Another Hot Day In Texas Trying To Be Informed Instead Of Just Opinionated About Oxford Commas

At almost 4 in the afternoon it is only 101 degrees at my location. I think that is colder than it was at this time yesterday.

It is windier today than the past couple dead calm days, with that wind blowing slightly counteracting the 31% humidity, making the Real Feel of the temperature only 105.

I don't know what has happened to me this year. I've somehow become a temperature wimp. Where years previous I enjoyed get HOT under the noonday sun, acclimating to the HEAT. This year, so far, that is just not working for me.

This could be yet one more age related malady.

Speaking of which, I'd not read Gar the Texan's blog in awhile, so I'd not been updated on Gar's latest bloggings about Gar and his interesting opinions about religion and politics. Or his many medical maladies. I visited Gar the Texan's blog after seeing the following amusing slogan on Facebook, which made me think of Gar the Texan.

So, after being reminded of Gar the Texan's obfuscated opinionizing by a slogan on Facebook, I went to Gar the Texan's blog to learn that he is finally getting one of his many ailments operated on. That and in a blogging following the medical update he opined some of his religious and political opinionizing that has the effect of making me wince and feel slightly embarrassed for the boy. Then I remember from whence he came, that being the dusty little West Texas town of Wink, where history was taught by the football coach, if at all.

Reading Gar the Texan's fractured prose reminded me of something else I was amused by today on Facebook, courtesy of CatsPaw.

CatsPaw is a real stickler for grammar. Make the mistake of improperly using a word like "who's" and you will learn this first hand if you are on Miss CatsPaw's radar screen.

I've been perplexed times previous by how not having a comma in front of an 'and' can change the meaning of what's being said.

I don't think I've heard of the Oxford Comma before today, which really is a sad indicator of how ignorant I really am.

Now when someone like Gar the Texan commits this sort of communicative grammar confusion, saying that he invited Washington and Lincoln, who are a pair of Rhinos, when he meant to say he was inviting a pair of Rhinos, plus Washington and Lincoln, well, Gar the Texan chronically claims the reader has a reading comprehension problem, never considering that his bad grammar might be the actual problem.

And now back to our main subject.

The temperature.

Earlier today I blogged about Rosie the Rat Dog getting cold in an Ice Museum somewhere by the North Pole area of Fairbanks, Alaska.

A couple days ago Rosie blogged about having to run the RV's a/c because the temperature was in the sweltering low 80s.

Checking the current temperature in Fairbanks, I don't think Rosie is needing to run the RV's a/c at this point in time.

Actually I don't think Rosie the Rat Dog is currently in her RV. I believe that at this point in time the Rosie the Rat Dog entourage has left the Mother Ship, somewhere in the Fairbanks zone, and is heading north in the SUV to the Arctic Circle.

Did I just use an Oxford Comma? I don't know. I've already admitted I'm ignorant.

This morning it crossed my mind how amazing modern communication is. Daily tracking someone's roadtrip, via email and blogging. Daily getting photos of the ongoing trip.

Is this societal progress? Or not? I'm not sure. But I am enjoying the virtual Roadtrip to Alaska.

Nurse Martha Had Me At The Proper Use Of You're

Nurse Martha had this "You had me at the proper use of You're" graphic on Facebook this morning. I thought it was amusing.

Months ago, also on Facebook, Miss Connie liked, "THEY'RE going THERE with THEIR friends. It's called grammar, use it."

I know of one grammar challenged person who's chronic improper use of "your" identifies her like a fingerprint when she tries to do some of her evildoing anonymously.

To accidentally type "your" when you mean "you're" is an accident most everyone has had a time or two. To do this chronically is another thing. It's indicative of either a bad education, not being very bright, not caring, being lazy or a combo of any number of reasons.

Speaking of a time or "two" "to" do this "too", that's another one that some seem to have trouble with. Two, to and two.

Another pet peeve of mine in this area is misspelling. I know of one particularly blogger who, in addition to chronically making the above mentioned grammar errors, constantly misspells. The Blogger program has a built  in spell checker. How does someone not notice a word getting redflagged as misspelled, which just happened with redflagged, which apparently I have misspelled. The spell checker wants to me change redflagged to either red flagged or red-flagged.

The chronic misspeller to whom I've referenced doesn't even fix misspelled words that are not even words. Like this particular challenged person will type "ment" when she means "meant" and not notice that "ment" has been red-flagged. Or care.

The way karma works I have likely made some embarrassing grammar or spelling area in this particular blogging. I'm sure someone will  point it out to me if I have.

I Am A Grammar Nazi

Everyone makes a grammar mistake every once in awhile. Even I have made one. Or two. I know we are not all blessed with the same level of either brain power or education. But most of us made it through high school. By the time most of us got out of high school we had been subjected to many many hours of English classes.

Unfortunately, for some those English classes did not do a lot of good. What is perplexing me right at the moment is how can someone write a sentence with the following mistakes....

"If your gonna ask what there doing why dont you just do what there doing if your so curious?"

How hard is it to remember that "they're", "their" and "there" have 3 different meanings? And to use them appropriately?

How hard is it to remember that "your" and "you're" have 2 different meanings?

Now, I am totally cognizant of the fact that it is easy to make the mistake of typing "your" when you mean "you're". I've made that mistake myself. But when I make it it is a fluke, a typo.

I am aware of someone who has seriously degraded thinking, she's on the left side of the IQ Bell Curve. She made it through high school but any higher education was not feasible due to acceptance standards. But still, how does one write paragraph after paragraph of barely coherent sentences verbalizing barely coherent thoughts and not realize that the word they are looking for is "you're" not "your"?

I get the concept of making your own rules sometimes when it comes to grammar. I do that. Like I think the correct thing to do when using quotation marks is to do this, "quote." As in the period goes inside the quotation mark. I put it outside. Why? I dunno. I think it makes more sense, I guess. So, this is a conscious choice, not something that occurs because of degrading thinking.

Anyway, if me writing about they're, there, their, your and you're causes just one person to pay attention to this all too common mistake I will have done my bit to serve humanity for the day.

But now I must go serve my own humanity by going swimming. It's only 48 out there. I hope it's doable. Yikes, that's another one. "Its" and "it's". "Its" is a possessive pronoun, "it's" is a contraction of "it is". How hard is that to remember? I suppose I shouldn't be so judgemental. It can't be easy to go through life with degraded thinking.

Yikes again. That's another one. "Through" and "threw". Even with degraded thinking how can one mix up those two words?