- I have absolutely no idea why people are looking to replace black, ever. But I also have no idea why it’s frowned upon to wear white shoes, or pants or undergarments, or hats, after flag day.
- I’m very particular about my grammar, word choice, and punctuation. For the most part, this makes me a better writer – but when I’m working on a truly creative endeavor, my pickiness gets in the way. While the story is writing itself, in my mind, I get hung up on choosing the perfect word/phrasing/sentence instead of just transcribing
the crazy voices in my head in those rare times that they’re not telling me to do evil thingsthe story . . . so that, by the time I try to catch up with the story, it’s gone. - I need to find the time for song lyrics. Badly.
- I’m a huge fan of the ampersand, but I cannot allow myself to ever place an ampersand at the beginning of a sentence1, or after a comma2, or as the beginning of a parenthetical aside.
- I believe the semi-colon to be the most misunderstood (and therefore underused) punctuation mark.
- As I’m approaching my “target weight3,” I’m finding that I’m changing my strategy at the gym. I’m focusing less on cardio and focusing more on weight-training (though I’m still targeting the same amount of time at the gym). This means that most of my cardio comes
at the buttcrack of dawnin the early morning. Part of me wants to say that this is just a natural progression as I need to burn fewer calories, but that’s not the case at all. I’m vain. I’ll be on the beach before too long and I want to look good without a shirt on. - Along those lines, my new obsession is the #corechallenge. While I said, last week, that I’m approaching being able to complete forty consecutive push-ups, that’s from a rest . . . after a thirty-minute weight-lifting circuit and fifty crunches, completing two sets of fifteen push-ups, as sweat drips off of your nose, is difficult.
- I played a concert with the West Short Symphony Orchestra yesterday. Since I’ve been with this group, it was the largest crowd we’d ever had, and we played exceedingly well. I was proud to be part of the organization (not that I wasn’t, previously, but you know what I mean . . . or maybe you don’t, but if you don’t, well, I just need to choose my words better).
- Several people came up to me, after the concert, to say that they love watching me play. On one hand, it’s great to know that I’m making someone happy — but, it’s probably not a great thing to stand out so much while playing with a symphony. The thing is, during a concert, I tone my moving with the music back. When I’m learning a piece, I look like a perpetual motion machine.
- I nearly posted a vlog last night of me playing piano – but only because I was still wearing a tuxedo from the concert. See? Vain.
1 It’s taken an eternity for me to even think about starting a sentence with the word “and,” though I know it can be perfectly grammatically-proper to do so. It’s just that, well, in elementary school, starting a sentence with “and” was strictly verboten. And I was a good student.
2 Especially after an Oxford-comma, which may be my favorite comma.
3 Which is absolutely meaningless, since weight is just a number – a better phrase would be “as there is less around my middle that makes me cringe whenever I look in the mirror,” but see previous bullet point about word choice, and that phrase is a lot wordier than “target weight,” so we’ll go with it.
Long live the Oxford comma.
And let’s just make reasonable vanity the new black. Looking fine in your tux? Instagram it! Rockin’ your core? Take your shirt off at the beach.
The self-serving end here (I am an Aries, after all), is that I can promote my books all over the place. Because they’re pretty and nice to read.
Reasonable vanity shall forever be the new black. But what was wrong with the old black?
And yes, please, promote your books all over the place!
Totally with you on the semi-colon! And starting sentences like this one (same goes for But)… I’m okay with bending certain grammatical rules for the sake of creativity (but not all). And my husband turned me on to the Oxford comma – I wasn’t a regular user before that. Now I’m all over it (now that apparently Oxford doesn’t deem it necessary anymore).
Yeah, Oxford deeming the comma named after the institution unnecessary kind-of perplexed me. But, I actually like reading the debates about its usage between the different grammatical schools of thought.
Damn, I’m a nerd.
I approve of the Oxford comma as well as well as the semicolon. I’m not an ampersand person; Larry is.
I totally see Larry being an ampersand kind-of guy.
I had to look up Oxford comma because I have only ever called it a Harvard comma. I am having somewhat of an identity crisis now.
Silly commas & their dual-names.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one going hard core on the fitness challenges. 🙂
Yeah – I’ve dropped the better part of 30 pounds since the start of the year (though, to be fair, my start weight was incredibly inflated due to end-of-the-year binging, I’d likely have dropped 5-10 just by returning to normal eating habits). But, more importantly, I’m fitting better in my clothes and, despite working out whenever I can fit it in (including waking up at ungodly hours), I have more energy. Which is necessary with my minions about.
I like starting sentences with and.
And I just taught my coworker how to use a semicolon the other day for an essay to apply to grad school.
One less person in the world confused about it.
Hooray for reduced punctuation confusion!