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You might know that the one main thing I am wishing for this Christmas is a new digital camera that will be easy for me to use and shoot good, quality video with clear sound (the feature that is most lacking in my current compact camera). After all, I've got to work on that winning entry to America's Funniest Home Videos! 
Well, maybe I can win a new camera! For the Love of 2 Cents is hosting a giveaway, sponsored by Samsung Imaging, of one of Samsung's new dual touchscreen cameras. Though the shutter button is still a physical button on top of the camera, all of the other controls have been moved to a highly responsive touchscreen like the one on the iPhone. Getting rid of all of those tiny buttons would sure make my life easier. The second screen on the front of the camera helps frame self portraits, displays a countdown for timer shots, and can even display colorful images designed to hold a small child's attention so you can catch them looking at the camera. That's helpful to just about anyone. And the camera shoots high definition video at 720p resolution and 30 frames per second.
I'm generating as many entries into this drawing as I can - wish me luck!
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A couple of weeks ago I entered to win a free year of MozyHome unlimited online backup. And guess what - I won! As far as I can recall, this is the first time I have ever won a blog giveaway, at least the "grand prize", and what a cool one to win! I'm so excited to get home and get all of my precious files backed up.
By the way, the giveaway was sponsored by Offers.com - check them out for more free stuff and lots of other money-saving deals.
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I'm notoriously bad at keeping my precious data (photos, music, documents, and Sims content and saved games) backed up. In the past several years I've been extremely lucky to have been able to retrieve most of the important stuff when I have had a hard drive failure, but it is only a matter of time before it finally catches up to me. That's why I would really love to have an unlimited Mozy Online Backup account, and it just so happens that Pallab dot Net is giving one away to one lucky winner. Pick me!
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This post on the This is True blog made me feel so much better after the stupidity that took place last week. My favorite quote (shortened to emphasize what I think is the most important point):
If you don't want it bad enough to pay the asked price... learn to do without.
The "asked price" could be money, tolerating a few ads, or the volunteering of personal information. Everyone has the right to ask for some kind of payment for their work. If you don't like what you have to give in order to receive something, then you obviously don't really want it that bad.
Furthermore, if you are getting something for free, don't sit there demanding that the service be provided in the exact way you want it, or demand that they listen to their "customers". Because if you're really that unhappy, I'm sure they will gladly refund all of that money you've paid them.
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A phone call I took at work this morning...
Me: Sheridan Electric, this is Carly.
(silence)
Me: Hello?
Caller: [Boss] please.
Me: He's not in right now, can I take a message?
(silence)
Me: Hello?
Caller: Yes?
Me: [Boss] is not in the office right now, may I take a message?
Caller: If I could have him call me back...
Me: Okay, your name and number?
(silence)
Me: Hello?
(line goes dead)
I take calls like this one, or equally as dumbfounding, on a daily basis. And all I can say afterward is, "WTF?" This is why Clientcopia and Not Always Right are two of my favorite sites to read. Check them out for lots of entertaining stories of not just stupid customers, but stupid bosses, coworkers, friends, family members... you name it, there's probably a story about it.
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I want to thank a few bloggers for helping me promote my survey on supporting your favorite blogs. Thanks to The Transparent Hypnotist, MoneyXperiment.com, and Make Money Online - all great blogs which you should definitely check out.
But I still need more help! I only have three responses to the survey so far, and that is really not enough information to help me decide where to focus my energy and what changes I should make to confoozled.com. If you're a regular reader, I absolutely need your input, and if you have a friend you think might enjoy confoozled.com, why not send them over and tell them about the survey as well?
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![[photo of Jasper and Mackenzie]](http://www.confoozled.com/archives/assets/jasper-mackenzie-thumb-200x133.jpg) Jasper and Mackenzie practice standing on their hind legs. Chris found this for me this morning: There is a pair of nine-week-old Chihuahua puppies here in Rhode Island who were born without front legs. They were taken in by an organization called Just A Touch Rescue, and they are receiving physical therapy to teach them how to manage life on two legs. Dr. Guzinski, the veterinarian who is providing their medical care at a discount to the rescue organization, is Brooskey and Vixen's doctor too!
Jasper and Mackenzie have their own web site where you can read about the care they're getting, see more pictures (coming soon!), and also make donations to help pay for things like their spay and neuter surgeries, Mackenzie's hernia surgery, and special wheelchairs that will support their front ends while they push with their back legs. The Providence Journal web site also has a video about them which includes footage from a therapy session. (Video may require Internet Explorer - I couldn't get it to load in Firefox.)
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Before you watch the video embedded below, there are some things you need to know.
You really need to watch it in high quality. I've taken care of this - if you watch it from this entry, you are seeing the high quality version. Also, watch it full screen (button to the right of the volume button).
It's about nine minutes long, so make sure you have time. You have to watch it all the way through to the end, and be sure to read all of the popup captions that appear.
Make sure you have Kleenex.
Okay, you can watch now. A description will follow below the video player for those who can't see the video. But if you can see it, please don't spoil it for yourself. Just watch.
If you can't see it, the video is of the best man's toast at a wedding. He begins by holding up several signs explaining how he can't possibly "speak" about Amy (the bride), that description of her requires a higher form of communication. He then breaks into a broadway-style song about her, soon to be joined by many of the wedding guests singing their own parts of the song... including the bride's new father-in-law. The number goes on for around five minutes, ending with the wedding party and several guests doing a song and dance routine on the dance floor. The captions at the end of the video are from the bride herself. She explains how almost all of their friends and loved ones live in different states than they do, and how the best man planned this whole thing himself, writing the song and mailing lyrics and sheet music to all of the guests involved, all over the country. Each person learned his or her part on their own, and they got together to rehearse when they arrived in Florida for the wedding. They pulled the whole thing off flawlessly.
It's truly the most beautiful and amazing show of love and friendship I have ever seen. Amy and Brad are extremely lucky to have friends like that. I cried through the whole video, and I'm crying again just writing about it!
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I was playing around with YouTube on the TiVo the other day, searching for Chihuahua videos. Brooskey didn't let me get too far, because he wouldn't stop barking at the screen. Yeah... what the trainer told us about dogs only seeing colors in anything less than HDTV? Complete and utter BS. This was YouTube resolution, and he knew exactly what he was looking at.
Anyway, I found this photo montage set to what might be the best Chihuahua song ever.
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It's been a while since I've done this, but I can't think of anything to write about today, so why not? Here are a couple of the items that have recently appeared in the "across the web" section over in the sidebar.
A Letter I'd Like to See (But Won't)
From Radley Balko at The Agitator, this post is everything Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps should have said to the vocal but out-numbered self-righteous morality police who got their panties in a wad about him smoking a little marijuana at a party. No one could have said it better, and all I can add is, "A-frickin-men!"
Safe Eyes Mobile
I usually link to things I agree with, but once in a while I just have to point out how stupid something is. This is a replacement web browser for the iPhone, with content filtering built in, so you can "decide the type of content that is appropriate for you and your family." The problem is, as with all third party iPhone apps, this thing runs completely separate from the iPhone's built-in browser, Safari. And Safari, being one of the core components of the iPhone's operating system, cannot be removed from the device. So, the first thing any kid is going to do when he encounters a "web site blocked" message from Safe Eyes, is exit the app and go straight to the same site in Safari. Anyone who thinks their kid is not going to figure this out, is severely underestimating that kid's intelligence. The worst thing is, they charge a whopping twenty bucks for this app, which is a price almost unheard of in the iTunes App Store (aside from the tons of free ones, most apps are $1-$4; really good ones are $6-$10). Please don't waste your money on this.
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Being a mommy to two dogs gets expensive, which is why I'm entering on ConsumerQueen.com to win a $50 PETCO gift card, and doing everything possible to earn extra entries! One idea I have for what to spend the card on is a gate big enough to close off the front deck, so that Brooskey can go out with Dad when he grills in the summer... but there are so many other things it would be useful for. It's a rare day when we go out shopping and don't come back with something for the dogs.
You can, of course, enter yourself by subscribing to ConsumerQueen.com and leaving a comment on the contest post with what you'd spend the gift card on, but wouldn't you much rather leave the prize for me???! 
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Christmas is almost here, and things are getting busy, so I may not be able to post as regularly over the next week or so (you already saw evidence of this last week). And I'm sorry that all of my entries as of late have just been personal updates and not thought-provoking spoutings of my unpopular opinions. Actually, I'm not sorry. See, as much as I enjoy ruffling feathers most of the time, at this time of year I believe we should all just put our differing opinions aside and be kind and friendly to one another, no matter how different our beliefs may be. Like Mamacita said.
Rhode Island got majorly dumped on this weekend. I mean by snow... what were you thinking?  The storm started on Friday afternoon, and as a preemptive strike most businesses sent their employees home at noon. I had fully intended to use my afternoon off to blog, among other things, but when I got home, it was like my butt had become a large chunk of metal and the couch was an MRI machine. I wasn't able to separate the two for about five hours. At least I was watching the Science Channel - furthering my education - so it wasn't a complete waste of time, right? Anyway, we finally got the rest of the Christmas decorations up, so there is that.
On Saturday, we ventured out into the snow - the snow that was still falling, after they said it would stop at midnight Friday night - to bring little miss Abbie her Christmas gift. She wasn't feeling too great, but she still managed to have some fun with her new toys. Afterward we grabbed dinner and a couple of drinks with Joe, and did a little bit of shopping. My knee was throbbing by the time we got home after all of that trudging through the snow, and I had to put on the knee brace I had forgotten to wear in the first place.
Sunday morning, surprise, still snowing. To be fair, another storm had been forecasted for Sunday anyway, but it turned out to just be a continuation of the Friday storm which still hadn't ended. This was a pretty lazy day, but we did decide to try taking Vixen out to see what she would do with real snow (not the thin layer she experienced a couple of weeks ago). Okay, Chris took her while I watched through the window in my pajamas. We didn't get any pictures this time... but I wish we had gotten it on video! They headed down the walkway, which only had two or three inches of snow on it since it had been shoveled the day before. Suddenly, she hopped like a bunny rabbit from the walkway into the deep stuff - about a foot of it! She sunk in, backed out, shook it off, and grinned with her tongue hanging out, like, "That was fun; let's do it again!" I couldn't believe it. She loves the snow. She hopped around some more, licking and eating it, and even ate all of the snow that fell off of Brooskey when they came back in the house. Now whenever Chris takes Brooskey out and leaves Vixen inside, she sits at the door and cries.
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It's been a while since I participated in a blog giveaway. This one is to celebrate the first anniversary of That Blozzz. Here are the available prizes and their sponsors.
Grand Prize Package
Second Place Prize Package
Keep reading...
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Super big thank-yous to Grandy for hitting me back with the Super Blogger award! I'll pass this one on to a few of my reads which may have gotten overlooked last week: BrainFoggles, mommy bytes, Neurotic by Nature, What Lies Within the Mirror, Krississippi, Google Tutor, Mama's Bloggin, and Spaghetti Harvest. Pass it on if you like, or don't... I'll understand. I know some of you have received and given so many blog awards that it probably starts to seem meaningless after a while. It's new for me, though... after six long years my blog is finally starting to be recognized by people other than my relatives and close friends, and that's pretty cool!
I also need to set aside some time, if and when I ever get my home PC running again (a long story for another day), to check out some of the many other blogs Grandy recommended, as well as clean out some of the dead blogs from my subscription list.
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Tina from MummifiedTimesFive has given me the "I Love Your Blog" award! Thank you, Tina!
The rules say that I'm supposed to pass the award on to seven blogs that I love, so in no particular order, here they are:
Abbie's Party Place
This is Chris' goddaughter's blog and it is chock full of adorable photos and videos of arguably the cutest baby on the planet. If you want to see evidence of the proudest mama in the world, visit Abbie's Party Place.
Fighting Monsters with Rubber Swords
Robert writes about what it's truly like to be a parent to a child with a disability, without padding it with warm and fuzzy BS. His daughter Schuyler is an awesome kid who I really hope to be able to meet in person someday. I also find myself in complete agreement with almost everything Robert has to say that's not related to Schuyler.
Neil Turner's Blog
Even though he doesn't update all that often, I'm almost always interested in what he does write. Neil is slightly more geek than me and I feel like I can learn from him. Not to mention he is one of the very few on my feed reader who are using Movable Type like me, so I have to send him some love for that!
Scheiss Weekly
Unlike Rob at Fighting Monsters, I often find myself in disagreement with what Jane, aka Mamacita, has to say. But she expresses herself so well that I always feel compelled to read it all the way to the end anyway.
Canucklehead
Of course I can't leave out Lincoln. One of the only blogosphere-only friends I have added on Facebook (for me, social networking is usually reserved for people I know in real life). Ever since Lincoln discovered my blog and became my biggest fan (honestly I don't know what he saw in me!), I feel like I do know him in real life.
Functional Schmunctional
Grandy's blog is just fun. She's real and she's funny. Her semi-third-person writing style always makes me giggle, and reading her blog always puts a smile on my face.
Monkey Fables and Tales
I'm not usually all that impressed with humor blogs, but Monkey has a way of making a person spit their drink and pee their pants at the same time... a truly rare talent. He writes in a stream of consciousness sort of style which I imagine probably closely resembles the actual thought process of most men.
Okay, so technically you're all supposed to nominate seven blogs of your own, but if you've received this award before and done the whole nomination thing already, I won't make you do it again... unless you want to! Maybe you've discovered seven more great blogs you didn't know about before?
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Congratulations to Barbara Baker, winner of the Gopher III pick up tool! Your prize will be mailed by the end of this week.
If you weren't our lucky winner but still want one of these babies, you can pick one up from SHOP.COM for just $14.99!
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I couldn't decide what to post about today, until Angela at mommy bytes reminded me that it was time to go pink for October! I've turned the sidebar section headers pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Will you join by turning your own web site pink in some way? Also don't forget to click on The Breast Cancer Site every day to help fund free mammograms!
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 suggested by EurekaLoop"If money didn't matter, what would you be doing for a living?"This is a great question, because I've recently made up my mind that I sure as hell would not be doing what I do now. Don't get me wrong; there are parts of my current job that I do enjoy doing. Bookkeeping, accounting and other work with numbers does actually relax me. I like those types of problems which have a single, definitive solution, and that I know how to get to those solutions when a lot of people do not. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction.
What I don't like, is being constantly underappreciated and undervalued by people who can't do what I do. It's as if they think that because it's easy for me, they don't need to pay me a lot. But my feeling is that if it's easy for me, it's because I have a special talent that they don't have, and that should be worth something. Imagine if the slowest, weakest worker on a construction site got paid the most because the work was so hard for him, while the strongest and fastest guy got significantly less because it wasn't stretching his talents nearly as much. That would be utterly ridiculous, but in office life, that seems to be how it works.
Of course, that all seems to be a moot point, since the question is prefaced with, "If money didn't matter..." If money didn't matter, would I still be as unhappy in my current job as I am now? Yeah, I think I would be. I would still be asked to do things that don't really fit my job description, things I don't enjoy, because those who were hired to do such things are too lazy to learn how to do them. I would still have to watch other employees being undervalued and disrespected, and it would piss me off just as much as it does now. I would still be the person who has to apologize and make excuses for lousy business philosophies I don't agree with.
So, if money didn't matter, if I didn't need what money I do make even though it's not enough, what would I be doing? I would do a few things. I would blog, without worrying about how much or how little traffic I get, and without constantly looking for ways to make more money with it without being tacky or obnoxious. I would work in a dog kennel or day care center, and just play with the dogs all day long (taking mine along with me, of course). And I would play and review PC and video games not just for their content and entertainment value, but also their accessibility to disabled players. Ironically, with all of that free time to do what I want, I would probably make more money than I do now. If only I had the big chunk of change I would need to live on while building up such an income, I would quit my job today.
What about you? What would you be doing if money were no object?
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Check out this video of Kyle aka "0nehandedbandit" from AbleGamers playing Guitar Hero, on the hard difficulty level, with one hand (and one foot)...
He's using a foot pedal designed by Ben Heck to replace the strumming technique that is usually done with the second hand on the traditional guitar controller. I want one! Unfortunately Ben does not have anyone to manufacture his pedal in mass quantities and must build each one himself. Kyle had to wait a long time for his. Anyone out there want to help him start mass producing these things so I can get my hands on one?
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![[Super Blogger]](http://www.confoozled.com/archives/super_blogger.jpg)
![[the 'I Love Your Blog' award]](http://www.confoozled.com/archives/iloveyourblog.jpg)
![[photo of me]](http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/7fe9c3e52fcd03d2253441f7ddc89ab3.jpg?size=144)
![[album thumbnail]](/photos/albums/userpics/10001/thumb_img_0986.jpg)
![[album thumbnail]](/photos/albums/flood2010/thumb_IMG_0112.JPG)
