Archive for December, 2008
What’s the Difference Between Partly Cloudy and Partly Sunny?
Posted by: admin in Blog Ideas on December 31st, 2008
Television weather forecasters use some very strange vocabulary. One day they tell us it will be “party sunny” and another day it’s “partly cloudy”. How would you know the difference, since in theory there should sunlight and clouds in either case? These days, they also don’t talk about “rain” or “snow” but “rain events” and “snow events”. Why do we need the “event” word? Is it really making things clearer? If I look out the window and tell you it’s raining, is that more or less clear than saying “there’s a rain event”? And why is the top weather person always referred to as “chief meteorologist”? Are they organized in some sort of tribal fashion, observing ancient rituals and dancing around campfires when they’re not in the air?
So there are several ideas here for your blog. You could choose to answer some of my questions above, draw up what an off-air “chief meteorologist” and their tribe might look like, think of another industry with strange language like “rain events”, or share your thoughts on weather reporting. Something I’ve always wanted to do, but never committed to, was to watch a particular meteorologist’s forecasts each day and take notes of what they were. Then, see if how well those forecasts mesh. For instance, if you looked at 100 days declared to have a “30% chance of rain” would you find that about 30% of those days it actually did rain, or would you find it to be more like 40% or 80%?
What are some personal goals you have?
Posted by: admin in Blog Ideas on December 30th, 2008
Most of us have some kind of idea of some things we’d like to do, places we would like to go, people we would like to meet, or things we’d like to learn about. What are some of yours? How might you go about achieving those goals?
If animals could talk, how would that affect the world?
Posted by: admin in Blog Ideas on December 29th, 2008
There’s an intriguing notion that you could develop seriously or humorously.
What’s “Greek to you” if you’re a Greek?
Posted by: admin in Blog Ideas on December 28th, 2008
Elsewhere on the web I was reading through a list of silly (often just stupid) questions that asked “What do Greeks say when they don’t understand something?” In other words, they can’t say “It’s all Greek to me” because if they did, that would mean they understand it since they ARE Greek? That got me to thinking about all the different little sayings we have like that.
For example: “That’s like the pot calling the kettle black.” What difference does that make? Maybe it’s a silver pot and a black kettle? But even if they’re both black, would that make the pot wrong? It’s kind of a silly thing to say on the surface.
Take a look at some cliche’d statement you’ve seen or heard recently? Does the statement stand up to scrutiny? (There’s an example right there… Would just looking at something make it fall over?) If it doesn’t make sense, why do people say it?
What subject would you like to be an expert in?
Posted by: admin in Blog Ideas on December 27th, 2008
Most of us have some area of interest, something we like to learn about. If you could pick a subject matter in which to become an expert, what would it be? Why that particular topic? What’s keeping you from becoming an expert in it?
What word do you think is missing from the dictionary?
Posted by: admin in Blog Ideas on December 26th, 2008
I read an interesting quote today:
Why isn’t there a special name for the tops of your feet?
- Lily Tomlin
In other words, we have the word “sole” to describe the bottom of our feet. We don’t seem to have a word, at least a non-medical one, to describe the tops of our feet. Why not? It seems like we should.
What word do you think we need in the dictionary and don’t have?
What’s your favorite smell?
Posted by: admin in Blog Ideas on December 25th, 2008
This time of year there are lots of interesting smells. When my mother was alive and in good health, she’d be busy baking cookies and making homemade candy this time of year. Her house would smell great. Her chocolate chip cookies smelled especially good, and it saddens me that I’ll never smell them again. But how about you? What’s your favorite smell?
How do you relieve stress?
Posted by: admin in Blog Ideas on December 24th, 2008
It’s said that holidays can be a stressful time of the year. Maybe it’s the shopping, the entertaining, the noise, or something else. This makes it the perfect time to share your secret for relieving stress. For me, slipping on my headphones, listening to some music, and meditating can help lower my stress level. What about you? How do you unwind and relieve the stresses of the day?
Have You Met Anyone Famous?
Posted by: admin in Blog Ideas on December 23rd, 2008
I’ve been fortunate enough over the years to meet a handful of famous people. Some of them were local celebrities, like newscasters. Others were more famous, like William Shatner, Bruce Campbell, or Adam West. Meeting Adam West was probably the most amusing story of the three. I was at a convention in Pittsburgh. Adam West was there with the Batmobile and to sign autographs. There was a relatively short line, and I ended up being the last one in it before Adam moved on to something else. Right before I got there to have my picture of him in his Batman costume signed, he lost his pen. We chit-chatted briefly while someone came up with another pen for him to use. While we were talking, one of the females serving as “eye candy” at the convention came up to the table to say hello to Adam. She was, without question, a very attractive, well-proportioned, and lust-inducing young lady. She wore a white, skin-tight dress that had about a five-inch gap from the collar to the waistline, held together with criss-crossing straps of fabric. Through this gap, it took no imagination at all to see what she looked like underneath that dress. Both Adam and I stopped talking and just stared at her. Adam spoke first, uttering one of the cheesiest lines I’ve ever heard (though probably better than anything I could have come up with at the time). He looked at her and said, “Well, my dear, that’s an ‘interesting’ dress you’re wearing…” He, quite understandably, forgot completely about me until they handed him a pen. He signed the photo and quickly went back to chatting up the young lady.
What’s the Worst Thing You’ve Ever Done to Someone?
Posted by: admin in Blog Ideas on December 22nd, 2008
In high school, back in the 1980s, I was already the prototypical computer geek (even though home computers were relatively now). As such, I was often the butt of jokes and the object of ridicule for the “beautiful people” and the athletes. In one of my classes, I was seated behind an attractive girl. I wanted to get to know her better, so I began talking with her. Unfortunately, this got the attention of those so-called “beautiful people”. I knew where it would lead. They would not be satisfied just ridiculing me or humiliating me in front of her. They would abuse her, too. I was sure of that. I genuinely liked her and I didn’t want to put her through what I’d been through. You can call what happened next an act of cowardice, stupidity, or a twisted kind of heroism. When they started grilling me about her, in front of her, I lied. I said I was just talking to her, that I could never be romantically interested in her, that she wasn’t my type, that I didn’t think she was at all attractive, etc. I laid it on pretty thick, probably too thick. They either bought into it or were satisfied that they’d managed to sabotage my chances with her, and they backed off. Unfortunately, I’d managed to hurt, insult, and tactically nuke my chances with this particular young lady. She hated me for years after that. She probably still does, and if she does I can’t really blame her. I’m still ashamed of the things I said that day, and it was over 20 years ago. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time, saving her from the pain I’d been living with. I wish I could take it back, wish I’d had the spine to stand up to them. She didn’t deserve the things I said to her, and they weren’t true anyway.