For No Particular Reason.....

Other than I can't think of anything else....

Through hard experience I know how tough it is to be - or to live with - an introvert in an extroverted society. If you know of an introvert- love them today....

Personality is personality and there is nothing wrong with it. THIS is good advice.

Thanks to The Best Article Every Day

This Is No Surprise

As a Midwesterner this map only verifies what simple observation can often prove. See all those red areas? Those are places where there are more bars than grocery stores. The other places are where there are more grocery stores than bars.

It's hard to not add that you may never guess which parts of the country have the highest binge-drinking and alcoholism rates. But that would be unfair.

From The Daily Dish Map of the Day.

Link to Floating Sheep where this was first discovered.

There is a Difference

Listverse posted 10 Obscure Conspiracy Theories the other day. Here was one of them:

One of the many conspiracy theories relating to the Coca-Cola Company is that it intentionally changed to an inferior formula with New Coke with the intent of driving up demand for their classic product, later reintroducing it for their financial gain. Alternatively, people believe the switch was made to allow Coca-Cola to reintroduce “classic” Coke with a new formulation using less expensive corn syrup. Working against this theory is the fact that New Coke was introduced world-wide but it is only in North America that the re-established Classic Coke is made with corn-syrup (due to US government interventionist policies in the sugar industry); elsewhere, Classic Coke is made with sugar.

Actually I post this mostly for the second half of the post with its reference to the use of high-fructose corn syrup in Coke in the US as opposed to sugar. Recently in one of our local grocery stores I have seen "Classic" Coke in bottles with a sign stating that it's "Mexican" Coke with sugar. Pepsi has also been promoting an old-fashioned Pepsi made with sugar instead of corn syrups.

Recently we were in Mexico and the American Cola was Coke. It did have a different taste. I can't define it, but it was more flavorful. All it listed on the can was "sugars." I didn't try Coke Light so I don't know how that would have compared. But there was definitely a difference.

As to a conspiracy? I'll leave that for more suspicious or paranoid bloggers than I tend to be.

Filling In Some Blanks

A few things on my mind that don't rate a whole post, so might as well just ramble through a few of them:

• Sorry- no tickets. That was the gist of the email from the Twins. They had a lottery for tickets for the opening series at the new Target Field in April. But neither my daughter or I were chosen. It would have been fun to have been at the last game at the 'Dome and the first at Target, but so it goes. It will probably snow anyway.

• Watching Toyota fall apart before our very eyes is a scary experience. The first question that comes to mind is how could it happen like this to a company known for its safety and quality? The second question which really is just beginning is when did they know and what did they do about it? That one could bring some serious issues. In the end, though, no one is immune- no one is perfect. We have seen problems like this before with American companies. Hopefully, for the overall economy Toyota will be able to bounce back.

• I am way behind on movies for this Academy Awards season. I have a hunch I won't catch up before the Awards in March. While the idea of picking 10 Best Picture nominees instead of 5 made for some interest, it sure plays havoc with me seeing all of them before the ceremony.

• I am at the end of week four of a twelve week fitness program. So far it is working nicely, even with a week off when we were in Mexico. It has had some unique and surprising impacts. The most unusual is that I am now getting up earlier and actually working out before work. For this old gray-haired night-owl that is nothing short of the equivalent of the miracle of the century. Will bring you up to date in a few weeks.

Happy New Year 2010

I Guess I Was Right

I was surfing around my old files earlier today and came across some of the old posts here on Wanderings. Back in October, 2005, right as the White Sox were breaking their curse, I reflected on heroes. I said at that point that we need to have "real" heroes, not the easy way we throw around the term. In that post I referenced the "hero" of the game the day before who hit a home run in the 14th inning to win it. I said that in 50 years no one would remember him.

I was a little far off. It's only four years later and I didn't remember him. Hey, I hardly remembered the game.

Rosa Parks, who started the Montgomery Bus Boycott by refusing to move to the back of the bus, had just died. She was- and remains- a hero.

Here's what I wrote then:

A Little About Heroes
I said the other day that Rosa Parks was one of my "heroes." As I thought more about that yesterday I realized how easily we can use that term- and how few people really deserve it. Geoff Blum was the "hero" of yesterday's World Series game with a home run in the 14th inning. But in October, 2055, will anyone remember without looking it up in a record book?

Yet when Rosa Parks died just shy of 50 years since she didn't give up her seat, the headlines didn't need to send you to some obscure record book to find out what she might have done in 1955. Nor did anyone wonder who that Baptist preacher named Martin Luther King, Jr. was.

For me that's one possible angle on being a hero. There's a lasting impact. Another is that the world has changed in some way as a result. It can be in BIG ways like Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela. It can also be the unsung heroes of 9/11 who were willing to give up their own lives for the sake of others.

Or it can be the everyday people who change our individual worlds. It can be the family who invited me to church over 40 years ago that led me into the Christian faith and ministry. My world was never the same, thank God.

All this brings me to realize that I need to be cautious about how I use a word like hero. I don't want it to lose its power and importance. I want to be able to say what I say and have it mean something.

Tis the Season

Already.

I am at my favorite Caribou Coffee shop. And Seasonal music is in the mix.

At least it's after Halloween.

Time's Top 50

Time has posted their Top 50 Websites for 2009.

Link

Some look interesting. Many are still the ones we know and depend on in many ways.

The only one I missed seeing was pmPilgrim. Maybe next year.

So How Did That Work Out For You?

According to a poll in Britain the most popular song sung at funerals:

My Way- Frank Sinatra

I can see how successful that was.

Some of the unranked but chart-movers may say even more about the person. These include:

"Bat Out Of Hell" - Meatloaf and

"Highway To Hell" - AC/DC.

Just for Kicks

A news item on the front page of the Star-Tribune this morning:

Police in Maine arrested arsonists after they posted a video of their crime on YouTube- with credits.

It made me think of a couple teenagers I knew 30+years ago who were arrested for putting cherry bombs in- and blowing up- mailboxes. "We would have stopped sooner," one of them told me, "if they had put it in the newspaper that mailboxes were being blown up."

Sometimes it is for the thrill of reading about it.

Not Again?

Paraskavedekatriaphobia.

That was the word last month. It's back. Another day of fear and terror in the movie theaters and every Elm Street in the country.

No reason to point it out. Just a minor distraction on an otherwise nice day.

Just don't step on any cracks and remember to throw the salt over your right (or is it left?) shoulder?

Paraskavedekatriaphobia

No, not a random collection of letters that look like they might mean something. It is actually a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia.

We have three times this year to remember this special word- today, in four weeks and again in November.

It is, as you might expect, the fear of Friday the 13th- and I don't mean the movie.

So shiver and fear, avoid ladders and black cats, and most of all, stay away from anyone named Jason.

Bits and Pieces

Okay, things have been piling up again in my Yet to be Written and Posted file. So here goes.

• And speaking of piling up, I would be remiss if I didn't note that December in these neck of the woods (and elsewhere) was a snowy and cold month. We had the third snowiest month in history. And on top of that it was colder than average. This is now two Decembers in a row when things were cold and snowy, but this was worse. We had below average temps for the middle of January- in December. Of course all global warming unbelievers will be quick to point out the irony in that. But climate change is not the same as local temperature ups and downs. But here in Minnesota a little bit more of it would sure be welcome.


• Guilt levels decreased the other week when I read a news story indicating that we need to take naps. (Well, maybe "need" was my interpretation of the article.) It seems that taking naps helps us remember. What they call "slow-wave" sleep is important to the uploading of information to our permanent memory- and that is the kind of sleep we get in naps. I wonder if my wife would believe it if I told her I had to go and remember something for the next 90 minutes?


• Ever wonder about where names come from? No, not last names, but first names? Well I came across a website that answers all the questions you have ever had about names. It's Behind the Name. There I learned that the study of names is called onomastics which includes etymology (i.e. name origins), history, culture, etc. So, to answer your burning question (with appropriate links):

BARRY

Gender: Masculine

Usage: Irish, English

Pronounced: BAR-ee, BER-ee

Anglicized form of the Irish name Bairre, which is a diminutive of FIONNBHARR. It is also used as an Anglicized form of BEARACH. (Fionnbharr: Means "fair hair", derived from Gaelic fionn "white, fair" and barr "head". Saint Fionnbharr of Cork was a 6th-century bishop who supposedly performed miraculous cures. The Barry Islands off Wales were named for him.)

Just thought you'd like to know.

• And finally something you may see more of here later. There is a website called Day Zero: The Home of the 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days Project. It is a neat idea that is somewhere between a bunch of New Year's Resolutions which we all ignore and a life list/bucket list. I am working on my list of 101 things to accomplish in 1001 Days (about two and a half years.) More will be forthcoming.

How Far Does IT Go?

Overheard in Rochester...

Teen girl #1 to friends after a trip to the Cities: How far does Target go?
Teen girl #2: I think they have them in Florida.

It is at the same time hard to believe that the rest of the world is different from us and that it is the same as us. Something local is actually nationwide and what we know as local really isn't. It's enough to boggle the mind.

$1.87

Today's price of gas in Rochester, MN.

How Low Will It Go?

$1.99

Gas price this morning here in Rochester, MN.

I paid $1.91 yesterday in the Twin Cities.

Hasn't been this low in 3 years?

$2.14

Yep, per gallon. It drops a few cents every day. Someone even told me that in the cities it is below $2.00 in some places.

Perhaps the only silver lining in the otherwise cloudy financial crisis.

Post # 2,500

and still counting.

And it is still fun, too.

This is Cool

A few weeks ago I got an email on my Flickr photo page saying that on online travel guide wanted to use one of my photos from Seville. I looked at it and said, "Sure. Why not?"

Well, I just got the email that they are using my picture of the Torre del Oro in Seville. No pay or anything. But they do link the photo back to my Flickr page. Neat.

Link to the newly released Schmap Seville Guide.

Being Below Average

Sometimes it is good to be "below average." Tonight our gas price in Rochester, MN, is $3.50. The national average is $3.74 and the Midwest average is $3.71. Not bad, not bad at all.