2017

Apparently a lot of people get dialogue punctuation wrong despite having an otherwise solid grasp of grammar, possibly because they’re used to writing essays rather than prose. I don’t wanna be the asshole who complains about writing errors and then doesn’t offer to help, so here are the basics summarized as simply as I could manage on my phone (“dialogue tag” just refers to phrases like “he said,” “she whispered,” “they asked”):

“For most dialogue, use a comma after the sentence and don’t capitalize the next word after the quotation mark,” she said.

“But what if you’re using a question mark rather than a period?” they asked.

“When using a dialogue tag, you never capitalize the word after the quotation mark unless it’s a proper noun!” she snapped.

“When breaking up a single sentence with a dialogue tag,” she said, “use commas.”

“This is a single sentence,” she said. “Now, this is a second stand-alone sentence, so there’s no comma after ‘she said.’”

“There’s no dialogue tag after this sentence, so end it with a period rather than a comma.” She frowned, suddenly concerned that the entire post was as unasked for as it was sanctimonious.

an author i love just tweeted about how “big joy and small joy are the same” and how she was just as content the other night eating chocolate and cuddling her dog as she was on her Big Trip to new york and honestly. i think that’s it. this morning i was listening to an audiobook while baking shortbread in my joggers and i realised i really didn’t care what Big Things happened in my future as long as i could keep baking and reading at the weekend and maybe that is the kind of bar we have to set to guard ourselves against disappointment. just appreciate and cherish the mundane stuff and see everything else as a bonus.

Learn to Knit With Scales

So you want to make something with scales too? Well you're in the right place!

GUYS I’VE FOUND A VERY IMPORTANT WEBSITE FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN KNIT WITHOUT INJURING THEMSELVES!!!!

YES! I wanna join!

Sensitive, Much?

Now, maybe this is just my cold, INTP logic kicking in here, but am I the only one who thinks that the fashion today is to be a victim? Because it seems that everyone is out there looking for an excuse to be offended about something.

And no, I’m not intending to offend anyone. Please, please, please. I’m not trying to step on any toes. And if I’m not thinking exactly like you, I most humbly beg your pardon for, oh, I dunno, being a different person with different beliefs and a different background and a different favourite flavour of ice cream.

The point is, there are real victims in the world. There are people who are actually hurting. There are children who are abandoned in the street because their mothers don’t like how they look when they’re born. There are young women who are kidnapped and sold as sex slaves. There are people who are living with the threat of bombs falling on their heads every day.

And then there’s you. Maybe your one of those real victims. Or maybe you just don’t like what someone said to you.

Ya know what I’m getting at? If someone disagrees with you or says something that strikes you as wrong, immediately you have to lash out and rip into them and tell them that they’re a horrible bigot or a wretched sinner. Do you honestly think that that’s going to change their mind?  And I’m not saying I’m always right. But I’m not always wrong, either.

I wonder if maybe all this oversensitivity on every side is occurring because people don’t have a sense of humour. (By sense of humour, I mean the ability to NOT take yourself seriously all the time.)

A while back my brother got mad at me for not taking life seriously all the time. Now, this isn’t quite true. I do take life seriously. But I most certainly try not to take myself seriously. That’s the most dangerous thing a person can do, because then he can get to thinking that he’s more important than he actually is. And when you start thinking that, then you think that everyone ought to recognize how important you are. You trade in personal dignity for annoying pompousness and personal kindness for condescension. You get offended easily because people are disagreeing with you, and HEAVEN FORBID that anyone should ever disagree with infallible you!

Perhaps we could all lighten up a bit. Just because someone doesn’t hold the same views that you do doesn’t mean that he’s out to get you and take away all your personal freedoms. Not every Muslim is an extremist and not every Christian is a hypocrite, for example. And just because you side with one or the other doesn’t mean you should get mad when someone who supports an opposite viewpoint expresses an opinion. Maybe if you don’t get offended, you’ll set a good example to others. Maybe if you laugh it off, rather than getting all huffy at what someone said. Maybe if you admit they have a point, and really mean it, you’ll make more of an impression than if you start lambasting them for being opposed to you.

The thing is, when we go around trying not to step on people’s toes, we’ll never give others the chance to think. If you’re never challenged you’ll never truly understand what you do believe in. You’ll never question, you’ll never grow, and you’ll never become stronger.

I suppose when we stop thinking ourselves the pinnacle and end result of the universe, we’ll start realizing that it’s okay to be different. And sometimes, it’s even okay to disagree with other people! I’m trying to break the trend of being a victim. I don’t want to have to avoid “trigger” subjects just because they aren’t topics that I like to converse on.

It’s good to talk about things that make you uncomfortable. You aren’t entitled to be comfortable. Comfortable people don’t grow and develop. Victims might be wounded, but heroes rise above their wounds.

Heroes forgive and forget.

So, I’ve decided that, while I’m not going to go out of my way to offend people, I’m also not going to shy away from stuff that I don’t like. And I’m not going to shy away from stuff just because other people don’t like it. I want to grow, even if it makes me uncomfortable.

Do you want to join me?

Those reactions are perfect.

so… . . kirby

Prosecutor Edgeworth… I know him. He’s a feared prosecutor. He doesn’t feel pain. He doesn’t feel remorse. He won’t stop until he gets his “guilty” verdict…

So I just found the most useful photo album in existence for tumblr arguments

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Not nearly enough “Sirius Black makes himself at home in Privet Drive because there’s nothing the Dursleys can do to get him to leave” fic out there, and it’s a crying shame.