Blogging-related quizzes

It is 8:30 in the morning and I'm still waiting for Todd to wake up. He awoke in the middle of the night, hungry, so Daddy gave him some milk so he could settle back down to sleep. I guess he'll be going in to school a bit late today. Meantime, I'm killing a bit of time on here.

It is really too bad that the RSS feeds Myspace provides for its blogs don't include the full content of the posts. It's the one thing I find lacking on Myspace blogs (aside from the fact that there aren't enough categories and you can't create your own)-- other than that, I still find them the perfect venue, not the least of which is because most of my readers are on here.

Why is this relevant? Because now that I primarily blog here, the Myspace feed would've been the perfect thing to feed into this quiz I spied on a friend's LiveJournal while catching up with all her entries:

The Blogalyser reveals...

Your blog/web page text has an overall readability index of 13.
This suggests that your writing style is conventional
(to communicate well you should aim for a figure between 10 and 20).
Your blog has 27 sentences per entry, which suggests your general message is distinguished by verbosity
(writing for the web should be concise).

CHARACTER MATRIX...>..>..> ..>

male		female
self		world
past		future

Your text shows characteristics which are 55% male and 45% female
(for more information see the Gender Genie).
Looking at pronoun indicators, you write mainly about yourself, then the world in general and finally your social circle. Also, your writing focuses primarily on the present, next the past and lastly the future.
Find out what your blogging style is like!

I input my Grab blog's RSS feed, and even though it's out of date, it does encompass my posts in their entirety, giving a more accurate reflection (I hope!) of my blogging style. I had to laugh at the part where they suggest I'm prone to verbosity-- truer words were never spoken! As Lilly can attest so, brevity is not my friend. I could probably learn a thing or two from her, right, Lilly? ;-)

There was an accompanying quiz, where I HAD to input my LJ user ID, and since I haven't blogged on there in ages, it's probably not the most accurate. Oh well, quizzes are never meant to be 100% accurate anyway, right? Here goes:


So, hellykwee, your LiveJournal reveals...



You are... 0% unique and 68% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy tennis). When it comes to friends you are lonely. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are keen to please. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is conventional.

Your overall weirdness is: 12

(The average level of weirdness is: 28.
You are weirder than 20% of other LJers.)

Find out what your weirdness level is!

Hmm, odd that I didn't score higher on the weirdness index. Considering who I married and all that ;-) So I will take this as a compliment :-D

How about you? What's your blogging style and weirdness factor?

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/361944919)

Easter Birthday

Once-in-a-lifetime events are neat. Like Haley's comet. Even neater are the events that are so rare they don't even occur once in EVERY lifetime.

I don't know about you, but I typically associate Easter with the very beginning of April. I have a friend whose birthday is on April 8, and it falls on Easter every several years. Just like our celebration of Todd's birthday will often occur on Memorial Day weekend, when his actual birthday doesn't fall on a weekend itself. This year, Easter will be a little different.

You see, there's Allan-- born March 23, right on the cusp between Pisces and Aries. Outside the family, it's usually just another ordinary day. Not this year. This year, his birthday falls on Easter. And how rare is such an occurrence? Well, this is a snippet from an email his mom sent:

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).

Naturally, that brings to mind all sorts of creative ideas for a dual celebration. Or, well, it should, if you're creative-minded. And I'm usually not. Maybe an egg-shaped cake (if such a thing can be found in bakeries)? Definitely the usual Easter-egg hunt for Toddy :-) Any other ideas for an Easter birthday? C'mon, let's hear 'em!

What's in a name?

Not much to it... a random question, whether simple or thought-provoking, is posed, giving you something to write about on days when you fail to be inspired by original material.

I logged into my LJ for the first time in a looooong time, and browsed through some of the questions. I came across this little one that I thought would be fun to answer:

How have people pronounced your name? How is it supposed to sound?

It's funny, isn't it? The name "Kelly" is actually quite common, people have no trouble pronouncing it correctly, and yet swap out one measly letter to make "Helly" and all of a sudden nobody can pronounce it.

The 2 most common mispronunciations of my name?
"Hee-ly"
and
"Hay-ly"

Every once in a while I get "Hal-ly" (as in Halle Berry)

Equally often? I get called Kelly, Holly, or Helen.

Then there is my last name. Y'know, neither of my names should be that hard to pronounce. Just look at the letters that spell them, and enunciate accordingly. "Kwee" should sound the way it is spelled (like "queen" without the ending "n").

But I've frequently gotten "Kee", "Kiwi" (my nickname as a cadet was "Kiwi"-- since everyone in the Army goes by last names), "Knee" (!!!) and everything else you could possibly imagine-- mostly garbled mumblings as people struggle to make sense of the 4 letters printed on the sheet before them.

My favorite comes from a classmate of mine, who studied the "Helly Kwee" I'd written on one of our lab writeups to turn in. She remarked:
"That makes my eyes cross. It looks like it should be 'Kelly Hwee' instead!"
Sadly... she wasn't the only to one to say it, as I've gotten that same remark a few times in the years following.

As a bit of a digression-- Allan has a different problem: not pronunciation, but spelling. Since he uses the less-common British spelling, most people assume his name is spelled "Alan" or even "Allen".
Surprisingly, the same befalls Todd: a lot of people think it's spelled with only one "d": Tod. Which is unnerving because "Tod" means "death" in German! O.O

How about you? Any interesting stories about common manglings of your name?

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/360373473)

Warning: Powerful speakers cause false alarms

A few years back we rummaged through a garage sale and came across a little stereo system. It had a 3-CD changer which was broken, but the radio and cassette player portions worked fine. Its price tag? $5. Not bad, considering we did need a cassette player, but it seemed a bit large and unwieldy just for that. Allan, however, noticed something else: the nice Bose speakers attached, good quality ones which would easily have been worth over $100 retail. So we bought it, and then promptly put it in the corner to collect dust for the next few years ;-P

Since Todd moved back in with us temporarily last month, we had to rearrange the bedroom a bit to make room for his extra items. So, I moved the stereo to the nightstand on Todd's side of the bed, figuring I could play classical music cassette tapes for him to listen to as he drifted off to sleep at night. That worked well... until the following weekend, when it came time to vacuum the bedroom, and the large speakers sitting on the floor proved yet again unwieldy.

This weekend, Allan hit upon the perfect solution. He has long owned one of those fancy-schmancy sound systems with the big subwoofer and all those little speakers you can scatter around your living room, creating the perfect surround-sound experience, yadda yadda yadda... Well, he swapped out two of the little speakers for the two Boses from the garage sale, and voila! Problem solved! Except... now there was the matter of where to put the big Bose speakers with respect to our tiny living room's entertainment center (keep in mind our entire apartment is maybe 800 sq. ft total, so "big and unwieldy" is a relative term). Allan discovered that they fit perfectly on the TV stand behind the TV itself. Proud of himself, he flopped down on the futon and settled down to watch a movie, trying out the new speaker hookup for a test drive.

Things sounded great! And heck-- if you were a blind person you would never have noticed the next mishap-- odd color effects on the TV screen.

"Oh crud", thought Allan, "the TV's finally going out". His next thought was one of glee: "Yay, that means we can get the big flat-screen monitor!" Fortunately for our bank account (and for his physical well-being), he wisely decided to investigate and see if he could fix the problem first. Sure enough, what do you suppose the cause was? The strong magnetic force of the speakers was distorting the TV colors! He put the speakers back down on the floor, the TV returned to normal, and he shook his head sadly-- gone was the excuse to get a nice, big flat-screen monitor :-P

(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/359604236)

Valentine's Day

I don't feel very strongly about Valentine's Day, which seems to put me in a strange minority, as a lot of folks seem to be either loving it up or adamantly against it. Both camps have their points. I agree with those who dislike how commercialized it has become-- though that is also true of any holiday these days. At the same time, I don't buy into the "you should show her you love her more often than once a year" argument because if you think about it, that sort of "special attention" holds true at birthdays, anniversaries... and those come but once a year as well, and nobody lambasts such celebrations. Besides, if you shower your loved one with that kind of affection too frequently, the effect kind of wears of. Sort of like building up tolerance...

Anyway, our Valentine's Day was pretty low-key. We were so busy that we both forgot about it, until I dropped Todd off at school yesterday morning and noticed that all the othere parents were bringing their kids in with cards to hand out to their classmates! Eep! I felt bad that Todd didn't have anything for his friends, but looks like almost every kid brought something. Here is his little cache of Valentine cards:



At work, we got cupcakes! And in each person's mailbox was a little tin filled with "motivational" M&Ms. I guess they served a dual purpose: remind employees of the company's mission (the tins were labeled with "Connecting people like never before with fearless innovation and flawless tools") and give them a little Valentine's Day treat, as the candy was colored red, white, and beige. You can see the words "fearless" and "flawless" stamped on the back of each M&M:



As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I've been in training all week, which adds a bit of variable flexibility to my schedule. Yesterday we managed to finish ahead of schedule, which allowed Allan and me to pick up Todd together. He didn't seem too fazed at the sight of BOTH of us there, surprisingly. I was expecting him to say "Why are TWO of you picking me up?". Anyhoo, we trooped straight to IHOP from school, enjoying a nice little family dinner in honor of Valentine's Day :-) Nothing quite like breakfast for dinner, and then sharing some chocolate chip pancakes with my son for dessert! :-9

So... not the most sweepingly romantic of days or anything, but lots of fun nevertheless. And there's nothing quite like hearing "Happy Valentine's Day, Mommy" from little man... even if it was said in reciprocity :-)

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/358372420)

Food Pilfering, Part 3

It doesn't seem that long ago, but after trawling through my blog archives (made easier via my feeder) I realized I last blogged about lunch thieves over a year ago. Back then, I was at my former employer and the stolen goods consisted of generic, unmarked (with name tags, that is) frozen entrees stored in the community fridges. Here, the lunch thieves were a little more brazen.

I've been in training all week-- full day of class from 9 to 5 everyday, hence my current status. And as is the case in most companies, all-day training comes with free lunch. Nothing fancy-- sandwiches one day, lasagna another day, sammich wraps today... the usual catered fare. Most of the time, the food is delivered straight into the conference room where the class is taking place. But if the room is too small, where does it go? On a table outside the room, of course.

As you can imagine, that pretty much leaves it up for grabs for anyone that walks by. And most-- I repeat, *most* people maintain a bit of integrity and don't touch the food until the leftovers have been transported to the kitchen-- and by that point it's fair game for anyone.

Yesterday we ran out of food a little too quickly. Fortunately, everyone got to eat (at least I hope so!) but our admin coordinator was puzzled as to how we ran out so suspiciously fast-- there were only 11 of us in the class (including the instructor), and there was enough food to feed more than that. We realized that the people working nearby were taking liberties to assume that because nobody was lined up in front of the table, it meant we had all eaten, and they could raid the so-called "leftovers". Gee, not everyone immediately grabs food when we break for lunch. Some of us visit the bathroom first. Some of us linger in class, with extra questions or simply finishing the exercises. It's natural to assume that there will still be enough to grab when we finally make it to the table, right?

So, today, our AC put up not one, but two notes warning people that the food was for us, and to please wait until 2pm before assuming the leftovers were free for the taking. It's not even 2pm as I write this...

What do you think, dear readers? Do you suppose this deterred yesterday's pilferers? What do you gather I witnessed today?

Photobucket Survey

Swiped from Kendra :-D

1) Answer the questions below
2) Take each answer and type it into Photobucket
3) Take a picture from the first page of results and copy the html code.
4) You can't copy the persons answers who posted this before you!

1. The age you will be on your next birthday:


2. A place you'd like to travel:


3. Your favorite place:


4. Your favorite object:


5. Your favorite food:

 
6.Your Favorite Shape (not really, but I love saying its name):


7. Your favorite color:


8. The town in which you were born?


9. What did you do last weekend?


10. The name of your pet:


11. The first name of your love (after pages of weird-looking guys, I decided to pick the most offbeat one I could find!):


12. Your nickname/screen name (obviously, my screenname yielded nothing, so I had to go the nickname route):


13. Your Current Job?


14. Favorite Show?


15. A habit of yours:


16. Your first job:


17. Your grandmother's name (no results turned up, of course, so I used the name Todd used to call her):


18. Your favorite book:


19. Your favorite animal (this little guy is so cool, he's my new IM icon)?


20. The town in which you live?


21. Your name (anyone recognize this brand logo)?


22. Your middle name?


23. Your last name (no, that is not me :-P)?


24. Favorite Band?


25. Something that you love (it was a tossup between 2 answers, so I put both):
and

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/356488067)

How to diffuse an argument

In my previous blog entry, Kendra made a comment that referenced a status I had up sometime last week-- something about how Allan is a "normal" person (emphasis on the quotation marks here). I promised to elaborate more later, so here I am now.

Couples argue. That is a given fact. After all, we're all individual human beings and we're bound to disagree from time to time. And, all arguments must end, some way or another. Sometimes they end because one party concedes that they were wrong and the other was right. Sometimes they end via compromise. And sometimes they end because both parties ran out of steam but will pick up again right where they left off, the next time this issue (or something similar) crops up.

Then, there is the solution that seems to work well in the Kwee/Knight household: laughter.

Allow me to illustrate:

A few years back, shortly before his birthday, Allan and I were having a pretty intense argument, about what exactly, I no longer remember. But I do remember bringing up a point about his maturity (or lack thereof?) for I emphatically said: "You are a 36-year-old man!", as if to say "you should know better!"
Which... isn't really so bad. Except for the fact that he was still only 34 at the time. I didn't do it on purpose, either! In the heat of the moment, I honestly thought he was already 35 and just a few weeks away from his 36th birthday! With such an unintentional yet hilarious insult, how else could the mood go except for us to dissolve in a fit of giggles?

So how about the heated discussion that brought about that "normal" status?
Well, a person invariably talks differently to their spouse than they do to other (i.e. "normal") people, right? There's less formality, fewer inhibitions, more familiarity. And we were arguing about how I talk to him. He pointed out that he was my husband, and then emphasized that point with: "I am NOT a normal person!"
It was all I could do to keep a straight face... for about 5 seconds. Long enough to dawn on him what he just said, and for both of us to start up the raucous laughter again. This was even better than the "36-year-old" remark, because this time HE foisted the insult onto himself-- all by himself, too! I've never let him forget that "not normal" assertion ever since!

They say laughter is the best medicine. Apparently, sometimes it even serves as a pretty good antidote for major quarrels and minor spats!

The Week in Review

Wow, talk about time flying by. Has it really been nearly a week since I blogged? I guess the days are just both too long and too short. The days are long because they start so early (compared to what my scheduled USED to be, anyway!). Up a little after 7am, and after dropping Todd off at preschool, it's a busy day of work until around 6pm. Come home, and take care of little man until he goes to bed at around 8pm, then household chores and a bit of relaxation before bedtime. At the same time, the days seem incredibly short because there's just soooo much to do, and keeping busy helps make the hours fly by faster than a Concorde. It's not just any kind of busy, either-- it's a good productive busy. You know, the kind that leaves you feeling tired at the end of the day, but it's a good feeling anyway because you know you're tired because you've accomplished a lot.

Work has been going pretty well so far. I'm still struggling to get my programming environment set up properly and get stuff running correctly, but progress continues. At the very least I'm gaining a good understanding of why I'm getting these various error messages. I've learned quite a bit this past week and a half, and actually look forward to coming in everyday!

My team lead works remotely from the Midwest, so it's definitely a bit different to have to correspond with him via media that don't involve face-to-face contact. Still, it works pretty well all around, though I do wonder how inconveniencing the 3-hour time difference can be for him sometimes...

As you can tell, the company is pretty cool about working remotely from home. Heck, our main focus is on software solutions that enable exactly that-- real-time remote access from anywhere. That'll bode well for the inevitable days when Allan and I will be busy and have to put in a few overtime hours, yet still manage to get Todd to and from school.

The company also has a very dog-friendly policy-- you can bring your faithful canine friends to work with you! Of course, I brought Rocky :-D Sorry Scot, no bring-your-cat-to-work policies yet! ;-) My team lead's cat was getting in the way while we were troubleshooting some of my problems over IM, and I mused at how at least home can be very cat-friendly!

What else? Todd's faring well in his new school. Still eats too slow to finish lunch in time, and still a bit shy about asking for important things like going to the bathroom, but they say he's starting to get familiar with all the other teachers, so that's progress. Almost every day a kid is featured as the "Christian Soldier" of the day-- in other words, it's that kid's turn to bring in something for show-and-tell. This month's theme is "my favorite dance moves", so we're gonna have to think up something creative for Todd, as it's his turn on the 21st. I'm thinking something from Blue's Clues. Any other ideas?

So, that was my week in a nutshell. Not much to write about, just a few observations on what makes this job (or more accurately, this work environment) unique and how little man is doing. One thing's for certain: I'm having fun so far, and that makes all the difference in the world!

p.s. The score seems to have evened out a bit-- I experienced a host of technical, IT-related difficulties this past week, while Allan did not. So, will someone please tell him to stop pouting!? ;-P

(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/355137464)