I loved Ree’s post on what she’s learned from blogging.  You might have seen that I linked to her article on my sidebar.

#2 on her list was to blog often.  And I do blog often, but then I don’t. 

Sometimes I don’t post because I have nothing to say.  However most of the time I have a ton to say but can’t sort it all out in my head – so I don’t write anything.  Or I do write, but then I delete it.

But, like Ree noted, only a well watered blog will blossom.  My blog is not a cactus. I have 4 cacti that I wear leather gloves when I touch and I don’t want people to feel like they have to wear leather to visit my blog. I like to think of my blog as something a little less pokey.
And that means I need to water it often – else it’ll shrivel up and die.

So, I’m sitting here wondering what to post about today.  I thought about posting on my lack of motivation to blog today, but couldn’t think of what to say about that. 

Then, I thought I’d post on how well Jesse’s doing potty training, but then he peed everywhere. 

Twice.

Or about how I need to get more probiotics in my diet. But then figured nobody wants to hear about that.

So, I’m blogging about not blogging.  And I really don’t know what else to say about that.  I’m sure if I wait long enough one of my kids will do something blog worthy.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Nope.

So, this is it, I guess.

Our Black Moor fish is reallysick.  This happened almost overnight and, while we got some medicine for him right away I’m still very concerned for the big guy.

Whale has been a part of our family for almost 2 years.  He belongs to Gabe and was a gift from Papa and Nona for Gabe’s 8th birthday.  He recently found himself in a new, much larger 30 gallon home and seemed to love all the extra, clean space. 

And now he’s sick and I’m scared that it’s the water.  The crappy, crappy water that smells of gasoline.  We’re doing a water cleaning tomorrow before the next dose, and I’m going to fill 1/3 of the 30 gallon tank with filtered water to try to dilute anything bad in our water.  I’d do the whole thing in filtered water but read that it’s never a good idea to do that, that filtered water lacks important things in it that fish need.

Petsmart will do free water testing for us, so we’re taking a sample in tomorrow to have them give us any information they can.  Other than that, we’re treating the whole tank with parasite and fungal meds.

If any of you awesome people know anything about fish please let me know!

Whale is not just any fish, so please pray for sweet Gabe’s heart.  The thought of Whale passing is tough for him, and all of us really.

As I’ve said before, this post about the giant woolly bear caterpillar gets me more hits to my blog than any other post I have ever written. I’m not sure why but it does.

However, the post in question, which I wrote way back in December, isn’t really even about your everyday woolly bear caterpillar; which makes me wonder, yet again, how Google has found it so relevant.

So, for my readers who have come to this site looking for relevant wooly bear caterpillar information…

It’s not really covered in wool.  Actually, nothing about it resembles a sheep at all. 

I know. Shocking, isn’t it!?

And even more shocking, it isn’t even an actual bear!  These beastly things don’t even eat meat.

The only truth to the name woolly bear caterpillar is the word caterpillar.  But even that is only true for a little while.  After the winter season ends the Woolly Bear Caterpillar turns into this:

The Isabella Tiger Moth

 What’s with the fierce, misleading names? 

The woolly bear caterpillar is not poisonous, in contrary to the certain death stories my childhood friends told me in elementary school.  This produced in me a fear of finding them in my backyard that somewhat resembled the same fear I would have felt had I encountered an actual bear.

They also appear to self medicate.

Recent research has shown that the woolly bear caterpillar may eat alkaloid-laden leaves to help fight off parasitic fly larva that can be laid inside their abdomens. This research showed what is called “the first clear demonstration of self-medication among insects”.

Can you get that over-the-counter?  You know, just in case.

Like the ground hog, woolly bears are found to be useful in predicting the length of winter.  Stripes, no stripes…

It’s all not that fascinating to me, really.  But you can get more information from the totally trustworthy and all knowing Wikipedia here.

I hope that I’ve satisfied my woolly bear readers.  Come back now, ya hear!

I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Likeby Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I had my writing analyzed today.  Sound really professional, right? 

Not really. 

I just copied and pasted a couple of my posts to I Write Like and pushed the analyze button.  I had 4 posts analyzed and 3 of the results said that I write like Cory Doctorow.  I don’t know who that is.  Some famous writer or something – a science fiction novelist. I found his blog.  I don’t see the similarities.  I must not be much of an analyst.  Although he does wear cool glasses and if I were a guy and needed glasses I would totally wear some like his.  I guess that means we have the potential to have something in common.

The 4th said I write like David Foster Wallace.  I didn’t know who he was either but when I looked him up I found out he committed suicide when he was 47.  I think I’ll stick with Cory and his cool glasses.

Who do you write like?  Check out I Write Like and then tell me what you found out.

…any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
-Douglas Adams

[do you know where your towel is?]

 If you’re just not ‘getting’ this post, I’m sure we can no longer be friends.

Google ads are really getting annoying.  There have been a couple of absolutely hilarious videos I’ve wanted to share with you, completely funny and clean enough for the whole family.

However, those stupid Google ads that are popping up on the bottom of YouTube’s videos lately are making it impossible for me to feel good about sharing them with you.  I know you can close them, but you have to see the ad before you can push the X.

So irritating.

[Uhg]

Yeayah!
[love a good throwback]

I might just have to move to Alabama just so I can vote for this guy.

<
Dale Peterson for President! 
Er, I mean Alabama Agriculture Commission.

I won a years subscription to Plan To Eat!

We’ve been making monthly menus and shopping lists for a little while now but I’m hoping this website will streamline that for us and make it that much easier.

I’ll let you know what I think after we use it for a few months.

I get a lot of spam comments.  And I mean A. Lot.  Some are not even words, but others are actual words or sentences, or something in between the two. 

Up until a few days ago I had a spam blocker on my blog.  It didn’t really stop the spam – it just made the spammers have to work harder by typing those annoying re-captcha words in before they could submit a comment.  Which means they were taking the time to type in a comment, then the re-captcha words, and still leaving comments like this one I received just a few minutes ago: 

Excellent Congress,cut heat soil comparison duty cover context empty shake achieve not deep credit image it experience seat definition obvious same mark lie attractive listen belong lord secretary tree tall hard end beat human peace reduce suitable food victim but engineering vote throughout master question class region shout letter by dangerous main attempt ignore entitle judge scientific game category lady energy travel article so trial priority see criterion apart support complete treatment response official condition raise pull kitchen facility everybody curriculum generally close specific crowd minister acquire expression right over wife hand unfortunately hurt

If I was a spam commenter and wanted to get my link published on a blog, I think I would write something a little more tricky.  Something a little more likely to get past the comment moderator.  Something a little more relevant.

I think I’d be less obvious.

Spammers are not just annoying, they’re incredibly stupid.

Is there some kind of stupid blocker WordPress plugin for this?