min-myinnersoul

Remember Jérôme Kerviel  ?  OK, very excusable if you have forgotten who he is. He was the rogue trader who almost brought Société Générale ( a reputed French bank) to its knees. This happened in 2008. Kerviel was a trader who punted like crazy in the casino, that is euphemistically called financial markets - he was making gigantic bets that involved European stock index futures. The whole thing unraveled, he was fired, Société Générale tottered and ultimately lost € 4.9 bn.   Criminal proceedings were launched against Jérôme Kerviel  and he was sentenced to prison and a fine. He appealed, and, on Friday, lost his appeal. What caught me was the quantum of the fine. He was fined € 4.9 bn, the quantum of the loss that Société Générale incurred.  A fine of € 4.9 bn ???? Kerviel has no money and is unemployed and probably unemployable. How on earth is he expected to pay  € 4.9 bn ?   This is outright crazy. The judges have fallen hook line and sinker ...

Readers of this blog would be familiar with Ravi Rajagopalan. Ravi is a very dear friend, a brilliant guy, with an incredible array of interests and knowledge. His cover drive might not have the silken grace of a David Gower, but that's the worst you can say of him. As you might have gathered from comments on my previous post, he is a military buff too and he was motivated enough by my take on El Alamein to write a guest post. As you will see, much better content, much better prose and much better pictures than I am ever capable of. So here is the story of Bir Hakeim , as told by Ravi. The River Seine cuts through Paris, dividing the city neatly between the elite and the hoi-polloi.   Northwest of the city lie the salubrious environs of the 16 th Arrondisement. The Passy metro station serves the inhabitants of this quarter, connecting Line 6 from the North to the 15 th Arrondisement across the river   over a double-decker bridge built in 1904. The beautiful wrought-iron col...

Hey Guys! Just a quick note. If you want to stay up to date on what I'm posting on Facebook, here are a few simple steps to keep "in the know." 1. Click on the Fussy Monkey Business Page 2. Click on the gear symbol next to the "Liked" button 3. Click on "Add to Interest Lists" (see picture below) That way you never miss a post:o)  Stay tuned for a tutorial on how to can applesauce...you won't believe how awesome my house smells right now!!! And how easy it is to do!!

We should not forget. We are a generation that, thankfully, has not seen war. But the baser instincts of man are never very far from the surface. Even in our lifetimes we have seen horrors - Afghanistan, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Congo. But thankfully, nothing on the scale of World War II. Mankind should never forget the horrors of war. This week is the 70th anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein , one of the turning points of World War II. El Alamein was a dot in the Egyptian desert. Today it is a beach resort, then, it was in the middle of nowhere. But on the unforgiving desert sands was fought one of the most important wars of World War II. The Afrika Corps of Field Marshal Rommel was winning everything in its path. All through Europe, and elsewhere, the Germans and Italians were winning everything and the Allied Forces couldn't seem to do a thing about it. But at El Alamein, the tide was turned. Montgomery's forces defeated Rommel and the Germans were pushed back, and from...

Fall is here, and I love it! Whenever there is a new season, I feel the need to have a party.  I invited a few of my girlfriends over, and we had a fall crafting party. Since it was in the afternoon, I kept the menu simple, and just made desserts. We had  S'more Cups ,  Pumpkin Maple Trifle ,  Caramel Corn , and strawberries. I also made some delicious apple cider that made my house smell wonderful.  For our craft, we made owls. I found the inspiration at  The Diary of Daves Wife .  I got all of my supplies from Hobby Lobby.  Here is a candid shot of the girls hard at work...punching, mod podging, and painting away.  And another shot of them hot-gluing the ribbon on the backs of the owls.  Their owls turned out really cute, and they were all proud of what they came up with. I love it when they leave with smiles on their faces;o) Here is a shot of mine.  They were so easy to make, and it was so fun to sit and gab while crafting the a...

There is economic cataclysm going on in Iran. What guns and rhetoric have failed to do might be achieved by grubby old economics - the downfall of the nut cases who have been ruling Iran for sometime. The Iranian rial has plunged into free fall. It declined by 25% in one week in October against the US dollar. Since the beginning of 2011 it has fallen by 70+%. It was some 10,000 rial to the US $ in 2011. Its now around 30,000 rials to the US $. The rial is now virtually worthless. Inflation by official estimates is some 25%, in reality more like 70%. There is economic chaos. Why is this important ? You only have to look towards  the street protests that have sprung up in Iran to see how this is affecting everybody in Iran - the rich, the poor, and yes, even the mullahs. But, wait a minute. Iran is oil rich, right ? It should be rolling around in wealth. And yet, the country  is in deep crisis and the population is suffering.  Why ? If ever there was an example of how a rot...

My friend Kera, from  Sisterbug Monograms  asked me a few weeks ago if I would be willing to get creative with some wooden monograms. I always jump at the chance to get my craft on, so of course I said YES ! So then, I had to come up with the perfect finish....what's a girl to do?  A couple of years ago, before Pinterest( WHAT ? T here was a time before Pinterest? ), I ran across this really awesome tutorial at  Brassy Apple  on how to do an aged paint technique. I knew that this would be the perfect paint treatment for my gi-normous "Dub-Yuh."   Today, I am showing you the step-by-step process that I went through.  The monograms come in a natural finish..or to us country folk, "not done up".;o)  So because they are un-finished, you need supplies to make it even more awesome. For your supply list, you will need: -Acrylic paints, I used 4 in all -Sponge Paint Brushes -Dove Bar Soap -Sand Paper -Blow Dryer(to make the paint dry quicker) & -Pap...

What ?? You don't know what Gangnam Style is ? It is the K-Pop (Korean Pop) sensation that has taken the world by storm. It  is No 2 on the UK and US pop charts, watched on You Tube some 400 million times . Everybody , it seems, wants to prance like a horse . Even the West Indies team, on winning the T20 World Cup, gave an energetic rendition of Gangnam Style (note the absence of the word cricket in this sentence !). Well, if you haven't heard of the original before, you can add to the 400m+ views by watching it here - beware, you have to practice prancing like a horse while doing so. This blogger is seriously musically challenged and has no qualifications to write a music post - that being the domain of experts like Suja .  Or like another esteemed reader of this blog who runs his own radio station . Instead he shall demonstrate his "hipness" by linking economics to Gangnam Style ! HTC (a Taiwanese company) just declared its quarter's results announcing a 80% ...

I am getting tempted to write political posts, despite all my resolutions to stay away from that area. The culprit is my good friend Sriram who continuously tempts me in that direction with incisive writing in his excellent blog. We then debate and counter debate on email !! So made a guest post there - taking the crazy liberty of  writing a letter to the President of the United States !

A few days ago, I helped out in E's kindergarten class. Once a month they have "Funtastic Friday." It's hands on learning, and it is lots of fun. I helped them make really adorable shirts that they will wear on the field trip to the pumpkin farm at the end of the month.  I loved the shirt so much, I decided that I wanted the kids to do it on canvas and use it as part of my Fall decor. These little paintings were easy to make, and the kids loved getting their hands dirty.  Here's your supply list: Paints- Brown, Green, Orange, Red and Yellow 2 Sponge Brushes Paper Towels or baby wipes Canvas Paper plates to squirt paints in Willing participants;o)  Just a dab of each of the paints will do...this was actually too much paint for the both of them.  You'll first want to paint the entire hand, and just below the wrist with brown paint. The kids get a kick out of this because they say it tickles:o)  Once all of the hand has been painted, flip it over with fingers spr...