Some Blog Site

We moved this summer, and I thought I’d compare the old bus route to the new bus route.

Whereas in years past our kids were the first on the bus and the first off the bus, this year they are first on the bus and last off the bus. The old school at least recognized the importance of limiting the kids’ time on the bus, so we had a long bus ride to school but a short bus ride home. It all evened out.

I don’t know how we angered the bus garage, but at the new school our kids have an hour ride each way, whereas the kids at the other end of the route are on the bus for 5 minutes each way.

Not only is the route direction worse, but the route itself is longer – with many more stops and very convoluted.

Anyway, here are the plots of each bus route (1 mile per grid line):

Old Route
We were stop #1. S is the Start (bus garage) and F is the Finish (school) for pick up. Drop off went in the same order, 1 first and 4 last – but it started at the F and went straight down to our stop.

New Route
We are stop #3. Again, S is the Start and F is the Finish for pick up. Drop off is reversed, so we are the third-to-last stop.

As you can see, there is a lot of stopping and starting and it is much more convoluted. The school is barely more than 3 miles away, so my wife just drives down and picks them up at the end of school. That way they are home about 45 minutes earlier than if they rode the bus.

It is time once again to update Some Blog Site readers on the results of my Some Fun Site project to create a more accurate football prediction method.

The 2015 NFL season is over, and here are the most accurate methods for predicting regular-season game results (wins-losses):

• MPWHFA: 63%
• ITPLS: 61%
• MPW: 61%
• YPP: 61%

ITPLS is listed first because it was one game better than MPW, and MPW was one game better than YPP.

No new prediction methods this year. Either no one could find a better method, or they did but they have moved to Vegas instead of commenting on this blog.

And if you think you have a formula that can predict the winner of an NFL game better than 63.7% of the time, let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

This being New Year’s Eve and all, I hope you weren’t expecting much of a post.

We don’t have any particular New Year’s Eve plans. Now New Year’s Day, on the other hand, is filled with snacks and college football.

I tried a new food, and I’m going to pass it on to you. Consider this a belated Christmas gift.

Here it is:
Rice Krispy Treats made with Fruity Pebbles

Just make rice krispy treats like you normally would, but use Fruity Pebbles instead of plain Rice Krispies.

I would say they are about twice as good as the standard recipe.

It’s like rice krispy treats with flavor, not just sugar.

This variation is good, but my all-time favorite is still the rice krispy treats made with butterscotch and with a chocolate topping.

This being Christmas Eve and all, I hope you weren’t expecting much of a post.

We’re doing our gift opening today, so by the time you’re reading this I’m probably going to be in the middle of assembling toys, installing batteries, or helping someone with Lego instructions.

Selfie sticks elicit reactions from people. General concensus seems to be disapproval of selfie sticks, but some people might find them useful.

But that is the reaction to using the selfie stick to take pictures of oneself.

What if the selfie stick were being used for a different purpose?

I propose that the derision the selfie stick provokes is not due to the stick itself but at the selfish nature of a person who takes many photos of himself. And a selfie stick used for a different purpose would not be scoffed at.

Lighter Stick

For example, given the number of injuries reported in the news this summer due to fireworks mishaps, people should be encouraging the use of lighter sticks.

That would keep fingers and such out of harm’s way when lighting fireworks. Any explosions would damage an easily-replaceable selfie stick and the person’s hand would remain unharmed.

Spray Stick

Another example is wasp spray or bug killer or whatever. Yes, they have the cans that can spray a jet of fluid a good distance, but there are situations where those won’t work well. Or maybe you have a homebrew wasp or hornet repellent and you can’t get it to squirt that far.

Plus, the wasps would be so busy laughing at the sight of a selfie stick approaching them that they wouldn’t be able to form an attack.

Snake Stick

Sure, there are already commercially available pest-control harness or snake tongs, but this item is more to upgrade the perception of the selfie stick in the mind of the general public.

I mean, who is going to mock someone who is carrying a Cobra Stick?

Any other suggested uses for selfie sticks?

Based on the popularity existence of last year’s article predicting bowl games in haiku form, I present to you this year’s all-haiku bowl game predictions. Still America’s only all-haiku college football bowl game predictions.

These are listed in order of date (earliest first). Some picks are whom I think will win, and some picks are whom I want to win. I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to decide which is which.
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