Lord of the Dance: Michael Flatley's Shoes Plus Some!

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




Michael Ryan Flatley was born on July 16th 1958 in Chicago following his parents' emigration from Ireland in 1947. He spent much of his childhood going back and forth to their native Ireland. He started dancing at the tender age of 4, when his grandmother, an Irish champion dancer taught him his first steps. However, it was not until he was 11 that his mother Eilish - also an Irish Dancing Champion - took him and his brother and three sisters to dance school.



He became the first American to win the World Irish Dance Championships.

He has since won over 120 titles in 13 countries and almost every US State.

Harassed by other kids when he was younger, he and his brother went to boxing school - he later won the Chicago Golden Gloves Amateur Boxing Championship.



Michael Flatley's first ever live performance was when he toured with the Irish Folk group The Chieftains - dancing whilst they played.He first captured the world's attention with a stunning performance with Riverdance during the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, which was watched by a global TV audience of millions. He has earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records, possessing the quickest feet in the world.



Lord of the Dance was conceptualised and staged within 8 weeks of his departure from Riverdance. In 1997 Flatley and his troupe caused a sensation when they performed at the Oscars. Over the past years, Michael Flatley has performed Lord of the Dance over 300 times in over 100 cities.



The Most Important Stuff: His Shoes!



Michael Flatley's dancing shoes are specially designed by Freed's of London. Freed is the shoemaker to the world of dance. He gets through nearly 100 pairs a year. Michael's dance shoes generally last a couple of weeks but he has 6 pairs at any one time. His legs are insured for $40 million.



At each show Michael Flatley saves a seat for his late grandmother, Annie, who was his greatest inspiration.



Shoes Retired

Irish-American folk dancer Michael Flatley, famous for bringing Riverdance to the world, has retired from the stage. (2001)

He gave his last performance in Dallas, Texas, on the Feet of Flames world tour. Michael Flatley's spokeswoman: "I think after seven years at the top and having such a successful world tour and US tour he has decided to go out at the top," she said.



Lord of the Dance: Michael Flatley's Shoes

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




I was watching one of my favorite DVD's last weekend: Lord of the Dance. I cannot get enough of those dancing shoes. I remember the first time I "ALMOST" had a chance to see the performance. It was the summer and I was in downtown Toronto and saw that the performance was playin at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. I had no idea. I was walking down the street around mid-day, happened to look up and saw that big marquee! Boy was I mad at myself for not knowing sooner. I did try to call and see if any tickets were available. What was the answer? SOLD OUT!!! Waaaaahh!



Royal Alexandra Theatre

The crown jewel of Toronto's active theatre scene, it's hard to believe

this 1907 landmark was slated for destruction a few decades ago.

Saved from the wrecking ball by flamboyant retailer "Honest" Ed

Mirvish (Mirvish also owns the Princess of Wales Theatre) the Royal

Alexandra boasts an opulence of days gone by. From the glinting

lights of the marquee, to waist-coated ushers, to sumptuous velvet

seats and curtained private boxes, audiences enjoy the royal

treatment.




Later that evening I was having dinner at Le Royal Meridian King Edward and I saw all the beautiful people begin to arrive for the evening performance. I was still depressed. It would come and go before I could see it live.



Later in 1999 I was in the states visiting and decided to go on a trip to Walt Disney World and lo and behold guess what was being performed on a special stage for a limited period of time at Epcot????? Lord of the Dance!!!! Who would have thought it would be there? Who knew? I sure did not.



Well...I bought those $65 a seat tickets for everyone in my family so we could be right up front and had the most wonderful night at Epcot watching Lord of the Dance. It was magnificent! No words can describe it. I still see it in my mind's eye to this day. dirty Fila was mesmorized and pretended that she was an Irish dancer for the remainder of the night. I decided I had ot have the DVD to watch it anytime I want. I do.



Since that live performance Lord of the Dance has been performed on PBS along with Feet of Flames. I have seen them all but nothing quite compares to the original Lord of the Dance with Michael Flatley. They have a great website: check the title link. I like to see if it is coming anywhere near me in the states or in Canada. I would love to see it live again.



I did find this sad article about one the the dancer's in the production being killed. It sounds like he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

---------





Lord of the Dance man killed in South Africa



29.06.2004 1.00pm

JOHANNESBURG - The Lord of the Dance troupe is in shock over the killing of one of its employees in South Africa and many of the young dancers will be flying home, the show's founder Michael Flatley says.



Daryl Kempster, a 37-year-old British merchandiser with the famed Irish dance group, was shot dead early on Sunday near the hotel where the performers were staying in central Johannesburg, viewed by many as a virtual "no-go zone" at night.



Local media reported that he was robbed of a laptop and a shoulder bag.



South Africa is plagued by some of the world's highest rates of violent crime, and the murder of a foreigner associated with the high-profile dance show is sure to add to the country's frightening reputation.



"Some of our dancers are still in shock...They're coping but some are not in very good shape right now," the flamboyant Flatley told a news conference after flying in from the United States. "We're devastated by what happened."



The troupe has finished the Johannesburg leg of its South African tour, and Flatley said some of the 28 shows in other cities would likely be rescheduled as the traumatised dancers are sent home and others are brought in to replace them.



The cast and crew have moved out of central Johannesburg to a smart hotel in the prosperous Sandton financial district.



Lord of the Dance is a popular show rooted in Irish folk dancing.



- REUTERS





Whenever I hear "It can't be done,

I know I'm close to success."
Michael Flatley





The Redhead

 

The redhead

A man is dining in a fancy restaurant and there is a gorgeous redhead
sitting at the next table. He has been checking her out since he sat down,
but lacks the nerve to talk with her.

Suddenly she sneezes, and her glass eye comes flying out of its socket
towards the man.

He reflexively reaches out, grabs it out of the air, and hands it back.

Oh my, I am so sorry, " the woman says as she pops her eye back in place.

"Let me buy your dinner to make it up to you," she says.

They enjoy a wonderful dinner together, and afterwards they go to the
theater followed by drinks. They talk, they laugh, she shares her deepest
dreams and he shares his. She listens.

After paying for everything, she asks him if he would like to come to her
place for a nightcap and stay for breakfast.

They had a wonderful, wonderful time.

The next morning, she cooks a gourmet meal with all the trimmings. The guy
is amazed. Everything had been SO incredible!

"You know," he said, "you are the perfect woman. Are you this nice to
every guy you meet?"

"No, " she replies. . . . . . . . . "

Wait for it. .

It's coming. .

The suspense is killing you, isn't it?

She says :

"You just happened to catch my eye "


 

 

 

 

French Canadian Mimes

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




I just happen to be skimming the WWW and saw an article about the circus and mimes when I remembered the most harrowing experience I ever had with a mime. I was at the CN tower in Toronto. I had taken some visiting family members there and at the base of the tower was a mime. The mime from hell.



That mime was so strange I cannot even describe it. He was disturbing to look at in every way. He was dressed in all black and white and attached to a metal pole--like he was hanging from it or he and the pole were one. I could not stop watching. How he was "miming" was so wierd and unlike anything I had seen before. He was the only hellish mime in the area "miming" from a metal pole. After about 10 minutes of watching him we went on our way but after that I was totally turned off by mimes. I could not bring myself to give him any money. I had never had any problem with mimes before that day. I have not been the same after that when it comes to mimes.



Mimes are satan's spawn.





About the tower:

Considered one of the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World", no trip

to Toronto is complete without a visit to the CN Tower. Built in

1973, it remains the World's Tallest Building and Free-Standing

Structure and boasts the World's Longest Metal Staircase. Not up

for the climb? No worries. In just 58 seconds the high-speed elevators

whisk you up 346 m above ground to the Look Out level. Here the

brave of heart step-out onto the glass floor, or outside to the

observation deck. And the truly daring climb aboard a separate

elevator and shoot up another 33 storeys to the Sky Pod for a

full 360-degree unobstructed view of the city. Afraid of heights?

Don't worry, there's lots to do at the Tower including a 144-seat

cinema, 4 motion simulator rides, a themed arcade, shopping, and

a fresh market cafe. And for diners, there's no better place to

see and be seen than at the CN Tower's skyward Horizons Cafe

and 360 Restaurant, home, of course, to the World's Highest

Wine Cellar

Testing Email Blogging

Testing Email Blogging

Well. ..let’s see if this works well.

 Have just arrived at work and it is yet another hectic scene.

Shoe drama just wears me out!

Where I want to be today! Posted by Hello

It's A Corona Night

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




Today was one of the longest days I have had in a while. We had that mandatory work party and this time they did not even offer us dinner. We have been having work parties for the last 8 years and food has always been supplied. What is up with that? I was so tired and sleepy at one point I had to get up to go to the mail room to wake up. I kep looking at the clock and we had an hour more to go. These shoes trudged on.



I broke down today and had the forbidden Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino. I have not had one since I last blogged about it. I did good. Wow was it gooooood! No more. I must stop there and not get into the daily Starbucks ritual.



I was listening to the news and heard a blurb about people naming their male children ESPN after the tv station ESPN. Come on people ! Be just a little original. I did a GOOGLE search and there are several kids named ESPN. Poor things! What the HELL were those parents thinking? Your name needs to be one that will do you some good inthe work world later on..a name needs to have a little dignity.



Saturday, June 26, 2004



Associated Press

PAMPA, Texas -- A Texas couple who named their son ESPN after

the cable sports network will soon be getting a visit from the

toddler's namesake.



An ESPN film crew is coming to this Panhandle town next month to

interview the family of 2-year-old ESPN Malachi McCall for a feature

on several children around the country named after the network.



ESPN (pronounced Espen) McCall is one of at least three children in

the United States known to be named for the sports network. A couple

in Corpus Christi named their son Espn Curiel in 2000, the same year

Espen Blondeel was born in Michigan.



ESPN spokesman Dave Nagle said the feature will air Sept. 6 as part

of a two-hour special celebrating the network's 25th anniversary.

The special focuses on the company's history, growth and impact.



"We don't have viewers. We have fans," Nagle said Saturday. "And

I guess there's no better testament than when someone names

their child after your product. It just shows the bond we have

with people."



Rebecca and Michael McCall said their son's name started as a

joke after they heard on the radio about another couple

naming their son "Espen."



"He looked at me and said, 'That's a cool name,'" Rebecca McCall

said in Saturday's editions of the Amarillo Globe-News.






It has been a Corona night! One bottle and all is better in the world.





The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




Starbucks to Roll Out Lower-Cal Frappuccino Light

Tue 29 June, 2004 18:25



LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp. on Monday said it would roll out a line of blended coffee drinks intended to tap into the growing popularity of reduced-calorie and reduced-fat menu choices for Americans.



The Seattle-based company, which operates the world's largest coffee chain, said that its new line of "Frappuccino Light" beverages would go on sale at all of its 6,010 stores the United States and Canada on Wednesday.



Starbucks has been working to develop a light version of its popular blended beverages for the past two years and had test marketed the new offering in Sacramento, California earlier this year, a spokeswoman said.



The diet-friendly product roll-out comes as other major U.S. restaurant chains and food companies come to grips with the continuing popularity of low-carb and other diets in response to the recognition of a growing obesity problem in America.



Starbucks cited consumer research saying that 42 percent of Americans say they are reducing the fat in their diet.



The new light Starbucks beverages, which substitute Splenda, a non-calorie sweetener, for some of the sugar in the original versions, feature about 30 percent to 40 percent fewer calories, the company said.



For instance, a 12-ounce Mocha Frappuccino Light would have 140 calories and 1.5 grams of fat compared with 220 calories and 3 grams of fat in the original, said Starbucks spokeswoman Jenny Walsh. That comparison excludes whipped cream.



In addition to a promotion campaign that will feature billboard and other kinds of advertising, Starbucks will be offering North American customers at all of its stores on Wednesday a chance to sample the Frappuccino light beverages, it said.



Analysts have credited Starbucks introduction of new products, including new twists on its Frappuccinos, with driving increasing traffic to its stores and reaching out to a wider range of customers.



Starbucks is not alone among major U.S. companies trying to reach calorie-counting customers on the go. McDonald's Corp has credited the introduction its "Go Active! Happy Meal," featuring a bottle of water and a pedometer, in part for better recent sales.



Coca-Cola Co. this month has also rolled out a soft-drink with half the calories and carbohydrates of the original Coke and an ad campaign targeting followers of trendy Atkins-style diets.



And in a sign of the risks to companies seen out of step with the times, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. last month blamed the low-carb diet craze as it posted its first net loss since going public four years ago.



Shares in Starbucks closed up 7 cents to $43.27 on Monday and have gained about 30 percent since the start of the year.



Take the Orange Shoe, Neo!

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




Matrix shoes: How many shoes with the name Matrix are out there? Quite a few. Here are some of them. (I am so trapped in the Matrix.)



Carnac Matrix: utilizes the revolutionary UCS3EV Sole with stiffening plate for extreme stiffnes while the new Index Buckle System and genuine kangaroo leather offer incredible comfort.



Saucony®'s Matrix running shoe: offers you comfort and support while you run with their leather upper and compression molded EVA midsole. The rubber outsole provides great traction on many surfaces.



Vasque Men's Matrix Shoe 7394: 1.8mm Water Resistant Nuback Leather. Black Macro-Mesh Nylon Fabric. Nylex Lining. Contoured EVA Footbed. Internal Wishbone Shanking System. Polyurethane Midsole. Skywalk Kinetic Outsole.



Womens Bite Matrix: The women's Bite Matrix TG golf sandals features the patented toe-guard and removable soft spikes.

Styles:

8102a almond

8102b charcoal, grey, almond



Terreno Outsole (Matrix) - Men's: The added security that you get with a pair of Z/2s is like the difference between keeping your cash under the mattress and putting it in the bank. The Terreno outsole has deep lugs for increased traction on loose surface. Made of TC-1 Vibram non-marking rubber, the Terreno outsole is great for traveling and long days on the pavement.



Nike Air Force 1 Mid (Matrix Crocodile Edition) European Exclusive:

Nike's most popular basketball shoes ever! This is the Nike Air Force 1 Mid European Edition. Yellow crocodile pattern made of suede material.







The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




Nicole is me today. A pair of taupe basket weaved flats. Pretty darned old too. At least 5 years old. Part of my basketweave on the left shoe, left side is coming loose. It really is time for me to go to the big sole yard in the shoe sky. I was even headed there twice before but got pulled out of the GoodWill bag in the knick of time.



Today has been crazy at work. Very busy and now since we are not having a good month as far as goals, we have to have a mamdatory "work party". The managers briong in food and we are required to work until 7pm to work on targeted goals. It is a bummer. It does not matter what you have planned. You have to attend. Oh the fun of corporate america. "Work Parties!"

Thank Goodness the Trip is Over!

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




We went to my sister in laws house for my neice's first birthday. Beleive it or not it was a good trip down. My mother learned her lesson from the trip to WDW. She sat in the backseat and was quiet. The party was good. We were there only for a day. It was another long drive to get my parents back home today. We did go out to eat and then home. More later once I get a little rest. I have my slippers on. Slippers for sleeping.

My Abusive Mother: Part I

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




My mother is abusive and always has been abusive. If you do read the last post regarding the 5 phases of emotional abuse I expreienced 4 and 5 most of my life--all the others as well but mainly 4 and 5. This topis has raised it's ugly head because on yesterday when I picked my daughter up from her house, dirty Fila told me that she was very hungry and had only 1 meal that day.



I asked her why as normally she eats all sort of food and snacks all day. She said that my mother locked her out of the house. What? Evil visions of my childhood immediately ran thru my head. I asked for more details. What happened from the beginning is what I wanted to know. dirty Fila said she was washing out her swimsuit in the sink and was taking it outside to hang on the deck to dry out.(swimming lessons were at 7) She said as she walked from the bathroom to the sink some water dripped on the floor and she did not close the patio door behind her. My mother came into the room and saw the water and the door open and got mad. dirty Fila closed the door and got the mop to wipe up the water. That of course was not enough.



dirty Fila said that my mother grabbed the mop as she was mopping and began to pull it away from her. dirty Fila was afraid that her grandmother was going to hit her with the mop handle--she said she was looking very weird so she did not let it go. They struggled with the mop handle. Finally my mother told her not to fight her for the mop. Next thing dirty Fila was placing the mop outside and my mother locked the door and refused to let her in the house. This occurred about 8:45am as I dropped her off at 8:30 or so. dirty Fila said that she was not let back in until 2:30pm. She had no food, no water, where we are now it is summer and the temp was 90 degrees plus. At some during the day she did ask thru the glass door for some water and my mother told her to cup her hands and drink from the spicket. She also told my father not to let her in and he did not.



dirty Fila said that she just spent the day outside in the rocking chair on the back deck. When she got in the house finally she did have a microwaveable lunch meal.



I am livid. This is the kind of thing she used to do to me when I was little but mine wa much worst. This is also the first time that this has happened with dirty fila. I spent many years of my early adult life in weekly therapy to get ovor all the things she did to me when I was a child and to make sure that I would not repeat that cycle of abuse with any kids I had.



I always knew my mother was mentally ill and I lived for the time when I would be able to leave that childhood house never to return. Throughout the years she has had multiple nervous breakdowns, lived on valuim, belladona and all sort of other drugs. In recent years she has taken pacxil. Part of my healing process many years ago was to confront her. She denies anything ever happened to me or that she ever did anything to me. I finally left it alone--for my own benefit. I have always been aware that she had never gotten any treatment of her own for her own issues. (She comes from an abusive household) I have always been worried about how she would treat my daughter. From my mothers MO girls are nothing and males are more valued. As a child I was the black sheep and my brother was the favorite. I have a daughter and he has a son. My daughter is the black sheep to my mother and my nephew is her favorite. The cycle repeats.



She would never do ANYTHING like that to my nephew. Never..he is is the favorite. Nevertheless, I plan to get my daughter into some summer camp next week so that her time there with my parents is limited. I was just a shell of a human when I left that house years ago with nothing inside except the will to get out of there alive and get help for me. You would think that a woman in her late 60's would have changed or softened in all those years, especially after I was trying to get her to admit all the things she did to me long ago.



Abuse cycles seem to be something that will not die no matter how old you get unless you get help. I just know that I cannot let my daughter spend the summer with them for fear of what may happen. My mother could have called me at work if there was a problem and I could have come get dirty Fila if I had too. That is how I know it is and was child abuse.



I plan to be calling my mother in a short while to discuss. It will not be pretty because she does not listen to anyone's opinion except her own. Noone is right except her and all of her actions are always right no matter what. Remember the trip home from Walt Disney World just 2 weeks ago? It will not be pretty.



Guess what? My neice is having her first birthday tomorrow and I am supposed to be the one to drive my parents 6 hours on tomorrow to attend the family BBQ and then back 6 hours on sunday as I have to get back home to get to work. What a wonderful weekend this is going to be. Now I do not want to go to the BBQ. 6 hours on the road 1 way with my mother and then back. I am not driving unless she is riding in the back seat.



Details on the phone call later......shoes walking away.

The Five Cycles of Emotional Abuse

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




The 5 Cycles:



Rage

The anger that permeated your home frightened you so badly that it

kept you from thinking for yourself, learning to trust your own judgment

or creating your own paths, as well as left you ill-equipped to deal

with the legitimate emotional reactions of others. The rage of others

you experienced filled you with terror and helplessness. The outbursts

you endured were not a "cry for help" within a relationship. Rather they

were displaced outbursts that the abuser used in order to achieve a sense

of power, control and domination over others.



Enmeshment

In your family, there was the expectation that everyone needed to be

together all of the time. There was no place for a closed door for privacy, for individual thoughts. The family was expected to be one enormous entity

with no boundaries separating one from the other. Your joint interests were

mandated and implemented with homemade psychological glue. You acquiesced

because you felt you had no other choice. If those you cared about deeply

tried to enter the family circle, they were treated as outsiders

until or unless they were willing to become part of your family enmeshment.



Extreme Overprotection

Just when you were at the age to express your own individuality and

seek a measure of independence, you were smothered by extreme parental

overprotection. With extreme overprotection, there are the crippling

messages of needing to satisfy parents, being the center of a parent's

happiness, and the inability to be safe without a parent's care.

The result of suffocating individuality and independence in a child

is not only the endangerment of a lack of confidence and inappropriate

expectations, but frequently feelings of guilt.



Rejection/Abandonment

If you voiced an opinion with which your parents or caregivers did

not agree, they withdrew their love for you, leaving you feeling

isolated and terrified to think for yourself. Only if you agreed with

them completely and saw everything through their eyes, never your

own, would love be shown to you. Understandably, you learned to

view love and control as one and the same, trusting neither.



Complete Neglect

No one was there for you, ever. Your basic needs such as food and

clothing may have been met, but there was never a feeling of emotional

closeness or any substantive conversations. This cycle is in many

ways an extension and extreme case of the rejection/abandonment cycle.

Yet, within it, there is no semblance of calm or acceptance, however

false and fleeting these may be.

The Matrix Revolutions

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




I am all about the matrix. I am trapped in the matrix. I see matrix code. Today I was like a hampster in a big corporate wheel going round and round with no way to get off. I did not have a chance to see the Matrix Revolutions when it was out in movie theatres but I did rent it over the weekend and had a chance to see it. It was great! It ended a little differently that I expected. Trinity gone and Neo seemingly dead at the end. However it was good. Nothing "matrix" would ever be bad to me.





What A day!

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




Did you ever feel like the walls were just closing in? These Disney tennis shoes felt just like that....like I had to escape the the hundred acre woods and hide in the hole in the ground like gopher.



The nine wests in the pod one over from me was stressing so much she was threatening to have a drink at home to get away from it all. I think she was going to have something called a cosmopolitan? I had never heard of it. It sounds good. I might just have to try it some day.



I came home for lunch to get away. The phone was crazy today. Today was swim day 3 for dirty Fila. Right before we were to leave someone hit my car. It was parked and unoccupied and we heard the door bell ring. The neighbor across the street was at the stoop. She said she hit the car and wanted me to know. We exchanged information. She said she backed into the car. How I do not know. I was parked on the grass at my parents house. When I drove up i noticed the neighbors car parked in her front yard, up on the lawn. She had to back like a crazy person to hit my car. I was off the road. She had to leave her front lawn, cross the entire street and almost come up on the grass of my parents house to hit me. There is a dent in the right front door and the right mirror was bent. Luckily the mirror is one of those impact mirrors that fold in. It was folded in. The lady tried to claim she had to hit the back of the car. NOT! My car has never had a dent in it anywhere. Now it has a dent. I will be calling her carrier in the morning.



Yep. It is time for a Guinness...or 2..or 5...or 10!



I will have just one. Tomorrow will have to be better.



Swimming Lessons

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~


I signed dirty Fila up for swimming lessons. Today was day 2. She had on her flip flops and flipped her way to class. I sat on the bleachers with the other parents still in my black work aerosoles. They are a flat loafer style. Very comfy all day!!! Not so dressy though but that was okay today. I was not in the work dress up mood today at all. They went well with my black skirt and slate gray sweater.



She wore her new Old Navy suit. They were 50% off this past weekend so I was able to get two suits for the price of one. Old Navy usually has great sales. Go there now for great stuff. I also made a trip to Bath and Body Works. They are having their semi-annual sale. I got all sorts of good stuff...hand lotions, $1.00 glycerine soaps and body sea salt scrubs for $3.00.





G-Mail: I have it now!

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~


I am no longer shoeless and "g-mail=less!" After searching the WWW and reading a few sites of people who had extra invites, I found a young man who had 11 to spare. And all I had to do was request an invitation. Within an hour or so I got an email with an invitation. My thanks goes out to him. I am afraid to post exactly what his site is as when I was reading all those others, they became bombarded with requests and even spammed for requests for those extra invitations.



Wow, it is about 3:30 am my time so there was noone I could send my first gmail email to except myself..So I did. I cannot wait to get up and running. I am now among the bloggers who have G-Mail. I will have to put on my tap dancing shoes today.



I have G-Mail!!!! Oh happy day!!!!

PAGAN SHOES

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




PAGAN SHOES are called poulaine. It was the long-toed (phallic) shoe

that was very popular in the 15th century. They were the original 'high heels' or 'platform shoes', but with toes so long that sometimes they had

to be tied by a string leading from the toe to just below the wearers knee.



It has been said that playing the game of 'footsie'

with the person opposite of you was thought up by someone wearing

these shoes. The sexual connotations of the pointed toes is obvious.



Found in "Shoes and Pattens" by the Museum of London and "Stepping through Time"

by Olaf Goubitz, Carol van Driel-Murry and Willy Groenman-van Waateringe

this shoe is a common noble's shoe for the 14th Century. There are five

different length of point as described in "Shoes and Pattens", .0 being

a rounded toe and .5 being grossly exaggeratedly long points.

The Summer Solstice

The shoe that fits one

person pinches another;

there is no recipe for living

that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




Solstice, from the Latin for sun stands still, in astronomy, either of the two points on the ecliptic that lie midway between the equinoxes (separated from them by an angular distance of 90°).



At the solstices the sun's apparent position on the celestial sphere reaches its greatest distance above or below the celestial equator, about 23 1/2° of arc. At the time of summer solstice, about June 22, the sun is directly overhead at noon at the Tropic of Cancer.





In the Northern Hemisphere the longest day and shortest night of the year occur on this date, marking the beginning of summer. At winter solstice, about December 22, the sun is overhead at noon at the Tropic of Capricorn; this marks the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. For several days before and after each solstice the sun appears to stand still in the sky, i.e., its noontime elevation does not seem to change from day to day.



Solstice and Equinox



Long before the dawn of any of the modern Judeo-Christian-Islamic faiths, rituals followed a more simplistic path. Guided by the natural cycle of birth-life-death-and-renewal, the ancients marked their seasons by celebrating each phase of the wheel of life. Both male and female principals were honored, God and Goddess, and each was given honor as the sun and moon entwined in their cosmic dance.



The festivals that mark the change of season—winter, spring, summer and fall—have been transposed to our modern world. This site explores their meanings and how the old ways of honoring these times have been assimilated into our rituals of passage today.



What is a Pagan?



The celebration of equinox and solstice are commonly referred to as pagan holidays. Although the term pagan is used to describe any number of non-Christian belief systems, the actual term means something far different. The term’s origins are from the Latin word paganus meaning “country dweller.”



Christianity had taken hold in most of the towns and cities of the old Roman Empire but, by no means, was embraced outside of those enclaves. Those whose livelihood depended on the natural cycles of the seasons still followed those ancient beliefs. So the term paganus became synonymous with one who not only lived in rural areas—most of ancient Europe and Great Britain—but also one who did not follow the teachings of the Church. In time, and through language changes, the old Latin word became shortened to pagan and, while its original meaning became lost in the passage of time, the reference to non-Christian belief systems remained.

G-Mail: The G-mail-less Blogger

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




I guess I must be the only shoe-less, G-Mail-less blogger. From just browsing the web it seems that if you have a blog you have g-Mail. I guess I got missed! I would love to have a G-Mail account either by invite or see that G-Mail button show up on my profile screen when I log into Blogger. And not only that, once you are in you get free invites to invite others.



I want to leave the ranks of gmail wannabe! I want to google and gmail just like the other "gmail haves." I want to leave the ranks of the "gmail have-nots." :)



If there is anyone who can help elevate my status with that magical G-Mail invitation, please let me know. I can be reached at woozle34@yahoo.com. Just send the invitation. I will be eternally indebted! Thanks for your consideration in advance!



Tinker

100 THINGS ABOUT THIS SHOE!

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~


~1. One of my favorite things to do is to go storm watching.

~2. I discovered the best time to go to the beach is right after a rain storm

because the best shells and sea life wash up on the beach.

~3. Gary Brana-Shute is the professor I admired the

most during my college career. He was a great man and will be missed, but never,

ever forgotten.

~4. The most mysterious gift I ever got was a gourd filled with the

soul of a dead fisherman
given to me by Gary Brana-Shute.

~5. My favorite author is Stephen King.

~6. NPR is my favorite radii station to listen to due to great programming.

~7. The music I love the most to listen to is Celtic, Jazz and Classical.

~8. I have no idea what "my milkshake is the best in the yard and

they'r like it's better than yours
" MEANS??!!!???!

~9. I love sushi and when I was pregnant, I had sushi cravings for a week

and satisfied them by eating sushi for 4 days in a row for breakfast,

lunch and dinner.

~10. I am a cat person! MEOW!

~10. When I am down the things that cheer me up are a good English drama(public television) or watching The Color Purple.



~11. I have only been scuba diving once in the Caribbean and when I did

I visited a coral reef 30 feet below the oceans' surface. The beauty was

incredible! I want to go again!

~12. My favorite coffee table book is called " American Folk Painters of Three Centuries," by Jean Lipman and Tom Armstrong. It was given to me many years ago for

my 26th birthday by a dear friend and lover.

~13. If the day has been bad, the only thing that takes the edge off

is a shot of iced ABSOLUT Kurant vodka.

~14. My favorite CD of the moment is Paganini: After A Dream

by Regina Carter.

~15. I try to live by the Four Agreements.

I discovered them 3 years ago.

~16. Aliens are real and are living among us. I know...I have

seen a ship
.

~17. I think I am developing "blog addiction".

~18. I love Canada as well as the United States. I call both my home.

~19. My zodiac sign is LEO.

~20. Grief takes my breath away to the places of silence between breaths.

I am there now.



~21. My passion is anthropology and I have the dream of floating down

the Amazon River in a dugout canoe.

~22. I used to be very shy and introverted.

~23. My Spanish is fair, but I plan to study up to become fluent again.

~24. I was the one who wrote "butterball is a pig" on the blackboard in

6th grade resulting in the whole class getting detention.

~25. I have never felt loved by my mother due to a great divide that has

been there since my birth.

~26. Baths are the only true way to wash and I take a tub bath every day!

~27. I spend a lot of money at Bath and Body Works.

~28. I have had an out of body experience and I was worried I would not

get back into my body. It was hard to get back in.

~29. I have had a secret lover in the past--for many years.

~30. Out of my siblings, I am not the favorite child. I am clearly

the outcast yet have always been the more responsible, more educated,

more gainfully employed child of them all.



~31. Coke is my favorite soft drink.

~32. My worst date ever was the guy who went with me to my senior prom.

~33. Diamonds are my favorite gemstone.

~34. They say what comes around, goes around but I want to be there to see

it happen to at least get a little satisfaction.

~35. The one who loves me the best is my child.

~36. I spend an hour every Christmas eve just watching the night sky

and listening for sleigh bells with my child before packing her off to bed.

~37. Tinkerbell is my favorite Disney character.

~38. Writing is my secret passion and would love that to be my dream job.

~39. I love ice cream and milk products but they do not like me.

Soymilk has become my friend.

~40. My goal for 2005 is to learn how to climb the climbing wall.



~41. When I lived in North Carolina my favorite place to go was the Eno River.

~42. Go shopping when all else fails...that is what I do.

~43. I play the violin and have been playing since the 4th grade.

~44. The Matrix is real. Do you think that is air you are breathing?

I am trying to unplug.

~45. Shoes make my day. If I have on bad shoes, I will have a bad day.

~46. Silence of the Lambs is one of my favorite movies.

Clarice, is that you?

~47. I live for Halloween!

~48. Martha Stewart is my homemaking idol--Still. Will always be.

~49. Survivor is my favorite reality television show.

~50. Did I say I was a cat person? If not, I am a cat person.



~51. The two best performances I have seen in person in recent years

has been "Lord of the Dance" and "Yanni." Before that it was "Sting Live."

~52. I went thru the punk rock phase for about 6 months in college

and wore nothing but black leather, spikes and purple streaks in my hair.

~53. The book I am reading right now is The Da Vinci Code.

~54. B1 d- t- k- s+ u f+ i o++ x e- l c+ is my blogger code.

~55. The greatest joy in my life is my child.

~56. I want to be a contestant on Survivor.

~57. Last Easter, I ate ostrich eggs and alligator sausages for Easter breakfast.

~58. I am addicted to Starbuck's Java Chip Frappuccino's.

~60. A nice steaming cup of green tea is what I have every morning once

I get to the office.



~61. The Four Agreements have made a lasting impression on my life.

~62. I am into Feng Shui..so much

so I have a Zen garden at my desk at work.

~63. I love to buy lobster from the grocery store and cook it myself at

home. Restaurant lobster is not as good.

~64. Oval diamonds are my favorite diamond shape.

~65. I eat whole garlic cloves and drink lemon water when I have a cold

to cure it.

~66. Pirates of the Caribbean is one of my weekend

favorites to watch on DVD. Savvy?!

~67. I learned to swim in college.

~68. People tend to think I am aloof, but I am just a little shy, and am

taking it all in before making any sort of outward demonstrations.

~69. When Miami Vice used to come on in the 1980's I was seriously in

love with Don Johnson for many years.

~70. If I am lagging at work in the afternoon, nothing "perks" me up

more than 5 chocolate covered expresso beans.



~71. People other than my immediate family(toxic) have treated me the

best throughout my life.

~72. I have over 35 pairs of shoes.

~73. I have never been in an adult book store--too embarrassing--someone

might see me.

~74. I can sew, cross stitch and paint--generally arts and crafty.

~75. I have never gotten over the crushing news that Santa was really my

parents. My mother told me the summer of my 12th birthday.

I have never forgiven her.

~76. The summer of my sophomore year in college, I participated in

an archeological dig for colonial and Indian artifacts.

~77. The best time I ever had dancing was to Can't Touch This by M.C. Hammer. I had flown

to the Bahamas for vacation to Paradise Island .

I had on a formal, black strapless dress that had one sleeve.

he front of the dress had a train that hung on the right side.

I was doing the dance called the Chinese typewriter that MC Hammer used to do.

My formal gown split in the back seam all the way to my butt.

I had to go change into another formal and then I continued to party on!

~78. Sleeping naked is the most comfortable way for me to sleep.

~79. Gardening is one of my favorite ways to relax.

~80. I have 3 windchimes handing in my garden.



~81. I have a dreadful fear of the praying mantis. I was even attached by one once.

~82. My biggest disappointment came when I was in eighth grade. I was

first chair violin and we were having a performance at the local

auditorium. My mother refused to come to the performance to see me.

That was one of my biggest accomplishments/performances in grade school.

~83. I danced ballet for many years and performed in The Nutcracker

in the Teapot Scene for the city ballet company.

~84. I love to juice. I do not have the Jack Lalanne power juicer but mine is just as good!

~85. Fur is something I love.

I have 3 stoles, a muskrat jacket, a fox cape and hat and a

full length muskrat, mink and fox coat.

~86. I believe that angels have saved my life three times.

~87. Tae-Bo

is my favorite exercise of the moment. I have every tape there is to

have by Billy Blanks.

~89. I have met two celebrities in my lifetime: Dom DeLuise and Wally Kurth who plays Ned Ashton on General Hospital. I even have their autographs!

~90. My favorite fragrances are: Pleasures, Knowing, Picasso, Laila and White Witch.



~91. I own over 20 handbags with 5 of them being my favorite brand--Oroton.

~92. Peonies are my favorite flower.

~93. Oreo cookies are

my favorite kind of cookie!

~94. The first alcoholic drink I ever had was the Sloe Gin Fizz.

~95. I truly believe that Howard Stern is

the King of all Media! I do listen to him from time to time. He is good!

~96. My favorite place to go for touring in Canada is Goat Island and the Cave of the Winds Hurricane Deck.

~97. I have a tattoo of a rose on my left shoulder blade.

~98. My Sunday mornings are reserved for leisurely breakfasts, several

cups of coffee and A Prairie Home Companion on NPR.

~99. Star Trek forever made me a lover of all things sci-fi!

~100. Most of the time I feel that I am on the cusp of greatness...that

just around the next corner, the next hour, the next minute something

is going to happen. I am in a constant state of anticipation.





U.S. Hostage Beheaded

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - An al-Qaida group said Friday it killed American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr, posting an Internet message that showed photographs of a beheaded body that appeared to be his.



The statement was posted on a Web site where the group frequently makes announcements. Also posted were three still photos showing a head that appeared to be Johnson's.



The message, in the name of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, appeared as a 72-hour deadline set by the group on Tuesday ended.



"In answer to what we promised ... to kill the hostage Paul Marshall (Johnson) after the period is over ... the infidel got his fair treatment," the statement said.





"Let him taste something of what Muslims have long tasted from Apache helicopter fire and missiles," the statement said.



Johnson, who worked on Apache helicopter systems for Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped last weekend by militants who threatened to kill him by Friday if the kingdom did not release its al-Qaida prisoners. The Saudi government rejected the demands.



The photos posted with the statement showed a severed head, placed on the back of a body. The body was wearing an orange jumpsuit and the face was turned toward the camera.



Full story here





Mourning

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




That is what these shoes are doing: Mourning. It is a sad time.



mourning - the period of time following a loss. Similar to grief and bereavement, a loss may be of a loved one, death, or loss of an ideal (divorce, job, home, etc.). Mourning may be short or very long and may relate to cultural and religious customs.





The Four Agreements

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~








The Four Agreements has made a difference in a positive way in my life. I suggest everyone read the book and decide for yourself. It has helped me! I do try to live by the Four Agreements now. These new agreements I have made with myself are far better than some of the others made on negative influences.
"Everything we do is based on agreements we have made—agreements with ourselves, with other people, with God, with life. But the most important agreements are the ones we make with ourselves. In these agreements we tell ourselves who we are, how to behave, what is possible, what is impossible. One single agreement is not such a problem, but we have many agreements that come from fear, deplete our energy, and diminish our self-worth."
The four agreements are outlined below:



Be Impeccable With Your Word

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.





Don’t Take Anything Personally

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.





Don’t Make Assumptions

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.



Always Do Your Best

Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.









Goth: The Dark Side of Shoes

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~


Fetish: Fashion , Sex and Power







After my first post about Goth being the dark side of shoes, I just knew there had to be shoes books that explained the meaning of some of those goth shoes. I found this book to start with as a good intro.



Synopsis

Kinky boots, corsets, underwear as outerwear, second-skin garments of rubber and leather, uniforms, body piercing. Today everything from a fetishist's dream appears on the fashion runways. Although some people regard fetish fashion as exploitative and misogynistic, others interpret it as a positive Amazonian statement - "couture Catwoman". But the connection between fashion and fetishism goes far beyond a few couture collections. For over 30 years, the iconography of sexual fetishism has been increasingly assimilated into popular culture. Before Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman, there was Mrs. Peel, heroine of the 1960s television show "The Avengers," who wore a black leather catsuit modelled on a real fetish costume. Street styles like punk and the gay "leatherman" look also testify to the influence of fetishism. This book explains how a paradigm shift in attitudes toward sex and gender has given rise to the phenomenon of fetish fashion.



Reviews:

From Publishers Weekly

Drawing on psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, feminist and Marxist theory, cultural historian Steele (Fashion and Eroticism) explores the role fetishist sexual practices play in shaping fashion history. She asserts that fashion trends both reflect common sexual fantasies and help construct gender identities; in this sense, clothing can function as an important marker of a culture's sexual politics. The fascination with fetishist garb?corsets, underwear as outerwear, the use of "kinky" fabrics like rubber and leather?among prominent contemporary designers may, she proposes, signal our own culture's willingness to blur the boundaries between the "normal" and the "perverse." Steele puts forward a fluid definition of fetishism, noting that its devotees exhibit a wide range of behaviors and that one particular style or object can have a variety of different meanings for different people. Consequently, psychoanalytic arguments that the fetish is always a stand-in for the phallus or feminist claims that certain fashions like corsets and high heels are intended to oppress women are potentially valid but reductive. Steele's greatest strengths here are her flexible perspective and her deft negotiation of various theoretical perspectives. Her analysis is sometimes sketchy, but this is a thought-provoking overview of the relationship between sex and clothing. Photos not seen by PW.




From Library Journal

These are two very dissimilar books on similar topics. Fetishism, which accompanies an exhibition touring England, is a sloppy attempt to link the West African tradition of "power object" fetishism with 20th-century surrealism and Western sexual fetishes. The book's four dense essays perfectly reflect the overwrought quality of the artwork in the show. The best part of the book is a brief history of African power figure sculpture accompanied by a section of fine colorplates displaying these eerie aboriginal works. Other essays, covering surrealist fetishism and evidence of the broader acceptance of alternative sexuality in contemporary art, fall flat with excessive intellectualizing and overreliance on Freudian theory. These selections of artwork lack focus, and the reader is left unconvinced that any continuum exists between the anonymous carvers of West Africa and today's sexually frank culture. Steele, who teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology, ably describes the connections between fetishism and fashion by assembling evidence from the last 200 years of Western social and psychological history. In a detached, tactful, and nonproselytizing tone, she catalogs such variations in sexual expression as tight-lacing, shoe fetishes, transvestism, and "leathersex." Steele quotes from pornography as well as ostensibly more legitimate academic writings and lists in her bibliography such titles as the American Journal of Psychiatry, Bizarre Shoes and Boots, and the Natural Rubber Company Catalogue. In all, her short book is a worthwhile purchase for larger libraries not already owning David Kunzle's more thorough 1982 study, Fashion and Fetishism.




IngramValerie Steel marshals a dazzling array of evidence from pornography, psychology, and history, as well as interviews with fetishists, sadomasochists, and cross-dressers, to illuminate the complex relationship between appearance and identity. "Valerie Steele is to kinky dressing what Ann Rice is to vampires."--Christa Worthington, Elle. 74 halftones. 30 color illustrations.


Crazy Women

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

~~Carl Gustav Jung~~




Today is a shoeless day. My soles have a headache, a migraine actually so I do feel the greatest. I have begun to re-read Crazy Women by Jack Matthews. I read this book about 10 years ago. It is a collection of 14 stories about strange women doing strange things. (And of course they all wear shoes.) It is a good book. Check it out!



GOTH: THE DARK SIDE OF SHOES




dirty Fila and I were at the mall a few saturdays ago when I was introduced to the dark side of shoes: goth. I never thougth that shoes could have a dark side but they do. It is a whole new world. I went into Hot Topic to see if they had any new disney shirts for Pirates of the Caribbean. I have most likely been in that store a total of 10 times in my whole life. Now that the Disney Store in our mall closed, only Hot Topic has pirate shirts for that movie without having to go online to Disney.com.





While I was looking at the disney shirts which are normally just inside the door, dirty fila had gone deep inside and was looking at other stuff. I had never taken the time to walk around and really see what was in that store. WOW! is all I can say! dirty fila came to me with a black leather bracelet with spikes on and said she wanted that.(I thought "Hell no! She is only 10 and we had better get out of this store quick before she gets an more ideas.") I told her she could not have that bracelet with spikes as she was too little. Then she said she liked the clothes one of the cashiers had on. She looked like she really had stepped out of a wierd matrix. All in black, odd piercings, zippers and buckles and spikes all over her clothing in unusual places.



Well, as a mother of a soon to be teenager I decided I needed to look around this store and see what it was all about. There were some very different things in that store. I did speak to one of the male cashiers for quite sometime and asked him about his look and what it all meant. After speaking to him it seemed like goth was part fad and part subculture. It could be something that one day they all would grow out of once they got into the real world of life after college.



I was really fasicnated by the shoes of goth. They are really dark and suggest things that are not of the real world of 9am-5pm. Here is my mimi crash course in goth.





Goth: What the heck is it?

Goth in its simplest form, is a subculture. A group of people who feel comfortable within each others company. There is no specific thing that defines what you need to do or be to fit into the goth scene (except of course the implied black clothing). People in the goth scene all have different musical tastes, follow different religions, have different occupations, hobbies, and fashion sense.



Why would anyone want to be goths?

Most goths become goths because they have been spurned by 'normal' society because the way they want to live their lives does not fit in with how most people are told to live theirs. Goths are free thinkers, people who do not accept the moral rules of society because they're told 'This is just how it is' or 'This is what God says!'. Rather goths tend to listen to what you have to say, and make up their own mind. This kind of free thinking and rejection of dogma earns only rejection in todays society.



Goths often revel in the fear given to them by society as a whole. Often the behavior exhibited by society to them based on society's perception of them from stereotypes, rumour, etc are a constant source of entertainment. Of course, most of the rumours are totally unfounded, goths are people like everyone else, however when you already have a reputation, going for the shock factor is often far too tempting to see how much society at large is willing to believe (or deduce) with only a little encouragement.



History of Goth

Modern goth (ignoring where the name itself originally comes from) started in the early 80's as part of the punk subculture (which is itself was a rejection of most societal values, and anything considered part of the 'norm'). The phrase was coined by the band manager of Joy Division, Anthony H. Wilson, who described the band as 'Gothic compared with the pop mainstream'. The term stuck, and as punk eventually died, Goth survived and became its own subculture. The punk clothing and hairstyles mellowed, and the core 'rejection of society' attitude alone lived on in the gothic subculture. Over time this itself has been modified to be more of a 'no more blind acceptance of society's values' as opposed to rejection because it was there to be rejected (and because you could get away with it!)




Now, I do know about punk rock as that was big when I was in college and I was a ounk rocker for about 6 months. I use to wear black leather and chain and even sported a spiked bracelet and collar as well as purple streaks in my hair. My mother was crazy! She was glad when that was over!



I still remember that period like it was yesterday and the music! The music was great. I was in love with Billie Idol and Devo! I bought and still have most of the music I bought by them. Rebel Yell and White Wedding are still 2 of my favorite songs by Idol and Whip It is still a favorite of mine by Devo!



Punk shoes I remember were all black as well but the style of dark shoes then were not as extensive as those now. The dark side of shoes is Goth. I never realized that it was such a miniworld all to itself. Check out some of these links, then check out the shoes from the dark side!



Goth.net

Toronto Goth

Gothic Match

Hot topic

Evil Eyes

The Mission Boutique

Twilight Visions

Dark Side Shoes and Boots

Pennangalan Dreams-Serious Goth Footware




Just a few samples..kickin' shoes from the dark side. I think I will change my change my profile picture and become an honorary goth for just a little while. So long basic black pump! (You will be back soon enough!)







Blogger Code: The Secret Life of Shoes







B1 d- t- k- s+ u f+ i o++ x e- l c+





These shoes were tripping the web most randomly when I discovered the blogger code. There is also a geek code also. I am not a geek but I may take the time to do that code to see where I am. (I might just be a closet geek!) i had noticed that some blog names were just made up of numbers and letters and symbols! Now I know why!



Cute idea--just something else to add to the sidebar of your blog!



Here is is a site to generate your code and here is a site to decode it.



Google Bomb: The Secret Life of Shoes





I was searching Google today, reading the information about key words in an effort to get more traffic to my site. I discovered Google Bombs. Had not ever heard the word before today but it sure was some very intersting stuff. More about it here! I know it 's old news but not to me. It is brand spanking new!





What is a Google Bomb?


A Google bomb or Google wash is an attempt to influence the ranking of a given site in results returned by Google. Due to the way that Google's algorithm works, a website will be ranked higher if the sites that link to that page all use consistent text. Googlebomb is used both as a verb and a noun.

For example, if a user registers many domains and all of them link to a main site with the text "... is a living legend" then searching for "living legend" on Google will return the main site higher in the ranking, even if the phrase "living legend" doesn't appear on the main site. A common means of exploiting this is through weblogs, where although the entry may disappear from the main page quickly, the short-term effects of a link can dramatically affect the ranking of a given site. Empirical results indicate that it does not take a large number of websites to achieve a Googlebomb. The effect has been achieved with only a handful of dedicated weblogs.

The technique was first discussed on April 6, 2001 in an article by Adam Mathes. In that article, he coined the term "Google bombing" and explained how he discovered that Google used the technique to calculate page rankings. He found that a search for "internet rockstar" returned the website of Ben Brown as the first result, even though "internet rockstar" did not appear anywhere on Brown's webpage. He reasoned that Google's algorithm returned it as the first result because many fan sites that linked to Brown's website used that phrase on their own pages.

Mathes began testing his theory by setting out to make the website of his friend Andy Pressman the number one result for a query of "talentless hack". He gave instructions for creating websites and links to Pressman's website with the text of the link reading "talentless hack". Sure enough, as other webloggers joined in his Googlebombing campaign, Pressman's website became the number one result in a Google search for "talentless hack".

However, the first google bomb mentioned in the popular press may have occurred accidentally in 1999, when users discovered that the query "more evil than Satan (http://www.google.com/search?q=more+evil+than+Satan)" returned Microsoft's home page. Now, it returns links to several news articles on the discovery.

Ironically, Google bombs often end their life by being too popular or well known, thereby attaining a mention in well regarded web journals and knocking the bomb off the top spot. It is sometimes commented that Google bombing need not be countered because of this self-disassembly.

--------------





Why Do People Google Bomb?



According to Microcontent News headquarters their are four top reasons why people bomb Google:(full article here)



Humor

Ego

Money

Justice



1. Humor Bombs



Admit it... it's pretty funny to see your friend come up in Google as the #1 Talentless Hack in the whole world. Granted you have to find search keywords that don't get a lot of traffic, but that shouldn't be too hard.



2. Ego Bombs



It's become fashionable to be the top search result for your first name (or barring that, your full name). David Gallagher - freelance writer for the New York Times - provided one such example on his personal blog:



I've decided that I want to be the most famous David Gallagher on the Internet, and if you have a Web site, you can help. How? Link to this site like so: David Gallagher.



As of March 1st, he's ranked number 3 in Google... not too shabby, David.



3. Money Bombs



Of course, it's only a matter of time before someone starts making Google Bombs for profit.



As far as we know, this has yet to come to pass... but once Money Bombs become a possibility, they pose a real threat to Google. Brig over at Eatonweb floated the idea just a few days ago:



02.27.02



reading why google loves weblogs got me thinking about google bombing. specifically, in regard to keyword searches. take, for example, my dad. he would be in heaven if his site came up #1 on a search for santa cruz real estate. he would be willing to pay for that.



Brig, Microcontent News will Google Bomb your dad's site for free: santa cruz real estate. I'm not sure how much it will help though, as your dad is up against some tough competition: some 103K separate websites come up in Google when you search for "Santa Cruz Real Estate!"



Buying a Google Bomb is probably cheaper than buying a Google Adwords microad. But even if that price disparity disappears, it's much better to be in Google's main search results than somewhere in a side module. Given this reality, it's inevitable that Money Bombs start appearing in the weblog community soon.



4. Justice Bombs



As we saw in last week's article, Justice Bombs can be tossed at evil corporations. The target then was Critical IP, a corporation accused with telemarketing to domain name owners by stealing phone numbers out of an Internet database.



In fact, several bloggers have built Justice Bombs after last week's article... including Megan McArdle. She was nauseated the other day to hear about the R Kelly videotape:



The other day, a radio station in New York that one of my co-workers listens to read a play-by-play of the R Kelly videotape. It is the first time I've ever been made actually nauseous by something I heard or watched. For those who aren't aware of it, R Kelly is a musician who purchased the services of a 14-year old girl from her family and . . . no, I can't go on. It makes me want to get sick just thinking about it.



Ordinarily, most people would feel helpless in this sort of situation. But armed with knowledge gleaned from last week's Microcontent News, Megan proposed a Justice Bomb:



I have the following proposal. Let those of us in the Blogosphere post the following two links on our pages:



Daniel Pearl Videotape

R Kelly Videotape



Several bloggers have already followed suit, and just a few days after the Justice Bomb was lit, five of the top ten results for R Kelly videotape are already weblogs with her Google Bomb. Go Megan!



Why Google Bombs are So Effective:



We went over the mechanics of Google Bombs last week. But why do so many weblogs participate in Google Bombing?



First and foremost, it's fun. Google is an institution, and seeing your personal website pop up in a search result is exhilarating. We've watched Microcontent News become the second search result for Google Bomb (behind Adam's essay inventing the concept), giving us some personal insight into the excitement of climbing the Google ranks.



Google Bombs also tap the natural human instinct for reciprocity: "you help me with my bomb, and I'll help you with yours." [1] Most of the Google Bombing to date has been Ego Bombing anyway, which lends itself especially well to reciprocation.



Google Bombing also fulfills a fundamental need: a need for justice, and for a feeling of control over the uncontrollable. When Megan McArdle got upset over the R Kelly videotape, she was able to strike back with a Google Bomb. Now, there's a good chance that someone searching for the videotape will read the message she's written just for them.




Check out that link!



Google Bombing! I learn something new everyday!



Snake Skin Shoes is Satan's Spawn









Snake Skin Shoes sits in the pod across from me. This is what she looks like! Yes- she is that bad. Never have i seen such a snake in acton all the time. She slides on in her snake skin shoes and sits at her desk with a rattle! Never have I seen such a back stabbing withc work her evil with so much style! (She probably passed this evil test with flying colors!)She gets confronted all the time but that does not stop her. The evil just marches on. Can we say that she is truly Satan's Spawn.



This article, I am sure, was most likely the same announcement her very own husband used when her first child was born. I bet it all came out the same way!

Wife Is Pregnant with Satan's Child!'

ECUADOR — Vicente Suárez says his wife is carrying the child of the devil. Ultrasound pictures of the fetus "looked nothing like a human child," he claims. The mother-to-be drinks urine instead of water and suffers fits during which she screams "Let me out, let me out!" in an inhuman voice. Family and friends believe she was possessed by Satan during a ouija board session. [Ananova]




She tried some evil doings when I was out of the office last week, that I quickly was told about. I had to stop her in her tracks on yesterday. I was wearing my garlic shoes that shot out silver bullets and sprayed her with holy water. Still she lives.



Evil is hard to kill.

Thoughts of black pumps and high heeled work shoes are starting to creep into my head. I have been out of work for a week and tomorrow the same old grind starts again. Say it ain't so!



Mentally, I did get away. When I left work last friday I did not look back. All things are new again tomorrow. I still feel like I am vacation now. I have not begun to get any work clothes ready or even out for tomorrow. Tomorrow I willbe just another corporate suit in a pair of gucci shoes.
Old Shoes!









Old shoes. That is me today. I'm really shoeless but feel like old shoes. I am very tired. What good are old shoes except for sitting around? That's me today just sitting around blogging my fool soles off. I did find a use for old shoe soles--> see article below.



Tennis court made out of old shoes

By Scott Murdoch

October 3, 2003


A NEW tennis court surface made from old running shoes has been manufactured by a Brisbane company renowned around the world for its work in the sport.



AV Syntec made a name for itself in 1988 when it produced Rebound Ace, a surface which is now played on by some of the biggest names in tennis and covers Melbourne Park where the Australian Open is played each year.



The Carole Park-based private company will now market Air Cushion, a layering made from polyurethane and acrylic-based materials to cover existing tennis surfaces.



The new design has been tested at the group's headquarters for heat resistance and in the Czech Republic and Switzerland for its endurance in colder climates. It has been under development for the past four years.



AV Syntec export director Paul Bull said Air Cushion would be targeted mostly at European and South American markets.



A key ingredient in the new product is Nike Grind – a compound material made from processing old Nike athletic shoes. WHAT IS NIKE GRIND?



"We have just signed a couple of jobs for it to go to in Korea and we have four agreements in the Czech Republic," Mr Bull said. "We're also working on a couple in Europe at the moment as well. At this stage, we'll be targeting countries which mainly play on clay courts so probably places like Korea, Spain, Japan and South America where there is a lot of clay."



Cushion Air is has been tested over the past couple of days by AV Syntec distributors from around the world.



The company's two products, Mr Bull said, would not compete against each other in the marketplace. "They are aimed at two different sectors."



The Courier-Mail

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Old shoes can also be used to make flower planters so do not throw old shoes away..recycle.



These are complete with drainage holes.



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Shoe Tea.





I found a great recipe for Shoe Tea!

Fill one pot with cold water. Bring water to a boil. Remove pot from high heat. Insert one foot of a pair of shoes. Let steep for 15 minutes. Add sugar and creamer to taste.

Bon appetite!



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Shoes can also make great lamps. Any pair of shoes will do. It does not have to be ballet slippers.