Digital Wilderness

Oscar the cat predicts patients’ deaths

Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

I didn’t know this was even in the works, but Veggie Tales: The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything will be “coming soon” to theatres. Graphics look good; might be worth checking out. Haven’t seen or heard much from Veggie Tales lately. When I do, it always takes me back to my college days, and especially puppets. Veggie Tales songs were a frequent and fun part of our shows.

Famous Poems Rewritten as Limericks

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

There once was a horse-riding chap
Who took a trip in a cold snap
He stopped in the snow
But he soon had to go:
He was miles away from a nap.

The Raven

There once was a girl named Lenore
And a bird and a bust and a door
And a guy with depression
And a whole lot of questions
And the bird always says “Nevermore.”

I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud

There once was a poet named Will
Who tramped his way over a hill
And was speechless for hours
Over some stupid flowers
This was years before TV, but still.

Footprints in the Sand

There was a man who, at low tide
Would walk with the Lord by his side
Jesus said “Now look back;
You’ll see one set of tracks.
That’s when you got a piggy-back ride.”

The grad school process is moving along. Right now, I’m planning to pursue an MBA and the leading school candidate is Xavier. XU has a top 25 MBA program, so I feel good about it, but UNC is still an option. At this point in time, though, UNC is a bit too expensive for me. My company will pay for some of it, but I’m going to have to dig up some grants or other money if I’m to pursue it seriously.

I’ve spent the last two days fighting with NKU to get my transcript released. My last semester there, I only had one evening class, so I didn’t see the sense in paying for a $40 parking pass. I figured that if I got a parking ticket, it would be cheaper to pay that than for a pass. Well, I ended up with two tickets, which combined equaled the cost of a parking pass. I never paid them, though. Supposedly, they hold diplomas if there are outstanding payments for an account, but they were nice enough to send it too me anyway, so I came out on the winning side. Now it’s coming back to get me, though. There’s a hold on my account and they won’t release my transcript until the tickets are paid off. I called the bursar to take care of them (trying to talk them into just forgetting about it, with no luck) and they told me I couldn’t pay over the phone, that I’d have to pay on the web via credit card (with a $15 extra charge) or pay in person at the bursar’s office. I went to the website to pay, but since I’m no longer a student and didn’t have a student ID, I couldn’t. So I went to NKU on my lunch break to pay, but once I got there, they told me they only took check or cash and would have to pay by plastic over the web. You would think they would have mentioned that on the phone! Finally, someone told me I could use my social security number as the student ID and I finally paid off my tickets from 6 years ago.

So, applications are filled out, transcripts are on their way…the only thing left is to take GMAT. I’m planning on taking that mid to late August. Has anyone taken it recently? Any tips or suggestions? Looks like I’m going to be spending some time in the library the coming weeks.

I’m excited about going back to school, especially about taking some economics classes. I have a feeling it’s going to be hard to get back into the groove of taking classes and having homework, but once I get into the routine, it shouldn’t be too bad.

Mmm…wow…now this is a great idea! Someone buy me a few cases as an early birthday gift…

Bacon Salt

Well, I’m on the Harry Potter band wagon now. It took me a while to get around to it (and you may remember me writing a post about it a couple years ago), but now I’m in the Potter-verse. Over the past week, I’ve read the first book, made it half way through the second and saw movies 2-4… I got caught up just in time to see the new movie – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – on Wednesday. They’re not bad – definitely not Lord of the Rings, though!

I got nuttin’ else right now, so here’s some Bible Humor, courtesy of Robin.

Q. What kind of man was Boaz before he married Ruth?
A. Ruthless.

Q. What do they call pastors in Germany ?
A. German Shepherds.

Q. Who was the greatest financier in the Bible?
A. Noah He was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.

Q. Who was the greatest female financier in the Bible?
A. Pharaoh’s daughter. She went down to the bank of the Nile and drew out a
little prophet.

Q. What kind of motor vehicles are in the Bible?
A. Jehovah drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden in a Fury.
David’s Triumph was heard throughout the land.
Also, probably a Honda, because the apostles were all in one Accord.

Q. Who was the greatest comedian in the Bible?
A. Samson. He brought the house down.

Q. What excuse did Adam give to his children as to why he no longer lived in
Eden?
A. Your mother ate us out of house and home.

Q. Which servant of God was the most flagrant lawbreaker in the Bible?
A. Moses. He broke all 10 commandments at once.

Q. Which area of Palestine was especially wealthy?
A. The area around Jordan. The banks were always overflowing.

Q. Who is the greatest babysitter mentioned in the Bible?
A. David. He rocked Goliath to a very deep sleep.

Q. Which Bible character had no parents?
A. Joshua, son of Nun.

Q. Why didn’t they play cards on the Ark ?
A. Because Noah was standing on the deck.

On Saturday, July 7, 2007, during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal, the New7Wonders organization announced The New 7 Wonders of the World.

They are:

• The Great Wall, China
• Petra, Jordan
• Christ Redeemer, Brazil
• Machu Picchu, Peru
• Chichén Itzá, Mexico
• The Roman Colosseum, Italy
• The Taj Mahal, India

There’s an interactive display of the new and old seven wonders at MSNBC: The New Seven Wonders.

Do you agree with this list? Any you would add or remove?

I got fed up with the old software I was using for the gallery, so I moved the pics to Picasa and found a plugin to integrate it into the site. Pretty snazzy looking! Check it out

P.S. Let me know if you have any problems with the new gallery. When you click on the thumbnails, they should enlarge on the page itself. It doesn’t work as smoothly in IE as it does in Firefox, but then everyone is using Firefox by now, aren’t they?

Years after other states have done this, Kentucky is increasing the speed limit on parts of its interstates:

I-71/75 get 70-mph speed limit

The faster speed limit will begin just south of the U.S. 42 exit on I-71/75 in Florence. Drivers will be able to go 70 mph on I-75 for 60 miles until the Ironworks Pike exit in Fayette County.

On I-71 drivers will be able to go 70 mph all the way from Florence to the I-265 Gene Snyder Freeway in Louisville.

In addition to I-75 and I-71, portions of other interstates including I-24, I-64 and I-65 will also have a 70-mph speed limit. The speed increases will make Kentucky one of about 30 states that allow drivers to go 70 mph.

This won’t affect my driving habits, and I wonder how much it will affect the habits of others. Apparently there hasn’t been an increase in accidents in the other states that have raised their limits, or if there has been an increase, it doesn’t outweigh the benefits of increasing the limit. Where will the increase stop, though? I remember when it was 55. It can’t increase forever…