Music Survey

So Ordinarysnapshots has this little game - if you go to this website you can find the top 100 songs from the year you graduated high school. Below I've listed the few from the top 100 that I liked in 1995, technically you are suppose to go through the whole list and highlight those you like and strikethrough those that you don't remember. Check it out at http://www.musicoutfitters.com/resources.htm
Hits of 1995 (that I liked).
4. Kiss From A Rose, Seal
6. Another Night, Real McCoy
7. Fantasy, Mariah Carey
8. Take A Bow, Madonna
14. Run-Around, Blues Traveler
19. Total Eclipse Of The Heart, Nicki French
20. You Gotta Be, Des'ree
24. Here Comes The Hotstepper, Ini Kamoze
27. I Believe, Blessid Union Of Souls
28. Runaway, Janet Jackson
31. Colors Of The Wind, Vanessa Williams
38. Run Away, Real McCoy
39. As I Lay Me Down, Sophie B. Hawkins
49. I Wanna Be Down, Brandy
60. Carnival, Natalie Merchant
69. Come And Get Your Love, Real McCoy 70.
81. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me, U2
87. Turn The Beat Around, Gloria Estefan
93. Cotton Eye Joe, Rednex

Tony's questionnaire

OK - here are my responses to Tony's questions, I hope I'm playing this game right....here are the instructions:
1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below asking to be interviewed.
2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different.
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions

You're given one super-power. What is it? Hmm....tough question, oh I know, to go back in time! I'd love that power, ability to change things, save lives, etc. etc.

Money is no object. You have no bills, expenses or the like.... What is the first selfish thing you'd buy? First selfish thing I'd buy....property in Kensington, in London, UK. A nice Georgian townhouse.

Which would you "prefer?" 2 Month long sub zero temperature days and nights or 2 month long 115 degree days and nights? oh definitely the two months of 115 degree days and nights, I love the heat, it's the Indian in me - probably why I could never live in Boston, too cold!

What animal most reflects your personality? egads, not sure, I'm not an animal person, but I do love the penguin, very orderly, a planner, precise, stays the course no matter what, stubborn.

Which would you choose if you had to? Blind, Deaf, wheelchair-dependant or No arms? I thank God every day that HE has given me good health. I can't chose, what if I pick something and somehow that comes true, like a curse. No way, I am too superstitious.

Athens, Greece - wish I had more time!

So back from Athens - it was lovely!!! Got out on Thursday evening (flew Olympic Airlines - no comment, since they were free tickets). Spent Friday and Saturday exploring the city. I must say it is a gorgeous and affordable European location, really more Americans should be going here! Everyone was so friendly, at one point Myra (my friend) and I were looking at our city map in the Metro, totally lost, and this girl came up and helped us find our way.
Visited all the big sites, Acropolis, Roman Aggora, Ancient Aggora, old Olympic stadium, temple of Zeus and of course the Plaka (where you go to shop!!). The weather was perfect, reminded me actually a bit of India and increased my yearning to go back for a trip to see all of my family (its been two years since I last went). My only regret about Athens - not enough time, I wish I had been able to go to an island, the water around Athens looked so beautiful, two days was not enough time!
Trip getting back was a nightmare, will try to post about that tomorrow...but feeling a bit blue today, found out a co-worker of mine died over the weekend (he was in hospice) and than another co-worker of mine told me "You'll never get married." Sigh - Tuesday turning out crappy, think I'll go home and watch my Vicar of Dibley DVD's.

Kalispera - off to Greece and other Misc. things.

Right so this shall be my last post for a few days - I'm off to Athens, Greece this afternoon! The beauty of working for an airline is free flight benefits, of course the down side to working for an airline is yearly pay cuts (ugh). We joke "you can get to a city, but you can't actually stay there." It's a short jaunt of two days and than my co-worker and I will try to skip over to London for a day (cause I love that city and always like to visit if I'm in the neigborhood re: Europe).

But before I go, some misc. things I wanted to post. If you were as outraged as I was about Pat
Robertson's comments (very Christian of you, by the way, Pat), go over to abc family and let them know - they air the 700 Club (which is sad, cause I like ABC family movies, yes they are cheesy but they always end up happy).
http://abcfamily.go.com/feedback/index.html

Will be participating in Missing Monday - but might need some help figuring out how to post picture. Also, would it be better if I post the same missing person as everyone else? I imagine the mass rally by bloggers for Latoyia helped gain media attention. Should we follow that model?

Finally as a moderate Muslim I must recommend a book I just read that was very good - giving such an enlightened education behind my faith. It's called No God But God, by Reza Aslan. He's a kid like me, first generation American, but from Iran. I found the book refreshing, explaining the history and philosophy of Islam and what form of that religion is practiced today (how it was shaped that way). I think the book would be a great way to introduce those who have never had exposure to my faith, minus the biased American news media, to Islam. It is a pretty easy read - I finished it in about a week.

Have a good weekend everyone! See you next week!

Bookclub Meeting

Just a quick post about yesterday's bookclub meeting with author Irmgard Hunt of "On Hitler's Mountain."
It was fantastic!!! She was so nice, engaging and personable - we had a wonderful time. Actually we went over the hour time limit by half an hour and only finished because someone else was coming in to use the conference room.
It is amazing how much more you get out of a book when you get to talk to the author - we really delved into Germany after the war, the collective guilt of a people, how future generations handle such a legacy, the parrallels between 1930's Germany and current day America - Ms. Hunt started the session with a quote from Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, (which she said if more Germans had read properly they might not have gone to war and realized what a loon Hitler was) I'm paraphrasing here "the masses need to be lead through propoganda, a few simple slogans to rally behind, the masses are too stupid to know otherwise. They must be lead, controlled."
Ms. Hunt is an ardent pacifist and after one reads her account of her childhood in Nazi Germany, as a member of the Hitler Youth (her dad even taught her how to say "Heil Hitler" properly in front of a picture of Hitler on their wall), it gives one hope that change can happen. For a little girl so indoctronated to awaken from the war and see the error in this thinking.... maybe there is some light at the end of this tunnel in America.

As one bookclub member said "this was our best bookclub session hands down!"

ps - I tried to put a link on this post to Barnes & Nobles site, if you wanted to read more about the book, but I'm having difficulty with the template. Gotta go home and ask my sister.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=mZ1F3mqB0c&isbn=0060532173&itm=1

Recommended Reading

So I'm in a bookclub at work - we meet once a month over lunch. We pick books on a rotating basis, everyone gets a turn. August was my month to pick. Intent on choosing a good educational book, rather than some fluff, I explored all avenues for book choices. One evening I spotted an author on C-Span (yes I sometimes watch C-Span, I'm a geek). Noticed that she was from the DC area, her book sounded interesting...so I thought "let me write her publishers and see if maybe we could get the author to come to the bookclub meeting." I figured the most I had to lose was that they would say "no."
To my great surprise they said "sure, sounds great!" So today, after three years, bookclub is having our first event with the author of the book we are reading, present - I am very excited!!!!
Irmgard Hunt, author of "On Hitler's Mountain" will be joining us today as we dicuss her memoirs of growing up in a Bavarian mountain town, in the shadow of Hitler's Eagle's Nest, during the Nazi era. It is an account of the average German, what made them do what they do (her parents voted for Hitler), why they supported such an evil person, their lives, the lives of the unperscuted. It is a part of history that needs to be told, if just to ensure it doesn't happen again. With what is going on in America today (jigostic blind patriotism)- this book is so timely - at points actually quite scary to see the parrallel between the two eras. Perhaps the saddest part of the book and what frightens me the most, is that many of those who supported Hitler never could say "I was wrong," or "I changed my mind, he is bad" - which makes me wonder about Bush voters from 2004, how many people will die in Iraq, will they never say, "I made a mistake, he needs to go"?

Yipee bookclub today!!!

Weekend Update

Celebrated my sister's birthday Friday night with a massive party.....she got tons of great gifts and I came away with a sore throat. Joy.

Woke up Saturday morning to the sad news about Latoyia Figuera (sp). Many of my friends in the blogging community had posted her picture on their sites in an effort to publize her being missing. It made such an impact that Latoyia actually made national news despite her not being a blond, blue-eyed, middle class, "wholesome" American girl. And while, I was upset to hear that the poor woman had been killed, I was impressed that through the power of the blogging world this woman had not just disappeared to become a cold case but was given some justice, at least they found her killer. I'd like to think even amidst our sometimes inane conversation some good is happening.

Finally feeling a bit blue...just read my pal Tony's blog. He shall be offline for an indefinite period of time. I hope it will only be for a short while, can't imagine my cyber world without him. Sigh.

Hope this sad news is not a premonition for the rest of the week....if that is case I'm going to have to burrow inside my covers and stay in bed till Saturday.

Questions/Clarifications

Ok so now I'm really getting into this posting thing...probably helps also that it is slow at work this week :-)

I have a question for all my blog friends about blogging etiquette....does one acknowledge all comments made? Should I thank them for stopping by? I am so touched when people do stop by - makes me feel loved and I dont' want them to go away thinking "goodness what a rude girl, she didn't even say thank you for stopping by." - am I making any sense? Any help with this would be most appreciated it!

Right also just a clarification cause I believe some were wondering about one of my links "why the Danish Royal Family on her blog?" I must admit it - My name is Virginia Gal and I am a European royalty junkie! I love to read about their lives and history, probably because it is so diametrically opposite from my life, so alien to everything I know. It is something that I will probably never experience or even travel near that circle. Or maybe I just love them because as my English friends say "you don't have to pay for them."

While the English Royal family is the most fun for salacious news and I do have a tendre for Prince William (yowzeers!), it is the Danish Royal family that I love the most - hence the link.

Thanks for stopping by.

ps - Pax heard on NPR that the last episode of "Six Feet Under" is this Sunday - for you I hope it is fantastically wonderful and leaves you with a good feeling of closure.

Thank you!

A big thanks to everyone who has stopped by - very encouraging indeed! Thanks also for everyone's help as I create this blog, I appreciate you letting me know what's working or not and how to fix it, cause without that bit of advice, I'm lost. It is definitely a work in progress but I am starting to feel a tiny bit more comfortable with it. I am hoping to add cool pictures and graphics as everyone else has on their blog, but its baby steps for now.
Thanks again so much!

ps - Tony tagged me for this game to help me get started blogging (I love this!):
The Rules:List five songs that you are currently digging - it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words...or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions and the five songs (with artist) in your blog. Then tag five people to see what they're listening to.
Because of You - Kelly Clarkson
Dhoola Ra - from the soundtrack of Indian film Devdas
Without You (is that the name?) - the new Mariah Carey song
Music from the movie "Monsoon Wedding" soundtrack
Listen to your Heart - originally by Roxette now some kids have re-mixed the thing.
umm...do I have to tag someone? Feel free to play along if you would like.

So here it is - my first post.....not sure what to say. It is so much easier to just go on other's blogs and make comments, not sure what to comment about on my own?
I love the power that I have seen blogs have, so hopefully I too can help enact some change, in a small way.
I am excited about joining the blogging community...while I don't expect to post a lot (especially not on weekends when I avoid the computer like the plague), I hope you will stop by and enjoy.