Week 27, losing patience

At a time when most everyone here has decided that wearing a mask is at least a polite thing to do, there are exceptions. Living in the city of Tucson, I don't have much reason to concern myself with the wider county government. But there was a news story that bothered me last night about the county council. The council going along with most every level of government in the state has passed a rule requiring everyone who attends the council meetings to wear a mask. However one person in particular is getting away with not wearing a mask. One of the county councilors doggedly refuses to wear one to the council's meetings. Rarer than kicking her stupid ass out or fining her till she complies, the council put up Plexiglas shields on either side of her chair, so she can't breathe on the other councilors. It doesn't protect the public attending the meeting, and her behavior does encourage others to act irresponsibly.

There's more aggravating me but I'd better keep it private

Living With Dyslexia

I seem to be having a terrible time with Youtube wanting to start at wherever in videos, so go to the beginning, if this tries to start in the middle.

Watch on YouTube

As Merphy says, it's not the same for everyone. But when you suddenly realize you have dyslexia, everything changes. Most of the time I'd describe my problem as mild. But, yes, there are moments when I suddenly realize "I can't read this." No one can tell me why. But I know I'm not the only one it happens to.

I usually have worse problems with editing my own writing than correcting someone else's. It's obviously partly because with my own writing I know what I want to be there and *actually see* what I think should be there. I've occasionally misread something someone else has written as Merphy was talking about, but usually I can guess a) the other person is not stupid and b) probably meant something else. So I'll reread things that seem strange over and over, till I'm positive I know what was said.

Incidentally, I'm good at spelling in some ways (did great in spelling bees) but can't spell to save my life when writing especially typing. Same thing for confusing it's/its, their/there/they're, to/too and so on. I *know* the difference. But when I'm typing (sometimes when writing) they're all the same and whatever pops onto the paper/screen is going to seem fine to me. In college and grad school I had to write out my essays by hand, then carefully type what I'd written, correcting as I went along. If I tried to compose at the typewriter it would just come out gibberish. Word processing software makes life so much easier.

Sometimes when I see "(sic)" in a text and want to punch the author in the mouth for being a pretentious jerk. If you are quoting, quote and we'll assume that you and your publisher knew better.