A Thousand Monkeys Typing

Backronym

2009-02-12T15:05:00.004-05:00

came across this today...

Backronym - a reverse acronym, a phrase constructed after the fact to make an already existing word or words into an acronym.

Backronym Wikipedia Page

See also Retronym

over the hump

2009-02-06T09:27:00.003-05:00

It's now just about 50 hours since I had my facebook account disabled... I'm still waiting to hear from them about it. I think I'm over the hump of facebook withdrawal.

At least I'm not the only one who has had these problems:
Fears of impostors increase on Facebook via CNN.com

damn you facebook!

2009-02-04T19:01:00.004-05:00

I love facebook!

It enables you to keep in touch with long lost friends, some you may not otherwise talk to.

There are a million little applications that can keep you occupied if you have a boring day.

I love facebook... until yesterday.

Yesterday, I keep getting messages from friends... "are you in london? are you okay?"
"Call me... you can call collect" etc... "you unfriended me... what's going on?"

Apparently someone had gotten into my facebook account and was chatting with my friends...
apparently i was in London and I had gotten mugged... he/she was asking all my friends to wire money to them so I could get home!

Luckily none of my friends are dumb enough to fall for this...

Anyway I changed my password, sent messages to everyone telling them i'm okay. My fiance sends me a few snarky messages about being a spy a la "True Lies" and maybe I was in London... what does she know... you're gone at work for 18 hours... you could be anywhere. ha ha very funny.

I was at work late last night so I sleep in a bit, check woot.com for the deal of the day and then log in to facebook to see what's happened to my friends for the last few hours. or rather I try to log in....

I get a message saying that my account has been disabled and I have violated the Terms of Service...

I suspect this said violation of terms of service involves asking people to wire me money

Argh...
I read the little note... "if you think your account was disabled by mistake, email...."
Email sent.

Anyway I'm twelve hours into facebook withdrawal... I haven't poked anyone, sent them flair, or thrown a snowball at anyone for TWELVE HOURS. I don't know what people have had for lunch... i don't know whose kids used a swear word in a concerningly appropriate manner... I'm sure people are waiting for me to play my scrabble turn ... and my (fluff)friend probably hasn't been petted ALL DAY!

FACEBOOK LET ME BACK IN!!!!!

plainlanguage.gov

2008-11-30T21:12:00.003-05:00

Plainlanguage.gov - Improving communications from the Federal Government to the Public.

Who knew? I guess it's needed

Yin and Yang

2008-11-28T10:06:00.000-05:00

Yin and Yang.... kitten style

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/11/kitteh-a-copia.html

Ginormous

2008-11-28T09:43:00.000-05:00

I'm not every sure ginormous is a word. My fiance insists that it is.

I just saw Anthony Bourdain use it on television...

TV doesn't lie. It must be a word

Alas....

2008-11-16T16:32:00.002-05:00

DSC_8425
Originally uploaded by bnug

figures i would do it wrong...

But hopefully fixed too.

Dripping faucet

2008-11-16T16:31:00.002-05:00

DSC_8424
Originally uploaded by bnug

Pretty industrious, if i say so myself

fridge pic

2008-11-11T21:21:00.002-05:00

DSC_8113
Originally uploaded by bnug

amazon recommendation

2008-10-03T05:37:00.002-04:00

Shop Bestselling vegetarian shoes

Vegetarian shoes?

weird

2007-10-23T13:55:00.001-04:00

Weirdest news stories in the last few days.

1. Dumbledore is gay
2. Exploring the "Dark side" of Peanuts Creator

weird

Hat Steamer?

2007-09-21T13:14:00.000-04:00

never know when you need a hat steamer...

http://www.goodmans.net/item.asp?n=JF-J1&k=JF-J1&sc=NXTG

Cables woes

2007-06-25T14:35:00.000-04:00

So I signed up for "free digital cable" whatever that means... i can get some shows whenever I want them rather than waiting for when they're really on.... anyway - got 3 cable boxes in the mail... none of the 3 work. Called the company... impressed they were able to send someone the next day. He's here today and my friend is at my house to meet him. Apparently he couldn't get them to work and so he called into the company and then he gets put on hold. "Ha" if one of the employees can't get thru to the cable company... who can?

Cruel world

2006-11-21T13:10:00.000-05:00

I was in Lansing, MI for the lighting of the tree at the state capital and a parade with lighted floats etc. I do occasionally listen to one of the morning shows out of lansing. For a while it was The morning show with Dave and Lisa, and then Lisa went on vacation and then just seemed to disappear. Anyway, the radio station had a Honda Element at the parade with some of the DJs riding on the roof. Both my friend Stacia and I commented that on the Side of the car was "Dave and L". It looked to us that they had started taking off Lisa's name and then stopped for some reason. Anyway I didn't think too much about it. This morning all of a sudden a new girl was part of the morning show. Guess what her name was. Lori or Laurie (can't hear the spelling over the radio obviously) So what I thought was a half-ass name removal job on the part of the radio station was infact a planned replacement of the Word Lisa with Lori... on the cheap even too without having to redo the whole thing. only 3 new letters needed. Cruel.

Lego Eggos

2006-03-10T13:15:00.000-05:00

I saw the coolest thing ever at Kroger the other day

LEGO WAFFLES!!!

The slogan was "Toast, break, and build."

Here's a post about them at the Strange New Products Blog.

Comments there say they don't build that well, but the idea is cool.

Halloween

2005-11-01T11:38:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've blogged... had lots of kids come by last night for halloween. Tons of kids in the neighborhood. Anyway one of my buddies brought by some little comic books (graphic novels?) to hand out to the kids too... probably to subvert them to his comic reading lifestyle. Anyway. they were were fairly well received... maybe because they were getting candy anyway. Funny though, two small children immediately handed the book to their moms. One guy said "Oh cool, my dad would love this" Sigh.

Clubbing

2005-09-25T22:56:00.000-04:00

It was V's birthday Friday. We went out dancing... dancing makes me feel old, but it's so much fun. The was one guy there in a plain white t shirt, black shorts with white socks and black shoes dancing by himself. at least i wasn't the dorkiest one there.

movie night

2005-08-20T11:52:00.000-04:00

I've discovered a set of channels on my new tv. My guess is that they are OnDemand channels for the digial cable system (I don't have digital cable) So I watched the second half of Napolean Dynamite and then I'm guessing 80% of Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Both pretty dumb, but also very amusing. It was a good movie night.

squirrels

2005-08-14T10:37:00.000-04:00

Picture provided by freefoto.com

I'm, watching a tv show on squirrels. fascinating creatures.

cat hair II

2005-08-13T23:38:00.000-04:00

(Delayed post)
Went out Aug 6th evening again. Been a while since i've been to the bars two nights in a row. much nicer night. no babysitting.... a good time was had by all. got my friend's g-friend drunk (she's also my friend) because it was her b-day. had egg sandwiches at 3am thanks to my friend. he's a good man. (don't tell him i said that)

cat hair on my tongue

2005-08-06T08:09:00.000-04:00

Went out last night. I must have done something wrong, god is punishing me. Had a perfectly reasonable going away dinner. Went to a reasonable going away shindig (a different goings-away, what can i say people don't like to be around me)It was sweltering there I thought I was going to melt. We brought some of the people from the dinner to the other shindig. Now see this is where the problems start. I've always been a fan of mixing worlds. Ya know you have different groups of friends when you are in different situations. i.e. work friends and friends from college. problems occur when you try to do activities with multiple groups of people at the same time... i've said in the past (not to you, but to myself really) that it's okay to mix... people get to know each other better and then you have less scheduling difficulty. i may have to take it back. after the melty outdoor bar (which closes with airraid sirens at an unreasonably early hour) we went to nice different bar. more chill, more airconditioned... now here some people from work that I know peripherally showed up. little older crowd, nice people, but not people you'd expect to see out a bar (now up to 3 worlds mixing). another one shows up at the same bar with some really young, very pregnant looking semihottie which is just weird. so now i'm tripping a bit. all of a sudden one of the people who is leaving wants to go dancing. It takes half an hour to get everyone on board with minor drama in the making(One guy is trying to mess with a girl he'll never score with so she'll like him better --very 3rd grade, another needs to swing by another bar so he can meet up with his sorta/kinda woman... not quite girlfriend according to him, but don't know what'd she'd say) Anyway we all finally make it to the other club, the older people don't like the vibe so they take off immediately to go somewhere else. i stick around, more 3rd grade games ensue (see above) she takes off (probably not a direct result of said games). now we chill for a bit. and the crew thins a bit (booty calls, arguments, etc) so we make another venue change. Ends up we go the club that the other group had left ours to go to. so we kinda sorta recombine, but not really because it's a little weird. Bars close. we go home. Much more specific drama to record, but I don't want implicate anyone. Maybe the mixing of worlds wasn't the problem, but it sure seemed that way. Two other possibilities, i'm officially too old to go out to bars/clubs (which i hope is not true) or it was just too many venues. we'll never know. Anyway I had too much to drink regardless, it tastes like cat hair on my tongue

ps. if you care at all, just found a monster hairball that the car yarfed up in my clean laundry. Unrelated to the cat hair taste on my tongue I assure you.

yippee

2005-07-17T21:57:00.000-04:00

New LCD projection TV. Yippee. 3 channels tune in HDTV. I'm tempted to order digital cable right now. Til then there will be a lot of PBS-HD.

casino night

2005-07-17T21:16:00.000-04:00

Yesterday went to deal blackjack for a charity casino night. Discovered a term I'd never heard before.

"Church Blackjack"

For this event according to state rules or whatever there are different blackjack rules than usual so that the charity has an advantage and doesn't lose money. In this case this means that the house wins ties. Sucks if you're playing, but it's all for charity.

new house

2005-06-29T00:36:00.000-04:00

i've spent the last couple of nights at my new house. the cat's finaaly come out from under the bed. it's a little strange... but it's mine. still getting the remnents out of the old house. didn't realize i had so much stuff.

on a completely different note I've had two different people tell me about joining online dating. i wish them luck. i'm not ready for that myself.

happy dad's day

2005-06-19T22:55:00.000-04:00

happy father's day. thanks for all you've done.

what do you give the dad that's made it possible for you to have everything you need?

my dad just got dvd's. a small token gesture. thanks.

Book Meme Tag

2005-06-06T00:46:00.000-04:00

So I go on vacation... first time i'm not obsessively checking blogs since starting the whole blogging thing (Obsessively doing other things in Las Vegas) I find out that my good friend JACK at Integrity had tagged me on the day I left. I will need to think about the answers to these questions. A post tomorrow maybe?

I doubt that there are many if any regular readers of "A Thousand Monkeys Typing" if there are.... they are much different from the readers of "Integrity" I'm sure. It interesting when words cross (I deliberately use the word cross rather than collide)

Road Rally.

2005-05-24T17:15:00.000-04:00

This weekend I did one of the strangest things i've done in a while. I help my friend out with his father's road rally.

now I know what you're thinking.... Cannonball run. get somewhere as fast as possible no matter what the cost. It couldn't be further from the truth. Apparently those types of rallys do happen, but they are now on closed courses. This kind of rally is of a different sort. It's not how fast you get somewhere... it's how consistently you travel along the route.
Here's how it works. Two people to a car, a driver and a navigator. You get your instructions 15 minutes before you leave. The instructions state how far you go the turns you take and the average speed you're supposed to be travelling. sounds easy huh? well all the roads are open and have traffic on them. Next most of the roads are dirt roads. As for keeping a constant speed you just flip on the cruise control right? wrong. you're likely making turns and corners that you need to slow down for. Every time you slow down, you're going to have to speed up and make up the time. Also they don't tell you when the checkpoints are. so you could go over a hill and find a checkpoint there where you are timed. Still doesn't sound too hard does it. Now for scoring... you are given one point for every hundredth of minute early or late you arrive to checkpoint. So if you drive too fast and get to a checkpoint a minute early, 100 points. Not it's sounding tougher. Now what would you say if I told you that for this particular rally the winning car over about 5 1/2 hours of driving and 11 checkpoints had a score of 8. That means he was off 8/100ths a minute over almost 6 hours.

All sorts of cars were there. Many Subaru AWDs, a couple trucks, and a 2006 Dodge Charger. There was a BMW Z3 that did the dusty route with the top down and a 1962 Morgan that quit after the 1st leg because it was a little hard on their car.

It was very cool though. Barrelling along country roads at 40 mph on gravel. My job was with my friend to make sure the checkpoints were in the right place and to collect time cards and such.

It was pretty neat. I've treated my Camry better though. I don't think she liked me much for it. Not quite the right tires I guess. I treated her to new windshield wipers for it.

Happy Mothers day

2005-05-08T22:52:00.000-04:00

Happy Mom's Day. Thanks for everything.

Thanks to all the moms out there.

you call this weather?

2005-04-24T21:36:00.000-04:00

So I left for Chicago on Wednesday. It was 80 degrees. I was wearing short sleeves and sandals. I got back today to Michigan... it's snowing! What gives? It was cold in Chicago, luckily there I had left my coat in the back seat of my car. I know Michigan weather is fickle, but this is nuts.

Poker night

2005-04-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

Poker was pretty successful again. I think i drank too much. I did come back from 2 chips when it was down to 3 tables (17 people) and ending up coming in 4th. If I was paying attention I could have finished 3rd easily. Oh well... I had fun.

Here's How to sell your stuff on Amazon.

Ever wonder what font that was? What the Font?

Spam

2005-03-27T01:50:00.000-05:00

Now I've always gotten a lot of spam emails. That's what I get for sprinkling my email address various places without regard for years. But for some reason the spams are getting weirder. I'm not only getting singles spam, but Christian Singles spam. Not that I don't consider myself Christian, but I've never been extremely religious and almost never (meaning weddings only) go to church. Somehow the internet marketers have decided it's worth their fraction of a penny to email about it. What am I supposed to think of the emails I get asking me to "protect my fertility" As a man, I hadn't thought of it much.

happy easter.

March Madness

2005-03-19T19:54:00.000-05:00

I don't get it. Basketball? I just don't like it. I'm just not realy a sports nut I guess. I can watch College football most of a saturday and hockey (when they're not on hiatus) is fun to. Michigan is in the CCHA finals today though and I can watch that. My roomies are there at the game in a box no less. Hope they're enjoying themselves.

Differences

2005-03-07T01:30:00.000-05:00

I guess I'm different from my friends. First of all, most of them wouldn't know what a blog is or wouldn't be caught dead blogging. Next of those who do, they seem to focus a little more specifically, or more accurately more seriously on topics. I.e one guy blogs religion and economics (2 blogs) the other does literary criticsm( well, of comic books but still). Another uses it to reveal his inner true self. I blog ahout vegas, coffee, and bingo. What does that make me? superficial?

Vegas

2005-02-12T01:22:00.000-05:00

Went to Vegas for 3 days last minute. My bud was going to be there so I decide to join him at the last minute. Had a blast lost a little money. Ate a ton. Breakfast one morning consisted of Krispy Kreme donuts and a Chantico (starbucks Drinking chocolate) yum. Vegas should have a new slogan instead of that "what happens in vegas stays in vegas".... it should be :

"Come to Las Vegas and get diabetes."

I'm glad this was cleared up.

2005-01-25T20:07:00.000-05:00

Court case to determine ownership and/or possible infringement of the phrase "Back that ass up"

5th Circuit rules in Rapper's battle.

I will sleep better tonight.

Starbucks.

2005-01-17T21:38:00.000-05:00

Now i'm really not a fan of starbucks... they're a ubiquitous reminder of how corporate america can take a humble cup of coffee, smash the local business, and then charge 3 bucks for a cup of coffee.

THat being said... they make a damn good cup of coffee. I really liked the pumpkin spice latte they had over the holidays. Now they have some thing called a chantico... sounds like a new model car or perfume eh? It's like a thick dark chocolate hot chocolate. They call it "Drinking Chocolate" Yummy!!

Steel Cage Bingo

2005-01-09T01:53:00.000-05:00

So I was shopping with one of my ex-roomies. And we saw a little bingo thingie... labled "Steel Cage Bingo" Oddly enough we both looked at each other, then admitted to each other that we each had some strange image of a wrestling cage where Mexican wrestlers were locked in some sort of Deathmatch Bingo Game. Weird.

Bundt Cake

2005-01-06T17:24:00.000-05:00

Bleah. A frustrating day at work. Drive home in crappy snow. Blog. Nap. Eat. Then poker. or is it Nap. Blog. Eat.... no Eat. Blog. Nap. Poker.

The creator of the bundt cake died. So many tasty desserts we owe to him.

Oceans 12

2005-01-04T21:51:00.001-05:00

So 3rd movie in 3 days. I NEVER see this many movies. Anyway it was as good as the last. With a few silly parts, like the whole Julia Roberts thing ( i won't give it away, but if you saw it you know). And the Entrapment thing too. Anyway. I knew how it was going to end. Sounds like i'm dogging it but I liked it a lot. Oceans 13 was set up pretty good.

Movie night

2005-01-03T18:58:00.000-05:00

Watched two movies last night. I was extremely tired having been on call the previous day/night. up for 22 hours then an hour of fitful rest then a drive home (Yummy Sausage McMuffin on the way home) The sleep for like 5 hours. Then I watched Bourne Supremacy with my roomie. Not a bad movie, i would see it again. Wish I had read the book first. A friend has it and I need to get it from her (That's a different story). I read the book before the 1st one and though i liked the first movie there was a lot more in the book. Not enough Julia Stiles though. Anyway. Then we went to My ex-roomies house and watched Saved... I thought it was supposed to be a comedy, which it was, but it wasn't really laugh out loud comedy. Wasn't bad. My favorite was the driveby exorcism, with Mandy Moore at the end throwing her Bible at the other chick and saying "I'm full of Christ love!" I'm still sleepy so, I'll quit babbling... for several seconds.

Halo 2, mods

2004-12-31T10:22:00.000-05:00

Halo 2 rules!!!! well I suck at it, but it is an awesome game. Got together last night with my buds from college and we played 10 person halo hardwired with 4 xboxes. (no Xbox live). I don't have to tell you it was awesome. I had pretty much avoided getting an xbox just because I was finishing up GTA:SA, now that i've finished the missions and have had a taste of true combat I have no excuse. I do thank my buds wife for letting us play at their new house. Most wives would not be understanding... I don't think though that we'll be doing it anytime soon again. At MN she came down and said "you guys have been playing for 7 hours!! Aren't you tired of it yet?" Granted she did play a little with us earlier, but i don't think she understands the attraction of the game. Still awesome to let us come over and play.

This morning after having Halo dreams, I'm surfing and this guy has modded a PC inside an iMac case it's probably been done before, but meticulously documented. Pretty cool...

Merry Christmas

2004-12-25T17:34:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas... and for those who aren't Christian, Happy Non-demonational Holidays. Not that I'm a good Christian. I've only been in churches for weddings in the last 15 years. Not that Christmas is all that of a Christian holiday anymore, with all the presents and commercials and the Santa Claus replicas. etc. It's helpful to the economy? Anyway. Enjoy the holiday. I'll try to put up a Christmasy link later.

Breast Cancer

2004-12-21T18:20:00.000-05:00

So I'm off to kroger with my roommate... Jokingly, i ask why don't you have one of those yellow ribbons on your car. (Every car in the lot seemed to have one of those magnet things... yay troops) He proceeds to say that He's "pro-breast cancer" Now he's a strange one, yelling at the TV and such, but I don't know anyonew who's FOR cancer. Not to mention that that's a pink ribbon instead of yellow. I live with idiots.

Self-described "The most comprehensive ribbon list on the 'Net"

Another Index of Ribbon Campaigns by Color

Don't forget the Teal ribbon campaign

Speaking of idiots. Trader Joes has a 10 pound bar of Ghirdelli Semi-sweet chocolate for 19.99. Yum.

Christmas shopping

2004-12-19T21:06:00.000-05:00

Basically it sucks! My legs are sore. And I still have a long list left. I don't know what to do. Last year I said I would do all my shopping online. But when you don't know what to get someone, that doesn't work. So you go to mall, take forever to park, then go into the crowded mall with hundreds of other clueless folks. Then you end up not buying all you need to get. Sigh.

One thing good about shopping is that you spend lots of time in the car listening to music. So when you get home and you've heard a new song and you are trying to figure out where the samples came from...

Now at least you can google it and find out hopefully where they're from. Here's one interesting blog that I found looking for the sample from the new Nelly single.
On an aside, he has some interesting thoughts on relationships on his main page.

Catblogging

2004-12-12T21:02:00.000-05:00

Okay, i'm new to this blogging thing. My bud mentioned Catblogging. It's the practice of posting pictures of their cats on fridays. Here's an article in the NYT about it. It's not friday, but I will post a picture of the cutest cat there ever was.

Santarchy

2004-12-12T20:11:00.000-05:00

So last night I participated in something called Santarchy.... Basically a bunch of people dress as Santa and go drinking... Interesting. Evidently the turnout was low... only 15 santas or so, including myself, so I took off early. (Second time this year dressed as santa. I was Santa for Halloween too.) My buddy who's done it in the past stayed out all night. I picked him up at 3 in the morning at the Fleetwood (yum) and there was some hulaballo about some Santa leaving a card at the bar with some joke about anthrax. I didn't know what was going on. So we took off at the earliest opportunity.

Santarchy

My other friend is a comic fiend. I'm in the medical field here's the synthesis of the two.

Polite Dissent

More Poker

2004-12-10T23:28:00.000-05:00

ok. i'm addicted to poker. I've been playing online... making a little money. Well not losing much money, most nights. Anyway, last night I got killed, couldn't buy a hand... well I was trying to. anwyay.. i suck at it. I should get a clue

Poker and Noodling...

2004-12-08T02:48:00.000-05:00

Post-call today after a quiet night in my own bed.... always a good thing. Went to play poker with my buddy, got my ass kicked. Frustrating game... yet so aluring... *sigh* Anyway after getting my ass kicked and him winning a bunch he bought me dinner. For some reason talk turned to noodling
I couldn't think of the name of it, but his Southern self knew. It's the practice of placing you hands in mudholes while wading in a river, waiting for a catfish to bite down on your hands, at which point to wrestle it out of the water. I saw this on TV and this guy grabbed the fish and it was HUGE. like 50 pounds or something. a hell of a fish fry. Anyway amazing... I don't want to wrestle anything... maybe a cheerleader in mud. *blush*

Welcome

2004-12-05T10:23:00.000-05:00

Hello. This is the first entry in the Archermonkey Blog. It's not that I'm under the impression that tons of people are reading this or anything... or that I have some grandiose idea that my feeble opionions will change the world (or will they....) I'm just increasing my little corner of the internet.
Feel free to comment. Please be nice.