Kindly, do the needful

The English language is a difficult thing to master --reference my ghoti post. It seems for every grammar rule, there's an exception. That makes it really hard for people to learn; even more so for people who are learning it as a second language. As English has become the de facto standard for business communication, that means even more people are attempting to dissect this strange language.

Wired Magazine wrote an article about the way in which the English language is becoming a melting pot of other languages. Subtitled How English Is Evolving Into a Language We May Not Even Understand, it talks about how the language is evolving to suit the variety of people that now live in the US (or elsewhere) and speak, or attempt to speak English. It's a funny thing to think about when you realise that there's already a chasm between American English and UK English. At times even those are so different as to need a different web page or translator on the Internet.

I've worked with many people in my career that had varying degrees of mastery of the English language. I've gotten used to most of the accents from Asia and the Middle East, Europe, Mexico and even Canada :-p. It kinda struck me as funny when a new bunch of engineers moved into my building a while ago and started talking with strong British accents -- I had a hard time understanding them at first -- and they were speaking English! The Queen's English, but English nonetheless.

Sometimes when people learn English as a second language in a different country they learn the Queen's English. This leads to a much more "proper" sounding conversation. It also leads to phrases that while grammatically correct (I think), sound really funny to us Americans. One that's stuck with me recently is from my Indian co-workers -- "Kindly, do the needful." I know what they're asking for is help in resolving a problem -- "Can you take care of this please" or something equivalent -- but it just sounds so very foreign. Polite, but foreign.

Here's another insightful post I found related to this titled It's Inglish not English.

Welcome Lily!

My wife's friend & husband had their first baby yesterday. Though they'll get grief later for keeping everyone in the dark for several days with no news (they sent a "We're on the way to the hospital to be induced" message on Sunday, then nothing until late last night -- hey! It's not like they had anything else going' on!), we're all glad that things went well and welcome them to the wonderful world we call parenting.

Holding the sun

Again, if you've got email, you've probably seen at least some of these already, but I think that they're pretty cool. You can see a lot of pictures of people holding the sun here from Google's index.

This UK newspaper article (the source of the left image) has several images as well.

There are several things about these images I like. First is just the imagination of the photography. It's thinking outside the box. Taking something ordinary, someone in a picture with the sun, and making it something completely unexpected -- not boring.

The second is the irony. In this picture...someone so small, fragile and innocent, taking control of something so massive, explosive and that so many other people in the world depend on for life. Literally holding the world's well being in her hands. You can almost see her toying with the idea of smashing her hands together, extinguishing the light.

When my wife and I got our first digital camera several years ago, it really freed us. We didn't need to be concerned with how many pictures we took and had to pay to get developed hoping that at least a couple would turn out good. Now we work the odds. We take a ton of pictures, at no expense (using rechargeable batteries) and get a lot of great pictures. I try to be a little creative with some of the ones I take, trying different perspectives, shooting up from down low, or shooting something really close that you wouldn't usually notice. I'm no professional by any means, but I have fun with it. I think that the people that took these shots do too.

Microwave Life

Gone are the days when we took leisurely walks just to walk. Gone are the days when we waited for a letter to arrive in the mail. Gone are the days when we spent hours preparing the evening meal. Gone even are the days when we waited for a dial-up an Internet connection while listening to the squelch of two computers handshaking.

Now we "fast-walk" for exercise. We send email and call the printed mail "snail mail." We twiddle our thumbs if dinner takes more than 5 minutes in the microwave, and we start to have panic attacks if our "always on" Internet connection takes more than 1/2 a second to load the web page we're trying to get to.

I'm not sure where I heard the term "microwave life," but it certainly fits. We've got so much going on, with family, work, hobbies, etc., every additional second we can gain with technology should be a step toward getting more things done. Unfortunately, just like when having a garage sale, whenever you get rid of something, two things fill its place. You find 1 minute more in your day and suddenly, something comes up that takes 2 minutes (or more) to get done. It's a never ending battle.

The only thing we can do is to either inject more time-saving technology or processes into our lives, or to stop doing somethings. Injecting technology costs money. Changing process takes time I don't have to redesign the process. Stopping doing things I wanna do... Hmmm.. Maybe the kids can help with the kitty litter and dishes after all :-)

Today at a glance

There's long been talk of printed newspapers going the way of the dinosaur. The costs of printing and delivery as well as the impact of the Internet culture have all taken shots at the printing press, even as they do their best to modernize and embrace the digital age. Most newspapers have an on-line presence, even as they continue to press the pulp. Most are still trying to define the distinction between the two mediums -- is it a different audience, or just the different availability. Do they concentrate on the "real-time" stories on-line and do in depth investigations in print? I personally still like what I get from both. There's something about being able to hold the physical paper in my hands...

However you like to get your news, the Newseum site has something for you. Blending some (somewhat) high tech touches for navigation including a map mash up, the site actually excels at delivering an image of the front page of nearly 600 newspapers from around the world. It really gives you a feel for what different countries and regions feel is important.

There's also a section that let's you see how selected newspapers presented some historical events like the September 11th attacks, the Columbia explosion, and Hurricane Katrina.

3D Chalk Artists

If you have email, I'm sure that you've seen the chalk artistry of Julian Beever. Word of his absolutely incredible 3d artistry has spread via a viral campaign for quite a while. The Web Urbanist had a post the other day that listed several artists with a similar style. These chalk artists have to have something in them to be able to create something so amazing...that lasts only a short while until the next rain. Kinda like building a sand castle at low tide.

This video shows how Julian works his magic!

Pennies for your thoughts

I'm all for free stuff -- especially now. I've used the WalMart site and others like StartSampling to get stuff to try, travel sizes to take on trips, and for stuff I use everyday.

My wife and I also have all of the frequent shopper key tags, and have even joined AC Nielsen's HomeScan program.

One of the most rewarding sites so far has been e-rewards, though. My wife joined (for free) last year sometime and I joined earlier this year. This program works through sponsored surveys that take 1 minute to 30 minutes to fill out. They range from interest surveys, to buying habits, to ranking questionnaires. You answer the surveys (infrequent to up to 10 a week) and they reward you with 50 cents to 15 dollars in e-rewards money that you cash in for rewards at places like Borders, Pizza Hut, Wall Street Journal, blockbuster and different airlines. My wife got a Borders card earlier this year and we've each got over 50 bucks sitting in our accounts again! Every little bit helps.

Can you hear me now?

I had a totally different thought in mind when I went to write this post (it was a parenting thought), but I'll come back to that one later.

My new car came with a hands-free option for a bluetooth phone. Only one problem -- my phone doesn't do blue tooth. Not yet anyway. My wife's phone works, but not completely in my car.

Our cell plan is up in a couple of months so we're looking into what our options are. I'm ready to switch carriers too. The BCC car site has a list of phones that they've tested with my car and the features that work/don't work for each phone. Now I just have to find a phone that's inexpensive, and has all of the features that I want...

Does your car have a hands free option? What do you like about it. When do you use it most? Does it use your phone's phone book or do you have to create a new phone book? Did you find that you use it more in your car than you did before the built-in hands free? Does your phone dial by voice or just have a speaker? Does yours allow you to speak the name of the person you want to call, or just the phone number? I've not even read that part of the manual on my car yet 'cuz I don't want to know all of what I'll be missing when I get the phone that's not the top of the line...

Maybe I'll compare some of the phones BCC says work well on a site like PhoneScoop.

It's the same...only different

I think I blogged about this site before but there's a new batch of 6-differences games available now. It's a Flash (?) game that challenges you to find 6 differences between two pictures. There is usually some motion in the pictures to keep you confused too! I must warn you, it's addicting, though...

Misery Loves Company

Not sure why this is, but it does seem to be true -- especially for network TV shows that parade endless contestants across the screen suffering all kinds of misfortune. This is the premise of the ABC show Wipeout. Like many similar shows over the years, they lure the contestants with promises of fortune if they win, but those winnings might just be needed to pay doctor bills -- physical or psychological -- after seeing what I've seen.

We all cringe seeing the crashes and "wipe outs" suffered by the foo..., er, um, contestants as they compete against each other and time to be the winner. It's not quite as bad or humiliating as the infamous Japanese game shows that we've seen clips of, although there's an American version of that coming this summer from ABS as well called I Survived a Japanese Game Show. That one is more likely to be funny in an embarrassing kinda way than challenging physically. I might catch an episode or two of that one as well. Not sure I could take more than a few episodes of either of these, but it keeps the kids laughing for a while after I lose all of my laughing gasses...

Looking for something?

I saw this site several months ago, but my sister sent it to me again recently. All My Faves is a new take on the old Yahoo style of web-portal. It presents a list of popular sites related to a list of categories like Sports, Weather, News, etc. -- but it lists them by their logo. Nothing extra special here as most of the sites are pretty well known already, but just seeing the list in all of it's color is kinda different. It can be a little overwhelming at first. It also has tabs to break out other groupings like Kids, Entertainment and Shopping.

The real beauty of this site, though is the Weekly discoveries tab. Here, the site lists 10 new sites worth checking out each week (like this cool painting site). There's also a blog about other found sites. If you're looking for something new, a diversion from work or life, check this site out!

I SAW ONE!

There are a lot of animals that you only see in zoos -- usually ones that are not native to the area, or ones that are very rare or need special habitats or handling. Pigeons on the other hand are none of these, but I have never (and I bet few of you have) seen a baby pigeon. For some reason you just never see them. You see the parents ALL OVER THE PLACE, but the babies, and even young teens are hidden.

Well today, I saw one! On my route home, I circle under an overpass that tends to be filled with birds. Most of the time, they're pigeons, but I've seen hoards of black birds as well at times. Today, for some reason, I looked up at the girders as I was stopped at a light and spied a momma pigeon feeding a baby pigeon. It still had a lot of it's downy feathers too. What a site!

For those paying REALLY close attention...

When I get an idea for a post I generally send an email to my Blogger account that is saved as a draft versus immediatly published. Then, when I've got time (away from work, etc) I finish those posts and post them. When I'm not paying close attention, though, the post goes out with the original date of the draft as opposed to the date of the edited and published time. That causes those posts to get buried in what would be history to those of you reading directly from A World Discovered home page as opposed to arriving at a specific from a search.

The other exposure is that it may look like I'm creating these posts all day at work. NOT! First, the only money I make by writing these posts is from Google in the form of adsense monies when you click on the ads on this site. You did notice the ads over there --> on the right didn't you? If you find something of interest or relevance there, feel free to click on them. My employer is not paying me to write these so it wouldn't be fair to spend the time that they're paying me to write these.

One other note is that a while ago, Blogger started allowing "future posting" that will allow me to write a post now, and set it to be automatically published at some time in the future. What good is that you ask? Well it will allow me to continue to be a burst-blogger, writing when I have the time, but balance things out for you, the reader, to provide fresh content more often than just once or twice a week.

A lot of you that visit come back often -- several times a week for some of you. And if I can't keep up with your appetite for reading my blog, you'll get sad and forget to come back. I don't want you to be sad. :-( So allowing me to burst when I can and still keep things fresh more often works out best for both of us.

Now I've just gotta cleanup all of those drafts sitting there to finish...

I've got gas...

Come on. You think I'd be THAT revealing to the world?! :-p

Actually, I should've titled this entry - MPG. Now that I've made sure that I've said I got a new car, I can talk about one of the reasons. Not the only reason, and actually not the biggest reason, but an important one nonetheless -- fuel economy.

It's important for a number of reasons -- personal cost, environmental cost, national independence, etc. Would I have liked to buy a car that gets 100 MPG? You betcha. I would have settled for 50 MOG if I could afford it right now. But, alas, I couldn't. I know that in the long run, we would've all been better if I could, but a small step is better than no step. I'm doing a part to help, even if it's not as big of a part as I'd like.

I am very aware of the fuel economy of my new car. In fact, the car helps me stay that way. It has an automatic average MPG display. It's not the real-time display I would like, but it's certainly helpful (and pretty accurate based on my calculations). It's had an impact on the way I drive already, too. My car and I play a little game called "How high can I get the MPG readout..."

I pay attention to things like starting off too quickly from a stop. I coast to stops when feasible so that I don't have to stop in the first place. I use cruise control as often as I can, knowing that automatic means are more efficient than I at keeping an even speed. I gain some ground on the way to work, but lose most of it on the way home due to construction. I still get 50% better mileage than I did in my van, but I want to do better.

It's funny though. Even as we all pinch every penny we can just to survive nowadays, I bet you know exactly how much you spent per gallon of gas last fill up. And I bet you drive sometimes way out of your way just to save a couple of pennies per gallon. And I don't blame you. But I realized a while ago that to save 3 cents per gallon on a 20 gallon fill up, only saved me sixty cents. Sixty cents is sixty cents, don't get me wrong, but there's a lot more money to be saved (and many other benefits) by conserving the gas in the first place. Even a single mile per gallon increase in fuel economy will save you dollars per fill up instead of pennies. That's worth changing a few habits, I think. Hypermilers have a lot of other useful ways to get more per gallon from your car as well.

And, on the subject of saving money, personal finance blog Wisebread wrote an article recently comparing the cost of a gallon of gas to a gallon of other common consumer products. Might want to start thinking about cutting back on some of those items as well after seeing their list.

Delinquent

I was reminded last night by my brother-in-law (who I didn't even know was reading this blog -- that's four of you now! :-) that I hadn't posted about the final outcome of the principle versus principal battle. I had started a draft title, but apparently not written/posted it. He saw my new car sitting at the curb.

Every man has a price, and for right now, I guess mine falls in the 3-5k range. I purchased the car I originally wanted from BCC. I really like it and I'm starting to calm down a bit about compromising my principles. I still intend to write the letter to BCC's CEO (I've gotten the first the paragraphs written), but I need to get really heated up again. I'm sure that will happen again in a couple of months when my wife's van comes due for it's 6-month brake repair cycle again, but for now, I'm just enjoying what I've got.

So there. I've said it. Anyone else out there want to buy me for something in the neighborhood of $4,000?

Out of the mouths of babes

As I was getting my yougest son dressed this morning, he took his right hand, draped it behind his head and stuck his index finger in his mouth, pulling at his cheek. Then he repeated "Off the hook! It's off the hook!"

I know where he got it from (a Hannah Montana episode), and I commented that he was very funny.

His response: "Yeah, I get that a lot." That made me laugh almost as much.

Scary info-tainment

The political season of yesteryear saw a very successful southern businessman, big-eared with a very pronounced drawl and down-home anecdotes, capture 19% of the vote in the 1992 US presidential election. Relive those glory years, or at least the scary charts, at http://perotcharts.com/.

Unfortunately, not much has changed since those scary pics were made public. The charts have been updated from the ones shown on TV back then, and the data is just as scary if not more so. Whomever the eventual winner of this election will surely have his work cut out for him. I hope something changes from the path we're on right now -- for all of our sakes.

GHOTI

I have a sign on my desk at work that reads "GHOTI". I came across this little nugget of wisdom several years ago and have hung on to it since. It serves multiple purposes. First, people ask me what it means -- a conversation starter as well as a way for me to impart more of my wisdom
:-). Second, it reminds me to keep looking.

It was originally presented as a way to show how screwed up the English language is. Essentially, it's a different way to say "fish." Sounding it out, the "gh" makes the sound as in "tough," the "o" makes the sound as in "women," and the "ti" makes the sound as in "nation."

To me it's a reminder that things are not always as they seem. It reminds me to dig a little deeper, to not always take the first or easiest answer. It reminds me that there may be ulterior motives to people's behaviors (good or bad). In general, it reminds me to just keep
questioning. That's how I, we, learn. It's good to be inquisitive.

Post it!

When I worked at my last assignment, someone decided that the deal on Post-It notes was too good of a deal to pass up. We had HUNDREDS of packs of Post-Its in the supply room -- all shapes and sizes and colors!

I kinda liked it, but I was never as creative as these guys have been in their use of Post-Its...

Reckless Driving

Yet another Google Maps mashup. This mashup allows you to practice your driving skills.