KKN_GN

Speaking of, Thomas, we need to write up the budget for the next fiscal year ... the militant wing is asking for another million, and I'm not really sure we can do that ...

I am never going to catch up to you in math. (Why I care about this I don't know, as I don't particularly enjoy math and will enjoy not having to do anything but lifestyle math come university.) Bah humbug.

How the heck is a soprano supposed to sing on horseback? You ever tried? Well don't!

Tiome, I must comment that your school is amazingly cool. Astronomy? European history? Greek? Dang ... (And how long are your periods? 7th period is lunch? You're gonna starve!) You school reminds me of the Muse Academy, which is a webcomic you ought to look up ... you'd like it.

*whistles* $220? Way to go. Congrats! May the wedding be as happily inexpensive as the rings so that y'all can go on a happy honeymoon.

As much as I'd like to be justified in being sad, there's no reason to be - you're sticking around and you will be just as respected as you have been for the past six years as Top Geek. We salute you, Binky - and I firmly maintain that there will not be an April Fools prank to ever top KP and the King.

Ahh, sprachgefuhl. A word I fondly remember from my days as a 'professional' speller. Sprachgefuhl was the final word on the 79th Scripps written spelling test, and I have used it since. I tend to use it to mess with grammar - a right I already have as Thomas's co-sovereign, but much more fun to use when you say something completely wrong and someone calls you on it. You just say, "Hey man. That's my sprachgefuhl." And no one's the wiser! Something else I like to use once in a while is the phrase, "I hereby denote you as an implied redundancy of the third kind." Doesn't really mean anything in particular ... just confusing.

I remember that, Day ... having to say our marks on whatever assignment out loud for the teacher to write them down, and having people laugh in derision if they got better than you did. I am not in that school anymore, thank goodness, and things are much better at my new high school. Hang in there! The Top Students will rule the world from their psychiatrists' couches. Take a moment to relax and recalculate your average. Then smile at it. Or frown at it, if it really is bad, and decide you'll do better (which I'm sure never happens with you). Take comfort in knowing that you have a strong work ethic and know what you're doing. I would advise, though, to not turn into a workaholic. Not good for you. Relax! I'm doing theory now too (though not nearly at your level, I'm sure), and it is nasty, no matter how much one loves it.

ToM, you finally revealed yourself to the outside world ... and have left your AIM running three nights in a row? Figures this would be when I have no time to tease you. As to plants, my mother and sister are working nearly nonstop in our yards ... Mom got a part-time job at the local garden centre, so she gets staff discount on everything, and she is bringing home plants by the flat. She and my sister are having a blast: my sister wants to be a gardener (and a chef ... hey, it could work) when she grows up, and she adores plants just like you. I don't think they've named any, though! Both the front yard and the back yard are looking lovely, and it's times like these that I wish I could go outside and work in the garden myself. I do love plants, but overheat much too easily ... just need a cooler day. (Also, a better knowledge of what I was doing would be nice, but you can't have everything I suppose.) Cooler to work, but of course hot and sunny to tan. I plan to read the seventh Harry Potter on my deck, sprawled on a lawn chair, iced tea beside me and slathered in tanning oil ... I figure it'll take me five hours, I should be nice and brown. Which will be a nice change from the wintery Ivory-soap white I am at the moment. Enjoy your plants, Tiome, and sing them a song from me. (Although according to the Mythbusters, heavy metal works the best ... )

Way too much fun, Tiome.

Objection, your Honour!! That is a superstition: English is the only language in which verbs consist of a "to ---" format, so it came to be considered unlucky to split the infinitive in half. This is untrue. It's perfectly fine. Look, Gene Roddenberry did it: "To boldly go where no man has gone before." So many people have discounted that on the basis of that rule, when in fact it's really not a problem at all. As to foreign words, contractions, fragments, one-word sentences: if you're using them to excuse bad writing, then they're no excuse at all. However, all can be present in excellent writing, and in that case, I personally see no problem with them at all. Have you ever heard the word sprachgefuhl? (Yes, it's English. Carried directly from German, obviously, but it's English.) Webster's defines it as "sensibility to conformance with or divergence from the established usage (as in form or idiom) of a language", or "a feeling for what is linguistically effective or appropriate". I think it applies perfectly in good writing. Most rules listed above, I feel, can be completely ignored, if the writing calls for it. Hooray for English and how much we can mess with it. However, people like e. e. cummings have a lot of explaining to do. I don't care how famous you are, you don't get to ignore capital letters.

1. I'd cancel all the double negatives (since they cancel each other out already) and then wonder why anyone would use a double negative ... 2. I would think it would come from the French savoir, meaning "to know". 3. It is a wink. It is an emoticon. It is a winking emoticon. 4. Hm ... the one with the afro ... actually there are several, but that's because I don't explore BZP much. Stick to my guns, y'know.

Ah, ellipses. Frighteningly useful things, yet terribly addictive. Somewhat like semicolons. Yes, an ellipse is an oval. An ellipsis is what we're talking about: a set of three periods (or full stops) used in succession to indicate words missing from a sentence, trailing off, or suspense - or else to talk like William Shatner. They are not interchangeable with dashes (which are not the same things as hyphens!). Unfortunately, ellipse and ellipsis have the same plural, which causes confusion.

" ... and he, feeling the clutch of the knucklebones, the furious grasp of Death, uttered a cry of pain and terror. When Red Death released him at last, he ran away like a very madman, pursued by the jeers of the bystanders." Actually, Tiome, he wears a skull in the musical as well.

Oh no, you're using Whisper? *wide eyes* That's my song ...