Sunday Sloth Success

I just finished up the Bing homepage quiz;  today's (Sunday) topic was sloths and I got five of five correct.

Not really surprising, considering both the subject and I have a lot in common. (except I'm not covered in algae - at least not as much - nor do I have sloth moths living in my fur...none that I've seen, anyway.)

(click graphic for larger view)

Just Isn't The Same

I had disconnected from the 'net, then decided I'd go get my Bings Rewards points and opened up my Edge Browser (a few more points by using it) and got this error message.

It's good to know they think the web isn't the same without me, but to be truthful, I'm not the same w/out the web.  I've tried all kinds of vices in my life and never had any real problems with any of them (except smoking) and could lay them down, quit without much problem, but I really do miss the Internet when I am offline. 

I *might* have a problem, but AFAIC, it's not all that bad.  Sure, I waste a LOT of time online, but it's not ALL wasted;  I can honestly say I learn something new each and every day.

Besides that, all my friends live in my computer!

I know I'm not "connected".  Otherwise I'd have friends named Big Pussy, Sal and Tony and a good no-show job for the local waste management concern.

My Bing Birthday

My sister sent me a card and an Amazon gift card and some of my Facebook friends wished me a Happy Birthday...but only after my sis posted a birthday message. (I don't have my birthday listed) I've also received birthday wishes from various newsletters and a few coupons in the mail from companies such as American Spirit and Black & Mild.  I'm pretty sure tobacco companies aren't concerned about me having MORE birthdays, y'know?

I opened up Bing early this a.m. to finish up this month's searches to get points for my regular $5 Amazon Gift Card, a great prize for reading and searching online, something I'd do for free anyway, and I saw this, pretty cool:

I clicked the "Make a Wish" link and got this:

I hope my wish comes true because I wished I'd win the lottery. I DID win $8 on last night's Powerball drawing, but I'm hopin' for a little more.

A few tens of millions more, actually.

Halloween Search Engine War!

Bing vs Google! Not sure if it's a "war" but I suspect it's a "one-upsman" type contest.  I've almost always enjoyed Google's "doodles" they do for holidays (except when they ignore Veterans Day) and wish they'd do more things like this.

The Bing page has an amusing, interactive tribute to Halloween; move your cursor around the page and click on objects around the room. I won't give too much away, but there are tributes to the movies Poltergeist, Halloween, The Amityville Horror, Friday the 13th, The Shining and Psycho. (Clickable arrows in circles will appear after revealing the things and take you to search results for those classic horror flicks.)

I've begun visiting Bing every day I can;  not only do you get points for visits, but also for using the search engine and for clicking around their fantastic interactive page.  (if I happen to miss a day, there's the option of cycling back through the previous week's offerings.) I've got quite a few points in my bank, but haven't used any of them yet; most of the redeemable items are entries into contests, usually for some Microsoft product.

Google's tribute isn't movie-related, but has some nifty interactive "games"; the ingredients you put into the witch's bubbling cauldron determines which one you'll go to, with a cool little flashlight-like application that will "scare you", another with a coffin-type "cups" game, a "whack-a-mole", only with hands erupting from a graveyard and others. (but I've already forgotten the rest)

Bing / Google

Devils Tower

Earlier I had written about Bing and their fantastic, changing daily page (see post just under this one) and was pleased to see Devils Tower as today's theme.

If you're a movie fan, you'll immediately recognize it as the geological feature which is prominently featured throughout Close Encounters of the Third Kind, one of my favorite flicks.

Here's a montage of most of the scenes from the movie with Devils Tower in them...or recreations of same, painted in water color, modeled in dirt and chicken wire, even sculpted in mashed potatoes!



There's not that many places in the world I want to see before I die, but Devils Tower is on my bucket list. I'd love to include it in a tour of that part of the country, also visiting Mount Rushmore, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (Custer's Last Stand)and Yellowstone National Park.

Bing Things

I've recently started using Bing more often, not especially for search (because Google pretty much does it the best) but because I enjoy their daily interactive and informative page, and also because they give points for visiting and for clicking on links. Granted, it looks like it would take a LOT of points to get anything worthwhile, but I imagine that after a year of using it the points would add up to some substantial total.

My problem is this: often, when I visit the page, I see I'm not signed in. The good thing is all I have to do is click on the "Microsoft account" and I'm signed in. (I certainly don't want to connect my Facebook account to anything!)

What I don't understand is how I'm not signed in, but it knows my points total. Strange. What's really odd is this next message after signing in:

You HAVE to click "Continue" to continue because if you don't, you're sent to a blank white page.  Yeah, that's great;  if I wanted a blank white page, I could just go to Google and put in "blank white page". -snicker-  I know enough HTML to where I could make my own!

Another reason I started using Bing is that Google is doing away with the iGoogle home page I've used for years.  I really liked it; I had various modules on it for news and local weather and sports headlines along with a Gmail preview.  I don't understand what's up with Google lately;  they did away with file storage a couple of years ago which was annoying but understandable, but their explanation for ending Google Reader didn't make much sense. 

The 'net is great, but it's also frustrating as hell.  It could also be described as fleeting, because as soon as you get used to something, get it the way you like it, it changes or disappears.