Lost: A Sense of Proportion

Okay, so I just had to share this. I was goin' around on various editor-type websites, and ended up reading some quotes from badly-written fanfics. Most of it is the sort of things one might expect, but then, then I came across this. Someone, who shall here remain nameless, had, in all seriousness, written the following sentence:

"Doctor, Patient confident sheltie you know."

Confident... sheltie.

For anyone who may be unable to decipher that out of context, no, it was not a Yoda-esque way of referring to a bold mini-collie who happened to be under the care of said doctor. Rather, it should say, "Doctor-patient confidentiality, you know." I just - I couldn't help it. I actually laughed until I cried. The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that the person had never actually seen the word written down, and attempted to spell it solely based on how it sounded. But really, even that's not a reasonable explanation. Even changing it to that because of a Word spell-checker recommendation isn't a resonable explanation.

I'm... not sure there is a really reasonable explanation for that.

Y’know what? Sometimes, Word’s grammar checker really bugs me. Especially when it decides to not only give awful-sounding suggestions, but to be politically correct about it to boot. Seriously. Do not tell me that I ought to say “humanity” or “humankind” instead of “mankind.” I am perfectly capable of deciding which sounds best in the context of what I am writing. I do realize that no generalization including the word “man” is PC, and you know something? I don’t care. And since I’m a woman myself, I think I oughta have just a little say in what words should or should not bother me. *growls*

Oh, I’m quite aware of what’s considered all correct these days, and I am capable of writing and editing accordingly when the job requires. But I get really, really sick of hyper-PC-ness that is required in our phraseology these days. Yeah, I do see why some of it is desirable, but seriously… So much of it just sounds so bad or awkward or silly. Something in me revolts at the idea of using elaborate, meaningless phrases or intentionally writing something awkward, just out of paranoia that someone may be insulted.

Honestly, I really, truly, don’t want to insult or hurt people. Seriously, anyone who knows me probably knows that I can actually be ridiculously paranoid about it at times. But I think sometimes, over things like this… people just want an opportunity to be insulted. I want to be sensitive, yes, but can we PLEASE be sensible as well? And I guess as both an editor and an artist, it irks me when people start making rules for writing that have nothing to do either with clarifying one’s meaning or with what sounds good. *huff*

And now that I’ve finished that little rant, a vaguely related but quite random aside: I’ve come to realize that I greatly overuse ellipses in casual communication. I’m addicted to the things. I also have a definite weakness for dashes. It’s a sad thing, really.

Oh well. Could be worse, I suppose. I could be addicted to semicolons. Now there’s a dangerous thing. Some people can’t go more ‘n half a page without using one, you know. Perilous things, semicolons. Gotta be careful about getting yourself mixed up with ‘em.

And some people think the life of an editor is dull. It’s littered with pitfalls, let me tell you….

Yeah, I'm in a weird mood. I'm nervous, 'cause karate promotions are tonight, and I'd reeeally like to make it to the next belt, and I Can. Not. seem to write today. Must go and try some more. *marches off*

Yes, I've been home from vacation for a while now. No, I haven't been too insanely busy. And yet I've dropped off the face of the earth. Why is that? BECAUSE OUR STUPID INTERNET HAS BEEN OUT FOR DAYS!

Seriously, this internet service seems to be getting  worse by the week. Used to be it'd cut out briefly every once in a while, not really a big deal, and it'd be back in a few seconds or minutes. Then it started going out for hours at a time. More and more frequently, until it was doing so every couple of days. And now it's graduated to just stopping entirely for days at a time.

And yet they keep telling us they can't really find anything wrong, don't know what's happening, it should be working. We don't even bother trying to go through the company anymore - we've got the repairman's and his supervisor's direct numbers. By this point, it has gone so beyond, "Heh, bit addicted to the internet, maybe? Guess I'll find something else to do for a while..." to, "Give me internet, or give me death!" AUGH!

It's not just inconvenience, it's not just being cut off from friends for a while, we're trying to run two small businesses here, my mom's book/website and my editing, and they both rely almost entirely on the internet, and I have deadlines/time pressures on several things at the moment, and even the primarily non-internet things I'm working on require internet for a lot of fact checking, and even the dictionary on Word won't work without internet, and - *deep breath* This. Is. Not. Working. I think I really am going to cry if it doesn't get sorted out soon.

Heh. Can you tell I'm a tad upset at the moment? :P At any rate, we had three repairmen here for most of the day, and things seem to be working again for now, so... we'll see. If you don't hear from me again for a while... yeah.

*sighs* Gonna go get some work done while I can.

Y'know, baby seals are cute and all, but what we really need to be focusing on is SAVING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!

Ahem.

But I'll get to that in a minute - first, some good news. It appears that three LOTR actors have now been approached about being in the Hobbit: Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, and Viggo Mortensen. Eee! The only one I've heard is officially on is Ian McKellen, but that is just SO exciting! *bounces happily* This would seem to indicate that they're looking at doing some Aragorn backstory in the movie that's supposed to be a "bridge" between The Hobbit and LOTR. YES!

Well, we got our Christmas tree today, which is much fun. And then the tree stand broke when the guys were trying to put it up, which is not so fun. They were trying to fix it, but we finally had to get a new one - it was that or have our tree standing undecorated in a beat-up five gallon bucket in the family room when our family comes over tomorrow :P But anyway, we got quite a bit of Christmas baking and other decorating done today regardless.

And since our van is now officially totaled, and insurance is going to quit paying for a rental in less than a week, we need to buy a new car within the next few days. Which was... not exactly planned for this year, much less the middle of December. And makes me very sad, because even though I maybe should be excited about getting a new van... our other one may have been getting old, but I liked it. And even though they're nice, I haven't really liked the new ones we've rented for trips or most of the ones we've looked at recently. But ah well, God's provided the means to get a new one, even on such short notice, and even though it was an "accident" nothing happens without His planning, so I'm sure He's got something good for us. So, all that means that we spent a lot of the afternoon/evening looking at cars today, but with no real decisions made yet... We shall see.

And randomly, a funny link my mom got sent this morning. Hilarious video. Anyone who's been homeschooled will definitely get a kick out of it. *g*


Seems I'm quite random today. But happily random. :) And now off to write some more comments on certain stories. Seems t'was a bit optimistic to hope to get something sizable done on it today, but ah well - I'm working on it, at any rate. And very, very happy to be back to it - I've been missing it very much. :)

I think I've lost my rant.

There are so many things I've been wanting to write about or respond to, so many different places... but somehow I can't seem to work up the energy to get into it, much less convince my brain to co-operate enough to do it coherently.

Stupid cold. And I'm actually getting much better, except for feeling so lethargic. Wah, so many things I should be getting done... *sighs*

Guess I'll go do some piano practice. That usually makes me feel better...