What is today? Don’t worry, I haven’t lost all track of time, I know it is the 26th of January. But every day has a special significance to someone. It represents many things to many people and for some people it’s just another ordinary day.

For a lot of folks, it’s a holiday. For my Aussie friends it’s Australia day, a bit like our own Independence day. It is also, according to the internet, National Diane Day, National Green Juice Day (I’m afraid to ask or think about that one), Dental Drill Appreciation Day (nope, not kidding!), Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement, Spouses Day, and National Peanut Brittle Day.

I think out of all of those days, the one that seems safest, and most enjoyable, at least for me, would be the last one, celebrating peanut brittle. So, what better way to honor it than with posting a recipe for the nutty stuff!

Peanut Brittle

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

2 cups raw Spanish peanuts

1 Tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

Heat and stir sugar, syrup and 1/2 cup of water in a heavy 3 quart saucepan til sugar dissolves. Cook over medium heat to soft ball stage (234 degrees). Add nuts and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook to hard crack stage (305 degrees), stirring often. Remove from heat. Quickly stir in butter and soda. Pour at once onto 2 well buttered 15 and1/2 x 10 and 1/2 x 1 inch pans, spreading in a thin layer. If desired, cool slightly and pull with forks to stretch very thin. When cold, break into pieces. Makes 1 and 1/2 pounds.

(I will leave it to someone else to post about or celebrate the Green Juice Day…)

The eyes have it today. There seems to be a theme lately on eyes and what we see and perceive with them. Whether it is a joke, comic, meme, or the written word, our eyes take it all in and transfers that information to our brain to help us compute what it is we are actually seeing.

Our eyes can be different colors, different shapes and sizes, some may wear glasses, some may only need them for reading, and others may be blessed with 20/20 vision. It’s a pretty marvelous feat to be able to see color and texture and nature in all it’s glory. It’s something we usually take for granted. I know, it’s time for me to go in for an eye appointment. Upgrade my glasses if needed, be ever mindful of being tested for glaucoma, something that my dad had and eventually went blind from. I was only a kid in the 1970’s when he had to have his first surgery. It was before the days of laser surgery, and I remember him telling someone about how you are kept awake during the surgery, and they pretty much pop your eyeball out and drill holes in it to relieve the pressure. He had a second surgery a couple of years later, but the damage was done. He eventually could only see some faint shadows, and depended more on his hearing as the years went by.

But even with our own eyesight, we can see, and still not comprehend. We are blinded by our own judgements, insecurities, beliefs, and attitudes. There is no encompassing viewpoint, but a narrowed tunnel vision of one’s self. It’s hard for people to look beyond their own view of self, reality, and world. It’s not the notion of having rose colored glasses, but of being wide eyed enough to realize that what you see and perceive is not always what is the truth.

I think fear is what leads to a person’s blindness. They don’t want to see what is behind the door, what is forming and emerging in front of them. I think there is a mental blindness that overtakes their visual field that clouds their vision and their judgement. Some, at this point, will nod their head in agreement and finger point at someone else, even at me. But they are unable to see past themselves to a bigger picture of the “wholeness” of a situation, a thought process, of human nature, of life.

Afraid of what they might see? Afraid their vision has been clouded all along? Afraid to see their reflection?

We all have our own blindness, and most aren’t willing to accept or acknowledge them.

It’s snowy here today, I can both see and feel the cold. Maybe I will take and post some pics, or maybe not. Perhaps you can envision it without the actual pictures of the snow. It will take some effort on your part, but it helps to see with your mind as well as with your eyes.

Seriously, don’t mind me or my blog as I continue on with my blog from the other day.

I had previously blogged about how blogs are viewed on the activity page and had inserted a pic halfway down on my blog to see if the graphic would show, or if just the typing part of the blog would be represented.

And the answer was yes, the pic was quite prominent. So today I am experimenting to see if I place a pic at the very end of a blog post, will show in the activity page or if it will show the text instead. I might rethink using a lot of graphics, pics, and memes in my blog posts unless they are more essential to the actual blog theme.

Today is just another one of those days where I have a million and one different thoughts, ideas, and things going on around me and in my mind as well. I sit here after filling out forms, making phone calls, waiting on phone calls, checking the weather for an incoming storm later, and I read.

I read the news, the blogs, articles, e-mails, and other social media sites. I make lists, jot down notes, track orders, and listen for the phone, for the door, and what is going on in the other room. My mind is almost as tired as the rest of me.

I was going to write a blog on old commercials. I saw one earlier on-line about “the big fig newton”. It’s been ages since I saw that commercial and the jingle still keeps running in my head. The other day, it was “I’d like to teach the world to sing” after I made a comment to someone about joining hands and offering everyone a Coke. Maybe I will still write that blog, but if so, I will write it over on Shmoozezone to save on space over here. Even though we are a small group, I constantly look to the future of this place and want to start off being positive about it’s ability to grow, but at the same time realize there will always be limitations anywhere, and storage space can be a big one.

I should order more propane, maybe I will make a pot of chili today, still waiting on that phone call about jury duty. I need to paint this year, re-roof the shed, maybe forget about the painting and just put on new siding? The flower bed on the side of garage needs an overhaul, do I move an old flower bed to it, replant with new,… flowers or hostas? I have some weedy trees that need to come out, should I replace them and with what? Fruit trees? I better look over my favorite websites for fruit trees and order early if the answer is yes. I need to check the expiration date of the carton of cream in the fridge, maybe check the cottage cheese too. Maybe I will make lasagna today instead of the chili? Does everyone else’s mind work the same way that mine does?

I should make myself some limits. On time, money, and thoughts. I think I am seriously over drawn on them all.

Not much new to report in the new frontier of blogging on Civatar. I have been tinkering a bit with making an album and made one a few days ago and originally had it on several pages using page breaks. Today I tried to do something different and just made sub menus for the additional pages, but I believe I will go back and use page breaks, as using more than one sub menu under albums is very awkward. Page 2 works well, but page three scrolls off to the side of page 2 instead of defaulting under it. That may be able to be fixed under some other setting, but it isn’t as tidy as the page breaks, but I think sub menus would work well if there is only one other page under the original menu item. But for each of us, it’s a personal preference. I will leave it up for now and change it back later if anyone wants to see how it works with more than one page under a sub menu item.

At this point in my entry, I am just experimenting a bit. I am going to try to add a pic further down on this post after a paragraph or two to see whether or not the pic will show on the activity page. I noticed last time I wrote a blog with pics, I had written a small bit first and then added the pics for the comic and it showed most of the typed entry and one pic. (Bare with me as I insert a pic here and then go on to further explain my full thought)…

My concern lately has been the feed on the front activity page. Once our old Shmoozezone site goes down, I imagine (hope!) that the activity feed will become a lot more active. As we grow it will increase with the added members and posts.

I was wondering, if/when the posts increase will the activity posts shown decrease in size? Over on Shmoozezone when a blog or post is made, they are posted on the front page and they are all the same size, no matter the content. Will that happen here as well? Or will it stay the same as it currently is? Why I am asking is that some members don’t always post a lot of graphics or pics in some of their blogs.

For an example, (hope you don’t mind), Cosmic’s blogs are geared more to thoughts and ideas and words rather than pics. Suzi, when she posts her poems, usually just has the poem. Sometimes she might include a pic or graphic but not always. I guess my concern is that some people’s blogs are going to get “lost” in the more pic/graphic heavy posts in the activity feed and scroll off/down the page and go unnoticed. Right now it’s no big deal as there isn’t much traffic, but when things get busier I can see it happening.

I like all the pics, I like all the graphics, I use them as much as anyone. I was just wondering if say, we got 30 posts one day, would the feed just crunch everything smaller? Is there a way for us to default our posts so that they don’t overshadow other posts? Or a way to have them all the same size, like they are over on our old site, so one can see at a glance what is new? Just curious, and I don’t want anyone to think I am finger pointing or upset by their pics and posts. I enjoy having the big pics on the actual posts themselves, because sometimes they include writing which can be small, and the bigger pic shows more detail.

I was going to post this over on the forum, but heck, I figured the way I ramble I might as well put it into a blog post. And also because, I wanted to test the pic I included as well to see if it showed on the feed or not.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Perhaps it’s no big deal, and I am putting the cart before the horse, and we need to see how things progress as time speeds up.

Have a good day bloggers.

I was encouraged to write blogs to make people think, engage, respond, etc. I’m hoping the first thing this blog does, is make people giggle. It did me, but then, I am a bit warped.

Having a little bit of fun with Dio’s Egg and Nutsy and including all of the somewhat active members on here in a little bit of comic relief.

Am I a team member or what?! (smile, wink, wink)

(PS… Dio don’t kill me!)

(a cross post from our old Shmooze site)

Well here we are…day 5 of the New Year. So far, nothing earth shattering, which is a good thing. But then again, nothing exciting either. I’ve been thinking, considering, planning a bunch of different things and yet none of them have really gotten much of a lift off into something productive.

I could repost old blogs, previous things just to fill the void of tedious monotony but it does nothing to contribute to a new year, a new blog, new me ideology,  etc, etc.

It’s the unknown of what’s to come, what will be, how things will pan out. For the year, for this old site, for the new site. Who knows?

It’s quiet here, it’s quiet there, it’s a silence filled with time, just waiting for each of us. Some are busy, some are under the weather, some are unsure, some are quietly dealing with things that life keeps throwing at them.

My mind pokes and prods so many ideas. It travels and wanders into ideas and thoughts of silliness mingled with seriousness. One I view as funny, may not be perceived as others in the same way. I could talk about politics, religion, the current state of affairs, but when one ventures into those areas it really becomes rather mute. Too many times, those kind of blogs, come off as preachy, judgmental, and if you don’t think like I think, you will be labeled.

Label me lazy. Label me tired. Label me goofy, nerdy, amused, annoyed, and whatever else it is you want to label me. If it makes it easier for you. It’s a lot easier to try and pigeonhole someone than it is to look at something thru their viewpoint.

I thought about doing a blog over on the other site… but I still am on the fence about it. I came up with an idea. Something I think is funny. It may not go over so well with some, it might even annoy some. I’ll think on it some more on whether to post it or not.

I’d like to think in the New Year I might think more, do more, and work on those things like patience, compassion, character building stuff… yeah, or I might just continue to be me. Who knows which way the wind will blow.

So Happy New Year, Happy blogging, happy thoughts…be happy…. and don’t beat yourself up on those days that it’s hard to achieve. We’ve all been there in the past.

I might have to start early practicing on that napping. (Hopefully by the new year, I will be more inspired on my blogging as well!)

First page, first blog, first writer’s block. All the firsts that go with something new and different and unfamiliar. I should be use to this now, this constant state of confusion and uncertainty. But jumping in with both feet, getting them wet, and hoping it’s not going to require a life preserver.

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