Yay! Cheese! I haven't written a dumb thriller-story set-up in too long. It feels good.

[smiles at Margaret]

But the Eggoians come in tasty, mouth-watering peace...

The Master isn't so sure anymore...

I'm glad the Master approves.

Manosians... So that's why I keep you around, Fred.

Oo! "Abuse" is like "record," with the noun and the verb of the same root being written the same way but differentiated by inflection. Nifty! Good one, Margaret.

It's so sexy when you talk like that, Faith.

Speaking of "regular"
Worst. Transition. Ever.

Best of luck with it, Shawn. I tried it once (and we've written sequels to each other's stories sometimes), but it's tougher than it sounds.

600 seconds is now number one in a search for "non-homophonic homographs".

Rock on.

Lead/lead is a sticky one, too. There's no typo quite like a typo etched in glass. Twice... An award in a showcase downstairs talks about how a team member "lead a project..." It's insidious, because you really won't catch it unless you are looking out for that error. It's a correctly spelled word, it's pronounced the way that you mean, it looks like the present tense version of the word that you mean, and that particular award was probably ordered by a non-native speaker of English. I felt bad for them. I wish people would run these things by me. 'Course, I know of only one other person who caught it, so there you are. In 100 years, "led" will probably be spelled "lead."

I offered a theory to Jon the other night: In 50 years, the accepted comparative form of "fun" will be "funner." "Fun" is (currently) the only one-syllable word I can think of that takes the form "more *" instead of "*-er." Why is that? Is my "more versus -er" rule flawed?

Lest you think my head is entirely consumed with grammar, I've also got a great theory on the biology of Giger's Aliens which I've been considering writing up. I keep thinking that it's already been thought of, that it was exactly what the movie makers had in mind, but Jon assures me otherwise. I expect if I post it on the web, someone will be sure to set me straight.

Another that's occurred to me recently is "primer". But, again, not related the same way as "record". And both pronunciations, in this case, are nouns.

A quick check with Google, however, also reveals lead/lead and dove/dove. That, and the fact that 600 seconds is now number one in a search for "non-homophonic homographs".

Ooh, n'wait. The two "defects" are non-homophonic homographs, and one's a noun while one's a verb, but they are not related the way that "record" is.

American Sign Language does this a lot, actually. "Sit" and "chair" are nearly identical, different only in whether it is one strong downward movement versus two taps. "Name" and "to be called" differ the same way. I expect there are others. (Chime in, Faith...?)

Ooh, defect. Good one.

I just listened to a story yesterday with a character called Rocket Boy. Welcome back, Rocketo!

Perhaps more insight than was quite wanted on the things that occupy my brain, posted for yesterday, on archives that still aren't publishing. (*sigh*)

The Blog Fairy backdates two posts for "very quiet children." (But does not have time to straighten out non-publishing archives before dashing off to run a Toastmasters meeting.)

"I can type fast when it's just stream of consciousness."

[Sharon coughs into her caffeine-free herbal tea.]

*snicker* I would have gotten the .19724 for Ben's second point. Or, actually, I was bothered that it went to five decimal places, since that is an abuse of significant figures, yo.

Oh, and Shawn?

Pi is THREE!

I would also suggest
You have figured that each box on this test is worth .19724%

and

You are offended we only took it out to 5 decimal points
      because your high school science project was on loss of accuracy in floating point calcluations.

She's a super geek, super geek. She's super geeky.
46.15385% - Super Geek
I am, in equal measure, proud of this score and disappointed that it is not higher. The SCA got me a fair chunk of points, but I don't know enough software languages. That one kinda applies in real life, too.

In all my spare time. *sigh*

Thanks, Shawn. And I'm vaguely disappointed that I only scored 27.41617% - Total Geek.

Fair enough. I'm not hopping mad about it. I just like the regular version better, and I can't figure out why sometimes I see it and sometimes I don't.

This is the Cliff Notes version of a rant that is not really directed at you, Fred.

Programming is hard. Blogger is free.

Yes, it's the lofi version, according to the url. Why I'm seeing that right now, I don't know.

I'm using Internet Explorer 5, as it's the only browser I currently have installed. I've been able to view both versions of Blogger with it, so it's not altogether clear what's causing the problem. For weeks, I was seeing the regular version, so I guess I just assumed the lofi had been a transitional look for Blogger as it updated or something. I don't particularly like the lofi version, but I also don't know how to stop from seeing it. Blogger seems to decide almost on whim which version it shows me when I log in.

I haven't ever seen the second option. Is it the low-fi version, for browsers that don't have enough scripting to render the hi-fi version? The url will give you a clue.

Is it just my imagination, or does the look of Blogger keep changing? Half the time, I see this, and the other half I see this.