Kitty Rides A Roomba

(via YesButNoButYes)

Page Miss Glory

From 1936. (via Everlasting Blort)

Counting My Blessings

Now that the turkey is in the oven, I have time to count my blessings. Oh, this is not the first time, but I'm just now jotting them down to share. 2008 has been a wonderful year.

Miss Cellania is doing well for a small blog. After three years of posting on one topic a day with many links, I switched to a format more in line with other link blogs. As you can see from the graphic, that paid off immediately! Thanks to the several bloggers who advised me to do it (if I tried to name them, I'd forget someone, but Alex gave me the final push). Many thanks to you and everyone who visits, contributes, reads in RSS, links to the site, Diggs, Stumbles, and comments. Special thanks to everyone who clicked on an ad for me!

My greatest blessings are my children. Princess and Gothgrrl are growing up so fast, and I am proud of them. Their grades are only slightly better this year, but I am very happy that they are starting to see how putting some effort into their work pays off. At this point, they are doing their homework (and on time), reading their material before the last minute, and actually studying for tests! And they are progressing in more than just schoolwork.

Last night we had a bit of a party here. When I went to bed, I told them I didn't care how long they stayed up as long as they were out of bed by noon today. This morning, I found they had cleaned the house! Even my desk is tidied up (and now I can't find anything)! It's great to start a busy day like this with a smile.

I bought a new house this year. It's the kind of house I had always dreamed of. Yes, it has its problems, and moving was a pain, yet it is still the nicest home I've ever lived in. This is a gift I will always treasure.

I was worried about what would happen to the old house. The real estate market is the pits. Every other house in my little town has a for sale sign in front. Friends suggested I rent it out, but I was leery -I'd heard too many horror stories. But without any effort on my part, a reliable tenant landed in my lap, so what was a worry has turned out to be another source of income.

Just this week, I was approached by another website for a paid blogging job. I'm not going to say what site it is just now because I haven't posted anything yet. It seems like another blessing out of nowhere.

I finally had a presidential election night that made me smile.

Last but certainly not least, I met a guy. I could write volumes about him, but that would be both invasive and premature. Let's just say I'm happy about it.

Praise be to God for the charmed life I'm living!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

Fun Links

How to Organize and Cook Holiday Dinner for a Crowd (42) using Spreadsheets. Just one of the many geeky Thanksgiving tips from Instructables. (via Metafilter)

See tiny works of art created inside the eye of a needle. Don't take these sculptures anywhere near a haystack!

How many ways can you make a cupcake look like a turkey? There's no limit, until you put turkey meat IN the cupcake. Don't do that. (via Buzzfeed)

A critical review of a three-year-old's pretend restaurant. Sounds like a lovely place to visit, but you don't want to drop too much cash.

Don’t Try This at Home: Totally Dangerous Experiments. It's all fun and science until someone loses an eye!

Watch this body builder flex his muscles! Just one example of a large collection of James Kuhn's moving face paintings.

The Greatest Pranks in Geek History. The Cal Tech Prank Club and the MIT Hacks have spent years trying to outdo each other. (via Neatorama)

5-year-old Dribbler

Milan Simon Tuttle is five years old and has been playing basketball for a year and a half. She's short, skilled, and adorable! (Thanks, Laura!)

Information Links

Huge Buried Water Glaciers Discovered on Mars. A potential drinking water source for future astronauts?

The remains of Nicolas Copernicus have been identified by DNA testing. We also get to see what he really looked like.

Why it took 17 years and $13 million to bring Chinese Democracy, the new Guns N’ Roses album to the public. Personally, I think Axl Rose was going for the world record in procrastination.

Depression 2009: What would it look like? It would be completely different from what our grandparents experienced in the 1930s.

Brilliant Meteor Caught On Video In Canada. After that eye-popping video, read the story.

Scientists reveal that long-lasting romantic love is possible, at least according to brain scans. And all this time we assumed some people were lying to themselves for the sake of the kids.

Mark Johnson traveled the world to record musicians all performing the same song, Stand By Me. The result is entertaining, uplifting, and totally cool.

Saturday night, Space X fired up all nine engines, burned half a million pounds of propellant, and scared the daylights out of the locals. "Space-X shook the T-Bone off the grill hit my dog on the head, he thought I smacked him, he bit my ankle."

Delta II Rocket Explosion

Set to the music of The 1812 Overture. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

The Haines Sisters

The Haines Sisters couldn't make it, so a couple of friends stepped in. From the movie White Christmas.

Good Reads and Information

The Dos and Don'ts of the James Bond Lifestyle. Master all these things, and the world will buy tickets to your life story.

The Top Ten Arguments that Can't Be Won. So you may as well not bring them up at the family holiday dinner.

A Colombian woman received a transplant of a windpipe grown from her own stem cells. Unlike other transplant recipients, she won't spend her life taking anti-rejection drugs. This historic transplant might never have happened due to overzealous airline security, but the day was saved by a last minute charter from a German surgeon with his own jet.

People who seem to attract good fortune are different from people who don't. They pay attention, seize opportunities, and count their blessings. (via Geek Like Me)

Statistics on hunger in America for 2007 are out, and they don't look good. Don't expect the situation to be any better for 2008 and 2009.

Ten Reasons why Teddy Roosevelt is the Coolest President Ever. Fun stuff culled from what could have been a much longer list.

Astronomers are discovering that water, and life, might exist on all manner of planets where conditions are very different from those on Earth. "It's like science fiction, only better."

How to bring a woolly mammoth to life. It doesn't even require viable cells, just a DNA sequence. (via Metafilter)

Shrimp on a Treadmill

I posted about the shrimp running on a treadmill years ago, but this version has the perfect music! (via Boing Boing)

Fun and Funny Links

Top 10 Amazing Animal Videos. Posted for the off-chance that there may be one or two you haven't seen linked here before.

In the game QWOP, you are our small nation’s sole representative at the Olympic Games. Ideally, you will run 100 metres …but our training program was underfunded.

A penguin seeks refuge from hungry orcas. Any port in a storm!

Guitar Hero + bicycle = Bike Hero. A masterpiece of planning and timing that will have you leaning into the curves.

John Cleese, Eric Idle, and the rest of the Monty Python gang have decided to fight back against the unauthorized uploading of their material to YouTube.

A spec ad made for Zune that has nothing to do at all with Zune, as far as I know. NSFW or lunch.

Shea Gunther drank 17 cans of energy drinks in seven days in order to bring you reviews of each. Ha! I drink the equivalent in coffee every day.

Flight of the Bumblebee

On marimba. (via Metafilter)

Information Links

Berry Gordy changed the face of pop music by founding Motown Records, and in the process changed race relations in America. Fifty years later, he tells the real story behind the business.

Which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg? Ardvarchaeology gives us the short answer, but more questions are raised in the comments.

Astronomers have taken pictures of what they believe are planets that revolve around a star other than our sun. If this proves to be so, they are the first such photographs ever.

Carbon-14 formed by atomic weapons testing can be used to date biological specimens, like trees and human beings. You can lie about your age, but your autopsy can find out if you were born in the mid-1950s. (via Metafilter)

Good news for Christmas morning gift opening: some manufacturers are launching new packaging that's easier to open. You won't need to use a saw, blowtorch, or your teeth to get to the product!

Underage soldiers of World War I. They included a future king, a future US senator, and one who is still alive. (via Grow-A-Brain)

The 20 Healthiest Places in America. According to the ranking by the Centers for Disease Control, New England is the place to be.

Salps are jellyfish-like animals that reproduce fast and eat a lot of algae. But can they reduce the effects of global warming?

The LEGO™ Lifestyle Home

Legomaniacs can do more than just build things from Lego bricks! You can display your passion in your home with furnishings made from Lego bricks, home products from the Lego company, and products that have that familiar (if not company-sanctioned) shape.

read more | digg story

Links for Fun

An examination of why we are so drawn to sad LOLcats. Anthropomorphism makes it easier to confront -and laugh at- our own woes.

Ride a ship through the Panama Canal. A time lapse video takes you all 48 miles in only two minutes.

The dumbest exercise machine you'll see today. Gee, I sure love my treadmill, but wish I could use it on the road!

Cat vs. Cat in the Mirror. Guess who wins? Another of those videos that make you laugh and then feel guilty about it.

12 Pop Culture Cavemen (and Cavewomen). A man who resembles us but does not understand or fit in with the confusing modern world is a wonderful device for both comedy and adventure.

Puppet: An Animated Short by Patrick Smith. The animated story of a young man who creates a hand puppet that hurts him in increasingly gruesome and bizarre ways.

Watch 4,345,027 dominos fall to set a new world record. Someone needs to pick up their toys.

A recent New York fashion show had a super hero theme, with costumes modeled after action and science fiction film characters. But best of all, the clothing shown was make entirely of chocolate!

Moonrise

Moonrise over Hakalau, Hawaii. (via I Am Bored)

Information and Good Reads

A new genetic theory suggests that mental illness may be due to struggles between the genes you get from your father and the genes you get from your mother. Kids driving their parents crazy may be simple payback.

Keeping a Promise When a Life Is Near Its End. You might need to get a tissue before reading this.

The evolution of beer advertising, from portraying a healthful tonic to classy drink to the beer for everyone. Just ignore the fact that it's Pabst Blue Ribbon. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

Humans have taken the natural rhythm of day and night and made it into a very long day. Scientists are only now beginning to study the effects of light pollution.

Don Levy found a suitcase full of photographs ready to be picked up by the garbage service in Watertown, Massachusetts. The photographs show Hiroshima in the period shortly after the US dropped the atomic bomb on the city in 1945.

How a secretary fell in love with science, and therefore scientists. She does her part to make sure SCIENCE IS HAPPENING. (via Bad Astronomy Blog)

Just how are you supposed to give a whale a physical examination? With remote control helicopters, of course!

Treehugger calls Bullshit on Recycling, with a short course on the history of recycling in America.

Oh Happy Day

The Edwin Hawkins Singers.

Paradise City

By Guns and Roses.

Fun Links

How to have sex in a small car.

Child Exerts His Will On Helpless Phillies Fans. Must... resist... oh, I can't help but raise my hands and cheer, too!

99 Bricks is Tetris with a twist. Your goal is not to fit the bricks together, but to build the tallest tower you can without knocking them down.

How to turn your car into an Unstoppable Murder Machine. In eight easy steps.

What Taylor did for his 19th birthday. It paid off well. (Thanks, Neal Loughborough!)

The Top Ten James Bond One-liners.

Watch a UFO make crop circles! (via the Presurfer)

Timesculpture.