Really trivial stuff that bugs you

[George]

This is dual purpose since a question is included:

Our (my daughter's) dog eats cables so we had AT&T run the internet cable along the fence of our agreeable neighbor. She was trimming her bushes, and yes with frustration, made a large cut into the little cable.

It was late and I was trying to reach 400 (again) on Destiny 1, so I went to the electronics store and learned they had nothing, so I bought wire, new solder, shrink wrap, etc. I quickly spliced it and used electrical tape in three or 4 layers around it. But it seems to me that my old D1 game is crashing more often than in the days I played, so could it be weaker service by Bungie (D1 producer) or the splice itself. The cable is a 4-wire, light gauge, and with very tough sheathing. [I still have a hole in my thumbnail where the cutter slipped and got me.]

[Trebuchet]

I hope this turns out to be trivial. We have a major (not major by Torsten standards, but major for us) road trip coming up. I have about five days work to be ready for it. We're leaving in about 36 hours.

ETA: So I'm wasting the evening on the internet, of course. I'm pretty tired from other stuff we had to do today.

[ozduck]

I started out putting this in the 'amuses me' thread but I think it bugs me more than amuses so ---

My son runs a 'signage' business doing everything from providing business cards, wrapping vehicles in vinyl and putting large photographic signs on building developments. Today we had to pick up a roll of printed vinyl for him. When his employee picked it up from us it turned out that they had a contract to do some work on a new mosque and the print was actually Koranic script to be mounted inside the mosque dome.

I am amused that such items are now printed and applied in such a way but also saddened at the loss of the craftsmanship from what used to be beautifully done in mosaics or hand painted. But like everyone else I guess you have to cut your cloth to suit your purse.

[Jens]

I am amused that such items are now printed and applied in such a way but also saddened at the loss of the craftsmanship from what used to be beautifully done in mosaics or hand painted. But like everyone else I guess you have to cut your cloth to suit your purse.

I empathize. But actually, though this is a little bit different, stencils have been used for the same purpose--making a nice illustration quickly and cheaply--for a long, long time. Maybe the printing is a sort of new version of that. Both allow the work of one craftsperson (either a stencil artist or a fontographer) to be copied many times by others for relative little money.

[ozduck]

I empathize. But actually, though this is a little bit different, stencils have been used for the same purpose--making a nice illustration quickly and cheaply--for a long, long time. Maybe the printing is a sort of new version of that. Both allow the work of one craftsperson (either a stencil artist or a fontographer) to be copied many times by others for relative little money.

All that is true but it does mean that there is little chance for someone to learn new skills. However, it is obviously just not practical for smallish communities to be able to fund one or a group of master craftpersons and this process does at least them have something beautiful to use.

[grant hutchison]

I empathize. But actually, though this is a little bit different, stencils have been used for the same purpose--making a nice illustration quickly and cheaply--for a long, long time. Maybe the printing is a sort of new version of that. Both allow the work of one craftsperson (either a stencil artist or a fontographer) to be copied many times by others for relative little money.

My late friend Brian was a graphics designer in the days before CAD. He shared the "Laws of Graphic Design" with me:
Never draw what you can copy
Never copy what you can trace
Never trace what you can cut out and stick down

Like all such cynical mottos, I imagine they contained more than a grain of truth.

Grant Hutchison

[grant hutchison]

I'm becoming unreasonably vexed by the strange word choice of a BBC reporter. A Victorian dam in the north of England is in danger of collapse after having been damaged during recent heavy rains, and the town below has been evacuated.
The reporter covering the story has said, on numerous occasions over the last two days, that "the dam has protected the town below for a hundred years" (my emphasis).
It's as if she imagines this large body of water had previously been hovering threateningly in the valley above the town, and only the quick thinking of Victorian dam-builders had prevented a tragedy.

Grant Hutchison

[Swift]

I'm becoming unreasonably vexed by the strange word choice of a BBC reporter. A Victorian dam in the north of England is in danger of collapse after having been damaged during recent heavy rains, and the town below has been evacuated.
The reporter covering the story has said, on numerous occasions over the last two days, that "the dam has protected the town below for a hundred years" (my emphasis).
It's as if she imagines this large body of water had previously been hovering threateningly in the valley above the town, and only the quick thinking of Victorian dam-builders had prevented a tragedy.

Grant Hutchison

[The Backroad Astronomer]

I hope this turns out to be trivial. We have a major (not major by Torsten standards, but major for us) road trip coming up. I have about five days work to be ready for it. We're leaving in about 36 hours.

ETA: So I'm wasting the evening on the internet, of course. I'm pretty tired from other stuff we had to do today.

Have a good trip and hopefully you will remember everything and remember to pet the kitty.

[Trebuchet]

I'm becoming unreasonably vexed by the strange word choice of a BBC reporter. A Victorian dam in the north of England is in danger of collapse after having been damaged during recent heavy rains, and the town below has been evacuated.
The reporter covering the story has said, on numerous occasions over the last two days, that "the dam has protected the town below for a hundred years" (my emphasis).
It's as if she imagines this large body of water had previously been hovering threateningly in the valley above the town, and only the quick thinking of Victorian dam-builders had prevented a tragedy.

Grant Hutchison

That weirdly reminds me of a truly awful Doctor Who episode called Under the Lake. The concept was that a town was flooded and wound up at the bottom of the lake because of the FAILURE of a dam. It made no sense at all, and having arrived at a profoundly stupid concept they went ahead and made a two-parter out of it.

[Trebuchet]

I hope this turns out to be trivial. We have a major (not major by Torsten standards, but major for us) road trip coming up. I have about five days work to be ready for it. We're leaving in about 36 hours.

ETA: So I'm wasting the evening on the internet, of course. I'm pretty tired from other stuff we had to do today.

Have a good trip and hopefully you will remember everything and remember to pet the kitty.

Thank you! I'm feeling a little bit better. We've had a very busy day, although not a whole lot of it was directly related to the trip. I did get the car cleaned out, removing, among other things, assorted empty water bottles, registration slips from 2015, a bin with cat litter and winter gloves for getting out of snowbanks, and an ice scraper that my wife wants me to put back in because we'll be at 7000 feet and it might frost overnight.

And one of the kitties is now purring on my lap.

[grant hutchison]

That weirdly reminds me of a truly awful Doctor Who episode called Under the Lake. The concept was that a town was flooded and wound up at the bottom of the lake because of the FAILURE of a dam. It made no sense at all, and having arrived at a profoundly stupid concept they went ahead and made a two-parter out of it.

And then there's the ending of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, in which characters attempt to retrieve a ring from a cabin in a valley which is due to be flooded behind a new dam. And then the valley is flooded - by a wall of water that destroys the cabin and creates a new lake in the space of a couple of minutes. Where did that water come from?

Grant Hutchison

[Trebuchet]

And then there's the ending of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, in which characters attempt to retrieve a ring from a cabin in a valley which is due to be flooded behind a new dam. And then the valley is flooded - by a wall of water that destroys the cabin and creates a new lake in the space of a couple of minutes. Where did that water come from?

Grant Hutchison

I'm afraid I only made it about halfway through that one!

[Trebuchet]

Thank you! I'm feeling a little bit better. We've had a very busy day, although not a whole lot of it was directly related to the trip. I did get the car cleaned out, removing, among other things, assorted empty water bottles, registration slips from 2015, a bin with cat litter and winter gloves for getting out of snowbanks, and an ice scraper that my wife wants me to put back in because we'll be at 7000 feet and it might frost overnight.

And one of the kitties is now purring on my lap.

Ooh, forgot to mention the mystery sunglasses. Two pairs of them in the glove box, in which there are no gloves. I couldn't figure out why they were there, until I tried to look through one. 2017 eclipse!

[KaiYeves]

I'm becoming unreasonably vexed by the strange word choice of a BBC reporter. A Victorian dam in the north of England is in danger of collapse after having been damaged during recent heavy rains, and the town below has been evacuated.
The reporter covering the story has said, on numerous occasions over the last two days, that "the dam has protected the town below for a hundred years" (my emphasis).
It's as if she imagines this large body of water had previously been hovering threateningly in the valley above the town, and only the quick thinking of Victorian dam-builders had prevented a tragedy.

Grant Hutchison

I mean, that was what I immediately imagined until your tone made me realize there was something wrong with it and I had to think about it for a moment.

[Extravoice]

I'm becoming unreasonably vexed by the strange word choice of a BBC reporter. A Victorian dam in the north of England is in danger of collapse after having been damaged during recent heavy rains, and the town below has been evacuated.
The reporter covering the story has said, on numerous occasions over the last two days, that "the dam has protected the town below for a hundred years" (my emphasis).
It's as if she imagines this large body of water had previously been hovering threateningly in the valley above the town, and only the quick thinking of Victorian dam-builders had prevented a tragedy.

Grant Hutchison

The Mafia has been offering that kind of protection for ages.
“Nice village you gots there. It would be a shame should something happen to it.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[grant hutchison]

I mean, that was what I immediately imagined until your tone made me realize there was something wrong with it and I had to think about it for a moment.

This reporter had two days (and counting) in which to "think about it for a moment". She even had a pretty strong hint that she should reflect on the word choice, in that she also told us that the dam was built to provide a head of water for a canal lock system.
It's basically an Enlightenment engineering project that spilled over (if you'll pardon the pun) into the start of Victoria's reign. As such, its planners didn't give much of a damn (if you'll pardon the pun) about the people in the village below.

Grant Hutchison

[grant hutchison]

I'm afraid I only made it about halfway through that one!

One of my favourite movies, but not to everyone's taste. Then again, what is? As my grandmother used to say, "It wouldn't do if we were all the same. But if we were, we'd only need one television channel." (Actually, it might have been "wireless station" - she never owned a TV in her life.)

Grant Hutchison

[grant hutchison]

This reporter had two days (and counting) in which to "think about it for a moment". She even had a pretty strong hint that she should reflect on the word choice, in that she also told us that the dam was built to provide a head of water for a canal lock system.

Change of reporter, new strange vocabulary.
Tonight we're told that another 55 homes have been evacuated, because they would also be in danger if the dam failed and thirty million gallons of water "made its way" into the valley.

Grant Hutchison

[schlaugh]

I guess they are paid by the word. “Made its way into” vs. “flooded.”

[Gillianren]

Something we agree on, Grant--I love that movie as well! It was when I first thought there might be something to that George Clooney fellow beyond the jerk he played on television for several years. I suppose the water is there because they needed a catastrophe of some kind, and the book the movie is theoretically based on is set on the ocean for the most part?

[Jens]

My late friend Brian was a graphics designer in the days before CAD. He shared the "Laws of Graphic Design" with me:
Never draw what you can copy
Never copy what you can trace
Never trace what you can cut out and stick down

Like all such cynical mottos, I imagine they contained more than a grain of truth.

Yes, I agree that it does. In a sense it sounds cynical, but I think there is a slightly deeper meaning, because in some sense the difference in the quality of a graphic designer is what the "can" means in all those sentences. Obviously you can always copy, but if you are a perfectionist you will never find anything to copy, because nothing will ever seem quite right, and so perhaps it is also an exhortation to give up on perfectionism. In addition to the cynical aspect, of course.

[grant hutchison]

Something we agree on, Grant--I love that movie as well! It was when I first thought there might be something to that George Clooney fellow beyond the jerk he played on television for several years. I suppose the water is there because they needed a catastrophe of some kind, and the book the movie is theoretically based on is set on the ocean for the most part?

I never quite worked out how the movie ending fitted in with the Odyssey. Then again, it's a good four decades since I read it.

Grant Hutchison

[Gillianren]

The Coens claim to have never read it.

[Trebuchet]

I have just spent 20 minutes stuck in an elevator. In Jackson Lake Lodge, Grand Teton National Park. Because my nephew-in-law decided to demonstrate how, when in high school, he would pull the inner door open, the car would stop, and then start back up when he closed it again. Well, it stopped all right.

He's 49 years old.

[grant hutchison]

When did the phrase "sci-fi" become acceptable usage? I'm seeing it more and more in places where I would expect never to see it.

Time was, calling it "sci-fi" instead of "science fiction" or "SF" was a certain way to identify yourself as a mere dilettante in the genre, and probably with bad taste, to boot. Those in the know could use it dismissively: "just sci-fi" (as opposed to real science fiction), and pronouncing it "skiffy" was the ultimate put-down. I recall when the Sci-Fi Channel (as was) first appeared there were a number of snorting comments along the lines of, "Thanks for the warning."

I hate it when language shifts out from underneath my engrained biases.

Grant Hutchison

[DonM435]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_J_Ackerman

Fourth paragraph. Ackerman says he made up the term taking off on the then popular "hi-fi."

[grant hutchison]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_J_Ackerman

Fourth paragraph. Ackerman says he made up the term taking off on the then popular "hi-fi."

Thanks, but I do know where the expression came from.
To some extent, the phrase actually suffered by association with Ackerman and his enthusiastic self-promotion. So it was initially picked up mainly by people outside the SF community, and therefore seen as a marker for those ignorant of science fiction. After that, SF reviewers and editors adopted it as a dismissive term for hack-work "westerns in space". And that's how things were, for decades.
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has a pretty good entry describing the social trajectory of the expression, though in my part of the world "skiffy" was never used affectionately.

Grant Hutchison

[DonM435]

You got that right! I think that Ackerman was well-read on early U.S. science fiction, but he'd been promoting lots of schlocky stuff down through the years.

I used the words "science fiction" in an article, and the editor punched up the prose by substituting "sci-fi."
I never quite forgave him for that.

[Jim]

So, The Wife^(TM) called me at work to tell me that we had a power outage. They fixed the problem and everything came back on except the central a/c. Temps are expected to approach 100F today - again - so that isn't really trivial, but what came next ... is?

"Okay," says I, "go into the garage and check the circuit breakers."
"What?! And maybe get electrocuted?! No, you need to do it."

Sooo, it's okay for me?