Mishmash Musings

For this week’s Five Things list, I’m going to tell you about five famous gravesites that I’ve visited. Yes, I’m one of those strange people who likes to visit tombstones and pay my respects to long-dead heroes… what can I say?

In cases where there was more than one famous person buried at a particular cemetery, I’m just going with a single name. It would be far too easy to list all the luminaries from, say, Westminster Abbey here.

1. Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors (Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France)
2. F. Scott Fitzgerald, author (St. Mary’s Cemetery, Rockville, MD)
3. Sir Isaac Newton, physicist, mathematician, all-around genius (Westminster Abbey, London, England)
4. John Keats, English poet (Protestant Cemetery, Rome, Italy)
5. Napoleon Bonaparte, French general/emperor (Les Invalides, Paris, France)

I was checking out some celebrity gossip websites earlier today when I read something pretty interesting. It seems that some top 5-star resorts actually go out of their way to comp popular celebrities with free luxury vacations. This is a marketing ploy, of course, as the resorts hope that paparazzi will catch the celebs at play and mention the hotel name in the tabloids. Apparently, getting mentioned in the same sentence with some stars is good for business.

I don’t know why I’m so surprised at this news. I never thought of it before, but I guess it makes sense. Still, I just don’t understand the way the world works sometimes. Why is it that the people who can most afford to pay for things always get everything for free? Pro athletes get all of the free Nike or Reebok gear and casual clothing they want, movie stars get free Armani gowns and Harry Winston diamonds… I wish these companies would do the same for regular folks!!

(Photo: Sandra Bullock and Jesse James in Hawaii)

We’ve decided to participate in Earth Hour this year, which means that from 8pm to 9pm local time, we’re going to turn off all the lights, televisions, computers, and radios in the house as a gesture towards conserving energy and reducing light pollution.

We’ve got a bunch of candles ready to go, and we’re planning on sitting around the coffee table in the living room playing cards, eating snacks, and just enjoying each other’s company.

I know that turning the lights off for an hour isn’t really going to make a dent in energy consumption, that it’s more of a symbolic gesture than anything else.

But hey, it’s better than ignoring the problem completely, isn’t it?

Oh, and here are two Reuters photos showing the Sydney skyline on a regular day (March 28) and during Earth hour on March 29:

Today my various web wanderings led me to a site called LumiGram that sells “high-tech clothes”. I didn’t know that that meant, but after a few seconds of browsing and clicking, I learned that this company creates apparel out of items like the threads from inside fiber optic cables!

While I admit that some of the stuff looked pretty cool, I could never see myself wearing any of these items.

I’ve got to hand it to them though. That’s definitely the most creative use of fiber optics that I’ve ever come across!

It seems like most of the blogosphere is buzzing with chatter about the launch of Photoshop Express, a free web-based version of Photoshop that Adobe put out in beta today. It’s over at www.photoshop.com/express, and you have to go through a quick registration/verification process to get started.

I registered, and then went in to start playing around with some of the tools. I’m not a Photoshop expert or anything, so I didn’t really know what I was doing.

To me, it seems that Photoshop Express does things that are pretty similar to what Google’s Picasa does. There are basic fixes and touch-ups that you can perform, such as red-eye correction, hue, color, saturation, exposure, etc. There are a few special effects that you can add to your pictures too, such as sketch, distort, soft focus, etc.

The site seemed a bit slow to me, which was probably from the amount of people on there testing out the goodies. I don’t know if I’ll actually switch over to Photoshop Express for my image editing needs, but I guess it’s good to have that option available.

For now, I’ll stick to Picasa!

With the way the economy is right now, our finances are so tight that we have to keep a very close eye on every cent that we spend. Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed an alarming trend as far as our grocery bills go: we’ve been spending 20-30% more than usual. This is the result of having to buy more food at higher prices — and it’s really draining our budget.

So what I’m going to do now is make an effort to use Grocery Coupons whenever possible. I used to use them all the time, but that stopped at the same time that I canceled our newspaper subscription because I didn’t know where else to get coupons from.

After checking around online, however, I found a great website called PPGazette.com. This is the homepage for the Penny Pincher Gazette, and is a terrific source of printable coupons that can be redeemed at local stores.

It took me less than a minute to register for free. After that, I was able to browse through a bunch of coupons for products that I use all the time, including Totino’s Pizza Rolls, Wisk laundry detergent, Healthy Choice frozen dinners, Hamburger Helper, Chex cereal, and much, much more. The coupons entitled me to savings of anywhere from $.75 to $2.00 (or more), and will definitely help make a dent in my next grocery bill.

I can’t wait to print these out and use them on Sunday when we hit the supermarket for our weekly food run. I’ll let you know how much we end up saving!

Oh, and if you’re looking for ways to cut down on your grocery costs, I recommend checking out PPGazette.com today. I’m sure you’ll love the site as much as I do!

Some kids in southwest Washington state found a parachute buried in their yard, and now the FBI is conducting an investigation to see whether or not it possibly belonged to hijacker Dan (DB) Cooper. Cooper, of course, is the man who hijacked a Northwest Orient plane back in 1971, eventually exchanging the passengers for $200,000 in cash before asking to be taken to Mexico.

But he never made it that far, as part of his elaborate plan included parachuting from the back of the plane well before reaching Mexico. Pilots on DB Cooper’s flight say he jumped somewhere near the Washington-Oregon border, and the recently uncovered parachute fits in the grid where Cooper might possibly have landed.

There’s not really much to go on, though, as the parachute didn’t have any noticeable markings on it that would identify it as Cooper’s. The only thing FBI agents on the scene could confirm was that it was white — the same color of the one Cooper used.

Hmm, ya don’t say… a white parachute, huh? Wow, it’s gotta be DB Cooper’s!

Why the FBI is still wasting time and money on tracking down DB Cooper is beyond me. I could understand this approach if the guy was a murderer or child molester, but a $200,000 hijacking from 37 years ago where no one was injured? I’d just as soon have the agency’s resources put to use on other cases.

Overcrowding is a very real problem in America’s public school classrooms today, making it nearly impossible for teachers to provide each child with individual attention. As a result, kids who need extra assistance with certain concepts or subjects aren’t likely to receive that help at school. That’s why more and more parents are turning to private Tutoring to pick up where the schools leave off.

Finding the right tutor is a difficult task that’s made easier thanks to companies like Club Z! Tutoring Services. Club Z! specializes in providing students of all ages with qualified, degreed tutors that can help deliver great results. From math and science to writing, foreign languages, and standardized test prep, Club Z! can give your child the help needed to improve academic performance and boost self-confidence.

For more information about Club Z! services and locations, visit their website today at http://clubztutoring.com/. Better grades are just a few clicks away!

For today’s list of five things, I decided to write about five foods I haven’t eaten in five years (or more). The items on this list weren’t things that I consciously eliminated from my diet in an effort to be healthy or anything like that… they’re just things that I used to eat but for some reason haven’t touched in a long, long time.

1. Twinkies (and a bunch of other Hostess products, really)
2. Pop Tarts (I used to scarf these down all the time when I was younger. Not anymore.)
3. Granola bars ( Just got tired of them, I guess)
4. Grilled Chicken Sandwich from Wendy’s (I used to eat these three or four times a week… blech!)
5. Eli’s Cheesecake (once my favorite dessert)

My best friend went to Cancun for her honeymoon a few years ago, and absolutely raved about the 10 days she spent there. From beautiful beaches to exciting activities and extraordinary service, she swore that it was the closest she’s ever been to paradise!

Well, ever since then, I’ve wanted to visit Mexico with my husband. We’ve only been south of the border once, when we crossed over to Tijuana while visiting San Diego. That hardly qualifies as seeing or experiencing Mexico, so we’re currently looking into Cancun Vacations instead.

There are a bunch of different vacation packages out there, but we’re leaning towards one of the all-inclusive deals offered by Karisma Hotels. From everything I’ve read about Karisma Hotels, I have a feeling that they would be perfect for us. They have superb properties, delicious gourmet food, and competitive prices, so if we do end up going to Cancun, you can bet we’ll stay with them!

I know you’re probably tired of all of my tax-related posts, but this is going to be the last one of the year because I can say that I’m finally done with my return! It took a little longer than expected even after I stopped procrastinating, as my receipts were a bitch to go through. I had them organized and everything, but it was still a very time-consuming process.

At any rate, I’m happy to report that I don’t owe Uncle Sam any more money. The estimated payments that I made in quarters 1 through 3 turned out to be higher than my actual tax debt by $49. I was fined $7 for making late estimated payments, so that leaves me with $42. Instead of getting a refund check, I opted to put the money towards my 2008 estimated taxes. The first payment is due on April 15, so why not.

And yes, I qualify for a $600 rebate from the stimulus package! Score!! I can’t wait to get that check, as I fully plan to dump it right back into the economy by buying stuff .

So after all that hullabaloo surrounding the Mitchell Report, did Major League Baseball ever come out with a revised policy regarding steroid use by players? If so, what is the final word?

I know that most performance enhancing drugs are probably prohibited, but I do know that there are legal steroids available on the market. Has anything been said about these kinds of products?

I would just like to know this stuff before investing any time and money watching baseball games this year. I don’t want to find out three months from now that my favorite players’ records and achievements are being called into question because of some supplements that they took or whatever.

Has the commissioner released a statement since the Clemens grand jury appearance? If so, I haven’t seen it. Maybe I ought to head over to MLB.com to check it out.