The Fry Side

Since dropping graduate school from my life for the time being, I have been reading. After the beginning of college eight years ago, I haven’t read much for myself. Apart from Harry Potter audiobooks while driving across the country (and Deathly Hallows the moment it came out), and the Twilight series at my wife’s insistence (my man card was duly handed in), my reading has for school and only school.

Now I’m halfway through the third book of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. It is definitely a great series, but now I was thinking of lining up some non-fiction to follow it up with. I was originally planning to slip in some other reading between the Dark Materials books, but by halfway through The Golden Compass that plan was nixed.

Still, what to follow these books with? I’m going to read The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a favorite blogger of mine at The Atlantic. After that, I was thinking of reading up on writing. Here are a couple of ideas:

• Writing Down the Bones – Natalie Goldberg
• On Writing – Stephen King
• Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing – Mignon Fogarty (this is more for personal reference.)

Any other suggestions out there?

Darn amusing.

When I first got my cell phone about two years ago, I downloaded a bunch of ringtones.  Mostly songs.

When the phone would ring, the cell phone would somehow assign different songs to different callers.  If it was from someone I knew, it was one song.  If it was from someone with no caller ID, it was another.  And certain people seemed to have their own specific songs.  Maybe it’s something I did when downloading the songs.  I don’t know.  But it seems very random.

Long story short, I have gotten tired of these songs.  So last week I downloaded some new songs by U2, Coldplay and B.B. King.  The new songs are great.

But last night, I lost my cell phone.

I suspected it was somewhere in the house, but I couldn’t find it.  So I asked my wife Staci if she would call my phone, so I could hear it ring and find it.

So she called it.  And she heard the ring my cell phone decided to assign to my wife’s calls:

“The Thrill is Gone.”

It was a long night.

I have encountered many times in my life where my upbringing has steered me wrong. I still say ‘soda’ instead of ‘pop’. I expect my fellow drivers to use turn signals (or directionals, or blinkers). I bother opening my mouth at all when my wife’s in earshot.

But none have cut me so deep as to learn this news from my dearly beloved Grammar Girl:

Although how many spaces you use is ultimately a style choice, using one space is by far the most widely accepted and logical style. The Chicago Manual of Style (1), the AP Stylebook (2), and the Modern Language Association (3) all recommend using one space after a period at the end of a sentence. Furthermore, page designers have written in begging me to encourage people to use one space because if you send them a document with two spaces after the periods, they have to go in and take all the extra spaces out.

I know it’s a hard habit to break if you were trained to use two spaces, but if you can, give one space a try.

Now, I’ve Twittered about this before:

I double-space my sentences on Twitter. It’s what I learned, and I’m proud of it.

This usage went unquestioned my entire life. I must have been right on the cusp of the shift away from typewriters. I learned to type on ancient Apple IIe computers in elementary school. I don’t recall having many font selections on those computers that lacked hard drives.

The worst part about this news? It makes complete sense. (Son of a bitch, I’ve been double-spacing this whole blog to this point!) There really is no reason to add a second space after a period. I certainly don’t try when texting. Plus it works better stylistically for phrases such as this:

Worst. Episode. Ever.

It will definitely be a tough habit to break. Two spaces after a full stop is practically a nervous tic. And frankly, I really enjoy being ornery when it comes to the advancement of humankind. I still refuse to fax. It’s a sin brought unto man by Lucifer himself.

Today I tried to write the world ‘Goggles’ and instead wrote ‘Googles’. I knew I wrote it incorrectly, but it still took a few moments to realize why it was wrong.

Since this was from Canada, I am going to assume it was quite purposeful.

(Found via The FAIL Blog.)

Irony defined: if the truck hit another truck carrying a load of plan-b pills.

Today is the first National Grammar Day. I’m all for it. National Grammar Day is set to become far more useful than Earth Day ever could be. I envision ten years from now there will be National Grammar Day riots where mobs will be armed with only red pens. Until that day comes, I will sit back and enjoy a Grammartini (until someone comes up with a Grammargarita, of course).

I just spent half a day (at random intervals) trying to figure out why a new coworker couldn’t access her email.

First I had to figure out the new default password convention. Then I had to figure out the numeric portion of the password.

I tested it. I got in. I logged off and passed the information to her. Success!

She comes back later. Something’s not right. She has had no success.

Oh, well this morning the mail servers were down for a bit. I logged into her email on my machine. Success for me again. We double-checked the password and I wrote it down again on a new sticky note and passed it along.

She hops over to another computer station in the room and logs into her email. Almost.

I look over her shoulder. Username was correct. What are you typing in for your password? This, this, 2…

Two? Uh, that’s an ampersand. I don’t know what that is. (Like a grammarian checking the price of a car: stickler shock!) It’s the & right here, just press shift-7.

Oh. Shift on this and this? No, just the &, shift-7. Okay, thank you. No problem.

My chest hurts.

Addendum:

I know writing an ampersand can be difficult. It’s not a commonly used symbol anymore. But I write a good one. Why? I actually spent the time practicing it and intentionally using it in my notes. It is clear and unmistakable, unlike the rest of my handwriting.

The notion of rewinding is dying.

My colleague teaches a course involving video production and editing. At the beginning of the term, he takes his students through the ins and outs of the equipment. Going through how to use the video camera, a students would record their clip, switch the camera to playback mode, and hit play.

It is there they would run into trouble: blank space. Why would this happen? Any of us who have a memory that recalls years that begin with the number 1 can explain.

The cameras being used are digital, but still use tapes. For those unfamiliar, tapes are wound up magnetic strips that have information encoded on them as they move. So in order to get back to a previous recording, one must physically rewind the tape to the spot containing the desired information.

But beyond this exercise, when would these people born around 1996 use anything on a tape? You don’t have to rewind a CD or DVD (a fact I was slow to learn about DVDs). And there is nothing to rewind on a computer. In fact, computers will soon no longer need any moving parts at all thanks to solid state hard drives.

This idea left me wondering: what will become of this word? There is nothing left to rewind. Time will forever remain still. There will no longer be a continuum. I will say to my children, ‘Woah there; let’s rewind a bit and start over.’ and they look at me and wonder if I’m talking about that stone wheel that was constructed when I was a kid or if I remember where I was when I heard Man discovered fire.

I have had One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest on my bedside table for over a month now. I cracked it open nearly two months ago, I think. It’s really good, and I’m nearly done with it.

I read recently an article about a woman who averages more than a book a day. She consumes things differently, almost taking a page in as a whole, rather than line by line. Granted, this is an extreme, and she is a professional reader and reviewer. I still envy it.

I very much wish to learn how to speed read. When reading, I hear the words and phrasing in my mind. This leaves me getting caught up on more complex or awkward lines.

Other issues come from my lack of retention. Of course with reading, same as listening, some things stick and some done. However with me, as my dear wife will attest, I seem to have a much greater amount of anti-adhesive than the average person. It’s not really through lack of trying, I don’t think. A big part of it has to come from environment and especially sound.

I am no multitasker. Frankly, I’m of the camp that believes multitasking is a misnomer. It’s more like fraction-tasking. Either way, I cannot pull it off; I have a bad filter for concentrating.

If there is noise in the background, particularly voices, it blocks my reading. Writing not as much, but definitely reading. Maybe it’s because I read with a voice in my mind. I cannot read with the television on or with someone talking to me. One will definitely get filtered out, or if I’m trying to split my attention, neither get retained.

Back to the original point: I wish I could speed read. Maybe somewhere I’ll find a program that works for that. The big trick is to take away the inner voice that translates the reading and allow the words to just go straight into the brain.

If I could do that, I think I would have more confidence as a writer. I don’t consume enough writing to know if what I do is good or not. For blogging, I feel like I don’t read through and retain enough material to make use of it. And in the blogosphere, he who hesitates is definitely lost.

Anyone with a recommendation to a speed reading program, or at least tricks to read faster and better, please do let me know.