Holiday

Classes are over for the day and Monday is a holiday! Color me happy! Of course I can't afford to drive anywhere over the holiday, but that's another story. Actually, that's a lie; I could afford to drive somewhere, there's just nowhere I'm dying to go at this late date. I was supposed to go on a backpacking trip to the Smokies this weekend, but I had to pull out from that. I hate the way work sometimes forces me to do things I don't want to do.

Since I am in a hurry to get out of here and there's nothing really on my mind today, I'm going to take the cheap way out and just direct anyone who is interested to a few interesting (I think) web sites:

1. The Name Wizard allows you to enter a name and see how popular the name has been over time. It sounds pointless, I know, but it's really kind of cool. My name (spelled correctly), for instance, didn't even show up until the 1940s and it grew in popularity until peaking in the 1980s. In 2004, it was the 155th most popular boy name. Oh, you have to click on "Launch NameVoyager".

2. Oracle of Baseball allows you to connect any two players in baseball history using the shortest possible chain of teammates -- sort of a baseball version of the Kevin Bacon game. For example, Albert Pujols can be linked to Babe Ruth in 6 steps.

3. Snopes is a perennial favorite of mine. It is THE place to go to see if the latest email scare in your inbox has any validity at all. You can search by keyword, browse by topic, or check out the hottest 25 legends. Today's "hottest legends" all deal with gas prices and most all of them are shown to be false.

4. Finally, check out geocaching if you'd like to know more about one of my hobbies. Hey, I might actually get out and do some geocaching this weekend -- if I can find some close to the house.

So, everyone have a great holiday weekend. I'm going to try my best to do the same.