With the advent of the iPad, aPad, and other touch-sensitive tablets, my bet for money-making investment right now is companies who produce microfiber cleaning cloths! It doesn't take long for the screens of these things to get quite grungy and this seems to be the best thing to clean them. I have been fiddling with an iPad for about a week now, and I just used my cleaning cloth from my eyeglasses. It did a great job, but since it's not large, it was a bit fiddly. So take my advice, and invest in one of these companies. Oh, yea, and when you are rich, send me a buck or two, okay?
We should expect more out of kids
This kid is 4 years old. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect this kind of thing from young kids. I think we do kids a disservice when we set the bar too low. That results in lack of mental stimulation, and they admirably hit that low mark.
Directors who don’t care
I used to think I was the only one who watched films and then smacked my forehead while saying "hey, that's not even CLOSE to being right – why don't they ever ASK somebody"! It turns out that I'm not the only one. Ok, so Neil deGrasse Tyson is an uber-geek, but still, I feel I'm in good company. Besides, he's a pretty funny guy. Here are his comments on film:
http://www.wimp.com/sciencefiction/
The most annoying part about this for me is when directors make simple mistakes. I'm willing to gloss over (usually without even a comment to those around me) errors which are really specialized and would only be recognized by a small select group. However, I find it hard to sit still when the employment of a grade-school level advisor would have markedly improved the accuracy of the film.
Geeky funnies
You can click on any of these to zoom in
Hocus Pocus – by Focus
I had only heard the studio versions of this until now, but the live version in incredible. Talk about fast – ouch!
The beginning is almost unrecognizable…
How hawks see the world
A friend of mine sent me this link, and I just had to share it – amazing! This is video footage taken from a camera mounted to the back of a hawk!
My Bad!
Saw this on alt.peeves (a great source for inane griping), and I couldn’t have said it better myself. So I won’t.
The phrase that peeves me is “My bad”; it’s just two adjectives stuck together, and in the contexts in which it is used, no such combination is acceptable. It’s just plain Bad Grammar.
via Origin of phrase “You have an excellent rest of the day” – alt.peeves | Google Groups.
Gift is not a verb
Really, it's not, even though some weenie dictionaries have now added it as such to pacify people who insist on "verbifying" it. (sorry)
You give someone a gift. You don't "gift them".
You receive a gift. You weren't "gifted" (but perhaps if you insist that you are, then you are gifted in a different way… Ahem)
A present is given to somebody for an occasion. It's not "gifted".
Now some may claim that the english language is a moving, evolving thing. If we're going that way, then I propose:
"chairing" – a new term meaning to be seated in a chair
"caring" – driving somewhere in a car (yes, this may cause confusion with showing care, but the language is evolving – get over it)
"webbing" – surfing the world wide web
"inaning" – wasting your time reading my dumb posts
BS Removal Kit
A new tool will help you get rid of bumper stickers when you've had a change of heart.
Quotes I saw and liked
Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Give him a fishing lesson and he'll sit in a boat drinking beer every weekend. – Alex Blackwell
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. – William A. Ward
Inane World 