Houston Page One Examiner

Hi, everybody. I just wanted to come and share the link to my newest online writing venture - Houston Page One at Examiner.com . Stop by and check me out!

Press Release: Launch of my new website

I'm extremely happy to announce the press release about the launch of my new website.

Hope to see you there!

Earth Day Celebrations In The Houston Area

With 'going green' becoming more and more popular, Earth Day 2009 is sure to be a hit in every city. Earth Day is the annual celebration of the environment and it falls on April 22. The US version of Earth Day was founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970. Fresh off the heels of the protests of the 1960s, Earth Day 1970 boasted 20 million participants - all sharing the common goals of being kind to the earth and treading lightly upon the resources we have. Today, the April 22 Earth Day is celebrated by 500 million people in more than 170 countries.

Folks in the greater Houston area can get in on Earth Day events as well. To find out how and where, read more here.

How To Find Discount Hotels and Lodging

Many vacationers will soon be feeling the pinch when it comes to outlining their vacation plans. Despite the present state of economy, there are still many ways of finding cheap and affordable options when it comes to vacation lodging. Knowing how to look, where to look, and when to book are keys to getting the very best deal possible. Here are ten ways to ensure you get the best lodging deals when booking your next vacation.

To read the complete list of tips, go here.

Senobia.....LIVE!

Well, sort of.

I've been toying with the idea of creating my own website for my writing ventures. Presently, it's in the awkward in between stage of being hosted on temporary site before transitioning to its own corner of Cyberspace.

But it's up..and functional.

Things have slowed down some so I am once again able to take on new clients - the perfect time for creating the website.

So here's the link to the site and kindly keep me in mind if you have a need for a writer in the future.

Forget the conspiracy BS - where's the murder charge?

I have long been under the assumption that Howard K. Stern was responsible for Anna Nicole's death. And I believe he's reponsible for the death of her son, too.

Yesterday, he and Anna's doctor were arrested in California on 'conspiracy' charges.

Anna Nicole Smith’s boyfriend Howard K. Stern and two doctors were charged Thursday with giving thousands of prescription drugs to the former Playboy playmate in the years leading up to her 2007 fatal overdose.

“These individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose,” California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown said in a statement.

I'm not sure if she chose to take the drugs or if there was a lot of, "Here - you need this" going on to the point where she did felt like she needed them. But even if she chose to take the drugs, there comes a point in time where a reasonable person would gather that you've had too many and you need to back off the shit. You don't continue feeding an addicted person's addiction.

There's no conspiracy. She was DYING and these fuckwits continued to ARM her with the means, in lieu of intervening. When you're witness to a murder and you don't report it - even if you had no part in it - the fact that YOU WERE PRESENT makes you just as guilty as the person doing the killing. You don't reload the gatdamned gun for them and then turn around and say, "I didn't do anything."

HKS killed the son first, to get him out of the way as heir to her fortune. Then he killed ANS to get at said fortune. The only reason he didn't kill the baby is because he thought, by some stretch of the imagination, that either she was his bio daughter or that he would be awarded custody of her...and still be sitting pretty due to being managing conservator over ANS's fortune after it was awarded to her kid.

What a farkin' waste.

Are you a Twit?

I am - although I don't update my Twitter as much as I'd like. If you don't have an account yet, here's an article I wrote recently, explaining the ins and outs.

Twitter is a microblogging site that lets you update people about what's going on in your world in 140 characters or less. Well, what's microblogging? Microblogging is just what the name implies - blogging on a smaller scale. These small scale messages are called Tweets. Users can send
and receive updates with folks on their friend list, much like on the Facebook application, without having to go through the process of reading and/or posting an entire blog entry.

You can read the rest here.

Two new writing venues

I've just started ghostwriting for Text Broker and will begin writing Front Page Houston on Examiner.com in the coming days.

If anyone is currently a writer for either venue, stop by and say hello!

As always, you can find my most recent Associated Content pieces on the widget to your right.

Frugal Shopping in Beaumont, Texas

In these times of shaky economy and uncertain finances, folks all over the country are exploring new avenues of stretching their dollar by cutting out the fluff. The good news is that shoppers in and around Beaumont, Texas can still keep a little fluff in
their budgets by knowing how to shop, where to shop, and when to shop. Educate yourself with the following tips.

I *will* be productive tomorrow..I *will*!

Spring has sprung and I have not.

I have no excuse. I've just been lazy.

Okay, not really lazy - because lazy would imply that I haven't been doing anything at all and I have.

I've been doing what very little absolutely has to be done each day..in the way of household stuff and errands/bill paying.

The rest of my time has been devoted to getting back into the habit of writing and toying with the idea of ACEOs. Well, and following the Casey Anthony case and researching dirt on her.

I've been meaning to do SO many things - like take up photography again. And varying degrees of spring cleaning.

But yet, here I sit.

Tomorrow, that changes.

I will plant the tomato plants I have been neglecting for three days.
I will take out and use my camera I have been neglecting for three months.
I will knock out at least two nagging small tasks I have been putting off forever.

Unless the mechanic calls to tell me my car is ready.

Then this schedule is subject to change without notice.

Why Poor Folks Are Recession-Proof

The word is out and the news is bad - America is in the toughest economic times since The Great Depression of the 1930s. Washington is hesitant to call it a 'depression', opting to call it a 'recession' instead - as if to soften the blow to those who are being hit hard by the dire financial straits in this country. There are stories circulating through every major media outlet regarding the struggling middle-class, how former executives are now out of work or being forced to take low paying jobs, and just how badly the whole thing stinks for families who have become accustomed to living a certain lifestyle.

Read the rest here.

Tyrell Historical Library, Beaumont, Texas

Genealogy Resources in Beaumont, Texas - Associated Content

Exciting things await genealogists in Beaumont, Texas inside the walls of Tyrrell Historical Library. This place is a virtual treasure trove of historical collections. The Tyrrell Historical Library has a long history in Beaumont, beginning in 1903 as a church, and
the archival materials on hand reflect that rich, historical presence. The Tyrrell Historical Library has many resources available for both the amateur and professional genealogist. Here's a look at some of what they offer.

Dog The Bounty Hunter In The Dog House Again

Dog the Bounty Hunter in the Dog House Again - Associated Content

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks and apparently, in the case of Dog The Bounty Hunter, this cliché rings true. Several media outlets are reporting that Duane Chapman, better known as Dog The Bounty Hunter, star of the A&E reality show, is the
subject of several tax liens brought down by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Space Debris..or why we shouldn't be fuckin' around up there in the first place

I'll
preface this by saying I've never supported space exploration. I
believe that if mankind were meant to be in space, it would be easier
to get there.



With that said, MSN is reporting
massive amounts of space debris from a collision between US and Russian
satellites sometime earlier in the week. This debris is projected to
orbit the earth for thousands of years to come and has the potential to
cause even more collisions, given the amount of satellites and the like
already in orbit.



Now there are reports of space debris falling all over Texas and sonic booms being heard and felt throughout the state.



Can you say...Andromeda Strain?

What kind of food stamps are there other than the welfare kind?

The lady who had the octuplets recently in CA via artificial means went on NBC's Today show and said this:

Nadya Suleman told NBC's "Today" in an interview broadcast Wednesday that her family receives no cash from the government and that the food stamps she's been receiving for 18 months are "not affiliated with welfare."

What?

And then she had a EUREKA! moment just a little too late:

Responding to her mother's claim that she is incapable of caring for her new family, Suleman said: "What human on this planet is capable to take care of 14 independently without support from family, from friends, from church? No human is."

You can read more about this ignorant lady and her financial and family planning (or lack thereof, rather) here.

Wife accused of killing husband's mistress

Wife Accused of Gunning Down Husband's Mistress
News KBMT

Story Created: Feb 10, 2009 at 3:10 PM CST

Story Updated: Feb 10, 2009 at 4:42 PM CST
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Authorities say a woman shot and killed her husband's alleged mistress after confronting the younger woman outside her job and chasing her around the parking lot.

Bexar County Sheriff's Deputy Chief Dale Bennett says the 32-year-old victim arrived Tuesday morning at her job at an animal hospital, where the wife had been waiting inside her car.

Bennett says that according to witnesses, the 37-year-old wife confronted her rival and began chasing her. Authorities say the younger woman was shot at least twice in the neck and later died at a hospital.

Names of the victim and suspect were not immediately released. Bennett says the wife probably will be charged with murder.

Bennett says an affair had apparently been going on for some time. He said the victim had filed previous complaints about the wife harassing her.

Yanno why men continue to cheat, folks? Because women continue to let them by continuing to blame 'the other woman' instead of their husbands.

Bret Michaels & Flava Flav

Flipping through the channels the other night, I caught a glimpse of a couple of programs on what used to be music channels. MTV
and VH1. Both of the shows had the same premise - make an ass of
yourself fawning over a has been that's way past his prime so that
maybe, just maybe he'll give you the time of day and not further embarrass you in front of millions of viewers each week.

Enter: Bret Michaels

He's the star of one show...... Rock of Love Bus......now in its 3rd season.

THIRD season, wtf?

So Bret travels around the country in one bus and another bus filled with barely legal skanks follows behind. He tells them what to do, issues challenges, to see who can 'hang' *audible gag* with him, who's feelin' him, and who he's just not that
into. So he fondles them and screws them and whomever else he wants to
do. Discards a few each show and picks up a couple more. The last ones
were eliminated and new ones brought on because he 'wasn't feeling the emotional effort'.

Excuse me while I vomit.

Okay, I know there are some very materialistic bitches in the world who will stop at nothing to get their fifteen minutes of fame - regardless of whether it's good or bad fame. But you have to wonder what tragic events occurred in these girls lives that made them have such low self esteem that would make them think the way they're being treated is 'okay'.

Some of them might find him attractive and are acting on that. Some things do get better with age. Bret Michaels is one of them. He's not an ugly guy by any means.

This is what he used to look like: (the one in the red head thing, in case you didn't know)





This is him now:



He's
browned...and buffed...(and Botox'd and weave'd) and he's
almost...pretty - so it's not like they're fawning over a bunch of
nasty or anything.

Which brings me to Flava Flav. He's got his own show called The Flavor of Love. Sort of the same as Bret Michaels' show, but on FF's show, the 'winner' is supposed to end up marrying him.

Then:



And now:



Lawd have mercy.

WHAT THE FUCK, folks? The Bret Michaels thing I can kind of understand in comparison...but THIS? ^^^^^^^

And
let me just say...that after stomaching this through all the tapings
and eliminations, under the premise that one of the girls on his show
was going to end up marrying Flava Flav *shudder*, at the end of season
3 it was revealed he met someone off the show and had already gotten
married.

I was right about the Vagina Tax!

I have stood by the notion that the reason prostitution is illegal is because the feds haven't found a way to tax the vagina yet. Here's the proof:

*Cue the theme music from The Dukes of Hazzard*

Here’s a tax tip you don’t hear often: Don’t forget to report illegal income from prostitution and other nefarious activities.

Prosecutor Charles Escher said in court that Jones and his business, Amazing Promotions Group Inc., collected the cash from the safes at the six houses he called Escape Lounges. Escher said the prostitutes put Jones’ cut of their earnings in envelopes and put them in those safes.

But unlike many who run afoul of the Internal Revenue Service, Jones didn’t get into trouble by keeping bad records.

The government knew about his ill-gotten income because a Houston police raid on the Escape Lounges in 2004 netted financial spread sheets. Escher said details included records that Jones claimed an income of $140,000 in 2003 but actually had an income of about $667,000.
Shebay would not verify that his client ever ran a prostitution ring and said he was not convicted of related activity.

IRS spokeswoman Robin Sabin of Houston suggests Schedule C for the small-business owner and the 1040 line “other income” for the free-lancer. She said this stuff just doesn’t show up on a W2 form.

“You should report your ill-gotten gains just like you report any legal income,” said Sabin.

She said a business name would be fine and that taxpayers needn’t spell out their illegal activity.


Only in Texas, folks.

Confessions of a Teen-Aged Mother

I became a mother at the ripe old age of seventeen. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just a kid on top of just learning the ropes of
motherhood like every new mother has to do. You worry, you go through several rounds of trial and error, you win, you lose, you mess up, and you start over.

But sometimes - you fall asleep.

To finish reading this confession, follow this link.

CAIRO, Egypt – President Barack Obama chose an Arabic-language satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president, delivering a message Tuesday to the Muslim world that "Americans are not your enemy."

Obama called for a new partnership with the Muslim world "based on mutual respect and mutual interest." He talked about growing up in Indonesia, the Muslim world's most populous nation, and noted that he has Muslim relatives.

Obama said the U.S. had made mistakes in the past but "that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."

I can think of roughly 7,000 reasons why we can't restore that.

2700+, courtesy of the 9/11 attacks and another 4200+ more, courtesy of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Be watchful of the Antichrist, folks. His rise to power has been a long time coming.

iHeartFaces Entry - Week 3, Joy

This picture brings a smile to my face every time I see it. This is my son Isaiah, shortly after he turned a year old. He's in his highchair, eating ice cream. I don't remember what he said or even if he said anything at all - but it always brings to mind the words "Tah dah!"

It was taken with a Kodak Easyshare z700 about two years ago and hasn't been edited.

**Please note: This is as big as I could get it in the blog entry, but if you click the actual picture, it shows up much larger.**

To learn more about this contest, follow this link or just click the button below.

Study finds vaccines *are* safe for kids

I can't tell you how sick to death I am of hearing parents whine about their rights not to have their kids vaccinated against all kinds of childhood uglies. They have an arsenal of reasoning (that only makes sense to them) behind their asinine protests, the majority of which hinge on the inclusion of mercury in some vaccines and its perceived connection to causing autism.

Not so, folks. Not so, for the Nth time, as per yet *another* conclusive study.


CHICAGO — A new study from Italy adds to a mountain of evidence that a mercury-based preservative once used in many vaccines doesn’t hurt children.

In the early 1990s, thousands of healthy Italian babies in a study of whooping cough vaccines got two different amounts of the preservative thimerosal from all their routine shots.

Ten years later, 1,403 of those children took a battery of brain function tests. Researchers found small differences in only two of 24 measurements and those “might be attributable to chance,” they wrote in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Only one case of autism was found, and that was in the group that got the lower level of thimerosal.

“Put together with the evidence of all the other studies, this tells us there is no reason to worry about the effect of thimerosal in vaccines,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Alberto Tozzi of Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome.

The debate over thimerosal and autism has been much stronger in the U.S. than in Italy, Tozzi said. The researchers recognized a chance to examine the issue by going back to the children in the whooping cough research.

Thimerosal, used in some vaccines to prevent the growth of bacteria and fungus, hasn’t been in U.S. childhood vaccines since 2001, except for certain flu shots. U.S. health officials recommended the removal of thimerosal as a precaution and to reduce the overall exposure of children to mercury.

“It’s yet another well done, peer-reviewed research study that has demonstrated there is no risk of any neurodevelopmental outcomes associated with thimerosal in vaccines,” said epidemiologist Jennifer Pinto-Martin of the University of Pennsylvania.

Come off it already. How many times do these studies have to be done and reported until these parents wake up and smell the reality?

Yes, I'm aware that it's the parents' right to choose how to raise and rear their children as they see fit and that this includes refusing vaccines. Of the same token, I, as a parent, also have the right to choose when it comes to my children. And I would prefer them not to be exposed to unvaccinated children who have the potential to become carriers of new, mutant strains of diseases that have been all, but erradicated - which may or may not respond to treatments availble now or in the future.

Vaccinate your kids, folks. And if you won't, the next study that needs to be done is for a vaccination for our children against yours.

Why don't more people use the "Follow This Blog" widgit?

Many times I have gone slumming around Blogger and found interesting blogs...but no "Follow This Blog" option.

I know there is always the 'Subscribe to Posts' options, but it's not the same as being able to follow them via your dashboard. I'm finding it very hard to make blog contacts on the Blogger platform because of this issue. Eh.

There are lots of people out there just waiting to follow your blog, folks! Add the widget to make it possible.

Yanno who's just nasty?

Craig Ferguson.

In case you don't know, he's on the Late, Late Show (or something) on CBS after Letterman. He's just lecherous and foul with everything he says. Every other reference out of his mouth is a sex joke. He even talks about his pet names for his penis.

He's in his mid 40s and just married a girl in her early 20s. This, coupled with the things he says, just makes him especially revolting.

A plea to the universe

If you know of any site where I can download music from in WAV form, please let me know! No short clips...and no MP3s.

Thank you kindly in advance.

Virginity up for bids

Fox News is making a big stink about some chick from CA auctioning her virginity online. They're trying to find a way to get her arrested for it because prostitution is illegal.

So to circumvent that, this chick has decided her deflowering will take place at the Bunny Ranch in Nevada. Apparently, she can't be prosecuted because her auction is affiliated with that site, based in Nevada, where prostitution is legal.

So far, the highest bid is reportedly $3.7M. Her ad via the Bunny Ranch's site says she has her own conditions on the offer.

Who's business is it anyway? Why is Fox News butting in on it, trying to get her prosecuted? You can give the shit away so why can't you sell it?

Plain and simple - the feds haven't found a way to tax the vagina yet.

Who is Nancy Grace?

I like Nancy Grace. I watch her show every night. Right now, she's following the Casey/Caylee Anthony case and has been since the inception. I really like her no nonsense style of getting to the facts of the matter at hand.

Recently, I penned an article after researching more about who she is and what she does. Here's an excerpt and a link to the full piece.

Nancy Grace, star of CNN Headline News program of the same name and former host of Court TV's Closing Arguments, is no stranger to the media spotlight and unflattering public opinion. The outspoken television host has come under fire many times in recent memory for her views on several high-profile legal cases, outlandish commentary, and in some cases - accusations of unethical legal practices.

But who IS Nancy Grace?

Nancy Ann Grace was born October 23, 1959 in Macon, Georgia. Her chosen career path was to be an English professor upon her graduation from college, but the murder of her fiance' Keith Griffin when Grace was only 19 years old, acted as the catalyst for starting her career in law. Grace enrolled in and graduated from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University and went on to obtain her Masters degree in criminal law from New York University. Later, she went on to teach business law at Georgia State University College of Law. Nancy Grace was also a Special Prosecutor in the Fulton County, GA District Attorney's office, where she amassed 100 trial victories without a single loss.

You can read the rest here.

I (heart) Faces Entry - Contest One

This is a self-portrait taken with (IMO)the best camera ever created - a Kodak EasyShare Z700. This camera has since met its demise at the hands of my daughter *sigh*

Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to participating in many more of these.

If you don't know about the contest and would like to play along, here's the link.

Interesting Website of The Day - Global Incident Map

The Global Incident Map is a fun place to visit to keep tabs on what's going on in the world. Along with terrorism incident reports and threats (This part is free to look at, but you don't get real time updates w/out paying a fee), there are also incident reports regarding hazardous materials situations, forest fires, and Amber Alerts being issued across the United States. Clicking on an icon of interest will give you information about the incident and, sometimes, a link to a news story about it.

Some of the information is more current that the rest, but some of the maps have a search feature that lets you narrow down incidents within a specific time frame.

At any rate, it's a good site to waste a bit of free time and precious bandwith on.

Enjoy.

Here I am

My name is Senobia and I'm from Beaumont, Texas. At one point I was a freelance writer that contributed to a variety of magazines on a regular basis. I've lost interest in that for the most part and what writing I still do is done via content websites.

I'm a single mother of two daughters and one son, aged almost 4 to 15yrs old. 2008 was not kind to me. I had many major life changes that started about June and continued throughout the remainder of the year. I'm not optimistic about 2009 so whatever comes, comes.

I'm loud, outspoken, and have an opinion on most things. My pet topics are abortion, immigration, and domestic violence. I've been here lurking for quite some time and have now decided to take the plunge. I'm looking to expand my online horizons and meet new and active bloggers.

During my tenure in the blogosphere, I've encountered some great people who I enjoy reading about via their lil allotment of bandwith. I hope that trend continues here.

I look forward to reading you!