Bad Poetry Day 2011

There is a holiday to celebrate everything! Today, and every other August 18, just so happens to be Bad Poetry Day.

According to Wellcat.com, the creators of this particular holiday, the proper way to celebrate the day is to gather a group of old high school friends, write some bad poetry and then send it to an old high school teacher. But who really celebrates Bad Poetry Day like that? Cracked says we don't have to celebrate it that way, and I deem them a credible source in this regard.

I think just about everyone has written a bad poem or two in their lifetime, whether of their own accord or under educationally administered duress. I may or may not admit that in one point in my life during high school, I may or may not have filled one or more notebooks with some of my own bad poetry. I perhaps lost one that has never been found, one could possibly have been stolen and I just might have actually given one away during my hopelessly romantic phase. All of that is rumor and speculation of course. I admit nothing.

I thought that I might at least try to write some bad poetry. I'm pretty sure some people would think the haiku and little bit of other poetry I've written here has bordered on bad. In fact, upon reflection, I have complete faith that I could write some bad poems here.

I realize this post is late in coming
(and tardiness is most unbecoming)
but to busy-ness I've been succumbing
- nah, I was really watching the Twins game.

Ha! Okay, so here is another one:

There once was a Sam from Minnesota
Who had hit her daily coffee quota.
Having much work yet to do
another pot she did brew
And she didn't sleep that night, one iota.

Still with me? I'm almost done. But it wouldn't be my blog if there wasn't some sort of haiku:

Haiku Poetry:
Five syllables, then seven
then five more. That's all.

So there. If any of my old high school English teachers or college proffessors are reading this (I highly doubt it, but if you are give a shout-out in the comments), see what I've done with my creative writing and poetry classes? To the random person (people?) who may or may not have stolen (found) really angst-ridden, moody, typical-teenage-geek type poetry I may or may not have penned, I may or may not really want those books back!

Did you participate in Bad Poetry Day? Want to, even if it is no longer Bad Poetry Day? Leave your bad poem in the comments!

Haiku News - August 16, 2011

Rhiannon so loved
the Korean language, she
gave it extra tongue.

This new mechanic
can't hear the clanks, squeals or tings,
but he can feel them.

There is a time and
a place for profanity,
in life and language.

I, me, us, we, you
she, they, he: Small, fleeting words,
big, lasting impact.

Books are banned for their
content from schools, yet parents
let kids watch "Teen Mom."

True to Words Cloud

Ever since "Gender Stereotyping & Word Clouds: A Random Post," I've wanted to create my own word cloud based on the text here at True to Words. I finally took the time to do it!

Though the Wordle site looks easy to use, these images took a bit longer than I expected. The instructions on the site said I could just input the address and it would figure out the rest. It only seemed to track the language of the first pages of my blog and I wanted to make a cloud that represented the words throughout the entirety of the blog. That meant I had to go the alternate route and copy/paste all of the text, including deleting anything that might have copied over that I didn't want to have counted, like all the dates, the part where it names me as the author of the post, even the social media bar that has the Twitter and Facebook buttons. All of these could have swayed my results.

Here is the first one I liked enough to save. It is vaguely the shape of Minnesota! Hey, I said vaguely. Click on the image to see a larger version on the Wordle site.

That image has all the "common" English words filtered out, but the website's idea of common and mine were vastly different, resulting in some words that didn't seem appropriate (such as "one" and so many different variations of the similar wards). So I made another word cloud using the "Advanced" option, inputting word count information the website had tabulated for me under the "Word Count" menu option. This way, I was also able to include more of the words that I feel more closely represent what this blog is about. By extension, it also is a pretty good representation of some of the things that I like or value in general.

Again, click on the image to see a larger version. All in all, Wordle was a pretty fun toy. I may consider trying to find another way to use it in the future.

Have you used Wordle before? Provide a link to your creation in the comments section!

Sell It With Salmonella

There are very few organizations in the world that can use a salmonella outbreak to boost their recognition.

Listening to Minnesota Public Radio the other day, I heard what to me momentarily sounded like a twisted advertisement mixed with a very real and deadly news story. An interview was taking place with a representative of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about a salmonella outbreak occurring in the United States. More than 36 million pounds of ground turkey meat is being recalled nationwide after 76 people became ill and one person died as a result of the bacteria. Right in the middle of the interview, the guy mentioned that these illnesses and many others could be prevented if more people followed the proper food preparation techniques of "Clean, Separate, Cook, Chill" every time they prepared a meal.

This is where the discussion briefly turned away from the very serious story at hand and towards the CDC's new ad campaign and website regarding food safety that was rolled out just weeks before this outbreak. Its tagline is exceedingly simple and useful: "Clean, Separate, Cook, Chill." He rattled off some food poisoning statistics (for example, one in six Americans get sick from foodborne illness every year), explained how following simple instructions could help keep people healthy and invited people to go to their website. The interview then went back to talking about salmonella and E. coli outbreaks that have struck the nation in recent years.

It got me to thinking, though, about just what I stated at the very beginning of this blog post. There aren't many organizations that could get away with exploiting a tragedy to get positive attention. The only others I could think of besides the CDC are other government agencies like the FDA, pharmaceutical companies (antibiotics, anti-virals and vaccinations against various diseases), automakers, insurance companies and politicians. Words like salmonella, E. coli, illness, flooding, auto accidents and death just aren't that sexy.

Do you have any other ideas on organizations or industries that can truly use tragedies to generate attention or even pad their bottom line?

Haiku News - August 1, 2011

Humans' and wild chimps'
shared gestures show we really
aren't so different.

Calls for human rights
and speech freedom uplift the
Arabic language.

A bird that follows
grammar rules is always a
good egg in my book.

Government spies want
to know how your metaphors
reveal your ethos.

Body language can
expose thoughts and feelings you
want to keep hidden.

Also:

Langology news
in haiku form to amuse
and entertain you.