Crankypants

[cjsmith]

I have my crankypants on today.

Crankypants item number one: One of the kitties threw up on the living room carpet during the night. AGAIN.

Crankypants item number two: I read else-LJ about a person who, when out having a good time with friends and heading toward a party, saw a nasty sign in the window of the party's house. The whole group knew instantly that this person would not be welcome. What happened next? The person's friends didn't go in either.

Have I ever had friends who would do such a thing for me? I know I've had lovers who wouldn't.

Crankypants three: I am sick of comma splices. Comma splices are to me like fingernails on a blackboard are to the simpering fragile contingent in high school. They are awful! I really would prefer never to see one again. But if I pulled journals off my default read list for comma splices, I'd have to get rid of several I would otherwise like to read. Make, for example, is infested, yet it also has interesting content from time to time. How dare they?

Honestly, I know these are all minor. I have a living room, complete with carpet, and I have three cats who purr when I scritch them. I chose to have cats. Similarly, it's up to me to choose my friends and build good friendships, and nobody is forcing me to read posts that weren't worth editing.

I still have a bit of crankypants though. Cranky shorts? :-) Okay, not even those. I'm feeling better already. Sometimes venting DOES help, and remarkably quickly too.

Time to go clean that carpet.

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Crankyshorts. *snerk*

*hugs*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I liked the image!

*hugsback*

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I share your feelings about all three of these issues. (Comma splices are definitely on my Irritating Language Error list, just not at the very top. Although I think if I had online friends who used them frequently they certainly would be!)

Yes, venting can help enormously. I'm glad it helped you! =hug=

How is Duchess?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that frequency of use makes a big difference. Comma splices have crawled very near the top of my Annoyances list because of their ever-increasing prevalence.

Duchess seems fine! With experience she is getting a little better at not swallowing her pills, but since I have a good quarter century more experience than she has, I still win quickly. In a little less than a week she will go in for a urine draw and we'll see whether the infection is truly gone. Thanks for asking!

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Oh good! I'll watch for updates!

[ckd]

Number two: I'd certainly do that for a friend. (And I'd probably blast They Might Be Giants's "Your Racist Friend" at the house as I drove by, because I'm like that.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

LOVE that song. Love it.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Agreed in all respects. And "Your Racist Friend" is just the perfect music for the situation!

[platypus]

I've comma-spliced. It's not that I don't know I'm doing it, but there are times when it feels (sort of) appropriate in this casual context. I tend to be very conversational in my journal writing.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I probably have as well. I'm conversational in my journal too. (My biggest "casual conversation" grammar fault in my journal is probably sentence fragments.) I guess it's the frequency that really gets me. Some writers apparently can't put together a paragraph without a comma splice in it. Some can't make a SENTENCE without a comma splice in it.

Here's a question. Is the following sentence technically an example of a comma splice? (NB: even if it is, it doesn't bother me a bit.)

"Yes, I agree."

I don't know how the initial "Yes" is classified.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's a comma splice. I think that's an appropriate (but perhaps archaic) usage of a comma. It is the format that I would use for that sentence.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It is the format I would use, too.

1. "Yes, I agree."

2. "He's a twit, I hate him."

My gut says 1 is correct and 2 is not, and I can't name a rule saying WHY. Some anal-retentive grammar fiend I am!

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I think it's because the latter would stand alone as two sentences. The first does not.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Is "Yes." not a complete sentence? That sure would be convenient, because that falls right back under what a comma splice is. Then one simple rule covers it all.

*slaps forehead at own stupidity*

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Of course it is. I guess it's because the 'I agree' feels like a modifier of the 'yes', and the 'He's a twit, I hate him' are two separate things.
Can you tell I never did learn how to diagram a sentence????

Re: *slaps forehead at own stupidity*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Neither did I! (sheepish look)

[sharya.livejournal.com]

I think the second one would be more appropriate as:

"He's a twit; I hate him."

But I could be wrong. What is the actual definition of a comma splice? I could be a huge offender of this :X

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I agree. A comma splice is the use of a comma without a conjunction or other joining word to stick two complete sentences together. Changing the comma to a semicolon fixes it, as does adding a word such as "and" or simply making the whole mess two separate sentences.

[eichin.livejournal.com]

Interjection, perhaps?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Could be. I'm fuzzy on terminology. I know "Hey!" is an interjection but I simply don't know whether "Yes" would be called one too.

Some grammar fiend I am!

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

that is not a comma splice; due to the usage of the word "yes."

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought, but I can't cite a rule to tell me why. Some grammar fiend I am!

[meglimir.livejournal.com]

Well, sheesh, if I were with a friend in such a situation, I wouldn't go in either! Seems like a pretty basic, decent decision.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It seems that way to me, too. I'm glad that's how it happened in the bit I read today.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

1. Brat throws up all the time. I feel your pain.

2. I wouldn't go in.

3. I am guilty of the comma splice. I am especially guilty of it when I am writing in LJ, as I tend to be less careful in this kind of casual venue. I will try to be more aware. Good habits in punctuation and grammar are worth cultivating. Thank you for mentioning it.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

1. Does he? Phew - maybe it's not just me poisoning the poor beasts. Cleanup's a pain, isn't it? I think I want Plexiglas floors.

2. Me either. *nodnod*

3. I haven't noticed you comma-splicing. You're the second who has said you use comma splices, and in neither your case nor the other's have I noticed them. Maybe I'm not nearly as sensitive as I thought I was!

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

My parents' cat, Betsy, (pictured in the icon) barfs a lot as well. I guess it is something some cats do a lot of and not something to worry too much about (though arguably is very, very annoying). Harlie has only thrown up two or three times in the nearly three years we've had her. It should be noted, however, that if Harlie puked more she would probably be less likely to digest things she shouldn't digest which would make for fewer vet visits and fewer incidents of digestive upset.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It sure is annoying. I keep thinking that if some cats do it and some don't, then there might be a veterinary-medical miracle that will turn one kind of cat into the other. I haven't found it yet though!

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

max just tortures all nearby. rarely pukes.

i'm curious as to what the sign was, but i likely would stick with my friend.

i run-on and fragment like a fiend when i am not writing in a "professional" capacity, and i'm a fucking english teacher... oops. run-on's (including comma splices are the bane of my existence since i was in high school. it's the problem of being a rambler...


hugs to you, in your cranky pants, and the kitties. and tell them NO MORE PUKEY!!!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I don't think Max puked even once in his short tenancy with me. I bet I need more SHORT-HAIRED CATS in the future!

The sign read "NO FAT CHICKS." I'd stick with my friend too, even if the sign was as innocuous or silly as "no one with glasses." I'd hate to be the kind of person to abandon someone.

I fragment like crazy. Usually I'm being lazy and I'm using the fragment for effect. I suspect I could be just as effective if I learned to rewrite a little. Maybe I should, for practice. I could always stand to improve, y'know?

*hugsback*, and I'll pass on the message!

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Anyone who would even have a 'No Fat Chicks' sign would be on my 'sorry, not even interested in knowing you' list.
Geez!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Amen. I mean, he (I'm presuming it was a he) can date whomever he chooses to date, but putting a sign like that up at a PARTY??

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Yeah--tacky doesn't begin to describe it.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Sheesh.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

ewww on the host of the party!!!!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Complete lack of fecal matter. *nodnod*

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

Maybe cranky hotpants?

And I know what you mean about venting getting it out of your system, especially when it's relatively minor stuff.

And I'd not go to a party where a friend wasn't welcome. Sheesh.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Cranky short-shorts! Cranky underpants! :-)

Venting helps me clear out my mental works. By the end of it I'm truly aware of how minor it all is. That helps lots!

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

Awww, hugs to you, Ms. Crankypants. Didn't know crankypants were contagious, but they seem to be going around. We could start the Sisterhood of the Traveling Crankypants (mocking that very popular young-adult book series).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

BWAHAHAAA! I love it! We shall be two of the early members of the Sisterhood!

Personally, I think you have much better reasons for crankypants than I have right now. *hug*.

[jcgbigler.livejournal.com]

So it sounds like I could get onto your shit list very quickly if I put a sign in my window that said, "People whose cats throw up on the rug are not welcome here, their friends should leave them at the door."

Seriously, though, I can relate to all three crankypants issues.

1. I've often thought that I should record the sound of my cat throwing up and use it as the alarm on my cell phone--it's the one sound that's guaranteed to get me to bolt out of bed at the speed of light.
2. Any party where one of my friends felt unwelcome would be an unlikely party for me to find myself at in the first place, but I'd definitely stick with you rather than leave you at the door if it ever came to that.
3. There are a lot of grammatical errors that bug me. Comma splices are on the list. So are:
   • "different than" instead of "different from"
   • "If I was" instead of "if I were"
   • subject/verb agreement
   • adjective/noun agreement
   • "12 items or less" instead of "12 items or fewer"
   • people on the internet who use other people's grammatical mistakes as a way of attacking their credibility

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*burst of laughter*! That would indeed wrap all three crankypants points up in a neat little package.

1. Oh, yes. I may not always get right out of bed, but I sure do wake up. Usually I am mentally taking notes about where I think the cat is and thus what sections of hallway need to be examined closely when I get up and walk to the bathroom in the morning.

2. Thank you, and I hope I'd do the same.

3. I'm mostly bothered by apostrophe misuse, homonym swapping, and some of the more egregious and common spelling errors. Some of the items on your list register as a blip on my "inner editor" radar but don't make me cringe. As for the last item, I figure that's fair game in an "I'm more erudite than you are" argument but in very few other places. :-)

[firecat]

I would be totally crankypants if my friends went into that party. I'm glad the person's friends didn't.

Chasing a cat around a carpeted room with a wad of paper towels and a spray bottle of lysol is one of my least favorite things.

As for punctuation, one of the benefits of being a professional editor, for me, is that I only notice it if I'm paid to do so. (Well, except...for...excessive...ellipses.......)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm glad, too. Ugh. How awful.

Oh, that's nifty. I suspect I would notice it even if I had ever been paid to edit, but maybe I wouldn't. That would be a nice side effect! :-)

[wooddragon.livejournal.com]

Oh crap, I use ellipses excessively...

(picked it up from someone who irritated the crap out of me using them so much... I think that's known as karma.)

[firecat]

[*chases you with a red pencil*]

[wooddragon.livejournal.com]

...

:)

*ducks*