Personal Blog of Carl Pei

Here’s a video of an awesome umbrella video trick.

For me, the only way that could be possible was if he edited the video. Do you guys have any ideas?

Edit: Explanation can be found here. He really got me!

Blogs are all the rage these days, and with everyone and their grandma trying to maintain one – things are bound to get messy.

Whenever I browse a blog by someone whose name sounds natively English, I logically expect the author to write in proper English. No chatspeak, 1337speak and excessive grammar mistakes. Is that too much to ask? Apparently it is, so in an attempt to eradicate poor grammar on the web, I have compiled a list of the six most common spelling mistakes by bloggers.

During the last month or so I have quickly made a note every time I found a spelling mistake while reading a blog, and here I present you the fruit of my hard labor.

This post is dedicated to those who slept during English classes; here is your chance for a brighter future (no kidding). Without further ado, below are the six most common spelling and grammar mistakes made by bloggers.

1. Its and it’s: Its is used to describe a possessive relationship whereas it’s is short for it is.
   

   Example
   The cat chased its tail.
   It’s currently raining.

2. There, their, and they’re: There describes a location, their describes a relationship of possession while they’re is short for they are.
   

   Example
   There stands Carl, let’s ask for his autograph!
   Our neighbors are treating their new cat really well.
   Watch out, they’re probably pretty upset.

3. Your and you’re: Your, again, is a possessive pronoun describing a relationship of possession while you’re is simple short for you are.
   

   Example
   Your breath stinks.
   You’re an idiot.

4. Then and than: Then describes a kind of time relationship while than is used when comparing two or more objects.
   

   Example
   Back then, life was so simple.
   I am better than you.

5. C and S: Contrary to popular belief, the letters c and s are not interchangeable. This means that the phrases resent blog post and common sence are incorrect.
6. IGHT and ITE: Similar to the above, the letters ght can not be replaced with te, and vice versa.
   

   Sight seeing can not be written as site seeing.
   Alright is not spelled alrite.
   Night is not nite.

Without pointing fingers or dropping names, remember that these are all real mistakes made by real, semi-established to established bloggers.

If you’re having problems with mistakes 1-4, stop using contractions. Spell two words instead of misspelling one and risking making a fool out of yourself. Mistakes five and six are harder to fix but also a lot more annoying, especially when A-list or wannabe A-list bloggers make these mistakes. It gives me a tingling sensation in my neck and the sudden urge to smash my mobile phone to the ground and throw the pieces out of the window.

So please, start spelling properly. If I, someone whose first language isn’t English has made the effort, then you can too.

Below are 6 very funny and true life lessons to be learned that I’ve received via email. Jokes aside, the insight gained is valuable to everyone and I somehow don’t think you’ll regret reading them.

Lesson 1: Naked Wife

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, “I’ll give you $800 to drop that towel.” After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob.

After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 dollars and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks,…

“Who was that?” “It was Bob the next door neighbor,” she replies. “Great!” the husband says, “Did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?”

Moral of the story:
If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

(more…)

You can not impose equality between the turtle and the hare by giving the turtle a motor and nailing the hare’s feet. The only way to create equality between them is to value the turtle’s slow and the hare’s speed equaly.

This was a piece of text found in the opinion section of today’s newspaper and sums up my thoughts and standpoint on feminism perfectly. The best part was that it was written by a woman, it is safe to know that not all of them are blinded by feminism.

Imagine what would happen if someone denied the Holocaust. The world would probably fall apart.

Imagine what happens when someone denies Japanese WWII atrocities. (Huh, what’s that?) What’s worse is when the prime minister of Japan does it. It is completely unconceivable that any German, and even less authoritative figures would as much as publicly doubt the Holocaust.

A recent article in TIME Magazine quotes Japan’s new PM Shinzo Abe denying that rape being practiced by Japanese Imperial Forces during WII in China and Korea.

I found the article through Digg.com and I must say I am really amazed. I didn’t expect people to know much about this, considering that we didn’t touch this at all during WWII History in Swedish school. Instead, we focused only on German WWII and how evil the Nazi’s were. In the Digg comments section, you can really see something amazing. Justice being served, by the people to the people, grassroots style. You can see comments of poor taste and idiocracy being buried while justified ones being “upped”.

This type of internet democracy has truly left me overwhelmed with a wide range of positive emotions.

On the other hand, I am deeply disappointed in Abe. I have followed him through the news and actually thought he was going to be a positive force towards restoring Sino-Japanese relations.