Wednesday May 5, 2004

Various opinions - the short versions

Category: Opinionated | 59 Comments | Posted 23:55

Love is nothing but an illusion necessary for human procreation and child-rearing, a biochemical process at best. Humans are self-important pricks who can't face the fact that the only reason we're alive is to create more of our kind - just like ants or birds.

The EU is really quite a good thing (despite the inevitable problems involved anywhere lots of people try to make something work together), and the constant whingeing of the Euroskeptics is getting on my tits. Why are people so darn short-sighted? The EU is quite possibly gonna fail because of this and they'll all regret it later, mark my words.

Smileys I've always considered a very cool means of online communication - I liked the conciseness and even the possible ambiguity. But when people have vastly different ideas on what a smiley is meant to express, huge misunderstandings can ensue. So maybe smileys aren't so good.

Bonus opinion: Einstein apparently said something like "humans are a bad invention" and he was very right. He also said "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe," and he was even righter there. Einstein was a very wise man.

Free supplementary rant: I truly hate people who can't spell. I wish I could initiate a worldwide literacy campaign.

  Comments

Are humans more important than an ant or a bird? I don't think so.

I don't know too much about the EU. The only one EU I know is a music group from Washington D.C. that had a big hit with doing Da Butt.

Smileys are fun.

Einstein was a very wise man.

And I used to be a spelling bee champion, but now I kind of suck. So please don't hate me :angry.

Posted by: jimmy at Thu May 6, 2004 5:26

>>I truly hate people who can't spell.

Posted by: Lo at Thu May 6, 2004 6:47

1) LOVE: Thanks for under minding me (a homo)– the other sector of the invention so called “human” that cares about love but gives a flying shit about procreation. See – what you just said is what bugs me the most about those with uteri.
2) The EU: sorry I was not born in Europe, sorry I was not born as a part of a genus that has abbreviated words automatically implemented in its set of brain functions. WHAT DOES “EU” STAND FOR? Abbreviations and similes get on my mushroom-head tip of a penis. As opposed to your “tits”!
3) Smileys: fake, disturbing, un explanatory. Last time I checked, the :( smiley, was not smiling. And I would really like to READ what you feel, rather than see it represented in a yellow, minimal, graphic. I tried to follow the trend, but I proudly failed.
4) What Einstein does not realize is that he was just another tool of nature helping the rest of us to evolve. Human beings are the smartest and the fittest, even when at their worst!
5) Spelling: English is my third language. I speak, write and compose in two different languages. Arabic, and Greek. I understand Aramaic. I know a little Japanese and French. I am third year architecture student. Still, to this day, I rely on WORD for my spelling. If you did a little homework on your hero “Einstein” – you would have learned he was a rotten speller. Although he lived for many years in the United States and was fully bilingual, Einstein claimed never to be able to write in English because of "the treacherous spelling".

Posted by: Kal at Thu May 6, 2004 11:31

Having a bad day today Kal dear?

1. I have no intention of ever having kids myself. But we're talking about a biological fact here. We're animals. Animals exist to procreate. End of story.

2. EU = European Union.

3. Not gonna bother replying to this. You're just ranting for the sake of it now.

4. You have just supported my point made in (1). Nothing but evolution and procreation.
Human beings may be the smartest beings on Earth (on average, mind you) - still most of them are fools. *lol*

5. I knew I was gonna piss some people off with that. Tbh I don't care. I realise that there are people with a condition (dyslexia or otherwise), but those are minority. Then there are those who don't write in their first language, and to a certain degree I accept it from them too. (That said, I speak 4 languages myself and I can spell in all of them. )
But a lot of people can't even spell right in their bloody mother tongue, and it's nothing more than damn laziness and carelessness!! THAT's what pisses me off! It's fucking disrespectful to write a letter full of spelling mistakes! It's just something that winds me up and I won't apologise for it. *shrug*

Posted by: Clarissa at Thu May 6, 2004 11:43


The whole world is having a bad day today.

Posted by: Jar Jar at Thu May 6, 2004 11:56

MonMon!

But... that was yesterday!?
Today again!?

Posted by: Clarissa at Thu May 6, 2004 11:58

well, please take the time to explain yourslef a little better next time

and let the voice of god play on, giocare il suo Mozart di signore di musica

Posted by: Kal at Thu May 6, 2004 12:10

lmfao @ Kal!

@ Clarissa

Posted by: squiZZ at Thu May 6, 2004 12:39

Posted by: Clarissa at Thu May 6, 2004 12:56

EXACTLY! I understand if someone who speaks English as a foreign language (such as myself) makes mistakes, but what I don't get is why native English speakers, who were born and raised in an English speaking country and finished school there, can't spell their own language??? And that's such a common thing nowadays (maybe it has always been, but I haven't noticed it since the Internet). And in my experience, most non-native English speakers spell English better than native speakers. Nobody in the English speaking world seems to care. I mean, come on people, if so many foreigners can learn to write 4 or 5 languages perfectly, why can't you even bother to learn your own mother language? I TOTALLY agree with Clarissa. (You must deal with that a lot now living in the UK....lol, but you should see Americans!)

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 16:06

Oh, and one more thing: I've seen even professional writers who are native English speakers and still don't know the difference between "to" and "too" or "who's" and "whose" or "than" and "then" or can't use apostrophes...
Don't anyone teach those people how to write??? Oh my God...

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 16:08

lol, I felt a little bit offended reading about that at first,'cuz im a norwegina and my spelin isssnt perfekt. So Im excused.

it's lazyness: I admit it.I think you can blame the internet and the textmessaging. It really fucking up our lang don't it.

el hva sier du mon?

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 16:12

And I won't even bother mentioning all those web sites made by native English speakers with "where"
instead or "were" and stuff like that. Any web page, any chat room, forum, guestbook or whatever you find online these days is full of spelling mistakes and actually if you see a person who writes correct English, he/she is most likely a foreigner. Sad, but true. Just for the record my grammar in English sucks, but I can spell it a LOT better than 99% of native speakers.

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 16:13

Oh, and the difference between "it's" and "its". Some studies show that 78% of British students don't know the difference between those two, while only 25% of foreign students made that mistake. I keep seeing it even in TV shows and newspapers. OK, I won't get back on here anymore, since I would have to write until tomorrow if I wanted to mention all the atrocities against the English language made by the native speakers...LOL :)

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 16:18

*it's really, I meant

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 16:19

or did I?
hey, im considering giving up on english allready.

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 16:24

I love Sanja!!! I can totally relate to the way you got worked up and I agree with every single thing you said!

Oh and let's not forget the ever dreadful "I would of done"!! And "their" and "there" and "they're"!

And YEAH @ "it's"!! Almost everyone in this damn country writes "the cat loves it's milk"!!!! THAT'S WRONG DAMNIT!!! 3rd person singular neutral possessive pronoun does NOT take a fucking apostrophe!!! Grrrr!

Posted by: Clarissa at Thu May 6, 2004 16:30

"the cat loves..." what? teach us then!

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 16:38

sure bad spelling is off-putting but some people just aint good at it. We can't all be experts at everything.

Posted by: squiZZle at Thu May 6, 2004 16:44

Thanks Clarissa Hehe... Really, I'm so obsessed with this subject myself... I mean really, what do those people learn in school (if anything at all)? LOL Come on people, it can't be that hard!

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 16:44

Oh, and you're/your..."use to" instead of "used to"....Hmm what else? LOL

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 16:45

Even English teachers who are native speakers make mistakes, so what can you expect of their students? Why can't they just master their own language, especially nowadays when the whole world knows it??

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 16:48

i love squizz

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 16:49

Tris, no apostrophe as I said: "the cat loves its milk."

LOL @ squiZZ, and we can't all be skinny either. Everyone has their pet peeves eh.

Ah yeah, I use to, hehe.
We could go on forever...

Posted by: Clarissa at Thu May 6, 2004 16:52

remember that story from the bible that God put "spells" on people in a little city and gave them different languages? To make them more confused. haha, nice job indeedy

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 16:52

oh I get it now. The most confusing about english is all them apostrophes

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 16:54

Not really.

Posted by: Clarissa at Thu May 6, 2004 16:56

And this is really weird: You can correct those people 10 times and they will still make the same mistake. I guess it's a habit or something. But if I tell you "it's definitely, not definately" why do you have to write it your own way again? That's what I want to ask them....LOL I can't believe they finish school without learning those basic things and get away with it.

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 16:57

it's nothing but lazyness I think
and some people think they are in a hurry or smt
like, myself hehe

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 17:00

definately, yeah! That's another one.
And bare with me!

Tris, but writing correctly doesn't take any more time! ok, abbreviations make it faster, but "their" and "there" is exactly same letter count.

Posted by: Clarissa at Thu May 6, 2004 17:01

Exactly. And the sad thing is, some people really DON'T know the difference.

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 17:04

good point wam. I trying my best here to defend the ones who ain't so good at it.
Im just very sensitive when it comes to my own spelling (though meaning english) But I understand, cuz a girl in my class can't spell. Someone asked her if she was dyslexic (sp? LOL)anyways, she said she wasn't. Whats up with that? hmmmmm...but it doesn't bother me as much as it apparently does to you two, lol.

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 17:11

Ja, as I said, I am much more indulgent with non-native speakers. What really enrages me most are the kind of mistakes that prove that these people don't even understand their language. "they are" is something totally different from (over) "there", how can you confuse them just because they sound the same?!

Posted by: Clarissa at Thu May 6, 2004 17:14

Well, if you're not a native English speaker at least you have an excuse, but what if it's your native language and you still can't spell it? I understand if someone is dyslexic, but the vast majority just doesn't care.

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 17:17

Exactly, Clarissa. How can you confuse those two just because they sound the same? They don't even seem to understand their own language. Or how can someone write "Who are you talking TOO?" (A lot of native English speakers do that.)

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 17:20

LOL, maybe we should organise English lessons on this web page That's how I found your page in the first place, Clarissa (you were writing about bad spelling before in one entry and I was interested, because I noticed the same thing). What really makes me surprised is the fact that most of those things are very simple, anyone can understand them once you explain it to them. And it's hard to believe that most of those people have gone through the whole school and NO ONE ever explained those things to them?

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 17:25

Oh and "loose" instead of "lose". They don't even sound the same LOL

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 17:26

>> maybe we should organise English lessons on this web page

Doubt anyone would be interested

>> And it's hard to believe that most of those people have gone through the whole school and NO ONE ever explained those things to them?

yeah that baffles me too. Well I suspect someone did explain them at some point, but then no one seems to care anymore.

Posted by: Clarissa at Thu May 6, 2004 17:32

True. Neither the teachers nor the students.

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 17:33

I would like to be better in me english.
English lessons on this page is a great idea, I think.
I've learnt alot allready. Like their and there, and there's? Their's? Theyr's? LOL. uh...

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 18:02

Now you're even more confused LOL, just kidding. You still write better than some native speakers.

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 18:08

Thanks Sonja. Try to "yahoo" with me some time. Then you'll see

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 18:11

It's SANJA Lol

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 18:13

you people are annoying

Posted by: tris at Thu May 6, 2004 18:16

LOL

Posted by: Sanja at Thu May 6, 2004 18:18

And now for something completely different...
European Union: http://europa.eu.int/
But then again languages.

Posted by: Tobias at Thu May 6, 2004 18:28

I'm a native english speaker and I'm pretty spot on when it comes to the "there, they're, its, it's, to, too" etc.

Not all of us are complete retards like someone here is making us out to be. Pick apart ANY language and I'm sure you will find lots people who have bad grammar habits or are too dumb or lazy to write properly.

Posted by: Mel at Thu May 6, 2004 20:34

I learnt French at high school and was apparently very good at it. I got the best grade I could get for that level yet ask me now and I can barely remember any of those french words, let alone the grammar and other shit.
Many people learnt their basic english at school but having left school have never needed to use it again until they started using the internet and typing a lot more than they used to. Since they have probably forgotten a lot of the grammar and spelling they learnt at school, just as I have forgot most of my french, they just write things as they sound or as they think they should be written. Sure it annoys you because it is wrong and you know better, but theres no need to be so bloody critical and start saying they were taught by bad teachers. Sure that might be the reason for some people, but I'm sure the majority of people just forgot what they were taught. You have had to learn the language so the grammar is taught to you the same as the vocabulary but for the majority of native english speakers grammar lessons were a long time ago and have gone unused for a number of years.

Posted by: squiZZ at Fri May 7, 2004 0:59

But I was talking about the native English speakers, not some French people who learnt English at school or anything like that. Native speakers should be able to speak and write their language properly, because they were schooled in that language and everything in their lives is going on in English. They use those words every day, not just in school and then never again.

Posted by: Sanja at Fri May 7, 2004 16:35

P.S.: I've heard Einstein was dyslexic.

Posted by: Sanja at Fri May 7, 2004 16:51

did you even READ what I said

Posted by: squiZZ at Fri May 7, 2004 16:53

Yes, I did. But you were mainly talking about your French lessons and how you forgot it because you didn't have to use it after school. But it's different with your native language, at least it should be, because you use it every day for the rest of your life, not only in school to get a grade and then you're off the hook. (Of course, here I'm assuming that English is your native language, but then again I could be wrong.)

Posted by: Sanja at Fri May 7, 2004 17:01

Derrrrrrrrrrr derrrrrrrrrrr

How do you spell the letter "L"?

Posted by: Mel at Fri May 7, 2004 18:33

No what he meant was that even (many) native speakers don't necessarily use their language much therefore forget most of it - then when the Internet came along a lot of these people started using it again and made mistakes.
He just used his French as an example.

Tho he may have a valid point, I have to say that
1. a lot of young people who are still at school/uni can't spell, and
2. a lot of old people - our parents' or grandparents' generation - can spell perfectly well.

Oh and btw in response to what Mel said - I ain't picking only on English speakers. The French for instance are even worse. So?

Posted by: Clarissa at Fri May 7, 2004 18:40

"But it's different with your native language, at least it should be, because you use it every day for the rest of your life"
sure everyone speaks it everyday for the rest of their life but many people don't write much or have to think in terms of where the apostrophe is coming in their words because apostrophes aren't needed in speech. Therefore by the time they come to use the internet they have forgotten a great deal of the rules of writing their language because they may not have done so for a long time.
And others, as I said, simply just don't get the grammar or proper spelling because they aint good learners. They just write what they deem to be correct by the sounds of the words. hence "use to" "could of" etc etc.

Posted by: squiZZ at Fri May 7, 2004 18:48

Ja. Written. Obviously.

Posted by: Clarissa at Fri May 7, 2004 18:55

Yes, but I think that any educated person or anyone who READS should know it's "could have" and "used to". The fact that people spell words the way they sound only proves that they don't READ enough.
Yes, it's true, so many people who are still at school or even college can't spell. That's such a shame and a disgrace. For some reason I thought it was only English phenomenon, I'm surprised to hear that French speakers are even worse

Posted by: Sanja at Fri May 7, 2004 19:03

And yes, I think you can also blame the Internet, mobile phones etc. In the case of English speakers, everyone just uses spellcheckers these days and doesn't even bother to learn how to spell the words. When people used to read more and watch TV less, I'm sure spelling wasn't such a problem.

Posted by: Sanja at Fri May 7, 2004 19:07

>> The fact that people spell words the way they sound only proves that they don't READ enough.

Hehe yeah I was gonna add that in my post too but decided not to cuz I figured that would open a whole different can of worms.

>> everyone just uses spellcheckers these days

Spellcheckers don't pick up on any of the mistakes mentioned here.

Anyway I think we've exhausted this topic now. Discussion closed.

Posted by: Clarissa at Fri May 7, 2004 19:11