The Fail Box

Assignment: The Annual Physics Pumpkin Drop

Purpose: To test the effects of acceleration and other physics stuff that I don’t understand.

Outcome: See for yoursef. You don’t have to be Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton to know what happens when Jonathan gets to play with water balloons and jello molds.

Happy Halloween!

today’s astounding google search term

“hillary clinton is a dude”

No kidding. Somehow, someone searched for that term and landed here. Welcome. While I can’t claim that we share a similar opinion of the senator, it’s pretty close.

Is there a perpetual full moon?

I do believe the news headlines are out of control–or rather, people who make the news are losing it.

Here’s a selection of the weirdness. I’m tempted to just watch reruns of Gilligan’s Island.

Voter Rolls Stuffed with Dead and Absent Registrants

Homeless Voters Can List Park Benches as Residents

TV Anchor Barbara West Blasted for Asking Biden Tough Questions, But her Tough Questioning of McCain Goes unnoticed

and finally:

Russia Offers Cuba Air Defence

What? WHAT? the Russians in Cuba? Again?

I don’t really want to be Chicken Little, but the sky is looking like a giant vortex and my brain is being sucked into a black hole. Suddenly, all that apocalyptic science-fiction that I read is starting to come true.

new Monday Musings…um…on Tuesday

When I was a kid, I used to watch my mom while she read her favorite books. In those very early days in the United States, she read dime novels in Spanish — some Corin Tellado stories that pre-dated the English-language Harlequin Romances. As her English improved, my mom graduated to reading Erma Bombeck’s columns, and later, the collected works.

Mom alternately laughed and cried as she read those vignettes. There is no doubt in my mind that my own writing was influenced by my mother’s appreciation for Bombeck’s ability to capture the joys and [hidden] pains of motherhood and family life. I have the sneaking suspicion that the Nobel Prize in Literature would not be as well-received as my having a small column in the local paper.

This realization delights me to no end, yet it speaks to a great truth about how subtly we are influenced by our parents and family. My mother didn’t have 300 channels of satellite radio, 1000 channels of on-demand TV, or endless hours on the internet; she had books to keep her company. Some of the moms I knew had hobbies like knitting, sewing, and crafts. Mine, it seemed, read. It’s no surprise that I grew up to be like my mother.

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Trick or Treat!

Precious little goblins, aren’t they?

Random weirdness…exactly how I like it!

So a few days ago I posted about how odd that I’m getting a lot of traffic for Hillary Clinton google searches. If I could include sounds effects here, I’d cue the sound of a record player scratching and stopping. Let’s just say, there’s no love lost between me and the Clintons. So, I was left pondering.

Then I thought that maybe I could entertain myself with just posting random things in my tags. It amused me, but it didn’t generate any more google seaches. Meanwhile, according to the site statistics, I’ve had a couple of hundred visitors looking for the senator from New York.

Tonight I literally choked on my coffee when I read the comment from Luis. He suggested “Nephilim skeletons.”

Ha! He’s brilliant. That, and when he actually posted about such a thing he must have had all kinds of weirdness pop up.

OK, Luis. I’m game. Let’s see what happens: nephilim skeletons! nephilim skeletons! nephilim skeletons! The worst thing that could happen is that Beetlejuice shows up.

I filled my tank. Wow!

First, let me just say that psychologically, I was incapable of filling my tank once I saw the cost go waaaaay past $60. I just couldn’t bear it. Consequently, I would fill up when I had half a tank.

Or worse, if I got down to a quarter tank, I’d only fill up half a tank. Shameful, really, but depressing!

And then, I did this Hooray!

Homecoming everywhere!

Centennial of the GaTech Band

Hip Hip Hurray! Or go Jackets! Or to hell with Georgia! Something like that!