Welcome to Katfrog's Corner

While today's generation knows technological terms, at one point in time certain words and/or phrases meant  something else entirely.  For the record, these definitions come from "The Backwoods Guide to Computer Lingo" by Dave Nilsen and the illustrations are the creations of Dennis Cox at D. J. Art & Design.

Requiem for a Redneck by John P. Schulz

Okay, instead of discussing the world and all the accompanying sadness, today I share with you some College Humor, a YouTube channel that creates funny (or not so funny) sketches.  This is from one of my favorite series, Troopers. Happy Christmas Eve!!!

Today is my Dad's 75th birthday.  In honor of today, and the fact that he always jokes that he was born in a barn, I wrote him a poem to commemorate his birthday. Born in a Barn In the middle of the night, by the light of noon, A rooster jumped up, Started playing a spoon. The hens joined in On the old, rusty saw Then the pigs jumped in With a screech and a caw. The horses stood up And danced a foxtrot. A fox sneaked up To dance the robot. Cows shook hands saying “What a fine bloke!” While the ox began To play his yoke. He put it to his mouth To blow like a horn. The farm celebrated ‘cause Chris Yoder was born! Happy Birthday, Dad!!!!!!

While today's generation knows technological terms, at one point in time certain words and/or phrases meant  something else entirely.  For the record, these definitions come from "The Backwoods Guide to Computer Lingo" by Dave Nilsen and the illustrations are the creations of Dennis Cox at D. J. Art & Design.

Welcome to the End of the World edition of Freaky Friday News!  Assuming that the world magically survives until tomorrow, I rashly gathered the funniest and freakiest news to share with you to read over the weekend.  Without further ado, on to the first story.. Golden Eagle Snatches Kid Not really.  This video was created by four students in an animation class in Montreal as the final project of the semester.  While they put the video up as part of the assignment in a attempt to gather feedback, I don't think the students expected the viral explosion that boomed afterwards.  Several people thought the video was real, passing a link to the video around with warning about the golden eagle.  Local ornithologists even started to analyze the behavior of the bird, complaining because that type of eagle is almost never seen in Montreal.  Personally, I think the video shows talent and imagination from these students, and I sincerely hope that they got an A+ for this course. To

A year or two ago, I heard a funny group sing a song about how most music hits are created with four chords.  The video was taken at a show, so the quality wasn't the best.  But I laughed at the song, and promptly forgot about it. Fast forward until today - a new video shows up on YouTube's front page.  It's the official music video for "4 Chords".  I watched it again, laughed out loud, and decided that after all the tragedy in the news, maybe we need something funny. So, without further ado, here is the Axis of Awesome !!!

Image from Flickr Creative Commons under an Attribution license Artist:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffery2010/

I want to discuss the shooting at the elementary school today.  When I first heard about the shootings, I wondered about the fallout for society.  Would politicians try to use the situation to pass more gun control laws?  While I support gun control, I felt like this would not solve the problem.   Then I thought, but what really is the problem?  There is a feeling that mass shootings are on the rise, and this is the problem.  But contrary to popular sentiment, mass shootings are not on the rise.  If you look over the past 30 years, we have a few sporadic bubbles of mass shootings, but generally there are either 0 or 1 a year.  Sadly, this year contains a bubble, but chances are exceptionally good that we won't have any next year. Is the problem a lack of security in the school systems, workplaces, or public areas?  No, we have reasonable security everywhere so far as I can tell.  If anything, some areas security has become obnoxiously invasion.  But I will stay off my TSA soapbo

A friend of mine asked me why I left Facebook, and she wanted more information that I previously posted. Here's the deal.  Facebook set up an arrangement that allowed its users to vote on policy changes, with the vote only counting if enough people participated.   Then Facebook announced that it was breaking its own rules and removing the voting system, as well as making other privacy changes.  When enough people pointed out that this was a bad idea, Facebook backed down and let the users vote on the policy changes.  I don't know what happened after that, because I stopped following the story since I left Facebook before then. First, I never knew that I could vote on policy changes on Facebook, and I am the type of person who keeps track of that type of opportunity.  The first time I heard about the voting system was the email from Facebook telling me that the voting system was going away.  If Facebook has the resources and wherewithal to send out an email explaining the

While I've written a post or two about how to deal with trolls, it occurred to me that maybe a little public education would help the situation.  In other words, maybe some trolls are really just misguided people.  To that end, I've created guidelines for how not be to an Internet troll. Stay on topic.  This seems simple, but it is quite easy to read a post that mentions either someone or something that triggers a strong emotional response.  Then acting on that response, you post your opinion on that someone or something, even if your opinion is not really on topic.  For example, locally there was a big, public debate about the school calendar, with certain board members vocal about opposite sides.  For several months after the debate, if a news article mentioned the name of one of the school board members, there was inevitably one or two comments that ranted about the school calendar regardless of the topic of the article.  Do you know how annoying it becomes to read an

While today's generation knows technological terms, at one point in time certain words and/or phrases meant  something else entirely.  For the record, these definitions come from "The Backwoods Guide to Computer Lingo" by Dave Nilsen and the illustrations are the creations of Dennis Cox at D. J. Art & Design.

Imagine that you are from another planet, hiding out on Earth with your own guardian, waiting for these killers to find you and kill you.  This is the premise behind the movie, "I Am Number Four". Small spoiler alert:  In the beginning of the movie, you learn that nine children from the planet Lorién escaped to Earth after the Mogadorians invaded their planet, killing everyone.  Now, the Mogadorians are on Earth, tracking down and killing the remaining Loriéns before moving on to invade Earth. I find myself pausing, attempting to describe the movie without giving away an already thin plot.  This movie is a combination chick flick and action movie, ready made for a teenage date.  The Bad Guys are Bad Guys, there is no confusion there.  The protagonist, John Smith, sounds like an alien James Dean from "Rebel Without a Cause", only here it would be "Alien Rebel With a Cause".  Henri, John's guardian, is Stoic Man, able to confront any situation wit

The Accidental Spaceship by Gene Hunt My rating: 4 of 5 stars What would you do with your own spaceship? That's the question asked in "The Accidental Spaceship". The story begins with an slight error in a shipping company; a spaceship destined for the 31st century gets send to the 21st century instead. It lands at a farm with the 13-year-old twins, Vernon and Junior Smith. The author, Gene Hunt, spends exactly the right amount of time introducing the boys, losing the ship, and then having the boys figure out what to do with the ship. Mr. Hunt even includes an antagonist, though to say more would be spoiling it. I loved reading this book. The plot felt simple in that there are no secrets or multiple threads of story, but the plot didn't feel thin or skimpy. I like the characters in the story, how they interact with each other, and how they think. And while the story felt finished at the end, my only complaint is that I want more Vernon and Junior stories

Game Name:   Cogs Game Type:  Puzzle Created by:   Lazy 8 Studios Platforms:  Android, PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Netbook, Steam (on PC and Mac) Ratings:  E for Everyone (This is my own ratings for the game.  There is no violence, nudity, sexual references, drug references, or bad language.) metascore:   73/100    (from  metacritic ) My Score:   90/100 I love puzzle games.  I love having to logically figure out the answers to problems, and Cogs has enough spatial problems to consume several afternoons-worth of time. The point of the game is quite simple.  Move the gears... or the pipes... to make the creations play music, turn one or more gold gears, fill balloons, pop-up clowns, or just fly. I must warn you, though, that the puzzles get harder as you go.  The first puzzles take a little time, as you learn the interface as well as solve the puzzles.  In fact, I earned every gold star on every puzzle for the first 10 or so puzzles.  Then, I hit the wall a