My Celebrity Look-alikes

Check out this new online service powered by Cognitec. It does face recognition by looking at an online photo of yourself. It uses algorithms that compare the features in your face, with all faces previously known to the MyHeritage Face Recognition, through contributed photos and meta-data. Here are the matches from one of the photos that I submitted.

I'm not sure if I really look like any of those actresses, but funny enough I've been compared to Sarah Jessica Parker before. I think it's because I lived in NYC and wrote this blog though. In other phtos that I uploaded I was linked to Alicia Silverstone, Princess Di and Jennifer Aniston too. All pretty flattering at least.   It's interesting to see who the site comes up with and it's cool to see it scan your image as well.

News: Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world, other than water. Over 6.6 billion pounds of tea are produced each year. A new study finds that drinking tea may reduce the risk of deadly diseases—and that's just one of many health benefits associated with the popular beverage. Read more at Newsweek.

Blowin in the wind

After my softball game on Tuesday night in Encino (we lost but it was a good game) my teamates spotted what has to be the largest tumbleweed ever just chilling in the big dirt parking lot near the sports fields. It's also the first tubleweed I've seen outside of films and Bonanza. Who knew that they are simply a dead bush up rooted and rolling around? Not this Manhattanite.

We had to take photos in front of it for height comparisons, as you can see it's almost bigger than me (on the left). It looks like a bail of hay almost and even though the rolling weed was prickly and heavy, two of the girls picked the massive thing up.

Sweet Charity

Last night we caught an evening performance of Sweet Charity at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, which formerly was a movie house and home of The Academy Awards for 10 years. Compared to the tight theaters in Times Square this theater was pretty grand.  80s star Molly Ringwald plays the lead role as Charity Hope Valentine in the national tour of the free spirited late 60s musical about a lounge hall dancer in New York City trying to find love despite her profession and disappointments. There is also a film adaptation by Bob Fosse and stars another famous red head, Shirley MacLaine.  The story was written by the awesome Neil Simon (Odd Couple, The Goodbye Girl), and includes such hits as "Hey, Big Spender" and "If My Friends Could See Me Now."  The score has been playing in my head all night and this morning.

Two summers ago, I saw Sweet Charity on Broadway with Christina Applegate and really enjoyed the dancing and fun sets, plus Christina's quirkyness in the role and comedic timing. She also looked beautiful. I had blogged a review on the show here. It's too bad the musical didn't last long on Broadway though, but this production and choreography is based on the 2005 revival that I had originally seen. So the sets, costumes and dance numbers wee the same, just some new faces.

As for Molly, I always liked her but after seeing Applegate and MacLaine in the role, she came off looking more like orphan Annie in her red dress than the sexy and charming Sweet Charity. Her singing was better than I expected, no qualms there and I'm always impressed with actors that are triple threats, but I guess Molly is only a double threat since her dancing seemed forced and out done by the cast.  Just the fickle fingers of fate, I guess.

For more information on Sweet Charity and to see which cities the show will be stopping at next, go to: www.sweetcharitythemusical.com

Two glorious years

Today is my blog anniversary! :-D

It seems longer, but then again it also seems like just yesterday I was having an online poll to select a blog title. I had come up with a list of random titles for my friends to choose from. My blog was 3 votes away from being named 'Tiki Tara' or 'Tara's Tantrums' and 5 votes shy of being called 'A Blog With No Name.' The latter two wouldn't have been too bad. 

Stats:  

I've written 330 posts to date, that's 165 posts a year and averages to 14 entries a month

Paid $334 in hosting bills

Highest traffic days are Mondays and Wednesdays

I have two domains: WhenTaraMetBlog.com and TaraMetBlog.com; the first redirects visitors to the second

Received only eight negative comments (phew) but have been bashed on other blogs four times now

Almost gave up twice, but know that this blog has become a part of me and that life without it wouldn't be the same. I know, sad

Have a Google PageRank of 5

Been interviewed four times

Happy that you're reading this

Onion in a blender

"watch it spin around to a beautiful oblivion." Alright so Eve 6 sang 'heart' not 'onion' but it would do the same thing.

In fact, that's what happened to me yesterday. I had cooked brisket in a slow cooker for several hours mixed with apple juice, white wine, onion soup mix and 4 chopped onions. After the meat was done I poured all the cut onions and liquid into a blender to puree and make into a gravy. But it wouldn't start. So, my boyfriend starts pushing buttons at random to make it work, BUT he did not realize he had to hold down the top while doing so, just in case.

Boiling onion soup went flying around the kitchen, burning us and covering our counter, teapot, crockpot and cabinets. After running my hand under cold water, all I could do was laugh and clean it up.  I've only seen that happen in movies, yet he claims that he's never seen it--but I guess that part was already obvious. So, blenders erupting actually happens in real life too. 

PS: I scored my first media placement here at the new company, by getting my client in DM News (direct marketing news), check it out, New advergame builds brand Affinity.