This cookie article (and photos) has had me DISTRACTED all day

Get the Soft And Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe from Averie Cooks

I started my morning, as I do everyday, reading the dreary news on the web.  One of my primary news sources is The Huffington Post.  They had the most amazing article titled, "Every cookie recipe you'll ever need (and then some)".  Click here to see the article.  

I have been salivating all day. I am posting this because I'd like to try to make all of these recipes someday (there are 62 to be exact, although I have included only a few photos).  Maybe I'll do an homage to the groundbreaking, delightful blog, book and film (starring Meryl Streep/Amy Adams) Julie/Julia homage.   But since no reads this blog the only impact would be to my middle aged, already over-expanded waste line.  I guess I could take all of the cookies to senior centers?   Would anyone read this blog more, if I do?   

The wonderful eclectic recipes include some of my most favorite food stuff:  chocolate, chocolate, double chocolate, peanut butter, nuts, pistachios (times 100), butter, cream cheese,  caramel, butterscotch, cinnamon, sugar, honey, molasses, nutella,  sea salt, oatmeal, fruit (berries in every way), cookies that are made in a cast iron skillet.  This list could go on.  Click here to see the article. 

Get the Salted Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies recipe from The Moveable Feast

Get the Dark Chocolate Chunk, Pistachio, and Sea Salt Cookies recipe from Two Peas and their Pod

But the one that's really made my panties wet (it's such an erotic, enticing coupling--love to sample):  The Peanut-Butter-Cup-Stuffed Ginger Cookies Recipe by Pip & Ebby.

Well HELLO gorgeous: new building in SUZHOU, CHINA

A new gorgeous building, "Gate of the Orient", is under construction in Sozhou.   It's been criticized by some who say it looks like a pair of pants (As per the Daily Mail : "Architectural triumphs or just plain pants?:  China's latest superstructures resemble a giant pair of long johns… "(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gate_to_the_East) .

Others have praised it.

I fall into the later category.  I think it is elegant.  How about you?

The new skyscraper which will top out at 980 ft. (74 floors) is currently under construction in China.    Here's a photo of building under construction from 2012.   Architecture (and all photos) by RMJM an international.  RMJM's, an international architectural firm, work encompasses architecture, sustainable design, urban planning, and master planning http://www.rmjm.com/profile/ .

GORGEOUS London building(s)

Me Want!!!   Great blogsite too.

http://ishouldbelaughing.blogspot.com

Another FAVORITE word:

dodgy

 adjective \ˈdä-jē\

: false or dishonest

: causing a lack of trust or confidence

: in bad condition

Full Definition of DODGY

1

chiefly British :  evasive, tricky

2

chiefly British

a :  not sound, good, or reliable

b :  questionable, suspicious

3

chiefly British :  requiring skill or care in handling or coping with

— dodg·i·ness  noun

 See dodgy defined for English-language learners »

Examples of DODGY

1. The car's got a dodgy engine.
2. They got into a dodgy situation.

Gorgeous new TOWER design for Jakarta Indonesia

This is a stunning new design by architects US architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).   Created for the state-owned energy company, Pertamina, the large-scale project will feature a performing arts and exhibition pavilion, a mosque, and a central energy plant in addition to the office tower. Rising more than 1739 ft (530 metres) above Jakarta, the tower will be a new landmark on the capitol's skyline. 

The unique, elegant design features an integrated "wind funnel" that generates energy from prevailing air currents.The new tower will be the tallest building in Indonesia and one of the tallest buildings in the world once completed  (the new One World Trade Center is 1,776 feet but that includes a 406 ft antenna).



I've always wanted to go to Jakarta after seeing the fantastic movie, The Year of Living Dangerously, with Sigourney Weaver, Mel Gibson and Linda Hunt decades ago.  Guess I'll have to wait unit 2020 to finally visit so that I can see the finished Pertamina tower.






ttp://www.dezeen.com/2013/12/11/som-indonesia-skyscraper-harness-wind-power/

R.I.P. Nelson Mandela--one of the most beautiful, remarkable men who ever lived

SCIENTIST says quantum physics proves there is an AFTERLIFE

Professor Robert Lanza asserts that quantum physics proves that there is an afterlife.    That would mean that ONE scientists asserts that SCIENTIFIC theory proves something exists after life in this dimension.  
Lanza's theory is based upon Biocentrism.   "Biocentrism is classed as the Theory of Everything and comes from the Greek for 'life centre'. It is the belief that life and biology are central to reality and that life creates the universe, not the other way round."1

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2503370/Quantum-physics-proves-IS-afterlife-claims-scientist.html#ixzz2kqf6U5Xc 

1  Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2503370/Quantum-physics-proves-IS-afterlife-claims-scientist.html#ixzz2kqf6U5Xc 
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HELP! I need participation on another SURVEY for my class

I'm taking a Race & Racism course at CSUSB.    The biggest portion of a grade is a research project on a race or ethnic group that is different than you.

I am focusing on Jewish ethnic group.  If you are Jewish (practicing or non practicing) would you please complete the survey!!???? 

Just click on the link below to go to the survey:

Click here to take the survey

The survey is anonymous.  I thank you so much for you assistance.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Mark Gaulding

Do you know how to order your STEAK?

A great Huntington Post article today about how to order a steak to be cooked the way you prefer.  I like 'em "blue".    How 'bout you?

Over the decades, I've ordered steak "rare" and it is usually deliver anywhere from "medium rare" to "medium well."   Which is infuriating if your paying $50 for a slab of beef.    I learned about the term "blue" and have found satisfaction with my steak orders since.  Maybe this chart will help you know how to ensure you get your beef cooked to you preference.

I find that the cheaper the steakhouse/restaurant, the less willing or the less understanding they have about these nuances.  I LOVE STEAK!

Check out the Huntington Post article at:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/11/steak-cooked-photo_n_4240121.html

A temple for books: this is a wet dream for me

I love books.   Bookstores, libraries really get me going.   In fact, you could say I WORSHIP books and reading.   And this is literally and figuratively a church bookstore.   Now this is a church that I could attend and be baptized in.

Broerenkerk, a Dominican church in Zwolle, Netherlands, has been transformed into a book store "cathedral". This was in an article in the Daily Mail Online titled "Perfect for bibliophiles! 15th Century cathedral is transformed into a book shop."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2483432/Perfect-bibliophiles-15th-Century-cathedral-transformed-book-shop.html#ixzz2jumiQgCM 

Take a short survey to assist me in my class for death and dying

There is not a scroll bar on the right.  To take the survey on this blog listing use the down arrow key to complete the report.  There is a lower scroll bar that you can use to read from left right.

You can also Click here to take the survey if you are having difficulty using the survey on this listing.

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A timely quote from JFK

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."

--John F. Kennedy

Prescient, given the current ruin of our country.  This was in my professor's Race/Racism lecture in class last night.

Film Actresses who SHOULD HAVE won an ACADEMY AWARD but haven't yet....

Okay, so I have a beef to pick with the film industry.  Why haven't these outstanding actors not yet won an academy award.   Each of them have been nominated multiple times and their film portfolios are remarkable.  Is it that there aren't enough scripts written for females?  I'm pissed.  Every single one of these women should win and Academy in the near future.

Thoughts?  Did leave someone off the list.   I considered Cameron Diaz but wasn't sure that she is in this league, yet.  Although I love her and her all of her work.

Michelle Pfeiffer (nominated for three Best Academy Actress awards)



Glenn Close (nominated for six Best Actress or Best Supporting Academy Actress awards.....she has won THREE Tony Awards for her stage work)



Laura Linney (nominated for three Best Actress or Supporting Academy Actress awards)


Julianne Moore (nominated for four Best Actress or Supporting Academy Actress awards)


Annette Bening ( nominated for four Best Actress or Support Academy awards)

Interesting story about a person's SOUL

I'm taking a class at the local college titled Perspectives on Death and Dying.   The textbook has some very interesting, thought-provoking items in it.  This one was particularly so.  Thought I'd share it here.

Knowing What a Human Being Is  

Rollling Thunder often repeated, ‘We do so many unnatural things, we don’t know what’s natural anymore.’  One day he and I were sitting on the ground out in the desert.  He was describing a young Indian apprentice from another tribe and making designs in the sand with a stick.  Suddenly he said, ‘You people don’t even know what a human being is!’   I did not see the connection between the subject at hand and that sudden exclamation, but I had learned to understand what he meant by ‘you people.’  It was not a judgmental finger-pointing to be taken personally, but a sort of generalized identification to be applied wherever it fit.  ‘You can look right at someone’s empty body and take it down the highway at eighty miles an hour, leaving the person miles behind, not knowing what the heck is going on!” 

As an example, he then described to me an episode in which he went into the hospital to assist a young lady-a friend of a friends-who had been in a head-on collision and was a long time in a coma. ‘But the moment I took a good look at the body, I could see she wasn’t even there.  I had to find her-go get her-and she was way out in the field where the car’d flipped over the cliff, and she was sittin’ on a rock.  Her friend who was driving was killed.  And this one sittin’ on the rock, she didn’t even know where she was.  But, boy, she was determined to stay there.  She was totally disoriented.  I had to pull her, nearly force her back.  Only time we can do that is when we know their own will isn’t working—otherwise we always leave it up to their own choice. 

‘Well, in the early days, most everyone could tell when a person wasn’t in their body.  That was just natural to see that.  That’s been lost mostly.  Only thing I can say is, until you learn to understand these things, you should never, never move an unconscious body.  Unconscious means the person is not there.  So treat the body on the scene and never, never move it.  Not until you learn how.   People can’t find their own way back to the body—not when they’ve been pulled loose that way by some accident or something.  Time and time again, traumatized people get abandoned that way.  Time and time again, people die in a coma because of that.’
Quote in Doug Boyd’s, Mystic, Magicians and Medicine People:  Tales of a Wanderer*

*DeSpelder, Lynne Ann, and Albert Lee. Strickland. "Chapter 4, Death Systems: Mortality and Society." 2011. The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 150. Print.

To see more listings on this blog site about the soul, click here. click here

My favorite season FALL is upon us! Horray!

And the beautiful colors it brings.

Check out Huffington Posts beautiful photos of bonsais (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/23/bonsai-trees-color-fall_n_3976912.html?utm_hp_ref=huffpost-home&ir=HuffPost%20Home#slide=2942080).  Here's a sampling.

I WENT to see a FANTASTIC film today. You must see THE WAY WAY BACK

"The Way Way Back 
May Be the Best Movie of the Summer

Sam Rockwell shines in the witty, tender directorial debut of actor/screenwriters Nat Faxon and Jim Rash."

--    This is a quote of the film from the movie review by Christopher Orr on The Atlantic.  The link is below.

    

Mr. Orr provides a much better review than I could.  I suggest that you read Orr's review and then go see the amazing movie.

This is an amazing ensemble cast:  Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Alison Janney, Amanda Peet, Maya Rudolph and Rob Corddry.   Carell, Collette and Janney show their thespian chops.  

Left Steve Carell who plays "Trent" and Liam James who plays "Duncan"

Sam Rockwell who plays "Owen" and Liam James

But it is Sam Rockwell that "rocks" this film, as far as I'm concerned.  And newcomer, Liam James, who plays the movie's protagonist.  What an impressive and unexpected movie delight this was.  Please read Orr's movie review at this location to see all the reasons why you shouldn't miss this movie.

If you go see this movie you'll immediately see a numerical ranking.  Won't give away the story, but I will say this movie is definitely either an eight or nine!