Random Tuesday Facts

We're home...hooray!! The trip was really great overall, and I hope to post about it soon, with photos. In the meantime, I wanted to let folks know I'm back and will be starting to visit your blogs again. :)

Also, it's Random Tuesday Facts once again and I have a couple for you.

1) For those in the U.S.: Unless it's high travel season and you're on a tight schedule with no wiggle space, don't book a hotel in advance. Pick up one of those Travel Coupon booklets, such as this oneand save yourself a ton of money. A nice young man at the Comfort Inn in Fruita, CO, told us that it's way better than the AAA discount of 10%. He said that our coupon saved us $30 for that particular motel.

2) A friend remarked about something being "ironic" and it reminded me that many people misuse the word "irony" when they mean "coincidence". Irony is defined as (and I'll use the Dictionary.com definitions since they're very similar to the ones in my American Heritage Dictionary definitions): 1) the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, "How nice!" when I said I had to work all weekend; 2) an outcome of events contrary [emphasis mine] to what was, or might have been, expected, as well as the incongruity of this.

Coincidence, on the other hand, is defined as: 1) a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance: Our meeting in Venice was pure coincidence; 2) the condition or fact of coinciding.

My favorite memory of learning the meaning of irony was in grade 8: the English teacher showed us a cartoon with the headline, "Olympic swimmer drowns in bathtub" - morbid but a great way to demonstrate irony!

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

On the road again

Just a quick note to let you know that while traveling for a couple of weeks, I probably won't have a chance to visit your blogs or write my regular (or irregular, as Julie noted) Tuesday and Thursday posts.

But, I am still planning for the pay-it-forward giveaway/swap! :)

Wishing you all a lovely next couple of weeks...

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

Thankful Thursday...continuing to be late...

This week, I am thankful

1) that dh has a job and we have a roof over our heads, and
2) for receiving sweet awards from my bloggy friends. It's nice to be loved, and it's even nicer to be shown a token of that love!

Minka (Stirring My Thoughts) bestowed the Lemonade Award on me yesterday:The rules of the award are:
1) Put the logo on your blog or post.
2) Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great attitude or gratitude.
3) Link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5) Share the love and link to the person from who you received your award.

Since I can pick as many as I want, I'll pass it along to everyone whose blog is listed in the right column of this page. But, since I'm busy packing for our trip, and I'm forgetful, I may not let you know at your blog. :}

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

Random Tuesday Facts - let's pretend it's stll Tuesday

This time, I thought we'd check out some actual language. :) So many people have asked me about the Cantonese-Mandarin distinction recently, that I thought I'd share a little here:

Mandarin and Cantonese are not two separate languages. They're both dialects of Chinese. In fact, there are many (I'm not sure of the exact number) Chinese dialects, most of which sound so different from each other that you'd not know they were from the same language. It's not at all like a Southern accent is different from a North-Eastern accent in the United States, where "twang" aside, it pretty much sounds the same (no southen accent jokes, please!).

"Simplified characters" notwithstanding, written Chinese is the same for all Chinese people, no matter where they live, so that even if you spoke an entirely different dialect than the region you're visiting, if you can read Chinese characters, you can essentially communicate with any other literate Chinese person by writing.

And what's in a word? Would a word by any other name smell as...confusing??
Cartoon by the brilliant Sidney Harris in the book You Want Proof? I'll Give You Proof!

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

Putting on my thinking cap

All right-y, then...after all the responses were in on my last post (the first responders meme), and after going around to various other people's blogs and bending some rules, here's is my list of folks to give to or swap with:

Give:
Blonde Duck
Minka (online only per her request)
Michelle-Pixie

Swap:
Egassner
Sherrie
Amber
Cake
Alli
Little Shadow Creations

(If I've forgotten someone, PLEASE let me know! My memory is really bad, you know, due to depriving my brain of its daily chocolate requirement.)

To all those who didn't make the (very loose) list of...uh...5, I am thinking of doing it again next year (since I have until the end of this year to work on this batch), so please do come back! :)

Everyone else who is on the lists above, I'm going to take some time to think about what I'll make for each of you, and then I'll get started on them as soon as I decide. Once I complete something for a specific person, I'll email (or contact through your blog) the recipient to get your mailing address.

Have patience! I'm not the fastest crafter in the world. 8)

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

First Responders surprise meme

I found this at Cake's (Whistling Leaf Blower), who got it from Julie (Craft Knife), who got it from...and so on...

The rules are (and I'm copying the text from Julie, with some edits):

The first 5 people who respond to this post will get something made by me: it will be my choice, but will, hopefully, be something you can use or enjoy for its aesthetic merits. In all likelihood, it'll be something I would sell at Etsy (if I ever get my site up). This offer does have some restrictions & limitations...

*I make no guarantees that you will like it...but I hope you do!
*You will receive this item before the end of the year...or sooner.
*You will have no idea what the item will be, or when you will receive it.
*To participate, you must re-post this meme on your blog and put together something to be sent out as 5 surprises of your own. These surprises can be anything....a piece of art, a photo, a poem...whatever you choose.

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

Thankful Thursday

I've got a couple of short posts up my sleeves (better than up anywhere else...sorry, rude of me!). First topic is Thankful Thursday.

Today, I'm thankful for Seeds of Change's Tikka Masala sauce. Not only is it super tasty (all Seeds of Change products that I've tried are!), but it also allowed me to easily whip up a vegetarian meal (tofu tikka masala) when dh came home late from work on Tuesday. Next time it goes on sale at our local food co-op, we may have to buy a case!

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

Random Tuesday Facts - day late, dollar short

Since the semantic English theme was so popular last week, I thought I'd continue it, but with a science twist!

Light year - is a unit of distance, not time (as some sci-fi shows have sometimes erroneously used it). It's the distance light travels in a vacuum in a year; that is, 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers.

Theory, hypothesis - when people think about the word hypothesis, they think only of an idea that is to be tested in a science class. And when people use the word theory, they use it synonymously with hypothesis, which is interchangeable with idea. In the scientific community, however, the two terms are vastly different and can't be interchanged.

In science, a hypothesis is an idea - indeed something to be tested. However, a theory is not just an idea. A theory can be thought of as an hypothesis that has graduated: it's been tested numerous times, yielding the same results (within an acceptable margin of error), and is taken by the scientific community to be something close to fact.

The beauty of science is that it's constantly changing - as we learn more about the universe, we can add to or subtract from an idea. It doesn't necessarily mean the principle constructs of a particular theory is wrong; just that our understanding of it was still incomplete.

The main problem lies in the fact that the general public and the scientific community don't use the word theory in the same way. I cringe every time I hear the term "it's just a theory" used in a sneering sort of way.

And on a "lighter" note (heh):"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

Some things are better left un-eaten

Reading the always hilarious Lisa Yee's blog (she's the author of the funny book, Millicent Min, Girl Genius), where you can follow the publishing world adventures of Peepy, reminded me that I had forgotten to post about my own Peeps experience.

Not wanting to deprive my kids of some pop culture, I bought them a pack of Peeps to try. Before we were even out of the store, ds#1 took the package from me and started reading the ingredients."Tartrazine, mom," he said (which is the name of the Yellow coloring in the product), "has been known to cause hyperactivity in children, as well as other worse side-effects." And it went down-hill from there.

"But you have to try some to experience it!" I said.

They both gave me baleful looks as though I were trying to poison them. With much coercion, I got them to split one, and I had to eat the 4 others in the package. I admit eating 4 Peeps all by myself made me a bit ill (and yes, I did spread it out over 2 days). It really is not good eats. In the meantime, the kids ate the much pricier Green & Black's chocolate bars...remind me not to immerse them in pop culture again.

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe