CUP Contest #5

Brianne Bilyeu56 Comments

It’s time for the 5th Close Up Photo Contest!

I’m excited – I think this is a good one, and that it may actually last past the first guess.

All guesses submitted via the comments or by Facebook will be accepted.  The first person to guess correctly wins 100 internet points.  I will award or deducted points for additional guesses based on a completely arbitrary and whimsical set of rules known only to myself.  The list of past winners can be found on the CUP Winners page.

Have fun and thanks for playing.

CUP Contest #5
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Totally Looks Like

Brianne Bilyeu311 Comments

Have you seen the icanhaschzburger sister site, Totally Looks Like?  I’ve been (passively) trying to find something to submit to TLL for a few months, but I haven’t had much luck.  Yesterday, though, may have been The Day.  What do you think?  I wish the Dalai Lama had bigger ears, though; that would have made the resemblance golden.

This bald chimpanzee            totallylookslike            the Dalai Lama

Calm, wise chimpanzee says,
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”

Totally Looks Like

Random MN Election Commentary

Brianne Bilyeu, 438 Comments

If you want the full, most accurate and complete skinny, you gotta go to the MN Secretary of State General Elections Results page.

I’m kind of nail-biting over how close the governor’s race is:

Because after hearing about ‘ol Crazy Eyes being given another term in the US House by 6th District (WTF, 6th District?) I need some really, really good news.  Clicking on the image below will open a new window to a recent article by the MN Independent and a clip of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews trying doggedly to get an answer from Representative (*erp*) Bachmann.  But all she wants to do is repeatedly repeat her repetitive plan for what passes for “progress” in her ol’ crazy eyes:

  1. Keep Current Tax Laws so no one’s taxes go up
  2. A Full Repeal of ObamaCare.
  3. Secure the US Borders
  4. No Increase in National Energy Tax

Oh, and jobs.  Something about jobs.  Jobs are also her number one priority, I guess.

Random MN Election Commentary

Cross-Country Connections: Halloween

Brianne Bilyeu, 657 Comments

I’m trying out a new weekly feature which I’m calling Cross-Country Connections.  I found this idea through Jana’s blog.  Long story short, there is an awesome photo blog called Happy Snappy, which is run by two bloggers – one living in Finland and the other in Scotland.  The Happy Snappy bloggers decide on a theme, and then each of them takes a picture in their country that fits the theme.  They both take incredible photographs, and it’s neat to see their different perspectives.  Jana and four of her friends from both sides of the Atlantic (Ukraine, Spain, Germany, Michigan and Indiana) are trying out this idea in a new blog called Transatlantic Panorama.

This sounds like a blast and a half to me, so I asked my Mom and sister if they would be interested in participating in a similar project.  Mom’s in Carbondale, Illinois, Erin’s in Bellingham, Washington and I’m in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

They’re into giving it a try!  So, every Monday we’ll have a new theme and we’ll see how it goes.

Mom picked this week’s theme: HALLOWEEN.  Here are our photos:

Mom: Spooky Tree

Spooky Tree spotted in Southern Illinois

Erin: Thrillingham 2010

Once a year, Bellingham’s Zombies unite and show you how the dead like to get down.  This is one of the largest annual Thriller dances in the country!

Brianne: Headless Horseman

Headless Horseman statue found at ValleyScare.

Cross-Country Connections: Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Brianne Bilyeu, , 1,094 Comments

Well, here we go.  All dressed up for Halloween parties, and all I really want to do is lay around the house and read Sourcery, the fifth Discworld book.  What’s up with that, Lack Of Ambition?  Well, at least Sourcery could be tied into the whole creepy Halloween deal.

I’m a hulu girl for Halloween this year.  It’s actually my wedding dress; we had a Hawaiian-themed wedding in our backyard.  We ordered about $300 dollars worth of luau-themed decorations from Oriental Trading Company (inflatable palm trees, dude!) and all the guests wore Hawaiian shirts, grass skirts, etc.  It was a blast.

So yeah, basically I went to my closet and pulled out my dress and thought, “Meh…that’ll work.”

<—That’s the Hubby and me at a party.  It’s an odd crop to give the people around us some privacy.

I’m just tired from running all around town today.  First I went to the Minnesota Rally to Restore Sanity event that was held in the Rotunda of the Saint Paul capitol building today.  It was pretty great, and there were some fun signs.  We watched some of the big DC Rally on a screen, and listened to some speakers, including Tom Horner, the independent candidate for governor here in MN.  Watch a little clip from one of the local news stations about the rally.

After that I went directly to the Central Library in Minneapolis to attend a talk on scams and frauds hosted by the Minneapolis Skeptics.  It was a little late, but I was in time to hear a volunteer “Fraud Fighter” for AARP and a representative from the Better Business bureau give us the skinny on some of the newest frauds going around right now.

So, the Hubby is waiting patiently for me to finish typing so we can get going.  Go! Go! Go! Go!  Oooo….maybe some coffee.

Happy Halloween!

'Sup, Friday night?

Brianne Bilyeu, , 4,970 Comments

It’s Halloween weekend!

I am entirely too jealous of several friends who are on the way to tomorrow’s Rally for Sanity in DC.  I can’t wait to hear all about it, and to see the awesome video footage and photographs that will come out of the event.

I am also very much yearning to go to The Gathering of American Gods at the House on the Rock, but that is this weekend, so that is not happening.

In other news, Greg Laden’s Blog made me happy tonight.  Well, not the video of Michelle Bachmann expounding on science, but everything else was pretty interesting.  And this video made my night:

 

 

 

 

'Sup, Friday night?

‘Sup, Friday night?

Brianne Bilyeu, , 912 Comments

It’s Halloween weekend!

I am entirely too jealous of several friends who are on the way to tomorrow’s Rally for Sanity in DC.  I can’t wait to hear all about it, and to see the awesome video footage and photographs that will come out of the event.

I am also very much yearning to go to The Gathering of American Gods at the House on the Rock, but that is this weekend, so that is not happening.

In other news, Greg Laden’s Blog made me happy tonight.  Well, not the video of Michelle Bachmann expounding on science, but everything else was pretty interesting.  And this video made my night:

 

 

 

 

‘Sup, Friday night?

CUP #4 Winner

Brianne Bilyeu898 Comments

Yes, of course, it’s TOILET PAPER!

I’m really going to have to start making these things more difficult!

In addition to 100 points, I also found this video for JEREMY, the VERY eager winner of this CUP Contest #4 (It’s as close as I could get to the butter churn/running man.  You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to find a decent version of someone doing the butter churn and/or the running man on youtube!)

Additional Points:

Michelle, Vicki, Erin B., and Tim Cooley all get 25 points for participating and providing the right answer.

Jana gets 50 points for a kick-ass, entertaining answer.  However, I also deduct 15 points because ultimately, it’s wrong.  So that’s a total 35 points to Jana.

The CUP Winners page has been updated with the new tallies.

And BIG NEWS: I have decided what the prize will be for the final winner!  I mean, the final winner for the current round of this contest.  I’m still working out the details for how I’m going to end this round of competition, but I’ll make something up one of these days.  For now, keep playing and don’t let Jeremy get too far ahead in points!

So, the prize…

The prize is going to be that the winner gets to choose any topic that they’d like to see me do a blog about.  It can be a serious or humorous topic, it can be requested to be audio, video or written, it can be on something I know nothing about, or something that I’ve written about in the past.  I will reserve the right to veto because I’m not going to do a post on something that could harm me or embarrass me in a bad way, but other than that, all is fair game.

Let me know if you guys have any ideas for something else you’d like to see in the way of prizes.  And keep your eyes open for the next CUP contest!

CUP #4 Winner

Not for the faint of tastebuds

Brianne Bilyeu, , 2,237 Comments

Yeah, this had “I have a bad feeling about this” written ALL over it.

Me: Hey, what should I make for dinner tonight?  Hmmm…I love tacos, and I love crab meat – hey, I should combine the two!

Me to Myself: Ummm…are you sure you want to do that?  You might ruin perfectly good crab meat, or perfectly good taco seasoning mix.

Me to Me to Myself: But, I like fish tacos.  And I like shrimp tacos.  So crab tacos would probably be tasty.

Me to Myself: You’ve only eaten seafood tacos made by professionals.  In restaurants.  Have you ever attempted to make any sort of seafood taco with canned seafood meat?

Me to Me to Myself: No, but I have eaten canned crabmeat and it’s pretty tasty.  And how hard can it be to make seafood tacos?  It’s the same thing as beef or chicken tacos, except with seafood. 

Me to Myself: Have you ever used a pre-made taco mix on any seafood before?

Me to Me to Myself: Well, there was that one time with the shrimp…

Me to Myself: You were drunk, you don’t even remember what that tasted like.

Me to Me to Myself: True…

Me to Myself: Soooo?

Me to Me to Myself: You know what?  I’m going to try it anyway.

Some time later…add a little lettuce, tomato, a dab of sour cream.

Me:  Here we go!  Canned crab meat tacos! [eating commences – nom, nom, nom – a slowing of chewing, a hard swallow and a pause] Ugh… this is horrible!

Me to Myself: *sighs* You never trust me.

Me:  I hate you.  [Mumbled grumbling.  Chew.  Swallow.  Repeat.]

Not for the faint of tastebuds