eeep?

[aftertherockets]

Eeep! I missed Scrubs tonight! Anyone have a link handy where I can download it?

On the plus side, I had yummy Chinese food and tea and those yummy crunchy things tonight, and in good company. So worth the Scrubs missage, but still. Want to see.


Did you guys know that Thanksgiving is next week? When exactly did this happen and can I have my semester back? On the one hand, I get to see my Megan and hang out with her and it will be good, but on the other, I have three sets of family to visit (meaning, possibly, three separate dinners to eat. eeeep.) and general holiday drudgery to get through. The holiday season? Not my favorite time of year.

Although, this new year's I want to do something that doesn't involve sitting on someone's couch at midnight watching TV. Last year I went to the Inner Harbour in Baltimore, but I probably won't so much want to do that again. Anybody have fun ideas? Something? Anything?

Anyone ever noticed how I use commas way way too much? I think I do it to represent where I'd be taking breaks were I speaking rather than writing. Trying, in some way, to get across my speech patterns. But I don't think it works in this medium and just makes me come across like I don't know where to put commas. I swear I do good at that grammar thing. ;)

Comments

[evemac.livejournal.com]

I uploaded it to YouSendIt for saava...but I don't have the link for it still. She should have gotten the notification email, so you can download it from that link, if you ask her. :)

[evergleam83.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thanks. I think I'll go bug her for it. ;)

[grass-stained.livejournal.com]

As an English major and current editor for a book publisher, I can rather safely say that you seem to be using commas exactly as they're intended. Don't worry, I'm usually the first to let people know where incorrect commas are. ;)

[evergleam83.livejournal.com]

Hee. Thanks. I'm an English major, too, and I've been in an editing class all semester where they've tried to lay out the rules for comma use and all that and I think it's made me all kinds of self-concious about it. :P

[grass-stained.livejournal.com]

I understand completely, I used to be the same way. And on days when I have a lot of proof to go through, I get really really crazy about punctuation in general, to the point where my roommate (a fellow English major and editor) and I have debates about whether or not plural possessives should be -s' or -s's. And then we look at each other and yell "Dork!" at the same time. It's fun.

[emulsion-lift.livejournal.com]

commas are a writer's best friend. it allows for a more natural voice.

you've not only mastered the comma, but made use of the rare and beautiful semi-colon on occasion, and that, my friend, brings much joy to your readership.

; )

[evergleam83.livejournal.com]

Why thank you, my dear.

And have I mentioned that I love your Conan O'Brien icon? Cause I do. :)

[emulsion-lift.livejournal.com]

you're very welcome.

i am a buffoon when icon-making gets beyond resizing to 100x100. i have to give due credit, so it was made for me by roark28. : )

[(Anonymous)]

Anyone ever noticed how I use commas way way too much? I think I do it to represent where I'd be taking breaks were I speaking rather than writing. Trying, in some way, to get across my speech patterns. But I don't think it works in this medium...

It works.

I don't know you or your speech patterns, so I can't say if it works for you.

But I do the same thing... when I write, the punctuation that I use is intended to convey the rhythm that the sentence would use were I speaking aloud.

Which is why... hmm. Which is also why you'll occasionally see me correct myself in written form... rather than simply deleting and retyping the errant thought, it stays in; the reader thus, again, receives the words as they would have been presented verbally.

No backspace key in spoken conversation :)

I always hear in my head what I'm typing, and so I can follow the same cadence as I transcribe it to the screen.

And it definitely works, because I've been told by people that know me well that when they read my letters or emails, my 'voice' comes through very strongly... more so than with most people, apparently.

So I think... well, not so much for strangers, but particularly if you are writing for the eyes of those who know your voice, then matching your punctuation to your spoken rhythm can give a lot of information that would otherwise be lost.

I've had people ask me "Are you okay?" (when I'm not), because they 'picked up' the overtones in a neutrally-worded sentence. No tone of voice; no hints in the choice of words; but the way I punctuated was somehow the same way I'd have delivered the sentence if I were hiding pain of some sort.

It's kinda spooky, but in its own way, very cool :)

-Hyp.

[(Anonymous)]

There's a marvellous book by Steven Brust and Emma Bull, entitled Freedom and Necessity. In the style of Dracula and the like, it's an epistolary novel - the narrative is entirely made up of letters between characters, journal entries, newspaper articles, and so on.

Essentially, Brust took the male characters, and Bull took the female characters, and they wrote to each other... giving each character his or her own writing style.

Somewhere in the middle of the book, one character comments to another in a letter about a third character's habit of constructing entire paragraphs as a single sentence, linked with commas and conjunctions. And naturally, you go back and read some of her letters, and it's true... and from then on, you can't read anything she writes without giggling.

Did I mention 'marvellous book'? :)

-Hyp.

[evergleam83.livejournal.com]

Hyp.? I don't believe we've met.

[(Anonymous)]

Hyp.? I don't believe we've met.

I suspect not.

I followed a link from Chris' journal.

Hello, by the way :)

-Hyp.

[evergleam83.livejournal.com]

Hello. :)

[khai]

You should do New Years here, we have it first ;-p