Fun Trivia Facts

Well, I know, it is not Monday, but it is the Wednesday "Hump" Day and since we missed Monday, tonight we are presenting Fun Trivia Facts. If you have had a rough day and are not looking forward to the rest of the week, perhaps this brief respite will help you survive.

Tonight we are going to rejoice that we are not living in England between 1558 and 1603:

At that time, medicines were not so advanced, it really was not wise to get sick. If you did get sick, you may have been asked to ingest some powdered burnt swallow feathers (do you know how stinky that is?), red coral, pigeon's dung or your own (YUCK!!), mistletoe may be taken in the month of March, swallow syrup of poppy, earthworms, or consume a prepared pill or suppository coated in gold. One cure for kidney stones was a mixture of white wine (OK, I can do that...), salad oil, powdered crab's eyes (do you KNOW how little those are?) and the bone in a carp's head. I think I would rather be sick than to take any of those medications!!!

The women's clothes were not quite as you would think during this time either. The clothes were mix and match (sort of like today...but not..). Sleeves, bodices and skirts were not connected. You connected the different pieces with straight pins (OUCH!). That is largely because safety pins were not invented until 1849. You really didn't want to bend too much for sure... At least if you had two dresses, you could make a lot of different combinations this way...

How many of you think men's codpieces were places to put the man's "junk"? They were not used for that at all...often they were stuffed, and a man could keep important things (no, not the "family jewels") like money, papers, etc in a codpiece for storage...

Now if I was worried about being poisoned, I would wear a ring containing a piece of a unicorn's horn because if I wore that, I was protected from poisonings. The problem? No such thing as Unicorns...ooops..

In England, young men would play female characters in theatrical roles. Women were not allowed on stage at the time. Elizabethans believed there was a difference in genders right from the start. A male fetus was thought to grow on the right side of the womb and the female, the left. Fortunately, the reasoning for malformed or unusual-looking children was switching from the idea of the mother sleeping with the Devil to the more "forward-thinking" concept of Maternal Impressions. If a pregnant woman saw something that startled her, the baby born would have some resemblance to that particular thing (like a boy with scaly skin like a fish, or a horsey face child..). Craving strawberries could cause a woman's unborn child to be born with a "strawberry" birthmark on their skin.

Hopefully you are now happier that you are here now, instead of in England between 1558 and 1603. We all need to be glad about something.

If you are looking for an additional income opportunity, check out our website for some ideas. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

Until tomorrow...

So Sorry

Sorry everyone for disappearing for 5 days. Had a computer virus / worm that has taken sigificant time to remove. Am finally up and running, and will start posting blogs again tomorrow... you are not being ignored, I just got slammed trying to undo damage to the computer...

Election Day Mid-Term Elections

Well, mid-term elections are FINALLY over. It has been a long haul and there have been significant changes already made to hopefully put this great country of ours back on track. We are far from being on-track, now the hard part begins.

With the mid-terms complete, we have to watch and see that the newly elected officials will do as the people of the United States requests of them. We are no longer going to accept our elected people tell us that we don't know what is good for us. We elected these people to represent us, not what they think we want or need. The problem I have personally seen is that even the best intentions of newly elected officials get buried by the 'status quo'. The object this year is to make sure that the new representatives do not fall into the same rut that the people we just elected OUT of office fell into.

We now must be vigilant and remain active in keeping our country strong. We should take a hard-line and continue to expect that our representatives truly represent what we the people want. This is not going to be an easy road to hoe, we will still have problems, but with luck and a lot of dedication from all of us, we can climb out of this hole we all dug (we are ALL responsible for the current state of affairs) better and stronger than we were before. We need to remember not to point fingers, but to squarely take responsibility not for actions that have all ready occurred, but to take responsibility for actions moving forward.

We can never change what has already occurred, but we can make changes going forward that will benefit all of us. Let's put away our party differences (are there really any party differences anymore? Republicans look and act more like Democrats and the reverse is also true) and focus on healing a seriously sick country. Patching problems will not make them go away. We need to honestly identify the rood of the problems we are currently in and fix the problems.

If there are companies that have been poorly managed and are on the verge of collapse, let them fail. How can we as Americans learn how to grow if we don't learn how to fail? A healthy economy does include failed businesses, that is life. Instead of putting a band aid on a dying business, let the business die an honest death. It is from those failures that great things will come. I don't even recommend anymore putting "bail-out" money into the hands of the people anymore. Let's stop that garbage and just get back to good old-fashioned business with the money we have in hand. Let's stop trying to micro-manage people, assuming they are too stupid to take care of themselves.

Let's let Darwin's theory on the evolution of the species take over (aka survival of the fittest). That was how this country was founded, and that, I believe, is how we are going to pull ourselves out of this mess we all are responsible for putting ourselves in. We are all at fault for allowing incompetent politicians to ruin our country. WE voted them in, WE allowed these people to push their personal agendas, WE allowed much of this mess to happen, partly due to greed, partly due to apathy.

Hopefully we will stop being apathetic and will continue to remain active in the actions of our government. To sit at home listening to the news and shake your head in disbelief is NOT action. If you don't like where the country is heading, go out and do something about it. The people have spoken in this last mid-term election, if we expect to see change, we must continue to speak out and continue to act. We cannot become complacent again, if we do, the United States as we know it will be doomed.

The rant on my soap-box is now completed. I will continue to remain active and aware of government actions and initiatives and will do all I can to no longer be the silent majority. Hopefully many more will follow suit. Tomorrow we will be back to our more "normal" blogging, so continue to stay tuned.

Until tomorrow...

Fun Trivial Facts

OK, it's Tuesday night, but since Monday was such a rough day for me and today is mid-term elections throughout the country, I thought we could use some levity today. Welcome to our weekly installment of Fun Trivial Facts. Hopefully this will provide a nice break from all of the election coverage, and the stresses of the last two days...

Have you ever had days where you wanted to bang your head against the wall? Did you feel like that today? Banging your head off a wall uses 150 calories an hour. So, if you have had a frustrating day, and want to do bang your head against the wall, you now know how much weight you can lose while doing just that.. Sounds painful, but hey, to each their own...

Since it is election night, thought we would provide some views of useless use of money; in downtown Lima, Peru, there is a large brass statue dedicated to Winnie-the-Pooh. Perhaps there was nobody else they wanted to honor??? Actually, I think Winnie-the-Pooh has some excellent moral values to emulate...so, this may not be a bad use of public monies after all...

A warning to the "lefties" of the world - 2,500 left handers die each year using products designed for right handers....

Here is a warning to red-haired men - a red-haired man is more likely to go bald than anyone else...

Now, something to keep you awake at night... The average human will eat an average of eight spiders while sleeping. Keep in mind that an average means some people eat MORE spiders than 8, pretty yucky..

Let's have some real fun now; if you keep a goldfish in a dark room, it will eventually turn white. I thought those were albino fish, now I will have to purchase a white goldfish and see what happens.

Did you know that fish cough? Does that mean they can catch a cold too?

In case you were worried about jumping things, elephants are the only mammal that cannot jump...and I thought it was white people... (reference to a movie, not a commentary on anyone in particular)

All elephants walk on tip-toe (not because they want to sneak up on you) because the back portion of their foot is made up of all fat and no bone.

The closest relative to the manatee is the elephant. Scientists think the elephant crawled back into the sea to become a manatee. Have you looked at a manatee? I don't see any resemblance...they look more like a walrus than an elephant...see what genetic codes can do?

But, they say that elephants have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean. I don't know what I would do if I was sailing around and encountered an elephant in the water with me... definitely not give it a lift back to shore.

I would like to leave you with this tidbit (which ties into our original thought of banging your head against the wall); Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves fall off. Now, what do they do when that happens?

Hopefully you enjoyed this lighter moment in Fun Trivial Facts.

Until tomorrow when we get back to weightier topics...

Migraine

Well guys and girls... I have a migraine to die for right now. Can barely see straight, my head hurts so bad. The upshot is that if I can't get the pain managed this evening, there will be no blog, the light from the screen is hurting my eyeballs...Sorry... If the pain goes away this evening, I will finish posting the blog for today. Take care...

Halloween, Whats so great about it?

Tonight's subject is intended for fun and more trivial facts that you can bore your friends with. We celebrate Halloween in the United States every October 31st. On this day, people dress up in costumes, have parties and go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. We all hear about witches, ghosts and goblins and listen to very scary stories about ghosts and hauntings. We may even go to a "Haunted House" to get frightened by things that go bump in the dark.

The big question here is, Halloween, what is so great about it? For some, Halloween is the highlight of their year. Some people will get married on October 31 because it is Halloween. OK, so what is so great about it? What are the origins and why do we still celebrate?

Depending on where you look or who you talk to, Halloween either originated with the Christian tradition of celebrating the lives of Christian martyrs or, Halloween originated with the Celtic people of pre-medieval Europe. The word "Halloween" has its origins in the Catholic Church. The word comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve, All Hallows Day or All Saints Day. Pope Boniface IV established May 13, 609 AD as a day of celebratory remembrance for all the Church's martyrs. Pope Gregory III later changed the date of remembrance to November 1, when he dedicated the chapel in St. Peter's Basilica to "all saints", hence November 1 became All Saints Day.

If you opt for Halloween originating from Celtic tradition, the Celts divided their year into halves: the "light half" and the "dark half". The "light half" covered basically Spring and Summer, when the days were longer, and the "dark half" covered Autumn and Winter, when the days were shorter. The Celts celebrated the end of the light half of the year with a festival of "Samhain" which became a fixed date in the Julian calendar of November 1st. The name Samhain is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end". This time of year was the Celtic New Year.

One belief is that on the last day of the Celtic year, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. They believed this was their only hope for afterlife. Since the living did not want to be possessed by the dead, on the night of October 31st, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes (making the homes cold and undesirable) and then they would dress up in all types of ghoulish costumes and parade around the neighborhood, possibly trying to frighten away the spirits looking to posses them. The custom of Halloween was brought to America by the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing Ireland due to the potato famine.

The custom of trick-or-treating may have had it origins from the medieval practice of souling, when poor people would go door to door, receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day. Currently, Trick-or-Treating may carry an implied threat that if the children do not receive "Treats" (candy), they would perform a "trick" or some kind of mischief to the homeowner or on the home owner's property. The practice of Trick-or-treating does not appear to have become very popular until the 1930's.

Halloween costumes traditionally are of ghosts, witches, ghouls, goblins, or skeletons - basically supernatural figures. Over time, the types of costumes extended to include popular fictional and real characters, or the alter-ego of the person creating the costume. Modern costumes worn by today's trick-or-treaters are now intended for entertainment and amusement. Sometimes they scare neighbors and often compete with others for the most original, scary, ugly, funny, or pretty costume.

Overall, Halloween is a time that reconfirms the social bond of a neighborhood (because you walk from door to door visiting your neighbors) and allows you to interact with strangers which you may not have opted to do on a "normal" day. The real value in Halloween comes not necessarily from winning a costume contest, but from interchange with strangers and neighbors, thus exorcising our fear of strangers, and reaffirms our social bonds with the people in our neighborhood. This time of year may be the only time we actually go around and talk to all of our neighbors.

So, enjoy your Halloween evening and have fun reconnecting and possibly frightening people this Halloween.

Until tomorrow...

Sick Bird Update

Well, bet you were wondering what topic we were going to cover...it isn't what I had planned for tonight, so you are going to have to wait another day or so... It has been a little challenging around here and got a little more challenging this evening. As you may remember, I had a sick bird on my hands. She had a pretty major stroke the beginning of September and lost the use of her feet (She is a Double-Yellow Head Amazon Parrot). Brings to mind the Monty Python jokes about the Parrot...but we won't go there tonight. Tonight is the Sick Bird Update.

Anyway, the bird still doesn't have the use of her feet, one is curled up, the other is open out, but there is blood flow to the feet, her toe nails have been growing at an amazing rate. I have been giving her our Stem cell enhancer products to hopefully help her to recover, and she is finally putting weight back on. So the good news is that my bird is ever so slowly healing, still can't walk, just pulls herself around. Her attitude is good, and with a parrot, you can tell a good attitude from a bad one. She sings, and does a little dance with her head (it used to be a whole body dance, but under the circumstances, all she can do is move her head around like Stevie Wonder...) and she is eating everything that is put in front of her.

The downside is that her toenails are growing at an amazing rate. The problem with that is that I have been keeping terry towels in her cage, so she has something clean and soft to move around on. Because her toenails have been growing, she is starting to get the nails tangled in the terry nap of the towels. I have been stalling cutting her nails because I wanted her to get just a little bit stronger before I stress her out cutting nails. (I don't know any animal that LIKES it's nails trimmed). Last thing I want to do is to stress her out and literally give her a heart attack. Anyway, since her nails are now so long, she is getting tangled quite a bit.

Tonight, when I come home, I first notice that there is dark stuff on her foot. Initially I thought she got poop on her foot, then I noticed her one toe nail is twisted at an odd angle. Taking a closer look at her foot, that dark stuff was not poo, but some blood (not much thankfully). So, in the sink she goes for her bath (she hates it because she sits in the water instead of having it sprinkled - I need to soak her butt for obvious reasons...) and I soak her foot as clean as I can.

What appears to have happened while I was gone was that since she cannot feel her feet, she somehow got her toenail tangled in the towel and practically ripped the whole nail out of her foot. Makes you kinda cringe...makes me still pucker... So I have spent most of this evening trying to get the bird cleaned up and somehow protect that toe from further damage. I have also removed all terry towels from her cage and have now covered it in newspaper and shredded newspaper. It is dirtier for her, but she won't get her nails stuck anymore...hopefully.

Usually a bath really tires her out, so at least she wasn't moving around too much. The problem is now that the nail is so damaged and loose, any movement whatsoever is causing her some bleeding. She does not appear to notice, which is good news, but I don't want her banging that toe around any more than necessary. So, out came the gauze pads and tape, and the Bitter Apple (a spray-on product that tastes bad so the birds won't chew what is sprayed). I managed to wrap a sort of bandage around her one toe (am considering wrapping both toes together next time...very hard to wrap one toe of a bird..) and tape it on tight enough that it won't fall off.

So far, so good, she is sitting in the cage with the big white bandage over one toe. She has not YET chewed on the bandage, which was sprayed liberally with Bitter Apple, so hopefully tomorrow she will continue to leave that bandage alone. I immobilized the whole toe and nail, hoping that it will do what it needs to do, either fall off naturally, or heal back to the toe.... She will be getting a stronger dose of our stem cell enhancer product so that her body has more adult stem cells wandering around to help her body to renew itself... and hopefully she will do a lot of resting tomorrow.

The upshot of this diatribe is that I did not get all my research completed for my "other" much-anticipated blog topic, so you will all have to wait a tad longer. With luck, the bird will be hale and hardy within the next few days (she gets really tired for about 2 days after a bath) so she should be able to spend the time healing and not picking at her bandage. I will let you know how things fare down the road... So goes our sick bird update... I think I should have been a vet...

Until tomorrow...