• I’m no longer a “double-spacer”

    January 26, 2011 / No Comments

    I am kind of a grammar Nazi. Other people’s grammar errors drive me crazy, but I am sure I am guilty of many grammatical errors myself. I was never a fan of English class in school, and always struggled in English and writing classes. I envy people that like to write. I want to like writing, and I do now more they I ever have before, but it’s always been a struggle to get words from my head, to the paper — or computer screen.

    One thing that I didn’t even know was a thing is the double spaces after a sentence controversy. It came up twice lately in a few blogs that I read. I now realize how pointless it is, and it is a little distracting. I leaned to type on typewriters in typing class. There we were taught to double space after ever sentence, so I just did it out of habit. I never really noticed if stuff I was reading was double-spaced or not.

    Now that I know it’s a thing, I noticed that most things online aren’t double-spaced, and now the double spacing kind of annoys me. I am doing my best to train my thumb to only hit the space bar once now after a sentence. I added a plugin to WordPress that should correct any errors like the one after this sentence. If it worked there should only be once space there. I’m still on the lookout for a way to fix all my past posts. From now on I am no longer a “double-spacer”.

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  • iPhone vs. Android

    January 20, 2011 / No Comments

    iphone 4 vs droidThe iPhone announcement was over a week ago, and I haven’t blogged about it yet. How many other countries got the iPhone before North Dakota? It’s nice that it’s finally an option. I would probably be more excited if it had happened a few years ago. Now there are some very good Android phones that would be good choices too.

    My contract is up in March, and I have been debating over Android vs. iPhone for the past week. I have pretty much settled on the iPhone now though. I live in the Apple universe. I already have tons of apps, and don’t hate iTunes. I don’t understand all the iTunes haters, but maybe the Windows version is different.

    Many people hate the iPhone for not having a physical keyboard, but my Blackberry has one and I hate it. I can type much faster on my iPod Touch. So that is another thing. I know I would like the iPhone keyboard, not as sure about the Android. Some people want removable storage on there phone so they can add more storage and have their entire much library with them. I don’t really care much about having music on my phone. That’s what my iPod Classic is for. It’s 120 GBs is actually enough to hold it all. Maybe my mind will change when I get a decent phone, but for now 16 GB is probably plenty and I would have no need for removable memory.

    Now the problem is do I just get an iPhone 4 in March, or wait until the iPhone 5 comes out later this summer — assuming Verizon is going to get the iPhone 5 this summer.  I’m not really a fan of waiting because you could wait forever. No matter what, there is always something bigger and better right around the corner. Honestly I don’t really see any big changes coming to the iPhone 5. What else could they really add? The only thing I can think of is 4G, but that’s not coming to Fargo anytime soon — Verizon says by 2013. I am sure something will come out, but all the iOS updates should all work on the iPhone 4 too.

    I’m sure waiting is probably the right thing to do. I’ve waited four years for this phone, what’s a couple more months. I probably wont wait though. I suffered with a Blackberry the last two years, I’m sure I won’t be suffering as much with an iPhone 4. We will just have to wait and see what the iPhone 5 rumors are during the next two months.

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  • Fun with boiling water

    January 18, 2011 / No Comments

    via youtube.com

    I tried this last year, but either it wasn’t cold enough or my water wasn’t hot enough. It didn’t work. It might be cold enough this week for me to try again. I guess that’s one plus about cold weather — cool science experiments.

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  • Vacation 2011

    January 17, 2011 / No Comments

    So we have been lucky enough to have been able to take a vacation every year for the past ten years. I have been trying to think of a place to go this year, but not really sure where. The Broncos play in Green Bay next season, so we might try and get tickets, and go on a road trip to Green Bay, and then down to Ohio and visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I have always wanted to see Lambeau Field because of all the history there. If they play in December I might not want to go though. That would be a lot of driving on crappy roads.

    I don’t know if that would count as our vacation though. I kind of want to go some place this summer. One of my Twitter friends mentioned that she only needs to visit ten states to have visited them all. So I though I would check to see what states I haven’t visited yet.


    visited 32 states (64%)
    Create your own visited map of The United States

    I still have 18 more to go. Maybe it’s time to visit the New England states, or maybe Vegas and the Grand Canyon? Something tells me no vacation is ever going to match Hawaii though.

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  • The homeopathy scam

    January 16, 2011 / No Comments

    via youtube.com

    This is a much watch video for everybody. Everybody needs to know what to avoid in drug stores. Many homeopathic drugs are right next to real drugs in drug stores. Homeopathy should be illegal. Companies should not be allowed to sell drugs that contain no active ingredients, and just make up what they cure.

    My Sister-in-Law is like the mother in this video. She refuses to give her child real medicine, and vaccines. She even buys some of her homeopathic crap on eBay that she can’t find because it’s been recalled. It’s scary, but hard to talk common sense into her without starting a big fight. She has her quacks that she reads and believes online, and believes scientists are in cahoots with the government to make us sick to make more money for big pharma. I find it hard to argue with the stupid.

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  • So I’m a Capricorn now

    January 15, 2011 / No Comments

    ©Photo. R.M.N. / R.-G. OjédaSo everybody seems to be getting their panties in a bunch over their new zodiac sign.  This should prove once and for all for everyone that astrology is bullshit, but it wont.  If your horoscope ever sounded like it fit you, well, you were probably reading the wrong one.  If you read all of them, you would probably notice that they are so vaguely written that they would all probably relate to you, or maybe not because you may be so focused on your own sign, that you wont allow yourself to believe that the other ones relate too.

    The Earth wobbles causing the sun to rise in different constellations over time.  Since the current signs of the zodiac were made 2000 years ago, they are off by a month or so, and have been for a long time.  I have no idea why this is making news now.  Probably just a slow news day somewhere. 

    There also have always been 13 constellations in the zodiac.  Ophiuchus has always been there — or at least been there as long as humans have been around.  The ancient Babylonians discarded it because they wanted 12 signs.  Just more proof that astrology us bunk.  Here are what the current signs are:

    Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16.

    Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11.

    Pisces: March 11-April 18.

    Aries: April 18-May 13.

    Taurus: May 13-June 21.

    Gemini: June 21-July 20.

    Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10.

    Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16.

    Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30.

    Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23.

    Scorpio: Nov. 23-29.

    Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17.

    Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.

    So what’s the harm in believing in astrology?  It’s probably one of the least harmful pseudosciences to believe in.  Most people probably just read it for entertainment purposes.  I personally would like that section of the newspaper replaced by maybe some actual science.  How great would it be to have a different science article everyday?  There is never enough science news in papers, and we all know most Americans could use more science education.

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