• @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    It’s a minor niggle I was joking about with hyperbole, but it does bother me a bit because ‘when’ means a specific time and ‘whenever’ means any of multiple times. Their meaning isn’t interchangeable.

    Like: ‘I talked to my dad when he was in town’ means I talked with him that last time he was in town, but ‘I talked to my dad whenever he was in town’ means any or all the times he was in town – it might have been a hundred times or two, I can’t tell, but not the one time like the other more accurate sentence.

    It doesn’t make me mad, but it very briefly ruffles my feathers. (e: and then I move right on)

    • @theangryseal
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      21 year ago

      I honestly get why it bugs you, there are things like that that bug me too. I can’t think of any at the moment (fairly intoxicated), but I definitely know of some words (not specifically at the moment, again, intoxicated) that irk me when misused. Not as much now that I’m older and I’ve met incredibly intelligent people who can’t even spell their own name. Well, that and my own ego has shrank by at least three quarters.

      When I believed that I was some hyper intelligent alien, every misuse of a word made me cringe to my core.

      At 38 years old (recently gained a year because for some reason I thought I was 39), I realize that I’m not shit and younger me just needed to feel superior for whatever reason.

      I don’t know. I’m drunk. Sorry if I made no sense or was insulting in some way.

      Hope you’re having a good night.

      • @[email protected]
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        21 year ago

        52 here. I think I get more annoyed with certain phrases the older I get. Like I said, not enough to be actually aggravated, but certain phrases raise my hackles every time, and ‘whenever’ is a big one.

        It may be because there’s someone on a podcast I regularly listen to who does this, or it may be because I’m a writer and am more keyed in to errors like this, or it may be both.

        I may also be inebriated.

        • @theangryseal
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          21 year ago

          Oh I get that big time. I was listening to Dan Cummins do a podcast about Julius Caesar recently and every time he said Pompey like “Pompeii” I screamed at my speakers, “IT’S POM-PEE!!! GODDAMNIT! IT’S POM…PEEEEEE!!!”

          But he prefaces his episodes by saying, “I’m gonna mispronounce the fuck out of these names.” So I calm the fuck down and carry on haha.

          I’m a writer too (or I was, and then life said, “oh, you didn’t wear a condom? Here are some babies. Here’s a lot of them, you’re a dad, not a writer. You’re as bad at being a father as you were at being a writer too. Enjoy!”)

          :p

            • @theangryseal
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              21 year ago

              Songs and poems. Never published anything, just entertained myself really.

              If you’re interested I’ll share something with you. I’d be happy to read something you wrote.

              It was my whole identity before these kids.

              Crazy thing is, I was almost done raising them. The kid that was my youngest will be 15 very soon. I required total isolation to write, and naturally, that wasn’t happening.

              When her mother and I split I ended up with a woman a lot younger than me. She wanted kids, I love raising them, so we’ve had two. One turns three this month and the other turns two next year. I’ve started all over.

              I don’t regret it. I’m exhausted, but I don’t regret it. It’s been a lot of fun. My back don’t hold up like it used to, but I do my best. I’m a million times more patient this time around.

              • @[email protected]
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                1 year ago

                Congratulations on your new family. It sounds like you’re happy now despite all you’ve been through, and that’s really what it’s all about.

                I’d love to read your songs and poems, if you’d DM them to me. I’ve recently got back into music and lyrics myself, and I wrote a sci-fi novel (Blue Are the Hills on Amazon, Lilly Piper).

                I get it; my son is 25 now and was 18 when I got back into writing. Teenagers are exhausting.

                eta: I absolutely suck at writing covers and marketing blurbs, so please have mercy.

                • @theangryseal
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                  21 year ago

                  I’ve been looking for something to read. I have specifically been looking for something sci-fi to read after burning myself out on Asimov’s robots. Don’t get me wrong, I love the stuff. I should’ve taken a break though. I don’t have an Amazon account, but my daughter does. I’ve bookmarked it for when she comes home.

                  I feel stupid calling myself a writer after sobering up a bit. I haven’t written anything in over a decade (not seriously. I used to take myself seriously but I lost that somewhere in time. I don’t miss it. I was a mess), but I used to write outlines obsessively :p. Still, I’ll get some of my favorite lyrics together and link a couple of those old songs later today.