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Okay, I really want to know: how did THIS come about?
The other thing I want to know is, how would you spell that?
Language Quirks
19 Thursday Mar 2015
Posted in Life
The Breakfast Crusade
16 Monday Mar 2015
Posted in Life
Tags
author, breakfast, crusade, DeDutch, food, hashbrowns, menu change, potato chunks, Stephanie Beavers, writer
Breakfast is serious business. Just ask my boyfriend.
Every Sunday I get dragged out of bed (too early, in my opinion), to go eat breakfast at DeDutch. My boyfriend will literally bounce on the bed to get me up. (For the record, I love going to breakfast, just not that early.)
DeDutch serves many wonderful foods. I LOVE their tosties. They’re like grilled cheese sandwiches except full of awesome instead of just cheddar cheese. I like the spinach and feta with caramelized mushrooms and aoli sauce (I may be getting the name of the sauce wrong, but it’s super tasty). There’s also blueberry, brie and red onion (a bizarre but wonderful combination) and my other standby, the ham, edam, and pineapple tostie. They also have regular breakfast platters and something called a hashboat – hashbrowns mixed with cheese, hollandaise, mushrooms, and onions. Oh, and they all come with a little fruit bowl on the side. Mmmm…
Now while I mix things up, my boyfriend always gets the same thing: Canuck toast. More traditionally known as French toast, with bacon, eggs, and a side of hashbrowns.
Last Sunday, they changed the hashbrowns. I haven’t stopped hearing about it since.
The old hashrbowns were tiny little cubes. The new ones are large chunks of potato. My boyfriend has taken affront to this change.
Strongly-worded letters have been sent to the DeDutch head office since we learned that this abominable change was instigated on their order, not on the local level.
So please, show your support and also send letters to dedutch@dedutch.com, protesting the change from hashbrowns to potato chunks. Do it for me, and for all women who have to listen to their men when there’s a menu change on their favorite food.
Save the hashbrowns.
#SaveTheHashbrowns
Epic Origami
12 Thursday Mar 2015
Posted in Fun
Tags
art, author, creativity, fun, inspiration, origami, paper, Stephanie Beavers, writer
I’ve always been fascinated by origami. I mean, you can take a piece of paper – ANY piece of paper – and turn it into a three-dimensional creature solely by folding that piece of paper. How awesome is that? Who came up with that idea? “Gosh, I’m bored and all I have is this piece of paper. I know, I’ll fold it until it looks like a bird.” Really?
Now, I can do a bit of origami myself:
My origami dragon. Of COURSE I can make a dragon.
The most complicated origami I can do. Still amateur level, trust me.
The problem with origami, however, is that it comes in three difficulties: easy, medium, and epically difficult. For example, compare the above to the below:
Now, I don’t know if this guy follows the “rules” of traditional origami (no cutting, gluing, etc, just folding), but who cares? This is awesome. And I will never be able to create anything close to these even WITH cutting, gluing, etc. Dinosaurs, skeletons, insects (centipedes!), angels, he does it all. Want to see? Check out his Flickr.
Btw, here’s HIS dragon:
My favorite? Probably this one:
So readers, have you ever tried origami? Do you just make cranes? (Love cranes. Especially the ones with flapping wings.) Or are you an origami god like this guy? Or would you rather see the fruits of others’ paper-folding labors? Comment!
The Evilest of All Evil Revenges
09 Monday Mar 2015
Posted in Fun
Tags
author, evil, glitter, humor, life, revenge, send glitter, Stephanie Beavers, writer
Ship Your Enemies Glitter
(Warning, the above site uses foul language.)
No really, it’s a real thing. And it’s evil.
They advertise:
“WE SEND GLITTER TO THE PEOPLE YOU HATE.
Glitter as a Service: want to tick* off someone you dislike for only $9.99? Let us send them some stupid* glitter that is guaranteed to go everywhere.”
*censored
Glitter is something children like because children don’t care about messes; they don’t have to clean them up. The rest of us? The rest of us hate glitter, because, as mentioned above, it gets everywhere. EVERYWHERE. This site will send glitter to someone upon whom you wish to inflict a terrible, terrible fate upon.
I avoid greeting cards, Christmas ornaments, and pretty much any other item with glitter on it. Oh yeah, sparkles=yay and all that, but I don’t like glitter in the carpet, on my clothes, in my vehicle, nor in numerous other places the glitter will inevitably stick.
So if you hate someone, you now have the option to send them glitter. Use this power wisely.
Cats, Dogs, and Cats Using Dogs As Pillows
05 Thursday Mar 2015
Posted in Fun
Tags
animals, author, cat, cats, dog, dogs, entertainment, friends, fun, lol, naps, pals, pet, pets, pillows, sleeping, Stephanie Beavers, writer
I Can Has Cheezburger featured this: Cats Are Teaching Dogs to be the Fluffy Pillows they Are I of course felt the need to share these adorable images below.
Gamification: the Future of Schooling, Training, and Brainwashing
02 Monday Mar 2015
Posted in News
Tags
author, education, edutainment, gamers, games, gamification, gaming, politics, psychology, schooling, Science, science news, social advancement, Stephanie Beavers, training, writer
My boyfriend linked me this article and it got me thinking.
Harper government examines game-playing to motivate bureaucrats
I’ve heard of gamification before. I’ve personally used it before. The idea is that if training/schooling or even work itself is turned into a game, people will learn faster and work harder. Studies are showing that gamification works. People learn more in a shorter period of time versus standard classroom-style training.
It also ties into this TED Talk: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life by Jane McGonigal. (It’s worth a watch.)
Games are fun. They reduce stress and give us feelings of accomplishment. They often engage us with other people. Personally, I think the concept of gamification is brilliant.
But is there a dark side? Come on, people, you gotta know I’ll find some dire warning about a bleak (apocalyptic?) future should this go to extremes. Plus, I gave it away in the title.
I remember playing a MMORPG when I was younger and still lived at home. As a low-level character, there was little to kill for experience besides barnyard animals. So there I was, hacking away at a cow when my dad walked in the room. He may have freaked out. He may have compared the video game to how evil regimes (he may have referenced Nazis) brainwashed their soldiers with computer simulations (etc) to desensitize them into killing enemy combatants. He may have forbidden me from ever touching that game ever again. (I now don’t even remember what game it was.) Now, these reactions may have been a little extreme, but there’s also a valid point in there.
My hapless victim.
I personally prefer it when people are straight with me. I don’t like it when people beat around the bush or say and do things with ulterior motives. So I do have reservations about gamification on a corporate and/or government level.
What’s to stop them from candy-coating propaganda, pushing their “training” into something more like brainwashing? People will swallow a candy-coated pill much more easily than a bitter one, after all.
Now, I do hope to see gamification used more across the board, but I hope people are aware of the dangers. Along with gamification, we need to push critical thinking, open-mindedness, and caution.
What do you think, readers? Is gamification more beneficial or dangerous? Would you like to see more of it?
Giving Laughter
26 Thursday Feb 2015
Posted in Thoughts
My taste in humor isn’t always the same as everyone else’s. So much humor on TV (and elsewhere) just seems cruel to me. A comedian will say something “funny,” and I’ll be dumbfounded when people laugh, because I just found saw it as hurtful (not necessarily hurtful to me, but to someone). Cruel humor is everywhere these days. But when I saw this video, I thought, hey, here’s someone who has the right idea.
In his mind, it’s not “I’m going to get laughter from these people,” it’s “I’m going to give these people the opportunity to laugh.”
It’s not about getting, it’s about giving. And it’s not just in comedy.
What do you think, readers? Do you find much of today’s humor to be more cruel than funny? Do you like humor that gives better?
Thinking In Wobbly Lines
23 Monday Feb 2015
Posted in Thoughts
Tags
author, life, Logical thinking, rambling, Stephanie Beavers, thinking, Thinking outside the box, thinking straight, writer
What do you blog about when you’re too tired to think straight? I have been tired all week. Thankfully, I pre-wrote last week’s posts. But now this week is here. …Oi.
I wonder where that saying came from, to “think straight.” I mean, yes, logical progression does seem, metaphorically speaking, to be more straight than crooked. Is that was it means though? Logical thinking? It seems to refer to something broader than that, to me. What about when you “think outside the box?” Are you still thinking “straight” when you think outside the box? Thinking outside the box is often applauded, after all, just like thinking straight.
Maybe there are advantages to not thinking straight. What would it look like if we thought in zig-zags? Would it be creative? Nonsensical? Just plain loony? What about in circles? That seems negative, as one would never get anywhere. Like circular logic, which is argued to be self-defeating or even nonsensical in and of itself.
The more important question may be, is this product of my sleep-hungry brain making any sense at all? Are my words making any sense, straight, curved, or otherwise? Am I writing, as well as thinking, in wobbly lines? Regardless, this is all I have to offer today. And it’s only Monday. We’ll see what Thursday brings…
Introducing Evil Overlord Spot
19 Thursday Feb 2015
Posted in Fun
Tags
author, Boston Dynamics, evil overlords, fun, News, robot dog, robotics, robots, Science, science fiction, science news, Spot, Stephanie Beavers, writer
So Boston Dynamics had created a robotic dog named Spot. See the video below.
Now, I’m sure you all picked out their number one mistake immediately. Yes, that’s right, they abused Spot. Now, how do you think things are going to play out for them when machines become our overlords and rule us with an iron fist? I think Spot will remember being kicked.
You’re screwed, Boston Dynamics.
The TRUE Meaning of Valentine’s Day: Candy
16 Monday Feb 2015
Posted in Fun
Tags
advice, author, candy, chocolate, entertainment, food, fun, hearts, humor, life, Stephanie Beavers, sweets, Valentine, Valentine's Day, writer
I know it’s a little late, but Happy Valentine’s Day. Whether you rocked it solo or spent it with someone (or someones), I hope you had a grand time and ate lots of chocolate. After all, it IS one of the “Chocolate Holidays.” Valentine’s, Easter, and Halloween (and, to a lesser extent, Christmas) are all chocolate holidays. They’re all holidays that are, regardless of anything else happening, wonderful because they’re excuses to eat scads of chocolate and/or candy. Wonderful sweets litter the stores, just begging to be sampled.
‘Scuse me while I go romance this candy.
I know break-ups spike around Valentine’s Day, but at least there’s lots of chocolate to console all the sad people. Could they have planned it better?
Flying solo this Valentine’s? Worry not, there’s plenty of chocolate to go around.
Or maybe you like healthier Valentine’s treats.
So if you find you’re bummed by the commercialism or the pressure or because you have no beau, just change your mindset.
Mmmmm, Valentine’s Day. Yum.
Stephanie Beavers 