I thought I would make everyone aware of the blog contest going on at my other blog, Fiscal Musings. I’m giving away two copies of The Millionaire Next Door, and all you have to do is leave a comment on the contest post. One copy is going to one of the first ten commenters, and as of this writing there are still four spots left in the top ten.

The results of a long awaited study are finally in. Many have observed this unusual phenomenon, but have typically just shrugged it off as nothing more than a mere coincidence. Well, the facts are in, and the findings have finally answered the question: “Are urinal stances somehow correlated to a man’s age?”

The study reveals that there are three main stances assumed by men while loitering in front of a urinal. These three stances are effectively referred to as the Focused, the Comfortable, and the Unashamed. As one ages, he will typically pass through all three of these stages, although in several rare cases subjects were observed to stagnate in the second stance/stage while others have progressed straight to the third from the first. The following are descriptions of each of the stances:

The Focused Stance

In this stance one stands before the urinal with a sense of purpose looking only straight ahead and occasionally glancing down assuring nothing is awry. Both hands in front of the person is the key feature of this stance. It can succinctly be described as “all business” and is usually assumed by those from the ages of adolescence through the mid to late thirties.

The Comfortable Stance

As the title suggests, this pose is more relaxed in nature and develops as one becomes more comfortable with their surroundings. The hallmark of this stance is only one hand (instead of two) in front of the person while the other hand is rested casually on the hip or haunches forming a triangle with the elbow and shoulder. The person’s eyes are usually wandering and the head will move from side to side. This stance is gradually accepted and later perfected by those in their late thirties through early sixties albeit with a greater standard deviation.

The Unashamed Stance

This stance is usually performed by the most experienced among us, although like was mentioned earlier, it has been seen in rare cases among a much younger demographic. In this stance, again one hand is in front but the other hand is found equally divided between two places. In some instances one’s elbow is rested on top of the privacy divider between urinals while in other cases the palm is placed firmly on the wall in front of the person as if to steady oneself. It also isn’t uncommon for minor audible heavy breathing or even slight groans to be heard.

Conclusion

As with most things, there are exceptions to these general stances, but now that you are aware of these recent findings, you don’t have to pass the thought over to coincidence. So how accurate are these results in your specific locale?

Today I just wanted to put up two new towel racks and a toilet paper dispenser. You wouldn’t think that this should be a big deal, or that difficult for that matter. Unfortunately, it turned into about an entire day project.

After taking the old fixtures off the wall, I needed to fill in the screw holes and whatnot. So I picked up some goop and some plain white paint. Well, the paint didn’t really match the wall since the wall is just old and faded, so I ended up having to paint the entire wall. I hadn’t really planned on this portion of the project.

Then, of course, the paint has to dry so I couldn’t just put up the fixtures. Once I did get around to putting them up, I managed to put two out of the three on the wall. The main towel rack, however, was missing one of the set screws, so I’ll have to see if the store will believe me and exchange it. I’m just worried they’ll think I lost it and won’t do anything for me, but I’ll have to see. Anyway, the project took way longer than I had anticipated, and it kind of irritated me.

As some of you may know (I’m not always sure of what I’ve written on each blog), I’ve been putting in some new flooring in the front room of our house. We were working on it a little bit tonight and when we finished I noticed some of the scrap pieces of laminate flooring propped up against one of the walls. I instantly thought of the commercials that I’m sure we’ve all seen from AT&T about the more bars in more places.

I’m not trying to put in a plug for AT&T, and I don’t use their service, but the thought just occurred to me and I figured I’d post the picture here. A real life example of more bars appearing randomly in nature. Maybe it’s a sign that I should switch carriers, but I’m pretty sure I’ll stay with who I’ve got for now. (It can be quite expensive to break a contract you know.) So, have you perhaps seen any other randomly occurring signal strength bars?

As you may or may not know, The Milk Crate has undergone some drastic changes recently. I wanted to get away from the free hosting provided by Blogger and have more flexibility and a better ability to customize as I wanted. So I decided to sign up for my own hosting plan, and I went with Bluehost.com. I have never had my own hosting before, and was a little nervous about it because I thought it might be over my head. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to get everything up and running, and I was pretty impressed with the customer service support (especially for a novice).

The service only costs $6.95 per month if you sign up for 24 months, and it costs $7.95 per month if you only want to sign up for one year at a time. It’s pretty reasonable for all of the server space and bandwidth that your allowed. You are also able to register one domain name for free if you don’t already have one or would like to get another one.

I was also really impressed with how easy it was to install the Wordpress blogging platform. Bluehost already has Wordpress right there for you to install onto whatever domain you choose. It really couldn’t have been much simpler. And importing everything over from Blogger was really easy as well. I’m really happy with the new look here at The Milk Crate, and hope you enjoy it as well. Feel free to make any comments about the design or leave suggestions for improvements.

I don’t usually browse the internet looking for useless videos, mostly because I’m generally disinterested, but also because I’m far too impatient to sift through all the mediocre (at best) videos to hopefully stumble across a good one. Fortunately though for all of you, I didn’t have to find this video; it was sent to me. And it is possibly one of the funniest video clips that I’ve seen in a really long time.

It’s only 17 seconds long so it’s short enough to view a couple of times, which you’ll probably need to really see all of what’s going on. But I’m not going to say any more about it and just let the video speak for itself. Feel free to leave your comments about it though.

When you get thirsty this holiday season, you can reach for some funky flavors from Jones Soda. They’re going to be selling holiday-themed limited edition packs of flavored soda. The Christmas pack will include Sugar Plum, Christmas Tree, Egg Nog and Christmas Ham.

Now who would want to drink ham flavored soda? As much as I like eating ham, I definitely would not want it in a carbonated liquid form. The same goes for the Christmas tree flavor. Mmmm, liquid bark. There are obviously some people out there who will drink this concoction though since they’re going to sell it. But I’m not sure if I could associate with them.

Aside from these awful flavors, there will also be a Hanukkah pack featuring Jelly Doughnut, Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coins and Latke sodas. These aren’t quite as odd, but I know I won’t be buying them. And if all these flavors weren’t enough, Jones Soda has a contract with Qwest Field, where the Seahawks play, to supply soda with such flavors as Perspiration, Dirt, Sports Cream and Natural Field Turf. This might actually explain quite a bit though.

Hopefully this hasn’t inspired you to go out and buy any of this garbage. Don’t further prove that people will indeed buy anything. Just because someone slaps a bar code on something doesn’t mean that it should be bought.

This past weekend the happy ninja showed up. While there wasn’t much different than any other normal weekend, there were a few highlights that are worth mentioning.

First of all, there was quite a bit of Guitar Hero III played over the weekend. I must say it’s one of the better games that have come out recently, highly entertaining and different than the traditional games. I wish I could speak to the proficiency of the ninja, but The Rolling Stones would have to say otherwise. As for my performance, I have to mention an astonishing 343 note streak.

We also had the occasion to play tennis. I had a little trouble with my serve probably due to the fact that I haven’t played in over a year, and I am pretty sore. It was definitely worth it though, since the final was 6-4. I’ve still got it.

Friday night we stayed up till about 7 am. We weren’t doing anything special or important since I can’t even really remember. It is however further proof of the cancerous nature of the ninja.

A woman in Brooklyn found a snake her toilet one night. It was a seven foot python that she found poking out of her toilet in her apartment. Plumbers had to tear apart the pipes in the apartment below in order to extract the snake. I’m sure that it must have been a frightening experience, but this lady now has a great story to tell. She’s still a little spooked though because she now uses her daughter’s training toilet at night.

As interesting as this story may be however, I mostly just wanted the excuse to mention wrestling a snake on this blog. It’s a funny phrase. I don’t really have any more to say about it, but if you’re really interested in this story, you can read more about it here.

I thought I would share this little bit of advertising that I found to be incredibly unique. I think it might persuade me to purchase one.

I found this picture and figured that I would share it with all of you. What would you think of having this in the bathroom? While I did find it quite funny, I think the novelty of it would wear off rather quickly and I’d soon be annoyed by it. It is pretty ingenious though. I’ll give them that.

Apparently a woman really wanted her MacDonald’s food. Somehow she ran over her own legs while she was in the drive through lane. I don’t even know how this is possible.