Satanic Starbucks and More Kon-fessions

Image courtesy of starbucks.com

I know, I know, I’m late to the party, but I just wanted to add my thoughts to the recent craziness around Starbucks latest holiday design.  Umm…can we say, get a real problem?  There are people being starving all around the world, there’s homelessness, there are terrorist attacks, there are children being trafficked and abused (at least Jared the Subway guy is safely sandwiched away in prison) and animals being tortured or abandoned and there is Donald Trump!  The best that people can do is come together to protest that Starbucks didn’t put a snow flake – a sign of precipitation not Christianity – on it’s cups this year?  I would understand the upset if year after year they put the Nativity Scene on their cups – which to me, a Jewish person, is the true meaning of Christmas – but they don’t.  I looked back at designs of yesteryear and they included, but were not limited to snowflakes, reindeer, skating scenes, snowmen (or since we are politically correct snow people, snow women or snow people that may be transgendered) and a Christmas ornament.

I wish people a Merry Christmas or best wishes on whatever holiday they are celebrating (I’ve written about this before – remember my rant last year about calling a Christmas Tree just that?).  If I don’t know what religion they follow, it’s a generic happy holidays.  I believe that people should be able to celebrate whatever they want or not celebrate at all.  A coffee cup to me doesn’t signify anything other than a vessel for holding my tall, no foam, skinny vanilla latte (sometimes I ask for it extra hot, because I can).  If you followed the true meaning of the holidays then the people so up in arms over Starbucks would spend their $4 on a charity and put their money to better use.  If a red and green snowman less cup is your biggest problem, I’d gladly trade you – it’s been a rough year.

Now back to more Oz related pursuits AKA decluttering.  I’ve continued the KonMari method outlined in “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”.      I can see why she says it takes up to 6 months – it’s been a huge job.  In the last few weeks, I’ve had to go slightly outside of her order – I’m supposed to be working on papers – and moved to CDs, tapes, VHS tapes, DVDs, etc.  Worry not, I did still manage to get rid of a big bag of paper (shredded) and a small recycling bin of notebooks and other paper-like sundries,  but I still have a bit of ways to go on that project.  I did manage to get rid of the following:

• 84 cassette tapes – who needs them?
• 16 CDs – just the ones I never listen to – I haven’t digitized my other CDs yet – that may not happen for awhile
• 3 old VHS movies – I’m going to try posted my Disney movies on Kijiji
• Assorted knick knacks
• More dishes

This week, I’m posted more stuff on Kijiji to see where I net out with the collectibles and I’m going to finish off my papers.  Next week, it’s skin cream (easy), make up and accessories.  I know – fun times – right?  I’ll keep you posted on my progress, but see below for the load from two weeks ago:

Value Village is now the proud owner of 5 more boxes from Casa Schneiderman.  In case you are getting sick of my decluttering posts, I know I am, tune in for an exclusive 3 part series with a Dietician.  You learn…actually, you’ll have to come back to read more…

 

 

We’ll Always Have Paris…

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Paris 3 times in my life and I’m looking forward to returning again one day soon.  The first time was in 1995 as my friend and I did a whirlwind Contiki tour of Europe.  We came, we saw, we went up the Eiffel Tour and then we left 24 hours later.  It was amazing and left me wanting to visit again….which I did in 2008.  In January…yes January I got to enjoy 5 days of greatness.  Since it was winter, there were hardly any tourists so no line ups for the Mona Lisa, no waiting for the elevator at the Eiffel Tour, no one blocking my view of my favourite paintings at the Musée D’Orsay.   Last but not least, I went for two days in November 2011 – the weather couldn’t have been better, and we walked EVERYWHERE.  I’ll give you all of the tips and tricks for visiting Paris in a very future blog, but I think today, we should remember the victims of the horrible attacks.  We’ll always have Paris.

I do need to do a little rant right now…when people call the terrorists who victimized this city animals, it is really insulting since animals have no guile.  These people are nothing but psychopaths.  If Paris is a city of “obscenity and prostitution” it shows how little they understand about either.  It is much more moral to prevent women from having any rights at all including the basic right of education.  It is much more righteous to rape and terrorize women and young girls than to enjoy a soccer game.  It is far more decent to force 12-year-old girls to marry 60-year-old men than to go to a concert.  It is much better to hate and murder gay people than to accept them for what they are – normal, consenting adults.  It is far more spiritual to decapitate a humanitarian or a journalist than to enjoy a glass of wine at a restaurant near the Louvre. And speaking of that, it is a much better idea to destroy antiquities like the Buddhas in Afghanistan and the museums in Iraq preventing those nations from every re-growing their tourism than to appreciate fine art the way they do in Paris.  Please don’t take this as a condemnation of Islam, but rather a condemnation of the hatred that comes with any form of extremism regardless of the religion.

It is a scary time in the world, however, we all still have to live our lives.  Travel is a way to get a better understanding of our world and the different types of people that live in it. Don’t let a few bad people keep you from exploring other parts of the globe, including the most beautiful city in the world.

Paris, Je t’aime.

How To Use Twitter Hashtags to Increase Your Traffic

For any bloggers that read The Whiz-ard that is Dr. Oz, here is an easy way to promote your blog. Suzie Speaks has a lot of great blogging tips and has a lot of enjoyable general posts. Check it out!

Suzie Speaks

Suzie Speaks began in 2013, and was originally used as online therapy, primarily allowing me to discuss a difficult time I was having in my personal life. I knew nothing about social media – I had a personal Facebook account and a Twitter page that I hadn’t used in quite a while, and I rather naively assumed that I would receive a large amount of views simply by pressing the publish button.

It took me about six months to realise that the biggest source of traffic to a blog, without getting heavily into SEO (which I still find difficult to understand), is through different social media accounts. I created a brand new Facebook and Twitter page, separate to my personal ones, and set about building a following.

In two years, I have had nearly 44,000 views from Twitter, but only have 6,500 ‘followers.’ It’s hardly setting the blogging world on…

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