Pseudotherapy

Today I’m going to address an issue which has been DRIVING ME INSANE around the blogiverse, and that is people using “I” when they should be using “me.” The pronouns, I mean. I’ve seen a total of five instances of this in the past week, and I can stay silent no longer. People! Remember your grammar rules, for the sweet love of God!!! It’s your blog, say what you want, but I’m begging you, please be kind to the innocent pronouns.

Quoting from the ever-helpful website English Rules:

The sentence in question is as follows:

Please plan on joining Jin and I at Frank?s house next Wednesday, May 28th, at 9:00 AM.
Or…
Please plan on joining Jin and me at Frank?s house next Wednesday, May 28th, at 9:00 AM.

My boss wanted the 2nd sentence to be sent, but Microsoft Auto Correct changed “me” to “I”. Can you explain why “me” in this situation was incorrect?

Answer: The second sentence is correct. The AutoCorrect feature was wrong. If you remove “Jin and,” it should be clear that “me” is the correct choice. … If you want to know the grammar rule, it’s that “I” is used as a subject and “me” is used as an object.

And from Grammar Puss:

I is the subject of the sentence. Me is the object.

Therefore: I do something, but something else is done to me.

She and I are going out, or
She came to see me.

The most common form of pronoun abuse occurs when there is more than one subject in a sentence:

She came to see my sister and I.

But there is one very easy way in which to avoid confusion: The pronoun doesn’t change just because there is more than one party involved. In other words, just ask yourself if you would ever say She came to see I.

Thank you. That is all.

Sunburned. Headache. Just did our taxes. Had to do federal THREE TIMES (PEBKAC). We owe $$$ to both. Ordered pizza at 7:45, it got here at 9:15. One of my cats threw up the entire wrapper of a panty-liner while we were eating. I’ve misplaced The Endless Summer and can’t find it anywhere, and just the not having it makes me anxious. Weekend’s over, and I still didn’t get caught up on my blog-reading.

At this moment, I desperately wish life came with a rewind button.

This may come as a surprise to you, but this isn’t my first blog. Heh, I’m kidding. Most of you know this is my latest in a string of blogs over the past five-or-so years. Hell, even I can’t remember the names of all the abandoned. In blogging, as in off-screen life, I tend to run and hide when trouble rears its head. I don’t like confrontation, mainly because of my tendency to blurt things out without considering the consequences. Yeah, venting. Which should be okay on your own blog, right?

Umm, not so much. Even when you don’t use names, family members recognize themselves and throw a hissy at your audacity in “humiliating [them] in public.” Because you know, two-thirds of the known universe reads my little blog ? including ALL of said family member’s friends and co-workers. [BTW, that was not a reference to last week's vanished post.]

When I first launched Pseudotherapy, I planned to keep it anonymous. I used the pseudonym Fruitcake and had fake names for Bret (Nutcake) and Juli (Cupcake). Because I sent invites to all my blogfriends, most of my readers knew it was me, but they played along. However, I shortly found that to be too restrictive because I couldn’t use any of my own photographs on Pseudotherapy (meaning photos I’d taken, not photos of me). When Hilly and I met for the first time, the photos we took that day became my unveiling. You can’t very well remain anonymous while publishing pics of yourself with a woman whose blog really is read by two-thirds of the known universe! So that was the end of the Cake family.

Still, I’ve managed to keep most of mia familia from discovering my little blog. It helps that most of my kinfolk have only the most basic of internet interest, and don’t go looking for reasons to prolong their surfing. Juli is, of course, a regular reader with my blessing. Bret finds reading to be torturous, so I read it to him when so inclined. Bret’s brother Randy drops by now and then, but is kept pretty busy by his own music blog. My side of the family, I believe, remains unaware of Pseudotherapy’s existence.

So imagine my surprise upon learning that a family member with no previously-indicated interest has begun reading. Imagine my initial dismay. Crap! Does this mean I’m supposed to start watching every little thing I say again? Does this mean I have to freak the hell out every time I write impulsively and publish without thinking? Oh wait, I already do that. Okay, never mind that one. But seriously, is this a red flag, a giant flashing CAUTION sign?

I refuse. I’m taking a stand here. Enough! This is the most honest, most ME blog of them all, and I’m not giving it up. I have walked into the light, and refuse to retreat again to the shadows. Regardless of who happens to find their way here, I’m not going to edit my content down to verbal pablum. I will continue to not use names or other identifiable info. But I WILL speak my mind, and write from my heart.

So, dear family member, you are welcome to read my blog. But understand that it is MY blog. If you read anything here that upsets you, just click the red X in the upper right corner of your screen and walk away. Life doesn’t come with a Close box, but blogs do.

Yes, there was a post here. You probably saw it in your feed reader. I got worried about causing?someone pain?and took it down.

If you read it and had a comment to make, please do so here. Without giving too much away, please. Because I’m?really not?a heartless bitch, and do understand there are psychological issues involved.

And yes, I do feel much calmer?since I vented.

I’m-my-own-pseudotherapist hugs,
SJ

Okay. Okay. I can actually post again. Three important functions are still broken, and I still have NO CLUE why. But at least I can post. Oh, and two of my favorite plug-ins are apparently not compatible with this version. But at least I can post now.

I am NEVER updating WordPress again. I don’t care if they incorporate graphic tablet functionality. I don’t care if they add voice recognition capability and you can simply dictate into a mic to post to your blog. I don’t care if the next update adds a video of Joe Elliott singing “Wang Dang Doodle” in the nude. NEVER. AGAIN.

For that matter, if I can’t get those functions working again, I’m seriously considering going back to Blogger. One of the broken ones is comment notification, which shoots me an email whenever a comment is posted on my blog. Not working. I’ve checked every setting I know of. I’ve changed my preferences, and re-saved them. I’ve scoured the coding line by line. Can’t find any reason for it to not work. The only thing I can think of is that whatever code corrected the security vulnerability also disabled that function.

Three days. THREE FUCKING DAYS I’ve been struggling to fix things after installing 2.3.2. So not worth it. I am so SO OVER this WordPress bullshit.

Sorry. I’m still too angry and frustrated to appreciate the feelings of relief that it’s working at all. I’ll be back after my blood pressure drops.

[tags]WordPress Hell, so over WP, no more endorsements from me because this is horseshit[/tags]