web-goddess

Calling all grammar Nazis and pedants! Check out Yet Another English Language FAQ. It track current news stories of relevance to English and English usage. I tried to skim through the home page but found myself getting engrossed in articles about spelling bees, politically-correct words, and Scottish rhyming slang. If you’re interested in language at all, this is a great rainy day site. You could get lost for days in here.

I’m using Google to find all the sites that link to me to let them know about the URL change. And lo and behold, there are some new ones I didn’t even know about! Born Squishy is going straight onto my list of daily reads. eremophobia has a really cool design that I’m still trying to figure out. Froot is from South Africa – finally another blogger in the Southern Hemisphere! Trevor is yet another brilliant Canadian weblogger. (You’re all so snarky!) And I’m lovin’ rosie’s bloated blog. If you’ve got some free time, check ’em out.

Important note: There is now a new domain pointing to this website! web-goddess.org should work identically to the .co.uk version. If you’ve linked me somewhere, please update it to reflect the .org. I’m hoping to eventually phase out the .co.uk down the line (since I’m not in the UK anymore, of course).

Edited to add: Oh, and if you use the new domain, you’ll probably find that your cookies (for the poll and commenting) have disappeared. You’ll have to reset them but they should be okay after that.

Roger Ebert answers one of Life’s Great Questions: “Who would win in a fight – William Wallace (from Braveheart) or Maximus (from Gladiator)?” I totally agree with his answer. Kinda funny that they’re both fake Australians, though. 🙂

Haha! Apparently three people broke into the Big Brother house this morning and videotaped themselves cavorting in the garden. I wonder if they’ll mention it on the show tonight?

I was disappointed with the big double eviction show yesterday. The “surprise” ouster of Nathan and Alex seemed a little engineered. I mean, Alex has been flying under the radar quite successfully in the last few weeks. The producers just haven’t been showing him at all. Nathan, on the other hand, got lots of screen time for his jokes. I personally thought he was hilarious. Both of them seemed pretty secure on the show. The “singles” were picking off the couples each week with ease. Then suddenly it’s like the producers got annoyed and decided to reassert some control over the show. So they nominated everyone and then spent a week showing footage that made Nathan and Alex look incredibly bitchy. One week later, they’re both gone. And I’ll have to spend the next month watching Australia’s own lobotomized version of Romeo and Juliet, Marty and Jess. Ugh. (Hmm, I suppose I could turn off the television… Naaaahhhh.)

The Spider-Man game promotion website the Snook’s been working on has just launched. Check it out! You won’t be able to register unless you’ve got a pack of Maggi Noodles lying around though. (It’s basically Ramen.) That excludes just about everybody other than the Kiwis and the Aussies, then!

I had the weirdest dream this morning. It involved characters from Sex and the City, Days of Our Lives, and Buffy. I watch way too much television.

Snookums and I headed to the Good Food Show out at the Olympic Park. It was the first time either of us had been out there. It was really cool to see Stadium Australia and try to picture what it must’ve been like full of people during the Games. The Show itself was packed. We wandered through the aisles tasting olive oils and wines and chocolates and watching demonstrations of nifty kitchen gadgets. I had wanted to attend Ansley Harriott‘s cooking demonstration, but Rodd thinks he’s a wanker and couldn’t be trusted to behave himself. (We did see Ainsley doing a book signing, though. Man, the old women just love him.) We also took in a wine tasting and I got more than a little pissed sampling the fine Australian Shirazes. We left loaded down with two new cookbooks, a packet of olives, and several jars of dried tomatoes, capsicums, and jalepenos. A very good day.

I’ve been reading this story (and its associated MeFi comments) about a 15-year-old Alabama girl who went off to college and was abused by almost the entire football team. She ended up a drug addict as well. In the Metafilter discussion, I was surprised to see so many people arguing that 15-year-olds are incapable of living on their own and making the right choices. Snookums was 16 when he went to Uni, and he turned out fine. I have to wonder if the girl’s home schooling was more to blame than her age. It had to be a shock to go from virtual isolation to living in a big college town environment. (Although when asked about this, the Snook responded that if a group of large women had wanted to make his 16-year-old self their plaything, he would’ve been all about that. It’s just that he was a nerd and no one offered.) 🙂

I’m Korean. My family does not eat dogs. I don’t mind discussing the issue rationally, but I’m really getting tired of all the jokes. (They’ve been coming fast and furious thanks to the World Cup.) It’s time to set the record straight.

I’ve been doing a little research. An editorial from the Korea Herald points out that “Many Koreans, in fact, do not eat dog meat and are repulsed by the thought of doing so.” It also notes that dog meat supposedly promotes virility, so it “is expensive and is consumed almost exclusively by men.” In other words, this is not a widespread practice. Columnist Tom Purcell points out that “while we think it is terrible South Koreans eat dog, folks in India think it’s ten times more repulsive that we eat cow.” He also adds that the argument that dogs have personality and intelligence is irrelevent, because pigs are way smarter than dogs and we have no misgivings about roasting them on a spit. And the Asian Nation website has my favorite summation so far: “It’s true that some South Koreans eat dog meat just like it’s true that some African Americans eat watermelons and fried chicken. But [Jay] Leno wouldn’t dare make a joke about the latter but thinks it’s fine to offend Asian Americans.”

Anyway, that’s my rant for the day.