Researchers to resolve the big bum dilemma

I guess there's research money for everything these days!

One of the greatest female sartorial dilemmas - does my bum look big in this? - is to be answered by a team of researchers.

Now why didn't I think of this?

Upgrading my computer

Thanks to a holiday gift in the form of a gift card from my sister, I have upgraded my four-year-old Vaio computer.

I have several older peripherals that are connected using the older USB 1.1 technology. My sister gave me a Staples gift card and I purchased a USB 2.0 5-port PCI card and a 7-port USB 2.0 hub. I inserted the card rather painlessly and the computer recognized the new hardware without any problem. Same for the USB hub. I then reconnected all the peripherals (digital camera docking station, PDA holder, scanner and a printer) and everything worked fine.

After ensuring the connections were right, I ventured over to our local Best Buy and bought a Maxtor 100GB external hard drive that is currently on sale. I plugged it in and it was recognized by the PC. I then proceeded to back up my important files such as photos, music files, Word documents and the like. The increase in the transfer rate is very noticeable. Now I’m set if my hard drive crashes again like it did a couple of years ago. Plus if I ever buy myself a laptop, I’m set.

Thanks Sis!

Politically-correct holiday wishes

Merry Christmas

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Kwanzaa

Oh, and a jolly Festivus celebration too!

New blogging extension for Firefox

I've found an interesting new Firefox extension that can be used in conjunction with Blogger. It's from performancing.com and the extension allows you to blog directly from within Firefox. The extension can also be used with Wordpress, TypePad and LiveJournal. Firefox 1.5 is required.

This post was created using the extension.

Fair is fair

I heard somebody talk about this on the radio the other day. I honestly never thought about it before.

Why is it that men are always chastised by the women in their life for leaving the toilet seat up? Seems to me that we should demand the same respect. Why do they leave the toilet seat down?

Blogger Buzz: Blogger Web Comments for Firefox

Steve Rubel wrote about this earlier today. I installed the extension this evening and it works pretty well.

Read more at buzz.blogger.com/2005/1...

Return of family values?

After reading about the 37-year-old woman who became pregnant by, and subsequently married, a 15-year-old boy; the hot blonde teacher who is trying to cop a plea after admitting having sex with a 14-year old boy; the 41-year-old woman who gave parties and admitted buying alcohol for teenage boys and having sex with them and the 30-year-old woman who was sentenced to eight years in jail for having sexual contact with her daughter's 8-year-old playmate, it's refreshing to note the return of old-fashioned, traditional family values. A 22-year-old man faces 50 years in jail after pleading guilty to sexual assault after impregnating and then marrying a 14-year-old girl.

Sunflower mosaic

Here’s a little creativity that I came up with. This is a single photo of a sunflower that I took three years ago when I was visiting my family in southwest Nebraska. I passed a sunflower field and got out and took several pictures. This one of a single sunflower turned out to be the best picture. I then manipulated it using a filter in Paint Shop Pro. The filter (Red Prince Flip ‘n Rolls) basically takes the reds, greens and blues within a color picture and then flips them around.

Big busts at San Antonio airport

The real world is much more interesting than anything fictional. You really can't make this up! What's with all the catfights lately?

Yahoo acquires del.icio.us

Yahoo announced that it has purchased social bookmarking site del.icio.us.

read more | digg story

My Netflix history

In mid-April I began a subscription to Netflix. I opted for the 2-DVD rental plan. I have unlimited rentals, but can only have up to two discs out at any one time. My monthly cost is $14.99.

I checked my rental history recently and was surprised how many movies I have rented since April. The following is my list with the most recent at the top:

• Batman Begins
• Mr. and Mrs. Smith
• Surviving Christmas
• Cellular
• The Old Dark House
• The 39 Steps
• Out of the Past
• Christmas with the Kranks
• The War of the Worlds (1953)
• House of Wax
• Texasville
• The Interpreter
• Nosferatu: Original Version
• Bewitched
• Vertigo
• Sahara
• The Great Ziegfeld
• The Last Picture Show
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• They Drive by Night
• Sherlock Holmes: The Scarlet Claw
• Sunset Boulevard
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
• The Shawshank Redemption: Special Edition
• Windtalkers
• L.A. Confidential
• My Man Godfrey
• The Bridge on the River Kwai
• Ed Wood
• Libeled Lady
• The Third Man
• Run Silent, Run Deep
• The Enemy Below
• Psycho
• The Forgotten
• Closer
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
• The Pride of the Yankees
• De-Lovely
• Advise and Consent
• Sherlock Holmes: The Pearl of Death
• Sherlock Holmes in Washington
• Sherlock Holmes: In Pursuit to Algiers
• Film Noir Collection: Scarlet Street
• Call Northside 777
• Film Noir Collection: The Stranger
• The Alamo
• The Country Girl
• The Thin Man
• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Brother, Where Art Thou?
• The Pianist
• Deadwood: Season 1: Disc 5 (5-Disc Series)
• Deadwood: Season 1: Disc 4 (5-Disc Series)
• Deadwood: Season 1: Disc 3 (5-Disc Series)
• Deadwood: Season 1: Disc 2 (5-Disc Series)
• Deadwood: Season 1: Disc 1 (5-Disc Series)
• The Aviator
• Ken Burns' Civil War: Disc 5 (5-Disc Series)
• Ken Burns' Civil War: Disc 4 (5-Disc Series)
• Ken Burns' Civil War: Disc 3 (5-Disc Series)
• Ken Burns' Civil War: Disc 2 (5-Disc Series)
• Ken Burns' Civil War: Disc 1 (5-Disc Series)
• National Treasure
• The Phantom of the Opera: Special Edition
• The Notebook
• The Bourne Supremacy
• The Bourne Identity
• After the Sunset
• Schindler's List: Disc 2
• Schindler's List
• Cold Mountain
• Ocean's Twelve
• Sideways

I currently have 40 movies in my queue with The Searchers and Collateral on their way.

Scientists unveil new discoveries from Titanic

The History Channel sponsored an expedition that appears to show the Titanic broke into three pieces -- not two as earlier believed. Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreckage in 1985, was quoted as saying:

"They found a fragment, big deal," Ballard said. "Am I surprised? No. When you go down there, there's stuff all over the place. It hit an iceberg and it sank. Get over it."

Scientists unveil new discoveries from Titanic - Science - MSNBC.com

Ex-Panthers cheerleader sued for assault

This is great -- plus I don't need to give anyone my credit card number!!!

Ex-Panthers cheerleader sued for assault

Congress calls hearing on 'deeply flawed' BCS

I've been reading that Congress is now getting involved in the Bowl Championship Series, also known as the BCS (or just plain BS, for short!). According to this Sports Illustrated article:

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, charged with regulating America's sports industry, announced Friday it will conduct a hearing on the BCS next week, after this season's bowl matchups are determined.

I was all for Congress stepping into the baseball steroids controversy. Steroids are very dangerous and the professional leagues were doing very little to control the problem. However, I think there are other problems in which Congress should involve itself -- the energy crisis, the Social Security system and that nasty situation in Iraq.

The "flawed" BCS system just doesn't compare to these other issues.

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