You know, on any given day when I’m reading a website, something for pleasure or editing, I can read a sentence wrong. Who knows why, but maybe I’ll switch words around or miss words that are there (the other day I substituted “merge” for “manage” in my head). Or maybe it’s not a sentence I’ve read wrong, but a mention of something, that I missed or read but didn’t register. When in edits, I’ll leave a comment for the author, requesting a fix or asking a question. When I’m wrong or I’ve missed it, they’re happy to point it out to me or go…huh? They like it when they can do that and I’m okay with it. It actually happens a time or two every manuscript. I strive for perfection *snort* but realize I’m just as human as the next person. I’m thinking I’ll hit perfection right around the same time I hit the lottery. And my guess is the lottery will come first. Wouldn’t that rock?
But there’s a new visitor to my blog who wants you all to be warned. So, uh, consider yourself warned. And you know, I totally feel her pain about that darn comment box causing her errors. I’m pretty sure the WordPress Dashboard is to blame for all of my blog errors too. Lesson of the day: It’s always someone (or something) else’s fault when it comes to your own errors. Everyone else is just doing a shoddy job. Unfortunately, you won’t get to experience the full joys of her critique of my “cute Web site” because she wrote it to me in a long and…um…interesting email that I don’t have permission to share with the world (you see how I can be discrete and all? Can I have a cookie?) but she does think you’re all paying me for my advice. Could someone direct me to the account that’s being deposited in, because I need a new wardrobe. Who needs the lottery?
But here’s my warning for you all: If you expected perfection from my BLOG you probably ought to seek another one to read. This is my personal blog, my stream of consciousness. It’s not the Samhain website or a blog I get paid to maintain or a manuscript I edited (though those often have errors too-even with three or four or ten people reading them–and THOSE are embarrassing). It’s my fun place. If you suck the fun out of it (or try to, at least) I will get cranky. Yeah, maybe I should take the high road but sometimes that’s just not possible, that whole perfection thing again. Maybe I should try harder. But in the meantime, I run spellcheck as I type (thank you, Firefox) but other than that I don’t sweat the missing words, misplaced punctuation or the misused English. The other day my friend Erin commented in a post about something I misused. She’s my friend, she can do that. We go out drinking together. If you can’t do it in a fun way, and if it’s unlikely we will ever go out drinking together, you don’t have that right.
And here’s the other thing: The only person allowed to be pretentious here with any regularity is me. Because it’s my blog. The rest of you with inclinations to be pretentious. Or pompous. Or any other “p” word. You all have the option of not reading my blog, and of going to your own blogs and acting however you like (but try not to land on Karen Scott’s “Behaving Badly” list because that’s just something you want to avoid at all costs. I have nightmares about it). I’ll make exceptions for visiting dignitaries and drinking buddies, but that’s it. Unless you want to help pay my hosting fees. Then we’ll talk.
Well… at least she thought your website was cute! :hide:
I think even with the warning it’s safe to say I’ll be back. I’m sure others will too. I come for the content, not to peruse the grammar and punctation.
:muahaha:
I “heat” you, Angie. Let’s do drinks soon! :boobie:
Oh, and that “Expert Editor” person… she’s a :fuckwit:
:clap: Bravo! I think this blog post was the “high road”. You could have told her to kiss your ass :wiggle: Oh, wait I mean your gluteus maximus
Awwww how sweet of Princess Punctuation to stop by and help you out. She shouldn’t have! She really, really shouldn’t have!
All things considered, I’m declining the advice and I’m sticking it out for the long haul. I :heart: your blog, misspellings, grammatical errors, and all! :bat:
Written with style and grace… I’m still proud of you.
I agree with Michele’s comment on content. Like you say at Samhain, it’s all about the story. If editors dumped writers over spelling errors and grammar mistakes, Fitzgerald would never have been published and that would’ve been a crime against humanity.
Poo for “Marilyn”, if that’s her real name. She can’t has cheezburger!
Some people can be so anal…
I will have to buy you a drink at RT now just in case I feel the urge to correct you. By the way I use the Spell Check in my Google tool bar on the blogs works pretty damn good
What can you say really? I don’t know if I can imagine the time and energy it takes to swan around the internet policing grammar. But well, I have, um, a life. Oh and an editor who kicks ass.
I am torn between the urge to stick out my tongue and snicker. In those cases, I generally go with snickering
She was a tool. And wrong.
You must have turned her down for a job.
Wow…I know for a fact there are tons of errors on my blog. I try to catch them all, but I know it doesn’t happen.
I just hope she isn’t an author :whip2:
I agree with Laura. I’ll bet she was one of the many who applied for those editor positions, and it’s just sour grapes. I always end up with the strangest errors in my blog posts. Why? Lack of attention. I agree. It’s just a blog. If I had to worry about grammar in it as much as I do in my writing I wouldn’t do it! I’d be much to worried and obsessed about mistakes.
I’ll take your blog with the occasional grammatical error over a stick up the booty blog with perfect sentence diagramming any day!
We’re supposed to spell check our blog posts?
:arsed:
Isn’t it bad enough I have to do that with my books? :giggle:
Who has time to police blog posts? Geez. Someone needs a life.
She’s a :loser: . That’s all I have to say!
And the moral of the story…
DON’T FEED THE TROLLS!
:exactly:
Hee. Shannon told me this morning I used the wrong form of discrete. Should be discreet. She wanted to know if SHE got a cookie. :wiggle:
And I’m glad to know I haven’t lost all my blog readers. I’d be lonely
Honey, you were just dying to leave that troll comment, weren’t you?
I can haz cookie now?
:neenerghost:
Can we be pungent?
Haven’t been blogging much for a while and popped in to find this.
LOL that is ridiculous- :wiggle:
PS Hubby and I FINALLY watched that Pirate movie you recommended a while back Thanks :giggle:
Ohh, you did? Did you “like” it? Isn’t the humor too campy and fun, so you can’t help but laugh and think it’s kind of good? See, hope my husband doesn’t read this, now he’ll want to pop it in *smirk* :giggle:
Be careful with your grammar there. It has a double entendre that you might have missed.
:evilha:
Oh, in case I confused anyone:
double-entendre
(dub-uhl-ahn-TAHN-druh; dooh-blahnn-TAHNN-druh) A word or expression that has two different meanings (in French, double-entendre means “double meaning”), one of which is often bawdy or indelicate. A double-entendre is found in this sentence: “A nudist camp is simply a place where men and women meet to air their differences.”
Okay now that is just funny.
:pirate:
To be clear, the dubl-en-tahn-druh was on purpose, just for my husband ‘cuz I know he’s a perv like that :bat:
I agree with the above! You probably turned her down for a job! Since she wants to police the grammar, she would probably start policing the content. All of the books would be fit for 5 year olds but grammatically correct.
:dumbass:
*thinks she knows the pirate movie being referred to because her hubby made her rent it* :muahaha:
Hey, we own that Pirate movie, LOL! I thought it was pretty funny in parts. Although the lit candle scene? Ew.
I struggle with the correctness thing all the time. In my professional writing, I’m extremely anal about proper grammar, spelling, word choices, etc. Because I do really think that professional writing should reflect a high level of conscientiousness about those things. But in my online commenting, blogging, and reviewing, I’m much more casual, and while that so often feels like a betrayal of my own training, I’m too damn lazy to spend even MORE time making it perfect. And sometimes my own personal blogging bar is set just a few notches above illiterate.