Post It #20
Right, I remember! Did I ever blog about being interviewed (“mentioned” would probably be the better term) by the guys over at the Yahoo Publisher Network blog? About Planet Yahoo!, of course. Hilarious how I completely forgot about this…
April 30. There’ll be an ARG to stimulate the Collective Intelligence to deal with the idea of an oil crisis starting end of April. I must say, I love the idea. There is apparently such a huge demand for ARGs, why not use this raw potential to do something worthwhile? World Without Oil aims to do that. Kudos.
Mac game development. [via Hendrik] Game developers give the Mac another look—this can only be a good thing. Yay!
Troubled languages. English is degrading each and every day, says Glass Maze’s lapsed cannibal in a amusing, yet angry rant.
I often find myself in meetings where the English language is beaten, burned, shat upon, drawn-and-quartered, and finally twisted into a monstrous parody of itself, then slapped onto a powerpoint slide and projected onto a wall, where its shame and ignominy are visible to all.
And you know what? He might be right, but I believe blood would come out of his ears on a daily basis, if he were a caring German listening to his native language. Don’t know what I mean? Take what he said, double it, and imagine parts of any given sentence being peppered with English/German halfbreeds constantly.
I notice that I, personally, see a decline in the quality of my German — which is my very own tongue, mind you —, due to the fact that I speak English half of the time for a good number of years by now. I switch between the languages without effort, sometimes in the middle of a sentence, and — worst of all — interchange English and German words rather frequently. Shame on me.
But the longer I think about it, the more I wonder whether this is a price we have to pay for globalization… Remember Blade Runner with his “gutter speak”? Just thinking out loud.
Post It #14
Quote of the moment. Simon on SEO, SMO and TLA’s:
SMO, or “Social Media Optimisation” — digg spamming now has its own TLA.
Real life recursiveness. Best warning sign EVER. A sign warning about itself. Classic “WTF?” moment. This is deep.
On Mistakes. Glass Maze: Mistakes were made—an angry, yet polite, essay on political semantics.
So if a guy’s ever caught cheating on his wife, say, he could tell her: “Yes, intercourse with someone other than you may have taken place. Ejaculation could have resulted. And I take full responsibility for this unfortunate set of circumstances, as they occurred under my watch.”
Text on the web. The Onion nails what’s wrong with most text on the web, even though they aren’t even trying. The image itself is pretty funny, but it’s a good metaphor also.
Cursing 101
I am one of the “if you want to do it, do it right” school. I try to make it apply to everything. This is the reason why I am kind of ticked off when I hear people say things like “Oh my Gosh!” or “Jeeebus!”. Anyways, this “conversation” occured two minutes ago in our office:
A (female): “Fudge!”
me: “The word is ‘fuck’, not ‘fudge’. Curse properly, woman.”
A: “Fudge.”
me: “Fuck.”
A: “Fudge!”
me: “Fuck!”
A: “Guys, is it ‘fudge’ or ‘fuck’? Hey, M, ‘fudge’ or ‘fuck’?”
M: “Is that an offer?”
At this point everyone burst into laughter. I love this place.
Washington Post’s Style Invitational
Got this from a co-worker today, think it’s great. :)
The Washington Post’s Style Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year’s winners:
- Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
- Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
- Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
- Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
- Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
- Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
- Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.
- Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease.
- Karmageddon (n): It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.
- Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
- Glibido (v): All talk and no action.
- Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
- Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
- Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
- Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you’re eating.
- Ignoranus (n): A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.
