It's the same...only different

I think I blogged about this site before but there's a new batch of 6-differences games available now. It's a Flash (?) game that challenges you to find 6 differences between two pictures. There is usually some motion in the pictures to keep you confused too! I must warn you, it's addicting, though...

Misery Loves Company

Not sure why this is, but it does seem to be true -- especially for network TV shows that parade endless contestants across the screen suffering all kinds of misfortune. This is the premise of the ABC show Wipeout. Like many similar shows over the years, they lure the contestants with promises of fortune if they win, but those winnings might just be needed to pay doctor bills -- physical or psychological -- after seeing what I've seen.

We all cringe seeing the crashes and "wipe outs" suffered by the foo..., er, um, contestants as they compete against each other and time to be the winner. It's not quite as bad or humiliating as the infamous Japanese game shows that we've seen clips of, although there's an American version of that coming this summer from ABS as well called I Survived a Japanese Game Show. That one is more likely to be funny in an embarrassing kinda way than challenging physically. I might catch an episode or two of that one as well. Not sure I could take more than a few episodes of either of these, but it keeps the kids laughing for a while after I lose all of my laughing gasses...

Looking for something?

I saw this site several months ago, but my sister sent it to me again recently. All My Faves is a new take on the old Yahoo style of web-portal. It presents a list of popular sites related to a list of categories like Sports, Weather, News, etc. -- but it lists them by their logo. Nothing extra special here as most of the sites are pretty well known already, but just seeing the list in all of it's color is kinda different. It can be a little overwhelming at first. It also has tabs to break out other groupings like Kids, Entertainment and Shopping.

The real beauty of this site, though is the Weekly discoveries tab. Here, the site lists 10 new sites worth checking out each week (like this cool painting site). There's also a blog about other found sites. If you're looking for something new, a diversion from work or life, check this site out!

I SAW ONE!

There are a lot of animals that you only see in zoos -- usually ones that are not native to the area, or ones that are very rare or need special habitats or handling. Pigeons on the other hand are none of these, but I have never (and I bet few of you have) seen a baby pigeon. For some reason you just never see them. You see the parents ALL OVER THE PLACE, but the babies, and even young teens are hidden.

Well today, I saw one! On my route home, I circle under an overpass that tends to be filled with birds. Most of the time, they're pigeons, but I've seen hoards of black birds as well at times. Today, for some reason, I looked up at the girders as I was stopped at a light and spied a momma pigeon feeding a baby pigeon. It still had a lot of it's downy feathers too. What a site!

For those paying REALLY close attention...

When I get an idea for a post I generally send an email to my Blogger account that is saved as a draft versus immediatly published. Then, when I've got time (away from work, etc) I finish those posts and post them. When I'm not paying close attention, though, the post goes out with the original date of the draft as opposed to the date of the edited and published time. That causes those posts to get buried in what would be history to those of you reading directly from A World Discovered home page as opposed to arriving at a specific from a search.

The other exposure is that it may look like I'm creating these posts all day at work. NOT! First, the only money I make by writing these posts is from Google in the form of adsense monies when you click on the ads on this site. You did notice the ads over there --> on the right didn't you? If you find something of interest or relevance there, feel free to click on them. My employer is not paying me to write these so it wouldn't be fair to spend the time that they're paying me to write these.

One other note is that a while ago, Blogger started allowing "future posting" that will allow me to write a post now, and set it to be automatically published at some time in the future. What good is that you ask? Well it will allow me to continue to be a burst-blogger, writing when I have the time, but balance things out for you, the reader, to provide fresh content more often than just once or twice a week.

A lot of you that visit come back often -- several times a week for some of you. And if I can't keep up with your appetite for reading my blog, you'll get sad and forget to come back. I don't want you to be sad. :-( So allowing me to burst when I can and still keep things fresh more often works out best for both of us.

Now I've just gotta cleanup all of those drafts sitting there to finish...

I've got gas...

Come on. You think I'd be THAT revealing to the world?! :-p

Actually, I should've titled this entry - MPG. Now that I've made sure that I've said I got a new car, I can talk about one of the reasons. Not the only reason, and actually not the biggest reason, but an important one nonetheless -- fuel economy.

It's important for a number of reasons -- personal cost, environmental cost, national independence, etc. Would I have liked to buy a car that gets 100 MPG? You betcha. I would have settled for 50 MOG if I could afford it right now. But, alas, I couldn't. I know that in the long run, we would've all been better if I could, but a small step is better than no step. I'm doing a part to help, even if it's not as big of a part as I'd like.

I am very aware of the fuel economy of my new car. In fact, the car helps me stay that way. It has an automatic average MPG display. It's not the real-time display I would like, but it's certainly helpful (and pretty accurate based on my calculations). It's had an impact on the way I drive already, too. My car and I play a little game called "How high can I get the MPG readout..."

I pay attention to things like starting off too quickly from a stop. I coast to stops when feasible so that I don't have to stop in the first place. I use cruise control as often as I can, knowing that automatic means are more efficient than I at keeping an even speed. I gain some ground on the way to work, but lose most of it on the way home due to construction. I still get 50% better mileage than I did in my van, but I want to do better.

It's funny though. Even as we all pinch every penny we can just to survive nowadays, I bet you know exactly how much you spent per gallon of gas last fill up. And I bet you drive sometimes way out of your way just to save a couple of pennies per gallon. And I don't blame you. But I realized a while ago that to save 3 cents per gallon on a 20 gallon fill up, only saved me sixty cents. Sixty cents is sixty cents, don't get me wrong, but there's a lot more money to be saved (and many other benefits) by conserving the gas in the first place. Even a single mile per gallon increase in fuel economy will save you dollars per fill up instead of pennies. That's worth changing a few habits, I think. Hypermilers have a lot of other useful ways to get more per gallon from your car as well.

And, on the subject of saving money, personal finance blog Wisebread wrote an article recently comparing the cost of a gallon of gas to a gallon of other common consumer products. Might want to start thinking about cutting back on some of those items as well after seeing their list.

Delinquent

I was reminded last night by my brother-in-law (who I didn't even know was reading this blog -- that's four of you now! :-) that I hadn't posted about the final outcome of the principle versus principal battle. I had started a draft title, but apparently not written/posted it. He saw my new car sitting at the curb.

Every man has a price, and for right now, I guess mine falls in the 3-5k range. I purchased the car I originally wanted from BCC. I really like it and I'm starting to calm down a bit about compromising my principles. I still intend to write the letter to BCC's CEO (I've gotten the first the paragraphs written), but I need to get really heated up again. I'm sure that will happen again in a couple of months when my wife's van comes due for it's 6-month brake repair cycle again, but for now, I'm just enjoying what I've got.

So there. I've said it. Anyone else out there want to buy me for something in the neighborhood of $4,000?

Out of the mouths of babes

As I was getting my yougest son dressed this morning, he took his right hand, draped it behind his head and stuck his index finger in his mouth, pulling at his cheek. Then he repeated "Off the hook! It's off the hook!"

I know where he got it from (a Hannah Montana episode), and I commented that he was very funny.

His response: "Yeah, I get that a lot." That made me laugh almost as much.

Scary info-tainment

The political season of yesteryear saw a very successful southern businessman, big-eared with a very pronounced drawl and down-home anecdotes, capture 19% of the vote in the 1992 US presidential election. Relive those glory years, or at least the scary charts, at http://perotcharts.com/.

Unfortunately, not much has changed since those scary pics were made public. The charts have been updated from the ones shown on TV back then, and the data is just as scary if not more so. Whomever the eventual winner of this election will surely have his work cut out for him. I hope something changes from the path we're on right now -- for all of our sakes.

GHOTI

I have a sign on my desk at work that reads "GHOTI". I came across this little nugget of wisdom several years ago and have hung on to it since. It serves multiple purposes. First, people ask me what it means -- a conversation starter as well as a way for me to impart more of my wisdom
:-). Second, it reminds me to keep looking.

It was originally presented as a way to show how screwed up the English language is. Essentially, it's a different way to say "fish." Sounding it out, the "gh" makes the sound as in "tough," the "o" makes the sound as in "women," and the "ti" makes the sound as in "nation."

To me it's a reminder that things are not always as they seem. It reminds me to dig a little deeper, to not always take the first or easiest answer. It reminds me that there may be ulterior motives to people's behaviors (good or bad). In general, it reminds me to just keep
questioning. That's how I, we, learn. It's good to be inquisitive.

Post it!

When I worked at my last assignment, someone decided that the deal on Post-It notes was too good of a deal to pass up. We had HUNDREDS of packs of Post-Its in the supply room -- all shapes and sizes and colors!

I kinda liked it, but I was never as creative as these guys have been in their use of Post-Its...

Reckless Driving

Yet another Google Maps mashup. This mashup allows you to practice your driving skills.

The fuel jokes have arrived...

Here are a few comics circulating around the Internet that might take a bit of the pain out of your next fill up -- or not!

Seen another good comic about the insane cost of gas? Leave a comment with a link to the picture for all to enjoy. We gotta get through this somehow...

The NEW iPhone is here!

OK, well maybe it's the old iPhone, but it's a lot cheaper! Follow the link, print it out on a color printer on cardstock, fold, and voila!

Happy Birthday!

Well, I made it. This officially marks one year's worth of posts (365 posts) -- though it's taken me over a year to get here. My first post was March 19th, 2007. I'm still working out the kinks, but I'm thankful that there are still a few of you around reading this and cheering me on.

Several of you have commented on my posts, both on-line, and to me directly. Thanks! I'm still not sure exactly why I'm doing this, but it's still fun, so I'll keep it up. It's been a little busy around here lately as school wound down and all, so I've been a little delinquent in my posts, but I promise to pick up the pace again soon. Hang in there...

There have been a few other birthdays recently as well. My oldest son turned 9 a couple of weeks ago, and today is my daughter's 10th birthday! My how times flies! Each of my kids really enjoyed their days as did my wife and I. One thing that kinda hit me though was that as they're getting older, I'm starting to get more scared about what will happen to them; what the world will do to my kids...

My daughter greeted me the other day with a song a friend had taught her recently. It was something that she found really funny and just had to share. It was the "Beans, Beans..." song. It was nice to see her so giddy about such gross humor. Her brothers both got into singing as well. I know that innocence won't last forever (or much longer, for that matter), so I'm trying to enjoy it while I can... I'm sure that I'll long for this summer as we have more serious grown-up conversations in the coming months and years and remember my little babies...