Random - Giant Cats, The Simpsons

I have nothing new to share regards writing, or babies...my brain appears to have stopped working though, so just to make sure you don't all forget about me I thought I should do a post of some description...

So, some random things that attracted my attention recently:


Longest cat in the world. 
Cat is over 48 inches (4 feet!) long. 


I want one of those. 



The Vatican has found time to declare that Homer Simpson is a Catholic. 
Well seeing as God is fictional I suppose it's only fair the congregation is too...


Still, seems like the Vatican should really be busying themselves with a few other issues than claiming cartoon characters...


A study claims to have evidence for psi-phenomena or non-linear time

via TheMother - mothershandbook.net

Umm...yeah. Seems more like a study about attention and memory retrieval and how existing information effects how we encode new...but clearly it sounds way cooler to say it's evidence for people predicting the future. Ahem.

My name is...

This is a repost of a post from June. Yup, I am that lazy! It's still relevant though, hence why I'm posting it again.


Joleen. Yes, Joleen. J-O-L-E-E-N.

J for Juliet
O for Oscar
L for Lima
E for Echo
E for Echo
N for November

I am aware that Dolly Parton spelled it differently (Jolene).

This is probably the most common variation I get. Other common ones are Joeleen, Joelene, Joline, sometimes Joelle and occasionally, Gillian. (I get all sorts of variations on my surname too, but I won't go on about that here).

I've grown used to it. Most annoying is when it's spelled wrong on a cheque - especially when I've typed out an invoice with my name on it, spelled correctly. I don't hold the knowledge of how to spell all names in the universe within my brain either - but when I'm writing a letter/email/cheque etc, I do tend to do my best to check how the person I'm addressing it to spells their name. Cheques especially, as the bank has this remarkably annoying tendency not to allow people to cash them if the name on the cheque doesn't match that on the account.

 What's even more hilarious than people spelling it wrong though, is when people tell me I spell it wrong. I wasn't aware of the law that made Dolly Parton's words (and their associated spellings) some kind of canon. I wasn't named after the song. My name is spelled how it's spelled. It's right, simply because it's what it says on my birth certificate.

Life is too short to...?

Life is too short to do all sorts of things. I do of course occasionally have to do things that I don't like in order to earn money, or keep someone I care about happy, but I'll only do them if there's some kind of reason behind it.

I mentioned to a friend the other day that I consider life too short to do much ironing - I'll iron for a job interview, and that's about it. Otherwise I try to buy and wear clothes that don't wrinkle easily. She said that though she bought clothes that did need ironing, overall she was with me - especially as some people iron things like sheets.

Why??? Why would you iron sheets?

What else is life too short to bother doing, in your opinion? 

This is why I won' t get a tattoo...

It's been a couple of months, so I figured it was time to change the background.

Back in the days I had myspace I used to change the profile page every few days.

I could never get a tattoo. I can't imagine one image that I'd want to commit to for the rest of my life.

I like this theme now, but in a few months, who knows? I like to have the option to change my mind.

Random

There's a type of chilli called the Devil's Penis (Well, Pene de Diablo. That's what it means). It's pretty small looking, but apparently it's also extremely hot.

I'm sure there's a horror story in there somewhere.

Or possibly a joke.

Perhaps even both?

Who am I?

Muahahahaha :-)

Text analysis seems to be the flavour of the month...or the season at least.

This website analyses blogs to have a guess at the blogger's gender and approximate age - and it has estimated me to be female (correct) and between the ages of 18-25 (a little younger than reality...which is perfect, really!).

Then again...scrolling down, it tells me that


The analysis is based upon 12 posts that has enough English words. 

 Great grammar there....maybe I shouldn't put too much faith in that website's ability.

Still, judging by the fact that by the time this post is scheduled to go out I'll be spending the day with my in-laws after a long drive and pregnancy aches and pains are making me feel like I'm a hundred....maybe I should forget about the grammar and enjoy anyone, anywhere, even a silly website, telling me I'm 18-25 :-)

Got to love Ireland.

Ireland is random, but predictable.

It's September. Kids back to school - therefore the weather changes from dull, cool, wet and grey to sunny and warm. You know. Summery.

You could feel sorry for the kids...but it'll stay this way until they're adults with nothing better to do during the September sunshine than lounge around in it and maybe post a blog. We all suffered through it. It's like a rite of passage.

Just as a quick aside though - you know those ads for mobile broadband where people take their laptops outside to sit in a hammock or whatever? I have wifi, so that isn't a problem for me. It's seeing the screen that I just can't manage. Is there something I can get for the laptop that would mean I can take the laptop outside and actually be able to see the screen? Cos...well, you know. There's nothing like sunny September weather to create a mood for writing horror tales...

How to tell if you're becoming a grown up

It's very easy to accidentally slip into being a grown up. Unlike 'adult' however, which is a term that is bestowed upon you depending on your age, 'grown-up' refers much more to a state of mind, and the related observable behaviours. Some people are born grown up, while others are lucky enough never to succumb to the urge to become one.

Here are some behaviours which might indicate that you're turning into a grown up *shudder*

- When you find some bubble-wrap, instead of bursting the little air filled bubbles and giggling like a lunatic, you fold it and put it aside in case you might need it to wrap something in, sometime.

 - You watch the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and instead of laughing and rooting for Ferris, you wish his parents would catch him, ground him, stop giving him pocket money, supervise his activity more carefully, and allow his teachers to make him repeat his school year. Because he's a naughty boy and should be punished. (If, however, you read that last sentence and think with a wicked grin: ooh, spanking, kinky - there may yet be hope for you!).

 -You watch the film Dirty Dancing and think that Baby should not only be put in a corner, she should stay there until her next birthday - she's only 17 and therefore just a child, damnit!

 - You fail to giggle at any hilarious slip of the tongue or inadvertent humour in a serious situation - and not only do you fail to do so, you roll your eyes at anyone who does find it funny.

 - You think the internet is strange and scary and populated by serial killers, so you refuse to use it for anything but communicating with people you know in real life - and shopping. Because saving a little money is more important than having an open mind.

- When you get an Argos catalogue, you go straight to the home appliances and furnishings section, skipping past computers, gadgets, toys and games and any other fun stuff.

 - You no longer look for shapes in clouds. If you look for shapes in clouds but no longer see, remark on, or laugh at rude ones, you may be in some danger of becoming a grown up.

 - You arrange your life around when the soaps are on.

 - You get a voucher for Boots and spend it on vitamins and toothpaste rather than hairdye/condoms/electric blue eyeshadow

If you spot any of these signs in yourself or a friend, be afraid - be very, very afraid! Go watch a funny film, read a comic, or draw a doodle. Then go look in the mirror, and laugh at yourself for a while. it might help you - and the idea that you're doing it because I told you to will sure help me get a giggle and remain childish at heart!

Each house has its own insect population

It's true. I have no idea why, but each house seems to be home to particular insects far more than others.

The last house I lived in - fruit flies. Yucky little things that meant I had to leave a piece of tissue over a wine glass at all times or they would start dive bombing it and drowning.

This house - moths. Thankfully not the big scary fat-bodied creepy ones, but the little ones, that eat your clothes.

The houses are only a few miles from each other, so I have no idea where this diversity in insect population comes from. The old house also had a lot of other sorts of flies, which may have been because it was beside a farm, but I don't know if that explains the fruit flies.

There also seem to be a lot of wasps in the new house. Not sure why that is either, but thankfully they're quite slow and stupid, and I've been almost enjoying swatting them with catalogues and magazines. I may not be allergic to wasp stings, but I sure don't like them.

Am I a nerd or a geek?

Am I a nerd or a geek?

I'm the techiest person in my family....but compared to real tech heads I don't know much. I'm definitely the one who gets called on to fix minor computer problems though, and the one my friends ask about how to download, where to download from, and why their computer is going slow or weird all of a sudden (The answer by the way, is generally: run CC cleaner, run malwarebites, defrag and restart et voila! Should be fine again now).That's roughly where my knowledge stops, but I do like to know how to do things myself so when my computer f**ks up I tend to take it apart, literally and figuratively, depending on the problem, to try to work out what's wrong and how to fix it.

I keep my own computer desktop very tidy - only 7 icons. Everything is filed away in a system that probably makes sense only to me. My house on the other hand, is frequently a mess.Once again however, there is a system. It just doesn't look like it.

I got very excited today about alphabetising my books. I mean, it was actually loads of fun. Really.

I actually like learning. As long as it's a subject I have some interest in, that is.

I prefer words to numbers. In fact, I'm not really a big fan of numbers - unless the lotto wants to throw mine up some week, but that's different.

I like science but in the following order: 1. Biology; 2. Chemistry; 3. Physics. 

I'm addicted to the internet, mostly social networking sites and writing sites.

So, people of the internet - am I a nerd or a geek? What's the difference anyway?

My name is

Joleen. Yes, Joleen. J-O-L-E-E-N.

J for Juliet
O for Oscar
L for Lima
E for Echo
E for Echo
N for November

I am aware that Dolly Parton spelled it differently (Jolene).

This is probably the most common variation I get. Other common ones are Joeleen, Joelene, Joline, sometimes Joelle and occasionally, Gillian. (I get all sorts of variations on my surname too, but I won't go on about that here).

I've grown used to it. Most annoying is when it's spelled wrong on a cheque - especially when I've typed out an invoice with my name on it, spelled correctly. I don't hold the knowledge of how to spell all names in the universe within my brain either - but when I'm writing a letter/email/cheque etc, I do tend to do my best to check how the person I'm addressing it to spells their name. Cheques especially, as the bank has this remarkably annoying tendency not to allow people to cash them if the name on the cheque doesn't match that on the account. 

 What's even more hilarious than people spelling it wrong though, is when people tell me I spell it wrong. I wasn't aware of the law that made Dolly Parton's words (and their associated spellings) some kind of canon. I wasn't named after the song. My name is spelled how it's spelled. It's right, simply because it's what it says on my birth certificate.

I remember back at school they used to tell us not to cram for exams. I didn't listen then. I don't listen these days either. Cramming worked for me for the Leaving cert, and so far it's working for me for the degree.

See, cramming works by stuffing all the required info into your brain so it's near the surface, so you can reach it when required (during the exam). The downside is that it has a tendency to leak due to being overfilled, so whatever is learned during cramming is most likely forgotten again a few weeks or months later. That's ok though, because by then the exam is over.

Cramming doesn't work for everything, obviously. Like in psychology, I actually do have to understand it a little bit. Therefore, if there are any questions on factor analysis, I shall be ignoring them, as that's too complicated for me to comprehend. However, as long as I understand something to some extent, I can cram in the info that goes along with it - the name of the guy (yeah, it's usually a guy, but give it time) who came up with a theory, or the year the theory was first published, etc.

So cramming wins. Probably doesn't work for everyone, but for me it has always proven an effective method of passing exams. The key to cramming is not to start too early. So that's my excuse for not having started yet...today though, it is snowing, I don't feel like doing any more spring cleaning since it no longer feels like Spring...so I might as well go ahead and start writing up some notes that I can read in a frantic panic come exam day in mid May.

A way to waste time

Wow, this is a way to suck time right up. Like a hoover. A super-powerful one. Just spent forty minutes and it flew by.

Akinator, the Web Genius

It got everyone I was thinking about right so far. From Stephen King to Doctor Who to Ray D'Arcy to Polgara the Sorceress. Pretty cool. Now I'm finding it hard to come up with people/characters for it to guess.

Great way to spend a little time messing around online...like there aren't enough already!

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

I hate it when there's debate about "which came first, the chicken or the egg?". Or if a seemingly unanswerable question is posed, it gets described as "a real chicken and egg problem" or something like that.

Evolution was discovered quite a while ago which makes the answer obvious as far as I'm concerned.

Here's the science bit...

First: Birds evolved from lizards. Lizards lay eggs. Therefore, eggs were around for a long time before birds were.

Second: The way evolution works (in a very simplified fashion, it has to do with genetic mutations which change creatures ever so slightly over thousands of years) something that was a bird, but not exactly chicken, once laid an egg. Out of this egg emerged something that was a chicken.

So, the egg came first, no matter what way you look at it. Mystery solved.

An elephant never forgets...and neither does the internet

I know it's sad/pathetic/egotistical or whatever but I googled my name yesterday and while several good things came up such as this blog, and various links to Casting Shadows, there were also some links to an old livejournal blog.

Immature, opinionated, self-righteous rants. I wanted to cringe. Actually, I think I probably did cringe. I tried to log in to livejournal to delete them, but couldn't remember my password, so had to get it reset, and for that I had to log in to my old email address and trawl through over five thousand spam emails.

Finally I got the livejournal email and then got rid of those embarrassing old blogs. It just goes to show, however, that the internet never forgets. Beware what you make public as it could easily come back to haunt you! Or alternatively, don't use your real name unless you're absolutely sure you'll be able to live with what you wrote in five, ten or twenty years.

I'm off to google my name again! :-)

Retail and rant therapy

Cheaper than actual therapy, I'm sure. Especially as I have such a good nose for a bargain. Got a pair of shoes, a pair of trousers, a dress, a belt, a pair of earrings and two tops for E25. Go me!

Also, got the chance to rant about various things with a good friend, which always helps. Was nice to not have to spend a day staring at the computer, second-guessing myself over how to interpret an essay question. There will be more of that tomorrow, of course. All the same, it was good to get out, actually do some social-networking rather than sit at home constantly checking my social networking websites.

Perhaps it's even freed my brain up enough to do a little writing? Worth a try!