However, the next few articles (about 4 or so) all relate to each other - so stay tuned because I'm going to give you some tips on what's out there and some cheaper alternatives. It's some pretty cool stuff if you're trying to sync and organize your life.

So once again, stay tuned, and be sure to read some past articles if you want -  leave comments - that kinda thing ;-)

~Chris~

Taurus (April 20-May 20): All your decisions -- what to wear, how to move your money in the stock market, whom to love -- benefit from an instinctual approach. Stop thinking and listen to what your feelings are trying to tell you.

Gemini (May 21-June 21): Your energy doubles when you cut out worry from your emotional diet. It also helps that a change in your work environment allows you more freedom. You'll be flexing your creative muscles to great response.

Cancer (June 22-July 22): You're so receptive now that the people around you feel compelled to teach or reveal information to you. Ask questions that never occurred to you to ask before.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22): This is a crucial day for a project you've got going on. Take the time to plan your next steps. It's the best way to ensure that it all gets done.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Sometimes being focused on small things hangs you up. But now the opposite is true. The attention you give to detail will free you and help you better appreciate the work at hand.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 23): You'll be running damage control for a mistake that someone else made. Before going with the first solution that pops into your head, think of 10 and then go with the best.

Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 21): Your private worry will go away if you ignore it long enough. In the words of novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, "Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others."

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): There's a community of creative people just waiting for you to join them and add your ideas to the mix. Show up where like-minded folks are likely to gather.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Sometimes living by the rules helps you excel in your endeavor, and then there are days like this when the opposite is probably true. Break from your routine and play hooky.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Though you have dreams of winning the lottery, it's easy to recognize today that in many ways you already have. Your relationships are strong and getting stronger -- what more is there?

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20): Time accelerates when you're with a certain someone -- maybe it has something to do with your heart rate going up at the very sight of this person. Anyway, you're smitten.

Today's birthday (July 18): It's a big world out there and this year your awareness of it explodes. Follow your curiosity through August -- it leads to a fascinating new relationship. You're making money in a different way through September. Capricorn and Scorpio are your fans. Your lucky numbers are 9, 30, 15, 43 and 17.

Overall, it's pretty awesome. I really like the location awareness. My favorite app that takes advantage of it is loopt - it's basically twitter with photos and geodata. I have loopt linked to my facebook, and soon they're supposed to be providing RSS support, which I'm going to link to this blog. Then you'll see all the boring shit I do during the day and the places I go when I do them. It's like stalking, except I'm enabling it.

There's some other neat shit, like the facebook app, which they just updated so you can post on walls and stuff. The camera's not bad quality. What it really needs is turn by turn (think Garmin or TomTom) GPS capabilities, which are SUPPOSED to be coming soon, but at what price? Nobody really seems to know. Guess we'll find out later on.

Oh, another cool thing? I just posted this from my iPhone. Wordpress has an admin interface for the screen format of the iPhone.
iPhone, iPhone, iPhone. iPhone iPhone, iPhone iPhone iPhone.

I make myself sick.

NY jachchi
NY jachchi
NY jachchi

Ekhon baje 3:23.
5:30 e rowana hobo and by 11, rui mach vaji ar Ammu ke shamne niye boshe thakbo. Amar gop gop khawa dekhe ammu birokto hoye bolbe, "tor gaal e koto mangsho dekhechish? kom kha". Tarpor'e bolbe, "ar ek tukro mach ne baba, ar ek chamoch eta ne, ar ek chamoch ota ne."
Aha! Jibon oti-oti-rikto modhur mone hochche.

Gotokal dupur theke ek gaan mogoze dhuke boshe ache. 'Tateen Shongeet'. Puropuri akdum bakdum type gaan. Tarporo gaan er duto line mathar vetor theke ber hochche na. Goto rat e ghumute gechi ei mohan shongeet jope jope. Birokti'te ga jole jachche, tobu shunchi. Ei biroktir nam, Kromo-Ahammo-Ragoto-Birokti :) Proti ta onubhutir alada alada nam thaka uchit. Eki shobdo diye shob chaliye deya thik nah :p

"Shob e to buzhlam, gyaan'er heno teno
Tateen tomar naam ta Tateen holo keno!"

Title: Tateen
Artist: Upal (Chandrabindu)
Album: U/A
[audio http://ishti.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/tateen.mp3][Download]

Title: D Minor
Artist: Upal (Chandrabindu)
Album: U/A
[audio http://ishti.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/d-minor.mp3][Download]

Title: Aami Dibosh
Artist: Sona (Chandrabindu)
Album: U/A
[audio http://ishti.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/aami-dibosh.mp3][Download]

Dekhi Chondrobindu'r aro kichu gaan post korbo. Hasshokor chele-manushi dhoroner gaan. Shei bhalo. Ami tumi tumi ami.. ar koto!

This comes to mind to human beings. I believe everyone needs their personal upkeep to work the best. However it's done, it's different for everyone. Me for example, I like to have time to myself, just doing absolutely nothing but wasting time. I have to do that after a certain number of days, otherwise I couldn't function as a great worker. I love helping people too, I think that's a downfall for most time, because I like to say "yes" a lot and "no" very little. You can tell what kind of person I am from that alone... the kind who gets stepped on a lot. Regardless, I would still help and just wait for something grand in return. It may be in 10 years, maybe 20, but however long it is, the way I am is just the way I am.

Okay, so back to being lazy as being my recharging state. It's not total laziness, it's just the fact that I have to sit for some time and play games. My games are places I can go and forget about things I've come across daily. Writing in my blog does the same at some point. I think I would categorize myself to have an implosion reaction. I keep everything that bothers me inside and one day I would just explode and everyone would seriously just look at me as though my circuits just blew and it'll restore itself after a moment of silence.

My quest to wait for the maintenance guy continues and I shall do some playing while at it. I played about 5 hours of Mass Effect last night, and I find myself liking the 1st and 3rd person shooter action a lot more than I let myself on to. It maybe the fact that I'm growing and changing too, so I would enjoy more games than before.

Thanks for reading!

Yo soy o fui parte de blogger hasta ayer. Porque cuando habro la pestaña de AdSense y ver el tema de lo que había recaudado me encuentro con que se me inabilito la cuenta. "Por clics no válidos". Y me rompió las pelotas y decidi dejar de actualizar todo lo que tenga que ver con blogger. Porque fueron meses de trabajo a la basura. Por más que haya dejado un tiempo de actualizar, volver o comenzar con un nuevo blog. Lo que agradezco es haber conocido a gente copada. Es lo único que rescato.

Por eso decidi afiliarme por decirlo de alguna manera a Wordpress. Es todo muy distinto pero con el tiempo me voy acostumbrar.

Asique voy a seguir actualizando porque me gusta hacerlo y porque quiero seguir conociendo gente por este medio. Y perdón si causo molestia por el cambio de blog o de vereda.

Well, try to tell that to an over-crowded kennel owner that wants their money. After many annoying phone calls from me, they said they were going to send the Sheriff to my house. So I said, "like the High Sheriff or the Big White Dog Sheriff ... oh, wait, you mean the Mighty Pet Sheriff?? Well, if you must, don't forget to send Deputy Barney Fife!"

We cut a deal for a third of what was owed and brought the pup home. Now, I'm not saying most "puppy day care kennels" don't deserve their money. However, in this case, after the owners held the animal in a small cage due to lack of payment, I wasn't on the side of the small, family operated business.

If I want to play with these Nutters and give up any more of my time, I can get Animal Control involved, talk about their over-crowded kennel and the large sized dogs in small cages, but I'm tired. And I got a call from my mom today. "You have to learn to keep your mouth shut, Isabella!! They are going to come and get you one of these days!"

Try getting threatened to have the High Sheriff on your unknown doorstep and a lecture by your mother in the same day! The mother that has been dealing with your crazy animal and hippie-tree-hugging-loving self since you were fourteen.

The dog owner gave me a basket of beautiful hand-made soaps and body lotions after she told me how wonderful and overly large hearted I am. I said, "you must be kidding me, I'm a lunatic!"

Trust me, I'm not at all humble.

Here's to another weird day ...

The 60-year-old actor was named Thursday to the board of directors of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the foundation raising money to build the memorial to the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Crystal becomes the 45th member of the board, joining "Analyze This" co-star Robert De Niro.

He participated in a benefit concert for the city a month after the terror attacks. He also has co-hosted eight Comic Relief telethons on HBO to raise money for the homeless.

The foundation has raised more than $350 million privately to build the memorial.

I am not wearing a 'hey freaks come talk to me' hat am I? Seriously. I don't get it. Perhaps I am just too picky.

Naaaaaahhh.

I've never had to go out and try and meet someone, it's always just happened. Living in NY you would think it would be easier to meet people, maybe it is, maybe it's not, all I know is that there are so many different kinds of people here. So many places to meet them. So many freaks.

ugh. I will never do match.com or any of that nonsense.

-r

21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky: All of us bloggers have experienced traffic spikes before from social network sites like StumbleUpon or Digg, but how... (continue reading... )

• Suddenly or gradually I've waded into a daunting mass of work and deadlines. The overdue overhaul of my project website Life or Liberty, a couple of shooting gigs in the next couple of weeks, the rerelease of my documentary A Corner of Her Eye, and last but overwhelmingly greatest, the rough cut of my documentary Enemy Alien.
• A friend called whom I'd lost touch with since before 9/11 and it was unexpectedly strangely uplifting to realize how much more purpose I feel in my life since then, though I enjoyed recapping all that's happened (and talked way too long). Just before 9/11 I was directing my first short, Harlem Fight Song (which climaxes with a Chinese vs. Black martial arts encounter set to a Charles Mingus composition) and communing with a sort of dark father figure from the 'hood who has since died.
• I finally got all but one of three ordained dental drilling sessions out of the way plus a dermatologist appointment where I made sure these things on my back which seemed to have emerged after a horrendous post-Katrina sunburn weren't anything serious, but I still have to see an eye doctor about the thing that gets commented on every exam, that I have this unusually shaped optic nerve in my left eye that makes them concerned I might get glaucoma.
• That's all for now!

Often it is not that we don't want to change, but rather that we cannot because either we are totally overwhelmed or because we just don't have the emotional energy to change. How do we stop these potential "leaks" on our energy that have a negative impact on our capacity (physical and emotional) to change. Consider the following:

• Try not to please everybody
• Stop living in the past (it was better then)
• Learn to live a more simple life
• Implement a system where you get everything that you need to do recorded (the GTD approach is a good one)
• Changing your physical and social environment to suit your style and energize you. For example, consider Feng Shui and avoiding negative people

Yes, if you pass your mii guide when a dog comes up behind you it takes you on a different path, different color dogs take you diff places, one takes you through town and past fountrains, one takes you up to the village and through windmills, another takes you over a rope bridge up in the mountain, and another winds up at the lighthouse.

Tried the short run just for kicks and wa-lah!  I got to go someplace new!  Next to try to get up to the windmill path.  (It's the whole reason I started looking for it.)  Nice little incentive to keep doing wii fit runs.

---

The dishwasher is DEAD.

Shopped last night and found a Bosch we liked after playing with it for a bit.  Expensive - but if it lasts longer than my last DW I'll be thrilled.    Now we eat off paper plates until new one arrives on Wed.  (I'll do a few dishes by hand - but I don't have time to do a ton.)

House projects $ now blown - will start saving again to replace kitchen floor.

                     I need a friend...

                     I want to reach out...

                     Should I...?

Everyone in my department tells me that the job's all there for me, and so on, and I am buying into it. This time, I have decided to be shamelessly optimistic. I will write in detail about my interview experience once I know for sure if I have/n't got the job.

Yet, there's one thing I am very, very, very sure of. That finally, finally, I have secured respect in my parents' eyes. Their eyes are shining in a way I haven't seen anything sparkle. Both of them are into academics, both of them are the best-loved teachers I have seen, and this (my entering academics, as a lecturer) must have been what their best dreams are made of. I don't know if it's the safety, or the security, or the fact that their blithe-spirit-of-a-daughter has decided to settle into something. Personally, I am very happy for them. And I am also quite cheerful for myself. The reason? This is the FIRST time in my whole goddamn life that I am doing something which the world approves of and endorses. This is the first time that I don't have to explain myself hoarse or wear a mask of fake apology for the choices I have made. This is the first time that I feel have earned a semblance of respectability, precisely because I happen to be just like all the others. Part of a herd. Fade in, fit there.

: )

We first got to hear the heartbeat, and it was really strong and good. And then she said I was measuring about 14 weeks, which is about 3 weeks ahead of where I actually am (10 weeks 6 days). They normally only do one ultrasound at 20 weeks for the gender, but since I was measuring big she wanted to check to be sure how many babies were in there. Josh was nervous at the idea of there being more than one, but I would have been thrilled either way.

So we got to see our baby for the first time! Yes, baby singular. :) There is one healthy little baby in there! We could see him kicking and moving around, and the tech told us the heartbeat was 158 beats per minute and that baby measured just right at 4 cm, which is 1.6 inches and apparently perfect for where she is supposed to be.

Anyway... here are the pictures! It's kind of hard to tell what you're looking at if you weren't there. In most of them the baby's head is to the right and his feet are to the left (notice how I use the gender pronouns interchangeably? We don't know the gender yet but I refuse to call my baby an "it").

Here is a profile view of baby's face:

Here baby had his hand up by his face, possibly sucking his thumb!

This one's a little abstract, but it is a view from above, and you can see baby's head and she has her arms out in front of her, holding her own hands:

This is a full body picture of baby sort of from behind. If you look closely you can see the spine:

And last but not least, tiny baby fingers! You may have to click to see the big version to see this one, they are on the right side of baby's arm:

I have hung on to the theoblogging realm because there are a few folks that I really enjoy reading. My list of blogs has not grown with changing times. On a few occasions I’ve gotten quite impatient and irate at the passive-voiced, detached, and largely impractical way of doing theology that I’m reading. In the case of Bonhoeffer and Barth, what draws me to these theologians is their pastoral and preaching interests. The way I'm seeing them used of late has nothing to do with pastoring, preaching, or humans for that matter! I don’t think I’d be wrong in saying that reading these theologians with nary an interest in their work as a vocation or their lives(!) is a disservice to all of us. Using a theologian to further our own little agendas seems to be the way theology is just done, especially here in the United States. That being the case, who the hell would want to be a theologian? In fifty years (with any success) you’d get to look forward to people dropping your name here or there in order to sound intelligent and further their own work. Rather than serving the Church, or loving God and neighbor with our work, theologians have the dubious honor of continuing a legacy of academic science, because, well, it’s a job. They put a lot of work into that Phd. Now they get to work to keep their tenure by publishing, because, “it’s publish or perish!”

Yes, I’ve learned a fair bit about theoblogging over the last five years, but my education has not made me want to grab the first person I meet on the street and tell them about it. Far from it. I almost want to shield people from 90% of what I see. I’m almost embarrassed to tell people that theology is what I read on the internet. Please people! Let’s endeavor to use theology for the Church and for human beings rather than reference systems. On his journey toward pastoring a church, after writing Sanctorum Communio and Act and Being, Bonhoeffer remarked that unless he could make what he had to say interesting for children, like describing a luscious apple held before them, he didn’t feel he was really being of service. There are those who will despise such sentiments. For my part, I’ve come to despise theological language that is not itself an embodiment of Bonhoeffer’s “Being for Others.” Far from obeying Christ in laying our lives down, theology in such circumstances is a way of deflecting others who “just wouldn’t understand” in order to pursue our own valuable head space.

I'm not sure I'm still a theoblogger. I don't know what will change, but because I'm not a grad student, or a prof., or trying to get published theologically, because I just read theology, I feel less and less a part of it all.

I love going to the roof, you can see a lot from up there. There are chairs and tables scattered around so the tenants can make themselves comfortable. Every now and the my husband and I go up there just to chill out in the night. I love feeling the cool breeze on my sticky skin. It feels good after feeling that hot afternoon sun. Sometimes we're alone and sometimes there are others there too. There is the occasional man power walking; getting his exercise, or someone smoking a cigarette (and sometimes weed). I don't mind the smell though, I actually like it. I took this picture from up there.

Everything is lovely and is going to be lovely.