| So They Say It's My Birthday |
[Jul. 14th, 2008|09:29 am] |
It crept up on me this year. Number thirty-seven.
My big present is a new clutch for my Jeep — the old one gave out last week. I guess that HDTV will wait until Christmas ... |
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| Rare Achievements |
[Jun. 27th, 2008|03:15 pm] |
A meme from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tfbretz, kcarp, auspeople, nicoleallee, la_directora, and others.
Three things I've done that people on my friends list probably haven't:
- Crossed the equator at sea.
- Held a Top Secret security clearance.
Rode an elephant.
Rode a camel.
Fell off of a camel.
If I'm wrong, let me know and I'll think of something new.
(Updated.1 greeneyes_rpi is also an elephant rider.)
(Updated.2 kcarp spends too much time in zoos.) |
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| Seven Songs |
[Jun. 17th, 2008|11:20 am] |
A meme from tfbretz.
Seven songs that resonate with me just now, without regard for style, genre, or quality:
- Bob Dylan, "All Along the Watchtower"
- Tori Amos, "Big Wheel"
- David Bowie, "Golden Years"
- Moby, "Extreme Ways"
- Colbie Caillat, "Bubbly"
- AC/DC, "Hard as a Rock"
- Linkin Park, "Bleed It Out"
What about you? |
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| Thunderstruck |
[Jun. 5th, 2008|02:04 pm] |
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If Barack Obama were struck and killed by lightning on a golf course, thousands of people would immediately wonder how Hillary did it. |
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| Oviprimacy |
[Jun. 2nd, 2008|05:55 pm] |
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The egg came first, not the chicken. This question is now closed to debate. |
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| Brobdingnagian |
[May. 29th, 2008|05:01 pm] |
I'm tall. I sometimes joke about how I'm normal and most people are short, but that's just my inner smart-ass talking. At seventy-six inches, I figure I'm tall enough — but not abnormally so. Many of my peers are close to my height. So I'm at the upper end of normal, let's say. Only people taller than me are freakishly tall.
Earlier this week, in defiance of all laws of probability, I rode up to the office in an elevator full of grown men and women, not one of whom stood taller than my elbow. I felt strangely out of place. Unnaturally proportioned. Freakish, even. I still haven't quite shaken the impression.
I wonder if professional basketball players feel this way all the time. |
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| Cyborg Monkeys! |
[May. 28th, 2008|03:39 pm] |
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Mad science? You decide. |
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| Dictum Online |
[May. 28th, 2008|11:59 am] |
Language can be a little turbulent around new concepts, but the Internet has been around long enough for us to settle on a few standards:
- The hyphen in e-mail is not optional. Stop using "email."
- Like "mail," e-mail is a mass noun; it can be either singular or plural. You don't send and receive "e-mails" any more than you would "mails."
- Internet and World Wide Web (or just Web) are proper nouns, always capitalized. But intranet and extranet are common nouns and lowercase.
- As a prefix, web- doesn't need a hyphen or a capital W — website, webpage, webcam, and webcast are fine.
- Online and offline are single words. So are hotspot and homepage. But screen saver and slide show are still two words each.
- Login, logon, setup, startup, and backup are single words only as nouns or adjectives. As verbs, they have to be two words: log in, log on, set up, start up, and back up.
Thank you for your cooperation. |
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| Kingdom of the Crystal Skull |
[May. 25th, 2008|09:50 pm] |
We saw the movie last night, and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's no Raiders of the Lost Ark, but that would have been too much to expect, really. I judge it about equal to The Last Crusade. Make of that what you will.
( Spoilers behind the cut. ) |
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| Dictum Incorporated |
[May. 23rd, 2008|12:10 pm] |
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If a company name ends in Limited or Incorporated, it doesn't need a comma — Options Ltd. and Murder Inc. are perfectly correct. If you insist on having a comma, however, there has to be another one after the name if the sentence goes on. Options, Ltd., may look awkward, but that's the price you pay. |
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| Schrödinger's Pizza |
[May. 22nd, 2008|12:53 pm] |
You know about Schrödinger's Cat. It's the thought experiment that physicist Erwin Schrödinger used to illustrate what he saw as the absurdity of quantum superposition. Basically, you have a cat sealed inside a box along with a poison that will or won't be released depending on the state of a subatomic particle. Because the particle exists in all possible states until you measure it, the cat is both alive and dead until you open the box to see for yourself.
(And by now you're thinking, "yeah, we know, what's your point?")
Years ago, in college, my friends and I ordered two pizzas: one pepperoni, one sausage. But Mr. Gatti's confused the order, so the delivery guy showed up with just the one box. Being college guys and too clever by half, we decided that this must be Schrödinger's Pizza — pepperoni and sausage simultaneously, at least until we opened the box and found out one way or the other. Naturally, it turned out to be both.
Anyway, this is why I sometimes call a two-topping sausage and pepperoni pizza a Schrödinger's Pizza. |
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| Capital Dictum |
[May. 21st, 2008|10:16 am] |
Admittedly, the rules for capitalizing titles and headlines are arbitrary and arcane. They differ from one style manual to the next. But if you are (or claim to be) a professionally edited publication, you need to pick a standard and stick to it. Me, I prefer the Chicago Manual, but these rules are generally relevant in any style:
- Always capitalize the first and last word, no matter what.
- Capitalize all key words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs).
- Lowercase articles (the, a, an).
- Lowercase prepositions (but not adverbs — know the difference).
- Lowercase these conjunctions: and, but, or, nor, for.
- Lowercase to and as, in any function.
Of course, there are pages full of examples, exceptions, and special cases. And if you really don't care, that's fine. Capitalize every word if you must. Consistency is all I ask. |
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| Eyes Front |
[May. 15th, 2008|09:09 am] |
I'm no more lecherous than the next man, but I am a compulsive reader. Ladies, if you wear a T-shirt with something written on it, I can't help looking. No fair taking offense.
This goes double for pants. |
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| Baby Titan |
[May. 14th, 2008|05:35 pm] |
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My son had his two-year checkup yesterday. He's above the 97th percentile in both height and weight. He's already wearing clothes sized for four- and five-year-olds. Dear gods, I'm eventually going to have to look up at my own kid, aren't I? |
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| Five Random Links |
[May. 8th, 2008|11:03 am] |
Five things that have made my week a little lighter.
What have you got? |
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| Five Comic-Book Movies |
[May. 6th, 2008|11:48 am] |
The wife and I saw Iron Man over the weekend. What can I say? It's a great way to start the summer blockbuster season. Don't miss it (and make sure you stay through the credits). It's definitely one of my five favorite comic-book movies.
- Iron Man
- Batman Begins
- Spider-Man 2
- X-Men 2
- Hellboy
And two of these have sequels this summer! Life is good. |
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