Hello, my name is M, and I can't read a sentence without analyzing it for grammatical errors and other no-nos.
Despite this quirk, I try not to judge bad grammar for a few reasons. First, I make mistakes all the time. I frequently read content that I wrote and wonder how I earned a degree in English. Second, while I was lucky and received a comprehensive education in grammar, not everyone else did, and grammar isn't one of those parts of life that you just pick up. And finally, grammar rules are constantly changing, and rule books frequently contradict each other.
However, I feel the need to speak out about a particular grammar issue that I recently encountered on several respected news sites. My complaint is over the misuse of the hyphen. Oh, hyphen, how do I love thee normally! But when you're misused--you're a bad hyphen, a very bad hyphen! And how frequently have you become a bad hyphen these days.
Here's the rule: When two adjectives combine to form a compound adjective that comes before a noun, you need to hyphenate the adjectives. Here are a few examples:
* The blue-green water was beautiful.
It's not blue water. It's not green water. It's blue-green water.
* The upper-right corner was torn off.
It's not the upper corner. It's not the right corner. It's the upper-right corner.
* Bad weather advice.
Ha! Tricked you here. No hyphen needed. It's weather advice that is bad, not bad-weather advice. (Technically, this phrase is a misuse of "weather," which is a noun that I am using as an adjective. The grammatically correct phrase would be "Bad advice for the weather," or something to that effect, but I took liberties for my title. It's my blog, so I can do that.)
This rule is straightforward; however, people seem to want to extend the hyphen to other word relationships in which it does not belong. For instance, a hyphen does not belong in the following word construction: Adverb adjective noun.
For example:
* The grammatically correct phrase
* The aptly named dog
* The hopelessly lost tourist
The hyphen does not belong in this pairing because the adverb is modifying the adjective and therefore the two words do not need to be interpreted as one.
This is my plea to the world of journalism: please do not insert hyphens between adverbs and adjectives.
Nobody likes a bad hyphen.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Fiber, packing, and bad weather advice
As the countdown to Spain ticks away, I'm following some familiar pre-vacation traditions.
On my way home from work today, I stopped at the local grocery store to pick up a a four pack of Maximum Muffins. (Yes, that's really their name.) Each weighs in at an impressive 380 calories, an ideal caloric content for sharing. Did I mention that each has 9 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber? Who hasn't been on a vacation that would be improved with a little extra fiber...
We started the muffin tradition many vacations ago, and it works out well. For our first night in Europe, we sleep a minimum of 12 hours, usually closer to 14. After 14 hours of sleep, the idea of waiting even a half hour to shower and dress and go find food is exhausting. It's much better to roll over, gulp down the contents of the closest water bottle, gobble up your fiber-rich breakfast, and then figure out the confusing European plumbing.
Another tradition, packing much earlier than is necessary, is complete. I mostly stuck to my packing list, though I decided to sneak in a couple of extra (small) items toward the end.
Now I am obsessively checking the weather forecast for Spain. It changes from pouring rain to sun, from warm to cold, from unbearable to pleasant on a near hourly basis. Perhaps it's unreasonable to expect accuracy from a 10-day forecast, but if that is the case, why is the 10-day forecast published...?
Another weird weather thing--weather.com seems to think that I am getting married and keeps delivering wedding-related advice with its forecast, such as "Better change from heels to sneakers if your wedding is this day!" This little gem tops the list of clueless wedding advice. Anyone who has ever been married knows that you can't just swap out your shoes willy-nilly because of the weather. Your dress is hemmed according to the shoes that you wear, and switching from heels to sneaks means that the hem would drag on the ground, which is exactly what you don't want to happen when it's raining and the ground is muddy.
If I had become a meteorologist as I originally planned--before I realized that calculus and physics, while having fun symbols that were fun to doodle in margins, were not my best subjects--you can bet that I'd offer better weather-related wedding advice.
On my way home from work today, I stopped at the local grocery store to pick up a a four pack of Maximum Muffins. (Yes, that's really their name.) Each weighs in at an impressive 380 calories, an ideal caloric content for sharing. Did I mention that each has 9 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber? Who hasn't been on a vacation that would be improved with a little extra fiber...
We started the muffin tradition many vacations ago, and it works out well. For our first night in Europe, we sleep a minimum of 12 hours, usually closer to 14. After 14 hours of sleep, the idea of waiting even a half hour to shower and dress and go find food is exhausting. It's much better to roll over, gulp down the contents of the closest water bottle, gobble up your fiber-rich breakfast, and then figure out the confusing European plumbing.
Another tradition, packing much earlier than is necessary, is complete. I mostly stuck to my packing list, though I decided to sneak in a couple of extra (small) items toward the end.
Now I am obsessively checking the weather forecast for Spain. It changes from pouring rain to sun, from warm to cold, from unbearable to pleasant on a near hourly basis. Perhaps it's unreasonable to expect accuracy from a 10-day forecast, but if that is the case, why is the 10-day forecast published...?
Another weird weather thing--weather.com seems to think that I am getting married and keeps delivering wedding-related advice with its forecast, such as "Better change from heels to sneakers if your wedding is this day!" This little gem tops the list of clueless wedding advice. Anyone who has ever been married knows that you can't just swap out your shoes willy-nilly because of the weather. Your dress is hemmed according to the shoes that you wear, and switching from heels to sneaks means that the hem would drag on the ground, which is exactly what you don't want to happen when it's raining and the ground is muddy.
If I had become a meteorologist as I originally planned--before I realized that calculus and physics, while having fun symbols that were fun to doodle in margins, were not my best subjects--you can bet that I'd offer better weather-related wedding advice.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The need to reorganize never goes away
We've been living in our house for three years and are still making adjustments. I guess that's normal, right? It's not like you move in and bam, you're finished with everything house-related for the rest of your life.
Especially when you place a six-month moratorium on purchasing items for said house after moving in.
And then go hog wild after the six months are over.
This weekend's project was the closet in our spare bedroom. Due to its large size, the closet has become a dumping ground for all items that have no other home. The closet came with some shelving that wasn't working with our belongings, some of which we just needed to dump.
First order of business: Collect all items for Salvation Army in a bag. We own far too many jackets and decided to pass on a few to a good cause. We also had a few articles of clothing that we weren't wearing anymore, and B culled his impressive shoe collection to get rid of a few pairs that weren't up to snuff.
Next step: Go to Ikea, organization central, home of the fabulous Omar shelving that transformed our pantry into fabulous, usable space. We bought a few shelves for the closet and got to work organizing our remaining belongings. Some of the items, such as our china and wine glasses, moved to a new home. They are now tucked safely in their storage containers in the sink vanity in our downstairs bathroom. Feeling comfortable in your home is all about making your space work for you.
I took "before" pictures but can't bring myself to share them; the closet was just too wretched. But next time you're over, we'll be sure to include it in the tour, and you can see the "after" pictures in person.
Especially when you place a six-month moratorium on purchasing items for said house after moving in.
And then go hog wild after the six months are over.
This weekend's project was the closet in our spare bedroom. Due to its large size, the closet has become a dumping ground for all items that have no other home. The closet came with some shelving that wasn't working with our belongings, some of which we just needed to dump.
First order of business: Collect all items for Salvation Army in a bag. We own far too many jackets and decided to pass on a few to a good cause. We also had a few articles of clothing that we weren't wearing anymore, and B culled his impressive shoe collection to get rid of a few pairs that weren't up to snuff.
Next step: Go to Ikea, organization central, home of the fabulous Omar shelving that transformed our pantry into fabulous, usable space. We bought a few shelves for the closet and got to work organizing our remaining belongings. Some of the items, such as our china and wine glasses, moved to a new home. They are now tucked safely in their storage containers in the sink vanity in our downstairs bathroom. Feeling comfortable in your home is all about making your space work for you.
I took "before" pictures but can't bring myself to share them; the closet was just too wretched. But next time you're over, we'll be sure to include it in the tour, and you can see the "after" pictures in person.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Prone to overpacking
I started packing last night, just clothing.
I'm packing only non-wrinkle-prone clothing, so it's ok that it will be in a suitcase for a while.
Every time we go away, I think my clothing will take up less space than it actually does. And then I'm always taken aback when I can't fit everything that I expected into a rollaboard. Maybe rollaboards are too small? Or maybe I'm still packing too much. Temps will range from the 30s to the 70s--it's difficult to pack lightly for such variation.
Here's my clothing list:
Wearing: Long-sleeved shirt, turtleneck, sweater, pants.
Packing: 2 long-sleeved zippies, 3 short-sleeved shirts, 2 tank tops, 2 pairs pants.
And pajamas. But the pajamas that I'm packing won't be returning home with us, so there will be some extra space for the return trip (or rather, there would be, if it weren't taken up by souvenirs).
And then there are lots of little things that collectively take up a lot of space. Two small umbrellas, a luggage scale (worth its size in gold, considering how much money it could save us in overweight luggage fees), camera plugs, books, tissues, medicines, Lactaid pills, cosmetics, toiletries, hangers (there are never enough in any hotel room, no matter how little you pack)... There's a big list. The items are listed in a spreadsheet and organized according to the bag that they'll travel in. I just hope we have enough space among our 3 bags (1 small rollaboard, 1 larger-sized-but-still-carryonable rollaboard, and 1 checked bag) to fit everything.
In other news, has anyone been tracking the progress of the euro lately? It's up--way up. Then again, what would a European vacation be for us without spiking euro rates just before we leave?
And I'm starting to wonder what financial debacle will occur while we're away this time. While we were in Italy, Lehman Bros and Bear Stearns suddenly no longer existed. While we were in Germany, Bernie Madoff's scheme became public knowledge. Here's hoping for some good financial news while we're away.
I'm packing only non-wrinkle-prone clothing, so it's ok that it will be in a suitcase for a while.
Every time we go away, I think my clothing will take up less space than it actually does. And then I'm always taken aback when I can't fit everything that I expected into a rollaboard. Maybe rollaboards are too small? Or maybe I'm still packing too much. Temps will range from the 30s to the 70s--it's difficult to pack lightly for such variation.
Here's my clothing list:
Wearing: Long-sleeved shirt, turtleneck, sweater, pants.
Packing: 2 long-sleeved zippies, 3 short-sleeved shirts, 2 tank tops, 2 pairs pants.
And pajamas. But the pajamas that I'm packing won't be returning home with us, so there will be some extra space for the return trip (or rather, there would be, if it weren't taken up by souvenirs).
And then there are lots of little things that collectively take up a lot of space. Two small umbrellas, a luggage scale (worth its size in gold, considering how much money it could save us in overweight luggage fees), camera plugs, books, tissues, medicines, Lactaid pills, cosmetics, toiletries, hangers (there are never enough in any hotel room, no matter how little you pack)... There's a big list. The items are listed in a spreadsheet and organized according to the bag that they'll travel in. I just hope we have enough space among our 3 bags (1 small rollaboard, 1 larger-sized-but-still-carryonable rollaboard, and 1 checked bag) to fit everything.
In other news, has anyone been tracking the progress of the euro lately? It's up--way up. Then again, what would a European vacation be for us without spiking euro rates just before we leave?
And I'm starting to wonder what financial debacle will occur while we're away this time. While we were in Italy, Lehman Bros and Bear Stearns suddenly no longer existed. While we were in Germany, Bernie Madoff's scheme became public knowledge. Here's hoping for some good financial news while we're away.
Monday, March 16, 2009
The day after the Ides of March
March 16 is a very important day.
Two years ago on this day, we had a blizzard. I worked at home and after work, I cooked dinner, a pizza, later to be known as the engagement pizza. Today is our two-year engagement anniversary.
I'm not sure if there is such a thing as an engagement anniversary, but it's a special day in my mind and deserves recognition for another reason, too.
Today is also our 1 1/2 year wedding anniversary, since we got married on September 16, 6 months to the day after we got engaged. That coincidence is mostly a coincidence, but the timing of September 16 worked out for a few reasons and the timing from our engagement was a bonus. Luckily, we didn't have snow or even rain on our wedding day.
And in other more frivolous news, tonight marks the return of new episodes of Gossip Girl after an interminable absence. I am thrilled that it's back on but disappointed that new shows are starting right before we go away. Something tells me that our hotels in Spain aren't going to get the CW network.
So what are we doing to celebrate these 3 wonderful occasions? I'm thinking a pizza dinner might be in order...
Two years ago on this day, we had a blizzard. I worked at home and after work, I cooked dinner, a pizza, later to be known as the engagement pizza. Today is our two-year engagement anniversary.
I'm not sure if there is such a thing as an engagement anniversary, but it's a special day in my mind and deserves recognition for another reason, too.
Today is also our 1 1/2 year wedding anniversary, since we got married on September 16, 6 months to the day after we got engaged. That coincidence is mostly a coincidence, but the timing of September 16 worked out for a few reasons and the timing from our engagement was a bonus. Luckily, we didn't have snow or even rain on our wedding day.
And in other more frivolous news, tonight marks the return of new episodes of Gossip Girl after an interminable absence. I am thrilled that it's back on but disappointed that new shows are starting right before we go away. Something tells me that our hotels in Spain aren't going to get the CW network.
So what are we doing to celebrate these 3 wonderful occasions? I'm thinking a pizza dinner might be in order...
Font scourges and other design nightmares
There's something magical about fonts. I think of them as a form of nonverbal communication. You can communicate buckets of information with the font that you choose, so you must always choose carefully.
Choosing a font for papers in college was easy - I always went with the font that made my paper the length that was required. Rarely did I have to resort to Courier New, the best friend of the non-verbose among us. But back then, I didn't know anything about serif or sans serif fonts and in hindsight, probably made some bad choices for my papers (or maybe that's just how I'm explaining away those sub-A grades).
My design books in college taught me the difference between and usage of serif and sans serif fonts. Serif fonts have "feet," which help your eye connect the letters on the page. According to my design books, serif fonts are best for printed materials, but not necessarily headings.
For headings, turn to a solid sans serif font and even bold it if you want, and you won't be disappointed. Also pull out a sans serif font for online materials--text on a screen is apparently more easily read when it doesn't have "feet" (less screen clutter?).
For our wedding invitations, I wasn't content with choosing among the standard Windows fonts. Instead, I scoured online font sites and downloaded a handful that suited us and our wedding. I printed test copies of our invitations and we hosted a little eliminations ceremony until we decided upon the perfect font for our day. A little OCD, perhaps, but I wanted our invitations to be unique.
You can imagine my delight--since I am a bit of a font nerd--when B sent me a periodic table of typefaces. The table ranks fonts according to popularity, and what a great resource it is for anyone contemplating any kind of visual data design. This information is gold for anyone in the design community.
I sent the table to my coworkers, and LS brought up an excellent point--Arial was missing from the table. Arial is a go-to sans serif font for many a writer (or so I thought), so I assumed it was simply a matter of a technicality.
I dug deep and thought that I recalled that Arial and Helvetica (note its important placement as the numero uno font) were actually the same font, and Arial was its Windows name and Helvetica was its Macintosh name. However, my minimal Mac usage during my formative years wasn't enough to help me with this problem, so I turned to Google, which did not disappoint.
I found this article, which you needn't read in its entirety--the beginning and end summarize nicely. Pay particular attention to the last sentence, which I shall quote here for those who are not interested in learning about font heritage:
As it turns out, Arial is the imposter, and Helvetica is the real deal! And sadly, the writer's nightmare has come true--while I am technically not a designer, I work with fonts and never learned about Arial's murky past and its status as a sub-par font. However, now that I have my new table, he or she can fear not--I shall do my best to choose a better font in the future.
Choosing a font for papers in college was easy - I always went with the font that made my paper the length that was required. Rarely did I have to resort to Courier New, the best friend of the non-verbose among us. But back then, I didn't know anything about serif or sans serif fonts and in hindsight, probably made some bad choices for my papers (or maybe that's just how I'm explaining away those sub-A grades).
My design books in college taught me the difference between and usage of serif and sans serif fonts. Serif fonts have "feet," which help your eye connect the letters on the page. According to my design books, serif fonts are best for printed materials, but not necessarily headings.
For headings, turn to a solid sans serif font and even bold it if you want, and you won't be disappointed. Also pull out a sans serif font for online materials--text on a screen is apparently more easily read when it doesn't have "feet" (less screen clutter?).
For our wedding invitations, I wasn't content with choosing among the standard Windows fonts. Instead, I scoured online font sites and downloaded a handful that suited us and our wedding. I printed test copies of our invitations and we hosted a little eliminations ceremony until we decided upon the perfect font for our day. A little OCD, perhaps, but I wanted our invitations to be unique.
You can imagine my delight--since I am a bit of a font nerd--when B sent me a periodic table of typefaces. The table ranks fonts according to popularity, and what a great resource it is for anyone contemplating any kind of visual data design. This information is gold for anyone in the design community.
I sent the table to my coworkers, and LS brought up an excellent point--Arial was missing from the table. Arial is a go-to sans serif font for many a writer (or so I thought), so I assumed it was simply a matter of a technicality.
I dug deep and thought that I recalled that Arial and Helvetica (note its important placement as the numero uno font) were actually the same font, and Arial was its Windows name and Helvetica was its Macintosh name. However, my minimal Mac usage during my formative years wasn't enough to help me with this problem, so I turned to Google, which did not disappoint.
I found this article, which you needn't read in its entirety--the beginning and end summarize nicely. Pay particular attention to the last sentence, which I shall quote here for those who are not interested in learning about font heritage:
"I can almost hear young designers now saying, 'Helvetica? That’s that font that looks kinda like Arial, right?'"
As it turns out, Arial is the imposter, and Helvetica is the real deal! And sadly, the writer's nightmare has come true--while I am technically not a designer, I work with fonts and never learned about Arial's murky past and its status as a sub-par font. However, now that I have my new table, he or she can fear not--I shall do my best to choose a better font in the future.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Earth Hour 2009
I learned today that I'm going to be spending Earth Hour in Spain.
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Australia and has since gone global. To celebrate the event, you turn off your lights between the hours of 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM for your local time on Saturday, March 28. Turning off your lights is a way of making a statement about climate change and committing to coming up with solutions for the future.
I suppose they chose an evening time so that you can appreciate the number of turned off lights and maybe see some stars that would otherwise be obscured by city lights.
(You can also move to the boonies if you want to see stars.)
I visited Earth Hour's web site to try to determine the activities that will be happening in Spain, but I had some serious difficulties navigating the site and the possibly relevant information that I did find was (understandably) in Spanish. I guess we'll have to wait and see to determine the fun that we can expect.
I didn't participate in Earth Hour in 2008, and I'm not sure of my level of participation in 2009. At 8:30 on a Saturday night in Spain, I can only hope that I will be out and about and not lounging in my hotel room. If I am in fact lounging, I think that turning off the lights and television would be an appropriate punishment for my lack of motivation, though I suspect the World Wildlife Federation would object on principle to my viewing a lack of electricity during that hour as a punishment.
In any case, rock on, Earth Hour, and I'll do my best to honor you.
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Australia and has since gone global. To celebrate the event, you turn off your lights between the hours of 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM for your local time on Saturday, March 28. Turning off your lights is a way of making a statement about climate change and committing to coming up with solutions for the future.
I suppose they chose an evening time so that you can appreciate the number of turned off lights and maybe see some stars that would otherwise be obscured by city lights.
(You can also move to the boonies if you want to see stars.)
I visited Earth Hour's web site to try to determine the activities that will be happening in Spain, but I had some serious difficulties navigating the site and the possibly relevant information that I did find was (understandably) in Spanish. I guess we'll have to wait and see to determine the fun that we can expect.
I didn't participate in Earth Hour in 2008, and I'm not sure of my level of participation in 2009. At 8:30 on a Saturday night in Spain, I can only hope that I will be out and about and not lounging in my hotel room. If I am in fact lounging, I think that turning off the lights and television would be an appropriate punishment for my lack of motivation, though I suspect the World Wildlife Federation would object on principle to my viewing a lack of electricity during that hour as a punishment.
In any case, rock on, Earth Hour, and I'll do my best to honor you.
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