Three months ago, I did not know what a comma splice was. I noticed them from time to time and it usually gave me a mild sense of benevolent superiority. Now I know what they are, they really bug me. The irony is that I learned about the comma splice through a blog post that mocks people for being wound up by them.
A comma splice is where a comma is used to join two distinct thoughts: “He ran into the forest, he was pretty scared.”
A more common comma abuse is using one where a complete thought is followed by an addendum: it’s usually more correct to use a colon or semicolon in those cases. For example: “Please do not throw your towels on the floor, use the bins provided.” I don’t know if that counts as a comma splice, since the two clauses are not completely self-sufficient.
This was going to be a post about what a White Person I have become, but I forgot what the other thing was that I started to get annoyed about only after I learned the name for it.
New legislation is being created, claimed Radio 4 this morning, to ensure equality amongst all groups. The legislation, which comes into force first in England, then later in Scotland and Wales…
It’s 6 years down the line, and there has been major news on the Big List.
To be clear, this list is not a list of things I must do before I die; it’s the list of things I can go to for inspiration in case of wondering what the hell life is supposed to be for and why I am bothering.
Find the movie containing the quote “In that case madam, I must insist you put on your safety belt”
This is the biggest breakthrough! My Bro’s beloved’s bro used to watch this all the time apparently, and thus the (chocolate) oscar winning H wins another gold star as far as I’m concerned. The movie is called Highpoint and was made in 1982. I searched every movie from the late 60s through to the end of the 70s trying to find this. Its IMDB writeup is sparse so I might never have found it. The car chase is moderately crap (+1) the dialog is weak but sardonic (+1) and it co-stars Beverly DeAngelo (+7) so I must get a hold of this and see it in its full splendour. It seems to have fallen off the map though as it’s only available in VHS as far as I can tell.
A meal in “meltons too”
Easily enough achieved. I’m glad I did it before it went downhill. The good news is that the chef and co-owner of Meltons itself was aware of the problems and had gone over to fix Meltons Too. Maybe it’ll be worth another try soon.
Find Peace
Found it, lost it again
Scuba Dive
Did this in 2004, learned and qualified in California (where the air is hot and the water’s cold) and then dived on the Great Barrier Reef, including a wonderful patch called (I think) Jorgi’s Reef, which is only open for a couple of weeks in the year, and therefore is a lot less dead than the rest of it.
Own a Convertible
Did this 2003 to 2005. That car was much loved, but its monthly upkeep meant it was incompatible with house ownership, which came in 2006.
Remaining items
These are the items still not done. Strangely, I don’t seem to have had any new ideas to add to this in six years.
- Visit northern Thailand
- see the mushroom houses in turkey
- learn to read / write Chinese
- speak better French
- learn Spanish
- see the northern lights
- spend xmas in barbados/caribbean
- float on dead sea
- see the burning waters near black sea
- visit Reykyavik
- visit Trinidad
- make a baby
- fly a plane
- visit Shanghai
- save a life
- own a pond
- have a place with a garage
- visit Singapore
- drive a ’60s sports car thru the Italian mountains
- drink chai in India again
- visit Malaysia
- beat the pension demographic
- speak better Dutch
- play a theremin
- see midnight sun
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