Tuesday, October 30, 2012

31 Days: Day 30 — Various and sundry items.

Right down to the wire, right? Yes, it's 8:08 pm on the 30th and I'm just sitting down to write. But I have a good excuse.

Today Leah and I went to see the infectious disease specialists at UVA Medical Center in Charlottesville. They were able to confirm that I have no infectious disease, viral or bacterial, which is good news. I laid out my case for the venlafaxine withdrawal syndrome that I think it is, and the doctor basically said it could be that, but he couldn't verify it. He cautioned me about using herbal remedies (I'm currently using an herbal 30-day cleanse) because they are unregulated and unproven, I thanked him for his input, and we left.

So basically, I'm on my own to get the garbage out of my system and get myself healthy. Tomorrow I go back to the gym. I am at once excited and scared to death. It's been five weeks and I'm feeling pretty weak. But at least I get to go.

Grammar.


I started to write a long and detailed post on proper comma usage, but then realized it would be easier to direct you to Grammar Girl, who has already written many great explanations of the different situations that require (or don't) commas. Please go visit her website and learn.

So I decided I would spend the last day (or two) going over a few random things that may or may not drive me nuts when I see them. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Improper use of quotation marks. If you mean what you're saying, don't use quotation marks as anything other than an indication of a direct quote. Have you ever seen a sign wherein some word was surrounded by cute little quotes like this:

Bananas on "sale" xx/lb.

What that sign is saying is that it's not really a sale. When you use quotation marks where they're not called for, you're saying that the word is not really what you mean. If you still don't understand what I'm talking about, check out The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. I go there when I need a good laugh.

2. Do not capitalize the word president unless it is followed by a last name (President Reagan) or preceded by Mr. in direct address (Mr. President). If you're just talking about the president, it's not capitalized.

3. I know most of you reading this already understand the importance of what I'm about to say, but for those one or two who don't, let me make this clear. IF YOU TYPE IN ALL CAPS, IT INDICATES YOU ARE SHOUTING AT ME. This is 2012. Every keyboard has a caps lock key. Find yours and make sure the little light is off.

4. Then means "at that time" or "next in order of time." Than is a word that is used to express comparative adjectives or adverbs (this is bigger than that; easier said than done).

I'll be back tomorrow with the month's wrap-up. And maybe a few more pet peeves.

Be thankful ~

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some of these things are fresh in my head, as we're working on them at school. I do appreciate the 'then/than' reminder. I think that I use them correctly, but sometimes I have to stop and think about it for a minute.

I hope that you have a nice time back at the gym. God bless your day!

Kayla said...

Please don't over do it at the gym, just because you are happy to be back. Okay?