Stone Soup

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Telly's View: In Praise of Social Workers

It was about to but then my computer froze the other night, I couldn't do a thing with it so I shut it off. Things went from bad to worse and my hard drive died. The computer is just over a year old, and past the warranty and sadly, I did not take an extended warranty. The tech was not able to retrieve any of the data and I did not have my files backed up anywhere. Big sigh! I had a new drive within a day, not bad hmm? Have been reinstalling software for two nights. I have no idea what caused the problem but wonder if perhaps a virus slipped by Windows One Care.

The good part, I now have a clean clutter-free laptop!

I am watching one of my favourite shows, Spectacle with Elvis Costello. The guest tonight is Herbie Hancock, it is a great show tonight.

I can't believe it is June 5 already...when is it going to get warm?

Read the story below before Viewing the video!   In a Chinese modern dance competition on TV one very unique couple won one of the top prizes. The lady,in her 30's, was a dancer who had trained since she was a little girl.  Later in life, she lost her entire left arm in an accident and fell into a state of depression for a few years. Someone then asked her to coach a children's dancing group.  From that point on, she realized that she could not forget dancing.  She still loved to dance and wanted to dance again.  So, she started to do some of her old routines, but having lost her arm, she had also lost her balance.   It took a while before she could even make simple turns and spins without falling. Then she heard of a man in his 20s who had lost a leg in an accident.  He had also fallen into the usual denial, depression and anger type of emotional roller coaster.  But, she was determined to find him and persuade him to dance with her.  He had never danced, and to dance with one leg...are you joking with me? "No way!"   But, she didn't give up, and he reluctantly agreed thinking, "I have nothing else to do anyway." She started to teach him dancing.  The two broke up a few times because he had no concept of using muscle, how to control his body, and knew none of the basic things about dancing.  When she became frustrated and lost patience with him, he would walk out.  Eventually, they came back together and started training seriously. They hired a choreographer to design routines for them.  She would fly high (held by him) with both arms (a sleeve for an arm) flying in the air.  He could bend horizontally supported by one leg with her leaning on him, etc.  In the competition, as you will see, they dance beautifully and they legitimately won the competition."   When I watched this I didn't even realize that she was missing an arm because I was focusing on the guy with only one leg.  Really quite amazing!  I became aware that the woman's right arm was missing about 1/4 of the time into the clip.

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I am happy to share this slideshow of the wedding with you.  These are not the official photos, some are a little grainy because the lights were low and they were taken quickly.  The photographer version takes forever so I will post these!  It was a such happy celebration, everyone had a great time!  There was even a belly dancer, apparently a tradition at middle-eastern celebrations. 

Posted via email from Heather's posterous

Posted via email from Heather's posterous

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Heather's posterous

Bernadette and Sam invited me to drop by for dessert last night. I found a parking spot in their lot and arrived almost on time. It is always a treat to eat with these two, Sam goes all out to make great tasty dishes. Pears Poached in Sauterne with chocolate and raspberry sauces garnished with mango slices, did not disappoint. He served it with flair too! Kudos Sam!!

Part of the treat when eating at Bernadette's is her sunroom with a view, a closed in balcony overlooking the city. You can see almost all the way to Lake Ontario, downtown, CN Tower, parks and woodlands across the city. It is just wonderful to sit at their bistro table and enjoy the view, while sipping good coffee and enjoying a fantastic 5-star dessert!

I checked out her latest knitting project, and a few things I hadn't seen before. Below is a cute little tic tac toe game with plants and watering cans instead of x's and o's

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Posted via email from Heather's posterous

Posted via email from Heather's posterous

I stumbled across this little animation, and noticed the creator had done a few more. They are very well done, very short and the little frog is so cute he could develop a cult following or a career in television commercials like Aflac Duck. Although, they might need to rename him.


The dialogue goes as follows: "So there I was at the pub, right, and this bloke walks up to me and he's like 'Hey, what's a frog doing in the pub?' And I say, well, I'm having a drink. And he says 'Well, alright then. Let me buy you another.' So he does, and we walk away best of friends."




... But anyways, there I was at the pub, right, this bloke walks in with his pet giraffe. Who in the world would have a pet giraffe, I don't know, but this guy had one. Anyways, he walks up to the bar and buys himself a drink, buys the giraffe a drink. Guy drinks his drink, and the giraffe drinks it's drink, and then the giraffe falls over dead. Well, the guy gets up to walk out, and the bartender's like " 'EY! You can't leave that lyin' there!" And the guy turns around, he says "It's not a lion. It's a giraffe."


"So there I was at the pub, right, and this bloke walks up and says "Hey, you're sittin' in me favorite chair." And I says, "Well, I been sittin' here all day, how can it be your favorite chair?" He says "I sit here all the other times," and I says "Well, I been here all day, an' I got dibs." And he says "you can't have dibs on a chair," and I says, "well, there you go."

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Saul Griffith presents an Ignite talk entitled "Subverting science education: HOWTOONS seeks to put joy, story, adventure, free-spirit, fun & ridiculousness, back into informal science education."
You will find the ending of this excellent and inspiring presentation, hilarious. I am on my way out to find Howtoons at the bookstore. I think every kid, or kid at heart, should be reading these. Best educational tool I have seen in ages...really turns kids on to science and engineering...makes geeks heroes. "Childhood is your last chance to be a hero!"

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love this Posterous posting, I can do it from absolutely anywhere! Because even away from home, I can usually get on a computer somewhere to send off an email post. I am still testing ways to use it. I have a video to share with you and hope I can embed via email to Posterous. Here goes...(don't worry, if it doesn't work I will come back at Posterous to fix it if possible) and I am also posting the direct url here: (edit note: It worked both ways, they both embedded, I have removed one to save space)
Here is an interesting presentation on The Secret History of Fonts. The presenter Bram Pitoyo, is a fontophile, a geek who loves and knows everything about fonts. Enjoy! The sound is a little wonky but the material is great! Ignite is an organization that is springing up in many cities around the world. Great for honing your presentation skills. You get 5 minutes to present 20 slides, each automatically advancing every 15 seconds. The presentations share information quickly and have impact. You can find more of them at YouTube. ..and btw, you can follow Bram Pitoya on Twitter.


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The last truck rolled off the line today at the GM plant in Oshawa. I live about 15 minutes from Oshawa. When the closure was announced about a year ago, it had a big impact on the economy here--first thing, housing prices plummeted and the ripples were felt everywhere. Most people who live in Oshawa worked for GM. Workers finished their shift and filed out of the plant, the parade was like a funeral march. The last truck was won in a draw by a plant supervisor.

Just a few slides to show you this little Meyer Lemon tree I bought at a Chinese mall at lunch time recently; it was the only one they had and I haven't seen them anywhere else. Wish me luck.

I think it will be quite nice after a summer on my patio. I have had it outdoors for about a week since I bought it but tonight we are supposed to have some frost so I have brought it indoors. I notice one of the lemons went black, probably from cold last night. Ok, I have learned my lesson, I cannot rush things. I will pay attention to the weather forecasts and move it indoors and out as needed until the end of the month.

The shape of this little tree is not very nice, yet. I hope it will fill in nicely so I can prune it into a more pretty shape. It will winter in my kitchen at the patio door.

Lemonade anyone?

Happy Mother's Day

Watch a sunrise with me from my balcony at the resort.

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