Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Saturday, August 1, 2026
SWAPI API Documentation — Merly Thomas
I thought this was interesting and worth documenting that I had found this information. https://merly-writes-web.lovable.app/sample-doc
Monday, June 1, 2026
Serial Comma Lives
I'm going to confess to loving the serial comma. For anyone who might not know, the serial comma is used in a sentence when listing multiple things prior to the word "and" most commonly.
In the image in this post, the serial comma was used prior to the word and. Using the serial comma is not as common as it was. If I'm being honest, I feel like I didn't know about the serial comma until Miss Markey's language arts class in 6th grade. She was also the teacher who taught me the list of helping verbs which I can recite today. You know (list refined by Copilot)
1.am
2.is
3.are
4.was
5.were
6.be
7.being
8.been
9.have
10.has
11.had
12.do
13.does
14.did
15.can
16.could
17.may
18.might
19.must
20.shall
21.should
22.will
23.would
24.ought
I loved remembering Miss Markey's language arts class during the writing of this post. I don't believe I have ever mentioned her name on this blog.
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
EE on Easter with a Simple Message: Get Ready
https://substack.com/home/post/p-192796896
The Darkness Grows
Erick-Woods Erickson
Apr 1
Many Christians around the world will, today, participate in the Tenebrae, a religious ceremony where candles in churches are extinguished to represent the growing darkness in Holy Week.
Two thousand years ago, Judas Iscariot went out to negotiate away the life of Christ.
In the Gospel of John, John used a Greek literary device to highlight right and wrong choices. Read the Gospel and you will see Judas and Peter often together in the same story. Both betray Christ. One abandons all hope. The other seeks and finds restoration. John’s subtle message is to be a Peter.
Jesus chose Judas to be an Apostle. Jesus knew Judas would betray Him. Judas saw the miracles, and Judas was empowered by Christ to perform miracles.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.
Matthew 10:5-8 (ESV)
Did you catch that? Jesus empowered the man who would betray to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons.
Judas, in a bit of irony, would play an instrumental role in raising the dead.
A few days before Jesus’s death, Judas went out into the night, and the darkness began to close in. The man whom God Almighty gave power betrayed God for his own advancement.
We live in the end times. People are turning away from the God of all creation for the old gods — the idols and the damned. People want their ears tickled. They do not want salvation. They want affirmation. Instead of a savior from a spiritual crisis, people want political power that papers over the real problems.
You can feel it all around you. Something is off. Something does not feel right. The darkness is creeping back in. The candles are going out.
But let not your heart be troubled. The darkness cannot shut out the light. It will get worse. But it will get better.
Judas Iscariot could raise the dead and cast out demons. Tempted by the ultimate demon, Judas Iscariot tried to put the giver of life in a grave and appeared successful. But it did not last. Judas Iscariot, charged to raise the dead, did so by betraying the way, the truth, and life. He played a role in God’s master plan.
Even in the darkness, God’s plan prevailed, often in unexpected ways. Don’t lose patience. And don’t expect your life to play out exactly as you planned it. God has a plan for you. Trust him.
Eternity is coming. Christ is coming. Easter is coming. Get ready.
Monday, November 13, 2023
Old Dog Meets a New Word and is Better for Expanding
Typically, when I see a mistake in someone else's writing, it is a typo or using "its" when the writer meant "it's" in their sentence. Such mistakes are also single offenders. However, this morning, on a Monday, I saw this article - The 25 worst cover songs of all time, ranked -- Artists like Madonna, Britney Spears, and David Bowie are among the big names who've turned beloved classics into mangled monstrosities -- By Stephen Thomas Erlewine--Published-Wednesday 8:00AM.Not only did I see a typo, but I also increased my vocabulary by one word. I used italics to indicate the error and bold to indicate the new word that I added to my vocabulary.:
Whatever the reason for the failings by these artists, there’s no disputing that the original songs remain beloved, which is why brutally bad updates can be so difficult to swallow. This list of the 25 worst cover songs, like our look at the 25 best cover songs of all time, doesn’t pretend be comprehensive. Still, as we surveyed the last five decades of pop and rock music, we’ve done our best to corral the truly awful covers and order them in a way that metes out some semblance of order, if not justice.
Notice that the Published date is "Wednesday" which I presume is 11-08-2023. Today is Monday, 11-13-2023, which means the following typos have existed for 5 days and either no one has informed the author. The first mistake is that "doesn't pretend be comprehensive" is missing the word "to" in the sentence. The sentence should be: "doesn't pretend to be comprehensive." The word I added to my vocabulary is mete, which I initially believed was a typo. However, mete is a word and this is the definition I found through the Internet:
to give out by measure : dole out. She realized the stern retribution which justice metes to the murderer.
Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mete
I now feel like I have learned today - can I go home now? [GRIN]
I do not want to go home. I am re-linking shell Word files for the P4 applications in our CMDB in my RoboHelp 2015 project for the Disaster Recovery documentation. Yes, MRDR--Mister Disaster Recovery Documentation (tm) is still working with RoboHelp 2015, not RoboHelp 2022. Perhaps that would be worth a blog post to freeze this moment at work?
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
Matt Walsh is Evil
I have to hand it to the Huff Post with their consistent wrong opinions. Here is a long article about how Matt Walsh is evil (not a direct quote, it's my analysis of the article in a simple sentence. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/matt-walsh-anti-trans-push-tennessee_n_653fd5e8e4b032ae1c9c0497 - This State Tried To Pass Anti-Trans Laws For Years. Then A Right-Wing Media Star Got Involved. | HuffPost Latest News
Sunday, November 5, 2023
Monday, October 30, 2023
The Lost Dr Seuss Story
From: Mark Feldman from BANG The Drum School
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2023 6:57:21 AM
Subject: The Lost Dr Seuss Story
Hey Everyone -
I found an old notebook that belonged to Dr Seuss. His estate had misplaced it. As I was thumbing through it, I found this wonderful little story. I had no idea that Dr Seuss was a drummer, did you?
Check it out...
It's called:
Drummers Are Brothers
---------------------------------------------------------
There once was a drummer
Whose name was McGhee
He could play paradiddles
Much faster than me
And not just a little bit
faster, oh no!
Compared to this chap
I was dreadfully slow
I studied and worked
with some great drumming masters
But nothing I did
Seemed to help me go faster
I practiced all day
and I practiced all night
I tell you I practiced with all of my might
As I watched McGhee play
on his huge YouTube channel
he wore tight blue jeans
and a black and red flannel
He blazed all these diddles
Oh Man, he was tight
but later it hit me
McGhee's groove was light
So I laughed
and remembered
I really COULD play
My groove was quite good
I had pocket for days!
I ran into McGhee
on the street yesterday
and he said,
"Hey my brother!
You really can play!"
He sounded quite humble
He looked at his feet
and he asked,
"Do you think you
could help with my beat?"
I smiled and I said,
"I like how you play too.
Come down to my drum room
on Street Number Two."
So we climbed up those stairs
with a huff and a puff
we played us some drums
hey we both had some stuff!
Your drums might be red
or your drums might be blue
but drummers are helpful
we're brothers--that's true!
Right? That's one of the things I like about being a drummer. We help each other. We are brothers (and sisters).
I've been helping drummers learn to play since 2009 and my Drumming Acceleration Program is my most in-depth, turn-key and hands-on teaching yet.
It covers everything you need to get from zero to hero. And it organizes everything for you.
You won't have to worry about what to do next.
Just follow the steps I lay out and you'll be good to go.
The next group starts on January 9th, 2024.
But, enrollment closes on November 30th, so don't wait.
More here:
https://www.drumaccelerator.com
Regards,
your drumming friend,
Mark F
Thursday, October 12, 2023
The author is a they?
I want to be clear about the intent of this post. I am commenting only about the English language, nothing else. I am not including labels for this post, such as CNN or any label related to politics. I am laser-focused on the use of language in this post.
I noticed this article on CNN.com:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/11/opinions/nhl-pride-tape-ban-coming-out-day-de-la-cretaz/index.html
so I started to read the article. I read the "Editor's Notes" for the article above:
Editor’s Note: Frankie de la Cretaz is an independent journalist whose writing sits at the intersection of sports and gender. They are the co-author of “Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League,” and their work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Sports Illustrated and other publications. The opinions expressed in this article are their own.
and was confused.
Why?
I am quoting the text above when I write "Frankie is (emphasis mine) an independent..." is how the sentence begins. The second sentence begins "They are" which is confusing because the first sentence begain with "Frankie is." I don't have a problem with "Frankie is" because is happens to be a singular verb, used when referring to one person. If I had used "is" in an elementary school, junior high, high school, or college piece of writing in the following sentences - Sally is happy. They are going to be recognized at the school assembly today" every single peer, teacher and professor would have read my words and circled "they are" and commented that I should have used the words "she is going to be" instead of "they are going to be" in my writing. I don't understand how we can continue to communicate with each other when there is not a common language. Honestly, I don't know if the Editor's Note is a typo or intentional. I've been told that I should not presume the pronouns of someone and, in fact, many emails that enter my Inbox in Outlook will include pronouns in the email signature. For the record, I do not.
What is my point? Simply that I fear that there will be a day when editors will not know how to edit if "they are" can refer to both Frankie, a singular subject, and also the collective subject that refers to multiple people. For example, "Jimmy Uso is a professional wrestler. They are part of a faction called The Bloodline." How would an editor know if that second sentence should be "He is part of a faction called The Bloodline" - it can't be determined upon a whim, that sometimes "they are" is correct and sometimes "they are" is incorrect.
For more information about the verb "to be", refer to https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/easy-learning/how-do-you-use-the-verb-be-in-english.
Friday, August 25, 2023
Loudwire Needs an Editor!
In April 2017, the group announced plans to take a break, though a 5-song EP titled Dog Years and a second live album arrived just a few months later. The music would have tide fans over as the break extended a couple of years. The band reunited for a month-long tour in 2019, but the pandemic shut down any future plans until they returned with a third album, 2023’s III.
https://loudwire.com/whatever-happened-breakout-rock-metal-bands-2013/?external=yes
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
I Like Looking at 200 Page College-Ruled Spiral Notebooks
I haven't wrote about writing in my journal lately, but I continue to do so. I am currently writing in Volume 5, section IV, page 44, which is exactly half-way through the 88 pages in the section. The date range assigned to this section is 8-14-2023 --> 8-31-2023. For the 10 Year Project that began on 1-1-2012 and ended on 12-31-2021, I had a schedule written out with each month assigned to a section in an Excel file with a cell for each month. I began a second 10 year project on 1-1-2022 (which ends on 12-31-2031) but I have not created a schedule for this current 10 year project. I do have several empty 200 Page College-Ruled Spiral Notebooks in the closet in the den for this project in the basement of the house.
Thursday, August 17, 2023
Thursday, July 6, 2023
EE is Spot-On... Again!
From: Erick-Woods Erickson
Date: Jul 6, 2023 6:49 AM
Subject: Decline is a Choice
Decline is a Choice
ERICK-WOODS ERICKSON
JUL 6
The California panel reviewing reparations has made several policy choices. Those choices indicate California, like much of the urban progressive core in America, has chosen to decline. Among the matters for which the panel has voiced support is an end to police enforcement of public nuisance laws such as public urination, minor trespass, sleeping on the streets, etc. Individually, they may seem like no big deal. In their totality, failing to enforce the small things will cause the big things to fester.
After Daniel Penny saved the passengers on the New York subway and, for his efforts, was indicted, one prominent progressive commentator tweeted that one does not expect to die on the subway, but one should expect to get accosted by crazy people. It was, after all, part of living in the city. Except it did not used to be that way.
The left has worked very hard to vilify the “broken window theory” of crime. The idea is that enforcement of the law on small things prevents big things from festering. Despite the left’s adamant conviction that the theory is bad, one need only look at New York under Rudy Giuliani and New York today to see that the theory works. The basic gist of the theory is that if one sees a building with a broken window and that the broken window remains for some time, it signals that the building is vacant and unattended. Criminals will move in. What had been just an abandoned building becomes a headquarters for criminals, and crime takes hold. Therefore, enforce the laws on minor things to keep the major things from taking root. Pull up the poison ivy or fight kudzu.
Decline is a choice, and the left has decided to decline. They do so in the name of fighting racism. They’d prefer black families in the inner city live in crime-infested hell holes than young black gang members go to prison. They scream racism while demanding we not address the south side of Chicago because we are not black.
Republicans could offer up a law and order solution. I fear, however, they have become so obsessed with the gender side of the woke wars now the GOP is not speaking clearly on crime generally or on the economic blight of areas affected by progressive policies.
Progressives have made the choice that the small things should fester into the large things, and we should let our cities collapse in the name of social justice. The GOP can and should respond. To the extent they are, however, they are doing it badly. As much as we might want to argue at an intellectual level against transgenderism, the wokes, and intersectionality, the American people just want someone to tell them they’ll fund the police, lock up the bad guys, and get the urban campers off the streets.
Not everything needs to be an intellectual exercise, Republicans. Sometimes, you just have to talk to people like people and point out that decline is a choice, and our side does not choose to decline, unlike the left.
© 2023 Erick-Woods Erickson
PO Box 28978, Macon, GA 31210
Some Good Words
From: Ben Shapiro <daily@mailer.dailywire.com>
Date: Jul 5, 2023 10:00 PM
Subject: Supreme Court Strikes Down Affirmative Action in College Admissions. Good. It Never Worked.
In a historic decision, the United States Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions as a violation of the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment includes the equal protection clause, which suggests that all human beings, regardless of their race, are to be treated equally under the law.
Affirmative action is deeply unfair on every level. It doesn't matter what race you are talking about. If one race is able to get into college with scores that are 200 points below another race, that is obviously racist and it's obviously discrimination under the equal protection clause.
That's exactly what was happening when it came to Harvard University and the University of North Carolina; both of those particular colleges were the ones named in this lawsuit. The statistics cited in the actual Supreme Court opinion showed Harvard's attempts to boost minority enrollment demonstrated the disparity between performances for the groups that got in and the groups that did not get in.
Let's say you're among the top performing people in your particular group, in the top 10%. If you were a top 10% performing Asian, you had a 12.7% chance of getting into Harvard. If you were a top 10% performing white student, you had a 15.3% chance; if you were a top 10% Hispanic student, you had a 31.3.% chance of being admitted to Harvard.
And if you were a top 10% black student, you had a 56% chance of being admitted to Harvard.
What's even more astonishing is that if you performed better than 40% of people and were white, you had less than a 2% chance of getting in. If you were Asian, less than 1%. Hispanic, less than 5%. But if you were black, you had a 12.8% chance of getting in.
That 12.8% for blacks and 12.7% for Asians meant that you had a better shot of getting into Harvard if you were a black student who performed better than only 40% of the population than if you were an Asian student who performed better than 90% of the population.
That's insane. That disparity is obviously racist.
Affirmative action is a massive failure. The idea that affirmative action is the rung to climb up, that it is the pathway to success for black students in America, is just not true. Sometimes the students who get into places like Harvard or Yale through affirmative action are the top performing black students, but they're also performing in the middle of the pack in terms of overall student body. They often wind up dropping out.
Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor Jr. noted in The Atlantic in 2012 that black students who got into college through significant affirmative action were twice as likely to be derailed from pursuing a doctorate and an academic career. Black law school grads were four times as likely to fail the bar as their white counterparts.
If you compared them to other students in terms of test scores, black students were underperforming. That's why they required affirmative action.
There is this idea that the best way to remedy historic injustices is to treat people as groups and then give them a "leg up." But there is no other context in which you would consider this good policy.
New polls show that many Democrats are wildly unenthusiastic about America, so we ask what they're celebrating on July 4th; a judge issues an order stopping the Biden administration from pressuring social media companies; and cocaine is found at the White House.
Take Major League Baseball as an example. Major League Baseball had a color line for the first half-century of its existence. It was evil that black players were not allowed to play; that was why the Negro Leagues got started with their amazing black players.
Imagine for a second that Major League Baseball had said, "We need a quota of black players. But we're not going to use the same standards for them as we do for others, whether they can hit, field, or run. In order to rectify past imbalances, we need an affirmative action program: Black pitchers only need to throw two strikes to strike somebody out and black hitters get four strikes before they strike out."
Would that improve black performance or would that be lowering the standard? Would it heighten or lower ethnic tensions in Major League Baseball if black players only had to throw two strikes and got four strikes at the plate?
That's what we are doing with affirmative action programs. They are racist.
They also happen to be racist against blacks because the assumption in America today is that it is impossible for them to succeed.
There are only two possible arguments here. One is that black Americans are somehow lesser or inferior, which is just pure racism. It's not true.
The other is that America is so inherently racist that black Americans will never be able to get ahead because of the color of their skin. That's not true either.
But those are the left-wing arguments that support affirmative action.
Ben Shapiro
Editor Emeritus,
The Daily Wire
Copyright 2023, The Daily Wire, LLC
1831 12th Ave South Ste. 460, Nashville, TN 37203
Thursday, June 22, 2023
It's Not New
I am tired of the word "new" because it is a fluid term. What is "new" today will not be "new" in a couple of weeks or months. As evidence for my opinion, look at this screenshot from the https://xmlpress.net/ website:
Friday, June 9, 2023
Monday, April 17, 2023
A well-written Review not by Me
Like "Beggars Banquet" before it, "Let it Bleed" contains a mix of lighter songs alongside some much darker tracks. Musically, there is a lot more electric guitar than on the largely acoustic-based "Beggars", and almost all these guitars are layed by Keith Richards. Brian Jones only recorded on two tracks, before his dismissal from the band, and late recruit Mick Taylor contributed guitar on just two other tracks.
The album opens with one of the Stones all time classics, "Gimme Shelter". A dark, weighty piece conjures up by Richards while watching people running for "shelter" from a storm. It's a hauntingly beautiful track with Richards pouring emotion into every lick. The song quickly becoming a live show staple and fan favourite even though it was never released as a single
From there, the band use their knowledge of the Blues and extend into a slightly more Hard-Rock territory. Taking what they've learnt from past Blues masters and revamping it for a new generation. Tracks like "Monkey Man" and the harmonica driven "Midnight Rambler" are perfect examples.
Their cover of Robert Johnson's "Love in Vein" isn't just a simple cover either. The rearrange the song adding some chords and give it more of a Country feel, with Richards adding some incredible slide guitar. And while it's exactly a happy song, the Stones version definitely comes across as less doom and gloom then Johnson's original.
Closing the album with what is considered to be their true epic, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" clocks in at around seven and a half minutes and is full of plenty of twists and turns. Starting with the London Bach Choir singing the chorus, it's then followed by a French horn section just before Jagger swings in with the first verse. The instrumentals slowly build and build until, just before the end, the temp changes and leads us to a thrilling, and breathless conclusion.
The only downside to an otherwise near perfect album, is the Country version of "Honky Tonk Women" (Labelled as "Country Tonk"). I understand that was how it was meant to initially sound, but lets face it, the Blues-Rock single version of "Honky" Tonk is far superior.
Apart from that, "Let it Bleed" really is one of the best albums ever recorded. Its a snapshot of the Stones at their absolute peak, encapsulating everything that made them one of the most beloved bands of all time.
As always, check it out and have yourself a listen.
Enjoy and cheers to you 🥃
E.M.
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