E-cards

I'm guilty of being one of those who have switched to sending e-cards instead of actual cards for pretty much any and all occasions.  It's just easier, more inexpensive (I mean free), and allows for last minute sending.  That last part is especially useful if you remembered the occasion only a day before or even on the day itself!  =P

But of course, I'm still a bit choosy even with e-cards.  There's a lot available out there but I don't want to send just anything to everybody.  There are still factors I'd consider including whether I like the e-card and whether it suits the person I'm sending it to.  Also, some of the nicer ones aren't freely available. So anyway, I usually end up going through site after site after site of e-cards before I find the one I choose to send.

This Christmas, I set out to look for a Christmas e-card to send and found this unique, ingenious one.  =)

Winter Solstice and the earth's magnetic poles...

Ok.
First of all, apologies if the title implies a connection between winter solstice and the earth's magnetic poles.
Uhm... I don't actually know right now if there is a connection between the two or not (I'm thinking not), mainly because I haven't read about it yet.  This is supposed to be just a quick post, you see, so I didn't really do any research.  Maybe I'll do that sometime in the future.  But anyway, right now, the only connection between the two is this: winter solstice was in the news earlier, and that reminded me of something I heard on the radio several days or weeks back about the earth's poles.  That's basically the only connection there is.  =P

Winter solstice was in the news because apparently today is the winter solstice, meaning it is the day when the day is shortest and the night is longest.  From my vague memories of high school science, this has something to do with the fact that as the earth revolves around the sun, it's actually rotating on a tilted axis.  So there is a day when the north is farthest away from the sun and, shall we say, exposed to the sun for the shortest period of time compared to other days of the year.  That's the winter solstice, or what they say is the first day of winter.
Which, incidentally, doesn't really mean much to me because I live in a country that does not have four seasons.  =P  In other words, we don't have winter here. 

So anyway, that reminded me of something slightly related that I heard a while back on the radio for which I thought I'd post a comment about.  I wasn't really able to listen well at the time because I was busy doing something, but apparently a story came out from NASA saying that the magnetic poles are shifting or have shifted.  So I thought yeah ok, fine.
But what made me stop for a second and shoot up an eyebrow was when the radio announcer shared a text message from a listener saying that he/she doesn't need NASA to tell him that the poles have shifted because he can easily tell that the sun has moved several degrees in the sky or something like that.  And I was like what is the connection?  Now, unless I misunderstood something, the listener was implying that the position of the sun in the sky has something to do with the position of the magnetic poles?  Erm.
Now, I'm not sure if a shift in the magnetic poles would have an effect on the earth's movement or rotation (that would take a lot of reading and studying...) but, as I understand it, the sun changes position in the sky year in and year out.  And this has something to do with the earth being tilted on its axis as it revolves around the sun.  And axis here has to do with geographic poles, not magnetic poles.  They're not the same. 

There.  >.>
And one thing leads to another.  While working on this post, I remembered yet another thing that I saw just recently.   Scrat's Continental Crack-Up   Enjoy!  =)

Being sick, and an advantage of working at home.

I had a cold in the past few days.  And although I feel much better now, it was worse in the beginning - about two to four days ago.  My nose was stuffy, my throat was painful, my face felt somewhat full and heavy, I had a mild to moderate headache.  Overall, I wasn't feeling very well.  But despite that, I still went online to do some work.  I did rest.  I logged in much less time compared to usual.  But at least I was able to log in some time each day when I felt ok enough to do so.
This is an advantage of working at home.  I can choose to work anytime within the 24 hours in the day, whatever time is ok for me.  It's flexible.  It doesn't have to fall between 9 to 5.  I don't have to go to some particular place out there for work.  I don't have to worry about the commute.
I guess, if I had a regular job I can probably ask for a sick leave.  But that usually requires you to go to a doctor and get a medical certificate.  And to be honest, at most times when not feeling well, I'd much rather just stay at home and rest.  The main point of my staying at home and not going to work is that I feel bad enough not to want to travel.  If I am able to go to the doctor, then I might as well just go to work too.  At least, that's the way I think about it.

And so anyway, now I'm feeling much better.  Just a cough every now and then.  But the headache's gone, nose has stopped running.  I don't constantly need tissue nearby anymore, and used ones has stopped piling up in front of me.
The only problem left is that my internet connection is still unstable.  Seriously.  The problem started when it rained a few days before I caught a cold.  Now, I'm better, but my internet is still sick.  >.>  But oh well... that's probably another blog post.

A tv sitcom and an old blog post.

As usual, I was half-watching the tv earlier today while doing work online.  And I just found it a bit funny that one of the things that came up there was something I wrote about in one of my other blogs before.

I can't remember the title of the show.  Toda Max, maybe?  Or something like that.  It's a sitcom on a local tv station.  It stars Robin Padilla who plays the role of a single dad.  At one point, he was helping his son with homework by telling him the names of the nine planets in the solar system.  But the son says Pluto is not a planet anymore, and the dad asks, 'says who?'  And then the boy's older sister concurs and tells the dad that Pluto is not considered a planet anymore, but a megastar...

Ehm.  Ok.  So, obviously that last part is inaccurate.  It's part of the punch line.  Megastar is the showbiz title of another local celebrity.  And the dad was saying there is only one megastar, and that is Sharon Cuneta. 

I just found it amusing that the subject came up, and I remembered my old blog post.  And I thought, well that's really going to be the reaction of parents around my age when a similar situation comes up.  Reclassification of planets isn't exactly something we keep ourselves updated about.
However, for those who know, saying Pluto is now a 'megastar' is stretching it a bit too much just to make a punch line.  =P  But then again, maybe it's not that important.  Those who are interested enough will go and find out more, and they'll figure out that 'megastar' is not Pluto's new classification. 

Anyway.  So that's my random thing for today.   =)

Lazy and lethargic.

Funny how one thing leads to another.  I was feeling lazy and thought I'd write in this other (old) blog of mine.  And I said maybe doing so would pull me up out of the lazy feeling.  And I think it worked.  =P

A question of whether there's any difference between lazy and lethargic crossed my mind.  Because I had this idea that 'lethargic' sounds worse than 'lazy'.  I looked in the dictionary quickly.  They seem to have similar meanings.  But whether they are exactly the same or if they have subtle differences, I don't know.  I may be a little less lazy now, suddenly feeling up to posting on blogs, but it's still not enough to make me want to dissect word meanings.  =P

In any case, it really did work.  Feeling less lazy now.  And like I said, one thing leads to another.  Now, I have all these other things lined up in my head for me to do.  =P

Random blogspots particularly

Been planning on making this new blog for maybe... more or less a week now.  Finally created this blog yesterday.

Before I did, I was thinking what url I could use.  So I tried googling .blogspot.com urls to see if the ones that come to mind already exist.  I tried these first and they were all taken...

random
randomly
randomrandom
randomlyrandom

...and some others.


It struck me how similar they are.  (Follow the links and you'll see what I mean.)  Did blogspot only have that one template back in the day?  Or could they have been made by the same person?
The first two at least looks like it could have been written by just one person.  The writing style, to me, seems the same even though the authors' names are different.
The third one seems to be by a different person.  It's a he, according to the profile.  But a common thing about these three is that, the blog was apparently abandoned after only one or two posts.  Maybe the author of the third blog was discouraged by the spammy comments?
And the fourth one, well... no posts at all.  So I can't even tell when it was made.

Anyway, I somehow had this wish that, after being abandoned for such a long time, the urls can be made available again.  Hehe.  =P  On the other hand, I wouldn't want that to happen to me in case, for example, because of one reason or another, I become unable to update one of my blogs for more than a year...  But I really would have liked that first url.  =P

Particularly Random Indeed

Dictionary.com says:

random
adjective
1. proceeding, made, or occuring without definite aim, reason, or pattern
...

And in the thesaurus, it says:

random
Synonyms: aimless, arbitrary, casual, irregular, objectless, purposeless, ...
Antonyms: definite, particular, specific, ...


Particularly random.  Definitely.  For sure.