Information is Beautiful when Couchsurfing

• Go ahead use Duolingo and play with Justin Guitar.
• Or would you rather go Couchsurfing?
• But maybe you need Spreeder.
• If Spreeder doesn’t work for you, rest assured that Information is Beautiful.
• But to apply all of this, you may need Investopedia.

Okay, okay enough of me rattling off nonsensical phrases. These unusual terms are excerpted from an article tweeted by someone I am following on Twitter called 25 Killer Websites that Make You Cleverer. Here is what was intriguing to me:

Duolingo is a free version of Rosetta Stone that teaches another language.

A guy named Justin wanted to help people learn guitar. So he created free guitar lessons on his website called Justin Guitar.

Couchsurfing is a website that connects people all over the world to experience other cultures. You can meet locals in a community you will be visiting through social networking.

Spreeder teaches you to read faster without an inner voice to slow you down. And it’s free.

Information is Beautiful takes written information and turns it into visuals like graphs and bubbles.

Investopedia is a news blog that makes it easy to digest and really understand the financial markets.

I was so excited about learning this new information that I wanted to share it with other people. Today’s gift was to share this with my friends on the telephone and in email so that maybe they will use Spreeder to read my blogs faster, leaving them more time to do some Couchsurfing.

In Giving,

Robin

Freeing a Jailbird

Here are a couple humorous scenes from a television show most of you will remember:

Barney Fife:

Andy, I have this one dead to rights! Otis was drunk. I even gave him a test. I drew a line on the sidewalk and told him to walk it. You know what he said?

Andy Taylor:

What?

Barney Fife:

He asked what line. I’ve got this one right, Andy. Otis was drunk!

Andy Taylor:

That right, Otis? Did you ask Deputy Fife what line?

Otis Campbell:

Yeah; but I didn’t have my specs on and drunk or sober, I can’t see much without my specs.

Andy Taylor:

Otis, three hours ago when Deputy Fife arrested you, were you drunk?

Otis Campbell:

I don’t know I wasn’t wearing my glasses.

In another scene:

Barney Fife:

Now this is the well-known inkblot test. Now I'm gonna show you this design and I want you to tell me what it looks like...I just want you to tell me the FIRST thing that comes into your mind…just say ANYTHING you think of, okay? Ready?

Otis Campbell:

That's a bat.

Barney Fife:

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG!

If you were a child of the 1960’s you probably remembered that these two scenes were from the Andy Griffith Show. Everything that I knew about jail I learned from watching Otis Campbell, the town drunk, get locked up in the Mayberry Jail.

I was reminded there are other types of jails—the ones where people are trapped inside their own bodies. Diseases like Muscular Dystrophy cause people’s muscles to weaken over time until they can no longer control them.

That feeling is being recognized by the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). They are putting citizens in “jail” and raising bail for them to get released by getting donations from their friends and family. The donations will help children and adults with muscle disease in my community who are supported by the vital work of the MDA.

Today’s gift was to give money for Pastor Stuart Bond’s bail to release him from jail. I’m sure if Otis was still alive he’d support the effort of releasing jail birds based on raising money for a good cause.

In Giving,

Robin

Red and White Polka Dots

It was an unusually sunny, dry day in the mountains of West Virginia. Dad drove the curvy, hairpin turns so fast, I could hear my luggage slide around in the trunk. Mom told me to stare at the double yellow centerline painted on the road. She knew if I glanced down, even just long enough to tie my shoe, that we’d be pulling over to the side of the road. Over the years she had tried every trick in the world to combat my carsickness, but nothing seemed to work.

Mom knew that my emotions were high, which would probably trigger the inevitable. She tried to distract me by initiating games for my brother and me to play. My favorite was the “A, B, C Game.” But my brother and I would get in a fight because I said he always cheated. He saw letters on signs that we’d already passed, so it couldn’t be verified. In hindsight, I know he just wanted to win so he could get back to reading his comic book. It took an especially long time to play because on the narrow mountain roads there were no billboards. Matter of fact there were very few signs at all. Oh, there was an occasional tobacco advertisement and maybe a road sign saying that we were 100 miles from nowhere, but that was it.

Mom decided that she might as well start preparing me for what was coming when they left me at camp for a whole two weeks. I was 10 years old and had only stayed away from home for a few nights travelling with my grandparents, but never this long and without my family. My brother snickered at me because he would have the rule of the roost with my parent’s undivided attention. Mom said I could call collect if I needed them and they would be there in 3½ hours. She told me she was certain I would have fun. I wasn’t quite so sure—there were bugs and snakes and who knows what other wild animals lurking in the woods.

They walked me into the big lodge where the camp counselors lure the parents into thinking this is a safe place for little kids like me. I just knew as soon as they walked out the door it would be kiddie boot camp. When Mom said goodbye she got tears in her eyes, especially when she saw my bottom lip quiver and knowing that my blubbering would follow shortly thereafter. My brother had tears in his eyes too because he was laughing so hard that I had to go to camp and he didn’t.

Things were going pretty well after I met some other girls. Meeting some really cute boys helped too. After dinner we were told that activities for the next day were going to be different than listed on the agenda. I thought, “Oh no, here it comes.” This is different than the schedule they gave our parents to make them think this camp would be fun. Now the drudgery starts. They said because of predicted rain, the hiking and camping trip would be moved to another day. We would still have outdoor activities so we should get our rain gear ready.

When I got back to my cabin and looked for my little red coat with large white polka dots, it wasn’t in my suitcase. I told my counselor and she said they’d find it.

The next morning it was cold and wet. I wasn’t sure what I would do, but hoped they’d think of something. We had indoor crafts in the morning as we listened to the song Bridge Over Troubled Waters . . . yeah, that described me. That afternoon we would venture outside in the rain for an ecology lesson.

My long face brightened when I saw my counselor carrying my red coat with the white polka dots! My dad had driven the entire distance to drop it off and then drove back home. I learned later that he and mom were afraid that if I saw him I’d want to leave camp. So their plan for him to sneak in and out without me knowing it, worked. That little red polka dot raincoat got used a lot during the next two weeks because it rained most of the time that I was there.

I was reminded of my helpless feeling when I heard about the homeless people in our town that needed warm clothing. Our church announced that it is collecting coats and winter clothes.

Today’s gift was to gather Tim’s and my winter clothes and drop them off for someone who so desperately needs them. I can’t give someone the comfort that my polka dot coat gave a scared little girl, but at least the clothes will help keep them warm and dry.

In Giving,

Robin

Accident Reports

Below are statements found on insurance claim forms where automobile drivers attempted to summarize the details of an accident in the fewest possible words.

·      Coming home I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don't have.

·      The other car collided with mine without giving me warning of its intention.

·      I thought my window was down, but I found it was up when I put my head through it.

·      I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way.

·      The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve several times before I hit him.

·      I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother in law and headed over the embankment.

·      In an attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.

·      I had been driving for 40 years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.

·      I was on the way to the doctor with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident and damage my big end.

·      As I approached the intersection a sign appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid the accident.

·      To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front I stuck a pedestrian.

·      My car was legally parked as it backed into another vehicle.

·      An invisible car came out of nowhere, stuck my car and vanished.

·      I was sure the old fellow would never make it to the other side of the road when I struck him.

·      The pedestrian had no idea which direction to run. So I ran over him.

·      I saw a slow moving, sad faced old gentleman as he bounced off the roof of my car.

·      The indirect cause of the accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth.

·      I was thrown from my car as it left the road. I was later found in a ditch by some stray cows.

·      The telephone pole was approaching. I was attempting to swerve out the way when I struck the front end.

·      The accident was caused by me waving to the man I hit last week.

·      I knocked over a man, he admitted it was his fault as he'd been knocked over before.

In almost every one of these statements the person driving the car didn’t take the blame. Instead it is someone else’s fault. The person driving didn’t take responsibility for their actions. I realized that I hadn’t been taking responsibility for something.

I have read about how damaging plastic grocery bags are to the natural environment—they affect marine life if they get in the ocean, take a lot of energy to produce and take a long time to decompose in the landfill. It is a hassle to remember to gather the bags and return them to the grocery store to recycle.

Today’s gift was to gather up all of our grocery bags and put them in the recycle bin at the grocery store. I will remember the laugh that these accident reports gave me so that I will take responsibility in the future.

In Giving and Laughing,

Robin