Quiz: What Flavor Cupcake Are You?

You Are a Vanilla Cupcake

You are very sweet and mellow. You are easy going and easy to like. You are drawn to those stronger personalities. You get along with powerful people. You are like a cupcake because you appeal to almost every type of person. You are friendly and accepting. You bring out other people's best qualities.

What Flavor Cupcake Are You?

Blogthings: Take a Quiz. Annoy Your Friends.

Guilty Pleasures: This Week's League Assignment

Here is this week's assignment from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers:

Guilty pleasures.

What do I consider a guilty pleasure of mine?  Well, there is something I have been wanting to confess.  I've been watching a weekly program that some of you readers might not be familiar with, particularly if you're not from California.  It's  a weekly program that looks at people, places and lifestyles of California, titled "California Bountiful."  It airs regionally and locally throughout the Golden State, as well as nationally on cable's RFD-TV.    Episodes can also be seen on the website and on Youtube.

My nearest NBC station KSBW, in Salinas (near my hometown of Hollister) carries the program on Fridays at 12:30PM, right after the midday newscast (the channel airs informercials in that same timeslot on Monday through Thursday).  Originally it was called "The Voice of Agriculture." I remember seeing this on this station in the 80s on Saturday mornings, just before the cartoons came on.  Sometime around 2010, I stumbled onto a program called "California Country" after the midday news on KSBW one Friday.  I eventually Googled it ad saw that it was in fact the successor program to "The Voice of Agriculture."  On December 30, 2011, I turned on the station and saw that the show had been retitled "California Bountiful." They also have a magazine.  The program and magazine is put on through the California Farm Bureau.

Most of the shows episodes focus on food production, gardening and farming, something I'm not real big on.  So it might seem strange as to why I actually enjoy this show.  Often they will show chefs from California preparing a dish on the show (the recipes can be found on the website).  I like to bake desserts sometimes, but don't always have the time (more on this later).

I know some of you are probably bored with all this info, especially if the whole idea is lost on you. And I can see how it would be if you're not a California native.  But this is the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the title "guilty pleasures."  Even those in CA I know might think this is kind of a weird thing to enjoy watching.  A family from my hometown was mentioned on the program once this season, in a  segment on tomato growing.

Something else I want to mention.  I find myself collecting recipes for dinner and desserts, recently via Pinterest. I guess this is another guilty pleasure.  I'm hardly big on food, but find myself watching a program on food production, and collecting recipes I never seem to have time for :-)  Some of the sinner recipes involve using a slow-cooker, which I don't have, and some dessert recipes I've found require another something I have been lacking: a blender.  I've been able to live without these so far, but now I find myself gathering recipes that I will need these gadgets for!  Along with recipes, I've gathered other ideas on Pinterest that I seem to have little or no time for, such as craft projects and DIY ideas (housecleaning tips, etc.)  I've tried one idea that I'm now into: making ice cubes from Kool-Aid.  It's really fun.

Another thing I've been enjoying is reading series of books.  I guess I can say reading teenage book series is a guilty pleasure, though plenty of older people have read the "Twilight" saga books and have seen the five films based on the books.  I've also been reading various cozy mysteries books, including those with food themes. Such books contain recipes.  Yes, more food themes here!  Again, I get tempted, but can't seem to find the time for.  Some such books include the Hannah Swensen mysteries by Joanne Fluke. I've read several of these already.  Other such books are Diane Mott Davisons' Goldy Schulz books and Jessica Beck's Donut Shop Mysteries.  I have some of these books I have yet to read. and I joined a "Foodie" reading challenge.

And I remember watching the Food Channel before I moved out of my mom's house.  Especially when Emeril Lagasse's how as on.

Only somewhat pleasurable, but I found myself guiltily watching and reading food stuff when I barely have time to even cook dinner. Having to be early to bed and early to rise takes away most of my energy and time for cooking. Even though I see lots of tempting recipes, I can't seem to find time for them.

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Other leaguers posts this week:
Shezcrafti
Goodwill Geek
UnderScoop Fire
Pop Rewind, their first league post
Flashlights Are Something to Eat
Thirtyish-Year-Old-Boy
Las Vegas Yankee
Stunt Zombies
Branded in the 80s
Man Who Stares at Toys
Crooked Ninja

Favorite Color Quiz

Your Favorite Color is Blue

You are a compassionate, empathetic, and sensitive person. You can truly put yourself in someone else's shoes. You're known to be very soothing and understanding. Your friends can always turn to you in times of need. You see the world realistically. You don't have any illusions about what is or isn't going on. You are wise and thoughtful. You don't rush to judgement, and you think things through.

What's Your Favorite Color?

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

Crafty Book Reading Challenge

Ok, here I am again signing up for another reading challenge.  I just came across this one. I'm currently reading the "Elm Creek Quilts" series, so this one fits.  This is hosted by Anastacia Knits. To sign up, visit this link.  Below are the details copied from Anastacia's blog:

The rules:
* any crafty related fiction book counts, whether it’s quilting, knitting, crocheting, sewing, embroidery, scrapbooking, etc.
* pattern books for the most part, are excluded, with a few exceptions: books by Elizabeth Zimmermann that are very chatty & contain stories, not just patterns, will count IF you read cover to cover. I won’t be policing you, so use your own judgement.
* non fiction craft books, such as “Crochet Saved My Life” are included (haven’t picked up the book yet? Go to https://www.createspace.com/3928868 and plug in coupon code 76K89G9K for 20% off). Thank you, Kathryn!
* any format is fine: ebook, print book, audio book, reread
* yes, you can also cross over to other challenges, if you like
* reviews are not necessary, but would be very nice for the authors (on your blog, on goodreads or amazon, wherever)
* I’ve started adding a list of crafty books that count for this challenge

If you are a blogger, please write up a blog post talking about the challenge, include the button or header graphic I made above (I’m sorry, I don’t know how to do the fancy code so you can just grab it) and link to this post at http://anastaciaknits.net/2013/01/12/crafty-book-challenge/ so that others can find out about this challenge & join in! When writing up your post, please be sure to tell us how many books you want to try to read!

Non-bloggers, you can join in by commenting on your goals!

I am planning on reading 7 books this year – the only one I know I’ll read for sure is Crochet Saved My Life.

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As I said earlier, I am working on reading the "Elm Creek Quilts" books and thinks this is good challenge.  As I began reading the series, I began to wonder what other books are similar to these. I'm now going to find some.

Quiz: What Emoticon Represents You Right Now?

Your Emoticon Is Smiling

Right now, you're feeling cheerful and content - without a care in the world.

What Emoticon Best Represents You Right Now?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

Oscars: This Week's League Assignment

Here is this week's assignment from The League of Extraordinary Bloggers:

The Oscars. ... interpret it as you will!

Well, since we can interpret as we will, here's how I chose to do that.  Rather than run down this years Oscar winners (I believe everyone knows the full list by now) or rant about who didn't get nominated or think that someone else should have won over those who did win, I tried hard to come up with something different.  Oscar the Grouch and Oscar Madison have already been written about by several other participating bloggers (including a mash-up of those two characters), as has a list of Oscar-winning movie songs. So what else is there? 

Well, in the days after the nominations for this years Oscars were announced, I began Googling "Oscars" and phrases like "Oscar snubs" and "Oscar mistakes" and as I typed in the word "Oscar" I was mentally spelling it and into my head popped a famous TV commercial jingle.  

I'm sure many of you remember the famous commercial for Oscar Mayer bologna with the little boy fishing.  In case you've forgotten, here is the commercial below:

It seems hard to hear the word "Oscar" spelled out without getting this jingle stuck in my head.  Same thing happens when I have to spell out a name ending in "-mayer" or "-meyer" without getting the M-A-Y-E-R part in my head.  This has become as inevitable as hearing or seeing the word "Kodachrome" without getting Paul Simon's famous song stuck in my head. I know I'm not alone on that one.  And just recently I was calling Fandango.com's 800 number to check a movie time.  I spelled out the name as I tried to find the corresponding numbers on my phone keys, and reciting the last there letters, N-G-O, made em think of the song about a dog called "Bingo" in which the name is spelled out.  

But back to Oscar.  I decided this would be my interpretation of Oscar since no one else came up with this one.

And I had a flashback to my high-school French class. We did a song in French about our school that was sung to the tune of the Oscar Mayer bologna jingle, which a classmate inevitably called "The Bologna Song." The song went:

Qui va ganer pour leur lycee? (Who is going to win for their high school?)
C'est B-A-L-E-R. (Our high school mascot is the Haybaler, called Baler for short)
Qui est doué? Qui sait jouer? (Who is gifted? Who knows how to play?)
C'est B-A-L-E-R.

Nos les aimons, les champions (We like them, the champions)
Finnisant toujuors roi de balon (Always finishing king of the ball)
Parce que vous savez (Because you know)
Il faut jouer (You have to play)
Avec E-S-P-R-I-T. (With spirit. Esprit is French for spirit).

(My apologies to those who don't know how to pronounce French.)

OK, someone else did mention Oscar Meyer hot dogs, which themselves had a memorable jingle, but it was the bologna jingle that came to my mind first.

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Along with the bloggers linked in the first and last paragraphs, here are this weeks other participants:
Top Hat Sasquatch
The Combat Workshop
That Figures
Branded in the 80s
Achievements in Gaming
Fortune and Glory Days
Henchgirl
Thirty-ish Year Old Boy
And Cool and Collected's own post

League Assignment: Birthday Celebration

Here is this week's assignment from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers:

The League of Extraordinary Bloggers is celebrating its first birthday! Can you believe it’s been a year since this whole thing started? As a community, we have had a lot of fun and some amazing blog posts have been written in response to the weekly League topics. I’ve met some great people and really do think that we put our best efforts forward when we write a response to the weekly topic.

After 52 weeks, I’m running a little low on the “idea-meter” and I need your help. This week’s assignment is a two-parter…

–

1. Write about your involvement in the League of Extraordinary Bloggers and recall some of your favorite posts — these could be your own and/or those written by others. 

2. Come up with a list of potential topics you would like to see as future weekly League challenges.

Part One: 

Where to start?   I think the League is quite a fun idea for those with a blog who need an idea for something to write and those who have a love for any and all sorts of pop culture.  I signed up for this early on, but kept forgetting until I made my first post in May of last year.  I've sat out a few times (sometimes my imagination is just a little low!), but still enjoy the site and reading other participants' entries, whether or not I made one myself.  Some of the topics I've enjoyed so far include:
Top 10 Movies
Who Cried When Old Yeller Got Shot?
Halloween Costume Ideas
This is Halloween 
Merry Geekmas
Spacemen
Shelf Expression
Back to School

And I have enjoyed linking other bloggers's responses to my own and getting comments.  It's amazing what people can come up with for these things.

Part Two:

Suggestions for possible League assignment topics for this year.  I was kind of glad to see this here, because there was something I though could be an interesting topic:
Book series you have read or are trying to finish reading.   I thought of this one because I have been doing just this recently.  With so many book series, it gets hard sometimes to find all the books, depending on how you obtain your reading materials.  I'd also like to see what others in the League like to read.  This could be fun.



Another idea I thought would be fun to see others write about:

A toy you remember and/or had that no one else (or barely anyone else) you know doesn't seem to remember.

I got this idea from a pin I made last year on Pinterest, of a toy I once had. I had one of those toys in particular and one girl I knew from school said (in a comment) she had all of them, where as another such person commented that she had never even heard of this toy.  Sorry, but I don't want to give any more info, just in case.



Others ideas that came to mind were:
Commercials you loved or hated the most
TV Shows you liked that very few (if any) other people remember (or possibly use this same idea for movies)


Only one other person has responded to this assignment as of yet (see below for link) and he had some ideas that I was also planning on saying!  One was more of the one-word topics that the league used at the beginning of this year. I only responded to the Spacemen one, but still think this is a good idea.  And he also suggested this idea: Favorite toy you never had.  Kind of goes with my earlier-mentioned idea about toys.

These are the only ides I've come up with.  I'm curious to see what others will come up with for this one., since I'm early this week (I've only ever been this early once before.)  Here's the only other link so far, as I mentioned earlier:
Fortune and Glory (Days)