Farquar Lake

Occasionally I take a break from the rigors of life and relax a bit. One way to do that is with serene and peaceful videos that make your cares just melt away. If you are in need of some simple relaxation without having to do anything more strenuous than clicking a link, go over to bing.com today and enjoy the warm brown tones of Farquar Lake in Apple Valley, Minnesota.

Then when you are ready to get going again, try saying Farquar Lake ten times fast to get your brain in gear. Both the relaxation technique and the energizing technique are proven strategies. Proven by me, but that still makes it valid.

Once I have recovered from the survey (see next posts) being removed, I will write about Thursday's wonderful show.

Farquar Lake, Farquar Lake, Farquar Lake, Farquar Lake, Farquar Lake, Farquar Lake, Farquar Lake, Farquar Lake, Farquar Lake, Farquar Lake.

Lemur

Yes, another cute animal over at bing. Go look and stay for a while, the lemur comes to life and starts moving a bit. This bing video is quite seamless, no obvious stops and starts unless you watch very closely. Lemurs are usually found only on the island of Madagascar, and of course in some zoos.

Why doesn't Stephen ever have any animal guests on the show? Yeah, I know occasionally he will have a turkey but he should consider in-depth interviews with some of our furry or feathered or scaly friends. It would add some exciting zing to the show.

Update: Well now it's a new day and so you have to use the left arrow at bottom of screen to go back to the Lemur. But while you are on today's bing page, let me just say, kids, don't try this at home. 

Abandoned House, Or Is It?

There is a photo of an "abandoned house in Ontario" today over at bing. Go take a look, if you dare, and then keep watching. Abandoned? I don't think so!!!

Bwahahahaha!!!!!

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On a more practical note, it looks like The Colbert Report is on track to be on tonight. The guest will be Lilly Ledbetter. Do your homework and prepare for tonight's show by looking at the Lilly Ledbetter website and reading about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Do one thing today that is NOT scary.

Canceled Again

Nation, tonight's episode of The Colbert Report is canceled due to Hurricane Sandy. If you reserved tickets for tonight, please check your email for further details.

Again, that is what is over at ColbertNation.com about Tonight's Taping. Tonight's rerun will therefore be with Mitch Daniels. He wrote a book that reminds Stephen of an excellent book written by someone else. Read my post here about Mitch Daniels and find out who wrote that excellent other book. Hint: The other book is about America and Greatness.

But if you are at a loss of what to do if you don't want to watch a rerun of The Colbert Report, here's a list of suggestions.

1.First of all, go over to RedCross.org and donate some money to help victims of Hurricane Sandy.

2. Read all my posts at The Colbert Bump, starting with the first one.

3. Donate blood. "Hurricane Sandy has forced the cancellation of approximately 300 American Red Cross blood drives in 14 states along the East Coast, resulting in a shortfall of nearly 9,000 units of blood and platelets thus far." Go to the American Red Cross Website to find out how you can become a blood donor. You'll get a free cookie! There's great information about first-time donors, eligibility requirements, and even a Search for blood drives by Zip Code.

4. Go over to bing and look at cute Arctic fox cub.

5. Get out your To Do List and do some of the jobs on it.

6. Read books by Stephen Colbert:
Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen
I Am America (And So Can You)
I Am a Pole (And So Can You)
America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't

7. Write an actual letter on paper to someone you haven't seen in a while, put it in an actual envelope with correct address on it, put actual postage stamp on it, and mail it.

8. Start a new hobby. Might I suggest Juggling!!! Watch the video and you will be able to juggle in no time at all. Blue shows how it's done.

9. Take the dog for a walk. Good exercise for you and a real treat for the dog.

10. Find out about the local elections in your area. Yes we have a presidential election, but there are also state, county, city, school elections on the ballot as well as questions, amendments, and other important stuff. Election day is Tuesday, November 6. Go to your polling place and vote on Tuesday. I'm sure Stephen will talk about the elections in the coming days.

Of course, you can always just watch The Colbert Report tonight as usual. Even if you have seen it before, it is fascinating, informative and at times even humorous.

Lighthouse Park

Are you feeling tired, stressed-out, worried? Take a few seconds to relax by looking at bing's photo for today. There's a nice video of Lighthouse Park with waves slowly cascading onto the rocky shore with majestic trees in the background. Feel your worries just melt away as the gentle action of the waves soothes your soul.

(As always, you can use the left arrow on the bing screen to go back if you missed looking today. You can view bing images for about one week using the arrow at bottom right side of bing screen.)

I Don't See It

Nature is nice. That's a little oversimplified maybe. What I mean is that when you are working too hard or under a lot of stress, it's relaxing to just look at some beautiful scenery. Of course, you know I often send you to look at the daily photos over at bing. Today is one of those days, so go take a look. There's a photo, no wait, it's a video, of beautiful autumn trees with golden yellow leaves. There's just a gentle breeze, enough so that a few leaves slowly drift down to the green grass. As time goes by, the grass will be covered with yellow leaves and the branches will be bare. Next spring, it will start all over again with tiny buds that turn into green leaves for the summer.

If you put your cursor on the "i" at bottom right of the screen you can find out information about the photo/video of the day. Today it is "Forest on the Volga River in Volzhsky District, Samara Oblast, Russia." But I don't see it. Where's the forest? All I see is some trees. Maybe that's the problem. Too many trees. I can't see the forest for the trees.

He's So Cute

Take a break from your work, your worries, and everything else that's happening and just take a quick peek over at bing. Sure it looks like a maple tree with changing leaves of autumn, but someone is hiding in that hole in the tree. And he's wearing a mask!

New day, new bing. If you want to see the cute critter, use the back arrow at bottom of bing's screen. Today is a nice photo of colorful autumn trees, so worth looking at today also.

Moment of Silence

Today is the anniversary of the day the Twin Towers came down. Bing has a nice image. You can also click on the links to find out more.

After September 11, click on the arrow at bottom of photo to go back to previous day or days.

Julia Child and Fritillary Butterfly

Take a break in your busy day and try to figure out what Julia Child and a Fritillary Butterfly have in common. Give up? Okay, it's a little bit far fetched. It's Search Engines! Today over at bing.com you can watch a Fritillary Butterfly flapping its wings. Just watch for a few seconds. Now, don't you feel calmer and more relaxed? And over at Google.com the google doodle is honoring Julia Child who would have been 100 years old today. Splurge on a delicious meal at a French restaurant tonight in her honor.

I can almost imagine what the interview might have been like if Stephen Colbert would have had Julia Child on as a guest. First there would have been the comparison of Emmys won. And I would bet there would have been a cooking competition that would have involved eggs dropping, oil splattering, and lots of whipped cream. Just use your imagination! Bon appétit!

Storm Chaser Stephen

We all no doubt wonder what Stephen does with his time when he is not keeping us informed of the national and world events, politics, and music scene over at The Colbert Report. Today I think Stephen might possibly be spending some time being a Storm Chaser and trying to get video like this over at bing today. (If you look at bing after today, use the arrow at bottom of bing screen to go back and see the thunderstorm.)

We all know that Stephen is a brave individual, so it would not surprise me if he was traveling the country in a well armored vehicle exploring all that nature has to throw at us. He has been "off" for this week and thus we have had repeat shows for The Colbert Report. Of course, if you hadn't seen them when they were originally aired, then they were new to you.

Anyway, in case you are wondering why Stephen might be chasing storms today, well it is World Meteorological Day! I used to think that meteorological just meant a meteor that made a lot of sense, but no - it has to do with weather. So whether you are interested in weather or just looking for something to celebrate today, step outside and partake of the sun, the snow, the rain, or whatever is happening in your neck of the woods right now.

Leap

It's February 29, 2012 and you know what that means. Leap Year and Leap Day! I hope you have been leaping instead of walking today. I'm sure if you tell little kids it's Leap Day and suggest that they leap, there's probably 10% of the kids that will take you up on that suggestion and leap around the house all day long.

I did not want to let this day go buy without acknowledging the importance of it, but what should I write about? I didn't want to do the usual explanation of why we have leap year every four years (because our years are actually 365.25 days long) but I didn't want to highlight something really, really obscure.

Luckily, I found it over at bing.com today. Regular readers will know that I usually look at bing each day to see what the photo is. Today there is a frog. And then I realized what I needed to write about! The frog is LEAPING!!!!! Even better than that, if you move your mouse around and then click on the square on the left side, on the one that says, "The approach: Flawless. The takeoff: Superb. The landing: A bit sticky." you can watch a 2-minute YouTube video, complete with dramatic music and awesome close-up photography. If you are a bit squeamish, I will tell you that the frog does just fine.

By the way, if you do take a look at bing.com, you might want to look at the previous day's photo of a really "cool" ice sculpture.

Groundhog Day

You know the routine. Go over to bing and see the cute woodchuck.

I wonder if someday this holiday will rival many others for attention. Hallmark, Peeps, m&m's and others are missing out on great marketing strategy by not making a bigger deal about this holiday. I imagine it's because Valentine's Day is just around the corner. But if Hallmark gets going on a better selection of Groundhog Day Cards, I'll be sure to send them to all my friends and family.

Aurora Borealis

Quick go look at bing. You can see a pretty lake scene and then animated Northern Lights. If you look at this after "today", and you don't see that, then you know the drill. In bottom right corner of picture on screen, click on the left arrow to go to a previous photo. That will work for about a week.

Aurora Borealis over Vee Lake near Yellowknife, Canada.

Wikipedia Gone?

Readers may know that I often link to Wikipedia. Often, it is one of the first results when I Google something, so obviously other people also like Wikipedia.

Therefore, I was saddened to read that on January 18, Wikipedia will be blacked out. So, my links here to Wikipedia will probably be useless tomorrow. More importantly than that though, is the reason why this will happen.

SOPA and PIPA. That's why. SOPA is proposed legislation in the U.S. House - Stop Online Piracy Act. PIPA is the PROTECT IP Act in the Senate.

If you like the internet, you should be concerned. So, go read about it now, before January 18 if possible.

English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout.

Fireworks

Happy New Year!

Go look at the fireworks at bing.com.

Note: To see last night's fireworks now, you will have to use the back arrow at bottom right corner of bing screen. Today it is a polar bear.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas is having a joyful time tonight. You know, Santa Claus is on his way to your house right now as I speak. If you are still awake and waiting for him, spend a little time with your friendly search engines. Both Bing and Google are festive on your behalf.

Google has animated Christmas icons and some music. Just click on each of those colored squares.

Bing has someone's house (not mine) with animated light show to show Santa the way to deliver toys.

Have a peaceful evening and day. Joy to all. Relax and enjoy your family and friends.

Not Just a Stick

Typically I look at Bing almost every day to see what the photo of the day is. Today I looked and thought it was quite plain, just a stick. But I'm wrong. It's not just a stick. Go look at Bing today. Cute.

(New day, new photo. So, use the back arrow at bottom right of Bing photo to get back to the photo of the stick. Of course, the lemurs are also very cute. As always, the photos are new each day. After about a week, you may have to try your luck searching for photos in the archives. Try insects or walking stick.)

Autumn Leaves

Since Stephen is off for the week, I can choose to write about anything. Sometimes it all kind of falls into place.

Today at bing.com is a lovely autumn scene with animation. You can watch the leaves falling. So peaceful.

And something else that is so peaceful is the song "Autumn Leaves" made famous by Roger Williams. You may have read in the news recently that Roger Williams died on October 8 of pancreatic cancer. Roger Williams was known as "pianist to the presidents" because he played at functions and gatherings of nine different presidents.

Look at the falling leaves at bing and then listen to Roger Williams playing "Autumn Leaves." Take just a little time for yourself and relax a while.

Update: Another day, another photo posted at bing, so, remember to use the arrows in bottom right corner of photo to get back to a previous day so that you can see the Autumn Leaves. If a lot of time has passed since October 11, then search the archives to see the Autumn Leaves. You're Welcome!

Milky Way

Greetings everyone. I am currently writing to you from my office in the Milky Way. That's right, I have an office in the Milky Way. And what a surprise when I looked at Bing.com today! The photo of the day is actually what I assume to be time lapse video. There's a really gorgeous, colorful, serene video of the Milky Way as seen from Mount Teide, Tenerife, Canary Islands in Spain.

You may remember that Stephen has talked about Bing before. Bing typically has a neat photo every day, better than my photos, if you can imagine that. You can look at previous photos by clicking the back arrow at bottom right of Bing screen. So, if you are reading this and it is a few days after October 4, use the back arrow. If it's a long time after October 4, then you might be out of luck. However, if you use back arrow until you run out of chances, then look at bottom of screen for "Miss a homepage photo? See an archive of past images."

Also, you can read past posts here about Bing (remembering that if too much time has gone by, you may have to do some searching to find, for example, Groundhogs). You can read about Ba Da Bing, or Happy Groundhog Day, or Hiybbprqag at my previous posts.

If you want to see the Milky Way in colorful animation, visit Bing today and consider visiting the actual Milky Way. You won't be disappointed. I think it's a wonderful place to live and you probably will too.

Hiybbprqag

Surprisingly, Stephen did not have a Groundhog as a guest on his show last night. He did have Christiane Aman-Purr which was interesting. The interview did not go as well as he might have hoped, but what can you expect? It was live TV. (Note: Show was not actually live TV, it just seems that way because Stephen is so lively.)

Stephen Colbert did have a short segment about Bing. Unfortunately, it was not something as cute as Groundhog pictures. It seems Bing has been using Google results as if they were Bing results. Just Google the word "hiybbprqag" to see what the fuss is all about. To quote Stephen, "You got served."

Note: Picture is not of actual hiybbprqag.