About Me
- katalinaTX
- I'm a habitual line crosser that believes everything happens for a reason, but life comes with no guarantees, no time outs, no second chances, you just have to live life to the fullest. Laugh as much as you can, spend all your money, tell someone what they mean to you, tell someone off, speak out, dance in the pouring rain, hold someone's hand, comfort a friend, love the ones who treat you right, forget about the ones who don't, pig out, smile until your face hurts, be a flirt, stay up late and fall asleep watching the sun come up, don't be aftraid to take chances or fall in love . . . and most of all live in the moment, If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. No one said it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
A Day in the Life of Joe the Republican.
In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor. Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joes employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune. Its noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.
Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.
He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to. Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Early Voting 101
Volunteer- Over 30,000 people registered to vote in Austin between May and October. That means there are 30,000 new people we need to talk to and let them know about our great judicial candidates, state representatives, county commissioners and more. Your help is needed, so please sign up to volunteer online or come by 1107 N. I-35 and make a difference today.
Donate - Your financial support is vital. Every dollar we raise goes directly to talking to voters on the phone, online, through mail, and at their doors. Every dollar helps and it's never too late to donate to the Travis County Democratic Party.
Talk to Your Friends - Tell your friends to vote early and help out. Tell your friends they can vote straight ticket. Tell them why it is important to vote. Talk to the people you care about, about what's at stake. You are the most powerful advocate that your friends and family members know.
Curb the Deceptive E-mails - In order to curb this deceptive e-mail circulating around Texas, please tell all your friends to look at the following visit this special website.
Help on Election Day- The Travis County Elections Division is expecting an 80% turnout in Travis County. We need your help on Election Day. Vote early, and consider spending part or all of Election Day with the Travis County Democratic Party.Early Vote starts today and ends on October 31. You can vote at any early voting location in Travis County. Make sure you vote early and then please assist us on Election Day or before. With your help, we will Turn Texas Blue!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
The Most Polite "Fuck Off"
Andrina -
It was great meeting you, but I have to go...its about 6am. Had a great time with you tonight but I actually have a girlfriend. If I didn't, I'd be wanting to see you again. I realise I've been pretty stupid and a bit of a dick, hence my fucking off! I'd want to see a lot of you. Thanks for a great night. Bill x
Barkitecture
Barkitecture O8 is a charity event being held in the 2nd Street Warehouse District downtown Austin on Oct 18th from noon- 5 pm.
There will be a silent auction for designer doghouses where local artists & architects build doghouses. All auction proceeds go to local dog shelters and rescues.
to see last year's entries: http://inspiredaustin.com/blog/2007/10/barkitecture-austin-2007-photos/
Try the LINK again. And Yes you can bring your dogs to walk around & check out the doghouses
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Obama/Mc Cain Tax Calculator
http://taxcut.barackobama.com/
Last Titanic survivor sells suitcase to pay bills
Millvina Dean was rescued from sinking Titanic aged 2 months
Dean's artifacts, including a suitcase, are expected to sell for about £3,000
Sale intended to raise cash to pay for nursing home fees
Next Article in World »
LONDON, England (AP) -- As a 2-month-old baby, Millvina Dean was wrapped in a sack and lowered into a lifeboat from the deck of the sinking RMS Titanic.
Titanic survivor Millvina Dean pictured in 1998.
Now, Dean, the last living survivor of the disaster, is selling some of her mementos to help pay her nursing home fees.
Dean's artifacts, including a suitcase given to her family by the people of New York after their rescue, are expected to sell for about £3,000 ($5,200) at Saturday's auction in Devizes, western England.
Dean, 96, has lived in a nursing home in the southern English city of Southampton -- Titanic's home port -- since she broke her hip two years ago.
"I am not able to live in my home anymore," Dean was quoted as telling the Southern Daily Echo newspaper. "I am selling it all now because I have to pay these nursing home fees and am selling anything that I think might fetch some money."
Dean's items form part of a sale by Henry Aldridge and Son, an auction house that specializes in Titanic memorabilia.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said the key item was a small wicker suitcase that was filled with clothes and donated to Dean's surviving family members after the disaster.
"They would have carried their little world in this suitcase," Aldridge said Thursday.
Dean also is selling letters from the Titanic Relief Fund offering her mother one pound, seven shillings and sixpence a week in compensation.
In 1912, baby Elizabeth Gladys "Millvina" Dean and her family were steerage passengers emigrating to Kansas City, Missouri, aboard the giant cruise liner.
Four days out of port, on the night of April 14, 1912, it hit an iceberg and sank. Billed as "practically unsinkable" by the publicity magazines of the period, the Titanic did not have enough lifeboats for all of 2,200 passengers and crew.
Dean, her mother and 2-year-old brother were among 706 people -- mostly women and children -- who survived. Her father was among more than 1,500 who died.
Dean did not know she had been aboard the Titanic until she was 8 years old, when her mother, who was about to remarry, told her about her father's death.
She had no memories of the sinking, and said she preferred it that way.
"I wouldn't want to remember, really," she told The Associated Press in 1997.
Dean began to take part in Titanic-related activities in the 1980s, and was active well into her 90s. She visited Belfast to see where the ship was built, attended Titanic conventions around the world -- where she was mobbed by autograph seekers -- and participated in radio and television documentaries about the sinking.
The last American survivor of the disaster, Lillian Asplund, died in 2006 at the age of 99. Another British survivor, Barbara Joyce West Dainton, died last November at 96.
Aldridge said the "massive interest" in Titanic memorabilia shows no signs of abating. Last year, a collection of items belonging to Asplund sold for more than £100,000 ($175,000).
"It's the people, the human angle," Aldridge said. "You had over 2,200 men, women and children on that ship, from John Jacob Astor, the richest person in the world at the time, to a poor Scandinavian family emigrating to the States to start a new life. There were 2,200 stories."
Telling a bad economy to go 'scoot'
In the middle of a financial crisis, is it wise to start a new business? Arlene Battishill did. Scott Jagow talked to the entrepreneur about the challenges she's faced starting her company right now.
Arlene Battishill (center) and Scooter Girls (Suzie Lechtenberg)
More on Jobs, America's Financial Crisis
Related
Scooter Girls online
TEXT OF STORY
Scott Jagow: I've been tooling around LA a bit, talking to people about their economic situation. I met a woman named Arlene Battishill. She works for a homebuilder. And, with good reason, she's worried about losing her job. So this summer, she came up with a backup plan -- her own business. It began when her niece graduated from college and bought a scooter.
Arlene Battishill: And the next thing we knew, we're like, well, she has a sister, she should get a scooter too. And that makes them the scootergirls. And I'm like, wait a minute, scooters . . . Hooters on Scooters! And I'm like, YEAH, that's the hook -- Hooters on Scooters.
Now, before you jump to conclusions, Arlene might be on to something. Her new company, Scootergirls, does mobile advertising. A bunch of women drive around, in scooter formation, wearing company logos.
Battishill: Who isn't going to notice all these great-looking girls traveling in a pack of 20 or 30 of them driving down La Brea or Santa Monica, and yes sex sells, we get it, we understand it, and we're all strong women, and we're going to use it to our advantage. But we're not going to exploit anyone, that is not what this company is about.
OK, so there's the concept. And in a bad economy, companies are looking for ways to cut advertising costs, so this might just work. But isn't it a terrible time to start a business?
Battishill: You know what, I have to expect I'm gonna lose my job. So what am I going to do about that? You either let it happen to you and be a victim in this economy or you say, "I'm not going to be a victim."
But the money's a bit of a problem. Arlene couldn't get any credit at her bank, not even a company credit card. So, she cashed out half her 401k to buy 30 scooters and hire more women. The money's so tight, she's basically running her company on the barter system.
Battishill: For example, we have some scooter mechanics that their car broke down. They can't get to all the other jobs they're doing. So I've lent them scooters so that they can get around and they're going work on our scooters in exchange. We have a printing company, who he wanted a scooter, so we gave him a scooter and he's doing all of our printing for us exclusively.
Arlene's being pretty creative, and she's certainly determined. But there's no guarantee her business is going to make it, and Arlene could lose a lot. For her young niece, Cherie, the original Scootergirl, this is quite a leap into the real world.
Cherie: I think yeah, the economy's bad, but everyone has something else to offer and you know, I'm like my aunt, I'm not going to take no for answer. And sometimes that's all you can do is make things happen for yourself and do it by yourself. You know what I mean?
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty
Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.
Global issues like poverty are extremely complex. There is no simple, clear answer. By asking thousands of different people to give their viewpoints and opinions, Blog Action Day creates an extraordinary lens through which to view these issues. Each blogger brings their own perspective and ideas. Each blogger posts relating to their own blog topic. And each blogger engages their audience differently.
First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue.
he blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.
By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.
Out of this discussion naturally flow actions, advice, ideas, plans, and empowerment. In 2007 on the theme of the Environment, we saw bloggers running environmental experiments, detailing innovative ideas on creating sustainable practices and focusing audience’s attentions on organizations and companies promoting green agendas. In 2008 we aim to again focus the blogging community’s energies and passions, this time on the mammoth issue of global poverty.
From the smallest online journals, to huge online magazines, to EU ministers, to professionals and amateurs, Blog Action Day is about mass participation. Anyone is free to join in on Blog Action Day and there is no limit on the number of posts, the type of posts or the direction of thoughts and opinions.
I have decided to focus on my experiences with global poverty, both here and abroad. From the children I worked with in the Ranchos in the Mountains of Central Mexico, to the clients I have had who were victims of sex trafficking or political asylum, to this sweet homeless child I met in desert of Morocco, that I just wanted to adopt and bring back with me . . . . these are experience that have changed me and I will never forget them. However, unless your career focuses on poverty, as Americans we seems to forget about this issue from day to day. If you're in Austin, a day doesn't go by that you don't see a homeless person begging on the street, but even when it's in your face, it's as if it escapes your mind once the light turns green and your on your way and on with your day. In times like this when the economy is bad, and everyone seems to be struggling, it's hard to find expendable income to contribute to those less fortunate. But also in times like this, we should remember that even in the worst of times, how much more fortunate we are than those who never go a day without wondering if they will have the basic necessities: food, clothing and shelter. I ask you, to remember this even with the economy the way it is. If you can't donate money, donate some can goods, if you can't donate something tangible, donate your time. If each of us help just a little bit it can go a long way.
Warnings About Straight Party Ballot
With early voting about to begin and the November 4th election day approaching, misleading voter information is being circulated to confuse Democratic voters and cancel out straight Democratic Party votes.
This is a crucial time for you to make your voices heard by voting the straight Democratic ticket. I urge you to carefully review the information below which outlines the correct procedure for voting a straight Democratic ticket:
When you mark "Straight Democratic" then cast your ballot, your vote will count for Barack Obama and all the Democratic candidates, including all congressional, state and local Democrats on the general election ballot.
NOTE: A separate vote for an individual candidate is required only in a special election (e.g., Senate District 17)
OR
If you do not wish to vote a straight party vote, you must mark each individual candidate for whom you wish to vote, and then cast your ballot.
BUT
DO NOT SELECT "STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC" AND THEN SELECT INDIVIDUAL DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES. THIS COULD CANCEL OUT YOUR VOTE FOR THOSE INDIVIDUAL CANDIDATES!
Additionally, carefully read the review screen after marking your selection and before casting your ballot. If you have any questions at the polls, ask an election judge for assistance. Visit our Voter Information page for more information about deceptive voting information and review your rights as a Texas voter.
I am confident that together we can overcome deceptive GOP messaging and vote our Democratic candidates into office from the court house to the White House!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
The Perfect Detox
am: protein shake with fruit (breakfast)
+ 3 hrs: granola bar
+2 hrs: medium size salad with lots of veggies, chicken, cheese (lunch)
+ 2hrs: 100 calorie bag of popcorn
+2 hrs: fruit
+ 1 hr.: yogurt
+2 hrs: grilled chicken and veggies (dinner)
+1 hr: no sugar added fudge pop
Looks like a lot but is only about 1300 calories or so it keeps you full and un-cranky ;-)
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Today
Where: The Gingerman
Time: 4-8
If you have a dog and like to drink come out, it should be a good time
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Funny Stuff
While at http://www.funnyordie.com/ also check out "Paris Hilton Get Presidential" and "the Financial Crisis Explained."