Back from a few days off! Lot to catch up on and rejoin Teams! Tuesdays will have a ‘Terrific’ Theme of just about anything … TERRIFIC!!
I have been planning a retro look at all the Apple/Mac operating systems since the first Mac, but might do that later on this week, or just … later! For now, some computer cartoons, language posters and other random chuckles!
But will include a bit of a preview with one YouTube video about the history of Mac Operating Systems!
As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!
Throwback Thursday and Even MORE Favourite Posters and Cartoons!
So many websites! So much information! So many ideas! If you aren’t a bit overwhelmed each time you GOOGLE, then you aren’t searching enough!
Some new cartoons, posters and stuff to quickly peruse today! Nothing earth shattering and sometimes you just go where Google takes you!
And just some random favourite sites that I use or like! A totally random post, and since there is no such thing as truly random …. I have NO idea why!
Some future posts will be about ‘The Greatest Computer Ever Built‘, ‘Old Computer Textbooks‘, ‘CALL Hall of Fame Software‘, ‘A Brief History of Time and Space … and The CALL Facility‘, ‘Legacy Photos of The CALL Facility‘, ‘More Puns‘, ‘More English Words‘, ‘CALL Haiku of The Day‘, ‘Cartoon of the Day‘, ‘Poster of the Day‘, ‘TED Talks about Languages‘, ‘Training Links‘, ‘Best Language Quotes‘, ‘Language Podcasts‘, ‘Throwback Thursdays Encore‘, ‘Terrific Tuesdays Encore‘, ‘Weird Word Facts‘ and …. that is just what I thought of this morning!
Sometimes I make up a topic the morning of my post and just go with the flow! I have always like Einstein’s quote:
Imagination
is more important than knowledge.
Imagination
is the language of the soul.
And on a far more philosophical note, my favourite quote of ALL TIME is atributed to Robert Brault:
Enjoy the little things,
for one day you may look back
and realise
they were the big things.
Terrific Tuesday and More Favourite Posters and Cartoons!
Another very busy day this morning! I started with a different OAC Bog Blog Post about Desktop Publishing!
But soon, we were TEAMing more test scripts for Adam! I am testing scripts in Mail using macOS Catalina So the Desktop Publishing Bog Blog will be tomorrow … unless more stuff comes up! And a full CHD Training Session after lunch too! AWESOME!
And just a peek at aDesktop Publishing cartoon too! And, so true … so very, very true!
So some fun posters and cartoons over the past few years to round out the day and keep my daily OAC Bog Blog post going!
Sometimes the image has to be reduced in visible size, to meet the installed theme here. Just click on the images and a bigger, original sized graphic will appear in a new tab.
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!
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!
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!
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!
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:
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 thatmisspelling 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!
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!
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!
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.
Culturally Specific Words and Phrases . . . or . . .
How’s it goin’, eh!
Large Double-Double please and half a dozen Tim Bits to go, eh! And Canada is (probably) the only nation that you will hear and know what that means!
Full Disclosure: I have never ordered a double-double at Timmie’s! I like a bit of milk in my coffee and no sugar … but I will never turn down a Tim Bit!
DOUBLE DOUBLE Full Disclosure: I don’t know a single person that pronounces ‘about‘ as ‘aboot ‘!
Every country has very specific culturally important words and phrases that not only define but describe instantly where you are from … mostly! I find this endearing and patriotic as well!
I love to talk about Canada with the many International students that visit and attend UVic!
Fun Fact: It is often a homework assignment for ESL students to seek out a Canadian and ask them questions about CANADA! This is especially fun during ‘Roll Up the Rim’ time!
And think of how many will now return to their home country and continue to use … ‘eh!’ in their native language! Canada’s “Not So Secret Plan To Take Over The World”!
Worldwide, Canadians can usually be identified instantly by … wearing a Canadian Maple Leaf or Flag on their luggage or back packs! When I travelled through Europe in (ssshhhhh!!!) ’79, my entire BACKPACK was one huge Canadian Flag! It served me very well!
And of course, the obiquitous phrase, ‘How’s it going, eh!!“ is only pronounced PROPERLY by Canadians! I have American cousins and they try, very hard, VERY VERYhard to say that simple phrase, but …. they can never do it! There is a tell-tale ….. pause ….. just before the ‘eh!’ and they just don’t have the timing down, eh!
I bet you don’t know how OLD usage of this phrase is! I certainly didn’t until I watched the next video!
There is even a full Wikipedia page about Canadian English, eh! That means we have arrived BIG TIME!!!!
I am a proud Canadian and will always smile, chuckle and OWN our incredible Canadian distinctiveness of history, culture, origins and especially languages! Now, if you excuse me, I am going to go to the nearest Drive-Thru Tim Horton’s!
And some of the best of MANY Canadian Language, Phrases, Pronunciations and Canadiana that are out there .. and there are ALOT out there! After all, it IS … The Internet, eh!
So that should cover most of Canadian words, phrases and pronunciations from ‘Eh to … ZED – but not ZEE!
What’s in a Word . . . or . . . What’s in a NEW Word!
Levidrome! And if you have never heard of that word before, there is an amazing reason why! Spoiler alert – the reason why is below!
Full Disclosure: I might mispronounce words, spell them wrong, use them wrong .. FREQUENTLY … but that does not make them new! Hahaha … NOPE!
So what does it take to CREATE a new word in English? Well, Shakespeare is considered the greatest Neologist, which is a word I did not know existed before this post – someone who creates new words! And John Milton is credited with over 630 coinages, including lovelorn, fragrance and pandemonium! So it would seem that appearing in literature is a strong indicator of how new words become part of our language.
Neologism is the process of HOW a word becomes part of mainstream language, but not quite necessarily there, just yet! How ironic – a word describing words that … aren’t quite words yet!
And recently, with daily broadcasts from Dr. Bonnie about Covid-19 in BC, Nigel Howard (one of our very own UVic Instructors for ASL!) has become quite famous with how he signs and has his own ‘unique’ sign for keeping proper social/physical distancing!
So now you know about one of the newest words
that have entered our language AND YOU CAN WEAR IT TOO!!!!!
(and yes, I bought one for myself!!!)
And now, Levidrome! If you think a new word just magically appears, well, sometimes it does for amazing reasons! And even more amazingly, how about right here in VICTORIA!
7 year old Levi at a local school in Victoria, came up with the word ‘Levidrome‘ that describes how one word spells ANOTHER word, BACKWARDS! An example is ‘pool‘ and ‘loop‘! Levi based it on the word ‘Palindrome’ which is when a word is spelled the same way, backwards and forwards, such as ‘kayak‘ or ‘madam‘.
Some future posts will be about ‘
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!
Full Disclosure
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 –
As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics! 
Full Disclosure
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 
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 
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 
At first, 
