(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. It is exceedingly hard to change passive voice to active voice in financial and technical writing. Or formulistic writing.

Actually this is why most legal writing and academic writing is hard to read? Passive voice.

Difference?

Crazy Org awarded the project to XYA firm.

vs.

The project was awarded to XYA firm by Crazy Org.

or

The pommel horse was won by Frederics for the United States at the Paris Olympics.

vs.

US team mate Frederics won the pommel hourse at the Paris Olympics.

I thought I was past this - but apparently not. We have a lawyer who wants everything in active voice.



Grammar fanatics drive me crazy. This made far worse by the fact that most of the project managers, including the young lawyer can't write in active voice.

2. Watching the Gymnastics - Men's Final, recorded earlier at 2pm.

So far seen the women's mountain bike race, the women's skate-boarding, the gymnastics qualifying rounds (mens/womens), swimming medals, equesterian cross country at Versailles, salome (boring - you wouldn't think so, but it was an artificial course), time trial bikes, diving synchronized, surfing, and tried the fencing (also boring - it put me to sleep).

I'm recording them across CNBC, USA, E! and NBC.

Told mother not to spoil me on gymnastics.

By the way - they've changed the gymnastics equipment, it appears to be safer and less difficult to use. In particular the vault. The old vault was scary.

3. While on the train, waiting for my stop, a woman embarrassed herself and me - by asking what the sensor on my arm is. I had my earphones on, and had to lift them and it took a bit for me to figure out what she was asking.

Lady: What is that? On your arm? I'm sorry - been wondering -
Me: It's a sensor for diabetes. Monitors my blood sugar levels. Easy to remove. As opposed to finger sticks. You thought it was a GPS?
Lady: yes.
ME: No, just tracks blood sugar. Nothing fancy. (People are nosy, although less so in NYC than elsewhere. I think I embarrassed her, because she sat down and kind of avoided me. It's her fault for asking.)

Free Style Libre 3 Sensor application.

It's this little round white disc attached to my upper arm. And every once and a while - someone asks. They all think it is some sort of insane GPS monitoring device.

To date? Two people at work, and someone on the train.

Most folks ignore it. And various people do know what it is - because they have it too. This is why people wear it on their belly. But it's more effective on the upper arms.

Comments

[trepkos]

The thing about the passive voice is that no one has to take responsibility for anything that happens! "John was hit in the face" ...! I wanted to see the fencing, but the BBC seems to only show things where there's a Brit involved, and apparently they/we are all crap at fencing.

[shadowkat]

Yep. The Project Team failed to secure the location. But they changed it to: "The Project Team was unable to secure a location".

It's popular in academic, mannered, financial, technical, legal, and business writing. And why I dislike academic and mannered writing - the passive voice will put people to sleep - it is a slog to get through at times.

ETA: the US channels are a touch better? They showed things that Americans weren't in. However, the things they showed were on other channels. Most of the Rugby is on E! or USA. It's fine for me, I'm not really into the ball games. The fencing was on, but the US is also in it. It is harder to find the archery and equesterian - which were on E! or CNBC. NBC likes to show the ratings grabbers - I think?

Don't appear to know how to showcase or cover the surfing - it has gotten the worst coverage.

[slaymesoftly]

We subscribed to Peacock. They cover pretty much everything, and it's archived, so if you miss something, you can pull it up later. I've been getting up several hours early to catch the equistrian stuff. Still missing the beginning because... 5 a.m.? Probably not happening. But I've seen most of it so far. Most of what NBC shows in the evenings are recaps of what happened earlier in the day. Sometimes the swimming is live because they're doing much of it in the evening/night.

[shadowkat]

I tried Peacock, and decided to just record. Mainly because no time? Also, you can't fast-forward through the ads and events easily. The fast forward function isn't great. I get up at 5:45 am and head to work by 6:30 am, not home until 5. So I just watch what I've recorded. And grab what was missed in the Prime Time. Prime Time - does cover some things in more depth - men's gymnastics was covered in depth as was the women's, and the swimming.

But I'm also still paying for Cable, and there's nothing else on Peacock I want to watch - so it's not worth the additional cost? Wales was watching it on Peacock via Youtube.

[shadowkat]

I've given up and subscribed to Peacock finally - taping this ahead of time is clogging up my DVR. And trying to get the events I want - impossible unless I'm retire like my mother and can watch whenever I want.

[slaymesoftly]

Some people have subscribed just for the month, planning to quit it as soon as the Olympics are over.

[trepkos]

I would love to see some surfing! Hate the equestrian "sports". I used to be mad to watch anything involving horses, but it's become clear to me that the horses are not well-treated. Even without the recent exposes, you only have to look at their body language, and at the kinds of restrictive tack they are forces to wear, to see that this is not a "partnership" as they like to portray it, but a master and slave.

[shadowkat]

It's apparently on NBC Late Night here - or on at the wee hours. Or on Peacock. I can see why? It's hard to cover surfing - they wait for 30 minutes for a wave, then catch, crash or follow through, get judged.

But I like the off-kilter stuff? The BMX bike, the gymnastics, the schronized diving, the trampoline, the skateboarding, break dancing, surfing, sailing, and the races, decathlon...

Like you, I struggle with the equesterian events. Although the horses for the most part are treated well. The dressage - is kind of boring and makes me cringe. But I like the jumping events. (I took Western Horseback riding, so I admittedly don't understand the English style - which is in the Olympics.)

[trepkos]

Horses shouldn't be frothing at the mouth, and have their heads pulled right down to their chests by the tack. Did you know some riders use TWO bits to give them even more control over the poor horses? How painful and frustrating that must be. And I'm reliably informed that most of them show signs of being in pain, or fear, or both.

[shadowkat]

In the jumping event that I watched today - none of that was evident, and the commentators made it clear they were fine.

[trepkos]

I don't have much confidence in commentators. But I believe they usually ride the same horse for jumping that they were using in dressage, where most of the horses definitely look stressed, so it's not okay with me. They are still abusing the horses at least one day out of three! https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Horse-Grimace-Pain-Scale-with-images-and-explanations-for-each-of-the-6-facial-action_fig2_260950013