Tattoo: “Born Looser”, typical, sheesh

I once saw a cartoon with a very chest fallen man getting a tattoo. You can see that it is just being finished and there is the common mistake, “looser” instead of “loser” and the tattoo artist is saying, “Oh, geez, sorry man!” and the sad is saying, “Naw, doesn’t matter…”

I used to write long and what I considered heart-felt and thoughtful letters by hand to a friend who moved far away. When I finally got a letter back he said, “it is really annoying how you always write ‘really’ with only one ‘l'”.  In my defense, it was before personal computers and GOOGLE.

So now I have no excuse.

I just re-read my last blog post.

I apologize to everyone who’s eyes bleed when they see such glaring mistakes!

If “adulted” is now a verb can I use “oldgeezer-ed”?

After that title, I’ve got nothing.

If all you have is a hammer, everything becomes a nail.

This is my favourite quotation. For me it speaks of how we suffer greatly and act accordingly, often, because we don’t have the tools we need to change our situation. But for now I am thinking about how we communicate and how it affects what we communicate. I think some guy from Canada wrote at length about this…

I had a discussion years ago with some of my French fellow students about language when I was in art school in the 70’s. Quebec nationalism was a huge topic and the importance of preserving the French language really important, so much so that when the conversation got really impassioned we each would shout in our own! Our argument was whether the true nature of a person wasn’t formed by the language they used to express themselves.

Is there some mystical quality in language? Can you change the scope of your mind with language alone? I would prefer to believe that understanding is what is the greatest power for change and language is only one way to get there.

Words can be used to distance ourselves from our experiences and from each other and so in the end they are limited. They can even be dangerous when used to express division of self and other. They can inspire, motivate and condemn but they have to arise within a context that is somehow meaningful to the listener and it is the context that decides their effect.

If you judge others favourably on the basis of their eloquence alone, you can end up surrounded by liars.

What I take the quotation to mean is understand the tools a person has, if you want to understand what they are saying.
I also take it to mean, spend your life acquiring tools of expression but pay attention to the intent and the context.
True expression is often wordless.Even the greatest poets stutter in the face of reality, it requires effort more than just a vast or specific vocabulary. The greatest tool is an open mind and that is the hardest to maintain.

A comma is sort of like a punctuation mini stroke so a coma is like a comma…

In my last post in “Work Better from Home” Quick Brown Fox Transcribing, I wrote comma when I meant “coma” which I did correct, two days later. This unfortunately sent me off in a tangent…

Yes I am finished my marketing manual for my class in Starting a V.A. business, but it feels like years ago when I knew how I was supposed to send it, PDF, ummm, compressed, in the body of an email? Oh geez I am going to have to look it up!

Hey You!

There were threats of nasty things being done if people didn’t learn to use commas properly on a certain internet blog.  The objects of these nasty things were going to be real live puppies! Terrible!

Now, some of us enjoy commas while admitting to not being sure about the proper use of them, but for the sake of pure fun have smattered commas about liberally in all our writing. It never hurt any one. 

Puppies never hurt any one either. The fact is, this particular Doctor of English went too far!  She is beating a dead language. She should leave little dogs alone!

Later in another entry she decried the use of “chased” in the place of “chaste” which are two very different things but which are related, when you think about it, because the boys chased the chaste girls and then when they were caught the chaste and chased were soon unchaste… well I don’t want to get all Shakespearean, what matters to me is that puppies should not be threatened as a way of inspiring proper punctuation. 

I am sure dear reader that you join me in my relief when I tell you that the above mentioned Doctor of English sent me an apology and a nice picture of a puppy.

 Puppies don’t know how bad things are!