word!

A while back, I found a website that you use to track US currency via the site and the unique serial number on currency. This was interesting to me, because as a kid I wondered what actually happened to money after it left your hands, the places it might go and things that it could be part of.

So upon hearing about this site, I signed up and entered in a few bills of various currencies and disseminated them out into the world. The first one I received information on didn’t travel far, Fergus Falls, or have any other information entered with it. But the second one,a Alexander Hamilton, upon which I just recieved notification, has traveled all the way to Anchorage, AK , which is awesome and very cool in a way.

The site tracks distance from report A to report B and also miles traveled per day, which with the Alaska Bill was on average of some 6.2 miles/day which is quite good I think.

All in all, it was fun to learn of this. Ah, the joys the internet can bring mankind!

Had the honor of visiting MSU, Mankato for the first time in three since I graduated. What drew me back was the opportunity to be a science fair judge for the first time. I had gotten requests in the previous years to do so, but always had something going on the weekend they had the event, but this year it worked out. I has somewhat interested to see how the judging went after years in elementary school going to the local science fairs.

All in all, the judging and fair were okay. I would have liked to have been given more time to do the actual judging and view other projects, but with 1300 exhibits, it is somewhat impractical.
After the judging was done, I strolled about campus to see how things looked and/or had changed. The biggest change probably was the new CSU revamp, which is more open and welcoming for a gateway into the university, but really doesn’t face any particular avenue or access to campus, which is offputting, but fits in well with the similarily ill designed Taylor Center. Lots of new, hip furniture with oodles of computer stations and workspaces make it appear they actually thought about the present and future a bit, which is nice.

The other big change was the University’s dedication to it’s athletic facilities, which was well underway when I finished there, but still seems to be progressing. I know they have faced financial hurdles with the State over funding, but by the time they’re done they’ll have pretty much everything sports related brand spanking new.

It’s kind of pathetic that sports play such a large role at MSU. They are only Division I in hockey, so it’s overkill for all the other programs. All that money could be going to education and tuitions that continue to cost more and for what? So they money can go to sports facilities? But then again, the local billionaires that helped spur the growth probably wouldn’t want to be associated with anything boring like a science wing that’s named anything other than Trafton.

Yahoo! is slowly releasing it’s new whiz-bang technology that is going to unite blogging, social networking and some other stuff together under the Yahoo! brand. WOW. I’m almost as giddy as when MSN spaces went live. Props to this guy for the invite though. Man, I wonder how much these things could go for on eBay. (Looks like someone already is auctioning away a not so rare invite). Ha.

So yeah, here’s my awesome placeholder of a page. It’s bland, but it takes off, oh man, imagine the blank possibilities that await.

Wanna an invite? 100 waiting to be had. Don’t want one, no problem too.

Was amazed today ot watch Family Feud and see that both teams fudged up the simple polled question of larged cities in Texas. Sure they got Dallas, San Antonio & Houston. But it was beyond everyone else what the fourth and final answer was. A whole ten people had nary a clue as to the answer. Some of the more inventive names ~ Taco,TX and Irving, TX; whose name, when proferred by the contestant, even sounded like he was unsure of the answer. Sad. So the geniuses that started the round won, but it was a shallow victory. Even Richard Karn knew the answer, uh, what’s the capital of Texas ~ Austin?

It’s a sad day in gameshow land. But it shouldn’t suprise me. They have to have your ‘average’ American play otherwise it would probably be boring is all I can garner from this.

I used to religiously watch The Wheel of Fortune because it always seemed like the only show my Grandpa would ever take active interest in other than the local news, plus the only station they could reliably get in was CBS, so that may of had something to do with it. I also think it was Vanna White, who had the hardest job in all of show business, turning letters. Even while technology has rendered her useless, she still holds down the job of gracing the puzzle board and walking back and forth in a designer dress, lest we change the station to avoid her polarity. But it was great fun answering the puzzles before him and the contestants. I think it irked my Grandpa because I usually turned out right, but it was fun to yell at the contestants when they answered something so far off you pondered their IQ.

I’ve also been a livid fan of Jeopardy! As a former Knowledge Bowl star for my highschool, it comes as no suprise I find shows that draw upon useless tidbits of information totally engrossing. At least that game is somewhat a challenge for people, as they have so many different categories to draw from, it’s impossible to know it all. This intrigues me. Heck I even audtioned one time at MOA for the show, when I was in college. Too bad it was just a general session, where you have to compete againest people that have had a lifetime of experience. Maybe if it would have been a college tryout, I could have got somewhere. But the questions are somewhat difficult and if you don’t get 10 out of 10 at the auditions, they don’t even want to know your name. Which is rough, because somedays you swear you could beat everyone on the Jeopardy! show singlehandedly. I think they should revise this, but I hear it’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are additional tests as well you must pass to make it up the chain. So they make this somewhat difficult, and to think this process is more demanding than the average requirements to be admitted into most colleges around here says something.

Anyway, I’ll continue to watch and be silently dismayed when people miss some obvious answers (or questions in Jeopardy!’s case). And I may even try to audition again sometime for Jeopardy! They just don’t come to Gaylord,Mn enough to test me!

Also of minor interest, I’ve posted some 100 entries to this blog in less than two years. Accomplishment? Not sure, some of the first posts were awful sparse. It’s a minor celebration in itself anyway.

Over the last few days, I’ve been flexing my ‘writing chops’ so to speak, creating a whole whopping three neatly arranged original content. It got me thinking of something though, which is more sinister on the whole.

I noticed that my writing and as well as those I showed it to, that my writing was sprinkled with many ‘big’ and ‘colorful’ words. Why should that matter? I suppose it shouldn’t matter in the least bit, but it’s very debatable. At what point do you cross the line from being bold and powerful and just appear as a smart ass or know it all?

I have always liked big and unique words. It’s almost as fun to look up a new word you’ve never heard used before than to ignore it or just assume it means a certain something based upon context it was used in. After investing so much into learning about such words, they often become engrained in the brain and occasionally spill forth into unexpected oral and written communications. Also it seems that people often use big words to impress/intimidate colleagues and friends. Heck, try reading legalese, you wonder sometimes what planet they’re describing when in fact they might just be describing you neighbor in unflattering terms, even he wouldn’t he was being insulted with.

Why say

‘I hate you’,

when you can say

‘Your actions have deeply troubled me to no end’?

As they say, hate is such a strong word. Isn’t that neat?

Of course, others whose vocabulary would consist of more swear words than words of actual meaning often take offense. I think they’re missing out on expressing themselves fully. But they’d tell you to just shut your big ugly face up! 🙂