Technorati

I was going to avoid posting here until I finished up these last major papers, but I just couldn't do it, lol. I'll only be here for a few, but it seems so foreign to go several days without posting 'something'. I 'am' making major progress with the papers because of my own personal rule and I'll likely write about a few of the discoveries here later, but for now, if I can take breaks elsewhere online, then I see no real harm in doing it here, too.

First things first, a couple weeks ago I found the perfect excuse for linking to other people's blogs. Now I've known about Technorati for quite a while, but I had no desire to sign up because I don't even use the labels within Blogger itself, so why would I go to an outside source to do it, even if it meant possibly bringing me more traffic? I wasn't really concerned with the latter part of that, so I didn't even explore it. As I entered a writing realm elsewhere, though, one of the smaller sections involves blogging, and I realized that a lot of people make it a huge competition and constantly follow their rankings......the rankings that involve keeping track of how many places they're linked from. Although I still have no desire to do that for myself, I do feel like I'm doing a bit of a good deed by linking to blogs that I find interesting because if the person 'does' keep track of it, then he/she is probably happy to see another link pop up on their screen and his/her ranking go up.

Maybe I'll explore the world of tagging/labeling my own posts later, but I have a really hard time categorizing them and I'd probably spend too much time fiddling with it, so for now, I'm content with continuing to link to other people when I so choose, because well, I enjoy doing it. Ah, the pleasures of being able to make a sentence include however many words I want to it to, instead of being told to chop it down because of people's attention spans. Here, I'm not obligated to please you guys. :P

Are We Clear?

Okay, so I think that the majority here is taken care of now, so I'll get back to posting stuff soon. I lost all the old comments, but other than that, I think all the material is back. I've been focusing on getting some work done, but that means my folder of "Things to Blog" bookmarks and my notepad with fleeting thoughts is overflowing....and in turn, that means, that when I get some of this other stuff taken care of, I'll have several new posts to add. Just thought I'd warn you. In the meantime, if you notice any missing posts, broken links, or weird crap within my blog, let me know please. Thanks.

Technical Difficulties

Yeah, we're having some, but no worries....we'll be back in no time. :)

For the next few days, you probably won't see my archives....only the last few posts...so if you run into a dead link, that's why. Sorry!

Snark Attack!!!

Apparently, snark has taken over the blogosphere. I must say, I've never seen it used anywhere else....and I guess I'm fairly new at actually 'reading' other people's blogs with the exception of a handful that I've kept up on over the last year or so....but they don't say snark. Everybody else does. I've been seeing it for a while, but after rummaging through the randomizer for the last hour while I was on the phone, I ran across the word over a dozen times (and I started keeping track of them after the first 4 that really stood out, lol). That's way more often than usual, so I really felt like I'd been attacked by that little word.

Its meaning has become quite apparent over the course of time, and some people use it a bit differently than others, but here's what Wiki has to say about it:

Snark, is a derivative word from snarky, "Irritable or short-tempered; irascible" from Dutch and Low German snorken (note that spell check does 'not' acknowledge this, and it reminds me of the Snorkels), of imitative origin.
Some claim that it is a portmanteau of the phrase "snide remark", refers to a belittling or sarcastic style of speech or writing. It could loosely be described as irritable, backhanded or "snidely derisive"; hence, 'snarkish', 'snarky', 'to snark at somebody'. It does not necessarily have negative connotations and can be used humorously. (It seems that mean people use it in a more humorous than insulting way).

Snark is also often used in fandom to describe a character's/writer's comment, action, way of acting/ writing style.

Example:

Jane: That comment made by Sydney Bristow was snarky!
Jimmy: Thank god for J.J. Abram's writing genius.

So there's my dedication to snark. Consider yourselves introduced. And if you see me write 'snark' or 'snarky' in the next month, please slap me.

Seriously.

Penguins!!

All together now....

1, 2, 3....

Awwwww!

AP - Tue Nov 21, 7:15 AM ET In this Sept. 29, 1995 file photo made available by Sea World, an emperor penguin tends to his newly-hatched chick inside Sea World of California's Penguin Encounter in San Diego. Animal and plant species have begun dying off or changing sooner than predicted because of global warming, a review of hundreds of research studies contends. The study's author, biologist Camille Parmesan of the University of Texas, said she worries most about the cold-adapted species, such as emperor penguins that have dropped from 300 breeding pairs to just nine in the western Antarctic Peninsula, or polar bears, which are dropping in numbers and weight in the Arctic. (AP Photo/HO)

(And while we're here, something that repeatedly comes up, but will make a few of you think anyway. How do you say penguin? Say it to yourself first....and now, is it ping-win...ping-gwin....pen-guin (pen as in, the 'e' saying 'eh')....pang-guin....?)

Knee-High to a Grasshopper

Lisa, over at amerideutsch/Raison D'etre (the woman who I talked about her nose piercing for those of you not keeping up), passed along the post about Girls vs. Women from a couple weeks ago. She mentioned that I was a youngin' (and that I am, by the way, although not nearly as young as this kid....Reilly's Best Friend....a twelve year old that was spotted by Crap-O-Rama while she was doing the review list for NaBloPoMo....some of it is actually kind of interesting to read through like his post about how Mother Nature ruined his chance to skip school to go hunting....it's a nice trip down memory lane of the little things from our childhood that we've likely already forgotten.)

Okay, anywho, enough of the links, geesh! The point is, when she called me a youngin', I had a sudden flashback of when people you haven't seen in a long time say (put on your best old hick accent for this one) "Well I haven't seen you since you was knee-high to a grasshopper!" Most people tend to say "since you were a baby" or "in a long time," etc, but there's something about the old country generation that likes to refer to you as a comparison to a bug. And not even a cute bug. Not a ladybug (which although I don't find cute anyway, they seem to have an effect on Halloween costume). But a grasshopper. Now I know that people are always cooing about babies/kids being "cute as bugs," but when I hear the idiom about grasshoppers, I picture this old, brownish, spiny, tobacco spittin' monster that was apparently twice my size the last time I was seen. (And for the record, I imagine him standing up....more like on hind legs like a human would....as opposed to how the picture is at the top).
You see, I played with my fair share of bugs when I was a kid. Quite a bit of that time was spent in Kentucky where I was surrounded by tobacco fields and these grasshoppers that spit nasty brown tar stuff all over the place (and no, it's not really tobacco...it's partially digested food...and I don't know why they love to spit it, but it's not pleasant). They weren't those cute little bright green ones....or even the lazy dull green ones. They were big....and ugly....and yes, I still enjoyed playing with them....but it doesn't make for the greatest comparison. "Oh! I remember you. The last time I saw you, you were standing next to this huge nasty creature and you only came up to his knees. No wonder I haven't seen you since!"

This is where my imagination gets me in trouble. Why on earth do I have to have mental images accompany absolutely everything I see?

And speaking of images, I was going to end there and just add a couple pictures like I always do. I thought it'd be cute if I could find a shot of the idiom....a kid standing next to a cartoon grasshopper or something. What's the first thing I come across, though, before I even click the 'image' tab so that I can just look at photos?

Knee-High to a Grasshopper
Why I went ahead and clicked the link, I'm not sure. Curiosity seems to be another one of those traits that takes me down weird paths. It's just a kids' clothing store. Nothing too out of the ordinary about that....until you read the invitation that states:

Come on in and have a peek at our "kid-bits"

I think I grew up in the wrong generation because the first thing that came to mind was how inappropriate that is. It's just asking for trouble and child porn comments. For those that spent the majority of their lives without constant reference to Michael Jackson and priest molestation, it's another story. But for me, it makes me subconsciously scream "That's sooo wrong!"

To make matters worse, I was afraid to click further into the site. Yep, that's right. My curiosity will take me all over the net and I've viewed things that I'll never be able to erase from my memory....but I was too hesitant to click that one. It's still opened on that page, but I don't want my suspicions confirmed that it's actually a child porn site in disguise. I think I'll just leave the kid-bits for someone else and hope that no one was harmed in the making of that website.

Random Googlers....Errr....Searchers

Yes, I know, I just did this recently, but I keep having random googlers (isn't it odd how that so rapidly became a verb? I feel the need to capitalize it because it's Google...but then, if I'm using it as a verb, I really shouldn't...such a conflict of formality)....and aolers (nope, it doesn't work...AOLers?....reminds me of AWOLers....AWOLees?)....and yahooers (nuh uh....nope, only googlers work...and now even that looks funny, but "everybody's doin' it....")....(still with me? hehe)....who keep randomly stumbling over my blog by randomly searching/googling/aoling/yahooing/mywebsearching for other randomness. Before they're shoved off my list of latest referrers, I want to bring attention to the two very special people who have searched for:

• CUTE HOmemade microwave warmer---(Is there a reason that part of it is capitalized? Was it really necessary for CUTE to yell out to the search engines? Does the person realize that the engines are unlikely to even notice the difference in capitalization? And the even better question is, did they think they could point out to the search engines that they really wanted to search for CUTE HO instead of "cute homemade microwave warmer"? Was this a hidden innuendo....a Fruedian slip....or just a mere slippage of the Caps Lock key that was corrected at such an inconvenient moment?

(Cute microwave warmer, by the way....bunny!)

• all the participants in world toilet expo 2006 in thailand, email add---(Now this one got really, really specific....the person knew *exactly* what they wanted...and did they get it? No! They got me! Quirky Jessi! The sad thing is, I didn't even write about the expo....I wrote about being "exposed" to p-ahh-p. The other references were kinda random, too, but it that long string of words took them to my November archive page....and I *highly* doubt that's what they were looking for. I recommend to this person to learn the beauty of quotation marks to further limit his/her searches. Hehe.)

365 Interesting People

x 365 is absolutely amazing. Otter's 43 x 365 is where I originally found it, but she has this little tidbit about the project:

A cool trend-setter named Dan turned 40 and decided to name 365 interesting people in his life and write about one of them every day for his 40th year. He challenged others to join him. I took the challenge, made my list and am proceeding in no particular order. Except boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl order.

If you click over to her site, you'll see that this particular one is on number 288. Holy cow! Now granted, posts are only 43-44 words long, but that in itself can be quite the challenge (this coming from the girl who spent waaaayyyy too long working on her college app. because she was limited to exactly 50 and exactly 100 words to say oh so much. I'm seriously going into the wrong profession....my words will constantly be limited....*sigh*).

Anywho, I would love to participate at some point, so I want to make a specific entry about it...and hopefully, one day, I'll come back to it (because I have a tendency to go back through my really old journals from time to time so why would a blog be any different?). Of course, I'd probably sit down and write a ton of them at once and then just have them auto-post, but regardless....doesn't it sound/look interesting? To choose 365 people of interest in a person's life and write a quick, little, all entailing blurb about them.

So many people are running through my head right now. The obvious people scurried through first, but then....there are 365 opportunities....so my mind jumped right on to the less obvious ones. Like the old guy on the bus last year that struck up a conversation with me when I was riding home alone on the bus late one night. He reminded me of the standard Santa Claus image and it wasn't until afterward that I realized that most people would've been scared of him. You know? The creepy old man on a late bus, stalking young girls. He was anything but, though, and he stands out in my mind. He would make my current 365 because well, he was interesting.

In ten, twenty, thirty years, I bet I'll be able to have plenty more sets of 365. Obviously I'll have the people who will stay in my memory/heart forever, and they'd make an all-time list of people....but not all of the people who stick out to me now will have 'that' much importance later....and the people who will stick out later, I don't know yet....duh, lol. I'd love to start this soon so I could have a comparison later, but there's no way. I'm already spending too much time on 'this' blog and I've got tons of things coming up that will take away from that (that's why I'm indulging it so much right now). But someday....yes, eventually....I will indeed take this challenge...and I hope I take it more than once. It's so worth it.

(I just went and hunted down the photo up there. Typically, I try to make it eye catching, but this one seems rather ordinary, doesn't it? Lots of ordinary people in an ordinary location with ordinary smiles. Go look again, though. (Click it so you can really see.) You'll see a green mohawk in there...and another head of brighter green hair. You'll see some quirky grins....some strange looks...even a loner who tries to separate himself subconsciously. Long hair, short hair, no hair.....skinny, medium, heavy.....happy, sad, confused....men, women, children, old, young, disabled....all sorts of randomness, indeed. And I can guarantee that every one of them has a different story to tell. I wonder how many of them would make my 365 list if given the chance.)

I'm A Male......

This will be a short post. I'm still coming to terms with it, so I don't feel qualified to discuss it. When I finally get a grasp on the concept, I may come back. Please...no sympathy comments or telling me it'll be okay. You have no idea. But yes, it is true. I am indeed a male.

Gender Genie

The first time it told me, I wrote it off as a fluke. So I took the test again....just like they tell you to do with a pregnancy test. Nope, still male. My third test gave me some hope and told me I was female...but just barely. Something like 25-35 tests later, and the majority said I'm male.

It's not my fault. I don't know what wrong. I thought I'd done everything right...taken all the right precautions, but alas....I'm male anyway. I'm sorry....

(And fyi, here's the chica who turned me on to the genie...)

Yyyaaawwwwwnnnnnn....

Typically, if I link to someone's blog, I use it as a basis for my own entry. This time, though, instead of taking the time to read my entry, click over to hers for a minute. It's not a really long post, so you can take the time...really. And it looks like something I would talk about anyway.....the analysis of the yawn....who does it...how they cover it...when they cover it....why they cover it (or don't cover it), etc. Although, you've gotten fortunate in that she does it in much fewer words than I likely would, lol (and she'll be finding photographic examples to pinpoint various gestures later, too, so pretty cool....) So without further ado:

The Yawn Project....

What Accent--Part 2

(Photo courtesy of: http://errare.de/fraktale/index.html)

Okay, so remember when I posted a randomness about accents? Well, it turns out, that little quiz/chart/analyzer thingy caught like wild fire in the blog world. I've been randomizing to comment on other people's blogs here and there, and it seems like I keep seeing this thing over and over and over again, lol...and I was guilty of helping spread it in the very beginning. My apologies....really. But while I'm here, I might as well rat some of those people out that I've run across recently and who are continuing the blog fad. Why? Because I feel like...and because I like linking to other people's places. It's fun giving them their five seconds of Jessi fame and I've had quite a few interesting conversations with people because of it...so I'm going to do it again. Here are the Accent people:

• Respectful Insolence (oh, and coincidentally enough, this one mentioned the pop vs. soda idea, too....and it is soooo soda. :P)
• Tales from a Former Michigander (It's a good thing that says 'former', because otherwise, I'd have to get into an unnatural battle about Mich vs OSU...big game is in like 15 hours)
• Very Contrary (another Midlander-ish)
• Holly Babble (I found the previously one because of the mention on this one, lol)
• The Knitting Wannabe
• Shhh! Librarian-in-Training
• M.S.G.A.A. (~edit-here's another one)

Pop vs. Coke vs. Soda vs. Other

That, my dearies, is a map. Clever, huh? Now what is that a map of, is the real question to be answered.

That's a color coded map of places labeled according to what they refer to soda as. You'll need to click the picture to make it large enough to view or use this link to see it on its own page. The blues are the 'pop' people (or as Ohioans call it "p-ahhh-p").....reds are the Coke people (regardless of whether it's actually a Pepsi product or some generic brand, it's called Coke anyway)....yellows are mine with 'soda' (because duh, that's what it is.....it doesn't matter what brand it is, it is soda...say it with me...'so-duh'....)...and the greens are the 'other' category.

If you're from one of the first three areas, you may have no idea what 'other' could include, but trust me, it includes plenty. Of course, there are the few die hard Pepsi fans that will call it 'Pepsi' no matter what, similar to those Coke people. Then there are the few variations like saying 'cola'....'soda pop'....and 'soft drink'. But my least favorite of the bunch is what one of my aunt's and her family calls it. Sodie. Yes....can you get me "sodie" please. Wrong. As much as I *despise* when it's called 'p-ahh-p', sodie almost ranks lower....but the only reason it doesn't rank much higher is because I'm exposed to the 'p-ahh-p' on a much more regular basis, unfortunately....and so it's much more irritating. P-aahhhh-p. *Cringes* It's even written all over posters, flyers, and ads as such. Why??
And if you go to the main site, you can look for your state and county and see people's actual comments about the subject. I ran across the site a couple years ago and somehow managed to stumble across it again (I've really gotta get this stumbling issue under control...). It's a different map now and I'm not sure if the stats are new, too, but the general idea is still the same....and rather accurate....

Here are some of the comments I ran across from my current state:

• Doesn't matter as long as there's a good bit of Jack Daniels in it, otherwise I can't taste it
• A Mr. happy drink
• Dear web designer, you should have put a limit on the number of characters that can fit in this field. It would eliminate a bunch of wordy, mostly irrelevant responses. Like this one. (hehe)
• Hydrochloric Acid

~Edit out picture~
Other places (and I only looked at 4 others, so if you're curious about the rest, go look for yourself):

• Pamplemousse
• fizzy drink
• In Ebonics we say Peeyop. Like Beeotch, it's the correct term for the african american male. Females shouldn't drink pop or soda or any other carbonated beverages. They should only drink malt liquor until they pass out and then become willing members of the african american sex slave culture. I know using african american and slave in the same sentence automatically makes one a target for the racists but that's the breaks.
• tonic ( I saw this 'several' times...I've never heard it called that unless it's as in 'gin and tonic')
• Monkey Piss

The end....

Link Association--Horny Rhino

Okay, so if you've ever had some time to yourself online, you've surely clicked a link....and that link probably lead you to another link....and another and another. We've already mentioned this once in the last few hours here, but I felt the need to say it again, simply because that's exactly what lead me to my disastrous discovery of the song currently going through my head.

So Randomizer lead me to Space Monkey Pants...

Space Monkey Pants lead me to the post about Rhinos...

Rhino post made me read "Rhino rhino rhino rhino rhino" over and over again and used the phrase "The Rhino Song"...

The Rhino Song made me think "Should I know that reference?"...

That thought lead me to Google....

Google got me no where...."The Rhino Song" obviously wasn't as popular as say, something like the "Peanut Butter Jelly" song....

Useless Google lead me to YouTube to try to discover a video including it instead...

YouTube gave me this video....Horny Rhino (though it's not *the* rhino song)

Horny Rhino lead me to Yahoo to search for straight jackets as "I'm horny...horny, horny, horny" played through my head repeatedly.

So thank you, dear Space Monkey Pants, for inadvertently enlightening me to the world of horny rhinos.

And I'm sorry, Mom...you will never see me use the 'H' word again....

Definition of Insanity

Tammy Talks Alot caught my attention solely because of her subtitle:

The definition of insanity is repeating the same action over and over expecting a different result.

First I giggled. Then I agreed. And then I disagreed. After all, some of my greatest insane efforts are because I continue trying the same thing over and over again hoping for *different* results and people label me crazy for it. I suppose the idea of expecting the same result is just as detrimental, though. Does that mean the true culprit is merely repeating the same actions over and over again then?

(And to give credit to where I found the picture: Gray Insanity. And notice that she's wearing at least one troll earring....I love it!)

Time Consumers Part Two--Souvenir Guy

This blogger's last post was rather short and just included this link with the comment "If only we could all be as clever as that guy." An ongoing project that includes photos like the one above and the ones below where normal everyday souvenirs are held up in front of the place they represent....

Time Consumers--Funniest/Fairest Info Pics

So yeah, right...time consumers (and notice that I didn't call them 'wasters'), that's what I was talking about. Hehe. Hey, it's almost 5am at this point so anything I type cannot but likely will be held against me. I'd like to see you try to actually do something about it, though. :P

On with the linkage!

So Quirky Jessi is getting this link from One Tired Mom who got the link from Squid Ink who I can almost guarantee clicked a link somewhere else that got her there. This is how online trends and rumors get started ya know? More about that later as I re-discuss the accent thing, though...

This entry's prized link is Funniest Info. You're randomly given two funny pictures and you choose from the two....and then repeat....and repeat again....and over and over again until you realize that dinner is burning or you're late for work or that you've suddenly lost the urge to pee because you've waited too long. I'm sure it really can be addicting, but I was too busy copying her link to an email draft to spend much time there. Now it's sitting open in its own little tab up there just taunting me...saying "click me, click me"....and I know as soon as I do, the two competing pictures will begin whispering "pick me, pick me." I can picture it now...there'll be a cute kitty cat (I've seen a lot of cute kitty pictures) on one side using her soft, fuzzy, soothing meow to persuade me and on the other side will be a hilarious sign of some sort that will laugh its way into my click.

Okay, so now I actually have to go click it to see what it has, heh. Lmao!! I was close...except, the cute kitty was on the right (I implied it'd be on the left)....and on the left was, um, well...this:

I'm really not sure what to do with that, lol.

And five minutes later, I'm back. Some of them aren't that funny at all, sadly enough, but enough of them are quite funny to keep people coming back, I guess. Another little perk of this time consumer is its Top List which updates continuously to rank those with the most clicks as the 'funniest' of the two random pictures. Currently, these cute kitties can be found on that list...
~~Edit, edit, edit~~

I didn't realize they had an adjoined site called The Fairest, too. This one begs you to choose which picture is prettier and there are some absolutely gorgeous photos that come up. The current choice I was given is:or...And just how am I supposed to make a decision like that?

They only get better from there. You can see random funny pictures anywhere on the net, but some of the photos I'm being shown are the best ones I've ever seen. If you're going to 'consume' time, definitely spend it on this portion of the site. Holy cow....

(Click to make them larger if you want to fully enjoy...)

Ramble Behind the Next Post

(This post started off being titled "Time Consumers," but then I got off on a random description of what I was going to post instead of actually posting it, so now the actual purpose of this entry is being bumped to a new one...hehe)

For many of us, our time is viciously eaten up by school or work or both....toss in family and a halfway decent social life, and that leaves little time for showering, eating, and sleeping, not to mention those added bonuses here and there that a few of us would like to actually indulge.

Now, of course, judging from how many posts I've added to this blog already, most of you would assume that I have lots of time on my hands, when in all actuality, I'm just replacing other things with this new found habit.....and I can guarantee that I am *always* doing something else while blogging (which means, when you run across a typo or I start making less sense than usual, that's why).

My next several blog entries will come from my multi-tasking skills being put to use. Today, while sitting for two hours in an econ experiment where I made $97.60 cash for doing next to nothing, I spent probably an hour of that total hitting the NaBloPoMo randomizer and copying/pasting links that were worth my 5 seconds of time. Because I made that random cash and I spent the majority of the time finding links that I felt work re-link worthy, I feel no shame in being able to spend a few minutes here and there typing up my findings. And that's exactly what I'm going to do now that it is once again 4:30 am and I've already completely two major papers and have outlined two more. I have the entire weekend to finish them up and start the next set, so I'm already ahead considering it's only Thursday morning and I only have one class to attend tomorrow.

/ramble.....begin next entry instead....

More WikiHow

And just for the sake of more random WikiHows that you might want to click, here's a few currently featured articles or popular ones pulled from their top 50 there...

How to Stop Cutting Yourself
How to Regain Control of a Spooked Camel--Here's one I'm sure you use everyday....
How to Save a Wet Cell Phone
How to Make a Chain from Starburst WrappersHow to Cheat a Polygraph Test-And this doesn't mean I condone the practice, but if you must...hehe
How to Sweep a Girl Off Her Feet
How to Exercise While Sitting at Your Computer-And if you're sitting here with time to read this, you could probably use a bit of exercise at your comp, huh?
How to Drink More Water Everyday-And we could 'all' learn to drink more water...

How to Stay Warm Without a Heater

(Warning: This one is really long, rather unquirky, and rather dry/serious in content, but I'm posting it anyway. Hey, we all need to know how to stay warm! I skimmed the original material to get it here and now you should just skim my skimmed bits to get the incredibly watered down version...)

Just like Google has become an icon of the internet world, Wikipedia has its own set of growing resources that have engulfed the world of 'research'. Type in just about anything common or historical and you're bound to get a result from Wikipedia within the first few pages, usually within the first few results themselves. Although, I must say, it hasn't gotten 'quite' large enough because Firefox's new automatic spell check recognizes Google, but not Wikipedia, lol.

One of Wikipedia's many branches is WikiHow. It's far less likely to come up in search results, but for weirdos like me who get updated via an RSS feed that tells me when new articles are entered, it's still rather common. It was added on a whim several months ago and I rarely click the links that it spits out to me, and even more rarely do I actually read something that's written there even when I click the link.

Oddly enough, the last link I clicked was How to Stay Warm at Home Without a Heater. Don't ask me why because I have plenty of heat here (sometimes too much). Maybe it's because I'd recently read an article in our local paper about how to get financial assistance for electricity. Maybe it was because I was curious how many things you could do within your own home to keep warm. Maybe it was because I accidentally clicked the link when scrolling down the page, and it kept my attention long enough to skim through it. Who knows? Doesn't really matter...
Surprisingly enough, it took me down a random memory lane trip as I saw things that we'd done for years. While living in old houses, they are rather drafty, and even though we had heat, we had to do what we could to seal off those windows and seams in the floors/walls or it would've cost a fortune to heat. We even sealed off rooms at times because it'd get so cold...and if you want another tidbit, I can remember us having a wood stove that we lived off of instead of actual gas or electric heat, so you can imagine what kind of hassles we had trying to heat more than a small space (and that place was fairly large, 2 stories, and several rooms, so it was impossible to heat completely with just a wood stove....and why even try to spread the heat that far when we could scrunch it up into a small place and be more comfortable/warmer?)

The standard put plastic on the windows, seal doors tightly, close off spare rooms wasn't what really caught my attention, though. Note that it takes me longer to describe a few thoughts that go through my head at the time than it does for 100x that many to actually fly through. And now I'm going to list a few that jumped out to me, quirky or not:

Dress warmly. You should wear slippers or socks. Dress in layers, especially with wool or cotton clothing. Wear a hat. Don't wear your winter coat or you will have nothing else to put on when you go outside. When you are sitting still put on a blanket.

Duh, right? Well, not exactly. The part that I want to point out is that the writer was aware enough to point out to people that they shouldn't wear their winter coat inside to keep warm. It might seem like the first logical thing to do is to bundle up, but you've gotta have something left to add on top if you need to go outside, and people sometimes forget that.Find a pet or friend to snuggle with. The living body of any warm-blooded being is a furnace unto itself. Hehe. This one only stood out because of the picture. I thought it was cute.

• Fill a large pot with water and let it simmer. The rising steam will keep your house amazingly warm.
• Take a hot shower or bath and use oil or lotion on your skin when you get out. It's almost like putting on another thin layer of clothing.
• Leave the warm water in the bathtub. It's like having a 25-40 gallon hot water bottle in your house.

These all make me wonder, though, because even though they're great ways to help conserve the heat you actually have, if your house uses gas to heat, then it could very well use gas for things like the stove, too....and if you don't have any, then how are you supposed to use it for 'any' heating purposes, and the same goes for electric users? Still yet, good to help conserve energy and cut down on how many additional resources you need to tap.(These two are being very resourceful by not only having the hot bath, but also using each other's body heat 'and' candles...nicely done)

If the air is too cold when you're trying to sleep, consider rigging a makeshift cloth "tent" over your bed. Your own breathing will warm up the inside of the tent very quickly. There's a good reason those antique beds had roofs and curtains...

That's kinda neat. I knew the concept of using your own breathing warmth obviously....it's the same effect from using a scarf or cupping your hands over your face and breathing. I hadn't considered the antique bed thing, though...I wonder how much truth there is to that and what other reasons they had for building them this way.

Take advantage of solar energy; place a dark rug in sunny areas of your house during the day to absorb the sun's heat.

Good idea...but just how long could a dark rug actually hold any extra heat? :S

Microwave socks or small homemade "pillows" filled with rice, dried corn, or beans for one minute in the microwave and use as a heating pad or bed-warmer (if you don't have a microwave, use a hot water bottle).

They mentioned a hot water bottle in another one, which is great, but again, where are they getting the resources to heat the water? Regardless, I like this idea. I recently discovered the little packets that they sell to keep in your pockets as hand warmers (you can tell I'm not from around this area....yeah, it gets cold in other places I've lived, but these people are prepped for this craziness here, lol)....and this is the same idea, but much cheaper.

• If you can afford it, leave other heat-producing appliances on, such as computers/monitors or strong lamps.

Um, yes, I know people have crazy priorities at times. I have a relative who takes off to Six Flags a few times a year and will go visit family in other states on a whim when she's struggling to keep food on the table, but seriously, if you can't afford to have heat, how are you able to afford to keep on computers (I'll give them leeway here and assume that the computer was bought during a better financial period). Some of these other things I can say "oh, well, maybe it's just for in case the electric goes out, they have a back up way to keep warm," but this one definitely doesn't fit that excuse.

After cooking, leave the oven door open to let the heat escape and warm up the area of the room around it. (~edit~ I'm going to mention the dryer here, too....open it up and enjoy the warmth)

We do this! Along with a couple of the other things they mention doing, this is definitely one that we practice on a regular basis. When I was younger, though, and back to that whole wood stove period we tried (it definitely had its advantages and disadvantages, to say the least), I can remember Mom fixing cinnamon rolls or brownies in the oven, and sitting in front of it to warm my hands....even if it wasn't that cold, it was still nice to just chill out (uh, warm out?) in front of the stove in the early mornings before school or right before bed at night. Everybody say 'awwww' at the warm, fuzzy moment.

And in their warning section, two worth passing on just in case you don't go skim the list yourself:
Heating methods that increase air moisture (bathtub, humidifier) might encourage mold growth and condensation damage. Regularly check behind furniture that's standing against outside-facing walls, and around windows.

Be aware that the more you seal off air circulation to the outside, you increase the possibility of a dangerous buildup of carbon monoxide in the air -- especially if you use natural gas or propane in the home. Be sure to install a carbon monoxide detector if you don't have one already. If you do, be sure to test it on a regular basis.There are a few more to pay attention to, but I really wanted to stress these. Mold can make you sick and if you don't know it's there, then you could continuously be getting sick....which is going to make it harder for you to be able to stay warm in the first place. And as for the carbon monoxide bit, very, very important. I had a teacher from my earlier childhood who died after falling asleep in her car in her garage and it's definitely made me more aware of carbon monoxide dangers. Consider this my public announcement....hey, it's my blog and if I want to be serious every now and then, so be it. :P

(And fyi, I actually wrote this yesterday morning, but I didn't want it to be at the top of my blog because it wasn't as fun as some of my other posts, lol)

Creative Blog Titles

~Edit June 14, 2009~ Since this original post, I've gotten a lot of traffic from people looking for creative blog titles. You can find a better quirk with a list of creative blog name examples here.~

Okay guys, short entry here that's simply for the sake of highlighting a few random blogs that I've run across in the last couple weeks. I know I refer to various places from time to time, but these are specifically eye catching because of their titles, so I want to give them their 5 seconds of random fame:

Ficken Chingers-The blog that sounds dirty
Irrelephant-Q. What's large, grey, and doesn't matter? A. An irrelephant
I'll get you, my witty-and your little blog, too....

*Giggles* Aren't those great?