I’m Addicted To Swagbucks
I love Swagbucks. For anyone out there who doesn’t know about Swagbucks, allow me to enlighten you. It’s a search engine with perks. As a writer, I’m always looking things up online. Normally I’d just head on over to Google and type in the keyword(s) and/or phrase and go from there. Nothing magical, nothing wonderful. Then I got started on Swagbucks and I’ve been having a ball ever since. Not only do I get to do the same thing as I did on Google, but I get rewarded for it as well.
The thing to keep in mind with Swagbucks is that you DO NOT get points for each search. It’s random and only comes up every so often, but it does come up. I usually get anywhere from 5 to 15 points within the first couple of searches, then I might not get another one for the next 50 searches. But that’s not the only way to get points. You can get daily points by voting in the daily poll, checking out the survey page each day, filling out special offers, and even by shopping in their online store.
So, what are the points for??? As I just said, there is an online store complete with items for sale that can be purchased with Swagbucks. This can be anything from wallpaper for your computer’s desktop to a 32″ HD, flat screen television. And yes, that one takes a heck of a lot of bucks to get. The ones I’m aiming for are all the gift cards that can be purchased with my Swagbucks. A $5 Paypal card is 700 points, while a $5 Amazon.com
So if you’re looking for a way to get rewarded for searching online, check out Swagbucks. You won’t become a millionaire, or even close for that matter. But you might be able to gain enough points to get a new t-shirt, a ring, or even a big screen TV. And all because you went to search for something you wanted to find anyway.
NaBloPoMo Challenge September
Well I did it again—kind of an extension from yesterday’s post. I’ve jumped in with both feet to endure another full month of the NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). The theme for this month is ART!!. That’s cool because that’s actually a very broad subject and there are a lot of topics that can be covered under this category. Art is more than paintings and pictures. It can be about craft projects (my quilts), written arts, dance, music, and just about anything else that takes a bit of creativity to achieve. That could even be in the form of work. (eeewwww, there’s that word again).
I’m a huge lover of the arts. I can’t honestly say that I understand some things that people consider art, but it’s not my place to judge. If there’s one person who loves it, there’s surely more. And that’s the key to being an artist, finding those people who share in your vision, your feelings. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there’s nothing more true in the world of art. What one person finds as beautiful is hideous to someone else. It all comes down to personal preference.
This could be an awesome topic for my blog. Let’s see if I can keep it up for another month, seeing as how I’m also going to try and keep up another blog for the entire month. My Redhead Rants blog has also been added to the blog pool for the month, so now I have to make time to keep 2 of them up every day. I don’t have quite enough grey hairs yet, so this ought to do it. LOL
I Did It
Holy Moley, I did it. This is the last day of the month and I’ve managed to put up a post every day. I can’t believe that I actually did it, but Whoo HOOO!!!!! And yes, I kinda cheated on a few of those days by posting something that I’d written months and even years ago, but it kind of fit in with the whole “green” theme. I was recycling old material and using some of my stranger works as filler to get me through the entire month.
And thank you Gina for all the comments. They made it more fun for me to keep posting. And reason to keep it going on again for next month. I may not have gotten a lot of important stuff added, but I kept it up each day and that’s amazing for me. And I can’t wait to see what next month’s NaBloPoMo theme will be. Not that I’ll stick with that theme for the entire month, but it will be nice to have something to work from.
Plus I have to keep everyone up-to-date on the quilt. I’ve almost gotten all of the last pieces cut out and am about ready to start on getting the last blocks sewn together. Once it’s all in place, I’ll get the entire thing put together and post more pics. And I also want to get started on those Christmas ornaments and see what else I can come up with. It will be interesting.
So, thanks to anyone who stopped by on a regular basis this month. It was a total blast, and I’m hoping to do it again starting tomorrow. LOL. We’ll see though. I might use one of my other blogs instead, or I might try and keep more than one blog updated daily. That would be something, that’s for sure. LOL
The Legend
(The following is a work of fiction. This short story was written by Christine Senter in August of 2009. Any resemblance between this story and an actual event are purely coincidental. No part of this story may be copied and/or used in any other venue without the expressed permission of the author. All rights reserved.)
As he climbed through another clump of bushes, Paul could see the mouth of the cave. There it was just as the old map had shown. Could he possibly be in a place that hadn’t seen a human in almost two hundred years?
Six months earlier, Paul Montgomery was in a small town library in upstate Maine. He was going through and studying some of the local manuscripts and newspapers when he spotted something that instantly caught his eye. In the middle of one of the books of court papers from the original village was an old hand-drawn map.
Paul had been around this region off and on for almost twenty years and knew there was something different about this old map. According to the older map, there was a cave just forty miles from town. When he looked at a current map there was no sign of it and that set Paul’s mind in motion.
He talked to some of the older folks in town trying to get as much information about the cave as he could, but nobody seemed to know anything about it. He did, however, pick up on one of the local legends and thought that maybe the two went together.
The story said that before there was a village, pirates camped on an outcrop that had once jutted out over the ocean. They supposedly buried a large amount of loot in a deep pit in the rocks. The ocean protected the rocks for all but one hour of every day. Otherwise the waves would crash in with such force, that to try to steal the bounty would surely get a man killed.
Finally the legend claimed that Captain Frederick Smythe went mad with fever and murdered his entire crew, fearing that they would take his treasure. He killed the last man beneath the outcrop where they had camped which angered God so much that he caused the earth to shake and the outcrop crumbled down on top of the captain. The rocks that held his stolen treasure were lost to the sea forever.
Paul learned every detail and version of the story he could and tried to find the few shards of truth within them. He sat for hours on the rocky shoreline, searching for a hint of what was no longer there. He took dozens of pictures from every possible angle and studied them relentlessly.
Finally he began to put all the pieces together. He laid a tracing of the older map over a current map. He figured that the cave would show up somewhere within the harbor, which had been proven to have widen since the late seventeenth century. To his surprise it showed that the cave was quite a ways inland and should still be there in the forest.
Quickly he threw some supplies into a duffel bag and jumped into his jeep. He followed the road as far as it would go but the cave was shown to be at least another five miles into the forest. He left the jeep there and started climbing through the bushes which had brought him to this moment.
Slowly he moved on, knowing that there could be any variety of wild animals inside. He pulled a flashlight out of his pack and picked up a small tree branch. Wildly, he began yelling and banging the branch on the sides of the cave entrance. Hundreds of bats swarmed from the cave and caused Paul to fall back down the hill.
He managed to get up and headed back for the cave. He picked up his flashlight and went inside. The stench of bat was almost more than he could bear, but still he pressed on. Deeper into the cave, he began to see a faint scribbling on the walls. It was three letters and a date. “CFS 1692”, he stated out loud, “Captain Frederick Smythe”.
He looked around the cave a little longer but found nothing else. He left feeling as though he had been transported through time. He had stood in a place that hadn’t seen another person in two hundred years Though he knew he had a lot more searching to do, he was thrilled to know that he had found a little piece of truth in an old legend.
My Kid’s Quilt Part 2
In the last post I did about my daughter’s quilt, I promised to post pictures as soon as I got them onto my computer and resized. Well, I tried to do that the other night and my computer had other plans and totally crashed on me. But I did finally get the pics resized and all, so here is the latest update my kid’s quilt.
I started out with 7 different colors. My daughter wanted her quilt to be in all blues, but I had to work with what I had. A little black and white here and there really set the look. These were my original color ideas. I used mostly fabrics I already had on hand, but let my daughter choose one fabric from Hobby Lobby. That would be the light blue one with stars on the left.
Once I got things figured out exactly how I wanted the, I put all the pieces together. I started with just one to make sure I was happy with the arrangement, but was thrilled to see it done.
Once I got to this point, I went ahead and made up several more and made a block of 4 squares. They looked awesome together. 
The problem was that I didn’t have enough of all these materials to make an entire quilt that would cover her bed. So I had to improvise and decided to make an entirely different set of blocks–also in blue, black, and white—to off set with the ones I’d just made. I had plenty of the black and white at home, but decided to go with 5 other colors of blue. So, off we went to Wal-Mart (Who by the way has been keeping their remnant rack quite full). I picked up a couple of remnants I liked and a couple fat quarters that looked cool. Then I let my kid pick out another fabric that she wanted in this block. I figured that it’s her quilt, she might as well have some say as to what it looks like.
I got the dark blue with yellow flowers and the dark blue with light blue snowflakes at Wal-Mart, and had the white, black, and the dark and light blues used in the middle. At the bottom of the picture, you’ll see my kid picked out the fabric with peace signs all over it. Yes, peace signs. It’s her favorite thing, which is okay with me since a couple years ago she was into skulls. LOL
I was happy to see that the block looked pretty good all together, but quickly realized that I’d sewn my pieces together backwards from what I’d done with the first blocks. Oh Crap!!! Then my little muse slapped me up long side the head and told me that “it’s a special quilt and this was meant to be. Now shut the hell up and get back to work”. My muse is kinda bossy.
But when I put 4 of them together, I was almost heart broken. Honestly, I wasn’t happy with it. I thought it looked horrible. But, it’s not my quilt and I wanted my daughter’s opinion. She thought it was cool how the “black pieces make it look like I put an “S” in the block for Senter”. Yeah, okay. That’s what I meant to do, really. hehehe. As long as she’s happy, I’m happy.
That’s when I went ahead and got a bunch more blocks made and put together. I’m still not done, but I have managed to get 10 full blocks done. I have 2 more to go (one of each color scheme), and I’m going to add half blocks to each side. I hope it will look as cool in real life as it does in my head. LOL Here’s what we have so far. I’m happy!!
It’s not sewn together completely yet. I want to finish up the last 2 full blocks and the 8 side blocks before I put the whole thing together. Baby girl says she’s thrilled and can’t wait until it’s done. Her birthday is on the 1st of October, and I plan to have this done by then. Wish me luck and I’ll keep everyone up to date on my progress.
Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10 Things That Will Make Your Waitress Want To Kill You
1.) Call her darling in a creepy voice and stare at her relentlessly.
2.) Constantly complain about the weather, the economy, the President……
3.) Order a huge amount of food, demand she pay attention to you and you alone, then only leave her a dollar as a tip.
4.)Scream at her from across the room while she’s busy taking care of someone else.
5.) Talk to her as though you’re better than she is
6.) Be sure to point out any and all flaws she may have in your loudest voice possible.
7.) Make snide references about her family members
8.) Eat all but 3 bites of your food then refuse to pay because it got cold.
9.) Leave more food on the floor than your 3 year old child.
10.) Pretend to untie her apron so as to cop a feel of her backside.
Charges Mounting Against Local Taxidermist
(The following is a work of fiction created from the headline at the top of the page. This is a complete fabrication written by Christine Senter on January 8, 2004. No part of this may be copied or reproduced in any other media outlet without the author’s expressed permission. All rights reserved.)
Charges Mounting Against Local Taxidermist
Local taxidermist Bob Farley was in court again today on charges of mounting his customers trophies in strange positions. According to court records, Mr. Farley is said to have posed a beaver, shot by a Mr. David Anderson, in a ballet pirouette. Mr. Anderson claims that he took the beaver to Mr. Farley for mounting, expecting to have the animal set in a natural position. When he returned for his stuffed beaver, he found it wearing a pink Tu-Tu and toe shoes.
Judge Wilbur Davenport sentenced Mr. Farley to six months probation, two hundred hours of community service, and he must repay Mr. Anderson for damages. Mr. Farley will be in court again in six weeks on further charges of stuffed animal arrangement.
On a lighter note, all the animals posed by Mr. Farley have been purchased by the local museum for a display entitled “The local night life”.
For Lode-A-BS news, I’m Christine Senter
