What a Days!

Today is National Peanut Butter Day. It's also National Compliment Day.

My loyal readers of this blog are all nicer than a peanut butter sandwich. (not sure if you're all nicer than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, though)

And I'm sure you don't stick to the roof of the mouth, either.

hurdy-gurdy

hurdy-gurdy [hur-dee-gur-dee, -gur-] noun, plural hur·dy-gur·dies.

1. a barrel organ or similar musical instrument played by turning a crank.

2. a lute- or guitar-shaped stringed musical instrument sounded by the revolution against the strings of a rosined wheel turned by a crank.

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A LONG time ago I was at a junior high dance, sitting in the corner, watching my recently ex-girlfriend dance with all the other guys. Between songs, she came over to me and said I should cheer up, that we would always be friends, that she loved me but wasn't IN love with me and that I should ask her best friend to dance. (her best friend hated me, and not only had an ugly personality, she was ugly on the outside, too).

I told her that I would, but had forgotten my hurdy-gurdy machine.

Moonlighters

I'm sitting here waiting on the Cowboys/Redskins game that starts at noon and the host on the online radio show I'm listening to said it's raining in Washington, DC.  I decided I'd go look at the DC area weather radar to see if it looked like it would rain all through the game. (I'm thinking Dallas would benefit from good, dry weather because I think the offense will have to carry the day)

On the website header there is a graphic with two of the station's weather people;  I didn't pay them much mind at first, but after looking at the radar, my gaze was drawn back to them...they looked familiar:

The graphic says their names are Doug Hill and Jacqui Jeras, but I'm not so sure.

I think it's Joe Biden and Gwyneth Paltrow moonlighting at their second jobs.

commix

commix com·mix [kuh-miks]
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
to mix together; blend.

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If you didn't keep your Batmans separate from your Supermans, your comics would commix.

I'm a Wiseguy

I'd say inscrutably so, but that would be racist in this context.

You Are Wise

You are very curious about the world, and you like to investigate as much of it as you possibly can. You enjoy being alone, and the role of detached observer serves you well. You enjoy sitting back and making observations. You are very perceptive and thoughtful.  You shy away from intense experiences because there's plenty of intensity in your own mind. You may have a very sharp mind, but you also have a gentle heart. You treat everyone with compassion and kindness.

The Japanese Art Test

That Casserole Was Mean to Me!

I was going through recipes I had saved this month and saw one for a breakfast casserole that sounded good and thought I'd like to try some day.  I did a search on my computer and found a few more I had saved and thought I'd see if there were others on the 'net that I might want to save in my vast collection. (I save recipes, it's one of my online hobbies)  I saw this recipe at Allrecipes.com, a favorite site of mine: Christmas Breakfast Sausage Casserole.  The recipe got a four and a half star rating out of five, so I thought I'd skim through a few of the reviews.  The breakdown of the reviews was this:

Out of 1,230 ratings, 841 cooks loved it, 272 liked it, 85 thought it was OK, 22 didn't like it and there were 10 cooks who wouldn't eat it.

No matter how you look at it, that is overwhelmingly positive for the recipe.  Sure, there were a few who were tepid in their praise, some who didn't like it and only a few - less than 1% -  who thought it dreadful.   I rate movies on IMDb sometimes and even the movies I love only get a "9" because I've yet to see a movie that didn't have at least a few flaws in it.  I haven't made the casserole, but I would probably be one of the "liked it" crowd because I'm fairly conservative with my ratings of anything.  (That said, I'd give my ex-wife a "7" considering everything, probably a little generous but I wouldn't want to give her a rating of average - she deserves a few points just for putting up with me)

Now, I understand about ratings; it doesn't matter what it is, movies or mayonnaise, taste is subjective and varies from person-to-person. What I have problems with are people who like something but castigate others for not liking it.  It's one thing to dislike...say, a politician, but they should list the reasons, not dislike someone just because they're fat or skinny, black or white, gay or straight.  I'm a Cowboys fan and many people despise the QB Tony Romo, but they don't give a valid reason regarding his play on the field but criticize him for wearing his cap backwards or for dating starlets (before he was married) or liking to play golf. (they didn't want him to take ANY vacations or have a life outside of football.  Silly.)

One of the "most helpful critical reviews" on the casserole was by "hurryup2002" - posted on Oct. 12, 2003, which made me wonder if they were pleased with how fast the year had arrived or still wanted to gripe about the slow pace of time.  Anyway....

They posted this:  "This is not nice at all, i just want to let people know that this is the worst thing ever. It is not nice."

That's one of the criticisms that I wrote about above;  no reason for disliking it, no honest reason why they didn't like it, not that the cooking time was too long or too short or the bread was overly soggy w/ putting it in the fridge overnight, that it was too salty/not salty enough, etc.  No, "it is not nice."

Not nice?  When they put it in the oven, did it scream at them "Hey dummy! Set the oven at 350, not 400 deg.!" or "You don't need to eat me...you're a little too fat as it is." "Don't add any salt, the sausage has it already, ya doofus!"  ???

What's not nice is my review of that review, but it was nicer than I wanted to be.

poetaster

poetaster po·et·as·ter [poh-it-as-ter] noun

an inferior poet; a writer of indifferent verse.

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Poetry I never could master
My poems were quite the disaster
The art of the rhyme
Never was mine
Which makes me a poetaster.

blighter

blighter blight·er [blahy-ter] noun British Slang.

1. a contemptible, worthless person, especially a man; scoundrel or rascal.
2. a chap; bloke.

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Having "met" several fantastic British friends since I've been online, I've increased my vocabulary of British slang. (I've also become used to the way certain words are spelled with a "u", such as labour, humour, etc.) I've even adopted a few of the more humourous humorous ones, like "chuffed" (proud) "shattered" (extremely tired), "tosser" (an unpleasant person, although it can also be used in the same context as "wanker" - go look that one up yourself), but I haven't adopted saying "Blimey" yet.  I might start using "blighter", though because I know plenty of them...but not well enough to know if they're wankers or not.

The Blame Game

Just before I went to bed late last night, I saw an article about Michael Douglas where he blamed his throat cancer on - 'scuse me - oral sex.  He didn't blame it on smoking, drinking or poor diet.

It made me think about it all day today.  Even if there was proof of what he said caused it, I don't think I'd announce that fact to the world.  I finally came to this conclusion:

Just like most liberals, he wants to put all the blame on bush.

Feet Trivia

I was reading an email trivia newsletter and this was one of the questions:

Name the things that you can wear on your feet that begin with the letter 'S.'

The answer was:

Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, snowshoes, stockings.

I'd say smell, too.

droll

droll [drohl] adjective, droll·er, droll·est, noun, verb,

adjective

1. amusing in an odd way; whimsically humorous; waggish.

noun

2. a droll person; jester; wag.

verb

(used without object)

3. Archaic. to jest; joke.

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I've been told my humor is droll. I've been accused of purposely trying to rile people up on message boards. I'm not afraid to take a chance. It's a fact that I'm getting on up there in years, so...

I'm an old, bold, droll troll.

Hung Up On Spam

I had high hopes that this wasn't spam, then realized it had to be someone who didn't know me...at least not in "that way".

They Love Me, They Love Me Not

If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.
- Ronald Reagan

(image courtesy of The Caricature Zone)

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Sorry, RR. That's impossible.

To be fair, I bet he said this before internet forums and msg. boards were even dreamed of.

Yolo, Fomo, or Jomo?

You Are YOLO

Your personal motto can best be described as YOLO: 'You Only Live Once' You believe in living large and taking risks. You don't want to regret what you didn't do in life. You have a great attitude, and you live consciously. You don't want to waste a single moment or day. Unlike how most people imagine YOLO, you aren't a reckless partier. You just live life on your terms. You are open and eager to experience new things. You often get others to consider new possibilities. You're the type who may change the world without even trying to. Just by being you, you inspire others and create greatness.

Are You Yolo, Fomo, or Jomo?

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I'm a little suprised I was YOLO, esp. after this post.

OTOH, maybe there's something to it.

Hacker Typer

Want to amaze your friends and/or freak out your enemies? (or vice versa?)

Keep Hacker Typer bookmarked on your computer and when you want to amaze/freak out someone, just open it up and tell them something like "I'm going to hack into the Pentagon." and start flailing away at the keyboard like a drunken monkey.  It doesn't matter what you type, just do it furiously with purpose (maybe bite your lip in an absent-minded way to mimic concentration) and the screen will look like this:

Wanna REALLY freak 'em out?  Tell them you've discovered a back door to Facebook and you're going to change their profile to read something creepy like "I'm a BIG fan of Charles Manson" or that they love Justin Bieber...unless they're really a fan of him, then what's really creepy is that they are a friend of yours.

Hacker Typer

Rank & Worth

ToTG is ranked #8,129,387 in the world according to Website Value. Different sites give some vastly different rankings, especially in what ToTG is "worth". ValueMyWeb says it's worth $499. I've said this before, but I'd sell it for that in a New York minute except I was taught to never cheat anyone.

webArbiter says it's worth $457. Yeah, right.

Alexa, arguably the most accurate of these types of statistics sites, globally ranks ToTG #23,066,013.

SiteWorthGet said this blog was worth $139, but after updating the information, its worth is now $109. I shouldn't have updated it, it depreciated 21 bucks with one mouse click! (the content has greatly depreciated over the years since I started it, too)

OTOH, siteworthchecker had a value of Zero, Zilch, Nada...the big ol' goose egg $0 but after an update, it is also now valued at $109. To be honest, that still seems way too a little high.

I guess "worth" means the potential for earning, but since there's no ads, that's a moot point. The numbers vary from site-to-site, but most of the estimated earnings come in at around ten bucks/month. It's worth $10 to me to NOT subject my few readers to ads and the potential for trojans/viruses many hosted ads contain not to mention the invasion of privacy and all-around annoyance of them.  I use various ad block extensions on my Firefox browser and I expect many others do as well.  If not, they should. 

urlpulse says it's ranked #28,916,047 in the world, #2,318,571 in the United States and worth $855.30, with a value per visitor of .03 cents.

Maybe that's why this blog doesn't get many visitors or many people leaving their two cents worth. I'd hate to post here too and have my worth devalued by 2/3.

I'm a Fun Guy!

Did you know mushrooms are more closely related to animals than to plants?

Mushrooms are fungi, which are actually genetically closer to animals than they are to plants. Scientists use a genealogical path known as the Tree of Life to trace the evolution of living organisms, and they have determined that fungi share a common ancestor with animals and are completely branched off from plants.

Fungi and animals have to turn to external sources for their food sources, but plants can produce their own nutrients. Chitin, a complex carbohydrate responsible for cell wall structure, is a molecule that is shared by fungi and animals but is not found in plants.

wiseGEEK: Learn Something New Every Day

Not For Sure

What these two similar clip-arts are.

They're either models at a Dodge truck show...



Or Princess Leia and her momma.

(lecturing her about why it's not a good idea to have an affair with her own brother)

And The Oscar Goes To...

Me! Best Documentary for "The Mating Habits of Roughnecks".

"I'd like to thank all the little people out there who I stepped on or slept with  along the way! Thank you, thank you! You like me, you really like me!"

You Would Win Best Documentary Feature

You are very curious about and engaged with the world. Everyone is interesting to you. You have a variety of interests, and you delve into them quite deeply. People are impressed by the sheer quantity of stuff you know, and you're learning more every day. However, you're not just informed. You also are very informative. You share what you know in an engaging and interesting way.

What Would You Win an Oscar For?

A Head's Up

Thought I'd better let everyone know a week in advance:

I won't be posting on this blog on Feb. 29th or the 30th.

It's a religious holiday for me.