asimplechord | Entries tagged with words

...but I have no holiday icons. So. You get Spencer Smith sticking out his tongue instead. That's just as smile-inducing as an approaching holiday/vacation, right? Esp. if you were there when that photo was taken. :D

+ today's socks are dark blue, with snowmen and red-nosed reindeer (OMG, I just typed reigndeer first. WTAF?)

+ Aaron informed me last night that today's half-day is the last day he works until 3January; I believe this means that he should finish addressing holiday cards, house-cleaning and gift-wrapping next week, since I do NOT have the week off

+ delivered pumpkin bread, home-brew and such to colleagues this afternoon \o/

+ we (the lab, obvsly) have spent an appalling amount of money on antibodies in the last four months. APPALLING. Thank goodness for the CPRIT M&O budget, which dwarfs the NIH R01 M&O budget (and how tragic is that, since the NIH is the premiere public funding agency for life-science-related research?)

+ I remain fascinated by word/phrase usage in spin, and the way even supposedly neutral media outlets like Yahoo slant political news: Bipartisan bill preventing big tax hikes heads to Obama today. As if these would be *new* taxes, not the end of the Shrub-sponsored crap that took the US from a budget surplus to a budget deficit, and also as if it weren't *increasing* taxes for the very lowest incomes while maintaining significant benefits for the wealthiest 1% of Americans

+ feeling an overpowering urge to have risotto for supper. Decision: make it myself, or head to happy hour at Mia Bella?

FANDOM RELATED:

+ I need inspiration - give me a fandom, character or pairing, and word/phrase/other prompt, and you'll get... something in response, no promises what

Nonplussed does not mean the same thing as nonchalant. Using it in a place where you're describing someone or something as cool, collected, or casual makes no sense whatsoever, since it means perplexed, confused, or puzzled.

Check a dictionary if you're using a word in a fic that you've never used in actual conversation, please?

This entry was originally posted at http://favoritemistake.dreamwidth.org/3419.html.

♥ For ppl in the US, happy Independence Day! Go forth, re-read Master Jefferson's opus, and then commemorate!

Me, I started the day watching tennis. ( Last Rafa picture post here for a while, since he's taking time off before the US Open )

♥ In other news... I saw this sentence in a SPN/J2 Big Bang fic.

"I spent a lot of time in terrorist countries."

What exactly does that mean?

The character speaking is an ex-Navy SEAL who had spent time deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, so I understand that the author probably means he's spent time in areas where terrorists/insurgents were operating or taking shelter. But "terrorist countries"? Does that mean "countries where terrorists operate"? Because the way it's phrased makes it sound like "countries that ARE terrorist". Which, unless you're talking about being in a country where terrorism (against other countries) is state-sponsored, sort of bothers me.

And yes, it's dialogue, and people SAY things in ambiguous ways, but. Slightly more precise phrasing would be awesome.

/being a picky bitch

♥ Almost done with S3 of The Wire. Benjamin Bush is really good at leaning or standing in a way that seems menacing. Or lazy. Well done, David Simon, for using that skill. Did he learn that at Marine Corps OCS?

There's so much I enjoy about this series. First, Idris Elba. Stringer Bell might be my favorite villain ever. Drug dealer, economics student, glasses-wearing enforcer of Robert's Rules of Order. McNulty continues to be an asshole, with no apologies. I love the Carcetti storyline, with its not-so-subtle pokes at the Schmoke/O'Malley rivalry. And the fact that whoever is playing Lt Mello is CLEARLY actually from or is a long-time resident of Balmer, given his accent. (I'd guess east side if pressed, but that's just speculation on my part.) OMAR.

♥ M'kay. Gonna go figure out what to throw on the grill this afternoon, since the skies might remain clear long enough to do so. :)

+ I sort of love that Nathan Fillion is a zombie book reader. I enjoyed World War Z, and would love to see a movie version of it. With Nathan Fillion in it. As the narrator, preferably.

+ I get

why_me_why_not and

snarkyrainbow and

shutyourface and

vic_ramsey and The Used (plus Drive A and The Almost) tonight! It will be worth dragging myself out of bed at the ass-crack of dawn to get all my work done early today.

+ Fangirl commune tomorrow with the above, @

eckerlilas's to see her and BBs, yes?

+ Someone needs to turn my computer off and take away iChtaca, b/c every time I have a break during my experiment this morning, I've been web-surfing.

+ Some (possibly spoilery) photos of the 100th episode of Criminal Minds are available. Lookit the pretty. Hotch. Reid. Oh, there are other characters in that episode?

+ Jack White didn't want to sing on Slash's album? Uh, his choice, I guess. If he said he'd do anything BUT sing, why didn't Slash take him up on it?

+ MIA is working on a new album? I swear that when we saw her a couple of years ago at Bonnaroo she said it was the last tour she was doing. Make up your mind!

+ Why aren't there any Weezer/Jack's Mannequin dates in Houston? WHY? (Yes, I am spoiled.)

+ ETA: I have spent the last two days showing New Student how to do two experiments. Neither is technically demanding, but he still doesn't *get* that samples need to be kept cold (you're in the cold room working in a tub of ice for a reason) and the processing should be done as fast as possible (so no, do not stop for lunch, to text, keep going). I've tried to stress these two factors, but I think he's going to have to have a couple of failed experiments before it sinks in. Plus? In addition to the constant snorting of phlegm, he has been chewing gum with his mouth open. Srsly, cow + cud. OMG WTF did he learn no manners as a child?

+ AND? Hoard does not mean the same thing as horde, okay? I've seen this word misused in blogs, in tweets, in fanfic, in BOOKS over the last few weeks. Check the damned dictionary, people!

The best thing about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was the score. Yay for Green Day and Linkin Park.

Reading bigbang fics. Two things. First? "You and I" is actually NOT always grammatically correct. Second? Per say is not a word or phrase. I think you're looking for "per se".

SPN bigbang rec: Apocalyptic Love Songs. Dean/Castiel, spoilers up to 4.17. I really enjoyed the way Arthurian legend and mythology were combined here.

Star Trek rec: You'll Get There In The End (It Just Takes A While) by

seperis. This is Kirk/Spock, which is not normally my thing, but I like the way the relationship builds slowly and the way the story is told by going back-and-forth in the timeline.

Finally? There are some pairings that should not exist in this world ~~like Brendon/Lil Wayne and Singer/Shane and Singer/Justin Timberlake~~. And for some reason, they are suddenly all being written. If I have to keep bleaching my brain when I look at the comms on my f-list, I'm eventually going to do permanent damage.

Current Music: Nerf Herders - Mr. Spock

I FORGOT! I meant to post this the other day, but I got sidetracked.

I've been reading Persian Fire: The First World Empire And The Battle For The West, and in one of the chapters detailing Spartan life, there's a discussion of the training of boy-children, agoge.

Each youth is supervised by a paidonomos, which means herder of boys. Literally.

...you know what's going on a Pro Club Tall Tees shirt for the next tour, don't you?

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Lily Allen - F**k You | Powered by Last.fm

1. Go, Red! (I love college football season.)

2. Fueled By Ramen webstore, you totally suck. YOU HELD MY COPY OF FAST TIMES AND SHIPPED IT WITH THE QUILT? SRSLY, W.T.F?

3. Dear fanfic authors,

Half-lidded? Is not really a sexy word. It makes me think of unsealed tupperware.

All humans have eyelids. Maybe when they're all heated up and in the moment, a person's eyes are heavy-lidded or half-open. But they don't magically LOSE half their EYELIDS.

Please to be using a proper dictionary or thesaurus,
Me

4. Why, oh why is Bayside at Javajazz on Halloween? We're having a Halloween party that night and I can't go. Or, well, I could, but it would look pretty bad if I just left the party mid-way through.

I received a notice last night/this morning from Perfect Imagination about beta certification.

Anyone else see anything amusing in this sentence, given the grammar/canon/punctuation-nazi status of the issuer?

Perfect Imagination has now begun it’s expansion into new fandom areas [...]

Inappropriate apostrophe use, yo.

NICE.

That shriek you just heard? That was me, realizing that Chris Cornell and The Bravery would be sharing the stage with Linkin Park on this summer's Projekt Revolution.

Didn't Santi just come out in 2007? According to RS, TAI's going to release another album this summer? What? Quick work!

The Dresden Dolls will be in Austin on 1June. Unlike the night of the Houston date, there are no plans inked in our calendar... yet. :)

My copy of Supernatural: The Official Companion, Season 2 arrived tonight. Was that timed to pacify the angry masses when there wasn't a new episode? Anyway. Eye/brain candy. *turns up Manchester Orchestra* To go with ear candy.

I'm shallow and easy when it comes to cop movies, and I have to admit that I really want to see Street Kings. It has Hugh Laurie, Forest Whitaker, and John Corbett. Common! I just don't know when I'll have a chance to.

Cache? Not pronounced "kashay", aright?

I think of myself as being mostly right-handed, because although I can write with either hand, I mostly do it with my right hand. But I do most other chores with my left hand. Which, you know, is a bitch with a huge burn across the palm. Non-dominant hand, you totally suck.

In conclusion: JON OLIVER.

Current Location: on the sofa
Current Music: The Neighborhood Is Bleeding, Manchester Orchestra

• Callus ≠ callous. One is a noun, the other an adjective. They are not interchangeable, no matter what people seem to think.

• MrIris's grandma is ten kinds of awesome. She's a Democrat in a very Red part of Iowa, and as such she is inundated with calls and info and requests for cottage-meetings for campaigning candidates during the election season. Her comment about John Edwards? "He has really nice buns. I kept staring at his jeans, the whole time we spoke." That doesn't mean she favors him, though.

• John Cusack on A&E this AM. Yum.

• Talk to me about earlobe stretching/gauges. I got into a discussion with a barista (baristo? is there a difference between masculine and feminine? plural is baristi, isn't it?) the other day about his gauges, about how long it took him to work up to his (his next stretch will up to the 10mm size), and how he'd gone too big to begin with and messed up his ears, and then one of his friends came in, and his gauges that were HUGE, like the size of quarters, and he wore eyelets because the solid gauges were too heavy. Gauges that big make me think ouch, not ooh, cool. So, would you go that big?

So I don't understand why its usage gets so messed up.

I've seen variations on this in multiple fics lately, and I'm not sure what the deal is.

I’ll still want too.

to = various meanings, including usage as the ordinary sign or accompaniment of the infinitive, as in expressing motion, direction, or purpose, in ordinary uses with a substantive object

too = in addition; also; furthermore; moreover; more, as specified, than should be

Given the context, I think the author means "to" here, because they're leaving off the infinitive: I'll still want to talk/speak/walk/run/do something. (If they mean "I'll still want also" I'd stick a comma in there, just to be safe. But I'm comma-happy.)

Are homonyms and homophones and their usage that confusing?

But still! A little originality would be nice.

If I see one more newly sanctioned use of -ome, I'll scream.

Genome, proteome, proteasome, fine. Whatever.

Transcriptome? Meh.

Receptosome? *starts to frown*

Metallome? Oh, Tom O'Halloran, you get all the ~~blame~~ credit for that ridiculous thing.

NOBOnome? Lame.

And interactome? That is IT. NO MORE. I have decreed it. So must it be. In my little world, anyway.

And while we're at it? Ligand = noun. NOT A VERB. A small molecule doesn't ligand something; EDTA doesn't ligand a zinc or calcium ion. It ligates.

*twitch*

We now return to our regularly scheduled lab work.

Current Location: chained to the lab bench
Current Music: Roses Grow, Concrete Blond

For other science geeks out there:

Is "non-phosphorylatable" really a word? As in a serine to alanine mutation renders the amino acid unable to act as a kinase substrate.