monkey nonsense

update: chubacca- yup, i did get 2 games but they were on the same charge (the $50something charge i already identified as eb games)

hrm yeah… about the credit fraud protection, i guess maybe most people might have difficulty remembering where they spent it (like i did) but they’ll usually remember that they DID in fact spend the money. i knew i had charged something else that day, i was just blanking on where exactly it was.

no one’s guessed where i charged the $30something charge to yet!! it was actually quite stupid when i figured out where i had spent that $30something over the phone with the lady… i guess it’s not as obvious as i thought it was- maybe i’m not as dumb as i thought i was?? or maaaaaaybe you’re all not as smart as i thought you were! jk

—————————————————————————-

i loved encyclopedia brown growing up! he was such a clever little boy! but somehow… when i borrowed his books from the library this past spring, he didn’t seem as clever anymore. aaanyone can solve those mysteries! here’s a little “mystery” i just had this morning….

i was checking my voicemail this morning when d’oh, got an automated message from citicards about some fraud on my card… but because i’m terrible at checking voicemail, it “expired” 9/26.. so i had to call the regular 1-800 number to check my card.

lady asks me to confirm a charge of “one eleven twenty eight” for this past saturday. it being early in the morning, it didn’t register that she was talking about hundreds… so i said that i picked up a drink at a gas station after getting gas (dude, i ate some of my messed up “pickled” cucumbers that i “marinated” in salt for waaay too long so i was thirsty all day) that day.

i think she thought i was an idiot. after she clarified she meant one hundred eleven dollars and twenty eight cents, i realized oh! that was the ps2! so i said the vendor was eb games. she asked about another charge for $50some dollars… eb games again (’cause the first eb i went to only had the game, but not a slimline used ps2 so i had to pick up at a 2nd store).

then she asks me to confirm a charge of $30something that day. shoot! my mind blanked. eb games, again? no… i “only” made two purchases at eb games that day… i couldn’t think of it at all! so i told her i was blanking. she asked me to confirm a charge of $1.38 the previous day then. again, i instantly thought of the drink at the gas station! so i told her again, but then saying… hrm, but that was on saturday, not friday….

well, if you’re a smart person… at this point in time, you know where i charged the $30something to my credit card. and if you’re dumb like me…. you still don’t know! (i eventually figured it out and when i did, i felt like such a fool…. A FOOL!!! i think she also thought i was an idiot) do you know where it was??

oh yea, and the wireless was down this morning. that’s the only reason i didn’t try to cheat and look up my charges online. bah!

results from the livecareer quiz i took:

yea… science didn’t rank that high. i think the only reason it got as high as it did was when they asked me choices between doing something science-y or doing something assertive… yea, science wins out then. yeah, my mom will be happy to know that sending me to that maryland leadership workshop got me a whole one point… bah!

i’m not so sure about these results either… industrial arts? art? writing? i’m pretty mediocre at everything, but those are like my especially sucky things!! i think i might be better in science than i am in art, which is just sad considering how bad i am in science.

what to do? what to do? i feel like this is something that i should’ve been thinking about while in high school/college…. not now

Thursday, September 29, 2005; Posted: 10:15 a.m. EDT (14:15 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A lesson learned by centuries of beachcombers has been distilled to a physicist’s formula: to make the perfect sandcastle, use eight parts sand to one part water.

The physicists’ study, released on Wednesday before publication in the journal Nature Physics, is entitled, rather grandly, “Maximum angle of stability of a wet granular pile.”

And while it deals with sandcastles, it could also help determine the stability of retaining walls and the material they hold back, one of its authors said.

This study and those that follow on this subject might have implications for those preparing for or recovering from a watery disaster like a hurricane, physicist Arshad Kudrolli said in a telephone interview.

“Our study is the first step, in some sense, in trying to understand what’s the most stable angle that one can build, say, a retaining wall,” he said. “And if it fails, where would the material end up? How much part of the land will give way?”

Inspired by childhood memories of the seaside, the study’s authors worked on a simple model of what makes for the most stable construction involving liquid and particles.

In the case of a sandcastle, builders need to use roughly one-eighth the water to the amount of sand, though Kudrolli said there is a range of possibilities that would work.

“You need a mix of the two to get it right,” Kudrolli said in a telephone interview. “It could be more than that, or less than that would be just fine.

“It’s very forgiving, so that’s why we succeed, I guess,” he said with a laugh.

Despite the playful nature of the sandcastle example, Kudrolli noted that their model for what keeps a sandpile from disintegrating could lay the groundwork for questions about what kind of retaining walls would be most stable.

Even though engineers have designed such structures for hundreds of years, the science behind them is not very well developed, Kudrolli said.

The study used “idealized sand” — glass beads the size of sand grains — and water, seeing how the piles would stack up and when they would topple.

In an even simpler example of a pile of particles and liquid, Kudrolli and his colleagues envisioned four baseballs, stacked in a pyramid, with three on the bottom and one on top, bonded with “liquid bridges,” bits of water that got between and among the baseballs and helped bond them together.

Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

from: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/09/29/sandcastle.recipe.reut/index.html

so yesterday, driving home from church in the afternoon (so this is around 1ish)… i was going down this major road (divided street) at 60 mph, just a little over the speed limit of 55. i’m kind of on the top of a slight hill, going down when i notice at the bottom (maybe 200-300 meters in front of me) the car in front of me braking… meh, i got a lot of space between us and i figure the person is braking because they felt they were going too fast down the hill.

well i was wrong. the guy was braking because he was coming to a FULL stop. what. the. heck?!?! IN THE MIDDLE of a lane of a divided street!!! in the above illustration, he is the blue box, and i am the gray box.

well, as i screech to a stop behind him, i BARELY avoid hitting him (luckily no cars behind me that could’ve rear ended me). what could have caused this car to come to a FULL STOP in the middle of this street?? could his car have broken down?! could he perhaps be trying to make a left?! (then why not move to the left lane??)

no… i see that he is waving madly to the left. seems a red SUV is trying to make a left and join us… (red box in the above illustration). but uh… DUDE! there is TRAFFIC that he has to cross! he has to cross TWO lanes of traffic (note the yellow cars ) to get onto the same side as us. you do NOT come to a FULL STOP in the middle of the lane to let a car in!!! worst case, if you’re trying to join up with that red car, you can maybe move into the left turn lane and wait for him (and hope no car comes behind you to make a left) but DUDE, you can’t just STOP in the middle of the street and wait!!! the guy had stopped for at least a couple of seconds before i came up behind him.

when i finally realized what the idiot was trying to do, i actually used my horn (which i rarely do) and nearly clipped his car while passing him. what an idiot!!! you nearly cause an accident JUST so you can wait up for your buddy?! PULL OVER TO THE SIDE!!!

i should really start a separate category for stupid things i see on the road.

i was bored at work… here’s a bunch of quiz results!

A-

Hardly anything gets by you… You have a great memory and eagle eyes

hahahah, i have a terrible memory and never notice anything

You Are Likely A Forth Born

At your darkest moments, you feel angry. At work and school, you do best when your analyzing. When you love someone, you tend to be very giving. In friendship, you don’t take the initiative in reaching out. Your ideal jobs are: factory jobs, comedy, and dentistry. You will leave your mark on the world with your own personal philosophy.

another fob-created quiz??? i’m the “forth” born? hrm… i dunno about the suggested jobs, i don’t like teeth grrr

Your Inner Child Is Surprised

You see many things through the eyes of a child. Meaning, you’re rarely cynical or jaded. You cherish all of the details in life. Easily fascinated, you enjoy experiencing new things.

this seems completely wrong since i never like to try new things

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Mega Ape Your Superpower is Electrocution Your Weakness is Cold Weather Your Weapon is Your Force Gel Your Mode of Transportation is Hot Air Balloon

ooo…. mega ape!!! i like this one!

How You Life Your Life

You seem to be straight forward, but you keep a lot inside. You’re laid back and chill, but sometimes you care too much about what others think. You prefer a variety of friends and tend to change friends quickly. You tend to dream big, but you worry that your dreams aren’t attainable.

i dunno about the dream big part… my biggest ambition in life is to be a stuffed monkey (and eh? how you life your life?)

Your Hidden Talent

You are a great communicator. You have a real way with words. You’re never at a loss to explain what you mean or how you feel. People find it easy to empathize with you, no matter what your situation. When you’re up, you make everyone happy. But when you’re down, everyone suffers.

for this quiz, i picked a picture and then they told me the results. no wonder the results make no sense

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations – you got 9 out of 10 correct!

yay i can be a US citizen!

Your Irish Name Is…

Ella Kennedy

i’m a kennedy!!

ok wasted enough time now

Wednesday, September 21, 2005; Posted: 12:47 p.m. EDT (16:47 GMT)

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A chartered jet carrying 289 Gambian soccer fans pretended it needed to make an emergency landing so they could watch their team compete in the FIFA Under 17 World Championships, officials said Wednesday.

The plane, claiming to be low on fuel, landed Tuesday near the stadium in Peru’s northern coast city of Piura.

“It truly was a scam,” said Betty Maldonado, a spokeswoman for Peru’s aviation authority, CORPAC. “They tricked the control tower, saying they were low on fuel.”

Emergency crews were scrambled ahead of the unscheduled landing by the Lockhead L1011 Tri-Star, owned by Air Rum Ltd., Maldonado said.

The Air Rum plane, which she said was chartered by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, should have made its approach to the capital, Lima, but instead flew directly to Piura, entering Peruvian air space “without permission.”

The passengers were permitted to attend African team’s 3-1 victory over Qatar on Tuesday night, she added, but the plane remained in Piura on Wednesday while authorities determined what penalty, if any, to levy against the airline.

Gambian newspaper Daily Observer reported on its Web page Wednesday that the group of fans had been delayed for a week in a hotel in the small West African nation and were forced Friday to watch their country’s victory over Brazil on television.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Original posted at http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/09/21/fake.emergency.ap/index.html

brought a plastic bag into work yesterday to hold all my food… just now noticed what was printed on it. it’s a shame i don’t have a digital camera. i’ll just type what it says:

• Reuse me on your next grocery trip to Giant
• Reuse me as a lunch bag
• Reuse me to carry my winter boots to school or work
• RECYCLE me at your local Giant store
  (look for bag collection site near the front of the store)

baaaaaaah!!!

i want to buy an inflatable kayak. i also want to go fishing on an inflatable kayak. anyone interested in kayaking with me? maybe somewhere closer this time, not ohiopyle. (though that was a fun river)

i dunno what’s up with this sudden interest in outdoor activities… and i need to stop shopping when i’m bored at work/needing a break. ’cause i have a shopping list of like 1985791759158159179573197 591893819382948947817283 items!

on the way back from kayaking today, wayne and i saw a sign

baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
more info/pics: http://www.newsnet.umd.edu/etcetera/noahsark/noahpage1.htm, http://www.godsark.org/html/the_construction.html

somewhat disappointing… it’s not a reaaal ark, it’s just a building like the ark

one of my friends noticed that i don’t use commas in a list of three. for example… “my favorite animals are monkeys, dogs and cows.” not… “my favorite animals are monkeys, dogs, and cows.”

i remember learning specifically NOT to put commas after the “and.” but i also remember later on in high school and college, everyone had the commas after the “and” and i wondered if i should also.

from the Rules of Comma Usage webpage:

Use a comma to separate the elements in a series (three or more things), including the last two. “He hit the ball, dropped the bat, and ran to first base.” You may have learned that the comma before the “and” is unnecessary, which is fine if you’re in control of things. However, there are situations in which, if you don’t use this comma (especially when the list is complex or lengthy), these last two items in the list will try to glom together (like macaroni and cheese). Using a comma between all the items in a series, including the last two, avoids this problem. This last comma—the one between the word “and” and the preceding word—is often called the serial comma or the Oxford comma. In newspaper writing, incidentally, you will seldom find a serial comma, but that is not necessarily a sign that it should be omitted in academic prose.

do you put commas after the “and?”