this week’s rant

Why is it when rookies open up with Hi, So, or Well do I think two things:-
No one taught then English Grammar at school and they've just screwed up an installation.

Hi Howie,
Well I don't have an english GranMa to you can't mean me....
So who are ewe referring to?
And I didn't screw up an installation - it turned out my new Thunderbird download was faulty.

And if referring to grammar, we weren't taught that in schools because "communication" was more important (they must have predicted nu & txt speak the same way the predicted the high suicides of the 1990s due to massive leisure time).
Oddly enough I wasn't taught grammar until 2nd year German when our new teacher gave us a crash course in disgust - how else could she teach them dem den die das etc, or he "Gestraffen Englandt"! (The Lockheed F-104 & the Starfighters album refers.)

But then again it is typical of ewe poms confusing your flock.... Those imported idiots I worked with here accuse us of not knowing the Queen's English. Ignoramuses!

However, to all intensive purposes you are completely correct.
Now back to my intent & purpose..... Windoze rebuild...

Howie... I agree completely. 100%. (And if my grammar or spelling goes askew, it's not because I don't know better, it's because the Pinot Noir is speaking louder than I am...)

I just need to interject quickly, here... If you've never seen "Blue Man Group - How to be a Mega Star Live", PUT IT IN YOUR NETFLIX QUEUE, NOW! Oh, my, God... Stunning visually and musically... Next time I get to Vegas, my money is being left at a BMG concert, not the tables... LOL

Back to the original comment...

South Korea, as an example, is beating the US in secondary education THIS bad: 93% of all students there, are graduating ON TIME. In the US? 74% total, EVER receive a diploma at all, let alone on time. I's embarrassing. SOUTH KOREA! One of the last nations I know of to make "industrialized" status.

Can't speak to the educational capacities on your respective "sides o' the pond", but over here, we have adopted a waste of time and energy, called "No Child Left Behind". Enacted by our previous "Monkey-in-Chief", en effectively ensures every student a free pass through school, forget performance. In the few years since it was "accepted" (not by me, I assure you), the US has slowly declined in it's educational world standings, currently (as of March, 2009) we are 18th of 36 in industrialized nations secondary schooling category. I was unable to locate hard numbers for primary schooling, but all reports to those results are not pretty.

I personally believe Bush Jr., was so hot for this, because he was sick of simple high school students being dramatically smarter than he was. He was afraid that SOMEONE might catch his gross mispronunciation: "nucular"

Anyway... I'm sick of it, as well, but what can be done? Nothing, and I suppose we just adapt to the "dumbing down". Stay strong, my educated and educationally concerned brothers!

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Haemphyst- Pinot Noir? I figured you for a Zin guy....or straight scotch on the more degrading comments :)

Funny post Howie, makes me want to check all my old posts to see if my grammar is up to par...
As far as being a rookie, here's a true story. I lost a channel on my first home receiver back in junior high after hooking up(to the best of my memory, but in all honesty) 2-15's, 5-12's, 5-10's, 6-6x9's, and various 4" mids and tweets crossed over, all in parallel divided amongst 2 channels. Sounded great(to a 13 year old) for 20 mins.

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This is what I do for FUN!

I put AA batteries in series with mine to increase the power.

I better pull back slightly, I observe patterns, I assume we do this professional all the time on fault diagnosis anyway. Those with poor grammar, spelling etc. all appear to have mangled or mullered* there installs.
H. I absolutely agree with you ref. the eduction system, it's the same in this country, too many standards dropped at an early age, when I was 8 (still living in caves) I was taught to say because of when owing to and due to referred only to money.
I will name names here, yourself, Oldspark (Peter never in my wildest dreams would I consider you a novice), Wallace, Idiot, KP, KTM, Luongo, Tommy NEVER make spelling or grammatical mistakes, and post in clear, concise language.
There's a young lad on this site, lives in Canada, when he's at home his parents probably speak in a mixture of English, Chinese, Viet and French. He never makes a mistake, also a youngster from Trinidad, ditto.
*Mullered lovely English expression meaning to f**k up whatever you're working on.

i hardley bareley ever make msstakes in when i poste.

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ianarian wrote:

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Haemphyst- Pinot Noir? I figured you for a Zin guy....or straight scotch on the more degrading comments :)

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Yeah... The Pinots are certainly up and coming in my wine palate. I really am a Zin guy at heart! Scotch? Not yet, but I used to say the same thing about Bourbon! LOL Bulleit "neat", please!

howie ll wrote:

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...mullered* there installs.

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mullered "their" installs... :)

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

There instead of their was the least of it, try reading the first line in my last post, it should have read "I assume we professionals do this all the time on fault diagnosis at least". Forget spell check, I need a bloody context check!
Apologies to haemphyst.
KTM I'll let you do almost anything right now, you're still on cloud nine!

Oi - leave my buddy alone....

haemphyst wrote:

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....the US has slowly declined in it's educational world standings....

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declined in "its" education... :)

oldspark wrote:

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Oi - leave my buddy alone....

haemphyst wrote:

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....the US has slowly declined in it's educational world standings....

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declined in "its" education... :)

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DAMMIT! GRRR!

I *did* say the Pinot was speaking aloud last night!

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Must defend haemphyst (is that Greek? sounds like a Scandinavian/Greek mixup). I have to stop and think, its or it's. Surely in context "its" was correct? Your and you're and yaw and yore always gets to foreigners.

Rats - no defense - I'm out of wine. Where's my Ouzo (should that be Ouz-eee? Or is that defence?)
Luckily though, plenty of whine. Must be that Englishman heritage....

I like the old its. It's got as many apostrophes as there are c's in superseded (or n's in a restaurant owner).
Alas it's difficult explaining that its is the possessive form of it, so its possessive form is its. True it's!

It's often easier saying that if it's NOT 2 words, then it's its.
(2 words meaning it is, it was, etc.)


So, does that mean I'm smart? Or I just smart?
Smart amn't I? (That's my Mum's - she pointed out how grammatically incorrect "smart aren't I?" is. Or was.)

Is this an English Class? Or old English class? IM (I'm) having bad flashbacks to high school dayz.

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thetopinstaller

howie ll wrote:

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Must defend haemphyst (is that Greek? sounds like a Scandinavian/Greek mixup).

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Haemphyst is simply an "Ye Olde English" spelling for "hamfist". See defintion 2.

Hamfisted: Adjective (comparative more ham-fisted, superlative most ham-fisted); 1. Clumsy, heavy, or inept; 2. not delicate, light or gentle.

I was branded with this moniker when working with my buddy in his garage, and I "just happened" to over-tighten a wingnut... By hand. He was unable to loosen it - by hand - and he proceeded to mumble profanities - involving "hamfist" - my way, and it just stuck. The spelling came from my OTHER buddy Tim, when we were trying to come up with a name for myself in one or another online game... It's a bit of a comment on my view of life: Go bigger, harder, faster, (and any other -er you can lay thoughts upon) or go home.

Also known as "When overkill is a good place to start."


<scratch head>

howie ll wrote:

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I have to stop and think, its or it's. Surely in context "its" was correct? Your and you're and yaw and yore always gets to foreigners.

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OK... Thank you for making me re-re-read that line. It WAS posessive, therefore "it's".

Stop the thread, I wanna get off! LOL

</scratch head>

oldspark wrote:

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Rats - no defense - I'm out of wine. Where's my Ouzo (should that be Ouz-eee? Or is that defence?)
Luckily though, plenty of whine. Must be that Englishman heritage....

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Oh, those Brits and their "c's"... :) My mother-in-law is British, and she always made fun of American spellings... It amused us! :)

oldspark wrote:

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I like the old its. It's got as many apostrophes as there are c's in superseded (or n's in a restaurant owner).

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TWO apostrophes?

oldspark wrote:

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Alas it's difficult explaining that its is the possessive form of it, so its possessive form is its. True it's!

It's often easier saying that if it's NOT 2 words, then it's its.
(2 words meaning it is, it was, etc.)

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But we now know that all generalizations are false! LOL

oldspark wrote:

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So, does that mean I'm smart? Or I just smart?
Smart amn't I? (That's my Mum's - she pointed out how grammatically incorrect "smart aren't I?" is. Or was.)

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What a small world... I used to hear MY mother use that phrase ALL THE TIME

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

That's rather funny haemphyst, at least I wasa half right about the origins (Danish, North Germans, became the Anglo Saxons, hence "Olde Englishe"
The irony is my name Howard derives from the Anglo Saxon HOGWARDEN, or the "keeper of the King's Hogs". Bet my old yiddish bubba from Byelorussia never realised what my mum was doing.

To heck with those Danes - what have they done - not much (I'm paraphrasing the Danish Ambassador)....

Haemo and I have too much in common.... it's scary. Especially the Tim's... (I'll see two tonight - one at his party, the other my bro.)
And we both have mothers (as do Tims)! (Mine gave me a good grounding in car mechanics and driving, as well as words like splugs, sparts, and other funny spoonerisms. Clever too. And shall be obeyed (lol).)    

And FTR - there were never any C's in supersede or superseded (except that over 80% of people and advertisements used supercede...).
And of course we all know there are no n's in restaurateur.
Then again, I'm Aussie, so stuff those fascist authoritarian rules!

My wife's asian(8 years in US). A while back we were traveling on vacation and she tried to find a McDonald's on the GPS. In LA, California, she couldnt(COULD NOT-I KNOW, SHUT UP, I AM LAZY) locate one on the Garmin, just as we passed by one of their high signs along the freeway. I grab the GPS outta her hand and read her typed search name---McDonno. Priceless!

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This is what I do for FUN!

ianarian wrote:

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My wife's asian(8 years in US). A while back we were traveling on vacation and she tried to find a McDonald's on the GPS. In LA, California, she couldnt(COULD NOT-I KNOW, SHUT UP, I AM LAZY) locate one on the Garmin, just as we passed by one of their high signs along the freeway. I grab the GPS outta her hand and read her typed search name---McDonno. Priceless!

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That is pretty funny! Man, I've been away too long........