I.O.U.S.A.

If you haven't seen I.U.O.S.A., get your butt to a theater. I throughly enjoyed it.

I knew we, the USA, were overextended. I knew we were in a trade deficit. I knew we were facing real trouble with Social Security. I knew it all, but this movie places it in a nice little package for you and slaps you in the face with the facts. Our debt to foreign countries was the biggest shocker for me. A total and utter wake up call.

A few parts of the film felt sensationalist(ic?). Even though the film was billed as non-partisan, there were also a couple of points that felt party or campaign-ish. Overall, a great film to see.

We saw the film last night in Huntington Beach. After the film there was broadcast (from Omaha, Nebraska) Q&A session with:
Warren Buffet (thought to be one of the world's greatest investors),

Peter Peterson (once the US Secretary of Commerce, and has served under various Presidents),

David Walker (once Comptroller General of the US, and current CEO of the Peterson Foundation),

William Niskanen (Chairmen of the CATO Institute & was on Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors), &

Bill Novelli (Chairman of AARP & creator of the Divided We Fail campaign)

During the Q&A session we picked up the fact that the four other men seemed hesitant to disagree with Buffet. I mean, who in their right mind is going to disagree with a man that's been heralded as such a "genius"?

I developed a secret crush, or not so secret now, on David Walker. He seemed very passionate.

If you're interested, here's the PDF transcript from last night Q&A session. Happy reading!

Speaking of reading... I actually finished my reading for my book club on time!

word

I found this awesome little website that turns your words (or blog, for that matter) into a word cloud.

I played with it for a few minutes and came up with my China word cloud. You can change the direction of the words, the size, color, etc... It's pretty nifty, and fun.

And no, I didn't choose China as my topic because of the Olympics, it's because I'm finally fulfilling a dream and heading there next month. Words can't describe how elated I am about this trip. I have to constantly stop myself from thinking about it. I am so very thankful for this opportunity. It's truly amazing. Amazing.

scrap supply giveaway

**Edited to remain on top. New posts below.**

***Pam you're the winner! :) Are you still on Silver Fox? If so, I have your addy, if not, email me please.***

I've been making every effort to clean up my scrap/craft "area". Well not necessarily "every" effort, but I have been trying. The problem with that is that I start to go through all my supplies and I become inspired to start creating, but I can't since it's supposed to be clean-up time. Ugh.

I recently gave away a large box of supplies, don't fret, they were older embellishments and paper, I knew I would never use. I'm going to start going through my newer supplies, and I know I'll have some more things to give away. I purchased a few things from Elle's Studio on Etsy, but I know I'll never use all of the tags, so the giveaway will include some of those as well.

Who's interested?



Simply leave me a comment on this post, include your contact info (email) if you do not have a blog. I'll pick the lucky recipient on Friday, August 8, 2008.

sweat it out

What's on your workout playlist?

I'm getting bored of the music I have on my iPod. It seems I haven't changed it up in a couple of months, and I'm bored of the same music. There are a few songs on there that I'm planning on keeping on my new playlist, but most I want to replace.

I've always enjoyed:
Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-Lot
Hey Boy Hey Girl by The Chemical Brothers
Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice (ok, stop with the eye rolling!)
If You Want Blood by AC/DC
The Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim
Rollin' by Limp Bizkit
Holier Than Thou by Metallica
I'm Shipping Up To Boston by Dropkick Murphys
Blister In The Sun by Violent Femmes

What do you recommend?

question and answer photo mosiac

I've seen these photo mosaics all over and had never bothered to make my own. I figured I had a few minutes to kill this morning waiting for an online meeting to begin so "why not?"

I grabbed someone's question and answer set (sorry, don't recall the website). You basically answer the questions, then go over to flickr and run a search that contains your answer. You then pick a photo from the first page of the results and add it to your mosiac. I used Big Huge Labs' Mosaic Maker, a rather easy app.

Here are the questions and my answers:

1. What is your first name? cristina

2. What is your favorite food? mexican

3. What high school did you attend? john glenn hs

4. What is your favorite color? black

5. Who is your celebrity crush? brad pitt

6. Favorite drink? long island iced tea

7. Dream vacation? scotland

8. Favorite dessert? german chocolate cake

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? happy

10. What do you love most in life? family and friends

11. One word to describe you? clever

12. What's the first name of the last child you spoke to? jessica

13. What was the last thing you ate? blood pressure medicine

14. If you had to change your first name, what would it be? addison

15. How are you feeling right now? content

16. Your flickr name? cristina arroyo

.

As I as perusing flickr I came across Cut Paper Love's cut paper illustrations. She's an incredibly talented paper artist. Very cute stuff.

Wishing you all a great weekend!