What the Power of Words Can Do!

Join us on Thursday, March 19th for an in-depth interview with Simon Rose, science fiction and fantasy children's author nominated for the Silver Birch, Diamond Willow and Golden Eagle

Book Awards. Simon also gives workshops, visits schools and teaches classes to authors. Please come and learn more about this author of five outstanding books for children. He will be here to answer your questions after the interview.

If you want to learn more about him visit his blog and check out his video on Youtube.

The Mattress Saga

I wonder sometimes if anyone is reading my words and of course, I love the comments all of you leave when you stop by. For a writer comments are like applause and we need that very much.:) That's why I always try to answer your comments, because my answers are like a performer's bows.:) But I never could have anticipated what would happen when I talked about mattress shopping on Friday in my blog.

So I opened my email box to check on email on Saturday and found an email addressed to me from the Vice President of Customer Satisfaction of Sleepy's! :) Somehow, and this kind of scares me, he had found my email address after finding my post about the mattress shopping experience on my last blog. I was very happy to know that my post had received attention. Probably they have an automatic service that checks constantly for their name or mention of their products. But how did he get my email address? I sent this person an email back to find out how they got my email and also to thank him for what he offered to us. Here is an excerpt of the email:

We thank you for taking the time to share your experience about the Miralux mattress and our showroom.

At Sleepy’s we work continuously to accommodate our customers with quality in both service and merchandise. We are sorry that you had to experience anything less.

He then went on to give some background of Sleepy's. Started in 1957 in Brooklyn, NY, by the Acker family, Sleepy's now has almost 700 stores in 12 states. He also mentioned how they deliver over 2000 Miralux mattresses a week and that one dissatisfied customer will tell ten more people and that is a problem in the age of the Internet. He also said that the percentage of negative comments was far less than the 2000 mattresses they had delivered.

But there is more:

I would like to extend my personal assistance in helping your daughter find the mattress that is right for her, no obligation to select a Miralux and will see to it that a Regional Manager gives you personalized attention at a day and time of your/her convenience.

Again, I apologize for the behavior of our salesperson and assure you it will be addressed with the Regional VP. We regret the outcome, but unfortunately it becomes our greatest learning tool. We hope to hear from you.

Because of this email we went back to a Sleepy's store today and my daughter finally found a mattress she liked and she bought it. It's a Kingsdown with a soft pillow top. She needs the very soft. Sleepy's has this test for anyone who needs a mattress. They lay you down on a computerized mattressand it finds the exact level of comfort you need. Then they show you all the mattresses that fit your profile. The salesman we had today knew what he was doing. He treated us with respect and gave us information so we were able to decide with facts.

My daughter originally decided on an IBC Mattress, but when she checked on the website she found....Miralux. They are the same manufacturers of the Miralux mattress. She was all set to buy it because it was the only one in her price range that felt comfortable. But after she went back to the mattress one more time she decided to lay down on the Kingsdown. In a few minutes she had changed her mind and though the salesman had written up the order for the first mattress, he switched it and it only ended up costing her a little more than the first one for much better quality.:)

He threw in the delivery for free and they're taking away the old mattress for $14.95. So they're delive

ring the mattress on Tuesday and I hope that this will be the end of the mattress saga.:)

And we didn't even need the help of the Regional Manager. This shows a queen size bed. Imagine it as a twin.:)

What Have They Done to Facebook?

Now one more thought before I end my ravings.:) What have they done to Facebook? They've pared it down so much and put things in different places and restructured the group pages. I don't like it. It's confusing and I wonder why they are always changing things when people get comfortable with using something. I just wish once that things wouldn't change on websites. In this crazy changing world of ours we need places that don't change and where we can find our friends. We need the comfort of the familiar to keep us sane. It's kind of like the "Cheers" song:

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name

And they're always glad you came....

Click the link to see all the lyrics.

One last thing and then I promise it's finished! We did see a movie this weekend! But it wasn't the one I would have chosen myself. We saw "Taken" with Liam Neeson. I have mixed feelings about this movie, because it is about the horrific practice of kidnapping and selling young girls as sex slaves. Liam Neeson is a retired CIA agent who when he hears his daughter being kidnapped over the phone rushes off to save her. It incorporates a great deal of violence and some torture with a little bit of blood and the minimal amount of gore. There are horrible scenes of debauched girls at a construction site giving favors to men while drugged in some cases todeath! I was really disgusted by a lot of this movie, but at the same time there are edge of your seat chase scenes. It's very much like a larger version of "24" if Jack had been in this situation. It didn't get a great set of reviews as you can see, but for people who like adventure movies you might like it a little more.

Until the next time, welcome to my new readers and please leave a comment. Thank you to my readers who have been here before. Remember we have the pleasure of an interview with children's book author Simon Rose on Thursday.

Facebook and Twitter: Could They Be Destroying Your Brain Slowly?

From Cpaphil Vintage Postcards

From Cpaphil Vintage Postcards

From Cpaphil Vintage Postcards

In the last couple of days my decision to post about Twitter and how Facebook affects us seems to have increased. I have still not signed up to Twitter and seriously I don't see myself doing it. I don't even update my Facebook that much. So why would I want to Twitter? Yet it seems that the country is going gaga over Twitter. Even politicians are Twittering and actually some of them were being rude on Tuesday night when President Obama was speaking. I mean here is the first speech the new president is giving to a joint house of Congress with the Supreme Court present and what are these Republicans doing? They're Twittering and one even had his staff member send out a tweet to apologize for the first one. What could possibly be so important you have to tell people during a "Not State of the Union Address" as Rachel Maddow and John Stewart referred to it? Shouldn't they be watching the address too?

There is an article in the March issue of The Sun magazine, which has awesome articles. I thought they would have it online, but they have the February one now. You should definitely check this out. The article in the March issue is about how the internet is changing the way we think. It's called "Computing the Cost" by Arnie Cooper. It's an interview with Nicolas Carr who discusses how the internet has actually rewired our brains and we are thinking differently. You can get this magazine at any bookstore and after looking at a typical issue you might want to even subscribe to it. Or you can wait until they post this issue online, probably when they send the April one. My husband does and there's always something worthwhile to read in it.:)

A couple of posts ago I talked about how we might have a discussion about this subject. If you remember the article: "Why Facebook is for Old Fogies". On the heels of that article comes several more about the effects of Facebook and Twitter. Here is one : "Are Twitter, Facebook Health Hazards? and another "Twittering brains withering, expert warns" and one more in The Daily News, "Are Facebook, MySpace and Twitter eroding attention spans?" If you are interested and want to see more go here.

So armed with all this information I would like to know how you feel about it. Please leave your comments and I will try to answer as many as I can. A lot of people have been waiting for this post, so I hope that you will chime in with your opinion.:) Personally, I like Facebook, but it can get tedious. I love my friends and I love hearing from them, but sometimes answering all the requests and making sure you've saved the rain forest and the oceans is also time-consuming.:) I am personally addicted to Scramble.:) Also, I do love meeting all the people there and being able to network with all of you cool guys!! Looking forward to your responses.:)

Now for the blog I am highlighting today it is going to be: Cpaphil Vintage Postcards. I love to visit this unusual blog, because Marie, the author always has something different and exciting for us to see. She will link a vintage postcard to an event or an experience and it becomes very personal or she'll give us the history of it. One of her entries is about the French flag. Did you know that the original French flag had green instead of blue? That is only one of the fascinating things you can learn on her blog. The one after that was about a Napoleon question and Marie posted the answer she received from the historian David Markham so we could all learn about the history too. Marie has a large assortment of postcards and I am looking forward to viewing as many as I can when I have time. She offers some of them for sale, and she also encourages people to send her any that they have. It makes me want to dig into my souvenirs to see if I have any that I can send to her.:) Once you have visited this blog you will want to go back there every day. Just seeing those beautiful postcards and learning more about their history brightens my day!

The last thing I want to talk about is American Idol. It was the second week and there were twelve more hopefuls tonight. It's sad that when it comes to actually performing some of these people pick the songs that make them sound the worst. Don't they listen to themselves? Or are they doing them well in rehearsal and then messing up when they're in front of the audience? I admit that four judges is a bit much. Three was daunting, but imagine facing four of them? Also, they don't always agree and that creates tension. All I can say is no matter what the pundits say I loved Adam Lambert. He brings an energy and a voice that I sorely missed in most of the contestants tonight. Plus he is really good looking and that doesn't hurt.:) For the girls I am mixed, but I did like Allison Iraheta. For a sixteen year old she has some voice!! And even though he is doing the same shtick I liked Norman Gentle or Nick Mitchell (his real name). He is funny and every time I see him he makes me laugh. I've seen that quality in only a few people on the stage and most of them went on to do great things. When he was just starting out Gabriel Gottfried had that quality. I saw him at Catch a Rising Star in New York City and I thought I'd burst my stomach I laughed so hard. He did crazy things I'd never seen anyone else do. He got on TV and now is pretty much ensconced in comedy lore.

You have to applaud someone who wants to do anything for a laugh. Nick Mitchell is that kind of person. It is a bit schlocky, but it's his personality and he has great timing. He might have changed the song though. Simon was really getting disturbed about him. I don't care, but it would be fun to see what a comedian on the show might do to it. Might spice things up a bit.:) It's all up to the voting. We never vote until the last couple of shows. So we won't have any say in this. :) Here's a page where you can find out everything about American Idol.

But for sheer comedy I can't end this without talking about Gov. Jindal who has proved to be the most entertaining politician since Sarah Palin.:) There is no question that he reminded me immediately of Kenneth on "30 Rock". It was his delivery and his open eyed wonder that did it. He didn't look like a governor. Instead he seemed more like some IT guy who stopped by to see if he could fix your computer. He spouted lies and nonsense and did little for the Republicans but bring them more embarrassment. It's odd how much they can take!!

Until the next time. I hope you have a great rest of the week. One more thing I wanted to tell you. A friend of mine sent me a link to this great movie site. You can watch movies for free, like hulu.com. These are first run movies still in movie theaters like "Revolutionary Road" and "Australia". The name of the site is ParadoxCentral. You register and then you can watch all of these movies for FREE!!!!! I can't wait to take advantage of this soon. Enjoy!!!!

Thoughts on a Sunny Day!

        Is this you?

     Entrance to Old Skool in Daegu, South Korea

The weekend is here again and I'm looking outside my window at the sunshine I usually miss.:) This week has brought with it new aggravations and yet when I see the sunlight it lifts me. We've been underneath clouds for so long, both in our lives and with the weather. I just watched President Obama telling us that the Treasury Department was going to tell employers to take less money from our paychecks and that would give the average working family $65 more a month! Whoopee!!! Now we can all go out and buy more crap like we used to buy. 

Don't you want that little statue that would fit perfectly on the shelf in your living room? Or aren't you dying for a pair of the latest boots, but you just don't have that extra $65? Or maybe you could go out to dinner once more a month? Or maybe you could pay off one bill more? Seriously, is this all we're getting? I'm wondering how this is going to stimulate our economy. 

So my daughters and I took advantage of the sunny day and went driving around our area. We parked at one of our favorite coffee spots and sipped Starbucks nonfat mocha lattes. We watched the seagulls swoop over the small parking area and noticed as they sat on the roof how fat they looked. These gulls have been eating well over here. The Ryebrook Shopping Center is about a mile from any water, the water being in Port Chester and Rye. But somehow the seagulls have decided this is their home. Swarms of them hang around the shopping center and perch on the top of the light poles and on the roofs. It calmed me to see these birds whose only activity was to search for food and report the findings to their friends. 

The rest of our day consisted of deciding to go to the movies and then changing our minds. We decided to go to Costco instead. The choice of movies didn't work for my daughters. I was just in the mood to see a movie and going into the movie theater to find out the times didn't help. You know when you enter a movie theater the first thing you notice is the popcorn smell. For me it is all about that smell and buttered popcorn. I don't need much of it, but a movie without popcorn, although I have sat through several of them, just isn't the same! (This is totally off the subject of what I'm saying here, but try buttered popcorn with Twizzlers or even non-pareils. It's also good with M & M's and Reeses Pieces.:) ) But we had to tear ourselves away from the temptation of the aroma of freshly popped popcorn, because we couldn't find a movie to see that we agreed upon or that was showing conveniently. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, there are a lot of movies I want to see, but they all have their drawbacks. One of them is that they are almost all of them depressing. We all like to see up films and especially now with the news so bleak it's difficult to see a down movie. 

So we went to Costco and picked up yet another Wii game, Guitar Hero, which my daughter wanted. Costco at 5:30 PM on a Saturday night was filled with people. But they didn't have any of the samples they usually have, because it was so late. If you go earlier you can usually get a sample of food of almost every kind from entree to dessert.:) Did I mention we were starving?

We stowed our purchases and drove back from where we were, Danbury, CT to near where we live, White Plains, NY. We wound up eating at an Italian restaurant in the middle of the city and it was a good meal. If you're near White Plains try Zanaro's . What I liked about it was the level of service for this type of restaurant. Also, the white tablecloths and cloth napkins and we had two servers who introduced themselves to us and alternated to take our orders and keep us happy. I'll definitely go back there.

Now for the post script on Bernie Madoff. The investigators of his case have been looking into his business for the last thirteen years and found that Madoff has not ever bought any securities at all!!! If you have one of those Smash-me Bernie dolls you might want to use the hammer now.:) For those of you who want instant news here is the headline:

Trustee: No indication Madoff bought securities

Officer running the probe says no investments made for at least 13 years

updated 2:35 p.m. ET, Fri., Feb. 20, 2009
NEW YORK - The trustee in charge of untangling the mess left behind by Bernard Madoff told a packed auditorium Friday there was no indication the disgraced money manager had bought securities for his clients for over a decade.

“We have no evidence to indicate securities were purchased for customer accounts” in the past 13 years, said Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC...More

This is so unbelievable that I had to link you twice in case you lost track or fainted or started screaming incoherently! How can this have happened with the SEC supposedly investigating his business interests? Could there be someone helping him to keep this bogus Ponzi scheme continuing? This is beyond belief! I hope they can convict him of this heinous behavior. 

Now for the blog I am highlighting today. Usually I don't highlight a blog on the weekend, but I didn't blog for a few days and thought I'd do the highlight now. The blog I am telling you about today is The Lotus  Sutra Chronicles. Marilyn, the author of this blog is a western woman who is living in South Korea. She brings joy, peace, and beauty to her blog. That is why it is usually right up near #1 on the networked blogs each day! She brings the culture of South Korea to anyone who reads her blog. In one week she told us about kimchi and showed us pictures of the stone pots in which they used to make it, showed the surgical masks that people wear in Daegu to combat the deathly dust that comes off the agricultural lands, gave us information about children's graduation from school and showed us the paper bouquets they are given when they graduate, informed us of the art show for Korean artists, and treated us to the amazing art of the artist Karma. There is a corresponding photo with every blog post too. I have posted one of her photos here, the one of the nightclub with President Obama's picture by the artist Karma on it. Can you imagine a nightclub in Korea during the Bush administration? I imagine the graffiti art would be a little more graphic!!!

Please go and check out this outstanding blog. Marilyn will entertain and inform you and her photos are always outstanding.:) I've never thought of going to South Korea, but her descriptions of life there in Daegu where she lives is tempting me!

Another topic was on my mind for today, but it will have to wait for tomorrow. It has to do with using Facebook and also Twitter. I'm going to talk more about that either tomorrow or Monday. Meanwhile, I'll leave you with an article you will enjoy. I'd love to hear your comments and maybe we can make this more of an interactive thing with me responding to your comments too. I try to respond to all comments as soon as I can. Thank you to any new readers and I appreciate all of my readers as well.:) Maybe I'll make it to the movies again. My daughters want to see "Slumdog Millionaire" which I have already seen. Here is the article: 

Why Facebook is for Old Fogies.

Let me know what you think. Until then hope you have a great rest of the weekend.:)