Hanging

The View

This picture was taken from my younger brother's back porch.  Mt Baker in Washington is in the distance.

Pokeman Go

  Pokeman Go, a augmented reality game, turning people from couch potatoes into active, moving, individuals.  Its all the rage.

At the bookstore children wondered around while using the app on their phones while a bunch of teenagers rushed here and there until they succeeded in their hunt.  It was easy to tell due to their cheers of victory.

When I first saw the teens, I didn't know why they were rushing around like chickens with their heads cut off.  I thought it was some sort of game like follow the leader.  But later in the day I heard a short bit on the radio talking about this game.  I had one of those moments when the light bulb went off in my head. 

The last time I heard anything about Pokeman, it was years ago and it was a game on my brother's gameboy or xbox.  I don't remember much about it because I didn't play it but my brother played it as much as he could.  He sat in front of the Nintendo console for hours and hours trying to win.  I preferred to read books.

Now, this game has returned in a form answering the question "What would it be like if the Pokeman characters existed in our world".  It requires a free app be downloaded to the phone.  The app uses the GPS signal and a clock to determine where you are in the game.  The programming is set up to overlay the virtual world with the real world so you see various characters and devise ways of capturing them.

There are 151 characters who currently populate the Pokeman Go world. Did you know that is the same number as in the original Pokeman game? There are dragons, dinosaurs, snakes, birds, and others.  Due to the GPS signal, the app has the ability to determine the correct type of Pokeman character associated with the terrain.   If you are in a park you will find more grass types while if you are at a lake, you'll see more water based characters. You'll see these guys on toilets, on the carpet, in trees, where ever the app places them.

Although the game is free, you have to spend money to buy things to help you catch Pokeman.  In addition, you fight the creature directly rather than using your army of Pokeman as in the original game.  In this version Pokeman characters can evolve into others. 

Since people are always moving around looking for more characters, this can open people up to being robbed or finding dead bodies.  Yes there are reports of robbers who have used the game to rob people, others who have ended up in restricted areas, while someone apparently found a dead body while chasing a character.

I do not have a smart phone so I won't play the game but I know that many people world wide play it.  The best thing about this game is that it takes the game player from sitting in one place to having to get up and move around.  People are now getting exercise is a fun way while they pursue their dreams. 

Do you play this game?  Do your kids?  Let me know what you think of it.  I don't need to play this to get enough exercise but for some people it gets them involved enough with the game, they might easily get 10,000 steps in a day.

Copyrights and Recipes

  Do you remember back in school when the teachers worked hard to make sure you knew you couldn't use anyone's work with properly acknowledges it or it's plagiarism? 

Wasn't it just a couple weeks ago that the whole issue of plagiarism hit the news when the current Mrs Trump read her speech which contained unacknowledged material from Mrs Obama's speeches?

Well the other evening, I was involved in a discussion on the explosion of cookbooks containing recipes copied verbatum from the internet and I stated I disliked this particular practice since it struck me as a from of copyright violation.  I was told recipes as such cannot be copyrighted because it is basically a list of ingredients.  It is only the comments of the author explaining things like "I prefer dark chocolate because it does not make the cake as sweet" is copyrighted.

I could not believe that so I checked it out and that is exactly right!  Imagine, you have a food blog, you create all of these neat recipes and I can come along and simply cut and paste the actual ingredients along with directions without commentary and put it in my book and publish it.  I don't have to acknowledge where it got it from or even who originated the recipe yet I lead people to believe it is mine!

I know I have recipes from my mother on an index card for recipes she got from friends and other places but every one credited if it came from Better Homes and Garden or her Aunt Margaret.  From what I can tell, she didn't have to put the source on her cards but she did because it was what everyone did.

This explains the explosion of short 30 to 50 page cookbooks filled with recipes containing both metric and standard measurements.  It explains books filled with bread pudding recipes taken from the Food Channel, or books with Korean recipes taken from an assortment of blogs and sites.

The temptation is there since recipes have no protection from being used by others and claimed as their own.  When I print a recipe I've gotten from someone else, I try to acknowledge its origin because I have feel I cannot claim it as mine.  If I start with a recipe that I've modified, I might use the term "Inspired by" but I do not feel comfortable with the idea of taking recipes from others and claiming them as my own.

I'm not sure on the following thought because I'd have to research it to know if my thought process is correct.  If the actual recipe cannot be copyrighted, can it be copyrighted if you made it and then added in comments based on your observations throughout the recipe?  Would that do it?  

I'd love to get feedback from my readers on their opinion on this topic.  Do you feel it is right to claim a recipe created by others as your own? 

Things, They Are Changing!

I don't know if you ever saw some of the movies from the 50's where the daughter of the house tied up the phone by talking with a friend for hours.  Are you of an age where you'd see people standing around outside having great conversations while smoking?  Well things are defiantly changing.

Yesterday when I walked from Barnes and Nobel to Walmart, I passed three young men standing in a group outside of the sports shop but they were not smoking.  They were all furiously involved with doing something like texting on their phones.  I don't think it was Pokeman Go because they were not moving around but it might have been one of those multiplayer games created to play on mobile devices.

The people you play against might be in the next town or even in another country.  I find it interesting that you are playing a game with someone and you never see them.  In a sense playing a game this way means you miss a certain amount of body language, excitement, and companionship you have when in the same location. 

I have friends who are always replying to a text even at work.  I wonder about this need for instantaneous gratification by responding. The cell phone is changing the way people converse.  Think about it!  You can access your phone at any time, any place. You only need a signal.  You can carry on a full conversation via texting (yes I've done it but I am a very slow typist) and I get out of it as soon as possible. 


  I discovered  there are about 170 million mobile phone gamers in the United States.  Mobile games penetrate about 56% of those who own cell phones.  On average children spend 7 hours a week playing games on their mobile devices but remember this is an average so some play more and some play less.  Most of these gamers spend $26 per year on mobile games.

Did you know that there are about 4% more women playing games than men and a woman's session lasts 25% longer than a woman's.  In addition, women are tended to play several games while men stayed with one or two games.

Want to be surprised?  It turns out parents are more likely to be gamers than their teen aged children.  We are talking 61% of the parents vs 15% of the children.  That is quite a difference.

I am amazed at these stats because I honestly thought that teenagers were the highest age group of players, not parents.  I wonder why that is?  Those stats do not apply to me.  Yes I'm a woman but I do not spend that much time each day playing games.  In fact, unless it deals directly with work, I do not use a mobile device until I get home for the night.

Are you one of those parents who play games on your mobile devices?  Do you play longer than your children?  Think about it and let me know!

Heat Exhaustion? Have You Had It?

I've never heard of heat exhaustion, have you?  Heat stroke, yes but not heat exhaustion.  Have you had it?  I learned about it just recently so I'm sharing it with you

Over this past weekend, I took a trip down to Los Angeles to present at a gathering of costumers. When I arrived, I collected my luggage and sat outside in the hot weather while I waited for my shuttle.  Unfortunately, the shuttle representative was not there nor could I even find the shuttle.

 30 min later, the shuttle finally arrived.  Since it was a shared trip, I went out to Thousand Oaks before coming back in to Woodland Hills.  At the hotel, I had to wait a couple of hours before the room was ready but I went over my presentations for the conference.
 Other than being tired, I felt great.

But that night, it struck!  The diarrhea forced me to awake from a dead sleep in order to run to the bathroom in less than 2 seconds.  I didn't feel bad, just had the runs.  Later that day I spoke to a friend and the heat come up in the discussion.  Temperatures have been up but its the higher than normal humidity that is presenting the problem. 

I told her about the stomach flu I had the night before and off she stated "Oh yeah, you've had heat stroke!  I've had it several times in the past couple of weeks because I work outside a lot" I was surprised because I'd always thought that heat stroke left you feeling really bad, draggy, and melted. 

Our discussion got me wondering so I checked it out on the internet.  I didn't see diarrhea listed for heat stroke but it was there for heat exhaustion.  What is heat exhaustion?  It's not as severe as heat stroke but it can be a problem anyway.  It occurs when you are exposed to high temperatures and is sometimes accompanied by dehydration.

Did you know there are two types of heat exhaustion?  One is water depletion while the other is salt depletion.  Symptoms of water depletion can manifest itself as extreme thirst, weakness, headache, or loss of consciousness.   On the other hand symptoms of salt depletion include nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea, muscle cramps, or dizziness. 

Bingo!!!!!!!. I had the salt depletion type of heat exhaustion because in addition to the runs, I also had minor muscle cramps.  I always make sure I have enough liquid but I've never thought about getting enough salt.  So from now on, I'm going to carry packets of a salt/sugar mix I can drop into water to prevent this type of thing from every occurring again.

Now I know why airlines provide lots of liquid and salty snacks.  It keeps people from dehydrating while traveling.

I hope this helps others.  Let me know if this strikes a chord! 

The Top 12 Most Extreme Places on Earth

  Most of us, when we go on vacation head for places that are mostly comfortable or easily accessible.  One time I went camping with a friend who wanted to stay in Joshua Tree National Forest but I'd just had eye surgery and needed to be somewhere with a bit more humidity so I ended up at a hotel.

So people love scaling mountains, some love sailing the ocean and some search out more extreme places.  So where might you go if you were looking for extreme?  The following places are considered extreme.

1. Dallol, Ethiopia which is considered the hottest place on earth with temperatures at or above 95 degrees year round.  It is in an active volcanic area located quite close to the equator and never gets relief from the heat.

2. Oymyakan Russia - considered the coldest place on earth with winter temperatures that stay at -90 degrees on average although the coldest temperature on record took place in 1933 and reached a -122.  I'll tell you from personal experience that -90 is quite cold and its easy to get frostbite.

3. Tristan Da Cunha - a British Outpost located 1750 miles from South Africa and accessible only by using a 7 day boat ride.

4. Mawsynram, India is reputed to be the wettest place on earth, averaging more than 467 inches per year.  That is more than one inch of rain per day all year round. It is also known for the century old root bridges grown by the locals.

5.  Island of the Dolls Mexico is listed as being the scariest place on earth because the island is filled with old tattered dolls hanging from trees.  The legend goes that a young girl drowned off shore and the caretaker starting collecting dolls to ward off evil spirits.

6. Victoria Falls is the wettest place due to its largest falling curtain of water.  Around 165 million gallons of water fall over the falls every minute during the wet season.

7. Reykjavik, Iceland is classified at the farthest north capital city in the world.  Due to its location it gets only 4 hours and 7 minutes of daylight on the shortest day of the year.  It does have a great aural display.  Note - there are other cities further north that have shorter days but it is the farthest north capital.

8. Atacama Desert in Chile receives very little rain and is noted as the driest place on earth. Its soil is equivalent to Martian soil.  According to historical records, not a single drop of rain fell between October 1903 and January 1918.  Not a single drop of water!

9. The Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong has the record for the highest hotel in the world occupying the top 17 floors of a 118 floor building.  It offers great views of Hong Kong.  Its bar and swimming pool are top floors and also set records for highest in the world.

10. The Hotel President Wilson in Switzerland charges a measly $65,000 per night for the 12 room, 12 bathroom penthouse suite.  Occasionally the cost has gone up to $80,000 per night.  This is considered the most expensive place in the world.

11. The Chateau Brissac castle in France has the reputation of being the most haunted place in the world with its Green Lady ghost.  The owners allow the public to spend the night or take a guided tour.

12. For the bungee jumper, there is the Macau Tower with the highest commercial bungee jump.  It is 764 feet off the ground.  I think you'd have to be into extreme sports to enjoy this one.

All I can say is wow on many of these places.  Some might be fun to visit but I guarantee that I am not going to attempt to bungee jump off the Macau Tower or even visit the desert in Chile.  I hope you enjoyed the list.