MTV's Skins Trailer:




PSA for "Above the Influence" campain, shown on MTV:



Eerily similar. Make up your mind, MTV.

Bridesmaid Dress - Check!

Yesterday I went to H&S bridals in Manhattan to purchase my dress for Carrie's wedding.  After trying on about ten dresses, I found the perfect dress:

All I need now is the perfect pair of shoes, then I'll be all set! Any suggestions?

Really, Wet Seal?!

By Carrie

WHO PROOF READS AT WET SEAL?! They deserve to be fired.

Exhibit A:

Wrong use of your! It's YOU'RE! YOU'RE!!

Exhibit B:

"Destoryed Jeans"?

Exhibit C:

Destoryed again?

Exhibit D:

Destoryed AGAIN?!

Exhibit E:

How have they not caught any of these? DESTROYED!

Exhibit F:



Destoryed again. It's a lost cause.



For the last pair of jeans, not only the proof reader should be fired, but the designer as well. How unflattering are those jeans?!

I contacted them on their website letting them know about their errors, with links provided. I also mentioned them in a tweet with a link this post, so hopefully one of these methods grabs their attention! Let's see if they edit their website...

These words exist! Part Two: Adding the custom dictionary

By Carrie

 

Part 2: Import an existing custom dictionary from another computer

To import a custom dictionary from another computer, follow these steps:

First, save the custom dictionary file that you want to add to the computer, making sure you remember where you saved it to.

Download the Audiology dictionary HERE. 

MICROSOFT 2003
1. Open Word, then click on Options on the Tools menue.
2. Click the Spelling & Grammar tab, and then click Custom Dictionaries.
3. Click Add.
4. Locate where you have saved the custom dictionary, and click OK.


MICRSOFT 2007
1. Open Word, then click the Microsft Office Button, then click Word Options.
2. Click Proofing, then click Custom Dictionaries (under the header When correcting spelling in Microsoft Office Programs).
3. Click Add.
4. In the Add Custom Dictionary box, locate where you saved the custom dictionary. Click the file na,e then click OK three times to close all the dialog boxes.

MICROSOFT 2010
1. Open Word, click File, then click Options.
2. Click Proofing, then click Custom Dictionaries (under the header When correcting spelling in Microsoft Office Programs).
3. Click Add.
4. In the Add Custom Dictionary box, locate where you saved the custom dictionary. Click the file na,e then click OK three times to close all the dialog boxes.

Microsoft Word tells me my profession makes up words; I fight back.

By Carrie

Occasionally I do things that really make myself aware of how much of a nerd I am. Last week, I installed Skype on my work computer and the computer 10 ft away from me. This way, I could monitor my rats under anesthesia at my work computer, instead of at the anesthesia station a few steps away. Nerdy? Yes. But functional and exciting? Certainly!

Today I decided I've had enough of myself complaining when writing reports. I am in school for audiology, and the majority of times when writing a paper or patient report, it seems every other word is underlined for spelling errors; these words include retrocochlear, otoscopy, earmold, and  sensorineural. These are the most basic words used in almost any report! So today, I decided to set up a custom dictionary that could be added to any Microsoft Word.

Step One: Open up Microsoft Word and go to Word Options.

Click on any of these pictures to make them bigger.

Go to File -> Word Options

Step Two: Create the file.

Go to Proofing in the left hand column, then choose Custom Dictionaries

Click New, then name the file what you want, and click Save.

IMPORTANT: Take note where this file is saving to!

 

This is where I got lost. I created my custom dictionary, great, but why didn't it ask me to put any words into it? How does this help me?!

Step Three: Add words.

So, I found where the file was saved, and its nothing more than a notebook file! I opened up the one already saved to see their format-

These are the words I've right clicked and "added to dictionary". (Most of them are audiology related!)

So, I opened up MY custom dictionary, audiology.dic, and started adding in the words I wanted.

Step four will include sending an email with the dictionary attached, with instructions for adding it to Microsoft word to all my audiology friends. And hoping that I don't get made fun of too much.

Inspiration Board, take one

By Carrie

Using a new site, Aviary.com, I created this inspiration board for the flowers I'd like at my wedding.

Aviary.com was pretty simple to use- I suppose it would be even easier if you have experience with photoshop or something similar. This is only my first inspiration board! Hopefully I get better :-)

Twiblings

By Laura

Each year, the Oxford English Dictionary adds new words to its pages.  In 2010 the words de-friend, chillax, and micro-blogging were added to the collection.  New words are constantly being created in order to describe our ever-changing world and I heard a word yesterday that could be in contention for the 2011 edition:

Twibling

What’s a twibling you ask?  Twiblings are two biological embryos fertilized at the same time and born to two different surrogate mothers. Since they are nurtured by two separate women, they have the potential to be born on separate days, even though gestationally they are the same age. Therefore they are siblings but not twins – twiblings.

The New York Times first introduced the term here in its story about twiblings Violet and Kieran Thernstrom, and The Today Show picked it up in yesterday’s broadcast:

 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I can not believe that there’s a term for this!  What’s next, triblings, quadlings, quintlings?  As those two babies grow older, how will they introduce one another to people they meet? “Hi I’m Violet and this is my twibling Kieran.”  If so, they are going to be explaining the story of their conception to everyone they come across.

Although this would not be the way I’d go about having a family, I don’t have an issue with it as long as the children are properly taken care of and well adjusted.  I just can’t believe what science and technology can achieve in 2011.  It will be interesting to see if this concept catches on, although I doubt it will.