood. Conor is as much a smart-alec as he is in Shadowmagic , though maybe a little more mature. If you’re looking for a good great family–friendly fantasy podcast, I ca