all things me

For a long time I’ve wondered what ATF stands for — I think I’ve seen black cars labeled ATF on South Park and heard it all around (on tv, that is). Finally, reading the Hannibal, it dawned on me. Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Another mystery has been DEA, which Hannibal was friendly to shed light upon as well. DEA stands for Drug Enforcement Agency.

If you have acronym or abbreviation related annoyances, the Acroym Server might be the place to go. Or you could read the Hannibal Omnibus.

Acronyms of the Day ATF — Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
DEA — Drug Enforcement Agency

[edit: evening of Oct 11th] This must be the weirdest thing. The right hand side menu jumped all the way to the bottom in IE because I had ITALICS in my text. Well, not “just” italics but they dared to go on 2 lines! That and align=”justify” don’t play well together apparently *shakes head* I removed the align=”justify” for the time being [/edit]

Doh… sometimes I’m so clever I amaze myself. I’ve kept this page “in the dark”, waiting for the domain thing to get settled and start working — which has been a sloooow process. I just realized I can put a link to this page from the index page in my current space, be it an ugly address and not a pretty domain (well, I’ve lived with even an uglier address since this January… and a little more bearable since 1997…). Anyway. Welcome to the new all things me! Hope you like the new layout — I know I do.

Many of the links (not blog related) don’t work yet because I’ve set up subdomains which need the domain working to work themselves.

Word of the Day TO BORK — to fail, to mess up, to damage irreversibly; be borked

Today I remembered a thing from my first years of school (well, it must’ve been around grade 3, thus as a 10+-year-old, because I had just started learning English):
I was reading an Easter poem about daffodills (the yellow flower) and it went something like “up the hill, down the hill, I see an Easter daffodill” (I really don’t remember), then at one point there’s “I’m so happy, I’m so gay“. Well, gay was a new word to me and I didn’t have a dictionary of my own, so I marched to my mum and dad and asked “what does ‘gay’ mean?”. Well they ho’hummed and grh’hmmed for a moment and then started “well, it’s when two boys like each other…” I thought to myself “yeah, homosexual, I know *that*! But what does it mean in this poem?!”. I never got a proper answer from them (as I didn’t say my thoughts aloud) so I turned to the trusty dictionary and found out that ‘gay’ means ‘happy’ (eh, why the repetition…). I could’ve saved them a lot of blushing if I’d gone straight (no pun intended) to the dictionary…

What reminded me of this? My sister’s writing her first history essay and as I was in the same school I wrote the same thing back in my days. She asked me what my title had been and it included the species (or whatever) Homo Habilis. Oh how many giggles in the classroom all those stages of human evolution have produced through the years… Usually among guys. Oh, wait. Guys don’t giggle.

@ 1:31 (well, technically it’s Sunday, but I don’t bother starting the new day yet)
I have another language-related thing. A rule of thumb, actually. You know there are two different ways (two *correct* ways) to spell the colour of elephants. You know the other is American and the other is British. But how do you know which is which? Well, the American word is ‘gray’ and the British (or English) is ‘grey’. I’m so proud of that revelation.

Another revelation, math related. You know the “problem” of rice and chess board? In a story someone convinced a person to pay (or award) them with rice so that the first square on the chessboard has 1 grain of rice, the second has 2, third has 4 etc. (a square has twice the amount of rice as the previous). The other day Dad told me that he had tried to count that with paper and pencil (when he was at school, or something) but had only got to around 50th square. Well, I tossed and turned in my bed that night and suddenly built up an equation from it. I’m not going to spoil it here in the open, but continue reading after you’ve pondered it over by yourself. And don’t tell me I must be stupid or something — it was a real epiphany! I hadn’t thought about the problem before although I had heard about it.
Continues »

Quote of the Day

(…) the first mosquito of the new season buzzes blood-thirstily past your ear with that eye-watering hum that always makes you think it’s the sound loonies must hear just before they kill all their kids or close their eyes on the Interstate and put the gas pedal to the floor or tighten their toe on the trigger of the .30-.30 they just jammed into their quackers (…)
— ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

Word of the Day: Discombobulate — to cause to be unclear in mind or intent; confuse

On the search page I added the list of categories a post belongs to. (When a search returns results, that is.)

I wrote such a pompous (I love the Finnish equivalent pompöösi; I used it a lot last summer. On my grandpa’s birthday dinner for example… when I was discussing my aunt’s stable’s name (we were thinking what it should be called, and I said that calling it blablabla horse farm would be too pompöösi)) introduction to my blog that I have to write something about the things I love — I’m going to write about language. Misplaced s’s in fact. Esses, you ask?

There are two advertisements on (Finnish) tv and they both annoy the gag out of me! One advertises a “Brit humour” block on a cable/digital channel and there are these “Let’s Learn British Humour” units that play with homonymity of words. One of the sentences is: “Skijumpers fly like an eagle” and there’s a picture of a fly (the animal), owned by a skijumper, and hearts and an eagle. What’s my problem? There’s only one fly but the verb is plural! I’ve come across a similar sentence when we were talking about ambiguousness and resolving it: time flies like an arrow. There everything’s in order (except that the other interpretation of the sentence doesn’t make any sense). So, in order to make the darn ad sentence to be actually funny, it should be: skijumper flies like an eagle, when the flies would be the skijumping type, though.

Anyway. Now to another advertisement: “Palmolive deodorants. Protects and takes care of your skin [elaborated translation].” Eh? There’s an s after deodorants, why are you cramming it after the verbs too?
Well, the ad was in Finnish (deodorantit = plural, hoitaa and suojaa = singular), but you get my point.

Today I also started thinking something I remember learning somewhere along my English learning “career”: even though a name ends with an s you put ‘s after it when it needs a possessive suffix. Thus: Douglas’s not Douglas’. If it was Douglas’, there would be more than one person named Dougla possessing something. But, today in Salem’s Lot, it said Jesus’ and I didn’t know Jesus is a plural (maybe he’s schizophrenic?). I’m not saying that Stephen King is the Ultimate Authority of English grammar (although he’s taught English), and I’m not saying that I know what I’m talking about, either…
*checks grammar*
Ah, bugger. It’s either — or. I still think I have a point (Douglas’ vs. Douglas’s)

Oh, the introduction is not up yet. That countdown box is taking its place at the moment. Now I have to go tape Sex and the City. It’s got David Duchovny!!!

Word of the Day: air quotes — quotation marks represented by the movement of a speaker’s fingers in the air (Oxford Dictionary of New Words)
(I’d love that kind of a smiley gif, it’d be absolutely wonderful!)
[edit: Sep 15, 2004] I found that kind of smiley gifs. [/edit]

I left for Kuopio, where my grandparents live, on August 13 — by train. I got back home today — by car. Dad took a vacation week and drove to Kuopio so I got home with him. Just before going to Kuopio I had been at my aunt’s for a week, but now I’m done travelling for this summer.

On Monday (23rd) I finally got to swim in the lake. First time this year. But… the water was 15°C and air 17°C — and it was very windy! Grandma told me I was nuts but I wanted to swim at least once. And believe me, once was enough. Well, maybe next year I’ll be at the summer cottage a little earlier in the summer…

Today I’ve been updating a bit. First of all I read two books while I was away: Pet Sematary and Christine, both by Stephen King. After an “uncle-in-law” (an aunt’s husband) took the main TV away (he was helping with my grandparents’ move, taking some stuff to the new place) there was really nothing else to do than read because Grandpa was glued to the set (a smaller tv I used to have in “my room”) watching Olympic games (Finland only has 2 silver medals so far — bummer) AND he even dared to tease me by saying I couldn’t possibly watch anything cause there were so much important sport events!

Also, I bought Oxford dictionary of New Words because I couldn’t find any new Kings… Next week I’ll go buy Song of Susannah — I have to.

I am very excited about the 2 boxfuls of books I got from Grandpa and Grandma. There are lots of old old books, and wonderful (old old) dictionaries. I don’t even remember all that I took from their bookshelf.
Grandpa said he gave about 1000 books to different libraries and they still had a 1 meter high, 2,5 meters wide (my bad estimate) pile of books waiting to be packed. And all the books they gave away to me and my aunts (“me” includes our family), and a box of summer cottage reading… I won’t even try guessing how many books they had to begin with.
I told Grandma that I’ll probably end up with a similar collection later on.

I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 on Sunday 22nd. It was an interesting documentary, had an excellent — and apt — music selection (Roof is on Fire, etc.), and it was very funny, too.

Today I’ll get Matrix Revisited on tape. They show it on the cable channel, SubTV. I snatched Dad’s digi-box so I can tape it.

My sympathies go to the site, network, and whatever called Orkut.com (it’s some sort of a Google affiliate). They probably have no idea how bad a title they’ve chosen…

Around 10 pm Wednesday night while I was watching Cold Case, I hear commotion from outside and something that sounds like a scream. I peer out the window but see nothing. Half an hour later I hear sirens (police or ambulance, I never know which) and immediately think: Murder!

The “scream”, I’m sure, was a hysterical laugh and the sirens never got close but faded.

I’m at my grandparents’ at the moment. For an unknown period of time still. What have I done here? Well, on Wednesday I got my hair cut (– 10 cm), bought a lovely lovely book (Oxford’s dictionary of new words) and choco+mint coffee, got an umbrella (it started raining and Grandma and I didn’t have one with us — of course not). I’ve also got 2 biggish boxes full of old books (ahhh dictionaries! and all kind of wonderful language-related Grandpa put aside for me) cause my grandparents’ are moving quite a stretch and I tell you, they’ve got books. Lots and lots of wonderful books. So they’ve been giving some away to library, and of course to children and grandchildren.

I finished reading Pet Sematary on Wednesday (18.8.), luckily I can add it to my booklog from here, but the stars and things I’ll have to add when I get home. I’ll give it… *ponder* 4 stars? Yeah, it was a good one. King himself says it’s his most gruesome. After reading the foreword, I agree.

I also saw From a Buick 8 finally translated! I’ve been wondering where it’s been but, well, Grandma actually noticed it, there it was in the bookstore. Finnish title: Buick 8. Translated by Ilkka Rekiaro, who else?! This is just a note to self to add it to TGWLSK.

A little bit of QOTD:

The swamp was alive, but not with the sound of music
— Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Just makes me think of Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge. Ahh…

Well, I think that’s all. I found another 6 ft 2 in quote in Pet Sematary I need to add to the Notebook at TGWLSK.

Gosh, being on a 800 x 600 screen with only IE makes me want to go home!!! Nah, I like it here. Besides, I haven’t had a dip in the lake yet.

Today I got back from my prolonged trip to Godson & Co. I was supposed to leave on Sunday but my aunt lured me into staying over Monday cause I’d get to be alone all day. Well, eventually, I ended up taking care of the kids (aged 6 and 8 (this coming autumn)) — the choice was mine.

Now, let’s see.
First of all, I read two books (only two! Gasp! But I’ve only got about 50 pages left of From a Buick 8 ): Cujo by Stephen King (***), and Suomen kieli — who cares? by Pirjo Hiidenmaa (****). The latter is about the presumed corruption and deterioration of the Finnish language because spoken language and foreign languages (especially English) affect written, standard, language enormously: spoken language causes lack of inflection (you know how much I hate lack of inflection…) and words borrowed and modified from foreign languages rarely get a Finnish equivalent.

Another thing, I got stung by a bee for the first time in my life yesterday. Uh. It was pretty awful. It just attacked me when I was on the cell phone talking to Grandma. I think it was confused by my skirt… Anyway, the sting still burns but it wasn’t as bad as I thought– I’m still alive, aren’t I. (XF Alert) Hopefully it wasn’t a genetically manipulated bee designed to turn me into a pod for an alien…
Funnily (or oddly), just on Thursday my aunt had been stung by a bee at a stable. We both were innocent!

On Saturday we went on a little weekend trip to “the biggest store village” and a wild animal park (they call it a zoo). I bought a very nice pair of shoes and a small backpack from the store.

My godson is so cute. He’d seen me read with a piece of kitchen tissue folded as my bookmark and sometimes, when the kids were eager to disturb me, I followed the lines with the paper (so I’d know where I was). The other day, I think it was yesterday, he sat next to me with a folded kitchen tissue and started reading his Beyblade magazine, following the comic strip pictures with it.

Ugh, talking about Beyblades… My godson is very enthusiastic about them at the moment. He watched the latest episode (something about a tournament in Las Vegas) at least twice a day and played the different characters as he was watching. Pedro with his sword, Jose and his gun and… some guitar guy. And he could remember some parts of the dialogue by heart, and by dog (no sic) did he repeat it over and over and over. I’ve got Beyblades coming out of my ears!

As a linguistic sidenote [Finnish alert] Sunday night we (me and the 2 kids) had a, well, a hysterical moment (laughing…) and my godson called us “käkättirastas”: There’s a bird called räkättirastas, it’s a kind of thrush, fieldthrush claims my dictionary, and käkättää is a dialectal word for laugh (the sort of loud and crazy ) and he — very cleverly — combined the two. Wow!

Quote of the Day

There comes a time when most folks see the big picture and realize they’re puckered up not to kiss smiling fate on the mouth because life just slipped them a pill, and it tastes bitter.
— From a Buick 8 by Stephen King

Something in the quote seems lost. I’m missing a “but” in “not to kiss – – *add but here* because”. Or it simply means that *when* life slips a pill *then* folks realize… But I understood it so that they’ve not puckered up to kiss but because the taste of the pill. Ah, never mind.

They have two cats, my aunt & co. I mean. I don’t like cats as a species but the individuals are quite nice (cats are cute, I’m not going to argue with that). One of them hopped on my lap one night when I was watching the news (and once when I was reading in the rocking-chair) and they purred and rolled around when I scratched them even just a little bit. I’m still a dog person, mind you.

Uhhh, the bee sting is a real pain in the butt… almost literally (thigh).

Finally I get to sleep enough. Even though I didn’t have to wake up until 7:30 each morning, the sun woke me up around 5-6 every time… My room (at home) is nicely pitch black. I’m not even going to set my alarm clock!

This is really really really spooky. I’ve been quoted in the Language Log… I commented on a list of John Doe names (at Carob (a blog)) in different languages where the Finnish version “Matti Meikäläinen” was spelled wrong. Now when I was reading LL my name was there! (And a LINK to me!) *faint* From a post by Mark Liberman:

Minna from all-things-me added a more complete and believable correction of the Finnish name:

just letting you know that the Finnish version is a bit “off”. It’s actually Matti Meikäläinen

Minna should know, being actually Finnish, but the fact is that I should have see (sic) the vowel harmony problem too.

This is like… I don’t know… Robbie or DD said (not past tense, just an “if”) my name… *happy shivers* If I had foreseen this I would’ve made my comment more linguistic and elegant.

(sorry, I’m not very good at [spelling] English interjections, hopefully you get the point)
It’s amazing how one person can produce so much suffocating stench. I don’t remember one single morning recently that there hasn’t been a smelly hobo/drunk on the tram stop or in the tram. *Outside*, at the stop, one can smell them from 5 meters away (!!) and when they get on the tram the smell soon spreads to every corner.

After yesterday’s hacking-hacking I decided to make a new category for posts called Tweaks. I’ll try to document what I’ve had to do to make the blog the way I want it to be — as a reference to myself mostly so that I can re-do them if something happens (or when I update WP etc. and all my hard work will be copied over (or whichever operation the update requires)).

Crazy language + statistics note:
I seem to favour 3 same-letter variations of different interjections. For example: awww, ewww, and phoooweee as in the title of this post. Language Log had a wonderful post (called Aw+ ) on the subject. Apparently, I’m following the hordes. Unintentionally!

Why I think I use three letters? It’s the shortest ungrammatical cluster of same letter. So, it stands out (well, at least somewhat, compared to cluster of one or two) and is economical.

Oooh… I almost slipped an eggcorn (I’ve read WAY too much LL). I first wrote “hoards” instead of “hordes” but luckily checked it.

Regular expressions are nifty. I just wrote in an *informal* report on “what on earth I’ve been doing all summer” and when I would’ve had to write “subdirectories and subdirectories’ subdirectories” (or “subsubdirectories”) I simply put (sub)+directories which my professor will surely understand (the + is a Kleene plus meaning >1, a Kleene star * would be >0)

The cleaning lady had brought me a waste-paper basket. Very kind. Too bad I’m finishing work on Monday…