I Wanna Live In A Cinnimin World
Posted on | October 24, 2008 at 7:33 am | 13 Comments
Do you have a nemesis word? A relatively short word that you can just never spell correctly, no matter how many times you try? I do. I consider myself a pretty good speller, but there’s one simple word that always confounds me.
That word is cinnamon. Every single damn time I type it, I have to spell-correct it. There is just something very anti-intuitive about the way it is spelled. I think it’s that “o” in the last syllable. (Incidentally, syllable is another word I can never seem to spell right.) That letter just does not seem to belong in the word. Although I have problems with the “a” as well. Too many vowels! Sometimes I can’t even get the right number of “n”s. Maybe the word just doesn’t sound right to me in general. It doesn’t have the right ring to it. It’s a weird word. But, y’know, cinnamon is a weird food, and devastation sometimes follows in the wake of its ingestion, especially if you have a problem with clogged arteries and spend a lot of time at Cinnabon. Still, life would not be worth living without it. My favorite application of the spice (is it a spice?) is to mix it with sugar and sprinkle it on a hot buttered piece of raisin bread. Is there anything yummier?
Anyway, you can see it’s not all fun and games here at FlasshePoint. Sometimes I get disgusted with myself and will omit the demon word cinnamon from a post even though it’s an important part of what I’m trying to write about. I just don’t want to have to deal with spell-checking it, no matter how easy Firefox makes it. It forces me confront the limitations of my intelligence and I don’t like that. Of course, it was far worse back in those old darker days before Firefox added on-the-fly spell-checking. Now I’m so used to those lovely red underlines I don’t know what I’d do without them. I’d hate to have to go back to using a dictionary old-school.
Dropouts r us. So, that’s my remedial spelling story. What’s yours?
Latre.
Bonus Question: Patterns! What’s missing from this entry? Hint: It’s two words.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 50°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Always Share” (Daryll-Ann)
- “Despite Dense Weed” (Shriekback)
- “Pure D. Wrong” (Ho-Hum)
- “In Spite of These Times” (Close Lobsters)
- “Flickr” (Jonathan Coulton)
- “Comes And Goes” (Les Savy Fav)
- “Blame Love” (Glory Fountain)
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “palin unclear about vole of vp”.
Is Green Arrow a Republican Now?
Posted on | October 23, 2008 at 7:07 am | 4 Comments
There’s an intersection in my neighborhood with a stoplight that has something I’ve never seen anywhere else, a green arrow for turning right. Here’s a photo of the intersection as seen from the side with the green arrow. If you look closely, you can see it there on the right. For a better view, click on the photo to enlarge it.
Note that the intersection is a three-way one. So, people turning right at the arrow don’t have to worry about cross traffic. Nor do they have to worry about cars from the other direction turning left onto the same street, since those people have a red light too, with no arrow.
There’s basically no reason for this arrow that I can see. In Colorado, it’s already legal to make a right turn on red, as long as you stop first. And when this light is red, there is no chance of any cars coming from any other direction and turning where you are turning. The only thing I can think of is it’s just reminding you, “Hey! It’s okay to turn right here! Really, it is!” Or maybe it’s saying that it’s okay to turn on the red light without stopping? If so, then shouldn’t there be a sign explaining that?
I’m so confused! Please explain the mystery arrow to me!
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 31°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Afternoon Train” (Air Miami)
- “Precious” (Engine 88)
- “The Fever” (The Von Bondies)
- “Clock Conscious” (Bill Nelson)
- “Stephin Merritt Writes Another Song About the Moon” (Monkey Typing Pool)
- “For a Moment We’re Strangers”* (The Church)
- “Shit Gold” (Thunderbirds Are Now!)
- “I’d Rather Be A Man”* (Alan Parsons Project)
* – Both of these songs have a soul/role rhyme. How weird is that?
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “why are there never safeway checkers”.
L’America
Posted on | October 22, 2008 at 7:50 am | 12 Comments
If I’m reading her comments correctly, this is how to tell if you’re not living in Sarah Palin’s “Real America”:
- You don’t have to grow your own food.
- You and your kids play football or baseball instead of hockey or soccer.
- You wear a business suit or khakis instead of a uniform.
- You live in a big city.
- You have never been in the military and don’t have any relatives who have been either.
- The only thing you’re teaching your kids is sex education.
- You don’t own a gun and have never been hunting.
- You think Daylight Savings Time is a concept whose time is past.
- You don’t get paid for overtime.
- The only factory you’ve seen is Cheesecake or Old Spaghetti.
- You don’t go to church on Sunday.
- The sushi at your local Japanese restaurant is fresh.
- You don’t possess the qualities of kindness, goodness, or courage.
So, if some of the above apply to you, you’re probably not a Real American. Sorry! Better get on over to Europe where you belong!
Latre.
P.S. Okay, I do have to admit that sometimes I wonder that if a tree falls between the two coasts, does anyone report on it?
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 34°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Did I Tell You” (The Spinto Band)
- “The More You Live, The More You Love” (A Flock of Seagulls)
- “You Choose” (Hypnolovewheel)
- “Slow Show” (The National)
- “I-95″ (Fountains of Wayne)
- “Gypsum Oil Field Fire” (Olivia Tremor Control)
- “[Aura Untitled Track 14]” (Mission UK)
- “Ester” (Elefant)
Pet Peeve of the Day: Cloris Leachman survives to dance another day on Dancing With The Stars. Just who is voting for her? And are they the Real America?
Happy Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “you are wonderfully and cheerfully made in gods eyes”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Demo of Lego Batman on the PSP.
Whip Smart
Posted on | October 21, 2008 at 7:12 am | Comments Off
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Nintendo DS). And I finished it finally! But are you ever really done with a video game?
Since the next DS Castlevania game, Order of Ecclesia (love those names) is coming out today, I decided it was time to go ahead and finish off the previous game. I am totally addicted to the Castlevania games. I started playing them back on the old 8-bit NES, but I really became attached to the ones on handheld consoles, and I believe I have gone all the way through all the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and DS games in the franchise. Portrait of Ruin, the second CV game for the DS after Dawn of Sorrow, came out almost two years ago. I probably bought it shortly after it was released, so I’ve been working on it for a loooong time. Of course, there were periods when I didn’t play it for months as I concentrated on other games or other activities. I like to savor the Castlevania games. In fact, I was up to the part just before the battle with the final boss for many months now, but I choose not to do battle with him and instead was concentrating on completing all the side quests, finding all the items, weapons and spells, getting 100% on all the maps, and powering up the characters. But yesterday I decided I might as well go do that final battle and get it over with even though I wasn’t 100% on everything. It didn’t take me long to win either. So I finally got to experience the “good ending” and the end credits.
And since I saved right before that battle, I can still go complete those other quests at my leisure and then do the final battle again, even more fully powered up. Or I can start all over again with many of the items I had at the end. Or I can start again on a harder mode, or as different characters I’ve unlocked. There’s a lot of replay value in these games. Assuming I keep playing, I’ll probably do the first. I never did make it all the way through the Nest of Evil, so I definitely want to go back and complete that. I guess I still want to go to 100% and then do the ending again. Or maybe I’ll just buy the new game and start on that and forget the old one. Ah, the dilemmas of a video game addict.
The Castlevania games on the handhelds are fairly formulaic. They are old fashioned side-scrolling 2D games where you play a character who can wield many different weapons and magic spells. (Weapons-wise, I like the whips the best, which is all that were available in the original NES CV games.) You traverse through a huge castle battling monsters from horror and mythology, until you finally meet up with some version of Dracula whom you have to best. Along the way, you rise in levels and power depending on how many foes you kill and items you find. Each game tries to mix it up a bit and vary the formula. Portrait let you play as two different characters (male warrior Jonathan and a female magician Charlotte), who could be on the screen at the same time. You could switch at any time between which one you were controlling, and the other one would flail around doing semi-logical things to help out. It was pretty cool, but I would often turn off Charlotte because she wasn’t very powerful and would just get in the way, making things confusing if there was lots happening on screen. I’m glad the new game is going back to the one-character scenario.
There are some who say that the Castlevania games have run their course, but I say keep bringing them on! True, they do need to vary the enemies more – the same ones keep popping up from game to game. And the level designs need to be a bit more innovative, creative, and artful. But no matter what they do, I’ll keep buyin’ ‘em and playin’ ‘em!
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Bicyclists in downtown rush hour traffic talking on their cell phones while peddling. C’mon! Do you have some kind of death wish?
Happy Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “i don’t believe in god and im very happy”.
The inPhonite Migration: iPray, youPray
Posted on | October 20, 2008 at 7:07 am | 7 Comments
There’s plenty of decent prayer applications for the Palm platform, but I was worried that when migrating to an iPhone, I’d have to give them up. Not to worry! There’s an iPhone application called Pray in the iTunes app store that should do everything I require of a prayer app.
Okay, I’m kidding. Well, kidding about needing a prayer app and about Palm ones existing. But not kidding about there being one for the iPhone (iTunes store link here).
And it sounds really… special… I’ll let the blurb explain it:
Pray on your iPhone! Take the next step in Intentional Prayer. Just like intentional prayer vocalization, practice writing your prayers to sharpen their focus and capture your attention. Then symbolically “send” your prayer to its Destination.
This application costs 99 cents at the app store. Well, I guess if you’re gullible enough to believe in the power of prayer (oh c’mon, don’t act surprised, you know how I feel about this stuff), then you’re gullible enough to spend a buck on an application that helps you sharpen your praying focus. If it were me, I would just use the built-in iPhone Notes application to write down the prayers. But then I’d have to delete them to emulate the sending of the prayer to its Destination.
Seriously, if you need your iPhone and a $1 app to help you pray, I’m not sure you’re really in touch with your deity.
I suppose if you believe in the power of affirmations, like Scott Adams does, then something like this might help you achieve your desired goals. Heck, that’s kind of the secret of The Secret, isn’t it? But really, do you need your iPhone for that? It looks like it doesn’t even save your prayer. After you send it, it’s gone. You can’t go back and look at your past prayers to check their progress. This app really needs a Prayer Database.
All that aside, my favorite part of this whole thing is the disclaimer:
NOTE: Your prayer is never sent anywhere. Your personal prayers never leave your iPhone. The sending of your prayer is only symbolic.
Let’s read that again: Your prayer is never sent anywhere. But if pushing this button makes you feel better, than go ahead and push this button! Couldn’t they at least have e-mailed it to Pat Buchanan or the North Pole? That’s just sloppy programming right there. Prayers should never be sent to /dev/null.
Latre.
Jogged Today: No, but I did go walking yesterday and I listened to my jogging “Fast Temp” playlist on the iPod nano while doing it.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Walking:
- “Only One” (Pet Shop Boys)
- “Here Comes the Flood” (Inspiral Carpets)
- “Moon Crazy” (Blue Öyster Cult)
- “Pocket” (Immaculate Machine)
- “Unconditional” (The Bravery)
- “Nobody Here But Us” (Therapy?)
- “What If We Give It Away?” (R.E.M.)
- “Love & Me Make Three” (Violent Femmes)
- “Grace” (Supergrass)
- “The Sons Of Cain” (Ted Leo)
- “Nicole” (Ash)
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “my digital read out on my irrigation timer does not display numbers fully”.
Ev-a, Phone Home
Posted on | October 19, 2008 at 11:03 am | 2 Comments
Return of the Movie Review Sunday!
This week, the girlfriend took me to see Wall-E, which is still playing at the second run theaters. We’ve been meaning to see it for awhile. N hasn’t had much experience with Pixar films, though she really loved Ratatouille and wanted to experience more. I myself have been put off a little bit by the popularity of the studio and the somewhat formula-driven plots of some of the movies, though I will probably always enjoy their creativity and technical whizz-bang. Heck, I’ve still never even seen Cars.
I’m not going to go over the plot, as I’m sure most people have already seen it by now or know what it’s about. A movie like Wall-E is a pretty difficult thing to pull off, as there is very little dialog in the movie. Nevertheless, you always know what is going on at all times and it’s easy to get caught up in the characters, robotic as they are. (Of course, the robots are more human than the humans, especially at the beginning.) As always, the animation is gorgeous, and the garbage-strewn post-apocalyptic Earth is a marvel to behold, and has a kind of depressing but spectacular grandeur that you don’t normally associate with this type of animated kid’s movie. When you see that little robot toiling away in the movie’s beginning at his garbage collection task with only a cockroach for a companion, it breaks your heart. But since this is a Pixar flick, you know his life is going to change drastically and he’s eventually going to get everything he wants. But not until after a lot of complications.
This was a wonderful movie that kept us enraptured in its story and with its plucky little hero. I’m sorry I ever doubted Pixar. It makes me want to go back and rewatch the rest of the library, with N so that I can experience it through her eyes like it’s my first time again. Heck, we’ll even have to watch Cars. I know she’ll like Finding Nemo the best though.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: The decreasing price of gas. Seems like it goes lower by the hour. It’s going down so fast, it’s hard to justify filling your tank unless it’s completely empty. If you can just hold out yet another day, the price goes down another 5 cents a gallon. We’re down to around $2.90 and less in this neck of the woods, and I filled up at Safeway on Saturday for $2.79 after my 10 cents per gallon discount. Wow, maybe we can actually afford to drive somewhere out of the city now! Or drive around the city, for that matter.
Disgusting Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “illustration of cilantro”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
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