Mic or Mike?

I love the English language. It's so delightfully ambiguous.

Question of the day: What is the correct abbreviation of "microphone"?

I have become accustomed to using "mic." I don't know why. I don't know when I picked it up. I imagine it's because of my music background. Apparently, this is the version most used by musicians and technicians in the industry.

But if you look at other words as precedent, why then you have "bicycle" reduced to "bike" and "tricycle" reduced to "trike." So many people use "mike."

More complications result when use of the word changes from noun to verb. When you are setting up a microphone for the drums, for instance, are you "micing the drums" or "miking the drums"?

Personally, I don't mind a little mix and match: mic, miking, miked.

But this was enough to send one linguist into a rant on the subject. He also happens to link to a poetry site where the question was posed to poets at large. Their responses are varied and entertaining.

So which do you use: mic or mike?

Elegant Solutions

Earlier this week, I accepted a freelance job transcribing a DVD of a panel of experts discussing the latest challenges faced in the microprocessing industry. Although taking these extra side jobs requires a tremendous time commitment for which I get paid relatively little, it's good resume fodder. And I actually enjoy it.

These people are speaking my language, and yet I have no idea what they are saying. Okay, I have an inkling of what they're saying. It's hard to grow up in the Computer Age and not pick up a little jargon along the way. But still. Their meaning hovers on the very edge of my understanding. And I am fascinated by that.

I am listening to these guys talk about microarchitectures and software ecosystems, multicores and multi-threading, user parallelism, homogeneous and heterogeneous programming models, acceleration differentiation, platform characteristics and virtualization layers, codestreams and discreet processors.

Are you listening? Do you hear what is happening? This is the sound of language evolving. This is the sound of words stretching around new meanings, expanding to encompass new concepts, shifting to fill our need to communicate. This is the sound of language doing what it was meant to do.

Amazing, isn't it?

Watch out for the portcullis-- It bites!

Main Entry: port·cul·lis
Pronunciation: port-'k&-l&s
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English port colice, from Anglo-French porte coliz, literally, sliding door
: a grating of iron hung over the gateway of a fortified place and lowered between grooves to prevent passage

The gods were against me it seems-- or at least had a really really wicked sense of humor. In our "adventuring" today, I got caught in a portcullis trap, not once, not twice, but three times! The first time it happened was just plain stupid. The second time it happened was stupider (and yes, in this instance, that is a word. Trust me.). The third time... well, the third time I laughed so hard I cried. Me and portcullises (portculli?): Man, we have issues.

I don't think I want to be a master of this game. I mean, it's the stupid fumbling and bumbling like this that makes it so much fun. ;-)

Apocalypse Now

Main Entry: apoc·a·lypse
Pronunciation: &-'pä-k&-"lips
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, revelation, Revelation, from Anglo-French apocalipse, from Late Latin apocalypsis, from Greek apokalypsis, from apokalyptein to uncover, from apo- + kalyptein to cover -- more at HELL
1 a : one of the Jewish and Christian writings of 200 B.C. to A.D. 150 marked by pseudonymity, symbolic imagery, and the expectation of an imminent cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil and raises the righteous to life in a messianic kingdom b capitalized : REVELATION 3
2 a : something viewed as a prophetic revelation b : ARMAGEDDON
3 : a great disaster


I had the oddest notion while driving in to work today: Having spent a good portion of my (earlier) life in anticipation of the Biblical Apocalypse, I found myself thinking that while we may not ever see a literal apocalypse, we are responsible each day for a number of little apocalypses. How often do we find ourselves destroying one thing to begin another? Whether it be a career change, or a relationship, or changing an old for a new habit. Maybe that is why change is so difficult; we resist change, because we resist destruction. But we cannot stop change: destruction and creation are both bound up in it. Anytime we embrace something new, something old is lost. The four horsemen are always riding through, but in here and not out there.

Cryptozoology

My son already knew this word.

Main Entry: cryp·to·zo·ol·o·gy
Pronunciation: "krip-t&-zO-'ä-l&-jE, -z&-'wä-
Function: noun
: the study of and search for animals and especially legendary animals (such as Sasquatch) usually in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence
- cryp·to·zoo·log·i·cal /-"zO-&-'lä-ji-k&l/ adjective
- cryp·to·zo·ol·o·gist /-'ä-l&-jist, -'wä-/ noun

http://www.cryptozoology.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptozoology