I have found a place to do some good. It's not charity, it's micro-financing. It's DIY Foreign Aid...without the gun fire and dysentery.
You can start like I did with as little as $25. Less than a night in a club. So there is no excuse.
My Jeep takes a large portion of my life. I have taken my Jeep from bone stock to conservatively aggressive in a very short time. I enjoy taking it out on the trails around Southern California. My year is usually divided by weather: mountains in the summer and deserts in the winter.
My Jeep was built by and is maintained by JC Fab and Design, Sylmar, California.
I own a Yamaha Zuma scooter. I bought the scooter as a daily driver to leave the Jeep as a toy for the weekends. Although I commute more on the bike now, I keep the Zuma as the grocery getter.
I have a Yamaha XT250 dual sport motorcycle as a second toy. It's a lightweight bike that can get itself to the trail, do the trail without beating up its rider and get home under its own power. No need to trailer.
When it comes to creativity, I firmly believe in exploring curiosity. If it looks like fun, do it. Unfortunately for me, the minute silver crosses the palm, it seems to lose all its fun.
I have worked with a drop spindle for years. I have a Kromski Minstrel spinning wheel. I'm working with some exotic fibers like silk, camel, soy and bamboo. Strange way to occupy my time, but the results are wearable.
Like a lot of women these days, I have discovered the addiction of knitting. Most of my pieces are made from my own homespun.
I've gotten back into writing, but I'm not certain where that's going to go. Sometimes all you can do is take your pen for a walk and see where it leads. The results of my pen be found at
I have been giving my sketchbook a bit of exercise as well. I've started hanging out the the Getty and the Getty Villa again.
Music
My musical tastes are too wide ranging to start listing particulars. As far as performances, I can be found at the Disney Concert Hall or the Hollywood Bowl overdosing on a bit of Mozart or Bach if that's any clue.
Movies
I prefer period pieces, especially those set in the 16th through 19th centuries.
Television
I am most likely to be found watching documentaries. I wouldn't know what is on the networks. I avoid the dumbed down commercial drivel found on most of the channels. Even the current documentary channels are dumbing down to an incessant round of UFOs, Bible stories, repeated tornado and tsunami footage, home improvement, promotional biographies for the latest "it" child in entertainment, watching tattoo artists go about their day (which is as interesting as watching grass grow) and loud mouthed mechanics trying making use of useless chrome. Thank the gods there is still the Universe out there, and it can still somehow sell Viagra.
Books
A mix of fiction and non-fiction. I am an Austen fan, love older writers like London and Sinclair but historic novels are my weakness. They are the chocolate of my library.
You can view my library at
(I've only started to catalog my library so stop by frequently to see the new additions.)
I am also constantly swapping books in and out for free at
Referral name: qwiksilver
Heroes
Mom for not letting being a woman get in the way of what she wanted to do and for setting the example.
Elizabeth I for "Better beggar woman and single than Queen and married."
Margaret Sanger for her work to legalize birth control for women.
Shirley Muldowney for being the only woman to win Drag Racing's Top Fuel Championship three times.
General George S. Patton for not knowing when to shut his mouth and still being good at his job.
About me:
NOTICE: UNKNOWN MALES SENDING UNSOLICITED MESSAGES WILL BE IGNORED. NO EXCEPTIONS. THIS IS A STRANGE WORLD AND YOU CAN'T BLAME ME FOR PROTECTING MYSELF. PLEASE RESPECT THAT.
I am too complex for simple descriptives. Few know me well. Even those who have known me for years get a curve ball thrown at them by my sudden shifts in attitude and interests. They have become used to it. You can meet me and think you have me figured out, but find out I am quite the opposite of your first impression. But then again...
Or as one friend put it: "Jeans and t-shirt girl who gets an occasional wild idea to throw on a skirt and heels."
"The only person I know with a wine glass in one hand and a wrench in the other."
The exboyfriend who inspired the "qwiksilver" name: "The only thing that rules you is change."
Introverted intellectual with a preference for finding certainty.
A builder of systems and the applier of theoretical models.
2.1% of total population.
"QUOTEABLE ME"
"I find it amusing that men who have been involved with me are completely astonished when they find I have a talent for something. I explain to them that they would have noticed said talent had they not been so enamored of themselves."
C. Hoffman, 2006
"I used to think I left my husband because of his deceit and infidelity, but now I realize that it was entirely my distaste for being told what to do."
C. Hoffman, 2006
"Don't mistake abject terror for bitter cynicism."
C. Hoffman, 2007
"I've always been about the journey. When I get to where I'm going, I check on everyone's health and happiness. I find out who is dying, who has died and who should die. Then I'm ready to go home by a different route. I don't believe in hanging around. I treat just about every aspect of my life that way. It doesn't matter if it is traveling, education, or even love, I am just not interested in the destination."
C. Hoffman, 2007
"The problem with this country is that we haven't had a war on our soil since 1865. Unless you're Native American, and then you can move that forward a couple more decades. But the result is the same. We don't know what war is. We haven't had to suffer. Maybe it would be good for us if we did."
C. Hoffman, 2007
"Something I learned in the Army, and have had proven to me over and over since, is that a man can screw up and, after a little razzing from his friends, be forgiven just about anything. If a woman screws up, she's forgiven nothing. Ever."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"I will never be rich. I just don't have a good sense of greed."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"What man builds God destroys on a whim to remind man he is not God."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"I expect no more of others than I do of myself, and considering I am quite the little screw up, I am constantly surprised that so many fail to rise to so short a mark."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"What would I need on a deserted island to keep me happy? A crate full of books. Really good literature or I'll go mad."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"If you are going star in some sort of personal drama, please, don't ask me to join you on stage."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"Something I learned in my younger days is that courage is what you have at 1am after a few drinks, consent is what you give at 2am and commitment is what you run from at 6am."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"I could never date a man who is not my equal or better. If he doesn't know his way around an engine, come from a good family and have something that resembles an education, I can't look at him."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"The difference between cannon fodder and fighting for your country is the difference between going overseas and being told by the government what to do and taking to the streets at home and telling the government what to do."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"Listen, the whole "I will lower your taxes" thing is like putting a sexy woman next to a car to get you to buy it. You can buy the car but the girl isn't included."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"A successful third party is going to have to start small, think big and go long. And for godsakes don't get too radical. Save that for after you have the Whitehouse."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"You should treat a bear market like a bar fight. When stocks head south, don't sell. When a bar fight breaks out, don't run. Just grab your beer and duck under a table. If you run, you'll get punched."
C. Hoffman, 2008
"I'm a member of DemAnon. I've been attending meetings for children of Democrat parents. I'm still getting over FDR worship, but I've fully come to terms with the fact that the Democrats have screwed me over in favor of anyone who doesn't want to work or is here illegally. I am now an independent and no longer enabling. I will be getting a 25 year chip on my shoulder soon."
C. Hoffman, 2009
"Do you ever get this urge? You pull up next to a car with a person doing some personal grooming. I just get the urge to lean out of my Jeep and yell over 'It's not helping!'"
C. Hoffman, 2009
"I don't judge a wine, beer or spirit by whether it has smoky notes, great tannins or hints of currants. I judge my drink on one thing - Do I want another one?'"
C. Hoffman, 2009
"Would you like a bottle whine for your pity party?"
C. Hoffman, 2009
"If you want to know why I joined the Army it's simple. I was homeless. I had a choice of the sex trade (stripping, etc.) or the military. I'm not a lazy woman, I'm a proud one."
C. Hoffman, 2009
"Treat your music like your food: Ignore anything with a label. The best stuff is fresh and still has the dirt on it."
C. Hoffman, 2009
"QUOTEABLE OTHERS"
"I'm not allowed to play softball sober anymore."
E. Durfee, 2007
"I'm autistic, not artistic."
E. Durfee, 2008
Male voice: "Hold my beer. Watch this!" Followed by tired female voice: "Call 911."
Traditional
"If you had a brain, you'd take it out and play with it."
Mom
"Seria ludo!"
("Serious matters in a playful vein!")
a principal toast of the Society of Dilettanti
"God's will cannot be undone by a couple smacks of a hammer!"
Jeff (imgonnasnap)
"There isn't anything down in Mexico I can't see here at the local Home-Depot. Why waste the gas to drive down there?"
Don (ZestyCj7)
"We have a problem and we ain't doin' a damned thing about it."
"Our 12 step program consists of buying 12 more parts."
"When we feel we've hit rock bottom we rejoice, for we are at the bottom of a canyon full of rocks."
Jeepaholics Anonymous
"Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."
Warren Buffet, October, 2008
Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man,
the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time
handed out military command, high civil office, legions - everything, now
restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things:
bread and circuses
iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli
uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses.
(Juvenal, Satire 10.77-81)
You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
Winston Churchill
By Elizabeth I, Queen of England (17 November 1558 - 24 March 1603)
"Much suspected by me, Nothing proved can be."
Reputedly carved onto a window
at Woodstock Manor, Oxfordshire
"My Lords, do whatever you wish. As for me, I shall do no otherwise than pleases me."
Elizabeth to Parliament on the succession issue
"I will have here but one mistress and no master."
Elizabeth to Robert Dudley
"I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king."
Tilbury speech, 1588 on The Spanish Armada
"You know, a few blocks away from this great chamber, when you walk in the snow, is the Vietnam Memorial, where half of the soldiers listed on that wall died after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work.
It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion."
Congressman Patrick Murphy
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (Democrat)
Pennsylvania's 8th district
U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, Iraq War (2003-2004)
"You must acquire the trick of ignoring those who do not like you. In my experience those who do not like you fall into two categories: the stupid and the envious. The stupid will like you in five years. The envious; never."
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (The Libertine, 2005)
Who I'd like to meet: I am here to connect with my friends. Not to collect profiles. I am reserved in my friendship. I am a private person, and am careful who receives my friendship and affections.
MEN: I do not meet men on the internet. I require an introduction through a mutual acquaintance. If you do not know a mutual acquaintance who can introduce us, please do not waste my time or yours. Any messages from unknown men will be summarily deleted without being read. I make no exceptions.
There are a couple bands and a club or two I like. They know who they are.
All other messages that advertise a band, club, service or product from an unknown source/person will be reported as spam.
I would also like to state that the people I know can write in standard English. They are well read, and can communicate clearly with wit and intelligence. Trendy ways of spelling and trendy word combinations do not impress me in any way. Trendiness, shortcuts and misspellings just makes me think of one single word: Idiot.
well, thank you...regarding paint brushes, just hold it like a pencil, gently apply the tip, and with the tip trailing move into your stroke...be sure to not overload your brush with paint, unluess you are painting sloppy like that for effect. You should practice your strokes with a soft brush and india ink on paper. You'll have fun! Very zen...or go all the way and get a round japanese brush, and an ink stone!!
umm, let's see; 8 to 8.9% sales tax, depends on the county. Flat fees for car registration ( like $50). No state income tax. Our gas is about $2.15 for regular right now. All taxes already included in gas and alcohol prices (hard liquor is only sold in state run stores) beer & wine at markets/grocery. That would be awesome to have you here!! It does really rain a lot!! Seriously 4 seasons, rainy for 3 of them , haha :D LOL
