My Husband the Writer

I'm so very proud of my husband, Budd Wilkins, as his short story, Fearful Symmetry has been published in this month's edition of WordCatalyst Magazine, an online magazine for creative expression.  Fearful Symmetry is a dark, humorous psychological piece that I, of course, as his biggest fan, think is just great.  I'm not the only one who has made this assessment.  I invite you to visit WordCatalyst, poke around, and have a look at Budd's story. 

Incredible Black & White Photos

I StumbledUpon this blog and saw some eye-popping photography, lots of surrealist suggestion, and definitely some digitally enhanced images by Chema Madoz.  I'd love to have all of these hanging on my walls, but seeing as how I only really have 8 of those, and they are covered in books, the Internets will have to do.

 

 

Astounding How Small the Earth Is 

This fascinated me at rense.com - I StumbledUpon it, so thought I would post a link to a very interesting page of size comparisons of the planets to each other, the Sun, and other stars.  Take a peek:

 

 

 

Billy's post about the guitar-playing dog reminded me of my friend Mat Kamler, creator of Litterbox, the world's greatest cat heavy metal band.  Mat's site, EyeEnvision, is a flash cartoon animation site featuring original webtoons by Mat.  Mat photographed 3 of his 5 cats and recorded their meowing and set them to music.  The first time I ever saw a Litterbox video, I nearly busted a gut, and my cat (at the time) started hissing in time.  Here's a link to my personal favorite, Four on the Floor.  Mat has seven Litterbox videos on his site, as well as other funny flash animations.  Really a talented (and nice) guy.  Definitely worth a look and a laugh, and a donation to Mat.  Here's a link to Mat's MySpace site as well.  More Litterbox Videos Please!  Rock on, Mat!

Found this great article at Gotriad.com, with a link to Joe Scott's blog, The Movie Show, and learned that Joe has a radio program on WUAG (103.1), also called The Movie Show, on Thursdays from 7 - 9 p.m. I really like his reviews and want to see many of the movies on this list. Good blog, too. I was very pleased that his top 10 didn't include the mega-hits. Budd and I are always on the lookout for the unusual and obscure films - they are definitely the best kind. By the way, we're going to the final performance of Southland Tales tonight. After tonight, Southland Tales will only be playing in one theatre in the country. What a shame.

Play, learn, give.  I just learned about FreeRice, a site where you can play a vocabulary game, learn new words, and donate grains of rice for hunger elimination.  Here's their info from their "About Us" page:

FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com.

FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide.

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I read about this in a Reuters article which I'm referencing here because it has links to other click-to-give sites, like the ones I wrote about in an earlier post.

Play. Learn. Give. Help.

Merry Christmas!

Mouse Clicks:  Helping to Create Happy Holidays Around the World

In the spirit of Billy's post about supporting BC Children's Hospital, I'd like to direct your attention to a number of websites that, with only the click of a mouse, you can make a difference.  Doesn't cost you a dime.  It's all paid for by advertisers.

The Hunger Site - You click daily, sponsors pay for cups of food.  At the top of the page, there are tabs which link you to The Child Health Site (helps children in poor countries receive preventive medical care); The Rainforest Site (saves rainforest land); The Animal Rescue Site (helps feed animals in shelters); The Literacy Site (helps buy books for children); and The Breast Cancer Site, which pays for mammograms for women in need.  I try to click these every day, at home and at work.  Only one click per computer is counted, but over time, it adds up.  Click at work and click at home.

Also, at EcologyFund.com, you can save up to 107 square feet of land a day, reduce pollution, and save wilderness and animal habitats.  There's about 5 clicks to make, but it takes so little time, so why not expend the minimal effort and make a tiny bit of difference?

These sites also allow you to keep up with how much you have donated, and that makes everyone feel good. 

You know that guy whose birthday we're celebrating around this time of the year?  He said, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."  I'm urging you to click your mouse on these web sites, for the least of them, and remember how much you are blessed.

© Tom McDonaldPbase Photography Database - Let's Get Lost!

I discovered Pbase a little while back when I was researching some of my old antique cameras that I was selling on Ebay.  It's a giant maze of photographs, uploaded by anyone, and categorized into galleries.  One that I particularly like is from a gentleman who lives in North Carolina named Tom McDonald.  He shot some great photos of a bobcat in his backyard in Mills River.  Here's a link to his gallery. 

Each time you land on the front page of Pbase, a subject and a country are featured.  When you are visiting Pbase, you can also click on the "Popular Galleries" which sorts the galleries voted the most popular for the last 7 days, 90 days or all time.  One of the all-time most popular galleries is "Throughout Iran" by Ali Majdfar.  It is absolutely stunning.  Here's the link to that gallery - well worth a look if your impression of Iran is simply what you see on the news.

Pbase is a site where you can spend hours, days or nearly a lifetime looking at marvelous images.  Be sure to check out some of the macro photography that many people are doing.  My favorite thing to do is to surf through the Popular Galleries of all time section and vote for my favorites. 

Thanks to Tom McDonald for the great photo of his backyard bobcat above, found in his gallery.