Ragtag Giggagon

So Myk Pilgrim (whose books are available at Amazon ) has shown off his self-editing chops from his Instagram account . Tracking changes is not something I had considered while editing my own stuff but I took to it after seeing Myk post his own material and his hilariously self-critical comments. I added a few to my own edits below. One thing that I hadn't considered was how important this tool can be for making changes that work - often, if switching around or adding a clause, for example, you think it's "fixed" when in fact it's been potentially worsened by a clarification (or whatever else). Maintaining tracked changes allows you to return to that same section and see how it reads later with a cold eye, once you've left the editing alone and/or moved onto another section. If you're not doing this at the editing stage, perhaps you oughta! Great stuff altogether.

Okay. I would like to put this on the record. I did not put the bulleted point in that format. Okay? It does look good though. I think I will leave it like that. It’s not that I am a big fan of bullets or want one for myself. It just looks good. There’s a prominent Irish journalist whose interview I parodied a couple of years ago in this dump. He was discussing the adoption rights of same-sex couples at the time, expressing conservative views.  For some reason unbeknownst to myself, the word “Yehkunchya” (again, parodying his own writing – a terrifically creative workaround to avoid scatology in mainstream media, and highlighted in the image) went into bold on my blog. I didn’t put it into bold. I don’t know for how long it was in bold, and it may well have been more than a year, but the standalone word seemed far more severe in bold than it would have been if it was normal, like the surrounding text. I wouldn’t want this journalist to see that and think “In bold and everything....

First published in 2008, What Rhymes with Bastard by Linda Robertson (on Goodreads here ) is an amusing account of the author's life with her boyfriend, first in the UK and then in San Francisco around the turn of the millennium. Her fella is a junkie who tends to disappear only to re-appear days or weeks later, a little worse for wear, requiring stays in psych wards having lost the run of himself. Think typically English Hugh Grant type dialogue in this context and you get the idea. She, meanwhile, has been an assiduous student, painfully shy and academic and body conscious. She ultimately blossoms into what could be described as a reasonably competent copywriter at what appears to be a ludicrous advertising firm. (Or something.) Details on some of her job spec, and her work colleagues, highlight the crazy working life she led in SF. Meanwhile, she and her guy are crammed into an apartment with a bunch of other people.  She's musically creative too. Navigating this life while ...

You! Idiots! What are you doing with this stuff? Look! Look at what you return to us, in leprachaun form: LUCKY CHARMS? This is no accident of nature! It's got marshmallows in it FOR! BREAKFAST! There are generic versions here too - competing with marshmallow-breakfast rivals. There should be no marshmallow breakfast competitors. There should be no marshmallow breakfasts. Why is it so very important? Isn't there ENOUGH sugar? Why? Do you think for ONE SECOND that you can be both as beautiful as you are AND provide marshmallows for breakfast? It defies logic. It is appalling. AND MCDONALD'S? Slow down everybody! We're eating the beef and the Japanese is getting too tall to WORK THE MACHINERY! And this one: She has keys for eyes all the better to unlock your common sense! And a capo on the other eye to change the key whenever she wants! Except even SHE couldn't manage it. ON THE COVER OF A RUPERT MURDEROCK BROADSHEET! My life was going brilliantly until SHE came along...

An agnostic argument against the "Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God" The recent arguments for God's existence suggest that the probability of life is infinitesimal. The thrust of these arguments is made through the prisms of DNA and astronomy, inter alia. Feel free to comment or correct in the comments below. On the formation of life and our presence in the universe, even scientists say it’s very very very very very very very very very very very very very very unlikely, and there might be an intelligence behind it. There was a Big Bang. What caused it?  We’re not entirely sure, but there are scientific explanations. The universe has been cooling down, decaying, and expanding into a weaker state, diluting, or whatever else, ever since this Big Bang.  Brownian motion can operate in a quantum vacuum. (I just checked.) The early universe was filled with matter which was being blasted out.  The matter slows down, and these tiny particles gather together. It congreg...

In Broken Pieces , available at Amazon , Rachel Thompson proves extremely eloquent at sharing experiences of fear and trauma, and how she comes out the far side. She details abusive relationships in harrowing and frightening detail. She discusses stress, and coping mechanisms, and medication, and healing. Most of the pieces are about past abuse, or love, or stalking, or her fears for children - and men are usually to blame. Even rebound relationships feature, with a poetic beauty that could echo the adage that All's fair in love and war.  Thompson would not fall into the women's literature or chick lit categories. I was surprised by this book. Thompson's other work sometimes analyses gender dynamics through the prism of humor with expertise. Although few would deny they're pretty easy to figure out, she clearly understands and critiques men through hilarious insights in a way that is rare. This book could be regarded as the shadow side of this satire. The fragmentary n...

Could I suggest that this photo shows an Irish rugby player as more disrespectful of the British head of state than the US footballers are to the flag? O'Gara denied he did anything wrong or disrespectful. He said he wouldn't have attended if he didn't like the Queen. But could I also suggest that kneeling is a more respectful posture - indeed, it's far less confrontational, and jingoistic (or indeed patriotic, in a pejorative sense, if you'd like to label it that) than standing tall is? Standing with hand-on-heart could be the beginnings of a fascist salute. Fascists don't kneel. If you feel you've a right to do it - to stand up and face the flag or listen to the anthem as a proud American - you've earned that right as a citizen or resident.   But these football players are no slouches.

So I am pretty sure I've seen every episode of The West Wing in recent months (although I could be wrong). It took some time. I've watched at least 30 episodes more than twice. Lucky me, eh? Lucky. Me. (Coz it's good.) I got a Season Two boxset from Irish radio station Newstalk (on George Hook's show) after texting my answer to a TWW-related question back in the way back when, before the second series premiered in the Raging Thirties. Hook's been in some hot water recently over a comment he made (I believe) related to women inviting rape. There's nothing right about what he suggested. He apologised. Hook has also said in the past that he relied on his wife financially for much of their working lives, while he crossed streets to avoid debtors. He has said he'd be dead without the women in his life.  He also has (he claims) an aberrantly low cholesterol level, so I imagine this (apparently) conservative voice will be around for some time, even t...