All y’all wanna get your terms straight?

3:49 pm on Monday, June 30, 2003

The Harvard Dialect Survey is an interesting site that takes surveys and maps different ways of referring to everyday objects by region. In this survey though, they got it wrong. Y’all does not refer to two or more people. Y’all is singular. The plural of y’all is ‘all y’all’.

Listening to: Oh, Atlanta from the album “Now That I’ve Found You” by Allison Krause

What is beauty?

3:20 pm on Monday, June 30, 2003

Some researcher in Germany decided to try to find out what makes a person beautiful. Their Beautycheck site shows what most people think is attractive. I found it most interesting that most people prefer a little “babyfacedness” in a person. They have an area where you pick what the photo that you think is most attractive. In all but one I picked the photo with 0% babyfacedness. I was in the minority. I guess I like older women. That explains why I chose my wife I guess. She is older than I am.

Listening to:
Cowboy In The Jungle from the album “Son Of A Son Of A Sailor” by Jimmy Buffett

In with the new…

2:52 pm on Monday, June 23, 2003

Looks like my new favorite computer is going to be obsolete RSN. Steve Jobs just announced the relase of the new G5 system. Up to dual 2Ghz processors on a 1Ghz frontside bus. Drool…<>
They also announced the release of Panther. The upcoming update of OS X. Looks like I might need to upgrade my less than one month old iBook.<>
Update: Browsing around the Apple site I noticed they’ve released Safari 1.0. I still can’t decide which I like more, Safari or Mozilla. I like the speed of Safari but it’s still missing some of the features of Mozilla.

Brain Persuasion Test

9:25 am on Thursday, June 19, 2003

Where is your brain?

Tony, you are somewhat left-hemisphere dominant and show a preference for visual learning, although not extreme in either characteristic. You probably tend to do most things in moderation, but not always.

Your left-hemisphere dominance implies that your learning style is organized and structured, detail oriented and logical. Your visual preference, though, has you seeking stimulation and multiple data. Such an outlook can overwhelm structure and logic and create an almost continuous state of uncertainty and agitation. You may well suffer a feeling of continually trying to “catch up” with yourself.

Your tendency to be organized and logical and attend to details is reasonably well-established which should afford you success regardless of your chosen field of endeavor. You can “size up” situations and take in information rapidly. However, you must then subject that data to being classified and organized which causes you to “lose touch” with the immediacy of the problem.

Your logical and methodical nature hamper you in this regard though in the long run it may work to your advantage since you “learn from experience” and can go through the process more rapidly on subsequent occasions.

You remain predominantly functional in your orientation and practical. Abstraction and theory are secondary to application. In keeping with this, you focus on details until they manifest themselves in a unique pattern and only then work with the “larger whole.”

With regards to your career choices, you have a mentality that would be good as a scientist, coach, athlete, design consultant, or an engineering technician. You can “see where you want to go” and even be able to “tell yourself,” but find that you are “fighting yourself” at the darndest times.

Your Brain Usage Profile

Auditory : 41%
Visual : 58%
Left : 63%
Right : 36%

New car Part II

8:43 pm on Tuesday, June 17, 2003

Well, we picked up her new ride last Friday. A 1999 Ford Mustang. It is 4 years old but has only 25,000 miles on it. It is nearly flawless. The biggest gripe was it needed new tires. We replaced those today. It must have been garage stored as the paint looks like a brand-new car. She is happy with it. She was looking at Focuses but after driving a Mustang she decided to go with the one with more power. She got it as is evident by how often she spins the tires. 🙂

New car for the wife…

11:06 am on Thursday, June 12, 2003

Well, my wife’s 12 year old Isuzu Amigo is getting long in the tooth. Time for a replacement. It’s been a reliable car but now it’s starting need more and more maintainence. It’s latest problem is a leaking coolant hose that’s buried deep in the engine. I’m going to have to disassemble the entire left side of the engine to get to it. Oh boy! I’m trying to decide if I’ll sell it as-is or fix it to get a bit more cash out of it. Heck, I might even keep it to bang around the countryside…

Now, on to her new car…She’s currently looking at a used 2000 Mustang. Not a bad car. She’s also looked at Jettas and even a Saab convertable. It’s nice being able to deal with the salesman and ask then, ‘what’s your cash price? If I write you a check now, how much is it?’ Gives a bit of dealing room.

Oh, while I’m talking about cars. My sister went and got herself a nice sparkly new Mini Cooper last week. The exact car I really wanted. *sigh* I got my Explorer AWD 4 months ago because I needed it for work. I had to have something that could go offroad to show customers. Well, I’ve decided that I’ll never again buy a car I need. I’ll buy cars I want. The Explorer is nice enough and all but it’s not ‘me’. That’s why I’m pushing my wife to get what she wants. Don’t worry too much about practicality. You’ll have it a long time. You better be happy with it.