Some Blog Site

Breaking news, just in from the Big Ten headquarters in Park Ridge, Illinois :

With the upcoming addition of a twelfth team, the Big Ten conference has released a new logo. Since the old logo incorporated the number “11” inside the text “BigTen”, that logo was no longer relevant to the expanded conference.

The new logo retains the look and feel of the previous logo, emphasizing the history of the Big Ten while at the same time subtly showing the progress the conference has made in growing to twelve members.

Old Logo

New Logo

Here is another scene from the unreleased Wolverine movie (click on the image to see a full-size version) :

Here is the text, in case your browser has trouble with images:
Wolverine : Tebownium has been neutralized
Wolverine : But with some help fro the Big College Superhero . . .
(narrator): The big-game ray will affect the enemy’s throat muscles,
(narrator): causing them to tighten.
Puddles : You mean he will choke?
Wolverine : Exactly!

You may also want to see the previous episode of X-Men Rivals.

In cooperation with LaanyKidsMom, here is my entry for this week.

Where did I find joy this week?
The start of Christmas

One of the signs that I am on Christmas break is that my wife makes a hearty breakfast for us all.

That brought me joy on Christmas Eve morning. Not pictured are the scrambled eggs and the oranges. Yes, there are both blueberry pancakes and chocolate-chip pancakes. No, that wasn’t my plate – that was the serving plate.

What else?

We opened our presents.

I enjoyed the presents that I got, but it was even more fun watching the kids open their presents and seeing their genuine smiles.

What else?

Our church’s Christmas Eve candlelight service

Only the last few carols were sung by candlelight. The first 50 or so minutes of songs and readings were done by normal incandescent light. How can you not like a service full of Christmas carols? Not just Christmas songs, but real carols that are all hymn-y and stuff.

One more

Why Christmas?

God became man and dwelt among us. The joy comes not from knowing what He did or how He did it; the joy comes from knowing why He did it and that He did it for me.

Have a Merry and Joyful Christmas!

Gamma has 4 teeth now, and he has learned how to use them. Maybe it’s 4 and a half.

Here is his pacifier. Or rather, here is a pacifier that used to be his but is now in the trash.

Pop Quiz!

This teeth-shredded pacifier is :

1. Evidence that silicone pacifiers are better than latex pacifiers.
2. Evidence that old pacifiers should be discarded and not handed down to the next child.
3. A very good reason why the weaning process should start when the child gets teeth.
4. All of the above.

Time’s up. Hand in your answer using the comments form, please.

Wandering through the store the other day, I saw that Star Wars has licensed its name to a number of science kits. The one that first caught my eye was the Jedi mind-reading device (they call it the Force Trainer), but I also noticed the Darth Vader mechanical arm.

It’s just like the old Armatron that Radio Shack used to sell. Change the color, slap a Star Wars badge on it, and suddenly it’s popular again.

My favorite part about the mechanical arm is the warning:

MANUFACTURER’S SAFETY CAUTIONS AND WARNINGS

Of course it’s a choking hazard. Have they not seen what Darth Vader does with his arm? How he treats enemies or underlings who displease him?

Watch the movie again and you won’t even want to get close to this toy. It’s not just that the hand could grab someone’s neck and be a choking hazard that way. I mean, if this is Darth Vader’s arm like it claims, you could just point the hand in someone’s direction and, by using the Force that you’ve honed using the Force Trainer, choke a person from across the room.

Darth Vader’s arm is not a friendly thing. Be very careful if you purchase this toy.

The rest of the warning states that it is a choking hazard due to small parts. However, I think you may want to watch out for the other choking possibilities too, if you have this toy.

Based on the popularity existence of last year’s article predicting bowl games in haiku form, I present to you this year’s all-haiku bowl game predictions. Still America’s only all-haiku college bowl game predictions.

These are listed in order of date (earliest first). Some picks are whom I think will win, and some picks are whom I want to win. I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to decide which is which.

Dec. 19th

Dec. 20th

Dec. 22nd

Dec. 23rd

Dec. 24th

Dec. 26th

Dec. 27th

Dec. 28th

Dec. 29th

Dec. 30th

Dec. 31st

Jan. 1st

Jan. 2nd

Jan. 4th

Jan. 5th

Jan. 6th

Jan. 7th

And that’s it for this year’s BCS and non-BCS bowl game predictions. Tune in later, about the second week of January, for the results show.

Jimmy Blogger here…

What’s wrong with Tag Clouds?

There are no clouds!

While everyone else has plain tag clouds, your blog can have cloudy tag clouds.

(cut to scene of people using laptops at coffee shop)

“Thanks to Cloudy Tags, my blog isn’t boring anymore!”
“I love this new widget!”

(cut back to set with audience)

SSSSSStamp!

Blogging tested!
Blogging approved!

For many of you, that spoof made no sense. For others, it did make sense. But in about 6 months, that line of commercials should have withered and no one will appreciate this post anymore. By that time, there should be plenty of other posts and I wouldn’t expect that many people to be reading this one anyway.

I have completed my second plugin for WordPress blogs, Cloudy Tags. It makes your tag cloud look cloudy, like this:

[cloudytags]

Details are at the Cloudy Tags page.