Monday, May 5, 2008

Monday This & That.

Just a few things before I take off for the day.

First, it's National Hoagie Day, which I find slightly odd. Why? Because there's not any national consensus on what to actually call the things. Depending on where you are, you might do better asking for a Sub. Or a Grinder. I'm pretty sure a PoBoy is the same thing, but I could be wrong. How about a Hero? I'm convinced that comes from Gyro. What do you call a big long sandwich where you come from?

Also, hopefully you've noticed my new banner. Go ahead, take a moment to admire it. I don't know how long I'll keep it, but I think it classes up the joint a little. (Side-note to Hijack™ my own thread; when I first typed this paragraph, I wrote "take a moment and admire it". This seems perfectly proper in spoken communication, but seems utterly awkward in print so I dumped the 'and' in favor of 'to'. I'm curious where the 'and' usage came from and whether or not it's a complete sin against grammar...even if everybody does use it in speech.)

Last but not least, when you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up. I'm not talking about Fireman, Princess, Ballerina or Secret Agent. I'm talking about what were some of the things you seriously considered pursuing...and ended up doing whatever it is you're actually doing now instead. In High School, I had a brief period when I was convinced I'd be an Architect. (I didn't realize that a.) there was a lot more to it than drafting and b.) the job requires a whole lot more math than I was interested in learning.) I also wanted to be an actor, but discovered in college that being an actor kind of sucks...whether you're successful or not.

That's my story. What's yours?

18 comments:

Janiece said...

No, but you can borrow my Grey Poupon.

I wanted to be a marine biologist.

Random Michelle K said...

I wanted to be an engineer or a chemist or a forensic detective or an ecologist.

I switched majors a lot in college.

Of course I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, which is starting to become problematic as I'm getting close to 40.

What I'd love to do is study religion and folklore, but I don't see many job prospects there, so I'll keep it a hobby.

Tania said...

Chemical engineer. Then one day I realized that all the engineers I knew seemed unhappy. With the clear reasoning of a younger person, I decided that either unhappy people became engineers, or engineering made people unhappy. I didn't want to be unhappy, so I checked out other stuff.

But I'm with Michelle, I still really have a plan/goal.

John the Scientist said...

The only place I've ver heard them called Hoagies is Western PA / Eastern OH.

"Grinder" is a prime example (aside from their driving) of why Yankees are brain damaged. Just what in that sandwich is ground? Perhaps they were thinking of a hamburger sub, but that's not very common up here.

I wanted to be an infantry officer until the military started downsizing around 1988. Most of the people I talked to told me not to go in, and it's the greatest regret of my life that I didn't.

Chris said...

We call them "Subs" down here in Central Jersey, but with the influx of people from Eastern Pennsylvania you occasionally hear people ask for a "hoagie."

I wanted to be a "pizza maker" when I was little. I think it was the way those dudes spun the dough around in the air, it looked like so much fun. My mother told me to aim higher so I told her I wanted to be a garbage man. Go figure. I did neither of those things when I got older.

MWT said...

I think it's kind of amusing that we have someone who is an architect and someone who wanted to be one, we have a marine biologist and someone who wanted to be one, and a couple military folks and someone who wanted to be one. Maybe we need to switch our lives around. ;)

As for me: I started out wanting to be a writer, then a career as a pro classical musician got foisted on me, then I fled that to become a scientist (though I was aiming for geologist originally), then I was a marine biologist for a while, and now I'm back to wanting to be a writer. ;)

Nathan said...

MWT,

I hadn't noticed that, but you're right. I'll try to figure out some way we get to borrow just one element of each others' lives.

Damn, that's a challenge.

kimby said...

I wanted to be a doctor, and a musician. My parents talked me out of music..i still hold it against them..and the doctor thing just wasn't in the cards. Since I am returning to University in a few months, I'll let you know what i will be when i grow up..as soon as i figure it out.

We have been known to call them Hoagies up here, but most people call them subs.

Random Michelle K said...

What? No one dreamed of doing software suport?

Pffft!

John the Scientist said...

Michelle, we're of the age when software support was not even in the guidance counselor's lexicon when we graduated high school, but was by the time we got out of college, so I don't think anyone dreamed about it. The closest might have been "computer programmer".

And does anyone have an answer to Nathan's question about photos in blogspot? Because I'm not doing another photo essay like the one I did on Japan until I figure that out.

John the Scientist said...

Tania - engineers and scientists are grumpy around laymen to keep the stupid away. We figure anyone curious enough about our work to get past the nasty exterior is worth talking to. Amongst ourselves, we're wild and crazy people.

Seriously. My (engineering) frat was the only frat in the history of my school to have to call the cops on our own party. And I once woke up from a party in grad school (which took place in my apartment) with crime scene tape on the bathroom door. And a traffic horse complete with amber flashing light in the living room. Amazingly enough, there was no vomit to clean up after that party. We techs can hold our liquor, too.

Nathan said...

John,

I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only one who hates the way blogger loads pictures. I thought I was just being an idiot.

Right now, what I do, is try to upload all pictures before typing anything, load them in reverse order so they post in correct order, and then go back and add all the words where they belong. It's still a pain in the ass, but better than cutting and pasting out of the HTML view.

MWT said...

I write all the text first, and put in things like "[picture of X]" in the correct places. Then I upload all the pictures at once, and move them to the right places by looking at their strategically-descriptively named filenames.

MWT said...

Oh, I guess I should mention that I use html exclusively for this. I've found that switching back and forth between html and Compose will make a picture vanish entirely. The code just goes FWOOSH! and I have to track it down again in Picasa (or upload all over again).

Nathan said...

If I try to drag and drop in the compose mode, I have to do it a bunch of times because you can only move it so far at a time.

And I don't like to upload a bunch of pics at once because in the HTML mode, sometimes it just runs the code all together and makes it hard to find the entire snippet.

Todd Wheeler said...

Earliest I can remember, I wanted to be a scientist so I could cure all diseases. And then I wanted to be a writer.

So I went to college and got a degree in English and then became a computer analyst.

We call them subs in Massachusetts. I spent a few years in Maine where they are called 'Italians'. Now _here_ an Italian is a type of sub. So when I was in Maine, having to order a 'Tuna Italian' or an 'Eggplant Parm Italian' was just too surreal.

I had to move.

Nathan said...

Todd,

When I was a teenager, I went to summer camp near Palmer, MA (way west). I'm pretty sure that's the first place I heard grinder.

That and Frappes had ice cream there...milk shakes didn't.

MWT said...

I can't imagine actually using Compose mode to do anything, frankly. An alternative to uploading pictures through Blogger would be to put them somewhere else (Flickr maybe? Photobucket?) and then just manually type in the code where you want the picture to be. Doing it that way, you don't end up with quite the monstrosity of code block as Blogger gives you. The basic format would be:

<img src="url.here">

If you want to make the picture in the post a different size from the original, it'd be:

<img src="url.here" width=[number in pixels] height=[number in pixels]>

If you also want to make it linkable, say for displaying in full-size:

<a href="url.here"><img src="url.here.again" width=[number in pixels] height=[number in pixels]></a>

It'll default to be left justified, so if you want it centered, you'd then add:

<center><a href="url.here"><img src="url.here.again" width=[number in pixels] height=[number in pixels]></a></center>