theCollectiveUs

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Pet Peeve #23476: Paid magazines whose writers can’t is spells.

The first time I flipped through Playworks was back in 2003. On the firsts page, I see a spelling errors. I stop reading.

2005: I flip through Playworks and I sees that the writes hasn’t taken any language lessons since.

2009: I flip through Playworks and the first sentence on the first random page has a glaring grammer errors.

6 years and no one learns. To the idiots who’ve told me then that I was a nobody and laughed when I asked about rates, I say nanny nanny poo poo. They’re write though, no one in that mag deserves to be paid.

*Edit* Add one more to the list – The New Paper, a gossipy daily with a national circulation. I enjoy skimming through it for all the dumbest and meaningless news in the country. This one for instance is particularly noteworthy because it contains BOTH a typo AND a grammar error in the 7-word headline.

While sitting at the physiotherapy center today waiting for an appointment (that didn’t materialise no less), I found time to read all sorts of sports-related posters and articles. Profiles of athletes fascinate me, especially those who talk about their motivations for pursuing their pastime. Today’s blurbs were about some marathon runner who claims that running is his ‘proof of character’ and one who talked about running being a test of strength. How can something so simple as a pastime, a hobby, an interest engulf your life so completely you feel that it is the essence of what you are? I think a lot of athletes are full of bullshit.

I unicycle a lot. A LOT. I’ve an obsession going on about it even – I recall the first time I did a 10km mixed  terrain run. Spending an hour of your life running over everything including the pockmarked beach that fills your shoes with sand when you have never done it before is boring. I spent a good portion of that time mentally piecing together my unicycle from scratch and thinking about components. Life was better and I ran faster. In my spare time I think about pretty color schemes for my unicycles or how to position my hands so I can pull off a 360 unispin. Occasionally I’ll do the odd spot of promoting the sport. I think that claiming seriously that unicycling is my life and soul is a little, well, cliched.

A sport is a sport. Substitute that with say collecting Pokemon and you’ll see how dumb that sounds.

I enjoy collecting Pokemon because it’s a proof of character. There are 350 of them (shhh don’t tell anyone about the secret ones!) and you need lots of patience, endurance and training to catch them all. Therefore, my Pokedex is an exemplification of my strength.

I can tell you why I unicycle. I do it because it’s fun. I enjoy it and it’s something I can’t do when I’m 50 years old. I am also slightly masochistic and a little obsessive compulsive so the notion of doing something over and over and over again until I can do it appeals to me. Cheap thrills, yay. I also believe that one should be nothing less than great in something that he/she has an interest in which is why I’m continuing at it over and over until I become legendary.

There.

It’s mostly people who’ve gained some semblence of proficiency in a sport that they believe it to be their life and soul. Most professional athletes talk about their sport being their passion or a grand aim in life which is fine because we all have goals. I never can quite get the self-righteous drivel but I think it’d be rude to laugh in their faces and sing the Pokemon song. Which incidentally I can.

Because it’s my life and soul.