A few weeks ago I wrote about the long lost art of writing [part 1] [part 2] - or the problems with grammar kids and adolescents face nowadays. In case you missed it and don’t feel like rereading, my conclusion was that basically the end justifies the means in this case - language is organic and it how it should be used depends on the situation.

That was a few weeks ago, and since then I’ve been (proudly) accused of mild liberalism, which for many of my friends and readers was a bit of a surprise considering that my views on literature at large are rather traditional. However, then I came across this article and my blood almost boiled.

Hah!  Just days ago I was having a conversation about our need to start on serious space exploration, with me strongly defending the pro side.  The tone of the conversation ranged anywhere between minor disagreement to a near-physical violence.  The conversation finished some days later with a compromise suggesting that a mixed perspective may be the best solution.  Today, however, I see that Stephen Hawking decided to take sides with me.  Amusingly enough, one of his primary reasons for venturing into space is the fear of extinction, which was also the crux of the aforementioned argument.

Although this debate has raged on for at least a few decades, I think that we’re slowly approaching a moment where space exploration will become a common-day task.  Whether this happens for the right or wrong reasons (i.e. to further our understanding of the universe or to mine Mars) is another story.  For now, however, I’ll be happy if we make it into space for whatever reason.

As I enter work today, hoping for a peaceful day, I find an e-mail from a friend with a link to this BBC story.

If you’re wondering where this is coming from, well, it’s apparently related to the recent alleged terrorism threat to Canada, which was intercepted in time by the Canadian intelligence community. I say alleged because even nowadays some countries adopt the legal maxim innocent until proven guilty and heavens forbid that I offend a plausible offender.

This will not be my ‘typical post’, but I since can’t stop laughing, I thought I’d share this with you. So this morning I call a friend of mine, who turns out to be quite upset. Notwithstanding all the reasons for her bad mood, one of them was that our mutual friend had a neck injury.

Well, based on my friend’s tone of voice and the fact that the other friend was put into a neck brace made this sound really awful. And being the good friend that I sometimes am, I decided I should visit right away.

To my surprise, she came out with a huge smile on her neck-brace-supported face. Yes, she was in pain (though much less due to her meds) and yep, she was definitely feeeeeling those meds. It turns out that she only pulled a muscle and perhaps mildly dislocated her collar-bone.