How many spaces belong after a period?
General | January 17, 2010
You can add this to the “Things That Only Meg Would Care About Because She’s So Obsessive-Compulsive” list, but I have a question for you all: When you type, do you put two spaces or one after periods?
I’ve always single-spaced. I’m not sure where all the people who double-space learned to do that, because I’ve never come across a teacher who’s said, “Okay, kids, make sure you all hit the space bar twice after every period you type.” In fact, I generally find double spaces after periods distracting — I never notice single spaces, but with double spaces, my eyes somehow automatically focus on the blank spaces on the page. This happens especially with those old, early twentieth-century scholarly books that have entire oceans of space in between every sentence. Sometimes I notice it online and in emails, too. Distracting. (Ohmygod, see how much space there is between “too.” and “Distracting”? This is obviously a very big deal.)
You know what else is distracting? Yeah, better get back to my reading. Bye!
Busy buzzing bumbleme
General | January 15, 2010
The title makes perfect sense, okay? Y’know, busy buzzing bumblebee, but bumbleme instead because I’m a busy bumbling fool? I tried. Not very hard, but I still tried.
I’ve only spent two weeks back on campus, but it feels like so much more, simply because there’s always so much going on, whereas at home I vegetate. I’m taking five classes this quarter (normal courseload is four, sometimes three), and it hasn’t been too much work, but it’s obviously not a cakewalk, either. And as you may know, I’ve been trying to work hard and go to sleep before midnight on school nights, and so far it’s working splendidly. I don’t feel tired anymore, I don’t skip classes to sleep, and I’m generally in a much better mood. I’m content with having to work hard enough toward balancing a social life and extracurriculars along with a job while trying to pull up my GPA that this has been the first day where I’ve really been able to breathe. Really.
The only thing that has been bothering me lately is whether or not to officially join my sorority. I have several more weeks before I need to officially decide, so I think the best solution right now is to give it time, but I don’t know how fair or how appropriate it would be to hang out with the sorority and steal tons of food and end up more or less saying, “Oh well, I didn’t really like you guys that much anyway.” There is a point where it’d be much too late to back out, and there’s also a point before that where it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to back out, even though financial reasons are a very good excuse, but I’m just so torn and unsure. When I went through recruitment, I wasn’t like “ohmagawd, I haaave to be in a sorority,” but now I kind of want to be in one, but the one that gave me a bid wasn’t my first choice. I’m definitely not going to re-rush, because that hardly ever works for sophomores and the process is not exactly fun, but I don’t want to spend all my time at my chapter wishing I were in a different sorority. I still do want to get to know all my new sisters, though, and having yet another group of friends and an eventual network of connections would be a definite plus. I just don’t know whether I like the chapter at my university enough to justify spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars a quarter on it.
I hate money. Or rather, the lack of it, but in general I’m not a fan of everything money has come to symbolize.
Writing containing obvious grammatical errors does not pique my interest; it fazes me
Grammar | January 1, 2010
Notice how the title does not read like this: “Writing containing obvious grammatical errors does not peak my interest; it phases me.” Aurrghhh!
According to dictionary.com:
peak (v): to attain a peak of activity, development, popularity, etc.
pique (v): (1) to affect with sharp irritation and resentment, esp. by some wound to pride (2) to excite, to arouse an emotion or provoke to action
PIQUE is the word you’re looking for if you want to say something piques your interest. PEAK is acceptable if you want to say “My interest peaked when…” PEEK means “to look or glance quickly or furtively, esp. through a small opening or from a concealed location.”
phase (v): (1) to put in phase; synchronize: to phase one mechanism with another (2) to schedule or order so as to be available when or as needed
faze (v): to cause to be disturbed or disconcerted; daunt
FAZE is usually the word you’re looking for if you want to say something does or does not faze you. “___ doesn’t phase me” is atrocious.
Disclaimer: This is not a rant; it’s a friendly public service announcement because I’ve seen far too many of these mistakes lately. If even one person learns something from this post, I’ll be extremely happy. I only claim to be decent, not perfect, at grammar; please correct my errors if you ever see any.
Side note: I hesitated before posting this entry because I thought maybe I should post something more momentous and ~meaningful~, but a new year or a new decade really isn’t that big of a deal, right? Time passes the same way it’s always passed. New Year’s Eve was the day before today, just like Sept. 12 is the day before Sept. 13. Speaking of NYE, I cannot stop looking at pictures from last night. Needless to say, it was a good time.