Not much to talk about today, but y’all know that has never stopped me before.
Anyway, I just got wind of this:
The first thing I do every morning after I wake up is look out the window. I mean, I’m paying a premium in rent for the view, so I need to get my money’s worth. This morning I saw this…
I guess I’ve always struggled somewhat with spelling (thank God for spellcheck!) and grammar. I never thought much about punctuation though until a commenter (alright, I’ll out him–Kevin Kim) noted that my comma usage could stand for some improvement. So, ever since, I’ve been cognizant of that problem, and now I try to inject a few commas, whether I need them or not! And now this morning I’m reading another blogger, Althouse, who was giving her take on the Bret “Bedbug” Stephens meltdown. Then she tacks on this addendum:
Excellent except to the extent that the provost is still doing 2 spaces after a period. Come on! Also, there’s no extra space before the new paragraph. That too much/too little combination is mildly infuriating.
Okay yeah, I get needing that space between paragraphs–it both looks better and makes for easier reading. But I’ll be damned if I’m not going to put two spaces between sentences. When did that rule change? I distinctly remember when I took typing in high school (for you youngsters, this was before keyboards were invented) two spaces after the period was not optional, it was a requirement. Someone is going to have to prove to me that two spaces is one space too many. Okay, rant over.
There was some good news on the ‘net today though. A new study has found that people who drink alcohol and coffee live longer. Well, you can’t argue with science, right? My only problem is that I usually only drink one cup of coffee each day. Hopefully the fact that I overindulge in beer drinking will counter any ill effects of my limited coffee intake.
And speaking of science, I rather enjoyed this take on “climate change”:
Scientists: Climate Change Killed Us Years Ago And The Trump Presidency Is Some Sort Of ‘Lost’ Final Season Situation.
There have been a number of dire warnings about climate change, with some saying we have only a decade to fix things. Others say we have only months. But now climate scientists have revealed the worst news of all: Climate change killed us years ago, and the Trump presidency is some purgatory-like trial similar to the last season of the TV show Lost.
“We’ve been crunching the data, and it’s the only thing that makes sense,” explained climate scientist Andrew Halloway at a press conference presenting the findings. He warned that their scientific conclusion is considered a spoiler for the final season of Lost but also said that the season was “terrible” and that “no one should watch it.”
“We probably died somewhere around 2016,” Halloway further explained. “That’s when everything got really weird — and everything since has been some sort of trial to teach us a lesson before we move on to the afterlife — maybe a lesson about teamwork or something.”
While the scientists presented a lot of data to back up their conclusion, many are doubting it or calling it “bad theology.” Some are even calling it “blasphemous” since it implies that God would copy the final season of Lost when God, being infinitely wise, most likely stopped watching the show after the first season.
I reckon the science is settled so no need to debate. We aren’t doomed. We are dead. It was nice knowin’ ya’s.
On a more serious note, if you are on your motor scooter, put the damn cell phone away!
Alright, I reckon that’s just about enough for now. Let me leave with you a couple of pics of my boys:
Yes, my dogs are gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Hey, thanks for the moped pic. I can’t unsee that.
re: typography
Yes: two spaces after periods, question marks, exclamation points, and colons. One space after other punctuation like commas. That was the old-school way of thinking until the internet came along and fucked it all up. Now it’s all different, at least when it comes to online prose.
I type my blog posts and comments in the old-school way, but Blogger—and other people’s commenting software—automatically “corrects” my typing to make everything a single space.
The standard explanation for the change is that, with the advent of modern word-processing software, automatic kerning (managing the space between typed letters and symbols) and other typographical measures have made it unnecessary to do the two-space thing. The software does it all for you, so there’s no longer a need to “signal” to the reader, via extra spaces, that you’re ending a sentence or introducing a list.
Personally, I find this new way of doing things aesthetically irritating, but I have no choice but to bow to the modern convention because, even if I type things old-school, the software changes my spacing.
re: dawgz
Our dog, a terrier/spaniel mix named Velcro (I named him when I saw how his paws made ripping sounds every time he walked on a carpet), was a horny bastard who humped our cat, our tossed-aside pillows, and pretty much anything else he could salaciously hug. We never got him neutered, so he remained randy for most of his doggy life. I have no idea what goes through a dog’s mind, but the urge to hump may simply be a dominance play although, as you say, if it’s “teh gey,” then there’s nothing wrong with that.
Just don’t be surprised if your dogs end up on parade floats in San Francisco, dressed in rainbow-colored clown costumes and wearing G-strings with “PRIDE” written across the back.
I kind of have up on comma, colon, semicolon use and feel good if I write a coherent sentence 1 out of there times. I went from sometimers to the border of mostimers/Alzheimer’s sometime back and can’t relearn punctuation.
The dogs are great. My 2 little guys make life more enjoyable.
Kev, sorry about the moped pic. Yeah, having the cell phone out like that is pretty shocking. What a dick! And thanks for your support on the spacing issue. I wasn’t sure where you stood on that and I wasn’t aware that Blogger auto-corrected pagination. Bastards! Regarding the dogs, I actually think they are both just horn dogs, willing to hump anything that moves!
Jerry, I guess I’m in the school of “does it look alright?” when it comes to punctuation. Still, I’m willing to try and learn if it makes sense. I’ve gotten some reader tips in that regard and I try to incorporate them as best as I am able. Yep, the pure love you get from your dogs can’t be beat. Warms my heart to come home to big hugs every day…