Early 20th Century Furniture…Not Harmless!
Last night I suffered from a severe blogging injury. It is not a predictable one like carpal tunnel. As you know, I am much more creative (clumsy) than that. I stayed up late working, and I went to bed in the dark. It is just your straight, typical hallway and I have done it many times before, so I had no reason to fear. Than…BAM! I didn’t know what hit me.
Actually, I did. I thought i was turning to walk into my bedroom and I actually hit the edge of a book case. It is an oldie with a protruding top edge (which you will see in the photo at left) so maybe I thought it was the door frame. Needless to say, I almost poked my eye out. I thought I had hit my cheekbone so I put my hand on my face, thinkng erroneously that would somehow help, and I felt blood. Naturally I lost all composure. My knees don’t buckle from the sight of blood (or just the feel of it since it was dark), but when you have an injury that you expect to bruise but not bleed, you have a brief internal freak out. It is not like I picked up glass with my hands or anything. The mind did not turn immediately toward my face, but wondering how much lead paint was under the fifty layers that had been applied to the shelf over many, many years.
Anyway, I ran to the bathroom and saw blood coming out of my eye in the mirror like tears coming out the wrong corner. It turned out that I hit the bookcase so hard that the protruding molding cut me! I now have a cut so dangerously close to the side of my eye, the start of it looks like a natural line coming out of the outer edge. No one gets a crow’s foot in that direction (though of course I have an unaged face with out a hint of any of that nonsense yet a la Dorian Gray of course!).
This morning I woke up with a black eye and a long line that has scabbed over that may be a scar but I am hoping not. It keeps bleeding again throughout the day if I wince, smile or squint. If it does scar, maybe I will just make up a story about an encounter with a shark or something where I almost lost my eye. Or maybe I will tell people that indeed my eye is fake, but is so realistic the way they are making them nowadays.
Bookcases made in the first half or quarter of the century do not hold a lot of good fortune for my immediate family, despite my love of books. When my father was a child, he broke both arms falling out of a built in bookcase. I can see having a bookcase fall on top of you, or fall DOWN frm a bookcase while you are climbing it for some strange reason, but falling OUT was new to me. He explained that he was playing hide in seek and crawled into the bookcase, but decided to hide in something higher than the bottom shelf where they were less likely to look.
The moral of the story is that nobody in my family should own a bookcase. We should just have our books on a sofa table with book ends. With the amount of books I have, I would have have them on the floor and around the entire room like a decorative border.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)Check Twice Before Selling Your Gold
By now, you have seen different offers on television about Gold Cash Source offers. If not, let me refresh your memory. You send your unwanted gold jewelry in an envelope and they pay you cash. Remember the excited actors? They also often take silver and platinum too. Since gold is high, it might be a very good time to look at some of the odds and ends you have, such as a gold chain that is unrepairable, or that ring setting you took your diamond out of and really think you will never use again.
There is one thing I want to caution you on. Some people get money hungry or are in a desperate situation and sell some artist made or vintage jewelry. Be aware that sometimes items that are collectible or that are of a certain age, style, or rarity where they may be much more valuable than the mere value of the metal they were made of. I remember a segment on the local news were people were bringing in Grandma’s silver and one dealer was conscientious enough to stop and educate a potential client that their Vicrotian tea service was worth thousands more than the silver that it was made with due to the age, condition, and maker. You may not be so lucky.
So please, before you send in a ring that got passed to you from a relative that died before you were born, or an artifact from an old relationship gone sour, do your research. It is a great service to be able to recycle some bits and bobs, but be careful. Check with someone who is an expert on the era of the item you have. Some may be worth more as gold, but many, many items have historical importance that you may not realize, and if you knew, you may rather pass it down in the family.
Uncategorized | Comments (2)Not Too Late to Honor Our Heroes
It is not too late to give to the Heroes at Home Wish Registry. It is a project taken on by Sears to help the families who have a loved one over seas, particularly families where a parent is stationed far away this holiday season. It sometimes creates financial difficulties, but more so, sometimes creates a little bit of sadness for not having a mom or dad home to celebrate with them.
The money donated is not tax deductible, as it goes directly to the purchase of gift cards rather than going to a non profit organization. Gift card amounts are divided up evenly among all the registered families. Of course, there are other programs that donate items to families. However, this way, the parent that is caring for the children back in their home towncan buy exactly what they need. They can purchase the size and style and the item that they need the very most. Some of the top Wish List items that families hope to buy are shoes in a range of children’s sizes, and pajamas for both boys and girls. They just grow so fast and need those items every year. Sometimes good, solid shoes are a larger ticket item too.
How do you help? Go to the Sears Heroes at Home on the internet, or go to the register at your favorites Sears store, fill out a slip, and make your contribution.
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Last Minute Shopping - Watch That Debt
While you are out shopping for some clothes to wear to the Christmas party, last minute gifts, or grabbing a few “Merry Christmas to Me” gifts, please think about your debt. While it is natural to want to outdo others, or to indulge one’s self over all the hard work you have done this year, analyze your rewards carefully. If you put much on a credit card, or rob peter to buy paul a Wii, you might want to rethink things. It is okay, of course, to charge things that you are going to walk on down to another register to pay off to establish your credit, but a string of charges is no better than saying, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”
In the UK, an IVA is very popular way to consolidate or look at your debt. An “Individual Voluntary Agreement” is an agreement made between you and everyone you owe money to and is legally binding. It puts everything in writing and you can see what you can reasonable afford to pay in a 3 to 5 year plan. Services are available to help. Even if you don’t have high debt now, using this principle to keep track may help you from getting into a jam you can’t get out from under much later.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)DO NOT Buy This for Christmas
Lidian, over at Kitchen Retro, displays a vintage “Christmas gift hint” ad. If you know what’s good for you, it is not something that you will even think of getting the ladies in your life. However, at the TIME it seemed like the item that all women, mothers, and grandmothers envisioned dancing amid the sugarplums in their mind.
What do you think about this? Do you think it is REALLY what every woman dreamed about or do you think even then the guy would get a slug in the arm for romantically presenting it. You will have to check in at Kitchen Retro to see what all the hubbub is about.
Uncategorized | Comments (3)Will Laptop Bags be Collected in the Future?
I wonder if laptop bags will ever be something sought after in the future. Of course, lots of people want them to use, but what I meaning is if people will seek them out as a collectible vintage item. Or, will they be something too utilitarian and common? Will there be certain makers that people collect? I can imagine that plenty of them will be pretty well beat up by then.
My own laptop bag, I did not purchase fifteen years ago because I was using it for a laptop. In fact, I have never owned a laptop. I just liked the bag’s construction, leather, size and the number of pockets. To be fair, in the past few years, I do cart around an external hard drive, but that is as close as it gets. It has been to Boston, Florida, and Mexico City as a carry on bag, and it has endured sitting in the office as a catch all for important things I think are crucial to have with me at all times, yet I seldom use.
Spire supposedly has a lifetime guarantee where they will repair the laptop bags they make if they should be faulty. I wonder, though, how many people take them up on it. Often, people change their mind and need to get a new color or a different one for a new computer rather than keep their bag for years. I could be wrong if they are like me. Mine is fifteen years old, and though it has seen better days, is really holding its own.
Pearls: The Classic Gift
l finally found out what a Tahitian Chocolate Pearl was. At first, I thought they were dyed or painted, and I was incorrect. The oysters that create them are darker in color, and have black lips and darker shells. They are also a much larger species than what you usually picture, and produce both black, and the lighter chocolate pearls. You learn something new every day!
Non Scents at Ebay
I decided to check the ‘Bay for some perfume that I intended to buy for someone and I wondered why the prices and bids were so low. When I clicked on the listing, I was greeted with this missive:
Dear User:
Unfortunately, access to this particular listing or item has been blocked due to a Paris commercial court decision that bans trade of certain authentic perfumes and cosmetic products on eBay because of French selective distribution laws. eBay is appealing this ruling but is nevertheless required to enforce it. We are blocking your viewing in an effort to comply with this court decision. Regrettably, in some cases, we may prevent users from accessing items that are not within the scope of the decision because of limitations on existing technology.
Thank You.
Hit the return button to return to the previous page.
According to Tamebay.com, the perfume ban is nothing new. I have been living under a rock. Kenzo, Guerlain, Christian Dior, Givenchy are the brands that were in question and were fighting Ebay to not be sold by unauthorized retailers back over the summer, when I and others I know were happy misting ourselves with very old, evaporating, and very stale scents and weren’t thinking about buying anything. This, apparently has since spread to other brands. In fact, every scent I clicked on was the same story. Just to find out if I was really going out of my mind, I even tried searching for “Avon” thinking Avon has their factory in the US, so certainly they would be an American product. Nope. Apparently someone else makes it who is in France, or more likely their system “limitations on existing technology.” Who knows how long it will last. Apparently, people are not paying attention, as it looks like they are still listing stuff that people cannot bid on or even see the detailed listings of.
If you are buying a fragrance this year for yourself or someone else, don’t think you can pass up the counter at the department store for a better price on Ebay. Oh, you’ll get a better price, but not one you can take advantage of. I guess this is a case of a bird in the hand.
Uncategorized | Comments (2)I Want to See Santa!
This time of year, lots of people are kids all over again when they spot Santa at the mall. It harkens back to a simpler time of thinking the sky was the limit and you can ask for or dream about anything you want, not worrying about practical matters.
For a limited time, you can “sit on Santa’s lap” from the comfort of your own home, and enter the Got a Wish Sweeepstakes. On the site, you can type in your name, upload a photo, and type in what you would like from Santa. A cute live action video of Santa and one of his elves plays and your photo that you uploaded and your request are worked in automatically to the video instantly. To actually enter the contest and not merely just have fun with the video, you will need to be a resident of the USA, and upload photo that is yourself. I am not showing you the photo uploaded because it is a photo of me on Christmas morning in my pajamas. I don’t want you to see the character on my PJs because it would date me too much!
The prize for the sweepstakes is getting a wish granted. In otherwords, “Santa” will give a random person each day $500 to make their wish come true for 29 whole days! This special powwow with Santa is brought to us by Ceiva. They are the makers of some pretty awesome digital photo frames. Imagine your family, or your entire art collection on a slideshow. What makes them unique is that they have interchangeable frames (black and wood) so they can blend with your contemporary or traditional decor easily. They also hold a slideshow of 40-50 images, are optionally wifi enabled, and also have the potential to read your memory card.
The Line Begins…
Remember the South Park episode where “The Line Ride” is one of the attractions at the carnival that comes to town? There are some folks that may just only get to experience the Line Ride and not actually have the stamina to last, if my sense of who I saw tonight is a good assessment.
On my way home from Thanksgiving dinner, I could NOT believe the lineup! We drove past a strip mall, and there were already people lined up outside of Best Buy and Michael’s. I kind of expected Best Buy to have that situation….but Michael’s? Everyone in line looked a little bewildered and bored…like they had already been there for hours and were “over it” already. My cousin was twittering on about how she needed to go there. My uncle said, “Michael’s…isn’t that a crap store. Whoops, I mean craft store? What could possibly be so exciting there? Apparently something called a Cricket Machine that is some sort of diecutter for scrapbooking is on some sort of mega sale. Maybe everyone waiting outside is wanting one of those, and wasn’t afraid to start lining up as soon as soon as this evening. Very strange.
However, if there was some antique store closing its doors and offering a megadiscount, would I go? Probably.
There will be more news reports forthcoming from Black Friday later on. I have decided that I will accompany my relatives, mostly just to spend time with them, but also to do some massive people watching. Nothing quite brings out the “best” (not) in people than good old fashioned cutthrought competition. Viva Le Economy!
Uncategorized | Comment (0)Golf with the Good Looking?
My cousin worked for a caddy for a few years in college and cleaned up on tips because he was quiet and didn’t chit chat with other caddys during a swing, and occasionally gave a few golf tips to those who asked. A guy used to like a caddy like that if they went to an upscale golf course and didn’t carry their own clubs.
The newest thing in marketing is for golf courses to have a Female Caddy Service. When my cousin worked, there were a few young ladies who worked as caddys. They had to be athletic, of course, to be able to carry heavy bags, or at least determined. This service is a bit different as it employs “Par mates” are exceptionally attractive, provide engaging conversation, and act also as a concierge in that they keep your score, make reservations for you for after the round, fix divots and help you shop at the Pro Shop. While the professionalism is something a busy person wants at a 5 Star property such as Royal Links and would be well appreciated, I am sure Walters Golf in Las Vegas aims to use the marketing to their advantage to inspire men to spend more money because they have an attractive woman complimenting them on their swing. It is just a hunch.
The fee to golf with a Par Mate who will fix divots, help with yardage and clean clubs, as well as act as concierge is $225.00 for a round of golf.
How do you feel about this ladies? Do you think “finally, women are being recognized for golf knowledge and excellent customer service” are you thinking it is sexist, or are you wondering where the male Par Mates are?
The Weekly Cemetary Picnic
When my Great Grandmother was still alive, a feisty woman who still bowled at ninety years old, she used to visit my Great Grandfather’s gravesite every Sunday afternoon. When she was at the end of her life, she would skip the days when it was sleeting, so she wouldn’t slip and break her artificial hip. She used to say, “My original hip was free, but this one costed me money. So I better take care of it.”
She would bring a lawn chair and a picnic lunch, and would water the grass and plant flowers near his resting place. It may seem funny to kick back with a lawn chair and wear the biggest, brightest, most rediculous sunglasses in a cemetery, but if you knew them, you wouldn’t think it odd. My Great-Grandparents were the type of people that were always smiling and laughing and getting a kick out of life. In modern lingo, that’s just how they rolled. They had silly nicknames for eachother, and my Great-Grandfather always told Great-Grandma that he thought she was “up to something.” It would have been a more fitting testament to my Great-Grandfather’s memory than sullen faces and bleak clothing would be.
Great Grandma is no longer with us. She died at the age of 96 and was in good health up until about the last two months of her life. Sometimes people don’t cry as much when someone is that age. They figure they will inevitably die soon. Not my Great-Grandmother. We all balled like a young person had unexpectedly died. My aunt knew that every night she had a bottle of aspirin under the pillow in her pink casket, and had a Southern Comfort every night before retiring as well. So she slipped a bottle of aspirin and Crystal Comfort under her pillow in her casket. Great-Grandma would have slapped her knee and would have been the first one to laugh.
Even though Great-Grandma can no longer tend to Great-Grandpa’s plot, now where she rests too, I wanted to continue the tradition somehow. I live out of town, but found that I can use Gravesite Masters flower shop for sending flowers, gifts, roses, plants & more. They even provide services like delivering and arranging real or artificial flowers, depending on the rules. I rather be there, of course, but I like the idea of having live, healthy flowers there. It is depressing to go to a cemetery to see dried out, dead plants. Maybe when I am back in town, I will take my Grandparents with me and we will have cheese and crackers, a pitcher of iced tea, and wear our goofiest sunglasses.
The Fedora Chronicles
One of the interesting or fun places to go to on the net is the Electric Speakeasy at the Fedora Chronicles Website. You can chat with other folks about hunting down the best vintage fedoras and the very best of the modern milliners who are making them in the old fashioned quality and style. Not only that, but you have a chance to kick back and talk about classic films, living a retro life and more.
If you feel just a little out of whack with what’s modern and you think acting like ladies and gentleman is a lost art, the forum might be some place for you to hang out. Or, if you like to wear vintage clothing. Or if you like participating in reenactments. Or if you like classic films. Or you just want to have a conversation with sensible like minded people. There is always an interesting discussion going on.
If you want to give The Fedora Chronicles a try as a new hang out, Visit http://thefedorachronicles.com and once you are in, click on “FORUM” or read the library of material by regular correspondants.
I will see you there!
Uncategorized | Comment (0)VintageGent’s Menswear….Hourly?
As you can probably read, I am quite prolific in writing my blog. Actually, it goes in fits and starts. Often, I have something at the tip of my tongue, or more appropriately, at the tips of my fingers that I just need to tell you. Unfortunately, sometimes when that happens, I only have five minutes before walking out the door, or am at the park, or riding in a car and I just am not hear to tell you all. Okay, you might say I should emulate a lot of writers in years gone by in keeping a notebook for such circumstances so that I can jot things down on the run. If you saw what my handwriting looked like, you would quickly but that thought to rest.
What if some miracle were to occur and I could write 3x as fast as I normally can, which is pretty fast already. What I would really like is if there was a way to write while I am trying to get out the door without being completely chained to the computer. I have to do important things like tie my shoes, after all.
Of course, as you can guess from the segue, that I wouldn’t dangle a carrot in front of you and then not talk about something that can do just that, and may be the breakthrough I need. I will have to change the title of the blog, though to “VintageGent’s Menswear HOURLY,” in that case. Here is what Brett Bumeter wrote about DragonBlogger Naturally Speaking. (You can get Save 25% with discount code on Dragon with this link):
Hello my name is Brett Bumeter and I would like to introduce you to Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 is a program that enables you to type with your voice by speaking out loud. All you have to do is speak in a normal voice at a normal rate of speed, and your computer will capture every word that you say almost. The program claims to have about 99% accuracy, and it’s been my experience using the program over the last two years through versions nine and version 10 that this claim is extremely accurate.
The program is extremely fast whether you’re using a noise canceling microphone headset plugged into your computer or whether you’re using a pocket MP3 recorder. I actually use both setups and have had great success having my voice and words turned into text by typing them into my computer, as well as using my voice to turn my words into an MP3 file on my MP3 recorder which I can then import into my computer via USB, and have Dragon NaturallySpeaking transcribe those words automatically into text while the computer does something else.
Right now I am writing this particular note to you to kind of show you just what Dragon NaturallySpeaking can do. I say show you because I’m writing this letter with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to write with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, but it does take a little practice in order to start thinking quickly and thinking out loud with your voice. That the nice thing about it is that you don’t have to stare at your computer screen for long hours anymore.
Typically when we type with our hands, we tend to look at the computer that were typing on. To be more specific we tend to look at the computer screen, and this wears out our eyes and makes us physically tired. The muscles in our eyes absorb all that light from the screen, and the longer we stare at that light the more tired our body becomes. This can even lead to headaches or migraines or just fatigue in general.
So the cool thing about Dragon NaturallySpeaking is that you can look around the room, look around where ever you happen to be, and taken some sights and smells in that you normally wouldn’t have the luxury of doing with your eyes glued to your screen. This really does help to keep your brain moving, and it helps get you thinking outside the box and focused on those things that you need to be focused on.
If you are the type of person that uses a white board quite a bit, you can even stand up and start brainstorming on a whiteboard, while you are simultaneously dictating the thoughts that come to you onto your computer. Now that’s not necessarily the most effective way to capture information off of a whiteboard, but if you need the information copied into text form, it can be very useful and I’m simply trying to illustrate a point.
There are many ways that you can use this particular program to save you a great deal of time, to further illustrate that point, I have written this entire note so far in under three minutes flat! That’s a little over 175 words per minute, and this is actually the fastest ever time that I have recorded with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. When I used version 9, I had clocked the program running at about 167 words per minute, and so with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 and a brand-new laptop, I have just set a new personal record.
That doesn’t include editing time which I will go back and do now, but it’s still amazing to be a laugh your words and thoughts captured so quickly by your computer.
Sincerely,
Brett Bumeter
http://softduit.comPS Even with 3 minutes of editing thrown in (which included writing the salutation and a few more lines) this article still only took 6 minutes to write, and that averages out to about 92 words per minute!
Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Discount Coupon Code Details. Use this coupon code to get 25% off either Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Preferred or Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Basic. You can even get 10% of Macspeech Dicate with the same code and link combination.
DNSMSBGThe code only works when you click on one of the links in this article or the clickable image in this article! The discount enables you to save $25 - $50 off the price.
Nuance is allowing us to offer our readers a 25% Discount Coupon CODE Exclusive for Dragon Naturally Speaking, but you must click the image below and use this code (DNSMSBG) Together. Code will not work from other sources.
You will receive:
- 25% off Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred
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- 10% off MacSpeech Dictate
If you try it, let me know what you think. It is like the old jorunalists talking into a recorder, only it types FOR YOU instead of having to transcribe it later, or find someone else to do it!