Monday, June 16, 2008

The Importance of Being a Good Speller

(Is "speller" a word?)

Today I took one of those three-minute typing tests, in which the text tried to inform me how important it is to spell well. I tapped away while it told me in an awfully wordy, annoying way that, if you ask the best spellers -- really? who are the best spellers? -- they will all tell you that the dictionary is their best friend. (Or something to that effect.) It said bad spellers have terrible vocabulary -- although I didn't catch which came first, the poor vocabulary or the poor spelling -- And that writing with good spelling is lots easier to follow.

Well, that's not true if all the well-spelled words are constructed into a confusing mess of grammar and logic, but it does have a point. I mean, look at this:

Were hiring, start T oday-16 June 2008

Okay, maybe that's more a punctuation issue. But seriously, if spam email titles want to be read they'll have to stop being so depressingly inaccurate to begin with, going and telling people that if they had been on the ball, they could have been hired and could have been starting work
T oday.

By the way, 107 WPM is not sufficient to finish a typing test. I think it would take closer to 150 WPM for the whole text. (Not that anyone's missing anything by not finishing it!)

Friday, June 06, 2008

The blessings of bad reception

For most of the week I have been scarcely able to convince my wireless card to pick up the connection, even when the laptop has been happily plugged in all day and resting on its favorite chair with its back to the window, through which, I'm guessing, our beloved signal comes.

And then it hit me! Just take it outside!

It's 9:23 on a Friday night. There's still a little light. We have a tornado watch till 10 p.m., but come on, really - it's already done raining and the mosquitos are probably ready to have their opening-season party. The laptop rests just perfectly on the new mailbox-box containing the old mailbox, and an extension cord gives me enough length to sit comfortably just outside my window which is nicely decked out with wasp nests.

This is great. I think it will have to become a tradition!