Rantings and rumblings...
I feel like an arbiter of fashion... Or maybe just an idiot.
The following rant is brought to you by the letters P, Q and the number 13. To the people who are going to say, "You're being a hypocrite, you should talk to the person about this." I did. The response was, "This is all in fun, anyway! And I'm stupid, so I don't know how this works!"
Okay. So. Was recently vaguely snarky at someone about a few basic things.
Capitalization at the beginning of a sentence.
Punctuation at the end.
These are NOT two hard concepts to grasp.
Or so I thought.
No, apparently, they are massively difficult to learn, and require you to be smart and intelligent.
...the FUCK?
And people wonder why I think the American school system is worth shit.
Honestly. HOW HARD is it to remember to put a Capital Letter at the Beginning of a Sentence? (jesus, I'm ranting like a deranged creature). Seriously, folks, I think I was taught that in fucking kindergarten. I was all of 5 and a half.
I know. I know I'm fucking spoiled because I tend to be masochistically perfectionist (there's sarcasm and self-mockery in there) about my copy (I used to be on the school paper. I was the ONLY one who continually turned in clean copy -- and, yes, I am fucking proud to have been complemented on that by an editor for the local professional newspaper.), which leads to there being few typos... But part of that is six years of slogging away at writing, and part of it is knowing to put a capital fucking letter at the beginning of a sentence.
It really is not hard to throw a story into word, wordperfect, or even a fucking email program (hell, YAHOO has spellcheck on all outgoing email!) and spellcheck it. This doesn't catch everything, of course (don't let me self-flagellate about 'The Way We Live Now' and its there/their and your/you're problems -- or the missed question with the wrong punctuation).
No, sadly, word/etc. don't appear to catch mistakes in sentence endings and beginnings (unless it's set, since it did it to me at work, where it would constantly auto-correct into capital letters). But how hard is this to catch?
*does not scream*
Why is it so bad to want someone to improve? To tell them the fucking truth about what they're writing?
God. Just. Shoot me now. I mean, REALLY, people.
I keep forgetting that comicbook fic had such a higher standard set -- oh, yes, we had our idiots and morons, but they weren't told how fabulous they were and patted on the back. They were generally ignored until they went away. The Borg would not want these people. They'd start to assimilate them then just kill them so as not to dumb down the Collective.
*dryly* Yes, I'm irritated, why do you ask?
In response to the people who refuse to take advice on beta? I name you Maria Cline, and I claim my five pounds.
Although, I kinda miss Maria. At least she was amusing. And disappeared to terrorize Pokemon fandom.
Dear Gods and Goddesses above and below, please give me the power to shunt people who refuse to improve off to other fandoms. Like anime, where crap IS the standard. kthnxbai.