How Technology Changes Things

I was reading an article on CNN.com about Jesse Jackson Jr. and the mess with the Illinois Senate seat. Here's a quote from Jesse Jackson Jr.:

"When it's over, I want every to know that I want my name back. ... I'm fighting now for my character, and I'm also fighting for my life. This is about my children being able to Google their name in five years and there be nothing there associated with them that suggests anything wrong."

I'm not really sure what to say about that, but it kind of shocked me. I guess it shouldn't. But it seems like fighting corruption charges would be about more than google-ing someone's name and having a clear record. I'm fascinated by this influence of technology and it's use as a symbol like this. But ultimately, I think that it should be about more than what you find on google. Maybe that's just me...

"All words are made up words." (NCIS)

So I'm procrastinating on studying for my finals by watching NCIS with my roommate. Great show. Here's the dialogue that I just heard:

McGee: "What are we looking for?"
Abby: "Anything hinky."
McGee: "Why do use that word?"
Abby: "What word?"
McGee: "Hinky. It's a made up word."
Abby: "All words are made up words."

She makes a good point. It's interesting to think about how language comes about...but at some point and some level all words are made up words. And then it's a matter of if they become standard and common. Anyways, I thought it was interesting. :)

Linguistics and Beheading

So I'm studying for finals by reviewing a textbook, and I come across this line which somehow went unnoticed previously:

"If you were to cut somebody's head off while they were producing a vowel, and if they were able to go on phonating, the sound that they produced would have the waveform shown in this figure" (Ladefoged, Elements of Acoustic Phonetics, p.102.)

Unfortunately I don't have the illustration to share with you. This was somewhat of a shocking and bizarre sentence to come across in my textbook. I guess that's what I get for studying linguistics...

Gotta Love Retail!

Like I said before, I sell shoes. In the mall. When a customer comes into my store (it's a small store) I'm supposed to greet them and start a conversation. "If they don't want to be annoyed about shoes and feeling like I am just trying to see them shoes, I try and find something else I can talk to them about. "Are you enjoying the holiday season?" "Have any big plans for the weekend?" "I like your Chacos! How long have you had them?" If a customer clearly doesn't want to have anything to do with me, I leave them alone. Sometimes I come back after a while and see if they've found anything yet.

Here's how a conversation typically ends up:

Me: "Hey there." "How's it going today?" (or my manager "What's jumping off?!" "Causing any trouble yet?")
Customer: "Hi." "Good." --ignore-- "How are you?"
Me: "Lookin' for some shoes today?" (as they're looking at our shelves, picking up shoes, etc.)
Customer: "Nope, just looking."

Let's replay the last part:

Me: "Are you looking for some shoes today?"
Customer: "Nope, just looking."

Hmmm... I hear this constantly. It replays itself in nearly every conversation I have with a customer. But when they are looking at shoes and I ask them if they are looking at shoes and then they tell me they are not looking for shoes I get confused. YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SHOES. What you really mean is "yes, I am looking for shoes but I don't want to be bothered by a sales associate."

My favorites are people who just blatantly ignore you first. IGNORE. I know you heard me. Just because I'm a sales associate doesn't mean that I'm the scum of the earth. I'm still a person. I still deserve respect!

It feels good to vent about that :)

Product Tag Mistakes

I sell shoes. It's an interesting business. We recently got a new style of winter boots in--they're Bear Paw sweater/knit boots (I don't know the actual name). I can't find a picture of the exact boot, but here's the idea:
The funny thing about these boots is that they all have a tag on the inside like normal shoes and sweaters do with product information. These particular tags read "GENNINE SKEEPSKIN".

I'm pretty sure they meant "Genuine Sheepskin." And by the time they noticed it (if they noticed it) it was too late to change.

Wrongly

"Knowledge can be used correctly or wrongly

. . .

just like words."


Indeed.

(same friend as the previous post)

Green Swirly Orb! (aka the earth)

To quote a good friend: "we are here on this green swirly orb to find balance."

So today I learned that we can refer to the earth as a green swirly orb! HAHAHAHA. It is rather creative, to give him credit. But I think it was probably random on his part. Gold star anyways.


This is the closest I could come to representing said green swirly orb... at least it fits the season :)
edit: my friend would like to clarify: "that was ingenious - not random" (you can decide...)