The Angry School Photographer

This sweet and short film by Nick Scott received 800,000 views in six days. It's about a cynical, jaded school photographer who is having a bad day and attempts to wipe the smiles off the kids' faces. He tells one little boy to repeat after him, “The banking crisis means I’ll never afford a home.” Next, he crushes a little girl but telling her “there isn’t a pet heaven” and another "you don't get pocket money, you have to work hard every day". He continues to dish up one reality check after another until a cute persistant red-head got him smiling.
                                                  
The kids' expressions are priceless! It shows that sometimes, no matter how much you want to bring people down there's always someone there who wants to keep you up. A wonderful Christmas message for all in these pretty gloomy times.

Of Taekwondo Fingers And A Dancing Squirrel

A couple of smile-worthy videos to tide you through another boring day.

Hiiiiiiiyaaaaaaa!!! Watch it attempting to slice some 'bricks'.
                                              

Did you see it scratching its butt? LOL! I guess some people obviously have too much time on their hands!

And this one is just tooo cute!
                                              
It doesn't look like a squirrel to me but that is the title of the video as translated by Google Translate. Hmmm, I wonder if I could get my overweight guinea pig to do that?! Nah, her butt is wayyyy tooo HUGE!

Everything I Need To Know About Life I Learned From a Jigsaw Puzzle

Sharing this puzzle analogy of life I received in an e-mail forward.


1. Don’t force a fit. If something is meant to be, it will come together naturally.

2. When things aren’t going so well, take a break. Everything will look different when you return.

3. Be sure to look at the big picture. Getting hung up on the little pieces only leads to frustration.

4. Perseverance pays off. Every important puzzle went together bit by bit, piece by piece.

5. When one spot stops working, move to another. But be sure to come back later (see #4).

6. The Creator of the puzzle gave you the picture as a guidebook. Refer to the Creator’s guidebook often.


7. Variety is the spice of life. It’s the different colors and patterns that make the puzzle interesting.

8. Working together with friends and family makes any task fun.

9. Establish the border first. Boundaries give a sense of security and order.

10. Don’t be afraid to try different combinations. Some matches are surprising.

11.Take time often to celebrate your successes—even little ones.

12. Anything worth doing takes time and effort. A great puzzle can’t be rushed.

13. When you finally reach the last piece, don’t be sad. Rejoice in the masterpiece you’ve made and enjoy a well-deserved rest.

QR Codes

If you're behind in technology like I am, it's never to late!! I learned about QR codes only a couple of days ago! And if you're still clueless about what this thingy is, here's a quick intro.
QR codes are an increasingly-popular way of converting data like website addresses into a form that can be easily scanned. Thus, it’s possible to publish a website address in print, and readers can go to that address without having to type in the address. Interestingly, I've read somewhere that there will be a mobile device for every person on earth by 2015 and that mobile searches have grown by 4x since 2010.
With that in mind, I've just created a QR Code for my blog. You can find it on my left sidebar. Not sure what good it'll do but there is no harm, right?

There are now many free QR Code generators floating in the internet. I used this one to generate mine - http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

Just like barcodes, QR Codes too, needn't be boring.

Love the elephant in this one

HBO's True Blood season 3 was the first TV series to get a designer QR code in an ad

Louis Vuitton

Farmville

LA Tourism Bureau

Albert Einstein

Mona Lisa

Kieron Williamson aka Mini Monet

Kieron Williamson aka Mini Monet is only nine years old but his paintings were snapped up in 10 minutes and 50 seconds, earning him a whopping £106,260 in a recent exhibition.

Kieron first began drawing independently on the Williamson's first family holiday to Cornwall, England in May 2008. At the age of 5, Kieron had shown little interest in drawing up to that point in his life, but, inspired by the boats in a nearby port, Kieron asked his parents for a sketch pad. The very next day he was drawing pictures of boats and as the holiday progressed he began to add backgrounds, scenery, hills and houses.

As time progressed, so did Kieron's abilities.

Bad News!! No More GFC!

My google reader had 0 items for the past couples of days and I was clueless about the bad news until I visited Katherine's blog today and learned that as of March 1, 2012, Google Friend Connect (GFC) will be discontinued for non-Blogger sites.

Here's the excerpt.

Source - http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-spring-cleaning-out-of-season.html

So how are you taking the news?

Katherine Kalnes - Celebrity Pancakes

Whom do you wanna sink your teeth into - Edward or Jacob?

Kelly Ripa

Chicago-based artist Katherine Kalnes crafts her yummy celebrity pancakes using a contraption called a 'batter blaster' and other edible ingredients .

Steven Colbert

Frosting, raisins, blueberries and chocolate chips are used in this pancake portrait of Ellen Degeneres.

Justin Bieber

Ryan Gosling

Sunday Citar/Sunday Snapshot/Simple Things Sunday

 Finally, with a stroke of luck, lots of patience and mosquito bites, I *captured my first silhouette photo.

"He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves ... are still" Psalm 107.29 

"It is glorious to have a big trouble,

 That sweeps you right out to the sea,

 That sinks you in the depth of the ocean,

 Yet safe in His keeping to be; 

To come up again and acknowledge His wondrous deliverance and care,

How He calmeth the storm in a whisper, 

How you triumphed because He was there." C. SIMPSON

 

                                                          

* Citar means quote in Spanish

*The photo has been edited with Windows Photo Viewer

Mandie Manzano

Enjoy these visually stunning stained glass style art by Louisiana-based artist Mandie Manzano.

Tiana Of The Princess and the Frog

Beauty And The Beast

Alice In Wonderland

The Little Mermaid

Disney's full set

Pocahontas

Tangled

Princess Aurora of Sleeping Beauty

Sally and Jack Skellington, A Nightmare Before Christmas

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

Potter Pals

Sunday Citar/Sunday Snapshot/Simple Things Sunday

There's nothing like the simple pleasure of stopping and smelling the roses at the flower stalls in a street market to brighten the day. I just love the vibrant mix of colours and scents. Flowers make me so happy!

  "For He careth for you" 1 Peter 5.7 Dear Lord, it is good to plant A bulb, dry, brown and bare And then, in a short time, to find Enchanting beauty there. And it is good to know that hearts, Cast down by grief and pain Fed by the soil of Thy great love Can break to flower again. Author - Elisa Campbell

 

Bird Feeds Dog Spaghetti

Hope this video puts a smile on your face!

Wordish Wednesday - Dubai's Pink Taxis

Unsure where the taxi stand was upon our arrival at the Dubai Airport, we sought the assistance of an airport personnel, who, to our surprise, directed us to a stand where several ladies in pink uniforms were waiting in front of a row of pink cars! Next to the pink cars, were a row of red-topped taxis.

These pink taxis, driven by ladies, are intended for female passengers and families while the red ones are for men.

I am so loving this concept! I wish we had the same system in our country. Imagine traveling solo and arriving in a foreign land at an ungodly hour. Doesn't the thought of hopping into a car driven by a male stranger to some unfamiliar place scare you?

With her permission, I took this picture of our lady driver who was from Sri Lanka.

Yayyyyyy for the pink ladies!!!