It’s been a long while since I’ve wrote in this blog. But not for lack of neglecting my meosphere.
Since I’ve last written, I’ve been to China twice (Guangzhou, Xiamen and Foshan), I made my first trip to Denmark (Copenhagen, Aarhus and Silkeborg), and went back to the old stomping grounds of Belgium and the Netherlands. I’ve also read a half a dozen books AND I’ve gone snowshoeing. With all this to write about, I’ll try to be more regular here.
As for Meosphere, we’ve got some great new features launched and coming. We added challenge to the main site, so if you want to see how you compare with your friends, you can see who has the most check offs. Upcoming features include friend updates and a score system that will give values to list items, giving you a greater score for more interesting lists and more rare items.
I’ve got to add that the folio and compare views have been optimized and are now almost instantaneous.
I’ll do better at keeping you posted. So from a hotel in southern China, be back soon.
Last week, we did a start-from-scratch Meosphere list of the day. Things You’ve Eaten for Thanksgiving had all the standards–Turkey, stuffing potatoes.
It even had some items from left field such as Turducken (a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a Turkey). Others added items such as
But the Thanksgiving sleeper was overwhelmingly Green Bean Casserole. People were adding the mosh-posh to the list so fast that we couldn’t merge them together fast enough for the group list.
The History Channel has a special on holiday foods and had a whole section on Green Bean Casserole. Campbell’s invented the stuff in it’s lab in 1955 under the direction of Dorcas Reilly who was sporting the same hairstyle now as she must have had then. The main ingredients are, yes, green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and french fried onions.
Which brings me to a final question? The onions I’ve fried have never looked like they do in a can. Just what are french fried onions?
The Meosphere list of the day is National Parks You’ve Been To.
The parks the most people have visited are Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Zions, and Bryce.
To find out what the best National Parks are in the country, I took a look at their AVERAGE rating. The best turn out to be a little off the beaten path. And I haven’t been to the top 2.
This has been a very fun list to watch. Here are some of the observations I’ve made.
1. Anything becomes more romantic when you add “in the rain” to it. Walk in the rain, ride bikes in the rain, or this actual submission, “Watch transverseites in the rain.” I’m not quite sure what a transverseite is, but my guess is like a transvestite only verse.
2. The most commonly checked off are dinner, movie, etc., which you’d expect. But surprisingly, these are also the user favorites. Hmmm. The more original were always more fun.
Here are some of the most original.
-Threw up-and later kissed the guy.
-Searched for evidence of Big Foot.
-Built a super cool snow fort.
My best dates were ATVing, sledding, repelling, and canoeing at midnight. About died doing each of them, and maybe that was part of the fun. With all these near-death activities, I don’t think I’d let my daughters go out with the equivalent of me. But then, they won’t be going out until they are 25 and by that time they can make there own decisions.
Whatever your best date happens to be, come add it to the list and see what you can check off.
We’re doing a new thing today at Meosphere. Real time, we are letting users create the list by nominating their favorites to the list of the day. Every song with enough unique nominations gets added to the list. In the end, we will have a list of the greatest songs of all time, though the list appears to be quite contemporary. It’s making for a long day (we started at around 2 am), but it’s been pretty exciting to watch just how diverse our users are.
And since I have a blog, I’m going to pitch my favorite. It will never actually make it on the public list, I am sure. Of the thousands of nominations, I am the only one who has it on their list.
Bob Dylan’s Spanish Boots of Spanish Leather is a bit of a troubador song, a sad romantic tale. The text is so masterfully written that it is included in the Norton Anthology of Poetry, though like Dylan’s other music, it is better performed by someone else. The most beautiful rendition I’ve ever heard is by Martin Simpson on the Nod to Bob Album. I wrote Martin once asking where I might find an MP3 version, and surprisingly I received an e-mail back from Martin himself.
The song is written as a dialogue between two people, though I’ve never heard it song as a duet. Here is a very good version by Irish group Dervish from You Tube. Hope you enjoy, and join us in expanding the list!
Being away from home, I decided to do something besides work–which I typically do away from home, and looking through the library available chanced upon Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. And I was just about to begin to read it (to keep up with Christian’s endeavors to top us on the 30 Books Adults Should Read List), when I realized I haven’t updated this blog on just what I’ve added to my meosphere lately.
I have just finished C. S. Lewis Surprised by Joy. Was a slightly difficult read, but then I appreciate a book that doesn’t overtake my time by being difficult to put down. There were plenty of points to make it worth marking up my copy.
Surprised by Joy started me thinking about my favorite autobiography of all time, Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L’amour. You do not have to be a Louis L’amour fan (I’m not) to appreciate this book, which is one of my top ten influencers. Louis L’amour documents his education which comes from reading thousands of books throughout diverse travels of his life.
Quit school and learn the Louis L’amour way? L’amour says, first prove you can read 40 books a year and then think about it.
We discovered good news and bad news on the Mac OS.
It seems that Safari has caught up with the other browsers and renders our pages beautifully. On the flip side, FireFox 2 for Mac now has a problem displaying iFrames. So we are changing our Mac recommended viewer to Safari.
Now does that mean I can get the iPhone with Safari browser?
A lot of fun happening at Meosphere lately. And here is an update of the crew, family and friends.
First, we had the biggest launch since Meosphere itself, this time on Facebook — Checklist of the Week. This is really a fantastic little app, and its proving it with the fastest sign ups we’ve yet experienced. We present one list a day for people to mark, share and compare. Our usage rate is 112% (not sure how they figure that) but it’s among the highest we’ve seen, so people are having a lot of fun with it.
Shannon ran her first marathon. Having been bumped from the marathon she had planned next week, she ended up running a small marathon down Provo Canyon past Sundance. This race was mainly a relay, so there were very few running the whole thing themselves (2 women) and Shannon took first! Congratulations! List: Distances You’ve Raced
Greg and Steve rode the 206 miles from Logan to Jackson Hole in the LOTOJA Classic, the longest single day USCF sanctioned event in the country, not to mention the brutal elevation climbs. They both made it. To quote Steve, “The stupidist thing I’ve ever done.” Congratulations none the less.
Rick is enjoying his trip to Bergen and Iceland and finally dropped us a blog to remind us just how jealous we are. Ugghhh.
And last but not least, Christian and his wife visited the OB/GYN and heard the heartbeat of their newly expected baby. I don’t know what list that’s on, but that is truly a first life experience. We are excited for both of you!
Rick here, with another update from Europe! We’re in Reykjavik, Iceland, to be exact, at the ultra-modern and centrally located Centerhotel Thingholt (Þingholt to the Icelandic people). We’ve had no trouble so far flying in and out of our destinations, other than some mild jet lag. We’re feeling good this afternoon (it’s 2:47 PM Sunday) and tonight we’re bound for the Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s most famous attraction. Tomorrow we’ll be seeing the Golden Circle, which includes the Gullfoss waterfall as well as the original geyser, Geysir.
Bergen, Norway was truly amazing. Norwegians proved to be very kind to us tourists, and the seafood was delicious (all three lunches we ate in Bergen included seafood from vendors at Torget, the bustling fish market). The historical attractions, including Håkonshallen (the restored 13th century ceremonial hall of King Håkon Håkonsson), the Hanseatic Museum (detailing the lives of the German traders who set up residence in Bergen in the 1300s and 1400s), and the Bryggens Museum (about the early history of the city itself), were fascinating. Sadly, the funicular ride to the top of Mount Fløyen was dampened by a heavy fog that completely obscured the panoramic view of Bergen that can be seen on a clear day.
More pictures of antics in Norway and Iceland will be coming soon!
Rick here from Europe again . . . This time, from Bergen, Norway, the city situated among the fjords. It is cold here, just the way we like it, about 10 degrees Celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The Norwegians have been very kind to us tourists, and we’re having a great time. Caleb and I ate lunch at Torget, the fish market, from some vendors outside. The fish is the freshest I’ve yet tasted! We’ll be enjoying more seafood tonight at Enhjørningen, which I expect will be even more delicious. The fjord scenery is spectacular, and we’re having a blast.
