Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Take the Search Engine to My Blog

Recent searches (mostly google) that directed people to this blog:


throwing cats from buildings
sandra bullock austin neighborhood
duct disinfectant
oodle doodle korean egg council
fruity oaty bars
leonidas mandlebrot (I was talking about chocolate and a few days later the mandelbrot fractal.)
Being Burgled
which dr. who character are you
susan brown austin
come into my tummy oh so very yummy
and if I had a face like you I'd join the british army
people dating online blogspot
binocular flasks in south austin
czech artist postcards prague cats
anything
being burgled
subject was combative
no pants party
kitchen peninsula
mossman guitar serial numbers
Amazon Mistress and friend, austin
wiggle jiggle yellow middle that's the best of what we are
ut austin
pictures underpants
ut austin jester center address (in Chinese?)

I was particularly interested with the search for "anything" -- nothing in particular, just "anything." And do you reallly want to know about --no pants party--, --pictures underpants-- and --Amazon Mistress and friend, austin-- ?? And I don't date online -- what's with that?

And now if they goggle these terms again, will they be more likely to end up on this blog again?

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Rear Ended on Ben White Blvd., and There is a Dead Rodent in the Room of Music and Contemplation

A few days ago I was stopped at a rather long stoplight in my neighborhood, just minding my own business and listening to a podcast of a couple that had deconverted from LDS (and xtianity) (and one of the influencing factors was a cosmology class taught by Gregory Benford that one of them took) (and note, in subsequent podcasts, they turned off the fan in the room, so that the sound quality is better)

Well, so anyway, there I am stopped at the light when "THUNK!" my car is hit from behind. I didn't hear anything break, but I did want to check, but as we were in the middle lanes (one that could go straight or turn left), and the light was about ready to change, I looked in the rear view mirror, pointed left, and the woman who hit me nodded. So, I'm just hoping that she will turn, because since she is behind me she could easily just keep driving, and there would be nothing I could do about it.

She does follow me, and we turn into the parking lot of a 7-11. As soon as we get out, I say to her, "I don't think you did any damage, but I just wanted to check."

It was a very hot day -- 103, and she was flushed and sweating, and she said, "I'm so sorry, I was stopped, and my nose started to bleed and I reached down to get a tissue and "bam!" There is no damage to either car. Her license plate was from Alaska -- she said she'd just gotten to Austin. I asked her if she was o.k. and if she had some water to drink. I was ready to march her into the 7-11 and buy her some juice or water, but she said she was o.k. and she did have water, so I thanked her for stopping and we went on our merry ways.

We just started letting the cats out again this week (Yuki had dental surgery a few weeks ago, and I wanted to protect our investment), and when I woke up this morning, the first thing I noticed was a dead rodent in the Room of Music and Contemplation. (too large for a house mouse) I am waiting for Scott to wake up to take care of this, but if he sleeps much longer, I think I can handle it. Yuck, I think we might go back to being inside cats. My preference is to keep them in, but it's hard to fight against one Scott and 3 felines.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Voting is Important!

It's not like I'd want to tell you how to vote or anything, but if you click on the title, you will be taken to a polling place where you can vote for the honorary name for a new Hungarian bridge. (it may take a little time to load even with a fast connection.)

Then you could scroll down quite a bit (or do a "find on this page") until you find Steven Colbert, and then you could click the bubble next to his name and vote for him. He has 3% of the vote as of today.

Or, you could go and vote for Chuck Norris, for all I care -- but just be sure to vote!

Friday, August 11, 2006

Robert Ingersoll Podcast

Ever since S. broke the radio in my car fixing my turn signals and brake lights, I've been listening to various podcasts (on Wolfgang, the iPod Nano, he got me for breaking my stuff, but that's another story).

I've recently discovered an excellent podcast of the works of Robert Green Ingersoll. Click on the title above for a link to information about the podcast -- I've been updating the 'cast through iTunes.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) was one of America's greatest thinkers and orators. He was a Chautauqua Institute lecturer, attracting at one time an audience of 200,000, even though he was referred to as "The Great Agnostic" when most of his audience was not.

The Council for Secular Humanism has some info on him as well as well as Infidels.org

http://www.secularhumanism.org/
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/

Someone once asked RGI what his extensive library had cost him. His answer: "The presidency of the United States."

Taxes!

This week erupted in a harried frenzy when father-in-law called and said that the deadline for our tax return was August 15. He was frantically trying to get S's self-employed schedules together -- S was HERE and his files were THERE -- arrgh. FIL manages to complete the forms and faxes them to me -- but S had to go back to help FIL & MIL find their documents, receipts, etc., so FIL dictated a power of attorney for S to sign, since I wouldn't have time to complete our taxes so that S could sign them before he left. FIL did call me to go over S's forms and to tell me what lines to integrate into our joint return. He's a tax attorney, but he uses TurboTax and recommended it for S & I, so it's not going to be that complicated.

WHEW! Now I know what I'll be doing this weekend --

Then this afternoon, S calls and says, "Uh, you know that August 15 deadline? Well, we were looking at our paperwork and found that the extension deadline this year is October 15!"

Yippee! This means that S can search his files (uh, stuff put in shoe boxes, rubbermaid containers, etc.) and perhaps find more deductions. And that I don't have to do taxes this weekend. And that on the off chance we owe a little more than we paid, I won't have to send it in this month.

Taxes!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

More Cat Photos -- Yuki in his Favorite Basket



This is our third cat, Hiroyuki Sakai (after one of the Iron Chefs), or Yuki for short. He showed up at our doorstep a few years ago -- scruffy, hungry, covered with bites and scars, etc. Scott said he seemed to be friendly, but a bit scared. "Waaah," he cried, "I want to be friends with you, but I'm frightened -- Waaaah!" Once we started feeding him, though, he became very friendly. We looked around for owners, but he seemed to have been lost for good or abandoned. A few weeks after he started hanging around, Austin had a few days of bitterly cold weather. We couldn't leave him outside, but we didn't want to expose him to the other cats before he was checked out by our veterinarian, so we let him stay in the hallway/pantry/closet. After a clean bill of health at the vets (along with vaccinations and neutering), he became a full fledged member of the family.

Yuki has a very sweet disposition and he and Genji are great buddies. Saki isn't too fond of him, but we think that is because he stabbed her, causing a painful infection.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Not that I would condone anything like this, but . . ..

Click on the title for a site that makes your websurfing look like a word document. Should the boss come in for a closer look, you can roll the cursor and change the text to an essay on procrastination. Of course, she may wonder why it is taking you three months to write 1,000 words, but hey -- at least you are appearing to be productive.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Too Hot to Properly Blog, I am an

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