Monday, November 10, 2008

sigh, only in america ?

So, I am reading the box of pasta as the noodles boil away...

"cooking instructions
1. Boil water (3 quarts per 3/4 lb of pasta)"

ok, I say to myself...just because I'm sure I know the answer, let's look at the box to find out a little about this particular product...

"NET WT 12 OZ (340g)"

Fine, I say to myself...I'm sure that I know how many OZ are in one LB and go out on a limb and say one box is 3/4 LB of pasta.
Does this strike anyone else as odd? I like things simple, I guess. '3' and '3/4' seem to me to be unusual numbers insofar as we don't use either one of them very often if we (read, I) can avoid it. "I'll take 3/4 of a dollar worth please...or...It's 3/4 after the hour." No.

OK OK. How about let's round it up a bit...and say, "4 quarts per pound of pasta"
four to one seems a much simpler ration than 3 to 3/4.

Or, in the alternative, how bout, you know, say "3 quarts of water per box"...?
I can handle 3 to 1 ...can you ?

Or, baring that, how bout...you know, let's say, "NET WT. 3/4 of one LB"?

I guess, by law, they included the "340g" in the weight but neglected to include directions for 34 % of one kilogram. 3 quarts...oh crap, lemme convert for y'all...US or Imperial?...I'll just say 3 Litres
SO,
1. Boil Water (3 L per 1/3 Kilo of pasta)

More 3s ! and now a 1/3...fabulous

/end ramble

Friday, November 7, 2008

"Lunchtime, doubly so."

The cold of November has finally arrived. The worst week of the year has finally passed. Fall back, setting the clocks back an hour (time is now STANDARD), has got to be one of mankind's worst inventions. If one could call an idea an invention. Inventive...
Alas, the need for people to have their winter daylight spent at the office what have you, seems to outweigh going to work in the dark. Yes, I understand we needed to get away from the sun as a time telling mechanism. NO, I don't have to like it.
Maybe I am just spoiled as I get up when my children do and haven't used an alarm clock, well, crap, in a long while.

Speaking of being out of doors...?...Yesterday, after 4 days of 70 degree weather, no I'm not going to use celsius [OK I've spelled that word like 10 different ways and still can't get comfortable with it]....so, Yesterday, my daughter and I were outside in the moist and rainy day. The humidity felt high...ugh...the air was wet and the wind was a blowin'. I checked my weather rock, so I'm spot on. While she played digging in the dirt, I sat and lamented the rain in that I couldn't read a book or do anything to hide myself from involvement. So we went walking around in the drizzle having a silly time trying to find leaves to do some rubbings.

That's how I used my standard time.

P.S. Don't ever burn broccoli

Thursday, November 6, 2008

the first repetitious redundancy, pt 1

So, I had a few minutes, I thought I might get started by explaining my position.

There are a few people who(m) will know redundancy as "superfluous repetition", see definition ,which in itself is perhaps the definition of 'ironic' as well...hmm...I mean, I guess there is such a thing as 'an appropriate amount of repetition'? Right?

I will open this by example of what might fall under the purview of my...we'll say...my point...as I develop this idea it might turn out I just believe in streamlining our stupid language.

"when I was younger I [insert past tense verb]..."

but NOT
"on last tuesday I [insert past tense verb]..."

To the point of streamlining, I am always reminded of my days in Korea...Let's say that me and my friends decide to go out for some wings. So, the wings are presented to us and the first fool jumps in (figuratively, hopefully)(maybe we are on our first beer yet) and says, "wow! That's HOT"!!!!!
I will let you all (at time of writing, me) imagine how the conversation goes...anyone? What's the next question? It's usually a two part question, isn't it? 'HOT HOT'? or 'Spicy HOT'?
Not the least bit efficient, eh?
The Koreans have a word, Mae Woe (imagine long A and Long O with silent e...isn't English cool!) which is used to describe something which, when you eat it makes your tongue scream for some relief because the object is hot like pepper. Not hot like licking a grill. Which is to say, spicy hot.

I will be doing my best to bump this, if these blog things work in a similar fashion to forums. Else, there will be spamalot of new posts referencing this very topic. /sigh

It's only Thursday

Hi and welcome to Chris'sssss adventures in asdf [space] jkl; [space]

Hopefully, as I do this more frequently I will be able to get over the 30 wpm hump.

I've started to blog !

My intentions are the same as all other PEOPLE who feel the need to open some part of their (my) interior to ...well, effectively 20 % of the worlds population... [not qft, nor checked for accuracy]

As I become more familiar with the program and its ins and outs, hopefully the presentation will go much smoother.

Now, My good and longtime friend, csf has allowed me to read his thoughts in the 'blogosphere', "his" words, not mine...so I thought maybe I could use this place as a sounding board as well.

First, the election has passed and America was forced to choose something unprecedented. A non-white president or a female VP. Very exciting. Maybe the US is starting to grow up, neh? Then again, with GBush at the head now, government is still dipping its hands into...well, things it shouldn't be, imo. I will not go into rant mode as yet.

I like beer. And irish whiskey and scotch. And golf...don't ask why. I hate the game, but always seem to have fun playing it. Beer is a pleasant way to spend a few days...what? Sorry. And I play tennis. I still play video games. My parents bought the original PONG back...oh, a while ago and I've spent about the last 30 years with gaming still hooked into my veins.

note to self, turn on javascript embeds for this website

I am particularly fond of my memories. Maybe, I will share them sometime(s). Because, what else do (I) really have? I originally had, "we" instead of "I", but that really made no sense.

I think I will post about redundancy next time.. It will be an ongoing, if that's possible, post...bumped up constantly as new ones pop into mind.

Enjoy the day
be safe, drive carefully, the roads are slick and there's lots of crazy people out there. [one more now]