New Potato Caboose

I haven't been writing for a while. My workload gives me very little time to think, let alone write. When I do get home, there are better things to do than spend more time in front of an LCD screen.

Of course, the urge to write has also been somewhat reduced, owing to reasons beyond my comprehension. I have found that I write when I'm very happy or very angry (I'm not bipolar - but these are the two emotions I usually feel). I guess I've been relatively subdued and that has translated to the occasional blip on your reader. Most of my writing comes from 15 minute free flow typing and minimal editing - translation of ideas in the early morning or late night. I suppose the quality of the content here reflects that. After all, if anything requires over 25 minutes of concentration, it can't be really worth it. Those ideas still do popup in the head, only the drive to put them to screen seems to have diminished. Oh well. Circle of life.

People take spelling and grammar seriously at quite the unusual occasions. Say, when on the losing side of an internet argument. Or perhaps when they see a colored kid with a piece of writing next to him. Last weekend, I was participating in University of Colorado's International Festival and manning the entrance when this lady said she found "grammatical errors" in the piece of paper by my side. It was the script for the evening's show, fleshed out by a very British emcee. I don't suppose she knew that, and was very surprised when I told her it wasn't my writing. She said she'd love to help point out more mistakes but didn't quite have the time. Thank you, I guess?

During English lessons in the 4th grade, we were asked to form sentences from a list of words, one of them being "forsake". A friend at the time came up with

"My mother asked me to study, and I will forsake her".

Some people like breaking big words down, and I'm guessing that attempt resulted in "for" + "sake" = forsake. Combine with bad grammar and best of intentions and mix well to get recipe for amateur school counseling. The teacher called him and lectured him thus (in front of everyone, of course) -

"In life, we are asked to do things that are unpleasant and unfavorable. We think our parents are out to get us when in reality they have our best interests in mind. Suppose your mother didn't let you play last night, she may have had a good reason to do so. Homework is important, she knows it and so should you.  Nothing good will come out of thinking unpleasantly about her".

My friend returned, sat next to me, and said  - "huh?"

Thank god for instant judgement. They make for long lasting memories.