Blue Skies

You Are Grounded

You don't need a lot of excitement. Your best days are calm days. No one works as hard as you do. But you're not complaining - you love hard work! You are especially in tune with children and animals. You have a sixth sense when it comes them. You have little respect for people who aren't practical. You think it's important to be down to earth.

The Blue Skies Test

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If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I love to post these quizzes. I often comment on how accurate they are...and sometimes how woefully wrong. This is one of the latter cases...at least as "no one works as hard as you do."  That might've been true 20 yrs. ago, but now?  Hah!

Anyway, there's the quiz and here's a related video:

Blue Skies - Ella Fitzgerald

Laura in the Kitchen

One of my favorite YouTube recipe feeds is Laura in the Kitchen.  Oh, I know what you'll say after you watch the video below...she's good lookin', that's why I watch her.  Well, it doesn't hurt that she's pretty, but that's not the reason I watch her.  I find her engaging and her recipes are things I think I'd like to make.  I also like it that her videos aren't perfect, she misspeaks now 'n then and recently has started including bloopers after the main video is over.

She also has a makeup/style channel, as well as one with her husband, but I'm not in the least bit interested in either of those.  No, I'm here for the food!

The pretty face is a bonus, though.

I think that, with a little more polish, she could have her own show on the  Food Network, maybe even displace the resident Italian hottie.

I'm Havin' a Beer

Yep, I'm drinking a beer on this hot Sunday night in Texas.  Now, that might seem a strange pronouncement to anyone who doesn't know me or isn't part of my family, but it's a rare occurrence.   I so seldom drink, I can almost say I don't drink at all, but while I was at the store yesterday I passed by the beer/wine cooler and I thought "A beer would taste pretty good."  They didn't have any Icehouse *, my preferred beer, and I looked at a bunch of other brands, but knew Coors was the next most tolerable to me, so I bought a couple of cans.**

*The date on that post is June 3, 2012 and that was the last time I drank any beer, so it's been two years and nearly a month since I last drank.  I dunno 'bout you, but that qualifies as "seldom drink" to me.

**A couple of cans, but they're BIG cans, 24 oz., which is two regular cans in one.

To be honest, the first sip or two tasted really nice, but now I'm remembering why I don't drink much. It's already going to my head and since it's so warm tonight, the chill has already gone from the can. (The little bars that are supposed show the cold temperature and be blue have already turned back to silver.)

I guess I'll chug it on down while it's still cool.  Here's lookin' atcha! (crosseyed)

Deepest Hole

The deepest hole in the world is the Z-44 Chayvo well just off the island Sakhalin, Russia. Completed in August of 2012, the well reaches a total depth of 12,376 meters (40,604 ft -  over 7.6 miles), surpassing previous records, including that of the Kola Superdeep Borehole.

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I've worked on some deep holes, some being very close to the Bertha Rogers well in Oklahoma.  One well was so deep near the completion depth, I was told the drill bit never got off bottom when making a connection due to the stretch in the drill string (pipe). A length of drill pipe is approx. 30 ft. long, so the fact that steel can stretch so far under its own weight is mind-boggling...at least it is to me.

99 Luftballoons - Nena

From Wiki: "99 Luftballons" (German Neunundneunzig Luftballons, "99 balloons") is an anti-nuclear protest song by the German band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. An English version titled "99 Red Balloons" written by Kevin McAlea was also released after widespread success of the original in Europe and Japan. The English version is not a direct translation of the German and contains a somewhat different set of lyric.

The Wilhelm Scream

The Wilhelm scream is a film and television stock sound effect that has been used in more than 200 movies, beginning in 1951 for the film Distant Drums. The scream is often used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explosion.

Most likely voiced by actor and singer Sheb Wooley (his biggest music hit was Purple People Eater), the sound is named after Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 western in which the character gets shot with an arrow. This was its first use from the Warner Bros. stock sound library, although The Charge at Feather River is believed to have been the third movie to use the effect.

The effect gained new popularity (its use often becoming an in-joke) after it was used in Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Indiana Jones series, Disney cartoons and many other blockbuster films as well as many television programs and video games.

(source:  Wikipedia )

Childish Names

You Like Names That Are Forgotten and Quirky

You prefer a name that's offbeat, but not made up. You like old names that are interesting sounding... You're the type to name someone after a historical figure or fictional character. You like a name that has a story behind it... hopefully spanning many generations. Some female names you might like: Annabel, Clementine, Evangeline, Genevieve, Isadora, Lorelei, and Ophelia. Some male names you might like: Cornelius, Dexter, Ferdinand, Gilbert, Jude, Rafael, and Ulysses.

What Kind of Names Do You Like?

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Not so sure I'd agree with the results of this quiz exactly, and I've never had children, but I do think I'd prefer (or would have preferred) an old-fashioned name instead of something trendy. I always thought that, if I ever did have a daughter (and got to name her) I'd like to name her Bonnie Irene, after my two grandmothers.  That's fairly old fashioned, wouldn't you say? Then, along with the first letter of her last name, I could give her the nickname "BIDdy". Her mother, whoever that might have been, probably wouldn't have gone for that, but...what the heck, huh?

I like the female names in the results, but I'm not fond of any of the male names.  Cornelius reminds me of one of the primates in the movie "Planet of the Apes", Dexter brings to mind the serial killer in the series of the same name, Ferdinand makes me think of a pig...or Magellan.  Gilbert is one half of the comic opera writing duo, Jude makes me want to say "Hey!", Rafael was a painter or saint and Ulysses could be either an epic hero or a Union general. 

No, thanks.  I'd just as soon name him "Sue".

I try to not post too many quizzes, at least not more than one per "page" of the blog, but I had noticed the last one had slipped off into the archives and figured I could post another one. (in lieu of any actual significant content, as is the usual case with this blog)  Earlier tonight I had received my weekly newsletter from StrangeCosmos.com and read this article:

Why Do Celebrities Give Their Kids Strange Names?

Sage Moonblood, Moxie Crimefighter, Pilot Inspektor and Moon Unit: Are these proper nouns from a bad sci-fi novel? Perhaps. They are definitely the names of the children of Sylvester Stallone, Penn Jillette, Jason Lee, and Frank Zappa, respectively.

Indeed, when it comes to celebrity baby names, it gets weirder than Apple (the daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin). Just yesterday, Mariah Carey announced that she and husband Nick Cannon have named their newborn twin son and daughter Moroccan and Monroe after the top floor of her apartment building and Marilyn Monroe, respectively. Why, oh why?

According to name expert Laura Wattenberg, the author of the name guide "The Baby Name Wizard" (Broadway, 2005) and founder of babynamewizard.com, unusual baby names are likely to emerge among populations of creative people.

Read the rest of the article.