Play Your Bike

This video makes cool music using bike noises.

Free File Your Taxes

I did my taxes today. I normally do them by hand then mail them in a big envelope. I've used TurboTax before and it's OK, but it doesn't really help me that much. I decided that I'd get with the times and use the e-file option. I went to https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/ and used their software. I was very happy that the online calculator came up with all the same figures I did. It was super simple to add forms. In addition to getting my refund sooner, there's the added benefit of knowing that my return was received by the IRS because they will send me an email in a day or 2. I imagine that most of you reading this already e-file your taxes. If you don't, then you might want to give it a shot. I did so in the name of adventure (trying something new) and going green.

Inappropriate Sing-Alongs

Have you ever found yourself singing along with a song only to realize that those words probably shouldn't be coming from your mouth? I've noticed with myself that I have 3 basic categories of this: 1) ideas with which I don't agree/think, 2) love songs written by heterosexual females, and 3) something that just sounds stupid.

Examples: 1) the recent POTW by Adam Reid "I'm sick and oh so tired of the south." 2) Sarah Mac Band "I only want to be with you boy" 3) Buckwheat Boys "it's peanut butter jelly time"

Ambigram Generator

This site is dedicated to ambigram tattoos. The link I gave is for a page where a computer will generate an ambigram for you!!! I thought this was a super complicated process that an artist would have to pour over to get right. I was amazed. You can play around with it and see what you think.

Pick #232

Adam Reid - "Heat Exhaustion" from A Furnace Black and Broken

Microchip Your Pets.

After I got home from my run today, I went in to grab a drink. When I came back outside, there were 2 dogs on my front porch. I took them through the house to the back yard. My neighbor said they belonged to my other neighbor, but then I learned that they didn't. The dogs had collars but not tags.

Erin was at my house and we were supposed to go for a walk, so we walked up and down the street asking anyone who was home if they recognized a digital picture of the dogs. I called the animal shelter to see if there was a lost report filed but I forgot to check the sex of the dogs. I ended up taking the dogs to a vet's office to get scanned for a microchip.

One of the dogs had a microchip but the other didn't. They seemed like friends and it turns out that they have the same owner. The microchip company didn't have contact info, but the animal shelter did (they had done the chipping). The first number didn't work, but I called another which turned out to be the owner's girlfriend. He came to get his dogs a couple hours after I found them.

Had the one dog not been chipped, I would not have been able to identify the owner and I would have had to turn the dogs over to the shelter. Hopefully the owner would have filed a report and been notified when I turned in the dogs. Otherwise the dogs would have been adopted into another home or put down. It's definitely worth every penny to microchip your pets.

Early Bedtime with Old People

I went to visit Erin's grandparents this past weekend. It was nice to meet them and we had a good time. I was getting over a cold so I was a little less energized than normal. We ended up going to bed pretty early both nights. I think 10pm might have been my bedtime. I imagine my recovery played a role in my wanting to go to bed so early, but I think that spending the day with people who go to bed early helped more.

I know that girls can all get on the same menstrual cycle when they spend enough time together. They all end up following the alpha female's cycle. I wonder if it's the same with sleep...the old people had the stronger circadian rhythm (perhaps because we were in their environment) and it kind of rubbed off on us. Another idea I have is that there wasn't much to do and we were trying to be quiet, so it's easiest to go to bed.

I think the stronger circadian rhythm theory gets some other support from when I go visit my immediate family and my mom ends up staying awake later than usual when I'm home. Part of it may be that she wants to catch up with me but it might also be that my presence influences her sleep routine. Does anyone know of any studies done on this? Anybody have personal experience?