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whiskyinmind
whiskyinmind
31 January 2006 @ 03:39 pm
Question for US Flisters  

Yards or meters? (and yes, it irks me to spell metres like that... *g*)

if someone was to get within **** of somewhere - would it be meters or yards?

In other news, I have a cold. People are making fun of me now because of it (and the way I'm talking). I want lempsip or lemon & ginger tea and I have neither with me today. Joy.

And students are being stupid with their questions. "i want to read ejournals off campus and i have an athens account and i can read the abstract but i can't read the full text or anything. Can i read ejournals off campus?"

*headdesk*
1 - Learn what the 'Shift' key on your keyboard is for;
2 - Punctuation - commas, new sentences, ever heard of them?
3 - You have a question, fair enough, ask the bloody question and stop rambling!
4 - When I reply saying that there are different situations for different journals and I need the title to check, don't reply with this: "I have an athens account which i set up about 2 weeks ago the problem is that once i have signed in using the athens account and i have access to reading the entire document or each page separately in pdf format the page doesn't load and there is nothing to read. I am trying to read articles on various volumes of '*****'.  Is this journal not accessible off campus?"
5 - ... well, there is no 5. Just go away and stop annoying me with stupid questions. *g*

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[identity profile] alixtii.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2006 07:43 am (UTC)
Possibly yards, but more likely an American would think in terms of feet.
[identity profile] m-mcgregor.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2006 07:46 am (UTC)
Yeah, most Americans are going to judge a distance in feet and then miles. "A few hundred feet" or "half a mile" something like that.
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2006 08:01 am (UTC)
Cool - thanks!
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2006 08:01 am (UTC)
Thank you! I was veering towards yards but I'll probably change it to feet.
[identity profile] lwbush.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2006 07:52 am (UTC)
I agree with the feet/miles thing.

And I hab a code too. It's adnoying to tawk through your node, idn't it?
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2006 08:02 am (UTC)
Thank you!

*hands you virtual cold medicine and some tissues*
[identity profile] smhwpf.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2006 08:14 am (UTC)
Ah yes, the mangling the English language receives from the intellectual cream of our nation's youth! I've just been marking a bunch of essays. *shudders* To tell the truh, I pretty much filter it out these days. But sometimes... yee gads! But I'd better not quote examples in a public post...
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2006 08:26 am (UTC)
I also had a question today from a departmental secretary (which was spelled correctly!) and when I told her the articles she wanted weren't available electronically but that we had the print version in the library, she replied saying she'd come over, photocopy them, scan the photocopies and put them on her department's website.

How many copyright laws does that breach? *g*

What worries me most is that the students (and it has to be said, the academics too) who ask the most *headdesk* inducing questions, tend to be in the medical faculty. These people could be performing surgery on me one day and they don't even know how to capitalise an *I*?!

*g*
the sharpest crayon in the chandelier[personal profile] bellatemple on January 31st, 2006 08:40 am (UTC)
I hadn't realized capitalization was a requirement for surgery. . . . ;D

I know what you mean, though. At least my students had the excuse of English being their second language. . . .
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 2nd, 2006 12:52 am (UTC)
Hehehe! Yup, that's a valid excuse. Here it just seems to be that the students are so used to 'text speak' that they've forgotten how to spell.

My secondary school (high school) had a catchment area indlucing nine primary schools, the year I started there one of the other primary schools had been teaching the children to spell phonetically as an experiment. Those kids didn't mangle the written language as much as some of the kids these days!
[identity profile] willowmina.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2006 09:10 am (UTC)
*Sends hugs*

I do the comedy cold voice thing as well. Ben takes great delight in making fun of me when it happens.

Someone else on my FList has to remind medical students to go to their lectures as part of her job though - aren't they able to remember something like that...?
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 2nd, 2006 12:55 am (UTC)
Students deserve their reputation don't they? The number of emails and phone calls I take from final year students (so what, aged 20? 21?) who have never set foot in the library during their entire four year run and suddenly they have to, they panic.

My cold seems to have shifted down now, so all I'm left with is the dry skin around my nose and top lip and a hacking cough. Dontcha just love winter?!
[identity profile] smhwpf.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2006 09:43 am (UTC)
Oh, I can easily imagine academics asking head-desking questions! I can easily imagine me asking head-desking questions. My usual one would be "Er... I've forgotten my Athens username and password again because it's so long since I last used it and despite my incredibly good intentions that this time I'd record them somewhere I kinda didn't, can you tell me them please?" Except I wouldn't quite say all that. And I think I really did note it down on my computer somewhere this time.

I'm trying to think of circumstances in which faulty capitalisation could be a serious problem in surgery. Not got anything that quite works yet, even by the most obscure lines of reasoning. *g*
[identity profile] ludditerobot.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2006 09:44 am (UTC)
Americans like our football, which is different than your football, and the line of scrimmage moves by yards and is marked in ten yard increments. Our football fields are 100 yards long, plus 10 yards on each side for the end zones. Thus there is a large segment of the US population who would think in terms of yards. If we're talking urban distances, you'd probably think blocks. If we're talking archery or target shooting, inches. The only US organization that consistantly uses metric to my knowledge is the military, which uses kilometers, called "klicks" for measures of distance. For weapons ranges, they count yards. And competative swimming, I think, but the competition rules come down from the international olympic committees.

I think I could do more with a bit more context.
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 2nd, 2006 01:05 am (UTC)
Thank you for calling it football! I heard the word 'soccer' on the BBC this morning and it still annoyed me said in an English accent! (They were talking about Rugby - my sport of choice - and saying that if you can't handle it you should go play soccer... gah!)

The reason I'm asking the yards/meters question is this - the character I'm writing is on foot and is doing a reccy of a potentially dangerious locale. She's got to be able to get close enough to make out individuals, but far enough away not to be spotted - kinda militaristic now I think of it but a 'klick' would be too far.

Thanks!
[identity profile] ludditerobot.livejournal.com on February 2nd, 2006 01:10 am (UTC)
In that context, Americans would most likely say yards.
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 2nd, 2006 01:15 am (UTC)
Cool - thank you! And ignore my horrible mis-spelling of dangerous in my previous reply - it's too early in the morning...