Sweet innocence!!!
Ahhh…the pure, young innocence of love! There was nothing sweeter than sneaking a kiss under the dining room table!
~from the photo album of Sculpter Alain Lebualya
Pictures That Speak Volumes #40
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Daily Archives: March 31, 2014
Award Showers for …. “It Is What It Is”!!
~~March 30, 2014~~
A moment for catching up has arrived.
“It Is What It Is” has been nominated for several awards. We have been behind in “paying it forward“.
It is with great honor and humility that we accept this nomination. As always, there’s reflection involved when receiving these awards. For us, they serve as motivators to continue to improve the material, the format, the topic and the information that is presented to the readers and followers.
It never ceases to amaze me that there are visitors “out there” who stop by, read, comment and interact with the blogger. we find this very interesting and the importance for us is beyond measure. It leads to wonder, amazement, humility and honor.
Without further ado, let’s get this rolling.
Shaun, the lad from Scotland … you can find him at: http://shaunynews.wordpress.com/
~~Shaun Gibson~~
“Hi my name is Shaun from Scotland.
“I suffer from Fibromyalgia. I was a Soccer manager for 15 years till 3 years ago when the pain stopped me and changed my life forever. The pain took things and kept doing so. I decided to make the pain my friend and live and laugh. I have a partner I love dearly and 4 kids. I will speak to anyone, I love to write, please check my blog below and I love to have fun and debate life. Thank you.”
He has nominated “It Is What It Is” for two awards.
“It Is What It Is” was nominated for this award by Martin.
You can find him at: http://mavadelo.wordpress.com/
“I am born at 18-08-68 in Utrecht, the Netherlands as the last of 8 children in a house bearing number 8. I have had a life that some of you would call difficult, I am an adoptive child.
Although using the nick Mavadelo here (which stands simply for MArtin VAn DEr LOuw) I am better known under the nicknames Whizzy (my öfficial” nick for over 30 years).”
In the words of the Award Creator, Just Patty, at:
http://petitemagique.wordpress.com/
~~The Semper Fidelis Award~~
“I created this award because I wanted to do something special for my friends onWordPress. Semper Fidelis is Latin and means Always Loyal. Loyalty means the world to me. I am very loyal myself, but I’ve got major trust issues as well. And I think trust is very important if you are sharing so much of yourself with people you meet through the internet. So I am working on that!
Why the wolves? Because wolves have very strong ties with their pack. Like a family or a great group of friends. And I just love them!”
This award stands for the loyalty and love between friends.
~~THE RULES ARE~~
Display the award logo on your blog.
Link back to the person who nominated you.
Nominate other bloggers for this award and link to them.
Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award requirements.
I know we are bending the rules here a bit. In view of the fact that accepting awards can be cumbersome and time-consuming, we are making it easier. The reason is to motivate the recipients to accept and “pay it forward” too.
~~IF YOU WANT TO~~
Congratulations!
Your blog has been nominated you for an award. If you do not wish to accept it – no problem. Simply interpret this as my admiration and for sharing your wonderful posts with us all.
Brian …. http://fozzyfitness.wordpress.com/
Steven …. http://nakednerves.wordpress.com/
Sir Jeremy …. http://theboipoet.wordpress.com/
Xena …. http://blackbutterfly7.wordpress.com/
Cher …. http://thechicagofiles.wordpress.com/
~~LET’S PARTY~~
We ALL are connected through this wonderful WEB!!
We ALL are ONE!!
500 Likes in a week on my new blog. 163 followers
Congrats Shaun!! To all ….. please listen to this message!!!
Motivational Monday – Stand up, Stand up!!! Don’t stay down!
Here’s the motivation!! Always get up ……
The AmeriKKKan JUST”Us” System: 1% Convicted Of Raping Infant Child Gets Probation Because He ‘Will Not Fare Well’ In Prison.
What is wrong with this picture?? Ugh ….. SMH!!
The history of …. LEGO!!
~~March 31, 2014~~
The History of Lego spans almost 100 years of the existence of a toy that grew from small wooden playthings in the early 20th century into the center of a vast market of plastic building bricks that dominated the world markets for decades. It is one of the oldest plastic toys in the world. Its manufacturing was started in Denmark, but was eventually replaced by factories throughout the world. Today it is one of the most successful toys and has remained an iconic brand with a loyal and continuing following. The traditional date for the first Lego blocks is 1947, and the toys have continued to be produced with little interruption since around that time.
~~Beginnings~~
The Lego Group began in the carpentry workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, in Billund, Denmark. In 1916, Christiansen purchased a woodworking shop in Billund which had been in business since 1895. The shop mostly helped construct houses and furniture, and had a small staff of apprentices. The workshop burned down in 1924 when a fire ignited some wood shavings. Ole Kirk constructed a larger workshop, and worked towards expanding his business even further.
When the Great Depression hit, Ole Kirk had fewer customers and had to focus on smaller projects. He began producing miniature versions of his products as design aids. It was these miniature models of stepladders and ironing boards that inspired him to begin producing toys.
In 1932, Ole Kirk’s shop started making wooden toys such as piggy banks, pull toys, cars and trucks and houses. The business was not very profitable because of the Great Depression. Farmers in the area sometimes traded food in exchange for his toys; Ole Kirk continued producing practical furniture in addition to toys in order to stay in business. In the mid-1930s, the yo-yo toy fad gave him a brief period of increased activity until it suddenly collapsed. To reduce waste, Ole Kirk used the leftover yo-yo parts as wheels for toy trucks. His son Godtfred began working for him, taking an active role in the company.
In 1934, Ole Kirk held a contest amongt his staff to name the company, offering a bottle of homemade wine as a prize. Christiansen was considering two names himself, “Legio” (with the implication of a “Legion of toys”) and “Lego”, a self-made contraction from the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning “play well.” Later the Lego Group discovered that “Lego” can be loosely interpreted as “I put together” or “I assemble” in Latin. Ole Kirk selected his own name, Lego, and the company began using it on their products.
But how much do you know about LEGO’s past? Where did LEGO start? What in the world does LEGO even mean?
Here are some LEGO facts that you may have not known.
The LEGO Company was started in 1932 by a man named Ole Kirk Christiansen in Billund, Denmark. In 1934 he came up with the LEGO name by combining and abbreviating two Danish words, LEG GODT, which means“play well”. Ole Kirk died in 1958, and the company was handed down to one of his sons, Godtfred.
Following World War II, plastics became available in Denmark, and Lego purchased a plastic injection molding machine in 1947. One of the first modular toys to be produced was a truck that could be taken apart and re-assembled. In 1947, Ole Kirk and Godtfred obtained samples of interlocking plastic bricks produced by the company Kiddicraft. These “Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks” were designed by Hilary Page. In 1939, he had applied for a patent on hollow plastic cubes with four studs on top (British Patent Nº.529,580) that allowed their positioning atop one another without lateral movement.
In 1944, Page applied an “Improvement to Toy Building Blocks” as an addition to the previous patent in which he describes a building system based on rectangular hollow blocks with 2X4 studs on top enabling the construction of walls with staggered rows and window openings. The addition was granted in 1947 as British Patent Nº 587,206.
In 1949, the Lego Group began producing similar bricks, calling them “Automatic Binding Bricks.” Lego bricks, then manufactured from cellulose acetate, were developed in the spirit of traditional wooden blocks that could be stacked upon one another but could be “locked” together. They had several round “studs” on top, and a hollow rectangular bottom. They would stick together, but not so tightly that they could not be pulled apart. In 1953, the bricks were given a new name: Lego Mursten, or “Lego Bricks.”
Plastic products were not well received by customers initially, who preferred wooden or metal toys. Many of Lego’s shipments were returned, following poor sales. In 1954, Godtfred had become the junior managing director of the Lego Group. Godtfred’s conversation with an overseas buyer struck the idea of a toy “system”, with many toys in a line of related products. Godtfred evaluated their available products, and saw the plastic bricks as the best candidate for such a “system”. In 1955, Lego released the “Town Plan” as such a system, using the building bricks.
The building bricks were moderately received, but had some problems from a technical standpoint: their “locking” ability was limited, and they were not very versatile. In 1958 the bricks were improved with hollow tubes in the underside of the brick.
This added support in the base, enabling much better locking ability and improved versatility. The company patented the new design, as well as several similar designs to avoid competition. Ole Kirk Christiansen died that same year, and Godtfred inherited leadership of the company.
In 1962 LEGO started experimenting with motors, and 4 years later the first LEGO Train is introduced with a 4.5 Volt motor and rails.
In 1968 the first LEGOLAND is opened in Billund, Denmark. It’s right next to the original LEGO factory.
In 1969, LEGO DUPLO is launched. It was made with little kiddies in mind so they made the LEGO bricks bigger.
The first modern LEGO minifigure was released in 1978. In LEGO started giving the first pirate minifigs different facial expressions instead of the usual dot eyes and simple smile. With the Pirates theme also came the first hook-arms and peg-legs.
In 1998 the LEGO group made an agreement with Lucasfilm to launch a series of Star Wars sets based on the movies. The agreement was recently extended by another 10 years.
~~Here are some other fun facts about LEGO and the company~~
- LEGO should always be written in capital letters.
- LEGO was named Toy of the Century by Fortune Magazine and by the British Association of Toy Retailers.
- There are 2200 types of Lego pieces. (How in the world did they get a number exactly on a hundred?)
- There are 19 billion pieces being made every year, 2 million per hour and 36000 per minute!
- There are 55 LEGO brick colors.
- LEGO is the largest tire-manufacturer in the world.
- This is how LEGO bricks are made: ABS plastic is heated to 232 Celsius until it becomes really soft but not that it drips. The plastic is then put into molds at a pressure depending on the type of piece being made (25-150 tons). It takes 7 seconds for the plastic to cool.
- The LEGO Company guesses that out of every 1,000,000 LEGO bricks made only 18 will be rejected due to some defect.
- The LEGO Group’s motto is “Det bedste er ikke for godt” which roughly means “Only the best is good enough”. It was a saying by Ole Kirk.
- The Official Online LEGO Shop was started in 1996.
That’s the end of our little tour of LEGO’s past and the present.
As for the future, my guess is that LEGO will continue being successful, continue making new LEGO themes and people will continue enjoying LEGO well into the future!
~~SOURCES~~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lego
http://thebrickblogger.com/2012/08/how-much-do-you-know-about-lego/
http://lego.gizmodo.com/5019797/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-lego/all
~~LEGO man at our local Barnes and Nobles book store~~
~~Published on Dec 5, 2012~~
This is the history of LEGO from 1942 to 2012. It shows how one man’s idea of a wooden toy company can turn into a company that sells billions of LEGO plastic bricks every year.
Ten Top LEGO Facts!
Love playing with LEGO? Then check out these ten top facts!
1. LEGO’s founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen, created the name “LEGO” from taking the first two letters of the Danish words LEG GODT, meaning “play well“.
2. If you put the 340 million Minifigures produced last year next to each other in a line, it would stretch a whopping 7,900 km – that’s almost the distance from London to Beijing, China!
3. The famous LEGO brick that we play with today is more than 50 years old. The bricks made way back in 1958 will still fit perfectly with those you play with today!
4. The moulds used to produce LEGO bricks are accurate to within two-thousandth of a millimetre (0.002 mm!). Because of this high degree of accuracy, there are only around 18 bricks in every million produced that fail to meet the company’s high quality standard.
5. The world’s tallest LEGO tower is 28.7m high, made from with 465,000 bricks!
6. LEGO Minifigures are the world’s largest population, with over 4 billion of them around the world!
7. During the Christmas season almost 28 LEGO sets are sold each second. Yikes!
8. At LEGO attractions, such as LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Manchester, people are hired as “Master Model Builders“. Now what’s a weird and wonderful job to have!
9. Laid end to end, the number of LEGO bricks sold in a year would reach more than five times round the world.
10. On average there are 80 LEGO bricks for every person on earth.
Wow! Pretty amazing, huh?
~~Published on Dec 4, 2013~~
They’re surprisingly sophisticated.
We ALL are ONE!!
Duncan Lou Who …. an unstoppable boxer!!
~~March 31, 2014~~
Two-legged pup ‘Duncan Lou Who’ gets wheelchair – built for two
by SUSAN WYATT – The Pet Dish
Posted on November 28, 2013
Two-legged boxer puppy Duncan Lou Who, whose story has traveled the globe, now has a wheelchair.
Amanda Giese of Panda Paws Rescue, who took in Duncan, says at first Duncan didn’t want to use the “lime green space ship.” “He is more comfortable out of it because for his entire life he’s done everything every other dog can do on his own,” she said.
But a funny thing happened when Duncan was out using his wheelchair. Duncan’s “brother” pup Ducky hopped up on the back. “Ducky climbed onto the back of his space ship and instantly Duncan felt more confident,” Amanda said.
“You could see his whole posture change, his eyes lit up, he wanted to GO GO GO and run with the others. I have a feeling Ducky will get plenty of chariot rides, thanks to his best seahorse friend.”
If you haven’t already heard his story – Duncan was born with severely deformed rear legs and pelvis. The bones in his legs were completely fused by the time he was eight weeks old and there was no way to correct them.
Amputating his rear legs would give him the greatest chance at a good life. The surgery was done a month ago when he was 12 weeks old.
“Duncan Lou Who doesn’t let his unique differences slow him down and he doesn’t know he is any different,” Amanda said.
Duncan continues to have physical therapy, massage therapy and hydrotherapy to help straighten his spine, which was twisted as a result of his deformed legs putting pressure on it. The chair is to help take strain off of his spine, Amanda said.
“The future is unknown when it comes to how Duncan’s body will adapt, form and compensate. All we can do is provide every available resource of support & care to him in hopes that he grows into a strong, healthy, happy adult Boxer.
~~Published on Nov 28, 2013~~
Duncan Lou Who takes on a brand new day learning how to love his lime green space ship. Thankfully his sidekick alien friend rides shotgun, helping him build confidence. His space ship is necessary as an additional form of mobility & support for his spine as he grows.
~~Sources~~
http://www.examiner.com/article/courageous-washington-puppy-loses-limbs-astounds-fans
~~Published on Mar 22, 2014~~
Duncan Lou Who, world famous boxer pup well-known for the fact that he survives with only two legs. Although he was born with severely deformed rear legs that had to be removed it doesn’t stop him from enjoying his first trip to the beach.
We ALL are connected through NATURE!!
We ALL are ONE!!
Blue Grotto …. Daytona, Florida!
~~March 31, 2014~~
~~FUN NIGHT~~
This was a fun night with a group of wonderful friends. Have to do it again!!
~~Uploaded on Jul 20, 2010~~
Stepping inside the Blue Grotto takes you to a place of warmth and comfort. The rock walls and blue lit bar puts you in the Blue Grotto from Capri Italy. It is one of the biggest draws on the Island of Capri and makes our restaurant and nightclub a surreal experience.
The peculiar iridescence of the water bathes the interior of the Grotto with a serene light that is similar in color to a Blue Topaz.
Dining by day and dancing by night makes Blue Grotto a destination to remember. We serve affordable dishes prepared fresh to order inspired by Italy; the Grotto’s own Lobster Pasta, Certified Angus Beef, Chicken, Tuna, Shrimp and much more. We serve lunch and dinner, opening at 11:00am daily.
http://www.bluegrottodaytona.com/
We ALL are ONE!!
To start the day ….
~~March 31, 2014~~
Monday is the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. According to the traditional Christian, Islamic and Hebrew calendars, it is the second day of the week. But according to international standard ISO 8601 it is the first day of the week. The name of Monday is derived from Old English Mōnandæg and Middle English Monenday, which means “moon day”.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday
~~Origin of the names of the days~~
Monday
The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon monandaeg, “the moon’s day”. This second day was sacred to the goddess of the moon.
French: lundi; Italian: lunedi. Spanish: lunes. [from Luna, “Moon”]
German: Montag; Dutch: maandag. [both: ‘moon-day’]
Source: http://www.pantheon.org/miscellaneous/origin_days.html
A week is a time unit equal to seven days. It is the standard time period used for cycles of work days and rest days in most parts of the world.
The term “week” is sometimes expanded to refer to other time units comprising a few days. Such “weeks” of between four and ten days have been used historically in various places. Intervals longer than 10 days are not usually termed “weeks” as they are closer in length to the fortnight or the month than to the seven-day week.
~~IT’S ONLY SEVEN (LONG) DAYS~~
~~Uploaded on Sep 20, 2010~~
“From his 1974 album, “Living & Dying in 3/4 Time,” here is Jimmy Buffett’s gentle ballad “Come Monday.” I consider this one to be one of his best songs, but the highest it reached on the Billboard charts was #30.
To the casual fan, Jimmy isn’t exactly known for beautiful, slower tempo songs such as this one. He does a great job with this one however and this song also proves that Jimmy Buffett could do more than just “chill out” type songs. The song shows he has more diversity musically than he’s usually given credit for.
I was first introduced to this song by my parents and I’ve always enjoyed it. It’s got great sentimental lyrics that tell a great story. The melody and harmony are memorable while the music is calming. I’m surprised this didn’t rank higher on the charts, but it’s one of the songs he almost always plays at his concerts so clearly the fans see this one as a standout! It has touched a lot of people over the years!
Keep on Rockin’ Jimmy!”
We ALL are ONE!!
The Morning E-Mail From HuffPost
Gotta love them!!
It Is What It Is 