Amusing Sensitivites

Today I had an interesting encounter, to say the least.  One of my friends, whom I've known for a quarter of a century, is having her second child. She had posted on her profile saying that she couldn't wait til the baby came since the skin on her stomach was hurting and, I'm assuming, itchy.

One of her friends posted a long, run on sentence.  I've been polite enough to erase her name so as not to completely identify her.

Alright...so I admit. Perhaps it WAS bad taste to critique someone I don't know. I only mentioned that she had written a long, run on sentence.  It in no way was meant to be offensive. I like to state facts. However, her responses below are what take the cake.

Well, first off, I myself am just a LITTLE confused (not really - I'm just being a bit saucy at the moment).  How does my comment reflect on her ability to be a good friend?     She said, and I quote,  "Im only being a nice person..." End quote.  But her initial posting was long. Mine merely mentioned that her sentence was a run on sentence, not bashing her on her qualities of being a good friend.  Where does it say that I said she's not a good person?

How am I supposed to know how to read something that has absolutely no punctuation, is misspelled and makes NO sense? I had to reread it FOUR or FIVE times just to make sure I was following along.  I believe we must go back to the part in grade school where reading and comprehension were being covered.

But it doesn't stop there. This one actually MADE ME LAUGH. She felt SOOOO compelled to send me a message on Facebook because my factual statement of "You have a long, run-on sentence" pissed her off!

I did apologize to her, as you can see above. Like I mentioned before, it certainly was NOT my intention to offend her and I was stating a fact. 

As you can also see - she doesn't seem very educated, which is actually sad.  It's that stuff such as what you see above that can show you she may be lacking in some areas and may need assistance (I'm being serious here - not making fun of her lack of education).  For the record, no, I do not know this woman. I certainly wouldn't want her in my circle of friends.

I'm a multi-lingual snob.  However, if you're monolingual, you should KNOW how to speak and write in your own language!

As I also mentioned to this person, "I am an editor".  Maybe I am not at the moment. (At least not in English.)  I edit Spanish papers for grammar mistakes.  The concept is still the same whether or not it is English or Spanish. (But I did used to work for a newspaper - that was written in English, I might add)

Let me add this by saying that you DO NOT spell "what" as "wat".  Nor, unless you are a certified designer of the graphic kind, are you allowed to even FATHOM using a dollar sign to replace the letter "S".

Might I even suggest that she refrain from calling people she does not know female members of the canine family?  If she's going to do that, then OF COURSE....it makes sense....she is one too!  An interrogative does NOT begin with a letter of "Y" (and she had the gall to put it in lowercase).

I remember writing to my friends in the SEVENTH grade like she's writing now, even though I used proper punctuation in my essays and term papers. I think she must be about 30 years old or a little older. That was over 16 years ago (At least, it was for me. Perhaps that was yesterday for her?)


Okay, so this long rant to say, or rather, answer this person's question of "Does it really matter???????"  - Perhaps, no, it really does not matter how you write to your friends.

Should I have used more caution in posting my statement?  Yes. I should have also edited mine before I posted it for my own punctuation.  Hey, at least I CAN ADMIT that it may not have been nice of me and that I also made typographical mistakes. Like I said, it was a statement (it was true statement), not meant to be mean or hurtful.  My post right now is really NOT NICE. ;-)

However, I am a teacher and like most of my colleagues, my job doesn't end when I leave to go home for the day. I'm also in the design business where critiquing comes naturally to everyone and we don't take offense to each others criticisms. We take them and we MAKE something of them (usually in the form of corrections and resubmission)

I feel the need to teach people wherever I go - if it's on the corner, at church, in my car or simply on a social networking site.

Thanx 4 reding. im shure u njoid it i hope it dosent make u mad that i rite like dis u wanna no y i rite like dis i dint get a kwalty edicashun.




Yep, I guess that's just what I had to say.