Blog Marco

There are plenty of spoof motivational posters out there, some websites even claim to have 53,000 of them! But a "good" one is a rarity, most are unfunny, crude, rude and tacky. This motivational poster makes you look twice. (!) Is it a Sexy Butt or are they a pair of sexy heels?

Blasphemy - "A ticket to Hell Has Never been funnier" - YMCA

I don't usually repost jokes but here's a goodie about what a widowed wife did with her husbands money.

There was a man who worked all of his life and saved all of his money. He was a real miser when it came to his money. He loved money more than just about anything, and just before he died, he said to his wife, "Now listen, when I die, I want you to take all my money and place it in the casket with me. I wanna take my money to the afterlife."

So he got his wife to promise him with all her heart that when he died, she would put all the money in the casket with him.

Well, one day he died. He was stretched out in the casket, the wife was sitting there in black next to her closest friend. When they finished the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket, the wife said "Wait just a minute!"

She had a shoe box with her, she came over with the box and placed it in the casket. Then the undertakers locked the casket down and rolled it away. Her friend said, "I hope you weren't crazy enough to put all that money in the casket."

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Submitted by Marco on Thu, 14/05/2009 - 8:41am.

I had my car tuned up last month. And now the car started playing up. The car is a 1989 Holden Apollo aka a rebadged Toyota Camry. The car is actually going to celebrate its 20th birthday on the 20th of October this year! Anyway, the car started to have "attitude problems" a week ago. When in neutral, the car would sputter as if it were dying. Other days it would run really smoothly. Then if the car was in a bad mood, when you're cruising, it would suddenly have difficulty in changing gears. I thought the transmission was gone. But the problem was with the high tension leads.

I brought in the car for the mechanic to check. For I know nothing about what's under the hood. I mean, I know that you need to maintain the oil levels and other lubricants under there - the air filters etc. I know the engine runs the car through valves etc... but I don't have the knowledge to diagnose the problem. Anyway - it wasn't the transmission - but the High tension leads were cracked.

After the Sudoku Fun from yesterday, I decided to try the next upcoming "craze": KenKen. First of all why is it called KenKen? "'KEN' means wisdom in Japanese. KenKen means "wisdom squared," but you'll also gain some square wisdom as you solve our puzzle blocks!". If you want to learn more you can go visit the official website here: KenKen HQ.

KenKen Rules in Solving a Puzzle

For a 3x3 puzzle, fill in with numbers 1-3.
For a 4x4 puzzle, fill in with numbers 1-4.
For a 5x5 puzzle, fill in with numbers 1-5.
For a 6x6 puzzle, fill in with the numbers 1-6.
For a 7x7 puzzle, fill in with the numbers 1-7.
For a 8x8 puzzle, fill in with the numbers 1-8.
For a 9x9 puzzle, fill in with the numbers 1-9.

Do not repeat a number in any row or column.
The numbers in each heavily outlined set of squares, called cages, must combine (in any order) to produce the target number in the top corner of the cage using the mathematical operation indicated.

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Submitted by Marco on Tue, 12/05/2009 - 12:19pm.

I knew that Sudoku was a craze a few years ago. I didn't know the rules of the game until today and have not tried a puzzle ever. I played my first game on the miniclip Sudoku page. I completed the puzzle in 17 minutes and 57 seconds. If you are into the facsinating world of mathematics you may want to read this. However there is a new puzzle craze out there called KenKen

Sudoku (数独 ,sūdoku?)is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits from 1 to 9 only one time each. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid.

Completed puzzles are usually a type of Latin square with an additional constraint on the contents of individual regions.

Schadenfreude - delight in another person's misfortune: there's a word for everything isn't there?! Usage: "The explosion in productivity, transparency, community and knowledge has been accompanied by largely unfettered pettiness, vituperation and schadenfreude." (from this opinion piece)

According to Wikipedia: Schadenfreude (IPA: [ˈʃaːdənˌfʁɔʏ̯də]) is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. The word referring to this emotion has been borrowed from German by the English language and is sometimes also used as a loanword by other languages. Philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno defined schadenfreude as “largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of another which is cognized as trivial and/or appropriate.

I was surfing around and I stumbled on a bunch of Tae Kwon Do (TKD) videos on YouTube. Some comments to some of the videos said that the moves in one step sparring are robotic, not fluid and therefore unrealistic. The commenter also said that "You would never survive in a real fight if you relied on those moves as your defense." And another: "Not good. The practioners are WAY too far apart to make this effective training. In sparring or, God forbid, a real fight, the person will try to attack from too far a distance or have no experience in defending a real attack." When I used to train in TKD - I had the same thoughts in my mind, and so did the other students. We used to joke around about how funny and unrealistic the movements are. But in reality, this exercise trains your overall technique and discipline. One step sparring is done repetitively - and eventually it becomes second nature. So if ever the moment arises that you need to execute a move, you wouldn't even think it - you'll just act out the best move for that circumstance.

What the hell is solipsistic? the word is used in this article about twitter. Here's the word in context:

But Twitter has come under fire. The company doesn’t make much money. People complain that the service is trivial and solipsistic. Asked about the criticism, Mr. Stone smiled and said, “That’s like people saying, ‘Why would I ever carry a phone around when I have one in my kitchen?’ ”

According to Wikipedia... "Solipsism is the philosophical idea that "My mind is the only thing that I know exists." Solipsism is an epistemological or ontological position that knowledge of anything outside the mind is unjustified. The external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist. In the history of philosophy, solipsism has served as a skeptical hypothesis." So is twitter solipsistic? It depends on the user.

Who are the Top Ten Pound For Pound Best Boxers of All Time? Of course there is the International Boxing Hall of Fame where all the great boxers of all time have been inducted. We previously looked at the boxing term "pound for pound" and also Current Top 50 Boxers Pound For Pound. Again these lists are purely subjective.

Best Boxers of All Time Pound for Pound

1. Sugar Ray Robinson 179 wins, 19 losses, 6 draws, 2 no contests, 109 KO
2. Muhammad Ali - "Louisville Lip" 56 wins, 5 losses, 37 KO
3. Julio Cesar Chavez - Won 104 Lost 5, 2 draws, 80 KO
4. Joe Louis - "Brown Bomber" - Won 68 Lost 3, 54 KO
5. Roy Jones Jr - 49 wins, 3 losses, 38 KO
6. Archie Moore - 181 wins, 24 losses, 9 draws and 1 no contest, 145 KO
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Submitted by Marco on Tue, 05/05/2009 - 1:16pm.

We previously had a look at what the term "pound for pound" meant. This time we look at the current top fifty (50) Pound for Pound Boxers in this point in time. Remember this list is PURELY SUBJECTIVE. Perhaps a mathematical equation can be used to find out who is the best boxer pound for pound. ([Number of Wins - Number of Losses - (0.5 * Number of Draws)]/[Weight (Pounds)]) Or maybe something more complicated to add in other variables such as KO's, TKO's, length of match, number of punches thrown and landed, etc...

Current Top Fifty (50) Boxers Pound For Pound

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (147)
2. Manny Pacquiao (140)
3. Joe Calzaghe (175)
4. Juan Manuel Marquez (135)
5. Israel Vazquez (122)
6. Bernard Hopkins (175)
7. Shane Mosley (147)
8. Paul Williams (154)
9. Rafael Marquez (122)
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Submitted by Marco on Tue, 05/05/2009 - 11:34am.

"Pound for pound (the best boxer)" in boxing means to subjectively rank all the boxers disregarding weight class. So taking the boxer's skill/style/etc except their weight class who would be the best? "Pound for pound" is also used in mixed martial arts and other combat sports to describe a fighter's value in relation to fighters of different weight classes. (By the way - in the photo are Pacquaio and Mayweather Jr.)

The origin of the "pound for pound" terminology was coined to describe world Welterweight and Middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson. Robinson is one of the most accomplished fighters of all time, but his supporters realized that, while he could beat anyone in his own class, as a Middleweight he would not be able to beat a top Heavyweight. Hence, Robinson was called the pound-for-pound best without being expected to beat much larger fighters, under the belief that he as a Middleweight was still a better quality fighter than any fighter fighting at heavier or lighter weights than him.

A great condiment to have with steak is Worcestershire sauce... Worcestershire... its one of those mysterious English words with weird pronunciation. How do you say Worcestershire (Sauce) anyway? It's that obscure word which a lot of people are afraid to say. Wikipedia says it pronounced this way: /ˈwʊstəˌʃɪər/ But who has time to decipher that code?

Some websites claim Worcestershire is said like: "Woos-tur-shur". Or "wer-chis-ter"... or even try Wurs-ster-sheer or Wurs-ster-shire or Wurs-ster-shur or Woos-ster-shur.

I've had an Aloe Vera plant indoors in my office for a while now. But over the last few months it has been developing some black spots. Normally the Aloe Vera plant is a healthy green plant so I thought it may be a disease or something. So I had a talk with my local gardening shop and found out that the black spots is a consequence of too much love. The spots are a result of the plant holding too much water - and the tissues of the plant have burst. I checked the soil and it was damp - especially near the bottom. So I dried out the soil and hopefully my aloe Vera is on the road to recovery. So I guess - less watering for the Aloe Vera from now on. Or only when the soil is super dry.

Sydney had terrible weather yesterday. It was like a cold winter's day, rainy and windy. I received a package yesterday, stuffed by the postman into my mailbox. This yellow envelope was drenched. The envelope was from Rewards Central. RewardsCentral is a new website brand which grew out of EmailCash. It's basically the same company, same website - they just felt they outgrew their EmailCash namesake. Back to their crap rewards.

RewardCentral rewards customers with crap rewards. A MousePad for getting 500 Exp?!? Well, thanks for the mousepad... but is this all we get? I would have preferred a cheap pen. The "With Compliments" slip says: "As one of our highly valued members we are happy to present you with this RewardsCentral mousepad. We hope you enjoy it!" All I'm going to enjoy is throwing it into the bin since the plastic is peeling off the mouse pad from being water damaged and its USELESS. Thanks RewardsCentral and your crap rewards.