skwarepeg's blog: "Mind Dust"

Make a blog entry with your pics and your commentary. :D Aw, c'mon! It'll be fun. http://learningtoloveyoumore.com/reports/43/43.php *************** Edited to add the following: Be sure to check out the "reports" and the comments. :)

In my next life, I am going to work in a circus, and travel around the country in an RV, a la HBO's Carnivale. Well, except for the fact that it would be in the future (instead of during the Depression), and it would be in an RV and not a circus car thingie. More importantly, I'd have A/C. They were always *sweating* in that show. Ick. I'm debating between tattooed lady and animal trainer. What other jobs are available? Maybe it would be easiest to just be the one that sells the cotton candy.

I didn’t take much science, but I do know that physics is a broad and complicated subject. Some of the principles of quantum physics, while fascinating and exciting, are almost unimaginable to me. My understanding of physics is rudimentary, but I think that quantum physics describes the properties of certain particles that defy the laws of physics as we typically know them. Despite a persistent and pervasive following, however, there is not a specialized branch of “traffic physics” that describes the unique physical properties of, or laws governing, vehicles in traffic.

Here’s a completely hypothetical situation:

Let’s say I’m driving in the left-hand lane on some hypothetical freeway – say 190 in Dallas – at 70 mph. There is a car in front of me driving at 70 mph. There are several cars in front of that car. You are driving behind me.

The physics lesson:

Whether I am six inches behind the car in front of me or 300 feet behind it, we are still going 70 mph. The velocity…. remains the same! Decreasing the distance between two moving objects of similar mass traveling at the same velocity does not create force or something or other, nor does it then have some sort of electromagnetic or mysterious traffodynamic reaction that increases said velocity.

Conclusions based on the previous information:

**The distance between my car and the one in front of me is sometimes called a “safe following distance.” It isn’t actually; it’s just slightly safe than driving bumper to bumper, but at least I am trying.

**It does not indicate that I am slowing the progress of the fast lane.

**I can only infer this, but it must be such a relief for you to now be able to relax and return that knobby finger of yours to whichever orifice usually houses it.

Disclaimer: The examples cited above are completely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons or situations, or the incorrect use of the collective “you,” is entirely unintentional, unless, of course, you are the jackass that flipped me off this morning for this.

....because it made me laugh

....because I am out of photo storage space because I *still* haven't done a salute.

.... and because I feel compelled to "leave" on a positive note. LOL!

I’m glad to see that somebody’s working on bringing sexy back. I didn’t know it was gone, but I don’t think I could handle the responsibility of bringing it back. I am, however, bringing back the comma that precedes the “and” in a series. As God is my witness, I will not allow the ‘and’-preceding comma to die.

I am not a grammar snob. Not everyone has the privilege of a good or even an adequate education, and not everyone cares about grammar/punctuation/spelling. I know that some terrible spellers are quite intelligent, while others are simply aural learners rather than visual learners, making misspelling even more likely. For the most part, typos don’t upset me, but I do notice them. I make errors all the time because I almost never proofread something that isn’t business-related, which I’m sure will eventually make itself apparent. You will find no high-horse stance from me. I make too many mistakes.

I *do* have preferences, though, and there are one or two errors that are, perhaps… oh, how shall I put it? “Like rasping 40-grit sandpaper against my fresh sunburn” may cover it. That doesn’t mean I am a snob. I may be a little anal, but I am not a snob. My anxiety around Random Capitalization is nothing compared to my near-agony at the disappearance of the final series comma. How did it happen? Where could it possibly go? When, for the love of God and the Holy Mother, did black become white, and up become down? The earth is flat you say?

You remember. The series comma is used in a list (or series) of items, e.g., “dogs, cats, fish, and creepy rat-like ferrets.” Without the commas, the sentence wouldn’t make sense: “dogs cats fish and creepy rat-like ferrets.” Nobody leaves out the earlier ones because the result is so clearly wrong.

I was taught that there should always be a comma before the “and” in a series of items. It was as sure as… as…. um, M*A*S*H repeats airing somewhere on late-night television. It’s not as if eliminating one keystroke will save much time, or that it is so much to request, such as demanding perfect spelling, sentence construction, AND grammar. (Please note the comma after “construction.”) Was it really costing us something? Maybe it started with a message that “you have exceeded the maximum number of characters,” and deleting that one comma brought the total number down just enough. Many magazines and newspapers leave out “final” comma in magazines and newspapers, which made me doubt my convictions at one time. After checking myself repeatedly, I know that I am right. ;)

You find my grievance niggling, do you? Understand that in the past several years, I have seen the final series comma elbowed out of its prominent and long-standing position. Its fall from an prestigious and guaranteed position to a place of near-obscurity is frightening. If this is possible, what else could happen? The warm welcome of run-on sentences in formal writing? The willy-nilly substitution of “affect” for “effect”?

It’s correct to use that comma; it is also “considered” correct to leave it out, but it just…. BOTHERS me. Punctuation is important because it can change the meaning of a sentence. It *does* matter, by God. You might have read the following example:

An English professor wrote the words, “Woman without her man is nothing” on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly.

The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is nothing.”

The women wrote: “Woman: Without her, man is nothing.”

Punctuation made two sentences that were radically different in meaning. The importance of this comma is similar. Its omission can make for confusing reading. Consider the following sentence:

In the picnic basket were several different types of sandwiches: turkey, peanut butter, roast beef and cheese.

Are there four types of sandwiches or three?

Divide the lottery money equally among the following: Mary, the Johnson family, Nigel and Lulu.

Mary gets 33%, the Johnson family gets 33%, and Nigel and Lulu get 33% (or 16.5% to Nigel and 16.5% to Lulu). Right? Or is it that Mary gets 25%, the Johnson family gets 25%, Nigel gets 25%, and Lulu gets 25%?

No, it’s time to save the “comma-that-precedes-‘and’-in-a-series,” henceforth simplified to as CTPTAIAS. A few of my friends are aware of my advocacy, and most certainly all of my former co-workers have been exposed to The Truth. You would be surprised, as I was, to find that most people actually do not care!! Many of them had never heard of such a thing! I did have a significant impact on a former co-worker, and one of my friends has also taken up the cause. May the god/esses be with them in our fight.

**Les Mis’ “Do You Hear the People Sing” begins to play, crescendos….

I’m bringing it back.

(Will you join in my crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?)

**Les Mis’ “Do You Hear the People Sing” fades out…. Curtain.

My daughter occasionally watches a show called, “Jojo’s Circus.” Jojo is a clown in... um.. a circus. Her father is also a clown. His name is Mr. Tickle. It swear it just sounds dirty to me. It does, doesn’t it? Or am I just weird? I don’t know if I heard that name used jokingly in another way in a movie or elsewhere, but I almost won’t let her watch it. ;)

My biological mother, Terry, has lung cancer. She lives in another state, and most of our relationship is via telephone or e-mail. Here’s the thing…. She’s a little crazy. She eventually alienates everyone in her life. Mostly, I deal with her just fine because I don’t take anything personally or allow myself to be guilt-tripped or manipulated. I realize now that I was a little smug about my ability to deal with her, whereas nobody else could.

I will not subject you to my account of the myriad of attempted and successful emotional manipulations because, long-winded as I might be, I do have a tattered little “that’s not necessary information” filter. Tattered, yes, but present nonetheless. I do, however, find it necessary to say that you would be amazed and feel much sympathy for me, and admiration for my saintly patience. Well, maybe not the last part about patience (my store of it was completely depleted in September), but still.

The bottom line is that I haven’t talked to her since mid-October -- and not because of me. I have no idea what her health status is. Her cancer was staged at IIIB, I believe (that’s bad) and she wasn’t responding well to treatment, which she was doing begrudgingly anyway. So it’s time I call her. I can’t sit around waiting for her to attain some emotional maturity that has somehow eluded her for her entire life, because clearly it’s not coming. Yes, it would make it so that our relationship added more to my life instead of drained from it, but it’s not a realistic hope. Prior to the turbulence of the last year, I would have understood (and had compassion) that this “lack” is a handicap on her part, and not an indicator of her character. Now I can’t seem to care, and it just seems dramatic and annoying and often infuriating.

Contacting her will involve some eating crow, which I don’t usually mind, UNLESS IT’S NOT MY CROW! ;) As difficult as she is to deal with, I do have a connection of some kind to her, and I don’t want our relationship to end this way, which is what it will do if I don’t contact her. So that’s what I choose to focus on, rather than my pride or desire for her to recognize that I’m right. LOL!

I’m not ready to do it, and just now starting to think that it’s what I need/want to do. And I will do it. I’m just not very excited about it. :P

In my next life, I want to be a Broadway star. Or at least a Broadway-worthy singer. *I* wouldn’t give up or sell out and be on the Disney Channel or be a Doodlebop, when what I really wanted was to be on Broadway. If I were hot, too, then singing more soulful songs like those on Choo-Choo Soul might be okay.**

**This Train of Thought brought to you today by the Sunday morning edition of Disney Channel’s Johnny and the Sprites.

Myself

+ 2 moms

+ 3 toddlers

+ 1 migraine

+ an intense sensitivity to environment

+ a dislike of crowds

+ Fort Worth Zoo

+ Spring Break

= 1 very long day

In my defense, I must say that I've lightened up considerably since age 5, and this seriousness followed the death of my great-grandmother. My spelling is also much improved. The handwriting, unfortunately, is pretty close to today's....

Translation: All people and animals need water. And food. To make them healthy. Sometimes people do not eat food and water. When people do not eat food and drink water, they die. And people bury them. Some people stay alive until they are 100. Many people do not stay alive until they are 100. Animals do the same thing. Some people and animals get sick. Sometimes the sickness makes them die. That is not funny. That is sad. It is not madness. It is sad.