Mishmash Musings

I recently wrote about how I’m going to force myself to take at least one day off from blogging/writing every week. Well, this week I managed to squeeze in two consecutive days off. It was nice not to be chained to the computer and to just go through my day without constantly thinking of how I could turn the mundane happenings into a relevant blog post.

I think I’m definitely suffering from a bit of burnout after blogging constantly for a year now. I like being able to step back for some much-needed distance and perspective, and hopefully, I’ll recover my drive in a few weeks.

Until then, please bear with me, even if the posts on this blog become a bit irregular for the time being!

Here’s another convenient web tool that I’ve been meaning to post about for some time now. It’s called TinyURL and is a free service that converts very long URLs into something very short and manageable. The example given on the TinyURL site is this:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?ovi=1&mqma

p.x=300&mqmap.y=75&mapdata=%252bKZmeiIh6N%252bI
gpXRP3bylMaN0O4z8OOUkZWYe7NRH6ldDN96YFTIUmSH3Q6
OzE5XVqcuc5zb%252fY5wy1MZwTnT2pu%252bNMjOjsHjvN
lygTRMzqazPStrN%252f1YzA0oWEWLwkHdhVHeG9sG6cMrf
XNJKHY6fML4o6Nb0SeQm75ET9jAjKelrmqBCNta%252bsKC
9n8jslz%252fo188N4g3BvAJYuzx8J8r%252f1fPFWkPYg%
252bT9Su5KoQ9YpNSj%252bmo0h0aEK%252bofj3f6vCP

which converts to something like this

http://tinyurl.com/6

The shorter URL works great for emails and websites, and the TinyURL that you receive never changes or expires. More importantly, the service is free and it takes just a second to convert your URL.

The only problem that I can foresee is that some people might be a bit wary of clicking on links when they don’t know where the links are pointing, so you should keep that in mind.

I definitely recommend giving TinyURL a try; I’m sure you’ll love it!

My mom is nearing retirement age, and boy is she looking forward to a life of leisure after working hard for so many years! I think she has just over one year left to put in, and then she’ll be eligible for a nice, fat pension from her company, as well as social security benefits. With those two sources of income, she plans to travel the world, take cruises, and do all the things she didn’t get to do because she was working 10-12 hour days for the last 30 years. Good for her!

At the same time, I can’t imagine having to wait until my husband retires in order to travel as much as we want. Unfortunately, that’s exactly how things are shaping up for us. Right now it’s nearly impossible for my husband to take more than 3-4 days off at a single stretch, and that doesn’t give us enough time to go anywhere interesting. Plus, my son is going to be in school full-time soon, which means we’ll have even fewer chances to get away. How depressing!!

Have you ever heard of Google Trends? It’s a site where you can view the 100 most-searched-for terms of the day. They even keep an archive so you can go back and see what the list was for any date you’re interested in. I think Google Trends has been around for several months now, but I’m late to the party (as usual). I just found out about the site a few days ago.

Anyway, I love looking at that site because it’s cool to see what everyone else is searching for. For example, the top search right now is for “loose change.” I didn’t know what that meant, but figured it wasn’t just referring to the coins that drop between your couch cushions . So I ran the search myself and discovered that it’s the title of a movie from a guy who believes the 9/11 terrorist attacks were planned and carried out by the U.S. government. (Oh, puh-leeze.)

I was surprised to see that Rex Grossman was in the top-5 in searches. What has he done lately? He was 9-of-11 for 59 yards and an INT in tonight’s preseason game against the Colts. Nothing special there. Maybe people are checking to see if his starting job is in jeopardy!

So, yeah, Google Trends… check it out if you haven’t already!

I’m currently trying to get ready for the upcoming draft in my fantasy football league, which means that I spend a lot of time reading NFL articles every day. I just got done reading an in-depth report from the Buccaneers training camp that said this year is pretty much do-or-die for head coach Jon Gruden.

Gruden, of course, has been with the Bucs since 2002, when he came in, overhauled the offense, and took the team to a Super Bowl championship in his very first season. But in the four years since the title, Gruden’s team has finished with a winning record just once. Last year was a low point, as the Bucs went 4-12 on the season.

Now, a lot of experts are saying that if Gruden doesn’t turn the team around and start winning again this year, he’ll be done with the Bucs. Personally, I don’t think Jeff Garcia has what it takes to lead the Bucs at QB. That team is in some big trouble, so Gruden better start studying the Tampa real estate market now to make sure he gets a good deal when he sells his home on his way out of town!

Look for the New Orleans Saints to take the NFC South in 2007; they’ve got so many weapons that they’re going to be tough to stop. The Bucs might sneak into the playoffs as a wild card team, but they won’t make it past the first round. Gruden’s days in Tampa definitely seem to be numbered!

I just received word that a friend of mine delivered her second baby on the 17th, a healthy boy who measured 21″ long and weighed in at a hair under 8 pounds. This was the second baby for my friend and her husband, and they decided to go with home delivery overseen by a midwife rather than deal with the hospital again.

Personally, I’d be a bit scared to try a home delivery because I’d be worried that something would go wrong, requiring serious medical attention either for myself or the baby. But I guess my friend loved her experience with the midwife. The midwife was an extremely knowledgeable professional who had all her own equipment, like a portable pulse oximeter, doppler, and fetal stethoscope, so my friend felt at ease the entire time.

If I were relatively certain that nothing would go wrong, it would definitely be a lot better (meaning private and comfortable) to have a baby at home. Who knows, if hubby and I ever decide to go for baby #2, I might consider home delivery!

I guess the fact that J.K. Rowling is richer than the Queen doesn’t mean she’s ready to retire just yet. Now that the Harry Potter series is finished, it seems that Rowling will try her hand at writing a mystery. At least that’s what this AP article claims.

I actually think that Rowling would be very good at mysteries. She’s shown that she’s very good at plotting stories (just look at the fantastic continuity between the seven Potter books), and that’s the key component to the success of any good detective story. In fact, I can’t really envision Rowling writing for any other genre. Would she write a good romance novel? Thriller? Mainstream literary novel? I don’t know; I can’t imagine it.

Well, we’ll see if this latest rumor proves to be true or not. I’d definitely buy Rowling’s next book if it’s a mystery!

My son will be starting at his new private preschool in another week, so it’s time to hit the stores for some serious back-to-school shopping. Even though this is just preschool, I still received a whole list of supplies that he’s supposed to bring with him. I know it’s been a long time since I was in preschool, but I don’t remember actually having to bring my own supplies with me!

Anyway, I think I’ll just get all of my son’s shopping out of the way at the same time instead of having to make repeated trips to the mall. So in addition, to clothes, shoes, and school supplies, I need to buy new towels and sheets for him as well. He’s getting a bit tired of his Power Ranger sheets, so maybe we’ll go for some animal print bedding this time around. I think zebra print sheets would be pretty cool, so I’ll have to run that idea by him when we’re at the store.

Hopefully we can get everything in one trip today. I’m going to make a master list before we leave, which should definitely help.

Wish me luck!