Religious Hypocrites

Yellow Tang

Sometimes I feel people are hypocrites, especially those that ask you to help promote their workshops and then they stab you in the back, though that’s another story and they know who they are and they won’t get that help again.  Now, that said, what is it with people that have those religious symbols on the back of their cars and are clearly breaking the law when they pass you at high-speeds?

Perhaps it’s road-rage in another form, like religious road-rage racing down the roadways.  Perhaps they go to church to be like the Jones’ but in reality are using it as a front.  Perhaps it’s the same person that stands tall at church and spends monthly fees downloading porn.  Perhaps it’s those that bang their spouses around but donate to the battered women’s crisis center.  Perhaps it’s those that will pick a seedless grape from the vine at the grocery store and not pay for it.  Perhaps its those that buy lotto tickets too as they feel it’s not luck, just supporting the local economy. 

I think this weekend I’ll accidentally turn into a strip bar parking lot and count how many fish on the back of cars I see, should be an interesting experiment.  What’s your thoughts, I dare you, thanks, rg sends!

Where is Hispain?

What is it with labels today?  Whether I’m filling out a form or application for something, or just get introduced to someone by a friend, the question always arises, are you Hispanic? 

If there is one person not to ask is if I’m Hispanic.  First of all, I was born in Texas.  I’m a Texan and an American of Latin descent.  Ask me if I’m a Latino before you ever ask me if I’m Hispanic.  Why should someone born in the good ole U S of A who served proudly and patriotically in the U.S. Army, active-duty, for over 8-years and served over 8-years in the Federal civil workforce for the U.S. Air Force be labeled Hispanic or anything else? (more…)

Now that is just wrong, Guns?

Now hopefully you’ve gone through our style-guide post to get an idea where I’m going with this post.  The question is simple, is it a gun or weapon?  Is your rifle a gun or a weapon?  Is your pistol a gun, weapon or better yet, a handgun? 

According to my old-faithful Associate Press Stylebook under the word-entry guns, it states, “See weapons.”  So as I flip the pages over and land on weapon, I find,  “Gun is an acceptable term for any firearm.”  But the next sentence disturbs me, it states, “Note the following definitions and forms in dealing with weapons and ammunition….” 

When I served for over 8-years, active-duty, in the U.S. Army we did annual weapons qualifications.  It’s a mandate, you must qualify annually with your assigned, personal weapon to stay in the Army.  Notice I used the word weapon(s) twice, I never mentioned gun(s) even though I qualified with the M2HB Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun.  In the Army, every firearm is a weapon and your personal weapon is never referred to as a gun. The only time we were allowed to use the word gun was when we were describing “crew-served” weapons.

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Confused? This will have an effect on you…

No matter how often we edit, re-edit, have someone else edit, then re-edit again, even through draft than final stages, there is no perfectly written story or article—things just get missed sometimes. Some of that is often left to the subjectivity of editors. One editor may prefer you state “…the sky is blue” while another editor might prefer for you to write “…the blue skies.” However, where most editors agree is that all writers should follow some type of style guide for uniformity.

Style guides, manuals and books come in many forms, those for college research papers and those for media publication. In college one professor may require you to use the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers while another professor my prefer The Chicago Manual of Style. A media publication will require you write using the Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law.

Now don’t get confused, style guides are used for accurate formatting and “style” of a document or manuscript and differs from actual “writing style” of an author. Think of it in this manner, all photography books will preach some type of basics, fundamentals and rules of photography, but each photographer has her or her own “shooting style.”
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Handling Annoying Phone Calls

I’ve found many methods on handling those annoying phone calls.  One of my all time favorites, just don’t answer if you don’t recognize the number. If it’s that darn important, they will leave a message with a call back number–and if I give a crap, I’ll return their call.

Sometimes I like to answer it just for the heck of it too.  Sometimes I’ll just answer it, if it’s an idiot I don’t care to talk to, just keep saying “Hello, hello, hello” of course they’ll do one of two things, either hang up and not call again, or try again thinking it’s a bad connection.
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