i am currently reading the most amazing book, Look Homeward, Angel, by Thomas Wolfe. his prose is captivating and unlike anything i've ever read before- a cross between james joyce and william faulkner. it's a slow read but worth every second. i highly recommend it to any literary aficionado, especially if you're from the South or appreciate Southern culture.

here's just one amazing excerpt where Eugene, who up until now has simply scrawled lines and called them letters, learns how to write and thus unlocks the mystery and the power of language...

"The line of life, that beautiful developing structure of language that he saw flowing from his comrade's pencil, but the knot in him that all instruction had failed to do, and instantly he seized the pencil, and wrote the words in letters fairer and finer than his friend's. And he turned, with a cry in his throat, to the next page, and copied it without hesitation, and the next, the next. They looked at each oter a moment with that clear wonder by which children accept miracles, and they never spoke of it again."

give to caesar what is caesar's

as of 5 mnutes ago, i have officially decided to prepare my taxes myself. gold star to the IRS for putting this little gem of a worksheet on their website (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf) to help peons like myself navigate the red tape and intrusive questions. this should be fun...

unbelievable

Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias
By SAM DILLON
Published: February 25, 2007

The national officers of the Delta Zeta sorority told 23 members at DePauw University to leave, including every woman who was overweight.

Click here for the rest of the story...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/education/25sorority.html?ex=1330146000&en=115632fdee07b436&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

anabel does new zealand

i sold these adorable Cole Haan shoes two days ago. they're from their new collaboration with Nike in which Nike Air technology is used in the shoe construction. you may pay a bit more but the few dollars are well worth the additional comfort and cushioning. but that's just a sidenote...

so whenever i sell a pair of shoes, i'm always anxious to get the buyer's name and address. somehow i envision selling a pair of shoes and seeing the buyers ship to address as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C. well, that may not be very realistic, but i do enjoy learning what i can about my customers.

anabel (the aforementioned cole haan shoe) was purchased by a woman in new zealand, which is fabulous because i've never had a customer from there. in our email correspondence, i noticed her email signature which identified her as an assistant editor of a major fashion magazine in new zealand. pretty sweet, huh? i was quite excited and quickly checked out the mag's website which was quite slick. so now i have an official "fashionista" as a customer and a pair of shoes that need to be on their way to new zealand. not bad for a day's work if i do say so myself

940

a favourite bedtime read. i highly suggest it if you're the type of person who dreams of cavorting with aborigines in australia an skiing in the swiss alps...

so far i've been to:

1. Lake District
2. London (*would love love LOVE to live here)
3. Hadrian’s wall
4. Oxford & Cambridge Universities
5. Salisbury Cathedral (*took my breath away and left me in tears, literally. yes, i have been known to cry over beautiful architecture)
6. Stonehenge (*not worth the trip)
7. The festivals of Edinburgh
8. Pubs in Dublin (*one of the funnest weekends of my life spent with BGB friends)
9. Vieux Nice
10. St. Tropez
11.The Grand Casino (Monte Carlo, Monaco) (*almost arrested here for riding a motorcycle outside casino)
12. Heidelberg’s Schloss
13. The Dead Sea
14. Masada (*awe inspiring to think of the bravery and sacrifice of the Jews who resisted here)
15. The Old City (Jerusalem, Israel) (*where it all began and where it all will end, unbelievable)
16. Old San Juan
17. The Grand Canyon (Flagstaff, Arizona) (*home to Megan Triplett)
18. Hollywood
19. Monterey Peninsula
20. The Pacific Coast Highway (*carsick)
21. Hotel Del Coronado
22. A Tour on San Francisco’s Cable Cars
23. California’s Wine Country
24. Yosemite National Park
25. Mesa Verde National Park
26. The Million Dollar Highway and the Durango and Silverton
27. Kennedy Space Center
28. South Beach
29. Walt Disney World Resort (*always a fave)
30. Maui (*ahhh, i'm there in a heartbeat)
31. Oahu
32. Chesapeake Bay
33. The Freedom Trail (*what a trip)
34. Martha’s Vineyard
35. Nantucket
36. The Las Vegas Strip
37. Albuquerque’s Balloon Fiesta (*sweet times with family)
38. Route 66
39. Carlsbad Caverns National Park
40. Roswell
41. New York City (*yes, please)
42. Historic downtown New York
43. Museum Mile (NYC)
44. Gettysburg National Military Park and Cemetary (*matt's fave)
45. Pennslvania Dutch Country (*my ancestors lived with the amish)
46. Independence National Historical Park
47. Cliff Walk (Newport, R.I.)
48. The Mansion on Turtle Creek (*thank you Bobby, i can't believe i didn't burn it down)
49. Hill Country (Fredericksburg, Texas) (*i'm always ready willing and available for Hyatt Hill Country)
50. River Walk
51. Monticello
52. Shenandoah Valley
53. Colonial Williamsburg
54. The National Mall and its monuments (*my home for a time)
55. The Smithsonian and beyond
56. West Virginia’s White Water Rafting (*"West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains..." name that tune)
57 Whistler- Blackcomb Ski Resort
58. Prince Edward Island (*imagined I was Anne of Green Gables)

only 940 left to go

bouquets, bubbly and bling day

february 14- valentine's day

I don't have particular feelings about Valentine's Day. I'm just not one of "those" kinds of girls. Last year we decided to exchange cards and books on Valentine's Day instead of expensive gifts. Thoughtful and cheap, just like us.

But if I was one of "those" types of girls, M would have to look no further than Mr. Louboutin and this little beauty. Have you ever seen such a gorgeous shoe. It's so Wzard of Oz and Dorothy meets Sex and the City and Carrie. A grown up's fantasy of "there's no place like home" all wrapped in in handcrafted leather, red glitter and a 4 inch heel.

I think I'm in love........

it's about time

it's official, i'm now an eBay POWERSELLER!

i've only been waiting for this moment for like the last year...

google haiku

searchable email

world's knowledge at a simple click

i love you google.

free books

Princeton signs up for Google book project
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - 8:54 AM PST Tuesday

Princeton University will make about 1 million books available to Google Inc.'s book scan project.

The school's library will work with Mountain View-based Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) over the next six years to digitize books. The books offered are all now part of the public domain and not covered by copyright laws.

Princeton joins Stanford University, University of California, Harvard University, Oxford University and seven other schools to join Google's project.

Readers will be able to use key words to search the full texts of the books online, and then download them.

interesting thought

I saw an article on DrudgeReport last week about a church in Sydney who had posted these signs around the community. They have (obviously) been met with quite a bit of discussion and have sparked a lot of dialogue within the church.

So I was already thinking about the topic when a friend from AEI invited me to join a facebook group entitled, "Do you pray for Osama bin Laden." I wanted to see what this was all about and was struck by the group's description...

Did you ever think that if Osama bin Laden converted to Christianity he would be to the Muslim world what the Apostle Paul was to the Jews?

Believer's Response to the Blasphemy Challenge

I have a lot of free time on my hands at work and so I'm constantly checking msnbc or abc for news of some natural disaster, political scandal, or Britney blunder. However, I came across an article today on abcnews.com that left me speechless.

An excerpt from "The Blasphemy Challenge: Host of Internet Challenge says God Most Likely Doesn't Exist":

Brian and Kelly are co-founders of the Rational Response Squad. From Brian's basement they broadcast a weekly Internet radio show about God…or the lack thereof. And recently they came up with a new way to publicize their cause. It is called the Blasphemy Challenge.

"Initially we wanted to find a way to allow atheists to come out of the closet, speak up and show other people that there are people that think like this," Brian says.

What they did was challenge people to make videos of themselves, denying, denouncing or blaspheming the Holy Spirit, and then post them on YouTube.'We Are Not Scared of This Unforgiveable Sin'

"We wanted to do it in such a way where we stripped the power from religious institutions that instill fear in people," says Brian. "And we did that by blaspheming the Holy Spirit, by showing that we are not scared of this unforgiveable sin."

A passage in Mark 3:29 reads, "whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."

While the passage is open to interpretation, the Rational Response Squad is taking it literally and challenging people to gamble with their eternal souls. So far more than 800 people have taken up the challenge.

As a believer, I'm shocked at saddened at their audacity and what that says about this fallen world. Yet I'm also left wondering how to properly respond as a follower of Christ. I'm saddened that the inflammatory nature of their project will (probably) incite equally inflammatory critiques and damnations to hell from the religious leaders asked to comment. I feel strongly that these are the very people Christ came for, yet how do I reach out in love towards those so steeped in darkness without compromising the light of truth? I wish I knew the answer...

"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2.9-11

my first

These little beauties were the first pair of shoes I ever sold on eBay, my "first" as you will. When I picked them up, I had no idea that they were Louboutins or that they had graced the feet of every celebrity from Gwen Stefani to Angelina Jolie. I just thought they looked cute. Then I looked at the price tag, recovered from the initial shock and charged them. I didn't keep them for myself, I'm not quite the type of girl who walks around wearing a $850 investment on my feet, but these Leopard Oralatos will always be one of my favorites.

I found a great piece on Christian Louboutin, the man himself, in yesterday's edition of FD Luxe. Here's an excerpt...

"The best-dressed women in the world have one thing in common: red-soled shoes. That glossy fire-engine sole is the instantly recognizable signature of Christian Louboutin, whose teetering stilettos, open-toed flats and chunky wedges make fashionistas go weak in the knees. 'I always say, it's a red color, but it's a green light,' explains the animated designer... 'It attracts people, it attracts men. In French, I call it, Follow me young man.'"

How great is that and how fabulous are his shoes...

Hello world!

11, 774 babies are born in the U.S. every day

1,300,000 million songs are downloaded on iTunes every day

12,240,000 McDonalds hamburgers are sold every day

I'm not quite sure how many people create a blog every day, but for what it's worth, I've decided (with a little help from my friends at google) to throw my hat into the ring. so watch out world, my blog is born!

(for the record, all statistics are courtesy of the CIA, apple, and the Sustainability Institute, respectively)