So last week researchers announced that the Oxford dictionaries have officially reached the 1 billion word mark.
Apparently they started looking at weblogs, chatrooms, newspapers, magazines and fiction to find new cultural lexicon to add to the dictionaries. Yeah, I just used lexicon in a sentence. I have no idea if I used it correctly, but I’m sure it makes me look smart. Maybe they are constantly reading this very blog to find new phrases to add… like… ognorlie.
File that under changing our culture, one word at a time.
Tags: Oxford dictionary
Well, traffic week here at the Office Humor Blog officially ends today. Hopefully at least a few of you enjoyed it. There were a few reasons why I wanted to do a special week’s worth of traffic related posts.
The first reason being that I really hate traffic. Duh. I’m sure most of you out there don’t really care too much for your morning and afternoon commutes either. The final results of the poll showed that most people have 4 people have a 30 minute drive, 3 have a 45 minute, 2 have a 15 minute, and 1 has a 1 and a half hour drive. Granted, the poll only had 10 whole people respond, but at least that’s something. I used to have a job that was only a 10-15 minute commute. My last couple jobs have been 45 minutes to 1 hour, which really does suck.
The second reason I wanted to do a traffic week was really because of three specific posts. I had been thinking of doing a poem about traffic for awhile now and The Traffic Herd is one of my best, in my opinion. Another thing I had been thinking of for awhile was the idea of a mix CD with traffic/commute related songs, the result being the Commuting CD Traffic Mix, which I think came out well. The final post was really more of me wanting to add a new design to the Office Humor Store. The design for the new product is simple and the message is clear Traffic Sucks.
The final reason for traffic week was that I just really wanted to start to do different series here every so often. I have a few more that I’m already thinking of, though it’ll be at least a couple weeks before I decide to do another week dedicated to a specific topic. Though I do like how the news, links, poem, gifts, jokes, and everything else is somewhat random (though work related), I’d like to be able to focus in on a specific topic and squeeze some funny out of it once in awhile. If you have any ideas for some new series here, definitely let me know either in the comments section or by filling out the contact form.
I’d like to add one last link for you all to check out, this one being the Census release of commute time in the United States. The big conclusion from the survey is that Americans spend on average more than 100 hours commuting to work each year. This is even a sadder fact when you compare it to the average 80 hours taken for vacation. The average daily commute was 24.3 minutes in 2003 with New York and Maryland topping the list with 30.4 and 30.2 minute commutes respectively.
Traffic sucks… but hopefully this past week of traffic humor has been at least a little entertaining. If you disagree and think it was horrible and should never been done again, there’s always the underused comments section and contact form so you really only have yourself to blame if you don’t respond.
Tags: traffic, commute, Census, traffic humor, jokes
Just wanted to give you all a heads up that I’ll be ending the current commuting poll tonight. If you haven’t had a chance to “vote”, now’s the time to do it.
As the time I wrote this there were only 10 votes. It’s not quite the response I was hoping for, but at least a few of you participated. I’ll be doing a brief wrap up post tomorrow talking about the whole traffic week experiment, and after that, things will be back to regular old office humor.
Tags: traffic, poll, commute
If you thought a Mini Cooper was small, check out the Clever tiny car. The three-wheeled, two-seating, one meter wide car is still in the prototype stage but researchers are enthusiastic about it hitting the roads in force some day.
The car runs on natural gas and is supposedly a huge advantage in traffic as it can squeeze through most gridlocks. It’s not some crazily priced car either, with an estimated price tag of $12,005 if it gets massproduced.
I’m skeptical since electric cars never really took off, nor did many other new twists on the automobile. Then again, hybrids seem to be gaining some supporters.
File that under oil companies will love it!
Tags: Clever car, tiny car, traffic
So you think the traffic control system in your area sucks? You think you could do better? Okay then, try out your traffic controlling skills with this traffic control flash game.
Like many flash games, it gets old pretty quick. It is pretty fun for awhile though, especially when things get pretty hectic as the cars start piling up.
Tags: traffic control, flash game, traffic
I know we’ve all dreamed about changing all the traffic lights to green, but how many of us have actually attempted it? Well, the man in the story did it for 2 years before he got caught and had to pay a $50 fine.
If you ask me, $50 for 2 years of green lights is a bargain! Of course, I definitely thing it’s completely wrong to do it, not just because it’s dangerous, but also because he might be changing my green lights to red! The story says the devices can be found on eBay for $100.
File that under anyone for a game of red light green light?
Tags: red light, green light, traffic signal device
A New York man was forced to take a day off from work to appear for a minor traffic summons. He grew increasingly restless as he waited hour after endless hour for his case to be heard.
When his name was called late in the afternoon, he stood before the judge, only to hear that court would be adjourned for the next day and he would have to return the next day.
“What for?” he snapped at the judge.
His honor, equally irked by a tedious day and sharp query roared, “Twenty dollars contempt of court. That’s why!”
Then, noticing the man checking his wallet, the judge relented. “That’s all right. You don’t have to pay now.”
The young man replied, “I’m just seeing if I have enough for two more words.”
Tags: traffic court, traffic humor, joke
Rio De Janeiro joins Mexico City and Tokyo as major cities that offer female only train cars. One car in every 33 is marked with pink stripes, designating that the car is for ladies only.
It’s definitely an interesting concept, though, being a guy that has never ridden on a subway train, I really have no clue what women must go through in those situations. If it really does reduce the alleged groping and sexual advances that happened regularly, then it’s got to be a good thing right?
File that under what about guys that get groped?
Tags: Rio De Janeiro, subway trains
If you are ever so completely pissed off and annoyed at traffic wherever you are, always remember this video of driving in India.
If you skip towards the end more you’ll see some huge jams with people jockeying for position. You can see how they fight to get squeeze in, and once somebody gets in, everybody tries to get through, blocking the other direction for awhile. I’ve always heard of how crazy it can be there, but seeing it is a whole other thing.
Tags: driving in India, traffic
If you find yourself getting road rage at regular intervals on your commute, perhaps you need to think about using some feng shui with your car.
I like how they say parking your car towards your office can make the occupants uneasy because the car is a ‘predatory tiger’ and can be threatening. Now that I think about it, I think a bright yellow Beatle growled at me the other day. I thought it was just my hungry tummy, but I guess it was the car.
File that under your car looked at my funny.
Tags: feng shui
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