| [On Letting Punctuation Do Its Work, and a Bit on the Semi-Colon] |
[October 10, 2008] |
This is just a mini-rant. Well... maybe not even a mini-rant, more like a mini-suggestion/opinion. But in the last couple of weeks, I've been reading a lot of fanfic again, getting reacquainted with other people's versions of Cerry and Drarry and whats-not. And I've been seeing some disheartening constructions that revolve around three punctuations: the em/en-dash, the ellipses, and the semi-colon. Oh, the beautiful semi-colon.
I'll start with the two easier ones1.: the dashes/ellipses.
Examples
Harry quirked an eyebrow. "I don't think you should do—"
"Don't tell me what to do, Potter!" Draco interrupted. Unless you're a writer who overuses the em-/en-dash, you probably don't need any sort of explanation that Person B interrupted Person A. The dash does it for you; that's the entire point of punctuation. Punctuation is 1/3 form; 2/3 function. Identifying an interruption is part of that 2/3.
Harry quirked an eyebrow. "I don't think you should do that"
Before Harry could finish, Draco interrupted him. "Don't tell me what to do, Potter!"
Now while this construction makes you, the writer (and the reader as well), do more work than absolutely necessary, it's an okay construction. It's certainly better than the first construction. Still, the — let's us know that there was an interruption.
There's a similar redundancy with the ellipses when used in this manner:
Harry quirked an eyebrow. "I don't think you should do that"
Before Harry could finish, Draco interrupted him. "Don't tell me what to do, Potter! I've never had a problem with . . ." Draco trailed off.
Again, thanks, but we already knew that because the ellipsis marks told us as much.
Now, you run into some parsing problems if you have a writer that uses ellipsis marks instead of a dash to indicate interruptions [and I've read published stories—mostly British—that do that]. Other problems arise if you have an author using a dash a lot to indicate stop-and-go dialogue. In those special cases, a reader may welcome the added instruction by the author on how to interpret the scene. But if you're an author that sticks pretty squarely to dash-for-interruptions/ellipses-for-trailing-off-or-dramatic-pauses rule, then you really don't need that extra explanation.
Let the punctuation do the work. That's what it's there to do.
Now, when I said earlier that punctuation is 1/3 form and 2/3 function, I really should excuse the semi-colon from that. It's more 1/4–3/4, really, because the semi-colon has a lot of additional functions [both inside and outside of writing]. But one of the things that it's not is just a simple replacement for FANBOYS.
( A Considerably Longer 'Lesson' in Semi-Colon and My Opinion on Its Use in Fiction... )
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| Telepaths -- Back-Handed Compliments -- and a Present for My Brit-Slang Slingin' Friends! |
[October 08, 2008] |
So I like that there's a telepath in True Blood. I don't, however, like that the world in which there is a telepath isn't fully realized. What do you mean by that, Gabe, you may ask? Okay, so you're a telepath, right? Never mind that the average person doesn't think linearly—hell, not many people don't have that inner monologue and fewer still think in complete sentences. And yes, I realize that Sookie has been activiely trying to block her ability, but still: you're 22, 23 years old... you shouldn't be STILL screaming at people for thinking thoughts that you accidentally thought were spoken. You know what that screams to me? Plot device. Oh, so now the Dep. Sheriff knows she's a telepath. Oh, okay. Well, I guess a half-assed realized world of telepaths is completely justified.
[Oh, and uh... didn't the gay vampire that was feeding from the gay dude with Hepetitis say that he sired Compton? So... now we're told that it was some lady during the Civil War looking for [apparently] non-horny gentlemen? Or am I confused?]
Today, in Workshop Master Class, we peer my story‐a quaint little ditty about 4 kids, Cops 'n' Robbers, a gun, and a kiss‐and the professor does most of the talking [which I don't exactly know how to take, I tell you] and says: "I think this could be published, with minor corrections, right now actually; but it'd be read, enjoyed, and forgotten..."
~eye twitch~
So in lieu of the upper-cut TKO delivered to me, I deliver unto you a book [in pdf form] that I've loved since I bought my first copy back in 2005. A to Zed: A Guide to the Differences Between British and American English. Enjoy!
Well, I'm off to bed. I hope all of yaw'll's week has been okay so far. Tomorrow is my last 12-hour shift of the week, and then I've two days off! So I promise to catch up with all of your posts soon!
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| OMG! I wrote fanfic!!! |
[October 05, 2008] |
I almost forgot how!
And it's Harry/Draco[ish] nonetheless.
Title: Harry's Favourite
This was written with a nod to ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) pir8fancier, and she'll know why.
Preview:The dinning room is washed in a golden orange hue that chases shadows across the walls, the ceiling. Draco sits at one end of the dinning table, a Bordeaux glass in one hand, as he swills the remnants of Merlot. The Merlot stains the sides of the glass with a deep red tint; it reminds him of something.
[ Read More ]
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| [Music Gift] Blitzen Trapper |
[October 03, 2008] |
I had meant to provide you guys with these links last week. I uploaded them to Sendspace, but forgot to post 'em. Sorry.
One of the reasons I let Myspace Bands friend me is because I do tend to find excellent bands, some new, some old, but always worthy of a listen. I've found Hot Chip, Sam Sparro, Lightspeed Champion, and tonnes others. I can now add Blitzen Trapper to that list.
I've always liked the trend of the alternative-indie-country-that's-not-really-country sound. Some would consider Trapper's sound as neo-folk, or even folktronica [worst genre name ever]. But basically it's a recapitulation of that ol' Southern American rock sound from the 70s that sometimes gets confused or mislabelled as American Prog Rock—Kansas, America—mixed with a fair bit of Dylan and, amazingly, The Beatles [especially in terms of arrangement]. Here's a small sampling of what you can expect from them: Wild Mountain Nation. What I like about their music is the sense of story you get, of forgotten urban legends and unknown-until-now southern myths and folklore. Their most recent album is called FURR, which I recommend; it's heavier on the Beatles-esque and Dylan-like and a tad lighter on the Southern Rock side, but you still get a strong sense of all those influences.
So without further delay, here's an EP that they don't offer commercially; rather, you have to attend one of their concerts and purchase it there. If you want to check them out, see if they're in your area at all. Until then, here's their EP for your enjoyment!
EP3
Silver Moon
Going Down
Shoulder Full of You
Preacher's Sister's Boy
Black Rock
Big Black Bird
Also recommeded from Trapper: go to their Facebook and peep Sci-Fi Kid, Wild Mountain Nation, and Furr. Furr is the perfect example of that sense of lore and legend, stong sense of balladry (in the classic sense) and storytelling, that I talked about. It's pure love.
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| Happy Birthday Wishes! |
[October 03, 2008] |
Happy Birthday to ciel_vert [9-29-08] and ravenqueen55 [today!!!]
Sorry I'm so late, ciel!
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| Wand Meme |
[September 26, 2008] |
Snagged this from violetage.
Kinda surprised by the results, considering I think a lot of the answers I gave revolved around power and strength and... well... me. I wanted dragon heartstring, is why I did that. And I ended up with...
Isn't that Harry's wand, basically?
Someone's algorithms be f'd up, yo'!
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| Because Gabe Fails at LJ... |
[September 25, 2008] |
Ahhh... the new schedule, so far, is wonderful! I woke up today around 11am. Of course, I was freakin' out thinking I was late for work.
But no, because I'm off Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays now! Of course, those 12-hour Monday/Wednesday shifts is royal hell, but sacrifices must be made!
First, let me apologize to all my friends whom I have neglected in the past few weeks; namely, I should mention the birthday people:
You've all helped make my LJ experiences wonderful, informative, fun, and warm, and I love ya' all for it! [Even if I am late showing it.]
Some other thoughts:
[+] ( It's not stealing, it's, er...protecting... )
[+] ( Am I not the only one who still cringes at women getting beat up by men? )
[+] ( In editing class, we had an 'interesting' 'discussion' about collision... )
That's really all I have to say, really. I've a website that I have to do for a friend, and my writing professor basically sand-blasted 75% of my story, first-draft. Oh, he handed it a cookie before he raped it, saying: "Oh, I mean, it was nicely written, especially on the sentence level. You just... didn't need most of the sentences."
:-(
It's actually a rather funny statement, and true... and maybe funny because it's true... but it does mean that I have to do a lot of rewriting. Not revising. I consider this rewriting—different by leaps and bounds.
I hope everyone is doing well. I'm off to read some fanfic. I'm in the mood for some action... Auror!fic... Angel Investigations on a mission... A new alien for Torchwood... Whatever. Any recs?
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| Yes, folks—I am alive... |
[September 20, 2008] |
As some of you have noted, I changed my layout. I felt it time. I liked the other one well enough, but since it was a really old layout, it didn't work well with some of LJ's new enhancements, nor did it respond well to Greasemonkey LJ scripts or even Firefox extensions. So it was annoying, especially when I started using Firefox 3, which I kinda regret downloading actually.
Anyway, the moment I switched layouts, I got called in to work. Turns out the person they fired should have been fired months ago, because he basically left without doing a shitload of work. And that was after we had about 3 weeks of mandatory over-time. So what the fuck he was doing that whole time is beyond me. Still, I scored a 4-day work week out of the deal, so that will leave me more school time and free time. You'll be seeing a lot more of me soon enough! I've lots to talk about...
Oh, in the meantime, I've been asked to submit a story to the school magazine/book thingy. This is one I'm thinking about submitting. Don't worry, it's short....
( I am Dêrté Çyringe... )
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| Not to Belittle Matthew Mitcham's Success ... or Strength |
[August 28, 2008] |
... but it makes me both sad and not a bit angry that there's one dude with balls enough to come out, and there's a media storm [or pretty damn close to one] about it.
Yet, the 13 out lesbians and bisexual women get little to no coverage for their courage?
WTF, people!
It's bad enough that there's only one dude man enough to come out in a whole league of boys men, but the 13 women who are 'man enough' to be out and proud get the equivalent of a by-line on Ellen.com.
Oh, and 6 of these brave, wonderful women went home with medals.
Where's the love??
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| So I've Been Reading About More Dumb-American Blogs... |
[August 16, 2008] |
... and it seems that this time the ire comes from newscasters and their occasional mispronunciations of Chinese cities or athletes names.
And all I can think about is: have you ever gone to another country and listened to their news?
Probably not, because you'd probably not understand a word they were saying [unless you spoke the language, of course]... oh, and that's even if they are talking about an America story.
Ask a Japanese/Chinese person [in Japan or China, not your third-generation American friend whose great-grandmother came here from Taiwan 60 years ago] to say "Ohio"... or ask a Russian to say "Ypsilanti". Of course, I bet there's plenty Americans who still butcher Ypsilanti. ;-) In fact, ask a random Iranian to pronounce any city from Wisconsin or Minnesota and I'm sure you'll get quite the butchering, even if they are a newscaster... even if they are a politician... even if they are educated. Hell, my friend -- Alex -- has a grandmother that's lived in the US for 25 years and she STILL cannot say Indianapolis without having to stop and think about it, lest she stumble. AND SHE LIVES IN INDIANAPOLIS!
And yes, I realize that one should go through extra steps and precautions to learning pronunciations as best as one can, considering it's the Olympics, they've known for awhile who was playing from where and when... and the television news analysts and prompt preparers could probably do with an NPR-like attitude about providing faux-phonetic spellings for athletes and countries [Bey-Shing. for instance]... but this seems to be yet another "hop on the wag-the-finger-at-those-fat-lazy-stupid-Americans-even-though-everyone-is-freakin'-guilty-of-it-but-never-mind-that-because-it's-still-cool-to-bash-on-America-even-when-they-are-making-the-same-mistakes-others-are-making" opportunity; and people seem to be taking full advantage of it.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I hate Olympic season.
And no, this isn't the vicodin talking.
Okay, maybe a little bit of the vicodin... but not much.
There's also the darvocet, too.
But you know what I mean.
So anyway; GO TEAM, AMERICA!!! (and any other country with cute dudes in tights!)
Addendum: Oh, and I saw the Croatian - vs - USA water polo match whilst waiting for the inevitable torturer to come and rip my teeth out. It was the highlight of the appointment, let me tell you.
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| Toothache Bad; Vicodine Good |
[August 13, 2008] |
I've an abscessed tooth, they say, and they gave me antibiotics and vicodin.
I'm currently useless, right now. I had to leave work early to make it to Immedia-Dent (to get the script for pain meds), and have since tried to finish the late ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif) slythindor100 Monday tag story [couldn't do it] and beta a 204-word story [and likewise couldn't do it].
Even this entry was started at 7:30-ish PM... but I'm just now posting it.
[... and thank gawd for spell check! ...]
I have an appointment with the oral surgeon on Saturday. Wish me luck.
I'll probably be MIA until then... unless I get used to the vicodin's drug-haze.
Good night, all!
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| OMG! First Bernie Mac, Now Isaac Hayes?!?! |
[August 10, 2008] |
Yeah, yeah -- Scientologist, whatev.
Still... Isaac–fuckin'–Hayes!!!
RIP, brotha'.
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| Who Are My French-Speaking People? |
[August 10, 2008] |
I need to know how to say something in French.
It's a map, of sorts—a map to the pleasures of her flesh.
Ideally, I'd like it to say that in French.
But it could be Pleasure Map, instead, or even Schema of her Pleasures or Map of her Pleasures or something.
I just need it to be sexy... and French... maybe Latin... but really, French would be best.
Thanks?
;)
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| Another Semi-Grammar Rant: Well vs Good |
[August 09, 2008] |
If you ask my how I'm doing, I'll generally say, "I'm well, thanks!"
I've said it, I believe, nearly all of my life.
And it's not but for any reason other than that's how I was taught and it's stuck and that's how my family answers it, unless they say something like "I'm doing good, actually...", which of course generally means something a bit different than 'well' would mean; and it's generally meant as a lead-in to the question: 'doing good at/in what?'
So it's 'bad' grammar with intent, which makes it acceptably bad grammar seeing as it's exceptionally good communication -- and I'll fight anyone tooth and nail if they say that's not what grammar is designed for, but that's neither here nor there.
Onwards, it seems my "I'm well" thing is catching on at work. One person, a wizardly older gent, stopped dead in his tracks in the restroom to say "Oh, my -- correct English. How refreshing. I was an elementary school teacher."
I see.
I guess you've since forgotten elementary grammar then?
I think from here on out, I'm going to start saying good instead of well. I never used well in the hopes that everyone would catch on because it's 'right' or 'righter' or 'rightly' or whatever. I just said it because... well, just because, really. Now people who always said 'good' are saying 'well', at least to me. And I know it's because they think, since I'm an English student, that I'm secretly grading their conversational English. Firstly, it's conversational and it doesn't need to be 100% correct; secondly, no, I don't worry about other people's spoken English; and thirdly, it's not wrong.
I am good.
Say it with me, people:.
Then say this:
He was sad.
She is happy.
We are together.
Those, like good, are predicate adjectives. They are used when you have an adjective [good] that points back to the subject [I] via a linking verb [am].
I am well.
He was sadly.
She is happily.
We are, er... togetherly[!!!] <-- I actually like this one.
The car was redly.
The sky is bluely.
So if those meanies try to correct you, just point at them and laugh as you spit out the words predicate adjective. If you can double over from the guffaws and bring tears to your eyes, all the better. ;-)
[Disclaimer: Now this is not a slam on those who prefer one over the other; rather, it's a slam to those who try to correct conversational, informal English. People of that sort deserve a bit of ridicule.]
Side-note: Anyone who's read/listened to Bridesmaid Revisited as annoyed by the author's abusive use of the word 'presently'? It's about as bad as Jim Butcher's [Dresden Files] 'snarled'.
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| Guh...! Okay BORDERS (and B&N and Half-Priced Books)... |
[August 07, 2008] |
... stop pimping yet another 'sexy vampire'/paranormal "romance"/whatever from the Next Big Housewife Break-Out Author.
If I get one more email about Sherrilyn Kenyon's Acheron, we'll be having some words.
~wags finger~
Oh, and I've downloaded Season Series One of Absolute Power, and... of course I love it. How could you not with lines like, "Most of the young people here at Prentiss McCabe don't know their arse from their elbow, but with Alison, at least you know she'll join the Royal Arse Society and get a book about elbows from the library"...? HA! Plus, I so want to slash these two...
 
Oh, and for the writers on my f'list—I've found another easier way of putting indents in your stories when you post, provided you're not scared of two little html/xhtml tags. It's especially easier if you've been doing the " 10 times" trick. I won't bore those who don't care about it, but for those who do, I'll post the trick. I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out.
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| OM(MFJHC)G!!! Who on my F'list... |
[August 05, 2008] |
... knows about advanced (emphasis on that please) CSS selectors??
Like... all of a sudden CSS has turned into frickin' math and frickin' English grammar, complete with + signs and * signs and parentheticals and [ ]s, which apparently are different from ( )s, and no-spaces means this while with-spaces means that... and it's driving me INSANE, I tell you!!!
About three years ago, I bought a book on CSS that was written by the frickin' dude that frickin' created CSS[!!!!!] and I loved it because it helped me wrap my mind around box-models, margins and their idiosyncracies, and even inheritance... So I find the book last night, thinking that surely the frickin' dude that frickin' created CSS would talk about such advanced CSS selectors [especially since CSS 3.0 has supposedly been around since 2002, if not a bit earlier], Oh, but guess what?!!!?! NOPE HE DOESN'T MENTION WORD–ONE ABOUT IT I HATE HIM AND HIS BOOK AND I'M GONNA TAKE THE BOOK BACK LIKE ALL THOSE "BREAKING DAWN" PEOPLE CLAIM THEY'RE GONNA DO BECAUSE DAMMIT I'M ANGRY!!!
Okay, well... I'm not angry, per se, but I am a bit irritated. So any of you lot who can help would be greatly loved.
♥
or whatev...
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| If You Ever Have a Chance to Watch... |
[August 03, 2008] |
 ... the French movie Le Ciel sur la tête [Times Have Been Better], do so, and know that you are watching exactly how I envision the relationship between Dennis and Colin. Aside from being a great breezy summer movie, it's got this dude in it [pictured], who has that sickly-but-French-so-it's-okay look about him.
~le sigh~
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| Note to Friends: If You Send Me an LJ Private Message (PM)... |
[August 02, 2008] |
... please make sure your own ability to receive private messages is turned on.
You can do that here. Scroll down to the Contact Info and look for the LJ User Messaging drop-down box. I've had three PMs in the last week where I've typed out a nice reply and then hit SEND only to be brutally rebuffed by LJ!
Thanks!
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