Pop Quiz Interet Readers

Today, we are going to test your knowledge of foreign (unless you happen to live in any of them) countries and other basic knowledge everyone should be equipped with.  Please leave your answers in the comments section.  If you don't know the answer, please leave your best guess in the comments section.  No fair Googling, folks.

1. How many people live in the Philippines?

2. What is the land mass in either millions of square miles or millions of square kilometers of the Philippines?

3. What is 6 x 8?

4. What is John Fowles famous for?

5. What is the height of the capitol building in Havana, Cuba?

 

Now, to bring things closer to home, here is my list of the things I am hoping to acquire in 2013:

-A Chest / Trunk - something large and made of wood with solid metal hardware.  I imagine using such a thing as either a coffee table or simply placing it against a wall near the sofa in order to store one or more clean blankets for use in totally masculine snuggling up underneath while movie watching.

- Jacket(s) that would look good with both jeans and dress pants

 

-A Toolchest - the anarchists tool chest (google it) looks like the kind of thing I would be interested in.  I have purchased and have been using more power and hand tools in the last year.  Now is the time that I need to think about a place to store them before I purchase any more.

-One of those trendy leaning storage units I have been seeing so often lately.  Ikea, Restoration Hardware, etc. all seem to offer storage furniture that resembles 1/2 a ladder with three steps/ rungs that are designed to lean against a wall and provide a place to put things.  I like these because they look like they would be easy to move when it comes time for me to pack up my stuff and move it to another place.  

-Coffee Table, which I would appreciate having storage underneath

-A pair of End Tables designed to be the correct height to be placed next to the sofa where I spend a lot of time.  Being able to keep my ice water, coffee, books, magazines, electronics and remote controls within arm's reach would be nice.  

-A wire metal magazine/ newspaper holder designed to keep periodicals visible and available and at close hand. 

-A repair to the sofa.  I frequently sit on a reclining chair, which still looks OK but it is partially broken.  I would like to be able to repair the damage before it gets worse.

- Additional clothing storage.  I have a bureau but I could really use more hanging storage for clothes.

 

- A charging station for my cell phone that I would actually use.  I was on the receiving end of one of these as a gift a few years ago but it is too tall to be functional, i.e. the wind generated from closing a door too suddenly causes it to tip over when my phone is on the top section (only a slight exaggeration) and has little pockets for things things that have nothing to do with getting me to an from work each day.  What I want is a thing that looks nice, is designed to actually hold the things that I carry with me each day, i.e. my cell phone, wallet, keys, receipts from anything I purchased during the course of the day, loose change and any other little pieces of paper, i.e. notes I have scribbled, coupons, phone numbers of all the beautiful women I frequently interact with (it's plausible!), etc. Ideally this thing would also have room for a charging cord for my cell phone and iStuff, It would be even better if it had two micro USB charging cords and two for iThings connected to a power strip so that I could cut the power being drawn from my house and thus save money on my electric bill with the flick of a button.  The thing should also be designed to house all of these cords out of sight so that I do not have to look at them.  Also, it should be unlike so many of these things I have seen on website across the internet, which look like fire hazards to me.  My electronics tend to run hot and so many of these charging stations do not seem to me to have any way of dealing with heat as it gathers inside of these devices. 

Finally, Entertain Me, Internet!

Here is an article that describes some new slightly obscure TV shows that premier shortly.  I link to this article because the author writes favorably about Lost Girl, a show that I have written about on this blog before.  Based on this article I think I have to check out Continuum.

-TL;DR: Really?  Do I have to scribble images to accompany all of these posts to get people to pay attention and make myself understood?