Sunday, May 18, 2008

Little of this, little of that.

It's a veritable smörgåsbord! ;o) (Begun on Friday, finished on Sunday.)

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Two of the people I "follow" at Twitter were both commenting (separately, as they don't "follow" one another, as far as I know) on the weather in their respective locations (New Jersey and California). One said something about how cold it was (50s and rainy), and then the other mentioned that it's supposed to reach 98 over the weekend. Talk about extremes!

(I doubt any of you care about this, but it struck me as funny. This is a big country!)

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Meanwhile, the weather here's been yucky for the past couple of days. Yesterday there were thunderstorms and some wind damage locally. (None here, though.) Then today there was no wind to speak of, but plenty of rain and enough thunder to keep me "unplugged" most of the morning.

Despite all this rain, it's not all that cool outside. Just wet. At least the weekend's supposed to be clear and not too hot. :o)

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I happened upon some random stranger's complaint about this week's CSI episode. . .

SPOILER ALERT!!

I'm about to give a spoiler for the season finale of CSI.

I kind of doubt any of you watch, but still. . .

Read at your own risk!



So, no-one's left but me, right? Not that I think there are a lot of CSI fans who haven't seen the season finale; I just don't think anyone else really cares about this subject. That's ok. I'm used to talking about TV shows to myself. ;o)

One of the main characters died this week-- or at least it looks like he's dead. He was shot at close range (after such heavy-handed foreshadowing that viewers should have known at least five minutes in advance that Something Very Bad was about to happen). The random stranger felt that "the incredible violence that ended up in [his/her] living room in front of [his/her] family was totally uncalled for."

Huh? I mean, I enjoy the show, but there's no denying that it's violent. Pretty much every episode revolves around at least one act of violence and the subsequent tracing of clues. Honestly, what else would you expect from a (modern) program that focuses on crime scene investigators? I agree that it's sadder and (if they hadn't laid on the "awww, they're all together again!"/"here comes the sun" stuff so thickly) more shocking to have a regular character die than the one-ep.-only characters (whose sole purpose is to be dead and give the show a plot), but was this episode really any more violent than the others? It isn't exactly family-friendly programming!

But this really isn't fair of me. Have you looked at a TV-show message board lately? Few people can spell, and someone who uses punctuation is a bizarre anomaly. Even overlooking these "technicalities", basic logical reasoning seems to be in short supply. (I probably sound "mean", but come on! You know it's true.)

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Somehow or other, we got to talking about accents, recently. I said that I think Donald has less of an accent than he did when we first met, and he definitely makes fewer mistakes when talking and writing. He suggested that I hear less of an accent in his speech than does someone who is less accustomed to it. That makes sense.

I'm sure he's going to love this comparison, but it's kind of like toddler talk. When you spend a lot of time with a particular toddler, you come to understand his/her prattle-- that when she talks about "koink", she's referring to pop corn, for instance. (g) Very few people would ever guess what your little boy means when he asks for "ging-ging", but you know that he wants a piece of candy.

Obviously, our relationship is a little different from that between mother and child ;o), but there are times when someone seems to have a little trouble understanding something Donald's saying, while to me it's perfectly clear.

On the other hand, there are still a very few pronunciations that make me smile or even laugh. "Squirreler" comes to mind. I don't know what it is about that word, but apparently it's not easy to say "squirrel". ;o)

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Have you heard about "crazy rasberry ants"? They've been around (in some parts of the country, at least-- such as Houston) for a few years, at least, but this was the first I'd heard of them. Evidently they will eat fire ants, but they come with their own set of irritating behaviors-- and they're reportedly difficult to exterminate. I hope they don't make it over here for a while! We have enough pests as it is.