Susan Boyle, et al.

She's become a world famous singer already. Walked onto the 'Britain's Got Talent' stage and blew everyone away. Got onto YouTube and, with over 5 million views, is currently blowing the world away. I've only heard her sing one song, but she was phenomenal. She gave me goose bumps, her voice was so astonishing. Now this morning, on one of those morning news shows, they're talking about "should Susan Boyle get a makeover".

A makeover? Excuse me, why? She's a world wide phenomenon already! NOW you want to make her over? After the fact? Isn't that the old 'lock the barn doors after the horse escapes' mentality? If you hadn't noticed, she's ADORABLE! She's got a personality to match, ADORABLE! And she's got a voice to blow other singers out of her league, makeovers notwithstanding.

It's funny, since she didn't become famous using phony hair, eyelids, cheeks, teeth, lips, chin, boobs, nails, and a lipo'ed ass, everyone is all confused and wondering if we should get her some of those things now. Have plastic surgery alterations to our faces and bodies become such the norm that people in this country forgot what a naturally formed human female looks like? Take another look people, she's actually cute!

I hope and pray that she's not bullied, or pressured into feeling that she should do anything to change her appearance. Perhaps, all by her amazing self, she can change the standard of beauty in this country to something more natural. We've already seen the pendulum swing from prepackaged, crap laden, over processed foods to actual, real, unadulterated food. Here's hoping that Susan Boyle can swing the pendulum from adoration of plasticized women to appreciation and love of real women!

YouTube has the embed option disabled, but here's the link to her singing for as long as it lasts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

P.S. I heard her sing two songs now. Here she is talking and singing and getting a date on Larry King.

Chocolate, too!

Apparently there is something else to be said about chocolate. (See last post)

Ready for it? Chocolate has been to outer space! YES! SPACE! CHOCOLATE IN SPACE! Seriously, what were the odds of that happening. Not that bad considering how much everyone loves chocolate, including astronauts.

My Twitter friend, the rocket scientist, Joe Williams, (yes, a real rocket scientist who knows rocket science) told me about chocolate's outer space adventures, and was then kind enough to send proof. Proof which I now share with all of you.



Chocolate, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............
This should banish any lingering doubts about chocolate's universal appeal, don'tcha think?

Chocolate

Chocolate. Really, is there anything more that needs be said?

Chocolate. It's dark, velvety, smooth, and decadently delicious. Even slightly mysterious. It's been labeled a guilty pleasure. Today we know there is nothing to feel guilty about because chocolate is actually good for you! Can it get any better?

Chocolate. You can eat it as a desert. You can eat it as a snack. You can eat it when you're feeling down and it'll help your brain release endorphins so you'll feel better. You can pair it with other things, like ice cream or stir it into a pot of chili. You can drink it in milk, or in a liquor. You can make something spectacularly rich, eye-poppingly, complicated, or simply dip some fresh, plump, red, ripe strawberries into it. It can be frozen, heated, chipped, whipped, creamed, and stirred into any number of recipes. It's uses seem endless.

Chocolate. It even smells delicious. It's used in body washes, soaps, lotions, and perfumes. There's a chocolate strawberry truffle bubble bath that children should not be allowed to use. Why? Because it smells so wonderful, that even knowing it's bubble bath, it takes extraordinary will power not to lick the bubbles.

Chocolate. It's so highly prized, it's used for gift giving. It's been used as money, as medicine, as a divine energy drink, as well as for sculptures, fountains, and even clothing! But isn't the best just a small square of dark chocolate? With it's promise of mystery, of that velvety, meltingly delicious dark ride into smooth, rich, chocolaty, momentary oblivion.

Chocolate.

Incompettax

The problem with income tax is that it's so dang hard to understand. We need businesses with trained professionals to help people figure it out. Why? It's ridiculous. How did this country get their people to the point of paying so much tax on so many different types of stuff?

Most all of these idiotic taxes should be outlawed!!!

Schedules A, B, C, D, E, F, H, J, and SE, forms 1040 to 9465, and then all the miscellaneous forms in between! And one form can have a 100 page instruction booklet! WTF?! And of course, all instructions are written in a specially designed, "You're Going To Find Yourself Way Too Confused To Understand This, Go Find Someone More Competent" tax lingo.

For instance, one minor detail amid a garbage heap of confusion, did you know about the earned income credit? You can get it if you've earned any income. Unless. Now you have to read and interpret the list of why you wouldn't qualify despite earning income.

Did you purchase an asset? If you did, and you take a 179, it could screw with your EIC. That's if you knew about, qualified for, and took said EIC.

Two Questions:

1) Have you finished your tax return yet?
2) Did you do it yourself?

Peace, love and good luck,
LaSal

The Telephone

I changed my profile picture today. I've often thought of this picture throughout my life as it exemplifies how I spend so much of my time. On the phone! Over the last 24 years I've literally spent 6-10 hours a day on the phone! Any job I've had over the last 24 years required constant phone work. I often joke to people that I should have the phone surgically implanted into the side of my head just to make things easier. Now that the picture's been explained, I have to get on the phone.
Have a great day!
Peace, love and light,
LaSal

Tweetle Dee and Tweetle Dumb

The thought occurred, inspired by two Tweets. I had, for a moment, thought to include links to these tweets, which really are not bad links at all, but, if the picture that was included with one of the tweets, on TwitPic, was of me, I would not want it retweeted, nor posted here. The thought that occurred to me was Twitter could become a nasty tool for revenge, or thoughtlessly cause hurt to others, almost too easily.

Have you ever had an argument or fight with someone, and said, or even done something you wish you could take back? Things can happen in a moment of anger. We've all heard stories about passionate loves and lost loves on myspace. We've heard of revenge blogs and retaliatory pictures posted on myspace. And it occurred to me, with myspace, you'd have to sign in, and upload the picture. You'd have to click 'edit' to write anything into your profile, or click the blog icon and post there. It takes at least a minute or two.

With Twitter, people can stay on and signed in 24/7. People can tweet anytime, anywhere, instantly. People can tweet from their mobile devices, Blackberries. Pictures can be loaded to Twit Pic with a click. Mental diarrhea can pour forth from the brain, down the arms, to the fingertips, onto the keyboard, to arrive on the Internet in a flash. Vengeful, knee jerk, angry reactions can suddenly spill over onto Twitter, unguarded and thoughtlessly, before you even have a chance to digest your reactions and think before tweeting.

Just as easily, things we think are funny can now instantly become fodder for the world. It's all to easy to say or do something for the sake of a laugh, (think of the President on Leno) and be sorry for it later. Or even immediately sorry. Twitter provides that same venue for letting the world in on a gaffe, some momentary brain fart, some idiotic faux paus, be it mildly distasteful, slightly more stupid, or horrifically nasty.

I guess, what I'm trying to say is, it's become too easy to hurt someones feelings, and on a much larger scale then just verbally responding to that someone. I guess what I'm trying to say, is let us all be careful of what we post, and about whom we Tweet.

We all remember the old adage, 'Think before you speak'; let us now apply it to this 21st century technology. 'Think before you Tweet'.

Peace, love and light,
LaSal

Bailouts or Bullshit?

Question: If this government can give over a trillion dollars, OK?, over a TRILLION! dollars to big companies, who then use millions of said money to give bonuses to already rich employees and bosses, OK?, BONUSES!, because this will solve the problem of how to boost our economy, why can't they just divide that money up between each American, and let us boost the economy?

Seriously, if I had a nice chunk of change, I assure you, I'd pay off any debt I had and I'd certainly be spending a lot more money than I am now. Isn't that the problem as defined by the government in the first place? Didn't WE get blamed for this problem? We, the people, got ourselves into debt and then stopped spending any money and that's what caused this problem. Didn't I hear somewhere that it's all our fault? The fault of all us little, average, everyman Americans? All the biggies failed without our little guy support? Isn't that what I heard? Did I not hear it right? It's OUR fault?

Answer: Well then, it seems ridiculously, fantastically obvious, at least to me, that if we created this problem, we should be the ones receiving said bailout money! This way we can undo the problem which we, the people, have created. We, the people can bail us all out of said problem. Once we have these 'bonuses' in OUR hands, we would create the perfect jump start to the economy . We'd be paying off loans and mortgages so the banks and lending institutions wouldn't fail. We'd be paying and spending and buying and investing and paying it all with all that lovely bail out money. Doesn't it seem that if the opposite situation created this problem, then this is the only real viable solution? I do.

Hey, Gov, pass a trillion dollars this way, thank you very much.

Signed,
We, The People.
(OK, just me for now.)

PS: In case you don't know what one trillion dollars looks like, check it out.

One TRILLION dollars.

Start with a$100 dollar bill.

This is a packet of one hundred $100 bills. It's less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000.

This is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could carry it around in a grocery bag.

$100 million fits on a standard pallet.

And $1 BILLION dollars is quite a bit more, but look at the comparison of human to money.

Look at ONE TRILLION dollars. The bail out money the government is giving away is MORE that this! Can you even see the little human at the corner of the money? Realize that a trillion dollars is a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.

.

Notice these pallets are double stacked.

Are you shocked?

Do you want a piece of that?

Do you think if you got a piece of that, you could help start the economy moving?