Dickens' Pet Raven

Charles Dickens had a talking pet raven named Grip and Dickens was devastated when the bird died from eating a paint chip.  According to Dickens, the bird's last words were "Halloa, old girl!"

Dickens had his adored pet stuffed and it now resides in the Rare Books Dept. of the Free Library of Philadelphia,

Pro But Not Con

You can't name a folder "con" in Microsoft Windows.

For Your Hairy Brownies

I really like shopping on Amazon, finding it easy to get certain items without having to buy from the local Walmart and most of the time the items are less expensive on Amazon than they are at that "discount" store.

Earlier this evening, I searched for an unfamiliar candy ingredient I saw in a recipe and saw the sale listing on Amazon in the search results.  After finding out what it was, I started looking at other items on Amazon, checking out the related items.  I looked at baking chocolate and saw a high rating for a Ghirardelli brownie mix.  I glanced at the price,  reasonable enough for four boxes of premium mix, then scrolled down to read the comments when I saw a "Frequently Bought Together" listing.  Amazon has these under nearly every product and usually there's a price break when the items are purchased together.  It's mostly like items or those that compliment each other, such as several pieces of microwave cookware or a set of knives with a sharpener.  I couldn't understand this pairing, though:

Everything's Going Swimmingly

This is one of the 1625 videos (at the time of this post) from the YouTube channel of Mary Thomassen. Most are of the same nature; Ms. Thomassen swimming underwater, doing headstands and flips, holding her breath, etc. Others are of her lying in her yard or on the beach, usually with her dog included in the video.  To be fair, I have only viewed a few dozen of the vids; others might have her opining on politics or global climate change...but I doubt it. (and didn't care to look through them all to see)

I subscribed to the channel for a while, but in my quest to cull the unnecessary distractions from my online life, I've decided to un-subscribe.  I think she's attractive and she has a sexy, appealing figure, but... I'm not sure why I subscribed in the first place.  I found her videos fascinating for a short while, and no, it wasn't her bikini-clad body or how there were often near- "wardrobe malfunctions", but it was my own curiosity as to just WHY she made the videos.

I could be wrong, a distinct possibility, but I think it's a need for attention.  I don't want to insult the woman, but what else could it be?  I was also curious as to the attraction for her subscribers - and judging from the comments, they're mostly male. Her videos aren't pornographic, just slightly risqué. It's hard for me to understand why they're so popular; you can find porn ANYWHERE on the 'net (well, not on YouTube, although you CAN find more revealing videos than these), so I can't chalk her popularity up to simple prurient interest. What I'm trying to say if people watch them just to get sexually aroused, then there are many more avenues for that sort of thing.

Like I said, a mystery to me.

Thanks to YouTube's "recommended videos", I found that she's not the only one with these sorts of videos.   Oh well, I guess it's a fetish like many others.  Goodness knows I've found out there are quite a few fetish folks with frequent hits on THIS blog, such as the ones for Gay Irish Dwarfs and My Sister's Feet.

So, bye-bye Mary.  Keep on swimmin', but don't hold your breath waiting on me to understand your motivation.

creepy

creepy – adjective, creepier, creepiest

1. having or causing a creeping sensation of the skin, as from horror or fear: a creepy ghost story.
2. that creeps: a creepy insect.
3. Slang. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a person who is a creep; obnoxious; weird.

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This isn't the word of the day from our feed in the right-hand column. No, it's the first word that came to mind when I viewed the following video.

(and I was spot-on with the word I chose, according to the definitions)

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The Death Report

118,724 People

The Death Report

Strange Hearts

I've been playing another 100 game set of Hearts (see: Half-Hearted) and just finished a game.  It started out with one of my computer opponents "shooting the moon", then I did, then another one did, all in the first three rounds.  I had never seen that before and was thinking "What if the fourth player does it, too?"

A little way into the hand it sure looked that way, but I couldn't be sure;  the computer game isn't like a real-life Hearts game where you can see who is catching all the tricks.  I've sometimes passed up the chance to catch a trick and ruin one of my computer opponent's chances of shooting the moon because I've been so intent upon my own hand I don't pay much attention to which of the others are catching the most tricks. 

This time, however, I was being a little more aware because of the extremely rare way the game was playing out.  Even though I didn't have to, I caught a trick in the middle of the hand and after it was over, saw that it was indeed going to be the fourth-in-a-row shoot the moon...and that it caused me to lose the game by a single point.

Choose Your Own Title

For this post because I sure can't think of one.

This reminds me of a video game I used to play on Nintendo.

Time Travel - THE BUSEY ZONE

A few weeks ago, one of my cousins posted a quote from Gary Busey on her Facebook wall.  I forget what the quote was, but it was one of those bits of wit from Busey that would make someone think he's a deep thinking philosopher.

Now, I like Busey...at least, I've liked his acting.  I can't say that I know the man other than his appearances on Celebrity Apprentice or Celebrity Rehab or the interviews with him.  He did a lot of drugs earlier in his life and had a horrible motorcycle injury that resulted in him nearly losing his life and in which he sustained some severe brain trauma.  I don't want to diss the man, but I will admit I think he's a strange duck. 

I noticed he had a YouTube channel and I subscribed to it.  I haven't watched all of his posted videos, but I've watched a few and started a few more but didn't manage to finish them.  Most of them are along this vein.

Bossaball

Bossaball mixes soccer, volleyball and gymnastics on trampolines and inflatables.


Spam payback: webmaster@antalyacelikgroup.com abuse@antalyacelikgroup.com mail@antalyacelikgroup.com

Magical Mind Reader

Catfish Grabs Pigeon

Chick Bank Robber

There's stupid and there's STUPID.

Robbery suspect brags on YouTube



And this was posted under the vid:

I just stole a car and robbed a bank. Now I'm rich, I can pay off my college financial aid and tomorrow i'm going for a shopping spree. Bite me. I love GREENDAY!

I hope she gets a light sentence for stealing a car and robbing the bank, but I'd give her life for adding the Green Day tune to her video.

Canned

Fredric Baur, the man who designed the Pringles can, was cremated and some of his ashes were buried in one of his patented containers.

Bite Me!

At first it started buzzing around my head, but I was engrossed in something on the 'net so I just waved my hand and shooed it away.  When it started flying close to my eyes, I stopped what I was doing, picked up a flyswatter and waited for it to land so I could get my revenge.  It landed my my bare thigh and I saw it wasn't a fly, but a huge mosquito.

When I raised the swatter to whack it, it flew off.  I still wanted to kill it, especially with the recent West Nile cases in Texas.  I waited for the mosquito to land again and it did, very near to where it had landed before on my leg.  I slowly raised the swatter but it took off again.  It didn't fly but a few inches when it landed again on my leg.  I lowered the swatter and watched.

It kept taking off and landing, looking as though it was testing the best place to stick me.  It tried at least a dozen times until I finally swatted it with the flat of my hand.  It was just a smashed piece of flesh on my palm, but there was no blood in it, so I must have not been bitten. 

I got to thinking that it was the first mosquito I had seen this year and then started remembering all the times over the last few years when I was with people who complained of being bitten but I never was bothered. I recalled a time when I stopped by the side of the road to take a photo of a horse in a nearby pasture.  To get to the fence, I had to go through a damp ditch with knee high grass and swarms of mosquitoes making a cloud around me...but not being bitten. (I was more concerned with a rattlesnake in the high grass, to be honest)

I haven't been bitten by a mosquito in years and years and I don't think it's a coincidence that the last time I suffered mosquito bites was before I developed diabetes.  A quick Google search shows plenty of folks with diabetes complaining they are bitten more than their non-diabetic friends, so that's probably not it.  Still, there's got to be some reason.

Maybe I'm TOO sweet for the skeeters, both literally and figuratively.   Nah, that can't be it.  The mosquitoes probably avoid me because of my sour disposition.

Clip art courtesy of DailyClipArt.net

Hot Problems - Double Take

Lindsay Lohan's Changing Face

25 Years in 60 Seconds

Having a Ball

Professional Wrestler Sues Opponent After Losing Testicle From Match

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Ouch. At least he still has one. OTOH, he'll never be able to again say "Y'know, I'd give my right testicle to...."

Suing for the loss of a testicle - can't say as I blame him. I'd just hope the lost testicle wouldn't be introduced as evidence in court.

He's really lucky to have lost just the one. If he'd lost both, he would have to change his name to "Sue".

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I published this post, then remembered a joke. (What else is new?)

Two cannibals had ambushed a missionary and had sat down to eat him. One cannibal told the other that when they ate someone, he always got less because the other ate faster and always got to eat more. They agreed to start on opposite ends and finish off in the middle.

Munching along, the cannibal who started at the head said to the one who started at the feet: "Hey, how's it goin'?"

"I'm having a ball!" replied the other cannibal.

 "Slow down!" admonished the one cannibal. "You're still eating too fast!"

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Update: saw this article earlier: Crocodile bites off man's testes
Ouch.

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Wow, my internet has been going nuts here lately. Just saw this recommendation when I was shopping Amazon earlier.

3B Scientific W43014 Testicle Self Exam Form

Wonder if they know something I don't?

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Wow, too strange. Got this email earlier:

INTERESTING OBSERVATION

1. The sport of choice for the urban poor is BASKETBALL.

2. The sport of choice for maintenance level employees is BOWLING.

3. The sport of choice for front-line workers is FOOTBALL.

4. The sport of choice for supervisors is BASEBALL.

5. The sport of choice for middle management is TENNIS.

 And....

6. The sport of choice for corporate executives and officers is GOLF.

THE AMAZING CONCLUSION:

The higher you go in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls become.

Problems With Quiz

Well, more problems than I usually have. Most of the other can be chalked up to stupidity and ignorance, but this one is beyond my control. (come to think of it, so are the others) I tried to play earlier and got an error message that said the site was too busy. I waited an hour, then tried again and got this one:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, root@localhost and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

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I hope that the clock isn't still running after one of my first attempts; it looked as though the site was going to load, but after about a minute or so, I gave up. I will try again later.

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Update: I just tried again and got this error msg.:

FunTrivia.com We are temporarily experiencing some technical issues. Please try back later. We apologize for any inconvenience!

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I had gone to Down or Not just to make sure it wasn't something on my end. When it said FunTrivia was up, I went to the site (not ToTG Trivia Tournament) and got the above msg. Oh well.

In Case You Missed It

You'll have another chance this evening. Thank goodness for P.M., huh?

At eleven minutes and eleven seconds after eleven o'clock on November 11, 2011, it is:

11:11.11 11/11/11