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Word Court Thoughts

I was doing extra credit for a class by reading word court articles and they were all really interesting. If you ever get a chance you should check out the links that I have posted. Under each link is all my comments to the articles that are from that link. I only kept the comments partially serious because I was turning it in. I was thinking a whole lot of sarcastic things though.

Word Court Articles

http://www.wordcourt.com/archives.php?show=2003-09-03

For Pete’s Sake

          Well I never knew why people say “For the love of Pete” so that was interesting. I also did not realize that there was an Oxford Dictionary for Slang. Guess slang is more official than I had thought it was.

a or an MPA
         
          I learned that even if a word starts with a consonant, if it sounds like a vowel if still uses “an” instead of “a”. Oh and I think it is really extreme for a fistfight to break out over proper grammar.

Myself

          I now know how to use “myself” correctly. That meaning I would use myself if I refered to myself twice in the same sentence. Which brings a question to my mind, would you use myself if you were to refer to yourself in the same sentence more than twice?

http://www.wordcourt.com/archives.php?show=2003-09-10

Lay and lie

I think that Barbara makes a good point in saying that the “everybody does it” excuse is a pretty good excuse when it comes to language. Though if we did not go by that reasoning, we might still be speaking more sophisticated than all the slang and text lingo that we use now. Also I hadn’t known the difference between lay and lie.

Rest bit?

          Minuscule definitely does look strange. I never would have known it was supposed to be spelled that way instead of miniscule if I had not read this article. Also this friend that Mara Filo was emailing must have been from the 1980s.

http://www.wordcourt.com/archives.php?show=2003-09-17

RSVP

          I would say someone needs to come up with a way to say RSVP in English instead of French so that people don’t say “please respond please” or people could just not take it as curt.

Comma before Inc.
         
          Well my first thought did not exactly have anything to do with the article. My thought was that if Monsters Inc. were to drop the Inc. they would just be Monster.Anyway, I agree with Barbara, why is there a comma between the Business’s name and Inc. Don’t those two things go together?

Sneaked or snuck
         
          I personally don’t think that sneaked sounds right.

Unlike no other

          We use double negatives in Spanish. I don’t think that we use double negatives as often in English, at least I was taught not to do that, but I think that people still use double negatives for some reason. Probably because they think it makes them sounds cooler if they use double negatives while everyone else doesn’t.

http://www.wordcourt.com/archives.php?show=2003-09-24

What to call married men

          Well first of all, I thought that the whole gay marriage movement had just started recently, maybe that’s just because I pay more attention to the world now but I think that if this movement has been going on since before 2003 I would have noticed sooner than a couple years ago. I do like that Barbara wants to know what the difference between a civil union and marriage is, because I would like to know the difference myself.

Sights or sites

          I did not realize that people did not know the difference between sights and sites.I thought it was pretty self explanatory.  Also why would anyone say “historical sights” that just does not  look correct at all.

http://www.wordcourt.com/archives.php?show=2003-10-01

Different than or different from

          So when a word result is awkward, change it to something less awkward sounding.  Does that work for more than just different than and different from?

Dilatate

          First of all, I did not know  that dilatate was a word.  And I don’t think that using longer words when there is a perfectly fine word that most people know. Plain English is better than trying to completely confuse people.

Plural e-mails

          Considering e-mail means electronic mail, e-mail message is redundant.  As long as a word is in the dictionary, then it perfectly acceptable to use the word. Also I care whether e-mail is hypenated. That would be like not write nonetheless all together, to me at least.

http://www.wordcourt.com/archives.php?show=2003-10-08

Whence bulldozers?

Now this article is interesting. I could’ve guessed the bull part, since bulldozers are not something to mess with, just like bulls. Never would I have guessed that the dozer part came from medicine though.

Alot and alright

Alot is not a word. Also, Barbara just told me how to find “alot” in newspapers.I learned how to properly use awhile from this article, and why google spell check only likes awhile sometimes.

http://www.wordcourt.com/archives.php?show=2003-10-15

Two pair or two pairs

          Two pair just sounds funny.

Adjectives after nouns

          There are different names for adjectives. I did not realize that there were postpositive adjectives, and those are adjectives that modify pronouns.

Entitle or title

          First of all, I found someone that wrote in from Mount Vernon.  Going into what the article says though, I just learned that I can use title or entitle interchangeably.

http://www.wordcourt.com/archives.php?show=2003-10-22

Over or more than

          I have never heard someone use the word decried before. That word is going into my vocabulary! Of course language authorities have different opinions, they are human.  I like that someone just went and banned the use of “over” and “above” though. That is pretty awesome.

Classical or classic

          So I sort of knew this already, but I have always used the words interchangeably anyway just because  both of those words can be used for music and they both mean timeless music to me.

Issues or problems

          I also use issues and problems interchangeably., but I guess that is not accurate according to Barbara.

http://www.wordcourt.com/archives.php?show=2003-11-19

Oriental vs. Asian

          According to Barbara, people from Asia could be offended if they heard that Lisbon has an Oriental restaurant. Also , I’m not sure that Lisbon should have an Oriental restaurant now, unless they are serving old recipes, because it is a new restaurant and certainly not dated.

http://www.wordcourt.com/archives.php?show=2003-10-29

Die or pass away

          I use these words interchangeably, which is making me start to realize I use a lot of words interchangeably when Barbara does not want me to do so. People give me strange looks when I say someone died. I don’t think die is a harsh word at all, pass away just seems to be trying to avoid facing reality.

          

My Letter to the Editor

We had to write a letter to the editor like we were women back during the suffrage movement. I somehow managed to get full points for this letter when I think it is crap, but hey getting full credit for crap is great right? :)

To whom it may concern:

As citizens of the United States of America, women should be given the right to vote.  They should have as much authority over the laws that they are forced to live by as the men of the community do.  Women are not going to harm anything if they are given the right to vote.  The world is changing now as it is anyway.  Women do not stay in the home all the time now.  They have jobs outside of the home, such as many women are now teachers.  Teachers should be given the opportunity to vote on laws that will surely affect the way that they are allowed to teach the children of the society. Women are in closer touch to the school system than men are, because it is the women’s job to make sure that the student is getting their work done.  While women are involved so much in the teachings of their children, they still have time to get all the chores around the house done for the day.  This just proves that women are good at multitasking and would be able to easily vote without interrupting their daily life.  If women were given the right to vote, it would not hinder them in any way to get their work done on time.  Voting only takes a few seconds to do, which means women can do that on their way to and from the market.  They would not be leaving their responsibilities at home to vote, but rather they do it quickly in a moment of spare time.   

My Statistics Paper

Yes. No. Maybe.

Casinos Raise Controversy

In today’s world, gambling generates $40 billion dollars a year in the United States. In fact it generates more revenue than cruise ships, recorded music, theme parks, spectator sports, and movies when they are combined. Now these statistics came from back in 1996, so think about how much money the growing gambling industry must make now (Facts About Las Vegas). With all of this money that gambling is generating, it only makes sense that Linn County wants to get its very own casino. A Casino in Linn County, Iowa would be very beneficial to the county’s economy.

Some people believe that gambling is evil. The movie “21” proves exactly that. When Ben Campbell, the main character, stops counting and starts to gamble during a game, everything goes downhill for him. His professor, Micky, takes all of the money that Ben was saving to go to Harvard Medical School because Ben loses all the money he had bet. If that wasn’t enough to prove that gambling is evil, Ben gets caught by the security chief, Cole Williams. He beats Ben up until Ben agrees to get Micky to come to the casino with him for one last round of blackjack. Well Cole Williams gets the chance to beat up Micky in the end so it worked in his favor (Luketic). Gambling is evil though because people do bad things when gambling is around. People get beat up, casinos get cheated out of money, and people steal money from others.

Nevertheless, the people that believe gambling is evil are wrong. If Linn County were to get a casino, there would be jobs made for people. The casino is supposed to provide over 600 new jobs. Only 362 of these jobs are suspected to be permanent at the casino itself, but that is a fair amount of jobs. Plus local businesses will have to hire more people because of the many customers and tourists that are speculated on visiting Linn County (Vote Yes Linn County Website). There is also the construction workers that will have to be hired in order to build the casino. Those are jobs people. No building can be built without construction workers. It is not like the private investors are going to build the casino with their own two hands. Even if the casino does not get that many employees and even if the local businesses don’t all go out and hire new people, there will still be a large amount of new workers. Casinos are big and need a large employee base. The “Say No Linn County” group may think that the “Say Yes Linn County” group is fudging the numbers, but jobs are going to end up existing from the casino anyway that someone would look at it (Dorman). This will help make the unemployment rate go down in Linn County and help Cedar Rapids, the suggested location of the casino, to recover from the 2008 flood.

People are not going to be beaten up at a casino in Iowa. Not one of the groups for or against the Linn County Casino seems to be worried about safety for the area around which the casino would be built. That is because casinos are safe, as long as the casino is not being used for a movie. Casinos are full of surveillance cameras and large security forces, which is another way jobs are created. If a person tried to beat someone up or get into a fight at a casino, the security guards would quickly stop that. Also, most casinos have valet parking so people are not wandering around on their own during the early hours in the morning. So people would not be attacked while they are walking to their cars (Burton).

A casino in Linn County, Iowa can help the economy by providing jobs and money for people in the county. If the 1996 statistics are anything to go by, gambling is going to bring in a lot more money than any other form of business could. Linn County needs to come up with a way to keep jobs in Linn County, so the casino is a perfect way to do that. The Iowa Racing and Gambling Commissions has the last say in the matter, but the people of Linn County get to decide if it will even go in front of the commission. So what should one say? Linn County needs the money to continue with the pleasant life that it has now. Vote Yes Linn County.

Bibliography

Burton, Bill. "Casino Safety." About.com Casino Gambling. About.com, 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.

Dorman, Todd. "Casino Ad War Begins." TheGazette Site Wide Activity RSS. The Gazette, 16 Jan. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

""Facts About Las Vegas" (1996 Statistics from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.)." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.

Gravelle, Steve. "More News Headlines." TheGazette Site Wide Activity RSS. The Gazette, 9 Jan. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

Luketic, Robert, dir. 21. Writ. Steinfeld Peter, Loeb Allan, Prod. Dana Brunetti, De Luca Michael, and Spacey Kevin. 2008. DVD. 23 Feb 2013.

Schmidt, Stephen. "Vote No Group Criticizes Prospective Linn County Casino Investors for Projected Nonprofit Donations - Marion, IA Patch." Marion Patch. Marion Patch, 5 Feb. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

"Vote Yes Linn County Website." Vote Yes Linn County. Vote Yes Linn Country, 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

Human Trafficking Presentation

Today I went to a presentation given about human trafficking. It was terrible and I don't mean that everything I learned was just so horrible that I couldn't even imagine it happening. I mean that the presentation was given by someone who did not have the whole public speaking gig down. She could have been outshone by any high school, maybe even middle school, students. First of all she had SHEETS of paper, not note cards, but sheets of paper with the whole presentation written out word for word. Secondly she had this power point that had exactly word for word what she was reading off of her sheets of paper. I mean I was reading it before she was even done speaking it. She should have stuck with 7 words per line and 7 lines per slide if she wanted a power point. I liked the pictures that she had for her power point, except she did not describe what we were seeing. They were just pictures and she did not have nearly enough pictures. Then she was very lacking in statistics to back her up. How do I know if human trafficking is an issue if she wasn't giving us statistics? The only statistic that she gave us was that human trafficking is a $32 billion industry.
Also she did not make the presentation relevant to teenagers. Mostly she just was talking about how truckers needed to do something about the problem. We aren't truckers!
The next thing that really got to me was how sexist she was. First of all she never talked much about the guys that go into human trafficking, but instead focused on the girls. Everyone knows that girls are part of human trafficking, not everyone knows about guys. It would have been a good idea to pull guys more into the issue. She was putting down guys so much, going off stereotypes that are not even one of the main stereotypes of this day and age. She said that all guys are drunks and gamblers and that women are the ones that have to bring in the dough in order to raise their children. I was so pissed at her, because while women are very successful now with jobs, men still have jobs! I hate sexist people -.- Men have just as many rights as women, there is no need for women to suddenly think that they are better than men! WE ARE EQUALS. And I'm not even sure what this sexist comment had to do with human trafficking.
All in all I was very disappointed with this presentation that I had been looking forward to hearing. I know that human trafficking is a problem, but I was not convinced by this lady of this. This was the first time I was told how big a problem human trafficking was, but is that true? There weren't any statistics to prove her points.
She was talking about how all of us should start buying Fair Trade Certified things once a month, but hey if no one else is doing it there is no point to it. Industries obviously are not noticing that we aren't buying from them anymore because so few people are doing that. I believe that human trafficking could be made into a hot topic, but there needs to be more done in order for this to happen. More people need to become involved. Nothing is going to change with the way they are fighting it right now. I mean the truckers might start helping out, but that doesn't stop human trafficking from happening. The fight against human trafficking should try out being like the women when they are fighting for suffrage. They let everyone know about the cause and that is what needs to happen.

Celebrities

I don't believe in the concept that we must follow everything about celebrities.....the way I see it is basically people start treating celebrities as gods who must be worshiped all the time. When they screw up they are the devil, but everyone still wants to be exactly like them. They aren't gods and they aren't the devil. They are just ordinary human beings that are making a living in the media. Who cares what they do outside of whatever it is they do for a living. That is their business and not ours. Plus if we are going to keep thinking them as gods or devils, it should be pointed out that God doesn't tell us what he's doing all the time and neither does Satan (if you believe in God and the devil that is). Anyway, I don't believe in celebrities! Humans are humans so leave the poor people alone already.

Depressed

My mother somehow got it into her head that it would be a great idea to make me change rooms since I'm leaving for college soon (in about 5 months). Obviously it is the most brilliant idea she has ever come up with. Put a girl who can barely stand change must less not having room for anything at all into the smallest room in the whole entire flipping house. That sounds like it will end up perfectly. It definitely won't end up with the girl in tears unable to even think. Let's talk this out now.....

1. This girl feels like her parents just want her gone, out of the house, not living with them anymore. They don't even care about her feelings on the matter! They just want her gone.
2. This girl is slightly claustrophobic and can't stand small spaces 
3. This girl is going to be sharing this room with her older sister when she comes home from college. There is not even enough room in the room for one girl much less two.

So how is this even going to work? I don't have a clue, all I know is that I now know what my family feels about me. They don't give a shit what I have to say, they just want me out of the house already. They can't wait to get rid of me. So thanks family, thanks so much for telling me how little you care about it -.- It is lovely knowing.

Incomplete Critical Review for FOTR

The Fellowship of the Ring revolves around the importance of destroying a ring even if it means splitting up the fellowship. Based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien with the screenplay written by­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ Fran Walsh and directed by Peter Jackson, a long journey begins with this discovery of the One Ring in this adventure and drama movie. Starring Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, John Rhys-Davis as Gimli, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Sean Bean as Boromir, Billy Boyd as Pippin and Dominic Monaghan as Merry, they form a group  to save the world from the evils of Sauron, the evil lord who wishes to control the world. The determination of their task is shown through the artfully crafted together scenes.   The Fellowship of the Ring portrays the hardship that friends must face together.

With the start of the movie, there is a hobbit in the possession of the One Ring. This hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, has grown weak towards the seductive power of it.  Once the ring is passed onto his nephew, Frodo must leave his home and go out into the world. The beginning of Frodo’s journey is much like a child leaving home for the first time to discover the world, except with the dramatic need to save the world.  As with a child leaving home for the first time, he is not alone on his mission. People are there to support him during his journey, from Samwise Gamgee to Aragorn, they all do their part to help him with his burden of carrying the ring. Frodo’s traveling companions go through many hardships as they travel towards Sauron to destroy the ring.