JodyTheBad's Pirate Ship!

Er, yeah

2009-01-29T13:00:00.002-05:00

I don't blog here anymore, I decided to just put everything at mightybear.

Tune in at http://mightybear.livejournal.com/ for more rambling!

Here's what you will experience. . . .

2007-07-01T20:26:00.001-04:00

There are some things that have such a predictable influence on our thoughts and feelings that they just fascinate me. One of those things is the Monty Hall problem. People who are good at math and probability most always hear the problem, come to an obvious-to-them conclusion, absolutely do not believe the actual solution, argue to the death for their solution, have some epiphany, and then immediately and completely switch to the other side, without the slightest doubt that they may have been right in the first place. Google it (or come to my house and we'll talk about it, if you prefer, I LOVE to do this.)

Today I experienced another one of these things. My mom sent me this video:

Go ahead and watch it now if you want no spoilers, or if you want to see how much of a mind-reader I am without influencing yourself. My only request is just keep on watching, it gets better.
http://www.b3ta.com/links/Harder_Better_Faster_Stronger_by_hands

OK, so here is my take on what everyone in the world thinks. (Or at least all the cool people.)

0. Hear the video is cool and fire it up to watch it. Take note of the comments that say it's the neatest thing since sliced bread.

1. Start the video. "Huh," you think, "That's weird."

2. Watch the video for 30 seconds. Think "This is incredibly stupid. I am pretty sure that nothing that could happen will actually turn out to be cool, and worth the annoyance of sitting through the first bit"

3. Watch stupidity even longer. Wonder why anyone on earth would ever suggest this video to you, much less write all those rave comments on the site.

4. Stuff starts happening. It's vaguely interesting, but still. . . WTF?

5. As it goes, it gets more and more interesting. About halfway through grudgingly admit "OK, maybe this is interesting enough to bother with after all. This is kinda cool."

6. And as it goes on even longer. . .you become more and more facinated. It ends. You're thinking "HOLY CRAP, THAT IS COOL!" And then you watch it again. And again and again if you're me.

Soooo enjoy! (Thanks mom!)

Doubt is a Virtue

2007-06-11T09:50:00.000-04:00

This quote was attributed to JFK in some recent bits of media.

There was some meme a good while ago where you were supposed to collect 5 quotes that define you. I went to my favorite quotes engine and found a bunch. I couldn't narrow it down to 5 (and not all were about ME, but instead about things I believe or find particulary true and funny) but I found a handful that were of this subject. This quote reminded me of the meme, so I'm sort of resurrecting it.

For anyone who cares, I'm just going to post all the quotes I picked.

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'
Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931)

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
Andre Gide (1869 - 1951)

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.
Laurens Van der Post, The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958)

If you couple a skepticism of all things with the tendency to apply Occam's razor to most issues, you have my general philosophy down.

And then my other quotes:
He who laughs, lasts!
Mary Pettibone Poole

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727)

What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death.
Dave Barry (1947 - )

We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
Cato the Elder (234 BC - 149 BC)

I've been on a diet for two weeks and all I've lost is two weeks.
Totie Fields

I also saw some quotes that seemed particularly appropriate to people I know. Some of these are more deep or meaningful than others, but I only post them here because these people immediately came to mind when I read the quotes.

For Mark:
I no longer prepare food or drink with more than one ingredient.
Cyra McFadden

I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

For Sean:
If you make it plain you like people, it's hard for them to resist liking you back.
Lois McMaster Bujold, Diplomatic Immunity, 2002

For my charming Grandma:
Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.
Henri-Frédéric Amiel

And for Mom:
Aim at the sun, and you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly far higher than if aimed at an object on a level with yourself.
Joel Hawes

Advice for Dad:
Never fight an inanimate object.
P. J. O'Rourke (1947 - )

For that entire class of people that claim not to understand why people on welfare don't just get off their arses and go to work:
I've known what it is to be hungry, but I always went right to a restaurant.
Ring Lardner (1885 - 1933)

Hmm, Interesting

2007-05-14T13:01:00.000-04:00

Mark accidentally made "The Internet" mad at him because someone posted a link to Mark's blog at a website where people post links and discuss them.

I am pretty bemused by this so I've been keeping up with the site, so I can observe first hand what's wrong with the Internet these days. Well today someone posted an article about a promising new cancer treatment - what may work out to be an inexpensive, relatively non-invasive general cure. It sounds too good to be true, but I think it's worth keeping an eye on.

The problem is the compound can't be patented and it will dry up a large source of
income for drug companies, so they don't have a lot of incentive to study and develop the drug. However, research IS being done (by universities and what-not) and I'm sure that even massive drug company efforts won't be enough to squash this thing if it pans out. The day that most politicians don't know anyone that's been affected by cancer is the day I'll really worry about conspiracies from this quarter.

The most powerful way to keep drug companies from sweeping this under the rug is to make more of the general public aware. So this is me doing my little part.

All that said, though, I have no idea how often miracle cures pop up that look really promising at first, but turn out to be unworkable in humans for whatever reason. So you get what you pay for here!

Here's a link to the wiki:
Dichloroacetate

The moral of the story

2007-05-11T07:17:00.000-04:00

Story

I suppose the moral is . . . if your child is at the top of a transplant list, just leave your cell phone on because police stopping a concert is a little more disruptive than a phone going off.

I hate these ethical dilemmas

2007-05-09T13:54:00.000-04:00

Story on CNN about a disabled girl who was given a hysterectomy at the family's request. The hospital is now in trouble for violating her rights.

I don't know what we're protecting when we ensure that someone who can't walk, talk or eat on her own can still reproduce. HER quality of life will be better with this surgery, her family's quality of life will be better with this surgery. . . she would never have gotten pregnant from a choice that she made.

It deeply grieves me that people get into trouble for doing what they can to make a hard life a little less hard.

The final shirt count

2007-05-07T10:07:00.000-04:00

76 shirts! That's 15 weeks of work without having to launder a shirt, with one left over in case of a spill.

Silly Markie!

Mark's Amazing Pile O Laundry

2007-05-06T20:35:00.000-04:00

For whatever reason, I don't do Mark's laundry. (OK, the reason is I hate laundry more than almost any household chore, and it's the one thing that he has to do or else suffer dire consequences, so I don't have to nag him about it. So that's one of his contributions to the household.)

But he has a very pragmatic view of laundry - he does it on an as-needed basis. So when he's had to wear his swimsuits for underwear for a couple of days he knows it's time to toss a load in - enough clothes to get him through the week and that's it. What this means in reality is that he has entire seasons of dirty laundry at any given time.

The other day Connor was shrieking in joy in the bedroom, and we went to check on him to find him playing in "Daddy's clothes mountain" like a puppy in a pile of leaves. It's gotten to be a pretty impressive pile!

Well Mark didn't really want much for his birthday this year, so I made some special meals for him on his B'day weekend and decided that as a little something extra I'd do his laundry for him. In the past couple of days I've done 8 or 9 loads of laundry. I have 8 loads left. I counted 40 work shirts so far (not counting undershirts and t-shirts.)

I am just so impressed with this figure that I had to share it. I'll post the final number tomorrow. =)

Ahhh! He changed his mind!!

2007-05-02T10:10:00.000-04:00

Why is it such an incredibly big deal when a politician changes his stance on something? There are a couple major reasons why they might change a stance:

1. They are pandering to voters/lobbyists
2. They have new information or life experiences that give them a different view on an issue

Now it could well be true that the first reason is the usual reason for stance changes, but honestly, I hate to discount the second reason. If you take a stance on a complex issue (as politicians are forced to do) and you close your ears and eyes to anything that might challenge the validity of your stance, then you are a fool. I would much rather think that at least SOME of our politicians are actually doing what they can to learn about the things they have to vote on.

So it's possible they are just pandering, but it's also possible that they are smart.

Ah so true!

2007-04-30T13:20:00.000-04:00

I had to steal this from a forum I'm on. . . but that's ok because the guy that posted there stole it from a forum he reads.

How many forum users does it take to change a light bulb?

One to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed.

Fourteen to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.

Seven to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.

Seven more to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs.

Five to flame the spell checkers.

Three to correct spelling/grammar flames.

Six to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb" ...

Another six to condemn those six as stupid.

Fifteen to claim experience in the lighting industry and give the correct spelling.

Nineteen to post that this group is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb (or light bulb) forum.

Eleven to defend the posting to the group saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this group.

Thirty six to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty.

Seven to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs.

Four to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL.

Three to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group.

Thirteen to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too".

Five to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy.

Four to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"

Thirteen to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs"

Three to tell a funny story about their chickens and a light bulb.

One group lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

My campaign of the day. . .

2007-04-30T08:09:00.000-04:00

I just can't get over the change in my web surfing speed with these option tweaks in Firefox. . . .

If you use Firefox (and you should!) and you have DSL or faster speeds, give these changes a shot. Then load up CNN or your favorite complex busy page and see how much faster it is.

You're welcome!! ;)

Not that I'm a fan of mugging people . . . .

2007-04-30T07:59:00.000-04:00

. . . . but if you are going to mug someone, I think it's smart to target people that aren't so likely to kill you. And so I find it really strange that a man who mugged some elderly women is being charged with a hate crime.

But on the third hand, perhaps we should arrange for legislation that applies stiff penalties if you mug anyone that isn't holding a loaded gun.

(I have no substantial yea or nay opinion about hate crime laws or gun control, I just think that including the elderly in hate crimes is interesting)

Yeah, yeah, I'm running behind here too!

2007-04-24T08:11:00.000-04:00

For a while I had nothing fun to talk about, but I can bring up a few things today. . .

First, what century are we in again?? I must be naive, I would never have thought that any place in America would have this situation today.

Second, I would love to hear people's opinions about Rudy Giuliani for president. I am an independent. Socially liberal and fiscally conservative. My grief with politics is that it's too politicy and not enough problem-solvey. Giuliani seems like a problem solver to me. Someone tell me why I shouldn't like him.

One good reason might be if he's got his head in the sand in regards to global warming - I should check that out. Enough experts agree about the world being round that I feel we should move forward based on the assumption that the world is round. I naturally have some concerns about our loss of coastline and the weather being messed up, but I am mostly concerned that our refusal to treat this as a problem now will result in 100 million people in India and China being displaced or worse. They can't exactly up and move that easily.

I realize that this is a very very difficult nut to crack, but from a risk exposure point of view, if it is a real problem and if we are the biggest contributor to it, we have a responsibility to either control our contribution or be prepared to shovel aid to those that we've affected. And it will be a lot of aid. I'd rather avoid causing the problem if possible.

My biggest concerns right now are our troubles in the Middle East (although I have nooooo opinions on what should happen there - it is just far too complex!) and global warming. I hope we get someone in office that takes a good logical look at things, gets advice from the right people, and can inspire the country to follow through. I think the big G may be the guy.

Happy. . . national candy corn day?

2006-10-30T15:11:00.000-05:00

Two high school girls compiled a list of holidays for every day of the year, so you can see what strange "holiday" falls on your birthday.

My birthday falls on "National Milk Chocolate Day" (it should have been Coca-Cola day honestly)
Chase's day is Charles Dickens day
Connor's day is Noodle Ring day (and to think I don't even know what a noodle ring is)

National holiday listing.

And especially for Sean. . .
March 28 is . . . . Something On A Stick Day

False alarm

2006-10-12T10:42:00.000-04:00

But BOY was it an alarm. I had the heebie jeebies all night, thinking of that roasted squirrel. I abandoned my big plans for grilled Hawaiian chicken breast sandwiches (and they were going to be GOOD I tell you) and made Mark go pick up dinner.

This morning I caught a sidelong glance at the opened grill cover and the color didn't look quite right. I asked Mark to go take a closer look (because my eyes cannot safely behold grossness) and he discovered that the dead squirrel was in fact a paper towel SOMEONE had used to clean the grill and had left in there. We suspect that person's name rhymes with khan. And then he TOUCHED it, even though it had once or twice been mistaken for a dead squirrel. (He's crazy, I am telling you, this is proof.)

The paper towel, even close up, really does look like it might have been a dead squirrel. I guess those are the hazards of grilling in the dark. I'd grill earlier but I can't turn on the grill by myself and Mark doesn't get home till after dark.

"AAAHH! AAAH! AAAH! AAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

2006-10-11T21:06:00.000-04:00

. . . . is pretty much exactly what I said when I went to flip my chicken breasts on the grill and noticed that there was a charred (and thankfully dead) squirrel rocking in the hangy-grill-steamer basket attached to the lid.

I guess that's the hazard of grilling in the dark. And the hazard that comes from doing any kind of outdoor activity. I think I am swearing off going outside.

SHUDDER

Yes, we got a(nother) dog

2006-09-27T10:47:00.000-04:00

Meet Maccabee, a rescue discovered at Pet Smart this past Sunday. I have recently been thinking that my kids are old enough to enjoy an indoor dog, and Fozzie is really not a good indoor dog. So when we walked into Petsmart I remarked that if I found the ABSOLULTELY PERFECT DOG that it would be an OK time to bring one home.

I saw the puppies out front and was halfway pleased that it was immediately obvious that none of them would be good for me and family. Clearly I have some modicum of judgment. While Mark did his shopping, Connor and Grandma and I walked around looking at fish and bunnies and birds. Then I saw the other collection of rescues. There were lots of cute puppies and dogs. One of them was a spaniel mix climbing spastically out of his 4 foot high cage. There were a couple of smaller terriers that were very excited about everything. Then there was a shiny black 10-month-old lab mix calmly wagging his tail and looking around at everyone.

I went over to say hi and he nudged my hand with his nose and wagged a little harder. Hmmmm. I asked if I could visit with him and they put us in a training area. This dog is just so sweet! He never jumped on me, he only licked my when I put my face close and made kissy noises, and it was just a little polite lick. When Connor screamed and ran up to him he just wagged his tail and touched his nose to Connor's face, he didn't even flinch. Same when Chase flailed at him.

He happily let me touch him all over. It was weird because while I have always said that I'm not afraid of dogs, having Fozzie makes me really nervous about touching a dog's nose or paws.

I spoke at length with the people who had rescued him from the pound - apparently the whole litter was super calm as well. He's house trained, obeys the sit command and was fostered in a house with cats and kids and had no problems.

I visited with the dog for a while longer and decided that I just had to take him home. He reminded me of a calmer version of Goose or Salvador (although he seems to have more than the 11 brain cells Goose had.)

So he's been home a few days now and I'm waiting for the bad-habit-shoe to drop. So far it hasn't, though. He's interested in the cats but when Tilde swatted at him he backed down. That's the worst thing that's happened. Well, I've been keeping him away from Fozzie which means I have to walk him, and he enjoys going outside so we end up going outside a lot more than we need to, but I imagine I'll get used to his potty habits. (But this dog seems to have an iron bladder!)

The dog seems to like me best for now (but then again I'm the one home all day with him and I protect him from Connor-the-Terrible). He likes to follow me around and lie quietly in whatever room I'm in. He does bark a bit but not too much at all. He does play with Connor, and he is sooo tolerant. Twice yesterday I had to physically stop Connor from dragging the dog around by his tail. He enjoys dog treats, but is NOTHING AT ALL like Fozzie with food. When you give him his meal he grazes a bit then moves on to other things. It's freakish to have a dog that doesn't inhale food! He does sit close to me when I eat - apparently his last owner fed him off their plate. Also he jumps on furniture. He's not that big (50lbs) and he's clean so it's not the end of the world but I'd rather my animals stay on the floor, so I'll be breaking him of that habit (I hope.)

So since we've had him he's had no accidents, he hasn't chewed on anything but his own dog toys, he hasn't woken me up ONCE, and he's been nothing but calm and sweet and great with the kids. I even feel comfortable leaving Chase on the floor with the dog walking around - he seems very aware of his surroundings, unlike Fozzie who is oblivious to anything but his objective.

I am going to leave him alone in the house for the first time today. I'm curious to see how that goes, but I think it will be ok!

I am so thrilled with him =)

We are still waffling about whether we will change his name or not. Maccabee was what he came to us as, but I'm sure we can get him used to another name easily enough. Maccabee isn't quite my style of name, though, so I'm open to suggestions.

Our pets' names to this point:
Cassie (cat)
Killer (cat)
Tilde (cat)
Fozzie (dog)
Goose (dog)
Chinook (ferret)
Fat-Elvis (ferret)

For this one I've considered
Macbeth (Mark doesn't like it)
Escher
Deefer (like D-for-dog, suggested by Grete and I like it! It goes well with Connor)

We may end up keeping Maccabee - it has a nice ring to it and it's so cute when Connor says it. But open to suggestions in any case!

More dog pics here.

Silly quiz

2006-09-27T10:45:00.000-04:00

Your results:
You are Obi-Wan Kenobi

Obi-Wan Kenobi		72%
Chewbacca		63%
Qui-Gon Jinn		59%
Princess Leia		58%
Lando Calrissian		57%
Mace Windu		55%
Yoda		54%
Luke Skywalker		53%
Han Solo		52%
Padme		51%

You are civilized, calm, and
have a good sense of humor,
even when those around you don't.
You can hold your own in a fight,
but prefer it when things
don't get too exciting.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)

Click here to take the "Which Star Wars character are you?" quiz...

Two random tidbits

2006-09-23T22:12:00.000-04:00

First, my mom won a silver medal in the Senior Olympics in Nevada. In show girl dancing OF COURSE, you had to ask? GO MOM!

Next, Weird Al wrote a song just for Mark. I think all that know him will agree. I also think all that know him also know he'll have this memorized in a week.

New TV

2006-08-26T12:35:00.000-04:00

I have decided I am excited about the new TV season. I got a preview of the pilot of Studio 60 from Netflix and loved it. Ah, how I missed Sorkin. The show seems to address topics even more near and dear to his heart than West Wing, so I hope for a good long run.

The DVD also had a preview of Kidnapped, so we watched that as well and it was excellent. Tense and the characters were immediately likable. Between those dramas and my beloved House, The Office and My Name is Earl, I think I'll be set for must see TV for this season. I really hoped Kidnapped can keep up the pace!

Mark vs. Fozzie - Fozzie wins!

2006-08-24T08:15:00.000-04:00

Last night Fozzie woke me up. Not an entirely odd thing except that Fozzie doesn't sleep in the house any more. Perhaps I'll write an entry about my history with dogs sometime soon, but suffice it to say that he got banished outside because he's aggressive towards me for some reason and it's not nice to fear for your skin when you have to get up to visit the potty in the middle of the night.

Well he wasn't being aggressive (it is completely random) he was just saying hello by slobbering all over my legs. Mark is responsible for getting up in the middle of the night for anything quick-ish because he has far less trouble getting back to sleep after doing stuff. So I nudged Mark, suggested that Fozzie might have pushed the door open between the backyard and the garage, and asked him to put him back outside.

I drifted back asleep until Mark crawled back into bed and said that the door was not in fact pushed open. This made me wake up a bit because it was puzzling. The dog has escaped once or twice before, but even if he had gotten out of the fence, how did he get into the house?? I don't think he knows the code to get to the key in our key-safe. Mark explained that the garage door was cracked a bit because a cat was outside. (Crack for a cat, crack for a 100lb dog are almost the same)

Well I was in danger of waking up entirely so I grunted and tried to get back to sleep, but I had this nagging worry that the Fozzie problem wasn't as solved as it could ideally be.

Sure enough, when I wake up the next morning, Fozzie is lying on the front porch. (I'm glad he doesn't feel the need to flee or terrorize the neighborhood when he escapes.) I asked Mark what his solution to the problem was, and as I feared it was to "close the garage door." I guess his theory was that Fozzie would be thwarted in his attempts to get into the house and slobber on us, give up, and go back into the backyard, but alas, no.

In fact what had happened was the ninja-yard-guys forgot to close the fence. Everything is back to normal, hooray!

OK, who's responsible. . . .

2006-08-22T12:34:00.000-04:00

Samuel L. Jackson called me to encourage me to go see Snakes on a Plane. Unfortunately I wasn't home so I missed the first bit of his message. (Apparently he likes the sound of his own voice so much that he doesn't pause for answering machine messages.)

I would think it was a really funny general marketing campaign but since he knew Mark's name I'm kind of suspicious.

Vegas odds have Sean at 14 to 1.

Improv Everywhere

2006-08-12T08:04:00.000-04:00

The Improv Everywhere troupe makes scenes!! Essentially it's a group of people that perform for unsuspecting audiences with funny results.

Check out the top rated missions. I also loooooved the Suicide Jumper and Romantic Comdey Cab.

LJ picture strangeness

2006-08-02T07:20:00.000-04:00

This Latest 30 LJ set of pictures makes me think that Brian from "Spaced" is based on a real person. I don't know whether to be afraid or just bemused. The Evidence.

OK, I couldn't resist posting some more.

This one made me laugh.

So did this one. It reminds me of the Ninja School we had by our old house. The only way the Ninja School could have been funnier was if it had been Ninja School for Christ.

Does this bouquet toss feel fixed to you?

Great weekend

2006-07-30T19:48:00.000-04:00

I had a really great weekend! Sean babysat all day Saturday so that Mark and I could see a movie (we saw "Devil Wears Prada" because it got good reviews and I was in the mood for uplifting) and go to dinner. (FOGO!!!!!!)

It was a great day out. I don't think Mark and I have made it out for both dinner and a movie since before Connor was born. I enjoyed the movie a lot, but it's the kind of formula I like. Streep was really amazing, I loved her, and I worked for someone scarily like her character back at MATRA. (We even called her the Dragon Lady.) I had a really good relationship with my dragon lady, though, because I was awesome at my job. ;)

Sunday Julie and company came over for a good visit. Connor is SO CUTE when Miguel gets here. He shrieks in joy when he sees Miguel. We had some grilled pre-marinated Costco chicken, it turned out very nicely for the effort it took to prepare it and it was even cheaper than ordering pizza. (But not much cheaper than making Costco pizzas, as Sean pointed out.)

The surprise of the weekend, though, was the show "Who Wants to be a Superhero." Naturally we had to watch this reality show, Mark being superhero-obsessed, but to my shock it was very cute and well done. People make up super hero personas and then compete for the opportunity to be immortalized in a comic. Stan Lee is the host/judge. Since they obviously can't test on how high a building these people can leap, they are testing their superhero morality. I heard the concept but wondered how they could really do that. Well I was totally delighted with what they did on the first episode, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever had a passing interest in superheros.

It's showing on Bravo, USA and Sci-Fi channels, so if you have cable you can probably still catch it.

Clutter Books

2006-07-28T21:48:00.000-04:00

Every so often I clean off my desk and eye with irony the Clutter Control book I keep buried under all my clutter. Even if I manage to get the rest of my house under control (and it is getting better slightly faster than the continents are drifting) I don't think I'll ever have a clean desk. I know, I know, Flylady's 5 minutes a day would do wonders for me, but what I have on my desk is controlled chaos. I just need to have some things right there in front of me, every attempt to have a place for everything has failed miserably.

But I guess it's OK, there are worse things in life than a messy desk.

Maybe I do need some brain work

2006-07-28T14:07:00.000-04:00

So Mark accidentally got me this Nintendo DS video game for my birthday: Brain Age.

I didn't want this game, I wanted another one. But Mark overheard some conversation about it (probably with my mom) and had it in his head that it's what I wanted. To make matters worse, when we got the package from Amazon, he ripped it open right away so we couldn't return it, so we got stuck with it.

Since we own it, and I figure my brain really CAN use a workout, I decided to see what it had to offer. What I mainly discovered is that the way I say "blue" is not recognized by the voice recognition software, and that means my mental age is about 70. Yay!!

It gave me some exercises which I did ok on. I did another set of tests and it said my mental age was 34. Cool, I thought, that's exactly right!

When you do the setup for this thing, you enter your name and birthdate. It excitedly congratulated me on my upcoming 34th birthday. "That's odd," I thought, "this is my 35th birthday." I thought I'd entered the wrong year or something, but then upon thinking about it, I realized that for the past year I've thought I was a year older than I actually am. I don't do the math every time someone asks me my birthday and obviously I got a little off at some point.

So for my birthday I get a whole extra year. Go me!

An excerpt from one of the Amazon reviews that made me chuckle:
"I would suggest sticking with "Brain Age." I've noticed an improvement in my handwriting since using "Brain Age," and I've observed my brain age drop from seventy to a twenty-three over one month of training. While some scientists have issued reports attempting to disprove Kawashima's studies, I believe that regular use of Brain Age has kept me sharp over what has been a lazy summer vacation. For example, I've always been horrible with telling people how many syllables were in a phrase, but now I nail that specific exercise every time after a month of training."

Random things

2006-07-27T13:42:00.000-04:00

This person's kitchen table has a more up-to-date blog than my kids do:
Some dude's kitchen table blog.

The more time goes by the more I am glad that Ralph Reed lost the election. I'm glad that someone that is supposed to be a leader of the Christian Coalition can't show corruption and not suffer for it. The voters gave him a big thumbs down in the recent election for Lt. Governor.

I have wondered this a lot lately and finally took the moments to look it up. Mushrooms are in fact good for you, not just empty calories. I wonder how fried mushrooms in horseradish cream sauce stack up. ;)

I took a Harry Potter personality test and it told me I was most like Hagrid. I can live with that. The Quiz.

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

Few minutes of last 30 LJ fun

2006-07-26T07:48:00.000-04:00

This is what I think when I look at LJ last 30 pictures. (Sean forwarded me the picture of Killer's twin)

Jawa Jedi training

Oh no, I just realized this jewelry makes me look like a pimp!

First drawing is for Gnomtrix and Jae (sucks to live in a country with no AC. MOVE!). . . .

Woman thinks. . . .My husband is sick, but isn't his doctor HOT???

This should be titled "Stuff on Sean's Cat"

Connor in class (he is a lining-stuff-up fool)

I always knew those Olympians were mutants. . . .

Neat optical illusion

2006-07-24T12:45:00.000-04:00

Thanks, Sean. =) (You have to click on it to get it to work. Even stranger.)

This wins for oddest picture of the day

2006-07-20T10:49:00.000-04:00

I realize the day is not that far along, but I can't see any other picture contending. Odd Picture.

This is from the 30 pictures link I gave earlier. Feel free to try to compete. Only innocuous pictures, please, I don't want to corrupt my mom or something.

Ooh ooh ooh!

2006-07-20T09:41:00.000-04:00

I just noticed that today's IMDB movie of the day is An Ideal Husband, one of my all-time favorite movies. As I lovingly reviewed the IMDB information on the movie I JUST noticed that one of actors - Jeremy Northam - played Mr. Knightly in Emma, another of my favorite movies (that I have just finished watching over the past few days.)

If I were S, I would have watched one movie BECAUSE of the other but I'm slow on the uptake with actors and whatnot.

Incidentally, Jeremy Northam seems to have no major life tragedies, although he is unattached after dating a few models, so hopefully he just never wanted to get married.

EDIT: By the way, no one else in my circle of friends really loves this kind of movie the way I do, so I have no one to recommend movies to me. If you like period pieces (not even sure that's a pre-requisite) with witty banter, meaningful looks and romance then let me know what else I should watch!

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"

2006-07-20T09:18:00.000-04:00

I couldn't be more excited about this show. I LOOOOOVE Aaron Sorkin's writing, and it was a sad sad day when he left West Wing. It went from being one of my favorite shows ever to being unwatchable. It was painful. I don't know if it truly became awful, or if it was just so much worse by comparison that I couldn't get over it. Normally my standards for TV dramas are pretty low, though - most are at least watchable.

Anyway, I'm super excited about this particular show not only because it's Aaron Sorkin, but also because it's about something that I have a vague interest in - I enjoy seeing behind the scenes of almost anything and I have an almost train-wreckesque fascination with the entertainment industry. Soo many people would sell their souls to make it big in Hollywood, yet I know of so few "stars" that seem to have happy healthy lives. The only exceptions I've been able to come with are possibly Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. They seem to have it together. The rest seem to have issues with lots of divorces, drug or alcohol problems, eating disorders, that kind of thing. Maybe it's selective attention, though.

Also, did you know that if you're amongst the super-rich, your chance of a yachting-related death positively SKYROCKETS???

Sorkin could write a show about the most boring thing imaginable, like, say, a sports show, and I would still love it. So counting the days 'til Studio 60!

My Bug Man

2006-07-19T19:30:00.000-04:00

The same guy has been spraying this house for bugs since I was in 4th grade - that's 25 years now! He used to play video games with me and my brother when we had our original Nintendo. He was a teenager and much better than we were. I just think it's interesting that we've had this bug man longer than most people are ever married at a stretch. =)

One more thing about being sick

2006-07-17T16:10:00.000-04:00

It's fun to do something you do every day and see how much worse you are at it just because you're sick. I feel semi-alert at the moment, I wouldn't have a problem getting in the car and driving, yet, I do much much worse at the little quickie games I sometimes play on the computer, like this one:

Helicopter Madness!! (My own title)

So maybe I shouldn't drive after all. =)

Sick AGAIN???

2006-07-17T13:02:00.000-04:00

I'm sure it has to do with having a toddler, but I've been sicker in the past year than I have been in forever. Everyone except Mark is once again enjoying a snotty cold. Poor little Chase - I can't give him any cold remedy for another month.

Anyway, the topic of the day is pain medications. I take Tylenol, the extra-strength kind. I don't really understand the idea of normal strength Tylenol. Perhaps it's because I only rarely take any meds at all. By the time I find the bottle, I am hurting pretty badly, the pain is the focus of my life, and I want it gone. Not just a little gone, but as gone as possible. Tylenol doesn't cause me to get tired or make me hyper or anything like that, so I always take the full dosage allowed. I can't imagine the circumstances under which I'd prefer normal strength Tylenol. I think I just have this magical point before which, a pain can be ignored and after which, it consumes me and must be eradicated!

I just saw a commercial on TV for Tylenol - it was a woman cautioning against exceeding the recommended dosage. That got me to thinking about the instructions on my box. Take 2 pills every 4-6 hours, not to exceed blah blah blah.

I happen to know a person or two that weighs 100 lbs, and a person or two that weighs 250lbs+. Is it for real that the same dosage works exactly the same in two people of such different sizes? I guess it's POSSIBLE. After all, even though I have more background in biology than the average American, it is still pretty much magical the way pain medication works in my view.

If a larger person should in fact have a higher dose, I wonder why they don't give weight ranges on bottles, like they do for children's medications. Maybe drug manufacturers fear that people that weigh 100 lbs are not very good at reading charts and so they'd accidentally take the 250lb person's dose. I can only assume that their current dosage (if it is weight dependent) assumes very small people to prevent small people from ODing just by following directions.

Ah well, in any case, my 2 pills seem to do a decent job for me so I'm not too worried about it, just curious.

Today is the day

2006-07-15T10:43:00.000-04:00

The other day S. mentioned that he was going to start a diet THIS INSTANT. I was impressed. I always have plans to start a diet, but it's always about 3-5 days from now, which have a way of never arriving. What happens is before my magical day arrives I go to the store, and there's a nice box of donuts on sale or something; such a good deal I can't resist! And then there's no sense in starting a diet when there's a box of donuts in the house going to waste.

So my big plan is to go to the store and not buy any junk. We'll see how it goes.

Oh My

2006-07-14T14:24:00.000-04:00

There's a news story today about a woman who used fertility techniques to get pregnant and ended up with triplets. The idea of taking care of three babies at once makes my brain hurt. Taking care of my two seems overwhelming at times (at least by about 6pm most nights.) But the news story is that less than three years after having the triplets, she got unexpectedly pregnant with QUADRUPLETS. EEEEEEEEEK! In the news story, she didn't sound like she was joyous at this development. I am not sure I would be either. Their one bedroom apartment probably seemed crowded even before the new arrivals.

The news story: 7 babies!

In other news, I am recently obsessed with this (POSSIBLY NOT WORK SAFE) URL:
30 pictures

It is the last 30 images uploaded to livejournal. You can click on the images to access the journals. I am telling you, I don't know what people did pre-internet to release their inner-weird.

What I am thinking about today

2006-07-13T10:18:00.000-04:00

I'm excited because the new season of Project Runway starts soon (already started? TiVo makes life weird). I have no interest in personal fashion, I have no sewing skill, I have no craft skills what-so-ever, and yet I am fascinated with this show. I think it's because I enjoy the personalities of artists. For this reason I get more sucked into this show than the general competition shows out there (Survivor, Amazing Race, Big Brother) I am giving Treasure Hunters a shot but it's not on my must-see list yet. My favorite reality shows are Runway, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, and The Apprentice. The Apprentice doesn't involve artists, but at least I can relate to the problem solving they have to do on that show.

Hopefully Runway and SYTYCD can hold me over until my beloved comedies come back in the Fall. Ah, The Office and Earl, how I miss you!

What I was thinking about yesterday

2006-07-13T09:42:00.000-04:00

I had lunch with S (to borrow his super-impenetrable mechanism to keep real identities secret) at Sweet Tomatoes yesterday. We have developed a theory that we will always run into someone famous, based solely (I believe) on the fact that we once saw Jennifer Nettles there. Since the Nettles-sighting, we have been kind of celebrity-lite, although we do seem to always see at least one older woman evidently dressed as a clown. There must have been some period in fashion when it was OK to wear two different types of plaid at the same time.

This time, we hoped to run into Clark Howard, a consumer rights advocate that lives in Atlanta. Before heading to lunch I made a stop at Costco to buy my weekly fortune of diapers and formula, and I'm fairly certain that I saw Clark Howard in a different aisle. I don't think he needs more attention than he has so I let him shop. Plus, I'm not sure what I would say. I thought about it a lot as I shopped (in case we ended up next to one another in line) and I settled on "I love the sense of humor you have about your cheap-ass self!" Although I'd probably leave out "cheap-ass."

Not enough time, so I start something new!

2006-07-13T09:22:00.000-04:00

I decided to create a blog for myself so that I wouldn't feel so constrained by the ostensible purpose of the Mightybear blog - to share what's going on in the life of my kids. As much as I love my kids, they do not share my love of, for example, video games (yet) and reality TV shows, and I need an outlet.

2006-07-12T18:22:00.000-04:00

This is a test, this is only a test.