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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Where Were You in 1975

Oh this was fun. Visit the website What Happened in the Year of my birth and put in the year of your birth. Then wait for the report on what was going on that year and how things have changed a bit since then. Here are my results pictures and all via copy paste:

In 1975, the world was a different place.

There was no Google yet. Or Yahoo.

In the year of my birth, the top selling movie was Jaws. People buying the popcorn in the cinema lobby had glazing eyes when looking at the poster.

Remember, that was before there were DVDs.

The academy award for the best movie went to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

The Oscar for best foreign movie that year went to Dersu Uzala.

The top actor was Jack Nicholson for his role as R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

The top actress was Louise Fletcher for her role as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

The best director? Milos Forman for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

In the year 1975, the time when I arrived on this planet, books were still popularly read on paper, not on digital devices.

Trees were felled to get the word out. The number one US bestseller of the time was Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow. Have you read the book? Have you heard of it?

In 1975... Altair 8800 is released, sparking the era of the microcomputer. In relation to the Watergate scandal, former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell, and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, are sentenced to between 30 months and 8 years in prison.

Iran and Iraq announce a settlement in their border dispute.

The United Nations proclaims International Women's Day. Colonel Richard Ratsimandrava, President of Madagascar, is assassinated.

Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title. The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six-Day War. The United Kingdom votes yes in a referendum to stay in the European Community.

NBC airs the first episode of Saturday Night Live, with George Carlin as the first host. The first petroleum pipeline opens from Cruden Bay to Grangemouth, Scotland. The wreck of the HMHS Britannic is found in the Kea Channel by Jacques Cousteau. Victoria, Australia, abolishes capital punishment.

Volkswagen introduces the Golf, its new front-wheel-drive economy car, in the United States and Canada as the Volkswagen Rabbit. The video game of the day was Pong.

That was the world I was born into. Since then, I and others have changed it.

The Nobel prize for Literature that year went to Eugenio Montale. The Nobel Peace prize went to Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov.

The Nobel prize for physics went to Aage Bohr, Ben Roy Mottelson and Leo James Rainwater from Denmark and the United States for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection. The sensation this created was big.

But it didn't stop the planets from spinning, on and on, year by year. Years in which you would grow bigger, older, smarter, and, if you were lucky, sometimes wiser. Years in which you also lost some things.

Possessions got misplaced. Memories faded. Friends parted ways. The best friends, you tried to hold on. This is what counts in life, isn't it?

The 1970s were indeed a special decade. Women's liberation continued. The hippie culture faded. There was an opposition to the Vietnam war, and nuclear weapons. The environmentalist movement began. Tom Wolfe coined the decade the "Me decade" due to a new self-awareness.

Mao Zedong died and the market began to liberate in China. There was an oil crisis. After the first oil shock, gasoline was rationed in many countries. In Eastern Europe, Soviet-style command economies begin showing signs of stagnation. The Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, witness the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian Arab terrorists. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

The Who, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Bee Gees, Abba and others play their music. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all die at the age of 27.

The space mission Apollo 13 nearly ends in disaster. Egypt signed the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. There was a revolution in Iran. The world sees its first general microprocessor.

The C programming language makes its debut. Consumer video games show up on the scene. Microwave ovens become commercially available. Margaret Thatcher was victorious in the UK elections.

Do you remember the movie that was all the rage when you were 15? Total Recall.

Do you still remember the songs playing on the radio when you were 15? Maybe it was How Am I Supposed to Live Without You by Michael Bolton.

Were you in love? Who were you in love with, do you remember?

In 1975, 15 years earlier, a long time ago, the year when I was born, the song Fly, Robin, Fly by Silver Convention topped the US charts. Do you know the lyrics? Do you know the tune? Sing along.


Fly, robin fly
Fly, robin fly
Fly, robin fly
Up, up to the sky
Fly, robin fly
Fly, robin fly
Fly, robin fly Up, up to the sky...

There's a kid outside, shouting, playing. It doesn't care about time. It doesn't know about time. It shouts and it plays and thinks time is forever. You were once that kid.

At 9, the movie Gremlins was playing. At 8, there was A Christmas Story. When I was 7, there was a Disney movie out called The Fox and the Hound. Does this ring a bell?

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... it's 1975. There's TV noise coming from the second floor. Someone turned up the volume way too high. The sun is burning from above. These were different times. The show playing on TV is Baretta. The sun goes down. Someone switches channels.

There's The Jeffersons on now. That's the world I was born in.
Progress, year after year. Do you wonder where the world is heading towards? The technology available today would have blown your mind in 1975.

Do you know what was invented in the year I was born? DNA Sequencing By Chain Termination. The Digital Camera.

I was surprised
I was happy for a day in 1975
I was puzzled by a dream
It stayed with me all day in 1995...


That's from the song State I Am In by Belle and Sebastian.

In 1975, a new character entered the world of comic books: Colossus. Bang! Boom! But that's just fiction, right?

In the real world, in 1975, Charlize Theron was born. And Lauryn Hill. Liv Tyler, too. And you, of course. Everyone an individual. Everyone special. Everyone taking a different path through life.

It's 2013.

The world is a different place.

Friday, February 15, 2013

12 Tips For Recharging

It has been a very busy week! It is also the day after Valentine’s Day. 
Love and beauty are in the air. 
It does not hurt that the temperature is nice with a side of sunshine here in sunny California.
One of the places my recent adventures took me is to a new Women’s space here in Sacramento.
Check out HelloXoXo if you have not.
The event I attended was a pre Valentine’s day craft activity. We made valentine’s. The one shown is mine with a rose.

While we ladies crafted we chatted. A question went round the room about self care and self love. 
How do we recharge and keep healthy on the emotional level in this crazy, busy, disconnected, world?

That is in the inspiration for today’s posts. Do you have any tips to share? 

1.Music and Dance Dance in the car. Sing in the shower. Let loose like no one can hear you because you can.If you are home alone and have time get with your hairbrush in the mirror like you did as a teen.

2.Movement like walking, running, stretching, Pilates, Zumba, I dislike the term exercise. It seems so artificial. If it feels fake or too overwhelming people put it off or starting to do it will not last. Find something you love. You know I like to skate if you have been reading along on this blog for a while.

3.Prayerful meditation… 

4.A thought box. Fill a small box for home, car or office etc. Add things of beauty, inspiration or fond memory, pictures, scents, textures like sand or feathers etc.. Visit the box and or it’s inventory when you need a peaceful pick me up or distraction.

5.Say Yes to something you have been wanting to do but resisting out of fear or for some other false reason holding you back.

6.Say No to something that is weighing you down but not an actual enrichment to your life. 

7.Go outside or on a walk. Breathe the fresh air. Even if it is cold outside sometimes the change is just what you need to jolt out of a bad mood. Appreciate nature while you are out there.

8.Journal. Write down some thoughts. If you need to release negativity that is okay. Throw it away when you are done.

9.Be grateful. See the good in where you are even if it not where you want to be.

10.Share something. We can be so self-focused but it feels good to give and do for others. Bless someone with a compliment or a smile. It’s free.

11.Create! Most of us have a creative side tucked away somewhere. Everything we do has some design feature to it. 

Do you paint or sew? Are you good at making videos or infographics? What makes you come alive and sing when you do it artistically?

12.Volunteer Find a cause you can relate to and feel passionate about. Roll up your sleeves and get active helping the people involved in it do what they do.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Sexy (Healthy) Food

The library offered an aphrodisiac foods information and tasting event. I signed up weeks ago!

Who does not love food? How much inspiration do we need to further see it as sexy? Just the act of eating can invigorate the senses.

Somehow I messed up when I was supposed to be where and missed the presentation. Arriving at the tail end I got a speed through explanation for all the offerings but also each of the samples. I am really liking this!

All Night Long Milkshake 
Bananas Avocado and Chocolate 

2 Cups cold Almond Milk 1 Cup Ice
1 Ripe Banana 
½ Of one Avocado 
2 Tablespoons Almond Butter 
2 Tablespoons Raw cacao powder 
1 Tablespoon Chia Seeds 
2 Tablespoons of Honey or more to taste 

Usually I dislike banana added to things. Usually I dislike avocados in total.

Chocolate! Almost everybody likes chocolate.

I would never have thought of putting them all together. It is delightful to discover what I don’t like in banana is cut with avocado and that banana makes avocado palatable. 

Further experimenting is necessary.

There were more samples of food items. 


Bread with oil, raspberries stuffed with a chocolate cream of some sort and gingerbread. Oh I wish I had that recipe it was delish! 

It looked like chocolate cake or I would not have tasted it. I am not sure there was chocolate in it to give it such a rich color of if that might have just been molasses.

The last sampling the presenters left us with was for a take home project. We got little tiny mason jars and were instructed to fill them with options on the table. 


We were making a hot cocoa mix. Laid out before us was powdered sugar and powdered cocoa. The ratio for the base mix is one and a half portions sugar to one portion powdered cocoa. 

There were spices on hand and on the pamphlet that we were encouraged to mix in.
 
Ginger 
Cloves 
Cinnamon 
Chili Powder 
Cardamom 
Vanilla 
Bitter Sweet or Dark Chocolate

I opted out of add ins since I add spices to my home brewed coffee and I like my cocoa more of a pure chocolaty experience. I can’t wait to heat up some milk and try this mixture out. 


I have also turned away from the general hot cocoa mixes that can be found at regular grocery stores but once in a while I miss them. It will be nice to have a recipe I can whip up on my own.

The over all presentation was educational and not just sensory although arriving late had me focusing on the samples. 


The presenters looked into and shared with us reasons for certain foods being on the aphrodisiac list. Many are stimulants that increase blood flow. Some just taste yummy.

Others are a little messy which can be fun in a variety of ways. Natural foods keep us healthy and vibrant which is also important too when it comes to fun and reproduction.

Another concept that came up is that the mind is a large part of what makes us sexy. What we think influences how we feel.