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Beyond Organized

Beyond Organized

Turning Clutter Into A Career

Turning Clutter Into A Career

A Simple Kind Of Life

A Simple Kind Of Life

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Real Life RVing

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Tin Can Travels

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RamonaArt

Rants For All Occasions

Rants For All Occasions

Ya Gotta Have Some Fun

Ya Gotta Have Some Fun

Most of RamonaCreel.com is devoted to sharing my products, services, and free advice with the world -- coaching, organizing and training for new organizers, my photography, RVing guides and travel writing. But all work and no play make Ramona a dull girl -- and what is the internet for if not for goofing around? I've filled the rest of my site with original content and opinions -- but frankly, this section is mostly just a way for me to keep track of my favorite time-wasters (self-indulgence elevated to an art form!)

• My Favorite Films And TV Shows I will admit to being a complete media whore -- I enjoy a quality piece of cinema just as much as I love a good book or a fine painting. In fact, a really well-crafted film has the ability touch you in a way that no other art form can -- when you combine effective storytelling and powerful acting with strong visuals, it's almost like being able to walk into that book or painting. When a filmmaker can draw his audience in and completely immerse them in his world for a while, well that's a little bit of voyeuristic heaven! Folks are always asking for televisual recommendations -- so I thought I'd take a minute to share my list of films and shows that I consider "DVD-worthy."
• Six-Word Stories In the 1920's, Ernest Hemingway was challenged by a group of colleagues to write an entire story in just 6 words -- his response was "For sale: baby shoes, never used." Hemingway won the bet, and is said to have considered this single sentence his best work -- and over the years, this exercise has inspired hundreds of succinct yet entertaining short short stories. Here are some of my favorites.
• The Cutest LOL Cats Oh hai. Thees r mah favurit lolcats -- i luv thees onez! Sum lolcats jus aint funny, i don't liek teh photoshoppd onez, an as uh telligent purson, u has 2 be particular bout ur humor. Fortunately, i'z pickd out teh bestest ov teh bestest 4 u -- so jus sit back an git ready 2 lyao.
• Only A Hard-Hearted Bastard Doesn't Love Animal Videos I can't stand that dorky jackass who hosts "The Planet's Funniest Animals," but I do love the clips. If you gave me all critter videos all the time, I would be a happy human! I find animal behavior so amusing because it's completely natural and completely deadpan. These creatures quite innocently follow their instincts into some pretty hilarious situations -- but they lack a sense of humor, so it's like being entertained by an endless series of straight-men engaging in unintentional pratfalls. Best of all, they have no idea we're laughing at them!
• Surely, Separated At Birth They say that everyone has a twin out there somewhere -- and if you visit the photo gallery at Totally Looks Like, you might start to believe that's true. Look-alikes and spitting images and doubles -- oh my! Until I began my "internet research" (which translates as "screwing around on the web") I had no idea that so many living celebrities resembled a) dead celebrities, b) historical figures, or c) fictional/CGI/muppet/animated/inanimate characters. And of course half the fun is the juxtaposition -- when you find polar opposites that look the same. Like everything else on the web, I had to wade through hundreds of crap comparisons to find the best matches. That's me, always saving you time in your time-wastage -- don't say I never did nothin' fer ya!
• My Life Is Average Is your life average? Sure it is -- everybody's is. The trick to really having an amazing existence on this planet is noticing those stupid little moments and enjoying them for what they are. My Life Is Average is a place to share your everyday mediocrity, to post the mundane things in your life, and to read about what makes life normal for other people. These are some of my favorites, but there are literally thousands of stories at their website -- check them all out. And take a minute to tell the world what makes your life average.
• Garfield Minus Garfield It's just like it sounds -- this web comic removes the famous feline from his weekly strips in order to reveal the existential angst of his all-too-human owner. With Garfield in the mix, the strip is about a guy whose world is ruled by a willful and mischievous pet (certainly a situation any cat owner can relate to!) But when you remove the main character from the equation, the storyline shifts -- we now see a neurotic bachelor who lives a solitary and lonely life, who possesses questionable social skills and couldn't get a date if he paid for it, who toils in obscurity at a tedious and unrewarding job, and who seems to need a heavy dose of Thorazine to help him get a grip on reality! I thought I'd share a few of my favorites with you -- perhaps they'll help you find a few surreal insights into your own life.
• A Spell-Check Poem When I first saw this little ditty on the web, it immediately made me smile. Those of you who enjoy word games should get a kick out of this bit of tongue-in-cheek (button-in-mouse?) poetry. And really, is there any language more illogical, more begging-to-be-made-fun-of than modern Anglais? While I have absolutely no tolerance for native English-speakers who mistakenly (and routinely) confuse "your" with "you're" or "their" with "there" -- the repressed lit major in me finds intentional word-swappage rather amusing (in a you've-spent-way-too-much-time-reading-the-dictionary kind of way.) Homophone and homonym combinations like "how much can a bare bear bear" or "he's going to marry merry Mary" are also great tongue-twisters. Enjoy translating!
• Why Dogs Hate Halloween At Halloween, everything in my home gets to wear a costume -- husband, stuffed animals, anthropomorphic home decor, and especially pets. Unfortunately, I have cats, and my girls just won't sit still for too much of this nonsense -- I might be able to get them to wear a hat or a mask or possibly a bow tie for a very short period of time, but rarely does it stay on for more than a couple of seconds before being flung across the room by a very irritated feline. But dog owners can get away with a lot more -- and these folks make me look like a rank amateur. I'm talking full-on costumes with glasses and wigs and extra appendages -- you can dress a dog up as almost anything! I had to share my favorites -- including disco stars, superheroes, pirates, Yoda, pieces of fruit, and even one especially frightening pin-up pooch in a thong.
• Homestar Runner And Strong Bad Email Even though it's one supposed to be of the most popular internet comics of all time, Matt and I discovered that very few of our friends (even those who lived in Atlanta) had ever heard of Homestar Runner. This is a crime. Every time I visit their site, I end up giggling until I weep -- so I feel compelled to spread the word. These shorts definitely fall in the WTF category -- so bizarre and esoteric that you either find yourself staring at the screen with a raised eyebrow, or having to change your underwear because you're laughing so hard. This toon is heavily geared toward Gen-Xers -- with lots of pop-culture references and in-jokes about the outdated technology we thought was so cool when we were kids. All hail Strong Bad, Marzipan, and the Poopsmith!
• It Made My Day People on the internet so often focus on irritations and frustrations in life -- but nearly every day includes at least one small moment of "Woo-hoo!" It may be a seemingly insignificant victory like having the right song come on the radio, a funny overheard, an amusing interaction with a stranger, or a family member acting like a complete goober -- but the experience has value, as long as it brightened your day. It Made My Day celebrates these joyous instances and allows you to share the things that make you smile with the whole world.
• Improv Everywhere The troupe Improv Everywhere is dedicated to causing impromptu scenes of chaos and joy in public places -- they pull pranks that make people feel good, and their audiences always walk away smiling. With more than 100 "missions" under their belts, there's plenty of spontaneous happiness to go around! These are my favorite of their "missions" -- enjoy and educate yourself (so the next time you see everyone around you freeze in the middle of Grand Central, you'll know what's really going on.)
• Not Happy With Your Old Name? Get A New One! It all started when a couple of Texas politicians decided that Asian names were too hard for Americans to pronounce, and suggested that citizens of eastern decent replace their native monikers with something more Anglo-friendly (I can see how folks would have problems with a name like "Chan.") This led me to the "Betty Brown Name Generator" -- which will assign you a red-white-and-blue name like Joe "Biscuits And Gravy" Smith or Susie "Apple Pie" Johnson. Of course, that piqued my interest, and it was all downhill from there!
• This Ain't Your Daddy's Pumpkin! You may think that you know how to carve a cool jack-o-lantern -- but the masterpieces you create with your wimpy little carving kit and trace-on patterns can't begin to compare to the pumpkins Scott Cummins makes at PumkinGutter.com! Each fall, this man spends 20-40 hours carving the most amazing punkins you've ever seen, all done free-hand -- no pattern, no plan, just a knife and a large piece of fruit. If you were extra-special-proud of those triple triangles with the jagged mouth you put on your gourd this year, these bad boys might make you feel a little inferior about your carving talents. But don't worry -- Scott's happy to help you create a 3-D masterpiece of your own. And in the mean time, enjoy some of my favorite designs from years past.
• Yearbook Yourself If you haven't played with the Yearbook Yourself application yet, you really should -- what fun! Just upload a picture to their website and insert your face into each of the yearbook templates from 1950 to 2000. It's truly amazing how much the hairstyle and clothing can make you look like a completely different person. I'm thinking of printing copies of these snapshots to stick in my actual yearbooks -- I like some of these photos way better than my middle and high school class pictures (I was NOT a very photogenic child, but now I get a chance at a re-do!)
• Funny Exam Answers What do you do when you just don't know the answer to a test question? My generation used to leave the page blank -- but today's students have gotten a lot more creative with their "responses" (if only these kids put as much time into studying as they do being clever, we'd have a cure for cancer by now!) Rather than admitting defeat, a clever student makes use of his other intellectual powers to amuse the teacher. God bless the child who can extrapolating humor from an incredibly dull question about ionic bonds or verb-subject agreement -- the smart-ass answer always deserves extra credit in my book. Thanks to websites like FunnyExamAnswers and FunnyExam, now there is a place where teachers and parents can show appreciation for their kids' ingenuity. Here are some of my favorite "I've-no-clue-with-style" repsonses from the younger generation.
• A Random Series Of Internet Videos That Went Viral The web is filled with some pretty hilarious stuff -- you have to wonder if these people are actually employed, or just sit around all day thinking up goofy shit. However, you can lose whole days if not weeks looking for the good bits. My job (apparently unpaid) in all of this is to find the best of the best and bring it to you, compiled together in one place for your slacking enjoyment. My motto is, "I waste time so you don't have to!"