banal

How do you pronounce banal? www.dictionary.com says:

Usage Note: The pronunciation of banal is not settled among educated speakers of American English. Sixty years ago, H.W. Fowler recommended the pronunciation (rhyming with panel), but this pronunciation is now regarded as recondite by most Americans: it is preferred by only 2 percent of the Usage Panel. Other possibilities are (rhyming with anal), preferred by 38 percent of the Panel; (rhyming with canal), preferred by 46 percent; and (the last syllable rhyming with doll), preferred by 14 percent (this last pronunciation is more common in British English). Some Panelists admit to being so vexed by the problem that they tend to avoid the word in conversation. Speakers can perhaps take comfort in knowing that any one of the last three pronunciations will have the support of a substantial minority and that none of them is incorrect. When several pronunciations of a word are widely used, there is really no right or wrong one.

I always pronounce it the second way.

This leads me to the true topic of this blog entry: being anal.

Five minutes after typing that last sentence: Holy crap, I just deleted a bunch of stuff I had written about being anal, then realized that I had already posted on this very topic already. I don’t remember when, but I know I did. This isn’t really happening to me. Oh dear.

transmission

Seppo and I were heading down 880S when the transmission suddenly died. We flipped on the hazard lights and coasted to the nearest exit (fortunately, we were going slightly downhill shortly after losing the transmission). We had just picked up the car yesterday from the garage after getting the front axel replaced. It cost me a pretty penny. And a few ugly ones too. Thank goodness I upgraded to AAA Plus at the end of last year, because we were able to get towed to the garage we used for the axel instead of somewhere within a measely seven mile radius. When the tow truck picked up the front of the car, the transmission fluid gushed out in a terrifying rush. Looked like creepy machine blood. Seppo’s mom picked us up from the garage, then we had some food at Noah’s Bagels (where they forgot Seppo’s order entirely, then burned my bagel to charred black goodness, forgot Seppo’s potato salad, then didn’t toast the bagel dark the second time — oh well), then came home, where I found that I can’t seem to connect to the VPN at my work. This is pretty comical.

That will show me to get “angry” at things that don’t really make me that angry. Heh.

The good thing is that we were able to get to a safe place after we lost the transmission. We also have jobs where we won’t get instantly fired for missing a day. We got to eat an early lunch outside. We had someone available that could pick us up, no problem. We had AAA Plus! Hee. We can spend some time with the dog. It’s not bad, all things considered.

I only hope the car does not cost a lot to repair. We are assuming for now that the problem was caused by the work done by the garage earlier in the week/end of last week, but there is no guarantee that it’s not a new, unrelated problem. Let’s hope not.

phone

Sometimes (like this morning), when I’m on the phone letting it ring and ring in hopes that someone will pick up eventually on the other end, I forget who I had been trying to reach by the time it gets picked up/goes to voicemail. The same thing happens when I’m on hold. I have to constantly remind myself who I was going to talk to and why, or I end up sputtering nonsense or hanging up out of embarrassment.

Talk about ADD.

Angry Ei-Nyung

Pissing me off today: the fact that websites related to weddings overuse italics and center alignment, rendering most pricing charts unintelligible. Whatever happened to neat little rows and columns? Or how about a dynamic pricing page where you can select various options and number of guests to get a ballpark figure for the total package?

I hate you, gaudy wedding sites.

answer: no, i don’t.

Question: So you think you can dance?

I have been watching this show, now that Hell’s Kitchen is over, and I am nothing if not a reality tv monkey. I have to face up to who I am, and when I look in the mirror, I see the shamed face of a woman who loves reality tv. I can only watch one at a time though. I have learned in the past that I can’t really do two at once. It is too much of a time commitment, and I want to actually have some semblance of a life.

Anyway, I love this show. I don’t love how once in a while, they try to get some shock value by being overly insulting (I dislike Creepy Uncle Nigel), but for the most part, they keep it zipped. It’s like this show combines two of my great media loves: reality tv competition + breakdancing. There was even an instance of a dance battle in last night’s episode. Awesome. They have dancers of all sorts of different backgrounds (jazz, ballet, hip hop, break, tap, etc) going through various classes to learn different styles and to get evaluated by the instructors. They are down to the final 16 people. I think the format changes now that they are into the finals, but what do I know.

If I could instantly pick up some skill overnight, it would be breakdancing.

Seppo and I are taking tomorrow off from work. Yay! While it’s a pretty exciting idea, in reality, we’ll probably just end up taking the car into the mechanics and run some other errands. Heh.

the library

I went to the Main Oakland Library for the first time yesterday. On my way, I saw a group of people picketing with signs that said, “Honk for Peace” and “Honk for Bush’s Impeachment”. Naturally, I honked and the group gave me a peace sign and a thumbs up. I believe this is the first opportunity I’ve had to honk for something other than anger at reckless driving since I’ve had my license. 😀

The library itself was quite a bit smaller than it appeared on the outside. The last time I used to frequent public libraries was when I was in high school in Philadelphia. They were sprawling, multi-floor libraries. The one I went to was not tiny, but not huge either. It was a little disappointing, but I think I will be going back often for some light reading.

We are so close to the end of our project at work that I can taste it. Seppo and I are thinking of taking a mini-vacation at some point. I wonder where we’ll go.