Journal Entries
Spelling authority
Posted Aug 16, 2001
I have a problem with authority. It's probably got something to do with my parents I suppose, however this problem tends to manifest itself whenever I am faced with someone who wants to wield some control over me. This has unfortunate consequences with spelling.
Currently, I am having a debate with myself on how exactly you spell the colour between black and white. i.e. grey or gray? Normally I would look at the two possibilities and favour one or the other. In this case, neither of the possibilities looks wrong.
The next step a person would normally take would be to look in the dictionary or at the very least run in through a spell checker. This is the stage my authority angst kicks in. Who are they to tell me how to spell gray/grey?
Actually, this is all just an excuse as I'm too lazy to look for dictionary in the first place. I'm a bit embarrased at not knowing how to spell grey/gray as well...
Just had a look. It's the Yanks again. They like to spell grey with an 'a'. Oh well. Damned if I'm going to what they want me to, so it's grey with an 'e' from now on even if that's what the dictionary says.
Further news. I wrote a reply to someone learning to juggle the other day that I thought would make a good article with the edges sanded down. Look for that soon.
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Latest reply: Aug 16, 2001
The Football Season
Posted Aug 15, 2001
As those of you living in England with a sporting bent might know, the Premiership football season starts this Saturday.
This fixture on the calendar seems to have taken on momentous importance in both my life and the lives of many people around me. Indeed over June and July, and especially in odd numbered years, the symptoms of football deprivation become so acute that the start of the season is akin to a junkie scoring for the first time in days. The relief minigled with outright joy is almost unbelieveable.
Given this palpable sense of the release of pain and suffering, I'm beginning to wonder if football following should come under the focus of some scientific studies in order to determine the degree of addiction and set up some possible research routes toward cures or symptom relief.
Until that time, I'm going to have both my radio on and TV tuned in for the entire weekend and let the waves of blissful commentary wash over me.
If football is the new opiate of the masses, can cricket be seen as methadone?
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Latest reply: Aug 15, 2001
Things from the sky
Posted Aug 14, 2001
Now, owing to an ingrained fear of things from the 'Outside', I found myself watching the TV on Saturday night rather than quaffing or foxtrotting as I understand most of you do at that time of the week. My main TV watching tactic is to 'flick', that is to keep pressing the programme up button until I happen upon something that catches my quixotic interest. Here is what I found.
There was a magic show on. I chanced upon this whilst a man was hanging upside-down in a straight jacket whilst suspended by a rope that was burning from the top of a skyscraper in some standardised American city. This isn't what fascinated me. I have been privvy to these feats of escapology several times before and I can reassure you that they never fail. I have yet to see one escapologist plummet to a messy death. If you are into fatal injuries, please contiue to flick until you find Casualty.
No, what fascinated me was the way the escapologist disposed of his straight jacket. There was no net to catch it as he recklessly flung it away - this fact had been established most thoroughly beforehand in order to build up the sense of danger for the TV audience. Of course most people were now concentrating on his heroic attempts to secure a safety line before his line burned through (something which should have happened five seconds earlier according to the countdown clock on screen). I, however, concentrated on the jacket's plight.
Now the jacket must have fallen to the ground from, if the TV is to be believed, 30 stories in the air. Straight jackets are substantial things with straps and buckles and so on. People were walking on the sidewalk below. What would they have thought when a genuine, straight jacket thudded into the concrete ahead of them? Or worse thudded into the person ahead of them?
My thoughts from this point on were as listed below
a) What other things might one expect to see falling from the sky on American streets?
b) Should one spend some of one's time when walking, look directly up?
c) Were Health and Safety regulations being adhered to?
d) How do Health and Safety regulations deal with death-defying in general?
Any help on these points would be appreciated.
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Latest reply: Aug 14, 2001
Eristophanes
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