Stealing from the Internets

From Avery Beck via Cindy Procter-King:

What Your Name Says About You

Your name says that you are mostly: Unconventional but unstable Your name also says you are: Ambitious but stubborn Dynamic but aggressive Thoughtful but slow

What Does Your Name Say About You?

Also from Cindy:



Hilarious!

Okay, the rest of this post isn't technically stolen. But while I was reading blogs before posting this, to see if there was anything else I wanted to steal, I found this at Tracy's blog.

I SWEAR, the stuff below? I wrote it all three days ago! I just didn't feel like going to find pictures for all of it so I hadn't posted it yet. So I don't know if I should be annoyed at Tracy for making me look like I'm stealing, or amused because of like minds and all that.

I Really Love My...

Ground Meat Chopper (Pampered Chef)

I make ground beef more than any other kind of meat. Tacos, sloppy joes, spaghetti, my own special turkey-and-rice recipe. And I really, really dislike large chunks of ground meat. I like it very finely chopped--it goes along with my fear of uncooked meat. So when PC came out with this chopper, I couldn't get it fast enough. It works much better than a spatula for chopping meat the way I like it.

Neo (Alphasmart)

I talk about this all the time, of course. I'm using it right now, as a matter of fact. I love that I can whip it out and jot a note or type an e-mail or work on my book or blog posts without having to wait for boot-up or being distracted by shiny new e-mail posts or IMs.



TiVo (TiVo)

I love DVR. I love that I can record two shows at once, and now that I have three shows on at the same time on Monday nights, I'm happy that we replaced our downstairs TiVo box and moved it upstairs. As I said in a previous post, I'm not thrilled with DirecTV's DVR and prefer the TiVo interface. But as long as I have the record-ability, I'm happy.

iPod Classic (Apple)

Mostly, I listen to podcasts about the New England Patriots and the NFL. I also listen to Pottercast regularly. Mentioning Harry Potter on here always raises my hits by like four times normal, but I keep forgetting that and not mentioning it. Anyway, even though the Harry Potter books are all done, Pottercast still has lots of fun content. Games (playing a clip from the audiobook for "Guess That Book," which you'd think I'd be better at, considering how many times I've listened to them), news, discussion of the last book--I like keeping myself in the Potterverse like that.

I also use my iPod for music, though there are a lot of songs on it I have (apparently) never listened to. Here's a sampling:

"Lean Back" by Terror Squad Feat. Fat Joe and Remy from Now 17
"Over and Over" by Three Days Grace from One-X (I just got that album, though)
"Dirty Water" by ZO2 from Tuesdays and Thursdays

The two songs I've listened to most? "Boys Break In" and "Dean Comforts Sam" by Christopher Lennertz from the Supernatural season 1 soundtrack.

And finally, I use my iPod for video. I have all the Firefly episodes and all the Supernatural season 3 episodes and the last two eps of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Oh, and Dr. Horrible. Ask me how often I watch any of those. Yeah. Not often.

Simplus (Boston)

I alternate bottles of this with bottles of my regular cleaner and conditioner, because a long time ago my eye doctor said she didn't like the all-in-one solutions because if they were safe enough to put in the eye, they weren't strong enough to clean the contacts properly.

But Simplus is used as a cleaner in the morning. At night, you pop the contacts out, drop them in the case, and you're done. That works for me, because at night I'm often too tired to clean them properly. Then in the morning, when I'm awake and alert, I clean and rinse them. Plus, the contacts feel more cushy with this stuff than the conditioner.

Cell Phone (Motorola)

It's the same cell phone Dean uses in the last few episodes of Supernatural season three. He'll probably have a different one with the beginning of season 4, but for now, we're the same.

That's much better than my last phone, which was the same one Gordon had in the episode where he becomes a vampire.



Whirley-Pop Popcorn Popper (Wabash Farms)

I'm a popcorn fiend, and it has to be real popcorn with real butter and salt. Microwave stuff stinks. I used to do air popped corn, but most air poppers shoot kernels all over my house, and I can't stand that. I had one that was self-contained, but as it aged, the popcorn got harder and harder in the center, as if it wasn't popping completely. So now I use a very little bit of olive or grapeseed or canola oil in this spinny popper, which is a vast improvement over our old method of shaking a saucepan over the stove burner when I was a kid. I have a flat-top stove now and can't do that.

I owe my awesome popcorn to my stepfather, who taught us how to toss the butter and salt for ideal distribution. This allows us to use less butter (in theory) and means you don't have to be sweeping your fingerfuls of corn across the bottom of the butter-soaked bowl to get the best flavor. Though I have fond memories of the family sitting around the TV and doing that.

What do you love?