because you hate on zoey

Yes. I have an adorable cat...she sleeps in my bed next to me, when I am on the computer she'll butt her face in my way and sit next to me and likes to drag her toys around the house. She purs and sleeps a lot too, but no one seems to see this but me. What they see is a little demon cat who hisses and scratches and follows people up the stairs. She'll turn on you before you realize it happened and leave scratches on your arm. Ah zoey. Despite her jekyll and hyde approach I love her and would like to give her some honor and love today....

• The nose pad of a cat is ridged in a pattern that is unique, just like the fingerprint of a human
• There are more than 500 million domestic cats in the world, with 33 different breeds.
• American Demographics magazine estimates that's about 200 million kitty yawns per hour and a whopping 425 million catnaps each day
• A cat's heart beats twice as fast as a human heart, at 110 to 140 beats per minute.
• If your cat is near you, and her tail is quivering, this is the greatest expression of love your cat can give you
• Cats knead with their paws when they're happy. <-- OMG Zoey does this all the time! I never knew...awww
• A cat has five more vertebrae in her spinal column than her human does
• The average age for an indoor cat is 15 years, while the average age for an outdoor cat is only 3 to 5 years.
• The first cat show was held in 1895 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.
• Cats need 1/6th the amount of light that humans do to see.
• Kittens begin dreaming after one week
• A group of kittens is called a kindle (wonder if the e-book makers knew this?)
• A group of grown cats is called a clowder
• Cats spend 30% of their waking hours grooming themselves. ( I swear this has to be more)
• A cat that bites you after you have rubbed his stomach, is probably biting out of pleasure, not anger (really? because it hurts when zoey does that!)
• Egyptians shaved their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when they lost a beloved cat.

Top 10 in 2010

The end of the year is coming fast, its a time of reflection, resolutions....okay who am I kidding, its a time for making lists! Top 10 of 2010 (thanks to Time Magazine) is always something to look forward to for the end of the year. Which of these shock you and which were a given....


Top 10 Comebacks

• Conan O'Brien
• General Motors
• Eliot Spitzer
• Lisa Murkowski
• Betty White
• Victor Yanukovych
• Paul Reubens
• Kanye West
• Michael Vick
• Jerry Brown

 Top 10 Albums

• Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
• Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
• LCD Soundsystems, This is Happening
• The National, High Violet
• Drake, Thank me later
• Sufjan Stevens, Age of Adz
• The Black Keys, Brothers
• Yeasayer, Odd Blood
• Big Boi, Sir Lucious Left Foot
• Beach House, Teen Dream

 Top 10 Fashion Statement artists

• Lady Gaga
• MIA
• Venus Williams
• Prince
• Rihanna
• Britney Spears
• Rita Wilson
• Taylor
• Momsen
• Charo
• Heidi Klum

Top 10 Gadgets

• iPad
• Samsung Galaxy S
• 11 in. MacBook Air
• Google TV
• Nexus One
• iphone G4
• Apple TB
• Toshiba Libretto Dual Screen Laptop
• Kinect
• Nook Color

Top 10 iphone Apps

• Netflix
• Groupon
• iMovie
• Springpad
• Twitter
• Dragon Dictation
• Petfinder
• Hulu Plus
• iBlooks
• Nike+GPS

Top 10 Movies

• Toy Story 3
• Inside Job
• Never let me go
• life during wartime
• The Social Network
• Rabbit Hole
• Wild Grass
• Green Zone
• Waiting for Superman
• Four Lion
• Black Swan -> I added this. It rocked

 Top 10 TV Series

• Breaking Bad
• Mad Men
• Parks and Recreation
• Louie
• Boardwalk Empire
• Party Down
• The Pacific
• The Good Wife
• Rubicon
• Terriers

Top 10 Fiction Books

• Freedom
• A visit from the goon squad
• Skippy Dies
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
• Lord of Misrule
• Wilson
• Matterhorn
• How to live safely in a science fictional Universe
• The Passage
• Faithful Place

 Top 10 Words of 2010

• Austerity
• Pragmatic
• Moratorium
• Socialism
• Bigot
• Doppelganger
• Shellacking
• Ebullient
• Dissident
• Furtive

I spent 17 hours on a bus for Marissa and andrew for XMas

I went to new york to see some of my favorite people in the world this past christmas. It was a magical time, full of blokus, house rules, burlesque and most annoyingly, 2 long bus rides. The ride to new york was about 6 hours and the ride home about 11 due to traffic and snow. Needless to say, if I never take a bus again I will be a happy girl. Nonetheless, I am sure you see where this post is going for today's trivia.....

 

• Approximately 480,000 yellow school buses carry 25 million children to and from school every weekday

• According to the National Academy of Sciences, an average of 820 students are killed annually during school transportation hours, but less than 2% of them are school bus passengers.
• Back in the 1930’s in the U.S., school buses were pure yellow. Thus, the term "school bus yellow" came into the English language.
• Why Yellow? Lateral peripheral vision for detecting yellows is 1.24 times greater than for red
• The main reason why school buses are yellow is because safety rules and regulations in the United States require that school buses be yellow. 
• school buses provide an estimated 10 billion student trips in the United States
• The 1930s were a decade where the school bus evolved from an adaptation of existing vehicles (wagons, carriages, trucks) into a vehicle type of its own.
• Crown Coach built the first heavy duty, high capacity, transit-style school coach in 1932 and named it the "Supercoach"
• In 1967, the first dedicated small school bus was introduced by Collins Bus 
• Although small school buses are also used for magnet school programs, transporting exceptionally talented and gifted students, and for routes with low volumes of riders, they have become associated in urban slang with mentally disabled riders. This association has given them derogatory nicknames, such as "the short bus". For the transportation of special-needs students, these buses are often equipped with automated lifts for wheelchair-bound passengers unable to climb steps into the bus.
• I n 1980, there were six major school bus body manufacturers producing full-size school buses in North America:
• Blue Bird Body Company
• Carpenter Body Works
• Superior Coach Company
• Thomas Built Buses,Inc.
• Wayne Corporation
• Ward Body Works

Holiday BREAK

Okay trivia blog readers. Its time to get on the bus soon to new york for the holidays. Hope you all have  a great time this christmas season and have a great weekend. I'll be back on Monday with 4x the trivia as usual to keep you happy and educated.

Loves

notorious people

I always knew bonnie and clyd were a bunch of misfits, but I wasn't really sure why. Today we take a look at history and find out who they are.

• Bonnie Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934)
• Barrow preferred to rob small stores or rural gas station
•   The gang is believed to have killed at least nine police officers and committed several civilian murders
• The couple themselves were eventually ambushed and killed in Louisiana by law officers
• Their reputation was cemented in American pop folklore by Arthur Penn's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde
• Even though she was physically present at a hundred or more felonies during her two years as Barrow's companion, she was not the machine gun-wielding cartoon killer portrayed in the newspapers, newsreels, and, particularly, the pulpy detective magazines of the day. Gang member W. D. Jones was unsure whether he had ever seen her fire at officers
• Parker's reputation as a cigar-smoking gun moll grew out of a playful snapshot found abandoned by police at a hideout, released to the press
• While she did chain-smoke Camel cigarettes, she was not a cigar smoke.
• Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were young and unmarried

BONNIE

• Born in Rowena, TX
• Second of 3 children
• Farther died when she was four
• Parker won top prizes in spelling, writing and public speaking
• She married her classmate Roy Thornton in 1926 but in 1929 they never saw each other again. 
• Thornton and Parker never officially divorced

CLYDE

• Born in Ellis County, TX
• From a poor farming family
• While in prison he was sexually assaulted repeatedly for over a year by a dominant inmate. Clyde eventually killed the man with a pipe.
• He was parolled and started smaller jobs like banks and gas stations
• Favored the weapon M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle
• He devoted his live to revenge against the texas prison system for the abuse he went through

Their most credible version of meeting says them met in 1930 at a friends house. They wee smitten and fell in love. Barrow was a loyal companion to him in their crime spree.

On her grave:
"As the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew,
So this old world is made brighter by the lives of folks like you"

Laura's rules of etiquette

As some of you know yesterday when going home from dupont I noticed my purse was missing. Most likely it fell off my arm and I didn't notice, since it was small and light weight. I suppose it could have been stolen, that is what usually happens here, or if I dropped it someone who picked it up and took it without giving it back technically stole it. Either way it is a pain in the you-know-what.  I was with someone, in a very public outdoor place when this happened. And that is what makes me the most upset. SOMEONE would have seen me drop it. I was only potentially without it for about 5 minutes before I noticed. So why didn't anyone do anything to return it. Someone took it, so even if I dropped it, why not return it to a nearby store (I checked every one of them afterwards to no avail). We have clearly stopped using our manners here in DC. Where are our ethics? Our moral code? Do the right thing...so today instead of posting a facts page I'm posting Laura facts on my personal rules of DC etiquette.

•  First and foremost, if you see a purse, wallet, creditcard, DL, or other valuable dropped by someone, pick it up and return it to them, if you see the item but no one around, pick it up and start asking loudly if anyone dropped a valuable xyz. If no one claims, give it to a neighboring retail store in the event that someone checks there for it.
• If you are on the METRO stand to the right, walk on the left
• If you are on a Bus where people have to stand, move ALL the way to the back. I don't care if you have to stand by the smelly guy. We all have to do it at some point.
• Don't stop right in front of the doors when exiting the metro car, people need to get places, if you don't know whether to turn right or left, walk a little bit and get out of the way first
• Don't let babies or kids put things in their mouths that have been on the metro floor (I've seen this happen, I almost died)
• Stop and help tourists, you'd want someone to do it for you
• Be on time. This is universal. If the invite says 9pm, be there at 9pm. If you are confused on travel time I recommend a little friend of mine called GPS and google maps
• If the party says to bring something to share, then bring something to share. I don't care if you got it from the CVS down the street or the wholefoods, its the thought. Make the effort.
• Never say it is too far in DC. Nothing is far here. The district is 12 miles across.
• Its okay to love your neighborhood, but don't diss the others if you don't know about them
• It is always okay to compare real estate rental cost - you never know when you might find a deal
• Don't hate that I wash my dishes before I eat :) everyone has their quirks
• Townhomes' downstairs areas are cold. Deal with it.
• If you see a drunk hobbling down the street alone, make sure to offer to help them into a cab home
• Put away your cell phones at the dinner table. Not a time for texting, checking work/personal email. 
• We understand you're addicted to your BB/iphone, just don't forget there are real people when you are in a social situation
• No one cares about your politics, agenda, senator, representative but you - leave it at the office. :) though if you have an embarrassing story about them we're all ears.
• Drivers must stop for pedestrians at any time, any where, regardless of crosswalk
• You must love DC more than New York
• All cats need love. Even the mean ones

Hopefully you laughed today when you read this. If you don't get it, well....not my problem...okay kidding just ask me. :)

red hot our team is red hot our team is r.e.d.red h.o.t hot once we start we can't be stopped

So while making christmas themed pretzels with chocolate my roommate and I discussed what we could use instead of an m&m on top, and I thought of redhots. I haven't had one in ages, but it sounds amazing right now. Those things were so strong and yet, so delicious! I love the cinnamon flavor and how even eating one was a bit intense. I think they definitely don't get utilized enough.

•  In the early 1930's, Ferrara Pan Candy Company created the famous Red Hot using the cold panned candy method
• The name "cinnamon imperials" is a generic name used by the candy industry to indicate a piece of cinnamon hard candy.
• Originally used for cake and cookie toppings
• The cold panned process involves building candy pieces from candy centers and tossing them into revolving pans while adding flavor, color and other candy ingredients.  This process continues until the pieces become the desired size.  

Okay that is all I really found about red hots...kinda sad right. I bet you feel like you need more trivia facts today, yes? So we'll give you a few more  candy facts....a personal favorite...THE TOOTSIE ROLL...

• It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped
• Manufactured since 1896
• Leo Hirshfield named the candy after the nickname of his daughter, Clara "Tootsie" Hirshfield
• Tootsie Rolls became a standard part of American soldiers' field rations, due to the hardiness of the candy under a variety of environmental conditions
• More than 62 million Tootsie Rolls are made daily
•  Tootsie Roll Industries is one of the largest candy manufacturers in the world
• The ingredients of a chocolate Tootsie Roll are sugar, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, condensed milk, artificial cocoa flavoring whey, soy lecithin, orange extract, and artificial and condensed flavors.
• The Tootsie Roll jingle was recorded at Blank Tape Studios in 1976. It is still occasionally played today. It aired on television regularly for more than 20 years. The jingle was sung by a nine-year-old girl and a thirteen-year-old boy, the children of jazz musicians and friends of the song's composer.

 

I could never tell if it was ashley or mary kate!

Moral lessons are hard to come by, but boy did Full House have plenty of them. I always thought DJ was sooo pretty and uncle jesse...whoo boy. He is so cute. I miss those days and yes, I totally watch reruns when I see them on tv.

• Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen were chosen for the part of Michelle because they were the only twin babies that didn't cry at the audition. 
• In the first season, Jesse's last name was Cochran, but in the second season it was changed to Katsopolis because of John Stamos' Greek heritage.
• Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen appeared together onscreen four times during the show's run.
• The original premise of the show was three single stand-up comedians living together and the theme was more of an adult-oriented sitcom titled "House of Comics"
• All of the Tanner kids attended Frasier Street Elementary School.
• Uncle Jesse's original name was "Uncle Adam"
• D.J.'s private phone number is 555-8722.  
• The mannequin in the alcove in Joey's room always wears the exact shirt as Joey (Dave Coulier) in the first season
• Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen nearly left the show after the first season because their real-life mother was concerned about them missing out on having a "normal" childhood. After a significant raise in salary from the show's producers, she agreed to let them continue. Their mother also let them stay due to the fact that they became so popular.
• At first, the producers didn't want people to know that Michelle was played by twins, so in the beginning, they were credited as Mary-Kate Ashley Olsen
• The Tanner address is 1882 Girard Street. The exterior shots of the Tanner house are actually from a house located on Steiner Street across from Alamo Square in San Francisco.

NEVER GIVE AWAY YOUR SCISSORS

• The earliest devices that can be loosely described as scissors were probably made in Egypt in around 1500 BCE. These comprised a single piece of bronze metal formed into a U shape, with the ends of the U sharpened into blades and the curve acting as a spring so that the blades moved apart on release after each cut
• Cross-bladed scissors were invented in about 100 AD by the Romans
• the difference between scissors and shears is basically one of size; scissors with blades longer than 15cm are generally referred to as shears
• Today's modern scissors came before the 6th century
• around 1000 to 1300, scissor-makers were held in high esteem, with craft guilds being formed
• A major development came in 1761, when Robert Hinchliffe of Sheffield began to use cast steel to make scissors, which could therefore be made to be highly durable and efficient
• The oldest pair of scissors that still exist come from Egypt, and were made around 300 B.C

Okay ... now to the funny part...

Superstitions About Scissors  

• You will 'cut off' fortune if you use scissors on New Year's Day
• Scissors should be put away during thunderstorms to decrease the likelihood that the house will be struck by lightning.
• Placing a pair of scissors under the pillow of a woman in labor will ‘cut her pain in half’..
• Breaking both blades is a sign of an impending disaster.
• Giving a pair of scissors as a gift will cause problems in a friendship by cutting the relationship in half. When giving scissors as a gift, the receiver should always give a little money in return, since ‘buying’ the scissors will not cause the friendship to be cut.
• A pair of scissors nailed above a door in the ‘open’ position, so they resemble a cross to some extent, was said to protect a household from witchcraft and evil influences.
• Dropping a pair of scissors is said to warn that a lover is unfaithful.
• Breaking one blade of a pair of scissors is an omen of quarreling and discord; if both blades are broken at once; a calamity is to be feared.
• Scissors should always be sold, they should never be given.
• On Wednesday and Friday, no should use a needle or scissors, bake bread or sow flax.

Oh Bennnnn!!!!!

If any of you are watching "The Sing-Off" this year (a truly marvelous singing competition), you would know that Ben Folds, of Ben Folds Five, is one of this year's judges. If you lived with me you'd know, I'm totally obsessed with him. I can not name one Ben Folds Five song, but you can just tell he is adorable and really genuine. Looks like I am going to have to start listening to his music as I have the biggest celeb crush on him

DREAMMMYYYYYY

• Benjamin Scott "Ben" Folds (born September 12, 1966)
• American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five who now performs as a solo artist and collaborates with many other musicians.
• During his years at R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Folds played in several bands as the pianist, bassist, or drummer.
• In the late 1980s, Folds (as a bassist) and longtime friend Millard Powers formed the band Majosha.
• Folds attended the University of Miami's Frost School of Music on a percussion scholarship, but dropped out with one credit to go before graduating
• A jury recital consists of playing a prepared repertoire (and sometimes unprepared pieces from prior years of training) before faculty members who apply a grade for the entire semester. Folds, a drummer, showed up with a broken hand from defending his room mate from bullies the night before, but was required to play anyway. He ended up losing his scholarship and in desperation threw his drumkit into a lake on campus
• Played weekly gigs at Sin-é, famous for being the cafe which had helped start Jeff Buckley's career
• Soon after, Folds moved back to North Carolina. The trio of Folds, bassist Robert Sledge, and drummer Darren Jessee formed Ben Folds Five in 1994 in Chapel Hill.
• no Ben Folds Five singles reached the US Hot 100,
• Folds's first solo release after the breakup of the band was Rockin' the Suburbs in 2001. He played nearly all the instruments, notably guitar (an instrument seldom used during the Ben Folds Five days).
•  The Luckiest was written for the Amy Heckerling movie Loser, but the scene it was meant for was deleted
•  Folds became the first person to broadcast a live concert over MySpace. The concert was complete with pranks staged ahead of time by Folds, including a drunk man falling over the balcony during "Jesusland" and a suicide attempt at the end. The concert is also notable for featuring a "guitorchestra", a group of acoustic guitarists from Nashville who accompanied Folds on some songs, as well as a ringtone orchestra featuring members of the audience playing their cellphone ringtones in unison.
• Folds met Anna Goodman in first grade at Moore Elementary School, Winston Salem and was married to her from 1987–1992. Folds was then briefly married to Kate Rosen in 1996. He met Australian Frally Hynes in January 1998 and they were married in Adelaide, South Australia in May 1999. Folds filed for divorce in November 2006.
• Ben and Fleur Folds were married on November 17, 2007 at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas.  They are currently based in Nashville where they live with their three children, Gracie, Louis and Julia-Rose

Facebook it

Sometimes I wonder how much time I spend in the day doing random crap on the computer. I think facebook has become such a time suck, though I'm strangely addicted to it nonetheless. I've really been migrating away from checking it so often thankfully. Did anyone see the social network movie? I wonder what life as Mark Zuckerberg must be like.

• More than 35 million users update their status each day, with more than 55 million status updates each day
• More than 2.5 billion pictures are uploaded to Facebook each month
• Among children under 18, Facebook was ranked third in the top 100 searches of 2009, behind YouTube and Google. Sex and porn rounded out the top five searches
• In 2003, Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg created Facemash, where he placed photos of undergraduates side by side so viewers could rank which one was “hotter.” Zuckerberg would later turn Facemash into the now ubiquitous Facebook
• The New Oxford Dictionary announced that the 2009 Word of the Year was “unfriend,” as in “to remove someone as a friend on a social networking site” such as Facebook. However, there is some debate whether the word should be “defriend” rather than “unfriend.”
• A 39-year-old Pennsylvania father was arrested for openly asking his 13-year-old daughter for sex over Facebook.
• While initially created for college students, Facebook users over the age 26 now represent 60% of the total U.S. Facebook population
• The average Facebook users spend more than 55 minutes a day on the site. They use the Like button nine times a month and write 25 comments each month
• Lamebook.com is a regularly updated site that reposts “lame” and funny Facebook user posts
• In Florida, the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee ruled that Florida judges and lawyers should no longer “friend” each other on Facebook
• On July 1, 2009, shortly after Michael Jackson passed away, his page became the most popular page on Facebook. Previously, the most popular person on Facebook was U.S. President Obama with just over 6 million fans.

Left handers do it better

As some of you know I grew up ambidextrious. I would write with both hands equally. I'd start the sentence with my left, finish with my right. Well some teacher or other decided that it would ruin my sense of center if I continued and I was told I needed to pick a hand. Being the defiant little brat that I was I picked my left hand. I did this because it was different, I mean really...everyone else was right handed, why be like them? Ever since that fateful day I've loved being left handed (except when the spiral binding digs into my hand, or pencils...ooo I hate those!).

• Hand orientation is developed in fetuses, most commonly determined by observing which hand is predominantly held close to the mouth
•  In Hebrew, as well as in other ancient Semitic and Mesopotamian languages, the term "left" was a symbol of power or custody
• A left-handed individual may be known as a southpaw
• Chris McManus of University College London argues that the proportion of left-handers is increasing and left-handed people as a group have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers. He says that left-handers' brains are structured differently in a way that increases their range of abilities
• Stuttering and dyslexia occur more often in left-handers (particularly if they are forced to change their writing hand as a child, like King of England George VI).
• 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed
• 10% of the population around the world are left handed
• brain dominance makes left-handers more likely than right handers to be creative geniuses. This is supported by higher percentages of left-handers than normal in certain jobs and professions - music and the arts, media in general.
• The three candidates who ran in the 1992 U.S. presidential election, George Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot were all left-handed.
• More men are left handed than women
• Twins have a high percentage of lefthandedness
• Left handed person likely to die on average 9 years earlier than right handed counterparts (WELL THAT SUCKS!)

Its all about the benjamins

Money sucks. I hate it. Paying bills, paying rent, paying for groceries. What happened to the good old days where a rough and tough barter was good enough. A little I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine business. Seriously! Then what really sucks, as if we don't work hard enough for our money, is that the government and health insurance takes away about $300 or more each paycheck. I want my money back. I earned it! Looks like its time to really get started on this freelance stuff....oh wait, that's right my computer died....another $ 1000+  for a new one please.

• According to the Treasury Department, there are three reasons why US currency is green (the “greenback”):
• That color ink was readily available in large quantities back when they were first being printed
• It is highly resistant to chemical and physical changes
• It’s a color that the public identifies with strong and stable credit
• Most coins have a copper filling with another metal on the outside, usually a mix of copper and nickel (75/25). Pennies are made of zinc coated in copper and nickels are entirely that copper and nickel mix.
• With the exception of WW2, nickel has stayed the same material composition since it was first designed in 1866. It’s the only coin that has stayed the same.
• In 1804 were the values were engraved on coins
• “E Pluribus Unum” means “One from Many,” one country from many states.
• Queen Isabella of Spain was the first woman to appear on a US commemorative coin in 1893.
• The lifespan of a coin is thirty years, the lifespan of a bill is a mere 18 months.
• Bills today are 2.61″ wide by 6.14″ long with a thickness of 0.0043″.
• 95% of the bills printed each year are used to replace bills already in circulation.
• If you were to stack a million $1 bills, it would be around 361 feet high.
• It costs about 6.2 cents to print each bill (2007).
• Do you know why there are ridges on the edges of coins? Back in the day, when coins were made of gold and silver, people would shave off or clip the edges of the coins and then save the shavings for later. While illegal, it was difficult to catch because coins were always irregularly shaped because of poor manufacturing so the ridges helped in detecting that.
• The Treasury Department is looking to enhance the designs of bills every 7-10 years. This began with the $20 bill in October 2003.
• Money is the leading cause of disagreements in marriages
• Martha Washington is the only woman whose portrait has appeared on a U.S. currency note. It appeared on the face of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1886 and 1891, and the back of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1896.
• August of 1966, the two-dollar bill was officially discontinued; it was brought back to life in 1976.

these are not facts, but it is a fact that this convo really just happened....

Fact: This is what a slow day at work can do to a conversation.
me: (eye roll)
RichP: [grin and slams fist on desk]
me: (walks around the room stomping feet)
RichP: [throws stapler at the wall]
me: (retrieves stapler and starts a massive staple gun war - not a staple to spare)
RichP: [grabs keyboard cleaning spray ...and fires every can off at the same time]
me: (laura says "impossible you can't fire off every can at once there is only one of you!" then proceeds to block cleaning spray with rich's flat screen tv) (laura then unleashs her final weapon.....ZOEY with ninja stars....rich runs away in defeat)
RichP: [rich returns after his defeat]
me: (laura and zoey look at each other, confused on how rich would dare return after taking a hiss and ninja star to the left elbow)
RichP: [Rich snaps his fingers and the lights dim and a bright spot light shines brightly on his head as he proudly displays his secret weapon that makes him invinsible...even to crazy wacked out cats and sharp object...]
[drum roll please]
[Rich displays the secret weapon...which is....]
[drum continues to roll]
[and rolls]
me: (zoey and laura hide behind the couch)
RichP:  [FACTOR 8...[insert evil laugh]]
me: (laura and zoey give each other the "what the fuck" look because they've never heard of factor 8)
(used as a weapon)
RichP: With a loud voice Rich sings...
me: (zoey leaves and sits on laura's bed, she know laura has this in the bag)
RichP: [its his secret potion  to never be hurt...doesnt work against anyone else except for Pezzil]
me: (that's what you sing?)
RichP:: [more like a yodle]
me: (Laura's curiousity has peaked as to the melody of that sentence)
RichP: Rich says "can I have a note please?"
me: Laaaaa
RichP: different note
me: Fa
RichP: yup good [clears throat]
RichardP: iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiits hiiiiiiissssss seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecret potion toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo never be huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurt...doooooooooooooooooooesnt work against aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyone else except for Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzil
me: (the glass in the windows shatter)
RichardP: [takes a bow][roses are thrown on the stage]
me: (laura decides that after a vocal display such as that, she should step aside and allow rich global domination)
RichardP: WIN
WIN
WIN
[happily he wins and does the "I am the shit dance"]
me: (zoey decide that rich winning sucks and poops in his shoes as payback. bitch. )
RichardP: [rich decides he had enough of zoey and eats her for dinner]

K.I.S.S.I.N.G

1. The science of kissing is called philematology
2. Lips are 100 times more sensitive than the tips of the fingers. Not even genitals have as much sensitivity as lips
3. On July 5-6, 2005 a couple in London locked lips for 31 hours, 30 minutes, and 30 seconds, making it the longest kiss ever recorded
4. French kissing involves all 34 muscles in the face. A pucker kiss involves only two
5. The average person will spend an estimated 20,160 min kissing in their lifetime.
6. 50% of all people kiss have their first kiss before they are 14.
7. two-thirds of people turn their heads to the right when kissing
8.  The average woman kisses 29 men before she gets married.
9. A real kiss quickens your pulse to 100 beats in a minute
10. Most cultures in the world do kiss sexually. [But some] peoples in South America, some in the Himalaya Mountains, do not kiss. They find it revolting to exchange saliva
11. That rush you feel is probably from two natural stimulants -- dopamine and norepinephrine
12. every individual's lip print is unique in nature
13. in France, contrary to what people say, a French kiss isn't just called a kiss, but is called a tongue kiss or a soul kiss because it is said that if done properly, a French kiss feels like two souls merging
14. The first kiss ever shown in a movie was in 1896. The movie, was called The Kiss.

It's the LAW

I'm taking today's post directly from another site. I know its copying but I felt this was too good to pass up and I wanted to include everything. Thanks Random History Site! Today's topics is random laws because I was thinking about how ridiculous rules can be sometimes, be it at work or through the government.

**Many of these laws were established during the end of the 1800s and early 1900s, when the United States was rapidly changing from an agricultural to industrial nation. Some of the laws went out of date or were repealed. Many are still on the books but not enforced.

It is illegal for chickens to cross the road in Quitman, Georgia
1. In Quitman, Georgia, chickens may not cross the road.
2. Before 1920, it was illegal for women in the United States to vote. When women’s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony tried to vote in the 1872 election, she was arrested and fined $100.
3. It’s illegal to ride an ugly horse in Wilbur, Washington.
4. In Mohave County, Arizona, if anyone is caught stealing soap, he must wash himself with it until the soap is gone.
5. First cousins may marry in Utah, but only after they’re 65 years old.
6. In North Dakota, no one can be arrested on the Fourth of July, a holiday that is commonly known there as “Five Finger Discount Day.”
7. In Tennessee, it is illegal for children to play games on Sunday without a license.
8. It is illegal in Tennessee for an atheist to hold office.
9. In Indiana, it is illegal for a man to be sexually aroused in public.
10. It is illegal in California to lick toads. Apparently, some people were licking toads to get high. Unfortunately, some people were being harmed by the toads’ poison.
11. It is against Michigan state law to tie a crocodile to a fire hydrant.
12. An old Colorado law states that a person mush have a doctor’s prescription before taking a bath.
13. Colorado law states that a man cannot marry his wife’s grandmother.
14. In Kansas, when two trains meet at a crossing, “both shall come to full stop and neither shall start up again until the other has gone.”
15. A woman in a housecoat is forbidden to drive a car in California.
16. According to Minneapolis law, a person who double parks a car will be put on a chain gang with only bread and water to eat.
In Michigan, husbands legally own their wives’ hair
17. In Michigan, a woman’s hair belongs to her husband.
18. In Morrisville, Pennsylvania, it is illegal for a woman to wear cosmetics without a permit.
19. A man is forbidden to kiss a woman while she’s asleep in Logan County, Colorado.
20. In Challis, Idaho, it is illegal to walk down the street with another man’s wife.
21. Flirting in little Rock, Arkansas, can land someone in jail for 30 days.
22. In Truro, Mississippi, a man must prove himself worthy before getting married by hunting and killing either six blackbirds or three crows.
23. There are still laws in Pueblo, Colorado, stating that it is illegal to grow dandelions.
24. A woman in Memphis, Tennessee, is not allowed to drive a car unless man is in front of the car waving a red flag to warn people and other cars.
25. It is illegal for children under the age of 12 to talk on the telephone unless accompanied by a parent in Blue Earth, Minnesota.
26. In Kalispell, Montana, children must have a doctor’s note if they want to buy a lollipop.
27. A representative from Oklahoma, Linda Larsen attempted to lower the divorce rate by proposing a law that would require the following requirements before a marriage license would be issued: neither party should snore, at least one meal a week should be prepared by the non-primary cook, toothpaste should be squeezed from the bottom of the tube, pantyhose shouldn’t be left hanging in the shower, and the toilet seat should always be down when not being used.
Men with mustaches are forbidden to kiss women in Eureka, Nevada
28. In Eureka, Nevada, it is illegal for men who have mustaches to kiss women.
29. It is illegal in Waco, Texas, to throw a banana peel onto the street because a horse could slip.
30. In Texas, the Encyclopedia Britannica was banned because it contained a formula for making beer.
31. Pickles were outlawed in Los Angeles because the smell might offend people.
32. It’s illegal in St. Louis, Missouri, for a fireman to rescue a woman wearing a nightgown. If she wants to be rescued, she must be fully clothed.
33. Hartford, Connecticut, banned men from kissing their wives on Sundays.
34. Buying ice cream on Sundays was illegal in Ohio because it was thought to be frivolous and “luxurious.” Consequently, ice cream vendors would put fruit on top of the ice cream to make it more nutritious, creating the ice cream sundae.
35. A woman wearing shorts, a halter-top, or bathing suit to a political rally in Wheatfield, Indiana, could be charged with a misdemeanor.
36. In Lander, Wyoming, it is illegal for adults to take a bath more than once a month once the cold weather arrives. Children cannot take a bath at all during the winter.
37. According to Florida law, anyone who takes a bath must wear clothes.
38. Motorists in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, cannot park a car for more than two hours unless it is hitched to a horse.
39. Women in Whitesville, Delaware, could be charged with disorderly conduct if they propose marriage to a man.
40. In Kentucky, it is against the law to remarry the same man four times.
41. It is against the law for a husband to beat his wife on the courthouse steps on a Sunday.
42. In Arizona, oral sex is considered sodomy.
43. In Arizona, a man may legally beat his wife once a month, but no more.
A girl may not ask a boy for a date over the phone in Dyersburg, Tennessee
44. In Dyersburg, Tennessee, it is against the law for girl to telephone a boy to ask for date.
45. In Kentucky, a woman is forbidden to wear a bathing suit on a highway unless she is armed with a cub or is escorted by at least two officers. The amendment says that the provisions of this statue “shall not apply to a female weighing less than 90 pounds or exceeding 200 pounds.”
46. According to an Atlanta, Georgia, ordinance, “smelly people” are not allowed to ride public streetcars.
47. Massachusetts passed a law on 1648 that allowed a parent to put to death a stubborn or rebellious son. The law has been repealed by the legislature.
48. In Massachusetts, a person could be fined up to $200 for denying the existence of God.
49. In 1659, Massachusetts outlawed Christmas. According to state law, anybody observing Christmas would be fined five shillings.
50. In California, ostrich steaks are exempt from state sales tax.
51. In Lexington, Kentucky, it is against the law to carry an ice cream cone in a pocket.
52. Policemen are allowed to bite a dog if they think it will calm the dog down in Paulding, Ohio.
53. In Zeigler, Illinois, only the first four firemen to arrive at a fire will be paid.

Seeing Red today

So I've always wanted red hair, just like Ariel in the little mermaid. She was so pretty, for a while I was mad at my mom when I was little for not naming me Ariel. Now I've come to terms with my generic name, but I've always thought she was so pretty. I tried for red hair once, and while it was fun, it definitely wasn't for me.

• Approximately 1-2% of humans, or about two in 100 people in the world, have red hair
• Ancient Greeks thought redheads turned into vampires when they died (if this means I can live with edward cullin sign me up!)
• Red hair doesn’t gray as much as other hair colors. Red hair initially tends to turn blond and then white
• According to Hamburg sex researcher Dr. Werner Habermehl, women with red hair have more sex than women with other hair colors. He also postulates that women in a relationship who dye their hair red may be signaling that they are unhappy and looking for something better
• Red hair is a recessive trait, which means that a child must inherit one red hair gene from each parent. Recessive traits often come in pairs, and redheads are more likely than other people to be left handed
• In ancient Rome, redheaded slaves were often more expensive than those with other hair color
• While Scotland has the highest proportion (13%) of redheads (followed by Ireland with 10%), the United States has the largest population of redheads in the world, with between 6-18 million redheads, or 2-6% of the population
• “Gingerphobia” is a fear of redheads. “Gingerism” is the bullying or prejudice of redheads

"When you dream, what do you dream about? Do you dream about falling stars..."

Dreams are awesome. Sometimes we remember them and sometimes we don't and some are so vivid that we can't help but be intrigued to google dream definitions. There are all kinds of sites dedicated to looking up symbols in dreams. I don't usually remember mine, but I have a few that are so striking that I remember them now years and years later. The great thing about dreams is a lot of it is up to the dreamer's unconscious self. I wonder what mine is trying to tell me. I don't really remember them though.

• You cannot snore and dream at the same time
• Adults dream off and on, for a total of about an hour and half to three hours every night
• By the time we die, most of us will have spent a quarter of a century asleep, of which six years or more will have been spent dreaming—and almost all of those dreams are forgotten upon waking up
• The average person has about 1,460 dreams a year
• The longest dreams (30-45 minutes) occur in the morning
• The scientific study of dreams is known as oneirology
• One West African group, the Ashanti, take dreams so seriously that they would allow a husband to take legal action against another man if that man had an erotic dream about his wife
• Dreams of losing teeth or having teeth extracted can signify many things, including fears of helplessness or of some sort of loss in one’s life. Women experience more teeth dreams than men. ( I GET THIS ONE ALL THE TIME! Its SO creepy, in the dream my teeth crumble..yuck)
• Because nightmares were thought to be from menacing spirits, such as witches, folklore suggests placing a knife under the foot of the bed. Evil spirits were thought to be repelled by the steel on the knife
• Falling dreams typically occur at the beginning of the night, in Stage I sleep. These dreams are often accompanied by muscle spasms, called myoclonic jerks, and are common in many mammals
• After the printing press was invented, a dream dictionary called Oneirocritica (The Interpretation of Dreams) by second-century author Artemidorus Daldianus became one of the first best-sellers, comparable only to the Bible in popularity
• Hypnagogic hallucinations are dreamlike images and sounds that may occur just as a person is falling asleep or waking up
•  First-born females tend to have more aggressive characters in their dreams
• Night terrors, or parasomnia, are not the same as nightmares. They are episodes of extreme panic that occur in early sleep and affect from 1%-4% of children between the ages of four and 12. Night terrors are rare in adults and most often occur in those who abuse drugs or alcoholic or have a sleep disorders such as apnea
• Lucid dreaming occurs when there is a state of partial or complete awareness during the dream state. Researchers have begun to explore the possibility of using lucid dreaming for the treatment of nightmares and other therapeutic purposes. An oneironaut is someone who lucidly dreams. The first reference to lucid dreaming is Aristotle’s On Dreams
• When deprived of dreams, individuals become irritable and disoriented, hallucinate, and show signs of psychosis. They will also dream excessively the first chance they get in a phenomenon known as “REM rebound"

The Who Dunnit Board Game!

I grew up in a game family. We'd have dinner and then play board or card games around the table. Its always been a favorite past time of mine and something I plan on taking with me when one day I have a family.  One of my favs is clue. I always play miss scarlet. Also I follow the rules exactly and usually always win. Once when playing with some friends the guys took these meticulous notes, I can't even imagine what they were writing down, but of course they lost. Anyways... FACTS!

• Clue is the only board game that has had a movie made following its plot.
• During development, the following weapons were proposed to be in the Clue game: the dagger, revolver, rope, bomb, an axe, lead pipe, candlestick, spanner, poison and a hypodermic syringe.
• The Clue board game is available in over 40 countries including Japan and China.
• Mr. Green is only used in the North American versions of Clue who replaces the original Reverend Green.
• "Cluedo" was the original name of Clue before it was changed to "Clue" when Parker Brothers bought it in 1949.
• An unauthorized variation of Clue has been developed that is an Evangelical Christian board game called Mystery Museum where the goal is to discover who stole an artifact while learning about the Bible.
• During the concept stage, the mansion included a "gun" room, but this was later removed because it was thought to be too elitist.
• Devised by Anthony E. Pratt, a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham, England.

 

O christmas tree O christmas tree... la-la-la-la la la-la

Last night was very special. Epic might be the more crucial word. My roommate and I put up our first christmas tree. I managed to do a few very important first christmas tree things....1. I hugged it. 2. I got sap all over my hands; they'll never be the same again (sticky fingers!) and 3. I decorated it with friends by a not-so-open fire. It was great and really fun. Even though I am not really religious myself, the tree thing and sense of tradition and family is what's most important. Plus my house is by far the coolest on the block.

• There are approximately 25-30 million Real Christmas Trees sold in the U.S. every year
• North American Real Christmas Trees are grown in all 50 states and Canada. Eighty percent (80%) of artificial trees worldwide are manufactured in China, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
• It can take as many as 15 years to grow a tree of typical height (6 - 7 feet) or as little as 4 years, but the average growing time is 7 years.
• The top Christmas Tree producing states are Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington
• The Christmas Tree concept was originated in Germany, a Fir tree was used starting in the 16th century, however documents placed the tree starting in the 15th century in Estonia
• An angel or star is often placed at the top of the tree, representing the host of angels or the Star of Bethlehem from the Nativity
• The tradition of the Christmas tree as it is today known is fairly young. It was established by Martin Luther as a Protestant counterpart to the Catholic Nativity scene. Luther established the Christmas tree as a symbol of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden
• According to the first documented uses of a Christmas tree in Estonia, in 1441, 1442, and 1514 the Brotherhood of the Blackheads erected a tree for the holidays in their brotherhood house in Reval (now Tallinn). At the last night of the celebrations leading up to the holidays, the tree was taken to the Town Hall Square where the members of the brotherhood danced around
• The term Charlie Brown Christmas tree is used in the United States and Canada to describe any poor-looking or malformed little tree
• In 2005, the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport removed all of its Christmas trees in the middle of the night rather than allow a rabbi to put up a menorah near the largest tree display

Australian Facts

There are often days where we sit at work and think...where would I rather be...??? Today its Australia. Why not?! It has beautiful landscapes, cool animals and of course lovely accents. I'd like to be there today. Its rainy here. I'm bored at my desk and my big afternoon activity is refreshing sodas in the conference room. Seriously. I can't make this shit up. So here is to Australia. Cheers to you because you're so much better than here.

• There are 1500 species of australian spiders (fucking sick dude! Maybe I am not going to australia!)
• Australia has the world's largest population of wild camels with one hump
• The Tasmanian Devil does exist, and it has the jaw strength of a crocodile
• There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia, and only some 20 million people
• Australia has the world's largest cattle station (ranch). At 30,028 km² it is almost the same size as Belgium
• We call Australian's from Queensland "banana benders", and people from Western Australia "sandgropers"
• The Great Barrier Reef has a mailbox. You can ferry out there and send a postcard, stamped with the only Great Barrier Reef stamp
• The Australian Alps, or Snowy Mountains as they are also known, receive more snow than Switzerland
• The Sydney Opera House roof weighs more than 161,000 tons
• The Great Barrier Reef is the largest organic construction on earth
• In 1954 Bob Hawke made it into the Guinness Record Book: he sculled 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds. Bob Hawke went on to become the Prime Minister of Australia

sweet and a vegetable?

Sweet potatoes (sometimes called yams) have always been a mystery to me...they are a vegetable, but their sweet, and then the way people cook them....fries, with marshmellows, in a pie, its very odd. I was going to write about airplanes today since I'm about to head out to BWI to make my way home to kansas for the holiday, but this post was my first topic request...how could I say no? :)

• Sweet potatoes Ipomoea batatas  belonging to the family Convolvulaceae
• Some parts of the genus Ipomoea include garden flowers called morning glory
• Sweet potatoes originated in South America
• Countries where sweet potatoes are ate as a staple food: New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Uganda
• North Carolina leads the U.S. for sweet potato production
• The sweet potato is ranked the highest vegetable for nutritional value and ranked 184 points, 100 points more than the next vegetable on the list (the common potato) 
• The first record of the name "sweet potato" is found in the Oxford English Dictionary of 1775
• Yams are actually related to grasses and lillies, sweet potatoes are a distant cousin of the potato

Converse are for .....JOCKS!

Everyone who knows me can attest that I love my converse sneakers. They are grey, have a star on them and are the ultimate in wannabe hipster fashion. I'm not a hipster, but I love these shoes and crazily enough I've snuck into work today in jeans and my converse and couldn't be more excited about it.

• Marquis Mill Converse opened the first converse rubber shoe company in Malden, MA in 1908
• The company's main turning point came in 1917 when the Converse All-Star basketball shoe was introduced, before they specialize in winterized rubber soled shoes
• Basketball Player, Charles H "Chuck" Taylor came in complaining of sore feet and got a job as a salesman, he worked there the rest of his life and his signature is now on the all star patch
• Converse was bought out by Nike, Inc. for $305M
• "The Weapon" was a basketball shoe designed to match team colors in high and low tops; it is unique because it was made with leather and a high padded heel for ultimate comfort
•  Converse All Stars were the first mass production basketball shoe in America
• Chuck Taylor was himself known to prefer unbleached white high-tops
• Chuck Taylor also managed to become the army's fitness consultant during WWII. Soon after that, white high tops became the “official” shoe for the United States armed forces
• All-Stars became popular again in the '90s to fans of the world as famous grunge-punk band Nirvana

Turkey day is approaching

With thanksgiving approaching, there is no post more appropriate than one about turkey facts. I think we have a lot to learn about our feathered friends today. And yes, this is post #2 today, its a slow work day. :)

• The domestic turkey is a descendant of the Wild Turkey and features prominently in the menu of the U.S. and Canadian holidays of Thanksgiving and that of Christmas in many countries.
•  fleshy protuberance that hangs from the top of its beak called a snood.
• Turkeys are by far the largest birds in the open forests in which they live
• The name given to a group of turkeys is a rafter
• Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the wild turkey, not the Bald Eagle, the national bird of the United States
• A case of mistaken identity resulted in the American Turkey being named after the country.  When the Spanish first found the bird in the Americas more than 400 years ago they brought it back to Europe. The English mistakenly thought it was a bird they called a "turkey" so they gave it the same name. This other bird was actually from Africa, but came to England by way of the Turkey (lots of shipping went through Turkey at the time). The name stuck even when they realized the birds weren't the same.

"can I come spoon with you"

There is something about spooning that lots of people love, the intimacy, the feeling of being protect or just knowing you're not alone in this world.  Well spooning has become not enough, what if you don't have someone to spoon with? The world has to thank Reid and Marcia for inventing the cuddle party. Now I'll admit I have not tried this, and frankly, will probably NEVER try this, but it is definitely an interesting view of our society and how we break the touch barriers with strangers.
 

Cuddle Party

• Reid Mihalko and Marcia Baczynski, a pair of self-described "relationship coaches" in New York City, founded Cuddle Party in New York on February 29, 2004
• A cuddle party is an event designed with the intention of allowing people to experience non-sexual group physical intimacy through cuddling. Cuddle parties are described by organizers as "workshop/social-events" that gives adults an opportunity to "give and receive welcomed affectionate touch in a no-expectation, friendly setting, according to your needs, desires, interests, and boundaries."
• Cuddle parties are described as non-sexual events but kissing may occur at some parties
• "Cuddle-buddies" are almost always ongoing relationships after being formed from prior relationships

Cuddle Party Rules: From the official website

1. Pajamas stay on the whole time.

2. No SEX. (Yep, you read that right.)

3a. Kissing and nuzzling, as well as other forms of touch, are allowed, but you must ask permission and receive a verbal YES before you touch anyone.

3b. You don't have to cuddle anyone at a Cuddle Party, ever.

4. If you're a yes, say YES. If you're a no, say NO.

5. If you're a maybe, say NO.

6. You are encouraged to change your mind from a yes to a no, or a no to a yes anytime you want.

7. NO DRY HUMPING!

8. If you're in a relationship, communicate and set your boundaries and agreements BEFORE you go to the Cuddle Party. Don't re-negotiate those agreements/boundaries during the Cuddle Party. (Trust us on this one.)

9. Get your Cuddle Lifeguard On Duty or Cuddle Caddy if there's a concern, problem, or question or should you feel unsafe or need assistance with anything during the Cuddle Party.

10. Crying and giggling are both welcomed and encouraged.

11. Please be respectful of other people's privacy when sharing with the outside world about Cuddle Parties and DO NOT GOSSIP.

12. Arrive on time.

13. Be hygienically savvy.

14. Keep the cuddle space tidy and pick up after yourself.

15. Always say thank you and practice good Cuddle Manners.

Ikea - love to hate them

So as everyone knows a trip to ikea holds a lot in store...cheap furnishings, expensive furniture that eventually will break either because you made it wrong/a skrew is lose/there isn't real wood involved. You also get the amazing lunch for $3 (2 hotdogs, back of chips and a soda + frozen yougert). There are a million and 1 options there and all for a good price, yet when you get home what you bought never seems to really replicate what the display room they showed you. And with that said, lets gain some insight...

• Ikea began in 1943 in the small village of Agunnaryd in Sweden.
• The founder, Ingvar Kamprad, was only 17
• In the end of 2010 there were 313 IKEA chain stores in 38 countries
• Countries with the top five sales were: Germany 16%, USA 11%, France 10%, UK 7%, and Italy 7%.
• Ikea has 12,000 home furnishing articles
• Ingvar Kamprad who invented the name IKEA by taking the first initial of his first and last name (IK) and adding the first initial of the farm and village where he was raised (Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd). Together the name IKEA was born.

Most interesting the IKEA NAMING SYSTEM - How do they come up with those funny names?

IKEA products are identified by single word names. Most of the names are Swedish in origin. Although there are some notable exceptions, most product names are based on a special naming system developed by IKEA.^[

• Upholstered furniture, coffee tables, rattan furniture, bookshelves, media storage, doorknobs: Swedish placenames (for example: Klippan)
• Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian place names
• Dining tables and chairs: Finnish place names
• Bookcase ranges: Occupations
• Bathroom articles: Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays
• Kitchens: grammatical terms, sometimes also other names
• Chairs, desks: men's names
• Materials, curtains: women's names
• Garden furniture: Swedish islands
• Carpets: Danish place names
• Lighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, nautical terms
• Bedlinen, bed covers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones
• Children's items: mammals, birds, adjectives
• Curtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical terms
• Kitchen utensils: foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptions
• Boxes, wall decoration, pictures and frames, clocks: colloquial expressions, also Swedish place names

Ballet - The nutcracker

• 57 people work backstage to coordinate the scenery, lighting, and costumes during each performance.
• 150 costumes appear onstage in each performance
• Between 600 and 700 lighting instruments are used in the stage lighting for the production
• The Sugarplum Fairy’s tutu is made of 7 layers of tulle.
• The giant Christmas tree grows to a full height of 41 feet and weighs 1 ton.
• The Dewdrop costume is adorned with 65 crystal “dewdrops.”
• Mother Ginger’s skirt is supported by a 40-pound metal frame.
• Approximately 50 pounds of paper confetti fall onto the stage to create the snowstorm.
• There are 144 jingle bells on each of the Candy Cane costumes
• At its premiere in Russia in 1892,The Nutcracker was considered a failure by the public and critics. Tschaikovsky died less than a year later, not knowing what a huge international success the ballet would later become

What's a wino to do?

Today some friends and I went to the vineyard and it was absolutely beautiful, there probably are few things better in life than cornhole and wine tastings. I am hardly a wino, but their wines weren't bad at all. I am so sad that its going to be too cold soon to go to the vineyards, in fact, I'm mourning the end of warm weather in general.

• The smell of young wine is called an “aroma” while a more mature wine offers a more subtle “bouquet
• An Italian study argues that women who drink two glasses of wine a day have better sex than those who don’t drink at all ( hells yes! Now these are stats I can get behind)
• California, New York, and Florida lead the United States in wine consumption
• The wreck of the TITANIC holds the oldest wine cellar in the world and despite the depth and wreckage, the bottles are still intact
• As late as the mid-17th century, the French wine makers did not use corks. Instead, they used oil-soaked rags stuffed into the necks of bottles.
• 170 years is the average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels (might as well sit back and enjoy a glass while waiting)

Harry Potter Opens Today!

Due to the widespread Potter-Mania that is sweeping our beloved nation today, it seems only fitting to do today's random facts about the Harry Potter Series. I know I'm going to see the new movie, are you?!

• A picture of Gandalf the Grey (from The Lord of the Rings) can be seen in the collection of great wizards in Professor Dumbledore’s study in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
• Rowling is the first person to become a billionaire (U.S. dollars) by writing books
• The actress who played Moaning Myrtle is actually 37 years old and is the oldest actress to portray a Hogwarts student.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released on July 21, 2007, and sold 11 million copies on the first day of its release
• Colors play an important role in the Harry Potter novels. For example, shades of red represent goodness, such as Gryffindor’s scarlet robes, Harry’s red ink, and the crimson Hogwarts Express train. The Weasleys have red hair and a red roof. Green is largely associated with negative events, such as when Harry sees a flash of green when his parents die and the green-colored curse that made Ron vomit (not so sure about this one, but I'll go with it)
• Harry’s birthday is July 31, 1980. Rowling’s birthday is also July 31—but in 1966
• Voldemort’s wand is made of yew. Yew is seen by some as having immense supernatural power and being a symbol of death and rebirth, the same immortality that Voldemort seeks.
• Albus Wulfric Percival Brian Dumbledore is Dumbledore’s full name. Dumbledore is an Old English word meaning “bumblebee.”

For more facts visit: http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/05/24_harry-potter.html

Starting a Blog

So my roommate said I should start a blog and post a random fact every day. I tend to know the randomest things and maybe by sharing you'll all get to find out something new as well. I'm going to try to start doing this by posting 2-3 random facts daily and go from there. They'll be completely random and will just be there for your trivia knowledge. I will promise to try to be as accurate as possible, but I'll let you all know now that anything I post will be coming from other (hopefully) reliable internet webites.

 

Enjoy!!!

 

With today's theme our statistics are about Blogs!

 

• 95% of blogs are abandoned  (I seriously hope this won't be the case with me...I'll opt for calendar reminders every morning on outlook)
• There are anywhere between 7-10million blogs on the internet, only 50-100,000 of these generate followings
• 77% of internet users read blogs
• 1 in 5 bloggers update on a daily basis (eeek I guess I'm going to be that 1)
• 2/3rds of bloggers are male