Tea* Cup meme

Laura at That Grrl posed this question: What's your favourite cup for coffee or tea? Post a photo if you can. Let's make it a meme. Post your cup photo and pass it on to someone else.

*Laura called this the Coffee Cup meme, but I've renamed it the Tea Cup meme, since you'll never find coffee in a cup I'm drinking out of. :P




This is my current favorite tea cup at home. Jules purchased it while on a trip to Germany at Sanssouci, the former estate of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.

She liked it not just because of the pretty estate pictured on it, but also because it shows the "Sans Souci" name, which means "without worry", and "suum cique", which means "to each his own". Plus, it fits her grandmother's definition of a proper tea cup: thinner porcelain with a fluted drinking edge.

The teacup I use at work was a holiday gift from a coworker, which explains its Christmas design. While the porcelain is thicker, it does have a fluted drinking edge that Jules' grandmother would approve of.

Speaking of fluted drinking edges, the teacup below has one too. While I wouldn't call it my favorite, it does amuse me and sometimes I choose it just because I'm feeling a little cheeky. Wilko and Lesley bought it for me after I dared to request some royal memorabilia from the most recent royal wedding. Come on, take a closer look at it and glory in its tackiness -- the grainy photos, the poor aesthetics, the typos. It just makes me warm and tingly sometimes.



Want to participate in this meme? Consider yourself tagged and jump right in. Leave me a comment to let me know you decided to play, or go leave Laura a comment, or leave one for each of us. :P

Coming next week to an Internet near you...

Two fun Internet based projects happening next week.

First up: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

So what did the creator of Buffy, Angel and Firefly do when the writers were on strike last winter? He brainstormed an Internet-based project called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Joss Whedon recruited Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser and How I Met Your Mother) to play a super villain, Nathan Fillion (Captain Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly and Serenity) to play a super hero, and Felicia Day (the last season of Buffy, The Guild, and that Cheetos laundromat commercial) to play a cute girl, and produced a program that will be published in three video installments on the Internet next week.



So what exactly is a Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? As it's described on the Dr. Horrible Twitter page, it's: The story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to. 

So, on July 15, check out DrHorrible.com for the first video installment, July 17 for the second, and July 19 for the last. They'll be posted for free until July 20, and after that will be available for download for pay through some other site. Eventually, it will be released on DVD with all sorts of special extras.

Second up: Doodle Week

Doodle Masters Claire and Laura have declared a sequel to this spring's fabulously successful (and fun) Doodle Week. Starting Monday and then for the next week, you'll see doodles popping up all over the blogosphere.


In the spirit of things, I've already posted a doodle version of my logo on my page.

So, you're wondering (maybe), how does one participate in Doodle Week?

First, you draw a doodle by whatever means inspires you. The doodle doesn't even have to be good. It's a doodle, and who ever saw a doodle hanging in an art gallery anywhere?

Once you've managed to produce a doodle, then what? Unless you're only planning to hang your doodle from your refrigerator or cubicle wall, you need to get it into a digitized format. No one cares how. Take a photo of it. Scan it. Create it on your computer in the first place. Whatever. That's incidental.

Then you post it somewhere. On your blog. On your MySpace page. On your Flickr page. (Surely you're involved in some sort of social networking thing that will let you post an image, right?)

Then you go to the Doodle Week website and let everyone know that you've doodled, then they can come and admire your doodle.

Oh, and there are themes for each day, but don't let a theme hold you back. Have fun with it!

Giving some heart

I saw this on That Grrl's page, and she picked it up from BlogTalkers.



The question posed was this:

Heart. What is close to your heart? Does heart disease run in your family? Would you say your heart is in good shape? Would you ever consider donating your heart after passing away? Why or why not?

When I was writing a comment in response to the question on That Grrl's page, I realized the question really struck a nerve with me and I needed to write about it here.

This is the essence of what I wrote in my comment to That Grrl (she hasn't approved the comment yet, so I can't copy it word-for-word from her site):

Heart disease runs in my family. Big Time. I do every thing that I can to keep my heart strong. When I die, if my heart is in a condition that someone can use, I say please use it.

I believe that what is an ending for me, can be a new beginning for someone else. Possibly several people. And that brings me comfort.

When my father died a few years ago, all he was eligible for was tissue donation. My mother, knowing my strong feelings about organ donation even then, readily signed the paperwork. To me, this was a bright spot in an otherwise incredibly painful experience -- maybe someone would see some benefit from my Dad's death.

The idea of letting my body rot in a sealed vault in the ground, separated from the natural cycles of life, has no appeal to me. I'll be done using it. Take my organs, cremate the rest and scatter me to the winds.

Obviously, I have strong feelings.

But I also believe that when it comes to death, you should follow whatever practices give you and your loved ones the most comfort.

I know the idea of organ donation can provoke strong responses in people. Have you given it some thought?