Random Encounters of We: December 2006

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Christmas Vacation and Weddings

Merry Christmas everyone! Happy holidays to those of you celebrating a different holiday. Tomorrow is Christmas, a time for family. We will be spending the beginning of the day with my family and then heading down to be with my husband's family. Then on the 26th we leave for a week long vacation/wedding in New England so this is my farewell for a week post. We will be back on January 3 to update and begin a fresh new year. We are hopeful for continued success on Random Encounters of We and our branch off blogs of Random Games and Random Super Heroes. Please feel free to visit those blog while we are away. Have a wonderful Christmas, I hope all your wishes come true. Please have a safe and sober New Years Eve. I am excited to be back and join you in the new year and am excited to see what it brings!

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Paper and Scrapbooking

I really like to scrapbook. I really like the stickers, embellishments, ribbons, brads, eyelets, and all the fun things to add to a page to make it cute and pop out! The problem is the paper. I hate shopping for scrapbook paper. I never know what to choose. If I want to scrapbook a trip there are only so many kinds of paper that reflect traveling (plus I've probably already used those same papers on a previous trips scrapbook) and then what? Can you put random paper in a scrapbook about a trip to South Korea? I decided for that trip I would mostly use white and put our bag tags and other paper things we collected as the background. I just can't decide what paper is appropriate. Does paper really matter? I mean if it is covered with pictures, stickers and other memories why should it matter? I will tell you the easiest scrapbook I've made so far (and continue to make) is for my baby. It is very easy to pick out cute paper. First of all there is a ton a baby themed paper and second of all when that runs out just switch to cute flowers and hearts and anything pink and purple. Plus, I have so many pictures of my daughter you can hardly see the paper anyway.

When I was in college I joined a card club with my sister-in-law as a way for us to bond. Every month we met and we would have a theme. You would have to make 15 cards and then went you went to card club you would pass them out to everyone and everyone else would pass theirs out so you all had every one's card. It was very fun, and all of the cards were so cute! (so cute I can't bring myself to give them away! HA!) Anyway, one of the month's the theme was "Spring has Sprung" I tried to go literal and think of a cute design to use springs, but since I was new to the whole card making scene and not as into to scrapbooking, I didn't have a lot of experience so I switched to the typical route. I bought a card book first of all to help me think of ideas. Once I picked out the card I wanted to make I had a beast of a time with the paper. I couldn't find it in any stores. I found it online but it was OUT OF STOCK of course. I finally found it at the cute scrapbook store at the college and it cost an arm and a leg, but I HAD to have the cutest card! (I was also trying to impress my sister-in-law) Well I think this paper was the beginning of me hating paper. The card was a lot of cute little flowers up against a board fence and the paper was the fence. I'm sure you have seen this paper out there at JoAnn's or Michaels. Anyway after the first five cards this paper was beginning to make me sick (maybe the fact I was pregnant had something to do with it) but luckily I have the best husband in the world and he came to my rescue. I finished those awful cards with about 5 minutes to spare and made it through only throwing up once because of it. I'm sure that was the beginning of my hating paper.

Well anyways, the moral of this story is does paper matter a lot when scrapbooking? And if it does how do you pick out the perfect paper? Does it have to match? What does it have to match? I need some answers people! Please help!

p.s. Sorry for such a long post, this isn't very typical of me. Please send any responses to randomencountersofwe@gmail.com Thanks for the help in advance.

Track Santa with NORAD

OK folks, it is the eve of Christmas Eve. My husband thinks that is a worthy enough reason to open a present, but that idea got shot down quick. I've never heard of this tracking Santa thing before but a lot of other people had. I was definitely excited to see this so I wanted to put the link here on REoW for all of you to track as you are up surfing the net over the next 2 days!! Click track Santa for the count down of when he will be leaving the North Pole and heading off on his journey. According to their calculations he is leaving in 16 hours 16 minutes and 40, 39, 38... seconds!! this is so exciting!

Friday, December 22, 2006

Carnival of Christmas

The second annual blog carnival of Christmas is up! Please stop by and read some of the entries. This carnival is sure to help your level of Christmas spirit rise as we approach days until Christmas. There are entries in many categories from the Spirit of Christmas, to a very Sci-Fi Christmas, to Charity, and music. There are more categories than that. Check it out and perhaps donate to some of the charities listed on the carnival. Merry Christmas Everyone!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Rise and Shout the Cougars are in the Las Vegas Bowl!!

The big deal in my household tonight is the Las Vegas Bowl. The battle tonight will be between Oregon and BYU. We are of course routing for BYU! We are very happy with how well this season went for them and are very hopeful for a victory. The game starts at 5:00pm Pacific Standard Time so there is still time to set your TV's and tune in and route for the Cougars of BYU! Go Cougars!!!

Harry Potter and the ________

The seventh, and final, and most anticipated book of the Harry Potter series now has a title! They aren't giving it out in a normal fashion though. If you want to find the title you have to go to J.K. Rowling's website and play a little game to find out. There are a couple steps to go through to get to the hangman game where you will guess letters to determine the title. There is an interesting article about the book and some tips on finding the hangman game. Click here to read the article, but beware, DO NOT read the last line of the article or the surprise will be spoiled and you won't need to play the game. It's much more fun to discover the title for yourself through her website.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

New York and the WTC

It seems that my family and I are heading to New York at the perfect time. Next week we leave for a trip to Boston in which my brother-in-law will be getting married, then later in the week we will take a trip to New York City. We will be able to help celebrate the beginning of the building of "The Freedom Tower." This is going to be built where the former World Trade Center was, and is expected to be one of the nations tallest buildings. They recently raised two steel beams as the beginning process of rebuilding the "spirit" of New York City. You can read the article if you are interested here.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

He knows if you've been bad or good...

I found this very cute list checker on my friend Pisstakers Satire website. I sure hope you are on the nice list because there isn't much more time to get off the naughty list!!

Monday, December 18, 2006

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season to gain some weight! I love this time of year when the goodie plates start showing up! This super cute Christmas plate is a new addition to my household this year. At target they have a little section with things that cost $1-$2.50 and that is where I purchased this plate. I thought it only appropriate that I should use it, so I made some "Caramel Candy Bars". This was my first time making them and they are yummy! The caramel is a little runny so my presentation isn't very good, but the taste is excellent. I also am making treats so that I can pass out a few goodie plates myself. Tomorrow I'll have to make some more and then start distributing. It's the most wonderful time of the year! Merry Christmas!

Snowmen

Funny Pictures

I live in California in a part that doesn't usually get snow. We recently got some snow in the mountains and it feels freezing enough to get some more (although I don't really know what freezing is). Anyway, if I were to build a snowman I would put this sign up because he would probably only last a couple of hours.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Wedding and Jingle Bells

This is a very exciting time of year. Even though I'm in my 20's I still look forward to Christmas like an 8 year old! The end of the year this year has been very fun for me and my family. I've had a hard time not wishing it away. In October we went on vacation, November a cruise, December now is Christmas, but the day after Christmas more exciting fun happens. My husband's brother is getting married in Boston so we are hopping on a plane and heading East! We've never been to Boston or most of the surrounding areas, so we are VERY excited. Once again though I find myself biting my tongue when the words "I can't wait..." start coming out of my mouth. Most people think anticipation is half of the fun, for me it isn't so. I hate anticipation. So much so I usually find out all my Christmas presents before Christmas day from snooping, to unwrapping a corner and wrapping it back up. This is horrible I know, but for some reason I just can't handle surprises. Anyway, back to the wedding. It has been interesting to hardly be involved with the planning and not hear how things are going. Obviously with my wedding it was very crazy. Even with my husband's sister since we live near then it got kinda hectic. We always knew what the plans were, what they were working on, and went down to help at times. Since this wedding is being planned by a female outside of the family (until a week and a half from now when we will happily welcome her into the family) we don't really know what is going on. When we received their wedding announcement in the mail we were very shocked, we didn't know they had picked out a design or even colors for that matter. The only place I have offered my 2 cents was in the wedding "thank yous." You know the corny presents the bride and groom give you. At least in the culture I live in it is corny. A little bag of mints, a bottle of bubbles, something a long those lines. Well, I found this website with Cheap Wedding Favors. It really is a nice website. There are a ton of choice and you get really good deals. There are other things included on the website besides wedding favors, things such as bridesmaid gifts or groomsmen gifts. There is a lot to look at. I don't know if she has looked at it, or purchased anything since we seem to be out of the loop, but at least she knows there is a good deal if she is interested.
(The story is true but this is a paid post)

Saturday, December 16, 2006

myLot Pays

First off, what is myLot? I have a previous post about the topic if you want to read it here. If not then - it is a type of forum where you can participate in any and all discussions and start as many discussions on any topic and you get paid! They pay you on the 15th of each month and the minimum payout is $10. You can increase that is you choose. My payout is set at $25 but some people have it set much higher and reached it for a payout yesterday. It's easy to make money, so join myLot today!

myLot has been up for about a month now and has had their first pay day. Much to people's surprise they got paid! Now I'm not sure why people were surprised when they were commenting and discussing for hours a day in hopes of getting paid. I thought they expected it. But now everyone knows, myLot is NOT a scam, it works and you will get paid. So sign up and start making money today!

Random

I currently am the author of two blogs. The first being Random Encounters of We. This blog is like the title claims, random. I have funny pictures, polls, money making tips, and articles on whatever strikes my fancy. I can't narrow this blog down to one topic. When I list in a blog directory I put it under Misc. So it is my misc blog.

The second blog is very new and it is a game blog. It's name is Random Games. Come play away your day! Free online games of all types are there for your playing enjoyment. I used to put games on Random Encounters of We but decided I didn't like them being there, they didn't fit with what I am trying to achieve.

Random Encounters of We is my "mother ship" blog. I am slowly expanding (Random Games) and my husband is expanding with some type of super hero/comic blog ( Random Super Heroes). It is new but it has a few things to check out on it.

We are really enjoying the blogosphere and all we have learned so far. I also am a co-author to Blog about your Blog which is a great website for all to join and participate. It is thriving very well for being so new. Please stop by and check out all the blogs! Constructive feedback is always welcome. Thanks!

Friday, December 15, 2006

Making Money With Adsense

It seems everyone is talking about making money online with Google Adsense. Everyone is trying this. Everyone wants money. Now I know I'm over exaggerating, not everyone uses adsense, in fact some people hate it. And not everyone wants money, but more and more people are turning to the internet and google adsense to make money. I will admit that I first started this blog to make some money, but the more effort and time I put into it (I hope it shows) the more that making money is not my focus. This blog has become my baby, and I love it. Although I love it, making money is still one of my goals. I would like to provide some income for my family so that burden doesn't fall entirely on my husband. SO I have been reading article after article about this topic. It seems that people will tell you how to make a lot of money with google adsense and tell you that they are making a lot of money but no one ever says how much they are making. I'm sorry for being nosy but I want to know what kind of money we are talking here, I want numbers! I finally found an article that interviews some people who use google adsense and are making over $1000/month (they keep saying that is possible). I was so happy to finally find an article that gave me real numbers. This article was also very insightful with details about adsense and how to make it work for you. I completely recommend reading this article. Some of the things brought up you probably will have heard before but perhaps you haven't. Perhaps just reading it will inspire you to keep going. Maybe it will give you an idea to tweek something on your site to improve. Whatever advice you are looking for, I hope you find it in this article. I know it inspired me. I know I need to clean up my template and the sidebars and I have had a few ideas through reading this article. It is located on the website called 1st Search Engine Rankings SEO Blog and the specific article I'm referring to is "How to make money with Google Adsense" . Enjoy and happy learning!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Job Hunt 2nd Edition

Well we have move on from applying to large companies that we know about to now finding websites to apply to other companies we don't know about but are researching. We have also signed up for monster.com and have had success with it. Last summer when we were hunting for an internship we used the Internet a lot and it was a black hole for us. It was like you put your resume in and you were never to see it again, and neither did anybody else. I assumed (you know what they say about that) that by using the Internet this time things would sort of also end up as a black hole again. I guess once you graduate, have your degree and some experience under your belt you are a lot more desirable. We have heard from about 5 companies. 2 of the jobs have been contract positions for a couple months that could be extended or become permanent. I'm not sure why they have jobs like that. Why would we quit a perfectly good job and move somewhere for a couple months just to be thrown out on our tush and begin the job hunt again? We told those companies that we weren't interested in contract jobs, but if they had anything permanent we would be VERY interested. Some of the other companies we have heard from were in Indiana, and Pennsylvania. I am open to moving to either of those states. I don't know much about them, but I did look up real estate prices in those areas and we could afford a home which is a big selling point for me! So where we don't have any job offers yet, we are being noticed and considered, and I'm very happy with that. We aren't in any big hurry to move until around February or March anyway. If you have any suggestions or advice you can offer on this subject we would be very grateful.

X Marks the Spot

Ahoy me hearties, tis be a fine day for a treasure hunt.
Actually, these days it's called Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing), it's like a high tech treasure hunt. Here are the basics of geocahing from Lifehacker

You enter a set of coordinates (the latitude and longitude variety) into your GPS receiver. This is the 'X' that marks the spot.
You let your GPS navigate you to those coordinates. They might be in a public park, a patch of deep woods, or a mountain trail.
You search the area for the hidden booty, which may be wedged in the crook of a tree branch, buried under a small pile or rocks, or otherwise concealed.
You claim a trinket from the "treasure chest" and leave behind one of your own.

For more details refer to the article.
I have always heard stories and seen TV shows about people going on quests to find real lost treasures of the world, but my lack of knowldege about history and a lack 'caches' of money prevents me from traveling the world in search of buried booty. When I read about this new way of treasure hunting, I saw it as the prefect opportunity to be a treasure hunter but still be home in time for dinner.
If you want to check out the actual geocaching site for more details, click here Geocaching.com

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Wordless Wednesday

Funny Pictures

Join Worldless Wednesday.

Advertisement Make money online now with myLot.

Pac Man

Monday, December 11, 2006

Internet Money Makers Carnival

I am participating in my first ever blog carnival. I have submitted a post about online surveys and whether or not I find them to be scams, what's legit and what's not. Blog carnivals have helped many blogs with traffic, both unique and return visitors. I've decided I want to try and participate in as many blog carnivals as I can so I can get my blog out to a wider audience and hopefully help some people on the way with my findings. If you are interested in reading submissions from this carnival click here . I've also submitted an article into a humor blog carnival but that won't be opening until the beginning of January. When that begins I'll pass the link on for that. If you decide to participate in a blog carnival then good luck and to everyone else happy posting!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Do you know...

Do you know what an Aglet is? Well let me tell you. It is the plain or ornamental covering on the end of a shoelace. I found this cool site that has names of things you didn't know had names... hence the name of the article being 33 Names of Things You Never Knew Had Names. I thought it was very interesting to learn the names of some things you didn't think would have names such as the armhole in your clothing - armsaye, the bottom part of your nose between your nostrils - columella nasi. Just think of the intelligent conversations you'll be able to have at upcoming holiday parties as a result of this article!!

Saturday, December 9, 2006

Crack Kills

I'm sure you all have heard the phrase "crack kills" and you know it does not mean what you first think it means. This is in no way talking about, advertising, or promoting drugs. The crack I refer to is... butt. Let's talk about plumbers. When a plumber comes to your house you pretty much expect it. You see him walk in your front door with some baggy jeans on and think "I gotta keep the kids out of the kitchen 'cause this is going to get ugly." We had a "crack" in our pool a couple weeks ago and had a pool guy come out to fix it. Turns out he knows how to fix pool cracks but not his own. I didn't expect "plumber crack" from the pool guy, but hey, I guess he is a form of plumber too. What I really didn't expect to see was a big, leather wearin', harley ridin' biker dude flaunting his crack on the freeway the other day. Nastaroo! While bikers are not the epitome of being well dressed, they usually are covered up (except for biker chicks who seem to like to accentuate their cleavage). I wish there was some way to rid the world of crack (both kinds) but I supposed for now that is a losing battle. Plus, then plumbers wouldn't have an MO.

Asteroids

Short vs. Long

I've been contemplating the length of my posts here on Random Encounters of We. As I have been reading a lot of other blogs seeing what people want and getting tips on how to make my blog better, I noticed that most blogs have really looooonng posts. I for one enjoy short posts that get straight to the point and are enjoyable to read, perhaps causing a chuckle every once in a while. Apparently everyone else seems to like long, drawn out posts that go on and on. So what's the consensus folks? Long or short? Does it really matter? What's it to ya?

Friday, December 8, 2006

Angry Employee

Can we see a pattern here from that last picture like this? It seems that people with jobs that include signs shouldn't change the signs when they are upset or annoyed. Would we all guess that this person lost his job after this? If not he got a stern talkin' to.

Color Poll

Color Poll

Please vote on what color scheme Random Encounters of We should switch to. We have had multiple comments that the colors we had weren't working for us, so please add your two cents!

Deck the Halls

If you are sitting at home on this beautiful Friday afternoon thinking about what you want to do tonight and you are thinking that a movie sounds fun, here's a suggestion. DON'T see Deck the Halls. We saw it last night. I thought it would be so funny and we love Kristin Chenoweth from Broadway's Wicked so we see every movie that she is in, but this show was awful. There was a funny part every once in a while, but for the most part it was lame. Plus you get cleavage shoved down your throat from Kristin the entire movie. I guess we should have listen to the critics who gave this movie a D because it certainly deserved it! In case you were wondering, reviews from normal people like you and me gave it a C according to yahoo movies.

Thursday, December 7, 2006

That's the Christmas Spirit

A mother in South Carolina had her 12 year old son arrested for opening one of his Christmas presents early! Apparently he is a problem child and when he unwrapped his Game Boy Advance she "didn't know what else to do?" (try grounding or something). I thought this was very deserving as becoming a post! Read all about it here.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Frogger is Classic

Frogger

I love this game! Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Job Hunt 1st Edition

My husband is currently on a job hunt. He loves where he works now but we don't love our living arrangements (we live with family, that is all I'll say) and so he has begun the long process of job hunting. We have just begun so so far we have just applied to big companies that we know about. Our next step is to turn to sites like Monster and GetTheJob . These websites match up employers with potential employees. You can search a job title and apply for all the jobs you wish. What I like about GetTheJob is you can search under job title, location, companies, categories there are so many options. I expect with how many companies listed on GetTheJob that we soon will be hearing from potential employers. I plan to update you on his progress every once in a while.

Paper Magician

A couple months ago I was visiting some website and saw a banner ad on the side about winning a trip to Taiwan! Now my family has been planning on going to Taiwan in 2008 so I thought to myself "hey why don't I win a couple tickets and make it cheaper" knowing that the likelihood of winning is pretty much zero (if anyone ever really wins those things). So I put in my info that it wanted and hoped for the best (I pretty much forgot about the next day).

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. I got a package in the mail. I hadn't bought anything on eBay so I was really excited at this surprise! I noticed the outside return address label was Taiwan! I opened it up to find a little box containing "Paper Magician". Apparently I had one a prize through that contest, just not the one I had hoped for - but hey, I'll take what I can get!

So last night the hubby and I decided to play with our paper magician and see what happens. We assembled the paper doll, poured in the "magic water" (wonder what that's all about) and the box said in an hour the doll would start to grow, by 12 hours it would be fully grown. Now when there is paper and water combined I picture growing taller (like when you make "caterpillars" out of a straw wrapper and it "grows") but a couple hours later we went and checked on it and it was growing fuzzies, it looked like cheese that had been in your refrigerator for an undetermined amount of time! We wondered if we should be so close to it because we weren't in need of any "penicillin" at the moment. And we certainly weren't going to touch it. Well for your enjoyment here are some pictures of the new furry paper doll. Does anyone have any insight about this?

Monday, December 4, 2006

Loved Cars

This of course is Herbie the love bug.

This is the Batbike in the back ground is the batmobile from the movie and the batsuit actually worn in the movies.

This is the batmobile from the TV series.

This is the Mach 5 driven by speed racer himself!

So the company party spoke of earlier was at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. At this museum they have some beloved cars from TV and the silver screen. Here are a few shots of these cars (We forgot our camera so they are from my sisters which isn't as good as ours)

The Hulk Will Destroy!

Sunday, December 3, 2006

Duck Hunt

Duck Hunt

We thought we would jazz things up by including games every once in a while! Enjoy!

Saturday, December 2, 2006

Let the Holiday Fun Begin

Well now it's December. You know what that means? It's time for the Christmas cards to start arriving, and Holiday parties to commence! My husband and I recently graduated from college and started "real" life. Now that he is a corporate man working for the man we have our first company holiday party to attend tomorrow evening! I for one am very excited! It is a very formal occassion, luckily for the cruise we just went on I bought a formal dress, so I'm glad to have a second opportunity to wear it. There will be cocktails, dinner and dancing until midnight. Sounds so romantic. This is also be the first real "date" we have been on since having our baby. I look forward to an evening with adults, and adult conversations and being able to stay out past 7 (baby's bedtime). It is at a Car museum, so I'll be sure to take a cool photo or two to share. I'd love to hear about any holiday functions you are attending this year! Merry Christmas!

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