Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Moving and movies

I'm going to be moving soon. Hopefully, this next place will last more than a year. So right now I barely have time to get anything finished for writing group. But by the time the move is over it will be right on time for fall submissions, which is when most of the literary magazines come off summer hiatus. In theory, it will be perfect timing. We'll see how that goes.

I did go to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I was a little disappointed with how much extra snogging there was and how much of Voldemort's past there wasn't. They also butchered the final fight scene at Hogwarts and no funeral, which could have been a really good scene.
However, the scenes with Harry on Felix Fix and Ron on love potion were pretty funny. I also thought the young kid that played child Tom Riddle was really good. And I think they did a really good job with Malfoy's character.
Hopefully, the next one has less teen romance and more of the battle with evil wizards!

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Lowering my IQ one status update at a time.

Okay, I'll admit it. I've been on facebook a lot more than I've been blogging here. It's way easier and takes a lot less thought to write a quick status update and then read my friends brief status updates rather than writing a whole blog post and reading a whole blog post. I also know that it's sad that thoughts can be dumbed down to a few sentences. I'm losing a lot in translation.
And I'm starting to realize that the more I'm on facebook, that it's quite possible my IQ is dropping. People use a lot of slang. They also use a lot of what I call 'text message writing', where they are writing so fast that 'u' has become the knew 'you.' Yes, some people do take the time to write full sentences but for most of those people I really wish there was a spell check or grammar check or 'you missed a word' check.
I'm not saying I haven't made these mistakes. It kills me that I can't go back and edit my comments. My favorite part about writing is the ability to edit over and over again. And even then it's never perfect but I have the chance to fix stupid mistakes.
I also don't want to be the grammar police to my friends so I'm just trying to take the good with the bad. So I deal with the bad grammar, spelling, and language knowing that it's the sacrifice I must make in order to keep in touch with some of my friends. And it's refreshing to know that I can come to my blog or other blogs and get a dose of more developed thought and writing skills.
However, I'm starting to be pushed to the edge of my tolerance of facebook and what is sad is that it's just one person who persistently makes the same stupid error over and over again and it has me so upset that I'm about ready to type my thoughts on it in giant letters.
Who knows, maybe it's just me, maybe I'm neurotic and her use of a term is correct but it doesn't matter in my head it doesn't make sense and it is driving me nuts.
Yet, we all know that I'm too nice to state any negative opinion unless asked. I hate hurting people's feelings so I'm just going to use my blog to articulate my thoughts about this same term and leave it at that. If I can just vent once I think I'll be okay.

So here it goes:

Hey you, girl that I knew in high school only because I worked with your boyfriend. I don't really know you but I friended you because I feel bad about turning anyone down unless they are a creepy weirdo. And I'm sorry that you don't have any friends and that you are on facebook all the time talking about how board you are because you have no friends. I would offer to be your friend but there is one thing that you do that annoys me, above all others and that is TUBBING!
I know you do it every weekend, by yourself, and you love to update your status about it, post pictures with captions about it and invite everyone to go with you but unless you are floating down a river in a BATH TUB, the word you mean to use is TUBING! ONE B! TUBING! NOT TUBBING!
I'm sorry but it's just friggin' annoying and maybe your pleas to have someone, anyone go with you, would be answered if people weren't scared of floating down a river in a metal and/or porcelain tub. Or maybe they are like me and just bothered by your bad language skills.

That is all.

P.S. I go back and forth between writing in my livejournal and my blogger. My lj is mostly for personal stuff and my blog is mostly for writing but any day that I have a recent post on one or the other I'm going to post a link at the bottom of my post so readers of either will know that I have something new on the other. For instance: Yesterday's LiveJournal