366th Day

So, a year ago today I started this blog. And yes, I fell 45 entries/days short of my goal. I really wanted to finish, to make it all the way through a year, but I think it was obvious once Christmas time came around that I was not going to keep up. I don't know what happened exactly; I was busy, but there were many other times throughout the year that I was busy but still kept blogging.
The one thing I can say is that I did not stop learning. There were many times that I thought "Ooh, great blog fact!" but I was just too far behind to bother. Also, I stopped blogging in January, but I did finally get my ass re-enrolled in school, so I kind of feel that the blog served its purpose by filling the gap in time when I was not "officially" learning anything.

I don't know if I will ever finish the last 45 things, or if I will keep posting here or never touch it again; I don't even know if anyone is reading this. Thanks to anyone who has checked in though. I think we came across some interesting things.

You know where to find me.

301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309 ,310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 320

Oh, you thought I was gone, did you? I have not done this blog in TWENTY days, so to make up for it, I learned the names of the 10 provinces of Canada, and their capital cities:

Ontario - Toronto
Quebec - Quebec City
Nova Scotia - Halifax
New Brunswick - Fredericton
Manitoba - Winnipeg
British Columbia - Victoria
Prince Edward Island - Charlottetown
Saskatchewan - Regina
Alberta - Edmonton
Newfoundland and Labrador - St. John's

There are also three territories, with capitals. See ya in six days, fools!!

299, 300

Thursday I learned about hair follicle drug tests. To do one of these, they take about 50-70 strands of your hair that are about an inch and a half long. The test can detect cocaine, marijuana, opiates, methamphetamine, and PCP, and it's more effective than urine testing because it picks up drugs that were used at a lower level or longer ago. Traces of the drug get into your hair as it's metabolized. If you don't have much hair on your head, they can use body hair to test as well. This is very random; I'm not on drugs or anything.

Today I learned how to make a caramel pecan pie. I had never made a pie before today. Well, Erica made the crust, but I mixed the other stuff up and put it together. It was really easy--you just melt caramel, milk and butter, then mix it up with some sugar and eggs--and it turned out great. Deeelicious. Here is the recipe, if you are interested.

296, 297, 298

Monday I learned some beginner tips for painting with acrylics. See here.

Tuesday I learned about oatmeal. Oatmeal is good for you. It can lower your cholesterol and it is high in fiber and complex carbohydrates. Oatmeal will leave you feeling fuller longer during the day. Steel cut oatmeal takes a long time to cook but is extra good for you because it leaves the outside part on, like with brown rice.

Today I learned where you can get your credit report. The three companies that have to give you a free report per year are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. All you have to do is go to the website annualcreditreport.com or call their 800 number or mail in a form, and you can get your free report. You don't have to contact each agency separately, and any other website that is trying to give you a free credit report is not for real and you should watch out. I sound like a commercial here, but I am just trying to tell you what I learned. I don't care if you get a free credit report or not.

291, 292, 293, 294, 295

I can't believe I haven't blogged since Tuesday. This is getting ridiculous.

Wednesday I learned the word "tarradiddle" which means a fib or pretentious nonsense. I added the dictionary.com word of the day application to my iGoogle, but I don't really like it that much because most of the words are easy. Tarradiddle was a new one on me though. It would be funny if somebody just made it up and put it on there.

Thursday I learned about charts and graphs in Excel. I didn't learn that much new stuff, but there was some. This will be the last in my Things I Learned at Excel Training blog series, as I am now finished with all of those trainings.

Friday I learned about windshield wiper blades. I had never bought my own before, but now I know that there is a little book thing there that you can look your car up in to see what size to get. Or you could measure them, I guess. I haven't put my new wiper blades on...that will be a blog for another day.

Saturday I learned about the movie Battle Royale, in which a bunch of Japanese high school kids kill each other in ridiculous manners. It is based on the novel of the same name. There is a rad song over the closing credits, which is "Shizuka na Hibi no Kaidan Wo" by Dragon Ash.

Today I learned about Clintonville, specifically what it encompasses and how it came to be.

290

Today I learned what a sump pump is. I mean, I kind of knew what it did, but I didn't know what it was...if that makes any sense. Like, I didn't know which thing in my basement was a sump pump. But then this morning I heard this crazy loud noise that I thought was coming from outside, and when I went to investigate it I realized it was coming from the basement. So naturally I called my dad, and upon describing a pipe coming out of the wall and going down into a big plastic hole in the ground, we decided that my sump pump was (noisily) running for no apparent reason. It kicked on about 3 times this morning and ran for 10-15 minutes each time. I haven't heard it since I've been home from work. Hopefully my next blog will not be "today I learned how to fix a sump pump that blew up and ruined my whole house."

PS...I just realized that I made a numbering error back on Nov 23 that knocked me back about 50 Learnings. I'm gonna fix that right now; with any luck it won't mess anything up too badly.

289

Today I learned about altitude sickness. You can get altitude sickness starting at about 8000 feet. Symptoms include headache, fatigue, dizziness, nausea/vomiting, and swelling in the extremities. Symptoms will usually subside after you have a day or two to adjust to the altitude. In rare cases you can wind up with pulmonary or cerebral edema (fluid in the lungs or brain). High altitude cerebral edema can kill you. If you go up slowly (1000 feet per day) you won't have a problem.

285, 286, 287, 288

Thursday I learned that you can set your Amazon wishlist to show you all of your stuff if you're logged in, even the stuff that has already been purchased. So if Christmas or your birthday or whatever is coming up, you can still look at your wishlist and change stuff around without having to see what all has been bought already. That's cool.

Friday I learned about tin foil hats. People wear tin foil hats because they think that aliens (or someone else) is trying to control their brain with signals, or because they think it will protect them from electromagnetic fields and the like. A really well-made foil hat might actually help protect you from some things, but for the most part it does not work (mainly because it doesn't completely enclose your head) and sometimes it might actually help signals get in.

Saturday I learned about eggnog. I was not sure exactly what it in eggnog. It is milk or a blend of milk and cream plus sugar and spices (like cinnamon or nutmeg) and then eggs are added to make it frothy. Eggnog that you buy is usually pasteurized so you don't have to worry about dying from the raw eggs, but if you make it yourself you should heat the eggs slowly to 160 degrees to make sure they're safe.

Today I learned that the Grand Canyon is in Arizona. I always think it's in Colorado, and I know that's wrong, but then I can't remember where it actually is. Bill thought it was Colorado too.

284

Grr. I actually learned this yesterday, but as usual I forgot it by the time I did my blog. In 8th grade my English class read the book "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. I knew that it was also sometimes called "Ten Little Indians" but that "Indians" was not P.C. and so they changed it. What I did not know what that the book was originally titled "Ten Little Niggers." Yikes! It was based on the "Ten Little Indians" rhyme which was also originally titled "Ten Little Niggers." You can read the original rhyme here. I can't believe I never heard that until now. I guess some high school was planning to do the play of "And Then There Were None" but had to cancel the production because people had complaints about the racist nature of the original title. That kind of seems like overkill to me, but then again I guess I don't really know what I'm talking about.

283

Today I learned about advent calendars. Advent calendars began at the start of the 19th century or thereabouts, with the German Lutheran community. I guess that is not surprising, because I always bought my advent calendars from the German Club in high school. Your traditional advent calendar has little doors you can open with either a Christmas picture or a Bible verse behind each set of doors. Mine always have chocolate behind the doors although this apparently is less common and is supposed to be anti-Jesus/pro-Santa Claus. I don't know why Jesus would have had a problem with kids getting a little piece of chocolate every day for a month. In fact my brother and I used to nicely divide up the pieces of chocolate by odd and even days, which seems like something Jesus would have been in favor of.

282

Today, after many hours of fascinated clicking on Wikipedia, I learned that mice may eat their own tails if they are starving. That's so sad! Don't eat your own tail. Things will get better, mouse...just hang in there.

("If you were a mouse, and you were starving, would you eat yourself?")

280, 281

Saturday I learned the phrase "mackerel snapper." It is a derogatory term for Catholics, which comes from their abstaining from meat on Fridays. My dad said that he heard this term while growing up Catholic but no one else knew what the hell he was talking about.

Today I learned how to put up the clear plastic stuff that goes on the inside of your windows to help keep the heat in/cold out. This includes cleaning the window frame, applying the tape, applying the plastic sheet, and then blowing it with a hair dryer. I also learned how to take down the blinds in my house. I did not even know that you could take blinds down.

277, 278, 279

Wednesday I learned that there are 2 different types of allergy tests you can get done. In one type, you get pin-pricked with little particles of different allergens to see which one(s) you react to. In the other, you get these big strips pasted onto your back. The strips have like 20 of the most common allergens on them, and you leave them on for two days (gross) and then get them removed and the doctor sees what things you are allergic to. I do not like the sound of either of these.

Thursday I learned that the wish bone on a turkey is actually called the furcula. It is part of the sternum/clavicle region and it helps support the wings in flight. I like to break the wish bone because I am superstitious about wishes, but I don't like to do it because I am terrified of bones breaking. This year I did not get to break the wish bone, and I also did not get my birthday wish on my birthday cake. This may be a bad year.

Today I learned what sweet potato pie tastes like. It tastes mostly like pumpkin pie, but a lot less gross.

276

Today I learned where the Westerville BMV is, and how much it costs to renew your license and registration, and that I now can't drive w/o my glasses (damn you, "B" restriction!).

271, 272, 273, 274, 275

Thursday I learned about the Blue Man Group. The BMG has been around since the 80s. The big sticks that they swing around, "airpoles," are actually boat antennae. Uh, there's a lot more, obviously. I mean, I saw their show at Nationwide, so I experienced them firsthand which is a kind of learning, right? And I skimmed their Wikipedia entry even though it's like really long. It was a fun show.

Friday I learned the history of jumping in Mirror Lake before the OSU-Michigan game. I guess it's really only officially been going on since the 90s. Here is a crappy article on it from The Lantern.

Saturday I learned about rust. God, that's boring. This is like a joke blog entry. But I really did learn about rust. I used this article instead of the Wikipedia entry because the Wikipedia entry had like big long chemical equations and this one is all in normal dumb people words. The reason why rust is a problem is that the iron oxide molecule is bigger than the regular iron molecule, so it puffs up and gets flaky because it doesn't fit in its original space.

Sunday I learned that Are You Afraid of the Dark actually HAS been released on DVD. Waaaant...

Today I learned what a melodica is. It's a keyboard instrument that you blow into as you play. One of Feist's band members last night was playing one of these or something similar to it.

269, 270

Yesterday I learned the word "fungible." I know I just did a word of the day not too long ago, but I like "fungible." It means easily replaced; interchangeable, flexible.

Today I learned about Gregor Mendel, the pea plant guy. Did you know that his ideas weren't really accepted until like 35 years after he first presented them? And it also is hard for me to believe that he was doing his work less than 150 years ago. 150 years ago does not seem like very long at all, but to think that a.) we really knew nothing about genetics then and b.) Mendel basically discovered genetics just by planting and observing a ton of pea plants is insane to me. Think of all the crazy-high tech, complicated scientific research that goes on these days. This is so rambly. I can't get my point across...it's just that what he was doing seems so simple to produce such amazing results. It seems like that can't happen anymore.

268

Today I learned about Basic English. Basic English is an actual constructed language that is made up of 850 of the most simple and commonly used English words. It came out in a 1930 book by Charles Kay Ogden, and is used to teach people English quickly or to translate complex books for users in many different countries. There is actually a whole separate Wikipedia written in Simple English, which is a more complex variation of Basic English. It just occurs to me that I should have tried to write this post using nothing but Basic English, but really it's too late for that now.

265, 266, 267

Friday I learned that Jason Collett will be opening up for the Feist concert in the 18th. I got his album off iTunes but I haven't really had a chance to listen to it yet. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow while I'm working.

Saturday I learned how house numbers are assigned. Like, when you're driving down the road it's not usually like 265 Elm Street, 267, 269, etc. They tend to jump around more. Well, the answer is not super simple and it actually depends on where you live. In some places there is an assigned center of the city or county or whatever and the house number has to do with the distance from that center. Some places, a stretch of road is assigned a number (say 5000) and then house numbers are assigned for their distance along that road (so 5015 and 5045 are closer together than the next neighbor, 5095). Sometimes builders might skip numbers on larger pieces of land in case it gets divided up later. It really varies.

Today I learned about Mormon missionaries. I see them at work kind of regularly and we actually have 2 who volunteer there. This is, like, serious business. They have a schedule that they follow six days a week, specific clothes and nametags to wear, etc. A lot of them have to learn a new language in 2-3 months. They have another missionary who is their companion, and they are never supposed to be apart from their companion throughout the day except for bathroom time. They can write to their parents weekly, but can generally only call home on Christmas and Mother's Day; these missions usually last 18 months to 2 years, and these are college-aged kids. Man alive. I literally could not do something like that without complaining nonstop from start to finish. But, that's because I'm a bad person and I'm going to hell, which should not be surprising to anyone.

264

Today I learned how to blow my nose. Don't blow too hard, support your back if you're coughing or sneezing. That's great. I will continue to ignore that advice and blow my nose until my brain hurts and I see spots, as I have been doing for the past several days. Seriously, I have weird pains and I smell blood. That's ok, right?

262, 263

Uh, I thought I did my blog yesterday but I guess not. Yesterday I learned a whole mess of crap about using formulas in Excel. I learned all this at Using Formulas In Excel. I am really stupid with Excel because I never use it, but the trainings through my work are actually somewhat helpful. And I used one of our online training things for the first time; they are pretty decent.

Today I learned about the pound sign (#). Why is it called the pound sign, I wondered. Because it means "pounds," that's why. I honestly did not know that. You can be all, "That girl needs to eat a cheeseburger, she looks like she weighs 80#." No one does that, do they? I mean, I call it the pound sign, but I don't use it for pounds. It means number to me, like, "#5 was the hardest question on the quiz." The Wikipedia article is like really snotty about it; it repeats over and over how only PARTS OF THE US AND CANADA use the term "pound sign" and that no on in the U.K. would ever, ever call it that, okay?