2/21/12  Just Wondering

      Closed captioning on tv transcribes a voiceover something like, "Female announcer: Blah... blah..." Why do they bother giving the announcer's sex?

      If there's no letter L sound in Japanese, why did they name the car brand Lexus? What do they call it in Japan?

      Why is it for women the road to fulfillment is a career, while for men the road to fulfillment is dumping the career and leaving the rat race?

      If there's no J or U in Latin, how does the most famous old Roman, Julius Caesar, have both?

      Why is it people want to become rich and so attract the opposite sex, yet the rich want to be loved for themselves and not their money?

      Why do so many like democracy but hate politics when democracy means everyone is part of politics?

      When did the word 'gifted' become a noun? It still means talented, but when did it start replacing gave or given? Moreover, why?

      And last and probably least, what's the purpose of that little triangle just under the collar on the front of a sweatshirt?

2/3/12  The Worst Bargain Ever

      I got a puzzle-a-day calendar for Christmas. Here's the puzzle for February 2nd, Groundhog Day, though it has nothing to do with groundhogs:

      "Andy flushes the toilet 36 times a day. Each flush uses 2 gallons of water at a cost of 10 cents per gallon. How much do Andy's flushes cost per week?"

      The answer is pretty simple math. Andy spends $50.40 a week flushing his toilet.

      When I read the setup I had other questions. Why is Andy flushing his toilet so much? Why is Andy's toilet water so expensive?

      Maybe it's just me, but using the toilet 36 times a day seems a bit excessive. If Andy sleeps eight hours a day it means he's relieving himself 36 times in 16 hours. That's once every 25 minutes or so. I think Andy should see a doctor.

      At $50.40 a week Andy is spending over $200 a month flushing his toilet. Where does Andy live where water is so expensive? By comparison my monthly water bill is about ten dollars. I don't pay close to ten cents a gallon for water, closer to one cent per gallon.

      Which makes me wonder, does Andy drink bottled water? Is there anything more overpriced? I mean, a 16 oz. bottle for a dollar means paying eight dollars a gallon. That's twice the price of gas. For water. Which I can get from the tap for a penny a gallon. Bottled water is 800 times more expensive. Though for Andy that's only 80 times more expensive. What a bargain.

1/30/12  Another One Bites the Dust

      I see in the news where Kodak declared bankruptcy. Not surprising given the rise of digital photography. Still, had you told me in 1970 both Kodak and General Motors would go bust, I'd have thought you crazy. Not to mention the Soviet Union. How the mighty have fallen.

      In it's long heyday Kodak was invincible. Sure, there was FujiFilm and Agfa, but Kodak was the undisputed king. Photographers called it "The Yellow God". But no more. The Kodak moment is over. The Yellow God is dead. Or perhaps being reorganized as a demi-god. A very mortal demi-god it seems.

      So, what big name is next? Sears? Xerox? JP Morgan? Italy? Stay tuned. Death and taxes ain't just for people.

12/21/11  Happy Holidays

      That's a greeting for any holidays you like. Christmas, New Year's, Festivus, whatever. Break out the tree, the candles, the pole, the falling ball, or whatever you got. Don your gay apparel, your party hat, your dancing shoes, your sunday best, or whathaveyou. Grab yourself some eggnog, some fruitcake, some champagne, or something-or-other else.

      Or don't. Live and let live it up, that's my motto. If I knew the Latin for that I'd use it on my crest. Not that I have a crest. Just a logo/signature thingy.

      I seem to have gone off the rails. Anyway, have a good one, whatever that one is. Cheers!

12/1/11  Now Better Than Sliced Bread!

      Welcome to the New and Improved terrycolon.com. Of course, new and improved are mutually exclusive. If it's improved it existed before in another form so it can't be new. If it's new it didn't exist before in another form so it can't be improved. All the same everyone accepts new and improved adspeak as if it were logical.

      So, terrycolon.com is not really new. Just different than before. Whether it's improved is not for me to say. The biggest difference is unseen. I reorganized the hierarchy. Or pathways or whatever it's called. Still, it looks and functions pretty much as before. While everything is still there, it might be in a new spot. So if you linked to anything on the sight, the old url might not work.

      Which might make terrycolon.com old and worse. All the same, it's easier for me to work with. Selfish as it may be, that makes it improved. For me.

11/2/11  Wrong Because it’s Right

      The above illustration is my variation of something I saw recently at Coyote Blog. I thought it fun, and funny just on the face of it. Though when examined it's a brain teaser with a twist. Or maybe a brain twister with a tease.

      With random selection, there's an equal chance of selecting any one of five answers. One out of five is 20%. This would mean the correct answer is A. Also D is correct.

      But if there are two correct answers then you have a 40% chance of getting the right answer. So the answer is B. Yet if there's a 40% chance of getting the right answer then A and D are both wrong. Which means there aren't two correct answers so it can't be B either. All three are wrong.

      Answer C is self-defeating. If there is no correct answer the odds are 0%. But since that would make answer C right, then it is wrong because there's a 20% it is right, even though it can't be.

      So, answers A through D are wrong. Which would make E the correct answer, none of the above. Only if E is right there is one correct answer which would mean there's a 20% chance of getting it right. This would mean E is wrong since one of the above, A, would be right. Also D is correct.

      But if there are two correct answers then you have a 40% chance of getting the right answer. So the answer is B. Yet...

      You are now trapped in an infinite loop of self-contradictory logic where correct answers become wrong because they are right.

10/4/11  The Big Little Move

      Ah-h-h-h, fall, AKA autumn. The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer, and both are getting colder. The time nears to make the big switch. I'm not talking about resetting the clocks off daylight savings time, though that will have to be done. I'm not talking about packing away the summer clothes and restocking the closet with sweaters, though that'll be done as well. Nor am I talking about swapping out the window screens for storm windows, though I'll be doing that, too.

      I'm talking about my own personal switch where I rearrange the rooms of my house. Well, not the actual structure, some of the contents inside. I have a different set-up in the summer and winter. My house has two spare bedrooms, one of which I use as my office/studio. One is a large room on the north side of the house. The other is a small room facing south.

      In the warm months I use the north room as my studio. It's on the cool side of the house and doesn't get the high summer sun streaming through the windows. I can keep a window open with a window fan exhausting all the cigarette smoke to the great outdoors. The north room facing away from the street diminishes the street noise that seeps in the open window. If you can characterize noise as seeping.

      When the chilly season arrives I switch my studio to the south side. I get some direct warming sunlight, which is a plus in the winter and a minus in the summer. Being the smaller room it takes less energy to heat compared to the larger north room which can be shut off. I don't know how much this saves, but every little bit helps. The smoke... in the winter I get to enjoy both the first-hand and second-hand smoke for the duration. What can I say? Not everything I do is perfectly sensible.

9/10/11  Man and Superman

      Why do superheros have secret identities? I mean, if you're Superman why not be Superman all the time? What's the point of being Clark Kent part of the time? Wouldn't Superman get more girls than Clark Kent? Wouldn't Superman get a better-paying job than Clark Kent?

      If Superman needed an income he could do a lot better than newspaper reporter. He could hire himself out to NASA to fly satellites into orbit. How much does NASA spend on a rocket launch? A hundred million? Superman could do it for a tenth of that and make out like a bandit. Work once a year, make ten million, save the world in his spare time.

      Though maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way around. Is Superman's secret identity Clark Kent, or is Clark Kent's secret identity Superman? Then you might ask, why be Superman. Why not be Clark Kent, man of steel?

      "Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look, up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's Clark Kent." Though since he can fly why would he leap over tall buildings in a single bound?

      Then again, maybe both Clark Kent and Superman are secret identities. After all, he was actually an alien from the planet Krypton.