newnumber6 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
newnumber6) wrote2005-07-10 01:29 pm
newnumber6) wrote2005-07-10 01:29 pm
Entry tags:
Musings of the Day (long post full of randomness)
Thought experiment: Assume you have a perfect, 100% reliable lie detector, and people who will answer. Keeping in mind a) that people who are bad from your perspective often think they are good, and b) that many people who commit crimes would honestly think they wouldn't until the situation actually came up, come up with the smallest set of questions that you could use to divide the generally good people from the generally not good people (good people being defined by your own terms).
Still thinking about what I'd use, but the question interests me.
Things that are annoying me lately:
I really wish newscasters would stop using the phrase 'make history' in
any newscast, but especially those that are about sports or more or less meaningless trivia.
"So-and-so golfer makes history today by being the 1st female golfer in 60 years to do whatever"
"X makes history by being the first person in 25 years to do Y three times in a row"
SHUT UP JUST SHUT UP. "MAKES HISTORY" is meaningless, especially in these cases, which just boils down to "So-and-so became the first person to do this since the last person to do it." I'm not totally inflexible - I don't mind terribly if it's actually the first time something happens. But the phrase has been used so much it lacks any power.
The thing is: They make history whether they accomplished it or not. The fact that they have these meaningless bits of trivia proves it. Someone is going to remember 'so-and-so came so close', or write it down, or whatever. History is still made either way - just a different history.
The following commercials: Max 5 chocolate bars - Okay, I can see 'caramel is sweet', and 'pretzels are just twisted' and even 'peanuts are just nutty', but the second line of that jingle 'Peanut butter's funny'? No. Peanut butter is not funny. You're being a sloppy lazy-ass with your songwriting. I have never looked into a cupboard and seen a jar of peanut butter I wasn't expecting and burst out laughing. I've never seen anyone else crack up in the grocery store in the peanut butter isle. I'd also tend to consider peanuts and peanut butter one ingredient, since chunky peanut butter has peanuts in it, but I'll let you slide on calling it two. THERE IT IS RIGHT NOW WHILE I'M TYPING THIS SHUT UP.
Some shaving thingie- I am a reasonable approximation of a man, and I do not hate shaving, certainly not to the point that I'd rather light my shorts on fire or eat dirt. Both seem pretty drastic steps to take to avoid shaving, in fact.
Random additional work notes:
1) Guy I work with and I were talking about things like 'unlawful combatants'. In making some point or another, I used an analogy.
"Say, wild scenario, some other country invaded the US, like Russia."
He asked me, "Why is it always Russia with you?" (since apparently I'd used them in some other example in the past). I thought for an instant, said, "I guess it was because I grew up during the Cold War." He disputed that, and we got to trying to figure out when the cold war ended, and agreed that, at the earliest it was the late 80s. So I said, "Yeah, but I was born in 78". So then he said "Wait..." and figured out, and said, "You're 27?!" He must have put me around 21 or 22, mostly because he knew I was done with college. I think I can still, when freshly shaven at least (and maybe even when not), even pass for a teenager. Such comments always amuse me though.
2) I'm not actually high strung or particularly annoyed today.
Still thinking about what I'd use, but the question interests me.
Things that are annoying me lately:
I really wish newscasters would stop using the phrase 'make history' in
any newscast, but especially those that are about sports or more or less meaningless trivia.
"So-and-so golfer makes history today by being the 1st female golfer in 60 years to do whatever"
"X makes history by being the first person in 25 years to do Y three times in a row"
SHUT UP JUST SHUT UP. "MAKES HISTORY" is meaningless, especially in these cases, which just boils down to "So-and-so became the first person to do this since the last person to do it." I'm not totally inflexible - I don't mind terribly if it's actually the first time something happens. But the phrase has been used so much it lacks any power.
The thing is: They make history whether they accomplished it or not. The fact that they have these meaningless bits of trivia proves it. Someone is going to remember 'so-and-so came so close', or write it down, or whatever. History is still made either way - just a different history.
The following commercials: Max 5 chocolate bars - Okay, I can see 'caramel is sweet', and 'pretzels are just twisted' and even 'peanuts are just nutty', but the second line of that jingle 'Peanut butter's funny'? No. Peanut butter is not funny. You're being a sloppy lazy-ass with your songwriting. I have never looked into a cupboard and seen a jar of peanut butter I wasn't expecting and burst out laughing. I've never seen anyone else crack up in the grocery store in the peanut butter isle. I'd also tend to consider peanuts and peanut butter one ingredient, since chunky peanut butter has peanuts in it, but I'll let you slide on calling it two. THERE IT IS RIGHT NOW WHILE I'M TYPING THIS SHUT UP.
Some shaving thingie- I am a reasonable approximation of a man, and I do not hate shaving, certainly not to the point that I'd rather light my shorts on fire or eat dirt. Both seem pretty drastic steps to take to avoid shaving, in fact.
Random additional work notes:
1) Guy I work with and I were talking about things like 'unlawful combatants'. In making some point or another, I used an analogy.
"Say, wild scenario, some other country invaded the US, like Russia."
He asked me, "Why is it always Russia with you?" (since apparently I'd used them in some other example in the past). I thought for an instant, said, "I guess it was because I grew up during the Cold War." He disputed that, and we got to trying to figure out when the cold war ended, and agreed that, at the earliest it was the late 80s. So I said, "Yeah, but I was born in 78". So then he said "Wait..." and figured out, and said, "You're 27?!" He must have put me around 21 or 22, mostly because he knew I was done with college. I think I can still, when freshly shaven at least (and maybe even when not), even pass for a teenager. Such comments always amuse me though.
2) I'm not actually high strung or particularly annoyed today.
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Ah well.
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G-Dang, I'm haunted today. Must be something in the water...
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