Monday, February 16, 2015

'so in the world of today: 16 Feb 2015' by Sam Orr

so in the world of today:
-The University of Massachusetts is banning Iranian students from being engineering majors.
-A ring of hackers stole at least one billion from banks around the world.
-A 72 year old man may lose his pension and spend 10 years in jail for having an antique gun in his glove compartment.
-A large tobacco conglomerate is suing to force several small nations to do less to limit tobacco distribution.

The Writers' Support Group Perspective on Writing Mistakes

Questions Tuesday: What are irritating writing mistakes?

     "I feel irritated at myself when I find I've written 900 words and meant to write 300 :)" Velda begins the discussion.
     "Why do you think that you write three times the amount that you plan?" Alex questions. 
     "Alexander, I think I just get carried away sometimes. :) Sometimes I'll save my "unabridged" post privately." Velda explanations. 
 
     "I hate when people misspell words." Matea hates.
     "Their vs they're vs there, you're vs your" Sarah complains.
     "not getting the spelling right" confesses Lesego.
      "I learned from a favorite substitute teacher in high school that the word "that is the most missed word in the English language, so I make sure keep them where they should." Alex expresses.
     "I use ... Way too much" Sariah acknowledges.  

     "Are we talking our own writing mistakes or what other people get bugged by in our writing? I'm not bugged by mistakes. They set me free. There's always another rewrite." Audrey reveals.
     Alex relates. "Yeah. I am patient with writing too, Audrey. Maybe this is a better rephrasing of question. What is difficult about writing?
     Audrey ponders."Hmmmm. Difficult? I'd say getting all the balances right. Making it interesting, compelling, relatable." 

      "A irritating writing mistake or difficulty that I remembered this morning at work is when characters in a book all have a similar personality or perspective. The main thing different between the characters is their backgrounds. I believe that it shows a big reflection of the author's personality and lack of thought about how each person's thought processes and perspective are very different." Alex proclaims.  

     Velda rethinks the question. "Oh we're talking about other people's writing? hehe.  I find it annoying when someone uses a really ... creative phrase to describe something, but then they continue to use that phrase repeatedly in the book."
Alex laughingly excuses himself. "Haha. Don't be offended by my laughter. I laugh a lot."
Velda continues "Example: "Her hair rippled in the breeze like waves of tall grass on the prairie" .. and then they use the exact phrase like, three other times in the book :s  I don't mind it the first time, even if their simile is a bit cheesy, but i have a pretty good memory so if I see the same thing again it really makes me roll my eyes :-p
Alex laughs again. ":D 555 (5 in Thai is pronounced 'ha'.) :P Another challenge that I have is to not start every sentence with I."

Elon Musk's Starlink to serve North America gigabit internet by end of the year

Trevor and I did two sessions of recordings because we were not satisfied with the first, discussing the following topics for this podcast e...