Category: FYI

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It’s the Little Things #8,492

#sigh

*heh*

OK, now that that is out of my system. . .

Some of the absolutely stupid things some writers do baffle me, but at least I have found a way to be amused by them.

Recent “Dan Brown wannabe” book where the writer apparently felt even less desire to get anything right about any of his premises than Brown typically does went Brown even further by finding… unique ways to misuse plain English ( for example, misused “infallible” when groping for “unflappable”), have an “expert pilot” grab the “steering column”. . . on a helicopter whose propellers were making enough noise to keep the writer from thinking, “Maybe I ought to do my homework on helicopters before making a fool of myself in print.”

Hilarious.

Another? How about a fun-filled romp through a zombie apocalypse book filled with things like super-competent, manly-man hero filling up a late-model vehicle with gas and then “topping it off” after the pump clicks off. “Manly-men” know that can harm the vehicle’s evap system, cause the vehicle to run poorly, and even lead to hard starting or failure to start. In today’s world, it’s an easy fix (though sometimes complicated) to repair an evap system. . . IF one can narrow down the part or parts damaged by topping off, and costs can range from $10-$200, depending on several factors. In a zombie apocalypse scenario, having to repair the evap system on one’s go-to vehicle is sub-optimal.

But that’s OK, cos the book was chock full of this kind of stupid stuff, so reading it as a farce (OK, OK, skimming it, cos it wasn’t really worth reading *heh*) was. . . OK.

The problem with all these hilariously stupid books–not bad or “suckitudinous” books, just stupidly executed–is that the errors of logic, fact, grammar, punctuation, and usage they embody are just reinforced in whatever uncritical readers glom onto them. *sigh* There were once literate editorial staffs at tradpub houses to correct some of these problems, but even there, the quality of literacy in tradpub editorial staffs has waned.

Oh, well. At least I can laugh at and mock such things, and such amusement is worth something as the world generally goes to hell in a handbasket.

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Some of My Favorite Things/Cutting Remarks

I’m not much of a “gun guy,” though I like ’em and even have open and conceal-carried handguns, and gone for lovely “walks in the deer woods” with a Model 1895 Winchester, etc. No, I find myself more drawn to knives, and in fact, I don’t really know exactly how many knives I own. . .

I usually walk around with something like five to eight knives on my person, depending on where I’m heading and what I plan for my day. All of them serve slightly different purposes, though some do overlap a bit. Right now, the number is nine, because I just noticed an old K-Bar pen knife sitting in a coffee cup (with a bunch of other small folders) just within reach of my right hand. Now, I don’t find much need for a pen knife (I don’t do a lot of writing with a quill pen, and I usually use other knives to trim/sharpen carpenter and other pencils, etc.), picked it up and appreciated its feel in my hand, so. . .

Yeh, now and again, I dig through my collection for some of my favs. In front of me, above the keyboard drawer on my desk proper, for example is a 65-year-old Schreade-Walden H-15 “pilot’s survival knife” a great uncle of mine used as a hunting knife for about 35 years, before it was passed to me. Nice knife, shaped along the lines of a K-Bar my Estimable Son-in-Law gave me a few years ago, just a couple of inches shorter. And yes, that K-Bar is another fav knife, as is another gift from him, a sweet, very small Spyderco Elmax “Squeak Sprint”. VERY nice lil knife! Exquisitely engineered down to the finest detail of ergonomics, fitting my hand just perfectly. Very well thought out finger and thumb choils for example.

Ah, but I could go on all day cataloging “favorites,” because so many are, for different reasons. The three everyday carry knives from Son&Heir that are on my person right now, for example, are favs and find daily use, as does the belt folder from my Wonder Woman that now sits on my belt at my left side and the Swiss Army knife in my righthand pocket that is also from her (its scissors “blade” is its most-used feature), and on and on and on. . .

And then there are my “car knives” which collection includes a fancy-schmancy multi-tool. . .

Yeh, I like–and use!–knives a lot. Such nifty, multi-multi-multi-purpose tools.

Continue reading “Some of My Favorite Things/Cutting Remarks”

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Asked and Answered. Move on.

I wear a scanable medalert bracelet with online med info that includes my allergies. Listed FIRST under “allergies” is my serious adverse reaction to being asked the same question more than once. When asked the same question a second (or third or. . . ) time, I tend to answer, “Asked and answered,” and let ’em look it up. I have no patience with lazy, arrogant, insulting asshats with nothing better to do than waste my time.

I answer cops the same way when asked the same question more than once: “Asked and answered. Move on.” (Last time I did so it was the local chief of police. He had illegitimately stopped me for a traffic infraction I had not committed. I don’t take their crap. I declined his offer of a ticket and moved him along. Seriously. Coincidentally, he resigned two weeks later. . . Yeh, seriously.)

I am too old to take crap from anyone. Period.

Forget “civil disobedience.” Such disrespectful behavior from people who think of themselves as authorities calls for less than civil disobedience. Outright disrespect returned for disrespect from people who are NOT one’s “betters.”

But maybe that’s just me. And maybe I should work on that. . . but I doubt I will.

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Ani-mules

Current situation with :ani-mules” here at twc central is not ideal, but it’s liveable. My Wonder Woman and I do not currently have a dog, but we have access to Son&Heir’s Wonderpup for canine companionship. We do have three cats, now, all via different processes.

Olde Fella (not his name) was “encouraged” into our family well over a decade ago by Lovely Daughter, who argued that the stray kitten who wandered up onto our front porch deserved a good home. With us. OK. He’s a bit cranky from time to time now, but he’s the one who’s also a real lap cat, and he’s otherwise very, very well-behaved, so win for him and win for us.

The Olde Fella has always kinda sought out my lap/company, and so my Wonder Woman felt a need for a cat of her own. Found one in a litter being offered by one of her students. Purty cat. LOVES my lap, too… but only when I’m sitting on the toilet. Otherwise, she’s very, very attached to my Wonder woman.

Latest addition, Pixel, was featured here recently. She’s a peach, but NOT a lap cat. Loves being petted ONLY on her own terms. Generally finds a place to nap/groom about 1/2 way between my Wonder Woman and me. *heh* Given the circumstances whereby she entered our lives, we have more intense investment in a short time with her than with the others, though the long term investment is, of course, less. So far.

Ideally, we’d have room/land for a few dogs, horses, small livestock, etc., but we’ll make do with these three, I imagine.

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On “To Trust or Not to Trust?”

On the Trust/Don’t Trust Scale, one thing to weigh is whether a person

1. Doesn’t like animals and
2. Whether animals dislike that person.

Usually, they are one and the same. Especially watch out for people who do not like dogs. They have no heart. People who do not like cats are often (usually, in my experience) control freaks and manipulators.

People who don’t like horses are usually just ignorant. *heh* If they refuse to learn better, they are willfully ignorant, and willful ignorance is elective stupidity. Such persons should only be trusted with small things. Very small things. 😉

Etc.

(Frankly, I even have problems with folks who don’t like skunks. 😉 )

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Globull Warmening Redux

Got up late this A.M., so it was already hotter ‘n fire on our front porch. -3°F. Means it’s probably somewhere around 10°F colder in the bottoms, if the usual pattern holds Not driving (yeh, driving, not walking) a mile in these conditions (and my conditioning *heh*) to find out, either. Refrozen streets unfunny, what with the 30° hill with hairpin turn just to get off our street (although I do expect the similar incline/hairpin at the light on the highway to be clear, since it was yesterday).

Globull Warmening.

And yes, I do know the differences between “weather” and “climate,” but since the CACAs (acolytes of the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Alarmism) misuse weather events ALL the time as arguments (as stupid as they may be–“Cold weather means more Globull Warmening!” #gagamaggot), what’s good for the goose and all that.

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This Is Rich

[With a tip o’ the tam to Ori Pomerantz, via John Lambshead]

Soldier Decapitates ISIS Thug with Spade in Afganistan

This is rich on so many levels. The primary story, sure: prevailing against odds with whatever weapon is to hand: great. But. . .

Calling a spade an “espada,” so to speak, and making it so: really rich.

spade?espada I like the etymology, too: [Gr] spatha? [L] spathan? [Sp] espada, especially since “spade” itself also shares some of those roots (pre-grecian). Using a spade as a [Middle Dutch] “spade” (sword) seems particularly fitting for a British subject, since the House of Hanover has roots in nationalities where “spade” also once meant “sword.”

Then again, root words for “spade” also meant “spoon” or “paddle” at times, in different languages, so “paddling” the ISIS thug to death with a “spoon” also makes me smile.

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Missed It? Here.

Interesting lil tidbit that comes up every “supermoon” (a term I had never read until 2017, strangely enough) is “perigee-syzygy” (a particular alignment of three celestial bodies–a term I had read/heard long ago). It refers to the particular Earth-Moon system condition that results in what is apparently called a “supermoon.” *shrugs* I find “perigee-syzygy” more congenial and felicitous as a term.

BTW, you can try again on the 31st, if that’s a thing for you.

Continue reading “Missed It? Here.”

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Writers Who. . . Shouldn’t

Writers who have not bothered to become literate and who are too cheap, stupid, or stuck on the lefthand side of the Dunning-Kruger Curve to obtain the services of a literate editorial staff just should not write. No, seriously. Wading through knee-high sewage to get to the occasional flower worth plucking gets old.

Oh, the signs are Legion, but I’m sure you know them well. Here are but a few:

1. execrable grammar and punctuation

  •  inability to use tenses properly
  •  apostrophe abuses/neglect
  •  comma splices
  •  misuse of objective case/subjective case pronouns
  •  etc.

2. basic vocabulary failures:

  •  using words of which they wot not the meaning (and I don’t just mean inexplicable misuses of prepositions *sigh*)
  •  utter incomprehension of when to use/not use compound words1
  •  confusion of homophonic words with disparate meanings
  •  etc.

I could go on, but won’t. *sigh* Someone(s) needs t tell these people to JUST STOP. They are polluting the English language with their illiterate, childish crayon scrawls. That was once the gatekeeping function of traditional publishing houses, and while I’m sure it resulted in some worthy manuscripts being dumped in the reject pile, at least it did not so frequently result in utter crap being published as is all too frequently the case with the self-pub democritization of publishing nowadays.

Folks who write books without bothering to become literate, with no serious intention of even submitting their work to literate proofreaders before publication, are insulting their readers. And this issue is quite apart from the issue of folks writing “authoritatively” on subjects they quite obviously know NOTHING about. That is another rant entirely.

DO NOTE: I have read some VERY well-written and edited self-pub books, however that minority represents less than 10% of the self-pub books I have tried to read. *sigh*

Continue reading “Writers Who. . . Shouldn’t”