Jennifer Bray-Weber's Blog, page 56
March 11, 2015
Hump Day Kick Start – Tats and Tea Cup Edition
Hump Day Kick Start ��� for your muse, a writing picture prompt, or just a visual treat.
Good golly, Molly. This rings my bell on so many levels. I… I just… I had to share.
So tell me about today’s prompt. Who is he? He seems pensive. Did he just move back home after the passing of his parents? Is he the new owner of a haunted fixer-upper, and first on the agenda is to exorcise��the atrocious wallpaper? ��Is he a big, bad pro-wrestler relaxing on his day off from training? Who is he preparing the tea for in that teensy, tiny cup? ��The beautiful amnesiac he found on his back porch? The woman sitting in the living room he knows is about to break his heart? His Grams?
Love to hear your thoughts? Go!
March 10, 2015
Link of the Week – HTML Color Codes
Once in a awhile, more often than not, I will run into a situation, such as when working on my website, and need to adjust the color of this background or that font. There are usually��toggle switches that allow me to move up and down and all around color palettes. As I do this, the html for the colors changes. Unless you jot down that sequence of numbers and letters, you may not be able to duplicate the color exactly as you move from page to page, or project to project. Heck, what if you just want black, or white, or a true red. How do you know what identification code to use?
I accidentally stumbled across a site that I found helpful and enlightening.
Html Color Codes not only gives you the basics on the color codes and how to use them, but also provides tools for finding the color codes on your website, blogs, etc. It will even give you the code for hues in IMAGES! What if you are color blind? The site gives you the names and codes for a variety of colors across the color spectrum. It also gives you the codes for colors that are the same across the web no matter what browser you are using. Kinda cool, huh?
http://html-color-codes.info/colors-from-image/
http://html-color-codes.info/web-safe-colors/
March 4, 2015
Hump Day Kick Start – Trigger Edition
Hump Day Kick Start ��� for your muse, a writing picture prompt, or just a v isual treat.
Pulling double duty for today’s prompt. Do one, or the other, or both.
Who are these two? The good guys or the bad? Snipers? Assassins? Depends on the target, wouldn’t you say? Who are the targets? Could this be a case of��Mr & Mrs. Smith, the target being each other? Maybe he is a time traveler, sent to kill people who are a threat to the future. Look at how she is dressed. Had she been called away from her sham of a job as a lawyer’s aid/event coordinator/secretary by her real employer to handle a “code red situation”? You tell me.
I’d love to hear your take.
March 3, 2015
Link of the Week – Sales Rank Express
This is great for the indie author. Sales Rank Express offers visitors an up-to-the-second snapshot of a book’s Amazon ranking. But this isn’t��the same as other ranking sites, it’s easier. Plug in the author, title, ASIN or ISBN to view a book’s ranking…and other data. It will ��show ��reviews, any different versions of the book, its release date, other books it might��pair with, how many minutes long it is in its audio format, pricing, and more. You can even track its progress! Did I mention that it will do this for titles released internationally? Check it out, root around, have fun.
http://www.salesrankexpress.com/
February 27, 2015
Friday Stupid Flu Facts
Watch out. I’m crabby and sick…yes, I’ve got the flu.
Today is actually the first day where my head has felt clear enough to think and my temperature hasn’t bounced between 102-103. It started on Monday with just a little innocuous cough. I wasn’t sick. No way. By Tuesday, all I wanted to do was curl up in my bedroom and not move. I haven’t been this sick in decades. It sucks.
Anyway- enough about me. There are some interesting facts about this little bugger.
– The term “influenza” comes from the Italians. “Influentia” was the title they gave it because it had to come from the influence of the planets, stars and moon. What else could cause such a sudden and widespread wasteland of sickness?
– The English adopted the word “influenza” in the mid eighteenth century. In Arabic, there’s a similar sounding word given to it which means “nose of the goat” because they believed it was brought in by the goats.
– There have been 4 major global flu pandemics since 1900. Most recent has been the swine flu (H1N1). In 1968-69, the Hong Kong flu killed approximately 1 million people. In 1957-58, the Asian flu swept through leaving somewhere between 1-4 million people dead. And then there’s the biggie- in 1918-19, the Spanish flu pandemic killed between 50-100 million people worldwide.
– The Spanish flu killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS did in 24 years. It also killed more people in one year than smallpox or the Black Plague did in 50 years!
– It even had a nick name. The Spanish flu was referred to as “the purple death” because the worst symptom right before death was called “heliotrope cyanosis”. The lungs were starved of oxygen and the patient would turn purple, black, or blue.
– A negative swine flu test doesn’t mean you don’t have H1N1. Really?!?
– Viruses are 20-100 times smaller than bacteria and can only be seen with strong microscopes.
– Virus is a Latin term meaning poisonous, slimy liquid. (That sounds about right.)
– Viruses mutate more in one day than humans have in several million years.
– Even with today’s powerful antibiotics, bacterial pneumonia is still the most common complication to the flu and the reason for a huge number of deaths.
– Reyes syndrome is a rare but potentially fatal disorder linked to taking aspirin during a viral illness. What we forget about is that dozens of cold and flu remedies contain aspirin. Symptoms include persistent vomiting, fever, confusion with liver and brain damage occurring within a few days.
– The source of flu vaccines are chickens so if you are allergic to eggs, you need to be under a doctor’s care if you have one. ( The pharmacist told me this year’s shot has proved very ineffective.)
– Did I mention it sucks?
February 25, 2015
Hump Day Kick Start – Blindfold Edition
Hump Day Kick Start ��� for your muse, a writing picture prompt, or just a v isual treat.
With all the hubbub of the��latest��craze…why not? Bonus points if you know this (hint) funny man.
Who is our prompt? Why is he blindfolded? Is he a literature student who found himself in a grey room at the hands of an intimidating, beautiful, controlling bajillionaire he only meant to interview? Wait…that’s already been done. *snaps disappointed* Could he be a salsa instructor trying to get a much needed power nap before his next private lesson with the hopelessly left-footed girl? Maybe his girlfriend/wife is about to surprise him with something special. What could that be? Lap dance? Divorce papers? Sonogram? Loaded pistol? All of the above? Was he kidnapped from a charity ball? If so, by who and why? Is he on a “blind date”? *snort*
Love to hear your take!
February 23, 2015
Link Of The Week- Get Your Creative Groove On
Need a picture? How about just the right font?
Look no more! This site has all that and SO much more. I’m so excited I was shown this site so I can share it with all of you. (Thank you Jenn. :-) )
“Creative Market is a platform for handcrafted, mousemade design content from independent creatives around the world.”
February 20, 2015
Friday Fun Facts- Just Plain Interesting
To bring you interesting facts, I cruise the internet in the strangest places. Today’s tidbits actually come from a radio station! The first one grossed me out so much I had to keep reading. These are some of the most random facts I’ve come across and I hope you find them as interesting as I did.
1. A cockroach can live for 7 days off the toothpaste residue in a toothbrush you only used once.
2. Bubble gum is pink because pink was the only color of dye lying around when its inventor, Walter Diemer, made a good batch of it.
3. The world record for constipation is 102 days.
4. Of the 12 men who walked on the moon, 11 were Boy Scouts. The only one who wasn���t was James Irwin, from Apollo 15, who became the eighth man to walk on the moon in 1971.
5. Salmon are pink because they eat so many red-colored shellfish. Except the farmed salmon you eat, they don���t eat shrimp, so they should be gray. During processing, a pink coloring is added to make you feel more comfortable.
6. Bill Gates��� house was designed using a Mac.
7. Sprinting for 60 minutes burns as many calories as jogging for seven hours.
8. The police in Dubai have a Ferrari and Lamborghini, allegedly because so many other people there have Ferraris and Lamborghinis, the cops also need them to keep up in case of a high-speed chase.
February 18, 2015
Hump Day Kick Start – Floor Me Edition
Hump Day Kick Start ��� for your muse, a writing picture prompt, or just a v isual treat.
What a fun prompt!
Who are these two and how did he end up on the floor? Oh, what possibilities! Has he literally fallen for her? Is a sexy dare about to get muy caliente? Does he have two left feet and tripped��dancing? Is she an assassin sent to kill a billionaire? Or did he come on too strong, forcing her to use the��super quick and impressive moves she learned from her��brother/sensei/the military/while shoe sale shopping?
Let me hear your take!
February 17, 2015
Link Of The Week-Daily Writing Tips!
“Whether you are an attorney, manager or student, writing skills are essential to your success. The rise of the information age ��� with the proliferation of emails, blogs and social networks ��� makes the ability to write clear, correct English more important than ever.
Daily Writing Tips is about that. Every day we publish a new article, with topics ranging from grammar to punctuation, from spelling to usage and vocabulary.”
Start your day off with a bang with a special writing tip just for you.
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/
