Fun

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Tidbit Tuesdays

I keep coming across interesting little tidbits—bumper stickers, sentences in articles that I’m reading, comments on Facebook, and the like—that are like little peepholes into our culture. While they’re not substantial enough to base an entire post on, I think they’re worth sharing. Many times, like the proverbial frog in hot water, we don’t notice that things have changed until it’s suddenly obvious, and often too late.

I thought it would be fun to post these little items on Tuesdays. I don’t promise to be consistent. It’s just now I’ll have a place for these thought-provoking insights into the way we now think. I promise I am not making these up!

With all that said, here’s my first tidbit, seen on a bumper sticker in our local Walmart parking lot. As I drove home after seeing this, I wondered how an elementary school child could own  a car, and presumably drive it to Walmart. Or maybe this refers to the teacher?

“I displayed positive habits of mind at [name of] elementary school.”

I guess the search for new but dubious ways to bolster self-esteem continues unabated.

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Why I Doesn’t Uses Grammar Checker

I do a lot of writing, mostly in Microsoft Word—the software I love to hate. The built-in spell check can be helpful, catching typos for me as I write.  (It can’t catch a “word-o,” however, which means that any remaining mistakes can be potentially pretty funny—or embarrassing.)

Then there’s the grammar checker. Who invented this thing? What were they thinking? I know English is a difficult language, but the checker doesn’t just stumble over exceptions to the rules. It mutilates perfectly acceptable prose. Continue reading →

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Fifth Friday Fun: Books or Baloney?

I’ve been browsing our library’s card catalog in search of a good book to read—or at least an entertaining one. I always assumed that the librarians carefully weigh which books they acquire. After all, the budget only goes so far, and they have a responsibility to spend wisely. After reading the blurbs in the online catalog recently, however, I have to question their judgment.

As I sift through a lot of dubious plots to find the rare gem, it occurred to me to create a fun little quiz. Below, I’ve listed thirteen blurbs—those little descriptions the publisher writes to capture our interest. Can you tell which ones are actually real books—and which are merely figments of my imagination?

Continue reading →

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That’s Not What I Meant!

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I rarely just post links to other blogs—I prefer to generate new content that can’t be found elsewhere. Once in a great while, however,  I make an exception when something is just too good to pass up. (I also happen to be fighting a bad cold, and I really don’t feel like thinking very hard at the moment.)

One of my friends may have posted something deep and thought-provoking. A blogger I read may have received a God-given insight that I just have to share. And then there’s this blog, which I think is hilarious. Thanks, Uncle John, for bringing it to our attention!

Anyone who has studied another language knows that words, much less concepts, don’t always translate the way we’d expect. But if you’re going to tattoo something onto your body—we’re talking permanent, folks—you might want to check with a native speaker first. Otherwise, you too could find yourself featured on this website:

Bad Hebrew Tattoos

 

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The Dangers of DHMO

Thanks to the internet, I’m now aware of the dangers of all sorts of things I thought were safe. By taking careful note of the many warnings that eternally circulate on Facebook, I’ve learned that I can live a much longer and healthier life by avoiding items such as frozen water bottles,  pineapples (from street vendors), and chicken wings. In that vein, here’s a link to a website that warns about a chemical we all use, that until now I had thought was usually quite safe: DHMO.

www.dhmo.org

Read it over carefully, then share it with everyone you care about.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

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App Happy

With the thousands of apps available it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Which ones are helpful? Which ones are a waste of money? You can look at the ratings and read the comments, but that doesn’t help you if you’re not sure which apps to search for in the first place. With that thought in mind, here are three random but wonderful apps I’d hate to be without.

Our Groceries
For years, Pete and I had a system for grocery shopping. I’d keep a running list of what we needed at the market, stuck onto the fridge with a magnet. Then whoever was going shopping would simply grab the list and take it with them. Low tech, simple, no problem, right? It all worked perfectly until we began losing the lists. Maybe it’s impending senility, or maybe we just have a lot on our minds, but we’d go off without the list, or we’d leave it somewhere en route. Then we’d buy the wrong things, of forget essentials. Since Pete does most of our shopping (he works in town, while I’d have to make a special trip), I was getting aggravated and he was feeling frustrated.

Continue reading →