new blog

                          I feel like I am in a different place of my life and it deserves a new blog.

                                                            writetochangeit.blogspot.com
                  is where I want to share some of the things I have learned/ written since losing my dad.

Writing

I have been working on some writing over the past few years and I wanted to post a few pieces on here to see what you guys think... soooo, the following posts will be some of that.

toothpaste

Toothpaste, also called DENTIFRICE is a paste gel or powder that helps to remove plaque buildup on your teeth. If the plaque is not removed it can cause tooth decay and gum disease.
Make sure that when you are purchasing a toothpaste you look for the ADA seal. (American Dental Association). The seal is proof that the toothpaste does what it says it will do.
Cheese!




http://www.ada.org/1322.aspx

GIANT Panda

The Giant Panda is also known as the AILUROPODA MELANOLEUCA





Short and sweet but there's your random fact for the day.

Balloons!

Jude let a helium balloon go into the sky today and was really upset about it. I told him later on that it was ok because the balloon probably went to the moon. I started to wonder, how high will it actually go?
The record for the highest helium balloon is held by a British man, Ian Ashpole. He used 400 helium balloons and achieved a height of one mile or 1,575 yards without any of the balloons popping.

A helium balloon can reach a height of 9,000 meters or 29,537 feet. It can't go any higher because the helium in the balloon will expand and pop.

 http://www.ehow.com/facts_7467764_high-balloon-go-before-pops_.html

Let there be light!

The light bulb was invented in the early 1800's by Thomas Edison and Sir Joseph Swan (they got it correct right around the same time). The bulb is made up of a handful of parts. We all use them everyday, but I know I have no clue how they really work.


-LIGHT is a form of ENERGY that can be released by an ATOM.
-PHOTONS are the most basic units of LIGHT.
-ATOMS release PHOTONS when their ELECTRONS become excited.
                                            LIGHT BULB STRUCTURE
-2 metal contacts that connect to the end of an electrical circuit
-metal contacts attached to wires attached to thin metal filament
-Filament sits in the middle of the bulb held up by a glass mount.
-All of these are held in a glass bulb filled with an inert gas.

"When the bulb is hooked up to a power supply, an electric current flows from one contact to the other, through the wires and the filament. Electric current in a solid conductor is the mass movement of free electrons (electrons that are not tightly bound to an atom) from a negatively charged area to a positively charged area."


-Electrons zip through filament, bump into atoms, vibrates atoms and heats them up.


"Metal atoms release mostly infrared light photons, which are invisible to the human eye. But if they are heated to a high enough level -- around 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees C) in the case of a light bulb -- they will emit a good deal of visible light."

BRIGHT, BRIGHTER, BRIGHTEST!

Light bulbs are ranked by their power -- the amount of light they put out in a certain period of time (measured in watts). Higher-watt bulbs have a bigger filament, so they produce more light.

A three-way bulb has two filaments of different wattage -- typically a 50-watt filament and a 100-watt filament. The filaments are wired to separate circuits, which can be closed initially using a special three-way socket.

The switch in the three-way socket lets you choose from three different light levels. On the lowest level, the switch closes only the circuit for the 50-watt filament. For the medium light level, the switch closes the circuit for the 100-watt filament. For the brightest level, the switch closes the circuits for both filaments, so the bulb operates at 150 watts.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/light-bulb2.htm 

Biltmore Egg Hunt

On Easter Sunday, April 8, there will be an egg hunt at the Biltmore for the kids at 11:00 am, 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm. There will be children's activities, magic shows and photos with the Easter Bunny. How cool would that be to go to?! Visit www.biltmore.com/events to find out more info.

lions, tigers and BEARS

Collin, Jude and I went for a hike in the Cherokee National Forest on Thursday and I decided it would be a great idea to know what to do IF we were to encounter a bear. So here are a few bear safety tips. Hopefully we will never run into one but better know safety tips to be overly cautious.

-Black bears are the ones in our area and yes they are awake now. If you plan on going hiking try to go in a group and make noise by talking, singing camp songs ;) or wearing a bell. Yes you may feel like an idiot wearing a bell but it could save your life!
Bears tend to be more active at dusk and dawn so plan to hike between those times.

-STAY ON THE MARKED TRAILS! Leave your pets at home.

-If you encounter a bear, remain calm and avoid sudden movements. NEVER run from a bear. They will chase you and can run faster than 30 mph. NEVER climb a tree, they can and usually will climb after you as it provokes them.
- If it sees you, makes sure it knows you are human by talking and waving your arms.
-If it does not see you, quickly and quietly detour to get away from it.
-NEVER feed a bear.
-If it comes at you, throw something like a camera on the ground to try and distract it, this may allow you time to escape.
-Bring bear spray or pepper spray and spray it 40 feet in front of the bear so that the bear will run into it.
-Be loud, wave your arms and fight back with whatever object you have if a black bear attacks you. If it sees you as a threat it will more than likely retreat.

There is a lot of good info on this site
http://usparks.about.com/od/backcountry/a/Bear-Safety.htm
and if you are planning on hiking or camping anytime soon I would browse over it.

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

If you are like me, there is not a day that goes by that you do not drink a cup of coffee. I started to think, if I am that involved with a drink it would probably be a good idea to at least know it's details. Did you know that coffee was originally a food, not a drink? It was eaten as beans and mixed with animal fat forming energy balls. I prefer it served out of a pretty cup with a mermaid on it. Caffeine, or trimethylxanthine is the stimulant in coffee that operates on the brain (in a much milder way) the same that amphetamines, cocain and heroine do.
-Coffee beans are grown on coffee trees.
-A coffee bean is actually the seed of a cherry plant.(I had no idea)
-After cherries are picked, they are either dried in the sun, or skinned and pulped and put into a fermentation machine for 12-48 hours, then dried.
-All other layers are then removed from the bean.
-They are graded and sorted by size and density.
-Coffee is then shipped unroasted or "green".
-It is then roasted in a drum and pops to double in size.
-The amount of time roasting is where the terms "light, medium, dark" etc come from!
-Coffee is then ground, either by you or by another company.

I have a new appreciation for this beautiful cup of "joe" I am holding in my hands.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/coffee7.htm

WIPEOUT

Have you ever wanted to be a contestant on a game show but thought, I have no idea where to even start?  If you would like to be humiliated in front of millions of viewers and have the chance at $50,000.00 then wipeout is your show.
click here http://abc.go.com/site/casting
and follow the instructions!
Oh and it is possible, a friend of mine was recently on it.

Safe Driving

You know that one person that knows a million random facts? I was driving home last night and thought what's stopping me from being THAT person. SOOOO I am going to record all of the random facts that I find on a blog. Maybe no one will ever read it, but who cares! At least it will be recorded somewhere other than my already cluttered scatter brained head. While driving home, a car pulled out in front of me from a side street barely making it by without me hitting it. I had my son Jude in the backseat and thought if I were going to hit it, what would be the best way in order to protect my son in the backseat? Should I slam on the breaks or would that cause me to swerve sideways putting Jude in more danger. Should I just hit allowing the airbag to go off and causing more front-end impact. I know that in an accident you usually don't have much time to think about anything. It's always good to know the right answer anyway. Like never use cruise control in the rain because if you skid CC will want to keep your car going at a constant speed. Speed adds to the problem because it will send you off in the direction you are skidding at a higher rate. CC will be disabled if you were to slam on the brakes but that's exactly what you do not want to do because it could cause you to hydroplane out of control. The best thing to do is to hold the wheel firmly and don't steer in any direction but straight ahead. Ease up on the gas and hopefully the car will slow and your driving can return to normal. http://alerts.nationalsafetycommission.com/2009/03/hazards-of-driving-in-rain-with-cruise.php
http://www.smartmotorist.com/driving-guideline/hydroplaning-aquaplaning.html
ANYWAY the best that I could find on how to handle a "collision with a car from a side street" was to hit your break and hope for the airbag to deploy. There is usually not much reaction time in a situation like that. I thought since I was talking about traffic safety here I could add in another driving tip that I didn't know. The good thing about research is that you learn a million other things while searching for your topic. Since I live in the South and there seems to be a deer on every road I thought, knowing the proper way to handle the car if I have to hit a deer, would be a good thing to know. According to the Dept of Public Safety, drivers need to avoid swerving because it could cause a collision with oncoming traffic or an object off the road such as a tree. The best thing to do is to
1. hit the deer
2. apply the brakes firmly
3. and come to a controlled stop.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/accidents-hazardous-conditions/hit-a-deer.htm
Easier said than done but at least we know the right way!