Bloggermania!
The campus appears to be in the grip of a “blogging craze.” “Several people at the University,” reports the Daily, “are following this trend.”
The campus appears to be in the grip of a “blogging craze.” “Several people at the University,” reports the Daily, “are following this trend.”
University Course 151 — Community in the 21st Century: Exploring Home, Identity and Place in Virtual Context == Another reason why engineering students continue to look down on social science students…and feel justified doing so.
posted by Engineer Guy on March 16th, 2004 at 2:53 amMan, there’s millions of ‘em. Over 1000 live journals, a huge amount of Diarylands (more popular at Eastern for some reason), and probably a good hundred other blogs around here.
posted by js on March 16th, 2004 at 11:57 amNow, whether they’re all worth reading…
(And can I just take a moment to complain about “myraid”? It bothers me every time I see it misused in an ostensibly copy-edited piece. It DOESN’T TAKE AN ARTICLE! You have myraid blogs, not “a myriad of blogs.” /grammar nazi)
js
Right on, js. “a myriad of” makes me want to vomit. Perhaps my problems go beyond a love of proper grammar …
posted by RDS on March 16th, 2004 at 12:04 pmI never thought of blogs as a “craze” — sort of like hula hoops and marathon dancing. I bet there are several people at the university that still do both.
Hey engineering guy — big world out there, with many things worth learning about. You’ll understand that when you grow up.
posted by Sam on March 16th, 2004 at 1:25 pmWhat? Blogging is cool now? Sign me up!
posted by srah on March 16th, 2004 at 1:51 pmSir j.s. grammar nazi –
Myriad is both an adjective and a noun, so “a myriad of” is a perfectly cromulent use of the word. Any dictionary will tell you this.
Unless you really mean “myraid,” in which case I don’t know what to tell you.
/spelling nazi
posted by speicus on March 16th, 2004 at 2:10 pmI’m suprised you folks didn’t comment on the Daily’s use of space to endorse two unopposed candidates on the editorials page
posted by Mike on March 16th, 2004 at 6:53 pmIndeed, Sam, there are many worthwhile things to learn about outside of one’s own field–but in all fairness this “university course” sounds like the purest marshmallow fluff. I’m sure it’s popular. Easy A. But you could give an overview of the ways in which people stay virtually connected in an hour. Yes, you could–no arguing.
posted by Laura on March 16th, 2004 at 7:52 pmI also find it upsetting when people use “irregardless.”
posted by Alex on March 16th, 2004 at 8:40 pmBlogging craze??? Ohhhhhhh… I thought they said “pogging craze.” I’ll put my slammer back in the drawer.
posted by Brandon on March 17th, 2004 at 12:55 amBrandon. Get with it.
The Daily has its finger on the zeitgeist pulse. Let’s all take notes.
posted by Laura on March 17th, 2004 at 1:40 amYes, Alex, “irregardless” is one of those minor yet infuriating shibboleths to we who see (or perhaps just imagine) a mushroom cloud rising over what was the English language.
posted by Laura on March 17th, 2004 at 1:47 am(don’t get me wrong–it grates on me too).
posted by Laura on March 17th, 2004 at 1:48 am“Irregardless” got me into an hour long fight with my girlfriend after I corrected her on it. Which, I guess, was obnoxious– but irregardless isn’t a word! What, without without regard? With regard? Grr.
posted by js on March 17th, 2004 at 8:31 amjs
“I could care less” is mine. “I COULDN’T care less”, folks! I “could” care less doesn’t make sense!
posted by Anna on March 17th, 2004 at 10:44 amSure it makes sense! Sometimes you could care less, and sometimes you couldn’t. Am I being contrary? I don’t mean to be!
Sorry, in case you all haven’t noticed, I do a lot of procrastinating in the AAIO comment section. Way more fun than writing papers…
posted by Alex on March 17th, 2004 at 12:04 pmMe too, Alex (working on paper revisions).
I agree that the phrase “could care less” is grammatically and syntactically fine. In the context in which it’s usually used — meaning that the person DOESN’T care — it doesn’t make sense. “Could care less” means DOES care (as in, “in another situation, I might care less about this, but, actually, I care”.).
posted by Anna on March 17th, 2004 at 12:37 pmWell, I’m with you on that one, Anna. That chaffes almost as much as people who say “orientated.”
posted by js on March 17th, 2004 at 12:59 pmjs
I’ve noticed recently that some people are moving from their “irregardless” abomination to “irrespective”. I’m starting to lose faith that people can ever change.
And I hear you guys about procrastination. Back to my problem set now.
posted by Nick on March 17th, 2004 at 6:58 pmNick –
Irrespective, unlike irregardless, is a proper word. What makes “irregardless” incoherent is its redundant pairing of the negative prefix “ir-” and the negative suffix “-less.” Irrespective doesn’t have the suffix, so it’s fine, and its definition is very distinct from the definition of respective.
Come on, people, you disappoint me! If you are going to be stuffy and pseudointellectual about grammar, at least get it right! This is your final warning before I… uh, before I correct you again.
posted by speicus on March 17th, 2004 at 8:21 pmIrrespective is totally copacetic (another ridiculous word). But I agree with Nick that it still sounds retarded. Does anybody here play scrabble?
posted by Alex on March 17th, 2004 at 8:41 pmscrabble fiend here.
posted by Laura on March 17th, 2004 at 9:40 pmMe too. We should have an AAIO Scrabble tournament.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 18th, 2004 at 12:34 pmI’m a Scrabble player too
posted by Hillary on March 18th, 2004 at 3:55 pmI invited Laura to a game of e-scrabble. I’ll invite the rest of you too.
posted by Alex on March 18th, 2004 at 3:57 pmHmm, well, I’ve invited AAIO, but I can’t find Hillary’s email addy. If you wanna play, go to www.e-scrabble.com and invite us to join a game.
posted by Alex on March 18th, 2004 at 4:00 pmI wanna play Scrabble!
Engineering guy, that course may be fluff, but judging from the writing skills I witnessed when I was an engineering student, a lot of those misantropes up north would be hard-pressed to pass your average humanities course.
I could care less is sarcastic. Emphasis on the could. Try it.
posted by snickerdoodle on March 19th, 2004 at 10:34 pmYeah, I always used to think that “I could care less” meant “I care so little, that part of that little bit of caring could disappear and I wouldn’t even care.” Sort of like an asymptotically decreasing level of caring that never quite hits 0. (Then I realized that I have a tendency to overthink these things.)
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 20th, 2004 at 12:15 amRight. First derivative of caring with respect to annoyance less than zero, second derivative greater than zero.
posted by Nick on March 20th, 2004 at 11:05 amNah, it changed over the years because people misused it. It used to be, “I really couldn’t care less”. Beside, sarcasm is the humor of the unfunny.
posted by Anna on March 20th, 2004 at 12:58 pmOr is that facetiousness?
And here I was, thinking I was funny all this time. Why didn’t anybody tell me sarcasm isn’t funny?
posted by Alex on March 20th, 2004 at 2:16 pmNick, exactly. I’m sure all the people who say “I could care less” are mentally differentiating their “care” function just like that.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 20th, 2004 at 5:15 pmI use “I could care less” myself, without any qualms. As explained above, it’s sarcastic, and perfectly idiomatic. See also the alt.usage.english FAQ on the subject.
And I’m always up for Scrabble…
posted by Shmuel on March 20th, 2004 at 5:39 pm