Month: September 2004

Words, Words, Words – and Definitions, Etymologies and Examples

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This may not be “legal,” but it is too cool not to mention. Someone has found a backdoor into the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary. Thanks for the tip, MetaFilter.

Unrelatedly, I taught a private guitar lesson today. Sure, it was for a coworker, but it meant I had to make my apartment look presentable. That required me to stop being lazy and to finish rearranging my furniture and cleaning the apartment. I have now finished moving my desktop computer out of the bedroom, but the bedroom is still not quite organized.

The good news is the lesson went very well. It seems like he’s going to remain interested and will probably continue taking lessons from me. Not such a bad deal.

Crazy Webcam

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You may have noticed that I added a webcam to this website.

I’ve been rearranging my apartment to help me sleep more effectively. I removed by desktop computer from my bedroom and rearranged the furniture in my living room to fit everything. It’s a little tight but it’ll be fine for the remainder of my stay here.

While cleaning, I found my old webcam, so I decided to put it to some use. So there you go. It’s refreshed every few minutes. You can find it at the top of my sidebar.

Giving Up

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I’m sick and tired of certain people, and I’m just about ready to give up. Who have these people been talking to? I think you know what I’m talking about. My beef is with the “rule” about prepositions that someone made up. Apparently over the last few decades, people have decided that it’s ungrammatical to write a sentence with a preposition at the end, despite the fact it has been done that way in literature for literally centuries. We’ve all learned this “rule” in schools and as good students, we never batted an eyelid.

For the last time people, it’s a fake. It has no basis. If you try to rearrange the sentence, “This is a rule I will not put up with,” you get something quite nasty. One try would be, “This is a rule up with which I will not put.” That sentence is a ridiculous construction.

Anyway, I’m outtie. Where my homies at?

Shakespeare on Display

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This is just awesome. The British Library has published online 21 plays by Shakespeare. The versions they published were printed in quarto before the theaters where they were originally performed were closed. Not only are the texts very different from what is considered the modern standard, but there are versions with wide differences separated by only a few years. The library set up a nice interface where you can compare two texts of the same play side-by-side. I could spend hours perusing this, I just find it so interesting reading old texts. It’s great that technology allows so many more people to see and study these books without damaging the originals.

Increased Hurricanes in the Future

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This article describes some of the scientific reasons behind the increase in powerful tropical storms and hurricanes. It seems we are amidst a period of enhanced hurricane activity that will last for decades. This is unrelated to Global Warming, which will also have a large effect on tropical storms, but not for some time…

The five-day projection for Hurricane Ivan’s track looks very scary, indeed.

Temporary Solution

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The best thing I did for myself tonight was purchase some new music. I did forget to pick up what I went shopping for, though. I wanted to pick up a book in which I could keep my state quarters (yes, I collect coins occasionally). In a strange coincidence, after getting home and checking my (snail) mail, I found a package from my mother containing a bunch of relatively old (as far back as 1876) foreign coins from my grandmother’s collection. I’m not quite sure what to do with them.

I am really digging this reggae version of Dark Side of the Moon, mon.

ACT IV SCENE I

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In which Spike loosens up a little… but continues on his quest.

The following day. SPIKE stands in the room alone.

SPIKE (to himself, apparently): I’d have fewer issues if I could just sleep at night.

ROSENCRANTZ enters.

ROSENCRANTZ: Life in a box is better than no life at all, I expect. You’d have a chance, at least. You could lie there thinking, “Well. At least I’m not dead.”

ROSENCRANTZ dies… and FIN.

The Long Drive Home

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I arrived home from the Hamptons earlier today. I had a great time out there. There were no Paris Hilton sightings, and I think I’m grateful for that. I’m not quite sure. The hotel in which I stayed wasn’t the best, but there’s really no room for me to complain. The events were wonderful, the food was fantastic, and the bottom line was I really enjoyed working the entire weekend. I had more alcohol this weekend than I’ve ever had in the same time period. That’s not to say that it was much, and I wasn’t drunk, but I managed to reach a new level of tipsiness. I’m saving my first drunken experience for a time I can be with someone I can completely trust; I’m not sure I like the idea of not being in control of myself.

I’ve digressed. There are many stories to tell about the “interesting” Hamptonites, some involving entitlement issues and congressmen impersonators, but you don’t really care to hear them.

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Antirhythm

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Here’s the deal. I have an interview tomorrow morning for a teaching position that is not really ideal. At least it’s in a high school. That’s a start. But I don’t know if I’ll take it if it’s offered to me. I guess I’ll cross that bridge later.

After the interview I’m heading out to the Hamptons. It’s weird not to be bringing someone to this event. Usually I try to share these experiences with someone, but I guess it just didn’t work out this year. I’m bringing my computer but I don’t know if I’ll have time or desire to be online—after all, it is the Hamptons. Be good while I’m away.

By the way, the band director that I would theoretically be replacing at the school where I have an interview is someone I went to high school with. As it turns out, he got the assistant band director job at our old high school. I didn’t even know that one was open.