Powerbrain

The imagination of some people I know just totally blows my mind. This is a perfect example.

We were elaborating upon this really bizarre stream of consciousness I'd had about acts of vigilanteism in his apartment block and as a method of punishment he reminded me about the boo box. Remember that, from Hook? Well instead of throwing in a scorpion (as, like he reminded me, there aren't many of those to hand) he said that a handful of earwigs (something I don't think I've heard mentioned since primary school, when they were the essence of all things fearsome) would go in instead. And you'd lie on a bed of old teabags. Instead of a bed of nails, which is what any other person would choose. But no, his strange imagination just leapfrogged over such obvious sources of discomfort and landed on something that took a few moments to realise was totally horrendous. And he did it in a flash. He is truly bizarre.

Goodbye Latin, Hello Egg

BBC News:

A number of local councils in Britain have banned their staff from using Latin words, because they say they might confuse people.

Several local authorities have ruled that phrases like "vice versa", "pro rata", and even "via" should not be used, in speech or in writing.

But the ban has prompted anger among some Latin scholars.

Professor Mary Beard of Cambridge University said it was the linguistic equivalent of ethnic cleansing.

Some local councils say using Latin is elitist and discriminatory, because some people might not understand it - particularly if English is not their first language.

Bournemouth Council is among those which has discouraged Latin. It has drawn up a list of 18 Latin phrases which its staff are advised not to use, either verbally or in official correspondence.
The council denies that it places a ban on Latin words.

A council spokesman said: "We advise against using certain words, particularly when staff are writing to those whose first language may not be English.

"The advice is intended as a guide only, not a direction."

However, the council's Plain Language Guide lists Latin under the heading "Things To Avoid".
Other local councils have banned "QED" and "ad hoc", while other typical Latin terms include "bona fide", "ad lib" and "quid pro quo".

But the move has been welcomed by the Plain English Campaign which says some officials only use Latin to make themselves feel important.

A Campaign spokesman said the ban might stop people confusing the Latin abbreviation e.g. with the word "egg"

Who confuses an abbreviation (complete with indicative punctuation) with something that comes out of a chicken?

Progress

2637 words. Riddled with notes in bold to remind me what else I need to research and include. 2 days. I win.

The Northern Lights isn't really doing it for me. I'm speeding up my reading of Woody Allen and might ditch the Northern Lights books and ask someone to paraphrase them for me. I really want to read the Jeeves and Wooster books.

Change of pace

In response to the change of pace that the second year has brought, I am trying to work hard. Evidence of this is my attempt to complete a 2000 word assignment on the social history, successes, failures and struggles of the Welsh language. In about two hours I've written 618 words, but I've started to realise that about 400 of those consists of pretty poor paraphrasing of the information the Welsh Language Board's website spews out. Which might be (read: probably is) biased. Which I shouldn't be paraphrasing anyway.

I've also spent a fair amount of time distracting myself on the internet. I laugh at the mim talking about being addicted to the internet, but it's about time I realised I'm following the same path. It's not as if I go to any exciting websites, either. My favourites are the BBC news website, Facebook, my online banking, a website I use for a module I'm helping out with, Myspace, Gmail and my university intranet website. How boring can I get? Internet banking? Work-related sites? What a yawn.

A much more fun and definitely more stimulating means of distraction would be reading. I have an overstuffed bookshelf, approximately a third of the contents of which I haven't read. Haven't even opened. I like to think these are all books I picked up in charity shops on the cheap (and a great deal definitely are), but not all. Lots of them aren't. Lots of them are brand spanking new, and while I rarely buy at full price, I've still paid for them, and instead of furthering myself by reading them when I can't be arsed to write assignments, I go on the internet instead. This is because when I read I think I should be doing work. This is a total nightmare and I need to put these thought-processes into a Magimix and get rid of them altogether. I love reading. I hate wasting time on the internet.

On that matter, I am currently extremely pumped on reading the following:

The rest of Northern Lights, then the other two books
All ten of the Jeeves and Wooster books I bought recently. Yes, that's right: TEN books. In one fell swoop.
The Little Friend: I haven't yet bought it but I most certainly will be doing so shortly.

This is what else has been going through my puny brain lately:

What class of word is 'yes'? I really just can't work it out.
How did I not hear about The Wire until just a few weeks ago?
Should I go back to camp next year or intern(et) somewhere here?
Will the G1 phone take off?
At what length should I stop growing my nails?