Just One Minute...

Yes, it is an ad, but I think it is a great one.

A trip around the world in just one minute!

A Very Happy Penguin

For you penguin fans out there!
I know there are one..or two.
Be sure to watch to the end. It gets off to a slow start but the end is worth it!

This is Why They Call it Good...

He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, 

One of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. 

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, 

While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, 

Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.

We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; 

But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.

Isaiah 53

I will warn you that clips on this video, from The Passion of the Christ, are rather disturbing.
Strong and yes, upsetting, because they are true.

Happy Good Friday.

Bandit Thursday...Lazy Fetcher

Throw me the ball...throw me the ball..

OK, I am tired now. Let's have a beer!"

The Future of Publishing

Sometimes, it is all about how you look at something.
..be sure to watch the whole video to get the point!




My thanks to Inside Catholic for this one.

Think of This When You Post Your Next Review...

You read a book and sadly, you hate it. You must tell the truth, warn fellow potential buyers out there, right? So you go to Amazon, and post that 1 star review. But what happens next....

Alex and Luke and Lucy

Have you heard of Alex and Luke?
I can't say that I have before today, but it seems they have a bit of a following on the social medias, especially Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. They have a plan...

"Restless with our current positions in our respective lives, we set out to see what would happen if we used the power of social media to enable an exploration of North America. Without a route or any preconceived idea of what we will see and do, we are calling on the communities behind the most popular social media websites to act as our compass (pointing us where to go) and our guidebook (telling us what to see).

Equipped with a small car and a trunk load of equipment, our goal is to travel through every state, province and territory while documenting and sharing the experience through web videos and other internet content available at our website, alexandluke.com."

Quite cool...

But what is very, very cool is that they recently visited one of my very favorite NJ attractions, my beloved Lucy the Elephant. And they make a little music video about it! Ok, I didn't say it was good music.

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The Penguin Rap

Ok, I just love this video.
Especially the "Classic" dancers!




How many of your favorite authors did you recognize?

My thanks to Shelf Awareness today for pointing this out.

Rejoice! Alleluia, He is Risen!

..from the Easter Vigil Mass, the Easter Song of Praise,

The Exsultet

Rejoice, heavenly powers!
Sing choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!

Sound the trumpet of salvation!
Rejoice O earth in shining splendour,
radiant in the brightness of your King!

Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever!
Rejoice, O Mother Church, Exult in glory!

The risen Saviour shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God's people...

If you are not familiar with this very, very ancient chant, you may enjoy this version, with a slightly different English translation...

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Oh, I Wanted a Tour!!

Seriously, do you think they give tours. It looks like great fun!

My thanks to Letters on Pages for this one.

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A Favorite Christmas Video...

First of all, I don't really like The Little Drummer Boy. And I thought the David Bowie of this era was a wee bit creepy.

Yet, I think this is a charming video, the blending of the androgynous Ziggy Stardust and Mr. Christmas himself, two hugely different eras coming together in what has become a classic. A month after this was filmed, Bing Crosby would be dead of a heart attack.
The show's creators blended Little Drummer Boy and an original song, Peace on Earth, in a last minute attempt to make Bowie, who hated Drummer Boy, willing to go ahead with filming this segment for Bing's 1977 Christmas special.
This very nice song was the result.

And a short clip of a video from a group I just found online, L'Angélus, a beautiful version of another of my very favorite Christmas song...

Another Very Cute Animal..Maybe the Cutest...

This is a Slow Loris, a primate from India, the Phillipines, Thailand and such parts and without question, one incredibly cute creature. Now if you read the comments on the post from Boing Boing, it is not an animal you should go out and buy. They are endangered, they bite and there is some issue of toxins, so just watch the video and say "awwwww...."

Thanks to Boing Boing!

Surprised Kitty Cat

A small dose of extreme cuteness...



I want one...

Happy Thanksgiving!

And while you are hopefully enjoying a nice dinner with friends and family, what you need to make the day just perfect is a song, so, for your listening pleasure...

A short ode to pumpkin pie...



my thanks to Boing Boing for pointing this one out!

One, Two, Three...Jump!

As we get older...and if you ain't dead, you're getting older... we reach a point where we start to worry about having strong bones. We don't want to be the old lady in the commercial who has fallen and can't get up, laying there with a broken hip. But how is the best way to do that? Do you have to join a gym, lift weights, walk for miles? As usual, just when you thing you know, the experts change their mind,. Vigorous walking, load bearing exercise...well maybe, maybe not. Seems some exercise helps and some does not. But according to an article in the NY Times, there is a simple, fast and totally free way that will work.

"...the current state-of-the-science message about exercise and bone building may be that, silly as it sounds, the best exercise is to simply jump up and down, for as long as the downstairs neighbor will tolerate. In studies in Japan, having mice jump up and land 40 times during a week increased their bone density significantly after 24 weeks, a gain they maintained by hopping up and down only about 20 or 30 times each week after that.

If hopping seems an undignified exercise regimen, bear in mind that it has one additional benefit: It tends to aid in balance, which may be as important as bone strength in keeping fractures at bay. Most of the time, Dr. Barry says, “fragile bones don’t matter, from a clinical standpoint, if you don’t fall down.”"

Free, quick, easy! You can't beat that and maybe you won't end up with a broken hip!
Although I do wonder how they got those mice to jump up and down.
Maybe they used this, the perfect song! "Round and round, up and down...One, two, three, kick... One, two, three, jump!"

A Magical, Magical Place!

Have I ever mentioned that I am a HUGE Disney fan, especially a very big fan of Walt Disney World? Well, I am, because it is Magical Place! You didn't know that? You don't believe it? Well, I have proof. Ok, maybe not proof, but a swell look at a day in Disney World, shot in a way that gives it the appearance of a miniature world. I just love the very last scene.

"“A Day at the Magic Kingdom Park” is a never-before-seen look at the park in miniature scale. The video is created from a series of photos snapped inside the Magic Kingdom Park. And the trick is tilt-shift photography.

It’s a sunrise-to-sunset story told without words. But the message is clear — celebrate."

Check out this video... A Model Day At Disney World!

For Your Viewing Pleasure....

I have mentioned before that my poor state, New Jersey, is so often misunderstood, the butt of jokes, so I like to take every opportunity to highlight positive things about my rather wee state. This afternoon, as I was watching the T and V, a movie came on, a great NJ movie, that I want to share. Not a mobster in sight, no urban blight, not one refinery to be seen, but rather a glimpse of a different side of the Garden State. The movie is The Station Agent, and it is, without a doubt, one of my favorite movies. Set in NJ, filmed in NJ, it is a small, lovely movie about loneliness and friendship, sweet and touching and, at times, quite funny. A must see if you are not familiar with it, a movie with three great performances by Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale, a movie that I think will just make you smile. If you have that Netflix thingie (a truly wonderful invention BTW), I recommend you put it in your queue.

A description from the movie's web site...

Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage) is a man trying to live life on his own terms. Looking only to be left alone, he takes up residence in an rural town's old train depot. But much like the station agents that occupied small town depots before him, he finds himself reluctantly becoming enmeshed in the lives of his neighbors, especially Olivia (Patricia Clarkson), a forty-year-old artist struggling with the break up of her marriage, and Joe (Bobby Cannavale) a thirty-year-old with a talent for cooking and an insatiable hunger for conversation - whether anyone wants to talk to him or not.

The STATION AGENT is about three people with nothing in common, except their shared solitude, until chance circumstances bring their lives together. Before long, from this forgotten depot, this mismatched threesome forges an unlikely bond, which ultimately reveals that even isolation is better shared.

Run For The Books!

I don't actually live that close to Collingswood, NJ and I certainly do not run 5K races, or any sort of races for that matter, but I loved this video made to promote the Collingswood Public Library's upcoming fund raiser. Have a watch and see if you agree!



A nod to Down the Shore with Jen for this one!

The Kindle = The Apocalypse ...Really!

Oh, what is a week without a little anti-Kindle rant? But rants, even mine, can be a little tiresome, so how about another amusing little anti-Kindle video, this one starring author Daniel Handler(Lemony Snicket) in the latest episode of The Kindle vs. The Book from the folks at Green Apple Books with special guest star, The Apocalypse!



"Read BOOKS! Read BOOKS, OR YOU COULD BE NEXT!!"

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Now Fast Can You Read This?

Ok, I admit it.
I am not the faster reader in the world. Not that I was ever really aware of it, until I started blogging and realized that getting through my TBR pile was becoming an issue.
But there are people out there that have ideas about how you can read faster, including this guy in the video. I warn you that the video is preceded with a very short Pampers commercial. But the baby is very cute....

More DIY videos at 5min.com

It was not until recently that I realized that vocalization was an issue..or that I appear to do it. But I do, and no doubt it slows me down.

But here is the real question. Is it better to read faster? Yes, in that I would be able to read more books, but beyond that is there a plus to these sort of techniques? And on the negative side, do you loose something if you read this way? As some in the people in the comments say, does it take some of the joy out of reading? To quote the comment of someone named Wetzel, "The rhythm of the language is a large part of the aesthetic quality of good writing, for great literature especially."
I am not sure about this whole thing really and would love to hear your input on the question, especially if you are a very fast reader. Most especially if you have every taken a speed reading course.
Forgive me, but it may take me awhile to read your comments...lol

one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four...

edited to add.. I was curious just how fast I can read, so I searched out a couple of on-line tests. Here are a couple of links if you want to check them out too. How Many Words Per Minute, Speed Reading Test
(thanks to Boing Boing for the link)

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