No Grad School For Me

Movie Reviews

So I guess when I get a postgrad degree I'll have to start using fancier words on my blog. I'll probably have to stop writing about Etsy finds and celebrity crushes too. Worth it? Maybe, maybe not.

To the N to the J

I'm going up to New Jersey tonight so I can be there for Andrea's baby shower this weekend. I am really excited to get out of the house for a few days. No one ever told me before I was a mom that one day a 5 hour car drive all alone would be a sought-after luxury. But it really is. I've got my iPod loaded up with podcasts and music. I can't wait. Oh, and I'm excited to see Andrea too.

A couple of items of business before I leave: FIRST, Arianne is having another giveaway on her blog. And it involves CHOCOLATE! Go check it out.

Also: I have another new favorite blog. By the creators of I Can Has Cheezburger comes FAIL Blog, with photos and videos of spectacular failures. (Just a warning that some of them are kind of crude. What can I say, I like that sort of thing.) Some of my recent favorites:

So It Isn't Just Me

I had a pretty lame 4th of July. I was sick (Sawyer gave me a whopper of a cold - honestly, who gets colds in JULY?!) and it rained all afternoon and evening so we didn't go to the fireworks. In fact, Eric and Sawyer were both in bed before 9 p.m. So I watched the fireworks on TV and perused blogs about improper spelling and punctuation. Which is actually a lot more fun than it sounds. Here are a few I found:

Red Pen, Inc. Fulfill your innermost desire of attacking all those mistakes with a red pen! An English teacher's paradise (or nightmare, depending on how you look at it.)

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks More scare quotes than a classic Chris Farley sketch.

Apostrophism Dedicated to the rampant misuse of apostrophes.

Apostrophe Abuse It's an epidemic! Literally!

Literally, A Web Log Tracking the overuse of the word "literally."

lowercase L A study of handmade signs in which all of the letters are uppercase except for L. Seriously. It happens more than you'd think!

Signs of the Times Incorrect and amusing signs.

Say What? Incorrect, amusing, and just plain weird.

Spell it rite!

This post is inspired by Arianne's lament about bad grammar. I hate bad spelling. Intellectually I do realize that spelling "correctly" is an artificial construction, goes against the nature of language itself which is flowing, evolving, organic, etc. and that the important thing is the ability to communicate. And I certainly make mistakes myself. But man, I hate it when I see stuff misspelled! It produces a visceral reaction in me not unlike the feeling I get when I see myself in a photo wearing a bathing suit.

A few of the worst:

Its vs. it's. "It's" means "it is". "Its" indicates a possessive. It can be confusing because usually adding 's to the end of a noun makes a possessive. But trust me, it doesn't work that way with "it."
"It's too bad that the plane lost its engine."
Closely related to this one are your/you're and their/there/they're.

Per se. I see this one all the time on message boards as "per say". AHHH!

Voilà. I had a boss in college that would say (and write) "Walla!" with a flourish. And each time, the Académie Française woke up in a cold sweat. In case you were wondering, "voilà" is French for "there it is."

Affect vs. effect. Affect is a verb, effect is a noun.
"How does bad spelling affect me?" "Bad spelling has an annoying effect on me."

Family names in the plural. You don't ever use an apostrophe to make a plural. This includes proper names. So the Griffith family would be "the Griffiths." Not "the Griffith's."

I'm not saying that everyone has to be a spelling genius, or that if you can't spell you're stupid - I think naturally good spellers are pretty rare. But that's what spell checkers and dictionaries are for! Use'em, people. Being a good speller makes you sound more intelligent, and it could even get you a better job.

What are some of your spelling/grammar pet peeves?