The ispell spell check utility, at least the version I have, doesn't recognize "bimbo" as a word. The very first thing it suggests instead is, "Bilbo." The only other suggestion is "limbo."

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Current Mood: not *that* nerdy

Yesterday's post asked which did not belong:

                    _______
                   |   |   |
                   | 1 | 2 |
                   |___|___|
                   |   |   |
                   | 3 | 4 |
                   |___|___|

And I admitted that there was likely more than one answer.

First, it's not the box, boxes, a line, or lines. Those are simply the closest I could easily manage with text to show the divided-into-fourths picture.

I had not thought of the number of pen-strokes needed to write the characters, which would result in 4 being the oddball. But as the comments show, that is not a sure thing.

I had thought of the factorability argument: Only 4 can be factored into primes that do not include itself. That may seem a bit weaselly, but it does avoid the argument over if 1 is considered or defined to be prime.

Strangely, I hadn't thought of the sequence 1, 2, 4 with each being double the previous digit, thus making 3 the oddball.

I have to admit to a bit of obfuscation, as I listed the numbers as 1, 2, 3, and 4 rather than as one, two, three, and four. Granted, the same arguments for distinction would apply. But perhaps a linguistic idea rather than a mathematical idea would be a bit more likely.

As I had originally thought of this, the unique number was three. Why? Because the names of other numbers have homonyms, at least in english. One has won. Two has to and too. Four has for and fore. But three is just three. Not that this answer is any more valid than the others.

Current Mood: okay

http://www.chuckchamblee.com/dom/fun/yankee_dixie_quiz.htm (javascript required, bah) uses the Harvard Computer Society Dialect Survey to rate how Northern or Southern you are, or at least how your speech is. I got "34% (Yankee). A definitive Yankee" where the percentage is a rating of southernness.

My individual results tended to either be common throughout the U.S. or more common in the (western) Great Lakes region, which is no surprise.

Current Mood: satisfied

Whenever Wisconsin is in the news I notice that some people, who are generally well spoken and seem not to have some odd accent, are hard to take seriously. There is no 'e' in Wisconsin, so hearing someone say "Wesconsin" is a bit jarring to someone used to hearing the name pronounced properly.

One of the items I received for Christmas is daily desk calendar with stupid or at least curious quotations for each day. Today's item is actually three. Three menu items from Asian restaurants, supposedly.

Non-agricultural chemical Rice & Brown Rice

Seems to be a bit too much detail in the translation. Seems like it should be "Organic rice."

Shrimps in Spit

This one is a puzzle.

Bacon and Germs

Well, germ can mean something other than bacteria. Like the germ of an idea, a beginning. Say, the beginning of a bird perhaps. Thus, "Bacon and Eggs"

Probably all fine dishes, but I'm not sure I could bring myself to order the shrimp.

Via bronxelf:

( Words for things. )

There's a cartoon where two mice, Hubie and Bertie, have eaten so much cheese they can't stand any more and decide that there's nothing more to live for and so go find a cat to end their lives. But the cat is suspicious of mice that want to be eaten and so refuses to eat them. The dog sees the result and tries to figure things out. The mice hate cheese. The mice want to be eaten. The cat refuse to eat the mice. And the cat, I think I recall, even wants the dog to attack. As the dog puts it, "It just don't add up!"

There are a couple interesting things. One is that I said the dog tries to figure things out. The other is the dog's comment. Both treat a situation as being something that can be analyzed numerically. Listening to the radio on the drive back to work this noon I heard someone use the line "It doesn't compute." without being at all a reference to actual, or even fictional, computing. This is seems an updated version of "It doesn't add up." I wonder, how common is the compute version now that computers are ubiquitous and is the add up version fading as people no longer do much addition themselves?

Current Mood: contemplative

A seismograph records a seismogram.
A spectrograph records a spectrogram.
An electrocardiograph records an electrocardiogram.
An oscillograph records an oscillogram.

But a photograph does not record a photogram. Or did I miss something?

Current Mood: good

per se -- by, of, or in itself; as such; intrinsically (source: Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary.)

I am noticing, with increasing frequency, that per se is being replaced with "per say." While they sound the same, which is the source of the problem, they are different. The term per se is Latin or at least derived from Latin, while "per say" is a pair of English words.

I wonder what "per say" could be used for? Speech that is limited in some way? "You will have your say, but you only have five minutes per say."

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Current Mood: blah

This Summer a new term has come up to describe some people, metrosexual. The implication of the name is interesting. Metrosexual suggests a sexual attraction to a metropolitan area. Supposedly there are quite a few metrosexuals. I had figured a person had to be mayor or a sports team owner to screw a whole city at once.

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Current Mood: mischievous

So today is, again, "Talk like a pirate day." It doesn't interest me. In fact, I find it a bit annoying. I don't mind playing with language. I rather enjoy that. That's why I like Rocky and Bullwinkle and DangerMouse despite the decidedly less than stellar animation. The word play is fun. But there's something about the artificiality of the pirate-speak that just grates. It doesn't so much play with language as just add extra syllables that grind against what should be there.

It could also be that it feels so... forced. Somehow I find I can take things easier if I happen upon them, rather than suddenly find myself surrounded or immersed in them. Sometimes folks claim that I simply resist the popular and am controlled, if in reverse, by it. It's easy to see how it could appear that way, but it really isn't. It's not as if I would be abandoning something I liked just because it suddenly gained popularity. More likely I'd be astonished at the sudden improvement in taste or judgment.

It's sort of just having a low saturation point, I suppose, for some things. Or not liking to be told what to do or think. I'm far more likely to look into something, eventually, if a recommendation is of an "oh, by the way, you might want to look into this" rather than the domineering "You gotta see this!" There is also experience. Too many times I checked out a "You gotta see this!" thing and found it disappointing. And then it was a matter of "How can you not see how great it is?! There must be something wrong with you." Feh. If I happened across something, I could decide for myself without such hassles. Maybe I'd leave it. Maybe I'd take it. But the decision was mine and that was that. No hassles.

Years ago, when Star Wars first came out, I experienced saturation. It might have been interesting - then. But I'd had enough long before seeing it. I can't stand Casablanca either. Not because it's a bad movie. I've read a transcript or close to it and it does read quite good. I just can't stand to watch it. I know it was the source of many cultural references, but being surrounded by them for so long the whole thing comes off, if wrongly, as one big annoying cliche. Give me Citizen Kane. Nobody tried to get to me to see it. I decided to for myself. That's also likely why I like Animaniacs and some other WB cartoons as much as I do. They weren't thrust upon me. It more a matter of my discovering (or rediscovering) them.

One thing for which I am really grateful to my folks is that I was never pushed into anything. I was exposed to a lot, but it was on my terms if it went anywhere. I didn't read Modern Chemistry or Elements of Radio because I had to or because everybody or even anybody else was doing it. I read them because I wanted to. I was encouraged, but not pushed. Interests expressed got noticed and perhaps aided. But there were no designated footsteps to follow in. They also didn't go in for whatever the trend of the day was. And so I inherited a sort of immunity to it.

Of course there is also a downside. Independence comes at a price. A sort of exclusion. It doesn't matter if anyone thinks is it because of myself or others. The effect is the same. If it is myself, and I change to be included, am I really still my own person? I rather doubt it. Compromising ones principles, which does indeed include tastes, destroys the real self.

The price of independence is solitude.

Current Mood: pensive

You've almost certainly heard it, or been party to it on one side or another. It's the one that starts "What are you eating under there?"

I recall the first time I was on the poor end of that one, but not because I was made a fool of. Rather, because the frustrated reaction was memorable. It went something like, but not exactly like, this:

"What are you eating under there?"
"I'm not eating anything, can't you see that?"
"Well, if you were eating, what are you eating under there?"
"Under what?"
"You're supposed to say 'under where?'!"
"But that doesn't make any sense."
"Yes it does. Then it sounds like 'underwear.' That's the joke."
"It's not a very good one."

An odd bit to recall, but it is one of the earliest pieces of actual conversation that I can recall with anything even approaching accuracy. Strange what is still remembered so many years later. I'd like to claim it was superior reasoning that came to my aid, but more likely it was dumb luck and poor timing on the joker's part.

Current Mood: contemplative

Common sayings that cause some confusion, at least to a kid.

A stitch in time save nine.

Saves nine what? Well, saves needing to make nine stitches instead of one. What it really means: A problem should be fixed early, before it becomes a bigger problem.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

But if you aren't going to eat it, what is the point in having the cake? But it's just poorly worded. More clearly, it means, "You can't eat your cake and still have it." You can eat the cake, or you can have an uneaten cake, but you cannot have both -- at least not with the same cake.

All the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty back to together again.

How would the horses put anyone together? But that's not the point. The King's horses and men show that the King has wealth and power. But wealth and power cannot restore life.

Waste not, want not.

So, if I don't waste it, I'll never want it? With modern usage of "want" tending to be simple desire, it suggests that the way to not desire something is to use it carelessly. The real meaning is different, using "want" to mean actual need. And that way, it means that if you conserve something, you won't run out of it, at least not so fast.

What you don't know can't hurt you.

So, all those warning signs are the problem, for trying to get me to know something is dangerous? Not quite. It's more like, "You can't get in trouble for telling a secret if you don't know what it is."

There are probably others that I've missed, or have confused other folks when they were young.

Current Mood: pensive

1. It would happen in Wausau. I guess he thought it was wabbit season.

2. Several nights ago RichardFox pointed out a web site of military, or perhaps ex-military, humor. One bit was about attitude to service members and such. This included a correction about the idea that some apparently have that the Coast Guard somehow isn't one of the "real" forces.

Maybe they don't go far overseas like the others, but they still have problems. Trying to stop smugglers and such means they do come under fire, and it doesn't matter if there is a defined war or not. One thing, though, really sets the Coast Guard apart, and perhaps above, the other services.

When the weather is rotten beyond belief (remember how the weather folks like to say how much energy is in a storm, equivalent to so many nukes, which is huge even if spread out), well in that miserable mess, what do the various services do? The Army can halt and dig in. The Navy can steer around a storm. The Air Force can delay flights, or maybe fly over the weather. The Marines can delay a landing or halt an advance. And what does the Coast Guard do? The Coast Guard goes out in those hellish storms and rescues people from them.

3. Some things have given names but end up being called other, less flattering, names by those who use them. A common example is Internet Explorer which has been dubbed, amongst other things, Internet Exploiter and Internet Exploder.

A few programming and debugging tools have similar fates. There was the Cosmic Compiler which was dubbed the Comic Compiler. The Nohau emulator got called the NoWay emulator. And now Code Composer seems to have been renamed Code Disposer.

4. The LJ web application's spell checker does not point out wabbit as an unknown or misspelled word.

ATM machine (Automatic Teller Machine machine)
LCD display (Liquid Crystal Display display)
(but LED display is okkay: Light Emitting Diode display)
AF, RF, IF frequency ({Audio, Radio, Intermediate} Frequency frequency)
OPEC countries (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries countries)
PIN number (Personal Identification Number number)
START treaty (STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty treaty)
UPC code (Universal Product Code code)
VAT tax (Value Added Tax tax. Careful, some politician might just try to tax a tax.)
VIN number (Vehicle Identification Number number)
"Rate of speed" (speed of movement speed)

Current Mood: quixotic

A post or editorial used the term cowboy to mean someone who does things without thinking them through. This is actually a bit curious, as all evidence I've seen points the other way. I'll grant that I am not now nor have I ever been a cowboy and have no direct experience with such. This is hardly unusual. Maybe I haven't watched the same movies as others or something. The idea I get is that a cowboy, the real thing, is a person who does think things through and then acts as reason suggests. Are there exceptions? Of course. But one should not characterize on the basis of the exception.

Another thing is the idea of a person who does injury to people being a butcher. This also seems amiss. A butcher is not someone who enjoys cruelty. The person mistakenly labelled a butcher may well be such a nasty creature. A real butcher does kill, but isn't in it for cruelty. The less suffering involved, the better, as that makes the job that much easier.

Yankee. That got some reaction, I'm sure. The thing is, which one? To some, that word is (and is meant as) an insult. They are the folks who say and hear "damn Yankee." To others, it's not an insult at all and can be a compliment. "Yankee ingenuity" doesn't exactly carry a negative charge.

Yet another example, Jay and I disagree rather considerably about what cold weather is, what hot weather is, and what is comfortable. He lived in Texas until this past year and was adapted to the heat, and therefore considers comfortable and hot to be ranges I'd consider hot and unlivable. While I've spent year in Wisconsin and Minnesota and consider comfortable and cold to be things he considers cool to cold and [expletive] cold, respectively.

This is not just the weather itself, but extends into other things. Very rarely will I order hot chocolate or coffee, though Jay will when it's cold out. I have no problem with iced tea even when the outdoor temperature is sub-zero Fahrenheit. To me, ice cream is not a summer only thing. I've also noticed that I can handle (as in physically pick up) cold items and it's no big deal to me. I can pick up and hold an ice cube for a while, for example. This not something Jay does. An ice cube is out of his hands about as fast as he can manage it. I suspect this works in reverse for hot (but not burning the tissue hot) objects.

I'm not sure, but I suspect he doesn't describe a failed thing as having "went south" as I might. I was surprised the first time I heard a variant, from MichaelMink who said "went west" for something. I wonder what what terms might be used in the (U.S.) southwest. Of course, direction descriptions are interesting themselves. As I've typically heard them, they are "up north" "down south" "back east" and "out west."

The hard drive I ordered arrived yesterday. I now have an unusual, for me, situation: I have a huge hdd but the box it goes in isn't here yet. Wal-Mart still only says "scheduled for delivery on March 20" and nothing like whether it even shipped or where it is sitting now.

Had a sample of Spring yesterday as the temperature climbed to 52 F. Today the high will only be in the 30s, and then it'll warm up again. Yep, it's March. At least this temperature swing isn't too bad. I'm hoping the ice on Hall Lake stays long enough for me to get a few pictures of it as it melts.

Weight control is not going so well. The good part is that I'm still under 220 lbs. The bad news is that I'm still over 215 lbs. Hopefully that can be taken care of this month. Current target: Get under 215 lbs, stay under 215 lbs.

The treadmill is nice, but TV isn't. So far the best thing one has been Storm Stories on the Weather channel, but that repeats after a while and how many tornadoes can you watch before they all seem the same? NOVA can be good, but that's only weekly. Maybe I need to find something to tape for treadmill time. Ideally it'd be about one hour long and commercial-free. However, watchable and an hour long are the important things. There's fast forward and mute for commercials.

The "Freedom Fries" thing? Remarkably silly, yes. What's even more amusing is watching the reaction to it. Where was this reaction when other inanities of Political Correctness were being committed? Oh, wait, I shouldn't mention things like that, it's okkay when one group renames things in inane ways, but not okkay if another group does. Uh huh. I'm laughing at both sides on this one. You just can't make this stuff up. Either side. Reality is terribly funny and funnily terrible all at once. I'm also amused (and bewildered) by how UN-related things are counted. Evidently 18 and 2 are the same number there - and these are supposedly well-educated folks?

Team leader at work didn't get a speakerphone right away but uses such. He got asked if color mattered. He said he didn't care. So they got him a cheap (75% off) speakerphone. Why cheap? Not many want a red phone. Not red, red. Bat-phone red. No, he doesn't keep it under a clear cover.

Current Mood: amused

Terms that had to replace the original.

A couple nights ago on IRC, KinkyTurtle mentioned a few of these. Not all terms have completely changed (for example, mail) but the gist is there. I've been trying to add to the list...

Term                  Old term       Reason
--------------------  ------------   -------------------------
World War One         Great War      WWII
Hardcover book        book           paperback
Snailmail             mail           e-mail

AM radio              radio          FM
Manual transmission   transmission   automatic transmission
Manual typewriter     typewriter     electric typewriter

Black and White TV    TV             color TV
Conventional weapons  weapons        nuclear weapons, chemical?

So, what's missing from the list?

Current Mood: curious

I'm not *J cutting this. It's too important.

I'm also amazed I can bring myself to post this publicly.

This has been posted a few times on LJ, but was pointed out on slashdot. It's an article about "Why Nerds are Unpopular". And it's pretty much right on about an artificial society with no redeeming features for those stuck in it. His timeline is about right, too, as things don't start in High School, they start a bit earlier. Things just degenerate from there. Also they don't end in college, at least not right away. It takes time for the worst problems to flunk out or get hit with a stiff dose of reality and start growing up.

One thing he really got right was the misuse of words. "Character" and "integrity" were words that had none of the dictionary meaning. They did mean simple blind unthinking obedience. "Good sportsmanship" was an even bigger joke. Good?! sportsmanship?? That term would be more believable if it was actually practiced by anyone. It wasn't. It was very clear that any team sport was war only without the redeeming feature of ending with any form of a peace at all. This is why I do not like sports or anything to do with the word. "Sports car" is something I don't like. Why? It has that damnable word 'sports' in it. 'Sportcoat' has the same issue. The expansion of SUV is another annoyance. It's car. Or a truck. Or even a van. "Utility vehicle" is fine. I differentiate between sports and fun. Bicycling can be fun. Once it becomes a race or such, it just a sport and no longer fun. Fun is what one does because one enjoys it. Sport is what one does to appear superior at the expense of others, and what effect it has on them be damned.

I think Wilford once asked why some people hated sports. It's very simple, really. Suppose someone said "sports" to you, and then injured you in some way. But not just once. Say it happened almost every time. And when it did happen, your pain didn't matter, as it was amusing to others. Eventually, you learn that that word means pain. Unjustified pain. Pain that knows no relief because, obviously, you should be enjoying it and must be defective since you don't. That's why. That's why I refuse to watch sporting events. That's why I will vote against anyone who votes to spend tax dollars on stadiums (besides it simply not making any economic sense). It's my stand against torture. Yes, you read that right. I will not be party to the continuation of the legalized torture which sports breeds.

"Discipline" was another word that meant nothing more than "conform, damnit!" Anything with "discipline" was to be avoided as a poison. Self-discipline? Egad, why would I do that to myself?! But the thing is, I did have self-discipline, the real kind, not the fake stuff talked about. One needed it to survive and not go mad. And my interests also required it. Studying takes it. Grinding and polishing a telescope mirror (which I did around age 12 or 13) takes it. My various attempts at self-hypnosis and other relaxation techniques took it. But I refused to call it by that abused name. It was patience. It was persistence. It was self-control. But discipline was a thing of coaches, drill instructors, and other tyrants. I'd have none of that!

"Good natured ribbing" was also something I didn't understand for a long, long time. And I have still have trouble with it. Why? Because it was an excuse to harm. Well, an excuse for others to harm me. I never experienced "good natured" ribbing until.. I dunno when. My late 20s, or early 30s perhaps. People who didn't know me growing up, and some who had, were amazed how poorly I took to such things. Why? Because my only experience was with the bad-natured variety. A pat on the back was an attack, not a compliment, and I reacted predictably -- for an attack. This was not expected, and misread as me being distant, or aggressive. Well, what else could be expected?! And most people who did know me, knew enough not do that sort of thing.

Response were not just to physical attacks, or things that seemed like them. The physical issues were the minor (and fewer) ones. The more common were the far more insidious. The type where there's no physical wound, no bleeding, no scar to show as evidence - so it gets dismissed as nonexistent. This was far worse than a physical blow. I suspect it may have had a curious effect.. which is probably best left out of general public view.

Some will likely say I need to "let things go." Well, when they let go me, I'll let go of them. I have one fear, bigger and nastier than all the others. And that is that by some "treatment" or other, I'll turn into the very thing that causes problems. That is too high a risk. Some say I take things too personally. Well, what can be expected? My experience has been that is exactly how I should, no, must take things. When things finally stop hurting, then maybe I can just let things go. Until that happens, this is me. And I'm not about to apologize for being who I am. It's the best I can manage under the circumstances.

Current Mood: anti-nostalgic

Changing of the 'r' sound to an 'a' sound
This may be in for some, but it just sounds stupid. "Gangsta" isn't the only one, merely perhaps the most annoying. Even companies that ought to be somewhat respectable fall down and name their products stupidly, like "Whiskas" cat food. Why is this a neat idea? You know where one hears this most often? From young children that haven't yet gotten a good grasp on language and pronunciation! Why copy that? Do people want to sound like they're clueless? Is that it?

Changing an 's' to a 'z' in a name
This was one reason I didn't go see Antz. If it could be that stupid in the title of the film, I really didn't want to risk any of my money and time on the rest of the film. Yes, I know it was about "Ant Z" but the cutesy attempt at titling didn't say that. I see the z-for-s in some products now. This is doesn't inspire much faith in them. Why would I trust "productz" from people who name things like they were script kiddies or pirated software traders, er, traderz?

[ADDENDUM: If it's part of an accent or regional dialect, I have no problem with it. It's when those who don't have reason to do it do so anyway that bugs me.]