Sherry Chandler

A little late for this, I guess, but it’s still officially the Fourth-of-July weekend so why not try your knowledge — How many Presidents can you name in ten minutes?:

Link via I See Invisible People.

I got a paltry 32 — which would have been a D when I was going to school. Sheesh.

Predictably perhaps, my lacunae were in the 19th Century. I got all the 18th Century founders, up through Jackson, and all the 20th Century, and those Presidents around the Civil War, but early 19th century and late 19th century, nothing. But then my memory of American history is that we sort of skimmed between Jackson and Buchanan.

Click here (with your mouse) to find out.

Once there, mouse over the circle and the secret will be revealed.

Thanks again to Donna Marder.

The birthday calculator tells you more than you ever want to know about your birthday.

Like, for example:

Your date of conception was on or about 25 May 1944 which was a Thursday.

You were born on a Thursday
under the astrological sign Aquarius.
Your Life path number is 9.

(The Life Path 9 suggests that you entered this plane with an abundance of dramatic feelings coupled with a strong sense of compassion and generosity. The key to the nature of a Life Path number 9 person is found in their humanitarian attitude. Even the very average of those with life path 9 possess extremely compassionate tendencies.)

You were born in the Chinese year of the Rooster.

Your birthstone is Amethyst
Amethyst is used to increase spiritually

Your birth tree is Cedar, the Confidence
Of rare beauty, knows how to adapt, likes luxury, of good health not in the least shy, tends to look down on others, self-confident, determined, impatient, wants to impress others, many talents, industrious, healthy, optimism, waiting for the one true love, able to make quick decisions.

There are 256 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 63 candles.

Those 63 candles produce 63 BTUs,
or 15,876 calories of heat (that’s only 15.8760 food Calories!) .
You can boil 7.20 US ounces of water with that many candles.*

The moon’s phase on the day you were
born was waxing crescent.

Thanks (I think) to Terry for the link.

*They don’t say how long it would take to boil a glass of water with 63 candles.

H/T to Elaine.

Well, poets paint pictures in words and sometimes that’s called ekphasis. And then there’s visual poetry. And now there’s textorizing. That’s my textorized portrait below:

You can try this at home with the web interface but you have to have a photo posted to a web page. Or you can download the software. Visit the flickr group for more examples.

I found the link at Poesy Galore.

Remember those U.S. map puzzles when you were a kid? How well do you know the map of the U.S. now?

Try this Map Challenge.

I surprised myself by scoring 82% with an average error of only 35 miles. I mean, you try placing Indiana on an utterly blank U.S. map and see how close you get. (At least the states are identified for you. I’m not sure I could tell Colorado from Wyoming otherwise.) I’m pretty good with the Southeast and the Midwest, the states along the Ohio and Mississippi. The Southwest is easy. It’s the plains and all the fiddly bits of New England that throw me.

It took me just under 12 minutes to do the test. I found the link at Political Wire.

Some Flash fun for your Monday morning before Christmas. Click on the image. Courtesy of Donna.

Christmas Elf Name My Christmas Elf Name is Get your Christmas Elf Name at JokesUnlimited.com

Perky??

Link from Billie’s Thirty Days of Christmas.

Sheesh! Here I am heading into my Year of Irresponsibility and I find out I’m an exe file.

Give me a break.

Which File Extension are You?

H/T to I See Invisible People, who is a gif with ambitions to be a zip. I’d settle for gif. Jesu, how boring I am.

Life is Short

Thanks to Charlie for the heads up.