FunBlog

It drives me nuts that so many people have abandoned basic English in their e-mailing and online messaging.  Don't get me wrong.  I am no master of the English language and I am not one of those grammar snobs who have given up being polite to people in the the zealous quest for the proper use of semi-colons. But I still like to have the odd period thrown into text communications to allow me to know when to stop one thought and begin another.

I am also a little leary about the shortening of words by removing letters in order to save time.  For instance "im sry i dnt pss eng n sc so i tp ts wy" is far to vague to leave up to my imaginative mind (my guess would be "I'm sorry I didn't pass English in school so I type this way").

Again, I don't want to be fanatical about all of this.  Sometimes taking letters from words can be fun.  For instance, what 9 letter word in the English language continues to form another word each time you remove a letter from it?  At least I think that's how the question goes - remember I'm no master in these things.

If you can read the word "quickly" slowly, or you can say the word "backwards" forwards, you may just do well with this little exercise (which thankfully is not part of the requirements fot getting a driver's license).

I must admit this is a bit challenging for me because I have a bit of a mental tick that goes back to my speech therapy days in public school.  They were very specific about me prounouncing the thing that I am thinking about.  This has proved inavaluable when I preach - but compicates below.

Try to say the name of the colors - not what is spelled. Of course, in Canada, the UK, and many other parts of the world, try to say the name of the colours - not what is spelled. 

I am a middle of the road kind of guy.  I like my tea neither weak nor strong, I enjoy life without constant emotional extremes, I am often in the middle of people trying to sort out disagreements, and I like my New York steak medium-well (which, of course, is middle of the road between medium and well-done). 

Some people have a hard time finding balance in life.  One minute they are taking up some extreme sport and the next minute they don't even want to get out of bed (although in some cases  it's usually because they are hooked up to medical equipment).

I guess that's life.  We all have a hard time finding the middle ground. In fact, I bet you do below.  Just move the purple arrow to the middle of the line and click "was I close?"

Were you?  There's no need to get emotional about it.

I love the Swiss.  By staying netural in most of the the world's disputes they have been able to work a lot for peace.  This neutrality has also given them a lot of time to invent and develop really great stuff.  Swiss chocolate, Swiss watches, Swiss army knives, soldiers on bicycles, and the Alps are just a few of the wonderful addtions to the world the Swiss have brought us.

However, I fear some of the Swiss may have too much time on their hands.  To prove my point I give you "Sky Ear".   The premise - attach some cell phones to some helium balloons and let people call them so they can listen to the sky.  Oh yeah, I forgot that you also put LED lights on the phones.

I'll admit the images of this ear are pretty, but if I want to listen to the sky all I have to do is call anyone on my cell phone while I am at home.  The cell service is so bad here I mostly get air anyway.

And please don't get me wrong - I'm not looking down on the Swiss.  It just seems to me that "Sky Ear" shows that some of them have been neutral so long that they are beginning to coast.