Quick and Dirty Tips Network

Quick and Dirty Tips is a network of blogs and podcasts I wandered into today. It looks good and I like the addition of podcasts. If you are looking for a network to write for take a look. I noticed no one is doing a home and garden theme yet.

I came to it through Grammar Girl.

Language Standards Versus Communication

There is a good post about language on Communication Exchange. It got me thinking about language and how important is communication versus having standards and keeping to them.

Here is my blabber in comments:

I'd like to do everything right with language. But I feel I just have so much brain space and it's shrinking as I get older. I hang on to what I have picked up when I was younger and do my best. It's less than grammatically correct, I'm sure I make regular grammar and punctuation mistakes. My spelling is pretty good though.

Maybe we can add one more language fact a month and remember it. I do know about farther and further, kind of the same rule as less and fewer.

However, when I say "George has less/ fewer friends..." in my mind that doesn't sound right either way. Would it be better as "George doesn't have as many friends as..."? See how complicated it gets? :D

I'm still working on affect and effect, have been working on that one awhile, months and months. Maybe we do have too many words to keep track of? If the communication is understood the goal is accomplished. I'm in the middle of the issue as I do like to keep old traditions, makes me sad to see things slip away. Also, language should have some standards. If things slip too far will we eventually just go back to grunting back and forth at each other?

Bookworms Blushing

Words and Nerds are Sexy Getting warmer... I bet you can make the occasional bookworm blush...;-) This test written by constancewrites on Matchdoctor | Free Dating & Quiz Site

One Word Blog Day

Raggedy

One Word Blog Day was on June 30th.

Vocabulary?

Your Vocabulary Score: A-

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

Word Lovers Unite!

Word Lovers Unite! Quotations and words for writers.

Spelling Lesson for Grammarians

I try not to be a grammarian or spellarian myself. It's not easy to resist the temptation to teach someone but I know most people won't feel that way about it. Most people see it as being corrected, not taught. That makes it easier to resist telling them to fix their spelling. But, one thing I often notice is how often the grammarian's spell a lot as one word. It's not. Alot is not a word. It's actually two words all too often combined. Alot is not a compound word, it's just wrong, bad spelling but easily fixed. So, if you tend to give in to your urge to teach spelling remember not to make this simple mistake yourself. Just a note for the day to the grammarians out there. Of course, it's my chance to teach spelling too. Hard to pass that up.

The Word is a Force

“The word is not just a sound or written symbol. The word is a force, it is the power you have to express and communicate, to think, and thereby to create the events of your life” - Don Miguel Ruiz

I found this at Meditations for Women. But, I don’t want to register to use another site and get spammed for it later. This was a nice quote though, I would have liked to see more.

ReConnecting and ReBuilding

First of all, I had an email from John this morning. He is living in a bachelor apartment in Hamilton and discovered that his past employer has been bad mouthing him each time someone calls her to check on him. So that was certainly why he got the cold shoulder from everyone he had an interview with. So that’s how things are with John. I emailed him back and said he is a work in progress and not to get discouraged. (Progress being the key word).

For myself, I am pretty decided on the move thing. I’m not keen about moving and I’m really going to hugely miss having a car (poor thing had an exhaust leak and could not pass the emissions test) but even I should be able to find a job in Toronto. I’m applying to the temp agencies for now. If I can find something to start right away I can find something else while making rent payments and supporting my computer habit.

I may blab more here later. I want to get the work of job hunting done this morning. I did begin but was distracted by email.

Online Dictionary - HyperDictionary.com

Online Dictionary - HyperDictionary.com

Another site for wordoholics. I especially like the old dictionary lookup. The dream dictionary was interesting but they're all wrong about dragons. We're not angry or about rage. We're about wisdom and knowing our own worth and greatness.