Life without the internet is torture. Yes, I said it! I can live without cable, and I can live without phone, but the internet? Never! Maybe its because everything on TV can be found online, and probably first too! Or maybe its the whole, “I’m living in a time of instant gratification” idealogy that we’ve grown so accustomed to? Either way, the truth of the matter is that this. I, Cleo Sunshine, have a firm addiction to the internet. It’s usefulness is beyond measure. My sanity is dependent upon my connection to the world wide web. Oh, and make no mistake, not just any internet will do. I have spent the last few days vying for signal on an open network somewhere in my development, its unreliable-ness is just as bad as having NO internet. Imagine. Your biting into that delicious piece of cheesecake, and right before your teeth close around the bite, it magically disappears. How disappointed would you be? Tragic I tell you. Tragic. I think this is only slightly worse than dial-up. At least dial-up was reliable. It just took 30 years to load up one page. You could go make a 5 course dinner and come back to a page loaded only 75% with no images. Unreliable internet is like cooking on an uneven stove in your neighbors house. Half of your chicken is well done, and the other half still rare. Unedible I tell you.
I did finish the book I was reading and grow up two Sim children in this downtime. It also took me 3 days to watch Will Ferrel’s Step Brothers. The excitement and humor died after the 2nd day of buffering. The next time I’m without internet, I’m packing my bags and making a cot on the Panera floor. Or anywhere else they supply free wireless. Yup. Problem Solved.
There is soo much I want to post, but I am in transition. I have moved and our internet service isn’t up yet. I want to post from the Wordpress for BlackBerry app, but it doesn’t seem to want to work for me, and posting hyperlinks from there isn’t easy. I will be trying to sneak some posts in on this stolen shotty internet when I can!
I have been a member of Facebook since it was www.thefacebook.com and when you had to be a student at an approved college. It was exciting to check the list they had to see if some of your friends colleges had been added. Then eventually they went and opened to the general public to compete with the now defunct (at least to me) MySpace. Now, its just “Facebook” and its where you go to play MobWars, SororityLife and Sim Social and maybe reconnect with family members you haven’t heard from since 1992. So, let’s see what Time has as the Top 10 Facebook stories of 2009!
1. Facebook, started by a 25 yr old Harvard Dropout surpased 300 million users in Septemeber, starting 2009 with 150million, that equates to 550,000 new members a DAY! A DAY!!!
2. Farmville – I refuse to play this game!! I’m tired of it clogging up my “news feed’
5. Re-Writing your rights: Remember when you found Facebook was able to use your photos? OH, you didn’t know?? oopps!
9. ‘Unfriend‘ made it into the Oxford American Dictionary .. but not even that, it was the WORD OF THE YEAR!! I always thought it was de-friend.. oh well ..
By now, you kn ow the routine, check TIME for the rest of the list.. This also goes with a story I was going to post yesterday with Spreading Sunshine (that I didn’t get to ) from my boy @HailMaryJane: Five reasons parents don’t belong on Facebook! I guess it was kismet that I didn’t! Half of the things I’ve read before, but they never get old. You never want your dirty laundry aired on Facebook. the funniest: finding out your parents got divorced! that’s just rude! Check the rest of his list over there
Xerox is doing something awesome.. Take a minute to send a thank you card to a troop. I don’t support the war, but I support the men who gives their lives.
J Lo’s latest movie is like a combination of Object of My Affection and Baby Mama. Been there, done that. Will I watch it, sure. Will I pay for it? NOT! I do have a guilty pleasure of watching movies like this on weekends or when I’m bored. You can kinda watch them without really watching them. I can turn on the tube and then play the Sims 3 or do other work and still feel like I know whats going on. They aren’t that hard to follo: boy meets girl. something happens to stop the love. Boy and girl fix problem and live happily ever after. Or realize that they love each other despite the drama and live Happily Ever After …
So, in case you missed the memo, I am a HUGE .. HUGE fan of True Blood. After season 1 I went & read ALLLLL the books by Charlaine Harris. They were so good! And they do NOT take away from the excitement of the HBO series because Alan Ball is excellent with changing it up. He does manage to introduce all the critical characters from the book, like Alcide who will be appearing in season 3. Now, I won’t spoil for those who don’t know, but Alcide needs to bring major HOT factor. And Oh MY GOD they did it. I read on SpoilerTV who they cast, and they are RELIABLE and this guy is SMOKING HOT!
JOE MANGANIELLO!!!
I’ve never watched One Tree Hill or How I Met Your Mother, but I mght go back and watch to see him. He was also in spiderMan. Hopefully he kills it as Alcide because I reallllllyy liked Alcides character and the mental image I have of him needs to be brought to life. We’ll see..
More Pics..
I think WK is going to be pleased!
Now I’m definitely even MORE excited about the upcoming season. HBO is great in casting, you can’t deny it. I also read on SpoilerTV that the cast ALFRE WOODARD as Lafayette’s Mom. I think that will be the bomb! Can you see my excitement?
This pic, from Time’s Top 10 Pictures of the Year list, is from Kenya on Oct. 9. In case you didn’t know, Kenya hasn’t had any real rainfall in years and is on the brink of a serious water crisis. Serious.
Have you ever Googled yourself. Not your email address, but your own first AND last name. I frequently google myself because I’m on the job hunt all the time and I want to make sure people aren’t finding bad things about me. I also Google the email address associated with my resume for good measure. For instance, I don’t want when people google my government name to link to my website.
Why you ask? Because, for some businesses, knowing someone has their own site can be a deterrent. What if I were to blog about their business in a negative way? I just think its better to keep the 2 separate (at least until I can make writing my full-time profession). Anywho…
One of the most interesting things I’ve found when I google myself are old reviews I’ve written on Amazon. They go back to about 2005, way before blogging was a twinkle in my eye. I just had to share them with you guys. Please excuse my horrible typing grammar from days past! I’m going to post them from oldest to newest.
Review of Destiny’s Child – Destiny Fulfilled: 9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars great Great GREAT, November 15, 2004
I love this CD from beginning to end. I love the fact that you hear all their distinctive voices on this cd. You must go out and buy this! Here is how I rate the songs…
1.lose my breathe, great single-but once u hear the rest of the cd it loses appeal, kinda outta place tho wit the flow of the cd
2.soldier-love it, great follow up, shows that they aren’t just for pop culture, mtv… remember where u came from.. lol
3.cater 2 u-great songs for such women who promoted independent women, shows how u do have to submit to ur man sometimes to keep them
4. tshirt- i think this song is super sexy.. its so sensual, love it
5.is she the reason-every girl can relate to this song, and i love the way it flows… beautiful
6.girl-love it, makes me just wanna vibe wit my girls… u can’t have a destiny’s child song without a song about ur girls
7.bad habit-good song, not one of the best on the cd, but its still a good song
8.if-oh mi god.. i love the way they sung this song.. def. a 5 star song
9.free-nice melody, i like it
10.through with love-love it, one of the more uptempo songs on the album… i love it
11.love-one of my favorite songs on my first listen and i like it cuz i can relate to it..
ladies-this cd is for the grown n sexy, it really shows their maturity as artist, as women, and its not just a beyonce featuring Dc.. go out n buy it…
Review of Sister Souljah’s Coldest Winter Ever 4.0 out of 5 stars Worth the wait, January 25, 2005
I thought that I would never read this book, simply because I was always an avid reader and there were people who I thought couldn’t possibly identify a good book who were tossing this around as their favorite book. It was like everyone I knew was reading this book, so I tossed it away. However, I just completed this book and I am amazed at how well written it is, compared to other “drug game” or “ghetto” books are! Winter’s character is someone who u have sympathy for, but yet u don’t necessarily like her and u wonder-did she get what she deserved? I do recommend this book to people who read avidly and people who do not. The story line can throw u thru a loop, Souljah didn’t give u enough time to wonder what would happen next because she was one step ahead of the reader-keeping them engrossed. I give her mad props for her first novel and I hope that she does it again.
Review of Beyonce: B’Day 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Blast from the Past, September 13, 2006
Being such a Beyonce fan, I was really looking forward to this cd. I even went in bought it in a world of free file sharing and all that good stuff, only to find Beyonce drifting backwards. While the cd is not a “bad” cd, it certainly is not a woman’s cd. This cd reminds me of the Writings on the Wall era of Destiny’s Child, and has not shown her growth into a woman. The ideas were there, but were not expressed as well as they could have been. That is where my disappointment lies. I give her 4 stars because of tracks like Resentment, Irreplaceable, and Ring the Alarm, where her skills truly shine, and I also applaud her creative attmepts. However, I feel that B has immersed herself too deeply in her role as Deena in Dreamgirls, she has said that she wrote this album in character, about things she felt Deena should have done or said. I think she needs to seperate that role from her real life, it was acting… so be like other actors and move on!
Review of Eric Jerome Dickey’s Chasing Destiny 5.0 out of 5 stars At his best!! , September 14, 2006
I love, love, loved this book. After being disappointed by some novels I had been reading over the past few months, I looked forward to this being my end of summer, back to school read before I had to delve back into poetry of the African Diaspora, and all that hard stuff, lol. This book was so good I read it in one day, I couldn’t tear myself away from the drama that was unfolding between Carmen, Billie, and Destiny. I love the way Dickey always intertwines all his characters, so that when you find out your jaw is dropping. Dickey captures relationships for what they really are; hard, confusing, and confusing parts of our life that we can’t avoid. And he makes you understand why they happen like that, and thats what I love about him. Dickey also, almost always, has the struggling male character in his novels, such as Drive me Crazy, Liars Game, etc., and yet you find sympathy in their struggle, and relatablity. I recommend this book to any fan of EJD and anyone who is looking for a good read. Being the book junkie that I am for African American fiction, I wouldn’t steer you wrong!
Review of Eric Jerome Dickey’s Waking with Enemies 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good, just not great, August 13, 2007
I was looking forward to this book ever since I closed the back cover to Sleeping with Strangers. While Walking with Enemies was good, it wasn’t what I was expecting. I felt that this book, along with SWS had too many pop culture references. For examples, there was an awkwardly placed reference to Vh1’s Flavor of Love show in WWE. There wasn’t as much cat & mouse chase as I would have liked and some of the situations were a little too unreal (Arizona’s circumstances). Too many curveballs for one novel. There were a few dead spots, but overall it was a good read, but I would have to say that SWS was a better book. This one had a lot of background info on the characters which was great on developing the story…but I wanted to see more cat & mouse between Gideon and Bruno.
Review of Terry McMillan’s The Interruption of Everything
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Interrupted , December 7, 2007
I just finished this book yesterday and while I enjoyed it for gym reading. I felt that it was a little slow in the beginning. The ending left me wanting more. I had questions, what would happen between Marilyn and Gordon? What was the time period that passed in this book, there was no definite sense of weeks, months or days. I admit that I was sad about the death of the main characters sister, but I couldn’t imagine frail Authurine giving Leon the speech she gives in the final chapter. It didn’t go well with the story line they had for her character.
Review of Marilyn Monroe’s God Don’t Play
3.0 out of 5 stars Not quite enough , July 2, 2008
I expected so much more from this book than what Mary Monroe offered. Not only was it predictable, it was slow. I read both the predecessors to this book and someone hoped that our protagonist, Annette wouldn’t be the same “I can’t do anything without Rhoda naiveté” that blessed us in the first two novels. In this novel we become more familiar with Rhoda’s daughter, Jade. Jade is god-daughter to Annette, who also has her own young daughter, Charlotte. Jade, despite being a petite small girl, is big trouble for Annette causing her to lie and deceive Rhoda, which weighs heavily on Annette. But somewhere in this book, you get tired of Annette’s affinity for Jade. Or at least I did. I began to wonder, when is enough enough? How come this big as house woman, can’t stand up to this teenage girl? Annette’s irrational behavior eventually begins to annoy me and also the lack of speed. This novel peaked way too late. Given this same material I feel it could have been much more of a page turner.
The last one written in July 2008 was about 1 month before I started blogging on www.desiresinspiration.wordpress.com and I can honestly see the progression in my grammar and syntax over the course of the reviews. IT could be that I graduated with a degree in Journalism in 2007 or just writing practice? Either way, I hope to continue to write and improve on it. I think too many people get caught up in the idea/act of “celebrity” blogging. I do this because I LOVE writing. I don’t post more of my personal things because, well frankly I don’t want to bore people.
Every year some new words are the ‘it’ words to say. 2009 had some beauties… The ones I thought worth noting:
1. SEXTING: I never say this word. But it’s a shortened form of ’sex-texting” and apparently its rampant in teens these days. Makes me sooo happy I have no kids!
2. Public Option: The word heard ’round the world! The health care debate is still strong and controversial. How many people reallllly know what a ‘public option’ is? I mean, do you reealllyy??
3. Auto Tone: T-Pain has ruined us! I mean, autotone isn’t new, but since T-Pain got in the game, everyone is using it. And 2009 had so much more of it than usual. It even has an iPhone app. shoot me.
Of course you know you can find the rest of the list on TIME but I didn’t find it as interesting. I mean, they didn’t even have C’mon Son or Kanye Shrug listed!! And those are far more catch worthy than some of the ones they have listed. Hell the word hashtag was more popular than Wise Latina (bet you don’t even know what that’s a reference to!!).
This video is DOPE! I actually wasn’t expecting her to release Monday Morning as a single, but I am enjoying the video. LOVE IT!! My friend had been trying to convince me to listen to her for about a year now, and I kept putting it off, but I really do enjoy her. I hop you enjoy the video too (sans the script about her being in Switzerland) I mean, this girl has REAL talent!! If the media stopped stalking Rihanna’s fashion choices they’d be able to notice that. But hey, what do I know!
In honor of Fashion Friday today’s Time Top 10 List is for Fashion Faux Pas in 2009. Some of them you can’t really be surprised, like the #1 was an Olsen twin. Her outfit looked like an acid trip.
My favorites from the list:
I’m sure Lady Gaga will make several of these lists over the season because while her outfits are definitely amusing & eye catching, they are definitely on the off side. But um, she has the Dora the Explorer hair cut. OMG my girl crush because of her FAB body Amber Rose made the cut w/ Kanye from the VMAs. You know, where she wore a skin tight jumpsuit in nude snakeskin?
I’m saying, while it may not have been the best material, her body looks AWESOME!!
And another highlight, Sharon Stone bringing up the rear @ number ten. Doesn’t she make at least one of these list every year?? I thought this was bedroom wear gone bad.
Never have I been an Ed Hardy fan. I mean, who was this brand I had never heard of, and why are people so gaga over it suddenly? And why the hell are there skulls on damn near everything? But yet they were so popular it’s a wine now?
And then I’m on Zappos browsing for some scarves and Ed Hardy has some pretty dope ones. Absoutely FAB scarves. Also Absolutely OVERpriced too! And that’s why I freaking LOVE Zappos! I mean, their customer service is the bomb! They are great. They always respond to @ replies on twitter. Even before twitter, when I had to call them, they were helpful. Absolutely adore Zappos and their low costs. And I am loving these scarves I found by Ed Hardy (for a significantly lower price!!)
check them:
Wild Ride Fringe scarf CUTE!!
Silk C'mse - you can't even tell those are skulls!
And this one- my FAV!
They have soo many cute scarves and other accessories you must check them out. Not that I’m going to turn around and become an Ed Hardy fan, but he does have a lot of stuff I wasn’t familiar with. Those skulls just don’t do it for me though. And I’m just not sold on Ed Hardy shoes. The sneakers were cute for kids, but the heels? For women, no bueno!!
Top Ten Tweets of 2009. I dare you to say Top 10 Tweets 10 times fast.
Today’s installment of Time’s Top 10 is the Top 10 Tweets. I definitely think there were probably more interesting tweets from less popular figures, but I guess those don’t make the cut. *sigh*
According to Time There are some of the Top 10:
Ashton Kutcher: “Victory is ours!!!!!!” For his race against @CNNbrk for the first to 1 million followers. Sad day when @aplusk is getting more followers than the news. But then again, the news is full of entertainment stories now, so I guess this is accurate.
@kapanak – June 19 “Only 10 hours left until the Iranian people finally disobey their dictator. History is watching. Let’s make it proud.” This is what Time had to say about this tweet from June, after the Iranian re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
” Beyond celebrities and status updates, this was Twitter’s real moment of 2009: 140 character glimpses of life, fear and death on the streets of a country in turmoil.” And this is why Twitter is so hard to explain to people who think its just for following friends and saying your every thought. It’s really more.
Cory Booker – Newark, NJ’s mayor made the list! “Pres is inviting Conan & I to come have a beer & try 2 settle this. This could be a teachable moment” Um.. I had to highlight the fact that someone from my great state is on the list, even if it was due to some blah beef between Newark’s mayor and Conan O’Brien. Cory Booker is definitely after some higher aspirations. hhhmmm…
Check out the rest of the list including tweets from Oprah, Shaq & Tracy Morgan.
I had said that the thing I hate most about this time of year were the TOp XXXXX List’s you’ll see appearing everywhere. But I neglected to mention there is an exception to that: Time’s Top 10 Lists. There are so many to choose from! They have list for the Top 10 Albums to the Top 10 Worst Business Deals. I LOVE Time magazine’s lists, even the few they do during the course of the year.
I think for the next few weeks I’m going to highlight a few of these lists, starting with Today’s Top 10 T-Shirt Worthy Slogans. After all, who doesn’t love a mildly politically and socially amusing Tee??
Kanye’s MTV debacle isn’t going to die anytime soon. It’s just not. It’s going to be funny for a long time. Deal with it!
Tiger just made the 2009 lists. He is definitely having the quickest fall from grace. Is this Golf’s biggest scandal ever??
I can imagine this to be true!
For the rest of the Top 10 T-Shirt Worthy Slogans check them out HERE. I am coming back tomorrow with another list. What should it be? Top 10 Albums or Top 10 Tweets. I’m kind of gearing towards the Top 10 Tweets!
Who is Orla Kiely and why do I want her ‘Color Forest’ Printed Shoulder Bag? I LOVE the leather flap-tab closure. Well, I love it when all my crap isn’t falling out the purse.
But this is adorable! I absolutely Love the patter, both inside and out! I don’t love the $368 price tag Nordstrom’s is tagging this bag for however.
Cleo Sunshine is a lover, friend, blogger, writer, journalist. I love to live life and enjoy it. I'm a Jersey girl tried & true! This blog isn't strictly news or entertainment, but its definitely opinion. Come join me & experience life under the sun w/ Cleo.
) from my boy 
I’m sure
And this one- my FAV!
I can imagine this to be true!
But this is adorable! I absolutely Love the patter, both inside and out!
I don’t love the $368 price tag Nordstrom’s is tagging this bag for however.