Category: lists

size matters

I am, of course, talking about matters of dimension.

I was talking to a friend today over the phone. Phoebe was singing happily in the background, and it was a beautiful sound. I wanted to record it, and lamented not having a recording apparatus at hand. Whenever I break out my laptop, my preferred means of recording sound, Phoebe gets distracted by it, and clams up. So no recording.

So anyhow, I was telling my friend that I’d like to get a solid state recorder, which is an electronic device that records into solid state memory. (“Non-rotational media,” as John said when I asked.) I just saw one that my advisor has earlier this week, and it was a nice compact size, especially compared to one I’d seen that another professor works with. I explained to my friend that the device was “about the size of a first-generation iPod,” and compared it to the larger recorder, which was “about the size of an old dial-up modem.”

Which made me realize what funny size comparisons I’d given, and reflect upon how such comparisons are so culturally-based. And in this case, sub-culturally-based. I mean, I just compared these items to two out-of-date pieces of technology. If I’d been talking to my mother-in-law, for example, these comparisons would have been meaningless. It can actually be pretty hard to come up with helpful size descriptors without resorting to actual dimensions in some sort of metric. I mean, do we really want to say “it’s rougly 10 by 6 by 1.5 centimeters” or “maybe 6 inches by 8 inches, and 2 or 3 inches deep”?

Anyhow, here are some possible item pairs to approximate the size of the devices I was describing. (My friend and I came up with some of them, and then John and I added some later, and then I’ve added a few more.) Of course, these are pretty culturally-dependent, too:

The larger item would be:

  • about the size of a box of Wheat Thins
  • more-or-less the size of the 3rd Harry Potter book in hardcover (thicker than the first one, but not as thick as the fifth)
  • around the size of the tape drive from a TRS-80

    • The smaller one is:

  • about the size of a half-sandwich, not too thick though
  • about the size of a “bath-sized” bar of Ivory soap
  • roughly the size of a cassette case
  • a bit bigger than of a pack of cigarettes
  • a bit smaller than a package of HoHos

    • 5 seriously funny death scenes

    Death is serious business. No laughing matter. Except of course when there’s a funny death scene. Here are a few movie death moments that made me laugh.

    5 seriously funny movie death scenes

    1. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
      O-ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) decapitates a dissenting individual at a business meeting, leading to a geyser of special effect blood, and proceeds to deliver a honey-voiced lecture to the other meeting participants about behavior guidelines.
    2. Mystery Men (1999)
      Boggled by toggles, a group of superheroes of somewhat dubious powers (played by Janeane Garofalo, Hank Azaria, Ben Stiller, William H. Macy and others) bungles a rescue attempt whereby they accidently kill off the more-or-less competent superhero that they had been attempting to rescue.
    3. The Princess Bride (1987)
      Death catches Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) in mid-laugh shortly after he finishes his triumphant speech about being right: “…never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha h-“
    4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
      Paul Reubens (better known as Pee-wee Herman) performs the death scene to end all death scenes. That is, if the death scene will ever end…
    5. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
      The famous scene where Major T. J. “King” Kong (Slim Pickens) goes for a last wild ride atop a plummeting atomic bomb.

      6. slim-pickens_riding-the-bomb.jpg

    This post is being submitted as part of the //engtech 5 Things contest.

    18 of my favorite books

    YTSL of Webs of Significance has (more-or-less) tagged me with a meme, by way of emails suggesting that I write about one (or more) of the (two so far) meme-related topics she’s posted on. One of the posts is on the book she couldn’t live without, inspired in part by a survey asking for people to list the 10 books they could not live without and a resulting list of the top 10 most frequently listed books. (The other meme-tagged post she’s written is called “wannabe“, which is about things she’s been and things she’s wanted to be. I may get around to this at some point, too.)

    Because I don’t have a single favorite book, I’ll take some liberties with the meme concept, and write a list of my own favorites. The number of which will be determined when I get to the end of the list. And then hopefully I’ll get around to writing about the books in more detail. And because I have trouble determining which is my all-time favorite, I have not ranked them. Instead, I’m listing the books here roughly in the order in which I first encountered them. My list is in part selected to get a cross-section of the genres I enjoy reading, or phases I went through. I haven’t included any picture books, although that is a category of book that is very near and dear to my heart. Several of the books I list are meant to be representative of various works of that author, or a series by that author.

    Some of my all-time favorite books

    1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis

      2. a children’s fantasy, and my favorite of the Narnia series (U.K.)

    2. The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

      3. a silly children’s fantasy that plays with words (U.S.)

    3. The Shadow of the Moon, by M. M. Kaye

      4. a historic novel of the British in India with a bit of romance flavor (U.K.)

    4. The Peacock Spring, by Rumer Godden

      5. another British in India novel, but a more modern coming-of-age novel, by one of my all-time favorite authors (U.K.)

    5. Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy

      6. 19th century British Literature (U.K.)

    6. Emma, by Jane Austen

      7. witty 19th century British literature (U.K.)

    7. The Kitchen God’s Wife, by Amy Tan

      8. a novel of family, immigration and the meeting of cultures (U.S.)

    8. A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth

      9. a coming of age Indian novel (India)

    9. Winterdance, by Gary Paulsen

      10. a memoir featuring dogs (U.S.)

    10. Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

      11. a fun, funny work of science fiction (U.K.)

    11. Startide Rising, by David Brin

      12. a futuristic science fiction novel featuring talking dolphins, part of the Uplift series (U.S.)

    12. A Pale View of Hills, by Kazuo Ishiguro

      13. a poetic and almost surreal novel of memory, family and Japan (U.K.)

    13. The Witching Hour, by Anne Rice

      14. a novel of the supernatural, representing my Anne Rice phase (U.S.)

    14. The Dispossessed, by Ursula Le Guin

      15. a science fiction novel about social structure (U.S.)

    15. Bellwether, by Connie Willis

      16. a novel about fads by a favorite science fiction author, but this one’s more social scientist fiction (U.S.)

    16. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire

      17. a tale retold, about the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz (U.S.)

    17. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

      18. a novel of family, the meeting of cultures and living in Africa (U.S.)

    18. Thus was Adonis Murdered, by Sarah Caudwell

      19. one of only four books ever written by this author, a slightly racy, slightly academic, and very witty mystery and comedy of manners (U.K.)

    Okay. So I ended up with 18. Which is a good number. For a start.

    And as far as the meme business goes, I’ll try my hand at tagging some folks that I know to be book-oriented. Because I’d be interested in seeing your lists. Lists of whatever number you’d like to write. Perhaps within the range of 1-20. Erica, what’s your list? bs/Beckanon? jenny? John? Anyone else want to play?

    5 things

    The guy over at //engtech is having another group writing contest. Last month, he had his first contest, and I participated with my “getting over V.D.” post. And while I didn’t win the prize, which was awarded by a random drawing, I did get selected on the favorites list, which is actually cooler.

    This time around, the contest involves writing a list of 5 things. Seeing as I love to write lists, I’m all over this one. You can even enter more than once, so I’ll probably write more than one post. So here’s my first list of 5 things.

    5 things

    1. thingamajig: a placeholder name
    2. whosiwhatsit: a filler word
    3. whoodger-doodger: a dummy noun phrase
    4. doohickymajig: you know, a thingummy or whatsit you say when you can’t remember the diddlethingy of the gizmo, doodad, dingle-dongle or dealybob
    5. whatchamacallit: a candy bar

    more kick-ass women movies

    I’m happy to share that YTSL from Webs of Significance has put together another list of her favorite kick-ass women movies, which ties in fabulously with my ongoing project to collect, catalog and critique movies and other media featuring kick-ass women. This latest list expands upon YTSL’s previous offering (which consisted of Hong Kong movies), and has movies from Korea, Japan, Thailand, and mainland China, in addition to a few more Hong Kong offerings. I hope you’ll check it out!

    As for me, I’ve been a bit delinquent in my progress with the kick-ass women project, with almost a month having passed since my own last list. I still have plans to move into the next phase of the project, including more detailed discussions of what it means to be kick-ass. Perhaps this will give me the needed kick to my own hind quarters…

    questioning the need for thneeds

    It’s raining today. Very wet, and quite cold. The rain is pooling in puddles on the icy snow in the front yard. And here I sit on this “cold, cold wet day.” And I’ve just realized that it’s Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss! (Yes, I do realize he’s dead, and unlikely to get this message.) And happy Seuss Day to everyone! (There’s a holiday I could get behind.)

    I love Dr. Seuss. Well, his books. I didn’t know the man personally.

    The Cat in the Hat is his best known masterpiece. This is a story about 2 small children left home alone, who are startled by a tall stranger who enters their home and wants to show them his “things.” Ah yes, those were more innocent times.

    I grew up with the culinary classic Green Eggs and Ham. (I will not eat them with a fox, I will not eat them in a box.)

    At this point, I think Phoebe’s favorite is The Foot Book, though There’s a Wocket in My Pocket is a close competitor. We have these two in board book form, so they get read to her more often. She hasn’t had as much exposure to reading books with paper pages. Though we did read The Cat in the Hat to pre-Phoebe a bit when she was still in utero.

    the_lorax.jpg My favorite as an adult has been Seuss’s moving environmental treatise on the evils of mindless consumerism and the dangers of short-sighted industrialism, with particular focus on the threat to the ecosystem posed by excesses in the logging industry. Many people know it as The Lorax. Which also has pretty pictures of Truffula trees.

    And while I don’t have time to really explore them now myself (I have an indeterminate number of minutes before Phoebe awakes from her nap), there are many fun Seuss things out there. (These things are fun, and fun is good.)

    Thing 1: The Dr. Seuss parody page. It includes links to such items as “Spam-I-am”:

    I would not like it here or there.
    I would not like it anywhere.
    I do not like your e-mail spam.
    I do not like it Spam-I-am.

    Thing 2: Dr. Seuss games

    Thing 3: An index to the characters and creatures of Dr. Seuss

    Thing 4: Pictures from the Dr. Seuss Memorial Sculpture Garden in Springfield, Massachusetts. (Who knew?)

    Thing 5: “Who’s Who & What’s What in the Books of Dr. Seuss“, an encyclopedic work available in pdf format from Dartmouth College.

    High school movies that are more fun than high school

    I’m back from my midterm. Relatively unscathed. But I hate tests. Did I mention that? It’s not that I don’t do well on them, it’s just that they stress me out. And I’d recently thought I was done with them. I mean, I’m so over that sort of thing. Shouldn’t I be over that? Hello? Mid 30s. Have an advanced degree. Not to mention house, husband and now offspring. But studying for a test makes me feel like I’m back in high school. [Shudder.]

    Thinking about high school made me think about high school movies. Some of which are way more fun to watch than going to high school. So, here’s a list. Think of it as a syllabus. And yes, there will be a test.

    High school movies that are more fun than high school

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
    The movie’s not quite as much fun as the show, but still fun nonetheless. Valley girls and vampires. Plus Paul Reubens (a.k.a. Pee Wee Herman) has this hilarious extended death scene that is such a treat.
  • Heathers (1989)
    Cliques. Cruelty. Croquet. A wonderfully dark comedy that reminds me that I’m oh-so-glad to be done with high school. Eskimo.
  • Clueless (1995)
    Based on Jane Austen’s Emma. This one’s actually quite sweet. And also has a cool soundtrack.
  • 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
    Based on Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew,” and features at least one fairly kick-ass teenage girl character.
  • Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
    Dude. A totally righteous high school movie. With bodacious time travel.
  • Back to the Future (1985)
    The classic Michael J. Fox work. More time travelling, more high school.
  • Better Off Dead (1985)
    I love John Cusack. Especially his earlier works. And it has raisins in it. You like raisins.
  • Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
    This movie appealed to me more when I was actually a teenager than it does now, but it’s still fun. It bears no resemblance to my own high school experience.
  • The Breakfast Club (1985)
    Having gone to high school in the 80s, I must include a token of the brat pack oeuvre.

    • midterm mayhem

    I have a midterm tomorrow. Which just feels so incredibly wrong.

    But aside from that, it means I absolutely should be spending my day (or whatever available moments I have during the day) studying, reviewing my notes, and pondering the meanings of various tidbits of sociolinguistics terminology. And it means I absolutely should not be sitting here at my laptop goofing off. Because that would be wrong.

    Here are some things I absolutely should not be writing today:

  • a school-related list of movies
  • my personal adventures yesterday, and our first post-Phoebe “party”
  • a description of the state of our home post-party (is there such a thing as post-party depression?)
  • a discussion of the unexpected spike in my blog hits during a couple of hours yesterday
  • a treatise on the comparative merits of ducks in various types of dishwashers
  • an in-depth corpus-based analyis of squid discourse
  • an advice column about the etiquette of exchanging bananas
  • anything to do with pants
  • a list of things that I should not be writing about

    • Here’s some of what I should be writing about:

  • the nitty gritty of calling a language variety a dialect or language (you say it’s a language, I say it’s a dialect, let’s call the whole thing off)
  • the distinctions among a pidgin, a creole, a koiné, and contact jargons (and not the distinctions among pigeons, crayolas, coins and contact lenses)
  • Acrolects, Mesolects and Basolects (oh, my!)
  • the monogenesis theory, the polygenesis theory and the bioprogram hypothesis (which sound straight out of scifi, but really aren’t)
  • dialect continua, diglossia, decreolization and relexification (which sound almost sexy, but probably aren’t)
  • killer languages

    • creepy new airport security technology can look under your pants

    I saw a NYT article this morning describing new airport security technology: passenger x-ray machines.

    X-ray vision has come to the airport checkpoint here, courtesy of federal aviation security officials who have installed a new device that peeks underneath passengers’ clothing to search for guns, bombs or liquid explosives.

    This creepy new technology can let TSA employees do a virtual strip-search. It actually looks very impressive, giving an outline of the passenger’s skin. And I guess I find it fascinating. But, and I repeat. I also find it creepy. And unsettling.

    Anyhow, this news story reminds me of a number of things. So here. Have a list:

    1. Superman (eg. 1978). He had x-ray vision. Could look through Lois Lane’s clothes to see her undies.
    2. Total Recall (1990). Shows security screening of the future with people walking along through full-body x-rays. We get to see skeletal structure in this movie, though. Not skin.
    3. The image the article shows looks a little like a 3D ultrasound. (Though the technology is totally different.)
    4. And I’m reminded of the airport security game (Hat-tip to Schneier, who has lots of interesting things to say about the games we play relating to “security.”) This game lets you play an airport security employee, screening passengers and their bags as they try to pass through security. Your task is to keep up with the ever-changing, and frequently random, restrictions on items that passengers may have on their person or in their carry-on bags as they pass through. For example, sometimes passengers are not allowed to wear their shoes as go through the security gate. And sometimes they are not allowed to be wearing pants.