Links-R-Us, Vol. 24

Welcome to another Link-Friday post.  I know it’s been forever since last I posted, but this week I really couldn’t let slip by.

Our first link is to an article about a true American hero.  It’s about a soldier that was nearly killed in Afghanistan by a suicide bomber.  This is the story of his purple heart being awarded and his actions afterwards.  Enjoy.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 23

Welcome to another Link-Friday.  Having Link-Friday on a Friday would be a pretty novel idea if you ask me.  Ok, not really.  But, for anyone who has followed my blog for any length of time, you already know that the day doesn’t matter – as long as there are links, its Friday.  So, to avoid subjecting you to any further ramblings about the real definition of “Friday,” here are your links!

Our first link is left over from the election.  I know, I know…  You thought that you were finished hearing about the election.  Well, some people got together and tried to make it so every state would have the same representation and value in elections by re-aligning the country to reflect states by population.  That’s right…  Let’s redefine our nation so every state has equal pull in the next election to eliminate three states having the ability to disproportionately influence the success or failure of a candidate.  The idea is novel and gimmicky and really has a snowballs chance in Hades of ever happening, but for those who follow politics it’s a fun little thing to look at.  Enjoy.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 21

Welcome to another Link-Friday.  And, as seems to be custom as of late, nobody voted on last Link-Friday posts so we are just gonna have to rule that a tie.  So we now have ten links in the running for best link of the year.  With that being said, here are this week’s offerings.

Our first link is to a Star Trek infographic.  This infographic shows all the TV shows, movies, etc. related to the Star Trek franchise.  It seems to be well done and pretty informative.  I was a little surprised to find out that there were new Star Trek television shows airing for 18 years straight.  Wow.  That is pretty impressive.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 20

Once again I find that Link-Friday has snuck up on us.  And, ironically enough, it has chosen to fall on Friday.  I’d like to take this time to thank everyone who voted in last week’s Link-Friday competition.  Your winning link for last week was...  None!  Nobody voted.  Who knew?  Maybe we’re just getting off to a slow start.  Or, maybe the links were too boring.  Or, maybe this is really a silly idea on my part.  Unfortunately, I really don’t have an answer for which of the above it is.  So…  We’ll try it again this week to see if there are any takers…  Thanks in advance for giving it a shot.

Here is lots of info from great people about talking to your children about tragedy.  Sure this information came out in response to the Newtown shootings, but it is relevant to all tragedies.  Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to all effected by this tragedy.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 18

I’m sure that at some point or another we have all felt that life gets in the way of us doing things that we want to do.  That seems to be my life right now.  I always wanted to start and maintain a blog that was kept up to date and regularly posted to…  Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way of that…  So, to get back into the swing of things, I bring you today another Link-Friday.

Our first link is to an article about a man who took some thieves for a ride.  When Noah Magram received a phone call telling him that his computer had an infection and he needed to download some software to fix it, he had a better idea.  You see, Noah is a computer security expert.  This story is about a computer scammer being scammed by the scammee.  It also gives some interesting information about how these groups work.  Enjoy!

Links-R-Us, Vol. 17

Welcome once again to Link-Friday.  It’s been too long since last I posted a blog entry, but I am grateful for all of you who loyally continue to follow me despite my short-comings.  Thanks for being there.  And now, on with the links…

Once again it’s that time of the year when Forbes magazine publishes it list of the top fifteen wealthiest fictional characters.  Yes.  You heard me.  The magazine that’s famous for its lists of wealthy people making a list of wealthy fictitious characters.  You would think that with the challenging economic times we live in that they wouldn’t waste time with fluff and produce something a little more substantial that might assist someone who is struggling financially.  But, then again, if all you report is stuff about how bleak the economic horizon looks I guess you could use a moment of joviality to lighten the load.  In either case, I think that my rant is way too long and really serves no purpose…  Just sit back and enjoy their attempts to bring a smile to your face.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 16

Welcome to another Link-Friday.  It’s been a while and some of my links are a little dated but hopefully they’ll bring you some enlightenment or enjoyment.  With that disclaimer in place, here’s this week’s links.

Our first link is bitter-sweet.  I am a huge fan of America’s space program.  I have been EXTREMELY upset ever since President Obama canceled the human space program when he first entered office.  (Granted, he did a little back pedaling and chose to reinstate some of it when the political backlash – Florida’s electoral votes come in pretty handy – seemed to become quite severe.)  I won’t lie:  I was looking forward to President Bush’s plan to return to the moon.  I was way too young to remember the last time we went to the moon and I really was looking forward to us going back while my children were still young enough that it might inspire them and their career path.  But, enough nostalgic ramblings…  Oh, wait…  Everything about this link is a nostalgic rambling.  Anyway, Space Shuttle Discovery was turned over to the National Air and Space Museum this week.  Here’s a link to the blow-by-blow account of the gutting and destruction of Discovery so that she will never be able to fly ever again.  Every time I hear of a beautiful flying machine that is intentionally injured in such a way that it won’t fly again it really hurts my heart – especially when the ship has many years of life left in her.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 15

Once again I find that my Link-Friday queue has filled itself up long before I have finished a blog entry filled with things of a little more substance.  For this, I am sorry.  Sometimes external factors related to ones’ own survival take precedence over the more cerebral items…  (Don’t take that wrong – nobody is trying to kill me and my family – we just seem to be putting out fire after fire after fire after fire after fire…).  There are a few thoughts that I have been working on for a while that I hope to turn into actual blog entries soon enough, but for now Link-Friday will need to surfice.

Our first link is to a PCMagazine article about RPG computer games of the 80’s.  Having played at least half of these games myself, the article really took me back to a more carefree time where my biggest stressor was related to what to do after school / work.  Enjoy.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 11

Welcome once again to Link-Friday!  Today’s selection of links has once again returned to the standard five after last week’s Link-Friday Clearinghouse.  These five links are the last of the links that I have managed to store up over the last little while; and unfortunately I have not come across any more links that have really sparked my interest enough to be included in Link-Friday…  So, this may be one of the last Link-Fridays for a little while.  Keep your eyes open, because you never know when the next Link-Friday post will once again pop up.  And, on that note, here are the links!

Our first link is to a fun video that was on one of the local news outlets.  This link leads us to a man who made a “Star Wars” type video based on him playing music from the Star Wars movies on his cello.  The article that accompanied the video brought up a good point that I wish to repeat – would Darth Vader actually do something that silly?  You be the judge.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 10

Welcome to another Link-Friday!  I was looking at the list of links that I keep on the back burner and noticed that the list is, like, huge!  When I first started to compile links for Link-Friday I would always have a hard time coming up with five (why I chose five I will never know…).  Now I’m having a hard time whittling the list down to five.  So, welcome to our first Link-Friday Link Clearinghouse!  So, I’m going to spit out as many one or two liners and links as will fit in this little post.  So, with luck on my side, here goes…

Our first link is one I wished that I had known about for the holidays – making home-made candles out of citrus fruit.  Here are a couple of links to it:

Links-R-Us, Vol. 9

Thanks again for tuning into another episode of Link-Friday.  May your day be better for the visit!

Welcome once again to another Link-Friday!  Looking back on previous posts I have discovered that almost half of the Link-Friday posts have missed the mark by at least one day.  So, I am officially declaring any day that a Link-Friday post comes out is an honorary Friday.  And with all that being said, on to todays links.

My first link is to a story I had not heard about.  My brother who stayed with us for Christmas told me about this one.  Apparently Bank of America tried to foreclose on a couple that had paid cash on their home and did not have a mortgage.  After hearing the case, the court sided with the couple (becuase they had never had a mortgage with Bank of America) and it ordered BofA to pay for court costs.  Well, when BofA did not pay up the couple’s attorney showed up with the sheriff and foreclosed on the local branch – seizing all the assets of the bank.  Movers were standing by with the sheriff and his deputies until an hour later the manager gave the couple a check for the amount owed.  The couple’s next move is to sue for their legal fees.  This really seems like poetic justice in the aftermath of all the improper foreclosures we’ve read about. The link includes the story as well as a video.  Enjoy:

Links-R-Us, Vol. 8

Wow…  It’s been a while since I last posted something – too long for my comfort.

When I started blogging, I had two main goals I wanted to accomplish: blog often and blog something that would be interesting for the reader.   Call it my “all-you-can-eat” buffet of thoughts – lots of good food that you return for often…  Unfortunately the quantity hasn’t quite worked out as well as I had hoped, but with any luck the quality of the content has been satisfying for those who have chosen to partake…  I thank you for listening to me rant, but that’s not what I’m writing about today.  Today is once again Link-Friday!

Today I am starting with a couple of similar links.  The first is the movie trailer for part one of The Hobbit.  The movie isn’t scheduled to come out until a year from now, but the first trailer is up and it looks good!  The second link is the announcement of Lego: Lord of the Rings for game systems.  I have four children waiting with baited breath for that puppy to show up.  Unfortunately, it isn’t scheduled to come out until July 2012.  Enjoy:

Links-R-Us, Vol. 7

Once again Link-Friday is upon us.  It seems like it’s been only a couple of days since the last time that I was blogging a Link-Friday post…  Oh, wait, it was.  Well…  On that note…  Here we go!

Our first link is a video link revisiting something that occurred nearly four decades ago – the D. B. Cooper case.  For those who were too young to be born when this occurred, let me just say that D. B. Cooper hijacked an airplane and demanded $200,000 in ransom money.  He then parachuted out of the plane as it flew him to a new destination.  It’s the only unsolved hijacking case in the United States.  New evidence surfaced a few years ago and this link talks about the potential closing of the case:

Links-R-Us, Vol. 6

Welcome to Link Friday.  Oh, wait…  It’s Tuesday.  Ok, ok…  So I’m trying to compensate for not blogging for over a week and missing my target date for another Link Friday.  You’d think with last Friday being the sixth weekly installment of Link Friday I would have hit the deadline.  I wish I had…  I had planned to…  But, as seems to be the case as of late, life interrupted my blogging hobby.  Who knew?!  So, without digging myself any deeper into this pit of explanation, here’s Link Friday plus four days…

My first link this week is a rather fun one – and it’s also our video link of the week.  This link is to a smartphone and robot that are capable of solving a Rubik’s cube faster than the world champion.  If you want to watch more, after the video is finished there are other, larger cubes that this robot can solve too.  I really never knew that my smartphone had this much potential:

Links-R-Us, Vol. 5

Once again Link Friday is upon us.  I must apologize for the lateness of this post (it is Saturday after all).  Instead of writing last night I spent the evening with my parents celebrating their 53^rd wedding anniversary (way to go, Mom & Dad!).  Hopefully that’s a good enough of an excuse that you’ll forgive my tardiness this time.  Now, on to the links!

Our first link is in commemoration of the annual “Black Friday” circus.  I found this article on the Toronto Suns’ website detailing this year’s carnage at Black Friday events.  I think that the best thing I took from this was that Black Friday was used by retailers to denote when their stores went from being in the red to black (financially).  Good luck with that…

Links-R-Us, Vol. 4

It is once again link Friday. I’m sort of embarrassed that once again Friday is upon me and I haven’t written anything since last week. But please rest assured that I am writing more than just links.  And when all is ready those posts will be available for all to read.  So, without further ado, here we go!

Links-R-Us, Vol. 3

Once again link Friday is upon us.  This is no ordinary link Friday, though.

Firstly, today is Veterans Day.  I just want to thank all the Veterans that are out there for their service to each one of us and to our country.  Your sacrifices are truly appreciated and I will forever be in you and your family’s debt.  Thank you!

And secondly, this is the one, the only, 11-11-11 link Friday.  What’s in a number you might ask?  I don’t know.  What I do know is that I’m old enough that I will never ever see an 11-11-11 date again in my lifetime.  So, on that note, cheers!

Links-R-Us, Vol. 2

Welcome to Link Friday.  With that being said, here goes!

Our fist link is one that is sort of a blast from the past.  Both my Father and I used to work for the Federal Government at one point – he as a civil servant in an office, myself as a supply clerk for a government contractor.  It’s an interesting read, but it definitely not humorous.  It’s sad, really, the disparity between the pay of the civil servant, contractor employee and the contractor.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 1

Well, it’s Friday morning.  I wish today actually felt like a Friday.  Instead, I feel like I’m just a hollow shell.  Haven’t you ever felt that way?  Everything should be awesome, but it’s not?  You must live with what is, but you can’t fix it and things will never be the same…  That’s my Friday this week.

But enough of that…

Seeing how this is my first of many posts with links that sparked my interest, how about I explain my thought process to you just this once?  Over the past couple of days I have been copying down links that have really peaked my interest.  Along with the links, I’m gonna write a small little blurb that hopefully explains “why” I was interested in the link.  With that said, here goes…