Dhivael/Anne’s Hyperactive Blog

I don’t have a pool, but I sure wish I did right now. What with the hot temperature, it’s best to just stay inside or go swimming. Of course, if you have a pool, you need furniture to go along with it. After all, sitting on the hot cement beside the pool, between dips, would not be fun.

So I would buy some nice furniture like Caluco furniture instead. It’s made of recycled aluminum, won’t rust and can stay outside year round. Not only that, but the furniture looks very nice, not like those folding beach chairs that many people have.

Even if you don’t have a pool, they’d look great outside… maybe in a gently shaded garden, surrounded by blooming rose bushes. That’d be very nice.

My mother and I were watching a travel show on PBS recently about Turkey and we got to talking about where we would go if we could only go one place. My mother said that she’d want to go to Australia. Since Australia is a rather big country I’m guessing that she meant somewhere like Sydney. Would I want to go to Australia, if I could only travel to one place in the world? I don’t think so. Too… ‘ordinary’. I’m sure it’s lovely, and would be ‘different’, but everyone there still speaks English.

Me, I want somewhere more exotic. Probably somewhere in Europe, where people don’t generally speak English (but you might find a few people that know a little English). I’ve always wanted to go to France, to Italy, to Spain… Everywhere! Having to pick just one isn’t fair! I want to see the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Sistine Chapel… everywhere.

On the other hand, there is always travel within the US, plenty within relative driving distance of where I live. Practically the whole country is within driving distance, if one wants to drive long enough. A cross country trip would be fun, especially one to visit every one of the 48 contiguous states. I’d probably go east, through New Mexico (have to stop in Roswell, even if I don’t believe in UFOs - just have to!), Texas (I’d make a stop in Houston, to see the space center and I hear that there is a nice aquarium there. I’d probably have to rest in one of the Houston hotels before continuing on to Louisiana and New Orleans for some Cajun food.

That would be three states down and only 44 more to visit! Talking about that would take all night, so I think I’ll just quietly ponder what exactly I’d do in the rest of the 44 states.

One of these days, I’m going to have to visit Las Vegas. It seems that almost everyone goes there, for one reason or another. I, I’m afraid, want to go to see Star Trek: The Experience. You don’t have to tell me that I am weird. I know, I’m weird. Oh well. I still want to go anyway, even though it mostly covers Trek series I’m not that interested in.

Unfortunately, I doubt I could ever live there, actually purchase any real estate. Las Vegas might be a nice place to live, but it can also get rather expensive to purchase a home there. I would probably never be able to afford a house there, unless I actually won a jackpot! Too bad, as the expensive houses are also the nice looking ones.

Oh well, I can always go and look at Las Vegas anyway. See the pretty lights on the strip, go see some of the shows (though I am not sure what shows exactly I would go see…). Maybe play a slot machine or two (no poker for me!). Maybe a little machine blackjack. I’m not that interested in gambling, I just like watching the machines and the flashing lights (weird, yes; I know) And, of course, I would visit the Hilton there with the Star Trek thing.

For me, at least, Las Vegas may be a nice place to visit but I’m not sure I’d want to live there.

After watching several videos on YouTube about them, I’ve decided that I really want to get a Bengal cat. Eventually. But they are awfully expensive. They are so cute (especially as kittens) and have spots… they look like wild cats. But they are intelligent and many can be leash trained. A lot of them even like to play in water.

But, as long as you get one that’s of a certain generation (they are bred from wild cats), they will be of domestic temperment.

Safari cats are also cool looking, but quite a bit more expensive.

Then there are Savannah cats, which look similar, as well as Habari and Egyptian Maus.

I’m not sure about the Egyptian Maus, but the othe cats will range from $500 for Bengals to $10,000 for a Safari.

If someone gave me one of those cats tomorrow, I would definitely want it. But I would not want to pay several hundred, or thousand, dollars just for a cat. It’s too bad, too, because they seem like such cool cats.

Europe is a beautiful place, almost everywhere you go. Everyone goes to Italy, France, Germany, England… but relatively few people think of going to Bulgaria. And even fewer people think of buying a Sofia property. That is, Sofia, the captial city. And property as in real estate. It’s a shame, too, because Bulgaria has some wonderful areas. Skiing, swimming at the coast and touring the historic parts of Bulgaria. I’d love to go there one of these days.

Security systems are one of the ultimate gadgets. In the movies, they are always portrayed as a laser grid system that the heroes have to cross very carefully lest they fall into the pit of sharks.

Back in the real world, they’re nothing like that. But depending on what type you get, you can have all sorts of nifty accessories that go with them such as being expandable, having a keychain unit or being able to dial in (over a phone line) from elsewhere to see what the alarm status is. A LaserShield security system can have or be all of these things, and you can get them at regular stores!

I’m not sure if they’re pet-friendly, though. If not, I won’t be getting one any time soon. I wouldn’t want one of my pets setting off the alarm by accident.

I hadn’t heard of this company until today (I guess I just don’t follow fashion stuff that much), but Belisi asks, “What’s Beautiful to You?”. At first, I thought this question was of the type ‘what makes stereotypical beautiful things beautiful?’. But, after reading the page, I realized that it meant ‘what makes an ordinary thing beautiful?’.

It’s not often you hear something like that from a maker of luxury items says something like that. Usually, they are trying to redefine the standards of beauty. To make things that are rather abnormal (like being stick thin) be considered the standard of beauty. To find a company not doing that, it earns my respect.

Belisi itself is giving away $100 gift cards to the best comments left on the Being Belisi blog. So if you want to get something from them, for yourself or as a gift, you should go leave your answer to the question above on their blog. Even if you aren’t interested in their products, they also have some interesting articles (such as how to properly tie a tie and where ties come from) there that you might want to check out.

So what sort of ordinary things are beautiful? I love the way the desert looks, just before a monsoon storm hits. That wall of dust, which will make things so dirty, is just an amazing site to see. The sky will turn red, orange, brown… a rainbow of colors, depending on the time of day. And after the storm, the colors come back as the sun shines through the clouds. And there are the most magnificent rainbows! It’s quite beautiful, even as the storm wreaks havoc with our storm drains and (normally dry) washes (gullies, empty streams).