I know that we have had a post on Wordle, the program where you put your words in and come up with something fun.  I thought that it would be nice to revisit it.  To make your own Wordle go to http://www.wordle.net/.  There are many fonts, layouts and colors.  To keep words together add a ~ between the words you want to keep together.  Below is the Coffee Shop Crew.   To see a bigger picture, please click on the picture.

Custom Made:

  URL Used:

I also wanted to take this opportunity to welcome Irish Coffee.  On both of my blogs, I will soon be featuring Irish Coffee and some of the good changes here at GSTC.  My blogs are Clinically Clueless, which is quite personal, and Something Just To Start, which is fun and filled with shopping ideas.  (I know shameless plugs for my blogs!!)  I have many Wordles on my right side bar which are quite graphically personal, but it will give you an opportunity to see what can be done with Wordle.

Why don’t you go try it yourself or tell us what your topic would be.  If you do try one, in your comment add the url or the link as the picture will not post here. 

Go! Smell the Coffee and Have Some Fun!! 

I took the kids swimming at one of our newly opened municipal pools earlier this week here in the U.K. The last week of their summer holidays was typically raining and windy so what to do?

“How about a trip to the swimming pool”? I suggested. So we arrived, spent an age getting a ticket to enter (one receptionist you see) and then – to the pool.  I was hoping for a slide – maybe a water jet or an inflatable – no, none of that. Typically, a rectangular whole filled with water (surprisingly warm for a council pool) and a chilly breeze blowing from the ventilation system. Lots of fun to be had in a pool you know:

Rather than have diving contests we played Sharks – one of us is the shark and has to ‘catch’ the others (think tag in a pool), we played jumping in, we played splashing each other, we swam (for a bit), we did all of the above three times and then it was decided to get out. We’d been in there about an hour and a half.

Not bad value for £6 – 1 adult (me) and 3 children – we had a quick play in the park next door and then headed home. The £1 locker money (x2) being spent in the food vending machines on the way out. Of course, driving home, it struck me that it’s pretty crazy really – I mean it’s just a hole filled with water and yet we managed to pass the time quite successfully I thought.

What’s your take – do you have a local pool, is it nice or grotty & when did you last go swimming?

Okay so here is some really good advice for singles everywhere – if you want to find true love – buy yourself a calculator.

According to Australian mathematician, Dr. Clio Cresswell of the University of Sydney, “singles face much better odds if they date, and then reject, 12 potential partners, and then start searching for love.”

In an interview with Reuters the eminent number-cruncher reiterates the point that it takes work to find Mr. or Mrs. Right and that’s why we need to build a sort of romantic track record to help us sort out who might be eligible for the top spot.

Why she settled on the number 12 is unclear from the short news item, but no doubt she goes into intricate detail in the book she has written called “Mathematics and Sex.”

Now, as much as I can see this dating theory being popular with accountants and bankers, who probably would start talking about ratios or quotients, I can’t help thinking that concentrating on the numerical sequence of romantic liaisons is likely to detract somewhat from the true purpose of the exercise.

And I am assuming that once you have reached the magical number twelve there has to be some sort of rating system that determines which, if any, need to come back for further assessment. Or I suppose you just start all over again with another set of twelve.

Hint: To save time try and find triplets to date so you can cross three off at once!

Good luck and happy counting. Now where was I? Was that number eight or nine? Oh damn, I never was any good at math. Guess I’m going to have to start all over again.

Last week we gave everyone the chance to win $60 of flowers delivered anywhere in the world courtesy of our partners Flora 2000, the International delivery experts. Our 40th free flowers contest wince November 2006!

We asked for your caption less than 20 words for:

With 30 entries the winner on this occasion was blogger polybore with:

‘Is that a bowl of petunias in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?’

Congrats Polybore - just accept your prize and lap up the congrats from others and we’ll send you your $60 free flowers code within the next 7 days!

You could always send flowers to someone right now, anywhere in the world . Simply click on our any of the flower banners and click n buy and add discount code GST3K8 for a bit of flower smelling discount.

Keep on smelling, folks!

“Hello!”, fellow flowers from FUNtastic Southern California. Before I took my “little breaks,” one of the things that kept coming up in comments, emails and other correspondence it the word, “fun.” Many people seem to have preconceived ideas of fun.

This video is fun to most:

This video might be fun for someone else:

Or this one:

And, “yes” even this one: 

One definition of fun is “a source of enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure.”  This really broadens the concepts of fun and can mean different things to many different people. Fun doesn’t necessarily mean loud, boisterous, laughing activities. It also means that fun can be quiet and more contemplative like meditation or prayer.

When I think of  “fun” being defined as enjoyment or pleasure it open the doors to endless possibilities that differ from what some may define as fun. For me, that means more introspective types of activites like reading, writing about serious topics that are important to me, prayer/meditation, volunteering and educating just to name a few things. However, I also love laughing, a good joke, board games, humour, being silly, etc.  (Now, I hope I didn’t take the FUN out of things!!)

How does this definition of “fun,” expand your view of what fun can be and is in your life? 

Or even here in the Garden?

Share your fun video!!  For YouTube just put a “v” after the “http,” so it will look like “httpv//…”

Arvind here, disproving a myth!

Who said white birds can’t dance?!

What is the funniest animal caper you have ever seen?

And what myth have you disproved?!

Hey flower smellers, Ange here from down under. I have been busily working away on some new projects, hence my absence from GSTF. I will share some of them with you shortly but in the meantime, it’s still school holidays here in Australia and it got me thinking about travel as we head off to a family camping trip next week. It will be a first for us as a family so I’m really looking forward to the experience.

I wonder how many of our readers have actually travelled to and around Australia?

In case you have never really looked at our great vast land, I have a map you may like to take a closer look at so you know what to expect when you get here. We can’t wait to say G’Day!

So where do you think you will start? See you soon.

Arvind here with a Green Christmas Message on Christmas Eve when the parties should be in full swing.

Those of you not into celebrating Christmas, this very PC message below is just for you:-

Best wishes for a carbon-positive, environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, winter solstice holiday, practised within the most joyous traditions of the religious, philosophical or other persuasion of your choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion as well as those who choose not to practice a religion at all, and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions have helped make our society great, without regard to the race, creed, color, religious, or sexual preferences of the wishes.

(Disclaimer: This blog post is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the holiday spirit.)

And for those of you that are into celebrating Christmas, please turn on your volume and just click on the link below so you can have some childish fun decorating your own Christmas Cottage

Click here to decorate your own Christmas Cottage

Whatever your plans are, have a great time!

And please do add your own Christmas message below, Green or otherwise…

Hi there, Taylor Blue from western Canada here. I am a mom. Sometimes being a mom really conflicts with my job, I really want to sometimes say one thing but end up saying another because I am paid to write. Personal feelings aside.

I was going to write about something else mom related but why not just put this out on the table. My daughter was at school the other day and they asked her what her mom did for a job. My daughter answered the teacher that her mom stayed at home and wrote celebrity gossip on websites all day. Now, what the teacher said back is something I wonder if I should talk to the teacher about because to me it was quite rude. She said to my daughter…that’s something you shouldn’t be proud of.

The teacher’s reasoning was that the media tries to twist things to their advantage. I admit to that. I do it every day. But I don’t throw my morals out at the door. I’m also able to tell my daughter which stories to believe and which ones are fake when we stand at a grocery store and look at the tabloids. I am really insulted that a teacher would say that to my daughter without meeting me.

When I am writing a story I do try to word it to lead people on. But I never go through with it. I take the job really personally and I don’t like to make fun of people. But, people like to read mean. So sometimes, I have some celebrities that get on my nerves I may let go and be snarky. Now, there is a difference between the two. Snarky is being silly, mean is just being mean.

Somethings you just have to do…

What do you wish you could take back that you said about someone?

5 weeks ago I moved into what I would soon find out to be, an Internet-free zone.  No connection in the apartment, not even wireless signals to mooch off of.  Finally, yesterday at 10 am, a cable guy arrived to install this glorious product of our information age and I must say, it’s better than it has ever been.  Although, the 5 weeks of no Internet (except for the university library) was rewarding, I am glad to once again have it in my reach.

Tell me, could you live though 5 Internetless weeks?