Ban Anagrams

Just kidding. I don't want to ban anagrams, but I'd like to see a "Bananagram". You know, a message written on a banana or something.

It turns out that "ban anagrams" is an anagram of "bananagrams". A really weak one, yeah, but still an anagram, and that is what I want to talk about today: Anagrams (not bananagrams).

A few weeks back I got wondering if there were anagrams for my name. That led to looking up other names, anything that came to mind. Having just read the news, a lot of names came from the headlines. Here's a summary of what I found:

Daniel A Palmer = A Plain Emerald, A Remedial Plan, A Marlin Leaped

Senator Harry Reid = Ornate Hairdryers

Kate Gosselin = Lankiest Egos, Seeking Altos, Got Leakiness, or my favorite: Goat Likeness

Nancy Pelosi = Soy Pinnacle, Clips Anyone, Nosy Pelican, and Epic As Nylon

Joe Biden = I Need Job

Sarah Palin = A Sharp Nail

Governor Sarah Palin = Agrarian Shovel Porn, Granola Vapor Shiner

Vegetarian = Irate Vegan, Ate Vinegar, I Avenge Art, and Eat in Grave

British Petroleum = Oh, Trump Liberties, Trout Belie Shrimp

Rocky Mountain Power = Outworn Porky Iceman, Know Your Importance, Manpower Unity Crook, I Am No Rocky Power Nut

President Obama = Impersonate Bad, A Baptism Redone, Entombs a Diaper, Arabised Top Men, Pie Store Badman, Men Abroad Spite, Morbid Satan Pee, and my favorite: A Dope Tribesman

It's a Mystery

So it's been a really long time since I posted anything. There has been a lot going on lately, but very little of it has been "blog-worthy". This may not be, either, but I'm okay with that.

One of the many projects I've been working on the last few weeks is a way to encrypt text (or any data, really) inside a computer image. I got the idea from news coverage of those Russian spies, and figured if a bunch of Russian spies could figure out how to do it, I could too. It turns out I was right.

The following two images look the same. The only difference is that one of them contains the entire text of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" encrypted inside it. If you were to load the image into my encryption application it would pull out all 326,000 characters and allow you to read the book.

Amazingly, the text takes up no space in the image, nor does it change the appearance in any appreciable way. If you zoom in on each image and go from one to the next, you'll see tiny changes in a few of the pixels, but you can't tell the difference in the pictures at their normal resolution.

Anyway, I'm excited about it, and I'm looking for ways to use it in a productive manner. There are probably only 2 or 3 people reading this that understand what I've done, and maybe only one of those that cares, but at least it's a new post, right?

Mozzarella di Bufala

I could just dive into that and swim around a bit. With my mouth open, of course.

Who You Gonna Call?

How Did We Survive

How did we ever survive before Infomercial products came into our lives?

What's your favorite Infomercial?

Monday Afternoon Humor

Yes, I have a sick sense of humor. Some people like it, some people don't. Some people have made posters that match it perfectly. Here are some examples from www.despair.com:

The Juice is Loose

Am I 16 years too slow putting the pieces together, or has nobody else realized that Starburst stopped using their "The Juice is Loose" slogan during the OJ Simpson trial? It's amazing where your mind will wander if you let it.

Best Idea Ever

Papacists

It's sad that despite how far we've come as a society things like this still go on.

Bound to be Bound

Bound is an unbelievably strange and contradictory word, if you ask me. You probably didn't ask, but since I brought it up and you're here anyway you might as well read about it.

I came across the word bound as I was looking for synonyms for "Spring" so that I could post about how happy I was that Spring was almost here without having to title the post something as silly as "Spring is Coming!"

So before I get to my boring "Spring is Coming" post, you're stuck reading about my thoughts on the word "bound".

It's odd, I tell you. Really odd. And did I mention contradictory? You can be bound, as with bonds. But, once you break those bonds you can bound away, free as a bird (except a jailbird, which is still bound). Maybe this isn't all that great a contradiction, but in my mind it sort of is. If I'm bound with ropes, there's not much I can do. I can barely move, so how can I bound (verb)?

The real contradiction, the one that has confused me for a long time, comes with the word "-bound" (notice the '-'). When you add the word "bound" to other words it has one of two meanings: either you're stuck somewhere (snowbound) or you're heading somewhere (northbound).

My question is: If you're "Homebound" are you stuck at home, or are you going home?

If you're "Snowbound" are you stuck somewhere due to snow, or are you heading into the snow in the mountains to ski or something?

If you're "Troublebound" are you heading for trouble, or stuck somewhere because of it?

Hopefully you can see my confusion. Maybe it's just context that makes the difference. Nobody would think that a "homebound" widow was on her way home. But she still could be...

In other news, I'm glad that Spring's on its way!

It's nice to not have to wear a jacket everywhere I go. It's nice to be able to spend time outside enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of nature. I've repeatedly warned Annie that we're going to do a lot more hiking this year. There are lots of places we've never been and I'm excited to get out and see them. Plus, I'm finally in good enough shape to take on any hike out there.

We probably won't do much camping, but that's just because we both prefer sleeping in a regular bed and showering every day. Maybe one day we'll be more outdoorsy, but for now we'll be daytrippin' it.

Hopefully when you hear from us over the next 6 months and we say we're "naturebound" you'll know that we're heading out into nature, not trapped in it.