October Banter 2019

[NorthArlington101]

21 minutes ago, Always in Zugzwang said:

Single space at the end of a sentence?  Oh HELL NO!!  Yeah, I'll be a Grammar Nazi, and maybe it's (not its, hahaha!) more acceptable to just use a single space with Twitter and other social media to save space or something like that.  But in formal (or even not-so-formal) writing?  Follow the regular rules!  I always learned 2 spaces after a period or colon and one space after a semi-colon or comma.  Sometimes, I find it hard to read when someone only puts one space after a period.

Two spaces at the end of a sentence is one of my biggest pet peeves. Clearly its a generational thing! These days it would honestly be considered a not-so-sneaky way to bump up your page count in an essay.

[smokeybandit]

Double space was from the typewriter era and bled into the start of the computer era.  Probably everyone over 40 struggles with the need to put that extra space when typing.

[yoda]

1 hour ago, NorthArlington101 said:

Two spaces at the end of a sentence is one of my biggest pet peeves. Clearly its a generational thing! These days it would honestly be considered a not-so-sneaky way to bump up your page count in an essay.

Or you could do what I did... if you're paper was to be double spaced... I made it 2.2" to make the paper look longer

[NorthArlington101]

Or you could do what I did... if you're paper was to be double spaced... I made it 2.2" to make the paper look longer

These days they have programs that verify everything is up to whatever the professors standards are. I missed the years in college where you could pretty safely get away with that!

That said, it is unbelievable how many professors have videos accidentally auto play and can’t get the sound on... so maybe I giving them too much credit.

[yoda]

5 minutes ago, NorthArlington101 said:

 

These days they have programs that verify everything is up to whatever the professors standards are. I missed the years in college where you could pretty safely get away with that!

That said, it is unbelievable how many professors have videos accidentally auto play and can’t get the sound on... so maybe I giving them too much credit.

 

Well I didnt graduate that long ago lol... graduated from Mason in 2009

[BTRWx's Thanks Giving]

5 minutes ago, NorthArlington101 said:

 

These days they have programs that verify everything is up to whatever the professors standards are. I missed the years in college where you could pretty safely get away with that!

That said, it is unbelievable how many professors have videos accidentally auto play and can’t get the sound on... so maybe I giving them too much credit.

 

As James Spann says, the higher the IQ, the lower the technological skills.

[BTRWx's Thanks Giving]

Just now, yoda said:

Well I didnt graduate that long ago lol... graduated from Mason in 2009

That was a decade ago.

[yoda]

Just now, BTRWx's Thanks Giving said:

That was a decade ago.

Well yes, but you could still probably get away with it today to be honest... not many professors are that tough on size of paragraphs that I remember... only thing the professor would check for was if you were plagiarizing 

[NorthArlington101]

Well I didnt graduate that long ago lol... graduated from Mason in 2009

/s

[yoda]

1 minute ago, NorthArlington101 said:

 

/s

 

I am pretty good with a computer youngling . Might be able to teach even you a thing or two... have all those shortcut codes memorized in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint... like CTRL P and CTRL Z

[NorthArlington101]

I am pretty good with a computer youngling . Might be able to teach even you a thing or two... have all those shortcut codes memorized in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint... like CTRL P and CTRL Z

I admittedly don’t know any PowerPoint shorthand, but your CRTL skills don’t impress me.

Favorite CRTL shortcuts I’ve picked up for notetaking:

CRTL+SHIFT+V: paste without formatting
CRTL+SHIFT+8: begin bullet points

I’ll admit some weakness here too: I type like someone would text, with two fingers. It’s slightly embarrassing but I learned to type before I got formal typing lessons and was far too stubborn to relearn. I’m a better typist than must of my colleagues, but my skills are definitely capped on WPM.

[fourseasons]

I'm on Team Double Spacebar After a Period.

I'm also on Team Oxford Comma.

I'm a Carter baby.

[George BM]

10 hours ago, yoda said:

Well I didnt graduate that long ago lol... graduated from Mason in 2009

Cool. I'm at Mason right now. What did you major in?

[CAPE]

So I reseeded my back yard 6 weeks ago, after the last significant rain, and it hasn't rained since(well, a half inch in that span). I have been nursing it along with constant watering, and it's up and looking great, although probably a bit shallow rooted given the drought. And now the moles. I would be fine with them doing the normal tunneling and creating ridges- easy enough to spot and set traps- but because it is so dry a few inches down(I am guessing) they come topside and go around the whole yard scratching/slightly digging down(trying to 'sniff' out earthworms) and ripping out the new grass in the process. Between all the trees, long dry periods in mid summer, and moles, just can't effing win with grass here lol.

[showmethesnow]

18 minutes ago, C.A.P.E. said:

So I reseeded my back yard 6 weeks ago, after the last significant rain, and it hasn't rained since

So now we know where to lay the blame. Glad you fessed up.

[RDM]

16 minutes ago, C.A.P.E. said:

So I reseeded my back yard 6 weeks ago, after the last significant rain, and it hasn't rained since(well, a half inch in that span). I have been nursing it along with constant watering, and it's up and looking great, although probably a bit shallow rooted given the drought. And now the moles. I would be fine with them doing the normal tunneling and creating ridges- easy enough to spot and set traps- but because it is so dry a few inches down(I am guessing) they come topside and go around the whole yard scratching/slightly digging down(trying to 'sniff' out earthworms) and ripping out the new grass in the process. Between all the trees, long dry periods in mid summer, and moles, just can't effing win with grass here lol.

A pitchfork and a little patience does wonders for moles.  Watch for em in your favorite chair with a bottle of Dinkelacker, upon detection of the little vermin thrust downward with the tines parallel to their tunnel for max penetration potential and withdraw.  If the tine is wet with a tint of red, success, with no mess to clean up.  Plus the rotting carcass is a deterrent to the rest to of the clan.  Used to love watching my grandpa "go" mole hunting.  Of course, he was infinitely patient when fishing too...

 

[RDM]

12 hours ago, Always in Zugzwang said:

Get off my lawn, you damned trick-or-treaters...says the old man!! ; )  I'll continue your rant here if you don't mind, haha!

OK, being a bit snarky there, but in all honesty I agree with a lot of what you say.  The it's vs. its thing kind of irritates me when people don't do it right.  Simple to just remember "it's" is the contraction for it is, "its" (with NO apostrophe) is the possessive of it.  Also agree with the "someone has been..." vs. just saying "someone was...", but I'm a bit more forgiving on that one.  I remember in about 6th grade, a teacher made us all memorize prepositions, and had a funny way of helping you to remember it.  Just think of a sewer pipe and any relationship to it will be a preposition:  IN the sewer pipe, NEAR the sewer pipe, ALONG the sewer pipe, etc.  You get the idea.  But I've never forgotten that in trying to determine what's a preposition!!

Single space at the end of a sentence?  Oh HELL NO!!  Yeah, I'll be a Grammar Nazi, and maybe it's (not its, hahaha!) more acceptable to just use a single space with Twitter and other social media to save space or something like that.  But in formal (or even not-so-formal) writing?  Follow the regular rules!  I always learned 2 spaces after a period or colon and one space after a semi-colon or comma.  Sometimes, I find it hard to read when someone only puts one space after a period.

RDM...not sure if you're old enough(?) to be familiar with Tom Lehrer.  I was too young or not yet alive when he did a lot of his routines "live", but my parents indoctrinated me with his stuff when I was growing up (with records, no less!)!  Your comment about new math reminded me of his song/skit about that:

 

Oh, and as for trig?  Hell, I remember having to interpolate using a table!  And walking uphill both ways while doing it!  Does anyone know how to interpolate from a table anymore?  Part of me thinks perhaps it's just not necessary nowadays of course, but at the same time, a little bit of having to do that does help just to get a taste of how it works.  Even if you never have to look at at trig or log table again.  It's the idea of it, the knowledge of what to do and how it works, that's important I think.

Zug,

      Welcome the continued rant and yes, I'm old enough...  will be 60 soon.  That's a great video and conveyed the experience trying to help my daughter with long division in elementary school.  To this day I still don't understand the logic behind the method they taught her.  The whole new math theory is as if some education major working on their thesis thought "I'll do my paper on options to make math as complicated as possible, that will SURELY get me an A, whether it makes sense or not!"   And bingo, a trend was born.  For those math majors out there, no offense intended.  I was only a couple classes from a math minor in engineering school, but couldn't muster the courage to subject myself to more torture at the time.

     This theme is right up there with participation medals in organized sports; relative to the previous reference to no score T-ball leagues (what nonsense).  Whether the parents want to admit it or not, the kids playing whatever sport knows who the best players are and who wins and looses.  That core knowledge is motivation to the kids to try harder.  Kids need to learn how to loose before they can fully appreciate winning, and do so graciously.  Kids these days don't know how to loose, because everyone wins.  That's not reality.  In the words of WTOP, simplifying things down the most simple terms that are easiest to understand by all is a core value.  

 

[CAPE]

47 minutes ago, RDM said:

A pitchfork and a little patience does wonders for moles.  Watch for em in your favorite chair with a bottle of Dinkelacker, upon detection of the little vermin thrust downward with the tines parallel to their tunnel for max penetration potential and withdraw.  If the tine is wet with a tint of red, success, with no mess to clean up.  Plus the rotting carcass is a deterrent to the rest to of the clan.  Used to love watching my grandpa "go" mole hunting.  Of course, he was infinitely patient when fishing too...

 

I have no patience for that lol. I did get one by that method one time just being in the right place/right time- chopped that sucker in half with a shovel. The spring-loaded traps work best in my experience, but persistence is required, and even if you get one, there are plenty more.

[CAPE]

53 minutes ago, showmethesnow said:

So now we know where to lay the blame. Glad you fessed up.

I know. What was I thinking?

[showmethesnow]

11 minutes ago, C.A.P.E. said:

I know. What was I thinking?

I just attribute it to you being a bitter man wishing to spread your bitterness and anger to others. 

[RDM]

5 minutes ago, showmethesnow said:

I just attribute it to you being a bitter man wishing to spread your bitterness and anger to others. 

Think it's the moles.  They do that to people...   I feel bitter now too.  

[yoda]

3 hours ago, George BM said:

Cool. I'm at Mason right now. What did you major in?

BA in Geography (non-GIS)

[nj2va]

I think I’m going to re-up my weather model subscription.  Anyone using weathermodels.com right now?  How is it this year?

[NorthArlington101]

I think I’m going to re-up my weather model subscription.  Anyone using weathermodels.com right now?  How is it this year?

Not what you asked but I just re-upped my subscription to WeatherBell. They’ve redesigned their site and I like it a lot. Took me about an hour to get used to the new layout and find the maps I used to like I look at. The maps themselves look pretty great and the site is nice on mobile, which is important for me.

[smokeybandit]

 

[showmethesnow]

2 hours ago, NorthArlington101 said:

 

Not what you asked but I just re-upped my subscription to WeatherBell. They’ve redesigned their site and I like it a lot. Took me about an hour to get used to the new layout and find the maps I used to like I look at. The maps themselves look pretty great and the site is nice on mobile, which is important for me.

 

Any issues with downloading? Know last year it quite often failed to download all of the GFS/GEFS panels which really became annoying.

[NorthArlington101]

Any issues with downloading? Know last year it quite often failed to download all of the GFS/GEFS panels which really became annoying.

Not as far as I can tell, but I’ve only had it for one day and haven’t been checking much other than to familiarize myself with the layout.

They are advertising their use of the Google Cloud somewhat extensively, in theory they claim it’ll make maps generate faster and stop those issues, I think.

[showmethesnow]

6 minutes ago, NorthArlington101 said:

 

Not as far as I can tell, but I’ve only had it for one day and haven’t been checking much other than to familiarize myself with the layout.

They are advertising their use of the Google Cloud somewhat extensively, in theory they claim it’ll make maps generate faster and stop those issues, I think.

 

Thanks. Getting to that time of year so have been considering reupping shortly myself. Maybe tomorrow morning.

[NorthArlington101]

Thanks. Getting to that time of year so have been considering reupping shortly myself. Maybe tomorrow morning.

No problem. It’s still missing a couple things that make weathermodels tempting... I liked my 6z/18z EURO and UKMET precip access.

Chance I end up getting both once we start tracking real threats. Bad for my poor college student budget.

[MN Transplant]

20 hours ago, NorthArlington101 said:

Two spaces at the end of a sentence is one of my biggest pet peeves. Clearly its a generational thing! These days it would honestly be considered a not-so-sneaky way to bump up your page count in an essay.

Courier New!  You haven't extended the length of a paper unless you make sure that an l is the same width as a w.