Random …. and Not So Random Musings
Welcome to my Bog Blog!
A really long day, intensive TEAMS work testing out Mail scripts and TOTES THANKS to all my TEAMS-mates for helping out!
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!
None of these computers actually exist except in the imaginations of the authors! SPOILER ALERT – hard to distinguish between fictional computers and Artificial Intelligence – so …. no critics and besides …. my blog!
Full Disclosure: I have collected and read science fiction for most of my life and consider The Matrix to be a documentary, not a movie! LOL!
DOUBLE Full Disclosure: As far as these OAC Bog Blog posts go …. ‘I’ll be back’!
So I WILL mix media here, including movies, television and literature!
One of my favourite movie computers is WOPR (pronounced ‘WHOPPER’ in WarGames from 1983! Think about it – a movie BEFORE Apple invented … THE MACINTOSH!
A teenage hacker finds the backdoor password to a Top 
Secret computer designed to run scenarios of ‘games’ including ‘Global Thermonuclear Warfare’, except … they aren’t GAMES! His hardware – a modem and smarts to figure out what the backdoor password is! There are SO many memes about this movie and it is a hoot to watch. And the ending is actually very good! I highly recommend it!
Even ‘The Avengers’ has made a sly reference to it from Black Widow and Captain America!
In the scene where the Black Widow boots up SHIELD’s supercomputer from a bygone era, she asks Captain America, “Shall we play a game?”, with Captain America replying, “Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War?” This is a reference to a line from WarGames, a 1983 Cold War sci-fi film
So as to destroy ANY sense of mystery or surprises, my favourite science fiction computer is named ‘Obie’ from Jack L. Chalker’s ‘Well World‘ series.
Obie is one of the rare fictional computers that actually are at times, more human than humans. Obie is kind, smart, confused and self-aware. SPOILER – he was ‘killed’, then came back and then …. one of the best parts of this series! Check it out!
Yeah, not many of you have probably heard of these books, but they are 
absolutely amazing! Simply put, Obie is designed by an ancient race called Markovians … to manipulate the basic fabric of the universe. Imagine the monthly updates with Obie!
Chalker was a PROLIFIC author, but the first book in the series, ‘Midnight at the Well of Souls‘ then you will be hooked for life on ALL of his books! AND THERE ARE MANY!
Another helpful computer is HOLMES IV (Mike), in Robert A. Heinlein’s ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress‘.
Okay sure, he helped a lunar revolution but he has a wicked sense of humour and becomes friends with Mannie! And for why HOLMES IV is referred to as ‘Mike’, well let’s just say it was part of Heinlein’s wicked sense of humour!
The most well known computers in film include HAL-9000 (2001), ‘The Matrix’, the Holodeck and Data (Star Trek), Cerebro (X-Men), Skynet (Terminator), Arnim Zola (Captain America), Jarvis/Ultron/Vision (Iron Man(s)+), Mother (Alien) and Deep Thought (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and there are so many more in the popular genre, both recently and for many years. Here is a List of Fictional Computers , that is also at the bottom of this post.
But I want to point out a few obscure computers, such as:
KITT (Knight Rider) in Knight Rider – Elon Musk has NOTHING on this vehicle! Snarky, sarcastic AND can catch criminals too! Basically the Love Child of a Cylon and a TESLA! I will buy the first vehicle from TESLA that can do this! (Batmobile aside…..)
Colossus in Colossus! This computer was Skynet before Skynet! It ws the first of a trilogy and was one of the first science fiction books I read AND collected as a kid! It was even turned into a movie, Colossus: The Forbin Project! One of those ‘so bad it is good!’ kind of movies – if only for the technology!
And perhaps one of the most obscure computers comes from the first ever release by, of all people, George Lucas!
Yes, THAT George Lucas famous for that Star thing series! OMM in THX1138 by George Lucas! It was basically his thesis from USC and I remember GOING to this movie in 1971 and coming out thinking this was the weirdest movie I had ever seen! But, he ended up making a few more lesser know movies too! LOL!
THX 1138 OMM – On the other hand, maybe too much benevolence is a bad thing, too. Before “Star Wars,” even before “American Graffiti,” George Lucas created this highly experimental and hallucinatory filmed dystopia, all the more striking for being done on a small budget (exactly $777,777.77) with mostly found locations. His sterile and drug-controlled future world has one spiritual dimension, a sort of cybernetic father-confessor figure named OMM, with whom one communes in a chapel that resembles a phone booth. The feedback one received from OMM was reminiscent of the old AI program ELIZA, where soothing generalities and “but what about you?”-style questions sufficed to convince some people an actual human being was at the other end.
And one last one that you might never have heard of from the SEQUEL to 2001! 
Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2010: Odyssey Two and it was turned into a movie as well, with SAL-9000 the ‘upgrade’ to HAL-9000 who had terrible social skills. But was always willing to go on a ‘bicycle built for two‘ – perhaps the first ever Smart Car technology?
And the usual assortment of recently searched interesting links, videos and other cool stuff – but beware, most of the computers are .. bad, very bad!
As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!
Not exactly comforting assistance from a computer/AI blend there, Stanley! SPOILER ALERT – I might give away some movie endings! (Psssssst… did you know there was a sequel to 2001?)
Full Disclosure:Every single computer listed below, with the exception of HAL, really existed!!
DOUBLE Full Disclosure: I have owned and still own, most of these computers, oh, except for HAL! Yeah, I am a real packrat as far as computers go! And most still work too!
HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.Perhaps the most famous computer in all of film history – the HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey! But this post is not about how computers or AI go awry! That will be a future post! This post is about all the computers that I have worked and/or owned since the first day I actually SAW A COMPUTER! Yup, life changing moment and it involved … GOLF!
The first computer I ever ‘saw’ was on a trip to a Life Insurance company 
through the youth program at my church. We were in this huge room and a giant golden tube was behind glass. The ‘terminal’ was a teletype style typewriter and … we played GOLF on it by simply typing a number!
‘1’ was a 1-Wood and you hit ‘Return’ and it typed out something like ‘200 yards. Straight down fairway’. And that absolutely fascinated me!
The first computer I ever OWNED was a kit from Science Fair named ‘SF-5000 Electronic Digital Computer‘! I spent HOURS cutting wire, measuring it to fit the distance between connections and then I was rewarded with a ‘2 + 2 = 4’ on the ‘monitor’ across the top of the kit! And then I would do it all over again on a different project! I don’t have the computer anymore, but somewhere in my basement, is the Owner’s Manual! I will have to dig it out and look at it soon! MADE IN CANADA TOO!
Then in High School, Grade 10, I became the proud owner of a Texas Instrument SR-51A with a ‘Pod Bay Door’ to put in dedicated chips! I was on top of the computing world! I still have it! It doesn’t work. But I still have it!
Then on to the University of Calgary and using the Mainframes there! I don’t remember what KIND of mainframe, only that I had to present my stack of punched cards to the ‘Elders of Data’, they would present my offering to the Oracle (card reader!) and I would then lovingly be handed back my offering. Then wait 15 minutes for the printout and find I had a spelling mistake in my FORTRAN code! Then fix the ONE punched card and … repeat!
But then, I entered the Faculty of Education and was hired as a TA for a grad course ‘Computers in Education’ and had access to a PDP 1170 and my own teletype! It was Nerd Heaven for me! My very own (almost a..) mainframe computer!
And then in the early 1980’s I did some volunteer work and had access to an Apple computer that a high school had bought with the proceeds of a ‘Cake Sale’ Fundraiser and they did not know what to do with it!
Turns out, I used it in my student teaching practicum year and absolutely transfixed all the staff and students in the school I was a Student Teacher in! BEST.TEACHING.RESOURCE.EVER!
And then the dreaded INEVITABLE HAPPENED! I had taken TOO MANY COURSES, HAD PASSED THEM ALL and … they made me graduate from the University of Calgary! D’Oh!
And my first ‘real’ job was working with the finest (and cheapest!) home computing power that has ever been used in the history of computing – COMMODORE COMPUTERS! My first classroom had 
Commodore VIC-20 computers, then were upgraded to Commodore-64s and I was tech support for all the PET computers as well! Basically – I was The Computer Help Desk for an entire building! LOL! And we even had 3 Commodore PC computers running WordPerfect at the time!
Then I bought my first REAL computer – the Commodore SX-64! 25 POUNDS of ‘luggable’ computing power! And I still have it and it still works! I can play C-64 games on it and can hook it up to my 45″ tv! Still works! Grinds and clunks away and I brought it to our Systems Open House a few years ago!
Fast forward to moving to Victoria and buying my first Macintosh – the venerable Mac SE with TWO FLOPPY DRIVES AND 1 MB OF RAM! Awesome! What worlds would I conquer with this screaming hot computer! Turns out …. not too many! And again, and this sounds like an echo … echo … 
echo …. I STILL HAVE IT AND IT STILL RUNS!
And then a sequence of buying only Macintosh computers: Mac LC520, Graphite iMac G3 and 27″ iMac that is now TEN YEARS OLD! Yes, I am still using a TEN YEAR OLD COMPUTER – but as my media centre for Apple TV and other videos and stuff! And … insert echo here … IT STILL WORKS!
Fast Forward to working at home now! Thanks to Allison, Patrick, Adam and everyone AT CHD and I have a nice Dell Latitude laptop, my daughter’s old ‘Zelda ‘ quality monitor and enough computing power to … work from home!
If anything, working with computers through the years describes one undeniable fact about technology – there will ALWAYS be a faster and more powerful computer coming … soon. But make use of what you have, use your imagination and you can do amazing things!
You might not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but you can use old computers to do new tricks like YouTube, digital videos, webpages, audio, page layout and watch … The Avengers!
And the usual assortment of recently searched interesting links, videos and other walks down memory lane …. literally if the memory involves RAM chips!
As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!
DOS is not exactly a buzzword, nor will it ever trend ever, ever again. SPOILER ALERT – this is REALLY OLD TECHNOLOGY!
Full Disclosure: I have even worked on OLDER technology (punched cards) that made DOS seem like sliced bread when it came out!
DOUBLE Full Disclosure: The single greatest computer program ever used in The CALL Facility for languages … needed DOS! And …. IT IS STILL RUNNING!
Yes, the first ever computer program that was used in The CALL Facility was a package of 4 languages – French, German, Italian and Russian! And the operating system used was called MS-DOS – short for DISK OPERATING SYSTEM!
How can an operating system from the mid-1980’s, still be operating on MACINTOSH COMPUTERS, which did not even EXIT until 1984, and still be useful? It is technological MAGIC!
I really don’t know HOW they work, but they do! And this would have been the LAST summer for McBookmaster French with LMF! Our resident CHD Magician is Patrick F. and he knows all the special commands and magical chants to make it work on dual-boot iMac computers running Windows 10, running DOS Box! THANKS PATRICK!
And this computer record will never be broken – McMaster French has been running for over 30 YEARS and has never once crashed! NEVER! And it has served its’ purpose well – Beginner French, simple text correction, grammar rules and instant feedback! ALL STATE OF THE ART back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s!
Below are some sample screens of what was presented to a student. And this was WELL before any kind of security involving ANY kind of UVic credentials. You simply turned the computer on and selected from a menu of language programs. Good times, good times!
I always enjoyed introducing this software to French students as they would be ‘Time Travelling’ to a distant past where Bill Gates was only a MILLIONAIRE, when the only mouse in the room was a biologic, and that they really needed to know where the arrow keys, CTRL, ATL, DEL and ESC keys were on an ACTUAL CLICKY KEYBOARD!
And to actually exit the program, you had to hit a sequence of keys, then get to the command line and actually type: exit … or logoff … or quit …. I CAN’T REMEMBER! LOL!
And there were no keyboard shortucuts either! Raw computing power harnessed for the good of education! Good times, good times!
To type the answer, the EXACT ANSWER FROM START TO FINISH, required using combinations of keys that often resulted in a sprained wrist, especially for RUSSIAN!
I remember Mary S., the CALL ‘expert’ at the time, fussing and fuming about 
fonts, .exe, .bat and .cnf files and making sure our ‘network’ of computers were all working! AND THEY DID! Mary did back then, what Patrick does no! LOL!
The Continuing Studies French Summer Immersion La Maison Française, relied on this software for MANY years after it was no longer “de rigueur” by any other Instructors. But alas, technology has surpassed even the oldest of computer programs. The last time I spoke with the Instructors using McBookMaster, they were ‘okay’ with not using it anymore, if it could not be installed on pending new hardware/software and operating systems!
The software worked REALLY WELL! And it served its’ purpose and can now go enter as the first member of ‘The CALL Facility Software Hall of Fame‘!
And at the time, we did have other MS-DOS based programs for other languages. We even had an Apple IIe with dual floppy disks to run LATIN PROGRAMS! Sadly, we removed this hardware years ago. Too bad, it would have fit really well with our Systems Open House a few years ago!
What happened after MS-DOS? Not many people remember but the first ever version of WINDOWS in CALL was actually written FOR MS-DOS and was really just a cosmetic version of MS-DOS itself!
Once you booted to DOS, you than would ‘run’ WINDOWS as an executable file! WOW! And then, the rest is history!
And the usual assortment of recently searched interesting links, videos and other walks down memory lane …. literally if the memory involves RAM chips!
Enjoy!
A master was explaining the nature of the Tao to one of his novices,
“The Tao is embodied in all software — regardless of how insignificant,”
said the master.
“Is the Tao in a hand-held calculator?” asked the novice.
“It is,” came the reply.
“Is the Tao in a video game?” continued the novice.
“It is even in a video game,” said the master.
“And is the Tao in the DOS for a personal computer?“
The master coughed and shifted his position slightly. “The lesson is
over for today,” he said.
— Geoffrey James, “The Tao of Programming”
As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!
And you knew it was coming eventually! My propensity (proPUNsity!) for puns and wordplay! SPOILER ALERT – you might groan at some of them!
Full Disclosure: I am always trying to think of puns, much to the consternation of my family, friends and colleagues!
DOUBLE Full Disclosure: So many puns to cook up, so little thyme for them all! Deal with it!
By definition a pun is:
PUN (Dictionary.com)
Noun: the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.
the word or phrase used in this way.
Verb: (used without object), punned, pun·ning.
to make puns.
Pun (Merriam-Webster)
Noun: Definition of pun (Entry 1 of 2)
: the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound
Verb: punned; punning
Definition of pun (Entry 2 of 2)
intransitive verb: to make puns
Even Wikipedia has a Pun entry! And no, I did not contribute to it!
And as William Shakespeare said, ‘Aye, there’s the rub“, which comes from perhaps his most famous soliliqoy in Hamlet, you know … the one about a pair of bees!
And the ‘rub’ part Ole Bill is referencing is in the Merriam-Webster definition which includes the two words “usually humorous“! And thus the punishment begins!
Why Do Puns Make People Groan? “Puns are threatening because puns reveal the arbitrariness of meaning, and the layers of nuance that can be packed onto a single word,”
Word Nerd: Ode to the pun — ‘the lowest form of humour …’ Puns have been much maligned by a host of commentators. Freud described puns as “cheap,” and Oliver Wendell Holmes assailed them as “verbicide.” …. Punning has been a language fixture through the ages.
And that is very true! The greatest Punster of ALL TIME is … William Shakespeare!
And there are even some particularly punny NUMBERS as well! The punnist number of all time is ‘288‘. Why should this number NEVER be mentioned in conversation? Because it is two gross.
But even puns can be ruined by the nature of their origin or their historical context. And that includes Ole Bill too with a very saucy pun … at the time!
Romeo and Juliet, Prologue:
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.”
The word ‘loins’ would originally have been pronounced the same as ‘lines’.
This pun refers to the fatal blood lines of Romeo and Juliet – the families that they descended from are the reason for their death, as well as their ‘loins’ (their physical relationship).
Kinda ‘runes’ the moment when any joke is dissected …. or explained! Sheesh! Get with the program, Bill!
In my o-pun-ion, puns are the highest level of .. funny! I admit, they don’t always work, but when they dew, the subsequent tsunami of rolling eyes, repressed rage and ‘Get thee to a winery!” looks are worth it!
A specialized sub-set of puns are Dad Jokes! Yup, I qualify there too! Nothing better than getting an eye roll from my daughter! It is in every Dad Job Description and we have to meet all our Dad obligations!
Star Trek, Star Wars and just about any pop culture media is rife with puns, memes and running jokes! Although how a Horta runs is Star Trek:Beyond me!
And I even own a book on puns, entitled ‘Upon the Pun” …. a crisp analysis of verbal and visual ambiguities … extremely entertaining anthology of frightful jokes ….”
I can lend it to anyone …. anyone? anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
And of course, computers are not immune to puns and jokes, in fact, some of the best jokes are technology based!
That one even made ME cringe … but Full Disclosure: I still intend to use it one day! BEWARE!
OH, and I could go on, but I better knot!
Enjoy!
As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!
Count for me. Yes, count for me. Simple question. Or … is it? Okay, I will ask you to count for me again. Did you repeat your answer or did you ….. count differently?
Full Disclosure: I have used this lesson in classes that I have taught from Elementary to Junior High/Middle School to Senior High – and even on university students!
DOUBLE Full Disclosure: I never tire of this lesson! And maybe, just maybe, you can win a bar bet with it! I haven’t myself, but you might!
What was your response? Nearly 100% of the time, the response will be “1, 2, 3, 4, 5 …..” and then a bit of a hesitation! I neither prompt, direct, encourage or judge the response!
At the point of hesitation, I repeat the request, ‘Count for me”. Now, about 50% of the time, I get the same response, but the fascinating part of this is that now, I can get a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT RESPONSE!
“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ….” and then it usually ends with ‘ZERO’ or ‘BLASTOFF!
“2, 4, 6, 8, 10, …..” or “5, 10, 15, 20, 25, …”
Or it could be counting that totally surprise me! And that happened this morning, as you will see below, but first, a bit of techy, geeky, codey stuff!
You now need to see the ‘new language’ (code) that I was introducing to my computer science class at the time.
I used this BASIC lesson to describe perhaps the simplest and yet MOST COMPLEX cognitive task possible! COUNTING! Yes, I am oversimplifying this! But my ultimate purpose of this lesson was to teach problem solving, coding and a new language!
Consider the following BASIC programming code, from my old RAM chips:
FOR I=1 to 10
PRINT I
I=I+1
NEXT I
So not only is it basic, it is BASIC which is short for:
Okay, so maybe my dredged up BASIC programming skills are not perfect! But that is what I ‘remember’ showing students how to program a computer to …”COUNT”! YOU just did the exact same thing when I asked YOU to … COUNT!
There were FOUR CRITICAL PREMISES you INSTANTLY, and it is an INSTANT response, that your required to complete my request, and I did not tell you ANY of them!
So, the basic 1,2,3, 4, 5 …..
Start at 1
Say outloud
Increment by +1
Stop … where ?
So simple, yet so complex!
So I enacted a small social/digital/Teams experiment this morning. I asked 3 of my colleagues, via Teams, to ….’Count for me’. That is all. I prepped them by asking them to respond quickly, automatically and instantly. And the results were:
ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC RESPONSES! Thanks to ALL of you for your responses! Totally surprised me too with the never before seen responses! And we used TEAMS TOO! AWESOME!
I then asked them to count for me … AGAIN! And got this:
THEY CHANGED THEIR UNDERLYING PREMISES!
I only have quasi-super powers, but I successfully managed to change the premises of counting for 3 of my colleagues in less than 5 minutes! LOL! Fortunately I have chosen to use my super powers for good, not evil!
The hardest premise to learn, is always the method of output!
I usually turn the tables on students by asking THEM to ask ME … to count! And I change one thing .. DRAMATICALLY!
I usually go to the chalkboard (yeah, old school, literally!) and ‘OUTPUT’ my response with chalk … and in some sequence they were not expecting, such as starting at ZERO and going NEGATIVE “ZERO, -10, -20, -30, …..” Output could be verbal, printed, sign language, tapping toes, sound … ANYTHING that could convey the output!
Who counts in negative numbers? COMPUTERS CAN! Or even counting the slices of pizza that are rapidly disappearing in the CHD kitchen after extra pizza boxes brought down by Marcus after a big meeting! LOL!
FOR PIZZASLICESLEFT = 34
CONSUME 1 PIZZASLICESLEFT QUICKLY
PIZZASLICESLEFT = PIZZASLICESLEFT – 1
NEXT PIZZASLICESLEFT UNTIL NEXT MEETING
Apologies to BASIC ! I am so embarassed, I might just have to … TURTLE this one out!!
So, hopefully I have made you think a little differently the next time someone asks you to count how many people are in the lineup at Mystic to get a slice of pizza or how many computers just arrived in shipping!
Enjoy!
As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!
Yeah, no. Not really. Almost. Maybe. Maybe not … what? Really? Ah, the joys of using Google Translate!
Full Disclosure: I use the analog version of Google Translate during the summer for French Immersion (La Maison Française)! Basically, Corn Flakes French! Each side of a Corn Flakes box has English/French and … just get rid of the smallest words … and you have a PERFECT TRANSLATION! And a breakfast too!
DOUBLE Full Disclosure: I TOTALLY use Google Translate for reading blogs, and any other websites or languages, into English. Not perfect, often hilarous, but definitely readable! A good tool!
Google Translate is like the first line from Charles Dickens ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ – “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” and as famous as that line is, the next line is quite appropriate too, “it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness” and that can sometimes sum up technology too.
Just a brief search this morning on Google Translate bring up all kinds of different opinions – good, bad, indifferent. Not too much of a surprise there. GT is a useful tool in my opinion. Not to be completely or totally relied upon, but useful nonetheless.
Many years ago, I remember teaching a Beginner’s Computer Science course at night. And one topic was always how computers do the wrong thing. Apart from the discussion that computers only do what the programmer coded, the one actual event (apparently) was when a computer transation program was used at an Engineering Symposium and all of a sudden, the transcript included the term ‘Water Sheep‘. And it wasn’t wrong! It was a literal translation of … HYDRAULIC RAMS! It was right in a computer codey kind of way! Helpful? Not so much! LOL!
So, the title of this post will … kinda make sense, with the following Google Translation screen grabs! I made up a silly sentence:
Yeah, a bit silly, but useful! And the actual TITLE as used by WordPress, did not display the Japanese characters! Nor did it show them IN the body of this post! So how did I get them to appear? I used the Snipping tool to turn the text into an image! A trick is all!
And using Snipping, I was able to grab each Google Translate screen, going from English to French AND THEN BACK! Also English to Japanese AND THEN BACK!
So, not too bad! In fact, I double-checked with a colleague and the Japanese translation BACK to English was quite close to the original context.
AND, GT will translate ENTIRE WEBPAGES! Just copy and past the URL of the source language into the translation box, select English (or any language!) and GT will produce a clickable, bookmarkable URL for you to add to your Favourites! Very easy and useful!
Many blogs now add a Translation Widget, so link to the original blog, and then just choose the language Widget and it just works! Very cool!
And I just added it TO THIS BOG BLOG! I hadn’t even checked to see if it was here! AND IT IS! Learn something new each day! YAY! This feature will now be at the very top right hand corner on all posts. And my coffee buddy, Nik, can now read my blog in GREEK!
And there is also mobile device technology too! You can use your camera to translate languages on signs or menus!
Google Translate’s instant camera feature will now make translating a foreign street sign as easy as aiming your phone — even if your native language isn’t English ….. All told, there are 60 new languages in its list of supported languages for instant camera, including Arabic, Hindi, Malay, Thai and Vietnamese. This adds up to a grand total of 88 languages users can translate from by pointing their camera’s lens at the text.
That is actually amazing! Part Scanner. Part Google Translate. Part Dictionary. Part Internet. Part …. United Nations, all in the palm of your hand!
And I leave you with the usual links about the topic of the day! Use Google Translate, it is much better than when I first started using it!
Enjoy!
As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!
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:
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!
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!
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!
TTFN!
