Why I'm Not a Grammar Nazi

1. I associate Nazis with bad haircuts
2. In my opinion, nothing makes one more pretentious and self-righteous than unnecessarily correcting the mistakes of others
3. While I appreciate the English language (and the United States' dialect particularly), constant doting on the rules leaves little time for adventurous and experimental language.
4. I am constantly committing my own pet peeves. If I were a Grammar Nazi, this would be horribly irritating. But I am not...cognitive dissonance solved. ((I started the preceding sentence with a conjunction. That's a no-no. I also have a tendency to use ellipses whenever and wherever I see fit. Furthermore, I often double-up on my parentheses as exhibited in the present sidenote)).

Why on Earth am I talking about this? I shall tell you.

Last week, I turned in a take-home test for my cataloging course. It ended up being a good 12 pages of solid writing...which I accomplished in all of two days. Tonight in class (or I suppose it was last night as it is now 1:00 AM), the exam was returned with comments. All in all, the grade was not so bad. Full disclosure: 90 = A-, which I can deal with. But as I looked through her comments, I could not help but face palm. I used the word "between" when discussing differences among three institutions. Face palm. I committed my number one pet peeve when I used the possessive pronoun "their" when I intended to use "there." Face...wait for it...palm. At one point, I put a period in the middle of a sentence. Of course, spellcheck didn't catch that one because I intelligently capitalized the letter following the punctuation mark. Face palm. Then (apparently, for shits and giggles), I committed the between/among transgression one more time.

Ugh.

Meh. What are ya gonna do? I use converstational United Statesish. Language exists for communication and if I am able to do at least that much with my native tongue...well...kudos to little old me!

FOs and progress: a qualitative analysis

I did some knitting with my handspun one insomnia-riddled evening. I was up until 4 in the morning working on it. The next morning, I decided that it was too big and frogged. It was a lot of work to rip out, but it wasn't too disastrous and I recognized the fact that I was out of my mind tired and wired, which does not lend itself to good dimensions. So the next day, I cast on once more with fewer stitches. After two days of knitting, I had an FO!



It's a squishy cormo cowl. The ultra-cheezy geek smile represents that this cowl is going to be perfect for walking from the metra to my classes downtown this winter! And it's from handspun! And it was instant gratification knitting! And I like yuzu-cha!

On the NaKniSweMo front, I am not doing so well. I don't think it's happening...just like last year. I'm not upset over it or anything. It was all for fun and games. I am still trying, but the sweater seems to stay the same no matter how long I knit on it. lol Instead of finishing the cobblestone, I think I will call myself a winner if I finish my purple lace blouse and my snowdrop jacket. They are both so close to being done that I am pretty sure I can finish both by the end of the month! Hooray for hopeless optimism!

What about NaNoWriMo, you ask? Well, funny story. NaNoWriMo and I aren't talking anymore. We both said some things we didn't mean, but both of us are too stubborn to apologize. Instead of burying the hatchet, I flung it full force into my dung heap of a novel (I've only got like 3,000 words, maybe less). I'm disappointed in myself, but you win some and lose some. Right now, I'm so wrapped up in my own way of doing things that the careless NaNoWriMo approach seems childish. The idea that I shouldn't worry if what I write is crap gets to me. I want writing to be my life...GOOD writing. So if I write crap, I'm a crappy writer, not a good one. Right? Then again, if I don't write anything, I'm not any kind of writer at all.

Oh, muse, strike genius. I'm sure she's working on it.

Winter Twist Collective

OMG, I looked at it...and while most of it made me go, "eh," this one nearly brought me to tears it is so beautiful!

FEAST YOUR EYES!

Wow...I want to knit it...I want to knit it...It's going to look stupid on me because I am petite...but OMG...

That is all for now. I have an FO to show you all, but it will have to wait as I am once again without a proper camera. :P