There’s nothing I am scared of more than a wiggly caterpillar. Seriously, those little furry wiggly things really really just freak me out. I’m fine with butterflies, but gosh do they really have to be a caterpillar for that long before turning into a butterfly?

For the past few years since I’ve lived in Dallas, I have seen maybe one and they weren’t around our house. Now that we’ve moved to another house that’s older and has more trees around, all I notice right now are caterpillars. They were wiggling around my son’s sand box, right at the spot where I’m suppose to go to to crank up the cover…so no my son didn’t get to play in the box because I ran in the house. This morning, I wanted to go to the front yard to get the paper…and guess what was greeting me right out the first step. So, I had to run in the house again with no morning paper. Then I just looked out the backyard since we have nice floor to ceiling windows…and noticed one wiggling up the door. Luckily the screen door was there and it was actually going up the screen door. So i can at least flick on the screen door and keep it from coming in here.

Arrgh…seriously if they can get in here, I’m gonna have to move or something. It may be funny to you, but they really are just freaky. It’s the only thing that actually made me cry at camp. The first and last time I’ve ever actually went hard core camping. I think it was at the sequoia mountain and must have been the caterpillar season because they were just EVERYWHERE! These were black furry one and they just seem to fall from the sky (I mean, they did in a way…they were falling from the trees). When I tried to hide out in the tent, I looked up and gee whiz, I saw the silhouette of another one just wiggling above me. Yeah I’m sure it’s psychological and I know exactly when it happen that cause me to be afraid of those things. It was when I was probably 8 or 9 and one was on my shirt in front me and yeah I think I freaked out then and ran, not like it help since it was on me! Ever since then, I just never wanted to see one of those wigglies again. So to those little wigglies…hurry up and turn into a butterfly already!

It’s not just those that are bugging me right now during this season. Misquitoes, ants and fleas are attacking me like I’m some yummy breakfast, lunch and dinner…nice!

From the Alliance Francaise du Nord du Texas with the support of the Cultural Office of the French Embassy and The French Consulate - Fete de la Musique 2007 - First time ever in Dallas.

Free Event:
June 22 - 7:30PM
One Arts Plaza
Downtown Dallas
1722 Routh Street - Dallas TX 75201

Texas Video Artists (5 video artists from UTD) interpret the music of french composers under the direction of Frank Dufour, professor at the University of Texas Dallas.

For more information call: 214-234-0165 or 972-733-0844.

So I was searching for different antique shops in the Dallas area and there are just SO many of them. I’ve decided to ask the best source - grandma (well, my husband’s grandma). She said they use to go to someone name Philip and that he and his wife were one of the nicest people. She wasn’t sure they were still around since it’s been awhile. So I looked for Philip and antiques in Dallas and found Philip Maia and asked if that was him. She confirmed that it was. So anyway Grandpa use to go to auctions and was into antiques and oriental rugs, so I’m sure he knew the good places to go. Well here’s their info:

Philip Maia Antiques
1209 Slocum Street Dallas, Texas 75207
(214) 939-5200

If you decide to drop by there, I’m sure you can just shop hop to all the other antique shops around Slocum Street. That’s the design disctrict and it’s where you can shop til you drop.

BTW - She just mentioned someone name Ruth and that they would buy stuff from her as well. So I found Ruth Taylor Estate Sales and that’s the company, though she thinks it’s probably the kids running it now. Don’t you just love google? Here’s their info:

Ruth Taylor Estate Sales
4521 Belclaire Ave
Dallas, TX 75205
214.704.0764

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a recall on various Thomas & Friends™ Wooden Railway Toys Due to Lead Poisoning Hazard. These were sold nationwide from January 2005 through June 2007 for $10-$70. It was manufactured in China.

“China by far leads the list of countries making products that are recalled in the United States, accounting for 65 percent of all the recalled products in this country this year, according to CPSC. In 2006, China accounted for 233 product recalls — nearly double the rate from the previous year, with lead a recurring cause among the recalls.” —-abcnews.go.com

“Made in China” usually has a negative feeling for some people and I was “Made in China” too, but I’m not THAT defected =). I actually do think that made in china = cheap. Oh wait, no I’m not cheap…no really! haha. I don’t think that everything from China is cheap or in bad quality. The reason of course is because the big companies want cheap labor and cheap material, so they mass produce it in China. Some things like the old antiques and things that were made not to satisfy big companies can be good. Basically if you think about it, the quality of homes in terms of material and thought put into a home in the U.S. has also suffered because of big developers coming in to make homes as quick and low cost as possible. This causes currently suburban homes to be not as good in quality and causes them all to look almost the same!

One more thing about China that I thought was funny but sad at the same time. I was watching Discovery Channel about Pandas. It said that if a Panda were to have two babies, it will have to abandon one. My husband was like, “see the one child policy effects pandas too”.

Speaking of the one child policy, it doesn’t seem to be implemented that well. The thing is that it seem that people are still having more than one. It’s just that if they have girls, they give it up for adoption. There was a segment on tv about how the boys who grew up since the start of this policy is having trouble finding girls and how some girls are taken/kidnapped to the villages for the guys. No duh, if you take away all the girls or let them all be adopted, then of course it’s gonna be a problem.

Sally sells seashells on the internet. The seashell she sells are found on google I’m sure. Yeah sure, that’s not how it goes, but if tongue twisters, rhymes, or lullabies were created for the next generation then surely it would be different from the old ones. It would probably include things like LOL, BRB and “Whatever”. Where is this leading to? Nowhere really…hahaha.

Actually I just wanted to make a point that it is important for businesses to have a web presence. Some people may disagree, but I for one look for business or service providers that do have a web presence. Even a plain and simple web page with basic info, history, and a few photos would be enough. Just enough for me to know more about the business other than just the name, address, and phone number. Even when I look for restaurants to go to or get take out from (since cooking is a little non existent at this moment), I often look for their website and if they have their menu listed, that’s even better. I live the web and so do a lot of younger generation and if you want to target them, you need to have something on the web.

I understand that not every business owner knows how to get themselves on the web and it may not be in their budget. So to support local businesses that do not have a web page and would like to have one. They can use the contact form to request getting a free subdomain from bigindallas.com such as yourbiz.bigindallas.com. Not all business will be qualified and individuals can make a request as well.

If you haven’t read the post from Mark Cuban about his Colonoscopy, you should. It’s both hilarious and a good form of public service announcement. Yes, I said hilarious because it made me laugh. I also didn’t really know what it was because I don’t think about health too much except when it comes time to get a physical and plus I would think my Dr. would tell me it’s time to get one of those?!? Anyway, it’s equally important for women to get a Colonoscopy. So I’m glad I read it. Though I don’t think I’ll run to the Dr. and say “hey give me what Mark Cuban had”. I guess there’s an age where Dr. will start to offer me a bunch of stuff to be tested. So, I’ll wait for my turn when time comes.

Speaking of Mark Cuban, he is for sure BIG in Dallas. Funny thing is if you’re not from Dallas, or into basketball, or know much about the internet dotcom days, then you actually might not know him. I’m not kidding and I thought everyone knew who he was. Until I was talking to a mother who just moved to Dallas from California. I think I was talking about how people are into celebrities in L.A and people are into sports and religion in Dallas. I mentioned Mark Cuban and the Mavericks…she had no idea who he was. I was like..you know “broadcast.com?” I knew who he was before the Mavericks, before coming to Dallas and before he became a billionaire. It was during the dotcom days when we did some little stuff for broadcast.com, which sold to Yahoo and probably known to be the luckiest dotcom back in the late 90’s and maybe ever.

Now there’s the whole web 2.0 and companies starting left and right trying to repeat history. I think Mark Cuban might of had enough of the web, or maybe got enough from the web. He did move on to doing something similar to the Apprentice, which didn’t last. Though don’t count on him failing on TV. He started his own HD channel called HDNet with Philip Garvin (I just realized they got a 2 letter domain…must have cost a fortune!). My husband swears by HD tv and would NOT want to watch anything that’s not HD anymore (except Tennis Grand Slams, but he does complain about whey it’s not on HD!). When he sees me watching anything on “regular” tv, well…I’ll just have an earful of the quality of it. I have to say, it does make a big difference in terms of the viewing experience. I watch HD Discovery channel and it’s amazing. You just have to get use to seeing people’s every beads of sweat, nose hair and all the other imperfections. You get over that once you zoom back out and look at the whole picture!

For more detailed info on Mark Cuban, you can visit the IMBb site or visit askmen.com.

It’s funny because everytime I read about people from So. California living in Texas, it always comes down to missing In-N-Out! If you don’t know what that is, it’s a burger chain, but currently it’s only in Cali, Arizona, and Nevada. It’s the BEST burger and for the price, it’s even better than best.

The problem is “In-N-Out remains privately owned and the Snyder family has no plans to take the company public or franchise any units.” so arrgh, can someone just offer them LOTS of money to open one in Dallas???

At least I get to have a few when I visit L.A. but that’s only twice a year if I’m lucky. Do people really miss it?? oh yeeaaah, I do for sure. The closest thing in Dallas would be Kellers on Northwest Hwy, but they just don’t have the same taste and Kellers is a bit far from me right now. Even a burger at a nice restaurant that cost $7.99 isn’t as good as In-N-Out. I think it’s only $2.99 or $3.99, I forgot since the last time I had it was a little more than a year ago. Luckily I’ll get to have it again in a month and a half!!!

Arrghh, I’m hungry now.

I first heard of David Hanson as being a grad student at UTD Arts and Technology Program. Looks like he’s having nothing but success. From the Metroplex Technology Business Council, you can be “Face-to-Face with Hanson’s Facial Android Technology”

Featuring Lonnie Martin and David Hanson, Hanson Robotics

Friday, June 15, 2007
11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m.
Check-in begins at 11:15 a.m.
Location: Omni Park West ~ 1590 LBJ Freeway Dallas, TX 75234

You can also check out Handson Robotics Website for more information.

BIG in Dallas has added the ability to upload specials/coupons for listings from users who have registered to the directory. Listing owners who register will have the ability to also update listings info, add longer description and make future updates to specials/coupons as well. User who do not register will not see this feature on the submit page and will see the basic listing info.

Future plans to add a few image uploads will be implemented as soon as possible.

Enjoy!

Alright, it’s not that literal. But the Arts and Technology World’s Lab students have a virtual space in Second Life and will be blowing up the studios they made. Why? The invite said because they built it, it didn’t work, so now they are blowing them up!

What worked so far is their gallery where they have used it for shows featuring metaverse artwork from students. Some includes videos. They have also been able to setup a live stream that comes from a webcam.

The space is growing and the ATEC World’s Lab group works hard to continue to be inventive and continue to improve it.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/UTD%20ArtTech%20Island/137/54/36/
Thursday Night 8:30 PM CST

You can get more info on the emac site.

Also, if you come up with an interesting sponsored research project, I’m sure they can take it on!