I regularly check the ”Footprints” on my blog so I can find out how many people have visited my awesome site, and where in the world they are. Although 75% of the visits come from me checking my the Footprints, the 25% of actual visitors still gives me a good ego boost that lasts me a good two minutes…which makes it worth it.

Anyway, what I have found really weird is that some people are linking me through Google Images at this link:

http://images.google.co.kr/imgres?imgurl=http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a244/baddyqueenly/hahaha.jp

What is this? I can’t search it because I am just directed to the Google.com page, and I couldn’t find it on Photobucket.com being that I am not technology-savvy. I think someone took one of my pictures and put it on their site? And apparently it was quite funny, considering the “hahaha.jp” tag. But yeah…what is it?

Assuming I am correct, I am both flattered and offended. Flattered, because perhaps this person found my work so great that they decided to post it on their site…but offended because umm…I don’t remember anyone asking me? It’s not like I’m going to say “no” because I could use the publicity…but you know, I worked hard to make my Paint Skills so superior. Sure, I didn’t do the “sweat, blood, and tears” thing—but I spent 5 good minutes of my time doing a drawing. It’s not easy putting circles and triangles together the way I do.

But, at the same time, I want to applaud this person for giving me recognition I totally deserve…and now I know for sure that I am one step closer to a Nobel Peace Prize. I bet those Hezbollah people would drop their weapons once they got a load of my Pepto vs. Laxative picture.

Yeah! World Peace!

I really am not a fan of putting up pictures on my Xanga…at least, not pictures that I didn’t make out of Paint–which really shouldn’t be called “pictures” now that I think about it; I think a better term would be “works of Nirvana.”

However, on rare occasions I will put up pictures that I think deserve recognition. And by recognition I mean “worship.” For instance…

Okay…this is where I run around my room, screaming and ripping my hair out. There is just no way for me to get that itchy feeling of cuteness out of my system, other than to mutilate my body (kind of like how a Jehova’s Witness might cut themselves to leak out blood they received during a transfusion…)

These pictures are just too adorable! I can’t stand it! It makes me want to grab the animal, squeeze it, and make googly noises like a drooling baby!

I found these gems on cuteoverload.com–and this website is clearly true to its name. There were so many cute pictures of cuddly animals that after 20 minutes I actually started getting ANGRY. I mean, the feeling of rapture was so intense that my body sensed I was vulnerable to harm, and started kicking in angry endorphins (or something) to make myself less suspectible to attack. Yeah, that’s a hypothesis coming from someone who isn’t qualified to make any judgements…but you know it sounded good.

Anyway, there were many pictures I was oohing and ahhing over, but my favorite is a video clip of a kitten who befriended a rooster.

OMG KILL ME!

You can find the video clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7qb6brLIBs. It’s in Japanese, but who cares? It’s CUTE.

I’m going to go curl into a corner and cry now.

UPDATE: Here is the clip…I figured out what to do with the HTML.

Italian historians and scientists have recently exhumed the body of legendary singer Farinelli in order to study the remains. Farinelli, whose real name was Carlo Borschi, was a famous opera singer back in the 17th and 18th centuries. What makes him intruiging is that he wasn’t just an ordinary opera singer–Farinelli was, in fact, a castrato.

Okay, so what’s a “castrato” right? Or, rather, what’s a “castrati”? If you’re smart (like me) then you would have noticed that “castrati” sounds a lot like “castration”–which pretty much explains what type of opera singers these performers were: castrated men.

This topic is absolutely fascinating, so I had to do some research on it–naturally, with my trusty Wikipedia (I know it’s written by regular people and could contain a million errors—but I rely on it anyway because it’s not like I can tell what’s a typo and what’s not).

Back in the day (meaning the 16th century), when the Roman Catholic Church had banned females from singing in choirs, people began practicing castratism. The castration would be done before the boys reached puberty–probably around 8 years old or so. Thus, while their bodies continued to grow and develop, their vocal cords remained small. This essentially created male singers with high-pitched voices, untouched by puberty, but with the singing capabilities of adult males.

The register of a castrato’s voice was higher than that of a soprano–and subsequently the former became regarded as superior to the latter. During their time successful castrati were worshipped by their fans, and before long 4,000 young boys a year were undergoing castration in an effort to join this elite club.

(Unfortunately, only 1% of these castrated boys wound up becoming successful castrati…)

Castrati began losing their appeal when Italy outlawed the practice of castration in 1870. Shortly after, the Chuch banned the use of castrati in choirs.

The only existing castrato recording was done by Alessandro Moreschi. You can listen to it here:

http://www.archive.org/download/AlessandroMoreschi/AlessandroMoreschi-AveMaria.mp3.

The quality isn’t very good since it is a gramophone recording—but you can still get an idea of what a castrato’s voice sounded like.

Alessandro Moreschi

The first time I listened to it, I could only get halfway through because I found the sound of his voice incredibly disturbing. It was like nothing I have ever heard: it was grotesque and beautiful all at the same time. There was so much emotion, so must passion—and yet, I felt there was a sense of sadness to it. But I think that sadness has more to do with my own feelings of sympathy towards the singer than the song itself.

I mean, this is the sound of the ultimate sarcifice. I can’t imagine doing anything so drastic or permanent, even if it is for a craft I love. But I guess that’s what makes castrati so interesting.

And that is my educational article of the year.

Infomercials are great. They’re so bland, so boring, and yet there is something really comical about them. I think it has something to do with the over-exaggeration of whatever hardships the product is going to cure. For instance:

Woman burns herself on steering wheel!

But Auto Cool is here to cool off her car!

Woman is happy now that the Auto Cool has kept the internal temperature of her car low, and her steering wheel from becoming a safety hazard!

That is so dumb…even though a car has been sitting in the sun for hours, I don’t think the steering wheel could get hot enough for you to react in such a surprised (an unattractive) fashion—not unless the car was sitting in the sun for hours, within the pit of an active volcano filled with lava.

But that’s why they are so funny! And the products are ridiculous!

More of my favorites:

Urine Gone! Makes urine disappear so that you can even find it with a black light!

Doggy Steps: For your dog to get up on furniture when you’re too lazy to pick it up.

Floam: a hybrid between silly putty and styrofoam—given to bad kids for Christmas.

I made a Photoblog and posted all the pictures I made with Paint.

http://photo.xanga.com/absolutangel64/

I was really bored…