Rossotron.com

5 word challenge Group on Vox

http://challenge….

This is how it works: you get 5 words and with these 5 words you have to write an entry. The words might or might not be related. You decide how to combine them, and how long your entry will be. You tag your entry with 5wordchallenge and whatever other tags you like. Finally, you put the words in…

This week's challenge: carpet, jury, pasta, shapeless, whey

My apologies to Mother Goose.

Artist’s rendering of the incident in question.

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,
eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider who sat down beside her,
and frightened Miss Muffet away.

Miss Muffet came back, with a big burlap sack,
shapeless and ragged and brown.
She started to sneak, and before it could squeak,
stuffed the spider inside with a frown.

As she stomped on the bag, her face started to sag,
as she realized the results of her fury.
Murder most foul, the public would howl,
and conviction by judge and by jury.

She snuck into her house, as soft as a mouse,
dragging the sack behind her.
Under the carpet she loved, she roughly shoved
the bag (complete with the spider).

She was cooking her dinner when something within her
made her sit down with a start.
The pasta au gratin lay burning, forgotten,
as the guilt grew and grew in her heart.

She went and got dressed, and promptly confessed
to Little Boy Blue down the lane.
Although he was shocked, his emotions all rocked,
sympathy to her he did feign.

They went for a stroll to see Old King Cole,
and find out what he would say.
That jolly old stinker threw her in the clinker,
and there still she spends all her days.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Nothing cheers me up quite like counting down the hours on my last day before a 5-day vacation (it starts tomorrow for me).  Except maybe some Nirvana, played on a group of ukuleles.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

?

As promised, here's the answers (in red) to yesterday's trivia questions. Categories highlighted in blue are the ones my team answered correctly.

Round 1
1. Category: Military History.  What major historical event happened on June 6th? For bonus points, name the year. D-Day (1944)
2. Category: Science.  Louis Pasteur invented the pasteurization process in 1862.  This process was used for milk, along with what else? Wine
3. Category: World Events.  What event will take place August 8th through the 24th of this year? Summer Olympics
4. Category: Space.  Dwarf planets like Pluto are no longer called "planets" by the IAU.  What is the new term for these astronomical bodies? Plutoids
5. Category: Organizations. Joseph "Piney" Armone and Sammy "The Bull" Gravano belonged to this "organization". What was its name? The Mafia

Round 2
6. Category: Musicians.  This musician was responsible for such tunes as "Beyond the Sea", "Splish Splash", and "Mack the Knife". (Name the musician) Bobby Darin
7. Category: Literature.  Name the author whose works include Tender is the Night, The Beautiful and the Damned, This Side of Paradise, and most famously, The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. Category: Human Anatomy.  Name the two locations on the human body where you'd find phalanges. Hands and Feet
9. Category: Bugs.  The "Rocky Mountain Wood" and "Groundhog" are two nicknames for this critter.  Name the bug. Tick
10. Category: Math.  Reduce 7/8 * 6/7 to its smallest form. 3/4

Halftime Bonus Question
B1. Which of the following two telecommunications companies announced last week that they will merge before the end of the year?

• A. Sprint and AT&T
• B. Verizon and US Cellular
• C. T-Mobile and Alltel
• D. Verizon and Alltel

D. Verizon and Alltel

Round 3
11. Category: Music Groups.  The Bee Gees were made up of three brothers.  Two of the brothers were Maurice and Barry.  Name the third brother. Robin
12. Category: Sports.  Since 1993, Gary Bettman has been the commissioner of this professional sports league.  Name the league. NHL
13. Category: Lakes and Rivers.  The Seneca and Cayuga lakes are part of the group known as the Finger Lakes in what US State? New York
14. Category: World Capitals.  Suva is the capital of what island nation? Fiji
15. Category: Chemistry.  What is the periodic table symbol for the element Titanium? Ti

Round 4
16. Category: Movies.  This actress played Princess Vespa in Spaceballs, and also starred on Melrose Place.  Name the actress. Daphne Zuniga
17. Category: U.S. Constitution.  The 15th amendment was ratified in 1870.  What was the purpose of this amendment?  Equal right to vote (no restrictions based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude)
18. Category: Native Americans.  The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole indian tribes were known by what name to U.S. Settlers? The Five Civilized Tribes
19. Category: TV.  Sean Astin and Mackenzie Astin were the children of Patty Duke and television actor John Astin, who appeared on what 1960s TV series?  Bonus points – name the character he played on the show. The Addams Family (Gomez)
20. Category: Cartoons.  The Refreshments play the theme song for which prime-time television cartoon? King of the Hill

Final Bonus Question
B2. Which U.S. President said, "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world…."

• A. George Washington
• B. Harry S. Truman
• C. Dwight D. Eisenhower
• D. Thomas Jefferson

A. George Washington

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

?

The wife and I left our kids with a non-family-member babysitter for the first time ever last night so we could go out with her sister & mother for some dinner and live trivia at a local restaurant.  We didn't win the competition (not by a long shot), but we came close to getting 3rd place.  We didn't care because we had a lot of fun just hanging out and participating, and is definitely something we'll be doing again in the future.

Some of the questions were pretty easy, but others left us scratching our heads.  See what you think – I'll post the answers tomorrow to let you see how you did.

Oh, and if you feel like trying to answer these yourself, just be aware that some people may try to answer in the comments, so don't read ahead unless you want some of the answers spoiled for you.

Round 1
1. Category: Military History.  What major historical event happened on June 6th? For bonus points, name the year.
2. Category: Science.  Louis Pasteur invented the pasteurization process in 1862.  This process was used for milk, along with what else?
3. Category: World Events.  What event will take place August 8th through the 24th of this year?
4. Category: Space.  Dwarf planets like Pluto are no longer called "planets" by the IAU.  What is the new term for these astronomical bodies?
5. Category: Organizations. Joseph "Piney" Armone and Sammy "The Bull" Gravano belonged to this "organization". What was its name?

Round 2
6. Category: Musicians.  This musician was responsible for such tunes as "Beyond the Sea", "Splish Splash", and "Mack the Knife". (Name the musician)
7. Category: Literature.  Name the author whose works include Tender is the Night, The Beautiful and the Damned, This Side of Paradise, and most famously, The Great Gatsby.
8. Category: Human Anatomy.  Name the two locations on the human body where you'd find phalanges.
9. Category: Bugs.  The "Rocky Mountain Wood" and "Groundhog" are two nicknames for this critter.  Name the bug.
10. Category: Math.  Reduce 7/8 * 6/7 to its smallest form.

Halftime Bonus Question
B1. Which of the following two telecommunications companies announced last week that they will merge before the end of the year?

• A. Sprint and AT&T
• B. Verizon and US Cellular
• C. T-Mobile and Alltel
• D. Verizon and Alltel

Round 3
11. Category: Music Groups.  The Bee Gees were made up of three brothers.  Two of the brothers were Maurice and Barry.  Name the third brother.
12. Category: Sports.  Since 1993, Gary Bettman has been the commissioner of this professional sports league.  Name the league.
13. Category: Lakes and Rivers.  The Seneca and Cayuga lakes are part of the group known as the Finger Lakes in what US State?
14. Category: World Capitals.  Suva is the capital of what island nation?
15. Category: Chemistry.  What is the periodic table symbol for the element Titanium?

Round 4
16. Category: Movies.  This actress played Princess Vespa in Spaceballs, and also starred on Melrose Place.  Name the actress.
17. Category: U.S. Constitution.  The 15th amendment was ratified in 1870.  What was the purpose of this amendment?
18. Category: Native Americans.  The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole indian tribes were known by what name to U.S. Settlers?
19. Category: TV.  Sean Astin and Mackenzie Astin were the children of Patty Duke and television actor John Astin, who appeared on what 1960s TV series?  Bonus points – name the character he played on the show.
20. Category: Cartoons.  The Refreshments play the theme song for which prime-time television cartoon?

Final Bonus Question
B2. Which U.S. President said, "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world…."

• A. George Washington
• B. Harry S. Truman
• C. Dwight D. Eisenhower
• D. Thomas Jefferson

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Greasemonkey

@Pistachio on Twitter gave me a great idea for a new Greasemonkey script.  Twitter users know that putting the @ sign in front of someone's Twitter ID (e.g. @twitterID) is the way to reply to that person through twitter.  When you're on twitter.com, or using a twitter client, this @twitterID is usually hyperlinked to that Twitter profile page (e.g. http://www.twitter.com/twitterID ).  However, this is usually NOT the case when you view a Twitter ID on any other webpage (including Gmail).  I decided to put together a Greasemonkey script that changes that, so that any Twitter ID, anywhere (even in Gmail) will be hyperlinked to the corresponding Twitter profile page.

Since I try not to reinvent the wheel when possible, I built my script on top of Jesse Ruderman's AutoLink Greasemonkey script.  (I did delete some of the functionality that people might not want, such as bugzilla IDs and phone numbers – if you want the full version of that script, get it here. Note that you'll have to merge my Twitter filter into his script if you want the Twitter auto-linking functionality.)

Once you install the script, @rossruns will look like @rossruns.  As an added benefit, Jesse's script already converted email addresses and plainlink URLs into hyperlinked versions, so you get that auto-linking functionality with this script, too.

Want to install this script for your own use?  First install Greasemonkey, and then get the script here.  (Instructions to install Greasemonkey can be found here.)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I'll thank Hieronymus for tagging me with this one:

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

I had just finished my first year of college at UVA and was hanging out back home with my parents in State College, PA.  I had snagged a job with the Applied Research Lab (ARL) at Penn State, but this summer, it was purely a facilities-related job.  However, it would get me an "in" to the computer science/engineering group where I would be working for my next two summers.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today? 

I've got a whole lot more than 5 things on my to-do list, and they're definitely not all going to get done, so I'll just summarize:

• Document workflows to review: Qty 14
• Lay out the 10 bags of mulch on the flower beds
• Install ladder hook on garage wall
• Replace cheap-ass floodlights that the builder put in with decent light/motion sensitive ones
• Go play trivia with Dee tonight (hooray for finding our first non-family babysitter!)

3) Snacks I enjoy:

In no particular order: sourdough pretzels, assorted fruit, almonds, granola bars, Oreos, Powerbars, Doritos, ice cream (good thing this question wasn't "Snacks I'm allowed to eat" or my answer would be a lot shorter!)

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

After making sure everyone in my immediate and extended family were taken care of financially for the rest of their lives, I'd spend a couple years travelling around the world.  I'd put aside enough to keep my family comfortable for the rest of our lives and then donate a substantial portion of the remaining money to causes that I feel need the money.

5) Places I have lived:

Again, in no particular order:

• Norfolk, VA
• Charleston, SC
• Orlando, FL
• Fairfax, VA
• Bainbridge Island, WA
• Annandale, VA
• Concord, NC
• Camarillo, CA
• Charlottesville, VA
• State College, PA (summers, during college)
• Liverpool, NY
• Baldwinsville, NY
• Bel Air, MD

6) Jobs I have had:

In approximate order of employment – includes non-paid positions:

• Babysitter
• Lawn Mower
• Lifeguard (Pool, not ocean)
• Swimming Instructor
• Hershey's Track & Field Program for Kids – Assistant Coach
• Maintenance & Facilities worker
• Software Engineer
• Pizza Delivery Guy
• Radio DJ
• Radar Engineer
• Systems Engineer
• Electrical/Instrumentation Engineer

7) Bloggers I am tagging who I will enjoy getting to know better:

This thing has made the rounds, hasn't it?  Of those who don't appear to have answered this yet, I choose:

Corey, Lemon, Mariser, Lightchaser, and Sheri. Feel free to ignore my tag if you're not interested!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend