Archive: May 2006

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Wednesday - May 31, 2006

Spelling bee!

I do hope y'all are ready for the 78th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. Are you? The first few (untelevised) rounds took place today. Here's the list of the words that were in Round One (the written round) this morning. Yikes! This is a contest that I surely would not win. Thre's no way I'd make it through the first round. Culottes? That's how that's spelled? I don't think I ever once pondered the spelling of that word. I suppose, if pressed, I might've come up with it but...really? Nullipara? Huh? Sprachgefuhl? Are these even real words? In any language? Wow. I have to say I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's televised rounds. 'Wish I could stay home and watch 'em live. Alas, I'll have to content myself with TiVo. Nevertheless: woo hoo!

One more thing. I've decided I'll be rooting for Matthew Evans from Albuquerque, New Mexico. For no particular reason other than that he's from New Mexico and he just tickled my spelling fancy.

One more thing #2. I went and looked those two words up and it turns out I'm a nullipara! Huh. Who knew?

UPDATE. Alas, my pick went out in the 7th round (tied for 14th, I guess). I'd set my TiVo to record an extra hour for the afternoon and evening shows...in case things went long. Good thought since the (live) shows did go long. Alas, during the afternoon broadcast ESPN switched coverage over to ESPN2 so I missed all but the first three spellers in the 7th round. The evening broadcast started with the 8th round. It also went long. But, oddly enough ABC did not switch over to another network (!) at then end of the second hour. This time, I got the whole broadcast. Anyway, good show. As always. 'Love the spelling bee.

Posted by Joanna | Permalink

Monday - May 22, 2006

Question of the day

So, we're setting up a new research group at work and I was working on a logo. I'm torn. This is simple and has clean lines:

And, then there's this:

It's got substance and depth. And, the oil drop's shape is prettier since it doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the O. But, is the whole bevel/drop-shadow thing too tired and over-done these days? I honestly can't decide which one I like better. If you have a preference, please drop me a line and let me know which one you prefer (and why). Thanks.

Posted by Joanna | Permalink

Tuesday - May 16, 2006

Campus Watch #39

From today's Campus Watch crime report:

Criminal Trespass Warning (Jester East Dormitory, 201 E. 21st St.)
A non-UT subject refused to leave the building after getting into an argument with a UT student inside the T.V. lounge. When stopped by the police officer, the subject stated that she hated all Texans and would pray for a flood. In addition to other law enforcement actions taken, the subject was issued a written criminal trespass warning and escorted from the area. Much to her chagrin, Troy Kimmel's weather forecast for today is sunshine and 89 degrees. Occurred on 5-11-06, at 7:26 PM.

"Much to her chagrin." Indeed. Heh heh.

Posted by Joanna | Permalink

Thursday - May 4, 2006

What's in a name?

Lots of goofy stuff happens at work. All the time. I almost never post about it, though. 'Cause that's work and this isn't. However, I noticed something today that was too good to pass up. One of the things I do for the professors I work for is prepare Powerpoint presentations for talks they give at conferences and such. One of the professors usually starts with something, prints it out, marks it up with a red pen, and then sends the whole thing to me to clean up. I got a set of printed slides from him yesterday and have been going through them. One set of slides came from one of his grad students. A student I don't really know. The professor inserted the grad student's illustrations and wanted to cite the student's thesis on the slide (note the text in the lower right-hand corner):

There were three such slides in a row. The student's name was spelled differently on each slide. As I said, I don't really know the student and had no idea what his last name really was. So, I looked him up in the UT directory. Guess what? All three spellings were wrong:

That last spelling (which I wrote in pencil on the last slide) is the correct spelling according to the directory. That's pretty impressive, doncha think? Three attempts, doubtlessly made within 4 or 5 minutes of each other, and every one of them wrong. Again I say: impressive. Heh.

Before I get any quibbles: yes, I know. I do post from the Campus Watch reports all the time. Technically, those are from my workplace. But, they're always (well, 99 times out of 100) about people I don't know so they don't really count as posts about my work. Okay? Okay.

Posted by Joanna | Permalink