Fun Fact Friday!

Today is Friday. Perhaps the greatest Friday thus far in my life. (Okay okay, at the very least the greatest Friday in the Rangers' loving aspect of my life.) So, of course I have some fun facts for you!

Ballpark nachos were invented at Arlington Stadium.

If Apple were a country, it would be 33rd in the world in economic ranking.

from ceoworld.biz

Now, maybe this was common knowledge and I'm just behind, but The Lion King is based off of Hamlet. Whoa, go Disney!

from tcnj.edu

And with that, I wish you the best of Fridays, perhaps filled with Disney movies or what look to be some great baseball games!

Fun Fact Friday!

It's Friday, and this Friday is really one like no other. For the first time in the history of the Texas Rangers, they are up two games to zero in a playoff series. For the first time EVER, in any lifetime. Before this week, they had only won a single playoff game, ever. It hasn't been easy being a Ranger fan, but it's a lot of fun right now (so I apologize for talking about it a lot, I will reassure you like I have my roommates that no matter what happens I will only be in this single minded baseball daze for a few more weeks).

Also, if you're curious, this post explains my love for baseball, and how in some ways it's not so different from my love for books.


Now, on to those fun facts!

The quantity of coffee that is consumed per year in the U.S., drips in the form of water from leaky faucets each day. To make this even more mind boggling, 31 olympic sized pools worth of coffee is consumed each DAY, so multiply that out over a year, and that's what drips from faucets in one day.

from Planet-coffee.net

Anyone watch Modern Family? (If not, I highly highly recommend you do.) (And if you haven't seen this week's episode, watch this clip before reading on.)

Recognize Pepper's voice?

I texted my sister during the show, asking if he was from Mouse Hunt (that movie with the mouse and the cheese and the traps and that single piece of string...you know... that one). She thought he was, then commented that I remember the weirdest things.

But after doing some research on IMDB, all I had to say to my roommate was Ernie from Mouse Hunt, and she knew that his name was Nathan Lane. Also? He's the voice of Timon.

From lionking.org

And I can't resisting having one fun fact in my Texas Rangers' honor...

There were 5,116 days between their first playoff victory and their second.

Just think about everything that happened in your life over that time... That's a lot of days.

But TODAY is FRIDAY, so please, do go and enjoy it!

(Also,  I am doing my best to reconcile this whole playoffs and school and midterms problem and actually put together a fully coherent blog post...please hang with me.)

Fun Fact Friday - October style!

Today is not only Friday, and the day that J.K. Rowling is on Oprah, but it's the first day of October!

Now, the only part of October that really matters to me is that October = baseball playoffs. But, I was thinking, surely there are some FUN FACTS about October... and there are!

Among other things, October is National Pretzel Month, National Class Reunion Month, and Frugal Fun Month.

from www.foodsubs.com

More American presidents were born in October than in any other month.

On October 25th, St. Crispins day - the Patron Saint of Shoemakers - is celebrated.

Daylight savings time officially ends every year at 2:00AM local time on the last Sunday of October.


So, go eat some pretzels, have a class reunion, and... wear some shoes?

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Fun Fact Friday!

Yep, it's Friday! My first friday of the new school year, and it is quite welcomed. But nothing makes a Friday better than some fun facts, right? Please, just humor me.

1. Ants are the only animals that can survive in an operating microwave.

2. Under a full moon this week, coral will have a mass mating party. Seriously. Read about it.

From noao.edu

3. According to my page-a-day calendar, it is Wednesday, August 26th, 2009. Just so you know.

4. This song is currently driving my WIP. And it's awesome. I do recommend a listen.

And so, I wish you a very happy Friday!

Fun Fact Friday!

So I'm home for a few days before my SENIOR YEAR begins (I can't really believe it, even though I am beyond ready for it), and thus today's fun fact will be just that - only one.

Every time I'm home I like to look through my spirals that I wrote in growing up, both to laugh at myself and inspire myself. Every single one of them mentions numerous times how being an author is my dream and why it is my dream, and it's always fun to know that my 10 year-old self and 21 year-old self agree.

But anyway, ONWARDS with the fun fact!

In one of my spirals, I have a list of 188 questions I have about the world (which is by no means a comprehensive list). 188 questions which, by the way, are all written in mirror writing. Mirror writing. I faintly remember teaching myself how to do that when I was bored in class in high school (I think because Leonardo da Vinci wrote like that, and I was all inspired).

The problem? I never really taught myself how to read it, and it takes way too much energy. But I did make out question #188... How long before humans will become obsolete?

Yeah, kinda bleak...so...anyway...HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Fun Fact Friday - It's a Small World

So these past couple of weeks I have fallen in love with this song, Breathe, which I actually discovered because it was iTune's free song of the week once upon a time.

The trivia part of this? Ryan Star actually sings the theme song for the TV show, Lie To Me. I have seen one episode of that show, during which this scene happened. Go watch. I'll wait!

A. SO CUTE. Especially in the context of the episode (which had something to do with a bomb threat and the need to distract the kids from what was really happening to them through songs and lying).

B. SO CATCHY. I was singing the "white lies" part of this days after I first saw it back in December.

I discovered he sang the theme song when I was trying to find the aforementioned song Breathe on YouTube, which led me to the discovery of the White Lies scene. It was like it was meant to be.

I think this proves that the world is small. Or at least the YouTube world.

But just in case that wasn't trivia enough for you on this Friday, I leave you with this...

In Major League baseball, once the ball leaves the pitcher's hand, there are 2.6 million different things that can happen, taking into account, of course, every possible situation in which a pitch could be thrown. WOW.

And this:

The caffeine that is removed from coffee to make it decaf often winds up in soda. See? Small world. I bet you thought your soda caffeine was special.


HAPPY FRIDAY!

Fun Fact Friday!

It's Friday! Add to that some fun facts and a long weekend and, well, I'd say it's a pretty spectacular Friday.

So without further adieu, I shall impart my plethora of useless trivia to you...

1. Snakes who have the genetic mutation of having been born with two heads have a hard time eating, because the two heads generally fight over which gets the food.

From islandcrisis.net

2. A blue whale's tongue weighs more than an elephant.
3. Agatha Christie acquired her extensive knowledge of poisons while working in a hospital dispensary during World War I.
4. Seventy percent of house dust is made up of dead skin flakes. So, yes. By dusting you are creating more dust. Lovely.


Happy Friday, and Happy Labor Day!

Fun Fact Friday!

Fridays are pretty spectacular. Almost always. You know what makes them more fun (or any day more fun, for that matter)??

FUN FACTS!

And I have realized my sister and I are more alike than I thought, because while she had to remind me of my love of random facts by giving me a subscription to a magazine full of them, I actually had a long word document full of them years and years ago. So today my fun facts will be pulled from those... I do believe you will learn a lot. Ready??

1.     By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand. You know,  just in case... my friend did lose a shoe in quicksand once...
2.   The porpoise is second to man as the most intelligent animal on the planet.

from www.igougo.com
Did you know that's what a Porpoise looks like? Because I didn't!

3.   George Washington died the last hour of the last day of the last week of the last month of the last year of the 18th century.
4.   About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it. Yes, I do believe you needed to know this in order to have a proper Friday.
5.   According to the film's animators, you'll see 6,469,952 black spots every time you watch 101 Dalmatians.

From www.examiner.com

6.    10 percent of all human beings ever born are alive at this very moment.


Um, I officially want to go watch 101 Dalmations now. Nevertheless, Happy Friday!

Fun Fact Friday!

For my birthday, my wonderful sister gave me not only a lifetime supply of pens, but also a subscription to Mental Floss. At some point in the months prior to my birthday, she asked me, "Lauren, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being absolutely loathe them and 10 being wouldn't rather hear anything else, how much do you love random facts?" I think I answered a seven, so I am now receiving this magazine filled with... you guessed it! Random facts!!

Lucky for you, it means Fun Fact Fridays will now have considerably less facts originating from my summer job in the travel industry.

So, here you go! ( I do hope you are somewhere above a five on the random fact scale, which would mean you actually enjoy these...)

1. The average body yields enough carbon to make 240 pencils.
2. A single happy friend is worth about $45,000. (I promise I'm not making this up - it was researched by someone with credentials.)
3. Half the people who have ever walked the Earth died of malaria.
4. Since I always have a writing related fun fact... I added my first song to my SNI playlist, which will hopefully soon be my new WIP! The song is this. I'm not sure why... don't judge me! (Okay except watching this music video and remembering how much I actually dislike Taylor Swift makes me wish it wasn't the first song... oh well!)


Thursday morning I woke up wondering how it was already Thursday. By the time I left work that afternoon I was convinced it was Friday. The good news? Today actually IS Friday! So Happy Friday! I do hope you enjoy it.

Fun Fact Friday!

Okay, I've been failing on the fun fact fridays lately... my apologies! I work at a place that plans customized international trips for people, so I learn a lot of useless facts about random cities and countries. That's where a lot of these fun facts come from. My coworkers and I have decided that we'd be very good at jeopardy. Anyway, here they are! Oh, and happy Friday!

1. An elephant has 50,000 muscles in its trunk alone.

From www.treehugger.com

2. The world's largest cuckoo clock is in Wiesbaden, Germany.
3. Frederick Chopin's heart is in an urn inside a column in a church in Warsaw. Is it just me, or is that odd?
4. I sent my first query letter EVER this week, and then some more! (I'll have a post about querying in a couple of days...)

A (delayed) Fun Fact Friday - holiday edition!

My fun fact fell into my lap last Friday while I was at work, but I went straight from there to the airport to home and a busy weekend combined with no laptop means I will share the fact today. It's a holiday fact, and today is a holiday, so I think it works. I even carried it around in my pocket this whole time, though now I think I have it memorized anyway.

I, as an engine, am coffee powered right now. And it's faltering a little. So after 9.5 hours of traveling (about four more than it should have been) and very little sleep, I don't have much more than a fun fact to say. OH, except for saying that I read The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins this weekend and it was incredible. I love good books. Go read that one, if you haven't already!

Okay, the fun fact is....
Riga, Latvia was the home of the first Christmas tree in 1510.
Who knew?

Happy Memorial Day!

Fun Fact Friday

So as I mentioned in my last post, I am was writing out my WIP on legal pads. I'll even prove it to you - see?

It was so enjoyable - while it lasted - because for some reason I still love writing longhand, even though I am a quicker typer. But then, yesterday, I remembered why I always end up typing it anyway. I like being able to write ideas and paragraphs that won't occur for awhile, or possibly ever. I like the freedom of writing something and then adding in a paragraph before it moments later. 

But the kicker was realizing I need to change the structure that I started with originally, and the wonders of the computer just make that so much simpler. So I'm typing up everything I've written so far and then moving forward, because I haven't been this excited about something I'm writing in a long time! Love this feeling.

So I'm new to blogging (which is probably obvious), but I notice that people follow a semblance of a schedule, so I hereby announce that Fridays are Fun Fact Friday. The inspiration comes from my father, who would listen to this radio station when I was growing up that had "Joke Fridays." Every Friday on his way home from work they would have a segment of jokes, which he would kindly share over dinner. Some were funny and some were ridiculous. I'll tell you one, and I'm going to pretend to answer for you then tell you the real answer. You just have to promise not to look ahead. Okay? Okay.

What did Tarzan say when he saw the elephants running up the hill?

(In my experience, a typical answer is huh? I don't know)

Answer: Here come the elephants!!

So, what did Tarzan say when he saw the elephants running up the hill with sunglasses on?

(A typical answer: Here come the elephants with sunglasses on?)

Nope!

Answer: Nothing. He didn't recognize them!!

Yes, this is what Fridays were like at my house growing up. I'm going to pretend like you are laughing at my joke right now.

Anyway, I don't have enough jokes but I've got plenty of fun facts. Today I even have two! Both related to my work in progress. (Which I temporarily titled yesterday, inspired by comments on my last post to come up with one towards the beginning. The title?? All For You. We'll see if it sticks...)

1. Did you know that nine weeks after conception a fetus' head is half of it's length?

Yes, I learned this doing research for my book, and for some reason that just seemed odd/ a little disturbing.

2. This is the first song I added to my All For You playlist. It's also just a song I love, so I thought I would share...

Happy Friday!