You know, I realized this year that New Year’s Day is actually kind of a sucky holiday.
Jan032008
Archives
Jan032008
What Beatle Am I?
Funny, I would’ve guessed I’d be Ringo…
Jan022008
New Year’s Wisdom from Our Friend, the Cat
Yeah, I know… it’s cutesy and sappy and a lot of people don’t get/don’t like the LOLcat thing… but I think it’s an affecting photo and a worthwhile sentiment (in a simplistic, hippy-dippy, “make love, not war” kind of way), so there!
moar funny pictures
Jan012008
New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Mystery
How is it possible that Dick Clark, some 40 years older, debilitated by a stroke, and struggling mightily to make himself intelligible when he speaks, still has more zest and personality in his presentation than that human piece of melba toast Ryan Seacrest? I guess the old cliche is true: they really don’t make ’em like they used to…
Dec282007
New Look for the New Year
Hey, kids, if you’ve been hanging around the blog today, you may have noticed some weird stuff happening format-wise, culminating in this new three-column arrangement. I’ve been wanting to try a three-column format for some time now; basically, I haven’t liked the aesthetics of all that sidebar information stacked up in a single place, and I also suspect a lot of people never scroll down and thus miss out on stuff. (Perhaps I underestimate people’s willingness to scroll, or overestimate the significance of my sidebar crap, or both. Still.)
Anyway, a little bit of tinkering from me and a big assist from Jack resulted in what you now see here. It’s not perfect — I’d prefer not to have all that white space below the sidebars, and there may be some problems for people using smaller displays (but isn’t pretty much everybody on at least 1024×768 monitors these days?) — but I’m going to give it a go for awhile, especially since Jack has advised me that switching back isn’t the easiest thing in the world.
Let me know what you think of the new look, especially if you’re experiencing any big problems. I’ve tested it on both Firefox and Explorer, so browser choice, at least, shouldn’t be an issue…
Dec282007
Something That Bugs Me: “Bare” vs. “Bear”
You remember the character Cyclops in the X-Men comics and movies, how if you take off his magic sunglasses, his “optic blast” superpower sprays everywhere, uncontrollable, until he shuts his eyes? That’s what it’s like to be a professional proofreader sometimes; you just can’t help but see the errors people make when they write, even when you’re not on the clock and you’re just out and about in the real world, trying to mind your own business. The really annoying thing is that you tend to see the same damn errors over and over again, too. Stuff that really isn’t that hard but which, for some reason, consistently trips up otherwise intelligent and well-spoken people.
Case in point (you knew I had one, didn’t you?): I was just perusing some reader comments over at the Tribune web site and I see that someone thinks that “Draper [City] has a huge cross to bare.” (Italics mine.) So… that would be an undressed cross? Perhaps you mean one that hasn’t been varnished or painted? Or perhaps the expression you’re really searching for is “cross to bear.”
It’s very simple, people: “bare” means naked. You bare your body, you bare your soul. “Bear” means “to support, carry, or endure.” You bear your load (which is what that old cliche about cross-bearing is getting at), you bear children, you grin and bear it. See how easy? Sheesh…
Dec272007
How Could They Let This Go Out on the Air?
My corporate overlords have shuttered the offices this week to give all us serfs a much-needed rest, so the last thing I want to be think about during my time (as Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High would call it) is anything that remotely resembles proofreading (which, if you’re new around here, is what I do for a living)… but man, sometimes I just can’t help it. Like when I see a caption on my local news broadcast that’s listing various things you can do to maintain healthy skin and among the bullet-pointed suggestions is something called “Excersize.”
Excersize? Could they possibly have meant exercise? Come on, people, this is not a difficult word! And even if it is beyond the mental capabilities of the interns who are writing the news and the blond-and-blue-eyed announcer-bots who are reading it, doesn’t the text that appears on-screen ever pass through a spell checker?
I don’t expect much from local TV news — too much of the average 20-minute broadcast is devoted to sports, weather, and pointless “cute” banter for any actual news to make it through — but this sort of thing is really just intolerable. Excersize? Good lord…
Dec252007
White Christmas
As some of you may suspect from what I’ve written lately, I’ve been having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Well, I always have a hard time with that, but this year has been unusually grinchy for various reasons. That’s probably why I’ve been writing about it so much, because I was trying to convince myself to be more enthusiastic or something. It hasn’t worked out so well, to be honest.
However, my mood improved quite a bit this morning when I opened the front door and beheld this:
Click to enlarge and experience the full effect of the wintry goodness. I can’t remember the last time we had a genuinely white Christmas around here — seems like it always warms up two days beforehand and we end up with a muddy Christmas instead — and it’s also delightful not to see or hear any traffic out there on what is usually a very busy road.
I hope Santa brought everyone something good…
Dec242007
Christmas With You
You know how I said a few days ago that there are no good or memorable modern Christmas songs? I may have been wrong:
Ordinarily, anything with too much of a “support the troops” theme makes me very twitchy, because that slogan is all too often freighted with unpleasant political baggage (i.e., the idea that supporting the troops means stifling any dissenting opinions, and anyone who does speak against the validity — or even just the practicality — of the war must be an unpatriotic, traitorous, generally rotten human being who surely enjoys molesting kittens). But I think this song is just lovely, and it manages to sweetly (and apolitically) recognize that there are a lot of good people who are far from home and hearth this night, and we shouldn’t forget about them regardless of what we may think of the policies or the administration that put them there. In fact, I see this as a companion piece to one of the handful of classic holiday songs I enjoy, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” That, too, was a cry of loneliness and hope that came out of wartime, and which in the end isn’t so much about the war as it is about simple human yearning to return to those we love. Yeah, I think this tune, unlike so many other attempts at writing a “new classic,” may actually be around for another Christmas or two (and no, it isn’t just because it was written and performed by my main man, Rick Springfield… although that doesn’t hurt).
Incidentally, Rick’s newly released Christmas album (of which “Christmas with You” is the title track) is great, a heartfelt, unexpectedly spiritual set that ends with a slam-bang version of “Deck the Halls” played Surfaris-style. I highly recommend it; buy it here.
And now my friends, I think I’m going to sign off for the rest of the night. If you’re still out there reading this blog — and if you are, you really should back away from the computer and go find some realspace friends or loved ones to interact with — I’d like to wish you all peace.
Dec242007
Christmas Eve Quiz-o-Rama
I’m home from work today and I really should be wrapping presents right now, but instead…
You Are Pop Art |
 When it comes to art, you’re definitely not a snob. You can appreciate the mainstream aspects of culture, even if you need to twist them a bit to make them your own. Whether you’re into comics, retro pinups, or bold colors, you embrace what’s eye catching and simple. As far as most other art goes, you consider it a little too elitist and high brow for your tastes! |
Huh. That’s surprisingly accurate. Read on for more useless but entertaining time-wasting quizzes and their results…