•February 23, 2007 •
4 Comments
I’m totally fascinated in the different inferences people make in our ambiguous language. For instances, in my last quiz, I said, “Do I have your IM (gmail, yahoo, icq, AIM)? If no, what is it? (specify flavor, please!)”
This is an unintentionally ambiguous sentence. Some people saw that parenthetical as a plea to add their messaging service so I’d have both name and service. Some people saw it as an admonishment that what I wanted was the -type- and nothing else (a perfectly reasonable assessment, as I ask that sort of “I just want to know” question all the time). And still others took me literally and responded with “kumquat!” Heh.
It’s this kind of ambiguity that is sometimes totally unavoidable. I make jokes based on the ambiguity of someone’s sentence (especially my own) all the freakin’ time. I don’t think I was quite so aware of it before my first job as phone tech support – it’s the Murphy’s Law of phone communicaton: Any language that can be misunderstood -will- be.
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•February 22, 2007 •
2 Comments
What What? (worksafe video, naughty audio)
Mr. Deity
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•February 22, 2007 •
20 Comments
There are two things a person living in a ‘free’ country can choose to change with confidence: 1. Themselves, 2. Their surroundings. Trouble brews when you mistake an issue as resulting from the wrong one, and thus change the wrong variable.
When otherwise intelligent people never question their own motivations, I wonder how they grew up. I wonder what sorts of things their parents/grandparents taught them (good, and bad, intentional and otherwise). I wonder how, if and when I have a child, I could teach them to carefully examine themselves and their environment without unreasonable guilt, shame, or arrogance. And how to use their thoughts to push themselves in the direction they want to travel. I think about what sorts of examples from my own life I could share that would point to my own mistakes in either understanding what the problem was, or poor choices in how to react to that problem.
Moreso, I wonder where that divide occurs in people – some people only consider the repercussions and their own personal motivations in the most obvious circumstance, and others obsessively self-analyze (or analyze others) and come up with answers that never really existed in the first place (Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar after all).
I play around with that line of consciousness in my head, and consider the ways my flaws might change if I were either more or less thoughtful in my own situations.
The biggest barrier to change in one’s self is rationalization – turning straw to gold, and admiring your rotting treasure.
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•February 21, 2007 • Enter your password to view comments.
•February 21, 2007 •
8 Comments
It’s fascinating, really. It’s 9:30 and the fog still hasn’t burned off in downtown Detroit. That’s pretty stunning, since this town is like some sort of cold-weather bunker – 3″ of snow on 8 mile becomes .5″ or less down here.
I hear this is “ice fog”, which seems to make sense, since the roads were slick and my car had a thin coat.
There’s something amazing and compelling about looking out the 5th floor window and seeing only the shadow of a freeway light pole.
(I got interrupted for a moment (stupid work!) and the city is slowly coming out of the grips of (duh-duh-duh!) “Ice Fog”.
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•February 20, 2007 •
20 Comments
Remember when I linked to the perpetual energy company that has been insisting it wanted scientists to independently verify and test its method?
Well, they’ve come up with a name for their product: Orbo.
I tell you, I look at the graphics of that page, particularly the complex gear structure in the back, and I am convinced they’re full of shit. I’m still captivated of course, because I need to know what kind of shit it actually is.
The more slick they make it, the more I think it’s BS. That said… what’s their game? Where’s the money? No one spends 100 grand on an advertisement for shits and giggles, yet as of now this is no more than the slickest perpetual motion scheme ever produced… with no endgame. No cash method.
I still think the storytelling nature of this lends itself to a viral/ARG concept. The circumstances (discovery of non-public ‘clues’ on the site, building suspense, suspicious company history, and serious money put into the marketing) still point in that direction, even though they have clearly stated they are not any such thing.
Guess there’s just more wait-and-see.
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•February 16, 2007 •
6 Comments
I haven’t decided what I’m doing with my (relatively meager) tax refund. It’ll take a few days. Next step in finance – fill out my expense report before my bills are due. It will be nice to get back the cash I spent in Vegas.
(Minus the 30 I spent in their little arcade machines with the levers)
I had three days off of work this week. It was luxurious. I made sure to waste them utterly. ;) Well, actually I was rather productive in a number of ways I suppose, but I totally used them to chill out, rent a movie, etc. Good times.
Let it Go Let it Go
This is smaller than you know
No bigger than a pebble lying on a gravel road
Let it Go Let it Go
Got to leave it all behind you
Give the sun a chance to find you
Let it Go
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•February 15, 2007 • Enter your password to view comments.
•February 14, 2007 •
10 Comments
Everyone seems to be sick. Please don’t be mad if I’m glad that I am not one of them. Even though lucy was definitely sick last weekend, I seemed to have made it through unscathed.
I blame the multivitamins.
*sends love to all you people who need or want it*
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