Monkey Madness Monday

So, it's Monday again.  It's been raining here for four days straight.  In the middle of July.  I mean, I know I live in Washington, but we usually get July and August sun.  This is ridiculous.  I bought a pool we've only been able to use twice, I left a bunch of crap outside on the last sunny day, not even able to fathom that rain was coming.  And I'm tired.  And cranky.  And frustrated. sigh.

I need to get rich so I can buy a place in AZ and hop a plane whenever the weather is like this.  I'm accepting donations (kidding).

On top of the rain, I just had a busy and frustrating weekend.  Teenage overload, one of which broke my elliptical.  I'm fatter than ever, I've GOT to get my ass working out and stop eating as if the world is ending tomorrow.  There were so many events I was supposed to attend it made my head spin out of control.  Did I mention the rain?  I had to drive about 30 miles to a soccer game on Friday, traffic was horrible, it poured down rain during the drive there, the entire game, and the drive home.

Even a Monday can't be as bad as all that.

At least I have cute monkeys to make me smile.

F³A: Teenage girls

They do goofy shit

There are anywhere from 3 to 7 teenage girls in my house on any given day.  Don't get me wrong, I don't mind.  I'd rather have them here then somewhere where I don't know what they're doing.  When they're here I know they're not drinking, or smoking, or doing drugs, or having sex.

I have over 1000 webcam pics of them on my computer

But they get on my computer, which I've told them is off limits.  It has everything I've ever written on it and I don't need some accidental deletions or computer virus wiping everything out.

They call this planking

I also look around my kitchen to empty glasses, half drank pops, empty juice boxes, dirty plates, and other assorted messes.

The other night I had to tell them shut the hell up because they were keeping me awake.  Last night I warned them before it happened.

They're good friends

They love quazy

But aside from all that, the girls that come over are so funny, and cute, and bubbly, I can't help but love them.  I feel like a second mother to them all, joking around with them, driving them all over the place, buying them pizza, and candy, and renting them movies.  It's actually a very rewarding experience having all these girls hanging out all the time.  And I think everyone of them is going to grow up to be a wonderful woman, and I will think that maybe I had to do with a little bitty part of it.




Friday Nibbles

Random iPod: Nothin' on You by B.O.B. and Bruno Mars

Book of the Week: Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris If you love zombie football players, you'll love this book.

Movie of the Week: The Green Mile.  Watched it again.  Awesome.  You should read the book too.  Some of Stephen King's best stuff in my opinion.

Quote of the Week: “Raising teenagers is like nailing Jello to a tree."”

Thursday's Third Degree

Yes, I know, I've changed the name of my Thursday blog yet again.  But how many themes could I possibly come up with.  So Thursdays I will now pose a question to my readers.  Today's question is:

What is your favorite fairy tale that hasn't been overdone?  When I say overdone I mean, hasn't been in movies a million times, hasn't been rewritten over and over.

Mine would be Snow White and Rose Red.  A facebook friend and I were just talking about this and what an awesome story it was/is.  And no, it's not the same "snow white" from the dwarf story.

So give it up.  What's your favorite?  Can be well known or obscure.

Wending Wednesday

Okay, these "W" words are killing me.  I'm going to keep changing them until I get some comments on my Wednesday posts.  The word "wend" means to travel or journey.  So I thought I would talk about  my writing journey.

I've always like to write, from the time I could, really.  Poems for my mom when I was little, to broody angsty songs and poetry in my teen years, to articles for the school paper and yearbook in my college days.

My novel writing began with death, which may or may not have an impact on why I write about death so often.  Many of you have probably already heard this story, but I'll repeat it for my new followers.  My mother-in-law was diagnosed with late stage cancer late 2001.  Rather than have her spend her last days in a nursing home, I quit my job and my husband and I took her in and cared for her with the help of hospice and family.

Her doctor said she had six months to a year to live.  She has also suffered a stroke a few years before, so she couldn't speak, and had to be fed through a tube in her stomach.  I sang to her, fed her, sat with her.  It was a rewarding experience.  Unfortunately, she only lasted three weeks.

Before quitting my job, my husband and I decided I would not go back to work after her death.  So I had time, and I was grieving, and I needed something to do, so I started my first novel.  It was titled Dena Powers: Superhero?

I'll continue the story next Wednesday.

Thanks for reading.

Megan

Tuesday Tips:

Okay, first off, I've zombified myself in honor of Carrie Harris's debut YA novel, Bad Taste in Boys, which releases today.  It's next on my to read list, and I've heard only great things about it.  And Carrie warned me that I shouldn't eat anything while reading it.  Carrie's full of awesomesauce and a member of the Class of 2k11.

Oh, and she's holding an auction to benefit the Giving Library at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. You can bid on signed books, query critiques, a book trailer created by me and more, all for a great cause. :) 

Okay, onward.  It's Tuesday Tip Day, and today, with the help of Punctuation Made Simple, we're talking about the semi-colon.

 1) To Connect Two Sentences

The semicolon is most often used to connect two sentences. Obviously, the sentences ought to be relatively close in content, but other than that you can connect any two sentences with a semicolon.

As a communicator, you are always putting together complex items in your prose and showing how they relate to one another. A semicolon is an economical way to join two sentences, and therefore two ideas, so that your reader sees the relationship. For example:

Megan is awesome; she can do no wrong.

Are you asleep yet?  Wait until the next paragraph. (this is not an example of the semicolon, but my own personal opinion about this lesson)

The  example above contains two sentences glued together by a semicolon. The second part of the sentence makes a comment on the first. Certainly, each sentence could be written as two sentences, but you wouldn’t be expressing the close relationship between the two parts that you do when you use a semicolon.

The important point to remember is that you must have a complete sentence on both sides of the semicolon. If your second sentence begins with a conjunction (and, but, or, etc.), you do not need a semicolon because the conjunction and the comma that usually goes with it are equivalent to a semicolon. Instead, combine two full sentences with the semicolon. (Didn't they already say this?)

Sometimes a sentence may begin with words like however, therefore, and nevertheless. If your second sentence begins with one of these words, and if it is indeed a full sentence, you still must use a semicolon to connect the two. An example:

However, this lessons is boring; nevertheless, it is also educational. 

Never glue two full sentences together with only a comma. Grammarians call this sentence error a comma splice.  A comma splice is considered ungrammatical because the reader begins reading the second sentence before realizing that the first sentence is completed. Readers are used to stopping at the end of a sentence, and they become disoriented when they find that they have unknowingly left one sentence and entered a new one. (Really?  Does anyone really think this hard about reading?)  This is why effective writers avoid the comma splice. Here is an example a of comma splice:

Megan has a great blog, she is always interesting to read.

The example constitutes two sentences glued together with a comma. You can correct a comma splice by inserting a semicolon between the two sentences, by adding a comma to your conjunction, or, of course, by punctuating them as two sentences. Whichever way you choose, however, you must make sure your final drafts do not contain comma splices.

There is one instance in which a comma splice is considered acceptable. Occasionally, you may have a list of items that could stand alone as full sentences. (I wrote about the comma last week, so I'm not going over this again.  Go read last Tuesdays blog if you want to find out about the comma)

2) As Supercomma

As you know, you normally separate the members of a list with commas, as in this sentence:

I have just read Stupid Fast, The Pull of Gravity, Popular, and Illegal.  

The commas let the reader know where one item ends and the next begins. Sometimes, however, you have a list of complex items and one (or more) of the items already contains a comma. In such a case, the reader is likely to get confused about what is really a member of the list and what is not. You can avoid this confusion by making the semicolon a sort of“supercomma.” 

        I've just traveled to: Scotsdale, AZ, Long Island, NY, and Leavenworth, WA.

This sentence contains so many commas, both between the members of the list and within them, that readers are likely to become confused. Instead, you can make the semicolon a supercomma between each of the members so that your meaning is clear:

       I've just traveled to: Scotsdale, AZ; Long Island, NY;  and Leavenworth, WA. 

The second sentence is clearer than the first because the reader knows exactly where members of the list begin and end. You probably will not need to use a semicolon as a supercomma often, but if your sentence contains a list of items, one (or more) of which already contains a comma, you can clarify your meaning by using the supercomma.

And thus ends today's lesson on the semi-colon.  Come back next Tuesday where we talk about the colon.