hurricane julian

I decided tonight that I wanted to see if my name ever came up on any hurricane naming lists. I was excited and disappointed at the same time to find my name on one of the Philippines' own tropical storm naming lists. They have four lists that they recycle, and my name is on list 4. So I guess I barely made it.

I say that I am excited and disappointed at the same time, basically cuz I was excited to see my name, but I also realized I would probably never hear if it was being used. This is because whatever storm the Philippines would be calling Julian, the rest of the world would be calling something else. I guess I better start tuning in to the Philippino weather reports around hurricane season. However, another negative point, is that apparently they used list 4 this year. So I have to wait until 2012 for them to potentially use it again.

I will be waiting patiently...

correction

After doing some research, it turns out that now a couple of dictionaries are actually including "funner" and "funnest" as words. The argument being, that if it is commonly used, which I guess it is, it should be a word. There does still seem to be quite a lot of debate over it though. I wouldn't want to be in a room where the dictionary people are discussing this heavy topic.

a couple of thoughts

1. I enjoy drinking soda when I'm thirsty, even though a lot of people bring up the fact that soda actually makes you thirstier. But what about this scenario....what if you were in a desert with nothing to drink but sprite? Would it be better to just abstain from drinking, cuz sprite makes you thirstier??? I think not. Surely you would be better off drinking sprite than nothing at all.

2. It seems to be a common fact, that "funner," is not a word in the English language. When someone accidentally lets it slip out, everyone else is quick to jump on them in mockery to embarrass the individual. But my point is, why shouldn't "funner" be a word?? It actually seems more logical for it to be a word then not. Was it breaking one of the original rules in the English language? Were the first English speakers going through adjectives and adverbs and decided funner just wouldn't work?

"Alright, let's keep going....so....bigger, smarter, classier, funner,..."
"Bob, wait...that last one...that's not gonna work."
"What, funner?"
"Yeah, that can't be a word. Funner...haha....it makes more sense to say 'more fun.'"
"Why?"
"Bob, I don't even want to have to explain it to you...funner, just doesn't make sense, ok??"
"Alright, I don't see why...but ok."

I relate to Bob's confusion there. In my opinion, the person saying funner is actually just being more logical than the rest of us.

colossal squid

I was watching discovery channel, or animal planet...one of those two the other week, and I saw a segment on the colossal squid. I had heard of a giant squid before, and when they started talking about it, I assumed that a colossal squid was a really big giant squid. However, I soon learned that the colossal squid is actually a different species of squid, and is bigger than the giant squid. I bet scientists felt stupid when they were thinking of a name for it, and they had already named a species, "giant squid."

"Hey, we found another species of squid!"
"Wow! what's it like??"
"it's huge! It's actually bigger than a giant squid!"
"You sure it's not just a really big giant squid??"
"Yeah, it has a different body type, different tentacles...lots of differences!......what's wrong???"
"Well, what are we supposed to call it?? Really giant squid??"
"Oh, yeah...I dont know."
"I told Ron!! I told him not to name the species giant squid!! I told him we might find something bigger!!"
"Look, it's not a big deal, we can just call it colossal squid or something..."
"yeah, I guess so....it sounds kinda stupid though...."
"Kinda...but we'll get used to it..."
"I guess so..."

anyways, here is a picture of the first colossal squid caught. They can grow up to 50 feet long including their tentacles. This one was about 33 feet long. They also have sharp teeth lining their tentacles...and some of them swivel. So try to avoid swimming to deeper than 1000m in the ocean, cuz they can be quite dangerous.