I really, really, really need to update this thing more often. But, really, I use this blog mainly to keep up with other bloggers I like.

FOXNews.com - Saudi Marriage 'Expert' Advises Men in 'Right Way' to Beat Their Wives - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Eur

FOXNews.com - Saudi Marriage 'Expert' Advises Men in 'Right Way' to Beat Their Wives - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

Lovely. Just lovely.

This really pisses me off

GRRRR - Flags replaced with swastikas
 
It's one thing to burn American flags.  It's quite another to desecrate GRAVES.  This is not expressing freedom of speech (as I know some idiot will argue), these are people's graves.  I don't give really care what you think about the war, this is not an acceptable protest. 

I thought we learned not to spit on soldiers after Viet Nam.

Rant On

So, we get the databackup from my computer today (oh yeah, my old computer died, forgot to mention). I should be cheering, right?

Wrong.

First some background. From the day we dropped the computer off to Best Buy (yes, yes, I know but it was under warranty), we have been given the runaround. If someone wasn't lying to us about where they were in the process, someone else had no clue as to what was going on. These people made ZERO notes as they were working. We finally had to get the general manager of the store involved due to the gross incompetence of the Geek Squad. He personally makes sure it gets done and it does.

Flash forward to today. I start going through the DVDs of the backup, of which there are about 22 or so. The first one certainly LOOKS like it has data written on it but my computer wont' read it. Neither will my husband's. The second DVD had data I could access. Several more look as if they have nothing written on them by looking at the backs and nothing comes up. Out of TEN so far, three have had actual data written on them. I am not optimistic about the rest.

The general manager of the store will be hearing from me tomorrow. Regardless of the outcome, I will be writing the corporate offices about the incompetence, complete lack of customer service and, at times, hostility we were met with at this store. There's no excuse for it and we certainly won't be taking our business to them again.

Woah!

My bout of insomnia was VERY productive. My book (the Smut and Hotel Rooms photography book) is done!!!!11111oneoneoneelventyeleven!!1! Well, it's done except for the front and back covers and the forward. The book itself is 60 pages long. 50 of which are pure pictures. The other pages are for the intro/forward, title pages for each section and the model credit page. I need to throw in another page for my copyright page though, which I forgot. Oops. That's okay, it's not too late to fix that part but, damn it feels good to FINALLY get it done. I procrastinated for far, far too long on this one.

This is one of the coolest sites I've ever seen. The concept is a good one. Take a picture drawn by a kid, the kind you might find hanging on a fridge, and have an artist do their own rendition of it. The results are really cool.

Quote of the day

From my 18 year old daughter who was given a bottle of "Paris Hilton" perfume for Christmas by a friend.

"It smells really good. I was glad because I was afraid I'd smell like a tiny hooker." (My daughter is petite)

Yes, it actually does smell good. Amazingly enough *grins*

Have you ever had ORANGE caesar salad dressing?

Me neither. Not until today.

And now I am sick to my stomach. I ordered food for lunch with extra for dinner later tonight since Mike won't be home. What a waste. I had to throw the entire order out. You guys in the area? Agrodolce Italian SUCKS. Orange ceasar salad dressing that did not even TASTE like ceasar salad dressing! I can not even BEGIN to describe what the small taste on the tip of my finger tasted like but I immediately felt ill (and still feel as if I may hurl). The rest of the food was bland and I tasted the (child sized) portion of spaghetti I got for later tonight. Ewww. The sauce had ZERO flavor.

Worse. I'm still without lunch hours later. Waiter on the Way told me the owner of the restaurant would call me tomorrow. He's NOT going to like what I have to say.

Let's Say Thanks

This site is one of the neatest sites I've seen in awhile. You choose a card based on artwork done by American school children, then choose a prewritten message, provide your name city and state and they send the cards to random service members overseas. No personal information is exchanged and you just might brighten the lives of the men and women who are far from home. It only takes a second to show them you support them. If you were looking for something to do for our servicemen and women overseas, this is one small thing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Heading out this morning to the in-laws. Spending the night with the in-laws in New York and then driving up to Connecticut and staying in a hotel the remainder of our stay (thank goodness). I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

New Arttwork - Urban Fantasy 2006

Loosely inspired by a painting called "Keeping the Secret" by Michael Orwick. You can see the painting here: Duirwaigh Gallery. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized image (will open in a new window). Completely work and kid safe.

Looking for...

Interesting places to take photographs in the DC metro area. Needs to be someplace I can shoot nudes safely and won't cost a bazillion dollars to rent for a few hours. Anyone in the area have any ideas? The studio is really getting stale. I already have a plethora of cheap hotel room locations. There are some really AWESOME hotels in DC I'd love to shoot at, if I can get the models to agree to trade. Look at these awesome locations (very expensive though, LOL):

Hotel Rouge (I do have a shoot scheduled here for Dec. 16th with a burlesque performer)
Hotel Helix
Topaz Hotel

If anybody has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Please continue to pray

For my friend Kate's mother. Things are still in the air and, while her mother is doing better than she was, she's in a horrible kind of limbo.

Morning Cheesecake (bare breasts warning)

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Miss Kobe Lee One of the reasons Atlanta is called "Hotlanta"

Does he really believe this stuff?

In my rounds around the blogosphere, I ran across this little tidbit at LGF. I went and read the referenced article and then I was speechless for a good five minutes. Holy cow, Ted Rall. This guy is certifiable. Does he actually believe the crap he spews? Sadly, I'm pretty sure he does.

All I have to say is...

At the first hints of sharia law being forced in America, I am organising a rebellion.

Political Leanings

I'm not going to talk about the elections OR how I voted. I will, however, go a little into my method of voting. I just know you all are dying to read this. :)

I am what I like to call the worlds biggest conservaliberal. I am surprisingly conservative and yet, have some big liberal leanings in certain areas. What those areas are, I care not to go into too much but I'm sure you can guess some of them.

I take naughty "smutty" pictures and create equally naughty "smutty" artwork. I write pornography. I support our troops, whether or not I agree 100% with the war they are fighting. I consider myself a patriot (which does not mean I blindly follow what the government tells me I should do, it means I love my country even for all its faults). I believe in a person's right to choose their religion. I believe in a woman's right to choose what to do with her body. I believe in love in all of it's myriad forms and know that it is not always boy/girl; sometimes it is boy/boy or girl/girl. I believe that Islamic terrorism is a real threat. I do NOT believe that Muslim automatically means terrorist. Nor do I believe that "Mexican" automatically means "illegal alien" but I do believe we need to tighten up our immigration process. I do not believe it is racist in the least to want to tighten up our immigration process. I believe in embryonic stem cell research but also understand the moral dilemma some may face on the issue. I believe in so much more but who has time for all of that? ;)

I do not tend to vote a "party line". I look at each candidate and then I vote for the one that most closely matches my own beliefs and ideals. Sometimes that candidate is Republican. Sometimes they are Democrat. Sometimes they are neither, though I've seen how little good it appears to do to vote for those "third" party candidates. I vote my heart and what I feel is best and I can not abide someone telling me how I SHOULD vote. It's my vote, not yours. Please respect my choices as I respect yours.

It might surprise some people to know that I care little for either political party and that I happen to dislike one much more than the other. I feel the two party system is no longer working for America but have no idea what I can do to help affect a change. I know I am not the only American that feels that way.

I understand that many people I know are very passionate about politics. I dislike discussing politics with people I really like. Generally because it leads to some nasty fights and misunderstandings. I've seen long time friendships destroyed by such fights so, please understand if I don't try to debate with any of you who may not agree with me. Politics are hard to keep "friendly".

Please Pray

For my best friend Kate's mother. She has been very ill over the past year and took a frightening turn for the worse. While you're at it, run over to Busy Mom and pray for her friend's wife. I'm sure we all have prayers to spare.

Personal Responsibility

You guys remember that, don't you? I've been thinking about personal responsibility a lot lately, especially in light of the remarks Senator Kerry made about the military. Later, he "apologized" but still placed the blame on everyone else for "misunderstanding" his flubbed joke. Because, you know, if it really was a joke and he flubbed it it's our fault for not understanding what he meant to say.

Shame on us. How dare we? How about accepting responsibility for what you said and not place the onus upon us to interpret your words? If you are going to apologize, then apologize. Either way, you either need your eyes checked for reading glasses or to revisit your elementary reading class, Mr. Kerry, for you left out some VERY important words in your 'flubbed joke'.

Segueing away from personal responsibility, I've been involved in a lively discussion over Senator Kerry's words over at The Original Musings. Some of it has been very enlightening, complete with an obviously uneducated liberal defending Kerry and calling us all idiots (complete with copious amounts of swearing). Some of the commentary has been thought provoking. Some of it has been laughable. A poster who identifies himself as 'Daniel' posted the following response:

At the risk of being jumped on, I have to say that when I read the names and information about the soldiers from Florida who have been killed in Iraq I don't see a great deal of Worth Ave in West Palm Beach adresses listed. Nor do I see that they went to Pine Crest Prep near Star Island. I am most certainly NOT saying that makes them uneducated but it does point to a certain disparity in my opinion on whom is serving in the armed forces right now. Historicly speaking it has always been the poor to middle class who has been the front line solider. From the Irish immingrants given a uniform and gun right off the boat during the Civil War to the working class guys with no college exemption to fall back on during Vietnam. This does not make thier sacrifices any less importnant but it does make me pause and wonder why this is so.

I felt he deserved a well thought out response and not to be 'jumped on'. Following is my response to 'Daniel'.

I'll tell you why this is so, Daniel, because it's hard to make your way in the world when you are poor with little prospects for the future. College is EXPENSIVE. If you want to work more than a minimum wage job, you need skills or an education. That's the way the world works. The military not only gives the most excellent on the job training in the world for EVERYTHING they do, I will go so far as to say young people who do join the military come out better prepared to deal with the real world. Not only will they have valuable job skills but they'll come out a hell of a lot more educated than when they went in. That goes for EVERYBODY, not just the poor and "uneducated". In today's military you do need at a minimum a high school diploma (I'm not sure they accept GEDs anymore, they may). You have to pass a test to get in that is NOT easy. I passed it in high school and it was harder than any other aptititude test I had taken up to that point. By the way, I was a straight A student, on the honor roll, and part of a "gifted student's" program for kids with high IQ's. If it was hard for me, imagine how hard it would be for someone who is "uneducated".

Add in the military benefits, of which there are many. I was married to a Marine for many years with a daughter who was hospitalized many times due to illness. If not for military care, we never would have been able to afford the hospital bills, even with civilian insurance. My ex-husband had more than a chance to go to college and better himself, with a large amount of assistance from the military. He chose not to use that chance. It was his choice but at least the opportunity was given to him.

I added in an additional comment:

Let me add on to what I just said as well. It is never good to paint a single group of people with a broad brush as Mr. Kerry did. Let's not forget that for all of his high class education (which the average person can NOT afford by the way), he had very poor grades after all. He may be educated but I'd go so far as to say he's ignorant. :)

So there it is, in case all of you were wondering (and I am sure you were). That's where I stand on the whole Kerry mess.

Good news for me

The folks over at Fleshbot have done a little blurb about my calendar. This should drum up some business for me and interest in the calendar. You can check out the article here.

I haven't been able to stop grinning since I found out about it.

New Artwork

This one ended up being totally hot (in my arrogant opinion anyway) with nary a nipple in sight. No nudity at all, so I did not feel obligated to put this behind a thumbnail. Enjoy :)

Morning Cheesecake

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Savannah Costello

Sims 2 Mania

I admit it, I am a Sims 2 addict. I have all the expansion packs so far, including the new one Sims 2 Pets. Oh my goodness, it's so much fun. The pets do some hilariously realistic things. For instance, there is a catnip filled mouse toy for your cats. When a cat starts playing with it, after a few moments you see colored lights and little stars swimming around the cat's head and then they go a little bonkers, running around all insane. The only difference between that and my own cats is, I can't see the colored swirls. Cats in the Sims 2 will claw the heck out of your furniture unless you give them other options, just like real cats. You teach your pets proper (or improper) behaviors through verbal reinforcements such as praising or scolding. It's a lot easier to train a Sims pet sadly.

I haven't gottan a thing done over the past few days I wanted to do thanks to this game. I wonder if there's a 12 step program for Sims addicts? Nah, this is an addiction I like and, soon, I'll go back to my once or twice a week playing routine.

Morning Cheesecake (bare breasts warning)

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This morning, Dee.

Morning Cheesecake

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Monica

Til Death

I haven't seen this new comedy but, I have to ask, hasn't the goofy but lovable guy with the snarky, sarcastic bitch of a wife been done enough already?

Goo Ghoul

Aside from being a really cute name, this is a handy little search engine for finding Halloween events in your area. Just type in your zip code and go.

GooGhoul

Morning Cheesecake (bare breasts warning)

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A very cozy way to wake up. Lisa Marie Blummer and Kerri Taylor.

Morning Cheesecake (bare breasts warning)

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Have a little Fayth.

Bwa ha!

"Hick Hop" Fantastic :)

Morning Cheesecake

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Good morning, Penny Barber! Photography by me

Morning Cheesecake

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Hello, Julie Simone (photograph by me)

Isn't this just lovely?

News reports have a small plane crashing into a NYC apartment building. Now there are fighter jets flying over NYC and, according to reports, other major cities as well. According to the BBC, the FBI says there is no indication the crash was terrorism related. The White House says they are not ruling out any possibilities.

So far, there are at least two people dead. Let's pray the death count does not rise any further than that. Let's also pray that this was just some sad, bizarre accident.

Edit: Hot Air has updates here. It now appears Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was piloting the plane and is one of those dead.

Blogroll is down

The blogroll is down again. This time, the entire site is down. I don't know what I'm going to do without my blogroll. *whinwhinebitchmoanwhine*


Edit* Once again, whining prevails. The blogroll has returned.

Edit again* Well, damn, the blogroll is down again.

Wow!

The boobie-thon raised $9260.50 for breast cancer awareness this year. There were some pretty nasty things written about the thon this year and some pretty ignorant statements made regarding it. I refuse to even dignify these guys by giving them publicity to their sites and articles but all I have to say is: Instead of bitching about what someone else is doing and how they are doing it, why aren't YOU doing something? I volunteered nearly 40 hours this week for the Thon alone, as well as donating money. What have you done?

And that's all I have to say about THAT.

A big hug to the guys and gals that run the boobie-thon. You're all a fantastic group of people and I am so happy to have met you all.

Pimping my stuff again

My blogroll won't show up for me again. I know it's there, I checked the code. Maybe if I whine about it again it will show up like it did last time.

EDIT* Whining wins again.

This is one of the funniest things...

I've seen in awhile. Sadly, however, I don't think we're too far from this wonderfully romantic scene.