Entries tagged with whinging

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: home office

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:(

Well. We lost. And I will say straight up that the team we played were very good, and we did not at all look like the team we have been. However, I think the biggest factor in this game was THE EFFIN' REFS.

I mean, everyone could tell these guys were godawful. They called tons of fouls on us that weren't there, or that they didn't call when the other team blatantly committed them, they failed to call lots of things, not just fouls, and it was just really bad. The NCAA should suspend these guys.

Not that we helped ourselves much; Steph Curry only had 20 points, and we just really looked bad on offencive boards, got the ball stripped from us on fast breaks and driving to the basket, the works. Ugh. We need a turnaround, and fast.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Electronic Classroom in Little Library
Current Music: other students frantically doing work before Monday rolls around

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This software almost had me in tears

And then I asked the ever-helpful reference librarian for HALP!!1 (Of course, if they designed RefWorks and Write'N'Cite to work on any platform instead of just Microsoft, I would have used it more than once about three years ago. Ahem.

So, just a shout-out to

russianmissile, for helping me carry about half the contents of the library to my car earlier. From a second-floor carrel. It took me two trips down to the checkout to get them all, but this is misleading because I had the use of 1)an elevator from the 1970s, 2)a satchel and the top part of my craft tote, and 3)a rather large stack of books in my arms. All bags were stuffed full for the trip to the car, and

russianmissile and I still had to carry a stack of books apiece.

Anyway, there's a list of sources from one of the three guys I'm waiting on, so I'd better stop fleeing homework now and finish up so I can go home.

Current Mood: cranky
Current Location: electronic classroom

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Grrr...die, Microsoft.

Okay. I know like, ten years ago, Microsoft was just about the only option out there as far as a 'universal' OS went for computers. You could even have reasonably made that argument up to say, 2003 or so. But with the resurgence of Apple, and the growing prominence of old-school systems like Unix and multi-flavours of Linux (my personal choice), you can no longer argue this.

SO CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY MY IDIOT SCHOOL HASN'T REALISED THIS?!

It's not even like they can claim, 'Oh, we never supported anything but Mac and Windows,' because up until just this year (really just this semester), they fully supported Linux, along with Mac and Windows. So far as I know, there is no reason to stop supporting Linux; it's not like it costs money or anything.

So why the change? I've not been able to get a good answer to this, but I am in the process of tracking down why I can get a network address from 'borrowed' LAN all over the rest of campus, but not in the Library. (I already can't use our wireless anymore, since it only supports Windows and Mac users, and really doesn't like that it has to do something extra to support Macs.)

This is an expensive school, and I know I've paid more than enough in tuition here to justify my demands for equal treatment.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: beanbag in Huge Room o' Hugeness!

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Slight Grammar Review, Class

Okay. I have to say this, really I do. I love the fact that people write fiction and post it on the internet; it's amazing that our society has developed this thing that lets me read so much for free. And so I realise I probably shouldn't then complain about people's spelling and grammar, but somehow I still feel like I have the right to demand that writers take a good look through Strunk & White or something.

~Homophones--these are really not that hard if someone will take three seconds to think before using their/they're/there, its/it's, and a few others each time. Plus, be consistent. So frustrating when authors use 'they're' properly once, then next instance use 'they'll' because they're not paying attention.

~Appositives--as a quick reminder to those who have understandably forgotten this bit of arcanery, an appositive is when you set something off with commas. For instance, the sentence 'He looked out over the horizon and reached, one hand out in supplication, for absolution.' contains the appositive 'one hand out in supplication'. I'm so tired of people not closing their appositives, creating comma splices.

~Missing out words--I know often when one types up a fic post, one is in a hurry, but seriously, this doesn't negate the need to read it carefully before clicking Post. I see lots of entries that contain sentences missing entire words or even groups of words, and that not only makes the story more difficult to understand, it takes the reader out of the story while she has to figure out what those missing words are.

Similarly, I see he and she getting mixed up by accident, and it can be humourous, but mostly it's annoying. Again, easily solved by checking post carefully or getting a careful beta/editor.

ETA: Ooh, I was just reminded how much this one bugs me: 'discrete/discretely' refers to a solid, concrete concept in literature or describes sets of numbers in maths. 'Discreet/discreetly', on the other hand (or foot), is what fic writers usually want, and means to perform an action in a covert or politely unnoticeable manner.

Anyway, I really just felt like I couldn't keep this in any longer; it's not meant in a mean spirit at all, and lord knows I respect the hell out of all the writers out there. Just, please, make sure you take the time your awesome stories deserve and go over them a lot right before you click that post button!