Serious New Year Resolutions
BC 2017-12-31
In 2018 I resolve:
To use far fewer dashes, parentheses, and "..." in my writing, and will instead use semicolons and commas. As a subsidiary issue, I will try to resolve my ambivalence about using semicolons at all.
I will continue to use the Oxford Comma. (this, this, and this. NOT this, this and this.)
That's it. Nothing about weight loss; diet; spending; sex; getting to bed on time; being nicer to the neighbors; requests to Satan to bring Donald home immediately if not sooner; giving money to beggars; cleaning the kitchen more often, etc.
I can reform my use of punctuation. Asking more of myself is an intolerable imposition.
To use far fewer dashes, parentheses, and "..." in my writing, and will instead use semicolons and commas. As a subsidiary issue, I will try to resolve my ambivalence about using semicolons at all.
I will continue to use the Oxford Comma. (this, this, and this. NOT this, this and this.)
That's it. Nothing about weight loss; diet; spending; sex; getting to bed on time; being nicer to the neighbors; requests to Satan to bring Donald home immediately if not sooner; giving money to beggars; cleaning the kitchen more often, etc.
I can reform my use of punctuation. Asking more of myself is an intolerable imposition.
Comments (24)
What about that vulturing image of you? That's pretty dank.
Which isn't to say punctuation isn't important.
Edited.
I'm the opposite of you; I resolve to use less semicolons; I'm someone who often has multiple thoughts firing in the brain at the same time, and because this experience can be overwhelming, I tend to write long sentences in which semicolons become necessary; and indeed, the sensation of writing a sentence that ends, and yet continues on in spite of itself can be addicting indeed; being able to connect disparate thoughts without officially ending a sentence via a period (while also being required to fulfill all of the grammatical rules that create a proper sentence) is the true hallmark of the semicolon use; in other words, true semicolon use is demarcated by complete thoughts which are inextricably linked; they're linked in a such a way that a full stop period conveys something vaguely lacking; what's lacking, indeed, is a sense of flow; what's lacking is a sense of continuity.
Kramer approves. I also like short sentences. Semicolon use is an all-or-nothing affair. I say either go all the way, or don't go at all. Brevity is often best. I can go on and on. But when I do, I like to go at a short clip. I like to either go fast, or go slow. But, it ultimately doesn't matter. What matters is what is expressed. And if what's expressed is expressed succinctly or laboriously is, I think, inconsequential. There are many, many ways of saying the same thing.
Or nothing at all.
Ah; are you catching on to me? Are you, BC, finding a pattern; are you finding something oh so characteristic in my writing that, as a reader, as an interpreter of what I say, you find that you're finally finding a final feeling about the sorts of philosophical findings that I finalize? True; my writing here is verbose; yes; but is it? What, exactly, do you find oh so non-canonical that you find the need to use such a paltry phrase as "or nothing at all" when responding to the resplendent aura of the light of the phrases that I use in order to intimate such specific linguistic phenomena as the sorts of meanings which I'm trying to instigate?
Damn, I liked that vulture. I thought it represented the new (and improved?) you.
I've always assume BC chose the blue jay for the same reason I choose a crow - they are raucous, argumentative, and cranky. I've always loved blue jays. I played football for the Seaford, Delaware HS Blue Jays. I also like red squirrels, chipmunks, mockingbirds. Anything loud and bad-tempered.
Quoting Bitter Crank
I am going to stop being so paranoid and suspicious that people think it is hard to get along with me.
Or as Camus liked to say "Find an excess in moderation".
Anyway, on a more serious note, I'm resolving to start taking care of myself this year; physically, spiritually, emotionally, etc. Can't kill yourself forever.
I object to the commas in both sentences above. But I like this attention to prose style.
Should I have combined my two sentences into one? Maybe. But I like the extra pause that comes with a period before a 'but.'
I salute you. Oxford Comma all the way.