Blogging for Dough

So the other day I was fiddlin' around because that's what I do (I fiddle), and I noticed that I could "Monetize" my blog. Hey, I'm easily fascinated with words like monetized so I click on this little tab to learn more about it. Guess what: I can get paid to put advertisements on here. Here's what you apparently do:

1. You click on where it says you want to put your advertisements. It could be either below each blog post or under each little doohickey on the right side or both. This probably shows how much advertisements you get and maybe how much you get paid.


2. You need to have an "AdSense" account. (Yes, it is spelled that way) Either you already have it or you don't. If you don't know what the heck AdSense is then you don't have one. So if you don't have one, then you click on "create an AdSense account." You now should be hitting your first snag.


3. The majority of the people who blog don't have some thing called "Cookies." The screen will tell you right away that "Cookies is not enabled." Well this is a problem. Because now I have to enable "Cookies." Here are the steps that Microsoft has given to tell the average person how to get cookies (besides going to get Oreos):

To edit your Microsoft Internet Explorer preferences, please follow these steps:

1. From the Tools menu, choose Internet Options.


2. To update your cookies setting, click on the Privacy tab.


3. Click the Default button or move the slider to a setting below 'Block All Cookies.'


4. Then, to enable SSL, select the Advanced tab.


5. Scroll down to the Security section and select
   the checkboxes marked 'Use SSL 2.0' and 'Use SSL 3.0'.


6. Click OK.

My favorite part where they tell you to block all cookies. I can't tell you more because some "illegal" issues got in the way of my investigations. Anyway that's all I wanted to say.

But how about those podcasts?

Some of you may be asking, "what the breadstick are podcasts?" Well I'll tell you.

Podcasts are... Whoa! I don't know how to explain them!

Let's bring in a little Webster's Dictionary:

Podcast: a program (as of music or talk) made available in digital format for automatic download over the Internet

Well that clears up a lot of things. So now I've been a little more technologically friendly over the years. For instance, I've created this blog. How cool is that? I've also become a Grand Master Wizard on Microsoft Powerpoint. You never saw the next slide comin'. But I've also gotten to know more about podcasts. Most of them are free on iTunes (99%). But if you're going to listen to podcasts, listen to these:

• NPR: Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! (If you want news and humor, especially humor)


• WNYC: Radio Lab (If you want research)


• This American Life (if you just want to hear weird stories)


• All Songs Considered (If you want to hear new and fresh songs and host Bob Boilen rush through all of his words like they are going off of a conveyor belt at full speed)

Special things about them:

Some podacasts have a long list of podcasts that hey have recently released into the world. Some are good and some are not so good. But when it comes to "Radio Lab" there are some really good podcasts you should hear. It's hosted by two guys by the names of Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich Here's my list (in order from best to worst so far):

1. 11/18/2008: "Choice" ~ This is about choice and how the brain works. There are many case studies and is very interesting information. Good background music.
2. 5/29/2007: "Time" ~ This starts out with a day-long version of a very famous song that is so extremely slowed down that it sounds like it's a whale. It also explains a perception of time.
3. 8/13/2007: "Morality" ~ This one also explains choices and why our brains act the way they do. starts out with a very interesting question.
4. 4/22/2008: "Pop Music" ~ Explores why songs get stuck in your head. Also explains the writing process of a certain famous song ("Downtown").
5. 3/9/2009: "Mischel's Marshmallows" ~ Interesting and scary. This was a childhood ttest that Mischel conducted to see results about patience and will power. It goes more in depth than you think.

As for "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!" They are all good so listen to what ever one's you get.

The Daumenator has spoken and suggested

The Latest Words of the Day

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to strengthen my vocabulary. I'm actuallyy fulfilling that. Every day I get a "Word of the Day" e-mail from Merriam-Webster's official dictionary website. There are some okay words like "scratch" and "Wherefore." But sometimes there are the wackiest of words. Here is a list of some of my favorite:

1/16/09 Foible: 1: The part of a sword or foil blade between the middle and point

2: A minor flaw or shortcoming in character or behavior : weakness

1/19/09 Maudlin: 1: Drunk enough to be emotionally silly

2: Weakly and effusively sentimental

1/28/09 Primogeniture: 1: The state of being the firstborn of the children of the same parents

2: An exclusive right of inheritance belonging to the eldest son

2/2/09 Cyberpunk: 1: Science fiction dealing with future urban societies dominated by computer technology

2: An opportunistic computer hacker

2/3/09 Unreconstructed: Not reconciled to some political, economic, or social change; also : holding stubbornly to a particular belief, view, place, or style

2/12/09 Slumgullion: A meat stew

2/14/09 Spoony: 1: Silly, foolish; especially : Unduly sentimental

2: Being sentimentally in love

2/21/09 Fugleman: One at the head or forefront of a group or movement

3/9/09 Pooh-bah: 1: A person holding many public or private offices

2: A person in high position or of great influence

3/13/09 Flibbertigibbet: A silly flighty person

3/17/09 Blarney: 1: Skillful flattery : Blandishment

2: Nonsense, humbug

That's all the words I have for now. Thank you for reading.

The Daumenator has spoken

Quote of the Month (April)

Okay. This is so much trickier than I thought it would be. But let's cut to the chase.

I can't come up with a quote of the Month for April

This may shock you but I actually pre-plan this thing. I usually have a quote all ready to go about two weeks from the first day of eaach month. But this time, it's not happening. So I've decided to bring it to a vote. You can submit some quotes and then about a week before I will arrange them into a poll and then we will vote on them all to see which is the champ quote for April.

Please come up with excellent quotes. Not schmucky ones.

The Daumenator has spoken

The Card of the Week

As you may have noticed, there is a certain box called "Card of the Week." For those of you who have seen it, good for you, you can observe well! For those of you that haven't, look at the top of the page underneath the "Quote of the Month" right now. You'll probably see it.

Some of you may be asking,"why is that there?" Well I'll tell you why. It is because I've just recently noticed that there are 52 weeks in the year and 52 cards in a standard poker deck. I just wanted to glorify each card with it's one week of fame before it "dies." (temporarily)

The first ceremonious card is the Queen of Clubs. (Yes, I've shuffled the deck)

If you have any problems with this change, sort it out amongst yourselves. I don't want to hear your problems.

The Daumenator has spoken

Happy Square Root Day!

Did you know it was Square Root Day today? Neither did I until about 10 minutes ago when somebody made fun of me for not knowing about a holiday that about 5% of the world has heard of. A Square Root Day is very uncommon because they only happen about 10 times a century. Sadly it's an unofficial holiday but here is an explanation of it:

Square Root Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated on days when both the day of the month and the month are the square root of the last two digits of the year.

It was first celebrated by Ron Gordon who was a California High School Teacher. He first celebrated Square Root Day on September 9, 1981 (9x9=81). He is the official publicist of Square Root Day and his daughter created a Facebook group (Whatever that is, I don't know. I personally boycott Facebook). Ron Gordon wanted to encourage this holiday and he himself wanted everyone to:

"One suggested way of celebrating the holiday is by eating square radishes, or other root vegetables cut into shapes with square cross sections (thus creating a "square root")"

He also has a contest every Square Root Day. The winner of this contest this year gets $339.


These Square Root Days are occurring regularly every century. For those of you who are not Mathematically inclined Her is a list of Square Root Days to come:

• 1/1/01
  
• 2/2/04
  
• 3/3/09
  
• 4/4/16
  
• 5/5/25
  
• 6/6/36
  
• 7/7/49
  
• 8/8/64
  
• 9/9/81
  

10/10/100 would also be a square root day. The year 2100 is actually the last year of the 21st century.



Fun Fact: A cool trick to these days is that the years are separated by consecutive odd numbers. (3,5,7,9,11,13,15, and 17) This illustrates the fact that every odd number is the difference two consecutive squares. How Squaralicious!


This was "borrowed" from the Oakland Tribune:

So it's just a day like any other. There is a chance, however, of winning a few bucks. Gordon, who is the day's official public-relations man and sent press releases to media outlets around the world, and whose daughter is hosting a Square Root Day cyber event on Facebook, is running a little contest to find the most people involved in a Square Root Day celebration, such as getting a bunch of people to form a human square-root symbol.

Prizes will be divvied up out of a total of $339. And it's not too late to enter. You have approximately 339 hours from now (until 3 a.m. on March 18). Send your entry photos or descriptions to rgordon@seq.org, or mail them to Ron Gordon at P.O. Box 5133, Redwood City, Calif., 94063, but don't address it in square root — the post office hates that.

And some are more alluring than others, Gordon said. He notes that 2004's Square Root Day fell on Groundhog Day, which won't happen again for 95 years. For that occasion, Gordon honored the day by cutting root vegetables, such as carrots and radishes, into squares and sending them via FedEx to Punxsutawney Phil, the weather-forecasting groundhog. Phil's handlers later said he did nibble on them a bit. He likes a square meal. (Daumenator here. This totatlly reminds me of the other Phil in the movie "Groundhog Day." I keep thinking it's the same one but it's not. Anyway that was one crazy groundhog. He reminds me of the gopher in "Caddyshack." Funny Bill Murray was the actor playing both of those characters trying to kill them in each of those movies. Weird)

Gordon's celebratory ideas are great, but feel free to observe that day in your own special way. Maybe research your genealogy — you know, getting to know your roots. Play four square. Visit your hairdresser and touch up your roots. Be square: Listen to a Pat Boone record and don't drink or smoke. Perhaps skip the root canal, unless of course it's a must.

Oh, and nerds, don't forget Odd Day, when the three odd numbers appear in their correct order on the calendar: May 7, 2009. And of course Pi Day comes up next week on March 14. Then — for super nerds only — there's Mole Day. No, it's not Groundhog Day, and it's not until Oct. 23 at 6:02 a.m. or p.m., in which the numbers of the time and date mimic Avogadro's number (6.02 x 10 to the 23rd power) which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Thank you, OxiClean man.

Now this got me interested in something called Mole Day. Now according to Wikipedia (which is more credible than World Book):

Mole Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated among chemists in North America on October 23, between 6:02 AM and 6:02 PM, making the date 6:02 10/23 in the American style of writing dates. The time and date are derived from the Avogadro constant, which is approximately 6.02×1023, defining the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in a mole, one of the seven base SI units.

Mole Day originated in an article in The Science Teacher in the early 1980s. Inspired by this article, Maurice Oehler, now a retired high school chemistry teacher from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, founded the National Mole Day Foundation (NMDF) on May 15, 1991.

Many high schools around the United States and in Canada celebrate Mole Day as a way to get their students interested in chemistry, with various activities often related to chemistry or moles. Since 2007 Mole Day has been celebrated in Smålandsstenar/Sweden.

Some schools celebrate Mole Day on June 2 (6/02 in MM-DD format) and occasionally February 6 (6/02 in DD-MM format), rather than October 23 (10/23), presumably from 10:23 AM to 10:23 PM.

Some schools celebrate "Mole Week" around October 23.

The American Chemical Society sponsors National Chemistry Week, which occurs from the Sunday through Saturday during October in which the 23rd falls. This makes Mole Day an integral part of National Chemistry Week.

Now for those of you fools who were reading that one article and not knowing what Pi day was, I feel ashamed of you. But here is information on it anyway:

Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day are two holidays held to celebrate the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in ISO date format), due to π being roughly equal to 3.14. Pi Approximation Day is observed on July 22, due to π being roughly equal to 22/7.


Pi Minute is also sometimes celebrated on March 14 at 1:59 p.m. If π is truncated to seven decimal places, it becomes 3.1415926, making March 14 at 1:59:26 p.m., Pi Second (or sometimes March 14, 1592 at 6:53:58 a.m.).



The first Pi Day celebration was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, and then consuming fruit pies; the museum has since added pizza pies to its Pi Day menu. The founder of Pi Day was Larry Shaw, a now retired physicist at the Exploratorium who still helps out with the celebrations.



The Massachusetts Institute of Technology often mails out its acceptance letters to be delivered to prospective students on Pi Day.



Some also celebrate Pi Approximation Day in addition to Pi Day, which can fall on any of several dates:

• April 26: The Earth has traveled two radians of its orbit by this day (April 25th in leap years); thus the entire orbit divided by the distance traveled equals pi

• July 22: 22/7 in the more common day/month date format, an ancient approximation of pi

• November 10: The 314th day of the year (November 9 in leap years)

• December 21, 1:13 p.m.: The 355th day of the year (December 20 in leap years), celebrated at 1:13 for the Chinese approximation 355/113

Fast Fact: On Pi Day, 2004, Daniel Tammet calculated and recited 22514 decimal digits of pi.



Fast Fact: Albert Einstein was born on Pi Day, 1879. Alexander Graham Bell was born on Pi-Day in 1847.





The Daumenator has spoken

How about that Harry Potter?

I have a couple of questions about the Harry Potter Books.

1. What's the deal with Hufflepuff? 
Gryfindor is for the brave: Okay, that's good. Sorts out the chickens from the dragons. 

Ravenclaw is for the wise: Even better. You now know who can add a hippogriff with a hinkypunk to form a dementor's third cousin twice removed.

Slytherin is for the cunning: Not so good. This sadly shows that if you're in Slytherin, you're either a rat jumping off of a sinking ship or a person that will stab all of your friends in the back with the evil knife of Gorglesplatz the magical.

This now leaves us with one left. In the book, Hufflepuff said she'd take the rest. What's the rest? Is it all the fatties who can't see their toes? What's a kid who just got into Hufflepuff thinking? "Yeah! I'm an 'other!' I'm anti-special!" How would a parent explain to their child, "Oh, your just not special honey." How sad is that?

2. How many people a year die from falling off of the Great Stair cases?

It's the moving staircases that would piss me off about Hogwarts School. I can imagine myself running up the stairs to go to what ever class I'm going to and the staircase tarts to move. I would try to jump at the last second to make it to the floor and then I'll come up a "bit" short and then ram right into the ground. Then I'll turn into a ghost, run into people ghostfully, and the put my ghostly head onto people's plates and dare them to eat their food.

There should totally be safety nets like the ones in circuses for the gymnasts. And to be even more magical, the nets would appear out of nowhere just in time to catch the falling child.

3. When you want to go to the Hogwarts train, you have to reach platform 9 3/4 by running into a wall. Wizards do it all the time but can Muggles accidentally do it as well?

Say your a bully muggle and you don't like this cool innocent nerdy kid named. You want to beat up Joe so you slam him into the wall. It just happens to be the magic wall. What happens next? Do they just walk into platform 9 3/4 and say, "Oh, crapple! I got'z to'z get'z out'z of'z here'z! Yo!" I think they just go with the mind wipe. But how lazy is that? They should have them feel like it was a dream.

4. Flashback Moment: Remember Professor Quirrel? (I think that's how it was spelled) He had Voldemort on the back of his head. Wouldn't that be annoying? Well I have two questions coming out of this one:

1. Could Voldemort and Quirrel hear each other's thoughts? I think He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Smelled would get on everyone's nerves if Someone could hear themselves think and hear him think at the same time.
2. How does Quirrel sleep at night? Well for one, he has a mass murderer on the back of his head so it would be going into his guilty conscious. But when he's sleeping on his back, doesn't that really stink for Voldemort? He would have his face stuck in a pillow and could not do anything about it.

Well that is all of the questioning I have left. 

The Daumenator has spoken and said, "Expelliarmus!"