I saw these at JoshuaUn.com and they cracked me up! Thanks for some laughs, Joshua!

Perfect advertisement for the back of a bus. *coughcoughcough*

OK, this is not very funny, but I couldn’t stop laughing!

Now THAT is so creative! LOL!

This is my favorite. From now on, I’m checking those restaurant cups before I start drinking from them.

Ow! Doesn’t that look real?

You can see lots more here.

I was visiting a friend’s blog and perused her little buttons and links in the sidebars. I am trying to join some of the “mom blog” networks. I clicked on the “Mom Blog” network button and was totally shocked to read profanity and filth as the number one blog on the network. Whoa! Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I just don’t think moms should be dropping f-bombs and cussing like a sailor.

If you grew up in the 80s or have had a good history teacher, you have heard about the terrible tragedy that happened on April 26, 1986– the nuclear disaster at the power plant in Chernobyl, in Russia. I remember that news reports were very slow to leak out. At first, the Soviets downplayed the disaster. After a few weeks (if I remember correctly), the Soviets finally admitted a tragic nuclear power plant accident that killed hundreds of people and poisoned a large area of the Ukraine. This was disastrous for the Ukranians, already struggling with food shortages and economic recession. Wikipedia says:

On April 26, 1986, the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, exploded at 01:23 AM local time. The workers were performing an experiment with the reactor’s safety systems during which the computer-controlled safety systems were disabled.

Problems occurred during the tests: The reactor did not receive enough coolant, had built up too much heat in the core and had fully withdrawn control rods, all of which contributed to unstable and unpredictable reactor operation. A reboot of the computer systems failed to regain control of the reaction. When the control rods were manually reinserted in an attempt to regain control of the unstable reactor, there was a sudden increase in reactivity, caused by the design of the RBMK reactor and its control rods, and an uncontrollable runaway reaction occurred.

The reactor produced tremendous amounts of steam, eventually causing a steam break/explosion, which destroyed part of the reactor. After the explosion, graphite fires broke out, due to the high temperatures of the reactor and the graphite’s exposure to oxygen. Radioactive debris were flung several miles, and smoke containing radioactive contaminants from the burning graphite traveled as far as Belarus.

photo credit: skippy13

photo credit: coolz0rcoolz0r

Look at the photo below. The road is all eaten up! How did that happen?

Want to know something freaky? The name “Chernobyl” is said to mean “Wormwood” in Russian. Many have pointed to Revelation in the Bible where it says:

And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

Rev. 8:10, 11

Two very good websites I’ve seen that have good narrative and photos are Kidd of Speed (an excellent website) and Pripyat. The Chernobyl accident reminds us not to become too complacent and arrogant with our own technology. It just isn’t worth it.

I’m having a lot of fun playing with Entrecards. I have found a number of blogs that are really terrific! I’ve also found out that a lot of bloggers like porno pictures, but I won’t get into that right now.I’ve dropped my card a few times on the hilarious Daisy the Curly Cat. I admit, I was hesitant about allll those pet blogs on Entrecards (how can people blog about their pets all day?!). But I am a convert to pet blogs.

I love Daisy the Curly Cat and I can’t wait until tomorrow’s post! Daisy’s owner is quite the funny blogger. The creativity at this blog jumps out at you and grabs you by the whiskers. The kids and I were busting over Daisy’s Monday Mystery:

If you are squeamish, do not read any further. I mean it! I am not joking! This is very, very serious. Another lizard got into my house! I was just sitting nicely looking at him, and he opened his mouth in a very MEAN way. Then, the lizard BITED me! Right on the paw.

This photo had me laughing so hard I almost bust my gut. There are also cute videos of Daisy. I have to say, I am a little surprised that one cat can be so enthralling so as to blog about her every day, but Daisy’s owner seems to pull it off with a lot of charm.

I recently bought a new laptop with Windows Vista pre-installed. I have been waiting in the sidelines, watching others’ experiences and mulling it over in my mind if I wanted to make the jump yet. I’ve tried a lot of operating systems in my day: the first Mac (1984- I still have the old computer!), Windows 3.1, Windows 95, 98SE, ME, and XP. It took me a long time to become accustomed to XP, but I learned the ropes. It has been, by far, the stablest operating system I’ve ever used. I was hoping to stick with XP for a long time, but my trusty old HP Pavilion laptop was showing signs of giving up the ghost. I had to find a replacement. I finally got a Toshiba Satellite (one of their many P205 discontinued models) with Vista. I mulled over wiping out Vista and installing XP, but some research made me think otherwise. The computer I bought (and many others like it) were specially designed for the quirks of Vista. To wipe out Vista would open up a new can of worms, because I’d have to wipe out all the existing Vista drivers software, locate them online from the manufacturers, and download the appropriate XP drivers. Too much work, and too much risk. I opted to stay with the Vista and see how it would go.

I have been pleasantly surprised with Vista. It certainly has a “learning curve” and the settings are much different than XP. However, I’m an old dog who can still learn a few new tricks, and, even though I can’t say I’m completely comfortable with all the settings in Vista, I have a pretty good handle on the basics by now.

The biggest complaint I have with Vista, and this is a big complaint, is I can’t connect to my network printer. This is a huge hurdle for me, and my biggest reservation about embracing Vista with my whole heart. I need a printer. I don’t want to constantly rig up the printer, because this is a laptop and I need a mobile unit. I don’t know all the in’s and out’s as to why Vista has such printing compatibility problems. I just know that everyone is moaning about it. I think Microsoft was really, really stupid for doing this. People need their printers, you Microsoft dumbkopfs! Grr.

Having Vista on a Toshiba laptop is another matter. Apparently, the two are not 100% compatible, despite all the marketing. Default processor settings for Toshiba cause the hard drive to quit while the computer is in use. Yes, you read that right. In the middle of working on your computer, a default setting causes the computer to just QUIT. While you were working. Anything important, if not saved beforehand, was gone. It’s called the “blank screen” issue. Happened to me a dozen times. I scoured the Internet for answers. I had to reset the minimum processor speed to 100% in order to keep the computer running. This was very, very sloppy for an $800 laptop and OS. Criminal, even.

Anyway, besides the printer driver and the compatibility issue, I am liking Vista. It’s clean and fun to use. I don’t care for all the baubles, but I never liked the DOS design. Vista is much nicer. It’s speedy, too. Some of the settings I’m am still getting used to (like the revised Start Menu). But overall, I think I’ll keep Vista, and pray that they will roll out some printer software in the near future.

Update: HP updated their own driver software to make their printers compatible with Vista. So I can connect to my small HP printer. But my network printer, a Konica Minolta laser printer, I cannot connect.

We’ve managed to avoid all the stinking, nasty flu bugs and colds this year. Until now. I made the mistake of taking my youngest to the grocery store with me. Young mothers filled the grocery stores, and several of them had stuffed their young children into the carts while they shopped. These kids were hacking up their lungs, crying, and some looked deathly ill. The mothers cared not as they briskly strolled down the aisles. All they said was, “Hold on, we’re almost done.”

We tried our best to avoid them, but these kids seemed intent on hacking into the atmosphere.

Which brings me to today. The kid I brought with me to the grocery store is sick. Hacking. Has a test tomorrow, too. GRRRRRRRR.

Our plastic, generic shower head finally bit the dust the other day. The large retaining screw that attaches the flexible hose to the hand-held unit cracked. When we turned the faucet on, water came spurting out through that screw. My husband tried supergluing it, and that did work, briefly. My only recourse was to break down and buy a new shower head. This is the third one we’ve had here in eight years. Since shower heads are in the $20 to $30 range, I dread having to buy another one.

I bought the Pollenex Hand Held model, at $25. It was wrapped perfectly– all you could see in the package was the beautiful chrome shower head. The hose and fittings were well-concealed in the plastic box. I had no idea if they were metal or plastic. I spent a long time at Wal-Mart, weighing my choices and carefully comparing the models. All the others in the $25 to $35 price range looked metal. I say “looked” because they were so encapsulated with plastic that it was really hard to tell what I was buying. Packaging is now so crazy that you don’t know what you’re buying?!

My husband installed the new shower head and, guess what, it’s PLASTIC. The screws, the flexible hose, etc. I’m more than a little disappointed. The head itself is– I think– of metal. It’s a rough, brushed chrome look.

The one thing I like about the showerhead– and the main reason why I chose it over the others– is that it has a tab to change the spray settings. I have small hands, as do the younger kids. It has been high impossible for us to get our hands around those other showerheads to turn the nozzle to a setting we like. Don’t ask me why the companies make them so large; I was thrilled to see someone smart invent a tab. The sprays are OK. Two are excellent, one is moderate, and the other two are useless (there is not enough water pressure in my home to get the pulsing action going, so it just trickles out).

So, so far, the shower head works well. I just don’t like the plastic parts; plastic wears too quickly. We’ll see how long this one lasts. I’ll be sure to holler long and loud if it dies young!

You know, those cheap little point and shoot digital cameras aren’t a bad deal. I have one– the Kodak EasyShare CX7300. It was given to me a few years ago. It’s only got 3.2 megapixels to it, and no fancy features. But it is a great, simple little camera! I am a believer in the simpler and more efficient, the better. I have a Canon PowerShot a760. I like it, but it has so many features that it makes my eyes cross. I’ve had it for months and I still don’t know what most of those icons, stickers, and pictures mean.

The Kodak point and shoot that I have has an internal memory– an excellent feature that is missing from my Canon. And you can buy special super-duper long-lasting batteries ($5 on eBay) that run about 200 times better than those store-bought AAs.

There are two things that I don’t like about the little Kodak. It takes video but without the audio (a real bummer) and does not take good closeups at all. Other than that, I think this little camera performs better than my more expensive Canon in some things. I still haven’t figured out how to adjust my Canon’s ISO setting, so all my pictures are fuzzy. And who has time to read the bulky manual? Not me! So for quick pics, I love the Kodak. For closeups and videos, I choose my Canon.

Bigger does not always mean better. It really depends on what you need. Too many features will dampen your enjoyment. FYO, the Kodak was $100 at WalMart, and the Canon (purchased four years later) was $140 at Amazon.