New Trivia Games

Earlier today I received an email from FunTrivia.com, the website that hosts our daily trivia game:

Hello ToTG,

FunTrivia.com, the World's Largest Trivia Site, has grown enormously over the past year to include over 1.5 million trivia questions and 90,000 quizzes. Here are some of the NEW things at FunTrivia:

- We are happy to announce the opening of a new game, Mind Melt! Can you match definitions, opposites, and relationships between words faster than your opponents? Come try it out:

http://www.funtrivia.com/mindmelt

- Over 150 Challenges, each with unique goals and awards. Enough here to keep you entertained for a decade!

- "Who's the Expert" - A new topic is chosen each hour and the best scorer crowned.

- "Fill me In" - new hourly game that asks you to fill in the blank.

- "Who Am I?" - new daily game that tests your knowledge of famous people.

- Create a team and play team trivia every day!

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That sounds interesting, and I will probably check out the new games, but it was another bit of info. in the email that threw me for a loop:

Your achievements to date have advanced you to Trivia Level 1.
So far you have played 1 of 90,000 quizzes and scored 130 points.
You are ranked #5510 of the 10,000 players in your class (class 168).

That means I'm just a little bit above average. That's all I really want out of life, to be just a little bit above average.

Flu Square Dance

Choose your partners, one and all,
Aspirin, Advil, or Tylenol!

Now fling those covers with all you’ve got,
One minute cold, the next minute hot,

Circle right to the side of the bed,
Grab the tissues and Sudafed.

Back to the middle and don’t goof off;
Hold your stomach and cough, cough, cough.

Forget about slippers, dash down the hall,
Toss your cookies in the shower stall.

Remember others on the brink;
Wash your hands; wash the sink.

Wipe the doorknob, light switch too,
By George, you’ve got it, you’re doing the Flu!

Some like it cold, some like it hot;
If you like neither, get the shot.


via Bits & Pieces

The Music Died

But ToTG lives!

I have a Google alert set to notify me of any mention of this blog on the 'net. I get a notice every day because Google frequently indexes this site and each post brings an email, but sometimes other websites give us a mention.

Nowble.net is the most recent site to give us a link; it was our post about Buddy Holly and we were mentioned along with other sites and blogs that wrote about the anniversary of Holly's death.

inexorable

inexorable \in-EK-sur-uh-bul; in-EKS-ruh-bul\ , adjective;

1. Not to be persuaded or moved by entreaty or prayer; firm; determined; unyielding; unchangeable; inflexible; relentless.

---

When I ask a woman out, she suddenly becomes inexorable.

Check Your News IQ

At the Pew Research site:

(click graphic for larger view of my score)



Check your news IQ

vivify

vivify \VIV-uh-fy\ , transitive verb;
1. To endue with life; to make alive; to animate.
2. To make more lively or intense.

---

I didn't know this word, but I used to know a Vivian.

She was pretty lively.

Win Vampire Candy!

at: Recipe Lion



We are excited to give away Necco Twilight Sky Bars to 5 lucky readers. Modeled after the original Sky Bar, the Twilight Sky Bar is a chocolate bar split into three distinct sections, each with its own filling. In each Twilight Sky Bar you will find peanut butter, creme and caramel. The bars are decorated to fit the theme of New Moon, the second film in the popular vampire series, and each wrapped is adorned with one of the title characters from the film.

Enter contest

billet-doux

billet-doux \bil-ay-DOO\ , noun;
plural billets-doux \bil-ay-DOO(Z)\
1. A love letter or note.

---

It's been a long, long time since I got - or sent - a billet-doux.

I suspect there's a correlation between the two.

Could it Be I'm Falling in Love - The Spinners

Dedicated to Alison and Chester on their first wedding anniversary!

Expressive = "Naughty"

You Are an Expressive Valentine

When you are into someone, you really want to show it. You know... physically show it. So while Valentine's Day dates are nice enough, you believe that the fun part comes later - behind closed doors. You are a very intense person, and you are a total free spirit. You don't have any hangups. Whether you've been with your sweetie for a few days, a few months, or a few years, you're ready to have the most passionate night possible.

What Type of Valentine Are You?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

One More Kiss, Dear - Vangelis

From the movie "Blade Runner"

99 Roses

A little late for this Valentine's Day, but next year you can purchase this bouquet of 99 roses at Laos Flower for "only" USD $240.78.

Valentine's Day - Mean Kitty

My Love is Warmer - Petulia Clark

cupidity

cupidity \kyoo-PID-uh-tee\ , noun;
1. Eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice.

---

In that case, every day in Congress is Valentine's Day.

Those Were the Days - Mary Hopkin

Shoot the Puppy

The object of the game is to NOT shoot the puppy.

I tried and tried but could not win the game.



Shoot the Puppy

Note: No real puppies were hurt in this game. -snicker-

Shuttle Silhouette

In a very unique setting over Earth's colorful horizon, the silhouette of the space shuttle Endeavour is featured in this photo by an Expedition 22 crew member on board the International Space Station, as the shuttle approached for its docking on Feb. 9 during the STS-130 mission.

Image Credit: NASA

Shuttle Silhouette

Dinner for One

You Gotta Have Heart

And here all this time I thought mine was made of stone

---

You Have a Loving Heart

You believe that love can solve all problems. Love is powerful, and people definitely need more love in their lives. You love easily and you love often. You believe in unconditional love. Your heart is giving and willing to put it all on the line. You aren't afraid to show some love. Your love life is deep and fulfilling. Because you are able to love so easily, you get a lot of love in return.

What Kind of Heart Do You Have?

Blogthings: We'll Tell You The Truth... Someone Has To!

GOP Valentine's Day Cards

Send your favorite right-winger a Valentine e-card with GOP Valentine's Day Cards.

Some are very clever; here's one of my favorites:



(I couldn't use the Al Franken one as an example; it makes me nauseous to think of him or hear him, much less look at his ugly mug)

I suppose the recipient doesn't necessarily have to be a right-winger; you could send one to a liberal you want to infuriate.

GOP Valentine's Day Cards

Snow Business - Simon's Cat

quietus

quietus \kwy-EE-tuhs\ , noun;
1. Final discharge or acquittance, as from debt or obligation.
2. Removal from activity; rest; death.
3. Something that serves to suppress or quiet.

---

We need to put the quietus to Congress...all of 'em.

Not Anywhere Near on the Beer

See how good your knowledge is of cheap beer slogans.

Mine wasn't too good. (but I know my cheap beer!)



Cheap Beer Quiz

Valentine's Day Countdown

45 Valentine's Day countdown banners for you to use on your homepages or in your email signatures. They use a CGI script to automatically count down the days remaining until Valentine's Day. To use the countdown banners, simply cut or copy the code from the textbox below the banner of your choice and paste it in the html of your webpage or email signature. The days remaining will change each night at 12:00am central time.

Buy, Buy American Pie

Iran Threatens Israel

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has, yet again, threatened Israel with nuclear weapons.

To be honest, I'm not very worried.



Ever notice you never see these two guys together? I think they're the same person.

tarradiddle

tarradiddle \tair-uh-DID-uhl\ , noun; also taradiddle

1. A petty falsehood; a fib.
2. Pretentious nonsense.

---

This would describe Congress and this current administration except that their lies aren't so petty.

Reflections of Fear

via Bits & Pieces (the title, anyway)

And You Can Cut Me

You Are Cheese

You are rich, distinct, and completely addicting. You make everything a little bit better. People love you - pretty much no matter what you do. No one can ever get enough of you. You are indulgent and over the top. You don't hold back or do anything half way. You are a comforting and soothing person. You are accepting and you don't judge. People turn to you in times of need.

What Dairy Product Are You?

Blogthings: Take a Quiz. Annoy Your Friends.

T-Shirt War

Amazing Origami

From Izismile.com:

The amazingly small but perfect paper creations in these photos are the work of Origami artist Mui-Ling. They are so tiny that they can only be appreciated through close up photography. She is truly a genius at what she does.



Any mention of origami reminds me of our dear, departed friend Brad. He would've liked this.

View the rest of the amazing art.

Baba O'Riley - The Who

Was a little bit disappointed in The Who's Super Bowl halftime performance last night, but then I thought about how it sounded pretty good, all things considered. I cut my musical teeth on The Who and would prefer to remember them at an earlier time.

Heck, I prefer to remember myself as a much younger guy.

There are already YouTube vids of the legendary group's performance from last night, but I like this one from several years past:

I Need a Date

I get a LOT of free samples because that's one of my online "hobbies". Many of the freebies are subscriptions to various magazines; I get, on average, at least one magazine a day. Granted, many of the magazines that are complimentary are not mainstream magazines, but they're free and it's something to read, two of my favorite things.

A few of the magazine subscriptions are fairly well-known ones, though, and even if I don't do much more than glance through them, I make sure they go to someone who will appreciate the reading material. For example, I get several parenting-type magazines along with some geared to children's activities. I give those to a young lady at a local business and she enjoys reading them when business is slow. I also take many to the people who own a laundry here in town and they put them out for the folks who are waiting on their clothes to get done. Sometimes I take them to the hospital where they'll be distributed through the waiting rooms.

I've also taken magazines down to the Good Samaritan (a charity organization sponsored by several local churches), but I have to "censor" what I take there. Just the other day I had a box full of magazines I had already read, plus quite a few of the type I don't read. I drove to Good Sam's, but when I picked up the box, the magazine on top was a "Cosmo" and there were several sexual references on the cover. (How to please your man in bed!, like that) I took that one out of the box, but the next magazine was a Robb Report; I enjoy the magazine, but it's really targeted at the ultra-rich. (On the cover of this particular issue was a Rolls Royce)It didn't seem right taking something like this to a charity, so I took that one out, too. There were a few more magazines like those two, so they went to the laundromat instead.

Back to "I Need a Date".

Not for sure why I get them, but I also get several agriculture-type magazines. I can recall signing up for one, but not the others. One of the bad things about free stuff is the spam it also brings. I have a special GMail acct. for signing up for freebies and have the mail fwd. to my main email address. With some rules, that usually filters out most of the newsletters. Some manage to get though and earlier today I got an email from Nutrient Management:



They want me to attend the Summer Manure Expo but I'd really hate to go alone. Who knows, it might be interesting and besides all that, it'd be the perfect metaphor for my love life.

Gettin' Old But Still Gettin' Down

ignoramus

ignoramus \ig-nuh-RAY-mus\ , noun;
1. An ignorant person; a dunce.

---

I just hate it when they describe me.

I Failed the Idiot Test

Or maybe I passed

The Idiot Test

My Quiz Result: It is sad to say that you may not be an idiot.

Take this quiz: The idiot test

Take more quizzes, myspace quizzes and fun quizzes on personality, love and other topics.

---

Edit: To tell you how much of an idiot I am, I originally titled this post "I Failed he Idiot Test".

The Church in the Wildwood-Tennessee Ernie Ford

I like the Charley Pride version, too, but it wasn't available f/ embedding.

Happy Sunday to All!

Déjà vu All Over Again

Issued by The National Weather Service
Amarillo, TX
3:46 pm CST, Sat., Feb. 6, 2010

... WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON...

A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON FOR ALL OF THE TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA PANHANDLES.

* TIMING: FREEZING DRIZZLE CAN BE EXPECTED SUNDAY MORNING WHICH SHOULD TRANSITION TO A MIXTURE OF LIGHT RAIN... LIGHT FREEZING RAIN... SLEET OR SNOW BY SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THE PRECIPITATION IS THEN EXPECTED TO CHANGE OVER TO ALL SNOW SUNDAY NIGHT. THE SNOW SHOULD END BY MONDAY EVENING.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS: 3 TO 5 INCHES POSSIBLE ACROSS THE SOUTHERN HALF OF THE TEXAS PANHANDLE... WITH AROUND 5 TO 7 INCHES EXPECTED ACROSS THE OKLAHOMA AND THE NORTHERN HALF OF THE TEXAS PANHANDLES. AT THIS TIME... THE TRACK OF THIS WINTER SYSTEM WILL PLACE THE HEAVIEST SNOW ACCUMULATIONS ACROSS THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN OKLAHOMA PANHANDLE... AND THE NORTHEAST TEXAS PANHANDLE.

* OTHER IMPACTS: LIGHT FREEZING RAIN... FREEZING DRIZZLE OR SLEET MAY OCCUR PRIOR TO THE SNOW DEVELOPING SUNDAY NIGHT. ANY ICE ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN LIGHT.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT SNOW... SLEET... OR ICE ACCUMULATIONS THAT MAY IMPACT TRAVEL. CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS.

---

Radar ain't showin' nuthin'. Looking off to the west, there's some weather just past the mountains in N. Mexico, some precip comin' up from the gulf that's now south of Dallas, maybe those two systems are gonna meet right here. Hope not, they've said this same thing four times in the last month, but they were right twice.

I've got some problems with my Weather Channel Firefox add-on; it keeps popping up the "tool tip" warning even when my mouse isn't hovering over the icons. I might have to check out another weather add-on, but other than this latest glitch, I've really enjoyed having it. It must be something to do with the latest Firefox update - I've had quite a number of updates since then.

---

Sussed out the Firefox "bug". It was a setting I had enabled, to give me weather updates every ten minutes. Duh. Yep, they kept popping up, every ten minutes, just like I had it set. Double Duh.

See the "Idiot" post above.

On Launch Pad 39A

On Launch Pad 39A

The space shuttle Endeavour is seen after the rotating service structure is rolled back on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010 at Launch Pad 39A of the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Endeavour and the crew members of the STS-130 mission are set to launch on Sunday at 4:39 a.m. EST.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Shame Shame Shame - Shirley & Company

With Pepper Gravy and Mashed Potatoes

You Are Chicken Fried Steak

You are bold and fearless. You tend to think big, and that includes eating big. If you're going to go out to eat, then you're going to order something amazing. No salads for you! You live in the now. You figure the future is uncertain, so you might as well just make the best of today. You don't believe in moderation or holding back. You just go for it, consequences be damned.

What Kind of Diner Food Are You?

Blogthings: We're Not Shrinks, But We Play Them On the Internet

---

And today is Chicken Fried Steak day at the local United Supermarket deli. I'm thinkin' 'bout goin' and get me one. I might even take a picture and post it.

It really is my favorite meal; on Saturday mornings I've been known to go get breakfast at Granny's Cafe -two eggs over easy w/ hash browns and a chicken fried steak, biscuit and gravy; then for a late lunch I'll go to United and get the special. I've even gone back to the grocery store for supper and got the chicken fried steak again. (Usually take-out in the evening; that way I can bring it home and devour it w/out having to watch my table etiquette)

Of course, all that gravy and potatoes nearly puts me in a coma, but at the time it always seems worth it.

---

UPDATE: Went to the store, the line to the deli was too long, so I shopped a bit. I came back, the line was longer, but they had a huge pile of fresh-cooked steaks. After debating my hunger about standing in line, I wound up getting a broasted bbq chicken (NOT one the herb/southwest/garlic versions, ugh) I ate the legs, and plan on eating some more of the bird for lunch, then making me a nice chicken noodle soup from the remains.

I'm sort of glad the Beej doesn't like chicken like the old B did. My old cat would've smelled the chicken as soon as I pulled up in the drive...not kidding. Just saying "chicken!" could set him off.

5 Layer Mexican Dip

5 Layer Mexican Dip

via Start Sampling

Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 3 hr 10 min
Makes 4 cups or 32 servings,
2 Tbsp. each



Ingredients:

1 can (15-1/2 oz.) refried black beans
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese
3 green onions, sliced
1/3 cup sliced black olives
1 tomato, chopped

Directions:

MIX beans, chili powder and cumin; spread onto bottom of 9-inch pie plate.

TOP with layers of remaining ingredients.

REFRIGERATE several hours or until chilled. Serve with tortilla chips.

Source: Kraft

eschew

eschew \es-CHOO\ , transitive verb;
1. To shun; to avoid (as something wrong or distasteful).

---

About the only things I eschew are internet trolls and pineapple.

Enter Sandman - Metallica

From the Monsters of Rock concert, Moscow '91

Happy Birthday RR !

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

- Ronald Reagan

---

I had issues with some of his policies and actions, but I also think President Reagan was a good president, one of the greatest of the 20th century.

He would have been 99.

Image courtesy of

Rainy Mood

I don't know about anyone else, but it seems to me I can hear music as well as a chorus singing in bits of the loop. I know there's some birds singing, but I don't think I've ever heard birds singing in the rain. (maybe it's the genekelly bird?)

I hope it's not those voices in my head.

Rainy Mood

Singin' in the Rain

I'm With Will

Image courtesy of

We're (hic) #1!!!

From USA Today comes lists of the most/least drunkest cities in the US.

Fresno tops the list of the drunkest cities, but since Texas has three in the top ten, that should put us in the lead, at least in the "team" portion of the competition.

Here's the list of most drunk cities in the US:

1. Fresno, Calif.
2. Reno, Nev.
3. Billings, Mont.
4. Riverside, Calif.
5. Austin
6. St. Louis
7. San Antonio
8. Lubbock, Texas
9. Tucson
10. Bakersfield, Calif.

Read the rest

More to the Story

What did you think when you saw the above photo?

I bet it wasn't what really happened.