Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

MERRIAM-WEBSTER GETS WORDY

NOTE TO SELF: Pick up some agnolotti for supper

Perhaps you or someone you know participated in speed dating recently followed by a date where microgreens were eaten. If Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary is any indication, words like agnolotti (meaning: "pasta in the form of semicircular cases containing a filling (as of meat, cheese, or vegetables") or speed dating ("an event at which each participant converses individually with all the prospective partners for a few minutes in order to select those with whom dates are desired") will become part of our everyday vocabulary.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary updates its Collegiate dictionary every year with "new words, senses and variants." The word "ginormous" (meaning: extremely large, humungous) was one of 100 neolisms or the use of new words or senses of existing words added. Here are twenty out of the list of the 100 mentioned on their site:

1. agnolotti
2. Bollywood
3. chaebol
4. crunk
5. DVR
6. flex-cuff
7. ginormous
8. gray literature
9. hardscape
10. IED
11. microgreen
12. nocebo
13. perfect storm
14. RPG
15. smackdown
16. snowboardcross
17. speed dating
18. sudoku
19. telenovela
20. viewshed

Without going to their site, http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/newwords07.htm how many do you know without having to check on the meaning? A better challenge is how many can you use in one sentence?

Meanwhile, I'm feeling very crunk-ish due to all the microgreens I ate.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

NEXT STEP TO ELIMINATING THE HUMAN TOUCH?

NOTE TO SELF: another move to replace people?


Perhaps as many people do, you might have complained about the long wait at the supermarket to pay the cashier. Then again there's always the do-it-yourself scanning system that in theory but not necessarily in practice, makes the check-out faster. Yet another move afoot or at hand in this case has been created to improve on the self checkout system with the use of a high-tech hand-held personal scanner.

Just what we need in life: another "tool" to schlep along while shopping.

The way it works is shoppers remove an item off the shelf, scan it and bag it all on their own without any human intervention. Although more commonly used in Europe, North American supermarkets are beginning to introduce it slowly to consumers. Once they finished shopping customers head to the front of the store and have their credit cards scanned.

So how about customers who try to "forget" about paying for an item?

To avoid this occurence some shoppers are randomly picked for audits - as a reminder of course for those "oh my - who me?" occasions.

There is no information provided as to whether stores using this "service" make items available at a lower cost since customers do all the work. But then don't we always?

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/06/21/scan.as.you.shop.ap/index.html?eref=yahoo


Writers & Friends
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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

WEIGHING IN ON THE ONE AND TWO DOLLAR COINS:

NOTE TO SELF: Buy new wallet...again


The Royal Canadian Mint a while back decided to replace $1 and $2 bills with gold-colored coins. The rationale behind it is that paper money wears out especially the lower denominations that are used more often and replacing them with metal money is more cost effective.

Makes sense, right?

It might make sense to the Mint but it sure don't make sense to we Canadians! At first it was kind-of "different" but as time wore on as did our wallets/pocket books, many of us longed for the "good old days" when paper bills were the norm. Wallets, many of which are not manufactured in Canada, are not created to withstand the weight of large coins, neither are they designed to hold large coins. So along with your plethora of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters plus the loonies and two-nies, it's a weighty situation. Sore shoulder-itis is a common affliction and the coins in general are also a pain in the butt.

Buoyed with confidence that they did a good thing saving the tax payers money, the Mint hinted through the media that a $5 coin could be in the works. This did not go over well with Canadians and at present it remains on the backburner. Let's hope it stays there. Forever.


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