Third Hour Forum Rules - Please be familiar with these rules before posting

Bob_Blaylock

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    70

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Bob_Blaylock

  1. Procrastinating with Post-It Notes

    in Mormon Videos

    Posted

    Pretty cute! Reminded me of 80s computer graphics (don't know if you're old enough to remember that).

    I'm old enough to remember 1970s computer graphics. The original TRaSh-80 had 128x48 pixels, black&white only, mingled with text, while the Apple ][ had its “low resolution” graphics that were 40X48 at 16 colors, or “high resolution”at 280x192 at six colors.

  2. Words or phrases you dislike

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Bob_Blaylock
    Seanette and I are having dim sum for lunch.

    I understand — and grudgingly accept — the need for conserving characters in a medium such as SMS messaging, where you're operating under strict message-limit sizes, and with the ergonomic limitations of a cell phone keyboard; but the Internet is not your cell phone. When you're posting to a forum, such as this one, or to almost any other web site, or sending an email, you have a full keyboard under your hands, and more than enough room to clearly and properly express yourself; and I would hope that you have better than a second-grade-level of education.

    Most of what you are saying, I do agree with. However I need to point out that many people DO in fact have full internet access on their phones and I regularly post on this forum from my phone while I am out and about. So basically that means I have the same limitations that you have with SMS with the exception of the character limit.

    So sometimes my grammar and spelling may seem a little "idiotic" when in fact it's due not having the convenience of a full keyboard in front of me and having to deal with the vibrations of a bus, for example, as I type. Not to mention when I go out in the sticks, signal levels fluctuate a lot causing me to sometimes lose messages, I'm less inclined to spell check my messages after having to type the whole thing out again on a phone keyboard

    On any rational basis, my peeve isn't really about people doing what they have to to work under serious limitations; it's about people who don't even try to do something right; who are willing to produce something of absolutely crappy quality, when an insignificant amount of additional effort could have produced something of much higher quality. When you type “U”, instead of “you”, on any QWERTY keyboard, you're not saving any useful amount of time or effort at all. The “Y” key is right next to the “U” key, and the “O” key is just two keys away from “U” on the other side.

    But the difference that those two keys makes is astounding. If you type out the whole word “you”, then it looks like you have at least a normal level of intelligence, while if you only type “U”, then it looks like you couldn't possibly have a higher IQ than the lower seventies or so. On a regular keyboard, it is surely worth those two keystrokes for that much improvement in how intelligence you will appear to whomever reads what you've written. Maybe not so much on a cell phone keypad that takes four strokes just to type a “Y” and three to type an “O”; perhaps to some people, it's worth coming across as stupid to be able to save those five keystrokes.

    In any event, if you are writing something that you intend me to read and understand, if you're not willing to spell it out, then just don't bother. If I see something written in “txtspk”, I will usually not parse the meaning of what the writer intended to communicate, all I see is “Look how stupid I am! Please make fun of me and insult me and treat me as the illiterate cretin that I obviously am.” It usually takes considerable extra effort for me to actually read and understand what was written in such a manner, and if the person writing it didn't think that it was worth the effort to write it clearly and properly in the first, then I usually will not even entertain the thought that it might possibly be worth that extra effort to try to read and understand it.

    Of course, posting to Internet forums from a cell phone creates the problem that someone who doesn't deserve to look stupid may be compelled to look stupid anyway. I suppose if there was some clear way to indicate that as being the case, then, if you catch me in a good mood, I might decide it's worth trying to read what you've posted rather than just assuming that you are illiterate and stupid. But writing something at the had of your posting such as “Please excuse the poor quality of this message; I'm posting it from my cell phone.” would, in itself, use up so much time and effort that it'd probably be less trouble — even on a cell phone keyboard — to simply write out the message properly.

    I guess, when you get down to it, anything posted on a site such as this one isn't just about the person writing it; it's about all the people who will subsequently try to read and understand it as well. It's not like you're just sending a text message to one person, who will read it, and then discard it. What you post here is going to become a permanent part of this site; and be read by dozens of people, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of people. Multiply that out by the amount of extra time and effort that each one of those readers has to waste trying to make sense of a badly-written post, and it seems to me that it very quickly works out to be very wasteful, even under adverse ergonomic conditions, to take inappropriate shortcuts when writing something to be posted here. However much time and effort you save in writing such a post, you're causing a lot of other people to waste a lot more than that in trying to read it, assuming that they bother trying to read it at all.

  4. Words or phrases you dislike

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Bob_Blaylock
    A man without a forklift is nothing.

    I think our way of speaking has become very lazy and ugly...even illiterate sounding.

    My big pet peeve is the “dumbed down” corruption of written English that is becoming increasingly common. When people write as if they are so stupid that they cannot even spell simple words, such as “people” or “you” or “are”, it annoys me. F u rite lik dis, then I will assume that you are stupid — or worse, lazy — that you cannot possibly have anything to say that is worth my trouble to try to read it; and that you are unworthy of any response from me other than scorn, ridicule, and insults.

    I understand — and grudgingly accept — the need for conserving characters in a medium such as SMS messaging, where you're operating under strict message-limit sizes, and with the ergonomic limitations of a cell phone keyboard; but the Internet is not your cell phone. When you're posting to a forum, such as this one, or to almost any other web site, or sending an email, you have a full keyboard under your hands, and more than enough room to clearly and properly express yourself; and I would hope that you have better than a second-grade-level of education.

    If you are really so stupid that you think the word “you” is spelled with only one letter, then you're not smart enough to have anything to say that is worth my reading it. If what you are trying to communicate is so unimportant that you don't think it's worth the time to type out the word “you” instead of just “u”, then it's not important enough to be worth my time to read it.

    The word “dumb” has two meanings, that may seem unrelated, but which, in fact, are very closely tied together. The better-known meaning refers to a lack of intelligence. The other, somewhat less-known meaning, refers to an inability to communicate usefully. Writing in “txtspk” anywhere but in SMS messaging, exemplifies both meanings of the word “dumb”.

    http://www.lds.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252&stc=1&d=12473584537 http://www.lds.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=250&stc=1&d=1247358337

  5. Word of Wisdom - one more time...

    in LDS Gospel Discussion

    Posted

    Being Vegan is not required by the WoW, you can be such if you want but I've run into a those who feel its demanded by it, which it most certainly isn't, don't know if your the type though.

    This is specifically addressed in the scripture. See D&C 49:18-19.

    18· And whoso forbiddeth to abstain from meats, that man should not eat the same, is not ordained of God;

    19· For, behold, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man for food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance.

    For the record eating a 72 oz steak every night for dinner not only isn't demanded is against it, so I do understand where you are coming from. Sparingly is a sticky issue though, most eat meat sparingly compared to a lion, but I don't think that's what the Lord meant.

    I've heard or read somewhere that it was a common belief in Joseph Smith's time that the best diet for humans was one that consisted almost entirely of meat. Grains and vegetables were eaten primarily because a meat-only diet was prohibitively expensive for many people; but if you could afford it, you were likely to eat mostly meat. Compared to that, most modern Americans do eat meat “sparingly”. I do not know for certain that this is true, but it does make sense.

    Somewhat more obvious is a characteristic of meat, with regard to the statement encouraging the use of meat “only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.” Meat spoils easily, and can become quite toxic when it spoils. Before modern refrigeration and other modern preservative methods, it was safer and healthier to eat meat when the weather is cold than when it is hot.

  8. My, oh my how government service has changed.

    in Current Events

    Posted

    Actually i think it is due to the fact that most government jobs have no competition and therefor we are forced to deal with them so they get more complaints/ you see more problems.

    Don't like the local grocer, go down the road, hate the service given at restaurant x go to restaurant y.

    Don't like the DMV, your [sic] stuck, suck it up and complain about government workers.

    Or government-based education systems, which are creating an increasingly-illiterate population. For example, we have more and more people who don't even know the difference between “your” and “you're”. It gets much, much worse than that, but this is the example that was staring me right in the face as this thought was forming.

    California’s New Serious Threat to Marriage

    in Preserving Marriage between a man and a woman

    Posted

    I don't doubt that, if same-sex marriage is legalized, there will be many who try to tread this path. Unfortunately, I can see the general outcome of the business-related suits being in favor of the gay person/couple and not the business owner. However, the First Amendment would protect the religious institutions (including the Church and the temples) from harm as long as those in power continue to honor it. I think the thing we need to be worried about (in regards of losing our right to worship how we want) is an outright attack on the First Amendment- an abolishment of the First Amendment coupled with the legalization of same-sex marriage could lead to the disenfranchisement of the Church and the confiscation of the temples.

    I don't think that's going to happen, though- not anytime soon, anyway.

    Given how well those in power are currently honoring the Second and Tenth Amendments, I see little reason to assume that they will continue to honor the First in such a manner as to continue to allow us our vital freedom to believe and worship as we will.

    It may well be worth pointing out that early in the history of our church, we were driven out of what, at the time, constituted the United States, because those in power refused even to honor the First Amendment with regard to our right to practice our religion.

    And do not ever forget that we now have a President whose philosophies are far more in line with those of Karl Marx, than with those of the great men who founded this nation and who wrote our Constitution.

  11. A-Z Pictures

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'm stuck. What's the smallest living thing that anyone can think of that starts with “J”? I can't think of anything smaller than a jackrabbit.

    Yes, I can. Jellyfish. Still too big.

    Can anyone think of anything smaller?

  21. A-Z Pictures

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    What's next?

    That was a company that was founded by Steve Jobs in 1985, after he was forced out of Apple Computer. They made a line of computers that, in my opinion, were years ahead of their time. Unfortunately, they didn't sell well. They then ported the operating system to run on IBM-PC-type hardware. That didn't sell very well either. I guess they sort of floundered around for a while after that, not ever getting anywhere useful. Eventually, Apple Computer bought up what was left of NeXT, and used the NeXTStep operating system as the basis for MacOS X. In the deal Steve Jobs is back as the head of Apple Computer.

  22. Man Charged In 'Virtual Porn' Case

    in Current Events

    Posted

    i think he should be prosecuted but not for child porn. he should be prosecuted for misrepresentation of the ppl. i think the same standard should be applied to any photo shopping that depicts ppl in situations they would never participate.

    There's no such thing as “ppl”.

    now if someone draws a cartoon of someone, it may be poor taste but it's their original artwork and they could throw in the classic "this is not intended to represent an acutal person or event" lawyer phrase. lol but when they take a photo or photo like quality and represent the person there is no "oh they just happen to look like that person" deniabilty. they are intending it to look like the person they are using it as an exploitation of them.... defamation of character or something... especially if he distributed it.

    He did misuse images of actual people, without their consent. It'd be one thing if he created images of wholly fictional characters, not bearing any obvious resemblance to any actual people. But that's not what he did. He created what appears to be a nude image of Miley Cyrus, and similar images of two unfamous minor girls. Someone who sees these images, and knows the three girls involved, would recognize these images as nude images of these girls. That it was really different bodies, photoshopped to these girls' heads, really doesn't make a difference. It's the face that is recognizable, and which establishes the identity of the person in each image. Surely, none of these girls would have (nor legally could have, being minors) consented to having nude images produced of them. They have been exploited just the same as if he had somehow managed to photograph their actual nude bodies.

    I think the criminal charges are entirely appropriate.

  24. Tithing Question.....

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I have heard that tithing is tax deductible... and I was wondering if that was true.....

    Why are you asking us? You would certainly know, better than any of us what you did or did not hear. I do not know if it is true that you heard that tithing is tax deductible.