Wonkybusker

Halloween Monsters

One thing I get out of Chris being away is fun phone conversations with him in the evenings.  Last night we were trying to decide what traditional horror character would be best.  I've been thinking about this further and think I can give you my list in order.

Zombie - This is sloth at its best.  You wander around lazily and occasionally snack on someone's brain.  I can't say brain sounds all that appealing, but otherwise it's a pretty nice gig.

Vampire - The living forever thing is a bit of a plus, but then again undead isn't exactly living.  There are a number of ways to be defeated (who's scared of garlic?!?) but turning into a bat and flying away at will could be useful.

Mummy - Being trapped in a tomb for thousands of years until I need to fulfill a curse sounds awful.  Plus, having your brain removed out your nose and your other organs placed in jars is not cool.

Werewolf - Just think; you can't control becoming a wolf and you have to explain your actions afterward.  I think enough movies have covered just how annoying life as a werewolf can be.

Quiet

"Hey there Delilah
What's it like in New York City?
I'm a thousand miles away
But girl tonight you look so pretty
Yes you do
Times Square can't shine as bright as you
I swear it's true
...
A thousand miles seems pretty far
But they've got planes and trains and cars
I'd walk to you if I had no other way"

This song makes me think back to the long distance relationship.  I'm kind of nostalgic but also very glad I was finally able to move down here.

For the very short term, I'm back to the long distance thing, I guess.  Chris is in Minnesota at a conference this week.  As he put it, at least this time he's only one time zone away.  If I had thought ahead I would have put all the romantic comedies that Chris doesn't want to watch at the top of the Netflix cue.  As is, I have 3 DVDs arriving today from the first season of Heroes, so I either have to send them back only to reorder them next week or keep them here and wait for Chris to watch them with.  So it goes.

I will probably be bored here on my own, so come back to the blog later in the week and I'm sure there will be more posts.

The Minesweeper Movie

Don't you hate it when they take a great computer game or video game and turn it into an awful movie?  Not anymore.  I give you the trailer to Minesweeper: The Movie.  It is a must see for anyone who has ever played minesweeper.  So basically, everyone.

"Why are you here soldier?"
"Because I'm bored!"
"And don't you forget that."

Missing Pronouns

In a comment to the language evolution post, George suggested adding y'all as the second person plural.  While I cringe a little at y'all, he makes a valid point.  While English may be said to have more words than any other languages, it is missing some fairly important ones.  There is no plural you except invented terms like y'all and yous.  There is also a missing third person singular neuter.  The formal solution of he/she or one has been tried and just doesn't suffice.  We've filled it with "their," at least informally, and this seems to work well.   

English has evolved as these issues needed to be addressed and we now have solutions to the problem (you all and their).  Perhaps it's time for these to be formally accepted. 

The Dreaded Preposition

Okay, I couldn't stay away for long.  Ending a sentence in a preposition is not grammatically incorrect. It isn't. This is a rule in Latin but not in English. My understanding is that the only reason it is perceived as a rule in English is that a bishop mentioned in a book written hundreds of years ago that sentences sounded better if they didn’t end in prepositions. Why? Because Latin was perceived to be better than English. And so the idea was put forth that a true gentleman would avoid that particular sentence structure. Is that any reason for us today to bend over backward to avoid saying something a certain way?

Of course, there is more to communicate in language than just the ideas behind the words. The way words are put together says a lot about the speaker or author. But really, I think eloquence of the message can show a lot more about writing ability and education than memorizing a particular word order to avoid. And now that there is not such a divide between the ecclesiastic Latin and layman's English, the whole reason behind this particular rule just seems silly.

Therefore, I propose we stop caring if otherwise correct sentences end in a preposition.

Evolution of Languages

When I went to bed last night, I had a thought that led to a blog post idea, which then led to me composing the post as I was falling asleep. When I got about halfway through the post, I realized that I kind of forgot where it started and therefore had to go back to the beginning. I fought the urge to jump out of bed and post the entry right then since ideas always sound better than they actually are when you're half awake. However, this one has just enough merit that I think it's worth adding.

Languages evolve. That's the big idea although I'm sure I'm not the first to have it. It may seem obvious and unoriginal, but think about it. Languages fall into a Darwinist survival of the fittest, though for languages it’s more of a survival of the easiest. If a word is needed to convey a thought and there is a widespread need for that thought to be conveyed, that word will be added. If a word is too long, people will get lazy and shorten it because it’s easier. These changes will be made as long as the concept is still understood. Because really that’s the main point of language; communication. And society is never static, so a healthy language that is able to facilitate accurate communication is one that is also in flux. So some standardization is needed to know what everyone is saying, but some rules can change as society changes.

Why did this come up? Well, I think some of our language rules need to be rethought. One in particular. Anyway, I should go, but I just wanted to get that base idea down in writing before I forgot.  I'll elaborate later.

Colbert Running for President

What an amazing episode of the Colbert Report last night.  I apologize for anyone who has Tivo'ed it, as the title of this post already gives it away.  Colbert has thrown his hat in the ring....at least in the South Carolina primaries.  He is running for both democrat and republican, which I guess makes sense since he will be running in character.  That certainly won't win him the republican vote but he can't exactly run as a democrat and still extoll truthiness.  I'm surprised Colbert Nation isn't all over this already.  They probably will be soon.

In the lead up to this big announcement, Colbert had an piece in the New York Times that Chris found and shared with me last night.  It's good stuff and well worth a read.

Apple Pie

There's something so satisfying about pulling a freshly baked pie out of the oven.  And there's nothing like an apple pie using fresh fall apples.  This will be dessert and breakfast for the next few days.

Wedding Anniversary

One year. :)

Link Worth Sharing

It's strange to insist you believe in everything that a party does in order to vote that way since I would venture very few if any people really do, but nonetheless I was entertained/annoyed/interested in this link on rules to being a Republican.  At any rate, it does bring up some valid points about when the logic doesn't always add up.

Mike Gravel in '08

After watching an interview on PBS, I finally found a candidate I can get behind.  Read up on this guy...he's awesome!