Strike that, reverse it

As a bit of a genealogy buff (I've done my share of family history research), I had to cringe a bit when reading an otherwise excellent report about the new Assassin's Creed game. Joystiq's own Editor-in-Chief, Chris Grant wrote:

"In Revelations, you'll play as both 12th century stabber Altair and his 16th century ancestor Ezio..."

Ignoring the missing comma for the appellative, there is a major confusion of terminology here.

For those unfamiliar with the genealogy terms, 'ancestor' refers to a relative from a previous generation, while 'descendant' is one of a future generation. Analogues to these would be 'forefathers' and 'progeny,' respectively.

So the correct statement would be that you play as Altair and his descendant, Ezio.

Source:
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/06/assassins-creed-revelations-details-from-gi-hookblades-bom/

It's a double!

I had been waiting to read Major Spoilers' review of Amazing Spider-Man #656 until I had a chance to read the issue first, so this post goes back a few days. The very first sentence in this article is a bit incomplete: The Walking Massacre’s story isn’t a new one – way back in the Phineas Gage had a railroad spike blow through his head. It's pretty clear that we're missing the object of that preposition, probably something like "back in the day..." Soon after that, Mr. Schleicher misses an important possessive: Mayor J. Jonah Jameson, who recently lost his wife during Alistair Smythe recent rampage, is taking it upon himself to be the judge and jury in all matters concerning those who take a life. Friends of the series know that it was Alistair Smythe who killed Mrs. Jameson, making it "Alistair Smythe's recent rampage." Source: http://www.majorspoilers.com/review-the-amazing-spider-man-656

Where do I go from here?

Since I started this blog, I had hoped that I would be able to somehow use it to generate revenue, either through pay-per-click ads, or by gaining enough interest and prestige to become a full-time editor. Neither of those have worked out for me so far. I understand, of course, that I need to work on producing content more regularly to reach either of those goals.

My question now, is: What content do you want to see here? I noticed while reviewing my blog traffic that a majority of my hits are coming from outside the U.S., places like Brazil, Switzerland, even Nepal. This got me to wondering about how and why these visitors are reading my site. Could it be that they're foreign-language speakers actually looking for tips on the intricacies and minutiae of English grammar?

So, once again, I'll open it up to you, my readers. What would you like to see more of? Less of? How did you find my blog? And how do you like what you've seen so far?

Multiple Infractions

I like reading Penny Arcade. It generally has interesting discussions and fun comics. While reading one of their new posts, I couldn't help but notice a few glaring errors. While they probably have a large enough loyal reader base that doesn't care about things like grammar, I would hope they still take a few minutes to proofread the posts.

First infraction: failing to capitalize the first word of a sentence.
You think we’ve caved into to pressure from a vocal minority and you’re not entirely wrong. let me at least break down why we did it though.


Second infraction: failing to separate items in a list.
If jokes about violence,rape,aids,pedophilia,bestiality,drugs,cancer,homosexuality, and religion bother you then I recommend reading a different webcomic.

In addition to being a basic grammar mistake, this also affects the page appearance, as the browser views this list as a single word, creating unnecessary blank space at the end of a line, where at least a few of these items could fit. (See the following screenshot for reference.)


Third infraction: using sentence fragments.
We want PAX to be a place were everyone feels welcome and we’ve worked really hard to make that happen. From not allowing booth babes to making sure we have panels that represent all our attendees.

The fragment here is a complete thought, continuing that of the previous sentence and should be a subclause rather than a fragment: "... make that happen, from not allowing..."

Any simple word processor with a spell/grammar checker should catch these errors.

Source:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/1/28/dickwolves

Back to the Grind

Every once in a while, I get a bit of an itch to check my traffic, and I've noticed that even though I haven't posted here in a while (I know I promised to in my last post), I'm still getting a fair number of visits. Obviously, I've done something right to keep getting noticed like that, so I'm going to keep trying to update here.

I've been doing some translations recently and it's gotten me to think about idioms - words or phrases that have a completely different literal meaning than what they're commonly used for. I started making a list, mostly from books/blogs I've been reading or podcasts I've been listening to. So, in no particular order, here are a few that've caught my attention:

"in my wheelhouse" - This may be a regional thing, but I'd never heard this one before, and I've really only heard it from one particular podcaster. The idea here is that something "in my wheelhouse" is something that I really enjoy, that fits my interests. This brings me to:

"up my alley" - Similar in meaning (if not identical) to the previous phrase, but I essentially grew up hearing this. Again, might be due to regional differences.

"sawbones" - This is a colloquial term used for a doctor, more specifically a surgeon.

Then there are various drug references, such as "doobie," "roach," and "weed."

As I came across these, I couldn't help wonder how I would translate these into German. I could go for the functional version, translating the meaning rather than the phrase (i.e. "surgeon" for "sawbones), but it feels a lot more formal.

I'll try and keep posting these as they come up. If you have any suggestions for the translations, or want to provide more idioms for discussion, please feel free to comment.

Back from hiatus

I haven't posted here in quite a while, and I do apologize for that. I had some rather big life changes in the last few months - graduating, looking for a job, and moving being chief among them. Things have finally settled down, and I have a new laptop to work on, so hopefully I'll have lots more updates for you soon.

Again with the verbs!

From a Kotaku article about the possibility of Infinity Ward bailing out on Modern Warfare 3:

This might because, if true, the future of the series has not yet been ironed out.

It seems someone forgot the verb again! Or it could be a failed attempt to write in slang, using "because" for the verb "be" with a common spoken contraction of "because." ("This might be, 'cause, if true...")

Source: http://kotaku.com/5443502/but-is-infinity-ward-doing-modern-warfare-3