seperis | singing off-key

Gakked offf my flist. I'm putting off things.

You scored 100% Beginner, 93% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 83% Expert!
You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=14457200288064322170

Huh. I will take the ego sops I can get wherever I can get them. I really, really miss standardized testing. Minimum effort, maximum praise. Anyone remember the California Achievement Test? Ooooh yeah. Those were the good old days.

Question: How the *heck* do you use toward/towards correctly? I don't remember actually ever seeing it written, just heard it spoken.

And whilst. Tell me how in the name of all that is holy one uses whilst? I know what it means, but when it is appropriate to use?

you must be my alter ego...i had exactly the same results and have never ever gotten the toward/s thing correctly.

*eagerly awaiting the answer*

You and me both. *goes to scan answers*

Anyone remember the California Achievement Test? Ooooh yeah. Those were the good old days.
I'll let you in on a secret, I'm dyslexic, although I didn't find that out until college. However, by 5th grade I was so tired of the CAT's that I would quite literally make a pretty picture by randomly filling in the circles on the answer sheet.

It was the *same test* for years. Man, that got old *fast*. Yet it took us years to notice. *g* And here we all thought we were jsut getting smarter....

Question: How the *heck* do you use toward/towards correctly? I don't remember actually ever seeing it written, just heard it spoken.

The Little, Brown Handbook sez: Both are acceptable, although toward is preferred. Try to use one or the other consistently.

Whilst isn't in the Handbook, or the MLA Stylebook, or in The Elements of Style. *shrugs*

Does that help? :)

I have to also agree... and in casual USA lingo, I've never heard/read towards. Only, toward. Plus, towards makes me twitch... I don't know why. :)

Plus, towards makes me twitch... I don't know why. :)

Common usage, I expect.

As an Australian writing/reading/watching USA-set fandoms, it bugs the heck out of me every time I come across "gotten". We don't say "gotten" over here; it's "got" or "get". Part of me twitches even though I know that it's correct for the fandom and characters.

Hm. How would you say, "had gotten a cold?" Would you switch tense?

I had a cold. I got a cold. (Or present: "I still have this damn cold." Which is something I say a lot. *g*)

If it's past tense, we generally use "got" so to me, saying "I had gotten a cold" seems like overkill. I know from the had or the got that it's past tense, so "had gotten" just *feels* weird and wrong.

That does make sense. Although, personally, I never use one word when ten will do. *g* I usually have to edit for size. Thanks for the tip!

It clarifies.I've wondered, since I think I've used either at random. I should do a word search in some of my stories and see.

And helps muchly. Thanks! I shall now mark you as The Grammar Person of Smartness, for future terror with proper grammatical form.

Hey, I just graduated from library school. They'd take away my diploma if I didn't know how to look up reference material. ;)

Argh! I was hoping to see correct answers at the end.

I'm from Iowa, so we took the ITBS. I miss those...

Yeah, I wanted answers too!

What was the ITBS. And wouldn't it have been cool if it had been called TIBS?

Yes, ti has been a long day for me. *g*

The ITBS is the Iowa Test of Basic Skills--I have the feeling it is/was a lot like the CAT. TIBS does have a certain ring to it, I agree. :)

More importantly, why didn't they provide an answer key? Now I have intense doubts because I don't know which few questions I got wrong! :(

Yes! Exactly! I want ot know what I got wrong! cause man, on a few of those, I was very random adn saying things aloud to see how they sounded.

I have my doubts, myself -- there were a couple of those questions which did have British/American differences, and then there was the toward/towards issue, so the only correct way to score it would involve multiple right answers for some of them, and I didn't get the sense that they did that. Of course, not giving the right answers means we don't know...

Also, I scored less well than I think I should have. So of course I'm bitter.

I don't remember which page it was on, but the author of the quiz did say that there were multiple correct answers in some cases, particularly where UK and US English differed.

I always think test are not right if I don't score well. espeically english. This test I do not trust.

'Whilst' is what I've seen Aussies or Brits or Kiwis use in place of our 'while'.

I've heard 'towards' spoken aloud, but 'toward' written. Have no handbook handy to check at the moment.

Hmm. I don't know if I'veheard toward or towards. I mean, the s is so easy to miss in convo. Hmm.

Argh! You hit one of my personal hot buttons.

I had extensive arguments with a copyeditor over this. In my writing I use towards. However the copyeditor informed me that this is considered obsolete usage, and that toward was correct in modern English. She then carefully went through and blue-penciled the trailing 's' on each one. When I brought this to the attention of my editor, I was informed that this was the preferred house style for the publisher, which is editor-speak for "We're not changing our rules for you, you're not important enough."

FWIW, my writing is heavily influenced by my reading tastes, which include Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, etc. So my writing tends to be a tad formal (and occasionally a tad British) for an American copy editor.

*giggles* Man, that would so frustrate me too.

The only thing whilst means is that you're British. Annoys the fuck out of me when I catch it in American based fic, because I have never in my life heard an American say Whilst.

There is nothing funnier than Buffy Summers saying 'whilst'.

You know, considering Buffy Summers knows a certain Giles, I'd have to see you a Buffy Summers and raise you a Joey Potter saying 'whilst'. Sorry.

Okay, yeah. I've never watched Dawson's Creek, nor read any of the fic.

But I can only imagine Buffy using 'whilst' to tease Giles. In fact, I think I may have written that.

*snickers* *makes note if we meet to say that*

Remember the PSATs/SATIIs?

According to their sadistic standards, towards/toward are based on singular/plural.

He worked towards his degree.
They worked toward their degree.

That makes no sense, as they're flipped singular/plural. But hey, I learned something new.

You are *kidding*.

*blinks*

Huh.

Okay, I only wavered on one answer, and I know what I'm doing, so I mistrust the results already. I scored 93%, 93%, 93%, and 66%.

But this:

You scored 100% Beginner, 93% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 83% Expert!

makes me mistrust them even more, considering that it told me %100 percent of people scored below me on every level. That was after you took it.

I'd love to see answers.

Oh, that's nice. "%100 percent."

Se, I saw that and found it strange too, teh stats. maybe it isn't working?

Hmm.

Profile

seperis

Page Summary

Quotes

If you don't send me feedback, I will sob uncontrollably for hours on end, until finally, in a fit of depression, I slash my wrists and bleed out on the bathroom floor. My death will be on your heads. Murderers
. -- Unknown, on feedback
BTS List
That's why he goes bad, you know -- all the good people hit him on the head or try to shoot him and constantly mistrust him, while there's this vast cohort of minions saying, We wouldn't hurt you, Lex, and we'll give you power and greatness and oh so much sex...
Wow. That was scary. Lex is like Jesus in the desert.
-- pricklyelf, on why Lex goes bad
LJ
Obi-Wan has a sort of desperate, pathetic patience in this movie. You can just see it in his eyes: "My padawan is a psychopath, and no one will believe me; I'm barely keeping him under control and expect to wake up any night now to find him standing over my bed with a knife!"
-- Teague, reviewing "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones"
LJ
Beth: god, why do i have so many beads?
Jenn: Because you are an addict.
Jenn: There are twelve step programs for this.
Beth: i dunno they'd work, might have to go straight for the electroshock.
Jenn: I'm not sure that helps with bead addiction.
Beth: i was thinking more to demagnitize my credit card.
-- hwmitzy and seperis, on bead addiction
AIM, 12/24/2003
I could rape a goat and it will DIE PRETTIER than they write.
-- anonymous, on terrible writing
AIM, 2/17/2004
In medical billing there is a diagnosis code for someone who commits suicide by sea anenemoe.
-- silverkyst, on wtf
AIM, 3/25/2004
Anonymous: sorry. i just wanted to tell you how much i liked you. i'd like to take this to a higher level if you're willing
Eleveninches: By higher level I hope you mean email.
-- eleveninches and anonymous, on things that are disturbing
LJ, 4/2/2004
silverkyst: I need to not be taking molecular genetics.
silverkyst: though, as a sidenote, I did learn how to eviscerate a fruit fly larvae by pulling it's mouth out by it's mouthparts today.
silverkyst: I'm just nowhere near competent in the subject material to be taking it.
Jenn: I'd like to thank you for that image.
-- silverkyst and seperis, on more wtf
AIM, 1/25/2005
You know, if obi-wan had just disciplined the boy *properly* we wouldn't be having these problems. Can't you just see yoda? "Take him in hand, you must. The true Force, you must show him."
-- Issaro, on spanking Anakin in his formative years
LJ, 3/15/2005
Aside from the fact that one person should never go near another with a penis, a bottle of body wash, and a hopeful expression...
-- Summerfling, on shower sex
LJ, 7/22/2005
It's weird, after you get used to the affection you get from a rabbit, it's like any other BDSM relationship. Only without the sex and hot chicks in leather corsets wielding floggers. You'll grow to like it.
-- revelininsanity, on my relationship with my rabbit
LJ, 2/7/2006
Smudged upon the near horizon, lapine shadows in the mist. Like a doomsday vision from Watership Down, the bunny intervention approaches.
-- cpt_untouchable, on my addition of The Fourth Bunny
LJ, 4/13/2006
Rule 3. Chemistry is kind of like bondage. Some people like it, some people like reading about or watching other people doing it, and a large number of people's reaction to actually doing the serious stuff is to recoil in horror.
-- deadlychameleon, on class
LJ, 9/1/2007
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Fan Fiction is John Cusack standing outside your house with a boombox.
-- JRDSkinner, on fanfiction
Twitter
I will unashamedly and unapologetically celebrate the joy and the warmth and the creativity of a community of people sharing something positive and beautiful and connective and if you don’t like it you are most welcome to very fuck off.
-- Michael Sheen, on Good Omens fanfic
Twitter, 6/19/2019
Adding for Mastodon.
-- Jenn, traceback
Fosstodon, 11/6/2022

Credit

Base style: Open Spaces by seperis
Theme: New Green by seperis

November 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 2022

Page generated Jan. 24th, 2026 04:30 pm

Profile

Links

Page Summary

Quotes

Credit