done list

[trochee]

(why is it that the future uses the infinitival tense? we don't call it a "will-do list" or a "might-do" list or -- perhaps it would be the most appropriate modal -- "ought-do list". Anyway, this is a list of what I did, simple past:)

• revised paper for resubmission tomorrow (they only gave us a week to do revisions, and none of us had any time)
• finished Collins replication, part 1
• started collins replication, part 2
• went to lab meeting, listened to CSE grad student discuss her research (opinion mining)
• planned further about chapter 5 (currently masquerading as a class project): looks like we'll bootstrap from a 5xRT ASR system
• discussed previously mentioned data problems with advisor; will re-run the easy parts with larger data set.
• overscheduled self: next week I am up for (1) possibly going to [pretentious NE U] for a planning meeting and somehow at the same time staying here for visit from [expensive W-Coast U] team
• overscheduled self, part 2: scheduled to be dog [and possibly pony too] in dog-and-pony show for corporate visitors interested in my research area
• wrote a whiny very nice email to big shot asking please please please share your code with me so I don't have to implement it! Actually, I think it was quite polite.
• looked at getting a helmet so I can go scoot with imtboo

Am now just waiting for Collins, p. 2 to finish so that I can log out and go home. I'm done! I'm going home without internet. Until tomorrow, peeps!

Comments

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

Newspaper headlines use the infinitive for the future, too. ("BLAIR TO MEET BUSH", or whatever.)

ripped from the headlines

[trochee.livejournal.com]

good point. They also use the present to indicate the past:

US military jury convicts soldier in Abu Ghraib abuse scandal
Senate Democrats Fault US in Iraq Oil Scandal

and they don't use the usually required articles ("the", "a", etc)
Panel Seems Receptive to Base-Closing Plan
Italian Aid Worker Abducted in Afghanistan

I suspect that headline style originally made these unusual choices based on the ability to drop some characters ("Mets stun Cards" instead of "The NY Mets defeated the St. Louis Cardinals"). It's certainly a peculiar subgenre.

Re: ripped from the headlines

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

There's also the historical present, que no? One grammar teacher memorably introduced that with, "So I'm going down to the store, and I meet this guy, and he says, he says to me...."