ON VACATION! Back on AUGUST 30!!

I AM NOW ON VACATION!

What an exhausting and long year since last August – my last full vacation!

And exhausting … for ALL OF US! I am so fortunate to have been able to work with such amazing and incredible colleagues at The Computer Help Desk over the past … 500+ DAYS! Yes, it has been that long since we started working remotely, late in March of 2020!

Without ALL of their support, humour, leadership, imagination, guidance and every single possible ‘intangible‘ that each and every single one of them, ALL BRING to our Teams meetings, emails, texts, GIFs, Emojis, Jeopardy, Quote Contests, it would have been impossible to accomplish a fraction of what WE ALL DID AS A TEAM!

THANK YOU ALL!

A few key UVic and BC websites for returning to campus in September for everyone!

Return-to-Campus Guidelines now available
Return to campus info for students
Communicable Disease Plan now available
UVic News
Update on getting your COVID-19 vaccine
Remote work arrangements announced for the fall
Working remotely
Post-secondary studies during COVID-19
NEW COMPUTERS IN CALL! YAY!
NEW FURNITURE IN CALL! YAY!

Not to worry . . .

August 30th to prep for
. . . Septem . . . PURR !!!!

Pandemic

I will bring Empire Donuts when I return to UVic!

Bogman

OS Emulators on WIN and macOS

Did You Know …
You might be able to experience . . .
macOS on a WIN computer?
. . . OR other neat EMULATORS too?

You can actually try legacy operating systems … on a browser! And it does not matter if you have WIN or macOS either! There are websites that … almost … let you Time Travel to see what earlier version of (then) current Operating Systems were like! They are not intended to be functional, only descriptive and .. kinda fun, most of them! And no implied guarantee of success here! Just some emulator sites I found out there!

And a HUGE distinction between an emulator of an OS, running on a browser and … actually remote access TO a real computer on campus. That is through a real service at: remotelab.uvic.ca and is EVEN COOLER! The screen grab below is of my old MacBook Pro, accessing a WIN computer in Clearihue! A rather existential question arises … is this Windows IN a Mac, or Windows ON a Mac! 🙂 This will be a future post, just to whet your whistle!

Emulators! According to Wikipedia an emulator is:

In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the host) to behave like another computer system (called the guest).

There are many, many, MANY browser based emulators out there! So I will show a few of them, and then put a list below to try out.

Let’s try Mac emulators first!

Quite a few of these sites have both operating systems listed, so … a Treasure Trove of Emulators!

7 classic versions of Windows and Mac OS you can run in a browser lets you try Mac System 7! This is even before the Cats took over the Mac! Fun Fact – I still own a functioning Mac SE, bought way back in … 1989!!! Such a cool computer!

And what is regarded as the single greatest Macintosh game of all time is … DARK CASTLE! And you can try it out at the same Mac System 7 site! A bit more on games later ….

Inevitable updates to all operating systems are … inevitable! And one of the next ones was Mac OS 8.6: The classic Mac OS nears the end of its life and this was a HUGE upgrade from System 7 – the number alone is … 1+! You can go directly there from here or click the Mac desktop to the left.

And one final Macintosh emulator OS X 10.2: The classic Mac OS is retired …ah, good times, good times …. A HUGE selection of MANY emulators is at VirtualDesktop.org, including OS X 10.2.

And now WINDOWS

The one that started them all .. well, at least in 1995 .. WINDOWS 95! And again, these are all from VirtualDesktop.org, amongst many others! Considering The CALL Facility started out with DOS based machines, running McMaster French, more closely resembling a text adventure game … WINDOWS 95 WAS CONSIDERED SLICED BREAD at the time!

And a final pairing of WINDOWS ME and WINDOWS NT! Microsoft sure like using lots of letters of the alphabet! But, to be fair … Apple liked using cats before Roman Numerals and then portable devices started to show up and now all kinds of … flavours … just like an ice cream shop!

For more Virtual Experiences, I will list a few sites below, but the best to see the most, is at VirtualDesktop.org. Not all there, but .. enough to do a decent days work of Time Travel and see how Operating Systems have changed considerably over the years!

And one last emulator, from my first ever computer that I bought … COMMODORE – C64 Online Emulator! The drawback here is that you need to upload some kind of file FROM an original C64, then it works. So, not much to try here. But I am going to find out HOW to do it though! And even more Online Emulators from the same place too!

I mentioned games earlier, but will have another post in the future about games. Spoile – I am NOT a Gamer!

Emulator Sites to Surf Towards …..

ENJOY!

How to Play Commodore 64 Games on PC!
Commodore 64 emulator! Vice Emulator Setup!

Kim Justice’s Top 50 Commodore 64 Games
of All-Time (YouTube)

Pawn Stars:
A Working Commodore 64
(Season 14) | History

Did you know UVic has a YouTube Channel?

Did You Know …
UVic ...
has a
YouTube Channel?

You probably thought, yes, I … suspected that UVic has a YouTube Channel, but have you BEEN THERE? Probably not! But it is worth your while! So, if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a video apparently worth 1.8 MILLION WORDS!!

UVic’s YouTube channel has some amazing videos for learning about UVic, Departments, Airiel views by Drone, National and International stories about UVic and many Hints, How-To’s and just plain FUN VIDEOS!

In no particular order, sort of, are some of my Favourite UVic YouTube videos. There are so many …. and I am sure you will find many of them fun, useful and informative! And many student bloggers are posting about their experiences at UVic throughout the semester at another OAC site, My UVic Life (another shameless promotion of UVic here at Bog Blog!)

And you can also find my video, from a PowerPoint at YouTube too! Just go to my Page, “The CALL Facility … and other Mysteries of UVIC” or just find the link to ALL my Pages, on the right-hand side of each post.

You can click on the text link, or the thumbnail of the UVic video below to go to a new tab with that video.

ENJOY!

University of Victoria aerial highlights

UVic Campus Tour

Humanities at UVic

UVic Channels

UVic ranked as a global leader in climate action

ZOHO – CALL Bookmarks – UPDATES

ZOHO …
CALL Facility Bookmarks
UPDATES
Cosmetic & Functional

NOTE: Unfortunately, I recently discovered that ZOHO is no longer free, at least for the purposes that The CALL Facility used it for. I still have access as an Admin, but I am researching how I might be able to continue to provide the same resources in perhaps a slightly different format. Options such as a website, pdf, Word, Excel or other kind of document, but so far, they are not as easy to use, create, support and maintain. But I am hopeful and optimistic!

MANY THANKS to everyone who supported The CALL Facility (& me!) in offering this very unique resource over the past many years, probably dating back about 15 years or more! ZOHO came about as a response to needing a quick way to access Language bookmarks in CALL! Way back when, and this is BEFORE GOOGLE, I would email an attached bookmark file for specific browsers such as Explorer (Mac!), Safari and even Netscape Navigator! Good times, good times!

ALL the bookmarks are still ‘at’ ZOHO, and I can access them, and export them into a simple .pdf document if anyone wants them. I can subsort, or include them all in one document. Please let me know! But for now, I won’t be updating ZOHO on a regular basis while I research other, if any, similar resources for Instructors and students.

In the meantime, probably the best strategy, for Instructors, would be to Copy/Paste website inks directly into Brightspace for students. Yeah, cludgy and inelegant, but … sometimes old school works! The first shift I had in the CALL Facility – was bulk erasing and then making copies of Spanish lessons .. on cassette tapes! Good times, good times!

AND, if you DO CLICK HERE or on the icon of a PDF to the left, then you can view and download a .PDF version of ALL of The CALL Facility ZOHO Bookmarks in alphabetical order. Yeah, not ideal, but … at least they are all in one document.

And many thanks to Mark vH who helped me set it up so very long ago!

Zoho CALL Facility Bookmarks, is an on-line database of over 1100+ useful Language sites as well as utilities, orientations, copyright information, digital media access and world news sites. Yes, you could look some things up at Google, but … I (& many others too!) have done that already and you might just find some very interesting sites and information, based on what students and Instructors think is helpful. In fact, most of the links have been suggested by students and Instructors and might not show up high on a Google search! Diamonds in the rough!

But there have been some changes to ZOHO over the holidays. Their default template seems to have changed from what once looked like below:

To what it now looks like today:

NEW ZOHO Spanish — **ZOHO CALL Facility Bookmarks – New Interface**

So I will point out some important features that still work, but are now in different locations or use a different button or icon. You can still search, sort and resize columns, all of which are very handy at any time.

First, resizing columns. ZOHO will sometimes minimize the width of a column such as KEYWORDS. To widen any column, just position the cursor to the RIGHT of the Name of the narrow column (KEYWORDS) and your cursor will change into a small I-beam with left<-> right arrows. Click, hold and drag to the right to widen, or to the left to narrow the column too. Just like adjusting the size in a spreadsheet like Excel! The two images below show what a narrow column looks like and where to widenit with your mouse.

And Searching AND Sorting a category, is now just one-click away! Just position your cursor over the category you want to SorUnder LANGUAGE, CATEGORY, KEYWORDS and CLICK BELOW is built into each Topic. Just click on the title above each Column and you will get a drop-down menu to choose how you want to sort. Below are LANGUAGE and CATEGORY. If you look closely, there is a small inverted triangle, a visual clue that there is a feature there. You do not have to click ON the triangle, just anywhere in the name of the column and you get the drop down menu that includes Search, Sort by Ascending, Sort by Descending and other options.

ZOHO Language Sort — **NEW ZOHO LANGUAGE Sort**

NEW ZOHO Category Sort — **NEW ZOHO CATEGORY Sort**

When you select Search from the drop down menu, another menu box will open on the right hand side where you can set the criteria to search for, even if it is not in the LANGUAGE column! One stop searching is just one-click away! And if you ever need to close any popup window or menu, there is usually an ‘X’ in the top right-hand corner, to close that menu. You can also just click into an ’empty’ spot somewhere else in the ZOHO screen.

AND BONUS! There are more ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ menu options as well. On the far right hand side, are 3 small icons. The first is a magnifying glass which will bring up the Search box. The second looks like a … coffee filter to me and .. that is what it is! You can filter multiple searches through this option, such as “Spanish Utilities Copyright” or other combinations. ZOHO will find them and present the filter criteria as well, and you can close them anytime. The final choice of 3 horizontal bars changes the view of ZOHO, with some additional functions, but nothing permanent and can be re-selected at anytime, and the original ZOHO link will always work too.

And you might ask …. why does ZOHO default to Spanish with this link? Two reasons! First .. I am still learning how to set up Reports, Views and default and/or customizable access in ZOHO since their … update over the holidays!

And secondly … SPANISH Instructors have been enthusiastic supporters of ZOHO as a resource for their students for YEARS now! And so, yeah, it is … who you know! 🙂 Thanks to RS for your support and patience!

I do want to learn how to set up specific Reports, Views and other customizable aspects of ZOHO to make it even better than ever!

I have also updated my OAC ZOHO CALL Facility Bookmarks Page as well, with the most recent interface and a few more hints. It is always available on the right hand side of any Post, under Bog Blog Pages.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and support of The CALL Facility! And I can hardly wait to get back to being on campus …. but nobody knows when just yet!

Pages and Posts

Pages and Posts … What Gives?

So what is the difference between a Post and a Page?

As I am finding out, they are both quite different and useful! There are all kinds of sites you can look up at Google and support from WordPress for Pages and Posts (tutorials) about their differences. For me, the difference is that a Post is like an email to your Inbox. You publish some information on a specific day and time. And then done! It stays in your email in reverse chronological order as more emails arrive.

Your next Post becomes the most current one, in reverse chronological order. You can usually cycle back to the previous post from within any currently viewed post. The benefit is … each Post is usually about a single topic. But that is not a hard and fast rule.

A Page is like a Post without a chronology or end date, but can contain multiple topics, themes, links or categories. And is usually always available and visible at any Post, usually by setting up a Widget or Theme settings. Think of it as a ‘Long-Term Post’. Always there.

So if you want a reader to see or have access to a ‘Long-Term Post’, then use a Page. If it is something that is just a topic for that day, but still accessible later on, then use a Post.

And nothing says that what is in a Post, can’t be turned into a Page. OR, as you will see below, I will take the most currently added information on my Favourite and Useful UVic Links Page, Cyber Security Awareness Month, and tack it on to the end of this Post. Confusing? Maybe, but once you play around with WordPress and try one new thing every week or so, then you just build on blogging skills!! Explore Pages and Posts and .. it is your Blog, do what YOU want to do!

For me, I only have 3 Pages:

But I have over 179 Posts, including THIS POST!

Each PAGE represents something that potentially delivers not only timely, but ‘timeless’ information. A Page will look like a Post (Theme dependent), but these 3 are PAGES that have the most up to date and continuously available information, that I want to make available, even for myself! So, think of a Page as a very, very, very selfish .. Post! It is always there, seeking attention! LOL!

Favourite and Useful UVic Links has a growing list of … Favourite and Useful UVic Links, without having to search my entire blog for them. Always there.

The CALL Facility … and other Mysteries of UVIC. This has the most current version of an oriention to The CALL Facility. Always there.

ZOHO – CALL Facility Bookmarks. I constantly refer to this and it is constantly being edited, updated and revised. Always there.

It is VERY tempting to just have a growing list of .. Pages. Nope, don’t go there. Think about how many you REALLY want to be there. And then cut it in half. Just like packing for 3 months in Europe. Lay EVERYTHING OUT that you think you might need for 3 months of travel. Then discard half of it!

I might add 1, perhaps 2 more, but no plans for that in the near future. But, never say never!

And even here at OAC, there is a WordPress tutorial section, while you are creating your blog, to give you tutorials on Pages and Posts. Look for it!

And below, fresh off my updated Page, are my favourite links for Cyber Security Awareness Month here at UVic.

October 26, 2020 – New Favourite Links –Cyber Security Awareness Month

Nav’s CISO Blog at OAC – Personal Perspectives from UVic’s Chief Information Security Officer
UVic Instagram Takeover 2020 (🔥 HOT OFF THE PRESS WINNER 🔥 … even though a little late….)
Cyber Security Awareness Month – UVic (a little late, but better than never!)
Phishing – University Systems (UVic)
Phishing Awareness Training Campaign – University Systems (UVic)
UVic Information Security Standards
UVIC Information Security
How to Contact University Systems and The Computer Help Desk
Advanced Persistent Threat Groups (from Nav’s Blog on Oct 20)
Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Canadian Government)

What’s the difference between posts and pages in WordPress? | WordPress for beginners

How to write a post or page in WordPress | WordPress for beginners

Working From Home . . . What Could Go Wrong?

Working From Home . . .
What Could Go Wrong?!

DEFINITELY NOT my most productive morning since working from home!

Full Disclosure: Having a relatively frustrating morning, with, you guessed it … my computer! So, probably a short post today.

DOUBLE Full Disclosure: Taking a Tea Time Out, breathing and … over it now!

FIRST AND FOREMOST – amazing colleagues! I can’t say enough about everyone I work with at the Computer Help Desk! Thanks everyone! And they are doing the same for Students, Staff and Faculty with knowledge, humour and steadfast patience!

My laptop went wonky this morning! Still a bit wonky, but still doing what it does best – allow me to work from home during these interesting times! Everyone was quick to help, offer suggestions and give advice and I am back doing my morning OAC post!

The only downside, would seem to be my bookmarks/Favourites in Edge have gone rogue! And if THAT is the worst thing that has happened on ‘Yet Another Manic Monday‘, then I am good to go with that! I spent the better part of the morning finding and re-setting my bookmarks and access to them. NAILED IT! Well, maybe … THUMBTACKED IT!

I had to take my own advice and just … let it go! I can easily, slowly, rebuild my Favorites and just keep on working at home! A few things that I always try to remember and put into perspective:

PERSPECTIVE! Yup, just how important is it.
Tea! Better than coffee for stress reduction
Meditation – just letting things go. Thanks to Henri at UVic’s Multifaith!
1. Breathing … kind of a sub-category, at least for me!

Not too much more. Those work for me and me alone. Yes, a big bag of oversimplification, but, it works for me.

So, a perspective story! My lawnmower started on the second try this weekend! YAY! But the rip cord to start it .. RIPPED OUT! So, standing there, lawnmower RUNNING and no way to start it again … Command Line Decision – just start cutting and don’t stop! Just like in Finding Nemo – “Just keep swimming!”, except … mowing the lawn!

I even emptied the catch bag – WHILE IT WAS RUNNING – and kept on mowing! Whew, finished frontyard, lane, alleyway and backyard in about 50 minutes while on FULL THROTTLE!

Makes a good story and then the best part – there are kits to replace the staring cable for under $10!

In hindsight,it was not as stressful as at the moment! But … I decided to …. just keep mowing, just keep mowing and it relieved my stress! Thanks Dori!

I also did a previous post on “Relieving Stress . . . International Words and Self-Care Trends”

And I leave you with some great UVic and other sites on stress including BC and Canadian government sites.

Enjoy!

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!

ENJOY!

TTFN!

Most Insane Lawnmowers

Kopi and Kaffee and Café and Kafés and … COFFEE in Different Languages

Kopi and Kaffee
Café and Kafés
and
Coffee in Different Languages!

I install JAVA every single morning! And I tend to update it again within hours! And you probably know where I am going with this – COFFEE!!!!

Full Disclosure: I am drinking coffee right now, as in … RIGHT NOW!!!! And the rumours are true … I have a coffee mug shaped like … The TARDIS!

Ah, that morning nectar, that brown liquid ambrosia, that chocolate wine, that beige magic … and … enough with Thesaurus.com!

And below are just a few of the many words for coffee in other languages!

Chinese: 咖啡 (Kāfēi)
Malay: Kopi
French: Café
German: Kaffee
Japanese: コーヒー (Kōhī)
Korean: 커피 (Keopi)
Portuguese: Café
Russian: Кофе (Kofe)
Spanish: Café
Afrikaans: Koffie
Dutch: Koffie
Finnish: Kahvi
Greek: Καφές (Kafés)
Hindi: कॉफ़ी (Kofee)
Icelandic: Kaffi
Romanian: Cafea
Swedish: Kaffe

Did you know that coffee dates back to 800 A.D.? And that in Arabic, it literally translates into ‘wine’! Cool! There are multiple links below, as always, and you can try a few out and find out even MORE interesting facts about the World’s Most Popular Beverage, by far – if you don’t count … TEA!

And what about coffee here in Victoria! You basically practice some Italian every time you go into a Starbucks – Grande, Venti, And Trenta. But what about some great coffee locations here in Victoria!

Full Disclosure – I like ALL the coffee shops in town! They are all amazing! But the best part of coffee is always … the conversation and companionship with coffee buddies! Check out CoffeeCrew.com for a list of all the great LOCAL coffee shops here in town, updated to April of this year! Nope, I don’t get anything from this at all. It is just a great site for finding local coffee! And you probably already know who runs the site!

And, the whole idea of the topic of this blog, originated in yesterdays’ blog about Made Up Languages in movies. Specifically, the Heptapod B language!

Why? Because it was described at one site as a ‘Coffee Stain‘ language! What a great segue, eh! Oh and one more cool site about Arrival and Linguistics!

And I leave you with some great coffee sites to peruse on your next Java Break!

Enjoy!

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!

ENJOY!

TTFN!

Coffee Facts

The Basics
About Coffee

WEIRDEST Facts
About Coffee

7 Facts About Coffee
That You Probably Didn’t Know

How to Order a Coffee in Italy

How to Order a Coffee in Greece

How to Order a Coffee in Russia

How to Order a Coffee in Japan

pe’vIl mu’qaDmey . . . or Curse Well in Klingon . . . or Made Up Movie Languages

pe’vIl mu’qaDmey
or . . .
Curse Well in Klingon
or . . .
Made Up Movie Languages!

Now you know how to gracefully exit yet another Klingon late night gaming party! You never know when learning Klingon will save your life!

Full Disclosure: Contrary to many rumours, I do not speak Klingon. I just like to have the Netflix Closed Caption on for any Science Fiction movie that has … space languages!

DOUBLE Full Disclosure: Early disclosure but my favourite made up language is from the movie ‘Arrival‘. Not only is it a fabulous movie, but they managed to add something new to a language that is CRITICAL to the storyline! WARNING!:- spoilers below about what that is!

The most popular and well known ‘Alien’ language is without a doubt, Klingon! Star Trek has become part of our Pop Culture ever since Spock first said ‘Illogical’. For many years, I would imbed an ‘Easter Egg’ in my CALL Facility demos that had Klingon as one of the many courses taught at UVic. And then … IT REALLY HAPPENED!

And of course, one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and prequel The Hobbit, contain MANY made up languages by J.R.R. Tolkien! And another UVic course was offered as well, but treating Middle Earth more as a history course than a Linguistics course!

And even more blockbuster movies contained made up languages: Avatar (Na’vi), Arrival (Heptapod B), Despicable Me (Minion), Serenity (The Galactic Language), Harry Potter (Parseltongue), Cloud Atlas (Old Georgie) and one not for the faint of heart in A Clockwork Orange (Nadsat).

SPOILER ALERT!: And my favourite of them all, that would be top of my own list to learn would be ….. HEPTAPOD B! This is a language that is quite literally … FLUID or maybe SMOKE or maybe SENTIENT INK! And it allows for Time Travel! There simply is no other cooler language than Heptapod B! I will be the first to register when it is offered at UVic!

And if Heptapod B ever IS offered at UVic, since it is a Time Travel kind of language, you would never have to do any homework because … you would have already learned it! That is my kind of course!

Imagine ordering Take Out in …. Heptapod B! They would already know when and what you wanted and it would arrive … INSTANTLY! So many benefits!

And I leave you with the best Elvish script from The Lord of the Ring:

Enjoy!

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!

ENJOY! TTFN!

Arrival’s Linguistic Relativity
and Time Perception

Top 10
Fictional Languages

Arrival
Embrace the Problem of Language

Arrival: Sabotaged
Diplomacy Scene

Accent Expert Breaks Down
6 Fictional Languages

4 Fictional Languages
You Can Learn

5 Fictional Languages
You Can Actually Learn

Artlang: A Compilation of
Movie and TV Clips

J.R.R. Tolkien Reads
A Poem in Elvish

Of Unconscious and Precocious Surveillance of Foudroyant Chrysanthemums . . or Hard to SPELL English Words

Of Unconscious and
Precocious Surveillance of
Foudroyant Chrysanthemums
or . . .
Hard to Spell
English Words!

Yet another sentence that you won’t find at Google. BUT, each word IS spelled correctly! And the reason being … SPELLCHECKERS!

Full Disclosure: Eye I am knot bad at spelling, but I am not grate at grammar! Bear with mee!

DOUBLE Full Disclosure: My Grade 1 teacher traumitized me when under constant threat of being whacked with her ruler, could not properly spell ‘cat’ in her presence! All that could come out of me when challenged by her was ….. ‘KAT’!

WAY back when, I took a computer science course at the University of Calgary. One ‘advanced’ assignment was to read in a random paragraph, generated by the Prof, then scan the paragraph and change some words to … OTHER words! They weren’t misspelled, but it was the pre-cursor to spellcheckers, grammar checkers and word processing! Oh, did I mention … we had to program in FORTRAN and … ON PUNCHED CARDS!!!! Good times, good times … KNOT!

Everyone probably has a few words that they consistently misspell, including the word, misspell!

It just doesn’t ‘look right’ with a double-s in the middle! Other words that always seem to throw me are: pronounce, pronunciation, comfortable, principle & principal, compatible & compatible, weird, catchup & ketchup, and of course … CAT! Some are context based confusion for me, some are just … they don’t look right!

So why do some people misspell words? Turns out, it can be a major cognitive challenge!

It turns out that misspelling in the brain (if it’s not being influenced by some kind of learning disorder, like dyslexia, which is another matter entirely) is a multi-layered problem involving diverse areas of brain tissue and multiple processes. Spelling, neurologically, isn’t as simple as rummaging in a brain-bin, finding a word, and reproducing it perfectly on paper. There are many stages where things can go slightly awry, and new science means we can pinpoint exactly where in the brain various processes are going wrong. Not much of a comfort when you’ve misspelt the main word in the title of your Powerpoint presentation, but there it is.

And one of my favourite words and that I often spell wrong is QUIXOTIC! It has a neat pronunciation and an imaginative, literary and historic background! Beauty and Chaos all in one word, including how to pronounce it!

What a wonderful word quixotic is! While it is most often used to mean equally impractical and idealistic, it also has the sense of romantic nobility. Its source is from the great Spanish novel “Don Quixote,” whose title character is given to unrealistic schemes and great chivalry. In the middle of a recession and high unemployment, it would be quixotic to imagine that you could quit your job and find another easily.

Spellcheckers are amazing … and annoying at the same time! If I recall, our lab computers have spellchecking turned on automatically for documents in Word/Office. And that causes a clear 50/50 split amongst students using Office! Literally half the students want it turned OFF when it is ON. And you can guess the other half! You can’t hope to win …. best you can hope for is a tie!

Personally, I just crank out the text, I try and catch my spelling mistakes, but I know that upon another read through, I will let Bill Gates decide what word I want to use. OOPS, forgot about that US vs Canadian spelling! And that might also be a future post too – different spellings for common words in US, Canada, UK, Australia, etc. and more curiouser and curiouser … WHY?

And nice to know that Word has spellcheckers in foreign languages too! That is always a ‘weight off my shoulders’ for First Year German students! LOL!

Enjoy!

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!

ENJOY! TTFN!

Top 20 Hardest
English Words to Spell

7 Year Old Child Spells out
the LONGEST English Word!

8 Extremely Long Words
Everyone Must Learn in English

Top 20 Hardest English Words
to Spell! Guess the Right Word!

Top 10 Hardest Words
to Spell

10 Difficult
English Words to Spell

Can You Spell
These 10 Difficult Words?

How to Pronounce the
Longest Name in Canada

Home Simpson
I Am So Smart

Of Specific Rural Isthmuses Surrounded by Anemones Overrun by Squirrels . . or Hard to Pronounce English Words

Of Specific Rural Isthmuses
Surrounded by Anemones
Overrun by Squirrels
or . . .
Hard to Pronounce
English Words!

I guarantee you that sentence will never be found using Google! And the reason being … it is made up of some of the words that are considered THE hardest to pronounce in the English language!

Full Disclosure: That is the weirdest sentence I could think of. Don’t make me write another one! I am saving other weird sentences for a future post about using …. Google Translate!

A previous post looked at “Unpronounceable Words or . . . I Didn’t Quite . . . Catch That . . .” about hard to pronounce words in the World! This time, let’s just look at English! Last time, I included ‘Worcestershire’ and … it is still difficult to pronounce, even in other languages!

So why are some English words so hard to say, even if you are a native speaker? There are those that simply say, “My mouth just doesn’t work that way!” and that actually might be true for some speakers!

Other words throw a curve by including a sound, that does NOT have the corresponding, and logical, letter within the word! For example, Colonel!

But it turns out, there is a rationale for it:

The key is phonology – the science of sounds within the language. Hebrew has five or six vowel sounds and more than 20 consonant sounds. In contrast, English has five written vowels, but 20 vocalic sounds. A written ‘a’ will have numerous different sounds depending on what letters are couched around it.

And to throw yet another curve at you, try this extract from a famous pronunciation poem circa the turn of the century!

Enjoy!

(And a really tough poem is here!)

The Chaos

by G. Nolst Trenite a.k.a. “Charivarius” 1870 – 1946

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse
I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye your dress you’ll tear,
So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer,
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, beard and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written).
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say said, pay-paid, laid, but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
But be careful how you speak,
Say break, steak, but bleak and streak.
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via,
Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir,
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles.
Exiles, similes, reviles.
Wholly, holly, signal, signing.

I AM NOW ON VACATION!

THANK YOU ALL!

Not to worry . . . August 30th to prep for . . . Septem . . . PURR !!!!

I will bring Empire Donuts when I return to UVic!

~~Bogman~~

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Not to worry . . .

August 30th to prep for
. . . Septem . . . PURR !!!!

Bogman

Did You Know …
You might be able to experience . . .
macOS on a WIN computer?
. . . OR other neat EMULATORS too?

How to Play Commodore 64 Games on PC!
Commodore 64 emulator! Vice Emulator Setup!

Kim Justice’s Top 50 Commodore 64 Games
of All-Time (YouTube)

Pawn Stars:
A Working Commodore 64
(Season 14) | History

Did You Know …
UVic ...
has a
YouTube Channel?

ZOHO …
CALL Facility Bookmarks
UPDATES
Cosmetic & Functional

Working From Home . . .
What Could Go Wrong?!

ENJOY!

TTFN!

Kopi and Kaffee
Café and Kafés
and
Coffee in Different Languages!

ENJOY!

TTFN!

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About Coffee

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About Coffee

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That You Probably Didn’t Know

pe’vIl mu’qaDmey
or . . .
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or . . .
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and Time Perception

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Fictional Languages

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Embrace the Problem of Language

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Diplomacy Scene

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6 Fictional Languages

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You Can Learn

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You Can Actually Learn

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Movie and TV Clips

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A Poem in Elvish

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Precocious Surveillance of
Foudroyant Chrysanthemums
or . . .
Hard to Spell
English Words!

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English Words to Spell

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the LONGEST English Word!

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Everyone Must Learn in English

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to Spell! Guess the Right Word!

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to Spell

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English Words to Spell

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These 10 Difficult Words?

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Longest Name in Canada

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I Am So Smart

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Surrounded by Anemones
Overrun by Squirrels
or . . .
Hard to Pronounce
English Words!

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English Words

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Pronunciation Practice Lesson

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English Words

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Pronouncing INCORRECTLY!

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10 Most Difficult English Words!

10 English Words You Are
Probably Mispronouncing!

10 Most Difficult Words
to Pronounce in English

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English is Tough Stuff!

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the 5 Hardest Words