Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Crack me up.... but not surprised.....

Orange County

You're rich, pretty, and living a charmed life. (Or you seriously wish you were.)
From Disneyland to Laguna Beach, you're all about living the California dream life.
Just make sure to marry rich - so you don't have to work for it!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

No surprises here....

Brain Type Test - Free Results

Are You Left-Brained or Right-Brained?

Although one side of the brain is generally dominant over the other, we should strive to utilize both halves. A balanced brain makes a balanced person - combining sequential thinking with a holistic approach, or linear thinking with intuition, enables us to fully comprehend issues and solve problems. Left-brainers can dramatically improve their problem solving abilities by learning to "follow their gut," while right-brainers can improve the execution of their creative efforts.

Realizing your dominant half is the first step in becoming balance-brained.

Your percentage score for the left brain is 55%.
Your percentage score for the right brain is 45%.

You are more left-brained than right-brained. Your left brain controls the right side of your body. In addition to being known as left-brained, you are also known as a critical thinker who uses logic and sense to collect information. You are able to retain this information through the use of numbers, words, and symbols. You usually only see parts of the "whole" picture, but this is what guides you step-by-step in a logical manner to your conclusion. Concise words, numerical and written formulas and technological systems are often forms of expression for you. Some occupations usually held by a left-brained person include a lab scientist, banker, judge, lawyer, mathematician, librarian, and skating judge.

Your left brain/right brain percentage was calculated by combining the individual scores of each half's sub-categories. They are as follows:

Left Brain

  • Linear
  • Sequential
  • Symbolic
  • Logical
  • Verbal
  • Reality-based

Right Brain

  • Holistic
  • Random
  • Concrete
  • Intuitive
  • Nonverbal
  • Fantasy-oriented

I just have to wonder if I need any special expertise to be a "skating judge".... ya know?

Have You Seen Her?

(I think that's a registered trademark or something, but I don't know how to get that "R" in a circle thingy....)

Today, the WNBA announced an expansion team in Atlanta. This brings the total WNBA teams to 14.

Everything that annoys you about professional sports? The egotistical players, the high salaries... all that? It's not there in the WNBA. Salary parity is a long way off... these women play as hard (and it is a physical game) and do so year round (playing in Europe in the off season). But it means tickets are affordable and you can take the whole family.

We are season ticket holders for the Sacramento Monarchs and win or lose, we have enjoyed every game. We can take our girls and while they still aren't big basketball fans, they are Monarchs fans.

If you live in the Atlanta area.... get your First Season Season Tickets. No. It isn't the same as the NBA. In some ways....it's better.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Blogthings Day

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct.

It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors.
If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs.
As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human.
And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.


You Should Be a Joke Writer

You're totally hilarious, and you can find the humor in any situation.
Whether you're spouting off zingers, comebacks, or jokes about life...
You usually can keep a crowd laughing, and you have plenty of material.
You have the makings of a great comedian - or comedic writer.


Your Brain is 47% Female, 53% Male

Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female
You are both sensitive and savvy
Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed
But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve


Your Movie Buff Quotient: 52%

You are well on your way to becoming a movie buff.
You've seen many of the great films, and you have even probably developed an expertise in a few genres.


You Are 80% "Average American"

You are average because you live within three miles of McDonalds.

You are not average since you have (at least) a college degree.




You Are 5: The Investigator

You're independent - and a logical analytical thinker.
You love learning and ideas... and know things no one else does.

Bored by small talk, you refuse to participate in boring conversations.
You are open minded. A visionary. You understand the world and may change it.

At Your Best: You are sharp, inventive, and creative. You have the skills to lead the world.

At Your Worst: You are reclusive, weird, and a bit paranoid.

Your Fixation: Greed

Your Primary Fear: Being useless or incompetent

Your Primary Desire: Being competent and needed

Other Number 5's: Bill Gates, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Bjork, and Stephen Hawking.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

For Thought

This photo album was found by someone who wishes to remain anonymous. Here is the press release regarding the album, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.


WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum today unveiled an important new addition to its collection—a personal photo album containing 116 pictures taken between May and December 1944 chronicling the life of SS officers and other officials at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The rare images capture SS guards and Nazi officials relaxing and enjoying time off—hunting, singing, trimming Christmas trees, and more—all while Jews were being murdered at rates as fast as anytime during the Holocaust. The album was created and owned by Karl Höcker, an adjunct to camp Kommandant Richard Baer.

“It’s hard to fathom the kind of people who ran these camps and one always struggles to understand who they were and how they saw themselves,” says Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield. “These unique photographs vividly illustrate the contented world they enjoyed while overseeing a world of unimaginable suffering. They offer an important perspective on the psychology of those perpetrating genocide.”

The 116 new images represent a significant increase in the number of known pre-liberation images of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Previously, only about 320 images existed of the camp before it was liberated by the Soviet army on January 27, 1945. (This figure does not include photographs of prisoners as they were processed into the camp for forced labor.)

The album complements the only other known collection of photographs taken at Auschwitz, published as the “Auschwitz Album” in 1980. Those images specifically depict the arrival of Hungarian Jews at the camp in late May 1944, and the selection process that the SS imposed on them. Some of the images contained in the new album were taken just days later. In contrast to documenting mass murder, they focus on the daily lives and recreational pursuits of Nazi officials, and no prisoner appears in any of the images.

Images in the new album include:

  • Photographs of Dr. Josef Mengele in uniform on the camp grounds; some of the only known photographs of his tenure at Auschwitz-Birkenau
  • A funeral for Nazi officers most likely killed in the accidental December 26, 1944, American bombing of the camp
  • A sing-along featuring an accordion player and approximately 70 SS men, including Höcker; Dr. Josef Mengele; Birkenau Kommandant Josef Kramer; former Auschwitz Kommandant Rudolf Höss, who was brought back to oversee the murder of Hungarian Jews; and Otto Moll, the gas chamber supervisor at Auschwitz-Birkenau
  • Höcker trimming Christmas trees in December 1944, weeks before the Red Army would overrun the camp
  • Female SS auxiliaries eating blueberries and then mockingly crying and posing with empty bowls turned upside down when they are gone
  • Numerous hunting trips and portraits of Höcker’s favorite hunting dog

Remarkably, many of the album’s pictures were taken when the camp’s gas chambers and crematoria were operating at and above capacity as Hungarian Jews were arriving and being murdered.

“The Holocaust is recent history, and much more remains to be learned,” says Teresa Swiebocka of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. “We know there are many more hidden collections like this. They need to be found and preserved to help transmit the memory of the Holocaust to future generations. Some of these new, unique images will enhance our new permanent exhibition.”

An online exhibition of the collection can be found on the Museum’s Web site at www.ushmm.org.

How the Museum Received the Auschwitz SS Album

In December 2006, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and former member of the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) wrote to the Museum archives. As one of its many tasks as a military intelligence agency, the CIC conducted investigations of Nazi perpetrators for U.S. prosecutors in the Judge Advocate General’s Office after World War II. While stationed in Germany in 1946, this officer found a photograph album in an abandoned apartment in Frankfurt and took it home with him. In 2007, he donated the album to the Museum, but wanted his donation to remain anonymous.

The Fate of Karl Höcker and His Photograph Album

After the Germans evacuated Auschwitz-Birkenau in mid-January 1945, Höcker accompanied Baer to command Dora-Mittelbau. He fled that camp before it was captured by the Allies and was eventually captured by the British. Not recognizing him, the British released him in 1946 and he reentered civilian life as a banker. Not until the Eichmann trial of 1961 did anyone attempt to locate him. In 1963, he finally faced charges at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial. Baer was also a defendant at the trial, but died of natural causes while in custody.

During the final year of the Holocaust, Höcker was stationed at Auschwitz I, a labor camp. Although witnesses, including other Nazi officials, testified that he would have been aware of the gassing operations and was an administrator of the killing operations at Birkenau, a few kilometers away, prosecutors could not produce a witness or any evidence directly linking him to the killings there. Höcker claimed that he was ignorant of these activities. Yet, many pictures in his photo album show him socializing with Höss, Mengele, Moll, and others intimately involved with the killing process. It strains credulity to suggest he would have been unaware of their crimes.

Höcker was sentenced to seven years in prison, but time served was deducted and he was released on parole in 1970. He returned to his banking job, and he died in 2000 at age 88 in Germany.

A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was created to inspire leaders and citizens to confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity and strengthen democracy. Federal support guarantees the Museum’s permanence, and donors nationwide make possible its educational activities and global outreach. For more information, visit www.ushmm.org.