Restmüll Archives - Page 6 of 6

CTT #1

Introducing an all-new category, the Cool Thing of Today. I don’t promise to have one every day, but cool things come almost as fast as funny things around here.

Today’s CTT was this: While in the front yard after dusk I heard an owl hoot. Glancing up, I spotted what could be the owl in the top of a tree across the street, so I grabbed the birding binoculars Jacinta gave me for Christmas. Sure enough, it was the owl. He turned to look right at me and hooted again, right into the binocs!

It was–well, cool.

March is here, and…

I am sooo ready to hit the switch!

American Idol

Footbaal
Basketbaal
Basebaal
Etc.

Back to basics

This morning brought the first snow of the season:

Even though I dread the coming of winter each year, when the first snow actually arrives it is like walking out of a shopping mall into a quiet room–a visually quiet room, if you see what I mean, and one that usually brings with it auditory peace as well. After six months of painted glory, the world is suddenly reduced to a charcoal sketch of itself. It has some of that tender emotional effect that keeps black-and-white photography ever in style.

New font: wed dings

Frodo Cartoon — As a young hobbit, Frodo was often invited to weddings.

Marriage talks too much

I am translating a snippet from a medieval commentary on 1Corinthians. At the part where St. Paul advises the Corinthians not to marry because of the many difficulties involved, my commentator notes that Paul says

that marriage should be avoided because there are many pressing difficulties. Hence they are said to be in a millstone, Mt. 24:41. Hence in common speech it is said that marriage has a big mouth.

Excuse me? Odd proverbs making the rounds in the late middle ages. But I love the creative interpretation of Mt. 24:41!

CYOA experiment

I am experimenting with the possibility of creating Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) stories for the blog. Click here for a CYOA story that I wrote based on a Wilderness First Aid course I took last year.

When I wrote this, I thought that CYOA might be a good format for reviewing or quizzing first aid knowledge.

Air conditioner victory

The hot season has lasted much longer than usual this summer, so we decided to install the old air conditioner we have lugged around unused for the past six or seven years. The challenge was that our windows open side to side instead of up and down. To make it work, I built a figure-eight shaped frame that slides into the window sill; the bottom half of the frame houses the AC unit while the top half has plexiglass.

AC in window — My camera lens is smudged, so the picture is blurry.

The plexiglass is 1/8 inch thick, which just so happens to be the width of the groove cut by my table saw. Worked out well.

I covered the screws on the side with wooden plugs that I cut with a special drill bit. They always cut a bit too small for the hole, but I dropped them in water for a minute or so and now they are swollen to fit the hole:

What’s that smell?

The first in a projected line of papally themed perfumes, this Catholic niche market idea never gained momentum.

The Completely Self-Referential Personality Test

The Mrs. and I have been reading and talking about the Myers-Briggs personality typing theory. As I took one of the many tests supposed to tell you your type, I realized that my reactions to the test itself were indicative of my personality type. So I put together my own amazingly nuanced, sensitive, convenient, and completely self-referential personality test. Choose whether each of the following statements is (Y) or is not (N) what you would say right now:

(1) To be completely honest, personality tests make me nervous because I’m afraid of failing the test.

(2) I can already tell that this quiz is a bunch of bunk.

(3) It bothers me that I can only answer “Yes” or “No”.

(4) Now that I am finished with this quiz, I’d like to share my results on Facebook.

Ready to score the quiz? Here’s the key:

(1) Y=F, N=T (2) Y=J, N=P (3) Y=N, N=S (4) Y=E, N=I

So what is your type? Compare your results with the more elaborate test and let me know in the comments box how they compare!