Month: September 2004

Presidential Debate Bingo! Print it out and play along at home!

…when it was pointed out to me that the spouse of my best friend Vicki is now an author! The Dictionary of Uncomfortable Words: What to Avoid Saying in Polite (or Any) Conversation by Andrew Witham and Brian Snyder, published by Cumberland House Publishing, is now on bookstore shelves around the country, and available at Amazon. Congratulations Brian! Some of the Amazon description:

The Dictionary of Uncomfortable Words contains more than 650 words and definitions that make people uncomfortable when in public. These are not dirty words, but rather uncomfortable words like “dike,” “flaccid,” or “penal.”

“Over the years,” the authors write, “we have repeatedly found ourselves stifling laughter at certain words, such as ‘tool,’ ‘dump,’ and ‘moist.’ Other words such as ‘spackle,’ ‘loaf,’ and ‘frothy’ sound plain peculiar. And still other words, while perfectly harmless, like ‘masticate,’ ‘climax,’ and ‘undulate,’ made us want to hide our heads in shock. We noticed that a lot of other people had the same reactions. They’re not dirty words, but they cause a markedly uncomfortable reaction in a group.”

Realizing a dictionary was necessary to alert the public, they created The Dictionary of Uncomfortable Words. Each word is followed by a brief explanation of why it makes people uneasy when spoken, such as:

• Abhor: Looks innocuous enough on paper but utterly filthy when spoken aloud.
• Bull: In most circles, this word is merely a prefix. We prefer the term “man-cow.”
• Congeal: Just because gooey becomes crusty doesn’t mean we want to hear about it.
• Crotch: This word is disturbing even when referring to trees.
• Dingleberry: This is one fruit you don’t want to eat.
• Half-cocked: Sounds like a circumcision that went too far.
• Horehound: A drunk with too much money in his pocket on Saturday night

Doing a lot of research for my new job regarding accessibility standards for disabled users of the web, and have a couple of good resources for anyone doing any kind of web design these days.

Online Accessibility Course from the University of Florida
Very good tutorial, with a ton of information that I would have never thought of on my own, like putting in links to skip navigation bars so that visually impared users can skip them in order to get to the content with a screen reader.

The NIDE Cascading Style Sheet Generator from the University of Toronto
A style sheet creator specifically designed for local CSS use for various disabilities. Allows you to create CSS for visually impared, motor-skill difficulties, and other differently abled patrons.

…for the course that Justin, Jean and I took with Paul Jones on Virtual Communities. From Wired:

“Aaron Delwiche, an assistant professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, often gathers students in his Games for the Web class in an unlikely classroom: the metaverse known as Second Life….In order to help teachers bring their classes to Second Life, Linden Lab donates accounts for each student, as well as an acre of land in the metaverse for the teacher and students to work and build on.”

…shiver me timbers, it’s Talk Like a Pirate Day. If ya be needed me, I’ll be on the mizzenmast, sippin’ my lot o’ grog. Arrrrr…….

Or, in our case, The Real Paul Jones. Via Justinsomnia, of course.

He finally caved, after two years of Justin, Jean and I bugging him about one. 🙂 Paul, if you’re reading this, why did you finally give in and become a blogger?

In other random online news, two of my favorite librarians are guest blogging over at Commons-Blog. Head over and say hello to Jessamyn and Eli.

It’s been way too long between posts. I started my new job as Web Specialist for Middle Tennessee State University this week. I’ll be assisting with oversight on the homepage, as well as consulting with faculty on their web projects. So far, I’ve just barely gotten a handle on the layout of their stuff…everywhere has a different workflow, and a different way of doing things. Not to mention different capabilities. Gotta learn that not everywhere is up on the whole PHP/MySQL method of web development. 🙁

Overall, I think it’s gonna go well. I’m guaranteed to learn a lot, and that’s still something.

From Wired, Dick’s latest inane commentary, along with a zinger from everyone’s favorite VP candidate, John Edwards.

“Is Dick Cheney trying to prove he’s hip to the internet? Speaking Thursday in Cincinnati, Cheney downplayed recent negative economic indicators, such as unemployment rates and consumer spending, because they miss an important source of income for Americans: eBay. “That’s a source that didn’t even exist 10 years ago,” Cheney said. “Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay.” Let’s hope these folks aren’t selling off their belongings to stay afloat. John Edwards, the Democratic VP challenger, responded: “If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking.”
— Debra Jones”