Sad news

Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's. He describes it as "an embuggerance" and says "Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet :o)"

Still.

It's a horrible disease and he is way too young (59!!) to have to deal with this crap. I was hoping we'd have a new Discworld novel every couple of years until he was in his eighties. I'm hoping that this is an early diagnosis (sounds like it is), and that all the exciting new tech they're working on for Alz patients will be put to good use on Pterry and he'll have a lot longer to be himself and keep writing.

File under: Geekiness
Posted at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

McWhatNow?

A new AIM bot has appeared in my chat program - McLovin12Four. Googling shows me nada, except that other people are Googling about it too.

Any of my readers know what this is?

File under: Geekiness
Posted at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Linguistic Geekitude

Peter and I wound up talking for something like half an hour the other day about whether or not "Christmas tree light repairman" is a word in English. (It is one in German, which is how the matter came up.)

His blog entry explains things pretty thoroughly, I think. I do, however, still maintain that I'm right - "Christmas tree light repairman" is four words, not one.

Unnervingly enough, everything I look up to support my assertion is pretty inconclusive (see his dictionary samples) . For example: Quoth The Deluxe Transitive Vampire, "A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or abstraction. ... Compound nouns are nouns made up of more than one word: razzle-dazzle, bedroom, cream puff, toothache, bubble bath, nuit blanche, she-wolf, shadowboxing, guardian angel, gun control, amour-propre, white-collar worker..." So, "Christmas tree light repairman" is a compound noun (it names a person or an abstraction, I think). But is it a word? Well, it's made up of words, so it should be something else, right? But, a noun is a word and it's a word, so...

*headdesk*

This is why being a grammar/language geek is at once awesome and frustrating. Ultimately, this is all meaningless semantics, but I like closure. And since I have a strong appeal to authority, I like it when authorities (like dictionaries) are conclusive. But in this case, they're not. Sigh.

File under: Geekiness
Posted at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Further proof that I am a geek

Some time before Rock Band came out, I mentioned to Twon that I should ping the guy who runs the music school I used to attend and ask for a drum lesson to help me out on drums.

Then we got Rock Band, and I kinda sucked on drums, so I emailed him to ask about getting a oneoff lesson.

He said yes!

Last night, I went to a music school and spent half an hour learning from a pro with forty years of teaching experience so that I can do better at a video game.

I am a geek, and I am proud of it!

File under: Geekiness
Posted at 03:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Mark Morford on the Golden Compass

Mark Morford's column on the Golden Compass hits the nail right on the head. Be sure to follow his links, there is a lot of good reading in there.

File under: Political Schtuff
Posted at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)