PurpleCar - Latest Comments

Re: Disqus lost my comment

educatetruth — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:38:58 -0000

Excellent blog, thanks for the share. I'll be a regular viewer

Re: Disqus lost my comment

PurpleCar — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:50:46 -0000

This is the first dropped comment I've run into myself, but I have no way of knowing who else may have run into it here. I also have a hard time with the spam filter. I send an email to delete the spam, but it remains on my blog's admin page and I have to manually delete it there.

*sigh*

Thanks for telling me that, I think if Marina Martin, internetz queen, ditched disqus, maybe I should too. -PC

Re: Disqus lost my comment

MarinaMartin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:40:10 -0000

I took Disqus off all my blogs last week. Comments were regularly disappearing; I'd return to an old post that I know had 20+ comments and suddenly they were all gone. I thought it was my imagination, but it happened one too many times. Ultimately normal WordPress comments + the Subscribe to Comments plugin are perfectly adequate.

Re: Comma Controversy

Forrest Cavalier — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:44:46 -0000

"Read it aloud" helps with tense and flow, but for punctuation it leads to arguments with editors and high school English teachers, like Sr. Theresa. The rules are simple and solid enough.

I remember Miss Lisa Martin. I remember being totally burned out by her overemphasis of foreshadowing in literature analysis.

Maybe you can blog about foreshadowing sometime. I think I get it now, but Miss Martin made us think it was the most important skill in writing, reading, and analysis.

I would describe it as an author's way of setting up your subconscious to expect something. If it is too overt, the effect is lost.

Is there a literary term for the irony of setting up your subconscious to expect something and then NOT having it play out in the story? It isn't irony, which is overt. Is there a term?

BTW, us geeks realize that commas are used in parameter lists as well, except for languages like LISP, where the list separator is just a blank space.

Re: Comma Controversy

PurpleCar — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:36:31 -0000

Thanks for commenting!

I think we should note that the commas separating address parts are for paragraphs only. I had a little contention with the 3rd grade curriculum this year, as they were teaching the old convention for snail mail addressing. I sent a link to the Post Office website to the teacher. No punctuation and all caps are preferred by the Post Office now. Personally I find that adding the 4 digit code onto the end of the Zip Code helps speed delivery too.

Yes I know I didn't put a comma after the first word of the last sentence or the first word of this one.

If I wanted more dramatic effect, I would've placed the commas there.

I'd say tell him to read whatever he writes out loud. That is an old novelist's technique and it truly does help with style and flow.

By the way, when did we have the same English teacher? Who are we talking about? Miss Martin? Sister-what's-her-name?

-PC

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Re: Comma Controversy

Forrest Cavalier — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:22:50 -0000

DS10's writing this year got a comma overhaul. It was basically the only grammar/punctuation that needed any improvement. The problem was that he was placing commas everywhere, as if he were speaking.

We sat down with the basic rules for commas in written English, from Voyages in English 6.
---begin quote---
Use a comma
1. To separate words or groups of words in a series.

2. To set off parts of dates, addresses, and geographical names.

3. After the words yes and no when they introduce sentences.

4. To separate words of direct address.

5. After the salutation in a social letter and after the complimentary close in all letters.

6. To set off an appositive that is not part of the name.

7. To set off short direct quotations. If the quotation is at the beginning of the sentence, use a comma after the quotation unless a question mark or an exclamation point is required. if the quotation is divided, two commas are needed.

8. To separate the clauses of a compound sentence connected by the conjunctions _and_, _but_, _or_, _nor_, and _yet_. If the clauses are short and closely connected, the comma may be omitted.
---end quote---

Reviewing the rules and a few rounds of "justify each comma" from his writing and he was good to go.

It's ironic that the "list of 8" includes a use of commas that the list itself does not describe. Since DS10 was actually placing those commas correctly anyway, I decided to leave that lesson for another year. (How many 6th graders use inverted dependent clauses and how many could identify them as such?) Other than those 9 uses, I almost never use commas. (Well, there is the comma in this sentence and the next two....So maybe I lied...)

BTW, PurpleCar and I had the same high school English teacher. In my opinion she loved extra commas, especially when you were writing a speech. That almost drove me crazy once as she started adding commas everywhere. We argued, but in the end I figured out a "compromise." She put her editorial commas into the text copy (in red pen - ha ha), and I got to deliver the speech however I wanted anyway. It turns out that being able to read music includes the ability to ignore all sorts of annoying mark up as you perform. :-)

Re: Adam Slaney Facebook Warning: Real or DoS attack?

PurpleCar — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:33:44 -0000

Sarah,

There isn't any hacking risk to accepting a friend request on Facebook. You can accept any requests you like. Accepting friend requests from the people listed in this note (or any new ones that come along) won't do any harm, to you or your computer. It's just not how hacking works. A hacker needs your password, for any site that has password protection on the internet (like Facebook). Even friends on Facebook don't get to view your password, nor could they hack their way to it just because of the friend connection.

Believe me, if there were a way to hack friend connections, the hackers would have already done it by now. How would Facebook survive if they didn't code this basic security into the platform? These types of emails are just hogswash, meant as a joke or denial-of-service attack on others. They also spread TRULY unnecessary fear. So yes, friend Adam Slaney and the others. They'll be able to see everything you haven't marked private, but they will never be able to navigate to your password, let alone a totally different email account on totally different servers with totally different companies (The whole "warning" is ridiculous).

-PC

Re: Adam Slaney Facebook Warning: Real or DoS attack?

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:06:52 -0000

So it's safe to accept their friend requests just to shove it in your friends' faces because they keep sending you those annoying messages?

Re: Adam Slaney Facebook Warning: Real or DoS attack?

sisterwoman — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:15:05 -0000

Here we are a ywear later, and I've had avout a half dozen Facebook frineds send it to me, I finally posted this to my page toget them all to chill! :)

Re: Adam Slaney Facebook Warning: Real or DoS attack?

fedups — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:11:22 -0000

Thank you- I really dislike people who just fwd everything....

Re: Facebook.com/username

Bill Cammack — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:56:13 -0000

Hey Chris. :) Thanks for the shout-out :)

I was in a Tinychat for over an hour with my friends Tyme, Jennifer & Brent hashing out which name I wanted and why. They can tell you they thought it was funny at the time, but I was going to be sure of what I wanted BEFORE everyone had the ability to take names.

There were really two bad decisions. Bad Decision #1 is to have facebook all up in my billcammack google results by choosing my "government name", which is also my brand name and the name of my website as my FB username. Bad Decision #2 is choosing a username that doesn't "dilute my results" and subsequently allowing some OTHER Bill Cammack to have my name... FORGET THAT! :D

The fact of the matter is that we don't have crystal balls, so there's no telling whether Facebook will become dominant as far as people searching for people on google or on the internet in general. If it goes that way, I'm in position, as usual. If it doesn't go that way, I still use FB to point to blog posts on billcammack.com, so I really dont' think it'll be an issue.

What you DON'T WANT is other people that happen to have the same name as you do getting props for YOUR media because they read your name somewhere, searched it, landed on someone else and followed them or added them as a friend because you weren't diligent in "defending" your brand name.

Re: Facebook.com/username

PurpleCar — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:17:35 -0000

UPDATE: My friend Bill Cammack talked about this over on his awesome blog. As is usually the case, we tend to clarify our points in comments better than we do if we just post on our own. Go over and read his post (it's short). Here's my comment over there. It goes into a bit more of my thought process on why I chose my real name instead of my username on Facebook:

"Hey man, I posted on this too. I was wondering about this myself. Facebook.com/christine.cavalier is my vanity URL but I almost took /purplecar. My reasoning was this: every other web app I take the "username" purplecar and "real name" christine cavalier. Why should facebook be different? But then I thought about the search behaviors of people on Facebook.

People search Facebook in a unique manner, compared to other sites. They search for people, mostly, by just name, forgoing drilling down into networks or groups until after their initial search has turned up fruitless (yet abundant) search results. (We all are acutely aware of the search problems on Facebook).

Also, I considered the population. On sites like Jaiku, we are all social media industry people. These techie types know how to search on username AND then real name. More and more "normal" people are coming on Facebook, especially our schoolmates. How will they search for me? By my name.

It's possible that once "normal" people become familiar with the vanity URL, they won't search Facebook for a friend. Instead they will first try their luck on typing in facebook.com/christinecavalier (the dot is irrelevant, both christinecavalier and christine.cavalier will work).

So, there's my long explanation on how I came to break my standard username-first policy for social media sites. I treated Facebook as the unique exception (and crappy search engine) that it is.

-PC"

What did you guys choose, and why? Let me know here. Thanks!

Re: To (Mommy) Blog or Not to (Mommy) Blog?

AventIsis2 — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 05:08:01 -0000

Yeah, it's indeed a great post, I loved it too!

Amber

Re: Book Review: Twilight Series Is a Primer for the Mormon Religion and Is Boring.

PurpleCar — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:11:37 -0000

Michelle,

Exactly. Thanks for commenting! Come back and link me to your post when you are done.

I forgot to add the child-marriage aspect. My friend pointed out that the "imprinting" on babies thing is basically a child-marriage arrangement. We've all seen spin-offs of the Mormon church do this very thing, probably due to a fundamental belief in fate and pre-ordained couplings. With Jacob imprinting on Nessie and his other friend imprinting on the two year old girl, it supports that very fate-controlled life, especially for girls. Yuck.

I totally agree that Bella and Edward are pathetic. It was quite annoying.

-PC

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Re: Book Review: Twilight Series Is a Primer for the Mormon Religion and Is Boring.

Michelle — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:32:19 -0000

Oh my god. THANK YOU!

I don't want to go into what I have to say too much because I plan on writing something about it later, but I will say that I completely agree with you. My biggest problem with the book, however, is how weak and pathetic both Bella and Edward are. I think this book sends an awful message to young girls. Basically, if your boyfriend leaves you, life is no longer worth living. If you don't have the balls to kill yourself (which Bella attempts throughout New Moon so she can hear Edward's voice), attach yourself to the nearest guy (Jacob) and use him for the source of your happiness. Bella is pathetic. She walks into a forest and then basically lies down to die after she naively believes Edward when he leaves her. Then she checks out for the next five or six months, barely existing as she wallows in immeasurable grief because her boyfriend dumped her...excuse me while I throw up in my mouth a little. Ugh. I am far from a feminist but damn! Give me an effing break! That's ridiculous! And Edward's no better. As soon as Alice says she sees Bella killing herself, he heads to Italy to kill himself! Lord...it's like the idiocy of Romeo and Juliet with freakish non-vampires and klutzy chicks...

Thanks for making my point and I can't wait to find the time to write my issues with this piece of shit story...

Re: To Friend or Not To Friend the Ex.

monkeychick — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:23:25 -0000

LOL. Thanks for the advice. Must have been a lonely evening thing because now I'm fine, not thinking of him and really wanted to smack myself in the head for even being curious about it. I don't want to get involved with the whole "baby daddy" thing, not me!! LOL

I'm pretty happy, ready to move this weekend and start my life over. Nothing wrong with having fun in the meantime!!

Thanks again. :)

Re: To Friend or Not To Friend the Ex.

PurpleCar — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:27:08 -0000

Hi Monkey Chick!

Well, first let me say Congratulations on starting your new life. Divorce can be a beginning, too.

I usually keep my advice to online etiquette and computing issues, as I'm not a counselor, but I felt compelled to answer you.

I think you should treat this man as only a little more than a stranger. He's involved with a woman who is about to have his child. You do *not* want to get in the middle of that. Honestly, the guy sounds like he is looking for any way out of the
ridiculous yet serious situation his irresponsible behavior has gotten
him into. Don't give him that excuse.

Ask yourself if it is really this man that you want or is it the comforting idea that you *do* have good taste in men. By getting back together with an ex, it's as if you are proving to yourself that you had it right but just got off the path somehow. After divorce, that crushing sense of failure can put false hope in unhealthy places. Keep your FB and MySpace relations strictly to girlfriends and family for a while. Update daily so your friends can comment with their support.

Find yourself a good counselor. Your insurance company will have counseling practices that they work with, or ask a friend for a suggestion. Do not make any major moves with anyone, especially not an ex, until you are absolutely sure you are doing the right thing. You aren't a failure. You *will* find a man worthy of the person you're growing into. Give yourself some time to grow into that older, wiser, more confident and more beautiful person.

Come back in 9-12 months to let me know how it is going, OK? Good luck!

-PC

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Re: To Friend or Not To Friend the Ex.

monkeychick — Sun, 24 May 2009 17:17:03 -0000

Okay, I know this is an old post but it came up on Google. How about this for a situation. I'm separated, have been for five months and just waiting on the papers. My ex-boyfriend who was the boyfriend for four years sent me a message on myspace and FB (I think) and said he was sorry for everything, never meant to hurt me. This was a year and a half ago when I was still happily married and him still happily single. Fast forward to the situation now, I'm getting divorced, he's with a girl who was a friends with benefits girl that he got pregnant. She's due in a few weeks but he loves her a lot, just not enough to marry her, he says and they live together. Anyway, I live a couple of hours from where he lives (our hometown) and he was in the city I live in now for work stuff. He sent me a text (yes we have each others phone numbers because I asked for his a year ago) saying what was fun in my town. I explained the things we got and then I asked if he wanted me to take him around, show him some fun stuff. He said yes and asked where we were going. I didn't see it as a date, don't see it as a date. I talked about my husband or whatever he is and he talked about his girlfriend, a.k.a. baby momma, a.k.a., sex maniac lover. Needless to say we had a blast that night. Had dinner, a few drinks, talked about fun times and ended the night listening to music at a bar. Now I can't get the dude out of my mind!! Do you think he saw it as just a friend thing. He did hug me after our non-date, said it was great seeing me and hopes everything works out. We had a blast though, talked about old times, laughed A LOT. We are each others first everything, kiss, sex..all of the above. We tried each others drinks because "we've exchanged spit" tried each other food and all of that fun, date-like stuff. What do I do now?

Re: Book Review: Twilight Series Is a Primer for the Mormon Religion and Is Boring.

PurpleCar — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:05:20 -0000

Calla,

that's what really got to me about the Twilight series: the abusive relationship and how no-one is talking about it. I really should have put that subject up at the top and put the religious aspect down at the bottom. But I guess the treating of women as second-class citizens is pretty rampant in conservative religions, so it's all relevant...

I'm glad you're finally done! I hope some parents do in fact read the books to make the decision for themselves what ages are appropriate. I'm shocked to find that some 10 year old girls are reading this stuff. My 9 year old girl is diving into Harry Potter now and I know I'll have some interesting conversations with her throughout the series. There's no way she'll be ready for Twilight until she's at least 14, and she'll have to be a pretty savvy 14 year old at that. I'd rather girls under 18 not read it at all, actually.

Anyway, the facts that the series is escaping scrutiny and is gathering momentum in the mom set are baffling to me. I just don't get it.

Thanks for coming by after you finished the books!

-PC

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Re: Book Review: Twilight Series Is a Primer for the Mormon Religion and Is Boring.

Calla Flower — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:18:47 -0000

i'm finally done so i can read this.
I enjoyed the review and can totally see where you are coming from. I don't know much about the Mormon religion, but understand conservative Christianity and can see so much of that in these books. It makes me kind of ill to think that teens are reading these books and thinking Eddie is such a catch! and many unsuspecting parents and teachers think these books are ok just because they've heard that there's nothing overly sexual in them. if someone read this and put their daughter in the shoes of Bella Swan i'm sure they would be thinking differently.

Re: Book Review: Twilight Series Is a Primer for the Mormon Religion and Is Boring.

PurpleCar — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:23:46 -0000

Glenn,

Thanks for asking!

Edward's values are conservative, and I did make a parenthetical statement above that Edward's beliefs are aligned with any conservative christian religion. What I found to be particularly Mormon was the young marriage and the immediate procreation. I'm not sure if there is any written tenets in Mormon that dictate that practice, but it is certainly part of the culture surrounding the religion.

If you are asking about the history of Mormon, the wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesu...) says that the church was founded circa 1830, well before Edward was born (according to the fuzzy timeline in the Twilight series).

There is nothing in the books that indicates any particular religious tradition in Edward's (or any other character's) history. A religious background and conflict with belief systems are usually explored in other vampire novels, so I was actually surprised that Meyer ignored this tradition in the genre. The books and characters would have been a bit more interesting if Meyer did present some inner conflict in that light.

I'm not sure if that answers your question. Let me know if I can clarify.

-PC

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Re: Book Review: Twilight Series Is a Primer for the Mormon Religion and Is Boring.

Glenn — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:31:12 -0000

Hello. This was a very well written review about Twilight and the series itself. You raised a lot of arguments against the series and for the most part I agree with them. The one I do have a question about is the virginity argument. Ignoring the "let's have a kid as soon as we are married (despite it being impossible in the world she described) and the whole feeling of rape when they did consumate" what was Mormon about Edward choosing to not have sex till they were married? Given the era he was born in and the time he was "turned" he had plenty of time to get used to the values of his time, i.e. that you get married first. And that value is carried in a multitude of religious as well as non-religious cultures. Now I am not defending Meyer in any way but that is one gripe that I have constantly seen and was always curious about. Since your article was so much better written than those I have seen so far I figured I would ask you.

Re: Book Review: Twilight Series Is a Primer for the Mormon Religion and Is Boring.

PurpleCar — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:39:11 -0000

Mandy,

Thanks for putting that two cents in! I live in the Philadelphia area and I don't get to see this kind of culture much. It sounds pretty repressive. Actually, I'm a bit shocked to hear about the teen pregnancy rates there, but they are on the rise around the country, more in the conservative states. You'd think we'd learn about repression and rebellion at some point.

At any rate, you are allowed to be an independent person! There is nothing in the New Testament (which is Jesus's new covenant and meant to wipe away the Old Testament) that says women must be with a man to be saved. Some sects of Mormon, I think, stray away from that. My friend Curtis, who commented here, is no where NEAR like that, so it is very confusing what Mormon actually stands for. It's a shame that they feel like they can tell you how to live your life.

Keep strong. This is America. You can live where you want and practice whatever religion you like in peace. It's not only the law, but it is morally and ethically the better choice (IMHO). I'm glad you filled us in on a reason why the books have Bella totally lose herself in Edward. Thanks.

-PC

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Re: Book Review: Twilight Series Is a Primer for the Mormon Religion and Is Boring.

Mandy — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:13:47 -0000

I live in a small town in Montana. There is a large Mormon Church here and quite a few mormons. I had previously lived in southern CA and didn't
know even one Mormon person. This is a beautiful and idyllic place, and I love it. I lived in so cal for 18 years and disliked it, especially Orange County.

With that being said, it is here that my daughter came home with reports of girls trying to kill themselves - because of boys "dumping" them. There
are many teen pregnancies, with about a half as many marriages. And women who are not paired up with someone are seen as weird. I slowly found
out that most of these young girls were Mormons.

I also was approached by some mormon missionaries here who handed me a pamphlet about families. I am 45 years old and divorced from a man
who turned from being kind and loving into a violent, abusive alcoholic. We have been struggling just to survive and I am legally disabled with health problems.
Still, they told me, my family was not right and it was a sin. They told me their church has dances (mixers) so single people (of any size, age, health, etc)
can find a mate to be spiritually correct!! it was so weird. I don't think I said much out of shock. I just don't have any desire to be with anybody after my
nightmare marriage. I feel like I am getting myself together.

I am a strong independent woman, so was my mother and grandmother. And praise God, so is my daughter. my sons are turning out great, and are
decent young men - kind, respectful, etc. I am also a Christian, yet I believe in birth control. I believe women should be taught to be their own persons
and not just an extension of a man.

I agree these Twilight books are extremely odd, could hurt young women/girls. They are nothing without their "Edward".

Thanks for letting me put my two cents in!!

Re: Book Review: Twilight Series Is a Primer for the Mormon Religion and Is Boring.

PurpleCar — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:24:20 -0000

Milosa,

thanks for writing!

Yes the series does go downhill, as Bella is literally kidnapped and held against her will in a following book. Edward bribes his sister with a sports car to capture and retain Bella for a weekend. Bella has to be cunning in order to slip out. Animosity abounds on both sides from her friend Jacob and from Edward. They each tell her repeatedly how the other is bad for her and how she should dump the relationship. Bella is threatened both by the friend and her lover that she will be forced to sever all ties with the other. It's ridiculous.

The scariest part is that the 4th book has it all working out in the end. What kind of message is this?

I just wish Bella had more of a sense of self. We all know what it is like to be consumed by a relationship, but 99.9% of us have the perseverance to move on after the end of it. Not Bella. She lets it consume her.

Besides all of this, the characters are awfully selfish... I don't know. I think a series like this would have been able to have good messages in it for girls. I shudder to think what 10 year olds are learning from it.

-PC

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