I'm a sweet ride ;o)

Take the old car test

(via: Cyber Chocolate)

My arm is getting tired!

Check out my avatar or make one of your own!

I want this

(etsy seller: BusyBeaver)

Thought for the day

(image credit: h.koppdelaney)

"Life is rather like a tin of sardines — we're all of us looking for the key." ~ Alan Bennett

I could wash my hair, shave my legs, AND write a haiku

AquaNotes Waterproof Shower Notepads (via: Incredible Things)

I’m always thinking of brilliant things in the shower, but by the time I get out and towel off, my ideas have usually followed my shampoo bubbles to oblivion.

Sick

(via: The Poptimist)

It makes perfect sense now

(via: Bits & Pieces)

I actually saw a kid at Child's middle school who combined the baggy pants look with the skinny jeans look. He had on skin-tight stovepipe jeans, but he had the waist wedged down around his ass crack with boxer shorts mushroomed over the top. The poor kid walked like a mermaid!

Thursday thirteen: 13 questions for you to ponder

These thought-provoking questions are from 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind.

These questions have no right or wrong answers.

Because sometimes asking the right questions is the answer.

1. If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?

2. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?

3. If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?

4. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?

5. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? What’s holding you back?

6. Have you been the kind of friend you want as a friend?

7. Would you rather lose all of your old memories, or never be able to make new ones?

8. Do you remember that time 5 years ago when you were extremely upset? Does it really matter now?

9. When was the last time you marched into the dark with only the soft glow of an idea you strongly believed in?

10. If you knew that everyone you know was going to die tomorrow, who would you visit today?

11. If we learn from our mistakes, why are we always so afraid to make a mistake?

12. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?

13. In 5 years from now, will you remember what you did yesterday? What about the day before that? Or the day before that?

Read the rest of the questions at 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind.

Join in the fun at Thurday thirteen!

Thought for the day

(image credit: Allie Wojtaszek)

"A day without laughter is a day wasted." ~ Charlie Chaplin

Get off my lawn you kids!

Great. First the internet thought I was a guy (see here and here). Now it thinks I’m practically a senior citizen!

Find out how old the AgeAnalyzer thinks you are based on your blog.

A bear of very little brain

(image via: BibliOdyssey)

"If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together.. there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart.. I’ll always be with you." ~ Winnie the Pooh

Happy Winnie the Pooh Day!

But I'm not the only one

The book test

This is two good not too share :o)

(via: Shoebox Blog)

It's a Google world

(via: wordboner)



Brooklyn-based textile artist Elodie Blanchard sums up our Google-happy age with her clever limited-edition cushions that are screen-printed with the top ten Google searches of the year.



A beautifully crafted set of four tea towels sporting a series of authentic search engine results returned to a user when the criteria, 'Please Help Me', 'Is Anybody there?', 'Please listen to me' and, 'Can you hear me?' were entered into the search field.



Mystery Seeker is a bit spooky, a bit social, and FULL of surprises. Enter a search term in this engine and you'll get back somebody else's Google search results.

It's a nifty way to find out what other people are looking for on the web — and a cool spin of the online roulette wheel.



Wait, that says "Google"?! — A gallery of Google's most obscure doodles.



Ever wonder how Google actually works? It turns out there's actually a librarian inside your search!
(via: The Poptimist)


[YouTube link]

Previously on The Thinks I Think:
All praise the Google!
Montage-a-google
The Earth says hello
My job is...

********************

The thinks I thought a year ago:
Farewell Facebook

Thursday thirteen: 13 alternative uses for hand sanitizer

With the whole H1N1 kerfuffle, the powers that be at my office decided it would be a good idea to distribute big bottles of hand sanitizer to all employees. I have to hand it to them (heheh), they gave us some pretty potent stuff — it's 70% alcohol!

It pumps out as a weird foamy mess, it stings like hell when it comes into contact with skin, and it emits such a gawdawful pungent odor I can tell when someone two cubicle rows away from me is in a bacteria killing mood.

One co-worker innocently (and hilariously) remarked, "I don’t like to use it because it makes food taste funny."

Since the sanitizer is only marginally suitable for its intended purpose, G and I put our heads together and came up with 13 other uses for the stinking foam of death:

1. Wash your desk (or your driveway).

2. Spike your morning coffee (it's seventy percent alcohol!).

3. Clean your computer screen (or your windshield).

4. Substitute it for pepper spray (dig that pump action!).

5. Clean non-permanent markers off whiteboards (bonus: it even removes PERMANENT marker!).

6. Sprinkle some on your salad at lunchtime (you don't want to sober up too much in the middle of the day).

7. Remove mud from your dress shoes (careful, it also removes the leather).

8. Clear up oily skin (it works better than ProActiv). Caution: see #7

9. Sniff it for a magic marker-style buzz.

10. Bleach your laundry.

11. Speed up a slow-to-ignite barbecue (or torch a building).

12. Spike your afternoon Red Bull.

13. Start a hand sanitizer fight (dig that pump action!).

You wanna know the best thing of all about the hand sanitizer? ...

FREE REFILLS!!

Join in the fun at Thurday thirteen!

Thought for the day

(image credit: Stitch)

"You cannot cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water." ~ Tagore

The practical alternative to work

(via: The Poptimist)

Around the office

Whoa, it's only the beginning of January and look what's in the recycle box!



I guess it's been a tough year already.



I had to remove the kit from the cupboard to get a Bandaid. Shhhh, don't tell.



Every time I read this box it makes me think "sit and spin." Probably because that's what I feel like saying to certain frustrating co-workers.



You'd think adults wouldn't need to be reminded ... but you'd be wrong.



My favorite part is the instruction to "pay special attention to the areas of the hand most frequently missed." It's about as vague and non-specific as it can possibly be. Perfect for my office.

And since when can "handwash" be used in this context? The definition of handwash is "to launder by hand rather than by washing machine." Appropriate for lingerie. Not so much for hands.

********************

The thinks I thought a year ago
Out to lunch

Happy Monday

Today is Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day!

Go on. You know you want to.

********************

The thinks I thought a year ago:
Instruction manual for life

How pathetic is it that I spent Saturday night chatting with a robot?

Cleverbot is an Artificial Intelligence program that will chat with you, basing its answers on prior conversations it's had with other people.

That doesn't mean it spews random words and phrases at you though. It will actually give a clever response based on your input (hence the name "Cleverbot"). Then everything you say to it gets added to its memory and it learns from you as well.

A word of warning: Cleverbot isn't necessarily worksafe.

Cleverbot is a lot like a child. It learns from the people it interacts with, so some of the words it has learned may be inappropriate.

(via: Neatorama)

That reminds me

Fridge note

Dear Future Child,

Remember to call Grammie and Grampie to thank them for the Christmas presents and wish them a Happy New Year.

Love, Child

********************

Voicemail

Hi Daddy, it's Child. I just wanted to let you know we're out of cottage cheese. Well, we still have some, but it expires today and I don't know what time today, so you might want to get some more.

'kay, bye.

The softer side

Husband is currently reading Hitler ... with a bunny bookmark.



********************

The thinks I thought 2 years ago:
Twisted trailers

A tale of survival

I survived my first Webless Wednesday! I expected that I'd spend the day feeling deprived, or worse, suffer the internet equivalent of the DTs. But I didn't. And I was pleasantly surprised.

I actually accomplished a lot "sans web." At work I was able to finish up some reporting for a client. I also got started on building a SharePoint intranet site for my team. Of course I had to use my computer but I was able to stay off the world wide web for the most part, so I counted it as a win.

At lunchtime I relaxed and read a book instead of blurfing like I usually do.



When I got home at the end of the day, I plunged into another book: Under the Dome by Stephen King. I've been reading it since Christmas Day. It's not that I'm an especially slow reader, it's just that it's over 1000 pages long.

Plus, it's a hardcover. I swear, I can barely lift it, it's so big! And at the same time, I can't bear to put it down. It's such a fantastic story ... intense, layered, captivating. Part of me is anxious to get to the end so I'll know how it all works out, and another part of me hopes it never ends so I can continue to savor it.

One thing has been bugging me, though. If you've read Under the Dome, can you please answer this for me (without telling me any spoilers)?

If Joe's family didn't have a generator (which it says right in the book), how was Joe able to stay on the internet all night after the power was cut off? The book says he had extra batteries for his laptop, but how were his modem and/or router powered? We had a power outage at our house over the holidays and no juice meant no internet. Was Joe logging on some other way that I haven't thought of?

Thursday thirteen: Happy birthday, Elvis!

"Every time I think that I'm getting old, and gradually going to the grave, something else happens." ~ Elvis Presley

Tomorrow would have been The King of Rock and Roll's 75th birthday, so today I give you 13 bits of Elvis trivia:

one
Until his late teens, Elvis was blond. As he got older his hair became darker and, by the time he had his hair cut for the army at age 22, its natural color was dark chestnut.

two
Elvis was a black belt in karate. He took up martial arts while fulfilling his military duties in Germany in 1958 and was awarded his black belt in 1960 before he returned to the United States. Elvis’s love of martial arts continued throughout his life.

three
Presley's entourage were known collectively as the Memphis Mafia. All members of the Memphis Mafia sported diamond and gold rings given to them by Elvis. Each ring had a thunderbolt emblem and the letters TCB imprinted on it. TCB stood for "Takin' Care of Business."

four
Elvis Presley recorded more than 600 songs in his music career, but didn’t write a single one of them. 18 of them were Billboard #1 songs: the first was "Heartbreak Hotel" in March 1956; the last, "Suspicious Minds" in September 1969.

five
In 1954, when he was cutting some early records at Sun Studios, Elvis auditioned for an amateur gospel quartet called the Songfellows. They turned him down. He went on to win three Grammy Awards — for his gospel recordings.

six
Some of The King's bejewelled jumpsuits weighed more than 25 pounds!

seven
Elvis Presley was originally considered for the Kris Kristofferson role in A Star Is Born (1976), but he had to turn it down because manager Tom Parker refused to give him permission to act in a movie where he wouldn't have top billing.



eight
Elvis owned a pet chimpanzee named Scatter. He also had numerous horses and dogs. His collie, Baba, even appeared alongside him in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966).

nine
Elvis was a direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln's great-great grandfather, Isaiah Harrison. He was also a distant cousin of Jimmy Carter.

ten
Presley only performed five concerts outside the United States — all in Canada in 1957. At the time of his death, he was planning a European tour. He only set foot on British soil once, when the plane taking him back to the United States from Germany had a two-hour stopover to refuel at Glasgow Prestwick airport.

eleven
Elvis collected marble statues of the Venus de Milo and Joan of Arc.

twelve
The day before he died Elvis tried to obtain a print of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, to show his daughter, Lisa Marie.

thirteen
Elvis Presley wore a cross, the Hebrew letter chai, and a star of David around his neck. "I don’t want to miss out on heaven due to a technicality," he said.

Join in the fun at Thurday thirteen!

Webless Wednesdays

I stumbled across a bit of internet flotsam yesterday that interested me:

I'm a big proponent of moderation, and there's one area in my life that's grossly out of balance. I'm going to try to go webless for a day a week (usually on Wednesdays) in the interest of my personal productivity (and possibly my sanity). When I came up with the idea, I thought it'd be fun to invite other people to go webless with me on Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, we could all share what we got done the day before. Simple! Just a group of friends and dotcomrades cheering each other on and supporting their creative (and not creative) endeavors. I invite you to join me.

Unfortunately it's from a website that no longer exists, called weblesswednesdays.com. I like the idea, though. I like it a lot.

I must confess, I'm a wee bit hooked on the internet. The first thing I do when I get home from work is turn on my computer. I check my email, I race through my RSS feeds, I comment on other people's blogs, I prepare upcoming blog posts, I check my site meter stats, I tweet ... and the list goes on and on. At the end of the evening Child has to remind me several times to shut off my computer just so we can read together.

The internet has taken over a huge part of my life and it's time for me to take some of it back.

I need to do something offline! So I've decided to give Webless Wednesdays a try, as a bit of an experiment. I'm looking forward to reading some books, writing in a journal, going for walks, learning how to use the Wii Fit ... heck, even watching TV (I received the first season of Magnum P.I. on DVD for Christmas!). Husband, Child and I even talked about making Wednesday our family game night.

I have to use the internet at work, but I vow to keep work internet to a minimum on Wednesdays. Home, however, will be a no internet zone for me on Wednesdays. That means no blogging, no tweeting, no emailing, no RSS feeds, no downloading from iTunes ... nothing.

If, for some reason, I must use the internet at home on a Wednesday I will try to make up for it on another day.

All right then, here goes. I start today. And you're welcome to join me if you like.

P.S. I wrote this post last night and scheduled it to publish this morning. So don't mind me, I'm not really here.

A is for Anticipation

A is for Anticipation by thesundaybest on Storybird

I'm smitten with this book ... and with Storybird, a site where writers and artists can collaborate to create fabulous stories like this one.

I can't help it

(via: wordboner)

Back at work today. Not very happy about it.

All praise the Google!

Click the comic to make it bigger.
(via: MakeUseOf)

Previously on The Thinks I Think:
So that's how Google street view works
Google knows everthing
Needful things

How am I supposed to sing along now?

(How It Should Have Ended ~ via: Miss Cellania)

I'm a poet and I know it

there once was a girl from nantucket
i've heard the first line many times
but i have no idea how it ends

I made this cool picture poem with FlickrPoet!

(via: MakeUseOf)

This will be my year

(via: Surviving the World)