Archive for: February, 2008

Brought to You By the Letter H

Feb 29 2008 Published by Sarah, etc. under Lexpionage

Got to chatting with Shrew last night and she had had a long day and was in need of relaxation. So I asked how I could help and she said, “Words.” So I tossed some at her and we let the conversation wander off all over the place.

One of the words I yammered at her was heteroskedastic. I think you’ll agree that it might be one of the craziest words you’ve ever seen. I heard it from Rachael who got it from General Justice, who writes the hell out of some City of Heroes fanfic. (And I don’t say that just cos he took a character I abandoned and made her totally freaking awesome.) Anyway, heteroskedastic has thrown me for a loop. It notably has no dictionary.com definition. There’s an “investopedia” reference to “a measure in statistics that refers to the variance of the errors over the sample.” Okay! Wikipedia breaks it down into “differing variance” from the Greek hetero meaning “different” and skedastios meaning “dispersion.” Making it easier to understand is one of the examples:

Imagine you are watching a rocket take off nearby and measuring the distance it has traveled once each second. In the first couple of seconds your measurements may be accurate to the nearest centimeter, say. However, 5 minutes later as the rocket recedes into space, the accuracy of your measurements may only be good to 100 m, because of the increased distance, atmospheric distortion and a variety of other factors. The data you collect would exhibit heteroscedasticity.

And I don’t know about you, but I have come to two conclusions about this. First, “Heteroskedastic” would make a great name for a band. Second, we’re gonna need some Locrian.

And the others I’m saving for a later day, cos I noticed today I had a nice collection of words that start with H, so let’s keep on it.

I got haberdashery as the subject of some spam this week and it was one of those words I’ve heard and understand, but wanted to learn more about. Plus, it delights the mouth and tongue with speaking. A haberdasher is someone who sells clothes and notions for men. The word is very old and obscure, and is believed to originate with a word for cloth. It seems that there are a few genuine haberdashers left in Great Britain, but they sell what we’d think of as “notions” more than garments. Interesting.

And finally, heuristic. I’ve been going back and forth all week about whether or not this word is new, or I just never bothered with it before. Solid chance either way. Regardless, a heuristic is a test or experiment, frequently using trial and error methodology. It’s some psychology, philosophy, law jazz. And honestly, that’s where my interested ended.

It’s wide, not deep, around here.

One response so far

The Boobs in Question

Feb 29 2008 Published by Sarah, etc. under Fandom

As you’re looking, remember that this is a woman whose defining memories are of MATH CLUB. You’re in love now, aren’t you? Brains, brains, brains, and wow.

Toshiko Sato: Free the Cardiff Two!

Lexpionage later today! And it goes without saying that this is your weekly exhortation to watch Torchwood.

14 responses so far

Live with That Kind of Strength, You Get Tied to It

Feb 28 2008 Published by Sarah, etc. under Confession, Fandom

I recently rolled over 500 posts on this site. Post #500 was about fucking Ben Affleck, which made me feel sad and wrong for a little while, but then I got over it. But that, and several other things have put me in a nostalgic state of mind.

Last week, I was able to spend half a day with Poptart. She drove over from Atlanta and we hung out and ate dinner saw The Laramie Project. She’s been a friend for years, but this was only the second time I’d ever been with her in person. The first time was probably four years ago. But seeing her was a wonderful thing, especially as she’s lately sporting the most bitchin’ Mohawk you’ve ever seen and is very understanding when people can’t keep their hands off her head.

A few days before that, Doc and I got to talking about how long we’ve been friends and how strange the circumstances of that friendship are. Coming up on six (or more?) years now, that we talk to each other pretty much every day and all because of a canceled television show.

The three of us met in the same place, for the same reasons. We were Firefly fans who knew how to work IRC and wanted to talk about things. Of the many people who were regulars in that channel, I still care about several of them—Doc, Pop, and String Slinger (who’s quiet lately, but he’s a busy man; buy the album). Other people I keep in touch with other ways, and yet others have faded away into pleasant (and in a couple cases, unpleasant) memories. And Doc and Pop remain some of the most important people in my life.

I don’t know that I have any sort of big overarching point to make, other than time flies and love endures. And it’s interesting to think back and wonder if we ever could have known how much that canceled freaking television show would change our lives for the better. Makes me wonder if we’re suffering from a particularly nerdy variant of post-traumatic stress disorder. But it’s probably more ephemeral that than, because the best things about life and love are.

12 responses so far

This One Goes Out to William F. Buckley, Jr.

Feb 27 2008 Published by Sarah, etc. under Speechifying

… who died this morning. His magazine kept me sane in graduate school, and still makes some of the finest Simpsons and Star Trek jokes around. So here’s a young conservative Standing Athwart History link dump, guaranteed to cook your nugget, possibly with rage, if you aren’t a conservative type.

  • What Child-Men Need is Some Tradition by Rod Dreher

    That’s mostly gone, replaced by a therapeutic model in which the autonomous self is its own judge, and personal satisfaction is the measure of a life well lived. For 40 years now, we have been living through a cultural and psychological revolution that has rendered young men (indeed, most people) incapable of recognizing and submitting to authority. As social critic Philip Rieff foresaw at the dawn of this revolution, the loosening of traditional constraints would make man free, but it would be a liberty fraught with anxiety, even psychological paralysis.

    This is the first of what seems like many articles I’ve read lately, coming from all sorts of different sources, that takes the Baby Boomer generation to task for their pervasive anti-authority legacy. Seems that Generation X might like a bit more connection to the past, a bit more structure to life. What do you all think?

  • The Campus Rape Myth, by Heather McDonald

    None of this crisis response occurs, of course—because the crisis doesn’t exist. During the 1980s, feminist researchers committed to the rape-culture theory had discovered that asking women directly if they had been raped yielded disappointing results—very few women said that they had been. So Ms. commissioned University of Arizona public health professor Mary Koss to develop a different way of measuring the prevalence of rape. Rather than asking female students about rape per se, Koss asked them if they had experienced actions that she then classified as rape. Koss’s method produced the 25 percent rate, which Ms. then published.

    I read this article flabbergasted that anyone would say some of the things she’s saying. But I was also warmed by the idea that someone is picking apart politically correct declarations that, paradoxically in the name of “feminism”, strip women of agency and judgement. She goes a long way toward trying call “rape culture” what it really seems to be, “drunken-hookup bad-judgement culture.” Unfortunately, there’s no real solution in the offering, since a return to the 1950s isn’t what anybody wants (if such a thing were even possible) and very few with the power to make systemic changes are going to say, “Turns out the sexual revolution wasn’t a sweeping success in all areas of life.” Or even, “regret does not post-facto negate consent.” Follow up, Just Go Back to the Fifties and No One Gets Hurt, by Cheryl Miller.

18 responses so far

Carbohydrates for Algernon

Feb 26 2008 Published by Sarah, etc. under Surgically Altered

One of the things I most looked forward to, prior to surgery, was the idea of control. Much of the literal and many of the personal narratives about surgery give tantalizing hints, but never come out and say, “This surgery puts you back in control.” It was particularly appealing to me, never having felt any level of control at all, having swung between extremes my entire life. I wondered what control would be like, and if I’d be able to recognize it for what it was. I wondered what I would do if it ever went away.

I’ve learned lately that control really isn’t the word. At least it’s not in my experience. Peace would be a better word. About two months after surgery there was utter peace– food was unimportant. For the first time in my life, I could take it or leave it, no matter. Each bite was an act unto itself, with no memory of the previous and no fantasy of the future. Every meal took on a quality of wonder: is this what it’s like for normal people to eat? I have no basis for knowing, of course. But I suspect that normal people don’t think, after two bytes, this will not be enough; I will need more. Do normal people confront primal hunger every single day? They probably don’t ever have experiences where their minds shriek STOP while their hands and mouths just keep eating, numb and not a little high. Or maybe they do. I don’t know. I don’t know if I can know.

At just shy of six months though, the peace is gone again. I had hoped it would last longer, ideally for the rest of my life, but I know better. I’ve been building routines and trying to establish habits with the spectre of this time looming on the horizon. I can push my limits now, and I try seriously not to. Bought some granola this weekend, a little packet of the very expensive stuff with correct numbers (< = 5g fat, <= 15g carbs / serving). Tried a bit Saturday night– portioned half a serving into a dixie cup. Ate it slowly, chewing the hell out of it. And went back for more. And then did it again. And then stood there, at the pantry, bag in hand, eating while looking out the window thinking, “I should really stop eating this. Like, really really stop right now. Stop.” I haven’t thrown the rest out, but I really should.

At this point, I can cope with the shame of overeating some granola. That’s an old familiar feeling and I can file it away. What’s more difficult is the memory of the peace. I can remember a time when I wouldn’t have cared at all. It was so brief, and so exquisite, not to care. And that’s when sadness swamps the shame.

One response so far

Makin’ Sweet, Sweet Love

Feb 25 2008 Published by Sarah, etc. under Geekery

You thought Sarah Silverman fucking Matt Damon was funny? Dig this:

5 responses so far

Still Crazy After All These Years

Feb 25 2008 Published by Sarah, etc. under Fandom

Commence eye rolling in 3… 2… 1… yet another “fan campaign” to bring back Firefly and/or get Serenity a sequel, which ever comes first. This time it’s through reporting of dollars spent on Firefly and Serenity related merchandise. Note Armin Shimmerman lookalike fan posing messianic behind his collection of four books and special edition DVD set. What do you all think? Was he there, in the beginning, with a Nielsen box tuned to Fox on Fridays at 7:00? Or is he more of an Orson Scott Card level fan, where he’ll let the DVDs sit on the shelf for a year before watching? I’m tempted to go with the second, since the verbiage keeps saying ‘Verse-this and ‘Verse-that. That’s annoying as hell. Dude’s idea is for everybody to fill out PDF forms reporting exactly how much money you’ve spent on tie-in merchandise. As if Universal’s accounts were waiting for that info.

Interesting enough, some brave and articulate soul called “T” has got in there and started some commentary on what a misbegotten idea this is. She gets right to the point, too:

Universal knows exactly how much is spent on licensed product. Exactly. The people at Dark Horse, or Hot Topic, or action figure makers are legally obligated to report to Universal every dime of their Serenity related sales. They report the sales by sku, the store that it was sold to, inventory levels, region of the country or the world etc etc.

All licensed product sales is absolutely known. You will not be telling Universal anything that they don’t already know. There is a division of the company dedicated to this.

So what I think is specifically wrong with this campaign is that you are not providing new information. You are just putting a geeky (and maybe offputting) face on the same old information that they already know.

You tell ‘em, T! Further, she goes on to correct them about the whole We’ve Done the Impossible myth.

S, you bought into Universal’s marketing myth. The movie was greenlit in June 2003. That was long before the DVDs came out or any organized fan activities happened. Joss kept the myth alive when trying to promote the movie, but it is still untrue.

It’s just so sad all over the place.

In other fandom news, psychological researchers detail the obvious, saying Harry Potter is addictive.

“An addiction is an addiction is an addiction,” Rudski said. “An addiction to a drug is no different than an addiction to Harry Potter or the Internet or pornography. Although it’s not always a bad thing. There’s a community that you get with Harry Potter that you don’t get with heroin.”

Doc, discussing this with me, said, “Well, that really depends on where you’re doing your heroin.” And it might.

Dude changes his ideas though, and ends by likening the addiction to caffeine, not heroin:

And for those who turned Harry Potter into a creative outlet — either through fan fiction, fan art or wizard rock — didn’t show hardly any withdrawal symptoms at all, though they continued to spend just as much time engaged in those activities as they did before. What does that tell us? “It’s more like a caffeine addiction,” Rudski said. “The withdrawal can be over, but the addiction is still there.”

For me, it was more like meth, particularly during the reading of Deathly Hallows. Even now, if I can’t find good fic to read, I tend to find something to clean.

2 responses so far

Momentarily Ignoring the Concept of Semi-Vowels

Feb 22 2008 Published by Sarah, etc. under Lexpionage

Last night Doc and I were chatting, debating the relative merits of using table tags or ID selectors for placement styling and whether or not we needed to care about IE users even a little bit when all of a sudden, he hits me with:

Doc: syzygy: the alignment of three or more celestial bodies in the same gravitational system along a straight line

That is a beautiful word right there. Just look at it, all symmetrical and full of descenders, not to mention science. Type it. Isn’t that fun? Then we talked for a while about how to pronounce it, concentrating on the final syllable. We think “gee” as in, “Gee, Mister! Why’d you want to use tables? Document type declarations got you down?” And are proven correct by the dictionary. Then I tossed back

Sarah: zymurgy: the branch of applied chemistry dealing with fermentation

Doc said good, but not quite as cool because of the vowel. Okay, fine. That’s how he wants to play, I’ll show him some words without vowels. I threw out rhythm and asked what was next.

Next is obviously wikipedia, and the entry on words without vowel letters. There are quite a few words spelled without vowels in English. You can even make short, strange sentences with them like:

Shy gypsy slyly, spryly tryst by my crypt.

Not a particularly good sentence, but if you can get over the subject-verb agreement it’s pleasing. Doc agreed, favoring “crypt” as better than “dry cyst.” I said “ewww” all over that. Nevertheless, he tried:

Doc: My dry cyst myth wynds wryly. Although, I may be using wynds all wrong there, but a sentence without vowels is tricky.
Sarah: I think wynds is probably pretty archaic
Doc: Etymology:Middle English (Scots) wynde, probably from wynden to wind, proceed, go, from Old English windan to twist. It works then
Sarah: Well yeah, if you’re in Scotland 700 years ago.

Should it come to it, y’all, and you do end up in Great Britain many hundreds of years in the past, maybe just substitute “y” for “i” across the board and see what happens.

Interestingly enough, wikipedia also lists pwn as a word spelled without a vowel. You knew that whole “w00t” thing was a slippery slope, didn’t you?

6 responses so far

At 1:40, Myfanwy Versus Used-to-be-Lisa

Feb 21 2008 Published by Sarah, etc. under Fandom

This is your weekly exhortation to watch Torchwood. It’s pretty over the top. If you laugh that’s good, because it’s very funny. If you cry, that’s good too, because it’s really very sad. At any rate, it’s short and contains footage of a pterodactyl attacking a half-converted Cyberman, which is awful and sad, but more than a little on the awesome side, given that there was no clear winner.

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Threatened to Send You to Taco Fort

Feb 20 2008 Published by Sarah, etc. under Gaming

We had another weekend of intensive Hellgate London playing around here because the game is just that good. There’s really something to be said for straightforward task-and-blast gameplay without endless traveling and fed-exing and watching cut scenes for arcane plot points. I came to the conclusion, too, that I’m enjoying the game very much because it’s not an MMO. We can see other people, certainly, but we’re not playing a game that needs groups or guilds to advance and to make the play fun. MMOs are great, but I was more than ready for a break.

Beyond that, Hellgate is hilarious. I’m not kidding. I don’t know how often I ever read quest text in WoW or CoH, but I don’t think it was very often. In Hellgate, you’re compelled to, because it will crack you up. The NPCs are all unique and have excellent personalities. Like Lucious Aldin, who anchors a long series of tasks and says things like:

Don’t be afraid. It’s simple math. Block of cheese plus tortillas plus heat equals melted goodness and the key to discovering Truth. Substitute Your Brain and The Oracle where necessary.

That’s good stuff! Want more? There’s an NPC in Charing Cross Station called Joanne who says:

My riches came from a simple bit of fiction about a hopeles boy who stumbled out of his closet-like prison into a world of adventure and power.

Completing her stuff gives you massive Palladium, just as you might expect.

At Temple Station, there are three NPCs all standing in a little group called Tiberius, Stewart and Pratch. And they’re exactly who you’d think they are. Tiberius talks…with a lot… of POINTS of…ellipses and CAPSLOCK. Stewart calls you “Number Two” and sends you off to find the demon that stabbed him in the heart. And Pratch talks in circles about inventing amazing machines, if only he had more parts. Then the machines don’t work, so he needs more parts, so you have to go get them, but ha ha it’s not his fault and isn’t it all very funny. I kept waiting for him to ask me to retrieve his Luggage.

In fact, so many of the NPCs are so recognizable and the rest of the shout outs so obvious– a blue police call box in a disused corner of the British Museum!– that when something doesn’t immediately tweak your inner geek, its a little confusing. Like the NPC called Rorke Pherral, who’s apparently American and not based on anybody we can figure out. He does say funny things, though, like “So you ready for a dirty job Mike Rowe style?” and “Lady, if you need anything, and I mean anything, you just get the hell out of here.”

It’s good all over the place. Except for the Millenium Battle– we died about 8 times each. But that was okay, because how’re you going to dislike a game that wants you to eat Mexican food?

2 responses so far

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