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Friday, February 28, 2003
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Jeopardesque #27
Category: The Internet
Answer: The term 'cyberspace' was coined by the science-fiction writer William Gibson, in his debut novel 'Neuromancer' released in this year.
| Place cursor here for solution. | What is 1984? |
In case you're interested in this guy, here's a website about his books.
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9:41 AM :: link ::
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R U A.R.?
You might be A.R. if…
- Your closet is arranged by ROYGBIV
- Your pens are assorted alphabetically by make/model
- You have to eat your vegetables first, and then your meat (food chain order)
- When you get your change at a store, you make the person behind you in line wait until you’ve got your dead presidents all facing the same way in your wallet
- When at the gas pump, you ‘top off’ to make the total price end at a ‘0’ or a ‘5’
And finally… You're almost definitely A.R. if
- you read this list and say ‘He didn’t mention _____!’
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7:15 AM :: link ::
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Sunday, February 23, 2003
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I made a Funny
set scene: Meg is replying to an email from the UofH Honors College Newsletter Editor. The Editor had sent us an email requesting information about us and our wedding, since we were both Honors College members.
Meg: Your major was Radio & Television/Communications, right?
Bert: Yes
Meg: And was it a B.S. or a B.A.?
Bert: I think it was a B.A. You know, I really should know that, but all I can give you is an educated guess*
*Punchline
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5:32 PM :: link ::
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Fun with Bricks
Last night at Game Night, four of us played a game of wall-building. Check out my review on the games page. Which brings me to this week's Jeopardesque. If you get this one within 100 miles, I'll consider you correct. :) Enjoy.
Category: World Wonder
Answer: Although not a continuous wall, the Great Wall of China stretches this many miles.
| Place cursor here for solution. | What is about 1500 miles (2400 kilometers)? |
More info on the Great Wall of China
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Thursday, February 20, 2003
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Practical, Sane Advice for the Unlikely Event of a Terrorist Attack
I'm not saying that NOBODY is likely to be attacked. I am saying that I believe YOU, reading this right now, are more likely to get approved for zero percent financing on a new BMW Z4 than to be attacked by said terrorists. If it does happen, Sergeant First Class Red Thomas has some more level-headed advice than some of the stuff you'll find on ready.gov. And if you get that Z4, what would it take to let me borrow it for a Friday night date with my wife?
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Wednesday, February 19, 2003
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The Other Side of the Counter
Last night, I got the rare opportunity to find out how big event concessions work--first hand. Meg and I worked at the ESA, (now called the RBC Center, but I refuse to comply) serving at one of the main concession stands for the NC State v. Florida State Men's Basketball game.
The actual serving of the masses was pretty pleasurable. Unlike my telephone contact with the public, people seem nicer in person (or maybe it's a 'Southern thing?'). I found it satisfying to get the drink poured, filled to the rim, and serving with a smile. I enjoyed the challenge of getting the masses through the line during halftime.
However, the gruelling part was the post-production. With nobody to please but the 'team leader,' the floors had to be scrubbed, the spoilage wrapped, cups and other inventory counted, and money taken down to the dungeon. Then the long walk back to the parking lot, and going home, knowing that I had to be back at my real job in 12 hours. My hat's off to those who work 2 or even 3 jobs to make ends meet. I'm not saying I couldn't do it, but I don't think I'm at that point in my spiritual life yet where I'd have a great attitude throughout. Philippians 2:14-15 is MUCH easier to memorize than to internalize continually.
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Tuesday, February 18, 2003
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What do YOU want to do?
After reading this thread on Spielfrieks, it made me think about how we decide the next game when I have people over to our apartment. Basically, I suggest a game, and everybody says OK! Maybe it's due to the fact that I know the games, and they're willing to play almost anything. Other times, when people come over that are into the hobby, they will suggest a game and everybody pretty much says OK! Maybe that's due to the fact that there are very few games that I don't like to play (besides Monopoly, Trouble, Sorry, etc.). It sure beats the Jungle Book vulture problem (I don't know--whadda YOU wanna do?). I can sympathize with the author of this thread. On Thursday nights (when I play with 'gamers'), it sometimes takes us 20 minutes to decide on a game. We could have played CLANS in that amount of time! :P
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Sunday, February 16, 2003
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A Long, Long, Time Ago
Isn't it funny how conversations get started, or how a song gets in your head? On the way back from the gym, we were wondering what to eat for breakfast, which prompted us to ask if we had the ingredients for strawberry pancakes. I asked Meg if we had whip cream, and she said she bought some a long, long time ago. Then the song got in my head, which is appropriate for this time of year, since my friend Patrick's birthday was yesterday, and this is one of his favorite songs. Then I wanted to read all the lyrics, did a Google search, and found this website. It's quite interesting, especially to know that there's an "American Pie Historical Interpretive Digest" (APHID)!!
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Friday, February 14, 2003
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Valentine Jeopardesque
Category: Candy
Answer: In 1866, candy manufacturer NECCO made the first batch of these.
| Place cursor here for solution. | What are "Conversation Hearts" (once called "Motto Hearts")? |
According to NECCO, eight billion of these little candies are sold between January 1 and February 14.
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Happy Valentine's Day
I have kind of taken this week off from posting to the blog. However, new snowboarding pics are at the pic page. I went to Wintergreen near Charlottesville, VA for a ski/snowboarding trip with the Men's Systematic Theology group from my church. I had fun, but it wasn't easy. I'll post more later, including a trivia question, if I can think of one.
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Friday, February 07, 2003
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Games=Fun
Had fun at game night last night. I was able to stay 'til closing, so I got in 4 games, which is unusual in a Thursday night gaming session for me.
The games I played: TransAmerica, Thor, Clans, and Fist of Dragonstones. Much fun was had.
On the new one: Clans is a fun, quick abstract game with a theme. The concept is to score as many points as you can by making villages that contain your color. You do this by moving one or a group of huts to a neighboring region. Once an occupied region is isolated, a village is completed and points are scored. There are certain regions that have bonuses for particular land types of the completed villages. The bonus land types change as the game progresses, and there's always a 'bad' region, where nobody scores for that region except the person who isolated the huts. The interesting caveat is that nobody knows the color of their opponents. The game ends when a set number of villages have been completed. It has me very intrigued, and although I won, I really didn't have a great strategy except to pick up the extra points for making villages. This one goes by so quick, it makes you hunger for more. At least it did for me. Since it's relatively inexpensive and a short game, I will most likely be purchasing this gem. Extra bonus--Nice bits: wooden huts and a sturdy board
This brings us to this week's Jeopardesque:
Category: Games
Answer: An impossible score in Cribbage.
| Place cursor here for solution. | What is 19? |
Although I've never played the game, I learned this interesting fact from Spielfrieks
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1:59 PM :: link ::
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2 civilians talking about the war
Background: After placing the following pic up on this Blog ...
I showed it to my friend Shane and thus this conversation ensued...
shane: that's just wrong
isbert27: my preciousssss
shane: so we're saying the president is frodo?
isbert27: well, he's not invisible
isbert27: don't get me wrong, I have great respect for our president
isbert27: however, I don't believe we should be making pre-emptive war without hard evidence
isbert27: i read the summary of Powell's points for war
isbert27: it's not convincing
isbert27: and most of the UN is uncomfortable with this
shane: i disagree. we know he has these weapons. we know he will use them. should we wait 'til he does? u.n. resolution 1441 says "disarm or we'll disarm you" if the u.n. doesn't hold to a threat, then what good are they?
isbert27: if we know he has these weapons, then the inspectors will eventually find them
isbert27: send more inspectors
isbert27: then we will have a REAL reason to go to war
isbert27: we will have hard evidence
shane: sure... as long as the inspectors are wearing blue beret's and toting m-16's
shane: we have video of them test spraying chemicals from jet fighters... that's plenty of smoke from the gun
shane: we have pictures of them packing up trucks full of stuff and moving them out just ahead of the inspector's convoy
shane: hans blix has even lost patience w/ them
shane: only 2 countries in the e.u. arn't with us. france, who's been breaking sanctions w/ iraq, and germany, who's leadership has lost all credibility w/ the citizens
isbert27: if we have pictures of this suspicious behavior--and I agree that it is very suspect--then why can't we go the next step and follow the clues to find some of this stuff and take pics of the WMD?
shane: we have them
shane: look again at the pics from powell's speech
shane: and remember... that's just the stuff we declassified
isbert27: ok, I will look
isbert27: do you have a link?
shane: foxnews.com
isbert27: i am there
isbert27: what story?
shane: (Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77695,00.html)http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77695,00.html
isbert27: ok, I am looking at the satellite pic: 'Chemical Munitions stored at Taji' How do we know what these things are?
shane: cia
shane: if we show every card in our hand, operatives lose their lives
isbert27: i just sure hope they know what they're doing
isbert27: and that they're not lying to us
shane: war sucks... but sitting around doing nothing while a madman gathers more biologica, chemical, and (lord help us) nuclear weapons would suck worse
isbert27: you bet
isbert27: i agree with you there
shane: saddam's the one lying
shane: that's just TOO evident
isbert27: i don't trust Saddam as far as I can spit at him
isbert27: BUT
isbert27: I think that the burden of proof for going to war is HIGH
shane: nope
shane: the burden of proof, according to resolution 1441 is on him... not us
isbert27: you don't think so?
isbert27: so why now -- why wasn't anything done before, when he blatantly refused to cooperate?
shane: we knew in 91 he had wmd's... he's supposed to prove their gone or face u.n.'s wrath
shane: who was in charge before?
isbert27: i know, i know
shane: what happened w/ 9/11
isbert27: don't remind me
isbert27: but another thing that I am unclear about is
isbert27: how do you PROVE something's gone?
shane: show us the empty casings... document the process for disposing of the chemicals
shane: video
isbert27: if I asked you if you shredded the bank statement, how would you prove to me that you did it?
shane: show you shredded bank statements
shane: but we're not talking about paper here
isbert27: i know
isbert27: there's a lot about disposing of WMD's that I don't know about
isbert27: that's the problem with being a layperson :)
shane: show us the abandoned factory...
isbert27: how do we know these factories aren't empty?
isbert27: the ones we have satellite photos of?
isbert27: ok, you convinced me to take the pic down
isbert27: b/c I have respect for the man and pray for him
isbert27: i just have a problem with the US going alone into war as the agressor
isbert27: and I know that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
isbert27: makes sense
isbert27: no more 9/11
isbert27: i just hope the power doesn't go to the admin's head
shane: i'm not saying take the pic down
shane: pic's actually funny
shane: wrong, but funny
shane: and remember. we're NOT going alone
shane: we're going w/o france , germany, china
shane: russia's iffy, but EVERYONE else is w/ us
shane: and the power has effected his head... ever notice how much gray bush has developed in the last 2 years
shane: he's told insiders that he wakes up every morning and wonders "is this the day saddam's going to do it?"
shane: do what? do whatever's turning bush's hair white
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11:36 AM :: link ::
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Thursday, February 06, 2003
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Half Baked
Now, I have come across some dense people in my field of work, but only one comes CLOSE to this:
Baked Apple Story
It's not likely to be a hoax, since there are so many pictures of it. But whether it's true or not, it's dang funny!
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Wednesday, February 05, 2003
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A couple of Updates
Putting the digicam to good use, I have posted links to over a dozen pics at the Pic Archive page. Also, I have created a poll, through which you can express your distaste of modern impersonal nicknames. The idea for this poll came from a conversation I had with some coworkers the other day. Click on the POLL button at top right to participate. Have fun, buddies!
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Monday, February 03, 2003
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Sad Day
Our prayers are with the families of the astronauts lost on Saturday. May the peace of God be with you and comfort you.
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