I’m assuming most of you have seen the YouTube video of Miss South Carolina. My fav part is watching Mario Lopez trying to keep a straight face. Well, poor Miss South Carolina has another round of 15 seconds coming in the form of a t-shirt.

If only I wasn’t trying to eliminate our debt, I would *so* purchase one of these.

Busted Tees Miss South Carolina T-shirt

I belong to a hilariously fun community called Iconbuffet. The people there are artists, poets, web designers, programmers and who knows what all else. Everyone I've "met" has a great sense of humour.

A little background on the 'buffet:

So here's the deal... a few years back we launched the original
IconBuffet. At the time we sold stock icons to web designers and other
geeky folks all over the world. After a while we figured it would be
totally sweet to give away free icons every month to IconBuffet
members. Only there's a little twist... not everyone gets the same
icons. So you have to swap icons with your friends to get them all.
Kinda like baseball cards. Only you can use them on your website.

Then this crazy thing happened... tons of people came to IconBuffet,
and this huge IconBuffet community started to grow. Since then we've
done a lot of work to make the Buffet better, friendlier, and easier to
use. We still do stock icons, but now we're more about our growing
community of friends.

Today the Chefs at IconBuffet painstakingly create dozens of new
free icons each month which are somewhat randomly delivered to our
members according to super-secret schedules. If you're not already a
member, you should really sign up. We hope you enjoy the show!

Here's how it works (written by a good friend, elnitido52):

You don't have to accept every set that is sent to you and you
have to keep in mind that sets cost tokens and you only get ten (10)
tokens a month if you are not a VIP (VIP's=30 TOKENS) so spend them
wisely. Sending sets costs stamps.

The value of the sets you send or accept are as follows:

• Bronze Set = 1 token for accepting = 1 stamp for sending
• Silver Set = 3 tokens for accepting = 3 stamps for sending
• Gold Set = 5 tokens for accepting = 5 stamps for sending
• (AHS) Diamond Set = 10 token for accepting = 10 stamps for sending = As of Today, the One and Only Diamond Set = Amsterdam High Seas = 1 month of tokens

You get more stamps by receiving sets (5 for each set you accept).
There are several good tutorials in the forum. I would
recommend:

• Try to fill out your profile entirely ASAP, to show off who you are to the rest of the community.
• You should get an avatar and earn your first badge, cheese badge.

If you enjoy free artwork, click on over to Iconbuffet and collect a free set. When you use this link, you will receive Shanghai New Year - perfect for the upcoming Chinese New Year.

Zaadz's parent company, Gaiam, has a new coupon out. Take $10 off any order of $50 or more. The code is APZP . There's a place to enter it upon checkout.

To my knowledge, it's also good for everything in the Winter Clearance Sale. The coupon expires 01/31/2008.

Mean what you say and say what you mean.

Lead by example.

Show your values with your actions.

These are all good things to strive for. Challenging for humans but a good challenge to meet.

Picture graciously provided by wasaby

...Life,

creatures of the land and sea, my children, the sunlight that spills over the Earth, the goodness within everyone and everything, the play of colors,

the thought of a wonderful new day...

image graciously provided by leilahh

A few days before Christmas, we had a large ham cooked up for dinner. My husband is the cook in our family but I was watching him prepare it. (Keeping him company.) You could see the thick bones, marrow and fatty layer between muscle and skin.

I was completely grossed out.

I've been really thinking about the process by which meat comes to my table. The crowded conditions, the forced hormones/antibiotics (although we don't purchase those) and the slaughter.

I couldn't eat that ham.

And now that I've been dwelling on it for several days, I know that it is the right time for me to stop eating my fellow creatures. My mindset has been shifting. I certainly wouldn't eat my dogs or cats. How is an intelligent pig any different? I couldn't nibble on my ex-horse's leg. Why should the cow in the neighboring pasture be eaten?

My religion also teaches me to cause no harm. For Buddhists, 'do not kill" applies to all creatures.

I know this is right for me. I know it in my heart.

Namaste.

image graciously provided by mistereels

Warmth

image graciously provided by woodsy

I enjoy all of my senses. I am grateful to have the function of all of them. When I considered this question, I thought about what it would mean to me to lose each one.

The sense of taste dulls as we age. I know that I enjoy much spicer foods now than I did when I was younger. I am also not really a "foodie". Therefore, I don't believe that taste is the answer.

Hearing 'I love you' is an important part of my day. I am greeted by both children with this lovely phrase. If it were to disappear, I would mourn its loss but could still feel and see their love through other means.

The sense of smell is important for human's safety. It is also a source of pleasure. The smell of my daughter as she sleeps next to me...the smell of a favorite flower...the scent of my mother's perfume. If this was lost to me, it would affect me deeply.

I enjoy seeing my daughter's smile and my son's beautiful eyes. I love seeing the beauty of the world around me. My sight would be a tremendous loss. I have fears of not being able to see. (Especially dangerous around legos and puzzle pieces!)

However, the sense that most affects me would have to be touch. I am able to feel my husband's caress, the kisses from my children, the fur of the cats and happy licks from our dogs. I know, deep down in the center of me, that if I could no longer touch or feel, I would simply cease to exist. Touch is essential to my life.

Namaste

Image graciously provided by lraine

I was introduced to MyMiniCity today. It's a pseudo-game online.

Basically, for each person (IP address) who visits a MiniCity each day, a new "citizen" is added to the city's population.

Once your population has grown large enough, you can visit additional links to increase transportation, security, etc.

So, the zaadz city is located at http://zaadz.myminicity.com/

As and/or if the city grows, I'll update this post to let everyone know what the new links are.

Additionally, this could be a, albeit small, marketing vessel for Zaadz. As your city grows, your ranking goes up as well. Higher ranking shows up on the front page.

Thanks for playing along!

Tau