Your Score Summary
Overall, you scored as follows:
82% are cooler, and
18% are more of a loser than you.
What does this mean?
You are a loser baby, there are only a few who out-lose you!
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You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.  |
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Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity. |
The end of the year approacheth, and, as most bloggers seem wont to do, I am writing a year end wrap-up/best-of Aurora Walking Vacation post. Actually, I am finished writing it. This is it. Sorry, is that confusing?
I didn't write one of these last year because my old computer broke down middle of December, and I didn't get a new one until well into February. Not that I left my dear readers entirely out in the cold. That would be quite beyond me, Just so's you know.
In February, I was caught speeding on my way home from Ottawa. I mean really speeding. Went to court, and entered A plea.
Skeptical topics began taking up a significant amount of space here in 2006. An early effort in that direction was Face in pant leg Santa Claus? A fellow AOL blogger had a question about a photograph she had taken, and I undertook to answer it. I learned a lesson that week, when my rational explanation for what appeared in the picture was met with outright hostility by that blogger. Often, those who ask questions are not really looking for honest answers. In many cases, they are simply looking for someone to confirm their existing preconceptions for them. As Dr. Carl Sagan once said, "You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe."
In April the AOL journaling community was hit hard by the death of one of our founding members. Pamela Hilger was blogging on AOL before the product was even officially available in its beta testing stage. Over the almost three years she was blogging, she touched virtually every person in our fledgling community. The extreme grief I felt on her passing greatly surprised me, and speaks to the strength of the bonds that we form in this online world. In tribute to Pamela I wrote My friend Pamela, and I found a few small words.
Later in April, I had a surprise visitor, and a skinny one at that. He stayed with me for several days, and we had a few fun adventures. I recounted them in six entries, beginning with A Tuesday story.
Usually the saying is, "April showers bring May flowers," but this year we seemed to have a late spring, and the showers were deferred until The frog days of summer. This is one of my favourite entries from the past year.
Continuing on the path of skeptical blogging, I tackled people's preconceptions about Homeopathic Medicine in Serial delusions, and took a local television station to task in Breakfast television with little or no effect. That Carl Sagan guy sure seems to have these people pegged.
August brought a first for Aurora Walking Vacation, with a guest blogger. Well, I called her a "guest blogger," but all I really did was cut and paste an e-mail my wife sent to her co-workers, and CC'd to me. Still, it's a funny story, and she told it well: Apparently, it's all my fault.
Then, in September, I foolishly picked up the topic of my wife once more, in Look at how my children play Commando in the Cul-de-sac. This entry brought a lot of comment from outside the online world, when my father mentioned it at the dinner table one night, bringing it to my wife's attention for the first time. She said she was going to write a rebuttal for me to publish as her second guest stint, but she never did. I guess the truth is just unassailable.
October's archive is jammed full of interesting blog entries, including several controversial skeptical topics, a fun meme called National Carry Your Camera Everywhere You Go Week, and other various and sundry offerings. In the end, I felt that the entry I really wanted to highlight here was one that explained a bit about why this journal has taken on a bit of new direction this year: Why skepticism?
November is grey, and cold, and it seemed to me to need something to lighten the load a bit. Nothing like life to provide fodder for that. An ill-considered action is a true story of human frailty and failings. But light, you know?
Which brings us to December, and the end of the year. Do I have an entry to highlight this month, kind of a wrap up for a year of Aurora Walking Vacation? How about this one: There, is that 'meta' enough for you?
Tags: blogging, Aurora Walking Vacation, 2006 year in review
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My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Very Lord Paul the Scattered of Chortling Chesterton Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title |
I'm working on a year in review post, but this topic deserved it's own forum. If you recall, back in June I talked about a Toronto psychic named May Miller, who appeared on the local morning show. She made a series of predictions on that show, which I determined to keep track of in order to gauge her accuracy. And the time has come to do so...
First, have a peek at the list of her original predictions, and my commentary on them at the time, and then come back here and we'll have a look at just how good a "psychic" Ms. Miller is.
Prediction #1: Germany will win the World Cup.
Strike one. Germany lost to Italy in the Semi-finals. Italy went on to win the World Cup, much to my chagrin. It might almost have been worth it for her to have got this one right.
Prediction #2: While the USA will have to contend with several hurricanes this year, none of them will be as bad as Katrina.
Strike two. While this was not a difficult prediction to get right, for reasons I outlined at the time, she managed to cock it up completely. You see, not one hurricane touched United States soil all year. So, while she was right about the fact that Katrina would not be surpassed, the fact that the hurricane season was the polar opposite this year than last is so remarkable that her prediction, as she worded it, can only be called a miss.
Prediction #3: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will marry this year, and have another child. That child will not be adopted, but via a pregnancy.
Strike three. Not only did Brad and Angelina not marry, they made a public statement to the effect that they have no intention of doing so. Also, Angelina, to date, has not become pregnant.
Prediction #4: Jennifer Lopez is pregnant right now. The news will come out soon.
Nope. No news of a pregnant J-Lo. Sorry.
Prediction #5: The morning show interviewer, who is pregnant herself, will deliver her child on July 1st or 2nd.
Liza Fromer gave birth to a baby boy on July 15th, 2006. Another swing and a miss. Where are we, so far? Oh, yeah, zero for five.
Prediction #6: Toronto will have a bad year for shootings, but 2007 will be better due to improved enforcement.
Again, this seemed like a safe prediction at the time, based on a record number of gun murders in Toronto in 2005, and an apparent trend toward the same during the early part of 2006. Unfortunately, for Ms. Miller at least, the trend was not borne out, and Toronto's murder rate returned this year to a normal range, more in line with 2004 and the years leading up to it. Almost half, in fact, of last year's count.
Will 2007 be even better? It's hard to predict based upon the statistics. Toronto has seen a significant increase in gang related violence in the last few years. On the other hand, the per capita murder rate in Toronto has been declining for thirty years. So, your guess is as good as mine...or May's. Still, I have to count this one as a miss based on the first half of the prediction.
Prediction #7: Toronto need not worry about a terrorist attack.
The wording of this one is a bit funny. Not so much as a prediction as a reassurance. Does Toronto need to worry about a terrorist attack? Our politicians seem to think so. According to US intelligence, we are on an Al-Qaeda list of prospective targets. But then again, according to US intelligence, Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, so it's hard to say what that's worth.
In Ms. Miller's favour, we did not have a terrorist attack in 2006. However, the authorities here arrested a number of people who were allegedly engaged in planning one, which incident prompted Miller's comments in the first place.
She would, if asked, however, say that part of the reason we need not worry about an attack is our superior police and intelligence services will prevent any future plans from coming to fruition as well. While I don't agree with her, I cannot argue based on current and past events. May gets a grudging hit on this one.
So, Toronto psychic May Miller's final record on the predictions she made on the Breakfast Television show on June 20th of this year, is onefor seven, or just under fifteen percent. Now believers will trumpet that one hit as being proof of Ms. Miller's awesome psychic abilities, but honestly, would you pay someone for a psychic reading based upon a fifteen percent success rate? If the answer to that is yes, you deserve to be fleeced by this fraud.
In other fraudulent psychic news, it has been five years and nine months since Sylvia Browne agreed to be tested for the James Randi Educational Foundation's Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, and five years and four months since she agreed to a specific and definitive test protocol. She has yet to come forward and complete the test she agreed to take. For more evidence of Sylvia Browne's bumbling, incompetence, visit StopSylviaBrowne.com.
| You Are Blitzen |
 Why You're Naughty: You're always blitzed on Christmas Eve, while flying! Why You're Nice: You mix up a mean eggnog martini. |
