A skittery, erratic attempt at a weblog. Rambles will be indulged and depths will be plumbed. Who knows what I'll come up with?
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| Fragments A skittery, erratic attempt at a weblog. Rambles will be indulged and depths will be plumbed. Who knows what I'll come up with? |
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Wednesday, March 24, 2004 Weather:...and turned back to rain again Listening to: Matchbox 20, More Than You Think You Are Not doing:well, actually, I was doing preparation for my meeting with the programme administrator/academic advisor, which brings about this post "To Boldly Go" moments I just had to rant. I have so many more important things on my mind, but for some reason, it's the little petty things that catch hold and make me have to rant. I don't know what it is about me. I don't even know if it's a character flaw or a good quality. But in a whole sea of bad, bad things, THIS is what I pick on to rant about: "At McMaster University our vision is: To achieve international distinction for creativity, innovation and excellence." How about "to achieve competent standards of grammar"? How about having the vision to see completely erroneous punctuation BEFORE it makes it onto the back of 12,000 university course calendars, in huge letters, in fancy academic-looking font? How about having the foresight to, oh I don't know, RUN IT BY SOMEONE INTELLIGENT before sending it to the printing press? It's the UNIVERSITY COURSE CALENDAR, for pity's sake, it's not like no one's ever going to see it. After getting past the first part of that sentence I really don't care WHAT our vision is at McMaster University, because obviously it wasn't worth our time to craft it very carefully. And yes, I know it only breaks one rule, but it's a fairly simple rule: colons come only after independent clauses, never immediately following a verb. It isn't difficult. It isn't variable. It doesn't 'just look better or sound better this way'. So there's really only one explanation for it: sheer, unadulterated laziness. Shame. We can call this channeled emotion or redirected emotion or whatever, but it still bugs me. ~SQ P.S. A 'To Boldly Go' moment is my term for a glaring grammatical or punctuational error making it into the public spotlight. It was inspired by one of the most famous split infinitives of all time, namely Captain Kirk's and Picard's strident assertions that the Enterprises' missions are "To boldly go where no [man/one] has gone before!" This bumbled phrase probably had an impact on the New Oxford Dictionary of English's 1998 decision to ratify the use of the split infinitive, though; I don't think McMaster's Statement of Vision has anything near that kind of pull. posted by susan | 6:11 PM Tuesday, March 23, 2004 Weather:the rain has turned to snow Listening to:machine hum out the window Not doing:anything I just noticed... ...that my milk, like my relationship, expired on March 20th. Hm. I'm trying to do this breaking-up thing with good humour and good grace, but it's hard. Really, really hard. posted by susan | 10:53 AM Friday, March 19, 2004 Weather:Not too cold... Listening to:ambient sounds of my apartment in the morning Not doing:cell bio reading.... Well, now I just feel dumb. Got an e-mail back this morning from Dr. Donaldson, the creative writing inquiry prof, telling me very courteously that he was delighted to hear about my inquiry background and my interest in creative writing, but that the course was in no way closed to non-English students, so I didn't really have to grovel to be let in. I guess I just misinterpreted the course calendar, but I really don't know how else to interpret "Prerequisite: Registration in a programme in English." I wish people would be clearer about things. ~SQ posted by susan | 9:54 AM Weather:Uh, dudes, what's with the snow?? Listening to:ambient sounds of my apartment at night Not doing: cell bio reading Deep breath Well, I just sent off a supplicatory e-mail to the profs of English 2D03 -- Creative Writing Inquiry, begging them to let a poor lowly science student with a brain full of fragments into this English-majors-only course. I'm full of anticipation and apprehension and fear. What if they don't let me in? (the most likely outcome). Worse yet, what if they do let me in, and I'm the worst in the class? What if they write back and tell me that I'm insane, and that I shouldn't bug them anymore? Grrr. I want an IMMEDIATE response. Really, I haven't written creatively in so long that the part of my brain that does that for me may have rusted out. I think finding out that this is true is what scares me most about the idea of taking this course. I couldn't bear the thought that I've just...let all that go. Hopefully I'm 1) allowed to take the course and 2) will find out that in fact, I can still write. We can always hope. ~SQ posted by susan | 12:57 AM Monday, March 15, 2004 Weather:like Scotland Listening to:laptop humming Not doing:cell bio research, cell bio assignment Take Two My mouth should come with rewind and overwrite functions. Seriously. "I didn't MEAN to be a total and utter bitch" is just SO not an adequate response sometimes, even when it's the gospel truth. ~SQ posted by susan | 12:13 AM Monday, March 08, 2004 Weather: It's cold! where did spring go? Listening to: Tori Amos, "Cornflake Girl"...'you bet your li-ife it is'... Not doing: english essay, studying for orgo These violet delights have violet ends... L'Oreal's discontinuing the Shine Delice line, which means that I can no longer get their 'Shine Delice #505 - Violet Delight' and must go on the hunt for a new perfect base lipcolour. Bugger. It's so annoying when the powers-that-be mess with your makeup routine. ~SQ posted by susan | 9:02 PM Friday, March 05, 2004 Weather: raining Listening to: Arrogant Worms, "Heimlich Maneuver" Not doing:orgo assignment, english essay, packing to go home, cell bio research I'm probably the only one who finds this funny.... ...but when you're trying to write an essay on postmodern literature and you're wading through abstruse and incomprehensible tomes on literary theory, this is hysterical. ~SQ posted by susan | 10:29 AM |
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