Horoscopes of the Week!

Well, I figured since the school year is back upon us and I'm downtown and in ready access to good ol' Creative Loafing I would post the Freewill Astrology of the week. You're welcome, already, guys. They're just delightful.
A sidebar: I plan on posting with the experience of having tonsils removed. I will not hold back. It will be gruesome and knarly. It will not be for the feint of heart. I'm doing this as a favor as the How-To and Trial-and-Error person of the group, it only felt right to have this surgery performed for the sake of others.


Horoscopes for your pleasure...


Virgo (August 23-September 22)
"I have dreamed in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas," wrote Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights. "They have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind." One of your main assignments in the coming week, Virgo, is to identify a dream that can work that kind of magic on you. If there is no such dream currently seeded in your imagination, find a new one to plant there.

Libra (September 23-October 22)
The apocalypse won't be all that bad," Bible scholar Parker Creaston told the Weekly World News. There'll be a "brief period of mild to moderate disorder," after which will come an extended period of "worldwide peace and harmony." Similarly, Libra, your fear of impending chaos in your personal sphere will turn out to be overblown. Yes, you may suffer temporary shortages and inconveniences, as well as what we might call a metaphorical "traffic jam." But you can forget about mountains of fire, seas of blood, and hordes of locusts from the bottomless pit. They will definitely not be showing up.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)
You've reached a phase in your astrological cycle when you have special power to expand, deepen, and enhance your web of allies. My advice? Don't just schmooze and party, but rather schmooze and party with an evangelical sense of purpose, taking advantage of the fact that people are more likely than usual to see you as attractive, be sympathetic to your cause, and lend you their support. The connections you forge and the synergetic collaborations you ignite in the next three weeks could be major factors in your success in 2009.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)
According to the Guinness website, the world record for opera singers receiving curtain calls is Luciano Pavarotti, who got 165 after his 1988 show at the Deutsche Opera in Berlin. If that mark is ever broken, it may soon be accomplished by a Sagittarian performer. That's because you people will be at the peak of your potential to garner acknowledgement, recognition, and rewards in your chosen field. Here's a secret about how you can take maximum advantage of that potential: Imagine that there is a higher, finer level of excellence that's beyond what you've understood as excellence up until now. Then figure out what you'd have to do to rise to that higher, finer level.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)
Thanks for the entertainment you've provided so far in 2008, Aquarius. Since last January, you have sent a nagging demon packing and corrected a kink in your integrity. You've paid off a load of karmic debt left over from the old days and have even begun to dissolve an outdated psychosexual imprint. Before I announce your reward for all this good work, though, I'd like you to make more progress on tempering your obsessive side. See what you can do to convert it from a part-time liability into a full-time asset.
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Great Marketing Keds!!

So Keds has like the coolest thing ever going on. They have now made it so where you can customize your own pair of Keds at their website: http://www.zazzle.com/kedsstudio

Here are the Keds I made and I SERIOUSLY want them.



It is way fun to design your own Keds. I'm serious. I'm not even being paid for this even though I sound like a horribly fake placed promotion! Read More......

Greek Yoghurt: A Tribute

Ah Yogurt. You fill the refrigerated dairy section almost as much as you fill me with guilt. I know how good you are for me, especially since I'm a woman and yogurt is especially important for women to eat. WebMD says that Yogurt is full of probiotics, may help prevent osteoporosis, reduce the risk of high blood pressure, "helps the gut", helps you feel fuller, and may discourage vaginal infections. So yogurt helps prevent a lot of seriously disgusting things, but despite all of that, I have never been able to force myself to like it. Honestly here, I'm pretty much an ace at making myself like foods, but that has just not been so with yogurt. It doesn't matter what brand I get, or what flavor, or what shtick they're pulling this time, yogurt is just always disgusting to me. But that all changed when I found greek yoghurt.


What is greek yogurt? you might wonder. Well, as far as I can tell it's made a different way (involving muslin somehow which is intriguing enough in itself from a fabric design point of view), and is creamier and tarter. Also apparently if you have a recipe that calls for greek yoghurt - don't you DARE substitute with regular yogurt - you will regret it. But when it gets down to it, I don't really care what the difference is, it is just delicious. Especially when you get it with honey in it or on the side, which seems to be a common option in the greek yoghurt arena. The best brands I have found so far are FAGE Total, and Oikos (which is made by Stonyfield Farm and is organic - it's delicious). Seriously you must go try some - I don't care if you don't get the honey kind, but I'm just sayin, it is really good. I just finished a cup of the Oikos honey yoghurt, and enjoyed it so much that I felt the need to make a salon post about it, and to write a little haiku in honor of it. So here goes.

Yogurt, once so gross
now greek and honey, num nums
"help my gut" today Read More......

This is to be another creative writing opportunity. So take a good look at the picture above, roll it around in your noggin and come up with something truly original. That's right. Pressure is on. Not really. I just loved this picture and wanted to do something with it so there you go.

The question prompt is- Who lives in this house? Read More......

Book Review: Stephenie Meyer's "Breaking Dawn": The Final Book of the Saga

So as you all know, I started reading the Twilight series and found myself becoming increasingly obsessed with them. They're just so readable! Also as many of you may know, I went to the midnight release of the fourth and final book in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn.


Here are my thoughts on the final book.


First of all, I would like to note that I have ALWAYS said that while these books are a very addictive read, they are NO Harry Potter, as some people persist in claiming. This fact was reaffirmed by the midnight release. There were hardly as many people here as there were at Harry Potter. I was number 463 or something, and I got my book about 20 minutes after midnight, at the very latest. Harry Potter took hours and hours, and even then we still had to go to the Kroger to get it. Also - not as many nut jobs at this release as at Harry Potter. Far fewer people where dressed up or chanting at this occasion.

Second of all, I didn't review the 2nd and 3rd books of this series, but I don't really think that's an issue. I got the first one, and now I'm getting the last one. Just be content in knowing that 2 and 3 are pretty much par for the course. If you like the first one, you'll like the rest of them.

So onto the book.

I would like to say first off that while Edward really bothered me in the first book, and Bella not quite as much, there seemed to be some interesting inverse relationship that went on with the rest of the books. With each book, Edward annoyed me a little less, and Bella more. Finally in this last book, Edward hardly bothers me (still though - I would NEVER want to be in a relationship with him at all - Team Jacob! - except no Jacob for Bella, she doesn't deserve him), and Bella seriously just annoyed the crap out of me. I am happy to say however, that Bella reached her pinnacle of annoyingness in book 3. In this final book (due mostly to special circumstances that I will not relay so as not to spoil anything) Bella really let go of a lot of her annoyingness. But not really until the last third of the book.

Speaking of the thirds of the book - I take issue with the first third of the book. After finishing the book, I don't have a real problem with this books chosen plotline, but when things were getting put into place in that first third I SERIOUSLY thought that Stephenie Meyer had just taken it way too far. Not only did the plot seem like just a little too much for me, it made me quite uncomfortable. I'll tell you what - there were a couple of really awkward hours of reading in the beginning. But I got over it... reluctantly.

The second third of the book was better than the first but seemed extremely long and stretched out. I think Stephenie Meyer and her editors really could have made this section more concise. I get that she was trying to make us feel the same kind of tension and expectation that the characters were feeling from really stretching it out, but it could have been done just as successfully with a couple hundred less pages it seems. It put me in mind of the part in Harry Potter 7 when they're out in the forest and have no contact with anyone but eachother and you're just like, "Ok J.K. - I see what you're doing here, and you're still a genius, but I have GOT to get out of this forest!"

The last third of the book is where things really got good. Of course suspense ensues - will our characters live through ANOTHER intense vampire fight?! I won't give anything away concerning that though, I'll just say that it was a pretty edge of your seat scene. Exciting reading.

Overall the final book was just as enjoyable as the other Twilight books. Breaking Dawn was very fun to read suspenseful page-turner, and had even more great insight into the fantasy world that Stephenie Meyer has created. The book may have been extremely predictable, but I really just didn't care all that much. I think this book, as with all of the Twilight series, was a great escapist read. It's pretty easy for me to see why these books have gotten such a large following. Because I'm not going to lie - I wouldn't hate being a vampire if I could be like the kinds in these books. I just want to know what I would look like and if I would have any special powers! I've actually been musing on that alot - if I did have a special power as a vampire, what would it be?? I guarantee that you will be wondering the same thing if you read this.
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