Quick Votes and Sweet Charity!

Into one question, quick votes magically sum up a topic which can be overly digested.

It's difficult to think of others outside friends and family during the mad rush of the holidays, often forgetting those less fortunate. Today's quick vote is:

Do you give to charity during the holiday season?

Most definitions maintain that being charitable is directed towards the sick and needy. And, of course, that is the case most times. But aren't we all in need at one time or another?

A huge hug and thank you to everyone for having made my 2009 easier and happier in one way or another by your thoughtfulness, kindness, and friendship! When I need to get away and sometimes imagine myself being a recluse, in a flash, I realize I'd be lost without my dear friends!

Love, Petra xo

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Happy Winter!

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Edinburgh and Me!

Well, I found them! Whew! These are just a few of hundreds I'd taken while I lived in Edinburgh! I hope you enjoy them as much as I treasure them!

1. This photo is an overhead view of Edinburgh from Edinburgh Castle.

2. Edinburgh Castle

3. Traveling from Learmonth Court, my residence, onto Princess Street, one of the main streets in Edinburgh.

4. Learmonth Court, once owned by a Duke, was converted into hundreds of flats (apartments). It's in the above background of photo.

5. And here I am donning an 80's perm! Ugh! Never before and never since! ;)

I and my companions from Australia and Japan were at Loch Ness in search of Nessie, but instead, to our delight, were visited by lovely swans.

A lovely trip down memory lane for me! I hope you enjoyed a wee bit of Bonnie Edinburgh!

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Sunday Citar

Sunday Citar offers quotes which have inspired or can inspire. Its creator is Tabitha at FreshMommy . So grab your coffee, tea, or whatever, while you enjoy different bloggers' favorite quotes! :))

Federico Fellini

"Money is everywhere and so is poetry. What we lack are the poets."

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Some of the world's most beautiful castles!

Does anyone else have a fettish for castles? Perhaps my earliest impression was Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. Or was I Queen Guinevere in a former life? Or her humble servant? I'll never know. But what I do know is that they're the most beautiful works of art!

Above, BAMBURGH CASTLE stands on a rocky outcrop in Northumerland, England. The castle has served as a location for several movies, including Roman Polanski's 1971 version of Macbeth.

More than 900 years old, LEEDS CASTLE regularly received Henry the VIII as a guest. On the grounds are several mazes, a display on falconry, and a dog-collar museum. It was bought by the blueblooded Olive Wilson Filmer. She bought the castle for $873,000 in 1926, outbidding William Randolph Hearst in the process.

Dating back to 1220, Scotland's most famous castle, EILEAN DONAN, is in the middle of a loch, near the Isle of Skye. One of Eilean Donan's 20th century restorers claimed that a dream helped him decide how the castle looked when it was first built. Plans that were later found at Edinburgh Castle proved that his hunch was right.

Ludwig the II of Bavaria, also known as Mad King Ludwig, began planning his famous NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE in the 1860's. A century later it would inspire another visionary structure: Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. King Ludwig didn't get much chance to enjoy the Neuschwanstein. In 1886, as the castle was nearing completion, he died under suspicious circumstances with his body found floating in a lake.

Dating back to the 1420's, the Danish KRONBORG CASTLE in Helsinger is one of the best-preserved castles from the Renaissance, although it has undergone many alterations since.

The impressively fortified CHATEAU de CASTELNAUD is on limestone rocks above Dordogne River in France.

FRANCES HAUT-KOENINGSBOURG CASTLE is positioned more than 2,000 feet above the Alsatian plain, a location that kept it safe for centuries. However, destruction did arrive after a seige after which it was abandoned to become a romantic ruin. Now, it's a popular tourist stop.

BRAN CASTLE has only the most tenuous of connections with Vlad the Impaler, the real-life inspiration for Count Dracula, but there's no denying the spooky charm of its many turrets and towers.

The CHATEAU de CHILLON is on an island near the edge of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. After a visit, Lord Byron published his long poem "The Prisoner of Chillon." The work refers to the castle's "dungeons deep and old."

It would be a dream come true to visit any of the above. While I lived in Edinburgh, Scotland, there were too many castles to count on the landscapes of Scotland, Ireland, and England. Beautiful memories, indeed!

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That's A Wrap: Some of This Holiday Season's Movies

There's something for everyone at the movies this holiday season, from a musical with Daniel-Day Lewis to James Cameron's first feature since Titanic.

Some of the most anticipated movies of 2009 will be released this winter, as studios aim to take advantage of the holiday crowds and slip in Oscar hopefuls ahead of awards season.

Recent releases like Disney's modern interpretation of the traditional Charles Dickens tale A Christmas Carol have already started to build up the holiday

mood.

Other upcoming highlights include big-budget 3D epic Avatar, which is due to be released December 18th worldwide, and Peter Jackson's film adaptation of Alice Sebold's heart-wrenching novel The Lovely Bones.

Christmas falls on a Friday this year, and will usher in Rob Marshall's musical Nine with an all-star cast including Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, and Sophia Loren.

Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, will be in theatres Christmas Day.

Just to name of a few!

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Curious about the voice behind the name?

Am sure that all of us have wondered what the person behind the blog sounds like.
I've had the fun and honor of hearing four of my blog friends' voices. I've been asked to be interviewed on the site which I've entered my short story contest. I am forever indebted to you for reading and voting for "Rollerblading on the Rings of Saturn."

Now, for your entertainment, the voice behind the name of petra michelle.

Please pause playlist at bottom of page to hear interview.

Petra Michelle_Nov 23 2009.mp3

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Incomparable Norah Jones is so down-to-earth!

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Comedian Rick Miller performs Bohemian Rhapsody imitating 25 most annoying? musicians!

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What do your toes tell you?

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The Honest Scrap Award

Thank you, Mama Zen, who I affectionately call MZ, of The Zen of Motherhood for The Honest Scrap Award! Now, garsh darn it, I have to be honest for a change! But I'll try! ;)

In acceptance and before passing this award along, I'm to reveal ten honest things about me.

So, deep breath, here goes:

1. I adore cowboy boots! On most days you'd find me wearing jeans, a simple blouse or sweater, and cowboy boots. Now, for those special occasions, I do wear stilettos but walk out barefoot. Can only take stilts for so long!

2. There isn't a food I don't like (from sushi to Mexican, and ladies and gentlemen, I can eat!). Yet, while immersed in writing, I can go without food for hours and not miss it!

3. Have to admit it! I'm both an anarchist and a marshmallow! Yep! One has a choice, by golly. Either digest my opinion or burn it! Attica! Attica!

4. I'm a full-time caregiver to my two elderly parents. Without Caregivers' Connections, I'd probably not have a hair left on my head!

5. My deepest wish is to meet Steven Spielberg and convince him to produce one of my screenplays. Maybe if you talk to my agent!

6. I can't drive due to an automobile accident I had some years ago. As a result, the experience is Driving Miss Petra! What I miss the most is getting lost and getting back on track. Have seen some of the most beautiful country that way!

7. Love reading anything spiritual, and meditating. Helps cleanse myself of all the brain junk food!

8. Enjoy smiling at strangers. Not to see if they'll smile back, but telepathically letting them know we share the same daily existence. :))

9. I can watch a favorite film hundreds of times and never tire of it.

10. Hugging and loving my dear friends. Without you, I'd be an empty shell!

There are a few more, but I'll stop while I'm ahead. ;)

I am passing this award to I Beati who, already, is an open book!

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Affordable Health Care for America Act Passes in House of Representatives

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For those with potential Jinxys

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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Various Reviews for Michael Jackson's "This Is It"

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: "Looks like the world has missed one helluva concert."

TIME MAGAZINE: "Michael Jackson will have no resurrection -- in the end, that was that -- but the movie does earn him a redemptive legacy. It proves that at the end, he was still a thriller."

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: "As the last set of images will ever have of Michael Jackson, This Is It offers a raw and endearing sketch of a genius at work."

ROGER EBERT: "The curtain fell sooner than expected. What is left is this extraordinary documentary, nothing at all what I was expecting to see. Here is not a sick and drugged man forcing himself through gruelling rehearsals, but a spirit embodied by music. Michael Jackson was something else."

THE HUFFINGTON POST: "There is no getting around the obvious exploitation factor at play. Regardless of how tasteful and respectful this film is, at the end of the day, Sony paid $60 million for the rights to this otherwise private footage because they wanted to cash in on the sudden and shocking death of its star.

But if you can disassociate the material from the motive for its production, Kenny Ortega's This Is It works as a low-key farewell to a generational icon."

VARIETY: "Even at nearly two hours, the film feels too short... Yet, one can't help but worry that, rather than a bittersweet farewell, the film will merely serve as the opening salvo to a flood of posthumous releases and merchandising that will make Tupac Shakur's estate seem a paragon of restraint."

ANTICOOL.COM: "Sure, it's an obvious money-grab, but This Is It managed to be an incredibly touching insight to one of the most iconic musicians of all time."

PETRA MICHELLE: "Throughout This Is It, I was rapt by Michael Jackson's presence. He never lost it! His attention to detail in how he would perform in his upcoming tours was awe inspiring. The ideas never stopped coming and Kenny Ortega offered a splendid interpretation of MJ's incarnations of Thriller, Smooth Criminal, Earth Song, Human Nature, and so many more.

I was AT the This Is It concert...clapping, singing, and dancing in my seat the entire time. When I left the theatre, Michael Jackson's presence reverberated. His brilliance, gentleness, and love will never die!"

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Director of Michael Jackson's "This Is It" reflects

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SUNDAY IS FOR POETRY: Disco Fever

Thank you for the inspiration, Janeen! :))

I loved the nightlife.

Stepping out in stilettos and dancing dress,

I shook my booty

to Stayin Alive.

I adored the nightlife.

No cares, no strife,

only the embracing lights

and penetrating beat --

Don't Leave Me This Way.

I lived the nightlife.

Nothing mattered;

I was so high on my stilts,

Swinging, spinning, singing --

Love To Love You Baby.

Memories -- a suitcase of them.

Time to remember I'm a woman.

I slip into my pink satin heels,

belt my pink trench,

and whisper, I will survive --

if I can't have you.

**written by petra michelle**

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Milton (Soupy Sales) Supman (January 8, 1926-October 22, 2009)

Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, and radio/tv personality and host. He was best known for his local and network children's show, Lunch with Soupy Sales, a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Soupy receiving a pie in his face which became his trademark.

Milton (Soupy Sales) Supman was born in Franklinton, North Carolina, and died of complications related to a recent fall backstage at a local Emmy awards show in New York.

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What is the universe trying to tell me?

I've often heard spirtualists offer that we are one with the universe, and, if one is in tune, speaks to you and to look for clues.

Recently, I found a quarter once per week in the last month.

One I found on the sidewalk; one on my boyfriend's car rooftop (don't ask!); and the third on the steps to my home. (I'm not counting any I've found in my home.)

Thinking it was mere coincidence for every quarter found, I'd received, in some way, a monetary return:

One week, a rebate;
Another, $200.00 from my bank;
The third, a check for $500.00.

What does the next quarter have to offer, I wonder? Or am I jinxing myself for not keeping this between the universe and me?


~~~


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Carol Burnett's GONE WITH THE WIND Skit

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"I saw it in the window, and just couldn't resist." Scarlett

One of Carol Burnett's finest and funniest!





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Let's have dinner, post a poll on Facebook, then see if President Obama should be assassinated! God save the human race!

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I thought I'd seen it all when President Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. And now this? Has this country lost its soul and mind?

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SUNDAY IS FOR POETRY: Penumbra

PENUMBRA

External implosion.

Internal explosion.

Dancing in a ballet of ionic mime;

Feeling with infinite intensity;

Running in cosmic direction;

Moving in colors uncharted;

Magnetic pulls play between cerebral spheres.

Looking at the eclipse of myself.

Looking in at the freedom of me.

**written by petra michelle**

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NASA Crashes Spacecraft Into Moon - Was It Worth The Billions?

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Exploiting Homeless or Creating Empathy with "Homeless American Girl Doll"

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Beautiful Autumn

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Google Wave to be released to 100,000 testers today

(CNN) John D. Sutter

GOOGLE WAVE, a product that promises to revolutionize online communication, will go out to about 100,000 beta testers today.

The web application from GOOGLE combines elements of e-mail, chat, Wiki documents, blogs and photo-sharing sites to create a form of Internet communications called a "hosted conversation," or a "wave."

Google demonstrated Wave at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco in May. The closed group of beta testers will help Google fish bugs out of the application before a public release by the end of the year, according to the Google Wave Web site.

The application was created by Jens and Lars Rasmussen, the Australian brothers who developed Google Maps. The Rasmussen brothers said they hope Google Wave will eventually replace e-mail as the main way people converse on the Internet.

"This should be something everybody knows," Jens Rasmussen said.

In Wave, e-mail-like communications can be edited by several users simultaneously. And users can chat about certain sections of Wave documents in real time, where all users see what a person is typing as it is typed. If a person comes to the conversation late, they can replay everything they've missed.

The Rasmussens hope these functions will make online communications more efficient and collaborative. Jens Rasmussen said e-mail is a computer version of snail mail. Wave will be something new, a real-time communication system designed specifically to today's faster-paced, multitasking Internet.

"We have a strong tendency to just take things we know and just adapt them to the digital world," he said.

Tech bloggers have largely cheered the release of the product. But there are some concerns that the application may be too complicated for mainstream Web users.

In a video demonstration, the Rasmussens spend an hour and 20 minutes explaining the Wave.

Initial reviews of Wave also noted a number of glitches in the application. Ben Parr of the social-media blog Mashable writes that Wave still has bugs but that the product is improving over time. "As an initial user of Wave, I have to tell you: things have gotten much more stable. It still has a slow response time in certain situations and it can still crash, but these things can happen far less often than they used to," he writes.

The blog TechCrunch wrote that Wave "drips with ambition" and will be a "new communication platform for a new Web."

~~~~

We shall see!

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Tickets On Sale for Michael Jackson's "This Is It"

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Since tickets went on sale on Sunday, hundreds of shows have already sold out. Sony Pictures, the studio behind the movie, claims that 30,000 tickets were sold in London within the first day of sales while $1 million were sold in Japan during the same time span.

Advance sales records were also broken everywhere from Holland to New Zealand. Fans weren't just logging onto their computers for tickets. The 3,000 tickets to advanced screenings the day before the film's release in Los Angeles were gone in two hours with fans waiting in line for up to three days.

This Is It will open worldwide on October 28th for a two-week run.

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A Young Fashionista Raises Awareness and Money With Frugal Ingenuity

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Wikipedia Blunders?

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Happy Rosh Hashanah!

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Mary Allin Travers (11/9/1935-9/16/2009)

Mary Allin Travers was an American singer-songwriter and member of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, along with Peter Yarrow and Noel "Paul" Stookey. Peter, Paul and Mary was one of the most successful folk-singing groups in the 1960's.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Travers moved with her parents in 1938 to Greenwich Village in New York City. She attended the Little Red School House in New York City but left in the 11th grade to pursue her singing career.

While in high school, she joined The Song Swappers which sang backup for Pete Seeger when Folkways Records reissued a union song collection, Talking Union, in 1955. The Song Swappers recorded a total of four albums for Folkways in 1955, all with Seeger. Travers had regarded her singing as a hobby and was shy about it but was encouraged by fellow musicians. Travers also was in the cast of the Broadway-theatre show, The Next President.

The group Peter, Paul and Mary was formed in 1961. It was popular and known for its renditions of anthems such as "Blowin' in the Wind", "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?". The group broke up in 1970, and Travers subsequently pursued a solo career and recorded five albums. The group re-formed in 1978, toured extensively and issued many new albums. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.

Mary Travers died of complications related to leukemia.

Henry Gibson (9/21/1935-9/14/2009)

Henry Gibson was an American actor and songwriter, well known as a cast member of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and for his recurring role as Judge Clark Brown on Boston Legal.

Gibson's performing career began at the age of seven. He appeared in many stage and theater productions. His career took off when he performed in the 1963 Jerry Lewis film The Nutty Professor. Gibson also appeared on The Dick Van Dyke Show, reading the poem "Keep A Goin'", which he turned into a song in the movie Nashville. Gibson appeared in four films by Robert Altman: The Long Goodbye, Nashville, as well as A Perfect Couple and Health. He also appeared in The Incredible Shrinking Woman. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Nashville and won the National Society of Film Critics award for his role of country music singer Haven Hamilton.

He spent three years as part of the Laugh-In television show's cast. He often played "The Poet," reciting poems with "sharp satirical or political themes". Gibson would emerge from behind a stage flat, wearing a Nehru jacket and "hippie" beads and holding an outlandishly large artificial flower. He would state the "[Title of poem] — by Henry Gibson", bow stiffly from the waist, recite his poem, and return behind the flat. Gibson's routine was so memorable that John Wayne actually performed it once in his own inimitable style: "The Sky — by John Wayne. The Sky is blue/The Grass is green/Get off your butt/And join the Marines!", whereupon Wayne left the scene by smashing through the flat. Gibson also regularly appeared in the "Cocktail Party" segments as a Catholic priest, sipping tea. He would put the cup on the saucer, recite his one-liner in a grave and somber tone, then go back to sipping tea. He also made recurring appearances in the 1969-1974 anthology Love, American Style.

In the 1989 Tom Hanks/Joe Dante comedy, The 'Burbs', Gibson played the villain. In 1980 he played the leader of the "Illinois Nazis" in the John Landis film The Blues Brothers. Most younger audiences associate him with this film in particular due to its popularity. He made a brief appearance in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia as an eccentric barfly. He also worked frequently as a voice actor in animation, most notably portraying Wilbur the pig in the popular children's movie Charlotte's Web (1973). He also worked on the cartoon The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy as Lord Pain.
Gibson re-teamed with director Dante a few years later when Gremlins 2 was released in 1990. He performed a cameo as the office worker who is caught taking a smoking break on camera and fired by the sadistic boss. He later had a leading role in a Season 5 episode of Stargate SG-1 entitled "The Sentinel", as the character Marul.

Gibson's most recent roles were alongside Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in the 2005 comedy hit Wedding Crashers, and as supporting character Judge Clark Brown on the TV show Boston Legal.

Good Housekeeping's Third Annual Halloween Pet Costume Contest

last year's first prize winner

Your pet could win you a trip, $2,000 cash, and pet supplies from Bissell!

Enter the Halloween Pet Costume Contest for a chance to win the grand prize: airfare for four and a five-night stay at Seattle’s Hotel Vintage Park, $2,000 cash, and pet supplies from Bissell, including a pet hair vacuum, and more! Just submit a photo of your pet in costume — dog, cat, bird, guinea pig, rabbit, reptile, horse or anything else you love. And be sure to vote on the cutest costumes — even if you don't have a pet!

Make a Pet Photo Album

Enter your pet's photo

Vote on cute costumes


Visit Good Housekeeping.com and click on Family and Pets.


Also, a chance to win $100,000 for groceries!

Patrick Wayne Swayze (August 18, 1952-September 14, 2009)

Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best-known for his roles as romantic leading men in the films Dirty Dancing and Ghost and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries. He was listed by People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991. He died of pancreatic cancer.

Highlights from MTV Awards Last Night -- The Best, The Michael Jackson Tribute

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SUNDAY IS FOR POETRY: A Woman's Worth

They talk about a woman's sphere

As though it had a limit;

There's not a place in earth or Heaven

There's not a task to mankind given,

There's not a blessing or a woe,

There's not a whispered yes or no,

There's not a life, or death, or birth,

That has a feather's weight of worth --

Without a woman in it.

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New York 9/11 Memorial Ceremony

To watch the 9/11 Memorial Ceremony live, click on link below or visit cnn.com.

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Home Gardening in Full Swing

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Crispy Fried Vegetables

My parents are diabetic, so I'll often make recipes The d(diabetic)Life Kitchen offers. This one is one of my favorites because it's quick, easy, delicious, and wholesome! I'm not a diabetic and love it!

I hope you enjoy it! And I'd love to hear your feedback if you try it!

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