Tag Archives: Amanda Fox

Feb 17 2012

Crowdsourcing, Grammar Nazis and Haggis

I’ve long suspected that one has to be a real Scotsman to enjoy haggis.   Certainly I am not the only person I’ve ever met who has found even the idea of  a sausage made from sheep’s heart and liver mixed with oatmeal and onions to be frankly repulsive.    Not that I have anything against my Scottish friends, mind you. Certainly I have many times enjoyed attending our local Highlands Festival where the people watching (think big red-headed guys,  sometimes wearing their kilts regimental style) is always a highlight.   I’ve long wanted to visit Scotland,  and some time ago even blogged about Scottish cookbooks.   But haggis?   Meh.

I woke up at a reasonable hour this morning,  but I woke up dog tired.   I still have a bit of a sleep deficit owing I’m afraid.   I’ve long known that crowd sourcing is a hugely useful tool for bloggers,  so when I couldn’t seem to get my befuddled brain to come up with a topic for this post,  I turned to Empire Avenue missions to pick the brains of a few friends.   Liz Pullen made a great suggestion:

@libdrone Grammar Nazis: Purists nobly perserving a language or just people who enjoy finding fault and correcting others?

Had I been more fully awake,  I might well have gone with that one.   While I try so hard not to be a grammar Nazi myself,  I really do care about speaking and writing correctly.  (Although I also acknowledge that language is a living thing,  constantly evolving to meet the needs of those who use it.) Much as I genuinely liked the topic,   I just didn’t think I could wax eloquent about it for four hundred words today.   My friend Mandy it turned out had the #winning idea:

@libdrone - worst onscreen couples ever? Strangest wedding ceremonies? The benefits of haggis in your daily diet? I’m grasping here…

This was I knew what I needed to write about.    With Nazis and haggis in my title this post is sure to do great with search engines.   It also provided multiple opportunities to link to some of my older blog posts.  Best of all,   writing this post helped me to realize a bit of the zen of personal blogging.   Like comedian Jerry Seinfeld said of his long running television show,  it’s a blog about nothing in particular.  (Or like my friend Holly,  who refers to her specialty as the “no niche niche”.)   I have to say that I’ve found so much freedom in being able to write about whatever I feel like each day.   And I’ve also re-learned the core lesson that just being yourself is the best way to reach an audience online.

Feb 10 2012

A Cacophany of Cacography on #definethis

Happy Friday, my friends.    Those who have been on Twitter awhile know that #FollowFriday,  frequently abbreviated #FF is a time to spam links to lots of people you don’t really know.   Heck,  if you get your handle included in a popular string,  it can lead to dozens of people re-tweeting your handle dozens of times.    It does not,  for the most part in my experience,  actually leading to lots of people following you.   There are many who argue that follow Friday has become a meaningless cacophony and there is at times real truth in this.

Lately,  I have been having so much fun playing #definethis with a few friends whom I round up with an Empire Avenue mission.     What I really love about it is that both my writer and word nerd kind of friends, who just love word games and my  hate to write friends all seem to enjoy playing.      I have talked to Heather,  the lady who tweets out the word of the day each morning.   She is frank to admit that she just abandoned #definethis due to being busy with other commitments.   It sounds as though the tweets are going out mainly because she lost the password to log into the account to turn them off.    So anyhoo,  this #FollowFriday  I decided to link to some of the great folks who popped into my #definethis column the day we posted a cacophonous cacography.

@nwjerseyliz  is I sometimes think my only friend who can spell.   More times than I care to count Liz has tactfully pointed out one of my typos or mis-spellings.    Her tweet:   “In medical school, would-be physicians are required to take Cacography 101. #DefineThis“

Liz was not the only one to invoke a medical theme.  Jeroen , @jvzelst,  was also quick to use doctor’s handwriting,  tweeting ,  ”It just keeps amazing me how my pharmacist can decipher the cocography of my family doctor…#definethis”

My buddy Sharon, @crazykids6  the absolutely laugh out loud funny family blogger blamed her kids of course: “Boy, do my kids really need to work on their cocophany #definethis“

My organic expert buddy  Craig @ogranichat was literary:  ”I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words yet embedded in front of my eyes my cacography beckons me to do better.#definethis“

My friend Mandy  (@zoe201015),  who has become one of the sharpest commentators on this blog,  observed:  The cocography present in my physicians notes regarding my last visit was overwhelming and unsettling. #definethis  (again with a doctor theme)

These are just five of the great friends who played my cacophonous cacography  game this week.   I hope to continue these lexicographical excursions and may make something sort of like this post my own personal  #FF traditon.