Sunday, July 26, 2009

BzzAgent.com

http://www.bzzagent.com

I'll try to come back very soon to edit this info, but i'm in a hurry now. Check out www.bzzagent.com if you like this sort of thing, as I do. BzzAgent has a lot to do, such as creating or following and adding to BzzScapes, where you write about your favorite brands (Johnny Depp, for example, IS a brand, as much as Cover Girl or Frigidaire or Chevy) and provide links to websites, photos, etc to spread the word. They have Bzz Campaigns, where they send you - not samples, but FULL SIZED - products to use and review, as well as either extras or coupons to give to friends, family, or strangers on the street. There's the Frog POnd, where you explore given websites and rate them, etc. Of course, there are rewards such as reward points to be collected and traded in; being chosen for a campaign gets you the free products, and the longer you are a member and more active you are, the more often you get chosen and the bigger and better the products to try out, coupons, free trials and other similar product promotions. Now, you are absolutely not gonna make a lot of money, but you do get to earn a few coins extra while you explore, get free stuff, and get to have your opinion heard and counted.
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"There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It's the ability to RECOGNIZE ability."
- Elbert Hubbard

Viewpoints.com

"Advertising may be defined as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it." - Stephen Butler Leacock

{This quote, tho related to the below blog due to the correlation of selling products, is not meant in any way to detract from the below website. I love Viewpoints, because its by consumers of the products like you and me - you're encouraged to write your own reviews of whatever you wish - and this helps protect us from the tricks and lies of advertizers.}
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Great Social Website, with REWARDS EARNED occasionally by writing a specified number - usually about 5 - of PRODUCT REVIEWS, for anything you want to write about, from your favorite pencil to the worst car you've had, from the best fast-food restaurant to your favorite local restaurant etc; you choose what you wanna write about. Then the next time you are considering a purchase, or you want to try to find a better everyday product than the one you've always used, but there are so many you don't know where to begin (and don't wanna waste money by buying one worse than the one you're replacing) etc, do a search for it on this site and see what others have to say. Search for a general product like "cosmetics" or more specifically "lipstick", or search a brand name, such as "Cover Girl" or "Cover Girl lipstick". If you don't find what you're looking for exactly, ask someone to give their opinion.

http://www.viewpoints.com

This is the link to one of my favored websites. Viewpoints is a social site, with profiles, tags, photos, etc, but the main point is that its a product review site. Planning on a big purchase? Check here to see what others are saying about specific brands and their experiences with products, companies, and services.
Found something you just love and you wanna tell others about it? Did you get ripped off and wanna warn others? Treated badly by customer service and wanna strike out for vengeance? Write your own reviews. They also offer occasional incentives for writing reviews, for example, now they're giving away a $25 restaurant card to anyone who writes 5 reviews.
Check 'em out, see everything they have, look around, and join if you wish. Look me up and we'll be friends if you like, or just send me a message if you like the site, or whatever.

Friday, July 24, 2009

CHRIS JORDAN PORTRAITS: SEEING THE NUMBERS



I did a post on my other blog on this same subject, but decided to write on it here, too, because it blew my mind so much, and the more people see this, the better we may all be.
Chris Jordan is a very talented artist,
and he uses his skills to take on some of the big social issues of our day and demonstrate to us what the numbers really look like, for example, when we hear that Americans use 28,000 42-gallon barrels of oil every TWO MINUTES. In this photo, each can of oil represents one 42 gallon barrel, and there are literally 28,000 cans in the photo (that is equal to the flow of a medium-sized river):


Each of these 100,000,000 toothpicks represents one of the

one hundred million trees cut down each year just to make the

paper for junk mail. Just junk mail.






These depict 2.3 million folded prison uniforms. This is not the number of prisoners in America. This is merely the number of prisoners that were convicted in 2005 (when Jordan was gathering his info and supplies for this photo). It may not surprise some people to know that the US has the largest prison system in the world.












Depicts 2 million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the United States every 5 minutes.






Depicts 170,000 disposable Energizer batteries, equal to 15 minutes of Energizer battery production. (The 1st pic is the detail at actual print size.)






If 170,000 real batteries were shown at their real size, the print of this photo would need to be
26 x 43 feet. That's for only 15 minutes. That's just the Energizer brand statistics -doesn't include any other battery brands. And these are disposables only, not rechargeable batteries that have finally died completely.



To depict one year of only Energizer disposable battery production - which is 6 billion batteries (6,000,000,000), at actual battery size, it would take a banner 26 ft high (as this one is) by 146 miles long.

This last image is built up of lines of text, made up of the names of 1 million organizations around the world that are devoted to peace, environmental stewardship, social justice, and the preservation of diverse and indigenous culture.





To see more of Jordan's work, as well as appearance locations and dates, check out his site at www.chrisjordan.com










Monday, July 20, 2009

QUOTES by Voltaire, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, John Wayne

JOHN WAYNE: May 26 1907 - June 11 1979

Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.

I've always followed my father's advice. He told me, first to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble.

Life's tough. Its even tougher if you're stupid.

If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

Talk low, talk slow, and don't talk too much.

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. Its perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.


VOLTAIRE: November 21 1694 - May 30 1778

[I always find it interesting, when reading quotes, articles, etc from someone who lived long ago, to imagine their words and their frame of mind, their reasons for thinking that way, in context with the time they lived in and the events of that time; then I like to compare how accurately or inaccurately the same words may fit with the world today - often you see how timeless things really are - and compare the events of their day with those of today. Sometimes its a mere slip of thought that quickly blows away; but sometimes the parallels and/or the changes, and so on, can really stir up some interesting ideas and show the way to fascinating life lessons. Its hard to describe what I mean, but I'm sure many others do the same, and that some won't be interested in such things, and the rest, the ones I write of this for, will try it and then you'll see what I mean. I have a hard time describing it without writing a small book on it, so I'll stop here. -JasWolfhawk]

A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals that work to live.

A multitude of laws in a country is, like a great number of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady. +++
+++ [This is one of the sayings I was speaking of above - one of my main complaints in this country today is that our elected representatives make WAY too many laws - many to protect us from ourselves, because they know what is best for us. This is strictly and directly opposed to our Constitution and the ideas and ideals of our Founding Fathers and the many who died fighting for our FREEDOM. Laws are meant to be GUIDELINES to be USED WITH COMMON SENSE, for the purpose of protecting us from others that would do us harm. As for the individual, the only thing of his/hers that this nation's government is supposed to protect is our LIBERTY, our right to pursue happiness as long as its not at the expense of others. We all will die. Til then, we each have the right to live in a way that makes us happy. What use is a long life if its so restricted you cannot enjoy it? Okay here I go again. You see what I mean, and I'll go on with the quotes now.]

A witty saying proves nothing.

All sects are different, because they come from men. Morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.

As long as people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities.

As long as there are fools and rascals, there will be religions.

Common sense is not so common.

Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less in human beings of which they know nothing.
'
Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.

England has 42 religions and only 2 sauces. (Ha ha)

Every man is guilty of all the good he DID NOT do.

God created sex. Priests created marriage.

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

God is always on the side of the big battalions. [Well I guess so, since all winning sides always claim God helped them win, therefore their cause was just. Very excellent point.]

History is fables agreed upon.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

I have lost the half of myself - a soul for which mine was made. [NOTE: Voltaire wrote this when Emilie, the love of his life, died. If you wish, you may read the love story of Voltaire and Emilie du Chatelet here http://www.visitvoltaire.com/love_story_voltaire.htm ++++++++


MARK TWAIN

Love seems the swiftest, but is the slowest of growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.

Man - a figment of God's imagination.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

Of all things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. [Seen it on bumper stickers and all over the place, but never have seen anyone credit Twain for saying it.]

Of all the delights of this world man cares most for sexual intercourse, yet he has left it out of his heaven.

Pessimism is only the name that men weak of nerve give to wisdom.

The best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he'd learned in 7 years.

OSCAR WILDE: October 16 1854 - November 30 1900

A grand passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do.

A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.

A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

Alas, I am dying beyond my means. (Wilde said this as he sipped champagne on his deathbed)

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.

America had often been discovered befoe Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Being natural is simply a pose.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. there is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Everyone who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.

I am not young enough to know everything. [HA! I seen teenagers and young men and women have not changed at all!]

I can resist anything but temptation.

Missionaries are going to reform the world whether it wants to or not.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

MARK TWAIN, ie Samuel Clemens: QUOTES


Always do right - this will gratify some and astonish the rest.

An enemy can partly ruin a man, but int takes a good-natured injudicious friend to complete the thing and make it perfect.

Are you so inobservant that you do not yet realize that sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.


Buy land. They've stopped making it.

By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean.

Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessaries.

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.

Few things are harder to put up with than a good example.

Fleas can be taught nearly anything a congressman can.

Giving up smoking is easy. I've done it hundreds of times.

I am an old man and I have many troubles, but most of them never happened.

I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts.

I am opposed to millionaires but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.

I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people.

I did not attend his funeral, but I wrote a nice letter saying I approved of it.

I find that the further I go back, the better things were, whether they happened or not.

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

I was born modest. Not all over, but in spots.

If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be - a Christian.

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.

In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.

Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its one sure defense.

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.



















Here are a handful of articles, stories, etc about or by Clemens/Twain:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/02/04/markTwain.html ...Columbia University's newspaper, Columbia News, does a story on Twain 92 years after his death


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain ...The Wikipedia article

http://www.cmgww.com/historic/twain/about/writings.htm ....site dubbing itself the "official" Mark Twain site. Don't be discouraged when you see nothing on the home page - the drop boxes will take you to various sections such as a biography, listings of his writings, quotes, etc. I never looked at the entire site so I'm not even sure what all is there. Haven't checked to see if it is complete, but there is a listing of Twain's work

http://www.marktwainhouse.org/ ...site for the Mark Twain House and Museum, even has kids' activities

http://www.twainquotes.com/ ...has not only quotes but also other writings, such as "Mark Twain and the Countess Massiglia , 'The lowest-down woman on the planet' " , the Lost Autobiography of Orion Clemens, "Mark Twain's Quarrel with Undertakers: It All Begins With Jennie" and more

QUOTE by Samuel Adams, Founding Father and Public Enemy #`


"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams, 1722-1803

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Paris Jackson's short, moving speech about her Daddy


If you somehow missed it, you have got to see this poor sweet child say goodbye to her "Daddy". You can only try to imagine her pain. Not only did she lose her much beloved Daddy, and has no Mama (I hope she never saw any of the Debbie Rowe interviews or articles - no need in a child knowing such a thing), but she has to deal with the fact that so many people make fun of her Daddy, and there's no way they could avoid her having found out that a large percentage of the world thought he was guilty of child molestation (and anyone who researched the cases, I do not understand how they could believe it. But that isn't my point, at least, not in this blog. Yet.)
If you haven't seen this, I beg you, look. She is an innocent child who lost her Daddy, and she deserves to be heard after what the world has put her, her Daddy, and her family through. http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=paris%20jackson%20at%20memorial&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=#

KIDS on LEASHES

Well, I decided to do another blog, all serious, about searching for truth in politics, government, media, and maybe religion - or maybe I'll do a completely different blog on that and related spiritual things. Not the point. I never started that blog because I haven't had the time - tho I plan to sooner or later. And, I forgot about it.
Then I ran across a discussion board on putting kids on leashes, and of course had to put my 2 cents in. That didn't satisfy me since that board only had a few hundred readers, so I decided to use this blog to spread my opinion on the matter. Except, I accidentally posted it to my other blog. I wanna put the thing here, and I do not wanna retype the entire thing, so here's the link to that article on my other blog. Which is a sad blog, with only two posts, and one of those is explaining that my blog is not supposed to be about parenting so the one other post there is an accident. Sad.
Anyhow here's the link if you wanna read it: http://searchingfortruth-anonpartisansite.blogspot.com/2009/07/kids-on-leashes.html