How to waste an afternoon (or three) July 9, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Language, Life.Tags: blogs, craigslist, Dan, errors, language resources
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I now have a new way to spend time when I’m not busy hitting refresh waiting for that cheap VB-2 to materialize on craigslist. Yes, I have recently rediscovered Paul Brians’ fantastic Common Errors in English (he asks that everyone link to that page, which answers any questions you might have about the site. If you’d just like to skip to the errors, well, go here), thanks to a comment on a recent entry in Dan’s blog. If you’re like me, there will be a lot to entertain you there.
It’s not that I make a lot of these common errors, or that I’m particularly picky about the way other people use language (although he does address my current, mystifyingly common pet peeve). Part of why I’ve been enjoying it so much is that Paul Brians is pretty funny, in an English professor sort of way. I think what I really enjoy, though, is guessing what the entries will actually be about before I click them. The entry for “ax” is a good example. I thought it was going to discuss the two spellings of the tool, but no, the ax in question is just a futuristic pronunciation of ask.
Anyway, check it out. There are some pretty good ones.
Don't be frightened away by the reptilian aliens April 3, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Humor.Tags: blogs, craziness, Dan, quackery, Star Wars
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Many of you, I'm sure, don't read Dan Rutter's blog. You probably should, as it's usually pretty entertaining, especially if you're a nerd. His entry today about an e-mail exchange he had with a rather interesting character is a must read. Here's a bit of it:
“THERE IS AN ORCHESTRATED CAMPAIGN BY THE POWERS THAT BE TO FRIGHTEN PEOPLE AWAY FROM THIS PRODUCT SCARE STORIES INVOLVE REPTILIAN ALIENS AND ARE OBVIOUSLY FALSE SO DONT LET SUCH NONSENSE PUT YOU OFF FROM FINDING OUT THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT THIS VERY IMPORTANT SUBJECT”
You know you're in a strange business when one of the biggest concerns you think your customers might have about a product involves reptilian aliens. I'm glad I came across this today, though; I was beginning to believe all those scare stories I was hearing about the Trandoshans.
Saving the planet without doing any work March 29, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Humor, News.Tags: Dan, Google, green, John Hawks, slacktivism
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I just read this story from the BBC on this year's Earth Hour. For those who are unfamiliar with the event, it basically involves turning the lights off for one hour at night. Once a year. I, personally, think it's great that they're trying to build awareness for this, although I think doing things like turning off the lights one hour a year really reinforces the idea that we can continue living exactly the way we are and still save the planet by doing virtually nothing.
What got me about the article was this quote: “In its own contribution, the Google web search engine is putting a dark background on its homepage.” This made me laugh, of course, because of Blackle, the “energy saving” search engine that achieved mild internet fame last year. Dan blogged about it last year, and pointed out, rightly, that for LCD screens, it saves roughly no power at all. I decided to actually check out Google's page on Earth Hour, and found that they have this to say about it: “As to why we don't do this permanently – it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display.” Apparently the Official Google Blog had something to say about this last year, too. Good to know.
Also amusing was the fact that the second most read story on the BBC at the time I read the Earth Day story was this two-and-a-half year old story about that python that died after eating a gator. Why yes, someone did write a blog entry about that. Two men enter. No man leaves. Rated R.
Also meaningless in Japanese February 25, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Humor, Language.Tags: blogs, Dan, quackery
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Well, it looks as if Dan has also been writing about the miraculous Kinoki Foot Pads, although from a slightly different angle. A medical scam that also uses both a nonsense “Japanese” name and unrelated kanji to make it seem less like a total scam and more like . . . not a scam? Well, I, for one, am shocked.
Adventures in continuity October 5, 2007
Posted by argotnavis in Cars, Humor, TV/Movies.Tags: continuity, Dan, dogs, Scooby-Doo
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First, a short history lesson. The original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? series aired from about 1969 until 1972. In 2002, a new series with roughly the same premise, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, began its run. This leaves about 30 years between the end of the first series and the beginning of this one, which takes place in the present day (see Velma's “wireless internet connection”). I'm not totally sure whether the gang has actually aged 30 years, as they seem to have in many of the movies, but here's my complaint:
In an episode of the show that I saw today, Fred takes the Mystery Machine in for a tune-up, and it starts acting weird. During their attempt to figure out why their van is driving itself around town without them, the gang learns that the Mystery Machine was originally the tour bus for a vaguely Partridge Family-style band called the Mystery Kids. The Kids aren't very popular these days, but their mother is pushing for a comeback. Now, the Mystery Kids are all roughly around high school age (one is trying out for the tennis team). This means they probably used the Mystery Machine 10 years ago, at most. And yet, the gang have had the Mystery Machine for over 30 years.
I actually have my own theory about this, though. The writers of this new Scooby-Doo series remember the mind-numbingly awful Scooby-Doo series involving Scooby's nephew Scrappy-Doo (e.g. Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo — which was somewhat redeemed by the Vincent Price appearances — among others). I think this may be an attempt by the writers to retcon Scrappy out of the Scooby-Doo universe. Rather than admitting to the existence of those series, the writers simply insist that the years 1973-2001 simply do not exist in the Scooby-Doo universe. Simple. This even lets them keep a lot of the newer movies, since those take place at some indeterminate point in the future where the gang has purchased a change of clothes and some of them even hold steady jobs (I think Daphne is a reporter, the most common profession of red-headed cartoon women). If I'm right, then this episode really does make sense after all.
(Also, dig my not-at-all-ripped-off-from-Dan links.)
