This is where is write about my life in general, and talk a lot about what games I'm playing. Another favorite topic is TV, and there's a chance I'll mention something that's happened in an episode that's not aired in your country, so be warned. You can also expect talk on the Philadelphia Eagles, the occasional list, and various humorous tidbits as I deem appropriate.

• 8Oct 08

  A Visit from Captain Grammar

  After a few weeks of noticing many common mistakes in both submissions and blurbs already in the TV.com episode guides, I felt the need to make a little primer to help people brush up on a few ins and outs that are often done wrong. This list should help editors and submitters equally, be educational, and I think make you chuckle a bit, too.

  "It's" is the contraction for "It is" or "It has"; "Its" is the possessive of "It"
  ex. It's tough to like the new TV.com due to its exhaustive number of bugs, so it's been a disappointing few weeks since the relaunch.

  "You're" is the contraction for "You are"; "Your" indicates a possession belonging to "You"
  ex. You're miffed that your favorite television website was recently ruined.

  "They're" is the contraction for "They are"; "Their" indicates a possession belonging to "They/Them"; "There" indicates a place where something may be
  ex. See those people over there? They're miffed that their favorite television website was recently ruined.

  "Than" is used in comparitive statements; "Then" is used to highlight a subsequent event.
  ex. I think the old TV.com was better than this new version. It was really nice before, but then they ruined it.

  "Every day" means each individual day; "Everyday" means a habitual or routine event.
  ex. I check TV.com for bug fixes every day. It's an everyday activity for me.

  "Accept" indicates allowing or receipt; "Except" indicates exclusion or omission.
  ex. Except for the most unprofessional of companies, websites are tested before being relaunched. We have to accept that CNET is one of those rarities.
  ex. When I didn't accept his lame quote, the moron sent a nasty PM, demanding, "Why didn't you except my submission?!?"

  "Too" needs a comma before it when used as a synonym for "also"; it does not when used as a modifier
  ex. I think TV.com has too many bugs. Most everyone else does, too.

  "Earth" is a planet; "earth" is soil
  ex. TV.com used to be the best TV website on Earth, but now they should just bury it under six feet of earth.

  Starting exclamations/comments like "Well" and "Oh" and "Yes" need commas after them
  ex. Oh, this new TV.com really does suck! Yes, it does. Well, what did you expect? They never test anything.

  "Okay" and "OK" are okay to use; "O.K." and "ok" are not OK to use.
  ex. TV.com used to be a great website, but now it's merely OK.
  ex. TV.com used to be a great website, but now it's merely okay.

  Know the difference between being x years old and being an x-year-old.
  ex. TV.com is three years old. It's a three-year-old.

  When "and" separates parts of a sentence, it gets a comma beforehand when the halves are independent clauses. A clause is independent if it can stand alone as a complete sentence.
  ex. They relaunched TV.com without testing it and then claimed to be surprised by all the bugs.
  "They relaunched TV.com without testing it" is a complete sentence, but "then claimed to be surprised by all the bugs" is not, so there is no comma.
  ex. They relaunched TV.com without testing it, and everyone hates it.
  Both "They relaunched TV.com without testing it" and "everyone hates it" could be sentences, so a comma is needed.

  Plurals (verb or noun) should not get an apostrophe. Possessives do get an apostrophe.
  ex. Compared to similar websites, this website's bugs are far more numerous.

  That's all for today. Thanks for reading, everybody!

  • Posted Oct 8, 2008 5:16 am PT
  • Category: Writing
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• 6Oct 08

  Stairing Contest

  So Baxter now has the ability to get anywhere in the house. Thursday night we coaxed him to get up the stairs, as he was already hurtling himself to get to around the third step before falling down. Of course, we then thought, "what have we done?," as he could get pretty much anywhere then. Still, he'd likely have it on his own in a week's time anyway. The kicker was he could not get down the stairs yet. On Saturday, armed with some training treats, I went ahead and got him the confidence to do that as well. Now he can bother us wherever we are, but at least we never have to carry him up and down the stairs anymore, either. Baxter also added a new experience to his résumé this weekend. New girl takes him Sunday mornings to the nursing home where she volunteers, and yesterday he was being held by a patient with a pemanent tracheotomy and licked inside his neck hole!

  I've really neglected The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion this past week and would like to race and wrap up the main story, which will give me the full 1000/1000 achievement points. I may tackle a new game before going back and doing the Shivering Isles expansion, just to take a break. Meanwhile, I've really gotten back into GTA IV online play, and am now only around $90,000 from advancing to level 7. The online games are as busy as ever, and found playing around 7:00 Friday nights here on the East Coast almost always yields full games of 16 competitors, I'm guessing because at that time people in Europe are still up, while almost all of young America is home from school and most adults from work. Also, people are still as immature as ever, including me.

  That's all for today. Thanks for reading, everybody!

  • Posted Oct 6, 2008 6:20 am PT
  • Category: Pets and Animals
  • 10 Comments
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• 1Oct 08

  Top 5 Changes

  Top 5 Changes for TV.com

  1. Get Writer, Story, and Teleplay on individual lines. This was finally correct for a brief shining week or two earlier this year. Then it reverted to the previous way. Now it's worse than ever, with all on one line, under Writers. This should take five minutes to do, and I've explained several times how. We keep getting promised this will be done; it's time to deliver on the promise.
  2. Put Cast Lists back to a more Paragraph Type-Listing. It wastes so much vertical space. Check this Sopranos episode to see why individual lines for each actor is a terrible idea.
  3. Stop Implementing Things We Don't Want. Changes are constantly made that people near-universally hate, and staff acts surprised. Meanwhile, simple, common-sense, easy-to-implement, popular potential changes listed in the TV.com Ideas forum languish, ignored. Instead of changes that feel like they were made in a boardroom by people who've never once looked at the site and just guessed what we'd like, actually look around the site. We're telling you what we'd like all the time.
  4. Dump Pre-Show Buzz. Takes up lots of space, but gives almost no information. Typically only show fans go to the pages, so results are pretty much always popular. For new, hip shows this may be mildly interesting, but older, simpler, or long-in-the-tooth shows like Two and a Half Men or ER just don't need this.
  5. Less Nonsense Polls. I shudder to think how much development time is wasted on garbage like Emmy fashion polls that could have been used on improvements like the above four items. You keep saying you don't have resources to do things; I've just freed some up for you. Get to work!
  • Posted Oct 1, 2008 6:32 am PT
  • Category: Rant
  • 12 Comments
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