New Top Ten List

Here is a link to my second Top Ten list that was just published.  I am particularly excited about this one because it combines my love for obscure trivia with my love for the Olympics.  I took my oldest son to the Atlanta Olympic Game back in 1996 (the 100th anniversary of the game) and we had a great time.  We were just there for one day, but we saw pretty much everything there was to see.  It was the experience of a lifetime.

Job Interview

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am currently self-employed.  However, I continue looking for employment, especially in the Social Work field.  Tomorrow morning I have an interview for just such a position.  It is part-time so I should have some flexibility in my schedule for school and my miniature golf business.  The position is with a large, well-established human services organization, so there would be room for advancement when I complete my Masters program.  I'm hoping the interview goes well.

On a similar note, I start my Spring classes on Monday.  At the same time I am on call for jury duty for the month of February.  Since my classes are all on Mondays and court is not in session on Mondays, it should work out fine from that standpoint.  Surprisingly enough, in my roughly 35 years of being eligible, I have never been called up for jury duty.  It should be an interesting experience.

4 Symbols that Have Been Given New Life Because of the Internet

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I like to make lists.  This one stemmed from my contemplation of different symbols used on the internet.  Enjoy.

     We all remember taking typing class.  Okay those of us over forty remember taking a typing class.  The rest of you remember taking “keyboarding” class.  Anyway, we remember the finger positions for the letters and (if you were really good) the numbers as well.  We also had to know where the shift, return, spacebar, period, comma and quotation mark keys were.  However, most of the other keys were largely ignored except when we had those excruciating bonus assignments that used the upper case of the numbers row and practice the !, $, %, ^, &, *, (, ), etc.  Inevitably, in order to type these we had to break the cardinal rule and look at the keyboard.  However, since the introduction of the internet (yes, young ones, there was a time before the internet) there are a few symbols that have seen a surge of life.  These previously ignored symbols are now part of our everyday keyboarding experience.

4 - / (Slash)

The slash is often referred to (inaccurately) as the backslash.  It is also sometimes referred to as the stroke or the forward slash (just to confuse those who call it a backslash).  It has a long history.  It dates back to ancient Rome.  It is most commonly used as substitute for the word “or” such as his/hers, I/we, etc.  It can also be used to separate the day/month/year.  Other than these uses, it was seldom part of everyday usage (unless you were on a bowling team that picked up a lot of spares).  However, with the onset of the internet, the slash is now literally used everywhere.  Every website starts out with http://.  In addition, the slash is also used as a component separator.  It has truly made a long journey from ancient Rome. 

3 - : (Colon)

The colon has been part of our written language since ancient Greece.  In the past, most people avoided using colons and semi-colons because, despite the best efforts of our high school English teachers, it was just too confusing as to which one should be used when.  That all changed in 1982 when Scott Fahlman came up with the idea of the emoticon and used the colon, the dash, and the closing parenthesis to make a smiley face :-) and the opening parenthesis to make a sad face :-(  Once this caught on, people came up with all kinds of variations, but almost all of them included the colon (or semi-colon for a wink).

2 - # (Pound Sign)

While the pound sign was used as a numbering system (as seen in this list) it was otherwise generally ignored.  It garnered a bit of recognition when the touchtone phones included the pound sign and the mostly-ignored-counterpart-on-the-other-side-of-the-zero asterisk (*).  It continued to gain popularity with the implementation of automated answering systems (press the pound sign when complete).  However, it stagnated for quite a while after that.  Then along came Twitter and the pound sign was reinvented as the Hashtag.  Now the pound sign/hashtag has become a part of our daily lives :) Did you notice how I snuck in both a slash and a colon in that last sentence?

1 - @ (At Sign)

The @ (or at sign) has some curious origins.  Curious in that no one really knows where it started.  There are several theories as to its origins.  Some believe it was a mercantile shorthand symbol of "each at"—the symbol resembling a small "a" inside a small "e"—to distinguish it from the different "at" (symbolized by the mere letter "a") or "per.  Another theory is that it derives from the Norman French "à" meaning "at" in the "each" sense, i.e. "2 widgets à £5.50 = £11.00" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/@

     The Oxford dictionary says, “This sign originated as a scribe's quick way of writing the Latin word ad, especially in lists of prices of commodities. It's usually just known as 'the at sign' or 'the at symbol':  although it has acquired various nicknames in other languages none of these has so far caught on in English.” http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-sign

     Whatever its origin, it has been used in many cultures and languages over the centuries, including Spanish, Portugese, Arabic, Latin and English.  In all these, its use was mostly confined to commerce and trade.  About the only time the rest of us used the at sign was when we accidentally hit the shift key and the number two key at the same time.  Ironically, despite the usage of the at sign in multiple cultures and languages, it has never been given an official name in English.  Hence we still refer to it as the “at sign”.

     It’s likely that the poor @ would have languished forever in the storage basements with accounting ledgers if not for the intervention of the internet, and more specifically, e-mail.  BBN Technologies' Ray Tomlinson is credited with introducing this usage in 1971.  This idea of the symbol representing located at in the form user@host is also seen in other tools and protocols.  According to Tomlinson, “I am frequently asked why I chose the “at” sign, but the “at” sign just makes sense. The purpose of the “at” sign (in English) was to indicate a unit price (for example, 10 items @ $1.95). I used the at sign to indicate that the user was "at" some other host rather than being local.” http://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html

Vlog Brothers

Like most bloggers I will probably write more entries early on in my blog and then slow down as time goes on.  Sorry if that' the case, but such is our nature I guess.

 

This will be a fairly short entry as I have to teach today.  In addition to my small business, and my college classes, I also substitute teach.  I have my teaching degree in Elementary Education and although I have taught full-time in the classroom for many years, I still enjoy working with kids, so I substitute teach.  It works out well because I can work around my class schedule and my business obligations.

 

My main topic today is the Vlog Brothers, otherwise known as John and Hank Green.  If you have a teenager, you may know the name John Green.  He has written several brilliant Young Adult fiction novels, including most recently, The Fault in Our Stars (which is soon to be a major motion picture).  It has also been on the NY Times Bestsellers list and has received numerous other accolades.

 

Anyway, the Vlog Brothers started out as a series of video blogs that Hank and John did for each other on YouTube.  They took turns corresponding every other day.  Within a year their following had grown and their followers became known as Nerdfighters.  Since that time they have started several fund raising organizations and produced several amazing classroom type video series - Crash Course World History, Crash Course US History, Crash Course Science, etc. that look at these subjects in a fun and refreshing new way.

 

I highly recommend their vlogs and their Crash Courses.  Check them out on Youtube.  You can get all their information on the Nerdfighter's website above or get more info on Wikipedia.

 

As John and Hank would say, DFTBA (which stands for: Don't Forget to be Awesome)

 

Lists

One of my favorite pastimes is trivia.  I have been a trivia fanatic for most of my life.  I enjoy finding those little known unusual facts about...well pretty much anything.  Obviously once the internet came along I was in trivia heaven.  I could look up everything and anything from my own computer.  Recently I have been submitting lists to various listing websites and I finally had my first one published a few weeks ago.  http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-movie-actors-who-recreated-their-roles-for-television.php 

 

This was particularly exciting because I have been a regular reader of Top Tenz for the past couple of year and I've always enjoyed their lists.  I have two other lists that have also been approved and should be published within the next couple of weeks.  I will post these when they come up.  In the meantime I have a few other lists that they chose to pass on (which I understand completely) but I enjoyed writing and I plan to post on this blog at a later date.  In the meantime, enjoy my first published item above.

New Beginnings

I decided to start this blog because it marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life.  I have decided, at the age of 53, to go back to college and pursue my Masters Degree in Social Work.  There were many factors that contributed to this decision and I won't bore anyone with them at this point, but I believe it's the right decision at this time in my life.  Time will tell.