Via i09, the trailer for the new Joss Whedon internet experiment, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Nathan Fillion AND Neil Patrick Harris, I cannot wait. Be sure to read the opening ratings warning:
Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.
Cross-posted.
Read more!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Glossary and Links
Hopefully someone other than myself will eventually find this useful. On this page I’ll post the words I read a lot on the blogosphere which could reasonably be confusing to people, and/or on which I have gotten my concepts mixed up, and just definitions I think we should all check ourselves on occasionally. Vocabulary tests were always my favorite. I will also post links to advice/instructions I've found helpful re blogging, commenting, writing, etc.
Words are in the order I find it most helpful to have them in, rather than alphabetical. Links go to the source I based and/or copied my definition from. If there's no link, I went to a variety of sources and wound up explaining it in my own words.
feminist: “anyone who favors political, economic and social equality for women and men.”
conflate: "to combine or mix (two variant readings into a single text, etc.)" I've seen this word used a lot in the blogosphere - here are some good critiques / examples from some of the blogs I read regularly.
deductive: reasoning from the general to the particular.
strawman: argument based on a misrepresentation of your opponent's position.
framing/reframing:
essentialism: “the view that, for any specific kind of entity, there are a set of characteristics all of which any entity of that kind must have ... Essentialist positions on gender, race, or other group characteristics, consider these to be fixed traits, while not allowing for variations among individuals or over time ... Contemporary proponents of identity politics, including feminism, gay rights, and/or anti-racist activists, generally take constructionist viewpoints.”
nihilism: “a philosophical position which argues that the world, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value ... often more of a charge leveled against a particular idea, movement, or group, than it is an actual philosophical position to which someone overtly subscribes.”
sex: “the property or quality by which organisms are classified as female or male on the basis of their reproductive organs and functions.”
gender:
irony:
sarcasm:
satire:
parody:
Read more!
Words are in the order I find it most helpful to have them in, rather than alphabetical. Links go to the source I based and/or copied my definition from. If there's no link, I went to a variety of sources and wound up explaining it in my own words.
feminist: “anyone who favors political, economic and social equality for women and men.”
conflate: "to combine or mix (two variant readings into a single text, etc.)" I've seen this word used a lot in the blogosphere - here are some good critiques / examples from some of the blogs I read regularly.
deductive: reasoning from the general to the particular.
strawman: argument based on a misrepresentation of your opponent's position.
framing/reframing:
essentialism: “the view that, for any specific kind of entity, there are a set of characteristics all of which any entity of that kind must have ... Essentialist positions on gender, race, or other group characteristics, consider these to be fixed traits, while not allowing for variations among individuals or over time ... Contemporary proponents of identity politics, including feminism, gay rights, and/or anti-racist activists, generally take constructionist viewpoints.”
nihilism: “a philosophical position which argues that the world, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value ... often more of a charge leveled against a particular idea, movement, or group, than it is an actual philosophical position to which someone overtly subscribes.”
sex: “the property or quality by which organisms are classified as female or male on the basis of their reproductive organs and functions.”
gender:
irony:
sarcasm:
satire:
parody:
Read more!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Underpants!
OK, this has been all over the feminist blogosphere, but I cannot resist posting it here as well. Via Kate Harding, here's a good article on Sarah Haskell in Salon.
I think my favorite part is the intro, in which the voiceover says "Underpants!" with such glee. You'll understand when you watch it.
Cross-posted. Read more!
I think my favorite part is the intro, in which the voiceover says "Underpants!" with such glee. You'll understand when you watch it.
Cross-posted. Read more!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The correct pronunciation of angst is totally bullshit
I have always pronounced angst as "Ayngst," - long A - not "ongst" as it is supposed to be said. I feel pretty strongly that in a better world my pronunciation would be the correct one. "Ongst" rings of ennui, or depression. "Ayngst" evokes that feeling of suppressed frustration that the word itself represents to me.
This is a rant about spelling, not pronunciation, but though I loved learning to read in elementary school, I became frustrated early on with the way we spell things in English. All the niggling rules seemed so counterintuitive (I before E except after C or when sounding Long A). I became obsessed with the idea that we could use the existing alphabet and just start spelling words phonetically, which of course made me feel like a total genius. I often find myself practicing the spelling game even today. So for the record, my pronunciation of angst spelled phonetically is eyngst. More spelling and alphabet geekery is below and probably tedious, but I haven't set up "folds" in blogger yet, so I can't hide it after a jump.
Here are some more random re-spellings:
media = miydiyu
midnight = midnoyt
I had to come up with some new letters to cover some sounds. One, representing the "sh" sound, also made the "ch" sound when prefaced by a t. Let's say that letter is represented by %, and here are examples:
shame = %eym
peach = piyt%
Another invented letter represented the "th" sound as pronounced in the word athlete. Let's use the symbol * and athlete is spelled a*liyt. Cathartic would be ku*ortik.
There's also the "th" sound as used in words like "the" and "that". Let's say that sound is represented by ^, and the word though would be spelled ^uw.
In my superior 2nd-grade invented alphabet, the letter c would no longer be necessary, you'd just always use the letter k. The letter q would also be unnecessary as you'd always spell it "kw". Example: quite would be spelled kwoyt. X was also unneeded as you would just use "ks." So c, q and x could be reclaimed to represent the different sounds shown above as %, * and ^.
I can't believe the degree to which I had this figured out at that age - no new letters even necessary! I was so much smarter before I started drinking.
OK, so I'm going to try to catch myself up by spelling a bunch of words from my horoscope today. I will use the following letters to symbolize the following sounds:
x = sh
q = th (as in thanks)
c = th (as in the)
aspiration = aspureyxun
irresponsibly = iresponsibliy
possessive = puzesiv
freedom = friydum
influence = infliwens
disquiet = diskwoyet
Some more at random:
odious = uwdiyus
tradition = trudixun
author = oqur
educated = edjywkaytud
important = impuwrtunt
correct = kuwrekt
I feel like I'm overlooking something important, and am up for any challenges (txalinjuz) in the comments. I could probably play this game all day. Read more!
This is a rant about spelling, not pronunciation, but though I loved learning to read in elementary school, I became frustrated early on with the way we spell things in English. All the niggling rules seemed so counterintuitive (I before E except after C or when sounding Long A). I became obsessed with the idea that we could use the existing alphabet and just start spelling words phonetically, which of course made me feel like a total genius. I often find myself practicing the spelling game even today. So for the record, my pronunciation of angst spelled phonetically is eyngst. More spelling and alphabet geekery is below and probably tedious, but I haven't set up "folds" in blogger yet, so I can't hide it after a jump.
Here are some more random re-spellings:
media = miydiyu
midnight = midnoyt
I had to come up with some new letters to cover some sounds. One, representing the "sh" sound, also made the "ch" sound when prefaced by a t. Let's say that letter is represented by %, and here are examples:
shame = %eym
peach = piyt%
Another invented letter represented the "th" sound as pronounced in the word athlete. Let's use the symbol * and athlete is spelled a*liyt. Cathartic would be ku*ortik.
There's also the "th" sound as used in words like "the" and "that". Let's say that sound is represented by ^, and the word though would be spelled ^uw.
In my superior 2nd-grade invented alphabet, the letter c would no longer be necessary, you'd just always use the letter k. The letter q would also be unnecessary as you'd always spell it "kw". Example: quite would be spelled kwoyt. X was also unneeded as you would just use "ks." So c, q and x could be reclaimed to represent the different sounds shown above as %, * and ^.
I can't believe the degree to which I had this figured out at that age - no new letters even necessary! I was so much smarter before I started drinking.
OK, so I'm going to try to catch myself up by spelling a bunch of words from my horoscope today. I will use the following letters to symbolize the following sounds:
x = sh
q = th (as in thanks)
c = th (as in the)
aspiration = aspureyxun
irresponsibly = iresponsibliy
possessive = puzesiv
freedom = friydum
influence = infliwens
disquiet = diskwoyet
Some more at random:
odious = uwdiyus
tradition = trudixun
author = oqur
educated = edjywkaytud
important = impuwrtunt
correct = kuwrekt
I feel like I'm overlooking something important, and am up for any challenges (txalinjuz) in the comments. I could probably play this game all day. Read more!
Dicke Cheney Hunts People!
Via Annalee Newitz at i09 (I have such a blogcrush on her), these shirts are super awesome. My favorites:
heaven is boring
Look on my shirt, Ye mighty, and despair
DICK CHENEY HUNTS PEOPLE (Want!)
I bought this shirt on the internet! (so simple, so silly) Read more!
heaven is boring
Look on my shirt, Ye mighty, and despair
DICK CHENEY HUNTS PEOPLE (Want!)
I bought this shirt on the internet! (so simple, so silly) Read more!
Name-calling in the blogosphere
This post by Jill at Feministe, a follow-up to her previous post, was interesting to me. I've been annoyed by the liberal blogosphere's reliance on labels like "crazy" and "nutjob" for the rightwingers and pundits they disagree with, but for very different reasons. I just don't think it's as effective as it should be, and misses the point. People like Bill O'Reilly and Jill Stanek don't argue their oppressive positions because they're insane, they argue them because there are powerful organizations committed to the status quo eager to support them with both money and fame. Rightwing punditocracy is immensely profitable, even when the pundit is not directly profiting their corporate benefactor.
This thread, (found via this post) with substitute words was instructive, but the substitutions don't do it for me quite yet. The problem I'm having is that there is no effective shorthand for these accusations, and shorthand terms are very useful. The rightwingers we argue against certainly aren't going to start limiting their language out of concerns of privilege and exclusion, and bypassing complex truths has always worked in their favor, especially now if our internet-trained attention spans are shortening daily as I keep reading.
I'm going to be thinking about my own list of effective shorthand, and it begins with the words corrupt and liars. Read more!
This thread, (found via this post) with substitute words was instructive, but the substitutions don't do it for me quite yet. The problem I'm having is that there is no effective shorthand for these accusations, and shorthand terms are very useful. The rightwingers we argue against certainly aren't going to start limiting their language out of concerns of privilege and exclusion, and bypassing complex truths has always worked in their favor, especially now if our internet-trained attention spans are shortening daily as I keep reading.
I'm going to be thinking about my own list of effective shorthand, and it begins with the words corrupt and liars. Read more!
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