Monthly Archives: January 2011

The Next Blog Button: WTF?

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At the top of most blogger screens you see a button that says “Next Blog”. What thee heck is that? I always thought you could just go randomly to another blog, and thought it would be a good way to find new good blogs, but I think something is very definitely wrong with the Next Blog button.
It seems to me, with limited experimentation, that after the third press, the button is locked onto a theme. In other words, you press the Next Blog button once, you get a random blog, press it again, random blog. Third press, you get what seems random, but every press after that takes you to a blog with something in common with the third press blog. For example, I have found that if I hit a Spanish language blog on the third press, all the blogs after that are in Spanish. If I hit a religious blog on the third press, all the blogs after that are religious.
Just now, I pressed the next blog button, the third press was an art blog. After that, they were all art blogs. I would like to know how that works. Is there a reason it’s like that?I like to find new blogs to regularly read. The Next Blog button seems worthless.
I have found the best way to find new blogs is to go to YOUR blog, look at the blog of someone who commented on one of your posts, look at the blog of someone who commented on one of their posts, Look at THAT persons blog…. and so on and so forth. I call it Bloghopping. I posted a post about it before but can’t find it now.
I posted a thread in a Blogger Help forum about this, but haven’t heard anything back…. Not losing any sleep over it.Try it! – Try pressing the Next Blog button and let me know how it works for you. Do you agree? or is it just me?

The American: Very Poor Movie

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Last night we watched the movie, The American, starring George Clooney. I was saying it was the “Worst Movie I Ever Saw” afterwards, but The Wife said it wasn’t bad enough to be called the worst.

In the beginning of the movie, George Clooney is walking through the snow with a girl, and (for reasons we never know) a sniper fires at him (them). Clooney offs the sniper, and tells the girl to call the police. As she’s walking away, he shoots her in the back for apparently no reason.

Clooney is a hit man, and his boss is calling him about “the drop”. At the same time, another woman (the Hitgirl), calls Clooney to get a special gun made because she’s an assassin too, and needs a special weapon for a special job.

While Clooney is making the gun for the Hitgirl, he falls for yet another girl. He likes her enough that he calls his boss and says he wants out of the hitman business. The boss says OK, and then (coincidentally?) calls the Hitgirl to kill Clooney.

Soooo, as the Hitgirl is getting ready to shoot Clooney (with the very gun Clooney made for her), the boss man shows up and apparently shoots her. Then the boss man inexplicably tries to kill Clooney himself. The whole thing is pointless. Why would the boss save Clooney then try to kill him? If he wanted the Hitgirl dead, why not wait till after she shoots Clooney and then shoot her? I didn’t think the Boss wanted the Hitgirl dead, because she was supposed to do this big job later on, which we, the viewers, never know what it is.

Everything I have told you happens in the beginning, and near the end, of the movie. In between is nothing but drawn out boringness. The Wife and I kept thinking something was about to happen but it never did. And, I haven’t told you the ending, so in theory, I haven’t ruined the movie for you.

I would not recommend this movie, but if you DO want to watch it and tell me what the heck the point is, be my guest.

It's Saturday

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Front Porch
We went out for Sushi last night. It was great!
Yesterday here it got windy and cold again. The wind is almost straight from the north. It’s kind of odd, because in the afternoons you can go on our front porch, and it’s shady and windy and cold. You can go on the back porch, in the afternoon sun, with the house blocking the wind and it is HOT HOT HOT!
I’m glad it’s the weekend, except the wife has to work today. I’m going to try to fix her busted phone while she’s at work.
Back Porch

25 Years Ago, the Space Shuttle Exploded

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It was 25 years ago the space shuttle Challenger blew up. I remember the day. I was working at the US Naval Observatory. We came back from lunch a little late and the guys who stay and watch TV in the kitchen were still watching TV, which was weird, usually the TV is on at 12 sharp, off at 1 sharp. We asked what was going on and were told the space shuttle blew up. At first I thought the guy was making a bad joke, but there it was, on TV, again and again.
One of my first thoughts was about the first teacher going up on the shuttle. Christa McAuliffe. Her death made it twice as bad, I think. She was a civilian. I can imagine her as one of my grade school teachers and feel like I kind of knew her.
Christa McAuliffe

In the back row from left to right: Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, and Judy Resnik. In the front row from left to right: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ron McNair

Below is a video from YouTube.

25 years ago… I was almost exactly half the age I am now. It doesn’t seem like 25 years, it doesn’t seem like too much time at all.

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

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Last night I went to sleep at 8:30, knowing it was a mistake, but unable to do anything about it.
 I woke up at 1:40, and have been awake ever since. This behavior tends to snowball, because today, I’ll get tired, and want to go to bed early, perpetuating the cycle. The only thing to do is punch through today and stay up till a proper bedtime.

Wordless Wednesday

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Everybody else does it! Why can’t I? Actually I just can’t think of anything to post.
Today I’m getting the wifes car inspected, then going to help a future client upload a webpage. That is looking like the extent of my day.
I was looking though my pictures, looking for something to upload, this was about all I could come up with.

Also, 13 seconds of terror: Mascot Eats Cheerleader!

Tuesday pictures

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These are some snorkel pictures from yesterday. The Wife and I went to the beach, and while she was hard at work on her tan, I went out for a snorkel at my favorite reef.
Lobster

Baby Turtle

Needle fish

Blue Tang

Grunts

What happens when you die?

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I have wondered what happens to your blogs and accounts like Facebook when you die.

When I read a blog regularly and suddenly the owner quits posting on it, I worry that they died. Even when YOU skip a few days, I start worrying. How would I know? If you are a sporadic poster, I might worry later rather than sooner. But if you post every day, and miss a day, the thought crosses my mind….

I know someone who DID die, and his FB account is still there. People write creepy things…. Like “happy first birthday in heaven”. That just bugs me out!

If I died, would the only thing people here would notice is I quit posting?

My pessimism make me laugh, “Ooops, So-And-So didn’t post today, they must be dead!” It’s not reeeeally like that, but a brief flash of “hope they’re OK” the first day, Then after time, I figure they probably just quit their blog. (But the little voice always whispers at the end “or maybe they died!”)

Has anybody ever thought of this besides me?

Fone Pix

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Cruise ship at night
Closer
Iguana house down our street
The other window of the same house.

I wrote a po-eem:

I hooked my phone up to my machine,
to the one that has Ubuntu

From my phone I got these pix
That I would show to YOU!

My Lucky Star

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When I was a kid, I remember looking at the stars and the moon with my Grandfather. I remember there was a perfect triangle in Orion, and one of them was red. I called that my lucky star, mostly because I could find it again and again and know it was the same star. Years later, I found out the star was named Betelgeuse.
A different one

Well, my lucky star is going to blow up. Really, I found this article in the Telegraph:

‘Second sun’ on its way

The Earth could find itself with a ‘second sun’ for a period of weeks later this year when one of the night sky’s most luminous stars explodes, scientists have claimed.

The supernova could provide the biggest light show since Earth was formed, and will be so bright that night will become like day for one or two weeks, experts said.

Betelgeuse, which is part of the Orion constellation 640 light years away from Earth, is a red supergiant, meaning that it is nearing the end of its life and is due to explode.

When it does do, it will burn so brightly that the earth will appear to have two suns in the sky, the Daily Mail reported.

What is less certain is when it will explode.

Brad Carter, senior lecturer of physics at the University of southern Queensland in Australia, said the explosion could take place before the end of the year – or indeed at any point over the next million years.

It should be really cool to see, if it happens. Personally, I doubt it will, but it might!
It’d just be my luck to have my lucky star blow up!