Awh, More Sunsets...

Snapped these pictures on the way home from the fire station. A little late for the photo challenge, but thought I would share them here .




Rule #1: Always take a camera with you!

Lack of Human Foresight!

I am sure you are all aware of the latest warning about cell phone usage causing brain cancer, but for those who haven't heard, yeah talking on the cell phone might increase your chances of brain cancer. Your increased chance hinges on you actually possessing the organ that houses thought processes and memory, so I am sure some of you will be ok and have nothing to worry about; but for the rest of us...

My concern at this point, since I am a hard headed Norwegian will I be okay? Does the extra thickness to my brain protector help shield it from the radiation that will eventually lead to the demise of my brain cells? Such things to consider and to research, along with if the radiation from the phone causes brain cancer, wouldn't it also cause skin cancer and cancer of the ear? If I remember my physics correctly radiation diminishes with at least the square of the radius, and maybe more like the quartic or the radius with some dependence on material density.

So whatever, I will take these 'experts opinion' and start to worry about this negative radiation coming off my cell phone, but I have a lot of questions. How does the radiation vary between talking and standby operation of the phone? Does wrapping the phone in aluminum foil ruin its reception? Should I wrap the side of my head in aluminum foil? What kind of radiation concerns should I have about this new fangled bluetooth headset? Should I resort to smoke signals and start to worry about lung cancer?

As you can see, I am very confused by all this opinion that has hit the news; so difficult to just take the opinion of someone who has less education than I do and accept it as being factual. Any person who has enough education realizes that there are no hard facts in the real world, just statistical probabilities of occurrences. Giving the experts the benefit of research, if having the phone next to your ear is bad for your brain, I would assume that any body part that is located close to the phone would also have an increased probability of some form of cancer. With that in mind, gentlemen where is you phone when using your bluetooth or waiting for a phone call? Your front pocket? Are you wearing lead lined boxers? I checked at Target and it seems they no longer carry boxers with the option lead lining, so I have been unable to find any. Now ladies, where do you store your phone? How often do you let the kids talk on a cell phone?

I leave you all to contemplate your usage and storage of your suspected cancer causing device...Until next week...

Why my blog doesn't work?

Have you ever had that awful experience of you blog links no longer working? The frustrating experience of trying to correct the things that have broken; trying to undo that change that made your blog a waste of Electrons. Well, lets get down to the root of the problem.

The problem is the 'edit html' button. Sounds so simple, but it is true. This little button allows everyone to dabble in places that they shouldn't be putting their fingers. Inside the land of html is a collection of <, > ,/ , {, } , ; and other special characters that have a VERY strong relationship with each other. Meddling in their relationships can quickly lead to complete chaos on your blog. The edit HTML button is like the door to a wood shop, a place where awesome works of art are created but exist a collection of tools that would just as soon lop a finger off as carve against the grain.

Why does this button exist? It is there so we can add cool effects and gadgets to our blogs. We can add bits of JavaScript and CSS expressions that make very interesting things happen. Awesome graphical backgrounds can be added to show case your ideas and opinions. So while some dabbling in this complex language will produce awesome results, others keystrokes will result in a mutiny.

When you find yourself on the receiving end of this programming uprising, here are a couple of hints. Undo what you did, to cause this political coup; unlike people computers are quick to forget that offensive misspelling. If you are unable to undo what you did either because you can't remember or don't know, change your blog layout back to one of the plain ol' layouts provided by your blog site. That should fix most offenses, but should that not work you might be in need of a 'html' relations expert.

Html counseling is available at a coffee shop near you...rates will vary but I tend to charge fuel (caffeine and gasoline) and a sense of humor to counsel and encourage the html relationships behind the scenes in your blog...

About time for another one of these...

This is probably the best thing to ever come out of my oven, well at least in my own mind. For those who trust my sense in the kitchen, here is my method of making banana bread.

Buy a bunch of bananas and forget to eat four of them, let them sit around on the counter until they have a nice set of brown freckles then freeze them for at least a week. Now that you have decided to make banana bread, thaw out the brown frozen bananas (should still be four unless someone in your house likes monkey tails). I have found putting the frozen bananas in water until the outside of the banana starts to thaw really helps them peel better, other wise just slice the end and squeeze out the banana guts. A very technical approach I know, but I have found this makes the bread taste better than fresh bananas.

Cream 1/2 C Brown sugar, 1/2 C Sugar and 1/2 C softened butter together. Add 2 well beaten eggs to the mix. Add 1 tsp Baking Soda, pinch of salt, dash of nutmeg, splash of almond flavoring and 4 tbsp butter milk and blend together. Mash the four bananas together and add to the rest of the batter. Work in 2 cups of flour. Pour into greased glass loaf pans (makes 2 small or one big loaf) and bake for an hour in a slow oven.

Of course, some of you might insist on adding nuts to your banana bread, but I am more likely to add a nut flour or flavoring than chopped nuts. And just for all you kitchen folk...

Banana Bread

1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/2 C Sugar
2 Eggs
4 Tbsp Buttermilk
4 extremely ripe previously frozen bananas
1 tsp Soda
2 C Flour
1 c Walnuts (typically omitted by me)
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Nutmeg
Splash of Almond Flavoring

Cream sugars and softened butter together. Add well beaten eggs to the mix. Add Baking Soda, salt, nutmeg, almond flavoring and butter milk and blend together. Mash the four bananas together and add to the rest of the batter. Work in flour. Pour into greased glass loaf pans (makes 2 small or one big loaf) and bake for an hour at 350°F .

Adapted from Orginal recipe belonging to Grandma Hoversland © C Thrasher 2008