How to make snow out of baking soda

telsono wrote:

English can be quite confusing to those who are not native speakers and even to those who are native speakers. On one hand you have the verb feel which has the past tense felt. You would think that the verb spell would follow the same rules, instead the rules change it has the similiar sounding "spelled". Ending "ed"'s and "t"'s if slurred can sound similar. My youngest son has a speech therapy issue - "dialect" and has some of these problems. Old English does allow the use of "spelt" for the past and past part of spell. The rule was changed over time for American English. G. B. Shaw was right, that "the Americans and British are two peoples separated by a common language". Spelt can also be a split piece of wood (Germanic origin) or more commonly an ancient type of wheat (Triticum spelta) that is still grown today. Mike T.

I agree with Manny on this one.  On a forum where the written word is how communication is achieved, one should be able to express themselves in a coherent manner.  If one can not, then maybe they shouldn't be here.  I get on my 12 yr-old daughter's case about the same thing all the time.  When emailing or writing notes, she uses all lower case, no punctuation, B.S. abbreviations, etc.  It drives me crazy.  Maybe I'm just getting too old, but if you are going to write something, do so in a manner that can be read and understood by all, not just kids who refuse to follow proper grammar, punctuation, etc. because they are too lazy. 

Sooo...Whad du U Guys tink bout makin snowy stuff from that bacon soder stuff ???

Sorry, I was overcome by my evil side.

Regards,  Rick

One problem today is that so many people are dependent upon "Spell Check" and never use a dictionary. The word may be spelled correctly, but its still the wrong word in the wrong place and doesn't make sense. I keep a dictionary on my desk at work and will use it before "spell check".

Part of my job is to give techical training to government cooperators. Some of them are not native English speakers so I may be a little more patient with them for the incorrect grammar I see. That goes also for those writers who fit that pattern in the forums here. My wife also fits into that category. But, I'll say that some of the college students today just can't write!

Ask some of the kids today what a Thesarus is and they'll probably reply that it is a mythical beast! Although, they may even refer to it by a movie it was supposedly in.

Mike T.

Wow, what was this thread about again?

IYAAYAS wrote:

one problem today is that people are so busy correcting other's faults they forget about their own...wish I was perfect...

Oh, yeah... hey Hellcat- nice tank. Stay away from baking soda / powder. Bugs eat it. Use talcum powder or microballons.

Sheesh, Doog's been gone for less than a week and we're already at each other's throats. 

If you use talcum powder, make sure its pure talc. Many baby powder formulations have added corn starch to varying degrees because of the natural occurence of asbestos in Talc.

Something I picked up from watching CSI! Verified it on Google.

Mike T.

one problem today is that people are so busy correcting other's faults they forget about their own...wish I was perfect...

No one is talking about perfection...seems they are talking about writing in a way that is understandable...I guess that is too much to ask these days in the PC world we live in...

No one is asking anyone to be perfect.  Is it too much to ask that someone writes an easily readable post so others can understand it and reply?  I don't think so. 

Also, why is it when anyone gives anything other than "That's great," "Wow," "Coombiah," "Lets do a group hug" on this site everyone gets all offended and starts defending everyone else?  In the real world, people disagree all the time and still get along just fine (just ask my wife ).  So can we.

HeavyArty wrote:

No one is asking anyone to be perfect.  Is it too much to ask that someone writes an easily readable post so others can understand it and reply?  I don't think so.

No, I don't think so either. But my issue is that there's a double standard applied here, on this forum. Not by everyone, but by you, Gino. There are armor builders who are outstanding at what they do, yet they provide one long run-on sentence to describe their build. I mean, a paragraph's worth of sentence. I'm not gonna throw anyone under the bus, but you probably know the ones I'm talking about. I've never seen you scold them for their writing style. Yet when this new, younger guy with unpolished modeling skills, wants to join in and throw down his thoughts- with a writing style ( lack of punctuation, capitals, so on ) no different than the aforementioned, seasoned modelers- he gets chastized by you and outright made fun of by Manstein. It doesn't sit well with me. In my humble opinion (), tolerance should sit much higher on the etiquette chain than proper grammar.

Ok, bad grammar is your pet peeve, and you will call people out on it. Your prerogative, that's fine. I'm not a fan of it, either. Double standards are my pet peeve. I think this is a classic example of one, and that's why I chimed in when I did.

**EDIT** I am an email writer by profession (you might not know it by my bad spelling); you wouldn't believe the syntax structures that I have to decipher all day long. I want to tear my eyes out. Who taught these people?!! I DO understand where you're coming from. But this forum isn't work, and it isn't school- I just wish we could all relax our inner 'english teacher' and just groove, baby!

subfixer wrote:

Now, that is good to know. Asbestos in baby powder, what will they think of next?

...my issue is that there's a double standard applied here, on this forum. Not by everyone, but by you, Gino. There are armor builders who are outstanding at what they do, yet they provide one long run-on sentence to describe their build. I mean, a paragraph's worth of sentence. I'm not gonna throw anyone under the bus, but you probably know the ones I'm talking about. I've never seen you scold them for their writing style. Yet when this new, younger guy with unpolished modeling skills, wants to join in and throw down his thoughts- with a writing style ( lack of punctuation, capitals, so on ) no different than the aforementioned, seasoned modelers...

Hmm, I don't see it and I think it is B.S. I can't and won't police every post here, not my job. I do usually say something to anyone (when I see it) who is blatantly atrocious in their writing skills (regardless of their age, skill level, or who they are) and I will continue to do so. You can continue to defend them as much as you like as well.

Tankluver wrote:

Hey ypu guys I thought we were supposed to be helping HC with making snow not critisizing his writing. Come on open up another forum to do that.

Tankluver wrote:

You have a point there. But hes only 13 or so and Is use to writing on AIM I was the same way when I first joined.

Exactly, and not an excuse.  You have proven that you can write in full sentences and somewhat correctly.  I'm sure he can as well.

HeavyArty wrote:

Hmm, I don't see it and I think it is B.S.

SteveM wrote:

HeavyArty wrote: Hmm, I don't see it and I think it is B.S. Well, thanks for calling my opinion B.S.

Sorry, that didn't come out like it was supposed to.  I had just come in from a cold night on the firing point when I wrote that.  I just disagree with you, that is all.  We both have opinions and they are equally as valid.  They just differ slightly.

Thanks for that, Arty, no problem.

...retitle thread:  "How to make a mountain out of a mole-hill"...

In my best South Alabama drawl: "What we have here is a failure to communicate..."

and unfortunately I think we scared the young man away...nice work fellas!

IYAAYAS wrote:

and unfortunately I think we scared the young man away...nice work fellas!

Don't worry I'm still here. Will someone tell if I did a good job on the tank. Please!!!

Hellcat man wrote:

Don't worry I'm still here. Will someone tell if I did a good job on the tank. Please!!!

Good, glad you are still here.  Sometimes we have heated discussions.  Don't let them get to you like others do.  We are just one big, dysfunctional family here.

Your model looks pretty good.  If it is a tank in action or in use, it will have less snow around the engine deck and on top due to heat from the engine and crew heater melting the snow.  This can also cause some icicles to form around the tracks a well.  Also, you may want to add some dirt into the snow around the tracks.  Keep up the good work and it will be great.

What did you end up using for the snow?

I did a little more checking out about the asbestos/talc controversy. There seems to have been a panic over the word "asbestiform talc" without testing the material. Asbestiform refers to:

"Asbestiform is a term that is used to describe the mineral habit of minerals that are formed in a fibrous state that resembles asbestos."

Through testing, talc even in asbestiform doesn't seem to be harmful to humans. Asbestos is the most common type of mineral that forms into this type of fiber state so was the logical name given by geologist to desribe that type of condition. Resembling asbestos and acting like asbestos are two different things.

Since baby powders may be mostly corn starch they should be avoided as having food additives.

http://www.rtvanderbilt.com/nytalc.htm

Mike T.

I ended up using the baby powder and hairspray and it worked great. Thnaks for all the imput