I decided that today I would start riding my bike to work in an effort to 1. be more environmentally friendly, and 2. step up my training for the MS 150.

Well, a little over two miles into it I got “tracked” and ate concrete in Lee Circle. Apparently it gets even the best bikers. I thought I’d just come home and take a shower, have Will patch me up and head on to work in the car.

Instead, I blacked out at least once and before I could start to lather up the shampoo in my hair I almost blacked out again. Will packed me up and brought me to the ER. After a first attempt at Tulane/LSU, we wound up at Touro and I was stitched up by the same doctor as Will back in January. The grand total, sweet 16!

Since then, I’ve pretty much been laid up on the couch. My left hand is swollen, my left forarm is bandaged up, my left leg is throbing and the shampoo is still in my hair. At least I got to eat a bagel for breakfast, Wendy’s for lunch and who knows what for dinner.

So, when can I start skating again? Dunno. No joints were hurt, but I don’t want to pop a stitch or anything. Below are some photos for your viewing pleasure.

Yes, another link to something I think is cool that you will probably think is boring. I’m a graphic designer, proficient in the world of print. I love paper and ink and fonts and colors and all that crazy stuff. I have never worked on the press side of it all, but I’ve made enough trips to my vendor and have sent  more jobs than I care to remember to get the idea. At least the machines are electric and you can work at night, probably all thanks to the same man.

Finally… I can spell however I want! I mostly mess up peice and my own name. The name thing is purely because I try to type too fast. If you ever wonder why it takes me forever to write about some things some times… it’s because I sit there and read it over and over again making sure everything is spelled correctly and grammatically correct. I do it when speaking too. It’s kind of like a verbal back button. I think it drives Will crazy. Oh, and I once spelled it “opprotunity” AND it got put on the side of a truck like that.

okthxby

From Yahoo News

 

Spelling “truely atrosious,” says academic

By Luke Baker Thu Aug 7, 11:29 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Embaressed by yor spelling? Never you mind.

Fed up with his students’ complete inability to spell common English correctly, a British academic has suggested it may be time to accept “variant spellings” as legitimate.

Rather than grammarians getting in a huff about “argument” being spelled “arguement” or “opportunity” as “opertunity,” why not accept anything that’s phonetically (fonetickly anyone?) correct as long as it can be understood?

“Instead of complaining about the state of the education system as we correct the same mistakes year after year, I’ve got a better idea,” Ken Smith, a criminology lecturer at Bucks New University, wrote in the Times Higher Education Supplement.

“University teachers should simply accept as variant spelling those words our students most commonly misspell.”

To kickstart his proposal, Smith suggested 10 common misspellings that should immediately be accepted into the pantheon of variants, including “ignor,” “occured,” “thier,” “truely,” “speach” and “twelth” (it should be “twelfth”).

Then of course there are words like “misspelt” (often spelled “mispelt”), not to mention “varient,” a commonly used variant of “variant.”

And that doesn’t even begin to delve into all the problems English people have with words that use the letters “i” and “e” together, like weird, seize, leisure, foreign and neighbor.

The rhyme “i before e except after c” may be on the lips of every schoolchild in Britain, but that doesn’t mean they remember the rule by the time they get to university.

Of course, such proposals have been made in the past. The advent of text messaging turned many students into spelling neanderthals as phrases such as “wot r u doin 2nite?” became socially, if not academically, acceptable.

Despite Smith’s suggestion, language mavens are unconvinced. John Simpson, the chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, says rules are rules and they are there for good reason.

“There are enormous advantages in having a coherent system of spelling,” he told the Times newspaper.

“It makes it easier to communicate. Maybe during a learning phase there is some scope for error, but I would hope that by the time people get to university they have learnt to spell.”

Yet even some of Britain’s greatest wordsmiths have acknowledged it’s a language with irritating quirkiness.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw was fond of pointing out that the word “ghoti” could just as well be pronounced “fish” if you followed common pronunciation: ‘gh’ as in “tough,” ‘o’ as in “women” and ‘ti’ as in “nation.”

And he was a playright.

I just told my coworkers/cube land buddies that if they hear me start banging my head up against the desk (or slurring incoherent babble) to come take the headphones off of my head and blast some 80’s pop music in my general direction. I’m listening to Slayer…. we’ll see how this works out for me in the end.

Thank you Guitar Hero.

Just in case you care, first on the Artists:Slayer:All: is Flash Storm: Christ Illusion. Not terrible.

I was racing the clouds today. I kept seeing the end of the shade and it was keeping steady in front of me until I got up to speed. I think the clouds were traveling at a steady 36mph and the speed limit was 40mph, so I caught up eventually. Then the sun was in my eyes. When I realized how fascinated I was with it, I giggled out loud.

I was totally in my happy place, then let out another giggle when 5 Minute Oil Change on Airline Drive had a sign that said, “Ladies Day - $5 off on Tuesday.” Damn… today’s Monday.  My oil change was complete in 5 minutes as promised. It took them another 10 to process my credit card. Are you supposed to get a discount if it takes longer for them to make you pay than it does for the service they provide? Meh.

I think they over charged me for something too.. but at that point, I was just ready to get out of there.