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takillya

blogging survey

I copied this off a comment. Thought I would post it b/c I too am interested in peoples takes on blogs. Since I have started reading them I am contstantly being exposed to other points of view. Some I love, and some I loathe but most are valid in their own special way. So here is the commenter:


Let me apologize in advance for the unsolicited nature of this email.
I am a Master's Candidate student in Industrial Technology at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. My fellow graduate students and I are conducting an online blog survey to understand "why bloggers blog."
http://questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=212512
It should take no more than 5 minutes to finish, and the results will be publicly published online. Should you have time, please participate and contribute to our data set. It would also be great if you might mention the survey with a link on your blog entry, or forward the link to your friends. We hope that the survey will spread around and, most importantly, we want people from a wide range of demographics and countries to fill it out. Of course, this is totally at your discretion and certainly understandable if you don’t feel comfortable doing this. We know there have been many online studies done on blogs, but we have not yet seen one with the goal of determining "why bloggers blog." I appreciate you taking the time to read this email. Should you have any questions feel free to email me back.
Sincerely yours,
Adam Bennett
Master's Candidate
Appalachian State University
828.773.0487

Mish again - I also love Boone. One of the coolest towns around. If he went to UM I doubt I would have gone throught the effort. Yeah I know I am pre-judging w/ that, but I REALLY hated the people who went to UM. Way too many BMW's w/ stickers that said "I love my daddy's money". UM is a good school but it sucks to be surrounded by the snobs from the north east.

Good Horizons, Very Good

Last night I spent the first evening with my new neighbors. My husband is out of town for 10 days and its a little weird meeting everyone w/o my better half, but its still lots of fun. The people that live out in the anchorage are so cool. A bunch of ex-hippies and Vietnam vets. It is so nice to be hanging w/ an older crowd again. I do like them better than people that are younger than me - they just make me feel old. I feel naive and inexperienced w/ an older crowd, but I also feel that they have much to teach me, not that younger people don't either.
Michel - the previous boat owner is great, as is his wife Barbie. They both thing they have met Hubby and I and last night we figured out it might have been while strutting with the Sierra Club in the King Mango Strut. Barbie is totally environmental and has reintroduced me to the world of organic cleaners. It's called Natures Way and the soap that you can use for everything left my hair great. When I say great, I mean usually after day one of washing hair it is a giant greaseball. My hair stayed looking great for 3 days which something I have never experienced before. In another post I will put down the all the chemicals that anti-freeze, shampoo, soap, and toothpaste have in common as well as all the other ingredients that are known to cause cancer in lab rats (but really - what doesn't cause cancer in lab rats? Its like they have cancer inbred into them).
These people are so cool. Barbie is just a few years older than me and Michel is in his early forties but the other people there where in their 50's and 60's. I heard tales of them being kicked out of stores because they had long hair. "Git out - we don't want your kind in here". I heard a story about when a bunch of Vietnam Vets w/ long hair were surrounded by a bunch of red-neck hunters with rifles. The so called "hippies" were not at they appeared. He said the hunters surrounded their van and then everyone inside the van picked up their own guns. He was sure they were going to have to shoot their way out until the head redneck approached the van and realized that was inside were not mere long haired hippies, but in fact, pissed-off long haired Vets. He then told the other guys to immediately put down their weapons and let the van pass quickly. He saw the guns and realized that everyone had a good chance of dying w/ just one false move.
Barbie and Michel also have the most adorable 17 month old little girl - Jackie - she is so sweet and friendly. Last night when I left the sailboat she insisted on giving me a hug. So Sweet! Michel is also so helpful w/ the boat. The whole night he was talking to me about everything and I was thinking that I need a tape recorder or notepad when I am around this guy because he really wants me to learn everything I need to know about boats. I thought I could leave that to Husband because he already knows, but being self sufficient is great. Barbie and Michel have raised that little girl since day one on a boat. Man, you think raising a baby is hard, just imagine raising one on a cramped sailboat. I have so much admiration for the both of them; such good people. Barbie sells the soaps and stuff I was talking about earlier. You can find her site here.

In sum, its great hanging out w/ a bunch of cool people who all live off land using solar panels, wind energy, and an occasional generator. If your door is open people will stop by. While buying supplies for the "boat" I ran into so many people - oh you're the one who bought Michel's house boat. I have also met a few of my neighbor's while buying boat supplies. Did I mention how many supplies there are? Because there are an unbelievable amount of things that a boat needs. It is mindboggling.

Everyone in Sailboat Bay also looks out for each other. It is not uncommon for a non-live aboard boat to become un-anchored during a storm. We had one a few days ago and a 45' sailboat came loose and was heading out to sea. Because it is so big, and trailing anchors it is a menace to all the other boats out there. Michel and his neighbor got on the boat during the storm to (a) prevent it from ramming another boat (b) prevent it from unanchoring another boat, and (c) to prevent it from floating off into the open ocean. He reachored it and two days later it was gone w/o a thanks. Most people out there are much nicer. So real. Not pretentious. But as everywhere, there are a few assholes and apparently one of them is my closest neighbor. I do want to move though. Because this fat bottomed girl has a flat bottomed boat it is now in the grassy shallows. This allows for great fishing I hear, but it is really close to the channel and all the wake that boats cause speeding though the channel really sucks. I want to moor it further out back, where there is less traffic and neighbors aren't so close by.

Short entry might be coming soon.

I am embarking on a new chapter of my life, and so far, it seems like it will either rock or suck every bit of energy I have out of my body. I am pretty sure that no matter what, IT WILL ROCK!

Expanding our Horizons

Last night my husband and I spent our first night in our new second home. It needs some work but it has the most amazing views. Its also a little hard to get to. But that makes it better. The view - that would be 360 bay, islands, and ocean. We got ourselves a cute ass little house boat. For under $3000! It even comes with free mooring at the closest marina to our home. We have to boat to the mooring but the houseboat even comes with a little dingy/sailboat w/ motor. Unfortunately, at this moment, the houseboat does not have a motor. But we should remedy that situation soon.
The mooring - its interesting. The previous (he-he previous!) owner tied some good rope (I hope) to an engine block and dropped it. That's our mooring. This morning the water was crystal clear. There were birds everywhere. We saw a few turtles. I cant even begin to describe just how wonderful it feels to have a little piece of ocean surface with a roof that we can call our own.
About two hours after we got home we were still rocking around like we were still on the boat. Why does that happen? It takes so long to get land legs back. Weird.
One of the best parts is that my wonderful husband has agreed to let the boat be white with purple trim. He even bought red, blue, and white paint to mix together to paint the bottom purple! Now we have to name it. I of course wanted Misha-Pooh but he didn't want a boat named after pooh. I could see his point and he conceded to let it have something to do with purple. This is where we brainstormed, and I will continue.

• The Purple Nurple
• Purple Waves
• Deep Purple
• Lavender Skies
• Purple Peacock - Peacock Park is a park in the neighborhood and you can occasionally see peacocks in the neighborhood, but not in the park. Also Deliah's has these great peacock sheets that I love but untill now, had no use for.
• Purple Turtle
• Lavender Queen
• Lavender Grove

Honestly, I wrote this This morning but lost it and I cant remember half of the names I came up with, but I sure as hell came up with some new stupid ones. In my book, while brainstorming, you leave NOTHING out. Well, she's a fixer-upper and in a month or two I hope to have some before and after pictures to show off.

Things that suck

When you show someone like 15 properties and they decide not to move after all.

When your cat stops using the litter box after you get back from your honeymoon 3 MONTHS AGO.

When you are at a very nice restaurant and they serve you a shrimp tail all cute and standing up WITH ITS HEAD AND EYES STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO IT.

When you spend $150 on a meal only to throw it up four hours later because you are such a lightweight you cant handle 3 glasses of wine.

When your dog poops and pees upstairs the day after you install a doggie door.

When your parents' very old dog, that you are watching, starts barking at 5am EVERY DAY.

When people ask you to contact them and they give you the wrong number AND email.

When someone does not show up for an appointment that you busted your ass to get to, and they don't even bother to answer their damn phone.

When four dogs start howling for no reason. Ok - normally I love that but right now - NOT!

When I feel like I did all day today.

On the plus side I got black ink and white paper (both of which we were sadly out of for about 3 months) and can now work from home!!!