Sunday, June 27, 2004
Sunburns+Ticks: 2
Andy: 0
I received a sunburn and a tick this weekend. The tick came off with a pair of pliers (unwillingly, mind you). The pliers had little effect upon the sunburn, however. Here is a diagram showing the affected areas:
Labels: life
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Weird Dream.
So, we were on this quest or something, and we had to go through these tunnels that were mostly ancient ruins and partially caves. (I've always had dreams about nice underground mazes. Go figure.) But we had to hurry and go, because there was a giant spider monster in the ruins, of course, and we had to get to wherever it was we were going before the spider's shift started (I guess he started work at 8:25pm). And of course, I was running late, as I always do in my dreams and as I often do in real life, and it was already 8:40pm, which meant I could still go through the maze, but I might have to fight the spider.
Labels: dreams
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Tuesday the 22nd!
This Tuesday, two way cool things are coming out:
1. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra DVD – A spoof of 1950's scifi/horror films.
2. Mega Man Anniversary Collection (PS2, GC) – The old-school Nintendo game series Mega Man 1-8.
It should be good times.
Labels: geek stuff
Thursday, June 17, 2004
So, this one time at a band meeting...
Clint and I were almost in this band with Josh and Gregg. I quit, and Clint thought he quit, but really I think he just stopped going, because he got kicked out later, haha. Anyway, they have an record coming out in the fall and you can check them out at dayoffire.com, and it should be good.
Labels: life
Monday, June 14, 2004
Welcome Back!
My cousin Jake is safely home from Baghdad. He also got to meet George W. Bush.
At our grandparents' house, there was a clipboard filled with drawing paper for us kids. I would usually develop some 8-year-old artistic masterpiece, and Jake would offer his revisions when I wasn't looking. Unfortunately, I did not consider the drawings to be under the umbrella of "collaborative projects", and we often had some creative strife as a result.
Afterwards, we would go to the kitchen and eat straight Nestle Quick powder.
Labels: life
Saturday, June 12, 2004
Floyd's Book Reviews
This year has also seen the release of yet another Bible translation, the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Not that there's anything wrong with that (though Jack Chick might insist that any non-KJV Bible is a satanic corruption), but I'll probably stick with my ESV. There are several different editions of the HCSB available, including one for each branch of the military plus editions for policemen, firefighters, brides, and deer hunters. Of course, with so many versions going on, somebody was bound to poke fun at their marketing department... (click here).
Labels: film/tv/books/arts
Friday, June 11, 2004
Various Media Reviews
The Greatest American Hero. – Rumors are beginning to arise of a possible movie of this classic 1980s TV show...
The Holy Observer (www.holyobserver.com) – A really, really funny satirical Christian News site that appears to be run by actual Christians that are actually orthodox. Some of my favorite articles were "Church Votes to Expel Non-Purpose Driven Members", "Gospel Tract Actually Leads To Conversion", "Barna: Regular Baptists not regular at all", and this exclusive report: "Trinity Broadcasting Network Run by Atheists". Be sure to check out the archives.
In the meantime, you should listen to these CDs because they are filled with pretty songs, and they rock just enough:
• The Doves – Lost Souls – "Catch the Sun" is my favorite song ever.
• Luxury – (self-titled) – Good luck finding this one.
• Sunny Day Real Estate – The Rising Tide – Still better than The Fire Theft.
Labels: geek stuff
Monday, June 07, 2004
Ronald Wilson Reagan.
1911-2004.
Photos from the funeral are available at www.ronaldreaganmemorial.com
Labels: society
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Death by Language
A rose by any other name may be the same, but if you call it garbage, it's probably going to get thrown in the trash. The best way to get rid of something and to get away with it in the public eye is to either relabel or redefine it. Then, it can be eliminated. For example, you can relabel a person as an undesirable, and then you can throw him in the gas chamber. You can relabel a child as prenatal tissue, and throw him in the garbage.
You can also elimate something simply by redefining it. You can redefine a person's reputation as worthless in the public eye (whether it's true or not) and destroy their authority. You can redefine a concept until it doesn't mean anything at all, thereby elimating the concept because it doesn't have any meaning to anyone anymore. If you can redefine marriage to mean whatever combination/number of men, women, animals, plants, and minerals that you want, then you can do whatever you want. Assuming of course, that there is no authority outside of yourself.
Man has this nagging suspicion that many of the things that he is doing is wrong. How can he get rid of this guilt, yet continue to do whatever he wants? Redefine the rules. If it is wrong to murder a human, relabel the human as not-human, then get rid of it. And he must keep reminding himself of these new meanings until he really believes it. As longs as he believes that he can define authority.
On a lighter note, while the evolution of a language can have negative consequences, it can have good ones, or neutral ones, too. It is strange, after all, to see how the English language can have different rules that apply in different situations. Spoken English does not match written English. Turabian's written style doesn't match the Associated Press's style. What the heck am I supposed to do with...
Commas:
1. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli went to Krispy Kreme.
2. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli went to Krispy Kreme.
I am now told that No.2 is correct, which is very frustrating to me. I personally don't like it, and when I write my own stuff, I use No.1. Whenever I'm instructed to use No.2, I do so obediently and reluctantly.
Apostrophes:
3. Here is Andy Scates's coffee.
4. Here is Andy Scates' coffee.
I prefer No.3. To me, No.4 makes me sound plural, which is not accurate. I am not plural.
Quotation Marks:
5. While donuts may be considered a "dessert", they are often served at breakfast.
6. While donuts may be considered a "dessert," they are often served at breakfast.
No.5 is grammatically incorrect, which is extremely frustrating to me. Probably because I'm approaching the sentence like a math equation, and it doesn't work. It's like the hierarchy of parentheses is out of order. For example...
7. (x + 1) * (y + 7) = 20
8. (x + ) 1 * (y + 7) = 20
No.8 is obviously bad syntax. With the sentence No.5, I have basically kept the opening and closing of the quotation marks within the clause. No.6 may be grammatically correct, but it's just bad syntax.
Second-Person Plural Pronoun:
This is one of the places where the typically-disdained Southern dialect shines. The term y'all (short for you all) fills in where Turabian fails. To simplify, I submit that we drop the apostrophe, so that the word is yall, or perhaps respell it yaul, which visually resembles you more than yall does.
Anyway, these are a few of my grammatical pet peeves. And as language tends to evolve by use, I hope that by enforcing them, I can change the language. I hope that yaul will share my vision for a more efficient written English language.
After all, it's not like I'm trying to redefine divine law.
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, religion/theology/philosophy
