A Collection from the Interwebs

/ austinfey / Leave a comment

I should probably post more content before I post a collection of things I found on the internet, but my little list has been sitting around since…maybe July. That’s embarrassing. It’s time to post them somewhere. I’ll write something real soon.

I have added a couple more recent things, but, in all their dated glory, here they are:

  • Glass-making is fascinating, just like this fun video. Apparently it won an Oscar in 1959 in the short documentary category.
  • This summer Joss Whedon’s “Much Ado About Nothing” came out, and I obviously watched it….And then got this song stuck in my head for 2 weeks. Tell me if that happens to you too.
  • A college friend is now a professional photographer, and he documented the engagement and wedding of a sci-fi obsessed couple. The theme: Dr Who. That’s right, the bride’s father built them a Tardis for the occasion. Nerdtastic!
  • A Van Gogh painting was found in someone’s attic. No big deal.
  • Anyone who plans on writing non-fiction (especially academic works) needs to read this. It’s called “10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly.” Excellence in writing should not be the sole property of novelists. I feel very strongly about this, as one who has had to read non-fiction. If you can’t write well, I take your ideas less seriously. At least learn to write less badly.
  • My talented cousin Jonathan gave a piano recital last fall, and put his performance on YouTube. Playing Bach on the piano (or on any instrument, for that matter) makes one a real musician.
  • The British phrase translator! I love it. I think my favorite is this one: “What the British Say: ‘Oh, incidentally/by the way…’ What the British Mean: ‘The primary purpose of our discussion is…'” or else maybe this one: “What the British Say: ‘Very interesting.’ What the British Mean: ‘That is clearly nonsense.'”
  • And finally, comedy duo Key & Peele show their take on Les Miserables. I have no idea why Hopper didn’t include this song in his version.

Enjoy!

A Note on Dates

/ austinfey / 5 Comments

A few years ago I realized I preferred the European style of writing out the date. To those of you who know I’m a bit of an Anglophile, this will come as no surprise. At the beginning I wrote with the day first, then month, then year just because it was a little fun and different, but, of course, I had to analyze why I liked it more than the typical American method of writing out the date.

For some reason, it seemed to make more sense, and here is why: The European way of writing the date looks like this:

25 August, 2013 (day, month, year)

The American way looks like this:

August 25, 2013 (month, day, year)

The American way doesn’t make logical sense to me. Why would you start with the month, then proceed to the day, and then move to the year? The European way starts with the day (the smallest increment of time), then it moves to the month, and then the year (larger increments of time). It proceeds in an orderly, logical manner, while the American way zigzags between larger and smaller increments of time.

Who designed or standardized these systems?

I understand that one might also wish to go from largest to smallest increment of time: year, month, day (2013-08-25), and that is fine with me. We write out time that way: 8:33:25 (hours, minutes, seconds), so it might be more consistent to also proceed in that order with dates.

I will continue with my logical notation of date, but I won’t be offended if you choose not to do so yourself.