Happy Belated Constitution Day!

For anyone who doesn't know, yesterday (Sept. 17) marked the 225th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.  (I personally have Facebook to thank for the reminder, because whoever printed my calendar decided to leave this holiday out).  Anyway, I'd like to urge anyone out there to use the time they would have spent reading the novel-length posts that I usually write, and instead go and either read the Constitution if you're not familiar with it or just reflect on it.  Or if you're in a pinch for time, you should look up the School House Rock version of the Preamble, which I think is pretty darn cool and informative.  

I Wish I Read More

I've had a lot of time to think this week, and the part of it that wasn't spent playing Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep was largely devoted to trying to think of a handful of good books to blog about. This has been a rather difficult task, largely because I rarely take the time to read. It's terrible, and I'm planning to fix that in the coming months.

and it's a story that might bore you but you don't have to listen, she told me, because she always knew it was going to be like that, and it was, she thinks, her first year, or actually weekend, really a Friday, in September, at Camden...

In the entire time that I've been in college, I've only read one book purely for pleasure and not because it was required for school. That being said, the first book I'm going to discuss is The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis. This book explores the not-so-romantic entanglements of a web of college students in the late 80s. The story is presented with chapters narrated by pretty much every named character, primarily focusing on Sean, a drug dealer with an "I don't give a shit" attitude toward life that's falling for Lauren, an art student pining after a boy she fell in love with that's off in Europe that also used to date Paul, a bisexual drama student that looks down on almost everyone around him that may or may not be in a relationship with... Sean. It may sound like the setup for a bad game of Fiasco, but the unusual rambling trains of thought and multiple unreliable narrators weave an interesting tale that somehow ends up conveying a pretty meaningful message. Don't watch the movie though. It's exactly as shitty as this description would have you think the book would be, and its only redeeming quality is Ian Somerhalder.

Moon. Glorious moon. Full, fat, reddish moon, the night as light as day, the moonlight flooding down across the land and bringing joy, joy, joy.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay is the first in a series of books that sparked the show on Showtime that you're probably more familiar with. The book follows Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department by day and a vigilante serial killer that hunts down killers that have gotten away with their crimes, as he tries to determine the identity of the Tamiami Butcher (or, for viewers of the show, the Ice Truck Killer). The writing isn't great, but it's a quick and worthwhile read. The second book in the series is as well, and is a lot less predictable for people that have seen the show, though I've heard terrible things about the third and beyond.

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Ahh, Harry Potter. As others have said this week, the world that J.K. Rowling has crafted with this series is so vast and memorable that it'd be hard not to find yourself in love with it. This blurb is less about encouraging reading that, and more about Pottermore. For anyone that lives under a rock, Pottermore is a site that was launched last July that contains a lot of fun flash games relating to the various books in the series, but much more importantly, it allows you to get a deeper look at the world that the series takes place in. The various sections are filled with detailed notes from J.K. Rowling about various aspects of the world that simply never found its way into the books. Plus, you can be sorted into the appropriate house and be assigned a wand. Who wouldn't get excited about that?

To whoever might find this, my name is Chris Lynch, and I'm pretty sure I'm dying. In fact, if you are reading this, then I'm probably already dead. Not that anyone will be around to read this... from what I've seen, I'd guess this is the end of everything.

This last recommendation is probably the least substantial on this list, but it's worth the entire half hour it'll take you to read it. Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. It tells the story of a poet that is going about his day to day life when he becomes a victim of a zombie apocalypse, and then he continues writing about his journey as a zombie to his eventual death... in haiku. It's a fun little book that provides a nice little bit of entertainment on a rainy afternoon.

Hopefully you've seen at least a handful of things this week that have aroused your interest enough to get you heading to the nearest bookstore. I'm about to read The Stolen Throne by David Gaider, a book set in the Dragon Age setting that serves as something of a prequel to the series of games, and then I'm probably going to be off to Bookmans to find a few of the books that have been recommended this week. Have a great weekend, and good luck to everyone heading back to school this week.

A Couple of Selections from My Shelves

I do read a lot, but I've never been big on thinking of book recommendations, and I haven't actually been reading as much lately. But there are still some books I consider up there when I think of what might be my favorites.

Watership Down by Richard Adams sits up there are the book I first think of whenever someone asks me my favorite. I have read it a couple of times, and for me to read a book more than once means I most definitely liked it. It's a long, epic tale of rabbits as the struggle to find a new home. I should also warn you I'm not very good at giving plot summaries, but I will try my hardest. The world building and mythology, along with the characters, is what keeps drawing me back to it.

The Farseer Trilogy and The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb are two of my favorite fantasy trilogies. There's magic, dragons, assassins and once again interesting characters. The writing is good and it's on of the settings that keep coming back to see if the writer has written more in.

I read this series a long time ago, but it was another that always stuck me in the mind for the way the author used character shifts and footnotes to expand the world the author is showing. The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud still has the fantasy twist of magic and such, but takes place in a more modern setting. It's young adult, and I always thought it was a series that didn't get enough attention that it deserved.

I'm really really no good at summarizing. And I really really dislike summarizing. So I suppose you are going to have to take me at my word for it, and Google these series for yourselves. They really are good, and really sit at the top of my favorites list.

Is This Just Fantasy?

Oh, my favorite topic.  Books!  I have loved to read ever since I learned how, and most days (before I got a laptop, and even then...) I could be found hiding in my room with my nose in a book.  This topic of favorite books, though, is a difficult one.  I have many books that I enjoy, and if I tried to name them all I would be typing for a week.  That said, I'll try to just pick out my favorites and make this just a semi-long post instead of a novel... Haha, puns...

First off, my taste in books is pretty much anything that can be labeled "fiction."  I dislike historical books and biographies, instead choosing fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, and other fiction genres to read.  Fantasy may be my favorite type of book, specifically because there is nothing tying you to this world within their pages.  I suppose this includes books of a supernatural element, with vampires, witches, and magic everywhere.  Sci-Fi is alright, although I'm not much in to outer-space-type books.  Mysteries are also a good read, and trying to solve the case before the end is fun.

The other section of books that I love are myths and legends.  A surprising amount of space on my bookshelf is dedicated to variants of some ancient legend.  Stories of gods, goddesses, kings, and heroes are fabulous, especially when I can tie characters from one legend into another legend and create a sense of the world that may have existed at that time.  Greek and Roman stories, as well as British and Celtic legends, are probably my favorite to read.  Actually, I'm a bit obsessed with these stories, and can probably rattle of a good deal of them.  I suppose the Percy Jackson books should fit here, which were much better then the movie.  I'm currently reading a book that is a variant of Robin Hood, and I just finished one called The Fire Sword which mixed all of these European-based legends into one book, which was interesting.

Fantasy is a great genre.  Harry Potter, for example.  I am an extremely obsessed fan of the Harry Potter books, and have read them all multiple times.  If you would like an exact count, I can tell you, but they range from 3 to 22 times.  First off, J K Rowling is a phenomenal writer.  She created this entire world filled with magic spells, strange creatures, witches and wizards, and more.  The other great writer this connects to is Tolkien.  To my great shame, I haven't read all the Lord of the Rings books.  I have read the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring, but I can't make it through the Two Towers.  Reaching the second half where it is just Frodo and Sam, and I couldn't bring myself to continue.  I do plan on rectifying this, however.

One of my favorite authors is a woman named Tamora Pierce.  She writes semi-children books, by which I mean I read most of them in 5th grade.  Even though they are extremely easy to read and rather childish, I will read them over and over again.  She has two separate worlds for her 27 books, 10 in one and 17 in the other.  One world follows the journey of four children as they learn how to use magic through everyday objects.  The other books split into smaller series that follow different females through their teen years as they become knights (secretly and dressed as a boy or later openly as a girl), or ambassadors, or policewomen (for lack of a better old-time description).  It's kind of difficult to explain her books, but they are great in a very simple geared-for-pre-teen-girls kind of way.

I think that just about covers the long series that I read.  Most of the rest of my books are individual books, or just a few books to a series.  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a great series.  I'm reading a series that starts with the first book Dhampir, about a half-vampire vampire hunter and her half-elf partner.  Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey are good authors, although they have way too many books to keep up with.  Brandon Sanderson's books are also good, as are the dragon-based books of Naomi Novik.  R.A. Salvatore is another fantasy writer, with some of his books based on a drow elf who is banished to the surface world.  Another semi-childish series starts with Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer, about an orphan girl who dresses as a boy and goes to sea in 19th century London.  Mickey Zucker Reichert's Nightfall series and some of her stand-alone novels are really good, and I need to read more of her books.

Okay, I think I'm going to wrap it up.  I hope you enjoyed reading the post, even if most of my books are childish and short.  Kathleen's up tomorrow, and I can't wait to read everyone else's posts (and then take a trip to McKay's Used Books).  Enjoy, and don't forget to read!

Books are movies with all the deleted scenes.

This has the potential to spiral into a pages-long post for me, due partially to the fact that I have an entire ROOM of my house dedicated to books.  For the sake of the people who may read this post, though, I'll try to keep it to a manageable length.  ... The operative word in that sentence being "try", mind you.

I grew up reading books.  This is something that I unmistakably inherited from my mother - she has piles and bookcases and stacks and leaning towers of books that she'll almost certainly never read.  But they're there, and available, just in case she wants to peruse them.  My dad reads, too, though not anywhere near the level that my mom and I do.  I still remember the days that my elementary school had book fairs.  Most kids in my class would get a handful of books.  I would get several bags full of books.  It was never much of an effort on my part - I was, for the most part, interested in reading whatever I could, and my parents were only too happy to support that.  The books I got could only last me so long, though, even with multiple read-throughs, and so eventually I branched into my sisters' books too.  I--

Crap, I'm already going off into random territory.  This is what happens when I have -too- much to write about, I suppose.  Back to the topic at hand - favorite books.  This is a bit hard for me to narrow down, because whenever I think about the books I like, it leads me to think about similar books that I like, and then to think about completely different books that I like... and then it's half an hour later and I've been staring off into space, or something equally creepy.  I'll try to prevent that from happening too much here.

The first author that comes to mind is R.A. Salvatore.  I've read a lot of his books, but I'm especially fond of his Forgotten Realms series of books, particularly the ones involving two of my favorite characters created: Drizzt Do'Urden and Artemis Entreri.  I was completely clueless about these books until I started working at a bookstore in 2002.  In July of 2003, the first book in another series centered on Drizzt and his friends (the sixth series, if I'm counting correctly, though I didn't know that then) was released.  The title of it was "The Thousand Orcs", and just from looking at the cover, I knew: I really, really wanted to read this book.

I hadn't yet discovered my fascination with dark elves, but to me, this was the coolest book cover ever.

I read this book, and it was pretty good - but I felt like I was missing something... something essential to really get the most out of it.  That's when I discovered the extensive backlog of books that I'd missed out on.  Fortunately, there were two things working in my favor at that point.  First, almost all of the older books had been collected into single-book compilations at that point, and they were readily available for me to purchase.  Second, working at the bookstore got me a 33% discount on books (which I miss to this day).  Several months later, I was caught up, and hooked.  I have been ever since - these books speak to the part of me that's always wanted to be a D&D player, and they let me live out adventures that (possibly?) could have happened.  Drizzt was easily my favorite character in the series for years, and it's only recently that he's been replaced by Artemis, which... well, I'm not going to get into the reasoning behind it.  But the point is that R.A. Salvatore writes some pretty decent fantasy, and I enjoy them greatly.

Next up on my list is a series of books called The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks.  My discovery of this series was an interesting experience.  I'd hit a lull a little over a year ago where I didn't have anything new to read, and so I'd been researching popular fantasy books online to see if anything sounded good.  The first book in the series, The Way of Shadows, came up a couple of times, and I added it to my list and moved on.  A couple of months later, I was coming home from Los Angeles, and I stopped at a bookstore in LAX to see what they had.  Boom, the book was there, and I bought it to read on the flights home.  ... Occasionally, if I really enjoy what I'm doing (reading, gaming, whatever), I'll get completely absorbed into it and do it until I'm interrupted.  That's exactly what happened with this book.  I read it for the entirety of my first flight, gave it a break during my layover, and finished it on the second flight.  688 pages, gone in a day.  It took me several weeks after my return, but I finally tracked down and purchased the second and third books in the series (Shadow's Edge and Beyond the Shadows, respectively).  These were devoured in short order, and then I was only left with the sad feeling of being finished with something that was supremely satisfying (much like eating a piece of delicious cake).  The story is fairly basic, at least in the beginning - scared guild rat wants to train under master wetboy (-not- assassin), trials and stuff happen, etc.  But somewhere within the story, you come to realize that you actually care about the characters, and what's going through their heads.  There are a lot of twists to the story, some foreshadowed and some not.  But I found the story, as a whole, to be pretty fantastic and well worth reading.  I've re-read the entire series at least twice this year alone.  I only wish there was more to it, after the end of the third book.

Third on my list is The Coldfire Trilogy, by C.S. Friedman.  More fantasy here (anyone see a trend?), and it's mostly your typical fantasy fare, with one notable exception.  The main anti-hero character is twisted, cruel, typically selfish, and completely badass.  To be fairly honest, without that character, I likely would have lost interest in the series halfway through the first book.  But his presence, and the constant question of "what is this guy going to do when (insert situation here)", kept me going.  I don't re-read this series often, honestly, just because the story isn't as gripping when you know everything that happens - but I really enjoyed it while I was reading it, so there we go.

Before we get to my next thought, I need to interject a series that I only recently started, and (sadly) probably wouldn't have thought to include if I didn't have several volumes of it sitting next to me.  I was a supporter of the Kickstarter drive for a webcomic called The Order of the Stick, and part of my reward was getting a reprinted copy of most of the books.  I would assume that most people reading this are familiar with the strip, and read it - if for some reason you're not (or you don't), go here and start reading it.  But only a few, mind you.  Come back and finish my post before you get sucked too deeply into the strip.  Everything about the comic fulfills the D&D itch that I mentioned in my R.A. Salvatore paragraph... only moreso.  My only complaint, really, is that the story drags on in several places.  Having the books is nice, but having to wait for comic updates is agonizing sometimes.

... Wow, this post is getting pretty lengthy.  I'll try to wrap it up over the next few paragraphs.  There are several books and series that I enjoy, but I'll just list them out with little blurbs of info.

- Killobyte, by Piers Anthony.  Real people in a VR game world.  Silliness, gaming fun, a "save the girl" mission, with a dash of adult-themed situations.  Throw in an angsty teenage hacker to cause conflict, and stir.

- The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner.  The story of a thief who gets sent on a secret mission for a king that he doesn't claim allegiance to, trying to retrieve an ancient relic.  It's a pretty simple read, but I really enjoyed it.  I recently discovered that it was the first in a series of four books.  I had no idea about that until several days ago.  The other three books are now near the top of my "need to read" list.

- Catspaw, by Joan D. Vinge.  Actually the second book in a trilogy (but the first one I read), it follows a young halfbreed crippled psion as he tries to fix himself (and not get killed in the process).  More of a sci-fi/fantasy blend than most of my other books, and more of the adult themes than the others as well.

- Wizard's First Rule, by Terry Goodkind.  Oh, the Sword of Truth series.  The first four books in the series were good - and I'd even call the first two (WFR, and Stone of Tears) great.  But after the first four books, the series went downhill, and in a bad way.  The eighth book, Naked Empire, made me physically ill to read.  Not many books can claim that.  But, I digress.  Wizard's First Rule is about a woods guide named Richard, who decides to help a strange woman in a white dress, and gets himself caught up in an epic battle against an evil tyrant.  The characters are fairly well-developed, but the story is the main attraction here.  Fighting, and wizardly wisdom, and love, and some red leather-clad blonde-haired women.  No, really, that last part is pretty important to the series as a whole.  I'm not sure how many chapters in this first book alone focus on them, but it's a lot.  Anyway.  I recommend the first four books, but tread carefully after those.  I won't be held responsible for any brain damage incurred by later entries.

- The Harry Potter series.  Enough said.

Finally, I'll wrap it up with the novel Battle Royale.  All of this excitement and fandom about The Hunger Games, and all the controversy about how edgy and dark it is?  This book did all that, and more, twelve years before Hunger Games even came out.  After an economic crisis, Japan becomes a totalitarian state, and every year a randomly selected class of junior high students are selected to participate in "The Program".  They're placed in an isolated area and fight to the death, until only one of them is left alive.  Some of the students want to group together and find a way out.  Some want to kill everyone.  This makes Hunger Games look tame in comparison.  It was popular enough to spawn two movies and a manga series, and it's still popular today (partially thanks to Hunger Games, no doubt).

Actually, on the subject of manga - I don't read it anywhere near as much as I once did, but I really enjoy Prince of Tennis, Rurouni Kenshin, Maison Ikkoku, Hot Gimmick, and several other series that I won't mention for fear of damaging my public image further.

Whew, this took longer than I thought it would.  Hopefully you find something potentially interesting my list - and if you have any questions about any of them, or (somehow) want to know more stuff I like, just comment below.  Thanks for reading!

Week of 8/12 - Breather Topic: Favorite Books

I'm sad to start this announcement by saying that Kelsey will no longer be a regular contributor to the blog. We're looking for a new person to join as soon as possible, so if you're interested, shoot us an email at onbothsidesofthefence@gmail.com. Until then, expect something a little different and exciting each week on Saturdays.

This week's topic focuses on talking about a form of art/entertainment that has been around forever. The novel is in many ways one of the most respected ways of telling a story, and it offers more of an opportunity for the audience to fill in the blanks than many of the other more visual media we've discussed in previous topics like this one.

Personally, I feel like I don't read enough, and hopefully this week's posts will send a lot of us to the book store looking for awesome books that people recommend. John will start the discussion tomorrow, and I'll be back on Friday to finish this topic off.

At the Heart of it, is Science Fiction.

Television is for sure one of the great forms of entertainment. With a long rich history, and a number of forms and genres people would enjoy, it is not surprising people often complain we spend too much time in front of the TV. And with such variance, it is difficult to promote once single television show to the place of "favorite" above all others. Instead, there are slight paths I would like to take you through; different shows to show you that all do have a place in my mind as some degree of "favorite."

I will start of mentioning Stargate SG-1, because it is the show that first got me into television, into lurking about fandom and enjoying a lot of what I do for entertainment today. It is science fiction, a follow up to the 1994 of approximately the same name. It is not a perfect show, nor is it truly close to the greatest ever created, but it is fun, it has good characters and interesting mythology and it will always be one of the first I name when people ask me which are my favorite. It is the first show I ever really got into to the point of having to watch every week, looking up interviews, spoilers, following spin offs because they were related to the original. I would suggest that anyone who enjoys science fiction to check it out because it certainly deserves a larger fan base than I ever thought it got.

Now possibly my true favorite show, the one I would mention first, falls to Battlestar Galactica, the 2004 remake. Also science fiction, and a lot darker, rooted in human survival more than extreme and quirky science fiction. It fulfilled my needs for serious television, yet the characters were good, the story lines within the realm of sci-fi and used real world parallels and commentary. It was just good, and although people debate how much they enjoyed the ending, I was personally satisfied. It was good sci-fi, and stands up there as one of the best science fiction shows of all time.

Well, because there is so much television, I usually divide my view of "favorite" down to overall favorite and to favorite television currently on air. After all, if it is currently running and it could be cancelled, it deserves all the help it could get. Even then, it is hard for me to choose one. There are the ones on HBO like Game of Thrones or the Newsroom or the major networks like The Good Wife or Once Upon a Time. And then there is the British television that some of my fellow bloggers have already mentioned.  But since it is summer, I think I will discuss in more detail my favorite summer show - Suits. It's on USA, it's a lawyer show, but it's really good. Like all the things I love in my television, the characters are great, the dialogue is nice and snappy, and I just love the relationships between the characters. Plus there is great background music. It is definitely the best show USA is currently airing. And next episode, which comes on Thursday at 10, looks to be really really intense. Although there are tons of lawyer shows on television already, this one is good, focusing not on murders but corporate cases and the office politics and struggles within the own firm. It's just damn enjoyable television.

There is a still a lot I could mention, but I think I will leave with the explanation of those three. Although I don't watch a lot of science fiction, the ones I do usually mean hold an important place in my view of television. I hope there is something interesting to find from what I've noted and that my explanations push you into discovering something new.

Week of 7/15 - Breather Topic: Favorite Television Shows

Hi everyone! Since we've been discussing some more serious topics during these last few weeks, we're going to lighten this week up a smidge with a breather topic. This week, we'll be talking about our favorite TV shows and why we love them (even if it is sometimes a love/hate relationship.)  Maybe by the end of this week, we'll all have some new shows on our must-watch lists.

Thanks so much for reading, and feel free to respond to posts (part of what makes this fun is reading other people's thoughts, so feel free to jump in!)


      

Annoying Things That People Do

Okay, so this is my first actual post.  I can think of quite a lot of things that drive me crazy is specific situations, but most are just things that I find irksome based on the person or the mood I am in, so I don't think those really count.  However, there are a few things that I dislike in general.

Catcalls.  You know when you are at a band/music concert or a recital and people start yelling their friend's/family member's names?  Drives me completely nuts.  I have sat through way too many of these types of performances, and I don't understand why people insist on doing this.  I mean, I know you want to tell someone to do a good job, but is yelling their name right before they have to remember whatever it is they are performing really a good way to help them do well?  No, it isn't.  It probably distracts them because they hear someone say their name, and the automatic response to that is to look up and find the person who yelled, not to ignore them and concentrate on something else.  It would be so much more considerate to yell their name after they have performed, so that you aren't distracting them and they won't be stressed out trying to remember what to do with people yelling their names all the time.

That's all on that subject.  There is one other thing that I have recently found to be really obnoxious.  Now, I didn't realize this until the last year or so, but I don't understand about half of what comes out of college students' mouths.  They talk about something that they think is the best or funniest thing ever, and they I'm supposed to react in some appropriate way.  When I look at them blankly because I didn't understand the reference to whatever they were saying, or I didn't laugh at a joke I didn't understand (not that I laugh much out loud anyway...), they get offended or confused because I didn't think it was "the best thing ever."  Now, I say a lot of things that most regular (normal? aka, not as weird as I am) people don't understand, but if they look at me strangely I say "don't worry" or "you didn't need to understand."  I don't just stare at someone until they ask how that was an amusing joke/story/whatever.  I have a friend at college who just stares at me with a "that was so funny, right?" grin until I ask her what the point was, and she is shocked when I don't get it (and she's known me for two years now...).  So, yeah.  People expecting me to understand everything that comes out of their mouths when they have known me long enough to know better apparently really bug me.  I don't mean to write so much on that.

Anyway, I think this is where I am going to end this post.  I hope everyone has enjoyed reading everyone else's posts this week on the things that bug them.

4chan, on the other hand, is a completely different problem

When I think about things that bug me, many things come to mind: people who don't give straight answers, people who are indecisive, being purposefully vague, making shoddy arguments, people who'll lie to my face, 4chan...

But a lot of that just happens when I've been wronged. You want to know what I can't stand in a consistent manner that's plagued me since I was old enough to know what it was?

Grammar.

Grammar is wonderful. Grammar keeps words together and it makes them convey ideas. Grammar makes sentences clear and I'm going to list a few of the mistakes that drive me up the wall.

First off, less versus fewer. There are a lot of people that argue that this distinction is stupid, that there are no corresponding words for "more," and that the world hasn't fallen apart yet. I think these people are wrong. Let me point you to the sentence "There are more passionate people on the internet." I'm inclined to think it means more people who are passionate, but you really can't tell. Now let's try "There are fewer passionate people on the internet." Ah, there we go. We're clearly talking about the number of people. Clear. Concise. "There are less passionate people on the internet" talks about the overall level of passion. People on the internet are less passionate than people you find in real life. Still clear, but a completely different message.

The next thing that bothers me is elliptical clauses and how frequently they are misused. Elliptical clauses are clauses with an implied ellipsis (A series of three dots [...] is called an ellipsis, in case you didn't know). They're used in statements like "She's prettier than me," except that statement is wrong. She is pretty in a greater degree than...me. Her prettiness is greater than me. It's like trying to compare two completely different things. I'm not a level of attractiveness, so you can't compare them. You may think the meaning is still clear, but hold on. The correct thing to say is "She's prettier than I" because the implied ellipsis replaces the word "am." She's prettier than I [am].


This frequently is important in statements with objects. "He likes her more than me" means "He likes her more than [he likes] me," while "He likes her more than I" means "He likes her more than I [like her]." We can figure out where the rest of the sentence is if you put in the correct subject/object, but putting in the wrong one makes the sentence not actually make sense. In some situations, it's still clear, but in many, misusing this is conveying the completely incorrect message.


Another thing that drives me insane is phrases like "PIN number," "ATM machine" and "HIV virus." As I've said before, grammar is a tool that helps words convey information; the problem is that the information this conveys is that you don't know what you're saying, that you are ignorant of the words coming out of your mouth and what they mean, to the point where you don't understand that saying "Personal identification number number" is wrong. It makes it seem like you don't know what they stand for but you're saying them anyway, and that's terrible. You don't just start calling people loquacious before you know what the word means and you shouldn't say "ATM" without knowing it doesn't need to be followed by the word "machine."

In short, grammar is a tool that helps makes language understood and that makes it wonderful. Obviously, once you learn how to use a tool, you can start experimenting. The phrase "I don't sports" does not make grammatical sense, but effectively conveys your complete bewilderment by sports by implying you don't even know how to use the word. It conveys an idea and that's wonderful, but at the same time, you wouldn't want to throw out a phrase like that if you're teaching an ESOL class. The whole point of language is to convey ideas and when people don't do that clearly, it just infuriates me.

Which, now than I think about it, is exactly what bothers me about indecisiveness, being vague, lying, and, in a roundabout way, making shoddy arguments. Maybe it does tie together after all.

Those Fickle Feelings

When I started making a mental list of the things that bug me, I came to the realization that things only tend to bug me if I think that the intentions behind the action were sketchy.  That, and things also tend to bug me when I’m stressed out or just plain peeved about something (usually something that is entirely unrelated).  Also, past experiences with the person in question also tend to effect whether what they do or say bugs me or not.  I realize that this is kind of fickle, and yet totally typical. 

I'll keep this short and sweet by saying that I can't think of any specific actions that do or don't bug me regardless of my mood and past experiences.  These two factors heavily influence what I think about an individual's intentions.   I've found that it's pretty easy to convince myself of someone's good intentions if all is well and I'm in a good mood.  And on the flip side, I often have a very difficult time convincing myself of someone's good intentions if I'm stressed out or in a bad mood.  So, I'm obviously more likely to get bugged by things on days like that, even little things like someone letting a door close and lock when I was just behind them.  That being said, I'm usually a pretty positive person.  I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and not let things annoy me.  Even when I'm stressed out, I try my best to not get bugged by things that I can do absolutely nothing about.  Well... it's a goal anyway.                      

  

     

Mosquito Bites, and Other Annoyances

This post has the potential to be fairly lengthy, but for the sake of maintaining interest (and, also, to follow in the precedent set by our previous two bloggers), I'll try to keep it at a manageable length.  ... What -is- a manageable length, anyway?  Whatever, I'm going to write until it doesn't flow easily.

Inconsiderate people.  This is something that I run into, more often than not, at work, and it annoys the hell out of me.  First and foremost on this point are the people who won't get off their phone while I'm trying to help them.  Some people (most people, really) will at least pull the phone away to talk to me, albeit briefly, and some even apologize after they get off the phone.  But there are some people who will stay on their phone and carry on a conversation the entire time they're in the store, and that's just fucking rude.  Particularly if there are other people waiting in line, have the decency to either tell the person "I'll call you back", or step away and carry your conversation on in a place where you won't be holding up (or annoying) other people.  I had a woman stay on her phone earlier today, actually, and she got annoyed at me while I was trying to ring her up.  Why did she get annoyed?  Because I had to ask her things at least twice, because she wasn't listening to me the first time.  Some questions aren't vital - I don't think I offered her a bag for her purchase, and I'm fairly certain I didn't ask her if she found everything alright.  But I do need to know how you want to pay for things, and if you write "See ID" on the back of your credit card, you shouldn't get angry at someone asking for your ID.  ... But, yeah, inconsiderate people piss me off.

Next on the immediate train of thought are the annoying people that want to take up your time talking about... well, anything.  Now, don't get me wrong, if I'm talking to someone that I appreciate and/or have a good rapport with, and the topic is interesting, I'll talk (... well, listen moreso than talk, typically) for ages.  But if you're just spouting random stuff about things that I have no interest in whatsoever, and especially if you're doing it while I'm busy?  We're going to have problems.  No, I don't want to hear about your new strategy for Magic: The Gathering.  No, I don't want to see a YouTube clip of something that you might find amusing.  No, I don't want to talk about how hard it is to find a job and why you'd be perfect to work at Gamestop (though, for some people, those stories are a source of amusement).  I honestly don't think it's -that- hard to tell whether someone's genuinely interested in things that you're saying, or whether they're just acknowledging you for the sake of not being outright rude.  I just wish that more people would take the hint. Most recent case in point?  The cashier in the food court at Target wasted five minutes of my break (... Hey, when you only have half an hour to eat and chill out, every minute is sacred, okay?) with some monologue about... you know what?  I don't even know.  That's how uninterested I was - I didn't even retain a shred of what he was talking about.  But he held up his own line to have that conversation with me.  Why?  I don't know.  I just wanted to eat.

... Both of my things so far are about other people.  I'm not sure whether I'm surprised by that or not, and whether or that's a bad (or telling) thing.  I'm gonna try to get on a different level, though - dishonesty, in general, really bugs me.  Going hand in hand with that would be unethical behavior.  When the two of them combine... ... I want to punch something.  Hell, sometimes I want to punch things even if it's one or the other.  Dishonesty, to me, shows a complete lack of respect for the person you're talking to, and that's frustrating.  I've been the recipient of dishonesty a fair bit over the past year-ish, and it's mostly come from people that I am (was?) close to.  This, as you would expect, makes it worse.  It wouldn't be as impactful if I didn't find out about it, but I always do, one way or another.  I don't understand why you would blatantly lie to something about... well, anything.  Not in a personal sense, anyway.  Some people classify "withholding information" as being better than lying.  I don't agree.  In a way, I think it's almost worse, because it really just seems like lying that you're trying to justify to make yourself feel better.  You might do it with good intentions, but I feel that if there's something that you feel -should- be shared, you should just do it.

Inconsistency in food.  Yeah, I know, that's kind of a 180, huh?  Pizza is something that I eat more of than I should (though I've gotten a lot better about that lately!).  One of the most common things for me to do, if I'm home and don't feeling like either cooking or going out, is to order Domino's.  There are some nights where the order is fantastic, and everything tastes delicious... and there are some nights where it doesn't taste nearly as good.  I understand that this is a fairly minor problem, and that it's to be expected, almost, but it still bugs me when I'm expecting one flavor profile and I get something different.

I've got more that I can write about, but I think I've hit my limit of "easy stuff", so I'm gonna wrap it up here.  Happy rest of the Breather Week, everyone, and welcome, Laura.

Now And Then I Think Of All The Times You Screwed Me Over

I should preface this by saying that I'm a pretty particular person. Even a brief summary of the biggest things that bug me would take thousands of words to scratch the surface of, and I'm aware of the fact that I'm a bit unreasonable. That being said, I'm going to address what I think is the biggest and most appropriate of my pet peeves: screwing other people over by being lazy.

I'm not the best student. It's not all that uncommon for me to just blow off assignments because of stress or fail to study for a test because I'm worried about other things or to settle for a B when I could work a bit harder and pull off an A. I'm prone to doing things that only affect me in a half-assed manner. That's a personal flaw, and it's one that I can accept for myself.

What I can't tolerate is when people take that kind of attitude with any kind of work or project that affects other people. I had a lab group for first semester biology last year that did this. We would set deadlines for everyone to submit their portions, and no one else would adhere to them. I'd always be the one to compile the work, and there were multiple occasions where other people completely failed to prepare their sections, and I would have to redo them at the last minute. The result was usually a shoddy report that we ended up with grades in the 70s for. I got an 88.5% in that class, and about 80% of the grade was group work. I know that I would've had an A in that class if it weren't for that group, because I nailed everything that I did on my own.

I can't understand why anyone would ever screw other people over that badly. Even if the task at hand isn't particularly important to me, if it affects other people at all, then you can bet that I will put 110% in on it. If you agree to do a task that other people are depending on you for, then you should fucking do it. It's not complicated. It's just common courtesy. If you want to be the kind of person that does shoddy work, that's fine. If you're the only person being affected by your poor choices, then that's your business, but don't make that someone else's problem.

Wow, that was a lot more intense and rage-y than a breather week should be. Can't wait to see what John has to say tomorrow. Also, for anyone that didn't notice, we have a new regular contributor this week! Randi's gonna be an occasional contributor now, and the fantastic Laura has taken over for her.

Laziness (or maybe Ignorance)

My biggest pet peeve could be put under the umbrella concept of laziness. I like doing research; I don't like taking stances on topics because I think there is always more information out there that I could consume. If something is in front of you needs to be done, do it. Basically get your shit done, don't be ignorant and I will not be annoyed with you. Perhaps it is not even really laziness, but pure ignorance that bothers me. Or just not thinking about other people around you. Asshole drivers, family members that don't do things until you have to do them, people with opinions that are not well researched. I am a rather logical creature in real life (I amend with real life because games and fictional stories appeal to my emotional side), and I just wish people would take the time to actually try to observe and understand the world.

I like to think I am good at researching. If you can Google well the world is open to you. This post is brief because I really do not have much else to say. I have told you what bugs me. Really, I am a rather content being; very little pushes me to extreme annoyance. It really is ignorance/laziness along with the times that people's actions really bother me (although those are more like specific instances and therefore not really something I would describe under this topic). It is general because I never really like using specifics when talking about myself. I mean, it's general and I could rant on about more specific areas within it, but no, I do not feel like addressing that. So I shall leave it at that and wonder what it reveals to you. 

Week of 6/17 - Breather Topic: Things That Bug You

Hello Everyone!

This is going to be a short post, since the topic is kind of self-explanatory.  This week's topic is things that bug you.  I'm sure everyone has a huge list of things that drive them crazy!  They can be big things or small things, since there is probably a mix that bug everyone.  I definitely can't wait to hear about everyone's pet peeves this week.

Kathleen will start us off tomorrow, and I will come back on Saturday to finish the topic off.

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Yes, I just keyboard smashed for my title. Because, as most of us know, that is the universal sign of a fangirl. This is something I tend to avoid doing, but let's face it, we all do once in a while.

I grew up on a mix of P!nk’s Missundaztood, Bowling for Soup’s A Hangover You Don’t Deserve, and everything Shania Twain. Not to mention an abundance of Jimmy Buffet, Uncle Kracker and Aaron Carter. Both my parents are from Kentucky, so country music was always present and pop was just a normal thing for us. How this affected my current taste in music? I’m not sure.

I will say that I still love most of those bands/performers. But, nowadays, I don’t really listen to them as much as I do different genres. My taste in music has been described to me as “emo alternative” as well as “acoustic indie crap” (thanks for your opinion Brandon) but I don’t agree with either of those to sum it all up. I really like a mixture of different genres. I usually stick to country, pop, “alternative”, and the like. I don’t like the term alternative, or even pop for that matter, because neither are stationary descriptions of music, but it’s the best way to get the point across here.

My top twenty five songs in iTunes consists of a mix of: All Time Low, Bowling for Soup, Mayday Parade, Demi Lovato (don’t judge), Felicia Day & Neil Patrick Harris, Taylor Swift, Paramore, and Katy Perry. I will admit, that’s quite a mix. But, I really like all of that and it makes complete sense to me.

I like listening to complete albums at a time, sometimes even a single song repeatedly. That’s just how I like it and having Sick Little Games by All Time Low at number one does not surprise me, because I will play it five or six times in a sitting.

Some of my favorite bands/singers that aren’t in that group include (but are not limited to): Barenaked Ladies, Cartel, Dixie Chicks, Evaescence, Flyleaf, Green Day, He is We, Automatic Loveletter, Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga, Miranda Lambert, No Freaking Doubt, P!nk, Panic! At The Disco, along with an assortment of YouTube-inality and musical theater music. And by musical theater music, I really mean things of the musically theme. Things like: Once More With Feeling, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, RENT, Wicked, Chicago, etc.

I wanted to pick on group to talk about most, and for that I chose Rise Against. (Mainly because, at the moment, they are definitely number one on my list) I recently went to a concert of theirs and ADTR’s (in February) and it was… amazing to say the least. It’s really stupid, but I think I agree with Kelsey that the way lyrics hit me, I feel like most of the time I couldn’t relate more.

While this isn’t always the case with Rise Against’s music, I feel like there is always something there that makes it easy for anyone who knows the words to sing along and really mean what they are saying. When we all sang out the words to songs like Swing Life Away, Collapse, The Good Left Undone, Audience of One, Make It Stop, and wrapping things up with a song like Savior, you could hear how much everyone was pouring their hearts into those songs. It was insane. I don’t think I’ve had a better experience in my life.

And I think that’s why I like Rise Against so much, because no matter what they’re talking about, they are always so passionate. And, under most circumstances, someone’s passion can make or break a band for me. I think if I was going to fangirl about any band, it would be that one, for sure.

I want to say how sorry I am for my late posting and I hope you guys can forgive me. In all honesty, I just forgot. And I would have posted this earlier today, but between school, picking up Toby, driving all over creation, and still having a history project to do, I just now got around to it. I hope you guys had a wonderful Thursday (along with a great Memorial Day weekend) and I cannot wait to see what Kathleen has to say tomorrow. Cheer up everyone, it’s almost Friday!