I’m a sucker for good marketing I will admit, but it has to be good. I can be swayed by a clever tv commercial or magazine ad, but… if an ad annoys me I will go out of my way to NOT buy the product which is why I will NEVER ever buy insurance from Aflac or Mucinex DM for a cold.
On the other hand, I’m truly inspired by some of the really really clever logos that have been designed with thoughtful artistic care. I’m especially impressed by the ones that have objects or symbols hidden within the design and that use negative space for subliminal impact. How cool is that? Here are some that I think are very clever:
FedEx has it’s hidden arrow. What? You’d never noticed that before? It’s right there between the E and the x. Clever.
The A and the I and the M and the S combined with the reflection create a fish. Clever.
Bison is the name of a band in Vancouver. Whoever designed their logo was super clever.
I’m not a fan of Bank of America, (I have my reasons) but it is clever how they incorporated the eagle inside the B and A.
The golfer swinging becomes the face of the spartan warrior. Clever!
Another raven formed in the middle by the three outside ravens. So clever.
Can you make out the bear climbing the mountain? Yep, clever.
Here are some more that I think are very clever and imaginative.
Amazon claims to sell everything from a to z and the arrow then becomes a smile. Clever.
Sun Micro Systems. No matter which angle you look at it, it always says SUN. Clever.
2011 – Year Of The Rabbit! So clever.
If this doesn’t give you a sense of freedom I don’t know what would. Very clever.
I salute you designers! Where do you tap into that creativity? I’d like to find the source.
I found this video while I was browsing through one of my new favourite websites, Spirit Library. It’s Jim Carrey discussing very opening his life-long pursuit for meaning and purpose. I love seeing this side of him! He is humble and sincere with his trademark humour thrown in for a laugh here and there.
I read two of Eckart Tolle’s books, The Power of Now and The New Earth a couple of years ago and felt just the same as Jim did after reading them. If you would like either of these books just click on the title and it will take you where you need to go!
Women are hard wired to find love, some of us crave it like we crave dark chocolate, and why not because love is D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s! We are forever on a quest for romance. We are drawn to the intoxicating fumes our elusive lover exudes, as he invisibly drifts by. When we do connect we are completely mesmerized by the chemistry that is created when we touch. When in search of the elusive soulmate it’s important to visualize exactly how you want him to make you feel.
I am reading a new book right now and in it there is a chapter about attracting your soulmate. Before you’re ready to cross paths with this energy whether it be male or female you have to put your order in, the more specific the better. I don’t need male energy in my life but I definitely want it. The search for the elusive soulmate is no different from any other journey we set out on. It’s important to smell the pheromones along the way!
I joked about my journey last month and wrote a post called Eat Eat Eat Pray Love , (got caught up in the eat part a little longer than I had planned lol) I am ecstatic to say I’ve moved forward and feel like I am now on the Pray part, my ass thanks me!
According to the book I’m reading you don’t just have one soulmate. What a massive relief that was to hear! The book is, and don’t laugh unless you’ve read it cover to cover, “The Idiot’s Guide Connecting with Your Angels” I don’t know why I think any of you would laugh because it’s a great book, maybe it’s the Idiot’s Guide part that sounds weird. I walked into Indigo books, and was lead right to it like it was calling out my name, so I had to buy it! I also bought “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chakras“, and have “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Toltec Wisdom“, are you seeing a pattern here! Either 1) I’m a complete idiot or 2) I love the format of these books because of their reference style qualities and I’m intrigued! Pick one and get the books, you will see what I mean! (I’ve added a link so you don’t have to search for them 🙂 Just click on the picture of the book that is speaking to the idiot in you!)
According to ‘The Idiot’s Guide to Connecting with Your Angels’ to help initiate finding your soulmate you should start by asking your angels to help you on your journey. Then, buy a journal that you’re ‘drawn’ to, think of the qualities you want your soulmate to possess, write one quality on each page, concentrate and read each one three times, ask the angels to fill your wish, trust and believe in divine timing and let it go, oh and don’t forget to thank your angels!
I was going to put my list of qualities I hope he possesses but I am not sure if there is enough room! 🙂 But I will give you a few examples of what’s important to me ~ passionate about me and his work (in that order), great sense of humour, smiling eyes, inner strength and incredible sexual chemistry! Don’t knock it till ya try it!
I found this beautiful silk artwork while looking for a picture to add to my post, it’s called ‘Soulmates’ by Artist Lena Reznikova, I had to add it!
I love looking back at the previous year and all the “best of”‘ lists that so many people compile.
I also love music so I thought I’d check what the most popular songs were for 2009.
You can agree or disagree with the list below but these are Amazon’s best selling songs of 2009. I’m a little disturbed that there are so many on this list that don’t sound familiar. Could I be getting old and out of touch? Nah! Guffaw!
I just spent $300 on groceries! And I didn’t come home with very much. I’m shocked at how expensive it is to buy food these days. It wasn’t long ago that when I spent that much money on groceries I would have the freezer fully stocked with all kinds of meat, the laundry soap and toiletries would be restocked and there would be enough in the cupboards to last a couple of weeks – easy. This time my re-usable shopping bags brought home one small steak, a package of chicken breasts and a small package of boneless chicken thighs…and no laundry detergent or shampoo. Ok, yes, I did have to buy razor blades and that alone came to $20 for a pack of 4. I am NOT above using coupons either.
The part that really disturbs me is that I even chose, against my better judgment, the non-organic stuff (gasp!) to save some money. I know I may pay for that choice in medical bills one day but sometimes it’s really hard to make the right choice when the price is FIVE times higher than that of the non-organic. I’m not kidding. I needed a can of crushed pineapple. Side by side was the regular non-organic Dole brand for $1.69 and then the same sized can of organic pineapple for a whopping $5.49! And I’m thinkin, could all of those chemical pesticides have really penetrated the hard pineapple skin? Nah! So ya, I bought the $1.69 can. Can you blame me? Milk, which I don’t even drink but needed for a recipe was the same story. Now that is something that is probably worth buying the organic version of, but seriously what is with the price difference here. And the organic certify police better be truly on top of who gets to boast that label because I will be REALLY pissed if I find out it’s all the same stuff.
The documentary below is one that I’d love to see all of if I can ever get my hands on it. Food, Inc. exposes America’s industrialized food system and its effect on the US environment, health, economy and workers’ rights. I’m sure most of it is applicable to Canada also and besides much of our food comes from south of the border. Luckily there is a companion book that I plan on getting. (Chapters or Amazon gift certificates are my favourite Christmas gifts to receive in case anyone was wondering) I will do my best to choose organic whenever I can but damn I hope those prices come down to earth soon.
Here are 10 simple things you can do to change our food system:
Learn more about these issues and how you can take action on Takepart.com
1. Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages. You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).
2. Eat at home instead of eating out. Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.
3. Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards. Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.
4. Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks. Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.
5. Meatless Mondays—Go without meat one day a week. An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.
6. Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides. According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.
7. Protect family farms; visit your local farmer’s market. Farmer’s markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.
8. Make a point to know where your food comes from—READ LABELS. The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.
9. Tell Congress that food safety is important to you. Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.
10. Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.
My daughter-in-law, Holly, was telling us about how many women she has seen operating the really big road improvement equipment lately. You know, like the monster steam rollers, huge loaders and the like. I’ve noticed it too and I think it’s terrific. One of the guys commented that they’d heard that women are gentler on the equipment and more precise in their movements so it bodes well for these companies to hire women for those jobs. One man in our group (no names mentioned) commented to the other men that they had better be careful because there may come a day when men are just not necessary anymore. Silly man! You’re not super necessary now We love men and could never do without you!!
All of this banter reminded me of an article I came across not too long ago about a woman biologist, Anna Himler, of the University of Arizona. Anna and her colleagues were studying a group of Amazonian ants called Mycocepurus smithii because of their unusually high success at farming fungus. Apparently many breeds of ants “farm” various types of fungus for nourishment. That itself bumped up my respect for ants. I knew they were always very busy but I didn’t realize they were clever enough to be organized farmers! As Himler and her team studied the insects, they realized there were no male ants anywhere to be found. Himler told the BBC that it’s possible the ants evolved so as “not to operate under the usual constraints of sexual reproduction.” Interestingly, the fungi that the ants cultivate also reproduce asexually. But why would these ants choose to emulate the reproductive cycle favored by their crops? Himler explains:
“It avoids the energetic cost of producing males, and doubles the number of reproductive females produced each generation from 50% to 100% of the offspring.”
“Usual constraints of sexual reproduction”…“avoids the energetic cost of producing males”? Wow. I for one don’t consider having sex with my man “constraining” or even always “usual” (I’m not saying it’s “unusual” either though…sheesh!) And as a proud mother of a son, I can say that yes, there was an energetic cost there, but it was all so worth it.
So, no need to worry men. I don’t ever see us fading out your gender and cloning ourselves (Bo-or-ring!). I do think it’s ironic that those ants are from the Amazon though.