Fishing Trip

Pictures I took of our fishing trip in Lake Casitas.

Earthquake Fun

I thought I became dizzy when my desk and monitor started shaking slightly. The shaking stopped for a breadth of a second then the dreaded tremors hit. The walls and the cubicles started swaying. I put my hand on the edge of my seat and held my breath. "Please God, don't let this one be the big one," I prayed silently. My mind went blank for a second then my thoughts went to my family at home. Gasps and exclamations rose from the cubicles surrounding me. I looked at the opposite building through the glass window from the 4th floor where I was sitting. I watched in fascination as the glass windows of the other building vibrated. It lasted about 20 seconds but it felt forever. It was a bitter reminder of the power of nature that we choose to forget.

Did anyone feel the Los Angeles earthquake when it hit on Tuesday?

Quotes that Made Us Laugh and Wince - Part#2

"If I had a choice of having a woman in my arms or shooting a bad guy on a horse, I'd take the horse. It's a lot more fun" - Kevin Costner, Actor.


"Whenever I watch TV and I see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I would love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff."
- Mariah Carey, Pop Singer.


"I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were ever supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever." - Miss Alabama, in the 1994 Miss Universe contest, when asked if she would want to live forever.


"The only happy artist is a dead artist, because only then you can't change. After I die, I'll probably come back as a paintbrush." - Sylvestor Stallone, Actor.


"If only faces could talk..." - Pat Summerall, Sportscaster, during the Super Bowl.


"Minks are mean little critters. Vicous, horrible little animals who eat their own. They're not beavers. I wouldn't wear beavers. I'd rather have a mink coat made of mean little critters that are killed in a very nice way and treated nicely for their short, mean lives so that I could keep warm."- Valerie Perrine, Actress.


"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body."
- Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.


"Always go to other peoples' funerals, otherwise they won't go to yours."
- Yogi Berra, Baseball player.


"Fiction writing is great, you can make up almost anything." - Ivana Trump, on finishing her first novel.


"I'd run over my own mother to win the Super Bowl."
- Joe Jacoby, NFL Football player, of the Washington Redskins.


"I have a God-given talent. I got it from my dad." - Julian Wakefield, Missouri basketball player.


Source: Amusing Facts

Quotes that Made Us Laugh and Wince - Part#1

"I think that the film Clueless was very deep. I think it was deep in the way that it was very light. I think lightness has to come from a very deep place if it's true lightness."- Alicia Silverstone, Actress.


"Sure there have been injuries and deaths in boxing - but none of them serious."
- Alan Minter, Boxer.


"I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada." - Britney Spears, Pop Singer.


"It isn't pollution that is hurting the environment, it's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." - Dan Quayle, former U.S. Vice-President.


"A billion here, a billion there, sooner or later it adds up to real money."
- Everett Dirksen, Congressman.


"If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by candlelight." - George Gobel.


"Yes, maam? Right here, this lady. No, she! Yes, right, second row. Next to the guy in the blue shirt, holding her left hand up. It's a he? Sorry about that. Gotta be careful. I'm very sorry. Go ahead! I'm, excuse me, I'm very sorry. Go, ah, I, a thousand apologies, go ahead."
- George Bush Sr., Former U.S. President, at a press conference.


"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life." - Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign.


"China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese."
- Charles De Gaulle, former French President.


"I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."
- Greg Norman, Golfer.


"Give Bill a second term, and Al Gore and I will be turned loose to do what we really want to do." - Hillary Clinton, former first lady, at a Democratic fundraiser.


Source: Amusing Facts

Brain Quirks You Might Not Know About

StepCase Lifehack provided this entertaining list of Nine Brain Quirks You Did Not Realize You Had:

1) Your short-term memory has a max capacity of seven.

Humans have three forms of memory: sensory, long-term and short-term. Long-term memory is like hard-drive space, while short-term memory works like a very small RAM. This short-term memory can hold only about five to nine (average is seven) items at a time.
Remembering information longer than this requires you to either compress it down into seven units or store it in long-term memory. Most phone numbers are only seven digits.

4) You have two nervous systems.

One set controls excitation and the other controls inhibition. If you hold out your hand, you might notice minor tremors. This is caused by slight, random differences in the amount each of the two systems are firing.

7) You can perceive depth with one eye.

It’s a myth that depth perception is entirely the result of having two eyes. Binocular vision does assist in making a three-dimensional picture. However, most of your ability to perceive depth comes from inside your brain. It has been wired to look at angles and proportions to judge distance.

If you required two eyes to perceive depth then most optical illusions wouldn’t work and it would be incredibly difficult to gather information from flat photographs. Not to mention a lot more one-eyed pirates walking overboard.

The Newest Addition to Our Family

...is our puppy, Tobey. He is a 2-months old white Pomeranian. He is very adorable.

Being Quiet

Do I feel it, this quiet pulsing under my skin? Yes, I can sense the strong trickle of blood warm and steady in my veins when I put the tip of my fingers lightly against each other. Yes, I feel like a stretched web where my heart beats teetering every cord.

I laugh inwardly when they unceremoniously comment that I am demure, quiet, or shy. I instantly become a pond, and I swallow their words like pebbles momentarily breaking my surface. I let them squint at my watery exterior and think that the bottom is dark and empty. They won't see the core sighing with life between my chest and back. When I move my head sideways, I can hear the rush of ocean in my ear, but they can't. They are unaware that gilded images play on my irises under my closed eyelids every night.

When did being quiet become a shame?

The Wax Lamp

The beautiful IKARUS wax lamp by Aylin Kayser and Christian Metzner is one of the DMY Berlin Youngersters Jury Selection.

Source: MoCo Loco