Holidays of Yesterday:

With sooooo many holidays that happened yesterday (some that we may never see again) we forgot about another one. Yesterday was Pocky Day/ Pretz Day in Japan. Yes, that’s right Japan has a whole holiday to celebrate stick shaped snack food. Now we don’t know how big of a thing it is there, but it is big enough that it has stayed up on Wikipedia for at least a month now. (So it’s most likely not just a prank.) Has anyone else heard more about this day, and what they do for it besides the eating of stick shaped snacks?

New Stuff

This is the 4th year that this blog has done it's holiday special. (Which of course is named after when it was a paper done for multiple times before the blog.) Because of this we are having the problem of having already done much of what we think of to do this time. You may have noticed the change in Octobers posts with much more movies. What do you think of this? And do you have any other things you would like to see in holiday postings?

Blog Updates:

If you have been looking at this blog in the last couple days you may have noticed a few changes. As we have mostly been posting about books we are working on a few changes to make it easier to navigate threw past book postings. Let us know what you think about the changes.

Resolution update:

Well, its been almost 1/2 of a month now, and we want to know how everyone is doing with their resolutions. We are doing good on our second and third ones, but could do a bit better with our first one. We have written about 12 pages now, and should be writing more right now, but I just don't feel like it. (Its been a bad day today, on the kid behaving front.) But that is why we set it up as an average. Hopefully tomorrow I will write 3-4 pages to make up for the part of a page I did today, and the first week of the year when I was still working on setting up my schedule.

WE DID IT!!!!!!!

We (i.e. I) have read 100 book this year!!! Yahh!!! We made it!!!!!

New Year's Resolutions

As you may remember at the start of this year we resolved to read 100 books this year. A quick look as our posts show that we are reading 100 now. So it is time to think about next year, and look back to the start of this year. How have your resolutions gone? What are you doing this coming year? Remember sharing goals with others increases the chance that you will succeed.

Christmas letter:

Its that time of year again. The time I'm to make up a Christmas letter about all the great things that happened this year. And of course, I need to fill a page up with 4 lines worth of information. And unlike school papers and resumes I can't just make it all up, as I will see these people again. So, does anyone out there have any good ideas on b.s.ing a Christmas letter? And not writing one is not a choice as the one who doesn't write it thinks its such a great idea.

A Note to Self: The Anubis Slayings

Book Count: 68

The Anubis Slayings By: P.C.Doherty
Fiction: Mystery, historic 308 pages 2000

Yes, we will keep reading historic mysteries until you come up with something better! Actually, the last two books we read were non fiction and the next one will also most likely be as well, we just would like to hear some POSITIVE feedback from you now and then. OK, ranting over. . . This book takes place during the rein of Pharaoh Hatusu, one of Egypt’s few women Pharaohs. And it is a story of murder, theft, and political intrigue. It was a page turner of a book; however, it is one where you don’t need to try to find out what happened, the author doesn’t give you all the pieces that you need ahead of time. But, they do make it clear that they are doing that at points in the book, so you feel less cheated about it.

Slow month

August must be a slow month for blogging. Not only have we at weird News B. N.I. been having a hard time getting around to blogging, but all of the blogs we read are not writing as often. It makes sense that our friends that are getting married this month are a bit busy with other things, but blogs that are normally posting every day are doing so only once or twice a week. And our pastor hasn't posted since the middle of last month. So august must be a big month for funerals as that is usually the reason why he doesn't blog when there are things going on that he world usually write on. (Like China not letting Bibles into the country.) Anyway we were just wondering if we were the only ones who are seeing a lack of blogs this month. (Also, we are claiming preschooler who WILL NOT sleep as our excuse. Which you would thing would help with the reading of books, but at a certain level of tiredness letters no longer make sense.)

P.S. We are working on writing post using a tablet as we can then write in bed, but it does cause more typos as it can’t read our handwriting well, so we apologies for any typos that we miss.

New Books:

Does anyone else have the problem that I do, you get a new book and then you want to read it right away, but you have a dozen other books that were new books before that you were planning to read first? What do you do? Do you read the new book right away skipping all the books before in order to enjoy the joy of a new book, or do you add it to the list knowing you would never get to finish a book if you went from new book to new book?

Gas Tax

We just found out that a Mich. Congressperson is trying to pass a bill that would cause a $.50 tax added to already high gas prices. The congressperson is Rep. John Dingell from Michigan’s 15th district, which is located mostly in the south east corner of Michigan. As we are in the state as are a number of our readers it is possible that he is your representative and if so we just thought you might like to tell him what you think of the idea. So far, as far as we can tell, it is not officially a bill yet and so there is no bill number that you could write other congresspersons about saying your thoughts on the bill, but one can always write your person about the subject in general.

To read about the proposed tax click here.
To contact your congressperson click here.

You will need your zip code and the 4-digit zip code extension as well as to answer a simple question used to stop spam mail. (You can find the extension by looking on your incoming bills that often include it.)

Slow Going

If you have been paying attention to the book count reasontly you may have noticed that it is not getting much higher. This month is just not making it easy to read. But, that has not stopped us completely! And now you have the fun of seeing if we can ketch up in the following months. Also, if you have any ideas on book we may like to read, let us know. Part of the problem has been just finding books that look interesting knowing that we are aiming at reading them in 3-5 days.

The Big 2000!!!

As we were doing our daily viewing of websites, blogs, e-mail, etc we looked down to see the numbers on our own beloved W.N.B.N.I., and what did we see. People have looked at our blog 1,999 times!!!!! That means by the time you read this there will be 2000 hits on our blog!! Go ahead, scroll down and look for yourself. You may even be number 2000. Wouldn’t that make you cool and important? Sure it would, why not? We think you’re important. Thank you to all our readers for your reading, keep up the good work!

How’s it going?

We at WNBNI would like to know how your New Year’s Resolution is going? It’s been a couple of weeks now, so it’s getting to the point where many people give up. Hang in there, many people believe that if you do something for 30 days it becomes a habit making it easier for you to continue it.

They’re Back!!!

The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are back!!! Of course the strike is still on, so there is the whole: will it be as good, will this hurt the strike issues, but as someone that is tired of getting there news from “reliable” “unbiased” sources I am excited. That and as phony news/ interviews it doesn’t need to be written like say a sit-com does. Which brings up a question that we would like to know your thoughts on. With the lack of new episodes of shows that started in the fall and limited ones on the shows that start in January, do you think shows that were popular will lose ratings after the strike due to people giving up on them and getting use to nothing being on TV? Let us know what you think.

2007 in Review

It is that time of year when all you here about is what happened last year, and we at WNBNI have decided to be no different. Only we will be reviewing only the best of our blog, as if you want a timeline of how crazy Britney was when there are most likely a million sites with that information.

Jan:
We started the year with holiday info and help with your resolutions.
We made our sister happy with our report “The Rise of Manatee’s Mating Rituals in Popular Culture”. To read the report click here.
Our web editor made their own blog.
And we learned that having an affair is a felony that could land you with life in prison. Really, click here to read about it.

Feb:
We celebrated Black History Month, Edison’s Birthday, Valentine’s Day, governmental stupidity, Chinese New Year, and Marti Gras. And all in only 28 days!
We asked you what you would like us to read and report about.

March:
Pi Day!!!!!
We learned about St. Patrick and the Irish while noting that St. Patrick was actually the only English man all the Irish like.
We learned that pot is not kosher during Passover.

April:
We found out what to do on Good Friday.
We ranted on Cadbury Cream Eggs getting smaller.
We learned how to tell time in Ancient times. Click Here for a refresher.
We ranted on Email forwards

May:
We started “Phobia of the Day”
1,000 hits to the blog!

June:
We asked what you would like to see in this blog, and we are still taking answers.
We blogged from the worlds slowest connection.

July:
We started “Presidents on Politics.”
We ranted on Disney playing Halloween films in July.
We ran our tag line contest

Aug:
There were Phobias and books what more do you want?

Sept:
The Classic WNBNI “Useless Conversion Chart”
We started “Daily Education”
We celebrated like it was 1999, because in the Coptic and Ethiopian calendar it was until the 12th.

Oct:
Super Holiday Special!!!
We started “In Other Words”
We learned of other Holidays in Oct.
We gave tips on stopping Vampires and becoming werewolves.
We learned some famous last words.

Nov:
We had our yearly list of odd patron saints.
We learned of the holidays of Nov. and Dec.
We studied the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. To get the song stuck in your head click here.

Dec:
We celebrated Advent, Hanukkah, St. Lucy’s Day, Christmas, and New Years. There were quizzes, quotes, and one guy calling people names.

New Year’s Resolutions

Yes, it is that time again, time to think up you’re New Year’s Resolution. Last year we posted a list of the most common ones. To see it click here.
We at Weird News BNI have decided this year we would work on losing weight and quit smoking, OK so we don’t smoke and as we pointed out earlier we are at one of the few points in one’s life when even your doctor tells you to gain weight. (Remember all the blogs we didn’t post due to all day morning sickness?) So our goal is to read 100 books next year, in the hopes that it will improve our writing skills. Just so you don’t have to go back and count them we have posted 67 books that we read this year. And there are 5 more we didn’t get to noting yet making the count so far this year 72. So, what is your resolution and why, we want to know. Tell us in this post’s comments, because as everyone knows telling some one your goals increases your chances of carrying them out.

Happy Hanukkah!!!

I wanted to spend today’s blog talking about all the wonderful heartwarming Hanukkah specials and movies that will be airing now; however, the only Hanukkah “specials” on are a few children’s cartoons TV shows where one or two of the kids in the cartoon are Jewish and so they made an episode on Hanukkah which may be not much more then an explanation of the holiday in a kid friendly format for non-Jews. And I know of only two movies on Hanukkah and both are comedies geared for adult only audiences. One “The Hebrew Hammer” aired yesterday and I can find no more listings for it and “Eight Crazy Nights” will be on Saturday on some channel, which as the search for it only gave me the number on my TV, I don’t know what channel it’s on. Which made me ask the question, “Why are there not more Hanukkah specials and movies?” Sure it hasn’t been as commercialized as Christmas and modern Jewish holidays are more about family togetherness then “Everybody it’s a holiday be joyfulled NOW!!” But, the almost complete lack of holiday media is odd. Kwanzaa has almost as many things for it and it is 2 ½ thousands years younger of a holiday (give or take a couple decades) and has all of the controversities around it like: its founder, anti-Christian aspects of its founding, and how it lumps all African peoples together as if they were unified into one culture. So if anyone knows why this shortage of movies and TV specials or for that mater why “The Dradiel Song” and “The Hanukkah Song (Parts 1 and 2)” are the only Hanukkah carols anyone knows or why Adam Sandler alone has doubled the number of Hanukkah things please let us know are we are really interested!

A Question to You

We at WNBNI would like to know if you, the reader of WNBNI would like to have a “Holiday Question of the Day” Like we put in last years holiday editions. If so when you would like it to start and what holidays would you like to see included? Please tell us what you think in our comments for this entry.

Tag Line Contest

We at Weird News B.N.I. have grown tired of our current tag line/blog description/page filler of “A Fun Waste of Time”. And so we would like to know what you, the reader of this blog, would like that line to say. We have thought up a few and will list a pro and con for each one, but feel free to think up your own and in either case let us know what you think with a comment on this blog.

* Batteries Not Included
+ This is classic WNBNI (click here for WNBNI history)
- It is now already part of the title

* A Fun Waste of Time
+It would be no work at all to use this
- WNBNI is worth the time ;)

*FEDS approved (Flat Earth Debate Society- Hickville/international Chapter)
+ Sounds impressive
-FEDS unofficially disbanded April 1st, 1998

*Information you can find elsewhere but won’t bother looking
+mostly true, most everything is online today
- we do have some original content

And so tell use what you think.