Quotes:
“…eighty-five hundrd. Eight Thousand Five hundrd.”
“Killer Bad”
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Killer Bees, Normal Bees, and avoiding them
Tonight I watched this show called Verminators. One of the skits was about a killer bee colony. This got me into a bit of yak shaving and I found a USDA website about killer bees and their spread in the US. While surfing there, I came across ome tips about what to do if attacked by bees.
One of the things they warned about was something I always thought would be THE thing to do if attacked: jumping in the water. here’s what they say:
Do not jump into water! The bees will wait for you to come up for air.
I didn’t know that and wanted to point it out just in case anyone else was thinking along the same lines I was (the first thing I would do was jump in water).
Picture from pinkgranite via flickr
Lake Mead
I read this article today and it made me start thinking about different things. Don’t worry…I’m not an environmental wacko or even headed that way…however, the article makes you wonder how close the west is to another dust bowl.
Image from kyle simourd via flickr
I never thought I’d say this but…
Kudos to the band geek student. I don’t have a clue who Travis Barker is…but I’m glad that the band geek student stood up and called out those who faun all over someone.
BTW, this is posted primarily for all you band geeks out there. Nope…I don’t have to name names….you know who you are 🙂
Image from rkline via flickr
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ever since we moved to Serbia (and didn’t have Crisco or normal butter/margarine) we’ve been looking for a good cholocate chip cookie recipie. I think Cyndi found the best one ever tonight. The coolies came out nice and chewey yet sort of flat (just like I like them). Here’s the recipie (from allrecipies):
INGREDIENTS
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1 egg
* 1 egg yolk
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
Image from roboppy via Flickr
Truphone, iPhone, and Nokia
I’ve blogged before about Truphone, what I did before coming overseas, what I wish I had known before coming overseas, and then some issues I had had.
Inspite of that, I’ve really grown to like Truphone. Just having it while we were in Rome to use to call was AWESOME. It is a great service. I’m actually thinking about getting Cyndi a phone that it will work on….perhaps then we can dump vonage. But…who knows.
Anyway, when I read about things like this, this, this, and this on the Truphone Blog, I get agrivated. I’m sure they have a real good reason for what they are doing (probabaly a bajillion people have it installed on their iPhones)…I just wish they could get skype functionality on the nokia. I don’t think it has anything to do with the client…probabaly a more back-end change (especially since Gizmo is offering a SIP to Skype bridge now).
Regardless, I’ll keep using Truphone…I think it is the best VoIP Service out there. I just wish they could keep the client functionality in sync a bit more.
Image from VoIPMan via Flickr
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Internet Speed
I haven’t written too much about life here in Serbia recently…so, since I ended up with some extra time on May Day, I decided I’d write about our Internet.
When we first moved in, we had cable internet. We were paying about $25/month for 512 kb/s (yep…kilobits per second). Much much slower than what we were getting in the US before we left. A few months ago, I went to pay our bill (we have to go to the office every month and remember to pay our bill…we don’t get a bill in the mail), the lady asked me a question.
After going back and forth, I figured out that their rates and speeds had changed. I could now purchase 1024 kb/s (kilobits per second) service for 1,700 dinars per month. With the change in the exchange rate, this works out to about the same we were paying before. Not too bad.
Traditionally, I have used DSLReports’ speed tester; however, today, I came across a new one. I thought I’d give them a try and see what happened. The results are below:
Don’t know the difference between a byte and a bit? Don’t know the difference between kb/s and kB/sec? Here’s a good resource for you (here’s another too). But, remember that a byte is 8 bits….so a byte is 8 times larger than a bit.
Cacak Video
I was looking on YouTube today when I came across this video about Cacak. Some of the places I haven’t seen yet (I’ve never even heard anyone talk about the Spomen Dom). It gives you a good look around different parts of Cacak.
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Snow Vehicle
It’s a good thing I wasn’t around and living wherever they filmed this video. It would have all looked like the last minute or so (i.e. no snow). This thing is K – U – L…KUL.
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