Category: Randomness

Joe really oughta keep these to himself, but he what the hay…

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #500

yeah I know you did not ask!

I am currently watching a Great Courses series (we have a streaming subscription) called: Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed. I was utterly fascinated by the unit on Mayan math. They used a based 20 system and only needed 3 symbols to represent all the possible numbers.  It was a positional system like our decimal system and unlike Roman numerals. The professor said the joke was that they counted on their fingers and their toes.  He then reinforced that it was a joke and went on to say that no one was quite sure why they came up with a base 20 system.

Obviously we all work with base 10, more or less daily. As a programmer I worked extensively with a base 16 system of math and symbology.  I occasionally also worked directly in base 8 and base 2.

All which started me thinking about an Okie I once knew who invented a base 21 system.  Of course, he was skinny dipping at the time he had this brain storm.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #9,163

yeah I know you did not ask!

Señora and I were together in my pick-em-up truck this chilly morning, running errands. I’m not sure how it got started, but we got into a playful contest trying to out “smart-ass” each other.  After a few minutes of this Señora threw her hands in the air  towards the headliner of my vehicle mirthfully conceding, “you win, you are king of smart-asses.”

All of which got me to wondering, does that make me the better smart-ass or the worse smart-ass?

Inquiring minds want to know, and me too.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #2,729

yeah I know you did not ask!

Anyone who vaguely knows me, knows I like to play with words, the sounds of words and even the meanings of words.  I truly have never met a pun I was not enchanted with, even if I did groan upon hearing it.

The Spanish word for radish is rábano. The Spanish word for rabbi is rabino.  Fairly close in sound if not meaning.

All which got me to wondering would Rabino Rábano be one spicy rabbi, or one pious radish?  Asking for a friend…again.

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Salvadorian Home Remedy

This morning I was practicing español via Skype with one of my tutors who lives in El Salvador.  I’m in my 3rd week with a  cough and sore throat.  Because I was coughing a bit during the lesson we began to talk about home remedies for coughs.

I told him about one from my childhood that involves honey, lemon juice, whiskey and hot water.  He related how they had a similar one there that involved honey, lemon juice and RADISHES.

The radish part surprised me.  He theorized that honey was used for its anti-bacterial properties and radishes because it contained iodine which is a good anti-bacterial also.  It is, but I am not sure it functions as such at the levels in his concoction.

I began to wonder about iodine in radishes and found the following information. Radishes actually contain goitrogens which interfere with the uptake of iodine and thus could be harmful to thyroidal health. Here is a link to an interesting article on the subject: One Major Side Effect of Eating Radishes, Says Science

Another Salvadorian  home remedy for coughs involves the liquid from the aloe vera plant extracted via a blender.

We ended by my saying that I preferred my home remedy because after 2 or 3 doses you did not care if you had a cough or not.

And so it goes.

 

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #3,187

yeah I know you did not ask!

Asking for a friend… logicians check your slide rulers at the door.

Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Now if God created man in his own image, and humans sneeze, one can assume God sneezes.  When he does so do you say, God bless you, God? I suppose it would be a form of self-love, part of any healthy personality when not done to excess.

I’ll let my friend know your answer.

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INTJ Targeted by Big Brother

Big Brother aka Google fed me the following article in my news feed today:

INTJ Personality: 5 Traits, Strengths, Weaknesses & More

It is not surprising at one level as I tend to at least glance at articles related to science subjects, such as psychology.  I am chalking it up to coincidence that it was an exact hit on my particular Briggs-Meyers personality type.  I have to, otherwise the paranoia will be too much.

Years ago, when I was around 30, I took one of these tests in a more or less medical situation.  I came out INTJ then – only 2% Continue reading “INTJ Targeted by Big Brother”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #2,376

yeah I know you did not ask!

There is a house in our neighborhood that I can see their front yard from the kitchen window at the back of our house.  The house is actually the one street over on a street that runs perpendicular to our street.  For Halloween one their decorations was a witch on a broomstick crashing into a tree.  For Christmas they have Santa Claus falling off of the roof.

I do believe I am going to knock on their door and introduce myself.  They seem like my sort of folks.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #4,995

yeah I know you did not ask!

What is wrong with me?  Yeah, yeah, I hear you muttering under your breath that you have been asking that same question for much too long now.

La señora purchased a tin of pre-popped pop corn as a gift for my brother, James Michael Rush, CPA,  when he was here recently, visiting. He opened it, ate some of it, and drove off without it.  So I have been liquidating his gift, grudgingly of course, one handful, one bowl full, at a whack.

One type of pop corn contained therein, is caramel covered.  I have been taken these, putting them in a small bowl, shaking a few peanuts into the the vessel, and voilà, Instant Cracker Jacks.  This afternoon I found myself digging around in the bowl looking for The Surprise!

I understand that it is possible now days to engage the services of a therapist online.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #9,902

yeah I know you did not ask!

I want to see the job description at MoDOT for this position, or at least the want ad for the job,

I was headed to St. Charles, driving north on MO 141.  I passed one then a second of these those big yellow MoDOT trucks sporting the brightly lighted signs declaring “MEN WORKING AHEAD”.   Both were driving extremely slow as there was a work party afoot moving very slowly too.  Both were equipped with big, striped crash barriers at the rear of the trucks.  I sometimes see 3 or 4 of these vehicles stacked up for a moving work zone.

Wanted:  Must have CDL. Need a person capable of driving extremely slow. Potential for accidents is higher than average. Harried, cell-phone-using commuters might miss bright yellow truck with brightly lighted sign warning of danger.  No worries, trucks are equipped with state of the art crash barriers, and  Health and Life Insurance will be available at reasonable cost to you.