Shock Notes

  Something is mystifying to kids about iPhones and iPads.  They always want to get their hands on one to play with the touchscreen. One button, in particular, is especially tempting to kids, but annoying to parents when they let their children play with their phone.  That button is the big round “home” button. There […]

Let me admit that I’m a nerd who wonders about some weird things sometimes. Just for fun… What if the United States redrew its borders so that each state had the same population? In 2016, the United States had an estimated population of over 323 million people.  That number divided equally among 50 states equals about […]

  After watching the 2009 film The Road and being so moved by the realism and bleakness of the movie, I hoped to read the novel someday.  Seeing that the novel won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction made me wonder if I was missing out by never reading a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in my life. There […]

  Want to consider yourself “well-read” but don’t know where to start?  Amazon.com compiled a list of 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime.  For most people, reading 100 books is too lofty a goal to seem realistic.  For this list, I’ve pored through both Amazon’s and Goodreads’ lists to come up with just the […]

  Any native English-speaker who has studied Mandarin Chinese should be familiar with the Pinyin system for romanizing Chinese characters.  Did you know there’s also a romanization system for Taiwanese?  It’s called Peh-oe-ji (pronounced Beh-weh-jee). Taiwanese is a dialect of Chinese similar to the Min Nan Chinese dialect spoken in Fujian Province of southeastern China.  The official language […]

A friend gave me a can of “mandorlita” that she picked up on a trip to Italy.  It is sweetened almond paste.  I tried a little and it was way too sweet to eat out of the can, so I decided to turn it into a baked dessert. I gathered some ingredients: A lemon An […]

Beyond the technical standards that make the Internet work, there are few standards for websites to follow.  “About” pages are standard, to show confused web travelers what they are looking at.  “Contact” pages are standard, so people have a channel to communicate with the website owner.  “Privacy Policy” pages are standard, to disclose how the […]

Boneless Rib-Eye Steaks with Killa’ Chimichurri and Mushrooms with Spicy Cajun and Wilted Spinach adapted from Rachael Ray 365 (affiliate link) ingredients: 2 of 12 ounce boneless rib-eye steaks Extra-virgin olive oil McCormick’s seasoning salt sea salt pepper 1 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp dried sage 1 tsp dried thyme 1 handful parsley 1 garlic clove […]

It’s one thing to set goals. But what happens after you reach them? Volcanic Momentum is about constantly moving forward in life. You don’t just set a goal, reach it, and stop. You blast through the goal and keep going, like an erupting volcano.

Disasters happen all the time, and when they happen, they are unpredictable.  Usually, there are a few prominent organizations taking care of the response, followed by an outpouring of people trying to help through donations and goodwill labor.  Often, people have time and resources and want to help, but don’t know how they can help. […]