Forty

Today I learned how to throw a frisbee, like...underhand? Backhand? I dunno. The opposite of how you normally do it. And I'm not very good at it but at least I know how to do it and can make it work.

I'm not as bad at throwing the frisbee as I thought I was. I can usually make it go to the person I want it to (TODD!). I did break a nail though.......

Thirty nine

Grumble grumble...unsatisfactory learnings on the etymology of "high-falutin." In short, nobody's sure. Is unsatisfactory learnings really learnings at all? I say yes.

Thirty eight

Ok, this may or may not be the thing I was meaning to blog about a few hours ago. I got excited about something and then forgot all about it. Anyway: bananas. Did you know they are seedless, and sterile? A new plant can only be produced from cuttings of another plant. Don't worry, though. They're not going anywhere.

Thirty seven

Today I learned about how UPC bar codes work. Basically, the first half of the number indicates the manufacturer and is assigned by the UPC overlords, while the second half of the number indicates the specific product and is assigned by the manufacturer, who also has to keep track and make sure that they never use the same number twice, etc. The final digit is a "check number" that you can figure out by like adding and multiplying all the other numbers in a certain way (see the link for details); the computer does this calculation and compares with the check number to make sure the item got scanned correctly. Cool, huh?

As for the bar code itself, each number is represented by a combination of four black lines and white spaces of varying thickness (from one to four units wide). The link will give you the specifics if you feel like impressing the opposite sex by decoding bar codes for them.

I guess that's pretty much it, even though this was not actually what I set out to learn today. I just wanted to know how scanners actually read bar codes, and not necessarily about UPC codes specifically; like, the ones we use at the library, for example. How does that red light read those little lines? Keep your eyes peeled for an exciting follow-up, loyal reader(s).

Thirty five, Thirty six

Saturday:

Bill did a little 'splaining to me about gravity, rubber mats, and balls (fun site there, by the way). As part of the honors program at college, you could take these special classes that were just, like, a bunch of smart people sitting around talking about smart people stuff (I don't know, I never ended up taking one), and there was one once called Time. I really wanted to take it and simultaneously knew that it would kick my ass so hard. My brain gets all pissy with me when I try to make it think about things like Time and Gravity (not to mention being all "Well, what kind of rubber mat? Is it like a yoga mat, or one of those sheets for people who wet the bed, or what?").

Sunday:

Today I learned that the cable company is CHARGING ME $2.10 every month for the stupid Channel Guide Magazine that I throw away. I want to stab the cable company in the neck. They have been nothing but asses to me since I moved in here. Damn.

Thirty four

Today I learned the rules to a game called "Eat Poop You Cat." Basically you take a piece of paper, and the first person writes a sentence on it...then, the next person takes the paper and draws a picture that represents the sentence. Then the sentence gets covered up and you pass it on to the third person, so the third person just sees the picture, and they have to write a sentence that is a caption for the picture...cover up the picture and repeat as needed. It's basically like a game of telephone but with pictures and sentences alternating. In the end you get to look at the whole mess and see how everybody interpreted everything. It sounds like it could be pretty fun...and also extremely dirty, if I know my friends.

I learn about games a lot. I like games.

Thirty two, Thirty three

Grr, I'm tired. Sometimes I really wish I didn't have this blog.

Wednesday:

I learned that recycling is a waste. Apparently it is not efficient, creates a lot of pollution, costs a lot of money, etc. Also, our landfills are not running out of room and we won't be in trouble with landfills for many years. This is based on a paragraph off the back of Penn and Teller's Bullshit, but hey, I trust them. That's kind of a bummer because I'm usually pretty good about recycling stuff. Good to know I was wasting my time!

Today:

The term Frisbee comes from the Frisbie baking company that used to sell pies in pie tins that would later be thrown around for fun, mostly by college students. When Wham-O "invented" the Frisbee years later, they decided to go with that name for their product. More at Wikipedia under Frisbee.

Thirty one

Gah, is it Tuesday already? Today I learned how to play Wii Play. It is pointless and awesome. I can ride a cow, bitches!

Twenty nine, Thirty

Sunday:

Um, I meant to learn about fractals, but I was tired and just went to bed. I at least learned what a fractal is...it's "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole" (from Wikipedia). So I guess that counts for something. There will be a follow-up to this entry, though, at some point.

Today:

Holy shit.

Twenty eight

Today I learned how to open up the money thing on the copier at work and how to take bills out/put them in (I was making change for a 20). I can't believe I've never done that in the year that I've worked there. I felt kind of smart because no one even showed me, he was just like "put the thing in the thing, open the thing, and pull the money out of the thing." And even though probably a 4 year old could have done it, I was expecting to break it/tip it over/have money come shooting out at me like in Uno Attack/etc. Yay for skillz.

Twenty seven

As promised:

"Wilco" is voice procedure shorthand for "will comply." Makes sense. And that's where the band got its name, too, which I probably should have wondered about before now.

10-4 good buddy.

Over and out.

Twenty six

VCU=Virginia Commonwealth University

Twenty five

Today I learned about clumsiness. I was wondering (FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON) what, physiologically speaking, makes a person be clumsy, and so naturally I looked up "clumsiness" on Wikipedia. This sends you to articles on dyspraxia and motor skills disorder. Basically, clumsiness is rooted in disrupted neurological connections in the brain and/or problems with the inner ear. Clumsy people have trouble planning out the sequence of movements they will need to carry out OR actually carrying out those movements after they've been planned. You can have problems with speech, fine motor control, and/or whole body coordination.

Dyspraxia often comes along with some other symptoms or disorders. Dyspraxic people often have an increased or skewed tactile sense which makes them more likely to be bothered by, for example, uncomfortable clothing. There also tends to be overlap with dyslexia, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorders. I would have liked to use the word "comorbidity" in there somewhere just because I used to really like it back in my Psych days.

Obviously there are other muscular/motor/CNS type disorders that would result in clumsiness--ie, you drop things a lot because your muscles have been weakened from MS. That's sort of secondary rather than primary clumsiness though, I think.

I didn't come across anything personally enlightening. Those motor disorders don't apply to me, I don't think. I walked early, talked early, didn't have any physical problems at all, really. I have just turned into a spaz somewhere along the way. I'm probably not careful enough. Somebody get me a bubble!

Twenty four

Today I learned about the existence of this Web site: Chaser. I need to further explore the Chaser store (you can buy the Chaser?!) but it sounds promising.

Um, I did learn some actual work-related things today at work, but this is much more interesting.

Twenty two, Twenty three

Sunday:

The world "lambent," found in Wicked:

Pronunciation:

\ˈlam-bənt\

Function:

adjective

Etymology:

Latin lambent-, lambens, present participle of lambere to lick

Date:

1647

1 : playing lightly on or over a surface : flickering 2 : softly bright or radiant 3 : marked by lightness or brilliance especially of expression

There are a lot of words in that book I don't know. I mean to look them up but who wants to get up and look up a word in the middle of reading? Not me.

Today:

Today I learned some life lessons about getting things done in some reasonable period of time rather than putting them off until they become really, really problematic. This is something I need to learn again and again, but hopefully I'm set for at least a little bit. That's enough about that.

Twenty One

Last night/this morning I watched An Inconvenient Truth. I learned some things about the environment and global warming. I actually didn't learn as much as I'd hoped (I know I know, "Read the book!" says Jared). But it was interesting to see the photos of glaciers/ice sheets/whatever over the past several years as they've been melting away, and to see the graphs of hundreds of thousands of years of temperature changes. I would say that I'm completely convinced, but I am never completely convinced of anything, ever. Such a skeptic.

Twenty

Remember that episode of The Office when they all went to a bar and played some drinking game about hiding a quarter? I thought they were saying "up chickens" and "down chickens," because I am an idiot, which seriously hindered my finding out what the actual rules of this game are. But thanks to some dumb luck and my generally overly-enthusiastic Office fandom, I finally came across this:

http://www.childrenparty.com/partygames/printversion/upjenkins.html

Jenkins, chickens...whatever. Also please note that the link is to a site called childrenparty.com. Haha. I guess Up Jenkins doesn't always have to be a drinking game. It sounds like it could be fun though.

Eighteen, Nineteen

I just blatantly did not learn anything yesterday. I was really sick. So here's a thing for Wednesday and a thing for Thursday:

Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the most extensive cave system known in the world. THE WHOLE WORLD. I went there when I was probably 9 or so, but I would like to go again. The Mammoth Cave National Park is almost 53,000 acres; there are at least 367 miles of passageways in the cave. Apparently the cave is also home to an endangered, sightless, albino shrimp species. Hee! That's funny. There is one part of the cave known as Fat Man's Misery which is really narrow and hard to get through. I remember going through there and thinking the name was funny when I was a kid. Wouldn't it be cool to like live down there, in the cave, for as long as you could until you got caught? No, I bet there's horrible bugs down there.

On a similar note, I also learned about the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia; another touristy place in redneck country that I have been to. It is a 3,030 foot long steel arch bridge that goes over the New River. You have probably seen a picture of it. I remember being told that it was the longest bridge of that type in the world, but as of 2003 it no longer is; one in Shanghai is 105 feet longer. There's a big festival on the third Saturday of every October called Bridge Day when the bridge is open to pedestrians and there's all kinds of festivities. They have BASE jumping off the bridge even though apparently somebody died doing that in '06. Maybe they'll change it...it looks like bungee jumping isn't allowed at all because of some accidents. I have been rafting in this area twice and seen the bridge twice. That is also something I might like to do again, although I think at this point that I would be too out of shape to paddle my own boat down the river. Sad. I also got the worst sunburn of my life while rafting in WV, which, if you've seen me, is saying a lot. I mean, it doesn't take much.

Seventeen

palinode:

1 : an ode or song recanting or retracting something in an earlier poem
2 : a formal retraction

M-W word of the day. Meh, it's late. Not my best.

Sixteen

You know you're too into your blog when you're like "Oh no! I learned three things today!" Heh.

Well, one of the things I learned was about children's books. I went to a workshop where I learned some of the things that make different picture books appropriate for different aged kids; things to look out for when you're reading or recommending a book ("offensive" things); and some resources to help me find picture books on various subjects. I don't plan to be a children's librarian or anything but, especially in a small library, you can't really expect to never work with kids at all. Besides, I kind of got paid to read picture books for an hour. Holla!

Fourteen Fifteen

For Saturday:

Birds don't urinate.

For Sunday:

Poop is brown because of iron and a substance called bilirubin that is created by the breakdown of red blood cells and ends up in the intestine. I always kind of just thought it was brown because it was a mash-up of all the different colors of stuff you'd eaten. Now I know better.

Hopefully Monday will return us to a non-toilet-related Thing I've Learned.

Thirteen

Today I learned how to play Uno Attack! Good times ;).

Twelve

Right now I am learning about Girl Scout Cookies, because my mom bought me a box of Tagalongs and a box of Samoas. Score! Apparently selling cookies is supposed to teach the Girl Scouts life skills, such as responsibility, teamwork, money management, and customer service. I don't think I learned any of those things when I sold Girl Scout Cookies, personally. I learned that there is always one little shit whose dad will sell a crapload of cookies at his work and then that girl will get all the best prizes even though she didn't sell any cookies at all. Uh...anyway. The first cookie sale ever was in 1917. Wow. That's a lot of cookies. Commercial bakers didn't start producing the cookies until 1936. Thin Mints are like the one cookie that is made by both Girl Scout bakeries (you get different cookies depending on which part of the country you live in) and basically never changes because they are super-popular, although I myself am not a big fan. You can no longer get the lemon sandwich cookie anywhere, which is a fucking shame.

I really liked being a Brownie, but my troop when I became a Junior was not fun and I hated it. In case you were wondering about my personal Girl Scouting experience. I also hated the little outfits.

Eleven

I just learned that Zane is a woman. For some reason, for all this time (all the time I've been working at the library), I thought that Zane was a dude. Was I perhaps thinking of Billy Zane? Who can say. I feel like an idiot now. I want to read some Zane books sometime.