April Fools 2016

April Fools Day is coming! Quick! Hide! Or, better yet, join in the fun!

1. Buy package of oreos. swap out filling for toothpaste. Place in staff lounge
2. Freeze a roommates toothbrush or hairbrush in a cup of water. Place back in its original place.
3. Set clocks back 1 hour. Watch them scramble out of bed and off to work before they figure it out.
4. Place a piece of tape on the bottom of a computer mouse.
5. Place a few swabs of food coloring to the inside of a tap. The water will change color.
6. Place a cup upside down in the staff lounge. Write "do not open unless you plan to kill it" on the cup.
7. small plastic bugs.
8. Set amusing timers on someones smartphone.
9. ctrl+alt+down arrow on someones computer.
10. Buy someone a treat. Then tell them Happy April Fools day! do nothing to the treat but pretend you did.

Any other great prank ideas? Enjoy!

Numenera

Good Morning All!
You may see a few posts regarding a D&D Role Playing game called Numenera. This is similar to Pathfinder, but includes less dice rolling, and more making-things-up-ish. It's been a fun adventure, but our current characters are about to the end of their quest so we are working on new characters who are all in the same traveling circus! Here's my new character so far. His name is Solas:

“Draolis* is the most populated land in the Steadfast and also one of the wealthiest. Its banner depicts six interwoven spheres, but most people refer to it as the Tiger Banner. Centuries ago, Draolis was home to a powerful queen who ruled the land with a firm hand. Her symbol was a roaring tiger, and her armies crushed all those around her. When her line died out, power in Draolis was seized by a council of wealthy plutocrats who didn’t want another hereditary monarchy to take control. The Council of Spheres abolished the tiger symbology, but many people remember the tales from that time and long for that former glory. Although the council lacks the flair of the tiger rulers of the past, Draolis has not abandoned its ways. The nation remains a military power, with might comparable to that of its chief rival, Navarene. In fact, the Order of Truth is the only thing that keeps these two countries from warring openly. The Draolic-Born are fiercely proud of their homeland. Some of the older families still carry relics from Draolis’ glory days.”

Raynaldus “Solas” Claymar was born in Castle Sarrat, a small castle located near the center of Draolis, about 35 miles West of Kordech, and 250 miles East of Qi. The Castle was first discovered by the Claymar family over 70 years ago. The castle was empty and derelict, save for a strange machine they found in the basement. This machine could produce food, enough for hundreds of people. On occasion, the machine would spit out shin, hidden in slices of decadent food much to its occupants delight. Delighted at the abundance, the Claymar family settled there.

Old family records in the library told of a famous magician and performer who used to live there. He would travel the Steadfast giving performances, each more extravagant than the last. As his fame grew, so did the Castle. However, the magician began to fade, it was said, and one day disappeared altogether. After he was gone, the Castle dwindled, and shrank. 20 years after moving in, when the Claymar family had settled and began to prosper, they woke to find a new room they had never seen nor explored before. Since then, extra rooms, hallways, and even whole floors have seemingly appeared from nowhere! The family keeps this aspect about the Castle as quiet as possible, and have gone to great lengths to hide the additions the Castle has made so as not to suspect the local passerby. One day, the Castle decided to repaint the outside into a roaring tiger. Fearful that this might be seen as an affront to the council of spheres, the Claymars spent that summer repainting the entire Castle back to a stone-colored grey.

Raynaldus, or Solas, as he liked to be called, was born to entertain. As an infant, his wide range of facial expressions and joyous giggle became a source of joy for all in the house. By age 5 he was juggling. By age 10 he could play the violin better than most. By the time he was 15, there weren’t many outlying villages who hadn’t heard of him. As his fame grew, the Castle began to grow as well. The Claymar’s were delighted at their prosperity, but over time began to wonder what happened to the old magician. Before Solas left for Qi, they warned him about the magician’s mysterious fate. Solas laughed it off and preferred not to dwell on it. But the seed of doubt remained…

Solas is loyal to Draolis, and lives for the glory of his homeland and his family. He can command large audiences, and hold them in an almost trance-like state during his performances. He is meticulous and emotional, and takes great care in his stage costumes and his equipment. Solas demands perfection from himself. At age 16, he spent 3 years practicing the perfect bow for his act. His bow, combining a twist and handstand cannot be mimicked by anyone in the Steadfast. Before leaving the Castle, he woke to find a very old instrument in a case by his cot and an ancient flag bearing the symbol of the roaring lion. He carries these wherever he goes and would give his own life for either of these possessions. He relies on wit and guile over weapons but carries an antique knife wherever he goes. 

*Jump on Google, and look up "map of Numenera" to get a feel for where Draolis is. 

Ah, Spring Break

It's been a little while I guess, hasn't it? Sorry for the delay chaps, I was busy taking naps and munching cookies and apples over the past week. Ha, my masters were hard at work though, climbing ladders and mending books. Anyways, happy Spring! Easter was a blast around here, although very busy! We didn't even have time to arrange Easter Baskets! Ah well, the bunnies had a good time, we got to hide some Easter eggs for relatives which included an adult Easter egg hunt! I got to hide a few eggs; in the freezer, hidden under a mattress, all kinds of unusual places. :) My master is back to taking me on walks (jogs) everyday which has been nice. In any event, I should be back to my regular(ish) double posting a week. As always, feel free to reply with post ideas or topics as they come to mind. :)

Happy Tuesday!

Snack Ideas for Spring!

Quick Snack Ideas!

You glance around. Your eyes fall on the Costco sized bag of chocolate chips you promised would be set aside for baking. After a few moments of pondering you reach a decision. Either bake something (which is actually healthier than quaffing gratuitous amounts of chocolate chips) or find a quick slightly healthier snack. Here is a list of small snacks that can be made in under 5 minutes:

Apple Pie innards:

Craving apple pie but have no time to make the crust? Easy! Just make the middle. Grab an apple and slice it as thin as you can. Arrange said apple on a plate or pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Top with 2 pats of butter. Either toast for 2-5 minutes or microwave. Enjoy!

Quesadilla:

They’re quick, light, and crunchy! Could turn into dinner also! Alternatively, just fry up the tortilla in butter (for flour) or oil (for corn) add a pinch of salt, and eat plain!

Cocoa:

Don’t underestimate the power of cocoa, it’s more filling than tea, and perfect for a little pick-me-up. Add some melted chocolate chips, or a candy cane, or grated orange peel to spice it up. For an exotic taste, and the smallest hint of cinnamon and chili powder (yes, I just watched chocolate, and yes, it was a great movie).

Chocolate covered…?

Put a small handful of chocolate chips into a bowl, and add about 1-3 teaspoons of Crisco or shortening. Microwave for 15 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until melted. Stir with spoon, and dip random things into it. Gummi bears, oranges, bananas, pinecones, etc.

Pancakes:

Although these seem time consuming, I’ve made them in about 5-10 minutes with instant pancake mix. Stir a small bowl up, add some toppings (either the aforementioned chocolate chips, or butter). The trick to quick, light snacking is to make sand-dollar sized pancakes, and make them really thin. This way they don’t fill you up too much before/after dinner.

Cheese Stick:

Often times, I’m not really hungry per say, but just want to play with food. A cheese stick is the perfect solution. You can nibble away on it while sipping tea and reading a book.

Pi Day!!

I would be remiss indeed if I ignored this important holiday. :D To those who may be unaware, today is March 14^th, commonly known as Pi day. Not the kind you eat, although I encourage that as well! Pi, or pi stands for a mathematical unit used in calculating area, or circumference to a circle. The equations are as follows: A=pi*r^2 and C=pi*d. Pi is most often simply shortened to 3.14, hence March 14^th. The full number of pi is an endless string of decimal points, going on forever with not recognizable pattern. There are even contests held for who can memorize the most digits of pi. Here are the first dozen or so: 3.141592653589793… and so on and so forth. Many people like to use the time, date, year, etc to use as many digits of pi as possible. For example, March 14, at 1:59pm could be written as: 3.14 1:59:26, or the month, day, and time. Last year we all got pretty excited because we could use the year as well: 3.14.15. But perhaps the most excited we ever got was way back in the year of 1592, 100 years after Columbus. For in that year, we could use the whole year instead of just the last 2 digits: 3.14 1592! Add in the time and… 3.14 1592, 6:53:58, or month.day year, hours.minutes,seconds!!

Conversely, if we go with the ISO 8601 standard format (http://xkcd.com/1179/ ) of time and date (YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS-s) we run into a month issue:

3141-59-26 (I’m pretty sure there aren’t 59 months in a year…but who knows? If the moon crashes into the Earth by then we may need to adjust the Gregorian Calendar a wee bit).

Pi has been around since the biblical days although just the number 3 was used. Since then, the Chinese had a go at refining it, and found 7 decimal places of pi. Thereafter, pi was used in many cultures who created approximations such as 22/7, 25/8, 16/9 squared, and 339/108. It wasn’t until Archimedes took a look at it in 250 BC however, that it became closer to what we know today. Archimedes used a series of refined polygons to “trap pi” in finer and finer polygons to discover it’s value. Archimedes proved that pi rested in-between the following fractions: 223/71 and 22/7, or 3.1408 and 3.1429. Over time mathematicians improved on this until they were able to reach over 70 digits of pi! This was by hand by the way, not with computers. Today of course, we can calculate pi to as many digits as we need! I believe there is a computer out there somewhere that is still calculating the next digits of pi. Our current record by the way, is 10 trillion digits of pie, more than we’ll ever need, but possibly less than the national debt will be in a few years depending on the coming election!

Personally, I’m torn. I love Pi, but then I love Pie. Especially pumpkin pie. Oh! And Apple pie. And chocolate cream pie. And… *wanders off in search of pie*

Anywho, happy pi day everyone!

woof

Hats!!

Last Sunday, I visited a haberdashery shop to look for mint flavored cuff links for Blue Bunny’s birthday (don’t ask me why, that’s what he wanted). And though the store owner (an emperor penguin dressed in a tuxedo) did his best to sell me a top hat, I politely turned him down. Top hats add status and character to many an animal he was saying, but I daresay I shall wait to buy my hat until I need a cane to go with it. Besides, sheepdogs and hats don’t tend to go all that well together anyway. While I was there, however, I asked the penguin where hats came from, and the available styles of hats and what they are used for. The penguin was glad to answer, and spoke in a soft, clipped accent.

“Well, the first well recorded uses of hats seem to be from Rome and Greece, where freed slaves got to wear the pileus hat, a brimless felt cap to signify their freedom. This later became known as a liberty cap. Another cap, the Phrygian cap, was similar, only softer, with the top pulled forward, and often depicted nowadays being worn by elves. Women in ancient Greece wore kerchiefs, hoods, and caps.

Later, in the middle ages, hats began to become more popular to denote social status. Wealthy women began to wear hennin, better known as the tall cone shaped hats worn by princesses in Disney cartoons. During the next few eras, hats of all shapes and sizes can be found, from jeweled crowns, to clergy hats, to turbans. However, it wasn’t until the early 17^th century when men’s hats as we recognize them came about. John Hetherington, a fellow haberdashery owner, was allegedly the first man to wear a top hat. As legends go, he cause a panic in the streets by wearing a tall stovepipe top hat. He was subsequently sent to jail for this. However, within 20 years, top hats had become so popular, they were being worn by everyone of every social status!”

The ascot cap, worn since the early 1900’s, is a working man’s cap, and usually made of felt or wool. It is possible it was developed for slaughterhouses as the brim prevents blood from running into the wearers eyes. The Baseball cap was an adapted version of the “Brooklyn style cap” and became popular with teams to shield the wearer’s eyes from the sun. Over time it became for rounded and floppy, and the brim became longer. The beret hails from the bronze age in northern Europe. It is often worn by shepherds, and the working class in France. In the late 1800’s the beret was adopted by the French military. We have the Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire to thank for the Fez. Among his reforms of the military, he included the plain fez as a mandatory headdress requirement to replace the turbans. Lastly, the fedora, a more modern hat, was first seen in the late 1800’s. It was adopted by Prince Edward of Britain in 1924, and took off. In America, it quickly became popular with the young men, and is now widely associated with gangsters and prohibition, although in the early 21^st century, it became a symbol of the hipsters. And lastly, January 15^th is unofficial national Hat Day.”

After paying for the cuff links, I tipped my erm, paw, and wished him good day.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

~sheepdog~