Blazing Potential

Year of the Dragon

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:42:52 +0000

Has it been twelve years already? Yes, it has — and that means that once again it is time for the world to welcome the Chinese lunar New Year — the Year of the Dragon. The Chinese lunisolar cycle contains twelve signs, each named after an animal. The animals of the 12 year cycle are chosen based on certain characteristics they are known to possess, and each year is believed to be governed to some extent by the astrological elements associated with each animal. The last Chinese year was called the Year of the Rabbit. This year, the Rabbit is replaced with the mighty Dragon. You can visit a Chinese restaurant almost anywhere and find your Chinese astrological sign (based on the year you were born into) on most of the disposable paper placemats available there. Are you a Dragon?

Here is a video that shows you more about the meaning of the sign of the Dragon, and what it holds for the upcoming year. Enjoy, and celebrate!

Things You Didn’t Know About Sleep

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:33:57 +0000

Want to know some off the wall facts about sleep? There are plenty of them to discover, and most of them are things you didn’t know before. For instance, did you realize that if you sleep in what is known as the “starfish” position, you tend to be a good listener and people will be attracted to you and seek you out for advice during difficult times. They also say that people accidentally ingest an alarming number of spiders during sleep — ICK. And there are other fantastic facts about sleep that you might find incredibly interesting.

There are a few other positions people tend to sleep in, and according to this infographic, the way you sleep has a lot to say about your personality. What can you learn about yourself by studying what happens during sleep? Plenty. For instance, a lot has to do with your dreams. People who dream in color outnumber people who claim that they do not. It was once believed that no one dreamed in color, but we now know that this is simply untrue. Also, people who do not dream are likely to have personality disorders. When you sleep it truly recharges your brain and helps your body to rebuild cells as you rest.

Walmart

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:11:50 +0000

Who doesn’t love Walmart? You see everyone that you know there, and a few people that you really wish you hadn’t! When you are looking for something, the first place you think to look is the shelves of your neighborhood Walmart.

Walmart is famous for there slogan of “lowest price guaranteed”. With a slogan like that, who wouldn’t choose to shop there over other stores? But once you get to the store is it really as great of a deal as it seemed? While there are many obvious advantages to the Walmart cooperation there are an equal or even greater amount of negatives that go along with Walmart.

I have always heard that things are not always as they appear, but I wasn’t expecting the facts about Walmart to be so shocking. The numbers of people, money, resources, and other things that go into making Walmarts all over the nation operate smoothly.

Walmart has become almost an american symbol, it’s commercials are gracing every TV and an over-sized building around every corner. You can find a lot of diversity in styles, tastes, foods, items, and people inside the big box we all call Walmart.

Check out what damage is being done by our seemingly harmless neighborhood super store.

Fear

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 01:43:35 +0000

Fear, it’s a tricky thing. There are many things that are associated with fear that aren’t good. Like when you are in danger your fear kicks in to help you find the fastest way out of that situation. Sometimes fear can be a good thing. When you are in a real dangerous situation fear can help you make smart choices that will steer you away from getting into trouble, or hurting yourself. Although fear is something that we can’t help, many people place themselves in scary situations for pleasure. Why do people do this? This infographic tells you what happens when your body is scared. There are a number of steps that naturally happen when you are scared that help you deal with that situation to the best of your ability. Most of the time when this happens it’s not because you are in real danger. Millions of people enjoy the adrenaline rush from being scared because they know that there is no real danger associated with what they are doing. Things like roller coasters, horror movies, and skydiving are just a few of the things that people do to activate these fear reactors. Do you like to be scared? Or do you like to play it safe?

Survive a Zombie Attack

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:43:34 +0000

Halloween was just yesterday, but I am a lover of Hispanic culture and today is El Dio De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). It is more a celebration of those who have passed away, but there are still some spooky traditions that correlate with the event. I love spooky holidays so the end of October and beginning of November is my favorite time. One reason I am hooked to the Halloween and Halloween-like holidays is because zombies are practically my favorite creepy creatures.

Brain-eating, flesh-eating and back from the dead zombies are scary and contagious. They seem to be growing more and more in popularity. Surviving a zombie attack is something that many people are not even aware that you can do, but you definitely can survive it. You have to be familiar with the varieties of zombies that you might be facing, of course. Then you will need to make sure that you have all of the necessary supplies on hand so you will be prepared at any time to face off against a zombie attack.

The infographic that I found gives you a guide to surviving a zombie attack, complete with types of zombies, the route of a zombie infection, and the tools and things that you might need in the event of a zombie takeover like tape, scissors, legal herbs, and medications. Good luck out there!

Big Mac Attack

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:52:35 +0000

It is time for me to admit it, I suppose. I have a true love and obsession with the Big Mac sandwich from McDonald’s. It happened over ten years ago when I first took a bite of the delectable greasy goodness that is the Big Mac. For the last year though I have been staying away from fast food all around though, so I have not enjoyed any all beef patties or special sauce for so long. Sadly, my mouth still waters at the thought of a Big Mac. I am not sure if I will ever get over my love for the sandwich, but I have found ways to resist the temptation. Mainly I think of the around 560 calories that it is made up of and that seems to help. Look at the infographic below to see more nutritional facts and information about McDonald’s beloved Big Mac.

If you still aren’t turned off by the 1,007 milligrams of sodium or the fact that 50% of it is fat, then I say go for it! You enjoy your Big Mac. Now if you are a glutton like I used to be, then just keep on and see what will happen. I bet after awhile a 120 minute bike ride would be enough to cause severe chest pains. So, enjoy your Big Macs in moderation, you don’t want to have to call moving company Los Angeles or your hometown to get you out of bed each day.

World’s Funniest Twitter Parodies

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:47:47 +0000

From our good friends at Mashable.com comes a page of assembled “literary Twitter parodies.” These are spectacular and entertaining for several reasons: one, they all represent personalities who have long since departed the land of the living; two, they are all famous; and three, the people behind these fake Twitter accounts all seems to have an above average knowledge of the people they are playing at, and outstanding wit. When you bring these elements together in one place, you are bound to get some very entertaining results, like the following:

Dish2u brings you the best satellite television package deals, so you can learn more about these legendary writers, and almost any other subject you are interested in. Find out today about packages available to you.

Teen Lingo

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:55:00 +0000

Parents these days are no fools but with the new lingo that teenagers are using it’s almost impossible to understand unless you have been given a teen dictionary, and even then the new acronyms, abbreviations, and slang are always changing. Maybe they do that on purpose, as soon as adults catch up it seems like they are already 5 steps ahead in creating new thing for them to attempt to uncover.
If you are a concerned parent or if you just want to be able to decode things that your child says directly to you here is come help in understanding the lingo that teenagers and young adults use today. The new language that they have created through misspellings and abbreviations is most commonly used over text messages, IM, and social networking like Facebook and Twitter. With so many new gadgets that keep teens in touch, more families are installing security systems at home.
Communication has advanced so dramatically since adults were these kids age that it is hard to understand how they can type so fast, and they text instead of talk on the phone. It’s mind blowing to see how many things these kids can do at the same time! Some of them can sit there and watch tv, listen to music, text, IM or chat, look through home security companies and do some math problems along the way. If an adult especially a middle aged adult was put into this situation there is a very small chance that they would be able to keep up with all of the things surrounding them much less be able to complete and remember what they were doing.
Their is both good and bad parts about teens having their own language. The good thing is communication connects them all and everyone is on similar terms, things are communicated and passed faster and new technology to make communication even easier is likely to be produced at a faster rate. The bad news is teenagers have much less patience that adults and older people who are used to waiting for things. In the world that today’s teenagers are growing up in everything is instant. This can create problems with focus and accomplishing things that you have to wait for.

Lingo

ADN- any day now

AFAIK- as far as I know

AML- all my love

ATM- at the moment

B4- before

BBS- be back soon

BC- because or be cool

BFN- bye for now

BITMT- but in the mean time

BRB- be right back

BS- big smile or bull s***

BST- but seriously though

BTW- by the way

BISLY- but I still love you

WRT- with respect to

IMO- in my opinion

IMHO- in my humble opinion

FWIW- for what it’s worth

HMU- hit me up

OTOH- on the other hand

TTYL- talk to you later

TTFN- ta ta for now

These are just a few of the commonly used terms for teenagers. You shouldn’t be surprised when you hear these. But I’m sure your youth will be surprised when you understand them!

The Lingo- Part I

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:54:10 +0000

With people now a days you can’t tell what in the world they are talking about! With all these made up words and things that you can’t understand. Not to mention the normal abbreviations for things that I have to remember too. If your falling into the same trap as many others here is your helpful guide to all the latest lingo as well as informational acronyms.

Acronyms A-E

2D- two deminsional

3D- three deminsional

4GL- fourth generation language

4H- heart, hands, health, head

A- aftermath

AA- alcoholics anonymous, affirmative action committee, antiaircraft artillery, associates in accounting

AAA- american automobile association

AARP- american association of retired people

AAVSO- american association of variable star observers

ABA- american bar association, american basketball association, american booksellers association

ABC- american broadcasting company, alcoholic beverage company

AF- adventures in fantasy, air force, audio frequency

AFB- air force base

AOL- absent over leave

API- application programming interface

ATC- air traffic control

AT- Atlantic time

AV- audio visual

BB- bases on balls, best of breed, bunnies and burrows

BBB- better business beauro

BC- battle cars, before Christ, British Columbia

BH- black hole, boot hill

BEM- bug eyed monster

CA- California, chartered accountant, chief accountant, chronological age, collision avoidance

CC- carbon copy

CCC- command control communications, civil conservation corps, Canadian committee on cataloging

CD- carrier detect, collision detection, compact disk,

CDU- control display unit

CEO- chief executive officer

CG- commanding general, coast guard

CH- cardboard heroes, clearing house, court house, customs house

CI- cubic inches

CIA- central intelligence agency, culinary institute of america

CID- caller id, central institute for the deaf, charge injection device, computer integrated design

CO- cash order, central office, Colorado, commanding officer

CP- campus police, Canadian pacific, chemically pure, command post, command processor, copy, Canadian press

DD- dare devils, data directory, days after date, demand draft, dishonorable discharge, disk drive

DDS- dataphone digital service, digital data service, doctor of dental science, doctor of dental surgery

DMV- department of motor vehicles

DNA- DeoxyriboNucleic acid

DOA- dead on arival

DOB- date of birth

DOD- department of defense

DOS- disk operating system

DOT- department of transportation

DOY- day of year

DP- data processing, dial pulse, displaced person, display post script, double penetration, double play, draft proposal

DPI- dots per inch

DQL- database query language

DRAM- dynamic random access memory

DS- died single, double sided, draft standard

DUI- driving under the influence

DVM- digital volt meter, doctor of veterinary medicine

DWI- died without issue, driving while intoxicated

DWIM- what do I mean

DX- distance

These are just a few of the abreviations that you see in everyday life. It’s easy to glance over them and not realize their true meaning or take the time to figure them out. Keep in mind that these abbreviations are strictly government, space, medical, and widely known. They don’t include the short messaging abbreviations that have been created by our youth.

Humor for Humor’s Sake

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:08:18 +0000

There are degrees of humor or at the risk of being redundant, levels of humor. The more popular type of humor is called slapstick humor. A pie in the face is supposed to be humorous. To slip on a banana peel is said to be humor. Slapstick humor is probably the lowest level of humor since it requires limited intellect to arouse the emotion of laughter which is what humor is supposed to do. However, if we look at the word “humor” the etiology of which is biological affect on the emotions often implied implicitly as melancholia, we can perhaps eliminate slapstick from humor, proper. What is humor?

From an entirely different viewpoint than slapstick, we have the humor of the absurd. A woman appears in formal society dress to the hilts but from an obviously disadvantaged class. In that example, the humor is enjoyed only by those who are not made to feel uncomfortable. If humor meant or accidental causes someone to feel uncomfortable, it is really not humor but offensive. There are some examples of comedians who deliberately target wealthy and powerful people as humor. Although meant as humorous, the anecdotes are really amusing and one feels empathy for the target. That is what is usually called laughing with you and not at you. That humor is meant to be subtle propaganda to actually encourage people to side with the target.

People are gullible. They can also be there worst enemies. Humor is a powerful tool in the hands of expert political propagandist. Another type of humor is called back stabbing or being pecked to death in normal society. In humor it is called ridicule. Using ridicule in humor is the current type of humor and is causing some antagonism since it is blatantly offensive. The comedienne in proper humor targets himself, his family, his friends, his peers only if he doesn’t need them anymore. The comedian who uses ridicule is offensive and deliberately so. The offensive humor is not tolerated for long and the comedian soon finds another job as a pickpocket.

One can see the evolution of humor as growing from tickling a person to make them laugh to putting a penguin in place of a groom on a wedding cake. Humor works when the audience or the person who is being amused joins in with the comedian and feels empathy, hopefully not sympathy. Even if the comedian falls flat on his face, his audience won’t ask for his head at the guillotine or kick him out of Las Vegas. Sophisticated humor can be read in the fables of Aesop as the fox laughs all the way to the grapes that the raging crows are flinging upon him. Perhaps, humor has not really evolved. There have been documented stories of slapstick humor, satire disguised as political rhetoric and Lady Godiva riding nude through town. Of course, her hair covered her didn’t it. Seems that humor is still relegated to the spleen. If one laughs oneself sick, one’s spleen might burst and one might laugh oneself to death. But, is that really humor or reverse ridicule?