i dig you 'cause your grammar is so good

okay, so i'm not sure who exactly said that it was okay to let idiocy flourish in cyberspace, but that person should be shot. repeatedly. i absolutely abhor reading bad spelling and grammar online. the only thing worse is the moronic response of "calm down, we're online." i'm sorry, did you have to give your brain away to get internet connection? if it is not okay for you to speak like a moron in person, it is not okay to do it through a computer. i understand that some people are just bad spellers. i have nothing against those people. really, i dont. but writing "like" as "lyke" is not being a bad speller. it is throwing your brain cells away with both hands. everyone is allowed to go through a phase of idiocy, but that phase should stop in eighth grade (and even that is pushing it). i don't care if what you say online is not being graded, stop being stupid.

yes, i realize that i dont follow grammar online as well as i should. i have a problem with the shift and apostrophe buttons, but i know the right way to write.

here are some basic things to remember to avoid being labeled as stupid:

>> your is not an abbreviated form of you're. the first is possessive while the second is a contraction. if you are confusing the two, maybe it's time for you to turn off the computer and crack open a book. i may not always use apostrophes, but i always write youre when it is needed.

>> their, there, and they're are also three completely different words. they are not interchangeable. they are not variations of each other. a sentence to show the three uses: they're at their table over there. see how each one has its own special meaning?

>> affect and effect are also not interchangeable. affect is a verb. effect is a noun. remember that a comes before e in the alphabet. something has to affect something else before the effect is seen.

>> it's and its is another commonly misused pair of words. its is possessive and it's stands for it is. it's really not that hard to remember. this is the one time that i never neglect the apostrophes. you should do the same.

>> quotation marks should not be used for emphasis. saying something is "important" does not make me recognize its significance. in fact, it makes me think that it is unimportant. or that your definition of importance is a bit off. parentheses shouldn't be used for emphasis either, for that matter.

>> teh is not a cool way to write the. it is a typo. people who emulate mistakes because they think it makes them look/sound cooler need to die.

>> you can't italicize your entire speech. italics should be used for emphasis, much like those " " you've been throwing around. contrary to what you might believe, every word that comes out of your mouth - or uh hand - does not need to be emphasized. try talking like that and you'll realize how stupid you sound to me.

>> could of, should of, and would of are not grammatically correct phrases. they dont even make sense. if you don't want to write the contractions (could've, should've, would've) then at least write out what they really stand for... which is could have, should have, and would have if you didnt know. it'll make you sound a little less like a completely uneducated idiot.

*Bad Grammar - The Hippos

break down these walls that we've built

so my sister and i had the brilliant idea that it ould be fun to make homemade gingerbread houses from scratch. none of that graham cracker stuff... real gingerbread. oh. my. god. it was a fiasco. but a successful one. is that even possible??

so we made the dough and stuff yesterday, but didnt get a chance to build the houses because my brothers sleep early and we started a little late. i shouldve known it was doomed from the start because i couldnt find my usual gingerbread recipe. i had to use a different one and the dough came out a little different than usual. it was still good, but it wasnt mine.

then, today we did the building. we made two houses. one boy and one girl worked on each and it was originally going to be a contest. i stopped that idea, though, because we were basically eyeballing the cutting of the pieces yesterday so i had a feeling it was going to get a little messed up. understatement of the year. while i was putting together my house, my sister was having the mother of all hard times with hers. she was trying not to put too much frosting so that it would be healthier. yes, im surprised she's related to me, too. so hers keeps collapses so she adds more frosting and its getting messy and breaking and shes getting super annoyed. she gave up three times.

mine was built and ready for the decorating while anisah's was still in pieces. so we said both boys should just decorate mine. in the midst of the decorating, someone used a little too much pressure and the whole house came falling down. extremely irritating. i start building it back up against its will because it apparently enjoyed being a pile of rubble. while mine was trying to stay dead, anisah's suddenly decided to live. when hers was up, i stopped trying to make a traditional house and ended up with something that looked kind of like those chinese houses. then the boys started decorating again. near the end, anisah's collapses. again. we didnt even try to resurrect it.

they are the two saddest gingerbread houses i have ever seen. the gingerbread turned out good though. and it all tasted good i was told. and the boys had fun. so though the whole thing was a disaster, it was kind of a success too?

*Momentum - The Hush Sound

hey, calling all imaginary friends

last night, i stumbled upon the quote, "writer's block is when your imaginary friends won't talk to you."

in high school i had this friend, and we were pretty close. or at least i would go to her house a lot and we'd talk all the time. now, i kinda think it was just because we were always together that we deluded ourselves into thinking we were close. anyways, first semester of college she was having a bit of trouble making friends of her own or something. i went to college with one of my best friends and we both managed to make a bunch of friends (most of whom i kind of drifted away from as college went on. now i mainly have IT friends cause we're all on the same campus, and none of my non IT friends are arab). anyways, when i wasn't complaining about a lack of friends with her, she says with disdain, "well, yeah, that's because you're not the only one from our class there." let the record show that she had another girl from our class, half the boys, and a bunch of other people she knew through family and friends. that annoyed me a little, so i go on to say that we made a lot of friends that aren't from high school. she laughs in disbelief and says all condescendingly, "imaginary friends don't count." or something along those lines. and she was dead serious. when she came to visit us at school later she was honestly shocked to find that we were hanging out with real people. it was a tad insulting. i mean, i know i'm not a social butterfly, but that is completely by choice. i know how to make and keep friends and actually have good people skills. i dont really hang out or talk to her at all anymore, for several reasons. her mom, dad, and brother are still awesome people, though.

my dad thought it was hilarious and is now constantly asking me about my imaginary friends. it became a sort of inside joke between us.

anyways, the point of that story was that now, it kinda seems true. not that i only have imaginary friends, but that i have some. remember the quote up there?? about the writer's block?? yeah... well, at times, my characters really do seem like imaginary friends. i know stuff about them like their birthday, favorite book or song or food, how they felt their first day of school, that never make it into any stories. i know what they'd say in different situations and what they'd think of different things. i have fallen in love with half of them and truly despise others.

so maybe that old friend was actually right about something.

*Imaginary Friends - Nada Surf

okay, people, i need your help. please. i'd be eternally grateful and forever in your debt if you could just answer this simple little question. it is driving me crazy. which font do you prefer? the top or the bottom? and no, they are not the same. the top is garamond 12 and the second is century 11. so please, click on the picture and comment your choice. please.

i was just asleep

it feels like it's been forever since i blogged. in reality it's only been three days, but it feels like a lifetime. i wish i could say i've been off doing exciting things that have kept me away from the computer, but i cant. because i havent. you know what ive been doing?? sleeping. a lot. without my consent. i have been sleeping twelve hour nights and it is ridiculous. i want to not waste my free time unconscious, but apparently my body wont let me. grr.

i woke up this morning to a moving truck outside my window. my neighbors, one of the last two remaining nice ones, are moving. sad. they're the ones with the little boy that plays with my brothers all the time. we used to have really good neighbors that would have neighborhood barbecues and street parties, but one by one they are moving away, and we are left with not so great people.

i feel like writing, but my brain doesnt want to function. so instead, go read this. it's beautiful, really. actually, since i know half of you wont click the link, here it is: never date a writer by xstephens. his writing makes me jealous.

Never date a writer because she’ll fictionalize everything. She’ll write about things you have done to her, or things you never did for her. She’ll write about how you never bought her flowers. Not once. She’ll say in well-constructed prose how the whole time you were together, she never came home from a long week to see a vase full of roses, or daises, or anything.

She’ll describe times you embarrassed her, like at a party. It was her party because she was leaving for three months, and all her friends were there to see her off. People bought her champagne, which was never chilled, but you drank it anyway and that was after you had had whiskey. She’ll talk about how you played strip poker with others. And she walked in to see your clothes bunched up on the floor, next to smashed cigarette butts. She’ll say how she had to cover you with a coat because all her friends laughed about it, and so did you. Then she’ll describe how later, when she didn’t want to leave you and she wanted to be held, she heard you vomit in the bathroom. She’ll say how she had to make sure you were still alive and how she saw your face pressed against the toilet and how your legs shook on the tile. And she said your name and asked if you were okay and you just stared at her through half opened eyelids and looked away. She’ll say she couldn’t make love to you and she had to stay up and make coffee, before you took her to the airport.

She’ll continue this emphasis on what you had done to her, by describing things she had found, but said nothing about. Like when she opened your wallet to slide twenty dollars inside, because you had bought her dinner. She’ll say how she sat on the hardwood floor where the heat couldn’t reach and she shivered. She’ll explain the condom she found, and how it was lubricated and had small writing on the package she couldn’t see because her eyes watered. She’ll talk about the note she found from a girl she didn’t know but you did because in the scribbled handwriting she could make out your name. You were asleep on the bed and she was on the floor. She’ll tell the reader how she held her legs and tapped her chin against her knee. And she decided that it’s not wrong for men to have friends, because all men have friends, so she closed the wallet and slept without a blanket on the floor.

She’ll later describe the moment in the bedroom when she sat at the foot of the bed and you kneeled in front of her. She’ll give you short choppy dialogue, so that you sound distant. She’ll tell the reader how you said it’s not that you didn’t love her but you couldn’t be with her and that it’s more your fault than hers, except she’ll tell it much more compellingly. She’ll describe how she choked on her tears and tried not to vomit right in front of you. And how she looked at the poster on the wall, the one she bought for you and how the different colors turned together when you spoke. She’ll say how the bed you had brought from your place felt like steel and she couldn’t move because her legs were welded there and she could only listen to you and watch the colors of the room turn gray.

And she’ll send you a manuscript and you’ll be on the couch where you both had sat and you’ll read every word. You’ll notice she didn’t tell things, like the time you had to see her because she had been sick with the flu and unable to get out of bed. And you ran from the campus to her apartment to make sure she was okay. You ran in the dark and there was so much snow that your legs began to freeze. And she won’t tell the reader how you didn’t have gloves or good shoes and you couldn’t see the patch of ice and you slipped. She won’t tell them you slipped. You twisted your ankle and your face landed in a snow bank. She won’t describe the taste in your mouth, how you pulled yourself up and limped up to her apartment. You used the key she’d just given you and she won’t say how nice it was being able to enter unannounced. And she won’t say how good it was to see her asleep and that you kissed her on the top of her head and then staggered home. She won’t move into your head and explain how much you really loved her. How you almost started to cry when you walked. You shook from the wind but felt safe because she was.

You’ll sit alone on that couch where you made love to her and you won’t move and the glass of whiskey on the table will not be touched. You won’t get up to turn up the lights and you won’t get up to use the restroom even though you have to. You’ll sit in the dim of your living room. And you will read.

*We Intertwined - The Hush Sound

i am not afraid to try it

have you ever had your mind make a decision before you?? like it makes up its mind while you're still pretending to deliberate even though you know the decision has already been made. thats what mine recently did, and now i'm participating in the upcoming script frenzy. made by the same people as nanowrimo, script frenzy has people write 100 pages of script in a month. any kind of script you can think of. i think i'm going to write a screenplay.

i heard about it during nanowrimo and then got a couple of emails suggesting i sign up afterwards. i wasnt really considering it... except that i guess i was, and had decided to try it from the first time i heard about it.

i know less than nothing about how to write a screenplay - my lack of knowledge is really quite pathetic. but they have samples, templates, and other writer's resources, and i figure i have until april to learn anyways. right?? i have never really harbored any secret desires to write movies. i was always more into more traditional writing (novels, short stories, the occasional poem...) but i figure, why not?? it's worth a try and might be fun.

the main rule of script frenzy is just to write 100 pages of original script. this, however, doesnt have to be your own story. you can make an adaptation of your favorite book, remake a different movie, turn a play into a graphic novel, or whatever. that should make it a bit easier than nanowrimo, right?? and then you can have partners in script frenzy, too.

the only time ive ever written a script was sixth grade when my teacher made me write a play for my class to act out. it was about a girl and her two friends who go back in time to the native americans. i've pushed that memory to the very furthest part of my mind, but i think i remember there being a mambo line at the end. :/ it was an embarrassment to life.

*Try it on My Own - Whitney Houston

my brothers recently got email addresses. the seven year old one was at the computer giggling earlier. i get a new email from him. it says:

I HATE MY LIFE LIKE A ROTTEN SANDWHICH AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FILTHY DIRTY STUPID TRASHCAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i laughed.

makes no sense at all

i have this weird slightly OCDish habit when it comes to series that i own. i cant just read/watch one from it. i have to do the entire thing.

for example, my grandma was here a couple of weeks ago. this means lots of distraction in the form of scrabble games and making lunches. it was also the last couple weeks of school so i had an overwhelmingly large pile of work haunting me. the boys were also in the middle of the their my-teacher-is-psycho-and-wants-twenty-posters-a-day-on-everything-under-the-sun phase. so there was a lot to do. but i felt like reading. knowing that i didnt have the time or the attention to really get into a book, i picked up twilight. light, entertaining reading. when i finished twilight i read new moon. school ends, my grandma leaves, and i suddenly have time to read again. but i cant read the backlog of books i have stacked by my bed because i still havent finished the twilight saga. i am now three quarters of the way through breaking dawn and looking forward to starting my break books.

another example, whenever i feel like rereading a harry potter book, i end up reading the entire series. beginning to end. or sometimes middle to end then beginning to middle.

and it's not just books. if i ever start watching my gilmore girls dvds, it happens too. i start by watching that one episode that had come to mind, and next thing i know it's three weeks later and all seven seasons have been played. crazy.

*Makes No Sense - Outkast

i stole your line

my brain has this thing where it just rejects songs i like sung out of tune... which is why a lot of covers just dont work for me. they may be nice, but if the singer "makes it his/her own" my brain gets angry and refuses to listen.

so remember a while ago i posted this song?? and i said it was a remix of the cuppycake song, even though the singers never mentioned that it was. so i bought their latest album (only like 5 songs) off of itunes to listen to them because they were virtually impossible to find elsewhere. i'm listening to one of the songs (Gotta Get Movin') and doing homework when my brain does that rejection thing it does. i thought that was weird because they were not doing a cover of any song i knew. i rewind the song a bit and hear these lyrics:

you dont have the reason, and i dont have the time

sounds suspiciously like maroon 5's song Makes Me Wonder lyrics, does it not?

i still dont have the reason, and you dont have the time

so i listen closer to the rest of the lyrics for the other songs. they all sound slightly familiar. none are exactly stolen from a song or anything, but most of them are made up of cliched song titles and phrases. actually, forget the most, they all are. and then there are a bunch of other lyrics that seem to be taken directly out of other songs, even if they are cliches. the songs are still okay, but umm a little originality could have made them a lot better.

*Gotta Get Movin' - The Phoenix Philosophy

it took me some time, but now i've moved on

so i finally heard back from that professor of mine. everyone had been telling me that she was sexist (and though she made no attempt to hide the fact that she preferred guys in class, i didnt think she would transfer those feelings to grades) and i kinda believed them after reading her email. she added a measly plus to my grade, but i guess it's better than nothing. i mean, at least now the C will have something to keep it company when i am in denial and completely ignoring the fact that it exists. that and the B+ in msom. stupid group projects killed my gpa.

anyways, back to the sexist thing. so it appears that she had used an outdated percentage calculator thing while doing my grade, but thanks for alerting her to her mistake. she checked the rest of the grades and thank god they were all right. she only used that calculator with me. the only girl in the class. convenient.

she showed me the grade breakdown and while i dont agree in taking off 10% because i didnt participate when there were no class discussions except as everyone was leaving and the stupid overachieving group would talk about her book, i have decided to forget about it. i have also decided to forget about the judge (that wasnt supposed to be a judge but she was invited by the overachievers. coincidence that the two things that brought my grade down were because of the women graders?) that gave us an awful grade on the final presentation. i plan to have voluntary amnesia about this entire class.

i am moving on.

*Me, Myself, and I - Beyonce