Housepets!

This is why you post anything you write on Reddit, all the worlds grammar nazis will have it spell checked in no time flat! I once did the same with a Story I had to write for an essay.

I don't mind artistic liberties being taken with grammar but lazy grammar frustrates me.

Sleet wrote:but lazy grammar frustrates me.

Why are you even on the internet then?

Because the internet has all the cat videos

JeffCvt wrote:

Sleet wrote:but lazy grammar frustrates me.

Why are you even on the internet then?

Because the good outweighs the bad. :3

I will just leave you totally ignorant to all the terrible spelling and grammar I see everyday then Sleet, so that you are not inconvenienced in retracting your statement or suffer a terrible heart attack by merely glancing at it.

JeffCvt wrote:As a writer and proofreader for a lot of stuff, grammar sucks. Most of my proofreading is requested by people who either aren't very experienced in writing, or who don't speak English as a first language. (It's even worse when it's both...)

Indeed, grammar sucks. :/

I'm among those who aren't speaking English as their first language. It's all right when it comes to forum postings (spellchecker is among my best friends), but longer texts are still a challenge.

When I wrote my first story for Metamor Keep, I almost threw it all out of the window. I had much confidence in my English skills in the beginning, then I received the first mail with the corrections from my fellow MK writers. Seeing how much I still had to learn was a crushing experience. I think I shouted something like: "Oh gawd, I'm totally incompetent!" (loosely translated and minus a number of nastier words). But somehow I found the resolve to clear the first version from all of the marked errors. And the second version... and the third. Really a learning experience, although a frustrating one.

After four stories and now working on the fifth, there are some details on English grammar I still don't get right. But I don't give up hope I will learn sometime. ^_^

Sometimes I don't look where I'm typing, but that's because my teacher always said it should be muscle memory, not looking at the keyboard. =P

Well technically English is my first language but its certainly a weird brand of English.

Prof wrote:there are some details on English grammar I still don't get right. But I don't give up hope I will learn sometime. ^_^

You're better than a lot of people I see based on that post.

English sucks because there are things that exist that you can go your whole life and not use. I recently ran into one of those things called an EM dash.

It is a dash the same length as an "m." It's used to add little bits of extra information into sentence- just like this- that don't quite fit in normally.

Heck, the EM dash is so unused that it isn't even on an American keyboard. I just used two hyphens above because I don't even know how to get a real EM dash. I mean, come on. Why not just two things that we use all of the time, like commas? (Actually, if you use a hyphen whenever showing someone getting cut off mid sentence [EX: "Hey, can I borrow a-" "No."], you're technically doing it wrong. An EM dash is the "proper" dash to use there. I mean really? We're going to be that picky about the length of our dashes?)

JeffCvt wrote:I mean really? We're going to be that picky about the length of our dashes?

Yes. Remove those en-dashes from my sight

Actually, an en-dash is slightly longer than a hyphen: - vs –
and an em-dash is longer - vs – vs —
I believe the proper substitute in times when you can't get an actual em-dash is to use 2 hyphens.
— or --
and using a hyphen as an en-dash is fairly common practice

The alt-code for an en-dash is 0150
The alt-code for an em-dash is 0151

Obbl wrote:

JeffCvt wrote:I mean really? We're going to be that picky about the length of our dashes?

Yes. Remove those en-dashes from my sight

Actually, an en-dash is slightly longer than a hyphen: - vs –
and an em-dash is longer - vs – vs —
I believe the proper substitute in times when you can't get an actual em-dash is to use 2 hyphens.
— or --
and using a hyphen as an en-dash is fairly common practice

The alt-code for an en-dash is 0150
The alt-code for an em-dash is 0151

So that's why the office spell checker sometimes changes the length of the dash

I've always just called each of those either a hyphen or a slightly longer hyphen.
They should replace the underscore ( _ ) on the keyboard with the EM-dash. I mean, seriously, who uses the underscore? What practical application does it have? Aside from making lines on which to write, that is.

These are useful for programming I believe. Aso for things which don't like having blank spaces in names.

It's also useful for typing out blanks! _____

Hlaoroo wrote:I've always just called each of those either a hyphen or a slightly longer hyphen.
They should replace the underscore ( _ ) on the keyboard with the EM-dash. I mean, seriously, who uses the underscore? What practical application does it have? Aside from making lines on which to write, that is.

Back in the days of early computing underscores were used to replace spaces just_like_this, mainly in filenames where spaces weren't registered as actual characters. So in those days the underscore was a seriously important character. Now, just like the Molex port, it's a remnant of a bygone age that somehow still is a part of our standards. (For those that don't know, the Molex port used to power ATAPI harddrives- when SATA came out it didn't need the Molex port anymore, so now it's mostly used to power case fans on desktops.)

*grumble grumble* Sorry to cut in, but I need to ask, is there another video hosting site that is similar to Youtube? Youtube is now officially broken, so I feel like looking somewhere else for videos and stuff.

Another popular one is Blip.

Dailymotion is one I've seen used

kurowolfe wrote:*grumble grumble* Sorry to cut in, but I need to ask, is there another video hosting site that is similar to Youtube? Youtube is now officially broken, so I feel like looking somewhere else for videos and stuff.

I was wondering for a bit why you were saying YouTube was broke, as I hadn't had any problems at that point, and now my computer is not buffering videos properly.
So I'm guessing that's your problem?

I heard youtube was tightening up their copyright restrictions and taking lots of videos down because of it. I reckon that would have something to do with it.

Hlaoroo wrote:I heard youtube was tightening up their copyright restrictions and taking lots of videos down because of it. I reckon that would have something to do with it.

Ah, yes, Youtube's SOPA attempt, as I call it. I haven't actually seen any videos going 'cause of that, now that I think about it. I must be watching a SOPA-free side of Youtube or something...

It's not exactly fair to compare it to SOPA since YouTube is entirely in their right to take down whatever they want for whatever reasons they want.

So it's cloudy outside, but it's not cold like it has been the last few days. Yay, that means I can turn off the heat and open my window.

As opposed to what I'm doing, because its 10C in my room. *shivers*

Sleet wrote:It's not exactly fair to compare it to SOPA since YouTube is entirely in their right to take down whatever they want for whatever reasons they want.

I'm bothered more by their new comment system, anyway.

Not only are pre-Schlimmbesserung comments robbed of upvotes, they're also totally mucked up with broken comment trees and out-of-order listing thanks to the prioritizing of comments by untransparent, unaccountable algorithms. And let's not mention the G+ fiasco.

The upsides of enabling hyperlinks and greatly expanded character count for one's essay-length commentary on PewDiePie are nice, though.

Yaknow, Rick technically did make a thread about SOPA back when it was a thing.

When the President Furret does it, that means that it is not illegal.

Kyuubi Kitsune wrote:As opposed to what I'm doing, because its 10C in my room. *shivers*

We had the fire going today which we never do in summer. It's also been raining on and off here. We have the remains of ex-tropical cyclone something or other pushing cold fronts over us. Ah well, it could be worse, I suppose. And I just jinxed myself, didn't I? *facepaw*

Stay tuned tomorrow when a flood followed by tornado hits Hlaoroo!

That would be considered normal here, but as long as I am not blamed for it... *grabs popcorn*

Guys! It be my birthday! :3 I am now 19 and happy

Happy birthday then, Grey! Hope it goes over well.

The Grey Wolverine wrote:Guys! It be my birthday! :3 I am now 19 and happy

I hope you have a Greyt year. ;3

Happy Birthday, have a great one! also...
*throws brick at Kitela*

Kyuubi Kitsune wrote:Happy Birthday, have a great one! also...
*throws brick at Kitela*

*makes it a birthday brick*