I listened to a fascinating and hilarious dialogue on the radio this morning, and thought I'd share it here, along with shaking my head in amazement.

A bit of background: the station I was listening to holds these "Singing Bees" in the morning, where the DJ plays a bit of a song, and when he stops it, the selected caller has to continue singing the rest of the verse on their own. Prizes are things like free tickets (typically 2-- you and a guest) to local concerts or free dinners or whatever. You know-- your usual radio contest fare.

This morning, I tuned in to hear a woman calling in, I didn't know who she was but the DJ recognized her as the woman who had just minutes earlier won today's Singing Bee and 2 tickets to see Lyle Lovett and kd lang in concert. The following conversation (paraphrased from the best of my memory, and pared down to the important parts) ensued:

Woman: (realizing she's on the air) Uh.... am I on the air? No, I can't say this...
DJ: Aww come on, it's okay!
Woman: Well, um... I need 1 more ticket.
DJ: (in disbelief) One more ticket! You know, they're still on sale. You can buy one at the ticket office.
Woman: I know, I know, I feel bad asking... but... can I get one more ticket?
DJ: Isn't this typical American? Always asking for something, always wanting something for free
Woman: (Embarrassed chuckle)
DJ: (Trying to make her feel better) Well, that's okay, if you don't ask, you don't know if you'll get it right? Oh, all right... we'll get you another ticket... BUT! You have to work for it!

So they decided to set up another Singing Bee for her to try to earn another pair of tickets:

DJ: Who's your favorite singer?
Woman: Lyle Lovett!
DJ: Well, we don't play Lyle Lovett on this station, so you'll have to pick someone else
Woman: Okay... Patsy Cline
DJ: Patsy Cline! Alright, when we get back from the commercial break, we'll hold another Singing Bee and play a Patsy Cline song!
Woman: (whiny voice) You mean I have to be on hold?
DJ: Uh... yes
Woman: (whinier voice) For what-- FIVE minutes!?

The DJ didn't even deign an answer to that, at least not on the air. They went straight to the commercial break. When they came back, the DJ played a few lines of a popular Patsy Cline song, stopped the CD, and the woman immediately chimed in (with a great singing voice, I might add!) with the rest of the verse.

Unfortunately! She got ONE single word wrong. I laughed out loud, because it seemed like such poetic (musical?) justice! The DJ pondered what to do, whether to award her the tickets or not, and the last thing I heard before they cut to playing music, was that he'd take this to an off-air vote. Alas, I arrived at work before they could come back on the air with their decision (if they even did). So whether or not the woman got her coveted tickets remains a mystery.

I thought it was amusing enough to blog because I just could not believe this woman's audacity and greed! Let's see:

1. She had the nerve to beg for the tickets. She's already won 2 free tickets to the concert. Would it kill her to go out and BUY the third ticket? It's like getting 3 tickets for the price of one! That's a bargain in its own right!
2. They made it easier for her by not only giving her another chance at a second Singing Bee, but by giving her the CHOICE as to which artist's music to play! Can you say: unfair advantage!?
3. She moaned about being put on hold for so long while they cut to a commercial. Assuming it was costing her minutes on her cell phone, I say: what, you can't spare a few minutes of your time and airtime to get a FREE ticket!?
4. As if that weren't enough, she still wanted the tickets even though she hadn't sung the verse 100% correctly.

I am impressed at the DJ's cool and patience with her, throughout all of that. If I were him I would've been rolling my eyes (ah, the joys of not having your face seen, through radio!) and thinking "Is this woman for real? Can anyone truly be that shameless and greedy!?"

I wish they would've returned on the air sooner with their verdict, but maybe it's best if I don't know. I can make the outcome anything I want in my mind, depending on my mood ;-)

Really gives added meaning to the term "Only in America", doesn't it?

(I am cross-posting this to ALL of my blogs in an attempt to try to ID this little critter)

I'm not normally a fan of our feathery friends. Birds chirp and sing and caw waaaayyyyy too early in the morning for me, invariably waking me up. I hate having trees right outside the window. Being awakened from a deep slumber at 4:00am evokes urges to get a BB gun and shoot the darn pests right out of the trees. If only I were a better shot, though! ;-P

But this morning, on my way out to work, I came upon an unusual sight-- a small white bird was perched on the roof of my mom's car. I managed to get close enough to it to snap a couple of pictures:

It's a curious-looking bird, with its white feathers and orange beak (it looks less orange in the 2nd pic, for some reason that one came out more bluish than the first one, which matches the original color better). It's about the size of a small sparrow.

Anyone have any ideas as to what kind of bird it is? An albino sparrow? A cross between a dove (white feathers) and a pelican (orange beak)? LOL... I'd really like to know what it is... anyone? :-)

Today started out as an ordinary day. Had a dental appointment for both me and Todd in the morning, where he was quite well-behaved and came away from it with a positive experience at the dentist's. Fingers crossed it stays that way till we go again in 6 months. Then it was off to work-- another ordinary Thursday, right?

Sure. For the most part.

No sooner had I settled at my desk and examined my Outlook calendar than I realized what today's date was. And a multitude of special things are going on today.

It is National Flag Day here in the United States, commemorating the adoption of our country's red-white-and-blue on this day in 1777.

Also on this day in 1775, the United States Army was born as the Continental Army, combining the forces of the fledgling colonies in their struggle against Great Britain. Our Commander-in-Chief? George Washington. It wasn't until after the Revolutionary War ended that it officially became the "U.S. Army". 232 years later, I'm proud to say that it is still going strong :-)

And last but not least, a little closer to home (well, Grab home, anyway), it was on this day some years ago that Charlie (Greyrabbit) was born. He has now caught up to my husband and several of our other Grab friends, making my constant age digs just a tad more apt ;-)

Happy Flag Day.
Happy Birthday, Army.
And Happy Birthday Charlie! (hey, that almost rhymed!) ;-)

(Cross-posted from Myspace)

I don't blog somber entries very often. The most serious I've ever gotten is a boring account of my life's events, or maybe getting on my soapbox and venting about something.

But when I browsed through Myspace's video section and came across this video, I HAD to blog it. Most of my friends who truly know me know that it takes a LOT to move me and even more to move me to tears. And I was quite misty-eyed by the end of this video.

As a brief synopsis, it's a video meant to tug at your heartstrings and remind people of why Breed-Specific Legislation (aka BSL) isn't a good idea. I'm sure you've all seen it-- proposed laws mandating the spaying/neutering of certain "dangerous" breeds (usually pit bulls and Rottweilers), even putting them to death. It's discrimination at its finest and fails to address the real problem: humans and their handling of animals. More often than not, it's irresponsible ownership that causes a dog's behavior.

I came across this website, which provides lots of useful information and good links about BSL. It's a term I'd never heard of until today (I looked it up when I kept seeing the acronym throughout the video). And I thought I'd spread the word:

http://www.stopbsl.com/index.htm

Now get your hankies out for the video:

I had to come back and edit this post to add a video I found that featured the second-most-targeted breed (and, in case you couldn't tell from my previous postings and avatars, my favorite dog), the Rottweiler:

(Cross-posted from my Myspace blog)

Snippet of a phone conversation between me and Allan a while ago:

Allan: I love you
Helly: IDIOT! Freakin' moron!!

Surprisingly, we have conversations like this fairly often.
More surprisingly, Allan hasn't been deterred from talking to me on the phone. Why? You'll see...

Inspired by Ryan's rel="nofollow"blog entry about the top road rage cities in the country, I decided to compile a few personal incidents that illustrate why Los Angeles deserves its spot in the Top 5.

Of course, in my stories, the person suffering from acute road rage is... me.

Long ago, I blogged about some of my pet peeves. It wasn't until I'd finished and re-read it that I realized how many of them were traffic-related (and categorized the list accordingly).

As you can tell from my "pet peeves" entry, cruising in the passing (or left, here in the US) lane really irks me. I find it riskier to have to pass someone on the right, and hate having to be in such a position.

Then one morning on the way to work, someone decided to take that concept to a whole new level. After having driven on German roads and the Autobahn for 4 years, I was very appreciative of the fact that California freeways have practically endless merging room for on-ramps. I was cruising merrily along in the rightmost lane, spied a pickup truck getting on the freeway, and sped up a little so I could get out of his way, as he wasn't going fast enough to pass me by the time I reached the on-ramp. He merged behind me with plenty of room to spare. Next thing I knew, he shot out to try to pass me. Not in the left lane, which was empty. But to my right (the lane was still in merge stage and hadn't completely narrowed). You can bet that I leaned on my horn for several seconds straight while he was passing me. If I hadn't been watching him in my rearview mirror the entire time, I wouldn't have slowed down to make way for him, and we would've collided. Needless to say, the adrenalin was still pumping by the time I arrived at work 25 minutes later.

Every once in a while you find yourself in the wrong lane. Sometimes you're lucky and can shoot over to the correct lane (be it a freeway exit, or a right-turn lane on the street, or whatever) without impeding traffic because there's no cars behind you. No problem. But if not, does it really hurt to continue on until you get a chance to turn around and get back on track? Apparently not for some, who seem intent on nosing their way into the correct lane while inconveniencing those of us behind him. Like the time I pulled up to an intersection, going straight, while the cars in the right-turn-only lane next to me made their turns. When the light turned green, the guy in front of me decided to to try to turn right anyway, from OUR lane! Of course, he had to stop and wait for pedestrians to cross. I honked my horn at him to no avail, because now he was blocking me. Worse yet? He had the nerve to flip ME off for honking at him-- when he was making an illegal turn!!

Then there was the time I basically played chicken with a guy who apparently couldn't read all the road signs telling him he was going the wrong way down a one-way street. I flashed my high beams at him, tried honking my horn at him-- still didn't get the message. So I stayed my course in the middle of the very narrow road, head-on towards him, until, at the very last minute, he finally swerved into a parking lot along the road and got the hell out of the way. You can bet I was cussing up a blue streak all the while!

But motorists aren't the only ones out there who cause aggravation. Pedestrians can be equally bad. I will never forget the group of college students not only jaywalking, but ambling SLOWLY across the street. They moved so nonchalantly that I actually had to take a second look at the traffic light to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me and that I actually had the green light, not them. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting them, and when I blared my horn angrily at them, they simply looked up and stared at me with vacant expressions. They must've been either drunk or stoned, or both. Or maybe they just had a combined IQ of a pinhead.

I miss driving in Germany, where the majority of drivers had a healthy respect for the road. At the very least, with no speed limits in most parts of the country, you were bound to never get stuck behind granny doing 40mph in the left-most lane of the freeway!

Thought I'd while away a few minutes with this survey, considering I haven't done any quizzes or such on my blog in a while ;-)

Brand Survey Take This Survey at Quizopolis.com Deodorant : Don't use any Toothpaste : Aim or Pepsodent Shampoo : Suave and any brand of dandruff shampoo. When it's on sale, I get Pantene-- it works wonders Shaver : Is that shaving foam (plain soap for me, thanks) or razors (the disposable kind you get in a pack of 10 for $1)? Underwear : Any that's cheap, usually Hanes bikini briefs Watch : The $5 one from Wal-Mart Detergent : Xtra or Sun Car : Any make as long as it's NOT American!!! Airline : No favorite, but would prefer to avoid United if possible Backpack/Purse/Wallet : Whatever's cost-efficient and functional Computer : Dells are pretty reliable, and have good prices Search Engine : Google TV Channel : USA, TNT and TBS Cell Phone : Motorola Beer : Don't like beer but if I must drink it, Budweiser Select or Stella Artois Soft Drink : Dr. Pepper and Barq's Fast Food : McDonald's, they have GREAT food on their dollar menu! Pizza : Little Caesar's Cereal : Depends on my mood. At the moment I'm favoring Berry Krispies Chocolate : Again, anything that's not American (like Hershey's :-P) Preferably German, Swiss or Belgian chocolate Take This Survey at Quizopolis.com

Shopping for women's clothing can be a trying experience. Sizes are not consistent across different manufacturers. One brand's size 8 dress is another's size 6. One company's size "Small" blouse is another's size "Medium". When I am asked what size I wear, I cannot answer, the only honest answer I can give is "it depends on the brand".

The only time this really poses a problem, however, is when I'm looking at clothes online. It's a gamble to pick the size and then hope when it arrives in the mail, it fits. Much easier to just go into a store and physically try things on until I find ones that fit. Okay, no big deal, right?

Right. For the most part, anyway. There is one exception:

Bras.

Did you know that 80% of women do not wear the proper bra size? It's not too surprising, considering that most bras out there simply do not conform to the varying sizes and shapes of all-too-human women.

Cup sizes come in standard sizes: AA, A, B, C, etc... and even then, it again depends on brand: one manufacturer's A cup is another's B cup. Anyway, even if ALL the different cup sizes were uniform across all manufacturers, the problem still remains that women don't all conform to one size, esp when there's such a big difference between each step. What about those who are "in-between", say, an A and B cup? (okay, there is one brand who makes "almost" cup sizes to cover those in-betweens, so that's a start)

The second problem is that women are rarely symmetrical. What does the poor woman who has an "AA" left breast and an "A" right breast do? If she gets an AA bra, it's too tight on one side, and if she gets an A bra, then she's not adequately supported on the other side.

And people wonder why the majority of women don't wear the correct size!

I think I should start up a business that sells "non-symmetrical" bras. I bet I could generate a large client base from there. What do you think? :-D

(I'm even more curious to see how many men will be brave enough to post a comment on here ;-) )

While shopping at Wal-Mart last night I made my way through the baby section, looking for the usual assortment of formula, diapers and maybe some clothes on sale. As I passed by the bath products aisle, I idly scanned the items, not really actively looking because we didn't need any bath items. Then something caught my eye, just barely. I stopped short, backed up a couple feet, and took a second, closer look. This is what I saw on the shelf:

There were actually several bottles of this, I just picked that one up and put it on a higher shelf so I could take a picture of it.

I actually turned the bottle over and examined it, just to see if it really was "baby cologne". And yes, it is.

Why would a baby need cologne?? If it's freshly bathed, isn't that all that matters? Hell, baby lotions already smell to high heaven as is-- that's why I don't use it on Todd, I use scent-free Lubriderm. Why add to the artificial smells? *I* don't even wear cologne (save for the rare special occasion-- those same rare occasions when I dress up and put makeup on), why on earth would anyone lather it on their baby!?

And here I thought I'd seen everything...

I've recently become an avid reader of Charlie's blog. At the risk of swelling his head (which I'm sure his wife would be more than happy to deflate), I enjoy reading it because he's an excellent writer, and his posts are usually pretty insightful and witty.

Every now and then I click a random link on the "Recently Updated" section of the main blog page, and sometimes I'm rewarded with a gem of a blog that has more or less gone unnoticed save for the blogger's small group of friends.

I remember the old blogging days, shortly after blogs arrived on Grab in August 2005. It was how I met and got to know the majority of the Grab friends I have today. For a long time, the blogging bug had bitten me-- HARD. Rarely was there more than a day between posts. Sometimes I even posted a couple of times in the span of one day. Anyone that has the patience to troll through my blog archives will see evidence of this. I wonder at how on earth I managed to come up with new, fresh, original blogging material every time, but somehow I did.

And here's the thing-- rare was the occasion when I had to resort to posting little more than a cute picture or funny joke. Only the ones that truly tickled me were worth sharing on there. Blogthings? Only the interesting ones, and then only if I could make commentary about the results. Quizzes? They can be insightful on occasion, especially when you pull the community together to buzz about the weekly Friday Five together.

The same was true of many of the "popular" blogs back in the day-- Lisa, Geri, Lex, Deuce, Jen(glockie), Cat, Willow, Jenna, Julie... to name just a few! (I'm sure I'm missing a few I've enjoyed so much in the past, forgive me!) All were full of funny, original, sometimes sobering, sometimes enlightening, content.

These days I'm dismayed to find the "Top 10" section of the blog page no longer filled with such blogs. Of course, there's still some good ones, but by far the dominating presence is from those blogs consisting of about a dozen new posts in a single day-- all of them merely copy-and-paste from email jokes and lovely pictures. Again, that's not to say that the occasional joke or cute pic has no place in blogs, but when it's the majority content, it gets old-- fast.

It's a common refrain around these parts that "I miss the old Grab". I miss it too. As far as blogs are concerned, I miss the days when it was blogs like Charlie's that dominated the "Top 10" list-- and for good reason, they deserved it!

Ah well... this blog has been a great outlet for me this past couple years. That will probably never change. And as I get ready to post my ~260th blog entry, I sit here and hope that I'll never run out of things to talk about, muse about, rant about, laugh about and cry about!

Computers are complicated beasts. There's no denying that. All anyone has to do is visit the Site Feedback board of this site on any given day, to find evidence of that fact.

It's rare that the end user doesn't encounter some difficulty, no matter how trivial or how large, on his/her end. Sometimes the problem lies on the end of the service provider (i.e. Grab in this case). Sometimes the problem lies with the end user him/herself. More often than not, these folks are more than happy to shift the blame elsewhere, though.

So when I came across this joke in this month's issue of Reader's Digest, I couldn't help but chuckle at it's aptness:

The latest term being bandied about our IT office is PICNIC: Problem In Chair, Not In Computer

Hehehehehe.... ;-)

Several months ago, Los Angeles lost its only country radio station (KZLA), something I blogged about the day after it happened:

http://blogs.grab.com/hellykwee/232677

As the news came out, the reports also made mention of the fact that the kzla.com website would still stream country music. I promptly forgot about it until tonight, when I thought I'd check it out and see what was playing. I fired up my web browser and went to kzla.com. To my surprise, I was greeted with:

Thank you for visiting KZLA.com. We appreciate your passion for country music, which is why we offered the streaming of KZLA Country Music through the KZLA.com website while our station transitioned to the all-new Movin939.com.

We have now made a strategic decision to focus our energy on our new Movin 93.9 format. There are no plans to re-establish the KZLA stream or keep the KZLA.com website up and running. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

As soon as I finished reading it, I was redirected to the new station's website.

So, not only can't I tune into a good country station on my way to and from work everyday (it's a 45-minute commute, and all I can hope for is strong enough signal from either Ventura County or San Diego County), but now I can't even listen to streaming radio on the internet. Talk about a double whammy.

I find it very hard to believe that as large a population as Los Angeles has, the fan base is too small for the entertainment execs to wish to cater to. *shrugs* their loss, I suppose.

Guess I'd better fire up my mp3 player...

Fuzzy's recent change of his avatar reminded me of the cute, furry little weeples that were popular around the time I was in elementary school (grade school). If I remember correctly, we got them during the annual chocolate bar sell-a-thons (as I like to call them).

Cute little balls of fur, with plastic googly eyes and little bare feet!
I had a green weeple. I named him Limey. I even wrote a little song (called "Limey the Weeple"-- duh!) for him. To this day I can still remember the tune I devised to go along with it, too bad I can't remember all the words... Anyway, he was cute. Too small to cuddle, but he looked sooooo adorable sitting on my desk at school.

So I did a Google Images search for some weeples, hoping to find a reasonable facsimile of my long-lost Limey. Here's what I turned up:

This roller-blading purple weeple reminds me a lot of Fuzzy's purple weeple:

Here's a row of weeples, including some green ones just like my Limey:

And finally, a blue weeple with a health-conscious message: No Smoking! :-D

Ahh... the good ol' days :-)

Last night I had quite an adventure. I was driving along merrily on my way home from work last night, when, about 10 miles into my 43-mile commute, my car started making funny noises. Every time I hit the accelerator, the engine would make a strange rattling, clanking noise. Luckily I was near an off-ramp and managed to coast along till I got off the freeway. No sooner did I exit than smoke began billowing from my car. I immediately pulled over to the side of the road just past the exit, and killed the engine. For a while I couldn't see anything through the smoke clouds surrounding me, and the lovely scent of what smelled like burnt rubber wafting through.

Before I could pick up my phone and call my parents, a minivan that had been behind me pulled over in front of me, and a friendly woman got out and asked if I needed help. We took a cursory look at my car, where smoke was still swirling around. I told her I was going to call my parents to come pick me up. She then asked where they lived (a good 30 miles away) and when I told her, she immediately offered to give me a ride to her house (which is only about 20 miles from my parents-- a bit closer) and let me wait there, as this road was dark and desolate and not the safest place for a woman to be sitting all alone in her broken-down car.

So I accepted the offer and called my dad while she drove me to her house. Once there, I met her kids and her dog, and settled down on her couch, watching some TV while I waited for my dad to come get me. He arrived after a while, we pushed my car to the parking lot of a nearby golf course, and let it sit there overnight-- later today we'll make towing arrangements.

The interesting part is just how lucky I actually got in running into this lady. Normally she takes the exit BEFORE the one I took, to get home. But that night, for some reason, she decided to take the very one I took, and managed to find herself behind me when my car broke down. And that night, as I left work, I was contemplating getting gas on my way home (there's a gas station right next to my office building), esp since I left a bit earlier than I normally do, and had a few minutes extra time, but decided against it.

It's interesting to speculate what would've happened if the lady had decided to follow her usual routine and take her normal exit. Or if I had decided to get gas before going home. We wouldn't have run into each other-- and how many other Good Samaritans would've pulled over to see if I needed help on that dark road?

I consider myself quite fortunate that circumstances put her in my path (or me in hers, whichever way you look at it), and am quite lucky that I was able to get home without incident.

Really makes you think about some force larger than all of us, watching over us from up above...

This is a song you either really hate or really love, so I turned off the autostart feature so as not to offend my blog readers who don't favor country music, in particular Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart"

I remember when this song came out and gained immense popularity in 1992-- it was my senior year in high school and my friend and next-door neighbor Melissa would come over with the CD in tow, and we'd blast it on the stereo I received for Christmas the year before.

My favorite "Achy Breaky Heart" story takes place on Independence Day-- July 4, either 1992 or 1993, can't remember exactly. But my dad and I went to some 4th of July festivities at the sports arena at Cal State Northridge. The place was packed. As with all Independence Day celebrations, the day was capped off with fireworks set to music as the audience oohed and aahed from the stadium bleachers. One of the songs to accompany the fireworks show was none other than "Achy Breaky Heart". In the middle of the chorus at the end of the song, the song suddenly got turned off! Whether accidental or intentional, I'll never know.

Because this is where the funny part came in: apparently the entire audience had been singing along to it, and when the song cut off abruptly, you could hear everyone (including me) singing. Amazingly enough, we managed to finish the verse before breaking out into fits of laughter.

My second favorite story surrounding this song involves Allan, who hates country music with as much passion as the rest of my uneducated friends ;-) He took a trip to Europe in early 1993--  flew into London and made his way to Victoria Station in an attempt to reach Paris. While walking towards the food court at the station, what song do you think blasted over the sound system? No, not sleepy boring Muzak. "Achy Breaky Heart". He wanted to cry. After all, he traveled 5000 miles only to be subject to what has been deemed the worst country song ever!?

Hehehe.

Well, I don't care what anyone says. I've always loved the song and always will. It's fun and it's upbeat, who cares if it's a bit silly. I'll kick my heels to it any day. Yee-haw!

I am giggling with amusement as I write this.

To date, 8 people have followed the "Google Images About Me" blog meme that I nicked from kxgen:

Scot, Kendra, Fuzzy, Fuzzy's Girl and Andi here on Grab.
Jenna, Lisa and Jen (glockie!) over on Myspace

Popular meme! :-)

But what really amuses me is that nobody seemed to notice a mistake I made when I manually transferred the questions from kxgen's blog to mine. If you look carefully, there are only 8 pictures. But the questions end at #9. Look even more carefully, and you will see the reason for that is I accidentally skipped #6-- went straight from #5 to #7.

And every single one of the blogs I've seen so far has duplicated that error.

Which really makes you think about the psychology behind blindly following the herd. Did everyone really just copy and paste from the last blog they read, that had this in it? Did they copy it from the original source of the mistake, or did they copy it from someone who followed it-- thereby propagating it even further?

I actually waited a few days before writing this, to see who else would blog the meme, and if this would be duplicated across the board. So far, the answers point to yes.

Makes for some interesting ponderings on a Wednesday afternoon....