Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Film-Tech's Worst Speller?

This is topic Film-Tech's Worst Speller? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 02-07-2003, 09:37 PM:

Probably me, judging from my recent posts in Feature Info & Trailer Attachments.

First, my apologies to Bill Gabel, who first posted Final Destination 2. Yours truely went by the enclosed title sheet: Final Destination II (Roman numerals). Naturally, a search turned up nothing on that when I posted.

Next, my thants to Steve Kraus, who noticed that I neglected to type the "a" in Shanghai Knights. Hence, anyone doing a search using the correct spelling would have turned up zilch on that one!

Finally, the current blunder on the "How To" print. This time I went by the official schedule sent to me by my company's Director of Operations at make-up time: "How to Lose". Guess I lost! [Eek!]

I'm just going to have to use the spell check more often. As the old saying goes "Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most." [Big Grin]

You may all begin the rant now.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-07-2003, 09:43 PM:

I nominate Gordon McCleod.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-07-2003, 10:33 PM:

John,

When doing searches, it's best to pick one major word from the title so you don't have that happen. For instance, if you had searched for "destination", it would've turned up (along with possibly one or two others).

Also, it IS "lose", not "loose". The word "lose" could be used to describe a situation as if you lost your wallet. The word "loose" could be used to describe baggy pants. Hence my crack in the FITA forum about the lab not being able to spell.

Posted by Rick Long (Member # 213) on 02-07-2003, 11:11 PM:

Your baggy pants are so loose you show your crack?

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-07-2003, 11:36 PM:

Never a dull moment on FT....

Jeeze, when I have to start my emergency Diesel 35KVA generator just to fire up the computer so I can log in on FT, that shows how addickting it is. [Big Grin]

It is an old 1945 US Army Surplus 3-phase generator with a 4-cylinder UD-9 IH Diesel engine, so it is gasoline start, Diesel run. It takes about 2 to 3 minutes to bring it on line... [Eek!]

...Had to do that because some klutz ran over a power pole on the highway tonight. [beer]

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 02-08-2003, 03:43 AM:

Many (but not all) projectionists I know are poor spellers. I'd like to think the same gene that makes me a lousy speller also makes me a good projectionist. I'm very grateful for spell checkers! [thumbsup]

Since Joe mentioned Gordon, I will add that Gordon uses the absolute minimum amount of words to get his point accross. Good for us here, but he could never be a politician since if someone asked for his opinion on something,... he would tell them!

Paul, that's pretty interesting about your 'gas start - diesel run' generator. Is there a smaller seperate gas engine which is used to turn over the main diesel (we used to call that a 'pony motor')?

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-08-2003, 05:59 AM:

Probably not an issue for you guys, but I tend to mistrust spell checkers since they all go with American English (and not least because Microsoft once changed 'Hitchcock' to 'Hitler' in my master's thesis, which gave the lecturer marking it no end of amusement). You can install the Microsoft Word one to use British English, and I've done this on my own PC and laptop. But if you're using someone else's, the chances are that it will have been installed with the US dictionaries, especially if it is one bought off the shelf and pre-installed with a system disc image. Other programs, e.g. Eudora, don't have a British option at all and I just got so fed up with red lines appearing all over the place that in the end I disabled its spelling checker.

Also, Microsoft's grammar checker really pisses me off, specifically its refusal to allow the use of 'which' as a preposition.

I don't think my spelling is too bad: there are, I'd guess, about 5-10 words in English that I always have trouble remembering the spelling for.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-08-2003, 07:41 AM:

Gordon`s style of writing without punctuation is obviously heavily influenced by James Joyce. Therefore, it has to be seen as literature and as such ordinary spelling and grammar rules do not necessarily apply.

quote:
don't have a British option at all and I just got so fed up with red lines appearing all over the place that in the end I disabled its spelling checker.

Leo, the difference between British and American spelling is not so big, if you have red lines all over, maybe you should leave the spell checker on [Wink]

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-08-2003, 10:28 AM:

quote:
John Walsh: ... I'd like to think the same gene that makes me a lousy speller also makes me a good projectionist. ...

You don't know how true that is!!

Dyslexia, as a matter of fact, can manifest itself in a whole bunch of different ways. Some people with a more mild case could simply have trouble spelling... like getting their "I"s and "E"s mixed up when writing out words. Other times it can show up as a sort of absent-minded forgetfulness.

Are you the kind of person who seems to get lost easily? Even in your own house? (rhetorical question)

Well it turns out that people who have dyslexia tend to have better ability at spacial relationships and constructing complex mental images. It is hypothesized that this "special ability" makes dyslexics tend to gravitate toward more technical professions like mechanics and machinists.

I know several "old time" machinists who are crackerjacks when it comes to running a lathe or a milling machine. I have actually seen a guy fabricate parts to fix a broken water pump in a matter of minutes. My father and I were chin-on-the-floor, aghast to see him do this. BUT... when it came to handwriting this same guy looked like he couldn't pass the sixth grade!

So, John, you are probably not THAT far off base!

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 02-08-2003, 10:48 AM:

J bn uif xpstu tqfmmes. [Smile]

To translate this comment - you have to go back one letter.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 02-08-2003, 11:48 AM:

geezus Paul nice generator. I'd love to have one like that!

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-08-2003, 02:42 PM:

John and Greg, since both of you voiced interest in my generator, here is a picture:

The whole thing weighs about 4,000 lbs. The fuel tank in the shed holds 220 gallons of Diesel fuel. The UD-9 International Harvester engine is the same engine (with exception of a slightly different oil pump and oil pan) that was used in International Harvester TD-9 Cat.

Posted by Gracia L. Babbidge (Member # 582) on 02-08-2003, 02:45 PM:

The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the left side of the brain is where most of the hardcore verbal processes take place. The right side of the brain deals with the bulk of visual references & spatial matters, and controls the left side of the body.

Statistically, left-handed people make more spelling errors than right-handed people.
(That statistic doesn't fit my household though, both my roommate are right-handed, and terrible spellers - I'm the geek that always fared well in spelling bees...)

...so, how many of Film-Tech's admittedly bad spellers are lefties?

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-08-2003, 02:59 PM:

Joe is the worst speller since he mispelled my last name [Big Grin]

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-08-2003, 03:01 PM:

Michael suggests that:

quote:
Leo, the difference between British and American spelling is not so big, if you have red lines all over, maybe you should leave the spell checker on

Actually I'm constantly surprised at just how many -our (UK)/-or (US) suffixes there are, and also the US English habit of turning nouns into verbs simply by adding the suffix-ize (e.g. 'burgle' in British English becomes 'burglarize' in US English). There are also several other instances of a British English 's' being a 'z' in US English. Over, say, a 10,000 word piece of writing that can make for a lot of red lines.

BTW, when you install the dictionaries in Word 2000, the English options are UK, US or Zimbabwe. Does anyone know what the specific differences are in Zimbabwean English? Is it just that the Zimbabwe English dictionary includes some proper nouns (i.e. surnames and place names) that are likely to be used in Zimbabwe but nowhere else, or are there more fundamental spelling and grammar differences?

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 02-08-2003, 04:07 PM:

"Loose", instead of "lose", is one of my pet peeves; it's probably the most-frequent mistake on the Internet.

Using "then", when the writer means "than", runs a very close second.
[Mad]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-08-2003, 04:09 PM:

Actually Gordon I knew I misspelled it, but I was far too lazy to look for a post of yours to make sure it was correct! [Cool]

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 02-08-2003, 04:28 PM:

Hey Gord! That's what you get from Poe Pedifer. [Wink]

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 02-08-2003, 05:19 PM:

Paul
I have a 1954 D47U Cat, that I bought to build the easement road into this property. It's a 4 cyl diesel with a gas "pony motor". But I don't have a generator hooked to it. Wish I did. They don't make'em like they used to. I need to go start it up and drive it around this summer before it dies from neglect.
Have I made enough spelling errors to qualify as "on topic"?

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-08-2003, 05:34 PM:

Hey Bob...I like your "Green Apple Two-Step Boogie Shuffle... [Big Grin]

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 02-08-2003, 05:42 PM:

I'm a lefty and my spelling is atrocious (so said my astronomy prof back in the pre-word processor/spell checker dark ages).

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 02-08-2003, 05:49 PM:

Leo wrote:

quote:
I don't think my spelling is too bad: there are, I'd guess, about 5-10 words in English that I always have trouble remembering the spelling for.

Pretty impressive considering there are 400,000 words in the English langauge [Smile]

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-08-2003, 09:15 PM:

Poe Pedifer said "but I was far too lazy to look for a post of yours"
Odd it doesn't take that much work since there are only 3891 of them [Big Grin]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-08-2003, 10:02 PM:

I think, going by a # of posts vs. # of spelling mistakes ratio, this is probably the most literate board on the internet. I think Poe would agree. [Big Grin]

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 02-08-2003, 10:52 PM:

I'm a lefty and I don't think that I am that bad of a speller although I do make arrers offten ! [Smile]

Posted by Mathew Molloy (Member # 666) on 02-09-2003, 12:04 AM:

When I'm writing quickly I get letters and numbers mixed up. For example T's and 2's, F's and 5's & V's and 7's. I've turned to writing my numbers out - ala, seven, but when doing so sometimes I'll write se7en, 2wo and 5ive. What a dumb5uck.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 02-09-2003, 04:18 AM:

Mathew, that's a unique quirk. Never heard that one before. I've never been able to makes "S"'s very well. Hard as I try, they always look like "5"'s

5o it goe5, I 5uppo5e.
:/