(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

Advocates push for simpler 'spelling' -- Oh, my God, my eyes hurt SO MUCH from trying to read that.

I've written 2,500 words today, I'm thiiiiis close to finishing this goofy story, and I have to leave for work. DAMN IT.

EDIT: And a meme, because it'll give me something to look forward to when I get home from work tomorrow morning ...

There's a bunch of fic-based memes around. How did you pick the title, why did you start with that first line, what happens after the story ends, etc. If you like, pick a story of mine and ask me any one of those questions, from the ones I just listed or any others you can think of.

Comments

[denorios.livejournal.com]

Oh my God. That's just awful. Besides, it might work just fine inside the US but what would these poor kids do if they ever went overseas and were confronted with a world full of different spelling? Not just missing 'u's from words like 'color' and 'favorite' but seriously different spellings?

Oy. The stupid...it hurts.

[lavenderfrost.livejournal.com]

Not to mention, many of the variations in how words are pronounced are caused by regional dialects. The whole to-MAY-to vs. to-MAH-to thing.

What happens when a native Teksun goes to Kalyfornyuh or Noo Yawuhk and tries to interact with people, hm? God forbid they should go to England, where people speak real English.

[denorios.livejournal.com]

God forbid they should go to England, where people speak real English.

Indeed. Half the country already looks askance at Americans - this would only worsen the situation. Of course, the other half's spelling is just as bad and they probably wouldn't even notice.

[katbcoll.livejournal.com]

Okay, I think my brain sprained itself trying to understand that column. Really, how stupid must we appear to everyone else if adults whinge about how difficult it is to spell correctly??

[impertinence.livejournal.com]

"It's a very difficult thing to get something accepted like this," says Alan Mole, president of the American Literacy Council, which favors an end to "illogical spelling." The group says English has 42 sounds spelled in a bewildering 400 ways.

What. The. Fucking. Fuck.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Pray with me, brothers and sisters, for we have gazed upon the naked face of evil. It whispers to us, as of old, that nothing difficult is worth doing, that the primrose path is just as good a road to heaven as the narrow way. It seeks to debase and subvert language itself into the gibberish that resounds through the levels of hell.

Oh my gods, that is terrible.

[minotaurs.livejournal.com]

I don't know - there are some pretty cogent arguments for making our spelling rules simpler, and some pretty smart people in favor of it. But, oy, the disruption - a whole generation would have to know how to use both forms during the transition.

[siberian-skys.livejournal.com]

That has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever read. Instead of striving to have a smarter, better educated populace, these so-called experts what to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I'm a dyslexic and I manage to communicate in English without having simpler spelling. Not only does it make us appear foolish in the eyes of the rest of the world, not that me don't already, but it makes the written word ugly.

[trishalynn.livejournal.com]

I think that the reason why I'd be against this is that by changing the way we spell words, it also eradicates the history of them and where they came from.

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

Not to mention methods to parse unfamiliar words, by way of roots, prefixes, suffixes...

It's just. A really dumb idea. Harrumph.

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

*cough* Yeah, teach me to pop off a comment before I read the rest of an article...

[heyorion.livejournal.com]

i refuse to spell country as 'cuntry'. unless the sole inhabitants are george w. and tony blair.

[palmetto.livejournal.com]

I thought "dick" started with a D. They don't deserve to be called girlparts.

[heyorion.livejournal.com]

good point. forthwith, we shall refer to countries as 'dickies'.

[mercymydarling.livejournal.com]

No. NO. If the way things are spelled gets changed to make stupid people feel less stupid? I will shoot myself IN THE FACE.

[dragonsinger.livejournal.com]

Just in general, how do your story ideas develop? Do you start with a character, a setting, or a plot?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Most of the time, it's a plot, although for the Books of Boggs I get a lot of ideas from settings for the obvious reason that it's usually someplace I'm standing in and the thought will come up, "I can just picture Scarlett bounding across the rooftops," or, "The damage that Sean could do in a place like this ..."

But for fanfic, it's usually plot. I get a LOT of ideas from listening to music -- I pay an insane amount of attention to lyrics when I'm coming up with ideas, which is why I have to listen to music without lyrics when I'm writing. It tends to throw me off.

Plus, my mind has a crazy habit of wandering off in a thousand different directions, so a lot of the time I'll be in a conversation thinking, "I wonder what Dean would do with a line like that," and my mind will just go off on an entirely different track setting up a plotline or a scene. And I've taken to bringing a little notebook to work with me and writing down every tiny little insane plot idea, regardless of how ridiculous it might sound in my head.

I also play around a lot when I have a bunch of story ideas and none of them want to come out and play. Playing with points of view, tenses, things I've never written before ... if I sit there and try to focus on one plotline and one point of view and one tense all the time, my brain kind of short-circuits. :)

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

No. Please. No.

See also: what the fucking fuck?!

See also: the wtferies are in brilliant bloom, really they are.

See also: I had to learn it the hard way. Fuck that noise.

See also: AAAIIIIIEEEEE!

See also: The crazy, it hurts.

[gruyere.livejournal.com]

Thae sae th bee selebraets th ability of a fue stoodents to master a dificult sistem that stumps meny utherz hoo cuud do just as wel if speling were simpler.

Yes, and the Olympics celebrate the ability of a few athletes to master a difficult system. Hell, if being good at sports didn't require you to be talented and in good shape, I'd be a star!

[wtfbrain.livejournal.com]

Oh, God, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard. Seriously, WTF?

You know, I never really thought my learning English and being at the top of the class within the first year of coming to Canada was a big deal - because, hey, whoop de doo, people do it all the time, right? - but clearly, I was wrong. These people are so much dumber than my 13 year old self was... *headdesk*

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

They say the spelling bee celebrates a few people who can succeed where others could as well, if the rules were simpler.

First of all, if the rules were simpler, that would cut out my ability to succeed. Second of all, despite being 6'4" and 250, I want to be a prima donna ballerina, so I think that ballet should focus less on grace and ability to move and more on those of us with the flexibility of concrete.

[tabaqui]

OH *jayzus*.
First? I could barely read that article, those 'simpler spellings' were not at all easy to read and i didn't have a freakin' clue what some of them were at first glance.

Also - ow.

Also - is English *really* that hard? Since so many fuckin' people *learn it*!!!
Gah!
*flails*

[baileytc.livejournal.com]

I have a very soft spot for "Planning Ahead Never Gets You Anywhere" because it paints such a hopeful picture for Sam. And Dean's part of it, too, which is awesome.

So what happens after the story ends? Do Sam and Emily settle down and raise little psychic Winchesters? Do they go on the road with Dean and hunt? Do they open a ghostbusting-and-legal-services firm? All or none of the above?

[myniamh.livejournal.com]

stoodents
Oh god. Oh ow. Please make it stop!
u. Students. UUUU. U.
It is basically phonetically spelt as is!

*cries*

[squee1123.livejournal.com]

...now see that article just makes me fel like AMerica is just a little lazy. Besides changing the spellings this late in the game? No...it doesn't work.

[stevie-jane.livejournal.com]

Yes, promote stupidity, why not.

Never mind the fact that millions have already learned the English language and its spellings, if we flush the idea that better teaching improves literacy down the loo and let people with shit for brains take over it will make for a better America.

Also, electricity is evil, the world is flat and we should burn the witches.

[suaine.livejournal.com]

Ahahhahahhahahaha!!

Without lingering over the stupidity of those people, I wish to direct people to the mess that is the German orthographic reform. Currently, the government and reform supporters spell the new way, schools try to, a lot of publishers spell the old way and everyone above fifteen pretty much guesses every time they place a comma.

If they want phonetically spelled words they should just learn the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_for_English2>phonetic alphabet</a>. That's compatible with every dialect and will not make them look quite so stupid.

[suaine.livejournal.com]

phonetic alphabet. It's compatible with dialects AND has the added effect of making you look less like a moron if you use it.

[prettybird.livejournal.com]

*twitch*

I...what...muh?