Absquatulate

ode to the spelling checker

ode to the spelling checker

Ode to a Spell Checker

I have a spelling checker
I disk covered four my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot see.

Eye ran this poem threw it.
Your sure real glad two no.
Its very polished in its weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a blessing.
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when aye rime.

Each frays comes posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore wee rote with checkers
Hour spelling was inn deck line,
Butt now when wee dew have a laps,
Wee are not maid too wine.

And now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
There are know faults in awl this peace,
Of nun eye am a wear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaws are knot aloud.

That's why eye brake in two averse
Caws Eye dew want too please.
Sow glad eye yam that aye did bye
This soft wear four pea seas.

--Author Unknown

Spell checkers are not a cure-all.

American English, as heard by Italians

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

I've said this elsewhere, but it bears repeating: The Italians can't even shake the cool when making fun of Americans. I love this video, it feels way ahead of it's 1972 date.

Helen Keller video (!)

A Collective of nouns

• a melancholy of goths
• an obstacle of fringe spectators
• a maglite of technicians
• a squee of fangirls
• a hemmingway of half-dozen words
• a guffaw of comedians
• a tweak of twitterers
• a scrum of developers
• a choke of stranglers
• a tantrum of 2 year olds

Tee, I love this.

Neuroscience: A History

Often I am want to forget how fascinated I am with neuroscience. Undergrad was tumultuous, for reasons known only to those involved and that's fine. I've finally gotten myself back on track with my graduate degree in Communication Disorders and blog entries like these make me regret my undergrad course of study a little bit. I wasn't ready, I was depressed, I was too far from home. But regardless, it's a big part of who I am and it's not too late to set things right. I'd like to believe there's still a place in this world for the thinker.

Which do you choose?

Enjoy this amazing talk from TED from Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist who describes her experiences when she suffers a hemmorage and how it changed her.

And quite frankly, it has changed me, and what it means to be treating adults with aphasia.

I missed Brain Awareness Week, having mistakenly thought it was THIS week. But rather than wait another 51 weeks to celebrate it again, I'll push it on into this week and feature a new brainy post each day for your amusement (or consternation :).

Update: Video link fixed.

Luddite!

I posted this on Twitter, but since I've made my feed private to ward off Google Spiders, there's no way you would know. But I thought you'd appreciate it:
"Electronic toys and animated elmos that dance 5 days a week == deep, unyielding desire to become Amish. Or an Amish SLP. Do they exist?"

Yeah yeah, another talk. Ho hum

I'm kind of ashamed that I haven't posted about this sooner. What, getting published is all ho-hum now Curro?

Found out that an extension of the presentation given at ASHA last year, wherein more data and a comparison of two kids' performance on various reading tasks are to be presented has been accepted for ASHA this year in Boston. Yay!

I think I needed the summer to be my summer, and not a paper's summer, or a presentation's summer. Just mine. Because now that it's almost over, I'm ready to get back to it. Let's get this sucker into a journal too. Bring it on.

Non-Non-Compete

After talking with a small business owner about some of the non-compete disclosures he's been forced to read, I was astounded by the fact that I no longer work in an industry where there are such things. As a matter of fact, transparency, open-source, and free movement of information is the rule, not the exception. And while it certainly can be used as one reason why there's no money in what I do (other reasons include that there are no pills to cure my clients and that you can't see what I work on) it is definitely refreshing and one of the many things I love about this field.

That isn't to say there aren't the business entrepreneurs out there (see any of the voice treatment protocols or even the oral-motor treatment plans, but don't get me started on O-M). They do exist and there are many companies who cater to our profession. But in the end it's the movement of information from one therapist to the next that makes us all better.

It fits.

It fits.
Originally uploaded by absquatulate.

Time to get my graduatin' on.

It's gonna be on hell of a day kids. Expect lots of insane photos of people you don't know.