I lied about the lying post being next -- not enough time to fabricate and formulate, so I'll end the week w/ some Friday cuteness. This video is titled "What Tolerance Looks Like," but notice how it cuts out when Mr. Yum Yum's about to lay down the hammer. Happy Weekend, everyone.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
A Laker's Man
Thanks to the wholesome, boy-friendly Susan for this:
Unfortunately, I can't accept it b/c I can only think of two others to pass it along to besides the fine folks Susan did. However, since I believe in breaking rules, I'll pass this along to Void (he just got married and his manly quotient is magnified tenfold, despite bachelor opinion to the contrary) and Adam (who is about to have another child, and, given the pedigree, I imagine we'll have another great human in progress). Since I'm breaking rules, I'll attach no strings, unless one wishes to comply w/ them:
Strings, according to Susan: Tell a couple of things about yourself, the name of your fave guy book, fave sports moment, favorite manly man movie, fave manly music, fave food w/ no nutritional value:
1.) Thing about myself: Though I'm a mechanical engineer, I'm more a gym rat than a gear head (though I've been doing lots of work with gears recently - worm, spur, gear racks)
2.) Fave guy book: George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones.
3.) Fave manly movie: not sure, though I'm not a huge fan of Godfather, Rocky, Raging Bull, etc... perhaps a symptom of being a Laker's Man (though I'm not a huge Jack fan either).
4.) Fave manly music: Rammstein (Du Hast), Korn (Twisted Transistor), Eminem (Till I Collapse), GNR (It's So Easy)
5.) Fave food: pizza, Mexican, doughnuts, cookie dough... this list could go on forever (and is probably the reason I'm a gym rat).
All of the above is true to the best of my knowledge. For the next post, I'll work on lying
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Why the Olympics Suck
I'm coming out of my blogging hiatus (mostly b/c of work, but also b/c it was relaxing... I know, not proper protocol -- but as Tony Horton of P90X says about the recovery drink -- I'd highly recommend it. Wish I could say I was in Vancouver, but, alas, no) swinging (don't you love those long parentheticals between words that completely interrupt the flow and comprehension? I know I do :)...
There's a lot to like about the Olympics. Unadulterated joy,Sponsorless less sponsored competition, not-so-inventive-but-fun things to do w/ medals, etc. But if it weren't for my wife's need for all things ice skating, I'd probably avoid the Olympics for these 3 reasons:
1.) Tape Delay - I live in the same time zone as Vancouver, yet, somehow, see nothing live. This is fine if the games are in China or I'm in 1980, but not in the Internet Age. I can't even see curling in real time... NBC sucks.
2.) Sympathy Stories - the personal pieces the networks always do on various contenders to evoke sympathy/empathy and indoctrinate support are fine to an extent, but I feel like each of these things is a Lifetime movie of the week. If you want sympathy, try for sincerity over heavy-handedness.
3.) Figure skating. This is one of the few events that's okay to watch tape-delayed b/c of the artistry, funky costumes, and Johnny Weir. Ice dancing would be okay, except they keep referring to spins as "twizzles," which nullifies the credibility of the sport, IMO. Seriously, twizzle? Sounds like a toddler's snowboard trick.
Figure skating makes me want to rip my ears off and swallow them. God help me, but if I spent a day locked in a room w/ Sandra Bezic one of us wouldn't survive. The NBC announcers will tell you about 'musicality' (which is kind of like 'voice' in the skating world, I think) until the cows come home (which, in the winter, is never, b/c the cows are already home), but they won't actually tell you about the music the skater's skating to. Try being useful. Hopefully soon, technology will allow us to listen to the environment but silence these yahoos.
There's a lot to like about the Olympics. Unadulterated joy,
1.) Tape Delay - I live in the same time zone as Vancouver, yet, somehow, see nothing live. This is fine if the games are in China or I'm in 1980, but not in the Internet Age. I can't even see curling in real time... NBC sucks.
2.) Sympathy Stories - the personal pieces the networks always do on various contenders to evoke sympathy/empathy and indoctrinate support are fine to an extent, but I feel like each of these things is a Lifetime movie of the week. If you want sympathy, try for sincerity over heavy-handedness.
3.) Figure skating. This is one of the few events that's okay to watch tape-delayed b/c of the artistry, funky costumes, and Johnny Weir. Ice dancing would be okay, except they keep referring to spins as "twizzles," which nullifies the credibility of the sport, IMO. Seriously, twizzle? Sounds like a toddler's snowboard trick.
Figure skating makes me want to rip my ears off and swallow them. God help me, but if I spent a day locked in a room w/ Sandra Bezic one of us wouldn't survive. The NBC announcers will tell you about 'musicality' (which is kind of like 'voice' in the skating world, I think) until the cows come home (which, in the winter, is never, b/c the cows are already home), but they won't actually tell you about the music the skater's skating to. Try being useful. Hopefully soon, technology will allow us to listen to the environment but silence these yahoos.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Switch That Which
I’ll readily admit I’m a bit of a grammar snob. When I see i.e. (i.e., ‘that is’ – i.e., everything in the set) used in place of e.g., (i.e., for example – i.e., not everything in the set), I die a little inside. Well, not really, but that’s the level of grammar uppity-uppity I’m at (yes, Virginia, this sentence intentionally ends w/ a preposition – b/c I’m not at that level, though, if you keep reading, you’ll find that I am at that level – yes, kill me now, fear me later).
Worse than id est vs. exempli gratia, and perhaps worse than improper use of conditionals and subjunctives (e.g., ‘I wish I wasn’t a grammar snob’ – even writing that ‘was’ there hurt), is the misuse of that and which (the latter usually for the former). i.e. vs e.g. doesn’t pop up in most non-technical writing and misuse of were vs. was can be attributed to style or character, even if not intended. That vs. Which, however, has no excuse. E.g., in a recent article, the culprit wrote the following:
Stringer violated an NCAA bylaw which states that managers may not participate as practice players with the institution's team if they are not eligible student-athletes.
Of course, I’m sure said offender thought that 2 ‘that’s separated by a single word was bad news, though the cynic in me believes that had that offender removed that that, they’d still have used that which. That is to say, that perhaps that sentence should have been written as such:
Stringer violated an NCAA bylaw that states [optional that] managers may not participate as practice players with the institution's team if they are not eligible student-athletes
or
Stringer violated an NCAA bylaw, which states [optional that] managers may not participate as practice players with the institution's team if they are not eligible student-athletes
Yes, I’m sometimes the self-recognized mayor of crazyville, but give me 5 adverb modified dialogue tags and a sparkling vampire before that insidious which.
Worse than id est vs. exempli gratia, and perhaps worse than improper use of conditionals and subjunctives (e.g., ‘I wish I wasn’t a grammar snob’ – even writing that ‘was’ there hurt), is the misuse of that and which (the latter usually for the former). i.e. vs e.g. doesn’t pop up in most non-technical writing and misuse of were vs. was can be attributed to style or character, even if not intended. That vs. Which, however, has no excuse. E.g., in a recent article, the culprit wrote the following:
Stringer violated an NCAA bylaw which states that managers may not participate as practice players with the institution's team if they are not eligible student-athletes.
Of course, I’m sure said offender thought that 2 ‘that’s separated by a single word was bad news, though the cynic in me believes that had that offender removed that that, they’d still have used that which. That is to say, that perhaps that sentence should have been written as such:
Stringer violated an NCAA bylaw that states [optional that] managers may not participate as practice players with the institution's team if they are not eligible student-athletes
or
Stringer violated an NCAA bylaw, which states [optional that] managers may not participate as practice players with the institution's team if they are not eligible student-athletes
Yes, I’m sometimes the self-recognized mayor of crazyville, but give me 5 adverb modified dialogue tags and a sparkling vampire before that insidious which.
Monday, February 8, 2010
TMA
First, congrats to the Saints! Though I was rooting for the Colts, this is one of those times where I think (even if you're a die-hard Indianapolis fan, which I'm not) you can be happy the other team won.
I was thinking about calling this post TMI, but too much information isn't what's boggling my mind. It's Too Much Advice. I definitely feel inundated and pulled every which way sometimes, as I'm sure we all do given the wealth of opinions floating through the cosmos. I'd trust my gut, but it seems to have been resected and replaced with a sieve of indecision created by internet-produced midichlorians.
What about you? Are there days when you feel like your head's gonna explode from advice overload, when you wish for a court-ordered mandate to shutdown the internet for a few days (or months)?
I was thinking about calling this post TMI, but too much information isn't what's boggling my mind. It's Too Much Advice. I definitely feel inundated and pulled every which way sometimes, as I'm sure we all do given the wealth of opinions floating through the cosmos. I'd trust my gut, but it seems to have been resected and replaced with a sieve of indecision created by internet-produced midichlorians.
What about you? Are there days when you feel like your head's gonna explode from advice overload, when you wish for a court-ordered mandate to shutdown the internet for a few days (or months)?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Chrome
If you haven't checked out Google Chrome, I'd highly recommend it. I've been using it since its launch and it's infinitely better than Internet Explorer (faster/better pages loads, better security, more intuitive IMO). I'm not a huge Firefox aficionado, but whenever I used it before I just thought it was a slightly morphed IE. Chrome's different. And the best part, it's open-source and keeps having cool things added to it (Google is the proprietor of Blogger since 2003, FYI). Today I discovered themes (play dress up w/ your browser) and extensions (kind of like baby-apps for your browser).
Monday, February 1, 2010
Swift as Water
..." she said, her voice swift as water. - from The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.
I was listening to this BOT recently, and when I heard this, my immediate thought was, what the heck does that mean? This was fairly early in the book and the speaking character hadn't been developed enough to know whether 'swift as water' was to be taken on the up and up (e.g., swift as rushing water) or in a more ironic way (e.g., swift as pond water).
As some of you know (i.e., those I've betad for), I'm not a huge fan of similes/metaphors because I believe they lose their power if overused. Not to say that I don't like the occasional one, but please just use ones that make sense and aren't inserted just because you like the sound or flow. Contextually, there was no need for the above simile (it was like 2 words of dialogue, which is hard to make too swift or too slow regardless of the water involved), and even were the character a rapid-fire talker, I'd still like something modifying water (because most water ain't particularly swift, unless it's swift as pressure washer water, which is just awkward, never mind being dangerous).
PS - In an effort to not seem like a complete jump-to-grump, I did appreciate most of Ms. Edwards' writing; the above just threw me off a bit when I heard it.
I was listening to this BOT recently, and when I heard this, my immediate thought was, what the heck does that mean? This was fairly early in the book and the speaking character hadn't been developed enough to know whether 'swift as water' was to be taken on the up and up (e.g., swift as rushing water) or in a more ironic way (e.g., swift as pond water).
As some of you know (i.e., those I've betad for), I'm not a huge fan of similes/metaphors because I believe they lose their power if overused. Not to say that I don't like the occasional one, but please just use ones that make sense and aren't inserted just because you like the sound or flow. Contextually, there was no need for the above simile (it was like 2 words of dialogue, which is hard to make too swift or too slow regardless of the water involved), and even were the character a rapid-fire talker, I'd still like something modifying water (because most water ain't particularly swift, unless it's swift as pressure washer water, which is just awkward, never mind being dangerous).
PS - In an effort to not seem like a complete jump-to-grump, I did appreciate most of Ms. Edwards' writing; the above just threw me off a bit when I heard it.
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