“It has the black button at the bottom and the “screen icons” in its “flat screen”. The top layer of the soap is dark grayish black and the bottom layer is a slightly lighter shade of gray. I must say that this is one of my coolest creations and each feature is meticulously created.”

It weighs about 3 ounces and the two that are available come scented either Mojito or Tropical Mango. You can even customize the fragrance or have none at all. Honestly perfect gift for a friend who loves iPhones, or even yours truly.

You can check it out on Etsy.com

For the past month I’ve still been using it and haven’t noticed a thing until yesterday while taking some photos at a local graveyard. Here’s the picture that was taken.

Urggggggggggg, I’m really hoping the result of this is because I left my camera in the cold car over night and not from the fall. I’m kinda nervous about it and am hoping I’m not going to get a new camera.

read more | digg story

See the trailer of “the Dark Knight” below.

I had nothing planned for the fourth until about 2 days before. I ended up grabbing some hotdogs with afriend and seeing fireworks at the Country Club. We were planning on going downtown to dance at a jazz club that I had never been to and then the IBS kicked in. We jumped back in the car and headed back to the house to grab some medicine. The night did not just end at that, we went back to his house and had a relaxing evening with his family. I was a little disappointed because I did not have my camera on me as the fireworks went off though I did take this picture with my iPhone.

My birthday was on the seventh. I decided instead of having a party or a get together I would celebrate with my mom, especially since it’s going to be my last birthday at home.

Then came beach planning. I went to the coast to visit an ex-boyfriend and his family, while being nervous it went very well and I had a blast. It’s always good to catch up and reminisce with old friends. From there I went to my best friends beach house where he, his friend and I had a relaxing vacation time together. (Pictures // Videos)

Once I got home it was time to start work on switching my blog from Cathryn101.wordpress.com to here at CathrynGray.com. I will also mention finding the papers to change my name, which I will being doing today. =]

I hope everyone’s had an exciting July!

What has changed:

The theme (or template as some call it) – I have switched from the Digg3 theme to a new theme which shows more of my personality and is more clean.

The sidebar(s) – Instead of three columns there are only two now. My newest photos at Flickr can be located at the top followed by the RSS feed icon and social network icons which link to my profiles. Along with my Tweets via the Twitter widget, Categories, Archives and Blogroll.

The post set up – Beside each post is now icons which when clicked will share the post at Digg, Del.icio.us, and Technorati.

Contact page – Which contains a contact form allowing viewers to directly contact me.

Let me know what you think and if you find any problems.

Note to subscribers: Please switch from my old RSS feed to the new RSS feed.

While driving from Wilmington to Sunset Beach I had a passenger that I didn’t know about until I got out of the car. Poor thing was a little dead when I found him.

The Mermaid.

The Pier.

Abstract Lights from the Pier.

Dun, dun, dun.. Mr. Jelly Fish.

What happens to a cigarette when you’re on a boat.

“There wasn’t a ‘No Jumping or Climbing’ sign”.

Intracoastal Waterway, one.

Intracoastal Waterway, two.

Intracoastal Waterway, three. Once it became sunny again.

Creepy Wire Fish.

My All American Bubbles.

View from the house.

Blurry Reflection.

My little lizard buddy, one.

My little lizard buddy, two.

Skyness.

Dunes.

Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, all in one towel.

The Ocean.

Sunset from the Dunes.

Sunset from the Beach, one.

Sunset from the Beach, two.

Sunset from the Beach, three.

The end of the sunset from the widows peak at the house.

I can see the moon, can you? Another view from the house.

Yummy Beachy Cakey.

My Loves.

The Moon.

Foam, one.

Foam, two.

The seagull who was stalking me while I was taking pictures.

Another one of the stalker.

The “Infamous Sand Castle” which was already destroyed by the time I could get my camera out.

More Dunes.

Sunset on the way home, one.

Sunset on the way home, two.

Sunset on the way home, three.

My original directions. Yes, I did write the on a plastic plate. I couldn’t find any paper, haha.

This is part of the reason it’s taken my longer to post than it should have.. I left my charger to my computer along with my bathing suit, camera charger and of course sun tanning lotion. =/

The beach at Sunset Beach, NC.

Tubing in the Intracoastal Waterway.

Josh tubing.

Robert tubing.

I also went down to one of the fields and got a video and some photos of the horses that were grazing that day.

Enjoy!

Partly Mangled “Arboretum Visitor Guide”
  

“Dolphin Fountain”

Mural on the Garden Shed

Massive Spider with Her Web

A friend “Pond Diving”

“Cheese”

“Misplaced Daffodil”

The bunny thought he was hiding, but he wasn’t

“Blue Flower Shrub”

The Blue Flower Shrub was “Working on Blossoming” still

Two Grazing Horses

Beautiful Horse Sunset

In my groggy stretching state I felt this little pest chilling right on me. I freaked out when I tried to brush him off, because he wouldn’t budge and it hurt. I thought to myself “Ah! %$@% there’s a tic on me!!!!”. Sure enough it wasn’t a tic, but I have no clue what this thing is. After trying to find some tweezers and what not, he just kinda fell off me. Random tidbit of nonsense I know, but man that’s not something you want to wake up to.

Until last night, or about 10 hours ago, I found myself procrastinating from doing school. Instead of messing around with pictures, going to the pool, watching a movie or TV I was making my own online video site powered by Revver. I decided to choose CAFA = Cute and Funny Animal videos due to my passion and love for them. Who can resist a little puppy wrestling with her brother, or a sleepy kitten? I know I can’t.

The website it… drum roll please… CAFAvids.com

Well I hope you enjoy! I’m off to get a little rest after my all night 10 hour excursion into video site land.

I’ve made about 10 so far, without counting the test subjects. It does take sometime, but it’s enjoyable!

Here are some pictures of them:

Over the past couple of weeks the biggest event that unfortunately comes to my mind first would be that I was in a wreck while driving the Lexus LX470. Some people would rather use the term “accident”, but I have come to not like this term. Why not? Because from my perspective an accident means that it was unexpected and no one was at fault. Someone is always at fault in an “automobile accident”. My conclusion is to say wreck instead.

Off of my rant and onto what happened.. I was driving down the road and the car in front of me slammed on there brakes giving me no time to slow down in time. No, I was not tailgating them, and no, I was not talking/texting on my phone. Yes, I was paying attention, and yes, I was far behind them. I’ll start out by saying that no one involved was seriously hurt, which was my main concern. The person that was in the car with me and I were still a little sore for a couple days after, but nothing severe. Thankgoodness. The car was a whole different story, it’s officially totaled and I was saddened to see it leave the wreck in the condition it was in. It held special meaning because it was my grandfather’s, who passed away in 1999. This one event has taken up most of my time and thoughts the past little bit. Thankfully some pressure has been taken off by getting a new car.

Other things that have been keeping me busy have been: running errands, looking for cars, apartment hunting, planning beach get-a-ways and other daily nonsense.

It’s good to be typing again.

(My mother tends to read my blog on a regular basis and has asked not to see any pictures of the car, so to see pictures click where it says “read more”)

With the hood already taken off.

The hood where the collision occurred.

Have you ever been sitting on a bench and looked down to find these little red bugs? I have to clue what the are, but I was sitting on a mountain of them.

Copyright. All Rights Reserved.
Send me an email if you would like to use any of these images.

Looking Through the Rain, Canadian Goose
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

Canadian Goose
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

Abstract Lake, One
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

Abstract Lake, Two
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

Clouds of Love, One
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

Clouds of Love, Two
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

Clouds of Love, Three
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

Clouds of Love, Four
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

Clouds of Love, Five
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

Clouds of Love, Six
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

Grazing Horse in a Field of Buttercups
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

From the announcement:
In a feature we’re calling possibly related posts we’ll now try to show posts related to yours a little section at the end. If we find any posts on your blog that are related, we’ll put those at the very top and in bold. Next we’ll show other posts from around WordPress.com, and finally we’ll check if there’s anything in the mainstream media.The result is a handful of links that should provide you and your visitors something interesting to check out. On blogs that cover the same topics frequently related posts could cause a 5-10% increase in traffic overnight. You could also start to see traffic from lots of other blogs. It’s a bit of an experiment, and we’ll be tweaking it a lot based on your feedback and the data that we collect once everything is live.

Right now this is just for English blogs, but we’re working on the technology to roll this out for every language we support. We’ll also be adding some ways for you to tweak the results to your liking.

Camera make: Sony
Camera model: DSC-T100
Focal length: 5.8
Exposure time: 1/500
Edited with: iPhoto 

Camera make: Sony
Camera model: DSC-T100
Focal length: 5.8
Exposure time: 1/125
Edited with: iPhoto 

Transylvania County has been named the “Land of Waterfalls” in North Carolina. Last weekend I was able to spend the day at the Pisgah National Forest and take pictures of the “Looking Glass Falls”. I also took some video of the fall which you can find here.

Camera make: Sony
Camera model: DSC-T100
Focal length: 9.62
Exposure time: 1/200
Edited with: iPhoto 

While writing this I thought of a unique story about an encounter that my grandfather had with a flying squirrel. I don’t remember exactly how the flying squirrel was found by him but the basic story is that he found this baby squirrel that he been living in his attic. It was old enough that if it was let back into the wild it would have trouble living, since it knew nothing about self-defense. So instead of him being put through those troubles my grandfather decided to keep him in the house and keep him as a pet. He acquired the name Radar. I remember eating dinner there and him flying from atop the curtains over the table and onto a bench that was on the other side of the room. After my grandfather illness worsened and my parents and I moved into his house my mother figured it probably wouldn’t be the best to have him in the house. Just to be safe since his natural instincts could kick in and she didn’t want me to have to get a rabbis shot. Radar was the adopted by my grandfathers girlfriends sister and carried out a long life with her.

Intersting Links:
An article on About.com about Flying Squirrels and keeping them as pets
An article on Exotic Nutritions also about Flying Squirrels and keeping them as pets
A video called “Weird Animal Fun: Feeding a Cute Little Flying Squirrel“

This reminded me of a story that my mother was talking about that she found on AOL, where a mother gave pregnancy to her daughters baby because her daughter could not carry a baby. This story caused quite the uproar but the baby, mother, and grandson are doing perfectly wonderful. (Credit: OCRegister.com)

The way I think about it is when I’m ready to have a baby and for some reason I’m not able to carry her or him, I would be ecstatic if someone close to me would carry my baby for me. Yes, some people think this is unethical and/or just flat out wrong, but we’re all in-titled to our own opinions. Right?

- The Original, consisting of 101 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke and 500 Mentos mints.

- The Domino Effect, consisting of 251 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke and 1,506 Mentos mints.

- Experiment #144: Super-Soaking Fountain, which consits of 180 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke and over 1,000 Mentos mints.

And how about the ones that didn’t work? 

- Experiment# 6 goes wrong, where they drop a string of mentos down into a tube then it hits the Diet Coke.

- Experiment #156: Dominos gone wrong, the boys aren’t getting to much luck with it working correctly.

For more information check out Eepybird.com.

The first thing I did was try to plug it in just to see for some reason the battery went dead, since it was sort-of on low juice. Nothing happend.

Then I plugged it into my computer, and just iTunes picked it up, but it said that it could not read “” iPhone. I was panicking at this point.

Finally the turning point, I had it plugged in and the held down the top button and home button at the same time for 15-30 seconds. Viola! The Apple logo popped up and I was back in business!

I hope this helped!! Good iPhone-ing to everyone!

What does this have to do with birds? Since the door has been open for her to go in and out of the house as she pleases, we’ve had some new guests living in our house. As I was walking towards the den I notice a couple of birds fly back outside, I didn’t think anything of it. Then the next day the exact thing happend so I began to investigate. And surely enough they were building a bird house on top of an antique clock that was in our den. Moral of the story: Don’t leave doors open for long periods of time during this time of year, or you might have a bird hotel inside.

Q: Why I have chosen a Facebook page instead of giving out my personal Facebook?
A: I’ve struggled with this for sometime now. The conclusion of a page instead of giving out my actual Facebook is because I saw what happend when my friends went huge on Myspace. I received messages and spam from the “friends” that I had, which becomes extremly annoying. I love communicating with people and hearing what they have to say about many different topics, but sometimes I just would like to keep up with close personal friends. I feel like giving out my Facebook would invade my privacy and cause unwanted spamming. I hope everyone enjoys my facebook page!

Stay in touch!

My NYR (New Year’s Resolutions) have been going well, the exception is here and my photoblog. I hate that! I have so much on my plate I haven’t had the time I thought I would to update both of these like I would enjoy doing.

For school I’m finishing basically 2 years of school into less than 4 months. So far I think I’m going to be able to do it. I’ve narrowed my teachers 36-week recommended schedule into 36 days, basically 1 week of work into 1 day. I happily report that my grades are excellent at the moment, and I hope to continually report this.

I’ve also been taking my free time that I have in researching places that I would like to live and finding out what the cost of living is and trying to find apartments. =] To move to the USVI I’m not going to be able to find one online because most of the apartments are listed in the towns newspaper or by word of mouth.

As for modeling, I will hopefully soon be out of the contract I am currently under and start other endeavors.

Good luck on your personal NYR. It’s very easy to lose track of what they were, but if you keep your mind on track you will be sure to accomplish what you wanted for yourself in 2008!

Seriously it was a godsend. Of course I would have just rather have had the answers thrown at me so I wouldn’t have to think, but that’s not the point of school and learning. The tutor that I was connected with helped me learn the material and understand it. I had a chart explaining what was in Substance A and B, and through there “whiteboard” I was able to draw it out so the tutor and I could discuss it. The tutor could also write on the whiteboard to explain to me different things that needed to be done in pictures. Now I understand the concept completely behind what Substance A and B were.

I highly recommend this service to students (grades 4-12) that need help with understanding material. They offer tutoring in the 4 core subjects of Math, English, Science, and Social Studies. The tutors can help you if you have no where to start, or have started but are stuck on a certain part, or they will check your answers behind you. The service is available 24/7 which I find highly appealing since I take online classes and I’m able to do my school work when ever fits into my schedule, and this means that I can get stuck at anytime. A big advantage to in person tutors, because you have a set time to meet with them.

Below is a link to Tutor.com, and by clicking below you can get 50 minutes for $1 instead of $30.

• Multimedia text messaging. The iPhone takes wonderful pictures and the option to send them in email is available but why not text messages?
• Video capabilities. Wonderful pictures but no video?
• An easier way to find contacts. I have a lot of contacts and there is no way to put them in categories, like personal or business contacts. What if a last name is forgotten?
• Instant messaging, like an AIM application.
• Java in Safari. This definitely annoys me quite a bit. You get on a site and then a little blue box with a question mark pops up and I can’t go anywhere.
• Cut and paste option for text.
• Games.
• Voice dialing or voice recognition.
• 3G network to speed up the internet when not connected to Wi-Fi. Edge is a little slow for my liking.
• GPS in Google Maps application.

And a couple of other things I would like to see when iPhone 2.0 comes out.

• Removable battery.
• Expandable storage.

It was quite pretty and my first time actually driving in snow, seeing the fact that we hardly get any snow anymore.

Happy Valentines Day <3

The ability to drag and drop icons on the home screen. All you have to do it hold an icon down for a couple of seconds, then as you will notice the icons will begin to wiggle. When they wiggle you can drag and drop them where you would like, and you can have up to 8 pages on the home screen to put the icons.

The ability to add bookmarks from Safari to the home screen. When you’re viewing a page and you click on the “add bookmark” feature you can now choose to add the page to your bookmark list, to the home screen or email the link.

The ability to send an SMS message to multiple people. Now when you’re sending an SMS you can choose multiple numbers or contacts to send one to.

The ability for the iPhone to hold 75,000 SMS messages instead of 1,000. I text way to much, and I noticed that I had not had a warning to delete some of my text messages. I realized that they had bumped up the limit, not just a little bit but to 75,000. I still wonder why there is a limit to begin with.

The Google Maps application now can find your general location by using the towers. You can do this by going into the application and then clicking on the circle in the lower left corner. When you do this a circle pops up on your screen giving you your general location.

The Google Maps application now can display the hybrid map view. To view this go into the application and then click on the eye in the lower right corner. Once you hit this screen you can select from the following options: map view, satellite view, hybrid view and list view.

Rented movies can now be added. To do this all you have to do sync them to your iPhone like you would music or other videos.

To view the video for more detailed descriptions on apple.com click here.

I’m currently driving a Lexus 470and about 2 weeks ago I got in the car on a freezing morning to go get some breakfast at Chick-fil-a. I tried to roll the window just a little bit and it wouldn’t go down so I didn’t try anymore. Then I starting driving and noticed the window wasn’t all the way up, so like normally I rolled it down a little bit and back up. Instead of going back up it went out of the frame. Kaboom- broken window. It’s been in and out of the shop a couple of times and it’s still not fixed because one of the parts had to be glued and the glue hadn’t dried all the way when they tried to reprogram it. Did you know how much you use your window in your car? I didn’t. Drive-thru’s became a huge problem. It should be completely fixed tomorrow. Yay.

I knew that school was going to be extremely demanding but I had NO clue what I was getting into. I’m now doing the recommended work load of one week in only a day. Urg, a ton of work let me tell you, but with some time management and non-stop work I’m staying on track.

I’m still deciding on where I want to move. I’m still thinking about possibilities in the USVI, Cali, Florida and South Carolina. I’m still not certain, but I’ve got a couple of months to figure that out.

MTV Explains - What was Tom Cruise Really Talking About?
Penthouse’s Interview with L. Ron Hubbard Jr. - The creator of Scientology’s son himself speaking of his father
“Looking over my shoulder, The Inside Account of the Story That Almost Killed Me”- the writer of Scandal of the Scandal of Scientology, Paulette Cooper writes about how Scientology ruined her life
http://www.xenu.net/ - Where you can find huge amounts of information about Scientology

My number one question is if Scientology doesn’t have anything to hide and none of the accusations against them are true then why are they taking legal actions toward information on the internet?

Example: Go to this video on youtube, and look at the comments.
“[This comment has been removed due to legal action by the Church of Scientology.]“

Also, Southpark’s – “The Whole Truth About The Church of Scienology”:

Two of Scientology’s “Front” Groups: Narconon and Criminon. Check out Narconon-Exposed to learn more about Narconon.

Another youtube video to watch about ANON vs. SCIENTOLOGY, which I absolutley agree with. It also has great links.

A friend showed me this video a couple months ago of the Bugatti Veyron and it blew my mind. If you haven’t, it’s a must. In the video it explains what exactly the Veyron can do and what it’s equipped with. Towards the end of the video the car is actually driven to the maximum speed. What’s the magic number? 253mph, no lie. Watch for yourself:

Get a little more in depth on the Bugatti-Configurator, where you can choose what the exterior color and interior colors are, then view the car to your specifications.

Links:
The Veyron on Bugatti’s Official Website

If the Cruise video wasn’t disturbing enough, check out this YouTube video about “The Un-Funny Truth About Scientology”. Caution: This video is graphic.

And they have vaults? To learn more go to this article on the Wahington Post. Here’s one vault on Google Earth, and you can find the other one here.

What do you think of all this?

Link List:
Wikipedia – Scientology
Video of Tom Cruise speaking about Scientology
Washington Post article on the vaults
Google Maps – Vault One
Google Maps – Vault Two

For the past 3 weeks I’ve been searching and searching for a webhost. I’ve done google search after msn search over and over again, and I haven’t found what I’m looking for. I’ve signed up for Lunarpages.com and Easy-To-Build.com, and neither one satisfy my needs. The review sites tend to be just affiliate websites trying to make money. Ah! I need some real human input. Someone who knows what they’re talking about and what’s the best of the best cause I can’t find it.

I’ve been with Homestead.com since I was in 6th grade. They offer an amazing sitebuilder and other great features, but I’m trying to expand my site (if only they supported wordpress and forums). The features that I need a webhost to have is being able to support wordpress, forums and have an awesome WYSIWYG builder. Along with the standard email address’, lots of space, outstanding up-time, good help support, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’m about to jump out of a window soon going through all these webhosting websites trying to find the right one, and only signing up for them and finding out that it’s not what I’m looking for.

Edit: I ran into Homestead’s blog, which stated that they’re going through beta testing of PHP capabilities. I hope they release this soon. Maybe, just maybe I can stay with them. I’d still like to hear what everyone has to say.

After being through very stressful experiences in my life I’ve come to terms with having to deal with the stress. When I come to terms that I’m dealing with a lot of things on my plate that are causing major stress I’ve used the following “exercises” to cope with it.

-Visualization: I think of the things which make me happy and don’t invoke the feeling of stress, particularly relaxing on a beach
-Exercising: I’ve found exercising very relieving, like almost “working off” the stress
-Thinking of the good that I have in my life rather than the negative
-Take a break for the day, sit alone and take a deep breath
-Organizing: If everything is unorganized I start to feel like I won’t ever get anything done, so if I take a step back and organize everything the stress is reduced

Keep in mind that some of the things or all of the things that I have listed might not work for you. The key to reducing stress is finding what works for you as an individual.

If you would like more information about dealing with stress I’ve found the following links very informative:
http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/dealing-with-stress/ 
http://www.connectionhelpline.org/docs/DEALING_WITH_STRESS.pdf
http://www.greatnesscircle.com/dealing-with-stress.html

The whole school thing has been killing me. I’m currently signed up but don’t have everything in line like it needs to be thanks to public schooling around here. Blah! Here’s a little insight into the school problems: In 7th grade I started missing school because of stomach problems. I went to the doctor multiple times over 2 years. Everytime I went in with the same problems, horrible pain in my lower stomach region. The majority of the time I would get the same answer, Cathryn it’s probably due to you’re “girlie” time of the month. Time and time again I would have to go in to get doctors note for school, just to get the same answer and nothing being done about it. In 9th grade it got to the point where I was missing school like crazy because I couldn’t get out of my bed in the morning. I would go to sleep with my stomach hurting and wake up with the same pain but only worse. At this point I went back to them, and explained in detail the pain I was having and that it couldn’t be because of my period or some kind of bug. At last, they listened. From there I started seeing specialist that diagnosted me with a form of IBS, which was due to stress in my life. That made perfect sense. Stress at that point was at the most it’s ever been. I was having problems that every teenager goes through but constant and to a horrible leavel. My father and I started not talking, people that I was very close with had pasted away, including my grandfather and best friend, you name it and it was going on. Basically the big thing that had to be done was changing my eatting habits and the stress. To this day my eatting habits haven’t changed very much, but the stress level is no where near the same. After the stress level wasn’t as bad, I’ve been ey-okay. At this point I should be graduating before I should be because of taking online classes, which is a huge bonus. I have the time to do the things that I love and that need to be done. Even though there are those agrivating loose ends that still have to be taken care of. Ah! What fun tomorrow is going to be having to deal with that, haha.

 So basically how do I deal with IBS? I try to eat healthier, try to drink lots of water, and deal with stress.

 More life struggles coming soon, haha.

Tonight I did find the time to do some expanding on the internet. I’ve signed up on virb and twitter. The reason I signed up for twitter is so when these instances come up and I can’t blog as much as possible you can still find me and see what I’m doing. Along with being able to keep my friends up to date on what’s going on. I’m not completely sure of it yet, but I’ll let you know what I decided. Andddd, the reason that I’ve signed up on virb is I like there set up and I wanted to see exactly what it’s all about. Just another myspace? Maybe, maybe not.. I shall find out.

Goodnight!

Halfway there!

My last iPod was a black, 5th generation, 80 GB wonder, until a beverage took it’s life. After months and months of using small mp3 players, I bought a new black, 6th generation, 160 GB iPod. The 6th generation has definitely changed while keeping the normal iPod standards of music, videos, photos, podcasts and more. Only having the iPod for a night isn’t going to tell me much, but I’m hoping new design for the front of the iPod will help me out. On the 5th generation the screen was “glassy”, causing glare and it being easily scratched. The front of the 6th generation is not matte expect for the screen. I have noticed that the click-wheel is not as responsive. Well, I guess we’ll see how this one works out. I’m going to be crossing my fingers that it has a longer life than the last one!

Black and White

I have been blogging more, especially neat findings that I have found on the internet. This week I’m planning on writing more about starting an ecommerce store and games on the internet.

I now have a photoblog, which I have been blogging everyday since the 1st of the year except for 2 days! It’s so exciting actually being involved in photography again.

I still haven’t found a web hosting service that I like for my website, but I have been searching non-stop. If anyone has any ideas that would be very helpful!

Today I am having two people sign my forms to be able to change my name and start more of the process of the online business. I have found a host for the online business at Volusion.com, which is an all-in-one ecommerce solution. They have outstanding features including premium RackSpace hosting, no hidden fees or transaction charges, free monthly updates and improvements, free 24/7 live phone support, everything’s web based, it’s completely search engine optimize, and more. Check out there site to find out more. I’ve been trying out free demos of ecommerce hosting solutions for the past 2 weeks and so far they have knocked everyone out of the park. Homestead’s ecommerce plan was also very impressive but they have limited capability in designing the website through their online “Site Builder”, which I am looking for.

Black and White

More: For about two weeks my mom and I noticed a baby squirrel who would come to the bird feeder and reach into it to get food. The baby squirrel finally was named Stewart, after Stuart Little.

Good Things Should Never End - A never ending website, which has many fun features.

Get The Glass – Help a family reach the glass, through a board type of game.

Pet Moustache – Upload a photo of you or a friend, then grow, groom, cut and do many things to it to make it look the way you want. Then you may send it as a singing telegram to friends. (My Pet Moustache)

Don’t Click It – Is a research site, which is conducting whether or not users can resist to click on their site while “guiding” the mouse to what you want.

Daisy Marc Jacobs - Plant a daisy in the virtual field, play games, win prizes and learn about Daisy, the new fragrance by Marc Jacobs.

Quit Doing It- A website designed to target 18-24 year olds, educating them about cigarettes.

Xplored - A gallery of magic, haunted, and unusual places.

If this interests you I would suggest www.thefwa.com to find more “top” flash websites.

Here’s a video that shows the Geminids meteor shower that took place December 14/15, 2007:

Related links:
A list of 2008 meteor showers and view tips – http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/

If you would like to try this experiment this is what you need:
-a bowl
-milk (we used whole milk- it can be done with any kind of milk)
-food coloring (we used blue, green and yellow- it can be done with any colors)
-soap (we used dawn- any kind of dishwashing soap will work, except dishwashing)

Procedures:
1) Fill bowl up with milk
2) Add food coloring to either the middle of the bowl or on the sides
3) Then add a drop or two of soap to the middle of the bowl, and then watch

I took a picture of the final product, you can find it on my photoblog.

To find out how a friend and I did this check it out here.

Why I want to accomplish it: I would like to accomplish recieving my high school diploma so I may go to the college that I would like to attend, which is FIDM, and so I can have the job I would like to have, which is being a graphic designer.

How I am going to accomplish it: I’m going to accomplish it by keeping up with my school work, and studying.

When I would like to accomplish it by: I would like to have my diploma by May.

Why I want to accomplish it: First of all, the money would be a big plus. Second of all, I’m going to need the money to be able to pay for everything when I move out. Third of all, it has to be something like I like doing or else I’m not going to want to wake up and go do what I have to do.

How I am going to accomplish it: I’m going to accomplish it by finding something I enjoy doing, then I’m going to find somewhere that’s hiring.

When I would like to accomplish it by: I would like to have a job by February.

Why I want to accomplish it: I want to move out once I have my high school diploma because I won’t have to focus on high school anymore, and so I can move near the beach.

How I am going to accomplish it: I’m first going to finish school, than I’m going to figure out where I would like to move. I’ve thought about the Caribbean, but I’m having second thoughts about it because it’s so far away from home. I have thought about different places yet, but I’m not sure.

When I would like to accomplish it by: After I get my diploma, hopefully in July I will be moving into my own place.

Why I want to accomplish it: I want to blog more to keep everything up to date.

How I am going to accomplish it: I’m going to blog more by setting a certain time of day aside just to blog.

When I would like to accomplish it by: All year long.

Why I want to accomplish it: I haven’t been taking photos like I used to, and I want to start again.

How I am going to accomplish it: I’m going to pick up my camera and start snapping again. I’ve been looking at different photoblogging sites and haven’t found anything I like. So I have made another wordpress where I’m just going to have photos that I’ve taken. Click here to view it.

When I would like to accomplish it by: All year long.

Why I want to accomplish it: I’ve always been interested in making websites and graphic design, so I want to show off my talent and have a place where I can communicate with people freely.

How I am going to accomplish it: I now have an account at Homestead, ( ) but they do not have the capabilities to host wordpress, so I’m thinking about signing up with a different host. So I first need to find the right host, and then start creating everything.

When I would like to accomplish it by: I would like to have my website up and running by February.

Why I want to accomplish it: Ever since I was little I’ve wanted to become a model. It’s something that excites me and interests me.

How I am going to accomplish it: I’ve been to two modeling conventions and finally got signed with a manager, but the agency that is representing me isn’t finding me many jobs. The jobs that I am getting are for promotional events, which can be fun, but I want to do print and commercial modeling. To accomplish this I’m going to have to work closer with my management, and/or find a new manager.

When I would like to accomplish it by: I would like to get the ball rolling tomorrow, and keep working me way to be able to do this all year long.

Why I want to accomplish it: I want to accomplish this because I am now starting an online business selling car audio, and will be selling home audio later down the road. I would like it to be well maintained and have it actually go somewhere.

How I am going to accomplish it: To accomplish this my business partner and I are going to have to get all the business and legal ends tied up, and then start working on the web design.

When I would like to accomplish it by: I would like to also have this site up and running by February.

Again, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope everyone was safe and had a blast! <3

My New Year’s Resolutions for 2008 are to achieve or receive:

• My high school diploma, with decent grades
• A job, that I enjoy doing
• Moving out of the house, into an apartment somewhere near the beach
• Blogging more, at least 5 days a week
• Taking more photos, and start a daily photoblog
• My own website, with my blog, forum, photos, etc.
•  Modeling, and making it into at least 2 magazines of some kind
• A well maintained online business

For now, these are my ambitions and what I would like to accomplish and work towards in 2008. Keep checking in to see how I am doing accomplishing these things and to see what else is going on in my life or what else I have found.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!
Cathryn

Over the years Christmas started to loose the special meaning behind it due to family ties being lost and other factors. My mentality of Christmas this year is not to actually label it as “Christmas” but approach it as a day to spend time with those that I care about, and giving.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, whether you are celebrating it or not! =]

 
Copyright. © 2007. Cathryn S. All rights reserved.

None of the legal things are going to be handled until my name has been changed, which I am currently in the process of doing. It’s more of a pain than I thought. I have had to go downtown to fill out forms. Now I am waiting 10 days for it to be on a bulletin board there, and while it’s sitting there I have to fill out more paper work and have signatures notarized. After that it’s down a long and legal road. Ahh.. what fun, huh? It’s going to be worth it in the end. I guess a few of you might be asking why am I changing my name? Well, I have chosen not to carry my fathers name any longer for personal reasons.

I’m also working on a personal website where I will keep updates about my modeling jobs, a bio, organizations I am involved in, a RSS feed to my blog here at WordPress, contact information, and a link to my mailing list for those of you who would like to be notifed by mail when I post a new blog or have something to share.

Look out for my personal website and the business website, which should be ready at the beginning of the year!

“Seasonal Affective Disorder is a depression that afflicts people primarily during the winter months, and is often referred to as seasonal depression. Seasonal Affective Disorder was discovered in the early eighties by the National Institute of Health. The NIH estimates that over 36 million Americans suffer depressive symptoms brought on by the winter months. Seasonal Affective Disorder causes you to feel down, gloomy, and lose energy. You may have difficulty concentrating and feeling alert, withdraw socially and have carbohydrate cravings. Seasonal Affective Disorder sufferers also experience sleep problems.”   (Information from ApolloHeath.com)

Take a circadian rhythm assesment test at ApolloHealth.com.

Links that I have found helpful:
ApolloHeath.com
Seasonal-Affective-Disorder.net
Wikipedia – Seasonal Affective Disorder

Last night a friend and I were riding around trying to find something worth doing. As we were doing this I noticed two shooting stars, which is very uncommon. Then as we kept a closer eye on the sky we were seeing about one every minute. I knew that it had to of been some kind of meteor shower. As we were sitting there looking up at the sky I pulled out my phone to see if we were seeing something that was supposed to be there. Sure enough what we were watching was a annual meteor shower, called Geminid, named after Gemini the twins. We started watching it about 3:30 and then around 4:30 it slowed down. What a pleasant surprise! The peak nights were last night and tonight so be sure to look tomorrow night! To find out more about the Geminid showers visit Space.com.

Be sure to check out Space.com’s page about Space Tourism and sign up for a possible fully sponsored mission to space at MissiontoSpace.org.

I bought “Web Design: Flash Sites” written by Taschen today and found these creative sites:

bobscube.com
dontclick.it
kristinadragomir.com
lessrain.com

While surfing the web I found thewhalehunt.com, where Jonathan Harris shows a new way of storytelling through pictures.

(if you would rather use a poll than comment go to: html or flash?)

The whole point of creating this entry was to share something I found the other day about a possible fully sponsored mission to space. Go to MissiontoSpace.org to find out more.

I remember being fascinated by space and the thought of traveling into space since I was little. I would wonder what was out there. My parents bought a program where you could enter your location and see the stars as you could see them outside. You could find the constellations you could see that time of the year. We use to use the program and figure out where we could see the constellations outside, and try to find them.  I remember seeing the extraordinary pictures from the Eagle Nebula and Swan Nebula that were sent back to us from the Hubble Telescope (see below for images). After watching the movie Contact, staring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey, I pondered if I had the chance to go into space would I take it. The answer was: of course, I think it would be the most amazing experience! I hope that Sameer Sugwekar will find a way to make this possible and I could be a possible candidate to be on the trip. Visit the site and join the groups to help this be a success! 

I’m already on my second iPhone, wasn’t it enough pain to have to anticipate the arrival and then having to wait to actually be able to go get it?

The reason I’m on my second is actually my fault. It must have slipped off something because the volume button was pressed into my phone. During a phone call or while listening to music the volume would just random go down. I took it to the nearest Apple Store, and I was dreading having to either pay the whole amount over again or having to wait weeks to get a new phone. Well, boom! It’s okay, I’ll give you a new phone this time. The first time I haven’t had a problem replacing a broken phone! Then I was worried about loosing all of my information, my photos, text messages, you name it. I knew most of it would be on my computer when I got home because I had synced it before I left. I was under the impression that I would loose all of the “normal stuff”, like text messages, my internet history and bookmarks, and my saved map locations. I got home and hooked the new one up to my computer and everything was synced back on this phone! What a relief!

Now, I’ve had this second phone for 2 weeks and I’ve already dropped it. I know, probably not a good idea. They’re supposed to be durable, right? (Unless they take a spill straight on to the volume buttons) I thought I had broken my phone I couldn’t hear anything when I called someone, and no one could hear me when I picked up. When I turned it on to my speaker it worked, or if I played music it would work. I just couldn’t hear out of the ear piece. Then I found this nifty article, which I can’t remember where I found it. It said the problem could possibly be that if you were using the headphone jack and pulled them out to quickly the sensors couldn’t read it. When this happens all the audio is sent to the headphone jack instead of the ear piece.

The solution was to plug in the headphones that Apple sent along with the phone and slowly unplug the headphones. Voila! My problem was solved!

Note: Cell phones in general tend to slip out of my hands and go straight for the concrete, or just stop working for no reason.

When I’m thinking positive about it, sledding, building snowmen, making snow angels, sitting by a fire, roasting marshmallows, and snuggling all come to mind. Wonderful things, but all the negatives come to mind first.

Plain and simple: I know I would rather be somewhere warm.

What a wonderful man. He knew how to make you laugh even if tears were running down your face. He knew how to calm you down no matter what was going on. He was a genius. He cared more about his family and their happiness than anything in the world. He taught me how to dream since I was young. I’m speaking of my grandfather who passed away 8 years ago today. Oh how I miss him!

You know how some grandparents pick what they want you to call them? Well, he wasn’t like that. He wanted me to choose what I called him. As a baby it started at Deedeedee. Then as I grew older it was shortened to Didi. I remember how he use to take me to tea parties when I was a small child. I would go pick out a dress a Rolly’s (a children’s fine retail store) and he would come pick me up and we would go have real tea parties. We would ride around playing “airplane”, where he was the captain and I was the second in command. I would pull the glove-box down and “control the airplane” or at least pretend to control the car. There are so many memories of him that I will cherish forever.

I was getting my car worked on the other day, and the woman who was helping me asked if he was my grandfather. Proudly I said “yes he was”. She then acknowledged what a wonderful person he was. I am biased, but many people loved him and who he was.

I look around at all the father figures that surround me today and none of them compare to him. He cared about his family so much, and made sure they were happy no matter what. Of course there were the small quarrels but in the end everything went back to normal.

If only he was here today, that’s what I keep thinking. Everything that is wrong would go away because he would know how to comfort me and those around me.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been thinking about going to bartending school to get a base knowledge of what goes on behind a bar. There is a local school about 45 minutes away from where I live, and there class only takes one to two weeks to complete. I don’t know whether or not an actually bartending school will help me, or if I should just dive in some place local.

I came upon this looking on YouTube the other day and found it amazing that families who put up Christmas lights every year have easy access to technology like this. I think everything about synchronized lighting to music is incredible. Take a look.

If you find this interesting there is a site, called ControlTheShow.com, which let’s the viewers from all around the world control the lights on the house however they want to and see the transformation. This is also benefiting the Ronald McDonald House. For more infomation: click here.

I have found tremendous amounts of things floating through my head lately, from what do I need to do today to what should I do for the rest of my life. Being 18 there are so many possibilities of what to do and where to start, it’s mind-numbing.

Here are two of my many thoughts:

The first thing that is on my plate is school. Between absences and counselors traditional schools in the area have just plainly not worked out for me, so I have chosen to take online high school classes to get my diploma. Some people have doubted the road I have taken, but I know it’s the right way for me. A huge plus is that I will be able to finish 2 years of “regular school time” in less than 6 months!

I have been contemplating about moving somewhere in the near future. I have lived in the same small town since I was born and I am ready to move on and start a life of my own. Where to begin is the hard part. The first place that came to mind, seeing the fact that I love warm weather and the beach, was somewhere in the Caribbean. I am visiting the USVI within the next couple of months to see if I would actually enjoy living there. Though the cons of me picking up my stuff and moving across an ocean would be not being close to my mom and friends, therefore I have also thought about moving to an larger city in the state. This alone has brought up so many unanswered questions for myself. Where? When? Money? Job? and this list goes on!

Until next time,
Cathryn