In an odd twist to the news, I saw that (according to the Kuwait Times) Muslims in Malaysia are planning on boycotting the goods produced by many U.S. corporate giants. The biggest one to make the headline is a boycott in over 2,000 restaurants of that most universal of brands, Coca-Cola.
Now, I'm not sure just how significant this market is to Coke's world-wide intake, but it's sure to make people notice. Coca-Cola is one of the most ubiquitous corporate brands in the world. And now, to protest the involvement of the US government in the state of Israel, half a world away the people will boycott a US corporation.
Politics makes for some strange bedfellows they say. And now we have the population of a country deciding to boycott a swath of products produced in the US, because of the actions of the US government. Indeed, this is a different tactic.
I'm doing my part to support the economies of both Canada and the U.S. as I sit here on my US made laptop, with a recently emptied can of Coke Zero beside me.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Shake it baby...
A friend of mine just emailed me to say that she's been shaking tonight, and not from fright.
It's odd, I see a report of an earthquake in Costa Rica, and it doesn't feel as close as when I hear of a friend experiencing another earthquake later the same day.
Then Mrs. Spit reminds me that my nephew and his wife were just in CR on vacation at Christmas, and I think - wow, that could have hit a lot closer to home.
The earth shakes. It's constantly shifting, the tectonic plates in motion. But when people I know are affected, it's a different response. We humans are an odd lot that way.
I also hope my brother had no ill effect, as he also lives near LA... not near the epicenter though.
And the ironic thing is that, oddly enough, the place where I would prefer to live is right near the confluence of three tectonic plates.
Hope the shake-up wasn't too much of a toss-up... and I'll be watching the reports to see how things shake-out... so to speak.
It's odd, I see a report of an earthquake in Costa Rica, and it doesn't feel as close as when I hear of a friend experiencing another earthquake later the same day.
Then Mrs. Spit reminds me that my nephew and his wife were just in CR on vacation at Christmas, and I think - wow, that could have hit a lot closer to home.
The earth shakes. It's constantly shifting, the tectonic plates in motion. But when people I know are affected, it's a different response. We humans are an odd lot that way.
I also hope my brother had no ill effect, as he also lives near LA... not near the epicenter though.
And the ironic thing is that, oddly enough, the place where I would prefer to live is right near the confluence of three tectonic plates.
Hope the shake-up wasn't too much of a toss-up... and I'll be watching the reports to see how things shake-out... so to speak.
"Drive Safe"
Besides the fact that I'm married to Mrs. Spit, a master grammarian, and know that this turn of phrase drives her to distraction as well, I get absolutely nuts when I hear people say this! It's how I was brought up. When I was a child, my dad - who was also a high school teacher (woodworking, drafting, math) would always harp on me if I misspoke in this fashion. "Drive safe-LY" he would say. Once I learned the lesson, I would hear him talking back to the television, in the same tone.
It's winter here. It's cold, the roads are terrible. Looking out the office window I see that it is still white and snowing, -19C (-2F) - though with the wind it's -30C (-22F) with windchill. It's a typical winter day in January.
My desk sits just around the corner from the receptionist at my office. People come and go through the day, and quite often, as people are leaving, I hear her exhort people to "Drive safe!" Every time I hear this, I have an urge, that requires repression, to get up and lecture her on the English language.
Safe is not an adverb. Never has been, never will be. It's a noun and an adjective, but that's it. You can "make safe" you can own a safe, you can be safe. You can't drive safe. Maybe drive a safe, given the right circumstances, but I digress.
Sadly, in this age of ignorance that we seem to be becoming enveloped within, people don't realize that when they speak incorrectly, they sound stupid to those who know better. People generally ignore the problem because they don't know any better. They figure that adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and verbs are all things which they left behind in their English 12 course (assuming they got that far) or in their college English class. As I work with a whack of engineers, most of them try to forget that English class. Which is bothersome, as most of what we do involves communicating ideas to people, writing reports, contracts, email and so forth. Why would you want to appear ignorant and unintelligent to your client?
This remains one of my pet peeves in spoken English. It would appear to me, in retrospect, that it was a major peeve of my father as well. How far the acorn has fallen!
If you're driving in winter, I say to you: "Drive safely, it's scary out there!"
It's winter here. It's cold, the roads are terrible. Looking out the office window I see that it is still white and snowing, -19C (-2F) - though with the wind it's -30C (-22F) with windchill. It's a typical winter day in January.
My desk sits just around the corner from the receptionist at my office. People come and go through the day, and quite often, as people are leaving, I hear her exhort people to "Drive safe!" Every time I hear this, I have an urge, that requires repression, to get up and lecture her on the English language.
Safe is not an adverb. Never has been, never will be. It's a noun and an adjective, but that's it. You can "make safe" you can own a safe, you can be safe. You can't drive safe. Maybe drive a safe, given the right circumstances, but I digress.
Sadly, in this age of ignorance that we seem to be becoming enveloped within, people don't realize that when they speak incorrectly, they sound stupid to those who know better. People generally ignore the problem because they don't know any better. They figure that adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and verbs are all things which they left behind in their English 12 course (assuming they got that far) or in their college English class. As I work with a whack of engineers, most of them try to forget that English class. Which is bothersome, as most of what we do involves communicating ideas to people, writing reports, contracts, email and so forth. Why would you want to appear ignorant and unintelligent to your client?
This remains one of my pet peeves in spoken English. It would appear to me, in retrospect, that it was a major peeve of my father as well. How far the acorn has fallen!
If you're driving in winter, I say to you: "Drive safely, it's scary out there!"
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Merry Christmas, part deux
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas...
Ukrainian Christmas that is! We just passed Epiphany (as someone not raised in the Anglican faith, this means little to me) and here we are hitting the Orthodox Church's Christmas time.
Apparently the whole Julien vs Gregorian calendar still messes with our lives, hundreds of years after we changed systems.
So, Merry Christmas all over again!
Ukrainian Christmas that is! We just passed Epiphany (as someone not raised in the Anglican faith, this means little to me) and here we are hitting the Orthodox Church's Christmas time.
Apparently the whole Julien vs Gregorian calendar still messes with our lives, hundreds of years after we changed systems.
So, Merry Christmas all over again!
I don't <3 the maverick
For those not in the know, that means I don't 'heart' the maverick.
Am I the only one who finds it amusing that an American university is refering to it as the Queen's English? This year Lake Superior State University has released their "34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness"
When I hear Maverick, I think of two things - the movie Top Gun, and the movie Maverick. Neither of which had ANYTHING to do with last year's election in the US.
It's bad enough that people can't write proper English anymore, but incorporating text messenging 'emoticons' into everyday life is regrettable.
So in that spirit, all I have left to say today is the following:
My efforts to be green have been diminished by the economic downturn; the real gamechanger came when the bailout swooped into our collective consciousness, and inadvertantly increased my carbon footprint. Truly this has been an iconic year in which the desperate search for the first dude has left people waiting to take their staycation and see who will be the winner of the most Oscar nominations.
(in case that made little sense, check out the press release at this page)
Am I the only one who finds it amusing that an American university is refering to it as the Queen's English? This year Lake Superior State University has released their "34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness"
When I hear Maverick, I think of two things - the movie Top Gun, and the movie Maverick. Neither of which had ANYTHING to do with last year's election in the US.
It's bad enough that people can't write proper English anymore, but incorporating text messenging 'emoticons' into everyday life is regrettable.
So in that spirit, all I have left to say today is the following:
My efforts to be green have been diminished by the economic downturn; the real gamechanger came when the bailout swooped into our collective consciousness, and inadvertantly increased my carbon footprint. Truly this has been an iconic year in which the desperate search for the first dude has left people waiting to take their staycation and see who will be the winner of the most Oscar nominations.
(in case that made little sense, check out the press release at this page)
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!
Normal posting volume is expected to resume prior to the New Year.
Normal posting volume is expected to resume prior to the New Year.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
A year I'll never forget
A year ago my life changed. One could say that it was turned on its head, for surely there is no more succinct description for the catastrophic events that led to me being the father of a dead baby boy.
It's hard to talk about the loss of my son, Gabriel, to those who haven't lost a child. People who have no frame of reference have nothing to say. It's not that they don't want to, perhaps, but instead that they don't have the vocabulary to understand. Most people don't know what to say, and say nothing. They don't know what all parents of dead babies know - there are no words to express the feeling of loss, of confusion, of aimlessness that accompany the wretched loss of my son.
The sorrow sneaks up on me at odd times, in odd ways. I have yet to return to what my normal level was a year ago. It is shockingly difficult to be who I was before. I get distracted more easily. I am unable to concentrate as well. My motivation waxes and wanes on an unpredictable schedule.
A year ago I held my son in my hands. His tiny body was incredibly frail. With his death, that frailty has passed on to me in unexpected, unwanted ways. His death fractured me widely and deeply. Unlike a window, my cracks are not visible. To those who don't know of the impact, I appear to be normal and fully functioning. This makes for a disconnect between who I am, and who people expect me to be.
To my son in heaven: I miss you to the depth of my soul.
It's hard to talk about the loss of my son, Gabriel, to those who haven't lost a child. People who have no frame of reference have nothing to say. It's not that they don't want to, perhaps, but instead that they don't have the vocabulary to understand. Most people don't know what to say, and say nothing. They don't know what all parents of dead babies know - there are no words to express the feeling of loss, of confusion, of aimlessness that accompany the wretched loss of my son.
The sorrow sneaks up on me at odd times, in odd ways. I have yet to return to what my normal level was a year ago. It is shockingly difficult to be who I was before. I get distracted more easily. I am unable to concentrate as well. My motivation waxes and wanes on an unpredictable schedule.
A year ago I held my son in my hands. His tiny body was incredibly frail. With his death, that frailty has passed on to me in unexpected, unwanted ways. His death fractured me widely and deeply. Unlike a window, my cracks are not visible. To those who don't know of the impact, I appear to be normal and fully functioning. This makes for a disconnect between who I am, and who people expect me to be.
To my son in heaven: I miss you to the depth of my soul.
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