Some things that piss me the fuck off

[trinityvixen]

Time for a good old-fashioned gripe. Here's what's annoying me this week!

1. People who pronounce things wrong.I don't mean people who don't speak English well or have accents. They are lovely and allowed to speak with accents all their life for all I care, especially if they are British. (Or Australian. Or Kiwi. Or even South African, though I

Comments

[linaerys]

I love Paul Campos, but then I read the comments and now I need to take a shower.

>:( Sometimes I really hate people.

[kent_allard_jr]

The commentors at the Daily Beast are horrible, although Campos catches flack at the much more civilized Lawyers, Guns and Money for pushing the comparisons to insane levels. (Recommend diets for your patients? That's just like pushing "reparative therapy" for gays! Think obesity is a problem? You're just like a torture apologist!)

Believe me, I'd love to live in a world where every visit to the doctor isn't accompanied by a stop-being-a-fatty lecture, but I'm not sure he helps the cause.

[trinityvixen]

The first rule of web 2.0 is don't read comments. I just can't read them any more. Unless I know the tenor of them from long association with a blog--almost never a news site--I just don't. I mean, it will make me want to drop a bomb on most people and not feel sorry about it.

[ivy03]

I've heard stasis pronounced "stah-sis" in certain technical applications. Unfortunately, the OED is behind a pay wall, so I can't check the comprehensive source.

Is harass one word or two? heh

[agrumer]

Merriam-Webster says: \ˈstā-səs, ˈsta-\

The first is the a in ace; the second is the a in ash.

[ivy03]

Yes. I am saying I've heard it pronounced differently in technical settings. Merriam Webster is not comprehensive, and I don't have access to a resource that is short of a library. I did check, and I do know IPA.

[trinityvixen]

I work in about as technical a place as it gets--okay, not really, but we're pretty technical, and I've been around scientists a while now and I've never heard "STAH-sis." I would have thought, if it were at all popular I'd have heard it at least once. Maybe it's an engineering thing?

[edgehopper]

Meme Roth : Fat Acceptance :: Glenn Beck : Liberalism. That is, she's the most offensive, ridiculous, awful person opposing the group, but for some inexplicable reason she's considered the spokesperson (presumably because she's the head of her one person organization that sounds authoritative?) Every time something like this happens, she pops out of the woodwork to say something nutty. If journalists included an obligatory, "Meme Roth got birthday celebration cupcakes banned at her kids' school as part of her crusade," people would have the appropriate reaction to her insanity

[trinityvixen]

MeMe Roth...how was it phrased? Some blog pointed out that calling yourself "MeMe" is as sure a sign of narcissism as anything. She's sick. I am mad at her, and I loathe her tactics, but I don't hate her, really. I pity her. Because she is obviously less healthy than the obese people she targets. She's clinically unwell and needs help, not attention

[edgehopper]

It seems like the next one should be the future scenario, where Desmond finally becomes the main character--he should have learned all he can about assassin techniques by the end of AC2.

If not that...I'm skeptical of Japan, because Japanese history doesn't have as much appeal the the Americans and Europeans who are AC's main audience (sure, ninjas are cool, but the rest...) Given the focus on early 20th century industrialists in the AC2 files, I'd like to see something involving the 1900-1930 era. Make Tesla a major secondary character, filling Da Vinci's role in AC2. Assassinate presidents, posit some huge conspiracy behind Archduke Ferdinand's assassination and WWI, that sort of thing.

[trinityvixen]

It seems like the next one should be the future scenario, where Desmond finally becomes the main character--he should have learned all he can about assassin techniques by the end of AC2.

If I were Ubisoft, I'd save that for a fourth game :)

I mean, you're absolutely right, that is the next logical place to take the game, especially with Desmond being all leveled up in the present. And because they will, eventually, run out of things to add to the overarching mythos that connects Desmond to what his ancestors discovered, they should probably jump on having Desmond actually explore this thread that he didn't really realize connected everything until just now. However, from a purely capitalistic point of view, it's in Ubisoft's best interest to hold back that conclusion--because, really, what could come after that resolution?--as long as they think they can without losing too many gamers. Given the depth they've got in this series, I'd say they could take it to five games, though that might be pushing it.

If not that...I'm skeptical

[ivy03]

Read the Kevin Smith article. I'm split on the issue of airplane seats. One the one hand, the airlines are absolutely pushing the blame for having seats smaller than the average American onto the customer and cloaking it in culturally accepted bigotry

[agrumer]

On the other hand, when you buy a plane ticket, you are not buying a trip from A to B, you are buying a specific amount of space on a plane going from A to B, which is priced accordingly.

Actually, the determining factors behind airplane pricing are nowhere near this simple and clear-cut. Same for clothing and jewelry prices, for that matter.

[edgehopper]

The problem on Southwest, from what I know of their policies, is that they aren't clear about it but will screw you over at the gate, often embarassingly. I don't have a huge problem with discrimination here, but I would prefer to know what the standard is in advance, so I know that I actually would rather take the $180 Airtran flight over the $130 Southwest flight.

[ivy03]

Agreed. Not letting you know in advance, but instead publicly humiliating you and ruining your plans--and couching it as your fault--that's not cool.

Of course it serves them if the entire population gets smaller--more people, more sales. So it seems like they're doing their small, ineffective part to try to shame people thinner, instead of actually selling something that fits most of the population.

I realize that most of my argument above about sizist pricing is about having to pay more for sizes that are outside the norm. In this case, it's the airplane seats that are outside the norm.

[cubby_t_bear]

Spelling does the same thing to me. I don't care if "orientated" is an acceptable alternative spelling. It's "oriented," damn it all.

One of the most knowledgeable signals people I ever knew always called it "mo-DEM" (and he was around when they were invented). So I guess it's definitely an acceptable pronounciation, but always sounded weird to my ears all the same.

[trinityvixen]

I have to believe that "mo-DEM" is an early pronunciation. So usage changed. I'll give that a pass. But "STAH-sis"? BLOW ME.

[ivy03]

Pedant!