With the first big storms of the year, I have been sitting in my house staring out the dark windows at lightening as the room shakes with thunder. Although I know it is caused by lightning, when I was younger we came up with lots of reasons for thunder. Among them were:
1. Two clouds are smashing into each other.
2. God is angry and is yelling at us.
3. The angels in Heaven are bowling. (This one was my favorite).
The story of Thor (the Norse god of Thunder) offers another explanation. According to the tale, the sound of thunder is when Thor bangs his hammer. I imagine this like a judge’s gavel but I’m sure that’s not the image it conjured with the Norse peoples.
The Swedish word “tordon,” from which “thunder” is derived literally means “Thor’s din,” as in the noise made by Thor’s hammer.
On a side note, apparently Thunder is a viable baby name now. I wouldn’t name my kid after a random noun like that, but it is supposed to mean “stormy-tempered.” I wouldn’t really want a stormy-tempered child, either.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
I'll have a twenty with no sneakers
Nowadays “small” doesn’t exist. At least not when it comes to drinks. The number of calories we consume in one value meal soda is astronomical. And this doesn’t even include our wake-me-up cappuccino. After my very pretentious use of a Starbucks last night as my writing venue, I started pondering the use of “tall” for small, “grande” for medium and “venti” for large. My first Starbucks coffee was an adventure, let me tell you.
The fact that Starbucks uses its own language for placing orders reminds me of a ‘90’s cartoon on Nickelodeon. In Doug, the Honkerburger used their own terms for everything on your sandwich,. For example “sneakers” were onions. Doug makes a major faux pas when he attempts to order a burger with normal language.
Now back to the coffee. Originally, Starbucks offered only two sizes: small and tall. These ones make sense, because “tall” connotes “large.” But following the trend where you can’t order a small drink, Starbucks took it one step further and chose Italian terms for their sizes. “Tall” is now the new “small” and “grande” (meaning “large”) is now the new “medium.” What about “venti“? In Italian it actually means “twenty,” as in “twenty ounces.” But it should be noted that Italy uses the metric system, so they wouldn’t be using ounces anyway.
According to a few sources, you can still order a “short” coffee at Starbucks, and it will get you an 8 oz. glass. A “tall” will get you 12 oz. and a “grande” is 16. Surprisingly, in China you can order a “small,” “medium” and “large” at Starbucks. But this might be because the Chinese are so careful about making sure everyone knows what to do in every social situation. The uncommon sizes would just make everyone extremely uncomfortable. Unfortunately, Americans don’t consider the same courtesies.
The fact that Starbucks uses its own language for placing orders reminds me of a ‘90’s cartoon on Nickelodeon. In Doug, the Honkerburger used their own terms for everything on your sandwich,. For example “sneakers” were onions. Doug makes a major faux pas when he attempts to order a burger with normal language.
Now back to the coffee. Originally, Starbucks offered only two sizes: small and tall. These ones make sense, because “tall” connotes “large.” But following the trend where you can’t order a small drink, Starbucks took it one step further and chose Italian terms for their sizes. “Tall” is now the new “small” and “grande” (meaning “large”) is now the new “medium.” What about “venti“? In Italian it actually means “twenty,” as in “twenty ounces.” But it should be noted that Italy uses the metric system, so they wouldn’t be using ounces anyway.
According to a few sources, you can still order a “short” coffee at Starbucks, and it will get you an 8 oz. glass. A “tall” will get you 12 oz. and a “grande” is 16. Surprisingly, in China you can order a “small,” “medium” and “large” at Starbucks. But this might be because the Chinese are so careful about making sure everyone knows what to do in every social situation. The uncommon sizes would just make everyone extremely uncomfortable. Unfortunately, Americans don’t consider the same courtesies.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
My net(note)book trumps the iMaxiPad
My new notebook is a netbook. Netbooks, teeny tiny computers with word processing and web surfing capabilities, are my new godsend. Weighing little more than a heavy five-subject wirebound notebook, this thing allows me to access my blogs and e-mail and Word documents from basically anywhere I have an Internet connection. And I won't break my shoulder trying to lug it around with me.
"Netbook" as a generic term was first used in 2007 with the inception of the ASUS Eee PC (I am typing on a newer version of this first netbook now). With the ability to produce a small, effective and cost efficient laptop, Asus focused on creating affordable netbooks for developing countries and sold 300,000 units in only 4 months.
In the U.S. netbooks have also been marketed as "companion devices" used as a second computer for work or school. Although I have just recently learned of their existence, apparently many of my husband's college classmates use netbooks rather than notebooks. I also witnessed a mom buying one for her gradeschool-aged daughter when we went to BestBuy.
On another note, my husband explained to me that an iPad is essentially an iTouch with a larger screen, and an iTouch is an iPhone that isn't a phone. If you ask me, they should just give them all the same name and call them iQuit, iQuit1.5 and iQuit2. (The 1.5 would be the iPhone). But my husband and his geeky friends prefer to call the iPad the iMaxiPad.
PC World compares netbooks and iPads
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