For those of you who "speak" English...

And yeah, I know everyone isn't an American, or even an English speaker, so don't even start with me on the ethnocentric bullshit. Second Life has really opened the world up for me. *cough* To paraphrase some ignorant Republican president, it's all separate little countries out there! Who knew.

But for those of you who speak English as a first language, there really isn't any excuse for the blatant ignorance and sheer laziness that infects your speech and writing.

I'll break it down for you so you might improve your communication, not only on Second Life, but everywhere -- your home, your job, your life. OMG, you say, what a pile of high-minded horseshit! Yes. Haha.

If you're sticking an apostrophe in a word, please expand the contraction and see if it sounds right.

Example: Put you're clothes back on. I have no interest in SLexing.

If you expanded that contraction, would it make sense? "Put you are clothes back on." No. It doesn't. The word is 'your,' not 'you're.' Likewise, when you say to someone, "Your the hottest av since that centaur I saw at so-and-so's party," the word is 'you're.' It's two words, 'you' and 'are,' cobbled together into one neat little package. Isn't the English language fun?

Loose and lose are not interchangeable. By the same token, neither are led and lead.

Example: Oh! You have a loose tooth! The tooth fairy might visit you tonight!

Listen for that hard s sound. That word has two o's. If you hear a z sound, the word is lose, not loose.

Example: Oh no! Did you lose your virginity AGAIN?

See? The z sound tips you off to use only one o.

Lead is kind of tricky because it can have a long e sound, like when you lead someone around on a leash. Present tense. Or when you lead in a dance. Or you lead a parade. It can also have a short e sound, when talking about the heavy metal that can be found in pipes and paint. Pb on the periodic table, just in case you want to know that.

But if you're talking about the past tense of the verb "lead," then the word is led.

Example: You led me around on a leash last night.

THERE / THEIR / THEY'RE

Three separate words, three separate meanings, three distinctly different uses.

'There' refers to a place ("Put the glass over there."); 'their' is possessive ("What is their problem?"); and 'they're' is another one of those pesky contractions you can expand to see if it makes sense ("They're possibly the most ignorant people on the face of the planet.").

Don't use "I" when it's a direct object.

Hmm. A direct object is something being acted upon by a preposition. Prepositions are "of, with, in, to, on..." There are others. If you say, for example, "Come with my sister and I to the store," you may think it makes you sound smart, but you'd be wrong. The word should be 'me,' not 'I.' If you removed your sister from the equation, would it make sense to say the word 'I?' "Come with I to the store.' No. It doesn't make sense. You would say 'my sister and I' if it was the subject of the sentence. For example, "My sister and I will go with you to the store."

Who's vs. Whose

Again, if you can expand the contraction to "Who is," then use "Who's." Otherwise, the word is 'whose,' which is possessive.

Irregardless

Don't even go there.


Oh, you just know there are more... Look for part two coming up sometime soon. And three...and four....and...........

Ben's blog

First off...if you don't go there already (and I can't believe that you wouldn't), go here:

slmen.com

Now. Ben Vanguard had this on his blog and tagged me, so I'm doing it, too. Not sure whom I'll tag, though...

Here are the rules:

1/ Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2/ People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3/ At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4/ Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 things about me.....

I...

1/ am addicted to coffee.

2/ used to be afraid of zombies until I saw Shaun of the Dead.

3/ am turned on by guys wearing suits.

4/ write poetry.

5/ used to be a lifeguard.

6/ bite my nails.

7/ bake a mean loaf of bread.

8/ love to sleep, but I hardly ever do.

I will tag the next 8 people who read this, including AZ!

Yeah, yeah, I'm a stickler when it comes to grammar and spelling...

Please don't call me a grammar nazi, but I'm frankly tired of all the misspellings on Second Life vendors. I can understand it in chat, but come on...you spend the time creating items to sell, work hard (mostly) to design the space to sell them, put together your vendors with carefully posed photos and photoshopped words and prices, and you can't freaking take the time to check the spelling on the ads that everyone sees in order to buy your products?

I've assembled a few examples of misspelled vendors. Glaringly misspelled vendors. At least one of these, I IM'd the creator months ago and mentioned the misspelling, and he told me he was aware of it. He has since redesigned his entire shop and STILL misspelled the same word. Sorry, but I have to chuckle.

Nothing personal against any of the designers responsible for these signs. I don't even remember where I got most of them, to be honest.

But if any of these signs is yours, I don't wanna hear excuses. Just fix the damn things! ;)

Griefers and Boredom and Tedium...

In the middle of the night, I took a quick trip to Chip Midnight's shop to show a friend his black male skins. While standing in the entryway of the shop, we were approached by someone muttering 'cage' while some sparkly laserish trails drifted toward us. I should have opened my inventory at that point and thrown on a shield, but I've been told in the past by friends I'm paranoid when they've encountered the shield later when I've forgotten to remove it.

Moments later, the griefer repeated her (I say her because the quick glance I got made me think it was a female av, but I'm really not sure) 'cage' command, and a cage materialized around me and my friend. Followed by foam.

In the grand scheme of SL, none of this is a big deal, I suppose. My friend calmly said 'don't feed the troll' while I admittedly lost my temper and hurled a few names.

I don't know. I'm becoming more and more disillusioned by Second Life these days. Between the obnoxious people, the grammatical laziness (come on people....is it really that hard to distinguish between 'your' and 'you're'? 'to' and 'too'?), and the out-and-out mind-numbing boredom, I find myself more and more wandering aimlessly, trying to find *something* to do.

And not finding it.

I'm really not that hard to amuse, seriously. And no, I'm not expecting someone to stand in front of me and keep me entertained. But, this *is* a game, right? It should be fun, at least?

Where do all of you go for fun? Give me some ideas. I'm tired of wandering and shopping.

Suicide in Second Life

Tuesday, June 5, was a day like any other in my Second Life. Chatted with friends here and there, hung out in shops, explored a bit. Watched a friend work -- watched several friends work, now that I think about it. A lot of my time on Second Life is spent watching other people work. Not that I mind...I learn a lot by watching my talented builder, designer, and blogger friends doing what they do. I've always been one who learns by both watching and trying things myself. I never read the manual.

Late at night, emptiness set in as it frequently does. I don't sleep enough, and last night was no exception. In my year on Second Life, I've done a lot of exploring, and one of the more intriguing things that has piqued my curiosity is the Suicide Booth.

Oh, I know. Pretty emo of me to be thinking of ending my second life. But better that than my first life, no?

With my friend in tow, we went to Tiretta, where the Suicide Booth is located (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tiretta/131/210/58). I contemplated the various death types (quick, slow, agonising, torturous, party political broadcast painful, OHFUCK, Make it Stop, "I can't believe how much that hurts!") and chose the highest level of pain. It was the luck of the click, actually, completely inadvertent and only discovered five seconds before my death.

I paid my 25 lindens and stepped into the booth. The doors closed behind me. Since I wasn't in mouselook, I stared at the closed booth doors, not able to see my own avatar and what kind of anguish he was enduring. As the five seconds counted down, I waited, unsure of what would happen. Five seconds later, I was transported home to Tragically Misunderstood Artists (how appropriate!), where I received an IM from my friend, who reported that the doors had opened to the sight of some rapidly disappearing red particles (too quick to photograph, damn), but alas, no me.

Assuring him I was simply 'home,' he announced the suicide booth to be a scam, I laughed, and continued my search for suicide-related hits in SL. I came upon Asagao Memorial Park (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Asagao/83/167/25), dedicated to the memory of those who have committed suicide. I assume the old fashioned kind involving real pain, real funerals, and real people left behind to grieve the loss of their loved ones. I understand that grief, unfortunately, and I was keenly aware of the callousness of my having ended my avatar's life in such a cavalier manner. My friend who hanged himself right out of high school was certainly in a great deal more anguish than I was when suffering from a vague 'emptiness' that I couldn't even put into words when asked. I also know that he would have seen the humor in my entering that booth in a tacky mainland sim, paying my 25L and waiting for the end.

I'm back, btw. My suicide sparked my first blog post (lucky you!), so it wasn't entirely in vain.