Freaky Frugalite

Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you!

This week, I received three — can you believe it?!- awards from some of my favorite blogs. I didn’t even know some of these folks read my blog! I am so honored. Thank you thank you! I’ll spare you the long speeches (I used to watch the Oscars.. snnnoooooore) and cut to the quick: passing on the loot!

The first award I won was the Arte y Pico Award. This was given to me by Mariz of Reflections of Mariz and Kathy at Is 8 Enough? This is a wonderful award. *wipes tear*

Here are the rules:

1. Pick five (5) blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award: http://arteypico.blogspot.com.

I would like to bestow this award on some bloggers who have not yet received it.
*drum roll*
*furiously opens envelope*
*squeals*

Fida of Fida Abbott! One of the most beautiful souls on the Internet!
Kathy at BrazoCowgirl! Her blog template is drop-dead gorgeous!
Anajz at The Sustainable Backyard! An incredibly thoughtful and interesting blog that leaves me breathless sometimes!
My Bug Life at Foodie and Travel Bug! She blogs about my two favorite things!
Flo of Flo’s Place! Has a great new template!

Thank you, ladies, for making the blogosphere a better place. Blog on, gals, blog on.

P.S. Please do not feel under any obligation from me to continue the meme. If you prefer not, that’s fine. Just know that you are loved.

I’ll write posts on my other two awards very soon.

Has anyone heard about any organization to help the folks who have been suffering through all that severe flooding? Whenever there is a typhoon or earthquake or tsunami halfway across the world, everyone jumps to help them. I haven’t heard anything about us helping our own countrymen. Have you?

If you know of an organization raising money or helping these flood victims, would you blog about it or leave a comment for me? I think we should help those people. They have lost everything. PLUS, that area of the country provides a lot of our food supply. It’s crazy that we wouldn’t rise up and help!!!!!

I’ve been seeing lots of blog posts about people considering vegetable oil or water for gas. I think in New York State, it is illegal to use anything except what Big Business and Big Government allow (taxable gasoline).

But why not water? I don’t think it’s too strange. The steamboats and railroads in this country were powered by steam, long ago. We could go back to the steam engine or something, right? Those machines burned coal to make steam, but we could use small bursts of electrical energy to heat water, or something like that. I even did a post a few months ago about a car that runs on air (made in Canada). It looks like the real thing!

I’s absolutely love a car that ran on water. Wouldn’t you?

P.S. Then again… governments would probably figure out a way to tax our water and make it scarce. Seeing we can’t live without water, hmmmm.

I’m having a blast with my new membership at the health club. It’s helping my back and abdominal muscles already! Even after five days, I feel healthier! I haven’t had to take any medication in a long time, so it’s helping on the medical bills, too. I used to be in such good shape– I took dancing in drama school– but after having four children and injuring my back, I’m a ball o’ skin. So I’m looking for every opportunity to muscle up again (and stay far, far away from those terrible pain medications, too). Every little bit of beneficial activity helps. You girls know what I mean.

So I am enthralled with what I found online, something called Fitflops. Isn’t that just the coolest name?! Apparently these FitFlops are just that– they make you fit while you flop. LOL. Flip-flop shoes are very popular in the summer, so some smart person invented these Fit Flops. They are all the rage in the UK, because they give your legs and “bum” a terrific workout merely by walking. I think they are extremely stylish, don’t you? They look much, much more comfortable than those cheapo, flat flip-flops that I find at WalMart. Better still, get those legs toned up while you Fit Flop! This amazing footwear found at “SweatyBetty,” rofl!

[bump] This is a popular post, and I believe an important one. I bumped it to the top for today. You can see more new posts, below.

I saw this video and it blew me away. My husband got one of these cards recently– an American Express credit card with an RFID chip. All for your security, of course.

But the sneaky little deception is that it’s not for your security at all! Watch this little video of a “Hacker/Futurist” who swipes the credit card information with an $8 device he bought off eBay.

The thing that REALLY blew me away most was that the Hacker said that credit card companies are not at all interested in security for the consumer. They are interested in the appearance of security for the consumer. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHY THIS IS!

I don’t for one second believe that any bank or company are unable to make electronic transactions secure. The big question is WHY won’t they?

Europeans are much more advanced that North America, when it comes to innovation in energy and home building. This is due to their scarcity of natural resources and geographic space. They just have to think smarter, and not bigger, as is the norm here in the U.S. Bigger does not necessarily mean better. In fact, bigger almost always means less efficient.

I saw this fascinating video of what the Danes call “The Wave Dragon.” With this new invention, they have discovered a way to use the energy of ocean waves to generate energy. The video (although a bit dry) is worth watching. I hope these innovators get success! This is a worthy endeavor.

New York Chica has an interesting post about the Top Ten Recession-Proof Cities. The list is interesting and not surprising (Texas, Utah, and North Carolina made the list). She summed up the sentiments of New Yorkers when she said she didn’t expect any NY city to make the list. The only Top Ten lists New York is making are the ones with highest taxation, lowest wages, and most poor. Worst education is coming onto the list, as well. Those recession-proof cities in TX, UT, and NC are because NYers are fleeing the state in droves and migrating to those states.

I live in Upstate New York– right smack-dab in the middle of the state. The rest of the country has been reeling with recession-style tremors, but here in NYS, we’ve been living this way for about 30 years now. Our troubles all started when the state changed some language in the state constitution to favor Downstate (New York City area). New York City has seen a huge boom in the last 20-25 years. However, it has been Upstate’s natural resources and jobs pool that has fueled the economy down there. So essentially, the NYS government has slit its own throat. The “good times” can only last so long because sooner or later, the leech runs dry. And that’s Upstate right now… pretty dry.

New York State loves to tout itself as the “Empire State,” claiming that this state is the trend-setter for the rest of the states. Well, maybe 200 years ago that was something we could brag about, but since the 1880s, the state is leading the nation as an example of how NOT to govern. Let’s hope the other states learn from NY’s idiotic mistakes. Don’t let labor unions and politicians micro-manage the affairs of the people; don’t accept high taxation as a way to become prosperous and assume political “clout”; don’t add taxes upon taxes upon taxes and call them “fees” and “surcharges,” hoping no one will notice; don’t brag about how unsinkable you are when everyone knows it’s just a matter of rearranging the deck chairs.

Unfortunately, however, for those southern and midwestern states is that they lack the natural resources to support large populations. Drought conditions and the home foreclosure crisis brought this to the forefront. Northeasterners who have migrated south and west complain of the lack of green grass, trees, and abundant water. Duh.

It’s like I always say, here in NY, we don’t have calamitous natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, floods. Our natural disasters come in the form of politicians. I sometimes wonder that politicians are worse than weather disasters…. but no matter where you live, there will always be some price to pay. We’ll see how the nation fares, because we are seeing a monumental change in our American way of life.

Spring is here! We are rejoicing in the streets at last, lol! Girls, you know what this means– time to peel off and pack away the drab winter dregs of the old clothing and break out the new and beautiful spring clothing and accessories! If you are like me, you 1) need some new duds, 2) want a few very classy pieces to accent your wardrobe, and 3) are looking for good deals on beautiful things. Here’s a tip: check out the latest stuff at Shangby.com. They have a slew of gorgeous new products - including new cashmere line, called the Woo Scarf, that will knock your socks off! I am nuts about cashmere and I nearly flipped when I saw the new line of products. Isn’t this lavendar scarf exquisite?! It would be the perfect, classy accessory for a simple black dress. Noooice! The red scarf is beautiful, too. Choices, choices! Look at the detailed work on the scarf though. It is truly a masterpiece of design.

ShangBy is an amazing store. One of their goals is to bring U.S. shoppers to the retailers in China, for access to fabulous products and excellent prices. If you like cashmere and other products (jewelry, cashmere, bedding, apparel, etc) that are quality-produced, ShangBy is the place to go. They are going to be streaming live video online from Woo Cashmere on May 21st to introduce this spectacular new line of the best cashmere brand in Shanghai. Woo Cashmere is renowned for it’s beautiful and spectacular quality (created by Stephen Sun, influenced by the artist Yifei Chen). The Woo Scarf is a breathtakingly beautiful cashmere scarf. It would make an absolutely perfect gift, too!

If you go to the site, you can view videos on other products, too. And if you need an excuse to shop, here’s a coupon code to get you going: use the code simple luxury for $30 off good through May 31st!

When my daughter (child #2) was a baby, she was colicky and restless. How I remember staying up nights with that baby! We joke about it now, but it was during her infanthood that I started drinking coffee (before I’d been a tea drinker). I needed the caffeine to keep me going, because that baby slept for only 3 or 4 hours in any one stretch of time, up until she was about eight months old. It was, lol, a “nightmare.” But she was the cutest little baby so I couldn’t have possibly been mad at her. It’s just one of those things that’s part of being a mother.

I’d read back then that, to encourage restless babies to sleep longer and better, it helps to have a fan running or a tape recorder running all night. Here in Upstate NY where winters are bone-chilling cold, and especially in my drafty apartment, I couldn’t run a fan. And the tape recorder kept everyone else up. We settled on an old radio tuned into static, for the white noise. Unfortunately, sometimes the dial would slip or the radio transmission would change, and we’d hear the faintest strains of Ozzy Osbourne at night…

We’ve moved to a house in town, and holy cow this town is noisy. It used to be a quiet little town, but an ice cream stand opened up down the street and a gas station enlarged it’s business. And the car dealership down the road now deals in motorcycles. It’s really a pain. And I’m being very polite when I say that…

So we started our little “white noise” routine at night again. We have been using a little air filter. I don’t know if it was conditioning from those early years, but my daughter sleeps better with noise in the background, after all these years. And we no longer hear those deafening motorcycle mufflers at 2am.

But guess what?! Our air filter sometimes picks up and emits radio signals. Maybe it is trucks with CBs driving by?! I don’t know. But I swear at night I sometimes hear men’s voices. It gives me the heebie-jeebies.

I just saw this website for White Noise Machine and guess what– they actually MAKE little machines for creating white noise. And all these years I’d been using the stupid radio and the expensive air filter! I’d much rather have a machine dedicated to white noise, to avoid those “slips” in transmissions where we pick up interference and start hearing the strains of “Stairway to Heaven” on FM. :S

P.S. The White Noise Machines also block snoring spouses. LOL! I won’t go into that; that’s content for a whole ‘nother post!

Ever heard of a ZENN car? Me neither. I just saw an interesting little video of these things, made in Canada. However, the Canadian bureaucracy hasn’t made them legal for use yet, so they company is selling cars in the U.S. They are electric cars. I’ve never been very interested in electric or hybrid cars, but these have me interested.

They run silently, which is amazing! However, they’re no Energizer bunny– these machines poop out after 35 miles. That would need some improving before I think of getting one. But, they go 275 miles per gallon! Watch and see how appealing they are.

Aren’t they cute? They are like a little Cadillac on Phentermine or something! They are so tiny! I’d like them to pack more power, though, before I’d consider getting one.