Lies and falsehoods, Padfoot!

For the love of God, TNT, it's "more movie, FEWER commercials", not "more movie, LESS commercials." Every time you say the latter, a grammar fairy somewhere falls down dead.

Except for the random grammar errors, this was quite a fun quiz.

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Drama Nerd   You sure do love the spotlight and probably have a very out-going and loud personality. Or not. That's just a stereotype, of course. Participation in the theatre is something to be very proud of. Whether you have a great voice for musicals, or astounding skills for dramas/comedies; keep up the good work. We need more entertainment these days that isn't television and video games (not that these things are bad, necessarily.)
Science/Math Nerd
Social Nerd
Literature Nerd
Musician
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Anime Nerd
Artistic Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

If you are a teacher, and you want me to write a paper, and you expect my paper to be free of spelling and grammar errors, know that I expect the same from you.

This sentence "Papers, not more than 3 typed pages, will be do at the last class meeting," makes me want to hurt you. If it was the first example of your horrid grammar on handouts, then I would let it go. But there's something like this on every single handout, and on all your in-class slides. It makes it very difficult for me to take you seriously.

And it's not even a typo. It's... Well, it's a mistake a 60 year old man should not be making.




P.S. It's Bill Weasley's Birthday today. Yay!

I keep seeing these things, and it's driving me INSANE!

1. Loose vs. Lose: If you loose something, you are setting it free. "She loosed the birds from their cage." If you lose something, you have misplaced it, or it has left you. "I'm going to lose my sanity any day now." Loose can also be an adjective, as in "The cat is loose. He got out the back door and ran away."

2. Ran vs. Run: These two words are in fact different tenses, and are not interchangable. Ran is the past tense. "I ran yesterday. He ran yesterday. We all ran yesterday." Run, on the other hand, is the past participle. This means that it's the form you use with "have" (and all its forms.) "I have run 20 miles since Sunday. He had run ten miles, and now he was exhausted." It is NOT the same as ran. You CANNOT say "I have ran, he had ran." It is INCORRECT AND WRONG. (This is confusing, I admit, because run is also the present tense. "I run for fun. He runs for fun." But still. We're talking past tenses here.) Oh, and runned? Is not a word.

3. More Past Participles: Because people seem to have issues with this tense. (Remember, these are the verbs you use with "have.") The past participle of drink is drunk. Yes, I know it's funny. Giggle all you want, but use it correctly. "I drink milk every morning. I drank milk yesterday morning. I have drunk milk my whole life." The next time I see "have drank" I'm going to hurt someone. Drinked and dranked are not words. Unless you are a toddler, (in which case it's adorable) don't use them. 

The same thing goes for swim, sink, sing, ring, and swing. 
Swim: "I swim in my pool. I swam in my pool on Tuesday. I have only swum in my pool a few times this summer." (Yes, swum is a funny word. That doesn't mean you can stop using it.) 
Sink: "At the end of Titanic, the ship sinks. The ship sank, get over it. The ship had sunk 50 years ago." Sunken is an adjective, and another issue entirely.
Sing and Ring: As these words rhyme, so do their other tenses. "I sing as I ring my bell. I sang on Monday, until Mom rang a bell to stop me. I have sung that song many times, and Mom has rung that bell as many times." (I never said the sentences had to make perfect sense, as long as they're gramatically correct.)
Swing: Some of you may point out that this also rhymes with sing and ring. Well, it does, but its tenses do not. Such is the mystery of English. "I swing my arms when I walk. She swung her bat, and hit him in the face. She had swung that bat 100 times, but never with as much satisfaction as when it connected with his nose." The past and past participle tenses are the same. They just are. So use them that way.

4. Its vs. It's: This one is the simplest of all. Its indicates posession. "The butterfly flapped its wings." It's is a contraction. It means it is. "It's impossible for me to keep quiet about this any longer." If you're writing, and you're not sure which to use, put "it is" in place of your "its/it's." If it doesn't work, leave the apostrophe out. "The butterfly flapped it is wings." See how that's wrong?

5. Your vs. You're: This one is my personal pet peeve, and I've ranted about it in here before. But I'm going to do it again. Because this is my journal, and I can do that. Your IS NOT NOT NOT the same thing as you're. Your shows posession, just like its. "Your brain must be very small." You're is a contraction, (just like it's) and should be used as such. "You're an idiot." If you're not sure which to use, do the old "put it in a sentence" bit. Sub in "you are", and if it doesn't make sense, don't use it. If it does, there you go! "You are stupid," is correct! "Your stupid," is not (unless it's followed by a noun. As in "your stupid cat is on my head again.") "Get your hand off my ass," will get results. "Get you are hand off my ass," will get you blank stares.



Just because you are typing on the internet, you do not have the right to abuse grammar. I don't care if it's only the internet, it's still the English language, and if you can't use it properly, then don't use it at all.





Disclaimer: I understand and forgive typos (despite my mocking icon) . I make them all the time. I've probably made some in this post. Proofreading can fix a lot of them, but sometimes you miss a few. I'm cool with that. But when the word is used wrong EVERY SINGLE TIME it's used in a written piece, it makes me want to lose my temper, run screaming in the other direction, get my grammar bat, and beat in your head. (See how I did that?)

Item 1: There's the possibility that I may have to work full-time for the first week of July, but then again I might not. It's very irritating not to know for sure, but I wanted you all to be prepared for the possibility. On the bright side, I'm making lots of money for Chicag... :)

Item 2: I achieved one of my work goals today and figured out how the postage machiene works. Not like, how to use it, because I already knew that, but actually how it seals envelopes, a mystery that has been bugging me for weeks. And it's really cool. (Did I mention that I have a lot of free time at work?)

Item 3: Here are some key phrases from an e-mail I got at work today: This is the final piece of our change to CTC and conpleting our connectivity plan... This will not effect you connection to Citrix or your ability to work.

Now, disregarding the typos, because those I understand, this was written by a fully grown man. Why? Why is grammar so difficult for people to grasp?



Item 4: This was a really dull entry, but meh. I was really excited by the postage machiene thing.



P.S. The eraser on my pencil at work looks like a penis. Did that make it more interesting?

Let me take this time to once again state that I have a very reasonable but strict no anonymous comments policy. It goes like this:

1. All anonymous comments are screened.

2. If you must comment on my journal anonymously, be a good person like Jess and leave your name.

3. If you forget, I will reply askng who you are and give you a chance to tell me.

4. If you do not respond within a reasonable amount of time, like a week or so, I will unceremoniously delete and forget about your comment.

5. No anonymous questions will be answered.

6. Anonymous flames or other mean comments will be deleted without following procedure.

7. I reserve the right to unmercifully mock people who comment anonymously and never tell me who they are. Especially if they comment like this: "Wiccans tie each other up at weedings to, its caled handfasting. I think its a coo tradition. They also use to jump over fire to prove their love, but now they use brooms. Scorch marks on white dresses is no fun. Glad you hadf a good time."

Right.

Someone replied with that to my entry about my cousin Matthew's wedding over a week ago. (The comment has now been deleted.) I gave him/her fair time to reply to my inquiry about his/her identity. Let the mocking begin!

Weedings? Wiccans have group weedings? Renee never mentioned that...
It's TOO with two o's.
'Caled' is not a word. I looked it up.
It's not ITS it's IT'S. Contractions: not just for childbirth anymore!
What the hell is a coo tradition? And does it involve doves?
They use brooms for what? To jump over or to prove their love? 'Cause that sounds dirty.
Scorch marks ARE no fun. Not is. Basic grammar is a wonderful thing.
We'll forgive that f on the end of 'had' as a typo because this person did express happiness at my having a good time.


(I REALLY needed to get that out. My inner snarker has been suffering lately from lack of material.)

Thank you for your time, and PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD tell me who you are when you comment.