Month: August 2006

I can’t speak for anyone else but I sure have lost a couple hours of my life just reading through the various topics that one can find on Wikipedia. It’s interesting and you’re learning at the same time! How is that possible?

One topic I stumbled upon is called the “RAS syndrome“. The acronym stands for “Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome”. The syndrome occurs when a word in an acronym is used with the acronym in describing something. The most common example is the term “PIN number”. PIN stands for “Personal Identification Number” so appending the last “number” onto the term is redundant.

The fact that the term “RAS syndrome” self-references the problem has not been lost on the people who coined it. A list of terms which suffer from RAS is quite lengthy but here are a select few:

LCD display
ATM machine
DVD disc

The whole list can be found in the Wikipedia article.

With all this talk about people leaving for Australia, I thought I’d mention two other people I know who are already in that country. Tim and Kirsten are friends of mine from undergrad who, more than anyone I know, have taken the concept of seeing the world to new heights. Having previously immersed themselves in European culture for several months, they’ve now turned their sights to Australia.

Actually, they’ve been there for several months now so they have quite a collection of stories to tell. In this day and age, what’s a better way to tell people about your adventures than a blog? I highly recommend a read if you’re one of those travelling types.

I guess I didn’t tell everyone that I actually don’t start work until next week. I have this entire week off. My plan for my time off is to relax and get lots of sleep. It sounds simple but sometimes, vacations can find a way to deviate off the intended course.

Last night, I went to see a 11pm showing of Superman Returns. It was very satisfying knowing I could be at a movie theatre until well past 1am on a Sunday night. Walking into the auditorium, I knew the movie had received somewhat lukewarm reviews so I did not expect a fantastic movie. After it was all over, I thought it was better than I had expected it to be. When it comes to DC properties though, I’m still partial to the Dark Knight himself.

Speaking of Batman, they announced today that Heath Ledger will indeed be portraying the Joker in the next Batman film. The film will be entitled The Dark Knight. You can read more here. As expected, Christian Bale will again be wearing the caped crusader’s suit.

In totally unrelated news, I was fortunate enough to help celebrate Bryan’s successful Ph.D. defense today. I congratulate Bryan for all his hard work and dedication over the last half decade. Dr. Bryan, you should feel proud of this accomplishment.

As happy as the defense was, it serves as a precursor to the departure of both Bryan and Sarah to Australia where they will find new adventures. They leave tomorrow! I would like to thank them for their friendship over the last several years. Have a safe trip down under and good luck with everything!