Really trivial stuff that bugs you

[Gillianren]

I'm hoping this wedding was in full medieval costume!

A Midsummer Night's Dream-themed. Though the bride and groom do still wear bits of their outfits when they're working at faire.

[SeanF]

Ghost pirates, clearly.

Now, wait, are they ghost pirates or pirate ghosts?

[Tog]

Ghost pirates, clearly.

Or translucently at the very least.

[Trebuchet]

We just came back from the other place and I turned on the desktop computer, because I was feeling too lazy to spend less than one minute setting up the laptop. It came up with messages that A) Windows updates were ready to be installed; and B) McAfee Antivirus was out of date. I then proceeded to start both processes working AND tried to start up Google Chrome, despite knowing full well that such actions have previously resulted in crashes. That was about two hours ago. It took me quite a while to get all the crashed processes to shut down, turn off the computer, and reboot. It's now doing the Windows update and nothing else. And I'm typing this on the laptop. Lordy, I can be dumb sometimes.

I'm also slightly annoyed that the wireless mouse for the laptop is such a battery gobbler.... The other two wireless mouses we use are much better. ("Mice" just seems wrong for a computer accessory.)

Now that I think of it:
Mouse -- Mice
House -- Houses
Grouse -- Grouse
Louse -- Lice

English is a most annoying language.

[Paul Beardsley]

I was surprised to see a section in PC World labelled "MICE". That doesn't make it official, but it's likely to be a strong influence on what comes to be the plural.

[Gillianren]

Personally, I just avoid the plural whenever possible. "Mice" feels wrong, for no good reason that I'm personally clear on, but "mouses" (which spellcheck accepts!) makes me twitch.

[grapes]

Now that I think of it:
Mouse -- Mice
House -- Houses
Grouse -- Grouse
Louse -- Lice

Spouse -- Spice
Trousers -- Taser
Douse -- Dice
Souse -- Sots

[KaiYeves]

I talk about computer "mice" quite frequently and have never found it odd. A model attached by wires somewhat resembles a mouse therefore we call one a mouse, like the animal, so several are mice, just as several of the animal are mice.

This does remind me of the long argument I had with my brother P. a few years ago while playing Age of Mythology about if the proper plural of "pegasus" was "pegasi" or just "pegasus". (Yes, we knew it was kind of dumb because "Pegasus" was only the name of that specific horse, but the game used it as a species name.)

[Perikles]

This does remind me of the long argument I had with my brother P. a few years ago while playing Age of Mythology about if the proper plural of "pegasus" was "pegasi" or just "pegasus"

If you have to form a plural, then you could at least use Pegasoi which is the correct nominative plural for the -os ending of what is clearly a Greek proper name, even though Latinized.

[caveman1917]

If you have to form a plural, then you could at least use Pegasoi which is the correct nominative plural for the -os ending of what is clearly a Greek proper name, even though Latinized.

On the other hand it is a bit silly to use the latin form for the singular and the greek for the plural, so either Pegasos-Pegasoi or Pegasus-Pegasi seems better, if you're going to pick a form at least be consistent about it.

[Paul Beardsley]

On the other hand it is a bit silly to use the latin form for the singular and the greek for the plural, so either Pegasos-Pegasoi or Pegasus-Pegasi seems better, if you're going to pick a form at least be consistent about it.

That's one thing television has taught us!

(Did you see what I did there?)

[Noclevername]

That's one thing television has taught us!

(Did you see what I did there?)

Groan. :P

[Arneb]

Spouse -- Spice
Trousers -- Taser
Douse -- Dice
Souse -- Sots

grapes, PLEASE, that's just cruel. Don't make it harder yet for uns non-natives.

[Noclevername]

On YouTube, when watching a video the control bar at the bottom of the screen fades out after a few seconds of cursor inactivity, but instead of just disappearing it slides down offscreen. For this reason, several times I've gone to pause a video, only to accidentally hit the progress bar above the pause button instead and reset the whole video back to the beginning. I then have to find the spot I was at again.

[Gillianren]

We went for a walk around the mall today. It was amazing how some of the employees wouldn't believe that we were just looking--one guy asked us all these questions about what, specifically, we were looking for after we told him that we weren't looking for anything in particular.

[closetgeek]

My sister is getting remarried on Saturday. She lives in Ohio and I live in Florida so throwing her a bridal shower was a difficult task. She is having a ladies night slumber party on Friday so I decided to order a cake and throw her a surprise bridal shower. I sent the bridemaid a text explaining the plans to make sure she can do it and she gets back to me a few days later saying that she talked to my sister and is making plans to be there. Are you kidding me? What part of surprise did you not understand?

[HenrikOlsen]

In my experience, surprise parties only work if the "surprised" person is cooperating to some extent. I've never seen one work where it was kept totally secret.

[closetgeek]

In my experience, surprise parties only work if the "surprised" person is cooperating to some extent. I've never seen one work where it was kept totally secret.

That's why I thought it would be perfect. She has all the people that are close to her, coming that night. She has to be there because it's her house. Very little cooperation needed. The only real help for setting up was delaying her a few minutes, after the rehearsal dinner.

[Extravoice]

In my experience, surprise parties only work if the "surprised" person is cooperating to some extent. I've never seen one work where it was kept totally secret.

That may be mostly true, but I can attest to at least one data point where total surprise was actually attained.

[Gillianren]

My sister's surprise birthday party (I think it was her sixteenth) was spoiled because our voices sound exactly alike over the phone. However, I'm pretty sure other people in her circle of friends had successful surprise parties.

[Paul Beardsley]

I had a birthday party at the end of March which surprised inasmuch as it went brilliantly.

[Jim]

My sister is getting remarried on Saturday. She lives in Ohio and I live in Florida so throwing her a bridal shower was a difficult task. She is having a ladies night slumber party on Friday so I decided to order a cake and throw her a surprise bridal shower. I sent the bridemaid a text explaining the plans to make sure she can do it and she gets back to me a few days later saying that she talked to my sister and is making plans to be there. Are you kidding me? What part of surprise did you not understand?

Surprised you, didn't it?

[DonM435]

I got a real surprise birthday party some years ago. The employee who organizes these things had the wrong birthday for me in her records. So, I got called to the office on a pretense, and had no reason to suapect anything.

[Gillianren]

We have to get some paperwork for Graham from the VA. Their online form request only accepts IE, and then it turns out you have to either fax or mail a request anyway so they have your signature.

[Hlafordlaes]

As I run around the bar, inevitably I make trips to one place, forget why I went, wave my hands in the air, and have to go back where I was to remember, only to repeat the whole thing all over again. I now use saying something out loud to overcome this, because I can play back auditory memory easily. That's one more step in the mumbling old crazy guy direction. Sheesh.

[Solfe]

We went for a walk around the mall today. It was amazing how some of the employees wouldn't believe that we were just looking--one guy asked us all these questions about what, specifically, we were looking for after we told him that we weren't looking for anything in particular.

"Do you make commission? Yes? We are looking for a pair of double lattes with cinnamon sprinkles."