Here’s an orange flower for this week’s PhotoHunt. There’s a bit of green in the photo too, I’ve really been liking the way green has been showing up in my photos.

Anyone know what kind of flower this is? I think I took this by the garden plots behind U of M Dearborn…

You can participate in PhotoHunts too.

I love surprises! And I don’t need much. A weird candy bar I haven’t been able to find. A pint of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Coca-Cola in a glass bottle!

A complicated thing could possibly disastrous though: Don’t take me on a surprise trip to Chicago without my camera(s) and rollerblades (or bicycle). I’d need something to make be bring the right supplies. Tell me we’re hiking for a bit so I bring two kinds of shoes with a camera or two and that I should bring my blades “in case the new paved trail is done”.

Parties are good (I’m pretty happy with a party even if it’s not a surprise!). A trip around the world, surprise away, it should include some places that I want to go…

I’d be really surprised if Kim sent me some of those Star Wars cookies she baked

This question is from this week’s (#122) Friday Question…

This is for Photo Friday and this week’s theme is “Symbols”. This is not my favorite picture that I’ve taken of hieroglyphics, but certainly by shear quantity it has the most symbols in it.

This is taken at the temple of Edfu, near the south end of the Nile on the west side. Most cities/temples were on the east side , I’m sure I was told why but I can’t recall; I want to say “evil” was from the west, but I really aren’t certain.

You can also view a huge 2300 pixels wide version.

This is for Photo Friday and this week’s theme is “The Coast”. This is actually just a series of photos (7 or taken with my iPhone 3gs and stitched together with AutoStitch.

This photo was taken north of St. Pete Beach, FL. Possibly Medina?. Click it for a 1200 pixel wide version. A few stitching problems due to everyone not standing still but still a nice photo considering I was shooting into the sun during the evening.

The second photo is the same photo, but just before cropping.

I had just commented the other day on how much I loved this photograph. And then Friday shows up and I’ve got a chance to use it. This is for Photo Friday and this week’s theme is Sexy.

This photo was taken last summer on Lake Huron on the Canadian side.

PS – Did you notice the conflicting product placement..?

I like the Friday Question #98 for this week: What hobbies would you pursue if money was of no concern?

The first thing I thought was “Does travel count as a hobby“? But since KIm listed travel as hobby I figured it was okay to use…

So I’ll talk about travel as my topic. For me, the most expensive part about traveling is the getting to the destination. I can be pretty happy about staying somewhere cheap and out of the way but it’s getting there. Even when I get to Costa Rica and I can usually pay about $300-ish for my flight it’s still the getting around in country that costs money.

So even when I get to my isolated places and find a cheap place to stay. It’ll cost me more to rent a scooter or 4-wheeler for the day compared to the hotel; heck a bicycle rental is half the price of a hotel. Some other things to do on a trip like a horseback ride of out to an island where you can snorkel is more than the hotel too. As vacations go, these are cheap things to do ($35-$40 a day) but when that’s exceeding your other big costs you start to notice.

I guess if the money was of no concern I might stay at nicer places and in bigger cities but I’m pretty happy in some little town by the water or up in the mountains somewhere.

I guess photography and videography would be another hobby, since I love to do that. The problem is that just ends up with more stuff for me to carry around with me when I travel. And I guess for $5,000-$8,000 I could buy more than everything I need (multiple cameras and lens of different types and two different sized video cameras) and be done with it for more than a few years. Travel is a lot more expensive over the long haul.

I guess I just need a job that lets me travel, write about it and shoot lots of photos and video!!!

Here are some of my easy tips for reducing spending. I don’t go in to as many items as Kim (from the Friday Question) does but these can add up quick so I’ll share a few of my easiest ones. Actually I think most of these add up faster than shopping around for gas prices (even if you drive a big vehicle).

1) Pay your bills automatically (and on time)! I don’t mean electronically (this is work), I mean automatically so they just deduct your account. Set up auto-bill payments just one time so bills comes out the of the bank (generally on the day due, you can’t pay it any closer that that) any you don’t have to write checks, buy stamps or take the time to do it. If it’s a regular payment (same amount every month) that can’t do direct withdrawal see if your bank can send a check for you, my bank does it for a quarter (less than a stamp) and I never have to think about it. If you do this you’ll avoid any fees or fines for tardy bills. I’m assuming you already do direct deposit for your checks, don’t you?

2) Keep what you drink around you. If you’re always drinking water keep a few in the trunk. Or grab a cold soda on the way out of the house. I keep a case of water bottles* in the garage, if I take an empty out of the car, I put in a full one. If you’re heading out to a picnic bring the sodas with you. If you’ve got a fridge at work, keep sodas/water/etc. there. If this stops you from buying one drink a day ($1.00-$1.75) and you purchased your drinks on sale (stock up dummy!) you could easily save $365 a year, if this stops you from buying two drinks a day you could double that. Even just twice a week could pocket you a $100 at the end of the year. I’m not suggesting that you take your drink into a restaurant or movie theatre just if you’e going to get one anyways.

3) Pay a little attention to grocery sales. I shop for groceries for myself and traditionally when trying coupon cutting I waste more time cutting and looking at the store for the coupons then I save. But look for the obvious: If Orange Juice is on sale for $2 a gallon (down from $4) and you drink a gallon a week, stock up, pay attention to the dates though. If the cereal you like is on sale, stock up! And if you soda pop you drink is on sale, buy lots, it keeps for a while. Besides you want to keep some at your desk at work.

4) If you ever eat out, buy an Entertainment book. It’s not just food, most food coupons are B!G!, but could save the price of a book just with the Radio Shack, Target and Border’s book coupons. I’m not saying go to restaurants that you don’t normally go to, I’m saying just look at the book and go to the same places you already go! After the first year, you’ll buy one for both of your cars (if your family has two). Better yet, buy one before the family goes on vacation and use it there, because if you’re going to eat at unfamiliar restaurants, you might as well as use one you’ve got coupons for!

5) Don’t pay too much for gasoline. Speaking of saving money when shopping for gas, you can pay more than the cheapest place, just not too much. Some people drive across town for 5 cents a gallon, but not out of the way may save them 3 cents. Take two seconds to check prices at GasBuddy.com and see what’s average and if prices are going up or down (once you select your cities you can bookmark it). For example, there’s a few places at $2.59 but that’s across town but there is a bunch around $2.63 on the way to where I’m going but now I know to ignore the $2.77+ stations, which is what it was a few days ago. BTW, there’s an iPhone app for that.

6) Use the library for books, audiobooks or DVDs. Figure out how to reserve items on-line and they’ll contact you when it’s sitting at the counter. My library seems to put books in the electronic catalog when they order, so I can reserve best-sellers months before they come out; they’ll even ship them between branches for me. Just return them on time so you don’t pay fines.

7) Don’t buy lottery tickets! But then again if you don’t play you can’t win. That reminds me, I need to check my ticket numbers. I’ll admit, I do buy tickets, but $3 would be a busy week for me. But someone has to win, don’t they?

Most of these, especially the first five, are easy to do and don’t require much change in your life. If anything the first one will save you time and money.

Would you rather live somewhere where the you see significant changes in the seasons throughout the year, or where it pretty much stays the same? What is your ideal daily temperature? from Friday Question #91.

I like the changes in weather. While I’d rather have winter shorter, Michigan weather isn’t too bad, but then again I’m used to it. I need more sunshine though! Give me more below freezing days but with sunshine I’d be a happy camper.

My preference would be the nice weather of Costa Rica every day (75-95° F) but I can’t have that here if I have to wear a suit every day. Plus, when you get something like the nice weather of Costa Rica you get the ultra-rainy season to be the down side (and when it stops you can’t get around due to the flooding).

So I think I’d choose Costa Rica. GIve me the hot weather and if I complain in the rainy season just remind me that I live in paradise.

So this week’s Friday Question (#87) is

“If rain could fall in any scent, what scent would you want it to be?”

I had several answers come to mind: I like the smell of rain, the ocean, or I think I’d get bored of the same smell. But the I noticed first few people to comment gave those answers, so I’m going with my fourth option, the world (could) would be happier option…

I think the smell of rain should change every time it rains. Everyone would go outside to see what today’s scent is or they’d open the windows so they can catch of whiff of it. So instead of being sad it was raining, everyone would be chatting about it and if they liked the smell or not. And the puddles would smell nice too.

Maybe people would tweet to say go outside and smell the maple syrup! Or, just as importantly, we’d get asparagus alerts to not to go outside.

And maybe after the rain it would affect the color of the sky or the rainbow, everyone would wonder outside to see what the flavored sky would look like and have something else to talk about and to brighten up their day.

This weeks Friday Question is: What’s your reaction when you receive a compliment?

If it’s something about me being nice or smart or something like that, I’m never so sure how to respond. A mumbled thanks or something is most likely.

But if it’s a compliment about my cool shoes or something like that. Then I appropriately say thank you and probably tell you more than you ever wanted to know about them.

So it’s a mixed response depending on the kind of compliment.

From the Friday Question #76:

What is your favorite (cold) cereal? You know, the one you could just eat bowls and bowls of?
So this summer, when I was up north at my Aunt and Uncle’s place, I had Kellogg’s Special K Red Berries Cereal one morning. It was delicious and it’s “Special K” so it’s got to be nutritious, right? Well, it turns out it’s pretty negligible on the being more nutritious when compared to something like Frosted Flakes, and it’s way more expensive. (But don’t tell my aunt!)

So my usual favorite is Frosted Flakes, but occasionally I’ll buy some of the Kellogg’s Special K Red Berries as a treat.

FYI, cereal is more of a snack to me, it’s pretty rare that I eat it as breakfast (especially when at home).

The Lens Day Challenge for this week is Traffic.

This is on a busy side-street in San Jose, Costa Rica; It’s a block or two east of La Sabana Park. I think it’s this messy intersection off of Calle 40; but if that’s where it is, it’s not even a very good representation of the intersection.

This week’s word associations are

Death :: Funeral
Identified :: Body
Saturday :: Weekend
Dumped :: Sad
Division :: Multiplication
Stilted :: Jilted (or is that because it rhymes) maybe it’s time for the dictionary?
Crimes of :: Passion
Stumped :: Quiz
Future :: Time Travel
Team :: Go (as in Go Team)

Check out the list every week at Unconscious Mutterings

Here’s this week’s Manic Monday questions:

Both were really easy to answer, at least there were to me.

Would you rather go a week without bathing, but be able to change your clothes, or a week without a change of clothes, but be able to bathe?
Even though I like to take showers, I think I’d go with the clean clothes. There really is some magic in “the magical powers of a new shirt” (a reference from The West Wing), getting rid of the dirty sweaty shirt can make you feel much better about the day.

If you had to be trapped in a TV show for a month, which show would you choose?
Doctor Who. Preferably the 2006 season. Traveling places and times (and saving people).
Torchwood would have been a good choice but they way they keep killing characters, I wouldn’t last a month.

From Manic Monday #178.

I don’t know how I would/could give up the Internet. It’s just too much a part of who I am. I could give up TV and movies (I don’t really play electronic games) if I had to, way easier than the ‘net.

I’d certainly read more. I’ve got 3 new library books sitting here all overdue! I’d definitely play more board/card games, but I need more people for that, I love games.

I’d check out more local music (which I do already) and theatre. And I should probably play outside more, but it’s so cold right now that thought doesn’t really register.

From Friday Question #51 over at ilaxStudio.com

Do you eat the same thing everyday? Are there any foods/drinks, you feel like you have to consume on a daily basis? Or do you like some variety?

I’m totally a creature of food habit. Breakfast is almost the same every day (turkey bacon, fried egg, cantaloupe and OJ; sometimes I mix it up with real bacon). If I’m at a restaurant, I probably know what I’m getting before I went there (I decided what to eat and then picked the restaurant). Most restaurants I only get one or two different things. If it’s a sandwich, it’s “no pickle, no mustard and no mayo”. And at a few places I have a favorite table or two (at my local Einstein’s they know I’m disappointed if I can’t get the table I want). I really need my daily Coca-Cola but I try not to have any after 2 PM (unless there is alcohol in it). And I try to have at least 3 bottles of water a day (if not more).

From Friday Question #38.

I’m about 17 days from needing to complete my 101 in 1001 list, I haven’t been working on it much so it’s time to revisit and cross a few things off. I’ve only completed 52 of my items. Looks like I’ll complete about 6 more. As resolutions go I’m still above average as I’ll have done more than 18 items a year

So I love my 101 list but some things just didn’t get done. I thought I’d have done better. Things I could have done to ensure I accomplished more:

I found this little project over at Hilly’s (SnackiePoo).

Let’s make a band:
1. The first article title HERE is the name of your band.
2. The last four words of the very last quote HERE Is the title of your album.
3. The third picture HERE, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Now take the pic, add the band name and title to it, then post it.
5. Be sure to leave a comment so that I can check out your album…

The title, “Asbestos Strike”, was not the first article I got, the first one was an actual music label but I decided not to use it in case that might upset them. The title of my album, “they had courage enough”, was from a quote by Thomas Fuller. And my photo came from here, I did square it up a little to make it fit.

Wow, it was pretty hard. Some geeky stuff in the quiz (and that’s not even the parts I got wrong).

So there is a new 26 Things Photographic Scavenger Hunt for May 2007, they only do this every few months so I’m glad to catch it in advance.

It’s a photo meme-like thing where they list 26 things and you need to take/post photos related to the topics. It’s way open to interpretation and I like the idea of it so take a look and take some photos…

1. Order :: Chaos
2. Mortician :: Casket
3. Determine :: Solve
4. Ignore :: Noise
5. Guy :: Girl
6. Crush :: Blog (Blog-Crush)
7. Garlic :: Vampire
8. Wacky :: Weekend
9. Parent :: Child
10. Burning :: Fire

Free Association weekly quiz/meme from Unconscious Mutterings.

Another photo-meme. Today the Thursday Photo Challenge is Wildlife so I’m using this White-Faced Monkey photo from Montezuma, Costa Rica.

If you look very close (just below/by the neck) you can see there is a (very tiny) baby on the back of the monkey!

Speaking of Costa Rica, here’s a information page from Time for Kids about Costa Rica…

So today’s LensDay dealt with flowers so this week so I submitted this photo that I took in Egypt. I thought most of the flowers from there seemedso bright and beautiful. The other people on the trip compared it to flowers in Hawaii but since I’ve never been there I attributed it to the Egyptian mystique…

I just thought they all seemed so bright and beautiful….

You’ve just been given a $2000 tax refund (that’s like $5000 dollars for you all in Canada and about 1200 pounds for you in the UK and, I don’t know what for you Aussies) but you must use it to buy home decorations.

1. Nick :: Saint
2. Focus :: Glasses
3. Police :: Car
4. Miles :: Airline
5. Earn :: Money
6. Twice :: More
7. Razor :: Shave
8. Personality :: Happy
9. Dumped :: Crushed
10. Reliable :: Car

From Unconscious Mutterings

So I’ve definitely fallen behind in my 101 in 1001 list (23% of my tasks done and used 32% of my time.). I’ve got more than a few things lined up in the next few months.

From Question of the Day

I was tagged by RW to do this meme

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:
Web Programmer
Computer Trainer
Cook
Camp Counselor

Four movies you could watch over and over:

The Flight of the Navigator

The American President

The Cutting Edge

A Christmas Story

Four places you’ve lived:
Berkley, MI
East Lansing, MI
Haslett, MI
Dearborn, MI

Four TV shows you love to watch:
Gray’s Anatomy
Psych
Dead Zone
Kyle XY

Four websites you visit daily:
Blogography
SlickDeals
The Daily Meme
Google

Four of your favorite foods:
Pizza
Hot Wings
Chicken With Pineapple (Chinese)
Beef With Brocolli (Chinese)

Four places you’d rather be:
The Beach
Costa Rica
London
The Moon

Four albums you can’t live without (for the moment):

Avril Lavign Under My Skin

Anna Nalick Wreck of the Day

Tori Amos Little Earthquakes

Indigo Girls Strange Fire

I’m stopping at four (2 new & 2 old) but I really couldn’t stick to four…

Kyra asked these questions on her blog. She actually asked them two different ways: If you had six months and what if everyone had 6 months.

If you knew you only had six months to live, and the world was guaranteed to end for you – how would you live?

Not healthy (not any less healthy than now either). Maybe more desserts

I’m single and have no dependents so that really makes the options easier for me than some people. Sure I’d hook Mom up with some of my savings but she’s probably fine without it so that makes this a lot more fun list for me than it might be for some others.

I’m not going to go the route if it was six months for everyone, I’d have to assume it’d be a bad place to be (chaos and all). But the new series 3 Moons Over Milford (free at iTunes at this point in time) is kind of a end of the world scenario (the moon breaks into three pieces in a degrading orbit) where it’s not chaos, I’d like to think it’d go that way.

From 3x Thursday

(Pick the word that is familiar to you or add one of your own)
1. Soda, Soft Drink, Soda Pop or Tonic – Soda
2. Hoagie, Sub, Po Boy, Grinder – Sub
3. Goobers or Peanuts – Peanuts (Goobers are chocolate covered peanuts around here)
4. Candlepin or Ten-Pin bowling – Just Bowling
5. Dungarees or Blue Jeans – Blue Jeans (or just Jeans)

6. Shopping Carriage, Shopping Cart, Buggy – (Shopping) Cart
7. Frappe or Milkshake – (Milk)Shake
8. Jimmies or Sprinkles – Sprinkles
9. Hot Dog or Frankfurter – Hot Dog
10. Relative or Kin – Relative
11. Soda Crackers or Saltines – Saltines
12. Rubbish, Trash or Garbage. – Garbage (sometimes trash)
13. Rotary or Traffic Circle – Traffic Circle (but we don’t really have them here so people don’t call them anything)
14. Barbeque, Grill Out or Cookout – Barbeque/Grill
15. Funnel Cake or Fried Dough – Funnel Cake (Elephant Ears are the same, right?)
16. Flapjacks, pancakes, or griddlecakes – Pancakes
17. Bedroom Suite or Bedroom Suit – Bedroom Suite
18. Bundles, Sacks or Bags (of Groceries) – Bag
19. Front Entrance or Front Stoop – Front Door (Porch)
20. Frying Pan or Skillet – Frying Pan

From Miss. Elaine.

From the Thursday Threesome

From Question of the Day.

From Question of the Day.

Srah has decreed that July 24-28, 2006 is Language Week. This means that once a day for the week you blog at least once a day (at least a few sentences) in a language you usually don’t blog in. Read her blog for the rest of the rules.

From 3x Thursday

So I finally did a 26 things scavenger hunt. I just noticed they were offering one for this month (they only do it every few months) and I thought I had a lot of Egypt photos that fit the plan so I used those (a few I had to stretch the definitions a little).

Here’s the photos of the 26 things that I used…

FYI – this also completes one of my 101 in 1001 items list!!!

Here is the 26 things site (these are not my photos)

Did they ask all the meat questions on a Friday during lent on purpose?!?

From The Friday Five.

I don’t actually carry a wallet, it takes up more room than the items, which makes the wallet the useless part. But to stick with the theme of the question, today I did wonder why I had a receipt from Arby’s in my pocket from three days ago…

Found at Question of the Day.

So I took the quiz and I scored in the area of Engineering/Mathematics. “You should be an Mathematics or Engineering major! Like Pythagoras, you are analytical, rational, and when are always ready to tackle the problem head-on!”

So I saw this at Amy’s and thought it’d be interesting to do. I scored pretty much in the area I thought I’d hit. I think the only reason I hit so high in the Journalism and English areas is because blogging influenced some of my answers to the writing and expressing questions. I’m surprised that biology didn’t show up higher but who knows how they figure the out. There was no computer or education areas in my results (or any that I’ve seen) so I’m assuming it’s not an option.

Go to QuizFarm to find out What is your Perfect Major?

List 10 items that can always be found in your fridge at any given time on your blog. Copy and paste the directions on your weblog and tag 3 people to name 10 things that can always be found in their own fridge.

This is a really short quiz with astonishing results. I’m not going to tell you my answers because I don’t want it to influence your results.

I’m definitely lacking nice brown shoes and I own several pairs of these shoes (see image) in black but needed to order the ones in the color brown. I knew I’d like them (this has been my standard black shoe for years) and I’ve been meaning to do this for ages so I added it to my 101 in 1001 list. So the guy at the Hush Puppies store said he could order them for me cheaper than I could buy on-line (which was true). I just wasn’t sure exactly what my size was so I wanted to check my black ones at home.

So I found the size and called them back and when they got on-line to order them it turns out they didn’t have the brown ones any more. So I checked all the on-line stores and the few places that did have them didn’t have my size (and they were all more expensive than he could have got them for me)…

Then I found Boscov’s!!!! They have the Sutton Hush Puppies in Brown and they were half off. So I ordered two pair! And I loved them. (Of course I did, they’re the same as the black ones!)

Did I tell you I hate shoe shopping? And that they don’t make these any more? And they were brown? And they were exactly what I wanted? Guess what? I ordered 4 more! I won’t have to deal again with this for a long time…

Is Boscov’s a real store? Has anyone shopped at one? Was it a catalog place before they were on-line?

(FYI: This is one of my 101 in 1001 days items, and this post is pretty much the same post as I put over there…)

Way back in September 2005 I said I liked the idea of this 101 things in 1001 days.

As it says on the 101 in 1001 site:

The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

So I’ve built a list and I’m crossing them off. I broke them down by categories: Blog, Entertainment, Family, Health, Home, Me, Money, Other, Technology and Vacation (the last category may be overloaded). Of course the list is at http://101in1001.garylapointe.com/ and I’ve got it all geeked out (but the template needs work).

On the site there is a countdown as to the time left and how many tasks I’ve completed (and what percentage of tasks I’ve completed vs. percentage of time passed).

Recently completed items are in the left sidebar of this site on many of the pages. Also on days that I post a new entry there and here, it’ll automatically show up under the date. Unfortunately, it was an afterthought so it doesn’t show up on days when I don’t post here, but I’ll figure something out…

There are RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds if you’re a feed reader…

These are things I’m doing so some of the posts will be relevant to life so I’m trying to figure out a way to incorporate them more here.

From Monday’s a Bitch.

Question of the Week – 2006/02/20. More about how you sleep!

From QOTW.

The Wednesday Mind Hump seemed extra easy (and quick) so here we go:
Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate.
Hot or cold? Hot.
A bunch of short weekend trips, or one long vacation? Bunch of short trips.
Almond Joy or Mounds? Neither!
Country or Rock And Roll? R & R!
Cosbys or Bradys? Cosbys (I always liked Bill)
Brand new car or brand new house? House.
Inside or outside? Outside.
Pepsi or Coke? Coke!!!

It’s national de-lurking week so to celebrate be sure to post a comment on one of my posts. You wouldn’t want to be a party pooper and just lurk around here would you?!?

Thanks to Sheryl who started this and to WebMiztris for tipping me off that it was a national holiday!

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:
Web Programmer
Computer Trainer
Cook
Camp Counselor

Four movies you could watch over and over:

The Flight of the Navigator

The American President

The Cutting Edge

A Christmas Story

Four places you’ve lived:
Berkley, MI
East Lansing, MI
Haslett, MI
Dearborn, MI

Four TV shows you love to watch:
Gray’s Anatomy
Two and a half Men
Medium
Veronica Mars

Four websites you visit daily:
Blogography
SlickDeals
The Daily Meme
Google

Four of your favorite foods:
Pizza
Hot Wings
Chicken With Pineapple (Chinese)
Beef With Brocolli (Chinese)

Four places you’d rather be:
Egypt
Costa Rica
London
The Moon

Four albums you can’t live without (for the moment):

Avril Lavign Under My Skin

Anna Nalick Wreck of the Day

Tori Amos Little Earthquakes

Indigo Girls Strange Fire

I’m stopping at four (2 new & 2 old) but I really couldn’t stick to four…

Via Webmiztris via Kimi and Wendy.