Pentimento

13 Random Things You May Not Know

1. If you ever need to know who sits on the board of directors for a company, you can check They Rule. You might be surprised at who is making decisions, and how far-reaching their influence might be. The directors are ever changing, but the website is updated (so they say) annually.
2. Were these home-grown hackers, or Taliban hackers putting a hit on the U.S. power grid? We are under siege from all quarters. I don't think it is a case of major paranoia to say that more and more people worldwide are making efforts as quickly as possible to become as self-sufficient as possible.
3. There are no moose in western Washington. After a highly embarrassing post by me on iPentimento where I proclaimed one had been born here, I had to eat crow and disclose that they have not been here for hundreds of years. Mea Culpa. There was a moose on the loose in Spokane, WA yesterday....
4. Today is Google's 9th birthday. Happy Birthday Googlicious!
5. You may object to NASA trying to go back to the moon, but if another country gets there first, have you thought about what it could mean? On any provocation or whim, the country that "controls" the moon could knock out our satellites and all that they control. We aren't just talking about you missing the nightly news or your favorite soap opera!
6. Nerds in Pullman, WA are willing to trade their computer knowledge for a makeover. What a bunch of brave guys. This is all in an effort to get more women into the computer science programs at Washington State University.
7. Washington state does have a castle (of sorts), but not one to rival Fraser Castle as pictured on Alison Lodge's blog Eleanor and Me. The one here is called Thornewood Castle and was the setting for the Steven King movie "Rose Red". Still, it is worth a visit if you should be in the Lakewood, WA area. Rumor has it it's haunted!
8. We lived on Amelia Island, Florida from 1988 until 1992. Our home was about 1/4 mile from the beach, and on cool evenings after supper we would drive to the beach and have a nice walk in the warm water. Most people walk upright on beaches, but on this island (and other beaches in the area) you tend to walk stooped over because you are going to be looking for fossilized shark's teeth. To be specific, we were searching for "the big one"...Megalodon. I have two intact shark's teeth in somewhat good condition, and we have hundreds of much smaller ones we collected through the years. I also have a mammoth tooth I found on Amelia Island north of Main Beach. (The picture is not mine.)
9. Some of the first Black Angus cattle were brought to Texas from Scotland by my sister-in-law's Carstairs ancestors. Or so their family stories tell it. My own ancestor, George Poingdexter/Poindexter came from the Isle of Jersey in 1657, and some family historians state that he brought a Jersey cow with him. Who knows?
10. And four more makes 13....I am running out of time to write this before it becomes Friday!
11. Average Animal Gestation Periods
12. Male Duckbilled Platypus (Platypii?) have  venomous spurs on the male's hind feet are probably used for defense or to help in the capture of small prey such as frogs, but this is not certain. Females do not have the spur, and the specific use of these spurs is still a mystery.
13. Fenton Glass Staying In Business...For Now

Happy Thursday Thirteen!

Thursday Thirteen - 13 Things That Keep Me Awake At Night

1. My neighbor's dogs barking at anything that moves or makes noise. Sheesh!
2. My own snoring.
3. Wondering if I paid all of my bills.
4. A wind storm. I hate it when the wind blows really hard. Thank goodness our neighbors cut down their big fir and cedar trees between our houses.
5. The cat jumping on and off the bed. Usually when he decides that I should get back up and feed him some more.
6. Late night phone calls with bad news. Those don't happen often, thank goodness.
7. My feet are cold, and I forgot to put any socks near the bed. Note to self: Put a pair of socks in bedside table.
8. Thunder and lightening. I live in the Pacific Northwest now, but when we visit Iowa or anywhere in the Midwest, I can't sleep through a severe storm.
9. An earthquake before I went to bed. I am always sure that even if it is a small quake that it is just the precursor to the "big one".
10. Helicopters flying over. Those are usually the Life Flight ones heading to Naval Hospital in Bremerton, or Harborview in Seattle. I always say a little prayer to keep the occupants safe and alive.
11. Fire trucks and ambulances. We live one street over from the route they take to get to the main highway.
12. A mosquito in the room. You know as soon as you fall asleep those little creeps are gonna get ya!
13. It is 900 degrees outside and there is no A/C or relief from the heat. Even the ceiling fan can't keep up.

Thirteen Things that cause me worry, for one reason or another

I get emails all the time from people who have political views different than mine, and this is my response to them. Thirteen Things cause me worry, for one reason or another:

1. Iran has at least 1000 speed boats in the Persian Gulf armed with anti-ship missiles. We have a friend that is on a Navy ship in the Gulf right now.

2. Iran has signed pacts with Chavez - Venezuela to have permanent bases of Iranian elite Republican Guard (or whatever they call their commandos). Now we have Venezuela to worry about!

3. China's oil imports from Sudan have risen six fold.  Wonder why no progress has been possible in Darfur?  Must be all those American dollars spent on poisoned Chinese food imports spent on Sudan's oil.

4. China expects Korea and Japan to pay 44% more for China's coal.

5. Sodium Benzoate a long time additive to sodas, approved by the FDA, actually causes cancer.

From the new book, High Society:

6. America has 4% of the world population and consumes 2/3 of the world's illegal drugs.

7. Abuse of prescription drugs is a much bigger problem in the US than illegal drugs.

8. On any given day, and every day, 100,000 Americans are high.

9. If You Think Bush Is Evil Now, Wait Until He Nukes Iran (Typepad's link button is not working. Grrr! Here is the link to the article:  http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_5536.cfm ).

10. More people will be looking for information on Paris Hilton today than on how to make our planet better.

11. WASHINGTON: The Food and Drug Administration has called for the clearest safety warning on two diabetes drugs, Avandia and Actos, whose health risks have become a focus of congressional concern. (my brother is diabetic and on Avandia).

12. Our US borders are manned by idiots IMHO Re: The Speaker debacle: The CDC did alert Homeland Security officials in time to put out an alert to border agents to detain him if he tried to re-enter the country. Instead, an agent identified Wednesday as an 18-year veteran, now on administrative leave while he is investigated, waved Speaker across the border. To prevent a similar incident, Homeland Security officials said Wednesday that new rules require officers to get a supervisor's approval before they override such border warnings.

13. The last thing that war-torn Iraq needs right now is another war, but that may be what it's about to get. (The world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket and we are roasting marshmallows while Rome burns) .

Thursday Thirteen - 31 May 07

Thirteen (sort of) Cool Things I Have Seen And Done

1. I saw Sputnik in orbit in 1957. I was 7 years old at the time.
2. I have been to "the" Frankenstein castle in Germany.
3. I have ridden in an Army tank (circa 1967).
4. I have toured a small sub (circa 1958).
5. I have toured a very large Trident sub (the Pennsylvania; circa 1989)
6. I have fished in the Mississippi River. (Ok, granted, that isn't cool).
7. I have lived on both coasts of the United States, and in the Midwest.
8.  I saw on TV the first man to walk on the moon.
9. I have put together a book of my Yates family genealogy.
10. I have toured U. S. Grant's home in Galena, IL.
11. I have been to the top of the capitol dome in Olympia, Washington (before the 1965 quake closed it).
12. I have walked out to the middle of a train trestle. (This was more stupid than cool).
13. I have sat on a rock the size of a small car beside a roaring river (Skokomish) on a hot summer day. (This is not my picture, but the photo is authentic of what it looks like on the river)

Adult Male Learning Disabilities

Thirteen Things about Adult Male Learning Disabilities

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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It has become apparent (after 36 years of marriage) that some men have learning disabilities that just never go away with age. For instance.....

1. He can spend hours and hours washing and cleaning the cars inside and out until they sparkle and shine, but he is unable to go to a Mexican restaurant and not glop salsa on the front of his clean shirt.

2. No matter how many times he is told that cooking food on a high temperature will burn it, he still says "I know how to cook".

3. In order to do a simple job like hanging some new mini-blinds, it takes 4 cups of coffee, two lengthy visits to the bathroom, pictures have to be drawn, measurements made, and two hours of head scratching are an absolute must. Why not do it my way? Eyeball it. Screw the brackets in place. Slide the blinds into the brackets and call it good.

4. After criss-crossing the United States many times by car, we have yet to see more than a fleeting glimpse of any roadside attractions or national parks. It is much more important to win the race and beat our land speed record from the last trip and arrive an hour earlier than before. Burma Shave signs are a blur.

5. No matter how long it has been since he has been around his family and their obnoxious behavior, as soon as he is once again in their presence he reverts back to eating like a hog, using improper English, and generally going against Darwin's theory of evolution. That is to say, he is held to higher standards at home than he is at his parent's house.

6. He is able to do intricate work on his job that has to be within a hair's breadth of measurement, but he cannot stand up and pee without it getting all over the rim of the toilet. No amount of gentle chiding, or out and out admonishment can get him to reach on over and get some toilet paper and just wipe up the rim and remove some of the errant spray.

7. Even though it has been proven on many occasions that he in fact does not know everything, he still acts as if he does, thus eliminating himself from the glorious joy of new discovery that the rest of us mere mortals experience.

8. It is generally noted (and resented) that when he is wrong his voice gets louder and he butts in more often until he is satisfied that he has completely derailed the conversation and made his point while completely ignoring that someone else may have made some valid points as well.

9. Some men can make cats and cars purr, but they have never mastered the art of how to be gentle with women, or how to keep from smashing the loaf while slicing fresh bread.

10. After spending a good hour or more sitting in the bathroom cogitating and doing the crossword in the newspaper, some men will spend only seconds washing their hands before wiping them on the clean towel before leaving the room. Advice to these men: Wet hands, apply soap, sing the Happy Birthday song in your head while you lather away from the running water, then rinse thoroughly and shake the excess water off your hands before drying them on the clean towel. If you have been puzzled by the dirt stains on your hand towels even though you are sure you washed your hands, perhaps you have not been doing it correctly. Refer back to #7 to understand why you have this problem.

11. Unless you have married a woman or have a partner who is approximately your same size and weight, it is probably a good rule of thumb to keep in mind that no matter how many years have gone by, she is not going to be able to walk as fast as you. Your legs are longer, you have more strength in them, and you have way more stamina. She can give birth to babies, run marathons alone, but some women just aren't built like men. Stop telling her she walks too slow.

12. Men can go hunting in the woods and bring home big game, but for some reason, if you get them in a department store with no visible doors or signs pointing north, they are always going to go in the opposite direction to find the way to the checkout stand. I blame the gizmos in the car parts department for some of this. There must be some aftermarket car thingy that throws off their sense of how to get out of the store. Maybe attaching GPS receivers on them as they enter the store is the solution? Come of think of it, Garmin would probably hack them to keep the poor twits going back to the car parts section. 

13. It is sad, but there seems to be a large herd of men with LDM (learning disabled male) syndrome. No doubt you have encountered one or two, or you are one. If you are one, now is the time to do a self-intervention and mend your ways. Clean up, wash up and hush up.

No men were harmed in the writing of this dissertation. Some egos were bruised, but as with most hard-shelled animals, no real harm was done. Besides, you and I both know that none of the advice will be taken anyway.

Thursday Thirteen: Trivia

The day is half gone (and so am I?) so I have no glowing list like last week. Here are thirteen things I can dredge up from my sleep deprived brain:

1. Did you know that when big Navy ships are going to put out to sea for any distance off the coast that they have to try to shoo away the hummingbirds that are attracted to the lights on the ship (bugs)? I didn't know either until my friend told me this bit of news this week. So sad. Sometimes they find little dead hummers that are disoriented and cannot get back to shore, so they die.

2. Lathrop, Missouri used to have one of the largest mule barns in the United States. Britain bought mules from there to take to Africa when they were going to fight the Boer War.

3. I have found more Beta sites today with glaring typos on them than I can shake a stick at.

4. Six flags of different nations have flown over Amelia Island in Florida.

5. There is an authentic windmill in Fulton, IL that was originally built in the Netherlands and then transported to Illinois, along with men from the Netherlands that would instruct the new owners on how to run the mill.

6. From December of 1971 to May of 1972, Jim and I lived in Otterberg, Germany. There is a beautiful church there that dates from the 13th century.

7. In the late 1970's, we could have bought my husband's uncle's cabin on Mule Lake in Minnesota, but we were moving from Iowa to WA, and didn't have the money or any way to keep it in repair. We might be millionaires today if we had bought it. Read this 2001 article on Cass County, MN by the MN DNR.

8. We have a friend that was the pitching coach for Nolan Ryan in Alvin, TX. (Our friend) went on to be a Commander in the US Navy.

9. Butchart Gardens in Victoria, Canada is one of the most beautiful places on the west coast. In the beginning, it was a limestone quarry.

10. Washington state boasts the longest railroad tunnel, the Cascade Tunnel, in the United States at 7.8 miles long. I have been through this tunnel a few times on trips to Leavenworth, WA.

11. Open your hearts and minds and take a trip to Pakistan on the Light Within blog. Dot on the Map is one of today's articles about travel in the country.

12. German chocolate cake did not originate in Germany. In 1852, Sam German developed a sweet baking bar for Baker's Chocolate Co. The product was named in honor of him -- Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate. Hawaii is the only US state that grows cacao beans to produce chocolate.

13. As far as I know, there are no poisonous snakes native to western Washington state. There are some in eastern WA though...rattlesnakes.

   

Thirteen Things about Trivia Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1.   (leave your link in comments.)

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday.  Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged!  If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments.  It’s easy, and fun!  Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well!  I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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Thursday Thirteen #4 - The Handy-Dandy List

• 1. CrapCleaner: Summary: CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization tool. That removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it's fast! (normally taking less that a second to run) and Free. :)

• 2. Email Stripper: emailStripper is a free program for cleaning the ">" and other formatting characters out of your emails. It will restore "forwarded" or "replied" emails back to their original state so they're easier to read. (Geez, I wish more people would use this!).

• 3. FotoTagger: FotoTagger lets you easily add movable notes to individual elements visualized on images.

• 4. PictureTray: PictureTray is a freeware tool for resizing and rotating pictures quickly and simply.

• 5. Savings Bond Wizard: With the Savings Bond Wizard®, you can:     * Manage your savings bonds.     * Print your savings bond inventory.     * Find the redemption value of your bonds.     * Find the interest your bonds have earned.

• 6. TinyUrl: Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? Then you've come to the right place. By entering in a URL in the text field below, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.

• 7. Animation Library: Welcome to the NEW Animation Library, a site featuring over 13,748 free animations for you to use on your website or send as digital postcards using our powerful Postcard Station.

• 8. Freeware Home: Freeware Home is an indexed collection of FREE programs commonly found on the Internet.

• 9. GedReporter: A FREE Genealogy Report and Website Generator (You didn't think I could compile a list and not put something genealogy-related into it, did you?!)

• 10. SiteSub: Directory submission software. SiteSub is a free Windows program specially designed to ease the process of adding your link to a website directory, blog directory or link list. It is not – absolutely NOT – an autosubmitter program.

• 11. Fax by Modem:  Faxes any document type via modem to any fax machine in the world # Easy setup/implementation # Uses very little system resources # Saves/modifies recipient information for future use # Unlimited recipient entries # Can be used with standard users # Excellent alternative in lieu of purchasing an expensive Fax program

• 12. Quicknote: Often you do not need an advanced text processor but a virtual scrapbook to quickly write down an occasional thought, a plan for the day or an Internet URL.

• 13. Microsoft® Office Accounting Express: Microsoft® Office Accounting Express 2007 is everything you need to make your small business idea flourish.

Thirteen Handy Dandy Things brought to you by  WEBDUCKLinks to other Thursday Thirteens! 1.   (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday.  Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged!  If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments.  It’s easy, and fun!  Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well!  I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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13 Miss Marple Mysteries by Agatha Christie

Thirteen Things about YOUR NAME 1…. Start your list here! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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I don't know how old I was when I read my first Agatha Christie story, but I was hooked from the beginning. I love how she wove the stories and laughed at people's foibles and quirks. All of her stories are favorites, but I am including a list of 13 with Miss Marple as the detective. Enjoy!

(1) 1930 The Murder at the Vicarage

(2) 1932 The Thirteen Problems

(3) 1939 The Regatta Mystery (US)

(4) 1942 The Body in the Library

(5) 1942 The Moving Finger

(6) 1950 A Murder Is Announced

(7) 1950 Three Blind Mice and Other Stories (US)

(8) 1952 They Do It with Mirrors

(9) 1953 A Pocket Full of Rye

(10) 1957 4:50 from Paddington

(11) 1960 The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

(12) 1961 Double Sin and Other Stories (US)

(13) 1962 The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

And some extras "just because".

1964 A Caribbean Mystery

1965 At Bertram's Hotel

1971 Nemesis

1976 Sleeping Murder

1979 Miss Marple's Final Cases

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Crabs ED#80

This is my first post to Thursday Thirteen! I am not always an old grumpy bag, but here are 13 things that make me crabby.

Thirteen Things about webduck 1. People gabbing in the middle of the grocery store aisle. 2. Dogs pooping in my yard (and me stepping in it!) 3. Forwarded emails (enough already!) 4. Sitting in a doctors exam room in my paper "gown". 5. Being served cold food in a restaurant. 6. Being sick. I just hate it. 7. Getting up to dirty dishes in the sink. 8. Know-it-all people. 9. In-laws. 'nough said. 10. People who try to make me feel guilty about not keeping in contact with them. 11. Being wet, cold and tired. 12. Being hungry and needing to eat, but there is nothing that sounds good. 13. Long car trips. My butt gets numb and I hate riding for 8 to 12 hours at a time. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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