eftychia: Me in kilt and poofy shirt, facing away, playing acoustic guitar behind head (Default)
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posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 11:59pm on 2004-05-11

Between sleep issues, the heat, and remaining back pain, I bailed on rehearsal tonight. Not terribly happy about that, but figured I needed another day.

I just spent half an hour looking for the stylus from my Visor. I noticed it was missing, struggled to remember the last time I'd used it (I occasionally use my thumbnail), searched all the places I've used the Visor ... After half an hour I thought to look underneath some boxes it had gotten knocked off of a little earlier when I answered the door. Yup, that's where it was.

I've got some linguistic peeves piled up; some of them are legitimate gripes about the decline of literacy and logic, while others are admittedly unreasonable "just because it bugs me even though I know it's clear to everyone" things. I've been holding them in for a few weeks, but I'm going to start writing them.

I saw a teaser for the news (I've forgotten which station) showing glowing, fuzzy blobs in the sky, with a voiceover, "Are these UFOs?" Well gee, I dunno, have they been identified yet? It's an easy enough question to answer. Especially for a news organization.

(So in the news broadcast that I missed while searching for the stylus, they either identified these lights or they didn't. As far as I'm concerned, if they're really UFOs they're not news unless they also show up on radar and provoke a response from some country's air defenses. And if they're identified, they're probably not news unless they're violating a treaty or another nation's airspace. And if they're identified as what the newscasters probably meant to imply by "UFO" -- extraterrestial spacecraft -- I think they'd have pre-empted regular programming instead of putting up a "details at eleven" teaser.)

That'll do for now. Later I'll complain about drug commercials.

There are 9 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 
posted by [identity profile] vamp-ire.livejournal.com at 10:06pm on 2004-05-11
"Are these UFOs?" Well gee, I dunno, have they been identified yet?

THANK YOU for being the one person that seems to understand what an absurd question that is! Why don't they ever say, "Are these space ships or vehicles of civilizations which are not from Earth?"

Vamp:)=
 
posted by [identity profile] lilkender.livejournal.com at 06:26am on 2004-05-12
You're all right, it is absurd. I just never thought about that before!

"Look! It's a UFO!"
-"No it isn't, it's clearly an alien spacecraft. Plus it's already landed."

Makes perfect sense to me now.
 
posted by [identity profile] cirith-ungol.livejournal.com at 07:48am on 2004-05-12
That's beautiful - may I quotefile that?

-Cirith
siderea: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] siderea at 11:17pm on 2004-05-11
WHOOHOO! Someone else the misuse of "UFO" to mean "Extraterrestrial" annoys.
 
Count me in on this one. Man, I'm SO sick of raising these sorts of objections and being told that no one cares because the meaning was understood (despite the linguistic, grammatical, or punctuation errors committed.)

I dropped off my youngest at preschool today and overheard a mom using "blank and me" to the lead teacher. I stood where the assistant teacher could hear me and said "That should be 'blank and I,'" leaving her chuckling. It must be nice to have an advanced degree in French and be a preschool teacher (hubby with BUCKS.)
zenlizard: Because the current occupation is fascist. (Default)
posted by [personal profile] zenlizard at 06:52am on 2004-05-12
Hear! Hear!

Yes, this is also one of my language peeves.
 
posted by [identity profile] chesuli.livejournal.com at 07:15am on 2004-05-12
Yes, please post the linguistic peeves.

I'll start... "taking X decreases your chance of dying".

Um, no, not last I checked. Might decrease your chance of dying from a specific condition, but last I heard, the chance you'll eventually die is still 100%.

I just ordered "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" -- do you want to borrow it when I'm done?
 
posted by [identity profile] thette.livejournal.com at 11:08am on 2004-05-12
"We don't save lives. We delay death."
--Microbiology professor at Karolinska Institutet
cellio: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] cellio at 08:57am on 2004-05-12
I'm glad I'm not the only person I know with that peeve.

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