Your Score: Owl

You scored 17 Ego, 7 Anxiety, and 11 Agency!

"Correct me if I am wrong," he said, "but am I right in
supposing that it is a very Blusterous day outside?"

"Very," said Piglet, who was quietly thawing his ears,
and wishing that he was safely back in his own house.

"I thought so," said O-wl. "It was on just such a
blusterous day as this that my Uncle Robert, a portrait of whom
you see upon the wall on your right, Piglet, while returning in
the late forenoon from a-- What's that?"

You scored as Owl!

ABOUT OWL: Owl is considered highly educated because he can spell his own name (WOL) and he can even spell Tuesday... although he doesn't always get it right. Owl is a good sort, really, although he can be a bit of a stuffed shirt, and he tends to overlook the smaller details in life - like the fact that his bellpull is actually someone's tail.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are confident and you feel capable of dealing with whatever life throws at you. You know that you can handle just about everything... mostly because you know how to delegate the job of actually handling things to the people around you. You aren't one of those Bisy Backsons, who rush around trying to do everything at once. You prefer to stay at home and reflect on life, rather than go out and live it.

Sometimes, you know, you need to stop waiting for things to come to you and go out and get them. You need to go enjoy the weather, smell the fresh air, and pay attention to the little people in your life. They may not be as great as you... but maybe they could use your help.

Link: The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test written by wolfcaroling on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test View My Profile(wolfcaroling)

Question.

When did my childhood become politically incorrect?

Remember that restaurant, Sambo's? It had a mascot I think that it was a clown or something. It went under when I was a kid, but I remember the food didn't suck, but it's politically incorrect to say that now, and with good reason.

What about Cookie Monster? Yeah that's right "C is for cookie", now apparently called Carrot Monster and the cookies are a "sometimes" food. What?

How about the ambiguously gay duo, Bert and Ernie? Do they have Oscar on Ritalin? How about the Snuffle-ufagus? Is he on a "Eating plan" so that he's not so big any more or is it a Thyroid issue?

What about Barbie? They had to change her dimensions so that people wouldn't get the wrong idea about what a woman's body should look like. Why? It's a doll, you don't see boys going out and shooting steriods to look like He-Man or trying to turn themselves into a cat (well there are a couple of nut cases out there that tried, but the majority of people out there, don't) What about the Bratz dolls, don't they have huge heads? Why aren't they being changed?

What about those cap guns? They were toys, we knew they were toys, why are they now so hard to find? I was taught that you don't point them at people, they were just a really cool looking noise maker. I lost mine before I was a teen and before I figured out that girls didn't have cooties. I'm well adjusted, I'm not out killing people because I played with cap guns as a kid. I understand that some people don't want their kids to play with the cap guns, and that's fine they don't have to buy their kids cap guns, but have you ever gone into a toy store? They're no where to be found. You have to go to a Sporting goods store to find anything that resembles the toys I could get at the local 7-11 for a buck.

We're getting to the point where the majority is afraid to speak up against something because it wouldn't be PC, you know what? Fuck that... There was a picture of a woman in a local paper, flag flying behind her, arms crossed like she had just saved the world from impending doom, maybe saved a family of invalids who were blind from a burning house. The article went on to tell about how she singlehandedly stopped a "Box Store" from putting a store in her area. Are you serious? 1 woman stopped a "Box Store" from creating jobs, not only in the store personnel, but also in the building of the store and stopped the city from being able to generate revenue from taxes in the area from that store? The thing that killed me, why am I so against 1 voice? Because people quoted in the article were saying "We could have used that store here"... Then why didn't you all speak up?

Mel Brooks? Don't even think about making any of his movies now, some of his movies are hilarious, others I could live without, but you know what? With all this PC/BS around, no one's going to be able to get the chance. People are afraid to take chances because of the PC/BS, they're AFRAID...

That's scary.

"Tank chew, how may I be helping chew?"

Here's a conversation I've been having with "Tech Support" for a large company which had the distinction of having the computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey named after it, HAL . I had a system go belly up, so I took the proper file captures and had them all ready to go to HAL, when I call in and get a nice young lady on the other line asking me about which system and O/S and all that other fun stuff. That’s when she transferred me to “Steve” who was obviously working with English as his second language and the conversation when something like this:

Steve: Tank chew for calling my nam is <*mechanical prerecorded male voice*>STEVE <*end mechanical prerecorded male voice*>how may I be for helping chew?

MM: Hi, um, Steve.. I have an issue with one of the systems here, it had a *Insert long technical explanation here* and I have already collected the data to be sent.

Steve: Have chew gaddered the core dump?

MM: Yes, I’ve gathered all of the system information and all I need is to send it to you.

S: What about the snap (HAL’s utility)

MM: Yes, I’ve gathered all of the system information and all I need is to send it to you.

S: What about the kernel-

MM: Yes, I’ve gathered all of the system information and all I need is to send it to you.

S: Ok… um… one moment please… *phone drops and sounds like he’s fumbling with the phone*

MM: Steve…. Steve…. Helloooo Steeeeve…

S: *more fumbling with the phone*

MM: Steve…. Steve…. Sanjay…

S: Yes sir?

MM: Where can I send the data too?

S: Yes sir…

MM: Steve?

S: Yes sir?

MM: Where can I send the data too?

S: Yes sir…

*THUD!*

S: Sir? What was that?

MM: Don’t worry Steve, I was just beating my head against my desk..

S: Excuse me sir?

MM: Never mind Steve… Where can I send the data?

S: One moment please sir?

MM: Are you asking me or telling me Steve?

S: Sir?

MM: Never mind Steve… Where can I send the data for you to analyze?

S: Um…

MM: Steve, is your supervisor around?

S: Yes sir.

MM: Can I speak with them? Please?

S: Yes sir, one moment please…

Supervisor: Ello, my name is <*mechanical prerecorded male voice*>Sung<*end mechanical prerecorded male voice*> How can I be assisting chew today?

MM: AURGH!!

This was all followed by a rapid succession of thumping caused from my head hitting my desk over and over again, along with finally getting the location from HAL to put my information at…

Happy Leap Day

Happy Leap Day! (Unless You're in Debt)
This being February 29 — Leap Day — today is costing you an extra day's interest if you're repaying a debt. On the bright side, its earning you a tiny bit more on your bank deposits.
Whom do we have to thank — or curse — for this extra day every four years? Julius Caesar and his lover, Cleopatra.

In 48 B.C., Julius Caesar was in Alexandria, Egypt, absorbing the culture and science — and decadence — of Cleopatra's capital. There he learned from an old sage named Acoreus about Egypt's calendar, which had a leap year.

At the time, the Roman calendar did not. Like most ancient calendars, it was based on the phases of the moon, which in one cycle take about 29.5 days. But 12 months of 29.5 days doesn't equal the true length of the year as measured by the orbit of the Earth around the sun. It's off by 11 days, so anniversaries, holidays, and entire seasons to drift backward on lunar calendars.
The ancient Egyptians had realized this and created a calendar 365??-days long — with the fraction averaged in by adding an extra day every four years.
When Caesar returned to Rome, he created a 365-day calendar with a quadrennial leap year, adding the extra day in February.

A minor hassle for some, perhaps, but certainly better than the alternative faced by the Romans. Back in 45 B.C., for instance, their lunar calendar had drifted backward by 80 days — nearly three months. Spring had become winter, and autumn came in the summer months.
To correct, this Caesar decreed that 45 B.C. would be 445 days long. Think about the extra interest on 80 extra days! No wonder they called it "The Year of Confusion."

by David Ewing Duncan



Another interesting note about Leap Day a friend who was born on Feb 29th told me. If your birthtime is from 00:01 - 11:59 then you celebrate your birthday on Feb 28th and if it falls between 12:00 and 23:59 you celebrate on Mar 1st.

Spring time

Yeah, I know we're in the middle of a false Spring, but days like this remind me of school.

Sitting out on the grass quad area in between classes with friends.
Driving around in my car with Journey playing on the cassette player with the windows down and your shades on.
Yelling out the window of the car to get the attention of the beautiful girls walking down the street.
Kissing my girlfriend out on the bleachers, innocent but yet so exciting.
The smell of the freshly cut soccer fields.
Being able to hang out outside during physical education.
The little dandelion parachutes floating in the air from being launched by the neighbors sprinklers.
Waking up to a warm sun coming into the window and the first birds of the season chirping.
Coming home to see my dad in his old rickety chair leaned up against the opened garage door frame reading his paper, drinking his coffee and enjoying his Camel.
and for some reason, the one that always gets me, is the orange sunset and the long shadows of us as I either played ball or wrenched on cars late into the evening with my friends who I grew up with.


What are some of your memories of spring?

Historical facts

This space left intentionally blank or "Your versions of History posted here"

Of Ghosts, Lottery and Midgets

Today was a good day. It's B-Day+2 and the weather was a beautiful 65 degrees outside. I was contacted by a real estate agent yesterday to go look at places today. Said real estate agent was coming up from the flat lands to Podunk, and with all of the wisdom of the Google Maps, Yahoo! maps, and her Tom-Tom system in her car, she couldn't find the paved roads of Podunk, or more accurately, she found one of only a handful of dirt roads in the area. After successfully navigating the Real Estate Agent back onto the paved roads of Podunk, we set off to see the 2 houses that I wanted to see. 1 was a pretty nice place, had a little creek that ran through the front of the property, a nice terraced back yard, mature trees, and a generally good feeling throughout the house.

The second house was a totally different story. The house is nice, it's relatively large at 1800 sqft and no outwardly glaring problems with it, until you actually set foot inside the house. It was cold, ok that can be excused with it being Feb and it's been somewhat cold at night, but it was a cold that cut to the bone. MG and Mie told me shortly after going into the house that it felt like someone or something was watching them. Even though the only people in the house were the 3 of us and the R.E.A.. Everyone took a turn going down stairs and saying that the room down there felt "weird". I was in the garage and the only thing that I could think of while down there was that seeing as how there was no door except for the large garage door, that if there was a fire or something of that nature down there, that you'd be trapped. That's the second time that I've been to this house and it's the second time that I had that trapped feeling. I'm not claustrophobic or all that paranoid in everyday life, just in that house. So that one is a definite NOOoooooo! Come to find out from the R.E.A. that the house has been on the market 351 days, and has been in and fallen out of escrow at least 7 different times. It's an old town and there's bound to be ghosts in houses, real or imaginary, but this one is baaaaad juju..

We then went to lunch and generally poked around thinking and talking about the houses and what we would do with $150 Million. Of course everyone in our families would get a house, all the kids would get a full ride scholarship and a family business would be created to help people out who are in dire need of assistance. I was thinking a good thing would be to have something similar to the Habitat for Humanity, except take a bank owned piece of property which is in need of repair and take a family who is out on the streets and who is really in need of a place that they can feel safe or at least have a roof over their heads for their kids and themselves, then have them renovate the house so that they can have a place to live and gain skills that they can use in the real world. Or something of that nature...

Anyway, that led us to the local supermarket, where we picked up the parts to make dinner tonight, fish, rice, some nice mangoes and juices, we were done with out little excursion, so we got in line to check out. I started putting the stuff up onto the conveyor belt, and took little notice to the Little Person in front of me. She was there with her mom or her sugar momma, and had just helped her put the items from her cart onto the belt, after the guy rang up the last of the items, she turned and shot me one of the dirtiest looks I had ever received outside of marriage. She puffed up, showed me a bag with 1 head of cabbage in it and then turned to give it to the cashier. I'm not sure what I did to piss this little woman off, but if it was that bad, she could go get a step stool and kiss my butt. Who does she think she is puffing up on me? I had half a mind to have MG go kick her ass, but those of me who know me, know that I was thinking that this whole thing was just too funny, bordering on the surreal to do that.

So here's to the Ghosts of the houses we visit, the hopes of lotteries won and to the Spunky Midget with a bad attitude... Happy Sunday... :)