Korean word count

Posted 5 Mar 2010

Daily Life, Language, Weird | 4 Comments 

Working on an article for a guest blog post that I was asked to submit, I had just about completed a first draft. Thinking to check my word count, I called up the word count tool in Microsoft Word. What I saw rather surprised me.

The default language was set to UK English. So, why did the good people at Microsoft think to advise me of the non-Koreans words? Why would I want to know the number of Asian characters in Korean words?

Fishing sure is fun!

Posted 20 Jan 2010

Guest Post, Places, Signs, Weird | 2 Comments 

One of our loyal readers from the US was recently on a trip way on down south, all the way to New Zealand! Upon returning to the northern hemisphere, she sent over a photo of a fishing shop that that she encountered.

Now we like holding poles over water and trying to entice fish to have a little something to eat, but we’re inclined to agreed with our reader that Stu’s fishing experience is a bit much.

What say you? How much fun do you have while fishing?

As a reminder, you’re all invited to submit quirky observations from your daily life to chickenmonkeydog [at] gmail [dot] com.

Finding your inner voice (annoying?)

Posted 14 Jan 2010

Daily Life, People, Weird | 6 Comments 

I think it’s pretty universal that each of us “hears” our own voice differently than it actually sounds to other people.  If you ever have heard a recorded version of your voice, I am sure you’re familiar with this phenomenon.

Personally I much prefer the sound of my “inner voice” than the voice I hear when I’m recorded.

Does anyone prefer the voice they here on recording over the voice they hear in their heads?

Does anyone else find it annoying that the two sound different?

Not for humans

Posted 11 Jan 2010

Signs, Weird | 5 Comments 

I found some sort of compound recently, the packaging for which confounded me. Take a look at the picture below.

The plastic tub contained 99.9% pure dimethyl sulfoxide. A quick check of Wikipedia (i.e., the new Encyclopedia Britannica) reveals that dimethyl sulfoxide is some nasty stuff.

Intrigued by the deadly-sounding name — as most things containing sulfur are not overly healthy for humans — I spun the tub around to investigate further.

Whoa! The warning reads: MAY BE UNSAFE. Not approved for human use.

Yet, having studied the Wikipedia page briefly, I am not sure that I want my neighbor’s dog using this stuff either! Who or what is approved to use this compound?

A note about purity

No, no, silly this isn’t a religious blog. Not that purity.

Take another look at the top photo, paying attention to where the front label says ‘99.9% pure DMSO‘. Ok. Done that? Now look at the picture below and see if you can spot a discrepancy.

That’s right! The back label reads Active ingredients: dimethyl sulfoxide 90%. How does that become 99.9% pure?

Stone age basketball

Posted 7 Dec 2009

Daily Life, People, Weird | 3 Comments 

Game rules: (1) Find a 200 ft spire; (2) Pick a nice, round 1000 lb. boulder; (3) Then shoot!

Whoever lands it on the top, scores 10 points (I was going to say 1,000 points but I’m not sure that stone age humans could count beyond their fingers).

However, whoever misses, will suffer a crushing defeat.