SitOrSquat.com

SitOrSquat.com seems like a pretty good idea but, so far, information is pretty lacking on its site. It's still fairly new, though, less than two months old, so it's worth keeping on eye on. Anyway, it's a site for bathroom reviews! And beyond that, even without a review, it's just a list of where to find public bathrooms. So you know, if you find yourself in the middle of somewhere desperately needing to go to the bathroom, pull up SitOrSquat and find one near you. Better yet, find one with a good review! It seems ideal for cell phones and, in fact, an iPhone application was just created and approved. (via)

Spell with Flickr

Way cool! So you type a word in the box at the top of this page and then it spells it out from pictures of letters available on Flickr. Above, you can see I typed in my name! If you don't like the letters that are used in your word, you can click on each individual letter over and over again until you find one you like. Here's another:




And obviously, they are embeddable.

Swaptree

I'm intrigued by Swaptree. A swap meet meets the Internet. It's a site where you list items you want to get rid of (books, CDs, DVDs and video games) and if someone wants it, you can swap them for something they have that you want. Swap as in no cost. The only price you pay is the shipping cost. However, for books, they recommend you ship via Media Mail and all else, they recommend you ship First Class. So it's hardly a hefty investment. And it doesn't have to be a one-on-one swap; the site uses some sort of matching technology to help you find items.

I do have a bunch of books I'd like to get rid of and it's not a bad idea to try to swap them for something else, rather than say trying to sell them on ebay or donating them to the library. I'm just not sure if there are too many items that I want. I prefer downsizing to staying the same size. I'll let you know if I try it out.

Library Elf

Library Elf claims to be "Your Personal Email Library Reminder Service." Basically, it's a one-stop spot for you to manage your library accounts. Assuming you frequent multiple library systems, I can see the usefulness of being able to go one place to check due dates, requests, etc... I guess they'll email reminders to you to ensure you never miss a due date. You can pick when & how often the reminders come. And if you have children who have library cards of their own, you can manage theirs under the same account. Interesting for sure, although the two libraries I sometimes go to around here send email reminders a few days before items are due already.

Go Cavs!

I got really excited about the upcoming Cavaliers season after reading this preview on ESPN.com today! Season starts on Tuesday against the World Champion Boston Celtics.

My Neighborhood Profiled

They did a short blurb about my neighborhood in the Washington Examiner this morning, so I thought I'd share it with the world. I do really like my neighborhood; they are right with the "spectacular views" and the "mix of suburb and urban."

I am a idiot, cell phone edition

So last night when I went to bed, I had the feeling that I wasn't entirely sure where my cell phone was, but went to bed without looking for it anyway. Today, I realized on my way to work that I never did get around to looking for it. At work, I checked and it definitely was not in my bag. When I got home, I searched high and low in my room, my apartment and my car. No phone anywhere. My roommate came home and I asked him to call my phone and when he did, it went straight to voicemail. Not a good sign to me.

Well I became convinced I must have left it at Target last night, which was the only place I'd gone and was the last place I knew I'd had it. I drove up to Target (and wouldn't you know that traffic was AWFUL) and checked there and no one had found a phone. So I assumed this meant that it was not only lost but that someone had found it and kept it for themselves.

Great. So I figured I better report it ASAP and do what needed to be done to get a new phone since that is my only phone. We have no landline in my apartment. I went to a nearby AT&T store but it was insanely crowded. There had to be about 20 customers and it was already nearly 8:00. I was guessing the store would be closing before all the customers would be helped so I figured my best bet would be to go home and try to cancel it online. There had to be that option available to me, right?

So, back at home, I went online to deal with AT&T and decided to first check my email. An old habit. But, what do you know? There was an email with the subject line "Cell phone". What? I was so confused as to how someone knew my email address from having come across my cell phone. Then I read the message. Apparently I had somehow returned my book-on-CD to the library with my cell phone inside the case. Phew! Idiot, yes, but at least I don't have to buy a new phone!

"Some Cities Will Be Safer in a Recession"

According to a report from Businessweek.com and Policymap.com, the best place to live during this recession is... Arlington, VA! How lucky am I? (via)

Let the Internet Decide the Winner of your next Fight

SideTaker lets you air your dirty laundry online and lets outsiders decide who is right. Oh yeah, who doesn't want crazy Internet readers deciding that? Basically, you post your side of an argument. You get the other person to post their side and voila, the Internet plays judge and makes comments. An interesting idea. I wouldn't mind trying it out with a silly issue... but I know that Internet users can get quite passionate about things which they know nothing about, so that's the scary part. (via)

Back in NoVa

I'm back in northern Virginia after a 4-day trip back home to Cleveland. In Cleveland, I did a little shopping with my mom (of course), visited with my brother & his family (including newborn power sleeper Mia), caught up with some old friends, saw the Browns beat the defending Super Bowl champs, finished my book club book, and worked my way around the mess that is my parents' kitchen while they remodel it.

Back in Arlington, I came home to:
1.) a kitchen light that has all of its fluorescent bulbs burned out. Thanks roommate!
2.) a book club that has been postponed for two weeks - to a date that I can't make. Thanks for making me read a book I didn't enjoy for nothing!
3.) the girl I manage back to her old ways of doing absolutely nothing. She was gone for about two weeks dealing with the death of her father and had a really productive first day and a half. Now she's returned to her useless ways.

Book Club: Shattered Dreams

I've been meaning for months to write entries after my book clubs meet but haven't done it. Today is different! On Sunday, my Bethesda Book Club (as I call it) read Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife by Irene Spencer. I had the opportunity to meet Irene at the ALA conference in Anaheim this June and she had offered me an hour of her time to talk to our book club and we finally made it happen. It was really awesome of her and seeings as how I'm already FASCINATED by polygamy, I was extra excited to try to get some insight into her life.

I'd already read a couple books about someone "trapped" in polygamy as part of the Fundamentalist Mormon Church so the lifestyle was not new to me, but what was new in Irene's story was that she talked a lot about sex! She was craving it constantly and well, when you share your husband with multiple wives and dozens of children, it should be no surprise that it doesn't happen often. Add to that the fact that technically, the religion believes that you only have sex to procreate and it should be no surprise that Irene was often lamenting the lack of love she received from her husband. Besides sex, she talked a lot about jealousy. She seemed constantly jealous and got enraged when her husband took another wife on a trip or spent time with another wife when it was supposed to be her time with him. While this shouldn't come as a surprise, this was the first such memoir I'd read in which this was a real issue. Interesting, for sure.

Overall, it was an interesting book and I was left with a lot of questions. Talking to Irene cleared a few of them up but overall, she spent more time telling us her "message" than she did answering specific questions. She's very, very anti-polygamy and doesn't think it's natural and is trying to get a couple of her daughters who are still living that lifestyle to get out. She realizes education is the key and that most of the people who live that way are kept sheltered from other possibilities. Her desire is to educate them. Of course, she's absolutely right that education is the key. But how?

Woman says rat from sewer climbed up through house toilet

Oh my god. I don't even want to read or watch the news story that goes with that headline because that's like one of my biggest fears. But if you are braver than I, here's the link. (via)

Ah! I wondered why the increase...

I noticed this morning when checking my Netflix queue that there seemed to be quite a few more "Watch it Now" options and this article explains it. Starz & Netflix came up with a deal to stream movies that air on its network. Pretty cool. (via)