My marks are continuing to trickle in, and so far the news is good. I got an A in Greek Mythology, which is a touch surprising; I thought I would’ve gotten a lower mark since I did poorly on the second quiz and I wasn’t sure about the second exam… and my paper was pure crappage, but I guess it wasn’t that bad.

I turned in a number of papers this semester that I thought were pure crap, but apparently the profs didn’t think so, since my PR prof said I got an A (the one mark that hasn’t manifested itself yet).

For those trying to keep track at home, the grades so far are: Greek Mythology, A; Women and Media, A-; Theories of Communications, A; and Audience Research, A+. And that’s just for this semester… it looks like I’ll be able to graduate, maybe, with an A-/B+ average, since I only have one C+ once my theories mark replaces the D+… everything else is a B- onwards.

I saw a woman in the mall today who had a total mullet – also known as a mulvet or a vulvet, depending on which of my friends/coworkers you speak with. It was quite long and somewhat scary-looking. There are too many people who are stuck in the 80s. :P

I’m feeling really tired right now. I had my first radio course last night. We didn’t go nearly the whole time, just did an intro to the course and such. I was there at least a half-hour afterwards catching up with the instructor, one of the jocks and one of my coworkers. Hung out with Moose and Ben, chatting and then watching episodes of season three of Buffy – likely annoyed Ben by making jokes throughout much of the first episode. As usual, he fell asleep during the second one. *grin* Moose and I went upstairs and fell asleep for a few hours – it was really nice and comfortable to snuggle with someone and feel all cozy and comfortable. I left around 4 in the morning and went home to bed, where I was somewhat too awake to get back to sleep for a while. :P Hence, my feeling tired and looking like crap today.

I’m already really behind in my readings – big surprise, eh? I’m working through some of it for CMN and International Development, and it’s going okay… I just seem to phase out during sections of the text and start thinking of more interesting things as I go.

I’m so glad that I am getting out of the education system when I am. The double cohort experience of Ontario students, the rising costs of tuition, the lowering of education standards… in many ways I feel bad that I’m trying to or getting into the writing field when I am – when people can no longer tell the difference between “your” and “you’re,” between “its” and “it’s,” between “their,” “there,” and “they’re”… it makes me feel queasy.

When I was growing up, my parents always encouraged my sister and I to read and write as much as we wanted to – my first effort was a short story (a paragraph long) that I wrote when I was 5 or 6, called “Sammy the Seal.” My mom and dad still love to tease me about it. Nevertheless, what was important to them was the spelling and sometimes the grammar that went into our efforts, so I’ve always valued these things highly. I think that emails that are poorly formatted are one of the worst things to read, especially when they come in the form of a missive from a boss or professor. The same goes for the overuse of exclamation marks, which is why I rarely use them myself. On extremely rare occasions, when I feel something needs to be emphasized, I will use multiple exclamation marks – but to paraphrase Pterry from Maskerade, “the use of multiple exclamation marks it the sign of a diseased mind.” (Or, another good one: “…and, all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head.”)

And while I’m on the subject, a few stellar Pterry quotes that I’ve found while doing a search for “quotes” and “discworld” to try to get the proper one:

“That seems to point up a significant difference between Europeans and Americans. A European says: "I can't understand this, what's wrong with me?" An American says: "I can't understand this, what's wrong with him?"


“I think I would like to go into modelling. Of course, I don't know how to do it, and wouldn't be any good at it if I did, so I'm going to employ someone to walk the catwalks on my behalf. It would still be me, of course...”
-- Terry learns Naomi Campbell has written a book. (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

“DW is based on a slew of old myths, which reach their most 'refined' form in Hindu mythology, which in turn of course derived from the original Star Trek episode 'Planet of Wobbly Rocks where the Security Guard Got Shot'.”

“You can't remember the plot of the Dr Who movie because it didn't have one, just a lot of plot holes strung together. It did have a lot of flashing lights, though.”

“And before anyone complains about the grammar, I'm so jetlagged that my hands aren't even in the same time zone...”

“If it wasn't for the fun and money, I really don't know why I'd bother.”

“One of the highlights of the first Good Omens tour was Neil and I walking through New York singing Shoehorn with Teeth. Well, we'd had a good breakfast. And you don't get mugged, either.”

“Somewhere around the place I've got an unfinished short story about Schrodinger's Dog; it was mostly moaning about all the attention the cat was getting.”

“One day I'll be dead and THEN you'll all be sorry.”

“I'm sure we can arrange an academic scholarship for Detritus. Troll cheerleaers would be nice: 'Two... four.... er.. many... lots'.”

“I stroll along, talk, I sign books, people buy me drinks, I forget where my hotel is, I get lost and fall into some local body of water... done it hundreds of times.”
-- Going to a convention is fun! (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

“It's an old magical principle -- it's even filtered down into RPG systems -- that magic, while taking a lot of effort, can be 'stored' -- in a staff, for example. No doubt a wizard spends a little time each day charging up his staff, although you go blind if you do it too much, of course.”

Anyhow, this is all to say that sometimes reading blogs is painful. The same goes for advertising – I have a permanent boycott on the movie Anaconda for their television commercials which stated “it squeezes it’s prey.” If you can’t tell me what’s wrong with that sentence, then… argh.

This isn’t to say that I think my writing is perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. I make great use of sentence fragments, an abundance of commas (which I like to think I at least put in the right places in the text, unlike some writings I’ve read), and especially made-up phrases and expressions. I frequently write how I speak or how I think; this is why things rarely make sense. ;) I’m easily distracted by shiny objects (that section with the Pterry quotes filled up a good fifteen to twenty minutes of my time in reading, then cutting and pasting them), and my brain rarely works linearly. This is why I’m so surprised when people tell me that what I write is concise, clear, flows, and is easy to understand.

Who’da thunk it?

But I digress (and yet it’s still clear, concise, etc.); sometimes I just want to rant and rave when I encounter errors in advertising, textbooks, the newspaper – Ben showed me a magazine he was reading and the very first sentence of the damn editor’s introduction could have used a reworking! I read an article in the little freebie paper that gets circulated around my city – just a little oped piece by the editor – that started with one premise, changed subjects halfway through for a paragraph, then again for the next three paragraphs. She never discussed her thesis statement, the other subjects were completely unrelated to the subject at hand, and her topic transitions were outright jarring. Incidentally, this editorial was about 750 words long, at best… and written by the head editor of the paper.

I’ve been accused of elitism, snobbery, and various other things because of my views on grammar and spelling, but honestly, it doesn’t bug me in the least. In some ways, I look on it as a compliment – and perhaps a help at getting into the writing industry, whichever avenue I wind up pursuing/meeting with success. Of course, that means getting off my fat ass and doing something about it, no? I’m so lazy.

Ah well. This is helping to fill time, but now I need to do some reading. I thought I had some topics to cover, but as always, because I didn’t write them down, I don’t remember what they are. This weekend should be fun/busy – Markuk is going to be in town, I’m going to try to get some reading done and clean up the room, get rid of the books and games that are still floating around… I’ve already earmarked them for disposal/selling, but I just haven’t gotten around to getting them out of my room yet, so they’re eating up space.

With any luck I’ll have some time to myself to get another book read or started – I’m a good chunk of the way through “Writers on Writing,” so if I get that done, I can post a review on Bibliophilage for your edification and entertainment.

Otherwise, I guess it’s more work and more reading for me. Today’s been such a light day, I feel like I should’ve called in sick… but at least this way I get the hours/money and I won’t feel obligated to show up tomorrow, on my day off. :)